June Site Update

And 2022's halfway gone... The month's fifteen reviews have been archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books site.

Enjoy!

The Machine Stops (E. M. Forster)

The Machine Stops
E. M. Forster
Oregan Publishing
Fiction, Sci-FI
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: It has been many generations since humanity retreated from an uninhabitable surface to live in the depths of the Earth. Here, in their personal podlike rooms, the great Machine provides them with everything they could need or want: food, music, video entertainment, lectures to exchange ideas, contact with friends and family. It's rare that any leave, save when assigned to procreate or relocate to a new room. Vashti is content with this life, surely the pinnacle of human achievement, but her son Kuno grows restless. He wants to see his mother face to face - a needless frivolity. He wants to see the surface, even though there's nothing up there but simple plant life anymore. He even longs to look at the stars... with his own living eyes! Worst of all, he questions the Machine, insisting people are starting to worship it like a god, a line of thinking that could see him rendered "homeless" (sent to the poisoned air of the surface without a respirator to die). Vashti wants nothing to do with his heresies. She just wants to enjoy the luxuries of life as provided by the Machine - but every machine, even the greatest in human history, might skew from its original purpose... and might even someday break down.

REVIEW: This classic short story, a look at a dystopian future where humanity has lost sight of itself and become too enamored with its own creations to remember its place in the world and its true worth, was first published in 1909, and holds up reasonably well today, a clear inspiration to later writers. Vashti, like most "modern" people, has grown weak in will and body, impatient, intolerant, and even childish, every whim perpetually indulged at the press of a button, every idea regurgitated through numerous mouths and generations until original notions are ultimately abhorrent. Only for the sake of her son does she brave the airship trip to his room, where he unravels a tale of rebellion so scandalous she recoils in horror from his actions. Later, as the Machine ascends from mere creation to quasi-deity, she loses herself in worship to try to forget his heretical actions - until the mechanical god (as implied in the title, so not really a spoiler) begins breaking down. Forster projects a certain romanticism on the wilderness and "wild" men and women as the only true expression of humanity (and the only true way to know divinity, measuring the world against oneself and oneself against the world), eschewing the softening, sensory- and mind-dulling conveniences of civilization and industry (and conveniently glossing over questions of how people can ever survive a world as ecologically degraded as the one in the story). The message may be a bit heavy-handed, but the tragedy of Kuno's doomed rebellion against conformity, Vashti's embracing of society and willingness to be subsumed, and the ultimate reckoning of a failed civilization that has completely lost its way come through.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Foundation (Isaac Asimov) - My Review
Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke) - My Review
City (Clifford D. Simak) - My Review

Rebel in the Library of Ever (Zeno Alexander)

Rebel in the Library of Ever
The Library of Ever series, Book 2
Zeno Alexander
Imprint
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: About a year ago, Lenora discovered a great secret in the city library: a hidden gateway to the vast, magical Library of Ever, repository of all knowledge and stories. She also discovered that the Forces of Darkness were actively attacking the Library. If knowledge is going to survive, it needs brave, bold Librarians like Lenora to protect it... but she can't even protect herself in her kendo classes, which she took up after narrowly escaping the Forces last time. She hasn't even been able to find her way back to the archway leading to the Library of Ever. Then she finds one of her favorite librarians in tears because she was just fired by the new Board - the Board that she overheard taking over last year, planning "big changes" and "increased profit margins" (since when was a library about making money?)... clearly the Forces of Darkness at work. Lenora once more finds her way into the magical otherworldly library - and things are not all well. A new Director has taken over. Books are disappearing, as are whole sections of the library. And the Forces of Darkness walk freely among the shelves. Worse, her mentor, the great woman Malachi, has been demoted. Someone is going to have to find the first Librarian and save the Library of Ever, and soon, or the Forces of Darkness will triumph, strangling knowledge and curiosity and ushering in an era of ignorance, fear, and hatred. That someone, apparently, is Lenora. She only wishes she knew how...

REVIEW: The second in a (probable) duology, Rebel in the Library of Ever may take place a year after the first book, but melds seamlessly. Lenora's not the inexperienced assistant apprentice she was in the first volume, coming into the adventure with a greater understanding of the place, the job, and the enemy... but, amazingly, not everyone seems to recognize the evil walking in plain sight in the Library of Ever. Patrons seem to be coming around to the new Director's profit-driven schemes, despite the dwindling stock of books and shrinking staff, even if they're often unsatisfied when they can't find answers or help; nobody apparently notices or cares enough to stand up to the Forces of Darkness so long as there's a smiling face and a veneer of legitimacy and "progress" plastered over them. With the Forces emboldened and deeply entrenched, she faces a steeper battle than before, though she has more friends than before - including, unexpectedly, the Director's own daughter, who has an eye-openeing experience following Lenora through the labyrinthine Library. More interesting ideas and facts are explored, including the ongoing search for the largest number (which is not infinity, which is not technically a number) and the question of the Library of Alexandria's fate (among other mysteries), as Lenora heads toward the ultimate confrontation with the monstrous Forces of Darkness and their plot to hijack the Library of Ever to spread their lies (a plot that's all too easy to see in effect in today's world of "alternative facts"). It's a satisfying conclusion that seems to wrap the series, though there are a few tantalizing hints from the first volume that hint at more adventures to come for Lenora.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Storybound (Marissa Burt) - My Review
Libriomancer (Jim C. Hines) - My Review
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The Library of Ever (Zeno Alexander)

