Guess what time it is! IT IS RIP TIME! The twelfth annual Readers Imbibing Peril began on 1 September (as always) and will be running through the end of October. Join us, comrades, as we read perilously spooooooky books under the auspices of the marvelous Heather and Andi.
PS have you noticed that next year it will be R.I.P THIRTEEN? I hope that you have noticed. It is never far from my mind. I am doing a ghost noise about it as we speak.
My planned reads for R.I.P. 12 include:
The Painted Queen, by Elizabeth Peters and Some Interloper Who Even Cares
Weirdly, Elizabeth Peters once wrote a mystery novel about a writer who was asked to finish the book of a recently-deceased author. Life reflects art. Anyway, I am not sure how to feel about this book, which was completed after Elizabeth Peters’s death by her pal Joan Hess. I’ve been semi-pretending the Amelia Peabody series ended after Children of the Storm. On the other hand, The Painted Queen takes place in the darkest part of the Amelia Peabody timeline; i.e., between Falcon at the Portal and He Shall Thunder in the Sky. So who knows.
Passing Strange, by Ellen Klages
My TBR spreadsheet says MAGIC LESBIANS IN THE 1940S!!!!! and I stand by every one of those exclamation points. I am not, in fact, certain of how dark this fantasy is, but the blurb says noir so I say it counts.
Food of the Gods, Cassandra Khaw
Speaking of noir, I am beginning to be afraid that Cassandra Khaw is too noir for me to love her work. Sob sob. But we’ll find out for sure when I read the quite noiry-sounding Food of the Gods, which is about a gentleman who fixes up human flesh to feed to ghouls I think?, and anyway he gets mixed up in the quarrels of the gods.
The Shadowed Sun, NK Jemisin
Now that NK Jemisin’s latest trilogy is complete, I can finally read it! But for this installment of RIP I’ll stick to finishing her previous series. I liked The Killing Moon a lot and I’m eager to find out where the story goes from here. Then onward to her multiple-Hugo-award-winning trilogy.
The Bloodprint, Ausma Zehanat Khan
Ausma Zehanat Khan is the author of these excellent murder mystery novels that deal with major geopolitical conflicts, and now she is turning her hand to what I assume will be darkish geopolitical fantasy. The Bloodprint is about women saving the world by going on a road trip to find a MacGuffin. Your girl is IN.
What are y’all reading for R.I.P.? Are you excited for next year when it will be R.I.P. XIII? Is it ever a good idea for someone else to finish your favorite dead author’s unfinished manuscript?