SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta

 

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 in the US on February 20, 2024 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.

River Mumma is the debut novel of Canadian author Zalika Reid-Benta. The novel is a modern fantasy novel dealing with Jamaican folklore, as our protagonist Alicia is given a task by River Mumma, a Jamaican deity/spirit/mermaid with a connection to rivers and waterways, to find and return her magical comb before a deadline....and features Alicia and two of her friends, Heaven and Mars, searching around Toronto while being pursued by duppies and monstrous beings out of Jamaican folklore. It's a short novel, but one that is pretty packed and feels longer than it is.

And it's a novel that is really really enjoyable. Alicia is a really relatable and understandable protagonist - working in menial work after her masters and professional degrees failed to get her a job like some of her (probably White) classmates, struggling with socializing with friends and feeling lost, etc. And so her journey is really easy to care for as she gets swept up along with her two friends, who are also pretty well done. And the characters are all, even in the seriousness of it, pretty quirky and amusing and genre savvy and nerdy, even if the story never ever verges into comedy. It's a well rounded really enjoyable novel with some solid themes.

Disclaimer: This reviewer is a White Ashkenazi Jewish American, and as such my cultural knowledge of the culture that forms the backbone of this book is slim to none. So take this review for what it's worth (and you may want to see what people with more connections to this culture think in their own reviews).

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang

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 15, 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 Wilderwomen is a contemporary fantasy novel written by author Ruth Emmie Lang. The novel follows two sisters - Zadie, who's in her early 20s, secretly pregnant and just leaving the place she used to stay with her ex; and Finn, who is just about to leave her foster family for college for the first time - as they go on a ride to try and figure out why their mom left them five years ago. But Zadie and Finn aren't quite normal - they both have extrasensory powers, with Zadie able to gain glimpes of the future and Finn able to experience the memories of others tied to a place, and their mother might've had such powers as well. And so the story follows the two as Finn desperately tries to search for her mom and Zadie follows along regretfully, trying not to lose the last relationship she values.

The result is in large part an effective novel of two sisters who love each other but are different both in age and temperament, with Finn hopeful of finding answers and coming from a decent situation and Zadie cynical due to what she once observed and the rough life she's had since her mom left. And the road trip story here is pretty effective, as the two sisters encounter people and places that change their understanding of what happened and who they are. At the same time, the book seems to be leading up to some interesting ideas or answers and instead peters out, with its ending just being abrupt and kind of unsatisfying in how it answers its central idea...and in the process it manages to tie off every question in ways that didn't really work. The result is a mixed bag.

More explanation after the jump:

Fantasy Novella Review: Small Gods of Calamity by Sam Kyung Yoo

 

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 4, 2024 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.

Small Gods of Calamity is the debut novella from author Sam Kyung Yoo. The story features Kim Han-gil, a detective with a sense for the supernatural (which his fellow officers don't know exists) and a traumatic past related to the infestation of his mother (a mudang) by a worm spirit - a deadly parasitic spirit that most other supernatural practitioners don't think is real. So when Han-gil's latest case shows clear signs of a worm's presence, Kim finds himself desperate to stop it before it causes more harm...and burdened with the help of Shin Yoonhae, the man whose exorcism eventually resulted in his mother's tragedy.

The result is a story that deals heavily with trauma and with suffering as a result of loved ones actions, along with issues like transphobia (and how that can cause the aforementioned trauma) and the burning need to keep one's resentment inside. It's a story that works really well in this regards and ends in a hopeful ending, which I will definitely be keeping in mind come next year's award season.

Trigger Warning: Transphobia, particularly from family members, Suicide/Suicidal-Actions.

SciFi/Fantasy Novella: Loving Safoa by Liza Wemakor

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 6, 2024 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.

Loving Safoa is the debut novella of Liza Wemakor and one of the latest in queer small publisher Neon Hemlock's 2024 Novella series.  The novella is short and is in part a lesbian vampire romance - featuring a 200 plus year old vampire tattoo artist from Ghana and a black schoolteacher from New York in the modern world...and beyond.  That "and beyond" is because this book is not really just a romance, but also a hopeful look at this vampire-inclusive version of our world that features growing communities for people from marginalized and colonized communities that soon grow and become prominent.  

It's a lovely story in both the romance department and its hope for the future, even if it feels implausible nowadays, and is very worth your time.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi

 

Daughters of Oduma is a Young Adult Fantasy novel written by Nigerian-American author Moses Ose Utomi.  I really enjoyed Utomi's other 2023 new release - the adult fantasy novella "The Lies of the Ajungo".  That enjoyment - along with a recommendation from one of my favorite reviewers, Alex Brown - led me to check out this novel, even though it seemed on first glance to be targeting a younger age group than I usually focus on.  And I wasn't totally wrong about that - despite the novel being sold as "Young Adult" and featuring a main protagonist who is 17, the novel is perfectly appropriate for and easily could've been sold as middle grade.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but does also make it a bit more difficult for an adult to review it. 

At the same time, Daughters of Oduma is pretty excellent with dealing with themes of family, of choosing who one wants to be, of fear of failure and how one tries to overcome that fear, and how people struggle with inner worries, demons, and fears they've chosen the wrong path.  It's a novel that is inspired by West-African cultures featuring a world which is almost entirely sub 18 year old girls and boys in various castes and focuses upon a family of five girls who are in a caste of fighters/wrestlers, who need their champion to win the land's major competition to get the new members they need in order for the clan to survive.  There are aspects of the setting that are never really explored and are teased as being potentially part of a sequel (where are the adults?  Where do the new kids come from?), but overall the story works really well, with excellent characters and themes - it's also very body positive - that will be very relevant to a lot of younger readers.  

More specifics after the jump:  

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

  Some Desperate Glory is the first full length novel by Emily Tesh, who broke onto the SF/F scene with her Greenhollow duology of novellas (Silver on the Wood/Drowned Country) and wound up winning the Astounding Award for best new writer. I really liked those novellas, although maybe not as much as the rest of the Hugo voters, and this first full length novel - switching to Space Opera this time - has been receiving crazy plaudits from other authors I follow on social media. So I decided - even with a way too long TBR as it was - to put a library hold on it and it came in pretty much immediately.

And well Some Desperate Glory deserves its plaudits in spades, although it's often a very difficult novel to read due to its triggering subject matter (see below), especially at first. The novel starts out seemingly as what readers probably will have seen before - a dystopian future world featuring child soldier protagonist Kyr in a future where Earth has been destroyed after a war with aliens, and will certainly feature its protagonist realize she's on the wrong side and switch sides (or not switch sides and slowly become more tragic) - and then by the midway point in its second act shifts WILDLY, with a couple of plot twists that drastically shift this novel completely. The result is an absolutely excellent story, with an excellent main character - as well as some other side characters - and surprising but generally well earned plot twists that explore strong themes really well - themes such as radicalization, how abuse leads to further cycles of abuse even from people who know what happened to them was wrong, cycles of violence, hatred and fascism, and more and more. It's an absolutely impressive novel given how much it is able to do with its characters and themes while constantly subverting expectations.

NOTE: Despite the age of its protagonist and some of its themes, the book is not marketed as and shouldn't be referred to as YA.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: I'm just going to mostly quote for the novel's own trigger warning here: Sexist, Homophobic, Transphobic, Racist, and Ableist Attitudes, Sexual Assault - both off page and on page, although it doesn't get very far on page - forced pregnancy, violence, child abuse, radicalization, genocide, and suicide. As you can tell, this book deals with serious themes and topics, but it never does so gratuitously, even if it results in the book, especially in the beginning, being very hard to read.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Fox Snare by Yoon Ha Lee

Fox Snare is the third and final book in Yoon Ha Lee's middle grade science fiction trilogy, "A Thousand Worlds", which began with "Dragon Pearl" and continued with "Tiger Honor".  The series is one of the Rick Riordan presents imprint, in which Riordan lends his promotion to books that take inspiration from the mythologies of other cultures - in this case, the series is inspired by Korean mythology and history (even though this is a future science fiction world).   Reviewing Middle Grade novels is difficult because well, I'm obviously not the target audience for this series, but I genuinely liked Dragon Pearl and Tiger Honor, especially the latter, as the two novels deftly mixed sci-fi with beings of Korean myth (gumiho/foxes, goblins, dragons, tigers, etc.) and dealt with some solid themes  in age appropriate adventures.  They weren't books I'd advise adults to read, but for kids they were definitely excellent material and that's what they're for.  