The Library of Ever
The Library of Ever series, Book 1
Zeno Alexander
Imprint
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: When Lenora's parents went on an extended vacation, any thoughts of having a fun time on her own are quickly dashed when she's saddled with the world's worst babysitter; the young woman drags the girl all over the city, buying herself dresses and planning parties to impress her friends, and only seems to care about Lenora insomuch as she's determined to keep the girl from doing anything fun. While visiting the library, Lenora determines to slip away, even just for a little while... only to find herself facing a strange stone archway, beyond which lies an impossibly vast world of shelves and books and other wonders. A giant of a woman whose badge identifies her as an Answerer takes Lenora on as an assistant in the great Library of Ever, where all manner of people (human and otherwise) seek all manner of knowledge. As a Fourth Assistant Apprentice Librarian, the girl finds herself plunged into all manner of challenges, seeking answers for patrons... and facing an insidious enemy that wants to stamp out knowledge.

REVIEW: Another audiobook chosen primarily to pass the time at work, The Library of Ever promises an adventurous romp in an imaginary library that spans time and space and reality itself, with a side order of fighting the embodied forces of ignorance and misinformation - an enemy still all too alive and well in the real world, as recent spikes in book banning sadly indicate. This is what it delivers. It skirts a line that many similar titles toy with: turning reading and books into a bold, in-your-face Grand Adventure, presumably to convince readers (who likely already know, as they're reading the book in the first place) how enjoyable and necessary books and the information they contain are. Fortunately, it doesn't browbeat too much on this. (Few things kill the fun of a story like an overly-blatant Theme or Lesson bludgeoning the reader; whisper it, speak it, but don't shout and pummel with it...) Lenora's a decently plucky heroine who gets in over her head more than once, but manages to find her way through tricky problems and learn something along the way - especially the idea that factoids "everyone knows" aren't always true, so every assumption deserves scrutiny. The Library of Ever itself is a vast, surreal world for her to explore. Along the way, the Forces of Darkness scheme and skulk through the shelves, taking a personal interest in the up-and-coming young librarian. The ending has a decently perilous climax with a hook for the second book in the series... which I downloaded after finishing this one.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Inkheart (Cornelia Funke) - My Review
Behind the Canvas (Alexander Vance) - My Review
The Forbidden Library (Django Wexler) - My Review

The Night Raven (Sarah Painter)

The Night Raven
The Crow Investigations series, Book 1
Sarah Painter
Siskin Press
Fiction, Fantasy/Mystery/Romance
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Like the rest of her family, Lydia Crow was born with magic... but hardly anything worth the name, save a sensitivity to spirits and auras. It's just as well her magicborn father and mundane mother raised her away from London and the four magical Families who, despite diminished powers, still hold sway over the city's shadier sides. Lydia never meant to return, until her job with a Scottish private investigation firm took a bad turn and she needed somewhere to get away to that wasn't her parents' house. Fortunately, Uncle Charlie has a vacant property, an apartment above a defunct cafe, that could use a tenant. She knows full well that there's no such thing as a free favor, not even for family (and especially not for Family), but the "rent free" part of the deal is enough to convince her to trust him just this once.
Within half an hour, she's met the resident ghost and survived an assassination attempt, and finds herself seriously rethinking her life choices.
Apparently, even though she and her father turned their backs on the Crows, the Crows never turned their backs on her... and anyone with ties to that Family in London is going to be a target. When Lydia learns that her young cousin has disappeared, the attempted murder takes on a sinister new light. She may only have a year of formal training, but she is still an investigator, and the cops clearly can't be trusted with Crow business, not when magic's likely involved. Despite her misgivings about delving deeper into Family affairs, Lydia takes on the case. But there's a lot she doesn't know about the state of the magical Families of London and the particulars of Uncle Charlie's management of the Crows, and what she doesn't know might very well be the death of her.

REVIEW: There is nothing inherently wrong with this book. It's your typical urban fantasy set in London, with a brash and conveniently single heroine dealing with magical secrets and crime while juggling a forbidden attraction, in this case a local police detective, and various colorful friends and acquaintances/rivals. In fact, it's so typical that basically nothing stands out in my memory about it at all. Lydia checks every box in the generic urban fantasy investigator heroine list, down to near-perpetual horniness and regularly getting drunk with her best friend (a suburban mother who really doesn't do anything for the plot except show Lydia the kind of normal life she could've had if she hadn't been born a Crow, the kind of life heroines apparently must want for themselves simply because they will never have it) and gifts that are actually quite powerful despite her repeated denials, though never powerful enough for her not to need rescuing by males. The case seems to mostly be an excuse for this "pilot episode" book to introduce the series concept and presumed regulars; she sort of wanders in circles a lot, doing some rather boneheaded things, before eventually finding her way to a vaguely bait-and-switch conclusion. I suppose I was simply supposed to be intrigued enough for the next episode/book in the series (I was not). While there's nothing inherently wrong with the formula this book was written to, it's just a formula I don't find interesting, that I've seen too many times, and just plain didn't care about Lydia enough to see what she investigates next.

