The month's twelve reviews have been archived and cross-linked at the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Windward (S. Kaeth)
Windward
S. Kaeth
Hakea Media
Fiction, Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Palon gave up her life as an ordinary Rinarian when she was twelve years old and a dragon offered her the freedom of the skies. By becoming dragonbonded, mentally linked to the great dragon Windward to the point of absorbing many dragon traits such as hoarding, she enters a partnership that will only end in death, no longer able to return to life in her old village among ordinary humans without going insane in a very literal sense, but Palon accepts it gladly. Nothing could be better than soaring above many worlds, defending their herd beasts from predators and helping Windward keep well-groomed. She has a new family, the other dragonbonded humans of Windward's mountain nest... but, as with all family, things can be tense, the constant jockeying for status among the dragons translating to squabbles among their humans. But when push comes to shove, ultimately the bonds of nest and family win out - or so she's been led to believe.
With the eldest dragon Silver Spine in his final days, tensions are already high. Then Laetiran, bonded of Fired Sand, starts picking at an old rivalry with Palon and her mate Aturadin of Scorch Frost, spreading rumors and starting fights and always somehow making himself look like the offended party. When someone starts stealing from dragon hoards - an unheard-of offense - tensions through the nest only ratchet higher. Then the arrival of a reluctant hew bonded, Tebah, mere months before the winter torpor - a terrible time to form a new bond - throws more oil on the fire. And there's something very unusual about the crystal Palon found the last time she and Windward were out defending the herds. When stolen items are found in Palon and Aturadin's private hoards, everything explodes, threatening to destroy family bonds and the nest itself forever.
REVIEW: First off, this book does have a lot of potential, and a lot going for it. The symbiotic relationship of dragons and their bonded humans is interesting, with nods to McCaffrey's Pernese dragons and others, and the dragon culture and hierarchy are decently fleshed out and explored. These dragons are solidly dragons, not scaly puppies or outsized humans, with all the might and wonder and danger and otherness that implies. Unfortunately, the characters and story itself let that potential down, to the point where I spent far more of my reading time grinding my teeth than enjoying myself.
The characters, almost universally (barring the dragons, who have the excuse of not being human), are annoying, overreactive and stubborn and, frankly, somewhat stupid about how they handle nearly everything. Palon is the chief offender here, for all that she was the main character and I was stuck following her through the book. Second up would be Tebah, the girl who - despite generations of stories in their world about the unbreakable nature of a dragon's bond - stupidly agreed to a bond under false pretenses and acts like an utterly immature and petty jerk, never once acknowledging that she's the one to blame for her own mess. She even laughs as her dragon suffers. Her presence was probably supposed to be the author's way of walking a reader through the world of the dragonbonded, but instead it was just irritating, plus it was unnecessary as a walkthrough because Palon had already told me just about everything worth knowing. Then told me again. Then repeated it. This book would've been maybe half as long had Kaeth taken a needed machete to the constant repeating of what the reader already knew in ways that did not advance the plot or characters a single iota. As for the plot... it's, frankly, a mess of colliding ideas and tensions, too many and developed in too uneven a way to begin to resolve in a remotely satisfactory manner. Many of the characters' actions, frankly, do not make a lot of sense, driven by anger and spite and stubbornness, coming across as utterly immature across the board. Everyone knows Laetiran and Fired Sand are power-hungry jerks, yet suddenly their word is golden? Palon goes on and on about the bonds of family among the dragonbonded and how, down deep, they all love each other like kin, yet apparently they've hated her all along and consider her an unreliable hothead and have just been waiting for her to mess up? And then there are enemies of dragons (who?), and faeries, and other worlds, and something about the predatory walavaims (winged felids) acting unusually, and another nest that pokes its nose inexplicably into their business (over something that her own nest should've known or sensed, but didn't because plot hole), and the world's cruddiest dragonbonded "leader" who let things get this bad to begin with, and "investigations" that don't actually investigate, and dragons who have forgotten their own Dragon Law (and nobody keeps records? These dragons who claim to value the knowledge they accumulate over long generations of extra-long lifetimes, and the dragonbonded who also claim to value that knowledge, don't have a single, solitary record keeper on site?), and... and... All of this, packed full of characters I never connected with and often didn't care for, dragons excepted.
As I mentioned at the start, there's a lot of potential in Windward, and much that should be interesting. Unfortunately, the execution, the constant repetition in lieu of progress, the often-aggravating characters, and the seemingly haphazard collision of plotlines made it just too frustrating for even a flat Okay rating.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dragonriders of Pern (Anne McCaffrey) - My Review
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik) - My Review
Dragon's Blood (Jane Yolen) - My Review
S. Kaeth
Hakea Media
Fiction, Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Palon gave up her life as an ordinary Rinarian when she was twelve years old and a dragon offered her the freedom of the skies. By becoming dragonbonded, mentally linked to the great dragon Windward to the point of absorbing many dragon traits such as hoarding, she enters a partnership that will only end in death, no longer able to return to life in her old village among ordinary humans without going insane in a very literal sense, but Palon accepts it gladly. Nothing could be better than soaring above many worlds, defending their herd beasts from predators and helping Windward keep well-groomed. She has a new family, the other dragonbonded humans of Windward's mountain nest... but, as with all family, things can be tense, the constant jockeying for status among the dragons translating to squabbles among their humans. But when push comes to shove, ultimately the bonds of nest and family win out - or so she's been led to believe.
With the eldest dragon Silver Spine in his final days, tensions are already high. Then Laetiran, bonded of Fired Sand, starts picking at an old rivalry with Palon and her mate Aturadin of Scorch Frost, spreading rumors and starting fights and always somehow making himself look like the offended party. When someone starts stealing from dragon hoards - an unheard-of offense - tensions through the nest only ratchet higher. Then the arrival of a reluctant hew bonded, Tebah, mere months before the winter torpor - a terrible time to form a new bond - throws more oil on the fire. And there's something very unusual about the crystal Palon found the last time she and Windward were out defending the herds. When stolen items are found in Palon and Aturadin's private hoards, everything explodes, threatening to destroy family bonds and the nest itself forever.
REVIEW: First off, this book does have a lot of potential, and a lot going for it. The symbiotic relationship of dragons and their bonded humans is interesting, with nods to McCaffrey's Pernese dragons and others, and the dragon culture and hierarchy are decently fleshed out and explored. These dragons are solidly dragons, not scaly puppies or outsized humans, with all the might and wonder and danger and otherness that implies. Unfortunately, the characters and story itself let that potential down, to the point where I spent far more of my reading time grinding my teeth than enjoying myself.
The characters, almost universally (barring the dragons, who have the excuse of not being human), are annoying, overreactive and stubborn and, frankly, somewhat stupid about how they handle nearly everything. Palon is the chief offender here, for all that she was the main character and I was stuck following her through the book. Second up would be Tebah, the girl who - despite generations of stories in their world about the unbreakable nature of a dragon's bond - stupidly agreed to a bond under false pretenses and acts like an utterly immature and petty jerk, never once acknowledging that she's the one to blame for her own mess. She even laughs as her dragon suffers. Her presence was probably supposed to be the author's way of walking a reader through the world of the dragonbonded, but instead it was just irritating, plus it was unnecessary as a walkthrough because Palon had already told me just about everything worth knowing. Then told me again. Then repeated it. This book would've been maybe half as long had Kaeth taken a needed machete to the constant repeating of what the reader already knew in ways that did not advance the plot or characters a single iota. As for the plot... it's, frankly, a mess of colliding ideas and tensions, too many and developed in too uneven a way to begin to resolve in a remotely satisfactory manner. Many of the characters' actions, frankly, do not make a lot of sense, driven by anger and spite and stubbornness, coming across as utterly immature across the board. Everyone knows Laetiran and Fired Sand are power-hungry jerks, yet suddenly their word is golden? Palon goes on and on about the bonds of family among the dragonbonded and how, down deep, they all love each other like kin, yet apparently they've hated her all along and consider her an unreliable hothead and have just been waiting for her to mess up? And then there are enemies of dragons (who?), and faeries, and other worlds, and something about the predatory walavaims (winged felids) acting unusually, and another nest that pokes its nose inexplicably into their business (over something that her own nest should've known or sensed, but didn't because plot hole), and the world's cruddiest dragonbonded "leader" who let things get this bad to begin with, and "investigations" that don't actually investigate, and dragons who have forgotten their own Dragon Law (and nobody keeps records? These dragons who claim to value the knowledge they accumulate over long generations of extra-long lifetimes, and the dragonbonded who also claim to value that knowledge, don't have a single, solitary record keeper on site?), and... and... All of this, packed full of characters I never connected with and often didn't care for, dragons excepted.
