SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell

SF/F Review: The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell https://t.co/DCxNe9lYsG Short Review: 6 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 29, 2018

Short Review (cont): A quartet of Novellas (2 old, 2 new) set in a world where magic-use is easy but has costs that burden all of society to the point of destroying it, The Tangled Lands just doesn't seem to use this interesting world in ways that stand out, alas. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 29, 2018

   The Tangled Lands is an interesting work to review mainly because it's not clear how to describe it.  It's essentially a collection of four novellas - two old, two new - in a shared world, with each novella set after the other.  Does that really make it an anthology as I've titled this post?  I'm not particularly sure.  The two authors created this shared world for an audiobook containing the first two novellas back in 2010, and this compilation adds two more novellas (one from each author) to create a short book.

  That said, the problem with this compilation is that, while the shared world is interesting - basically it's a fantasy world where magic is/was commonplace, but casting even the smallest spells results in the creation somewhere in the world of "bramble", which can put people into an everlasting sleep - there isn't enough substance in the novellas to really make them that memorable.  The original two novellas are definitely the strongest, but even they aren't particularly unique.  The final two novellas are more miss than hit, with them feeling very more of the same.  I'd like to see something more in this world (maybe a full length novel?), but this isn't a collection that justifies its existence very much.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

SF/F Review: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan https://t.co/AYI6gvkZ2K Short Review: 7 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 28, 2018

Short Review (cont): An urban fantasy tale where our hero is a sociopath who faces off with magicians and demons to try and save his brother....and to discover the truth behind their past. Interesting World, but the story is only solid due to a partially predictable reveal. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 28, 2018

  The Demon's Lexicon is Sarah Rees Brennan's debut novel and the start of her first trilogy.  Readers of this blog (the like, 2 of them) might recognize that name as the author of one of my favorite books, but while The Demon's Lexicon is also YA, it shares basically nothing at all with In Other Lands.  Instead, where that novel was essentially a fantasy romance with comedic elements, The Demon's Lexicon is a YA urban fantasy thriller told from the perspective of a sociopath hero.

  It's still an interesting book that I enjoyed, even though I did, as I suspect most readers do, guess most of the twist reveal extremely early in the book.  It's not a long book (I read this as an audiobook, and it was under 10 hours) but it's a reasonable length such that it never drags.  It's also not a great book either, with it probably spending a bit too much of its span devoted to setup to truly take a leap to that next level.

  Note: While I stated above this is a start to a trilogy, it resolves its plot entirely by the end, and it appears the two sequels focus upon other characters and ideas, so you can treat this as a stand alone.

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

I've had widely varied reactions to Nnedi Okorafor's works (of which I've read 3 Novels, 3 Novellas, and several short stories) - sometimes I've loved them, whereas sometimes I haven't felt they worked for me.  However, none of her works I've read have ever not been at least interesting (and none have been outright bad) in concept.

The Binti trilogy of Novellas exemplifies this for me.  I loved the original Binti, but felt the sequel (Binti: Home) didn't quite work for me anywhere near as much, but left me very interested in the conclusion of the story (it ending on a major cliffhanger may have had something to do with it).  Binti: The Night Masquerade went in a very different direction than I expected, but for the most part, fulfilled my expectations.  I still think the original Binti is the best of the trilogy, but this was a satisfying finale.

Note: Binti: The Night Masquerade is the finale to the trilogy, and is basically no longer a novella in length (it's a little over 200 pages - more than twice as long as the original novella) but I'm reviewing it as a "novella" due to the characterization of the rest of the series.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bookburners Season 3 by Max Gladstone, Mur Lafferty, Margaret Dunlap, Brian Slattery, & Andrea Phillips

SF/F Review: Bookburners Season 3 by Max Gladstone, Mur Lafferty, Margaret Dunlap, Brian Slattery & Andrea Phillips https://t.co/rwpVu0Hpqq Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 26, 2018

