SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton: https://t.co/gK5usda05t Short Review: 6.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 31, 2019

Short Review (cont): The Sequel to The Belles resolves the first book's cliffhangers, with Belle Camille on the run and forced to work with those with very different ideas of the use of beauty to stop the evil narcissistic Sophia. Again, interesting ideas, but eh execution (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 31, 2019

The Everlasting Rose is the sequel to "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton, a YA Fantasy featuring a world in which Beauty, and the control thereof, is the most important thing in the world.  I had mixed negative feelings about The Belles (my review is HERE), complaining mainly that the book set up a lot of interesting ideas and then never followed through on practically any of them, before ending on a major cliffhanger.  Still, the ideas were interesting in concept at least - even if the book lacked the greatest set of characters - so when my Hoopla library had the sequel, I did want to give it a try. 

And The Everlasting Rose is fine, I guess.  This book essentially resolves all the plot hooks from the The Belles (with some room left for another book I guess but there's no real cliffhanger) - but again never really spends enough time with any of the ideas for them to truly be examined and become interesting, with the book's theme about the obsession with societal standards of beauty being pretty clear and bluntly stated throughout.  Combined with a lack of characters with depth outside the main character, the book never really gives a reason for a reader to get that enthused with what's going on.  The book is never actually bad...it's just, fine.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Do You Dream of Terra-Two by Temi Oh

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Do You Dream of Terra Two by Temi Oh: https://t.co/J7RFmjdLJg Short Review: 6.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 30, 2019

Short Review (cont): A book about six 18-20 year olds who are picked to join a 23 year space journey to a new Earth-Like planet and the stresses and traumas they deal with as they try to cop with the journey. Some solid character work, but some characters get lost alas. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 30, 2019

Do You Dream of Terra-Two is the debut novel from British writer Temi Oh, and on paper it's very much the type of book I might love.  My favorite books tend to be character-focused more than idea or plot-focused, where an overarching plot is less important than character arcs and developments.  A classic example of this is Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series (which Do You Dream of Terra-Two's blurb actually compares itself too - "A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet meets The 100!"), which often consist of little overarching plot and instead a series of stories based upon a few characters as they grow and try to deal with the circumstances they live within.  And I love the Wayfarer series,, with me putting the most recent one on the top of my Best Novel list.

Do You Dream of Terra-Two, whose "plot" can be quickly summed up as "six 19 year olds go on a journey through space to a new world and try to deal with their own traumas, relationships and selves," would seem thus just like my cup of tea.  But the book has some issues Wayfarers definitely doesn't - mainly that it doesn't seem able to juggle each of its 6 main characters and their arcs to give each enough time to develop, and at times fails to really differentiate its characters as a result.  There's some interesting stuff here for sure, and some interesting character developments, but the book felt very much like it still needed another phase of editing to clear things up and to give each character the time to shine they deserved.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse: https://t.co/qlWlFd2Kj4 Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 29, 2019

Short Review: The sequel to Trail of Lightning, this book expands its post-apocalyptic Native-Myth-inspired fantasy world beyond the confines of Dinetah as nearly broken heroine Maggie tries to save her friends/people without still being a killer. Still very good. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 29, 2019

Storm of Lightning is the second book in Rebecca Roanhorse's "Sixth World" series, following up on the Hugo and Nebula nominated "Trail of Lightning" (reviewed here).  Roanhorse, who won the Campbell Award for best new SciFi/Fantasy writer last year, is a Native American author, and this series uses Native mythology* as its core: taking place in a post-global warming-caused apocalyptic world, in a walled off former Navajo Reservation called Dinétah, with Native gods, creatures and powers resurgent.  I enjoyed Trails of Lightning quite a bit, and was excited to see where Roanhorse took the series from there. 

*Given that this book takes place on what was once the Navajo Reservation and the author being Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, I'm guessing the mythology come from those cultures, but I'm obviously unsure due to my lack of experience with this area of mythology, so I will be using the term "Native" as a catch-all for this review.  Apologies if this is incorrect and if it's not proper, please feel free to correct in the comments and I'll fix.

