January's ten reviews have been archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books review site.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Sunday, January 29, 2023
Nevermoor (Jessica Townsend)
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow
The Nevermoor series, Book 1
Jessica Townsend
Little, Brown
Fiction, MG Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Anyone in the Wintersea Republic knows that being born on Eventide makes one cursed... even the daughter of a chancellor. The merest glance or whisper from such a child curdles luck like bad milk, spreads illness, breaks things, sours the weather, disrupts the Wunder powering the city's marvels, and worse. It's likely a blessing that they die on their twelfth birthday, at the turning of the Skyfaced Clock to a new Age. Morrigan Crow has lived with this burden all her life, blamed for any misfortune, big or small, in the whole of the city of Jackalfax. As she approaches her eleventh birthday, her family already treats her like one dead and gone, her father remarrying and starting another family before she's even fallen down. A girl like her doesn't have a future to look forward to - until, on Bid Day, when masters put forth bids on the town's children for apprenticeships, she receives not one, not two, but four offers. She hardly has time to consider whether this is a cruel joke or a cruel hope when the Skyfaced Clock shifts to midnight black: the new Age, starting one year early. And, with the new Age, comes her death.
Or, at least, she should be dead, but for the strange red-haired man Jupiter North who swoops in at the last moment, whisking her away from Jackalfax, from the Wintersea Republic to the Free States, off to a grand city she's never heard of: Nevermoor.
The world, it turns out, is far bigger and grander and bolder (and wilder, and more dangerous) than anything she learned in the Republic. Just the hotel she finds herself living at, the Deucalion, bursts at the seams with strange wonders: a giant talking "Magnificat" Fenestra, a vampire dwarf, and a room that reshapes itself overnight are just the least of these. Even as she marvels, she can't help feeling that there must be a catch; you don't grow up being told you're cursed every day of your life without knowing that nothing good happens without a catch. Jupiter North bent quite a few rules, and left others dazed and broken, when he plucked Morrigan from Jackalfax and crossed the border, but he claims he has very good reasons, for all that he won't divulge what they are. What he does tell her is that he intends to sponsor her as a candidate for the Wundrous Society, the most prestigious society in Nevermoor. Among them, she'll be safe and wanted for all her days. But there are hundreds of candidates from the city and beyond, all competing for a mere nine openings in the Society, and they - unlike Morrigan - all have special "knacks", talents and gifts to make them worthy of passing the four Trials for entry. What does Morrigan have besides her curse?
REVIEW: I'd heard some decent things about this book and was in the mood for something a little whimsical, so when I found a copy that was free to me, I figured I'd give it a try. There's a natural tendency to compare stories like this - where the unloved but special child is whisked off to experience adventures and wonders in a magical world they never realized existed right inside their own - to Harry Potter, but that comparison falls far short of the mark, and not just because Morrigan already comes from a place with some magic in it, if a dour and rather bleak place. She has it even worse off than Harry, too; the "boy who lived" was simply invisible to his aunt and uncle, while Morrigan is actively considered both cursed and doomed, to the point where her father finally cancels her education because it's a waste of time and money to teach a child who won't see the far side of twelve. She knows, deep down, that she can't possibly be the cause of everything she's forced to write apology notes for (and her politician father is forced to pay restitution for), but feels even deeper down that there really must be something wrong with her for everyone, even her family, to treat her this way, with so much fear and hate. On Bid Day, when she gets her unexpected offers for futures she knows she'll never have, the twist of hope in her gut is worse than anything she's felt before, even before it's snatched away. This insecurity and skepticism follows her to Nevermoor, an expectation of failure and rejection that colors her actions even as she desperately wants to believe she can escape her seemingly inevitable doom.
Nevermoor itself is a place of wonders (and Wunder), brimming with whimsy and wildness but with counterbalancing complexity and darkness to give it some heft and weight. Morrigan barely scratches the surface of it all in her adventures and the assortment of colorful characters she meets, from hotel guests and staff to the other young candidates for the Wundrous Society to the Elders and a mysterious man in gray who turns up at the oddest moments with the oddest advice. Along the way, through the Trials and beyond, Morrigan slowly learns how to trust and make friends and believe in herself, to step boldly forth even when it seems certain she's going to plummet over the edge. Nobody is excessively stupid just to prolong the plot, and nobody is perfect, nor are they helpless. All this comes through in a story that hooked me from the first page and kept going right to the end without ever feeling exhausting and only once in a while feeling a touch convenient, with sparkling prose and great dialog. My only minor complaints were the lengths to which North went to avoid telling Morrigan certain important things, and an ending that's just slightly up in the air (not quite literally)... though I suppose that's partially my fault for not grabbing the second book to have on hand, which I really should've done once I realized what I was in for with the first few pages. Tight as the budget is these days, I suppose I'll have to carve out a little room for another book store run sooner rather than later. This is a series I definitely want to follow through on.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Bad Unicorn (Platte F. Clarke) - My Review
Cold Cereal (Adam Rex) - My Review
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
The Nevermoor series, Book 1
Jessica Townsend
Little, Brown
Fiction, MG Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Anyone in the Wintersea Republic knows that being born on Eventide makes one cursed... even the daughter of a chancellor. The merest glance or whisper from such a child curdles luck like bad milk, spreads illness, breaks things, sours the weather, disrupts the Wunder powering the city's marvels, and worse. It's likely a blessing that they die on their twelfth birthday, at the turning of the Skyfaced Clock to a new Age. Morrigan Crow has lived with this burden all her life, blamed for any misfortune, big or small, in the whole of the city of Jackalfax. As she approaches her eleventh birthday, her family already treats her like one dead and gone, her father remarrying and starting another family before she's even fallen down. A girl like her doesn't have a future to look forward to - until, on Bid Day, when masters put forth bids on the town's children for apprenticeships, she receives not one, not two, but four offers. She hardly has time to consider whether this is a cruel joke or a cruel hope when the Skyfaced Clock shifts to midnight black: the new Age, starting one year early. And, with the new Age, comes her death.
Or, at least, she should be dead, but for the strange red-haired man Jupiter North who swoops in at the last moment, whisking her away from Jackalfax, from the Wintersea Republic to the Free States, off to a grand city she's never heard of: Nevermoor.
The world, it turns out, is far bigger and grander and bolder (and wilder, and more dangerous) than anything she learned in the Republic. Just the hotel she finds herself living at, the Deucalion, bursts at the seams with strange wonders: a giant talking "Magnificat" Fenestra, a vampire dwarf, and a room that reshapes itself overnight are just the least of these. Even as she marvels, she can't help feeling that there must be a catch; you don't grow up being told you're cursed every day of your life without knowing that nothing good happens without a catch. Jupiter North bent quite a few rules, and left others dazed and broken, when he plucked Morrigan from Jackalfax and crossed the border, but he claims he has very good reasons, for all that he won't divulge what they are. What he does tell her is that he intends to sponsor her as a candidate for the Wundrous Society, the most prestigious society in Nevermoor. Among them, she'll be safe and wanted for all her days. But there are hundreds of candidates from the city and beyond, all competing for a mere nine openings in the Society, and they - unlike Morrigan - all have special "knacks", talents and gifts to make them worthy of passing the four Trials for entry. What does Morrigan have besides her curse?
REVIEW: I'd heard some decent things about this book and was in the mood for something a little whimsical, so when I found a copy that was free to me, I figured I'd give it a try. There's a natural tendency to compare stories like this - where the unloved but special child is whisked off to experience adventures and wonders in a magical world they never realized existed right inside their own - to Harry Potter, but that comparison falls far short of the mark, and not just because Morrigan already comes from a place with some magic in it, if a dour and rather bleak place. She has it even worse off than Harry, too; the "boy who lived" was simply invisible to his aunt and uncle, while Morrigan is actively considered both cursed and doomed, to the point where her father finally cancels her education because it's a waste of time and money to teach a child who won't see the far side of twelve. She knows, deep down, that she can't possibly be the cause of everything she's forced to write apology notes for (and her politician father is forced to pay restitution for), but feels even deeper down that there really must be something wrong with her for everyone, even her family, to treat her this way, with so much fear and hate. On Bid Day, when she gets her unexpected offers for futures she knows she'll never have, the twist of hope in her gut is worse than anything she's felt before, even before it's snatched away. This insecurity and skepticism follows her to Nevermoor, an expectation of failure and rejection that colors her actions even as she desperately wants to believe she can escape her seemingly inevitable doom.
