Thursday, December 30, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

 




Descendant of the Crane is the young adult fantasy debut of author Joan He, whose 2021 novel The Ones We're Meant to Find I really enjoyed (My review here).  This book features a world that is thrilling with its complexity, with a well meaning heroine finding herself betraying herself more and more as she tries to do both what's right and true.  It's a book with some classic plot setups that you might imagine, and features some serious themes such as cycles of oppression, nobles vs common people, fears of people with power, sins of the past and more. 

And what Descendant of the Crane does with these themes and plot setups are really interesting, with the story taking a number of plot turns that are very different from what I expected and from what I've seen in books with similar themes and issues.  The protagonist is highly likable and easy to understand, and the story never takes the easy way out in dealing with its complicated issues.  Still, the book ends on what is a resolution but is also at the same time a cliffhanger that makes the story feel incomplete, and it doesn't seem a sequel is likely to be forthcoming, so readers looking for an entirely satisfying stand alone story may want to stay away, even if it does sort of work on its own. 

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Wednesday, December 29, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger

 



A Snake Falls to Earth is the second young adult novel from Lipan Apache author Darcie Little Badger, after last year's incredible Elatsoe (My review here).  Elatsoe featured a similarly Lipan Apache high school girl as its protagonist in an alternate world in which various types of magic were common, and featured a delightful protagonist and her companions (between her family and her ghost dog Kirby) as well as a plot that dealt with serious themes of persecution, colonization and more.  It was really good and highly acclaimed, so I was surprised how under the radar this follow-up novel seemed to be, even if it does seem targeted at a slightly younger age group (this book straddles the gaps between middle-grade and YA).  

A Snake Falls to Earth is a highly enjoyable story featuring two protagonists - a Lipan Apache girl Nina as she grows up from ages 9 to 16 (mostly from ages 13-16) and an cottonmouth snake animal person Oli in the Reflecting World.  Both worlds are very well done and naturally intersect directly in the final act, as catastrophic events on Earth begin to affect Oli's world and friends, and the two characters join together to try and save and keep alive their loved ones.  The story hits some serious themes - environmental disaster, the loss of culture and history at the hands of colonization - although not as strongly as Elatsoe did, and suffers from at times being a bit more disorganized, but is still a very solid piece of YA more than worth your time, and definitely worth the time of younger readers.  
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Tuesday, December 28, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Pym by Mat Johnson

 



Pym is a short novel by Mat Johnson based upon Edgar Allen Poe's only published novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket".  The Poe novel, which is strange and ends in such a weird way as to feel incomplete, also features some typical early 1800s racist writing, with a black character leading a mutiny, a black-coded native character turning into an unhelpful ally, and a race of all black "primitive" people that nearly slaughter the white protagonist.  This novel features a fired black literature professor, fired for not fitting into a white college's plans for a token diverse teacher, and a bunch of oddball others (all Black) as they wind up discovering Poe's book isn't quite all that fictional.  

The result is a book that is at times pretty funny, and at others is a pretty cutting satire about ideas of race, both in the original Poe work and in modern society, as Johnson turns Pym's saviors and monsters on their head.  There's even a parody of kitsch painter Thomas Kinkade to go along with it all.  By the 2/3 mark of the book it becomes pretty clear how this book has to end, and yet Pym manages to make that ending work, with his satire working throughout.  This is not really a "fun" book in any way (although it's in no way serious, horrifying as a turn 2/3 of the way through is), but it's certainly a different and interesting (and again occasionally funny) exploration of the themes of race and the different approaches people have to it that is worth your time.  
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Monday, December 27, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

 




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 11, 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.    


Daughter of the Moon Goddess is the debut fantasy novel by author Sue Lynn Tan, inspired by Chinese mythology.  In particular (as you might imagine from the title), it's inspired by the story of Chang'e the Moon Goddess and Hou Yi the Archer, a story I've learned about from other adaptations (last year's Burning Roses by S.L. Huang for example).  Here, that story is this book's backstory, as the novel features Chang'e's daughter Xingyin, who becomes determined to find a way to free her mother from the decree of the Celestial Kingdom that she remain imprisoned for her actions.  The result is a novel that I've seen a lot of advance acclaim for online, and features a set of author blurbs that could hardly be more impressive.  

