Tag Archives: ARCs

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

A Touch of Light (Ashes of Avarin 1) by Thiago Abdalla

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

I grant it to the author, he is trying to tell an ambitious story here, so that necessitates a lot of set up and worldbuilding. Unfortunately, that also means that most of these 700 some pages are exactly that – setup.

The story is very slow going and broken into three distinct POVs that don’t even converge until the very end of this book. And even then, only two of them somewhat converge, I don’t think Nasha ever made it to where Lunn and Adrian were. So we slowly get three different stories developing simultaneously, and up until the end, there was no indication at to how they were connected. Heck, even having finished the book, I’m not sure I understand fully what’s going on.

I wouldn’t have minded this too much if the characters were engaging, but as it stands, I couldn’t connect with none of them. Yes, the author did a good job explaining their motivations, but there was some spark missing with the characters. They felt more like a set of characteristics than real people. So in the end I didn’t particularly care for any of them, which made this story very difficult to commit to.

That lack of fleshed out characters compounded with a slow moving stories that were only loosely tied together made it for a very long read. I thought about DNFing it several times, but but then I had already committed so much time that I wanted to at least see what it was all about.

And that brings me to the final problem I have with this book. There is no conclusion to this story. Nothing is resolved, nothing is explained. These 700 pages are just introduction to the world and setup for the series, I guess. Where did the madness come from? We have no answer. Why some people loose their minds and other seem to still function normally when infected? No clue. What does that have to do with the clan lands and the sickness that kills the land? Your guess is as good as mine. 

All this book did was set up the pieces on the board for the bigger story. I know that first books in a series have the thankless job of introducing the reader to a brand new world and characters as well as planting the seeds for the arching story for the whole series, but there also needs to be a completed storyline for that book. Readers need an emotional payoff after sticking around for so many pages. This book didn’t give me that. 

And since I didn’t get an emotional payoff for reading this book, and I frankly don’t care about any of the characters, I will not be continuing with this series.

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

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Never Too Old to Save the World: A Midlife Calling Anthology

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Stars: 3 out of 5.

The problem with anthologies is that the stories in them are usually very uneven. You can find some hidden gems, but you will also find stories that are uninspiring to say the least.

In this particular case, the idea behind the anthology was great. The tired trope of the Chosen One has been done into oblivion over the years, but most of the Chosen Ones are children or young adults. It’s like your membership to this club automatically expires once you turn twenty, or something. It’s refreshing to see stories about Chosen Ones who are middle-aged, and have a wealth of experience behind them. Who have lived their lives, had their teenage rebellions, have settled into their lives, and pretty much know who they are and what they want. 

In theory, this premise, this should make for wonderful stories, where the Chosen One doesn’t need prophets or kings to tell them what to do or how to act, and have a strong moral compass on their own. The execution, however, is rather disappointing.

I think the only story I really liked was A Legacy of Ghosts. It felt like a fully fleshed out story with a sympathetic protagonist and some stakes you could feel. The Jackalope Wives was okay as well, but I felt that I liked it more due to the author’s writing style than due to the story itself. Another one I truly enjoyed was Once A Queen. It had that Wayward Children by Seanan McGuire series vibe, and I enjoyed at least the first 2-3 books in that series.

The rest of the stories ranged from meh to frankly mediocre. I went back to re-read the titles of the stories before I sat down to write this review, and I was sad to discover that I couldn’t even remember what some of the stories were about. Yes, they were that unmemorable.

I would say that this is an anthology that you can pick up from your library just to read a few select stories, and don’t feel guilty returning it having skipped the rest.

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

books, Reviews, science fiction

Travel by Bullet (The Dispatcher 3) by John Scalzi

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Stars: 4 out of 5.

I liked this novella – it’s perfect for a lazy afternoon when you don’t particularly want to commit to a longer book. It’s fast-paced and engaging, and still manages to deliver a decent portion of worldbuilding.

And what a fascinating world it is. Imagine a world where murder doesn’t exist anymore. And by that I mean that a murder victim will reappear in a place they consider safe and will be unharmed, though will retain the memory of the murder. Oh, that doesn’t eliminate death in its entirety. Accidents still happen, and illness, but murder? in 99.99% of the cases, the victim will be alive again. 

It’s interesting to see the changes that this brings to society. And to see the good and bad that this brings in humanity. 

On one hand we have government sanctioned dispatchers whose sole job is to murder people who would otherwise die a permanent death so that they have a second chance. For example, someone is in a bad car accident and is moments from dying. The doctors can’t save them fast enough. If the dispatcher murders that person, they have a 99.99% chance to reappear at their home safe and healthy, like the accident never happened. Sure, there is that little 0.01% chance that they will fail to reappear, but that’s better than certain death, don’t you think?

On the other hand, we have people who use their power and influence to make others compete to the death to gain their favors, be it a lucrative construction contract, a job position or a refence that the other person needs. It is immoral and frankly horrifying. So what if the murder victim will technically survive? Both the muderer and the victim will still keep the memories and the trauma of the event.

This is my second foray into this series, since I read the first book, and I must admit that I’m loving it. The concept is original and I enjoy watching where the author will take it. I will definitely also check out the second book that I somehow missed.

My only complaint about this particular book is that the main characters is a bit bland. We really don’t get to see what makes him tick. I still don’t know what his motivation is in doing what he is doing.  But since I love the concept so much, I am willing to forgive a blah protagonist.

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

books, Horror, Reviews, science fiction

Paradise-1 (Red Space) by David Wellington

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Stars: 2.5 out of 5.

I was fully onboard with this book for the first 50% or so of the story. Granted, one of the main characters was too stupid to exist, and some of her choices were that of a braindead child. But the story moved along at a good pace, things were happening, there was a big mystery about, so was happy to overlook an annoying character or two. But then the book kept going… and going… and going with no end in sight. Episodes started repeating themselves without bringing anything new to the story, and I was quickly losing interest. 

As I had mentioned, the characterizations in this book are… rather lacking. And forget about character growth. I think the only character that has any is Rapscallion, and he is a sentient robot. Which tells you everything you need to know about the other characters. So if you are looking for a character driven story, move along. This ain’t for you.

But the mystery of what the heck is happening around Paradise-1 and why all ships sent there stop responding was compelling enough to have me turning the pages for about half of the book. And I admit that the idea of an alien contract that can invade our minds by planting a destructive idea is rather horrifying, because our bodies have no defense against a virus that isn’t biological in nature. I also really wanted to discover what was on Paradise-1 that needed to be guarded so fiercely, and why was it worth so many human lives and so many ships to try and get it.

Unfortunately, this book is at least 300 pages too long, so the story started repeating itself. We get to yet another ship that’s infected with different version of the Basilisk. We encounter yet another crazy AI and see the horrors that happened to the human crew. We don’t learn anything that we didn’t know by reading the first half of the book. The characters flee the ship, or are saved, or take the ship over… then the action switches to yet another encounter with another infected ship. Honestly, I think the story should have ended after their attempt to run the blockade to land on the planet. The 200 pages after that were just filler, with a few exception, like actually encountering the Basilisk, and even that could have been incorporated into the story differently. 

Oh, did I mention that the book ends on a cliffhanger? No? Well, it does. 700 + pages end with no emotional payoff whatsoever. We still don’t know what happened on Paradise-1 and why it was so important to get there. The story ends mid-action.

I guess the reader would have to pick up the next book in the series to find out what happened to the colony on Paradise-1, but guess what?  I won’t be along for the ride. I am not willing to sit through another overlong book and follow annoying characters just to find out that the story isn’t finished and there is another cliffhanger. No thanks, I’m out.

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

books, Dystopian, Reviews, science fiction, YA

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

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Stars: 5 out of 5.

I rarely read fairy tale retellings, because I think that retellings are rather pointless. I’d rather read the original and decide for myself what the morale of the story was, instead of reading about what the reteller thinks the story was about. So I’m really glad that I didn’t know that this was a retelling of Pinocchio when I picked up the book, or I would never have given it a try. And I would have lost out on a wonderful story.

And honestly, you don’t have to know anything about the original Pinocchio book to enjoy this story. Yes, there are parallels, but In the Life of Puppets stands on its own two feet pretty well and doesn’t rely on knowledge of the original.

It’s a story of Victor Lawson, the only human in a world of robots. And of his quest to save his father. And him and his friends have some adventures along the way. 

For a fairy tale this book has surprisingly a lot of heart. Because the characters, human and robot alike, are fully realized individuals with their own quirks and dreams. And their interactions are hilarious at times, and at times very touching and heartfelt. Nurse Ratched is my favorite character. Yay for sociopathic nurse robots with a heart of gold. 

The world our group of misfits travels through is wonderous and terrible at the same time, like it should be in good fairy tales. And all of the characters grow and progress along the way, especially Victor, who has to come to terms with a lot of hard truths. Like the fact that his father was the engineer of the extinction of his whole race. Or that you can still love someone even if you can’t forgive them for what they did, even if you aren’t sure you have the right to forgive them.

Or that you can love someone even if they don’t remember you from time to time. This last one hit particularly close to home, since I am dealing with a relative slowly loosing his battle with Alzheimer’s. That is a truly horrible disease that transforms a loved one into a completely different person. A bit like what happened to Gio once he was taken back into the City of Electric Dreams.

And even though the situations our characters find themselves in are horrible at times, the overall message of this book is one of love and hope, which makes it a very heartwarming story. I would definitely recommend this to adults and young adults alike. It’s rare that I read a book in one sitting and come out of it with a content and warm feeling.

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

books, Fantasy, Reviews

A Blade Through Time (Desolada 1) by Louis Kalman

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DNF at 48%

This book started so strong. The first chapter was intense and full of danger and tension… Unfortunately the rest of the book that I managed to wade through before I gave up wasn’t as good.

We start with a vicious attack and a young boy who lost everything in the space of a day, almost died, and discovered that he can rewind time. So he flees the city and vows to master his time-shifting gift enough to come back and save his family. Wonderful premise for what could have been a great story. 

But that potential is wasted, because absolutely nothing happens for the next half of the book. Leones gets to the philosophers… and the story comes to a grinding halt. We have pages upon pages of Leones training with weapons, or drinking and gambling in an opium den, or just brooding around. He does nothing productive. He doesn’t even explore the city he ended up with beyond the philosopher’s gardens and the gambling dens. He doesn’t try to find out what happened in the city he fled. He only uses his time rewinding ability when it’s convenient for him. And he mops around and he feels sorry for himself. It’s boring.

I think I wouldn’t have been as boring if this part of the book was populated with interesting characters, but Leones is so self-absorbed that he barely pays attention to anyone besides himself, and only if those people can serve him in some shape or form. As a result, the other apprentices are barely described. I don’t know anything about them beyond their names and physical appearance. And because Leones never bothers to ask, I don’t know anything about their pasts or their aspirations. Heck, I don’t even know what most of them do outside of the philosophers’ gardens. 

As a result, they seem more like cardboard cutouts then real people that I should care about. Even when Leones’s maybe girlfriend is assassinated, which should be a big traumatic discovery for him, my reaction was very lackluster. Probably because Leones didn’t particularly grieve for her either. 

Speaking of which, Leones as a character didn’t work for me at all. He is depicted as being completely detached from his feelings. He is either a sociopath, or so traumatized by what happened in chapter 1 that he can’t allow himself to feel anything for anyone. If it’s the later, it’s not made clear enough in the book, so he comes across as self-absorbed, selfish, and unfeeling. Not a character I want to spend a whole book with.

By the time the action finally picked up in the book, and things were finally starting to happen, I realized that I simply wasn’t interested enough to continue. I mean one of the characters seemed to have been erased from existence, but I couldn’t’ are less. So I decided to call it quits, because I didn’t care how this story ended enough to invest any more time into it.

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

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

Shorefall (The Founders Trilogy 2) by Robert Jackson Bennett

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Stars: 5 out of 5.

I was a little apprehensive starting this book, because I loved Foundryside so much and there is definitely a dreaded middle book in the trilogy curse going around. So I was afraid to be disappointed. I shouldn’t have worried. RJB has never let me down before, and he didn’t this time. This is an excellent book that grips you from the first page and doesn’t let you go until the last. It makes you care for the characters and cheer them on… oh, and it rips your heart out in the process. I should have known, I’ve read the Divine Cities trilogy, after all.

The story starts about seven months after the end of the first book, and our Foundryside crew are doing well, plotting and scheming the downfall of the great scivener houses of Trevenne and accomplishing daring heists. And it seems like they have all found some modicum of peace and happiness, not to mention friendship. Well, all except Gregor, but can you really blame him after the revelations at the end of last book?

So the reader prepares for a book centered around our friends basically giving the finger to the big scrivener houses of Trevanne and bringing about the revolution… but if you think that’s what this trilogy will be about, you don’t know the author very well. Soon freedom for the people of Trevanne takes a whole different meaning, and the stakes become sky high. And our unlikely heroes are left scrambling, trying to stay ahead of the tsunami that is bearing their way, and there are no good choices only bad and less bad ones. 

I loved all the characters from book one and I’m glad we got to explore their relationships more in this book and see them work together as a unit, but also see that they have become the found family all of them needed. It was heartwarming… and we didn’t get nearly enough of it. I would have loved to see them in their compound, sharing scrivening definitions with other scriveners, answering questions, collecting definitions for their library… Unfortunately, we will never get that, judging how this book ended, and that’s sad.

The danger they are facing is very real, very urgent and rather terrifying in its sheer disregard for human life. And the more the book progresses, the worse it gets for our friends and for Trevanne in general. I won’t get into any spoilers, but the ending really rips your heart out. 

I really want to know what happens now and how this story will end for our friends, so I will be definitely picking up the last book in the trilogy.

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

books, Military science fiction, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Centers of Gravity (Frontlines 8) by Marco Kloos

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DNF at 45%.

I love me a good space opera from time to time. Heck, I’m both a Star Wars and a Star Trek fan. I watch and read plenty of scifi. Problem is, I want my space opera to be, if not smart, then at least entertaining, with a good story and relatable characters I want to invest my reading time into. Not the case here.

The characters here are absolutely lifeless. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they are not characters at all, but cardboard cutouts with a series of threats needed by the author to progress the story. Heck, even the protagonist is so bland that I can’t remember his name a week after I gave up on this book. We don’t know his motivations, we don’t know his needs or wants, or even his fears. Yes, we are told that he is married and misses his wife, but it’s told in such a clinical manner that there is no sentiment behind it. The side characters are even less defined.

My other problem is that there really isn’t much of a female representation in this book. And the little we have are either guys in skirts, or a guy’s wet dream. Which we often see in books written by men, unfortunately. It takes talent to create tridimensional characters, especially those of the opposite sex. And effort. In my opinion, the author simply didn’t put in the effort here. Which might be okay for some if action is all they had come for. Unfortunately, action is usually not enough for me.

Speaking of action, this book takes way to long to set up the stage for it. The first 30-40% is basically set up where nothing happens. Characters fly through space. Characters talk. Characters walk. Characters make plans. It can be made interesting if the characters were interesting which is not the case here. 

The writing is… serviceable when it comes to description and action scenes, but sucks when it comes to dialog. All characters sound the same, which, since they have no personality to speak of, is not surprising. But the dialog also doesn’t sound natural. People don’t speak like that, even in the future. This is when I’m glad that I don’t listen to audiobooks, because good luck trying to instill life into those conversations. 

In summary, this is definitely not for me. I mean, the action might be phenomenal in the second half of the book, but I didn’t care enough to stick around for it.

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

books, Reviews, science fiction, Time Travel

Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle

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Stars: 1.5 out of 5.

Pfew, glad I’m finally done with this book. It’s not particularly long, but boy it dragged. 

Truth be told, I only picked it up because the blurb promised time travel and dinosaurs. Unfortunately, there is precious little of them in this story. And that timeline is completely ignored for the last 50% of the book, much to my disappointment. Also, how can you make a story of survival at the time of dinosaurs boring? I thought that was impossible.

The characters are also nothing to write home about. And what I mean by that is that they are lifeless. They are just concepts with a few distinct traits and flaws to differentiate them by, not real fleshed out characters. Adeline is the worst offender in this department. Too bad she is the one we follow the most in this book. By the time the author completely drops Sam’s story at the time of the big reptiles and focuses solely on Adeline and her valiant attempt at making her life even more boring than it was, I was sorely tempted to just DNF this book. But I had already read about 67% of the story, so I felt bad for my time investment and wanted to at least see this through and find out what this murder mystery was all about. 

Spoiler alert – it makes no sense whatsoever. Turns out the murder is not really a murder, so all the pain and suffering for Sam and Adeline was for no good reason at all. Also, that whole plot twist with Adeline’s time travel served no particular point either. 

And the ending… don’t start me on the ending. Are we really supposed to think that his little utopia island of theirs is supposed to be a paradise on earth? These people are effectively prisoners there until they die. How long before some of them decide they had enough and stage an insurrection? 

Also, what was the point of this story? The murder wasn’t really a murder, so the driving factor behind all this is moot. The end result is also deeply unsatisfying. 

The writing stile was also very dry and impersonal. That coupled with one-dimensional characters made it very hard to stay engaged in the story or to care about what was happening at all. I don’t think I will pick up another book by this author.

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

books, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews

The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

This book tried to marry two different ideas in the same story – a climate disaster story and a story about people with a special ability that ties them to a different world/dimension. I think the author wanted to pay homage to Stephen King and his many books that did the same thing.  Lisey’s Story comes to mind. That was one creepy and fascinating book.

Unfortunately, where Stephen King managed to marry the weird and the mundane into a seamless buildup of creepiness, this author failed, in my opinion. 

I think it stems from the fact that the power the Rainmaker family has is never truly explained or explored other than as a tool to rain disaster and death on an already ravaged country. That and the fact that it is described almost like a drug, an addiction, makes it really unpredictable and unattractive. 

Also, it is never truly explained how that power is tied to the horrible draught that is killing a vast part of the States, of if there is even a connection. And if there isn’t a connection, then what’s the point of this power in the story?

My other issue with this book is that all the characters are unlikeable, especially Ash. I mean, I was pretty interested and invested in her story while she was on a quest to assemble her device and make it rain… Until at about 61% in the book where she unleashes rains of blood and horrors upon this town, kills several people… and has absolutely no remorse about it. That’s where she lost all my support, as well as my desire to continue following her story.

I also don’t understand why everyone else is making excuses for her behavior. Oh, she is so special. She can make rain out of a clear sky… Yes, she can also unleash venomous creatures that attack everything in sight along with that rain. Oh, and by the way that rain will turn into a deluge that will make matter so much worse. 

Of the other protagonists we have Ashe’s father, who is a coward who’s response to a traumatic even had been to hide his had in the sand for almost a decade. Her mother who turned her whole life into an obsession. An ex-addict turned into Ash’s insta-groupie. And a psychopatic killer. Honestly, not a single one of them is likeable or even relatable enough follow into the story. 

I think I would have enjoyed this more if Ash wasn’t such an unrepentant addict who made excuses every time she messed things up. Or if the supernatural element was better tied into the rest of the story.

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