The month's twelve reviews have been archived and cross-linked at the main Brightdreamer Books site.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Windward (S. Kaeth)
Windward
S. Kaeth
Hakea Media
Fiction, Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Palon gave up her life as an ordinary Rinarian when she was twelve years old and a dragon offered her the freedom of the skies. By becoming dragonbonded, mentally linked to the great dragon Windward to the point of absorbing many dragon traits such as hoarding, she enters a partnership that will only end in death, no longer able to return to life in her old village among ordinary humans without going insane in a very literal sense, but Palon accepts it gladly. Nothing could be better than soaring above many worlds, defending their herd beasts from predators and helping Windward keep well-groomed. She has a new family, the other dragonbonded humans of Windward's mountain nest... but, as with all family, things can be tense, the constant jockeying for status among the dragons translating to squabbles among their humans. But when push comes to shove, ultimately the bonds of nest and family win out - or so she's been led to believe.
With the eldest dragon Silver Spine in his final days, tensions are already high. Then Laetiran, bonded of Fired Sand, starts picking at an old rivalry with Palon and her mate Aturadin of Scorch Frost, spreading rumors and starting fights and always somehow making himself look like the offended party. When someone starts stealing from dragon hoards - an unheard-of offense - tensions through the nest only ratchet higher. Then the arrival of a reluctant hew bonded, Tebah, mere months before the winter torpor - a terrible time to form a new bond - throws more oil on the fire. And there's something very unusual about the crystal Palon found the last time she and Windward were out defending the herds. When stolen items are found in Palon and Aturadin's private hoards, everything explodes, threatening to destroy family bonds and the nest itself forever.
REVIEW: First off, this book does have a lot of potential, and a lot going for it. The symbiotic relationship of dragons and their bonded humans is interesting, with nods to McCaffrey's Pernese dragons and others, and the dragon culture and hierarchy are decently fleshed out and explored. These dragons are solidly dragons, not scaly puppies or outsized humans, with all the might and wonder and danger and otherness that implies. Unfortunately, the characters and story itself let that potential down, to the point where I spent far more of my reading time grinding my teeth than enjoying myself.
The characters, almost universally (barring the dragons, who have the excuse of not being human), are annoying, overreactive and stubborn and, frankly, somewhat stupid about how they handle nearly everything. Palon is the chief offender here, for all that she was the main character and I was stuck following her through the book. Second up would be Tebah, the girl who - despite generations of stories in their world about the unbreakable nature of a dragon's bond - stupidly agreed to a bond under false pretenses and acts like an utterly immature and petty jerk, never once acknowledging that she's the one to blame for her own mess. She even laughs as her dragon suffers. Her presence was probably supposed to be the author's way of walking a reader through the world of the dragonbonded, but instead it was just irritating, plus it was unnecessary as a walkthrough because Palon had already told me just about everything worth knowing. Then told me again. Then repeated it. This book would've been maybe half as long had Kaeth taken a needed machete to the constant repeating of what the reader already knew in ways that did not advance the plot or characters a single iota. As for the plot... it's, frankly, a mess of colliding ideas and tensions, too many and developed in too uneven a way to begin to resolve in a remotely satisfactory manner. Many of the characters' actions, frankly, do not make a lot of sense, driven by anger and spite and stubbornness, coming across as utterly immature across the board. Everyone knows Laetiran and Fired Sand are power-hungry jerks, yet suddenly their word is golden? Palon goes on and on about the bonds of family among the dragonbonded and how, down deep, they all love each other like kin, yet apparently they've hated her all along and consider her an unreliable hothead and have just been waiting for her to mess up? And then there are enemies of dragons (who?), and faeries, and other worlds, and something about the predatory walavaims (winged felids) acting unusually, and another nest that pokes its nose inexplicably into their business (over something that her own nest should've known or sensed, but didn't because plot hole), and the world's cruddiest dragonbonded "leader" who let things get this bad to begin with, and "investigations" that don't actually investigate, and dragons who have forgotten their own Dragon Law (and nobody keeps records? These dragons who claim to value the knowledge they accumulate over long generations of extra-long lifetimes, and the dragonbonded who also claim to value that knowledge, don't have a single, solitary record keeper on site?), and... and... All of this, packed full of characters I never connected with and often didn't care for, dragons excepted.
