All posts by Elena Linville

I am a Russian-Swiss-American citizen of the world. I have traveled all over the globe then hopped over the big Atlantic pond and moved to North Carolina, USA, where I lived for eight years. But staying in one place for too long is not in my nature, so when the wanderlust called again, I packed my meager belongings and my cat continued my great migration all the say from NC to Texas. So here I am not in DFW area with my cat who strongly believes she is a dog and the Queen and Ruler of the house. I have an 8 to 5 job as an field force training specialist and the rest of the time I write stories “for fun and pleasure,” though most of the time it feels like pulling teeth or bleeding on the page. I have two novels, Of Broken Things and The Choices We Make, which are both in the fully finished first draft stage. I’m currently editing Of Broken Things and letting Choices sit in a desk drawer for a few months. I’m also editing my novella Mists of the Crosswords which is almost ready for beta readers. Looking for a few betas btw who are not afraid to give honest feedback. I have an idea for a serial of short stories called the Eye of the Norns Cicle. The first short story had been published in an anthology, the second story is written down but needs editing, and I’m outlining the next three stories. I think I have enough ideas for 2 seasons of 6 stories each. I also love reading sci-fi, fantasy, dystopia, urban fantasy and post -apocalyptic books. I have been known to pick up a romance or two from time to time, but NEVER in the contemporary or historical genres. I don’t read YA, children books or nonfiction.
books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Red Delicious (Siobhan Quinn 2) by Caitlin Kiernan

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Stars: 2 out of 5

This was a letdown from book one, to be honest. I liked Quinn in the first book – she was foul-mouthed and irreverent, and as far from a typical urban fantasy protagonist as you can get. It was fun and refreshing. Unfortunately, the author went all in on that concept in this book. And this is the case in which too much good stuff spoils the brew, at least in my opinion.

Quinn is so snarky, vulgar, and unapologetically evil in this book that it stops being funny and gets rather annoying. Why would I care about what happens to her in this book if she is no better than any of the bad guys? If she is, in fact, also a bad guy who admits that she loves playing with her food and gets drunk on the terror and suffering she causes as much as on the blood she drinks? I like my anti-heroes at least somewhat redeemable. Oh, and that “yeah, I’m a monster, that’s what monsters do, get over it” attitude the author chose to endow her with doesn’t help much either.

My other issue is the constant breaking of the fourth wall Quinn does in her narrative. It’s fun when it’s done once or twice, but when it’s continuous, it gets old fast. Especially when you insert a freaking short story in the middle of the story… That dampens the enjoyment just a tad.

But the biggest issue I have with this book is just how stupid all the characters are. Yes, Quinn repeated several times that a detective she ain’t, but she can at least try to use her brains once in a while, no? Or all those other high and mighty demons, necromancers, and adjacent who want the magical dildo, what exactly was their thought process behind all this? Sit on their hands and wait until the artifact drops on their lap? Throw the most retarded of Mr. B’s minions at it and see if she can find it? That’s a bold strategy, let’s see if it pays off for them.

I kept waiting for Quinn to at least try to use the few brain cells she hadn’t fried with drugs in her past life to try to investigate this, but she never did. I mean, there is no real mystery in this story, no plot Quinn has to puzzle over. She just stumbles from one deus ex machina event to another (and even jokes about it, ha-ha) until she is miraculously alive in the end. And by the way, the author never even tells us how she manages that particular feat, probably because she ran out of ideas on how to make it plausible.

In the end, I was mostly irritated by the story and couldn’t care less who ended up with the magical dildo. Also, why would anyone even want this thing in the first place? It’s cursed. Whatever fleeting bliss it gives you, you forget the moment it’s over, so what’s the point? 

More importantly, I grew more and more irritated with Quinn, to the point that I didn’t even care how the story would have ended. I mean Quinn tells us halfway through that she survived to tell the tale, so even that suspense is gone out of the narrative.

As it stands, I have no desire to pick up the next book in the series.  I believe that Siobhan Quinn and I will be parting ways right here.

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Dark Space by Rob Hart

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DNF at 50%

I love good science fiction or space opera novels. I love space exploration and humanity spreading to the other planets of our solar system before reaching for the stars. So this book should have been right up my alley, right? Well, I’m sad to say that it’s been a massive disappointment instead.

The book is split into two POVs from two characters located in different places – one is on a starship going for an inhabitable planet orbiting another star, and the other is on the Moon. While I liked the Moon storyline well enough, the whole deal with the starship left me frustrated to indifferent. 

