Wednesday, June 30, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

 





Home is Not a Country is a YA book by poet Safia Elhillo.  I use the word "book" there instead of novel, because the book is arguably hard to classify: it's a ~210 page story (in hardcover) told entirely in 1-4 page poems, from beginning to end.  Which again is not to say that this a collection of independent poetry, but instead a complete story told in verse from beginning to end. And that's tricky for me to evaluate as honestly, I'm not really the most appreciative reader of poetry, with me usually getting annoyed at parts of book in verse, but I'd heard enough hype that I wanted to give this a try.  

And I'm glad I did, because Home is Not a Country makes the poetry work really well.  Oddly - and again this could just be my own personal inability to really get written poetry - none of the individual poems, with their line stops and varying lengths, really individually worked for me that much....but when combined together, this method of storytelling works tremendously well.  As does the story, featuring a girl from an unidentified Middle Eastern/North-African country around 9/11 feeling uncomfortable in America and always wondering if she someone else - someone like the girl whose name her mom almost gave her.  It's a really strong YA story about wishing for what one doesn't have instead do appreciating what little one does, even if what one does have comes with a lot of pain and difficulty fitting in in a country that isn't particularly welcoming to outsiders.  

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Tuesday, June 29, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

 





Chaos on CatNet is the sequel to last year's Lodestar Winner for Best SF/F Young Adult Novel, Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer (My review of that book is here).  That book, which spun out of Kritzer's Hugo winning short story (Cat Pictures Please) featured a queer teen, Steph, constantly uprooted due to her mother being on the run from her father (supposedly), and a cat picture loving AI, CheshireCat, discovering themselves and who they are with the help of others on a cat-picture based social media site - oh and dealing with said dangerous father and AI/Hacking experts involved with CheshireCat all at the same time.  It was a really lovely YA book and deserving award winner for its coming of age story for Steph and her friends, a group of queer teens who are discovering themselves in a near future where such things are discouraged, with my biggest gripe being an unnecessary cliffhanger at the end.

Chaos on CatNet follows up on that cliffhanger - there is another AI other than CheshireCat out there and its making contact! - to form a new novel, albeit one that doesn't quite hit the same mark as its predecessor.  The book features a new co-protagonist, Nell, who is another lesbian girl who grew up in a conservative religious cult and finds herself lost without its guidance and with family she doesn't quite trust....and this book is best when it shows Steph helping Nell realize she can be who she is without the guidance of abusive guidance.  But the book also features that second AI plot, with the second AI being seemingly destructive instead of helpful (ala Person of Interest), and that plotline and everything else just kind of distracts from the heartwarming aspects that made the first book so good, to this book's detriment. 

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Monday, June 28, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: What We Devour by Linsey Miller

 


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 July 6, 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.

What We Devour is the latest novel by Linsey Miller, an author known for her dark young adult fantasy novels, such as the Mask of Shadows duology and Belle Revolte.  I've really loved Miller's work, with those three novels featuring protagonists struggling against greedy corrupt systems and governments, systems that benefit the rich, wealthy and those who fit those people's ideas of the status quo.  These books have been filled with fascinating characters (and a ton of LGBTQ representation of all shades) with really strong points of view and with settings that really emphasize some strong themes....in some pretty dark and often bloody fashions.  So yeah I was excited to get a shot at her latest novel early.  

And What We Devour is up there with her best work, and is well well worth your time.  Featuring as a protagonist a young woman, secretly possessing twin magical powers in a world where magic requires sacrifice - of something physical, or something intangible as long as its valuable - it tells a strong story of a world where the well-off make use of and sacrifice those who are less well-off.  In that story comes this protagonist, who at first wanted nothing more than to hide, but who becomes determined to fight for the possibility that she and others can become something more than a tool for others to use, and who is willing to kill and sacrifice all those necessary to create that better world.  It's another winner from Miller, as one should expect at this point. 

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Friday, June 25, 2021

Fantasy Novella Review: The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold

 


Disclaimer: This Review is based upon an eARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a review.  I give my word this did not affect the tone of this review.

The Physicians of Vilnoc is the 8th novella (by publication order, not chronologically) in Lois McMaster Bujold's "Penric & Desdemona" fantasy series, which is set in her "World of the Five Gods" (which first showed up with The Curse of Chalion).  I have enjoyed this series, but have kind of found myself souring on it over time - not because in any way it's gotten bad, but because the installments just felt like they were becoming more of the same.  Nowhere was that more apparent than with the seventh story, The Orphans of Raspay, which didn't really add anything - no character developments of note, no fun moments, nothing we hadn't seen before.  It was....fine, just completely inessential, without the fun touches I'm used to in Bujold's works.  

