Friday, January 29, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

 


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 April 20, 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.

The Galaxy and the Ground Within is the fourth - and seemingly final (according to the acknowledgements) - book in Becky Chambers' Hugo Winning "Wayfarer" series of novels, which began with A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.  I've said on this blog many times before how much I prefer character-focused novels to plot or idea-focused ones, and the Wayfarer novels take that to an extreme: they feature practically no overarching plot, but instead stories of characters in a scifi world in which humans have left a devastated earth and met a mostly peaceful coalition of alien races.  It's an optimistic setting, and the first three books have all been tremendous, especially the first book and third (Record of a Spaceborn Few), so when this fourth book showed up on Netgalley, I requested it immediately and didn't dare hope to get a copy....and was extraordinarily excited when I did. 

And for the first time, I found myself not really thinking a book in this series actually worked.  The book has perhaps even less of a plot than its predecessors, and Chambers does an excellent job with the four main characters - this time around, there isn't a human among them, so we're dealing entirely with alien species and personalities here.  As usual, the book is pretty much a stand-alone exploration of these characters, something Chambers usually excels at.  But this time, Chambers attempts through one of the characters to also cover important issues of oppression, colonization, and the aftermath of it all and the attempt to touch on those themes clashes with the otherwise optimistic tone and it doesn't work at all.  It results in a a major misstep which for me almost overshadowed everything else. 

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Thursday, January 28, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Interference by Sue Burke



Interference is the sequel to Sue Burke's Semiosis from from 2018 (which I reviewed here).  Semiosis is usually not the type of book I love - it's an idea based sci-fi novel, featuring a story over a number of generations of humanity on an alien planet.  Yet unlike most "generation ship" type novels, it spent enough time with each generation, who often overlapped, and had an idea interesting enough - humans getting essentially domesticated by super-intelligent plants! - that it kept me hooked and interested throughout.  If you liked Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time for example, you'd like Semiosis, which is similar (with plants instead of spiders) but a little more in depth with its characters, to my satisfaction.  

Interference takes place after Semiosis and features a new party of travelers from Earth going to check on the Pax colony that was the setting of Semiosis, in which the human settlers now use mostly primitive technology in cooperation with another alien species, the Glassmakers, all under the authority of Stevland, a super-intelligent rainbow bamboo plant.  Needless to say the modern humans, coming from a crappy Earth setting, do not understand what they find, and set off a new round of conflicts between human, alien and plant.  It's an interesting story, but one that honestly doesn't feel like it adds too much more than Semiosis did originally.  

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Wednesday, January 27, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

 



Redemption in Indigo is a short novel by Karen Lord, taking Senegalese folktales and adapting them into a cohesive fantasy story for new audience.  Lord's an author who I've read before - her Unraveling is actually a stand-alone sequel to this novel (kinda - it features several recurring characters, but the stories are unrelated) and I read that book a few years back and resolved to come back for this more well known story at some point.  And so when I saw this was available in audiobook on Hoopla, I decided to give it a shot.

And Redemption in Indigo is pretty tremendous - a really fun retelling of folktales in a modern fashion, taking place in an unnamed African nation (again the inspiration is Senegalese folktales, but the country isn't mentioned) at a non-specific time that is both modern and not.  It's a story with a lot of charm and funny moments to make you smile, to go along with a strong tale of a young woman with a good heart and a strong sense of duty dealing with the absurdity of humans and the manipulations of immortals, told by a narrator in a slightly irreverent and yet still respectful tone.  Well worth your time and it won't take much of your time to read.

Note: I read this in audiobook and so if I misspell any of the names of the characters, that's why.  Still, I highly recommend the book in this format, which features the strong voice work of Robin Miles, known for a lot of other great works of audionarration.  

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

 




The House in the Cerulean Sea is a stand alone fantasy novel by author TJ Klune and it's been a book that I've seen a ton of love for online.  I'd skipped it originally - I think I saw one review that was merely okay and so hadn't quite expected all the gushing - but eventually weeks of seeing it on people's top books of 2020 list wore me down and I reserved it from the library.  And so, when I was looking for something delightful with a happy ending and joyous plot to read for the first book of 2021, I picked this up.  

