Thursday, September 30, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Blood of the Chosen by Django Wexler

 



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

Blood of the Chosen is the sequel to Ashes of the Sun (reviewed here) and the second in his epic fantasy trilogy "Burningblade & Silvereye".  The series is heavily inspired by Star Wars, featuring an Order of warriors who wield an energy force (which manifests often as blades made of light and fire) who are taken...by force...as children from their families to be trained to serve and maintain order for a Republic, although it seems like some of those warriors, Centarchs, have less noble goals in mind.  As you can probably guess from the series title, it follows two characters - siblings: a brother Gyre Silvereye who had his eye cut out by a centarch when they took his sister and has vowed to destroy the Order and its corruption and that sister Maya (Burningblade), now a young centarch, as she attempts to maintain order and fight for justice....which years later leads them into conflict.  The first book in the trilogy ended with the two characters parting ways still resolved towards their own goals, and was really enjoyable, so I was excited to get an early copy of this.  

Blood of the Chosen is a solid second installment, if a hundred pages shorter, which continues the story in an enjoyable way....albeit in ways that are very typical of a second installment in a trilogy.  And so the story marches towards a cliffhanger for the finale, as Gyre and Maya try to achieve their own objectives and eventually come back together for another conflict....or perhaps alliance.  It's a lot of fun, and Wexler writes his characters and action scenes really well, so despite the book still being nearly 500 pages (as opposed to 600 in book 1), it never drags, and I definitely look forward to book 3 to see how things finish off.  

Note:  In a really rare but nice gesture, this book comes with a summary of Book 1 at the start, so readers will not need to reread book 1 to remember what happened there.  It's a big help and I suspect most readers will appreciate not having to reread a 600 page book.

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Wednesday, September 29, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Book Review: The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

 



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

The Death of Jane Lawrence is the second novel by author Caitlin Starling, whose debut The Luminous Dead was an incredible piece of sci-fi horror (my review here).  Starling followed up that novel with her queer weird horror fantasy novella, Yellow Jessamine, which I'm honestly a year later still not sure if I liked it or not - but it was certainly really interesting stuff.  Both stories featured a major element of psychological horror as their genre elements resulted in their protagonists seeming to lose their grips on their own sanities, and were pretty damn great at portraying a freaky as hell atmosphere.  So I was really curious to see how Starling would handle a more conventional genre of horror, Gothic Horror*, in this second novel.  

*Not that Gothic Horror isn't also known for making its protagonists unsure if they're going crazy, mind you.

And Starling delivers with this novel, which takes what seems like a fairly basic gothic horror presence - woman marries man she barely knows, who has a creepy mansion she must never sleep in and inevitably does - and creates an atmosphere that left me enthralled and desperate to learn what happens next.  As you might expect from Starling's work, this novel puts its heroine Jane through the ringer, making her question her sanity and what she is seeing at multiple points, and it uses its gothic horror setting in interesting ways that I was certainly not all expecting.  Add in a protagonist who is a rational and usually non-romantic woman, who is introverted and prefers the cool rational working of numbers and mathematics, and you have a lead who is easy to like and care about as things go to hell.  There's one twist that seemed pretty obvious, but other than that, if you like gothic horror or psychological horror, you will definitely enjoy this.  

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on October 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.
Scales and Sensibility is the first in a new fantasy regency romance trilogy by author Stephanie Burgis.  The novel was originally serialized as part of Burgis' patreon, but is now coming out in full for purchase to other readers this October.  I've very much enjoyed what I've read of Burgis in the past, most notably her Harwood Spellbook series of fantasy romances (also sort of Regency-esque)* which played with some fun inversions of gender tropes even as it dealt with heroines trying desperately to get both romance and magic in a world that ties to constrict them to one or the other.  

*Those romances are fairly chaste - you may get an implication that sex has occurred off page, but that's about it, with the most you'll get on page being kisses, so if you're looking for steamy pages, you're in the wrong place.*

And Scales and Sensibility is pretty much exactly what I expect, and what I would want, from a Stephanie Burgis novel.  There's a really enjoyable heroine in Elinor, a young woman whose family (her and her two sisters will each be the protagonists of these novels) was ruined and who thus now finds herself forced to live with her spoiled brat cousin and her selfish dominating uncle.  There's a fun dragon who rests on her shoulder, and may possess a bit of magic.  And there's blackmail, scandal, and romance, all leading to a conclusion that is very satisfying.  It may not be something that is super unique, but if you're looking for not too serious enjoyable regency romance with a slight fantasy twist, Scales and Sensibility will give you everything you are asking for.  

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Monday, September 27, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Summer in the City of Roses by Michelle Ruiz Keil

 




Summer in the City of Roses is a YA/Magical Realism novel from author Michell Ruiz Keil.  It's her second novel, and I'd honestly never heard of it until Tor.com posted a glowing review that really caught my interest.  The novel features a take on 90s or early 00s Portland and is advertised as taking inspiration from the Greek myths of Iphigenia and Orestes, as well as the Grimm fairy tale of "Brother and Sister"....although honestly, it is very much its own story, that outshines those tales that influenced it.  

Which is to say that I loved Summer in the City of Roses for the most part, as a fantastic book exploring the side of Portland and the world that is often overlooked - the PoC, the poor and homeless, the queer, the sex workers, and those who don't fit the standard well off white (if liberal) majority populace of the city.  And it does so in a way that is optimistic but fair, resulting in a story that reminded me a lot of books like the Wayfarer books of Becky Chambers or even Pat Murphy's The City, Not Long After.  And its a story that surprises in its many turns, never taking the obvious or easy path forwards, just like its characters.  This is a really good book that deserves far more attention than I've seen it recieve.  

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Sunday, September 26, 2021

TV/Film Review: Star Wars Visions

 



As a huge Star Wars fan, and a mild fan of anime (more as a teen growing up than now), Star Wars Visions was always going to be right up my alley.  If you somehow read this blog and haven't heard of Visions, it was just realized this week, and features 7 Japanese Animation (Anime) Studios producing 9 short 10-20 minute short films based in the Star Wars universe, although each is non-canon.  Star Wars was famously the result of George Lucas being inspired by Akira Kurosawa, so this project allows an Eastern-inspired western work to be now worked on by Eastern producers in turn, which is nice and poetic. 

And well, Visions is FANTASTIC and you should watch them all if you have any interest in Star Wars.  The animation is just brilliant in all nine shorts, in nine VERY different styles of animation, which may not work in each case for every watcher, but all worked for me in their own ways.  Anyhow, I was egged on by a twitter following to do a ranking of the nine shorts, so that's what I'm going to do at the bottom of this post.  But let's be clear - they're all good to great, and you should watch them all.  

Note: I watched every short in the original Japanese with English subtitles, although I've since watched two of them in English dubs, so I can't really talk about the quality of the famous actors giving their voices to the english project - I've heard from other reviews that they're hit or miss, but I won't be judging them down below  

Spoilers after the jump:

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

Reviewing the 2021 Hugo Nominees: The Hugo Award for Best Novelette

 



Hugo Award voting is open and will continue through the November 19, 2021 (The voting period is extra long this year due to COVID delaying the convention till December).  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did the last four years, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.


This is the second part of this series.  I have previously reviewed the nominees for Best Short Story in an earlier post.  You can find all the parts of this series, going over each category of the Hugo Awards HERE.

In this post, we're going to start covering the nominees in the Short Fiction categories - specifically, the nominees for Best Novelette .  These are works of between 7500 and 17500 words, and thus allow for a little more depth and development than the works in the short story category, which makes these length stories appeal to me personally a bit more than the shorter ones, even if you should still be able to read these stories in a single sitting.

