This is Our Story
Ashley Elston
Little, Brown Books
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Five teenage boys, united by wealth, influence, and wild streaks broad as an interstate, were at the private River Point Hunting Club after one of their notoriously raucous parties when they decided to go into the woods in the wee hours to try their luck with the local deer.
Only four returned.
Due to the power embodied in the families of the suspects, the district attorney Mr. Gaines is eager to see the death of Grant written off as an unfortunate hunting accident. There's no way to know which of the boys actually fired the rifle that killed him, as they all admitted to using it for target practice earlier, and there seems to be no solid evidence to go on when the only eyewitnesses are the only suspects, each backing up the stories of the other. Five boys, dark woods, deer... surely, it was all just a terrible mistake. Thus, the case lands on the desk of an aging public defender, Mr. Stone, in the expectation that he'll do little more than give the appearance of considering charges before giving up. But the DA underestimated the old man... and his intern, Kate Marino.
A gifted photographer and member of her school newspaper and media club, Kate dreams of going to school in New York City, and hopes that an internship in a law office - courtesy of her best friend Reagan's family contacts, and helped by her own mother working for Mr. Stone - will make the resume of a small-town girl stand out. But her time there has taught her a certain cynicism about the notion of justice... until young Grant's death and the case of the "River Point Boys" (as the foursome come to be known in local media) land on Mr. Stone's desk. She never told anyone, but she and Grant had met briefly some weeks before his death, and had been texting each other almost nightly - communication that Kate had hoped would spark into something real, until they had a falling-out the night before the tragedy. Now, she has a chance to help see justice be done. But investigating Grant's death is more dangerous than she realizes, unearthing secrets and corruption that spread far behind the bounds of teenage hijinks to spread through her whole town... secrets that have already proven deadly once...
REVIEW: At the start, this looked like a nice, thrilling, potentially twisty tale, unraveling stories and unearthing motives and stopping a killer (or killers) from getting away with cold-blooded murder, a case complicated by friendships and rivalries and class divides; Kate and her friends are firmly on the opposite side of the tracks and town influence as the River Point Boys and their well-connected families, who have their fingers on the scales of justice from the start. Kate's not-quite-illicit, not-quite-romantic (yet) relationship has an air of potential narrator unreliability, adding another wrinkle, in addition to giving the girl extra incentive to step a little beyond her minor role as intern in figuring out whodunit. But it isn't long before Kate's potential as an investigator is undermined by her intellect dropping to single digits partway in, compromised by a growing attraction to one of the suspects, whom she trusts too readily given the circumstances and her earlier skepticism about the River Point Boys. She does increasingly boneheaded things, taking increasingly implausible risks, to the point where I started to wonder just what she'd been doing as an intern in a law office for all these months. Heck, I wondered if she'd ever caught five minutes of any given law show on TV, because the things she ended up doing were so monumentally bone-headed that I can't believe she understood a single, solitary thing about anything. Meanwhile, the story keeps teasing the reader with interludes from the killer's point of view (written in a way to obscure their identity), in what starts as a nice way to raise tension but eventually becomes just tiresome. At some point, despite herself, the motive and culprit are unmasked, but not before Kate's ineptitude jeopardizes literally everything she's spent the entire novel working towards... after which she does even more inane things. I only finished because I didn't feel like swapping audiobooks by the time I lost all faith in Kate's ability to do anything but trip over her own metaphoric feet. The earlier parts worked well enough to barely keep it afloat at the Okay line of three stars.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Like Never and Always (Ann Aguirre) - My Review
One Of Us Is Lying (Karen McManus) - My Review
Five Total Strangers (Natalie D. Richards) - My Review
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Admiral (Sean Danker)
Admiral
The Admiral series, Book 1
Sean Danker
Roc
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: The moment he wakes on the floor of a derelict spacecraft, surrounded by strangers in Evagardian military uniforms, he knows something has gone terribly wrong... especially when he is informed that he was pulled from a malfunctioning sleeper pod that designated him as an admiral. He is nothing of the sort - and what he really is hardly seems to matter anyway. His three rescuers, green cadets every one, don't belong on this vessel any more than he does; they were en route to assignment on the flagship of the empire, and have no idea how they ended up on this run-down old junker of a freighter. Worse, it seems that something has gone terribly wrong: the power is gone, the engines are dead, the gravity feels strange, and nobody answers the comms. The "Admiral" and his companions of circumstance may not trust one another, but they'll have to band together to figure out what happened if they are to have any hope of surviving, let alone escaping.
