Memorial Day Monday, and the last day of May, so the main Brightdreamer Books site has been updated with the month's new reviews.
Enjoy!
Monday, May 31, 2021
Sunday, May 30, 2021
The Girl from Everywhere (Heidi Heilig)
The Girl from Everywhere
The Girl from Everywhere series, Book 1
Heidi Heilig
Greenwillow
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Teenager Nixie Song is a girl without a home, and without a time. She was born in 19th century Honolulu, but her father Slate - a Navigator who can pass between times and places, even entering mythical realms, with the right maps - came from the late 20th century in New York City... and, for nearly as long as she's been alive, he has been singularly obsessed with returning to save her mother, who died in childbirth while he was away. Aboard their ship, the Temptation, crewed by people from around the world and across the timestream, Slate seeks the increasingly rare and elusive maps that will bring him back to 1860's Hawaii, imagined panaceas to spare his lover's life, and vast fortunes to pay to continue the search itself. With her uncanny intuition about the authenticity of maps, Nixie has always been an indispensable part of his quest, but she chafes under his control. For one thing, she's becoming a young woman, and has her own dreams. For another, if Slate succeeds in saving her mother, it may snuff out her own life as though she'd never been born. When they, at long last, find a passage back to Hawaii - albeit in the 1880's, rather than the 1860's - Slate finally has a chance to purchase the map that may save his true love, but at a great cost to the Hawaiian people, his crew, and Nixie herself. How far is Nixie willing to go to support her father's obsession? Does she even have a choice, or has fate already decided for her? Her dilemma only grows more urgent when she meets the boy Blake Hart and begins to imagine a life beyond the deck of the Temptation, a life lived for herself.
REVIEW: I wanted to like this story. With the imaginative concept of sailing to nearly any place that has had a map drawn of it - even places that turned out not to exist, but were fervently believed in by the mapmakers - and the promise of grand wonders and impossible lands, with the intriguing peripheral crew of the Temptation, I really, really wanted to like this story. But I just couldn't. The characters and the plot wouldn't let me. Mostly, it's the tale of Nixie's father Slate, an emotionally abusive opium addict who literally does not care whether his own daughter (or anyone else) lives or dies so long as he gets his next hit and can pursue the ghost of a woman who always seems more like an ephemeral ideal than anyone of flesh and blood. She and the rest of the crew are victims, trapped by a tyrant, none more so than Nixie; her entire life is serving a man who sees right through her when he bothers to look at her at all. At first, this lends some nice angst and tragedy to her tale, but soon it became irritating when she did nothing but be a victim, receiving nothing but indifference (at best) or outright threats and scorn for her troubles. She's just an object to most everyone in the story, seen as a prize to be won or fought over, a means to an end, and what little agency she manages to gather is almost immediately squandered on others or snatched away while she hesitates. The whole story is clouded by this toxic relationship, the wonders muted, the characters shunted to the side and reduced to tropes or outright stereotypes, to the point where I couldn't bother caring about anyone or their fates, which become entangled in the fall of the Hawaiian monarchy and a temporal paradox and a local boy who develops a possessive crush (that's passed off as love). Things do happen, setbacks occur, a manufactured crisis punctuates the ending, but I found myself not really giving a dang. What's the point of being able to go anywhere, if I have to go there with Nixie and Slate?
You Might Also Enjoy:
Piratica (Tanith Lee) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Steel (Carrie Vaughn) - My Review
The Girl from Everywhere series, Book 1
Heidi Heilig
Greenwillow
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Teenager Nixie Song is a girl without a home, and without a time. She was born in 19th century Honolulu, but her father Slate - a Navigator who can pass between times and places, even entering mythical realms, with the right maps - came from the late 20th century in New York City... and, for nearly as long as she's been alive, he has been singularly obsessed with returning to save her mother, who died in childbirth while he was away. Aboard their ship, the Temptation, crewed by people from around the world and across the timestream, Slate seeks the increasingly rare and elusive maps that will bring him back to 1860's Hawaii, imagined panaceas to spare his lover's life, and vast fortunes to pay to continue the search itself. With her uncanny intuition about the authenticity of maps, Nixie has always been an indispensable part of his quest, but she chafes under his control. For one thing, she's becoming a young woman, and has her own dreams. For another, if Slate succeeds in saving her mother, it may snuff out her own life as though she'd never been born. When they, at long last, find a passage back to Hawaii - albeit in the 1880's, rather than the 1860's - Slate finally has a chance to purchase the map that may save his true love, but at a great cost to the Hawaiian people, his crew, and Nixie herself. How far is Nixie willing to go to support her father's obsession? Does she even have a choice, or has fate already decided for her? Her dilemma only grows more urgent when she meets the boy Blake Hart and begins to imagine a life beyond the deck of the Temptation, a life lived for herself.