But to my pleasant surprise, The Physicians of Vilnoc is a return to form for Bujold in this series, featuring really well done character development and a plot that sets our protagonists - Learned Penric of the Bastard's order and his demon Desdemona - against a newish foe, a plague in both their city and Penric's brother in law's army camp.  It's not a story featuring much of the witty fun dialogue of past Bujold works, but the character development of Penric shown here, and how far things have come, is really heartwarming even in a novella focused upon plague, and really enjoyable.  If you've read the past seven novellas in this series (or if you've skipped around and read a few), you'll enjoy this.  


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Thursday, June 24, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen

 



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 July 6, 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.


We Have Always Been Here is the debut novel from author Lena Nguyen and it's a type of book that I swear has been getting more and more common these days.  In the vein of say, Emma Newman's Planetfall series or a number of other books, it's a noir-esque novel of a neurodivergant protagonist (described by book blurbs as a misanthropic psychologist) out in space/on an alien planet, as strange things begin to happen among a limited number of characters in what seems to be a locked room-esque mystery.  This combination is surprisingly common at least among books I've found myself reading (Kali Wallace's book from this past March, Dead Space, shares some similarities) and it's one I haven't always found myself loving that much.  

But We Have All Been Here does this in a fairly interesting manner, with a really strong world, an interesting reveal, and a solid main character to guide us through it all - again misanthropic psychologist Grace Park.  It's a story filled with humans - in this case either soldiers or genius scientists - and androids, exploring a newly discovered world on behalf of an organization that essentially controls all of human space, whose power is too substantial for anyone not well off to resist after Earth has fallen to pieces.  And the protagonist, who doesn't really empathize with humans but does with the androids, has to discover what's going on as people start coming down sick, androids start acting weird, and everything turns out not to be what it seems, leading to an ending that actually works fairly well and is done in an interesting manner.  If you like this type of book, you'll like this, and if you are merely ambivalent, you'll probably find this interesting as well.  


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Wednesday, June 23, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

 




Hummingbird Salamander is the latest book by weird/ecological SF/F author Jeff VanderMeer, most famously known for his Southern Reach trilogy (or the trilogy's first book, Annihilation).  VanderMeer's prior work has nearly always captivated me, even when I haven't necessarily loved it, featuring scifi and fantasy worlds that are downright strange results of modern day environmental/ecological/bio-technological processes.  So despite my bouncing off his last book (his YA Fantasy "A Peculiar Peril") I was excited to try his latest when it came out.

And Hummingbird Salamander is a fascinating novel that will give people serious vibes of Annihilation, especially with its main character "Jane."  The novel essentially takes VanderMeer's exploration of inevitable environmental disaster and his prior use of protagonists with serious past issues making their internal lives and narratives a mess...and combines it with a spy thriller, as Jane winds up falling into a conflict between an environmental "terrorist", her evil corporate family, and others with their own agendas.  It's a fascinating book in how much things can just happen and fall out of control and yet not matter, leading to an ending typical of VanderMeer in the questions it leaves open.  

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Tuesday, June 22, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Capture the Crown by Jennifer Estep

 



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 July 6, 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.


Capture the Crown is the start of a new trilogy by author Jennifer Estep, set in the same world (but 16 years later) as her Crown of Stars trilogy, which began with Kill the Queen (my review is here).  I kinda loved Crown of Stars....sorta?  I really enjoyed the first book, even if there was nothing truly great to recommend it - it's protagonist was just rather fun to read as was the plot, even if it never was anything truly special.  And something about Estep's prose in the series just made it easy to devour each book incredibly quickly, even if I felt the second and third books were less interesting than the first one.  

Capture the Crown features a new protagonist, Gemma, a minor character from the first trilogy who was merely a child, who possesses the telepathy and telekinesis magic (she's a "Mind Magier") and decides to use it not to be a proper princess, but a spy for her nation.  Gemma's story is a lot of fun and features that same incredibly easy to read prose (I finished this in a day even though i did NOT mean to) as she winds up in enemy territory, falling for an enemy in a classic "enemies to lovers" tropes, and dealing with a ruthless web of royals and backstabbers to go along with her own malfunctioning power.  Again, it's nothing special, but it's an excellent start to a new trilogy and I look forward eagerly to book 2.  

