Review: Kingdoms of Death (The Sun Eater #4)

 

Kingdoms of Death (The Sun Eater #4)

Publication Date: March 22, 2022

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hadrian Marlowe goes through some shit in KINGDOMS OF DEATH, a book that is . . . very aptly named. (My own title for this probably would've been something along the lines of THIS BOOK IS DESPAIR MADE FLESH, AQUIRE FLUFFY KITTEN AND HOLD ON TIGHT BEFORE READING, but I fully acknowledge that something like that would be difficult to print on a book spine.)

We open, once again, with a time jump, skipping over a twelve-year Chantry trial and a visit to Valka's homeland, along with Hadrian's seventy years' pseudo-imprisonment as an advisor to one of the Empire's three Magnarchs, a position between the Viceroys and the Emperor himself. Said Emperor has decided to go on an intergalactic tour, and shows up in person with a mission for his most dangerous servant: secure the aid of the Lothrian Commonwealth--the second-largest human civilization, and something of an Orwellian nightmare--against the Cielcin. What happens next is . . . well. That would be telling. All I'll say is this: you will learn more about the Cielcin and their dark gods. You will get to know Syriani Dorayaica. And you will truly begin to understand how the heroic Hadrian eventually becomes the Sun Eater.

This was difficult to read, and now I find it difficult to review. I debated giving this only four stars, not because it's poorly written--it's not--but simply because . . . in previous books, suffering has been leavened by triumphs. But this book is just one knockout punch after the other, an endless sea of 'oh god why's', and though there is a (very) brief spot of joy at the very end, I found that to be somewhat contrived. (And even it kind of ended badly.) Apparently there was originally a lot more to this book, and we're getting the second half in December. Judging books that have been split in two is always a chancy prospect, and I'll be curious to look back at KINGDOMS OF DEATH after reading Book 5. This didn't feel incomplete per se, just . . . it is an emotionally draining experience, and I wonder if it might have been less of one had it not been broken into two novels. (I might be wrong! Book 5 might be even more of a train of despair. But I feel compelled to point this out.) 

If you've read the previous three books, you'll read this book. But I have to say: if you've been feeling at all depressed, you might want to hold off until that dark cloud's passed, cause this book is, again, DESPAIR MADE FLESH. But if you're feeling up to it, then absolutely pick this one up--along with the closest fluffy kitten or adorable little puppy, which YOU WILL NEED--and steel yourself.

Cause this one's a *ride*, folks.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Flames of Lethe (Lethe Chronicles #1) by Lexie Talionis

 

Flames of Lethe (Lethe Chronicles #1) by Lexie Talionis

Publication Date: November 16, 2021

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jo and Christopher awake on a sea of endless glowing sand, with no clothes, resources, or memories of how they got there. Every time the sun rises, they burn in unspeakable agony . . . only to awake, completely unharmed, when the sun sets. As they traverse the sands, desperately seeking any form of shelter, tensions--sexual and otherwise--rise higher and higher. 

And then they reach The City, and discover that things can always, ALWAYS, get worse.

Flames of Lethe ticks all the boxes of a traditional dark fantasy erotic romance (and the author explicitly describes it as such), so I was a little confused to see this shelved on Netgalley under horror rather than romance. After finishing it, I can say with complete confidence that this? This is both. This is dark. If you don't like dark romance, this is not for you. If you do, this is a really excellent addition to the genre.

Writing-wise, this shows a lot of talent--I was absorbed from start to finish. The characters burst off the page, the pacing was excellent, and the worldbuilding was devastating. Our characters wonder often if they are in Hell, and this is quite an interesting interpretation of such a place.

I enjoyed this a lot, but NOT EVERYBODY WILL, and I think it's important to be very up front about that in a review. If you hate romance with dubcon/noncon, then give this one a hard pass. The world Jo finds herself in is not exactly a feminist utopia, and some of the choices she makes by the end might rub certain readers the wrong way. But if you're a romance fan looking for something (very) dark and original, this is an excellent book to try out. 

