Well, that was a busy reading month... The previous 15 reviews have been archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Thursday, February 25, 2021
I'm Not Dying with You Tonight (Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal)
I'm Not Dying with You Tonight
Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal
Sourcebooks Fire
Fiction, YA General Fiction
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Lena's popular and fashionable, always the center of attention in her group of friends, with a boyfriend whose music is about to break big any day now. Campbell is the polar opposite: withdrawn, friendless, just trying to get through senior year at a strange school in a strange city with a dad she barely knows. Ordinarily, their lives would never overlap.
This night is anything but ordinary.
An argument at a football game goes from slurs to shoves to cops to guns, so fast nobody quite knows what happens. Campbell and Lena wind up stranded together, a white girl and a black girl, companions of circumstance in the middle of the violence. All they want to do is get to their homes - but this city is a tinder box, and it's about to go up in flames.
REVIEW: This is an intense and timely book on race relations, riots, and learning to see past preconceptions, not to mention the importance of being aware of one's surroundings: not just the locations, but the people and neighbors who can make all the difference in difficult times. Lena has all sorts of friends, but when the chips are down the only one on hand is Campbell, a virtual stranger she (like pretty much everyone at school) always dismissed as a nobody. Campbell has been abandoned, in essence and fact, by everyone in her life - her mother ran off to a job in Venezuela, tearing her from her Pennsylvania home and sending her across the country ot her father, who doesn't put too much effort into creating a relationship with his only child - and isn't about to reach out for new connections when they're just as likely to disappear on her... but her self-imposed isolation doesn't protect her when the long-simmering anger and frustration of the city boil over. Both girls have something to learn from each other, especially Campbell, whose racial blinders are torn off when she has to confront assumptions and prejudices she's carried around without questioning her whole life. Lena has some assumptions about people that get some harsh and needed updating, too. Things move fast, with some unexpected character moments and plenty of tension as fear and survival bring out the best and worst in everyone. There's a chilling, borderline surreal air to how quickly things unravel, from a simple school scuffle to violence and looting and cops marching down the street like invading soldiers. The wrap-up feels slightly abrupt, though overall it's a solid story with a good message that doesn't need to bludgeon the reader to get its point across.
You Might Also Enjoy:
How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi) - My Review
The Ballad of Black Tom (Victor LaValle) - My Review
In An Instant (Suzanne Redfearn) - My Review
Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal
Sourcebooks Fire
Fiction, YA General Fiction
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Lena's popular and fashionable, always the center of attention in her group of friends, with a boyfriend whose music is about to break big any day now. Campbell is the polar opposite: withdrawn, friendless, just trying to get through senior year at a strange school in a strange city with a dad she barely knows. Ordinarily, their lives would never overlap.
This night is anything but ordinary.
An argument at a football game goes from slurs to shoves to cops to guns, so fast nobody quite knows what happens. Campbell and Lena wind up stranded together, a white girl and a black girl, companions of circumstance in the middle of the violence. All they want to do is get to their homes - but this city is a tinder box, and it's about to go up in flames.
REVIEW: This is an intense and timely book on race relations, riots, and learning to see past preconceptions, not to mention the importance of being aware of one's surroundings: not just the locations, but the people and neighbors who can make all the difference in difficult times. Lena has all sorts of friends, but when the chips are down the only one on hand is Campbell, a virtual stranger she (like pretty much everyone at school) always dismissed as a nobody. Campbell has been abandoned, in essence and fact, by everyone in her life - her mother ran off to a job in Venezuela, tearing her from her Pennsylvania home and sending her across the country ot her father, who doesn't put too much effort into creating a relationship with his only child - and isn't about to reach out for new connections when they're just as likely to disappear on her... but her self-imposed isolation doesn't protect her when the long-simmering anger and frustration of the city boil over. Both girls have something to learn from each other, especially Campbell, whose racial blinders are torn off when she has to confront assumptions and prejudices she's carried around without questioning her whole life. Lena has some assumptions about people that get some harsh and needed updating, too. Things move fast, with some unexpected character moments and plenty of tension as fear and survival bring out the best and worst in everyone. There's a chilling, borderline surreal air to how quickly things unravel, from a simple school scuffle to violence and looting and cops marching down the street like invading soldiers. The wrap-up feels slightly abrupt, though overall it's a solid story with a good message that doesn't need to bludgeon the reader to get its point across.
You Might Also Enjoy:
How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi) - My Review
The Ballad of Black Tom (Victor LaValle) - My Review
In An Instant (Suzanne Redfearn) - My Review
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
The Expanse #2 (Corinna Sara Bechko)
The Expanse #2
The Expanse series, Issue 2
Corinna Sara Bechko and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Alejandro Aragon
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: The investigation of corruption on Mars and Earth takes a turn... and not for the best. On Mars, former Martian Marine Bobbie Draper has been wounded in pursuit of criminals; how much more can she risk before her luck runs out? Back on Luna, sidelined politician Chrisjen Avasarala seems to have rattled the right cages in her own pursuit of answers; a contact offers her a chance to regain her former political clout, hinting at the building of a new order beyond the old, dying ways of Earth and Mars. But at what cost?
This series takes place between Seasons 4 and 5 of the Amazon Prime series The Expanse, based on the books by James S. A. Corey.
REVIEW: As expected, this picks up where the previous issue left off. Bobbie, in trouble after her near-miss with the organization behind the growing ring of thefts and corruption eating away the heart of the Mars she knew, must call in a favor from a friend, questioning what her commitment is gaining her other than fresh scars and fresh enemies. Chrisjen finds herself in personal danger after rejecting an offer that's too good to be true, for once without anyone to call upon to help her out of trouble. As with the previous issue, it's a brief fragment of a larger story, suffering for being a middle installment and thus a bit adrift; it starts and ends in the middle of larger arcs, and it's so short that, by the time I got myself oriented again in the larger story, it was almost over. (The continued rough sketchiness of the artwork did not help on this front.) Once more, I'm thinking this is a quartet that will read much better when it's published in a single volume instead of piecemeal like this, but I'm sufficiently impatient to just grab the issues as hoopla offers them. (The price tag of "free" for hoopla borrows is also a significant factor.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Expanse #1 (James S. A. Corey and Corinna Sara Bechko) - My Review
The Expanse Volume 1: Origins (James S. A. Corey, Hallie Lambert, and Georgia Lee) - My Review
The Expanse series, Issue 2
Corinna Sara Bechko and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Alejandro Aragon
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: The investigation of corruption on Mars and Earth takes a turn... and not for the best. On Mars, former Martian Marine Bobbie Draper has been wounded in pursuit of criminals; how much more can she risk before her luck runs out? Back on Luna, sidelined politician Chrisjen Avasarala seems to have rattled the right cages in her own pursuit of answers; a contact offers her a chance to regain her former political clout, hinting at the building of a new order beyond the old, dying ways of Earth and Mars. But at what cost?
This series takes place between Seasons 4 and 5 of the Amazon Prime series The Expanse, based on the books by James S. A. Corey.
REVIEW: As expected, this picks up where the previous issue left off. Bobbie, in trouble after her near-miss with the organization behind the growing ring of thefts and corruption eating away the heart of the Mars she knew, must call in a favor from a friend, questioning what her commitment is gaining her other than fresh scars and fresh enemies. Chrisjen finds herself in personal danger after rejecting an offer that's too good to be true, for once without anyone to call upon to help her out of trouble. As with the previous issue, it's a brief fragment of a larger story, suffering for being a middle installment and thus a bit adrift; it starts and ends in the middle of larger arcs, and it's so short that, by the time I got myself oriented again in the larger story, it was almost over. (The continued rough sketchiness of the artwork did not help on this front.) Once more, I'm thinking this is a quartet that will read much better when it's published in a single volume instead of piecemeal like this, but I'm sufficiently impatient to just grab the issues as hoopla offers them. (The price tag of "free" for hoopla borrows is also a significant factor.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Expanse #1 (James S. A. Corey and Corinna Sara Bechko) - My Review
The Expanse Volume 1: Origins (James S. A. Corey, Hallie Lambert, and Georgia Lee) - My Review
Saturday, February 20, 2021
The Canyon's Edge (Dusti Bowling)
The Canyon's Edge
Dusti Bowling
Little, Brown Books
Fiction, MG Adventure
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: One year ago, everything was fine. Nora had her mother and her father, her best friend, her school... everything a girl could possibly want. Now, all she has is a broken father, an inner wall, and a phantom beast of fear that stalks her nightmares. Her counselor offers advice and ways to cope, and hope that someday she will heal, but Nora knows nothing will ever be good again, not without answers about why she's still alive and her mother is dead.
That's part of why they're here, in the unnamed slot canyon in the desert, far off the beaten path. There's nobody else around - nobody for her father to fear, nobody for him to protect her from. It's just Nora and him and a canyon to explore, their first outing since their lives were devastated. If they can get through this hike, maybe things can start almost being normal again.
Then the flash flood hits.
Now Nora is alone. Her father, her pack, her climbing equipment: the water washed them all away. If she's going to survive, she'll have to remember everything she ever learned about the desert and tap wells of strength and resilience she doesn't know she has. She will also have to finally confront the beast she's been hiding from inside her own head.