And all that acclaim is largely worth it, as Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a tale that is really really well done and nearly impossible to put down (I meant to read it over two days and finished it instead in one).  The protagonist heroine Xingyin is tremendous in her determination to save her mother, her struggles with her attraction to two different immortal men, and her struggles between honor, love and doing the right thing - all in a story and setting that is incredibly well built in its Chinese-myth inspired depth.  It's not perfect, but this is a highly satisfying novel in its own right that makes me eager for the chance to read its eventual sequel (this is the first half of a duology, although it stands alone perfectly well).  

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Friday, December 24, 2021

Fantasy TV Review: The Wheel of Time: Season 1

 



The Wheel of Time is one of the most well known series in the genre of Fantasy, even if it never really penetrated into general non-genre consciousness during its publication.  If you're reading my blog, you probably have heard of the series before, and well, you might have even read it.  I actually haven't read the books before, although from cultural osmosis (and occasional TVTropes browsing), I have been somewhat spoiled - I knew who the prophesied Dragon (the chosen one of the series) is, and I knew the general concept of the series.  But otherwise, I've gone into this series blind, enjoying the show on its own merits, rather than trying to compare and contrast it to the books that came first (unlike how I watched Game of Thrones).  

So how did I like the Wheel of Time?  I found it fairly enjoyable fantasy of the traditional sense, with it feeling very very Tolkieny at times, enough to keep me interested, but not enough to recommend it to anyone who wasn't also already interested in fantasy.  The story struggled with pacing, with its first three episodes rushing so much that character development of the main characters suffered, but got significantly better after that.  So I'm still on board for the already announced Season 2.  There's plenty of potential here to improve too, so hopefully the show does that next season (with one major recasting)....

More specifics after the jump - Note: Spoilers for all 8 episodes:

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Thursday, December 23, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Dragons of Heaven by Alyc Helms

 




The Dragons of Heaven is the start of Alyc Helms' Missy Masters series* of pulp-ish superheroine novels.  I hadn't heard of Helms until they joined together with author Marie Brennan (The Memoirs of Lady Trent) to co-write the Rook and Rose trilogy (under the pen name M.A. Carrick), which I've grown to really really love two books in.  So I decided to go back and check out Helms' solo work, since I'd already greatly enjoyed Brennan's, and fortunately the New York Public Library had both books in stock.  

*I say "series", but it looks like the series has stalled at two novels since this book and its sequel came out in 2016, and I do not know Helms is planning on writing any more.*  

And well, The Dragons of Heaven could easily have gone horribly wrong - it features a white heroine in a story set largely in China, based upon Chinese myths/religion/culture, with Helms themselves being a white author.  But Helms seems to toe that line very well, never verging into White Savior territory with her protagonist, and handling the parts of Chinese culture included in ways that never seem exploitative or inappropriate - although I'm a White Jewish guy, so it's possible others might disagree with my assessment.  

Most importantly, The Dragons of Heaven is very fun with a really witty genre savvy protagonist, a pulp setting filled with superheroes, villains, and mythological beings in an alternate modern world.  The plot also subverts expectations quite frequently with the story moving in directions I certainly didn't expect all the way from beginning to end.  There's some pretty good stuff here, and I'll be trying the sequel probably sooner rather than later.  

NOTE: The Amazon Plot Summary for this book is SUPER spoilery.  Would recommend you skip it, even if it won't ruin your enjoyment of the book.  

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Wednesday, December 22, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Beasts of Prey by Ayana Grey

 




Beasts of Prey is a Pan-African inspired young adult fantasy novel by debut author Ayana Grey.   The novel isn't based upon a single African culture, or even a specific region, with creatures from East African and South African myth, a language based upon Swahili, and a religion that is itself wholly invented.  It's also a book that features a lot of classic YA tropes of the moment, with male and female dual protagonists, each keeping their own secrets, etc. etc.   

And well, those tropes are overused because they can be done well, which Beasts of Prey largely does.  Both its main protagonists are likable and interesting, with teen boy Ekon being neurodivergent and suffering from trauma and teen girl Koffi dealing with both poverty and coming from an oppressed people.  Add in a setting that is really well done, with its African inspirations, and I can see why this earned a bunch of praise from people I respect.  At the same time, the book spends a good amount of time on some pointless flashbacks and doesn't really spend enough time on some other ideas, which really prevents it from pulling off all its ambitions.  

