Thursday, December 31, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Thorn by Intisar Khanani

 



Thorn was an originally self published YA Fantasy novel by Intisar Khanani, which was picked up by a major publisher and rereleased this year.  I've actually read one of Khanani's earlier fantasy self-published series (Sunbolt/Memories of Ash), which were both very enjoyable if highly and sometimes distractingly derivative of other works (My review of both stories are here and here).  So it's no surprise that Thorn is openly derivative - the story is in large part an adaptation of The Brothers Grimm's fairy tale "The Goose Girl" into a more fantasy-esque world, to go along with other additions to make this a full novel.  

And well, Thorn manages to portray a strong voiced main character and deals with some strong themes about class and justice in a monarchal fantasy world, which made often made it compelling and hard to put down.  These themes are grafted on as additions to the fantasy version of The Goose Girl story (featuring vengeful Sorceress) and the additions work incredibly well.  At the same time however, the book tries to stick to the story of The Goose Girl as its skeleton, and always comes back to that story even when it's significantly less interesting than the additions.  The result works overall as a novel, but couldn't help make me long for a version of this book less tied to the original Brothers Grimm story.  

TRIGGER WARNING:  Rape (never on page, but the after effects are seen) and Physical Abuse, rarely on page, form major parts of the plot.  They're handled well and are never superfluous, but be forewarned.  

Note:  I read this in audiobook form, and as such if I misspell any names or concepts, that's the reason why.  

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Wednesday, December 30, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hollow Empire by Sam Hawke:

 



Hollow Empire is the sequel to last year's "City of Lies," a both fascinating and frustrating fantasy novel from Astonishing Award nominee Sam Hawke.  The book featured a brother and sister - Jovan and Kalina - in the intriguing the State of Sjona and its capital city of Silasta, a city of ideals, where people can seemingly do what they want and love who they want...but secretly was built on a system of oppression.  Jovan and Kalina were both heavily privileged - their family is both publicly high in status and secretly in charge with proofing the Chancellor of Sjona's food for poison - and as such a large portion of the book was them figuring out how much they really didn't know about the lives of many who lived in their City-State, and how to deal with the rebellion of those oppressed peoples who...may have actually been in the right.  Add in Court Intrigue, a Mystery Traitor or Two, and the hinting of real dangerous magic in this low fantasy setting, and you had a very well done and enjoyable first book, even if it did have a few problems that prevented it from being one of my favorites from last year.

Hollow Empire follows up on the story two years later, once again with the story split between Jovan and Kalina's points of view, and dealing now with the cleanup from the class conflict and rebellion from the first book, while the city's unknown enemy remains out there.  This poses some interesting thematic questions about handling the aftermath and repairing the damage of oppression, but overall the result is a book that is a bit less interesting in themes than its predecessor.  On the other hand, our two main characters have grown tremendously since the first book for the most part, and that's such a really enjoyable thing to see.  Add in some more court/political intrigue, magic, foreign powers, and potential romance, and Hollow Empire may not live up to its predecessor, but it's still a very solid book.  

More after the jump, but warning: Spoilers for City of Lies are inevitable.

Note: I read this mostly as an audiobook, and the two readers are again excellent...but they are NOT the same readers as the ones for City of Lies, which is a bit disorienting.  

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Tuesday, December 29, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Doors of Sleep 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 January 12, 2021 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. 


Doors of Sleep is the latest book by author Tim Pratt, whose work I've previously enjoyed quite a bit (see his "The Axiom" trilogy or his most recent tie-in The Fractured Void).  Those novels were all fun space operas featuring fun casts of misfit characters having enjoyable relationships, quirks and smart interactions with dangerous enemies, and for the most part I really liked the results, even if none of the books were truly tremendous enough to fall into my "must read" category.  Doors of Sleep is the start of a new series which isn't quite space opera, so I was curious to see how it would read compared to those others.