And yeah, The House in the Cerulean Sea is utterly delightful - a queer story of a middle aged man going to inspect a home for magical kids with extraordinary powers who are feared by the world and falling in love with them and the home's caretaker.  It's not a story that will provide many surprises - you will expect most of the plot developments to some degree before they happen - but it pulls them off with just enough variety and good execution to make them all work, and all the characters are wonderfully well done.  I can't quite call it one of the best books of 2020, but it's certainly one of the more delightful and I definitely recommend it for someone looking for a happy ending despite some serious themes.  

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Monday, January 25, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Beyond Addiction by Kit Rocha

 




Beyond Addiction is book 5 in Kit Rocha's erotic and explicit post-apocalyptic romance "Beyond" series.  If you're reading this review you're most likely familiar with the series and its first four books, and well, as a result I won't be going too in depth here.  The series has a very comforting formula usually....a couple - or a trio or larger grouping on occasion - tries to figure out the other through lots and lots of sex, with each other and with others, figuring out each other's kinks, while also trying not to harm the other's emotions as they deal with the struggles of gang life in their post-apocalyptic slum of a puritan city. 

That said, Beyond Addiction actually messes with the formula a little in some interesting ways, and so even though it features a middle portion that will be familiar to series readers, I doubt anyone who enjoyed the first four books will find themselves feeling it is repetitive in a disappointing way.  If you liked the earlier books in the series, you'll enjoy this one, if not, you won't. 

TRIGGER WARNING:  Rape as backstory.  

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Friday, January 22, 2021

SciFi Novella Review: Local Star by Aimee Ogden

 


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 April 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.    

Local Star is one of two novellas coming out in the first half of 2021 by SF/F writer Aimee Ogden, who has seemingly only before written shorter SF/F fiction.  It's a stand alone novella (although I really wonder if she's written in this world before) featuring a space opera setting in which polyamory and queerness is utterly normalized, with people living in triads or quads utterly normally.  And I enjoyed it quite a bit, as it managed to deal with some serious themes while showing a solid space opera conflict (bad guys and fighting and war) while dealing with interesting themes of love, acceptance and more along the way.  

More specifics after the jump.

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Thursday, January 21, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Scarlet Odyssey by C. T. Rwizi

 



Scarlet Odyssey is the start of a grimdark epic fantasy series by C. T. Rwizi.  It's a series published by 47North, which is Amazon's own book imprint for science fiction and fantasy.  As such, like a lot of 47North books - Marko Kloos' works are also under this umbrella for example - the books are available under the Kindle Unlimited service, so if you're a subscriber (I think it comes with some Amazon Prime subscriptions), it's fairly easy to pick up.  And well, this book's sequel, the 2nd in the series, is due out in March (I have an eARC of that incidentally), so now is a solid time to get into it.  

And Scarlet Odyssey is well worth your time - if you can handle its grimdark world.  I don't use the word grimdark lightly, and I'm willing to deal with a bit of brutality when it fits the story, but this is on the border even for me - a story where deaths of innocents and children occur multiple times through its content, along with multiple mass slaughters.  But if you can deal with those things, you have a really interesting epic fantasy story with solid characters who are just beginning their story, with a background that is clearly African-inspired in origin instead of the "Western"-inspired origins that many will be used to.

TRIGGER WARNING:  Rape as backstory, Deaths of innocents and children.  This is a story in which multiple characters preach about power being only accessible at the price of emotional agony, and multiple characters are more than willing to inflict that agony. 


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Wednesday, January 20, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Ruinsong by Julia Ember

 



Ruinsong is a dark YA fantasy story by author Julia Ember, being a novel inspired but very different from the Phantom of the Opera.  Featuring a F-F romantic pairing at its heart, the story takes the opera-house setting of the classic play/novel and makes the opera a house of horrors, where magical singers in the country put on a performance to torture the noble class through their magic every year.  It's a story featuring class differences between three classes - mages, commoners, and nobles - and people struggling to figure out how to live and how to resist a cruel regime led by a Queen who is more interested in revenge upon her former enemies than it being a good ruler.  

