Thursday, April 30, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Crush the King by Jennifer Estep




Crush the King is the final book in Jennifer Estep's fantasy series, Crown of Shards, which began with 2018's "Kill the Queen" (Reviewed Here) and continued with last year's "Protect the Prince" (Reviewed Here).  Both are fun fantasy novels that don't get too dark or unpredictable, but they're executed well with a fun main heroine and side characters along the way, with some really fun moments at times.  I liked the first book more than the second because the second lost a little bit of the first's charm, but was still looking forward to the conclusion of the trilogy with this novel.

And Crush the King is closer to the first book than the second, with a plot that returns some of the charm and fun as it rushes to a conclusion.  It's a conclusion that is still fairly predictable, despite some moments of surprise, but manages to twist some of those expected plot turns in some interesting ways, and its main characters remain very fun.  Again, this is not a standout piece of fantasy, as demonstrated by the large number of plot threads that wind up going absolutely nowhere, but you could do worse for a solid enjoyable fantasy series than this trilogy.

Note: Spoilers for the first two books are inevitable below, but as neither book relies upon surprise, it's not really much of a big deal.


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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Translated by Stephen Snyder)




The Memory Police is a 1994 novel written originally in Japanese by author Yoko Ogawa.  The novel was translated last year (2019) into English and received a lot of awards and noteworthy attention from mainstream critics - not just genre critics (honestly, genre critics were less interested in it).  It's a short novel, not even hitting 300 pages, but still one that was seemingly loved by the english-speaking critic media even 15 years after it was first released.

And the Memory Police is certainly fascinating, featuring a dystopian scifi setting that one can easily use to draw parallels to parts of today's world.  It's narrator, never identified by name, is a young woman on an island in which things - and the memories of those things in particular - begin disappearing, with a mysterious police organization policing the Island to ensure that those disappeared things are gone for good, and that anyone who still remembers is removed.  As such, its easy to see how this novel could again be relevant in the current cultural zeitgeist, and the novel remains fascinating today for its focus on the importance of memory in making who we are.


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Wednesday, April 29, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Cry of Metal and Bone by L Penelope



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 August 11, 2020 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.


Cry of Metal and Bone is the third novel in L Penelope's Earthsinger Chronicles.  The series was initially self published before being picked up by a publisher - and now before this book consists of two novels - Song of Blood and Stone (Reviewed Here) and Whispers of Shadow and Flame (Reviewed Here) - and two novellas which serve as prequels/sequels to the novels.  The Series is essentially romantic fantasy, with the first one being close to a pure fantasy romance at times* and the second one still featuring romance as a major part of the plot.  Perhaps more interesting, the novels feature countries with racial/nationalistic views that will feel very familiar to modern American readers and form important parts of the plots.

*I use "Fantasy Romance" to describe books in which the primary plot in the book - in its fantasy world - is the romance, which ends on a happy ending whereas "Romantic Fantasy" refers to Fantasy novels where Romance is a central element of the plot but is not the only central focus....and the plot doesn't necessarily end in a happy ending.  So for example a book in which our heroes' final goal is to save the world is likely a romantic fantasy whereas one where the ending centers around the finding happiness and love, even if the threat to the world is still out there, is a Fantasy Romance.

 I had mixed feelings about the first two books.  The first novel (Song of Blood and Stone) had a lovely romance and predictable but well executed fantasy plot, but I felt the socio-political themes seemed a bit too underdone, as was the world in general really, existing mainly as a skeleton for the rest of the plot.  The second novel (Whispers of Shadow and Flame) fixed this completely - with the novel taking place at the same time as the first novel in a different setting - and made a far more real feeling, albeit just as familiar and depressing in many ways, world....but felt incomplete at the end with an unsatisfying cliffhanger.  Still I really liked the main duo of the second novel and was really interested on seeing where the plot would go forward from its cliffhanger ending, so I quickly requested this third novel on NetGalley when it showed up.