REVIEW: I wanted to like this story. With the imaginative concept of sailing to nearly any place that has had a map drawn of it - even places that turned out not to exist, but were fervently believed in by the mapmakers - and the promise of grand wonders and impossible lands, with the intriguing peripheral crew of the Temptation, I really, really wanted to like this story. But I just couldn't. The characters and the plot wouldn't let me. Mostly, it's the tale of Nixie's father Slate, an emotionally abusive opium addict who literally does not care whether his own daughter (or anyone else) lives or dies so long as he gets his next hit and can pursue the ghost of a woman who always seems more like an ephemeral ideal than anyone of flesh and blood. She and the rest of the crew are victims, trapped by a tyrant, none more so than Nixie; her entire life is serving a man who sees right through her when he bothers to look at her at all. At first, this lends some nice angst and tragedy to her tale, but soon it became irritating when she did nothing but be a victim, receiving nothing but indifference (at best) or outright threats and scorn for her troubles. She's just an object to most everyone in the story, seen as a prize to be won or fought over, a means to an end, and what little agency she manages to gather is almost immediately squandered on others or snatched away while she hesitates. The whole story is clouded by this toxic relationship, the wonders muted, the characters shunted to the side and reduced to tropes or outright stereotypes, to the point where I couldn't bother caring about anyone or their fates, which become entangled in the fall of the Hawaiian monarchy and a temporal paradox and a local boy who develops a possessive crush (that's passed off as love). Things do happen, setbacks occur, a manufactured crisis punctuates the ending, but I found myself not really giving a dang. What's the point of being able to go anywhere, if I have to go there with Nixie and Slate?
You Might Also Enjoy:
Piratica (Tanith Lee) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Steel (Carrie Vaughn) - My Review
Friday, May 28, 2021
The Echo Wife (Sarah Gailey)
The Echo Wife
Sarah Gailey
Tor Books
Fiction, Horror/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Evelyn Caldwell is at the top of her field, developing disposable, purpose-made adult clones for use as organ donors, body doubles, or experimentation, but her personal life is a disaster. Her husband Nathan left her... not just for another woman, but for an illegal clone of herself - one he made by stealing her own theories and works, to add insult to injury. "Martine" is everything Evelyn couldn't or wouldn't be: submissive, dedicated to his every need, and ecstatic about bearing his children - even though her very existence is a crime and her ability to conceive should be impossible. Evelyn does her best to ignore Nathan and his new, false wife... until Martine calls in a panic. The clone made the mistake of questioning her maker, and now Nathan lies dead on the floor. The doctor and the clone now share more than DNA and one unfaithful man. They share a very big problem, one that's only going to get worse.