REVIEW: Much like the classic survival story Hatchet, about a boy stranded in the Canadian wilderness who must learn to survive and deal with a great life upheaval, The Canyon's Edge puts its young protagonist in a deadly situation as a means to finally confront the trauma she's been avoiding for a year, the violent and senseless death of her mother before her eyes. Nora uses memories of family camping trips, her counselor's advice, and even poetry to deal with a dangerous situation, one that pushes her to the physical and mental brink. She keeps searching for patterns and sense in the horrible curve balls life has lobbed at her, determined that there must be some reason to why she lived and her mother had to die, but there are no reasons, no patterns. Naturally, her progress through the canyon in search of her missing father mirrors her progress through the dark places in her mind, and at some point she can no longer avoid the the truths she's been denying. The audiobook narration is decent, and even as Nora's mind slips into hallucinatory territory, the boundaries between past and present and nightmare blurring, it's fairly easy to track the action. It's a decent survival tale, at times almost poetic and dreamlike as the experience takes a heavy toll on her physical and mental state, though once in a while Nora feels a bit too helpless, trapped in her own head and walls of her own construction, and there were a couple elements that I expected more follow-through on.
You Might Also Enjoy:
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Leepike Ridge (N. D. Wilson) - My Review
Dusti Bowling
Little, Brown Books
Fiction, MG Adventure
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: One year ago, everything was fine. Nora had her mother and her father, her best friend, her school... everything a girl could possibly want. Now, all she has is a broken father, an inner wall, and a phantom beast of fear that stalks her nightmares. Her counselor offers advice and ways to cope, and hope that someday she will heal, but Nora knows nothing will ever be good again, not without answers about why she's still alive and her mother is dead.
That's part of why they're here, in the unnamed slot canyon in the desert, far off the beaten path. There's nobody else around - nobody for her father to fear, nobody for him to protect her from. It's just Nora and him and a canyon to explore, their first outing since their lives were devastated. If they can get through this hike, maybe things can start almost being normal again.
Then the flash flood hits.
Now Nora is alone. Her father, her pack, her climbing equipment: the water washed them all away. If she's going to survive, she'll have to remember everything she ever learned about the desert and tap wells of strength and resilience she doesn't know she has. She will also have to finally confront the beast she's been hiding from inside her own head.
REVIEW: Much like the classic survival story Hatchet, about a boy stranded in the Canadian wilderness who must learn to survive and deal with a great life upheaval, The Canyon's Edge puts its young protagonist in a deadly situation as a means to finally confront the trauma she's been avoiding for a year, the violent and senseless death of her mother before her eyes. Nora uses memories of family camping trips, her counselor's advice, and even poetry to deal with a dangerous situation, one that pushes her to the physical and mental brink. She keeps searching for patterns and sense in the horrible curve balls life has lobbed at her, determined that there must be some reason to why she lived and her mother had to die, but there are no reasons, no patterns. Naturally, her progress through the canyon in search of her missing father mirrors her progress through the dark places in her mind, and at some point she can no longer avoid the the truths she's been denying. The audiobook narration is decent, and even as Nora's mind slips into hallucinatory territory, the boundaries between past and present and nightmare blurring, it's fairly easy to track the action. It's a decent survival tale, at times almost poetic and dreamlike as the experience takes a heavy toll on her physical and mental state, though once in a while Nora feels a bit too helpless, trapped in her own head and walls of her own construction, and there were a couple elements that I expected more follow-through on.
You Might Also Enjoy:
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Leepike Ridge (N. D. Wilson) - My Review
Friday, February 19, 2021
The Disasters (M. K. England)
The Disasters
M. K. England
HarperTeen
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like many kids on Earth, Nax Hall dreamed of going to the colony worlds, even knowing that it's a one-way ticket off planet - and getting there means passing through the Ellis Station Academy on the moon. Washing out inside twenty-four hours was both a crushing disappointment and inevitable; after all, his life has been one disaster after another, and he just can't seem to keep himself from pushing that one step too far.
He and three other academy rejects were heading back to Earth when something goes terribly wrong. Unknown attackers take over Ellis Station and vent the atmosphere, killing everyone - everyone except for four teenagers who manage to steal a shuttle and make a break for the colony worlds, chased by bullets and enemy fighters. Nax and his new companions are now wanted fugitives, framed for theft and treason, and they may be the only ones who can stop a conspiracy that would kill millions and end the colonies once and for all. The whole thing is a galactic-scale disaster... but if there's one thing Nax has experience with, it's disasters.
REVIEW: This has the vibe of a pilot episode for an action-oriented science fiction series, with a misfit crew thrown together by happenstance, framed for crimes they didn't commit, who bond while turning the tables on the baddies and foiling a nefarious plot. There's nothing inherently wrong with that formula - but, as with any formula, it can be done well, done poorly, or simply done as expected, ticking boxes off the checklist. The Disasters wavers between "done well" and "ticking boxes."
Narrator Nax, a bisexual teen whose prowess behind the stick of a spaceship is balanced by insecurities fueled by a disastrous incident in his youth, is a mixture of hubris and hormones. He's joined by: Ryan, a natural diplomat fleeing an overbearing father who has groomed him for a political career; Vee, a medical specialist rejected for being a transsexual from a nation that refuses to acknowledge it (creating a paperwork loophole for the academy to kick her out through); and Case, a technical genius whose panic attacks were considered a deal-breaker to academy staff, plus the daughter of a crime boss itching to rebel whom they pick up at the first planet they flee to (and crash-land on.) Each one has a specialty that makes them an invaluable addition to the crew in addition to a weakness that explains why the academy rejected them; this doesn't make for the most rounded characterization, but in a story like this it generally does the job. They cohere fairly rapidly into a crew, accepting Nax as their leader with little question, a fact that makes some of his insecurities feel a little overplayed (and repetitive.) There's also an attempt at a love triangle as he's attracted to both Ryan and Case, but it's really not a contest who will "win," making for more ultimately wasted page count as Nax drools and angsts. For all that hormonal distractions cloud Nax's narrative more than once, there's generally little down time in which to contemplate potential crushes; from pretty early on to almost the end, the foursome are being hunted down, shot at, stalked, or caught in life-or-death dogfights in the upper atmosphere and spaceways of various worlds. There's an odd emphasis on them using nonlethal weapons that fire a sleep-inducing chemical agent, even as their enemies freely mow down innocent bystanders and are plotting the murder of millions... an emphasis that leads to a climax that almost had me rolling my eyes as it went out of its way to minimize body count in a desperate firefight. Why the kid gloves, here? It starts to feel incongruous, how they keep bringing rubber knives to gunfights, making me too aware of an author doing their best to make sure we readers know that the characters don't like killing, don't want to kill, and aren't killing anyone. For that matter, some of the technology and rules start to feel plot convenient, but this is much more action-driven space opera than hard science, so some fudging and blurring is pretty much expected.
In any event, things move at a fair clip and rarely slacken pace from the start to the end (save a slightly drawn-out and inevitable finale), and it ticks the usual boxes. There's even sequel potential, which adds to the "pilot episode" vibe that permeates the whole book. Something about it just fell shy of that solid four-star Good rating, though. I was just a little too aware of the formula behind it, manipulating everything from plot events to fight outcomes to characterizations, and was never able to just lose myself in the story itself for long before it reminded me of that formula.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Starflight (Melissa Landers) - My Review
Killing Gravity (Corey J. White) - My Review
Dragon and Thief (Timothy Zahn) - My Review
M. K. England
HarperTeen
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like many kids on Earth, Nax Hall dreamed of going to the colony worlds, even knowing that it's a one-way ticket off planet - and getting there means passing through the Ellis Station Academy on the moon. Washing out inside twenty-four hours was both a crushing disappointment and inevitable; after all, his life has been one disaster after another, and he just can't seem to keep himself from pushing that one step too far.
He and three other academy rejects were heading back to Earth when something goes terribly wrong. Unknown attackers take over Ellis Station and vent the atmosphere, killing everyone - everyone except for four teenagers who manage to steal a shuttle and make a break for the colony worlds, chased by bullets and enemy fighters. Nax and his new companions are now wanted fugitives, framed for theft and treason, and they may be the only ones who can stop a conspiracy that would kill millions and end the colonies once and for all. The whole thing is a galactic-scale disaster... but if there's one thing Nax has experience with, it's disasters.
REVIEW: This has the vibe of a pilot episode for an action-oriented science fiction series, with a misfit crew thrown together by happenstance, framed for crimes they didn't commit, who bond while turning the tables on the baddies and foiling a nefarious plot. There's nothing inherently wrong with that formula - but, as with any formula, it can be done well, done poorly, or simply done as expected, ticking boxes off the checklist. The Disasters wavers between "done well" and "ticking boxes."
Narrator Nax, a bisexual teen whose prowess behind the stick of a spaceship is balanced by insecurities fueled by a disastrous incident in his youth, is a mixture of hubris and hormones. He's joined by: Ryan, a natural diplomat fleeing an overbearing father who has groomed him for a political career; Vee, a medical specialist rejected for being a transsexual from a nation that refuses to acknowledge it (creating a paperwork loophole for the academy to kick her out through); and Case, a technical genius whose panic attacks were considered a deal-breaker to academy staff, plus the daughter of a crime boss itching to rebel whom they pick up at the first planet they flee to (and crash-land on.) Each one has a specialty that makes them an invaluable addition to the crew in addition to a weakness that explains why the academy rejected them; this doesn't make for the most rounded characterization, but in a story like this it generally does the job. They cohere fairly rapidly into a crew, accepting Nax as their leader with little question, a fact that makes some of his insecurities feel a little overplayed (and repetitive.) There's also an attempt at a love triangle as he's attracted to both Ryan and Case, but it's really not a contest who will "win," making for more ultimately wasted page count as Nax drools and angsts. For all that hormonal distractions cloud Nax's narrative more than once, there's generally little down time in which to contemplate potential crushes; from pretty early on to almost the end, the foursome are being hunted down, shot at, stalked, or caught in life-or-death dogfights in the upper atmosphere and spaceways of various worlds. There's an odd emphasis on them using nonlethal weapons that fire a sleep-inducing chemical agent, even as their enemies freely mow down innocent bystanders and are plotting the murder of millions... an emphasis that leads to a climax that almost had me rolling my eyes as it went out of its way to minimize body count in a desperate firefight. Why the kid gloves, here? It starts to feel incongruous, how they keep bringing rubber knives to gunfights, making me too aware of an author doing their best to make sure we readers know that the characters don't like killing, don't want to kill, and aren't killing anyone. For that matter, some of the technology and rules start to feel plot convenient, but this is much more action-driven space opera than hard science, so some fudging and blurring is pretty much expected.