And Cry of Metal and Bone is very good and surprised me greatly and is a much satisfying if still a little frustrating novel compared to its predecessors.  The story has fully moved into Epic Fantasy here, with a cast of important characters far more expansive than we started with, and a number of competing subplots all over multiple continents and countries that we flip around between as the plot goes on, and it can't quit manage to cover all of these elements in its duration.  And yet, the characters remain excellent, the new and old romances are terrific, and the story & setting continues to hit a number of very important themes - racism and nationalism, the plights of refugees, misogyny and sexism, the corruption of power, etc. - in ways that feel really well done and very real given today's world.  I'm not sure how long this series is intended to be - it does not end here - but I'll be back for sure with book 4 after this one, and I'm glad I stuck around.

Note: Minor Spoilers for Books 1 and 2 are inevitable below:


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Tuesday, April 28, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Daughter of the Sun by Effie Calvin




Daughter of the Sun is the second book in Effie Calvin's queer fantasy romance series, Tales of Inthya, following the series' first book: The Queen of Ieflaria (which I reviewed here).  I really liked The Queen of Ieflaria - set in a fun fantasy world filled with magical creatures and many sometimes present deities, it was a really delightful romance between princesses of very different temperaments - one deep at heart caring of all her people, but preferring wildness to duty, and the other from a more stuck-up family but more understanding of the need to get over her own fears and be dutiful in times of need - that really pulled off a nice story in a short amount of time.  So I may have taken this book out from the library immediately after finishing the first one, even despite the books I already had out.

And Daughter of the Sun is perhaps just as delightful, or maybe at most a little less, than its predecessor.  And while it's still a F-F romance at its core it's very different from its predecessor: whereas the last book dealt with two women trying to see if they could love each other, this one features two women falling in love despite knowing they absolutely should not.  Whereas the last book featured two women thrown into a situation they could never have expected but who previously were at least somewhat comfortable in that position, this one features two women who have been lonely - even if they are in denial about it.  But it's done so well, and the characters are so likable, that it works nearly as well as its predecessor, and I may have reread parts of it several times before writing this review.

I should note somewhere that, like its predecessor, this isn't the type of romance in which anything explicit is described - the most that's described on page are kisses. So if you're looking for something more steamy this isn't it.  (On the other hand, that also makes it fine for younger readers as well if that's your concern, even if this isn't YA).


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Monday, April 27, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Goldilocks by Laura Lam


Full Disclosure:  This novella was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on May 5, 2020 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.

Goldilocks is an upcoming scifi novel from Scottish Author Laura Lam.  The book is being advertised as "Handmaid's Tale" meets "The Martian" - with occasional other advertising comparisons to Station Eleven and The Power as well.  That's a hell of a group of novels to be compared with, and gives you a general gist of what I guess the novel is supposed to be going for - post apocalyptic (Station Eleven), dystopian in a misogynistic/chauvinist fashion (Handmaid's Tale), with entertaining science digressions (The Martian).  And that is for once not a terrible description, although the sexist dystopian parts of the background for this novel mainly are used as the background for decisions made rather than as a center of this novel - a similar thing could be said about "The Martian"-esque sciency digressions.  They are present, but this is its own novel rather than a duplicate of those earlier works.

And Goldilocks is a really interesting novel that is well worth your time.  The story, of a group of women stealing a spaceship meant for men to first make landing on a healthy exoplanet to provide the start of an escape for humanity from a dying dystopian Earth, is captivating throughout, even as it bounces between time periods for explanations at various points.  Its world is very easy to imagine happening, especially given who is in power in today's United States, and its characters are very believable from beginning to end, as they grapple with various ethical issues.  I'm not quite sure I agree with some of the ethical implications of a major part of this book, but it's certainly interesting in its entirety.  I'll also add that despite The Handmaid's Tale comparison, this is not a book that ends in a depressing fashion, despite it all, if that's what you are or aren't looking for.


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Saturday, April 25, 2020

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 12 and 13



Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  It's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, and I highly recommend doing so - we're just about done with the book's first part and up to the first part of the Boarding Games.