The answer is Storm of Locusts, which I enjoyed a good bit, maybe a little more than Trail of Lightning.  The book expands its world as the plot moves outside of Dinétah, further develops its heroine Maggie as well as other characters both new and old.  It's still far from perfect, but it's a lot of fun even as it shows a truly crappy world the characters have to deal with, with more Native gods and clan powers coming into play.  I'm hoping this is planned to be a long term series rather than just a tetrology (an interview I found suggests that the plan is to end with four books), but either way, I'm excited for what comes next.

Note: Spoilers for Trail of Lightning are kind of inevitable to some extent, so be warned if you go further in this review.

Reviewing the 2019 Hugo Nominees: Best Novelette

Hugo Award voting just 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.

In this post, I'll be going over the nominees for Best Novelette.  Novellettes are defined by the Hugos as works between 7,500 and 17,500 words, so these are stories that can be read in a single sitting, although, they still require a little bit of time to do that (for the longer end stories).  I'm generally not the biggest reader of shorter fiction, so most of the nominees here were new to me (I'd only read 2 of the 6 nominated stories prior to the packet being released).  Still, I really enjoyed pretty much all of the nominees - so I think all of these six are award worthy, and choosing how to rank them was not particularly easy.

After the Jump, my thoughts on each individual nominee and a link to where a reader can find the stories (where available):

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (Raven Cycle #3): https://t.co/dx1Vl3Kon3 Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 27, 2019

Short Review (cont): The Raven Cycle continues to get better and better with its third book, in which the boys and Blue, and the psychic residents of 300 Fox Way discover the "Sleepers" hidden beneath the leyline - and the potential evil waking the wrong one could unleash. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 27, 2019

Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the third book in Maggie Stiefvater's "Raven Cycle," and the penultimate book in the series (A review of Book 1 can be found HERE and Book 2 was reviewed HERE on this blog).  I enjoyed the first two books quite a bit - both featured some really well done characters and plotlines for them that kept me interested, although both also had moments where I thought the characters went astray.  It's a tricky balance to write a book where one of the two most central protagonists is a rich boy of privilege and to get me to like him, but the first two books generally succeeded on that front, so I've been going forward with the series at a relatively quick pace.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (I'm referring to it as "BLLB" from hereon out because that's a mouthful to type) is probably my favorite of the three books so far, and focuses more on the overall plot arc of the story, with long-term plot threads finally coming to roost, than the last book did.  It's the first book of the three to basically not have any moments that didn't work for me, and the ending is both satisfying and made me want to grab the last book right away with its cliffhanger.  So yeah, it won't be long till I finish off this series.

Note: I've been reading the series via audiobook, so if I get any spellings of names wrong, I apologize.  Still, the reader is REALLY good, and I strongly recommend this series in audio format.

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant

Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant:

Kingdom of Needle and Bone is a novella by Mira Grant - the horror genre pen name of SF/F author Seanan McGuire.  I'm not a big fan of horror, but McGuire is one of my favorite authors and I did enjoy her one Grant work I've read (Into the Drowning Deep), so when this popped up as an audiobook on my Hoopla Library, I figured I'd give it a try.

And....I have mixed feelings.  This is a horror story based upon the anti-vaccine movement, in which the loss of herd immunity allows a mutated strain of Measles to spread throughout the world, threatening the immune systems of even those who survive its 33% fatality rate.  So that's a pretty powerful and relevant idea for the core of a novel, but the story's ending kind of undercuts the idea a little bit, in addition to being a little bit predictable.

Note: The audiobook reader is very good and the book is worth reading in that format.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Ninth Step Station (Season 1) by Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, & Curtis C. Chen

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: "Ninth Step Station, The Complete First Season" by Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, & Curtis C. Chen https://t.co/O7v2wgomNz Short Review: 7 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 23, 2019

Short Review (cont): A cyperpunk buddy-cop story (kind of) featuring a Japanese Cop and an American Peacekeeper investigating a war-torn future Japan, which is divided between the US & China, is really solid at times, but ends just when events teased early begin to happen (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 23, 2019

Ninth Step Station is one of the newer serials by Serial Box Publishing, a publisher whose modus operandi is to release written stories as "seasons" of "episodes" - with each serial being a collaboration by a bunch of writers, just as if it was a TV series with its own writer's room.  The serials aren't necessarily meant to be read all at once, but are released weekly (again as if they're TV episodes). The publisher has dipped into SciFi/Fantasy a number of times, and Ninth Step Station is the fifth serial of theirs I've tried and while I've never really disliked any of their series, only one of the other four I've tried (Bookburners) has had me really wanting more after finishing.

