Tag Archives: book reviews

The Flex by Ferrett Steinmetz.

Stars: 4 out of 5.

Another wonderful book. Frankly, I have been spoiled with good books so far this year.

Flex has a very interesting concept of magic that I hadn’t encountered before. The ‘mancers in Flex are not officially (or unofficially) trained magicians we grew so accustomed to in other fantasy books. No, each one of them has their own particular flavor of magic or ‘mancy. There are illustromancers and musicomancers, videogamemancers and bureaucracymancers. This is a fascinating concept that a person’s believes and obsessions define his or her magic and the set of rules within which it works.

I also loved the fact that the use of magic is not free in this world. Every time there is a Flex, or the active use of magic, there will be a Flux later, or pushback when the laws of nature reascertain themselves and make the practitioner pay for breaking them. The bigger the Flex, the bigger the subsequent Flux, and it usually hits the things or people the ‘mancer cares about the most. So no wonder why ‘mancers in this world are mostly solitary and rather unhappy people – everything they love turns to ash between their fingers the more they use their magic.

Why don’t they stop? You could ask. Well, ‘mancy is like a drug, an addiction. And for a lot of these people, the Flex is the only time they are truly happy, they truly feel alive. So they are willing to risk the Flux just to experience this euphoria even for a little while.

I loved the fact that all the ‘mancers in this book are neither really good nor really evil. They are all broken people who found refuge from the ugliness of this world in their magic. They can do horrible things, but even the worst of them can create ‘mancy that’s absolutely beautiful.

Our protagonist, Paul Tsabo, had spent his life hunting down rogue ‘mancers and handing them over to the Government to be “refactored” – a horrible procedure where their mind is erased and they become no more than puppets linked to a human controller… and then he became a ‘mancer himself. When his daughter is horribly burned in an explosion orchestrated by a ‘mancer bound on destroying human civilization, he must take it upon himself to hunt him or her down and make them pay.

I liked Paul. He is not the typical action hero. He doesn’t rush into danger with guns blazing. He is not good in a fight – too scrawny, not a very good fighter. But he is extremely good with the paperwork. He is the king of forms, the god of bureaucracy. I loved the fact that he stayed true to himself throughout this book. The author didn’t make him discover sudden mad fighting skills or extreme marksmanship. Paul remains a paper-pusher, but his papers can rewrite the world.

My only gripe with Flex is that the author doesn’t give us hardly any background on the origins of this magic. One of the characters attributes the surge of ‘mancers to the birth of the Internet and the ever growing list of obsessions people have. Yet the author also hits that ‘mancers existed even in the previous centuries, way before the invention of the Internet. In fact, a full on magical battle during World War II opened a huge broach over Europe and transformed the whole continent in to a smoldering landscape full of demons.

It’s implied that ‘mancers started being hunted down and “refactored” after that incident, but the author doesn’t explain how it was before that. How did ‘mancers deal with their Flux? How did society deal with them? I would have loved to have a bit more details. I would also have loved to see more of that strange world than just New York. Hopefully, the author will expand his universe in the next book.

But even as it stands, Flex is a definite must read. It’s well written and fast paced, and the story is really interesting.

PS. I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.

The Locksmith by Susan Kaye Quinn.

Stars: 5 out of 5.

The Locksmith is a short novella is is set in the Mindjack world (I have reviewed the first book of the series Open Minds if you are interested), and I must admit that it felt good revising it.

This story had all the ingredients I loved about the original books – the complex world, engaging characters and often serious problems they face. I also love that the author doesn’t pull any punches when exploring the social problems that arise when the normal mindreading society discovers the existence of mindjackers…

But I digress, so let’s concentrate on this story. We are following Zeph, who is a mindjacker with a unique ability even for his kind: he can not only jack into other people’s brains, but also modify them (lock or unlock as he puts it). He tried very hard to stay hidden, to pass for normal, even though he is forced to work for the local mindjacker clan. He doesn’t like what he is forced to do for Clan Marshall, but he understands that the jacker would come after his family if he disobeys. Yes, his life is difficult as it is, but at least he manages to pass for more or less normal, even if he has to lie to everybody around him, even his family.