When we last left off, Max had gone on her first on-page mission, was growing into Rosa's confidant, and was exchanging very cordial letters with Nika.  Oh and we got see Jenks' sex game - both casual and long-term.  Good times for all and no small amount of confusing feelings here, no sir.

Today we'll be rereading Chapters 12 and 13 (and a letter column in between them).  This time around, someone gets a bloody nose, Rosa (!) almost gets into another bar fight, and the team finds themselves in an emergency situation with hundreds or more lives on the line.  Oh and the System Jumper case starts getting more and more sketchy.....


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Friday, April 24, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Queen of Ieflaria by Effie Calvin




The Queen of Ieflaria is the first in a series of short queer fantasy romance novels by Effie Calvin (the series is the Tales of Inthya).  I saw the novels first recommended by a reviewer at the Tor.com website a while back, but as they're published by a small press, my library didn't have a copy at the time.  The series has expanded to 4 books at present, and the NY public library actually has ecopies of the first two, so I put it on reserve - and it came off reserve this week.

And honestly, The Queen of Ieflaria is definitely the type of book I really needed right now, a fun light F-F fantasy romance between a pair of princesses who ostensibly couldn't be more different - one from an uncaring family who believes in doing her duty first and foremost and one from a loving family who were willing to let her as the second child be a wild child hunting and partying.  Oh and did I mention the first princess is a powerful mage and there are dragons threatening the countryside?  The story doesn't spend long on the parts of tropes in romance that tend to annoy me and is light fun throughout, and its hard not to like the two lead characters.  It's not the greatest and deepest romance, but it's definitely something I could've used right now so definitely recommended.

I should note somewhere btw that this isn't the type of romance in which anything explicit is described - the most that's described on page are kisses. So if you're looking for something more steamy this isn't it.  (On the other hand, that also makes it fine for younger readers as well if that's your concern, even if this isn't YA).
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Thursday, April 23, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig




Wanderers is a book by prolific science fiction/fantasy writer (and excellent twitter user) Chuck Wendig.  It's a pretty large novel - listed at over 700 pages on Amazon and showing up as 1500 pages in my Libby reader - but one that's gotten a lot of attention from people I follow recently due to its events being very familiar to current ones - featuring events such as a zootic plague, a racist demagogue,  an attempt by politicians to take control of a situation against the interests of science for politics, etc.  My history with Wendig books has mainly resulted in indifference - the ones I've read have always been solid but never more than that for me - but the repeated praise I've heard of this book got me to eventually pick it up from the library.

And well, there are parts of Wanderers I really liked and other parts that I just found uninteresting or uninspired. A large part of this book, especially the first half, features the response of the US - its people, its politicians and its government - to a potential mysterious medical disaster, and that part is both fascinating and depressing (in how similar it will seem to the current reader).  But the second half of the book devolves into less interesting ideas, particularly one which honestly has been done over and over again - and in much better and more interesting ways.  The result is another book that is at least solidly executed, but not one I can recommend that highly.


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Wednesday, April 22, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The City We Became by NK Jemisin




The City We Became is the latest novel from multi-Hugo Award Winner, NK Jemisin, one of my favorite SciFi/Fantasy writers since I got back into SF/F reading 6 years ago.  Her Inheritance Trilogy was one of the first series I read since getting back into the genre and immediately made me want more, and of course each novel in her Broken Earth trilogy won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.  And here Jemisin comes with her newest work, a novel taking place in (and placing central focus upon) the city around which I've grown up, and well, I could hardly be more excited about it.  And well, I enjoyed The City Born Great, the Hugo Nominated short story which essentially birthed this novel - and more or less serves as the novel's prologue.

And The City We Became is pretty great, a novel which spoke especially to me as a born New Yorker, but will definitely also speak to others without such familiarity with the 5 boroughs.  Jemisin once again, through a world more recognizable as our own, speaks to the modern issues facing ordinary people through this story, and her dialogue and characters are again really strong - especially as the personified versions of parts of this setting.  Jemisin manages to combine fun characters and moments with serious themes and fantasy concepts to make another winner of a novel, even if I'm not sure it quite measures up to some of her other top works.

