Thursday, October 27, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

 



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 30, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Simon Jimenez burst onto the SciFi/Fantasy scene with 2020's The Vanished Birds, which was an utterly fascinating book, even as it was kind of a bit more in the literary direction than my usual read. The story followed a number of characters who interacted with a mysterious boy, and dealt with the choices and sacrifices those people made for their professional and personal lives, among other themes, and featured some really great character work, even if its ending felt a bit rushed and the antagonist just felt kind of there. It was a really well done and interesting novel, especially for a first novel, which made me very eager to get to Jimenez' second novel, The Spear Cuts Through Water.

And The Spear Cuts Through Water is honestly my book of 2022 so far, even as it is a very very different kind of novel than The Vanished Birds. Told with phenomenal prose as if the story is a stage play of the past shown in a dream-like magical theatre (to an unnamed but not undefined narrator), The Spear Cuts Through Water is a love story, a quest story, a story of memory and who we are, of guilt and redemption, and more. It's a beautifully told story that had me gripped from its very beginning and while it takes its time getting to its main two protagonists, it never felt slow or tiring...and once it got to the protagonists, I fell slowly but deeply in love with them. This is going to be a difficult review to write because of the type of novel this is, but let's just be clear up front, this novel is fantastic and I cannot recommend more highly that you give it a try.

Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Kundo Wakes Up by Saad Z. Hossain

 



Kundo Wakes Up by Saad Z. Hossain


Kundo Wakes Up is a new novella by author Saad Z. Hossain, author of The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday and Cyber Mage.  It's advertised as a companion novella to The Gurkha (which I have not read) but really it's just set in the same cyberpunk universe as both of these past works, a cyberpunk India/Bangladesh in which cities are run by AIs, virtual reality games are in vogue, and Djinns secretly influence events from behind the scenes.  I really liked Cyber Mage, even though there were some cringey parts, so I was interested to try this new Hossain novella.  

And Kungo Wakes Up takes this setting and makes it work really well, bringing together a cast of those left behind - an artist who never realized as things were falling apart around him, a woman and her child who didn't realize the neighborly hacker had a crush, an elderly crime lord cast away due to his age, a hacker with a drug addition etc. - as they try and figure out what's taking away more and more people from the City and disappearing them.  Along the way of this very entertaining cyberpunk and djinn flavored plot we have a theme of realizing what you have and letting what you don't have and lost go, and it works pretty well, even if this never comes close to the "must read" level of work.  


Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 24, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard

 

Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 24, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

The Red Scholar's Wake is the latest work from one of my favorite authors, Aliette de Bodard, known best for her Dominion of the Fallen series (and its spin-off Dragon and Blades) as well as her Xuya universe in which she has set a number of short stories and novellas.  This book is the first full length Xuya novel, and is also a project which de Bodard has teased on twitter, her newsletter, and her Patreon (yes I follow all three) for some time: the space pirate lesbian book inspired by the real life pirates in the South China Sea who were supported by Vietnam in taking ships belonging to the then Chinese Empire.  It's a book that I've been looking forward to for some time, so I pre-ordered it the moment it became available in North America and then requested an e-ARC the moment it showed up on NetGalley...and then read it the next day despite having way too long of a TBR already.  

And The Red Scholar's Wake delivers largely as I'd hoped - with an excellent Lesbian romance between Space Pirate/Spaceship Rice Fish and engineer Xich Si that develops both characters really well, along with a bunch of side characters in this clearly inspired by the real world universe.  And the romance is - as you should expect from de Bodard - accompanied by a story that deals with the unjustness of various systems of society, drawing a parallel between the indentures allowed by the lawful government and the taking and selling of prisoners by pirates, as well as the other ways each system can be unjust despite the good people trying to make either system better - and these themes of justice and whatnot work really well.  There's even, to add to it all naturally, themes of grief and of what turns out to be unintentionally neglectful parenting amidst a relationship in which one party is not getting exactly what she needs or wants.  All together it's pretty damn good and I really recommend it if you like space opera romance.  

