Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness (1 star)

Well, here we are, second book in the terrible series that I'm reading for no good reason. Spoilers ahead.

This has got to be hands-down the least plausible conception of time-travel that ever made it to print. But first some background. So Matthew picks a time (the year 1590) seemingly pretty much at random, but presumably because Harkness had done the research for that time period and wanted to show it off.

There's literally no good reason to pick that time in history - Matthew doesn't know any powerful witches to train Diana alive at that time, and people are being executed left and right for witchcraft, whether they are actual witches or not. So you know, asking around for a witch to learn from isn't going to exactly be easy. Not to mention that Diana is going to stick out like a sore thumb: she is a modern woman and doesn't know anything about how to live in 1590. Cue long boring sections about how to write with a quill and get dressed.

So poor life choices, but fine. Here's how the time travel works. Matthew shows up and 1590 Matthew just disappears....Umm. OK. Sure. What happens when they leave? Apparently 1590 Matthew just reappears and he is going to be confused AF because for a good few months he was apparently hanging out with some crazy woman, who he married, and carried on with at Queen Elizabeth's court, adopted a kid etc. But 1590 Matthew is just going to pop back into being and what? Be really confused? And somehow he doesn't remember that experience a few centuries later when he starts hanging out with Diana? This situation is just so dumb.

That's why most time travel fiction actually tries to avoid your real self in the past. But no, that would get in the way of making Matthew THE MOST IMPORTANT MAN IN HISTORY. I mean he's friends with literally everyone famous from that era, which seems like a poor decision for a creature who's supposed to be hiding, since you know, he doesn't actually age at all. It's all just so implausible.

Anyway, the novel continues in it's boring way, with even more abusive terrible relationships, this time modelling spectacularly bad behavior towards Phoebe:

Phoebe’s hand was trembling. That man—that strange man with no grasp of proper etiquette and startling blue eyes—had kissed her. At her place of work. Without her permission.

Kit's obviously the largest danger to Diana, but everyone seems implausibly oblivious to this. Especially Diana and Matthew themselves. It allows Diana to get into a slow-motion bond-villain death trap with a jousting mannequin.

I'm pretty sick of hearing about Ashmole 782.

1 star.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (1 star)

Occasionally I look at the most positively reviewed books on Amazon, and peruse "top 100" lists. I'm not sure which one of those led me here, but that's my excuse. On the upside I get to indulge in a negative review, which is a lot more fun to write than a 3-4 star review, which is most of the books I read.

First up it's not fantasy, it's a romance novel. The magic, vampirey and time-travel bits are thrown in haphazardly and in a way that destroys any credibility of a well-thought out world. We follow a young witch as she discovers her powers and then throws her future away on a sick relationship with a rich controlling asshole who happens to be a vampire. If that sounds like the twilight series to you, it should.

We start with Diana, smart intelligent researcher, world-renowned expert, and modern woman. By her own account she has a very healthy respect for how dangerous vampires are, but within a few pages she's jumping in the car of an incredibly powerful one. They head out to a yoga session for vamps, daemons, and witches at this guy's house, at which point I realised this was actually a romance novel.

Dozens of daemons, vampires, and witches dipped and swooped their bodies into graceful, upward curves.

Ugh. From here on in, it's just Matthew showing off ridiculously expensive wine/real-estate/antiques/art and Diana ignoring all the relationship red flags anyone should ever need. I thought she was supposed to be a strong-spirited intelligent modern woman.

“This is Château Margaux from a very great vintage. Some people consider it the finest red wine ever made.”

 She hands over her blood sample and he proceeds to dictate everything about her life, including who she can talk to, and then starts physically assaulting her.

“Let me go, Matthew.” I struggled in his arms. “No.” No man had ever refused when I asked him to stop doing something—whether it was blowing his nose in the library or trying to slip a hand up my shirt after a movie. I struggled again. Matthew’s arms got tighter. “Stop fighting me.” He sounded amused. “You’ll get tired long before I do, I assure you.”

 Miriam sees the same thing:

“She told me I needed to learn how to take care of myself and stop relying on you to protect me. She basically accused me of playing the damsel in distress.”

That was your intervention Diana, I feel sad that you couldn't see it. Oh well, back to Matthew dictating everything about your life and you being passive:

“You’ll stay at Woodstock until Peter Knox leaves Oxford.” My face must have betrayed my dismay. “It won’t be so bad,” he said gently. “You’ll have all the yoga you want.” With Matthew in bodyguard mode, I didn’t have much choice.

“This family is not a democracy, especially not at a time like this. When I tell you to do something, you do it, without hesitation or question. Understood?”

“Do you understand why you must not question Matthew when he tells you to do something?”

 I mean, you're an expert horse rider, but sure, let him treat you like a baby:

“I can get onto a horse myself,” I said hotly. “But you don’t need to.” Matthew’s hands cupped my shin, lifting me effortlessly into the saddle.

It makes me sick to think that all the people giving this 5 stars on amazon apparently might actually admire this kind of relationship with Mr. patronizing wine-list:

“You’re tired,” he said, “and hungry. Maybe we should wait until after lunch.”

Surprise! Time for some time-travel, don't bother asking when/where you're going though, your husband can decide all that for you:

I still knew nothing, except that I was headed to a time before 1976 and a place where Matthew had played chess.

Spoiler from the next book: Matthew had no idea what he was doing when he picked the time and place.

There's just barely enough interesting stuff happening in amongst the cringeworthy relationship bits and girlfriend-meeting-the-family boring drama, the woke-up-and-went-out-for-breakfast bits, then-I-went-rowing bits, and then-we-had-dinner bits to make me want to read the next book to see if there's more interesting fantasy world stuff happening in the new time period.

But really I don't have a good reason to read the next one, this was terrible, maybe I just like writing negative reviews.

1 star.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (4 stars)

I can see how this was very groundbreaking in 1969. It is a well written thought experiment on gender and sex, and how it influences so much of society structure and behaviour. Amazingly it has stood the test of decades and much progression in our thinking about gender and sexuality to still be readable and relevant to the modern reader. There's plenty of old sci-fi that hasn't aged nearly as well, and shows it was definitely deserving of it's Hugo and Nebula awards.

We follow a human ambassdor's experience on the planet Winter where:

Cultural shock was nothing much compared to the biological shock I suffered as a human male among human beings who were, five-sixths of the time, hermaphroditic neuters.

Consider: There is no division of humanity into strong and weak halves, protective/protected, dominant/submissive, owner/chattel, active/passive. In fact the whole tendency to dualism that pervades human thinking may be found to be lessened, or changed, on Winter.

Le Guin leads us through many facets of the society and ambassador Genly's realisation of just how different this gender neutral world really is to a human male:

The First Mobile, if one is sent, must be warned that unless he is very self-assured, or senile, his pride will suffer. A man wants his virility regarded, a woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. On Winter they will not exist. One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience.

In addition to the gender thought experiment there's also plenty of other issues touched upon, including how damaging rabid nationalism can be.

If you're after a rollicking plot and scintillating adventure on another planet, this is not the book for you. It feels like reading a documentary about another planet, a super-interesting one, but the plot isn't the strongest part of the novel.

4 stars.