Another month appears to have elapsed, and things keep going from bad to worse everywhere... In any event, September's reviews have been archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
A City On Mars (Kelly and Zach Weinersmith)
A City On Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
Penguin
Nonfiction, Humor/Science
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: Few things epitomize the Space Age dream like visions of cities on distant worlds, a future where humanity expands through the final frontier of the solar system. The challenges appear daunting, but so did the challenge of a manned moonflight, and we ticked that box decades ago. Surely, in this age of supercomputers and AI and swarms of satellites, with tech billionaires throwing money and resources at bringing down the cost of space travel, we'll see the first permanent human presence on another world in a matter of decades, at most... right?
Maybe not quite.
While it's true we've come a long way from the days of Sputnik, there are numerous problems to be solved - from thorny legal matters of who owns space and its resources to the practical matters of survival, let alone reproduction, in environs inherently hostile to life - before anyone rolls out the welcome mat on their Martian home. In this book, these obstacles are explored, with speculations on what a space-bound future might actually entail.
REVIEW: From The Jetsons to Star Trek, from space fantasy like Star Wars to grittier takes like 2001 and The Expanse, sci-fi and popular culture are steeped in visions of orbital habitats, space stations, and otherworldly colonies, a seemingly-inevitable next step for the wandering ape that emerged from Africa to spread to essentially every habitable corner of the Earth, adapting to wildly different conditions along the way. Successes like the 1960's moonshot and the International Space Station help keep the dream alive, further fueled by boasts from billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and their races to build a better rocket, with exploitation of off-world resources and/or Martian colonies as the stated end goal. But the actual logistics of building and maintaining a human presence on another world, let alone a self-sustaining one, are immense. With humor and some interesting asides, the Weinersmiths break down the challenges confronting any would-be space colonizing civilization, a fair bit of which involves research that hasn't even been adequately done, such as how reproduction in a low-gravity environment would work and what the long-term effects of space radiation would be on an average population (our sample size, and sample specimens, of humans spending significant amount of time off-planet being statistically minuscule and based on trained specialists who had gone through rigorous pre-mission screening). Experiments to create entirely self-sustaining biomes are also not nearly robust enough to tell us what we'd need for a truly independent colony over the long term. Even finding a place to colonize is fraught with problems, from the limited prime real estate on the Moon (only a tiny fraction of locales are ideal) to the toxic "soil" of Mars to the technological challenges of that old staple of sci-fi, the spinning habitat that generates its own gravity. And that's not even getting into the psychological challenges, legal dilemmas, or potential security risks of sending people out into space who could potentially fling rocks down at our planet and re-enact the dinosaur-killer asteroid impact.
Does that mean that space colonization, even in orbital stations, is entirely impossible and will never happen? No, it does not, but the authors make some very valid points as they argue that we're going to have to do some very hard work, some very hard science, and some very deep thinking before we're ready to step offworld.
The whole makes for a fascinating, interesting, and occasionally amusing exploration of a fascinating concept. I'll still enjoy my sci-fi and space operas, of course, but I'm not so blinded by shiny fictional objects as to not understand that the reality, if it ever happens (exceptionally unlikely in my lifetime, or the lifetime of anyone reading this review), will be something far different, if equally as awe-inspiring and fascinating (again, in theory and concept, if unlikely to be fact anytime soon). I couldn't find any down sides or nitpicks, so I awarded this book top marks.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Beyond: Our Future in Space (Chris Impey) - My Review
Vacation Guide to the Solar System (Olivia Koski and Jana Grcevich) - My Review
Soonish (Kelly and Zach Weinersmith) - My Review
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
Penguin
Nonfiction, Humor/Science
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: Few things epitomize the Space Age dream like visions of cities on distant worlds, a future where humanity expands through the final frontier of the solar system. The challenges appear daunting, but so did the challenge of a manned moonflight, and we ticked that box decades ago. Surely, in this age of supercomputers and AI and swarms of satellites, with tech billionaires throwing money and resources at bringing down the cost of space travel, we'll see the first permanent human presence on another world in a matter of decades, at most... right?
Maybe not quite.
While it's true we've come a long way from the days of Sputnik, there are numerous problems to be solved - from thorny legal matters of who owns space and its resources to the practical matters of survival, let alone reproduction, in environs inherently hostile to life - before anyone rolls out the welcome mat on their Martian home. In this book, these obstacles are explored, with speculations on what a space-bound future might actually entail.
REVIEW: From The Jetsons to Star Trek, from space fantasy like Star Wars to grittier takes like 2001 and The Expanse, sci-fi and popular culture are steeped in visions of orbital habitats, space stations, and otherworldly colonies, a seemingly-inevitable next step for the wandering ape that emerged from Africa to spread to essentially every habitable corner of the Earth, adapting to wildly different conditions along the way. Successes like the 1960's moonshot and the International Space Station help keep the dream alive, further fueled by boasts from billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and their races to build a better rocket, with exploitation of off-world resources and/or Martian colonies as the stated end goal. But the actual logistics of building and maintaining a human presence on another world, let alone a self-sustaining one, are immense. With humor and some interesting asides, the Weinersmiths break down the challenges confronting any would-be space colonizing civilization, a fair bit of which involves research that hasn't even been adequately done, such as how reproduction in a low-gravity environment would work and what the long-term effects of space radiation would be on an average population (our sample size, and sample specimens, of humans spending significant amount of time off-planet being statistically minuscule and based on trained specialists who had gone through rigorous pre-mission screening). Experiments to create entirely self-sustaining biomes are also not nearly robust enough to tell us what we'd need for a truly independent colony over the long term. Even finding a place to colonize is fraught with problems, from the limited prime real estate on the Moon (only a tiny fraction of locales are ideal) to the toxic "soil" of Mars to the technological challenges of that old staple of sci-fi, the spinning habitat that generates its own gravity. And that's not even getting into the psychological challenges, legal dilemmas, or potential security risks of sending people out into space who could potentially fling rocks down at our planet and re-enact the dinosaur-killer asteroid impact.
Does that mean that space colonization, even in orbital stations, is entirely impossible and will never happen? No, it does not, but the authors make some very valid points as they argue that we're going to have to do some very hard work, some very hard science, and some very deep thinking before we're ready to step offworld.
The whole makes for a fascinating, interesting, and occasionally amusing exploration of a fascinating concept. I'll still enjoy my sci-fi and space operas, of course, but I'm not so blinded by shiny fictional objects as to not understand that the reality, if it ever happens (exceptionally unlikely in my lifetime, or the lifetime of anyone reading this review), will be something far different, if equally as awe-inspiring and fascinating (again, in theory and concept, if unlikely to be fact anytime soon). I couldn't find any down sides or nitpicks, so I awarded this book top marks.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Beyond: Our Future in Space (Chris Impey) - My Review
Vacation Guide to the Solar System (Olivia Koski and Jana Grcevich) - My Review
Soonish (Kelly and Zach Weinersmith) - My Review
Friday, September 19, 2025
The Full Moon Coffee Shop (Mai Mochizuki)
The Full Moon Coffee Shop
The The Full Moon Coffee Shop series, Book 1
Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood
Ballantine Books
Fiction, Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: A schoolteacher turned screenwriter feels past her prime when her hot career turns to dust almost overnight, even as her latest relationship fizzles out. A movie director feels romantically stuck after breaking off an affair. A hairstylist enjoys her work but can't understand why it's been so draining lately. A tech entrepreneur keeps having things go wrong around him, threatening his business and his future. All four Kyoto residents need help... and all find themselves in a strange pop-up cafe under the light of the full moon, where the waitstaff are talking cats who may or may not be embodiments of the planets that influence fates. Here, they may find the insights they need to move forward, if they're willing to listen and learn.