And Doors of Sleep is very fun and entertaining, which reminds me of a number of other stories, from Marie Brennan's Memoirs of Lady Trent in writing style to well, Doctor Who, in that it features a man traveling through different worlds accompanied by occasionally changing companions and trying to do good on as many of those worlds as he can.  And yet it's not Doctor Who, in that our protagonist is not some mad genius but just a well meaning accidental traveler, who is far more human and thus breakable than that show's classic hero.  The result, aided by Pratt's solid entertaining writing, is a rather fun (although not comedic unlike his other works) and well done novel that ends on a satisfying point while promising more to come.  

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Monday, December 28, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz

 




Blazewrath Games is a YA Fantasy novel that is also the debut of author Amparo Ortiz.  The novel features a plot that will feel very reminiscent of other novels in its alternate history fantasy setup:  take our world, add a second world of magicians that becomes known to the "regular" public years in the past, add in dragons who often bond with other humans with various magical abilities and physical forms, and finally have all these things come together with a World Cup of a sport involving all of it.  So yes, this one certainly will remind readers of some major elements from Harry Potter, because it certainly seems like the author set out at one point to do her own spin on that, except centered on a Puerto Rican girl (and featuring many other people of color) in a world filled with publicly-out LGTBQ people, and a fantasy sport that makes slightly more sense than Quidditch.

Which could be a pretty good starting point for a novel, but Blazewrath Games - though fun - has a lot of problems.  The book is clearly trying very hard to do a better job with its world in all the areas Harry Potter failed, and to deal with strong themes such as what it means to be Puerto Rican in the diaspora vs from the island itself, about self-confidence in the face of despair, and about the power in just being yourself....but it stumbles repeatedly, never quite fully exploring any of these themes in depth.  Add in a plot that suggests some interesting twists and turns and basically has none, a problematic sportswashing element that misleads the reader about the state of our own world, and well....I just wish this had faced another serious edit, as its fun core gets swamped by the other problems.  

Note: I read this half as an audiobook, and the audiobook reader is excellent.  So if you do want to read it, that format is worth your time.  

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Friday, December 25, 2020

Fantasy Novella Review: Over the Woodward Wall by A Deborah Baker

 


Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker

Over the Woodward Wall is a middle-grade novella with an odd backstory.  The story first featured as an in-universe book in Seanan McGuire's stand alone adult novel "Middlegame," as a Wizard of Oz-like story written as a coded guide to teach the fictional author Baker's disciples alchemy.  McGuire wrote snippets of the story for Middlegame and decided (with the Publisher) to eventually actually write the full story as its own stand alone middle-grade novel (Baker is of course, another of McGuire's pseudonyms here). 

So it's not surprising that the story is a fun middle grade tale of two different children going on an adventure trying to get home from a strange fantasy world, one which really will remind readers of both The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland quite a bit.  What is surprising is how incomplete the story is, with it just....ending and it begging for a sequel.  I can't imagine children reading this being satisfied as a result and can imagine them frustrated which just makes it weird, and while this is fun for adults, it won't be more than an interesting curiosity. 

More specifics after the jump.

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Thursday, December 24, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Flytrap by Stephanie Ahn

 



Flytrap is the third book in Stephanie Ahn's "Harrietta Lee" urban fantasy series, which began with Deadline (Review Here) a few years ago and continued with last year's "Bloodbath" (Review Here).  This series is one of the rare self-published series that I've actually both tried and am now trying to keep up with, so I was excited when I realized this third book had been published during quarantine and that I'd missed it.  For those who haven't heard of the series, it features Harry Lee, masochistic (in the sexual sense, explicitly) lesbian and disgraced blood witch, as she navigates New York trying to deal with the mess of her life and the magical world.  It's a fairly explicit series - the first book features full BDSM play, the second pretty explicit (lesbian obv) sex with a demon - so it won't be for everyone, and it has some narrative issues that you might expect from self published work from a relatively new writer, but it's a lot of fun to read.  