Short Review (cont): Season 3 of Bookburners improves over the 2nd as the Team 3 deals not only with the murderous Angel from Menchu's past returning and causing new chaos but with the strained relations between themselves. And Team 4 continues to try and harness magic...(2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 26, 2018

  The Bookburners series has been one of a few series that I've enjoyed over the past two years simply for being a light, fun SF/F series, without being too deep.  For those who don't know the series, Bookburners technically isn't a series of novels - it's part of Serial Box Publishing, which publishes "serials" or seasons of stories in various genres.  By "serial" I mean it publishes each chapter separately and charges for each chapter separately, basically as if each chapter is an episode of a TV Show.  I really enjoyed the first Bookburners season, which was compiled and released in a compilation as a print book, but was a little less high on the second season (which was collected digitally but has not been collected in print yet).   This third season has yet to be collected in any form, but the Hoopla Digital Library acquired each episode as it came out, ,and I've spent the past few months borrowing 2-4 episodes a month until I completed Season 3 this month.

  For those new to the Bookburners series, the story follows the Vatican's Team 3 - a team dedicated to investigating various instances of magic and demon activity throughout the world and trying to prevent it from going awry, while also trying to keep it hidden from the world (Much of the magic comes from magic books, which is how the team got the slang name "Bookburners").  The team consists of Father Menchu - the Guatemala leader and a priest;  Liam, an American whose involvement with a group trying to integrate technology and magic once got him possessed; Grace, a former Chinese agent of the early 1900s whose life is magically tied to the burning of a wax candle; Asanti, the archivist of the team who wishes to explore more of the uses of magic; and Sal, an American who joined the team when her brother Perry became possessed by a demon.

  Obvious Note:  Like a TV Show, you shouldn't start Bookburners with Season 3, as it builds very much on the developments in the prior two seasons.  Start with Bookburners Season 1 and 2, then go to this.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

SF/F Review: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi https://t.co/jYteiGVNYR Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 24, 2018

Short Review (cont): The 1st in a YA fantasy trilogy based upon a mix of African mythologies, CoBaB tells the story of a girl from a repressed people questing to restore her people's lost magic while evading a prince fighting against his own magic. A good start to the series 2/3

— garik16 (@garik16) March 24, 2018

Children of Blood and Bone has to be one of the most popular/hyped books I've ever reviewed on this blog (after maybe The Stone Sky I guess, but that's more niche) - it debuted in its first week after publication as #1 on the New York Times YA Bestseller list.  A Fantasy YA Novel based on African mythology, this is the first in a trilogy that already had its movie rights optioned before the book had even been finished.  Which of course isn't a guaranty of quality, especially for a first novel from a brand new author.

But I liked Children of Blood and Bone a bunch.  It's far from perfect - it's probably a bit too long and definitely could use some editing - but it's a very solid start to a new trilogy, with some very interesting characters and some excellent worldbuilding.  I also was happy to see that, while the book does have a mild cliffhanger, it works very well as its own complete story.  I expected to get through this book in 3 days, and managed to do so in 2, which is a pretty good sign of me enjoying it, and while I wouldn't necessarily rate it among my favorite books of 2018, I'm definitely interested in where it's going from here.

More after the Jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Impostor Syndrome (Arcadia Project) by Mishell Baker

SF/F Review: Impostor Syndrome (Arcadia Project #3) by @mishellbaker https://t.co/ynpGJFDTus Short Review: 10 out of 10 (1/4)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 21, 2018

Short Review (cont): Impostor Syndrome concludes the story of Millie Roper, who attempts to save human-fae relations & resolve both the Arcadia Project & Fae Civil Wars by leading 2 dangerous heists, while trying to keep her BPD affected emotions under control. (2/4)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 21, 2018

Short Review (cont): An absolutely tremendous finale to the series, wrapping up Millie's personal story in a tremendous emotional climax. (The rest of the cast and plot are great too). (3/4)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 21, 2018

  Impostor Syndrome is the final book in Mishell Baker's "Arcadia Project" trilogy, after 2016's "Borderline" and 2017's "Phantom Pains."  Those first two books are very different, sharing a setting but almost being completely different in subgenre (Borderline reads like a procedural in an urban fantasy setting, whereas Phantom Pains reads closer to traditional urban fantasy) and Impostor Syndrome goes even farther in this regard, reading incredibly differently than its predecessors.  This is not a bad thing - Impostor Syndrome is TREMENDOUS and is currently my favorite book I've read in 2018 - but if you had mixed feelings about the prior books in the series, Impostor Syndrome is still worth picking up as it is very different.

