SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Saint Elspeth by Wick Welker

 

Saint Elspeth is a post apocalyptic sci-fi novel which is one of our finalists for this year's Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (#SPSFC4). The novel is a post apocalyptic story featuring as its main and only viewpoint character Dr. Elspeth Darrow, the only fully trained doctor left in the colony that has developed in what's left of San Francisco. It starts as a story of Elspeth attempting to maintain a reasonable level of medical treatment in the face of dwindling supplies and a colony leader who is getting increasingly fascistic and warlike and soon evolves into a story dealing with strange aliens, as Elspeth and her friends soon try to figure out what's going on with them and what that means for humanity.

It's written well, but oh my god is this book insanely cynical about humanity (I'd say it's mostly cynical about men, but there's only two female characters who get any sort of real page time, and the second one is herself paranoid and utterly cynical). The book postulates that the arrival of aliens doing nothing but just hanging around would be enough to cause nations to go mad and destroy the planet, and then later postulates that all men who would grow to lead the post apocalyptic settlements would turn into fascist wannabe cult leaders who are desperate to wage war on each other. In the face of all this is Elspeth, the rare character who despite her own depression and despair somehow manages to keep focusing upon healing and figuring things out so as to save the day, both from threats that are human and those that are inhuman and alien. I get that there's a theme about hope and healing and whatnot here, but god I couldn't help but keep being removed from this narrative not just by occasional issues with the tech levels of the setting, but really just from the dismal unbelievable cynicism about human nature all around (and yes I can say that even living in 2025).

Trigger Warning: A Suicide Attempt forms a major part of the story. This is not gratuitous and the book shows what is necessary for its themes and emotional beats to hit, so I think it's done as well as you could hope, but if this is a problem please be warned.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Yours Celestially by Al Hess

 

Yours Celestially is one of the six finalists in this year's Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4), of which I am a Judge. The story takes place in an interesting future world, in which a company (Renascenz) has invented technology that allows those who use it to die, have their minds uploaded to an online server called "Limbo" and then seemingly be resurrected into a new body of their choosing. But during the delay period while someone is in Limbo, they interact with an AI called "Metatron" who tries to counsel them through their traumas before they resurrect. Using this setup, the story focuses upon two characters: Metatron, as they fall in love with one of the souls who are in Limbo and struggle with this new feeling, and Sasha, a resurrected person who is finding his new life even harder because he is seemingly getting hit with all of Metatron's pining and feelings for Rodrigo.

It's a setup that seems potentially really interesting and I wanted to like Yours Celestially a lot more than I did. But honestly, I struggled to keep going through this one and might've DNFed it if it wasn't a finalist for the SPSFC4 Crown. Specifically, I had problems really caring about Sasha, one of our two main protagonists, as his setting and the characters' he interacts with are only explained to a limited extent, to the point where I didn't really get why he cared about certain people or why those people cared about him (specifically his roommate Ivan). The romance with Sasha at its heart also really had a rough start, and while it gets better, it really isn't great. The Metatron chapters are better because it's a lot easier to care for them, but even there there's one character who's abusive in the middle of it which makes some of those chapters hard to read, and really felt like a betrayal of a book whose author seems to call it "hopepunk" in the foreward. Overall, I just have a hard time recommending this one, for reasons I'll expound further in the book.

TRIGGER WARNING: There is an abusive character in the book who reacts with rage and violence while in a virtual world and acted with real violence outside of it. Reading parts with that character can be rough, although the book kind of handles it well, even if I didn't like it. Also, one of the two main characters is recovering from a drug addiction.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Whiskey and Warfare by EM Hamill

 

Whiskey and Warfare is one of the six book that have made it to the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4) finals, of which I am a judge. The novel just to be clear has a terrible terrible name, which makes it sound like some humorous milsci novel (it's not at all). Instead, we have the story of an older woman in a scifi universe whose alien husband just passed unexpectedly, who struggles with PTSD from her final days as a do gooder space mercenary, and winds up getting back together with her old mercenary crew as they "coincidentally" fly through a planetary system where a group has seized power and started what sure seems to be a genocide. And so, while the story is not one where the ideas of good and evil are really ever complicated, we have a story of a group of women or femme-presenting soldiers struggles to do good despite an increasingly uncaring corporate-driven universe and despite the struggles that come with age and trauma.

