The month's reviews, all 14 of them, have been archived and cross-linked at the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Saturday, April 30, 2022
Friday, April 29, 2022
Certain Dark Things (Silvia Moreno-Garcia)
Certain Dark Things
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In a near-future Mexico City that has declared its independence as a city-state, crime and corruption may run rampant, but it has a reputation as one of the few areas of the Americas free from any species of vampire. At least, it's supposed to be. While other nations have varied in their reactions to the revelation that various vampire species were real, ranging from outright expulsion to legal repression, Mexico City's powerful street cartels united and drove the blood-drinkers out, keeping them out to this day. But when homeless teenager Domingo, scraping a living as a garbage collector on the city streets, meets the strange dark-eyed woman on the subway with her gene-modded guardian dog, he learns there's at least one vampire in the city limits... and she's in trouble.
Atl, descendant of vampires who used to be warrior-priests in the days of the Aztecs and now run profitable drug cartels in northern Mexico, used to be the spoiled baby of her family. Then a power struggle with new, thuggish European "necros", vampires with powers of mind control over their victims, left her entire family dead and her on the run. If she can make it to Central or South America, where laws are less stringent and the reach of the necros is reduced, she might find safety, but with increasing security at border crossings, she needs fake ID and other assistance, and her only possible contact is in the ostensibly vampire-free zone of Mexico City. But even a fugitive vampire needs to eat now and again. When she met the young man on the subway, she only thought to pay him for a little fresh blood and his silence. Soon, though, Domingo becomes swept up in her problems, when a son of her family's rivals follows her to Mexico City intent on ending her clan once and for all.
REVIEW: Certain Dark Things draws on Central and South American traditions and the long history of its setting in Mexico City to create a vampire story with a distinctly different flavor. It also flips the common trope of the masculine protector vampire seducing the helpless human lady. Domingo, who grew up in rough conditions and has perhaps an unhealthy obsession with comic books and popular graphic novel depictions of vampires, may not quite be helpless, but he definitely has a lot to learn about the reality of the beings he's loved for so long, and despite the harshness of his situation and upbringing he retains an optimistic romanticism that both blinds him and gives him fuel to keep pushing ahead as things grow increasingly dark and desperate. Atl, meanwhile, struggles with feelings of guilt and trauma from the slaughter of her family, plus mixed feelings about taking on a human assistant - a "Renfield", as they're known in vampire circles, loyal servants bonded by blood - when she should be trying to keep a low profile and escape. There's also a woman police detective, jaded by the harsh reality behind promises of "reform" and equality in the notoriously lackadaisical and corrupt force, whose experiences hunting vampires before coming to Mexico City come in surprisingly handy when not one, but two vampires turn up in a city with no idea how to handle them, as well as the immature rival necro vampire Nick, whose hot temper and sadistic feeding habits create more trouble for everyone. As with most vampire fiction, there's an air of tragedy and horror over the whole tale, especially where human and vampire lives mingle... particularly vampires like Atl's race, who embrace the old Aztec core values of sacrifice being an inevitable, unavoidable part of life. The plot wends through the grit and dark history of Mexico City's streets, ratcheting up the stakes and tension, until it reaches a finale that stumbles enough I almost shaved a half-star off the rating. Though it feels fairly complete, the set-up and characters might carry sequels or spinoffs. Ultimately, the overall originality of the setting, and the fact that the ending, even with its stumbles, did play into the overall theme of the book, managed to keep it afloat at four stars. I'm definitely interested in reading more from this author.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Death Warmed Over (Kevin J. Anderson) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Dracula (Bram Stoker) - My Review
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In a near-future Mexico City that has declared its independence as a city-state, crime and corruption may run rampant, but it has a reputation as one of the few areas of the Americas free from any species of vampire. At least, it's supposed to be. While other nations have varied in their reactions to the revelation that various vampire species were real, ranging from outright expulsion to legal repression, Mexico City's powerful street cartels united and drove the blood-drinkers out, keeping them out to this day. But when homeless teenager Domingo, scraping a living as a garbage collector on the city streets, meets the strange dark-eyed woman on the subway with her gene-modded guardian dog, he learns there's at least one vampire in the city limits... and she's in trouble.
Atl, descendant of vampires who used to be warrior-priests in the days of the Aztecs and now run profitable drug cartels in northern Mexico, used to be the spoiled baby of her family. Then a power struggle with new, thuggish European "necros", vampires with powers of mind control over their victims, left her entire family dead and her on the run. If she can make it to Central or South America, where laws are less stringent and the reach of the necros is reduced, she might find safety, but with increasing security at border crossings, she needs fake ID and other assistance, and her only possible contact is in the ostensibly vampire-free zone of Mexico City. But even a fugitive vampire needs to eat now and again. When she met the young man on the subway, she only thought to pay him for a little fresh blood and his silence. Soon, though, Domingo becomes swept up in her problems, when a son of her family's rivals follows her to Mexico City intent on ending her clan once and for all.
REVIEW: Certain Dark Things draws on Central and South American traditions and the long history of its setting in Mexico City to create a vampire story with a distinctly different flavor. It also flips the common trope of the masculine protector vampire seducing the helpless human lady. Domingo, who grew up in rough conditions and has perhaps an unhealthy obsession with comic books and popular graphic novel depictions of vampires, may not quite be helpless, but he definitely has a lot to learn about the reality of the beings he's loved for so long, and despite the harshness of his situation and upbringing he retains an optimistic romanticism that both blinds him and gives him fuel to keep pushing ahead as things grow increasingly dark and desperate. Atl, meanwhile, struggles with feelings of guilt and trauma from the slaughter of her family, plus mixed feelings about taking on a human assistant - a "Renfield", as they're known in vampire circles, loyal servants bonded by blood - when she should be trying to keep a low profile and escape. There's also a woman police detective, jaded by the harsh reality behind promises of "reform" and equality in the notoriously lackadaisical and corrupt force, whose experiences hunting vampires before coming to Mexico City come in surprisingly handy when not one, but two vampires turn up in a city with no idea how to handle them, as well as the immature rival necro vampire Nick, whose hot temper and sadistic feeding habits create more trouble for everyone. As with most vampire fiction, there's an air of tragedy and horror over the whole tale, especially where human and vampire lives mingle... particularly vampires like Atl's race, who embrace the old Aztec core values of sacrifice being an inevitable, unavoidable part of life. The plot wends through the grit and dark history of Mexico City's streets, ratcheting up the stakes and tension, until it reaches a finale that stumbles enough I almost shaved a half-star off the rating. Though it feels fairly complete, the set-up and characters might carry sequels or spinoffs. Ultimately, the overall originality of the setting, and the fact that the ending, even with its stumbles, did play into the overall theme of the book, managed to keep it afloat at four stars. I'm definitely interested in reading more from this author.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Death Warmed Over (Kevin J. Anderson) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Dracula (Bram Stoker) - My Review
Thursday, April 28, 2022
The Love Con (Seressia Glass)
The Love Con
Seressia Glass
Berkley Books
Fiction, Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Ever since high school, Kenya Davenport has been a power cosplayer, using makeup, prosthetics, and costuming to recreate favorite fictional characters or mashing them up into original creations. Unfortunately, her parents have never understood her passion, insisting she give up her dream and get a "real" job with her engineering degree. When her best friend Cameron Lassiter, who shares her loves of cosplay, gaming, anime, and comics, tipped her off about a new reality competition - Cosplay or No Way, pitting cosplayers against each other for a grand prize of $100,000 and a chance to work on a Hollywood blockbuster fantasy film - it seemed like the answer. If she can prove, on national television, that she has what it takes to turn her "childish fantasy" into a real career by winning, maybe they'll finally understand. Amazingly, she made it to the final round... but the last challenge throws a wrench into the works. She has four weeks to design a pair of costumes for the finale: one for her, and one for the significant other she does not have, having broken up with her last boyfriend some time ago. Under pressure, on camera, she names the first person who comes to mind: Cam.
Cam was working late at his fledgling fabrication shop, Make It Works, watching his best friend since high school make her way to the final round on Cosplay or No Way when he hears his name. He has had feelings for Kenya for a while, but they've never dated, and the one time he floated the idea in their college days she friendzoned him hard. But now she's telling all of America that they're an item. When she comes back to Atlanta, film crew in tow (because of course they want to film the entire design process, and likely drum up some domestic drama for ratings), she explains that it's just a pretend romance. The producers had been trying all season to cast her as the mean, fat Black woman stereotype; the judges likely didn't even think she had ever dated when they set the final challenge, let alone dated a blonde hunk like Cam. She also needs his help if she's going to fabricate two costumes in four weeks, a job that would usually take months. For the sake of their friendship and the competition, Cam agrees to be the perfect fake boyfriend.
Cosplay may be all about make-believe, but there's nothing fake about the feelings that spark between Cam and Kenya, even when the cameras aren't rolling...
