books, Fantasy, Grim Dark, Reviews

She Dreams In Blood (The Obsidian Path 2) by Michael R Fletcher

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Stars: 2 out of 5

I really liked the first book in the series. It was dark and brutal, but also had a very interesting concept. I wanted to find out what shattered Khraen’s heart and why his empire crumbled. I also wanted to learn more about this world and the danger that the Demon Emperor was guarding it from.

Well… I kind of got the answer to both of those questions, but honestly, it was very underwhelming.

More importantly, where the first book was full of adventures and palpable tension, this book drags. Yes, the opening is fast-paced and interesting, with the sinking of the ship Khraen and Henka are on, but after that the book is boring until about 90%.

The main reason for that is that Khraen stops being the driving force behind the story and becomes a passenger to Henka’s plans. Henka frees him from the necromancers. Henka hands him the next shard of his heart almost on a platter. Henka persuades him to sail to their next destination. Henka makes all the plans and preparations.

And Khraen? He spends this whole book moaning about how he doesn’t want to be as horrible as the Demon Emperor, while doing terrible things and killing countless people, both himself and by letting Henka butcher them without saying anything. And he tries to justify it by saying it’s necessary… while hating himself for it and feeling sorry for himself and saying that oh no, he is still not like his past self, and blah, blah, blah. So on and so forth, and we are running in circles for 350 odd pages.

I lost all respect for this character. He is honestly pathetic. By the end of the book I wanted to slap him and yell: “We get it that you want to be a better person! Well, either start acting like one, or stop with the moaning and start with the killing. Sh*t or get off the pot already!”

I also don’t understand his blind fate in Henka. He doesn’t remember her. He only has her word that she is his wife. Yet he believes that she loves him and will never harm him. Why?

And yes, he unleashes a can of whoopass at the 90% mark in the book, but even that show of force is useless in the end. He murders hundreds of people. Destroys an entire city… and ends up losing everything anyway – his friend, his wife, even his freedom. What was the point of all this?

I am disappointed in this series, and I don’t think that I will be continuing with the next book. I don’t care enough about Khraen at this point to try and find out where his pathetic self ends up.

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries 8) by Martha Wells

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Stars: 4 out of 5

Murderbot is back! And his risk assessment module is repaired and functioning better than in the last book. He even added an emotional check subroutine on it, and let me tell you, the results of that check are often hilarious.

Here we have Murderbot at his best – when he is in charge and trying to extricate humans out of tricky situations while pretending that he doesn’t really care about them. But we all know that he is a big mush under that gruff exterior, and that he absolutely cares about his humans.

Murderbot has a plan (well, the bare bones of one at least), but that plan goes out of the window as soon as he enters the taurus anyway. Shenanigans happen, with lots of snark from our favorite SecUnit, and I loved every minute of it.

We get to meet DR Mensah’s extended family, including one of her spouses and her daughter. Sofi is an amazing character, but I loved Granma the most. Also, it’s hilarious how awkward Bot is with children, but how good he is with them as well. No matter how much he gripes about it, it’s like he senses when little humans need him to be there for them, even if it’s just a strong hand to hold on to when the world around is scary.

Oh, and Three freeing other SecUnits with Murderbot 2.0 code, and the rogue SecUnit panic that spreads through the taurus is rather funny to read about. Especially Bot’s reaction when one of those units tried to interfere with the rescue of his humans.

My only complaint about this book is that once again, we get very little of ART and Bot interactions. I miss ART. I want them exploring the galaxy together, watching soap operas and being hilariously snarky about the humans they have to deal with.

PS: My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced review copy.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Dark Heir (Jane Yellowrock 9) by Faith Hunter

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Stars: 2.5 out of 5

I think I am officially done with this series. This last book felt like a chore to finish, which is never good in a genre that is supposed to be my comfort food.

Don’t get me wrong, I still like Jane and her Beast, and the two Younger brothers are pretty good people to read about. I’m glad that Jane finally admitted to herself and others that they are found family, and even decided to make it official. It’s everything else in the books that is failing to keep my interest.

I do not care about vampire politics and who is feeding/f*&king/in a relationship with whom, or who hates whose guts at the moment. Neither of those stances is self-excluding, either. And I don’t like Leo. He is just not an interesting character to me, so all this sometimes antagonistic, sometimes almost sexual tension between him and Jane gives me major eek.

