Tuesday, August 31, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Oaths of Legacy by Emily Skrutskie

 


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 14, 2021 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.

Oaths of Legacy is the sequel to Emily Skrutskie's romantic (M-M) space opera "Bonds of Brass" from last year.  I enjoyed Bonds of Brass (My review here), which very much took a Star Wars-esque setup (and may have started out as Poe/Finn slashfic) in some fun directions, as its main protagonist, a boy recovering after his world/home-system was violently destroyed by a conquering empire, went on the run with the boy he loved....who turned out to be the heir to that same empire.  And so you had a story dealing with love vs duty, a story dealing with whether one can put aside one's past, and you also had fun piloting and other action-y sequences, to go along with a third major character in a gutter-rat girl who was an absolute blast.  The biggest issue with book 1 was its reliance on a twist that was almost too far of a stretch to be believed, but I was interested in seeing how book 2 would be.  

And Oaths of Legacy.....is fine, but is very much not what I wanted or expected from this series.  The book shifts perspectives to that of Gal, heir to the (conquering) Umber Empire, as he finds himself imprisoned by the boy he loved, and is desperate to escape.  I expected the shift in perspective to further allow the book to deal with Empire, and with privilege, and about the sins of birthright, as those themes were somewhat important to book 1 and would make sense to be dealt with from the new point of view.  Instead, we get a book that very much feels like a Star Wars book - in fact feels very much inspired by the specific plot of one particular Star Wars book, which is fine, but nothing particularly special.  

Spoilers for Book 1 inevitable below:

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Monday, August 30, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

 



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 7, 2021 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.

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina is the latest novel by Zoraida Córdova, the prolific Ecuadorian-American fantasy writer, whose YA works (for example, Brooklyn Brujas) I've been enjoying a lot this year (having now read 4 of them this year alone).  This is however, not a YA novel, it's a fantasy/magical-realism novel featuring mostly a family of mostly adult characters, with the family headed by an Ecuadorian matriarch and potential witch who came to live in a small town in America decades ago.  

It's a fascinating novel filled with themes of family and bonds, and the pain of both not knowing where you came from.....and worse not actually being wanted and cared for by those who should be family.  For all those themes, the novel sometimes verges into horror territory (do not expect everyone to survive), but this works fairly well, as the novel tells essentially two narratives: the past story of how the family matriarch, bastard and unwanted daughter, became who she is, and the present story of how her sprawling descendants must now deal with the consequences of her actions.  It's a really well done novel with some strong characters, and well worth the advance hype that I've seen online. 

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Thursday, August 26, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw

 


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 7, 2021 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.

The All-Consuming World is horror author Cassandra Khaw's full length novel debut.  Khaw is known for their horror novellas, as well as their other short fiction and isn't exactly an unknown author, and I have run into their work a few times before, although never in a way that has made a big impact on me.  Still many other writers I enjoy seemed to really like Khaw's work, so I was really excited to get a shot at their first full-length novel - even more so given that it wasn't explicitly horror, a genre that is kind of hit or miss for me.  

And for the most part I found The All-Consuming World to be an incredibly well done sci-fi novel, featuring a queer cast of criminals brought back together by an abusive ringleader in a galaxy where humans are seemingly the lesser force compared to AI minds.  And the plot is very well done as to its central protagonist, the foul mouthed armed muscle Maya, who finds herself unable to say no to the gang's abusive leader...despite all the bad she has done and the relationships Maya has lost as a result.  Still while the characters and the relationships are done excellently, some of the prose and word choice didn't quite work for me, and the lack of explanations as to how this galaxy works may lose some readers.  But by the last third of the book, I was all in, devouring it all to see how it would turn out.

Trigger Warning: Abusive Relationships - This book is essentially centered around an abusive relationship between the main character (and many of the side characters) and the team's leader, who manipulates the others to her own ends.  If reading such a relationship is a problem for you, this book will not be for you.    
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Wednesday, August 25, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: No Gods No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

 


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 7, 2021 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.


