Thursday, December 26, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black




The Queen of Nothing is the conclusion of Holly Black's YA Fae Fantasy trilogy, The Folk of the Air, which began in 2018's The Cruel Prince (which I reviewed HERE) and was continued in January's The Wicked King (Reviewed Here).  I'm a large fan of Fae Fantasy works, and this trilogy has definitely been up there with the best of them, featuring a mortal teenage girl brought into Faerie in her childhood, seeking to establish a place for herself in this land - and scheming and plotting throughout, facing the most deadly of forces, to try and pull it off.....in spite of her own feelings and the opposition of some of those to whom she was once close.  It's a dark YA tale for sure, and the twists and turns throughout the first two novels were tremendous, to go along with their tremendous lead character.

I have mixed feelings about The Queen of Nothing, because while on one hand it's a really great conclusion for the trilogy's characters, it (especially in its second half) feels like it loses some of the fun scheming and plotting that filled large parts of the first two books.  Instead, the trilogy concludes with what is essentially a dark fairy tale, as everything comes to roost, and it's made even more notable by the fact that this book is the shortest of the trilogy.  That said, this book is pretty good at being a dark fairy tale, with an ending that is really great and I loved for the characters involved.  So if you enjoyed the first two novels, you'll really enjoy this one, although be ready for a little switch of how things go down.

Note: Spoilers for the first two books are impossible to avoid in the below review, so you have been warned:

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Wednesday, December 25, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer




Dead Astronauts is the latest novel from SF/F author Jeff VanderMeer, most well known for Annhilation (and the rest of the Southern Reach trilogy).  VanderMeer is known for writing "Weird SciFi", a genre that is hard to explain except as what it sounds like - the stories deal with settings and beings that are truly weird and out there, looking seemingly nothing like our real world.  VanderMeer often also includes ecological/environmental ideas in his books - the ideas of how humans are affecting the planet are pretty self-evident in even his most surreal fiction.

And while anyone who's read any of him should be expecting more of all of the above, Dead Astronauts takes all of the above to a new level.  Ostensibly set in the same world as his last novel, Borne, Dead Astronauts doesn't really have an overlying plot, a hero, or even a protagonist, as the book features a number of beings - most of which non-human - in various states of disarray as the destruction of their world, through the evil actions of greedy selfish humans of the entity known as the Company, changes everything about them.  The book feints like it will have a plot centered around the eponymous "astronauts" and then...doesn't.  It's easily the most confusing novel I've ever read, filled with thoughts and screeds, page long repetitions, and multiple viewpoint characters in states of insanity.  Some may call this brilliant....and others may call it a crazy pile of babble, and I can't really disagree with either assessment.

Note: While I mention above that this book shares a world with Borne (as well as Borne's spinoff novella, A Strange Bird), this book is entirely stand-alone, and events in Borne basically never come up, although certain parts of the narrative may very much be alluding to the events in Borne.

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Monday, December 23, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender



Queen of the Conquered is the debut novel by author Kacen Callender, and it's a hell of a debut.  I'd heard glowing things about this book months before it came out, so I'd been ready to reserve it the moment it popped up in my library, but man....if anything they understated how good it is.  Which is not to say that this is a light or "fun" book in any way - this is a tough book to read, but powerful and tremendously effective.

For Queen of the Conquered is a fantasy inspired by a number of real historical places and events - the place being the US Virgin Islands and the events being the slavery and oppression of the Islanders by foreigners, a few of which were POC themselves.  Our protagonist is essentially one such person, a black woman whose family was part of the ruling class despite its island heritage, and who tries to convince herself that she is a heroine in her quest for vengeance despite letting her privilege keep her from truly acting to try and help those who were suffering.  It's the rare story where you will not find yourself rooting for the protagonist, and yet it works and remains compelling from beginning to end.

Note:  As noted above, this is a book by a Person of Color inspired by real life slavery and oppression in a real part of the world, and dealing with related themes.  I'm not a POC - I'm Jewish so not always considered "White" by many racists in various contexts, but in the context of evaluating this book, I can only use my own knowledge and experiences which are obviously very different.  So while I've seen at least one POC on social media complain about this book's representation, and I've seen a few POC reviewers give glowing reviews to this same book, I can't really make any claim either way.  Just a disclaimer I think is necessary.

Trigger Warning: Rape and Torture - Slavery is a major part of this book, and slaves are beaten and treated horribly...and sometimes forced to have sex with masters, even if the forcing is through compelling power and not through physical force.  It's a justified part of this book, but it's not an easy read as a result, so be warned.

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Sunday, December 22, 2019

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Spoiler Filled Review




And so, for now, the main Star Wars saga (the Skywalker Saga, if you will) has come to an end.  I've spent the past three weeks rewatching every film in the saga - and threw in Rogue One as well, just for completeness - in preparation for this film.  And as a huge fan of the old Star Wars EU canon - which these movies have replaced - well...it's hard to think of a film I should have been looking forward to more in my life.  And yet, it's also a film that I've dreaded for a bit, after JJ Abrams was announced to be taking over Episode 9 and inklings started to creep out that the movie would be reversing course on what Rian Johnson did with The Last Jedi.