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Midnight Riot (Ben Aaronovitch) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review

Carry On (Rainbow Rowell)

Carry On
The Simon Snow series, Book 1
Rainbow Rowell
St. Martin's Griffin
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Romance
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Simon Snow was a wretched orphan in modern London, with no clue who he was or where he belonged, if anywhere... until he erupted with magic that burned his latest foster home down (while sparing the occupants, transporting them blocks away). That was when the Mage, leader of the Coven of English mages, found him and whisked him off to the Watford School of Magicks. That was when Simon learned that he might be the answer to an ancient prophecy about the "Chosen One", the most powerful magician to ever live, who will save the magical world from a terrible threat. And that was when Simon discovered he had a deadly enemy in a magic-nullifying force known as the Insidious Humdrum. Well, two enemies: in his first year at Watford, he was paired with the world's worst and most evil (and almost certainly vampiric) roommate in the body of Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch-Grimm.
Baz is descended from two long lines of powerful Old Families. Simon is still an orphan of unknown parentage. Baz is impeccably groomed and a top Watford student in every subject. Simon is neither. Baz has perfect command of his powers, while Simon just explodes at random despite his best efforts. And Baz has spent the past seven school years trying to humiliate, endanger, and kill Simon and his friends, genius Penelope and beautiful girlfriend Agatha. He even tried to feed Simon to the chimera in the Wandering Wood. This year, Simon's last at Watford, he can't imagine what the beastly Baz has in store for him. Except what Baz has in store is nothing, because he's gone missing.
Simon should be relieved. Instead, he can't stop thinking about his roommate and enemy. Is this Baz's most devious plot yet to end Simon Snow, or is his roommate in trouble - and, if so, why does he find himself caring so much? Then Baz's dead mother visits their room, charging Simon with helping her son avenge her death... if he can find both the boy and the killer. Meanwhile, the clock ticks down on Simon's prophecised destiny, and the Humdrum only grows bolder by the minute, yet Simon's protector and mentor the Mage is more scarce than ever. This final year at Watford is going to be his most explosive yet, in more ways than anyone can possibly imagine.

REVIEW: I read and very much enjoyed Rowell's standalone novel Fangirl, about a young woman who finds strength and comfort in a fictional fantasy franchise about Simon Snow (with clear nods to Harry Potter). According to the end notes, when Rowell finished that book, she couldn't let go of Simon, whose story was alluded to in clips from both "canon" work and the character's fanfic, so she decided to write his story. This is an unusual approach to writing a story, particularly a fantasy story. I'm still processing how well that paid off.
Simon Snow is a standard Chosen One, in the vein of Harry Potter and innumerable other heroes (and heroines) in middle grade and young adult franchises, a boy who finds himself at the center of everything despite not really having heroic qualities other than a refusal to give up, even in the face of near-impossible odds. Even his friends and enemies recognize him as the center of their universe, as though they somehow understand that they're part of a story written about Snow. This adds an interesting dimension to the tale, which is much more about how Snow and the others try to define their own lives, relationships, and futures under intense pressure and trying circumstances than about the impending war between mages and the threat of the Humdrum, but it also makes the magical elements feel like extraneous complications (even as they subtly satirize the subgenre). Indeed, the magical world itself feels almost deliberately thin and vaguely defined, like a children's game that the teenaged characters are bound to grow out of; the mages here operate more like a secret club than a hidden world (albeit a club that conceals vampires and dragons and other unnatural threats), and some mages even give up their powers and inclusion in that club to live a happier life among the "Normals". Magic is based on language and popular phrases or even nursery rhymes that gain (and lose) power over the years, about as loose and plot convenient as any spell at Hogwarts, but which can also be stripped from an area by the Humdrum's predations. There's also implied deep political schisms and struggles within the magical community, over who has power over the Coven and who even gets trained; the Mage staged a revolution of sorts, but struggles to hold onto the reins of power with increasingly draconian efforts... more background clutter. The story is written (deliberately) as if it is the final installment in a longer franchise, where the rules and dynamics were already established and only the odd hint and nod is made to that establishment as things rush toward the series finale of Simon dealing with his roommate Baz and the Humdrum. It's not really a spoiler that Simon and Baz discover their relationship is less about being mortal enemies and more about unexplored attraction, though - again, because this was written as a finale to a series nobody has read - I didn't entirely buy the transition, especially on Simon's part. (Simon overall is a flimsier character than Baz, again likely deliberately, as his main function in his world is to be a Chosen One who may or may not survive his confrontation with the Humdrum.) Meanwhile, best friend (and Hermione equivalent) Penelope struggles to help Simon prepare for his final battle and deal with the Baz "truce", while Simon's ex-girlfriend Agatha realizes she needs to learn to define herself as someone other than the hero's pretty companion/object to save, a need that may drive her to reject everything about her life, even magic. The story as a whole takes on an odd, surreal quality as it builds to a somewhat-telegraphed final revelation and fight, lots of threads and timelines flying together at last (and, again, hinting at a lot of establishment that happened "off camera" and which the reader can only guess at).
In the end, even after long thought, I'm not quite sure what to think about the experience. There's a lot to appreciate and admire; it is, after all, a totally different approach to the subject, oddly compelling, and I admit I'm curious about where Rowell intends to take things now that the main "franchise" story is resolved and the characters are left to deal with lives and relationships that have been distorted by cataclysmic events and prophecies. There's also a fair bit that just didn't work for me. I wound up giving it back the half-star it almost lost, though, for sheer ambition and willingness to approach the familiar, Harry Potter-like story tropes from an entirely different, borderline self-aware angle, and because I think I might want to read on someday.

You Might Also Enjoy:
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Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell) - My Review
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The Reluctant Queen (Sarah Beth Durst)

The Reluctant Queen
The Queens of Renthia series, Book 2
Sarah Beth Durst
Harper Voyager
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Once, the girl Daleina was the least promising of the candidates training to be an heir of the crown of Aratay, leader of the people and their only defense against the malevolent nature spirits of the land. Now, after treachery and hardship and loss and much bloodshed, she is Queen... but maybe not for long. When she begins to show signs of a deadly disease known as the false death, she realizes that she does not have the luxury of waiting years for new candidates and heirs to be trained up and tested - especially not when Aratay's neighbors to the north, perhaps sensing the new queen's weakness, begin testing their borders. Daleina orders her royal Champions to find new candidates, girls and women with an affinity for the spirits. Many can be found in the capital's academies, young and untested... but there are others among the far-flung villages, working as local hedgewitches or even hiding their gifts, lest they draw unwanted attention from spirits and people alike.
Naelin saw her mother destroyed by spirits, and has vowed never to use her own powers except in direst need, to save her own children. She hasn't even told her husband of her abilities, which she sees as more curse than gift; he'd just try to find a way to use it to make his life easier and richer. But when he tricks her into revealing herself - endangering their young daughter and son in the process - it sets in motion a chain of events that will rip her from her cozy home and quiet life and plunge her into danger and intrigue and possible war.

REVIEW: I enjoyed the first book in this series, a fantasy with strong women and an interesting world with capricious spirits forever torn by their contradictory urges to create and destroy. I thought I'd enjoy following the series. But this installment has me wondering just how far I want to follow it.
The world remains intriguing, with returning and new characters further fleshing it out. Daleina has been forced past her insecurities, accepting her fate as the Queen, only to find herself facing a new challenge when the fainting spells of the false death threaten the country; when she's unconscious, the spirits break free of her will to wreak havok, often deadly havok, on the populace. Naelin is a very different kind of candidate, a grown woman with a husband and family... and here is where things started to grow shaky. She's a momma bear (to quote the oft-used phrase from the book), entirely devoted to her young children. She clings to them. She ruffles their hair and hugs them and indulges their antics (I expect I was supposed to find their mere existence endearing, given how much page time they devoured), and would happily let the rest of the nation and world burn if she could find a cozy little hole of a home to curl up in with them for eternity. Naelina repeatedly (and tiringly) denies any other priority or need. She is absolutely nothing beyond being a mother, wanting nothing but to be a mother, demanding to never be anything but a mother with little children to coddle. It's a slow but subtle theme that builds through the book, that anyone (particularly any woman) who wants anything other than a small picket-fence-equivalent life as house mother is unhappy, suspect, or otherwise self-deluded. Even Queen Daleina needs a momma bear to protect her, apparently... and she falls into yet another cycle of denial, even if not quite the same one that ate a little too much time in the previous volume, this time concerning an old rival whom she insists is still actually a friend despite all blatant evidence to the contrary. How many times must a person be stung before they realize it's not a butterfly they're holding but a hornet? Honestly, I found myself wishing someone in Renthia would invent baseball just so I could take a bat to the main characters' skulls as they rehashed the same stale and debunked denials. At some point, the story started feeling stretched, in no small part because people would not just sit down and shut up and accept the obvious to move the story forward. Nevertheless, things do build to a reasonably satisfying (if not entirely unexpected) conclusion, setting up the third (and presumed final) installment. I will probably want to see how the story ends eventually, but I'm a little less enthused to return than I was at the start of this volume.

You Might Also Enjoy:
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Hunt the Stars (Jessie Mihalik)

Hunt the Stars
The Starlight's Shadow series, Book 1
Jessie Mihalik
Harper Voyager
Fiction, Romance/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: In the wars between the Federated Human Planets and the telepathic Valoffs, Octavia "Tavi" Zarola became a war hero for all the wrong reasons, in a mission that was anything but the glorious victory her superiors declared it to be. She and her surviving squadmates have been bearing the burden of that lie ever since, even years into a fragile peace. Aboard their private ship Starlight's Shadow, they pick up odd jobs across the settled galaxy, barely scraping by... but, even desperate as their finances are, Tavi hesitates when a man wants her to find a stolen family heirloom. The reason? The man is the infamous Valovian general Torran Fletcher. No human who fought them can feel anything but hatred for his kind, and the feeling is clearly mutual, especially when her "war hero" status precedes her. There's an active bounty for her head on his homeworld of Valovia - where she'll have to go if she's fool enough to take the job, even if it's not a trap. But something about him is hard to dismiss out of hand, and not just because of his devastating good looks. His story and his desperation ring true, and the money he's offering is all too tempting. Despite her better judgement, Tavi agrees to Torran's terms - plunging herself and her crew into a job where nothing is as it seems, and where one wrong move could shatter the fragile peace and plunge the galaxy into all-out war again.

REVIEW: A jaded warrior fallen on hard times, a rough ship with a ragtag and eccentric crew, a galaxy on the brink of interstellar war, aliens conveniently human enough to enable interspecies carnal relations that don't tip into bestiality... If I'm being fully honest, this audiobook came close to losing half a star for sheer familiarity. Hunt the Stars isn't exactly built with stunningly original parts or with particular depth or intricacy in worldbuilding or characters, on the romance end or the space opera end. But it's not trying to be stunningly original or particularly deep. It's trying to be an interstellar romance with devastatingly handsome and beautiful leads (both of whom have the requisite wounded pasts and trust issues to overcome) and a plot with enough action and complications and heated encounters to keep things interesting between their first encounter and the end of the book. At that, I must say it succeeds, with a solid, if not necessarily memorable, tale. Tavi's heart is immediately smitten by Torran, but her head is smart enough to recognize the danger he represents, and the holes in his story. Torran does indeed have secrets, but not the ones she expects. There's some personal and cultural clashes as the two struggle to navigate their new working relationship, both dancing around the edge of their attraction. Given their respective histories in the war, I'd almost have expected a little more hesitancy in that on both ends, but, well, it is a romance, so certain developments are inevitable. (I will say, though, that I found the relationship finale a bit drawn out, especially given that the non-romance plot had already concluded; it felt like Mihalik was just drawing out word count at that point before setting up the sequel. It seemed like something must've been out of balance between the general action/space opera arc and the relationship arc, when the conclusion of one sapped my interest in the conclusion of the other...) In any event, while I doubt I'll bother with the next book in the series, Hunt the Stars is a perfectly competent, somewhat steamy story of interstellar romance and intrigue, enough so that I went ahead and gave it the full fourth star of a Good rating despite some minor quibbles.

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Ascender Volume 4: Star Seed (Jeff Lemire)

Ascender Volume 4: Star Seed
The Ascender series, Issues 15 - 18
Jeff Lemire, illustrations by Dustin Nguyen
Image Comics
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Mila and Captain Telsa have finally located the boy robot Tim-21, and had an unexpected reunion with Mila's father and mother... just in time for Mother's forces to arrive. As Tim-21 reveals the truth of where he has been and why he has returned, they face a moment that could reshape the entire galaxy for all life forms, living and robotic - or Mother's cruel regime of dark sorcery could ascend to an unstoppable superpower.

REVIEW: The final volume of the Descender/Ascender cycle wraps the story up in a cataclysmic conclusion that can't help but feel a little bit rushed. There's a slight hint of pulled punches and last-minute revelations, but overall things come to a satisfactory conclusion for Tim-21 and Mila's family and friends... and, yes, even the robot dog Bandit. Though the Descender part felt a little less full and complete than the Ascender arc, I still enjoyed this space opera melding of magic and machinery.

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Descender: The Deluxe Edition Volume 1 (Jeff Lemire) - My Review
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Ikenga (Nnedi Okorafor)

Ikenga
Nnedi Okorafor
Viking
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: The day Nnamdi's father died was the day everything started going wrong, in his life and in the town of Kalaria. Corruption and crime run rampant through much of the Nigerian countryside, but with his father as chief of police, things were finally turning around, at least in Kalaria... which, of course, must have been why he had been killed. To add to the insult, the criminals make a show of coming to the funeral. The Chief of Chiefs, notorious local crime lord, even hands Nnamdi's mother an envelope of cash, as clear an admission of guilt as anything the boy has seen! He vows, then and there, to see the horrible man and his wicked associates pay for their crimes and avenge his father.
One year later, his vow remains unfulfilled, and crime in Kalaria is as bad as it ever was before his father became chief. The new chief is no stranger to bribery, the Chief of Chiefs and his colorful crew of criminals still walk the streets freely, and Nnamdi's mother has been reduced to selling tapioca in the market - his mother, widow of the most honorable man ever to wear a uniform in all of Kalaria... perhaps all the country, or beyond! But the boy must face the bitter truth that, if grown-ups are stymied by the troubles plaguing his town, then a twelve-year-old boy isn't going to fare much better. It's not like he can become a hero like in the comic books he loves.
Then, one night, the ghost of his father appears, bearing a strange gift: an ikenga, a magical talisman. With it, Nnamdi can transform into a giant man with skin like night and the strength of mountains. Here, at last, is the power he's longed for, and a way to see justice done... but, if he's learned nothing else from his comic books, he should've learned that no power comes without great cost - and a power that he can't control may well make him worse than the criminals he wants to fight.

REVIEW: Ikenga is considered popular author Okorafor's middle grade debut (though I'd put her book Akata Witch at the upper end of middle grade, bleeding into young adult), a superhero story set in modern Nigeria and strongly flavored with local settings and traditions. Nnamdi wants to be a dutiful son and the man of the now-fatherless household, but he is still just a boy, with a boy's understanding of the world. Being gifted the ikenga does not make him magically wiser or more mature, and he stumbles more than once as he learns to control his new powers and the rage-fueled strength that comes with it. He finds support in a friend (whom he nearly loses with his anger), and the answers he uncovers are not at all what he expected. Once in a while Nnamdi could be a bit dense, and it got a little irritating how women had such greatly reduced agency and roles, but overall it's a decent superhero origin story.

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Akata Witch (Nnedi Okorafor) - My Review
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Along the Saltwise Sea (A. Deborah Baker)

Along the Saltwise Sea
The Up-and-Under series, Book 2
A. Deborah Baker
Tordotcom
Fiction, MG Fantasy
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: Adventurous Zib and straight-laced Avery had lived their entire young lives almost as neighbors yet never meeting, her zizgagging off in one direction and him walking in straight lines in the other, until they found themselves facing a wall that couldn't exist, beyond which lay a forest that shouldn't be there. Now the children are unlikely companions in the Up-and-Under, a strange realm ruled by peculiar Kings and Queens, where people are as likely to be made of stone or flocks of birds as ordinary flesh and blood. Their only chance at getting home lies in reaching the Impossible City at the end of the Improbable Road... but you don't follow that road doing anything so mundane (and safe) as simply walking along it. And the Road has its own ideas of what lost children need... especially when the Up-and-Under apparently needs them to be more than just two more lost outsiders. The Queen of Wands, ruler of the Impossible City, has gone missing, and if she's not found soon, the whole of the Up-and-Under may be in danger - and the children may never get home.
After a long and weary trek along the Improbable Road, Zib and Avery and their companions, the drowned girl Niamh and the Crow Girl (who has a habit of bursting into a murder of crows), find their way down a well and to the shore of the vast Saltwise Sea. Here, new adventures and dangers await them, and more conflicts with the land's powerful, inscrutable, and sometimes fickle royalty and their monstrous Page emissaries arise... and here, once again, Zib and Avery are reminded that, unlike what some parents and storybooks like to say, those who wander into strange lands and have strange adventures are by no means guaranteed a happy ending.

REVIEW: Coming off a very impressive first installment brimming with imagination and wonderful turns of phrase and great characters that feel both familiar and original (and a world and adventure that feel likewise), Along the Saltwise Sea had a lot to live up to. Happily, it proved up to the task. There's a brief refresher at the opening to remind readers where Avery and Zib left off (and bring any newcomers roughly up to speed), then it's off and running. Zib and Avery have both been changed by their adventures, slowly coming to grips with the unusual nature of the world they've found themselves in - a world that refuses to be anything so simplistic and safe as a simple fairy tale. The children still clash occasionally, with each other and their traveling companions, with different ideas on how to proceed and what to do and even what their ultimate goals may be. "Baker" (author Seanan McGuire under a pen name) employs some truly great turns of phrase that beg to be quoted and contemplated and reread. It reads both quickly and slowly as a result, but altogether enjoyably. I'm looking forward to grabbing the third installment when my budget allows.

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Over the Woodward Wall (A. Deborah Baker) - My Review
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Dragons in a Bag (Zetta Elliott)

Dragons in a Bag
The Dragons in a Bag series, Book 1
Zetta Elliott
Yearling Fantasy
Fiction, CH Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: Nine-year-old Jax wasn't sure he wanted to spend the day with the crusty old woman, but when Mama had to go to court about keeping their Brooklyn apartment, she insists he can't come with her. He's not even sure who the lady she calls Ma is, except a woman who watched over Mama when she was a little girl. But now he's stuck here, and he's sure it'll be a long and boring day... except it's anything but boring. A strange and secret package leads to a strange and secret trip... and not just to Prospect Park. It turns out Ma is a witch, and someone sent her a trio of hatchling dragons that the old woman has to return to their magical world - and Jax now has to help her. He just needs to remember not to let them out of her purse, and never, under any circumstances, to feed them sweets. That should be easy enough... shouldn't it?

