BABYLON BERLIN BY VOLKER KUTSCHER

Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

”When would they return? In the darkness even the smallest noise seemed infernal; the quietest of whispers grew to a roar. Silence itself became an interminable throb in the ears. He had to pull himself together, to ignore the dripping sound of his own blood as it hit the hard, damp floor.”


Gereon Rath, played by Volker Bruch

Inspector Gereon Rath arrives in Berlin, to a city in turmoil. The underground fleshpots are catering to every bizarre whim or dark desire that a man or woman can envision. Booze is flowing through the tangled web of bars, in quantities large enough to fill the river Spree. The dancing in the nightclubs reflects the frantic and desperate nature of those trying to make a go of it in the German capital. The cabarets are soulful and sad and full of boys dressed as girls and girls dressed as boys.

That is the nightlife, but the daylight brings more tumultuous chaos. The workers are dissatisfied with low pay and terrible working conditions. They are filling the streets with their protests, and the socialists are taking full advantage of their discontent. In the background, the Nazis are gaining power behind the fiery speeches of this scrawny corporal who is still fuming over his inability to make a go of it as an artist. Failure has bred contempt in him for those he believes are responsible for the downfall of Germany. ”On the wall hung a framed photograph of that Hitler, a strange bird with a Charlie Chaplin moustache.” Yes, in 1929, he is still perceived for whom he really is by most reasonably intelligent people.

Gereon Rath has more than one moment when he wishes he could go back to Cologne, but he would only be stepping back into the fine mess he left there. He is assigned to vice in a city where the philosophy followed by most is anything goes. Hard to make headlines or influential friends by busting up the party. He catches a break of sorts when an unidentified, brutally tortured body of a dead Russian shows up in the middle of a case he is working. He is too ambitious to turn the case over to homicide.


Lana Nikoros, AKA Countess Svetlana Sorokina

Little does he know that he is going to be thrust in the middle of a gangland style battle going on between two factions of Russians and their search for what is being called Sorokin’s gold. Not to mention he has to deal with a host of dirty cops, the Nazis, am organized crime boss called Dr. Marlow, and the Countess Svetlana Sorokina, AKA cabaret singer Lana Nikoros, who might be the most dangerous of the lot. Whether they are motivated by greed or a cause, they all want the gold. Rath is also introduced to a powdery substance that proves irresistible.

”He had reckoned with all sorts of possibilities: with seeing stars, a variety of colors, bright lights, but all he felt as he snorted the white powder was numbness. His whole nose was numb. He wouldn’t have noticed if someone cut it off, but when he felt the cocaine taking hold of his brain, all of a sudden he was wide awake. It is as if someone had turned the music up, and yet he could understand the numerous voices talking over one another considerably better than before. He felt himself positively oozing energy and lust for life.”

”If you want to hang out, you've gotta take her out, cocaine
If you want to get down, get down on the ground, cocaine
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie,
Cocaine
If you got that lose, you want to kick them blues, cocaine
When your day is done, and you want to ride on cocaine
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie,
Cocaine
If your day is gone, and you want to ride on, cocaine
Don't forget this fact, you can't get it back, cocaine
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie,
Cocaine
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie,
Cocaine”

Charlotte Ritter

Rath falls in love/lust with the beautiful police stenographer Charlotte Ritter. Just as quickly as he finds love, he mucks it up by using her to further his career. (He also breaks the cardinal rule that one should never, ever shag the landlady.) Rath is a mess on about all levels, saved only by the fact that he is a pretty good detective. To make it in the city of vice, he will have to go beyond just bending the rules; he will have to break them over his knee.

A convoluted mystery, to say the least. Keeping track of all the various, suspected entities that go way beyond what I’ve mentioned in this review had me wondering at times if I was reading a Russian novel, but I did enjoy the flavor of 1929 in one of the most vice ridden cities in the world at the time.

Your pleasure is their pleasure to serve.

For those who have been watching or want to watch the Netflix series, the character of Charlotte (Charly) Ritter, portrayed in the series by Liv Lisa Fries, is a far cry from the woman depicted in the books. She is much more pedestrian in the books, but in the Netflix series she is frankly frilling awesome. Svetlana Sorokina, portrayed by Severija Janusauskaite, has a much bigger role on the screen than she had in the book. She is so manipulative, calculating, and as cold as a Siberian storm.

