Mrs. Plansky's Revenge
The Mrs. Plansky series, Book 1
Spencer Quinn
Forge Books
Fiction, Mystery
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Recently widowed Mrs. Loretta Plansky has a good life in Florida, playing tennis at the club (thanks to her brand-new hip) and visiting her aging father at his care facility and fielding requests for support from her children and grandchildren. Thanks to her late husband Norm's popular invention (well, it was her idea, but they both developed it), a knife that toasts bread as you slice, she has quite the comfortable nest egg, more than enough to see her through her twilight years. So when she gets a late-night call from her wayward grandson Will, she hardly hesitates to wire him money to help him out of a jam... only it was not her grandson at all, and the next day she learns that her entire life savings - over three million dollars - has vanished. Worse, the FBI rather bluntly informs her that she's unlikely to recover a penny of the lost funds. There are just too many cyber criminals running too many sophisticated scams, and too many international diplomatic mine fields to pursue them... in this case, to somewhere in Romania, a hot spot for such activity under a government that is notoriously reticent to help Americans investigate what is essentially a lucrative cottage industry to many impoverished towns. Loretta may not be a spring chicken anymore, and she may have the odd memory lapse, but she's not about to stand back at let the bad guys get away with stealing her late husband's legacy and her family's security for the future - and if the feds can't or won't do their job, well, then she'll just have to do it for them.
In Romania, teenager Dinu has shown a knack for picking up American English and its many confusing colloquialisms, making him a rising star in his uncle Dragomir's phone scam business. Dazzled by praise and money (and too familiar with the bruises that come with letting Dragomir down - a man who essentially runs their small Romanian town, even owning the local law), he sees a bright future ahead, full of motorcycles and women and maybe, someday, even a trip to see the almost mythic country of the people he's helping to fleece. After all, it's not like he'll ever have to face a victim of his crimes - a crime that hardly seems like a crime at all, just words over the phone and numbers on a computer screen. But he soon discovers that the bright future he thought he saw for himself may instead be a trap from which he'll never escape.
REVIEW: It looked like a light cozy mystery with a little humor and a plucky heroine. At times, it is indeed that. But Mrs. Plansky takes far too long dithering and fumbling before finally getting to the promised "revenge" of the title, just as Dinu is far too dim and self-absorbed as he meanders though the heady success and addictive easy cash of his first successful scams only to slowly realize just what he's actually got himself into and how firm and cruel Uncle Dragomir's grip over his life truly has become.
The reader meets Loretta as a cheerful retiree on the tennis court, living her best life in the Sunshine State. If her 98-year-old father, slowly deteriorating to the point of needing extra care, is a weight on her, and if her family seems more interested in the checks she might write them than keeping in touch out of love, well, she enjoys being able to help others, and it makes her feel wanted and important, filling a void left by her husband's passing. She drifts through many memories of Norm at random times, distracting both the reader and herself from the greater story, which is in no hurry to get going. On Dinu's end, it's tough feeling much empathy for a brazen thief, even one too naive to connect his actions with the harm those actions do half a world away; he's confused when his crush breaks up with him after watching him work, and never really does seem to figure out why. In his defense, though, his only model for masculinity has been his uncle, essentially a mob boss, who commands loyalty with a mixture of charisma, lavish gifts, and visits from enforcers when displeased, but Dinu's own attempts to buy love and loyalty with gifts go terribly awry, not helped by having a brain clouded by adolescent hormones and impossible dreams. Eventually, after much denial and more dithering on both their parts, they each determine their own ways to change their circumstances... both running into unexpected obstacles and sidetracks before their paths cross in Romania. As an investigator, Loretta is very much hit-and-miss on actually investigating, luck playing a disproportionate role as she slowly circles in on the thieves behind her misfortune. Her age is both a liability - her mind has a bad habit of wandering, her new hip never signed up for pursuing suspects and creeping through secret passages, and her stamina is not what it was fifty years ago - and an asset, as elderly women are often dismissed and overlooked. Eventually, things come together for an ending that feels a little too neat and easy after the long and meandering buildup.
There were some fun moments and amusing bits, but I never really took to Loretta as an investigator, nor to Dinu as a bamboozled young man trying to make a better life for himself under circumstances inherently inhospitable to good lives. The whole just felt too much like like Loretta's mind, forever distracted from itself and what it was ostensibly doing.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Slow Horses (Mike Herron) - My Review
An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good (Helene Tursten) - My Review
Remarkably Bright Creatures (Shelby Van Pelt) - My Review
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Random House
Nonfiction, Essays/Memoir/Sociology
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: In a series of essays written for his son, award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates reflects on the long, complicated history of race and his own unfinished journey to understand what it means to be Black in America.
REVIEW: If there's one thing recent events/backslides in national policy in 2025 have driven home with the force of the Chicxulub dinosaur-killer asteroid, it's a need to confront the ongoing cost of racism in regards to... well, pretty much everything in the modern world, particularly the "Western" modern world, because what looked to many of us like progress was just more wallpaper plastered over the gaping cracks and toxic mold devouring our collective house. (And, yes, as a straight white woman I had an unearned luxury of ignorance for far too long.) By tying lessons and lives and events from history into his own life and ever-evolving understanding, Coates presents a gripping, often cutting narrative. To ask if there's hope for a race-free future is to ask the wrong question, another wallpaper-over-the-mold question that tries to handwave away the hard, individual and institutional self-examination and systemic changes that would be required to begin to reach such a place. There is anger, there is despair, there is even bewilderment, but also a certain determination (it would be wrong to really call it optimism or hope, especially not in the flowery bright-sider way those words are too often used). These are not always easy essays to read (or listen to, as this was another audiobook - as a side note, the author does a great job narrating, which is not something I can say for all authors, but I digress), but they are needed essays.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race? (Keith Boykin) - My Review
All Blood Runs Red (Phil Keith with Tom Clavin) - My Review
How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi) - My Review
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Random House
Nonfiction, Essays/Memoir/Sociology
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: In a series of essays written for his son, award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates reflects on the long, complicated history of race and his own unfinished journey to understand what it means to be Black in America.
REVIEW: If there's one thing recent events/backslides in national policy in 2025 have driven home with the force of the Chicxulub dinosaur-killer asteroid, it's a need to confront the ongoing cost of racism in regards to... well, pretty much everything in the modern world, particularly the "Western" modern world, because what looked to many of us like progress was just more wallpaper plastered over the gaping cracks and toxic mold devouring our collective house. (And, yes, as a straight white woman I had an unearned luxury of ignorance for far too long.) By tying lessons and lives and events from history into his own life and ever-evolving understanding, Coates presents a gripping, often cutting narrative. To ask if there's hope for a race-free future is to ask the wrong question, another wallpaper-over-the-mold question that tries to handwave away the hard, individual and institutional self-examination and systemic changes that would be required to begin to reach such a place. There is anger, there is despair, there is even bewilderment, but also a certain determination (it would be wrong to really call it optimism or hope, especially not in the flowery bright-sider way those words are too often used). These are not always easy essays to read (or listen to, as this was another audiobook - as a side note, the author does a great job narrating, which is not something I can say for all authors, but I digress), but they are needed essays.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race? (Keith Boykin) - My Review
All Blood Runs Red (Phil Keith with Tom Clavin) - My Review
How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi) - My Review
Friday, April 4, 2025
The Paranormal Ranger (Stanley Milford, Jr.)
The Paranormal Ranger: A Navajo Investigator's Search for the Unexplained
Stanley Milford, Jr.
William Morrow
Nonfiction, Autobiography/Paranormal and Unexplained Phenomena
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The modern Western world has long dismissed notions of ghosts or curses or other such phenomena, considering them hallucinations or hoaxes or simple misunderstandings. Many cultures, however, still consider such things as real as gravity and electricity... and many people around the world from many cultures, some of which should "know better", still experience unexplained encounters.
Stanley Milford, Jr., son of a Navajo father and Cherokee mother, grew up with a foot in two worlds, that of mainstream white America and that of Native culture. As a boy, he adored the many cop shows on TV and knew he'd love nothing more than to become a law enforcement officer, one of the Navajo Rangers who patrol the vast desert reservation protecting the people, the archaeological sites, and the environment. But he also had more than one unusual occurrence that lent weight to the native tales and legend he learned, enough to make him less dismissive than some would be when people would report unusual activities such as bigfoots harassing their livestock or skinwalkers stalking their land. For many years, he and a partner would explore unusual events, leading to many strange encounters.
REVIEW: I was a long-time X-phile, and this book looked to strike a similar vein to some of the older books on unexplained phenomena that I used to enjoy, with a little different and non-"Western" take on the matter. The author approaches the subject and his experiences with both logic and cultural understanding, an approach that works rather well for events that would seem to defy current scientific consensus of what can be real and what cannot exist. More often than not, he and his partner serve a greater purpose by ensuring that people feel heard and understood, and are not simply dismissed or actively derided for what they experienced; their investigations gather some interesting evidence and even result in some close encounters, but as Milford says more than once, these aren't usually cases where there's a suspect to apprehend or some legal recourse for victims. The author also explores his own life and career beyond the paranormal aspects that were only a small part of his overall job. Throughout runs a strong thread of Native culture and belief and history, including portions of creation (or "emergence") myths, which offer lenses and tools with which to understand aspects of reality that are too readily dismissed by the mainstream/white world. The whole makes for some interesting storytelling. As for how much I believe... I'd call myself agnostic on the matter, though I'm not about to tell someone they did not experience a thing just because I did not experience a thing.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Monsters (John Michael Greer) - My Review
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger) - My Review
Unsolved Mysteries: Past and Present (Colin Wilson and Damon Wilson) - My Review
Stanley Milford, Jr.
William Morrow
Nonfiction, Autobiography/Paranormal and Unexplained Phenomena
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The modern Western world has long dismissed notions of ghosts or curses or other such phenomena, considering them hallucinations or hoaxes or simple misunderstandings. Many cultures, however, still consider such things as real as gravity and electricity... and many people around the world from many cultures, some of which should "know better", still experience unexplained encounters.
Stanley Milford, Jr., son of a Navajo father and Cherokee mother, grew up with a foot in two worlds, that of mainstream white America and that of Native culture. As a boy, he adored the many cop shows on TV and knew he'd love nothing more than to become a law enforcement officer, one of the Navajo Rangers who patrol the vast desert reservation protecting the people, the archaeological sites, and the environment. But he also had more than one unusual occurrence that lent weight to the native tales and legend he learned, enough to make him less dismissive than some would be when people would report unusual activities such as bigfoots harassing their livestock or skinwalkers stalking their land. For many years, he and a partner would explore unusual events, leading to many strange encounters.
REVIEW: I was a long-time X-phile, and this book looked to strike a similar vein to some of the older books on unexplained phenomena that I used to enjoy, with a little different and non-"Western" take on the matter. The author approaches the subject and his experiences with both logic and cultural understanding, an approach that works rather well for events that would seem to defy current scientific consensus of what can be real and what cannot exist. More often than not, he and his partner serve a greater purpose by ensuring that people feel heard and understood, and are not simply dismissed or actively derided for what they experienced; their investigations gather some interesting evidence and even result in some close encounters, but as Milford says more than once, these aren't usually cases where there's a suspect to apprehend or some legal recourse for victims. The author also explores his own life and career beyond the paranormal aspects that were only a small part of his overall job. Throughout runs a strong thread of Native culture and belief and history, including portions of creation (or "emergence") myths, which offer lenses and tools with which to understand aspects of reality that are too readily dismissed by the mainstream/white world. The whole makes for some interesting storytelling. As for how much I believe... I'd call myself agnostic on the matter, though I'm not about to tell someone they did not experience a thing just because I did not experience a thing.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Monsters (John Michael Greer) - My Review
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger) - My Review
Unsolved Mysteries: Past and Present (Colin Wilson and Damon Wilson) - My Review
Thursday, April 3, 2025
Brick Dust and Bones (M. R. Fournet)
Brick Dust and Bones
The Marius Grey series, Book 1
M. R. Fournet
Dreamscape
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Marius Grey is a cemetery boy, part of a long line who maintain the graveyards of New Orleans and protect the ghosts who linger among the mausoleums. For two years, he's also been an orphan - but hopefully not for much longer. He knows of a resurrection spell that can, in theory, bring his mother back from death, which will require many mystic coins to attempt. In addition to his duties and his schooling - at a special school where "fringe" kids like him learn to navigate both the ordinary world and the hidden culture of magic - he has started hunting monsters on the side, collecting bounties for each poltergeist, candy woman, bogeyman, and other creatures he captures in his magical monster hunter book... but they aren't earning him nearly enough, and the window for the spell is rapidly closing. To get a bigger payout, he's going to need to hunt down bigger monsters - but the one he sets his sights on is so dangerous that even experienced, adult hunters rarely survive an encounter. Is this the way to save his mother, or is Marius Grey about to join her in an early grave?
REVIEW: Brick Dust and Bones starts with the boy Marius Gray hiding in a child's closet waiting for a bogeyman to appear, talking to the ghost of his dead mother, in a scene that quickly establishes the basic "rules" of the world, the stakes, and the desperation of the main character. It's a solid start to what becomes a fairly solid story, steeped in New Orleans magic and with chiller overtones.
Orphaned Marius was always an outsider, even among other "fringe" folk, but only grew more isolated after his mother was killed by a demon. Aside from her ghost (who may or may not be his own imagination; he wonders, more than once, if he's just talking to himself), his only friends are a young ghost at his family's graveyard and the mermaid Rhiannon - who is technically a monster, as her kind traditionally feed on humans, but this one has spent more time among people than her own kin and has developed a bond of sorts with the cemetery boy, even if her words and actions often remind Marius (and the reader) that she is not and will never be a human. Marius can be stubborn and reckless, but he generally has a good heart beneath it all and never intentionally hurts people. He's just used to being alone and so completely focused on the slim possibility of rescuing his mother from Hell that he doesn't always think through the consequences of his actions. The story moves fairly well, slowing down now and again to fill out Marius's world, but it never feels dull or repetitive, and even the slower bits are full of sensory details like tastes and smells and textures. The monsters he faces are suitably scary creatures, and the fights have real stakes and tension to keep them interesting. When things reach the climax, Marius has earned his way there, and hasn't just stumbled into it by accident.
There are a few threads and characters who feel underexplored or forgotten by the end, though this is just the first book in a series, so it's possible they were deliberately left dangling. Overall, though, it's a good story with a nice New Orleans flavor to it, establishing a main character and a setting that can easily carry more adventures.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Girl and the Ghost (Hanna Alkaf) - My Review
Akata Witch (Nnedi Okorafor) - My Review
The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
The Marius Grey series, Book 1
M. R. Fournet
Dreamscape
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Marius Grey is a cemetery boy, part of a long line who maintain the graveyards of New Orleans and protect the ghosts who linger among the mausoleums. For two years, he's also been an orphan - but hopefully not for much longer. He knows of a resurrection spell that can, in theory, bring his mother back from death, which will require many mystic coins to attempt. In addition to his duties and his schooling - at a special school where "fringe" kids like him learn to navigate both the ordinary world and the hidden culture of magic - he has started hunting monsters on the side, collecting bounties for each poltergeist, candy woman, bogeyman, and other creatures he captures in his magical monster hunter book... but they aren't earning him nearly enough, and the window for the spell is rapidly closing. To get a bigger payout, he's going to need to hunt down bigger monsters - but the one he sets his sights on is so dangerous that even experienced, adult hunters rarely survive an encounter. Is this the way to save his mother, or is Marius Grey about to join her in an early grave?
REVIEW: Brick Dust and Bones starts with the boy Marius Gray hiding in a child's closet waiting for a bogeyman to appear, talking to the ghost of his dead mother, in a scene that quickly establishes the basic "rules" of the world, the stakes, and the desperation of the main character. It's a solid start to what becomes a fairly solid story, steeped in New Orleans magic and with chiller overtones.
Orphaned Marius was always an outsider, even among other "fringe" folk, but only grew more isolated after his mother was killed by a demon. Aside from her ghost (who may or may not be his own imagination; he wonders, more than once, if he's just talking to himself), his only friends are a young ghost at his family's graveyard and the mermaid Rhiannon - who is technically a monster, as her kind traditionally feed on humans, but this one has spent more time among people than her own kin and has developed a bond of sorts with the cemetery boy, even if her words and actions often remind Marius (and the reader) that she is not and will never be a human. Marius can be stubborn and reckless, but he generally has a good heart beneath it all and never intentionally hurts people. He's just used to being alone and so completely focused on the slim possibility of rescuing his mother from Hell that he doesn't always think through the consequences of his actions. The story moves fairly well, slowing down now and again to fill out Marius's world, but it never feels dull or repetitive, and even the slower bits are full of sensory details like tastes and smells and textures. The monsters he faces are suitably scary creatures, and the fights have real stakes and tension to keep them interesting. When things reach the climax, Marius has earned his way there, and hasn't just stumbled into it by accident.