Nevermoor itself is a place of wonders (and Wunder), brimming with whimsy and wildness but with counterbalancing complexity and darkness to give it some heft and weight. Morrigan barely scratches the surface of it all in her adventures and the assortment of colorful characters she meets, from hotel guests and staff to the other young candidates for the Wundrous Society to the Elders and a mysterious man in gray who turns up at the oddest moments with the oddest advice. Along the way, through the Trials and beyond, Morrigan slowly learns how to trust and make friends and believe in herself, to step boldly forth even when it seems certain she's going to plummet over the edge. Nobody is excessively stupid just to prolong the plot, and nobody is perfect, nor are they helpless. All this comes through in a story that hooked me from the first page and kept going right to the end without ever feeling exhausting and only once in a while feeling a touch convenient, with sparkling prose and great dialog. My only minor complaints were the lengths to which North went to avoid telling Morrigan certain important things, and an ending that's just slightly up in the air (not quite literally)... though I suppose that's partially my fault for not grabbing the second book to have on hand, which I really should've done once I realized what I was in for with the first few pages. Tight as the budget is these days, I suppose I'll have to carve out a little room for another book store run sooner rather than later. This is a series I definitely want to follow through on.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Bad Unicorn (Platte F. Clarke) - My Review
Cold Cereal (Adam Rex) - My Review
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (Brandon Sanderson) - My Review
Friday, January 27, 2023
Wake of Vultures (Lila Bowen)
Wake of Vultures
The Shadow series, Book 1
Lila Bowen
Orbit
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Western
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Life in the flyspeck of a frontier town called Gloomy Bluebird is every bit as dismal as its name suggests, but it's even worse for teenaged Nettie Lonesome. Since before she can remember, she's been little more than a slave to slovenly adopted parents Pap and Mam, a dark-skinned halfbreed with Indian and Black blood who wasn't even worth the teaching of lettering or sums. But she has a knack for gentling horses, and with it she hopes to escape the bleak future that stretches before her. That future almost ends before it begins, when a stranger turns up on the ranch one night - a stranger who turns to dust when she, in self-defense, strikes him through the heart with a splintered wooden stake.
Since that kill, Nettie starts seeing things nobody else notices (even as the stranger's fancy boots and hat and wad of cash help her slip away from Pap and Mam to a better position at the neighboring ranch as the boy "Red"). The ladies at the Leaping Lizard saloon have red eyes and long fangs, for one thing. Then there's something gnawing on the cattle - and the unfortunate incident when another ranch hand turns into a scaly, ravenous something. And she has the ghost of an Indian woman haunting her, insisting that she carry out revenge against a monster that snatched away the children of her tribe, a cannibalistic owl beast out of legend.
Nettie holds no truck with ghosts or monsters or destiny. All she wants is freedom: from Pap and Mam, from the terrible expectations of being a woman, from everything. But whether she likes it or not, it seems this is a fight she can't avoid.
REVIEW: Part Western, part urban fantasy, part alternate history, part quest and coming of age under harrowing circumstances, Wake of Vultures stars a heroine as stubborn, grit-blooded, and rough-edged as the alternate American desert country she inhabits (Durango Territory, of the Federal Republic of America). Raised by a bitter and abusive couple who were more interested in a slave than a child, she holds no illusions about life being beautiful or fair, knowing that any future that doesn't involve being Pap's punching bag is only going to be won by her own sweat and blood and stone-hard will. Indeed, she's deeply distrustful of friendship and kindness in any form, fully convinced that nobody could think anything remotely charitable about someone like her. She never set out to be a hero or vampire slayer - she didn't even know what a vampire was - and at first tries to deny what she's becoming. It takes a dead woman's ghost and a coyote shapeshifter (and some hard encounters with other monsters, including one that costs her dearly and effectively ends her chances at finding another future on her own terms) to force her to accept the quest before her, hunting down the owl beast that's preying on area towns and native tribes, human and inhuman alike. To do this, she has to join up with the ill-rumored Durango Rangers, who have a poor reputation by the lay public who has no idea they hunt monsters... though their reputation, as she finds out, may not be entirely be mitigated by their duty. Even as she's struggling to come to terms with possibly being the "Shadow" of native legend, she's struggling with growing up, complicated by feeling not at all like a woman, yet not quite like a man; nonbinary sexuality was not exactly a subject that came up much in her upbringing, where everything was black or white, man or woman, good or evil. Nettie also, despite her ingrained cynicism, still secretly hopes to find out who she actually is and why she was abandoned as little more than a baby. Her skin makes her mixed race heritage clear, but does nothing to tell her who her parents were and whether they might have loved her... whether anyone could ever love her, despite the self-loathing Pap and Mam carved into her soul. Nettie's strong personality is the main driving force through the plot, which is heavy on action and often quite brutal but not above pausing for some introspection and personal growth (or setbacks), though every so often her refusal to accept what's right in front of her could grow irritating, particularly at points where she backslides on lessons learned the hard way. The story also ends at an almost literal cliffhanger after the main climax resolves (a climax whose buildup involves a couple plot convenient developments that almost, but not quite, derailed the story for me). Overall, enough pluses balanced out those minuses to end up with a four-star Good rating. I might end up following the rest of Nettie's adventures someday.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Rebel of the Sands (Alwyn Hamilton) - My Review
True Grit (Charles Portis) - My Review
Six-Gun Snow White (Catherynne M. Valente) - My Review
The Shadow series, Book 1
Lila Bowen
Orbit
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Western
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Life in the flyspeck of a frontier town called Gloomy Bluebird is every bit as dismal as its name suggests, but it's even worse for teenaged Nettie Lonesome. Since before she can remember, she's been little more than a slave to slovenly adopted parents Pap and Mam, a dark-skinned halfbreed with Indian and Black blood who wasn't even worth the teaching of lettering or sums. But she has a knack for gentling horses, and with it she hopes to escape the bleak future that stretches before her. That future almost ends before it begins, when a stranger turns up on the ranch one night - a stranger who turns to dust when she, in self-defense, strikes him through the heart with a splintered wooden stake.
Since that kill, Nettie starts seeing things nobody else notices (even as the stranger's fancy boots and hat and wad of cash help her slip away from Pap and Mam to a better position at the neighboring ranch as the boy "Red"). The ladies at the Leaping Lizard saloon have red eyes and long fangs, for one thing. Then there's something gnawing on the cattle - and the unfortunate incident when another ranch hand turns into a scaly, ravenous something. And she has the ghost of an Indian woman haunting her, insisting that she carry out revenge against a monster that snatched away the children of her tribe, a cannibalistic owl beast out of legend.
Nettie holds no truck with ghosts or monsters or destiny. All she wants is freedom: from Pap and Mam, from the terrible expectations of being a woman, from everything. But whether she likes it or not, it seems this is a fight she can't avoid.
REVIEW: Part Western, part urban fantasy, part alternate history, part quest and coming of age under harrowing circumstances, Wake of Vultures stars a heroine as stubborn, grit-blooded, and rough-edged as the alternate American desert country she inhabits (Durango Territory, of the Federal Republic of America). Raised by a bitter and abusive couple who were more interested in a slave than a child, she holds no illusions about life being beautiful or fair, knowing that any future that doesn't involve being Pap's punching bag is only going to be won by her own sweat and blood and stone-hard will. Indeed, she's deeply distrustful of friendship and kindness in any form, fully convinced that nobody could think anything remotely charitable about someone like her. She never set out to be a hero or vampire slayer - she didn't even know what a vampire was - and at first tries to deny what she's becoming. It takes a dead woman's ghost and a coyote shapeshifter (and some hard encounters with other monsters, including one that costs her dearly and effectively ends her chances at finding another future on her own terms) to force her to accept the quest before her, hunting down the owl beast that's preying on area towns and native tribes, human and inhuman alike. To do this, she has to join up with the ill-rumored Durango Rangers, who have a poor reputation by the lay public who has no idea they hunt monsters... though their reputation, as she finds out, may not be entirely be mitigated by their duty. Even as she's struggling to come to terms with possibly being the "Shadow" of native legend, she's struggling with growing up, complicated by feeling not at all like a woman, yet not quite like a man; nonbinary sexuality was not exactly a subject that came up much in her upbringing, where everything was black or white, man or woman, good or evil. Nettie also, despite her ingrained cynicism, still secretly hopes to find out who she actually is and why she was abandoned as little more than a baby. Her skin makes her mixed race heritage clear, but does nothing to tell her who her parents were and whether they might have loved her... whether anyone could ever love her, despite the self-loathing Pap and Mam carved into her soul. Nettie's strong personality is the main driving force through the plot, which is heavy on action and often quite brutal but not above pausing for some introspection and personal growth (or setbacks), though every so often her refusal to accept what's right in front of her could grow irritating, particularly at points where she backslides on lessons learned the hard way. The story also ends at an almost literal cliffhanger after the main climax resolves (a climax whose buildup involves a couple plot convenient developments that almost, but not quite, derailed the story for me). Overall, enough pluses balanced out those minuses to end up with a four-star Good rating. I might end up following the rest of Nettie's adventures someday.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Rebel of the Sands (Alwyn Hamilton) - My Review
True Grit (Charles Portis) - My Review
Six-Gun Snow White (Catherynne M. Valente) - My Review
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Time Tourist Outfitters, Ltd. (C. N. Jackson)
Time Tourist Outfitters, Ltd.: A Historical Time Travel Adventure
The Toronto Time Agents series, Book 1
C. N. Jackson
Christy Nicholas, publisher
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Wilda Firestone of Toronto used to be a top agent with the Time Tourist Board, the only sanctioned time travel outfit in the world - the only one whose portals won't cause cellular degeneration in travelers. Now, she limits her involvement to designing period-authentic clothing for other agents and tourists. She lost her taste for time travel after a tragedy in the past tore away everything she loved. If she can help it, she'll never set foot out of her own time ever again. Besides, in her mid-fifties, she feels far too old to deal with the privations of history and bureaucratic red tape of being an agent.
Then the stranger stumbles into her shop, rambling and sickly... a stranger who has clearly been through an unsanctioned, rogue time portal, and who carries some unknown contagion.
Despite her best efforts to stay out, Wilda finds herself pulled back in for one more job: tracking the stranger and other unsanctioned travelers through time to try to isolate the source of their deadly illnesses. In doing so, she'll finally have to confront the memories she's been hiding from for over two decades.
REVIEW: With a stubborn, sarcastic protagonist and a reasonably lively time travel story, this looked like a fun adventure. Generally, it was, but it had just enough bumps and rough patches to hold it back in the ratings. Several stretches felt like filler, not really advancing the story or the characters in any meaningful way, and others set up clues and hints that were never followed up on. There was also an irritating tendency to talk in circles and get distracted by itself before finally getting to the meat of things or the reveals. By the end, several characters who could've used more fleshing out still felt flat. (I also had a few issues with the sound quality of the audiobook.) But there were some interesting ideas and descriptions of history, particularly history as experienced by women (not often a great place to be), and it did keep me listening to the end, so it did do several things right.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker) - My Review
15 Minutes (Jill Cooper) - My Review
The Psychology of Time Travel (Karen Mascarenhas) - My Review
The Toronto Time Agents series, Book 1
C. N. Jackson
Christy Nicholas, publisher
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Wilda Firestone of Toronto used to be a top agent with the Time Tourist Board, the only sanctioned time travel outfit in the world - the only one whose portals won't cause cellular degeneration in travelers. Now, she limits her involvement to designing period-authentic clothing for other agents and tourists. She lost her taste for time travel after a tragedy in the past tore away everything she loved. If she can help it, she'll never set foot out of her own time ever again. Besides, in her mid-fifties, she feels far too old to deal with the privations of history and bureaucratic red tape of being an agent.
Then the stranger stumbles into her shop, rambling and sickly... a stranger who has clearly been through an unsanctioned, rogue time portal, and who carries some unknown contagion.
Despite her best efforts to stay out, Wilda finds herself pulled back in for one more job: tracking the stranger and other unsanctioned travelers through time to try to isolate the source of their deadly illnesses. In doing so, she'll finally have to confront the memories she's been hiding from for over two decades.
REVIEW: With a stubborn, sarcastic protagonist and a reasonably lively time travel story, this looked like a fun adventure. Generally, it was, but it had just enough bumps and rough patches to hold it back in the ratings. Several stretches felt like filler, not really advancing the story or the characters in any meaningful way, and others set up clues and hints that were never followed up on. There was also an irritating tendency to talk in circles and get distracted by itself before finally getting to the meat of things or the reveals. By the end, several characters who could've used more fleshing out still felt flat. (I also had a few issues with the sound quality of the audiobook.) But there were some interesting ideas and descriptions of history, particularly history as experienced by women (not often a great place to be), and it did keep me listening to the end, so it did do several things right.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker) - My Review
15 Minutes (Jill Cooper) - My Review
The Psychology of Time Travel (Karen Mascarenhas) - My Review
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember (Annalee Newitz)
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive A Mass Extinction
Annalee Newitz
Anchor
Nonfiction, Science/Sociology
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: If there's one thing the history of the earth teaches us, is that change is inevitable - as is extinction. Since its formation, the planet's atmosphere has veered from snowball to greenhouse, methane to oxygen, lush tropical paradise to barren wasteland, even the occasional catastrophic impact from space. Species come and go, with life enduring massive upheavals and bottlenecks. So far as we know, however, humans are the first species to not only be able to observe and predict coming catastrophes, but engineer our own survival. As life itself has to change to survive in dramatically altered circumstances, so, too, we will have to change: how we live, how we think, what we value, even perhaps our own bodies. In this book, author Annalee Newitz looks to the past to understand where humans have come from and what we've come through, then to the present and future to consider what challenges we face in our long-term survival and what we might have to do to endure.
REVIEW: Oh, the sweet optimism of the previous decade... Starting with the earliest life forms (cyanobacteria) to showcase how life has proliferated even under the most trying of circumstances and bounced back from extinction-level events of almost unimaginable proportions, Newitz's book - published in 2013 - offers tempered optimism, based on humanity's previous brushes with oblivion, that we can overcome the numerous challenges before us - climate collapse, resource scarcity, disease, and more - and come out the other side, perhaps altered on a fundamental level but still alive and potentially thriving. Unfortunately, I'm reading this after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that makes a lie of her extensive chapter on global disease and how humanity "will" come together to confront and overcome the next pandemic threat... something which, as we sadly know, is not what happened, at least not as well as one might hope. Instead of coming together and embracing science for the good of the whole, too many turned to tribalism and denial and weaponized ignorance to deepen divides and gain short-term political ground on the backs of long-term damage and death tolls, even leading to potential knock-on effects (I have to wonder if the politicized ranting about vaccines is linked to the current worrying dip in standard childhood vaccinations and rise in diseases like measles in "developed" nations that had once beaten it back; even as I type this, one American state proposed banning COVID vaccines altogether, a move which, even if it was withdrawn, is an exceptionally worrisome sign of the overall political climate that has gained far, far too much traction in recent years, not to mention the general state of education that allowed said climate to develop in the first place... but I digress). Considering that this book was written only ten years ago, it's a sad statement that the author's optimism has so quickly dated her book. It also makes other scenarios and changes she proposes seem far less likely to come to fruition; she does acknowledge that there needs to be sufficient political will to fix problems current and future, but I think she underestimated the level of resistance and even active backsliding those in power seem prepared to execute just to maintain their grips and the illusion that nothing needs to change (because if nothing changes they won't lose their power). That things do need to change is absolutely undeniable, and the many different possible changes and responses to different threats are outlined here, through numerous interviews with experts. From living skyscrapers to underground shelters to potential body modifications and even space colonization, all manner of possibilities are discussed.