And honestly, this works really well. While the story features a very familiar core - the gang of do-gooder soldiers getting back together again after years apart, remembering why they work well together, and having perhaps one last mission (or well maybe not, as this is the first in a series) together against desperate odds - the use of the older (and queer) protagonists, who each struggle with issues of age, grief, disability, infirmity, and trauma, very much works to separate this one from the norm. And Hamill's writing makes each of the characters, especially but not limited to protagonist Maryn, really likable and interesting and ends the novel in a satisfying way that also promises more should one want to continue with the series.

More specifics after the jump.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 4, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Moonstorm is the first in a new Young Adult Science Fiction (Mecha) trilogy written by author Yoon Ha Lee. I believe this is Lee's first work in the YA space - Lee has previously written adult novels (Machineries of Empire, Phoenix Extravagant) and middle grade novels (the Dragon Pearl trilogy), but never YA. As someone who has greatly enjoyed Lee's work, which often deals with fascinating themes of Empire and of colonization and competing powers and cultures, I was eager to see him ply his trade in YA (which I also read a lot of).

But any review of Moonstorm is going to struggle for this reviewer because the book's setup feels almost like a more junior version of the Machineries of Empire trilogy - for example, here the Empire fights a battle over its own definition of gravity which is strengthened by the beliefs of its own people. The book has a very solid YA Protagonist in Hwa Young, a girl taken from her destroyed homeworld and adopted into the Empire, where she becomes pressed into service against her former people as one of the Empire's lancer (mecha) pilots. But a large portion of the plot feels very paint by numbers in classic YA fashion despite the typical themes and concepts Lee throws in. A new YA reader who hasn't read any of Lee before might really find this fascinating and like it, but even they might find themselves calling what will happen way too early. More specifics after the jump.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Installment Immortality by Seanan McGuire

 

Installment Immortality is the 14th mainline* novel in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid urban fantasy series: which follows the Price/Healy family as they attempt to safeguard Cryptids (creatures not believed by science) from the monster hunting Covenant of St. George and other often inhuman threats. This is also the second novel to center around former Crossroads ghost Mary Dunlavy, as she figures out who she is after the death of the Crossroads and the explosive events of the last book. As people should know, I'm a rather big fan of this series, so I managed to grab this book to read despite being way way behind on my TBR, although I have mixed feelings about how dire events in the series have gotten the last few books.

*McGuire releases InCryptid short stories on her Patreon, and one of those short stories was itself a novel, hence me using the word "mainline" to not mess with the count.

And I really liked Installment Immortality for the most part as it took the characters' struggling with some pretty tragic events, trauma and grief, and managed to examine it at the same time it also managed to give us some of the better parts of InCryptid: the encounters with the different Cryptid communities (in this case also some of the ghost communities) and how they work and survive in a human dominant world. In some ways it felt like a Rose Marshall book at times with its focus on the various types of ghosts (not really a problem for me), and the attached novella dealing with a spoiler character's grief over last book also worked really well. InCryptid fans will enjoy this one and people who haven't tried out the series will only have more reason to (although do NOT start here).

Spoilers for book 13 - Aftermarket Afterlife - and earlier books are below, so if you haven't read those books, be FOREWARNED. Also, this is not a good place to start this series, which has a few earlier jumping on points (Books 1, 3, and 6 work well in particular, plus online short stories).

Video Game Review: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

 

Anyone who follows me on social media or this blog and sees my rare video game playthrough talk may know two things: one I love JRPGs and two, I rarely play anything that is a major new game, with most of my gaming over the last few years being dedicated to the Trails series. But I follow a bunch of people in the video game sphere, and they would not stop talking and hyping Clair Obscur, a brand new RPG, with inspirations from Final Fantasy, that was released by a brand new French Studio to massive critical and seemingly financial success. And so, with a gaming laptop that was only a year old, I decided to give it a try, even despite some things that I suspected would cause me to not be in love with the game - particularly the game's reliance upon reflex-based dodge and parry mechanics in the middle of its Turn Based Gameplay.

I'm pretty glad I did, despite the dodge and parry mechanics being a major issue for me (as I'll go into later, I basically eschewed the tighter parrying mechanics entirely and tried to just get by with dodging and by using various other techniques to limit the damage from failing to dodge). Clair Obscur has a largely really great story (I think the ending is a failure, but everything leading up to it, especially the characters and plot development is excellent) and combines that with largely excellent gameplay that kept me enraptured....I picked this one up under the promise that the game was on the shorter scale for JRPGs and only 30 hours long and probably played closer to 70 hours since I did an extremely large percentage of the side content. The battle system is largely excellent, even if it does get to insanely unbalanced in the final act (a problem in a lot of JRPGs, such as my favorite series Trails), and much of the way the game works is intriguing and rewards someone who just wants to find one more thing to keep the game going. There's a lot of things that don't work in the gameplay as well, many of which feel like the things a more experienced game maker might've fixed, but the complaints are - except for one bit - mostly minor annoyances that I forgot about a short time after getting past them. This game is highly acclaimed and for largely good reason, so I definitely recommend it.