More after the jump:

Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, October 20, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Audacity by Carmen Loup

 


The Audacity is the first in a self-published sci-fi series by Carmen Loup, with the series openly inspired by the work of Douglas Adams (think Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). I enjoyed the Hitchhiker's Guide when I read it back in High School (and on rereads since) but I've often found books taking after Hitchhiker's to not really work for me. Those books often are non-stop with the jokes and ridiculousness to the point of overwhelming everything else (for example, Cat Valente's Space Opera), seemingly forgetting that Hitchhiker's wasn't quite that, even as filled with language-filled humor as it was. But I've enjoyed a few novels in this vein, and with this book being one of those I was to judge for this year's Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC), I had to give it a try.*

 *Disclaimer: Due to a snafu involving the books provided to us as SPSFC Judges, I actually read about 40% of one of this book's sequels (book 3) before I gave this book a try - this may have colored my opinion a little, but hopefully not too much*

To my pleasant surprise, The Audacity struck to me the right balance of jokey, ridiculousness, and plot/characters. Our main character May, who finds herself abducted by aliens (led by a Chaos Goddess) and then accidentally rescued and going around the galaxy with a bonkers alien gig (& occasional sex) worker - where she more than anything tries to find a way to live without feeling like a freeloader. And of course there's rocket ship racing, obnoxious men and aliens to deal with, and yeah the saving of the Earth from the aforementioned goddess in the plot as well and somehow it all combines into a highly enjoyable if ridiculous ride.

Read more »
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Babel: or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

 



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 23, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (hereinafter, I'm just referring to the book as "Babel") is the newest novel from author R.F.. Kuang, who previously wrote the incredible Poppy War trilogy.  That novel was a second world fantasy based heavily upon the modern history of China, especially the atrocities its people suffered in the Sino-Japanese Wars, the Opium Wars, and from Imperialist interference, and was powerful and devastating to read.  So it's hardly a surprise that Kuang would write a Historical Fantasy novel as her next novel, which is what Babel is, taking place in an alternate 1830s, in which the British Empire wielded its power through at type of magic centered around Oxford, based upon linguistics and the ability to translate foreign used languages.  And with a full title like Babel has, you have an idea that what's coming is going to be similar in theme and message to that of the Poppy War, in the necessity for violent action in dealing with oppressors.  

And Babel is just that, and it is really powerful and incredible as a result, as the book follows a boy, who takes the name Robin Swift, as he's taken from his dead family in China by a racist colonialist English Professor and taught the power of learning and using different languages...and the magic of translation of such languages, like the Cantonese that is his native tongue.  There, alongside others at Oxford, at their own tower known as Babel, he comes together with others like himself, taken from various native lands to exploit for England's own use....and Robin and the other struggle with how they're both privileged and still treated as Others, and struggle with the need to rebel and do something about the injustice at great cost to themselves.  The result is a novel that is often devastating as we follow Robin throughout a situation that only gets worse and worse, and while it's never anything close to subtle, it's all the more incredibly powerful as a result.  


Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Fantasy Novella Review: Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

 



 Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 15, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.


Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

Tread of Angels is a new stand alone fantasy novella by author Rebecca Roanhorse, known for her Navajo inspired Sixth World fantasy series and her pre-Colombian inspired epic fantasy Between Earth and Sky (Black Sun) series.  Unlike those works however, Tread of Angels is a stand alone novella, featuring a noir-esque mystery in a world in which Demons and Angels are present on Earth to some extent, and their byblows - the Elect for Angels, the Fallen for Demons, and hybrids in between, - form the basis of this society in Colorado. 

The results is a story that starts out with some familiar beats - the Angel/Demons thing among us, with prejudice for those with Fallen blood is something I've read before, as is the Noir-ish story with the sister looking to save the accused of murder criminal by finding out a truth - but then shifts to something a bit more interesting and unique along the way.  And this winds up working really well, as the investigation reveals corruption and people being not what they seem, and a main character who makes choices you might not expect....to what turns out to be a pretty crushing ending.  If there's a fault here other than parts of this having been done before, it's that this is so short that some of the impact is blunted by not being together with characters long enough....and yet the shortness also allows this to form a pretty efficient complete story, so yeah this is a winner that's worth your time.  


Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 17, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Speaking Bones by Ken Liu




Speaking Bones is the fourth and final book in Ken Liu's Epic Fantasy (or perhaps more accurately, Silkpunk, as he calls his melding of a genre based upon the technology language and ideas of East Asia and the Pacific Islands) series known as The Dandelion Dynasty, which began in 2015 with his classic "The Grace of Kings".  The series was originally labeled a trilogy (although The Grace of Kings works entirely as a stand alone), but after a four year gap after book 2 (The Wall of Storms), it was announced that the final book in the trilogy would be divided into two more novels - 2021's The Veiled Throne and 2022's Speaking Bones.  And rest assured, the division did nothing to reduce the page length of these novels, the physical copy I borrowed from the library of Speaking Bones is 900+ pages long, and packed full of story, content, and characters.