REVIEW: Sometimes I'm just in the mood for a straightforward story, so this one, from the description, seemed right up that alley: a small isolated crew facing a mysterious threat, the book equivalent of a popcorn space thriller flick in the vein of numerous Alien knock-offs, which even if it can't come close to the inspiration can at least entertain. But this thriller just does not deliver, playing out less like Alien and more like one of those video games where it takes too long to get to the meat of the action and game play becomes repetitious as threats basically recycle and scale up endlessly.
The main character, who never gets a name, wakes to confusion and an imminent threat. It immediately gave me vibes of SyFy's space adventure series Dark Matter (another victim of the channel's infamously overzealous axe before it could conclude its arc, curse them), making me wonder/hope about whether his memories might be similarly compromised... but, no. Everyone else knows who they are, even if they don't know why they're here, and it's the Admiral who, despite narrating the entire story, is playing games with the reader by deliberately omitting his own past and identity. This little dance routine, perpetually teasing but never revealing like an obnoxious kid playing keep-away on the playground, grows tiresome very fast, even when the author tries to distract by throwing everyone into danger from the start. Forced to overcome their mutual distrust for the sake of mutual survival, the four begin exploring, finding few answers but innumerable new problems, with little to no down time to process each development. The near-constant stress and adrenaline rush also grows tiresome, not helped by characters that feel like stock-bin archetypes (including one who, naturally, starts to fall for the theoretically charming and likely dangerous Admiral, because of course). As for the dangers, there's only so much running around on a derelict ship from one crisis to another, then across a desolate alien landscape doing the same, that can occur before reader burnout sets in, particularly when I started growing indifferent at best to the characters whose survival was on the line. None of this was helped by Danker's efforts to shoehorn in galactic history and politics (which was hindered rather than helped by the Admiral's continued smug refusal to let the reader know who the heck he was) around the edges of the endless dangers piling up on the crew's backs. Eventually, the real face of the danger is revealed (not a huge surprise, really), but even that loses its shock value when it becomes just more and more of the same basic threat, eventually inflated to just plain unbelievable degrees. Then it ends in a way that made much of the effort that went into character building feel pointless, though it does finally answer some questions about the Admiral... even if by then I'd long since stopped caring.
In its favor, the story does not drag its feet (even if it's sometimes running itself in circles), and it more or less delivers exactly what it promises, a sci-fi thriller with nonstop action and "mystery" (if in that subset of the genre where the actual nature of said "mystery" is just a thin veneer of the usual Big Scary Threat in the Dark material where specifics don't really matter so long as there's sufficient action involved in evading death). I just never felt engaged by it, not even in a popcorn-flick way.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Scourge Between Stars (Ness Brown) - My Review
Retrograde (Peter Cawdron) - My Review
Beacon 23 (Hugh Howey) - My Review
The Admiral series, Book 1
Sean Danker
Roc
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: The moment he wakes on the floor of a derelict spacecraft, surrounded by strangers in Evagardian military uniforms, he knows something has gone terribly wrong... especially when he is informed that he was pulled from a malfunctioning sleeper pod that designated him as an admiral. He is nothing of the sort - and what he really is hardly seems to matter anyway. His three rescuers, green cadets every one, don't belong on this vessel any more than he does; they were en route to assignment on the flagship of the empire, and have no idea how they ended up on this run-down old junker of a freighter. Worse, it seems that something has gone terribly wrong: the power is gone, the engines are dead, the gravity feels strange, and nobody answers the comms. The "Admiral" and his companions of circumstance may not trust one another, but they'll have to band together to figure out what happened if they are to have any hope of surviving, let alone escaping.
REVIEW: Sometimes I'm just in the mood for a straightforward story, so this one, from the description, seemed right up that alley: a small isolated crew facing a mysterious threat, the book equivalent of a popcorn space thriller flick in the vein of numerous Alien knock-offs, which even if it can't come close to the inspiration can at least entertain. But this thriller just does not deliver, playing out less like Alien and more like one of those video games where it takes too long to get to the meat of the action and game play becomes repetitious as threats basically recycle and scale up endlessly.