Basically, the writers of the TV series have taken the characters of the women from the book and expanded their roles. This takes the story from being a good story to being one of the more intriguing TV series I’ve seen in a long time. If I had not seen several episodes of the series before reading the book, I would have been happier with the book. Still, I’m on board to read more of the books and see how the characters develop as Volker Kutscher takes them through more sordid Berlin adventures.

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Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero by:Graham McNeill

Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero by Graham McNeill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a fan of Warhammer40k. In my view as a lifelong science fiction and fantasy fan, the Warhammer universe is basic goofy fun. What kid wouldn't love super soldiers, aliens and terrible danger wrapped in a big bow of explosions and bullets and swords?

I picked up reading The Primarch series on a whim and I needed a palete cleanser for my brain. I flew through this tale, enjoyed it and then..........it hit me.

My realization probably isn't a new one, but I will state it anyway. The Warhammer40k world bears a huge resemblance to mythology. The Primarchs, the emperor, all the players are just gods and demigods with all their flaws and massive power just making their way through the universe in a constant battle.

Yeah, you all knew that...my bad. Magnus is a good read, very fast and if you are like me, a casual fan of the universe and love to see the backstory and history of characters, check it out. You will be happy.

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A few moments with Jeff Salyards

The Bloodsounder's Arc (your first trilogy) was amazing dark military fantasy; are you looking to return to that universe?  Or can we expect something new?
Thanks for the compliment; I’m really glad you enjoyed the series. I could see returning to that universe someday. I’m sure there is a lot left untapped, and I obviously left the door open at the conclusion of Chains of the Heretic. There are certainly other stories that could happen there, either with some of the existing characters, or wholly new ones. But in the meantime, you can expect something else. I worked on a novel the last couple of years that might end up getting picked up, or might end up in ashes in colossal dumpster fire. Since its future is totally uncertain (and if it does end up torched, I’m going to have some serious red-faced regrets about blabbering about it), I’ll tell you about a new project I’m embarking on instead. A beaten down snarky investigator, a soilipsistic priest, a sutler’s widow trying to keep the business afloat and her kids out of harm’s way (spoiler alert: she doesn’t); a dangerous, addictive, and crippling magic system run a Fume Lord (think mafia boss) in a bustling sooty city-state; some primitive firearms (hand cannons and matchlock arquebuses) but plenty of blunt and sharp instruments. It might be another trilogy or extended series, or possibly a series of connected but conclusive and self-contained novels—still not sure about that. But it is dark fantasy—I am sure about that part. It’s in the early stages—just working on worldbuilding, character sketches, developing the storylines—but I’m excited by the prospect. So it will be similar to Bloodsounder. Only, you know, different. (How’s that for a compelling elevator speech?).

As a book review site, we are always looking for new reads, what is currently in your to-be-read pile? What are you reading that is so good, you can't put it down?
 My to-be-read pile is monstrous. Mountainous. Though mountains don’t usually grow, so we’ll stick with monstrous. I want to check out Red Sister by Mark Lawrence, the new fantasy series by Myke Cole, been meaning to read City of Stairs, a bunch of Kameron Hurley books on the list. John Gwynne, N.K. Jemisin, Miles Cameron, Martha Wells, and on and on. And this is just in the science fiction/fantasy genre. So, basically, yeah, I need about ten more hours in the day. Or a clone giving me book reports. As for recommendations, I just finished Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan, which was great. I’ll definitely be reading the rest of that series. And I have a copy of Red Country by Joe Abercrombie in my backpack for a long flight coming up this weekend which I have every confidence I’ll love.

