Irene Radford

It's always a good sign when I get so lost in a book that I look up halfway through and wonder where the time has gone!

Glenna is the manager of the Whispering River Lodge in Oregon -- so named for the high-pitched noise that can be heard throughout the town as the wind blows through a nearby canyon -- and she's doing her best to keep the lodge running smoothly and her guests from a major laceworker's convention happy when her ex-husband shows up with a group of foreign investors. Shortly show more after he threatens to have her fired from the Lodge, her ex-husband turns up dead, and a length of silk stolen from the convention is found to be the murder weapon. The evidence begins to mount, and Glenna finds herself at the top of the suspect list, so she turns to the Lodge's brand-new chief of security to help her clear her name.

I have to say, I loved the cast of characters in this book. Glenna's best friend, Joy, the former owner of the lodge, George, who 'haunts' the resort, the new security chief, Craig -- and even Glenna's dogs -- make this a really enjoyable read. I'm usually a little wary of mystery novels because my tendency to figure out whodunnit long before the last pages (I'm not sure if that is more a product of my mental skills or my bad luck in choosing mysteries to read) but this one kept me occupied and guessing and entertained until the very end. Lacing Up For Murder is billed as the first in the Whistling River Lodge mystery series, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's going to be in store for Glenna in the future. show less

Once I'd realised this was solely an Arthurian fantasy, and wasn't going to jump into the future (descendants implies a longer timescale) I could enjoy it properly. It's a very well worked retelling of some of the myths. The choice of protagonist as an unknown childhood friend worked very well.

Wren is Merlin's secret daughter. The gods forgave his one night of passion on Beltane, and charged him to look after her in addition to his responsibilities to Britain. Wren has grown up knowing her show more father's love, and gained only some of his secrets, and a few of the Morrigan's and a few of her own. Fairies speak to her, when the conditions are right, and she remains steadfast in her obedience to the Old Gods despite the spread of christianity. As the years pass, Britain grows more troubled and the old king Uther finally dies. Her father reveals that Wren's old playmate is truly Arthur, but by this time Wren has been married off to a husband not of her choosing. The only was Merlin can assure her safety in these wild times. Wren's husband is more brute than any expected and has ties to the demon worshipping Naeme and Morgaine. He is often away, and Wren manages to carve an oasis of calm in the small caer she rules in his name.

It's complex. You do need some familiarity with the more common interpretations to get the best out of this I think. The story is always Wren's rather than Arthur's and better for it, but it does mean that some of the more famous events only get a passing mention. Wren endures a lot, but remains a wonderfully inspiring character, honest to herself and the world around her, and always mindful of the required balance between the elements and powers around her. there's very little magic as such, a little faerie that creeps in, and the demons. It's not fast, and covers an entire life, but the pacing is well done with enough action and time covered to always keep you interested. Some actions have long consequences as they should do.

I enjoyed this, I'm not sure there is sufficient for a series of 5 but I will certainly try the next. show less

Initially I thought Steampunk Voyages was an anthology of short stories by different writers. I enjoy the variety of such collections, and if any story is not to my taste, at least it's only one of many. However, this turned out to be a book of short stories all by one author and I was soon regretting that as I began reading.

Radford’s writing is clumsy and awkward, bland at best and laughably trite at worst. The characters are unconvincing, the action is boring, and the dialogue is show more cringe-inducing - completely artificial and particularly painful in any attempt at dialect. I forced myself to read the first few stories in their entirety, but ended up having to skim the rest; I could not bring myself to wade through the graceless, boring prose. The stories read like self-indulgent fanfic, heavy on the superficial trappings of steampunk but light on any actual significance. This is especially disappointing in light of the introduction, in which Radford says that steampunk is more than “just lace, velvet, goggles and grease.” Yet it seems like this is all that she is able to draw on with her stories.

Steampunk has unfortunately acquired a reputation as a genre of style and no substance, and even that style has become cliched and embarrassing - just glue some cogs on stuff and wear goggles on your top hat, right? It seems the punk aspect of the concept has been forgotten; instead creating subversive, challenging ideas, the genre has fallen into staid banality, a sorry state for what could be a vibrant and exciting subculture. Steampunk Voyages seems to embody this lame condition, and the result is an insipid and mortifying book. show less

I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers program.

Initially, I was excited. I've read a lot of Arthurian legend/Magic/Fantasy type books, and I was stoked to read about a feminine angle of the Arthurian legend with all the magic and flourish of high fantasy novels.

Merlin has a daughter, Wren who is raised as a high-priestess of the old religion and she finds out that her destiny is interwoven along with her father's to restore Britain to glory.

Sounded pretty good.

As I started show more reading it though, I was sorely disappointed in the style (Think Hunger Games POV) and the details that strained the bits of plot into this muddy social/religion/history commentary that threatened to halt the pace altogether. On top of being extraneously detailed in areas that should be hand-waved to get the characters to more exciting action sequences, the author notoriously strong-arms the reader into a world of incest, pedophilia, rape and molestation that although were prominent in the days of the 'Dark Ages', I personally am appalled by the notion of reading about such things in a fantasy novel to start with.

I found that if the author had just stuck with the high-priestess/warrior trope and stayed away from the romance/rape/incest/pedophilia angles, this would have been an enjoyable read. Instead, I was traumatized by many a scene and jarringly removed from the imagery and enjoyment of the plot.

I was essentially aghast soon as the 11 year old Wren spoke of watching Beltane orgies, and was upset that she wasn't able to partake in the Beltane orgies herself. But it worsened. A 13 year old Gwen is essentially raped by her bridegroom, a 35+ year old warrior. It's dark, it's explicit and not at all enjoyable in the fantasy sense. If I wanted realism in my fantasy novels, I'd have chosen instead a history book on the Dark Ages. I was sorely disappointed with the style and detours the author chose to take away from the main storyline. I forget to mention that the faery people are anatomically correct and actually attempt to mate with humans in this book. This may be seen as a selling point to some, but the human involved was a child at the time of the scene, and the sexual nature of the writing was choppy and not at all sensual in the least.

I must add that when I read this line, I essentially shut down the book for a week, appalled that such a line could exist in a published work of this caliber.

"Somehow, sex had awakened more magic within me than I thought possible."--Wren, age 13

Long story short, if you like to read the ins and outs of religion, politics and social injustices of the Dark Ages wrapped around the Arthurian legend wrapped around a romance novel, then by all means enjoy. I must say that I did not enjoy it at all, and I wish that it expressed darker themes in the summary of the book as it would have affected my desire to read it at all. show less