There are a few threads and characters who feel underexplored or forgotten by the end, though this is just the first book in a series, so it's possible they were deliberately left dangling. Overall, though, it's a good story with a nice New Orleans flavor to it, establishing a main character and a setting that can easily carry more adventures.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Girl and the Ghost (Hanna Alkaf) - My Review
Akata Witch (Nnedi Okorafor) - My Review
The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
Tidy the F*ck Up (Messie Condo)
Tidy the F*ck Up: The American Art of Organizing Your Sh*t
Messie Condo
Simon and Schuster
Nonficton, Humor/Organization
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Let's be honest: your home is probably a mess. It's nothing to be ashamed about; messes happen to the best of us. Between work and family and a culture that trains us that buying shiny new things is the only way to happiness, everyone faces a rising tide of stuff, which must somehow fit into a finite amount of space. But whenever we look for help, we see self-appointed tidiness gurus whose solutions involve impossible lifestyle changes and/or infinite time or money to invest in proprietary organization systems. Here, at last, is a practical approach to actually getting a handle on the clutter creep and reclaiming a little living space.
REVIEW: This quick-reading title is both a jab at popular organization fads and franchises and a practical, down-to-earth way to declutter and organize one's life. Emphasizing that everybody needs to decide for themselves what they consider their ideal habitat and that organizing should involve using what one already has before shelling out money on baskets and boxes and totes, the author offers tips and tricks as well as a good, often humor-laced explanation for why everyone really should put in a little time and effort to tidy up. It's as much about psychology as it is about practicality, and it often takes a little psychology to convince ourselves that, yes, we really can let go of those movies we never watch or the clothes we never wear or that ceramic clown figurine collection left to us by Great-Aunt Maude that we can't stand but we feel guilty about even considering parting with. The lessons here can apply to pretty much anyone.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Habit Fix (Eileen Rose Giadone) - My Review
Unf*ck Your Habitat (Rachel Hoffman) - My Review
Messie Condo
Simon and Schuster
Nonficton, Humor/Organization
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Let's be honest: your home is probably a mess. It's nothing to be ashamed about; messes happen to the best of us. Between work and family and a culture that trains us that buying shiny new things is the only way to happiness, everyone faces a rising tide of stuff, which must somehow fit into a finite amount of space. But whenever we look for help, we see self-appointed tidiness gurus whose solutions involve impossible lifestyle changes and/or infinite time or money to invest in proprietary organization systems. Here, at last, is a practical approach to actually getting a handle on the clutter creep and reclaiming a little living space.
REVIEW: This quick-reading title is both a jab at popular organization fads and franchises and a practical, down-to-earth way to declutter and organize one's life. Emphasizing that everybody needs to decide for themselves what they consider their ideal habitat and that organizing should involve using what one already has before shelling out money on baskets and boxes and totes, the author offers tips and tricks as well as a good, often humor-laced explanation for why everyone really should put in a little time and effort to tidy up. It's as much about psychology as it is about practicality, and it often takes a little psychology to convince ourselves that, yes, we really can let go of those movies we never watch or the clothes we never wear or that ceramic clown figurine collection left to us by Great-Aunt Maude that we can't stand but we feel guilty about even considering parting with. The lessons here can apply to pretty much anyone.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Habit Fix (Eileen Rose Giadone) - My Review
Unf*ck Your Habitat (Rachel Hoffman) - My Review
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli (David LaRochelle)
100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli
David LaRochelle, illustrations by Lian Cho
Dial Books
Fiction, CH Fantasy/Humor/Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: 100 dragons live together in a high mountain cave, each and every one of them named Broccoli. When a storm sweeps half of them away, the dragons begin to find their own ways in the world... and maybe new names.
REVIEW: This picture book has one of the best titles ever, and I finally managed to read it during some down time at my job. With colorful images, and sparse words, the tale counts down (and sometimes up) the remaining dragons in the mountain cave as the horde breaks up and seeks their fortunes in a variety of places doing a variety of jobs, from becoming professional surfers in Hawaii to trying their luck as actors in Hollywood. A nice tale with plenty of fun dragon antics to enjoy.
You Might Also Enjoy:
A Dignity of Dragons (Jacqueline Ogburn) - My Review
The Dragons are Singing Tonight (Jack Prelutsky) - My Review
Dragons Love Tacos (Adam Rubin) - My Review
David LaRochelle, illustrations by Lian Cho
Dial Books
Fiction, CH Fantasy/Humor/Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: 100 dragons live together in a high mountain cave, each and every one of them named Broccoli. When a storm sweeps half of them away, the dragons begin to find their own ways in the world... and maybe new names.
REVIEW: This picture book has one of the best titles ever, and I finally managed to read it during some down time at my job. With colorful images, and sparse words, the tale counts down (and sometimes up) the remaining dragons in the mountain cave as the horde breaks up and seeks their fortunes in a variety of places doing a variety of jobs, from becoming professional surfers in Hawaii to trying their luck as actors in Hollywood. A nice tale with plenty of fun dragon antics to enjoy.
You Might Also Enjoy:
A Dignity of Dragons (Jacqueline Ogburn) - My Review
The Dragons are Singing Tonight (Jack Prelutsky) - My Review
Dragons Love Tacos (Adam Rubin) - My Review
Welcome to Night Vale (Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor)
Welcome to Night Vale
The Welcome to Night Vale series, Book 1
Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
Harper Perennial
Fiction, Humor/Literary Fiction/Mystery/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: The desert town of Night Vale is a place much like any other, where monstrous librarians stalk the shelves of their bookish domain, where the waitress at the local all-night cafe offers customers invisible pie and fresh fruit growing from the branches that sprout from her wooden body, where every road out of town seems to loop right back to the city limits, and where the ghost of a faceless old woman can be found in every home... just your typical small American town. There are many stories in the streets of Night Vale, many happenings that might be deemed odd or even impossible.
Jackie Fierro runs Night Vale's only pawn shop, though she's only nineteen, and has been only nineteen for decades, possibly centuries. It's a shop as peculiar as the town itself, where people are as likely to bring in cursed plastic flamingos or single tears as watches or jewelry, and as likely to be paid in dreams or secrets as with money. Still, for all the strangeness that she works with daily, even she is disturbed when the man in the tan suit hands her a peculiar sheet of paper that she cannot let go of, no matter how hard she tries - a paper with the words "King City" printed upon it. Who is the man? Where is King City? And why is her ordered, ordinary life now skewing so far out of her control?
Single mother Diane Crayton has been working for many years at an office where nobody quite knows what they do, even the employees, but it pays well enough to support herself and her son Josh. Raising a boy who changes shape daily - everything from new faces to utterly inhuman forms and even inanimate objects - is a challenge, especially now that he's a teenager and starting to ask uncomfortable questions about his long-absent father Troy. The man disappeared shortly after Josh was born, and she hasn't seen him since... until, out of the blue, she spies him in the streets of Night Vale. Only there seems to be more than one Troy, a puzzle further complicated when she has an encounter with a man whose name and face she cannot remember but who presses upon her a piece of paper on which are written the words "King City".
Jackie and Diane have little in common, and don't even necessarily like each other, but as their paths keep crossing they realize that they're both facing a greater mystery, and a greater danger, than either can solve on their own.
REVIEW: I have never listened to the long-running podcast on which this book is based, so it's likely I'm missing some context or nuance coming at the story cold. As promised, Welcome to Night Vale delivers a surreal, often darkly comic aesthetic and a tale that bends reality and even causality into five-dimensional pretzels. At some point, though, the story and characters feel a bit lost in the constant firehose of strange happenings and tangential oddities.
With a constant through-line of odd broadcasts from the town's only radio station and talk show, "Welcome to Night Vale", the tale wastes little time laying the weird foundations for what turns out to be a very weird journey. Night Vale exists in a sort of alternate reality, like the far fringes of the multiverse where infinite possibilities begin breaking down into bizarre improbabilities and dream (or nightmare) logic. Time itself doesn't function properly, to the point where each person seems to live their own lives entirely out of synch with their neighbors. Characters who live in a town like this cannot help but be a bit strange, but they're also unfortunately difficult to care about or relate to, even when dealing with relatable themes like family friction and a crisis of life direction. I didn't particularly like either Jackie or Diane, and the town itself was so disconnected from anything like continuity or reality that nothing that happened in, around, or to it seemed to matter anyway. This sense of detachment was not helped by how the nominal heroines often did unintelligent things at unintelligent times, even given the peculiar standards and circumstances of existence in Night Vale. That said, there were several lines that had me chuckling out loud, and some interesting ideas. It had some nice moments and memorable imagery, and I wanted to enjoy it. By the end, though, I found the resolution flat and unsatisfactory, like a very long walk down what was ultimately a short trail to nowhere and back, a story that seemed less interested in telling itself than about relating the strange, silly surreality of its setting.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Going Bovine (Libba Bray) - My Review
Meddling Kids (Edgar Cantero) - My Review
John Dies at the End (David Wong) - My Review
The Welcome to Night Vale series, Book 1
Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
Harper Perennial
Fiction, Humor/Literary Fiction/Mystery/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: The desert town of Night Vale is a place much like any other, where monstrous librarians stalk the shelves of their bookish domain, where the waitress at the local all-night cafe offers customers invisible pie and fresh fruit growing from the branches that sprout from her wooden body, where every road out of town seems to loop right back to the city limits, and where the ghost of a faceless old woman can be found in every home... just your typical small American town. There are many stories in the streets of Night Vale, many happenings that might be deemed odd or even impossible.
Jackie Fierro runs Night Vale's only pawn shop, though she's only nineteen, and has been only nineteen for decades, possibly centuries. It's a shop as peculiar as the town itself, where people are as likely to bring in cursed plastic flamingos or single tears as watches or jewelry, and as likely to be paid in dreams or secrets as with money. Still, for all the strangeness that she works with daily, even she is disturbed when the man in the tan suit hands her a peculiar sheet of paper that she cannot let go of, no matter how hard she tries - a paper with the words "King City" printed upon it. Who is the man? Where is King City? And why is her ordered, ordinary life now skewing so far out of her control?
Single mother Diane Crayton has been working for many years at an office where nobody quite knows what they do, even the employees, but it pays well enough to support herself and her son Josh. Raising a boy who changes shape daily - everything from new faces to utterly inhuman forms and even inanimate objects - is a challenge, especially now that he's a teenager and starting to ask uncomfortable questions about his long-absent father Troy. The man disappeared shortly after Josh was born, and she hasn't seen him since... until, out of the blue, she spies him in the streets of Night Vale. Only there seems to be more than one Troy, a puzzle further complicated when she has an encounter with a man whose name and face she cannot remember but who presses upon her a piece of paper on which are written the words "King City".
Jackie and Diane have little in common, and don't even necessarily like each other, but as their paths keep crossing they realize that they're both facing a greater mystery, and a greater danger, than either can solve on their own.
REVIEW: I have never listened to the long-running podcast on which this book is based, so it's likely I'm missing some context or nuance coming at the story cold. As promised, Welcome to Night Vale delivers a surreal, often darkly comic aesthetic and a tale that bends reality and even causality into five-dimensional pretzels. At some point, though, the story and characters feel a bit lost in the constant firehose of strange happenings and tangential oddities.
With a constant through-line of odd broadcasts from the town's only radio station and talk show, "Welcome to Night Vale", the tale wastes little time laying the weird foundations for what turns out to be a very weird journey. Night Vale exists in a sort of alternate reality, like the far fringes of the multiverse where infinite possibilities begin breaking down into bizarre improbabilities and dream (or nightmare) logic. Time itself doesn't function properly, to the point where each person seems to live their own lives entirely out of synch with their neighbors. Characters who live in a town like this cannot help but be a bit strange, but they're also unfortunately difficult to care about or relate to, even when dealing with relatable themes like family friction and a crisis of life direction. I didn't particularly like either Jackie or Diane, and the town itself was so disconnected from anything like continuity or reality that nothing that happened in, around, or to it seemed to matter anyway. This sense of detachment was not helped by how the nominal heroines often did unintelligent things at unintelligent times, even given the peculiar standards and circumstances of existence in Night Vale. That said, there were several lines that had me chuckling out loud, and some interesting ideas. It had some nice moments and memorable imagery, and I wanted to enjoy it. By the end, though, I found the resolution flat and unsatisfactory, like a very long walk down what was ultimately a short trail to nowhere and back, a story that seemed less interested in telling itself than about relating the strange, silly surreality of its setting.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Going Bovine (Libba Bray) - My Review
Meddling Kids (Edgar Cantero) - My Review
John Dies at the End (David Wong) - My Review
Monday, March 31, 2025
March Site Update
Yet another month that felt like it overachieved by packing a year's worth of horrors into thirty-one days... Anyway, the month's reviews have been archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Friday, March 28, 2025
Fundamentals (Frank Wilczek)
Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality
Frank Wilczek
Penguin Press
Nonfiction, Science
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: What is the universe? How did it begin? How will it end? What is it made of, and how can we tell? Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek walks the reader through ten fundamental concepts that help explain the world around us, the discoveries that illuminated them, and what further questions remain.
REVIEW: Oh, what a difference a mere few years makes... Published in 2021, Fundamentals at times seems impossibly optimistic as it extols a wonderful potential future for humanity and the sciences, how civilization has only grown more accepting of science and empathy, how AI will soon usher in a golden age for the planet. It was almost painful to listen to in early 2025, in a country whose leaders have openly railed against the "sin of empathy" as a destroyer of Western civilization, that has deported scientists and hacked research off at the knees and cowed universities into submission, that has become almost giddy in its rush to reject the very concept of science and the accumulated intelligence and knowledge of centuries as it elevates the basest and most debunked superstitions to national policy and law, how the AI Wilczek hoped would save the world has become a major destructive force in the hands of greed that is being used to undermine the notion of reality itself... but I digress. Setting aside the stark contrast of the dismal present compared to the author's hoped-for future (which seems rooted in a sadly unrealistic notion of our species, or at least those of our species who have grasped the most power to shape our destinies), this is an interesting, if occasionally overwhelming, exploration of the nature of reality itself, from the smallest subatomic particles and forces to the greater universe at large, from clues about cosmic origins and hints about its future. Along the way, he explains the processes that led to the various discoveries and theories, how everyone can benefit from adopting a more scientific attitude toward life and the unknown, and how science is in no way incompatible with philosophy or even (non-fundamentalist) theology. Though - once again - I was unable to find the promised downloadable supplemental PDF file with this Libby audiobook, I found it intriguing. I just had a very hard time even pretending to share a glimmer of the author's wonder and optimism through the metaphoric stormclouds on the national horizon...
You Might Also Enjoy:
It's Not Rocket Science (Ben Miller) - My Review
Everything All at Once (Bill Nye) - My Review
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (Neil deGrasse Tyson) - My Review
Frank Wilczek
Penguin Press
Nonfiction, Science
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: What is the universe? How did it begin? How will it end? What is it made of, and how can we tell? Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek walks the reader through ten fundamental concepts that help explain the world around us, the discoveries that illuminated them, and what further questions remain.
REVIEW: Oh, what a difference a mere few years makes... Published in 2021, Fundamentals at times seems impossibly optimistic as it extols a wonderful potential future for humanity and the sciences, how civilization has only grown more accepting of science and empathy, how AI will soon usher in a golden age for the planet. It was almost painful to listen to in early 2025, in a country whose leaders have openly railed against the "sin of empathy" as a destroyer of Western civilization, that has deported scientists and hacked research off at the knees and cowed universities into submission, that has become almost giddy in its rush to reject the very concept of science and the accumulated intelligence and knowledge of centuries as it elevates the basest and most debunked superstitions to national policy and law, how the AI Wilczek hoped would save the world has become a major destructive force in the hands of greed that is being used to undermine the notion of reality itself... but I digress. Setting aside the stark contrast of the dismal present compared to the author's hoped-for future (which seems rooted in a sadly unrealistic notion of our species, or at least those of our species who have grasped the most power to shape our destinies), this is an interesting, if occasionally overwhelming, exploration of the nature of reality itself, from the smallest subatomic particles and forces to the greater universe at large, from clues about cosmic origins and hints about its future. Along the way, he explains the processes that led to the various discoveries and theories, how everyone can benefit from adopting a more scientific attitude toward life and the unknown, and how science is in no way incompatible with philosophy or even (non-fundamentalist) theology. Though - once again - I was unable to find the promised downloadable supplemental PDF file with this Libby audiobook, I found it intriguing. I just had a very hard time even pretending to share a glimmer of the author's wonder and optimism through the metaphoric stormclouds on the national horizon...
You Might Also Enjoy:
It's Not Rocket Science (Ben Miller) - My Review
Everything All at Once (Bill Nye) - My Review
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (Neil deGrasse Tyson) - My Review
Thursday, March 27, 2025
The Langoliers (Stephen King)
The Langoliers
The Four Past Midnight series, Book 1
Stephen King
Scribner
Fiction, Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Pilot Brian Engle never meant to be on the redeye from Los Angeles to Boston, especially not so soon after completing another cross-country flight. But this time he's a passenger, rushing back to Boston after his ex-wife's untimely death. Thus, he finds himself on another American Pride jet shortly after departing the cockpit, so exhausted he falls asleep shortly after takeoff... to wake up in a nightmare. The plane is empty save a handful of other passengers, flying on autopilot over an America with no cities, no towns - no life. As the survivors try to figure out what to do and where to go and if they can ever get back to where they came from, they all become aware that a danger is approaching, a danger that takes form in one passenger's childhood tales of all-devouring monsters called the Langoliers.
REVIEW: This novella explores some familiar King themes: an isolated group stranded by an inexplicable Event, a largely-unseen and essentially unstoppable threat, the threat of madness within the group even as the enemy threatens without, and underlying hints of supernatural or psychic phenomena. I thought King explored these ideas a bit better in other stories, but this one does its job and hits its marks, creating ever-rising tension with creepy and memorable imagery, even if the characters sometimes feel a little flat and stereotyped. More than once, I wanted to shake the people to remind them to stop dithering and babbling and taking forever to explain things when the danger is marching relentlessly closer to them, but this isn't the first story where I've felt that urge.
It might have earned a Good rating, save it felt a little weak in spots and the audiobook narration of the edition I checked out from Libby was irritating. The narrator's pitch and volume kept rising and falling, surging and fading, all woven around musical accompaniment that threatened to overwhelm the quieter and lower parts. I kept having to crank up the volume, only to drop it half a minute later when he raised his voice again and nearly blew out my eardrums. It made for a frustrating listening experience that affected my overall enjoyment.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Mist (Stephen King) - My Review
The Hollow Places (T. Kingfisher) - My Review
The Secret Hour (Scott Westerfield) - My Review
The Four Past Midnight series, Book 1
Stephen King
Scribner
Fiction, Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Pilot Brian Engle never meant to be on the redeye from Los Angeles to Boston, especially not so soon after completing another cross-country flight. But this time he's a passenger, rushing back to Boston after his ex-wife's untimely death. Thus, he finds himself on another American Pride jet shortly after departing the cockpit, so exhausted he falls asleep shortly after takeoff... to wake up in a nightmare. The plane is empty save a handful of other passengers, flying on autopilot over an America with no cities, no towns - no life. As the survivors try to figure out what to do and where to go and if they can ever get back to where they came from, they all become aware that a danger is approaching, a danger that takes form in one passenger's childhood tales of all-devouring monsters called the Langoliers.
REVIEW: This novella explores some familiar King themes: an isolated group stranded by an inexplicable Event, a largely-unseen and essentially unstoppable threat, the threat of madness within the group even as the enemy threatens without, and underlying hints of supernatural or psychic phenomena. I thought King explored these ideas a bit better in other stories, but this one does its job and hits its marks, creating ever-rising tension with creepy and memorable imagery, even if the characters sometimes feel a little flat and stereotyped. More than once, I wanted to shake the people to remind them to stop dithering and babbling and taking forever to explain things when the danger is marching relentlessly closer to them, but this isn't the first story where I've felt that urge.
It might have earned a Good rating, save it felt a little weak in spots and the audiobook narration of the edition I checked out from Libby was irritating. The narrator's pitch and volume kept rising and falling, surging and fading, all woven around musical accompaniment that threatened to overwhelm the quieter and lower parts. I kept having to crank up the volume, only to drop it half a minute later when he raised his voice again and nearly blew out my eardrums. It made for a frustrating listening experience that affected my overall enjoyment.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Mist (Stephen King) - My Review
The Hollow Places (T. Kingfisher) - My Review
The Secret Hour (Scott Westerfield) - My Review
The Guns Above (Robyn Bennis)
The Guns Above
A Signal Airship novel, Book 1
Robyn Bennis
Tor
Fiction, Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Josette Dupre never set out to become a war hero. The Garnian military barely tolerates women in lesser roles, even aboard their airships; it was pure chance that she was the highest-ranked officer left alive to perform a daring maneuver that turned the tide of one battle. Now, desperation and politics have combined to land her as the captain - by role if not by official rank - of a new airship, the Mistral. She knows the top brass are salivating for a chance to prove that women have no place in combat, and she intends to prove them wrong... ideally while taking down as many of the enemy as she can. But dreams of vindication and glory soon run head-first into challenges she never anticipated, from the flaws of her new ship's "revolutionary" design to crew morale and a war that's about to take a drastic turn for the worse.
Lord Bernat has never worked a day in his pampered life, cheerfully burning through the family coffers - until one day, instead of more money, his mother sends him to his general uncle. It seems that he's expected to earn his own money via a commission... unless he proves useful in another way, by providing eyewitness proof of Dupre's incompetence to put an end to any progressive notions that might take root in the military. Sure, he's never set foot on an airship before, but Bernat is certain it'll be much easier than actually being a soldier, not to mention the pay offered by his uncle is far better. But what seems like a simple task becomes much more complicated, when the Mistral becomes swept up in audacious new plot by Garnia's enemies. The foppish lord may have arrived on the airship intent on proving Dupre unfit for duty, but she may be the only one who can keep him and the rest of the crew alive.
REVIEW: It's been a bit since I read a steampunk adventure tale, so I figured I'd give this one a try. It offers plenty of action and detailed technical musings on the world's airships, as machines and as tools in greater combat... musings that, along with painstakingly explored battle tactics, threaten to sink the whole story and the characters with it.
The tale starts in the aftermath of Josette's victory, as she and the other survivors of her doomed old ship become part of a bold new idea handed down from Garnia's king that aims to put women in active leadership roles for the first time - in truth, a sign of desperation by a nation that's just plain running out of men and boys to throw into the meat grinder of war. She leverages her experience and skills from years serving in a non-combat role aboard the nation's airships to seize this chance to prove herself (and her gender) capable, but things aren't always easy for her; in a forgotten subplot, it turns out even her second-in-command and best friend secretly thinks women shouldn't be serving. This is not the only forgotten aspect of the story, which often is less about Josette and more about the author explaining to the reader in great detail every possible aspect of Garnia's airships in general and the Mistral in particular. The characters start to feel a bit like placeholders or even caricatures that have to squeeze their interactions, growth, and very existence into the limited spaces around these details, which later spread to encompass blow-by-blows of battles and military tactics. It goes without saying, of course, that Lord Bernat's trial by fire (quite literally) eventually brings him around, but he remains an insufferable twit far longer than he needs to, and his efforts at witty banter tend to fall flat. The action teeters between exciting drama and drawn-out excuses to relate more technical details, eventually leading up to a grand finale and the setup for the second book.
This isn't a bad military steampunk tale, and there are some very good moments. At some point, though, I just got tired of constantly being lectured about the minutiae of Garnian airship schematics and battle plans, and I never felt as engaged or invested as I should have been. I also kept thinking that I'd read the same basic ideas done more effectively elsewhere. Still, if you're looking for a story of soldiers, steampunk, and airships, this is a decent enough choice.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Leviathan (Scott Westerfield) - My Review
A Signal Airship novel, Book 1
Robyn Bennis
Tor
Fiction, Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Josette Dupre never set out to become a war hero. The Garnian military barely tolerates women in lesser roles, even aboard their airships; it was pure chance that she was the highest-ranked officer left alive to perform a daring maneuver that turned the tide of one battle. Now, desperation and politics have combined to land her as the captain - by role if not by official rank - of a new airship, the Mistral. She knows the top brass are salivating for a chance to prove that women have no place in combat, and she intends to prove them wrong... ideally while taking down as many of the enemy as she can. But dreams of vindication and glory soon run head-first into challenges she never anticipated, from the flaws of her new ship's "revolutionary" design to crew morale and a war that's about to take a drastic turn for the worse.
Lord Bernat has never worked a day in his pampered life, cheerfully burning through the family coffers - until one day, instead of more money, his mother sends him to his general uncle. It seems that he's expected to earn his own money via a commission... unless he proves useful in another way, by providing eyewitness proof of Dupre's incompetence to put an end to any progressive notions that might take root in the military. Sure, he's never set foot on an airship before, but Bernat is certain it'll be much easier than actually being a soldier, not to mention the pay offered by his uncle is far better. But what seems like a simple task becomes much more complicated, when the Mistral becomes swept up in audacious new plot by Garnia's enemies. The foppish lord may have arrived on the airship intent on proving Dupre unfit for duty, but she may be the only one who can keep him and the rest of the crew alive.
REVIEW: It's been a bit since I read a steampunk adventure tale, so I figured I'd give this one a try. It offers plenty of action and detailed technical musings on the world's airships, as machines and as tools in greater combat... musings that, along with painstakingly explored battle tactics, threaten to sink the whole story and the characters with it.
The tale starts in the aftermath of Josette's victory, as she and the other survivors of her doomed old ship become part of a bold new idea handed down from Garnia's king that aims to put women in active leadership roles for the first time - in truth, a sign of desperation by a nation that's just plain running out of men and boys to throw into the meat grinder of war. She leverages her experience and skills from years serving in a non-combat role aboard the nation's airships to seize this chance to prove herself (and her gender) capable, but things aren't always easy for her; in a forgotten subplot, it turns out even her second-in-command and best friend secretly thinks women shouldn't be serving. This is not the only forgotten aspect of the story, which often is less about Josette and more about the author explaining to the reader in great detail every possible aspect of Garnia's airships in general and the Mistral in particular. The characters start to feel a bit like placeholders or even caricatures that have to squeeze their interactions, growth, and very existence into the limited spaces around these details, which later spread to encompass blow-by-blows of battles and military tactics. It goes without saying, of course, that Lord Bernat's trial by fire (quite literally) eventually brings him around, but he remains an insufferable twit far longer than he needs to, and his efforts at witty banter tend to fall flat. The action teeters between exciting drama and drawn-out excuses to relate more technical details, eventually leading up to a grand finale and the setup for the second book.
This isn't a bad military steampunk tale, and there are some very good moments. At some point, though, I just got tired of constantly being lectured about the minutiae of Garnian airship schematics and battle plans, and I never felt as engaged or invested as I should have been. I also kept thinking that I'd read the same basic ideas done more effectively elsewhere. Still, if you're looking for a story of soldiers, steampunk, and airships, this is a decent enough choice.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
Guns of the Dawn (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Leviathan (Scott Westerfield) - My Review
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
The Bakery Dragon (Devin Elle Kurtz)
The Bakery Dragon
Devin Elle Kurtz
Knopf
Fiction, CH Fantasy/Picture Book
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: A dragon is never a proper dragon until they have a hoard of gold, but when little Ember tries following the others, he's too small and clumsy to steal from humans, and is soon left behind. Determined not to return home until he gets his paws on treasure, he stays overnight in a human town... only to discover a new kind of "gold" at the local bakery.
REVIEW: I've been keeping an eye on this one, having followed the artist's works online for a while, but never got a chance to corner the book at work for a read until today. With bright, charming illustrations, author/artist Kurtz tells a simple, warmhearted story of a little misfit finding his own way to succeed. Quite enjoyable, and a nice way to fill some down time at work.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart (Stephanie Burgis) - My Review
The Truth About Dragons (Julie Leung) - My Review
The Tea Dragon Society (K. O'Neill) - My Review
Devin Elle Kurtz
Knopf
Fiction, CH Fantasy/Picture Book
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: A dragon is never a proper dragon until they have a hoard of gold, but when little Ember tries following the others, he's too small and clumsy to steal from humans, and is soon left behind. Determined not to return home until he gets his paws on treasure, he stays overnight in a human town... only to discover a new kind of "gold" at the local bakery.
REVIEW: I've been keeping an eye on this one, having followed the artist's works online for a while, but never got a chance to corner the book at work for a read until today. With bright, charming illustrations, author/artist Kurtz tells a simple, warmhearted story of a little misfit finding his own way to succeed. Quite enjoyable, and a nice way to fill some down time at work.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart (Stephanie Burgis) - My Review
The Truth About Dragons (Julie Leung) - My Review
The Tea Dragon Society (K. O'Neill) - My Review
Friday, March 21, 2025
I'd Really Prefer Not to Be Here With You, and Other Stories (Julianna Baggott)
I'd Really Prefer Not to Be Here With You, and Other Stories
Julianna Baggott
Blackstone Publishing
Fiction, Collection/Fantasy/Horror/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: A power glitch reveals a terrifying truth about the adults in an idyllic suburban development, a young woman's morphing tattoo demands she confront a traumatic childhood incident, a peculiar pandemic scatters memories to random people, an AI "gaslighter" begins to question its role in manipulating humans... these and more stories by noted author Julianna Baggott are collected in this volume.
REVIEW: As with many short story collections, these tales could be a mixed bag, though I liked them more than I didn't. Many explore themes related to memories, the traumas of childhood (and parenthood), and the need to confront past hurts and unhealthy patterns if one is to have any hope of a better future. There are also some that explore what personhood means, and how we decide who gets to be recognized and who gets to be silenced. A few felt long, a few others felt abbreviated, and sometimes Baggott didn't seem to quite know where or how to end, what final note would make the strongest impact. Overall, though, they explored some interesting ideas without feeling too repetitive.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Anything Box (Zenna Henderson) - My Review
Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight (Cat Rambo) - My Review
Sister Emily's Lightship and Other Stories (Jane Yolen) - My Review
Julianna Baggott
Blackstone Publishing
Fiction, Collection/Fantasy/Horror/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: A power glitch reveals a terrifying truth about the adults in an idyllic suburban development, a young woman's morphing tattoo demands she confront a traumatic childhood incident, a peculiar pandemic scatters memories to random people, an AI "gaslighter" begins to question its role in manipulating humans... these and more stories by noted author Julianna Baggott are collected in this volume.
REVIEW: As with many short story collections, these tales could be a mixed bag, though I liked them more than I didn't. Many explore themes related to memories, the traumas of childhood (and parenthood), and the need to confront past hurts and unhealthy patterns if one is to have any hope of a better future. There are also some that explore what personhood means, and how we decide who gets to be recognized and who gets to be silenced. A few felt long, a few others felt abbreviated, and sometimes Baggott didn't seem to quite know where or how to end, what final note would make the strongest impact. Overall, though, they explored some interesting ideas without feeling too repetitive.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Anything Box (Zenna Henderson) - My Review
Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight (Cat Rambo) - My Review
Sister Emily's Lightship and Other Stories (Jane Yolen) - My Review
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water (Zen Cho)
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water
Zen Cho
Tordotcom
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: When the handsome-faced bandit walked into the small coffeehouse, one of many nondescript coffeehouses in a nation slowly being crushed by the heavy boot of a foreign Protectorate, trouble was almost inevitable... especially when that bandit intervenes in a rude customer's ill treatment of the waitress. That should've been the beginning and end of it, a brief incident and crossing of paths - until the waitress, fired by the coffeehouse, tracks down the bandit and insists on joining his small crew. They are reluctant, naturally; not only is she a woman, but she has the shaven head of a former nun of the Order of the Pure Moon, and there are rumors about them dabbling in forbidden magics. But Guet Imm is persistent, and the bandits may turn out to be very much in need of her assistance, as their latest scheme is about to go horribly awry.
