The Alchemy of Treason: The Lost Book 5
In the land of ice and monsters, there is nothing mundane about treachery. Eternal consequences flow from mundane actions.
Books
Never Shall I Fail: Forgotten Ruin Book 7
Just in case you didn’t get enough of Rangers battling for control of Sustagul in the last book, Never Shall I Fail chronicles the second battle of Sustagul. But this time, we see things in a different way, insofar as Talker has to learn to see things in a different way.
A Vital Breath Book Review
The spirit-world around this world of sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere
Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours dense
A vital breath of more ethereal air.
—Haunted Houses, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A With Both Hands Mini-Review
Paxton Locke is back, not much older, but hopefully much wiser than
Splitting out literary criticism and book reviews
As I reflect upon what it is I do here at With Both Hands, I’ve decided to make a stronger distinction between criticism and reviews. Writing book criticism is something I love to do, and intend to continue doing, but it can also take a while to find the
Operation Kronstadt Book Review
Harry Ferguson’s Operation Kronstadt [Amazon link] filled in a gap in a time (1919-20) and a place (St. Petersburg) that I had known nearly nothing about. The book starts slow, and then builds and builds up to a genuinely thrilling climax. For events now more than a hundred years
Operation Kronstadt: Coastal Motor Boats
As documented in Operation Kronstadt, The head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, Captain Mansfield Cumming, wanted to use Coastal Motor Boats to rescue a field agent out of Bolshevik-controlled Petrograd in 1919. The CMBs were small and fast, and had the ability to hydroplane and avoid the sub-surface mines
2022 Book Market
I stumbled on some great data on the book market for 2022 on Twitter, so I’m copying it here as it is so important to build up your quantitative sense with reference to handy facts. It is also good to have a reality check on how bestsellers can make