REVIEW: The Echo Wife re-imagines the moral dilemmas of Frankenstein with a dash of The Stepford Wives. The product of an abusive marriage, Evelyn vowed never to follow in her cruel father's footsteps or her mother's cringing shadow, even as she develops the detachment that lets her create and dispose of what are essentially living, breathing human beings with as little care as a farmer harvesting and cracking eggs... a detachment that Martine challenges in numerous ways. While she is the living embodiment of her failed marriage and everything Nathan wanted her to be - someone so fundamentally not who she is that it was clear their marriage was doomed from the start - she also upends nearly everything Evelyn has ever believed about her own cloning projects, as she grows beyond her programming. The tale wends and wanders (and I do mean wends and wanders; Gailey never says in a sentence what she could say in a paragraph or more, which often goes beyond merely adding atmosphere into numbingly over-descriptive navel gazing) down ever-darker paths, as Martine struggles with the limits of her existence and Evelyn struggles with her own shifting understanding of what she helped create (even though Nathan stole her research, the breakthroughs were hers), always warring with the inner voices of her abuser father and victim mother and her innate tendency to reduce human beings to clinical problems to be solved or simply ignored. It dropped in the ratings for the aforementioned wandering and an ending that offers no hope on any level whatsoever. The Echo Wife may be an intriguing exploration of identity and ethical conundrums and the long, inescapable shadows cast by abuse, but I ultimately found it far too meandering and wordy and just plain depressing.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Kiln People (David Brin) - My Review
Frankenstein (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly) - My Review
The Bone Shard Daughter (Andrea Stewart) - My Review
Sarah Gailey
Tor Books
Fiction, Horror/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Evelyn Caldwell is at the top of her field, developing disposable, purpose-made adult clones for use as organ donors, body doubles, or experimentation, but her personal life is a disaster. Her husband Nathan left her... not just for another woman, but for an illegal clone of herself - one he made by stealing her own theories and works, to add insult to injury. "Martine" is everything Evelyn couldn't or wouldn't be: submissive, dedicated to his every need, and ecstatic about bearing his children - even though her very existence is a crime and her ability to conceive should be impossible. Evelyn does her best to ignore Nathan and his new, false wife... until Martine calls in a panic. The clone made the mistake of questioning her maker, and now Nathan lies dead on the floor. The doctor and the clone now share more than DNA and one unfaithful man. They share a very big problem, one that's only going to get worse.
REVIEW: The Echo Wife re-imagines the moral dilemmas of Frankenstein with a dash of The Stepford Wives. The product of an abusive marriage, Evelyn vowed never to follow in her cruel father's footsteps or her mother's cringing shadow, even as she develops the detachment that lets her create and dispose of what are essentially living, breathing human beings with as little care as a farmer harvesting and cracking eggs... a detachment that Martine challenges in numerous ways. While she is the living embodiment of her failed marriage and everything Nathan wanted her to be - someone so fundamentally not who she is that it was clear their marriage was doomed from the start - she also upends nearly everything Evelyn has ever believed about her own cloning projects, as she grows beyond her programming. The tale wends and wanders (and I do mean wends and wanders; Gailey never says in a sentence what she could say in a paragraph or more, which often goes beyond merely adding atmosphere into numbingly over-descriptive navel gazing) down ever-darker paths, as Martine struggles with the limits of her existence and Evelyn struggles with her own shifting understanding of what she helped create (even though Nathan stole her research, the breakthroughs were hers), always warring with the inner voices of her abuser father and victim mother and her innate tendency to reduce human beings to clinical problems to be solved or simply ignored. It dropped in the ratings for the aforementioned wandering and an ending that offers no hope on any level whatsoever. The Echo Wife may be an intriguing exploration of identity and ethical conundrums and the long, inescapable shadows cast by abuse, but I ultimately found it far too meandering and wordy and just plain depressing.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Kiln People (David Brin) - My Review
Frankenstein (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly) - My Review
The Bone Shard Daughter (Andrea Stewart) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer)
Finder
The Finder Chronicles, Book 1
Suzanne Palmer
DAW
Fiction, Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Fergus Ferguson has spent his whole life running away, yet has a peculiar knack for finding things. This makes him an ideal seeker of stolen items across the galaxy; he can get in, grab the goods, and get out without any undue entanglements or regrets (at least, none he'll admit to). But this latest job - reclaiming the stolen AI-driven ship Venetia's Sword from a would-be tyrannical crime boss in the backwater collection of floating habitats called Cernekan - is nothing but undue entanglements, from the moment his interhabitat cable car is destroyed by the thief's thugs. The explosion leads to the death of the grandmotherly Vahn matriarch, a lichen farmer whose last act saves his life. Despite his personal rule about staying out of local troubles, the local troubles have found him - troubles inextricably entwined with a delicate power balance on the verge of collapse, the unexplained interference of a mysterious and dangerous alien race, and secrets long held by the old woman... and by Fergus Ferguson, whose past is catching up with him even as his future looks more uncertain than ever.