As I mentioned at the start, there's a lot of potential in Windward, and much that should be interesting. Unfortunately, the execution, the constant repetition in lieu of progress, the often-aggravating characters, and the seemingly haphazard collision of plotlines made it just too frustrating for even a flat Okay rating.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dragonriders of Pern (Anne McCaffrey) - My Review
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik) - My Review
Dragon's Blood (Jane Yolen) - My Review
S. Kaeth
Hakea Media
Fiction, Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Palon gave up her life as an ordinary Rinarian when she was twelve years old and a dragon offered her the freedom of the skies. By becoming dragonbonded, mentally linked to the great dragon Windward to the point of absorbing many dragon traits such as hoarding, she enters a partnership that will only end in death, no longer able to return to life in her old village among ordinary humans without going insane in a very literal sense, but Palon accepts it gladly. Nothing could be better than soaring above many worlds, defending their herd beasts from predators and helping Windward keep well-groomed. She has a new family, the other dragonbonded humans of Windward's mountain nest... but, as with all family, things can be tense, the constant jockeying for status among the dragons translating to squabbles among their humans. But when push comes to shove, ultimately the bonds of nest and family win out - or so she's been led to believe.
With the eldest dragon Silver Spine in his final days, tensions are already high. Then Laetiran, bonded of Fired Sand, starts picking at an old rivalry with Palon and her mate Aturadin of Scorch Frost, spreading rumors and starting fights and always somehow making himself look like the offended party. When someone starts stealing from dragon hoards - an unheard-of offense - tensions through the nest only ratchet higher. Then the arrival of a reluctant hew bonded, Tebah, mere months before the winter torpor - a terrible time to form a new bond - throws more oil on the fire. And there's something very unusual about the crystal Palon found the last time she and Windward were out defending the herds. When stolen items are found in Palon and Aturadin's private hoards, everything explodes, threatening to destroy family bonds and the nest itself forever.
REVIEW: First off, this book does have a lot of potential, and a lot going for it. The symbiotic relationship of dragons and their bonded humans is interesting, with nods to McCaffrey's Pernese dragons and others, and the dragon culture and hierarchy are decently fleshed out and explored. These dragons are solidly dragons, not scaly puppies or outsized humans, with all the might and wonder and danger and otherness that implies. Unfortunately, the characters and story itself let that potential down, to the point where I spent far more of my reading time grinding my teeth than enjoying myself.
The characters, almost universally (barring the dragons, who have the excuse of not being human), are annoying, overreactive and stubborn and, frankly, somewhat stupid about how they handle nearly everything. Palon is the chief offender here, for all that she was the main character and I was stuck following her through the book. Second up would be Tebah, the girl who - despite generations of stories in their world about the unbreakable nature of a dragon's bond - stupidly agreed to a bond under false pretenses and acts like an utterly immature and petty jerk, never once acknowledging that she's the one to blame for her own mess. She even laughs as her dragon suffers. Her presence was probably supposed to be the author's way of walking a reader through the world of the dragonbonded, but instead it was just irritating, plus it was unnecessary as a walkthrough because Palon had already told me just about everything worth knowing. Then told me again. Then repeated it. This book would've been maybe half as long had Kaeth taken a needed machete to the constant repeating of what the reader already knew in ways that did not advance the plot or characters a single iota. As for the plot... it's, frankly, a mess of colliding ideas and tensions, too many and developed in too uneven a way to begin to resolve in a remotely satisfactory manner. Many of the characters' actions, frankly, do not make a lot of sense, driven by anger and spite and stubbornness, coming across as utterly immature across the board. Everyone knows Laetiran and Fired Sand are power-hungry jerks, yet suddenly their word is golden? Palon goes on and on about the bonds of family among the dragonbonded and how, down deep, they all love each other like kin, yet apparently they've hated her all along and consider her an unreliable hothead and have just been waiting for her to mess up? And then there are enemies of dragons (who?), and faeries, and other worlds, and something about the predatory walavaims (winged felids) acting unusually, and another nest that pokes its nose inexplicably into their business (over something that her own nest should've known or sensed, but didn't because plot hole), and the world's cruddiest dragonbonded "leader" who let things get this bad to begin with, and "investigations" that don't actually investigate, and dragons who have forgotten their own Dragon Law (and nobody keeps records? These dragons who claim to value the knowledge they accumulate over long generations of extra-long lifetimes, and the dragonbonded who also claim to value that knowledge, don't have a single, solitary record keeper on site?), and... and... All of this, packed full of characters I never connected with and often didn't care for, dragons excepted.
