Monthly Archives: August 2025

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

Grave Empire (The Great Silence 1) by Richard Swan

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Stars: 5 out of 5

I really loved this book! And I think I found a new favorite dark fantasy series to follow. Also, I didn’t realize that this was a continuation series to a previous series called Empire of the Wolf, though from what I saw, Grave Empire happens several centuries into the future, so knowledge of the prequel isn’t a must. In any case, I will definitely go back and read that series as well while I wait for the next book.

What I liked the most was that the world feels lived in. You can feel the weight of centuries and the lore and history that comes with it. I was also surprised to see that this particular world is in the throes of the industrial revolution, instead of the usual medieval setting so common to fantasy worlds. It was fun to see how stage coaches and steam engines would coexist with magic and horrors from beyond the grave.

The protagonists were also fun to follow. I felt sorry for Peter, who felt like a fish out of water most of the time. He didn’t want to be an officer or be sent so far from home. He only accepted the commission because his late father bought it for him, and he really didn’t feel particularly welcome at home anymore. He is faced with unimaginable horrors, on top of all his doubts about being a coward or an incompetent officer, and he ends up… something else. I’m sure he will have a crucial role to play in the next book.

Renata is a lot more independent and opinionated. She also has nerves of steel. Nothing in her training as a diplomat would have prepared her for the horrors she had to face by the end of this journey, yet she persevered where a lesser person would have lain down and waited for the end. And the hidden reservoir of grit in that girl surprised everyone, even herself.

The only character I really didn’t care about is Lamprecht. He is simply despicable. And I don’t understand why Yelena was helping him in his research for so many years. Why didn’t she put a stop to it as soon as she realized that he wanted to bring one of the vacants back to Sova with them? I know that he is set up to be the villain in the next book and a foil to Renata and Peter, but the man really has no redeeming qualities, whereas the other two are pretty multifaceted people. It makes me almost a caricature instead of a character.

I loved the hints at different other races and their origins, and how science and progress can coexist with religion when the existence of the afterlife is a scientifically proven fact. I would have loved to learn a bit more about Nema Victorianism and how it differs from Nema Conformism, and why those differences are considered so big that nations go to war because of them. I understand that it’s a nod to the splintering of the Christian church back in the day, but I would have loved more details.

All in all, though, I am looking forward to the next book. The board is set, the pieces have taken their places; let the best player win.

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

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Romantasy

Dragon Unleashed (Fallen Empire 2) by Grace Draven

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5.

I loved the first book in the series, so I was excited to see how the author would take the story of the fall of a horrible Empire further. Unfortunately, I didn’t like this book as much as the first one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good story, just not as strong as the first one. 

I think it’s partly because I wasn’t as invested in Halani and Malachus as I was in Gilene and Azarion. They are good characters, but they didn’t quite work for me as a couple. I love Halani and her relationship with her mother Azil, but adding Malachus into the mix? Let’s just say that their explosive romance wasn’t as organically developed as the one between Gilene and Azarion.

Probably because Gilene and Azarion had to overcome some pretty messed-up things together – escaping Kraelag, surviving a cursed city, and navigating the politics and hostilities of Azarion’s homecoming. They had to rely on each other and saved each other’s lives on multiple occasions, so their growing respect and affection felt earned.

With Halani and Malachus, we don’t get any of this. This is basically a story of Halani finding a wounded man and nursing him back to health, and he falls in love with her for that. Nothing particularly bad with this setup, but it makes for a rather boring story. For most of the book, there are no stakes. Yes, the Empress wants to mother-bond, but it’s a distant kind of treat, which doesn’t affect the main couple until we are past three-quarters of the book. Most of the book is just them milling about in the free traders’ camp, away from danger. 

So to me, Malachus’s obsession with saving Halani in the end doesn’t feel earned, because their love hadn’t grown organically or been tempered or tested before that moment. I understand the parallel the author wanted to draw between Goldar trying to save her daughter and Malachus saving his lover, but it doesn’t hit the same as the raw despair Azarion felt when he watched Gilene immolating Kraelag. 

But while I was lukewarm about the main couple, I really liked the side characters, especially Azil and the other free traders. Though I don’t understand how Hamond is still the leader of the caravan after all the heartache he caused. And seeing a glimpse of Gilene and Azarion finally reunited and happy was a welcome sight. Oh, and seeing the Spider of the Empire finally getting what she deserves was also a very welcome bonus. 

