Book 64: "Leaden Wings" by Zhang Jie

First published in 1980, "Leaden Wings" is the story of the attempts by the Ministry of Heavy Industry to modernise Chinese factories. Zhang Jie was divorced when she wrote this novel, and as well as being a satire on Chinese industry, her female characters show the contradictions between being able to get good jobs and rise to high political rank, while their personal lives are constrained by the remnants of the feudal social system. This theme ties in very nicely with "The Good Woman of China", which I read recently.

The female characters are mostly rather negative, so Virago's afterward (which seems to be apologising for publishing it) is at pains to explain that Chinese women face different challenges from Western women. I preferred the other introduction, written by the translator Gladys Yang, who was brought up in in China, was the first undergraduate ever to study Chinese at Oxford, married a Chinese man and was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution, so she really understood what the author was trying to convey.

DNF: "All Quiet on the Orient Express" by Magnus Mills

I suspected after reading the back cover blurb that I wouldn't like this book, and that turned out to be the case. So after about 50 pages, I flicked to the end and read the last 10 pages or so to see whether things would turn out okay, before abandoning it.

Book 65: "Making Money" by Terry Pratchett

I assume that this must follow on from "Going Postal" which I haven't read, as it starts with Lord Vetinari offering the Post-master General (former conman Moist von Lipwig) a new job as Master of the Royal Mint, which would also involve running the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork. Some of the funniest things in this book are a golem called Gladys, who has been initiated into female ways by the Post Office counter staff, and the university's Department of Post-Mortem Communications, who definitely don't do necromancy as that would be highly illegal. Post-Mortem Communication is entirely different, although it does involve masks, candles, skulls and dread invocations, and the letters NECR can still be seen faintly on the departmental door.

Book 66: "The Warlock in Spite of Himself" by Christopher Stasheff

Rodney d'Armand's is a SCENT agent, whose job is to rediscover lost colonies and prepare them for re-entry into the confederation of worlds. His latest mission has taken him to the land of Gramarye, and soon realises that he has found the planet settled that was by a group that wanted to recreated Renaissance European society. So he isn't surprised to find a mismatch of architecture and customs taken from all over Europe, and a monarchy with both the aristocrats and a society of beggars on the verge of rebellion against their queen, but he is stunned to find witches on broomsticks, werewolves, ghosts, and tiny elves, and starts to suspect that the lords' suspiciously similiar-looking councillors may have off-world knowledge.

Realising that a constitutional monarchy would probably be the most stable form of government for this planet, he masquerades as a mercenary under the name of Rod Gallowglass, with his robot companion Fess occupying the body of an artificial horse, and sets out to join the queen's guard.

An enjoyable science-fiction romp, which is apparently the first book in a series.

From the back cover blurb: The lost planet of Gramarye wasn't so much evidence of galactic advances as a phoney shrine to the forgotten traditions, rites and graces of renaissance Europe.Sounds just like the SCA to me!