And Ruinsong works to a point, making it worth your time if you can handle its darkness (See the Trigger Warnings below).  The slow burn F-F romance works really well, as does the main storyline showcasing a member of the regime, forced to commit horrible acts, struggle to find a way to resist while knowing the consequences as she is confronted her love interest (the co-protagonist) who wants her to more actively resist.  But the story isn't quite long enough or in-depth enough to deal with its themes of class, and so it doesn't quite work as well there.  Still, for it's length and its characters, this is a very solidly done fantasy story that will be worth some of your time.

TRIGGER WARNING:  Animal Cruelty (Dog Murder) and Torture.  This is a dark story, and the antagonist makes one of the protagonists torture people for her purposes, and is willing to do anything to ensure her compliance.  This might be too much for some people (again, Dog Murder is pretty bad).  

Note: I read this as an audiobook, so if I misspell any of the characters or concepts below, that's why.  The audiobook reader is very good with both main characters' voices, so I would recommend this book in that format.

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Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Book Review: On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu

 


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 February 2, 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.  

On Fragile Waves is the debut novel of Astounding Award winner E Lily Yu, known previously for her short fiction work.  It's a short novel that is based upon substantial research done by Yu on a real world topic: the plight of refugees fleeing war torn countries, in this case from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Australia.  I've actually not read Yu's work previously, although I've seen it cited with high praise, so I was excited to get a prerelease copy of this one from the publisher.

And On Fragile Waves is a powerful book, devastatingly powerful, in its portrayal of the real world horrors that wait those fleeing as refugees on the risky journey to Australia, with its story mostly told from the perspective of a young girl fleeing with her parents and younger brother - from war zone to dangerous ship crossing to refugee camp to living in the country itself on foreign sufferance.  It's a tough as hell book to read, with me having to put it down after nearly every chapter, and I wouldn't recommend trying to binge it, short as it is.  But again, it's pretty damn powerful in how it portrays a real face of our world today and I highly recommend it for those in comfortable situations to understand what is actually happening out there.

Note: This is listed in some places as being fantasy or magical realism, although I'm not sure I can agree with that genre classification.  That does not change its worthiness of being read or how powerfully devastating it is, just....don't expect anything clearly fantastical to occur.  

TRIGGER WARNING:  Self-Harm, Suicide, Harm to Children, and lots of Suffering.  This book does not hold back from the experience it means to portray (for good reason) so be warned.


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Monday, January 18, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Snake Lies Waiting by Jin Yong (Translated by Gigi Chang and Anna Holmwood)

 


A Snake Lies Waiting is the third volume (of four) in the recent translated version of Jin Yong's classic Wuxia series, Legend of the Condor Heroes.  The first volume was released in 2019 as "A Hero Born" (which I reviewed here) and the second as "A Bond Undone" (which I reviewed here).  This story, along with its sequel series, are considered foundational texts in the Wuxia genre, and I've found myself greatly enjoying them as I've taken each out from the library.  They're not character focused like the stories I usually love, but the kung fu sequences are so outrageous and over the top that I can't help but love them.  

A Snake Lies Waiting is no different, so this won't be a particularly long review.  Series protagonists Guo Jing and Lotus Huang continue to get into more and more dangerous situations, that result in them interacting with and learning from - and fighting - more and more Kung Fu Masters.  You can tell though that this is the start of the end of the story, as in this volume characters from the first two volumes long gone return all at once, but it continues its zany kung fu fun all the way from beginning to end.  If you enjoyed the first two volumes, you'll enjoy this, if not you won't, but if you're still questioning whether to start this series, this one's another vote in favor of yes.

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Friday, January 15, 2021

SciFi Novella Review: One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

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 March 2, 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.