REVIEW: Romances make nice palate cleansers, I find, and this one had the extra interest of the cosplay sideline; I've never indulged, but always found it an interesting hobby. The Love Con hits the usual romance novel notes, but (no offense intended to romance fans) one generally doesn't read romances for unpredictable originality in the plots. It's characters, their interactions, and the individual ups and downs of their relationship (which, being a romance, one can generally predict the outcome of) that make or break these stories. On those levels, The Love Con proves satisfying. Kenya has been fighting her whole life against expectations: not just the expectations of a society that has a particular Idea of how large Black women are and what they can and cannot do, but against parents who, while they may mean well, cannot understand how their demands are hurting more than they're helping. She's always had Cam in her corner, though, ever since they met in high school, but never let herself think of him as anything more than a friend, the wayward son of an alcoholic father, whom her parents took under their wing when he needed a family most. Cam, meanwhile, has carried a candle, if not a full-blown torch, for Kenya for years, but never knew how to broach the subject after the one failed attempt. Pretending to be her boyfriend may be a back door into a real relationship. But even he is taken by surprise by the strength of emotions that their fake romance unearths. Along the way, they have to contend with jealous exes, Kenya's disapproving parents (who made her promise that, if she didn't win, she'd give up her fledgling cosplay career and "grow up"), and a reality film crew intent on stirring up drama. The leads are pretty well matched, with some solid interactions and believable insecurities, and of course there's rising heat as they realize how real the fake romance has become. Glass also treats cosplay and fandom respectfully, as the passions and commitments they are. A few of the twists are a little too telegraphed, and there were a couple threads and ideas that seemed underplayed or forgotten, but all in all The Love Con offers exactly what it says on the label.
You Might Also Enjoy:
When Lightning Strikes (Brenda Novak) - My Review
Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell) - My Review
Romancing Miss Right (Lizzie Shane) - My Review
Seressia Glass
Berkley Books
Fiction, Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Ever since high school, Kenya Davenport has been a power cosplayer, using makeup, prosthetics, and costuming to recreate favorite fictional characters or mashing them up into original creations. Unfortunately, her parents have never understood her passion, insisting she give up her dream and get a "real" job with her engineering degree. When her best friend Cameron Lassiter, who shares her loves of cosplay, gaming, anime, and comics, tipped her off about a new reality competition - Cosplay or No Way, pitting cosplayers against each other for a grand prize of $100,000 and a chance to work on a Hollywood blockbuster fantasy film - it seemed like the answer. If she can prove, on national television, that she has what it takes to turn her "childish fantasy" into a real career by winning, maybe they'll finally understand. Amazingly, she made it to the final round... but the last challenge throws a wrench into the works. She has four weeks to design a pair of costumes for the finale: one for her, and one for the significant other she does not have, having broken up with her last boyfriend some time ago. Under pressure, on camera, she names the first person who comes to mind: Cam.
Cam was working late at his fledgling fabrication shop, Make It Works, watching his best friend since high school make her way to the final round on Cosplay or No Way when he hears his name. He has had feelings for Kenya for a while, but they've never dated, and the one time he floated the idea in their college days she friendzoned him hard. But now she's telling all of America that they're an item. When she comes back to Atlanta, film crew in tow (because of course they want to film the entire design process, and likely drum up some domestic drama for ratings), she explains that it's just a pretend romance. The producers had been trying all season to cast her as the mean, fat Black woman stereotype; the judges likely didn't even think she had ever dated when they set the final challenge, let alone dated a blonde hunk like Cam. She also needs his help if she's going to fabricate two costumes in four weeks, a job that would usually take months. For the sake of their friendship and the competition, Cam agrees to be the perfect fake boyfriend.
Cosplay may be all about make-believe, but there's nothing fake about the feelings that spark between Cam and Kenya, even when the cameras aren't rolling...
REVIEW: Romances make nice palate cleansers, I find, and this one had the extra interest of the cosplay sideline; I've never indulged, but always found it an interesting hobby. The Love Con hits the usual romance novel notes, but (no offense intended to romance fans) one generally doesn't read romances for unpredictable originality in the plots. It's characters, their interactions, and the individual ups and downs of their relationship (which, being a romance, one can generally predict the outcome of) that make or break these stories. On those levels, The Love Con proves satisfying. Kenya has been fighting her whole life against expectations: not just the expectations of a society that has a particular Idea of how large Black women are and what they can and cannot do, but against parents who, while they may mean well, cannot understand how their demands are hurting more than they're helping. She's always had Cam in her corner, though, ever since they met in high school, but never let herself think of him as anything more than a friend, the wayward son of an alcoholic father, whom her parents took under their wing when he needed a family most. Cam, meanwhile, has carried a candle, if not a full-blown torch, for Kenya for years, but never knew how to broach the subject after the one failed attempt. Pretending to be her boyfriend may be a back door into a real relationship. But even he is taken by surprise by the strength of emotions that their fake romance unearths. Along the way, they have to contend with jealous exes, Kenya's disapproving parents (who made her promise that, if she didn't win, she'd give up her fledgling cosplay career and "grow up"), and a reality film crew intent on stirring up drama. The leads are pretty well matched, with some solid interactions and believable insecurities, and of course there's rising heat as they realize how real the fake romance has become. Glass also treats cosplay and fandom respectfully, as the passions and commitments they are. A few of the twists are a little too telegraphed, and there were a couple threads and ideas that seemed underplayed or forgotten, but all in all The Love Con offers exactly what it says on the label.
You Might Also Enjoy:
When Lightning Strikes (Brenda Novak) - My Review
Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell) - My Review
Romancing Miss Right (Lizzie Shane) - My Review
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
The Book That Did Not Want to Be Read (David Sundin)
The Book That Did Not Want to Be Read
David Sundin
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, CH Humor/Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Once upon a time, a parent started reading a bedtime story to their child... but the book did not want to be read, resorting to all sorts of tricks - shrinking letters, inventing words, and more - to get them to give up.
REVIEW: Another quick read during a lull at work, this is exactly what the title and description claim. Fonts shrink to microscopic size then grow larger than the page, all the A's turn to O's, the book grows "wings" to try to fly out of the parent's grasp, text flows in odd directions and invents nonsense words, and other "tricks" make for a lively, interactive reading experience. Fun for what it is.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Do Not Open This Book (Michaela Muntean) - My Review
There Are Cats In This Book (Viviane Schwarz) - My Review
You're Finally Here! (Melanie Watt) - My Review
David Sundin
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, CH Humor/Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Once upon a time, a parent started reading a bedtime story to their child... but the book did not want to be read, resorting to all sorts of tricks - shrinking letters, inventing words, and more - to get them to give up.
REVIEW: Another quick read during a lull at work, this is exactly what the title and description claim. Fonts shrink to microscopic size then grow larger than the page, all the A's turn to O's, the book grows "wings" to try to fly out of the parent's grasp, text flows in odd directions and invents nonsense words, and other "tricks" make for a lively, interactive reading experience. Fun for what it is.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Do Not Open This Book (Michaela Muntean) - My Review
There Are Cats In This Book (Viviane Schwarz) - My Review
You're Finally Here! (Melanie Watt) - My Review
The Psychology of Time Travel (Karen Mascarenhas)
The Psychology of Time Travel
Karen Mascarenhas
Crooked Lane Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the late 1960's, four brilliant women made a breakthrough in time travel, becoming the first humans to travel forward and backwards and even meet themselves... but only three went on to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Barbara suffered an apparent mental breakdown after their early tests, and was quietly cut loose to "recover" (and not serve as a PR liability while time travel was becoming established). Many decades later, "Granny Bee"'s adult granddaughter Ruby finds a cryptic message, possibly from a former colleague: a notice about a future inquest into a murder. Is it a warning - and, if so, who is the victim?
In early 2018, college student Odette, volunteering at a toy museum, makes a grisly discovery in the basement: a body, riddled with bullets, inside a locked room - a room locked from within, with no other access. The police seem to suspect her, suspicions likely tied to her skin tone, but without proof can do nothing... but something doesn't add up about the incident, driving Odette to distraction. When she decides to dig into the incident on her own, she finds connections to Ruby and the founders of time travel, and discovers the dark secrets hiding behind the shining public facade.
REVIEW: I will give this marks for dealing, at least in part, with exactly what the title describes. This book is not so much about the how of time travel (handwaved away) or the problems with paradoxes, but about time travel affects people who do it, and those around them. Though the "Conclave", as the time travel organization comes to be know, is public - unlike some time travel books, where it's a military secret, the foursome went public with their breakthroughs early on, and indeed have capitalized on time travel in all manner of fields, even selling toy "candy conjurer boxes" that transport sweets about a minute into the future as children's party novelties - the inner workings of the organization remain opaque to outsiders, allowing an increasingly toxic culture to develop among travelers. Barbara's breakdown (and subsequent embarrassing display during the first BBC interview) drives project head Margaret to increasingly drastic measures trying to weed out future "problems", even endorsing unofficial bullying and hazing in an effort to strip travelers of potentially detrimental emotional connections. That this culture leads to a murder is almost inevitable. Mascarenhas put a fair bit of thought into how traveling through time, seeing dead relatives alive again in their pasts or seeing the fates of cities and nations in the far future, knowing whom one will marry (or divorce) before one even meets them, would affect a species evolved to experience events in a linear fashion.
Unfortunately, in order to really engage with any story, to enjoy it, I have to be able to connect in some way with at least one character. Even if I don't like them, I should find something about them interesting. To be blunt, I didn't like anyone in this book, and only occasionally found them of interest. They started feeling like women's fiction stereotypes, frankly, despite their intelligence and degrees and pioneering work in time travel, too often reverting back to being all about finding a life partner or dealing with parent-child bonds and/or friction. It felt flattening for some reason, that even unlocking the key to time itself really doesn't really matter because womanhood's about mating and mothering. The locked-room mystery of the murder and its time travel ties becomes buried, and several potentially interesting ideas are left unexplored or underutilized.
