Book 68: "The Year 1000" by Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger

Christ, there is a swarm of bees outside,
Fly hither, my little cattle,
In blest peace, in God's protection,
Come home safe and sound!

This book is about every-day life in Anglo-Saxon England around the year 1000 A.D. The annual round of agricultural tasks, as shown in the pages of a mediaeval manuscript known as the Julius Work Calendar, gives the book its structure.

One of the things I found most interesting was about bees and the charms (both Christian and pagan) used to persuade a swarm of bees to build their nest on your land. Honey was the only form of sweetener in use at that time and it was a lucky day when a swarm of bees took up residence on your land, since there was good money to be made from honey, beeswax and a resin used as a building material by the bees. Maybe the charms are the precursor of the tradition that beekeepers should always tell their bees when anything important happens, such as a death in the family. Make the bees feel welcome and part of the family and they will hang around!

Book 69: "The Scar" by China Mieville

There were certain mysteries that the work of the underwater engineer threw up. What manner of things were those shadows he sometimes glimpsed, behind the tightly tethered guard-sharks, unclear through what must be adumbrating glamours? What were the purposes of the repairs that he and his colleagues daily carried out?

Bellis Coldwine, a former lover of Isaac de Grimnebulin, has to leave New Crobuzon to avoid being picked up by the authorities, who are 'disappearing' anyone who knows the main players in the slake moth crisis (the story of which is told in "Perdido Street Station"). Bellis is a linguist, and after hastily learning salkrikaltor cray, she takes a job as translator on a ship that is heading for a distant colony, carrying a few paying passenger and a cargo of criminals. The ship never reaches its destination, but its passengers and crew find themselves living in a fabled city, and some of them are caught up in a secret project run by the rulers of one of the city ridings.

The story features more of the intelligent races of Bas-Lag (including scabmettlers, he-crays, grindylow and anophelii), as well as one race that is possibly not native to the planet.

Just as good as "Perdido Street Station", and with the added bonus of a strong ending!