Monday Minis

Welcome back to another round of Monday Minis – I’m sorry these have become a bit more sporadic as life has been increasingly manic these last few weeks! But here’s a solid selection of books for the week – something for every sort of reader, really. Many thanks to the respective publicists for giving me access to eARCs via NetGalley, all opinions are my own as always.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is the follow-up to Becky Chambers’ Hugo- (and Subjective Chaos) nominated A Psalm for the Wild-Built. And this one may be even better than the first book. It keeps following Sibling Dex and Mosscap on their journey, and it gets more personal this time. A major plot element is Mosscap getting “injured” and having a part that needs replacing – along with all of the philosophical considerations that come with it. In A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Dex and Mosscap interact more with others, and it really feels like the series is coming into its own. I loved how Mosscap’s personality as a curious observer dominated his interactions with the people they met on their travels, and Dex got to see their family again. It is a wonderful quick comfort read, and I desperately want more.

I can’t quite believe that The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner was first published in 1996. It has only now come over to this side of the Atlantic thanks to the good work of the lovely folk over at Hodderscape – and reads like a newly published book. A timeless YA classic, really. The Thief is a compelling, fast read centred around a thief, Eugenides, called Gen and a massive heist, politics and a misfit gang. In short, lots of things still on trend in YA and with good reason. I had the pleasure to listen to Megan chat about the book and her journey as a writer last week, and I have been assured that the second book in the series is even better than this first one by my lovely flatmate who has read them all growing up. Definitely a wonderful series to get your teeth into and read as they’re now published in the UK in quick succession with stunning covers!

Peter V. Brett’s The Desert Prince is an epic fantasy set in a somewhat Middle Eastern/North African feeling setting. It is the first book in a new series, though set in the same world as his earlier books – fifteen years on. This was my first Brett book, and I did notice a lack of context at times, though it largely stands on its own merit and knowledge of the earlier books is not necessary to follow the story. It just gives an added dimension to it, and I imagine makes it easier for readers to pick up on cultural references between characters that I likely missed. What makes The Desert Prince stand out from other epic fantasy is that Olive, the main character, is intersex. Always aware of the unique body they were born with, Olive was socialised as a girl and over the course of the story struggles with the confines of that identity. But it did feel like this was often simplified, and I would have loved to see Olive really find a non-binary identity and communicate that, rather than letting themselves be boxed into places that don’t entirely fit by others. All in all, The Desert Prince was an entertaining book – in many ways traditional epic fantasy battling demons, betrayal and politics with chosen ones at its centre, but a fun twist on it. I may well pick up the sequel.