Misadventures in reading

 I'm having one of those periods in reading where nothing is the right thing.

I tried what I suppose would be labelled 'urban fantasy' by an author new to the genre (who clearly had done just enough of the foundational reading to have a handy tick sheet but not enough to really get to grips with the genre). Characters Caricatures with a minimal smear of backstory? Tick. Extra points for token Asian, Religious Black Woman, Stroppy Teenager and Queer Guy, not to mention Unpredictable Boss with an unknown historical tragedy, and Naïf Protagonist to highlight how 'weird' everything is. Gritty urban setting (most definitely not the named city)? Tick. Real jeopardy demonstrated by knocking off a few of the 'nice' disposable Caricatures? Tick? Half-baked explanation involving various magical castes? Tick.  Thrown hard and far? Multiple ticks. I have no idea what happened at the end, and no desire to know, but I fear it was the set up for a series... which I will never read. 

Onwards then. Highly recommended SF.  Paper thin world building (no, but, no, but, no -- just NO!); two protagonists with as much charisma as wet tissue paper; important information withheld by the author until it can be dramatically revealed when disclosing it in the first few pages (which would have made internal sense) would have killed the story dead. Also thrown hard and far... although I'll try something else by the same author (warily). (OK, I may be unkind to the protagonists -- they have all the charisma of untrained puppies).

Still in the to-be-read list: something by an author I always read (although I don't always enjoy equally -- some settings are too bleak and too well realised to reach the end with unalloyed pleasure); and a novella by an author new to me.

In the mood I'm in, I should probably leave them both well alone and do some comfort rereading....