Alas, Ninth Step Station reminds me more of the non-Bookburners' serials I've read than Bookburners: it shows promise throughout, has some interesting twists....but never really pays off that promise until the final cliffhanger.  The series combines some classic tropes - Cyperpunk Japan split up by America and China as the setting with a buddy-cop relationship, featuring a new outsider being assigned to a veteran insider as the heart of the series....it very much feels like something you may have seen before in some respects.  It is executed well and I enjoyed the main duo and the world, but the failure to provide a satisfying ending - leaving all the interesting follow-ups to next season - is just frustrating.

Reviewing the 2019 Hugo Nominees: Best Novella

Hugo Award voting just 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.

In this post, I'll be going over the nominees for Best Novella.  Novellas are defined by the Hugos as works between 17,500 words and 40,000 words (roughly between 80-160 pages, depending upon how big your page count is).  Five of the six nominees are from Tor.com's line of novellas, and as has often been the case lately, there's a LOT of quality here.  We're clearly in a (new) golden age for SciFi or Fantasy novellas, and that shows with these nominees, to say nothing of the works that DIDN'T make the ballot.

After the Jump, my thoughts on each individual nominee and my link to my full review of each:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling: https://t.co/vpYFBdeHVU Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 21, 2019

Short Review (cont): SF/Horror (kind of) tale of a young woman taking a job to explore caves for another woman...who may not be telling the whole truth about the job & is willing to do anything to get it done. Well paced, tense & strong characters make this really work. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 21, 2019

The Luminous Dead is the debut novel from author Caitlin Starling, and it's a book that's tricky to describe.  The tags on Amazon promote it as almost a combination between Annihilation, Gravity, and The Martian, and while it kind of has the existential/psychological horror aspects of Annihilation and the limited characters of the latter two works, the comparison doesn't work.  It IS a claustrophobic scifi story featuring a character struggling to survive in an alien setting that threatens to kill her at any wrong step, but its lead character and center conflict is very different from the above three works, which really breaks the comparison.

That's not to say that The Luminous Dead is not as good as those works, because it definitely is up there.  It's a story that features only two characters, but both are incredibly strong, and the interplay between them is really well done.  Moreover, the atmosphere of the story kept me always tense and on-edge and in combination with the characters made me want to keep reading to the point where I finished this book in around 24 hours - and it's not a short book.  I.....have some questions about whether I am okay with the ending, but I think that'll be depend upon the read, and it is a satisfying resolution overall in terms of wrapping up the story.  In short, The Luminous Dead is definitely worth your time.

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Wayward Children is Seanan McGuire's most critically/award-regarded series I think, having picked up both a Hugo and Nebula for its first novella, Every Heart a Doorway, and nominations for its second novella: Down Among the Sticks and Bones.  The series deals with the effects of Portal Fantasy adventures on children - where kids/teens are taken on adventures in portal fantasy worlds and then find themselves spit out back on our world, longing to go back.  I've found myself kind of on the opposite side of mainstream opinion towards the series:  I just haven't really enjoyed it that much, despite my loving other works of McGuire.

Still, with this third novella nominated for a Hugo and part of the Hugo packet, I opted to give Beneath the Sugar Sky another shot.  And, to my surprise, I enjoyed it quite a bit.  The novella returns to the present-day storyline of the first novella (it seems every other novella in the series will be a prequel), adds a new enjoyable main characters to a few old ones, and features a plot that I actually enjoyed and found interesting.  There's a good shot I'll be picking up the fourth novella in this series now, at some point anyway.

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Alice Payne Rides by Kate Heartfield

Alice Payne Rides by Kate Heartfield:

Alice Payne Rides is the second in a time travel novella series that began with last year's Alice Payne Arrives (Review Here).  That novella was a pretty fun time travel story, featuring a young woman from the distant future trying to change the future for the best, while dealing with others who have alternate plans for time travel as well as superiors who might not approve her method, as well as Alice Payne, a young mixed-race woman and her lover Jane in 18th Century England who struggles against the bounds of society - and even before the introduction of time travel moonlights as a highwayman in disguise.  It was a fun novella, but felt incomplete, with the two characters finally interacting in a major way by the very end, which included a major cliffhanger.

