Tuesday, November 30, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline

 




Hunting by Stars is the sequel to indigenous Canadian author Cherie Dimaline's 2017 young adult novel, The Marrow Thieves.  The Marrow Thieves was a really strong young adult novel, featuring a dystopian post global warming world where nearly all of humanity has lost their ability to dream...with the exception of those of indigenous descent.  And so the story focused on a group of indigenous adults and teens on the run from a world seeking to harvest them for their marrow, as they form a found family and search for peace all the while keeping their old stories and cultures alive.  It was a really interesting if tough to read, especially as it showed little interest in obeying classical plot conventions of character development - with main character French wavering quite often as he and his group tries to figure out what to do next.  So I was really surprised and pleased to see this sequel pop up after it seemed Dimaline had moved on from this world.  

And well, Hunting by Stars is just as strong as its predecessor, and incredibly more brutal with what it portrays - that same found family torn apart when prior main character French finds himself taken to one of the new Residential Schools, where he's given the choice of either having his marrow stolen....or to turn traitor.  It splits the narrative into three, following three groups of characters instead of just one, and showcases some brutal treatment of indigenous peoples in ways that will ring very familiar to those aware of both the past and the current present.  It's very hard to read at times, but its characters and themes are really well done, making this a worthy successor to the first novel.  

Trigger Warning: A significant part of the story takes place in a Residential School, so starvation, torture, brainwashing are all major elements of this story, along with serious racism, just as you should expect after the first book.  

Mild Spoilers for The Marrow Thieves, although nothing that will spoil anything that would ruin your enjoyment of that book, is below.

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Monday, November 29, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Queen of Gilded Horns by Amanda Joy

 




A Queen of Gilded Horns is the second half of a YA Fantasy duology by author Amanda Joy, following up on last year's "A River of Royal Blood" (My review here).  I liked some of the things A River of Royal Blood did - the setting featuring a fantasy people who used to rule who are now oppressed, the other fantasy races who mixed in, the deadly human magic, and the way the main protagonist seemed to understand how difficult things would be to change - but the book had some issues.  Namely the book failed to develop the secondary characters - especially its protagonist Eva's sister of Isa, who Eva is supposed to kill in order to grab the throne, and is meant to be somewhat tragic....but instead just comes off as evil.  Still, I was interested enough to grab this book from my e-library, since it was short enough as a read to finish. 

And well, A Queen of Gilded Horns is another good installment that frustratingly had the potential to be more than that, albeit in very different ways than its predecessor.  The book splits its narrative to include the points of view of various other characters, and works all the better for it mainly, and its protagonists Eva and Isa are really strong as they try to figure out what to do going forward in an unjust world where only they can kill one another.  The book particularly manages to redeem Isa in a way that I wished would've been done sooner, and the setting's themes of oppression and fighting back work decently well.  On the other hand, the book isn't long enough to contain all its plot threads, with one major plot thread early going absolutely nowhere, and this duology really could've been a trilogy to explore all of those ideas.  

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Friday, November 26, 2021

Fantasy/Horror Novella Review: Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

 



Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

Nothing but Blackened Teeth is the latest horror novella by author Cassandra Khaw (author of two prior lovecraftian subversion horror novellas).  I've had mixed feelings in my reading of Khaw's works - on one hand, their works are very much driven by descriptions and a style of prose that I haven't loved, often finding it unnatural and stilted - on the other hand, I really really loved the themes and characters in their last work, The All-Consuming World (see my review here).  So when many writers I really respect were praising this new horror release, I decided to give it a try, despite it likely not going to be in my wheelhouse.  

And well, the result was very much what I expected, with this story being a short horror novella that very much relies on descriptions to set the atmosphere (not really my thing) for its horrors - horrors that are mostly a group of friends with substantial issues between them - jealousy, privilege, depression, and abandonment - when pressed by the supernatural....in this case a supernatural built from Japanese mythology.  The relationships are done really well, and so if you like atmospheric horror a bit more than me, this will really work for you.  

Trigger Warning:  Depression.  