One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky:

One Day All This Will Be Yours is an upcoming novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky from Solaris press.  Like last year's Firewalkers, which I also had a chance to review on this blog, the novella appears to be coming out in limited edition hardcover first, with an ebook version to come a short time later.  I've had mixed feelings about Tchaikovsky's work, with his idea filled novels (Children of Time/The Doors of Eden) not really working fully for me, but I did enjoy Firewalkers quite a bit, so I figured I'd give this one a try as well.  

And I'm really really glad I did - One Day All This Will Be Yours is easily going to be in the running for my Hugo Ballot in 2022, as a tremendously fun and funny time travel story that kept me smiling and cracking up throughout.  The novella's description on retailers' sites would suggest that this could be a serious tale - and no, it absolutely is not - but I honestly am not that upset about it because I feel like to spoil too much of what you're in for with this one would be a shame.  The plot of this novella will possibly invoke thoughts of other similar stories from the past few years, but One Day All This Will Be Yours stands easily on its own and is so much fun I would recommend it to basically everyone.


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Thursday, January 14, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Blade Between by Sam J Miller

 



The Blade Between is the latest novel by Sam J Miller, who won the Norton/Nebula Award for his "The Art of Starving" and was also nominated for a Nebula for his last novel, Blackfish City.  Miller is however one of those weird authors for me, whose prose or writing style just doesn't flow to my eyes...not for any obvious reason I can explain, but I just have trouble reading him.  So I originally DNFed Blackfish City before coming back to it due to its award nomination, because I couldn't quite get into it, and I was worried I'd feel similarly about The Blade Between (I got through The Art of Starving as an audiobook, which helped a little).

And well, The Blade Between worked better for me than Blackfish City, but only barely, and not only did I not love the prose again, but well I don't think it managed to work out in the end with all its themes and characters.  It's a story of gentrification in Hudson, (upstate) NY, of anger and hate, of people being forced out by others without a thought, and of pasts not easily left behind, and these are a lot of strong themes that Miller is playing with to go along with several solid characters.  But in the process, the themes get muddied and I don't really like how it ended things, so yeah, I think this'll be the last Miller novel I try for a while.  

Trigger Warning: Suicide, Homophobia. 

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Wednesday, January 13, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera

 



Never Look Back is a YA novel by author Lilliam Rivera, which is in part a modern day adaptation of the Greek Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.  Except this time around, our protagonists are a black Dominican boy from the Bronx (Pheus) and a girl visiting from Puerto Rico after her home was destroyed in Puerto Rico (Eury).  For those looking for SF/F, be forewarned that it's almost more a story featuring "Magical Realism" rather than "Fantasy" elements, as it's one of those stories where it's often ambiguous whether or not anything out of the ordinary is actually happening.  

But whether you'd count this as fantasy or not, Never Look Back is a fascinating novel dealing with serious issues of trauma, of stress and of trying to go what's right for people one loves and for themselves, of the impacts of disasters - both personal and environmental - on people's lives, and how young people are often left to figure out such things on their own.  It also is a novel noting how difficult it is for people of color - Latinx and Black people in this story - to deal with these things in a world which tries too often to only cater to White people.   The result is a really strong book whose weakest elements are where it actually tries to adapt the original myth and to deal with the supernatural, making me wish it perhaps might've skipped over that skeleton.  

TRIGGER WARNING:  This book contains a scene in which a man chases after a protagonist with the intent to rape her.  He doesn't get to her, but fair warning.  Also this book features people dealing with trauma from disasters such as Hurricane Maria, as well as from personal traumas, as well as depression.  

Disclaimer:  I read this in audiobook form, so if I get any names wrong below, it's due to me not seeing those names in print to know how they should be spelled, and I apologize in advance.  The two audiobook readers are excellent though, so I highly recommend the book in this format.

