SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

SF/F Review: The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty https://t.co/qS8L7GF46X - Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 30, 2017

Short Review (cont): The City of Brass is the first in an Epic Fantasy Trilogy which features a City of Djinn on the verge of civil war due to clan rivalries and racial prejudice...as well as other magical creatures w/their own agendas. Phenomenal Characters in a grey world (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 30, 2017

  The City of Brass is the first in a new Epic Fantasy trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty (The Daevabad Trilogy) based upon an Islamic mythology-based world.  Nearly all of our main characters are Djinn, and the story also features Ifrit, Peri, and Marid in various roles - not to mention the book's name comes from one of the stories in Arabian Nights.  While this is the author's debut novel, it doesn't feel like it - this is a pretty expansive piece of worldbuilding and character work, with the latter being particularly excellent.

  That said, The City of Brass is the type of trilogy-opener that does not really attempt to resolve many, if any, of the plot threads it raises throughout the book, preferring to end in a cliffhanger that presumably will set off some of the rest of the trilogy.  So if you're looking for a book that will be satisfying on its own, this book is not for you.  This is also a fantasy world filled with grey - while one of our protagonists may be the closest thing possible to an actual good guy, his attitude isn't treated well by the narrative and the sides in conflict in this story are not all good or all evil.  This is a story where prejudice, racism, religious-extremism and violent resistance are major forces and there are no easy answers.

More after the jump, but a quick warning before I go further, I read this book as an audiobook, which means that my spellings of character and place names is very likely going to be off.  It should be noted that while the audiobook is long (19 hours is long even for a 500 page book), it's very well narrated, and so I do recommend the audiobook format if you're looking for one.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Midnight Blue-Light Special (inCryptid) by Seanan McGuire

SF/F Review: Midnight Blue-Light Special (inCryptid) by Seanan McGuire https://t.co/hX2eBsP3op Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 28, 2017

Short Review (cont): The 2nd inCryptid Novel follows directly up from the 1st one, as Verity Price finds that the monster-exterminating Covenant of Saint George has come to Manhattan, seeking to kill her & destroy her inhuman allies. Fun & oft-witty Urban Fantasy (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 28, 2017

Midnight Blue-Light Special is the second Novel (though not story) in Seanan McGuire's inCryptid series, following the first novel, Discount Armageddon, which I previously reviewed for this blog.

For those new to the series, inCryptid is an urban fantasy series focusing upon the Healy/Price family, a family of cryptozoologists who attempt to preserve and help Cryptids in North America - Cryptids being the name for beings that are unknown/unexplainable by modern science (think Monsters/Mythological creatures like Gorgons, Bogeymen, Dragons, and Talking Mice).  The family also tries to help save the Cryptids from their former organization, the Covenant of Saint George, which has a strictly "kill-on-sight" policy toward Cryptids, no matter how harmless, or how helpful, they might be to ordinary humans.   Despite the seriousness of the conflict, members of the Healy/Price family tend to be sarcastic/deadpan-snarkers, and so the series has a lot of humor in its tone.

Midnight Blue-Light Special is the second book following Verity Price, one of the youngest generation of the Family who tries to juggle her Cryptozoologist work with her love of Ballroom Dancing, all the while living in one of the biggest Cryptid communities you can find:  New York City.  It is very much a direct sequel to Discount Armageddon, and while McGuire spends part of the early narrative rehashing what a new reader might need to know that was explained in the first novel, you probably shouldn't start the series here with this book.

More after the jump, with spoilers for Discount Armageddon ahead:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns

SF/F Review: Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns: https://t.co/bb42mZ8p94 Short Review: 3 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 25, 2017

Short Review (cont): This story of a pair of Lesbian Engineers hijacking a Colony Ship in order to impress Space Pirates only to run into a murderous A.I. is certainly ambitious, but has meh characters & a plot that fails to meet expectations (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 25, 2017

Few Books might have a basic plot concept as appealing as Barbary Station:  "A pair of Lesbian Engineers hijack a ship in order to join a band of famous pirates at a space station, only to find themselves forced to contend with a murderous A.I."  You got Engineers!  Space Pirates!  AIs!  Hacking! This just sounds like it should be a fun and exciting adventure.  And the story even starts off with a bang - the aforementioned hijacking occurs and is completed within the first two chapters.

Unfortunately, Barbary Station, which is author R.E. Stearns' first novel, fails to synthesize all of these ideas together and the result feels very much like an unsatisfying mess.  There's clearly a lot of interesting potential ideas here, but many of them are raised and never followed up on, and the direction the plot takes just isn't particularly satisfying either due to a pair of main characters who don't quite gel. 

More detail on this after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View

SF/F Anthology Review: Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View https://t.co/K91KirSHwD Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 23, 2017

Short Review (Cont): This Anthology commemorates the 40th anniversary of Episode IV by telling 40 short stories from the points of view of minor characters during the events of ANH. Some real gems, mixed with others that are merely okay. But a few gems are great (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 23, 2017

I've not been particularly pleased with the three new canon Star Wars novels that I've read so far (two Aftermath books and Thrawn), but still, this old Star Wars fan was extremely excited when From a Certain Point of View was announced earlier this year.  This Anthology features forty different authors telling 40 different "stories" (in various form) from points of view of side characters during the time period of A New Hope - the number "40" being used as this year is the 40th anniversary of the original Star Wars' opening in 77.  This sort of anthology is not exactly new to Star Wars - in a sense it's reminiscent of the Tales' series of anthologies from the old canon, such as Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (although as I'll note before, the focus of this anthology is slightly different).

