Friday, October 30, 2020

Fantasy Novella Review: Ring Shout by P Djèlí Clark

 



Ring Shout by P Djèlí Clark:

Ring Shout is the latest novella by author P Djèlí Clark, responsible for Hugo/Nebula nominated novellas each of the past two years (The Haunting of Tram Car 015, The Black God's Drums).  And I loved both those novellas, which both take very different perspectives in their fantasy/steampunk tales, which made them both incredibly fresh and fun to read, while also dealing with some strong themes along the way.  And Ring Shout has been incredibly acclaimed well in advance, so I've been waiting for it for what seems like forever.  

And it definitely delivers, featuring a story of prohibition era America, and Black women - aided by other allies - facing off with the "Cosmic Horrors" of the Ku Klux Klan.  As usual with Clark, it's both very fun and yet at the same time, highly poignant, and is well well worth your time.

Note:  This wasn't the first time this thought came through my head, but watching FIYAHCon this past weekend (I'm writing this the week after) reminded me to point out a note of caution: I am a white (although Jewish) cis man reviewer, and stories like this are not necessarily written for me.  This does not mean I can't enjoy or review these works - I did enjoy this one - but it's very likely I'm missing some things because I don't have the background of the audience this is going for and thus can't quite see the full perspective.  I'll do the best I can, for me, but well I felt like I had to issue this disclaimer.

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Thursday, October 29, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Orders of Battle by Marko Kloos




Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on December 8, 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.

Orders of Battle is the 7th book in Marko Kloos' Frontlines series, a series of Military Science Fiction novels (MilSci) published under Amazon's own 47North publishing imprint.  As I say every so often on this blog, MilSci is not really my thing, so I usually don't seek it out unless the books are doing something unusual with the format.  But I've been hooked on this series by Kloos ever since it came to my attention during the Puppy uproar at the Hugos a few years back.  Nothing about the series is unusual or deep, but it features an enjoyable main character and deals with some serious issues with war and human nature, so I've always looked forward to the next installment. 

Orders of Battle is.....an interesting next installment, reminding me quite a bit of book 2 in the series (Lines of Departure).  Once again we have our main character - this time without his wife - being sent on a deep space mission on a new battlecruiser in the continuing fight against the Lankies.  The book does not contain any old side characters but instead introduces a new side cast for this mission, which as usual works well from beginning to ending - an ending that ends on a cliffhanger (again like Book 2).  On the other hand the book begins with a time skip that is kind of awkward, and the PTSD issue our hero Andrew has dealt with for a few books just seems to have disappeared, which just felt weird.  Overall though, I really will look forward to book 8, which hopefully will come out in 2021 without another break. 


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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots


I get a lot of my book choices from the tweets and promotions by other authors, particularly authors whose work I enjoy a lot.  Usually the authors I pay attention to have very similar recommendations, so if one author promotes a book, I'll soon see others doing the same.  Hench was actually different - promoted by one author (Seanan McGuire, who blurbed it) I enjoy but not seemingly promoted much elsewhere.  McGuire's suggestions have led to some of my favorite books (In Other Lands for example) and some I haven't really loved, but Hench had a plot summary that seemed really interesting - henchwoman gets injured by a hero and decides to do something about it! - so it's been on multiple hold lists at my libraries for a while.

And Hench was totally worth it - taking an interesting spin on a premise that's been done a few times (focusing on villains, arguing that heroes cause more damage than they're worth) and marrying it to a really great protagonist, an excellent side cast, and a really modern world.  Add in excellent dialogue and really strong plotting, leading all the way to a satisfying, if a little depressing, ending?  Yeah, Hench is a winner, and I really hope it does get a follow-up, even if it doesn't actually need one. 


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Tuesday, October 27, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Will Do Magic For Small Change by Andrea Hairston



Will Do Magic For Small Change is a 2016 novel by author Andrea Hairston, which I missed out upon when it was originally published.  I loved Hairston's recent epic fantasy novel Master of Poisons (Reviewed Here), which was an absolute tour de force with fantastic characters, a tremendous setting, and a lot to say in its messages about human beings and our world.  So upon finishing it, I quickly searched for anything else from Hairston I could get my hands on, and managed to obtain this book via inter-library loan.*

*Sadly neither of Hairston's earlier two books are in print or available in ebook.