Flytrap is more of the same, for better or worse.  It's still a very enjoyable and fun narrative with its masochistic lesbian blood witch heroine, and if you enjoyed the sex scenes in the last one, they are taken up a notch this time around.  The plot is actually tighter than book 2 as well, which helps things move a lot more smoothly, and the prose is really well done.  On the other hand, as the third installment in a series, the book feels weird, with old characters never showing up and new characters and traumas popping up that you'd think would've been mentioned before.  Hopefully the next book in the series feels more like part of a series than this one, but on its own, this is still very fun.

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Wednesday, December 23, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Rebel Sisters by Tochi Onyebuchi

 



Rebel Sisters is Tochi Onyebuchi's follow up to his YA novel "War Girls" (see my review here) one of my favorite - and easily one of the most devastating - novels of last year.  War Girls was a novel essentially in the vein of RF Kuang's The Poppy War - in that it took a real world conflict, filled with horrible atrocities, and shifted it into a genre setting.  And well, moving the horrors of the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War into the future and adding giant mechas didn't make the story any less devastating, especially as it followed two sisters on opposite sides of the conflict.  And the story concluded in a satisfying if heartbreaking fashion, all the while making serious points using its historical background, that it never really made me think it needed a sequel, so when I found out it was getting one I was both frightened and excited.

And Rebel Sisters is....a hell of a sequel, although a much harder book to pin down than its predecessor.  It once again features past and present atrocities shifted into the future or at least referred to, although those atrocities are more from all over the world rather than specifically from its mainly Nigerian setting (the exiling of refugees and their physiological reaction to the threat of deportations, the adopting of such refugees by privileged white folk, and the genocide and erasure of the Uyghur people by China, etc.).  It combines these historical and present day horrors into a plot featuring characters who are forced to react to it all and try to find answers....but it stops well short of trying to suggest there are answers at all.  Indeed, one of the book's central arguments is left with an "answer" that is so ambiguous as to leave many readers thinking about it for days afterwards...and I'm not quite sure it how to feel about it.  

More specifics after the jump (Spoilers for War Girls are unmarked below, although I don't think they matter too much to your enjoyment of that book):

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Tuesday, December 22, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Persephone Station by Stina Leicht

 

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 January 5, 2021 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.


Persephone Station is an SciFi novel by former Astounding Award nominee Stina Leicht, who was one of the first authors I wound up reading way back when I got back into the genre.  Her two flintlock epic fantasy novels, Cold Iron and Blackthorne, were in some ways really interesting in what they were trying to do with their multiple characters...yet at the same time often felt incomplete or missing sections of connective tissue needed for plot or character building.  And this was despite both of those books being 600 pages long.  But when this book popped up on NetGalley, I was curious to see whether that pattern would hold true here (especially since she'd worked on this instead of a sequel to Blackthorne).  

And I enjoyed Persephone Station a good bit, even if it very much shares some of the same problems as Blackthorne and Cold Iron.  It's a really interesting  multi-character Sci-Fi novel, featuring the intersection of sentient AIs, human mercenaries and criminals, a powerful human corporation, as well as pacifist aliens who just want to live in peace, with a lot of moving parts and a clear inspiration from The Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai.  And it mostly comes all together in the end to a satisfying ending.  On the other hand, while our foremost leading character is excellent, the book has too many pieces to truly develop everyone satisfactorily, leaving other parts of itself feeling incomplete.  Still very much worth a read, even if it can't quite live up to its potential.

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Monday, December 21, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

 



A Deadly Education is the latest novel - and the start of a new trilogy - by award winning fantasy author Naomi Novik.  Novik has written two types of novels - her stand alone fairy tale subversions (Uprooted, Spinning Silver) or her alternate history fantasy Temeraire series (The Napoleonic Wars with Dragons!).  I really really enjoyed the latter - the whole Temeraire series was tremendous fun and I highly recommend it - but haven't quite loved the former, with Spinning Silver really not working at all for me.  So I was not sure what to expect from A Deadly Education, since it didn't really fit into either category.  