Note:  The City We Became is the start of a new trilogy, but the novel can be read as a stand-alone novel, complete with a satisfying ending (unlike her The Broken Earth trilogy, where each novel left the story incomplete until the conclusion).


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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan (translated by Ken Liu)




Waste Tide is a 2013 novel written originally in Chinese* by Chinese Author Chen Qiufan.  Ken Liu - who people should be familiar with for his own fiction (The Grace of Kings, numerous bits of short fiction) and his work in translation (The Three Body Problm) - translated the novel for English-speaking audiences in 2019.  I've had mixed thoughts about some of the Chinese novels I've read, many of which have been translated by Liu, mainly in that the books often try to get too much into technical ideas for my liking and in that they have often had some severe gender issues with their women characters.  But after I skipped Waste Tide initially, my recent enjoyment of another piece of Chinese fiction (Hao Jingfang's "Vagabonds") made me come back to it and reserve it from the library.

To my disappointment, Waste Tide has both of the issues I've disliked in Chinese fiction in the past, with both gender issues and bursts of dry tech talk still infecting the story.  Unlike some of the other translated books I've read however, it's also a book with themes of problems of class, capitalism, and the selfishness of leadership by families,among other things, which makes it a far more interesting book to me despite these problems, and perhaps still worth reading.  Still, its story is muddled and often confusing, so I can't recommend it too highly among its other problems.


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Monday, April 20, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review:The Queen's Assassin by Melissa De La Cruz




The Queen's Assassin is the first in a new Young Adult Fantasy series by YA author Melissa De La Cruz.  It's a fairly classical YA Fantasy setup - two main characters of different experience and skill levels go on a quest, with secrets between them hanging over the plot the whole time, and a natural romance growing along the way to make things more complicated.  But classics are classics for a reason - they can work fairly well, and an excellent writer can easily make those classic structures into new classic works - or at least very good ones.

I'm not sure The Queen's Assassin quite hits either of those levels, but it's a solid addition to the genre, with decently sketched out characters and an intriguing setting along the way.  It reads rather well and never drags and even manages a last act plot twist which threw me by surprise in a positive way.  Still, its characters rarely break out of their traditional molds in too interesting ways and its romance feels more perfunctory than anything - it occurs more because you know it should in such a book rather than as a result of any particularly great chemistry on the page.  But as the first in a new fantasy series it ends in a satisfying way that intrigues, and leaves room for the series to take another leap with its sequel.


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Saturday, April 18, 2020

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 10 and 11




Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  We've finished our introduction to our main cast of this book, a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  Now we're getting to see them in action.  Still, it's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, as we're just about done getting to know our fun cast.

In this post, we're covering Chapters 10 and 11 and the two letter columns that come after each chapter in my copy.  We're moving forward a bit in time here - Chapter 10 is a week after our last chapter but Chapter 11 is 2 weeks later, and we'll see more time jumps in a bit.

Moreover, we're getting to see the team more in action now, as we have this time around our first seen mission featuring Max and we get to see oh so much about Jenks as she both seduces a young repair tech and a chapter later calls her main lover (and real significant other) for a little chit chat.  And Max begins acting as a proper lieutenant to his Commander.   (Oh and everyone loves Pluto!)


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Friday, April 17, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review Crier's War by Nina Varela



Crier's War is a YA Fantasy novel from debut author Nina Varela, which I had skipped at first until I saw the book recommended by a few authors I trust.  The book features a Fantasy world in which humans created androids (known as "Automae") overthrew humans as the dominant species, and now humanity exists as an oppressed subspecies, one whose lives depend upon the opinions of the leading Automae.  In this world comes the two protagonists, an Automae princess and a Human girl, with each their own feelings towards this unjust system, and who over the course of the novel, obtain feelings towards each other - feelings that threaten their own individual goals towards better lives in the future.

