SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar

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 5, 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.

Lavie Tidhar is one of the more interesting prolific writers out there these days as he's known largely for his Central Station short novel (itself sort of a collection of short stories) as well as his short stories and edited collections of international SF/F work. His work has honestly been pretty hit or miss for me, but it has always featured some very different and out there worlds and concepts (for example, a clown-based Western in an imaginary world of a grieving father) and his last short novel, Neom, was one I really really liked. So I always am happy to try his stuff and The Circumference of the World is the latest.

And well, The Circumference of the World is an interesting short novel with a bunch of inspirations....but I don't really think they come together in any coherent fashion. The story revolves around a book - "Lode Stars" - that may not exist but supposedly contains the secrets of the universe as told by a scientology-esque religion founded by a manic golden age sci-fi writer. This book affects the lives of a woman from Vanua Lava, a face blind book dealer, a Russian mobster, and the writer himself, but their stories and the framing device sometimes of strange otherworldly entities telling the story don't really mesh? It's hard to explain or know what to think about this, but I'll try better below:

Note: I read this in part in Audiobook, which uses multiple narrators to put on a very interesting and unique performance.  Very well done, so if you're interested in this book, would recommend in this format.
 

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Accidental Intelligence by Bryan Chaffin

 

Accidental Intelligence is another one of the semifinalists in this year's Self Published Science Fiction Competition (#SPSFC4) and is one of the six books in my team's judging panel. The novel is a Sci-Fi Noir, featuring a private investigator Mason Truman as its protagonist as he investigates a case of a missing young man...one whose case clearly has ties to the AIs and Corporate interests who run the world. I wouldn't necessarily call myself a big fan of noir, but the noir atmosphere and writing style does tend to draw me in, so I very quickly read through this book over two days on my commute.

Unfortunately, Accidental Intelligence doesn't quite reward the reader for sticking with it. The story's main characters are paper thin, with its protagonist having seemingly no motivation or life outside of plot itself, and while the book's plot promises a fight against a dangerous conspiracy, that conspiracy turns out to be laughably simple and uninteresting. And it all ends up in a conclusion that is really unsatisfying, as events needed to solve matters just occur out of nowhere and the bad guy is defeated with way too much ease...and then the book throws an epilogue in that I guess (I was confused) attempts to set up a sequel but instead just makes it even more frustrating?

More specifics after the jump. Note that the plot summary of this book on Amazon and Goodreads spoils like 80% of the book - I'll try to be less spoilery below.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Interstellar Megachef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

 

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 5, 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.

Interstellar Megachef is the second American-published novel of Indian writer Lavanya Lakshminarayan. Lakshminarayan's The Ten Percent Thief, published in the US last year and in India a few years prior (under a different title), was one of my favorite books of last year: it was a brilliant combination of vignettes and short stories poking holes at and satirizing a future society supposedly organized entirely upon merit (among many other ideas). It was a piece of idea-based sci-fi, and while it didn't have a set of main characters who had much character development, the result was just an utterly brilliant take down of ideas of merit, equality, and where tech and other things are going. So I was super excited to see that this next book of hers would be out this year and would be a worldwide release.

And well, Interstellar Megachef succeeds again at setting up a supposedly better world - the planet Primus, settled in the future by Earth emigrants under a charter to reinvent human culture as a better more equal and sustainable culture - that it then pokes holes in as being not quite the utopia it claims to be. The story is less successful with its main characters and plotlines however - main characters Saraswati Kaveri and Serenity Ko are strong characters with understandable personalities, but their character growth winds up being abrupt near the end (and the romance between them seems almost shoehorned in). More annoyingly, the plot teases a whole bunch of potential conflicts and plot twists that never actually happen and are all saved for the sequel as this book is in fact the first book of a trilogy/series. There's still some really interesting themes and ideas here, but the result is kind of an unsatisfying package due to how it's all pulled together for a conclusion.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bisection by Sheila Jenné

 

Bisection is a 2024 self-published novel by author Sheila Jenné and most notably, the book is a Self Published Science Fiction Competition 4 (SPSFC4) semifinalist which my judging group is setup to review. The novel features a fascinating premise that seemed really hard to write well: the protagonists are a pair of beings who share the same body, Tria (the Right) and Resa (the Left), as their species (the Kinaru) are human-like except each one of their brains is segmented into two beings - the Right, who is logical, rational and planning; and the Left, who is feeling and emotional. And so we read about Tria and Resa as they stow away on an alien ship and discover more about themselves, each other, their species and the universe...especially as things go awry.