Note:  This is the start of a new trilogy in this world, but references are made to the prior trilogy, especially to an event at the start of Kill the Queen.  Those are explained I think decently well to the point where readers new to this world can probably start here okay, but new readers may be a little confused as to the family references and whatnot, so I'm not sure how well this book will be for readers who didn't at least read the first book of Crown of Stars.  

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Monday, June 21, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy/Romance Review Book Review: Beyond Surrender by Kit Rocha

 




Beyond Surrender is the ninth and final book in Kit Rocha's erotic romance "Beyond" series.  It's a series that I've really enjoyed* as it featured couples and groups of guys and women falling in love, exploring each others' passions, desires, and oh yes their bodies in increasingly sexy ways, all the while telling a series-long plot of them all fighting for the freedom to do just that.  Its characters have generally been tremendous, and of course yes the sex scenes are really really fun, but the last two books turned more plot heavy than the prior ones, with the romance scenes suffering a little as a result (although Book 7 made up for it with amazing sex scenes).  So I was curious to see how the series' concluding volume would work out.   

*For a basic summary of the series, see my review of Book 7, Beyond Ruin, here*

And the answer is mixed.  On one hand, the series concludes finally with a romance featuring a character who I've been waiting to see featured since book 1 - the young liquor (whiskey) expert Nessa, prone to gossip and complaining everyone treats her too much like a kid sister to give her anything themselves.  On the other hand, the romance and sex between her and Ryder isn't really as memorable as some of the earlier romances in the series, which might disappoint some series regulars.  But it works really well, and Nessa and Ryder are great characters and the series' action conclusion - with not everyone making it out in one piece but it all winding up in a satisfying conclusion.  

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Friday, June 18, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Ravage the Dark by Tara Sim

 




Ravage the Dark is the sequel and second half of a duology by Tara Sim which began with Scavenge the Stars last year (My review of that book is here).  That book was the start of a Dark YA Fantasy story inspired heavily by the Count of Monte Cristo, featuring two protagonists - Amaya, a girl whose father was killed and who was sold to a debtor ship for his alleged debts as a child who comes back to her island city seeking revenge and Cayo, a gambling/alcohol addicted son of a rich merchant with a heart of gold, who is desperate to save his sister from a deadly illness.  As in the inspiration story, Amaya winds up targeting Cayo in a con because Cayo's father is the man seemingly responsible for her father's death, but the two find themselves attracted to one another....until a series of betrayals throws everything into chaos.  It was not a light YA tale, with it making some pretty dark choices in terms of betrayals, deaths, and outcomes, but it worked really well especially with its two lead protagonists.  So I was really excited to get my hands on the sequel via inter-library loan.  

Ravage the Dark on the other hand.....works a bit less well.  The story itself is fine, and Cayo and Amaya and some of the side characters are certainly very easy to like and root for, as Sim puts them both through the emotional ringer once again.  But there's far more material here both plotwise (two empires, a counterfeit scheme spreading sickness, a neutral city caught in the middle, family members under threat, alchemists, pickpockets and more, etc ) and character-relationship wise, especially the relationship between Amaya and Cayo, than the book has room for.  It's kind of a thing these days for YA series to be duologies, and usually the problem there is that it features two books with only enough material for one, but in this case, there's clearly a trilogy worth of material here, and not three books.  And so too much of what happens is rushed all the way through for a conclusion.  It's not a bad book - and it will tear at your heartstrings badly at least once - but it still feels like a bit of a let down.  

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Thursday, June 17, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A War of Swallowed Stars by Sangu Mandanna

 


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 June 29, 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.


Sangu Mandanna's Celestial Trilogy, which began with A Spark of White Fire (Reviewed Here) and continued with A House of Rage and Sorrow (Reviewed Here), is one of my surprise favorites of the past few years.  The series is a YA Space Opera adaptation of a part of the Mahābhārata, a famous Indian/Sanskrit epic, although no prior knowledge of that epic is required.*  Each novel in the series is fairly short, roughly 200-250 pages, and there's nothing in the first book that I can point to as objectively great in either character work or thematic work....and yet I fell in love with the characters and this world from the start, and it only got so much better after book 2.  The book's protagonist, Esmae, and its minor characters grew so much on me, as Esmae had her dreams betrayed by both gods and humans and got wrapped on an all consuming quest for vengeance, and book 2 ended on a tremendous cliffhanger that just left my jaw dropped and desperate for this book to conclude the tale.  