  This is going to be an incredibly hard review for me to write, because Imposter Syndrome is one of those truly great books that you finish and find yourself flabbergasted at, needing a reread to process what happened (I've reread large parts of the book as well as all of Borderline before writing this review).  But I'm going to do my best.

  For those new to the series, the "Arcadia Project" features a world in which Fae exist in a parallel world and can cross over to the human world via various gates between the worlds.  Fae are interested in the human world because each Fae has an "echo" in a human in our world, and when they come together the Fae's mind becomes more stable and that human becomes incredibly inspired as a result.   A worldwide organization known as the Arcadia Project tries to manage Human/Fae interactions.  For plausible deniability, the project recruits people with mental illnesses - such as Schizophrenia or, in the case of our heroine, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).  Our heroine, Millie Roper is recruited into the organization in book 1, and in the process of the first two books, discovers that things are not quite what they seem, throwing both the Arcadia Project and the Fae world of Arcadia into chaos - forcing the emotionally unstable Millie to try and take charge. 

Note: You will be hopelessly lost if you try reading Imposter Syndrome before its predecessors.  So pick up Borderline (a fine but unspectacular book) and Phantom Pains (which is fantastic as well) before starting this one.  

Spoilers for books 1 and 2 are unavoidable to some extent after the jump.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Exo by Fonda Lee

SF/F Review: Exo by Fonda Lee: https://t.co/hsz0edsbn5 Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 20, 2018

Short Review (cont): In the aftermath of an Alien Invasion and subjugation of Earth, Donovan Reyes, an "Exo" or human infused w/alien technology, finds himself torn between his collaborationist father and his rebel father. Very Good YA with a solid lead, but not spectacular (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 20, 2018

Exo is the second book of Fonda Lee's that I've read (after Jade City), and the second Norton Award nominee (after Want by Cindy Pon) for this year that I've read.  The Norton Award is the SciFi and Fantasy Writers' Association's award for best SFF Young Adult Novel (it's essentially another Nebula Award), and I enjoyed Jade City so I was interested in giving Exo a try when I saw it was available as an audiobook.

Exo is an example of the after-alien-invasion SciFi subgenre (yes there's enough works with such plots for me to consider it a full subgenre).  The story features its 17 year old protagonist, Donovan Reyes, whose body is infused with alien technology, torn between his collaborator father and his rebel mother, and is very well done at showing how that conflict wears upon him.  It's also the first in a series (the sequel comes out later this year) but still functions very well as a stand alone.  It's not perfect for sure, but I can definitely see how it was nominated for the Norton award (even if it wasn't my favorite 2017 published YA work).

Again, I read this as an audiobook, so I apologize if I'm misspelling some terms below.  The audiobook reader is fairly solid, so this is not a bad pickup in that format.

More after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Armored Saint by Myke Cole

SF/F Review: The Armored Saint by Myke Cole: https://t.co/gXbxYuX8XC Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 17, 2018

Short Review (cont): The Armored Saint is a short dark novel featuring an origin story of a young woman Heloise who can't help resisting a fascist military authority that purges people for potentially being wizards...for good reason. A good start to a series, tho short. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 17, 2018

  The Armored Saint is Myke Cole's debut into the fantasy genre, being more known for his MilSFF Shadow Ops series.  It's a short novel - coming in at 200 pages, it straddles the borderline between novella and novel - and is the first in a series (the sequel, clocking in at 256 pages, comes out in October).  I'm treating the book as a novel instead of a novella for this review since the sequel is definitely too big for the novella definition, and the book is definitely more substantial than a novella (although just barely).