And it was worth it, because Will Do Magic For Small Change is tremendous.  It's an Afrofuturist novel that features two narratives - one that starts in 19th century Africa (Dahomey) and another in 1980s Pittsburgh - in which a young teenage girl, in the wake of tragedy, tries to search for love and truth through a science fiction or fantasy story involving an alien or magical wanderer and how it affects her as she grows up.  It's a story about love between family, between strangers, between friends, and between those who become more than that, despite a world that is cruel all over and that tries to beat people into becoming things/people they aren't, into forgetting their stories.  And it's oh so good, and so hard to explain, but well, that's my job in these posts, so well, let's give it a try.


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Monday, October 26, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke




Piranesis is the long awaited second novel from British author Susanna Clarke, writer of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (which I have not read).  It's a short fantasy novel, featuring a protagonist mostly alone in a strange labyrinthian world, which suggested that it might be the type of description-based SF/F that I usually don't really love.  But enough praise for it got me interested, and my libraries had a billion copies, so I reserved it just the same.

And Piranesi really wasn't what I feared - while it is description-based, it is very much so only in terms of developing the character of its protagonist, the eponymous "Piranesi".  It's a rather short novel - 245 pages in paperback-size pages despite its hard cover - packing both a mystery about a world and questions about reality and personalities within its short page-length.  At the same time, I didn't really love it as much as some critics seem to have - it seems to be another book that's both too long and too short, spending too long on some aspects and not enough time on others, particularly at the ending and with regards to another character.  This one is going to be hard to explain, so bear with me.

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Friday, October 23, 2020

Fantasy Novella Review: Burning Roses by S.L. Huang





Burning Roses by S.L. Huang


Burning Roses is the most recent novella by author S.L. Huang, author of the Cas Russell series (Zero Sum Game) and the most recent winner of the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.  Given how great all those works are, I'd reserved Burning Roses from the library well before its release, and the hype it was getting from authors I trust only made me more excited to finally get my hands on it. 

And yep, it's as good as I'd hoped.  This is a story combining western fairy tales like Red Riding Hood (one of our protagonists), Goldilocks and the Chinese myth of Hou Yi - except Hou Yi is a trans woman here and both she and Rosa (Red Riding Hood) are older queer women with seemingly tragic pasts.  It's a story about love and recognizing one's own sins and the effort it takes to make atonement and to face up for what one has done.  And it's oh so good.


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Thursday, October 22, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed




Beneath the Rising is an Alternate History/Urban Fantasy/Lovecraftian Horror/Thriller novel by debut author Premee Mohamed.  It's a book that normally would not be on my radar, because as I've said before, Lovecraftian stories really aren't my thing usually.  Still, I've enjoyed a bunch of modern adaptations/subversions/whatever of Lovecraft's work, and Beneath the Rising received a ton of praise from authors I follow on twitter, so it has been on my TBR list for a while.

And well, Beneath the Rising is a really interesting take, with a thrilling story from beginning to end that ends on a pretty emotionally devastating note.  People looking for "horror" are going to be a bit disappointed here - Lovecraftian threats are the antagonists here (and Lovecraft is namechecked once) but they're almost never really scary - but the two main characters are really well done, and it moves at a great pace that made it very easy to finish over 24 hours.  I'll be back for the sequel to see how things go from here, although this is a satisfying story on its own.


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Wednesday, October 21, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Savage Legion by Matt Wallace




Savage Legion is the first in a new epic fantasy series by author Matt Wallace, who was previously known for his Sin du Jour novellas and his role on the Hugo Award winning Ditch Diggers podcast.  This is essentially his full novel debut (the Sin du Jour novels were arguably short novel length by the end, but I don't count them) and it's a biggy - 500 pages in the hardcover.  I enjoyed the first three Sin du Jour novellas before DNFing the fourth because I kind of got bored of the style of comedy involved, but Savage Legion promised to be a very different type of story so I had no idea really what to expect from it.