What I found was a book I really enjoyed, even if it had a few quirks that were kind of annoying.  The book's first person narrator is fantastic, and while the book has a tendency to infodump, her sarcastic tone and wit prevent the book from ever dragging.  Add in a very fun setting - a magic school in which everything is basically trying to kill all the students and a protagonist with the power but not the temperament to cause mass destruction - and some solid underlying themes and you have a book that is pretty damn good as the start of a new series.

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Sword and Pen by Rachel Caine

 



Sword and Pen is the fifth and final book in the late Rachel Caine's "The Great Library" series of alternate history fantasy novels.  I've really enjoyed the series so far, which took the setup provided by its first book and used it to take a leap to another level for books 2-4, with book 4 (Smoke and Iron, reviewed here) switching up the book's format to tremendous effect.  But five book series are in my experience trickier than your classic trilogies, with the extra length making it hard for the series to come to a satisfactory conclusion, so I was a bit worried that Sword and Pen might not live up to its predecessors.  

And honestly, it doesn't - Sword and Pen concludes the story with tremendous drama and tension, with some really strong moments, but doesn't quite hit on all the emotional beats it's going for.  And while the conclusion is one that works in the end as a resolution, I didn't quite love it (and the book seeming to forget about two major antagonists doesn't help), making this perhaps my least favorite book in the series.  Don't get me wrong, this is still a solid novel, and as a resolution to the major plot threads it works - it just tries to do too much and can't quite measure up to what came before.

Spoilers for the first four books are inevitable, be forewarned.

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Friday, December 18, 2020

Fantasy Novella Review: When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

 

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo 

When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain is author Nghi Vo's second novella this year, after The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Review Here).  I enjoyed that first novella, as a tale of an empress, cast aside by her husband, taking action into her own hands to take back everything from him, while also being a tale of love and companionship at the same time, with it all taking place in an East Asian-inspired setting (I think Vietnamese-inspired) .  I didn't love it as much as others did, but it was pretty well done and worth your time.  

Empress was told through a framing device to a cleric, Chih, and this second novella also features a similar framing device, although Chih themself is a more prominent character this time around.  The result is a F-F romantic story between a woman seeking to become a scholar and a tiger-woman she encounters on the way, with the story being told both by Chih and a trio of other Tigers who they encounter - in often very different ways.  The story within the story, and the different versions told by each party, combine to make this one a real winner that is pretty pretty great.

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Thursday, December 17, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes

 


Tail of the Blue Bird is a short (just under 200 pages) novel by Nii Ayikwei Parkes.  It's arguable whether it really fits the category of Fantasy (its more usually listed as literary fiction, and whether anything fantastical happens is an open question).  The story takes place in what are essentially two different worlds in Ghana - a modern city world of Ghana, in which foreign knowledge is used and misused by corrupt officials and businessmen for their own gain and a more traditional rural world, in which people are not unaware of modern advancements, but still live as per tradition - hunting, medicine making....and believing in things like horrifying curses.

This is a short novel, featuring a young man who was educated abroad to be a forensic pathologist to help the Country uncover answers other than superstition only to run into people who don't actually want answers, is certainly interesting - and worth a read for audiences who are likely unfamiliar with the setting.  

TRIGGER WARNING:  Abuse of a girl and then a woman by her father, resulting in multiple miscarriages.  

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Wednesday, December 16, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine

 



Smoke and Iron is the 4th and penultimate novel in Rachel Caine's "The Great Library" Alternate History Fantasy series.  I don't need to say any more here in these reviews how much I've loved these books, and book 3, Ash and Quill (Reviewed Here), was a new highlight....and ended on the most dramatic cliffhanger yet.  Our hero, Jess, and his friends are somehow in their greatest peril yet, and well: I could barely wait to pick up this fourth novel, to the point where I read the first 1/3 in audiobook and then couldn't stop myself from finishing the rest in ebook form over the weekend instead of waiting for the workweek to come.  Oops.  