As I mentioned at the start, there's a lot of potential in Windward, and much that should be interesting. Unfortunately, the execution, the constant repetition in lieu of progress, the often-aggravating characters, and the seemingly haphazard collision of plotlines made it just too frustrating for even a flat Okay rating.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dragonriders of Pern (Anne McCaffrey) - My Review
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik) - My Review
Dragon's Blood (Jane Yolen) - My Review
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Witchmark (C. L. Polk)
Witchmark
The Kingston Cycle, Book 1
C. L. Polk
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like countless other men and women of Aeland, Miles went away to war in distant Laneer only to return permanently scarred in mind and body... but his scars hide a deeper secret, powers that would have him branded a witch and locked away in an asylum lest he go mad with it. He actually ran away from home to join the army to keep his greedy noble family from turning him into a veritable slave, exploiting his power for their own purposes. Instead, he uses his magic, along with his medical training, to serve as a psychiatrist in a veterans hospital in the capital city of Kingston, trying to help fellow veterans who suffer from trauma-born delusions with strikingly similar symptoms. He believes he's managed to avoid suspicion, keeping a low profile and trying to limit how much power he uses in his job and life, until a stranger brings a dying man to his hospital - a dying man who knows what Miles is, and pleads for his help. Reluctantly, Miles teams up with the handsome stranger, one Mr. Tristan Hunter, to investigate... only to find a conspiracy much deeper and bigger than he expected, and secrets that make his own pale in comparison.
REVIEW: Witchmark crafts an interesting retro-flavored fantasy world, one with carriages and bicycles and "aether"-powered lights and gadgetry bringing rapid changes even as the nation relies upon noble-born Storm-Singer mages for its prosperity (while condemning any with magic born to lesser classes as witches, because clearly only blue bloods have the fortitude to properly use power of any sort) and populating it with characters who usually aren't flat or simplistic or obvious in their strengths or failings. Miles has a conflicted past that has left him with lots of trauma, learning to hide himself and downplay his abilities as a matter of survival; when caught in something much bigger that demands much more of him, he hesitates and stumbles before finding his way out of the tidy little bolthole he's made for himself. His attraction to Tristan is immediate, but there are secrets and barriers there, one major one being that Tristan is not as human as he first appears; he is an Amaranthine, somewhere between faerie and angel in nature and reputation, and he has come to Aeland with a very grave mission that might help or hurt Miles's search for a killer. Meanwhile, Miles hasn't been quite as successful as he thought in escaping the notice of his family and would-be captors. Even the sister who claims to love him does not understand him, and his father never bothers to understand anything about anyone save how they can be used or broken, depending on whether they serve his political ambitions or impede them. The investigation wends through the streets and classes of Kingston and even into the motivations behind the just-ended war in Laneer, hitting several walls and breakthrough moments and ruffling some very dangerous feathers before coming to a dramatic climax.