Alice Payne Rides isn't really that satisfying of a follow-up, with the story becoming bottled down with a lot of honestly confusing time travel shenanigans and losing some of the strong character moments in the process.  The story has a more complete ending than its predecessor, but I kind of wish the story spent more time with the characters in between time travel shenanigans, which was kind of a missed opportunity.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky https://t.co/jjccpL9ZI0 Short Review: 7 out of 10 (1/3)

— (8-4)(RIP Isles) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 16, 2019

Short Review (cont): Idea-Focused novel featuring a future in which a science experiment gone wrong leads to the rapid evolution of intelligent spiders on a distant planet and tracks and compares their evolution to that of humans fleeing Earth and their own issues. (2/3)

— (8-4)(RIP Isles) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 16, 2019

Children of Time is a SciFi novel released in England by Adrian Tchaikovsky back in 2015, which managed to win at least one decent award back then, and which has just now been published by Orbit at the end of 2018.  One of my friends at work was singing its praises, so I've had it on reserve from the library for a while.  Still, the book is essentially an example of a SF subgenre which I've never really particularly loved - the "Generation Ship"* subgenre, in which the novel jumps forward repeatedly throughout in time to follow the next generation of characters/the-setting.

*Children of Time doesn't actually feature a Generation Ship - a ship for travel between the stars in which generations live their lives on the ship in the hope that their distant ancestors will eventually reach their destination - but features the common elements to these books, namely generation jumping, that I am generally less enthused so I'm counting it.*

The reason I've never particularly loved this subgenre is that it's a very idea focused subgenre, more than a character-focused one, with the focused-upon characters changing multiple times throughout and not getting much development.  This is indeed the case with Children of Time, in which there are essentially two parallel though connected generational chains being followed throughout, for the story to compare and contrast.  The ideas in question - the growth and evolution of species and the values of cooperation being the major ones - are solid, but the characters aren't really, so I didn't find myself as in to this book as I have others...it just wasn't really for me.

Reviewing the 2019 Hugo Nominees: Best Novel

Hugo Award voting just 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.

First up, my picks for Best Novel!  A quick note: The Hugo Awards Voter Packet, which is provided as part of the $45 membership required to become a Hugo Voter, contains all six nominees for Best Novel (in addition to quite a number of other works).  So tracking down these works should NOT be hard for anyone interested.

I'd actually read all six Hugo Nominees when they were announced, though none made my nominating ballot (you can find that HERE).  Still, three of the nominees came close to making my ballot, so I'm not really dissatisfied with the results, even if my favorites didn't make it.  There's definitely some works I don't really think are Hugo Worthy, though I can see how others might enjoy some of those more than I did.  But there's a few clearly worthy potential winners here as well.

After the jump, my final ballot, with quick thoughts on each and links to my fuller reviews:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa: https://t.co/flp3DDMFdz Short Review: 7 out of 10 (1/3)

—Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 14, 2019

Short Review (cont): A Japanese-Mythology based YA Fantasy featuring a half-kitsune girl, a shinobi with a demon-possessed blade, and a mythological scroll to summon a dragon is definitely fun and enjoyable, if never really beyond that. First in at trilogy. (2/3)

—Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 14, 2019

Shadow of the Fox is the first in a new YA Fantasy trilogy by Julie Kagawa, one centered around a fantasy world based upon Japanese mythology.  This is not the first book I've read with this base, although Shadow of the Fox takes it a bit further by not just including creatures (Yokai, Oni, etc.) and magic from Japanese myth, but having the characters use bits of pieces of Japanese here and there (and including a glossary for those who can't figure out what's being said from context).

And the result is a pretty enjoyable story, if one that is sometimes predictable and never truly breaks out of the ordinary.  The two main characters are very well done, as are the side characters met along the way, and the story does take a few surprising turns here and there, using the Japanese background rather effectively.  It's not a stand-alone story to be sure, but the story's ending is satisfying in how it resolves the first arc of this story and leaves you hanging for the future.  In short, I will probably be reading the sequel when it comes out next year, and hopefully this trilogy will take a leap in quality with book 2.