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Thursday, November 25, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

 


Wings of Ebony is a young adult modern fantasy novel written by author J. Elle, and as is fairly typical of YA SF/F these days, is the first part of a duology (the second part comes out next year).  The story features a black girl named Rue caught between two worlds - our human world, where she and her sister live on the streets of Houston, where Black lives aren't cared for, and a gang of drug dealers haunts the streets & a magical fantasy land called Ghizon, where her father apparently came from, and where a rule-dictating leader gifts magic to his followers....all of whom show gray skin and look little like Rue.  As you can guess from just this setup, Wings of Ebony is in no way subtle about its own themes, like a lot of young adult novels, and like a lot of these YA duologies, it of course leaves part of the story unfinished at its conclusion.  

But here's the thing: Wings of Ebony does the YA SF/F duology format right - the book may not be subtle, but its characters are extremely well done, its themes are well brought out and powerful and very relevant to today's era, no matter how cringy they might be done this unsubtly.  The book's handling of the essential White "ally" character is particularly well done, in showing how flawed such characters can be when they're called on their bullshit, and all of Rue's conflicts in both worlds feels entirely real.  An unlike most duologies, this ends on a very satisfactory note, with one area of conflict complete, and what's left open being a clear tease for a new stage in Rue's story.  The book isn't perfect, and certain elements didn't quite work for me at times (the romantic subplot possibilities, one part of the resolution), but well, it's very good.  

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Monday, November 22, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Rising Like a Storm by Tanaz Bhathena

 





Rising by the Storm is the second half of a young adult fantasy duology written by Tanaz Bhathena, after last year's Hunted by the Sky (my Review Here).  The fantasy world in the duology is inspired by Medieval India, both in the language used and some of the mythological creatures who show up.  That said, the first book in the duology also featured a pretty classic fantasy YA setup of two point of view characters - a boy and girl from different backgrounds - who fall in love as they get thrown together by fate....although it did so pretty well, as the two fought to survive/get-revenge.  There's also a fairly common but well done theme of discrimination against people without magic by those with it.  

Still, while I liked Hunted by the Sky, It wasn't particularly memorable (especially given all I read evevry year), so I wasn't really sure how much I'd be able to enjoy the sequel, although I wanted to try it.  So fair warning - this review is one of a reader who read the first book, but didn't refresh his recollection of it beforehand.  

Even with that handicap, Rising Like a Storm is a solid and enjoyable second half to this duology, featuring our protagonists Gul and Cavas dealing with their newfound relationship, the fact that an entire resistance is depending upon them, and an enemy that is far more reckless and ruthless than before.  I know in my review of the predecessor I didn't quite buy the pair's growing relationship, but it works fairly well here, and the antagonist - though despicable - cuts a really interesting contrast as she winds up more and more out of control (and we see events from her point of view).  The story still isn't incredibly memorable, but it works well, features a few interesting twists and ends satisfyingly, so if you're looking for solid YA from a non-Western perspective, this will definitely do.  

Spoilers for book 1 below are inevitable:

Trigger Warning: Torture.  

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Rogue Heart by Axie Oh

 


Rogue Heart is the sequel to Axie Oh's YA Science Fiction novel Rebel Seoul (my review here).  That book was a dystopian YA story set in a future version of Korea, in which a conglomerate of governments, the Neo States, have taken power in the world, in a supposed attempt to end all war (which of course is a lie), creating a two tiered Korea of inequality and injustice among other things.  I really liked Rebel Seoul, especially for how its hero Jaewon didn't fit the typical mold for a hero in such a setting - he wasn't a rebel, and didn't want to be even as he saw how shitty things were, but rather just wanted to survive in a world where he felt all those close to him (his dead father and alive best friend) had betrayed him...even as he fell for the artificially enhanced woman he was supposed to mind.  Oh and there were also giant mecha too, but really that was beyond the point.  So after finishing it, I reserved this sequel from the library.  

And I enjoyed Rogue Heart, although it's not quite as interesting as Rebel Seoul.  The story switches to following Ama, the other artificially enhanced human from the last book (with the power of Telepathy), as she first attempts to hide from the government that created her, and then joins the Resistance only to wind up spying upon the man she once fell in love with.  It's a well told story with a solid lead character, but the story feels a bit more predictable, and the love interest doesn't quite get handled as well as I'd like.  Still, it's well done, so if you liked Rebel Seoul, you will probably be interested in the sequel.  