And I was blown away by Savage Legion, a multi-POV epic fantasy novel where I was hooked from start to finish, with serious themes and some really fantastic characters.  Man, the characters - So often, perhaps because of Game of Thrones, multi-POV epic fantasy novels have at least 1 if not more of those characters be anti-heroes, or assholes, or just not likable.  By Contrast, in Savage Legion, all of these characters are incredibly likable, even as they are so so different, and that makes them so enjoyable to read.  Add in a plot that is fascinating and well, I can't wait to see where this series goes from here. 


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Tuesday, October 20, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Fractured Void by Tim Pratt


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 3, 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 Fractured Void is a new space opera novel by author Tim Pratt, author of "The Axiom" trilogy which began with "The Wrong Stars" (which I reviewed here).  This book is actually a tie-in novel with Twilight Imperium, which is a (board) game that takes place in a space opera setting.  I have no experience with Twilight Imperium, but Pratt's original space opera trilogy featured two novels I really enjoyed and one that I thought was merely fine, melding a fascinating space opera world with good characters and some really great humor.  So I requested this book on Netgalley when I saw it immediately, because I was excited to see what Pratt would write next.

And The Fractured Void was pretty much exactly what I wanted.  Again, it features a very humorous take on space opera, with some really fun characters - both heroes and villains - and a plot that allows them to have a bunch of fun adventures from beginning to end.  It wraps things up in a satisfying fashion, while also providing a cliffhanger for a second book, so you can stop here if you want, but I won't because I enjoyed this a good amount.  As you might expect from a tie-in novel, there's nothing here that's truly mind-blowing or must-read, but if you want a fun space opera that will keep you entertained, this is absolutely a book for you.  
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Monday, October 19, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud




Court of Lions is the second book in a duology by Somaiya Daud that began with last year's YA SciFi novel, "Mirage", which I reviewed here.  Mirage was an....interesting book, that I wanted to like more than I actually did.  As I noted in that review, it featured a sci-fi story dealing with the issue of colonialism, featuring a heroine from a conquered people and a primary antagonist (in the first book at least) of a woman whose heritage is half and half - her father the king of the conquering Vath and her deceased mother the former Queen of the conquered Andalaan people.  And the book seemed to know it could use this setting to say some interesting things....but the book never really got around to it, ending very abruptly right as things were coming to a head, and seemingly pulling a reversal as to a bunch of the character development.  So I was hoping the sequel, which is the conclusion to the story, would manage to do just that.

Unfortunately, not so much.  The book resolves essentially the cliffhanger from the first book in record time, basically removes nearly every aspect of conflict, and really doesn't deal with the themes at all, except to foreground the plot.  It's a novel that's again rather short, and feels like it's missing connective tissue to explain how things changed from books 1 to 2, which just again makes it all frustrating.  The best part of this novel is a new point of view character and romance on the side, but even that can't really make up for the squandered potential.  There's nothing really bad about Court of Lions (or Mirage), but it just punts on dealing with all of the interesting ideas in its setting, making it not particularly special or interesting overall.


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Friday, October 16, 2020

SciFi Novella Review: The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard




The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard:

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls is a novella set in Aliette de Bodard's Xuya Universe, featuring a scifi world based upon Viet (and sometimes Chinese) cultures, featuring Viet family/ruling structures as well as the existence of things like mindships (ships with AI minds born within a human womb) and memory implants (memories/personalities of ancestors that can be implanted in their descendants).  This story is actually a distant sequel to another novella of hers, "On a Red Station, Drifting" (which I Reviewed Here) although other than the cameo appearance of a major character from that novella, it's entirely separate.  I'm a huge fan of de Bodard and enjoyed "On a Red Station, Drifting" (among other Xuya novellas and short fiction that I've enjoyed) so I was looking forward to this one for a while (and got it on sale in August or September)

And The Citadel of Weeping Pearls is another really interesting novella from de Bodard, taking a classic Vietnamese tale and moving it to this SF setting to tell a tale about family and dealing with the past and future.  It's a lot more fragmented of a story than Red Station, with four viewpoints instead of two and kind of two major plots that don't really connect, but it still works and is very worth your time.