More specifics after the jump - note that I won't be talking graphics or music really down below as those aren't my things, but the graphics here are very good (even if I found them a bit too dark for my taste at times) and the soundtrack is incredibly French but also incredibly excellent and I have been listening to the OST for quite some time.

SciFi/Fantasy/Romance Book Review: Witch You Would by Lia Amador

 

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 2, 2025 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.

Witch You Would is the first fantasy romance - or Magical Rom-Com as the marketing material calls it - by Lia Amador (aka humorous Sci-Fi author Valerie Valdes). The novel features a world where magic is as ubiquitous as cooking - indeed, they work in very clear similar ways - to the point where a reality show has sprung up around it: Cast Judgment, in which spellcasters compete to prove they're the best and are worthy of both a cash prize and a year residency at a super fanciful magical arts center. Into this world we have our romantic duo: Penelope, a spell technician obsessed due to trauma with making sure every spell component is exactly right and who wants the residency so she can finally decipher the spells in her late Abuela's spellbook - and Gil, an adjunct professor of magical theory who's secretly the popular joke influencer Leandro Presto, who posts on the magical version of tik tok videos of him messing up spells and getting into trouble. And with Penelope and Gil have serious pen pal crushes with each other....but Penelope also hates the screwing up of Leandro, so when she gets paired up with Leandro on Cast Judgment.....boom, magical romance.

And it's a romance that's a lot of fun to read, with excellent romantic main characters, a solid enjoyable setting and a pace that tantalizes and eventually delivers as much as I hope for in a romance. The reality show setting is clearly modeled after cooking shows - which I enjoy, so no complaints there - and the comedic tones of the characters, setting, and dialogue work pretty damn well. And most importantly, the romantic sparks between Gil and Penelope are very real, with some very believable and enjoyable sex scenes and romantic ups and downs, and it all winds up being a very cute enjoyable package. Definitely will read this one's sequel.

More specifics after the jump:

Fantasy Novella Review: Yoke of Stars 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 July 16, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Yoke of Stars is the latest story in R.B. Lemberg's Birdverse world, a world featuring queer characters (sometimes oppressed, sometimes not) and magic based upon "deepnames", whose power depend upon the number of syllables in those names and the number of them possessed by their holder - and whose various permutations can result in different powers and personalities.  It's a setting that has produced some remarkable works such as the novella The Four Profound Weaves - in which a pair of older protagonists try to assert their queerness in an anti-queernnorm world - and the short novel The Unbalancing - featuring a queer-friendly setting that dealt with a neurodivergent protagonist, issues of power, duty, romance and consent.  I'm oversimplifying both of those works in that one sentence description by the way, they're both very deep and really well written for their short lengths.  

Yoke of Stars is largely the stories of two people - Stone Orphan, a siltway (fish-like) woman cast out from her people's collective under the sea under the guidance of the Star of the Shoal and now an assassin under the Orphan Star; and Ulín, a woman with a love of languages who wanted only to learn more about them throughout the world...only to find herself controlled and destroyed by those who supposedly love her.  It's a really interesting story dealing with themes of language, translation, control, and freedom, and I'm still thinking about it as I write this review.  

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: That Devil, Ambition by Linsey Miller

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 3, 2025 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.

That Devil, Ambition is the latest dark YA Fantasy novel by author Linsey Miller, author of the Mask of Shadows duology, as well as the stand alone novels Belle Revolte and What We Devour (to name just her YA Fantasy work). The novel is based upon an idea that I feel is becoming rather common/overplayed of late: teens going to a school - usually of magic - that is deadly to its students, whether that be through the acts of the teachers, the students themselves, or the school building and spirits hanging around there (see Naomi Novik's Scholomance among others). Miller's work is generally extremely dark and uses her dark fantasy settings to play with some really interesting themes, so I was very curious to see her take on this setting.

And That Devil, Ambition pays off by really interrogating the reasoning and concepts behind this setting, all through a plot that follows 3 students involved in the deadly honors class: Fabian - an ambitious former noble looking to redeem his family line, Credence - a math genius from a foreign country who is relying upon her to succeed, and Euphemia (Mia) - a seemingly aloof an absent minded genius who struggles with other people. As part of the Honors Class, they will only graduate if they manage to kill their professor, an immensely powerful summoned Devil - but they will be killed if they fail in an attempt or if they fail to kill him by the end of the year. The three of them, and their classmates, are all forced into this honors class by oppressive student debt and impossible circumstances, and the story uses this setup to tell a strong tale about power, corrupt institutions perpetrating that power and trying to maintain it over others, debt (student debt especially) and the way it crushes those who have it, and more. It's some really good stuff and I highly recommend this book as usual for Miller.

