Wednesday, November 30, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Road of the Lost by Nafiza Azad

 


Road of the Lost is the third novel by Young Adult Fantasy author Nafiza Azad, who burst onto the scene with Muslim/Djinn inspired "The Candle and the Flame" and followed that up with the angry feminist YA "The Wild Ones". I really liked both of those novels quite a bit - both featured unconventional protagonists dealing with sexism and patriarchy, strong rough worlds - a secondary one in The Candle and the Flame and a version of our own world in The Wild Ones - and themes that work really well even as their plotting might be a little predictable and the secondary characters were often underdeveloped . So I was very much in for this novel to see how Azad would approach another favorite subgenre of mine, fae fantasy.

And the answer is fascinating, as Road of the Lost features a really fascinating protagonist in Croi, a girl who discovers that her true form is not what she has been led to believe, and finds herself wandering through a Fae world, drawn in by spells and quests not under her control, as she struggles with her new body's changes, struggles with connection for the first time while she's in dreams, and with people who often try to use her or expect her to care for them without much basis, only adding to her disorientation. It's a story featuring a fascinating protagonist in how Croi is both good at heart and often cold and indifferent to those around her, as she sees through lies people all refuse to disbelieve, leading to an ending that is satisfying while also raising the possibility of a sequel that I'd be very interested in reading.

More specifics after the jump:

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Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Fantasy Novella Review: Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

 

Into the Riverlands is the third book in Nghi Vo's fantasy series of novellas, the Singing Hills Cycle, which follows Cleric Chih of the Singing Hills Monastery as they, along with their talking bird Almost Brilliant (who has a perfect memory), go around this East Asian inspired queer fantasy world in search of stories and histories to memorize/memorialize. The series, which won a Hugo for its first installment The Empress of Salt and Fortune, is made up of entirely stand alone novellas, with each novella kind of placing Chih in the place to hear a story of a totally different kind of genre - in the first novella, it was an epic story of Empire, sexism, and fighting back; in the second novella (which I LOVED), it was a romance between a Tiger-woman and a Woman, told in two different styles. Each installment does feature similar themes of how tales can be changed by the perspectie of who tells it, but otherwise, they're very different in tone and kind.

And Into the Riverlands is no different, with this time finding Chih and Almost Brilliant involved in a Wuxia story (Chinese/East-Asian Kung Fu Story), as they hear stories of legendary kung fu fighters dealing with bandits in a dangerous area of the world, and find themselves getting caught up in those very same stories. It's wonderfully done and a lot of fun, and even if where part of the story is going becomes fairly obvious pretty quickly, it's really executed well and the novella is short enough that you never feel frustrated at how things are turning out. Fans of Wuxia will really enjoy this, and those who haven't read Wuxia will find a great introduction here, as Chih encounters a young Kung Fu master and an elderly couple with stories of their own of those in the past. This is another winner and a likely Hugo/Nebula nominee for next year.

Note: I read this as an audiobook, and the reader is the same as in the past novellas, Cindy Kay. She's very enjoyable and I like her, although I'd previously heard her narrate more of a YA story and I had some trouble dealing with what felt in those stories like a very bubbly narrator using the same voices here, where that didn't seem what was what the story called for. This is more a problem with reading the same audiobook reader in different genres than it is any problem with the narration, which is very good, but I just figured I'd point it out.

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Monday, November 28, 2022

Fantasy Novella Review: Even Though I Knew The End by CL Polk

 
Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC Audiobook (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 8, 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.

Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk.

Even Though I Knew the End is a Lesbian/Queer Fantasy Noir by author CL Polk (Witchmark), in a story that takes place in an alternate version of 1920s Chicago in which magical orders, demons and angels are very real (although the public might not know too much about them). Demons/Angels-based Noir stories are not new to me - see Rebecca Roanhorse's Tread of Angels which is coming out the same month as this - but I've liked the few I've read and Polk is an excellent writer, so I was looking forward to this one, which I read in eAudiobook form over a week.*

*The audiobook reader is excellent by the way, so I definitely recommend this novella in that format.