Spoilers for book 1 are inevitable here:
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Friday, November 19, 2021

Fantasy Novella Review: Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

 



Flowers for the Sea by Zin E Rocklyn

Flowers for the Sea is the debut novella from author Zin E Rocklyn (who has done other short fiction before), and its described as "Rosemary's Baby by way of Octavia Butler" in its publishing blurb.  It's another story I saw get a lot of advance praise from authors I trust, so I reserved it early from the library despite horror not being my thing.  

And well, Flowers for the Sea still wasn't really my thing, but it's definitely interesting horror, one filled with righteous anger at injustice.  It's the story of a pregnant woman from an outcast people, whose baby might be something worse than human, as she tries to survive in a flooded world on a ship filled with people who hated and distrusted her own kind.  It's a really short novella, but it packs a lot of punch nonetheless.  

Note: If you have issues with pregnancy horror, this will not be for you.  

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Thursday, November 18, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Paladin's Hope by T Kingfisher

 


Paladin's Hope is the third book in T Kingfisher's (also known as kid's author Ursula Vernon) Saint of Steel Fantasy Romance series, with each book featuring one of seven berserker paladins who lost their god a few years prior to the series, and thus lost a guiding force in their lives.  The series is set in Kingfisher's World of the White Rat, which began with her Clocktaur Wars duology and continued with Swordheart, but requires absolutely no knowledge of those books to enjoy - each book in the series is largely stand-alone, although the books do build upon one another, as it follows a single paladin on a romantic adventure that will eventually wind up with them well...happily ever after in love.  Oh yeah, and because it's T Kingfisher, there are a bunch of horrifying things involved, like corpses with murderous clay pots for heads, the most horrifying rabbit ever, etc.  But in all seriousness, the series is just incredibly fun as the paladins are often hilarious and incredibly relatable in their various romances.  

Paladin's Hope is the shortest installment in the series, but as usual for Kingfisher, it is stuffed full of content - you have a really fun M-M romance between a Paladin and a Coroner, you have some hilarious dialogue and really enjoyable side characters, and you also have some serious themes about fighting against prejudice and police corruption/brutality.  It's tremendously well done, often incredibly quotable, and everything I love about Kingfisher novels - heartwarming, romantic, and serious all at once.  It's probably not my favorite of this series....but that's only because of how much book 1's romance really spoke to me personally, and little to do with any fault of this book.  

More after the jump:
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Wednesday, November 17, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Liar's Knot 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 December 7, 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 Liar's Knot is the second book in M.A. Carrick's* Rook & Rose trilogy, after January's The Mask of Mirrors (my review here).  I'm a big fan of Marie Brennan's work (Brennan is one half of M.A. Carrick, with Alec Helms), so I was excited to see how she and her co-author would take on a doorstopper epic fantasy trilogy.  And well, I liked the Mask of Mirrors, which essentially was part Fantasy of Manners in addition to Epic Fantasy, especially in its first two thirds, where its con artist heroine dealt with a city filled with treacherous nobles, a past of peoples conquered and still present, and conflicting magic systems.  But the book's final third didn't quite come together well for me, as it relied on things I didn't quite care about, even as the book ended on some very interesting cliffhangers.  

But The Liar's Knot is very much the book I was hoping The Mask of Mirrors would be.  The book leans heavily on its Fantasy of Manners elements, as protagonist Ren deals with what has developed into a quadruple life, while other point of view characters Vargo and Grey deal with their own agendas and secrets that bring them all together and apart.  And while the book does eventually get caught up once again in a conflict caused by antagonists using the series' not super well defined magic system, it works a lot better this time and is more directly tied to the series' themes of class, of heritage, of peoples conquered and otherwise living in the same city, and struggles for power, knowledge, and well, for a home.  The book even avoids some very typical middle book in trilogy problems, and that combined with its great characters makes this one a real winner, that has me eagerly awaiting the third book to come.  

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.  