*I have not read a translation of the epic, although between this series and Ashok Banker's Upon A Burning Throne, I have now read two different adaptations of it*

And A War of Swallowed Stars absolutely delivers.  The improved and tremendous character work of book 2 continues, carrying the story even as its main protagonist is absent for much of the book's first act.  This story of betrayal, of family, of love, of gods and prophecies and curses, etc etc. just winds up and up and goes in some very different directions than I expected, leading to a conclusion that just made me tear up in happiness.  I loved the characters, I loved the themes of love and peace vs pride and vengeance, of our own autonomy vs destiny and heritage, and I loved how it all ended.  I cannot recommend this trilogy enough, and I cannot wait for whatever Mandanna has coming up next, if anything.  

Spoiler Warning for Books 1-2 below.  

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Tuesday, June 15, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart

 




Witches Steeped in Gold is a book I've been hearing things about on social media for a while, which is usually a good sign for a debut.  It's a YA Fantasy novel that's the start of a series inspired by Jamaican folklore and while it's not very long, it's certainly very ambitious, telling a story filled with magic, special artifacts, mythical peoples, and more.  It's also the type of story that isn't interested in holding ones' hand, as it introduces concepts, terms and peoples without much explanation, trusting the reader to keep up.

And I can very much see how Witches Steeped in Gold earned that praise, with the story taking a very classical YA beginning and taking it in very different and dark directions.  The story alternates perspectives between a pair of protagonists from historically opposed peoples desperate to change their fates, but afraid of the costs of such actions, and the classical trope would be for the two protags to get over their fears grow into leaders, and combine their skills to make a better outcome.  But Witches Steeped in Gold is a darker more ambitious story than that and goes in a very different direction, one that left me really curious where the series would go from here, even as I thought this first book bit off a bit more than it could chew.  

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Monday, June 14, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy/Romance Review Book Review: Beyond Ecstasy by Kit Rocha

 




Beyond Ecstasy is book 8 of 9 in Kit Rocha's erotic romance "Beyond" series.  For an overview of the series, see my last review of Book 7, Beyond Ruin here.  As you might imagine for Book eight of a nine book series, the series is quite clearly at this point in the wind down,* with long term plot arcs being paid off and coming to fruition as our heroes fight against the corrupt leaders of the city of Eden for the right to live and love their lives.  But we've still got some for some romance during it all, or else we wouldn't have a series, and I've loved this series' super sexy romance so so much, with the last book being a clear highlight.  

Alas, while Beyond Ecstasy still has its moments, its probably my least favorite book in the series.  After a four-way romance in book 7, we're back to a single M-W couple here: Hawk, the O'Kane who came from the farms in Sector Six (see Book 5), and Jeni, the sex worker who had a thing with Dallas and Lex for a while in prior books.  Their individual romance, absent any other context, is still done well with one really sexy scene midway through as a highlight, but the two are some of the least interesting romantic characters in the series (at least for me) and their romance is overshadowed in large part by the larger series arc coming into play.  And I'm invested in that series wide arc for sure, but I'm here also for the romance, so the balance being off is a problem.  

More specifics after the jump:

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Thursday, June 10, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst

 




The Bone Maker is the most recent adult novel by prolific author Sarah Beth Durst, known for both kid's and adult (and YA as well) SF/F novels.  I've really enjoyed Durst's adult (and sort of borderline YA-ish at times) work (Queen of Blood, Race the Sands, etc.), which has often taken some classic fantasy tropes and turns them on their heads in really dark ways.  Durst's prose is also the type that - for whatever reason - seems really readable to me, so I was excited to try this newest novel and reserved it from the library immediately upon release.

And The Bone Maker is a very enjoyable kind of take on an interesting fantasy subgenre - the story that begins well after the epic fantasy adventure has concluded and deals largely with its former heroes dealing with the aftermath.  The Bone Maker features a quintet of heroes who at great cost defeated a big evil, and who fell apart afterwards as they dealt with the results of those cost.  It's a strong story with strong lead characters - including one side character I really enjoyed - dealing with themes of grief, of the power of life and death, of the difference between good and evil, and more.  Like other Durst novels I've read, it takes a few shortcuts in the ending to wrap things up with a neat bow, but other than that this is another strong novel from her.  

