Thursday, June 27, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bloodbath by Stephanie Ahn




Bloodbath is the second in Stephanie Ahn's "Harrietta Lee" urban fantasy series, following last year's novella "Deadline" (Review Here).  I've come to be a pretty big fan of the urban fantasy genre, and Deadline's angst-ridden lesbian blood witch protagonist was instantly a hit for me.  Now the first novella was a bit more explicit than most urban fantasy books I've read (though it didn't include sex, there's a full on consensual BDSM scene), but it all worked together to form an excellent start to what seemed like a new series.

Bloodbath is about 70 pages longer than its predecessor, making it more clearly a short novel rather than a novella and it makes good use of those extra pages.  Protagonist Harry Lee remains excellent, the expanded world remains interesting - we get to see some of the reference magical authorities this time - and the plot has a number of solid twists and turns.  The magic displayed here is maybe a little less interesting than in the first novella, but it's still generally original and the result is a very solid story I'd recommend.  Oh and yes, it's still just as explicit as its predecessor, with the BDSM replaced with full on sex this time, so fair warning.

More after the jump:

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Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Reviewing the 2019 Hugo Nominees: The Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book





Hugo Award voting opened at the start of May and continues through the end of July.  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did the last two years, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.

Other Hugo Award Looks:
My Picks for Best Novel:  See HERE.
My Picks for Best Novella:  See HERE.
My Picks for Best Novelette:  See HERE.
My Picks for Best Short Story: See HERE.
My Picks for The Campbell Award for Best New Writer: See HERE.

The Lodestar Award is in its second year at being awarded with the Hugo Awards, although it's the first year it has actually been a named award.  It's the Hugo equivalent of the Norton Award, for the Best Young Adult (YA) Science Fiction or Fantasy Book of the year, and I'm really glad it was added, because YA has added a ton of excellent works to the genre - and deserves extra recognition for it.  In fact, my favorite books of last year (Sarah Rees Brennan's "In Other Lands") and this year (see below) were YA.

So yeah, there's a lot of great works to be nominated for this award, and this year's shortlist contains some pretty good works, including one book again that was one of my favorites from all of last year, one book that I really really liked, one I enjoyed a good bit which will probably win it all, and two other books that are at least solid - really only one nominee of the bunch do I think is unworthy, although I can understand why it's nominated.  All in all, this award will give recognition to a work that definitely deserves it, which is the point of the matter.

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Tuesday, June 25, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Book Review: The Invasion by Peadar O'Guilin




The Invasion is the sequel to Peadar O'Guilin's Fae Horror Story, "The Call."  As I mentioned in my review of The Call, I am not normally a horror fan, but The Call was absolutely chilling and compelling, so there was no doubt I was going to read the sequel.  And with The Invasion being nominated for the Lodestar Award (essentially the Hugo for Best Young Adult Novel), I was definitely getting to this book sooner rather than later.

The Invasion is alas, not nearly up to the level of The Call, though it's still a very solid novel.  The plotline is a natural extension of what happened at the end of The Call, and the characters remain strong, and the book definitely takes some surprising but satisfying twists and turns along the way.  But the psychological and existential dread of the first book isn't quite there in The Invasion, and despite still being a rather short book (if longer than the first book), there does feel at times like the story is dragging a bit.  Overall, it's still a solid read, but it just doesn't hit the incredible levels set by the original novel.

Note:  For those tempted to start this series with "The Invasion" because of its nomination for the Lodestar Award, don't - this story blatantly spoils The Call and at the same time really requires prior knowledge for the characters and plot to work.
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Monday, June 24, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland




Dread Nation is the most recent Young Adult work from author Justina Ireland (who previously wrote two YA fantasy books I'd read, Vengeance Bound and Promise of Shadows).  I didn't love those other two works (they were both fine, and Vengeance Bound was at least solid, but neither was exceptional), and Dread Nation is a part of a genre I'm not particularly interested in - the Zombie story - so I'd originally planned on skipping Dread Nation, even when it came out to pretty high reviews.  But the book picked up both a Norton Award Nomination (the Nebula for Best YA SF/F novel) and a Lodestar award nomination (the Hugo equivalent), so I reserved it both as an ebook and a physical book from my library.