That's a pretty great setup, and the book does a really good job with it, but wow, is it utterly unsatisfactory in its ending.  The book contains a number of moving pieces, with no less than 3 potential antagonists along the way, all with their own agendas, and the book ends before concluding any particular plot arc whatsoever, ending everything with a cliffhanger.  The book is advertised as a duology, and the characters are well built enough to make me care enough to pick up the second book which comes out this fall, but those who are looking for some satisfactory resolution will not find it here, and that drives me nuts.

Note: I read the first 2/3 of this, until the COVID-19 crisis hit, as an audiobook.  The reader is fine, without too distinct voices for the characters, and struggles to differentiate flashbacks (Denoted with italics in print) from regular scenes.  It's not the worst book to pick up in audiobook, but it probably is better off read in print.


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Thursday, April 16, 2020

SciFi Novella Review: Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky




Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky


Firewalkers is an upcoming SF novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky scheduled to be released on May 12 - I received a prerelease e-Advance Reader Copy (e-ARC) from its publisher in exchange for a possible review.  It's not a short novella - it's listed at 185 pages on Kindle and perhaps more importantly, it's not a novel that reads quickly either.

What it is however is a post-global warming - I hate to say post apocalyptic but you could go with that too - novel featuring a world in which the rich and powerful have left Earth onto spaceships orbiting the planet and a trio of young people left behind on Earth desperately scrapping for whatever they can get to feed themselves and their families.  Needless to say class issues feature prominently in this SciFi thriller, and the book manages to weave them effectively through it all to form a really strong whole.


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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Driftwood by Marie Brennan





Full Disclosure:  This novella was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 14, 2020 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.

Driftwood is the latest novel by author Marie Brennan, the author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent (A Natural History of Dragons).  I really loved that series and its spinoff novel because of how well it built a series based upon Brennan's knowledge of anthropology, archeology, and science, together with great characters, a lot of wit, and a fun fantasy world.  It's really great and you should read it.  So naturally, when I saw her upcoming novel* on Netgalley, I put in a request immediately, and so I obtained Driftwood for this review.

*Driftwood is around 200 pages long from what I can tell, and is at best a short novel and may even be short enough to be considered a "Novella" - certainly I've seen books of similar length called as such.  But the marketing text on booksellers' sites lists it as a "novel", and so thus, shall I.  

 Driftwood is very much in the same vein as the above, a short novel with some strong characters and a very anthropological focus: namely, how do people respond when their worlds begin their inevitable end?  And I mean this literally, the story is essentially a series of tales of "Driftwood", the place that worlds go after their apocalypses, where they merge with other worlds as they slowly die out.  Each tale is particularly interesting and explores different grounds, all centered around characters interacting with a mysterious man who seems to survive everything.  It's a really well done set of tales and if this is the first in a new series, I would definitely look forward to more.

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Tuesday, April 14, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Temporary by Hilary Leichter




Temporary is a short novel (bordering on novella length) that is as much literary or absurdist fiction as it is Science Fiction or Fantasy.  The story focuses upon an unnamed young woman who serves as a Temporary and seemingly has since birth, serving as a Temp in more and more absurd and odd jobs - ranging from being a member of a sea pirate crew, to being CEO for an unnamed corporation, to being the secretary for a murderer, to....etc.  Its absurdist premise showcases the sad nature of being a Temp and the dream of finding something more permanent, making a serious topic out of a really fun at times premise.  And the book is short enough to not really outstay its welcome.


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Monday, April 13, 2020

SciFI/Fantasy Book Review: Docile by K.M. Szpara




Docile is the debut novel from Hugo and Nebula nominated author K.M. Szpara (nominated for his novelette "Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time" in 2018) and it's one that has gotten some heavy push and reviews in some circles.  With a tagline of "There is no consent under capitalism", it's also not a book that's trying to hide anything from the reader.  This is a serious book about the idea of consent in a world with massive power discrepancies, a future world that looks very possible based upon the trajectory of the United States, with its inequality and economic discrepancies only getting worse by the day.