I am a huge gamer, are you a gamer?  If so, what are you currently enjoying?
 I used to game like a maniac in my wildly misspent youth. Bask in the day, I grew up on single player classics like Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, Diablo, etc. But these days, with overscheduled daughters, a relentless day job, and trying to get this writing gig off the ground, I sadly don’t have as many free hours as I used to. That said, I still managed to play a couple of games the last few years. I really enjoyed Pillars of Eternity—it was a beautiful homage to a lot of the old school CRPGs I loved and lost hundreds of hours in, but still offered some interesting twists and takes on the familiar tropes. A real hoot. I also got a big kick out of Divinity Original Sin 2, which again tugged on all the nostalgia strings while still offering some new wrinkles and enhancements.

What advice would you give young writers today?
 Write. A lot. Crazy amounts. Ditto on reading. There is no surer way to improve your craft than to sit your ass in the chair and do it over and over, and to check out what other writers are cranking out (not as a reader not for pleasure, but as a student trying to glean new techniques or solutions, as someone willing to analyze and reverse engineer your craft). Sure, it’s fun to talk about writing, think about writing, to go down the Reddit rabbit hole or endless argue on forums, to sit in a coffee shop brainstorming wild new worlds and dreaming up fantastic horizons. But words don’t write themselves—you have to invest, really throw yourself into it, and not let yourself off the hook to do a million other things instead. So that’s the first thing: create some raw material. Get the words down. And allow yourself permission to suck, because unless you’re the rarest of the rare, that first draft is going to have tons of suckage. Then when you have the raw material, you have to be critical, sometimes vicious with it. Maybe get some solid beta readers to give you a fresh perspective, or join a writer’s workshop or take some classes, if for no other reason than to develop some thick skin and refine your own antennae about what works or doesn’t work on the page/screen. But however you get there, you have to be willing and able to take a ruthless look at what you have, identify those things that don’t work, maybe cry a little, and then kill your darlings and make the manuscript better. And better. And still better. Revision is what separates a great book, even a moderately good book, from all the other crap out there. You’re going to need to roll those sleeves up and be prepared to get filthy, no matter how long it takes or what the scope. Maybe it means gutting entire chapters or sections, or maneuvering them around a lot to reshape the contours of the story, the flow. Maybe it means adding a lot more detail to flesh something out or ground the reader properly. That’s the big stuff, but you have to sweat the small stuff, too—the line editing, the language parsing, the consideration of a thousand choices for a given sentence or scene and the recognition that different choices could well improve the quality or strength of the text. Basically, be prepared to work your tail off, and don’t be too precious with your material. (Note: I often fail doing one or both of these.)

What inspired your books in the Bloodsounder's arc?
 I read Froissart’s Chronicles a hundred years ago, about a chronicler accompanying a military company in the Hundred Year’s War. And I thought, what would happen if a chronicler wasn’t a respected member of the party, had no idea what the real agenda or stakes involved were, and still went along for the ride. I liked the idea of a callow, painfully curious, and sometimes totally incompetent scribe trying to figure out what the hell was going on without getting himself or anyone else killed in the process. So that was the initial inspiration, born of the tried and true tradition of the “What if. . . ?” game. Thanks for inviting me to do the interview!

Marple in the Mirror

They Do It with Mirrors by Agatha Christie
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a very strong 3 stars as I quite enjoyed this Agatha Christie quickie!

Having said that, They Do It with Mirrors reads like a Christie-by-numbers novel, written by rote like a facsimile of previous work with just a few of the words rearranged. The characters, the setting, the plot and the outcome, it's all been done before.

I haven't read too many Miss Marple's. The old dear and the settings/situations she's placed in are quite quaint and not entirely my cup of tea. Having said that, I wouldn't say no to further Miss Marples. Reading this series is like spending time with a clever granny, and who doesn't need some of that in their lives?!

They Do It with Mirros may not be one of Christie's absolute best, but it works and should satisfy most mystery readers.


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Trusting Toni

Home by Toni Morrison
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I need a dose of lyrical prose to just wash over me, I know I can turn to Toni Morrison.

Morrison always delivers something beautifully rendered, even if heart-rending, such as a Korean War vet whose having a damn hard time finding his way home.

Home jumps about from place to place, person to person. Home is, as they say, where the heart is, and Home is full of heart, albeit an often sad heart.

