Tag Archives: book review

The Immortality Thief (The Kystrom Chronicles 1) by Taran Hunt

Stars: 3.5 out of 5.

Surprisingly, this book pulled at all of my heartstrings. Even though it’s monster horror in space, it made me care about the characters. Well, at least the main ones. 

I mean, you can’t help but feel sorry for Sean, who survived the destruction of his whole city and saw his family and everyone he knew lying dead at the hands of the Ministers. I understand why he clings so desperately to Benny, even though they have absolutely nothing in common apart from that tragedy that defined their childhood. It’s not a healthy relationship and clinging to it is slowly destroying both of them.

I was also impressed by the sheer capacity for compassion Sean has, even after everything he went through. Or maybe because of it? He saw so many people die that now he tries to do everything in his power to help other in need, because he doesn’t want any more deaths. And once he is stuck on the ship full of monsters with two people who, in his eyes, are responsible for the Kystrom massacre, he doesn’t immediately classify them as enemies. He has the moral strength to overcome that anger and see them for what they are – people.

I also liked Tamara and Indigo and how we progressively got to know more of them and get glimpses of humanity from the emotionless Minister and the battle-hardened soldier. They have to collaborate to survive long enough to recover data that is vital for both their races survival. In the case of the Ministers, that meaning is very literal.

The setting itself is the stuff nightmares are made of – a derelict ship left by a dying star. So vast, so dark and silent… and full of monsters that are very very hard to kill, because the scientists who created them were experimenting with immortality. And now those monsters are angry with their creators. For creating them in the first place, for the horrors they were subjected to during that creation, and for abandoning them to die on this ship without a second thought. It reminded me a bit of the video game Dead Space, which I never could finish because I’m a chicken.

There is a lot to love about this book, but there are a few flaws as well. The flashbacks, even though they serve a purpose of explaining Sean’s frame of mind, get annoying after a while. I wish the author could have found other means of passing the information to the reader. The characters other than our main trio are two-dimensional at best, and Benny was so devoid of redeeming qualities it was almost caricatural. 

The story also started dragging towards the end. It was like the author kept putting away the resolution and throwing more and more obstacles in our characters’ way. They had already been through so much though, that I experienced danger fatigue. I just wanted them to be done with this ship one way or another.

All in all though, I really loved this first book in a new series and I will check out the next one, especially considering the twist at the end.

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

To Ride a Rathorn (Kencyrath 4) by PC Hodgell

Stars: 5 out of 5

I continue to be impressed with this series. The complexity of the worldbuilding is staggering. Every book adds a new piece of the puzzle to the bigger picture of creation. I am fascinated and I want to know more.

I also really like Jame as a character, and I think that she grew and evolved a lot since the first book where we saw her emerge out of the Haunted Lands. She is finding her stride and her own worth in this world. She is finally making peace with her powers and her destiny, even though, in true Jame fashion, she will follow that destiny on her own terms. I think she is beginning to realize that family isn’t only blood. That it’s also the connections you create or the creatures you bind to yourself (either intentionally or not). And that you are responsible for that family. Speaking of that, I am not happy with how she treats Graykin in this book. Hopefully, she realizes that and course corrects in the next book.

It’s also interesting to see that Jame is already performing her function as Nemesis, albeit in a small way. She is like a hot knife puncturing old abscesses everywhere she goes. Things hidden for decades come to light, horrible crimes committed in the past have repercussions in the present. And Jame is in the middle of it, whether she wants it or not.

Speaking of old crimes. The more we find out about what happened 60 years ago with Jame’s family, the more I feel for both Jame and Torisen. No wonder they are so broken, coming from so much pain, misery and death. No wonder their father went mad. Sounds like his life had been horrific. 

As I said, I think Jame had a lot of character growth in this story and became a better, and more stable, person. My complaint is that Torisen didn’t get that chance. He seems stuck in his soulscape, constantly listening to the poisonous words of his dead father, doubting himself and his sister. He needs to open that door and face what’s behind it, the sooner the better. He can’t afford not to, if he wants to remain the Highlord and save his people from the moral corruption that seems to have infected the Kencyrath. 

I also loved Jame’s dreamlike travels through Rathillien’s countryside and her interactions with the local Gods, Mother Raga especially. And I’m glad that her and the rathorn colt didn’t kill each other. 

I will definitely continue with this series because I want to know more about this complex world and I want Jame and Tori to finally vanquish their demons and become the twins they were destined to be.

The Archived (The Archived 1) by Victoria Schwab

Stars: 4 out of 5

Another book scratched off my oh so long TBR list. This one has been languishing on it since 2014. 