Five of the Six Nominees this year are freely available online, and I will link them when I discuss them.  The sixth nominee, Helicopter Story, was pulled from online after a....controversy that went horribly wrong, which I'll mention below (and link to a better in depth treatment) but will not go in depth about, since it technically shouldn't affect my ballot.   

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Friday, September 24, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wake of the Phoenix by Chelsea Harper

 



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 September 28, 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.


Wake of the Phoenix is the debut novel of author Chelsea Harper, and in a bit of a rarity for me, a self-published novel from an author I basically hadn't heard of before.  But a promotional tweet by the author on twitter got retweeted by an author I follow, and well, I'd seen the book on NetGalley, so I decided to give it a whirl.  

Alas, the result is a bit uneven - Wake of the Phoenix shows promise in its premise and characters, but muddles it all behind a political situation that is just incredibly confusing for way too long (and I'm still not sure I get it), as well as several characters making decisions that are just utterly baffling, such that it never really comes together.  I really wanted to like the main characters - a noble lord who once rebelled against his Empire, fell in love with a magically empowered man (with the gift of foresight), and came home to try to stop a new war AND a young orphaned girl turned thief trying to find a way to support a better life for her brother.  But there's just so much going on that isn't explained well, that it was hard to really understand what was happening, and the character work wasn't good enough for me to be willing to overlook it all.  I'll probably not be back for book 2.  

Trigger Warning:  Off Page, but one character has a backstory of being the victim of rape/sexual assault, that becomes relevant to the plot.  

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Thursday, September 23, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

 


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 September 28, 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 Last Graduate is the second book in Naomi Novik's new YA fantasy trilogy, The Scholomance, which began with last year's "A Deadly Education" (My review is here).  I liked A Deadly Education thanks to its really fun sardonic narration courtesy of its heroine El, who made even the novels' frequent infodumps enjoyable to read.  Add in a story that featured themes of class, race, and privilege, a school for teenage magic users that was constantly trying to kill them, and a fun little romance between the mass-destroying El and heroic evil-slaying Orion, and you had a story that was very enjoyable....even if it had some issues trading in national stereotypes at times.*  The book ended on not quite a cliffhanger, but a hell of a sequel hook, which threatened to cause some big trouble for the trilogy's central romance.

*This is an issue in other Novik works as well, such as the Temeraire series.  

Unfortunately, The Last Graduate features the worst traits of its predecessor - the national stereotypes, the persistent info-dumping - getting notably worse, and the book's character work being overwhelmed by the info-dumping.  The book does nothing with the tantalizing sequel hook and its central romance is basically forgotten for long stretches, and the final quarter of the book depends upon so much infodumping and plot elements pulled out of almost nowhere, that it just drags and disappoints.  There are still some solid work with the themes of class and privilege here, and the dialogue is often very quotable and fun, but this is a very disappointing second novel in what looked like a promising new trilogy.  

Spoilers for book 1 below are inevitable:

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Wednesday, September 22, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Activation Degradation by Marina J Lostetter

 


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 September 28, 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.

Activation Degradation is the latest book by author Marina J Lostetter, whose Noumenon trilogy was liked by others a lot more than myself (I don't particularly love generation ship novels, so I bailed after book 1), and whose recent epic fantasy novel, The Helm of Midnight (written as "Marina Lostetter") I liked a lot.  So I had no idea what to expect out of Activation Degradation, which returned to a Sci-Fi setting for the first time since the last Noumenon book.  

I needn't have worried - Activation Degradation is very very good, telling a tale featuring as its protagonist a Murderbot-like construct, except one who is not self-aware of what it is and finds its world thrown into disarray when the "aliens" it tries to fight off turn out to be a crew of humans.  The story has some really solid action sequences, all the while also containing some strong themes about family/community, about loyalty, about sins of the past, and about the unacceptability of systems that deliberately create harm to a few for the sake of others.  The book appears to be a stand alone, although I'd love to see more explored in this universe, and definitely is worth your time.  