No Gods No Monsters is a scifi/fantasy novel by author Cadwell Turnbell, and the first novel in a longer series listed online as the Convergence Saga.  The novel is really short - Amazon lists it as 330 pages, but digitally the length is equivalent to what I tend to think of as around 200 pages - but it is absolutely filled with ideas and characters.  In a similar setup to quite a few other books, Turnbull creates a world (and more than one world) that is like ours, except that monsters/supernatural beings (werewolves/seers/witches, etc) have lived in the shadows for generations....until a sudden event brings the out into the open. 

But Turnbull does especially well in No Gods No Monsters, and what makes this book something special, is that he uses this world to deal with issues of race, of family, of police and gun violence, and of solidarity between peoples who may not be similar except in how they are in danger from the larger world.  The novel is told in a very nonlinear and sometimes disorienting fashion, jumping from character to character in various places and subplots that feel disconnected for large stretches, but the characters are all done so really well that it mostly comes together in the end to something that hits hard.  It still is unfortunately only book 1 in a series though, and the book feels like it, with so many plot threads not coming together here, but the characters and themes have me eagerly anticipating book 2.  

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Tuesday, August 24, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Dark of the Sea by Imam Baksh

 





The Dark of the Sea is a young adult novel by Guyanese author Imam Baksh, which won a 2018 award for best Young Adult Caribbean novel.  It's a really short novel, with the paperback edition I borrowed via inter-library loan being exactly 200 pages, so it won't take long for even a young adult to read.  But that short length doesn't prevent it from having a lot of impact.

The Dark of the Sea is a dark YA fantasy novel following a 15 year old boy from a poor town in Guyana, riddled with alcoholism, drug-usage, and suicide, as the poverty makes it incredibly hard for anyone to eek out a living.  And while the main foe of the story is a chthulu-esque horror, whom the protagonist has to fight with aid from a city of merfolk along with a number of other mythological figures, the real focus of the story is on the difficulties such people and kids face, as they are left behind without help, and begin to feel hopeless as a result.  It's notably a story willing to show that staying in a terrible school might not be the answer, with the important thing being to find the courage to keep living anyway.  

More specifics after the jump:

Trigger Warning: Suicide.  

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Friday, August 20, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Reconstruction by Alaya Dawn Johnson

 





Reconstruction is the first collection of short fiction by author Alaya Dawn Johnson, collecting 8 stories originally published in various publications from 2005-2014, along with two brand new stories.  Johnson has become one of my favorite long sf/f fiction authors over the last few years from her YA novel The Summer Prince (which I gave a perfect score) to last year's Trouble the Saints, an adult novel featuring on an alternate 1940s New York.  Her novels (which also include her Norton winning "Love is the Drug") deal heavily with serious issues and themes like race/class/generational divides and more, and are always really well done, and so when I found out about her putting out a short story collection, I was really eager to see if I could get a copy.  

And Reconstruction is full of really interesting stories with some really strong themes, hitting on a number of angles.  The ten stories within only feature one story that is kind of light in the end (although even that one is sort of serious in its concepts), and several of the older stories feel depressingly prescient.  And the stories range in themes and genres, from multiple vampire stories, an alien invasion-setting, several dystopian stories, and a few stories with settings inspired by or actually in Mexico, where Johnson currently lives.  It's a really good anthology that is worth your time if you're looking to pick up some short fiction.  

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Wednesday, August 18, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

 




The Wolf and the Woodsman is a debut fantasy novel by Ava Reid, and like a lot of books, it's one that I originally was all set to pass over given its similarity in portrayal to other books I'd read.  The book draws comparisons to Naomi Novik's "Spinning Silver"* and Katherine Arden's "The Bear and the Nightingale", in being fantasy inspired by Eastern Europe (Hungary apparently), featuring a growing in power and prejudice form of Christianity, to the detriment of believers of other faiths, such as Jews and Pagans.  Those were not quite my favorite books, but I'd seen enough hype and praise for this book from authors I appreciate on social media, that I wound up putting his on my library holds list anyhow.  

