Killer Chef – James Patterson
Killer Chef is an entertaining enough read, light-hearted enough to be enjoyable, with a more serious undertone of a classic whodunit. As the book reached its conclusion the misdirections added another element of tension adds to the already fast-paced short story. A good little ‘filler’ book to get the book count that little bit higher!
For the Emperor – Sandy Mitchell
A good starting place for any reader new to Warhammer 40k. Easily accessible to both new and old fans of the setting. A healthy mix of world-building, character establishment, and plot but the action is a little slow in coming forward. Fantastic, relatable characters that are a joy to read about; which makes a change from the regular Imperial heroes. Not a Space Marine in sight!!
Luther: First of the Fallen – Gav Thorpe
A collection of vignettes that detail the life of Luther, a pivotal character attached to the Dark Angels Legion. Well-crafted story-telling of a broken narrative; showing pre-imperium life of Caliban and the Order that lived there, the hunting of their Great Beasts as well as the years closer to modern-day Warhammer. A richly vivid book with a well-written, flawed, main character. A must-read for those wishing to read more about the early days of Caliban and their Arthurian-style Order.
The Death of Vivek Oji – Akwaeke Emezi
Although well written and beautiful in places, there’s a huge elephant in the room about this book regarding incestuous relationships. Because of that, I couldn’t immerse myself in the central relationships and motivations. A distinct lack of perspective from the titular character left the rest of the book feeling flat and lifeless.
Sharpe’s Eagle – Bernard Cornwell
Another great story from Bernard Cornwell. Maybe I am saying that because it’s pretty much the same formula as all the other books in the series. Memorable characters. Daft heroics. Not enough use of the word bastard compared to other books… maybe I should have knocked a star off for that!
Solar Warden: Alien Hostiles – Ian Douglas
I never should have requested this book and feel like I did a huge disservice in this review. Flat characters trying to prop up an over-burdened narrative stuffed to the brim with conspiracy theories, set against a highly-detailed military sci-fi backdrop.
Spidertouch – Alex Thomson
In short, I adored this book, it’s a simple but rapidly advancing plot. The well-crafted and utterly alien finger-speak language and the vile Keda. How utterly alien the antagonists are and the calm, endearing nature of the protagonist. If you like languages, world-building, and something that little bit different from normal, I highly recommend this novel.
Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas
Throne of Glass is the first book in a series of nine, I don’t think I’ll bother with the rest of them.
Comparing this to Game of Thrones is a pretty far stretch of the imagination!
All in all, not a terrible month for reading. I had a couple of solid five-star reads and a couple of two-star ones that I struggled with. I’ll take this month as a win though!
The outstanding reviews I have are for Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith and Know no Fear by Dan Abnett – I’ll get them out as soon as I can.
Going on past trends, it looks like 8 books a month is where I am at when it comes to comfortable reading levels; I am going to try and push myself a bit more next year to get more reviews and content out on the blog and December will probably be a bit of a ‘bust’ because it’s the busiest time fo the year for everyone, but we shall see! At the very least I’ll have the two reviews mentioned above.
Eternal Bookcase 
7 responses to “Monthly Wrap Up – Nov 2021”
Man, you aren’t kidding about December being busy!
As for plans for next year, have you thought about trying to do more “ahead of time” scheduling? Or is that just something you know won’t work for you?
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I’ve often thought about posting more ahead of time, but I need to finish books before i can review them!!
I like having a weekly reading post and the monthly wrap ups, but I’m not sure what I can put up ahead of time.
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I had a more mature blogger give me this advice. He told me to not post for a week but still write like normal and schedule everything for the next week. Reviews AND non-reviews. he was a once a week blogger, so he was only dealing with one post. But I took his advice and have worked up to being 3 weeks in advance, sometimes almost 4 (I’ll go on a writing binge some weekends and knock out a whole weeks worth of stuff. doesn’t happen very often though, sigh).
But it all started with that one week. I let everyone know what was going on and visited everyone else like normal, but I just didn’t post anything.
I have found though, that I seem to bean outlier in terms of what works for blogging. My reading rotation, my scheduling, it doesn’t seem to be the norm. So take anything I have to say with the realization that this works for me but isn’t for most people 😀
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How are you getting on with Know no Fear Jenn? Ive been slacking of a lot, but going to try take a chapter or two off today. Hope you are well. Luther sounds like a good read. Did BL do a series of secondary characters the way they did with the Primarchs? Did not even know there was a book like this one out there, then again I have a Belesaruis Cawl novel still on netgalley that i have to get too…
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I just need to write my review for Know no Fear. I finished it a few days ago then hit a bit of a ‘meh’ mood with blogging and review writing, but am hoping to get some stuff penned on Monday.
BL have only done two stories of secondary characters so far, Luther and Valdor. Luther was great, Valdor I’m yet to read, but I hope they do more characters. As good as the Primarchs are, they’d be nothing without their sidekicks to prop them up!!
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Saw your post on GR only after i typed my comment.
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Eight books a month sounds like good going to me, Jenn! 🙂
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