Speaking of eek, Jane repeatedly states that Eli and Alex are like brothers to her, but then there are moments when she openly flirts with Eli. No. Just… no.

Most of the relationships in this book are very screwed up, especially when it comes to Jane and other women. Case in point – Molly. Jane states that she is her best friend in the world, yet I don’t see that in this book. After the first summoning disaster, when Molly almost turns to the dark side, Jane has to knock her out. You would think that two best friends would talk about that, wouldn’t you? Nope. No “hey, you tried to kill us, how do you feel right now?” or “Hey, I’m sorry I almost turned into a blood witch and murdered you all.” Just silence and keep on keeping on. Then, during the second summoning, Jane treats her like the enemy and even tells Eli to shoot her if needed. Then we are back to being all friends at the end of the book.

Also, I felt like this book dragged. Jane kept spinning her wheels for 80% of the book, then all of a sudden she comes to conclusions seemingly out of the blue and the book steamrolls into the final battle. At some points in the story, I had to go back to re-read passages because I really felt like I missed some crucial clue, because I didn’t understand how Jane came to the conclusions she came to.

So in summary, this was a fun series for a while, but it got repetitive, and there isn’t enough story here for me to keep going.

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

City of Last Chances (The Tyrant Philosophers 1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Stars: 4 out of 5

This is the first fantasy book that I have read by this prolific author. I liked one of his sci-fi series (The Final Architecture) and bounced off another one (Children of Time). So I was open to giving another one of his books a go.

All in all, I really liked it. The author has a knack for creating interesting worlds that you want to explore and learn more about. In our case, the city of Ilmar is interesting to discover, but not a place I will ever want to visit. It’s old and crumbling in some places, with layers of history and tragedy built upon each other. 

It’s a weird place where grand mansions coexist with factories straight out of the industrial revolution (only powered by demons instead of coal). Where a mysterious Wood can be a small corpse of trees one moment, and a passage to other worlds when the moon hits it just right. Where a curse can jump from the person being executed to the executioner. Where the old nobility, massacred a hundred years ago, still snares anyone who enters their domain to re-enact their jousts and dances until they die of starvation.

You could almost (but only almost) pity the Pals who are trying to impose their order and Correct Thought doctrine on this city that rejects any kind of order or classification. It’s a broken place where magic leaks from the cracks, and hope is a small ray of sunshine almost swallowed by the clouds of despair. Even the escape through the Wood isn’t easy and is a guaranteed death sentence without proper protection.

While I was fascinated by Ilmar, I was less enthused with the characters that we got to follow throughout the book. There are several POVs, so the story meanders seemingly aimlessly for a good chunk of the book. I would even argue that some of the POVs were rather superfluous and could have been cut out without much damage to the story, which would have made the book slightly shorter and easier to read.

Don’t look for heroes in this book. There are none, even if some of the characters consider themselves as such, at least in the beginning, before the harsh reality of Ilmar slaps them in the face. These are deeply flawed people who are doing sometimes horrible things, and sometimes good things, but purely for selfish reasons. Everyone likes to talk big about liberating Ilmar and chasing the Pals out, but it’s always about who will profit from that revolution. 

So if you like your protagonists clearly on the side of good and your villains truly evil, then this is probably not a book for you. These characters are flawed people. Sometimes pitiful, sometimes horrible, but always very human. 

My only complaint is that this world feels rather hopeless. Horrible things happen, then even more horrible things follow. There is no happy ending, just an ending to this particular nastiness. Some antagonists get what they deserve, but most don’t. Also, Ilmar is back to the status quo with nothing gained on either side.

All in all, I don’t mind revisiting this world again, so I will definitely pick up the next book in the series.

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

books, Reviews, Space opera

Cello’s Gate (The Sky Pirates of Imperia 1) by Maurice Africh

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DNF at 15%

I am baffled. I don’t understand where all the 5-star reviews are coming from. I am also mad at myself for trusting those reviews and going for this book based on them. I feel like I got bamboozled.

Yes, it’s a debut and also the first book in a series, which means it has to do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to introducing the world, the plot, and the characters. So I am willing to give it a bit of grace, but my patience only stretches so far.

First of all, the pacing. I was 15% in when I threw the towel, and the plot hadn’t even started yet. We had a long prologue that kinda sorta introduced the main protagonist, along with a huge infodump about the world he lives in. Then we get this long and drawn-out heist where the author tries his best to introduce all the characters on Gray’s crew, along with their backstories. Do we really need the whole backstory of the Crest Knights right in the middle of what is supposed to be a high-stakes heist? Why do I need 3 pages of her backstory while they are crawling along a ventilation shaft in this super-high security facility? Any tension and anticipation I had for this just died on the vine.

