Thursday, December 26, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black




The Queen of Nothing is the conclusion of Holly Black's YA Fae Fantasy trilogy, The Folk of the Air, which began in 2018's The Cruel Prince (which I reviewed HERE) and was continued in January's The Wicked King (Reviewed Here).  I'm a large fan of Fae Fantasy works, and this trilogy has definitely been up there with the best of them, featuring a mortal teenage girl brought into Faerie in her childhood, seeking to establish a place for herself in this land - and scheming and plotting throughout, facing the most deadly of forces, to try and pull it off.....in spite of her own feelings and the opposition of some of those to whom she was once close.  It's a dark YA tale for sure, and the twists and turns throughout the first two novels were tremendous, to go along with their tremendous lead character.

I have mixed feelings about The Queen of Nothing, because while on one hand it's a really great conclusion for the trilogy's characters, it (especially in its second half) feels like it loses some of the fun scheming and plotting that filled large parts of the first two books.  Instead, the trilogy concludes with what is essentially a dark fairy tale, as everything comes to roost, and it's made even more notable by the fact that this book is the shortest of the trilogy.  That said, this book is pretty good at being a dark fairy tale, with an ending that is really great and I loved for the characters involved.  So if you enjoyed the first two novels, you'll really enjoy this one, although be ready for a little switch of how things go down.

Note: Spoilers for the first two books are impossible to avoid in the below review, so you have been warned:

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Wednesday, December 25, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer




Dead Astronauts is the latest novel from SF/F author Jeff VanderMeer, most well known for Annhilation (and the rest of the Southern Reach trilogy).  VanderMeer is known for writing "Weird SciFi", a genre that is hard to explain except as what it sounds like - the stories deal with settings and beings that are truly weird and out there, looking seemingly nothing like our real world.  VanderMeer often also includes ecological/environmental ideas in his books - the ideas of how humans are affecting the planet are pretty self-evident in even his most surreal fiction.

And while anyone who's read any of him should be expecting more of all of the above, Dead Astronauts takes all of the above to a new level.  Ostensibly set in the same world as his last novel, Borne, Dead Astronauts doesn't really have an overlying plot, a hero, or even a protagonist, as the book features a number of beings - most of which non-human - in various states of disarray as the destruction of their world, through the evil actions of greedy selfish humans of the entity known as the Company, changes everything about them.  The book feints like it will have a plot centered around the eponymous "astronauts" and then...doesn't.  It's easily the most confusing novel I've ever read, filled with thoughts and screeds, page long repetitions, and multiple viewpoint characters in states of insanity.  Some may call this brilliant....and others may call it a crazy pile of babble, and I can't really disagree with either assessment.

Note: While I mention above that this book shares a world with Borne (as well as Borne's spinoff novella, A Strange Bird), this book is entirely stand-alone, and events in Borne basically never come up, although certain parts of the narrative may very much be alluding to the events in Borne.

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Monday, December 23, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender



Queen of the Conquered is the debut novel by author Kacen Callender, and it's a hell of a debut.  I'd heard glowing things about this book months before it came out, so I'd been ready to reserve it the moment it popped up in my library, but man....if anything they understated how good it is.  Which is not to say that this is a light or "fun" book in any way - this is a tough book to read, but powerful and tremendously effective.

For Queen of the Conquered is a fantasy inspired by a number of real historical places and events - the place being the US Virgin Islands and the events being the slavery and oppression of the Islanders by foreigners, a few of which were POC themselves.  Our protagonist is essentially one such person, a black woman whose family was part of the ruling class despite its island heritage, and who tries to convince herself that she is a heroine in her quest for vengeance despite letting her privilege keep her from truly acting to try and help those who were suffering.  It's the rare story where you will not find yourself rooting for the protagonist, and yet it works and remains compelling from beginning to end.