More specifics after the jump:

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Thursday, October 15, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Harrow the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir




Harrow the Ninth is the sequel to last year's critically and publicly acclaimed SF/F novel, Gideon the Ninth (Which I reviewed here), which wound up being nominated for nearly every major award.  I liked Gideon the Ninth a lot with its fun sarcastic heroine and its setting of scifi necromancers and swordsmen really working for me.  At the same time, while the plot was excellent and it ended on a satisfying if somewhat devastating note, the book only sketched an outline of the greater setting, which made it hard to care about some parts of what was going on.  So I was excited for the sequel, but was also hoping for an expansion of the setting to better showcase the stakes of it all, to truly raise this trilogy into greatness.

And well, Harrow the Ninth kind of does the opposite, which made it really not work for me.  It's a very different story, with a different heroine (guess who!) at its core, and attempts through a very different narrative to expand the universe, all the while dealing with even more mysteries than in the first novel.  But the book again fails to explain really much of anything about the setting, which only becomes increasingly more relevant, making the final reveals at the end fall flat in terms of emotional impact.  There's a lot of interesting stuff here, and while the book loses the irreverent tone of its predecessor, it still reads very well, but the end results is more frustrating than satisfying...and not in a good way.

Note:  Spoilers for Gideon the Ninth are a bit inevitable, though I'll try to talk around them.


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Wednesday, October 14, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review - The Sentient by Nadia Afifi




The Sentient is a cyberpunk* thriller and debut novel by author Nadia Afifi.  This is actually a rare novel for me - it's a novel I've picked up and read (from the library) on a whim - without having been prompted by hearing good things from other authors or sources on social media, or from seeing buzz from big press campaigns, etc.  I saw this book on the list of new additions to my elibrary, thought the description and cover looked interesting, and decided to give it a try.   

*The book isn't described on Amazon as Cyberpunk, but it's a future where people wear computers in their eyes, which can give them access to various places with the right permissions, and the main character specializes in using technology to examine people's minds, which is enough for me.*  

 The result is....fine, nothing particularly special, but a perfectly satisfying cyberpunk-ish scifi thriller with a solid stand-alone storyarc that may or may not be used to launch a sequel.  The main character is fine but unexceptional and the mysteries that the plot brings up fairly quickly are intriguing enough to draw my attention and keep me going, but the answers to them are never really interesting enough to be more than mildly satisfying.  It's a story dealing with questions/issues of consciousness, cloning, religion vs science, and mind reading, and if those concepts are interesting to you, this might be worth a read for you. 


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Tuesday, October 13, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston





Master of Poisons is the newest fantasy novel by author Andrea Hairston, whose work I have previously missed out upon.  The novel is a stand alone epic fantasy novel based upon African folktales (with further inspiration drawn from Indigenous American cultures as per the acknowledgements) and has gotten a lot of praise from sources I follow (Martha Wells gave this a blurb, for instance).  So when I put this book on hold both at my physical library and at the elibrary, I had high hopes.

And Master of Poisons honestly met those hopes and then some, becoming one of my favorite reads of the year.  It's a novel featuring a world bereft by (fantastical) climate change, and a governing body/Empire that is too short-sighted to take any of the steps necessary to address it, often denying the problem in the first place.  In this world comes two very different protagonists: an older leader desperate to convince his colleagues of the danger and who is forced to search for a legendary spell and a young girl (who grows into a young woman over the course of the book) sold by her family and who finds herself among griots and disciples of a kind of magic.  Oh and we have griots, magic based upon spirits and the spirit world, animals with personalities, and dangerous pirates to boot.  It all comes together in a really great way in the end, and yeah this is a keeper for sure.