More after the Jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Proliferation by Erik A. Otto

 

Proliferation is a self-published epic post-apocalypse (Post-Apoc) Scifi novel by author Erik A. Otto. The novel is technically the second in a series (after a book called "Detonation", which I think is meant to explain some of this book's setting) but is meant to be entirely stand-alone, and the book is one of this year's Self-Published Sci-Fi Competition semifinalists (#SPSFC4). It's a book filled with ideas, as we see a series of AI-centered cities wake up with powerful weapons and issues over how they protect their residents, a major political power that seems to be an alliance between anti-technology cultists from the American west coast and a military dictatorship from what remains of Japan, and some technology-based cultists who are extremely antisocial in their ways among other things.

And yet, those ideas somehow more frustrate than anything else, as Proliferation lacks some of the core things such a book would need to actually be interesting. For one, the setting is so unexplained as to be frustrating, and the book's plot arcs seem to just reset and go nowhere repeatedly. For another, the characters are largely uninteresting and every faction we follow is just seemingly made up of assholes: why do we care about any of these people? What do they want in life? I have no idea for large parts. And then there's the fact that the book relies on certain tropes - like a character committing self-harm to mitigate some kind of unspecified disease - without any justification, and uses them really badly. In short, I cannot recommend Proliferation at all.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Self Harm, Suicide Attempts and Suicidal Ideation, Drinking. These ideas aren't really handled very well either, just to be clear.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: On Impulse by Heather Texle

On Impulse is a self published sci fi thriller by author Heather Texle and the first in her "Reliance Sinclair" series of novels (of which the second book comes out this July). The novel is a semifinalist in this year's Self Published Science Fiction Competition (#SPSFC4) of which I am a Judge. It's a sort of classic type of novel - our heroine is a former (space) cop who is searching for answers as to the tragedy that got her essentially forced off the force - her partner turning on her - and who finds herself on the run from other cops when she stumbles onto the murder of her only friend. So in some ways it's the Fugitive, but in a Sci-Fi setting, albeit with some other influences as well.

Unfortunately, On Impulse really doesn't contain much to recommend it. It's not a bad novel, as it remains very readable (and quickly readable) as its protagonist gets into worse and worse situations due to impulsive decision making (see the Title) and eventually discovers the truth. But its characters are largely shallow and forgettable - especially its protagonist who kinda gets less development than some of the very shallow side characters - and it really doesn't say anything interesting. Nor is the setting or plot particularly intriguing, with the plot relying upon a bunch of pretty dumbfounding character choices to make it work.

More after the jump.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Translation State by Ann Leckie

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 6, 2023 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.

Translation State is the long awaited return by Ann Leckie to the world of her Imperial Radch trilogy, which was most famous for the multi-awarded Ancillary Justice (her 2017 stand alone book Provenance was also set in this universe but was far more distant in its setting).  The Imperial Radch trilogy was well deserving of its awards as it dealt with gender, identity, and power, and was one of my first reintroductions into reading modern SciFi/Fantasy.  So while Translation State was promised to be stand alone, its description - featuring a plot that involved the alien Presger Translators who were a major side character of the Radch trilogy - really intrigued me and had me really excited to read it.  And of course now it's a Hugo and Nebula Finalist among other awards.  

And Translation State delivers as I'd hope.  Its story is a lot more personal than the Radch trilogy, with it featuring three characters struggling with their identity and purpose: Enae, who spent hir entire life taking care of hir emotionally abusive and irritable grandmaman and who is cast out of hir home upon hir grandmaman's death; Reet, an adopted mechanic who has grown up with strange urges to bite and eat people despite his loving family and has genetic abnormalities no one can explain; and Qven, a being growing up to be a Presger translator - the strange human-like beings who interpret for the super dangerous and super alien Presger - who is essentially forced upon by another juvenile and has to deal with no longer fitting in the plans of their superiors.  The result is a story that isn't one of major galactic conflict, but one that is no less interesting as it deals with power, identity, trauma, and one's choices of whom they want to be.  More specifics after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar

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 5, 2023 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.