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Tuesday, September 21, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

 



There have been few books this past year with more hype in the circles I pay attention to than Shelley Parker-Chan's debut novel "She Who Became the Sun".  The book is historical fantasy, telling an alternate tale of 14th century China featuring an alternate take on the rise of the first Emperor in the Ming Dynasty (and the end of the Mongol dynasty).  The fantastical elements are minor, but what there is, and what is what's getting much of the hype, is how the genderflipped and queer tale hits some really interesting themes as the first part of a new duology.  

And She Who Became the Sun really does earn the hype, with a pair of fascinating main characters: a peasant girl who takes the name and supposed destiny of greatness of her dead brother Zhu and a eunuch general Ouyang who is the favorite of a prince, despite his inner desire to get revenge on the prince's family for his disgrace.  The two characters (along with two side characters) are fascinating as they each deal with their own gender issues, with Zhu afraid that her female form will keep her from her brother's greatness and Ouyang ashamed his form gives him a femininity that others mock - all as both reach for their own desires and fate in a land filled with ambitious and jealous nobles and generals who will squash anyone in their path.  It's a hell of a first half of a duology and unlike many duologies, actually is entirely satisfying as the first part of a story, even as it has me eagerly anticipating the conclusion.  
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Monday, September 20, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Escapement by Lavie Tidhar

 


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 September 21, 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 Escapement is the latest novel from award winning Israeli science fiction/fantasy writer, Lavie Tidhar - an author whose work I have barely touched in the past (I've read his Central Station, which I didn't particularly love).  Still, Tidhar's work has always been highly praised by people I trust, so I was interested in taking another shot at it. 

The Escapement is a really interesting short novel, although it's one that I have a hard time getting a full handle on.  The book is one part the story of a father dealing with the imminent death of a child, one part Dark-Tower like gunslinger in a fantasy western setting centered around clowns, and one part set of stories based upon historical and folk stories of various cultures.  It's a story about a single moment of happiness, and the longing for it to last forever rather than going away.  I'm not quite sure it all worked for me, or that large parts didn't go over my head, but it's certainly worth a read.  

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Saturday, September 18, 2021

Reviewing the 2021 Hugo Nominees: The Hugo Award for Best Short Story

 


Hugo Award voting is open and will continue through the November 19, 2021 (The voting period is extra long this year due to COVID delaying the convention till December).  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did the last four years, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.


This is the first part of this series.  You can find all the parts of this series, going over each category of the Hugo Awards HERE.

In this post, we're going to start covering the nominees in the Short Fiction categories - specifically, the nominees for Best Short Story.  These are works of no more than 7500 words, and can often be particularly short, such as only a 1-3 pages long.  This length requirement does not mean that these stories cannot make a big impact - indeed past and present nominees often come with a punch so strong to make one feel it for a while.  Which isn't to say that all of the nominees for this category have to be serious or impactful - fun, wistful, and heartwarming stories get nominated all the time.

Last year we basically had a bunch of serious stories, some of which carried significant punch, but no fun and/or silly ones.  This year, we actually have several fun, lighter stories, in addition to a few serious bittersweet ones.  In a change however, we really don't have any stories with significant punch or historical weight this year, and honestly, there aren't any stories that really make me think of them as "must reads" this time around.  None of the stories are bad, and a few of them are pretty good, but there have been some past stories that have just stood out to me as "Clear Hugo Winning Material", and I don't really see that here this time.  But all are good enough to be better than No Award, so I'll make the effort to rank them.....after the jump.  

As usual, all of this year's nominees are available online, and as such I have provided links to them for you to read below.  I encourage you to do so.
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Friday, September 17, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Councilor by E.J. Beaton

 





The Councilor is the debut novel (and first in a series) by author E.J. Beaton.  The book is marketed as a Machiavellian fantasy, featuring a woman whose life's work has been studying and crafting a book based upon past history of what would be a truly "Ideal Queen", but that marketing - as is typical - is a bit misleading.  The story is instead the tale of a commoner woman given the chance at guiding power, finding she has a taste for it herself and struggling to handle her desire to do what's right, the lessons of her commoner heritage and an oppressed minority lover, along with the lessons her tyrannical ruler mother figure once taught her. 