In any event, things move at a fair clip and rarely slacken pace from the start to the end (save a slightly drawn-out and inevitable finale), and it ticks the usual boxes. There's even sequel potential, which adds to the "pilot episode" vibe that permeates the whole book. Something about it just fell shy of that solid four-star Good rating, though. I was just a little too aware of the formula behind it, manipulating everything from plot events to fight outcomes to characterizations, and was never able to just lose myself in the story itself for long before it reminded me of that formula.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Starflight (Melissa Landers) - My Review
Killing Gravity (Corey J. White) - My Review
Dragon and Thief (Timothy Zahn) - My Review
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Dark Matter (Blake Crouch)
Dark Matter
Blake Crouch
Ballantine Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like most anyone, Jason Dessen has regrets in his life. He could've been an award-winning researcher; his theories on quantum physics might have changed the world. His wife Daniela could've owned the Chicago art scene. But he wouldn't trade his wife or their teen son, Charlie, for anything in the world - even if he sometimes takes them for granted.
Then, one night, on the way home from the corner bar, a stranger accosts him. The masked man steals his phone. He takes his clothes, even. Then he sticks a needle in Jason's arm, and everything goes black.
He wakes up in a strange concrete room, like a hangar, surrounded by people he doesn't know who all act like he's their best friend and their personal hero. According to them, he's the scientist who created a breakthrough: an isolated room and a drug mixture that allow a person access to the quantum multiverse, where every possible chance and choice play out in parallel and equally real realities. In this world, he never married, never had a son, never settled for teaching physics to bored students in a middling college instead of pursuing his own research to dizzying heights of academia.
The Jason of this new world stole his life and family. The original Jason will stop at nothing to get them back, even if he has to search every possible world...
REVIEW: The concept of the multiverse is always a brain-bender, and here it makes a great setting for a thrilling, harrowing journey, one that makes one man question not only his sanity but his very concept of identity. He thinks of himself as the "real" Jason, but how is he any more or less real than the countless other Jasons that exist? How is his world in any way superior? Driven by the love of his wife - a love that happens in more than one world, but which is somehow never quite the same, as nobody is quite the same (when they exist at all; some of the Chicagos he visits are devastated nightmares) - Jason struggles first to escape the life of "Jason 2", as he comes to call the version of himself that thrust him into this unwanted journey, then to find his way back through the infinite possible worlds to the right Daniela, the right Charlie, the right Chicago. The story has plenty of action and tension that keeps ratcheting up, with odds overwhelmingly against him... and, even if he does make it back "home," his troubles may be far from over. There are a few elements that I thought could've used more closure, and Jason's family can sometimes feel less like autonomous people and more as possessions for him to claim and defend, but on the whole Dark Matter is both an interesting and exciting story told across multiple worlds.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Afar (Leila del Duca) - My Review
11/22/63 (Stephen King) - My Review
City (Clifford D. Simak) - My Review
Blake Crouch
Ballantine Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like most anyone, Jason Dessen has regrets in his life. He could've been an award-winning researcher; his theories on quantum physics might have changed the world. His wife Daniela could've owned the Chicago art scene. But he wouldn't trade his wife or their teen son, Charlie, for anything in the world - even if he sometimes takes them for granted.
Then, one night, on the way home from the corner bar, a stranger accosts him. The masked man steals his phone. He takes his clothes, even. Then he sticks a needle in Jason's arm, and everything goes black.
He wakes up in a strange concrete room, like a hangar, surrounded by people he doesn't know who all act like he's their best friend and their personal hero. According to them, he's the scientist who created a breakthrough: an isolated room and a drug mixture that allow a person access to the quantum multiverse, where every possible chance and choice play out in parallel and equally real realities. In this world, he never married, never had a son, never settled for teaching physics to bored students in a middling college instead of pursuing his own research to dizzying heights of academia.
The Jason of this new world stole his life and family. The original Jason will stop at nothing to get them back, even if he has to search every possible world...
REVIEW: The concept of the multiverse is always a brain-bender, and here it makes a great setting for a thrilling, harrowing journey, one that makes one man question not only his sanity but his very concept of identity. He thinks of himself as the "real" Jason, but how is he any more or less real than the countless other Jasons that exist? How is his world in any way superior? Driven by the love of his wife - a love that happens in more than one world, but which is somehow never quite the same, as nobody is quite the same (when they exist at all; some of the Chicagos he visits are devastated nightmares) - Jason struggles first to escape the life of "Jason 2", as he comes to call the version of himself that thrust him into this unwanted journey, then to find his way back through the infinite possible worlds to the right Daniela, the right Charlie, the right Chicago. The story has plenty of action and tension that keeps ratcheting up, with odds overwhelmingly against him... and, even if he does make it back "home," his troubles may be far from over. There are a few elements that I thought could've used more closure, and Jason's family can sometimes feel less like autonomous people and more as possessions for him to claim and defend, but on the whole Dark Matter is both an interesting and exciting story told across multiple worlds.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Afar (Leila del Duca) - My Review
11/22/63 (Stephen King) - My Review
City (Clifford D. Simak) - My Review
Monday, February 15, 2021
Silver in the Wood (Emily Tesh)
Silver in the Wood
The Greenhollow Duology, Book 1
Emily Tesh
Tor.com
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For centuries, Tobias has lived in the heart of Greenhollow, a woodland that may not be so large as it once stood, but which still holds ancient secrets and powers in its roots... along with ancient curses. Even the townsfolk who have long forgotten the old ways and reduced the stories to half-forgotten folk tales know there’s something unusual about the place. Most do their best to leave it be, until Henry Silver, new owner of Greenhollow Hall, takes a special interest in the wood’s history in general and Tobias in particular. The eccentric young man is a student of folklore, of old gods and fairy stories and superstitions, but in Greenhollow he may stumble into something far more dangerous than he understands - something even Tobias, strong and old as he is, may not be able to save him from...
REVIEW: Another free Tor ebook novella, Silver in the Wood is a solid take on old woodland lore, hearkening back to tales of forest spirits and green men and “fairy kings” who snatch hapless innocents at the turning of seasons. Tobias has spent centuries bound to the forest, so long even he isn’t sure if it’s a curse or a blessing to be so entwined in the ways of root and bough, privy to the secret world of spirits and dryads and dark, harmful things. The arrival of Silver shakes him from his routine, a harbinger of change for a man who has grown too used to the endless unchanging cycle of green life... a harbinger that could bring either hope or horror, and ends up being a little of both. Silver, on the other hand, is excitable and eager and impatient to learn everything there is to know about Greenhollow, the very opposite of Tobias’s slow patience, yet sparks fly between them from their first meeting. Even by the end, there’s a little vagueness about the nature of Tobias’s “curse” and the one who trapped him there, but overall it’s a decent, somewhat dark story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Scriber (Ben S. Dobson) - My Review
Uprooted (Naomi Novik) - My Review
The Hidden Life of Trees (Peter Wohllenben) - My Review
The Greenhollow Duology, Book 1
Emily Tesh
Tor.com
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For centuries, Tobias has lived in the heart of Greenhollow, a woodland that may not be so large as it once stood, but which still holds ancient secrets and powers in its roots... along with ancient curses. Even the townsfolk who have long forgotten the old ways and reduced the stories to half-forgotten folk tales know there’s something unusual about the place. Most do their best to leave it be, until Henry Silver, new owner of Greenhollow Hall, takes a special interest in the wood’s history in general and Tobias in particular. The eccentric young man is a student of folklore, of old gods and fairy stories and superstitions, but in Greenhollow he may stumble into something far more dangerous than he understands - something even Tobias, strong and old as he is, may not be able to save him from...
REVIEW: Another free Tor ebook novella, Silver in the Wood is a solid take on old woodland lore, hearkening back to tales of forest spirits and green men and “fairy kings” who snatch hapless innocents at the turning of seasons. Tobias has spent centuries bound to the forest, so long even he isn’t sure if it’s a curse or a blessing to be so entwined in the ways of root and bough, privy to the secret world of spirits and dryads and dark, harmful things. The arrival of Silver shakes him from his routine, a harbinger of change for a man who has grown too used to the endless unchanging cycle of green life... a harbinger that could bring either hope or horror, and ends up being a little of both. Silver, on the other hand, is excitable and eager and impatient to learn everything there is to know about Greenhollow, the very opposite of Tobias’s slow patience, yet sparks fly between them from their first meeting. Even by the end, there’s a little vagueness about the nature of Tobias’s “curse” and the one who trapped him there, but overall it’s a decent, somewhat dark story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Scriber (Ben S. Dobson) - My Review
Uprooted (Naomi Novik) - My Review
The Hidden Life of Trees (Peter Wohllenben) - My Review
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (P. Djeli Clark)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015
The Fatma el-Sha'awari series, Book 2
P. Djeli Clark
Tor.com
Fiction, Fantasy/Historical Fiction
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: 1912 Cairo is a far cry from the days of the pharaohs, but - thanks to the return of the djinn and other magical beings and the innovative constructions they brought - it is still one of the grandest metropolises in the world. Still, even modern cities have their problems, especially ones where the infrastructure relies as much on magic as on technology, which is where the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities comes in.
