Venetia

By Georgette Heyer

Oh, the Wicked Baron: byword of the neighborhood. Subject of scandal and gossip and warnings to the local young ladies to take care when he is at home. Fortunately, Lord Damerel is rarely at home. So when Venetia decides to gather some berries, she is not worried about any unwanted encounters is she trespasses on Damerel's land. Dressed in a shabby old gown and wearing a sun sunbonnet and carrying her basket, accompanied only by her pet dog, Flurry, it not surprising that the Wicked Baron mistakes her for a farmer's daughter and not a member of the English nobility. And so he takes liberties with her that he might not, maybe, take with a woman of his own social class. Not to worry though, Flurry flies to her rescue only to be commanded to sit by Damerel. But when Venetia quotes Shakespeare to him, Damerel quickly realizes he has made a mistake: "Who are you? I took you for a village maiden—probably one of my tenants." Venetia responds, "Did you indeed? Well, if that is the way you mean to conduct yourself amongst the village maidens you won't win much liking here!" To which he fires back, "No, no, the danger is that I might win too much!" And so begins the courtship of two of Heyer's most appealing characters, the black sheep Damerel and the innocent but bold maiden Venetia. 

I really like this story. It is not a lively read and there are no thrilling scenes, no runaway romances, no duels at dawn. Just two adults falling in love, despite the obstacles Venetia's well-meaning friends and family members put the way.

Review by Austenprose.

A Civil Contract

 

By Georgette Heyer

When Adam Deveril's father dies unexpectedly, he finds out that his father, Lord Lynton, has died in debt with almost all the family lands mortgaged.  All his advisors feel Adam will have to sell off much of the family land, including Fontley, their ancient family estate, to pay off all the debts. 

But a close family friend suggests an alternative. Marry a wealthy woman! The friend, Lord Oversley, knows just the woman too. Jenny Chawleigh is the only child of an extremely rich businessman. Jonathan Chawleigh wants the best for his daughter, and to him, that means a husband who is a member of the English nobility. And although he was hoping for an Earl, he might be willing to settle for a Viscount, which is Adam's title now that his father is gone. If he approves of Adam, naturally. An added bonus: Jenny actually knows and admires Adam already, having met him, briefly, at the Overley's. She and the Overley's daughter Julia went to the same school and have a casual acquaintance. 

Marry Jenny, and her father would save Adam from ruin and save the family estate and enable Adam to provide for his teenage sister, Lydia. But the main problem is that Adam is deeply in love with Julia Oversley and has already asked her to be his wife. Given his current financial state, Julia's parents are refusing to permit the marriage to proceed. 

Despite his misgivings and his love for Julia, Adam allows himself to be persuaded to propose to Jenny. Jenny accepts his offer and Adam believes Jenny is just as ambitious as her overbearing father is. What no one knows is that Jenny fell head over heels for Adam those few times she met him at the Overley's. And that she isn't ambitious or a social climber. She marries him because it is the only way she can help him. She also marries him knowing that his heart belongs to Julia but she is willing to live with that knowledge. 

Adam is a gentleman, but that is no guarantee that he will be a good husband. And poor Jenny can't hold a candle to the lovely Julia. The only thing she brings to this marriage is her father's vast wealth and her hidden love for Adam. 

This was an enjoyable read. It is a quiet story of two people learning to care for each other despite all the differences in their backgrounds. There is not a lot of excitement, no dramatic love scenes, just Adam learning to respect and understand his prosaic little bourgeois wife. And Jenny learning to adapt to the ways of her spouse and to the ways of the nobility in 19th century England.

Review by Sunita on Dear Author.

The Great Time Machine Hoax

 

By Keith Laumer

Chester W. Chester IV has inherited an estate which also contains a powerful experimental computer. Problem is that the the estate is burdened with a massive amount of tax debt and is due to be liquidated. So before that happens, Chester and his friend Case are taking a look around the place. They are especially interested in the computer.

It is a very powerful computer and has been quietly growing more powerful, as Chester and Case soon discover. It has spread itself wide and far, on the sly, expanding its hardware and manipulating society for its own benefit. Case gets the idea that they could use the computer to create realistic 3D vignettes that the public would be willing to pay good money to see. But these two goofs don't understand the power of this computer, because instead of creating the vignettes, it actually creates reality. Which becomes almost fatally clear when it conjures a scene of primitive humans who then rush out of the viewing area and capture the two men and Genie who is the human computer interface that the computer created from a drop of Case's blood.

Chester and Genie are locked away in cages and Case is forced to fight one of the primitives, a huge giant of a man.  While Case is taking on the giant, Chester and Genie manage to get free and run back to the arrival base and yell for the computer to bring them home, fully intending to return to get Case. But when they return it is not the same place as it was when they left. It's similar but slightly different. Genie gets captured by the police and locked up and Chester returns to base but still can't get back to the where he started. Now he is in a new location and the locals have lots of plans for him and they won't let him have access to the arrival base unless he agrees to do as they wish. Meanwhile Genie is stuck in jail and who knows what is happening to Case, battling the giant, primitive man.