I really liked it. The world is interesting. The existence of an Archive where all the memories of people who die are kept is fascinating. Though I would like to know who created it and for what purpose. Since technically, the Histories just kind of stay there and should never “wake up”, and should never escape into the Outer world. Yet they do, and they go bad every single time. I wonder why? 

And I definitely could relate to Mac’s pain and her struggle to come to terms with Ben’s death. I understand that she blames herself, no matter how absurd that is. I think for her the grief of loosing her little brother compounded with the grief of loosing her grandfather, with whom she was a lot closer than with her parents. Grief can make you do some stupid things. I also understand how having to keep her job as a Keeper secret isn’t exactly conductive to creating strong friendships. Honestly, I don’t envy Mac her life. It’s lonely, having to lie to everyone all the time. Having to put on a mask for others and never ever show them your real self. 

All in all, I was also pretty okay with our protagonist, though I question her grandfather’s decision to pass his mantle of Keeper to an 11 year old child. This is not just irresponsible, its downright cruel. Not to mention that a child, at least in  normal family, would not have the freedom of movement necessary to do this job. Are you seriously telling me that Mac’s been sneaking out of the house at all kinds of hours of day and night and coming home with cuts and bruises, and nobody noticed? Her parents didn’t sound the alarm? Her teachers didn’t suspect child abuse and call child protective services?

I understand that they might pay less attention to Mac after the tragedy that struck them with Ben, locked in their own grief as they are, but she’s been a Keeper for 4 years before then. Are you telling me that her parents never called her on her lies? Never questioned why she is hurt so often? That was the thing that was the hardest to suspend my disbelief on.

This book also suffers from the usual YA trope where the characters simply don’t talk to each other about important things. A lot of the problems Mac had to deal with were created or made worse by her unwillingness to confide in others. She could have told Wesley about what’s happening in the Archives. He isn’t stupid. He’d figured out that the uptick in woken Histories wasn’t normal. She could have told him about Owen and asked for his help. Instead, she chose to lie and stubbornly try to deal with the situation on her own. Well, we know how that turned out.

We also have the incompetent adults trope that made me roll my eyes a couple times while reading this book. It’s so old and tired that it gives me the hives now. It would honestly make for a much better story if the adults and young adults worked together. Then again, we might not even have a story, because if Mac’s parents paid enough attention to her, she wouldn’t be a Keeper, because she would have been grounded the first time she’d snuck out at night and came back with bruises and knife marks. Oh, and in therapy.

But all in all, I actually really enjoyed the story while I read it, and all those questions didn’t really bother me until AFTER I had finished the book and started thinking about it. And I will definitely read the next book in the series to see if we get more answers about the Archives.

Extasia by Claire Legrand

Stars: 1 out of 5.

DNF at 35%.

This is definitely not for me. I don’t deal well with religious drama, cults, and religious zealots, and while I was told that the book eventually moves past that, I just didn’t feel the strength to slog through that part of the story to get to the interesting bits. I put this book away and picked it up so many times, I finished 3 other books in the meantime. And I had to force myself to pick it back up every time. The only reason I stuck with it so long is because it’s an advanced copy. I usually feel obligated to at least make it through a quarter of a book I received for review before I call it quits.

Religious oppression and violence is not the only reason I couldn’t finish this book. I can’t stand the main protagonist. I also don’t understand her motivations. The choices she makes don’t makes sense. She is so pious and ready to become a saint, and judgmental of anyone she considers not pious enough, especially her mother… then she decides that she wants to find the Devil? Hmmm, why exactly? How a barely remembered story (that ended badly, by the way) would make her think that confronting the Devil would save her village? Why is she willing to commit theft and perjury for that?

There are a lot of her other choices and behaviors that made me shake me head in dismay. And they made me like her even less. For someone who sees herself as a sort of paragon of piety and virtue, she is extremely judgmental and unkind to everyone who she sees inferior to her. That’s especially glaring towards her fellow saints and her sister. I’m sorry, but I can’t possibly root for someone this unlikeable.

The worldbuilding is wobbly at best. I can’t even picture how this village lives. What kind of technology do they have? How do they feed themselves? What do they wear? How do they craft their tools? Nothing. The explanation about Extasia is also rather unsatisfying. 

I’ve seen a lot of raving reviews for this book on Goodreads, but for me, it was a disappointment.

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

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co 1) by Jonathan Stroud

Stars: 5 out of 5.

I watched the Netflix series based on these books and liked them, so I decided to check out the original works as well. Especially since there was a lot less backstory and worldbuilding in the tv series then I would have liked. Well, I’m glad I picked up the books, even if they are technically YA. This is quality storytelling, and I loved every minute of it.