Agent Hamad Nasr and his eager new assistant, Agent Onsi Youssef (who was educated in distant, backwards Oxford, but still shows some promise), never know what each new day will bring, but even they were surprised to be summoned to a haunted tram car. Car 015 has picked up a malevolent supernatural passenger, one that has entwined itself in the magical “brain” of the autonomous vehicle and refuses to leave... something far more dangerous than a stray djinn or spirit.
REVIEW: I got this as a free ebook download from Tor.com (the source of many quality free ebook downloads), and didn’t realize it was technically the second title written in its setting. In this instance, it doesn’t matter, as it works fine on its own. Clark creates an imaginative, intricate, and fascinating setting in his turn-of-the-century Cairo enhanced by both magic and steampunk elements, the two being deeply intertwined. It’s also a melting pot of human cultures and religions, as well as new ideas like women’s rights and tolerance of worship, a truly cosmopolitan locale that feels both fantastic and real. The characters inhabiting the world likewise are interesting, avoiding flat or obvious stereotypes and becoming rounded individuals with personalities and histories and blind spots. As for the plot, it moves fairly well, and while there’s a somewhat light and humorous overtone, it doesn’t shy away from the more terrifying aspects of hauntings. It reads fairly fast, being a novella, and makes the reader (or at least this reader) eager for more adventures in this alternate world. (And, yes, I'll be adding the first title in this setting to the Kindle queue.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Ink and Bone (Rachel Caine) - My Review
The Water Mirror (Kai Meyer) - My Review
The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
The Fatma el-Sha'awari series, Book 2
P. Djeli Clark
Tor.com
Fiction, Fantasy/Historical Fiction
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: 1912 Cairo is a far cry from the days of the pharaohs, but - thanks to the return of the djinn and other magical beings and the innovative constructions they brought - it is still one of the grandest metropolises in the world. Still, even modern cities have their problems, especially ones where the infrastructure relies as much on magic as on technology, which is where the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities comes in.
Agent Hamad Nasr and his eager new assistant, Agent Onsi Youssef (who was educated in distant, backwards Oxford, but still shows some promise), never know what each new day will bring, but even they were surprised to be summoned to a haunted tram car. Car 015 has picked up a malevolent supernatural passenger, one that has entwined itself in the magical “brain” of the autonomous vehicle and refuses to leave... something far more dangerous than a stray djinn or spirit.
REVIEW: I got this as a free ebook download from Tor.com (the source of many quality free ebook downloads), and didn’t realize it was technically the second title written in its setting. In this instance, it doesn’t matter, as it works fine on its own. Clark creates an imaginative, intricate, and fascinating setting in his turn-of-the-century Cairo enhanced by both magic and steampunk elements, the two being deeply intertwined. It’s also a melting pot of human cultures and religions, as well as new ideas like women’s rights and tolerance of worship, a truly cosmopolitan locale that feels both fantastic and real. The characters inhabiting the world likewise are interesting, avoiding flat or obvious stereotypes and becoming rounded individuals with personalities and histories and blind spots. As for the plot, it moves fairly well, and while there’s a somewhat light and humorous overtone, it doesn’t shy away from the more terrifying aspects of hauntings. It reads fairly fast, being a novella, and makes the reader (or at least this reader) eager for more adventures in this alternate world. (And, yes, I'll be adding the first title in this setting to the Kindle queue.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Ink and Bone (Rachel Caine) - My Review
The Water Mirror (Kai Meyer) - My Review
The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
Friday, February 12, 2021
The Fourteenth Goldfish (Jennifer L. Holm)
The Fourteenth Goldfish
The Fourteenth Goldfish series, Book 1
Jennifer L. Holm
Yearling
Fiction, MG General Fiction/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When Ellie was in kindergarten, her teacher gave every child in the class a goldfish, to teach them about the cycle of life... but, unlike the rest of her classmates whose fish died in a matter of weeks, hers lasted for years. Or so she thought, until she found Goldie dead one morning and her mother revealed she'd been replacing fish behind her back to shield her from the trauma of death and change: thirteen of them, at least. Maybe that's part of why Ellie, now eleven, is having a tough time dealing with the changes that come with middle school. Her long-time best friend Brianna now hangs out with the volleyball crowd. Most of the kids in her classes are strangers. Worse, they're all finding their passions while she's just flailing about, the same old Ellie. Then, one night, her mother comes home with a strange teen boy... a boy who, somehow, impossibly, is her grandfather Melvin. The man was always a scientist, and claims he's found a cure for aging - only he forgot to tell his employers what he was up to, and was nabbed by police as a tresspasser while trying to get back to his lab. Melvin recruits Ellie to help him continue his research, convinced it will change the world... but is the world ready for this kind of change? Is Ellie?
REVIEW: Another audiobook to pass the time at work, The Fourteenth Goldfish is a fun story of science and change and unintended consequences. Through Melvin, Ellie discovers the wonders of science, a subject her parents always found boring (being more theatrically inclined, a field that Ellie never took to as her mother or father had hoped)... but she also learns that discoveries can have drawbacks, and not every problem can or should be solved. Melvin may look like a teen boy, but his mind is still that of a crusty old man, struggling to accept his new reality and the fact that he's not the head of the household any more; he's forced to go to middle school and interact with teens, not to mention dealing with acne and being technically a minor under guardianship of his daughter, whom he can't help but see as the teen girl who once ran away and eloped with Ellie's dad. Along the way, Ellie makes some new friends and learns to see the world a different way... and so, eventually and reluctantly, does her grandfather. The story's tone is fairly light and lively, yet it still manages to explore ideas about change and age and even grief. Once in a while it gets a slight bit heavy-handed about introducing historical scientists into Ellie's (and the target audience's) world, but it is supposed to be a book about a girl's eyes being opened to the wonders (and dangers) of scientific exploration. The end offers hints of sequel potential, naturally. It's a decent, enjoyable story all around (though there is something a little wrong about a teacher not only giving a live pet to children, but doing so expecting the animal to die; we once had a cheap feeder goldfish like that last for years, outliving several "fancy" goldfish - and, yes, it was the same fish, not replaced - so their imminent and convenient death is by no means a given. Plus goldfish are messy, and a bit of a pain to keep properly if you don't want them swimming in a too-small bowl of their own filth... but, I digress.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Things Not Seen (Andrew Clements) - My Review
Strange Dogs (James S. A. Corey) - My Review
When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead) - My Review
The Fourteenth Goldfish series, Book 1
Jennifer L. Holm
Yearling
Fiction, MG General Fiction/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When Ellie was in kindergarten, her teacher gave every child in the class a goldfish, to teach them about the cycle of life... but, unlike the rest of her classmates whose fish died in a matter of weeks, hers lasted for years. Or so she thought, until she found Goldie dead one morning and her mother revealed she'd been replacing fish behind her back to shield her from the trauma of death and change: thirteen of them, at least. Maybe that's part of why Ellie, now eleven, is having a tough time dealing with the changes that come with middle school. Her long-time best friend Brianna now hangs out with the volleyball crowd. Most of the kids in her classes are strangers. Worse, they're all finding their passions while she's just flailing about, the same old Ellie. Then, one night, her mother comes home with a strange teen boy... a boy who, somehow, impossibly, is her grandfather Melvin. The man was always a scientist, and claims he's found a cure for aging - only he forgot to tell his employers what he was up to, and was nabbed by police as a tresspasser while trying to get back to his lab. Melvin recruits Ellie to help him continue his research, convinced it will change the world... but is the world ready for this kind of change? Is Ellie?
REVIEW: Another audiobook to pass the time at work, The Fourteenth Goldfish is a fun story of science and change and unintended consequences. Through Melvin, Ellie discovers the wonders of science, a subject her parents always found boring (being more theatrically inclined, a field that Ellie never took to as her mother or father had hoped)... but she also learns that discoveries can have drawbacks, and not every problem can or should be solved. Melvin may look like a teen boy, but his mind is still that of a crusty old man, struggling to accept his new reality and the fact that he's not the head of the household any more; he's forced to go to middle school and interact with teens, not to mention dealing with acne and being technically a minor under guardianship of his daughter, whom he can't help but see as the teen girl who once ran away and eloped with Ellie's dad. Along the way, Ellie makes some new friends and learns to see the world a different way... and so, eventually and reluctantly, does her grandfather. The story's tone is fairly light and lively, yet it still manages to explore ideas about change and age and even grief. Once in a while it gets a slight bit heavy-handed about introducing historical scientists into Ellie's (and the target audience's) world, but it is supposed to be a book about a girl's eyes being opened to the wonders (and dangers) of scientific exploration. The end offers hints of sequel potential, naturally. It's a decent, enjoyable story all around (though there is something a little wrong about a teacher not only giving a live pet to children, but doing so expecting the animal to die; we once had a cheap feeder goldfish like that last for years, outliving several "fancy" goldfish - and, yes, it was the same fish, not replaced - so their imminent and convenient death is by no means a given. Plus goldfish are messy, and a bit of a pain to keep properly if you don't want them swimming in a too-small bowl of their own filth... but, I digress.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Things Not Seen (Andrew Clements) - My Review
Strange Dogs (James S. A. Corey) - My Review
When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead) - My Review
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Blazewrath Games (Amparo Oritz)
Blazewrath Games
Amparo Oritz
Page Street Kids
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: For nearly as long as she can remember, seventeen-year-old Lana Torres has been obsessed with Blazewrath, a game of strength, skill, speed... and dragons. Six bonded riders and one unbonded Runner compete in massive arenas, a full-contact sport with fans - and critics - from around the world. After all, even a dragon who has chosen to bond with a human is still a dragon; there are more than enough unbonded beasts to remind humans of the threat they can be. Now, there's another danger, in the form of The Sire - a formerly-bonded dragon who betrayed his rider and was cursed into human form, who has threatened to burn whole cities if the Blazewrath world cup isn't cancelled and the bonded dragons freed. But the best witches and wizards are on the trail of the man and his fanatical Dragon Knights... and, surely, if the threat were so great, the president of the sport would cancel the Blazewrath games, right?