By the end, I'd lost most of my interest in the resolution of the mystery and the various relationships, and the concept of time travel itself. I wound up giving it the extra half-star for truth in advertising, and for some of the interesting ideas about how the psychology of time travelers might shift as they come to feel increasingly distant from (and superior to) the rest of their kind.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Timeline (Michael Crichton) - My Review
One Word Kill (Mark Lawrence) - My Review
Just One Damned Thing After Another (Jodi Taylor) - My Review
Karen Mascarenhas
Crooked Lane Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the late 1960's, four brilliant women made a breakthrough in time travel, becoming the first humans to travel forward and backwards and even meet themselves... but only three went on to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Barbara suffered an apparent mental breakdown after their early tests, and was quietly cut loose to "recover" (and not serve as a PR liability while time travel was becoming established). Many decades later, "Granny Bee"'s adult granddaughter Ruby finds a cryptic message, possibly from a former colleague: a notice about a future inquest into a murder. Is it a warning - and, if so, who is the victim?
In early 2018, college student Odette, volunteering at a toy museum, makes a grisly discovery in the basement: a body, riddled with bullets, inside a locked room - a room locked from within, with no other access. The police seem to suspect her, suspicions likely tied to her skin tone, but without proof can do nothing... but something doesn't add up about the incident, driving Odette to distraction. When she decides to dig into the incident on her own, she finds connections to Ruby and the founders of time travel, and discovers the dark secrets hiding behind the shining public facade.
REVIEW: I will give this marks for dealing, at least in part, with exactly what the title describes. This book is not so much about the how of time travel (handwaved away) or the problems with paradoxes, but about time travel affects people who do it, and those around them. Though the "Conclave", as the time travel organization comes to be know, is public - unlike some time travel books, where it's a military secret, the foursome went public with their breakthroughs early on, and indeed have capitalized on time travel in all manner of fields, even selling toy "candy conjurer boxes" that transport sweets about a minute into the future as children's party novelties - the inner workings of the organization remain opaque to outsiders, allowing an increasingly toxic culture to develop among travelers. Barbara's breakdown (and subsequent embarrassing display during the first BBC interview) drives project head Margaret to increasingly drastic measures trying to weed out future "problems", even endorsing unofficial bullying and hazing in an effort to strip travelers of potentially detrimental emotional connections. That this culture leads to a murder is almost inevitable. Mascarenhas put a fair bit of thought into how traveling through time, seeing dead relatives alive again in their pasts or seeing the fates of cities and nations in the far future, knowing whom one will marry (or divorce) before one even meets them, would affect a species evolved to experience events in a linear fashion.
Unfortunately, in order to really engage with any story, to enjoy it, I have to be able to connect in some way with at least one character. Even if I don't like them, I should find something about them interesting. To be blunt, I didn't like anyone in this book, and only occasionally found them of interest. They started feeling like women's fiction stereotypes, frankly, despite their intelligence and degrees and pioneering work in time travel, too often reverting back to being all about finding a life partner or dealing with parent-child bonds and/or friction. It felt flattening for some reason, that even unlocking the key to time itself really doesn't really matter because womanhood's about mating and mothering. The locked-room mystery of the murder and its time travel ties becomes buried, and several potentially interesting ideas are left unexplored or underutilized.
By the end, I'd lost most of my interest in the resolution of the mystery and the various relationships, and the concept of time travel itself. I wound up giving it the extra half-star for truth in advertising, and for some of the interesting ideas about how the psychology of time travelers might shift as they come to feel increasingly distant from (and superior to) the rest of their kind.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Timeline (Michael Crichton) - My Review
One Word Kill (Mark Lawrence) - My Review
Just One Damned Thing After Another (Jodi Taylor) - My Review
Friday, April 22, 2022
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger)
Elatsoe
Darcie Little Badger
Levine Querido
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Teenaged Elatsoe has never been a stranger to ghosts, descended from a long line of Apache women who can summon the spirits of dead animals, anything from a deceased pet to extinct denizens of Earth's prehistory. She plans to go to college and become a paranormal investigator, perhaps with her friend Jay and Kirby, the ghost of her beloved spaniel. But when a relative dies after a tragic car accident, plans get derailed - particularly when Trevor contacts Elatsoe via dream, on the brink of death, to tell her that he was murdered. The girl is determined to live up to her promise to the ghost and bring a killer to justice, but dabbling with life and death is not to be done lightly, and there are many dangers that her mother and the old stories have not prepared her to face.
REVIEW: Elatsoe has been winning awards and praise for some time, so I finally decided to give it a go. The tale plays out in a world much like our own, but where powers and magics (and curses, and monsters) are known things; the boyfriend of Jay's older sister has the curse of vampirism, and Jay himself is a descendant of the faerie king Oberon, though the attendant powers have been much diluted. Elatsoe thinks she understands the gravity of the knowledge she has inherited and the lessons of her legendary (if forgotten by white history) sixth grandmother, a monster hunter and ghost summoner who shared her name, but has never really faced any dangers before; the biggest challenge was learning to summon the ghost of Kirby. She is, at least, smart enough not to blindly trust dreams or expect others to do likewise; she knows dreams are unreliable messengers, and that she needs proof before she can go to authority. Fortunately, she's surrounded by people who believe her. This is not one of those young adult stories where her parents are skeptical or overprotective obstacles; they help where they can, but Elatsoe and Jay are the driving forces behind the investigation, which grows much bigger than they could have imagined. Along the way, they confront issues of racism and colonialism and whitewashed history, and an enemy who does not understand how their actions can be perceived as monstrous by their victims. It's a nicely different perspective on fantasy and history, and I enjoyed it start to finish.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Fox and Phoenix (Beth Bernobich) - My Review
Ghost Talkers (Mary Robinette Kowal) - My Review
Trail of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse) - My Review
Darcie Little Badger
Levine Querido
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Teenaged Elatsoe has never been a stranger to ghosts, descended from a long line of Apache women who can summon the spirits of dead animals, anything from a deceased pet to extinct denizens of Earth's prehistory. She plans to go to college and become a paranormal investigator, perhaps with her friend Jay and Kirby, the ghost of her beloved spaniel. But when a relative dies after a tragic car accident, plans get derailed - particularly when Trevor contacts Elatsoe via dream, on the brink of death, to tell her that he was murdered. The girl is determined to live up to her promise to the ghost and bring a killer to justice, but dabbling with life and death is not to be done lightly, and there are many dangers that her mother and the old stories have not prepared her to face.
REVIEW: Elatsoe has been winning awards and praise for some time, so I finally decided to give it a go. The tale plays out in a world much like our own, but where powers and magics (and curses, and monsters) are known things; the boyfriend of Jay's older sister has the curse of vampirism, and Jay himself is a descendant of the faerie king Oberon, though the attendant powers have been much diluted. Elatsoe thinks she understands the gravity of the knowledge she has inherited and the lessons of her legendary (if forgotten by white history) sixth grandmother, a monster hunter and ghost summoner who shared her name, but has never really faced any dangers before; the biggest challenge was learning to summon the ghost of Kirby. She is, at least, smart enough not to blindly trust dreams or expect others to do likewise; she knows dreams are unreliable messengers, and that she needs proof before she can go to authority. Fortunately, she's surrounded by people who believe her. This is not one of those young adult stories where her parents are skeptical or overprotective obstacles; they help where they can, but Elatsoe and Jay are the driving forces behind the investigation, which grows much bigger than they could have imagined. Along the way, they confront issues of racism and colonialism and whitewashed history, and an enemy who does not understand how their actions can be perceived as monstrous by their victims. It's a nicely different perspective on fantasy and history, and I enjoyed it start to finish.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Fox and Phoenix (Beth Bernobich) - My Review
Ghost Talkers (Mary Robinette Kowal) - My Review
Trail of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse) - My Review
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Witches of Lychford (Paul Cornell)
Witches of Lychford
The Witches of Lychford series, Book 1
Paul Cornell
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like many small English villages, Lychford has fallen into a slump in modern times. The superstore chain Sovo seems keen on expanding to their neck of the woods, but the people are split over whether to welcome the job opportunities and economic shot in the arm or reject the destruction and desecration of their landscape and way of life. For crusty old Judith, there's a lot more at stake than just economics: the village was built at a rare and delicate crossroads of many worlds, and construction will destroy the frail barriers, allowing malevolent entities to prey upon an unsuspecting world. But most people - including her own son - just think she's gone a bit dotty, and it's not like she's made many friends through the years.
Lizzie grew up around Lychford, but has been away for many years, enduring personal tragedy. Now she returns as a new vicar, just when she's lost her faith... and just when Lychford needs a spiritual leader, the divides created by Sovo's offer splitting the village asunder. She also hopes to see her childhood friend, Autumn, with whom she lost touch - but the woman has been changed in strange ways.
Autumn runs a New Age shop of magic items in Lychford, but knows none of it is real. If she admits magic is real, she has to admit that what happened to her was real and not, as doctors at the asylum told her after her year-long disappearance that was only a weekend to her, simply a delusion brought on by mental breakdown. But she no longer has the luxury of disbelief, not when Judith comes knocking on her door. Lychford needs witches to defend it, even witches who don't believe in magic.
REVIEW: There wasn't anything particularly bad about this story. It's perfectly serviceable, drawing on old English lore and traditions in an era that has forgotten its roots, just at the point where a faceless corporate future meets the fading past in a duel where only one can win. It just felt more like a setup than a full story, meandering and dawdling as it established characters that I never really enjoyed spending time with and a conflict that felt too... simple, I suppose is the word, as it's pretty obvious who the baddies are, with nothing that really hooked me or interested me. The setting did its job, as did the characters (often after being kicked in the head by the proverbial mule a few times to get over disbelief), but the ending felt a bit abrupt and convenient, and I never engaged with the story as a whole. I guess it's just not my kind of story, in the end.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Very Best of Charles de Lint (Charles de Lint) - My Review
Stardust (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
Silver in the Wood (Emily Tesh) - My Review
The Witches of Lychford series, Book 1
Paul Cornell
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like many small English villages, Lychford has fallen into a slump in modern times. The superstore chain Sovo seems keen on expanding to their neck of the woods, but the people are split over whether to welcome the job opportunities and economic shot in the arm or reject the destruction and desecration of their landscape and way of life. For crusty old Judith, there's a lot more at stake than just economics: the village was built at a rare and delicate crossroads of many worlds, and construction will destroy the frail barriers, allowing malevolent entities to prey upon an unsuspecting world. But most people - including her own son - just think she's gone a bit dotty, and it's not like she's made many friends through the years.
Lizzie grew up around Lychford, but has been away for many years, enduring personal tragedy. Now she returns as a new vicar, just when she's lost her faith... and just when Lychford needs a spiritual leader, the divides created by Sovo's offer splitting the village asunder. She also hopes to see her childhood friend, Autumn, with whom she lost touch - but the woman has been changed in strange ways.
Autumn runs a New Age shop of magic items in Lychford, but knows none of it is real. If she admits magic is real, she has to admit that what happened to her was real and not, as doctors at the asylum told her after her year-long disappearance that was only a weekend to her, simply a delusion brought on by mental breakdown. But she no longer has the luxury of disbelief, not when Judith comes knocking on her door. Lychford needs witches to defend it, even witches who don't believe in magic.
REVIEW: There wasn't anything particularly bad about this story. It's perfectly serviceable, drawing on old English lore and traditions in an era that has forgotten its roots, just at the point where a faceless corporate future meets the fading past in a duel where only one can win. It just felt more like a setup than a full story, meandering and dawdling as it established characters that I never really enjoyed spending time with and a conflict that felt too... simple, I suppose is the word, as it's pretty obvious who the baddies are, with nothing that really hooked me or interested me. The setting did its job, as did the characters (often after being kicked in the head by the proverbial mule a few times to get over disbelief), but the ending felt a bit abrupt and convenient, and I never engaged with the story as a whole. I guess it's just not my kind of story, in the end.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Very Best of Charles de Lint (Charles de Lint) - My Review
Stardust (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
Silver in the Wood (Emily Tesh) - My Review
Shards of Earth (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
Shards of Earth
The Final Architecture series, Book 1
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Orbit
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When the Architects came to civilized space, there was no warning and no defense, as the moon-sized entities peeled apart whole inhabited planets and sculpted them into bizarre shapes, seemingly without provocation or reason. Even Earth fell victim, humanity's homeworld destroyed in a matter of hours. Only a chance discovery lead to the intermediary project: experimental procedures and surgeries to turn human minds into something capable of touching the unknowable, navigating the unreal spaces and, somehow, turning aside the Architects. Idris was one of the first generations of intermediaries; along with Solace, a vat-grown Partheni warrior, they witnessed the last Architect attack.
That was decades ago now, yet somehow, even as the people of the galaxy slowly lose their wariness, Idris has neither aged nor slept. Intermediaries are still produced, but more for their usefulness at navigating unspace, enslaved by "leash contracts" and likely even subjected to psychological means of curbing their freedom - treatments Idris, as a first-generation "int", missed. These days, he works aboard the Vulture God, a patched-up deep space salvage vessel with a patched-up crew of spacer misfits, human and alien and artificial. When he found himself face to face with Solace again - still alive and relatively young, thanks to many years in deep freeze between missions for the Partheni nation - he knew trouble was coming.
Neither one of them expected that trouble to be a vessel lost in deep space, with all the earmarks of an Architect attack.
Is it a hoax, a fluke, or is the ultimate unstoppable enemy about to return to a civilized space still recovering from their last visit... a space that, fallen into partisan squabbles and power games, is woefully unprepared for the danger?
REVIEW: With many familiar trappings from the space opera genre - the ragtag ship with its found family crew, the many species of sapient aliens with many unknowable strains of intellect and logic, the political squabbles and space battles, the ancient alien artifacts and deep mysteries of the universe - Shards of Earth may not bring a ton of new material to the table, but it does deliver a solid story that never loses its momentum. Idris was scarred in innumerable ways by the first Architect war, scars worsened by both his inability to sleep and by his frequent trips to unspace, which can drive ordinary minds over the edge with just a single trip outside of a sleeping pod. Solace is a loyal soldier, doing her duty by tracking Idris down and offering him a place in the all-female Partheni nation, but she comes to question her loyalties and even the purity of her superiors' offer as she spends time among Idris and the Vulture God's crew, which provides a range of perspectives and personalities and skills (not to mention clashes). Along the way, they become entangled with cultists, crime lords, nativists and other political and ideological extremists who have been on the rise ever since the threat of the Architects ceased to be a uniting factor, and other dangers. There's a nice, adventurous, lived-in feel to the galaxy Tchaikovsky creates, the parts coming together into an interesting whole that held my interest from start to finish. I'm looking forward to the next installment.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Dragons in the Stars (Jeffrey A. Carver) - My Review
The Ship Who Sang (Anne McCaffrey) - My Review
A Fire Upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge) - My Review
The Final Architecture series, Book 1
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Orbit
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When the Architects came to civilized space, there was no warning and no defense, as the moon-sized entities peeled apart whole inhabited planets and sculpted them into bizarre shapes, seemingly without provocation or reason. Even Earth fell victim, humanity's homeworld destroyed in a matter of hours. Only a chance discovery lead to the intermediary project: experimental procedures and surgeries to turn human minds into something capable of touching the unknowable, navigating the unreal spaces and, somehow, turning aside the Architects. Idris was one of the first generations of intermediaries; along with Solace, a vat-grown Partheni warrior, they witnessed the last Architect attack.
That was decades ago now, yet somehow, even as the people of the galaxy slowly lose their wariness, Idris has neither aged nor slept. Intermediaries are still produced, but more for their usefulness at navigating unspace, enslaved by "leash contracts" and likely even subjected to psychological means of curbing their freedom - treatments Idris, as a first-generation "int", missed. These days, he works aboard the Vulture God, a patched-up deep space salvage vessel with a patched-up crew of spacer misfits, human and alien and artificial. When he found himself face to face with Solace again - still alive and relatively young, thanks to many years in deep freeze between missions for the Partheni nation - he knew trouble was coming.
Neither one of them expected that trouble to be a vessel lost in deep space, with all the earmarks of an Architect attack.
Is it a hoax, a fluke, or is the ultimate unstoppable enemy about to return to a civilized space still recovering from their last visit... a space that, fallen into partisan squabbles and power games, is woefully unprepared for the danger?
REVIEW: With many familiar trappings from the space opera genre - the ragtag ship with its found family crew, the many species of sapient aliens with many unknowable strains of intellect and logic, the political squabbles and space battles, the ancient alien artifacts and deep mysteries of the universe - Shards of Earth may not bring a ton of new material to the table, but it does deliver a solid story that never loses its momentum. Idris was scarred in innumerable ways by the first Architect war, scars worsened by both his inability to sleep and by his frequent trips to unspace, which can drive ordinary minds over the edge with just a single trip outside of a sleeping pod. Solace is a loyal soldier, doing her duty by tracking Idris down and offering him a place in the all-female Partheni nation, but she comes to question her loyalties and even the purity of her superiors' offer as she spends time among Idris and the Vulture God's crew, which provides a range of perspectives and personalities and skills (not to mention clashes). Along the way, they become entangled with cultists, crime lords, nativists and other political and ideological extremists who have been on the rise ever since the threat of the Architects ceased to be a uniting factor, and other dangers. There's a nice, adventurous, lived-in feel to the galaxy Tchaikovsky creates, the parts coming together into an interesting whole that held my interest from start to finish. I'm looking forward to the next installment.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Dragons in the Stars (Jeffrey A. Carver) - My Review
The Ship Who Sang (Anne McCaffrey) - My Review
A Fire Upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge) - My Review
Friday, April 15, 2022
The Mountain Between Us (Charles Martin)
The Mountain Between Us
Charles Martin
Crown
Fiction, Suspense
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Top surgeon Ben Payne was headed home from a medical conference. Journalist Ashley Knox is mere days away from her own wedding. When a snowstorm grounds them both, they take a chance on a small private plane beating the weather out of Salt Lake City... until the pilot suffers a heart attack mid-flight. Now Ben and Ashley are alone, injured, in countless miles of snow and raw wilderness - and nobody even knows they're missing, let alone where to look for them.
REVIEW: It looked like a decent concept (and I remember being intrigued by the previews when the movie came out), so I grabbed the audiobook. One one level, it delivers on its basic promises, serving up one traumatic plane crash, two somewhat damaged people who become significantly more damaged during said plane crash, and a daunting journey of survival against steep odds. Unfortunately, it does this by dropping its characters into the heart of a national cliche preserve, where masculine men can handle any situation and are incapable of articulating pain or emotions (and have suffered greatly because of it), fragile women are helpless in their own survival (Ashley is dropped by a busted femur and is mostly helpless through the journey save as incentive for Ben to push himself, all while she's pushing him to open up about his feelings; she's not the only woman in the plot to suffer from being a cliche, though further discussion ventures into spoiler territory), and apparently nobody has read Gary Paulsen because the doctor with minimal hunting experience decides it's a great idea to take on a moose with a compound bow he's not too familiar with. Some plot "twists" are blatantly telegraphed, then strung out long past the point any tension could be derived from them. There's also a dog who serves little plot purpose (though it does at least survive). Some of the survival situations are indeed harrowing, if occasionally repetitive, plus it starts to stretch credibility how they keep getting out of certain situations (or, rather, how Ben keeps getting them out of certain situations, because not only is he the only one with any mobility, he's also the only one with any sort of relevant experience; even with some mountaineering under his belt and some dusty scouting badges, there's some serious turbulence in the suspension of disbelief at some point - and, seriously, did Ashley have to be completely incapable of offering any input or possessing any basic survival knowledge, even if she's too injured to use them? Ben has to not only be the doctor but the wilderness expert and navigation whiz, while she just talks as her contribution to the team? How stereotypically "strong man saves weak woman" can you get, here?).
Along the way, as is typical for survival-based stories, the immediate external crisis serves as a mirror (or at least a useful time-out from regular life) for characters to reflect upon greater problems in their lives... though, again, Ben gets the majority of attention, here, as he dictates recordings to Rachel, the childhood sweetheart who became his wife and savior who became the source of a greater plot-driving trauma. Meanwhile Ashley... well, she has some generic pre-wedding jitters and questions about whether True Love, the sort that lasts forever, is even a thing worth holding out for, so once again she's second fiddle to Ben's pain and Ben's story. At some point, these issues really started to bother me, and by the somewhat drawn-out ending I was hard-pressed not to roll my eyes as long-ago-telegraphed revelations are breathlessly revealed and long-ago-drawn conclusions are finally, painstakingly reached. While there's some decent survival material and some not-bad personal chemistry and trauma, the whole just fell flat to me.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Breaking Wild (Diane Les Bequets) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Charles Martin
Crown
Fiction, Suspense
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Top surgeon Ben Payne was headed home from a medical conference. Journalist Ashley Knox is mere days away from her own wedding. When a snowstorm grounds them both, they take a chance on a small private plane beating the weather out of Salt Lake City... until the pilot suffers a heart attack mid-flight. Now Ben and Ashley are alone, injured, in countless miles of snow and raw wilderness - and nobody even knows they're missing, let alone where to look for them.
REVIEW: It looked like a decent concept (and I remember being intrigued by the previews when the movie came out), so I grabbed the audiobook. One one level, it delivers on its basic promises, serving up one traumatic plane crash, two somewhat damaged people who become significantly more damaged during said plane crash, and a daunting journey of survival against steep odds. Unfortunately, it does this by dropping its characters into the heart of a national cliche preserve, where masculine men can handle any situation and are incapable of articulating pain or emotions (and have suffered greatly because of it), fragile women are helpless in their own survival (Ashley is dropped by a busted femur and is mostly helpless through the journey save as incentive for Ben to push himself, all while she's pushing him to open up about his feelings; she's not the only woman in the plot to suffer from being a cliche, though further discussion ventures into spoiler territory), and apparently nobody has read Gary Paulsen because the doctor with minimal hunting experience decides it's a great idea to take on a moose with a compound bow he's not too familiar with. Some plot "twists" are blatantly telegraphed, then strung out long past the point any tension could be derived from them. There's also a dog who serves little plot purpose (though it does at least survive). Some of the survival situations are indeed harrowing, if occasionally repetitive, plus it starts to stretch credibility how they keep getting out of certain situations (or, rather, how Ben keeps getting them out of certain situations, because not only is he the only one with any mobility, he's also the only one with any sort of relevant experience; even with some mountaineering under his belt and some dusty scouting badges, there's some serious turbulence in the suspension of disbelief at some point - and, seriously, did Ashley have to be completely incapable of offering any input or possessing any basic survival knowledge, even if she's too injured to use them? Ben has to not only be the doctor but the wilderness expert and navigation whiz, while she just talks as her contribution to the team? How stereotypically "strong man saves weak woman" can you get, here?).
Along the way, as is typical for survival-based stories, the immediate external crisis serves as a mirror (or at least a useful time-out from regular life) for characters to reflect upon greater problems in their lives... though, again, Ben gets the majority of attention, here, as he dictates recordings to Rachel, the childhood sweetheart who became his wife and savior who became the source of a greater plot-driving trauma. Meanwhile Ashley... well, she has some generic pre-wedding jitters and questions about whether True Love, the sort that lasts forever, is even a thing worth holding out for, so once again she's second fiddle to Ben's pain and Ben's story. At some point, these issues really started to bother me, and by the somewhat drawn-out ending I was hard-pressed not to roll my eyes as long-ago-telegraphed revelations are breathlessly revealed and long-ago-drawn conclusions are finally, painstakingly reached. While there's some decent survival material and some not-bad personal chemistry and trauma, the whole just fell flat to me.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Breaking Wild (Diane Les Bequets) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Thursday, April 14, 2022
Thronebreakers (Rebecca Coffindaffer)
Thronebreakers
The Crownchasers series, Book 2
Rebecca Coffindaffer
HarperTeen
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Alyssa Farshot told herself she didn't care who took up the royal seal and responsibilities of the imperial throne, so long as it wasn't her. She told herself she had no interest in politics, that she'd be happy when the whole crownchase - the archaic scavenger hunt across the known galaxy in the wake of the old emperor's passing, to determine the heir - was over and she could go back to being an anonymous explorer on her own ship.
When she watches her best friend, on the very cusp of victory, be ambushed and shot by the boy Edgar, she realizes she was lying. She did indeed care very much about who ruled the galaxy... especially when he's a cheater and cold-blooded murderer.
Unfortunately, she is the only witness to what happened... and politics being politics, nobody wants to make waves on behalf of the last daughter of an all-but-extinct noble house, a daughter who hasn't exactly been a public darling and brings nothing to the table but a wild and unreliable reputation. Even her late best friend's mother seems willing to swallow the bitter pill of Edgar as emperor. This, everyone tells her, is a fight she cannot hope to win. But it's also a fight she cannot bring herself to walk away from, especially not when his first acts only confirm how unfit for the title he is, unleashing robotic enforcers and further elevating the religious cult of Solaris that has already infiltrated far too much of the government for Alyssa's comfort. If she can't take the crown from the new-minted emperor, she'll just have to smash the throne out from under him.
REVIEW: Thronebreakers takes up about where the previous book ended and maintains the same high-octane pacing, punctuated with setbacks, losses, and more than a little snark. The death of her best friend in front of her eyes, and the acquiescence of so many to Edgar's questionable claims to power, push Alyssa ever further into rage, and further toward accepting that, like it or not, she is a leader, and there are some causes that need champions, even if they're not politically popular (or if they distract from her primary occupation of galactic thrill-seeking). Edgar, meanwhile, always more comfortable with numbers and robots than emotions and people, struggles to grow into a role that does not truly suit him, plagued by feelings of inadequacy that drive him to greater extremism... and make him more susceptible to voices in his ear that warp his rule. The greater villains feel a bit flat, and one or two minor elements of the climax and finale (which wraps up the arcs, but leaves just enough of a crack in the door for future adventures in the same universe) feel like loose threads or pulled punches for reasons I can't put my finger on, but all in all this is quite an enjoyable space opera.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Deathstalker (Simon R. Green) - My Review
Velocity Weapon (Megan E. O'Keefe) - My Review
The Stars Now Unclaimed (Drew Williams) - My Review
The Crownchasers series, Book 2
Rebecca Coffindaffer
HarperTeen
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Alyssa Farshot told herself she didn't care who took up the royal seal and responsibilities of the imperial throne, so long as it wasn't her. She told herself she had no interest in politics, that she'd be happy when the whole crownchase - the archaic scavenger hunt across the known galaxy in the wake of the old emperor's passing, to determine the heir - was over and she could go back to being an anonymous explorer on her own ship.
When she watches her best friend, on the very cusp of victory, be ambushed and shot by the boy Edgar, she realizes she was lying. She did indeed care very much about who ruled the galaxy... especially when he's a cheater and cold-blooded murderer.
Unfortunately, she is the only witness to what happened... and politics being politics, nobody wants to make waves on behalf of the last daughter of an all-but-extinct noble house, a daughter who hasn't exactly been a public darling and brings nothing to the table but a wild and unreliable reputation. Even her late best friend's mother seems willing to swallow the bitter pill of Edgar as emperor. This, everyone tells her, is a fight she cannot hope to win. But it's also a fight she cannot bring herself to walk away from, especially not when his first acts only confirm how unfit for the title he is, unleashing robotic enforcers and further elevating the religious cult of Solaris that has already infiltrated far too much of the government for Alyssa's comfort. If she can't take the crown from the new-minted emperor, she'll just have to smash the throne out from under him.
REVIEW: Thronebreakers takes up about where the previous book ended and maintains the same high-octane pacing, punctuated with setbacks, losses, and more than a little snark. The death of her best friend in front of her eyes, and the acquiescence of so many to Edgar's questionable claims to power, push Alyssa ever further into rage, and further toward accepting that, like it or not, she is a leader, and there are some causes that need champions, even if they're not politically popular (or if they distract from her primary occupation of galactic thrill-seeking). Edgar, meanwhile, always more comfortable with numbers and robots than emotions and people, struggles to grow into a role that does not truly suit him, plagued by feelings of inadequacy that drive him to greater extremism... and make him more susceptible to voices in his ear that warp his rule. The greater villains feel a bit flat, and one or two minor elements of the climax and finale (which wraps up the arcs, but leaves just enough of a crack in the door for future adventures in the same universe) feel like loose threads or pulled punches for reasons I can't put my finger on, but all in all this is quite an enjoyable space opera.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Deathstalker (Simon R. Green) - My Review
Velocity Weapon (Megan E. O'Keefe) - My Review
The Stars Now Unclaimed (Drew Williams) - My Review
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Crownchasers (Rebecca Coffindaffer)
Crownchasers
The Crownchasers series, Book 1
Rebecca Coffindaffer
HarperTeen
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Alyssa Farshot may be heir to the throne of one thousand and one worlds by blood, but she has no interest in the crown. She's much happier aboard the Vagabond Quick with her engineer/sometimes lover, a man who goes by the name Hell Monkey, pushing herself and her ship to the limits in the name of science for the Explorers Society. Besides, her uncle has decades of life ahead of him to find a more suitable successor, one who doesn't mind being stuck in the Kingship surrounded by the most terrifying and devious beasts in all the known galaxy: politicians.
When the emperor falls ill and dies of a rare blood disease, she is devastated. And when his last act is to declare a crownchase - a cross-system scavenger hunt by chosen scions of the Prime houses, the winner taking the royal seal and the crown - she is both terrified and angered that her family names her as their representitive.
She never wanted the crown. She doesn't even want to win. She can barely keep herself together half the time, let alone an interplanetary empire. The other participants were her childhood friends (well, most of them); now they're essentially enemies. But she doesn't seem to have a choice. The whole quadrant is watching, and she can't let her uncle down. It soon becomes clear that a mere contest for a new emperor is the least of the civilized galaxy's worries: new threats from within and without seem to be meddling with the chase and the succession. If Alyssa fails her family, she might well be dooming everyone, and every world, to an unimaginable fate...
REVIEW: This was another relatively random pick from the available audiobooks on Overdrive. It looked like a fun, active space opera with a gutsy, somewhat snarky heroine and a plot with little to no down time, and that's precisely what it delivers. True, the "gutsy, somewhat snarky heroine" isn't exactly new territory these days, but Alyssa Farshot pulls off the role admirably, managing to thread the needle between rebellious, devil-may-care space jockey and empathetic heir growing into her responsibilities despite herself, unable to look away from the many injustices and dangers she encounters. Her victories, and even her moments of weakness, all feel authentic and earned, not just granted or forced due to her status as main character. Likewise, the characters around her, the friends and enemies and frenemies, take on a little more depth as the crownchase challenges test them, while flashbacks show the roots of their old bonds and rivalries. Things move fast, but not too fast to follow or to develop emotions and relationships, creating a wild and complex and interesting quadrant full of adventures and dangers and real people facing real problems. Yes, there are several familiar space opera tropes in play, particularly the more fantastical end of space opera - numerous interbreeding humanoid races, wondrous and dangerous alien worlds for the exploring (and exploitation), casual planetary system hopping, captains perpetually pushing the limits of the law and physics, engineers who can pull off miracles at the last second with the right tools and lots of fancy typing (and a little technobabble) - but for this story it all works fairly well. The whole comes together like an exciting thrill ride whose main drawback is the cliffhanger ending.
I see the sequel audiobook is currently available on my libary's Overdrive, so that might solve both the "left on a cliffhanger" problem and the "what do I listen to at work tomorrow" problem...
You Might Also Enjoy:
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (K. Eason) - My Review
Starfire: A Red Peace (Spencer Ellsworth) - My Review
Killing Gravity (Corey J. White) - My Review
The Crownchasers series, Book 1
Rebecca Coffindaffer
HarperTeen
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Alyssa Farshot may be heir to the throne of one thousand and one worlds by blood, but she has no interest in the crown. She's much happier aboard the Vagabond Quick with her engineer/sometimes lover, a man who goes by the name Hell Monkey, pushing herself and her ship to the limits in the name of science for the Explorers Society. Besides, her uncle has decades of life ahead of him to find a more suitable successor, one who doesn't mind being stuck in the Kingship surrounded by the most terrifying and devious beasts in all the known galaxy: politicians.
When the emperor falls ill and dies of a rare blood disease, she is devastated. And when his last act is to declare a crownchase - a cross-system scavenger hunt by chosen scions of the Prime houses, the winner taking the royal seal and the crown - she is both terrified and angered that her family names her as their representitive.
She never wanted the crown. She doesn't even want to win. She can barely keep herself together half the time, let alone an interplanetary empire. The other participants were her childhood friends (well, most of them); now they're essentially enemies. But she doesn't seem to have a choice. The whole quadrant is watching, and she can't let her uncle down. It soon becomes clear that a mere contest for a new emperor is the least of the civilized galaxy's worries: new threats from within and without seem to be meddling with the chase and the succession. If Alyssa fails her family, she might well be dooming everyone, and every world, to an unimaginable fate...
REVIEW: This was another relatively random pick from the available audiobooks on Overdrive. It looked like a fun, active space opera with a gutsy, somewhat snarky heroine and a plot with little to no down time, and that's precisely what it delivers. True, the "gutsy, somewhat snarky heroine" isn't exactly new territory these days, but Alyssa Farshot pulls off the role admirably, managing to thread the needle between rebellious, devil-may-care space jockey and empathetic heir growing into her responsibilities despite herself, unable to look away from the many injustices and dangers she encounters. Her victories, and even her moments of weakness, all feel authentic and earned, not just granted or forced due to her status as main character. Likewise, the characters around her, the friends and enemies and frenemies, take on a little more depth as the crownchase challenges test them, while flashbacks show the roots of their old bonds and rivalries. Things move fast, but not too fast to follow or to develop emotions and relationships, creating a wild and complex and interesting quadrant full of adventures and dangers and real people facing real problems. Yes, there are several familiar space opera tropes in play, particularly the more fantastical end of space opera - numerous interbreeding humanoid races, wondrous and dangerous alien worlds for the exploring (and exploitation), casual planetary system hopping, captains perpetually pushing the limits of the law and physics, engineers who can pull off miracles at the last second with the right tools and lots of fancy typing (and a little technobabble) - but for this story it all works fairly well. The whole comes together like an exciting thrill ride whose main drawback is the cliffhanger ending.
I see the sequel audiobook is currently available on my libary's Overdrive, so that might solve both the "left on a cliffhanger" problem and the "what do I listen to at work tomorrow" problem...
You Might Also Enjoy:
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (K. Eason) - My Review
Starfire: A Red Peace (Spencer Ellsworth) - My Review
Killing Gravity (Corey J. White) - My Review
Friday, April 8, 2022
The Wolf's Curse (Jessica Vitalis)
The Wolf's Curse
Jessica Vitalis
Greenwillow Books
Fiction, MG Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Gauge was barely five years old the first time he saw the Great White Wolf - a wolf nobody in his village but him could see. That night, the Lord Mayor's wife died suddenly. The connection could not have been clearer: Gauge was a Voyant, and he must have summoned the Wolf for murder. The law demands he be "sent to sea", put out onto the waves in a boat with no oars: a death sentence. Instead, Gauge's carpenter grandpapa hid him away in his workshop, teaching the boy the trade while hiding him from the Lord Mayor and the rest of the village. But Gauge still sees the Wolf... and he sees it take the soul from Grandpapa the night the old man dies.
When Gauge is found out to have survived his original death sentence, he flees, finding his way to the shop of a local blacksmith and his kindly daughter Roux. She won't believe Gauge is evil, no matter what the village says about Voyants. But the Wolf seems to be stealing souls from the dead, even before the burial rituals can release them from their bodies and send them on their way to the Sea-in-the-Sky. It may be that Gauge is the only one to stop the beast.
Or it may be that neither Gauge nor Roux nor anyone else in the village truly understand death or the Wolf...
REVIEW: This is a story centered around death: the grief of loss, the anger often felt by those left behind, the rituals that can provide closure or simply add to the great burdens - financial and emotional - placed upon the mourners, and the stories people tell themselves about death and the afterlife.
The Wolf, who narrates the tale, is merely an agent, not an instigator of death, but upon her back is placed all manner of blame for that which nobody can control, blame that spreads to those few who can see her in her rounds. Gauge grows to fear and hate the Wolf like the rest of his village, blaming his ability to even see her for his ostracization and his lonely years hidden away in his grandfather's carpentry shop, then blaming it for the deaths in the village, for thwarting the rituals that he has been told release a soul. In this, he is borderline unbelievably naive given his age, even for a boy overprotected by a well-meaning but fearful relative. Nor is he the only one his age so credulous; Roux, facing her own tragedy, joins him in blaming the Wolf and contriving to end her, leaping to wild conclusions when what they learn of death doesn't add up with what they believe or what they've been told. Throughout Gauge's tale, as he struggles not only to avoid death at the hands of the Lord Mayor's guards and fearful villages but "avenge" his lost grandfather and expose the "truth" of the Wolf, his grief keeps reminding him of the man he lost, the life that is over. Again and again, his mind wanders on tangents about moments great and small with his grandpapa... and again, then again, then once again for good measure, just in case the audience wasn't paying attention. Seriously, I get that Vitalis was working to address the overwhelming nature of grief, and perhaps justify some of Gauge's less-intelligent conclusions (and increasingly-hard-to-sustain naivete about death), but at some point overkill is just plain overkill. Along the way, the story touches on a few less pleasant aspects of the death industry, how the traditions and rituals built up around death can morph into harmful superstitions that hurt more than they help, how families can be targeted and even exploited in their hour of grief, forced to pay for elaborate trappings and coffins (or vessels, in this world's case; they're a seafaring culture, and send their loved ones off in custom built small boats of varying intricacy) that ultimately have nothing to do with speeding loved ones to the afterlife or easing their own pain any faster. This is part of what convinces Gauge and Roux that there must be some "conspiracy" behind death in the village, the unfairness of how different families are treated and the exorbitant bills they're saddled with afterwards. The long-suffering Wolf often despairs of Gauge ever figuring out the truth about her role and the nature of death... and he must figure it out, because Voyants like him are a necessary part of the cycle in his country, for all that the people are fearful of them and misunderstand their special sight. By the end, of course, Gauge has learned a lot - and so, remarkably, has the Wolf.
On the one hand, there's a lot to like about this story. It delves deep into the nature of death and grief, how fear and anger can become twisted up in desperate times, and how stories and rituals can provide both soothing comfort and, when taken too far, obstacles to healing. The setting is decently described, and there's often a little more than first appearances indicate to the various characters. On the other, it wallows overmuch in Gauge's memories and grief, sometimes barely progressing the story at all before slipping into yet another memory or reminder of his loss, or yet another anger-fueled misconception about death. That, and Gauge's and Roux's increasingly untenable inability to understand death for their ages (especially Roux, who wasn't sheltered nearly as much as Gauge and therefore should have been a little more savvy), were enough to shave a half-star off the rating.
You Might Also Enjoy:
My Diary from the Edge of the World (Jodi Lynn Anderson) - My Review
The Wish List (Eoin Colfer) - My Review
Under the Whispering Door (TJ Klune) - My Review
Jessica Vitalis
Greenwillow Books
Fiction, MG Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Gauge was barely five years old the first time he saw the Great White Wolf - a wolf nobody in his village but him could see. That night, the Lord Mayor's wife died suddenly. The connection could not have been clearer: Gauge was a Voyant, and he must have summoned the Wolf for murder. The law demands he be "sent to sea", put out onto the waves in a boat with no oars: a death sentence. Instead, Gauge's carpenter grandpapa hid him away in his workshop, teaching the boy the trade while hiding him from the Lord Mayor and the rest of the village. But Gauge still sees the Wolf... and he sees it take the soul from Grandpapa the night the old man dies.
When Gauge is found out to have survived his original death sentence, he flees, finding his way to the shop of a local blacksmith and his kindly daughter Roux. She won't believe Gauge is evil, no matter what the village says about Voyants. But the Wolf seems to be stealing souls from the dead, even before the burial rituals can release them from their bodies and send them on their way to the Sea-in-the-Sky. It may be that Gauge is the only one to stop the beast.
Or it may be that neither Gauge nor Roux nor anyone else in the village truly understand death or the Wolf...
REVIEW: This is a story centered around death: the grief of loss, the anger often felt by those left behind, the rituals that can provide closure or simply add to the great burdens - financial and emotional - placed upon the mourners, and the stories people tell themselves about death and the afterlife.
The Wolf, who narrates the tale, is merely an agent, not an instigator of death, but upon her back is placed all manner of blame for that which nobody can control, blame that spreads to those few who can see her in her rounds. Gauge grows to fear and hate the Wolf like the rest of his village, blaming his ability to even see her for his ostracization and his lonely years hidden away in his grandfather's carpentry shop, then blaming it for the deaths in the village, for thwarting the rituals that he has been told release a soul. In this, he is borderline unbelievably naive given his age, even for a boy overprotected by a well-meaning but fearful relative. Nor is he the only one his age so credulous; Roux, facing her own tragedy, joins him in blaming the Wolf and contriving to end her, leaping to wild conclusions when what they learn of death doesn't add up with what they believe or what they've been told. Throughout Gauge's tale, as he struggles not only to avoid death at the hands of the Lord Mayor's guards and fearful villages but "avenge" his lost grandfather and expose the "truth" of the Wolf, his grief keeps reminding him of the man he lost, the life that is over. Again and again, his mind wanders on tangents about moments great and small with his grandpapa... and again, then again, then once again for good measure, just in case the audience wasn't paying attention. Seriously, I get that Vitalis was working to address the overwhelming nature of grief, and perhaps justify some of Gauge's less-intelligent conclusions (and increasingly-hard-to-sustain naivete about death), but at some point overkill is just plain overkill. Along the way, the story touches on a few less pleasant aspects of the death industry, how the traditions and rituals built up around death can morph into harmful superstitions that hurt more than they help, how families can be targeted and even exploited in their hour of grief, forced to pay for elaborate trappings and coffins (or vessels, in this world's case; they're a seafaring culture, and send their loved ones off in custom built small boats of varying intricacy) that ultimately have nothing to do with speeding loved ones to the afterlife or easing their own pain any faster. This is part of what convinces Gauge and Roux that there must be some "conspiracy" behind death in the village, the unfairness of how different families are treated and the exorbitant bills they're saddled with afterwards. The long-suffering Wolf often despairs of Gauge ever figuring out the truth about her role and the nature of death... and he must figure it out, because Voyants like him are a necessary part of the cycle in his country, for all that the people are fearful of them and misunderstand their special sight. By the end, of course, Gauge has learned a lot - and so, remarkably, has the Wolf.
On the one hand, there's a lot to like about this story. It delves deep into the nature of death and grief, how fear and anger can become twisted up in desperate times, and how stories and rituals can provide both soothing comfort and, when taken too far, obstacles to healing. The setting is decently described, and there's often a little more than first appearances indicate to the various characters. On the other, it wallows overmuch in Gauge's memories and grief, sometimes barely progressing the story at all before slipping into yet another memory or reminder of his loss, or yet another anger-fueled misconception about death. That, and Gauge's and Roux's increasingly untenable inability to understand death for their ages (especially Roux, who wasn't sheltered nearly as much as Gauge and therefore should have been a little more savvy), were enough to shave a half-star off the rating.
You Might Also Enjoy:
My Diary from the Edge of the World (Jodi Lynn Anderson) - My Review
The Wish List (Eoin Colfer) - My Review
Under the Whispering Door (TJ Klune) - My Review
Thursday, April 7, 2022
Oona Out of Order (Margarita Montimore)
Oona Out of Order
Margarita Montimore
Flatiron Books
Fiction, General Fiction/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: New Year's Eve has extra meaning when you were born on New Year's Day, and 18-year-old Oona Lockhart is looking forward to both 1983 and her 19th year with great anticipation. On the one hand, she has the best boyfriend in Dale, and their band just got a solid gig offer that could launch them to stardom, opening for a bigger act on tour. On the other, her mother Madeline and best-friend-since-forever Pamela still think she's going to school in England and onward to a solid professional life. With two futures before her, how can she possibly choose?
At midnight, the choice is taken away from her.
One minute, she's in Dale's basement with all their friends. The next, she's standing in a strange house, and a strange man is telling her she's in the future: her future, in her own 51-year-old body. Somehow, Oona has not only jumped ahead a few decades in a single night, but apparently every year from now on she'll "leap" to a new, random year of her life, her mind and memories forever out of synch with her surroundings. Worse, aside from some stock tips and betting options guaranteed to keep her wealthy, she can't change her life or anyone else's; whenever she tries, things go terribly wrong.
As Oona experiences her life's events out of order, she comes to understand what living is truly about.
REVIEW: Oona Out of Order has an interesting concept and smaller scale than many genre books; aside from the time travel conceit, which is never explained, it's not even really a genre novel at all, but the story of one woman trying to figure out her life from random events in random years. Oona isn't the smartest protagonist, very much still a teenager inside until a ways into the book, who does stupid things even when she really should know better. The scope of the novel also feels oddly... limited, I suppose is the word. We only experience seven years of her out-of-order life, so mental-Oona's still rather wet behind the ears by the great moment of truth at the end; I couldn't help but wonder what an older Oona would have to say about her experiences, looking back on a shuffled life, or even how she'd handle knowing her own expiration date (which she'd probably figure out by sheer powers of deduction at some point, even if she didn't "live" through the event itself via temporal leap). Instead, the plot ends up skewing into a cul-de-sac centered around motherhood and the bonds between parents and children, which I felt squandered some serious potential. There are some great moments and some heartrending moments (and, yes, more than one "what the frell are you doing, you moron, you're the character I'm supposed to be rooting for and I just want to throttle you right now!" moment), but overall I think I just wanted more exploration of the central concept and less derailing into the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Flight (Sherman Alexie) - My Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead) - My Review
Margarita Montimore
Flatiron Books
Fiction, General Fiction/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: New Year's Eve has extra meaning when you were born on New Year's Day, and 18-year-old Oona Lockhart is looking forward to both 1983 and her 19th year with great anticipation. On the one hand, she has the best boyfriend in Dale, and their band just got a solid gig offer that could launch them to stardom, opening for a bigger act on tour. On the other, her mother Madeline and best-friend-since-forever Pamela still think she's going to school in England and onward to a solid professional life. With two futures before her, how can she possibly choose?
