Tag: Gender

Agatha Christie – They Came to Baghdad | Review

July 21, 2020
Authors A-E (By Surname)Fiction

Title: They Came to Baghdad

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 192

Rating: 4.5/5

I liked pretty much everything about this one and so I’m super happy that I finally got to it. One of the main things that I enjoyed was actually the way that the location names captured the time it was written, including the H at the end of Basrah and the fact that London Heathrow was called Heath Row Aerodrome.

Then there’s the killer murder mystery at the heart of this, along with the kickass female lead who isn’t about to let gender norms stop her from having adventures. The result is a super fun little murder mystery with a lot going for it, and I don’t think there’d be anything wrong with it being your first Christie because it works quite nicely as a standalone.

And that’s your answer to the “would I recommend it?” question, so a little more on the why. I just think Christie’s great when she writes about other countries, which is one of the reasons why I love Death on the Nile so much.

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Andrzej Sapkowski – Blood of Elves | Review

April 23, 2020
Authors P-T (By Surname)Fiction

Title: Blood of Elves

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 316

Rating: 3.5/5

The issue that I had with this book is exactly the issue that I was worried about. I think I just prefer Sapkowski as a short story writer than as a novelist, although I will admit that he’s pretty good either way and so it’s not as though I didn’t enjoy this book. It was still all right, it just wasn’t as good as the short story collections.

Other than that, though, there’s a lot here to enjoy. As always, Sapkowski does a great job of asking the reader complicated moral questions, and I like that there’s a bit of a grey area between some of the good guys and some of the bad guys that keeps you guessing about people’s intentions. It’s got a lot of great political intrigue in a similar vein to A Song of Ice and Fire, although it’s by no means a knock-off.

There was even some interesting stuff on gender, because the Witcher has an apprentice who he’s teaching, and she happens to be a girl. There’s a lot of stuff on ethics too, because Geralt faces some difficult decisions along the way. Oh, and a war with the Nilfgardians is beckoning, too.

So overall, I thought this book was just okay, and while I would recommend it, I think I’d suggest going with the short story collections first as a way to ease yourself into the world and its politics. I should also offset this review by pointing out that I felt kind of similar to this when I read the first book, and then it sat with me for a while and I realised, looking back on it, that it was fricken awesome. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing ends up happening here. So yeah, there’s that.

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