What is different, and what was exciting about this book when first announced, is the talent that is involved in it.  The forty authors involved include some of the best and/or most well known talent in the SciFi/Fantasy writing scene - whether it be in the form of books, animation, or comics.  So we have SF authors like Ken Liu and Nnedi Okorafor; Comic Book writers like Matt Fraction and Greg Rucka; TV cartoon writers like Paul Dini; and even an actor like Wil Wheaton.  Most of the stories aren't very long, but they cover seemingly every side character imaginable - and sometimes more.

As with any anthology - especially one involving multiple authors - the quality of the stories can vary pretty wildly throughout this collection.  But there are some real games that make this a pretty easy pickup for the typical Star Wars fan.

More after the Jump

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire

SF/F Review: Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire: https://t.co/SbCKrbOQl4 Short Review: 6.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 21, 2017

Short Review (cont): Sparrow Hill Road combines a series of short ghost stories about the hitchhiking ghost Rose Marshall and her adventures into a single novel and while its often pretty fun, some of the stories are less successful and it lacks a satisfying ending (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 21, 2017

  Like a few other books I've reviewed, Sparrow Hill Road is a book that did not start its life as a Novel.  Rather, it was originally a set of short stories released over a year in a publication by Seanan McGuire, supposedly based upon several ghost/urban legend stories of the road.  The novel essentially takes an edited versions of 11 of the 12 short stories and puts them together into one complete story.  That said, the book's origin is quite evident as each of the 11 chapters is quite clearly a single story, even if the stories eventually build upon one another to a final ending.

  Sparrow Hill Road is set in the same universe as McGuire's inCryptid stories, although there are only minor references toward the inCryptid universe in the book, so one doesn't need to have any knowledge before reading it.  That said, if you've read any of McGuire's inCryptid short stories or some of her October Daye books, you'll be very familiar with what you're getting here - a fun breezy book with an entertaining heroine in an urban fantasy world.  Unfortunately, while parts of the book are as entertaining as any of McGuire's other works, some parts (really, some of the short stories) don't really land as well and the book kind of lacks an ending.

More after the Jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

SF/F Review: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon: https://t.co/tPiM18ERks Short Review: 9.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 18, 2017

Short Review (cont): A brutal tale of racism, homophobia, and oppression on a generation ship is often hard to read, but in the end is an incredibly powerful tale of people trying to survive and find meaning in small acts of resistance in the present and the past (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 18, 2017

  The SF/Fantasy Genre is very often (if not mostly) used by writers to tell stories about real world issues in different frames in order for the writer to address those issues.  For example, the amount of Fantasy or SF Books that feature elements of racism (or similarly, class-ism) as key elements of the plot has got to be extremely high - 5 of the 10 last books I've read have had such plots.  That said, few SF/F books really deal with the brutality of racism in its most primal form -racism/prejudice/oppression may be central elements of those books, but the true horrors of these issues is often kept at a remove from the reader.  Perhaps the authors of these books wish not to make their books too brutal to read or in many cases simply finds that to do so would detract from the story they wish to tell. 

   Then there are books like An Unkindness of Ghosts, which not only feature the horrors of racism/sexism/oppression at the forefront, but makes absolutely no effort to lighten the topic for the reader.  This is a brutal book, which opens with the main character having to amputate a little girl's leg due to the living conditions imposed upon the Black underclass by the ruling White powers, and only gets more brutal from there.  An Unkindness of Ghosts is in no way a read that can be characterized as "fun."

  However, it is absolutely a WORTHWHILE read, maybe even an ESSENTIAL one.  It's a book that essentially translates the horrors of slavery/plantation life/racism to a scifi world - well, Generation Ship - to form a truly terrifying but impactful story.  If you're looking for a fun story, this isn't your book, but if you're looking for a book that is simply powerful....this might be the most worthwhile read of the year.

(If you couldn't guess from this type of description, trigger warnings certainly apply to this book - rape, abuse, and beatings are all parts of this story, but they're essential to the tale.)  

More after the Jump, where I'll try to not babble - sorry, a review of this type of book is difficult.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Terminal Alliance by Jim C Hines

SF/F Review: Terminal Alliance by Jim C Hines: https://t.co/fbzqltT217 Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 16, 2017

Short Review (cont): A Space Opera meets Comedy tale featuring a bunch of human janitors, some of the last survivors of the human race, having to learn to fly a battleship and unravel a galactic conspiracy. Lot of fun. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) November 16, 2017

As I've said before, sometimes one wants to read a book that is not interested in really deep questions as the core element of the plot, but one that is just plain fun.  Even one involving Toilet Humor.  Well, Terminal Alliance, if you couldn't tell by its series title: "Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse," is such a book.  That said, while the book is definitely on the "very silly" side of the scale, it manages to do so in a way that actually works really naturally, and never feels off as a result.  This is a humorous scifi book done extremely well, and it's easy to appreciate that once in a while.

One note before the jump: I listened to this as an e-audiobook from the library.  Despite my enjoyment of the book itself, the audiobook reader is NOT good - while her voices are solid for each of the characters, when she is reading general narration it tends to sound like the computer generated voices an old apple would speak on request and it was extremely jarring.  This book is worth a read, but the audiobook format is not really one I'd recommend as a result.

More after the Jump: