Tag Archives: ARCs

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

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Stars: 2 out of 5

I was very excited about this book because the blurb gave me the same vibes as the Wayward Children series by Seannan McGuire, and I loved the first few books in that series. Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to the expectations.

One of the reasons is that the story takes too long to get going. We don’t travel to the magical world until almost halfway into the book, so everything before then is set up. That would be fine if the pacing of this section wasn’t so sluggish. I found myself yawning and wanting the author to get on with it on more than one occasion.

My other issue is that I didn’t particularly like the writing choices in this book. The interruptions by the “Narrator” were extremely off-putting and yanked you right out of the story every time they were inserted between chapters. 

Another issue is that I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, so I wasn’t invested in their stories. This is particularly true for Jay and Raif. The author sets them up as these star-crossed lovers destined to be together but separated by circumstances, but that didn’t work for me. Call me old and cynical, but I find it hard to believe that Jeremy would pine for his high school sweetheart for 15 years after the fact. I mean they were 14 when everything happened and were only together for 6 months. Are you telling me that he couldn’t move on? Yeah, not buying it. Same goes for Raif who didn’t even remember those 6 months or that he was in love with Jeremy. 

And I might have been okay even with that if those two characters were interesting. As it stands though, they behave like they never left their teenage years, even though both of them are in their thirties in this book. I’m sorry, that’s not how thirty-year-old people in general behave, not unless they have serious developmental issues. Which I could understand in Raif’s case, because he had amnesia and carried a hidden trauma because of that all those years, but Jeremy seems like a well-adapted individual who traveled the world and saw plenty of good and bad stuff. What’s his excuse for behaving like a hormonal teenager? That’s why I feel like this book reads like a young adult book, even though it’s not marketed as such.

I have nothing much to say about Skya or Emily because they serve more as plot devices than actual people, so their characterization is non-existent. 

My biggest issue with this book is that this fairy tale has no “teeth” – nothing truly bad happens to any of the characters. Everything is too easy and harmless. At no point in this story was I worried about the characters or the decisions they had to make. And since the stakes aren’t all that important, nothing feels earned. Good fairy tales know that there is darkness as well as light in the world, and that to have heroes, there needs to be dragons. Heck, Skya even talks about that in the book! Unfortunately, the author loved her characters too much to truly make them suffer, so her dragons were nothing more than tame lizards, easily defeated.

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

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, 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, 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, Reviews, science fiction, Space Western

The Warded Gunslinger (Warded Gunslinger 1) by Filip Wiltgren

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Stars: 4 out of 5.

This was a pretty good novella, and honestly, for how short it was, it managed to accomplish the most important thing – make me interested in the characters and the world. The author doesn’t waste time or words. The action moves swiftly, and there are no superfluous scenes at all. 

Also, that book cover is pretty badass.

But he still manages to introduce the protagonist and clearly set the stakes. We know why Jake is at Jackson Depot, and we know why he is dead set on finding those who decided to break into his ship and steal his cargo. And it all makes sense, and I can root for him. I also liked a lot of the secondary characters, no matter how little pagetime they got. They were all memorable and relatable. Even the thieves, because they had done this out of desperation more than malice towards our protagonist.

The world itself is a fascinating mix of science fiction and fantasy – where magic infuses every day things, but humanity is flying on spaceships and has managed to colonize space. Oh, and there are dragons, or void wyrms, how cool is that?

My only complaint is that we don’t get enough information about this world. A syndicate is mentioned, and the Federation, and a Magical Academy of sorts, but I have no scope. How far did humanity spread from Earth? Are there any other alien races out there apart from the Void Wyrms? Many questions and not enough page time to get the answers. I will have to pick up the next books in the series to find out more. From what I have seen, there are at least three more already out, and I will definitely check them out.

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

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

The Graveyard Watch by R. J. Eason

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Stars: 2.5 out of 5

This book had potential, I love urban fantasy and new interesting takes that authors have on the old thrope of monsters living among us without the general public being aware of it and secret agencies in the government created to police them. So I was more than on board with this and ready to enjoy my read. Unfortunately, the execusion suffers from what I would call “the first book” syndrom. And while I am willing to forgive a lot if I like the story and the characters, the flaws outweighted the positives in this case.

My biggest issue with the book is head hopping. I HATE this. It gives me whiplash and immediately takes me out of the story, killing all enjoyment. I don’t mind having certain scenes narrated by different characters as long as there is a clear separation between them. In this case though, we have some scenes where the POV literaly changes from paragraph to paragraph in the same scene, which is really off-putting and confusing.

My second issue was the way the author chose to write the accents different characters have. Like Sebastian, the French werewolf. While that would be fantastic in an audio book, it sounds very forced and unnatural written on a page. It is honestly hard to read, because the words are writen wrong to immiate an accent, but since I am reading this, not listening to it, half the time I have to stop and re-read to even understand what the author ment. There are other ways of showing that English isn’t someone’s native language.

My other issues are related to the characters and the general worldbuilding. 

Where it comes to the worldbuilding, there isn’t enough of it. It leaves more questions than answers. Like how does the Graveyard Watch fit into the rest of Brittish law enforcement or even government? Who does the Commander answer to? Who pays the bills? What is the chain of command here? What is the scop of their powers? What is their ultimate mission? Are they judge, jury, and executionner? Are they enforcers or also councelors whom the supernatural community can turn to for help? Are there other divisions of the Graveyard Watch in other countries? A centralized authority that overseas them? Who watches the watchers? No clue, because that’s never explained. 