SPOILER ALERT, including one MAJOR spoiler, from book 1 are discussed below the Jump.

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Fire with Fire by Destiny Soria

 




Fire with Fire is the latest Young Adult Fantasy novel by author Destiny Soria, whose 2018 novel Beneath the Citadel was a surprise gem, especially for its set of fascinating protagonists.  I'd meant to get to this one earlier, but it got lost on my TBR until I got reminded of it during FIYAHCon (Soria was a panelist on at least one panel that I enjoyed).  

Fire with Fire isn't quite up to Beneath the Citadel, as its plot is a bit more predictable and formulaic, but it still works for the most part very well, thanks to its pair of enjoyable and solid main characters - two sisters with very different viewpoints on the family business of dragon slaying.  The urban fantasy plot works well, as does the cast of teens, although the villains are so obviously evil that it hurts, and I'm not quite sure how well the ending works.  Still it's definitely enjoyable, and if you're looking for solid YA fantasy, you'll find it for sure here.  

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Tuesday, November 16, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: All of Us with Wings by Michelle Ruiz Keil

 



All of Us with Wings was the young adult fantasy debut of author Michelle Ruiz Keil, a book dealing heavily with magical realism in San Francisco.  Keil's second novel, 2021's Summer in the City of Roses (my review here), was utterly brilliant, and so after finishing it, I immediately went back and reserved this first novel to see what I'd missed.  

And All of Us with Wings is also really good, dealing with some very serious themes and issues that came from the author's own life (per the author's intro).  The story uses magical realism to deal with a 17 year old girl who dealt with parental abandonment, rape and parental abuse, and who ran away from home as a result, only to find herself with a strange family of rockers as the governess to their 13 year old daughter.  Needless to say, the protagonist Xochi, has a lot of problems dealing with things in her life stemming from her past abuses, and fantastical elements conspire to force her to deal with that past as her reactions in the present to new and complicated situations only seem to make things worse, leading her to fear everything is her own fault.  It's done mostly really well, as it portrays it all through the eyes of Xochi, the people around her, and even a cat who is more sentient and wise that he appears and I can see this novel helping an unfortunate larger amount of young people than I wish was the case.  

Trigger Warning:  Rape, Sexual Assault, Drug Usage, Parental Neglect, Parental Abuse.  How these events (other than the drug usage) affected the protagonist and how she can move forward is the focus of this novel, so there's no avoiding them.  

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 30, 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.       


Jade Legacy is the final book in Fonda Lee's "Green Bone Saga", her trilogy that began in 2017 with Jade City (my Review Here) and continued with 2019's Jade War (my Review here).  For those who somehow missed the earlier books in this series, the trilogy is often pitched as "The Godfather" meets "Kung Fu/Wuxia", and the premise lives up to that mash-up, while also dealing with a lot of serious themes at the same time (ala well, The Godfather).  The first book in the series, Jade City, won the World Fantasy Award and was nominated for the Nebula Award, while the second book Jade War was nominated for a few awards like the Ignyte Award as well.

This is another one of those series that I have mixed feelings about - I liked Jade City a good bit at the time of reading it, but didn't love it enough to pick up the sequel....and then when I picked up Jade War, I found myself not caring as much as I wanted to about the events and characters...except for one protagonist character whose actions I really hated.  And so I wasn't too sure I'd be continuing with this finale book - especially as this book is significantly the longest in the series.  Still, I suspected this one will be nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series next year, so I decided to give it a shot anyhow.  

And well I liked Jade Legacy more than I thought I would, perhaps the most of any of the trilogy, and it definitely capped out the series in strong fashion.  As mentioned above, the book is the longest by far in the trilogy (listed at over 700 pages, and that's probably an understatement) and it features by far the longest time span of the trilogy, with the story covering decades through the use of multiple time skips.  And honestly, it probably could or should have been broken up into two separate books, with the time skips preventing me from really feeling the impact of a number of developments.  Still, those same time skips allow this story to really showcase the development and legacy of its protagonists, the Kaul clan, both old and new, as they deal with their old enemies (The Mountain) and foreign influences and the inevitable changes to their ways of life.  I'm not sure every development worked by the end, but it had me enraptured, and that's all I could've hoped for.  