So when Kira drops the bombshell and reveals the existence of mindjackers to the world, I understood perfectly well why Zeph was mad about it. She had just destroyed all hopes for him to live a normal life. Of is she didn’t annihilate them entirely, she made it so much more difficult.

It’s interesting to see the repercussions of Kira’s decisions and the events of the original 3 books of the Mindjacker series on other mindjackers, to see the reaction of another other jacker kid to the fact that hiding his ability had just become 100% harder.

I liked Zeph. He is a completely different character than Kira and he is very far away from the hormone-driven teenager stereotype we encounter so often in YA fiction. He is aware of his powers and slightly afraid of them, because he doesn’t understand what he does or how he does it and he is scared to hurt people. He is also a very responsible young man. Unlike some other mindjackers we encountered in this world, he doesn’t think mind controlling someone to like him is right. When other jackers bask in attention and jack everyone to like them, Zeph skirts the crowds, staying in the shadows and doing just enough to get barely noticed and immediately discounted as insignificant.

His attempts at a normal conversation with Tessa were really rather cute and heartbreaking because he realizes that he can’t have a normal relationship with her without having to lie to her constantly.

I also loved the fact that when Zeph was presented with a very difficult choice, he had the courage to do what’s right, even if it was difficult and dangerous and presented him with potentially dire consequences… And I will not say anything else about the plot of The Locksmith because I don’t want to spoil the story for you!

All I will add is that this is a fast paced story that keeps you on the edge of your sit until the end. It’s only five chapters long, so if you are looking for a quick, but still good and entertaining read this weekend, definitely buy this book. It’s a wonderful new installment in the Mindjacker universe.

Atlanta Burns by Chuck Wendig.

Stars: 5 out of 5.

Lizzy Borden had an axe and Atlanta Burns has a shotgun. I couldn’t help myself, sorry! But I can assure you that Atlanta Burns isn’t at all like this notorious murderer from the 19th century. Oh, and as you can see by the 5 stars on top of this review, I absolutely loved the book.

Fair warning though, this is a difficult book to read. It’s not your typical young adult book about life in high school where the earth-shattering problem is that the guy the protagonist likes chose to go to the prom with someone else. It covers some pretty harsh and gruesome themes like racism, bullying, teenage suicide, drug use and outright cruelty towards both humans and animals. So don’t pick up this book thinking that it would be an easy read. In fact, it should come with several trigger warnings.

But if you are looking for a serious story that challenges you and makes you think about our society and your own behavior; a book that leaves you a slightly better person after you close it, then definitely pick up Atlanta Burns. Chuck Wendig delivered a rare gem: a young adult book that strives not only to entertain the young readers, but also to teach them something. Too few books do that nowadays, unfortunately.

Alright, vague eulogies aside, what gripped me in this book, you might ask? I won’t go into details because I’m not sure I can avoid big spoilers, and I really don’t want to ruin the story for you.

I will say one thing though, Atlanta is not a typical teenage girl, or rather, she used to be a typical teenage girl until something horrible happened that left her rather broken and disillusioned. Some girls would wallow in their own misery and self-pity, but not Atlanta. I loved the fact that she took the matters into her own hands. If her mother was not going to defend her against the monster she had invited into their house, Atlanta would take care of it herself… with a shotgun.

I loved how Atlanta is portrayed. She doesn’t regret what she had to do. He mother’s boyfriend was molesting her and she blew his balls off. But the whole experience left her broken, disillusioned and isolated, because the people she used to be friends with in school don’t seem to notice her anymore, as if she was a blank space or something too dangerous and unpredictable to interact with. And I can understand her anger and resentment towards her mother – she was supposed to protect her from this, but failed miserably, and that loss of innocence and trust hurts more than the horrible act itself.

In some respect, I think Atlanta and Whitey are very similar – both will get back up and fight no matter how many times they are kicked down, and both are fiercely loyal and protective of those who they consider their friends.

From what I described above, it might seem that Atlanta Burns is  a very grim book, but it’s not. Yes, it touches on pretty grim subjects, but the main message of the book is one that I endorse 110% – STAND UP TO BULLIES, don’t just take it, don’t walk past when you see someone being bullied and think that it’s not your problem, because it is everybody’s problem. One person might not make a whole lot of a difference, but a group of people might. And this message is true in every aspect of our lives, be it high school, work environment, or cyber-bullying on the internet.