Of course page length is far from all this series has to offer, and what books 1-3 did was offer a story of generations of peoples coming into conflict over leadership of at first one nation, Dara, and then two once a faraway land (Ukyu-Gondé) seemingly impossible to access has its people (the Lyucu) invade.  The result has been an absolutely sprawling epic over long years, as characters fight over how to govern, how to wage war, how to advance people technologically, how to try to assist different subpeoples and minorities and poor move forward, and more.  The last book, The Veiled Throne, was incredibly sprawling, and while clearly incomplete, it told a fascinating series of tales of peoples struggling in a difficult status quo - one nation where an oppressed group was hoping to fight back with help from outsiders from Dara, and another nation in essentially a cold war with invaders who had seized a major island and who had waged previously a devastating war - with the Veiled Throne asking quite frequently what is the truth amongst stories that different peoples tell and contradict one another. 

Speaking Bones continues that story, picking up the threads of its predecessor, but being just as sprawling, for generally better rather than worse.  As before, the story jumps between nations and times and characters frequently, with certain characters disappearing for long stretches, but most things do come together in the end, with an epilogue that was exactly what I wanted.  And these characters remain terrific, and Liu does a tremendous job in setting up their inner hearts, their identities, and how they try to push forward in making a better world...and how those conflicting ideals result first in conflict and then eventually come together to a conclusion which tries to answer the questions: how do you handle going forward in a world where two rival peoples have committed horrible acts against each other and need to possibly live together?  Is there any possibility for peace amidst all this, and if there isn't, will war go on forever in cycles of vengeance?  What type of leadership should a nation have going forward, and how can it both move forward while not forgetting the lessons of the past?  These are common questions in a lot of books, and Liu's answers are as interesting as any I've seen anywhere...and perhaps just as importantly, Liu doesn't pretend his answers are clearly right both in story or out.  The result is a story that is a tremendous finish to one of the more tremendous series over the past 10 years, which I highly recommend. 

Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, October 13, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg

 



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 20, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

The Unbalancing is billed as the first full length novel in author R.B. Lemberg's acclaimed "Birdverse" fantasy universe, which previously featured the critically acclaimed novella The Four Profound Weaves.  Now the Unbalancing is not much longer than that novella (I'm guessing the ad press refers to it crossing the word count for the Hugo/Nebula definition of "Novel"), but honestly - that's fine, as The Four Profound Weaves (Review Here) was an incredible queer fantasy novella that was one of my favorite works in 2020, dealing with queerness and the right to choose one's own identity and path in a world filled with authoritarians and others fighting against change.  So I was exceedingly thrilled to hear that this longer story (one that apparently was a full story adaptation of an earlier poem by Lemberg) was coming in the same universe. 

And the Unbalancing is really interesting and really good, even as its very different from The Four Profound Weaves, featuring not a battle for one's right to assert queerness in an anti-queer world, but rather a queer-friendly world in which one queer main character isn't quite sure how they should identify themselves amidst all the options open to them.  The story features a romance between an autistic protagonist, whose ancestor constantly urges to take steps towards power and leadership for the good of all despite their lack of comfort in it, and a woman who does take that power and leadership and tries to use it, sometimes impatiently, to remedy and save a land she sees her predecessor as having failed...and to prove herself despite the abuse she suffered emotionally from a parent growing up.  It's a story that really surprises in how it unfolds, without really any true villains, as it deals with issues of consent, of power, of how people act in different speeds and have different wants, and about mistakes of the past and ways forward in the future.  It is naturally well worth your time, in what little time it takes to finish.  

Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 10, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The City Inside by Samit Basu

 




The City Inside is a novel originally published in India by author Samit Basu.  It's a release I'd seen hyped up a bit, featuring a dystopian future India where progressive protesting movements failed and dystopian governments emerged in their place, who use incredible surveillance and camera technology to punish dissenters.  In this world, we find the daughter of such protestors, who tries to make a name for herself as the "reality coordinator" for the future equivalent of a famous instagram/tiktok influencer by managing his streams like no one else can as well as the son of a wealthy family who ran away and finds himself rudderless in a world as heartless and as artificial....and cruel...as anything else.  

