SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

 

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 May 14, 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.

I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons is a new novel by legendary Fantasy Author Peter S. Beagle (of The Last Unicorn fame). The novel features multiple point of view characters but largely focuses upon Robert, a man who has taken over his father's trade of dragon extermination (dragons being usually about as big as cats or dogs in this world and largely being pests who hole up in places. But Robert feels a connection with dragons - seemingly being able to understand them - and sees them as creatures he would rather save than kill and would rather do anything else if he could. Naturally when he gets roped into the affairs of a prince who is forcibly being sent to adventure by his valet and a princess who wants to get the prince to love her and he sees a chance to leave the dragon extermination procession by helping them....things go very very differently than he expects.

It's a world with dragons - both the small pest like type and the large scary type - and wizards and royalty and commoners and it's done quite well, with all of its main characters being pretty well sketched out and enjoyable. The first half of the story almost feels more like a comedy, due to the hilarious bits of misunderstanding between all the royal main characters - Prince Reginald just wants to kind of find adventure and has no interest in marriage or princely duties, his valet Mortmain wants desperately to make him act like a prince and aims to betroth him to the Princess, the Princess Cerise wants Reginald to love her as he's the only prince who seems genuine....etc. etc. It's all rather amusing and then around the midway point we switch to a story dealing with fantasy adventure, large dragons, and an evil wizard...which is itself fun and interesting but doesn't quite stand out as well and kind of feels very generic and ends rather abruptly, to the point I had to reread the ending twice to make sure I hadn't missed a plot point. The result is a book that's enjoyable and yet isn't quite either the heartwarming or fun fantasy adventure or screwball royal comedy it seemed poised to be.

Fantasy Novella Review: The Truth of the Aleke by Moses Ose Utomi

 

The Truth of the Aleke is the sequel to Moses Ose Utomi's The Lies of the Ajungo and the middle novella in Utomi's Forever Desert trilogy. It takes place 500 years after The Lies of the Ajungo, which was a really good novella following a protagonist who sets out into the desert from an oppressed city to find water for his mom, only to discover the world he knows was lies and who then in the triumphant-esque climax takes action to end the true source of that oppression (I'm trying to leave out some spoilers here). I liked that novella a lot so I put this novella on my list to try to read as soon as it came out, even if its description made it sound a more spiritual successor and stand-alone than a sequel.

That assumption was wrong - The Truth of the Aleke is a true sequel, despite the centuries that have passed since the first work, and tries to very deliberately set up another world dealing with potential oppression from outsiders and then use the parallels to the first novella to surprise readers who are expecting more of the same. It's an interesting result, with a strong lead character, but I found the final swerve of this book kind of too abrupt to work fully for me. That said, it's an interesting way of portraying cycles of oppression and the idea of how truth is what those in power portray, which is a central theme of this series. More specifics below the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Flight Risk by Cherie Priest

 

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.

Flight Risk is the second book in Cherie Priest's "Booking Agents" series of light fun mysteries that star widower detective Grady and amateur and weak psychic Leda (book 1 was Grave Reservations). Book 1 was a fun buddy cop-ish kind of mystery, except unlike the classic version of that genre there wasn't really any conflict between the leads as they wound up working together in book 1 to solve both a serial killing with ties to Leda's past. There also wasn't any real hint of romance between the leads, despite the obvious potential for that (one's a widower, the other's love was murdered). But the mystery was enjoyable and the book's humor and fun was really great at times, so it was an excellent light read and I was hoping the sequel would carry that over.

The good news is that Flight Risk remains the same sort of light mystery fun as its predecessor: the main characters remain excellent and the book is still very enjoyable, even if there really aren't any standout jokes this time. At the same time, there still remains a weird disconnect in chemistry between the two leads, and while the book is short enough to never drag, it never really manages to be more than lightly enjoyable entertainment (especialy as its mystery kind of peters out). I needed a fun light read when I read this and Flight Risk delivered, but at the same time it feels like there are a lot of books just like this out there, so it doesn't really stand out too much from the pack.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Anubis War by David R Packer

 

The Anubis War is a Military Science Fiction novel (MilSF) novel self-published by author David R. Packer and it's also an entrant in this year's Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4), of which I am a Judge. The novel is short and also the first in a series, although it has a complete arc kinda, and features a soldier Vasco coming out of retirement to join a mission on behalf of the Polity to conquer a distant human colony and bring it back under the empire's control. So you have some pretty classic themes here of Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Colonialism underlining a book which to some extent features a ginormous overwhelming military force facing off against guerillas with more skill than the Empire expects.