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Tuesday, December 21, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

 




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 4, 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.    

At the End of Everything is a YA Science Fiction novel by author Marieke Nijkamp, and well, it's very much a book written during the COVID Pandemic.  The book features a group of teens at a juvenile detention center - a group of teens who are more misfits for not fitting in with society than actually being deserving of imprisonment - who are abandoned their when a deadly plague strikes society.  If the parallels to what happened during the COVID Pandemic weren't apparent, the occasional interludes with news articles are very blatantly almost ripped from our own headlines.  

And while the resulting story isn't very original (it could go one of two ways, and it does indeed largely go that way), it works very well at hitting on its biggest theme - how society cruelly abandons those who don't fit in, forcing those people to fight for themselves, sometimes successfully, other times...not so much.  The book's three main protagonists - non-binary castout Emerson, mute girl Logan, and leader Grace - are really well done, as they struggle with their situation, trying to help each other and themselves out, and find a way to do more than just survive.  The result is a story that is far from optimistic, with an ending that is bittersweet, but works pretty well at hitting its readers' hearts, so they learn the lessons its trying to teach. 

Trigger Warning:  Dead-Naming/Misgendering (only in the first few chapters), Ableism, references to abuse - physical and sexual - and transphobia.  For the most part, the worst of these behaviors are in flashbacks and only implied, as they form parts of characters' backstories, and not their present problems.  

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Monday, December 20, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on February 1, 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.    

Hunt the Stars is the first book in a new series of space opera romance novels by author Jessie Mihalik, who previously wrote the SF romance Consortium Rebellion trilogy (Polaris Rising, Aurora Blazing, and Chaos Reigning).  I really enjoyed that trilogy - not as any kind of serious scifi, but as the type of "trashy" romance that can be really fun if you don't think too hard about the setting.  Each book in that series featured essentially a different space princess (or well daughter of an oligarch) getting into an adventure with a romantic love interest and fighting and failing to deal with a ton of sexual attraction along the way.  The trilogy was a lot of fun, and incredibly sexy (with really great sex scenes), so I was happy to dive in to Mihalik's new series.  

And well Hunt the Stars starts off very generic, as it again features a first person female protagonist  - this time a bounty hunter and former war hero - desperately trying to fight off a strong physical attraction to her former enemy - a human-like alien telekinetic/telepathic general.  You'll see certain plot points coming and it doesn't really standout for the book's first half, even if it never gets boring as it slowly unweaves its enemies-to-lovers plot.  And then the book gets into its final act, and oh my god does it get hot, steamy and sexy as all hell, ending with a hell of a satisfying release.  

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Friday, December 17, 2021

Fantasy/Horror Novella Review: Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

 




Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

Comfort Me With Apples is the latest work of award-nominated/winning author Catherynne M. Valente, who is frequently known for her stories taking and spinning off fairy/folk tales (Six-Gun Snow White for example).  I've liked some of Valente's short fiction; on the other hand, her more comedic or satirical works like Space Opera haven't really worked for me.  So I was originally going to skip this one, but for all the hype I've seen for it.  

And Comfort Me With Apples is an unsettling short horror novella, which makes clear from the very beginning that something strange is going on in a way that will likely be very familiar to the reader (with some humorously horrifying excerpts from a homeowners' association rules) before a reveal that really twists expectations.  Saying anything more about the plot will spoil, so I won't do that, but I will say this is a really interesting horror novella that will be worth reading if you are looking for a short horror thriller read.  

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Wednesday, December 15, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

 




Future Home of the Living God is a 2017 novel by reputed literary author Louise Erdrich, making a turn into dystopian science fiction.  The novel doesn't seem to have been as well received as some of Erdrich's other works, although it has drawn comparison to The Handmaid's Tale, as it features a world where pregnant women (and potentially other women of childrearing age) are rounded up and captured.  The cause is an unexplainable reversal of evolution, which makes modern society collapse as governments and people try to figure out what to do.  

It's a setup that is less interesting than everything else in it, as the book also features an adopted indigenous protagonist trying to connect with her indigenous birth family, deal with her white baby father, and deals heavily with religion and culture along the way too.  These ideas are a lot more interesting than the dystopian pregnant prison camps, especially with the first person perspective of its protagonist, a girl who philosophizes science and metaphysics constantly, for better or worse.  Unfortunately, it's final arc returns to the less interesting dystopian bits, which makes this hard to really recommend. 

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest

 





Grave Reservations is the latest book by author Cherie Priest known in good part for her horror novels, and whom I know mainly from her very fun twitter feed (and her very fun dogs and cat).  Grave Reservations is a change of pace - it's another take on the amateur psychic meets police detective genre, with the story being light and enjoyable even as it deals with murder and a protagonist with tremendous self doubt and some big issues with grief.  It's a short novel, one which a reader can easily finish in one day, which I did.  

And well, Grave Reservations was fun, with a very enjoyable main protagonist and a solid if unspectacular main mystery.  As the beginning of a new series, It certainly has me willing to try another volume, which is really what you hope for.  On the other hand, I was a bit confused as to what it was trying to do with the relationship between the two main protagonists, who didn't really have any significant chemistry whatsoever, and I don't think that was deliberate?  I'll have some more specifics after the jump.  

Note: That as a more or less straight take to some extent of the Buddy Cop genre, this is not a book that questions the integrity of cops or detectives (in Seattle) at all.  

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Year of the Reaper by Makiia Lucier

 




Year of the Reaper is a YA Fantasy novel from author Makiia Lucier, whose prior fantasy Tower of Winds duology (Isle of Blood and Stone (Review Here), Song of the Abyss (Review Here)) I enjoyed.  That duology featured a very different type of fantasy setting, an Island Kingdom with a culture of peaceful exploration rather than conquering.  Neither book was anything truly remarkable, but they were enjoyable for younger side of YA offerings, and so I was intrigued when I saw some talk about this latest offering.  

And Year of the Reaper is another very solid YA offering* that doesn't really manage to break out from the pack.  The story features one incredibly predictable twist that any experienced reader will see coming - even in the target age group I suspect - but also features a number of plot points that go in different directions to how you'd expect.  It's executed well enough, with a very enjoyable main character, very solid dialogue, and some solid secondary characters, so if you're looking for an enjoyable YA book to read or to give someone, you won't go wrong here.  It just wouldn't necessarily be super high up on my list.  

*This could again be considered on the younger side of YA, as the romance involved is entirely chaste, although there is a good amount of violence and there are multiple moments dealing with war and medical atrocities committed by people off page, which probably takes this out of Middle Grade.*

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Monday, December 13, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

 




Moon of the Crusted Snow is a novel by Wasauksing First Nation author Waubgeshig Rice, published by ECW Press, a Canadian small press that has put out a few interesting short novels and novellas I've read.*  The novel is a short one, featuring an Anishinaabe community in Canada during a total blackout of power and communications, as they try to work together to survive a brutal winter.  

*I got this book for free as a reward for posting a review of another book of theirs, but I give my word it did not affect this review.  I was looking to read this book anyway.  

The result is a really strong short novel, even if certain elements are rather predictable if you have any knowledge of the experience of First Nations people in Canada.  The story focuses upon a family who, due to being only a generation out of open persecution, weren't taught as children their people's culture and who have been trying to get back to that culture so as to teach it to their children - as they struggle to keep their community fed and surviving while others (outsiders and those who have been content not to try to contribute and be part of the community) who are selfish threaten them all.  This is not a happy story, but it works very well at making its points clear.  

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Thursday, December 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

 




The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf is a young adult science fiction novel by indigenous Australian author Ambelin Kwaymullina.  The novel is fairly short, and features a future a few centuries into the future in which the world suffered a major disaster (the Reckoning) only for humans to bounce back with a focus on maintaining a Balance with nature.  But of course certain people, those with abilities, aren't thought of by the majority as being part of the Balance, and the story features a protagonist who leads a "Tribe" of such illegal individuals in an attempt at freedom.  

