SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hexarchate Stories 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 25 2019 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way (if I'd hated the book, I just would not have reviewed it). 


Hexarchate Stories is an anthology of stories written by Yoon Ha Lee in his "Machineries of Empire" (Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, Revenant Gun) universe.  Most of the stories have been previously published, with the exception of three, with much of the previously published material being openly available on the web.  Most of these stories are tiny snippets of life in the universe of Lee's trilogy, featuring generally one of his two most prominent characters - Jedao or Cheris, and will be of little interest to anyone who isn't already very invested in the trilogy.  So if you're looking for an anthology full of stand-alone stories in this universe, you will be mostly disappointed.

There are five exceptions to this really, three of which were again already published and two of which are already award nominated (The Battle of Candle Arc and Extracurricular Activities), but the fourth is what fans of the trilogy will really be coming to this anthology for - a brand new novella named "Glass Cannon" that serves as a sequel to Revenant Gun.  It's a blast and will have any big fans of the trilogy eager for more (which I don't think is coming anytime soon, so don't get too excited!)

Spoilers for the trilogy after the Jump, so if you're still waiting on reading the books, don't read further:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater: https://t.co/LETOLDtdCb Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 8, 2019

Short Review (cont): The sequel to "The Raven Boys" follows up on its predecessor and adds a new focus to bad boy Ronan Lynch, as more magic flows in to Henrietta. Enjoyed this more than its predecessor - still has some issues, but generally very good characters. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 8, 2019

The Dream Thieves is the second book in Maggie Stiefvater "Raven Cycle", and the sequel to her YA urban fantasy novel, The Raven Boys (which I reviewed here).   As is not particularly unusual for novels that are the first in a series, that book was very much about setup, so I was expecting the Dream Thieves to have a lot more of substantive plot with the basics of the setup already done.  I'd rather liked the characters and world introduced in the first book, so I was hoping not to be disappointed here.

And for the most part I wasn't - The Dream Thieves takes The Raven Boys' setup and cliffhanger and builds a full satisfying plot upon it, focusing upon the one major protagonist who got the short-shaft in the last book: Roman Lynch, the "bad boy" of the quartet.  The book - and the series so far - isn't anything special, with some annoying points at times, but it's definitely well done, with some really interesting fantasy magic, moral choices by its characters, and surprising plot twists that made me happy I gave it another shot, and I will be continuing with the third book next month.

Note: I'm reading this whole series in audiobook format via my Hoopla Library.  The reader does some impressive accent work with the characters, making it very clear who is speaking at any given point, and it works without sounding too cartoonish.  Worth a listen in this format.  Still, if I misspell any of the names, it's since I'm not reading this in print.    

More after the jump:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Speaker by Traci Chee

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Speaker by Traci Chee: https://t.co/mzOh9HeRCS Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 7, 2019

Short Review (cont): The sequel to The Reader expands the setting and character development in much appreciated ways, as our main duo try to find a way in their world where literacy has been forgotten and all has been foretold by a prophetic book. Really good sequel. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 7, 2019

The Speaker is the second book in Traci Chee's Young Adult fantasy trilogy which began with "The Reader" (Review Here).  That book, which began the series featuring a fantasy world in which literacy and the written word was forgotten by all but a secretive few - and knowledge/usage of writing conveyed magical power - had been a rather strong introduction to the setting with interesting characters, but I'd felt at the time that it took far too long to explain what was going on, with understanding only coming near the very end.  It left me wanting more, but not particularly satisfied with the first book, so I was hoping this second book would make better use of the setup to a more satisfying end - even if it was only the middle book of a trilogy.

The good news is that it does exactly that - now that the world of this trilogy has been setup and the central conflict established, The Speaker guides its characters in interesting directions as they - both the protagonists and antagonists - attempt to figure out where to go from here.  Along the way the book introduces a few new interesting characters to go along with the excellent existing set, and develops everyone further, with the book taking a few interesting and surprising turns along the way.  I should note that this series definitely gets pretty dark in this book - it may be a YA series that's closer to middle-grade (in that it won't ever have explicit sex scenes), but it's not afraid to inflict pain of both the physical and psychological kind upon its characters.  The result is extremely satisfying and I'm definitely getting to the trilogy's finale quicker than I did this second novel.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Once & Future by A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy: https://t.co/luepeELz4s Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 6, 2019

Short Review (cont): A Gender-flipped, Queer, SciFi retelling of the King Arthur story is so much more fun than it has any right to be, in both its heroine Ari and hero young reverse-aging Merlin. Really enjoyed this one, and recommended. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 6, 2019

Once & Future is a YA gender-flipped* and queer version of the King Arthur story in a Sci-Fi world co-written by authors A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy.  I've actually read a YA book from A. R. Capetta, "The Brilliant Death" (Review Here), which I really really liked (it was on my Hugo Ballot for the YA award) - a really really well done queer fantasy tale featuring magic and two non-binary protagonists.  So I was excited to hear about this novel coming out, even if the King Arthur stories aren't really of much interest to me.