And there's a lot here to like in The Councilor, especially in its lead character, its world (a very egalitarian and LGBTQ-friendly world, despite the oppressive treatment of a major minority group), and some of its prominent side characters.  Still the book, which isn't short but isn't long either, doesn't seem to have enough page length to deal with the moral and other struggles of its heroine, such that it doesn't quite seem to have enough space to deal with the interesting issues being dealt with.  There's also a drug addiction plotline that goes absolutely nowhere (and is advertised on the back page), which is very weird.  I'm very much interested to see where this goes in the next book, but this didn't quite hit the potential that it set up, to my disappointment.  

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Tuesday, September 14, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bright Raven Skies by Kristina Pérez

 





Bright Raven Skies is the third and final book in Kristina Pérez's Sweet Black Waves trilogy, which featured a dark fantasy and YA take on the story of Tristan and Eseult/Isolde.  The first book, Sweet Black Waves (reviewed here) introduced the basic elements of the story, including our strong protagonist Branwen who would fall in love while gaining magical powers that she desperately tries to use to help her cousin due her duty and bring peace to her home country.  The second book, Wild Savage Stars (reviewed here) saw the lengths to which the heartbroken Branwen would go to do her duty to preserve the peace, even in the face of her loved ones jeopardizing everything.  The two books left the trilogy in a fascinating place, thanks to its tremendous lead character who felt both real and compelling as she tried to navigate impossible dilemmas and to take what little joys she could from it all.  

Bright Raven Skies, up through its final act, is a worthy successor and finale to the trilogy, as Branwen firmly deals with the consequences of her actions, and has to find a way to live going forwards.  And while the final act of the story feels a bit disjointed, as if it was written first before other plot developments were thought out, it still works as a conclusion to the story of a tremendous lead character, which makes this a satisfying conclusion in the end.  It's not quite a concluding volume that can elevate this story to the masterpiece it came close to, but I'm still really glad that I got tipped off to this trilogy, which features tremendous characters and relationships throughout.  

Spoilers for Books 1-2 are inevitable:

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SciFi/Fantasy Anthology: This Year's Best African Speculative Fiction (2021) edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

 

Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained from the editor in advance of the book's release on September 28, 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.

This Year's Best African Speculative Fiction is another SciFi/Fantasy anthology which is obviously exactly what it claims to be - a collection of short stories from African writers that were published in 2020.  The collection features twenty nine stories published in 2020, all short story or flash fiction-esque in length, and as such features a ton of small bites for readers to enjoy and think about (rather than featuring any longer more in-depth stories).  Interestingly, unlike other collections, this collection has no hesitation including multiple stories from the same authors - so the book features two stories from Tlotlo Tsamaase, three stories from Sheree Renée Thomas, and two from Tobi Ogundiran. 

It's a solid and often very interesting collection, hitting a number of themes and topics throughout, featuring a number of writers who readers may be familiar with from recent highly praised novels (T.L. Huchu, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, C.L. Clark) and others from writers who are less well known.  I'd actually read a number of these stories before in both other anthologies (Dominion, Black Sci-Fi Short Stories) or just online (there's a couple from the FIYAH-Tor Flash Fiction collection that I distinctly remembered), and I was not displeased to see them collected again here.  All in all its a solid collection, whose biggest issue is mainly that it just seems not organized in any particular fashion, such that similar stories in the collection are kind of scattered throughout, rather than collected together.  

Some more specifics after the jump:

Trigger Warnings: Murder, Suicide, Child-Harm, and more in various stories.

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Monday, September 13, 2021

Spoilery Discussion/Review: When Sorrows Come and the October Daye series, 15 Books In

 


This post is for a spoilery discussion of the 15th novel in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series.  If you are interested in the series and want to speculate on what the events of this book mean?  This is for you.  If not, and you still want to read this series, I recommend not reading on beyond the jump.