At times, the politics and social issues feel tangled, and Miles's family could be tooth-grinding, plus every so often I wanted to shake Miles to make him step up to the danged plate and not scurry off into hiding from the plot or his own feelings. Overall, though, the story moved well and had a decent payoff. I might end up following the series through the next book at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sorcerer to the Crown (Zen Cho) - My Review
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (P. Djeli Clark) - My Review
The War of the Flowers (Tad Williams) - My Review
The Kingston Cycle, Book 1
C. L. Polk
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Like countless other men and women of Aeland, Miles went away to war in distant Laneer only to return permanently scarred in mind and body... but his scars hide a deeper secret, powers that would have him branded a witch and locked away in an asylum lest he go mad with it. He actually ran away from home to join the army to keep his greedy noble family from turning him into a veritable slave, exploiting his power for their own purposes. Instead, he uses his magic, along with his medical training, to serve as a psychiatrist in a veterans hospital in the capital city of Kingston, trying to help fellow veterans who suffer from trauma-born delusions with strikingly similar symptoms. He believes he's managed to avoid suspicion, keeping a low profile and trying to limit how much power he uses in his job and life, until a stranger brings a dying man to his hospital - a dying man who knows what Miles is, and pleads for his help. Reluctantly, Miles teams up with the handsome stranger, one Mr. Tristan Hunter, to investigate... only to find a conspiracy much deeper and bigger than he expected, and secrets that make his own pale in comparison.
REVIEW: Witchmark crafts an interesting retro-flavored fantasy world, one with carriages and bicycles and "aether"-powered lights and gadgetry bringing rapid changes even as the nation relies upon noble-born Storm-Singer mages for its prosperity (while condemning any with magic born to lesser classes as witches, because clearly only blue bloods have the fortitude to properly use power of any sort) and populating it with characters who usually aren't flat or simplistic or obvious in their strengths or failings. Miles has a conflicted past that has left him with lots of trauma, learning to hide himself and downplay his abilities as a matter of survival; when caught in something much bigger that demands much more of him, he hesitates and stumbles before finding his way out of the tidy little bolthole he's made for himself. His attraction to Tristan is immediate, but there are secrets and barriers there, one major one being that Tristan is not as human as he first appears; he is an Amaranthine, somewhere between faerie and angel in nature and reputation, and he has come to Aeland with a very grave mission that might help or hurt Miles's search for a killer. Meanwhile, Miles hasn't been quite as successful as he thought in escaping the notice of his family and would-be captors. Even the sister who claims to love him does not understand him, and his father never bothers to understand anything about anyone save how they can be used or broken, depending on whether they serve his political ambitions or impede them. The investigation wends through the streets and classes of Kingston and even into the motivations behind the just-ended war in Laneer, hitting several walls and breakthrough moments and ruffling some very dangerous feathers before coming to a dramatic climax.
At times, the politics and social issues feel tangled, and Miles's family could be tooth-grinding, plus every so often I wanted to shake Miles to make him step up to the danged plate and not scurry off into hiding from the plot or his own feelings. Overall, though, the story moved well and had a decent payoff. I might end up following the series through the next book at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Sorcerer to the Crown (Zen Cho) - My Review
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (P. Djeli Clark) - My Review
The War of the Flowers (Tad Williams) - My Review
Friday, August 26, 2022
Dead Voices (Katherine Arden)
Dead Voices
The Small Spaces quartet, Book 1
Katherine Arden
G. P. Putnam's Sons
Fiction, MG Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Coco used to be the new girl at school who many people didn't much like, too bubbly and clumsy and with pink hair to boot. That was before the incident on the school trip to the farm, where she and two classmates, Ollie and Brian, found themselves pulled into the world beyond the mists, a world of malevolent living scarecrows and mournful ghosts and a dark entity known as the Smiling Man, who offers wishes and plays games with terrible strings attached. Since surviving that, the three kids have been best friends. Now, they're on their way to a week at a new ski resort in the Vermont mountains, Hemlock Lodge, along with Ollie's widower father and Coco's single mother (who seems to be spending a lot of time with Ollie's dad lately). They're all looking forward to a vacation... but even before they get there, in the heart of a snowstorm, there are signs of trouble ahead. A phantom figure appears in the road, as though to bar the way. Nightmares warn about the "dead voices". And when they get to Hemlock Lodge, they find the power has failed and no other guests have been able to brave the roads. Then the stranger shows up and tells them of the lodge's haunted past, and the ghosts who may still be stalking the halls. Like it or not, Coco and her friends are about to experience another close encounter with the supernatural... only, this time, they may not escape with their lives.