And Even Though I Knew the End is really strong and very enjoyable noir - an excellent example of the form. The story follows a Lesbian Warlock who was cast out from her magic order - after making a deal with a devil/demon to save the life of her brother - as she begins a dangerous quest to solve a strange magic and possibly demon-influenced set of murders in her last days before her soul is forfeit, in hopes at first of helping her beloved who is ignorant of the whole thing....before everything goes to hell. It works really well with a strong voiced lead protagonist, a really well done world, and a satisfying short plot, and some strong themes of dealing with homophobia and sexism and what one would do and give up to be with the ones they love, so definitely recommended, even if I don't think it transcends the form.

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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

 

Nona the Ninth is the third book in Tamsyn Muir's "The Locked Tomb" series, which burst onto the scene a few years back with Gideon the Ninth to both critical and popular acclaim. My feelings on the series are a bit more mixed - I very much enjoyed Gideon the Ninth, with its Lesbian Necromancers in Space concept, locked room mystery, and sarcastic backtalking heroine, but despite all that found that the setting of the story was kind of barebones. This became a problem for me in the second book, Harrow the Ninth, which cultivated mystery upon mystery that I just couldn't find it in myself to care about, as it relied upon aspects of the setting and other characters who were never really explored...and never really provided much answers to grab onto. It doesn't help that my fast reading style apparently missed quite a bit of context that as put into the margins, as I've found out since from looking at Harrow's wikipedia and tvtropes pages.

Still, I was willing to give book 3 a try, and I found myself actually liking Nona the Ninth. This book was not originally planned - it was apparently part 1 of what was originally a trilogy's finale (Alecto the Ninth) before it was spun off into its own book after it got too long and substantive on its own merit. And despite that, it feels like a complete book, not half of one, and its main character - while very different from prior protagonists Gideon and Harrow - is really enjoyable, as an optimistic 19 year old girl without memories of who she is and a bright disposition in a world going to hell around her. The story still has issues of way too many mysteries going on, not all of which I cared about, but actually provides some answers finally to ground the setting, something I have been missing for 3 books now. The result will definitely please anyone who loved the first two books, and if you were on the fence about continuing like me, I do think Nona is worth a try.

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Thursday, November 17, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Empress of Time by Kylie Lee Baker

 





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

The Empress of Time is the sequel to Kylie Lee Baker's phenomenal YA Fantasy novel, The Keeper of Night.  I really loved that novel (my review here), which featured Ren, whose father was a British Reaper and whose mother was a Japanese Shinigami, and who fled Britain with her fully Reaper brother after harming a noble Reaper family and attempted to find the home she never had with the Shinigami of Japan.  However, things don't go according to plan, and even though Ren attempts to complete the three tasks (and the Japanese Yokai she encounters along the way) the Japanese Death God Izanami sets her upon in order to be accepted into their ranks, she never really finds that acceptance...and her determination to prove herself at any cost leads her to a devastating ending.  It's a truly tremendous novel, which surprises often, and deals with both Japanese mythology and themes of fitting in, of love and family, and of the feeling of being a foreigner due to being not "pure" of blood or of not being the same type of people as the locals and how wrong such treatment is.  

The Empress of Time follows that book's devastating ending, and once again sets Ren on a quest through various parts of Japanese mythology, this time the myths of its Gods, and it works tremendously once more as it concludes the duology on an excellent note.  Once again we see Ren struggling with her failure to gain acceptance, despite all the power she has acquired, an her struggle with loneliness and regret as her worst enemies from her past, the British Reapers, finally come after her in Japan.  But this time, even as things once again surprise in ways I did not expect, we get a conclusion that satisfying finishes this duology and really hits the themes of how acceptance is something you find all around you from the family you make even if the society around you is too prejudiced to realize it should give it.  It's great, is what I'm saying, without spoiling.  