Note: I read this as an audiobook.  I do NOT recommend this format if you're interested in the book - the audiobook uses 3 readers - one for interlude chapters and then two others who take turns depending upon which character is narrating a given chapter.  The problem is that the two main readers have such differing voices for the same characters - and the male reader's voices are incredibly shrill for women - that it becomes awfully distracting.  Imagine a movie where every 5 minutes a main character's voice changes completely - it'd be awful and it's not good here.  The book itself is solid, so I recommend reading it in print/ebook format instead of in audiobook format.  

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Girl King by Mimi Yu

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Girl King by Mimi Yu: https://t.co/Eey6cUXPOP Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— (8-4)(RIP Isles) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 13, 2019

Short Review (cont): A YA Asian-Inspired Fantasy, The Girl King starts off VERY slowly but eventually emerges to feature a strong story with themes of power, privilege, colonization, and oppression, and one really interesting tragic character arc. Not Stand-Alone tho. (2/3)

— (8-4)(RIP Isles) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 13, 2019

The Girl King is the Young Adult Fantasy debut of author Mimi Yu, beginning an epic fantasy series with an East Asian inspired world.  Though it's not labeled anywhere I can find as part of a series, it's not a stand-alone novel, with a sequel apparently coming in 2020, and a cliffhanger ending.  So if you're looking for a stand-alone fantasy novel, this isn't it.  But if you're looking for the start of a series, The Girl King might interest you.

For The Girl King is honestly one of the more interesting fantasy books I've read in a while.  The keynote though is "interesting," which is not "necessarily" the same thing as "good."  The book has a number of flaws - it has a really slow start for one - but has a lot of ideas that are executed in particularly different ways than I'm used to.  So in addition to dealing with ideas about power and privilege, oppression and colonization in ways that I've definitely seen before, the book's third protagonist is one of the more interestingly done characters in ways I have a hard time describing.

Let's see if I can do better more specifics after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Time's Demon by D.B. Jackson

Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the novel's release on May 28, 2019 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way (if I'd hated the book, I just would not have reviewed it). 

Advance SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Time's Demon by D.B. Jackson https://t.co/7HDqpqODtw Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— (8-4)(RIP Isles) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 10, 2019

Short Review (cont): The sequel to "Time's Children", this book continues to explore the ramnifications of time travel that ages the traveler as many years as they travel but focuses paritcularly on a time demon trying to discover desire. Fascinating often throughout. (2/3)

— (8-4)(RIP Isles) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 10, 2019

Time's Demon is the second book in D.B. Jackson's "Ishevale Cycle," and the sequel to last year's "Time's Children" (which I reviewed here).  While a fantasy series, it is centered in large part upon time travel based upon an interesting concept: that the magic that allows some people to time travel causes time travelers' bodies to age as much time as they travel back/forward in time. Throw in demons of multiple types, and you have a setting that is filled with potential and Time's Children definitely set-up a ton of potential....before ending prior to doing much with that potential.  I was really interested to see if the follow-up would make good use of that legwork to build an interesting

Time's Demon thankfully does just that....mostly.  Spending most of the book away from our main characters of the series, the book continues its interesting work with one set of antagonist characters, and does some really interesting things with the titular demon character, the Tirribin Droë.  And the parts of the book that do feature the main characters does work, even if it's not as interesting as the stories of the rest of the cast.  But like its predecessor, the book ends most of its storylines incredibly abruptly, which is far from satisfying.  But it does so much before those endings that had me rapt in attention that I am definitely in for book 3, whenever that comes out.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

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 25 2019 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way (if I'd hated the book, I just would not have reviewed it). 


Hexarchate Stories is an anthology of stories written by Yoon Ha Lee in his "Machineries of Empire" (Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, Revenant Gun) universe.  Most of the stories have been previously published, with the exception of three, with much of the previously published material being openly available on the web.  Most of these stories are tiny snippets of life in the universe of Lee's trilogy, featuring generally one of his two most prominent characters - Jedao or Cheris, and will be of little interest to anyone who isn't already very invested in the trilogy.  So if you're looking for an anthology full of stand-alone stories in this universe, you will be mostly disappointed.

There are five exceptions to this really, three of which were again already published and two of which are already award nominated (The Battle of Candle Arc and Extracurricular Activities), but the fourth is what fans of the trilogy will really be coming to this anthology for - a brand new novella named "Glass Cannon" that serves as a sequel to Revenant Gun.  It's a blast and will have any big fans of the trilogy eager for more (which I don't think is coming anytime soon, so don't get too excited!)