I was frustrated with the absurdity of the premise and how all the characters behaved there. Are you telling me that the captain and most of the crew would choose to cover up an attempt to not only sabotage their mission but to destroy the ship and kill them all? That they would retract the transmission to Earth, falsify the investigation results, and act like those who question them are crazy or insubordinate? This makes no sense.

And when I wasn’t frustrated with characters acting like stupid children, I was bored because I could care less for them. Because they have less substance than a cardboard cutout.

The conspiracy on the Moon was more interesting, even if the protagonist there wasn’t very likable either but the main issue there is that I didn’t buy into the premise or the stakes of the story.

The author hints that this is not the near future, so it’s not like this is happening 20-30 years from now. Humanity has a functional base on the Moon. There is talk of space stations and even a foothold on Mars… yet we are still being divided along national lines? Why would a person born on the Moon care about Russia or US or China’s interests versus the interests of the Moon?

In that respect, The Expanse series did politics so much better. Forget national interests. People defend and identify with places they are born in. That’s why we have Earth and Mars at odds with each other, and the Belters squabble and scrape and never quite manage to unite. That makes sense. What we have in this book? Not so much. 

In the end, I stopped reading because I realized that I didn’t care to discover who tried to sabotage the mission or why. And I didn’t care AT ALL about the first contact with an alien civilization whose individuals conveniently speak English. That the tepid interest I had in the Moon storyline didn’t justify wasting more of my time on this book.

There are other excellent space opera books out there, but this one just isn’t for me.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan 2) by Robert Jackson Bennett

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Stars: 5 out of 5.

The second book was just as good as the first one. I loved every minute of it, even if the more I learned about the Empire, the more I felt like it was a terrifying place to live in, especially if you chose to serve it.

I mean, the whole motto of the Empire is “You are the Empire”. While that could be uplifting to some to think that they are a small part of a bigger whole, in reality, it just means that they are just a cog in a huge machine that is the Empire and that they can be easily disposable and replaceable. Oh, and it’s assumed that they would dedicate their whole lives to safeguarding that Empire. Since it is in constant danger of destruction from the Leviathans who come ashore every year, I wouldn’t think that it’s a very nice place to live. The psychological toll must be enormous, especially in the cantons closest to the sea walls.

Din and Ana are an absolute joy to follow in this book as well. Din especially has a lot going on with him in this story – from a financial crisis not of his making but one that he feels responsible for, to trying to decide what he wants to do in life. I understand that he feels stuck. the Iudex wasn’t his first choice of assignment, and the more crimes he solves with Ana, the more he despairs about his purpose. What’s the point of investigating crimes when it won’t rectify the wrongs? The victim is already dead, the family devastated, lives broken to the point where they can’t be fixed. He feels like no matter what he does, he isn’t making a difference, unlike the Legion who has a concrete enemy to fight on the walls.

I am glad that by the end of this book Din made peace with his life and finally understood that the Iudex also matters, maybe even more than the Legion, even if theirs is a thankless job. Because, as Ana said, let the Legion defend the Empire, but it’s the Iudex’s duty to make sure there is an Empire left worth defending.

This book is also darker and seems more desperate than the first one, though the inclusion of Malo brought much-needed levity to an otherwise pretty bleak story. I liked her, and I hope that we see at least a little more of her in the next book as well. 

We also learned a bit more about Ana and what was done to her, which is again… horrifying. This is a cruel world where surviving another wet season justifies a lot of atrocities perpetrated against their own people. 

I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Hopefully, we will learn a bit more about the Leviathans and where they come from (or why they come ashore every year).

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

The Hanged Man (The Tarot Sequence 2) by K.D. Edwards

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Stars: 5 out of 5

The biggest strength of this series is the characters. Yes, the worldbuilding is phenomenal – complex, but plausible, with rules that make sense and breaking which has real consequences. I enjoy discovering more facets of that layered world with each new book. But the characters, oh the characters… they make the story better in every sense of the way.

I love Rune and Brand and their bond. Yes, they are Scion and Companion, but they are also so much more than that – brothers, best friends, the two last shards of a shattered throne standing back to back against the rest of the world. Heck, they are almost two pieces of the same soul. I love their bickering, because it never feels malicious, and their love for each other shines through every action they take, even if sometimes those actions are ill-advised. 

But it’s not just Rune and Brand, I love Addam and his unwavering support of Rune, as well as his love for his younger brother Quinn. and Quinn, oh Quinn… such an adorable little Prophet who still perfectly encapsulates what it means to be a teenager. 

And we get a few other additions to Rune’s found little family, and they are just as fantastic. I love Corrine, and I’m glad she didn’t have to sacrifice herself. And Ana will be a force to reckon with when she grows up. It will be rather hilarious to see Rune try to navigate the choppy waters of parenthood with this one. He will have to grow a spine and learn to put his foot down, otherwise she will run circles around him. And Ciarran was back, so that is always a plus because I love him to pieces.