Lana finally has a chance to join the sport herself, with Puerto Rico finally having a team on its way to the world cup and in need of a replacement runner: she may have lived most of her life in Florida with her white mother, but she was born on the island, and her father instilled a love and healthy respect for dragons in the girl from a young age. Never mind that Lana almost got herself incinerated at age five when she got into the sanctuary of an unbonded dragon - which is why she has to keep her application and tryouts a secret from a mother who has decided no dragon is trustworthy and the games themselves are death waiting to happen. Fortunately, Lana's best friend - a copper-level witch still waiting to grow into silver-level powers - has arranged a distraction. Unfortunately, that distraction is interrupted by an attack from the Dragon Knights. Worse, Lana recognizes the Dragon Knight as a former Blazewrath star who disappeared after his dragon was murdered. How can a man who used to stand for everything good and beautiful about the sport now be following a monster like The Sire? Barely surviving both the attack and an enraged dragon, Lana becomes an instant celebrity and is offered the spot as Runner on the Puerto Rican Blazewrath team. This was supposed to be her dream... so why does she feel like she's trapped, caught in a web of secrets, lies, magic, and The Sire's dark threats?
REVIEW: As usual, I'm a sucker for dragons, so I gave this one a try. In its favor, it does indeed have some very awesome dragons with unique abilities, and the book never forgets that they are dragons, not oversized puppies: for all that they seem relatively docile when bonded, they are their own beings and seem to have their own agendas. The Sire may have been the only known dragon to break its bond, but there is no doubt that any dragon in the book could, if they so choose, throw off whatever voluntary restraints they've accepted if pushed too far. At some point, though, this becomes almost frustratingly vague; the dragons in this world never quite fit in or make sense, even on their own terms.
And this segues into some of my other issues. The book is clearly inspired by J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, particularly her somewhat-whimsical (and -vaguely defined/-plot convenient) concept of wizardry and the sport of Quidditch, mashed up with elements of the Triwizard Tournament (particularly Harry's face-off with the dragon.) I would not be surprised if this started as an alternate-world take on the Potterverse, one where wizards were not in hiding and muggles were allowed to play wizard games; one can almost pinpoint which characters or turn of events were transposed into this tale. In and of itself, that isn't a problem - every story is inspired by other stories, after all - but it becomes a problem when the pieces never quite gel into their own creation. Lana is also much older than Harry was when he discovered wizardry; the world feels juvenile compared to who the main character is supposed to be. Then again, Lana starts out somewhat immature for her age, sounding more like a young teen or a preteen. (Or maybe it was the way the audiobook was narrated that gave this impression.) She has an odd sense of entitlement, as though she's owed access and answers to her questions from the highest echelons of power; unlike Harry, for whom the matter of Voldemort became very personal from the moment the wizard slaughtered his family, it's only later that the stakes become high and personal enough to begin to justify Lana's pushiness, as she makes herself a target of The Sire's scheming and wrath. Speaking of The Sire, he's a devious beast indeed, but becomes almost laughable in his tendency to tease and dangle and endlessly monologue rather than just get on with the Grand Evil Plan he has bent decades of existence toward.
In any event, the story has plenty of things happening, but for some reason feels slow and cluttered in the buildup to the climax, spending a lot of time on the Blazewrath teams and players, not to mention the games themselves (which will please anyone who thinks Rowling didn't spend nearly enough time on Quidditch matches; even a game with fire-breathing dragons can grow tedious, especially with outcomes a foregone conclusion.) Eventually, though, it finds some momentum, and though some events of the climax are both telegraphed and plot convenient, there's a fair price to be paid for the outcome that adds weight to it. And then it spends a little too long on a wrap-up that not only overexplains itself but all but guarantees a sequel. While there are some good elements to Blazewrath Games and I liked parts of it, I wound up feeling disappointed, even with the dragons.
You Might Also Enjoy:
House of Dragons (Jessica Cluess) - My Review
The Rithmatist (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
Dragon's Blood (Jane Yolen) - My Review
Amparo Oritz
Page Street Kids
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: For nearly as long as she can remember, seventeen-year-old Lana Torres has been obsessed with Blazewrath, a game of strength, skill, speed... and dragons. Six bonded riders and one unbonded Runner compete in massive arenas, a full-contact sport with fans - and critics - from around the world. After all, even a dragon who has chosen to bond with a human is still a dragon; there are more than enough unbonded beasts to remind humans of the threat they can be. Now, there's another danger, in the form of The Sire - a formerly-bonded dragon who betrayed his rider and was cursed into human form, who has threatened to burn whole cities if the Blazewrath world cup isn't cancelled and the bonded dragons freed. But the best witches and wizards are on the trail of the man and his fanatical Dragon Knights... and, surely, if the threat were so great, the president of the sport would cancel the Blazewrath games, right?
Lana finally has a chance to join the sport herself, with Puerto Rico finally having a team on its way to the world cup and in need of a replacement runner: she may have lived most of her life in Florida with her white mother, but she was born on the island, and her father instilled a love and healthy respect for dragons in the girl from a young age. Never mind that Lana almost got herself incinerated at age five when she got into the sanctuary of an unbonded dragon - which is why she has to keep her application and tryouts a secret from a mother who has decided no dragon is trustworthy and the games themselves are death waiting to happen. Fortunately, Lana's best friend - a copper-level witch still waiting to grow into silver-level powers - has arranged a distraction. Unfortunately, that distraction is interrupted by an attack from the Dragon Knights. Worse, Lana recognizes the Dragon Knight as a former Blazewrath star who disappeared after his dragon was murdered. How can a man who used to stand for everything good and beautiful about the sport now be following a monster like The Sire? Barely surviving both the attack and an enraged dragon, Lana becomes an instant celebrity and is offered the spot as Runner on the Puerto Rican Blazewrath team. This was supposed to be her dream... so why does she feel like she's trapped, caught in a web of secrets, lies, magic, and The Sire's dark threats?
REVIEW: As usual, I'm a sucker for dragons, so I gave this one a try. In its favor, it does indeed have some very awesome dragons with unique abilities, and the book never forgets that they are dragons, not oversized puppies: for all that they seem relatively docile when bonded, they are their own beings and seem to have their own agendas. The Sire may have been the only known dragon to break its bond, but there is no doubt that any dragon in the book could, if they so choose, throw off whatever voluntary restraints they've accepted if pushed too far. At some point, though, this becomes almost frustratingly vague; the dragons in this world never quite fit in or make sense, even on their own terms.
And this segues into some of my other issues. The book is clearly inspired by J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, particularly her somewhat-whimsical (and -vaguely defined/-plot convenient) concept of wizardry and the sport of Quidditch, mashed up with elements of the Triwizard Tournament (particularly Harry's face-off with the dragon.) I would not be surprised if this started as an alternate-world take on the Potterverse, one where wizards were not in hiding and muggles were allowed to play wizard games; one can almost pinpoint which characters or turn of events were transposed into this tale. In and of itself, that isn't a problem - every story is inspired by other stories, after all - but it becomes a problem when the pieces never quite gel into their own creation. Lana is also much older than Harry was when he discovered wizardry; the world feels juvenile compared to who the main character is supposed to be. Then again, Lana starts out somewhat immature for her age, sounding more like a young teen or a preteen. (Or maybe it was the way the audiobook was narrated that gave this impression.) She has an odd sense of entitlement, as though she's owed access and answers to her questions from the highest echelons of power; unlike Harry, for whom the matter of Voldemort became very personal from the moment the wizard slaughtered his family, it's only later that the stakes become high and personal enough to begin to justify Lana's pushiness, as she makes herself a target of The Sire's scheming and wrath. Speaking of The Sire, he's a devious beast indeed, but becomes almost laughable in his tendency to tease and dangle and endlessly monologue rather than just get on with the Grand Evil Plan he has bent decades of existence toward.
In any event, the story has plenty of things happening, but for some reason feels slow and cluttered in the buildup to the climax, spending a lot of time on the Blazewrath teams and players, not to mention the games themselves (which will please anyone who thinks Rowling didn't spend nearly enough time on Quidditch matches; even a game with fire-breathing dragons can grow tedious, especially with outcomes a foregone conclusion.) Eventually, though, it finds some momentum, and though some events of the climax are both telegraphed and plot convenient, there's a fair price to be paid for the outcome that adds weight to it. And then it spends a little too long on a wrap-up that not only overexplains itself but all but guarantees a sequel. While there are some good elements to Blazewrath Games and I liked parts of it, I wound up feeling disappointed, even with the dragons.
You Might Also Enjoy:
House of Dragons (Jessica Cluess) - My Review
The Rithmatist (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
Dragon's Blood (Jane Yolen) - My Review
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Ascender Volume 3 (Jeff Lemire)
Ascender Volume 3: The Digital Mage
The Ascender series, Issues 11 - 14
Jeff Lemire, illustrations by Dustin Nguyen
Image Comics
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: On the run from Mother's minions, young Mila and the illegal robot dog Bandit, along with her reluctant guardian Telsa and her companion, run into another old friend of Mila's father Andy: the robot Driller, protected by the mage Mizard the wizard after the great Descender robots removed mechanical beings from the galaxy and opened the way for magic's return (and Mother's rise.) Together, they find their way to a hidden fortress where the map in Bandit's scrambled brain might be unlocked... but what will they find?