Note:  As noted above, this is a book by a Person of Color inspired by real life slavery and oppression in a real part of the world, and dealing with related themes.  I'm not a POC - I'm Jewish so not always considered "White" by many racists in various contexts, but in the context of evaluating this book, I can only use my own knowledge and experiences which are obviously very different.  So while I've seen at least one POC on social media complain about this book's representation, and I've seen a few POC reviewers give glowing reviews to this same book, I can't really make any claim either way.  Just a disclaimer I think is necessary.

Trigger Warning: Rape and Torture - Slavery is a major part of this book, and slaves are beaten and treated horribly...and sometimes forced to have sex with masters, even if the forcing is through compelling power and not through physical force.  It's a justified part of this book, but it's not an easy read as a result, so be warned.

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Sunday, December 22, 2019

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Spoiler Filled Review




And so, for now, the main Star Wars saga (the Skywalker Saga, if you will) has come to an end.  I've spent the past three weeks rewatching every film in the saga - and threw in Rogue One as well, just for completeness - in preparation for this film.  And as a huge fan of the old Star Wars EU canon - which these movies have replaced - well...it's hard to think of a film I should have been looking forward to more in my life.  And yet, it's also a film that I've dreaded for a bit, after JJ Abrams was announced to be taking over Episode 9 and inklings started to creep out that the movie would be reversing course on what Rian Johnson did with The Last Jedi.

For The Last Jedi was a fascinating Star Wars movie that tried to do some of the more interesting things ever done with the series, and ended in a way which suggested that the Good Guys would have to regroup after some years, with a new batch of supporting heroes, but that hope was still alive against a bad guy in Kylo Ren who felt more like a modern bad guy than anyone in prior Star Wars history (the MRA-like atmosphere Ren has posed for Eps 7-8 just has always felt appropriate).  JJ Abrams - whose work in other peoples' sandboxes (See Star Trek as well) has always relied upon focusing heavily on what came before instead of creating something new - is not a director I'd expect to carry forward what Johnson started.  And......he definitely did not. 

Note: this post will include spoilers.  So if you haven't seen the movie and want to remain unspoiled, stop reading NOW.  This is your only warning:


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Thursday, December 19, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner




Unnatural Magic is the debut novel from author C.M. Waggoner.  It's a fantasy novel featuring some familiar elements - a mage school that discriminates based upon class, tension between humans and non-humans and the halfbloods caught in between, but spins these more common tropes in some different ways.  It's also got some aspects of mystery and romance in there as well - with the resultant tone overall being solid and light despite the dark undertones of some of the issues and topics at the heart of this novel (such as, you know, murders).

Some of these aspects work better than others, but overall Unnatural Magic is a pretty solid and enjoyable novel.  Unfortunately, the book tries to carry on two separate plotlines at once and one (the romance one) is far better than the other, with the plotlines joining only in the very last act - to finish off a mystery that is very very obvious.  It's a book that probably could've used 50 more pages devoted to the second plotline to make it not feel abandoned and lesser at times, but the end result is still solid and enjoyable, and worth your time.


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Wednesday, December 18, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater




Call Down the Hawk is the first novel in Maggi Stiefvater's new trilogy, the Dreamer Trilogy, which is essentially a sequel to her YA Raven Cycle.  I really loved The Raven Cycle, which over four books that only got better and better with each installment told a story of love and dreams.....oh and also Magic, Quests for Welsh Kings, Demons, Psychics, and more.  Most importantly, it was a story of great characters, from our main quartet to the minor characters, who you just couldn't help loving over the course of the story as things played out.  Call Down the Hawk begins a new story centered around one member of that quartet, Ronan Lynch, who possesses the magical power to bring things out of his dreams.

I should point out that I'm not sure how Call Down the Hawk would play for someone who hadn't read The Raven Cycle first, but as someone who has, it doesn't disappoint.  Both our returning characters (Ronan and his family, Adam in small cameos) remain great, and the new characters and concepts are excellent, bringing forth a plot that remains compelling from beginning to end.  That said, the one key difference between this book and the prior ones is that those books were always at least partially stand-alone, whereas the ending of this novel will in no way be satisfying to a reader.  But it certainly has me excited for more to come.