  I read the first in one of Cole's two MilSFF trilogies (Gemini Cell) and wasn't particularly enthused by the result - feeling the book felt way too much like a prologue and didn't have enough substance to keep my interest.  In a way, The Armored Saint is similar - the story is very much another origin story in this new genre and readers will be spending most of the book waiting for the event on the cover to come to pass.  But this book still worked a lot better for me than Gemini Cell, and I do look forward to what is coming next.

  Note: As you should be able to tell from the cover, this is a DARK book.  Do not read this if you want something light and fun.

More after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Tricks for Free (InCryptid #7) by Seanan McGuire

SF/F Review: Tricks for Free (InCryptid #7) by Seanan McGuire https://t.co/VWdDuX64O0 Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 15, 2018

Short Review (cont): The 7th InCryptid Bk picks up Antimony Price's story as she goes on the run after the events of last book, with her hiding at an amusement park only to come to the attention to a cabal of magic-users. Solid but missing humor (no mice :( ) of prior books (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 15, 2018

Tricks for Free is the seventh of Seanan McGuire's InCryptid novels, all of which I have reviewed on this blog previously.  More specifically, it's the second book in the series to follow Antimony Price, my favorite heroine in the series, and the direct sequel to last year's "Magic for Nothing," my favorite book in the series.  So I was really looking forward to this one, and actually read it completely through on the night it came out and have reread a bunch since then.

For those who have missed the prior InCryptid works, the series is McGuire's other urban fantasy series (after her more popular October Daye series) and is a lighter more comedic series than October Daye.  In the series, Cryptids - beings unexplainable by modern science (think Gorgons, Sylphs, Chupacabras, and anything similar you can think of) - are real, and live in hiding among us.  The series' protagonists, the Price-Healy family, try to help the Cryptid communities of North America live in peace and without interference from the genocidal monster-hunting Covenant of St. George.  Each book follows a different member of the Price family - in this case youngest child Antimony - as they attempt to help the Cryptid community without giving away their existence to the Covenant, or others who would cause harm.

Tricks for Free is a solid addition to the series, but definitely on the lower end of the series, which is a disappointment because its predecessor was my favorite book in the series.  Due to the circumstances of the book (more on that below), it is the first book in the series to not feature the series' best comic relief (the Aeslin Mice) and it shows.  The story is still solid, and I still love Antimony as the protagonist, but it's probably the worst in the series since the beginning.

*Note: The book comes with a free Novella attached, but said Novella was previously released for subscribers to McGuire's patreon, which I am, so I will not be reviewing it in this post, as it wasn't new to me. 

My Hugo Nomination Ballot for 2018:

The deadline for nominations for the 2018 Hugo Awards - celebrating the best in SciFi/Fantasy works from 2017 - is this Friday, and for the second year in a row, I actually am a WorldCon Supporting Member and eligible to nominate and vote.  It is too late for new voters to join the convention and nominate, but it is not too late to pay the fee and sign up for voting on the awards themselves after the nominations are announced (yeah it costs $50, but the Hugo Packet that is given to all potential voters is well worth that value - more on this when it comes out).

So this post will go into my nominations for this year's Hugo Awards.  I am only nominating in categories that I feel I have read works worthy of consideration and may be gaming some of the nomination spots so as to increase the value of my votes.

My nominations are as follows:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

SF/F Review: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton https://t.co/jKkTtpzPLb Short Review: 5.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 13, 2018

Short Review (cont): This Fantasy Thriller in a world where beauty is everything and the titular Belles have the ability to magically alter appearances and mannerisms throws out too many plots without resolutions to an unsatisfying opener of a new series. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 13, 2018

    The Belles is an example of a classic type of SciFi/Fantasy: where the author takes a real world thing, and makes it the centerpiece of their world.  In the case of The Belles, that "thing" is an obsession with "Beauty," which forms the centerpiece of the novel's fantasy world and plot.  This is a world in which everyone is born gray and ugly, and only certain individuals with magical powers - the titular Belles - can change people's appearances away from their default gray state into something more normal, or even into something particularly special and beautiful.