The main character, who never gets a name, wakes to confusion and an imminent threat. It immediately gave me vibes of SyFy's space adventure series Dark Matter (another victim of the channel's infamously overzealous axe before it could conclude its arc, curse them), making me wonder/hope about whether his memories might be similarly compromised... but, no. Everyone else knows who they are, even if they don't know why they're here, and it's the Admiral who, despite narrating the entire story, is playing games with the reader by deliberately omitting his own past and identity. This little dance routine, perpetually teasing but never revealing like an obnoxious kid playing keep-away on the playground, grows tiresome very fast, even when the author tries to distract by throwing everyone into danger from the start. Forced to overcome their mutual distrust for the sake of mutual survival, the four begin exploring, finding few answers but innumerable new problems, with little to no down time to process each development. The near-constant stress and adrenaline rush also grows tiresome, not helped by characters that feel like stock-bin archetypes (including one who, naturally, starts to fall for the theoretically charming and likely dangerous Admiral, because of course). As for the dangers, there's only so much running around on a derelict ship from one crisis to another, then across a desolate alien landscape doing the same, that can occur before reader burnout sets in, particularly when I started growing indifferent at best to the characters whose survival was on the line. None of this was helped by Danker's efforts to shoehorn in galactic history and politics (which was hindered rather than helped by the Admiral's continued smug refusal to let the reader know who the heck he was) around the edges of the endless dangers piling up on the crew's backs. Eventually, the real face of the danger is revealed (not a huge surprise, really), but even that loses its shock value when it becomes just more and more of the same basic threat, eventually inflated to just plain unbelievable degrees. Then it ends in a way that made much of the effort that went into character building feel pointless, though it does finally answer some questions about the Admiral... even if by then I'd long since stopped caring.
In its favor, the story does not drag its feet (even if it's sometimes running itself in circles), and it more or less delivers exactly what it promises, a sci-fi thriller with nonstop action and "mystery" (if in that subset of the genre where the actual nature of said "mystery" is just a thin veneer of the usual Big Scary Threat in the Dark material where specifics don't really matter so long as there's sufficient action involved in evading death). I just never felt engaged by it, not even in a popcorn-flick way.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Scourge Between Stars (Ness Brown) - My Review
Retrograde (Peter Cawdron) - My Review
Beacon 23 (Hugh Howey) - My Review
Friday, June 13, 2025
I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons (Peter S. Beagle)
I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons
Peter S. Beagle
Saga Press
Fiction, YA? Fantasy/Humor
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: There is no greater act of heroism than the slaying of a dragon... granted the dragon is one of the great beasts of legend, big enough to devour a horse or man, and the hero is of noble birth. Those who exterminate the smaller pest species, the ones that infest walls and crawl spaces, are considered little better than vermin control - and Robert, recent inheritor of his father's trade, is tired to his bones of it. He hates having to kill dragons, hates seeing them butchered in the dragon markets; he even keeps a few as pets, rescued from traps when he can manage it, and knows full well how intelligent they really are. But, as the main breadwinner of the household now that his father is dead, he can't exactly run away to pursue a more prestigious trade. And it's not like he'll ever have to take on any of the great, legendary species, the ones that haven't been seen in generations and whose slaying would make him an instant celebrity, not in a little kingdom like Bellemontagne. He may be unfortunately talented at extermination, but he's no hero.
Princess Cerise, like all princesses, knows she'll have to marry a prince at some point... but, despite the seemingly-endless stream of candidates riding to the castle, has yet to find any remotely interesting enough to consider. She has other dreams, such as teaching herself to read, and can't be bothered with the dull-witted braggarts strutting around court. Then she meets a handsome stranger, and for the first time finds herself smitten. Only Prince Reginald seems reluctant to actually propose. He left his home in order to prove himself to his father and kingdom through adventure and an act of heroism, and despite his wanderings has yet to so much as rescue a kitten. Before he'll ask for Cerise's hand, he is determined to find and slay a great dragon - a feat that will require a little help from his ever-patient valet Mortmain and the kingdom's best, and most reluctant, exterminator and dragon expert, Robert.
REVIEW: Like many fantasy readers, I read and enjoyed Beagle's classic The Last Unicorn. I also adore dragons. So, crossing Beagle's storytelling and prose with dragons... this should've been a no-brainer of a favorite tale. Unfortunately, while there are several decent elements at play here, I just was not feeling the magic in this story of reluctant dragon slayers and unexpected destinies.
