19) Humility Garden, by Felicity Savage

I can't remember who recommended this to me or how; for a first novel, published when the author was only 20, it's pretty impressive, a portrayal of a viciously political city with interlocking dynamics of sex, species and death. It isn't as good, though, as Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books which have a very similar setting, and although it ends with a massive cliff-hanger I am not in a huge rush to track down the sequel.

20) Improbable Frequency, by Arthur Riordan and Bell Helicopter

pgmcc very kindly sent me the script for this excellent musical comedy, set in 1941 and concerning the adventures of an innocent code-breaker sent to Dublin by British intelligence, who ends up dealing with John Betjeman, Myles na gCopaleen, Erwin Schrödinger, and Ireland's secret weapon. Some great one-liners - the staff of the British Embassy sing a number with the title "Be Careful Not To Patronise The Irish"; Schrödinger unsuccessfully pursues a woman who scolds him "Don't you wave your filthy particles at me". I do wish I'd been able to see the stage version, and perhaps the sound track will become commercially available some time. Anyway, pgmcc, thanks for letting me experience it even through the rather flattened medium of dead trees.