*Is a story really gender-flipped if the original gendered version of the story in question actually happened as part of the story's background?  If not, then I guess this doesn't qualify.  But you get the point from my usage of the word, so if you have any objections, deal with it.  

And to my pleasure, Once & Future mostly justifies my excitement.  It's not a particularly deep story, but it's a fun queer gender-flipped (our Arthur is a girl, our main romances are F-F and M-M, with genderfluid and asexual characters in the main cast) take on King Arthur in an interesting science fiction setting with some very solid characters to follow, particularly in its leads.  And while the story does get a bit silly at points, the book is totally self-aware of this problem and makes up for it with genuinely interesting and surprising story choices.

More after the Jump:

The Importance of Character - Why Avenger: Endgame succeeds where Avengers Infinity War failed

This post is not even going to try to avoid spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.  If you haven't seen it, don't read any further.  Everything's going below the jump here for that reason.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson: https://t.co/HIHKaF1P2T Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) May 2, 2019

Short Review(cont): The sequel to Rosewater shifts the focus to a number of characters as the alien takeover of Earth, centered in Nigeria, hits an alien roadblock...just in time for human power struggles to throw Rosewater into chaos. Still fascinating but kind of a mess (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) May 2, 2019

Tade Thompson's "Rosewater" is one of my favorite books I've read over the past few years, with it being one of the few books I've given a perfect score (10 out of 10).  A non-linear story of aliens and those affected by them set in Nigeria, it was one of the more original books I've read since I got back into the genre, with a pretty impressive if very cynical take on the genre.

This is going to sound hipster-ish, but I actually read Rosewater back when it was originally published in 2016 with a small publisher.  So I was excited to see the book was due to be rereleased in 2018 by Orbit (a large publisher in the genre) as the first part in a newly announced trilogy, with the second book in the series (this one) to be released in March of 2019 and the finale to be released in October 2019.  Of course that also meant that the expectations I had for this book were sky high.

The Rosewater Insurrection....doesn't quite meet those expectations.  The world itself remains fascinating, with a wide variety of characters of human and non-human natures who are so very different from nearly everything else I've read.  But part of this book seems clearly written towards being the first part of a two part conclusion to the trilogy, even if the book does end on a complete note.  And more of an issue for me is that the book, while still maintaining its deeply cynical outlook on humanity, seems to chicken out in the end of a major plot point that was based in that cynicism.  It's still a very solid book and I'm looking forward to the conclusion....but it's not where I'd hoped it'd be, and it's definitely a bit of a mess.

NOTE:  Spoilers for the original "Rosewater" are unlabeled below.  You cannot read this book without reading Rosewater first, and as such, I'm not even going to try and get around spoilers for the first book in this review, as otherwise there'd be no other way to talk about this book.  

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Price of Ransom by Kate Elliott

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Price of Ransom by Kate Elliott/Alis A. Rasmussen: https://t.co/phrEz6mzn1 Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— (4-2)(6-3) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 1, 2019

Short Review (cont): In the conclusion of The Highroad Trilogy, Lily and her allies discover the strangeness of humanity's original part of the galaxy, and look for a place for themselves. A fitting conclusion to this trilogy of characters with weird morals and open plots. (2/3)

— (4-2)(6-3) Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 1, 2019

The Price of Ransom is the final book in Kate Elliott's* Highroad Trilogy, which began with her "A Passage of Stars" (see my review here) and continued with "Revolution's Shore" (see my review here).  This trilogy is Elliott's earliest series, and it has certainly included more than a few ideas that would later pop up in her other works.  More importantly, it's easily the weirdest series Elliott has written (although I still haven't read the Crown of Stars series so that could surpass this I guess), with crazy ideas and far out characters up the wazoo.  The result has been an unpredictable series through 2 books, but one with some excellent characters in the main cast, and I was really looking forward to seeing how this book concluded the trilogy.

*As noted previously, this trilogy was initially published under Elliott's real name, Alis A. Rasmussen, but the re-released ebook editions I read on the Hoopla Library use the "Kate Elliott" pen name instead, so I'm going with that for this review.   

The Price of Ransom certainly does not lower the craziness of this series and expands its focus on the members of the main cast, to a conclusion that is somewhat satisfying, if not as much as I'd have hoped.  If you were hoping to see the antagonists of the last book get their comeuppance, or even to have loose ends from the first two books tied up, The Price of Ransom will not be what you were looking for.  But the book does resolve the main character arcs in interesting and unpredictable ways, and is certainly worth your time.