I also noticed that while the tv series follow the first book almost word for word when it comes to the events that happen, they are a lot less effective at describing the character motivations. I honestly thought that Lockwood was a pretentious ass when I watched the series. And an ass who constantly puts others in danger to boot. Well, I’m glad to say that he isn’t like that in the books. Reckless, yes. Excitable – definitely. But also brilliant, smart, and with nerves of steel. I actually liked his character in the book while in the tv series I found him mildly irritating at best. 

Same goes for George. The way he is and the way he behaves in the book is much more natural than how they portrayed him in the series. And I’m not against race-swapping characters, but they could have found an actor who fit George’s description a bit better. After all, the fact that he is overweight and not particularly handsome weights heavily on his character and his behavior. That’s where a lot of his insecurities come from. And that opportunity was completely lost in the tv series.

Also, is it me, or is the book a lot more scary and more… cinematic, shall we say? I mean the Red Room episode in the series just made me shrug, but when I was reading about it in the book, I literally had shivers. That whole night in the most haunted house in England was extremely well-written. And showed all the team members at their best, especially Lockwood and Lucy. The whole Annie Ward story was also better presented than in the TV series, in my opinion. 

I also loved that we get a lot more backstory on the Problem and more examples of the Visitors, as well as how everyday life is in a world where nights aren’t safe, and ghosts that the majority of the population can’t see can still seriously harm and even kill them. I would like to know more about this. I also would like to know if this Problem is only local to England or if it spread to the rest of Europe as well. It was mentioned that it had started in London and was slowly spreading into more rural parts of the country over the last fifty years, so maybe it hasn’t made it across the Channel just yet. 

I’m sure I will get answers to at least some of my questions if I continue with the series, which I most certainly will!

Hollow World by Michael J Sullivan

Stars: 2.5 out of 5

I couldn’t quite mesh with this book, no matter how I tried. Sure, the concept seems fun, and the Hollow World itself is fascinating, but some of the decisions the author took with the story didn’t sit well with me.

I was totally onboard while we were exploring the Hollow World and learning about this very homogeneous society. Heck, I was totally onboard with the murder mystery and trying to understand why somebody would start killing people in a society where murders, or even other crimes, haven’t happened in centuries, so they don’t even have a police force. Then the author threw in this whole Warren angle and the book went downhill from there, at least for me.

First of all, Warren doesn’t work as a villain. He is way too over the top in his misoginistic and patriarchal views. The Warren Ellis spoke to at the beginning of the book was a butthead, but he wasn’t this over the top. Sure, he lived 10 years longer in the past than Ellis, but would he really have changed that much?

Also, the idea that someone like Warren could successfully recreate the experiment that NOBODY else in the world did is ludicrous. Yes, he had Ellis’s notes, but the author tells us that the notes are only half the problem. That Ellis had to make some pretty complicated calculations to make sure he didn’t materialize into space or layers under the earth, or floating a kilometer above the surface in the future. And he had to account for the difference in time between when he was and when he was going and Earth rotation, and a bunch of other factors. Are you telling me that Warren was able to do the same ten years later with completely different parameters? I call bull.

Also, the fact that Warren was Ellis’s best friend turned me off the protagonist. I mean, at one point in the book, Ellis admits that he knew that his friend was a wife beater, yet he let it slide. He never confronted his friend about the physical abuse. Worse, instead of helping, he was making sarcastic comments about the intelligence of the victim for staying with her abuser. After that little gem I lost all respect for the protagonist and all interest for the story. But I was already 80% done by then, so I skimmed until the end and honestly? The ending is disappointing.

What was the point of all this? Yes, we get a pages-long villain monologue from Warren about his motives, but what would have Pol and Hal gotten out of the genocide of their entire species? They can’t reproduce. Did they want to be the last 2 men on Earth forever or what? If so, what stops them from trying it again? They aren’t captured at the end of the book, after all. Yet this fact is treated like some kind of afterthought. Nobody is worried. 

In the end, this was a disappointing read, but at least I managed to tick another book off my TBR list. It’s been languishing there since 2015.

One Dark Window (The Shepherd King 1) by Rachel Gillig

Stars: 5 out of 5

This book is dark and poetic, cruel and poignant, horrifying and fascinating. I loved every page of it, which is rare for a YA book. So I would say this is a YA book done right. No over emphasis on “feelings” and love triangles, but just good old-fashioned storytelling at its best. 

