SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: The Ascent to Godhood by JY Yang

JY Yang's Tensorate novella series is one of the more interesting series of novellas to come out in the past two years.  The series has always tried to maintain a tradition of having each book be stand-alone and yet at the same time fit into a longer continuity, allowing a reader to pick up any entry into the series in any order.  It's also been a series unafraid to explore different tones and styles, even as each entry takes place in the same Asian-inspired queer-friendly fantasy world.  I think I enjoyed the third of these novellas (The Descent of Monsters - review here) the most, but they've all been at least solid, so naturally I was always bound to pick up this 4th novella.

The result is probably my least favorite of the series, as it feels the most generic of them all - a flashback to the rise of the Protector, the greater antagonist of the series so far, from the perspective of her one-time romantic partner and later political opponent.  It's also incredibly short, and left me feeling "That's it?" when it was completed.  More on this after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Hound of Justice by Claire O'Dell

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Hound of Justice by Claire O'Dell: https://t.co/eMhTzn5eg6 Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

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

Short Review (cont): The second in this series focusing upon a gender & race-flipped Holmes and Watson - really, Watson - in a dystopian future USA is still great as Watson struggles to use her prosthetic arm for surgery...and for when Holmes gets into trouble. So good. (2/3)

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

The Hound of Justice is the second book in Claire O'Dell's "The Janet Watson Chronicles", after her prior work, A Study in Honor (Reviewed here).  In case you couldn't tell from the series name, the series is indeed a take on the Sherlock Holmes and Watson stories, but it's a very different take than the usual, and not just in its more obvious changes to the setting: this is a dystopian near-future SciFi gender and race-flipped take on Holmes and Watson in a US torn apart by racial and homophobic backlash to socially liberal policies to the point of civil war.  I really liked the first book's alternate take on Watson and Holmes, with Watson more decisively the main character than Holmes in this incarnation, and was excited to see how the sequel would follow up.

And the result is still pretty strong.  O'Dell's Janet Watson is an excellent heroine and drives the story as before, with her emotions and drives, personal and political, being really well done.  The plot takes some surprising turns along with some predictable ones as it explores this all too real dystopian SF setting, and it wraps up with a very satisfying ending.  So yeah, this series is still recommended, and I hope to see more in the future from it.

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell

Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell:

Witches of Lychford is the first in a series of novellas by British author, Paul Cornell.  Cornell is a well known and accomplished writer, but I've actually read very little of his work (Only his dark horror novel, Chalk).  So when I noted that the first three novellas in this series were available as hoopla audiobooks, I figured I'd give it a shot.  The result was very enjoyable and makes me definitely interested in going forward with the rest of this series.

Quick Note: I listened to this as an audiobook and the reader is pretty good.  It's only a little more than 3 hours long, so it didn't take me longer than two days to finish, which is nice for a change of pace.

More after the Jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone:

I have a simple formula for reviewing novellas due to their length: One-Two Paragraphs of Introduction before the jump in a post, followed by a single plot summary paragraph and then one, or at most two, paragraph of analysis and critical review.  This works great for most novellas, which have enough substance for single posts but not enough to go too in depth in without spoiling, and usually isn't very hard to pull off: I can usually review a novella in like a third of the time i review a novel.

I mention all of this because I'm going to have an incredibly hard time sticking to this formula and not spending a ton of paragraphs GUSHING over how great This is How You Lose the Time War is.   This novella's two authors couldn't possibly be more regarded in my eyes from their prior work: Gladstone is one of my favorite authors and his latest novel (Empress of Forever) was incredible, honestly, and while I haven't read much of El-Mohtar's short fiction, what I have read has been damn good (and worthy of a Hugo a few years back).  And honestly?  This might top all of their previous work, in all its glory: a time-traveling epistolary romance between agents of very different worlds, that is just so so damn good.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed: https://t.co/8xv3AF4Ati Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) August 22, 2019

Short Review (cont): A really fascinatingly good Star Wars novel featuring an oddball squadron cobbled together from survivers/leftovers of the crimes of an elite Imperial unit dealing with the issues of trauma and defection in a war where major atrocities take place. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) August 22, 2019