Note: I read the first few chapters in audiobook format, and the reader was excellent. And so while I didn't continue the novel in that format, I would recommend it to anyone seeking an audiobook.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BOOK 1 AFTER THE JUMP:  \

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Tuesday, November 15, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bindle Punk Bruja by Desideria Mesa

 




Bindle Punk Bruja is the debut novel from Mexican American author Desideria Mesa. The story is a historical fantasy, taking place in Prohibition-era Kansas City, and features as its first person protagonist a half-Mexican-American young woman who can and does pass for White, despite her magical Bruja heritage and minor powers, as she tries to become successful as an independent owner of a Speakeasy in a racist, sexist, and classist world.

And it's a story with a ton of elements - questions about identity, about being self-sufficient vs being supported by others, about dealing with prejudice from many angles, and more - that generally work pretty well. Significantly, its main character Luna/Rose is really excellent, as she finds herself in more and more trouble from outside forces wanting in on her success, to internal struggles over her identity and her need to protect those she cares about - her family and her staff. That said, this is a book that has so so so many elements - too many really for it to deal with, which weakens its power and plotting in the end because it tries to do too much. Still, it's a very good first novel and I do recommend it.

Trigger Warning: Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, overtly so due to the time period and the subject matter, as the story features multiple POC, women and LGBTQ characters. 

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Monday, November 14, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire

 




Seasonal Fears is the second book by Seanan McGuire in the universe she created with the critically acclaimed Middlegame (my review here).  I'm a huge fan of McGuire, but at the same time, didn't quite love Middlegame as much as other people - the story's world filled with alchemists who were trying to embody various concepts about the universe in human form, for the sake of acquiring power....leading to a pair of separated twins, Dodger and Rodger, struggling to figure themselves out as they manifested the forces underlying our entire universe.  The story had some great main characters, but the book's parallels with McGuire's invented children's book quoted throughout and the final revelations near the end just left me uninspired.  

Seasonal Fears is a companion novel which is entirely stand-alone and does not require knowledge of the original book, although it will certainly help due to that first book's protagonists showing up for a significant part midway through.  It's also a book clearly playing upon tropes and ideas that McGuire clearly likes and uses in other books - the idea of humans who are tied to and manifest powers depending on the seasons, the teenage loves who find themselves confronted by tragedy, and a race across the country to escape forces trying to threaten those lovers.  

And yet, Seasonal Fears was a huge miss for me.  I really never found myself caring for the two main characters or really invested in the conflict that brews all book between them and one of the major antagonists, and the plot here, like that in Middlegame, never really made an impact on me.  Whereas with Middlegame I really liked the protagonists and felt tremendously for them as they were put through the ringer, I really just found myself reading this without much interest, all the way through its conclusion.  

I'll try to explain more after the jump:  Trigger Warning: Suicidal Ideation (more like Self-Euthanasia of a dying girl) is a minor part of this book, although not nearly to the extent as in Middlegame and is never discussed in imminent detail

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Thursday, November 10, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Godslayers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

 



Godslayers is the conclusion to the story that began in Zoe Hana Mikuta's YA dystopian and mecha-based SciFi novel Gearbreakers (My review of Gearbreakers is here).  Gearbreakers was a novel that I really liked - a dark novel featuring a pair of teen girls trying to fight back against an evil Empire using mecha to control the populace, which featured the two girls falling for each other even as they came from very very different backgrounds....and which featured some really dark plot turns as they each had to sacrifice so so much in their efforts at revolution...and not just things, but people.  I know that was a run on sentence, but well, it gets the point of how much Gearbreakers dealt with, and it worked really well in everything - in its themes, in its romance/characters, and even in its mecha action.  And it ended with a hell of a cliffhanger, which I'll discuss after the jump to avoid spoilers.  

