Wow, how is it March already? It's already been a month or so since I finished The Cloud Roads. I enjoyed it though. The beginning is a bit slower than Murderbot as she sets the fantasy world parameters, but after that the pacing, action, and plot development are of a similar quality. Some court politics/whodunnit elements as well. Overall I think I still prefer Murderbot, but I'll likely read the second part in the Raksura series later this year, and would have picked it up from the local library if they'd had a copy.
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Instead, I picked up three books, but the one that has me turning pages is The Spy Who Loved, which is one word short of being a Bond film title, but is non-fiction. It's the story of Christine Granville (née Krystyna Skarbek), a Pole who worked as a spy for the British during WWII, and who had a nearly insatiable appetite for danger and adventure. Prior to the war, this had been channeled into relatively safe pursuits such as skiing in the High Tatras and, in 1939, accompanying her husband on a new diplomatic posting to Africa. But when the war emerged (while they were in Africa), she felt compelled to serve her country, soon joined Section D (later the SOE), and by the spring of 1940, was thankful for the "opportunity to experience adventure and real danger"; her Polish colleagues did not all agree on the glass-half-full outlook.
It's well written and has a fascinating subject. Skiing back into occupied Poland multiple times, sneaking Allied news and propoganda in, and microfilm gathered by Polish intelligence out, helping countless Poles, Slovaks, and captured British pilots evacuate to still-neutral Hungary, and dealing with numerous close calls. There are love polygons, escapes from Slovak and Hungarian police, and plenty of slivovitz, the Hungarian plum brandy. As many of the other characters are also spies, there are also intentionally-conflicting versions of events, which the author does a good job of reconciling and noting in the footnotes.
Now I kind of want to fly to Poland, rent some wooden skis, and see those mountains for myself...