Leviathan Falls (James S. A. Corey)

Leviathan Falls
The Expanse series, Book 9
James S. A. Corey
Orbit
Fiction, Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: The many star systems of humanity linger in disarray after the rebellion, spearheaded by Naomi Nagata, effectively crippled the Laconian forces... but the empire is far from fallen. Even as forces trade blows, the extradimensional entities that once wiped out the original architects of the ring gates continue their incursions, testing the limits and weaknesses of the upstart primates. Now, Laconia's ruler Duarte, transformed by the protomolecule into something other than fully human, wakes from his long stupor, determined to end the threats to his eternal rule - within this universe and without - once and for all. To do it, he will need to pick up the weapons left behind by the fallen builders... and reforge humanity into a new shape to wield it. Once more, James Holden and the crew of the old gunship Rocinante will be all that stands between humanity's freedom and annihilation - assuming there will be anything left to save.

REVIEW: This has been a truly epic ride, on so many levels: not just through the books, but through the television series and (tangentially, admittedly) fandom. Even as I type this, the first episode of the (presumably) final sixth season of the TV adaptation has premiered on Amazon Prime. So I'm carrying many emotions into this book, and carrying many out, and it's impossible to fully untangle the various threads from each other at this point.
The book starts about a year after the last one left off, with Holden's jailbreak from Laconia (with Duarte's daughter Teresa and her dog Muskrat), and things are going about as well as one might expect for them. The decades the characters have lived (excepting the newcomers, of course) and the eight previous volumes of adventures written (plus numerous implied but unwritten) have all taken their toll, but inside they are still the same fighters they have always been, stronger for their experience, transformed in various ways (literally, in the case of Amos Burton). There is, however, an overall sense of ending hanging over everything: the enemy incursions - both Laconinan and extradimensional - are increasing, the resistance is being chipped away (or wholesale slaughtered), and it's all coming down to a breaking point that will literally determine the future of the species, and possibly the universe as a whole. As the scientist Okoye and the transformed children Xan and Cara explore the encoded racial memories in a planet-sized diamond for the origins of the builders (and any clues as to what killed them and is currently trying to kill everyone), Holden and crew find themselves pursued by Tanaka, a Laconian soldier tasked with recovering the missing Duarte by any means necessary... and she has determined the recovery of Duarte's daughter Teresa, the only one known to have reached him in his catatonic state, as the necessary means. Meanwhile, Duarte pursues his own agenda, so secure in his belief that he alone is in the right, is to be trusted with the salvation of humanity, that he is willing to destroy the species to do it. Sacrifices are made, assumptions turned on their heads, and tension is raised to a fever pitch by the truly epic climax, which pits our heroes against the extradimensional invaders, Duarte's Laconia, and basic human nature itself.
I had to think a while about how I felt when I closed the book. Some threads and plot points still felt loose or forgotten, though the overall storytelling runs smoother than it may have at the start (where it could clunk notably now and again). A couple resolutions, I had mixed feelings about, for all that they worked okay in the telling. There is bleakness and despair, and much is lost (or so permanently transformed as to amount to the same thing as loss), but underneath it runs a thread of hope, that humanity - despite its perpetual tendency to grasp at things it cannot understand and toys best left untouched, despite its short-sighted nature and retreats to rationalization and violence as problem-solvers - can possibly carve itself a future with brighter and wider horizons, if in spite of itself. For that hope, and for the overall way the whole series - novels and novellas and even televised adaptations - successfully cohered to become so much more than the sum of its already-solid parts, it earns a near-top rating.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Leviathan Wakes (James S. A. Corey) - My Review
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Dennis E. Taylor) - My Review
A Fire Upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge) - My Review

City of Ghosts (Victoria Schwab)

City of Ghosts
The City of Ghosts series, Book 1
Victoria Schwab
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Thriller
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: One year ago, Cass's ordinary childhood ended with a plunge off a bridge into an icy river. She was found on the bank, soaked but otherwise unharmed... but what her parents never knew, and would never believe, is that she actually died, only to be saved by the ghost boy Jacob. Ever since, she's been able to sense the presence of ghosts, parting the Veil between our world and theirs, where they live eternal loops of their final moments. And ever since then, Jacob has been her companion and best friend, so real she sometimes forgets he's a ghost and she's the only one who can see and hear him. She doesn't wonder why, doesn't wonder if perhaps there's a deeper reason for her new sensitivities, until she finds herself in Edinburgh, Scotland. If she thought New York had ghosts, the centuries-old city has her home beat hands down on the haunting front. She also finds out that she's not the only girl with her unusual spirit detection skills - just when she comes face to face with the most terrifying ghost she's ever encountered, a cunning predator of Edinburgh's children who has set her sights on Cass.