So all in all, I still had fun with this book, just a lot less than with the first one.

books, Horror, Reviews, Zombies

How We End by L.M. Juniper

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Stars: 3 out of 5.

Reading zombie books is my guilty pleasure, and I realize that there is only so much you can do with the genre before you run out of fresh ideas and start repeating common tropes, even inadvertently. 

How We End surprised me in the beginning with how different it was from other zombie books: people cooperated and helped each other when faced with the horrors of zombie apocalypse, instead of being complete arsholes, as they are usually depicted in other books. In a way, this was a story of found family and overcoming hardships together more than a zombie survival book. Seven strangers are thrown together during the first outbreak in London, and they decide to stick together and try to survive this nightmare. It was refreshing to see this aspect of humanity brought to the forefront, rather than the cruelty, looting, and killing that are usually prevalent in zombie books.

The characters are also pretty interesting, though only two of them, Liv and Jake, get any sort of development or story arc. The rest are more there for support and to add necessary survival skills to the group. Like how convenient that the American couple stranded with them are a cop and a restaurant owner who can cook pretty much anything and knows how to forage? And for some reason knows exactly what kind of edible wild plants and mushrooms are available in the UK, even though he is from Louisiana and was a tourist in London? 

And here we come to the crux of my issue with this book – everything is a bit too convenient. Need a car? Fareena knows how to hotwire them! Need a houseboat to use the canals? Fareena’s aunt used to live in one, so she knows how to navigate them! Need to stock up on food for the winter? Rob can forage! And cook! And pickle! And smoke meat! Need a water filtration system? Another member of the group used to be a cosplayer who loved to tinker with stuff… don’t ask me how that translates into knowing how to make filtration systems. Oh, and Jake was a doomsday prepper with a stocked pantry and a bugout bag ready to go!

There is never a struggle or mad dash for survival, unless it’s needed by the story to fridge a character. And even then, some characters survive against impossible odds when others just get offed seemingly immediately. How was Frances okay after an infected clawed all over her face and scalp? I distinctly remember the author mentioning blood and wounds… yet this is never mentioned again once they get on the boat. Jake has traumatic bruising on his arm… which is conveniently glossed over and never talked about again. More importantly, it never impedes him from doing anything.

And the action comes to a grinding halt in the last quarter of the book, once they all get to Jake’s parents, and what we get is a long group therapy session with absolutely nothing else happening. Then the author remembered that this was actually a zombie book and decided to end it with a bang… so they go on a hospital raid… for no reason. Yes, they would eventually need meds, but going into ground zero for infection half-cocked with people they had never worked with before is the epitome of stupid. Not to mention, the action sequences in the hospital dragged way too long. 

By the time they reached Jake’s parents’ house and everything that happened there, I was rapidly losing interest in the story. The hospital raid didn’t really do anything to help with that. The book went from a solid 4 stars to about 2, so I rounded it up to 3 because the first half of the book had promise.

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

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

The Inheritance (Breach Wars 1) by Ilona Andrews

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Stars: 5 out of 5

I am not ashamed to say that the writing duo behind Ilona Andrews books is my favorite contemporary writers. Seriously, I don’t think there is a book by them that I read (and I read almost all of them) that I didn’t love. This one is no exception.

The Inheritance takes place in the same universe as Innkeeper and the Edge series, though on a parallel Earth that is, it seems, loosely attached to Dina’s world (at least to Baha-Char). And it stars an absolutely badass female protagonist. Ada isn’t a fighter. In fact, as Ellias would say, she is the definition of a non-combatant. Her talent is to come into a breach once the fighting has been done, determine what rare minerals or biologicals are there, and tell the mining crew where to dig (or what to pick up). But boy does she get an upgrade in this particular breach… 

I won’t touch any more on that, because that would spoil the story, but let’s just say she is a different person when she comes out, all the while staying true to what has always driven all her actions – keep her children safe and ensure that they inherit a better world than the one she has to live in. And all through this story, Ada is absolutely human and relatable. I understood her reactions and her motivations, and I admired her determination to push ahead to matter what, even though she had to make some hard choices. The presence of Bear, the ever-awesome German Shepherd turned killing machine also helped.

