SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson

 



The Library of Broken Worlds is the third Young Adult novel by author Alaya Dawn Johnson, one of my favorite lesser known authors, despite the fact that every long fiction she's written has managed to earn awards.  Her first YA novel, Love is the Drug, won the Nebula/Norton Award for best YA SF/F novel; her second novel The Summer Prince was nominated for that same award (and is one of my few perfect score books - it's incredible); and her third novel, Trouble the Saints, won the World Fantasy Award.  ADJ's works have varied in their settings and characters, even as they often deal with similar themes of racial and other forms of oppression and injustice, and they have always featured strong characters and fascinating plots - as such she's basically an auto-read for me whenever I hear that she's published anything new.  

And The Library of Broken Worlds is perhaps the deepest novel ADJ has ever written as the novel is packed with ideas, themes, questions and concepts about tons of things - about love, about the long term trauma and need to heal from sexual abuse, about power, about legal precedents and how access and abuse of those precedents can solidify power, about the value of one people vs another, etc. etc.  There's a ton here, all explored in a plot featuring AIs with strange morality and concepts, a world filled with techno-organic life all around the protagonist - a girl named Freida who was birthed seemingly by one of those AI gods for an unknown purpose and who tells most of the story in communication with a war god AI she is seemingly supposed to destroy.  And this is a story told in a way heavily reliant upon description, metaphor, and internal tales, such that well it's not only easy to miss what's being explored, but I'm pretty sure I DID miss out on some of what Johnson was trying to get at. 

In some ways that obtuse plot structure thus prevents this book from fully working - I suspect nearly every reader will come out of this confused by a good portion of what they read, and that feeling will definitely frustrate many readers.  At the same time, the plot's examination of power, oppression, and historical wrongs, as well as its following of a coming of age story of love, of trying to figure out who one is, and of tremendous self-determination even in the face of trauma and abuse is extremely compelling and makes this a definite recommend.  

More explanations after the jump:

TRIGGER WARNING:  Sexual Abuse of a teenage character (in virtual reality) through one character acting without the other's consent.  This isn't explicitly described, but it's very important to the plot, so it can't be ignored, but this plot element is treated extremely seriously and all of its ramifications explored.   Also possibly triggering: Oppression of minority groups and dehumanization of peoples.  

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Spare Man is a Science Fiction Mystery novel written by author Mary Robinette Kowal, an author who won Hugo Award(s) for her Lady Astronaut series (The Calculating Stars) and is the former President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (the SFWA). The novel is also a nominee for this year's Hugo Award for Best Novel, which is what put it on my radar after I initially skipped it - I very much enjoyed one of Kowal's prior novels (Ghost Talkers) but haven't really loved her Lady Astronaut series so I wasn't particularly interested when it first came up. And to be honest here, its one of two books that I kind of groaned to see on the nomination list instead of some books I really loved from last year, so my reading and this review is colored by a bit of a negative bias.

But, trying to put that bias aside, The Spare Man is an okay SciFi Murder Mystery...but isn't really much more than that. The novel's standout feature is its protagonist, Tesla Crane, who struggles with physical disability and PTSD from a past disaster that basically ended her engineering career, and has to cope with her disabilities via both an internal system that allows her to regulate pain and feeling and a little Westie named Gimlet who serves her crucially as a service dog. Tesla's handicaps and her difficulties working around them are written extremely well, and give this book its sole real bit of originality (the Space Opera or SciFi Murder Mystery is hardly new) and is praiseworthy. But the rest of the setup is kind of lackluster and there's nothing really special here to make this book seem worthy of an award; nor is the murder mystery particularly compelling or solved in a super interesting fashion. It's not the worst mystery I've read, and honestly I no longer read a lot of them, but this isn't good enough for it to be more than a solid but mostly forgettable piece of science fiction for me.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Shadow Speaker 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 September 26, 2023 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.