REVIEW: I went to the bookstore looking for something new and interesting... and, if I'm being honest, another book entirely, but the nearest surviving Barnes and Noble has gutted their genre section to near-uselessness. So I took a chance on an impulse buy from the "New Arrivals" section (which is larger now than their entire science fiction and fantasy area... and they wonder why people turn to internet options. But, I digress...). It was pitched by the staff recommendation as "Star Wars meets Indiana Jones", which isn't quite accurate. It's more of an homage to older space adventures, with reasonably hard science but also more than enough room for action, danger, and just a hint of the inexplicable and alien at the fringes. Things kick off fairly quickly; by the end of the first chapter we have a rough sketch of our story, our hero, and our setting, rounded out by our first explosion. The tale keeps moving fairly well from then on out, as Fergus keeps getting himself into more trouble and digging himself in deeper with the power play/open war that's just been sparked in Cernekan, in no small part due to his arrival (or, rather, the balance-tipping ship he was sent to repossess). This isn't his first dance with civil war, but the last one left scars and regrets he swore never to repeat... only the universe apparently doesn't care what he swore, and sometimes the only way out of danger is right through the heart of it. Around Fergus grows a network of allies and enemies (he tries not to entangle himself enough for true friends, just contacts, but ends up with friends anyway), which sometimes gets a bit tangled and convoluted. The mystery aliens insert themselves into the tale at a key moment. If anything feels off-step in this story, it's them, though I expect that's because their actions and reasoning will be further explained (insomuch as they can be) in future installments. The rest of the book, however, is solid adrenaline-rush old-school science fiction action, establishing a universe and main character more than sturdy enough to carry further adventures.
As a closing note, I read this with just a slight twist of sadness. This is the exact kind of book that, some years ago, I would've handed over to my father as soon as I'd finished; as an old-time science fiction fan, he would've eaten it up. Dementia is a cruel disease, indeed...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Starfire: A Red Peace (Spencer Ellsworth) - My Review
The Warrior Within (Angus McIntyre) - My Review
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (Alex White) - My Review
The Finder Chronicles, Book 1
Suzanne Palmer
DAW
Fiction, Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Fergus Ferguson has spent his whole life running away, yet has a peculiar knack for finding things. This makes him an ideal seeker of stolen items across the galaxy; he can get in, grab the goods, and get out without any undue entanglements or regrets (at least, none he'll admit to). But this latest job - reclaiming the stolen AI-driven ship Venetia's Sword from a would-be tyrannical crime boss in the backwater collection of floating habitats called Cernekan - is nothing but undue entanglements, from the moment his interhabitat cable car is destroyed by the thief's thugs. The explosion leads to the death of the grandmotherly Vahn matriarch, a lichen farmer whose last act saves his life. Despite his personal rule about staying out of local troubles, the local troubles have found him - troubles inextricably entwined with a delicate power balance on the verge of collapse, the unexplained interference of a mysterious and dangerous alien race, and secrets long held by the old woman... and by Fergus Ferguson, whose past is catching up with him even as his future looks more uncertain than ever.
REVIEW: I went to the bookstore looking for something new and interesting... and, if I'm being honest, another book entirely, but the nearest surviving Barnes and Noble has gutted their genre section to near-uselessness. So I took a chance on an impulse buy from the "New Arrivals" section (which is larger now than their entire science fiction and fantasy area... and they wonder why people turn to internet options. But, I digress...). It was pitched by the staff recommendation as "Star Wars meets Indiana Jones", which isn't quite accurate. It's more of an homage to older space adventures, with reasonably hard science but also more than enough room for action, danger, and just a hint of the inexplicable and alien at the fringes. Things kick off fairly quickly; by the end of the first chapter we have a rough sketch of our story, our hero, and our setting, rounded out by our first explosion. The tale keeps moving fairly well from then on out, as Fergus keeps getting himself into more trouble and digging himself in deeper with the power play/open war that's just been sparked in Cernekan, in no small part due to his arrival (or, rather, the balance-tipping ship he was sent to repossess). This isn't his first dance with civil war, but the last one left scars and regrets he swore never to repeat... only the universe apparently doesn't care what he swore, and sometimes the only way out of danger is right through the heart of it. Around Fergus grows a network of allies and enemies (he tries not to entangle himself enough for true friends, just contacts, but ends up with friends anyway), which sometimes gets a bit tangled and convoluted. The mystery aliens insert themselves into the tale at a key moment. If anything feels off-step in this story, it's them, though I expect that's because their actions and reasoning will be further explained (insomuch as they can be) in future installments. The rest of the book, however, is solid adrenaline-rush old-school science fiction action, establishing a universe and main character more than sturdy enough to carry further adventures.