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Goblin by Josh Malerman

 

Goblin by Josh Malerman

Publication Date: May 18, 2021

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I hated this book and I hate that I hated this book. Bird Box was one of the more frightening books I've ever read, and The House at the Bottom of the Lake was a genuinely intriguing, original novella. I was excited to pick up this new offering from their author, and it sounded so good--six (well, seven or eight, depending on how you categorize the Prologue and Epilogue) interconnected novellas set in the town of Goblin, where it never stops raining, unspeakable things dwell in the woods, and there's something very, very wrong with the local police officers.

The problem was, the plots were so predictable that I kept guessing the endings only a few pages in. And the writing . . . plodded. There was no sense of creeping terror, no sense of mounting dread. I didn't care about the characters' fates, and I thought the author did a strangely poor job on Goblin itself; a town that should have been a character in its own right just fell flat to me. The stories are interconnected, in the sense that they're all set in Goblin and every once in a while a character shows up or is mentioned in multiple stories, but I thought they'd be a bit more interconnected. By which I mean: each of these basically stands alone, Prologue/Epilogue aside, and I thought that kind of defeated the point of the whole 'interconnected novellas' thing. Part of the fun in reading interconnected stories is spotting bits and pieces carrying over from one story to the next, and while there was a bit of that, I thought it was a far, far too small bit.

Of all the stories here, "A Mix-Up At the Zoo" was the only one that even moderately held my attention, and even that only came in flickers. These stories were, in a word, bland. And I doubt the author intended that, but . . . I think it boils down to this: these stories spent way too much time dwelling on things that didn't scare me, and far too little time on things that did. That's death to a horror novel.

The scariest thing about this book was seeing how much of it I still had to read. It's rare for me to give a book 1 star, but reading this was a chore and I know for a fact the author can do better.

Not recommended.

Review: The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk

 

The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk

Publication Date: October 13, 2020

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In a world strikingly similar to Regency England, Beatrice Clayborn is torn between her desire to become a full-fledged Magus and her deeply indebted family's need for her to marry well. Marriage would require her to be locked in a stifling anti-magic collar, lest a malicious spirit inhabit her unborn child, and so married women are forbidden from practicing magic. After conjuring a lesser spirit to aid her magic, Beatrice finds herself forced to navigate the annual Bargaining Season with a terrible secret, forced to find a way to somehow save both her family and her own prospects at future happiness. (While certain encounters with the wealthy, foreign-born Lavan siblings upend her life in ways that any romance fan will find, ahem, somewhat familiar.)

The Midnight Bargain is, in essence, a Regency romance. If you love regency romances, you will likely love this; if you hate them, then the opposite. I happen to love Regency romances--hence the 5 stars. I'm a huge fan of fantasies of manners for that same reason, and I've always enjoyed the subgenre most when such books lean more to the "manners" than the "fantasy". (Not that I prefer them fantasy-less; more that I think the strength of the subgenre likes in the 'manners' portion, and leaning too far to the 'fantasy' element strips the subgenre of what makes it interesting and unique.) And there is a strong fantasy element here--it's just that I felt the manners and romance factors were incredibly strong, which I saw as a plus.

I really enjoyed the author's choice to have the whole "women can't practice magic or demons inhabit their babies" thing be true. It would've been easier, and a bit more pedestrian, to have that turn out to be patriarchal propaganda. That Beatrice cannot easily have her cake and eat it too put meat on the plot's bones. The writing was vivid, the characters were well-drawn, and the plot moved at a good clip. (And Ianthe, of course . . . Ianthe was a treasure.)

There were a few discordant notes, but not too many. By the end, for example, I though the author was striving a bit too hard to introduce conflict, and it led to some absurd situations---the boat scene had me nodding along with Mr. Clayborn, and I really don't think I was meant to. And Beatrice's mother having no role in the social scene was just bizarre; Beatrice would just get dropped off at parties with no chaperone, which really doesn't happen in these types of books. 

But overall, I thought this was an excellent feminist romance, well-recommended for anyone who enjoys clever, well-written fantasies of manners.

