Thursday, March 24, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Isle of Glass by Judith Tarr

 




The Isle of Glass is the first book in Judith Tarr's "The Hound and the Falcon" historical fantasy trilogy.  Tarr is a name I've known for a while - in part from her Tor.com column on horses in fiction and reality, and in part based upon her name popping up on lists of classic authors to check out, but I hadn't ever gotten a chance to try any of her fiction out before.  So when I saw this trilogy praised on twitter, I looked it up and found this first book available via inter-library loan, and here we are.  

And well, The Isle of Glass is a perfectly enjoyable historical fantasy novel set during the 12th century and the Crusades (or well in between them), featuring a Fae/Elf/Changeling devout monk, who is forced to confront what he is when he's sent to King Richard (yes that Richard) from his monastery in an attempt to stop a war.  It's well done for what it is - its hero's self-hate and martyr complex are very understandable in light of the religious/personal conflicts the hero has over his very being, and the side characters are very enjoyable as they support/antagonize him - although what it is, to be honest, has limited appeal to me.  But if you're more interested in fantasy set amongst middle ages/crusades-era Christianity, I suspect The Isle of Glass and its sequels will very much appeal to you.  

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Tuesday, March 22, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston

 


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Redwood and Wildfire was the second book published by author Andrea Hairston.  The book originally was published by a small press in 2011, where it won a bunch of awards, but soon fell out of print.  Which was a shame, because I only became aware of Hairston in 2020 when Tor released her terrific epic fantasy "Master of Poisons" (Reviewed Here) and found that I could only obtain one of her old out of print books - the great Will Do Magic For Small Change* (Reviewed Here) - via Inter-Library Loan.  In frustration, I asked my library to try to purchase Hairston's backlog, and when Tor announced they were going to rerelease Hairston's entire backlog, my library actually took advantage to give this one a buy (Libraries are great folks).  

*Technically Will Do Magic For Small Change is a sequel to this book, although it's a distant sequel and features distant descendants of these characters so as to be wholly stand-alone with its own themes*

But enough about me, let's talk this book, which is a really strong Historical Fantasy taking place around the turn of the 20th century, featuring African American hoodoo conjuring girl Redwood and half-Seminole half-Irish man Aiden (Wildfire) as they struggle first in Georgia and then in Chicago with traumas and oppressions that come from nothing but their own backgrounds (as a Black girl and half-Native man in America).  Hairston features the two interacting with a number of characters, all of whom are trying to survive and thrive in their own ways - even if those ways aren't entirely good - in a world that tries to punish people for striving for their dreams.  Its a tale that does not go in the directions I expected, and can at times be difficult to read because of how each of the characters struggle and are imperfect, with some very magically real/surreal moments at times, but it works in the end pretty damn well.  

Trigger Warnings:  Rape, Animal Cruelty, Lynching; none of this is gratuitous and Hairston treats these events with the gravitas they deserve.  

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Monday, March 21, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Star Wars: Queen's Hope by E.K. Johnston

 




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 April 5, 2022 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.


Star Wars: Queen's Hope is the third book in E.K. Johnston's trilogy of Star Wars novels featuring Padme Amidala and her handmaidens during the times of the prequels (after Queen's Shadow and Queen's Peril).  I've actually never read either of those novels, but I know a friend has raved about them, and others I trust have raved about Johnston's work in general.  And well my own prior encounter with Johnston, in her book "The Aftermath", was pretty positive, as it featured some really great character work.  So I was excited to try this novel out when I got an advance copy, even without having read the prior novels.

And boy do I now want to go back and read those prior two novels, because Queen's Hope is a terrific character-focused novel.  The story focuses on Padme and her Handmaidens, many of whom now have gone different ways, right after Attack of the Clones as Padme and her companions try to figure out who they are now with the war, Padme's secret marriage, and all they have gone through.  And it's just so easy to care for each of these characters, even the ones I didn't know from the movies, as the story jumps between them frequently - even despite how short the novel is.  And the story ends up being one that is surprisingly hopeful, especially given all we know is to come in the third movie after this one.  Just a lot to love here.  

Note:  As you can tell from this review, this novel can be read entirely stand-alone - it certainly seems like some of the handmaiden's characters developed in the prior novels, but you will not be lost if you lack that foreknowledge like I did, and you should really enjoy this novel anyway like I did.  