And this tendency to overexplain, infodump, then summarize it again for good measure a few pages later, continues throughout the portion of the book I read. Why? The readers aren’t stupid. We do not need everything spelled out and summarized for us. 

My other issue is the characters. Yes, they are likable. They are also so overpowered from the very start that there is no tension to the confrontations, and the seemingly high stakes fall flat. I mean, you have what is supposed to be an edge-of-your-seat scene in the beginning with two of the protagonists pinned down in a small room by twenty highly skilled soldiers with only one way out… But this is barely an inconvenience when Gray’s companions seems to be a one-woman army who dispatches those “highly skilled” soldiers in less than 5 minutes without either of them taking any damage. 

Also, those “highly skilled” soldiers have never been taught how to clear a room properly? No, I mean, they forgot to check behind the door when they stormed into the room (which has one entry point). Then they conveniently turn their back to the door (all three of them) and let the Crest Knight kill them like the idiots that they seem to be. 

So the fact that the characters are so overpowered that you don’t feel worried about their survival, added to the fact that their enemies are morons, just makes me not give a s&*t about this story from the get-go. 

There are also some plot and description inconsistencies that could easily have been avoided if a good content editor had given the draft a pass, like that scene in the vault. The author says that one of the protagonists closes the door once the three soldiers rush in… Yet in the next paragraph, both protagonists are exchanging fire with the remaining soldiers through the open door… It’s one or the other. It can’t be both at the same time.

I was fully willing to give this debut a chance, but I value my time too much to have to drudge through 500+ pages of this.

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

books, Fantasy, Grim Dark, Reviews

The Silverblood Promise (The Last Legacy 1) by James Logan

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Stars: 4.5 out of 5

I think I discovered a new favorite fantasy series, y’all! I went into the book blind. I did read the blurb, but I didn’t look at any reviews on Goodreads or anywhere else. I was also in the middle of a reading slump (I still have about 9 books that I started, but that didn’t grab me enough to keep on reading). Well, this book delivered the excitement and immersive story that I needed!

I think the biggest draw in this book is the world. The city of Saphrona is almost a character in itself. It is so well described that I can see the shattered top of the Black Hand, feel the relentless heat on my skin, and smell the odors of rotting fish, sewage, and seaweed of its harbors. 

The mystery of what happened to the Phaeron, or even who they were, is also very intriguing. There are ruins of their civilization everywhere. Phaeron artefacts are prized higher than gold. Heck, there is even a magically created desert that hints at an ancient battle, but of the Phaeron themselves, we know nothing. And I think they are important to the story, since Lukan’s father was an expert on their civilisation, and he got assassinated. Not to mention that he left hints for his son along with a Phaeron relic.

But a book wouldn’t have grabbed me this quickly with a good story alone. I also need fleshed-out characters I can root for or hate. Here, we have both. Lukan is a lovable protagonist. He comes across as a loser and a bit of a drunk in the beginning of the book, but the more you get to know him, the more you discover that he has a moral core and a surprising well of courage (and foolishness) deep inside him. His interactions with Flea were some of my favorite episodes in this book. They really are like siblings, even if they aren’t related by blood. 

As far as villains go, I thought the main one was a bit of a caricature, even though I understood his motivations. No, of all the bad guys, it’s the Twice-Crowned King of the Kindred that terrified me the most. Here, we really have two beings who have no morals or scruples and who revel in inflicting pain on others. 

The only character that grated on my nerves was the Scrivener. She came across as a Karen, honestly. I kept expecting her to ask to speak to the manager. Glad we won’t be doing any more business with her in the next book. 

All in all, this is a fast-paced and engaging story with lovable characters set in a vivid and interesting world. I will definitely read the next book in the series. 

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

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

The Tangled Stars by Edward Willett

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Stars: 5 out of 5

That was a delightfully entertaining story! I haven’t read anything else by this author before, but seeing how much I liked this book, I’m inclined to check his other works as well.

This is part heist, part mad adventure in space, part exploration story. It’s fast-paced and full of twists and turns, and it keeps you engaged throughout. 

