sixthlight | Book round-up: October 2019

I know it's almost December. Shhhhhh.

Non-fiction

The Soil Will Save Us (Kristin Ohlson)
Popsci book (for book club) about the ability of soil to sequester carbon. Not badly written, but suffers very much from an assumption that American industrial farming methods are global (cover crops might be an exciting new innovation to large-scale corn farmers in Iowa but they are routine practice in many other countries) and the author not knowing what she doesn't know; at one point she cites a dead scientist's scepticism of water fluoridation as an example of a belief that was considered outlandish in his own time but is gaining mainstream support now. (!!!!!!) I really do recommend learning about carbon sequestration in pasture, but...maybe not from this book.

Fiction

Fire Logic (Laurie Marks)
Secondary-world fantasy about colonisation and resistance and found family, and how war ruins everybody and everything, but maybe there's life on the other side. I was recommended it for the queer elements and if you're into queer found-family stuff then those bits are A+, but I found 1) the timelines (you meet characters as points of view and then don't see them again for ages) and 2) the sheer amount of whump (genocide, torture, suicidality, drug addiction, the whole nine yards) hard to deal with. I would recommend for people who really liked The Poppy War but wanted somewhat fewer viscerally horrific war crimes in their reading. Probably won't follow up the sequels because of the Eight Deadly Words problem.

Gilded Cage (K J Charles)
Victorian lady detective runs into her teenage boyfriend to whom she more or less hasn't spoken for nearly two decades, now a notorious jewel thief on the run for murder; can they prove he didn't do it and work through their unresolved issues? Almost everything Charles writes is amazing, this is no exception, and if you're a long-time reader there are a million easter eggs for prior series on top of that. It's a little more claustrophobic than her usual as the plot means the leads don't get to spend much time with anybody but each other, and I miss the strong friendships you usually get in a K J Charles romance along with the romance, but that's a minor quibble. TW for a past miscarriage.

Daughter of the Sun (Effie Calvin)
Follow up to The Queen of Ieflaria, in that it's set in the same D&D-lite fantasy world. A (lady) paladin of the law-and-order sun god out Questing for Justice unknowingly teams up with a goddess of chaos trying to get back to her own plane, they ~fall in love~ on a roadtrip, etc, etc. Not terribly deep but there's just enough plot to keep it going, and sometimes you just want to read about well-meaning people stumbling their way into romance and better life choices, y/y?