Meanwhile, Andy - lost and presumed dead by his daughter Mila - has managed to not only survive, but rescue his former lover and Mila's mom, the half-robotic woman Effie. Freed of Mother's vampiric influences, she joins forces with Andy to find their way back to Mila and Bandit... but can they escape Mother's ever-watchful eyes?
Mother has suffered a cruel turn of fate: her prodigal sister, from whom Mother stole her powers and position, has returned, forcing the woman to act as a puppet running the galactic empire of magic and terror she built with her stolen abilities. But Mother didn't claw her way up from humiliation and drudgery just to end up, once again, on her knees before an arrogant witch...
REVIEW: This maintains the pacing and style of the previous two Ascender volumes (which are themselves continuations of Lemire's Descender series, chronicling the end of the robot era.) Separated from her father, Mila finds herself torn, both excited to finally fly into space and scared of a future without her family, a situation that becomes all the stranger when Mizard informs her that she is herself a fledgling mage. Her journey with Telsa brings them into contact not only with Driller, but another character from the original Descender series, who has undergone a radical transformation. Meanwhile, Mother's fortunes have taken a bad turn, but the new secret ruler of the galaxy is even crueler than she was. All paths seem to be converging toward the twin (possibly entwined) secrets of where the robots were taken and the hidden source of the galaxy's magic. The trajectory almost feels like it could wrap up in the next volume or two, unless some dramatic new plot twist draws it out as long as the original Descender series (six volumes.) In any event, I'm still enjoying this story, an interesting and action-filled blend of magic and rockets, and will happily read on.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sea of Stars, Volume 1 (Jason Aaron and Dennis Hallum) - My Review
Starfire: A Red Peace (Spencer Ellsworth) - My Review
Ascender Volume 1 (Jeff Lemire) - My Review
The Ascender series, Issues 11 - 14
Jeff Lemire, illustrations by Dustin Nguyen
Image Comics
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: On the run from Mother's minions, young Mila and the illegal robot dog Bandit, along with her reluctant guardian Telsa and her companion, run into another old friend of Mila's father Andy: the robot Driller, protected by the mage Mizard the wizard after the great Descender robots removed mechanical beings from the galaxy and opened the way for magic's return (and Mother's rise.) Together, they find their way to a hidden fortress where the map in Bandit's scrambled brain might be unlocked... but what will they find?
Meanwhile, Andy - lost and presumed dead by his daughter Mila - has managed to not only survive, but rescue his former lover and Mila's mom, the half-robotic woman Effie. Freed of Mother's vampiric influences, she joins forces with Andy to find their way back to Mila and Bandit... but can they escape Mother's ever-watchful eyes?
Mother has suffered a cruel turn of fate: her prodigal sister, from whom Mother stole her powers and position, has returned, forcing the woman to act as a puppet running the galactic empire of magic and terror she built with her stolen abilities. But Mother didn't claw her way up from humiliation and drudgery just to end up, once again, on her knees before an arrogant witch...
REVIEW: This maintains the pacing and style of the previous two Ascender volumes (which are themselves continuations of Lemire's Descender series, chronicling the end of the robot era.) Separated from her father, Mila finds herself torn, both excited to finally fly into space and scared of a future without her family, a situation that becomes all the stranger when Mizard informs her that she is herself a fledgling mage. Her journey with Telsa brings them into contact not only with Driller, but another character from the original Descender series, who has undergone a radical transformation. Meanwhile, Mother's fortunes have taken a bad turn, but the new secret ruler of the galaxy is even crueler than she was. All paths seem to be converging toward the twin (possibly entwined) secrets of where the robots were taken and the hidden source of the galaxy's magic. The trajectory almost feels like it could wrap up in the next volume or two, unless some dramatic new plot twist draws it out as long as the original Descender series (six volumes.) In any event, I'm still enjoying this story, an interesting and action-filled blend of magic and rockets, and will happily read on.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sea of Stars, Volume 1 (Jason Aaron and Dennis Hallum) - My Review
Starfire: A Red Peace (Spencer Ellsworth) - My Review
Ascender Volume 1 (Jeff Lemire) - My Review
Monday, February 8, 2021
The Art of The Dragon Prince (Wonderstorm)
The Art of The Dragon Prince
Wonderstorm, with Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond (creators)
Dark Horse Books
Nonfiction, Art/Media Reference
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: In Netflix's animated series The Dragon Prince, a world of magic - long ago sundered when humans turned to dark powers and horrified the magical beings of the land - stands once more on the brink of war. The king of dragons was slain and his egg destroyed by humans... and, even now, a team of Moonshadow elven assassins makes their way to the human realms to exact revenge. But young Prince Ezran and his half-brother Callum make an incredible discovery: the egg wasn't destroyed, but stolen by their court mage Viren. If they, along with young elven assassin Rayla, can return the egg to the dragon queen, perhaps they can avert a conflict that could burn the whole world and everyone on it. Explore the designs and creative processes behind the series in this full-color book.
REVIEW: This book is everything a supplemental series art book should be, offering numerous concept sketches, trivia on story and character development, and some fun and interesting asides along the way. Every page is a visual treat, much like the animated series itself, bursting with color and imagination. It's fascinating how the story developed from its initial form to what appeared on screen, and how cultures and characters and creatures took shape. Naturally, there are some spoilers if one hasn't watched all three currently-available seasons. I'm looking forward to future installments of The Dragon Prince (which were reportedly greenlit, but of course anything can happen between then and actual release)... not to mention some decent merchandising. (Seriously, Netflix or Wonderstorm or whoever is in charge of these things, let's make with the dragons! And I don't mean that Funko Pop Azymondias; I mean actual collectible dragon figures. DreamWorks showed you how it was done with their How to Train Your Dragon franchise, and my Toothless collection could use friends. Or at least give me a Blu-Ray release.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Art of Kubo and the Two Strings (Emily Haynes) - My Review
The Art of How to Train Your Dragon (Tracy Miller-Zarneke) - My Review
Fantasy World-Building (Mark A. Nelson) - My Review
Wonderstorm, with Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond (creators)
Dark Horse Books
Nonfiction, Art/Media Reference
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: In Netflix's animated series The Dragon Prince, a world of magic - long ago sundered when humans turned to dark powers and horrified the magical beings of the land - stands once more on the brink of war. The king of dragons was slain and his egg destroyed by humans... and, even now, a team of Moonshadow elven assassins makes their way to the human realms to exact revenge. But young Prince Ezran and his half-brother Callum make an incredible discovery: the egg wasn't destroyed, but stolen by their court mage Viren. If they, along with young elven assassin Rayla, can return the egg to the dragon queen, perhaps they can avert a conflict that could burn the whole world and everyone on it. Explore the designs and creative processes behind the series in this full-color book.
REVIEW: This book is everything a supplemental series art book should be, offering numerous concept sketches, trivia on story and character development, and some fun and interesting asides along the way. Every page is a visual treat, much like the animated series itself, bursting with color and imagination. It's fascinating how the story developed from its initial form to what appeared on screen, and how cultures and characters and creatures took shape. Naturally, there are some spoilers if one hasn't watched all three currently-available seasons. I'm looking forward to future installments of The Dragon Prince (which were reportedly greenlit, but of course anything can happen between then and actual release)... not to mention some decent merchandising. (Seriously, Netflix or Wonderstorm or whoever is in charge of these things, let's make with the dragons! And I don't mean that Funko Pop Azymondias; I mean actual collectible dragon figures. DreamWorks showed you how it was done with their How to Train Your Dragon franchise, and my Toothless collection could use friends. Or at least give me a Blu-Ray release.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Art of Kubo and the Two Strings (Emily Haynes) - My Review
The Art of How to Train Your Dragon (Tracy Miller-Zarneke) - My Review
Fantasy World-Building (Mark A. Nelson) - My Review
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Acheron Rising (Ken Lozito)
Acheron Rising: A Federation Chronicles Novella
The Federation Chronicles series
Ken Lozito
Acoustical Books LLC
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: For a century, the galaxy's worlds have knelt before the Jordani Federation, a cruel and militant nation none have been able to challenge and survive... until now. When the Jordani intercept a supply run for a secret research colony world of the Acheron Confederacy, a place where they can research new technology and weapons to someday throw off Jordani's heavy yoke, the planet's only defenses are acting Acheron Federation Navy Captain Elias Browning, three outmatched warships - and one man whose technological breakthrough will forever alter the galactic balance of power.
REVIEW: It was free, it was short, and it looked intriguing (or at least entertaining), so I gave this one a try. Acheron Rising is pretty much what it says it is, a military science fiction story with an underdog captain, a cruel admiral, and a world that needs defending, with a new gamechanger technology in virtual intelligence and uploaded consciousness. It doesn't lag much, if at all. On the downside, though, this is an exceptionally male-heavy story; there were a total of two women that I counted, one a helpless mother and the other a cold-as-ice corporate shark out to poach the new tech for private exploitation. The characters are more or less who you'd expect in this sort of story, as well: the impulsive young man unexpectedly thrust into the captain's seat, the evil admiral who has a mustache but doesn't quite twirl it, the college technology prodigy forced by a family crisis and scheming corporations to prematurely launch his grand experiment (and, in doing so, maybe save his family and a sickly brother), and so forth. That's not necessarily bad, and it serves the story well enough, but it isn't stunningly original either.