Do not come to this book expecting a linear story following a single character with a sole purpose. This novel gathers up various and variant pieces of people and constructs their parts in ways that get to the heart of their deepest matter. Some may find this style confusing. Fans of William Faulkner will find it familiar. But damn near everyone should give this book at least a moment of their time.

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Whispers from the Abyss

Whispers from the Abyss by Kat Rocha
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whispers from the Abyss is a collection of 33 tales inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

When Kat Rocha hit me up on twitter about Whispers of the Abyss 2, I checked out the lineup and plunked down my money, receiving this one as well in the bargain.

It seems everyone and their Deep One cousin puts out a Lovecraftian anthology these days. The thing that separates Whispers from the Abyss from the squamous pack is that the tales are pretty short, 2-10 pages, designed to be swallowed whole in a single sitting.

The subject matter and tone of the works are all over the spectrum, from dryly hilarious to chilling. Some of the stories were a little too short and needed a little more room to breath but I knew that going in. The presentation was top notch.

Like all anthologies, the stories vary in quality. A couple didn't do much for me but the collection as a whole was above average. Standouts include Fear and Loathing in Innsmouth, My Friend Fishfinger by Daisy, Age 7, The Substance in the Sound, and The Decorative Water Feature of Nameless Dread. Fear and Loathing in Innsmouth was by far my favorite tale of the collection. Much in the same vein as The Damned Highway, Dr. Gonzo heads to Innsmouth, looking for hints of Richard Nixon's corruption.

For today's reader on the go, Whispers from the Abyss is a great collection of scaly, tentacled horror. Four out of five stars.



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Fadeout

Joseph Hansen
University of Wisconsin Press
Reviewed by Nancy
4 out of 5 stars

Summary

Fadeout is the first of Joseph Hansen's twelve classic mysteries featuring rugged Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator who is contentedly gay. When entertainer Fox Olson's car plunges off a bridge in a storm, a death claim is filed, but where is Olson's body? As Brandstetter questions family, fans, and detractors, he grows certain Olson is still alive and that Dave must find him before the would-be killer does. Suspenseful and wry, shrewd and deeply felt, Fadeout remains as fresh today as when it startled readers more than thirty years ago.

My Review

“Do you know these lines, Madge? The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden of dissatisfaction, the weight, the weight we carry is love…”

It was a real pleasure getting to know Dave Brandstetter. Though this series has been on my radar for a while, knowing this first book was published in 1970 put me off reading. Many of the stories I’ve read from the 70’s and 80’s featuring gay characters have ended tragically or portrayed their lives unfairly.

Dave Brandstetter is an insurance investigator working for his father’s company and investigating the death of entertainer Fox Olson. He’s also grieving the loss of his longtime partner, Rod, who died of cancer.

As the case unfolds, we also get a glimpse of Dave’s life with Rod, his relationship with his father, and his dedication to his job as he attempts to solve a complicated case. Unfortunately, an insurance claim cannot be paid out until a body is found. As Dave spends time interviewing the Olson family members and gathering evidence, he comes to the conclusion that Fox is still alive.

Joseph Hansen’s writing is terse and to the point. Though it’s not a style that will appeal to every reader, it works well with this story, giving it a realistic and unsentimental feel. The short sentences helped move the story along at a brisk pace, yet there was enough substance to make me feel very deeply for the characters. There is an undercurrent of sadness throughout that didn’t move me to tears, but left me with a very heavy, depressed feeling.

“It was only remembering the good times that kept you from taking the knife from the kitchen drawer and, holding it so, tightly in your fist, on the bed, naked to no purpose except that that was how you came into the world and how your best moments in the world had been spent – holding it so, roll onto the blade, slowly, so that it slid like love between your ribs and into that stupidly pumping muscle in your chest that kept you regretting.”

Dave Brandstetter is a wonderfully refreshing character. I very much look forward to accompanying him on new cases and hope he finds love again.

Hath No Fury

Hath No Fury by Melanie R. Meadors
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Heaven has no rage, like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned.