Lavie Tidhar is one of the more interesting prolific writers out there these days as he's known largely for his Central Station short novel (itself sort of a collection of short stories) as well as his short stories and edited collections of international SF/F work. His work has honestly been pretty hit or miss for me, but it has always featured some very different and out there worlds and concepts (for example, a clown-based Western in an imaginary world of a grieving father) and his last short novel, Neom, was one I really really liked. So I always am happy to try his stuff and The Circumference of the World is the latest.

And well, The Circumference of the World is an interesting short novel with a bunch of inspirations....but I don't really think they come together in any coherent fashion. The story revolves around a book - "Lode Stars" - that may not exist but supposedly contains the secrets of the universe as told by a scientology-esque religion founded by a manic golden age sci-fi writer. This book affects the lives of a woman from Vanua Lava, a face blind book dealer, a Russian mobster, and the writer himself, but their stories and the framing device sometimes of strange otherworldly entities telling the story don't really mesh? It's hard to explain or know what to think about this, but I'll try better below:

Note: I read this in part in Audiobook, which uses multiple narrators to put on a very interesting and unique performance.  Very well done, so if you're interested in this book, would recommend in this format.
 

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Accidental Intelligence by Bryan Chaffin

 

Accidental Intelligence is another one of the semifinalists in this year's Self Published Science Fiction Competition (#SPSFC4) and is one of the six books in my team's judging panel. The novel is a Sci-Fi Noir, featuring a private investigator Mason Truman as its protagonist as he investigates a case of a missing young man...one whose case clearly has ties to the AIs and Corporate interests who run the world. I wouldn't necessarily call myself a big fan of noir, but the noir atmosphere and writing style does tend to draw me in, so I very quickly read through this book over two days on my commute.

Unfortunately, Accidental Intelligence doesn't quite reward the reader for sticking with it. The story's main characters are paper thin, with its protagonist having seemingly no motivation or life outside of plot itself, and while the book's plot promises a fight against a dangerous conspiracy, that conspiracy turns out to be laughably simple and uninteresting. And it all ends up in a conclusion that is really unsatisfying, as events needed to solve matters just occur out of nowhere and the bad guy is defeated with way too much ease...and then the book throws an epilogue in that I guess (I was confused) attempts to set up a sequel but instead just makes it even more frustrating?

More specifics after the jump. Note that the plot summary of this book on Amazon and Goodreads spoils like 80% of the book - I'll try to be less spoilery below.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Interstellar Megachef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

 

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 5, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Interstellar Megachef is the second American-published novel of Indian writer Lavanya Lakshminarayan. Lakshminarayan's The Ten Percent Thief, published in the US last year and in India a few years prior (under a different title), was one of my favorite books of last year: it was a brilliant combination of vignettes and short stories poking holes at and satirizing a future society supposedly organized entirely upon merit (among many other ideas). It was a piece of idea-based sci-fi, and while it didn't have a set of main characters who had much character development, the result was just an utterly brilliant take down of ideas of merit, equality, and where tech and other things are going. So I was super excited to see that this next book of hers would be out this year and would be a worldwide release.

And well, Interstellar Megachef succeeds again at setting up a supposedly better world - the planet Primus, settled in the future by Earth emigrants under a charter to reinvent human culture as a better more equal and sustainable culture - that it then pokes holes in as being not quite the utopia it claims to be. The story is less successful with its main characters and plotlines however - main characters Saraswati Kaveri and Serenity Ko are strong characters with understandable personalities, but their character growth winds up being abrupt near the end (and the romance between them seems almost shoehorned in). More annoyingly, the plot teases a whole bunch of potential conflicts and plot twists that never actually happen and are all saved for the sequel as this book is in fact the first book of a trilogy/series. There's still some really interesting themes and ideas here, but the result is kind of an unsatisfying package due to how it's all pulled together for a conclusion.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bisection by Sheila Jenné

 

Bisection is a 2024 self-published novel by author Sheila Jenné and most notably, the book is a Self Published Science Fiction Competition 4 (SPSFC4) semifinalist which my judging group is setup to review. The novel features a fascinating premise that seemed really hard to write well: the protagonists are a pair of beings who share the same body, Tria (the Right) and Resa (the Left), as their species (the Kinaru) are human-like except each one of their brains is segmented into two beings - the Right, who is logical, rational and planning; and the Left, who is feeling and emotional. And so we read about Tria and Resa as they stow away on an alien ship and discover more about themselves, each other, their species and the universe...especially as things go awry.