And well....I feel pretty much about this book how I expected - it's a solid fantasy historical fiction version of the zombie story, telling the story of an alternate US post a civil war interrupted by the emergence of zombies, and non-Whites (Blacks, Native Americans, etc.) are forced to defend the White citizens from the zombie threat.  So even more than the usual zombie tale - which usually use zombies as a plot device to explore social issues - this is a story with strong themes about race and color, about passing and fighting, etc.  And yet....despite the book being solidly done, I just never really got that into it.

Maybe a longer explanation after the jump will help me better nail down these feelings:

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Thursday, June 20, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Book Review: The Call by Peadar O'Guilin




The Call is a Young Adult Fae Horror story written by Irish author Peadar O'Guilin.  Horror is....not a genre I have much interest in or really seek out, with the few books I read that can be classified as "horror" tending to be psychological or environmental horror more than anything.  The Call on the other hand is most definitely full on horror, but it's also a Fae Fantasy story, which is a bit more my kind of novel.*  And as its sequel ("The Invasion") was nominated for the Lodestar Award for Best YA SF/F novel of 2018, I decided to give it a try.

*Yes that sentence seems preposterous upon rereading it, but somehow "Fae Fantasy" has been a subgenre filled with many of my favorite books, so it's true I suppose.

 And The Call is a strong strong horror novel, keeping me on edge for the entirety of its short length (on Amazon it's listed as 320 pages, but on my kindle it seems to be shorter).  As you'd expect from a horror novel, it's definitely filled with gruesome deaths and body mutilations - to say nothing of the psychological trauma and horror faced by those who don't wind up dying - but it never feels gratuitous.  Add in a strong main protagonist, to go along with side characters who are decently well developed and interesting, and you have a really strong novel here for anyone who likes the Horror genre, and I will be reading the sequel shortly....after I take a breath.

Note:  I read this mostly as an audiobook on Hoopla, which is very good, so again if you're looking for a horror book in that format, this is a solid choice.


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Wednesday, June 19, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Sharing Knife Vol 1: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold




The Sharing Knife is the third major series by SciFi/Fantasy giant, Lois McMaster Bujold, and probably her least renowned (after her "Vorkosigan Saga" and "World of the Five Gods" series).  The series is in fact a fantasy romance series - and I mean full-on romance: whereas other books in Bujold's series have had romance as a major plot element (see A Civil Campaign or Ivan Vorpatril's Alliance, which are arguably SciFi RomComs), the central plot questions of this series, at least this first book, are about the Romance of the main characters, with the fantasy elements providing the background.  And as a big fan of pretty much all of Bujold's works so far, as well as a reader who has come to enjoy romance plots more than I ever thought i would, I had high expectations for this series.

Beguilement, the first volume in The Sharing Knife, met those expectations pretty damn well for the most part.  The book contains the typical excellent and witty dialogue present in every Bujold novel, excellent characters, and a really well done setting to go along with a romance that works really well.  And while the book is in fact merely the first half of an original draft that was then split in two due to length-concerns, it ends on a highly satisfying note.  In short, despite the slight shift in genre, this book continues Bujold's winning trend and I can't wait to get to the next book in the series later this month.

Note:  As per usual with Bujold's works, I read this book as an audiobook.  The audiobook reader is a different one than the one for Bujold's Penric or Vorkosigan works, but the reader is still very good, and I can definitely recommend the series in this format (and it's how I plan to read the sequel too).

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Tuesday, June 18, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Middlegame by Seanan McGuire




Middlegame is the latest novel from prolific author, and personal favorite, Seanan McGuire.  I've loved McGuire's InCryptid and October Daye series and enjoyed some of her other work as well, so when she announced Middlegame as a book she's been working toward for quite some time, well, I was pretty excited.  Middlegame is, unlike those other books, not part of an existing series and functions entirely stand-alone novel.  It still contains some McGuire hallmarks - for example, she is fantastic at dialogue, even in a book which is less optimistic in tone, but the book's structure and characters are often very different from her prior works.

The result is...interesting.  It mostly works I think - and man did I have to think about this one - with two excellent main characters (and a couple of excellent side characters and potential villains) whose reactions to their unique circumstances, their inhuman abilities, all track in real and interesting - if something horrifying/traumatic - ways.  The non-linear plot works also rather well and kept the book interesting throughout, even when the reader knows more of what is going on than the characters.  Still, the book speeds up rapidly in its final act towards its ending and I don't think the payoff really quite met my expectations, which the book makes incredibly high.  I'll try to explain more after the jump.

Trigger Warning:  This book contains a major character making a suicide attempt, so if that or self-harm is a deal-breaker, this book may not be for you.

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