I think the biggest draw, at least for me, was the characters. I love good character-driven stories, so this was right up my alley. You can’t help but like Coop. Yes, he is a crook and a conman, but he had this earnestness about him that just makes him so endearing. Laysa is also a great character with her own motives for joining this mad capper. And she and Coop play really well off each other. I could truly believe that they used to be partners in crime and lovers before. There is this easy understanding they have when push comes to shove, and the situation goes sideways.

As far as villains go, Galioto is on the heinous side of the spectrum. A little overboard at times. Though his motivation for pursuing Coop to the edge of the solar system and beyond is well laid out and makes sense. He is a megalomaniac who wants more money and control when this adventure starts, and is forced to see it through because his empire is in shambles and he has no other choice but succeed in the end. You could argue that his undoing is entirely of his own making, though. If he hadn’t gambled everything to pursue Coop and his mad bid to steal the only MASTT-equipped ship in the system, he wouldn’t have been betrayed and sidelined from his own criminal empire. So he is getting exactly what he deserves in the end. 

But the best character in this story by far is Thibauld, the AI-uplifted cat. Where can I get one of those? He cracked me up with his Star Wars and Star Trek references that nobody else in this century understood. His relationship with Coop is hilarious at times. The whole idea of AIs going rogue and what that would spell for humanity is also very well done. 

And I loved how all of their plans would inevitably go awry, almost from the get-go, and they would have to scramble and pivot. Fast thinking and smooth talking (and a little bit of coercion at times) got them out of the frying pan and into the fire on more than one occasion.

The ending hints at the possibility of a sequel, but it doesn’t look like it’s been written yet. I really hope that the author comes back to this world in the future.

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

books, epic fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

The Sword Defiant (Land of the Firstborn 1) by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan

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Stars: 2.5 out of 5

I loved the Gutter Prayer by the same author, so I was really excited about his new series… but ended up being disappointed. 

The worldbuilding is pretty run-of-the-mill fantasy here – a group of heroes who fit the traditional mold of paladin, warrior, barbarian, bard, thief, changeling, etc. save the world from an evil overlord. We have elves, and dwarves, and Wilders, and obviously humans. This is nowhere near as original as Gutter Prayer. But even that isn’t a deal breaker. I read plenty of classic fantasy that I loved.

I was also sold on the idea of telling the story of what happens after the heroes saved the world, and the world moved on, while they grew old and disillusioned. This could have been great! Unfortunately, this turned out to be boring.

The biggest issue with this book is the pacing. Alf spends so much time thinking about the past and how everything changed that he literally doesn’t do anything meaningful for 70% of the book. He wanders, he wonders, he regrets that Pier is dead. He wants his old band back together, even though it’s been 20 years, and they all became different people than when they defeated Lord Bone. He constantly overlooks the shady stuff his former companions do because they are the Nine, and they can do no wrong in his eyes…

He seems to constantly be reacting to the events instead of acting. This makes for a very boring character. And a very boring narrative, because nothing of note happens until about 60% into the story. Then the pace suddenly picks up, and the reader is bombarded with revelation after revelation, some of which had absolutely no foreshadowing. Why did we spend more than half the book twiddling our thumbs instead of setting up the big confrontation better?

I also didn’t particularly care about Olva and her quest to find her son. We barely meet Dewyn before he is kidnapped, so he is more of a plot device than a real person. And since he isn’t a real person to me, I couldn’t relate to Olva at all. And he doesn’t even become a real person by the end of the book, just a vessel for the return of a different being. 

I was bored for most of the book. I skimmed through chapters of the Council deliberating on useless stuff and Olva exploring the Isle of Dawn. All I felt was a mild irritation about Alf just wafling about and wanting him to act. Do something, anything! Yes, things picked up by the end of the book, but by then I was already checked out of the story.

As much as I loved the Gutter Prayer, I’m afraid this series was a complete miss for me.

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

books, Horror, Reviews, science fiction

An End to Potential by Emily Swiers

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Stars: 4 out of 5

This was a surprisingly good read, even though it turned out to be a completely different story from what I had expected when I started reading this book.

Yes, this is a quest and a mystery to unravel, but more than that, this story is about coping with trauma and piecing together tattered bits of yourself in the hopes of becoming a better (and healthier) person.

I admit that I didn’t particularly like Kana at first. She seemed like the typical spoiled rich brat who always gets her way without even once stopping to consider the lives she wrecks in the process. And admittedly, she is all that, but there is also so much more that meets the eye. Frankly, with all the abuse and trauma she’s been through in her short life, I’m surprised she isn’t a raving lunatic most of the time.