Fox Snare seems to be a conclusion to this series and as such, features both the protagonist of Dragon Pearl (gumiho Min) and the protagonist of Tiger Honor (tiger Sebin) as co-protagonists, as they (eventually) get forced together on another adventure.  This story seems clearly to take inspiration from the historical emnity between Korea and Japan, with sci-fi versions of both nations meeting to discuss a peace treaty only for bad things to happen.  The result is solid, but a number of minor issues - the main plot taking forever to get moving, the antagonist being so incredibly obvious - made this one a bit of a disappointment honestly, especially after I liked Tiger Honor so much more.  But it's possible to be fair that kids will have less problems with these things.  

Note: As with the prior books in this series, this is a very queer-friendly novel, with a queer non-binary protagonist in Sebin, and other queer characters whose queerness is just treated as ordinary.  So this series remains an excellent choice for those looking for queer friendly kid-lit.  

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Abeni's Song by P Djèlí Clark

 

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 25, 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.


Abeni's Song is a middle grade fantasy novel written by award winning fantasy author P Djèlí Clark (A Master of Djinn, Ring Shout). The novel is I believe Clark's first foray into younger fiction and features a novel set in a West African-inspired world, as a 12 year old girl Abeni finds herself the only survivor of an attack on her village by a magical army...one which uses a strange song to hypnotize and kidnap all of the other kids. And so begins a story where Abeni is first taken away by the old woman - thought to be a witch - whose magic saved her from the same fate and then embarks on her own journey to try to save both the others in her village from the magical army's evil leader, the Witch Priest. Along the way Abeni winds up allying with a magical man made of straw, and a pair of animal spirits as she grows, learns and develops into the person needed to save her people.

It's in some ways a fairly standard story, but Clark tells it very well, with a West African backdrop in both its magical setting and its less magical parts (White Slavers are implied to be a threat who are never actually seen or understood) that makes this stand out amongst other similar fare. Some plot elements are rather predictable, but our lead character is an excellent protagonist and the story is both very satisfying on its own and at the same time promises a sequel that I (and younger readers) would be pretty interested in reading.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Market of 100 Fortunes by Marie Brennan

 

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 6, 2024 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 Market of 100 Fortunes is the third and final book in Marie Brennan's Legend of the 5 Rings tie-in trilogy, which began in The Night Parade of 100 Demons and features her romantic pair of gay samurai Asako Sekken of the Phoenix Clan and Agasha no Isao Ryōtora of the Dragon Clan. Book 1 of the trilogy featured the two samurai concealing their own secrets (Sekken's supernatural dog Tanshu and his witch ancestor; Ryōtora's clan's weakness and need to adopt peasant-born individuals like him into its Samurai ranks) as they investigated supernatural phenomena and fell slowly in love. Book 2 featured the two samurai coming together again and facing their love for each other, the political issues involving it as well as their own physical weaknesses, and another supernatural occurence, which all led to the two of them becoming publicly engaged. Both of those books were tremendous fun even if you had no L5R foreknowledge (like me) and the growing romance between Sekken and Ryōtora was just so incredibly lovely and enjoyable.

With Book 3, Sekken and Ryōtora's relationship is more secure than ever, but there's still plenty for their relationship to develop further through a new plot, this time involving repeated minor character Sayashi, the bakeneko (cat-demon) who had gotten involved in both of their prior adventures, as Sayashi begs them for help and invokes Sekken's prior promise to help her see the value of humanity in the process. And so we once again get a new supernatural mystery, a bunch of new minor characters - most notably a Scorpion Clan magistrate whose trustworthiness they have to constantly question - who are pretty solid and a nice resolution and conclusion to the romance that has carried this series. It's not the best book in the trilogy, but it's still another very enjoyable installment that will please anyone who started the series, and just makes me definitely willing to endorse the series to those looking for queer romantic fantasy.