The world in this book is fascinating – it’s dark and unforgiving, but has a strange poetic beauty to it as well. This is a single kingdom that is cut out from the rest of the world by a wall of mists that turn anyone who wanders into their midst without a charm insane. And they also slowly choke the land, advancing closer and closer to human habitations, killing the crops and blocking out the sun. Oh, and some citizens get the fever and acquire magical abilities, which in this kingdom is a certain death sentence not only for the infected, but for their family as well, if they hide them from the King’s justice.

Oh, and magic in this world has a price. Any sort of magic, even the Providence Cards, exact a bloody price from the user. Nothing is free, and the reckoning always comes. I loved that! I’ve read too many books were magic is seemingly effortless and free for the caster, as if creating something out of nothing is a perfectly normal occurrence. Having magic exact a price is a refreshing change. That way there is a balance – a magic user can do terrible things in this world, but the price to pay would be just as terrible.

I also really liked the characters, especially Elspeth. All her actions and reactions made sense. She wasn’t the Chosen one, or a special snowflake. She was real and very human, and very very flawed. And she was lost and battling her own personal Nightmare, a loosing battle, I must say. I also liked how she slowly changed in this book from only caring about staying safe and hidden to actually embracing a dangerous cause. Yes, she’d done it at first because she wanted to be cured of her affliction, but by the end of the book she gives in to the Nightmare, fully knowing that she would be lost, for the hope that by her actions she can save others.

The writing is also very engaging. It’s rather poetic at times. I found myself repeating some sentences out loud just because they had a certain hypnotic rhythm to them. I think this adds to the slightly surreal and dreamlike impression that this book gives. A kingdom shrouded by mists where monsters dwell. And sometimes monsters wear human clothing…

I would say that my only complaint is that I didn’t like Elspeth’s love interest as much as any other characters. Ravyn isn’t bad per se… He is just blah. Dark and brooding with a hidden heart of gold – we’ve seen that done a hundred times over. He gets lost in the background any time Elm or Emory or even Ione are in the scene. And honestly, Elspeth had a lot more chemistry with all of them instead of Ravyn. 

Other than that, I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, because there are a lot of unanswered questions left in the story and some rather unpleasant revelations. I also want to know what happened to the Shepherd King to turn him into the monster he became. Oh, and the events at the end of the book 1 definitely need an answer. It’s not a cliffhanger, by any means, it’s just not a happy ending you would expect from YA. Then again, this is not a world that thrives on happy endings.

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

The First Days (As the World Dies 1) by Rhiannon Frater

Stars: 2 out of 5

This was rather disappointing. I’m always on the lookout for a good zombie story, and this one had promise. The first chapter sure packed an emotional punch. Two women thrown together by circumstances and desperately trying to survive in a world gone mad overnight. It looked like it would be a bloody and scary romp through rural Texas fighting zombies and finding strength and friendship in each other. And it was just that for the first 100 pages or so. But once they rescue Jenni’s stepson and join the other survivors, thigs quickly degenerate.

All of a sudden, instead of being decisive, smart and brave, these girls just give up all of their initiative to the first male figure they encounter. It’s like they switch off their brains and switch on their hormones. Big man will protect me! I don’t have to think anymore. I just have to spread my legs! Jenni is the biggest offender on that front. And the whole story becomes this weird love square between Katie, Jenni, Travis and Juan. Did we really need that? The world is literally ending around them, why do I have to read about who hooks up with whom?

Not to mention how false that reads. I mean Katie just witnessed her beloved wife, the one she literally describes as her whole world, become a zombie and try to eat her face off. That was not even a week ago. And suddenly she has strange feelings for Travis and is doubting her sexuality? What happened to loss and grief and time to process the enormity of what happened? Jenni witnessed her abusive husband kill and eat both her children and barely escaped with her life. Yet as soon as she sees an attractive man, she switches off her brain and starts thinking only with her nether parts. But the least said about Jenni the better. Her characterization is problematic at best.

That’s another issue with this book – characterization. It’s inconsistent.  Characters do and say things that sometimes wildly clash with how they behaved before and what they were said to believe in. Some plot points and arcs don’t do anything to advance the plot and are there only either for shock value or to add some zombie gore. Like that whole adventure to rescue Jenni’s stepson, what was that about exactly? He fades into the background almost as soon as they reach the refugee camp and has no further role to play in the story. Heck, the dog has more page time than the kid, and more personality.

And it feels like the characters worry more about who will sleep with whom than the more pressing matters, like how to secure food and other supplies. What will happen when electricity goes down and running water dries out. They should be planning raids on nearby stores and pharmacies, and securing a source of running water. They should be thinking about hygiene and how to prevent the spread of diseases that will inevitably follow. Even the common flu can kill. Not to mention dysentery, which they are all likely to get if they don’t figure out a safe way to preserve food and boil the water they drink. I know, I know, I’m asking too much, but I was looking forward to a good zombie survival book, and instead I got this…

At least I crossed another book off my TBR list, I guess. And this one has been sitting on it since 2018.