The further I read into this book, the more I came to sympathize with her. Yes, she is capricious and always wants to have her way. Yes, she can be cruel and has a total disregard for the safety and well-being of others. But would you blame her? She learned from a young age that a nanny could kidnap you or sell you to kidnappers. The bodyguard assigned to you might be the one handing you over to people with a grudge against your mother. The doctors who treated your injuries would turn around and sell your medical records to the press to turn a quick profit. No wonder she is paranoid and doesn’t trust anyone. Or have any friends or romantic interests.

The story itself is a bit convoluted with a lot of flashbacks that, though useful to paint the picture of Kana’s life, sometimes bog the narrative down. It felt like it dragged at times. Also, some of those flashbacks raise more questions than they provide answers. Like the postcard referenced at the very beginning of the story. What was that about? And the incident that left Kana disfigured. It’s mentioned in the beginning, but never expanded upon. Why talk about it if it doesn’t have any impact on the story?

My other issue is with Bexley. Who is she? Kana treats her like a close friend during that one phone call at the beginning of the book, yet Bexley isn’t present in any of her other recollections of her childhood or teenage years. She isn’t mentioned at all for most of the book, apart from one other time. What are her ties to Kana and the Amobrose family? Why is she in California and not wanting to come back? The lack of any mention of her in Kana’s past makes her seem like a figment of Kana’s imagination rather than a real person.

The other question that is left unanswered is why Rabid Sinthies were attracted to Kana. What makes her so special? There are hints to it, but nothing is fully explained. 

All in all, I really liked this book, and I am looking forward to reading more books by this author. And if there is a sequel, I will definitely pick it up.

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

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Stars and Bones (The Continuance 1) by Garreth Powell

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Stars: 2.5 out of 5

My mind is divided about this book. On one hand, I liked the idea behind it, the symbiosis between humanity and the intelligent ships they live on. On the other hand, it was all a bit too… simplistic, I’d say?

In this story, humanity didn’t earn anything they have. All they did was try to self-destruct in a final conflagration of atomic fire. One person made a breakthrough in space travel and got the attention of a cosmic being so advanced it might as well be a deity. Heck, they even call it the Angel of Benevolence in the book. Nothing of what happens after that was earned. The arks the humans live on? Created by the Angel. The artificial intelligences that pilot and run them? Also created by the Angel. All food and shelter is provided to everyone involved. Oh, and humanity is pretty much condemned to roam the cosmos in these arks for all eternity without ever setting on another planet. 

Doesn’t the author realize that this would literally be the end of our species? Slow death by apathy. If there is nothing to aspire to, nothing to invent or better ourselves for, then there is really nothing to live for. It reminds me of that experiment researchers did with a mouse colony back in the last century – they provided them with ideal conditions where food and shelter was abundant… and the colony died out. They just stopped reproducing or even interacting with each other. They ate, they slept, and they slowly gave up on life.

I would understand if there was something to strive for – get a good education, and you will be taught how to pilot a ship. Continue scientific research into space travel, study alien ruins or something else. But when everything is provided, and all the decisions are made for you… I’m not sure this is a future I want to live in.

My other issue is the characters. They are barely developed enough to be more than cardboard cutouts. Heck, the different ship envoys have more personality than the human characters. Which, seeing what I talked about in the previous paragraphs, kind of makes sense. Eryn was the only more or less fleshed-out character in this book. The rest were labels. Lee is the love interest. Then there is the annoying teenager whom she has to care for because she is her sister’s child. Then there is Frank, the genius who discovered warp travel… and who is pretty much useless for the rest of the book. I barely remember any of the other character names because they were introduced only to advance the plot and then die off-screen, like the wannabe reporter Tessa.

The story would have been more interesting if the characters had more agency. As it is, Eryn is sent on a wild goose chase to find a McGuffin (who is Frank in this case), even though the McGuffin is useless to this particular problem. Then the deus ex machina that is the Angel puts something into her brain and sends her on another quest to deliver this payload to the enemy. And that wins the day. End of story. Never mind the fact that over three-quarters of the arks had been corrupted by the time it’s done, which means the Continuance is a ghost town with critically low population. None of that is addressed at the end of the book.

In summary, I went into this book looking for a space adventure that would keep me entertained and characters I could root for. I was rather disappointed instead.

My dreams and stories. The life of a writer.