So yeah, you shouldn't be surprised that this book is once again really strong, but what is surprising is how much it departs from the structure of the prior three books.  Caine used this new structure to give a greater picture of things as they go on, and the result is a more complete book that showcases more than usual the growth each of these characters has made over the course of the series.  So yeah, I'll be starting book 5 in audiobook this coming week, and we'll see if I can resist finishing it in print early.  

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Tuesday, December 15, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne

 



Architects of Memory is the debut novel of SF/F author Karen Osborne (who has previously written short fiction).  It's an idea-filled short science fiction novel featuring a universe in which human space is run by corporate entities, who each have their own versions of citizenship and who force those who wish to obtain it into forms of indenture.  It's a common theme/concept that I've seen a bunch in science fiction published recently (for examples, see Martha Wells' Murderbot or Kameron Hurley's The Light Brigades or Emma Newman's Planetside series) and Osborne adds to it a war with a seemingly unknowable alien species to create a book that was getting a little bit of buzz before release.

The result is a book with some interesting ideas, and some decent characters...but with a writing style that often left me confused as to what exactly was going on.  This isn't helped by how I read books - reading fast often means that I miss aspects of detail-oriented prose and while this isn't that, it's possible that some of my confusion was due to how terse the explanations really were.  It still mostly works, but the result, and the sheer amount of ideas that it's trying to deal with - about freedom/corporate ownership, about coexistence, about war and vengeance, etc. - kind of diminishes a lot of its effectiveness.  

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Monday, December 14, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Iron Heart by Nina Varela

 



Iron Heart is the second half of a duology by Nina Varela that began with last year's Crier's War (which I reviewed here).  The duology is a young adult fantasy (arguably scifi in some aspects as well) story with a F-F romance between its two protagonists at its core, as the two girls from different backgrounds/species struggle with an unjust (racist/speciesist/classist) world and what to do about it, in the face of those who would seek to take advantage of those forces to cement their own power.  I liked Crier's War's setup a good amount, and its two main characters worked, but the book's ending was a major disappointment, with it just ending at a seeming random point in the middle of things, which was entirely unsatisfying.  So I was hoping the 2nd half of the duology would bring things around instead to a better conclusion.

And well, Iron Heart is a solid conclusion, even as it feels very much like the 2nd half of a what should have been a single novel instead of a duology.  Our protagonists remain strong as they try and deal with their new desperate situations and their uncertainty over having feelings for one another, and the roles of the varying antagonists come more firmly into play here, leading to a conclusion that is generally pretty satisfying.  At the same time, some antagonists are dealt with more easily than one would have imagined, and one of the major plot mysteries just dies out.  There was probably enough material in this setting/plot for one and a half books or maybe a more full duology, but instead we got what is essentially 1 book split into two, and the result is enjoyable but not quite as good as it could be. 

Spoilers for Crier's War below are inevitable.  

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Wednesday, December 9, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Ash and Quill by Rachel Caine

 



Ash and Quill is the third book in Rachel Caine's five book "The Great Library" alternate world fantasy series, which began with Ink and Bone.  Set in an alternate history in which the Library of Alexandria not only survived, but amassed great power via its control over knowledge, which it controls via some magic as well as an iron fist, its a dark tale of a group of young adults/teens fighting for freedom and knowledge.  The first book left me thrilled with the setting but not with where the characters wound up, but the second book (Paper and Fire) made me come around, so I was excited to get back to the series as soon as possible.

And Ash and Quill is utterly tremendous, all the while being the darkest book yet.  The characters, from main protagonist Jess, to the rest of his friends and family, have grown tremendously over the course of the first two books and grow further still in strong well plotted ways, and the action moves forward tremendously with the plot as well.  And themes of power, of control, of symbolism, and freedom, to say nothing of the horrors of war and PTSD, are once again hammered here brilliantly.  It doesn't all quite work for me with the setting, but it almost does, and I can't wait in two weeks to start book 4 as I have planned.   