Note: Some minor spoilers for The Raven Cycle follow - not really any that would affect your enjoyment of that series, but still.  

 Note2:  I read this as an audiobook, so some of the names and concepts may be misspelled below.  But the audiobook reader remains the same as in the Cycle and he is still excellent, so I recommend this book in that format.  
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Tuesday, December 17, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire



Full Disclosure:  This work was read as an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) via my winning of a random giveaway thrown by the book's publisher in advance of the Book's scheduled February 25, 2020 release date.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply not review the book.

 Imaginary Numbers is the Ninth book in Seanan McGuire's urban fantasy series, InCryptid, and the beginning of a fourth arc* in the series.  InCryptid is one of my favorite ongoing series out there, with the right mix of humor, drama, and great characters to go with a very fun urban fantasy setting, featuring a family (the Price family) trying to preserve the lives of Cryptids (creatures and beings who should not exist) in North America and beyond.  When I found on my doorstep a surprise ARC of this novel, I couldn't resist starting and finishing it within 24 hours....despite having a glut of other library books to read including one book I was already 60% of the way through!

*Counting arcs solely by the novels.  There are several other story arcs which have been told over the course of McGuire's shorter fiction in this series, which are all great, but I'm not counting for this number.  

 Impossible Numbers does not disappoint, being easily the most family focused novel of the series but switching the main focus to one of our non-human protagonists, Sarah Zellaby, last seen in books 1-3.  It doesn't quite have as much humor as some of the other books, but it has a little bit, features probably the largest number of returning characters of any new-arc book in major roles, and more importantly all of the characters are strong and the plot takes some teased previous developments and expands them greatly.  It is most definitely NOT a book to start this series with, although you could try, but it's a pretty great addition...with a killer cliffhanger.

Note: This book also includes a bonus novella which essentially serves as an extra epilogue to the last arc in the series (Antimony's arc over books 6-8), which I enjoyed but will do nothing for those not invested in the series.  That's all I'll be saying about that in this review.

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Monday, December 16, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Star Wars: Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse




Star Wars Resistance Reborn is a novel in the "Journey to The Rise of Skywalker" project - a series of tie-in novels and other media meant to take advantage of and add content to the upcoming release of Star Wars Episode 9, The Rise of Skywalker.   A similar series was released prior to The Last Jedi, and featured two books that I enjoyed quite a bit (Leia, Princess of Alderaan and The Legends of Luke Skywalker), so I was excited to see what this year's tie-in would look like: even more so, when it was announced this novel would be by Hugo award winning author Rebecca Roanhorse (Trail of Lightning).

And Resistance Reborn has some really nice moments here and there between the characters....to go along with a Star Wars story that has some fun moments but seems mostly pointless in the grand scheme of things.  It's not a bad novel, but it feels entirely empty, not standing on its own or adding much to The Last Jedi (which it immediately comes after) or likely The Rise of Skwyalker.  So unless you really need more Star Wars content to go in with the upcoming movie, this novel is definitely skippable.


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Thursday, December 12, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez



Full Disclosure:  This work was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on January 14, 2020 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

 The Vanished Birds is the debut novel from short fiction author Simon Jimenez.  It was not a book on my radar at first (although one of my favorite authors blurbed it, so it might've been later), but after a review of another book by the same publisher, that publisher (Del-Rey) offered it to me for a preview if I wanted it on Netgalley, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I'm really glad I did, because The Vanished Birds is a fascinating Sci-Fi novel about the trade-offs and sacrifices made and chosen when one pursues one's professional - and sometimes non-professional, dreams, especially the sacrifices of one's family, loved ones and personal connections.  It's a story of selfishness and searches for redemption, and of characters who are very three dimensional and conflicted from beginning to end.  I use the word "interesting" or "fascinating" quite a bit on this blog, but The Vanished Birds truly deserves these labels, and if it doesn't succeed at hitting every theme/idea it touches, it does a pretty good job exploring most of them and is a book I should really reread a second time to get the most out of it.