After a prologue that foreshadows a darker danger on the horizon, it opens with solid promise as the reader meets Robert (or Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax, his full given name) at home, a dragon exterminator who keeps little dragons as pets in a house full of children and a widowed mother. It's clear he hates his job (even though it's also clear early on that there's a reason that he's needed; unlike rats, a dragon can spit fire and even deliver a venomous bite, so they're hardly a benign presence), and just as clear that he sees no viable way out of following in his late father's footsteps, for all that he seems to feel an empathy for his victims that his father never did. The reader also meets Prince Reginald and Mortmain, the latter increasingly despairing over how the former has yet to fulfill the traditional royal quest of earning heroism and prestige away from home. Reginald, for his part, doesn't even really want to be a hero (or get married, even), and knows that he could slay a thousand dragons without earning the respect, let alone love, of his cruel warlord father. Princess Cerise has taken to treating the selection of a suitor as a job interview of sorts, giving each day's batch a number and an interview (which more often than not sends the would-be fiances packing, though some determined hangers-on linger in the hopes of changing her mind). She would much rather be out in the woods teaching herself to read (though the lower class girls like Robert's sisters are expected to study while the boys are expected to labor or apprentice, apparently royal women are to be kept illiterate, not the only head-scratching bit of contradictory worldbuilding in the tale) than dealing with most of them... especially when her parents can't help but stick their noses into her selection process. Eventually, after some excessive meandering, the characters end up together on the quest to find and slay a large mountain dragon, a journey undertaken reluctantly by Robert, not just because he'd rather not kill dragons if he can help it (and traveling to a wild dragon's domain specifically to kill it, for no other reason than ego, falls well outside that line), but because Cerise's blinding crush on Reginald evokes a kernel of jealousy, for all that he knows full well that lowly exterminators have as much chance of marrying a princess as the vermin-ranked dragons he exterminates. By this point I was, frankly, finding the characters mildly irritating and obtuse, all in their own ways, and was just waiting for the story to really take off - which it does, rather explosively, when what was supposed to be a (relatively) choreographed and routine hunt goes terribly awry. Even after that, though, there's a tendency for things to derail and wander, visiting too many side characters on too many side tangents, not all of which ultimately justify the "screen time" they take from the core trio. (There are also some odd vibes around women that tends to reduce their roles and minimize their efforts, where even Cerise's attempts to help the guys comes across as more a complication or irritation than an asset, and another side character's chief contribution to a relationship was bickering. Why bother including women at all, if that's all they are to a writer, stubborn little girls who need to love a man in order to begin to grow up, and even then are better off sitting to the side of the action?) Even the dragons, while initially interesting, start feeling oddly plot-convenient in the threat level they ultimately present and what they can or cannot (or will or will not) do. The big climax takes far, far too long to unfold and involves some serious handwaving on plausibility, even fantasy-world-with-dragons-and-wizards plausibility. By the end, I was thinking that Robert and his world's many dragon species ultimately felt a little too much like a muddled reworking of Hiccup and the dragons of Berk from the animated How to Train Your Dragon trilogy.
I liked some parts of this book; some of the descriptions were effective, and Robert's early conflicts over admiring and empathizing with the creatures he is obligated to exterminate, that nobody else sees as anything but scaly rats, has a lot of promise. But somehow I lost track of that promise and that spark as the story went on, a feeling that wasn't helped by the audiobook narration.
You Might Also Enjoy:
How to Train Your Dragon (Cressida Cowell) - My Review
Blue Moon Rising (Simon R. Green) - My Review
Domesticating Dragons (Dan Koboldt) - My Review
Peter S. Beagle
Saga Press
Fiction, YA? Fantasy/Humor
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: There is no greater act of heroism than the slaying of a dragon... granted the dragon is one of the great beasts of legend, big enough to devour a horse or man, and the hero is of noble birth. Those who exterminate the smaller pest species, the ones that infest walls and crawl spaces, are considered little better than vermin control - and Robert, recent inheritor of his father's trade, is tired to his bones of it. He hates having to kill dragons, hates seeing them butchered in the dragon markets; he even keeps a few as pets, rescued from traps when he can manage it, and knows full well how intelligent they really are. But, as the main breadwinner of the household now that his father is dead, he can't exactly run away to pursue a more prestigious trade. And it's not like he'll ever have to take on any of the great, legendary species, the ones that haven't been seen in generations and whose slaying would make him an instant celebrity, not in a little kingdom like Bellemontagne. He may be unfortunately talented at extermination, but he's no hero.
Princess Cerise, like all princesses, knows she'll have to marry a prince at some point... but, despite the seemingly-endless stream of candidates riding to the castle, has yet to find any remotely interesting enough to consider. She has other dreams, such as teaching herself to read, and can't be bothered with the dull-witted braggarts strutting around court. Then she meets a handsome stranger, and for the first time finds herself smitten. Only Prince Reginald seems reluctant to actually propose. He left his home in order to prove himself to his father and kingdom through adventure and an act of heroism, and despite his wanderings has yet to so much as rescue a kitten. Before he'll ask for Cerise's hand, he is determined to find and slay a great dragon - a feat that will require a little help from his ever-patient valet Mortmain and the kingdom's best, and most reluctant, exterminator and dragon expert, Robert.