If you accidentally found this page and want to read the actual spoiler free review of this book, go HERE.


You have been warned.





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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire (Non-Spoiler Review)

 



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 September 14, 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.

When Sorrows Come is the Fifteenth (!!) book in Seanan McGuire's urban fantasy "October Daye" series, her first of two long running urban fantasy series.  I pretty much love this series - it's not high art or deep in its themes or whatever, but it's a really fun urban fantasy series with great characters, a really strong world that does deal at least somewhat with real aspects of our own world (even as it deals more and more as it goes on with the Fae rather than with ordinary humans).  And its fae world is really creatively done, its characters have grown tremendously over time, and honestly I just love so much of it all, even when the series does have the occasional off book here and there.  

When Sorrows Come is not an off book - it's probably going to wind up one of my favorite books in the series, if just for the ending and the attached novella.  The general overall plot isn't anything special to write home about, but the characters remain great, and most importantly, this book concludes what seems like a long plot arc of this series in such a happy and enjoyable way, with the main protagonist and her family coming together in generally pleasant ways, that I just found myself smiling in the end.  It's really to the point where the series could end here, and it would be a satisfying ending, even as this book still hints at more to come in the future.  

Note: This review will include as few spoilers as possible, although spoilers for past books are fair game.  A second post, linked HERE, will contain spoilery discussion and speculation for the series, so if you want to comment with your own thoughts, please comment there.  

Note2:  As is traditional with the series, the book contains an attached novella; however, unlike in most prior books, the attached novella is more of an epilogue than its own unique story, and as such, I won't be reviewing it separately.  

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Thursday, September 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

 



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 September 21, 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.


Iron Widow is the debut novel of author Xiran Jay Zhao, one with a pretty killer hook: what if you had a young adult novel that's a cross between Pacific Rim, A Handmaid's Tale, and the story of the first/only female Chinese Emperor in history?  Not that adding giant mecha into tales based on dark but real historical events fails to work often (see Tochi Onyebuchi's fantastic "War Girls"), but still the combination of all these things could easily have gone pretty poorly - being boring or tone-deaf at worst.  That is absolutely not the case with Iron Widow.

Instead Iron Widow is an absolutely tremendous piece of YA Sci-Fi, placing its tremendous heroine in a misogynistic world that she is determined to not let consume her.  The book deals really well with issues of patriarchy and misogyny and how it's reinforced by both men and complacent women, while also featuring a girl who will absolutely not bow to anyone and will not take such treatment without the possibility of getting revenge.  Oh yeah, and there are giant mecha, pacific-rim style, a strong love triangle, and a plot very much inspired by Chinese history that all meshes together really well, up until it ends on a hell of a cliffhanger - this is the first book in a duology, and I will look forward to the concluding half.  

Trigger Warning: Suicidal Ideation, References to Sexual Assault (not on page), Abuse by Family Members, Alcohol Addiction, and Torture.

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Wednesday, September 8, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Necropolis Empire 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 September 21, 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 Necropolis Empire is another new space opera novel by author Tim Pratt (The Axiom, Doors of Sleep).  It's the second novel of his that's actually a tie-in to the board game, Twilight Imperium, after last year's "The Fractured Void" (my review of that is here).  I have no background knowledge of Twilight Imperium, but still really enjoyed The Fractured Void, which featured that combination of fun dialogue, funny characters and situations, and general space opera that I really enjoyed in Pratt's "The Axiom" trilogy ("The Wrong Stars").  That book also ended with a potential sequel hook, and so I was curious to see if that would be followed up upon when I saw Pratt was writing this one.  