REVIEW: With shades of Bruce Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (one of my favorite dragon stories of all time), Dragons in a Bag brings a little magic to modern Brooklyn. Jax is a clever and reasonably brave boy, who doesn't spend half the book pretending he doesn't believe in magic and strange things he sees with his own eyes but who does sometimes make a few mistakes. He's also fiercely loyal to his mother, and thought he knew everything he needed to know about who she is, until the visit with Ma gives him a glimpse of a past he never imagined and conflicts he doesn't understand; the fact that Jax eagerly embraces the idea of magic when Mama turned her back on it is is first real step on his own path in life, one where he can still love his mother and yet make his own choices that may differ from hers. The dragons have a bit of personality, for all that they're not actually in the story that much. Mostly it's Jax and Ma and some eccentric friends of hers on a little adventure through time and into another world and back, as Jax learns something of magic and witches and responsibilities. It's a fun, quick, and imaginative read, though it ends before fully resolving its story, leading into the second book.

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Who Goes There? (John W. Campbell Jr.)

Who Goes There?
John W. Campbell Jr.
Author's Republic
Fiction, Horror/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: An expedition to the South Pole stumbles across an incredible discovery: an alien vessel, locked in ice for millions of years, complete with a single alien body. When one scientist insists on thawing the corpse for study, disaster ensues - leaving the expedition members trapped in their icy outpost, unsure who among them is still human.

REVIEW: This classic novella has formed the basis for more than one movie (and innumerable knockoffs in various media). It does have a certain pulp mentality around the edges, relics of when it was written: the alien is another one of those extraterrestrial life forms that evidently evolved vast intelligence and starfaring capability for the sole purpose of being a monster, down to a countenance that human instinct immediately identifies as irredeemably horrendous (and which only the biologist dismisses as mere human prejudice against the unknown, even as he dismisses the risk of potential revival or pathogen contamination from thawing the presumed body). It also, like much science fiction of its time, likes to wander into infodumps about the science end of the "science fiction". (And it's probably best not to look closely at the cook character...) Despite that, it remains a chillingly horrific and memorable tale of claustrophobic paranoia and a monster capable of hiding in plain sight, successfully evoking the fear and seeming futility of fighting a vastly advanced enemy that can even read thoughts as it perfectly mimics its prey. (I will admit I wasn't too enamored of the audiobook narrator on the version I listened to, though.)

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The Queen of Blood (Sarah Beth Durst)

The Queen of Blood
The Queens of Renthia series, Book 1
Sarah Beth Durst
Harper Voyager
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: In the land of Renthia, natural spirits move the winds and grow the seeds and keep the waters flowing... and also bring hurricanes and twist the trees and raise floods and storms and worse. Without a strong queen to keep them in check, the spirits would rid the land of all humans and turn everything to chaos. But this is not a hereditary calling: any girl, from the lowest outlying villager to the highest courtier, who has an affinity for the spirits - able to sense them and bend them to their will - may be trained and potentially selected to serve as an heir, to step up when the current queen fades or falls.
Daeleina, a girl of rustic Graytree, never thought such a fate would be hers... until an attack of rogue spirits utterly destroys her village, and she alone manages to spare her family with a single, desperate command, telling them to stop.
From service to a lackluster hedgewitch to earning entrance into a prestigious academy at the capital, Daleina struggles to grow her gifts. She knows she's not strong enough to ever be an heir, but she'll never see another village destroyed as hers was if she can possibly help it. Perhaps, she thinks, she could aspire to be a guardswoman, or even perhaps a royal champion like the one who came to the remains of Graytree after its fall. But fate is a strange and sometimes terrible thing, and she finds herself drawn deeper into the world of spirits and the capital, and the machinations of an increasingly ruthless and desperate queen.

REVIEW: I've read a few titles by Durst, and have yet to be disappointed by her. This story, first in a series, establishes an interesting fantasy world of wild, unpredictable natural spirits forever torn between urges to create and destroy, and humans who find themselves forever pincered between needing the life they imbue to the land (without them, crops wouldn't grow and rivers wouldn't run and even fires won't spark) and knowing the spirits share a seemingly innate hatred of people. Daleina never intended to harbor aspirations to power, until the attack on her village - an attack that turns out to be less random than it first appeared - revealed her modest gifts. Unlike some stories, she never truly does become the strongest or the fastest or even necessarily the wisest after the obligatory training period and setbacks; others remain inherently better at summoning and controlling spirits. What she does have, from the start, is determination, if not to succeed - she never really does see herself as crown material - then to not fail. Her path has some sidetracks and setbacks, complicated by the queen's increasingly desperate desire to grasp for immortalizing glory beyond her fading skills that drive her to cross lines that cannot be uncrossed. Side characters have their own journeys and revelations, too, particularly the disgraced champion who takes a chance on training the middling academy student from the fringes of civilization. The plot moves fairly well, even if the rough sketch of it isn't vastly different from other tales of small-town girls making their way in a bigger and fantastic world, and it comes to a satisfactory conclusion that feels earned. I'll have to see if the next book is still available on Overdrive; this is a world I wouldn't mind revisiting at all.