   In essence, The Belles takes this setup to create a thriller, with our protagonist caught up in conspiracies and lies and trying to find out both the truth behind it all as well as simply to survive the situation she finds herself in.  It's very similar in that way to Genevieve Valentine's "Persona" duology (Which is a thriller in a world where the most important thing is "Celebrity" rather than Beauty), except for one thing: whereas the Persona books were very tightly focused, The Belles is......not.  The end result is a book that basically reads more like a prologue than a completed story, which is disappointing given all of the interesting and different worldbuilding that went into this one.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: After the Flare by Deji Bryce Olukotun

SF/F Review: After the Flare by Deji Bryce Olukotun https://t.co/tQZsDhREqI Short Review: 6.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 12, 2018

Short Review (cont): When a solar flare wipes out technology on most of the earth, it falls to the Nigerian Space Program to save a stranded astronaut. An interesting book with themes about cultural/racial identity, but It didn't really work for me-too short for its themes. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 12, 2018

Deji Bryce Olukotun's "After the Flare" is an interesting novel in that it combines heavy SciFi elements (as well as some kind of fantastical elements) with issues/politics facing modern real-life Nigeria.  The book is set in a world in which a massive solar flare disrupts technology all over the world except for a narrow corridor of land, which happens to coincide with parts of Africa such as Nigeria - resulting in a flood of Nigerian-influenced technological advancement.  As such, when a lone astronaut is stuck on the now failing International Space Station, it is up to Nigeria to build the rocket that will get her home. 

This is a short book (not even 300 pages) but it is incredibly ambitious - in addition to the plot of the Nigerian space program trying to successfully launch the rocket, you have several other major plotlines, and major themes of individual and cultural identity are a big part of this book.  That said, I kind of think the book is too short, everything comes to a head very quickly at the end and I don't really think the book manages to pull it all off.  The book is never boring and worth a read, but never quite reaches its potential.

Note: Technically After the Flare is the second in a series (Trilogy?), after Olukotun's prior work, "Nigerians in Space," but the book is basically stand alone (from my understanding, since I haven't read NiS, it seems like some characters are shared between the books, but that's basically it).  So you can start reading this book without any prior knowledge.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

SF/F Review: The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells https://t.co/V1DuJT1TnL Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 9, 2018

Short Review (cont): Set in Martha Wells' world of Ile-Rien, this stand-alone book features a Master Thief being forced to deal with a powerful sorcerer whose forbidden necromancy possibly threatens the kingdom. A large but excellent cast of characters makes this a winner (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 9, 2018

Martha Wells' Books of the Raksura is one of my favorite series I've discovered over the past few years, and her "All Systems Red" is also on my Hugo Ballot for this year.  It's kind of surprising to me therefore that I haven't tried out reading any of her works in her prior series - the world of Ile-Rien.  As I had run out of audiobooks to try out, I couldn't help but notice her Nebula nominated book in this world, The Death of the Necromancer, was available on Hoopla.  So it was a natural book to try out for listening while I was commuting to work/exercising.

And, as I should have expected, The Death of the Necromancer is pretty damn good.  The story contains a number of excellent characters (the villains are probably the least interesting parts of the story, but the other characters are generally well done), including its two leads: Master Thief Nicholas Valiarde and the actress Madeline, who are excellent guile heroes in their own right.  In short, while it's not one of the best books I've ever read, it is typical Wells - an excellent often unpredictable story filled with a great ensemble cast.

Note:  As noted above, I read this as an audiobook, and the reader is indeed excellent.  So a worthwhile read in that format if you're interested.  