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Thursday, March 17, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang

 



After the Dragons is a SciFi/Fantasy Romance novel* by author Cynthia Zhang. The story takes place in alternate world - specifically in China - where dragons are real, although the only ones living these days are small ones in China/East-Asian Countries, where dragons are generally smallish and treated like pets for better or worse.  

*The book's publishing blurbs refer to this book as a "novel", although I suspect its length is short enough to qualify it for awards as a novella instead.  But as is my general policy, I am deferring to the publisher and referring to as a novel 

The story uses this setting, as well as issues with pollution and climate change, to tell a really strong M-M romance between Eli, a half-black half-Chinese American researcher, and Kai, a Chinese college student with a fatal disease and a desperate desire to take care of and find a home of Beijing's suffering abandoned dragon population.  It's a really sweet and well done romance using major real issues, plus dragons, as a backdrop and I definitely recommend it.  

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Tuesday, March 15, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao

 




Blood Heir is the first in an young adult epic fantasy trilogy by Amélie Wen Zhao, who second book came out last year and whose conclusion is scheduled to come out later this year.  It's a story with a setup that is pretty classic at this point: an Empire in which those with magical powers over the world around them are reviled and oppressed with a princess who discovers she has such powers and finds out that her ideal country isn't quite so ideal.  It also features the classic YA trope of two protagonists of different genders and backgrounds, one of which means to betray the other at the start, who come together and possibly start feeling something for one another in the end.  

That said, while it features all of the above classical plot elements, Blood Heir works well enough to still be worth your time, with its lead characters being quite strong, and the story being very unafraid to go into some dark places.  The result is a very solid trilogy opener, with a satisfying ending that also leaves things uncertain enough to wind up going in some very interesting places.  I will be trying out the second book to see where it goes from here.  

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Monday, March 14, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Savage City by L. Penelope

 




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 March 31, 2022 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.


Savage City is the start of a new series of fantasy romance series by author L. Penelope, who I've previously encountered for her "Earthsinger Chronicles", another fantasy romance/epic fantasy series, which just finished with 4 novels a little while back (and 3 novellas).  I kind of grew to really really like Earthsinger, whose first book had a solid pair of main characters but little else, but grew more and more complicated and filled with good characters, till it became really interesting, which characters and romances I really liked and cared about.  Still, the series seemed to grow too complicated for Penelope to finish it with a truly satisfying conclusion to its many themes and ideas, which were really interesting as they were built up.  

And Savage City reminds me a bit of the first Earthsinger novel (Song of Blood & Stone) - it's got some very solid interesting characters from different sides of a conflict, some interesting themes, and is just too short to really explore it all.  The central romance features Talia, a girl from our own world, who upon death finds herself in a fantasy world as the missing daughter of an oppressive but loving father, and Ryin, a member of an oppressed people acting as a prisoner of war as he attempts to plot a revolution.  The setup is familiar in some ways but well done, and the characters are generally pretty enjoyable, but certain conflicts (the forbidden nature of their love, the comfort of having a loving parent vs the fear such a parent is wrong, etc.) just don't have enough time to make an impact.  

Still there's enough here - when combined with Penelope's past history with her Earthsinger Chronicles - for me to be interested in going forward, and others may like this a bit more.  


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Saturday, March 12, 2022

A Chorus of Dragons (by Jenn Lyons) Reread: Book Four: The House of Always

 


Welcome to Part 3 of my reread of Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons, with this post featuring book 4 in the series, 2021's The House of Always.  You can find all my posts in this Reread - 1 post per book - by clicking this link here.

The House of Always is in some ways an odd book, as half of its plot (and the framing device) arguably feels unnecessary - as it deals not with the ramifications of the cliffhanger from book 3 (which will really be felt in the series' finale in book 5) but instead with the process of making those ramifications possible.  As I put in my initial review of this book, it could very much have felt like the series was stalling if done poorly, as well....I and presumably most readers surely wanted to see how the cliffhanger of book 3 would play out here, so it's a hell of a credit to the writing here that this book does not feel like much of a disappointment.  

The way it does so is through a second plotline featuring a number of side characters from books 1-2, many of whom we hadn't seen since book 1, that develops them into really great characters in their own right - and through examining the core relationships between the main trio in a way to finish the development that went on in The Memory of Souls.  And it works really well, even if not quite everything works.

Okay that's about as much as I can say without spoilers, so MAJOR Spoilers and more thoughts after my reread after the jump:

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