My other issue is with the characters. We don’t know anything about them apart from their funny accents. The only one we get a bit of a backstory about is Domingo, but even then it’s not much. The characters are just kind of there… I don’t know their motivations, I don’t know what they do in their personal lives, I don’t know what their aspirations are. They move the story forward, talk in funny accents, and (in the case of Jocasta) swoon over every hot-looking guy that happens to cross her path. 

Speaking of Jocasta, I really hated her inner monologs that were written more like dialogs. I mean does she have split personality or what? Why does it sound like another voice is answering her in her head when she is having a moment? Also, for someone who is described as an intelligent and capable medical examiner, why is she suddenly turning into a detective? Her job is not to track suspects and apprehend them. Her job is to examine a scene and a body, if there is one. The whole plot of them following Victor to his secret lair was absolutely stupid. Why would she run after a known suspect, jump into his boat, follow him into a warehouse… all that while wearing an evening dress and high heels? What is she, Super Woman?

In the end, the negatives outweighted the positives for me, hence the rather low rating I’m giving this book. I will not be continuing with this series.

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

books, murder mystery, Reviews

Red Team Blues (Martin Hench 1) by Cory Doctorow

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

This was my first encounter with cory Doctorow, and the result is rather underwhelming. The blurb sounded very promissing – a forensic accountant, cybercrimes, cryptocurrencies, and all that jaz. I was fully onboard and ready to enjoy a good story. Unfortunately, the book itself was a big disappointment.

My biggest issue with this book, and why me and this story didn’t mesh at all, is the writing style. The prose is extremely dry and impersonal, even though it’s not third person omniscient. We are watching the events unfold from Marin’s perspective. But the book reads more like an instruction manual than a heart-poinding crime story. I mean, the author describes a horrifying scene of death and torture in the same dry language as a romantic encounter our protagonist has with one of his lady friends. Both scenes are supposed to evoke emotions, instead, they just induce boredom.

Part of the problem is also that the author doesn’t particularly do a good job with showing things. We are told that Martin is profoundly shocked by what he saw when he found those slain kids, but we are not shown that. Show us hims having nightmares about it, or a panic attack once he gets out of the crime scene, or something. Don’t just tell me that he didn’t sleep well, then continue with the story like nothing happened. I can’t be emotionally invested in a situation, if the protagonist doesn’t seem to care one way or another either.

My second problem is Marty himself. Boy, does he have plot armor or what? Also, he reads more like the author’s wish fulfilment than a real person. So he is 67, doesn’t exercise or try to keep himself in shape (at least the author doesn’t mention him going to the gym even once or for a hike, or something). He drinks like an Irishman, easts whatever he wants… yet he doesn’t seem to have any health issues (at 67), or have to take medication for anything, and he can spend weeks homeless in the streets of SF and still be a functional human being after that? Oh, and all hot, intelligent, younger women he encounters fall head over heels for him instantly. No seriously, this guy has more intimate encounters in this book than James Bond. Either this dude won the gene pool jackpot, or the author really doesn’t know what being in upper sixties feels like for most of the population.

On top of that, the story got bogged down in useless descriptions of dinners the protagonist cooked and consumed, alcohol he drank, or other rather useless trivia that didn’t advance the plot in any way. I mean, you could easily have trimmed off at least 100 pages. It would have made the book a lot tighter and faster to read. As it stood, I got bored a few times while reading and had to skim along until the plot would pick up again.

All in all, this was a disappointing book for me. I don’t think I will be continuing with this series, and honestly, I don’t know if I will check out other books by this author.

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

books, Dystopian, Reviews, science fiction

Ash and Sun by Jonny Thompson

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DNF at 30%.

I hate giving up on new authors, but this book simply can’t keep my interest any longer. It was slow to start, but I hung on in there, hoping that the action will pick up with the story. Well, we are 30% in, and neither the story nor the action ever picked up.

This book could have used a trim. So many useless words! That whole opening chapter could have been slashed in half if not more, and that would have made the story only better.

My other complaint is that the characters are uninteresting, and the Jens is downright unpleasant to follow. I get that the author was going for the socially awkward genius that is somewhere on the spectrum, so has issues understanding human emotions. Well, that didn’t work for me, because this depiction is inconsistent. In one chapter he struggles with understanding why some of his colleagues want to be touchy-feely after he comes back, and in the next he can read the emotions of the people he interrogates like an open book.

It’s also a big fail on the genius investigator part… yeah, he Jens would be a genius if all the other cops were kindergarten kids who never learned police procedures or interrogation techniques. Seriously, the way he investigates crimes scenes or talks to witnesses and suspects would have him fired from any police precinct IRL, no matter how understaffed they were. It was painful to read through.

Also, 30% in, I still have no clue where this book is going. Yes, there is a suspicious fire in a warehouse and seven bodies. Yes, it is probably murder, and there is another possible murder that may or may not be related to that case… and that’s it. We are over a quarter of the book in, shouldn’t we have learned a bit more at this point? In any case, I am not sticking around to find out.

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