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Monday, October 12, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger






Elatsoe is the debut novel by Darcie Little Badger, whose work previously has been limited to comics.  Darcie Little Badger is a member of the Lipan Apache people, and her work has been known for including other Lipan Apache people as characters within, and Elatsoe is no exception.  I don't really read comics, so Elatsoe was my first experience with Little Badger's work, but it was one I was very excited for based upon the reviews of others.  

And yes, Elatsoe justified my excitement - it's a YA fantasy novel featuring an alternate urban fantasy version of our modern US, where magical creatures and magic are not uncommon, but the history of the world, and its persecution of the indigenous and its failure to care for the world in general is still the same (if altered in the methods).  In this world comes a high school age Lipan Apache girl, Elatsoe, whose family passes down the secret power to bring back dead creatures as ghosts (and who has a ghost of her dog as her pet), and who finds herself on a hunt for justice against the rich white man who murdered her cousin.  It's a really well done story, with strong themes of how the powerful have made their lives and wealth on the backs of others, strong characters, and families and friends who are utterly supportive and loving of each other, making them incredibly fun to read.  Highly recommended.

Note: I read this as an audiobook, and the audiobook reader is very good, so that format is recommended.  The print version is advertised as having illustrations though, so you may be missing out to read the book in this format, I can't obviously tell.  

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Friday, October 9, 2020

Fantasy Novella Review: Drowned Country by Emily Tesh




Drowned Country by Emily Tesh

Drowned Country is the second half of the Greenhollow Duology by Emily Tesh, which began with last year's "Silver in the Wood" (which I reviewed here at the blog).  Silver on the Wood was a very enjoyable novella - another fantasy take on the classic "Green Man" myth, except that it featured the Green Man himself - a man named Tobias Finch - as the protagonist and that at the story's center was an M-M romance between Tobias and a man who wasn't quite as ignorant as he seemed (Silver).  The story subverted expectations in multiple ways, and while it wasn't one of my favorite novellas of last year, it certainly was enjoyable and I was interested to see where the sequel took the three named characters.

Drowned Country switches the point of view to Silver and takes place two years later, after a falling out between him and Tobias....when a new supernatural mystery requires him to rejoin Tobias and his mother on another adventure.  It's both kind of a success and a failure honestly.  It's a success at continuing the story between Tobias and Silver and giving them a clear unconditionally happy ending, and I really enjoyed that.  It's a failure in that  it introduces an incredibly likeable and interesting new character who I'd have loved to see more of...and then proceeds to use her mainly as a prop for Tobias and Silver.  More specifics after the jump:

Note: Spoilers for Silver in the Wood are inevitable, so be warned.

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Thursday, October 8, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

Star Daughter is the debut novel for author Shveta Thakrar and is a Young Adult novel based upon Indian/Hindu myth.  It's a novel that hasn't quite been as hyped in the mainstream press as some other YA books I've seen this year, but in the SF/F circles on social media that I follow, It's been incredibly well regarded, putting it on my list of books to look for.  Except none of my libraries had a copy, so I had to wait for it to come via inter-library loan to get a chance to read it.  

And Star Daughter is tremendous and worthy of all the acclaim and more.  It's a story of a 16/17 year old girl torn between her two worlds, dealing with struggles both as a teenager dealing with other teens and as a child among adults all of whom have very different expectations for her.  Of course, by "between two worlds", I mean that the protagonist is literally half-star and part of both our real world and a fantasy world that is incredibly well done.  All that together with a plot that takes some tremendous turns near the end and well, this might be my favorite Young Adult novel of the year.

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Wednesday, October 7, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Recognize Fascism edited by Crystal M Huff





Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on October 13, 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.

"Recognize Fascism" is a short fiction anthology edited by Crystal M Huff, featuring 22 short stories by 22 different SciFi/Fantasy authors, including Nebula Award winning writer Sam J Miller (The Art of Starving).  It's a collection of stories that focus on exactly what you'd think from the title: showcasing different forms of fascism through scifi and fantasy stories, some that feel very realistic, and some a bit more outlandish or symbolic, and of people gaining the nerve to fight back.

