[gmw]

Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A far distant future science fiction in which the sun is dying and the remaining humans seem to have given up hope. I mostly liked the various parts of this, although some did seem to drag out too long, but the culmination left me disappointed. It fell flat and unsatisfying for me, too many things left unexplained and too much that was told seemed in retrospect redundant and pointless. Whatever my complaints, the author writes well enough to still earn a comfortable 3/5.

The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths. The third Dr Ruth Galloway mystery. In some respects this is more of the same as the first two (not quite cosy, not quite full-on forensic investigation), but I'm not sick of them yet. There was a good enough mystery to keep me intrigued and on ongoing personal dramas to keep me amused. 4/5 and I've moved right on to book 4.

P.S. The Ruth Galloway books do have a few publishing/proof-reading errors - scenes not properly split, occasional typos. (Publisher is Quercus.) The errors have not been enough to disrupt my enjoyment, but I know some people are more sensitive to such things.