Shadow Speaker is a new expanded edition of a young adult africanfuturist fantasy novel first published over 15 years ago by renowned author Nnedi Okorafor (before the renown part). The novel is being republished in new form this fall by DAW, together with a sequel that Okorafor had previously planned but never apparently had gotten the opportunity to write. And well, if you're familiar with Okorafor - writer of Binti, Who Fears Death, Akata Witch and so so much more - you might understand why this is an exciting thing - Okorafor is one of the more well known Africanfuturist authors for a reason, using African myth, religions, culture, and realities to create strong and interesting science fiction and fantasy with some really interesting themes throughout her books (even as the books range in subgenres). So yeah, I was super excited to get an early chance to read this novel.

Shadow Speaker is another very solid novel, although it's one that certainly feels like it was written before some of Okorafor's earlier works, almost like it is a predecessor to the Akata Witch/Nsibidi Scripts series which it resembles to a certain extent (with a hint of the post apocalyptic world of other Okorafor books). The story features a future Africa after magical Peace Bombs were unleashed upon the world causing a great change, resulting in persons being born with powers, and parts of our world and other worlds beginning to merge. Such is the world where 15 year old Ejii, who can talk to Shadows (amidst the other hard to explain powers she has), grows up and has to go on a journey to seemingly avert a war between the various other worlds out there and our own. The result is a story dealing with power, oppression and greed, misogyny, and the struggle to make things better through means other than violence, and it works pretty well thanks to its excellent main duo of characters. At the same time, it is kind of scattered and not super focused, so readers may find it a little unsatisfying.

Obvious disclaimer: As a White Jewish American reader its always possible I'm missing something in a book that is different from my cultural experience - with the book being based in the culture, history and myth of Africa, particularly both African Muslims and other African religions. So be aware of how my perspective affects my review, as opposed to a reader who comes from such cultures.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Ghosts of Trappist by KB Wagers

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 27, 2023 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 Ghosts of Trappist is the third book in KB Wagers' NeoG series of space opera novels, which follow a future space version of the Coast Guard in the 25th century, after humanity had experienced a societal collapse from which it emerged a better, more egalitarian and accepting, but still far from perfect society. The series, which began with the really enjoyable A Pale Light in the Black (my review is here), follow specifically a team of Neos who crew the interceptor "Zuma's Ghost" as they attempt to safeguard travel in the Black - both in the Solar System and around a human colony in the Trappist system - and as they form a found family...even as things can get rough for them personally and professionally. Also there's a fun inter-military competition called the Boarding Games that the team competes in for fun and bragging rights. The first book was largely found family and light-ish, even as there was a background conspiracy plot, but the second book (Hold Fast Through the Fire) got a bit darker, featuring betrayal, traumatic events, and struggles to pull through together (I didn't quite love it as much).

And so we come to this book, book 3, which tries to sort of hit multiple themes we saw in both books - found family, struggling with trauma and grief - as well as some new ones having to deal with AI, specifically the team's robot dog "Doge" who was one of my favorite characters in prior books. There's also a major new theme of abusive relationships, which was previously touched on in the family sense with major character Max's family (and is still dealt with here on that note) and now extends to other such abusive relationships, romantic and otherwise. And for the most part, I think The Ghosts of Trappist does this well - the characters remain excellent, both new and old, the dialogue and plot events are sharp and enjoyable (even as the horror nature of the plot never really is that horrifying and parts of the plot are predictable to the point where you just wish the protagonists would get a clue for a long long time). And I enjoyed getting point of view chapters from one Zuma member, Sapphi, who we previously only saw from the side...and seeing how the "hacking" seems to work in this book was kind of fun and enjoyable, even if it reads a little silly. That said, the book is probably spread a bit too thin, with some subplots not feeling complete amidst everything else, so it's not perfect...but it's still a very solid continuation of this series.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Mr. and Mrs. Witch by Gwenda Bond

 



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 March 7, 2023 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.

Mr. and Mrs. Witch is a fantasy romance novel written by author Gwenda Bond. The book is, as you might imagine from the title, a riff on the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play a married couple who, unbeknownst to each other, are each contract assassins who wind up getting assigned to kill the other. Only here, in this novel our just about to get married protagonists are Savvy - a witch who secretly works for an organization tries to stop supernatural threats from arising around the globe - and Griffin - a human hunter of the supernatural who works for an organization that opposes the Witches and sees them as one of those supernatural threats. Naturally just as they're about to get married the secret comes out, leading to a conflict of fighting...and love.