As a closing note, I read this with just a slight twist of sadness. This is the exact kind of book that, some years ago, I would've handed over to my father as soon as I'd finished; as an old-time science fiction fan, he would've eaten it up. Dementia is a cruel disease, indeed...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Starfire: A Red Peace (Spencer Ellsworth) - My Review
The Warrior Within (Angus McIntyre) - My Review
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (Alex White) - My Review
Sunday, May 23, 2021
The Faithless Hawk (Margaret Owen)
The Faithless Hawk
The Merciful Crow series, Book 2
Margaret Owen
Henry Holt and Co.
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: Life for the Crow caste in Sabor - the ones who, through their immunity, deal with victims of the Sinner's Plague, persecuted and even hunted - is always rough, but things seem to be going rather well for young chief Fie. By helping the crown prince Jasimir and his half-brother/bodyguard Tavin escape the would-be usurper tyrant Queen Rhusana's clutches, she secured a blood-sworn oath that would better the lot of the Crows in general, while the cross-caste love she found with Tavin will hopefully better her life in particular once this whole scuffle for power is resolved. It shouldn't be too long; Jasimir has the backing of Tavin's mother, the Hawk general, and Rhusana's base is an extremist minority who want to exterminate Crows even if the whole of Sabor burns to ash from unchecked plague.
They all underestimated their enemy.
With an army of skin-ghasts - nearly-indestructible boneless monstrosities created from the dead - and her Swan-witch power to manipulate those around her, coupled with the other castes' utter paralysis in the face of her sheer audacity, Queen Rhusana quickly regains the upper hand... even gaining control over Tavin, when Jasimir proves intractable. Soon, she will be properly coronated, the Crows will die, and all of Sabor will burn.
But Rhusana has also underestimated someone. Crows take care of their own, and Fie isn't about to let them fall without a fight.
REVIEW: Like the first book, The Faithless Hawk is almost compulsively readable. Fie and her companions remain strong characters, not prone to dithering or monologuing or pining or otherwise tripping up the plot with angst or stupidity. That's not to say they don't feel or make mistakes, but feelings are channeled into action rather than inaction, and mistakes recognized and corrected rather than stupidly ignored and magnified. Seeing Tavin turned tears the heart from Fie's chest; while he was raised on the poetic notion of sacrificing the world for the sake of love, she knows the world Rhusana wants won't be one in which any love can last. But she knows her duty, and still has allies, not to mention the teeth from which she draws the power of Sabor's other castes. (She also still has her cat, Barf, a good luck charm who helps her out of a few situations.) Likewise, Rhusana is no simple cackling evildoer, but a cunning and manipulative foe who maintains her grip on power as much by shocking the establishment as by her witchcraft. (One can very easily draw certain parallels with real world tyrants, particularly those who use pandemics and scapegoated minorities and flagrant norm-shattering to gain control and care not a whit if their own country burns so long as they rule the ashes.) The matter is further complicated when she learns the truth of one tale: the witches of Sabor, such as herself, are indeed the reincarnated souls of the dead gods who created the Covenant. In her case, that adds another layer of complication, as an unfulfilled blood-oath from a previous life is part of what's fouling things up so terribly in this one, not just for her but for the whole land. It ties into the deaths of the gods, the creation of the Covenant, the origins of the Sinner's Plague, and the stolen gift of the Crow caste... all of which could've easily tipped over into preaching, but which fits perfectly into the worldbuilding here and meshes with everything already established about Sabor. The whole builds to an intense climax. I came close to shaving a half-star for one revelation toward the end, but the characters pay a sufficient price, and the overall story is strong enough, that I wound up forgiving it. The whole is a solid tale with one of the strongest and most genuine heroines I've read in a while. I look forward to Owen's future works.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Glasswright's Apprentice (Mindy L. Klasky) - My Review
The Two Princesses of Bamarre (Gail Carson Levine) - My Review
The Merciful Crow (Margaret Owen) - My Review
The Merciful Crow series, Book 2
Margaret Owen
Henry Holt and Co.