What really mystified me, though, is why the author felt this prequel story needed to be written. Not that it isn't a competent tale, if somewhat abrupt, but the excerpt from the first novel, Acheron Inheritance, would've interested me without all this testosterone-heavy preamble: it starts with a man who barely remembers his own name waking up in the body of an agricultural robot on a devastated world, with a virtual-intelligence assistant informing him that he's being hunted by battle mech drones. That right there is what they call a "hook", and one where it was easy enough to deduce the existence of mind-upload technology without explaining where the tech came from or how it was first deployed. In any event, while it's not bad, it ends up feeling a bit superfluous. (I am seriously considering that novel though; that hook really intrigued me...)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie) - My Review
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Dennis E. Taylor) - My Review
All Systems Red (Martha Wells) - My Review
The Federation Chronicles series
Ken Lozito
Acoustical Books LLC
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: For a century, the galaxy's worlds have knelt before the Jordani Federation, a cruel and militant nation none have been able to challenge and survive... until now. When the Jordani intercept a supply run for a secret research colony world of the Acheron Confederacy, a place where they can research new technology and weapons to someday throw off Jordani's heavy yoke, the planet's only defenses are acting Acheron Federation Navy Captain Elias Browning, three outmatched warships - and one man whose technological breakthrough will forever alter the galactic balance of power.
REVIEW: It was free, it was short, and it looked intriguing (or at least entertaining), so I gave this one a try. Acheron Rising is pretty much what it says it is, a military science fiction story with an underdog captain, a cruel admiral, and a world that needs defending, with a new gamechanger technology in virtual intelligence and uploaded consciousness. It doesn't lag much, if at all. On the downside, though, this is an exceptionally male-heavy story; there were a total of two women that I counted, one a helpless mother and the other a cold-as-ice corporate shark out to poach the new tech for private exploitation. The characters are more or less who you'd expect in this sort of story, as well: the impulsive young man unexpectedly thrust into the captain's seat, the evil admiral who has a mustache but doesn't quite twirl it, the college technology prodigy forced by a family crisis and scheming corporations to prematurely launch his grand experiment (and, in doing so, maybe save his family and a sickly brother), and so forth. That's not necessarily bad, and it serves the story well enough, but it isn't stunningly original either.
What really mystified me, though, is why the author felt this prequel story needed to be written. Not that it isn't a competent tale, if somewhat abrupt, but the excerpt from the first novel, Acheron Inheritance, would've interested me without all this testosterone-heavy preamble: it starts with a man who barely remembers his own name waking up in the body of an agricultural robot on a devastated world, with a virtual-intelligence assistant informing him that he's being hunted by battle mech drones. That right there is what they call a "hook", and one where it was easy enough to deduce the existence of mind-upload technology without explaining where the tech came from or how it was first deployed. In any event, while it's not bad, it ends up feeling a bit superfluous. (I am seriously considering that novel though; that hook really intrigued me...)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie) - My Review
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Dennis E. Taylor) - My Review
All Systems Red (Martha Wells) - My Review
Saturday, February 6, 2021
Across the Green Grass Fields (Seanan McGuire)
Across the Green Grass Fields
The Wayward Children series, Book 6
Seanan McGuire
Tor
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: In her youngest years, Regan had two best friends, Laurel and Heather... until the day Heather brought a garter snake to school and Laurel decided she wasn't "girl" enough to play with, dragging Regan away. She never forgot that moment, the lesson taught in coldness and cruelty: there's a right way and a wrong way to be a girl, and to be the wrong way is to be cast out. Though she never became obsessed with boys or dating, she did fall in love with horses, which was acceptably feminine enough to get a pass from the one-girl judge, jury, and executioner Laurel... but, as years pass, her friends start to change and she does not. Eventually, Regan has to ask why.
That's when her parents tell her the truth: a lot of words about chromosomal abnormalities and androgen insensitivity, about being intersex, about how she will likely never be entirely a "she" (by traditional, Laurel-dictated standards) without hormone treatment. The next day at school, she makes the mistake of telling Laurel... and is driven away, pushed out like a monstrous freak.
Running away from school, Regan finds herself before a door in the woods... a door that leads to a land of unicorns and centaurs and all manner of hoofed wonders and terrors, where humans are near-legendary creatures. It is said in the Hooflands that humans only arrive when there is a great danger or a great change, and once they've done what they were sent to do, they disappear. Horse-lover Regan soon finds herself more at home among these gentle giants than she ever was on Earth; if she avoids the Queen, perhaps she can stay here forever among the centaurs. But, hard as she tries to avoid her apparent destiny, destiny has a way of coming to find her...
REVIEW: After a few iffy reads in a row, I needed a break, and any title by Seanan McGuire is far more likely than not to be good. Across the Green Grass Fields introduces a new character to her Wayward Children series of portal fantasy adventurers, the intersex girl Regan, and a new world in the Hooflands, a dream world for any horse-lover - even if the domestic unicorns are dumber than a pile of rocks and smell bad to boot. Like the other children in the series, Regan struggles to fit into a box the world forces her into, a struggle that leads to failure that leads to a door and another world. Here, she finds a place where she feels more at home (to the point where she becomes wary of passing through any door, lest it dump her back in the cold and cruel Earth run by Laurels who tell her she's a freak) - but, ultimately, she is an outsider, an anomaly, and as much as she becomes bonded with the centaur herd that takes her in, she'll always be a visitor, always have the weight of Destiny hanging over her head. But is Destiny an outside force, or merely the inevitable result of one's own conscience and choices? It reads fast, with moments of beauty and heartbreak, and if it seems slightly thinner or weaker than the other Wayward Children installments, it's still leagues ahead of many titles.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Bad Unicorn (Platte F. Clarke) - My Review
Every Heart a Doorway (Seanan McGuire) - My Review
Rampant (Diana Peterfreund) - My Review
The Wayward Children series, Book 6
Seanan McGuire
Tor
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: In her youngest years, Regan had two best friends, Laurel and Heather... until the day Heather brought a garter snake to school and Laurel decided she wasn't "girl" enough to play with, dragging Regan away. She never forgot that moment, the lesson taught in coldness and cruelty: there's a right way and a wrong way to be a girl, and to be the wrong way is to be cast out. Though she never became obsessed with boys or dating, she did fall in love with horses, which was acceptably feminine enough to get a pass from the one-girl judge, jury, and executioner Laurel... but, as years pass, her friends start to change and she does not. Eventually, Regan has to ask why.
That's when her parents tell her the truth: a lot of words about chromosomal abnormalities and androgen insensitivity, about being intersex, about how she will likely never be entirely a "she" (by traditional, Laurel-dictated standards) without hormone treatment. The next day at school, she makes the mistake of telling Laurel... and is driven away, pushed out like a monstrous freak.
Running away from school, Regan finds herself before a door in the woods... a door that leads to a land of unicorns and centaurs and all manner of hoofed wonders and terrors, where humans are near-legendary creatures. It is said in the Hooflands that humans only arrive when there is a great danger or a great change, and once they've done what they were sent to do, they disappear. Horse-lover Regan soon finds herself more at home among these gentle giants than she ever was on Earth; if she avoids the Queen, perhaps she can stay here forever among the centaurs. But, hard as she tries to avoid her apparent destiny, destiny has a way of coming to find her...
REVIEW: After a few iffy reads in a row, I needed a break, and any title by Seanan McGuire is far more likely than not to be good. Across the Green Grass Fields introduces a new character to her Wayward Children series of portal fantasy adventurers, the intersex girl Regan, and a new world in the Hooflands, a dream world for any horse-lover - even if the domestic unicorns are dumber than a pile of rocks and smell bad to boot. Like the other children in the series, Regan struggles to fit into a box the world forces her into, a struggle that leads to failure that leads to a door and another world. Here, she finds a place where she feels more at home (to the point where she becomes wary of passing through any door, lest it dump her back in the cold and cruel Earth run by Laurels who tell her she's a freak) - but, ultimately, she is an outsider, an anomaly, and as much as she becomes bonded with the centaur herd that takes her in, she'll always be a visitor, always have the weight of Destiny hanging over her head. But is Destiny an outside force, or merely the inevitable result of one's own conscience and choices? It reads fast, with moments of beauty and heartbreak, and if it seems slightly thinner or weaker than the other Wayward Children installments, it's still leagues ahead of many titles.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Bad Unicorn (Platte F. Clarke) - My Review
Every Heart a Doorway (Seanan McGuire) - My Review
Rampant (Diana Peterfreund) - My Review
Friday, February 5, 2021
When They Find Us (Jenifer Ruff)
When They Find Us
The Agent Victoria Heslin series, Book 3
Jenifer Ruff
Greyt Companion Press
Fiction, Action/Mystery/Thriller
** (Bad)
DESCRIPTION: Agent Victoria Heslin may be one of the FBI's best and brightest, involved in some prominent cases over her stellar career, but she also has interests outside work - such as the animal shelter for abandoned and abused hunting dogs she founded in Spain with part of her personal fortune. She's on her way there, with her veterinarian friend Ned (who might become more than a friend, judging from an unplanned earlier kiss)... but she never makes it to her London connection. Her plane disappears from radar in the middle of a storm. As her friends at the bureau scramble to uncover what went wrong, Victoria finds herself among a handful of survivors at a remote crash site far off the flight path, where no search plane would ever think to look - possibly stranded with one of the very people who made things go so very, very wrong to begin with. Though her friends back in D.C. scramble to uncover what happened, their best efforts may be too late to save her...
REVIEW: Every so often, I need a break from my speculative fiction reading diet. When They Find Us, from the description, looked like it would fit the bill, offering a little survival, a little action, a little thriller, and a series where it looked like I didn't need to come in on the first book. (And, yes, it was on sale. I still do not get the deal with offering mid-series books on sale and not the first title, but that's another matter altogether.) Coming off a fairly descriptive and verbose fantasy, the writing was an abrupt change of pace: very lean, rarely bothering to show what it could just tell me... and, it soon became apparent, stuffed to the rafters with stock characters, stock situations, and enough red herrings to populate a small sea. Or, at least, I saw them as red herrings, probably because I was looking for fish that just were not there.
