What Child Is This?

Paul Cornell “The Lost Child of Lychford” (Tor.com, 2016)

This is the sequel to Cornell’s earlier novella The Witches of Lychford.  If you haven’t read that one, just stop & immediately go & read it.  It’s a great fantasy set in the English midlands, where three women discover an unlikely friendship in the supernatural defense of their village.

The Lost Child is set at Christmas, but despite the fact that I kept waiting for a big Christmas message, there really isn’t one.  And I have to admit I was a bit disappointed.  Cornell can find that fine line where the sweetness of the holiday comes as relief to the story before.

In this case the titular child is a ghost who starts following one of our protagonists.  Once again, the village of Lychford is under attack.  Can they defend it from.. Who are these people anyway?

Once again, this is a very enjoyable novella.  It felt like there wasn’t quite as much present as in the first one, but was still tasty!  I’m looking forward to the next!

Not Really So Weird

Una McCormack “Weird Space: The Star of the Sea” (Abaddon, 2016)

This is what happens when you jump into a series without having any idea about what is going on.  Most of the time it works out for me.  This time, not so much.  

Apparently this is book 4 of a series.  I had no idea.

There’s a planet that has been settled by refuges from a couple of different cultures.  Because there is some sort of alien wormhole on this planet, a party of soldiers from an evil culture shows up to take control of things.  It seems like all the cultures are evil here, with the exception of the settlers.

Obviously there is a bunch of backstory.  What McCormack fails to do is to adequately explain what is going on, or to make me care about her characters.  And this is in spite of having some seriously clunky exposition early in the novel.

I felt like I never quite understood what was happening, or the stakes involved.  And more significantly, I just didn’t care about the characters.  They felt thin and relying too much on stock tropes.

I’d say to give this a pass unless you are already a fan of the series.