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Tuesday, January 12, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Mirror: Broken Wish by Julie C Dao

 



The Mirror is a four book YA Fantasy series being published by Disney through its Hyperion imprint, which was hyped up a little bit back in the beginning of 2020 (and then seemingly not at all afterwards?  It might just be I am not in the right circles).  The books are being written by four decently known women of color authors, Julie C Dao, Dhonielle Clayton, J.C. Cervantes, and L.L. McKinney, three of whom I've read before and enjoyed at least a little (even if I don't think I've really loved any of those 7 books I've read and haven't ever read anything from Cervantes).  The series is based upon a fantasy magically cursed and possessing a magic mirror as a heirloom, with each novel detailing a new generation and setting for the family to continue its story.  The combination of the authors involved as well as the generational framework over multiple novels made this book, The Mirror: Broken Wish, which starts the series, of decent interest to me.  

And Broken Wish is a pretty well done novel by Julie C Dao, even if it feels a bit more like a beginning than a complete story.  Set in mid 1800s Hanau Germany, the story follows a young girl with a magical talent for seeing the future and a poor witch who has been abandoned by all those she tried to trust.  It feels very much like Dao's first novel, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns - not in being the story of someone turning to evil, but in how it essentially serves as an origin story for the series' titular mirror and ends in a rather dark fashion.  As you might expect from the first book in a four book series, do not expect a happy ending here, but what this book does contain is generally a well told story that keeps me interested in reading book 2 next year.  

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Monday, January 11, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Night Parade of 100 Demons (Legend of the Five Rings) by Marie Brennan

 



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 February 2, 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.    

The Night Parade of 100 Demons* is a tie-in book to the Collectable Card Game/RPG Legend of the Five Rings (commonly referred to as "L5R").  I have basically no familiarity with L5R other than the knowledge of its existence that comes from seeing other authors and people I know who are past fans, but was interested in this novel because of its author: Marie Brennan.  Brennan's work that I have read (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, Driftwood) is usually both very character based and anthropologically based, showing cultures under different conditions, and I've always really enjoyed it.  So I was interested to pick this up despite my lack of knowledge in the background.  

*Note:  "The Night Parade of 100 Demons" is a Japanese idiom/myth, and as such, this is not the only book with this title, so you may want to check you get the right title if you are seeking to buy/borrow this.  

And The Night Parade of 100 Demons is pretty fun and enjoyable even if you have no background in L5R, featuring two samurai from different clans investigating a village suffering from strange Yokai attacks - all the while each tries not to think about their growing attraction to the other.  Brennan imbues both of her very different samurai characters - one a scholar and one essentially a mage who communes with Kami - with very different but excellent characters, and imbues the setting with just the right amount of intrigue to keep the readers' attention.  So while this isn't a must read of any sort, or even up to the level of Brennan's other work, it's still a really fun fantasy story involving a Japanese Myth inspired world (or L5R inspired if you're familiar with it) with some extremely slowburn M-M romance on the side.  

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Friday, January 8, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Beyond Jealousy by Kit Rocha

 



Beyond Jealousy is the fourth novel in Kit Rocha's "Beyond" series, their nine book post-apocalyptic erotic romance series.  If you're not aware of the series, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic part of the US in which there's a rich and privileged...and puritan city surrounded by nine slummy but more liberal sectors run by gangs that thrive by selling alcohol, drugs, sex, etc.  Each book deals with a different romantic grouping inside this world's Sector Four, run by the O'Kane gang, which maintains a policy of loyalty, free love and respect for each other.  And in case you couldn't tell from my use of the word "erotic" - these books are VERY explicit, with sex and orgy scenes in great detail coming every other book, so if you're not into that, well these aren't for you - but if they are, these are very fun and enjoyable.  

Beyond Jealousy switches up the formula a little by following a trio instead of a duo: The love triangle of Rachel, Ace, and Cruz, who have circled each other on the peripheries of the first three books - with Ace and Rachel wanting each other in book 1, Rachel and Cruz finding each other in book 2, and Cruz and Ace falling for each other at the end of book 2/beginning of book 3.  Here that all takes center stage in a series of these two guy one girl sex scenes in all directions, as the three attempt to figure out what these feelings mean for each other - and they all struggle internally with their own past demons.  Oh and there's also general plot things going on - a potential gang war growing over the production of counterfeit alcohol - but that's secondary really to the explicit romance in what really matters, and it's done so well overall that I was very happy with the result.  