This book is also much darker than the first one. I mean OMG, the scenes on the Declaration are nightmare fuel. No, I’m serious, I had nightmares about that battleship after I finished this book. I am glad that the man (if you can call that monster that) has been dealt with. His death wasn’t even close to the torment he deserved for what he put all those souls through for decades. 

I am glad that Rune finally claimed his seat at the Arcanum because he realized that he is not just Rune Saint John, he is Lord Sun, and people depend on him now other than Brand.  People who will need the protection of his house and name, which means he needs to reclaim that house. Of course, this comes with a lot more problems – they are an official house now, so they can be officially attacked and raided. They need to build a compound, they will need to create alliances, they will need funds, they will need to play politics. In other words, everything Brand hates, and Rune has been avoiding until now.

I am looking forward, to and also dreading the next book in the series because things will get darker as Rune comes closer and closer to discovering who ordered the massacre of his family all those years ago. I am just hoping that in the end, all of them will still be alive and standing, but most importantly, happy, because they deserve it.

Onwards to the next book in the series!

books, Reviews, science fiction

Wild Massive by Rob Hart

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DNF at 35%

I loved the blurb for this book – a giant building as a representation of a multiverse with each floor being a different slide of reality and elevators traveling between them for those who knew how to find the shafts and summon them? Yes, please! An Association of various species, civilizations, or floors controlling most of the bottom floors and reaching ever higher and higher up? And with probably nefarious intentions? Sign me up for this! A plot to destroy several floors or possibly a good chunk of this building? Heck, yeah!

Well, the more I read, the more disappointed I got. This is not a small book. It clocks are almost 500 pages, and I made it a quarter of the way through, and you know what? I still don’t know what this story is supposed to be about. It’s aimless. It’s wandering and meandering all over the place. It’s like the author had all these wonderful ideas and just dropped them all in the same pot and stirred it, hoping that it would make for a good soup. Unfortunately, it didn’t, at least for me. 

The whole book feels disjointed. I’m a quarter of the way through, and I still don’t know what the stakes are, or if there even are any stakes. There are too many characters and most of their motivations are still unclear to me. I mean, I’m almost to the middle point, shouldn’t I know what these different people want by now? I still don’t know what Clarissa wants apart from being left alone in her elevator. Or why the shape-shifters are so hell-bent on destroying the Association. I mean, the only thing that is mentioned is that the Association took one of their own hostage. Isn’t an all-out war a bit of an overreaction? 

Also, why did the Association suddenly eradicate all the Brilliant? What are they hoping to achieve or prevent by this? What do the other various human and non-human entities at play in this Building hope to achieve? I have no clue.

There is no central theme or danger to overcome that I am aware of. And thus, it just feels like a pointless romp through a variety of strange environments. Yes, they are varied and mostly amazing, but I came for a story, not a sightseeing tour.

Also, the tone of the book is off-putting – it gets serious when describing some of the things that happen, and some pretty messed up things actually happen. But then, all of a sudden, we get something humorous or ridiculous that completely clashes with what happened before. If the author was attempting to write a satire, he failed. For good satirical books that also have a lot of heart and tell compelling stories, I would suggest reading anything by Terry Pratchett.

As it stands, I will not continue with this story, because I’m bored, I don’t care about the multitude of characters I am forced to follow, and it’s way too long.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Stone Cold Magic (Ella Grey 1) by Jayne Faith

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Stars: 2 out of 5

This was a promising start, and I enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book, but it went downhill after that for a few reasons.

I think first and foremost, at least for me, is that I grew to despise the protagonist. She was mildly irritating at first, but I chalked it off to her upbringing and a recent traumatic experience she went through. The longer I read though, the more I understood that no, this was just how Ella truly was. 

She is extremely selfish, and she is very passive-aggressive when she wants others to do something for her, which is… all the time. She never pauses to think about the consequences of her actions to herself or anyone else she drags into the messes she creates. And, as I said, she gets passive-aggressive when they try to say no, or just brushes off their concerns like they are not important or valid. Because they aren’t to her, either important or valid, because nothing is more important to Ella than Ella. 

Case in point, when Damien, a guy who she met barely a few days ago, tells her that he is not comfortable breaking into a highly fortified compound on a pretend inspection because he doesn’t want word of this to get to his very influential family, she just… brushes this off? And the weird part is that he still goes with her. Why? Why is she portrayed as this special snowflake that all men (even gay men) fall over themselves to help and coddle? 