Ellias is just as interesting a character, though we got less of him in this book, which was understandable. This is Ada’s story. Ellias mostly had to sit on his butt and fume about the delay of getting back into the breach (and destroy a desk or two in his impatience). I can’t wait to see how their relationship evolves in book two. Once they overcome their suspicions, they could be unstoppable. 

It was also so satisfying to see London get a good portion of karma by the end. I reread that passage several times just for the pleasure of seeing him fly 20 feet backwards.

All in all, the House Andrews delivers yet another fantastic book in an original and interesting world… And now we have to wait a couple years before we get the sequel.

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

The Witch Queen of Redwinter (The Redwinter Chronicles 3) by Ed McDonald

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Stars: 2 out of 5

I don’t think I have ever been this disappointed by the conclusion of a series before. This book was a huge letdown both as a standalone and as a book destined to wrap up Raine’s story. It was messy, it was dragging, and it lost all of my goodwill by the time we arrived at the end.

The biggest issue is the fact that the stakes went sky-high in between book 2 and book 3, even though only about six months passed between the events of book 2, when Raine and companions ended up in the Fault, and the beginning of this story. Yet all of a sudden, the world is ending, all other nations have fallen, the Fault is bleeding back into the real world, and ancient monsters stalk the forests and mountains again. 

How did that happen so quickly? We didn’t even know this danger was looming on the horizon. It was never forshadowed in the previous books. As far as I know, the stakes in the previous books were localized to Redwinter and this one particular Crown. There were no hints of a bigger conflict brewing anywhere. When I picked up this book and started reading about all of these catastrophes happening, I really thought I had missed at least one more book in the series that would have built up to this conflict. You simply can’t introduce such huge portions of new lore in the last book and not leave your reader lost and dissatisfied. 

And even despite all these new revelations piling up on top of me from the beginning of the book, this story is boring and feels like an ever-ending road trip of little significance. I understand why the author decided to split Raine into two; otherwise, there would have been no way of showing what was happening in the real world while she stumbled her way through the Fault, feeling sorry for herself. But the unintended consequence is a disconnect between the reader and the two Raines. Who am I supposed to care about? Who is the real Raine and who isn’t? Also, neither of the two is particularly likable.

This split narrative also kills any forward momentum in this book. The moment you get invested in something happening to emo-Raine in the Fault, the chapter ends, and we are thrown back into the real world and dominatrix Raine being awful and not caring about anyone or anything. It’s hard to follow two separate stories when they constantly switch places, but also when you are less and less invested in either one.

The other issue is that I didn’t particularly like what Raine has become in this book. Neither of her two incarnations was likable. The one in the Fault continues to be whiny and woe-me, my destiny is so hard, I love those two people, but I can’t have them. Doom and gloom, and somebody, please, put her out of her misery! 

And the author’s solution to this dilemma? A trisome… Yeah, no. Hard pass.

The Sarathi Raine in our world is everything wrong with death witches in the first place. The way she throws away lives like kindling is simply disgusting. And I can’t forgive what they did to Castus, who was the best character in this quagmire, hands down. He deserved better.

By the time the ending finally arrived, I was done with this book and mentally exhausted. Also, any connection or ties I had to these characters were long gone. Yes, I was glad that Ovitus finally got what he deserved, but the rest of them? Couldn’t care less. I also didn’t need this chapter-long excursion into the past to show us how the Queen of Feathers interacted with all other Dark Queens to set up the tools of the last battle. Those were just names and voices in Raine’s head in the previous books. I had no connection to them. Why did I have to waste time on this?

I am sad. I loved the first book in this series. It was well-written and hinted at an interesting world to explore. Then book two focused on teenage feelings instead of developing the lore and foreshadowing the events to come. Now, book three tried to stuff too much information into one book and failed horribly.

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

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

The Blighted Stars (The Devoured Worlds 1) by Megan E O’Keefe

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Stars: 3 out of 5

I loved the worldbuilding in this novel, although it presents another rather bleak view of humanity’s spacefaring future. REminds me a little bit of Murderbot, actually. Only, instead of everything being owned by corporations, we have the MERIT families who have all the riches and privilege, and power. The rest of humanity is either working for those families on more or less favorable terms or living in poverty.  And the fact that the shroud is destroying the few habitable planets and forcing humanity into space stations only increases the inequality and the dependence on the MERIT families. 