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: Life for the Crow caste in Sabor - the ones who, through their immunity, deal with victims of the Sinner's Plague, persecuted and even hunted - is always rough, but things seem to be going rather well for young chief Fie. By helping the crown prince Jasimir and his half-brother/bodyguard Tavin escape the would-be usurper tyrant Queen Rhusana's clutches, she secured a blood-sworn oath that would better the lot of the Crows in general, while the cross-caste love she found with Tavin will hopefully better her life in particular once this whole scuffle for power is resolved. It shouldn't be too long; Jasimir has the backing of Tavin's mother, the Hawk general, and Rhusana's base is an extremist minority who want to exterminate Crows even if the whole of Sabor burns to ash from unchecked plague.
They all underestimated their enemy.
With an army of skin-ghasts - nearly-indestructible boneless monstrosities created from the dead - and her Swan-witch power to manipulate those around her, coupled with the other castes' utter paralysis in the face of her sheer audacity, Queen Rhusana quickly regains the upper hand... even gaining control over Tavin, when Jasimir proves intractable. Soon, she will be properly coronated, the Crows will die, and all of Sabor will burn.
But Rhusana has also underestimated someone. Crows take care of their own, and Fie isn't about to let them fall without a fight.
REVIEW: Like the first book, The Faithless Hawk is almost compulsively readable. Fie and her companions remain strong characters, not prone to dithering or monologuing or pining or otherwise tripping up the plot with angst or stupidity. That's not to say they don't feel or make mistakes, but feelings are channeled into action rather than inaction, and mistakes recognized and corrected rather than stupidly ignored and magnified. Seeing Tavin turned tears the heart from Fie's chest; while he was raised on the poetic notion of sacrificing the world for the sake of love, she knows the world Rhusana wants won't be one in which any love can last. But she knows her duty, and still has allies, not to mention the teeth from which she draws the power of Sabor's other castes. (She also still has her cat, Barf, a good luck charm who helps her out of a few situations.) Likewise, Rhusana is no simple cackling evildoer, but a cunning and manipulative foe who maintains her grip on power as much by shocking the establishment as by her witchcraft. (One can very easily draw certain parallels with real world tyrants, particularly those who use pandemics and scapegoated minorities and flagrant norm-shattering to gain control and care not a whit if their own country burns so long as they rule the ashes.) The matter is further complicated when she learns the truth of one tale: the witches of Sabor, such as herself, are indeed the reincarnated souls of the dead gods who created the Covenant. In her case, that adds another layer of complication, as an unfulfilled blood-oath from a previous life is part of what's fouling things up so terribly in this one, not just for her but for the whole land. It ties into the deaths of the gods, the creation of the Covenant, the origins of the Sinner's Plague, and the stolen gift of the Crow caste... all of which could've easily tipped over into preaching, but which fits perfectly into the worldbuilding here and meshes with everything already established about Sabor. The whole builds to an intense climax. I came close to shaving a half-star for one revelation toward the end, but the characters pay a sufficient price, and the overall story is strong enough, that I wound up forgiving it. The whole is a solid tale with one of the strongest and most genuine heroines I've read in a while. I look forward to Owen's future works.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Glasswright's Apprentice (Mindy L. Klasky) - My Review
The Two Princesses of Bamarre (Gail Carson Levine) - My Review
The Merciful Crow (Margaret Owen) - My Review
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