She also suffers from the TSTL (too stupid to live) syndrome, because she thinks with her hormones, not her brain. Like the decision to keep the reaper’s soul, even though it’s devouring her, just because she saw a vision of someone who might or might not have been her missing brother. Now she is persuaded that this soul is the only way she’ll find him. Erm, why? Did she exhaust any other means of searching for him? Because it doesn’t look to me like she tried all that hard. She even flat-out refused help from a licensed private investigator. Really? 

Or deciding to infiltrate a secure compound to “liberate” a gargoyle with a human stuck in it. All this with only 8 people, none of which are aware that she is planning a kidnapping instead of a simple inspection to make sure the boy is still alive. And the worst part is, there are no consequences for any of that. Ella does the most stupid and hair-brained things and the author just rewards her for this. 

In the end, I didn’t care about whether Ella and co freed Nathan from his stone prison, or whether she would survive the reaper’s soul. In fact, I was rather rooting for the reaper to win her over, so that I didn’t have to read about her anymore. Needless to say, I won’t continue with this series.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Balancing the Scales (Twenty-Sided Sorceress 10) by Annie Bellet

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5

This was a decent final book in a series that I truly appreciated, though it feels like the series as a whole lost its focus once they defeated Samir. The confrontation with Samir was built up to and anticipated in so many previous books that it felt cathartic once it was done. I would honestly been happy if the series had just ended there. The other books before this one felt like filler or side-quests for Jade and the crew now that they had defeated the final boss. And pulling the First and the big bad for this last installment felt… rather anticlimactic, I guess? 

I mean Samir had been built up as this big bad during the course of all the books in the series, and he had done some horrible things both to Jade and to her friends. He was bad, we hated him, so we rooted for Jade to finally triumph while also keeping her freedom and saving the lives of her found family. 

The First though? We didn’t even know he existed until 3 books ago. His motivations are vague to non-existent. His powers are… rather underwhelming.  So he can control shapeshifters… But only a certain number of them at once, and he must be close enough to exert that control. So he used to be able to see the future, but he is so arrogant about it that he doesn’t even doubt the visions he had almost half a century ago. This makes him a rather laughable opponent instead of a real villain to be feared.

I also didn’t particularly appreciate the fact that they turned Alec into a damsel in distress for this book. I mean, you have a badass shapeshifter character that can compel other shapeshifters into shifting with his roar alone. Who is a strong and capable fighter… and the only use you find for him is to make him a hostage to keep Jade properly motivated? That’s wasted potential right there. 

Same with Harper and her other friends. It almost seemed like the author didn’t know what to do with them anymore, and she really wanted to have Jade be the lone hero for this final confrontation with the First, so everyone else is relegated to inconsequential tasks. Again, lost potential for collaboration, comradery, and all in all-in-all badassery during the final battle and even before. 

All in all, though, I am happy that Samir’s heart has been properly eaten and digested so that Jade’s amulet doesn’t have to be this McGaffin that everyone wants anymore. It was also fun to see the Mother of vampires, though her character was greatly underused. I don’t know if the author was planning a spin-off series or more books about Jade, but it feels like she just appeared to solve a problem, and hasn’t been heard since.

I also liked that even though the seal is broken, the world hasn’t ended. In fact, a new life started for some of the characters involved.

I am happy I happened across these books and decided to stick with them til the end.

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan 1) by Robert Jackson Bennett

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Stars: 5 out of 5.

I loved this book! There are several authors whose books are a must-read for me, and Robert Jackson Bennett is one of them. Like Brandon Sanderson, I consider him a master in creating complex and interesting worlds with engaging characters you grow to love and root for. I read the Divine Cities and the Founders trilogies before and absolutely loved them, even if both broke my heart with the deaths of certain characters. I can feel that this series will be a favorite as well, judging by the first book.

This story starts with what looks like a straightforward murder investigation but then evolves into something more complex and sinister – a conspiracy that threatens the very foundation of the Empire. However, I must argue that the threat is an unintended consequence of greed and thirst for power. It’s interesting how petty the motives are behind some of the most earth-shattering events.

Robert Jackson Bennett once again created a truly unique world where an entire civilization lives in the shadow of Leviathans – huge monstrous beings who come ashore every wet season, and the only thing preventing them from reaching the heart of the Empire and wreaking havoc and death along the way are giant walls and the Legion who man them. And to have even a minuscule fighting chance to defeat those leviathans, the members of the legion themselves are heavily modified by grafts and suffusions, which make them stronger, faster, smarter, but also less and less human. This is a harsh world where the whole economy of the empire and the ideology of its various peoples are targeted toward surviving another year. All kinds of atrocities can be committed and justified to fulfill that goal.