So in case you are still wondering whether this book is worth buying, my answer is yes, absolutely. Go get it now!

PS. I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.

It Started with a Whisper by A. W. Hartoin.

Stars: 5 out of 5.

Ernest “Puppy” McClarity has only one wish: that Miss Pritchett, his dreaded math teacher, leaves him alone on the last day of school, so he makes a wish to his great-granddad Ernest to take care of her for him. Only wishes are a powerful thing when you are a McClarity, and old Ernest always watches over his own, even if he is long dead.

I absolutely loved It Started with a Whisper. It has magic and paranormal elements in it, but they are presented in such a manner that a lot can be seen as coincidences or weird accidents. This book is not about the all-powerful witches that smite their enemies with deadly spells. It’s about a family that loves each other and their land, and would do anything to protect each other as well.

I loved all the characters in this book. The McClarity clan is big, colorful and full of crazy people. They biker, they fight with each other, but they also have fun and love each other unconditionally. And they are all fully fleshed and tridimensional characters. I felt like I was right there at Camp with them, just another member of the Pack.

And Great-grandpa’s Ernest old homestead, or the Camp as everyone calls it, is described with such love and attention to detail, that I could picture it perfectly in my head as well. That’s actually one of the reasons I loved this book so much – it reminded me of the summers I spent at my grandparents summerhouse when I was a child. It was in a remote village in Russia where everybody knew each other and nobody ever locked their doors. All the kids would play together from dawn till dusk, and nobody worried where we were. That long-forgotten feeling of freedom, of summer heat and lazy afternoons swimming in the pond or exploring the woods behind the village, I managed to recapture it again while I read this book. And for that, Mrs. Hartoin, I thank you.

This story is less about magic, and more about Puppy slowly leaving his childhood behind and realizing that actions have consequences, and that sometimes things are not what they seem, and neither are people. Nothing is black or white, and even the hated teacher who had been so awful to him all year long might do so because she is profoundly unhappy and just lashing out.

It’s a coming of age story and it’s executed perfectly. Puppy is a typical 14 year old boy who has just barely left childhood and suddenly discovered that girls might as well be aliens from Tau Centori, because they are just as puzzling. Like any other boys his age, he is awkward around them, unsure of himself and slightly embarrassed about his mother always dropping him at school at least 30 mins late. All he wants at the beginning of the book is spend a fun summer at Camp with his family and friends, and hope that Beatrice, the llama that seems to hate him for some reason, doesn’t spit on him too often.

But when real disaster strikes and some of his actions have grave consequences, he steps up and does what is right. By then end of the story, Puppy has turned into a good man, a man Grandpa Ernest would be proud of.

I thoroughly enjoyed It Started With a Whisper and my time spent at Camp with the McClarities. On this cold and dreary season it was a much needed breath of summer heat. I would definitely pick up the next book when it comes out in 2015, because I wouldn’t mind coming back for a visit… as long as I’m invited. Because bad things happen to people who step on Ernest’s land uninvited.

PS. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review through LibraryThing.

The Best books I read in 2014.

I have read 48 books last year, according to Goodreads. I’m pretty sure I read more than that, but I didn’t write a review for all of them (and some I started but never finished for various reasons). But that’s still a lot of books! A lot of it is due to the fact that I became member of NetGalley and got access to the advanced copies of so many shiny new books, but mostly I just love reading.

So before I start on my 2015 goal to read and review 50 books, I wanted to mention the best books I had the pleasure to read in 2014. Those are books that touched me, made me turn the pages into the wee hours of the morning thinking, “just one more page, and I’m going to bed,” and whose stories stayed with me long after I reached the end and closed the book.

So here we go. I tried to break it by categories, but I usually suck at it, so meh. Some categories will have several books, some just one, but all of them are a must read.

SCIENCE FICTION.

The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F Hamilton. I loved this book. It reminded me of the Culture series by Iaian M Banks, which I absolutely loved. I will definitely purchase the next book in the series because I want to find out what happened to the characters. Here is my review.

DARK FANTASY.

I have three whole books in this category for 2014.

Of Bone and Thunder by Chris Evans. Have you ever wondered what a Vietnam war like situation would be like in a fantasy world? Wonder no more, because that’s the book Chris Evans wrote. But it’s so much more than Vietnam war with swords and dragons. It’s the story of several fleshed out characters that we come to know and love during the book, and some of whom we still morn in the end. My review is here.

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. There was once a world where Gods walked the streets of mighty cities and interceded on behalf of their people… and a man who invented a weapon that could kill them. Now Bulikov, the city of the Gods, lays in ruins, and those who were once rulers of the world have become second class citizens. But are the gods really as dead as they seem? I loved this startling new world, and I’m hoping for a sequel. And here is my review.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. In a world where Gods interact with their worshipers and some people possess godlike powers, it’s inevitable that the two would eventually clash in a bloody conflict. Several decades after the massacre that killed several gods and their creations, a young Craft woman is called to the city to investigate the death of it’s main god… I loved this book! And I’m absolutely in love with this world. My raving review is here.

URBAN FANTASY

Rivers of London also called Midnight Riot in USA by Ben AaronovitchStep aside, Harry Potter, here comes Peter Grant. This is what is what a real modern day wizard would be like – full of inquisitiveness and the willingness to find out how magic actually works, to try and systematize it and put a scientific base behind the spell casting. Add to it wonderful characters and vivid descriptions of London and you have me hooked. And this series only gets better with each book. Here is my review.

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley. This book defies classification. Yeah, it’s kinda urban fantasy, or maybe a superhero story, but the hero is more broken then super-powerful in this case. But I loved Myfawny and the wonderful (and scary) world she lives in. Where is the next book, Mr. O’Malley? And the review is here.

POST-APOCALYPTIC.

Darwin’s Elevator by Jason M Hough.  Twenty three years ago, the Builders, a race of aliens that nobody has ever seen, shot a giant elevator cable from their spaceship into the soil of Darwin, Australia. Fourteen years later, a plague called SUBS wiped transformed every human being on the planet into an animal driven by only one primal emotion, which was rage in most cases. Only a small zone around the Darwin’s Elevator is SUBs free and everything that’s left of humanity is huddled around it. But what if the Builders are not done with Earth? What if they are coming back? Here is my review.

PARANORMAL ROMANCE.

Yep, I even read that from time to time.

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. I’m not big on romance, but this story had me hooked and wanting for more. Maybe because of the rich and complex world, maybe because Kate is not your typical paranormal romance heroine, or maybe because the romance itself seems to progress so naturally that I BELIEVED in it. But yes, I’m going to read the rest of this series and I’m not even ashamed of it. As usual, the review is here.

Pfew, there! I consider myself very lucky to have read so many good books last year. And there were more books that I liked, but not enough to put them on the “best of” list. Granted, there had also been some books I got so frustrated with I had wanted to throw my e-reader across the room, which would end up being expensive if I did that every time I get upset with a book.

I am hoping to read even more wonderful books in 2015.

Hotter than Helltown by SM Reine

Stars: 3 out of 5

Hotter than Helltown is one of those books I find tough to review. On one hand, I liked it while I read it – there was an interesting plot and it kept moving along fast enough to make you want to turn the pages; the characters didn’t get on my nerves, and I didn’t mind following them. On the other hand, once I reached the end, closed the book and tried to summarize what I’d just read, I was left with a shrug and a “meh, it’s alright, but nothing stellar” assessment.

 

Yes, the story moves along at a fast pace, and it’s fun to follow Cesar along while he tries to investigate the gruesome murders and study for a big magical test that might cost him his life if he fails. 

 

The problem is, the story moves along too fast. It’s a relatively short book and a lot of events seemed crammed into the pages. This leaves no space for character development or world exploration. It’s a non-stop sprint from page 1 to THE END. I mean, sure, it keeps you entertained while you read it, but once you’re finished, it doesn’t leave much of an aftertaste.