And more particularly, Docile is a book about the lack of consent in such circumstances, and is incredibly devastating and powerful in showing the effects of that.  Half the book is written from the view of a privileged abuser, who is too naive and privileged to realize what he's doing, and half from the abused underprivileged, who goes from believing he can be defiant to......not.  It is an absolutely uncomfortable book to read and it pulls practically no punches - offering no easy answers to what it showcases of our possible future.  It's not perfect in how it tells its story, with a third act that kind of falls apart if you think about it, but it's pretty damn powerful throughout to the point where it doesn't really matter.  A brutal compelling story about a really serious theme.

TRIGGER WARNING: Rape, Sexual Abuse and other Physical and Mental Abuse. Explicitly.  To say it's not gratuitous might be pushing it, this book does not hide any of the sex acts the main character performs and is forced to perform, and it is incredibly hard to read as a result even with foreknowledge of what you're getting into.  That said, while perhaps as much explicitness isn't as needed, the story makes use of this content in powerful ways to tell the heart of its story, a story about consent and power, in such a way that it's hard to imagine without it. 

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Saturday, April 11, 2020

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 8 and 9




Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  We're just finished our introduction to our main cast of this book, a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  Still, it's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, as we're just about done getting to know our fun cast.

When we left off, Max Carmichael met the rest of Zuma's Ghost - our NeoG interceptor crew - from easily excitable and outgoing Jenks to hacker Sapphi, to everyone's favorite, the robotic dog DOGE!  (I promise I'll stop going on about Doge soon).

This time, we get our first intro to the Boarding Games, Max demonstrates her skills and gets onto her first mission, and almost gets into an interservice bar fight.  Surely Max would never get into any actual bar fights?  Right?  Well, we're getting ahead of ourselves (but she totally will).

Note: We're going to be covering here Chapters 8 and 9 and the letter section after Chapter 9, so technically a little more than these two chapters (not sure how the letter is divided up in the actual book instead of my eARC). A lot more things are discussed in these chapters too, incidentally, so this will be a longer recap.


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Friday, April 10, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty




The Shambling Guide to New York City is the first in a two book (so far, and likely for good) light urban fantasy series by Mur Lafferty.  I actually came to this series backwards - I read the second book in this series, Ghost Train to New Orleans, first since my library had it in audiobook (Reviewed by me HERE).  So I was a little bit spoiled as to what would happen in this book, but I enjoyed the later book quite a bit - it was fun and witty, featuring a strong human character surrounded by monsters and deities and a version of New Orleans that felt very real.  So even spoiled as I was, I was really interested to see how the series began, especially given that it started in my own home city of New York.

And well, I guess the second book was a big improvement over the first, as The Shambling Guide to New York City doesn't quite live up to its sequel.  Oh the main character is still fun and strong, as a human determined she's strong enough to survive amongst literal monsters and the story still has a decent amount of wit.   Still, the monsters around her are less interesting, and while the book is also about the idea in part of creating a tour guide for monsters - or, coterie as they're called here - its depiction of New York feels entirely generic unlike Lafferty's New Orleans.  So I'm in the rare situation of maybe recommending checking out the sequel instead of the original here, because this is merely fine or solid, whereas that book is a lot more fun and well rounded.


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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Sword of Fire by Katharine Kerr




Sword of Fire is the first in a new trilogy by Katharine Kerr, creator of the epic fantasy Deverry Cycle.  It's also a return to that same universe, albeit a hundred years or so down the line, with some references to the old works, but really works as a stand alone novel that survives easily as the start of a new story (with a satisfying ending, even if this is the first book in a new trilogy as well).  I had mixed feelings on Deverry - I read the first two and a half books and skimmed the back half of the third and fourth.  This was because the books contained wonderful characters and dialogue, but by the third book had used tropes that I strongly dislike - in that case, the mind control rape of the main female protagonist, which just....no.  Still, that problematic element came from a book published in 1989, and I was willing to give Kerr's newest work another chance, especially given how much I liked her characters and dialogue.