The result works far far better than I could've expected, even if the concept is by some definition a little simplistic. The story contrasts the emotional/logical beings of the Kinaru with that of both an alien Shatakazan species and that of the humans on Earth in ways that really deal with interesting themes: oppression in the name of knowing what's best, the value of emotion and empathy as opposed to just cold reason, individual actions and autonomy vs consensus based communities and more. The story is also not preachy as it goes from beginning to end, and while there are a few moments that made me laugh in their plot convenience, in general this is a rather compelling interesting SciFi novel that pays off its interesting concept.

Video Game Review: The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2

Trails through Daybreak 2 is the 12th game in the Nihon Falcom's Trails series of JRPGs and the second game in the Calvard Arc, the fourth arc in the series. If somehow you're reading this review without having any familiarity with Trails, the series is a JRPG series of video games that began 20 years ago (although the first game didn't come to the US until 10 years later roughly) with Trails in the Sky and, like a long running epic fantasy series, each game sort of builds upon the next so as to create one incredibly epic story. The story occasionally provides what seem like good entry points for latecomers to Trails, like the first Trails through Daybreak game (which began the fourth arc of the series, dealing with events in the country of Calvard), but inevitably events, plot threads, and characters from the prior games show up as each arc gets more and more complicated. And for the Calvard Arc, that moment comes in Trails Through Daybreak 2.

Now listen, I am basically what might be called a Trails superfan (even if I'm far from the craziest in that direction). I've played every game in the series (and most of them multiple times) and even played the two Crossbell games (Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure) using a fan translation because those games were skipped by the localization teams hired by Falcom for like a decade before they were finally released (with help from the fan translaters) two years or so ago. So keep in mind that none of this epic continuity is a problem for me in and of itself and that will color my review.

So what are my thoughts as a Trails superfan of this game? Well, I'll go into more details below, but in general, I had a lot of very mixed thoughts on this game compared to some of the earlier games in the series, particularly the last Daybreak game, which is honestly one of the series' high notes. Daybreak 2 is known for being a game with some very mixed opinions from fans and it definitely earns that reputation: the game relies upon some really silly shortcuts that are even more obvious than usual, the plot generally doesn't move forward as much as you'd like for a second game in an arc and drags seriously at times, and bringing back two characters from a prior game and centering them in the story feels like a waste. On the other hand, the core gameplay remains incredibly fun, much of the new gameplay is really good (although there are some lesser parts), and individual character beats which have always been a major focus of Trails shine immensely. I put 70 hours into Trails Through Daybreak 2 and I absolutely do not regret it, even if I'm not in a hurry to replay the game right now.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 17, 2025 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.

Wearing the Lion is the second novel by award winning SF/F author John Wiswell. The novel is Wiswell's take on the story of Heracles - better known by his roman name Hercules - told from dual perspectives: the perspective of Heracles himself and the perspective of Hera, queen of the Olympian Gods, who in most stories is Heracles' antagonist who hates him for being born from Zeus' infidelity.

But Wiswell takes the story in a very different way than I've ever seen before. Here, Heracles is an extremely well meaning Himbo (super strong and pretty, but not the brightest) and Hera is a very sympathetic goddess who finds that her anger at his existence is going horribly wrong and finds herself desperate to find someway to undo her mistakes. The story take the established myths of Heracles and reframes and re-adapts them into a story with multiple found family arcs as well as themes of justice, vengeance, forgiveness, and accountability. And it works really really well. Oh and the story retains Wiswell's amazing gift for dialogue, naming, and character beats (some of the reframed Olympic Gods are just....perfect). You'll want to read this one for sure.

More specifics after the jump:

Book Review: The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 16, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

The Seventh Veil of Salome is a historical fiction novel set in 1950s Hollywood written by master author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This is not a science fiction or fantasy novel but instead follows a bunch of characters working on or adjacent to a fictional 1950s movie in the "Sword and Sandals" genre (think Ben-Hur) which is based upon the New Testament story of Salome, the niece of Herod who asked for the head of John the Baptist*. While the story jumps between character viewpoints, it largely focuses upon Vera, a girl from Mexico who was randomly discovered to become the film's star actress despite no prior acting credits, and her struggles among hollywood, among her family, and in her own confusion about what she wants and parallels these struggles with those of Salome in the movie.