Review: The Bloody Throne (Hostage of Empire #3) by S.C. Emmett

 

The Bloody Throne (Hostage of Empire #3) by S.C. Emmett 

Publication Date: March 29, 2022

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This conclusion to the Hostage of Empire trilogy certainly lives up to its title. From bloody battlefields to quiet tea-tables, all and sundry battle for power in and beyond mighty Zhaon-An, and let's just say the knives are *very* much out. I don't think it's too spoilery to say that not everyone makes it out alive.

It's difficult to review the final book in a trilogy with any real specificity without falling into spoiler-land, and as with all trilogies, no reader should begin with this installment. We pick up with the fallout of certain events at the end of the previous book, as the Tabrak invasion reaches its inevitably bloody climax, Komor Yala's love . . . quadrangle? (Is that right?) Well, *that* plays out in ways both expected and unexpected. And we get some new POVs (in addition to our current plethora) which add texture and nuance to the events we saw in the previous two books.

But on that note: for a trilogy as long and complex as this one, I was surprised at how . . . rushed? certain things felt. I wish we'd spent much more time in Shan, for example, dealing with their court politics. The Tabrak, too, finally get a couple of POVs here, and I found myself thinking that they probably should have appeared in book 1, or at least book 2; it felt, again, *rushed* to finally see the enemy here, rather than let that part of the storyline breathe a bit more. And certain characters' endings felt like they needed extra chapters to really play out properly, which is kind of insane given how long this book already was.  

Did I ultimately find the ending satisfying? That's a difficult question. I gave this four stars because, like its predecessors, it has all the backbiting and scheming a court politics junkie could desire. And the overwhelming majority of the book I adored. But like I said, some characters' endings seemed a bit . . . abrupt. And . . . without being too spoilery, there's a development right at the end that would've had me throwing my book across the room had I been reading a paper book rather than on an expensive piece of machinery. Two characters get an ending that I was clearly supposed to find satisfying, that I was clearly supposed to root for, but which I felt was out of character for both. (And this probably goes to the rushed pacing; there were hints we were going down this path, but they were so few and so late that they didn't feel like enough to counterweigh all the character development prior that rendered this ending, I thought, out of character.) 

But that's ultimately a personal preference, and I can see how others might disagree. Overall, if you enjoy your fantasy heavy on the court politics, I'd say this trilogy is absolutely for you.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Liar's Knot (Rook and Rose #2) by M.A. Carrick

 

The Liar's Knot (Rook and Rose #2) by M.A. Carrick

Publication Date: December 7, 2021

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I struggled for a while with whether to grade this at 3.5 or 4 stars, because Book 2 of the Rook and Rose series is very much Book 2, with all the attendant issues that middle books so often have. Midway through, I had this pegged as a 3.5: decently entertaining (while not quite at the level of Book 1), but not something I was finding entirely absorbing, especially as there were some plot happenings midway through that I wasn't entirely enthused about. But by the end I was rating this as a solid 4 of 5, as the authors ultimately took the characters in a direction I found myself enjoying, and I find myself very interested to see where everyone finds themselves in Book 3.

It's difficult to describe the plot without spoiling things, other than to say that Ren's long con continues apace as the residents of Nadezra grapple with the events of the previous book, while long-held secrets of the city and her inhabitants threaten to burst forth. (Actually, I wish there'd been more of a recap of the first book because there were plot threads I found myself having to go back and refresh myself on.) There's a lot to like here: Ren's struggle between her three identities, her new superheroine status as the Rose oddly being the least challenging to her; Derossi Vargo's development from selfish crime lord to someone almost noble; the forming of Ren's new knot. I'm someone who loves political maneuverings in fantasy novels and this had surprisingly little of those (unless we count certain secret societies coming to the foreground), but ultimately I thought the choice to focus instead on building the characters' bonds worked well. 

But as I said above, this is also very much a middle book and it suffers from many of the weaknesses we often see in middle books. It was longer than it needed to be, and the pacing dragged at certain places, especially in the beginning and middle. Certain characters get the short-shrift--Donaia being the most egregious, to the point I kept expecting something vile to be happening to her on her 'vacation'--and it was hard to see where the story was going until the story had actually, you know, gotten there.

Overall, I think if you enjoyed the first book, I'd recommend picking this up and sticking with it to the end. 

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Walk Among Us by Cassandra Khaw; Genevieve Gornichec; Caitlin Starling

 

Walk Among Us by Cassandra Khaw; Genevieve Gornichec; Caitlin Starling

Publication Date: May 4, 2021

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Until this book, my experience with the role-playing game Vampire: the Masquerade began and ended with the short-lived 1990s-era TV show Kindred: the Embraced, which I still adore with the fire of ten thousand suns but which I knew all along probably had little to do with the source material. So I actually took a look at the online wiki for the game before reading this book, and I'm glad I did, because all three stories within basically assume you're already familiar with all the relevant Vampire: the Masquerade background lore. (Though to be fair, none of the stories is intensely lore-intensive, in the sense that you'll be completely lost without any preexisting background knowledge.) 

There are three stories here: the first follows a young human whose life is upended when she begins to encounter the Kindred; the second follows a newly-embraced Kindred as he struggles to navigate his new existence; and the third follows a longtime Kindred as she finds herself caught in certain inescapable webs of her existence. Of the three I thought the first was the strongest, both because the narrator's ignorance of the Kindred made the store more easily followable to a reader who'd never played the game before, and because there was a twist at the end that I genuinely didn't see coming. (Something I always appreciate!)

Overall, if you're a fan of the RPG, or if you're just in the mood for some decent vampire fiction, this is a decent afternoon read.

Review: Captive of Wolves by Eva Chase

 

Captive of Wolves by Eva Chase

Publication Date: December 9, 2020

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you are at all familiar with paranormal romance subgenres, then the plot of Captive of Wolves---"a damaged heroine gets kidnapped by a group of hunky shapeshifters and taken to their luxurious hidden lair, only to find herself slowly falling in love with all of them"---shouldn't surprise you. It's a bit of a trope by now, and if you don't like that subgenre, you definitely won't like this. But if fantasy-romance with multiple partners is your cup of tea, then this is a decent addition to that subgenre, though don't expect it to really tread any new ground.

This is the sort of book that lives or dies based on characterization, and though I wouldn't call anything about it hugely original, the tropes it follows are followed decently. Some thing work better if you don't think about them too hard---for example, despite having been kidnapped by the Fae-who-are-also-werewolves at the age of twelve, and spending eight straight years being locked in a tiny cage, our heroine Talia is surprisingly sane and a decent conversationalist---but I've read far more irritatingly perfect heroines than Talia, so that didn't bother me too much. And I liked that we got POVs from all of the heroes.

The smut factor was somewhat muted, and this is definitely more on the paranormal romance side rather than the e-romance side. There are only a couple of explicit scenes, and there's nothing too outre in any of them.

Overall, if you're a romance fan who likes this subgenre and wants a comfort read, go ahead and pick this up.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

 

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Publication Date: October 6, 2020

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A sequel in spirit (though not in content) to the excellent The Twisted Ones, The Hollow Places takes us on another journey inspired by another classic work of cosmic horror. This time it's Ambrose Bierce's turn in the barrel, via his famous short story "The Willows", which (unlike the inspiration for The Twisted Ones) I actually have read---long, long ago---and which I found deeply, deeply unnerving.

"Deeply unnerving" is probably the best description I can give of The Hollow Places, and I mean that in the best possible way. Kara, a professional graphic designer and amateur fanfic writer, is fresh off a much-needed divorce and working for her uncle's junk museum of the absurd, when she notices a mysterious hole has appeared in the wall. A hole that leads to a hallway that's much too long to exist, and beyond that hall, a willow-strewn world like something out of a fairy tale. But her adventure soon turns to horror, as she discovers the true nature of the world she's stumbled upon, and just how difficult it will be to escape.