I loved the characters in this book, especially Din. He is a newly modified engraver, which means that he remembers everything he sees, hears, smells, or reads. And I mean absolutely everything. And can recall it in perfect detail, down to people’s tone of voice when recalling dialog. He is assigned as assistant to a disgraced investigator who ended up banished from the inner ring of the Empire to the backwater canton where he resides for… doing something. Din feels out of his depth, but he is resolved to do his best, and his best often exceeds all expectations. 

I loved just how down-to-earth and pragmatic Din is, and that he has a strong sense of justice and a very good moral compass. He might seem slow and emotionless, but he is anything but. He seems mild-mannered and unwilling to cause a scene, but when push comes to shove, a lot of suspects realize that his will is unbendable. He will get his answers with the single-mindedness of a pitbull, no matter the discomfort he must endure along the way.

Ana is another fascinating character and a good foil for Din’s perpetual seriousness. She is eccentric, irreverent, and plain weird. She enjoys subverting people’s expectations and taking them out of their comfort zone… then observing their reactions and making her conclusions. And a lot is going on in that genius brain of hers. I would love to know more about her backstory. She mentions at one point that she has no grafts of other modifications, that she was just born that way, and then was part of a unique experiment, but we don’t get more details. I want to know more!

All in all, I am sold on this new series. I devoured the first book, and I already requested the second one from NetGalley. I would highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys good characters, interesting worlds, and a good murder mystery to boot.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Reviews

Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk

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Stars: 3 out of 5.

I have a love-hate relationship with anthologies. They can be a lot of fun if the stories held within are entertaining and written by authors who have the knack for writing compelling stories in the least amount of words possible. Trust me, it’s a hard art to master. On the other hand, they can be a slog if most of the stories are lackluster at best and uninspired at most. Then it turns into an exercise of frustration reading them, because I feel bad skipping a story I don’t like, especially since I’m not guaranteed that I would like the next story, or the one after that either… Yet, for some reason, I keep requesting anthologies every time I see them on NetGalley, and I read every single one of them.

In this case, the anthology is rather meh. Most of the stories felt rather uninspired. And a few only vaguely touched on the theme. I came expecting fun stories of mechanics with grease on their coveralls and under their fingernails, and a knack for fixing anything with the right size wrench and a few curse words. But a lot of stories concentrated more on their political messages than that particular theme. I felt like I was being preached to instead of entertained. And a short story is NOT the right medium to get your political, philosophical, or moral point across. There are simply not enough pages to establish the world, and the stakes, and make us care for the characters and the message you want to deliver. 

Also, there were fewer mechanical shenanigans than I wanted in a dieselpunk anthology. 

The two stories that stood out for me were “Nobody’s Hero” and “The Return of the Diesel Kid”. They were written by different authors, but seem to share the same world, where superheroes, called Capes, and their sidekicks are a common occurrence. Those stories didn’t take themselves seriously, but were really fun to read. I thoroughly enjoyed our non-powered mechanics saving the day in both of them.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, YA

Poison by Chris Wooding

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Stars: 4 out of 5.

I admit that this story turned out differently than I expected. Not that I complain, mind you. I was expecting a fairy tale retelling with a YA vibe with a usually annoying protagonist who knows everything better than the adults around her. Who never listens to anyone else, yet somehow is rewarded for it. Oh and yes, who is always right. 

What I got instead is a much darker and more subtile story, and a reflection about fate, predetermination, and freedom of choice. Are we really the masters of our destiny, or are we merely stories written by a superior being somewhere? Whether you call him or her God, creator, Hierophant, it doesn’t matter. That is a very deep issue to ponder, but don’t worry, the book isn’t heavy on existential angst. This is a fairy tale, after all. 

I was not particularly fond of Poison in the beginning, because she came across exactly like the YA protagonist I described in the first paragraph of this review – sullen, stubborn, thinking that she always knew everything better than the adults. I grew to appreciate her as the book progressed though. That deep sense of not belonging where you live, of being a stranger even to your family, that’s… sad, but also very human. There have been times when I felt that way as well. And that sullen stubborness is what pushed Poison to keep on going, to keep on fighting even when the odd seemed overwhelming, or the horrors to face were too much. 

I liked the side characters as well, even if they don’t get nearly as much attention as Poison does. But Fleet, Bram and Peppercorn are fun characters to follow. And there is a very intelligent cat in this story, which automatically adds an extra star from me because cats are awesome. 

And even though the story turned a bit meta for my taste at one point, I loved the (logical) ending of this. It made sense, and it was right, and I will not say another word about it not to spoil anything.