British Author Challenge February 2024: Emma Newman & Ronald Firbank

Emma Newman is an award winning science fiction and fantasy writer. With her husband, she is the co-creator of the award winning podcast Tea and Jeopardy. She is also an audiobook narrator.

Selected works
The Split Worlds series
Planetfall series
Industrial Magic series
The Unkindest Cut

Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank was born in Westminster on 17 January 1886 to Sir Thomas Firbank and Lady Firbank. He attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge, but left without a degree.

Firbank was openly gay; he converted to Catholicism in 1907. He died of lung disease on 21 May 1926 in Rome.

Selected works
Vainglory
Caprice
Valmouth
The Flower Beneath The Foot
Sorrow in Sunlight (The repugnant US title for this one is due to his American publisher.)
Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli

Ronald Firbank on Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/50114

I am for sure going to be reading Newman's Between Two Thorns. I am not sure about Firbank at this point.

I am going to give Caprice a try.

I read the first of Newman's Planetfall series...2 Stars.

>5 m.belljackson: I liked the first book, but thought the second, After Atlas, was much better: it's a detective story set on Earth that could be read without having read Planetfall.

I'm an avid science fiction and fantasy reader, and I've never heard of Emma Newman. Clearly I am going to have to check her out!

>7 ronincats: I discovered her by chance when I won a publisher's giveaway that included one of her books. I can recommend After Atlas, which can be read without having read Planetfall, and tentatively recommend Between Two Thorns (I'm only a hundred pages in, but it's good so far).

Valmouth by Ronald Firbank

Composed almost entirely of dialogue and adjectives. It's Modernist, camp as hell, and nigh incomprehensible at times, but I found myself kind of liking it even if I rarely had a firm grasp on what was happening.

I finished Planetfall by Newman, in one day. I listened to the audiobook read by the author who did an amazing job. Most authors should not read their books. There was + and - in this one. It did remind me of The Sparrow which is a better book. I won't read more in the series. This was enough for me.

>10 Kristelh: The sequel is very different and much better, IMHO.

>11 amanda4242: I will keep that in mind, Amanda.

I finished Between Two Thorns, devoured the sequel, Any Other Name, and am about a hundred pages into book three; I think it's fair to say I really like the series!

The March thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/358824

I listened to this as an audiobook. I really struggled with the first few chapters, there was just. So.Much.Swearing. If I had had access to a paper book I probably could have skipped over some of the frequent F-bombs. The first few chapters also seem to be about how angry the main character is at the whole of existence. He has reasons to be angry but it did not make for a story I was interested in pursuing. Once I got past that part and into the middle section it got much more interesting as it was primarily a police procedural. Carlos is a sort-of slave/indentured servant to the MOS and is sent to investigate the death of someone who was once his mentor.. As he uncovers the past of his mentor we learn more about Carlos as well. At about the 2/3 point the story changes again into a more dystopian SF future. Carlos goes to Texas to attend the funeral of the man he was investigating and also reunite with his father. He uncovers a massive international plot and chooses to leave Earth.
The ending is hugely depressing., possibly because with world politics the mess they are I can see all this happening.
I don't think I am up to another book by this author, she is undeniably skilled but I can only handle so much depression and gloom, especially in an election year.