Z2134 by Sean Platt and David Wright

Stars: 1 out of 5

This is the second book I try by these authors, and I am less then impressed once again. Though to tell the truth, this seems to be a reprint of a much earlier work, which is probably why it is so bad. I mean, I gave Pattern Black 2 stars where this one barely scrapped a single one.

This book is tries very hard to be a cross between 1984, The Hunger Games, and the Walking Dead. Unfortunately, it does this very poorly, so neither of those three components really work. On a personal note, I was there for the zombies. Unfortunately, there are too little zombies in this book. They barely serve as a plot device. So that added to my disappointment with the book. If you come to it with a different lens, you might enjoy the battle of the “little man” against the tyrannical regime. I didn’t.

Probably because those parts of the story are also rather poorly realized. Subtle this book is not.  The author has to telegraph every action, every plot point, and every plot twist in the book. It’s like he doesn’t trust the reader to get it, unless he is hammered on the head with it. This gets annoying really fast. I can get a hint. I don’t need everything spelled out for me. 

It also devalues the events in the book, because that plot twist about City 7? That could have had such a big impact if it wasn’t telegraphed from a high mountain several chapters ago.

I also couldn’t care less about the characters, so nothing that happened to them was particularly shocking to me. I know I was supposed to root for Jonah in the Darwin Games, but I didn’t know him from Adam at that time, so I didn’t really care if he won or if Bear killed him. Honestly, the little we had of Bear’s backstory made him a lot more compelling as a character. And the least said about Ana, the better, because she is a typical YA dystopia heroine, and I stopped reading YA years ago precisely because I couldn’t stand that stereotype. 

I would also like to point out that this book is not a complete story. It ends in a cliffhanger. Nothing is resolved, nobody is saved or even achieved their goals. There is no resolution or even payout for investing hours of your time into this story. If you want to know what happens to the characters, you will have to pick up the next book, I guess. Unfortunately, I don’t care enough to do so.

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

Souldier (In the Shadows of Eternity 1) by Andrew Dahms

Stars: 2 out of 5

DNF at 50%

I am honestly amazed at all the 5 stars reviews on Goodreads. Have I read a different book than everyone else? They talk about a good story and gripping action… Well, I had to force myself to read to halfway point, and I honestly saw neither. Maybe things get better in the second half of the book, but if I have to wait until then for the story to get interesting, something is wrong. Plus, I don’t have that much patience. 

I think the biggest problem is that the author doesn’t know how to show anything. All he does is tell. We have paragraphs upon paragraphs of descriptions of everything from buildings to uniforms, to what is happening to the character. But it’s all tell, tell, tell… I mean, he even managed to make the basic training sequence boring as fish. And it lasted way too long, by the way. I mean we are barely out of basic training and actually on the Line by the halfway mark. 

It doesn’t help that Vivian’s character is a non-entity. Because the author tells us everything instead of showing, we are never privy to her inner thoughts or find out how she actually feels about the things that are happening to her. I mean we have several chapters describing how grueling her basic training was, and how the drill sergeant did everything he could to break her… but that’s just words. I have no clue how she felt about it. I don’t see her exhaustion, her frustration, her determination to continue. None of that is there.

And why is she here anyway? Yes, she wants to find out what happened to Sally, but again, apart from what the author tells us, nothing shows us just how much she meant to the protagonist. Show us some flashbacks. Show us their interactions when they were friends. Show us how Vivian felt when Sally left to join souldier, or how she felt when she received the news of her friend’s death… then I will believe that she could drop everything and travel half the world away to seek some answers. As it stands, I don’t care.

And that’s the trend in this book. We are told that the characters are doing something or reacting to something, but we aren’t shown that. And often, we aren’t shown any reactions at all where there should be something. 

For example, when Vivian and her fellow enlistees are sent to help load and unload planes during the new wave, the pilot of one of them has a mental breakdown, literally saying that he brought his squad back in boxes. They were unloading coffins. Surely, there would be a reaction to that? We get nothing. No horror at the realization, no desperation, no fear even. Nothing but the description of how grueling it was to work for such long hours for several days. NOT the thing you want to put the accent on in this kind of story. That was a lost opportunity to immerse the reader in the world and show just how bleak the situation is. 

When I realized that at halfway mark the book wasn’t getting any better, and that I was just getting more and more frustrated with the writing, I gave up.

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