*As a Jewish reader not really familiar with the New Testament, I was not honestly familiar with this story, fwiw, and the book works fine without any foreknowledge.*

The result is a really interesting novel dealing with a number of themes - including oppression, parental pressure and emotional abuse, confusion about destiny and what one wants, class, love, and passion. The story's most prominent characters - Vera and a white girl named Nancy who has struggled and failed to reach a big role in Hollywood and, in cavorting with bad actors, finally reaches a breaking point - are done really well, and the story carries impressively towards the climax where you know something is going to go badly wrong. It's not a book that I loved or think is a must read, but it's another solid entry from Moreno-Garcia, who seems to write nothing other than such novels and is always worth picking up.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Ivory Tomb by Melissa Caruso

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 December 6, 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 Ivory Tomb is the final book in Melissa Caruso's Rooks and Ruin trilogy, which began with the Obsidian Tower and continued with The Quicksilver Court. The trilogy has followed Ryx, the Aethling (heir) to Morgrain, as she and the agents of the Rookery attempt to deal with the most dangerous of all magical disasters: the unleashing of the Nine Demons of legend upon the land with the help of foolish power hungry humans. It's been a really well written series, as usual for Caruso (whose prose I can devour really quickly), as it follows a protagonist who is rightfully afraid to unleash her deadly powers and instead tries to handle things through words and diplomacy even as things get more and more dangerous (I'm vastly oversimplifying to stay non-spoiling before the jump).

The Ivory Tomb is a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, as it follows Ryx and the Rookery trying to deal with both demons new (Carnage, Despair, and Corruption) and old (Hunger, Discord, and Death). Moreover, it deals with Ryx trying to figure out a new status quo through it all that will allow there to be peace...and such that it won't put Ryx against those she loves, especially given Ryx's new understanding of her own powers. It's a very easy book to read, with some solid/interesting themes, and even if it doesn't go super deep, the mix of likable characters and fun ideas and scenes makes this one a very enjoyable read that I consumed in a single day.

Spoilers for Books 1 and 2 are inevitable below - I've been vague up to this point, but will stop after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Knife and the Serpent by Tim Pratt

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 11, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

 The Knife and the Serpent is the latest novel from author Tim Pratt. Pratt is an author who I don't think is super known but whom I've read a lot over the last few years. Pratt, a genderfluid author, generally writes some really fun and often quirky sci-fi featuring often zany, space opera, and/or multiversal protagonists who usually find themselves in situations well beyond their expectations. I've never not at least been amused by his books (even his tie-in Twilight Imperium stuff is great and I don't play that game), and the only negative I can say about his works is that I've found his conclusions to multi book series underwhelming. But that isn't really a problem with The Knife and the Serpent, which is a stand alone novel in and of itself.

It might also be my favorite Pratt novel too. The novel is very queer - it's most important protagonist, Glenn is genderqueer - and also very much in a kinky relationship with his girlfriend Viv...which is very relevant to the plot and themes (dealing with consent, relationships, control, and of course the fight against fascism) even if the novel goes any specific intimate descriptions of their sex acts. And it features not just Glenn's romance with Viv, which takes a turn when it turns out Viv is a secret agent for a multiversal force that fights against fascist agents throughout the multiverse, but also the really well story of his ex Tamsin....who turns out to be the last member of a ruling family of another world and decides upon learning that that she should take pack power and control. It's a short novel, but it really does feel somewhat complete, is always a fun blast, and handles some tropes and ideas other books don't nearly use as well, so I'd highly recommend it.

More after the Jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Last Dragon of the East by Katrina Kwan

 

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 October 8, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

The Last Dragon of the East is a fantasy romance (kinda) novel written by Katrina Kwan, a Chinese Canadian author, and is inspired by different Chinese myths - most notably that of the Red Thread of Fate that connects every person to their own "fated one" (soulmate). The book follows Sai, a young man who lives with his sick mother and can see people's Red Threads of Fate and who helps other people with that power by matching them up with their fated ones. Except Sai's own thread is mysteriously gray and frayed and when he is forced by the powerful Emperor out on a dangerous journey to find a legendary green dragon, Sai finds that his own thread is connected to that very same green dragon.

The result is a story that is really delightful, weaving in bits and parts of other Chinese Myths, an adventure to escape from the dangerous corrupt Emperor, and of course a romance between Sai and the Green Dragon Jyn. I said "kinda" romance above, because there really isn't the classic romance arc you usually see in a usual romance (Jyn and Sai are fated to be together as we know from the start after all), but the romance that we have here is very charming and enjoyable, helped along by Sai's voice and the excellent writing of Kwan. There are bits and parts here and there that are predictable and might not really make much sense if you think about it too hard, but I was so charmed by this novel that I didn't really mind.

More specifics after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

 

The Fox Wife is a new novel by Malaysian Chinese author Yangsze Choo, who previously received acclaim for her novels "The Ghost Bride" and "The Night Tiger". I'd only read the Night Tiger but I didn't quite love its tale that sort of featured a Chinese kind of Magical Realism and a couple of main characters whose plots didn't really intersect. That said, when a couple of my favorite authors gushed about a new book from Choo, I couldn't resist giving this book a try.