When it came to the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, there were two series that were considered major stand-outs, with huge readerships even outside the general Star Wars fandom.  The first was the Thrawn Trilogy, so it was unsurprising to see the new Disney Star Wars Canon restore Thrawn to continuity for newer stories.  The second was the X-Wing series written by Michael J Stackpole (6 books) and Aaron Allston (5 books), which focused on telling stories away not on the main Star Wars characters (though they did show up) but upon members of starfighter squadrons in the fight between the New Republic and the Empire.  The books alternated between comedy and action (the Allston books were tremendous comedies) with great characters (guess where my internet handle comes from) and were just tremendous fun throughout, which is why they were so near universally beloved.

All of this is to say that Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron, being surprisingly the first* starfighter-oriented series in the new Star Wars Canon, has a high standard to live up to just by its title.  This is only made even worse by the book's most generic description, which is "a squadron of misfit pilots with baggage are gathered together by an intelligence officer for a crucial mission," which sounds an awful lot like the description of the Allston X-Wing books (the Wraith Squadron trilogy). 

*It's possible there was another such adult novel and I missed it, but it looks like the only thing close is a Middle-Grade novel published in the lead up to The Last Jedi.  

And yet, by taking a very very different approach to the material, Alphabet Squadron succeeds at meeting the bar, and is perhaps my favorite new canon Star Wars book to date.  Let's be clear: Alphabet Squadron differs from its X-Wing predecessors by - a few moments aside - not being a book about fun and/or action.  If anything, its piloting scenes are the book's weakest element.  But the book explores elements of the Star Wars universe - such as those of defectors, those traumatized by the war, as well as the atrocities committed by the Empire and others - in new and interesting ways to form a really fascinating if dark entry in the Star Wars universe.  This is the first of a new trilogy (with a companion comic book series) and I'll definitely be back for the sequels.

SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: The Gallows Black by Sam Sykes

The Gallows Black by Sam Sykes

The Gallows Black is a prequel story to Sam Sykes' novel, Seven Blades in Black, essentially featuring the first meeting of series protagonist Sal the Cacophany and her romantic interest, the Freemaker (mad scientist) Liette.  I liked but didn't love Seven Blades in Black (review here), but I enjoyed its grimdark world and most of its asshole protagonist, so I was certainly willing to read another story with this world and these characters.  And the result is fine, like a cut flashback from the novel - inessential but enjoyable for anyone who enjoyed the original novel but not likely to do anything for anyone else.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Shadowblade by Anna Kashina

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Shadowblade by Anna Kashina: https://t.co/upgkDQTA7W Short Review: 2 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) August 20, 2019

Short Review (cont): A badly overwritten plot filled with characters who are awfully written, acting inconsistently and often stupidly for the sake of the plot, and with massive pacing problems....Shadowblade is not worth your time. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) August 20, 2019

The descriptors "Good" or "Bad" are kind of hard to use for any kind of book - not only is what someone considers to be good or bad a matter of taste, but some books acknowledged to be "bad" or, let's say "trashy," can be fun to read and still enjoyable while other books acknowledged to be "good" can be a bore or just painful to read.  Some of my favorite books I've read this year would be considered to be "trashy" for instance, but they're pretty fun at the same time.

I use this preamble because Shadowblade isn't fun, it's just dumbfoundingly stupid and bad for most of its story.  The story is badly badly overwritten - point of view (and sometimes non point of view) characters can't help but give the readers their every thought and opinion in the most long-winded way possible, with no subtlety in motivations and actions at all, and it gets annoying fairly quickly.  Even worse, the story relies upon the characters - one of whom's primary attribute is being smart - having constant moments of stupidity which made me want to beat my head against a wall.  Add to that some really poorly written action scenes (and even the sex scenes) and well, I wouldn't really recommend Shadowblade to anyone.

Note: I read this as an audiobook, and the reader is merely fine, with the accents being a little annoying but not much.  But if I misspell any names in this review, that's why.