REVIEW: I enjoyed Small Spaces, and had no idea Arden had extended the series into a quartet. While the first book focused mainly on Ollie as she came to terms with her mother's loss, this one shifts focus to small (and often underestimated) Coco. She likes her friends, and they like her, but sometimes she still feels out of place among them; they like books she doesn't like, and games she doesn't play, and sometimes it seems she doesn't belong with them much at all, despite their shared secrets. While Ollie still has a major role to play and more issues to work out, this time about her father possibly being ready to move on from her mother (who still seems to maintain a presence in Ollie's life through her peculiar watch), it's Coco's turn to step up and face the challenges of the phantom threat, one that may have a very familiar face underneath it all. As before, the adults are pretty much sidelined while the kids are left to deal with the (no real spoiler, as it's a horror title) all-too-real malevolent spirits of Hemlock Lodge. Also as before, there's plenty of creepy imagery and scary moments and a few nice twists along the way. I enjoyed it, and hope to get to the rest of the quartet soon.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Small Spaces (Katherine Arden) - My Review
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Shadows (Jacqueline West) - My Review
The Small Spaces quartet, Book 1
Katherine Arden
G. P. Putnam's Sons
Fiction, MG Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Coco used to be the new girl at school who many people didn't much like, too bubbly and clumsy and with pink hair to boot. That was before the incident on the school trip to the farm, where she and two classmates, Ollie and Brian, found themselves pulled into the world beyond the mists, a world of malevolent living scarecrows and mournful ghosts and a dark entity known as the Smiling Man, who offers wishes and plays games with terrible strings attached. Since surviving that, the three kids have been best friends. Now, they're on their way to a week at a new ski resort in the Vermont mountains, Hemlock Lodge, along with Ollie's widower father and Coco's single mother (who seems to be spending a lot of time with Ollie's dad lately). They're all looking forward to a vacation... but even before they get there, in the heart of a snowstorm, there are signs of trouble ahead. A phantom figure appears in the road, as though to bar the way. Nightmares warn about the "dead voices". And when they get to Hemlock Lodge, they find the power has failed and no other guests have been able to brave the roads. Then the stranger shows up and tells them of the lodge's haunted past, and the ghosts who may still be stalking the halls. Like it or not, Coco and her friends are about to experience another close encounter with the supernatural... only, this time, they may not escape with their lives.
REVIEW: I enjoyed Small Spaces, and had no idea Arden had extended the series into a quartet. While the first book focused mainly on Ollie as she came to terms with her mother's loss, this one shifts focus to small (and often underestimated) Coco. She likes her friends, and they like her, but sometimes she still feels out of place among them; they like books she doesn't like, and games she doesn't play, and sometimes it seems she doesn't belong with them much at all, despite their shared secrets. While Ollie still has a major role to play and more issues to work out, this time about her father possibly being ready to move on from her mother (who still seems to maintain a presence in Ollie's life through her peculiar watch), it's Coco's turn to step up and face the challenges of the phantom threat, one that may have a very familiar face underneath it all. As before, the adults are pretty much sidelined while the kids are left to deal with the (no real spoiler, as it's a horror title) all-too-real malevolent spirits of Hemlock Lodge. Also as before, there's plenty of creepy imagery and scary moments and a few nice twists along the way. I enjoyed it, and hope to get to the rest of the quartet soon.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Small Spaces (Katherine Arden) - My Review
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Shadows (Jacqueline West) - My Review
Thursday, August 25, 2022
13 Minutes (Sarah Pinborough)
13 Minutes: A Novel
Sarah Pinborough
Flatiron Books
Fiction, YA Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It started on the icy morning when sixteen-year-old Natasha was pulled from the icy river waters by a passerby. Clinically dead for thirteen minutes, she wakes in the hospital - and the first person she asks for is Rebecca, the childhood friend she cast off years ago in favor of thin, blonde, popular Haley and Jenny. Becca is wary, but Tasha is desperate. Something happened between her leaving her house and plunging into the water, something she needs help remembering. Was it some sort of accident, or was someone trying to kill her - someone Tasha thought was a friend? Despite herself, Becca finds herself drawn into the mystery, unearthing a dark web of secrets and lies and betrayals. If Tasha is right, then there may well be an attempted murderer hiding in plain sight... one who might strike again if they get too close to the truth.