REVIEW: Early on, this was a fun cozy fantasy novel with a nice central gimmick, if a strange one. The many lavish visual descriptions made me wonder if it was an adaptation of a manga or anime, while the flavors of each concoction offered by the friendly cats add another layer of immersion. None of the characters are facing epic life-or-death decisions, but are stuck and frustrated in the ways many can relate to: careers going nowhere (or actively going backwards), trouble finding romance, just generally something being very wrong but unable to pin down what, let alone what to do about it. Using the power of astrology and natal charts, the cats offer insights into each character's personalities and where/why they're experiencing troubles, as well as hints about how to move forward. What started as a nice little cozy idea soon slides into something between brow-beating and a sales pitch for astrology as a vital tool to better one's life, to the point where I half expected business cards for an astrologist to be stuck in print editions of the book. This also makes some elements feel repetitive. The wrap-up tale also feels a little long, overexplaining itself and how it ties all of the characters together. While there was some nice imagery and it had a few enjoyable moments, I tired of this brew long before I finished drinking.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Star Cats: A Feline Zodiac (Lesley Ann Ivory) - My Review
Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Toshikazu Kawaguchi) - My Review
The Dragon Slayer with a Heavy Heart (Marcia Powers) - My Review
The The Full Moon Coffee Shop series, Book 1
Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood
Ballantine Books
Fiction, Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: A schoolteacher turned screenwriter feels past her prime when her hot career turns to dust almost overnight, even as her latest relationship fizzles out. A movie director feels romantically stuck after breaking off an affair. A hairstylist enjoys her work but can't understand why it's been so draining lately. A tech entrepreneur keeps having things go wrong around him, threatening his business and his future. All four Kyoto residents need help... and all find themselves in a strange pop-up cafe under the light of the full moon, where the waitstaff are talking cats who may or may not be embodiments of the planets that influence fates. Here, they may find the insights they need to move forward, if they're willing to listen and learn.
REVIEW: Early on, this was a fun cozy fantasy novel with a nice central gimmick, if a strange one. The many lavish visual descriptions made me wonder if it was an adaptation of a manga or anime, while the flavors of each concoction offered by the friendly cats add another layer of immersion. None of the characters are facing epic life-or-death decisions, but are stuck and frustrated in the ways many can relate to: careers going nowhere (or actively going backwards), trouble finding romance, just generally something being very wrong but unable to pin down what, let alone what to do about it. Using the power of astrology and natal charts, the cats offer insights into each character's personalities and where/why they're experiencing troubles, as well as hints about how to move forward. What started as a nice little cozy idea soon slides into something between brow-beating and a sales pitch for astrology as a vital tool to better one's life, to the point where I half expected business cards for an astrologist to be stuck in print editions of the book. This also makes some elements feel repetitive. The wrap-up tale also feels a little long, overexplaining itself and how it ties all of the characters together. While there was some nice imagery and it had a few enjoyable moments, I tired of this brew long before I finished drinking.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Star Cats: A Feline Zodiac (Lesley Ann Ivory) - My Review
Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Toshikazu Kawaguchi) - My Review
The Dragon Slayer with a Heavy Heart (Marcia Powers) - My Review
Extinction (Douglas Preston)
Extinction
The Cash and Colcord series, Book 1
Douglas Preston
Forge Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Thriller
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: At Erebus Resort, a private valley in Colorado, wealthy visitors can see resurrected giants from a lost age. Thanks to a team of scientists, cutting-edge technology, and the investment of a billionaire backer, mammoths, glyptodonts, and more roam freely for the first time in thousands of years. Each creation has been carefully gene-edited to lack aggression, making them as safe as any domestic animal to be around.
Until two visitors disappear while on a high-country honeymoon backpacking excursion through the park, leaving behind pools of blood large enough that nobody doubts their fate.
At the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Agent Frances Cash is eager to finally take the lead on a major case. Along with county sheriff James Colcord, she sets out to uncover what happened and if the culprit is animal or human. But it quickly becomes apparent that the Erebus staff knows more than they're letting on, that their cooperation has limits... and that the dead honeymooners are just the start of a far more dangerous spree.
REVIEW: With clear (and acknowledged) influence from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, Extinction explores the pitfalls of de-extincting lost species, particularly the slippery slope when arrogance crossbreeds with scientific breakthroughs and the brakes of ethics are cut by greed (to mix and mangle a metaphor).
Opening with the doomed honeymooners, the story then establishes its heroes, CBI Agent Cash and Sheriff Colcord. Each is initially a little skeptical of the other due to interdepartmental rivalries and the politics of the situation (in addition to some internal personnel friction, Erebus Resort is a political hot potato, a major revenue source for the state and backed by people too powerful to ignore but opposed by numerous very vocal groups, some of which have rather good points), but they share a dedication to the job and a determination to see it through, no matter whose toes get stepped on and how inconvenient the truth might ultimately be. The head of Erebus security, Maximilian, promises full cooperation and appears shocked by the murder, but it's clear early on that the company has more going on than they're revealing, and that their boss ultimately values the survival of the park and continuation of his de-extinction work over the safety of human beings. Meanwhile, the culprits grow bolder and more violent, their attacks more depraved, their ultimate plan expanding in scale, putting everyone in danger. In thriller fashion, events escalate through various action pieces and setbacks to an explosive finale that sets up the next installment (which has yet to be published).
What cost it in the ratings was a sense of needless plot and character sprawl, some people and elements never really justifying their page time by the end, their fates a little too predictable. I guessed early on what was behind the attacks, though some bits of the reveal still worked well. I also expected a little more to come of the mammoths and a few other resurrected creatures, which had brief sense-of-awe moments after a big deal was made of their presence but ultimately might as well have been just advanced animatronics or not even been there at all, which is not something I should be thinking after I was promised a park full of Ice Age creatures; it's a bit like thinking the dinosaurs might as well have not been in Jurassic Park.
Other than those nitpicks, it's a decent enough thriller with sci-fi trappings. I didn't mind the heroes, though I don't know if I need to read any more in the series.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) - My Review
The Tusks of Extinction (Ray Nayler) - My Review
Tyrannosaur Canyon (Douglas Preston) - My Review
The Cash and Colcord series, Book 1
Douglas Preston
Forge Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Thriller
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: At Erebus Resort, a private valley in Colorado, wealthy visitors can see resurrected giants from a lost age. Thanks to a team of scientists, cutting-edge technology, and the investment of a billionaire backer, mammoths, glyptodonts, and more roam freely for the first time in thousands of years. Each creation has been carefully gene-edited to lack aggression, making them as safe as any domestic animal to be around.
Until two visitors disappear while on a high-country honeymoon backpacking excursion through the park, leaving behind pools of blood large enough that nobody doubts their fate.
At the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Agent Frances Cash is eager to finally take the lead on a major case. Along with county sheriff James Colcord, she sets out to uncover what happened and if the culprit is animal or human. But it quickly becomes apparent that the Erebus staff knows more than they're letting on, that their cooperation has limits... and that the dead honeymooners are just the start of a far more dangerous spree.
REVIEW: With clear (and acknowledged) influence from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, Extinction explores the pitfalls of de-extincting lost species, particularly the slippery slope when arrogance crossbreeds with scientific breakthroughs and the brakes of ethics are cut by greed (to mix and mangle a metaphor).
Opening with the doomed honeymooners, the story then establishes its heroes, CBI Agent Cash and Sheriff Colcord. Each is initially a little skeptical of the other due to interdepartmental rivalries and the politics of the situation (in addition to some internal personnel friction, Erebus Resort is a political hot potato, a major revenue source for the state and backed by people too powerful to ignore but opposed by numerous very vocal groups, some of which have rather good points), but they share a dedication to the job and a determination to see it through, no matter whose toes get stepped on and how inconvenient the truth might ultimately be. The head of Erebus security, Maximilian, promises full cooperation and appears shocked by the murder, but it's clear early on that the company has more going on than they're revealing, and that their boss ultimately values the survival of the park and continuation of his de-extinction work over the safety of human beings. Meanwhile, the culprits grow bolder and more violent, their attacks more depraved, their ultimate plan expanding in scale, putting everyone in danger. In thriller fashion, events escalate through various action pieces and setbacks to an explosive finale that sets up the next installment (which has yet to be published).
What cost it in the ratings was a sense of needless plot and character sprawl, some people and elements never really justifying their page time by the end, their fates a little too predictable. I guessed early on what was behind the attacks, though some bits of the reveal still worked well. I also expected a little more to come of the mammoths and a few other resurrected creatures, which had brief sense-of-awe moments after a big deal was made of their presence but ultimately might as well have been just advanced animatronics or not even been there at all, which is not something I should be thinking after I was promised a park full of Ice Age creatures; it's a bit like thinking the dinosaurs might as well have not been in Jurassic Park.
Other than those nitpicks, it's a decent enough thriller with sci-fi trappings. I didn't mind the heroes, though I don't know if I need to read any more in the series.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) - My Review
The Tusks of Extinction (Ray Nayler) - My Review
Tyrannosaur Canyon (Douglas Preston) - My Review
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
The Cursed Cloak of the Wretched Wraith (Rob Renzetti)
The Cursed Cloak of the Wretched Wraith #3
The Horrible Bag series, Book 3
Rob Renzetti
Penguin Workshop
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Zenith Maelstrom never wanted to go back to the world of GrahBag after escaping the first time; he only returned to rescue his sister, and inadvertently became tangled up in a rebellion against the remnants of the Wurm's forces and the Wurm's last vestiges, the ravenous cloak known as the Wraith. Still, that was a problem for the people of GrahBag, not two outsiders from Earth, both of whom are just children. Only Apogee betrayed him, literally throwing him out of the nightmare world and sealing the gates. Worse, his parents are convinced that something terrible happened to him when he witnessed his sister's "abduction"; they discovered his journal recounting his earlier trips to GrahBag and think it's a record of nightmares triggered by the trauma. Zenith is running out of ways to stall them, and is growing more desperate to find a way back to GrahBag, especially as days on Earth are months or years there... only the portals in the bag are still sealed up tight.
Unexpectedly, one day he finds his chance when a new portal opens in an alley - a salty mouth spewing monster-filled seawater (and foul language). Zenith has nothing on him but the clothes on his back, but he knows better than to wait for a better opportunity, so he leaps through... only to find that things have gone from bad to worse. The world of GrahBag is literally coming apart at the seams, and while Apogee's rebellion is still fighting, the Wraith's minions have seized control of the Collectary tree whose chalk-slate leaves literally write (or erase) reality... and it won't be long before there isn't even a world for them to fight over.
REVIEW: The third and (presumed) final installment of the Horrible Bag series pulls the story back on track after a somewhat weaker middle book, delivering an action-packed, intense finale to a series that, for a middle-grade title, pulls off some surprisingly dark moments as Zenith and Apogee finally confront the Wraith and the consequences of their own actions.
Unlike the previous book, Zenith remembers full well what happened to his (once older, now younger) sister and the world of GrahBag, in part because he took a page from Apogee's book and carefully writes recollections down every day, with a doodle of the bag itself; if he doesn't see the bag, after a while the memories slip away to be replaced with a more mundane version of events. He hates seeing his parents devastated by his sister's disappearance, just as he blames himself for not getting her and his best friend home safely, but there's nothing he can do except make himself remember and wait for a chance to get back - only to find himself in literal hot water, emerging in GrahBag's notorious Scalding Sea. Things only get worse from there, as he learns he and his sister are in no small part responsible for why the world is falling into chaos around them; the Scribe of the Collectary has found Apogee's old physics book and is haphazardly inserting whatever scientific concepts strike his fancy into GrahBag's reality. Zenith encounters the personification of the Grandfather Paradox of time travel (who is, understandably, rather paranoid) and Shrödinger's Cat (complete with the box in which it both is and is not alive), the latter of which becomes a surprisingly helpful companion. Zenith tries once more to rescue his sister - refusing to listen when she tells him she does not need rescuing - but his efforts backfire terribly, leading to some interesting plot developments that ultimately expose the roots of the Maelstrom siblings' ties to GrahBag and the origins of the Wurm itself. Things come together for a rather satisfying conclusion that doesn't erase all the damage done or losses incurred, one which leaves just enough of a crack in the door for future installments.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Stoneheart (Charlie Fletcher) - My Review
The Circus of Stolen Dreams (Lorelei Savaryn) - My Review
Nightbooks (J. A. White) - My Review
The Horrible Bag series, Book 3
Rob Renzetti
Penguin Workshop
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Zenith Maelstrom never wanted to go back to the world of GrahBag after escaping the first time; he only returned to rescue his sister, and inadvertently became tangled up in a rebellion against the remnants of the Wurm's forces and the Wurm's last vestiges, the ravenous cloak known as the Wraith. Still, that was a problem for the people of GrahBag, not two outsiders from Earth, both of whom are just children. Only Apogee betrayed him, literally throwing him out of the nightmare world and sealing the gates. Worse, his parents are convinced that something terrible happened to him when he witnessed his sister's "abduction"; they discovered his journal recounting his earlier trips to GrahBag and think it's a record of nightmares triggered by the trauma. Zenith is running out of ways to stall them, and is growing more desperate to find a way back to GrahBag, especially as days on Earth are months or years there... only the portals in the bag are still sealed up tight.
Unexpectedly, one day he finds his chance when a new portal opens in an alley - a salty mouth spewing monster-filled seawater (and foul language). Zenith has nothing on him but the clothes on his back, but he knows better than to wait for a better opportunity, so he leaps through... only to find that things have gone from bad to worse. The world of GrahBag is literally coming apart at the seams, and while Apogee's rebellion is still fighting, the Wraith's minions have seized control of the Collectary tree whose chalk-slate leaves literally write (or erase) reality... and it won't be long before there isn't even a world for them to fight over.
REVIEW: The third and (presumed) final installment of the Horrible Bag series pulls the story back on track after a somewhat weaker middle book, delivering an action-packed, intense finale to a series that, for a middle-grade title, pulls off some surprisingly dark moments as Zenith and Apogee finally confront the Wraith and the consequences of their own actions.
Unlike the previous book, Zenith remembers full well what happened to his (once older, now younger) sister and the world of GrahBag, in part because he took a page from Apogee's book and carefully writes recollections down every day, with a doodle of the bag itself; if he doesn't see the bag, after a while the memories slip away to be replaced with a more mundane version of events. He hates seeing his parents devastated by his sister's disappearance, just as he blames himself for not getting her and his best friend home safely, but there's nothing he can do except make himself remember and wait for a chance to get back - only to find himself in literal hot water, emerging in GrahBag's notorious Scalding Sea. Things only get worse from there, as he learns he and his sister are in no small part responsible for why the world is falling into chaos around them; the Scribe of the Collectary has found Apogee's old physics book and is haphazardly inserting whatever scientific concepts strike his fancy into GrahBag's reality. Zenith encounters the personification of the Grandfather Paradox of time travel (who is, understandably, rather paranoid) and Shrödinger's Cat (complete with the box in which it both is and is not alive), the latter of which becomes a surprisingly helpful companion. Zenith tries once more to rescue his sister - refusing to listen when she tells him she does not need rescuing - but his efforts backfire terribly, leading to some interesting plot developments that ultimately expose the roots of the Maelstrom siblings' ties to GrahBag and the origins of the Wurm itself. Things come together for a rather satisfying conclusion that doesn't erase all the damage done or losses incurred, one which leaves just enough of a crack in the door for future installments.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Stoneheart (Charlie Fletcher) - My Review
The Circus of Stolen Dreams (Lorelei Savaryn) - My Review
Nightbooks (J. A. White) - My Review
The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie (Freida McFadden)
The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie: A Satirical Novella
Freida McFadden
Hollywood Upstairs Press
Fiction, Humor/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: She had the perfect marriage - until it was over. It's been weeks since Grant died in a fiery crash, and Alice still can't get his face out of her mind... because she's still seeing him everywhere, quite literally. In the grocery store, following her in traffic, walking down the street - everywhere. Either his ghost is haunting her in a bad plot twist, or something sinister is going on. To figure out what, Alice will have to unravel the secrets, the lies, and the secret lies of their life together, all without revealing her own deceptions, or ending up dead herself.
REVIEW: I've never actually read anything by McFadden before (though, ironically, I saw several of her books go through the library shipping center as I listened to this audiobook), but satires can be fun and the length filled a dead spot in my day. From the title and first words of the prologue, it's pretty clear that McFadden is presenting a satire of her own genre (and even her own works, as Alice is reading a Freida McFadden novel when her best friend comes over with yet another condolence casserole), offering up a trawler's worth of red herrings via an unreliable narrator and false starts and plot twists that may not make a lick of sense but make for catchy chapter break hooks. As Alice struggles to deal with seeing Grant everywhere and second-guessing her own memories, McFadden puts genre tropes through their paces, clearly having a blast while doing it. At one point she even slips in a reference to Spaceballs, which helped boost the short tale over some uneven pacing to a solid Good rating. The plot is a bit flimsy and the characters paper-thin, but it wasn't written to be a gripping, taut thriller. It set out to be a satire, and it made me chuckle, which is all a satire has to do. Anyone looking for more than that needs to lighten up.
You Might Also Enjoy:
My Sister, the Serial Killer (Oyinkan Braithwaite) - My Review
Meddling Kids (Edgar Cantero) - My Review
Lord of the Fly Fest (Goldy Moldavsky) - My Review
Freida McFadden
Hollywood Upstairs Press
Fiction, Humor/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: She had the perfect marriage - until it was over. It's been weeks since Grant died in a fiery crash, and Alice still can't get his face out of her mind... because she's still seeing him everywhere, quite literally. In the grocery store, following her in traffic, walking down the street - everywhere. Either his ghost is haunting her in a bad plot twist, or something sinister is going on. To figure out what, Alice will have to unravel the secrets, the lies, and the secret lies of their life together, all without revealing her own deceptions, or ending up dead herself.