*Oddly I kind of think the better Novik comparison is to her Uprooted* 

And I did enjoy The Wolf and the Woodsman quite a bit, especially due to its impressive focus on its pagan (and half-Jewish by blood) heroine, in a world that may be fantastical, but also uses a very historically real portrait of Christian persecution and scapegoating to tell a story that goes in some interesting and very solid directions.  The book's lead heroine Évike is really well done, and on a more personal note for myself, the book's portrayal of its Jewish community is very strong.  The book still has a few speedbumps - reliance on one trope I really don't like and an ending that is incredibly rushed - but it's a very strong debut novel, worthy of much of its praise.  

Trigger Warning: Self-Harm 

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Tuesday, August 17, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

 



Disclaimer:  After I had already taken this book out from the library, I was given an e-ARC copy from the new American publisher, who is apparently rereleasing the book in August 2021.  I promise this did not affect my overall review.

The Forest of Enchantments is the second book by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni that re-interprets an ancient Indian/Sanskrit epic, in this case the Ramayana, by retelling the story and adjusting it to focus on the perspective of a major female character, instead of the traditional male protagonist.  I really enjoyed that first book, The Palace of Illusions (my review here), which retold the story of the Mahābhārata from the perspective of Draupadi/Panchaali, showing her tragic tale and how so much of it was caused by her own choices, loyalties, and loves, all in a world which seeks to limit her because of her gender (remnisicient of Madeline Miller's Circe did the Odyssey from Greek myth).  I had some minor foreknowledge of the Mahābhārata  going into that book (from other adaptations), but honestly had basically no such foreknowledge of the Ramayana, so I was really curious and excited to see how Divakaruni would adapt this other epic that I did not know.  

And The Forest of Enchantments is a really strong and interesting but very different book than The Palace of Illusions, even as the concepts are similar.  Centering on Sita, it tells a tale not just about her but about the other neglected women in the epic who are forced to constantly endure as the men around them make decisions out of pride and "duty" with little regard for the impact on the women they love.  It's a story about love - familial and romance - and how such love is often a tie that binds, even as the loved ones are betrayed by their significant others.  And without changing the overall story (at least based upon my research afterwards) it ends on an epic moment in which is really well earned, and will make the reader go "FINALLY!"  

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Monday, August 16, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Chorus Rises by Bethany C Morrow

 


A Chorus Rises is the sequel to Bethany C. Morrow's "A Song Below Water" (My review is here), her urban fantasy YA novel from 2020.  A Song Below Water was a really strong novel, featuring a world in which some classical and less classical fantasy creatures live among humans....some of which are mapped onto certain races and face oppressive racism as a result.  It was not a subtle novel, with one of its two protagonists forced to hide who she is as a siren due to such racism and her very core being being illegal and it featured its two black girl protagonists having to not only figure out who they themselves are, but having to fight for the right to express those identities.  But the lack of subtlety didn't prevent it from working really well, both in its message and its story, and so I was very interested in discovering the book (which ends on a satisfying way) would have a sequel. 

A Chorus Rises is honestly better than its already good predecessor, and will be taking up a likely spot on my awards ballot next year.  The story flips the perspective to feature Naema, the antagonistic black teen girl from the prior novel, who exploited her Eloko gifts for massive popularity and antagonized our former protagonist, and only begrudgingly gave them the bare minimum of help when she was in danger due to being a Siren.  The result is a story about privilege and about how that privilege can disappear when one doesn't behave how others would like...and about how black girls (and other minorities) can often be used against each other by white people for their own racist ends.  It's again not subtle, but it works really really well, and is highly recommended. 

Minor Spoilers for A Song Below Water below, but they won't really affect your enjoyment of that book.  That said, you should not read this book before that one, as I doubt it'll really work without the foreknowledge of the main character.   
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Friday, August 13, 2021

SciFi Novella Review: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

 



A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers


A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the start of a new series of novellas (Monk & Robot) by author Becky Chambers, famous for her Wayfarers series.  Chambers' Wayfarers series was well known for being an example of Hopepunk, or optimistic sci-fi featuring a space opera setting where there aren't really any actual antagonists, but instead just a bunch of people from different cultures and races (and very often queer) trying their best to figure their lives forward in happiness.  It was a series that I loved for the most part, with parts of books 1 and 3 being like comfort food that I can reread whenever to cheer me up, so I was super excited to read her newest series.

