read: Without a Summer (3 stars)

Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been enjoying these Glamourist stories, but this one didn't quite do it for me. The writing is still top-notch. The characters, their conflicts, and the world they inhabit are well-rounded and true feeling. This one just lacked enough story to really pull me in.

Mostly, the problem is probably my own. I'm not really in the target audience for stories that revolve around the crises of society, love and marriage. There's a lot of that to endure when all you want is to get to the 'good parts' of intrigue and global cooling.

It turns out the true cause of the 'year without a summer' is only briefly touched on in the book. I wanted there to be more of that. And more debate and conflict about it. Instead, the unseasonably cool weather is widely blamed on the coldmongers with only token protestations by those who know better.

Those who go in for this sort of thing will certainly enjoy it. As for me, give me something more like the previous volume, Glamour in Glass.

View all my reviews on Goodreads