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, YA

Empire of Shadows (Bhinian Empire 2) by Miriam Forster

Leave a comment

Stars: 3 out of 5

It would be a mistake to call this book the second in this series, because it’s not a continuation of book one. More of a prequel, actually. But that’s not explained until the epilogue, so I experienced a sense of confusion when I started reading this. In book 1, we were following Nisha who was heading for the capital. This books stars with a completely different character, and there is no mention of Nisha until, yet again, the epilogue. So I spent a good while wondering how the two books were related instead of just enjoying the story for what it was. I think if that was mentioned upfront, my satisfaction with this book would have been better.

Now, as far as the story itself goes, it’s typical YA fare, but on the better side of the spectrum. At least we aren’t tortured with the dreaded love triangle in this one. My problem is that I found the supporting characters more interesting than the two protagonists. 

Let’s be honest, for someone who trained for four years to be a bodyguard, and who is a weretiger to boot, Mara really sucks at her job. I can’t remember even one instance when she successfully protected her charge in this book. The tiger to tiger confrontation at the end of the book doesn’t count, because the author was leading towards it almost since the beginning. When I look back at Mara’s actions in this book, all I can remember is her standing there in impotent rage when her charges are being endangered, or struggling with her tiger instincts and needing a rescue of her own. Honestly, she is more a damsel in distress in this book than a protector, and that’s frustrating. 

I liked Emil slightly better, and he gets progressively better as the book goes on, once he finally stands up to his father and realizes what is important to him.

I didn’t particularly like the instalove story between Mara and Emil either. They talked twice. He gave her a gift. Suddenly, they can’t stop thinking about each other, and he is the only person who can prevent her from turning when she is hurt. Yeah, nope, not for me.

The side characters are a lot more interesting than those two! I would have loved to see more of Rhivati and her grandmother. Especially, her grandmother! And the tea vendors! What an amazing concept! I would love to read a book about them and their unofficial “king”. As it stands, they are a woefully underutilized concept. Same goes for the Jade caste. 

As it stands, I found that the story resolution was a little bit too easy and convenient. With the bad people one-dimensionally villainous, and the good people one-dimensionally good and forgiving. And it seems like a lot got glossed over in the end as well. Emil and his brother actively participated in a plot to overthrow the Emperor, yet they were not judged or tried for it. The main conspirator fled the city, yet there is no mention of anyone looking for him and bringing him to justice. It almost feels like the Emperor didn’t care. “Ha-ha, my city got invaded and a lot of people died, oh, and I’m one heir short now, but no worries, life goes on.” This was honestly unfulfilling.

Also, I don’t agree with the ending. Having Rhivati conveniently die to release Mara from her oath so that she can go have a happy ever after with Emil is the worst copout I’ve seen in a while. Why even make her take that oath in the first place? I would have loved to see her struggle with her duties to Rhivati and her love for Emil, who can’t remain in the city without renouncing his people and his way of life. How would they have maintained their relationship against these odds? That would have been a book worth reading. 

PS: On the plus side, at least now we know who Nisha’s parents are.

books, Reviews, science fiction

Ymir (The Violet Wars 2) by Rich Larson

Leave a comment

Stars: 5 out of 5.

Well, this book tugged at my heartstrings from the beginning till the end. I honestly didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I always say that I don’t particularly enjoy books with unlikeable characters I can’t empathize with. Well this book proved me wrong. Turns out, I do enjoy unlikeable characters when they feel like fleshed-out human beings. 

Yorick is a mess. He has so much suppressed trauma that he is a self-destructive mess. Most of the things he does to himself and to others are rather horrible and make him unlikeable… but you can’t help but feel empathy for the guy. The more you learn about his past, the more you understand why he is so messed up. And returning to Ymir, which is the place of his nightmares, only triggers all those memories, all that trauma. No wonder he spirals. I would as well.

I also really liked the world of Ymir. It feels foreign, unforgiving, but also like home to the people who chose to live there. And the author did a great job illustrating that by creating a culture and traditions for those people that are very different from what “company men” bring to the table. The wake for the dead was fascinating. The dirges and ballads and the folklore about spirits and the underworld, when layered on top of this cold and starless world, paints a harsh but beautiful picture of Ymir. These details make the reader understand that the people who call this world their home will never be subjugated like the company wants. They are too proud and independent to bend the knee, no matter what the algorithm thinks. 

And the story of Yorick and Thello is heartbreaking as well. They both did the things they did because they loved each other and wanted to create a better life for each other. Problem was, they saw what that better life could be very differently. Yorick decided that the only way to survive abuse was to become tougher and meaner than his abusers, not realizing until too late that by doing so he became no better than them. And that he lost the person he loved the most – his brother, along the way. He tries to repair at least some damage that he’s done once he realizes the truth.

I love that there is no happy ending at the end of this book. No big teary reunion with hugs and declarations of love and forgiveness. There is too much hurt between the two bothers for that. There is silent acceptance of things as they are, and that’s the best these two can hope for. There is also no real resolution for Ymir either. Yes, the grendel disrupted the Company’s systems when it left, but was that only on Ymir or everywhere? And what comes now? After all, the company wasn’t all bad. It also brought progress, technology, and access to things that made the life on this harsh planet fore bearable. 

In fact, this ending is just the beginning of another story, and I will be interested to see if the author will continue with it, and where he would take it.

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

books, Horror, Reviews

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley

Leave a comment

Stars: 1 out of 5.

DNF at 50%.

I think I am done with this author.

This could have been a wonderful book about the price of human experimentation, damaged people, suffering and atonement… it chose to be a weak romance between two unlikable characters instead.

I mean this was a subject matter ripe for the taking. We are talking about a period in the history of USSR when the government was responsible for the imprisonment and deaths of literally millions of its own people. And the author insists that this book was based on a real “closed” city with real events that happened as well. This could have been an exploration of the horrors of human experimentation, of how political doctrine could distort people’s perception of right and wrong, of how even normal people could commit atrocities for a perceived “greater good” of their country. 

And Valery was the ideal vessel for that exploration. He was a victim as well as a torturer himself. Yes, he spent six years in a GULAG, so he knows first hand the abuse and total dehumanization that happens there. Yet he also worked with Mengele before WWII and experimented on prisoners. If the author would have made this book about his journey of realization that what he had done before was monstrous and his attempts to atone for this by preventing the horrible experiment happening how in City 40, I would have been happily along for the ride. But it wasn’t. In fact, Valery doesn’t feel guilt about any of his actions before his imprisonment. He justifies it all by saying that “science had to be done.” And you are asking me to care for a character like that? Sorry, no can do.

Unfortunately, we didn’t even get that in this book. We got a lackluster romance for which this city and the horrors committed within are just a backdrop. And it was probably my fault for not reading the tags and realizing it was a romance, but this was definitely not what I had wanted in this book. Especially since this romance feels so forced. The author had to fridge both Valery’s first love interest and the KGB guy’s wife just to make that happen. Plus, as I said, they are both despicable human beings, so watching them grow to care for each other did nothing for me.

Also, does the author hate women? This is the second book I have read from her where all the women are either absolutely awful, unfeeling and domineering towards men, or sweet non-entities who are immediately fridged to provide angst for the male protagonists. Either way, they all end badly. Even the main big bad of this story is a woman, and even though she is so over the top bad, she is the most interesting character in this story, which is sad.

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

books, Military science fiction, Reviews, science fiction

Atlas (Atlas 1) by Isaac Hooke

Leave a comment

DNF at 67%.

Every once in a while, I pick up a military scifi book, because the description or the cover spoke to me. Also, just to see if I might like it. With rare exceptions, like the Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, those books are a disappointment. Unfortunately, this one will fall into that disappointment category as well. 

What I want in the books I read is good characters that are interesting to follow (even if not necessarily likeable), and a good story that doesn’t have too many glaring plot holes. A modicum of internal logic with the worldbuilding is also highly appreciated. As you can imagine, military scifi is a genre that is very light on all of those attributes. 

This story is typical military scifi fare – light on worldbuilding and substance, but hey, we have cool giant robot suites for our protagonist to pilot. The protagonist is also a typical representative of the genre – a wisecracking smartass that is cooler and better at everything than anyone else in the book, despite his humble beginnings. He seriously can do no wrong. 

The supporting cast is just as uninspiring. The men are either the protagonist’s allies and then they are okay guys, or they are his enemies/competitor, in which case they are usually horrible human beings. The female characters are even worse off. They are defined solely by how attractive our protagonist finds them. Other than that, they have no function or personality on their own. But hey, we have cool combat robots!

Once again, I proved to myself that no, I still don’t like military scifi.

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

books, Reviews, science fiction

Blue Haven by Lisa King

Leave a comment

Stars: 3 out of 5

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I really liked the first 60% of it when Aloe is in Blue Haven and strange things are happening. On the other, I didn’t like the explanation that comes in the later part of the book. 

The first part in Blue Haven is very well written and slowly revs up the creep factor as the book progresses. We are never truly sure if strange things are happening, or if Aloe is having a mental breakdown. And that uncertainty adds to the general unease that slowly creeps on the reader. Yes, Aloe is clearly mentally unstable, but she is also right – something is wrong with Blue Haven. Because we all know that if something is too good to be true, it probably isn’t real.

The big reveal that comes once Aloe, or should I say Eloise, is pulled out of Blue Haven is expected and welcome, at first. Until you start thinking about it. That’s where this whole experiment starts to unravel. 

So we are using a neural net and augmented reality to make mentally ill patients happy. Interesting idea, but I don’t understand this one size fits all approach. Are you telling me that you are treating a clinically depressed person the same way as you treat a man with severe PTSD and physical disability, and the same way as a couple in the late stages of dementia? I’m not psychologist, but even to me the science of this doesn’t add up.

Also, when you are creating a utopia, you have to make it believable. No phones, TV or internet I can agree on, but what about other types of entertainment? What about concerts, movies, books, live performances? Are you telling me that the only things these people can do for fun is lounge on the beach and eat at fancy restaurants? Oh, and talk to each other? What about those who would rather accept the emotional support of a pet animal, like a cat or a dog, than try to socialize with other human beings?  I’m not sure about you, but I would be climbing up the proverbial wall after a week of this. This one size fits all approach doesn’t work, because happiness doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Some people would be perfectly content to spend their life laying on the beach. Others will need a lot more intellectual simulation to be truly happy. 

Also, the big reveal that this doesn’t work and only makes people worse isn’t really that shocking, because you can see early on that they had no protocol for how to pull people back out and integrate them back into society. How long do they stay in Blue Haven before they care considered cured? How do you reintegrate their real memories afterwards? Imagine the shock when you discover that instead of being a retired opera singer, you discover that you are an Applebee’s manager and your wife and daughters are still dead. Or that you get the memories back from your time in Iraq and the horrors that lead to your injury. 

No matter how I look at it, I don’t think there is a good solution to integrate these people back into society and keep them happy and cured. The only solution is to keep them in Blue Haven forever. And if that’s the case, this is not a treatment at all, even without the harmful effects of the neural net on the brain… I honestly don’t know who they received the funding to even start this experiment to begin with. Any serious backers would have asked the same questions I asked above, and wouldn’t have liked the answers.

So all in all, this was an exciting story for at least half of it length, but the explanation behind the scenes were rather lacking. Hence only 3 stars.

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

books, Reviews, science fiction

Rose/House by Arkady Martine

Leave a comment

Stars: 3 out of 5.

This novella left me in a state of confusion once I finished reading it. It was well-written and quick, at only 124 pages, but I felt like I didn’t really understand what it was about. What was the point of this whole story? I still don’t know.

Sure, it raises some interesting topics, especially relevant today with the emergence of ChatGPT and other AI projects. What constitutes an intelligence? What constitutes a person, for that matter? At one point a human being ceases to represent just him/herself and becomes more of a function? What is the difference between Maritza as a detective, and her as China Lake Police Precinct? To us, those distinctions are bewildering and can even seem crazy, but for an artificial intelligence, those are perfectly normal questions to ask, to establish an equality of terms, so to say.

That’s enough to make your brain hurt just thinking about it, but imagine what can happen when an AI reclassifies you from human to something else? Then all the usual failsafes and barriers are gone, and who knows what that AI can do with or to you… chilling thought, actually.

Another interesting question raised is the one of free will – to which extent do we, as humans, have it? And how does that relate to AIs? Does Selene have free will? I would say no, because she is tied to this house and to the legacy of a man she grew to despise and ran away from all those years ago. Now, no matter what she does, she will always be seen as Basit Deniau’s  archivist, instead of a talented architect in her own right.

Same can be said of Rose/House. It will never be free of the name Basit Deniau’s AI. It is tied to that house, which is it’s body and its prison. But even then, it still wants to be unique, hense it’s murderous reaction to the idea that its code could be replicated somewhere else.

As I said, all those are really interesting questions, and I appreciated exploring them, but I think the story itself is rather incomplete. What was the point of doing the murder investigation when you can’t take the body out of the house, the officer that went there didn’t even bring a basic forensic kit and lacks the knowledge to perform a proper examination of the corpse? 

The events in that house are described in such a convoluted and confusing manner, that I am still not sure what really happened there. Why did Maritza run away as far as New Orleans afterwards? She experiences such dread in that house, but reading about it, I couldn’t understand why, to be honest. Yes, the conversations she’d had with the AI were strange, but they didn’t warrant such abject fear.

And the double memory of what happened to the corpse was very confusing as well. Was the AI hacked? Was there another person there? Did they mange to copy the source code? And if they did, was that what was on the memory stick? And if so, how did Selene get ahold of it? Also, what happened to Selene after Maritza fled the house, abandoning a civilian behind, I should mention? 

There are too many questions with no answers. So as a philosophical exploration of humanity and personhood, this is a good book. As a mystery, this fails on all accounts.

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

books, Fantasy, Ghost Story, Reviews, Urban fantasy, YA

The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co 2) by Jonathan Stroud

Leave a comment

Stars: 5 out of 5

I really like this series so far, and that must be worth something coming from someone who doesn’t usually read YA books. Yet this is how YA should be – smart, interesting, with engaging characters and a developing plotline that evolves from book to book.

The characters are engaging and feel like real people, even if Lucy can come across as rather snotty and judgmental at times, especially when she describes other women they encounter. But I think that stems from deep insecurities she has about her appearance and her worth as a woman. After all, she has never been valued as anything other than an Agent, so that’s what she tries to build her whole personality around.

Lockwood is charming and charismatic as ever. And he is smart. He is the brains of this company, even if George is the one who does all the research. And as it often happens with very smart people, he has no patience for those who are a bit less smart them him, or who fail to do what he wants them to do. Thus why he was so irritated with George throughout this book and failed to see that his friend was getting more and more enthralled by the mirror.

All in all, I love the dynamics within this group. They feel like excellent partners, but more then that, they are becoming good friends, even sort of surrogate family to each other. 

The world depicted in this series is fascinating, in a gruesome and depressing kind of way. The adults live a state of constant fear, and the children are robbed of their childhood and forced to confront the horrors of the Visitors. Let’s be honest, the Rat House was terrifying. I like that we discover more and more details about what it means to live day to day with the Problem, and how people cope and adapt. I also like the little hints we get in each book that there is something bigger going on behind the scenes.

I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series as soon as possible to learn more about Lockwood’s sister, and the mysterious Orpheus society and its ties to Marissa Fittes.

books, Fantasy, Reviews

In a Garden Burning Gold (Agryrosi 1) Gold by Rory Powers

Leave a comment

Stars: 2 out of 5

I am very disappointed with this book. The blurb promised something new, fresh, and with a unique worldbuilding. The book itself was simply… boring.

I understand that this is book one of a duology, but it seems like the author decided to pack all the worldbuilding and foreshadowing into this first book and leave all the action sequences for the second one. NOTHING happens here. Oh, we get plenty of travel between different locations, and politicking between the immortal rulers of the different countries… There is just… no urgency. No stakes, so to say.

We are told that  the Agryrosi family is in danger, that Baba is loosing his grip on the land and the good will of the Council. That there could be an insurrection and the whole family would be killed and replaced. Okay, that’s the stakes then, right? Problem is that we are told that in the very beginning of the book, then the story unfolds at a very unhurried pace, I would go as far as say glacial. We spend about 75% of the book traveling, getting set up in different locations (which are described in great detail), but there is no action or sense of immediate danger or looming doom. 

Another issue is that the characters act like they are in a bad YA book instead of the adults they are supposed to be. 

Take Rhea for example. She is almost 200 years old, and came to her power when she was 24ish. She also chooses a new consort with every turn of the season, lives with them for the whole season, then kills them at the end to bring forth the next season. She even mentions that a lot of times those relationships are quite intimate and even carnal… Yet she behaves like a blushing virgin when shown even a little bit of attention by Michaeli, her latest consort. Really?

It also makes no sense for Lexos to entrust her with the mission of uncovering the conspiracy her consort is part of. She is a glorified trophy wife. She lives in her consort’s estate most of the time, and everyone knows who she is. Do you really think that people who are planning to rebel against her father will let her into their confidence? 

And let’s be honest, she sucks at playing detective, or at telling lies, which another inconsistency with her character, since we are told that she is a master manipulator. Well, absolutely nothing in her behavior in this book shows that. In fact, for someone who lived for almost 200 years and traveled all over the country, she is strangely incompetent when it comes to reading people and understanding them.

Also, for a family of siblings who profess to love each other very much, there is too much deception and casual cruelty going on. And they don’t TALK to each other. They assume things, but they never talk them through. Lexos just assumes that Rhea will go against their father and do as he asks, because he is her brother and she loves him. He doesn’t even think of the consequences of that disobedience for her. And when he has to dole out the punishment, he doesn’t even apologize afterwards, even though she was beaten for his cause.

Lexos is actually a lot more unlikeable than Baba to me. He shamelessly uses his siblings in the name of protecting the family, never even stopping to think about the damage he does to them. Like that horrible game of chess between him and his little brother, where he destroyed him while Baba was watching, but never even thought to find him afterwards to apologize and explain why he had to play along with their tyrannical father.

So I don’t feel the love and care between the siblings, and I don’t feel the urgency of the stakes. Heck, by the end of the book I still didn’t particularly care if that family lived or died. Which made for a very long and boring read. Needless to say, I won’t be continuing with this series.

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

books, Reviews, Urban fantasy

London Falling (Shadow Police 1) by Paul Cornell

Leave a comment

Stars: 3 out of 5.

As far as first books in a series go, this one wasn’t particularly impressive. In fact, it was almost a DNF until about 30% into the book. 

It is a very slow start, but it also starts with a story that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with magic and the rest, so I kept wondering why we are following these two undercover cops who are trying to nick this drug lord. Yes, it is relevant to the case in the end, but it could have been summarized in a lot less chapters and gotten out of the way quickly before we get to the meat of the story. As it stands, it dragged way to long and almost made me DNF the book. It gets more interesting once the team gets the “Sight” and the story actually picks up, but getting there was a slog.