And The Fox Wife is a really interesting tale that is certainly both more overtly fantastical and a little more cohesive, featuring two main characters whose plotlines more expressly intersect: a fox woman named Snow who is seeking revenge on a human photographer and an older human man Bao who is an investigator who can always tell lies and is on an investigation in which that photographer's name and foxes keeps popping up. Set in the year 1908 and largely in China (other than flashbacks and a trip to Japan), the story features a trio of foxes with differing temperments, humans from different social classes and locales (rural vs urban), superstitions affecting families for generations, and people acting in a time where great change in rulership is on the horizon. And with its two pretty good main characters, Bao and Snow, we have a tale of regret about choices in their pasts - some they made deliberately, some they made because society made them - that haunts them until events here force them to come to terms with them (kinda). There's a lot here, and it's hard to explain, but I'll try more after the jump.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

 

It's hard to remember a fantasy novel more hyped in the national press than Fourth Wing.  The book, a romantic fantasy* novel, has even resulted in news articles proclaiming the birth of a "new" genre they've called "Romantasy", which really is a longstanding fantasy romance or romantic fantasy genre that fans in the know have enjoyed for years and years at this point.  But apparently it took this book, often described as combining romance with dragons, and some help promoting it (thank you BookTok) to really bring the genre to mainstream attention.  And so I couldn't help but be curious to see how the book itself was, even if I haven't really been a big fan of some of say BookTok's favorite other SF/F books (although just to be clear, this is not a self-published novel like some of those other BookTok discoveries).  

*You may note I list this as a "Romantic Fantasy" novel and NOT a "Fantasy Romance".  This is deliberate as romance novels are required to have a Happy Ever After or Happy For Now Ending.  Fourth Wing does not have that, but it is the first book of a trilogy so it's likely the series will end that way...but it doesn't really fit the definition for those seeking JUST a romance novel.  

And well, my thoughts on Fourth Wing are....mixed.  On one hand, the book is immensely predictable, features a romance that is just okay (the sex scenes are enjoyable if not super remarkable), and features a plot setup that feels like lazy dark fantasy writing: we have a government (probably hiding bad things) that establishes its dragon riding armies by having potential recruits face a training schedule that can not only get them killed...but also allows their fellow recruits to kill them as long as they follow nit-picky rules and thus promotes people being utter pscyhopaths, which makes little sense to go along with a bunch of other things in the setting.  But the main character Violet, who is forced by her general mother to undergo this training rather than be a scribe even though she is frail of body (with a possible weakened bone condition?), is very easy to root for and care about, and the writing style is very readable, such that it is kind of easy to get sucked in by the time you get through the book's first third (honestly, the beginning is rather rough).  So yeah, I can see why this book obtained a pretty large following, even if it's not nearly as good as many other books in the genre: it's fine, solid romantic fantasy.

More specifics after the jump: 

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Thief by G.S. Jennsen

 

The Thief is a stand alone self published Sci-Fi novel from prolific author G.S. Jennsen. The novel is the 20th novel in Jennsen's shared space opera Amaranthe Universe and it features as its protagonist (I think) a side character from earlier books, even if the story itself is entirely stand alone and can be read without foreknowledge. This is a book entered into this year's Self Published Science Fiction Competition (#SPSFC4) and is at least Jennsen's second book that she's entered into an edition of this competition: Jennsen had previously entered an earlier book, Exin Ex Machina, into the SPSFC2 competition I also Judged, and I found that book to be solid if unexciting sci-fi. So I was curious to see how this more recent book in the series would play out.

And well, The Thief....is not great. The story is centered around Eren Savitas, who is essentially an interstellar spy for a multi species alliance, and who stows aboard an alien spaceship to catch a thief, only to find himself trying to stop a mysterious weapon from destroying that whole previously unknown alien species. The story's setting relies upon some premises that defy belief and more importantly, rely upon Eren essentially being the perfect spy/agent who can almost never do wrong, with the exception of some moments during a really badly done and cliche romance subplot with Eren's superior. There are some attempts at dealing with the now classic theme of stopping the cycles of revenge and violence here that aren't bad, but mostly this book struggles to maintain any source of tension that anything will go wrong for our hero or to make his actions to save the day actually intriguing. The result is a novel that features very readable prose but a plot I just rolled my eyes repeatedly at.

More after the jump:

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

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on May 14, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

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

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

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

 

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

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

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Flight Risk by Cherie Priest

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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