Victoria's a prodigal agent, wealthier than your average god and with at least two men helplessly in love with her, who has, within moments of first meeting, profiled everyone riding in first class with her - profiles whose pencil-sketch impressions are never wrong, yet also are never particularly deep or insightful. Everyone is pretty much who you think they are: the obnoxious sexist jerk who doesn't waste a moment thinking of other people while guzzling all the alcohol and peeing in almost every available water bottle, the older woman who prays and cares for everyone but herself, the sorority girl who exists to whine and have a bendy-wendy ankle (seriously? We're still doing that these days?), the neglected teen son of wealthy parents whose missing medication for a "mental health thing" never becomes the potential subplot it could be, a cat for no earthly reason, and so forth. I had thought, or rather hoped, from the official description that Victoria would be dealing with the twin problems of survival in an icy wasteland and figuring out what went wrong, possibly sniffing out the terrorist in their midst... but, no. The investigation into what happens take place entirely stateside. Cut scenes reveal the mastermind of the plot to be, frankly, a naive idiot who adds pretty much nothing to the entire plot, whose agents are very obvious (and mostly dead.) There's also a sidetrack about missing diamonds that does nothing but eat a few random pages of word count. Survival is mostly sitting around in a fragment of plane, with the odd trek to search wreckage for supplies and not many complications until the survivors are forced to make a last-ditch bid to seek civilization on their own. And ultimately it's men saving women, even a woman who somehow managed earlier to stop a charging full-grown polar bear with a handgun. There is no mystery to be solved on the plane, there is no depth to anyone in the story, and there's ultimately no point to the bad guy's terribly botched plan.
On the plus side, the story moves okay, and it is more or less what it says on the wrapper. On the minus side, there are better stories of both survival and FBI investigations out there.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Concrete Evidence (Rachel Grant) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Brian's Winter (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
The Agent Victoria Heslin series, Book 3
Jenifer Ruff
Greyt Companion Press
Fiction, Action/Mystery/Thriller
** (Bad)
DESCRIPTION: Agent Victoria Heslin may be one of the FBI's best and brightest, involved in some prominent cases over her stellar career, but she also has interests outside work - such as the animal shelter for abandoned and abused hunting dogs she founded in Spain with part of her personal fortune. She's on her way there, with her veterinarian friend Ned (who might become more than a friend, judging from an unplanned earlier kiss)... but she never makes it to her London connection. Her plane disappears from radar in the middle of a storm. As her friends at the bureau scramble to uncover what went wrong, Victoria finds herself among a handful of survivors at a remote crash site far off the flight path, where no search plane would ever think to look - possibly stranded with one of the very people who made things go so very, very wrong to begin with. Though her friends back in D.C. scramble to uncover what happened, their best efforts may be too late to save her...
REVIEW: Every so often, I need a break from my speculative fiction reading diet. When They Find Us, from the description, looked like it would fit the bill, offering a little survival, a little action, a little thriller, and a series where it looked like I didn't need to come in on the first book. (And, yes, it was on sale. I still do not get the deal with offering mid-series books on sale and not the first title, but that's another matter altogether.) Coming off a fairly descriptive and verbose fantasy, the writing was an abrupt change of pace: very lean, rarely bothering to show what it could just tell me... and, it soon became apparent, stuffed to the rafters with stock characters, stock situations, and enough red herrings to populate a small sea. Or, at least, I saw them as red herrings, probably because I was looking for fish that just were not there.
Victoria's a prodigal agent, wealthier than your average god and with at least two men helplessly in love with her, who has, within moments of first meeting, profiled everyone riding in first class with her - profiles whose pencil-sketch impressions are never wrong, yet also are never particularly deep or insightful. Everyone is pretty much who you think they are: the obnoxious sexist jerk who doesn't waste a moment thinking of other people while guzzling all the alcohol and peeing in almost every available water bottle, the older woman who prays and cares for everyone but herself, the sorority girl who exists to whine and have a bendy-wendy ankle (seriously? We're still doing that these days?), the neglected teen son of wealthy parents whose missing medication for a "mental health thing" never becomes the potential subplot it could be, a cat for no earthly reason, and so forth. I had thought, or rather hoped, from the official description that Victoria would be dealing with the twin problems of survival in an icy wasteland and figuring out what went wrong, possibly sniffing out the terrorist in their midst... but, no. The investigation into what happens take place entirely stateside. Cut scenes reveal the mastermind of the plot to be, frankly, a naive idiot who adds pretty much nothing to the entire plot, whose agents are very obvious (and mostly dead.) There's also a sidetrack about missing diamonds that does nothing but eat a few random pages of word count. Survival is mostly sitting around in a fragment of plane, with the odd trek to search wreckage for supplies and not many complications until the survivors are forced to make a last-ditch bid to seek civilization on their own. And ultimately it's men saving women, even a woman who somehow managed earlier to stop a charging full-grown polar bear with a handgun. There is no mystery to be solved on the plane, there is no depth to anyone in the story, and there's ultimately no point to the bad guy's terribly botched plan.
On the plus side, the story moves okay, and it is more or less what it says on the wrapper. On the minus side, there are better stories of both survival and FBI investigations out there.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Concrete Evidence (Rachel Grant) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Brian's Winter (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Thursday, February 4, 2021
Burn (Patrick Ness)
Burn
Patrick Ness
Quill Tree Books
Fiction, YA? Fantasy/Historical Fiction
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: If Sarah Dewhurst and her father weren't so poor, they could've hired humans to clear acreage on their struggling farm in rural Frome, Washington. Instead, they must make do with Kazimir, a one-eyed Russian blue dragon. This isn't going to help their standing in the community, where Sarah is already looked at askance because her late mother was black and her father is white. The postwar 1950's world is still reeling from the invention of the atomic bomb and under the growing tension of the Cold War - about to be exacerbated exponentially as Russia prepares to launch the world's first satellite. Despite the fact that "Russian" is just a geographic name, not a political affiliation, as dragons have no interest in petty human governments, the people of Frome aren't any more kindly disposed to non-Americans than anywhere else in the country right now... and, of course, nobody really feels comfortable around dragons, even though there's been peace between the species for over two hundred years. But there's more to the dragon's visit than mere hired labor. He reveals to Sarah that he was brought to Frome by a dragon prophecy about averting the end of the world... the same prophecy that drives a young Believer, a cultish dragon-worshipper, from his hidden enclave on a mission for the dragon goddess herself.
REVIEW: I thought I was going to enjoy this alternate-reality take on the early days of the Cold War, placed in a world with dragons. At first, I did like it. Ness slowly crafts the setting and characters, with nobody being flat or excessively stupid to further the storyline. As elements of the prophecy play out and people and events slowly come together, it builds to a fine climax... halfway through the book. Then the story jumps to a parallel world, a sort of second chance at things that went wrong, even as an even greater threat is unleashed on an unprepared and dragonless Earth. Here is where Ness really started losing me, as descriptions tipped over the line from rich to outright tedious and repetitious. The second climax draws things out even longer than the first one, with more than one event drawing an incredulous eye-roll. And then the ending... it not only overexplained itself, but it threw a bit of a wet blanket on the whole concept of dragons, while trying to be Clever and Literary about it. I (barely) enjoyed enough of the earlier ideas to justify an Okay rating, but that's about it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Story of Owen (E. K. Johnson) - My Review
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik) - My Review
Voices of Dragons (Carrie Vaughn) - My Review
Patrick Ness
Quill Tree Books
Fiction, YA? Fantasy/Historical Fiction
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: If Sarah Dewhurst and her father weren't so poor, they could've hired humans to clear acreage on their struggling farm in rural Frome, Washington. Instead, they must make do with Kazimir, a one-eyed Russian blue dragon. This isn't going to help their standing in the community, where Sarah is already looked at askance because her late mother was black and her father is white. The postwar 1950's world is still reeling from the invention of the atomic bomb and under the growing tension of the Cold War - about to be exacerbated exponentially as Russia prepares to launch the world's first satellite. Despite the fact that "Russian" is just a geographic name, not a political affiliation, as dragons have no interest in petty human governments, the people of Frome aren't any more kindly disposed to non-Americans than anywhere else in the country right now... and, of course, nobody really feels comfortable around dragons, even though there's been peace between the species for over two hundred years. But there's more to the dragon's visit than mere hired labor. He reveals to Sarah that he was brought to Frome by a dragon prophecy about averting the end of the world... the same prophecy that drives a young Believer, a cultish dragon-worshipper, from his hidden enclave on a mission for the dragon goddess herself.
REVIEW: I thought I was going to enjoy this alternate-reality take on the early days of the Cold War, placed in a world with dragons. At first, I did like it. Ness slowly crafts the setting and characters, with nobody being flat or excessively stupid to further the storyline. As elements of the prophecy play out and people and events slowly come together, it builds to a fine climax... halfway through the book. Then the story jumps to a parallel world, a sort of second chance at things that went wrong, even as an even greater threat is unleashed on an unprepared and dragonless Earth. Here is where Ness really started losing me, as descriptions tipped over the line from rich to outright tedious and repetitious. The second climax draws things out even longer than the first one, with more than one event drawing an incredulous eye-roll. And then the ending... it not only overexplained itself, but it threw a bit of a wet blanket on the whole concept of dragons, while trying to be Clever and Literary about it. I (barely) enjoyed enough of the earlier ideas to justify an Okay rating, but that's about it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Story of Owen (E. K. Johnson) - My Review
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik) - My Review
Voices of Dragons (Carrie Vaughn) - My Review
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