Spoiler Warning: For obvious reasons, spoilers for books 1 and 2 of this series are discussed below the jump.  You have been warned.

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Monday, November 15, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz (trans. by Elisabeth Jaquette)

 




The Queue is a short novel by Egyptian journalist Basma Abdel Aziz, originally written in 2013, not long after the aftermath of the Arab Spring.  It's a dystopian satire that will remind western readers of the likes of 1984, but taking place in an unnamed Middle Eastern state after such an arab-spring like uprising.  The book showcases a cast of characters who find themselves waiting in the eponymous Queue waiting for bureaucracy known as The Gate (literally) to open...when it never does, and seeing how they are all affected by the Gate's constant proclamations about reality, no matter how ridiculous those proclamations are.  

As you might imagine, it's a story about the horror a police state with absolute control over media and whatnot can inflict, both through sheer terror and intimidation and through physical force, and how only small resistances, incredibly tough as they are, are the most that can be made.  

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

 Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 23, 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 Bone Shard Emperor is the second book in Andrea Stewart's Drowning Empire trilogy, which began with last year's The Bone Shard Daughter (my review here).  I liked The Bone Shard Daughter a good amount - it had a fun set of characters, particularly its main two, and its magic system, which largely was based upon a programming-esque language, was a lot of fun.  It also read incredibly well for a book that was a decent length, of well over 400 pages.  Still it read at times more like a prologue than the actual real story, which annoyed me a bit....although that made me curious how the second book would actually take the story, now that the characters are in position to make an impact.  

And yeah, I really did like The Bone Shard Emperor, as a very well done piece of epic fantasy, even as it adds about 100 pages to its page-length (Amazon lists it as 561 pages).  The characters remain incredibly strong, especially as one character tries to hold together and lead an Empire that had previously been held together through cruel magic, all the while trying not to repeat the cruelties of her predecessor - and the other characters try to figure out whether or not she has crossed the line.  Add in a new set of magical powers, and the characters now all having chances to interact with each other, and you have a much stronger novel, even as it does rely at times on a few played out tropes.  

Spoiler for book 1 are inevitable below, you have been warned:

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Thursday, November 11, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Mirror: Shattered Midnight by Dhonielle Clayton

 



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 18, 2022 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 Mirror: Shattered Midnight is book 2 of the four book Disney Publishing YA Fantasy series, "The Mirror", a four book series focusing on a family over several generations as written by four women of color authors known for their other YA SF/F works - Julie C Dao, Dhonielle Clatyon, J.C. Cervantes and L.L. McKinney.  The first book, Julie C Dao's "Broken Wish" (my review here), told about the start of the family (or well two families at the beginning) in 19th century Germany and ended with the creation of the series' eponymous archetype, a magic mirror.  It was a fine, but unexceptional story, with some notable omissions from the setting (Religious prejudice was bizarrely absent) but a solid start.  

This second book shifts the story to 1928 (Prohibition era) New Orleans, and features a Black (well mixed race, but mostly Black) girl who loves Jazz, and who has a combination of music and magic in her veins, dealing with racism, interracial love and fears of what she can do.  And again the book features a strong lead protagonist, and a really strong setting as it investigates the racial atmosphere of 1920s New Orleans through its Black protagonist and her White love interest.  It's also really short and nearly novella length, so it won't take long to read.  Still, a lot of what happens within is predictable, and by nature of being the second of a four book arc, Shattered Midnight is limited in terms of where its ending can go, which prevents it from being a clear recommend for those looking for YA reading.  I'll still probably try out the third book at this point though, for what it's worth.  
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Wednesday, November 10, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Big Bad Wolf by Suleikha Snyder

 




Big Bad Wolf is the first book in Suleikha Snyder's "Third Shift" paranormal romance series.  I first noticed this series when I accidentally picked up an eARC of book 2 and read that first - which I enjoyed enough to actually want to go back and read the book I'd missed.  Obviously, this review is not going to expect readers to have read book 2 first, and book 1 obviously does not require any prior knowledge of this world from the later book.....okay that's one of the sillier things I've ever typed in these reviews.  