The quote above is from The Mourning Bride by William Congreve and it's the origin of the quote everyone is familiar with, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." The quote from Congreve has been misunderstood and changed. In a similar way the importance of women has been misunderstood and changed over the years. It's laughable for many people living now to believe that women are simply good for cleaning, sex, and having/taking care of children, but not long ago that was the thinking. Hath No Fury seeks to put ridiculous stereotypes about women to bed by showing all types of heroines. Not all are warriors, but all fight for what's important.

The reviews below aren't for all the short stories, but rather some of the ones that caught my attention.

The Scion by S.R. Cambridge

Chemical weaponry changed the world forever. Their use killed most infected by them, but those who lived were different. They believed they were special and chosen by God so others nicknamed them the faithful. Some settlements survived and fought off the faithful yet the war seemed never ending. Nika Zawisza is a ranger for one of those settlements. Her prospects for a long life are bleak especially when her family motto is, "the women in our family die young." Nika and her sister Kaja are sent to discover what happened to the power station that supplies their home.

The Scion isn't terribly original yet it scores some points on an emotional level. The story is filled with the common apocalyptic future tropes such as war that broke the world as we know it, survivors who aren't truly human anymore, and frightening changes to the remainder of society. The biggest one that caught my attention was the way the people made sure their babies didn't "turn out funny." Men are sent from different settlements to impregnate the women who wish it. It literally sounded as though women lined for these out of town men to attempt to impregnate them.

The strength of the story comes in the relationship between the Zawiska women particularly Nika and Kaja. Nika is the point of view character and she recounts the women in her family that she knew including her mother and aunts. It seems they all die young. Kaja seems to be the exception because rather than being a fierce warrior she's scholarly. She didn't become a ranger like the women in her family, she apprenticed with the settlements biochemist unfortunately Kaja was still known as "Kaja, who hasn't a use." The sisters time together just felt realistic and somewhat touching.

The Scion was a good short story that feels like an excerpt of something bigger.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Casting On by Philippa Ballantine

A group of women in a war torn land sneak away to an abandoned library to sow. One day these women unexpectedly find a wounded man who was barely alive. The only problem is that he's an enemy solider. These women having lost husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers to the war effort decide to help him anyway.

Casting On was a touching story on the strength and resolve of women. These ladies could have reported the soldier or simply pretended not to see him yet they all decided as a group to fix something rather than helping others destroy. Such resolve was impressive and it felt realistic overall. My only complaint is that the story feels like the beginning of a much larger and more engaging tale, yet it ends before it can get to that point.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Burning by Elaine Cunnigham

Burning is a hard story to give a synopsis for as I'm not entirely sure what all just happened. From what I can tell the world in which burning exists has magic. The most notable magic is telepathy and dragons. Some of the telepaths reach a higher rank which earns them the title of Torch. Torches have the power to control dragons with their minds. This story is about Rue, a powerful telepath who has recently been bestowed the title Torch.

3 out of 5 stars


A Dance With Death by Marc Turner

Jenna is an assassin and it seems someone wants to kill her. Considering her line of work, she probably deserves it.

A Dance With Death reads as though it's literally the beginning of a larger book. Just as things begin to get really interesting it's over. This story is the book equivalent of telling someone how hungry you are and them giving you a single cracker.

2.5 out of 5 stars

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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City of Light

City of Light by Will Wight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Incarnations are all loose as the Hanging Trees have been destroyed. Alin is transforming Enosh into a version of Elysia as the madness of Incarnation overtakes him. Leah, Simon, and Indirial hunt down Incarnations until the Incarnations mysteriously go missing.

City of Light was a fitting conclusion to the Traveler's Gate trilogy. The conclusion has many reveals including the beginning of the Hanging Tree process. The book also had some heart wrenching moments that I didn't really think it was capable of providing. Valinhall's Travelers find themselves on the front line assisting Leah in ending the Incarnation threat. They also played heavily into the story in more than a few unexpected ways which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Valinhall's Travelers and territory made the series for me. Simon, Indirial, Kai, and the Eldest all were incredibly interesting characters. At the end my favorite character was Simon. Simon's growth from House of Blades to City of Light was immense. Simon hardly resembles the scared boy caring for his mentally broke mother by the end. For a boy whose only desire was to be able to save a friend and fight Travelers, Simon achieved far more than he initially set out to achieve. It makes me smile thinking about it.