The result is a book that sometimes feels a bit rushed with character development and actions and certainly has a setting and plot that doesn't make too much sense if you try to think too hard about it....but is still incredibly fun and breezy and a very enjoyable romance. The chemistry between Savvy and Griffin works really well, the side characters are amusing if not deep at all, and the story makes good use of its premise to fill a short but enjoyable romance. There's little actually surprising here and some things are resolved way too easily, but well - I didn't expect anything else, so I could hardly be disappointed. In short, if you pick this up, you know what you're getting and you will be pretty much satisfied.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

 




Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 11, 2023 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 Splinter in the Sky is the debut novel of author Kei Ashing-Giwa and is a novel that deals with a theme that is getting more deserved attention in the books I read these days: the issue of Empire, its treatment of colonized peoples, and how those people can, should, and may be able to react to a foe who sees them as inhuman and seeks to change them to fit the Empire's own standards (as Empires in our world have done, time and time again). The novel is centered around a woman Enitan from such a conquered colonized people who takes desperate action in heading to the seat of the Empire when her sibling Xiang is kidnapped mysteriously by said Empire....and follows Enitan as (in her attempt to save Xiang) she gets involved in the political conspiracies and intrigue of the Empire that she hates so much.

It's a setup that I've seen done a number of times in various and often really interesting ways (see C.L. Clark's The Unbroken, Seth Dickinson's Baru Cormorant, Arkardy Martine's A Memory Called Empire, etc.), and The Splinter in the Sky starts really promisingly, especially as Enitan winds up working for the ostensible leader (but really figure head) of the Empire - to whom she's attrated - as well as sending reports to the Empire's main political rival. But The Splinter in the Sky kind of struggles with what to do with this setup once it's established how awful people are to the colonized people, settling on becoming kind of a conspiracy thriller race to kill the members of a shadow council governing the Empire before they can embark on a new deadly war, and then assuming that with the council dead that the now empowered good emperor can change things for the better. I don't mean to ding a book too hard for optimism (or for being more optimistic than those other works I mentioned), but the Splinter in the Sky's setup suggests a realist view of how things work and how difficult it will be to change them and then its ending just kind of throws that away, and I didn't think that really worked for me, either in fitting the story or carrying the themes.

More specifics after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams

 

That Self-Same Metal is a young adult historical fantasy novel written by author Brittany N. Williams. Taking place in a loose historical take on Shakespearean London, the story follows Joan, one of two black twins who are part of Shakespeare's troupe of players, and who (along with her twin) possesses magical powers as the chosen of one of the Orisha - for Joan, the Orisha Ogun, who gifts her with the power to magically manipulate metal. But when a pact between humanity and the Fae seems to fall apart, Joan finds herself and her friends and loved ones confronted with the chaos of a fae invasion, which only she and other Orisha-blessed peoples seem to be able to fight off. Along the way Joan will also have to deal with romantic inclinations towards both a fellow boy in her troupe and a girl who asks her for help, as well as the political machinations and prejudice of a lord and royalty who see fit to use her for their own ends.

The result is a highly enjoyable story, as Joan is a really well done narrator and protagonist and the story goes in a bunch of fun and interesting directions. By playing with both African mythology and Historical events in this era of England (very loosely at times), the story is rarely super predictable (with one exception near the end) and the occasional interludes of Fae Horror really heighten the stakes and well...horrify in how they show off the monstrous actions of the Fae. The love triangle here is also done decently well, although the suddenness of Joan's infatuation doesn't quite ring true for me at times (but that's a me thing), especially as it promises a bisexual and poly relationship...even if this book doesn't quite get around to finishing the romantic subplot. And the book deals well with both racial and gender prejudices, as Joan faces both in the course of the plot. All in all, it's a solid start to this series (I don't know if this is a duology or trilogy or whatever) and I'll be back for the next book to see how this resolves.