Anyhow, Big Bad Wolf is for the most part highly enjoyable for the paranormal romance genre - featuring at its heart an artificially created werewolf who murdered a bunch of white supremacist gangsters and a lawyer/psychologist who is trying at first to figure out why he did it....as they fall for each other in steamy steamy fashion and wind up on the run. The characters are highly enjoyable and easy to root for, the secondary characters (there is a secondary romance and one other pov character) also work and are often highly amusing and the story never really loses steam and is just the right length at short of 300 pages (in a small paperback).  On the other hand, the sex scenes aren't exactly super done well, so if you're looking for that, this won't fit your niche - but that's really the only major flaw.  

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

 


Gearbreakers is a young adult dystopian sci-fi novel, featuring a world in which a despotic government controls the land through the use of giant mecha, and those they train to control them.  It's the debut novel of author Zoe Hana Mikuta, and centers its story around two young women - a freedom fighter (the "Gearbreaker") who grew up in a team of such fighters and a young woman who was orphaned by the government as a child, and became a pilot of the mecha to desperately try and destroy the country from the inside, not knowing if there was any way to fight back.  And so you have a story in a crapsack world about how it is possible to fight for freedom, what it takes, and what that does to a person, along with a F-F romance between two people who have every reason to distrust one another.  

The result is a really compelling story, one which serves as a strong first half of a duology (the second book comes out next year in 2022).  The story's take on giant mecha as a terrifying force of oppression is really well done, as its portrayal of the pilots for the government and the freedom fighters who form found families to secretly oppose it.  The action is solid and most importantly, our two main characters are really tremendous, as they attempt to navigate a course forwards for themselves and for their growing relationship.  When my largest gripe about the story is the cliffhanger ending, you know for sure you have a book worth reading.  
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Tuesday, November 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh

 




Rebel Seoul is a YA Science Fiction novel by Korean-American author Axie Oh, featuring a dystopian SF take on Korea.  It's also a story that features some giant mecha, a protagonist torn between wanting for a better life in a richer area and his past ties to rebels and gangs, as well as his feelings of betrayal....and a bit of romance between him and a girl bred to be a kind of weapon.  The book first got my attention a few years back, but my libraries at the time didn't have a copy, so it took me till now - years after the book even got a sequel - to give it a try.  

And I really did like Rebel Seoul quite a bit, thanks to its main character, a really relatable protagonist - Jaewon - who came from nothing and has felt betrayed by the two most important people in his life - his dad and his best friend/brother-figure - for reasons that will surprise a bit the reader.  The romantic relationship between Jaewon and Tera, as well as the other characters and aspects of this dystopian setting, also work fairly well.  Some parts of the plot are a bit predictable, and honestly the giant mecha are the least interesting part here, but Rebel Seoul is pretty well done YA SF, and I'll be picking up the sequel soon enough.  



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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 9, 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.

Noor is the latest novel by Africanfuturist author Nnedi Okorafor, well known for her novel Who Fears Death, her Binti series of novellas, or her YA/middle-grade Akata Witch series, among many many other books.  Okorafor's works have run the gamut in terms of tones and themes, although a few themes - the exploitation of Africa by the West and by capitalism both in the past and the potential future - do tend to come up repeatedly - for good reason.  

Noor is another book dealing with those themes, centering upon a woman in Africa who grew up with deformed limbs and replaced them with cybernetics, and a Fulani Herdsman, both of whom find themselves on the run after others attack them and they defend themselves.  The bulk of the story features them facing off against an exploitative corporation, as they try to find safety around an area of Africa* seeming rendered uninhabitable by crazy winds and sandstorms.  The result is a really strong anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist story that feels similar to some other prior works of Okorafor (The Book of Phoenix, Remote Control), but is also unique in its own way - and definitely powerful.  