Despite the unfortunate dating (after only a decade), it's an interesting exploration of what the future could bring if humans choose to rise to the occasion. I wish I had more faith that any of the futures Newitz outlines here will come to pass. If they do, I fear it will only be after our current catastrophic age plays out to the very last gasp, with far more losses all around than should be necessary if we really lived up to our own species name of "wise man".
You Might Also Enjoy:
Unbound (Richard L. Currier) - My Review
Fool Me Twice (Shawn Lawrence Otto) - My Review
Soonish (Kelly and Zach Weinersmith) - My Review
Annalee Newitz
Anchor
Nonfiction, Science/Sociology
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: If there's one thing the history of the earth teaches us, is that change is inevitable - as is extinction. Since its formation, the planet's atmosphere has veered from snowball to greenhouse, methane to oxygen, lush tropical paradise to barren wasteland, even the occasional catastrophic impact from space. Species come and go, with life enduring massive upheavals and bottlenecks. So far as we know, however, humans are the first species to not only be able to observe and predict coming catastrophes, but engineer our own survival. As life itself has to change to survive in dramatically altered circumstances, so, too, we will have to change: how we live, how we think, what we value, even perhaps our own bodies. In this book, author Annalee Newitz looks to the past to understand where humans have come from and what we've come through, then to the present and future to consider what challenges we face in our long-term survival and what we might have to do to endure.
REVIEW: Oh, the sweet optimism of the previous decade... Starting with the earliest life forms (cyanobacteria) to showcase how life has proliferated even under the most trying of circumstances and bounced back from extinction-level events of almost unimaginable proportions, Newitz's book - published in 2013 - offers tempered optimism, based on humanity's previous brushes with oblivion, that we can overcome the numerous challenges before us - climate collapse, resource scarcity, disease, and more - and come out the other side, perhaps altered on a fundamental level but still alive and potentially thriving. Unfortunately, I'm reading this after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that makes a lie of her extensive chapter on global disease and how humanity "will" come together to confront and overcome the next pandemic threat... something which, as we sadly know, is not what happened, at least not as well as one might hope. Instead of coming together and embracing science for the good of the whole, too many turned to tribalism and denial and weaponized ignorance to deepen divides and gain short-term political ground on the backs of long-term damage and death tolls, even leading to potential knock-on effects (I have to wonder if the politicized ranting about vaccines is linked to the current worrying dip in standard childhood vaccinations and rise in diseases like measles in "developed" nations that had once beaten it back; even as I type this, one American state proposed banning COVID vaccines altogether, a move which, even if it was withdrawn, is an exceptionally worrisome sign of the overall political climate that has gained far, far too much traction in recent years, not to mention the general state of education that allowed said climate to develop in the first place... but I digress). Considering that this book was written only ten years ago, it's a sad statement that the author's optimism has so quickly dated her book. It also makes other scenarios and changes she proposes seem far less likely to come to fruition; she does acknowledge that there needs to be sufficient political will to fix problems current and future, but I think she underestimated the level of resistance and even active backsliding those in power seem prepared to execute just to maintain their grips and the illusion that nothing needs to change (because if nothing changes they won't lose their power). That things do need to change is absolutely undeniable, and the many different possible changes and responses to different threats are outlined here, through numerous interviews with experts. From living skyscrapers to underground shelters to potential body modifications and even space colonization, all manner of possibilities are discussed.
Despite the unfortunate dating (after only a decade), it's an interesting exploration of what the future could bring if humans choose to rise to the occasion. I wish I had more faith that any of the futures Newitz outlines here will come to pass. If they do, I fear it will only be after our current catastrophic age plays out to the very last gasp, with far more losses all around than should be necessary if we really lived up to our own species name of "wise man".
You Might Also Enjoy:
Unbound (Richard L. Currier) - My Review
Fool Me Twice (Shawn Lawrence Otto) - My Review
Soonish (Kelly and Zach Weinersmith) - My Review
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki)
Light From Uncommon Stars
Ryka Aoki
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: In classical music circles, Shizuka Satomi is known as the Queen of Hell, a legendary violin instructor with a fearsome reputation. Six students she has trained, six stars who blazed brilliantly across stages around the world - six lives that ended tragically, but the true tragedy is one the public would never know. For Miss Satomi did not come by her name lightly. She sold her soul to Hell, and to buy her own freedom she has promised the demon Tremon Philippe seven tortured souls. She only needs one more student, one more soul, but not just anyone will do; the Queen of Hell does have a reputation to uphold, after all, and will only take on a true diamond in the rough. Yet with only a year before she defaults and Tremon claims her as the seventh and final prize for his master, she finally hears the sound she's been seeking, the violinist who will be her crowning achievement, in the most unlikely of places: beside a duck pond in a public park.
Katrina Nguyen fled an abusive home and parents who refused to understand who she really was, even smashing her violin and resorting to violence as they tried to force her to be their son "Michael" again. All she has is a backpack of essentials, an address of someone she met briefly at a convention, and a cheap eBay violin from China. But the San Gabriel Valley is not the sanctuary she'd hoped it would be. Running away again, lost and desperate, she turns, as always, to her music for comfort... and attracts the attention of a stranger. There's no way this woman can be who she says she is, and there's no way she could possibly want to train a nobody like Katrina, a nobody who only sees herself as a useless freak. There has to be a catch, doesn't there? But it's not like she has a choice, with nowhere else to go.
Captain Lan Tran fled with her family from the galactic wars ravaging her homeworld. On a quaintly backwards little planet whose inhabitants have barely begun exploring their own star system, Lan plans to hunker down and wait out the end of her people. To blend in, she buys an iconic donut shop, one whose landmark large rooftop donut will make a nice stargate (if she can figure out a power source that won't blow the grid on the entire coast), and sets her family/crew to work. She didn't mean to get attached to the simple locals or their odd customs. Little does she know just how deeply she and her family will become involved, the day Shizuka Satomi walks into Starrgate Donuts...
REVIEW: Aliens, classical music, Asian diaspora, hate, prejudice, damnation, and donuts... Light From Uncommon Stars is a song composed of many notes that one wouldn't think would harmonize, but do, even if it takes a while before the melody becomes clear. It took me a while (and one false start) before I managed to get far enough in for the characters and story threads to start coming together, and even then I was wondering just how on Earth it was going to work. It does this, in part, by not overexplaining or overanalyzing its premise, embracing its contradictions and peculiar mashup of ideas and characters. At the center of it all is the relationship between Shizuka Satomi, a woman who knowingly bargained away not only her own soul but the souls of six other men and women, and Katrina Nguyen, a trans teen who has endured all manner of dehumanization and abuse yet who finds a voice in her violin. The tale unfolds in the cultural stew of Monterey Park, where numerous immigrant cultures come together in unexpected ways (though not without friction), a peculiarly dynamic melding of tradition and innovation creating unique flavors, literally; food is a running theme through the book, from Lan's attempts to replicate home-baked donuts with interstellar technology to pizza restaurants that have morphed into Asian bistros to neighbors sharing the fruits of backyard gardens. Music, too, reflects the cultural blending and clashing, from classical masters to modern video game scores, and the universal power of music to shape emotion and evoke memory. As in most any story involving Hell and damnation, there is also pain and suffering and despair and heartbreak, not to mention a scheming demon who has no intention of being cheated out of the soul he was promised and who knows just how to play his human marks to get what he desires. While the plot sometimes feels slow and a few characters start to feel extraneous, it builds to something truly powerful and memorable by the finale, and I expect I'll be thinking about it for quite some time.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Rhapsody (Elizabeth Haydon) - My Review
Song for the Basilisk (Patricia McKillip) - My Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Ryka Aoki
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: In classical music circles, Shizuka Satomi is known as the Queen of Hell, a legendary violin instructor with a fearsome reputation. Six students she has trained, six stars who blazed brilliantly across stages around the world - six lives that ended tragically, but the true tragedy is one the public would never know. For Miss Satomi did not come by her name lightly. She sold her soul to Hell, and to buy her own freedom she has promised the demon Tremon Philippe seven tortured souls. She only needs one more student, one more soul, but not just anyone will do; the Queen of Hell does have a reputation to uphold, after all, and will only take on a true diamond in the rough. Yet with only a year before she defaults and Tremon claims her as the seventh and final prize for his master, she finally hears the sound she's been seeking, the violinist who will be her crowning achievement, in the most unlikely of places: beside a duck pond in a public park.
