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.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Sword and Sorcery, Uncategorized

The Soul of Iuchiban (The Legend of the Five Rings) by Evan Dicken

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Stars: 2.5 out of 5

I usually love books set in the Legend of the Five Rings realm, because that world is so rich in history, mythology, and lore that it sucks me right in. Add a few compelling characters and an interesting goal for them to achieve, and you have me hooked and happily exploring Rokugan with them.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case in this book. Now, I realize that this is the continuation of The Heart of Iuchiban, so the story follows directly after the events of the previous book ended. If you haven’t read the first book, it would be very difficult to understand what is going on and who is who. In fact, I would say that you shouldn’t start with this book at all. You need to have read The Heart of Iuchiban to fully appreciate the story in this book.

But even that isn’t really the main problem. Plenty of other stories are told in duologies, and I loved the second books in the series just as much as I loved the first ones. My issue is that about 70% of the book feels pointless. Characters start off in different parts of Rokugan and seem to wander aimlessly for three-quarters of the book until they all meet back in the Imperial City and the action really picks up. 

I mean, what was the point of Naoki’s journey back to the Twilight Mountains? The only positive outcome out of that trip was to pick up Seiji. Other than that, it just feels like an aimless road trip designed to add page time to an already long book. I’m sure the author could have found another way of getting Seiji to the Imperial City and have the main characters meet. Heck, make them meet in the basement of horrors, just like they met with Quadan! That would have worked just as well. 

And while most of the book drags and meanders in these pointless detours, the last few chapters rush towards the resolution at a breakneck pace. So much so that you don’t have a chance to breathe and understand what is happening and how the characters jump to the conclusions they jump to.

Also, for an immortal sorcerer who prides himself at being smart and planning for every possibility, Iuchiban’s actions in the end were pretty dumb. And I am going to avoid spoilers here, but why lock them up for just asking about names when NOBODY had any suspicion about you? Just let them attend the ceremony and continue as planned, and nobody would have been the wiser. And why leave such an important artefact as one of your original names in the hands of someone who has the power and will to use it against you?

All in all, I enjoyed this foray into Rokugan, as I always do with these books, but a lot less than many other series set in this world.

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

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Spring’s Arcana (The Dead God’s Heart 1) by Lilith Saintcrow

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

I loved American Gods, and as a Russian myself, I LOVE Slavic folklore, so picking up this book was a no-brainer for me. And I was on board and invested for the first 50% of it, but  then it just.. dragged… and dragged… and slowly plodded its way to the end. And I realized that I didn’t like any of the characters anymore. Also, the book literally ends without any denouement. Nothing is resolved, nothing is learned, it’s just one big road trip that just… stops. I guess the story is to be continued in the next book?

Also, comparing it to American Gods does it a big disservice. This book is not even remotely as well plotted and written as American Gods. It’s boring and it drags. 

I guess this has a lot to do with this author’s writing style – Lilith Saintcrow decides to describe absolutely EVERYTHING that our protagonists see, feel, smell, taste, etc. It is too much description that bogs down the action to a glacial pace. Dima and Nat are riding in a muscle car, for God’s sake, why is it going so slow through the story?

And there isn’t much story there to speak of. Girl goes to see big bad Baba Yaga, who promises to make her mother better again if she brings back something her mother stole. Girl agrees and goes on a road trip with a deity of thieves and assassins. Girl meets some other divinities along the way and reaches a well. The end. Oh, she learns a secret that wasn’t a secret to anyone but her as well.

There is no tension, there are no stakes, there is no sense of urgency even to that particular road trip. Dima keeps telling her that hungry and not very nice powers are hunting Nat and want to either take what she finds or kill her, or both at the same time, yet we never encounter any of those powers. They aren’t ambushed during this trip even once (and no, the encounter with Friendly doesn’t count). Nat doesn’t have to fight for her life. Dima doesn’t have to defend her or show his divine powers. It’s all tell, but not show. I’m told the stakes are high and the road is dangerous, but I don’t see it.

My other issue is with Nat herself. I was sympathetic to her in the beginning and rooting for her to finally come into her own power and stop wilting in the shadow of her horrible mother. But it never happened. I mean, how stupid can you be not to put two and two together and realize what is happening to your mother and what only two outcomes could be to this issue? Especially when people hint at that over and over again. But she just refuses to listen… or ask any questions that could help her navigate this weird world she finds herself part of? Also, you have to be very good at self-delusion to refuse to come to any conclusions from the clues you gather. It literally takes hearing it from a horse’s mouth to make it clear to her what her mother has planned for her.

Also, the worldbuilding is wobbly at best. We have divinities, but some of them are old concepts like Winter and Spring, and some are gods of murder and thieves, or cowboys, or corrupt cops. And then they are literary divinities? How does that work exactly? Is there a hierarchy of power? That’s never explained.

And since when is Baba Yaga the lady of winter? She is the crone. She is the witch. Wise and mysterious. Helpful sometimes, other times cruel, but I don’t remember her having power over winter. The Slaves had Ded Moroz for that. And he wasn’t the jolly old fellow bringing gifts to kids on New Year’s Eve. No, he was the old man in a coat made of frost that could freeze you with a glance if he deemed you disrespectful… For some reason, that de Winter business really grated at my Russian soul. Baba Yaga is powerful enough on her own. She doesn’t need to steal other deities’ powers. 

All in all, I am really disappointed with this book. I will read the next one because I had requested it from NetGalley before I read this one, so I might as well see where the story goes. However, I doubt that I will check out other books by this author anytime soon.

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

books, Military science fiction, Reviews, science fiction

Rubicon by J. S. Dewes

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Stars: 3 out of 5

I loved this book… until the twist at the end and the cliffhanger ending. Honestly, it destroyed the book for me. That ending made everything that came before it useless. All the sacrifices, all the shit Valero went through was literally for nothing because the author decided that a particular twist at the end would be a clever thing to do.

Yes, I’m pissed. I was deeply emotionally invested in these characters. I was rooting for them. Ending a book this way feels like a slap in the face. Why the heck did I spend hours of my life reading this when NOTHING the characters did had any meaning?

Adrienne wasn’t a particularly likable character in the beginning, but there was a reason for that. That reason was revealed to the reader in all its traumatic glory very early on. Rezoning is a horrible technology that leaves a scar on one’s psyche. Imagine doing it 96 times in 10 years. Frankly, I’m surprised she isn’t more messed up than she is.

It was a rewarding journey to see her overcome the apathy, to face her demons, and start finally experiencing human emotions again – care for others, open up enough to love someone, and create friendships. Be scared of zeroing out her friends.

In this light, the ending pisses me off even more, because all her sacrifices have been for nothing. There is no emotional payout at the end of this book.

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

books, Dark fantasy, epic fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

A Tide of Black Steel (Age of Wrath 1) by Anthony Ryan

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Stars: 4.5 out of 5

This is epic fantasy at its best – dark, gripping, with compelling characters facing hard challenges.

I love stories based on Nordic and Viking settings, but I read a few disappointing ones as well. Crafting a compelling world based on an existing mythology requires a lot of research and respect for the original setting. I bounced off a few books that did this poorly. Thankfully, Anthony Ryan managed to take the Nordic elements that we know and love and make them his own. The result is a living, breathing world with different nations that feel different in culture, religion, and worldviews. I had fun discovering the different corners of this world along with our protagonists.

I also grew to really care about all four of the narrators we follow in this book. Each of them is different, with a distinct personality, flaws, dreams, and fears. They felt alive and complex. Not always good and righteous, but I could empathize with all of them. And since I grew to care for them, I was also invested in their fates. Whether it was Thera trying to do her duty to the Sister Queens, or her brother Felnir chasing an impossible errand in the hopes of regaining lost honor, or Ruhlin, who has to fight other prisoners to survive, but also fight with the beast within him to keep his humanity.

As far as the story goes, this is the first book in the series, so it serves more to set up the stage than give us any kind of resolutions, but from what I see, the story will be brutal, because the enemy is ruthless and relentless, and the only goal they have is to subjugate and destroy. It is rather fascinating to see how two nations that started believing in the same gods and having a similar culture could turn out so different. 

My only issue with the story is that I find it hard to believe that the enemy has so many spies everywhere. This points towards a campaign that was years in the making, because some of those spies ended up in very high places, so they must have been sent to infiltrate all the power structures in the target countries at least a decade or two before the events of this book. Yet nothing that we have seen from Ruhlin’s point of view indicates an authority structure capable of such advanced planning. Granted, he has only seen gladiator arenas and slave pens (and people who run those), so his experience is not all-encompassing. 

I am definitely looking forward to picking up book 2 and learning more about this world. I also very much hope that our four protagonists will be okay, even if we left several of them in rather dire straits at the end of book 1.

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

books, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Reviews

The Market of 100 Fortunes (The Legend of the Five Rings) by Marie Brennan

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Stars: 5 out of 5

I never played the Legend of Five Rings games before or even heard of them, but you don’t have to do that to enjoy this book. The story stands on its own two feet even without being attached to a larger franchise. I also didn’t know that this was book 3 in Sekken and Ryotora’s adventures, so I will definitely go back and read the previous two books, because I like the characters and want to know how they got to the point they are at now.

I enjoyed this book tremendously! I love Japanese culture and folklore, and this world is heavily inspired by it, so reading about different Fortunes, spirits, and yokai was an absolute delight. The Market of 100 Fortunes was a delightful place to explore, both the human side of it and the supernatural one. I must admit that I hadn’t heard of the tsukumogami before I read this book, but the idea that objects used for 100 years can gain consciousness or even a soul is interesting. Makes you think twice before being mean to your umbrella, huh?

I think the biggest strength of this book is in its characters though. Sekken and Ryotora are complex individuals with their own quirks, needs, and wants, but it’s their interactions that bring the spark to this book. You can feel the care and love they have for each other. They are trying to navigate this very difficult condition they are in, where they literally share one life force between the two of them, so they have to be very careful how they draw on that power so as not to drain the other person. I like that the best solution to live with this condition is acceptance and harmonization between the two. And they do it through performing tea ceremonies! All tea lovers around the world unite!

The supporting characters are just as likable. The small but stubborn Kuzu, as resilient as the weed she is named after. Or Meiro, who risked everything, including her career with the Emerald Magistrate, to follow an obscure prophecy and helped our heroes immensely along the way. Even some of the tsukumogami have distinct personalities.

All in all, this was a very fast and delightful read, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I will definitely go back and read more about Sekken and Ryotora, and I will check out other stories set up in the Legend of the Five Rings universe as well.

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

books, murder mystery, Reviews

The Donut Legion by Joe R Landsdale

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

DNF at 54%.

This was my first encounter with this author, and it didn’t go as well as I would have hoped. This book just felt… off. 

While I was quite excited to read about a small town in East Texas and discover some of the quirky characters that call it home, something about those characters just felt… unnatural. They didn’t read like fleshed-out people but more like an amalgamation of quirks and one-liners that the author wanted to put there. That wouldn’t have been a problem for supporting characters that we only see for a couple of pages and never hear from again. But here even the main protagonist doesn’t read like a fleshed out character. 

Also, the main plot is to find the protagonist’s ex-wife, right? Well, for the first 200 pages or so, this is barely mentioned. Yes, he makes some enquiries, but our protagonist does not feel any urgency, dread, or emotion about it. He tells his brother that he thinks he is still in love with her, but none of his actions show it. If my ex went missing and showed up as a ghost, I would have been moving heaven and earth to find out what happened, but Charlie just kind of… takes his time to look into that in between long discussions about the nature of religion and cults with his brother, or other philosophical meanderings along the way. 

And that brings me to the next part that didn’t work for me – the tone of this book is definitely not my cup of tea. Is this supposed to be a serious thriller? A satire? A parody? There are jokes throughout, but to me, they fall flat, especially when put alongside graphic descriptions of some pretty gruesome murders. I mean, a guy Charlie talked to is basically dismembered and burned, and Charlie’s reaction to learning this is… nothing. Not even horrified, or feeling guilty about it, because his interrogating this guy might have been the cause for this. His reaction is just to shrug and move on. That doesn’t make me like the protagonist any better, sorry.

Then “Scrappy” comes to the scene and the book fell apart for me. She is not a likable or believable character. In fact, she comes across as extremely rude and self-serving. And again, Charlie says he might still have feelings for his ex-wife, yet he falls for her almost from the get go. 

All in all, the jarring juxtaposition of humor that mostly fell flat for me and depictions of some pretty graphic and horrible murders made me gradually lose interest in this book. Added to that some irritating characters, and I am calling it quits. I might try another book by this author, since some reviewers say that this wasn’t his strongest offering.

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

books, murder mystery, Reviews

Deep and Deadly: Murder on the Scottish Coast (Inspector Torquil McKinnon 7) by Keith Moray

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5

I must admit upfront that I wasn’t aware that this was book 7 in an ongoing series when I picked up this book, and I haven’t read any of the previous instalments. This, however, isn’t that big of a deal. The story can be read as a standalone, since all the characters get sufficiently well-done introductions. There are references to events that, I suppose, happen in previous books, but they are fleeting and don’t confuse the reader.  

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the book itself. 

I loved the setting! I lived in Edinburgh for a year when I was in college, and visited the Scottish highlands and the Isle of Skye. It’s beautiful and rugged terrain that feels unchanged from the previous centuries. The scenery is breathtaking, and the weather is capricious to say the least. I was looking to recapture that sense of wonder I had when I was there in person, and the book has that in spades.

I also loved all the characters. They feel real, multidimensional people, with their own flaws and quirks, but ultimately pretty relatable. However, I must admit that the newspaper editor got on my nerves a few times. He seems like the person who just shrugs off all bad experiences and never learns his lessons from them. I mean, that’s a good quality to have for a news reporter, but it must be hard to be his friend or girlfriend.

You could feel the history between all the characters, and their relationships felt organic. In fact, that whole island community where everyone knows everybody else’s business is very well done. It was a pleasure to get to know the residents of West Uist. 

My issue is that there are too many red herrings and extraneous plots that don’t bring much to the story. The story is about Mungo and his crusade against the inhabitants of the island for real or perceived sins. What did the Irish actor and his cronies even add to the narrative? Also, what was Mungo’s motive for trying to poison them? They had nothing to do with what had happened to his family, so they shouldn’t even have been on his hit list. The book is short as it is, so adding this storyline took page count that could have been spent on diving more into the lives of the various people on Mungo’s list. As it stands, a lot of them are mentioned in passing, but not developed enough for us to care. 

And speaking of Mungo himself. He is the reason I didn’t rate this book higher. In fact, I think he is the weakest link in this story. He is a very unconvincing main villain. He comes across as the typical delusional mustache-twirling kind, along with the mandatory monologue about his plans and reasons for doing what he is doing. Honestly, that monologue had me rolling my eyes and skimming ahead.

But all in all, this was a very enjoyable murder mystery book set in the Scottish island setting that I loved to revisit. I might even go back and read the other books in the series.

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

books, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

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Stars: 3 out of 5

This is a difficult book to rate or review. I really liked parts of it, but other parts left me indifferent to mildly irritated.

I liked the melancholy vibe of the book, and that’s best translated in the chapters detailing Arthur’s life as well as what happened to all the people whose lives he touched. It was interesting to see how they spent their last days before the world as we know it ended… and what those who were lucky enough to survive made of themselves in the new world that rose from the ashes.

I admit that I was less attached to the characters from the Traveling Symphony. Where people from Arthur’s time seemed pretty well developed, the members of the Symphony didn’t have much depth past their names and functions. I mean, I can’t even remember who was who, apart from Kirsten and Arthur, and I just finished the book. So to me, those chapters dragged, and I found myself loose interest more often then not and putting the book aside.

My biggest problem is that I don’t get the point of the whole Prophet subplot. Even with the spoiler discovery of the Prophet’s identity, his existence in this book doesn’t particularly make sense. He is way too milquetoast to be an antagonist in this book, and the way this whole situation ended is rather… anticlimactic. There was this whole buildup to this confrontation between the Symphony and the Prophet that didn’t happen in the end.

All in all, it was a decent story about loss and grief, and lost dreams, and how different people cope with surviving the end of the world, but to me, it was lacking a secret ingredient that would have made it perfect.

My dreams and stories. The life of a writer.