Note:  As with the other books in this series, you can start the series here if you want and read it as a stand alone, but it does build upon character and plot work done in the first three books and the first novella - and as I hadn't read the novella before this one, I'd clearly missed a little bit, but not enough that it was a problem.  

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Thursday, January 7, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back

 




3 Years ago, Disney/Star Wars released "From a Certain Point of View", an anthology of short Star Wars fiction celebrating the 40th anniversary of the original Star Wars movie (I reviewed it here).  That anthology featured 40 of some of the most notable names in genre, from authors to comic writers to actors writing stories based upon side characters or random observers who were resent for parts of the original Star Wars, a little like the old Tales series (Tales from Jabba's Palace, Tales of the Bounty Hunters etc.), although the stories were all shorter than those old ones.  And it was an anthology with a bunch of clear highlights, even as it also included a number of stories that just made me shrug, so the end result was a lot of fun.  

Now, this year, on the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, they repeated the feat with a new collection based on the same concept.  The authors are largely different, but again consist of some of the most well regarded names in genre: Martha Wells, S.A. Chakraborty, R.F. Kuang, Mark Oshiro, Django Wexler, Daniel Jose Older, etc. etc.  This is probably a weaker collection than that one, but there are still a number of pretty great stories among the 40 included here, so if you're looking for a fun nostalgic revisiting of the Star Wars of the original trilogy, you can't do wrong here.  

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Tuesday, January 5, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick

 




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 19 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.    

The Mask of Mirrors is the first in a new fantasy trilogy by "author" M.A. Carrick - really a pen name for authors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms.  I've loved much of Brennan's solo work (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, Driftwood) and so seeing a new series at least cowritten by her was enough for me to request a copy of this on Netgalley the moment I saw it.  The book's blurb on Amazon comparing it to Swordspoint, City of Brass, and Guy Gavriel Kay's work only made me even more interested - even if the book was listed at over 600 pages and thus longer than I usually like.  

And for once, that blurb isn't really inaccurate, The Mask of Mirrors features a story that is part Fantasy of Manners (ala Swordspoint), part clash of cultures/colonizers (ala City of Brass, as well as also at times part Heist novel, part Horror novel, and more.  It winds up in the end reminding me also of another book, Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside, in how all of the above themes, plus worldly mechanics, wind up coming together in a final confrontation for the fate of this setting.  The above are all books I've loved, and The Mask of Mirrors certainly showed signs of becoming another one until it's conclusion, where it just couldn't live up to its potential, with it often confusing me at times too.  I'll be back for book 2 just because of the potential, but I wish I'd found this more satisfying on its own.

Note:  This fantasy world is seemingly Slavic-inspired, including in the names of Places, People, Things, and Concepts, complete with letters with accents/carons on top of them.  As I don't have a slavic keyboard and my spanish keyboard doesn't quite accomplish the same thing, I will be spelling these names without the accent marks, and I apologize if that offends somehow.  

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Monday, January 4, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett

 



Elysium is one of the more interesting novels I read in 2020 - no, strike that, one of the more interesting novels I've read since I got back into reading 5 years ago.  It's a short novel and one that is absolutely not interested in explaining what it's doing to its reader: it trusts the reader to figure it all out, but a beautiful and fascinating exploration of characters and love throughout history and time and the many forms that love takes.  It's also a story about the effects of Empire and colonialism on history and memory, on the stories that get told, and how people survive...and don't survive through it all.  

People who follow me may see the above description and think that well, you've read a number of books tackling those themes and that's true.  But I can't think of any that do it like Elysium, in a powerful tale that transcends time periods, genders, and peoples, from beginning to end.  It's making this review especially difficult, but I'm going to try and explain a bit better after the jump, I promise.