Unfortunately, while the core themes and ideas of The Anubis War may be good, the book is derailed by a number of poor choices. First, the book is kind of obsessed with the military tech that is used by both sides and spends pages upon pages going through it and how warfare is conducted and nearly all of it does not actually matter...and this slows the pacing and makes the book a slog at times. Second, the main character isn't very interesting and none of the other characters are really ever developed beyond simple archetypes (backstabbing Intelligence Agent Friend, Greedy Warlord Commander, Mysterious Supersoldier who says cryptic comments from a long lost land, etc.). Third, the plot requires kind of a level of belief in the stupidity and intelligence of various forces to the extent that honestly broke credibility. And all of the above is done without any subtlety to a ridiculous extent. I'm not the biggest fan of MilSF, but I doubt even the biggest MilSF fan will find the Anubis War among their favorites.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wicked Problems by Max Gladstone

 

Wicked Problems is the second book in Max Gladstone's Craft Wars trilogy, a trilogy meant to conclude Gladstone's Craft Sequence (so really this is book 8). The first book in the trilogy - Dead Country - was a really quiet book for the series, featuring a Seven Samurai/Magnificient Seven-esque setup with a Western-esque town facing off against monstrous Craft-warped invaders and only suriving thanks to the help of series heroine Tara Abernathy, Craftswoman, and her newfound apprentice Dawn....before things go awry between them (spoilers after the jump). It was a very emotion and character driven book, limited to this single setting.

Wicked Problems is still character driven at its best, but the book has expanded to focus on the entire Craft Sequence world and is basically a Superhero/Supervillain team-up (think: the Avengers) for the entire series. Tara and Dawn - now on seemingly opposite sides - are joined by almost every major named characters from the original six books, and honestly, the result is kind of a mess, with so many character motivations and developments that it and any themes involved getting far more muddled than they ever have before in the prior seven books. Gladstone makes it work as well as he could, and his writing remains propulsive and highly enjoyable especially in its quirks and dialogue, but this is a surprising miss, and not the greatest sign for a second book in a concluding trilogy.

Fantasy Novella Review: In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran

 

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 23, 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.

In the Shadow of the Fall is the first half of a West African myth inspired fantasy duology by author Tobi Ogundiran. The story follows (a few interludes aside) the 22 year old Ashâke, who has lived seemingly her whole life in a Temple to the Orisha...Orishas she is distressed to be unable to hear, which causes her to take desperate measures that reveal the world isn't what she knows...and into conflict with an enemy who seeks to destroy the very gods she was raised to follow.

It's an intriguing setup and told very well, although it does very much seem like the first half of the story....so it might not be satisfying enough on its own for some readers (I'm kind of torn on this myself). But I enjoyed it enough that I'll probably be back for the conclusion next year.

More specifics after the jump:

SciFi Novella Review: In the Shadow of the Ship by Aliette de Bodard

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 30, 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.

In the Shadow of the Ship is the latest Xuya novella (a short one, it's almost novelette sized) by Aliette de Bodard. Like her other Xuya novellas, this is a stand alone tale in her distant future universe settled by Vietnamese and occasionally Chinese peoples, featuring humans living along mindships (human minds in ships), an Empire that may or may not be failing (here just surviving after a major war) and tales shaped by Vietnamese culture. It's a fascinating universe, and in this case, de Bodard tells a tale of a woman who escaped from the mindship that was her childhood hope before it ate her up (literally) and comes back upon the death of her grandmother and has to weigh the past, the future, her obligations, and more.