This is fun and exciting story and very entertaining. Laumer is at his best when he is telling a humorous and action-packed tale. I suppose he is best known for his Retief stories. This story is similar to the Retief stories, just without Retief. There's dumb cops, mean thugs and self-involved bureaucratic types just like in the Retief stories.

I've read this story three or four times over the years and enjoyed every time.

Day by Night

 

By Tanith Lee

On a planet where one side is in eternal darkness and the other in eternal day, two societies built on similar patterns are unaware of the other society's existence. In both, the struggling masses are ruled by a technological elite who call themselves princes and princesses. Life for the masses is brutal, harsh and deprived. Life for the elites is luxurious beyond belief.

Princess Vel and her brother Prince Velday are young elites, living in ease and excess on the lightside of the planet. But a friend of theirs, Prince Ceedres, is living in poverty due to the failure of his estate, getting by sponging off his friends. Ceedres wants to marry Vel and thus gain access to her wealth and her estates. Even though Vel actually does loves Ceedres, she also knows he doesn't love her, he wants her wealth. When she refuses to marry him, he frames her for attempted murder of himself, and as punishment, Vel's portion of the family estate is awarded to Ceedres and she is sent to live among the workers.

Meanwhile, on the darkside, is Princess Vitra and her brother Prince Vyen. Vitra is creating the story of Vel, Ceedres and Velday, who she believes are characters she has created. She doesn't know the lightsiders are real and not made from her imagination. Vitra, Vyen and Prince Casrus have a similar story to that of the lightside characters, with slight differences. Vitra and Vyen are the ones whose estate has failed and they have hatched a plot to seize Casrus' property by framing him for assaulting Vitra. The plot works and Casrus is exiled to hard labor with the rest of the working poor and Vitra and Vyen are awarded his estate for their own.

How is it that two separate sets of young elites on opposites sides of the world are living such similar lives? It's like some godlike force is playing with their lives, letting the evil ones prosper and sending the innocent to perdition. But why?

This was quite a good story. Especially once Vel and Casrus are cast out of their comfortable lives of wealth and privilege and forced to confront the reality of the struggle of the working people. The different ways they cope with their circumstances is very gripping. However, the ending is rather lame, I think: deus ex machina. 

Review by James Nicoll Reviews.

The Piano Teacher

 

By Janice Y. K. Lee

The story of two young women in Hong Kong, living ten years apart, Trudy in 1941 and Claire in 1952.

Claire is a young newlywed English woman who has come to Hong Kong with her husband, Martin. Being a British colony, there are plenty of British people to socialize with. But Claire feels a bit isolated and when she is offered a job teaching piano to a wealthy local couple's child, she accepts it. It's not that she needs the money, but it just gives her something to do. The couple, Victor and Melody Chen and their daughter Locket, are Chinese but sophisticated and worldly. Their chauffeur is an Englishman, Will Truesdale, which is very unusual at the time for a British person to work as a servant for Chinese family. Claire becomes fascinated by Will, who is quite a bit older than she is and lets him make her his mistress.

Flashback to 1941 and Trudy Liang. Trudy is a captivating and vital woman of mixed heritage, part European and part Chinese. She is the only child of a wealthy Chinese businessman. Her father doesn't live in Hong Kong and Trudy is left to her own devices. She takes up with Will Truesdale and they become lovers. But this is 1941 and the Japanese are about to embark on a quest for Asian domination which will lead them to bomb Pearl Harbor and set off World War II. One of the casualties of their egomania will be the British colony of Hong Kong. By January of 1942, Hong Kong is under Japanese control and, typical of their conduct throughout the war, their are cruel, vicious and inhumane. Trudy becomes a liason between the Japanese and the colony and the unwilling mistress of a Japanese VIP, Otsubo. Will Truesdale ends up in a prison compound with many other non-Chinese, including a British man who is in possession of some knowledge the Japanese want, the location of the Crown Collection. This is a collection of Chinese artifacts the British have acquired and is extremely valuable and was stashed away when it became obvious that Hong Kong was in danger.

The connection between Claire and Trudy is the man, Will, who they both loved but whose love did not benefit either of them.

I enjoyed this story, especially as it informed me about a subject I had never given any thought to: the fate of Hong Kong in World War II.

The story of Trudy is certainly the most captivating part of the novel. I don't even really understand why the story of Claire was included except perhaps as a vehicle for exposing the misdeeds of the characters during the Japanese occupation. So even though Claire seems kind of pointless, it was a really good read.

Review by Publishers Weekly.