Spoilers for the trilogy after the Jump, so if you're still waiting on reading the books, don't read further:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater: https://t.co/LETOLDtdCb Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 8, 2019

Short Review (cont): The sequel to "The Raven Boys" follows up on its predecessor and adds a new focus to bad boy Ronan Lynch, as more magic flows in to Henrietta. Enjoyed this more than its predecessor - still has some issues, but generally very good characters. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 8, 2019

The Dream Thieves is the second book in Maggie Stiefvater "Raven Cycle", and the sequel to her YA urban fantasy novel, The Raven Boys (which I reviewed here).   As is not particularly unusual for novels that are the first in a series, that book was very much about setup, so I was expecting the Dream Thieves to have a lot more of substantive plot with the basics of the setup already done.  I'd rather liked the characters and world introduced in the first book, so I was hoping not to be disappointed here.

And for the most part I wasn't - The Dream Thieves takes The Raven Boys' setup and cliffhanger and builds a full satisfying plot upon it, focusing upon the one major protagonist who got the short-shaft in the last book: Roman Lynch, the "bad boy" of the quartet.  The book - and the series so far - isn't anything special, with some annoying points at times, but it's definitely well done, with some really interesting fantasy magic, moral choices by its characters, and surprising plot twists that made me happy I gave it another shot, and I will be continuing with the third book next month.

Note: I'm reading this whole series in audiobook format via my Hoopla Library.  The reader does some impressive accent work with the characters, making it very clear who is speaking at any given point, and it works without sounding too cartoonish.  Worth a listen in this format.  Still, if I misspell any of the names, it's since I'm not reading this in print.    

More after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Speaker by Traci Chee

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Speaker by Traci Chee: https://t.co/mzOh9HeRCS Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 7, 2019

Short Review (cont): The sequel to The Reader expands the setting and character development in much appreciated ways, as our main duo try to find a way in their world where literacy has been forgotten and all has been foretold by a prophetic book. Really good sequel. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 7, 2019

The Speaker is the second book in Traci Chee's Young Adult fantasy trilogy which began with "The Reader" (Review Here).  That book, which began the series featuring a fantasy world in which literacy and the written word was forgotten by all but a secretive few - and knowledge/usage of writing conveyed magical power - had been a rather strong introduction to the setting with interesting characters, but I'd felt at the time that it took far too long to explain what was going on, with understanding only coming near the very end.  It left me wanting more, but not particularly satisfied with the first book, so I was hoping this second book would make better use of the setup to a more satisfying end - even if it was only the middle book of a trilogy.

The good news is that it does exactly that - now that the world of this trilogy has been setup and the central conflict established, The Speaker guides its characters in interesting directions as they - both the protagonists and antagonists - attempt to figure out where to go from here.  Along the way the book introduces a few new interesting characters to go along with the excellent existing set, and develops everyone further, with the book taking a few interesting and surprising turns along the way.  I should note that this series definitely gets pretty dark in this book - it may be a YA series that's closer to middle-grade (in that it won't ever have explicit sex scenes), but it's not afraid to inflict pain of both the physical and psychological kind upon its characters.  The result is extremely satisfying and I'm definitely getting to the trilogy's finale quicker than I did this second novel.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Once & Future by A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy: https://t.co/luepeELz4s Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 6, 2019

Short Review (cont): A Gender-flipped, Queer, SciFi retelling of the King Arthur story is so much more fun than it has any right to be, in both its heroine Ari and hero young reverse-aging Merlin. Really enjoyed this one, and recommended. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 6, 2019

Once & Future is a YA gender-flipped* and queer version of the King Arthur story in a Sci-Fi world co-written by authors A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy.  I've actually read a YA book from A. R. Capetta, "The Brilliant Death" (Review Here), which I really really liked (it was on my Hugo Ballot for the YA award) - a really really well done queer fantasy tale featuring magic and two non-binary protagonists.  So I was excited to hear about this novel coming out, even if the King Arthur stories aren't really of much interest to me.

*Is a story really gender-flipped if the original gendered version of the story in question actually happened as part of the story's background?  If not, then I guess this doesn't qualify.  But you get the point from my usage of the word, so if you have any objections, deal with it.  