And the answer is no - this is entirely a stand alone novel compared to the last one (only one character returns from The Fractured Void) although it is still a very enjoyable one.  It's not quite as fun as The Fractured Void mind you, because our main protagonist and the side protagonist, from whose perspectives two thirds of the novel take place, are entirely earnest and good natured, and so the fun antics of the book come entirely from the main bad guys.  The result is a well crafted if fairly typical space opera novel, with some twists you will see coming a mile away, but it's enjoyable enough that you could do a lot worse, and Pratt's prose and dialogue remains excellent.  

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Friday, September 3, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (Trans by Jeremy Tiang)

 



Strange Beasts of China is a 2006 novel by Chinese author Yan Ge, translated this year into English by Jeremy Tiang.  It's a rather short novel, being listed on amazon as 240 pages (and that's probably an overcount), but not the type of novel that works well read quickly - the story relies on readers to make connections on their own to follow along rather than spelling things out.  It's basically a story about a fictional Chinese city in which humans live alongside "Beasts" - beings that are similar to humans in many ways and yet have various small or big physiological and cultural differences that mark them as different and result in different treatment.  

But Strange Beasts of China is more significantly a story about the book's human narrator, a woman trying to write a story about the various types of beasts, and noting how they're not so different from humans (or of course that humans are the real beasts), and who finds out truths about her own existence and past in the process.  The result is a novel that didn't quite work fully for me, with the book requiring seemingly a few connections that I didn't quite make very easily unlike the characters, with side characters or their actions disappearing from the narrative at various points, and which didn't quite really feel like a complete whole.  It's an interesting novel, and I think I appreciate what it was trying to do, but it just didn't really work for me.  

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Thursday, September 2, 2021

SciFi Novella Review: Walking in Two Worlds by Wab Kinew

 

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 September 14, 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.

Walking in Two Worlds by Wab Kinew

Walking in Two Worlds is a young adult science fiction novella (or really short novel, it's on the border) by Indigenous author Wab Kinew.  The novella takes the perspectives of two teens who come from peoples who have been the target of cultural and real genocide by their conquering/dominant nations - an Indigenous girl and an Uyghur boy - who struggle balancing their conflicting emotions between their cultures...and their different personas in real life and in a virtual reality game that has major prominence.  

The result is a really solid and interesting novella, marrying a future VR-obsessed world like LX Beckett's Gamechanger to a story really based upon the struggles of Indigenous and other peoples, and is a very solid read, even if it has a few flaws in final act execution.  

Trigger Warning:  Suicidal Ideation.  

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Wednesday, September 1, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hold Fast Through The Fire by KB Wagers

 




Hold Fast Through The Fire is the second book in KB Wagers' NeoG series, after last year's "A Pale Light in the Black" (which I reviewed here).  The series follows a 24th century world, where humanity recovered from a 21st century collapse to a better but not perfect (and entirely queer normal) world, and features a team of NeoG agents, basically a space version of the Coast Guard.  I loved A Pale Light in the Black (I even did a weekly reread series on this blog!) - the book had flaws, but its NeoG characters were such a fun cast of lovable characters, who had each other's backs, even the newcomer, and really worked together to be a family as they both did their job and competed together against other military services in an inter-service sporting competition (which includes swordfighting, hacking and piloting, no less).  The team's coming together, the way they deal with their various love lives (with sex or not), and just gel as a family was just special.  It's like a happier, less car happy future version of The Fast in the Furious, just without any coronas.  

Hold Fast Through the Fire is a very different book in a lot of ways, with things getting far more serious, and the team going through several roster changes.....and facing breakdowns of trust amongst themselves, something that never happened in the last book.  The plotting isn't quite as strong, with certain characters making decisions to setup emotional situations, and the bad guys just seeming to fizzle out...., but the emotional depth of the story is still really well done, as the team deals with betrayal and how possible it is to forgive and relearn to trust when those they love betray them for what those loved ones thought was the greater good.  It's not quite the charming optimistic tale that I loved in the last book, but it's still a very solid novel that I pushed through in a single day without regret, and worth your time if you liked the last book - just beware it's not simply more of the same.  

Trigger Warning: Suicidal Ideation.  

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