Main Site Work in Progress (Domain Up!)

For all nobody who cares, I'm doing some behind-the-scenes stuff on my main Brightdreamer Books site (namely, attempting to switch domain hosts), so there may be some Issues over the next few hours (days?) while that gets sorted out.

This blog will not be affected, just the site and domain.

I'll update this post if/when it's all sorted. Meanwhile, apologies for any interruptions...

--

UPDATE (Sunday, September 29, 4:10 PM) - Brightdreamer.com is currently down pending site transfer, which will occur when I can get hold of tech support to figure out why I cannot seem to get my FTP transfer program to connect to Dreamhost using the numbers they're telling me to use.

This may not be resolved today (Sunday.)

--

UPDATE (Sunday, September 29, 7:42 PM) - Still mostly down. Manually transferred a few files but ran into issues trying to do the whole thing manually. So I finally asked for help. Odds are good this will not be resolved until later on Monday. So much for the "it's so easy!" instructions on the site...

--

UPDATE (Monday, September 30, 3:30 PM) - And still having troubles, though progress has been made insofar as it's a different error I'm getting on my FTP program. Second round of support ticket requests for help is winging its way through the ether. I'm still hopeful I can make this new host work, but if it's still no-go by Friday I'll be forced to look elsewhere for hosting options.

--

UPDATE (Monday, September 30, 4:56 PM) - Kudos to the DreamHost team for helping me out; the site has officially been switched over and updated, with the month's new reviews archived and cross-linked on the main Brightdreamer Books site.

Enjoy!

CatStronauts: Mission Moon (Drew Brockington)

CatStronauts: Mission Moon
The CatStronauts series, Book 1
Drew Brockington
Little, Brown and Company
Fiction, CH Graphic Novel/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Oh, no! The world is about to run out of power! Fortunately, the President of America knows just who to call: the World's Best Scientist, who hatches a plan to put a solar power plant on the moon and beam energy back to Earth via microwave. To accomplish this, World's Best Scientist knows who else to call: the CatStronauts over at the Catsup Space Agency. Major Meowser, Waffles, Blanket, and Pom Pom - as well as the entire space agency, which hasn't conducted a moon mission in 30 years - have just 60 days to train, build a rocket, and get the lunar power plant online, or Earth will run out of energy and life as every cat knows it will end.

REVIEW: Melding humor and science and more than a few nods to the history of the (human) space race, CatStronauts is a fun little graphic novel for kids (and grown-ups reading along, or just looking for a light, fast-reading adventure). The illustrations are whimsical, with details that add to the humor and the resonance for those looking for real-world space connections. Characters are simple yet distinct and fun, learning to work together in a crunch and science their way through problems in true astronaut fashion, and the plot moves briskly (with more than a few throwaway puns and jokes). There's a little peril, a little conflict, and no real spoiler that things come together by the end. I had fun reading it, and if I ever need a light pick-me-up in the future, I might continue the series.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates (Kevin O'Malley and Patrick O'Brien) - My Review
In the Red (Christopher Swiedler) - My Review
Quantum Mechanics (Jeff Weigel) - My Review

Blade of Dream (Daniel Abraham)

Blade of Dream
The Kithamar trilogy, Book 2
Daniel Abraham
Orbit
Fiction, Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: Since its founding, the city of Kithamar has been a city of struggles and contrasts, from the first violent clashes of invading Hansch against indigenous Inlisc to the friction of rival brotherhoods and religions and families and classes in its many sprawling districts. It is the duty of the prince to keep Kithamar together and help the city thrive despite its many differences and disagreements... but Byrn a Sal only reigned for a single year. Did he die by accident, by traitors in the palace, by some foreign plot, or by the very living thread of city itself?
Elaine a Sal has lived a life of privilege... and boredom. Her father may be next in line for the Kithamar crown, and herself his most likely successor, but she can't help feeling separated from the city she is expected to rule someday. As the current prince's death grows more imminent, she only feels the walls growing thicker. Then her cousin Theddan, notorious for flouting convention and pesky social rules, talks Elaine into sneaking out to a riverside party... and her whole world is turned upside down. When the bluecloak city guards raid the boathouse, Elaine dives into the river to escape capture (and embarrassment for her father) - and finds a stranger who helps her slip away, a handsome and noble-hearted young man far out of her social class but who unexpectedly captures her attention, and her heart. She knew she should forget all about one indiscretion, that the duties to family and city will always supersede personal happiness, but she can't help thinking of him. And when her father's rise to Palace Hill brings troubling hints that all is not well with the crown or the city, she realizes she can trust nobody - nobody except perhaps one handsome and noble-hearted young man from across the river...
Garreth Left's life has been proscribed by family "policy" since before he can remember. The way his mother is always away traveling while his father manages the family trading business at home: policy. The fact that he's no longer a child and yet is still in the dark about so much of the family business despite being the eldest son: policy. Now policy will dictate his marriage to a stranger, an Inlisc woman from a trading clan beyond Kithamar, a move that may restore House Left to its former fortune and glory (and provide a loophole through which to run an off-season caravan and undercut their rivals). Worse, his childhood best friends are all drifting away into their own lives. Three of them chose the blue cloaks of the city guard over lesser (or no) status roles in their own trader families, and though Garreth still spends time with them, he can feel the bonds fraying. He is with them one night, watching as they raid an unlawful party in a boathouse, when he sees a young woman climb out of the river and hide from the guards... and, rather than turn her in to his friends, he feels moved to help her - "help" that ends in his bedroom, though mutual consent. He never even asks her name, but from that moment on, his entire life tips askew. Suddenly, "policy" is no longer enough to compel him to accept a loveless marriage and a future dictated by others. He takes his first steps toward a life of his own, beyond the reach of his father and family policy. Little does he suspect just how far those steps will take him - and how the very fate of Kithamar might hang in the balance.

REVIEW: The first volume in the Kithamar trilogy was an unexpected delight, an epic fantasy compressed into the scope of one turbulent year and one fractured city, focused on a relatively small cast of players and yet with all the richness and worldbuilding and character growth of a larger, sprawling tale. The second volume follows the same year, but switches the focus to other characters, the star-crossed pair of Garreth and Elaine who were part of events in Age of Ash but not the main focus. It could easily have been a simple retread, but Abraham turns it into a fresh and interesting take that nevertheless slots seamlessly into the larger arc, which is also a different tale when viewed from another angle.
The original story's characters viewed the future prince Elaine a Sal ("prince" being a gender-neutral title in this world) as a sheltered, naive girl with a puppy-love crush on a stranger beneath her station. While Elaine is undoubtedly sheltered, she's not so naive that she doesn't realize it. Unlike her cousin Theddan, though, she has trouble pushing back too hard against rules and conventions, in no small part because of her deep love for her father; the thought of embarrassing him as Theddan embarrasses her family on an almost nightly basis is enough to keep her safely at home after dark. At last, when the princess feels the future closing in like a noose around her neck, she decides on one (likely first and last) walk on the wild side, reassured when her cousin insists she can get them in and out of the party without a problem, as she's done similar herself many times. Of course, that sort of confidence is catnip for fate; while Elaine manages to escape the bluecloaks, Theddan is finally caught in one transgression too many... but that is not the end of Theddan's involvement (or character growth), as she remains an ally to Elaine even in the darkest times. Elaine also finds herself drawn to the strange young man by the river who, instead of turning her over or being cruel, offers her help and respect. Their indiscretion in the bedroom is entirely consensual on both sides, both knowing that their families and stations and other obligations mean that their relationship has no future - or, at least, that's what they expect. But it changes everything for both of them. Elaine cannot forget him, or the taste of freedom he offered, the sense of someone seeing her as her and not as the daughter of her father, the princess, a potential playing piece in the eternal game of politics and personal ambition. When her father and his chief advisor start acting very strangely after his ascent to the throne, she realizes that he can be more than a one-off memory, but someone beyond the games of Palace Hill whom she can trust to be a neutral party to hear her out. Far from being the childish socialite glimpsed in the first book, she comes across as a reasonably competent young woman stuck a situation far beyond her control, doing her best to protect her loved ones.
Garreth, for his part, is as trapped as any noble by his merchant family's expectations. He's always a son of House Left first, and his own self second (or not at all). Even when his father brings a total stranger to their home and announces his plans for the marriage that will yoke Garreth for the rest of his days, he doesn't once think that he'll upset the rigid bindings of "policy" to refuse... until that night by the river. Suddenly, the thought of marriage to a woman who clearly doesn't care a speck about him seems intolerable. He walks away, thinking to join his friends with the bluecloaks. While he does okay in his new job, he never quite recaptures the camaraderie and old bond he once had with his friends, never truly settles in. And when he finally sees Elaine again and realizes who she is, things only get more complicated. Despite their best intentions, Garreth and Elaine's one-night stand has created something stronger, something they'll both end up relying on more and more as the true rot at the heart of Kithamar becomes more apparent. While Alys and Sammish (from Age of Ash) play a pivotal role in the struggle against that rot, Elaine and Garreth also have a very important role to play, one that's in no way less than that of the Inlisc thief and her friend.
As before, there are subtle magics at work in the city streets, but this time the role of the gods is more apparent from earlier on, or so it seemed to me (though perhaps it was because I knew to look for it). This book also delves more into just what the gods are and how they came to be, with some interesting takes on familiar ideas. Coming from a more educated background, Elaine learns more about the history and philosophy of the city's deities, and makes the discovery of their existence in a different way, while Garreth has his own journey to the secrets of Kithamar.
Many authors might have chosen to weave the tales of Alys and Sammish from the first volume along with Garreth and Elaine, as their stories cover the same timespan and ultimately tie into the same greater arc. By separating out characters into their own books, Abraham gives them breathing room, freeing them from overwhelming each other. As in any city, there are many individual lives threading through the streets, lives which may braid together with others or with the greater tale of the population but which are also separate entities, no less rich for being their own. This storytelling approach also lends greater weight and scale to Kithamar itself, a city too large and too complex to belong to any small handful of people. Even places and people familiar from the first volume look entirely different here. I'm already looking forward to the third and final installment.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Age of Ash (Daniel Abraham) - My Review
City of Stairs (Robert Jackson Bennett) - My Review
Promise of Blood (Brian McClellan) - My Review

The Wager (David Grann)

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
David Grann
Doubleday
Nonfiction, History/True Stories
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: In 1740, a small fleet of British vessels set sail on a mission of great national importance: to capture a Spanish galleon loaded with treasure from their New World conquests sailing the Pacific Ocean. They were to make the treacherous crossing around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America and proceed up the coast to intercept the vessel, claiming a rare prize and blackening the eye of a bitter enemy. With them sailed the Wager, a retrofitted merchant ship on its first major military operation. But a black star hung over the entire mission from the start, and after a disastrous rounding of the Horn, the fleet lost sight of the Wager.
Two years later, a raft of castaways drifted into port on the Brazilian coast, claiming to be survivors of the shipwrecked Wager. Most of the crew and the captain were lost, they claimed... until years later, when another small craft of survivors was found off Chile's coast, including Captain David Cheap - who accused the previous group of being murderous mutineers who had left him and a handful of others to die. The story would rock England, raising questions that linger to this day. What really happened to the Wager in their long exile on a deserted island? Was the captain to blame for the misfortune, or the so-called mutineers? And why was the whole thing eventually covered up?

REVIEW: In its time, the story of the Wager was top news, inspiring numerous writers such as Lord Byron, but today few recall it. Grann digs into the conflicting accounts - by Captain Cheap, by the young midshipman John Byron (grandfather of the well-known poet Lord Byron), the leader of the possible-mutineers, gunner John Bulkeley, among other eyewitnesses and background material - to try to unravel the truth, unearthing along the way a tragedy that was almost inevitable from before the ships left the Thames.
The War of Jenkins' Ear, as it came to be known, was just the latest in a string of largely-contrived excuses for the English and the Spaniards to throw countless lives and copious amounts of money at their empire-building rivals. To that end, the English admiralty concocted a daring and rather foolhardy plan to surprise a Spanish treasure ship - not in the Atlantic, but in the Pacific. As usual, the people who sat in their war rooms concocting such plans seemed not to know or care about the logistics of such an endeavor, starting with ill-maintained ships with press-ganged crews (including several dragged from retirement homes for old sailors just to fill berths) and continuing through the immense difficulties of navigating Cape Horn, with perhaps the most treacherous waters of the world. The fact that it was many years before a system to correctly calculate a ship's longitudinal location made it all the more dangerous. Even before then, the Wager's crew had been disrupted by sickness (typhoid and scurvy; in the days before disease vectors were understood, both were commonly death sentences) and not one but two changes in their captain. This was how David Cheap finally got his coveted commission, and his determination to prove himself to the commodore in charge of the fleet (and the greater admiralty, not to mention himself) may be part of what led to the disaster.
Damaged in the deadly seas off the Horn, the Wager fell behind, ultimately finding its grave off an island surrounded by treacherous shoals and harboring minimal food. Here, by his own accounting, Cheap tried to create some sort of order along the strict lines dictated in the British naval code, meeting almost immediate resistance from a few obstinate men and only growing more authoritarian as their situation grew more grim. Bulkeley, a religious man but also a commoner, kept rigorous records of his own, and the tale he recorded contradicted the captain's at several points: from his point of view, the captain was at least partly to blame for their wreck, and once on the island lost control of the situation and himself, to the point of literal murder. Mindful that he might well be hanged for mutiny, the gunner actually took the unprecedented step of publishing his journals, among the first commoners to do so, thus capturing the public's imagination long before anyone else could get home... but the public, as always, could be fickle in their loyalties. Midshipman Byron, meanwhile, has yet another perspective, though his are more clearly colored by his privileged upbringing (and a childhood spent binging fanciful tales of maritime adventures) and his ultimate loyalty to the captain (and his own social class); even he does not always corroborate Cheap's account. The fact that anyone survived at all is little short of miraculous, let alone multiple parties - all of whom eventually end up before their superiors in England, in a trial that ultimately is more about show than uncovering the truth.
As the story unfolds, Grann does a decent job establishing the people, the times, and the world of 18th century sailing and naval battles, as well as the horrific conditions and psychological collapse as things go from barely tolerable to far, far worse. Once again, I'm amazed that anyone actually survived those voyages, even without shipwrecks involved. Grann also notes how much of what happens ultimately lies at the feet of the power structures at the time and their determination to press their imperial claims and cultural superiority (and grab all the wealth and resources and land), no matter the cost in lives to their own subjects (or the indigenous cultures, who were potential slaves at best and inconveniences to be eliminated at worst). Even among themselves, concerns over classism ultimately determined whose story was most respected and remembered. The whole "war" that sent so many sailors and officers on the Wager to their dooms was almost literally over nothing, and gained nothing tangible for either side. There are some places where Grann loses the thread of the story in the weeds of extraneous detail and tangents, and others where he glosses over points or doesn't seem to follow up earlier hints of trouble (the way official logs were deliberately sabotaged long before mutiny was on the table, for instance, spoke to other secrets of the voyage that were never explored or even speculated on). Taken all together, though, this is a solid tale of a maritime disaster that deserves to be remembered.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex (Owen Chase et al.) - My Review
The Cay (Theodore Taylor) - My Review
The Survivors of the Chancellor (Jules Verne) - My Review

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend (MJ Wassmer)

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend
MJ Wassmer
Sourcebooks Landmark
Fiction, Humor/Literary Fiction/Suspense
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Dan Foster's life hasn't gone nearly how he hoped. Pegged as an advanced student from an early age, he should've been a grand success. Instead, he's staring down his thirties from a barely tolerable job, with little but a barely tolerable future stretching ahead of him. The best thing in his life is his girlfriend Mara, so this couples vacation to the brand-new, all-inclusive Tizoc Resort on a private island in the Bahamas should've been a dream come true. Maybe he'll even work up the nerve to propose.
The sun exploding put a definite damper on the fun.
With communications cut off and the wifi down, there's no way to call for help... or even know if help is available. Tensions are rising, the resort guests are fracturing into tribes, and a power couple consisting of a televangelist and the charismatic head of a popular personal improvement franchise/pyramid scheme are making a bid for absolute control, starting with a midnight raid that seizes all of the resort's food and medical supplies (and compromises the security team). Someone has to stand up and fight back, or at least find a way off the island. Will that someone be Dan Foster, or is he doomed to spend the end of the world as he's spent the rest of his life - failing?

REVIEW: Part social satire, part apocalyptic thriller, this is the kind of book that could easily fall flat on its face. Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend actually pulls off the balancing act it sets out to accomplish, creating quirky yet generally interesting characters and moving fast enough to glide over a few weak spots and logic holes while shining its spotlight on class warfare, social stratification, and other ways humans find to distract themselves from the bigger dangers threatening our world and species survival.
Dan isn't always the most likeable guy, but he is a fairly relatable one, at an age where society tells him he should be at his zenith yet feeling like he hasn't even tackled a molehill, let alone climbed a mountain. He takes out his frustration too often on other people, not in a violent way or even an intentional way, but tending to make judgements and sarcastic comments that cut off any potential to actually connect and relate. An exception is his girlfriend Mara, a woman who, as he says more than once, is always her: always compassionate, always acting to help people - even people she doesn't like, always thinking on how to do the best good, never dissembling or presenting a false front. Dan isn't even sure why someone like that would be interested in a guy like him, an insecurity that plays into more than one of his decisions: he becomes so fixated on proving that he's worthy of her love that he nearly destroys the part of himself that attracted her to him, so fixated on protecting her that he fails to realize she doesn't want or need his protecting, so determined that she, at least, will survive long enough to get back to her family that he almost sells out himself and everyone else at the Tizoc. He's not even quite sure himself what he's trying to become, chasing some nebulous, society-endorsed idea of a "real man" that he feels he has failed to embody; only later, after much disappointment, does he finally figure out who and what he needs to be, not just for Mara but so he can live with himself. He finds friends and a few enemies in the dark at Tizoc, including the gay couple next door, an older pair from New Jersey, a trigger-happy guard who seems all too eager for a chance to unleash his inner monster, an astronomer at an observatory on the island with a unique perspective on things, and more. Lillyanne Collins and her husband Pete quickly seize the opportunity presented by the apocalypse to become the presumptive rulers of the island, using a potent combination of charm, religion, gaslighting, social pressure, and strongarm tactics to smash down dissent among the less-affluent resort guests and preserve the power and luxury of the wealthy. Never mind that, without a sun, the rich are ultimately as doomed as the poor; so long as the poor die first and die miserably, the rich will go to their heavenly rewards happy. It's almost a reflex action, a last nerve twitch of a dying body, for them to take one last grab at preserving social inequality, one last kick to stomp down the masses. Dan inadvertently becomes the face of the resistance, despite his protest that he's no radical. Indeed, the first chance he has at shedding the role and possibly buying Mara safety, he reaches for it... but, still, something within him recoils at accepting this too-familiar status quo. Maybe Mara is right and there really is a better way... but how is he going to find it, let alone convince the people around him of it - and will they even have time with the temperature dropping and survival odds dimming?
There are plenty of places where Wassmer could've slipped in this story, but he manages to give the tale and the characters just a little more depth than one might expect, offering a little more insight and some genuine surprises along the way. The ultimate resolution had me waver on the rating a bit, but it plays into the ultimately satirical nature of the overall story; the human reactions might be all too plausible, but the setup was always supposed to be straight out of a B-grade thriller, and the ultimate explanation leans into that. All in all, considering that I had minimal expectations going into it (this was another impulse borrow via Libby, chosen primarily because its runtime would take me through most of a work day), I found myself pleasantly surprised.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (Douglas Adams) - My Review
Beauty Queens (Libba Bray) - My Review
The Collapsing Empire (John Scalzi) - My Review

Death of an Eye (Dana Stabenow)

Death of an Eye
The Eye of Isis series, Book 1
Dana Stabenow
Head of Zeus
Fiction, Historical Fiction/Mystery
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: The city of Alexandria thrives under the twin reign of Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy, though it's Cleopatra - thanks to her canny ruling and the support of the Roman Julius Caesar, whose child she carries - who is most responsible for turning Egypt around after recent unrest. Still, there are those who grumble and plot in the shadows: those who resent the Roman presence, those who resent how much power Cleopatra holds and would prefer a man, even a cruel weakling like Ptolemy, to rule alone. Now, it seems someone has actually acted on those grumblings... and the Eye of Isis, Cleopatra's secret personal investigator, lies dead in the streets.
Tetisheri lives with her wealthy merchant uncle, helping him run his trade business after escaping a horrific marriage. She and the queen were childhood friends, though the gods have guided them on separate paths as they've grown. Then Apollodorus, Cleopatra's personal guard (and Tetisheri's childhood crush) comes calling with a summons from the palace. The Eye was cut down while investigating the theft of a shipment of new coins intended to reinvigorate Alexandria's economy; the brazen theft was no random act, but calculated by her enemies to weaken her hold on power. But the only ones who knew of the shipment were in her closest circles, meaning that she cannot trust anyone in the palace. Hence, calling on their childhood bond, the queen requests that Tetisheri act as her Eye in this matter.
Though she's in no position to refuse, Tetisheri doubts she will be of much use. She's never investigated more than the prices or provenance of her uncle's trade goods. Nevertheless, she finds herself on a twisting trail through the streets of Alexandria and the halls of power, with nobody but Apollodorus as her guide. The last Eye to follow this trail ended up in the city morgue with a shattered skull - how can Tetisheri hope to escape the same fate?

REVIEW: This is an interesting, fast-paced mystery set in the days of Cleopatra's reign, in an Egypt whose ancient glory has faded but not yet been entirely eclipsed. Alexandria is a city not unlike modern cities, where various cultures mingle and occasionally clash and where schemes seem to hatch in every shadow. Here, Tetisheri enjoys a fairly independent existence, having secured a divorce from a power-hungry and abusive husband. She and her uncle regularly take in and free women slaves, teaching them their letters and often sending them off into prosperous occupations around the city and greater Egypt, a sharp contrast to the interloping Romans who only allow women to be wives and mothers (and a handful of other, usually unsavory occupations). She and Cleopatra were once best friends, but power has naturally changed their relationship. Still, when Cleopatra comes calling and makes her request, it's not just royal obligation that makes Tetisheri take up the Eye, even though in her mind it's only a temporary thing. Despite herself, she takes to detective work fairly rapidly, starting in the trail of the fallen Eye and continuing past where that woman met her untimely end, encountering numerous diplomatic bumps along the way as the case veers into the thorny, tangled politics of the palace. Around her, the world of ancient Egypt comes alive, both like and unlike modern times, with a host of colorful and interesting characters. There's a bit of character overload at times; it's clear that this story is also setting up a longer series where several people introduced here will be recurring figures, which might also explain why more than one didn't seem to quite live up to their potential in this installment. The international politics can also be a bit convoluted to pick through. Nevertheless, it all makes for a decent investigation, and Tetisheri is an intriguing detective.

You Might Also Enjoy:
A Master of Djinn (P. Djeli Clark) - My Review
The Eye of Jade (Diane Wei Liang) - My Review
Crocodile on the Sandbank (Elizabeth Peters) - My Review

What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved The World (Henry Clark)

What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World
Henry Clark
Little, Brown Books
Fiction, MG Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Nothing much ever happens to middle-schoolers River, Freak, and Fiona... well, nothing much good, anyway. River's mother and father died in a car crash when he was two years old. Freak's dad spends most days at the bottom of a beer can after his real estate business cratered. Fiona keeps trying to be friends with the popular girls in school, but they never stop mocking her behind her back. All three also live at the edge of the coal seam fire that has rendered a huge swath of the town uninhabitable, the last three houses left in a once-thriving suburban development (once the pride of Freak's father's real estate business).
Then one day, at their bus stop (just beyond the walls of reclusive Old Man Underhill's castle-like compound), they find a strange green sofa... and in its cushions, they find some odd stuff: a double-headed coin with strange writing, a fish hook, and a weird green crayon labeled "zucchini". It turns out that crayon is a collector's item, potentially worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars - but is it right to sell something they found in someone else's furniture, even if that furniture was sitting out by the curb and clearly destined for the junkyard?
When they decide to ask the old man in the castle if he meant to get rid of the crayon with the couch, the trio find themselves pulled into some very strange goings-on involving the local chemical company, the peculiar wave of flash mobs sweeping the area with spontaneous dance performances (that nobody admits to seeing or participating in), furniture that might be more intelligent than the world's top supercomputers, and the small matter of a madman threatening to enslave the planet.

REVIEW: From the title alone, What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World starts on a whimsical note, but it also has a little character depth and solid heart to it. The trio are all misfits in their way, though Fiona goes out of her way to deny it, to the point where she only associates with the other two before and after school. Freak's home life is a mess, and though nobody outright says the word "abuser", River keeps an eye on him for fresh bruises whenever his friend's father raises his voice. As for River, though he has a loving aunt taking care of him, he's never gotten over the scars from the accident that took his parents (and left one leg slightly shorter than the other, so he limps when he runs). In their own ways, they all could use a good break for once in their lives, but none expected it to come from the cushions of a sofa, let alone within the forbidding walls of Old Man Underhill's property. It turns out the old man passed away some years ago, and the new owner, Alf, is at least as eccentric. He also clearly has a hidden agenda, even when he tries to win over the children, and there are some very bizarre things in his house, including what might be a murderous ghost-granny with an axe. Freak clings to his skepticism a little long, given what they witness, but all three have some legitimate concerns about how far to trust the strange man and just what of his outlandish tale can be believed... especially when another party is telling them conflicting information. It goes without saying that the sofa is much more than an ordinary piece of fancy furniture, and in its way it becomes a character in its own right. As the kids become more and more involved, often without intending to, they learn truths about their town that they never thought to question before, and just how much danger they've always been in without realizing it. It's as much to avenge lost loved ones as to help Alf that they become committed to stopping the terrible plot unfolding around them, centered around the world's rarest crayon.
While the overall tone is light, as mentioned previously, there's also a decent dash of real danger to give it weight, and times where the kids have to use their heads and some light science to get through problems. Once in a while the plot feels slightly manipulative, events being orchestrated in ways that stretch the suspension of disbelief, and something about the ending feels like a pulled punch given how the book hadn't hesitated to let the baddies kill people earlier on (mostly long before the book begins, but still for-realsies, no-crossed-fingers death), with some threads left over that don't feel properly tied up. For all that I'm not entirely sure the ending did justice to the beginning and middle, overall this is a fun, fast-paced adventure.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Game of Sunken Places (M. T. Anderson) - My Review
Only You Can Save Mankind (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
Cold Cereal (Adam Rex) - My Review

Dark Days (Derek Landy)

Dark Days
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 4
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, MG/YA Action/Fantasy/Horror/Humor
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: After cultists succeeded in opening a portal to the realm of the Faceless Ones, malevolent godlike entities that once ruled the Earth and have long wished to return to their former home (which would not bode well for pretty much anything currently inhabiting the planet), the living skeleton Skulduggery Pleasant, his apprentice Valkyrie Cain, and a handful of allies managed to drive the monstrous, madness-inducing beings back where they belonged... only Skulduggery was dragged through before the portal could be closed. That was nearly a year ago, and while most everyone in Dublin's magical community considers him gone (or as good as gone; if he hasn't succumbed, he's likely been driven insane by the Faceless Ones), Valkyrie will not rest until she gets her friend and teacher back, even accepting the tutelage of a necromancer to learn tricks that no elemental can teach her. At last, she stands on the cusp of victory - which, of course, means something is about to go terribly wrong, because that's when things always go terribly wrong.
Two hundred years ago, the sorcerer Dreylan Scarab was imprisoned for assassination, but confinement has not reformed him. Instead, the first thing he does on his release is organize the Revengers' Club, consisting of people with a bone to pick with the Dublin Sanctuary. A pack of villains like this isn't going to cooperate for long, but they only need to work together long enough to bring down the Sanctuary... and take down their mutual enemies, Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain. As if that weren't bad enough, every seer in the area has started getting visions of a new, darker danger on the horizon: a potentially world-ending mage known only as Darquesse - and, if the seers are right, that woman will not only slaughter Valkyrie's family, but her and Skulduggery too.

REVIEW: Taking up about a year after the previous volume ended, the reader finds a Valkyrie Cain who has only grown more powerful and more determined without Skulduggery around, willingly dabbling in necromancy despite how that force is viewed by most magic users and finding an unexpected talent there. If she had any misgivings about spending so much time among magicians in earlier adventures, those were sucked through the portal after Skulduggery; she's spending even more time out of the house in her laser-focused pursuit of a way to re-open the portal and rescue the living skeleton, relying more and more on the mirror image decoy to cover for her with family even though it's been glitchy. Not even her parents announcing that she's about to become a big sister is enough to get her to stay home and invest more time in her mundane life, not when she has a mission (and when the magical world continues to draw her like a magnet; she can try blaming her however-long-ago ancestor, the last of the Ancients, for the attraction, but at this point it's nearly an addiction). Even her closest friends are concerned for her, but she won't hear a word of caution. It goes without saying that she succeeds (just as it also goes without saying that success is hard-won by the skin of her teeth), but that's only the start of bigger problems as the Revengers' Club and their campaign of, well, revenge sweeps through the magical community of Dublin. The returned Skulduggery is not the same as he was, but then neither is Valkyrie the same girl he left behind, far more of a partner than an assistant or apprentice. They still make a formidable team, each using their new powers and resilience to great effect as the stakes inevitably ratchet higher with every chapter.
Baddies from previous books return as Revengers' Club members, naturally... and, as before, the Sanctuary magicians are not exactly pure as the driven snow in their histories and intentions; there's a very good reason so many people hold such hard feelings towards them, and the attacks are in no small part composed of metaphoric chickens coming home to roost. Corruption in power has been a theme since the start, and here it comes to a head for the Dublin Sanctuary in quite catastrophic ways. Add that to the visions that put Skulduggery, Valkyrie, and the other Dublin mages at the heart of the possible end of the world in a few years (as close as they can guesstimate; Valkyrie looks a few years older, at least), and things can only go from bad to worse.
As before, there's still humor threading through several moments and interactions, but the horror elements are only growing stronger as Valkyrie grows up. At around 15 now, the girl and the series are wading into Young Adult territory with both feet; indeed, she's getting involved in her first fledgling romance with a side character, even though her greater destiny and probable doom constantly lurks over her shoulder. Everyone she loves, and even people she dislikes, go through the wringer here on the way to a tense climax that creates lasting ramifications for all concerned and altering the trajectory of the series.
If this entry has a slightly lower rating than previous outings of Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, it's a very near thing, and partly due to it feeling a little rushed and overwhelming at times, standing at a pivot point in the larger arc (at least, that's what I assume, given events). It's shorter than the others, and could've used a slight bit more breathing space between All The Things happening and all the characters that come together. The ending twist is also a touch telegraphed. Still, this remains a highly entertaining and exciting series, one where the main characters aren't bubble-wrapped and actually experience consequences from their mistakes - and even their victories. I'm looking forward to reading (or listening) on.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Library of the Dead (T. L. Huchu) - My Review
Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review

Flux (Jinwoo Chong)

Flux
Jinwoo Chong
Tantor
Fiction, Literary Fiction/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: 28-year-old Brandon is a marketer at a once-popular fashion magazine... or he was, until a buyout led to his termination, not to mention a breakup with his boyfriend/boss. Strangely, he almost literally falls into a job offer not long after; after surviving a plunge down an elevator shaft at a mall, a man approaches him with an opportunity he can't refuse, a cushy job at a startup touting a new kind of battery and power generator. With blackouts an increasing problem for the country's straining, aging power grid, this company has the potential to remake the entire energy sector, and Brandon's getting in near the ground floor. But there's something very, very odd about this job. He doesn't actually seem to be doing anything, and he has a hard time remembering just what happens in his spacious office between the start of the workday and when he finds himself back home. The more he digs into the question, the more pushback he meets.
It's only four days before Christmas when 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a terrible accident right in front of their school - an accident Bo blames himself for, because she was coming to bring the boys the lunches he forgot to grab on his way out the door. While his kid brother is too young to process it, Bo finds himself stuck between grief and rage and self-hatred, lashing out at his father, his brother, and everyone around him. His only solace is a detective show from the 1980's, once a favorite of his father's and now a favorite of his, too, about hard-nosed detective Thomas Raider investigating the gritty underbelly of Chinatown, but even Raider can't help him escape his misery.
Twenty years ago, Blue was the whistleblower who brought down a massive corporation that turned out to be a scam - one where three people were murdered to cover up the crimes. Now 48 and mute after a stroke, Blue is about to set foot in the defunct headquarters of Flux for the first time since the trial, part of a prime-time news retrospective. But he has his own reasons for returning, ghosts from his past he needs to confront and a plan that, if it works, will finally give him the closure and peace he has sought most of his life.

REVIEW: Yet another random audiobook selection on Libby, Flux takes a literary approach to time travel tropes while also exploring mixed race identity (and how often the non-white side seems to lose out as younger generations seek to be more "American"), the lingering scars of childhood trauma and family dysfunction, and the power of a beloved franchise to give a person strength and grounding during difficult times.
The three threads mostly focus on Brandon, though of course they're all connected in ways that become clear fairly early on - even earlier if you read the blurb and realize this is a time travel story. (Not a spoiler if it's all but spelled out in the blurb...) From the outset, it's clear that Brandon is an unhappy man in many ways, as well as selfish in that way of people who have been emotionally scarred in the past and react by pushing others away (and self-sabotaging). Even before his termination from the magazine, he can see the writing on the wall, not just for his career - magazine readership has been plummeting across the board - but for his relationship with his supervisor. He meets a potential new girlfriend (Brandon is casually bisexual) while impulsively blowing his severance check at the mall... just before stepping into the open elevator shaft, and the plunge that leads to a strange job offer that seems almost too good to be true, sweeping him into a surreal situation where his new boss doesn't seem to demand any actual work, dragging him to parties and meet-and-greets with the company owner, and time seems to be slipping away from him far faster than his memories can account for. Meanwhile, young Bo crumbles after his mother's death unravels his family, leading to lifelong rifts with his brother and his father - neither of whom truly deserve his wrath, yet he can't seem to stop the flow of anger. Blue prepares for his big interview by revisiting an old colleague from the company he helped the feds pull down, the two reminiscing about the past as the aging man sets himself on one last, desperate task that might finally even the books in a life he has come to loathe... or might destroy everything.
The focus in this book is much more on the "literary" side than the "sci-fi" side, slowly building up the characters and layering in the themes and meandering through the invented cop show's arcs and plot lines and stumbling attempts at racial representation (that come across as very stilted, even insulting to most people viewing it in modern times), and even venturing into the lives of the lead actor and his offspring, before finally getting into the time travel aspect. When it does address that concept, the book recognizes the paradoxes involved, how unlikely it is for anyone to actually change the past or break a loop. The ending feels unsatisfactory on some level, shrugging away questions of how or why.
While Flux is, on some levels, an interesting exploration of a broken biracial man who finds himself navigating a nightmarish situation while somehow having fallen into a life he has come to regret and despise, I also found myself frustrated by the plodding pacing, the tendency to wallow in misery and self-created problems, and a resolution that seemed to disregard previously established rules. I can't say I hated it, but I wish it had lived up to its potential a little better.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Fifth Season (N. K. Jemisin) - My Review
Oona Out of Order (Margarita Montimore) - My Review
Interior Chinatown (Charles Yu) - My Review

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale (Jane Yolen)

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale
The Yolen's Short Fiction series, Book 1
Jane Yolen
Tachyon Publishing
Fiction, Collection/Fantasy/Poetry
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: An Appalachian daughter confronts a mother risen from the grave as a vampire... a Jewish girl follows the prophet Elijah to a dark place and time in history for an important task... a lamb nurse listens to the tales of the residents of Happy Dens, a home for retired fairy tale wolves... an elderly woman discovers a strange old man with an ancient secret on the rocks near the lighthouse where she lives... These and other folklore-inspired tales written by fantasy master Jane Yolen are collected in this volume, with a foreword by Marissa Meyer and an afterword about the author's inspirations.

REVIEW: Though her stories aren't always my cup of cocoa, nobody can dispute the mastery evident in the breadth and depth (and length) of Jane Yolen's work. As in pretty much every anthology and collection, though, these are a mixed bag, some feeling rounded and complete and others fragmentary and almost dreamlike. Likewise, some feel a bit long for their premises while others seem truncated. Styles vary from the old-school storyteller cadence and repetition of classic fairy tales to lighthearted snark to darker and/or more literary takes. I've read a few before, while others were new to me. Endings are only rarely clear-cut happily-ever-afters, several skewing rather dark, but then the original stories were far removed from the sanitized versions many are familiar with today. I added the extra half-star for the notes at the end, which go into a bit of "behind the scenes" details on how Yolen conceived and developed the included stories, along with poems matching the themes.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Oddest of All (Bruce Coville) - My Review
Book of Enchantments (Patricia C. Wrede) - My Review
Here, There be Dragons (Jane Yolen) - My Review

Beacon 23 (Hugh Howey)

Beacon 23
Hugh Howey
John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Once, lighthouses were the beacons that guided seagoing vessels to safety. In the twenty-third century, beacons serve the same function for faster-than-light vessels traversing asteroid belts and other treacherous routes... and every beacon needs an overseer to keep it functional. Not everyone can handle the isolation, but some crave it... such as a one-time war hero, call name "Digger", suffering crippling post-traumatic stress in addition to horrible scars from an encounter with an enemy alien Ryph Lord. At Beacon 23, he hoped to hide away from his undeserved fame, from humanity, from the entire universe - but it's impossible to outrun a war that hasn't ended, just as it's impossible to hide from his own fracturing mind.

REVIEW: Beacon 23 transports the isolation of the lighthouse keeper to deep space in a series of linked stories that also explore the insanity of war, the price paid by those on the front lines who are forced to sacrifice their innate humanity in the name of often-nebulous (and often profit- and power-driven) causes, and how sometimes a mind must be completely broken to begin to heal.
The overseer, never directly named, came to Beacon 23 intending it to be the last stop in a life he can barely stand living anymore; the only question is whether he'll re-up after his two-year shift in perpetuity, or if he'll simply take a stroll outside without a suit to end his stint. Howey dances around the core trauma that left him scarred and broken and not particularly invested in his fellow humans, part of which is the character struggling to come to grips with his own actions (or inaction) and part of which just feels like an author playing coy with the reader - not helped by the repetition across the different stories that are stitched together in this omnibus edition. As the tale opens, he's already convinced he's going insane, plagued by little noises that NASA claims ignorance of... until the near-impossible happens and his beacon fails, just as a ship is passing through his region of the asteroid field. With some fast thinking and improvisation reminiscent of Andy Weir's The Martian, he manages to figure out the problem, but it's just a prelude to more troubles that exacerbate his ever-increasing mental health issues, presented in a way where the reader is never quite sure what is real and what is delusion. These episodes start to feel disconnected from each other, without a solid through-line, not helped by how long the author still keeps dancing about the roots of his guilt; I have to wonder how far apart the different stories were written, as sometimes it felt like things didn't quite line up with each other despite the recapping. I'm also not entirely sure the sabotage incident was where his story really starts, as the tale meanders a bit before hitting on its strongest themes, involving the Rhyph war, the battle that made him a hero in the eyes of humanity (and a traitor in his own eyes), and coming to grips with the costs of war and what it will take to end the abomination. The story is at its best exploring Digger's psychological damage and his journey toward self-forgiveness and healing, while other elements start feeling extraneous or excessively grandiose and/or coincidental... and it also goes out of its way to provide him with female companionship in the galactic middle of nowhere. The wrap-up almost feels like another delusion (I can't get into why without spoilers).
Ultimately, while it has some very solid themes and ideas and a few decent action moments, plus a little humor, the parts always felt a little too mismatched to stand together as a solid whole.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) - My Review
The Forever War (Joe Haldeman) - My Review
The Martian (Andy Weir) - My Review

Gallant (V. E. Schwab)

Gallant
V. E. Schwab
Greenwillow
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Horror
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: Olivia Prior has no memory of her mother. All she has is a worn green journal whose words document a slow, confusing slide into madness before the woman dropped Olivia off at the Merilance School for Girls. Merilance is a dismal place, made worse by how Olivia is treated: a mute orphan girl who cannot even look forward to the menial life of servitude the other girls are groomed for. It would be worse if they knew the truth, that Olivia can see "ghouls", half-formed ghosts with pieces missing who drift in the shadows and vanish whenever she looks directly at them. Sometimes she wonders if her mother saw ghouls, too, or if the mysterious madwoman is one herself now.
One day, Olivia is summoned to the headmistress's office. A letter has arrived for her, from an uncle she never knew about, summoning her "home". It seems odd that any relative who claims to love her, as the letter writer does, left her to languish in Merilance's cruelties for most of her childhood and adolescence, but anywhere must be better than the boarding school, and maybe this "uncle" will have answers about her mother. Only when she finally arrives, she sees a name she recognizes from her mother's journal: Gallant.
Mom seemed convinced that Olivia would only be safe if she never went to Gallant; it may have been why she was abandoned in the first place. But Olivia cannot bring herself to leave, not even when she learns that nobody knows who actually sent the letter summoning her. The pictures on the wall, with her own features looking back at her, make it clear enough that this is her family home, that her mother once lived here, and the young woman will not go until she finally has some answers. Unfortunately, Gallant's secrets may have been the death of Olivia's mother... and if she doesn't escape soon, it might be the death of her, too.

REVIEW: Gallant is a nice take on the traditional gothic horror trope of family curses and brooding old manors full of ghosts and secrets. From the start, Olivia is no passive victim, but a willful young woman determined to fight back against a life that keeps trying to keep her down "in her place", not above the odd petty act of vengeance against her tormentors. Even the "ghouls" she sees do not bring her fear or have her cringing in terror, as she learned they can't touch her and she can banish them with a hard glare; they're just one more piece of a puzzle she doesn't have nearly enough clues to solve, the puzzle of her mother's madness and disappearance and the strange entries in the green journal. Being mute only makes her that much more observant of other people, even as it can be frustrating trying to communicate with those who won't or can't understand what she's trying to tell them via sign or writing. Her hope at finally escaping Merilance is quickly dashed upon her inauspicious arrival at Gallant; instead of a loving uncle and a family opening its arms in love and acceptance, there are a pair of aging servants and a brooding, angry cousin whose first words are to order her to leave at once. There is also a mysterious wall in the back garden with an iron door that appears to go nowhere... until approached at night...
In keeping with the story's gothic roots, a grim atmosphere permeates the book and the characters, a sense of foreboding and doom that is present from the first pages to the last. From the gruesome, partially erased figures of the ghouls - which can appear as single eyes and arms with partial or absent torsos - to the nightmares that begin to torment Olivia from her first night in Gallant to interludes between chapters that point to a lurking evil waiting patiently as a spider with an inescapable web, Schwab does not stint on the darkness, though Olivia only rarely succumbs to the weight of it, always managing to find more fight in her, and she is not entirely without allies. Adding to the atmosphere are illustrations from Olivia's mother's notebook, dark and haunting renderings like shaped ink blots on the page, that eventually tie into the unfolding mystery. There are no easy answers or easy wins, and every step of progress comes at a terrible cost.
Though the tale moves fairly well, the ending feels abrupt, with a few stray threads left over that don't tie up neatly. Otherwise, it's an excellent, if very dark, story.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The In-Between (Rebecca K. Ansari) - My Review
Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day (Seanan McGuire) - My Review
The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review