At midnight, the choice is taken away from her.
One minute, she's in Dale's basement with all their friends. The next, she's standing in a strange house, and a strange man is telling her she's in the future: her future, in her own 51-year-old body. Somehow, Oona has not only jumped ahead a few decades in a single night, but apparently every year from now on she'll "leap" to a new, random year of her life, her mind and memories forever out of synch with her surroundings. Worse, aside from some stock tips and betting options guaranteed to keep her wealthy, she can't change her life or anyone else's; whenever she tries, things go terribly wrong.
As Oona experiences her life's events out of order, she comes to understand what living is truly about.
REVIEW: Oona Out of Order has an interesting concept and smaller scale than many genre books; aside from the time travel conceit, which is never explained, it's not even really a genre novel at all, but the story of one woman trying to figure out her life from random events in random years. Oona isn't the smartest protagonist, very much still a teenager inside until a ways into the book, who does stupid things even when she really should know better. The scope of the novel also feels oddly... limited, I suppose is the word. We only experience seven years of her out-of-order life, so mental-Oona's still rather wet behind the ears by the great moment of truth at the end; I couldn't help but wonder what an older Oona would have to say about her experiences, looking back on a shuffled life, or even how she'd handle knowing her own expiration date (which she'd probably figure out by sheer powers of deduction at some point, even if she didn't "live" through the event itself via temporal leap). Instead, the plot ends up skewing into a cul-de-sac centered around motherhood and the bonds between parents and children, which I felt squandered some serious potential. There are some great moments and some heartrending moments (and, yes, more than one "what the frell are you doing, you moron, you're the character I'm supposed to be rooting for and I just want to throttle you right now!" moment), but overall I think I just wanted more exploration of the central concept and less derailing into the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Flight (Sherman Alexie) - My Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead) - My Review
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Why Bother (Jennifer Louden)
Why Bother: Discover the Desire for What's Next
Jennifer Louden
Page Two
Nonfiction, Self-Help
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: You're stuck in a job you hate, but putting food on the table is too important to consider a change. You're lonely, but making friends or finding dates takes time, effort, and self-confidence you haven't had in years. You're unhappy, but don't have the time or energy to figure out just why - and even if you did figure out what you wanted, it's probably not something you could do well enough to earn approval from others. Life's just a gray, endless slog from nowhere to nowhere, by way of nowhere. Why bother?
The question "why bother?" isn't just about giving up, throwing your hands in the air and accepting that everything has sucked, does suck, and forever more shall suck. It's also a question that begs an answer. Why should you bother? What is the driving force, the desire, the thing you've lost (or never found) that would make life worth bothering about?
In this book, writer and life coach Jennifer Louden offers anecdotes and advice on how to ask yourself the questions and give yourself permission to figure out the answer to the question "why bother?".
REVIEW: I readily admit that part of the rating is due to timing; I read it during a particularly trying and stuck life phase on multiple levels, personal to international, a phase that doesn't look likely to end any time soon no matter how many probing questions I ask myself or attempts at meditation or journaling I manage.
Objectively, the advice Louden offers is solid enough, if familiar from other books on self-help and getting oneself together. She's not afraid to expose her own missteps and backslides on the way to greater understanding in her own efforts to answer "why bother?" at various stages in her life; it's not a one-and-done proposal, but an ongoing life process that will have different answers at different times. There are also, she acknowledges, circumstances beyond one's control; this is not one of those manifestation/"prosperity" books, where everything wrong in your life can be blamed on just not wishing hard enough for everything to be right. Sometimes all one can do is manage one's reaction to that which cannot be (at the time) controlled, and not every life desire can be fulfilled all at once. Some of the ideas and exercises are more practical than others, particularly to those who can't afford week-long cross-country retreats or personal life coaches. It also skews a little hard into spiritual territory by the end. Louden offers numerous anecdotes and citations throughout, with a bibliography at the end for further research and reading on numerous topics discussed.
In any event, like other self-help titles, more power to those who find help in their pages. Right now, though, through no fault of this book, that person is unlikely to be me.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Growing Gills (Jessica Abel) - My Review
Supplies (Julia Cameron) - My Review
10% Happier (Dan Harris) - My Review
Jennifer Louden
Page Two
Nonfiction, Self-Help
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: You're stuck in a job you hate, but putting food on the table is too important to consider a change. You're lonely, but making friends or finding dates takes time, effort, and self-confidence you haven't had in years. You're unhappy, but don't have the time or energy to figure out just why - and even if you did figure out what you wanted, it's probably not something you could do well enough to earn approval from others. Life's just a gray, endless slog from nowhere to nowhere, by way of nowhere. Why bother?
The question "why bother?" isn't just about giving up, throwing your hands in the air and accepting that everything has sucked, does suck, and forever more shall suck. It's also a question that begs an answer. Why should you bother? What is the driving force, the desire, the thing you've lost (or never found) that would make life worth bothering about?
In this book, writer and life coach Jennifer Louden offers anecdotes and advice on how to ask yourself the questions and give yourself permission to figure out the answer to the question "why bother?".
REVIEW: I readily admit that part of the rating is due to timing; I read it during a particularly trying and stuck life phase on multiple levels, personal to international, a phase that doesn't look likely to end any time soon no matter how many probing questions I ask myself or attempts at meditation or journaling I manage.
Objectively, the advice Louden offers is solid enough, if familiar from other books on self-help and getting oneself together. She's not afraid to expose her own missteps and backslides on the way to greater understanding in her own efforts to answer "why bother?" at various stages in her life; it's not a one-and-done proposal, but an ongoing life process that will have different answers at different times. There are also, she acknowledges, circumstances beyond one's control; this is not one of those manifestation/"prosperity" books, where everything wrong in your life can be blamed on just not wishing hard enough for everything to be right. Sometimes all one can do is manage one's reaction to that which cannot be (at the time) controlled, and not every life desire can be fulfilled all at once. Some of the ideas and exercises are more practical than others, particularly to those who can't afford week-long cross-country retreats or personal life coaches. It also skews a little hard into spiritual territory by the end. Louden offers numerous anecdotes and citations throughout, with a bibliography at the end for further research and reading on numerous topics discussed.
In any event, like other self-help titles, more power to those who find help in their pages. Right now, though, through no fault of this book, that person is unlikely to be me.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Growing Gills (Jessica Abel) - My Review
Supplies (Julia Cameron) - My Review
10% Happier (Dan Harris) - My Review
Friday, April 1, 2022
Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates (Kevin O'Malley and Patrick O'Brien)
Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates
The Captain Raptor series, Book 2
Kevin O'Malley and Patrick O'Brien, illustrations by Patrick O'Brien
Bloomsbury
Fiction, CH Adventure/Picture Book/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When nefarious space pirates strike the planet of Jurassica, the world's president knows just who to call: none other than the legendary Captain Raptor! Aboard the Megatooth, Raptor and his intrepid crew set off in hot pursuit of the enemy - but space is dangerous and the pirates are clever. Is this the end for Captain Raptor?
REVIEW: We had more down time at work today due to mechanical issues (a "gremlin break", as I call it), so I read this to pass the time. Just like the cover and title promise, this is a fun mash-up of genres, like Dinotopia meets Buck Rogers, in a wild space adventure with danger, mystery, and treachery on every page. The illustrations, with a graphic novel's layout and a serial's grandiosity - frequently asking "Is this the end for Captain Raptor?" before a turn of the page reveals his fate -, are detailed and spark the imagination, especially for the target audience: kids with a sense of wonder and fun, who gleefully play with their Jurassic Park toys and Transformers action figures at the same time (not giving a dang whether it's canon or logically plausible, so long as adventure is had, so sit down and shut up, you buzzkill adults poking holes in the game). It made for an enjoyable diversion. (And, no, you don't need to have read the first book to follow it.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time (James Gurney) - My Review
Robots Vs. Princesses Volume 1 (Todd Matthy) - My Review
Quantum Mechanics (Jeff Weigel) - My Review
The Captain Raptor series, Book 2
Kevin O'Malley and Patrick O'Brien, illustrations by Patrick O'Brien
Bloomsbury
Fiction, CH Adventure/Picture Book/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When nefarious space pirates strike the planet of Jurassica, the world's president knows just who to call: none other than the legendary Captain Raptor! Aboard the Megatooth, Raptor and his intrepid crew set off in hot pursuit of the enemy - but space is dangerous and the pirates are clever. Is this the end for Captain Raptor?
REVIEW: We had more down time at work today due to mechanical issues (a "gremlin break", as I call it), so I read this to pass the time. Just like the cover and title promise, this is a fun mash-up of genres, like Dinotopia meets Buck Rogers, in a wild space adventure with danger, mystery, and treachery on every page. The illustrations, with a graphic novel's layout and a serial's grandiosity - frequently asking "Is this the end for Captain Raptor?" before a turn of the page reveals his fate -, are detailed and spark the imagination, especially for the target audience: kids with a sense of wonder and fun, who gleefully play with their Jurassic Park toys and Transformers action figures at the same time (not giving a dang whether it's canon or logically plausible, so long as adventure is had, so sit down and shut up, you buzzkill adults poking holes in the game). It made for an enjoyable diversion. (And, no, you don't need to have read the first book to follow it.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time (James Gurney) - My Review
Robots Vs. Princesses Volume 1 (Todd Matthy) - My Review
Quantum Mechanics (Jeff Weigel) - My Review
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