So it was interesting to watch this story unfold from both the perspective of Naira, who grew up on one of those destroyed worlds and then had to claw her way up from the dregs of society on a space station, and Tarquin, who has always been the spoiled son of Mercator – one of the most prominent MERIT families. Add to that he fact that Naira hates Mercator, and for good reason, and is also considered a terrorist, the author could have made a very interesting story out of the clash of their worldviews. 

Unfortunately, the author opted to follow the path of having them romantically involved instead, and that basically killed the book for me. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a good romance between my protagonists if it’s well done and organically woven into the story. And I would point to pretty much any series by Ilona Andrews as an excellent example of that genre. 

There is nothing organic about the way Naira and Tarquin’s romance develops. In fact, it’s so unnaturally done that it’s painful to read about. It feels shoe-horned into the story because the author felt like romance was needed. It wasn’t, though. They could have gone from enemies forced to collaborate to escape a dying planet to slowly becoming grudging allies or even friends. But romantic feelings between those two? Nope, can’t see that. Naira had more chemistry with her Conservator accomplice. So much more, in fact, that the author promptly killed him off. 

My other issue is that once the whole plot finally comes to light, it sounds rather far-fetched. I will try not to give too many spoilers, but humanity in thrall to a fungus? 

The pacing of the book is also rather uneven – we get good action scenes that propel the plot forward, but then we get bogged down in the minutiae of squables between survivors, everyone discovering their budding feelings for each other, etc. Not to mention pages spent in Naira and Tarquin’s heads while they analyze their own feelings, feel inadequate, or reflect on what was and could have been. I found my interest flagging until I would put the book down and read something else, and had to force myself to come back and read a few more pages.

It was a good concept, but the execution didn’t work for me, so I will not be continuing with this series. 

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

books, Dystopian, Horror, Reviews

The Monsters in our Shadows by Edward J Cembal

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Stars: 4.5 out of 5

Oof, this was a depressing book to read, and up until the very last chapter, I really didn’t know if the author would give us even a sliver of hope at a decent ending.

The world is bleak – most of the world (at least the continental USA, from what I see) has been eaten by Shivers. Those are monsters that appear out of a person’s fears, depression, despair, and grow closer and closer, until they literally eat the person who created them. They are like our darkest emotions made manifest, and the more we experience those emotions, the closer they get, and the closer they get, the more negative emotions we experience. It’s a vicious circle that ends in death and blood.

As it stands, only the village of Atlas is left, the last refuge where what’s left of humanity hides behind high walls from the horrors roaming the Deadlands. It’s a bleak and run-down village in the middle of a downtown of some unnamed pre-Shiver city where humans try to survive under a constant cloudy sky where the sun hasn’t shone in years and no rain ever fell. Only thunder, no lightning, no rain.

I would say the saving grace of this book is Anthem, our protagonist, because even though his world is bleak, and the work he does is even bleaker, he harbors a wealth of compassion and a sliver of hope that refuses to die even in the most dire circumstances. We experience the horrors of this world through his eyes, and he has the knack of seeing beauty and peace even in the darkest times. And a child-like wonder for new things, like the man playing piano in the middle of a dead city, or the peaceful surface of a lake undisturbed by human activity. Yes, Anthem can be whiny and depressed, and downright annoying throughout the book, but his refusal to give up, to lie down and let his Shiver eat him is what makes us root for him.  

My only complaint about Anthem is that he can be rather obtuse sometimes. Or maybe naive? Like his insistence to see the best in people, no matter what. Him trying to reason with Doubleday even when it was obvious to everyone else that the man wouldn’t listen. On the other hand, this willingness to negotiate and try to get his point across is what helped him get what he wanted at the Spit, and help the afflicted of Atlas in the end, so I can’t fault him for that.

I would also say that the story has plenty of twists and turns, and I honestly couldn’t say where we were heading most of the time. Like I said, I wasn’t even sure we would get a good ending, since the events leading to it were depressing. 

All in all, it’s a wonderful reflection about mental illness and depression, and how sometimes we let our negative emotions eat us from the inside. Here, those emotions are made manifest, just waiting to consume us.

I loved the main message of this book as well – that no matter what, no matter how dark the times and how bleak your world is, hope might be just one step away. You just have to be courageous enough to take that step, and then another, and then another one.

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