REVIEW: Set in an Asian-inspired world where outsiders have turned the nation against itself as soldiers target the heart of the culture and bandits, once the heart of the resistance, degenerate into infighting and thuggery, this novella had many ingredients that were intriguing, though for some reason I never quite found they clicked together as they should have. The characters are all scarred to varying degrees by what's happening to their country; Guet Imm was a nun in seclusion for many years before emerging to find the rest of her Order slaughtered, and is still a bit of an innocent in the ways of the wider world, while the bandits - particularly the jaded second-in-command Tet Sang - have given up their own former idealism to some degree; while they are trying in their own way to preserve what they can of their nation's heritage, doing so requires compromises that largely undermine whatever integrity they try to preserve, and more and more it's about the money rather than the honor. Tet Sang hides further secrets that are endangered by the presence of the former nun, which come out as their scheme is revealed and unravels before their eyes. Despite the terrible things that have happened, Guet Imm remains a devout follower of the Lady, insisting that the goddess still protects Her people and Her faithful and punishes their enemies, all evidence to the contrary... claims which might have a grain of truth behind them as events proceed. For some reason, I never really felt I was drawn into the story, kept a little at arm's length from the world and the people, making the resolution feel less cathartic and satisfactory than it should have been.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sorcerer to the Crown (Zen Cho) - My Review
Into the Riverlands (Nghi Vo) - My Review
Song of Silver, Flame Like Night (Amélie Wen Zhao) - My Review
Zen Cho
Tordotcom
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: When the handsome-faced bandit walked into the small coffeehouse, one of many nondescript coffeehouses in a nation slowly being crushed by the heavy boot of a foreign Protectorate, trouble was almost inevitable... especially when that bandit intervenes in a rude customer's ill treatment of the waitress. That should've been the beginning and end of it, a brief incident and crossing of paths - until the waitress, fired by the coffeehouse, tracks down the bandit and insists on joining his small crew. They are reluctant, naturally; not only is she a woman, but she has the shaven head of a former nun of the Order of the Pure Moon, and there are rumors about them dabbling in forbidden magics. But Guet Imm is persistent, and the bandits may turn out to be very much in need of her assistance, as their latest scheme is about to go horribly awry.
REVIEW: Set in an Asian-inspired world where outsiders have turned the nation against itself as soldiers target the heart of the culture and bandits, once the heart of the resistance, degenerate into infighting and thuggery, this novella had many ingredients that were intriguing, though for some reason I never quite found they clicked together as they should have. The characters are all scarred to varying degrees by what's happening to their country; Guet Imm was a nun in seclusion for many years before emerging to find the rest of her Order slaughtered, and is still a bit of an innocent in the ways of the wider world, while the bandits - particularly the jaded second-in-command Tet Sang - have given up their own former idealism to some degree; while they are trying in their own way to preserve what they can of their nation's heritage, doing so requires compromises that largely undermine whatever integrity they try to preserve, and more and more it's about the money rather than the honor. Tet Sang hides further secrets that are endangered by the presence of the former nun, which come out as their scheme is revealed and unravels before their eyes. Despite the terrible things that have happened, Guet Imm remains a devout follower of the Lady, insisting that the goddess still protects Her people and Her faithful and punishes their enemies, all evidence to the contrary... claims which might have a grain of truth behind them as events proceed. For some reason, I never really felt I was drawn into the story, kept a little at arm's length from the world and the people, making the resolution feel less cathartic and satisfactory than it should have been.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sorcerer to the Crown (Zen Cho) - My Review
Into the Riverlands (Nghi Vo) - My Review
Song of Silver, Flame Like Night (Amélie Wen Zhao) - My Review
Kingdom of the Wicked (Derek Landy)
Kingdom of the Wicked
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 7
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, YA Adventure/Fantasy/Horror/Humor/Mystery
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since ancient times, the world's magic users have relied on secrecy to survive among the mundane mortal population - not always by choice, but by necessity, as the ordinary humans outnumber them so significantly. This was why the Sanctuaries were founded, why there are rules about public displays of power, why Valkyrie Cain has to use her own animated mirror reflection to hide her secret life from her mortal family... and why the Irish magical community is thrown into chaos when random people start spontaneously manifesting strange abilities, everything from delusions of flight to the deadly powers deployed by four disaffected teenagers out for vengeance and thrills.
Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie discover a link to a long-imprisoned sorcerer who once had a dream of discovering the source of all magic and sharing it to create a utopian world. Even from captivity, the man may be about to unleash his "gift" on the whole world, not caring about the devastation it would cause. As they investigate, they also have to dodge an international delegation intent on taking over the Irish Sanctuary, as well as a few old enemies and a host of new ones - not to mention occasional trips to a hellish alternate dimension where the long-ago war among the mages went very, very differently.
REVIEW: This series continues to impress, with high stakes, great characters, sharp dialog, and real growth. Picking up about a year after the previous installment, the Irish Sanctuary is still struggling to prove to the rest of the magical world that it can handle its own affairs after numerous high-profile incidents. A bunch of mortals suddenly displaying random, uncontrollable magic powers in full public view is just what nobody needs, especially when some of those mortals quickly embrace the deadlier aspects of their new powers. Teen girl Kitana is the quintessential popular girl, a spoiled bully who rules her small circle of friends with a potent mixture of gaslighting and amoral thrill-seeking... the very last person who should ever be handed godlike abilities. What she and her companions lack in experience or planning, they make up for in sheer instinct and ruthlessness, making the team a very different sort of opponent than the ones Skulduggery and Valkyrie are used to squaring off against and one that bests them more than once. Meanwhile, ongoing series threads develop new twists and turns, keeping the larger arcs from stagnating even as the main story keeps the characters jumping (and diving for cover). An encounter with a dimensional shifter offers a new perspective on the story and the characters, as Valkyrie visits an alternate world where the old mage war went very differently... a world where she may find a weapon that was lost on our Earth but which would come in very handy fighting the newly-created near-gods. The fact that she'd even consider a solo heist against a maniacal sorcerer-king who rules with an iron fist shows how much Skulduggery's independence and recklessness has rubbed off on her. As I've come to expect from the series, it all builds to an explosive finale, followed by a strong hook that all but demands one queue up the next installment right away. There were one or two characters whose stories fell by the wayside, and a little threat of overload with the many threads it juggles, but I'm still loving this series.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy) - My Review
The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 7
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, YA Adventure/Fantasy/Horror/Humor/Mystery
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since ancient times, the world's magic users have relied on secrecy to survive among the mundane mortal population - not always by choice, but by necessity, as the ordinary humans outnumber them so significantly. This was why the Sanctuaries were founded, why there are rules about public displays of power, why Valkyrie Cain has to use her own animated mirror reflection to hide her secret life from her mortal family... and why the Irish magical community is thrown into chaos when random people start spontaneously manifesting strange abilities, everything from delusions of flight to the deadly powers deployed by four disaffected teenagers out for vengeance and thrills.
Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie discover a link to a long-imprisoned sorcerer who once had a dream of discovering the source of all magic and sharing it to create a utopian world. Even from captivity, the man may be about to unleash his "gift" on the whole world, not caring about the devastation it would cause. As they investigate, they also have to dodge an international delegation intent on taking over the Irish Sanctuary, as well as a few old enemies and a host of new ones - not to mention occasional trips to a hellish alternate dimension where the long-ago war among the mages went very, very differently.
REVIEW: This series continues to impress, with high stakes, great characters, sharp dialog, and real growth. Picking up about a year after the previous installment, the Irish Sanctuary is still struggling to prove to the rest of the magical world that it can handle its own affairs after numerous high-profile incidents. A bunch of mortals suddenly displaying random, uncontrollable magic powers in full public view is just what nobody needs, especially when some of those mortals quickly embrace the deadlier aspects of their new powers. Teen girl Kitana is the quintessential popular girl, a spoiled bully who rules her small circle of friends with a potent mixture of gaslighting and amoral thrill-seeking... the very last person who should ever be handed godlike abilities. What she and her companions lack in experience or planning, they make up for in sheer instinct and ruthlessness, making the team a very different sort of opponent than the ones Skulduggery and Valkyrie are used to squaring off against and one that bests them more than once. Meanwhile, ongoing series threads develop new twists and turns, keeping the larger arcs from stagnating even as the main story keeps the characters jumping (and diving for cover). An encounter with a dimensional shifter offers a new perspective on the story and the characters, as Valkyrie visits an alternate world where the old mage war went very differently... a world where she may find a weapon that was lost on our Earth but which would come in very handy fighting the newly-created near-gods. The fact that she'd even consider a solo heist against a maniacal sorcerer-king who rules with an iron fist shows how much Skulduggery's independence and recklessness has rubbed off on her. As I've come to expect from the series, it all builds to an explosive finale, followed by a strong hook that all but demands one queue up the next installment right away. There were one or two characters whose stories fell by the wayside, and a little threat of overload with the many threads it juggles, but I'm still loving this series.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy) - My Review
The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
Friday, March 7, 2025
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
Blackstone Publishing
Fiction, Horror/Literary Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Dorian Gray is the very vision of innocent, aristocratic youth, the perfect muse to the London artist Basil Hallward - and the perfect potential protégé of the decadent Lord Henry, who visits Basil's studio during one of Dorian's sessions. When the lord's offhand comments about the fleeting nature of youth and beauty strike a chord with young Dorian, the man impulsively vows that he'd sell his very soul to remain forever as young and handsome and untouched by sin and time as his painted image. Little do any of them suspect that Dorian's wish has been granted. As Dorian falls further under Henry's corrupting influence, pushing himself to experience fully every impulse, every sensation, every desire and whim and darkness a human can aspire to, he retains the visage of purity and innocence... but the painting begins to change...
REVIEW: Once more, I attempt to experience a work of classic literature, and once more I encounter mixed results. The iconic tale of a young man who finds a way to (temporarily) cheat damnation and avoid consequences for his actions remains interesting and compelling, but once again Wilde drifts and meanders and circles around the story as often as he tells it.
From the start, there is something special about the titular portrait, as the artist Basil laments to his friend Lord Henry that Dorian Gray has become a muse, an ideal, and that consequently Basil has put "too much" of himself into the work. Almost from the moment Henry sets eyes on the young Dorian, though, the lord is determined to corrupt the innocence and beauty he sees there, not out of any particular malice or master plan but more as an experiment by a man bored of his own idle richness (and perhaps a touch of unacknowledged jealousy and resentment, his own days of youth and innocence having long since passed by). Dorian, having been sheltered much of his young life, is too easy a prey to resist, taking Henry's cynical, hedonistic, and often self-contradictory orations as gospel truth and inspiration to live his own life as fully and sensually and extremely as he can manage. He does not set out immediately to taste-test the seven deadly sins, but finds his way there soon enough, galvanized by an ill-advised crush on a low-end actress that takes a tragic turn. It is after this incident that he first notices the change in the painting, first realizes that his impulsive vow of long ago has somehow come true... and first comprehends that the painting might serve as either a guide to keep him on the moral path or a "get out of jail free" card that will allow him to indulge every impulse without consequence. The artist Basil and Lord Henry are the angel and demon on his shoulders respectively, though it's clear from that first day in Basil's studio which voice will ultimately win out over Dorian's conscience. There are a few moments where Dorian is presented with options and a chance to turn around, but he remains too convinced that he'll never have to pay the ever-mounting bill of his ever-more-depraved lifestyle, until a final and fateful reckoning.
As in other Wilde works I've read, the tale is heavily embroidered and padded with long side-trips and scenes that ultimately go nowhere but are full of rich sensory details and/or clever high-brow banter. Much of Dorian's descent is less explicitly stated and more implied and hinted at, with dark rumors and reputations gathering like storm clouds over him despite his eternal good looks and charm, the increasing toll of broken lives in his wake. I am glad I finally got around to this one, and I did enjoy the memorable imagery at several points, though once more I found myself wishing it had encountered a somewhat less timid editor at some point.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) - My Review
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson) - My Review
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories (Oscar Wilde) - My Review
Oscar Wilde
Blackstone Publishing
Fiction, Horror/Literary Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Dorian Gray is the very vision of innocent, aristocratic youth, the perfect muse to the London artist Basil Hallward - and the perfect potential protégé of the decadent Lord Henry, who visits Basil's studio during one of Dorian's sessions. When the lord's offhand comments about the fleeting nature of youth and beauty strike a chord with young Dorian, the man impulsively vows that he'd sell his very soul to remain forever as young and handsome and untouched by sin and time as his painted image. Little do any of them suspect that Dorian's wish has been granted. As Dorian falls further under Henry's corrupting influence, pushing himself to experience fully every impulse, every sensation, every desire and whim and darkness a human can aspire to, he retains the visage of purity and innocence... but the painting begins to change...
REVIEW: Once more, I attempt to experience a work of classic literature, and once more I encounter mixed results. The iconic tale of a young man who finds a way to (temporarily) cheat damnation and avoid consequences for his actions remains interesting and compelling, but once again Wilde drifts and meanders and circles around the story as often as he tells it.
From the start, there is something special about the titular portrait, as the artist Basil laments to his friend Lord Henry that Dorian Gray has become a muse, an ideal, and that consequently Basil has put "too much" of himself into the work. Almost from the moment Henry sets eyes on the young Dorian, though, the lord is determined to corrupt the innocence and beauty he sees there, not out of any particular malice or master plan but more as an experiment by a man bored of his own idle richness (and perhaps a touch of unacknowledged jealousy and resentment, his own days of youth and innocence having long since passed by). Dorian, having been sheltered much of his young life, is too easy a prey to resist, taking Henry's cynical, hedonistic, and often self-contradictory orations as gospel truth and inspiration to live his own life as fully and sensually and extremely as he can manage. He does not set out immediately to taste-test the seven deadly sins, but finds his way there soon enough, galvanized by an ill-advised crush on a low-end actress that takes a tragic turn. It is after this incident that he first notices the change in the painting, first realizes that his impulsive vow of long ago has somehow come true... and first comprehends that the painting might serve as either a guide to keep him on the moral path or a "get out of jail free" card that will allow him to indulge every impulse without consequence. The artist Basil and Lord Henry are the angel and demon on his shoulders respectively, though it's clear from that first day in Basil's studio which voice will ultimately win out over Dorian's conscience. There are a few moments where Dorian is presented with options and a chance to turn around, but he remains too convinced that he'll never have to pay the ever-mounting bill of his ever-more-depraved lifestyle, until a final and fateful reckoning.
As in other Wilde works I've read, the tale is heavily embroidered and padded with long side-trips and scenes that ultimately go nowhere but are full of rich sensory details and/or clever high-brow banter. Much of Dorian's descent is less explicitly stated and more implied and hinted at, with dark rumors and reputations gathering like storm clouds over him despite his eternal good looks and charm, the increasing toll of broken lives in his wake. I am glad I finally got around to this one, and I did enjoy the memorable imagery at several points, though once more I found myself wishing it had encountered a somewhat less timid editor at some point.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) - My Review
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson) - My Review
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories (Oscar Wilde) - My Review
Counterweight (Djuna)
Counterweight
Djuna, translated by Anton Hur
Pantheon
Fiction, Mystery/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: For centuries, humanity dreamed of a future in space, but it wasn't until the construction of the world's first and only space elevator by Korean conglomerate LK that the dream became a reality. The recent death of LK's president can't help but send tremors through the company and many individuals within it. Mac in particular, a man with a shady (and manufactured) history, feels his position as head of External Affairs grow more precarious with the man's passing; he only got the job because he saved the late president's life many years ago, and the new leadership is quite likely to see him as a loose end to tidy up once they secure their positions. Fortunately, he's still needed for the time being, when an investigation into anti-LK terrorist activity turns up the name Choi Gangwu. The man is the very definition of a nobody, but a look at his activities raises some red flags, leading Mac into a labyrinthine plot that might bring down LK and, with it, the starfaring future its technology is creating.
REVIEW: The cover and description promised a surreal, noir sci-fi novella. It does, in its favor, deliver on the surreality, the noir aesthetic, and the sci-fi. Unfortunately, what it does not deliver along with those elements is a coherent plot or a single character worth caring at all about.
From the start, the reader is immersed in a techno-dystopian future where humans are often augmented with brain implant "Worms" that feed them information and can even control actions, and where AI is mere decades (if that) away from rendering our species effectively obsolete. Investigating a terrorist plot by the Patusan Liberation Front - a group that deeply resents how the residents of the Indonesian island of Patusa have been displaced and reduced to little more than rubbish at the feet of LK's great elevator and associated city - Mac stumbles across the connection to Choi Gangwu, an unassuming man from an unassuming background whose chief interests appear to be butterflies and the space elevator... himself an unwitting pawn of a greater scheme linked to the late company president, a scheme that has just been set into motion. This is a world where history, facts, and reality itself seem malleable, liable to be overlaid and overwritten as easily as computer code, where everything takes on a certain fever-dream aspect and logic often follows inscrutable rules. Characters are just names thrown at the reader as often as not, the key players too remote and larger than life, tied up in a plot where nothing really seems to matter because the big stuff is all moving at a level so far beyond narrator Mac's level of experience and control that they might as well be the dance of the galaxies through the universe. The blurb promised an exciting race up the space elevator to a secret hidden in the counterweight at the other end of the tether, but that doesn't even happen until the final third or fourth of the novel, and isn't nearly as much a part of the plot as it was hyped to be. By the end, I still was wondering why any of it happened, whether Mac's involvement really was necessary (and why the author chose him as the character to view the tale through), and why exactly I was supposed to care about anything that went on. I give it marks for originality and aesthetic, but this one was just too far out of my wheelhouse for me to begin to appreciate.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Titanium Noir (Nick Harkaway) - My Review
The Darwin Elevator (Jason M. Hough) - My Review
Altered Carbon (Richard K. Morgan) - My Review
Djuna, translated by Anton Hur
Pantheon
Fiction, Mystery/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: For centuries, humanity dreamed of a future in space, but it wasn't until the construction of the world's first and only space elevator by Korean conglomerate LK that the dream became a reality. The recent death of LK's president can't help but send tremors through the company and many individuals within it. Mac in particular, a man with a shady (and manufactured) history, feels his position as head of External Affairs grow more precarious with the man's passing; he only got the job because he saved the late president's life many years ago, and the new leadership is quite likely to see him as a loose end to tidy up once they secure their positions. Fortunately, he's still needed for the time being, when an investigation into anti-LK terrorist activity turns up the name Choi Gangwu. The man is the very definition of a nobody, but a look at his activities raises some red flags, leading Mac into a labyrinthine plot that might bring down LK and, with it, the starfaring future its technology is creating.
REVIEW: The cover and description promised a surreal, noir sci-fi novella. It does, in its favor, deliver on the surreality, the noir aesthetic, and the sci-fi. Unfortunately, what it does not deliver along with those elements is a coherent plot or a single character worth caring at all about.
From the start, the reader is immersed in a techno-dystopian future where humans are often augmented with brain implant "Worms" that feed them information and can even control actions, and where AI is mere decades (if that) away from rendering our species effectively obsolete. Investigating a terrorist plot by the Patusan Liberation Front - a group that deeply resents how the residents of the Indonesian island of Patusa have been displaced and reduced to little more than rubbish at the feet of LK's great elevator and associated city - Mac stumbles across the connection to Choi Gangwu, an unassuming man from an unassuming background whose chief interests appear to be butterflies and the space elevator... himself an unwitting pawn of a greater scheme linked to the late company president, a scheme that has just been set into motion. This is a world where history, facts, and reality itself seem malleable, liable to be overlaid and overwritten as easily as computer code, where everything takes on a certain fever-dream aspect and logic often follows inscrutable rules. Characters are just names thrown at the reader as often as not, the key players too remote and larger than life, tied up in a plot where nothing really seems to matter because the big stuff is all moving at a level so far beyond narrator Mac's level of experience and control that they might as well be the dance of the galaxies through the universe. The blurb promised an exciting race up the space elevator to a secret hidden in the counterweight at the other end of the tether, but that doesn't even happen until the final third or fourth of the novel, and isn't nearly as much a part of the plot as it was hyped to be. By the end, I still was wondering why any of it happened, whether Mac's involvement really was necessary (and why the author chose him as the character to view the tale through), and why exactly I was supposed to care about anything that went on. I give it marks for originality and aesthetic, but this one was just too far out of my wheelhouse for me to begin to appreciate.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Titanium Noir (Nick Harkaway) - My Review
The Darwin Elevator (Jason M. Hough) - My Review
Altered Carbon (Richard K. Morgan) - My Review
Thursday, March 6, 2025
A Breath of Mischief (MarcyKate Connolly)
A Breath of Mischief
MarcyKate Connolly
Sourcebooks
Fiction, MG? Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: A windling child, the blue-haired girl Aria was raised in a floating castle by the Wind itself. She loves watching the world drift by beneath her, listening to the visiting birds and dragons and other flying beasts, playing with her best friend Gwyn the gryphling, reading books in the castle's great library (for the Wind loves to snatch up books and scrolls and other odds and ends in their travels to bring back to their daughter), and being lulled to sleep every night by the Wind's special, secret lullaby they sing just for her.
One morning, she wakes up to find the castle has drifted to earth, and the Wind is nowhere to be found. Worse, she seems to have lost her magical gifts from the Wind that let her float and drift like a dandelion puff, and the air all around is still and heavy, without so much as a breath of breeze. Aria and Gwyn search, and discover that an alchemist named Worton has the Wind trapped in a great and strange magical machine; he refuses to let her parent go unless the windling brings him three magical artifacts from across the land. She isn't sure she trusts him, but she misses the Wind terribly, and the longer the Wind is away, the more the land itself suffers. Can she solve the riddle and find the items... and, if she does, is she helping free the Wind or enabling something far more terrible?
REVIEW: The cover image looked fun, and the title promised mischief and light adventure. But something about that promise never quite came through, even though A Breath of Mischief has some fun images and ideas.
Aria is an "otherling" chosen by the Wind, an embodiment of the element of moving air. Just what is an "otherling"? The story seems vague on what they are and where they come from, save that they aren't human and don't particularly trust people. I guessed them to be some sort of faerie-like being, but the reader only ever meets a handful, each the adopted "child" of an elemental force who, like her, have been given particular gifts and responsibilities. This thin worldbuilding persists throughout, the sense that ideas, while nice and shiny to look at in the moment, don't always make sense and weren't always thought through and don't necessarily connect in a meaningful or consistent fashion. While many in the target age might not notice, I've read enough middle-grade (and even children's, which this skews toward) fantasy where the worlds felt far more solid to notice that thinness here. In any event, the tale drifts a bit like a seed puff on the breeze before getting to the grounding of the castle and the disappearance of the Wind. Along the way, Aria has her first encounter with another otherling, the waterling boy Bay - the first time she's even considered that other elements might have their own children like herself, and her first real notion that the Wind isn't the only elemental master that's particularly important in the world. She eventually finds her way to a dilapidated keep/mad scientist lair and the alchemist Worton, who tricks her and Gwyn into agreeing to a quest for three suspiciously elemental-based objects. Even for a young and somewhat sheltered protagonist, Aria's choice here is rather hard to swallow, as is her blindness about what Worton is really asking of her - especially when she starts seeing more signs that something's terribly amiss as she and her gryphling best friend pursue the objects. The quest itself is only part of the tale that follows, as Aria and Gwyn deal with several obstacles and a few setbacks, and later a mistake that costs everyone dearly... but this being a tale written for the younger end of the target audience, it's hardly a spoiler that things do work out by the end.
As a read-aloud or read-along with a youngster, A Breath of Mischief might be a decent enough tale. Just don't expect too much from it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Granted (John David Anderson) - My Review
Endling #1: The Last (Katherine Applegate) - My Review
The Stone Girl's Story (Sarah Beth Durst) - My Review
MarcyKate Connolly
Sourcebooks
Fiction, MG? Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: A windling child, the blue-haired girl Aria was raised in a floating castle by the Wind itself. She loves watching the world drift by beneath her, listening to the visiting birds and dragons and other flying beasts, playing with her best friend Gwyn the gryphling, reading books in the castle's great library (for the Wind loves to snatch up books and scrolls and other odds and ends in their travels to bring back to their daughter), and being lulled to sleep every night by the Wind's special, secret lullaby they sing just for her.
One morning, she wakes up to find the castle has drifted to earth, and the Wind is nowhere to be found. Worse, she seems to have lost her magical gifts from the Wind that let her float and drift like a dandelion puff, and the air all around is still and heavy, without so much as a breath of breeze. Aria and Gwyn search, and discover that an alchemist named Worton has the Wind trapped in a great and strange magical machine; he refuses to let her parent go unless the windling brings him three magical artifacts from across the land. She isn't sure she trusts him, but she misses the Wind terribly, and the longer the Wind is away, the more the land itself suffers. Can she solve the riddle and find the items... and, if she does, is she helping free the Wind or enabling something far more terrible?
REVIEW: The cover image looked fun, and the title promised mischief and light adventure. But something about that promise never quite came through, even though A Breath of Mischief has some fun images and ideas.
Aria is an "otherling" chosen by the Wind, an embodiment of the element of moving air. Just what is an "otherling"? The story seems vague on what they are and where they come from, save that they aren't human and don't particularly trust people. I guessed them to be some sort of faerie-like being, but the reader only ever meets a handful, each the adopted "child" of an elemental force who, like her, have been given particular gifts and responsibilities. This thin worldbuilding persists throughout, the sense that ideas, while nice and shiny to look at in the moment, don't always make sense and weren't always thought through and don't necessarily connect in a meaningful or consistent fashion. While many in the target age might not notice, I've read enough middle-grade (and even children's, which this skews toward) fantasy where the worlds felt far more solid to notice that thinness here. In any event, the tale drifts a bit like a seed puff on the breeze before getting to the grounding of the castle and the disappearance of the Wind. Along the way, Aria has her first encounter with another otherling, the waterling boy Bay - the first time she's even considered that other elements might have their own children like herself, and her first real notion that the Wind isn't the only elemental master that's particularly important in the world. She eventually finds her way to a dilapidated keep/mad scientist lair and the alchemist Worton, who tricks her and Gwyn into agreeing to a quest for three suspiciously elemental-based objects. Even for a young and somewhat sheltered protagonist, Aria's choice here is rather hard to swallow, as is her blindness about what Worton is really asking of her - especially when she starts seeing more signs that something's terribly amiss as she and her gryphling best friend pursue the objects. The quest itself is only part of the tale that follows, as Aria and Gwyn deal with several obstacles and a few setbacks, and later a mistake that costs everyone dearly... but this being a tale written for the younger end of the target audience, it's hardly a spoiler that things do work out by the end.
As a read-aloud or read-along with a youngster, A Breath of Mischief might be a decent enough tale. Just don't expect too much from it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Granted (John David Anderson) - My Review
Endling #1: The Last (Katherine Applegate) - My Review
The Stone Girl's Story (Sarah Beth Durst) - My Review
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
The Husbands (Holly Gramazio)
The Husbands
Holly Gramazio
Doubleday
Fiction, General Fiction/Humor
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: It was late, and Lauren was more than a little tipsy, when she returned home from her friend Elena's bachelorette party to find her husband Michael waiting for her... only Lauren doesn't have a husband, and she's never seen Michael before in her life. But, then, the colors and decor of her London home appear to have changed, and there are pictures on the wall and texts on her phone she doesn't remember, all of which confirm that she is indeed married to this stranger, and has been for some time. She even apparently has a different job, working at some hardware and garden store instead of the local council, with no memory of what exactly she does there. The next day, Michael goes up into the attic to change a light bulb - and a different man comes down, also claiming to be her husband, with yet more changes all around her to accommodate this new, impossible relationship. Lauren never really thought about long-term relationships, or much about her future at all, but now, thanks to some mysterious power in her attic, finds herself living a succession of could-have-been lives with could-have-been spouses, some better matches than others, only lacking the memories of what led the could-have-been hers to make their choices. Can she ever get back to her old, single life, the one she alone remembers? If she can't, can she ever decide which of these men, which of these lives, are her destiny?
REVIEW: Part alternate-reality jaunt, part exploration of relationships and the societal myth/expectation of "soul mates", part the story of a woman forced to examine a life lived too long in neutral, The Husbands has an interesting concept, but doesn't always seem certain what its main character is doing with it.
Lauren starts out not particularly wanting much of anything from life, coasting along in a so-so job with a decent circle of friends, watching from the sidelines as they pursue goals and experience life changes while she hasn't substantially moved ahead in anything but years. She's never wanted a family (a conviction that does not change) and never really felt interested in finding a spouse, so she's as confused as she is frightened to find a stranger in her home who claims to be a husband... and an attic that seems insistent on supplying her with new spouses, along with new lives in which she chose them - some of which are poor choices, including a few potential emotional abusers, at least one clearly picked for the money, and more than one run with an ex which never ends well no matter how many alternate-Laurens apparently thought differently. What triggered this? There's no explanation, but the fact that it all began after her best friend's bachelorette party may hint at some metaphysical manifestation of a subconscious desire for a life partner, or at least some definitive direction or change. In any event, once she figures out what's going on, and that her world shifts with each new husband (time itself does not reset), she starts treating the succession of men almost as disposable home decor or rental cars, trying out lives with them for a few days or weeks before sending them back to the attic from whence they came. She's no more serious about choosing a mate or a future than she was before the strangeness started, dabbling in this or that alternate life without really learning or growing, let alone considering how the circle of people around her are also shifting (albeit unknowingly) into new configurations, not always for the better. When she finally finds one she thinks she might stay with, the American-born Carter, she's heartbroken when he ventures up into the attic himself and disappears... only to discover that Carter still exists in her new life, though he's back in America and they never met. Eventually, she finds an Australian-born man named Bohai coming down the attic stairs... a man who also seems to be skipping through alternate worlds, finding different mates waiting for him. The two quickly realize they're not romantically compatible, but are both relieved to have someone to share notes with, someone they can count on to remember each other even when both skip through new lives. Meeting him makes her start taking the matter a little more seriously, but she still has trouble figuring out what she wants to do, what future she wants to grab before it slips through her fingers via fate or her own indecision. Is there ever a true soul mate waiting to be found, a perfect life that's about to drop out of the sky (or attic) to land at her feet, or does Lauren finally have to take the reins and some responsibility, make some decisions and set some goals, and stop letting her life just happen to her? Is there even some great life lesson to be learned, or is this just a weird glitch in the multiverse that just happens to some people? By the end, there's still a lot of ambiguity, and Lauren may or may not have learned much from her experience.
There's some humor in the story, and some exploration of what it means to make choices and live one's life with intention rather than simply waiting for it to happen. The men often being interchangeable objects is a nice twist on the way women are too often seen as window dressing or commodities in marriages, something to acquire to bolster status or serve a purpose rather than being a human being. There is also some needed deconstruction of the idea of "soul mates" and "the one and only forever", and even the idea of marriage itself as a necessary milestone in life; many of the men who come down from the attic could be perfectly suitable partners for life, and at some point some Lauren obviously considered them all a potential "one and only forever", only no life offers perfect bliss without drawbacks, no relationship immune from trouble either before or after the attic switchover. (She is dismayed to find that she's cheating in more than one alternate life, and also that she apparently did not see or chose to ignore serious moral or even legal failings with her picks.) Lauren, unfortunately, just isn't always an interesting or even necessarily likable character to follow through the multiverse, often frustratingly resistant to seeing the obvious, and long stretches of the tale don't seem to go anywhere. That, plus an ending that felt less punchy or decisive than it should have been, ended up holding the story down in the ratings.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Recursion (Blake Crouch) - My Review
Oona Out of Order (Margarita Montimore) - My Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Holly Gramazio
Doubleday
Fiction, General Fiction/Humor
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: It was late, and Lauren was more than a little tipsy, when she returned home from her friend Elena's bachelorette party to find her husband Michael waiting for her... only Lauren doesn't have a husband, and she's never seen Michael before in her life. But, then, the colors and decor of her London home appear to have changed, and there are pictures on the wall and texts on her phone she doesn't remember, all of which confirm that she is indeed married to this stranger, and has been for some time. She even apparently has a different job, working at some hardware and garden store instead of the local council, with no memory of what exactly she does there. The next day, Michael goes up into the attic to change a light bulb - and a different man comes down, also claiming to be her husband, with yet more changes all around her to accommodate this new, impossible relationship. Lauren never really thought about long-term relationships, or much about her future at all, but now, thanks to some mysterious power in her attic, finds herself living a succession of could-have-been lives with could-have-been spouses, some better matches than others, only lacking the memories of what led the could-have-been hers to make their choices. Can she ever get back to her old, single life, the one she alone remembers? If she can't, can she ever decide which of these men, which of these lives, are her destiny?
REVIEW: Part alternate-reality jaunt, part exploration of relationships and the societal myth/expectation of "soul mates", part the story of a woman forced to examine a life lived too long in neutral, The Husbands has an interesting concept, but doesn't always seem certain what its main character is doing with it.
Lauren starts out not particularly wanting much of anything from life, coasting along in a so-so job with a decent circle of friends, watching from the sidelines as they pursue goals and experience life changes while she hasn't substantially moved ahead in anything but years. She's never wanted a family (a conviction that does not change) and never really felt interested in finding a spouse, so she's as confused as she is frightened to find a stranger in her home who claims to be a husband... and an attic that seems insistent on supplying her with new spouses, along with new lives in which she chose them - some of which are poor choices, including a few potential emotional abusers, at least one clearly picked for the money, and more than one run with an ex which never ends well no matter how many alternate-Laurens apparently thought differently. What triggered this? There's no explanation, but the fact that it all began after her best friend's bachelorette party may hint at some metaphysical manifestation of a subconscious desire for a life partner, or at least some definitive direction or change. In any event, once she figures out what's going on, and that her world shifts with each new husband (time itself does not reset), she starts treating the succession of men almost as disposable home decor or rental cars, trying out lives with them for a few days or weeks before sending them back to the attic from whence they came. She's no more serious about choosing a mate or a future than she was before the strangeness started, dabbling in this or that alternate life without really learning or growing, let alone considering how the circle of people around her are also shifting (albeit unknowingly) into new configurations, not always for the better. When she finally finds one she thinks she might stay with, the American-born Carter, she's heartbroken when he ventures up into the attic himself and disappears... only to discover that Carter still exists in her new life, though he's back in America and they never met. Eventually, she finds an Australian-born man named Bohai coming down the attic stairs... a man who also seems to be skipping through alternate worlds, finding different mates waiting for him. The two quickly realize they're not romantically compatible, but are both relieved to have someone to share notes with, someone they can count on to remember each other even when both skip through new lives. Meeting him makes her start taking the matter a little more seriously, but she still has trouble figuring out what she wants to do, what future she wants to grab before it slips through her fingers via fate or her own indecision. Is there ever a true soul mate waiting to be found, a perfect life that's about to drop out of the sky (or attic) to land at her feet, or does Lauren finally have to take the reins and some responsibility, make some decisions and set some goals, and stop letting her life just happen to her? Is there even some great life lesson to be learned, or is this just a weird glitch in the multiverse that just happens to some people? By the end, there's still a lot of ambiguity, and Lauren may or may not have learned much from her experience.
There's some humor in the story, and some exploration of what it means to make choices and live one's life with intention rather than simply waiting for it to happen. The men often being interchangeable objects is a nice twist on the way women are too often seen as window dressing or commodities in marriages, something to acquire to bolster status or serve a purpose rather than being a human being. There is also some needed deconstruction of the idea of "soul mates" and "the one and only forever", and even the idea of marriage itself as a necessary milestone in life; many of the men who come down from the attic could be perfectly suitable partners for life, and at some point some Lauren obviously considered them all a potential "one and only forever", only no life offers perfect bliss without drawbacks, no relationship immune from trouble either before or after the attic switchover. (She is dismayed to find that she's cheating in more than one alternate life, and also that she apparently did not see or chose to ignore serious moral or even legal failings with her picks.) Lauren, unfortunately, just isn't always an interesting or even necessarily likable character to follow through the multiverse, often frustratingly resistant to seeing the obvious, and long stretches of the tale don't seem to go anywhere. That, plus an ending that felt less punchy or decisive than it should have been, ended up holding the story down in the ratings.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Recursion (Blake Crouch) - My Review
Oona Out of Order (Margarita Montimore) - My Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Friday, February 28, 2025
February Site Update
The shortest month of the year, and I'm already more than done with 2025... In any event, the month's reviews have been archived and cross-linked over on the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Ghostdrift (Suzanne Palmer)
Ghostdrift
The Finder Chronicles, Book 4
Suzanne Palmer
DAW
Fiction, Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Fergus Ferguson, a man with a knack for finding lost things, has spent the past few years in glorious anonymity, serving tea by the seaside of a nondescript world... and he couldn't be more bored. Granted, life had gotten a little too hectic for a while, what with dealing with impossible alien implants and having a bounty on his head from the powerful Alliance (not to mention numerous other organizations), but there are only so many cups of bitter tea (a metaphor for life, naturally) one can brew for tourists before monotony sets in. In a way, he was glad to see an old friend turn up at last - until that friend hands him (and his pet cat, Mister Feefs) over to the notorious pirate Bas Belos of the Sidewinder.
Instead of cashing him in for the bounty, Belos has another task in mind. Some years ago, his twin sister and fellow pirate captain Bel and her ship, the Rattler, went missing in a remote stretch of dead space known as the Barrens, while being chased by Alliance cruisers. If she'd been captured, there would have been chatter, and if she'd been destroyed, there would have been debris, but the Rattler and her pursuers just... disappeared. Ever since, Bas has searched for answers and come up with nothing. Posing as "Vetch", a new member of the Sidewinder's crew, Fergus is to turn his prodigal finding talents toward discovering what happened to Bel - and whom the pirates should take their vengeance upon. If he succeeds, he'll be rewarded with one of the pallai: rare, mysterious, self-aware alien AI devices Fergus has been tracking down across the galaxy. If he fails... well, Bas Belos's reputation is not that of a forgiving man.
Little does Fergus suspect just what lies ahead - a mystery far older and deeper than one missing pirate ship, one that will take him far into unknown reaches of space and pit him against new enemies.
REVIEW: The fourth and final installment of Fergus Ferguson's galactic adventures delivers another space romp full of wonder, danger, new allies and enemies, and more deep mysteries of the galaxy, with a little humor thrown in now and again lest the whole become too weighty.
With little lag time, the tale kicks off early, with few reminders along the way of Fergus's previous adventures (and their fallout). Once more, he finds himself caught up in yet another adventure - and, once more, it's not particularly against his will. He enjoys the challenge, and is never kept down or discouraged for long before a certain innate optimism and curiosity drives him to get back up and take another run at whatever problem lies before him. The crew of the Sidewinder is hardly the most disreputable group of people he's had to work with, though his arrival is not without a little friction, particularly with the suspicious intelligence officer Marsh. Soon enough, Fergus is on the trail across the Barrens, a stretch of space with a suspiciously large number of dead worlds and stars that's long been a haven for illicit activities... and which holds a number of secrets, including one that lands Fergus and the Sidewinder in much greater danger than any of them anticipated. Along the way, he is again visited by the inhuman "agent" of the highly advanced aliens who gave Fergus his peculiar new "organ", which lets him sense electrical fields and even release controlled charges; the fact that the aliens are once more taking an interest in his activities is a near-certain sign that there's a much bigger problem for Fergus to unravel, and a much bigger threat. It builds up nicely to a suitably wild climax, and a conclusion that leaves the door open for more installments. I've enjoyed this series greatly, a nice balance of old-school space adventure and sense of wonder with refreshingly updated characters and writing.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Cold Between (Elizabeth Bonesteel) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer) - My Review
The Android's Dream (John Scalzi) - My Review
The Finder Chronicles, Book 4
Suzanne Palmer
DAW
Fiction, Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Fergus Ferguson, a man with a knack for finding lost things, has spent the past few years in glorious anonymity, serving tea by the seaside of a nondescript world... and he couldn't be more bored. Granted, life had gotten a little too hectic for a while, what with dealing with impossible alien implants and having a bounty on his head from the powerful Alliance (not to mention numerous other organizations), but there are only so many cups of bitter tea (a metaphor for life, naturally) one can brew for tourists before monotony sets in. In a way, he was glad to see an old friend turn up at last - until that friend hands him (and his pet cat, Mister Feefs) over to the notorious pirate Bas Belos of the Sidewinder.
Instead of cashing him in for the bounty, Belos has another task in mind. Some years ago, his twin sister and fellow pirate captain Bel and her ship, the Rattler, went missing in a remote stretch of dead space known as the Barrens, while being chased by Alliance cruisers. If she'd been captured, there would have been chatter, and if she'd been destroyed, there would have been debris, but the Rattler and her pursuers just... disappeared. Ever since, Bas has searched for answers and come up with nothing. Posing as "Vetch", a new member of the Sidewinder's crew, Fergus is to turn his prodigal finding talents toward discovering what happened to Bel - and whom the pirates should take their vengeance upon. If he succeeds, he'll be rewarded with one of the pallai: rare, mysterious, self-aware alien AI devices Fergus has been tracking down across the galaxy. If he fails... well, Bas Belos's reputation is not that of a forgiving man.
Little does Fergus suspect just what lies ahead - a mystery far older and deeper than one missing pirate ship, one that will take him far into unknown reaches of space and pit him against new enemies.
REVIEW: The fourth and final installment of Fergus Ferguson's galactic adventures delivers another space romp full of wonder, danger, new allies and enemies, and more deep mysteries of the galaxy, with a little humor thrown in now and again lest the whole become too weighty.
With little lag time, the tale kicks off early, with few reminders along the way of Fergus's previous adventures (and their fallout). Once more, he finds himself caught up in yet another adventure - and, once more, it's not particularly against his will. He enjoys the challenge, and is never kept down or discouraged for long before a certain innate optimism and curiosity drives him to get back up and take another run at whatever problem lies before him. The crew of the Sidewinder is hardly the most disreputable group of people he's had to work with, though his arrival is not without a little friction, particularly with the suspicious intelligence officer Marsh. Soon enough, Fergus is on the trail across the Barrens, a stretch of space with a suspiciously large number of dead worlds and stars that's long been a haven for illicit activities... and which holds a number of secrets, including one that lands Fergus and the Sidewinder in much greater danger than any of them anticipated. Along the way, he is again visited by the inhuman "agent" of the highly advanced aliens who gave Fergus his peculiar new "organ", which lets him sense electrical fields and even release controlled charges; the fact that the aliens are once more taking an interest in his activities is a near-certain sign that there's a much bigger problem for Fergus to unravel, and a much bigger threat. It builds up nicely to a suitably wild climax, and a conclusion that leaves the door open for more installments. I've enjoyed this series greatly, a nice balance of old-school space adventure and sense of wonder with refreshingly updated characters and writing.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Cold Between (Elizabeth Bonesteel) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer) - My Review
The Android's Dream (John Scalzi) - My Review
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The Scorpion Rules (Erin Bow)
The Scorpion Rules
The Prisoners of Peace series, Book 1
Erin Bow
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: When climate collapse and incessant global wars threatened humanity's extinction four centuries ago, the desperate United Nations tasked the AI Talis - once a human mind, uploaded and upgraded - with finding a solution. None expected it to simply take over, but it did, seeing no other viable fix to humanity's seemingly-inherent self-destructive habits. After gaining control of suborbital weapons arrays and getting the attention of the world's leaders (blowing up a few cities to make its point), it laid down new rules for civilization and for future conflicts. In addition to limits on allowable lethal weapons and other factors, everyone who aspires to lead in any capacity must now leave a Child of Peace, one of their own offspring, in the AI's care, in isolated preceptures scattered around the world. Each is a hostage to their parents' good behavior; to declare war is to see their own children killed. It may not stop war - nothing could stop all war - but it does limit the scope and duration, and ensures that every leader has as much skin in the game as the foot soldiers they send into battle.
Greta, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, has been a Child of Peace at Precepture Four for most of her life. Though she has friends of a sort among her fellow hostages, and she feels some affection toward the Abbot, the aging AI in charge of the facility, it is by no means a pleasant existence, forever under the eye of robotic guardians that monitor nearly every word. Still, nobody can argue with the results of Talis's edicts, a planet slowly recovering from overexploitation and a population that no longer threatens to blast itself out of existence every other week. Then a new boy arrives, Elian, the grandson of the leader of Cumberland, an upstart new nation on her country's border. Unlike the other Children of Peace, he was not raised in the halls of power, not conditioned to understand his potential role, never believing he'd ever be important enough to be a hostage. His rebellious personality brings out the worst sides of their captors as they struggle to break him and keep him in line. Watching him rage against the system wakes something in Greta and the others, opening their eyes to the injustices of the system... an awakening that might have come too late. For with a new, hostile general on the field, war seems inevitable, meaning both her and Elian's lives will soon be forfeit.
REVIEW: The premise looked intriguing, a world in which AI was not actively destroying the world (which it currently is; even disregarding all other problematic aspects, the environmental costs alone... but I digress) but attempting to save us and our planet from ourselves, using the old practice of royal hostages in an attempt to enforce peace. And The Scorpion Rules did indeed start out interesting, an outwardly-peaceful utopia that was only achieved through invasive surveillance and social engineering to the point of being closer to a dystopia. Somewhere along the way, though, that promise petered out, washed away by a whiny and helpless main character, a dragging plot, and a tendency to wallow in pain and torment long beyond effectiveness.
From her first scenes, Greta prides herself on her ability to remain calm and self-controlled in the face of her essentially dystopian surroundings, where Swan Riders can swoop in at a moment's notice and pluck a classmate from the room for immediate termination. A student of Marcus Aurelius and stoicism, she embraces her role as a princess and a Child of Peace, believing that her compliance truly is essential to ensure her nation's safety and that being a good cog helps the whole machine of Talis's plan protect the world. (There's a running attempt at humor with a "holy text" of Utterances by the AI overlord, which are mostly geeky lines that sound too much like modern immature self-important techbros for me to really find them amusing, given the real-world damage being wrought by certain techbros.) She only has a little over a year left before she ages out of her role, and it seems reasonable that she'll survive until then, until Elian arrives - the first Child of Peace she has ever seen to be brought into the precepture in chains, and the first to openly defy their robotic masters, even when it earns him pain and eventual torture. She knows, of course, that the otherwise kindly Abbot and the other AI "teachers" use torment to punish rule infractions, but it never hit so close to home as when she watches their efforts to grind down the outspoken boy. He even goes so far as to attempt escape across the Saskatchewan prairies, despite knowing how such an effort could backfire on his nation and his loved ones. At some point, his stubbornness crosses a line from caged animal defiance into outright stupidity... just as Greta's stoic embracing of her role and refusal to see what's right in front of her eyes made me question her ostensible intelligence. Somehow, though, she's considered the leader of her classmates, even though her roommate Da-Xia, heiress to a Himalayan throne where rulers are considered divine, displays much stronger leadership skills, regal bearing, and defiance at multiple points, and isn't as willfully blind to obvious things. Tensions ratchet up as war encroaches on Greta's and Elian's nations, punctuated by a bold move by Cumberland that demonstrates how humans have a way of eventually circumventing even rules intended for self-preservation. At some point round about the halfway point or just past, though, the plot starts to lose steam as a near-divine intervention arrives, at which point things drag and start devolving to indulge in what approaches torture porn, emotional and physical, in ways that don't advance the story at all. Greta does more unintelligent things, Elian does some boneheaded stuff too, a weird plot obsession with horny ungulates unfolds, some late-game spiritualism seeps in through the cracks, and eventually the story ends in a weird grayish area that's not quite a satisfactory resting point or conclusion but isn't a cliffhanger either.
There are a few points in its favor; this isn't a book where the dystopia is magically fixed by the ending, for one thing, and even if it's hard to see real world leaders hesitating to declare a war even if it means the death of a family member (especially given how often wars are pushed by people just to the side of the official power structure, the ones who make the money off the spoils), it's an interesting idea. There's also some ambiguity involved, as Talis may be using an oversized sledgehammer but did not start off with bad intentions, and still believes that saving the world - which it did inarguably do, at least initially - is worth "small" sacrifices like a few well-born children and the odd major city. The story just became muddled in the telling, not at all helped by a main character who spent too much time whining and ignoring things and not enough doing main character things like solving problems or taking action or just plain not being a passive tool of an oppressive system.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) - My Review
Run Program (Scott Meyer) - My Review
Steelheart (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
The Prisoners of Peace series, Book 1
Erin Bow
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: When climate collapse and incessant global wars threatened humanity's extinction four centuries ago, the desperate United Nations tasked the AI Talis - once a human mind, uploaded and upgraded - with finding a solution. None expected it to simply take over, but it did, seeing no other viable fix to humanity's seemingly-inherent self-destructive habits. After gaining control of suborbital weapons arrays and getting the attention of the world's leaders (blowing up a few cities to make its point), it laid down new rules for civilization and for future conflicts. In addition to limits on allowable lethal weapons and other factors, everyone who aspires to lead in any capacity must now leave a Child of Peace, one of their own offspring, in the AI's care, in isolated preceptures scattered around the world. Each is a hostage to their parents' good behavior; to declare war is to see their own children killed. It may not stop war - nothing could stop all war - but it does limit the scope and duration, and ensures that every leader has as much skin in the game as the foot soldiers they send into battle.
Greta, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, has been a Child of Peace at Precepture Four for most of her life. Though she has friends of a sort among her fellow hostages, and she feels some affection toward the Abbot, the aging AI in charge of the facility, it is by no means a pleasant existence, forever under the eye of robotic guardians that monitor nearly every word. Still, nobody can argue with the results of Talis's edicts, a planet slowly recovering from overexploitation and a population that no longer threatens to blast itself out of existence every other week. Then a new boy arrives, Elian, the grandson of the leader of Cumberland, an upstart new nation on her country's border. Unlike the other Children of Peace, he was not raised in the halls of power, not conditioned to understand his potential role, never believing he'd ever be important enough to be a hostage. His rebellious personality brings out the worst sides of their captors as they struggle to break him and keep him in line. Watching him rage against the system wakes something in Greta and the others, opening their eyes to the injustices of the system... an awakening that might have come too late. For with a new, hostile general on the field, war seems inevitable, meaning both her and Elian's lives will soon be forfeit.
REVIEW: The premise looked intriguing, a world in which AI was not actively destroying the world (which it currently is; even disregarding all other problematic aspects, the environmental costs alone... but I digress) but attempting to save us and our planet from ourselves, using the old practice of royal hostages in an attempt to enforce peace. And The Scorpion Rules did indeed start out interesting, an outwardly-peaceful utopia that was only achieved through invasive surveillance and social engineering to the point of being closer to a dystopia. Somewhere along the way, though, that promise petered out, washed away by a whiny and helpless main character, a dragging plot, and a tendency to wallow in pain and torment long beyond effectiveness.
From her first scenes, Greta prides herself on her ability to remain calm and self-controlled in the face of her essentially dystopian surroundings, where Swan Riders can swoop in at a moment's notice and pluck a classmate from the room for immediate termination. A student of Marcus Aurelius and stoicism, she embraces her role as a princess and a Child of Peace, believing that her compliance truly is essential to ensure her nation's safety and that being a good cog helps the whole machine of Talis's plan protect the world. (There's a running attempt at humor with a "holy text" of Utterances by the AI overlord, which are mostly geeky lines that sound too much like modern immature self-important techbros for me to really find them amusing, given the real-world damage being wrought by certain techbros.) She only has a little over a year left before she ages out of her role, and it seems reasonable that she'll survive until then, until Elian arrives - the first Child of Peace she has ever seen to be brought into the precepture in chains, and the first to openly defy their robotic masters, even when it earns him pain and eventual torture. She knows, of course, that the otherwise kindly Abbot and the other AI "teachers" use torment to punish rule infractions, but it never hit so close to home as when she watches their efforts to grind down the outspoken boy. He even goes so far as to attempt escape across the Saskatchewan prairies, despite knowing how such an effort could backfire on his nation and his loved ones. At some point, his stubbornness crosses a line from caged animal defiance into outright stupidity... just as Greta's stoic embracing of her role and refusal to see what's right in front of her eyes made me question her ostensible intelligence. Somehow, though, she's considered the leader of her classmates, even though her roommate Da-Xia, heiress to a Himalayan throne where rulers are considered divine, displays much stronger leadership skills, regal bearing, and defiance at multiple points, and isn't as willfully blind to obvious things. Tensions ratchet up as war encroaches on Greta's and Elian's nations, punctuated by a bold move by Cumberland that demonstrates how humans have a way of eventually circumventing even rules intended for self-preservation. At some point round about the halfway point or just past, though, the plot starts to lose steam as a near-divine intervention arrives, at which point things drag and start devolving to indulge in what approaches torture porn, emotional and physical, in ways that don't advance the story at all. Greta does more unintelligent things, Elian does some boneheaded stuff too, a weird plot obsession with horny ungulates unfolds, some late-game spiritualism seeps in through the cracks, and eventually the story ends in a weird grayish area that's not quite a satisfactory resting point or conclusion but isn't a cliffhanger either.
There are a few points in its favor; this isn't a book where the dystopia is magically fixed by the ending, for one thing, and even if it's hard to see real world leaders hesitating to declare a war even if it means the death of a family member (especially given how often wars are pushed by people just to the side of the official power structure, the ones who make the money off the spoils), it's an interesting idea. There's also some ambiguity involved, as Talis may be using an oversized sledgehammer but did not start off with bad intentions, and still believes that saving the world - which it did inarguably do, at least initially - is worth "small" sacrifices like a few well-born children and the odd major city. The story just became muddled in the telling, not at all helped by a main character who spent too much time whining and ignoring things and not enough doing main character things like solving problems or taking action or just plain not being a passive tool of an oppressive system.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) - My Review
Run Program (Scott Meyer) - My Review
Steelheart (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Ember and the Ice Dragons (Heather Fawcett)
Ember and the Ice Dragons
Heather Fawcett
Storytide
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In a Victorian London that never was, the Stormancer Lionel St. George - a powerful, if not always perfect, Magician at Chesterfield University - is raising a most unusual daughter... a girl who is not a girl at all. Twelve years ago, he was chasing a magical storm through the high Welsh mountains when he found the bodies of two fire dragons, possibly the last of their kind in the wild, which had been slaughtered for their powerful fireglass scales. With them was a newborn baby dragon still clinging to life, and Lionel, unable to leave the thing to die or, worse, slaughter it, used his imperfect magics to wrap a concealment around the foundling, making her appear as a baby human girl (except for the wings; he had to use invisibility to hide those). But now that she's growing up, Ember's innate fire magic is leaking out of her disguise with spontaneous, uncontrolled eruptions of flame. Even in an university full of Magicians, fire has a way of being noticed. Until Lionel can work out how to fix the problem, he has little choice but to send her away - all the way to Antarctica, where his estranged Scientist sister Myra studies the wildlife of the icy land. Ember doesn't want to go, but she knows she has no choice if she wants to avoid being found out.
Whatever she expected to find in Antarctica, she didn't expect to find dragons.
Aunt Myra, it turns out, isn't just studying penguins; she and her fellow scientists are working to save the last surviving wild dragons in the world, magnificent pale creatures known as ice dragons, from the annual Winterglass Hunt. Every year, nobles and bounty hunters take down as many beasts as they can for their invaluable winterglass scales, and every year the population is plummeting, until soon they might go the way of the fire dragons. Ember may not have been able to save her parents, but she's not about to let a pack of ignorant brutes destroy what may be her last living kin - even if it risks exposing her secret to the world.
REVIEW: The fact that this title lingered so long in my "Currently Reading" list should not at all be construed as a reflection on the story itself; it was more about everything else in my life (and the world in general) going wrong. Ember and the Ice Dragons itself is an enjoyable middle-grade fantasy adventure, with dragons and magic (and a little science) and a heroine who could probably carry another book or two if she got the chance.
Having been in human form since her earliest days, Ember has no recollection of what it means to be a real, dragon-shaped dragon, for all that she still is not entirely human: she cannot tell a lie, for one thing, plus there are some times when human psychology just confuses her. Still, she loves her "father" Lionel dearly, and he loves her, which makes it that much harder when she has to go away for both of their safety; the spells he worked to conceal her are in a blurry legal area at the very least, and his position as a university professor is already precarious enough with his other occasional mishaps, not to mention being on the wrong side of university politics more often than not. In Antarctica, she's on her own for the first time - Aunt Myra, though aware of who and what Ember is, is not a motherly type, and isn't quite sure how to deal with the sudden imposition - and also among "peers", or at least human children of her own age. She struggles to relate, finding herself on the wrong end of a pair of bullies (and the wrong end of the first teacher who isn't Lionel she's ever had to deal with; the idea that she's expected to study the same things in the same way as everyone else, to do homework, is irritating and confusing), complicated by her continued worries about more spontaneous combustions. The discovery that there are ice dragons on the continent brings an unexpected thrill of joy; they may not be fire dragons, but they are still dragons. Almost immediately, though, that hope turns to fear and rage when she meets the arrogant young Prince Gideon and his father, both of whom are active proponents of dragon hunting and bristle at how Queen Victoria has limited the dragon hunts and may even eventually side with the Scientists and end the practice altogether. Gideon's reasons for becoming a dragon hunter are a little more complicated than Ember first realizes, though; the friction between power and politics and conservation is not always as clean and easy as Ember first thinks. There are also secrets in the Antarctic wilderness that neither the Scientists nor the hunters don't fully understand, secrets that could endanger everyone. When Ember sets out to sabotage the hunt - with some help from two human friends - she runs straight into those secrets, and almost pays with her life. Still, for all that she stumbles at times, she does learn along the way.
While the plot moves fairly well, there are a few thin patches. The alternate history Fawcett builds feels scattershot and thin if you look too hard, and a few characters felt like they were left halfway through their own stories by the end, with certain elements weirdly forgotten or petering out after much foreshadowing and development. (I suspect that there was a planned sequel at the very least, if not a full series.) Other than that, it's a decent story that has both humor and wonder, not without a few perilous and darker moments, and I enjoyed the main character and, of course, the dragons.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart (Stephanie Burgiss) - My Review
Dragon's Keep (Janet Lee Carey) - My Review
A Darkening of Dragons (S. A. Patrick) - My Review
Heather Fawcett
Storytide
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In a Victorian London that never was, the Stormancer Lionel St. George - a powerful, if not always perfect, Magician at Chesterfield University - is raising a most unusual daughter... a girl who is not a girl at all. Twelve years ago, he was chasing a magical storm through the high Welsh mountains when he found the bodies of two fire dragons, possibly the last of their kind in the wild, which had been slaughtered for their powerful fireglass scales. With them was a newborn baby dragon still clinging to life, and Lionel, unable to leave the thing to die or, worse, slaughter it, used his imperfect magics to wrap a concealment around the foundling, making her appear as a baby human girl (except for the wings; he had to use invisibility to hide those). But now that she's growing up, Ember's innate fire magic is leaking out of her disguise with spontaneous, uncontrolled eruptions of flame. Even in an university full of Magicians, fire has a way of being noticed. Until Lionel can work out how to fix the problem, he has little choice but to send her away - all the way to Antarctica, where his estranged Scientist sister Myra studies the wildlife of the icy land. Ember doesn't want to go, but she knows she has no choice if she wants to avoid being found out.
Whatever she expected to find in Antarctica, she didn't expect to find dragons.
Aunt Myra, it turns out, isn't just studying penguins; she and her fellow scientists are working to save the last surviving wild dragons in the world, magnificent pale creatures known as ice dragons, from the annual Winterglass Hunt. Every year, nobles and bounty hunters take down as many beasts as they can for their invaluable winterglass scales, and every year the population is plummeting, until soon they might go the way of the fire dragons. Ember may not have been able to save her parents, but she's not about to let a pack of ignorant brutes destroy what may be her last living kin - even if it risks exposing her secret to the world.
REVIEW: The fact that this title lingered so long in my "Currently Reading" list should not at all be construed as a reflection on the story itself; it was more about everything else in my life (and the world in general) going wrong. Ember and the Ice Dragons itself is an enjoyable middle-grade fantasy adventure, with dragons and magic (and a little science) and a heroine who could probably carry another book or two if she got the chance.
Having been in human form since her earliest days, Ember has no recollection of what it means to be a real, dragon-shaped dragon, for all that she still is not entirely human: she cannot tell a lie, for one thing, plus there are some times when human psychology just confuses her. Still, she loves her "father" Lionel dearly, and he loves her, which makes it that much harder when she has to go away for both of their safety; the spells he worked to conceal her are in a blurry legal area at the very least, and his position as a university professor is already precarious enough with his other occasional mishaps, not to mention being on the wrong side of university politics more often than not. In Antarctica, she's on her own for the first time - Aunt Myra, though aware of who and what Ember is, is not a motherly type, and isn't quite sure how to deal with the sudden imposition - and also among "peers", or at least human children of her own age. She struggles to relate, finding herself on the wrong end of a pair of bullies (and the wrong end of the first teacher who isn't Lionel she's ever had to deal with; the idea that she's expected to study the same things in the same way as everyone else, to do homework, is irritating and confusing), complicated by her continued worries about more spontaneous combustions. The discovery that there are ice dragons on the continent brings an unexpected thrill of joy; they may not be fire dragons, but they are still dragons. Almost immediately, though, that hope turns to fear and rage when she meets the arrogant young Prince Gideon and his father, both of whom are active proponents of dragon hunting and bristle at how Queen Victoria has limited the dragon hunts and may even eventually side with the Scientists and end the practice altogether. Gideon's reasons for becoming a dragon hunter are a little more complicated than Ember first realizes, though; the friction between power and politics and conservation is not always as clean and easy as Ember first thinks. There are also secrets in the Antarctic wilderness that neither the Scientists nor the hunters don't fully understand, secrets that could endanger everyone. When Ember sets out to sabotage the hunt - with some help from two human friends - she runs straight into those secrets, and almost pays with her life. Still, for all that she stumbles at times, she does learn along the way.
While the plot moves fairly well, there are a few thin patches. The alternate history Fawcett builds feels scattershot and thin if you look too hard, and a few characters felt like they were left halfway through their own stories by the end, with certain elements weirdly forgotten or petering out after much foreshadowing and development. (I suspect that there was a planned sequel at the very least, if not a full series.) Other than that, it's a decent story that has both humor and wonder, not without a few perilous and darker moments, and I enjoyed the main character and, of course, the dragons.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart (Stephanie Burgiss) - My Review
Dragon's Keep (Janet Lee Carey) - My Review
A Darkening of Dragons (S. A. Patrick) - My Review
Friday, February 21, 2025
The Tusks of Extinction (Ray Nayler)
The Tusks of Extinction
Ray Nayler
MacMillan
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Damira Khismatullina dedicated her life to studying and saving elephants - only to be murdered for her efforts. One hundred years after her death, a recorded version of her consciousness is resurrected by a team of desperate Russian scientists. Though wild elephants have been extinct for decades, cloning efforts have resurrected woolly mammoths, part of a greater effort to restore lost megafauna-shaped habitats and mitigate climate change... but just recreating genetics does not restore the habits, the experience, the many parts of an animal's "culture" that died out. The new creatures may look like mammoths, but don't know how to behave like mammoths, and Damira is the only mind recorded in the Russian archives who might stand a chance of teaching them - if her thoughts were uploaded into the brain of a mammoth matriarch.
Using her experience with elephants and her extensive studies, Damira shows her new herd how to survive and thrive in the Siberian tundra... but when poachers inevitably arrive, and the Russian government begins selling exclusive permits to hunt in the preserve as a way to recoup their massive investment in the project, will she be able to save her new family from going the way of their ancestors?
REVIEW: The relatively recent megafaunal extinction in the wake of the last Ice Age had lasting effects on habitats around the world, effects we are still learning about. Rewilding the Arctic with lost beasts is one proposed method of mitigating climate change, and has apparently already seen some promising efforts in regions where it has been attempted with extant animals like bison - but, of course, until one can resurrect some of the true giants of the lost mammoth steppes, one really can't begin to get the full impact or full benefits. Woolly mammoths in particular are one of the great "near misses" of history; isolated populations were still around when the Egyptian pyramids were being built. This book examines the problems of species revival, not just for the species itself but for the main drivers of the current "sixth extinction" sweeping the globe: humans.
Despite coming from urban Russia, Damira has had a fascination with elephants since childhood, devoting herself to elephant conservation and ultimately giving up her life trying to stop the unstoppable tide of human greed, short-sightedness, and raw thirst for destruction (all enabled by humanity's seemingly infinite capacity for apathy about things they cannot directly experience, the ability to rationalize away the ultimately untenable costs of modern society). Given a second chance at life, she embraces her role as matriarch of the first mammoth herd to walk the earth in thousands of years. Much as she learned about elephants from her life and studies, being a mammoth is an entirely new and fascinating experience, her new brain allowing her to relive and re-examine memories in a way her human brain could never imagine. Many years into her new role, when she finds the telltale traces of a poacher kill, she is not about to stand by idly, using her new mammoth brain and old human mind to tackle the problem in a most decisive way. Meanwhile, Svyatoslav, the son of a bounty hunter, joins his father on the first-ever attempt at poaching mammoth ivory, showing just how people get pulled into that world, the desperation and greed and self-delusion that turns them into disposable tools of the greedy, grasping elite. Much as he hates it, he cannot see a way out, until an unexpected opportunity arises. A third storyline follows the married couple Vladimir and Anthony, the first to buy a license to hunt a woolly mammoth. Vladimir, son of expatriate Russians, struggles to feel a connection to the country he only heard about from his embittered family, even as he struggles to reconcile the wealthy man he loved for many years with the dark side that emerges on the hunt. The three storylines inevitably intersect, and that intersection inevitably involves violence and tragedy, while confronting thorny issues of whether or not humans will ever be able to coexist with other species on this world, whether greed is an inevitable and unstoppable force that will ultimately be the doom of everything.
The story came close to losing a mark for repetition and meandering, as well as a few parts that felt forced for convenience (such as a prolonged and remarkably plot-relevant conversation "overheard" via drone by one character, an "as-you-know-Bob" explanation of things that almost had me rolling my eyes at how unnatural it felt to have two people randomly discussing the exact things the listener needed to know about to enable the next part of their tale at the exact right time). It also could not help but be depressing on some level, when the extinction of elephants (and too many other species) looks all too inevitable because there's just plain too much money and power behind the forces enabling butchery and destruction and not enough considering the long-term survival consequences. Beyond that, this is a powerful and unique story that lingers in the memory.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Ghosts of Evolution (Connie Barlow) - My Review
The Only Harmless Great Thing (Brooke Bolander) - My Review
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Dennis E. Taylor) - My Review
Ray Nayler
MacMillan
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Damira Khismatullina dedicated her life to studying and saving elephants - only to be murdered for her efforts. One hundred years after her death, a recorded version of her consciousness is resurrected by a team of desperate Russian scientists. Though wild elephants have been extinct for decades, cloning efforts have resurrected woolly mammoths, part of a greater effort to restore lost megafauna-shaped habitats and mitigate climate change... but just recreating genetics does not restore the habits, the experience, the many parts of an animal's "culture" that died out. The new creatures may look like mammoths, but don't know how to behave like mammoths, and Damira is the only mind recorded in the Russian archives who might stand a chance of teaching them - if her thoughts were uploaded into the brain of a mammoth matriarch.
Using her experience with elephants and her extensive studies, Damira shows her new herd how to survive and thrive in the Siberian tundra... but when poachers inevitably arrive, and the Russian government begins selling exclusive permits to hunt in the preserve as a way to recoup their massive investment in the project, will she be able to save her new family from going the way of their ancestors?
REVIEW: The relatively recent megafaunal extinction in the wake of the last Ice Age had lasting effects on habitats around the world, effects we are still learning about. Rewilding the Arctic with lost beasts is one proposed method of mitigating climate change, and has apparently already seen some promising efforts in regions where it has been attempted with extant animals like bison - but, of course, until one can resurrect some of the true giants of the lost mammoth steppes, one really can't begin to get the full impact or full benefits. Woolly mammoths in particular are one of the great "near misses" of history; isolated populations were still around when the Egyptian pyramids were being built. This book examines the problems of species revival, not just for the species itself but for the main drivers of the current "sixth extinction" sweeping the globe: humans.
Despite coming from urban Russia, Damira has had a fascination with elephants since childhood, devoting herself to elephant conservation and ultimately giving up her life trying to stop the unstoppable tide of human greed, short-sightedness, and raw thirst for destruction (all enabled by humanity's seemingly infinite capacity for apathy about things they cannot directly experience, the ability to rationalize away the ultimately untenable costs of modern society). Given a second chance at life, she embraces her role as matriarch of the first mammoth herd to walk the earth in thousands of years. Much as she learned about elephants from her life and studies, being a mammoth is an entirely new and fascinating experience, her new brain allowing her to relive and re-examine memories in a way her human brain could never imagine. Many years into her new role, when she finds the telltale traces of a poacher kill, she is not about to stand by idly, using her new mammoth brain and old human mind to tackle the problem in a most decisive way. Meanwhile, Svyatoslav, the son of a bounty hunter, joins his father on the first-ever attempt at poaching mammoth ivory, showing just how people get pulled into that world, the desperation and greed and self-delusion that turns them into disposable tools of the greedy, grasping elite. Much as he hates it, he cannot see a way out, until an unexpected opportunity arises. A third storyline follows the married couple Vladimir and Anthony, the first to buy a license to hunt a woolly mammoth. Vladimir, son of expatriate Russians, struggles to feel a connection to the country he only heard about from his embittered family, even as he struggles to reconcile the wealthy man he loved for many years with the dark side that emerges on the hunt. The three storylines inevitably intersect, and that intersection inevitably involves violence and tragedy, while confronting thorny issues of whether or not humans will ever be able to coexist with other species on this world, whether greed is an inevitable and unstoppable force that will ultimately be the doom of everything.
The story came close to losing a mark for repetition and meandering, as well as a few parts that felt forced for convenience (such as a prolonged and remarkably plot-relevant conversation "overheard" via drone by one character, an "as-you-know-Bob" explanation of things that almost had me rolling my eyes at how unnatural it felt to have two people randomly discussing the exact things the listener needed to know about to enable the next part of their tale at the exact right time). It also could not help but be depressing on some level, when the extinction of elephants (and too many other species) looks all too inevitable because there's just plain too much money and power behind the forces enabling butchery and destruction and not enough considering the long-term survival consequences. Beyond that, this is a powerful and unique story that lingers in the memory.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Ghosts of Evolution (Connie Barlow) - My Review
The Only Harmless Great Thing (Brooke Bolander) - My Review
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Dennis E. Taylor) - My Review
The Element of Fire (Martha Wells)
The Element of Fire
The Ile-Rien series, Book 1
Martha Wells
Tantor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It has been many years since the peace of the kingdom of Ile-Rien was tested, but when Urbaine Grandier - a dark mage convicted of heresy by the realm's fanatical neighboring nation Bisran, said to have been driven insane by their inquisitors - abducts a sorcerer from the college of magical sciences, the first spark flies of what might explode into a cataclysm. Worse, the exiled princess Kade, half-fae sister of King Roland, has turned up again at the royal castle for her own inscrutable reasons. With the crown already resting precariously enough on Roland's brow, the weak-willed young man having fallen under the influence of a conniving cousin, and tensions between him and the aging Dowager Queen Ravenna high, it falls to Captain Thomas Boniface of the Queen's Guard to track down Grandier, deal with Kade, and prevent the collapse of the monarchy... little suspecting the greater threat hanging over everyone, a treachery that makes mere war with Bisran seem insignificant.
REVIEW: I had another epic fantasy itch, and this audiobook was available via Libby, so it seemed worth a try. The Element of Fire offers magic, treachery, wonder, darkness, and a touch of swashbuckling action... in short, about everything I wanted in an epic fantasy, even if it lacked some of the depth and grander scale I've come to associate with the best of the subgenre.
Starting with Thomas's dangerous mission to retrieve the abducted sorcerer Durell from Grandier's clutches, it immerses the reader in a world thick with magic and intrigue. The names and politics can be a bit heavy, particularly early on, but it mostly sorts itself out as the tale unfolds. Thomas's position at the court is precarious; as captain of Ravenna's guard (and one-time lover; especially among nobility, Ile-Rien has a somewhat casual attitude toward extramarital affairs and sex in general), there's friction with King Roland's retinue and the followers of Danzil, the cousin who got his hooks into the immature regent long ago and holds him almost completely in thrall. He's reaching an age where such courtly politicking is more exhausting than thrilling, the meager and transitory rewards hardly worth the costs, but he still feels loyal enough to Ravenna and the overall stability of Ile-Rien to remain; without Ravenna's manipulations and people like Thomas, the nation would be in utter shambles. Thomas isn't always the most intelligent of investigators, with a blunder or two obvious enough even I was gritting my teeth at them, but he manages to come through when it counts. Kade, meanwhile, has returned in a belated attempt to confront the past: she and her half-brother were terrorized by an abusive father. Despite herself, she ends up pulled into Thomas's efforts to root out Grandier and stop the dark plot the foreign mage has set in motion... a plot that involves the Unseelie court of dark fae, making the matter personal to Kade; her fae mother was of the Seelie court, recently a victim of Unseelie treachery, and for all that Kade and her mother were not particularly close, she cannot let them get away with that. Thomas and Kade make a more or less decent duo, confronting escalating threats as events quickly spiral out of control, and the story generally clips along at a decent pace. There were a few elements that felt subtly unsatisfactory by the end - this was one of Wells's earliest published works, which may explain some unevenness, how certain elements felt awkwardly spliced in, and some worldbuilding "rules" felt vague - but I found it an entertaining enough tale to overlook the odd bump.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Traitor's Blade (Sebastien de Castell) - My Review
Blue Moon Rising (Simon R. Green) - My Review
The Cloud Roads (Martha Wells) - My Review
The Ile-Rien series, Book 1
Martha Wells
Tantor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It has been many years since the peace of the kingdom of Ile-Rien was tested, but when Urbaine Grandier - a dark mage convicted of heresy by the realm's fanatical neighboring nation Bisran, said to have been driven insane by their inquisitors - abducts a sorcerer from the college of magical sciences, the first spark flies of what might explode into a cataclysm. Worse, the exiled princess Kade, half-fae sister of King Roland, has turned up again at the royal castle for her own inscrutable reasons. With the crown already resting precariously enough on Roland's brow, the weak-willed young man having fallen under the influence of a conniving cousin, and tensions between him and the aging Dowager Queen Ravenna high, it falls to Captain Thomas Boniface of the Queen's Guard to track down Grandier, deal with Kade, and prevent the collapse of the monarchy... little suspecting the greater threat hanging over everyone, a treachery that makes mere war with Bisran seem insignificant.
REVIEW: I had another epic fantasy itch, and this audiobook was available via Libby, so it seemed worth a try. The Element of Fire offers magic, treachery, wonder, darkness, and a touch of swashbuckling action... in short, about everything I wanted in an epic fantasy, even if it lacked some of the depth and grander scale I've come to associate with the best of the subgenre.
Starting with Thomas's dangerous mission to retrieve the abducted sorcerer Durell from Grandier's clutches, it immerses the reader in a world thick with magic and intrigue. The names and politics can be a bit heavy, particularly early on, but it mostly sorts itself out as the tale unfolds. Thomas's position at the court is precarious; as captain of Ravenna's guard (and one-time lover; especially among nobility, Ile-Rien has a somewhat casual attitude toward extramarital affairs and sex in general), there's friction with King Roland's retinue and the followers of Danzil, the cousin who got his hooks into the immature regent long ago and holds him almost completely in thrall. He's reaching an age where such courtly politicking is more exhausting than thrilling, the meager and transitory rewards hardly worth the costs, but he still feels loyal enough to Ravenna and the overall stability of Ile-Rien to remain; without Ravenna's manipulations and people like Thomas, the nation would be in utter shambles. Thomas isn't always the most intelligent of investigators, with a blunder or two obvious enough even I was gritting my teeth at them, but he manages to come through when it counts. Kade, meanwhile, has returned in a belated attempt to confront the past: she and her half-brother were terrorized by an abusive father. Despite herself, she ends up pulled into Thomas's efforts to root out Grandier and stop the dark plot the foreign mage has set in motion... a plot that involves the Unseelie court of dark fae, making the matter personal to Kade; her fae mother was of the Seelie court, recently a victim of Unseelie treachery, and for all that Kade and her mother were not particularly close, she cannot let them get away with that. Thomas and Kade make a more or less decent duo, confronting escalating threats as events quickly spiral out of control, and the story generally clips along at a decent pace. There were a few elements that felt subtly unsatisfactory by the end - this was one of Wells's earliest published works, which may explain some unevenness, how certain elements felt awkwardly spliced in, and some worldbuilding "rules" felt vague - but I found it an entertaining enough tale to overlook the odd bump.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Traitor's Blade (Sebastien de Castell) - My Review
Blue Moon Rising (Simon R. Green) - My Review
The Cloud Roads (Martha Wells) - My Review
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
All Blood Runs Red (Phil Keith with Tom Clavin)
All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard - Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy
Phil Keith with Tom Clavin
Hanover Square Press
Nonfiction, Biography
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Born in the late 19th century to a former slave father and Native American mother, Eugene Bullard's parents considered him the "lucky" child as the seventh of their family... but being a half-Black boy in Jim Crow Georgia was about as far from lucky as one could get. From an early age, Eugene was determined to escape the rampant, violent racism that he saw all around him, determined to reach the shores of France, where his father told him true equality was possible. Despite only having a second-grade education, the boy ran off as soon as he could manage - little imagining what he'd accomplish in the coming decades, from becoming one of the first Black fighter pilots in the Great War to rubbing shoulders with celebrities in his own jazz bar to spying on Nazis and more.
REVIEW: Eugene Bullard's life reads like an adventure novel, a tale of a boy coming from almost nothing to achieve more than his dreams, for all that many tried to deny him recognition and rewards. It is sadly telling that little of what he accomplished could have happened in the country of his birth, America, where racial animosities and prejudices remain sadly entrenched to this very day, well over a hundred years after his childhood. (In 2025, we're seeing just how shallow Jim Crow's grave really is, unfortunately... But I digress.)
Switching between distant overviews and closer, detailed moments of Bullard's incredible life, the authors paint a portrait of a man who was far from flawless, but principled and determined and unwilling to let the world grind him down. That portrait has some vague spots and blurred edges; between war damage and poor records, there are parts of his story that are just plain impossible to bring into focus, as his own story - recorded in a never-published autobiography - sometimes contradicts what can be determined as actual events. Other parts, though, have been corroborated, such as his impressive war record and long and varied careers, and these are more than enough to make his relative obscurity in modern America a disgrace (and further proof that, even nearly a century later, this country still has trouble grappling with accomplished non-white people and the virulent systemic racism that too often forms a backdrop to their deeds; even now, stories like this are being banned and erased by a regime that makes no secret of catering to white supremacy and alternate-facts history). Not that France was entirely free of problems, either, but it was only in France that a man like Eugene Bullard could flourish as he did for as long as he did, when he did. Proven parts of his story involve acquaintances and friendships with a galaxy of stars of his day, from war heroes to boxing legends to artists and authors to the many prominent entertainers who, like Bullard, found a warmer welcome in France than in America because of who they were. His well-earned loyalty to his adopted country landed him on the front lines in not one war, but two, with the medals and scars to show for it, as well as lifelong friendships that wound up being pivotal in his later years. The telling can be a bit dry and uneven at times, prone to tangents on other remarkable figures of the day, and there are some frustrating gaps that are simply impossible to fill in, people and events lost to time, though it managed to keep my interest even in the slower bits.
Stories like this can be, by turns, inspiring, depressing, and haunting. Inspiring, as they depict a life lived fully in the face of great adversity. Depressing, as such lives inevitably cast one's one rather pitiful existence into that much harsher a glare. Haunting, as such stories as Eugene Bullard's should have been guiding lights and stepping stones to a better and brighter future for our country and world, one where old prejudices and society-warping hatreds are outgrown at last and left in history's dustbin, but instead we find ourselves in a present that looks all too much like the world in which he struggled and fought to be seen as even a human, let alone a truly remarkable man, with nothing but fading ghosts of what could have - what should have - been.
You Might Also Enjoy:
West With the Night (Beryl Markham) - My Review
Born a Crime (Trevor Noah) - My Review
The Black Count (Tom Reiss) - My Review
Phil Keith with Tom Clavin
Hanover Square Press
Nonfiction, Biography
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Born in the late 19th century to a former slave father and Native American mother, Eugene Bullard's parents considered him the "lucky" child as the seventh of their family... but being a half-Black boy in Jim Crow Georgia was about as far from lucky as one could get. From an early age, Eugene was determined to escape the rampant, violent racism that he saw all around him, determined to reach the shores of France, where his father told him true equality was possible. Despite only having a second-grade education, the boy ran off as soon as he could manage - little imagining what he'd accomplish in the coming decades, from becoming one of the first Black fighter pilots in the Great War to rubbing shoulders with celebrities in his own jazz bar to spying on Nazis and more.
REVIEW: Eugene Bullard's life reads like an adventure novel, a tale of a boy coming from almost nothing to achieve more than his dreams, for all that many tried to deny him recognition and rewards. It is sadly telling that little of what he accomplished could have happened in the country of his birth, America, where racial animosities and prejudices remain sadly entrenched to this very day, well over a hundred years after his childhood. (In 2025, we're seeing just how shallow Jim Crow's grave really is, unfortunately... But I digress.)
Switching between distant overviews and closer, detailed moments of Bullard's incredible life, the authors paint a portrait of a man who was far from flawless, but principled and determined and unwilling to let the world grind him down. That portrait has some vague spots and blurred edges; between war damage and poor records, there are parts of his story that are just plain impossible to bring into focus, as his own story - recorded in a never-published autobiography - sometimes contradicts what can be determined as actual events. Other parts, though, have been corroborated, such as his impressive war record and long and varied careers, and these are more than enough to make his relative obscurity in modern America a disgrace (and further proof that, even nearly a century later, this country still has trouble grappling with accomplished non-white people and the virulent systemic racism that too often forms a backdrop to their deeds; even now, stories like this are being banned and erased by a regime that makes no secret of catering to white supremacy and alternate-facts history). Not that France was entirely free of problems, either, but it was only in France that a man like Eugene Bullard could flourish as he did for as long as he did, when he did. Proven parts of his story involve acquaintances and friendships with a galaxy of stars of his day, from war heroes to boxing legends to artists and authors to the many prominent entertainers who, like Bullard, found a warmer welcome in France than in America because of who they were. His well-earned loyalty to his adopted country landed him on the front lines in not one war, but two, with the medals and scars to show for it, as well as lifelong friendships that wound up being pivotal in his later years. The telling can be a bit dry and uneven at times, prone to tangents on other remarkable figures of the day, and there are some frustrating gaps that are simply impossible to fill in, people and events lost to time, though it managed to keep my interest even in the slower bits.
Stories like this can be, by turns, inspiring, depressing, and haunting. Inspiring, as they depict a life lived fully in the face of great adversity. Depressing, as such lives inevitably cast one's one rather pitiful existence into that much harsher a glare. Haunting, as such stories as Eugene Bullard's should have been guiding lights and stepping stones to a better and brighter future for our country and world, one where old prejudices and society-warping hatreds are outgrown at last and left in history's dustbin, but instead we find ourselves in a present that looks all too much like the world in which he struggled and fought to be seen as even a human, let alone a truly remarkable man, with nothing but fading ghosts of what could have - what should have - been.
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