More after the Jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

SF/F Review: Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory https://t.co/iCfMm5tygO Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 7, 2018

Shot Review (cont): Spoonbenders tells the story of a family of psychics-led by a con-man grandpa & a deceased real psychic grandma - as they struggle to build a future after tragedy despite interference from the CIA and the Chicago Mob. Solid with some great moments (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 7, 2018

Spoonbenders is perhaps the most surprising book to be named a Nebula nominee for Best Novel - not because of the book's quality, but because as far as I can tell, it sort of slipped under the radar of the places and people who usually recommend SF/F.  So it was the only Nebula nominee this year that I hadn't read prior to the nominations, which is why I'm just getting to it now.  And well, it's certainly a quality book, with some pretty nice high points.   Is it Best Novel worthy? I wouldn't say so, but it's not the worst of the books nominated by a long shot.

Spoonbenders is a modern "fantasy" book in the sense that it features a world where people with psychic powers exist.  The story bounces around the points of view of the Telemachus family, a family of psychics with various powers, and also bounces around between the "present day" (the story is set in 1995) and the 1960s/70s.  It's a story that's told with bits of humor interspersed throughout, although the book is definitely not a comedy (I mention this because Amazon has it listed under "Humor" and "Satire", which is definitely wrong).

More in depth after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Robots vs Fairies featuring John Scalzi, Ken Liu, Seanan McGuire, Max Gladstone, et al

SF/F Anthology Review: Robots vs Fairies, featuring John Scalzi, Ken Liu, Seanan McGuire, Max Gladstone, and many more (Edited by Navah Wolfe and Dominik Parisien): https://t.co/XluIPONYfy Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 6, 2018

Short Review (cont): An anthology of really well known (for good reason) SciFi/Fantasy authors telling stories involving Fairies/Fae and/or Robots has a few really great stories and very few misses. Well worth the read if you're looking for short fiction (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 6, 2018

I've read a number of anthologies over the past few months, though in general I've only reviewed newer anthologies on this blog.  Anthologies are by definition very hit or miss, which makes recommending them tricky - how do you recommend a book that has a few fantastic stories yet also a few stinkers?

Robots vs Fairies avoids this problem by having an incredibly high ratio of Hits to Misses.  As the title suggests, each story deals with either Robots or Fairies of some sort - with many stories featuring both groups (the final story is about a literal deathmatch between captured members of both groups).  In a cute touch, each story is followed by a little blurb from the story's author about whether they're on "Team Robot" or "Team Fairy."   The authors involved in this project are drawn from some of the most notable names in SFF today - John Scalzi, Max Gladstone, Ken Liu, Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal, etc etc - and the work shows it.

More after the Jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Caine's Mutiny (Caine Riordan Book 4) by Charles Gannon

SF/F Review: Caine's Mutiny (Caine Riordan #4) by Charles Gannon https://t.co/kvKcXzXilm Short Review: 5.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 2, 2018

Short Review (cont): Caine's Mutiny continues the story of Caine Riordan as he's forced to journey to another hostile alien race's planet to extract mysteriously present human soldiers and to prevent a new war. More MilSci than prior books, and far less interesting. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) March 2, 2018

  Caine's Mutiny is the fourth in the Caine Riordan (also known as the Terran Republic series) series by Charles Gannon.  I'd read the first three books - Fire with Fire, Trial by Fire, Raising Caine - about a year and a half ago, early in the period when I began to read SFF books again.  Those first three books came to my attention as they were each Nebula Nominated, and the first in the series, Fire with Fire, is available in ebook format for free.  The series follows Polymath Caine Riordan, an intelligence analyst who gets drafted into handling First Contact between humanity and multiple other alien races, as he attempts to use his intellect in diplomacy, espionage, and military leadership to prevent humanity and the Earth from the dangers posed by possibly friendly and possibly hostile alien races.

At the time I read the books, I enjoyed Books 1 and 3, but didn't love book 2, which was much more MilSci than the other two books (which were more like SF First Contact/Adventure books).  I skimmed through the first three books as I listened to Caine's Mutiny as an audiobook, and well....my opinions have dropped quite a bit of those books now that I have a better field of comparison (Book 2's treatment of its two most primary female characters is just.....ugh). Caine's Mutiny is better than Book 2, but it's well behind Books 1 and 3, alas.

More after the jump (spoilers for Books 1-3 are inevitable sorry):