And A Psalm for the Wild-Built feels like a natural extension of the Wayfarers series, even if it is a different setting, featuring once again an optimistic worldly setting, no real antagonists, and just people trying to figure it all out.  Except this time it's a monk who believes in the god of comfort struggling with a lack of happiness and a robot who is trying to figure out humans alongside him.  If you liked Wayfarers, you'll like this, which is exactly what I was hoping for.  

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Thursday, August 12, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Star Eater by Kerstin Hall

 




Every now and then a book comes out with blurbs and reviews that are raving from people you trust tremendously (great reviewers and other great authors, in particular).  Star Eater is the latest of those books, a book that I don't think had too much press leading into it, that has drawn raves from nearly every source I've seen (it has blurbs from Max Gladstone, AK Larkwood, and Andrea Stewart).  The book I've seen draw comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale as well as Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire, which are both tremendous comparisons to live up to, not to mention really interesting works in their own rights (even if I didn't love AMCE).  Oh and it features fantasy cannibal nuns, which is not something you see in many books....

And Star Eater is a really interesting novel featuring strong themes about power and heritage, a very strong lead character (and some solid secondary characters), and a really interesting world.  It's also the type of novel that doesn't bother to ever take the time to explain aspects of the setting, which works to some extent....and doesn't quite in others, throwing me for an unnecessary loop midway through.  Still, it's a tremendous ride from start to finish, especially once it hits the midway point, even if I don't think it pulls everything off by the end.  

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Wednesday, August 11, 2021

A Heart Divided (Legends of the Condor Heroes) by Jin Yong (Translated by Gigi Chang and Shelly Bryant)

 




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 24, 2021 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.

A Heart Divided is the fourth and final part* of this new translation of Jin Yong's legendary Wuxia story, Legends of the Condor Heroes, which has been published over the past 2-3 years.  I first tried the first part, A Hero Born, during my furlough in 2020, and really enjoyed this far more than I thought I would - I'm a big character-development guy over plot and action sequences, but the kung fu and fighting sequences are so over the top and often hilarious and fun that even I was won over.  The series has some gender dynamics issues, as you might expect from fiction first published in the 1950s, but it is a lot of fun for how over the top and ridiculous it gets.   

*There are two sequel series to Legends of the Condor Heroes, which continue the story further, but this is the end of the original story, and I do not know if there are plans for a new translation of those.*

And A Heart Divided is basically more of the same in that respect, which is what I was hoping for.  The Kung-Fu scenes are a lot of fun, and our heroes - dumb but good harded Guo Jing and really bright and way too good for him Lotus Huang are very fun as their adventure continues until a point they can sort of settle down (for the moment), concluding this arc of the story.  It probably closes things off a bit too quickly, and is a bit less effective than its predecessor parts as a result (and starts to get a bit repetitive), with all the same gender dynamics issues as before.  Still, a fun conclusion to a fun series, and I wouldn't be opposed to reading the sequel.  


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Tuesday, August 10, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Requiem of Silence 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 17, 2021 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.

Requiem of Silence is the fourth and final book* in the Earthsinger Chronicles, a really interesting series by author L Penelope.  The series began with two novels (Song of Blood and Stone (Reviewed Here) and Whispers of Shadow and Flame (Reviewed Here)) which were very much fantasy romances, even though they dealt with serious themes of race, refugees, nationalism, and more to a certain extent.  The third book, Cry of Metal and Bone (Reviewed Here) shifted near entirely to epic fantasy - with there still being a very prominent romantic subplot**, but with the plot dealing with so much else - conflicts of life and death, integration of two peoples, refugees, racism, propaganda, foreign interference and differences of cultures.  Essentially each book in this season has gotten more and more ambitious, with the first book's setting feeling barebones and the third book's feeling overflowing with ideas and potential, and I've only enjoyed each of these books more and more.  