Godslayers meanwhile manages to really nail its themes and atmosphere, as it deals with themes of how war and Empire chews up children on all sides, whether they be those pressed into service in support of the Empire, those who rise up to rebel against it, and even those forced to lead it and keep its bloody operations going and going.  It does a really good job with these stories, especially as it portrays the dark end results of an Empire possibly on its deathbed, the actions of people who have been raised and essentially brainwashed by propaganda and worse to treat the Empire's symbols - its mecha - as gods, and how this all affects even those who have tried to fight the Empire at great cost.  It does a bit lesser of a job at developing its characters individually and the main characters' romance, where the book really relies upon the work from its predecessor to make events happening to the characters, and the separation of its main duo, to have meaning.  The result is a really solid conclusion, especially if you reread Gearbreakers first (which I did not), but not quite one that may fully live up to the expectations set by book 1.  

MAJOR SPOILERS for book 1 after the jump:  

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Tuesday, November 8, 2022

SciFi Mini Book Reviews: Syn City: Reality Bytes by Lewis Knight and The Audacity 3: Be Kind Rewind by Carmen Loup

As I'm no longer having as much free time for reviews anymore, I'm going to be trying something new on this blog: Mini Book Reviews...posts with multiple smaller book reviews for books I have less to say about than normal.  

So below the jump I have reviews of two self-published works I found through the SPSFC: Syn City: Reality Bytes and The Audacity 3.  Syn City just isn't super interesting enough to be worth a full review, even if it's not bad, and The Audacity 3 is a sequel to a book I did do a full review of, and is more of the same of that book - which is a good thing mind you, but it means it doesn't really require a full review as a sequel.  

My thoughts on these books is below:


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Monday, November 7, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Book Review: Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

 



Just Like Home is the latest novel from author Sarah Gailey, one of the more fascinating authors of both long and short sci-fi/fantasy in the past few years.  Their works are always really interesting in themes and characters, whether that be a story dealing heavily with abuse and how it shapes generations and perpetuates itself like The Echo Wife or a Queer YA Fantasy like When We Were Magic, etc etc.  I haven't always liked Gailey's works - I find they tend to struggle with endings, which tend to seem abrupt and ill fitting of what came before, but they're almost always fascinating...and sometimes very powerful as they deal with serious and strong themes.  

Just Like Home is another strong work - this time a psychological and maybe more horror novel about what it is to be monstrous, and about parental abuse and caring and how that shapes someone - particularly its protagonist Vera, the daughter of an abusive/neglectful mom and a loving dad who turned out to be a horrifying serial killer.  The story works pretty well atmospherically as Vera returns home at the behest of her dying mother, deals with a creepy artist fascinated by her old house, and deals with strange visions and messages popping up, and doesn't go in some of the directions you might have guessed as it jumps back and forth in time to reveal the events of the past.  It's really well done, creepy and strong at times, but at the same time, parts of the setup feel kind of abrupt, so it still doesn't quite all work.

More after the jump:

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Thursday, November 3, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

 




A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is the long awaited* fifth novel from author Foz Meadows, whose Manifold Worlds YA Portal Fantasy duology made waves in 2016-2017.  I really really liked the first of those two novels, An Accident of Stars, which to be honest was one of the first really queer novels that I think I read since I started reading back in 2015, and pulled it off in a novel filled with themes about identity and more in ways that I really liked - although I didn't quite love some of the twists in its sequel.  But I was really looking forward to more from Meadows, and finally I am getting my wish in A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, which is not a YA novel but instead a M/M fantasy romance....

*The wait was exacerbated by Meadows having to deal with an essentially abusive agent with regards to her last books*.  

And the wait was largely worth it, as I really liked A Strange and Stubborn Endurance - it tells a really strong M-M romance in which one of the two partners deals with coming from a homophobic country and trauma from rape, and the other deals with a surprise partner he never expected.  Add in some court intrigue, which winds up coming down to plot elements - showing how much a loved one is valued is  major theme - that tie in really well with the recovering from abuse and the romance plot, and well you have a book that generally works really well.  The only major problem for me was the early rape scene, which, if you can get past that (and I advise skimming), you'll find a really really solid and enjoyable romance.   