REVIEW: Like many fantasy readers, I read and enjoyed Beagle's classic The Last Unicorn. I also adore dragons. So, crossing Beagle's storytelling and prose with dragons... this should've been a no-brainer of a favorite tale. Unfortunately, while there are several decent elements at play here, I just was not feeling the magic in this story of reluctant dragon slayers and unexpected destinies.
After a prologue that foreshadows a darker danger on the horizon, it opens with solid promise as the reader meets Robert (or Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax, his full given name) at home, a dragon exterminator who keeps little dragons as pets in a house full of children and a widowed mother. It's clear he hates his job (even though it's also clear early on that there's a reason that he's needed; unlike rats, a dragon can spit fire and even deliver a venomous bite, so they're hardly a benign presence), and just as clear that he sees no viable way out of following in his late father's footsteps, for all that he seems to feel an empathy for his victims that his father never did. The reader also meets Prince Reginald and Mortmain, the latter increasingly despairing over how the former has yet to fulfill the traditional royal quest of earning heroism and prestige away from home. Reginald, for his part, doesn't even really want to be a hero (or get married, even), and knows that he could slay a thousand dragons without earning the respect, let alone love, of his cruel warlord father. Princess Cerise has taken to treating the selection of a suitor as a job interview of sorts, giving each day's batch a number and an interview (which more often than not sends the would-be fiances packing, though some determined hangers-on linger in the hopes of changing her mind). She would much rather be out in the woods teaching herself to read (though the lower class girls like Robert's sisters are expected to study while the boys are expected to labor or apprentice, apparently royal women are to be kept illiterate, not the only head-scratching bit of contradictory worldbuilding in the tale) than dealing with most of them... especially when her parents can't help but stick their noses into her selection process. Eventually, after some excessive meandering, the characters end up together on the quest to find and slay a large mountain dragon, a journey undertaken reluctantly by Robert, not just because he'd rather not kill dragons if he can help it (and traveling to a wild dragon's domain specifically to kill it, for no other reason than ego, falls well outside that line), but because Cerise's blinding crush on Reginald evokes a kernel of jealousy, for all that he knows full well that lowly exterminators have as much chance of marrying a princess as the vermin-ranked dragons he exterminates. By this point I was, frankly, finding the characters mildly irritating and obtuse, all in their own ways, and was just waiting for the story to really take off - which it does, rather explosively, when what was supposed to be a (relatively) choreographed and routine hunt goes terribly awry. Even after that, though, there's a tendency for things to derail and wander, visiting too many side characters on too many side tangents, not all of which ultimately justify the "screen time" they take from the core trio. (There are also some odd vibes around women that tends to reduce their roles and minimize their efforts, where even Cerise's attempts to help the guys comes across as more a complication or irritation than an asset, and another side character's chief contribution to a relationship was bickering. Why bother including women at all, if that's all they are to a writer, stubborn little girls who need to love a man in order to begin to grow up, and even then are better off sitting to the side of the action?) Even the dragons, while initially interesting, start feeling oddly plot-convenient in the threat level they ultimately present and what they can or cannot (or will or will not) do. The big climax takes far, far too long to unfold and involves some serious handwaving on plausibility, even fantasy-world-with-dragons-and-wizards plausibility. By the end, I was thinking that Robert and his world's many dragon species ultimately felt a little too much like a muddled reworking of Hiccup and the dragons of Berk from the animated How to Train Your Dragon trilogy.
I liked some parts of this book; some of the descriptions were effective, and Robert's early conflicts over admiring and empathizing with the creatures he is obligated to exterminate, that nobody else sees as anything but scaly rats, has a lot of promise. But somehow I lost track of that promise and that spark as the story went on, a feeling that wasn't helped by the audiobook narration.
You Might Also Enjoy:
How to Train Your Dragon (Cressida Cowell) - My Review
Blue Moon Rising (Simon R. Green) - My Review
Domesticating Dragons (Dan Koboldt) - My Review
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Riot Baby (Tochi Onyebuchi)
Riot Baby
Tochi Onyebuchi
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Young Ella Jackson's always had odd ways about her, which she calls her Thing - which is how she knows that the day her baby brother is going to be born that there is going to be trouble in Los Angeles. She sees it, the same way she sees the hidden lives and eventual fates of passersby on the street, but she can do nothing to stop it. At least, not yet...