It's not a long anthology, as each of the 22 stories are only a few pages long - there are no stories here that come close really to "novelette" length, as I've seen in many previously read anthologies for example.  And as usual, the stories can be hit or miss - although reading it all in one sitting can be rough given the rough subject matter.  Still, the trigger warnings at the top of each story should help readers mitigate that, and there's enough really strong stuff here to make this worth your attention, even if the length of the stories prevents most from really making as much impact as I'd have liked.


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Tuesday, October 6, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on October 13, 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 Once and Future Witches is the second full length novel by Alix E Harrow, a SF/F writer who has kind of stormed onto the scene the last few years.  Harrow won a Hugo for a short story two years ago, and this past year was nominated twice, including for best novel for her novel The Thousand Doors of January.  I enjoyed The Thousand Doors of January quite a lot (My review is here) although I've found less enjoyment in Harrow's award nominated short fiction work, which I've kind of felt relied upon a stilted narrative that I couldn't quite get into.

And well, The Once and Future Witches reminds me more Harrow's short fiction than The Thousand Doors, to its detriment.  It's a feminist novel about a trio of sisters leading women to take power for themselves in an alternate late 19th century Massachusetts and the characters are in general likable and enjoyable.  But the narrative again feels kind of stilted and hard to flow for me, several characters do not have consistent character arcs, and the book's attempt to deal with the racial issues of the women's suffrage movement fall very flat.  The ending is fine and fitting, but the end result is a novel that just feels like it had so much potential to say something and provide a wonderful story with a strong message, but instead just doesn't.


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Monday, October 5, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey


Caliban's War is the second novel in James S.A. Corey's Space Opera series, The Expanse, which most people know from the hit TV show.  I myself have watched the first season and a half of the TV series, which covered the first novel (while introducing elements from this novel alongside it).  The result of that was that while I enjoyed the first novel, Leviathan Wakes, I wasn't blown away by it because I knew pretty much everything that was coming: it was all executed well, but the adaptation was so close it didn't add much to read it in novel form.  This book however, I was mostly coming in cold, so I was curious to see if I'd like it more as a result.

And the answer is absolutely yes - Caliban's War is a really great second novel in the series that made me immediately reserve the third book in the series from my library.  The story continues from where the last novel left off, but expands the number of viewpoint characters to 4 (one of the four being a major character in the show as well) and deals with a new adventure that still grows the characters in interesting ways.  Nothing about the series so far is mindblowing to the point of making it must-read, but it's just so damn well executed that I found myself really enjoying, tearing through the final 300-400 pages in a single day.


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Thursday, October 1, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Annihilation Aria by Michael R Underwood


Annihilation Aria is the first in a new space opera series by Michael R Underwood.  I'd skipped the book when it first came out, as the title and cover screamed "generic space opera" to me.  But enough promotion by authors I like on twitter, as well as the description of it as a Space Opera featuring a found family put the book back on my radar, and when it showed up as a Hoopla Audiobook, I gave it a shot.

And Annihilation Aria is a really solid and enjoyable space opera novel, with a setup that very much feels like a mashup of multiple other media - Farscape, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, etc - but that comes together to form its own very enjoyable story.  The three main characters and the main point of view antagonist are very well done, and the story takes a few twists and turns that, while never shocking, are always pulled off well.  It's not really a standout novel in any way, but it's well executed and fun while tackling some serious themes to a minor extent, so worth your time if you're looking for enjoyable space opera.

Note:  I read Annihilation Aria as an Audiobook all the way through.  The audiobook has two different readers - a male reader for the two male points of view and a female reader for the female points of view, and they're both okay.  In an unfortunate choice however, both readers read out the dialogue of several alien races with those specific alien races sharing common verbal tics (not accents, but like one alien race ends every sentence with "hmmm" and another with a sniffle like it has a cold).  These verbal tics ARE NOT in the text, which honestly makes their annoyingness worse, and so I'd recommend you AVOID the audiobook.

Note2:  Also, as I read this in audiobook form, I apologize for any misspellings of characters/places below.


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