Tuesday, June 11, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Afterward by E.K Johnston




The Afterward is a book with an interesting concept (albeit not a new one) - what happens to the heroes after their big quest is done?  More interestingly, The Afterward asks that question not about the big star heroes of an epic fantasy quest, but about the lesser members of the party, the ones whose obligations can't simply be cured by being heroes.  It's also a story that is at its core a fantasy romance, telling the story of two specific members of a successful heroic party, as they deal with the aftermath - or to us the title, "The Afterward" - of their adventure.

And really for the most part, it works quite well.  The two main protagonists are lovely and their romance is really well done, and the story bounces back and forth between timelines in a way that always kept it flowing at a good pace, with some excellent dialogue along the way.  And it ends in a way that put a smile on my face.  Still, certain aspects of the plot resolve themselves a bit too easily for my taste, preventing this book from really joining the ranks of my favorites.

More specifics after the jump:


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Monday, June 10, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa



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 18 2019 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

 Soul of the Sword is the sequel to Julie Kagawa's "Shadow of the Fox" (Reviewed here) and the second book in this Japanese-myth-inspired fantasy trilogy.  I liked but didn't love Shadow of the Fox - the story took a lot of predictable beats and never broke out into truly interesting directions, but had some excellent characters and the adventures right out of Japanese myth were always fun.  Still, the first book left off at a point that promised an interesting change of directions, so I requested this book off Netgalley when I saw it show up.

And Soul of the Sword both delivers on that promise and at the same time....doesn't.  Whereas Shadow of the Fox presented a series of different adventures in this Japanese mythology focused world, this book is more focused upon its end goal and feels a lot smaller as a result.  On the other hand, the characters remain excellent, and the plot works well to come to an ultimate conclusion that again is satisfying and unlike in the first book, is a little more surprising.

Warning: Spoilers for Shadow of the Fox are inevitable after the Jump.


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Friday, June 7, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater




The Raven King is the final book* in Maggie Stiefvater's "The Raven Cycle," concluding the series that began with The Raven Boys.  I've devoured this series, finishing the first three books over the last month and a half, as the characters and setting have been nearly impossible for me to resist.  Still, while each book has had a somewhat satisfying ending (well, book 2 and 3 more than the first one), the cycle has been plotting a long-term plot arc since the beginning, and with this book it clearly is coming to roost.  So how well this book executes the resolution of the hanging plot threads not only promised to color my reaction to this book,but the entire series.

*A new trilogy in this same universe, focused upon Ronan, is coming later this year but that will essentially be starting a new story even if featuring some of the same characters/setting.

Fortunately, The Raven King does not disappoint.  The relationships the series has been building finally blossom into full bloom, the issues involving Glendower, the Leyline, Cabeswater, Ronan, and Gansey's death sentence are resolved in really well done and often surprising ways, and overall the book and series ends in an incredibly satisfying fashion. I went into this series with a little apprehension but after The Raven King, I'm really happy I made the commitment as these wonderful characters were well worth my time.

Note: For obvious reasons, spoilers for the first three books are inevitable in the review below, so you have been warned.

Note 2: I read this book as an audiobook, as with the rest of the series, so if I misspell any names, that's why.  Still, the audiobook reader is one of the better ones I've listened to so I recommend the book in that format.

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Thursday, June 6, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Aftershocks by Marko Kloos



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 July 1 2019 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

 Aftershocks is the first in a new science fiction series by author Marko Kloos, who's mainly known for his Military Science Fiction series, Frontlines.  I'm not a big fan of MilSci, but I've greatly enjoyed the Frontlines series, so I was excited to see Kloos branching out into different genres.  Aftershocks is the first of that new series (titled "The Palladium Wars"), and while there are MilSci elements involved, the book is for the most part firmly in the Space Opera category.*  It's also a more epic in scope than his Frontlines series - which is a bit more of a series about a single character despite the grander plot - and I was excited to see how Kloos would handle the shift.

 *or maybe, "Epic Science Fiction?" since a good deal of it takes place on planets?  Whatever, you get the point.*

 And well, the answer is of course: pretty well, as Kloos is still a great writer of characters, to say nothing of interesting settings and action scenes, but Aftershocks still felt at the end like a massive missed opportunity.  The reason is that the book feels really incomplete: the book is under 300 pages long and ends before any of the main characters' story arcs has any sort of resolution whatsoever, leaving me just frustrated at being given nothing satisfying to go along with the book's loose ends.  There aren't really any dramatic cliffhanger endings either, and so it all just feels like I read two thirds of a book, without anything to make it feel like what was there was worth my time.

More after the Jump:

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Wednesday, June 5, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman




The Masked City is the second book in Genevieve Cogman's "Invisible Library" series, which began naturally with "The Invisible Library" (Review Here).  I enjoyed that first book quite a bit - it wasn't anything clearly special but it was a lot of fun as a multiverse-based SF/F book featuring Fae, Dragons, a Sherlock Holmes-esque character, and a heroine who is adventurous and creative in her main goal: obtaining rare books throughout the multiverse for the eponymous library.  That book ended with this "world" established, as well as its three biggest characters all set for new adventures, so I've been looking to read the sequel for quite some time, when I could sneak it in.

And The Masked City is again a really fun adventure, using the series' premise to take us to more places than before, and providing more challenges and adventures for our heroine.  Whereas the first book kept our protagonists entirely within a single world, this type we journey through several (including the titular "Masked City"), and Cogman makes great use of that to weave a plot that kept me guessing but no matter what kept me reading - I finished this book in a day and wasn't really trying to do that.  Definitely will be picking up book 3 in this series at some point.


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Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Reviewing the 2019 Hugo Nominees: Best Short Story


Hugo Award voting just opened at the start of May and continues through the end of July.  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did the last two years, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.

Other Hugo Award Looks:
My Picks for Best Novel:  See HERE.
My Picks for Best Novella:  See HERE.
My Picks for Best Novelette:  See HERE.

This post will be looking at the nominees for Best Short Story, for stories in the genre written in 2018 up to 7500 words long.  Last year's Short Story field was incredibly strong, but I came out of it feeling like there were a few clear tiers, with two short stories being my clear favorites.  This year's field is again incredibly strong, but I've had a much harder time really ranking them.  There are two stories that are fun, two are sad looks at horrid situations in our current (or near-future version) real world, one which is a fantasy look at past horrors of our world and one which is just a plain fantasy tragic story.  It's a wide variety of works that all have different tones, and it's kind of hard to measure them against each other.  But I'm going to try, and this is what I have so far.


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Monday, June 3, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa



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 July 9 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). 


David Mogo, Godhunter is the fantasy novel debut of Nigerian author Suyi Davies Okungbowa.  Described by the author as "godpunk," the story takes place in a future (although seemingly a pretty near-future) Nigerian in which African Gods have descended onto Nigeria - and especially Lagos, and caused a massive disruption in life.  The story is told in three parts; it's essentially three novellas that occur one after the other, with small time gaps in between.

The end result is....well, it's fine, but unremarkable honestly.  Each of the three parts works okay as a whole, with solid plots and a solid main character, but there really aren't any developed characters other than said main character.  In particular, there basically aren't any women characters of note until the final part of the book.  There's certainly promise in this book's setting, but so many characters and gods are kind of interchangeable and so while the book never comes close to being bad, it never manages to stand out in any way, which is a shame.


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