Kevin, or "Kev", was a bright boy growing up in Harlem, where the Jacksons moved after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. His sister's Thing is growing more powerful, consuming more and more of her and placing a greater burden on their overworked single mother. They're not just visions and nosebleeds anymore, but fits that fling objects around the room and even hurt anyone nearby. Maybe his bright mind can use science to understand it someday, and help everyone. But it's almost impossible to grow up in their neighborhood and not be pulled into problems, especially as algorithmically-driven police practices lead to more and more kids and teens landing in cuffs daily. Sure enough, by the time he's eighteen, Kevin is behind bars.
After disappearing for several years, Ella is slowly mastering her ever-growing Thing. She starts to visit her brother, in person and via astral projection, even as the system that sent him to jail and crushed so many non-white lives continues to grow stronger and more invulnerable to change and protest. Something has to change, and soon - and maybe the Jacksons are the ones to start it.
REVIEW: This 2020 novella was clearly a direct response to growing protests and demands for accountability on the disproportionate incarceration rates, assaults, and deaths of non-white people at the hands of law enforcement, and how all the petitions and demands and rage and calls for regulation ultimately seem incapable of stopping a system where the racism and violence are evidently essential components, considered features and not bugs to those with the actual power to change things. (See also: how things are going in June 2025...) It embodies a sense of anger and frustration, asking what it will take to truly end the suffering and the increasing spread of the police state into every aspect of existence.
It starts with Ella as a girl getting glimpses of the future, where a neighbor's infant boy won't live past the age of ten thanks to random gang violence and where the failure to convict the cops who beat up Rodney King are about to ignite the powder keg of rage running through the streets, a rage with roots running back through America's history of segregation and centuries of justice perverted and denied and promises of a better future forever deferred. That Kev was born on such a violent day is an omen of sorts, though whether that omen is good or bad depends on one's point of view. At first, the boy looks to be a bright star in his community, a leader who might effect peaceful change, but all too soon the unrest and injustice that sparked the Los Angeles riots in 1992 manifest in their new home. Ella, her "Thing" growing more unstable with her own growing frustration and anger, disappears to spare her family from powers she cannot yet control - leaving Kev without a big sister as he grows from an idealistic boy into a young man who becomes another victim of a society that seems designed to drive him and those like him straight into a prison cell. As he learns to survive in this new reality, he begins showing hints of his own powers, particularly after Ella reaches out to him after years away... yet, still, Kev has some faint hope that he can someday escape the brand of convict and find peace and freedom and the better future everyone tells him he'll have someday. Meanwhile, Ella undergoes her own journey to understand her Thing, which becomes entwined with understanding her mother's struggles and crushed dreams and the overall anger simmering underneath the Black communities, and perhaps a reason she was gifted with the Thing. Around the edges are hints of how technology is evolving to crush people with even more ruthlessness, with an even greater reach and ultimate control over a populace with fewer and fewer ways to resist. It builds to a moment of decision where the Jackson siblings must choose which future to pursue, and how much they are willing to sacrifice to get there.
For a novella, there are a few places that felt unfocused and meandering, but on the whole it's a strong, sometimes devastating exploration of the harm wrought by the current system and the need for tangible change beyond soundbites and slogans and vague hopes that if one just plays along and is polite enough that things will get better in a never-to-be-reached "someday" beyond the horizon.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi) - My Review
War Girls (Tochi Onyebuchi) - My Review
The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead) - My Review
Tochi Onyebuchi
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Young Ella Jackson's always had odd ways about her, which she calls her Thing - which is how she knows that the day her baby brother is going to be born that there is going to be trouble in Los Angeles. She sees it, the same way she sees the hidden lives and eventual fates of passersby on the street, but she can do nothing to stop it. At least, not yet...
Kevin, or "Kev", was a bright boy growing up in Harlem, where the Jacksons moved after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. His sister's Thing is growing more powerful, consuming more and more of her and placing a greater burden on their overworked single mother. They're not just visions and nosebleeds anymore, but fits that fling objects around the room and even hurt anyone nearby. Maybe his bright mind can use science to understand it someday, and help everyone. But it's almost impossible to grow up in their neighborhood and not be pulled into problems, especially as algorithmically-driven police practices lead to more and more kids and teens landing in cuffs daily. Sure enough, by the time he's eighteen, Kevin is behind bars.