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Wednesday, June 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: First Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara

 




First Become Ashes is the second book by author K.M. Szpara, who had previously been Hugo and Nebula nominated for short fiction before making his long fiction debut last year with "Docile."  Docile (my review here) was....an incredibly hard book to read, featuring a dark sci-fi take on capitalism and consent and abusive (M-M) relationships, which ended in a provocative and difficult fashion...which I'm not really sure actually was earned or worked.  Docile was a book that featured prominent on-page rape, sexual abuse, and other abusive scenes, which is very much not my thing, and yet it used those scenes to hit its message really really hard, making the book impossible to have weak feelings about.  

First Become Ashes isn't quite as full of triggering scenes as Docile - sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse all feature prominently once again, but not quite as often.  But it isn't anywhere near as interesting as Docile as it deals with a boy who grew up as a chosen one in a cult (suffering the aforementioned abuse along the way) and winding up on the run in the real world when the cult gets raided by the FBI.  So there's some interesting themes about abuse, about figuring out what to believe after a childhood of brainwashing, and about love and how you can best help someone struggling with these issues.....and the book entirely fumbles these themes with a last act swerve that just feels out of place and unearned.  So with similar difficult passages to Docile, even if less extensive, but without the interesting and questioning themes....it makes me not very interested in reading what comes next from Szpara.  

TRIGGER WARNINGS:  Self-Harm, Self-Harm by Proxy, Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Physical Abuse, Rape.  You get the drill.  


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Tuesday, June 8, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

 


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 June 22, 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 Witness of the Dead is one of the most anticipated SciFi/Fantasy works of the year - the sequel to Katherine Addison's celebrated "The Goblin Emperor".  I didn't love the Goblin Emperor nearly as much as the general consensus - the book was often a fantasy parable on race that worked really well, even if a bit heavy handed, with excellent world building as it built a story of a half-goblin distant son of a ruler suddenly becoming emperor.  It featured court intrigue and scheming (it was advertised as a fantasy of manners) but mostly featured a young slightly naive but determined to be good ruler trying to make things work for the best of everyone, even as he was distrusted for his racial heritage.  But I didn't love it mainly because things wound up going too well for the hero, too easily, which kind of didn't work with the buildup, which made it all not hit as well for me.  Still I really enjoyed Addison's second* novel, The Angel of the Crows (a fantasy take on Sherlock Holmes) and was really interested to see how a new book in a world I did really enjoy would work.  

*Addison is actually a pen name for author Sarah Monette, but she has only three novels under the pen name.*

And I really liked The Witness of the Dead, which is a short (240 pages) novel featuring a character from The Goblin Emperor in a fantasy book that is largely a mystery novel (featuring multiple mysteries), to go along with some fantasy adventure beats and some more court scheming.  The protagonist, a Witness for the Dead who can see the last thoughts and observations of the recently deceased, finds himself trying to resolve disputes and mysteries involving those recently dead, which gets him into further trouble due to his own standing outside the typical political hierarchy, as well as his own tragic past (outlined in The Goblin Emperor, but you don't need to remember it for this book to work).  While the ending is a little abrupt, and not everything works, it is a very successful work that will please fans.  

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Monday, June 7, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

 




Black Girl Unlimited is an odd book for me to review because it is at least somewhat autobiographical, even as it very much features elements of magical realism and fantasy (the book features the subtitle "The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard).  But it definitely has those fantastical elements again and a fellow book reviewer's review made me think it would be very much up my alley, as someone who has found himself enjoying YA, especially YA trying to deal with serious issues.  And Black Girl Unlimited very much deals with serious issues such as race, sexism, sexual assault, poverty, and more as it tells the story of a bright black girl from a poor East Side neighborhood growing up and dealing with these issues while almost always trying to stay hopeful and uplifting.  

And Black Girl Unlimited is very good and powerful through its hopeful protagonist....if often extremely excruciating to read.  Echo grows up in a family with a history of child abuse, with drugs, alcohol and family problems consuming her mother and brothers, and yet somehow manages to take all this in for a large part of this book both intelligently and heavily naively, innocent in a way that feels almost improbable - and is incredibly difficult to read for a reader who can see where certain things are going.  But Echo's strong hopeful drive, and her will to try and make things better for everyone around her, makes Black Girl Unlimited far from a grim tale of struggle and instead a really powerful volume that's well worth your time.  

TRIGGER WARNING:  Rape (On Page), Child Sex Abuse (Off Page), Racism, Sexism, Drug Usage, and more.  These issues are dealt with well as part of Echo's story, but are absolutely not shied away from - and honestly Echo's innocence as she encounters them only makes them hit harder.  If you can't handle these things, do NOT read this book.

Note:  I started reading this book in audiobook format, and I honestly don't recommend it.  The book's chapters frequently feature a narrative device in which the book bounces back and forth between two narratives in two different place/times, and the audiobook doesn't do a particularly good job making that clear.  

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Friday, June 4, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Terminal Boredom by Izui Suzuki (Translated by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O'Horan)




Terminal Boredom is an anthology of translated short fiction by the late Izumi Suzuki, an apparent legend of Japanese SciFi (and described in both some reviews and the book blurb as a "countercultural icon").  Suzuki died (by suicide) in 1986 and I believe these stories were written in the 1970s, as the first of apparently two collections being released by this publisher this year.  Each story in this collection is translated by a different translator, and the collection is entirely barebones, with no introduction or post-script to analyze or explain why these stories were selected or their significance, leaving their enjoyment wholly to the reader to figure out.  

And the stories included in this collection are really interesting, dealing with issues of empathy, gender, imperialism, dreams, memory and more.  Despite the different translators for each story, familiar themes and character archetypes show-up throughout the anthology, making it very much feel as if some of the stories are connected despite taking place in some very different settings and times.  The stories are incredibly contemplative - each featuring protagonists going on long internal monologues about their thoughts about life and the situation, and emotionally abusive relationships are common throughout, so fair warning, this collection may not be for everyone, but Suzuki does some interesting things with them throughout.  

Trigger Warning: Emotional and Physically Abusive Relationships, one story features a possible Rape (maybe?), Suicide (multiple stories), Depression, Drug Use. 

Note: I read this in audiobook and while the reader is good, I don't recommend it in that format - you really need to read this to truly go over the passages and monologues, which is something you can't do in audio format.  
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Wednesday, June 2, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Liu



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 June 15, 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 Tangleroot Palace is a collection of short fiction from fantasy/comics writer Marjorie Liu (featuring yes, the story by that name).  It's only seven stories long, with the stories probably all at the boundary between short story (7500 words) and novelette (17500 words) in length.  Each story comes with a comment by the author about what it was written for and the prompt that inspired it, after the end of course so as not to spoil.  I'd never read Liu outside of comics - her Monstress comic was in the Hugo Packet for a few years in a row and that was pretty enjoyable, so I was interested to try out her short fiction. 

And well, its' a fun collection with a few winning stories, but nothing particularly mindblowing.  A few stories are highly predictable, if done really well, although a few others are surprising in the directions they go.  Several of the stories deal with love and finding it, magical forests, alternate histories, and more, and again, they all do work.  It's not a collection that I think people have to have, but it's a solid collection of Liu's work, and I'll certainly be on the lookout for more going forward.  

More after the jump - since there are only 7 stories, I'll go into each one very quickly: 
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Tuesday, June 1, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Black Sci-Fi Short Stories, Foreward by Temi Oh, Intro by Sandra M Grayson, and Edited by Tia Ross

 



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 June 15, 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.

Black Sci-Fi Short Stories is an upcoming anthology being put out by Flame Tree Publishing, oddly in their Gothic Fantasy collection.  The anthology features a foreward by Temi Oh (Do You Dream of Terra Two) and an introduction by Dr. Sandra M Grayson, a professor whose research has involved researching the history of Science Fiction from Black Authors and Perspectives.  It also features a collection of stories from modern authors - some I recognize pretty easily - and several stories from historical authors who dabbled in speculative fiction in the early 20th century and beforehand.  

It's an interesting collection, but...also kind of odd, in that the older stories tend to be novella length whereas the newer stories are clear short stories in length, making it harder for them to stand out.  This is especially the case because the newer stories don't really share any coherent themes - whereas the older stories - all well in the public domain and available for free online - are significantly more interesting in showcasing the perspective of black people through scifi and alternate history stories centered around their perspectives as people oppressed and just freed or still in slavery in America.  It makes it hard to recommend because technically I could just recommend the older stories on their own...and yet having the collected together is pretty interesting in itself.  

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