The result is a really interesting novel dealing with how people cope with a seemingly hopeless dystopia, how they try to manipulate reality, and how they either fade into the crappy background or somehow find a way to make a stand.  You have empty relationships, media driven by what the viewers supposedly want to see, as well as games played by those in power to manipulate such desires...and the result deals with some really fascinating themes and ideas.  I'm sadly writing this review a few days after finishing it, which will make this review a bit more muddled than it should be, but trust me this is well worth your time.  


Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, October 7, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Samurai Barber versus Ninja Hairstylist by Zed Dee

 



NOTE:  This Review is for a book that I obtained for free, read and reviewed as part of the Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC), which I am a Judge of this year.  This status will not affect my review score or verdict below.  

Samurai Barber versus Ninja Hairstylist is not a book I'd usually read - it's a self-published book with a title that sounds like silly jaunt (to say the least) and made no waves among my usual circles.  But this year I'm judging in the Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) and this book got assigned to my group, which led to me giving it a shot.  To be honest, I suspected this would be the type of ridiculous book that I disfavor, which would lead to me DNFing it fairly quickly....

And I was wrong on that front, as SBvNH (sorry the full title is a mouthful)'s ridiculous setting is actually fairly charming - to the extent that a dystopian capitalist world in which technology like phones and trains have lives, samurai and ninjas are totally normal, and well, hairstyling with a sword can change personalities and beings can be charming.  The story actually uses its fun concept to tell an anti-capitalist story, if not pro-anarchist story, as the titular Samurai and Ninja struggle against a world where rich sinister conspiracy minded interests manipulate justice and the world to their own ends.....and deal with dueling minds about the ethics of haircutting.  I was actually close to recommending this - or at least recommending this go forward in the competition - until the book just ended in an incredibly unsatisfying way, to my major frustration.  

Read more »
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Thursday, October 6, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

 



A Half-Built Garden is the latest novel from author Ruthanna Emrys, who I'd previously known for her Lovecraft Subversion, "The Innsmouth Legacy" (which began with Winter Tide and continued with Deep Roots).  Emrys is a queer Jewish author, and that was felt a bit in those two novels (where one big side character was a gay Jew), which were really really good in how they flipped the Lovecraft narrative on its head to center those oppressed by society and the government as they tried to find their own lives when that same government years later tried to get their help in matters involving their past history and culture (which were lost due to that very same government's intervention).  They were incredibly fascinating novels, with really great characters, and I was super excited to see Emrys' next novel, this stand-alone first contact novel.  

And A Half-Built Garden is a fascinating and often wonderful novel, featuring a queer Jewish protagonist in a story that is part First-Contact, part ecological science fiction, part hopeful recovery from apocalyptic disaster.  It's a fascinating novel of conflicting ideologies, dealing with both past, present and future, as our protagonist Judy and her family, coming from a group dedicated to restoring our planet from the devastation wreaked by corporations and others, encounter a group of two species of aliens who come to help humanity by taking them away from the planet, due to a belief that advanced societies always outgrow their planets, which they destroy.  And so this results in a fascinating tale dealing with families, with connections, and gender, and so much more....it doesn't all work, but it's immensely satisfying nonetheless.  Even more so for this Jewish reader.  


Read more »
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 3, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

 



The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is the first adult novel from author Sangu Mandanna, author of the YA Celestial Trilogy.  I loved that trilogy, which took the Mahābhārata (one of two classical Hindi/Indian epics) and converted parts of it into space opera in a fascinating manner.  So when I heard she was doing a fun adult novel, a romantic/found-family fantasy novel, I asked my library to pre-order it so I could read it as quickly as possible.  

And The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches was a really fun and enjoyable novel - almost in the vein of TJ Klune's work except slightly different based upon Mandanna's own experience and background.  The story follows an Indian witch Mika Moon who was adopted by a British Witch after she was orphaned by a tragedy - as all witches in this world are - and was raised alone by tutors she could never get close to and taught that witches have to remain separate from each other to avoid disaster and must remain a secret.  But of course, fate brings her to a strange house in order to teach three girl witches how to control their power, where a group of people including a bitter but incredibly attractive young man attempt to take care of them, and causes her to experience the joys of being together...and of course a potential romance.  The result is a really enjoyable comfy fantasy with enjoyable romance elements, some dealings with colonialism, fear of revelation, and more, that certainly isn't a must read, but if you're looking for something that is charming, fun and lighten your mood, this is absolutely going to do the trick for you.  

Trigger Warning: Bullying and Sibling Abuse is mentioned but never shown on page.  

Read more »
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)