The last three NZ fantasies: Ringlet and the Day the Oceans Stopped, by Felicity Williams; Light in My Blood, by Jean Gilbert & William Dresden; The Crawling Wood, by Casey Lucas

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At the end of my list of books acquired in 2020 are these three from the Sir Julius Vogel Award packet; none of them particularly grabbed me, I’m afraid.

Second paragraph of third chapter of Ringlet and the Day the Oceans Stopped:

What had happened? She’d left Ninky’s (at least she thought she had) and the Number Three had been carrying her forwards (at least she thought it was) and then there’d been someone … a merwoman who had asked in a concerned voice where she was headed … and without even waiting for her reply had taken her by the hand … dangerous, the oceans after dark, murmured the stranger … for one so young … and she’d felt relieved, rescued even, from untold horrors, as they sped forwards together.

Yet another fantasy that failed to grab me in the first fifty pages, so I put it down (well, closed the ebook file with no intention of reopening it). Derivative world-building, and uncertainty on my part as to whether it is aimed at a YA audience or not. You can get Ringlet and the Day the Oceans Stopped here.

(Nice cover though.)

Second paragraph of third chapter of Light in my Blood:

Jack could still see the bioluminescent glow of the strange trees and flowers, the soft backlit atmosphere. Every glimmer. Every shimmer. The smell of Juliper and Bluebells as yet clung to the back of his nostrils.

I quite liked this to begin with – it’s a portal fantasy with teenagers from our world (from an anonymous suburban English-speaking country) becoming enmeshed in the magical and dynastic feuding of the world of Nön while navigating their own emotional connections, and even though it is the second of a series, I found it easy enough to get into and read it all.

But I rather went off it at the end; the continuing drip of minor but annoying typographic errors started getting to me; then there is a sudden yet inevitable betrayal; and then it turns out that we are left on a cliff-hanger to try and get us to buy the next book and find out what happens. I probably won’t. You can get Light in My Blood here.

Second paragraph of third chapter of The Crawling Wood:

“You still feeling good about this gig?” he asked Gaz with a tilt of his head. Gaz shrugged a single time, quiet.

I’m afraid that I am pretty jaded with secondary worlds by now, and gave this only a few dozen pages before I gave up. You can read the entire ongoing Into the Mire webseries here.

These were the very last unread books that I had acquired in 2020, only four months after I finished the last unread book that I had acquired in 2019. I have been deliberately accelerating in recent times (also I have been merciless about putting aside New Zealand fantasies that didn’t grab me).

Last books acquired in 2020, read in August 2025 (Ringlet and the Day the Oceans Stopped, by Felicity Williams; Light in My Blood, by Jean Gilbert & William Dresden; The Crawling Wood, by Casey Lucas)
Last book acquired in 2019, read in April 2025 (Joan and Peter)
Last book acquired in 2018, read in November 2024 (The Geraldines)
Last book acquired in 2017, read in January 2024 (Rule of Law: A Memoir)
Last book acquired in 2016, read in August 2023 (Autism Spectrum Disorders Through the Lifespan)
Last book acquired in 2015, read in November 2022 (Rauf Denktaş, a Private Portrait)
Last books acquired in 2014, read in October 2021 (The Empire of Time and Crashland)
Last book acquired in 2013, read in October 2020 (Helen Waddell)
Last book acquired in 2012, read in May 2020 (A Sacred Cause: The Inter-Congolese dialogue 2000-2003)
Last book acquired in 2011, read in October 2019 (Luck and the Irish)
Last book acquired in 2010, read in January 2019 (Heartspell)
Last book acquired in 2009, read in December 2016 (Last Exit to Babylon)

That takes me to the fairly small pile of unread books acquired in 2021; I have hopes of finishing them this calendar year. (The 2022 pile is much bigger though.) The 2021 books will start with:

  • The Dream House, by Lee Berridge (shortest)
  • London Centric: Tales of Future London, ed. Ian Whates (unread sf book longest on my shelves)
  • A Tall Man in a Low Land: Some Time Among the Belgians, by Harry Pearson (top unread book on LibraryThing, also unread non-fiction book longest on my shelves)
  • Black Mountain, by Gerry Adams (unread non-genre fiction book longest on my shelves)

There will be a bit of a gap as I deal with the holiday backlog.