 

I liked Cesar’s POV, but he is the only character in this book with any kind of background or development. Everybody else around him are just sidekicks with no dept. Oh, stuff is implied or mentioned in passing about them, but never truly explored. I would have loved to know a bit more about his partner or his boss, or even have a glimpse into Bella’s story. But all this was left by the wayside as the book raced through the plot. Which made it hard to empathize and care about the characters, at least for me.

 

The world building element was also rather none-existent. Now, this might be due to the fact that this is book 3 in the series and most of the world building had been done in the previous installments. But it felt at times like I was running with the protagonist through a movie set – normal looking houses on the outside with just cardboard and wooden poles in the back to prop them upright. I think each book in a series needs to add something to the world, but Hotter than Helltown didn’t seem to do any of that… 

 

So to summarize, it was a fun and quick read, but it was forgotten just as quickly once it was done. If you just want an easy book to spend your Saturday afternoon with, by all means pick it up.

 

PS. This review is for the advanced reader copy I received via NetGalley.

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1) by Ilona Andrews.

Stars: 5 out of 5.

Did I mention that I love the “alsobought” section on the Amazon site? I discovered a lot of books I fell absolutely in love with through that. Magic Bites was one of them. I had just posted a review on one of October Daye’s books by Seanan McGuire, and I was browsing through that section for something similar to read when I saw Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews.

Well, I can say that I’m glad I bought it because I loved this book. It has several of the components that I look for in a paranormal romance series, and all of them are done just right. So you can say that Magic Bites was a feast for sore eyes.

First of all, the worldbuilding. I loved this world where magic and technology come in alternating waves. I also like that the author set her story a long time after those waves first started happening, so it’s not a post-apocalyptic  story at all. Society has adapted to the new world and takes the changes in stride: they have both electricity and magic lights which switch on automatically depending on the wave; every garage or stable in Atlanta has both cars and horses.

The different magical beings and factions are also well-integrated into the society. I mean, when a magical wave can strike at any time and last for days, nobody would be very surprised to see witches, necromancers or shifters in the streets anymore.

So even in the first book of a series, we are introduced into a complex world with several different layers, a past and even a distinctive mythology. And the introduction is done progressively, without the dreaded infodumps that usually make me skip ahead or just close the book and never pick it up again.

So just for that, I would have already been happy with Magic Bites. But the good surprises didn’t end there. Kate Daniels is a strong female protagonist how they all should be – strong, smart, not afraid to make tough decisions and used to relying only on herself. Yes, she can come across and stand-offish and over-confident sometimes, but I think it has more to do with her upbringing and backstory, which is hinted upon, but not entirely explained. Which is also good, because it makes me want to pick up the next book in the series to learn a bit more about her.

Kate is a loner. She had been brought up to think that she cannot trust anyone but herself and that getting attached to other people is a weakness. So she tries to act accordingly. But she was also brought up with an inane sense of justice, so she can’t help but intervene when she sees something as being wrong. Which has a tendency to land her in a world of trouble.

Since it’s a paranormal romance, I can’t write a review without mentioning the romantic interest as well. Those of you who had been following my blog for some time know that the romance has to be very well written and feel “natural” for me to like the book. So that’s another point in this book’s favor – the romantic component is there, there are hints, but I have a feeling that it will develop gradually through the course of several books.

I also liked the fact that the romance does not take the driver sit in the story. Both Kate and Curran feel attracted to each other, yes, but that attraction is in the background. I have read way too many novels where the romantic interest seems to exist only when the protagonist is around and has no life / goals / desires outside of that. I’m glad that Curran isn’t like that. You can feel that he has his own life, his responsibilities and passions that have nothing to do with Kate or the case they end up investigating together. In other words, he is a well-rounded character on his own.

So yes, I loved this book and I love this series. And I will strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an engaging story, wonderfully fleshed-out world and complex characters.

P.S. And I think that Kate’s first encounter with Curran is hilarious. I mean, “Here, kitty, kitty?”

Cold Hillside by Nancy Baker

Stars: 5 out of 5.

With Cold Hillside Nancy Baker managed to step away from the fae stereotype plaguing most of recent fantasy and paranormal books who depict a romanticized version of the fair folk: beautiful, mysterious, and a good romantic interest for the protagonist. Nancy Baker depicts a whole other version of the fae, which is much closer to the original legends and could be summarized by one sentence:

 With them, there are no happy endings.

 Yes, they are beautiful, but so is a coral snake or a poisonous flower, and both will kill you without pity or remorse. They are mysterious and alien and immortal, yes. They also consider us mortals as toys. Fascinating sometimes, but easily broken and discarded. I like this depiction of the fae better, maybe because that’s how they were portrayed in the fairy tales I grew up with.

 But the fae are not the only reason I gave this book five stars. A book would be nothing without engaging characters and an interesting story, and Cold Hillside has both in heaps. Because while the fae are present in the book and have an important influence on the events, this story is about the mortal people.

 I loved the depiction of Lushan, this big city clinging to the cold side of a mountain and whose inhabitants still manage to thrive in these unforgiving conditions. You can see that a lot of work had gone into creating this cold and unforgiving world and the culture of the people who live in it. But it’s masterfully inserted into the story itself, so that it never feels like an info dump. Lushan reminded me a little of Tibet, while Deshiniva where Teresine is from, would be more like India.

 Speaking of Teresine and the other protagonist in this book, her great-grandniece Lilith, it’s rare that we get truly strong women as protagonists, so this book was an absolute treat! Way too often, I have come across “strong” heroines that constantly needed rescued by their male love interests. Or who were totally rude and lacking basic social skills.

 Both Teresine and Lilith are strong and self-sufficient women the way I like them: they don’t rely on others to deal with their problems; they don’t waste time on bemoaning the unfairness of their condition; they accept the consequences of the often dire situations they find themselves in and manage to adapt and survive, and even carve a little bit of happiness and inner peace in the process.

It was refreshing to see them struggle and sometimes fail, but always get back up and keep on fighting. And it was refreshing to see the fae depicted not as good or bad, but just totally different.

 And I won’t say another word about the story of Cold Hillside, because I want to avoid spoilers, and because the unraveling of the story is part of the delightful experience that is this book. But I would say that it’s definitely worth picking up for your holiday reads.

 P.S. This review is for the advanced copy of the book I received from NetGalley.

The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F Hamilton.

Stars: 5 out of 5

The Abyss Beyond Dreams is a rather hard book to describe, because it’s equal part science fiction and fantasy. In a way, it reminded me of Inversions by Iain M Banks – an author I absolutely love.

In Inversions, we have an agent from the Culture, a highly advanced space faring civilization, living as the personal doctor to a king on a medieval planet. The people around her don’t know anything about starships, other planets or even that their world is a round ball orbiting another round ball of burning gas. And the reader experiences the story through the eyes of one of the locals to whom a lot of what the doctor does seems like magic.

We have a bit of a similar situation in this book. There is a large and highly advanced civilization called the Commonwealth that is very reminiscent of Mr. Banks’s Culture. Several Commonwealth colony ships get sucked into the Void, a mysterious area in the center of the universe that nobody has ever returned from. What they discover inside is a world where normal laws of physic don’t always apply and things that seemed impossible become ordinary. Their highly technological ships, robots and nano-enhancements fail. But they discover that they all have acquired telepathic and telekinetic abilities instead.  They crash land on the only inhabitable planet within reach of their rapidly failing starships and call it Bienvenido.

Fast forward about 3000 years and the civilization founded by the colonists has devolved as far down as the high middle ages, with a rigid system of casts ruled by a corrupt nobility and a justice system that favors the rich and powerful. The civilization is stagnating, so buried under the burden of traditions that all notion of progress is killed in the cradle. And into this culture that has forgotten that once upon a time it traveled between stars, lands a man freshly sent by the Commonwealth to find out what happened to the missing ships. And Nigel Sheldon is just the man needed to create a few waves in this stagnating cesspool and maybe start a revolution.

I loved this book. It has this wonderful mix of science fiction and fantasy that is very hard to pull off well, and Peter Hamilton accomplishes it to perfection. We are introduced both to the highly advanced world of Commonwealth, where technological and biological advances have made even death optional. And then we are fully immersed in the rather medieval world of Bienvenido, where technology is reduced to a bare minimum, but everyone can use teekey (telekinetic) powers and talk to each other through ‘path (telepathic) voice.