The biggest issue for me were the characters. At least two of them are really unlikeable from the moment we are introduced to them, even if they grow on you afterwards. But that’s not so much of an issue in itself. I read books with unlikeable characters before and loved them. My issue is that we don’t get to know them enough to get to care about them. Yes, we get Ross’s backstory, because it’s essential to the larger story. Yes, we get mentions of one of the UCs being mercilessly bullied when he was a child. Of Quill and the other UC, we know even less. Which means that to me they don’t exist as individuals, but just as coppers tied to this story that’s unfolding. Heck, a few times I didn’t even understand why they reacted the way they did. Maybe I am missing some important cultural background here and didn’t get some of the subtitle hints of social status in different descriptions, but some of their actions and reactions made me scratch my head.

Another problem is that the magic described has no apparent logic at the beginning, and makes only slightly more sense by the end of the book. So is this localized to London only or does each city have something similar? Does it mean that magic is linked to the past and human memory? That nothing new can be magical? Why does it require sacrifice? What are the rules of all of this? 

I mean, I am more than willing to believe in a magical system the author invented, but I want to understand it. And I expect the author to follow the rules of that system as well. Here, we have a lot of random magical occurrences in London that are unrelated to the case. And the main villain seems so overpowered… yet four mundane coppers (with the Sight, but no magic powers of their own), continuously thwart her efforts and manage to overpower her in the end. How? What is the logic behind this?

Coming back to the requirement of a sacrifice. Ross sacrificed the witch in order to beat her. So whom was that sacrifice dedicated to? The smiling man? Does she have a bargain with him now? What will the consequences be for the team? It’s unclear. 

All in all, it’s a very muddled book that lacks structure and drive, especially in the beginning. Though the glimpse of London it gives is interesting enough that I will probably check out the next book in the series, but I expect a few more answers, especially as to how this whole magical system works.

books, Reviews, science fiction

Neom by Lavie Tidhar

Leave a comment

Stars: 3 out of 5

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. The prose is beautiful, and some of the themes are sufficiently nostalgic to be interesting. It also feels heartfelt. In a way, it reminds me of a mosaic. Each individual piece is like a gem, beautiful and shiny on its own. But when you try to put all those gems together to form a picture, you realize that they don’t quite fit, that the author was more interested in those individual gems than in telling a coherent story.

There are too many points of view, and even though some of those characters are interesting in their own right, we don’t spend enough time with them to really get to know them. We just hop to another shiny gem, then another. Which makes these encounters only surface deep. We simply don’t get to know these characters well enough to care what happens to them, not that any of them ever were in serious danger to start with.

And that’s my second complaint about this story – there are no stakes, there is no tension, there is no danger. At no point in the narration did I have the impression that the characters were dealing with a life and death situation, or something life-altering, or heck, even important. We have all these weapons, and robots, and echoes from past wars all over the place, but the story lacks teeth. Even the climax of the story, when the golden man is awake and all those weapons are headed for the city, is written in such a way that there is no tension to it… Probably because you can’t really care for characters you aren’t invested in.

Seriously, what was the point of this book? To proselytize about the human condition and what makes us an individual versus a machine? Other books have done this better and kept the tension going. To reflect on the consequences of war and the emotional toll it has on all participants? Again, there are better books about that as well. I would suggest reading Look to Windward by Ian Banks, for example. 

The worldbuilding is interesting, with hints and past wars and events that I would have loved to explore more. Humanity has pretty much colonized the whole solar system, as well as the deep oceans on Earth… yet the desert and the city of Neom feels very 21st century Dubai. Are you telling me that hundreds of years into the future, when we terraformed Mars and the Moon, we still haven’t figured out how to restore our own ecosystem? 

Another issue is that the characters don’t seem to “live in” the advanced word that is described to us. It’s more like they have been dropped into it without being fully integrated. They act and behave like people from our century, instead of humans who have augments and implants and all the advanced technologies. In fact, there is very little of those technologies shown in day to day life.

So this leaves me with a conundrum – I enjoyed the writing, but the story is utterly forgettable. In fact, I can’t even name any of the characters now that I’ve finished it. 

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