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Wednesday, December 11, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri




Realm of Ash is the second in Tasha Suri's fantasy series, The Books of Ambha, after last year's Empire of Sand (Reviewed Here).  I liked Empire of Sand a lot, from its strong lead character to its interesting central themes dealing with a mixed race protagonist in an Empire and the abuses of colonization and the taking advantage of the heritage/lands/accomplishments of a conquered people.  The story ended on a moment of personal triumph and love for our heroine, but one that also portended a major shift in the status quo, with potentially dire implications for those throughout the Empire in question.  And so I was really interested in seeing how the sequel would follow up with this situation, especially as that sequel is focused upon the sister of the first book's protagonist.

The result is yet another strong novel, tackling similar themes to the prior novel from a different angle: whereas the first book dealt with a mixed race protagonist who knew the truth about much of her heritage, our protagonist this time was raised entirely by her parents as if she was solely a member of the majority people, and her perspective is thus very different, especially as the truth of her heritage becomes apparent.  Whereas the first book dealt with the destruction of a system of oppression, this book deals with the aftermath, and the questions of whether what remains and what was is really worth salvaging or restoring.  It's a slow novel, at least at first, but it works rather well, and forms an excellent counterpart to the first novel.

Note:  Realm of Ash can be read as a stand-alone, taking place years after Empire of Sand and revealing what is necessary about that novel over the course of the story.  That said, I think certain reveals for the characters - if not the readers - work better if you have the foreknowledge of the prior book, so I recommend reading Empire of Sand first.


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Tuesday, December 10, 2019

SciFi Novella Review: Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather




Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

Sisters of the Vast Black is a short SciFi Novella from author Lina Rather featuring a religious convent in space (and not sisters in the familial sense).  It's a story about faith, about sin, and about purpose - in a universe which has just recovered from a major civil war.  It's really a story about a group of people whose goals are mainly to help others in whatever little ways they can, while trying to handle the other issues in their lives as well.  And as such, it does work nicely, even if it seems kind of too short to be especially profound.


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Monday, December 9, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi




War Girls is a "Young Adult" science fiction novel by author Tochi Onyebuchi.  I use those quotes around "Young Adult" for a reason.....because the book is advertised as YA and the author seems to describe it as such, but I'm not really sure it fits the genre.  And it's not just my not understanding Onyebuchi's approach to YA:  his first novel, Beasts Made of Night (Review Here), was quite clearly a member of the genre.  To make it more confusing, the book has a tagline on Amazon that describes the setting as "Black Panther-inspired Nigeria" and that tagline is most definitely a false representation of what this book is.  For what War Girls is is a science fiction re-imagining of a 1967-1970s Nigerian Civil War and the story of two young women forced as children into the conflict and the atrocities that occurred and of which they took part.

The above is not meant to be a judging of the quality of War Girls - by contrast, this book is a tremendously powerful story that may be difficult to read, but if you manage to do so, you will find it a heartbreaking tale of experiences and activities that Western audiences don't like to think about.  It's a story with tremendous characters amidst a plot that feels very real - despite the fact it deals with a world badly affected by climate change, radioactivity, and giant mecha.  It all results in a hell of a finish, and apparently this may only be the first in a series by Onyebuchi, and if that's so, I'll be there quickly for the sequel, although I'll have to brace myself before reading.

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Thursday, December 5, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham




An Autumn War is the third book in Daniel Abraham's "The Long Price Quartet," following 14 years after A Betrayal in Winter (Reviewed Here) and nearly 30 years after A Shadow in Summer (Reviewed Here).  Through the first two books, the series has been a fascinating character-focused tale of a few characters struggling with right and wrong and survival in an East Asian-inspired world filled with magical beings of mass destruction, an ruling class that relies upon murderous succession battles, and conspiracies driven by a jealous overseas military power.  Now with book 3, the series' title starts to make clear sense, as all that was brimming beneath the surface of the prior two books comes to a fore.

