Driving the Deep, by Suzanne Palmer

Review copy provided by the publisher, and also the author is an online friend.

This is the sequel to last year's Finder, with the same protagonist: Fergus Ferguson, interplanetary repo man. Fergus has been...changed...by his adventures in the previous volume, giving him some additional, uh...problem-solving options that I don't want to spoil for you here, and he takes full advantage of them here.

Because he really, really needs to.

Fergus's strength is his friends, but they're also his weakness. Particularly when nefarious parties have done their best to kill them all. But where his friends are concerned, Fergus isn't going down without a fight. Even if that means going way, way down...

Under the frozen waters of Enceladus.

Yeah, the ice moon of Saturn is host to a lot of angry people and their angry secrets, and that's where Fergus has to do if he wants to save his friends, adopt a cat, and pick apart an additional mystery he didn't even know he was in on. Spacefaring adventure that crackles with electricity. If you liked Finder, definitely pick up Driving the Deep.

Restarting the light

I think I am not the only one who feels a wave of relief in these pandemic times every morning that I wake up without a fever, without a cough, without anything to signify that I am getting sick. I read recently that loss of sense of smell is one of the early signs, and so I had two reasons to be happy that I woke up and smelled saffron and yeast from the next story down.

Last night I stirred up the lussekatter to rise while I was sleeping.

I've never made lussekatter in spring before, never made them when the thaw was so thoroughly thawed that the snow pile in the circle was half-dirt. I've made them for something other than Santa Lucia Day before, specifically for Tim's birthday, but he was out of the country for his birthday this year and hadn't had anything I'd baked for him. When I asked if he wanted pumpkin bread as a social distancing treat (I still might do that next week...or later this week depending on how fast we eat the lussekatter...), he paused and said, "Actually...."

So here we are, kneading the dough, singing some different songs, trying to bring back a different kind of light. It's not Lucia Day, friends, but sometimes we need another candle anyway. Sometimes we need to put our backs into a little more care for each other and a little more hope for goodness in the world. Support the health care workers and the food workers and infrastructure workers who are keeping us all as safe as they can manage, be kind to each other, and bring back whatever light you can in whatever way you know how. It's not Santa Lucia Day, but we'll do the work apart-together anyway.

The Glass Magician, by Caroline Stevermer

Review copy provided by the author, who is a personal friend.

I was so excited to get this from Caroline, because I'd been hearing bits and pieces of it as it was in progress but didn't read the manuscript--perfect amounts of information to be optimally excited. And I was not disappointed.

Thalia Cutler is a stage magician, struggling to get by on skill and wit in an alternate twentieth century where the wealthiest families have not only the power of their money but also magical shapechanging powers. As an orphan, she's worked with her guardian dad's friend, Nutall, doing the only kinds of magic she knows: sleights of hand, cunning tricks. Then one night a jammed mechanism threatens her life and forces her into a kind of magic she didn't know she could do.

And then there are the monsters after her.

The rich magicians have resources. The rich magicians have safety. The rich magicians have training. Thalia has what she's always had, except now angry people trying to figure out what's going on with her, and also monsters. So that's fun.

No, really, it's a lot of fun. For the reader. Not for Thalia so much.

I raced through this book with barely a glance at the outside world. I can't wait for more.