SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: River of No Return by Annie Bellet

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: River of No Return by Annie Bellet: https://t.co/qoWb847qc1 Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) January 9, 2019

Short Review (cont): The Ninth book in Bellet's Twenty-Sided Sorceress series of short urban fantasy novels marches toward the series' conclusion, setting up plot threads for the finale while still telling a fun solid story. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) January 9, 2019

River of No Return is the ninth book, out of what will eventually be ten, in Annie Bellet's urban fantasy "The Twenty-Sided Sorceress" series.  This series of short novels is one that I've enjoyed a great deal over the past two years, and this book and its successor (scheduled to be out next week, but there's been so much schedule slippage in this series I'm not holding my breath) are meant to be the series' ultimate conclusion.  As you can imagine from the series name, this is a geek-friendly urban fantasy series in which our heroine is inspired by DnD spells and other pop culture to work her magic, as she tries to protect herself and her friends from the evil forces (particularly her ex-boyfriend) who seek to take advantage of her.

River of No Return is a return to the usual size of these books, which are firmly in the "Long Novella/Really Short Novel" range, after a longer-than-usual Book 8, and it's a solid addition to the series.  We're clearly in wrap-up mode, as the book for the first time since dealing with the series' original big-bad sets up an antagonist whose threat is still left for another book to resolve, but the book is still enjoyable and satisfying in resolution.  I look forward to the conclusion.

Note: Spoilers for Books 1-8 are inevitable.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The River Where Blood is Born by Sandra Jackson-Opoku

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The River Where Blood is Born by Sandra Jackson-Opoku https://t.co/biNSpOqxKA Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) January 8, 2019

Short Review (cont): A fascinating book telling the stories of 9 Black Women, all of different generations and branches of a family started from a woman enslaved and taken from Africa, and of the calling of one of them eventually back to the land from which they came. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) January 8, 2019

The River Where Blood is Born is a book whose claim to being fantasy is largely based upon its framing device - the story is told from the perspectives of two divinities and occasionally commentated on by the dead spirits of some of the characters as a kind of greek chorus.  Other than that, it's a story mainly of Nine Black Women, all the descendants (over several generations and of various branches) of a single African Woman, as they live out their very different lives far away from the land they were originally from.  So if you're looking for a fantasy story, you're not really gonna find it here.

What you will find here however is a really fascinating book well worth your time.  It's certainly not a light book - as you might imagine when the first woman in the family is taken from Africa on a slave ship and has her tongue cut out - but it is absolutely compelling as it jumps from one character's story to another.  The book is not told chronologically - we jump back and forth between generations, but there is a method to the madness and the connections between characters become revealed as we go on and as the women come closer and closer to fulfilling their destiny of returning to the place they came from.  This is going to be a hard book for me to review coherently, but it is well worth your time.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White: https://t.co/iWNn4VWMDo Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) January 5, 2019

Short Review (cont): The First in the new Space Opera trilogy features a universe where most people have magic, and a race-car driver and con artist join a crew of misfits in searching for a lost warship and a secret that could alter the universe. Really good at times. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) January 5, 2019

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe is an odd book to categorize.  It's a space opera story, but magic is a major plot element so there are fantastical elements in there as well.  A number of reviewers, not to mention a blurb on the back, advertise it as being like "Firefly" which is a natural comparison, but the book lacks the humored tone between crew-mates that existed on board that show's Serenity.

However you categorize it, A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe is certainly an interesting book that I liked, but didn't quite love.  The two main characters are a bit rough, but enjoyable in their own ways, and the universe is quite vividly imagined - although it's perhaps maybe a bit too vague on some of the details that become important to the story, leaving me a little confused at times.  Still, with the main cast assembled and the world set up, I am looking forward to book 2, which is already out and I already have borrowed from my e-library.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Midnight Riot/Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Midnight Riot (aka Rivers of London) by Ben Aaronovitch https://t.co/Ij7Mlgl9gy Short Review: 6 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) January 3, 2019

Short Review (cont): The 1st in this Urban fantasy series features rookie constable Peter Grant learning magic and trying to stop supernatural forces - River Nymphs, Spirits of Chaos - from tearing apart London. Fun World but I didn't particularly like the lead character (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) January 3, 2019

Midnight Riot (originally published in the UK as Rivers of London) is the first in Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London" or "Peter Grant" series of urban fantasy novels, featuring Constable Peter Grant as an apprentice wizard/cop in modern day London.  The series was one of the first ones nominated for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Series, and as such it's been on my list of books to read for a while - and when the newest in the series got hyped about by authors I follow, I figured now as a good time.