REVIEW: I've never actually read anything by McFadden before (though, ironically, I saw several of her books go through the library shipping center as I listened to this audiobook), but satires can be fun and the length filled a dead spot in my day. From the title and first words of the prologue, it's pretty clear that McFadden is presenting a satire of her own genre (and even her own works, as Alice is reading a Freida McFadden novel when her best friend comes over with yet another condolence casserole), offering up a trawler's worth of red herrings via an unreliable narrator and false starts and plot twists that may not make a lick of sense but make for catchy chapter break hooks. As Alice struggles to deal with seeing Grant everywhere and second-guessing her own memories, McFadden puts genre tropes through their paces, clearly having a blast while doing it. At one point she even slips in a reference to Spaceballs, which helped boost the short tale over some uneven pacing to a solid Good rating. The plot is a bit flimsy and the characters paper-thin, but it wasn't written to be a gripping, taut thriller. It set out to be a satire, and it made me chuckle, which is all a satire has to do. Anyone looking for more than that needs to lighten up.
You Might Also Enjoy:
My Sister, the Serial Killer (Oyinkan Braithwaite) - My Review
Meddling Kids (Edgar Cantero) - My Review
Lord of the Fly Fest (Goldy Moldavsky) - My Review
Friday, September 12, 2025
The Twisted Tower of Endless Torment (Ron Renzetti)
The Twisted Tower of Endless Torment #2
The Horrible Bag series, Book 2
Rob Renzetti
Penguin Workshop
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Prepare for Battle! reads the note on Zenith Maelstrom's nightstand, but for the life of him he can't remember why he wrote it. Did it mean a game with his friend Kevin Churl? They've spent much of their summer together, except when Zenith has to watch his kid sister Apogee... but something in the back of his mind bothers him, like he's forgotten something very important. It's not until he finds Apogee in the basement trying to open an ugly old leather bag that he remembers about their terrible journey through the land of GrahBag - and how it's his fault that his sister is four years old instead of fourteen. He promised her when they left that he'd fix it, that they'd go back, but for some reason it's hard to hold onto that thought when he's in the real world and away from the horrible bag. Then Apogee forces his hand; she sneaks back through to the other world while he's asleep. With Kevin tagging along, he reluctantly goes back into the realm of monsters, only to find it's even worse than before. The Wurm lives on as a soul-sucking Wraith, and the very land seems to be dying. He and Apogee only barely escaped with their lives last time, and this time they may not be so lucky...
REVIEW: Taking up a short while after the previous volume ended, it also wastes little time getting going, though Zenith dithers a bit overlong once he realizes that he can't even trust his memories when he's out of sight of the horrible bag that's the portal to GrahBag. He also finds that he has two memories of the past, one in which Apogee is his protective kid sister and another where she's always been a little kid (the latter of which being the reality that their parents and the rest of the world accept)... which is he to believe? Which does he want? Part of him likes being the older sibling for once, while another doesn't feel at all prepared to protect a young kid as a big brother should (and as Apogee did when she was the big sister, as irritating as he sometimes found her). Worse, he realizes that, by abandoning GrahBag after their confrontation with the Wurm, he and his sister inadvertently made a bad place even worse; those who were loyal to the Wurm were outraged at the loss of their leader, while those who opposed it tried at last to revolt but lacked a leader, the instigator of the attack having fled their world after throwing it into utter chaos. What kind of person, let alone brother, is Zenith if he can't even face the consequences of his actions, however unintentional? As he reunites with old companions (and some old enemies), he finds new dangers and problems to solve; the titular Eternal Tower is a truly diabolical prison with mind-warping and devious traps. As before, there's a sense of very real danger for the kids, and Zenith has to take his lumps and learn lessons the hard way.
The story barely lost a half star for a sense of it being rushed, for Kevin's involvement feeling extraneous (he's sidelined pretty quickly and hardly mentioned afterwards), and for ending on an actual cliffhanger this time. I also get a bit irked by plot points that feel drawn out because people won't spit out what they know or what they need despite ample opportunity (regardless of target age). Still, I'm invested enough to finish off the trilogy.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Tamora Carter, Goblin Queen (Jim C. Hines) - My Review
Story Thieves (James Riley) - My Review
100 Cupboards (N. D. Wilson) - My Review
The Horrible Bag series, Book 2
Rob Renzetti
Penguin Workshop
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Prepare for Battle! reads the note on Zenith Maelstrom's nightstand, but for the life of him he can't remember why he wrote it. Did it mean a game with his friend Kevin Churl? They've spent much of their summer together, except when Zenith has to watch his kid sister Apogee... but something in the back of his mind bothers him, like he's forgotten something very important. It's not until he finds Apogee in the basement trying to open an ugly old leather bag that he remembers about their terrible journey through the land of GrahBag - and how it's his fault that his sister is four years old instead of fourteen. He promised her when they left that he'd fix it, that they'd go back, but for some reason it's hard to hold onto that thought when he's in the real world and away from the horrible bag. Then Apogee forces his hand; she sneaks back through to the other world while he's asleep. With Kevin tagging along, he reluctantly goes back into the realm of monsters, only to find it's even worse than before. The Wurm lives on as a soul-sucking Wraith, and the very land seems to be dying. He and Apogee only barely escaped with their lives last time, and this time they may not be so lucky...
REVIEW: Taking up a short while after the previous volume ended, it also wastes little time getting going, though Zenith dithers a bit overlong once he realizes that he can't even trust his memories when he's out of sight of the horrible bag that's the portal to GrahBag. He also finds that he has two memories of the past, one in which Apogee is his protective kid sister and another where she's always been a little kid (the latter of which being the reality that their parents and the rest of the world accept)... which is he to believe? Which does he want? Part of him likes being the older sibling for once, while another doesn't feel at all prepared to protect a young kid as a big brother should (and as Apogee did when she was the big sister, as irritating as he sometimes found her). Worse, he realizes that, by abandoning GrahBag after their confrontation with the Wurm, he and his sister inadvertently made a bad place even worse; those who were loyal to the Wurm were outraged at the loss of their leader, while those who opposed it tried at last to revolt but lacked a leader, the instigator of the attack having fled their world after throwing it into utter chaos. What kind of person, let alone brother, is Zenith if he can't even face the consequences of his actions, however unintentional? As he reunites with old companions (and some old enemies), he finds new dangers and problems to solve; the titular Eternal Tower is a truly diabolical prison with mind-warping and devious traps. As before, there's a sense of very real danger for the kids, and Zenith has to take his lumps and learn lessons the hard way.
The story barely lost a half star for a sense of it being rushed, for Kevin's involvement feeling extraneous (he's sidelined pretty quickly and hardly mentioned afterwards), and for ending on an actual cliffhanger this time. I also get a bit irked by plot points that feel drawn out because people won't spit out what they know or what they need despite ample opportunity (regardless of target age). Still, I'm invested enough to finish off the trilogy.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Tamora Carter, Goblin Queen (Jim C. Hines) - My Review
Story Thieves (James Riley) - My Review
100 Cupboards (N. D. Wilson) - My Review
Thursday, September 11, 2025
The Teller of Small Fortunes (Julie Leong)
The Teller of Small Fortunes
Julie Leong
Ace
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Shinn woman Tao travels far and wide across the land of Eshtera in her mule-drawn wagon, using her gifts of seeing to tell fortunes to farmers and villagers... but small fortunes only. Seeing big events carries too great a burden, and draws too big a price - something she has only tried once, and something she vows never to do again. This is part of why she travels; the royal Guild of Mages would love to get their hands on a seer, and they wouldn't care about the cost. The other part is that she never feels like she truly belongs in this land, her Shinn features marking her as a foreigner among the pale Eshterans for all that she barely remembers her native language. It is a lonely life, forever on the road and on the run, but at least she is free.
A chance encounter on the road lands her in the company of a pair of roving ex-mercenaries, one a "reformed" thief and the other desperately searching for the young daughter who disappeared while he was away on campaign. Tao doesn't want traveling companions, and if she did, she likely wouldn't have picked these two, but fate seems to have other ideas. Like it or not, Tao's solo journeys will have to wait, as she becomes more entangled in the lives of these strangers, and others encountered with them, than she ever intended... so entangled that her past, and the guild, may finally catch up to her.
REVIEW: This one was advertised as a "cozy fantasy", riding a current wave of the subgenre's popularity. It is, indeed, cozy, with fairly low stakes, a focus on characters and found family, and no real baddies or scary stuff. At some point, though, the blunted edges and rosy golden glow become a little tiresome, and fail to hide some weaknesses underneath the story.
Things start well and cozy enough, as Tao rides into a village and resolves her first crisis - missing goats - with minimal fuss, while establishing the world and how the people view "exotic" foreigners like herself, an Asian-analog race from across the sea, with whom relations have been fraught lately. Tao herself has an ambivalent relationship with her own heritage. On the one hand, she loves her memories of childhood and the father she lost too soon, while on the other she sees it as one more barrier between herself and the people around her, her features a permanent brand marking her as different and other, no matter how well she speaks the local tongue. Tao may lean into the trappings of her Shinn blood to promote her small fortune-telling business, but can't help regretting and resenting how it creates a barrier... though, of course, she tells herself she doesn't need or even want companionship anyway. It's only when given no other choice that she reluctantly accepts Mash and Silt, a solid soldier/little thief pair cut from the (over)familiar genre cloth as Leiber's classic duo Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, as fellow travelers. They, too, don't intend to become close to the fortune-teller, but nevertheless they wind up warming up to each other as friends, each finding in the group something they were missing in their lives before. Tao strives to keep herself separate even as she works to help the others, but can't hold herself aloof forever, and is surprised to realize that she has wants and needs in her life as well - and that, much as she tries to embrace the lonely traveler life, she could really use a friend.
There is, from the outset (and throughout), a soft, warm glow of "cozy" about the whole story and the characters. Some lip service is given to rough pasts and inequalities and other grounding elements, but overall the world feels vague and hazy and bubble-wrapped, to the point where one can predict that, even when things look slightly bad, nothing will ever be particularly unpleasant or even vaguely discomfiting for very long. Some elements are too predictable early on, and others feel like pointless, page-eating tangents that never really deliver. The whole eventually started feeling like someone constantly hugging and coddling the reader, force-feeding them warm tea, always reassuring them that things will be all right even when it may look momentarily like it's not... and there are a few "surprises" where, honestly, nobody in the cast should've been that stupid for that long, even in a world this fuzzy-slipper cozy. By the end, it just felt too puffy and insubstantial and forcibly "feel all good all the time" to be really satisfying to me, though that probably says more about me than the story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Bookshops and Bonedust (Travis Baldree) - My Review
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Becky Chambers) - My Review
Under the Whispering Door (TJ Klune) - My Review
Julie Leong
Ace
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Shinn woman Tao travels far and wide across the land of Eshtera in her mule-drawn wagon, using her gifts of seeing to tell fortunes to farmers and villagers... but small fortunes only. Seeing big events carries too great a burden, and draws too big a price - something she has only tried once, and something she vows never to do again. This is part of why she travels; the royal Guild of Mages would love to get their hands on a seer, and they wouldn't care about the cost. The other part is that she never feels like she truly belongs in this land, her Shinn features marking her as a foreigner among the pale Eshterans for all that she barely remembers her native language. It is a lonely life, forever on the road and on the run, but at least she is free.
A chance encounter on the road lands her in the company of a pair of roving ex-mercenaries, one a "reformed" thief and the other desperately searching for the young daughter who disappeared while he was away on campaign. Tao doesn't want traveling companions, and if she did, she likely wouldn't have picked these two, but fate seems to have other ideas. Like it or not, Tao's solo journeys will have to wait, as she becomes more entangled in the lives of these strangers, and others encountered with them, than she ever intended... so entangled that her past, and the guild, may finally catch up to her.
REVIEW: This one was advertised as a "cozy fantasy", riding a current wave of the subgenre's popularity. It is, indeed, cozy, with fairly low stakes, a focus on characters and found family, and no real baddies or scary stuff. At some point, though, the blunted edges and rosy golden glow become a little tiresome, and fail to hide some weaknesses underneath the story.
Things start well and cozy enough, as Tao rides into a village and resolves her first crisis - missing goats - with minimal fuss, while establishing the world and how the people view "exotic" foreigners like herself, an Asian-analog race from across the sea, with whom relations have been fraught lately. Tao herself has an ambivalent relationship with her own heritage. On the one hand, she loves her memories of childhood and the father she lost too soon, while on the other she sees it as one more barrier between herself and the people around her, her features a permanent brand marking her as different and other, no matter how well she speaks the local tongue. Tao may lean into the trappings of her Shinn blood to promote her small fortune-telling business, but can't help regretting and resenting how it creates a barrier... though, of course, she tells herself she doesn't need or even want companionship anyway. It's only when given no other choice that she reluctantly accepts Mash and Silt, a solid soldier/little thief pair cut from the (over)familiar genre cloth as Leiber's classic duo Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, as fellow travelers. They, too, don't intend to become close to the fortune-teller, but nevertheless they wind up warming up to each other as friends, each finding in the group something they were missing in their lives before. Tao strives to keep herself separate even as she works to help the others, but can't hold herself aloof forever, and is surprised to realize that she has wants and needs in her life as well - and that, much as she tries to embrace the lonely traveler life, she could really use a friend.
There is, from the outset (and throughout), a soft, warm glow of "cozy" about the whole story and the characters. Some lip service is given to rough pasts and inequalities and other grounding elements, but overall the world feels vague and hazy and bubble-wrapped, to the point where one can predict that, even when things look slightly bad, nothing will ever be particularly unpleasant or even vaguely discomfiting for very long. Some elements are too predictable early on, and others feel like pointless, page-eating tangents that never really deliver. The whole eventually started feeling like someone constantly hugging and coddling the reader, force-feeding them warm tea, always reassuring them that things will be all right even when it may look momentarily like it's not... and there are a few "surprises" where, honestly, nobody in the cast should've been that stupid for that long, even in a world this fuzzy-slipper cozy. By the end, it just felt too puffy and insubstantial and forcibly "feel all good all the time" to be really satisfying to me, though that probably says more about me than the story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Bookshops and Bonedust (Travis Baldree) - My Review
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Becky Chambers) - My Review
Under the Whispering Door (TJ Klune) - My Review
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things (Rob Renzetti)
The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things #1
The Horrible Bag series, Book 1
Rob Renzetti
Penguin Workshop
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The ugly old black leather bag on the doorstep moaned; Zenith is sure of it. He doesn't know where it came from or who it was for or why it was left in front of the house, but he knows that it moaned when he first saw it. When he tries to pick it up, it pricks his finger - and seems to wake up, disgorging a monstrous thing of slime and hair and too many legs around a darkly beating heart. This is the last thing a boy who's already been grounded for mischief-making needs... and when the "shlurp" grabs his older sister and babysitter, Apogee, and pulls her back into the bag, Zenith has to get her back. Thus he finds himself leaping into the land of GrahBag, a world of surreal horrors, where every monster is worse than the last and even "friends" may turn out to be foes.
REVIEW: I needed a palate cleanser after the previous disappointing audiobook, and this looked like a quick way to fill out the rest of a work shift, having a great title that promised spooky shenanigans. Happily, it delivers in full.
Kicking off from the first sentence of the first page, the boy Zenith finds himself with a monstrous bag to deal with... and, soon, a monster from within the monstrous bag. Almost as bad is Apogee, the sister he used to be close to until an incident a few years back that transformed her from his comrade-in-mischief to a preteen prison guard/third parent who would rather lecture him about responsibility than play. As creeped out as Zenith is by the bag and the "shlurp" monster, he's initially more worried about how letting a horrible bag into the house will affect his grounding sentence, even as he wishes he could still confide in his sister. Before long, the matter is taken out of her hands when Apogee is abducted. Zenith wastes little time jumping into the bag afterward... and if he found the outside creepy, with its mismatched assortment of hides and leathers, the inside is even worse... and that's before he makes the transition to GrahBag proper, a place that makes nightmares seem downright quaint. Zenith tries to outwit and outthink the place, but the land of the sickly green skies and red sun always seems to have another twisted trick up its sleeve, and even when he thinks he's getting ahead, he may be digging himself into more trouble. He picks up a companion of sorts in the form of a little gargoyle, but he can't expect others to fight his battles or solve his problems. Nor is Apogee entirely helpless or stupid. The pacing's pretty quick (as one would expect from a middle grade title) and there are a few fun moments (and a few bits of crude humor - again, as one comes to expect from middle grade), but it also has genuinely creepy encounters and moments where Zenith must confront his own mistakes and fallibility. The ending sets up the conflict for the second book nicely, doing a good enough job baiting the hook that I've already downloaded the next two titles in the trilogy.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Game of Sunken Places (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
Small Spaces (Katherine Arden) - My Review
The Shadows (Jacqueline West) - My Review
The Horrible Bag series, Book 1
Rob Renzetti
Penguin Workshop
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The ugly old black leather bag on the doorstep moaned; Zenith is sure of it. He doesn't know where it came from or who it was for or why it was left in front of the house, but he knows that it moaned when he first saw it. When he tries to pick it up, it pricks his finger - and seems to wake up, disgorging a monstrous thing of slime and hair and too many legs around a darkly beating heart. This is the last thing a boy who's already been grounded for mischief-making needs... and when the "shlurp" grabs his older sister and babysitter, Apogee, and pulls her back into the bag, Zenith has to get her back. Thus he finds himself leaping into the land of GrahBag, a world of surreal horrors, where every monster is worse than the last and even "friends" may turn out to be foes.
REVIEW: I needed a palate cleanser after the previous disappointing audiobook, and this looked like a quick way to fill out the rest of a work shift, having a great title that promised spooky shenanigans. Happily, it delivers in full.
Kicking off from the first sentence of the first page, the boy Zenith finds himself with a monstrous bag to deal with... and, soon, a monster from within the monstrous bag. Almost as bad is Apogee, the sister he used to be close to until an incident a few years back that transformed her from his comrade-in-mischief to a preteen prison guard/third parent who would rather lecture him about responsibility than play. As creeped out as Zenith is by the bag and the "shlurp" monster, he's initially more worried about how letting a horrible bag into the house will affect his grounding sentence, even as he wishes he could still confide in his sister. Before long, the matter is taken out of her hands when Apogee is abducted. Zenith wastes little time jumping into the bag afterward... and if he found the outside creepy, with its mismatched assortment of hides and leathers, the inside is even worse... and that's before he makes the transition to GrahBag proper, a place that makes nightmares seem downright quaint. Zenith tries to outwit and outthink the place, but the land of the sickly green skies and red sun always seems to have another twisted trick up its sleeve, and even when he thinks he's getting ahead, he may be digging himself into more trouble. He picks up a companion of sorts in the form of a little gargoyle, but he can't expect others to fight his battles or solve his problems. Nor is Apogee entirely helpless or stupid. The pacing's pretty quick (as one would expect from a middle grade title) and there are a few fun moments (and a few bits of crude humor - again, as one comes to expect from middle grade), but it also has genuinely creepy encounters and moments where Zenith must confront his own mistakes and fallibility. The ending sets up the conflict for the second book nicely, doing a good enough job baiting the hook that I've already downloaded the next two titles in the trilogy.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Game of Sunken Places (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
Small Spaces (Katherine Arden) - My Review
The Shadows (Jacqueline West) - My Review
Mindswap (Robert Sheckley)
Mindswap
Robert Sheckley
Dell
Fiction, Humor/Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: College student Marvin grows bored with his life in a quaint town in upstate New York, a place so backwards in the intergalactic age that the people still travel by jet plane. He wants to see the wider worlds, but the only affordable way for someone of his limited means is a mindswap: transferring his consciousness instantaneously into another body on another planet, while the inhabitant of that body enters his own. What better way to experience another planet than in a body adapted to live there? Despite the warnings of his conservative family and friends, Marvin answers an ad from a Martian who wants an Earth vacation... but his plans go awry almost from the moment he arrives on the red planet. Ze Craggash was a crook who simultaneously sold his body to multiple travelers and has absconded with Marvin's Earth body in the confusion. Ordered to vacate his new host - a death sentence if he can't find another body to swap into - he turns to a down-on-his-luck Martian detective. Thus begins a series of increasingly desperate swaps, each taking him further and further from his home across the vastness of space.
REVIEW: As one might expect from a story originally published in 1966, Mindswap shows its age, even as it plays with some fun ideas and presents some moments of timeless satire and absurdity in the vein of Gulliver's Travels.
From the start, Marvin lets his enthusiasm and desperation to do something bold and adventurous before he gets too old and settled (and too much like the people around him in his backwards town) blind him to the potential drawbacks of mindswaps. To the rest of the world and the galaxies, mindswapping is as casual a means of travel as taking a plane or riding the subway; the odds of something going on are supposed to be infinitesimally small. So, of course, everything that can go wrong eventually does. Losing his human body and place on Earth is the least of his troubles before long, as he finds himself faced with numerous ridiculous situations that have potentially dire consequences for his survival. At some point, the absurdity starts overtaking the (admittedly thin) plotline, especially when his mind starts to crack from numerous swaps and he begins seeing his increasingly alien environs as caricatured, surreal locales from Earth... displaying at the same time some rather cringeworthy class, gender, and racial stereotypes that can't really be swept under the lumpy "author of his time" rug. (The audiobook narrator did not help with this, leaning hard into overdone accents to emphasize just what culture and ethnic group Sheckley was caricaturing.) It also starts to feel like Sheckley gave up all pretense of story and even satire to show off just how utterly bizarre he could get, to the point of completely derailing the final leg of Marvin's adventure and making this reader wonder what the point of it all was, as it ended up feeling like a waste of time.
While I could appreciate Sheckley's deadpan delivery of a strange far future and stranger situations, I just plain didn't enjoy it or care by the end, by which point even the laughs had dried up.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Nonexistent Knight (Italo Calvino) - My Review
Midnight at the Well of Souls (Jack L. Chalker) - My Review
Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift) - My Review
Robert Sheckley
Dell
Fiction, Humor/Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: College student Marvin grows bored with his life in a quaint town in upstate New York, a place so backwards in the intergalactic age that the people still travel by jet plane. He wants to see the wider worlds, but the only affordable way for someone of his limited means is a mindswap: transferring his consciousness instantaneously into another body on another planet, while the inhabitant of that body enters his own. What better way to experience another planet than in a body adapted to live there? Despite the warnings of his conservative family and friends, Marvin answers an ad from a Martian who wants an Earth vacation... but his plans go awry almost from the moment he arrives on the red planet. Ze Craggash was a crook who simultaneously sold his body to multiple travelers and has absconded with Marvin's Earth body in the confusion. Ordered to vacate his new host - a death sentence if he can't find another body to swap into - he turns to a down-on-his-luck Martian detective. Thus begins a series of increasingly desperate swaps, each taking him further and further from his home across the vastness of space.
REVIEW: As one might expect from a story originally published in 1966, Mindswap shows its age, even as it plays with some fun ideas and presents some moments of timeless satire and absurdity in the vein of Gulliver's Travels.
From the start, Marvin lets his enthusiasm and desperation to do something bold and adventurous before he gets too old and settled (and too much like the people around him in his backwards town) blind him to the potential drawbacks of mindswaps. To the rest of the world and the galaxies, mindswapping is as casual a means of travel as taking a plane or riding the subway; the odds of something going on are supposed to be infinitesimally small. So, of course, everything that can go wrong eventually does. Losing his human body and place on Earth is the least of his troubles before long, as he finds himself faced with numerous ridiculous situations that have potentially dire consequences for his survival. At some point, the absurdity starts overtaking the (admittedly thin) plotline, especially when his mind starts to crack from numerous swaps and he begins seeing his increasingly alien environs as caricatured, surreal locales from Earth... displaying at the same time some rather cringeworthy class, gender, and racial stereotypes that can't really be swept under the lumpy "author of his time" rug. (The audiobook narrator did not help with this, leaning hard into overdone accents to emphasize just what culture and ethnic group Sheckley was caricaturing.) It also starts to feel like Sheckley gave up all pretense of story and even satire to show off just how utterly bizarre he could get, to the point of completely derailing the final leg of Marvin's adventure and making this reader wonder what the point of it all was, as it ended up feeling like a waste of time.
While I could appreciate Sheckley's deadpan delivery of a strange far future and stranger situations, I just plain didn't enjoy it or care by the end, by which point even the laughs had dried up.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Nonexistent Knight (Italo Calvino) - My Review
Midnight at the Well of Souls (Jack L. Chalker) - My Review
Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift) - My Review
Friday, September 5, 2025
The Wolf in the Whale (Jordanna Max Bordsky)
The Wolf in the Whale
Jordanna Max Bordsky
Redhook
Fiction, Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since the oldest times, the Inuit have lived in the land of the caribou and the white bear, telling stories of the ancestors and the spirits of the world around them. Omat, child of a fallen hunter, was born with the late man's spirit and the blessing of the great Wolf, a clear sign that she will become the next angakkuq, the shaman, of their small band, invoking the powers and guidance of the spirit world to keep the people safe. But even in their isolated settlement on the very eastern edge of the land, there are some who doubt her destiny; her soul is male, but her body female, and there are taboos about the roles of men and women that could threaten retribution from the spirit world if violated. She must prove herself always, even to her own milk-brother Kiasik, if she is to fulfill her destiny... but when she is ripped from her family and drug to the very edge of the vast open waters, Omat encounters a threat beyond anything she has imagined: a strange, pale-skinned people with gleaming blades and hair like fire, who bring their own warlike pantheon of gods to her shores. She will do anything to save her people... but the Inuit spirits and the Norse gods have already marked her as the herald of the end of days.
REVIEW: The Wolf in the Whale is inspired by the explorations of the Viking Leif Erickson and his warlike daughter, Freydis, who briefly established a settlement in what they called Vinland before abandoning the "New World" for over five centuries... a settlement whose time frame coincided with the eastward expansion of the Inuit. There is evidence that indiginous resistance was involved in Vinland's abandonment, though of course concrete details are almost impossible to ascertain over a thousand years after the events in question. From these historic threads and copious research into Norse and Inuit cultures, Bordsky deftly weaves in elements of religion and magic and very human culture clashes, turning the encounter into something worthy of a saga.
From the moment of her birth, Omat's grandfather Ataata recognizes the signs of a future shaman and heir to his position as leader and liaison with the spirits - a position that brings very real powers, but also carries great burdens, for the spirits of the Inuit can be fickle and tricky and even cruel. What Ataata doesn't realize is that Taqqiq, the Moon man, has foreseen Omat's destiny and already harbors great anger toward her from her first breaths. Meanwhile, Omat grows up raised as a boy and a man-to-be; it is only several chapter in that she and the reader realize that, though her soul is that of her father, her body is female. (She narrates her tale in the first person, concealing this as she sees herself as a boy.) This is not unheard of in their people, according to Ataata - after all, it is known that the souls of the dead return to be reborn in the living, so of course sometimes "boy" and "girl" souls end up in a different body - but it is rare enough that the others in her small, struggling settlement are uncomfortable at times with the arrangement, worried about breaking one of the strict taboos that could bring ill luck and doom upon them all when they are already much dwindled from when they first arrived in this new territory. Still, Omat is confident she can win her kin over, even successfully completing her vision quest to receive her spirit guides and shaman powers... until strangers arrive to destroy everything she has worked towards, and the spirits themselves betray her. Even that devastation pales in comparison to what she finds when she is essentially traded away to the cruel strangers, the coming of the Norsemen and the slaughter that changes everything. Even then, things might have been different if the men in the blue cloaks and great boats hadn't taken her milk-brother Kiasik captive when they sailed off, driving Omat to undertake a dangerous, even epic journey far from the lands and spirits she knows to find him again. Along the way, she encounters an outcast Norseman, Brandr, who challenges everything she thinks she knows about the strangers... and herself. Meanwhile, the spirits and gods play their own games, as usual thinking nothing of the mortals they use as game tokens and tools (even the Inuit spirits don't exactly coddle their humans, particularly the powerful entities behind the Moon and the Sun and the sea), while myths and stories form a framework for sharing knowledge.
There are times when the story threatened to slip in the ratings, some moments where I was prepared for the story to go one way and disappoint me, only for it to ultimately go another and pleasantly surprise me. That said, I'd definitely include a trigger warning for sexual assault, and one for canine fates. But Omat remains a strong, compelling hero/heroine throughout (she sees herself as both man and woman throughout, straddling the line between genders as a shaman straddles the line between the waking world and the spirit realm), far from flawless but rarely giving up for long and willing to learn from mistakes. Bordsky does a superb job bringing the world of the Inuit to life, as well as the Norse culture she so unexpectedly and violently encounters, making the people more than simple caricatures. It makes for a solid story of mythic proportions with ideas and images that linger well in the memory.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Eagle Drums (Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson) - My Review
The Leopard's Daughter (Lee Killough) - My Review
The Tiger and the Wolf (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Jordanna Max Bordsky
Redhook
Fiction, Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since the oldest times, the Inuit have lived in the land of the caribou and the white bear, telling stories of the ancestors and the spirits of the world around them. Omat, child of a fallen hunter, was born with the late man's spirit and the blessing of the great Wolf, a clear sign that she will become the next angakkuq, the shaman, of their small band, invoking the powers and guidance of the spirit world to keep the people safe. But even in their isolated settlement on the very eastern edge of the land, there are some who doubt her destiny; her soul is male, but her body female, and there are taboos about the roles of men and women that could threaten retribution from the spirit world if violated. She must prove herself always, even to her own milk-brother Kiasik, if she is to fulfill her destiny... but when she is ripped from her family and drug to the very edge of the vast open waters, Omat encounters a threat beyond anything she has imagined: a strange, pale-skinned people with gleaming blades and hair like fire, who bring their own warlike pantheon of gods to her shores. She will do anything to save her people... but the Inuit spirits and the Norse gods have already marked her as the herald of the end of days.
REVIEW: The Wolf in the Whale is inspired by the explorations of the Viking Leif Erickson and his warlike daughter, Freydis, who briefly established a settlement in what they called Vinland before abandoning the "New World" for over five centuries... a settlement whose time frame coincided with the eastward expansion of the Inuit. There is evidence that indiginous resistance was involved in Vinland's abandonment, though of course concrete details are almost impossible to ascertain over a thousand years after the events in question. From these historic threads and copious research into Norse and Inuit cultures, Bordsky deftly weaves in elements of religion and magic and very human culture clashes, turning the encounter into something worthy of a saga.
From the moment of her birth, Omat's grandfather Ataata recognizes the signs of a future shaman and heir to his position as leader and liaison with the spirits - a position that brings very real powers, but also carries great burdens, for the spirits of the Inuit can be fickle and tricky and even cruel. What Ataata doesn't realize is that Taqqiq, the Moon man, has foreseen Omat's destiny and already harbors great anger toward her from her first breaths. Meanwhile, Omat grows up raised as a boy and a man-to-be; it is only several chapter in that she and the reader realize that, though her soul is that of her father, her body is female. (She narrates her tale in the first person, concealing this as she sees herself as a boy.) This is not unheard of in their people, according to Ataata - after all, it is known that the souls of the dead return to be reborn in the living, so of course sometimes "boy" and "girl" souls end up in a different body - but it is rare enough that the others in her small, struggling settlement are uncomfortable at times with the arrangement, worried about breaking one of the strict taboos that could bring ill luck and doom upon them all when they are already much dwindled from when they first arrived in this new territory. Still, Omat is confident she can win her kin over, even successfully completing her vision quest to receive her spirit guides and shaman powers... until strangers arrive to destroy everything she has worked towards, and the spirits themselves betray her. Even that devastation pales in comparison to what she finds when she is essentially traded away to the cruel strangers, the coming of the Norsemen and the slaughter that changes everything. Even then, things might have been different if the men in the blue cloaks and great boats hadn't taken her milk-brother Kiasik captive when they sailed off, driving Omat to undertake a dangerous, even epic journey far from the lands and spirits she knows to find him again. Along the way, she encounters an outcast Norseman, Brandr, who challenges everything she thinks she knows about the strangers... and herself. Meanwhile, the spirits and gods play their own games, as usual thinking nothing of the mortals they use as game tokens and tools (even the Inuit spirits don't exactly coddle their humans, particularly the powerful entities behind the Moon and the Sun and the sea), while myths and stories form a framework for sharing knowledge.
There are times when the story threatened to slip in the ratings, some moments where I was prepared for the story to go one way and disappoint me, only for it to ultimately go another and pleasantly surprise me. That said, I'd definitely include a trigger warning for sexual assault, and one for canine fates. But Omat remains a strong, compelling hero/heroine throughout (she sees herself as both man and woman throughout, straddling the line between genders as a shaman straddles the line between the waking world and the spirit realm), far from flawless but rarely giving up for long and willing to learn from mistakes. Bordsky does a superb job bringing the world of the Inuit to life, as well as the Norse culture she so unexpectedly and violently encounters, making the people more than simple caricatures. It makes for a solid story of mythic proportions with ideas and images that linger well in the memory.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Eagle Drums (Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson) - My Review
The Leopard's Daughter (Lee Killough) - My Review
The Tiger and the Wolf (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Remnant Population (Elizabeth Moon)
Remnant Population
Elizabeth Moon
Random House
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since childhood, Ophelia has been told what to do with her life, forced to give up any dreams of creativity or education to be a housewife, mother and, for forty years, a colonist. But when the charter company, having struggled for decades with declining populations and no profits, loses their contract, the people are given just thirty days to pack up and leave... only Ophelia refuses to go. Even her own son considers her worthless (save as cook and cleaner), and the company actually wants to charge a fee for transporting a woman well past breeding (read: useful) age to another world. The septuagenarian is beyond tired of being told how worthless she is. All she wants is peace and quiet to tend her garden, and that can't happen until everyone else has left.
Alone in the abandoned village, Ophelia feels joy for the first time since she was a little girl. She can go where she wants, wear what she wants, do what she wants, whenever she wants. If she feels any loneliness, it's more than outweighed by the freedom of being the only human - the only self-aware being - on the entire planet.
Or so she thinks... until she overhears a transmission from a new colony ship that ends in disaster when a previously unknown species attacks their fledgling settlement - a species advanced enough to coordinate a battle plan and even use war machines and explosives.
But that ship landed over a thousand kilometers away. Surely, if any of the natives were nearby, someone in Ophelia's village would've spotted some sign of them long ago... wouldn't they?
REVIEW: This title is something of a classic, or at least a notable title, in sci-fi circles, featuring an older woman, widowed and a grandmother, as the unlikely point of contact with intelligent alien life. It offers a somewhat different lens on human and alien interactions, though at times it meandered and drifted and ultimately fell back on some tired ideas, enough to narrowly cost it a half-star.
From the start, it's clear that Ophelia, and the culture she's part of, is a throwback to mid-century gender attitudes: women are discouraged from becoming anything but homemakers, men regularly belittle and abuse even their own mothers, and the status quo is stringently and violently enforced when anyone dares to question it. Ophelia knows something is not right with this arrangement, that she has been deprived of something vital and essential, but has tolerated it for lack of options for most of her long life, until the cancellation of the colony charter offers an unexpected opportunity for escape - if not an unlimited one. Earth-based lifeforms need Earth-originated food sources grown or fed with Earth microbes, meaning that any plant or animal native to the colony world cannot be digested (a restriction that goes both ways). Still, there's plenty of gardens and seeds and livestock to support one old woman for however long she has left to live, and the company didn't bother removing the buildings or machinery that powered the village and the orbital weather satellite. Ophelia finds the empty place to be a paradise, freed at last to rediscover joy and whimsy. She doesn't hate her fellow humans (though she had no love for her late, abusive second husband, and her lone surviving son turned into a petty tyrant of the household in his cruel father's image), but she never felt like herself when she was around them, and revels in the chance to discover who she truly is at the twilight of her life. The story drags a little here as the old woman plots her escape and establishes new routines in the empty village. (There are also hints, now and again, that some other force is at work behind her unusually strong bond to the planet over her own kind, but it's never explicitly followed up on.)
A year or so into her isolation, she overhears, via the satellite feed, the disastrous second colony attempt and learns that the planet holds more dangerous surprises. Ophelia tries to tell herself that nothing has changed, that she'll likely pass away of old age before the native culture discovers her settlement... but even then, part of her knows she's lying to herself, that it's only a matter of time before she is found. The People are a reasonably interesting culture, not nearly so simple-minded or "primitive" as Ophelia initially believes, though once again things bog down a bit as she finds herself trying to communicate with utterly inhuman visitors. At first she sees them as almost childlike, partly because the only way she knows how to begin teaching them is the way every parent teaches their own children, through gesture and repetition, though soon she must concede that the People are far more intelligent than that, possibly even more precocious than humans with how quickly they grasp new ideas. Even as she makes progress, her peace has been broken, and it's inevitable that the greater spacefaring government and military will arrive at some point, which could be disastrous for all concerned.
Though there was plenty Remnant Population did right, in the end I found the excessive meandering and drifting had worn on my interest. I also felt that it undermined its own oft-repeated ideas of women breaking free of oppressive patriarchal (and ageist) cultures that expect them to be nothing more than submissive mothers and grandmothers when it ultimately wound up making Ophelia's maternal instincts the most vital part of her personality.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Strange Dogs (James S. A. Corey) - My Review
Amid the Crowd of Stars (Stephen Leigh) - My Review
A Fire Upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge) - My Review
Elizabeth Moon
Random House
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since childhood, Ophelia has been told what to do with her life, forced to give up any dreams of creativity or education to be a housewife, mother and, for forty years, a colonist. But when the charter company, having struggled for decades with declining populations and no profits, loses their contract, the people are given just thirty days to pack up and leave... only Ophelia refuses to go. Even her own son considers her worthless (save as cook and cleaner), and the company actually wants to charge a fee for transporting a woman well past breeding (read: useful) age to another world. The septuagenarian is beyond tired of being told how worthless she is. All she wants is peace and quiet to tend her garden, and that can't happen until everyone else has left.
Alone in the abandoned village, Ophelia feels joy for the first time since she was a little girl. She can go where she wants, wear what she wants, do what she wants, whenever she wants. If she feels any loneliness, it's more than outweighed by the freedom of being the only human - the only self-aware being - on the entire planet.
Or so she thinks... until she overhears a transmission from a new colony ship that ends in disaster when a previously unknown species attacks their fledgling settlement - a species advanced enough to coordinate a battle plan and even use war machines and explosives.
But that ship landed over a thousand kilometers away. Surely, if any of the natives were nearby, someone in Ophelia's village would've spotted some sign of them long ago... wouldn't they?
REVIEW: This title is something of a classic, or at least a notable title, in sci-fi circles, featuring an older woman, widowed and a grandmother, as the unlikely point of contact with intelligent alien life. It offers a somewhat different lens on human and alien interactions, though at times it meandered and drifted and ultimately fell back on some tired ideas, enough to narrowly cost it a half-star.
From the start, it's clear that Ophelia, and the culture she's part of, is a throwback to mid-century gender attitudes: women are discouraged from becoming anything but homemakers, men regularly belittle and abuse even their own mothers, and the status quo is stringently and violently enforced when anyone dares to question it. Ophelia knows something is not right with this arrangement, that she has been deprived of something vital and essential, but has tolerated it for lack of options for most of her long life, until the cancellation of the colony charter offers an unexpected opportunity for escape - if not an unlimited one. Earth-based lifeforms need Earth-originated food sources grown or fed with Earth microbes, meaning that any plant or animal native to the colony world cannot be digested (a restriction that goes both ways). Still, there's plenty of gardens and seeds and livestock to support one old woman for however long she has left to live, and the company didn't bother removing the buildings or machinery that powered the village and the orbital weather satellite. Ophelia finds the empty place to be a paradise, freed at last to rediscover joy and whimsy. She doesn't hate her fellow humans (though she had no love for her late, abusive second husband, and her lone surviving son turned into a petty tyrant of the household in his cruel father's image), but she never felt like herself when she was around them, and revels in the chance to discover who she truly is at the twilight of her life. The story drags a little here as the old woman plots her escape and establishes new routines in the empty village. (There are also hints, now and again, that some other force is at work behind her unusually strong bond to the planet over her own kind, but it's never explicitly followed up on.)
A year or so into her isolation, she overhears, via the satellite feed, the disastrous second colony attempt and learns that the planet holds more dangerous surprises. Ophelia tries to tell herself that nothing has changed, that she'll likely pass away of old age before the native culture discovers her settlement... but even then, part of her knows she's lying to herself, that it's only a matter of time before she is found. The People are a reasonably interesting culture, not nearly so simple-minded or "primitive" as Ophelia initially believes, though once again things bog down a bit as she finds herself trying to communicate with utterly inhuman visitors. At first she sees them as almost childlike, partly because the only way she knows how to begin teaching them is the way every parent teaches their own children, through gesture and repetition, though soon she must concede that the People are far more intelligent than that, possibly even more precocious than humans with how quickly they grasp new ideas. Even as she makes progress, her peace has been broken, and it's inevitable that the greater spacefaring government and military will arrive at some point, which could be disastrous for all concerned.
Though there was plenty Remnant Population did right, in the end I found the excessive meandering and drifting had worn on my interest. I also felt that it undermined its own oft-repeated ideas of women breaking free of oppressive patriarchal (and ageist) cultures that expect them to be nothing more than submissive mothers and grandmothers when it ultimately wound up making Ophelia's maternal instincts the most vital part of her personality.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Strange Dogs (James S. A. Corey) - My Review
Amid the Crowd of Stars (Stephen Leigh) - My Review
A Fire Upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge) - My Review
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