Katrina Nguyen fled an abusive home and parents who refused to understand who she really was, even smashing her violin and resorting to violence as they tried to force her to be their son "Michael" again. All she has is a backpack of essentials, an address of someone she met briefly at a convention, and a cheap eBay violin from China. But the San Gabriel Valley is not the sanctuary she'd hoped it would be. Running away again, lost and desperate, she turns, as always, to her music for comfort... and attracts the attention of a stranger. There's no way this woman can be who she says she is, and there's no way she could possibly want to train a nobody like Katrina, a nobody who only sees herself as a useless freak. There has to be a catch, doesn't there? But it's not like she has a choice, with nowhere else to go.
Captain Lan Tran fled with her family from the galactic wars ravaging her homeworld. On a quaintly backwards little planet whose inhabitants have barely begun exploring their own star system, Lan plans to hunker down and wait out the end of her people. To blend in, she buys an iconic donut shop, one whose landmark large rooftop donut will make a nice stargate (if she can figure out a power source that won't blow the grid on the entire coast), and sets her family/crew to work. She didn't mean to get attached to the simple locals or their odd customs. Little does she know just how deeply she and her family will become involved, the day Shizuka Satomi walks into Starrgate Donuts...
REVIEW: Aliens, classical music, Asian diaspora, hate, prejudice, damnation, and donuts... Light From Uncommon Stars is a song composed of many notes that one wouldn't think would harmonize, but do, even if it takes a while before the melody becomes clear. It took me a while (and one false start) before I managed to get far enough in for the characters and story threads to start coming together, and even then I was wondering just how on Earth it was going to work. It does this, in part, by not overexplaining or overanalyzing its premise, embracing its contradictions and peculiar mashup of ideas and characters. At the center of it all is the relationship between Shizuka Satomi, a woman who knowingly bargained away not only her own soul but the souls of six other men and women, and Katrina Nguyen, a trans teen who has endured all manner of dehumanization and abuse yet who finds a voice in her violin. The tale unfolds in the cultural stew of Monterey Park, where numerous immigrant cultures come together in unexpected ways (though not without friction), a peculiarly dynamic melding of tradition and innovation creating unique flavors, literally; food is a running theme through the book, from Lan's attempts to replicate home-baked donuts with interstellar technology to pizza restaurants that have morphed into Asian bistros to neighbors sharing the fruits of backyard gardens. Music, too, reflects the cultural blending and clashing, from classical masters to modern video game scores, and the universal power of music to shape emotion and evoke memory. As in most any story involving Hell and damnation, there is also pain and suffering and despair and heartbreak, not to mention a scheming demon who has no intention of being cheated out of the soul he was promised and who knows just how to play his human marks to get what he desires. While the plot sometimes feels slow and a few characters start to feel extraneous, it builds to something truly powerful and memorable by the finale, and I expect I'll be thinking about it for quite some time.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Rhapsody (Elizabeth Haydon) - My Review
Song for the Basilisk (Patricia McKillip) - My Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Friday, January 13, 2023
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (Axie Oh)
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
Axie Oh
Feiwel and Friends
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For one hundred years, since the emperor fell to invaders, Mina's homeland has been plagued by deadly seasonal storms. It is said that the Sea God is angry, and that only a bride can appease him... but every year, despite the annual sacrifice of a young woman to the waves, the storms return, worse than ever, even as squabbling men grasp for power and things grow more desperate.
This year's sacrifice is supposed to be Shim Cheong, the loveliest girl in Mina's village... and the girl who stole her brother Joong's heart. The lovesick young man follows her on the boat - and Mina follows him. Thus it was that when the god's dragon rises to claim the sacrificial bride, it is Mina, not Cheong, who plunges into the depths.
She finds herself in a fantastic city under the waves, where fish and whales swim through the sky and spirits mingle with gods and ghosts. She also finds everything she thought she knew about the story of the Sea God and the sacrifices turned on its head. The god himself is barely more than a boy, caught in an enchanted slumber, while around him powerful houses scheme and plot - some to protect him, some to depose him. Mortal brides don't fare well in this dangerous place, as Mina learns all too soon. Caught up in politics and magics beyond her understanding, Mina clings to the only things that remain to her: the love of her family, the determination to save her people, and the stories spun by her grandmother.
REVIEW: As one might guess, this story is rooted in Asian folk tales and legends, with myriad gods and watchful ancestral spirits and mythical beasts that may be helpful or dangerous (or both). Being something of a fairy tale, one can mostly guess the broad strokes of how the story unfolds, but the characters are nevertheless engaging and Mina makes for a decently strong heroine, one who will not let herself be a simple pawn of fate or victim but who determines to forge her own destiny despite the incredible odds against her. It moves fairly well, never dragging, as Mina faces victories and defeats and frustrations. A few "twists" were fairly obvious from the outset, and at a couple points the characters need to be pushed or led to conclusions they should've come to on their own, but overall I enjoyed it for what it was.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Grace Lin) - My Review
The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo) - My Review
Dragon Keeper (Carole Wilkinson) - My Review
Axie Oh
Feiwel and Friends
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For one hundred years, since the emperor fell to invaders, Mina's homeland has been plagued by deadly seasonal storms. It is said that the Sea God is angry, and that only a bride can appease him... but every year, despite the annual sacrifice of a young woman to the waves, the storms return, worse than ever, even as squabbling men grasp for power and things grow more desperate.
This year's sacrifice is supposed to be Shim Cheong, the loveliest girl in Mina's village... and the girl who stole her brother Joong's heart. The lovesick young man follows her on the boat - and Mina follows him. Thus it was that when the god's dragon rises to claim the sacrificial bride, it is Mina, not Cheong, who plunges into the depths.
She finds herself in a fantastic city under the waves, where fish and whales swim through the sky and spirits mingle with gods and ghosts. She also finds everything she thought she knew about the story of the Sea God and the sacrifices turned on its head. The god himself is barely more than a boy, caught in an enchanted slumber, while around him powerful houses scheme and plot - some to protect him, some to depose him. Mortal brides don't fare well in this dangerous place, as Mina learns all too soon. Caught up in politics and magics beyond her understanding, Mina clings to the only things that remain to her: the love of her family, the determination to save her people, and the stories spun by her grandmother.
REVIEW: As one might guess, this story is rooted in Asian folk tales and legends, with myriad gods and watchful ancestral spirits and mythical beasts that may be helpful or dangerous (or both). Being something of a fairy tale, one can mostly guess the broad strokes of how the story unfolds, but the characters are nevertheless engaging and Mina makes for a decently strong heroine, one who will not let herself be a simple pawn of fate or victim but who determines to forge her own destiny despite the incredible odds against her. It moves fairly well, never dragging, as Mina faces victories and defeats and frustrations. A few "twists" were fairly obvious from the outset, and at a couple points the characters need to be pushed or led to conclusions they should've come to on their own, but overall I enjoyed it for what it was.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Grace Lin) - My Review
The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo) - My Review
Dragon Keeper (Carole Wilkinson) - My Review
Thursday, January 12, 2023
Scritch Scratch (Lindsay Currie)
Scritch Scratch
Lindsay Currie
Sourcebooks
Fiction, MG Chiller/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Seventh-grader Claire's life has been a nightmare ever since her father's book, about the ghosts of Chicago, became a big hit. Now he runs bus tours of "haunted" sights around the Windy City, while Claire gets teased about her dad's obsession all day at school. She's a girl of science, not of spooks (even if she does still have to count out loud to get through the dark and scary alley behind her home). It might not be quite so bad if she had a shoulder to cry on, but her older brother Sam can be a jerk sometimes, and her best friend Casley seems to have outgrown her, spending most of her time with the new girl Emily talking about fashion and make-up and other stuff Claire just can't make herself be interested in. The night Dad's assistant calls out sick, forcing Claire to fill in on the night's ghost tour, is an embarrassment to end all embarrassments... until she sees the little boy, all alone, at the back of the empty tour bus.