As I mentioned at the start, there's a lot of potential in Windward, and much that should be interesting. Unfortunately, the execution, the constant repetition in lieu of progress, the often-aggravating characters, and the seemingly haphazard collision of plotlines made it just too frustrating for even a flat Okay rating.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dragonriders of Pern (Anne McCaffrey) - My Review
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik) - My Review
Dragon's Blood (Jane Yolen) - My Review
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Witchmark (C. L. Polk)
Witchmark
The Kingston Cycle, Book 1
C. L. Polk
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like countless other men and women of Aeland, Miles went away to war in distant Laneer only to return permanently scarred in mind and body... but his scars hide a deeper secret, powers that would have him branded a witch and locked away in an asylum lest he go mad with it. He actually ran away from home to join the army to keep his greedy noble family from turning him into a veritable slave, exploiting his power for their own purposes. Instead, he uses his magic, along with his medical training, to serve as a psychiatrist in a veterans hospital in the capital city of Kingston, trying to help fellow veterans who suffer from trauma-born delusions with strikingly similar symptoms. He believes he's managed to avoid suspicion, keeping a low profile and trying to limit how much power he uses in his job and life, until a stranger brings a dying man to his hospital - a dying man who knows what Miles is, and pleads for his help. Reluctantly, Miles teams up with the handsome stranger, one Mr. Tristan Hunter, to investigate... only to find a conspiracy much deeper and bigger than he expected, and secrets that make his own pale in comparison.
REVIEW: Witchmark crafts an interesting retro-flavored fantasy world, one with carriages and bicycles and "aether"-powered lights and gadgetry bringing rapid changes even as the nation relies upon noble-born Storm-Singer mages for its prosperity (while condemning any with magic born to lesser classes as witches, because clearly only blue bloods have the fortitude to properly use power of any sort) and populating it with characters who usually aren't flat or simplistic or obvious in their strengths or failings. Miles has a conflicted past that has left him with lots of trauma, learning to hide himself and downplay his abilities as a matter of survival; when caught in something much bigger that demands much more of him, he hesitates and stumbles before finding his way out of the tidy little bolthole he's made for himself. His attraction to Tristan is immediate, but there are secrets and barriers there, one major one being that Tristan is not as human as he first appears; he is an Amaranthine, somewhere between faerie and angel in nature and reputation, and he has come to Aeland with a very grave mission that might help or hurt Miles's search for a killer. Meanwhile, Miles hasn't been quite as successful as he thought in escaping the notice of his family and would-be captors. Even the sister who claims to love him does not understand him, and his father never bothers to understand anything about anyone save how they can be used or broken, depending on whether they serve his political ambitions or impede them. The investigation wends through the streets and classes of Kingston and even into the motivations behind the just-ended war in Laneer, hitting several walls and breakthrough moments and ruffling some very dangerous feathers before coming to a dramatic climax.
At times, the politics and social issues feel tangled, and Miles's family could be tooth-grinding, plus every so often I wanted to shake Miles to make him step up to the danged plate and not scurry off into hiding from the plot or his own feelings. Overall, though, the story moved well and had a decent payoff. I might end up following the series through the next book at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sorcerer to the Crown (Zen Cho) - My Review
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (P. Djeli Clark) - My Review
The War of the Flowers (Tad Williams) - My Review
The Kingston Cycle, Book 1
C. L. Polk
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like countless other men and women of Aeland, Miles went away to war in distant Laneer only to return permanently scarred in mind and body... but his scars hide a deeper secret, powers that would have him branded a witch and locked away in an asylum lest he go mad with it. He actually ran away from home to join the army to keep his greedy noble family from turning him into a veritable slave, exploiting his power for their own purposes. Instead, he uses his magic, along with his medical training, to serve as a psychiatrist in a veterans hospital in the capital city of Kingston, trying to help fellow veterans who suffer from trauma-born delusions with strikingly similar symptoms. He believes he's managed to avoid suspicion, keeping a low profile and trying to limit how much power he uses in his job and life, until a stranger brings a dying man to his hospital - a dying man who knows what Miles is, and pleads for his help. Reluctantly, Miles teams up with the handsome stranger, one Mr. Tristan Hunter, to investigate... only to find a conspiracy much deeper and bigger than he expected, and secrets that make his own pale in comparison.
REVIEW: Witchmark crafts an interesting retro-flavored fantasy world, one with carriages and bicycles and "aether"-powered lights and gadgetry bringing rapid changes even as the nation relies upon noble-born Storm-Singer mages for its prosperity (while condemning any with magic born to lesser classes as witches, because clearly only blue bloods have the fortitude to properly use power of any sort) and populating it with characters who usually aren't flat or simplistic or obvious in their strengths or failings. Miles has a conflicted past that has left him with lots of trauma, learning to hide himself and downplay his abilities as a matter of survival; when caught in something much bigger that demands much more of him, he hesitates and stumbles before finding his way out of the tidy little bolthole he's made for himself. His attraction to Tristan is immediate, but there are secrets and barriers there, one major one being that Tristan is not as human as he first appears; he is an Amaranthine, somewhere between faerie and angel in nature and reputation, and he has come to Aeland with a very grave mission that might help or hurt Miles's search for a killer. Meanwhile, Miles hasn't been quite as successful as he thought in escaping the notice of his family and would-be captors. Even the sister who claims to love him does not understand him, and his father never bothers to understand anything about anyone save how they can be used or broken, depending on whether they serve his political ambitions or impede them. The investigation wends through the streets and classes of Kingston and even into the motivations behind the just-ended war in Laneer, hitting several walls and breakthrough moments and ruffling some very dangerous feathers before coming to a dramatic climax.
At times, the politics and social issues feel tangled, and Miles's family could be tooth-grinding, plus every so often I wanted to shake Miles to make him step up to the danged plate and not scurry off into hiding from the plot or his own feelings. Overall, though, the story moved well and had a decent payoff. I might end up following the series through the next book at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sorcerer to the Crown (Zen Cho) - My Review
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (P. Djeli Clark) - My Review
The War of the Flowers (Tad Williams) - My Review
Friday, August 26, 2022
Dead Voices (Katherine Arden)
Dead Voices
The Small Spaces quartet, Book 1
Katherine Arden
G. P. Putnam's Sons
Fiction, MG Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Coco used to be the new girl at school who many people didn't much like, too bubbly and clumsy and with pink hair to boot. That was before the incident on the school trip to the farm, where she and two classmates, Ollie and Brian, found themselves pulled into the world beyond the mists, a world of malevolent living scarecrows and mournful ghosts and a dark entity known as the Smiling Man, who offers wishes and plays games with terrible strings attached. Since surviving that, the three kids have been best friends. Now, they're on their way to a week at a new ski resort in the Vermont mountains, Hemlock Lodge, along with Ollie's widower father and Coco's single mother (who seems to be spending a lot of time with Ollie's dad lately). They're all looking forward to a vacation... but even before they get there, in the heart of a snowstorm, there are signs of trouble ahead. A phantom figure appears in the road, as though to bar the way. Nightmares warn about the "dead voices". And when they get to Hemlock Lodge, they find the power has failed and no other guests have been able to brave the roads. Then the stranger shows up and tells them of the lodge's haunted past, and the ghosts who may still be stalking the halls. Like it or not, Coco and her friends are about to experience another close encounter with the supernatural... only, this time, they may not escape with their lives.
REVIEW: I enjoyed Small Spaces, and had no idea Arden had extended the series into a quartet. While the first book focused mainly on Ollie as she came to terms with her mother's loss, this one shifts focus to small (and often underestimated) Coco. She likes her friends, and they like her, but sometimes she still feels out of place among them; they like books she doesn't like, and games she doesn't play, and sometimes it seems she doesn't belong with them much at all, despite their shared secrets. While Ollie still has a major role to play and more issues to work out, this time about her father possibly being ready to move on from her mother (who still seems to maintain a presence in Ollie's life through her peculiar watch), it's Coco's turn to step up and face the challenges of the phantom threat, one that may have a very familiar face underneath it all. As before, the adults are pretty much sidelined while the kids are left to deal with the (no real spoiler, as it's a horror title) all-too-real malevolent spirits of Hemlock Lodge. Also as before, there's plenty of creepy imagery and scary moments and a few nice twists along the way. I enjoyed it, and hope to get to the rest of the quartet soon.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Small Spaces (Katherine Arden) - My Review
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Shadows (Jacqueline West) - My Review
The Small Spaces quartet, Book 1
Katherine Arden
G. P. Putnam's Sons
Fiction, MG Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Coco used to be the new girl at school who many people didn't much like, too bubbly and clumsy and with pink hair to boot. That was before the incident on the school trip to the farm, where she and two classmates, Ollie and Brian, found themselves pulled into the world beyond the mists, a world of malevolent living scarecrows and mournful ghosts and a dark entity known as the Smiling Man, who offers wishes and plays games with terrible strings attached. Since surviving that, the three kids have been best friends. Now, they're on their way to a week at a new ski resort in the Vermont mountains, Hemlock Lodge, along with Ollie's widower father and Coco's single mother (who seems to be spending a lot of time with Ollie's dad lately). They're all looking forward to a vacation... but even before they get there, in the heart of a snowstorm, there are signs of trouble ahead. A phantom figure appears in the road, as though to bar the way. Nightmares warn about the "dead voices". And when they get to Hemlock Lodge, they find the power has failed and no other guests have been able to brave the roads. Then the stranger shows up and tells them of the lodge's haunted past, and the ghosts who may still be stalking the halls. Like it or not, Coco and her friends are about to experience another close encounter with the supernatural... only, this time, they may not escape with their lives.
REVIEW: I enjoyed Small Spaces, and had no idea Arden had extended the series into a quartet. While the first book focused mainly on Ollie as she came to terms with her mother's loss, this one shifts focus to small (and often underestimated) Coco. She likes her friends, and they like her, but sometimes she still feels out of place among them; they like books she doesn't like, and games she doesn't play, and sometimes it seems she doesn't belong with them much at all, despite their shared secrets. While Ollie still has a major role to play and more issues to work out, this time about her father possibly being ready to move on from her mother (who still seems to maintain a presence in Ollie's life through her peculiar watch), it's Coco's turn to step up and face the challenges of the phantom threat, one that may have a very familiar face underneath it all. As before, the adults are pretty much sidelined while the kids are left to deal with the (no real spoiler, as it's a horror title) all-too-real malevolent spirits of Hemlock Lodge. Also as before, there's plenty of creepy imagery and scary moments and a few nice twists along the way. I enjoyed it, and hope to get to the rest of the quartet soon.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Small Spaces (Katherine Arden) - My Review
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Shadows (Jacqueline West) - My Review
Thursday, August 25, 2022
13 Minutes (Sarah Pinborough)
13 Minutes: A Novel
Sarah Pinborough
Flatiron Books
Fiction, YA Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It started on the icy morning when sixteen-year-old Natasha was pulled from the icy river waters by a passerby. Clinically dead for thirteen minutes, she wakes in the hospital - and the first person she asks for is Rebecca, the childhood friend she cast off years ago in favor of thin, blonde, popular Haley and Jenny. Becca is wary, but Tasha is desperate. Something happened between her leaving her house and plunging into the water, something she needs help remembering. Was it some sort of accident, or was someone trying to kill her - someone Tasha thought was a friend? Despite herself, Becca finds herself drawn into the mystery, unearthing a dark web of secrets and lies and betrayals. If Tasha is right, then there may well be an attempted murderer hiding in plain sight... one who might strike again if they get too close to the truth.
REVIEW: 13 Minutes starts with the simple premise of a teen girl coming back from the edge of death and builds to a twisting tale where nobody can be trusted and everyone can be a suspect. Tasha's the most popular girl in school, the head of the "Barbies" group of friends whom everyone looks up to (at least, everyone who matters); it seems impossible that someone would want her dead, but somehow she ended up in that river, and it wasn't under her own power. Becca was burned badly when Tasha pivoted to newer friends, but can't forget the old bonds they shared, coming to share Tasha's conviction that something very sinister is going on in the Hive (Becca's term for the waspish social web of their school, a vicious nest full of stingers and venom that happily and hungrily devours its own members). The investigation hits some dead ends and takes some tragic turns as unfolding events reveal a dark and twisted mind behind events going back months or even years, for all that the police seem willing to chalk the whole thing up to ordinary teenage rivalry or bullying. If you look too hard there are a few stretches, but it's a decently taut thriller that actually produces thrills and a little unpredictability as it unfolds.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Adrift (Paul Griffin) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarah Mlynowski) - My Review
The Girl in the Well is Me (Karen Rivers) - My Review
Sarah Pinborough
Flatiron Books
Fiction, YA Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It started on the icy morning when sixteen-year-old Natasha was pulled from the icy river waters by a passerby. Clinically dead for thirteen minutes, she wakes in the hospital - and the first person she asks for is Rebecca, the childhood friend she cast off years ago in favor of thin, blonde, popular Haley and Jenny. Becca is wary, but Tasha is desperate. Something happened between her leaving her house and plunging into the water, something she needs help remembering. Was it some sort of accident, or was someone trying to kill her - someone Tasha thought was a friend? Despite herself, Becca finds herself drawn into the mystery, unearthing a dark web of secrets and lies and betrayals. If Tasha is right, then there may well be an attempted murderer hiding in plain sight... one who might strike again if they get too close to the truth.
REVIEW: 13 Minutes starts with the simple premise of a teen girl coming back from the edge of death and builds to a twisting tale where nobody can be trusted and everyone can be a suspect. Tasha's the most popular girl in school, the head of the "Barbies" group of friends whom everyone looks up to (at least, everyone who matters); it seems impossible that someone would want her dead, but somehow she ended up in that river, and it wasn't under her own power. Becca was burned badly when Tasha pivoted to newer friends, but can't forget the old bonds they shared, coming to share Tasha's conviction that something very sinister is going on in the Hive (Becca's term for the waspish social web of their school, a vicious nest full of stingers and venom that happily and hungrily devours its own members). The investigation hits some dead ends and takes some tragic turns as unfolding events reveal a dark and twisted mind behind events going back months or even years, for all that the police seem willing to chalk the whole thing up to ordinary teenage rivalry or bullying. If you look too hard there are a few stretches, but it's a decently taut thriller that actually produces thrills and a little unpredictability as it unfolds.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Adrift (Paul Griffin) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarah Mlynowski) - My Review
The Girl in the Well is Me (Karen Rivers) - My Review
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Mystic (Jason Denzel)
Mystic
The Mystic trilogy, Book 1
Jason Denzel
Tor
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the small mountain village of Oakspring, little ever changes, at least for the better. Pomella knows this down to her bones, knows that her lot as a commoner, the caste born to serve merchants, nobles, and the mystics who keep the land safe, may not be great, but is at least better than life as a nameless, homeless Unclaimed. Still, when she looks over her grandmother's old Book of Songs and remembers the woman's heretical ideas - that anyone can learn to connect to the magical Myst of the land, not just nobles - and sees the silver phantom animals in her garden that nobody else sees, she can't help wondering and dreaming of a brighter, better future, one not crushed under her stern father's heel. Then, on the night of the Springrise festival, a green man messenger rises from the earth in the middle of town and says that the new High Mystic of the land has summoned candidates to become her new apprentice... and she has named Pomella.
It's an outrage, a direct insult to the daughter of the local lord, who immediately declares that if Pomella sets one foot outside her baron father's land she'll be branded Unclaimed or killed. Her father outright forbids it as madness above her station. But Pomella can't let this one chance to escape commoner life, to chase her grandmother's dream, go... even if it means leaving her father, her brother, her friends, and Sim, the blacksmith's son for whom she's developed more-than-friendly feelings that are clearly reciprocated. Just getting to the High Mystic's tower at Kelt Apar is the first of many challenges; she must prove herself to both the Mystic and the other noble candidates, but most importantly to herself.