*This book takes place in West Africa, at least a good part in Nigeria, but it does seemingly cross what are current borders of the area, so I'm not going to try and parse which country certain events take place in and will just refer to the area of the setting as Africa or West Africa.  
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Friday, November 5, 2021

SciFi Novella Review: Red Dust by Yoss (trans. by David Frye)

 





Red Dust by Yoss (trans. by David Frye)


Red Dust is a noir sci-fi detective novel written by Cuban author Yoss, translated from the original spanish by David Frye.  The story is openly written in the style of author Raymond Chandler, with callbacks to a few other writers (Isaac Asimov's R Daneel Olivaw is namechecked) and their works.  This is another story that I first learned about while watching FIYAHCon, and it was freely available from my library, so it was an auto pickup.  

It's a well done sci-fi noir featuring a robot protagonist in space chasing a luck-bending criminal, with little help from the aliens he works for, and there's some solid themes dealing with powerful (colonization sort of) outsiders.  At the same time, it's hardly remarkable, and so unless you're really looking for sci-fi noir fiction, this is fairly skippable.  

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Thursday, November 4, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

 




Project Hail Mary is the third novel by Astounding Award Winning author Andy Weir, best known for The Martian.  Believe it or not, I've never read Weir's work before, and my sole experience with him comes from the film adaptation of The Martian (which I loved).  So I wasn't really sure what to expect from Project Hail Mary, and hadn't even been planning on reading it at first - but a real life friend was planning on reading it, and so I figured for once I'd see how my opinion compared to theirs.  

Unfortunately, I was not impressed really with Project Hail Mary, which both managed to be the type of idea focused (as opposed to character focused) Sci-Fi that I don't love in general and felt like a not particularly great execution of it even accounting for that.  Again, I've never read The Martian, but Project Hail Mary feels like an attempt to recreate the magic of the story I saw on screen, except its protagonist isn't nearly as entertaining, the scenes on Earth (all flashbacks) aren't really interesting at all, and the hard science fun is a bit more abstract and less interesting to me at least as a result.  Add in some occasional non science scenes that are just bad (there's a really really bad Courtroom scene) and well, this is a hard miss.  

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman

 




Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 9, 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.

All of Us Villains is a Young Adult Fantasy novel, the first half of a duology, from authors Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman.  It's a book that will be reminiscent of a lot of other works for frequent readers, with elements of classic YA standouts in The Hunger Games/Battle Royale (a bunch of teens are forced into a competition to kill each other) while also featuring elements that reminded me of Kat Howard's adult work, An Unkindness of Magicians.  So it's a book attempting to cover pretty familiar territory, which gives it a high bar to clear. 

And well, All of Us Villains is fine, but it doesn't quite do anything particularly unique or interesting, and it suffers from a bizarre choice of ending that make it feel like the book is one half of a book just cut in two.  The four main characters are decently well done and enjoyable, as is the magic-based world: where a more powerful special magic is only available to one of seven families who wins a cursed battle to the death every so often, where the champions are teens who have their own relationships and reasons not to want to kill or to die, etc.  And the prose reads decently well so as to make it never seem slow or unenjoyable.  But the book just doesn't do anything to distinguish itself, and that ending is just incredibly unsatisfying. 

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Wednesday, November 3, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko

 


Redemptor is the second book in Jordan Ifueko's hyped Raybearer duology, after last year's Raybearer (My review here).  I liked Raybearer quite a bit - its lead character was really strong, its inspiration from African* culture made its world feel in many ways quite original, and it dealt with some very solid themes of injustice, of aristocracy, of empire and assimilation, of sexism/misogyny, and more.  At the same time I didn't love it as much as many people did - the book earned Lodestar and Norton nominations among other awards - with it not quite hitting its themes in as interesting ways as some other books, and its minor characters often getting forgotten in the midst of the story.  But it was very well done, and I was interested to see how the series would move on from that first book.  

*As I said in my Raybearer review, neither the story nor marketing material seems to indicate what African culture in particular, if there is a single one, is the inspiration for much of this world, so I won't speculate, although Ifueko is herself Nigerian-American.*

And Redemptor takes the first book's themes of injustice, of love in its many varieties (sexual, familial, friendship, etc.), of finding a purpose for living of one's own, and takes it in some solid directions, forming a plot that works very well for the most part - even if it is a bit predictable at times.  Its lead character Tarisai remains great, as she may be free of the influence that guided her life and may be in a position of ostensible power, but she still finds herself driven by both ghosts and her own guilt to try and do more and more to alleviate the centuries of injustice that have formed the basis of life in Aritsar, which drives her and the other characters in some real interesting directions.  And the book wraps up really solidly in a nice ending.  All in all, a better book than its already good predecessor, even if it shares some of the same weaknesses with regards to its minor characters.  