After disappearing for several years, Ella is slowly mastering her ever-growing Thing. She starts to visit her brother, in person and via astral projection, even as the system that sent him to jail and crushed so many non-white lives continues to grow stronger and more invulnerable to change and protest. Something has to change, and soon - and maybe the Jacksons are the ones to start it.
REVIEW: This 2020 novella was clearly a direct response to growing protests and demands for accountability on the disproportionate incarceration rates, assaults, and deaths of non-white people at the hands of law enforcement, and how all the petitions and demands and rage and calls for regulation ultimately seem incapable of stopping a system where the racism and violence are evidently essential components, considered features and not bugs to those with the actual power to change things. (See also: how things are going in June 2025...) It embodies a sense of anger and frustration, asking what it will take to truly end the suffering and the increasing spread of the police state into every aspect of existence.
It starts with Ella as a girl getting glimpses of the future, where a neighbor's infant boy won't live past the age of ten thanks to random gang violence and where the failure to convict the cops who beat up Rodney King are about to ignite the powder keg of rage running through the streets, a rage with roots running back through America's history of segregation and centuries of justice perverted and denied and promises of a better future forever deferred. That Kev was born on such a violent day is an omen of sorts, though whether that omen is good or bad depends on one's point of view. At first, the boy looks to be a bright star in his community, a leader who might effect peaceful change, but all too soon the unrest and injustice that sparked the Los Angeles riots in 1992 manifest in their new home. Ella, her "Thing" growing more unstable with her own growing frustration and anger, disappears to spare her family from powers she cannot yet control - leaving Kev without a big sister as he grows from an idealistic boy into a young man who becomes another victim of a society that seems designed to drive him and those like him straight into a prison cell. As he learns to survive in this new reality, he begins showing hints of his own powers, particularly after Ella reaches out to him after years away... yet, still, Kev has some faint hope that he can someday escape the brand of convict and find peace and freedom and the better future everyone tells him he'll have someday. Meanwhile, Ella undergoes her own journey to understand her Thing, which becomes entwined with understanding her mother's struggles and crushed dreams and the overall anger simmering underneath the Black communities, and perhaps a reason she was gifted with the Thing. Around the edges are hints of how technology is evolving to crush people with even more ruthlessness, with an even greater reach and ultimate control over a populace with fewer and fewer ways to resist. It builds to a moment of decision where the Jackson siblings must choose which future to pursue, and how much they are willing to sacrifice to get there.
For a novella, there are a few places that felt unfocused and meandering, but on the whole it's a strong, sometimes devastating exploration of the harm wrought by the current system and the need for tangible change beyond soundbites and slogans and vague hopes that if one just plays along and is polite enough that things will get better in a never-to-be-reached "someday" beyond the horizon.
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Friday, June 6, 2025
The Sword-Edged Blonde (Alex Bledsoe)
The Sword-Edged Blonde
The Eddie LaCrosse series, Book 1
Alex Bledsoe
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Eddie LaCrosse wasn't always a sword-jockey for hire out of a mudhole of a town on the outskirts of nowhere, but there's a reason he turned his back on his home and history. Now, he's content to slide past his prime years working out of his little office above a tavern, solving problems for clients at a rate of 25 gold pieces a day (plus expenses). He's on the trail of a missing princess who had reputedly fallen in with a rough crowd when Eddie is approached by a stranger with ties to his past, bearing an invitation he can't refuse.
Phil was Eddie's best friend when one was just a crown prince and the other a son of a baron - but Eddie walked away from that life after a tragedy shattered their world. Now a king, Phil reaches out to his old friend with a desperate request. His wife, Queen Rhiannon, has been accused of a gruesome crime that reeks of dark magic, one that claimed the life of their infant son. But Phil cannot believe that she did it. He begs Eddie to investigate and find out what happened, and why. Little does the sword-jockey suspect just what a dark and winding road this investigation will take him down, one that leads back to the horrors of his own past and traumas he has done his best to forget, but which fester to this day.
REVIEW: Part fantasy, part mystery, The Sword-Edged Blonde strikes a balance between two genres in a story that sometimes feels a little too throwback for its own good. Eddie LaCrosse is somewhere between a private investigator and sword for hire, haunted by a traumatic past, though he still retains enough of a moral compass to sometimes bend the parameters of his jobs in the name of greater justice. The world he inhabits is fairly standard old-school fantasy fare, with fractious kingdoms and seedy taverns and winding back alleys and the glint of blades in the night, if with no actual magic... at least, not at first. Eddie himself doesn't actually believe in magic or the land's numerous gods - or that's what he tells himself, despite some peculiar instances in his past. It hardly needs to be mentioned that, by taking the job of clearing the queen's name on behalf of his childhood friend, Eddie is forced to confront that past and face truths he'd rather not admit to himself. The investigation is at least as much about flashbacks and his own personal history as it is about following a tricky trail of clues and hunches deep into society's darkest corners, starting with the mysterious and unknown origins of Queen Rhiannon and why someone would potentially frame her for murder. Along the way (past and present), he deals with various characters of often-questionable motives and morality... and more than one woman who falls into tired stereotyped roles; even though Eddie claims to be not particularly sex-driven, he can't seem to help evaluating females by attractiveness, and they seem prone to finding him alluring. Skirting spoilers, there is a certain preternatural element that, despite Eddie's denials, becomes more prevalent and harder to dismiss as the tale unwinds, seemingly centered around Eddie in particular. After numerous setbacks and beatdowns, he finally wends his way to the culprit and unravels the mystery. For the most part, it works, though I admit to being subtly irritated by the prevalence of "male gaze", even on the supposedly strong women Eddie encounters. That, and a sense that one or two elements of the wrap-up felt a little out of nowhere (and one or two other elements felt underexplored), were just enough to hold it back in the ratings, but only barely.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Jhereg (Stephen Brust) - My Review
Fanuihl (Daniel Hood) - My Review
First Watch (Dale Lucas) - My Review
The Eddie LaCrosse series, Book 1
Alex Bledsoe
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Eddie LaCrosse wasn't always a sword-jockey for hire out of a mudhole of a town on the outskirts of nowhere, but there's a reason he turned his back on his home and history. Now, he's content to slide past his prime years working out of his little office above a tavern, solving problems for clients at a rate of 25 gold pieces a day (plus expenses). He's on the trail of a missing princess who had reputedly fallen in with a rough crowd when Eddie is approached by a stranger with ties to his past, bearing an invitation he can't refuse.
Phil was Eddie's best friend when one was just a crown prince and the other a son of a baron - but Eddie walked away from that life after a tragedy shattered their world. Now a king, Phil reaches out to his old friend with a desperate request. His wife, Queen Rhiannon, has been accused of a gruesome crime that reeks of dark magic, one that claimed the life of their infant son. But Phil cannot believe that she did it. He begs Eddie to investigate and find out what happened, and why. Little does the sword-jockey suspect just what a dark and winding road this investigation will take him down, one that leads back to the horrors of his own past and traumas he has done his best to forget, but which fester to this day.
REVIEW: Part fantasy, part mystery, The Sword-Edged Blonde strikes a balance between two genres in a story that sometimes feels a little too throwback for its own good. Eddie LaCrosse is somewhere between a private investigator and sword for hire, haunted by a traumatic past, though he still retains enough of a moral compass to sometimes bend the parameters of his jobs in the name of greater justice. The world he inhabits is fairly standard old-school fantasy fare, with fractious kingdoms and seedy taverns and winding back alleys and the glint of blades in the night, if with no actual magic... at least, not at first. Eddie himself doesn't actually believe in magic or the land's numerous gods - or that's what he tells himself, despite some peculiar instances in his past. It hardly needs to be mentioned that, by taking the job of clearing the queen's name on behalf of his childhood friend, Eddie is forced to confront that past and face truths he'd rather not admit to himself. The investigation is at least as much about flashbacks and his own personal history as it is about following a tricky trail of clues and hunches deep into society's darkest corners, starting with the mysterious and unknown origins of Queen Rhiannon and why someone would potentially frame her for murder. Along the way (past and present), he deals with various characters of often-questionable motives and morality... and more than one woman who falls into tired stereotyped roles; even though Eddie claims to be not particularly sex-driven, he can't seem to help evaluating females by attractiveness, and they seem prone to finding him alluring. Skirting spoilers, there is a certain preternatural element that, despite Eddie's denials, becomes more prevalent and harder to dismiss as the tale unwinds, seemingly centered around Eddie in particular. After numerous setbacks and beatdowns, he finally wends his way to the culprit and unravels the mystery. For the most part, it works, though I admit to being subtly irritated by the prevalence of "male gaze", even on the supposedly strong women Eddie encounters. That, and a sense that one or two elements of the wrap-up felt a little out of nowhere (and one or two other elements felt underexplored), were just enough to hold it back in the ratings, but only barely.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Jhereg (Stephen Brust) - My Review
Fanuihl (Daniel Hood) - My Review
First Watch (Dale Lucas) - My Review
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