The result works far far better than I could've expected, even if the concept is by some definition a little simplistic. The story contrasts the emotional/logical beings of the Kinaru with that of both an alien Shatakazan species and that of the humans on Earth in ways that really deal with interesting themes: oppression in the name of knowing what's best, the value of emotion and empathy as opposed to just cold reason, individual actions and autonomy vs consensus based communities and more. The story is also not preachy as it goes from beginning to end, and while there are a few moments that made me laugh in their plot convenience, in general this is a rather compelling interesting SciFi novel that pays off its interesting concept.

Video Game Review: The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2

Trails through Daybreak 2 is the 12th game in the Nihon Falcom's Trails series of JRPGs and the second game in the Calvard Arc, the fourth arc in the series. If somehow you're reading this review without having any familiarity with Trails, the series is a JRPG series of video games that began 20 years ago (although the first game didn't come to the US until 10 years later roughly) with Trails in the Sky and, like a long running epic fantasy series, each game sort of builds upon the next so as to create one incredibly epic story. The story occasionally provides what seem like good entry points for latecomers to Trails, like the first Trails through Daybreak game (which began the fourth arc of the series, dealing with events in the country of Calvard), but inevitably events, plot threads, and characters from the prior games show up as each arc gets more and more complicated. And for the Calvard Arc, that moment comes in Trails Through Daybreak 2.

Now listen, I am basically what might be called a Trails superfan (even if I'm far from the craziest in that direction). I've played every game in the series (and most of them multiple times) and even played the two Crossbell games (Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure) using a fan translation because those games were skipped by the localization teams hired by Falcom for like a decade before they were finally released (with help from the fan translaters) two years or so ago. So keep in mind that none of this epic continuity is a problem for me in and of itself and that will color my review.

So what are my thoughts as a Trails superfan of this game? Well, I'll go into more details below, but in general, I had a lot of very mixed thoughts on this game compared to some of the earlier games in the series, particularly the last Daybreak game, which is honestly one of the series' high notes. Daybreak 2 is known for being a game with some very mixed opinions from fans and it definitely earns that reputation: the game relies upon some really silly shortcuts that are even more obvious than usual, the plot generally doesn't move forward as much as you'd like for a second game in an arc and drags seriously at times, and bringing back two characters from a prior game and centering them in the story feels like a waste. On the other hand, the core gameplay remains incredibly fun, much of the new gameplay is really good (although there are some lesser parts), and individual character beats which have always been a major focus of Trails shine immensely. I put 70 hours into Trails Through Daybreak 2 and I absolutely do not regret it, even if I'm not in a hurry to replay the game right now.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell

 

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 17, 2025 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.

Wearing the Lion is the second novel by award winning SF/F author John Wiswell. The novel is Wiswell's take on the story of Heracles - better known by his roman name Hercules - told from dual perspectives: the perspective of Heracles himself and the perspective of Hera, queen of the Olympian Gods, who in most stories is Heracles' antagonist who hates him for being born from Zeus' infidelity.

But Wiswell takes the story in a very different way than I've ever seen before. Here, Heracles is an extremely well meaning Himbo (super strong and pretty, but not the brightest) and Hera is a very sympathetic goddess who finds that her anger at his existence is going horribly wrong and finds herself desperate to find someway to undo her mistakes. The story take the established myths of Heracles and reframes and re-adapts them into a story with multiple found family arcs as well as themes of justice, vengeance, forgiveness, and accountability. And it works really really well. Oh and the story retains Wiswell's amazing gift for dialogue, naming, and character beats (some of the reframed Olympic Gods are just....perfect). You'll want to read this one for sure.

More specifics after the jump:

Book Review: The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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 16, 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 Seventh Veil of Salome is a historical fiction novel set in 1950s Hollywood written by master author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This is not a science fiction or fantasy novel but instead follows a bunch of characters working on or adjacent to a fictional 1950s movie in the "Sword and Sandals" genre (think Ben-Hur) which is based upon the New Testament story of Salome, the niece of Herod who asked for the head of John the Baptist*. While the story jumps between character viewpoints, it largely focuses upon Vera, a girl from Mexico who was randomly discovered to become the film's star actress despite no prior acting credits, and her struggles among hollywood, among her family, and in her own confusion about what she wants and parallels these struggles with those of Salome in the movie.

*As a Jewish reader not really familiar with the New Testament, I was not honestly familiar with this story, fwiw, and the book works fine without any foreknowledge.*

The result is a really interesting novel dealing with a number of themes - including oppression, parental pressure and emotional abuse, confusion about destiny and what one wants, class, love, and passion. The story's most prominent characters - Vera and a white girl named Nancy who has struggled and failed to reach a big role in Hollywood and, in cavorting with bad actors, finally reaches a breaking point - are done really well, and the story carries impressively towards the climax where you know something is going to go badly wrong. It's not a book that I loved or think is a must read, but it's another solid entry from Moreno-Garcia, who seems to write nothing other than such novels and is always worth picking up.