A little boy nobody else sees.
Soon after, strange things start happening around Claire. Something's scratching behind the walls and rattling the bedroom doorknobs. Cold water soaks her dresser drawers. Windstorms strike out of nowhere... indoors. Even a scientist like Claire can't ignore this kind of evidence, for all that she's always believed ghosts are impossible. The little boy is a real spirit, and Claire is being haunted. But why has he latched onto her, of all people? Who was he? And how is she supposed to figure out what he wants before he destroys her home, and her mind?
REVIEW: With a chill-inducing title, Scritch Scratch is a decent little chiller of a story, with some rather spooky moments that evoke childhood fears of death and darkness and things that go bump (or scritch-scratch) in the night.
Claire is a bright young girl, but still hobbled by fears... as is everyone in the story, to some degree or another. One major thread in the story is fear: how one doesn't always outgrow fear, whether or not it's objectively rational, but one can choose how one reacts to it and copes with it. Her embrace of science is part of how she tries to overcome her fears, but she still has to count out loud to face scary things... and even that doesn't help much when it's not just an overactive imagination haunting her (no spoiler for saying that the ghost is quite, quite real). She tries to face everything alone, too, convinced that turning to others will only make things worse or open her up to ridicule or disbelief (or, in her father's case, risk him latching eagerly onto a haunting in his own house to boost his ghost tours, regardless of how terrified she is of the vengeful little boy in white), but eventually has to call in help. In doing so, she learns that everyone has their own fears to face (if not necessarily their own personal turn-of-the-century spirits stalking them), and reaching out to others can actually make things a little better. Along the way, Claire and her friends delve into the history of Chicago and the many bones buried beneath its streets, quite literally in some instances.
It lost a half-star in the ratings because of some internal logic inconsistencies with the haunting (which I can't get into without spoilers), and something about the later parts felt like it was pulling its punches after the truly scary bits that came before, as if it didn't trust the reader to handle the climax without excessive hand-holding. I also had the odd feeling it wanted to set up a series (or at least a sequel), but shied away at the last minute. These late wobbles aside, though, I found it a fairly spooky tale.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The In-Between (Rebecca K. S. Ansari) - My Review
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
City of Ghosts (Victoria Schwab) - My Review
Lindsay Currie
Sourcebooks
Fiction, MG Chiller/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Seventh-grader Claire's life has been a nightmare ever since her father's book, about the ghosts of Chicago, became a big hit. Now he runs bus tours of "haunted" sights around the Windy City, while Claire gets teased about her dad's obsession all day at school. She's a girl of science, not of spooks (even if she does still have to count out loud to get through the dark and scary alley behind her home). It might not be quite so bad if she had a shoulder to cry on, but her older brother Sam can be a jerk sometimes, and her best friend Casley seems to have outgrown her, spending most of her time with the new girl Emily talking about fashion and make-up and other stuff Claire just can't make herself be interested in. The night Dad's assistant calls out sick, forcing Claire to fill in on the night's ghost tour, is an embarrassment to end all embarrassments... until she sees the little boy, all alone, at the back of the empty tour bus.
A little boy nobody else sees.
Soon after, strange things start happening around Claire. Something's scratching behind the walls and rattling the bedroom doorknobs. Cold water soaks her dresser drawers. Windstorms strike out of nowhere... indoors. Even a scientist like Claire can't ignore this kind of evidence, for all that she's always believed ghosts are impossible. The little boy is a real spirit, and Claire is being haunted. But why has he latched onto her, of all people? Who was he? And how is she supposed to figure out what he wants before he destroys her home, and her mind?
REVIEW: With a chill-inducing title, Scritch Scratch is a decent little chiller of a story, with some rather spooky moments that evoke childhood fears of death and darkness and things that go bump (or scritch-scratch) in the night.
Claire is a bright young girl, but still hobbled by fears... as is everyone in the story, to some degree or another. One major thread in the story is fear: how one doesn't always outgrow fear, whether or not it's objectively rational, but one can choose how one reacts to it and copes with it. Her embrace of science is part of how she tries to overcome her fears, but she still has to count out loud to face scary things... and even that doesn't help much when it's not just an overactive imagination haunting her (no spoiler for saying that the ghost is quite, quite real). She tries to face everything alone, too, convinced that turning to others will only make things worse or open her up to ridicule or disbelief (or, in her father's case, risk him latching eagerly onto a haunting in his own house to boost his ghost tours, regardless of how terrified she is of the vengeful little boy in white), but eventually has to call in help. In doing so, she learns that everyone has their own fears to face (if not necessarily their own personal turn-of-the-century spirits stalking them), and reaching out to others can actually make things a little better. Along the way, Claire and her friends delve into the history of Chicago and the many bones buried beneath its streets, quite literally in some instances.
It lost a half-star in the ratings because of some internal logic inconsistencies with the haunting (which I can't get into without spoilers), and something about the later parts felt like it was pulling its punches after the truly scary bits that came before, as if it didn't trust the reader to handle the climax without excessive hand-holding. I also had the odd feeling it wanted to set up a series (or at least a sequel), but shied away at the last minute. These late wobbles aside, though, I found it a fairly spooky tale.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The In-Between (Rebecca K. S. Ansari) - My Review
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
City of Ghosts (Victoria Schwab) - My Review
Saturday, January 7, 2023
The Thief (Megan Whelan Turner)
The Thief
The Queen's Thief series, Book 1
Megan Whelan Turner
Greenwillow Books
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Gen the thief can steal anything, or so he boasts - including the king's seal from the man's own finger. But he can't get himself out of the prison cell that the theft lands him in afterwards. This isn't the first time his overactive tongue has gotten him in trouble, but it may well be the last. Then a strange visitor comes calling, none other than the king's own magus. The crown has need of a superior thief, it turns out, and though the man is sketchy on the details Gen is in no position to negotiate. Soon Gen, the magus, the man's two mismatched young apprentices, and a burly guard are off on a dangerous mission in hostile territory. If Gen succeeds, he will indeed prove himself the best thief since his divine namesake, Eugenides, who stole lightning from the sky god Himself. If Gen fails, no one will ever find his body.
REVIEW: This is another instance of familiar tropes coming together in a satisfying way. Gen's Mediterranean-inspired world, with long histories and rival nations and complex politics and creation myths and gods (that may or may not be real), feels comfortably familiar yet also distinctive, a wide and lived-in setting for the tale's adventures that comes to colorful life. Likewise, the characters have that familiar feel to them, yet are all solid enough to feel real in their world, often having their own hidden agendas beyond the mission itself, which involves a legendary artifact said to come from the gods Themselves and whose theft is a traditional part of one nation's royal successions. Gen naturally clashes with his companions of circumstance from the start, particularly with the magus himself, though all of the palace folk look down on the filthy young thief plucked from a prison cell. Along the way, he comes to see more of them, and despite his misgivings about dealing with the king's agents (and lingering suspicions that, even if he succeeds, he is ultimately just a tool, one that might be considered disposable), he develops some sense of alliance and even empathy. The plot itself moves well enough, though it takes a while to get around to the details of the mission, and after the climax it lingers a bit overlong on the wrap-up, which leaves threads for future volumes but concludes things well enough. On the whole, it made for an enjoyable story, and a world I wouldn't mind revisiting.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Blacktongue Thief (Christopher Buehlman) - My Review
Swords and Deviltry (Fritz Leiber) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
The Queen's Thief series, Book 1
Megan Whelan Turner
Greenwillow Books
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Gen the thief can steal anything, or so he boasts - including the king's seal from the man's own finger. But he can't get himself out of the prison cell that the theft lands him in afterwards. This isn't the first time his overactive tongue has gotten him in trouble, but it may well be the last. Then a strange visitor comes calling, none other than the king's own magus. The crown has need of a superior thief, it turns out, and though the man is sketchy on the details Gen is in no position to negotiate. Soon Gen, the magus, the man's two mismatched young apprentices, and a burly guard are off on a dangerous mission in hostile territory. If Gen succeeds, he will indeed prove himself the best thief since his divine namesake, Eugenides, who stole lightning from the sky god Himself. If Gen fails, no one will ever find his body.
REVIEW: This is another instance of familiar tropes coming together in a satisfying way. Gen's Mediterranean-inspired world, with long histories and rival nations and complex politics and creation myths and gods (that may or may not be real), feels comfortably familiar yet also distinctive, a wide and lived-in setting for the tale's adventures that comes to colorful life. Likewise, the characters have that familiar feel to them, yet are all solid enough to feel real in their world, often having their own hidden agendas beyond the mission itself, which involves a legendary artifact said to come from the gods Themselves and whose theft is a traditional part of one nation's royal successions. Gen naturally clashes with his companions of circumstance from the start, particularly with the magus himself, though all of the palace folk look down on the filthy young thief plucked from a prison cell. Along the way, he comes to see more of them, and despite his misgivings about dealing with the king's agents (and lingering suspicions that, even if he succeeds, he is ultimately just a tool, one that might be considered disposable), he develops some sense of alliance and even empathy. The plot itself moves well enough, though it takes a while to get around to the details of the mission, and after the climax it lingers a bit overlong on the wrap-up, which leaves threads for future volumes but concludes things well enough. On the whole, it made for an enjoyable story, and a world I wouldn't mind revisiting.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Blacktongue Thief (Christopher Buehlman) - My Review
Swords and Deviltry (Fritz Leiber) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Friday, January 6, 2023
The Benefits of Being an Octopus (Ann Braden)
The Benefits of Being an Octopus
Ann Braden
Sky Pony
Fiction, MG General Fiction
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: An octopus can squeeze through almost any opening. An octopus can change the color and texture of its skin to blend perfectly into its surroundings. An octopus has eight arms, perfect for multitasking. There are so many, many reasons octopuses are Zoey's favorite animal ever, so many reasons she secretly wishes she could be like them. With eight arms, she'd have no trouble helping out with her three younger siblings and overworked mom. If she could camoflage herself, she'd never have to endure the taunts of other kids and even adults about her shabby clothes and the trailer park smell that follows her everywhere, or see that look on teachers' faces when she has to admit that she hasn't done her homework again (which for sure she'd have had time to do with those eight octopus arms). And if she could move like an octopus, she could escape the dark hole she seems to be living in, crushed by the pressure of a life that's never been exactly right and lately seems just exactly wrong, even if Mom has finally found a somewhat stable man, Lenny, who lets them live in his clean trailer.
When her social studies teacher asks everyone in class to prepare a paper on their favorite animal for a presentation, followed by a debate where the class would have to defend their animal and convince the rest of the class why it's actually the best, for once Zoey actually feels confident enough to try. After all, nobody knows more about octopuses than she does. Maybe, just maybe, she could make her classmates see her as someone other than a nobody. But when her nerves fail at the last minute, her teacher doesn't give her a bad grade for "losing" yet another assignment. Instead, she makes Zoey join the class debate team. On her best days, Zoey goes an entire day without a single actual conversation with her classmates; she doubts they even know her name. And she's just a poor kid from the wrong side of the proverbial tracks; why would anyone listen to her, assuming she was remotely smart enough to say anything worth listening to in the first place? But as more things start to go wrong in Zoey's life, she starts thinking more and more about what she's learning in that class, and starts to wonder if maybe hiding like an octopus isn't the way to get to a life worth living. Maybe she needs to do something a cephalopod could never do: find her voice and speak up.
REVIEW: This award-winning tale tackles issues of poverty, class divides, prejudice, and the deep scars left by abuse even on those not directly targeted - and even when the abuser never lays a finger on the victim.
Zoey's life has always been chaotic, and try as her mother might the family can never seem to get its feet under itself for long... making them the perfect targets for an emotional abuser like Lenny, the sort of sly snake whose cruelty masquerades as protective concern until even Zoey doesn't quite realize what's so terribly, terribly wrong. After all, with Lenny they can live in a clean home (unlike the last few places, or the car they had to live in for a few months), and Lenny helped Mom land a job, so how bad can he really be? It's only after she's forced to attend debate class by a concerned teacher that she starts to recognize what Lenny is doing, how he manipulates ideas and undercuts arguments and attacks his opponents just like a debater at the podium, finding weaknesses and ruthlessly exploiting them for the "win". When her young brother Bryce starts parroting Lenny's cruelty, she realizes she has to do something... but what can one girl hope to do when her own mother no longer has the will or the strength to escape a trap she refuses to even see? Meanwhile, her best friend Fuschia is going through her own troubled times, which take a terrible turn just when Zoey is least prepared to listen. To cope with life's intolerable stresses, Zoey often imagines herself as an octopus, drawing comfort and strength from the cephalopod's abilities. She resists being drawn out by her teacher, resistance the reader fully understands given her circumstances and how her classmates continually and unthinkingly put her in boxes to ignore (quite relatable, I say as someone who wasn't exactly one of the popular kids growing up and who still counts her chief social success in high school as being the achievement of essential invisibility), but at some point growth and change become less about her well-founded fears and more about literal survival.
The tale sometimes feels like it's moving in circles, and at some point I found myself mildly irked at how it seemed like the only purpose in Zoey's life and main impetus to change was her younger siblings, the "screaming monkeys" (Zoey's description) she has to corral and half-raise as her mother becomes less and less certain of her parenting skills under Lenny's influence. (While of course their welfare is important, the children-are-the-be-all-and-end-all-of-a-female's-existence thing gets a bit old.) That aside, it's a decent story that offers no clear, clean, or easy answers for the characters, but does offer hope that sometimes one voice speaking up at the right time can make a difference. I can definitely see why it earned its awards.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Frindle (Andrew Clements) - My Review
The Tiger Rising (Kate DiCamillo) - My Review
The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton) - My Review
Ann Braden
Sky Pony
Fiction, MG General Fiction
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: An octopus can squeeze through almost any opening. An octopus can change the color and texture of its skin to blend perfectly into its surroundings. An octopus has eight arms, perfect for multitasking. There are so many, many reasons octopuses are Zoey's favorite animal ever, so many reasons she secretly wishes she could be like them. With eight arms, she'd have no trouble helping out with her three younger siblings and overworked mom. If she could camoflage herself, she'd never have to endure the taunts of other kids and even adults about her shabby clothes and the trailer park smell that follows her everywhere, or see that look on teachers' faces when she has to admit that she hasn't done her homework again (which for sure she'd have had time to do with those eight octopus arms). And if she could move like an octopus, she could escape the dark hole she seems to be living in, crushed by the pressure of a life that's never been exactly right and lately seems just exactly wrong, even if Mom has finally found a somewhat stable man, Lenny, who lets them live in his clean trailer.
When her social studies teacher asks everyone in class to prepare a paper on their favorite animal for a presentation, followed by a debate where the class would have to defend their animal and convince the rest of the class why it's actually the best, for once Zoey actually feels confident enough to try. After all, nobody knows more about octopuses than she does. Maybe, just maybe, she could make her classmates see her as someone other than a nobody. But when her nerves fail at the last minute, her teacher doesn't give her a bad grade for "losing" yet another assignment. Instead, she makes Zoey join the class debate team. On her best days, Zoey goes an entire day without a single actual conversation with her classmates; she doubts they even know her name. And she's just a poor kid from the wrong side of the proverbial tracks; why would anyone listen to her, assuming she was remotely smart enough to say anything worth listening to in the first place? But as more things start to go wrong in Zoey's life, she starts thinking more and more about what she's learning in that class, and starts to wonder if maybe hiding like an octopus isn't the way to get to a life worth living. Maybe she needs to do something a cephalopod could never do: find her voice and speak up.
REVIEW: This award-winning tale tackles issues of poverty, class divides, prejudice, and the deep scars left by abuse even on those not directly targeted - and even when the abuser never lays a finger on the victim.
Zoey's life has always been chaotic, and try as her mother might the family can never seem to get its feet under itself for long... making them the perfect targets for an emotional abuser like Lenny, the sort of sly snake whose cruelty masquerades as protective concern until even Zoey doesn't quite realize what's so terribly, terribly wrong. After all, with Lenny they can live in a clean home (unlike the last few places, or the car they had to live in for a few months), and Lenny helped Mom land a job, so how bad can he really be? It's only after she's forced to attend debate class by a concerned teacher that she starts to recognize what Lenny is doing, how he manipulates ideas and undercuts arguments and attacks his opponents just like a debater at the podium, finding weaknesses and ruthlessly exploiting them for the "win". When her young brother Bryce starts parroting Lenny's cruelty, she realizes she has to do something... but what can one girl hope to do when her own mother no longer has the will or the strength to escape a trap she refuses to even see? Meanwhile, her best friend Fuschia is going through her own troubled times, which take a terrible turn just when Zoey is least prepared to listen. To cope with life's intolerable stresses, Zoey often imagines herself as an octopus, drawing comfort and strength from the cephalopod's abilities. She resists being drawn out by her teacher, resistance the reader fully understands given her circumstances and how her classmates continually and unthinkingly put her in boxes to ignore (quite relatable, I say as someone who wasn't exactly one of the popular kids growing up and who still counts her chief social success in high school as being the achievement of essential invisibility), but at some point growth and change become less about her well-founded fears and more about literal survival.
The tale sometimes feels like it's moving in circles, and at some point I found myself mildly irked at how it seemed like the only purpose in Zoey's life and main impetus to change was her younger siblings, the "screaming monkeys" (Zoey's description) she has to corral and half-raise as her mother becomes less and less certain of her parenting skills under Lenny's influence. (While of course their welfare is important, the children-are-the-be-all-and-end-all-of-a-female's-existence thing gets a bit old.) That aside, it's a decent story that offers no clear, clean, or easy answers for the characters, but does offer hope that sometimes one voice speaking up at the right time can make a difference. I can definitely see why it earned its awards.
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Frindle (Andrew Clements) - My Review
The Tiger Rising (Kate DiCamillo) - My Review
The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton) - My Review
Thursday, January 5, 2023
The Exiled Fleet (J. S. Dewes)
The Exiled Fleet
The Divide series, Book 2
J. S. Dewes
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Sentinels were supposed to be humanity's protectors, posted at the very edge of the universe beyond the galactic rim as guardians against the alien Viator threat. In truth, they were a dumping ground for the System Collective Legion's criminals and misfits and political embarrassments... and now, they're supposed to be dead, abandoned by the government that sent them there, to be replaced with mindless hybrid clones.
They don't know about the ship full of survivors.
Led by former war hero Adequin Rake and disowned royal heir Cavalon Mercer, the Sentinels have abandoned their loyalty to the Legion that left them for dead when the Divide - the barrier between the end of the universe and the nothing beyond - began to collapse. Rake now sees the Legion and the System Collective for what they truly are, a corrupted force that's at least as dangerous to humanity's future as the long-vanquished Viators (who are not as extinct as the public has been led to believe, and also not at all what they appeared to be). Part of her oath was defending the human race from all threats, and right now the biggest threat is coming from within. Before she and her mismatched command crew can deal with that threat, though, they still have plenty of obstacles to overcome, as the Sentinels are still stranded and literally starving at the edge of nowhere.
REVIEW: The story picks up not long after where the first one (The Last Watch, reviewed here) ended, with Rake, Mercer, and their allies struggling to leverage what little resources and knowledge they've gained toward their greater goals of justice, vengeance, and (first and foremost) getting back to galactic civilization without their former colleagues gunning them down the moment they return. Also like the first book, the action is close to nonstop, with complications fouling up even the simplest of plans. It sometimes comes close to exhausting, and once in a while it toes close to the edge of plausibility (even given the inherent handwaving in space opera action adventures), but it makes for solid entertainment. As a counterbalance to all the external action, Rake and Cavalon have both accumulated significant mental and emotional scars in their lives and during their previous adventures, scars that cast shadows over their thoughts and decisions going forward and add extra weight to the firefights and danger they're constantly facing. The two outwardly mismatched duo come to rely on each other as anchors against the perpetual dark undertows threatening to pull them under, a bond that's deeply emotional yet blessedly nonromantic; theirs are the bonds of shared trauma and combat, of understanding where the other one's been and when they're sliding. Around them are the usual collection of side characters, some returning and some new, with fresh faces and sacrifices. Along the way, they unearth more pieces of the greater puzzle that continually upend everything they thought they knew, from the political landscape to family secrets to even the basic physics of the universe. Also like the first volume, it ends less at a definitive conclusion than at a temporary resting point along the greater arc, a pivot point marking a new direction and resolve going forward. I'll be keeping an eye out (or an ear, as this was another audiobook via the local library and the Libby app) for the next installment, which may not drop until next year. Dang it...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Crownchasers (Rebecca Coffindaffer) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer) - My Review
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The Divide series, Book 2
J. S. Dewes
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Sentinels were supposed to be humanity's protectors, posted at the very edge of the universe beyond the galactic rim as guardians against the alien Viator threat. In truth, they were a dumping ground for the System Collective Legion's criminals and misfits and political embarrassments... and now, they're supposed to be dead, abandoned by the government that sent them there, to be replaced with mindless hybrid clones.
They don't know about the ship full of survivors.
Led by former war hero Adequin Rake and disowned royal heir Cavalon Mercer, the Sentinels have abandoned their loyalty to the Legion that left them for dead when the Divide - the barrier between the end of the universe and the nothing beyond - began to collapse. Rake now sees the Legion and the System Collective for what they truly are, a corrupted force that's at least as dangerous to humanity's future as the long-vanquished Viators (who are not as extinct as the public has been led to believe, and also not at all what they appeared to be). Part of her oath was defending the human race from all threats, and right now the biggest threat is coming from within. Before she and her mismatched command crew can deal with that threat, though, they still have plenty of obstacles to overcome, as the Sentinels are still stranded and literally starving at the edge of nowhere.
REVIEW: The story picks up not long after where the first one (The Last Watch, reviewed here) ended, with Rake, Mercer, and their allies struggling to leverage what little resources and knowledge they've gained toward their greater goals of justice, vengeance, and (first and foremost) getting back to galactic civilization without their former colleagues gunning them down the moment they return. Also like the first book, the action is close to nonstop, with complications fouling up even the simplest of plans. It sometimes comes close to exhausting, and once in a while it toes close to the edge of plausibility (even given the inherent handwaving in space opera action adventures), but it makes for solid entertainment. As a counterbalance to all the external action, Rake and Cavalon have both accumulated significant mental and emotional scars in their lives and during their previous adventures, scars that cast shadows over their thoughts and decisions going forward and add extra weight to the firefights and danger they're constantly facing. The two outwardly mismatched duo come to rely on each other as anchors against the perpetual dark undertows threatening to pull them under, a bond that's deeply emotional yet blessedly nonromantic; theirs are the bonds of shared trauma and combat, of understanding where the other one's been and when they're sliding. Around them are the usual collection of side characters, some returning and some new, with fresh faces and sacrifices. Along the way, they unearth more pieces of the greater puzzle that continually upend everything they thought they knew, from the political landscape to family secrets to even the basic physics of the universe. Also like the first volume, it ends less at a definitive conclusion than at a temporary resting point along the greater arc, a pivot point marking a new direction and resolve going forward. I'll be keeping an eye out (or an ear, as this was another audiobook via the local library and the Libby app) for the next installment, which may not drop until next year. Dang it...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Crownchasers (Rebecca Coffindaffer) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer) - My Review
Shards of Earth (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
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