TRIGGER WARNING:  RAPE - The book's second chapter features from first person a rape in detail and this goes on for thee hardcover pages, and honestly is a bit more than it needs to be.  As noted in the rest of this review, the book uses this well, and the story of main character Velasin's trauma and recovery from trauma as a result of the rape are handled really well as a major theme of this book, so the book is still well worth reading.  And the scene is skimmable like I eventually did.  But it very well may be too much for some readers.  

Also Trigger Warning for Suicidal Ideation and self-harm as a result of the above.  


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Wednesday, November 2, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron

 





This Wicked Fate is the second book in Kalynn Bayron's young adult modern fantasy duology which began with This Poison Heart (reviewed here).  That book and this one were hyped up quite a lot by people I respect, and I enjoyed This Poison Heart for what it was: a YA modern fantasy featuring a Black (Queer) Teen Girl and some of the usually more reviled parts of Greek mythology (most notably Medea, Jason's wife).  At the same time, the book never really hit super high moments for me, with it relying on some very ordinary YA tropes and genre blindness that worked but prevented it from really impressing this reader who is out of the book's expected audience.*

*It should be noted I am very much not this book's best audience.  As much as I enjoy YA works, I am not a young adult reader, nor do I teach such readers.  I am also a White Cis Man, who tries to read works from people of color as often as possible to expand my horizons and to read more interesting and different things, but at the same time, that means that I won't feel the impact of books directed at POC or Black Readers like this book which are seemingly directed at similar White audiences all the time.  So take all this review for what it is.*

This Wicked Fate is kind of more of that same.  The story is very enjoyable for what it is, with it being a Black YA Fantasy dealing with Greek Mythology, featuring basically only women as major characters, with the story dealing with struggles and traumas over generations as its heroine Bri tries to save her family in a race against time.  At the same time, the book again relies on what for older readers may be an appalling amount of blindness to the obvious from Bri at times, and takes about half the book for the main plot to get going, which can be really frustrating.  The result is enjoyable and a solid YA work, and one that may be especially resonant to Black readers, but one which doesn't rank as high for me as it apparently does for others. 

Spoilers for Book 1 are inevitable below:

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Tuesday, November 1, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Dance with the Devil by Kit Rocha



Dance with the Devil is the third book in Kit Rocha's "Mercenary Librarian" series of Post-Apocaplytic SF Romance novels, which began with Deal with the Devil and continued with The Devil You Know.  The series features two groups of super-soldiers: genetically modified Maya, Nina, and Dani (to start) and mechanically augmented Knox, Rafe, Gray and Conall, all of whom escaped from the Corporate powers that rule this post-apocalypse version of the US, as they attempt to make a better life for the people of Atlanta despite it all...and maybe fall in steamy love with one of the others along the way.  The first two books were very enjoyable sexy* fun, and so I was very happy to preorder the third, especially given my enjoyment of Rocha's other works.  

*Note that this is not an "Erotic Romance" like Rocha's Beyond Series (technically set in a different part of the same world) and thus while there is sex, the book isn't chock-full of it like in that series, relying more on action and romantic moments that aren't simply sexual exploration (although that is there too).  

Dance with the Devil follows Dani - the girl modified to feel no pain - and Rafe - former intelligence agent who got into the Techcorps world to support his family - as they both attempt to deal with their steaming attraction to each other (and Rafe's wanting of something more permanent than mere sex) and with the need to infiltrate the Techcorps to gather intel necessary to help their people...and to possibly inspire a revolution to make things better.  You have steamy spy moments, strong characters (including the fun main duo, who I'd been waiting to see featured since early in book 1), decent action and well a plot that works pretty well as both a stand alone and a potential conclusion to this series....even as it also sets up the potential for a continuation at some point (the authors have said they're taking a break from the series).  I needed a fun read when I started this book, and I got it.  


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