As you can imagine from the title, the novel features its protagonist Ashala starting the story imprisoned in a detention camp and being pressured to give up those she cares about, and the result is a very strong story with some fairly obvious but well done themes.  The protagonist Tribe aren't specifically indigenous in and of themselves (race as such isn't really a thing in this future), but they are essentially indigenous-coded, and seeing how protagonist Ashala tries to fight for them, for their future in harmony with elements of nature, and the family she has formed works really well.  Ashala and the side characters form a really strong set of characters despite the short time we have with each of them, and I definitely will be trying out the sequel after this book.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal

 




Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses is a young adult novel by debut author Kristen O'Neal, with some fantastical elements (as you might expect from the title, there's a werewolf).  It's the type of novel that's tricky to label, since nearly every major character involved is older than your traditional YA age - they're college aged rather than high school age, and while some could describe this as "coming of age", it's not really "coming of age" as much as a story of development through new circumstances a bit later in life.  

However you want to describe it, it's a novel that's absolutely delightful, as it focuses on younger adults with chronic pain and disabilities trying to deal with those pains in their own lives and how others treat them because of it - a group that is often not featured in novels I read.  It's also a story of similar people reaching out and bonding to help themselves cope with such problems - about how to deal with a body that won't reliably cooperate with one's mind and desires - and the struggles of trying to be there for someone without making them seem lesser.  And it's also an incredibly fun and often hilariously written novel about online friends turning into more - and not romantically! - about growing together, struggling with each other and together, and making up and moving forward.  There's no antagonist here, even if there is a werewolf, but instead there's just a novel that's absolutely delightful, charming and entertaining and well...true.   

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Tuesday, December 7, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Storm of War by Kachi Ugo

 




Storm of War is the first in a series of self published "urban fantasy" novels by author Kachi Ugo.  This is not a book I'd heard of before it showed up on NetGalley, but it was posted months after release there and I decided to give it a shot.  I'm a big fan of urban fantasy in general, so I was hoping this would be the start of a new series for me to follow. 

And well....Storm of War shows some interesting potential, before falling into some more cliché plotlines and ending in a very unsatisfying cliffhanger.   The story is set in the modern day world, but doesn't really feature prominently in the normal world, instead focusing upon a community of "wood" levitating magic users (really plant wielding), who face a potential war from a more dangerous "metal" wielding magic tribe.  The protagonist is a young man who ran away in cowardice from his wood wielding community, and his cowardice at first makes him an unusual hero....but again the book goes away from that in the end as it deals with prophecy and very generic fantasy ideas.  

More specifics after the jump:

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley

 


The Bones of Ruin is the first in a new young adult* historical fantasy series by author Sarah Raughley, taking place in an alternate 1884 London.  It's a story featuring a cast featuring of people of color with various magical powers forced into conflict by a wealthy white society who believes in a coming apocalypse and that only they can lead the way into a new world.  It's a story that reminded me a bunch of Roshani Chokshi's The Gilded Wolves (indeed, the book's marketing makes that very comparison) in how it features a cast of outcasts dealing with a racist/imperialist society that tries to use and crush them.  

*The book is published by a YA imprint and advertised as young adult; however, I don't really think it fits many of the usual characterizations of YA in character age/atmosphere necessarily.  YA readers will enjoy this, but so will adult ones, for what that's worth.*

And the Bones of Ruin is very good at dealing with those themes while keeping the story moving and centered around a really solid main character - amnesiac and seemingly immortal African tightrope dancer Iris, whose quest to discover who she really is will lead her to answers she may not really want.  The side characters, such as Iris' companions in this deadly contest of champions all generally work really well, with each having their own personalities and backstories that makes them all feel three dimensional, even the ones we only see in small part.  And the story may be the first in a "series" (as described on the author's page, no idea how long this is meant to be), but it is satisfying in and of itself, even with it ending on a major cliffhanger.  

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Monday, December 6, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Under the Whispering Door by T. J. Klune

 




Under the Whispering Door is the second adult novel by author T.J. Klune, author of last year's highly acclaimed The House in the Cerulean Sea (Reviewed here).  The House in the Cerulean Sea was a delight, the story of a man from an bureaucratic agency that deals with the running of orphanages for children with magical talents, who falls in love with an orphanage keeper of some of the strangest children possible, in a heartwarming gay romance with a set of characters who you couldn't help but fall in love with.  So I was very much excited to read this book, which in its description sounded in some ways like the last one.  

And Under the Whispering Door is indeed going to be a little bit familiar to readers of Klune's last book - it also features a heartwarming M-M relationship between a man whose heart defrosts throughout and another with tremendous empathy, and a cast of really great characters who form a very cute family.  However, the tone of the book is very different, with this book dealing heavily with the impact of Grief and guilt and how people react to it all, and what they need to try and move forward.  It's pretty well done for the most part, both different and similar to the last book, so if you liked that The House in the Cerulean Sea, you'll like this - and if you haven't read that book, it's worth giving this one a try.  

Trigger Warning:  This book deals with Death, Grief, and a few death tropes, including Suicide and Death of a Child.  

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Romance Anthology Review: Fools in Love (Edited by Ashley Herring Blake & Rebecca Podos)

 



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.    

Fools in Love is an anthology of young adult romance short stories by a number of rising authors, with each story taking a pretty well known romance trope and running with it.  For those who come to my blog for SciFi and Fantasy reviews, rest assured that Fools in Love comes with a bunch of Fantasy and SciFi Romance stories, although not every story fits in this category.  What they all do have, like any good romance story, is a Happy Ever After ending (HEA), even as they feature a bunch of very different backgrounds for those relationships to emerge.  

And this is an absolutely lovely anthology that's a lot of fun and has just the right amount of charm you'd hope for stories like this.  The romance stories feature people and relationships of all backgrounds - Straight and Queer, Cis and Trans, different Religions, Races and Cultures, etc. - and they're generally all done well.  A few stories are merely good rather than great, but some are real highlights, and even the more basic ones at least are charming and enjoyable, as you'd expect from romance stories.  

More specifics and highlights after the jump:

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Thursday, December 2, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Chariot at Dusk by Swati Teerdhala

 





The Chariot at Dusk is the conclusion to the Swati Teerdhala's young adult fantasy trilogy which began with "The Tiger at Midnight (which I reviewed here) and continued with "The Archer at Dawn" (Reviewed Here).  The series is inspired by (per the marketing of the first book) ancient Indian history and (Hindu) myth, and features as its heart two protagonists: a young woman who survived the massacre of her family to become the resistance fighter and assassin the "Viper" and a young man, a soldier, with a kind heart and a secret past who struggles with his role and his need to do what's right.  The setting also featured two related countries with a breaking but shared magical bond, jealous princes and foreign rulers, and enough background to keep it interesting and a little different from other stories.  Still, book 2 ended on a cliffhanger that was a bit hard to believe, so I didn't rush to pick up this trilogy ender when it first came out.  

And....The Chariot at Dusk is fine as a trilogy ender, although very much an anticlimax in how much it rushes through closing off all the relevant plot points.  The 2nd book ended with the main duo separated and on the outs for various reasons, with enemies new and old popping up on all sides forcing the pair into strange new alliances, but this book rushes to reunite the pair and never really deals with how strange and uncomfortable these new allies could be.  Thankfully the main duo's relationship, although not particularly unique, is still done decently well and the ending is solid if pretty standard, so the book isn't bad by any means.  It just feels like this book needed to be about 33% longer to really hit home the way it should have.  

Spoilers for Books 1 and 2 are below:

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Wednesday, December 1, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

 





Dark Rise is the type of Young Adult Fantasy I haven't read in a long time - the type of classical British/Western YA Fantasy featuring a chosen one, a Dark force returning to power, and group of teens discovering they're maybe the only ones who can stop it.  In fact, as you might have guessed from the title, it's very much a book channeling elements from a specific classic YA Fantasy series: Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising (although it's definitely dealing with tropes more general to the genre as well).  That said, this is not a straight forward take on the genre, and it's one that certain people i respect on social media had been hyping for a bit, so it piqued my interest for a while.  

And well, Dark Rise is certainly a really interesting take on the genre, especially once it gets into its second act and begins to subvert genre expectations.  The book's main duo - chosen one Will and orphan girl with evil blood Violet - form a really strong pair as the two are drawn in to the conflict between light and dark and soon learn that things are not only dire, but are far more complicated than they seem.  You will be able to guess how some twists will turn out, but not others, and the book finishes in a satisfying place that also will leave you curious on how things will turnout in the next book in the trilogy.  Still the book is relatively short, and really could've used a bit more development for a couple of other important characters to make those twists really land, which prevents it from being really great.  

Trigger Warning: Discussions of Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia.  

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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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