REVIEW: The plot here looked more than a little familiar, but familiarity doesn't always mean boring. In this case, unfortunately, it also didn't mean exciting or interesting. Pomella is the typical insecure (yet inherently gifted) young adult heroine, whipsawing between bravery and cowardice, self-conviction and self-loathing, at the drop of a hat. Around her is the usual cast of characters one would expect in this story: a local love interest, a potential new love interest, a father who is dour and controlling simply for the sake of being dour and controlling, snobbish rivals who look down on her for existing, and a host of allies and enemies who line up for or against her simply because she's the protagonist in a story and therefore must be that important. None of them feel particularly deep, often with the simplest of motivations. Pomella herself tends toward helplessness as her first response most of the time, only rising to challenges after being pushed and beating herself up, and even then she can be somewhat slow on the uptake and prone to wallowing in "I'm helpless and can't do anything!" angst even when time is of the essence and she really, really needs to do something, anything, please stop whining and think for half a second because you've proven umpteen times before that, no, you're not helpless and, yes, you can do something. The world she inhabits has some interesting bits and neat details, like the silvery fae animals, but never becomes more than a flat backdrop to a very familiar tale. It gains a little extra dimension by giving Sim his own journey, accidentally falling with a mercenary band on a sinister mission, but it still ultimately comes down to Pomella being the center of the story universe and everyone and everything else falling into orbit around that fact. It's not a terrible story for all that, and it hits its marks with reasonable competence, but it's so similar to numerous other young adult fantasies that it's already fading into background noise, and I literally just finished listening to it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Queen of Blood (Sarah Beth Durst) - My Review
A School for Sorcery (E. Rose Sabin) - My Review
Thirteenth Child (Patricia C. Wrede) - My Review
The Mystic trilogy, Book 1
Jason Denzel
Tor
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the small mountain village of Oakspring, little ever changes, at least for the better. Pomella knows this down to her bones, knows that her lot as a commoner, the caste born to serve merchants, nobles, and the mystics who keep the land safe, may not be great, but is at least better than life as a nameless, homeless Unclaimed. Still, when she looks over her grandmother's old Book of Songs and remembers the woman's heretical ideas - that anyone can learn to connect to the magical Myst of the land, not just nobles - and sees the silver phantom animals in her garden that nobody else sees, she can't help wondering and dreaming of a brighter, better future, one not crushed under her stern father's heel. Then, on the night of the Springrise festival, a green man messenger rises from the earth in the middle of town and says that the new High Mystic of the land has summoned candidates to become her new apprentice... and she has named Pomella.
It's an outrage, a direct insult to the daughter of the local lord, who immediately declares that if Pomella sets one foot outside her baron father's land she'll be branded Unclaimed or killed. Her father outright forbids it as madness above her station. But Pomella can't let this one chance to escape commoner life, to chase her grandmother's dream, go... even if it means leaving her father, her brother, her friends, and Sim, the blacksmith's son for whom she's developed more-than-friendly feelings that are clearly reciprocated. Just getting to the High Mystic's tower at Kelt Apar is the first of many challenges; she must prove herself to both the Mystic and the other noble candidates, but most importantly to herself.
REVIEW: The plot here looked more than a little familiar, but familiarity doesn't always mean boring. In this case, unfortunately, it also didn't mean exciting or interesting. Pomella is the typical insecure (yet inherently gifted) young adult heroine, whipsawing between bravery and cowardice, self-conviction and self-loathing, at the drop of a hat. Around her is the usual cast of characters one would expect in this story: a local love interest, a potential new love interest, a father who is dour and controlling simply for the sake of being dour and controlling, snobbish rivals who look down on her for existing, and a host of allies and enemies who line up for or against her simply because she's the protagonist in a story and therefore must be that important. None of them feel particularly deep, often with the simplest of motivations. Pomella herself tends toward helplessness as her first response most of the time, only rising to challenges after being pushed and beating herself up, and even then she can be somewhat slow on the uptake and prone to wallowing in "I'm helpless and can't do anything!" angst even when time is of the essence and she really, really needs to do something, anything, please stop whining and think for half a second because you've proven umpteen times before that, no, you're not helpless and, yes, you can do something. The world she inhabits has some interesting bits and neat details, like the silvery fae animals, but never becomes more than a flat backdrop to a very familiar tale. It gains a little extra dimension by giving Sim his own journey, accidentally falling with a mercenary band on a sinister mission, but it still ultimately comes down to Pomella being the center of the story universe and everyone and everything else falling into orbit around that fact. It's not a terrible story for all that, and it hits its marks with reasonable competence, but it's so similar to numerous other young adult fantasies that it's already fading into background noise, and I literally just finished listening to it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Queen of Blood (Sarah Beth Durst) - My Review
A School for Sorcery (E. Rose Sabin) - My Review
Thirteenth Child (Patricia C. Wrede) - My Review
Saturday, August 20, 2022
The Cold Between (Elizabeth Bonesteel)
The Cold Between
A Central Corps novel, Book 1
Elizabeth Bonesteel
Harper Voyager
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: In humanity's expansion through the stars, the ships of the Central Corps often mean the difference between life and death, delivering needed supplies, terraforming equipment, and - when applicable - peacekeeping forces to colony worlds. They maintain an uneasy truce with the vessels of the PSI - a spacegoing organization opposed to the methodology of the Corps, sometimes considered pirates, but not generally violent - and keep a wary eye on the underground syndicates, but overall Corps runs are fairly routine. When a crewman of the ship Galileo is murdered during shore leave on Volhynia, that routine is blown to smithereens.
Central Corps commander Elena Shaw went to the planetside bar with vague hopes of forgetting a recent breakup. When she runs into a former PSI officer, Trey, she finds a spark of connection like she hasn't felt in too long... but when a Corps crewman (and Elena's ex) Danny is found murdered the next morning and the local law tries to scapegoat Trey, Elena finds herself drawn deep into a conspiracy that reaches far past the atmosphere of Volhynia, all the way to the highest ranks of the Corps, encompassing the mysterious destruction of a Corps ship twenty-five years ago.
REVIEW: This looked like a fast-paced science fiction adventure with action, danger, mystery, and some romance, and it delivered in full. From the start, it builds solid-feeling characters in a world complex enough to feel real and lived-in beyond the borders of the story, yet not too intricate to understand. Elena starts out in a bad place, navigating both the fallout of a rough breakup and the recent souring of a long-term friendship she'd come to rely on, but she's never so shallow that her love life is her sole defining characteristic, and neither is anyone else; they all have different sides and different strengths and weaknesses that come through, of which their romances (or lack thereof) are only one aspect. After her night with Trey, a suitably steamy interlude, the discovery of Danny's body kicks the tale into high gear, drawing in more crewpeople and locals as the scope of the crime expands. Loyalties are tested to the utmost as duty and justice pull in different directions, even as the clues point to something much bigger, deeper, and more sinister than the murder of one Corps member and the framing of one former PSI man. The plot maintains a decent pace throughout, picking up to a solid finale that doesn't unfold quite how one would expect, but is reasonably satisfying, leaving enough threads for future installments. In looking back over it, I couldn't find any flaws worth noting, and I was invested enough that I had to finish off the audiobook on a weekend instead of waiting for my next workday, which is not all that common. Therefore, it gets kicked to the top of the ratings, and I'll be keeping an eye out for the next novel.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Hunt the Stars (Jessie Mihalik) - My Review
Trading in Danger (Elizabeth Moon) - My Review
Velocity Weapon (Megan E. O'Keefe) - My Review
A Central Corps novel, Book 1
Elizabeth Bonesteel
Harper Voyager
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: In humanity's expansion through the stars, the ships of the Central Corps often mean the difference between life and death, delivering needed supplies, terraforming equipment, and - when applicable - peacekeeping forces to colony worlds. They maintain an uneasy truce with the vessels of the PSI - a spacegoing organization opposed to the methodology of the Corps, sometimes considered pirates, but not generally violent - and keep a wary eye on the underground syndicates, but overall Corps runs are fairly routine. When a crewman of the ship Galileo is murdered during shore leave on Volhynia, that routine is blown to smithereens.
Central Corps commander Elena Shaw went to the planetside bar with vague hopes of forgetting a recent breakup. When she runs into a former PSI officer, Trey, she finds a spark of connection like she hasn't felt in too long... but when a Corps crewman (and Elena's ex) Danny is found murdered the next morning and the local law tries to scapegoat Trey, Elena finds herself drawn deep into a conspiracy that reaches far past the atmosphere of Volhynia, all the way to the highest ranks of the Corps, encompassing the mysterious destruction of a Corps ship twenty-five years ago.
REVIEW: This looked like a fast-paced science fiction adventure with action, danger, mystery, and some romance, and it delivered in full. From the start, it builds solid-feeling characters in a world complex enough to feel real and lived-in beyond the borders of the story, yet not too intricate to understand. Elena starts out in a bad place, navigating both the fallout of a rough breakup and the recent souring of a long-term friendship she'd come to rely on, but she's never so shallow that her love life is her sole defining characteristic, and neither is anyone else; they all have different sides and different strengths and weaknesses that come through, of which their romances (or lack thereof) are only one aspect. After her night with Trey, a suitably steamy interlude, the discovery of Danny's body kicks the tale into high gear, drawing in more crewpeople and locals as the scope of the crime expands. Loyalties are tested to the utmost as duty and justice pull in different directions, even as the clues point to something much bigger, deeper, and more sinister than the murder of one Corps member and the framing of one former PSI man. The plot maintains a decent pace throughout, picking up to a solid finale that doesn't unfold quite how one would expect, but is reasonably satisfying, leaving enough threads for future installments. In looking back over it, I couldn't find any flaws worth noting, and I was invested enough that I had to finish off the audiobook on a weekend instead of waiting for my next workday, which is not all that common. Therefore, it gets kicked to the top of the ratings, and I'll be keeping an eye out for the next novel.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Hunt the Stars (Jessie Mihalik) - My Review
Trading in Danger (Elizabeth Moon) - My Review
Velocity Weapon (Megan E. O'Keefe) - My Review
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Gilgamesh the King (Robert Silverberg)
Gilgamesh the King
Robert Silverberg
Open Road Media
Fiction, Fantasy/Historical Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: King, hero, god... there are many names for Gilgamesh, highest of high kings of the great city of Uruk at the center of the world. Here, in his waning years, he sets down his own story, from a childhood where he first learned to hate and fear death through his rise to the crown, his tumultuous relationship with the gods and the high priestess of the goddess Inanna, the finding of a true friend in the wildman Enkidu, and his grief-stricken wanderings in search of immortality.
REVIEW: Silverberg puts a historical fiction spin on one of the oldest tales known (if in fragmentary form), the Epic of Gilgamesh, from the ancient Middle East. While a real king of that name is presumed to have existed from other records of the time, around him has grown up a myth cycle reminiscent of later half-divine heroes such as Hercules. Silverberg does a decent job fleshing out the basic tale with decently realized characters and action and details, creating a reasonably cohesive arc. The world he inhabits comes to life in many vivid details about the lands, the cities, the peoples, and the beliefs and customs. I'm not educated enough to know how historically accurate these details may be (or were as of the time it was written in 1984), but they create a solid world for the tale to unfold in, and a solid foundation for Gilgamesh's triumphs and failures, his worldview and senses of right and wrong. Here, elements of the supernatural and the presence of gods and demons are taken as a matter of course, though their presence is often just ambiguous enough to invite some skepticism over whether there actually is spiritual influence or if Gilgamesh and his companions are reading their own beliefs into otherwise natural events; some things clearly appear to be natural phenomena, while others aren't quite so easily explained. From his childhood, watching the funeral of his royal father, the boy who would be Gilgamesh vows to never let death defeat him; since he is two parts divine and only one part mortal (or so he has been told, and his unnatural size and strength seem to confirm), he considers this an entirely plausible goal. This ambition and assumption of ultimate divine victory shape his personality from the start. Along the way, he must regain the throne that was handed to an unworthy successor after his father's passing, enduring through years of exile and dealing with the plots and scheming of an ambitious priestess who may or may not be backed by the power of a goddess. He must also come to terms with the mortality of his subjects, whom he pushes to the point of tyranny with his semidivine ambitions and his lusts until he finds a worthy match for his energies in wild Enkidu. Though the story sometimes bogs down and Gilgamesh can be rather self-absorbed and a bit slow on the uptake at times, it moves decently as he faces various challenges and struggles to either overcome them or gain wisdom from them (as in his quest for a way to evade death).
Where this story lost a half-star was partly due to the occasional sense of dithering but also due to the fact that, to be mild, this was clearly written by a man. Gilgamesh is almost a caricature of a manly man at times, the problems with his rule stemming from him being so perfect and so full of testosterone that no mere mortal can hope to keep up with him. His sexual exploits in particular are detailed and somewhat boastful throughout the tale. Women, meanwhile, are best when they are mild-mannered and stay in their place well behind (or pliantly underneath) men; both the priestess and the goddess Inanna are shrewish, petty, grasping, backstabbing, power-hungry vixens who threaten to destroy everything in the name of vengeance, utterly corrupted by their power. The priestess herself suffers most because she falls in love with a man who, through custom and her vows to her goddess, she can never truly marry and can only know pleasure with ritualistically once a year; yes, Gilgamesh is such a perfect specimen of masculinity that even a priestess falls hopelessly in love with him, and would rather see the world burn than admit he must be shared with his people and his kingdom. Clearly, no woman of this world should ever be given any power at all, not when there are manly and masculine men who are far better endowed to handle such things. There's historical accuracy (as interpreted here, at least), and there's stomping the sexism into the reader's face... Add to that some irritation with the way the audiobook reader delivered some of the lines, particularly the ritual incantations, and it was enough to drop the rating just below Good.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Leopard's Daughter (Lee Killough) - My Review
Wolf Brother (Michelle Paver) - My Review
The Tiger and the Wolf (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Robert Silverberg
Open Road Media
Fiction, Fantasy/Historical Fiction
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: King, hero, god... there are many names for Gilgamesh, highest of high kings of the great city of Uruk at the center of the world. Here, in his waning years, he sets down his own story, from a childhood where he first learned to hate and fear death through his rise to the crown, his tumultuous relationship with the gods and the high priestess of the goddess Inanna, the finding of a true friend in the wildman Enkidu, and his grief-stricken wanderings in search of immortality.
REVIEW: Silverberg puts a historical fiction spin on one of the oldest tales known (if in fragmentary form), the Epic of Gilgamesh, from the ancient Middle East. While a real king of that name is presumed to have existed from other records of the time, around him has grown up a myth cycle reminiscent of later half-divine heroes such as Hercules. Silverberg does a decent job fleshing out the basic tale with decently realized characters and action and details, creating a reasonably cohesive arc. The world he inhabits comes to life in many vivid details about the lands, the cities, the peoples, and the beliefs and customs. I'm not educated enough to know how historically accurate these details may be (or were as of the time it was written in 1984), but they create a solid world for the tale to unfold in, and a solid foundation for Gilgamesh's triumphs and failures, his worldview and senses of right and wrong. Here, elements of the supernatural and the presence of gods and demons are taken as a matter of course, though their presence is often just ambiguous enough to invite some skepticism over whether there actually is spiritual influence or if Gilgamesh and his companions are reading their own beliefs into otherwise natural events; some things clearly appear to be natural phenomena, while others aren't quite so easily explained. From his childhood, watching the funeral of his royal father, the boy who would be Gilgamesh vows to never let death defeat him; since he is two parts divine and only one part mortal (or so he has been told, and his unnatural size and strength seem to confirm), he considers this an entirely plausible goal. This ambition and assumption of ultimate divine victory shape his personality from the start. Along the way, he must regain the throne that was handed to an unworthy successor after his father's passing, enduring through years of exile and dealing with the plots and scheming of an ambitious priestess who may or may not be backed by the power of a goddess. He must also come to terms with the mortality of his subjects, whom he pushes to the point of tyranny with his semidivine ambitions and his lusts until he finds a worthy match for his energies in wild Enkidu. Though the story sometimes bogs down and Gilgamesh can be rather self-absorbed and a bit slow on the uptake at times, it moves decently as he faces various challenges and struggles to either overcome them or gain wisdom from them (as in his quest for a way to evade death).