REVIEW: Another quick audiobook to pass time at work, City of Ghosts delivers what it promises: a spooky middle-grade tale of a girl doing some amateur ghost-busting in Edinburgh with her spirit companion and a new friend. Cass isn't a bad heroine, though she seems a little too prone to messing up and needing rescue. When she discovers an English girl touched by her own gift, she's thrilled at first... until she discovers what that girl does with her gift, and possibly what she's expected to do, too. Cass's parents, co-authors of a popular series on the supernatural that is being turned into a documentary series (her mother thrives on ghost stories, while her professor father loves the history, though neither truly seems to believe in the spirit world despite their daughter claiming to have a ghostly pal), are vaguely supportive but not really involved in the girl's increasingly fractious relationship with the spirits and the Veil. Things ratchet up at a decent pace, with several encounters, until things go disastrously wrong with the red-cloaked ghost and Cass must figure out how to avoid a second, more permanent death before her time and luck run out. The whole has a certain pilot-episode feel to it, establishing Cass and Jacob and the "rules" while leaving several threads dangling for the next installment of their adventures, and indeed it does kick off a series. Not a bad story, all in all, spooky and fast-paced.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
The Shadows (Jacqueline West) - My Review

Rolling in the Deep (Mira Grant)

Rolling in the Deep
Mira Grant
Subterranean Press
Fiction, Horror
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: The captain, crew, and scientists aboard the chartered cruise ship Atargatis thought they knew what they were getting into when they signed on for the Imagine Network's latest faux documentary, seeking "evidence" of mermaids in the most remote reaches of the Pacific Ocean. For the scientists, it's a way to get funds and some actual research on the side. For the ship's crew, it's a paycheck. And for the camera crew and host, it's just how they make a living. Imagine even sends along a team of real "mermaids", professionals who swim in custom tails at water parks and other aquatic events, so the cameras can be sure to catch "glimpses" of something in the water. A few blurry shots here, some vague scientific jargon there, add some interpersonal shipboard drama (mostly scripted), and that'll be the next Imagine ratings blockbuster in the can. Everyone sails home happy and well paid, regardless of what they actually "discover".
Nobody expected the probes to find something in the waters over the Mariana Trench. And nobody expected that something to follow the probes to the Atargatis... something with claws and teeth...

REVIEW: This short, chilling horror tale foretells doom from the very opening, when the Atargatis is revealed to be the star of another Imagine Network documentary on modern ghost ships, after having been found adrift and devoid of surviving crew. Even with that premonition of disaster, one can't help getting to know and even like the various characters thrust together on the ship, all of whom have their own reasons for taking part in a "mockumentary" all too reminiscent of many "reality" shows and events on popular cable channels these days. Grant's mermaids are rooted in biological plausibility, terrifyingly effective predators of the deep waters who bear only tangential (at best) connection with the common popular perception of happy, beautiful singing ladies in shell-top bikinis with technicolor fins. The collision of whitewashed fiction with cold-blooded reality - a collision in which reality inevitably wins - is at the heart of the story, and everyone who went into the Imagine contract believing they could somehow gain tangible benefit from an admitted deception pays dearly. It's also a culture clash, even if one of the cultures is so utterly alien that one is never quite sure how "human" or animalistic it is... not unlike many animal attacks, in truth, where mixed messages and inability to comprehend the other mind leads to tragedy. The action and danger ratchet up nicely, building to a horrific finale.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Stormsinger (Stephanie A. Cain) - My Review
Tangled Tides (Karen Amanda Hooper) - My Review
Lagoon (Nnedi Okorafor) - My Review