Then there is the significant detail that Bienvenido is under constant attack from the Fallers – mysterious black eggs that fall from the sky on regular intervals. They sure people to touch them, and absorb them. Once absorbed, the egg hatches and a Faller is born. It’s an exact copy of the person who had been absorbed, but it only has one thought on its mind – destroy the humans of Bienvenido. Nobody knows why those Fallers are so hostile, or how to do more than mitigate the damage they do, because to defeat them, humans have to bring the fight to the sky, and nobody has flown off planet in milenia.

I loved the characters I got to explore the mysterious Void and the planet of Bienvenido with. I loved the highly complex and fleshed-out world the author built. And the story itself is a good mix of adventure, horror, and high politics. It’s especially interesting to see how  a few well-placed “pebbles” can have a ripple effect that brings about a tsunami of civil unrest that washes away the old order and attempts to created something better out of the wreckage. I loved following Slvasta around and seeing him evolve from a naïve young trouper dreaming of glory and axing his first egg to a battle-hardened young man who still managed to preserve his integrity, no matter how much he had to go through.

The Void is a bizarre and fascinating world, and I am really looking forward to exploring it farther in the next books in the series.

So is this book worth buying? Yes, definitely. You are guaranteed to spend several days (this book is over 600 pages long) happily immersed in a very detailed and interesting world.

PS. This review is for and advanced copy I received courtesy of NetGalley.

The Younger Gods by Michael R Underwood.

Stars: 4 out of 5

It’s been a while since I read a good urban fantasy book that didn’t center around fae or werewolves / vampires and didn’t include a romance. In fact, I had come to the sad belief that these were the only books the genre had to offer. So The Younger Gods by Michael R Underwood was like a breath of fresh air.

Jacob Greene came to New York to escape the clutches of his very overbearing and secretive family and start a new life away from the cult. Jacob’s only worries now are to try and fit into this strange new world that is life at St. Mark’s University, keep his grades up to keep his scholarship, and stretch his meager allowance in order not to die of hunger before the end of each month. Then a crucified body is found in one of the New York parks, and Jacob realizes that his family has caught up with him…

I absolutely loved the main protagonist. Jacob is a smart and well educated boy, even though his knowledge mostly lies in the field of summoning monsters and performing human sacrifices.  He is completely lost in the intricacies of the normal college life, and his social skills are so bad that he can’t seem to make friends. The author did an excellent job showing the complete lack of common ground between Jacob and his classmates. They didn’t read the same books, didn’t hear the same stories, and Jacob just doesn’t understand any of the mass culture references we all take for granted. And his over-flowery and slightly archaic speech makes him seem even more alien. Jacob tries so hard to fit in, to put his less than normal childhood behind him, but when he hears about the murder on the news, he immediately recognizes his sister’s signature.

I like the fact that the idea to simply walk away and think “it’s not my problem” doesn’t even cross Jacob’s mind. It’s his family, so it’s his problem. If he has to stop the apocalypse all by himself, he will do it, or die trying. That shows a tremendous strength of character.

And the author also did a very good job showing the diversity of races and cultures in New York city. All of the secondary characters come from different ethnicities and cultural (and magical) backgrounds. Carter is an Indian (dot, not feather) Nephilim, Antoinette is a voodoo practitioner from Haitian descent, and Dorothea is a black ex-NYPD cop who became a Brooklyn Knight. And they are not just clichés put in the book just to act as a background to Jacob’s adventures. They are well fleshed out characters. Oh, and there are also Staten Island werewolves, Rakshasa from Queens and a multitude of other magical beings that call New York home.

The pacing of the book is fast and gripping. There isn’t a single dull moment. It’s even a bit too fast in places, and I caught myself wishing for the action to slow down and give myself and the characters a breather. But at least it’s never boring!

My only complaint is that there are still some errors in the copy I read. For example, Nate is described as a man when we first meet him, but halfway through the chapter, he is suddenly referred to as “she”, then he becomes a “he” again when we next meet him. But I think all those problems are due to the fact that I read the ARC of the book I got from NetGalley, and hopefully didn’t make it into the published version of the book.

So if you like strong characters and an interesting story, you should definitely pick up The Younger Gods. I will be looking forward to the next book in the series.