Where this story lost a half-star was partly due to the occasional sense of dithering but also due to the fact that, to be mild, this was clearly written by a man. Gilgamesh is almost a caricature of a manly man at times, the problems with his rule stemming from him being so perfect and so full of testosterone that no mere mortal can hope to keep up with him. His sexual exploits in particular are detailed and somewhat boastful throughout the tale. Women, meanwhile, are best when they are mild-mannered and stay in their place well behind (or pliantly underneath) men; both the priestess and the goddess Inanna are shrewish, petty, grasping, backstabbing, power-hungry vixens who threaten to destroy everything in the name of vengeance, utterly corrupted by their power. The priestess herself suffers most because she falls in love with a man who, through custom and her vows to her goddess, she can never truly marry and can only know pleasure with ritualistically once a year; yes, Gilgamesh is such a perfect specimen of masculinity that even a priestess falls hopelessly in love with him, and would rather see the world burn than admit he must be shared with his people and his kingdom. Clearly, no woman of this world should ever be given any power at all, not when there are manly and masculine men who are far better endowed to handle such things. There's historical accuracy (as interpreted here, at least), and there's stomping the sexism into the reader's face... Add to that some irritation with the way the audiobook reader delivered some of the lines, particularly the ritual incantations, and it was enough to drop the rating just below Good.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Leopard's Daughter (Lee Killough) - My Review
Wolf Brother (Michelle Paver) - My Review
The Tiger and the Wolf (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
The Talisman (Stephen King and Peter Straub)
The Talisman
The Jack Sawyer trilogy, Book 1
Stephen King and Peter Straub
Ballantine Books
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer knows his mother is dying, but doesn't know what to do about it, or about anything else that's gone so terribly wrong with his life since the death of his father years ago. What he does know is that his mom has drug them across the country to avoid the predation of family "friend" Marcus Sloat, his father's former business partner, but Sloat somehow keeps tracking them down. Jack feels lost and alone and utterly helpless... until a stranger tells him there's a way to fix everything, a quest that will take him across America and another parallel world known as the Territories, through dangers human and otherwise - a quest to retrieve a mysterious magical artifact known as the Talisman. But Jack isn't the only one on a quest, nor is he the only one who can travel to the Territories and back; Morgan Sloat and his foul minions are on his heels almost from the moment the boy takes his first tentative steps westward. And if Morgan gets his hands on the Talisman, whole worlds may fall.
REVIEW: I admit I mostly tried this one to get ahead of a rumored Netflix adaptation. Though billed as its own story (or trilogy, now), it is tangentially associated with King's Dark Tower series, which never tempted me past the first book. Maybe that was part of what I found subtly unsatisfactory here, though there is quite a bit to enjoy.
Jack was born knowing of the Territories, which he called the Daydream lands (after the vivid "daydream" visits he'd take there), but - in the way of many children who grow up, especially too fast - he lost track of that part of himself until forced to remember. The Territories themselves are an interesting portal world, smaller than Earth but full of magic and marvels and terrors that form a sort of surreal mirror of our world, with several mysteries that Jack only catches glimpses of in passing. They are something Earth forgot about itself, something both wonderful and terrible, condensed into a purer, more potent form. His enemies in both worlds are cruel and monstrous, especially the ones that purport to be human, often twisting kindness and perceived benevolence into horrors and pain and outright torture. Morgan Sloat, who has a Territories "Twinner" (alternate self) every bit as horrid as himself, is aided and abetted by an insane zealot at least as terrifying as Morgan, though Morgan's son Richard - long a friend of Jack's when the families were closer - turns into an ally. More than once, Jack stumbles, but he manages to climb to his feet and keep going, slowly growing into his role as a hero as the journey strips away the last vestiges of his innocence. The whole takes on an epic quality, if one soaked in blood and pain and horror.
Where the book narrowly lost a half-star was in the sense that it was dragging its feet almost from the start. Jack must be pushed, repeatedly, into taking his first steps on the quest, even after seeing proof of the Territories and the potential truth of the stranger's claims more than once. Once on the road, he often slows to a standstill, mired in his own head or in some horrible situation (or both) that sometimes plays out long past effectiveness, as though the narrative just wanted to wallow in the depravity of some of his situations. More than once, Morgan's page time is just so much mustache-twirling and hand-rubbing at his own evil schemes without actually advancing the plot much. (And if, once again, a Black man exists mostly to enable a white boy hero, even to the point of self-sacrifice... well, it seemed to be a Thing that hopefully can be relegated to older books like this one.) All this caused just enough irritation to hold the book down from a solid Good rating. As to whether I'll pursue the second installment... I doubt it, as it seems like it ties more closely into King's greater Dark Tower series, and I just have no real interest in that right now. (I may change my mind later, but for now the to-be-read pile's plenty full.)
On an unrelated note, this paperback marked the end of the line for the best, most reliable, hardest to lose bookmark I've ever owned. After five years of faithful service and innumerable stories, it finally succumbed to a fatal tear. Rest in peace, Woodland Park Zoo map from Summer 2017. We went on many adventures together, you and I.
You Might Also Enjoy:
City of the Beasts (Isabel Allende) - My Review
The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger (Stephen King) - My Review
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
The Jack Sawyer trilogy, Book 1
Stephen King and Peter Straub
Ballantine Books
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer knows his mother is dying, but doesn't know what to do about it, or about anything else that's gone so terribly wrong with his life since the death of his father years ago. What he does know is that his mom has drug them across the country to avoid the predation of family "friend" Marcus Sloat, his father's former business partner, but Sloat somehow keeps tracking them down. Jack feels lost and alone and utterly helpless... until a stranger tells him there's a way to fix everything, a quest that will take him across America and another parallel world known as the Territories, through dangers human and otherwise - a quest to retrieve a mysterious magical artifact known as the Talisman. But Jack isn't the only one on a quest, nor is he the only one who can travel to the Territories and back; Morgan Sloat and his foul minions are on his heels almost from the moment the boy takes his first tentative steps westward. And if Morgan gets his hands on the Talisman, whole worlds may fall.
REVIEW: I admit I mostly tried this one to get ahead of a rumored Netflix adaptation. Though billed as its own story (or trilogy, now), it is tangentially associated with King's Dark Tower series, which never tempted me past the first book. Maybe that was part of what I found subtly unsatisfactory here, though there is quite a bit to enjoy.
Jack was born knowing of the Territories, which he called the Daydream lands (after the vivid "daydream" visits he'd take there), but - in the way of many children who grow up, especially too fast - he lost track of that part of himself until forced to remember. The Territories themselves are an interesting portal world, smaller than Earth but full of magic and marvels and terrors that form a sort of surreal mirror of our world, with several mysteries that Jack only catches glimpses of in passing. They are something Earth forgot about itself, something both wonderful and terrible, condensed into a purer, more potent form. His enemies in both worlds are cruel and monstrous, especially the ones that purport to be human, often twisting kindness and perceived benevolence into horrors and pain and outright torture. Morgan Sloat, who has a Territories "Twinner" (alternate self) every bit as horrid as himself, is aided and abetted by an insane zealot at least as terrifying as Morgan, though Morgan's son Richard - long a friend of Jack's when the families were closer - turns into an ally. More than once, Jack stumbles, but he manages to climb to his feet and keep going, slowly growing into his role as a hero as the journey strips away the last vestiges of his innocence. The whole takes on an epic quality, if one soaked in blood and pain and horror.
Where the book narrowly lost a half-star was in the sense that it was dragging its feet almost from the start. Jack must be pushed, repeatedly, into taking his first steps on the quest, even after seeing proof of the Territories and the potential truth of the stranger's claims more than once. Once on the road, he often slows to a standstill, mired in his own head or in some horrible situation (or both) that sometimes plays out long past effectiveness, as though the narrative just wanted to wallow in the depravity of some of his situations. More than once, Morgan's page time is just so much mustache-twirling and hand-rubbing at his own evil schemes without actually advancing the plot much. (And if, once again, a Black man exists mostly to enable a white boy hero, even to the point of self-sacrifice... well, it seemed to be a Thing that hopefully can be relegated to older books like this one.) All this caused just enough irritation to hold the book down from a solid Good rating. As to whether I'll pursue the second installment... I doubt it, as it seems like it ties more closely into King's greater Dark Tower series, and I just have no real interest in that right now. (I may change my mind later, but for now the to-be-read pile's plenty full.)
On an unrelated note, this paperback marked the end of the line for the best, most reliable, hardest to lose bookmark I've ever owned. After five years of faithful service and innumerable stories, it finally succumbed to a fatal tear. Rest in peace, Woodland Park Zoo map from Summer 2017. We went on many adventures together, you and I.