*There are also three novellas in the series, none of which I've had the opportunity to read although I may change that fact.  By their descriptions the novellas develop some important side characters and their events are referred to in these books, but not necessary to understand them.*

**Every Romance in this series is M-F, for what it's worth.  There are no LGBTQ characters of note in the series as far as I can recall.**

So it should be no surprise that Requiem of Silence, the finale, tries to do a lot with a lot of characters, and that it's romance subplot is the least developed of any of the series.  The result is mixed - there are a lot of interesting themes here - again of dealing with conflicts between two peoples forced together, of racism and of refugees, of violent counter-reactionary movements on all sides, on governing and misrule, and some really solid characters to go along with it all.  On the other hand, the overarching fantasy plot sort of overwhelms everything in the end, allowing the book to wrap up everything nicely without truly dealing with all of the impacts of those themes.  It's still a solid book, and a solid ending for this series, but perhaps a bit of a letdown after a book 3 that was a bit more interesting in its exploration of these ideas.  

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Monday, August 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 24, 2021 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.

Bad Witch Burning is a young adult modern fantasy novel by debut author Jessica Lewis.  Lewis opens the book with an author's note, talking about how she wrote this book to deal with her feelings of abandonment by toxic parents who she had tried to love, resulting in a long time internal rage at the world and herself for feeling not good enough.  The book is written as a book for kids like Lewis was, who need guidance to let them know that they do have self-worth, and that the problem is with their negligent parental figures, not themselves.  

So you should not be surprised that Bad Witch Burning can be a difficult book to read, as its protagonist suffers from parental neglect and abuse, but is very very well done.  The protagonist's ability to first speak with the dead and then to resurrect them works is adapted very well into the otherwise normal setting, and the characters involved are really well done, from the protagonist Katrell, to her best friend Will, to the Guidance Counselor Mike, to a bunch of other less likable but still important parts of Katrell's life.  It's not a long book, and some elements are a bit underdone or predictable, but it's still very well done and worth your time, especially if you are one of those teens or adults who grew up in a situation like Lewis.  

Trigger Warning:  Child Abuse (Physical, not Sexual), Animal Cruelty/Murder, Negligent/Abusive Parental Figures, Growing up in Poverty

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Thursday, August 5, 2021

Fantasy Novella: Echoes of Ash & Tears by L Penelope

 


Echoes of Ash & Tears by L Penelope.

Echoes of Ash & Tears is the third novella side story to take place in the world of L Penelope's "Earthsinger Chronicles", an epic/romantic fantasy series that I came to really enjoy over its four book length.  This novella actually was first published as part of an anthology (Under a Winter Sky) in 2020, although its now available for purchase separately.  The series features a fantasy world with serious themes like refugees, scrambles for power, race, class, religion, and more....and still tends to have decent if not predominant romance subplots along the way.  Still, despite having now finished all four books, I had yet to read any of the three novellas which told side stories about characters in the series, but I liked the series enough that I wanted to give them a try.  

Echoes of Ash & Tears doesn't require any foreknowledge of the series to enjoy it, and features a major character from book 4 in a short romantic fantasy plot long before the main series.  It's a solid novella, if nothing special, although completists from the main stories will enjoy it quite a lot.  It even in one way has vibes of the resolution of Robin McKinley's "The Hero and the Crown", to my surprise.  More thoughts after the jump.  


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Fantasy Novella Review: Breath of Dust & Dawn by L Penelope

 

Breath of Dust & Dawn by L Penelope:

Breath of Dust & Dawn is the first of L Penelope's spinoff novellas from her Earthsinger Chronicles epic/romantic fantasy series.  The novella is a prequel story with a framing device takes place after book 1 (Song of Blood and Stone), in which one of the protagonists of that book (Jack) tells the story of how he met Darvyn, one of the protagonists of book 2 (Whispers of Shadow & Flame) and book 3.  But really what it is a short murder mystery set in a refugee camp after a war, with refugees murdered and people both in and outside of the camp as suspects, and a lot of distrust.  

It's nothing special, and certainly nothing that will be of interest to anyone who hasn't read the main series, but if you enjoyed the series, or even just book 1 or 2, you'll find this an enjoyable prequel story to read.  

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Wednesday, August 4, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Citadel by Marko Kloos

 


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 10, 2021 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.

Citadel is the third book in Marko Kloos' space opera series, The Palladium Wars, which started with  "Aftershocks" (Reviewed Here) and continued with last year's Ballistic (Reviewed Here).  I really love Kloos' prose/writing style, which flows really well and makes his books incredibly easy for me to read - even though his main series, Frontlines, is military science fiction, a genre I don't particularly care for usually.  The Frontlines series is now through 7 books, and I've really enjoyed most of them, but this second series, through 2 prior books, has been honestly frustrating.  The characters and action sequences are good, but not enough happens in each volume, with certain obvious or important reveals being slow-played to the point of frustration.  If it wasn't for my enjoying of Kloos' writing, I'd probably have dropped this series, so I was hoping book 3 would improve matters.  

Book 3, Citadel, does not improve matters much.  The series still focuses upon the same four characters, all of whom now react to some major events that concluded the last book, and while things do happen for all four of them, the book is still playing its reveals and secrets way too tightly to its chest.  The result feels like episode 3 of a TV Show, which can leave you interested but wanting more, rather than the third volume of a book series, which is supposed to end in a way that is satisfying and completes some plot arcs, rather than just leaves you hanging.  This series isn't expensive to obtain - if you have Kindle Unlimited you can get it for free as it's part of Amazon's 47North imprint - so there's a good chance that I'll keep trying book 4, but it's hard to recommend for the investment given how slow things go and how little there is here three books in.  

Spoilers for book 1-2 are inevitable below:

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Tuesday, August 3, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Paper & Blood by Kevin Hearne

 


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 10, 2021 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.

Paper & Blood is the second book in Kevin Hearne's urban fantasy "Ink & Sigil" series, after the novel of the same name (Ink & Sigil, reviewed here) that came out last year.  The series is a stand-alone sequel series to Hearne's completed urban fantasy series, the Iron Druid series, and features a profane older Scottish "sigil agent" as its protagonist, as he attempts to use drawn sigils in special ink to enforce the boundaries of our world against the supernatural....and to deal with some curses that have been cast upon him.  Profanity, Vulgar Humor (of the profanity form, not the sexual form), and some clear silliness were very present in the first book, making it a bit different than the other urban fantasy series I read, but it was still very fun, so I was interested to see how the second book would turn out.  

And well, it's still fun, but the silliness gets ramped up to another level to a point that didn't quite work as much for me, and the plot here reintroduced the Iron Druid, which made it a bit less effective than it might have been otherwise.  It's clearly a second novel in what is meant to be a long running series, still introducing new characters and concepts that will play a role to come for sure, as well as carry the tone and long term plot arcs in the future.  So if you liked book 1, you'll probably like this, although I'm not sure if I like it enough to continue....let me try to explain better after the jump.  

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Monday, August 2, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wild Savage Stars by Kristina Pérez

 




Wild Savage Stars is the sequel to Kristina Pérez' Sweet Black Waves, and the second book in her trilogy adapted from the story of Tristan and Isolde (My review of the first book can be found here).  I wasn't familiar with the story going in to the trilogy, but the first book covered much of what I found later when I looked it up with a very interesting and dark/tragic spin: telling the story from the perspective of Isolde's lady maid Branwen, a young woman who believes in duty towards her country and is desperate to keep peace and save all those she cares about.  And of course when Isolde jeopardizes that, it forces Branwen into desperate actions - especially with her magic healing/destruction power - that led to tragedies.  It was a really strong opener that made me really curious to read more.  

Wild Savage Stars takes us beyond the most known inspiration for the story, with Branwen, Eseult, and Tristan making it to Kernyv (a pastiche of Wales/England/Cornwall), where Esuelt is to marry the king in exchange for peace between their two nations....a marriage she has never been interested especially now that she drank the love potion that resulted in Eseult and Tristan's tryst.  There Branwen finds herself desperately trying to guide both her cousin and Tristan in the Court to hide their indiscretion and to make sure the marriage takes place....all the while dealing with internal Kernyvak politics that threatens the peace, her own past history of having her parents murdered by Kernyvak raiders, and the magic that is building up inside her and threatening to destroy everything.  It's again a very dark and tragic story, where best intentions lead to horrible decisions and actions, and it ends up on a pretty incredible cliffhanger.  

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