And to my pleasure, Once & Future mostly justifies my excitement.  It's not a particularly deep story, but it's a fun queer gender-flipped (our Arthur is a girl, our main romances are F-F and M-M, with genderfluid and asexual characters in the main cast) take on King Arthur in an interesting science fiction setting with some very solid characters to follow, particularly in its leads.  And while the story does get a bit silly at points, the book is totally self-aware of this problem and makes up for it with genuinely interesting and surprising story choices.

More after the Jump:

The Importance of Character - Why Avenger: Endgame succeeds where Avengers Infinity War failed

This post is not even going to try to avoid spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.  If you haven't seen it, don't read any further.  Everything's going below the jump here for that reason.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson: https://t.co/HIHKaF1P2T Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) May 2, 2019

Short Review(cont): The sequel to Rosewater shifts the focus to a number of characters as the alien takeover of Earth, centered in Nigeria, hits an alien roadblock...just in time for human power struggles to throw Rosewater into chaos. Still fascinating but kind of a mess (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) May 2, 2019

Tade Thompson's "Rosewater" is one of my favorite books I've read over the past few years, with it being one of the few books I've given a perfect score (10 out of 10).  A non-linear story of aliens and those affected by them set in Nigeria, it was one of the more original books I've read since I got back into the genre, with a pretty impressive if very cynical take on the genre.

This is going to sound hipster-ish, but I actually read Rosewater back when it was originally published in 2016 with a small publisher.  So I was excited to see the book was due to be rereleased in 2018 by Orbit (a large publisher in the genre) as the first part in a newly announced trilogy, with the second book in the series (this one) to be released in March of 2019 and the finale to be released in October 2019.  Of course that also meant that the expectations I had for this book were sky high.

The Rosewater Insurrection....doesn't quite meet those expectations.  The world itself remains fascinating, with a wide variety of characters of human and non-human natures who are so very different from nearly everything else I've read.  But part of this book seems clearly written towards being the first part of a two part conclusion to the trilogy, even if the book does end on a complete note.  And more of an issue for me is that the book, while still maintaining its deeply cynical outlook on humanity, seems to chicken out in the end of a major plot point that was based in that cynicism.  It's still a very solid book and I'm looking forward to the conclusion....but it's not where I'd hoped it'd be, and it's definitely a bit of a mess.

NOTE:  Spoilers for the original "Rosewater" are unlabeled below.  You cannot read this book without reading Rosewater first, and as such, I'm not even going to try and get around spoilers for the first book in this review, as otherwise there'd be no other way to talk about this book.  

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Price of Ransom by Kate Elliott

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Price of Ransom by Kate Elliott/Alis A. Rasmussen: https://t.co/phrEz6mzn1 Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— (4-2)(6-3) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 1, 2019

Short Review (cont): In the conclusion of The Highroad Trilogy, Lily and her allies discover the strangeness of humanity's original part of the galaxy, and look for a place for themselves. A fitting conclusion to this trilogy of characters with weird morals and open plots. (2/3)

— (4-2)(6-3) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 1, 2019

The Price of Ransom is the final book in Kate Elliott's* Highroad Trilogy, which began with her "A Passage of Stars" (see my review here) and continued with "Revolution's Shore" (see my review here).  This trilogy is Elliott's earliest series, and it has certainly included more than a few ideas that would later pop up in her other works.  More importantly, it's easily the weirdest series Elliott has written (although I still haven't read the Crown of Stars series so that could surpass this I guess), with crazy ideas and far out characters up the wazoo.  The result has been an unpredictable series through 2 books, but one with some excellent characters in the main cast, and I was really looking forward to seeing how this book concluded the trilogy.

*As noted previously, this trilogy was initially published under Elliott's real name, Alis A. Rasmussen, but the re-released ebook editions I read on the Hoopla Library use the "Kate Elliott" pen name instead, so I'm going with that for this review.   

The Price of Ransom certainly does not lower the craziness of this series and expands its focus on the members of the main cast, to a conclusion that is somewhat satisfying, if not as much as I'd have hoped.  If you were hoping to see the antagonists of the last book get their comeuppance, or even to have loose ends from the first two books tied up, The Price of Ransom will not be what you were looking for.  But the book does resolve the main character arcs in interesting and unpredictable ways, and is certainly worth your time.