Spoilers for Books 1-2 are inevitable, so be warned.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge by K Eason

 



How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge is the second book in K Eason's Thorne Chronicles duology, a terribly titled* SF/fantasy duology featuring a young princess, her guards, her mentor in both politics and what is essentially magic, in a twisty plot featuring rival political factions around the universe all told in by a slightly-irreverent historian narrator.  I enjoyed the first book, How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (Reviewed here), quite a bit - there was nothing essential about it, but it was a fun story, with an enjoyable heroine in Rory who used her intelligence, a magic gift to always hear the truth behind one's words, and her own magic-hacking skills to defeat a dictator, earn her freedom and change the universe.  So I was looking forward to a sequel especially in these rough times, just for a bit of fun.  

*As I noted in my review of the first book, this book uses the word "Multiverse" as a synonym for "Universe", for no particular reason, which is a bit annoying, and while this book is better titled than its predecessor as describing what happens sort-of, it's still not very descriptive.  

And this sequel is....odd.  The book's narration acts as if the novel is setup similar to the first, with Rory as its protagonist, but really the focus shifts to Rory's companions in two pairs: Jaed and Thorsdottir & Rupert and Grytt, dealing with an emerging universal crisis featuring a trio of alien races and a weapon that threatens everyone's existence.  The parts dealing with these two pairs are highly enjoyable and fun, even if they don't quite end the way I was hoping, and the expansion of the setting was always intriguing.  But the book doesn't do anything really with that expansion, or with Rory herself, and wraps an awful lot up at the end as if the author had a whole third book planned out but didn't have the opportunity or desire to actually write and publish it.  There's still a good amount of fun here, but it's surrounded by missed opportunities which make it also a disappointment.

Note: I read this, like its predecessor in audiobook format, so if I misspell any names below, my apologies.  That said, the reader is very good, so if you plan to read this, reading in audiobook is a solid choice.  

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Monday, December 7, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke

 




The Scapegracers is a young adult novel and a debut novel from author Hannah Abigail Clarke.  It's very much a YA novel about queer and female empowerment - and of course the magic of witches/a coven in the modern world.  This makes it essentially the third novel of this sort I've read this year* (and 2nd explicitly YA one), which is kind of unfair because while the Scapegracers hits many of the same themes of those novels, it is also very different in its direction.  

*Sarah Gailey's When We Were Magic and Alix E Harrow's The Once and Future Witches are the two books that pop up in my head*

And it's a direction that I liked a lot - this is absolutely not a subtle novel about its themes, with one major character basically explaining them out loud to the protagonist, but it weaves them in and deals with them in interesting ways.  And by themes here, I mean mainly the power of young women - young queer women particularly - in a world that tries relentlessly to keep them all down.  Add in a really strong and enjoyable protagonist and some very solid side characters, and you have a very strong book, even if it relies a little too much on the characters' being deliberately obtuse about certain things that will be obvious to the reader immediately.  

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Friday, December 4, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Jade War by Fonda Lee

 





Jade War is the second book in Fonda Lee's "The Green Bone Saga", after 2018's "Jade City".  These books are part of a trilogy with an easy and very appealing hook: it's The Godfather meets Wuxia/Kung Fu/Magical Ninjas/whatever you want to call it, and the first book in the trilogy really lived up to that marketing hook.  And yet for some reason, while the book's craft was undeniable, and the plot was never boring, I just never felt the drive to continue with the book's sequel, even taking out the book once from the library for a period of a month and a half before putting it back unread, because I never had time to reread Jade City.  But Jade War was nominated for the Ignyte Award for Best Novel, so I found time to give it one more shot.  