Spoilers for Raybearer are inevitable below the jump:
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SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction (Edited and Translated by Xueting Christine Ni)

 


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 9, 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.


Sinopticon is an anthology of translated Science Fiction written by a number of Chinese authors, ranging from those who have been active for decades to those who are of the newer generation.  The collection was curated by editor/translator Xueting Christine Ni, and features an equal mix* of female and male authors of the genre.  Of the authors included, Bao Shu and Hao Jingfang may be familiar to western genre fans (Jingfang won a Hugo in 2016 and her novel Vagabonds was nominated for a few awards), but most of the authors will be basically unknown to western audiences.  

*There are no Queer authors seemingly, and no queer characters/stories included, which - given the current situation in China - is hardly surprising, even if it is disappointing.  

And this collection does a lot of things really well, making it an excellent pickup if you want to try something different in terms of SciFi short fiction.  Each story included is accompanied by an editor's note afterwards explaining the story and author's context, which really helps the reader understand more about Chinese SciFi both in the past and present, which is a really nice touch.  And the stories range in topics from space operas to zombie stories, with some being really enjoyable, and others at least being fairly interesting even if they didn't quite work for me.  

More specifics after the jump:
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Tuesday, November 2, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Undertakers by Nicole Glover

 


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 9, 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 Undertakers is the second book in Nicole Glover's "Murder & Magic" series, which began earlier this year with The Conductors in March (which I reviewed here).  The series is a historical fantasy mystery/noir series, taking place in reconstruction-era Black Philadelphia.  There our protagonist Hetty Rhodes and her husband Benjy - former conductors on the Underground Railroad - use their magic to help the people of Black Philadelphia with their problems, such as crimes, kidnappings, murders and more that the white authorities have no interest in dealing with.  I really liked The Conductors, which featured a really great protagonist and strong supporting characters to go along with a setting that allowed the book to deal with serious themes (not to mention a time period all but glossed over by White-described history of this country).  

The Undertakers continues this series' winning ways, with a story that remains strong in dealing the prejudices and problems faced by Blacks in reconstruction-era Philadelphia, and beforehand, even while barely featuring any White characters at all.  Main protagonist Hetty remains excellent, and her supporting cast is incredibly easy to fall in love with.  And while the story's occasional red herrings still go nowhere like the first book, they also still serve a purpose in hitting some serious themes here of issues faced not just by Blacks, but by other immigrant cultures new to Philadelphia, all of whom have their own forms of magic (which are just touched on here, but intriguingly at that).  All in all, if you're looking for a new fantasy series, this should absolutely be on your radar.  

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Monday, November 1, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2020 Edited by C.L. Clark and Charles Payseur



We're Here, The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2020 is exactly what it sounds like - a collection of short fiction by Neom Hemlock and editor Charles Payseur and guest editor C.L. Clark meant to be some of the best in Queer SciFi and Fantasy from last year.  Gonna be honest, I'm a weird reviewer for this material - I read and enjoy a LOT of Queer SF/F....but am a cis hetero male, so while I can empathize with queer characters and stories, my understanding of what they're going through is entirely from second hand knowledge.  So take it for what it's worth.  


Anyhow this collection is a solid collection, with a few clear winners - even if there isn't anything that's quite "blow you away" good.  It's a solid mix of authors I expect many readers to have heard of (Charlie Jane Anders, L.D. Lewis, John Wiswell, RB Lemberg, etc.) and authors who were new to me, and the mix works pretty well.  It also is a collection of stories that largely lean towards bittersweet or heartbreaking rather than fun and joyous - this doesn't make these stories bad - and more than a few are powerful - but if you're looking for an enjoyable and fun collection, this isn't really going to deliver for you.  

Some more specifics after the jump:


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