I'm really glad I did because Sword of Fire is almost perfectly tailored to my interests and is really well done.  The story has elements of epic fantasy - the magic "dwimmer/dweomer", the presence of fantasy races like elves and dwarves, the existence of dragons, etc. - along with romance and adventure, but is mainly a story about a pair of young women, with their allies, battling with words and precedents to reform and modernize rule of the citizens.  No seriously, this book can be summed up arguably as "young woman quests for historical text to show a past precedent for reform in the face of opposition by traditionalists" and it is so damn good for it all.  It reminds me of a combination of some of Guy Gavriel Kay's work and Kerr's earlier Deverry books, with the plot being less about any particular armed conflict, but a bunch of people from different origins trying to work towards a better future for themselves and perhaps others, as times begin to change.  It's not a perfect work - upon reflection certain things do seem to come pretty easily in the end - but it's pretty damn great.


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Fantasy Novella Review: Ghost Girl in the Corner by Daniel Jose Older





Ghost Girl in the Corner by Daniel Jose Older

Ghost Girl in the Corner is the first novella written by Daniel Jose Older in his Shadowshaper universe - his YA urban fantasy series featuring afro-latinx protagonists in Brooklyn, where they deal with real world issues like gentrification and police violence while also figuring out the magic that comes from their heritage (I make it sound a lot lamer than it is, it's really done pretty well!).  This novella is essentially a side story and sequel to the first Shadowshaper novel ("Shadowshaper"), with the story focusing not on the main novels' protagonist Sierra, but upon her two friends: Tee and Izzy.  Tee and Izzy were great and unusual characters for the main novels - the only duo in the novels with a clear loving relationship, with each having their own personality, especially the brash freestyle rapping Izzy.

This novella splits its story into the pair's perspectives at a time when Tee is finding her unsure of herself and her relationships, just as she's beginning to see the new magical powers she was just gifted.  Naturally, there's both a fantasy and real political atmosphere to the plot as well, as the two girls try to figure out how to get through this time, and Older does a really credible job with it.  It's still not a story that will get you into the series - new readers should start with the novels - but it's a far better and more interesting side story than the other novella, so worth your time if you have read the novels.


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Monday, April 6, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey




When We Were Magic is the latest novel by SF/F author Sarah Gailey (Magic for Liars, American Hippo, Upright Women Wanted) and as far as I can tell, their first YA work.  As I said in my recent review of Upright Women Wanted (see HERE), I haven't always liked Gailey's work, but it has always been at the worst interesting and different.  Moreover, all of Gailey's work focuses on or centers around characters who don't fit into the classic cis white archetype - with multiple LGBTQ and non-white characters at the heart of each story.

Gailey isn't interested in telling the same stories about the same people, and that continues with When We Were Magic, which is the young adult story a group of queer teens at the end of their high school life, dealing with their own insecurities about who they are, who they will be, and the loves and friendships they'll take forward from there.  The story's weakest part is oddly enough its premise, which should seemingly be more serious than the book is interested in dealing with, with the book instead being a lighter toned story about the characters' growing up and realizing their feelings.  Still, for what it is, it is done well, and it's another solid YA outing, especially for those who don't fit the classic white cis male paradigm.


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Saturday, April 4, 2020

A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 6 and 7

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  We're just about finishing our introduction to our main cast of this book, a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe.  It's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, as we're just about done getting to know our fun cast.

When we left off, we met Max Carmichael, nervous new Lieutenant, who has broken all of the expectations of her overbearing family and is desperate for acceptance.....and is joining the crew of Zuma's Ghost in Nika's place as their new Lieutenant.  Oh and Nika thinks she's got pretty eyes.  I'm sure that won't lead to anything.....(spoiler: yeah, it will).

This time, Max meets the rest of the crew, and therefore, so do we!  Needless to say, not everyone will have the best reaction to having a surprise replacement officer dropped on them, nevertheless an utter newbie......


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Friday, April 3, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi




Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the second book in Tomi Adeyemi's YA Fantasy "Legacy of Orisha" series which began with 2018's "Children of Blood and Bone" (Review Here).  That first book was one of the more hyped books in 2018, getting a massive publicity push, a place atop the Times Bestseller's list, etc.  It also managed to win both the Norton (Nebula) and Lodestar (Hugo) awards for Best Young Adult SF/F last year, so it did fairly well critically as well.