You Might Also Enjoy:
City of the Beasts (Isabel Allende) - My Review
The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger (Stephen King) - My Review
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
Friday, August 12, 2022
Firekeeper's Daughter (Angeline Boulley)
Firekeeper's Daughter
Angeline Boulley
Henry Holt and Co.
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Daunis Fontaine of upper Michigan was born with a foot in two worlds, never feeling she belonged in either. Her mother's family is old money (and very white), while her late father was from the local Ojibwe, the prominent Firekeeper family. She tries to honor her Native American heritage as best she can, but, not being technically enrolled, she still feels too often like an outsider looking in. Now eighteen, she plans to earn a degree, maybe even a doctorate, pursuing a love of science.
When her grandmother suffers a debilitating stroke, Daunis decides to defer her enrollment for a year, studying at the local college instead to help support her fragile mother. It won't be all that bad; she'll get to go to classes with her best friend since forever, Lily. And there's a new boy in town, Jamie, who's not only easy on the eyes but great on a hockey rink (hockey being Daunis's second great love after science). But he's oddly vague about his past, and has a way of asking far more questions than he ever answers. After tragedy strikes, taking Lily and her estranged boyfriend Travis in a single terrible moment, Daunis learns that Jamie and his "uncle" are undercover FBI agents, investigating a meth ring that's been devastating the local kids, white and Ojibwe alike. Jamie wants Daunis to become a confidential informant, using her insider and local knowledge to help them ferret out the criminals. She has mixed feelings; on the one hand, nobody can deny the damage meth has been doing to the community, but on the other it feels like betrayal to use her friendships and family bonds like this, on behalf of a government that hasn't exactly been friendly with her father's people since forever. Once again, Daunis finds herself forced to walk with a foot in two worlds. If she succeeds, she'll do immeasurable good, but if she fails, she wouldn't be the first informant to die...
REVIEW: This book has been getting plenty of praise from plenty of sources, and it mostly lives up to the hype. Daunis presents a strong face to the world, but inwardly is still struggling to find a balance between the various opposing forces of her life: a mother who never got over the death of Daunis's father and who crumbles in the face of change, a grandmother who tried to raise her as white as possible and never truly accepted her Native American heritage, a tribe that she strives to be part of that nevertheless often seems to hide certain parts of itself from her, and more. She has plenty of friends and family, and a few rivals, but almost nobody is flat or stereotypical, with inner complexities that blend good and bad and truth and lies. The setting and the characters feel alive on the page, the traditions and stories and landscape richly described without being verbose or tedious. As Daunis is pulled into the FBI investigation, she learns truths about people she's known all her life that she'd rather not have known, even as she tries to find a balance between helping find the meth dealers and protecting her community from federal agents who clearly do not know or care about the wrecking ball their work will almost inevitably swing into their lives; where she sees a whole body in need of healing, they see only a tumor to be tracked down and excised with as big a scalpel as possible. Her relationship with Jamie is even more complicated, not just due to the very real feelings that spark with a man she literally does not know the real name of; he's struggling, too, a young man of Native American descent who was taken and adopted out to white parents (as far too many were) and who has no idea how to find his own people, let alone if they'd want him back. It's unclear at times how much he sees Daunis as herself and how much he sees her as a possible way into a tribal way of life he was denied. Meanwhile, the investigation wends through the local Ojibwe and hockey communities, with more casualties along the way and several dead ends and false turns and close calls before coming to a tense and satisfactory conclusion.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker) - My Review
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger) - My Review
Trail of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse) - My Review
Angeline Boulley
Henry Holt and Co.
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Daunis Fontaine of upper Michigan was born with a foot in two worlds, never feeling she belonged in either. Her mother's family is old money (and very white), while her late father was from the local Ojibwe, the prominent Firekeeper family. She tries to honor her Native American heritage as best she can, but, not being technically enrolled, she still feels too often like an outsider looking in. Now eighteen, she plans to earn a degree, maybe even a doctorate, pursuing a love of science.
When her grandmother suffers a debilitating stroke, Daunis decides to defer her enrollment for a year, studying at the local college instead to help support her fragile mother. It won't be all that bad; she'll get to go to classes with her best friend since forever, Lily. And there's a new boy in town, Jamie, who's not only easy on the eyes but great on a hockey rink (hockey being Daunis's second great love after science). But he's oddly vague about his past, and has a way of asking far more questions than he ever answers. After tragedy strikes, taking Lily and her estranged boyfriend Travis in a single terrible moment, Daunis learns that Jamie and his "uncle" are undercover FBI agents, investigating a meth ring that's been devastating the local kids, white and Ojibwe alike. Jamie wants Daunis to become a confidential informant, using her insider and local knowledge to help them ferret out the criminals. She has mixed feelings; on the one hand, nobody can deny the damage meth has been doing to the community, but on the other it feels like betrayal to use her friendships and family bonds like this, on behalf of a government that hasn't exactly been friendly with her father's people since forever. Once again, Daunis finds herself forced to walk with a foot in two worlds. If she succeeds, she'll do immeasurable good, but if she fails, she wouldn't be the first informant to die...
REVIEW: This book has been getting plenty of praise from plenty of sources, and it mostly lives up to the hype. Daunis presents a strong face to the world, but inwardly is still struggling to find a balance between the various opposing forces of her life: a mother who never got over the death of Daunis's father and who crumbles in the face of change, a grandmother who tried to raise her as white as possible and never truly accepted her Native American heritage, a tribe that she strives to be part of that nevertheless often seems to hide certain parts of itself from her, and more. She has plenty of friends and family, and a few rivals, but almost nobody is flat or stereotypical, with inner complexities that blend good and bad and truth and lies. The setting and the characters feel alive on the page, the traditions and stories and landscape richly described without being verbose or tedious. As Daunis is pulled into the FBI investigation, she learns truths about people she's known all her life that she'd rather not have known, even as she tries to find a balance between helping find the meth dealers and protecting her community from federal agents who clearly do not know or care about the wrecking ball their work will almost inevitably swing into their lives; where she sees a whole body in need of healing, they see only a tumor to be tracked down and excised with as big a scalpel as possible. Her relationship with Jamie is even more complicated, not just due to the very real feelings that spark with a man she literally does not know the real name of; he's struggling, too, a young man of Native American descent who was taken and adopted out to white parents (as far too many were) and who has no idea how to find his own people, let alone if they'd want him back. It's unclear at times how much he sees Daunis as herself and how much he sees her as a possible way into a tribal way of life he was denied. Meanwhile, the investigation wends through the local Ojibwe and hockey communities, with more casualties along the way and several dead ends and false turns and close calls before coming to a tense and satisfactory conclusion.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker) - My Review
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger) - My Review
Trail of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse) - My Review
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Good Guys (Stephen Brust)
Good Guys
Stephen Brust
Tor
Fiction, Action/Crime/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early 20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
REVIEW: Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators, understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Borderline (Mishell Baker) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review
Stephen Brust
Tor
Fiction, Action/Crime/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early 20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
REVIEW: Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators, understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Borderline (Mishell Baker) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review
Saturday, August 6, 2022
Paradise Lost (John Milton)
Paradise Lost
John Milton
Blackstone Audio
Fiction, Fantasy/Poetry
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Cast out of Heaven after rebelling against God, the fallen angel Satan broods in Hell and concocts a new plan: revenge himself by corrupting the Creator's newest and most favored creation, man.
REVIEW: From the outset, I admit that I am not the best person in the world to review this classic poem, written in 1674. For one thing, I have all the literary education and awareness of a block of wood. For another, I am not in any way a Christian, and only know of Milton's source material - the Bible - through cultural osmosis (and nothing of his more specific beliefs, influences, circumstances, or worldviews as undoubtedly expressed in this work). That said, it was something I consumed, and therefore, after a long debate with myself over whether it would be worth my while to do so given the aforementioned deficiencies and overall defects in my admittedly non-religious ability to adequately review such an obviously religious epic, I nevertheless shall offer my review. Consider yourself forewarned.