And wow, is the result impressive....and devastatingly impactful.  The story takes our main duo - Maati and Otah - in new natural directions, introduces a totally different but again fascinating antagonist, and adds in two returning characters who have changed quite a bit from when we last saw them.  And the result is a plot that sometimes borders on the veins of grimdark, where every character is forced to make decisions with potentially awful costs, all the way until an absolutely explosive finish.

Note: As usual for this series, I began it in Audiobook form, and the reader is again excellent.  Recommended in this format if you have access to it - such as by a Hoopla Library.

SPOILER ALERT: The rest of this review contains spoilers fr A Betrayal in Winter, which can't be avoided in trying to discuss this book further.  Be Warned.
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Wednesday, December 4, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wicked Fox by Kat Cho




Wicked Fox is a K-Drama* inspired young adult fantasy by author Kat Cho.  Take one part romance soap opera, another part young adult story about growing up with rough parents and a lot of internal blame and guilt, and another part Korean-Myth inspired fantasy, and you have this novel.  Unsurprisingly - given its inspirations - its a book that follows quite a few classic tropes, which I (and I presume other readers) will recognize quite well as they come up along the way.

*Despite several authors I enjoy tweeting about them, I've never actually watched a K-Drama (Korean Drama ), so that's the extent of my writing about them in this review.  

 Of course, tropes aren't a bad thing and Wicked Fox weaves these tropes in so well that I rarely groaned whenever a new one would come up to cause a swerve in the plot.  Cho weaves these tropes around a pair of excellent main characters - a high school boy and a teenage girl who's actually half-gumiho (the Korean myth version of a nine tailed fox) - and their development and romance through it all makes the book really enthralling from beginning to end.


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Tuesday, December 3, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K Eason




I usually start these book reviews with two paragraphs: first, a paragraph about what type of book a book is and why I was interested in it and then a second paragraph summarizing my thoughts, before I go into a bigger review.  With this book, "How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse", this template is particularly important, as the book's title suggests the story being a completely and utterly different book entirely than what it actually is.  You might think that this is a story involving parallel universes, with a main character getting involved in havoc throughout those multiple universes.  You would be completely wrong, so if that's what you're looking for, you will find yourself disappointed.

What this novel is instead is a take on an often subversive take on the classic fairy tale princess type of story, with a mix of fantasy and science fiction elements.  Moreover, the story is told in a princess-bride like manner, as if told from the perspective of a third party narrator (an unnamed Historian).  The result is a really fun tale with some fun characters with a great mix of humor and drama.  So yeah, if you're looking not for a tale of parallel universes, but instead of a fairy tale set in space, with a sardonic princess who uses her wits to save the day from a tyrannical regent - this is definitely a book you'll enjoy.

Note: I read this as an audiobook, and the audiobook reader is pretty good, so I do recommend the book in that format.  That said, as a result there's a good shot I will misspell some names in the below review, and that's why.


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Monday, December 2, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch




The Gone World is a science fiction mystery thriller which has a tag line on Amazon as "True Detective" meets "Inception."  My experience in reading books with such taglines - X meets Y! - is that these taglines are quite often badly misleading and sensational, but The Gone World actually kind of fits the tagline to some degree - this is a mystery involving sci-fi concepts (time travel and alternate realities essentially) to create circuitous concepts in the vein of Inception at the least (I've never seen True Detective).

Whether the end result is actually good on the other hand is.....a harder question to answer.  The Gone World features a solid main character but little else in the way of interesting characters (due to its very concept changing them frequently), and a SciFi premise that by its nature gets confusing until it lands on a payoff that works, but isn't very exciting.  The result is a thriller that isn't too long, involves some interesting SciFi concepts, but left me at the end with a feeling that was basically just described as "huh" more than anything else.


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