Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Spoilery Discussion: A Killing Frost and Seanan Mcguire's October Daye Series





This post is for a spoilery discussion of the 14th novel in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series.  If you are interested in the series and want to speculate on what the events of this book mean?  This is for you.  If not, and you still want to read this series, I recommend not reading on beyond the jump.


If you accidentally found this page and want to read the actual spoiler free review of this book, go here.


You have been warned.


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SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire



A Killing Frost is the Fourteenth (14th!) novel in Seanan McGuire's "October Daye" series - her fae/urban fantasy series.  The October Daye series is one of the very few long running series I read - one of the other's is McGuire's other long-runner, InCryptid - and it's a series that I have spent way too much time thinking about - containing a ton of excellent characters, a well built long term story arc that still somehow manages to pull off surprises here and there, and yet always manages to contain satisfying individual stories within each single volume.  I binge read the first 10 novels when they were in the Hugo Packet for Best Series, and have since picked up each new volume as it came out, and this was really no different (I read this from midnight to 4AM on release night).

And A Killing Frost is a hell of an installment in terms of moving long term plot arcs forward, and a very solid installment in its own right, with the potential to lead into a major series-altering fifteen book (I could be totally wrong on that mind you).  It's not perfect and isn't quite one of my favorites - the book relies too much on a last act twist that I don't really feel is set up at all (although my mind could be changed by later developments) that feels like a deus ex machina - but it's definitely up there with some of the best books in the series.  Now I have to struggle to wait for book 15, sigh.

Note1:  This review will also touch upon Shine in Pearl, a novella featuring three of the characters in this novel that is included.

Note2: This will be as spoiler-free a review as possible (obviously events from prior books will be referenced).  I will post a spoilery thoughts post for this book as well, so if you're interested in my spoiler-filled thoughts, wait for that, and if you want to post in comments, do so at THAT post, which can be found HERE.


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Tuesday, September 29, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova


Incendiary is the first in a new Young Adult Fantasy trilogy by author Zoraida Córdova, with the setting inspired by Inquisitorial Spain.  Córdova is a prolific YA writer whose work I hadn't gotten to previously, but one I was hoping to get to at some point, so I requested this novel via inter-library loan once my library reopened.

And well, Incendiary is a really interesting YA fantasy novel, with a compelling protagonist....but also one that feels not quite sure what it wants to do with her.  The idea behind the protagonist is strong, a young woman from a magical people who are hunted by the king as lesser for their culture who is ostracized even further for her ability to take people's memories, and because of her childhood using that power to help the king hurt her people.  The result is a heroine who is wracked with guilt and trauma as she desperately tries to atone and do good, but the book's plot has a number of predictable plot twists and ends at a place where I just wanted more - and not because i was satisfied with what had taken place.  I'm intrigued enough to continue on with this trilogy, but I'm hoping that the 2nd installment will contain a more satisfying package to reward me (even when it almost certainly ends in a cliffhanger).


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Friday, September 25, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa


Night of the Dragon is the final book in Julie Kagawa's Japanese Myth-inspired YA Fantasy trilogy, Shadow of the Fox.  The series began with Shadow of the Fox (Reviewed Here) and continued with the second novel, Soul of the Sword (Reviewed Here).  I enjoyed the first novel as an audiobook and got an advance copy of the second book through Netgalley, so I'd always hoped to see how the trilogy would conclude.  And while I missed the initial release of this one, I managed to get a copy recently via inter-library loan, so finally I could finish it all up

And well, Night of the Dragon is a really strong and enjoyable conclusion, which I liked a lot and really felt rewarded me for sticking with this series.  It concludes the trilogy with a very satisfying ending and features a plot that combines the great sometimes dark character work from the 2nd novel with the encounters with many beings out of Japanese myth from the first novel.  The result nails most of what I had really enjoyed in this series, and makes this a trilogy well worth recommending for Middle Grade to YA readers looking for something Japanese inspired.

Spoilers for the first two books are inevitable.


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Thursday, September 24, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Vicious Spirits by Kat Cho

Vicious Spirits is the second part of a YA Fantasy duology by Kat Cho, with the first half being her 2019 novel Wicked Fox  (which I reviewed here).  It's not just a YA fantasy series, but a pair of books that basically feel like the idea of a teenage kdrama, only with Korean fantasy creatures existing in secret alongside the human teens in Seoul.  Wicked Fox dealt with a romantic coupling of Jihoon, a human teen living with his grandmother, and Miyoung a teenage Gumiho girl who would rather not drain human spirits as she needs in order to survive.  It was a twisty tale, with some pretty ridiculous but strong plot twists along the way, and it featured a few interesting side characters...whom the book wasn't quite able to feature as much as I wanted.

Vicious Spirits shifts the focus really to those side characters, particularly Jihoon's best friend Lee Somin and the Dobbaeki Junu.  The story still deals in good part with our original duo, but this is mostly a romance story between the two, with all the twists you'd expect and more - Junu's supernatural origins being a particular barrier.  It's very well done, if very predictable at times (far more than the first book), and it's far from subtle but hey, that's the style you should be expecting here.  And again, it's very fun and enjoyable as a result, so yeah still very much recommended.


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Wednesday, September 23, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Daughters of Nri by Reni K Amayo


Daughters of Nri is the first novel in a fantasy series by Nigerian-British author Reni K Amayo (also her debut novel).  It's a fantasy novel that takes place in a fantasy version of Africa, specifically a fantasy version of the Kingdom of Nri, with its setting heavily inspired by Igbo Mythology.  It's the first in a series, and this book is available on Kindle Unlimited, so I was very willing to give it a shot when someone brought it up on twitter.

And well, like a lot of works these days, Daughters of Nri has a really strong setup of its setting and some very interesting characters....but feels more like a prologue than the meat of an actual story.  I really liked the world created here - a world in which the gods have seemingly been slain for good reason - according to the man in power who did it of course - and a pair of twins separated at birth grow up and realize in very different ways that things need to change.  But events that the reader will be expecting for the entire book don't occur until the very end, and I mean the very end, which leaves the package feeling a bit unsatisfying.  Still, as a prologue, it's one that certainly kept me interested, and so I will try to be back for the sequel when it comes out.


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Tuesday, September 22, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Beyond Pain by Kit Rocha


Beyond Pain is the third novel in Kit Rocha's "Beyond" series, their 9 book (and several novella) long series of post-apocalyptic erotic romance novels.  Each book in the series has dealt with a new romantic grouping, with occasional check ins on other characters, and this book is no different from the others in that regard (shifting to masochist O'Kane lieutenant Bren and Six, the woman from Sector 3 who had previously been abused by that sector's late leader).  The first two books seemed to escalate in terms of the sex scenes and in terms of telling the overall series story as they went on, so I was curious if Rocha would be able to continue doing that here, especially as our focus shifted away from the leaders of the cast.

And Beyond Pain doesn't escalate the sexual content - it simply shifts it to a new form, as Six and Bren are very different in their backgrounds, interests, and needs from our prior protagonists.  Even more than any of our prior couples, both Bren and Six have had some serious trauma in their pasts that utterly messed them each up, and the book really explores well how that affects their abilities to trust - both each other and themselves in both sexual and non sexual contents.  Oh and there's still some really damn hot sex scenes littered throughout this book, I don't think the series will ever change there.  The ending does follow a bit of a repetitive pattern for the series, but otherwise, yeah this is another great addition to the series that make me want to continue with it at some point.


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