I've been slowly picking away at classics thanks to Overdrive and my local library (and my job being so mind-numbingly dull I need something to do to pass the hours), and it was a day of thin pickings when I needed to restock my loans for work, so this one ended up in the queue. If I'm being honest, I almost stopped early on, with a foreword loaded with classical references that went way over my undereducated head. But at last I got to the actual content, which - while also full of classical references (despite the narrator/author seeming to consider the ages that produced several of them inherently inferior for not being Christian) - at least was more interesting, written in "blank verse" that does not need to rhyme to have rhythm. Milton relates the fall of Satan and of man in epic format, with a nice flow of words and evocative imagery, painting vivid pictures of Heaven, Hell, and other realms and their inhabitants. To an outsider like myself, certain cultural assumptions and quirks of the source material start looking like plot and motivation holes (or simply rationalizations of cultural beliefs and biases, such as an inherent frailty and inferiority of women making Eve the inevitable failure point), with an air of predestination and manipulation about the whole affair. As for matters of sin and salvation and whatnot as related here... again, I'm not a Christian, so I'm not the intended audience to even begin to dissect Milton's theological points. (I will say that I came into this disinclined to practice Christianity, and I depart the same way, and leave it at that.) Though the plot is a bit thin and sometimes meandering and (yes, I'll say it, though it was doubtless one of the main reasons this verse was written) preachy, I wound up rounding it up to a fourth star for some truly resonant verse and imagery that holds up reasonably well given its age, even as I'm aware that an entire library's worth of references and nuance and literary devices were completely wasted on me. It is a compelling work of epic verse, regardless of one's beliefs.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis) - My Review
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) - My Review
Comfort Me With Apples (Catherynne M. Valente) - My Review
John Milton
Blackstone Audio
Fiction, Fantasy/Poetry
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Cast out of Heaven after rebelling against God, the fallen angel Satan broods in Hell and concocts a new plan: revenge himself by corrupting the Creator's newest and most favored creation, man.
REVIEW: From the outset, I admit that I am not the best person in the world to review this classic poem, written in 1674. For one thing, I have all the literary education and awareness of a block of wood. For another, I am not in any way a Christian, and only know of Milton's source material - the Bible - through cultural osmosis (and nothing of his more specific beliefs, influences, circumstances, or worldviews as undoubtedly expressed in this work). That said, it was something I consumed, and therefore, after a long debate with myself over whether it would be worth my while to do so given the aforementioned deficiencies and overall defects in my admittedly non-religious ability to adequately review such an obviously religious epic, I nevertheless shall offer my review. Consider yourself forewarned.
I've been slowly picking away at classics thanks to Overdrive and my local library (and my job being so mind-numbingly dull I need something to do to pass the hours), and it was a day of thin pickings when I needed to restock my loans for work, so this one ended up in the queue. If I'm being honest, I almost stopped early on, with a foreword loaded with classical references that went way over my undereducated head. But at last I got to the actual content, which - while also full of classical references (despite the narrator/author seeming to consider the ages that produced several of them inherently inferior for not being Christian) - at least was more interesting, written in "blank verse" that does not need to rhyme to have rhythm. Milton relates the fall of Satan and of man in epic format, with a nice flow of words and evocative imagery, painting vivid pictures of Heaven, Hell, and other realms and their inhabitants. To an outsider like myself, certain cultural assumptions and quirks of the source material start looking like plot and motivation holes (or simply rationalizations of cultural beliefs and biases, such as an inherent frailty and inferiority of women making Eve the inevitable failure point), with an air of predestination and manipulation about the whole affair. As for matters of sin and salvation and whatnot as related here... again, I'm not a Christian, so I'm not the intended audience to even begin to dissect Milton's theological points. (I will say that I came into this disinclined to practice Christianity, and I depart the same way, and leave it at that.) Though the plot is a bit thin and sometimes meandering and (yes, I'll say it, though it was doubtless one of the main reasons this verse was written) preachy, I wound up rounding it up to a fourth star for some truly resonant verse and imagery that holds up reasonably well given its age, even as I'm aware that an entire library's worth of references and nuance and literary devices were completely wasted on me. It is a compelling work of epic verse, regardless of one's beliefs.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis) - My Review
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) - My Review
Comfort Me With Apples (Catherynne M. Valente) - My Review
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Like Never and Always (Ann Aguirre)
Like Never and Always
Ann Aguirre
Tor Teen
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Ever since grade school, Olivia and Morgan were best friends. They even wound up dating brothers, Nathan and Clay. Liv thought they'd spend the rest of their lives together - until the crash.
Waking up in the hospital, Liv is confused: it's not her father who visits, but Morgan's. And it's Clay, Morgan's boyfriend, sitting by her bed, not Nathan. When everyone calls her by Morgan's name, she thinks it's a mistake: her face is bandaged, so maybe they don't know who she really is... until she sees herself in a mirror, and it's Morgan looking back at her.
Somehow, after her body died in the crash, Liv managed to survive in Morgan's body. She always thought she knew everything there was to know about her best friend's life and family... but she soon learns just how much Morgan was hiding from everyone, secrets that just might get her killed - again.
REVIEW: This is a decent thriller with supernatural overtones, as Liv - unexpectedly given a second chance at life, if at the expense of her best friend (whose memories linger in her new brain) - learns the hard way that even if you think you know a person, you rarely actually know a person. From the outside, Morgan had everything one could possibly want: a fancy home, a six-figure bank account, a father too preoccupied with his job to hover or make demands, a reputation as their high school's most popular girl and fashionista. From within, a far darker and lonelier picture emerges, even before Liz stumbles across Morgan's darkest secret of all, tied to the death of her mother and a creepy family "friend". As Liz struggles to both fit in with her new life and solve this final mystery in honor of Morgan, she gets the rare chance to see how her own death affects the world. Meanwhile, she finds herself trying to figure out her relationship with Nathan, her boyfriend, and his older brother Clay, once Morgan's companion. There are undercurrents of what it means to live one's own life, and how women and girls are too often seen as possessions or trophies, even by those who love them most. From a fairly fast start, the story generally keeps a fast pace, following Liv as she juggles Morgan's secrets and tries to fit into Morgan's life without losing everything that made her Liz. There are a few red herrings that grew distracting, and one character I thought needed a little more of a redemptive moment (it's brushed aside with off-page events), but it comes to a decently powerful conclusion. Overall, it made for a solid, emotionally involving thriller.
You Might Also Enjoy:
15 Minutes (Jill Cooper) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarh Mlynowski) - My Review
Others See Us (William Sleator) - My Review
Ann Aguirre
Tor Teen
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Ever since grade school, Olivia and Morgan were best friends. They even wound up dating brothers, Nathan and Clay. Liv thought they'd spend the rest of their lives together - until the crash.
Waking up in the hospital, Liv is confused: it's not her father who visits, but Morgan's. And it's Clay, Morgan's boyfriend, sitting by her bed, not Nathan. When everyone calls her by Morgan's name, she thinks it's a mistake: her face is bandaged, so maybe they don't know who she really is... until she sees herself in a mirror, and it's Morgan looking back at her.
Somehow, after her body died in the crash, Liv managed to survive in Morgan's body. She always thought she knew everything there was to know about her best friend's life and family... but she soon learns just how much Morgan was hiding from everyone, secrets that just might get her killed - again.
REVIEW: This is a decent thriller with supernatural overtones, as Liv - unexpectedly given a second chance at life, if at the expense of her best friend (whose memories linger in her new brain) - learns the hard way that even if you think you know a person, you rarely actually know a person. From the outside, Morgan had everything one could possibly want: a fancy home, a six-figure bank account, a father too preoccupied with his job to hover or make demands, a reputation as their high school's most popular girl and fashionista. From within, a far darker and lonelier picture emerges, even before Liz stumbles across Morgan's darkest secret of all, tied to the death of her mother and a creepy family "friend". As Liz struggles to both fit in with her new life and solve this final mystery in honor of Morgan, she gets the rare chance to see how her own death affects the world. Meanwhile, she finds herself trying to figure out her relationship with Nathan, her boyfriend, and his older brother Clay, once Morgan's companion. There are undercurrents of what it means to live one's own life, and how women and girls are too often seen as possessions or trophies, even by those who love them most. From a fairly fast start, the story generally keeps a fast pace, following Liv as she juggles Morgan's secrets and tries to fit into Morgan's life without losing everything that made her Liz. There are a few red herrings that grew distracting, and one character I thought needed a little more of a redemptive moment (it's brushed aside with off-page events), but it comes to a decently powerful conclusion. Overall, it made for a solid, emotionally involving thriller.
You Might Also Enjoy:
15 Minutes (Jill Cooper) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarh Mlynowski) - My Review
Others See Us (William Sleator) - My Review
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