REVIEW: 13 Minutes starts with the simple premise of a teen girl coming back from the edge of death and builds to a twisting tale where nobody can be trusted and everyone can be a suspect. Tasha's the most popular girl in school, the head of the "Barbies" group of friends whom everyone looks up to (at least, everyone who matters); it seems impossible that someone would want her dead, but somehow she ended up in that river, and it wasn't under her own power. Becca was burned badly when Tasha pivoted to newer friends, but can't forget the old bonds they shared, coming to share Tasha's conviction that something very sinister is going on in the Hive (Becca's term for the waspish social web of their school, a vicious nest full of stingers and venom that happily and hungrily devours its own members). The investigation hits some dead ends and takes some tragic turns as unfolding events reveal a dark and twisted mind behind events going back months or even years, for all that the police seem willing to chalk the whole thing up to ordinary teenage rivalry or bullying. If you look too hard there are a few stretches, but it's a decently taut thriller that actually produces thrills and a little unpredictability as it unfolds.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Adrift (Paul Griffin) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarah Mlynowski) - My Review
The Girl in the Well is Me (Karen Rivers) - My Review
Sarah Pinborough
Flatiron Books
Fiction, YA Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It started on the icy morning when sixteen-year-old Natasha was pulled from the icy river waters by a passerby. Clinically dead for thirteen minutes, she wakes in the hospital - and the first person she asks for is Rebecca, the childhood friend she cast off years ago in favor of thin, blonde, popular Haley and Jenny. Becca is wary, but Tasha is desperate. Something happened between her leaving her house and plunging into the water, something she needs help remembering. Was it some sort of accident, or was someone trying to kill her - someone Tasha thought was a friend? Despite herself, Becca finds herself drawn into the mystery, unearthing a dark web of secrets and lies and betrayals. If Tasha is right, then there may well be an attempted murderer hiding in plain sight... one who might strike again if they get too close to the truth.
REVIEW: 13 Minutes starts with the simple premise of a teen girl coming back from the edge of death and builds to a twisting tale where nobody can be trusted and everyone can be a suspect. Tasha's the most popular girl in school, the head of the "Barbies" group of friends whom everyone looks up to (at least, everyone who matters); it seems impossible that someone would want her dead, but somehow she ended up in that river, and it wasn't under her own power. Becca was burned badly when Tasha pivoted to newer friends, but can't forget the old bonds they shared, coming to share Tasha's conviction that something very sinister is going on in the Hive (Becca's term for the waspish social web of their school, a vicious nest full of stingers and venom that happily and hungrily devours its own members). The investigation hits some dead ends and takes some tragic turns as unfolding events reveal a dark and twisted mind behind events going back months or even years, for all that the police seem willing to chalk the whole thing up to ordinary teenage rivalry or bullying. If you look too hard there are a few stretches, but it's a decently taut thriller that actually produces thrills and a little unpredictability as it unfolds.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Adrift (Paul Griffin) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarah Mlynowski) - My Review
The Girl in the Well is Me (Karen Rivers) - My Review
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