And well Jade War is more of the same.  If you wanted an Asian or Hong Kong inspired fantasy take on the Godfather and liked how that played out in Jade City?  You'll like that here, especially as it moves to a larger scale (ala Godfather 2), expanding its plot beyond its central Island of Kekon into neighboring nations, with major impacts.  On the other hand, for me, I just came away from it all a little cold, never bored exactly, but never really inspired to keep reading - and one of the protagonist's actions left me with a serious bad taste.  I may or may not be continuing into book 3 when it comes out next year, but if I do, I won't be bothering with a reread of this one first, it hasn't quite earned the time.

Note: Spoilers for Jade City are inevitable below.  You are forewarned.

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Thursday, December 3, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

 




We Hunt the Flame is a YA Fantasy novel from Hafsah Faizal, featuring an Arabia/Muslim-inspired setting.  I missed the novel at first, but it won the Ignyte Award in October for best YA novel in 2019 over a couple novels I'd really loved.  So I was definitely interested in checking it out, and since it was a pretty big book sales wise, it was no surprise that all my libraries and Hoopla had a copy.  So I read it over a week in both audiobook* and print form, so that I could finish it in a single work week.

And well, I enjoyed We Hunt the Flame a good bit, as a very enjoyable piece of YA Fantasy with its non-Western based setting, a pair of very enjoyable protagonists, and a plot that might be more than a bit predictable, but is executed really well overall.  On the other hand, the novel isn't just predictable but relies upon a plot formula that has been done to death in recent years, and while it works well enough, it's also not quite strong enough to stand out significantly from the pack.  In short, I enjoyed this, and am happy to have read it, and definitely await the sequel, but I just couldn't love it as much as others seem to have done.  

*Usual Disclaimer about spelling and reading this in audiobook applies to this review.  Of note, the audiobook features two very different readers for each of its characters' points of view, and it's a bit jarring, even if the two are done well individually.*

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Wednesday, December 2, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Blazing Star by Imani Josey

 




The Blazing Star is the first in a YA Fantasy series by author Imani Josey, which came out back in 2017.  Its sequel is coming out in December, although from a small press (or self published?) such that you can only pre-order it from the author's website.  So yeah, it's not the type of book I would usually find out about or be able to obtain from the library (interlibrary loan had a few copies), but when the author's tweets about her stunning covers hit my twitter feed, well I was interested.  

And well, The Blazing Star is a good start to a series, if one that very much feels like just a start.  This is a book about a trio of black teens from Atlanta who go back in time to ancient Egypt, where they get involved in a conflict of magic and power.  It's an enjoyable setting, with enjoyable characters, particularly our main protagonist, a fraternal twin who always feels overshadowed by her beloved sister, even if the plot is in many ways kind of predictable.  But again, it very much does not stand on its own, and with it being such a short book (under 300 pages paperback), it's not as satisfying as I would have hoped.  

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Tuesday, December 1, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Triangulum by Masande Ntshanga

 




Triangulum is the second novel (and first SF/F novel) by South African author Masande Ntshanga.  The book is nominated for this year's Nommo Awards, which attempt to celebrate the Best Speculative Fiction published by African authors.  It's not a long novel, but it's one that doesn't reward quick reading, drawing heavily upon the events of South African past in order to tell a story about both the present and the future.*  

*Note: I said this in another review recently but it definitely applies more here, and I'll make note of this again below: this book draws heavily upon the events of Apartheid South Africa and the events that have taken place since then for the context of its story, and as such as a White (Jewish) American, I lack knowledge about the context of the setting to a good extent.  As such, this book isn't written FOR me, and I very much am likely to have missed significant parts of what's going on in the background and how it affects the book's themes.   

And well, Triangulum is a fascinating novel that tries to do many different things at once, with these things not often obviously tied together.  The story features three timelines featuring the same un-named protagonist, from a document supposedly released (through the framing device) in 2043.  It's a coming of age story, a story of alien interactions, and also a story of how the cycles of oppression, slavery, and destruction have never ended - a story contrasting cruel treatment and control of others with that of love, and more.  Without the context of its intended audience, I'm not quite sure it fully works...but it's still well worth your time.

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