For The Last Jedi was a fascinating Star Wars movie that tried to do some of the more interesting things ever done with the series, and ended in a way which suggested that the Good Guys would have to regroup after some years, with a new batch of supporting heroes, but that hope was still alive against a bad guy in Kylo Ren who felt more like a modern bad guy than anyone in prior Star Wars history (the MRA-like atmosphere Ren has posed for Eps 7-8 just has always felt appropriate).  JJ Abrams - whose work in other peoples' sandboxes (See Star Trek as well) has always relied upon focusing heavily on what came before instead of creating something new - is not a director I'd expect to carry forward what Johnson started.  And......he definitely did not. 

Note: this post will include spoilers.  So if you haven't seen the movie and want to remain unspoiled, stop reading NOW.  This is your only warning:


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Thursday, December 19, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner




Unnatural Magic is the debut novel from author C.M. Waggoner.  It's a fantasy novel featuring some familiar elements - a mage school that discriminates based upon class, tension between humans and non-humans and the halfbloods caught in between, but spins these more common tropes in some different ways.  It's also got some aspects of mystery and romance in there as well - with the resultant tone overall being solid and light despite the dark undertones of some of the issues and topics at the heart of this novel (such as, you know, murders).

Some of these aspects work better than others, but overall Unnatural Magic is a pretty solid and enjoyable novel.  Unfortunately, the book tries to carry on two separate plotlines at once and one (the romance one) is far better than the other, with the plotlines joining only in the very last act - to finish off a mystery that is very very obvious.  It's a book that probably could've used 50 more pages devoted to the second plotline to make it not feel abandoned and lesser at times, but the end result is still solid and enjoyable, and worth your time.


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Wednesday, December 18, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater




Call Down the Hawk is the first novel in Maggi Stiefvater's new trilogy, the Dreamer Trilogy, which is essentially a sequel to her YA Raven Cycle.  I really loved The Raven Cycle, which over four books that only got better and better with each installment told a story of love and dreams.....oh and also Magic, Quests for Welsh Kings, Demons, Psychics, and more.  Most importantly, it was a story of great characters, from our main quartet to the minor characters, who you just couldn't help loving over the course of the story as things played out.  Call Down the Hawk begins a new story centered around one member of that quartet, Ronan Lynch, who possesses the magical power to bring things out of his dreams.

I should point out that I'm not sure how Call Down the Hawk would play for someone who hadn't read The Raven Cycle first, but as someone who has, it doesn't disappoint.  Both our returning characters (Ronan and his family, Adam in small cameos) remain great, and the new characters and concepts are excellent, bringing forth a plot that remains compelling from beginning to end.  That said, the one key difference between this book and the prior ones is that those books were always at least partially stand-alone, whereas the ending of this novel will in no way be satisfying to a reader.  But it certainly has me excited for more to come.

Note: Some minor spoilers for The Raven Cycle follow - not really any that would affect your enjoyment of that series, but still.  

 Note2:  I read this as an audiobook, so some of the names and concepts may be misspelled below.  But the audiobook reader remains the same as in the Cycle and he is still excellent, so I recommend this book in that format.  
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Tuesday, December 17, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire



Full Disclosure:  This work was read as an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) via my winning of a random giveaway thrown by the book's publisher in advance of the Book's scheduled February 25, 2020 release date.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply not review the book.

 Imaginary Numbers is the Ninth book in Seanan McGuire's urban fantasy series, InCryptid, and the beginning of a fourth arc* in the series.  InCryptid is one of my favorite ongoing series out there, with the right mix of humor, drama, and great characters to go with a very fun urban fantasy setting, featuring a family (the Price family) trying to preserve the lives of Cryptids (creatures and beings who should not exist) in North America and beyond.  When I found on my doorstep a surprise ARC of this novel, I couldn't resist starting and finishing it within 24 hours....despite having a glut of other library books to read including one book I was already 60% of the way through!

*Counting arcs solely by the novels.  There are several other story arcs which have been told over the course of McGuire's shorter fiction in this series, which are all great, but I'm not counting for this number.  

 Impossible Numbers does not disappoint, being easily the most family focused novel of the series but switching the main focus to one of our non-human protagonists, Sarah Zellaby, last seen in books 1-3.  It doesn't quite have as much humor as some of the other books, but it has a little bit, features probably the largest number of returning characters of any new-arc book in major roles, and more importantly all of the characters are strong and the plot takes some teased previous developments and expands them greatly.  It is most definitely NOT a book to start this series with, although you could try, but it's a pretty great addition...with a killer cliffhanger.

Note: This book also includes a bonus novella which essentially serves as an extra epilogue to the last arc in the series (Antimony's arc over books 6-8), which I enjoyed but will do nothing for those not invested in the series.  That's all I'll be saying about that in this review.

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