Unfortunately I have to say the other two key characters Leah and Alin never quite came to life for me. Leah was slightly interesting in City of Light which is an improvement over the last two books where I had no real interest in her. Alin was more interesting in this book than the prior two because his Incarnation created complexity in a vain generally unlikable character. His madness forced him to listen to the various color's thoughts which truly were far more interesting than Alin.

City of Light was a good conclusion to an enjoyable series.

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Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon

Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

”My memory of that summer returns like a bee that comes buzzing into a quiet room where the curtains are drawn on a blazing hot afternoon.”


Siegfried Sassoon by Glyn Warren Philpot

The poet Siegfried Sassoon made the decision to write his memoirs as fiction, but as I read this book, it became readily apparent that whatever was fictionalized was a marginal part compared to the pages devoted to preserving his memories of England before the hell of world war changed things forever.

George Sherston, AKA Siegfried Sassoon, is a young man of modest means. His family left him a small legacy that allows him to drift through life without working for a living. His Aunt Evelyn susses him up properly:

”’George is a boy who ought not to be interfered with too much,’ she would say. And I agreed with her opinion unreservedly.”

If truth be known, more than fame or money or prestige, I most crave to not ”be interfered with too much.” I’ve thought about trying to put my personal desire into words for many years, but until I read those words by Sassoon, I’d never really found the proper ones before.

The first two thirds of this book is devoted to fox-hunting, horse racing, cricket matches, reading, gazing longingly at young men he admired, and enjoying what would turn out to be the last few years of a naivety that England would never be able to reclaim. These memories of halcyon days sustain Sassoon as he fights the mud, the Germans, and the creeping fear of insanity. There has to be a thought, a niggling belief, that if he survives the war that he can return to those days when his most pressing concern was the color of his hunting jacket or the fit of a new pair of boots.

There are reviewers/readers who find this section of the book tedious because they are unable to associate themselves with fox-hunting or cricket or a seemingly aimless life, but knowing what awaits Sassoon over the very next horizon certainly gives me perspective on why he wants to capture his memories of this time in print. It establishes not only what he loses, but similar stories can be told of many of the officers summoned to fight in the war that was supposed to end all wars.

His sensitivity, that would later plague him in war but make him an excellent poet, is also apparent by an utterance that he makes during his first fox hunt. ””Don’t do that; they’ll catch him!’ I exclaimed.” He is referring to the fox and to someone about to alert the other riders and dogs to the proper direction taken by the fox. Of course, this statement is baffling to the rest of the field. Sherston is not there to catch the fox. He is there to enjoy the ride, the jumping of fences, and the comradery of men intent on the same purpose.

Sassoon/Sherston is just beginning to get a glimmering of what he wants to do with the rest of his life. It will all be compressed very shortly when he finds himself among the bombs, blood, and horror of war. When you believe you will die at any moment, long term life goals become irrelevant, even painful to contemplate.

Of course, when war breaks out, George Sherston does his duty, as do most young men of English descent. He volunteers. Given his level of education and pedigree, he begins life in the military as a second lieutenant. He lands a cushy job directing matters of transportation that keeps him out of the trenches. Messages start coming in of friends who have been killed, but these are abstract thoughts, like hearing about a natural disaster that happened two thousand miles away.


Siegfried Sassoon

This changes with the death of his friend Dick Tiltwood, who is based on Sassoon’s friend David Cuthbert Thomas. Sassoon never gets over this death. It is the one that disperses all the illusions of detachment. ”A sack was lowered into a hole in the ground. The sack was Dick. I knew Death then.”

The war is a shock for men on many levels. Discovering that you are expendable. That you are just a faceless number, a cog in a wheel of a grinding machine. You might be the apple in the eye of your family, but in the military, you are a sacrifice to send into No Man’s Land, into the teeth of machine gun fire. The way men are recklessly expended in World War One is frankly criminal. War crime trials should be held for the victors as well as the losers.

I’m going to continue on with book two in the trilogy, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. The writing is mostly rather light for Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man. I have a feeling the tone will change for the second book. Hopefully, the Whizz-Bangs will fly high and wide.

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