And honestly, I enjoyed the novel a bit (I had it 3rd on my hugo ballot), even if I didn't think it hit the level of greatness I hope for in a book so hyped.  It featured a really well built African-culture-based (Nigerian most prominently I believe) fantasy world, a couple of really interesting lead characters and strong themes of facing up to oppression, racism and privilege.  But it also featured characters who kept wavering back and forth on their beliefs, including one major one who did so implausibly, a comically evil antagonist, and some more skin deep characters along the way.  The story ended on a strong cliffhanger which certainly made me excited for more, hopefully with stronger more concise and believable character arcs.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is.....not what I was hoping for however, with the weaknesses of the first book returning in force - if not becoming worse - the characters continue their wavering back and forth between their beliefs and goals in almost comical fashion, the main antagonist is again comically evil and despite that one major character can't resist sticking by them, and the plot shoehorns things along at sometimes a way too quick pace.  Moreover it all ends with a cliffhanger ending that requires greater skill to make work than Adeyemi has demonstrated in these two books and is almost laughable as a result.  The themes here continue to be strong - cycles of oppression, the temptations and evils of power, racism and hatred, etc. - but Adeyemi's work with those teams is hamstrung by how she failure to develop her characters in interesting believable ways, making this one a disappointment.

Warning: Spoilers for Children of Blood and Bone are inevitable in this review.

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Thursday, April 2, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Iron Cast by Destiny Soria




Iron Cast is a YA Fantasy Novel written by author Destiny Soria and her first novel (her second novel, Beneath the Citadel, was another YA novel that I liked a lot).  The story an alternate version of Boston on the eve of prohibition in which magic/illusion wielders ("hemopaths") exist, with these wielders commonly using things like their own words or music to affect others' minds.  The story setup is a classic one - a world that fears people for their powers oppresses and hunts them for insidious purposes - but this novel stands out with its strong friendship between its two young women protagonists, its twisty plot, and its refusal to take the easy way out with how things play out.


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Wednesday, April 1, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Creatures of Charm and Hunger by Molly Tanzer


Full Disclosure:  This novella was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on April 21, 2020 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.

Creatures of Charm and Hunger is the third and apparently final book in Molly Tanzer's "The Diabolist's Library" fantasy series, after Creatures of Will and Temper (reviewed here) and Creatures of Want and Ruin (reviewed here).  Each of the first two books in the series has been a novel taking place in a different historical period - book 1 took place in Victorian London; book 2 took place in prohibition-era Long Island - with the fantasy twist being the characters discovering that strange phenomena were occurring around them due to characters summoning and channeling demons.  In this universe, demons can be channeled for either good or evil purposes, and since both prior novels were stand-alone, a good part of each was dedicated to the characters discovering that fact and figuring out what to do with it.  In the end, I found both novels fascinating at the least, often taking directions I wouldn't have expected, and dealing with some modern day issues in the process.  So I was really curious to see where the third novel in the series would take things.

And Creatures of Charm and Hunger takes things in very different directions, even as it moves up its historical setting to that of World War 2 - an era in which fiction about the occult and the summoning of demons is hardly uncommon.  It dives straight into its diabolist setting from the start, with the protagonists learning how to use demon-channeling abilities from the start in pursuit of their own objectives, and never has the series been so directly colored by the supernatural.  The book still focuses on real world issues as well, of race and discrimination, of the costs of desire, of the value and cost of sacrifice, but its more supernatural nature makes it stand out from its predecessors in ways that I'm....still unsure work.  Regardless, the result is a far less tight plot, with more willingness to leave things unresolved, but one that certainly captivates the mind for its duration.

I should note that again, this book is entirely stand alone and no knowledge of the prior two books is needed to read it - the first book's plot gets a quick reference at one point, but otherwise there are no references that I even spotted to the prior novels.


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