The Bear and the Serpent (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

The Bear and the Serpent
The Echoes of the Fall series, Book 2
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Pan Books
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Once, the girl Maniye was torn between the tribe of her mother - the Tiger people - and the tribe of her father - the Wolf's disciples. She was chased across the crown of the world, forming unlikely alliances with a traveling snake priest and visitors from the distant southern lands, even spending time among the taciturn Bear folk, before finding her destiny as a Champion: one who, in addition to taking the animal forms of her parents' tribes, also holds the soul of a creature from ages past, a hulking carnivore of black fur and sharp teeth. But the northern tribes merely turned her from unwanted outcast to potential pawn in their eternal squabbles, even as the priests and wise folk talk of a coming doom that will destroy those who cannot unite to face it. Maniye decided to head south with the warrior Champion Asmander while she learns her new strength (and gives the crown of the world time to come to grips with the first Champion in their midst in untold generations - a Champion who cannot be used as a simple tool to address petty grievances or advance personal ambitions). With her travels a small war band, outcasts from their clans seeking to make a name for themselves in a distant land, as well as the Hyena woman Shayari, the reborn Serpent priest (now priestess) Hesprec - and, unexpectedly, the Wolf priest Kalameshi Takes Iron. What Maniye finds among the River Lords is a world as different from her own as night from day, the realm of Old Crocodile and chaotic Dragon and tribes and gods she has no names for, all embroiled in politics she does not understand. She soon finds herself plunged into a struggle that may best even her great Champion soul.
Meanwhile, in the far north, Loud Thunder of the Bear tribe struggles to fulfill the burden placed on him by his wise mother: a war leader charged with uniting the feuding tribes and clans of the crown of the world. But when word comes that the foretold threat has arrived - their ancient enemies from across the sea, the soulless Plague People, who destroy all they touch - the north is more divided than ever. He never wanted the mantle of war leader, but now he has no choice, not if he wants to save his land and his gods from these invaders.

REVIEW: Picking up not long after the first book (The Tiger and the Wolf) ended, The Bear and the Serpent departs from the first tale by splitting the action into two theaters, the south and the north. Maniye Many Tracks must grow into her Champion role, leading an unlikely band into foreign territory and foreign politics that nonetheless carry a certain similarity to the politics and squabblings she left the north to escape. The Sun River Nation stands poised on the brink of civil war as the son and daughter of the old Kasra both claim the title of their dead father - and River Lords like Asmander's scheming father show more loyalty to their own fortunes than either potential ruler. Securing the services of the legendary Iron Wolves of the north was supposed to be a political coup for Tecuman, the son (and for Asman, Asmander's father), but Tecumah, the daughter, has made many gains while Asmander was away in the crown of the world... and the southern Champion himself, raised as friend and near-kin to both rulers, despairs as his own heart and loyalties are torn between them. Meanwhile, Hesprec returns to a priesthood he no longer recognizes, one that has inserted itself into the political wheels of the kingdom in ways that seem counter to the teachings of the Serpent... and they have made strange, potentially treasonous alliances. Up in the north, reluctant leader Loud Thunder finds himself in over his head as he tries - and initially fails - to pull the fragmented people together despite an endless list of internal feuds and rivalries, even as the true depth and horror of the threat becomes terribly clear by the arrival of a traumatized survivor of the ravaged Seal people. There's a nice twist to the nature and identity of the invaders, and Tchaikovsky continues to grow the shapeshifter world and its complex political and mythological landscape in interesting ways, and the characters do a fair bit of growing, if not without stumbles. As before, sometimes the dialog and tangle of alliances and rivalries can get a trifle dense and stilted, and some side characters seem a bit underdeveloped, but overall it remains just as intriguing and action-filled as the first volume. This one, however, ends on something closer to a cliffhanger, whereas the first one wrapped itself up reasonably well. I suppose I'll have to see if the third and (presumed) final installment is available on Overdrive now, to see how it all ends.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Pride's Run (Cat Kalen) - My Review
Wolf Brother (Michelle Paver) - My Review
The Tiger and the Wolf (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review

November Site Update

November's reviews have been archived and crosslinked on the main Brightdreamer Books site.

Enjoy!

(And I'm still stripping Amazon links from the blog, as they still refuse to clarify their new Associate rules. It's taking a while...)