NOTE:  I read this in audiobook, so if I get some names and spellings incorrect below, that's why.  The audiobook reader is very good, especially in how it reads the computer text sections (I'm really curious how those are done in print) as being so jarring and changing as well as in voicing the characters in various ways as they change throughout, and so I'd recommend the book in that format.  One Warning about the audiobook though: for some reason the audiobook begins by reading the excerpt from the book that is contained on its first page (or perhaps on the book jacket) rather than from the start of the novel and doesn't explain that it's doing so, leaving me confused for a while whether that excerpt was the actual start of the book or just an excerpt (especially since with the book's non-linear-esque storytelling, it totally could have been the start of the novel).  

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Sunday, January 3, 2021

2020 Year in Review: My least favorite books I finished this year.

 


This is my annual least favorite post to make on this blog: my post where I recap the books and works that I honestly DIDN'T like and would recommend against reading.  As you might imagine, I tend not to have very many of these: I find my books from recommendations and reviews from sources I trust, who tend to have similar tastes to me - or at least, tastes that I can appreciate to a certain extent.  As such, usually, if I don't love a book as much as the person who recommended it to me, I will usually understand why others might like it and wouldn't consider such books bad.  And I've also gotten better at recognizing when books just aren't working for me and DNFing them, which also prevents them from getting on this list.

Still, when you read 180-220 books a year, you're going to get some misfires here and there.  Moreover, as someone who likes to take chances on sequels to books that intrigued but didn't quite fully satisfy, a few of those books are bound to disappoint even more.  But honestly, this year wasn't that bad: last year for example, I had two books I gave 2 stars out of 10, basically my lowest grade which goes to books that I find truly outrageously bad, and I had nothing this year below a 4.5, which tends to go to books that I felt had potential, but blew that potential in enough ways to make me kind of angry (as opposed to 6.5s, which are for books that had potential but just don't meet that potential, without me being that upset about it).

After the jump, we'll talk about the books that disappointed me and why:


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Saturday, January 2, 2021

2020 Year in Review: The Best Works I Read This Year

 


The state of SciFi/Fantasy writing these days has never been better.  Oh there are still plenty of issues, especially with regards to publishing, as well as authors turning out to be not as good people as one might hope (to say the least).  But if you're looking for something good to read - whether that be something joyous and optimistic, something romantic and sexy, something impactful and powerful, or something else (or a combination of all of the above) - it's out there in the genre right now.  

So when I say I read 220 books this year along with 31 novellas, it does not mean that I had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to do so - there are a ton of books I did NOT get to in 2020 that I wanted to, just talking about books published in the last year alone (to say nothing of my TBR backlist of books from years past).  The median grade for books this year based upon my ten point grading system was an 8, which is the grade I give books that are pretty good and definitely recommended, even if they're not books I feel obligated to recommend to others without prompting.  My average score was a 7.845, a little bit above my average score from prior years (which was around a 7.7), showing to me that I'd managed to get at least a similar level of quality in the books I read this year despite reading substantially more in quantity and in terms of diversity.  

So in this post, I'm going to go into my favorite books, the books I scored a 9 or above, and try to explain why they were what they were.  If you're looking for book recommendations, this is a good post to start with.  

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Friday, January 1, 2021

2020 Year in Review: Basic Summary of my Reading

 

2020 was Year 4 of this blog as a dedicated (mostly) book review blog, and year 5 really of my return to reading Science Fiction and Fantasy.  It also was a year I spent 6 months at home on furlough from work in Quarantine, like so many other people, and thus had plenty of time for reading.  Add in the fact that the number of books I obtained this year through pre-release review copies (ARCs) increased dramatically, and well, I read a LOT this year.   So now it's time to recap what I read, where I did well with  my reading, and where I could do better - and what has been the best stuff that I've read as a result. 

As usual for these recap posts, this series will consist of three posts as follows:

Part 1 (This post) will be a quick summary of what I've read and how that worked out.
Part 2: Will go over my favorite works of the past year.
Part 3: Will go over the works I would recommend NOT reading or that I couldn't finish for various reasons. 

So let's begin:

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