Three more of the books that I had not got around to from the 2020 Sir Julius Vogel packet. One OK, two less so.

Second paragraph of third chapter of We All Fall:

Luca was there, waiting for me after not being able to talk last night. He grinned as he saw me, and I smiled, happy to have the distraction.

I thought this was OK. A short, effective story about a girl growing up in a circus family, getting to grips with disability, same-sex love and the paranormal stuff that seems to be happening around her. You can get We All Fall here.

Second paragraph of third chapter of Tyrelia:

The Golden City was the capital of Medar and home to the Master. It was a conical mountain surrounded entirely by a moat and a tall, gleaming white wall. The only way in was via the drawbridge to the single gateway. The dwellings within the city were perched one above the other on the steep hillside, like decorations on an elaborate cake. Narrow roads wound their way between them. All the houses were whitewashed, with terracotta tiled roofs, and many had pots of brightly coloured geraniums hanging from the windowsills. The Master’s mansion, shrouded in cloud, crowned the city. It was said that it was covered in glittering gold.

This on the other hand failed to engage me and I put it down after fifty pages. The fourteen-year-old heroine is sent on a quest by rather nonchalant elders, and finds herself in a land of plenty which is obviously going to turn out as something more sinister. Possibly didn’t help that it’s the second book in a trilogy where I have not read the first. You can get Tyrelia here.

Second paragraph of third chapter of Dragon Rift:

Ezaara was lost for words. Her mind spun. Roberto was captive. Surely Zens would kill him.

This is the third volume in a series of six, and I don’t think the other five would have helped convince me; it’s a world which is a knock-off of Pern with a few imports from Middle Earth, and lost me rather with the super-effective magical healing ointments. I just about managed fifty pages, but no more. You can get Dragon Rift here.

These three had all bubbled to the top of my rapidly dwindling stacks of books acquired in 2020. We All Fall was the shortest unread book acquired in that year, Tyrelia was the SF book that had lingered longest unread on my shelves and Dragon Rift was the most popular unread book acquired in 2020. The next shortest is Dark Winds Over Wellington, by TL Wood; the next on the other two piles is Ringlet and the Day the Oceans Stopped, by Felicity Williams.