Unfortunately, I didn't love the first book.  Some of that may have been due to the audiobook reader (see below), but while the worldbuilding was really well done and intriguing, I kinda didn't like the lead character and narrator - I kept yelling at him while listening in the car for not doing things I thought of as obvious and he was kind of an ass.  I may take a look at the second book to see if it gets better since I know so many people love the series, but the result was a bit of a miss for me.


Note:  I read this as an Audiobook, and I STRONGLY recommend not reading the book in that format.  The audiobook reader rushes through the book by seeming to try to read full sentences in a single breath and then taking huge notable gasps when he inevitably runs out of breath every five seconds.  This often results in awkward pauses in the middle of paragraphs, in addition to just being distracting to hear the reader breathing in every few seconds.  You would be better off reading this book in print/ebook than audiobook and if I go forward with the series, that's how I will.

2018 Year in Review - SciFi/Fantasy Reading, Part 3: My Least Favorite Books and Books I Just Could Not Finish

Now it's time for the flipside of the last post in this series: time to talk about the books that I did NOT enjoy, as well as the books that I started and could not finish, and some common themes among these books that led to these feelings.  As should be evident, these are my personal opinions - it's certainly possible others will disagree - One of these books earned a Hugo Nomination, so obviously people liked it!  Also, my comments are solely about the works involved, not the authors themselves.  But if you want to know which books I would suggest avoiding going forward, read on:

2018 Year in Review - SciFi/Fantasy Reading, Part 2: My Favorite Books and Novellas

Having read 182 books this year, there were obviously a few books I really liked more than others, which I want to highlight.  As with 2017, I did a really good job at curating my list of books to read, with 110 of the 182 books receiving a grade of 8 (on a 10 point scale) or better from me.  For those curious my ten point grades tend to work something like the following:

7 stars - A solid book, but not a great one that I'd really recommend to anyone, but certainly one I'd consider a sequel to.
7.5 stars - A solid book that verges upon being being recommendable to others, with just a few things holding it back.
8 stars - A good book I would definitely recommend to others, based upon what others are looking for.  Will definitely be back for a sequel.
8.5 stars - A good book verging on great, definitely recommending to others.
9 stars - A great book that I will recommend to pretty much everyone unless there are specific aspects that other readers might dislike and want to avoid.
9.5 stars - An almost must-read that I'll recommend to practically everyone, although the book still has a fault here or there that might hold it back from absolutely effusive praise.
10 stars - An absolute must-read I will recommend to everyone, a book that is utterly brilliant.

So that's 110 books that I would definitely be recommending with an 8 or better, 43 books that I considered great and really really worth recommending with a 9 or better, and 3 books that I gave the perfect ten out of ten grades.  That's a lot of books that I really would recommend.  So let's get into what those books were:

2018 Year in Review - SciFi/Fantasy Reading, Part 1: Basic Summary

This is the second year I've mainly run this blog as a book review site, and it's been a long and productive one.  As with last year, I'll be doing a recap in this first week of 2019 of the books I read and reviewed in 2018, with the recap split into three parts:

Part 1, which you're reading at this very moment, features a summary of what I've read and some basic facts.  Part 2, which will come out tonight, will go over some of my favorite novels from this year.  Part 3, coming out after that, will go over briefly my least favorite works - the novels I completed and didn't like and the ones that I began but failed to complete.  The good news is that the # of books I didn't like was more or less equal to last year...except that I read over 30 more books in total!  So 2018 was pretty damn good.

More in depth basic summary information of what I read after the jump: