March Site Update

The month's nine reviews have been archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books site. (I also seem to have solved that SSL expiration issue.)

Enjoy!

Night Train to Rigel (Timothy Zahn)

Night Train to Rigel
The Quadrail series, Book 1
Timothy Zahn
Open Road Media
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**+ (Bad/Okay)

DESCRIPTION: The galaxy-spanning Quadrail is a wonder of the ages, connecting distant star systems will all the ease and convenience of an Earth railway, but while the rail's operators, the Spiders, seem happy enough to run the trains, they have remained mostly aloof from deeper interaction with the alien species who use it... until now. Earthman Frank Compton used to be a high-ranked agent with the powerful Western Alliance until he unearthed a political scandal that ended several careers, including his own. Now he's working freelance - and he has just found a strange young man who, though on the edge of death, lived just long enough to hand off a Quadrail ticket made out in Frank's name. Via the mysterious woman Bayta, the Spiders are reaching out to him. They want to hire him to investigate a possible impending attack on one of their stations: an unprecedented blasphemy on one of the core galactic resources. Frank's investigation takes him light-years across space, through the heart of alien politics, to uncover a vast and chilling conspiracy that is about to secure an unbreakable stranglehold over the entire galaxy.

REVIEW: I've previously read Zahn's adventurous middle-grade Dragonback Adventures, and from the concept I thought this would be along roughly the same lines: numerous aliens and casual planet-hopping and plenty of adventure, and if sometimes it stretched credulity it would ultimately be fun and interesting enough to breeze through. Unfortunately, Night Train to Rigel doesn't breeze, but rather clunks and lurches and breaks its own back around hairpin bends that don't always make sense and action sequences that exist for the sake of action sequences.
Zahn openly and even gleefully bases the story on old thriller and suspense movies, particularly Hitchcock and train mysteries, but while some authors can pull off the retro vibe, it just plain doesn't work here. The narrator Frank spends a lot of time hiding his true motives and deductions from the reader. His ostensible partner, the walking "mysterious lady" cliche Bayta, spends a lot of time hiding her true motives as well, while needing to be rescued and have things explained to her. (She is also, near as I could tell, the only female of any species in the entire galaxy. There's vague mention of females in the background of maybe two scenes, but every other named character was male or referred to as "he", even the ones with no stated gender. Makes one wonder how any race became populous enough to colonize multiple worlds, unless cloning is all the rage. Either that, or no race has women in any position of power, which is even more demeaning than eliminating the gender altogether. But, I digress...) Frank encounters a slew of oddball aliens (that don't ultimately seem all that alien underneath the scales or fur), which the reader is supposed to keep track of, among numerous star systems and outposts and planets and moons that the reader is also supposed to keep track of. Through this all wends a collision of conspiracies and secrets and lies which I honestly stopped caring about by the 1/3 mark, lost in a sea of interspecies testosterone with lots of fist fights and tired cliches and other ways in which square-jawed old school hero Frank proves human men to be the superior race of all alien races by figuring everything out despite all the half-truths he's fed (though he doesn't bother letting the reader in on it until the end, because to heck with letting the reader in on the plot.)
By the end, with the possible exception of the Quadrail concept, I didn't care about the galaxy or anyone in it, least of all Frank Compton, so I lacked a certain emotional investment in the climax and resolution. Though I got this as a Kindle 3-pack, I will not be reading on.

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Star Rigger's Way (Jeffrey A. Carver) - My Review
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
Revenger (Alastair Reynolds) - My Review

Recursion (Blake Crouch)

Recursion
Blake Crouch
Ballantine Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Thriller
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: New York City detective Barry Sutton had heard of FMS - False Memory Syndrome, people who suddenly and inexplicably find an extra set of incongruous life memories in their brains - but until that night atop the Poe Building he'd never encountered a victim. The suicidal woman claims to be plagued by a life that no longer existed, a marriage that never happened, a son she never had. He wants to forget about the tragedy and the death he couldn't stop. But she was so convinced, and had so many little details of the life she never truly lived, he can't help poking around. What he finds will upend his understanding of time and memory, an invention created by researcher Helena Smith with the best of intentions that is exploited by humanity's worst representatives, threatening the future of the species and possibly the structural integrity of reality itself.

REVIEW: Recursion follows some very familiar themes from Crouch's Dark Matter, which explored the quantum multiverse, but in a different enough fashion that they're not simple rehashes (mostly.) Once again, a scientist's ambitions open the door to the darkest of human impulses, and one man finds himself caught in the middle of it with a strange and attractive woman. It's hardly a spoiler that FMS is not just a matter of "false" memories - this is a sci-fi title, after all - but something far more revolutionary. His journey takes on deeply personal overtones when he's given a chance to undo the great tragedy that has defined his life, the death of his teenage daughter, but actions always have unintended consequences, even actions motivated by love. Meanwhile, Helena sees her life's work horribly altered; what started as a plan to map and store human memories against dementia (inspired by her mother, afflicted with Alzheimer's disease) instead gets co-opted by a series of outsiders once it turns out to be a scientific breakthrough she never anticipated, one that opens the gateways of time and reality. As one might guess from the "thriller" tag, the story involves lots of harrowing and horrific moments, games of cat and mouse through a malleable timestream where enemies can literally stay a step ahead of any move. Barry and Helena are pushed to the physical and psychological breaking point and beyond by their efforts to stop the world-ending cataclysm unleashed by Helena's research. At times, Crouch drew out the tension too long, there's a little too much navel-gazing on the nature of reality toward the climax, guys have a way of having to protect gals a little too often, and Barry could be slower on the uptake than a detective ought to be, plus - like in Dark Matter - there's a subtle reliance on the "white picket fence" family ideal being the only truly good and fulfilling ambition a person ought to have (with those who aspire to build other lives and careers either deeply regretting it or turning amoral/evil), but ultimately it's a decent and intense thriller.
As a closing note, I do have some minor complaint about the audiobook version. The narrators sometimes dropped their voices low to imitate whispers or mumbles, which did not work out well when one is listening to said audiobook in a less-than-quiet warehouse.

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A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying (Kelley Armstrong)

A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying
The Royal Guide to Monster Slaying series, Book 1
Kelley Armstrong
Puffin Canada
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: By the traditions of their realm, the firstborn child of the reigning monarch is destined to become the next King or Queen, and the next-eldest inherits the role of Royal Monster Hunter. In the case of twins Princess Rowan and Prince Rhydd, mere minutes separate their destinies... minutes that Rowan would do anything to reverse. Her brother is a decent enough hunter, but a much better diplomat than she will ever be, and she is not only the superior tracker but has a passion for the job that he never developed. It's not just about slaying beasts; it's about managing them, understanding them, reducing conflicts with humans. Killing is always the last resort. If only she could prove herself to her mother and the others of the royal council.
When her chance comes, it has a price tag she never anticipated. A gryphon attack leaves the realm suddenly without a monster slayer, just as more and more sightings are reported. But there are those who don't believe the twelve-year-old has what it takes to take up the ebony sword. She is set a challenge: within the year, she is to kill the gryphon that got away. To do this, she'll have to get training from a reclusive master who has turned down every apprentice who ever came to him. But Rowan isn't about to give up. Not when her success or failure will determine not only her own fate, but the future of the entire realm, which could fall into the hands of a tyrant. With a gruff warg and a scrappy young jackalope as her only companions, she sets off the prove herself.

REVIEW: Another audiobook to kill time at work, A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying has a slightly misleading title. Rowan and her colleagues and predecessors aren't "slayers" at all, save when there's no other choice. Even "hunter" is a minor misnomer. But, then, the term "monster" itself is a bit of a contentious one in the story itself; many people attribute them with magical or demonic powers, when the monster hunters themselves understand that they're just animals, if often very dangerous and clever animals, the result of natural evolution and not supernatural intercession. (Well, evolution with some stretching, of course, to end up with gryphons and pegasi, but it works in the story world.) In any event, Rowan starts off determined to find a way to defy tradition and swap roles with her twin brother, but she has a lot to learn about not just the job but the world at large beyond the castle walls. She encounters more than one sign that, outside her small noble circles, the realm isn't quite the peaceful and contented place she's always believed, with real suffering and injustices that can't always be blamed on other noble houses or simple mistakes. The monsters, too, can be trickier than her studies and previous sheltered experience set her up for. But Rowan is nothing if not persistent, learning from her mistakes and from those around her (when she realizes she actually has something to learn from them, at least.) The plot has few if any lulls, full of decent characters (save a couple flat baddies) and intense encounters and several fun moments. The whole makes for a solid tale of fantasy-flavored adventure with many memorable beasts and a protagonist worth rooting for.

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The Long Price Quartet (Daniel Abraham)

The Long Price Quartet
Books 1 - 4
Daniel Abraham
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Long, long ago, the grand Empire ruled with the force of the andats: abstract concepts, given tangible form and enslaved by men known as poets, that could turn solid stone soft as butter or leave lands barren as sand or perform other world-changing feats with a single thought. But cataclysmic infighting led to collapse and swathes of desolation that still mark the world. Today’s Khaiem are but a shadow of their former majesty, but still hold the increasingly-elusive andat in thrall, fueling industry and acting as deterrent even to the warlike Galts... but, just as the Empire itself succumbed, so, too, will the cities of the Khaiem, because, for all the powers of the andats, the Khaiem and their subjects are still blindly, fallibly human.
This was originally published in four volumes:
A Shadow in Summer: As a boy, Khai Machi’s youngest son Otah was sent to the school of the Dai-Kvo, master poet. If Otah endures the brutal education, he will become a poet and someday have the honor and burden of binding an andat. If he fails, he will be branded and go forth to find his way in the world, no longer a contender for his father’s throne and thus spared the traditional fratricidal violence of succession. But Otah does the unthinkable: disgusted by the horrible things done to him, and which he is compelled to do to others, in the Dai-Kvo's service, he walks away, refusing both the brand and the poet’s robes. Years later, his life as an anonymous indentured laborer in the great port city of Saraykeht is disrupted when a foreign house plots against the local Khai’s poet and the andat known as Seedless. What initially seems a bid to disrupt Saraykeht’s dominance of the lucrative cotton industry has ramifications that could lead to the fall of all Khaiem and the last vestiges of the lost Empire.
A Betrayal in Winter: As the aging Khai Machi lays dying, his sons prepare to murder each other with the last one standing inheriting the black throne, a tradition dating back to the Empire. But from the start, someone seems to be playing against even the minimal rules of these violent transitions... and the obvious culprit to blame is Machi’s outcast fourth son, who already flouted all respect for tradition: Otah. Though he has been hiding under an assumed name, entirely uninterested in ruling anything, he realizes he must return to the home city that cast him out, lest he endanger those he loves most when they hunt him down for crimes he didn't commit. Returning will almost certainly mean his death, especially when the only man who believes him innocent of the charges against him is a failed poet in poor standing whom he last saw in the final golden days of Saraykeht when both were in love with the same woman: Maati.
An Autumn War: Now Khai of the city of Machi, Otah is determined not to follow the bloody traditions that led to the slaughter of the rest of his family... a determination that sets him at odds with pretty much every ally and even his own subjects. After all, the cities of the Khaiem are built on foundations of tradition as much as stone. But a greater threat looms on the horizon: Galt has not ceased its ambition to strip the Khaiem of their powerful and dangerous andat (and, not incidentally, help themselves to the vast wealth of their otherwise-defenseless treasuries.) And, thanks to an ambitious and relentless scholar-turned-general, they stand poised to do just that.
The Price of Spring: Otah Machi, the boy who once turned his back on the poets and his heritage, is now the Emperor, but of a doomed people. Poet Maati’s failed attempt to bind a new andat left every girl and woman in his realm barren... and every boy and man of the invading Galtic nation sterile. To save both nations, he proposes an exchange, even offering his only son Darat to a Galtic high councilor’s daughter. But the disgraced Maati still yearns to make amends for his errors and reclaim the independence and glory of the Khaiem. He has, in defiance of Otah and every tradition dating back to the first Empire, begun training girls and women in the ways of the poets, in the hopes that one of them will succeed where he failed. His efforts could destroy the fragile future Otah is trying to build, just as Otah's own ambitions risk alienating those closest to him.

REVIEW: If I’m being honest, I probably would’ve stopped reading after the first volume had I encountered these titles individually. While the concepts were interesting and the setting well-described and -thought out, I didn’t really like anyone in it, and didn’t care about the fates of them or their various nations. But, since I already had the whole quartert, I decided to read on... and, in doing so, figured out what was going on. Abraham had not written four stories that were part of a larger series. Rather, he had written one long story that happened to be published in four volumes. The reason the first book felt unsatisfying was because it was an incomplete thought.
Abraham crafts an original epic fantasy world less dependent on chosen heroes and grand battles against the hordes of evil and more about the cultural and economic clashes and struggles that ultimately determine the fates of empires. In the first book, the andat known as Seedless is essentially being used as a magical cotton gin in a world with minimal widespread machinery, giving Saraykeht an unbeatable economic edge against other trade ports... but andats are unreliable and becoming harder and harder to keep enslaved, leaving the cities of the Khaiem vulnerable to the ruthlessness and ingenuity of rivals. They don’t even have standing armies, so sure that the andat can protect them from any foe. Khai Saraykeht laughs away a man who tries to warn them of the threat posed by Galt’s steam-powered war wagons, but the reader can read the writing on the wall, and soon enough so can Otah and his companions. (It’s not quite proper to call them “friends”; the culture they live in, the formalities, class divisions, and traditions that Otah flagrantly flouts, the different visions of what the world and the future should be, do not quite allow for true friendship, but they come to share common goals and learn to respect one another, even when they're embittered enemies.) This is ultimately a tale of a world in transition, moving away from powerful yet fickle forces of enslaved magic, away from old bloodthirsty traditions, and toward a new vision built by human minds and hands, a world of steam engines and unified nations. For such a world to come to pass, there must be sacrifices, and the harder a nation clings to obsolete ways, the more is destroyed by time's inevitable march.
As an epic, there are, of course, many characters, but the central one is Otah Machi. We meet him as a young boy enduring the brutality of the poet's school, finding the courage to defy both life-paths laid out for him by others: the way of the poet, enslaver of an andat, and the way of the Khai, murderer of family in the name of power. He aspires to disappear in the wider world, but learns the hard way, more than once, that it's impossible to outrun one's own destiny. Against his will, he finds himself drawn back into politics, into the circle of the poets whom he'd fled, into the dangers of the andats and the threat of Galt. He makes friends and, too often, must sacrifice them in the name of the greater good, or at least what he believes to be the greater good. He often faces decisions where there is no good answer. He finds love and loses it, finds hope and loses that, and thus ultimately rises to reforge the lost Empire and usher in a new future, even knowing he will never truly see the fruits of his long life's labors. Otah makes for an interesting and complex, but not always likeable, main character. The same could be said for the rest of the cast; even when I didn't like or agree with them, their tales were compelling enough to keep me turning pages.
If I have any real issues with the story, it's how some matters of gender were handled, particularly those that were never quite resolved. The whole also felt a little longer than it needed to be, and for all its length I kept feeling there were some things that just fell by the wayside that ought to have been properly addressed for closure. On the balance, though, I enjoyed this story. It's a different take on epic fantasy; while there were battles and matters of succession and other familiar staples, it was ultimately more about the politics, the negotiations and treaties made and broken, set in an original world with richly realized cultures.

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The Expanse #3 (Corinna Sara Bechko)

The Expanse #3
The Expanse series, Issue 3
Corinna Sara Bechko and James S. A. Corey (Creators), illustrations by Alejandro Aragon
BOOM! Comics
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: On Earth and Mars, former secretary general Chrisjen Avasarala and ex-marine Bobbie Draper have been investigating a web of corruption - and, in doing so, kicked a hornet nest far bigger and more dangerous than they could have imagined. While Chrisjen finds herself trapped on Luna, Bobbie regroups after a setback... both realizing they've only seen the tip of the iceberg, and that they're in too deep to turn back now, even if it kills them.
This series takes place between Seasons 4 and 5 of the Amazon Prime series The Expanse, based on the books by James S. A. Corey.

REVIEW: The third installment of this bridge series picks up the pace somewhat. Both of them are finally realizing the sheer scale of what they've unearthed, how deep the rot runs and the unimaginable reach of its agents, but this only makes them more determined. The two outwardly mismatched women continue to make an unexpectedly solid team. Neither one takes well to having been caught off-guard, and the setbacks only make them more eager to get at the heart of the problem. But, for all their determination, they are still only two people, one a disgraced Earth politician past her prime and the other an ex-officer on a dying world. I'm looking forward to the fourth installment.

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Driftwood (Marie Brennan)

Driftwood
Marie Brennan
Tachyon Publications
Fiction, Fantasy
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Driftwood is where worlds go to die, though many refuse to believe it. From their first appearances at the Edge, bits start disappearing from them - a city here, a sun there - as they slowly drift and shrink, bumping up against other doomed worlds on their way through the Ring and the Shreds to the ultimate doom of the Crush. Survival is only possible through trade among the constantly-changing races and worlds and cultures, but eventually everyone succumbs... or, at least, almost everyone.
The people of Driftwood call him Last, and whatever true name he had was lost ages ago along with whatever remnants of his home world and birth species were sucked into the Crush's oblivion. Somehow, though, he persists, taking work as a guide now and again, or - more often lately - hiding out from those who would seek his wisdom, for surely, if anyone knows a way to defy the inevitable doom of the Crush, it must be the man who appears to have cheated Death itself. But even legends may have their breaking point, and it's possible that Last has finally reached his.

REVIEW: I've been reading and enjoying Brennan's Natural History of Dragons series, so when I saw this title as I was searching for new audiobooks to listen to at work, I thought it would be a fairly safe bet. Unfortunately, this book has a couple serious issues that prevented me from enjoying it nearly as much as the adventures of the dragon naturalist Lady Trent.
The first problem is that this book, which really feels more like a series of vignettes and short stories with a rough frame device, is supposed to be about the broody, enigmatic Last... a character who is so broody and so enigmatic that I couldn't begin to connect with him, not helped by how Brennan deliberately keeps the reader out of his head. He's a fringe character in every tale, a lurker around the edges, a meddler of uncertain motivation (save a general resentment at having to involve himself in the affairs of others at all, coupled with a contradictory urge to meddle) who appears and melts away at random, and though he's supposed to be a tragic figure he comes across more as sullen and brooding. I have a limited tolerance when it comes to sullen and brooding characters, for all that they're so very popular, especially when I'm not given any other insight into their character, any other hook or reason to enjoy exploring a world with them. And yet everyone in the book, every culture and character, almost literally (and actually literally in a few instances) worships the ground at his feet. There's even a prolonged sequence where people are wondering if he's finally died and left them for good that reads for all the world like a fan forum talking itself through a potential series cancellation or character death, trading favorite fanfic and speculating on the validity of various rumors and even dealing with a persistent troll... a fandom I am not a part of. How did he earn this fervent devotion? What did they see in him that I didn't?
The second problem stems off the first. Driftwood is a world composed of dying worlds. From the moment they pass from the outer Mists, they are inevitably doomed to crumble, shrink, and decay, to fade and ultimately to be forgotten. Every story, therefore, has at its core a brooding knowledge that all is mortal, all is dying, all defiance or attempt to stave off the inevitable is the height of foolishness or hubris. It becomes hard to care about the worlds in these stories or the people in them, most of whom are flailing valiantly yet foolishly against an oblivion they can literally watch unfolding around them... and, on top of that, they move at a pace that makes a glacier look supersonic, repeating themselves in their angsty obsessing over impending extinction. It might not have been so bad had there been a story to care about and focus on, but there is no real story here, just several fragments drifting along to nowhere.
In the end, this is a case of failed potential. There's a setting - a multitude of settings, really, in the many worlds of Driftwood. There are also characters that I kept hoping to connect with. But the whole was saturated by its own nihilistic overtones and the fact that there just plain isn't a story underneath it all.

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Walking to Aldebaran (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

Walking to Aldebaran
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Tantor Audio
Fiction, Humor/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Gary Rendell always wanted to be an astronaut. Who wouldn't? It looked like great fun, flying in rocket ships and exploring the solar system, so much more exciting than accounting or running the train.
Nobody mentioned the downsides to the job: the political squabbling over mission directives, the tedium of long trips... the bits about being lost and alone, fighting monsters and traps concocted by unknowable intelligences that can twist universal rules like so much taffy, and eating bits of dead alien to survive.
Gary Rendell had the misfortune to become an astronaut just when Earth makes an astonishing discovery: an impossible artifact, clearly the work of some unimaginable alien intellect, out on the fringes of the solar system, one that does very strange things to space probes and defies just about every known law of physics and probably more than a few unknown laws as well. Being chosen for the manned exploration mission should've been a dream come true. Only the mission goes awry almost from the start, leaving Gary lost and alone. Now he wanders through the endless halls of a place he has dubbed the Crypts, scavenging what sustenance he can, talking to an imaginary companion to try to cling to some vestige of sanity.
Gary finds wonders beyond human comprehension. Gary finds aliens, living and dead and maybe somewhere in between. Gary finds insidious traps and places where ordinary laws take unexpected vacations. What Gary hasn't yet found is any sign of his fellow astronauts... or any sign of the way back home.

REVIEW: Another audiobook to help overtime seem mildly less tedious, Walking to Aldebaran starts sharp and fast, laced with clever, if sometimes dark, deadpan humor in the vein of Douglas Adams. In the tradition of Arthur Dent, he's a man who never asked to be caught up in great and dangerous adventures beyond Earth, and haplessly does the best he can when confronted with impossible situations. By the time we join him, his mental state is already not the greatest - hence his narration to the imaginary companion "Toto," the listener/reader - and it only deteriorates through the story as the artifact seemingly conspires to push him beyond the brink. And what is the artifact? Even after months lost in its bowels, Gary can offer no definitive answer in this cautionary tale whose moral is that just because a thing is there, that doesn't mean we should go poking it, or that it was put there for us. Tchaikovsky's delivery helps up the amusement factor on Gary's often-hilarious asides and observations, and I snickered more than once. Then I reached the ending, and the final twists that, while they did fit the overall narrative (and weren't just out of the blue) and had a certain nod to classic literature, left a sour taste in my mouth that cost it a half-star. Aside from that, though, it's a delightfully twisted little story of an astronaut's dream of space exploration gone horribly wrong.

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Breaking Wild (Diane Les Becquets)

Breaking Wild
Diane Les Becquets
Berkely
Fiction, Adventure/Thriller
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: The Colorado wilderness offers all manner of adventures for any outdoor enthusiast, from day hikers and photographers to archaeologists and hunters. Amy Raye Latour, a bow hunter after elk, was determined to bag a kill away from her rifle-hunting companions, so she decided to strike out solo on the last day of their trip... and never returned, leaving behind a husband, a family, and a host of dark secrets about to come to light.
Ranger Pru Hathaway is no stranger to the local wilderness or to search operations; her dog is one of the few certified search animals in the area, and between them they've put in more than their share of hours scouring the woods and canyons for disoriented or injured visitors. But usually the missing are found fairly quickly, whether dead or alive. Amy Raye seems to have vanished off the face of the earth... but, while everyone else is convinced she fell victim to the foul weather or a cougar or perhaps even took her own life, Pru isn't so ready to give up.

REVIEW: The blurb made this sound like a taut story of survival, tracking both Pru's increasingly desperate searches for the truth and Amy Raye's increasingly hopeless situation. Unfortunately, it was also stuffed with far too much padding and backstory and an ending that draws itself out too long to maintain anything like solid tension.
Amy Raye got dealt a bad hand, victim of childhood sexual abuse that manifests in unhealthy coping behaviors that threaten her marriage and future, which doesn't quite excuse some of her outright selfish and stupid decisions during the course of her ordeal. Pru also had a trauma in her youth of a different nature, but turned her life around. Both find healing in the Colorado wilderness (albeit under different circumstances) - and in the fact that they have children and dogs, because apparently no woman's life is truly whole or healthy until she has reproduced and no other pet exists in the world they inhabit except dogs. (Seriously, the dog thing started getting out of hand, without adding much to the story.) Pru spends some time out in the woods on often-fruitless attempts to track the whereabouts of Amy Raye (or at least find her presumed body), but spends at least as much time, if not more, sitting around talking or observing how wonderful her teenage son is and how happy her Colorado life is and being totally oblivious to the romantic tension with the local sheriff, with numerous circular sidetracks into her history that ultimately add little to the story except page count. Amy Raye's side of the tale feels somewhat shorted; it, too, is devoured largely by repetitive glimpses of her sad youth and the bad choices that led her to her current low spot in life, then also wallows in the near-religious redemptive experience of being lost beyond all reasonable hope of rescue in the middle of nowhere. Many details of hunting and the Colorado wilderness are recreated in beautiful, sometimes stark detail: this is a place of marvelous natural wonders, but also a place where humans venture at their own risk, a place where there are all too often no second chances, and even those with experience can find events snowballing beyond their control in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, with all the backstory and the somewhat repetitive searches, it all ends up feeling less tense and more tedious long before it finally drags itself over the finish line for the ending.
While Breaking Wild has some decent descriptions and situations, ultimately I was uninterested in the meandering plot. (And, really, would it have killed someone in the cast - anyone - to have a pet cat? Hamster? Gecko? Anything but yet another dog?)

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War Girls (Tochi Onyebuchi)

War Girls
The War Girls series, Book 1
Tochi Onyebuchi
Razorbill
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: 2172 Nigeria lays split by civil war, even as the world suffers the worst effects of disasters natural and human engineered: those nations who haven't the resources to spread to space colonies must contend with rising sea levels and vast swaths of land so irradiated that mere minutes of exposure corrodes machinery and induces cancer. At a hidden camp of girl soldiers deep in the jungle, Onyii does her best to look out for young Ify, shielding her from the worst hardships of their lives and even building an android to keep watch over the girl when she goes out on scavenging raids. Though not of the same blood, they are close as sisters. But when their camp is discovered and attacked, the two girls are torn apart. Ify finds herself "rescued" by Nigerian forces, who insist she's really Nigerian and was abducted by "savage" Ibo rebels. Onyii, left for dead, only barely survives. Convinced that Ify was killed, she uses her rage to become the most feared mech pilot and warrior of the fledgling Ibo nation of Biafra. As the years pass, the war rages on, and atrocities mount, it's only a matter of time before their paths cross again... but will they still be war sisters, or will they be the deadliest of enemies?

REVIEW: Inspired by the 1960's civil war that rocked Nigeria (one the government tends to deny or gloss over, even as the tensions that led to it, with roots in colonial exploitation, still simmer and threaten to explode again), War Girls offers a harsh examination of the physical and psychological costs of war, nationalism, mineral exploitation, and foreign indifference. The future war may be fought with giant mechs and borderline-sapient androids, with people who are partly mechanical as often as not, but the devastation remains the same, lives blown apart and holes carved in hearts for causes that rarely, if ever, honor the sacrifices made, let alone repay those who made them. Onyii was at one time a true believer, who ran away from school to become a soldier for Biafra, but even by the time the story starts she's become scarred and more jaded, driven to defend what innocence she can in young Ify. Battle becomes an addiction, a way to deal with loss and anger, until she finally has to ask herself just what she has become, and if that's all she ever will be. The younger girl is a technological prodigy, the kind of child who could someday change the world... if she didn't live in a war-torn nation, if she'd never lost her family or picked up a gun, if the world ever gave her a chance to be herself and not what others make her into. Separated, they find themselves in vastly different circumstances but with some unnerving similarities, both becoming symbols and tools and both having to come to terms with the fact that the nations they pledge loyalty and love to offer no reciprocation of the deal. The tale is intense and fast-paced, with many battles and betrayals and losses and sacrifice. Toward the end is a somewhat plot convenient encounter, plus there's a loose thread or two I wish had been followed up on (one in particular), but overall I enjoyed it, and will probably be looking for the next installment eventually.

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