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I Am Legend and Other Stories (Richard Matheson)

I Am Legend and Other Stories
Richard Matheson
Tor Books
Fiction, Collection/Fantasy/Horror/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: A lone man endures after a vampire plague destroys the world... a failed writer's rage manifests dangerously in his home... a war is fought by unconventional means... a mild-mannered fellow starts hearing a telephone ring inside his head... These and other short stories by master Richard Matheson appear in this collection.

REVIEW: Richard Matheson is considered a master, with his style influencing generations and several of his stories considered genre classics. Unfortunately, like with many collections, I found my reaction here mixed, not at all helped by some very bad dating on many themes. In Matheson's world, men are apparently powered by rage and sexual hunger, while women (universally the weaker sex in every way) exist to torment males even as they enable civilization by blunting said male rage and hunger (when they're not deliberately inflaming them, or simply being too silly and naive to understand the consequences of their actions) - and his portrayal of race is really best not examined. Matheson also has a way of dragging things out, even in short stories. The strongest entry by far is the titular tale I Am Legend, basis for multiple movies and clear inspiration for innumerable tales of apocalyptic survival, especially ones with supernatural overtones. While survivor Robert Nevill discovers a "rational" cause for the plague of undead bloodsuckers, it's still a story of vampires (with a touch of zombie) and doesn't hesitate to use the term. As a standalone, it would've gotten a higher rating, for all that it still had a bit of cringe around the edges. The rest of the stories, unfortunately, were a very mixed bag, often feeling too long once the gimmick was clear and leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The audiobook version I listened to was not helped at all by the narrators, who could be hard to hear over ambient warehouse noise and sometimes seemed to be going for goofy caricature in how they presented some of the character voices. For all that Matheson's style was generally decent (when not running overlong) and he explored some interesting horror concepts (disregarding the parts that haven't aged well), I don't expect I'll read more from him, even if he is a genre master.

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Elder Race (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

Elder Race
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Tordotcom
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Lynesse Fourth Daughter may have seen enough Storm seasons to be called a woman, but to her royal mother and sisters she's still little more than a child, clinging to fireside stories of monsters and magic and heroic saviors who rise in times of darkness. When talk of a "demon" in the distant forest kingdoms reaches the castle, she alone takes the refugees at their word - and, against the queen's express wishes, takes it upon herself to travel to the mountains and the tower of the sorcerer. In ages past, it is said, Elder Nyr left his lofty tower to travel with her ancestor and stop a great evil, and he swore he would return if ever the crown needed his services again. Surely stopping a demon counts as such a need.
Nyr Illim Tevich came to this world centuries ago, a second-class anthropologist studying the lost colonies that survived from the first wave of humanity's spread across the stars. There used to be four archaeologists, using drones and satellites and stasis fields to unobtrusively observe the divergence in the local population over generations, which, like many lost colonies, has completely abandoned old knowledge and tech and relegated their origins to fanciful creation myths. But when trouble arose back home, the other three headed back to Earth... and never returned. So it was no wonder he took to bending the rules of the mission a little - or a lot, in the case of the very persuasive queen some years back, who needed help with a local unearthed old colonial tech and managed just enough mastery of it to become a danger. Nyr told himself that would be the end of it, that he'd stay in stasis even until his companions returned or signals from Earth resumed (or the technology failed). But now a princess stands on his doorstep, demanding that he honor a promise he made generations ago, with some likely-exaggerated talk of a "demon".
Despite himself, "Sorcerer" Nyr lets himself be drawn from his tower and into Lynesse's quest... only to learn that, despite his greater knowledge and technology, there are dangers even an "Elder sorcerer" may be too weak to solve.

REVIEW: This is an oddball little novella, a "lost colony" story where old knowledge and technology has been relegated to the realm of wizardry, where the very language they speak prevents Nyr from explaining the truth to Lynesse and her companions: that he is no sorcerer, that there is no magic, and whatever role the storytellers may have assigned to him and his "Elder" race is just that - a story. His status as last of his group of anthropologists already left him prone to depression, which is only compounded when he comes to the realization that he may well be the last of his people in more ways than that, now that signals from Earth have stopped altogether. Technology lets him defer emotional reactions, but breakdowns can only be delayed, not prevented. Meanwhile, he struggles with his original "prime directive" of noninterference that he already violated, and his own realization that his anthropologist's point of view has left him seeing the locals as objects of study, not living human beings. Lynesse, meanwhile, strives to reconcile her lived experiences with Nyr with the stories she's heard of her heroic ancestor (and other tales she's inhaled like oxygen, with more credulity than perhaps was wise), literally unable to understand him when he tries to set her straight. She remains a little too naive a little too long, to be honest, though toward the end it's clear she's clinging to her dreams of heroism out of desperation more than strict belief anymore: not only has she pinned all her hopes, in defiance of her family, on Nyr's magic, but the "demon" - an all-too-real danger - is something so terrifyingly wrong that there is no other hope of defeating it save through the miraculous intervention of some hero out of legend. As a novella, it doesn't have too much space to explore its deeper ideas or issues, and something about the story starts to feel unbalanced as a result, in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on but which left me just unsatisfied enough by the end to shave a half-star from the rating.

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