My one complaint about The Twisted Ones was in its ending, which I felt took all the slow-creeping tension of the earlier chapters and just dissipated it. Well, The Hollow Places doesn't fall into that trap; if anything, the creep factor multiplied right until the very end. (With a central mystery that I didn't find mysterious at all, though; not sure if that was because it was so obvious or because I've read "The Willows".) What this book does so well, I think, is the way it manipulates the reader's expectations. There are jump scares, it's true . . . but more often, we see a horror, but don't *realize* we're seeing a horror until much later on. Instead of "oh my god, it's a monster!", we think "wow, that's . . . weird", whistle a bit as we read on, then have the true nature of what we've been seeing all along suddenly revealed. The true horror lies in how little we---like Kara and her buddy Simon---understood what we were seeing. In how easy it was to stumble headfirst into hell.

Overall: highly, highly recommended!

A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Review: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

 

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Publication Date: October 13, 2020

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A crow god in human skin on a mission of vengeance, a bisexual not-mermaid who can't seem to catch a break, a noble warrior who . . . gets very little page time, and a politically incompetent sun priest, all have their lives intertwine as a portentous eclipse looms.

Pre-Columbian mythology of the Americas isn't a loom many fantasy novels weave upon, so I was interested to see where the author took this. And there's a lot to enjoy; the writing is quick-paced and entertaining, several of the characters were well-drawn (Xiala is a treasure! And Serapio was intriguing), and the story moves at a good clip.

My biggest complaint lies in the relative brevity of the book. For this to work as well as I assume the author intended, the worldbuilding needed a lot more texture than I felt we got. The giant animals are just sort of *there*, the science/magic aspects weren't well fleshed out, and several of the characters seemed like their development was being rushed. (And I don't actually think I was supposed to be calling the sun priest a moron the entire time I was reading, but my *goodness* she was *such a moron*, constantly demonstrating a sort of hapless naivete that seemed completely at odds with what we were told of her upbringing and life thus far. Honey, if you're constantly getting outwitted by a nineteen-year-old, the problem is *you*.) Also, I found the ending somewhat abrupt.

Overall, I'd rate this as solid but not spectacular read. I was entertained, which is the most important thing, and I'd be willing to pick up the sequel.  

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio

Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio

Publication Date: July 28, 2020

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Back when I first read Empire of Silence, I commented that I found Hadrian's lack of immediate victories in that book somewhat disappointing. We love adventure stories because we love living vicariously through their heroes, you see, and it was hard to do that with someone whose great victories were all being saved for future books.

In Demon in White, the Sollan Empire holds a Triumph to honor its newest savior---for what great deed, I won't spoil here---and during it, I thought a lot about my earlier commentary. No slave whispers in Hadrian's ear "remember, thou art mortal" as he parades through the streets of Forum, that impossible city in the clouds. . . but Future Hadrian serves a similar purpose for us readers, I think. This is the book where Hadrian's star well and truly begins to rise; this is the book where honors and glories fall upon him like rain. And always, always, as we watch Hadrian emerge victorious---as we readers experience his victories firsthand---his future self whispers in our ear of the degradations to come. No statue can rise to him, but that we are told of how it will topple. No status is conferred upon him but he reminds us of Gododdin. "Remember, I am mortal" Future Hadrian seems to whisper, as Present Hadrian barrels onwards and upwards . . . though after the events of this book, and from comments made in earlier books, it's not entirely clear that that's the case.

Hadrian Marlowe becomes many things in Demon in White. A teacher, to a spoiled young prince with a heady destiny ahead. The focal point of a mystery cult that sends the Chantry into a rage. A soldier, a politician, a hero of the realm. And . . . something else entirely. That, I won't spoil, except to say that the events at the end of Howling Dark are no longer the undisputed strangest in Hadrian's life.

This was no longer than the earlier books, but I found it a much quicker read. I'm not sure why; perhaps because a good chunk takes place on Forum, where we get the sort of political drama that I as a reader adore. Perhaps because we lean even further into the eldritch horror aspects of the series, which I also adore. Perhaps because we seem to be moving toward endgame, rather than merely setting up the pieces, and the pace picks up accordingly. Or perhaps it's simply because this is the first book where Hadrian has his feet firmly planted in a cultural milieu he understands, where much of the earlier two books were explicitly about throwing Hadrian as far off his own map as possible. 

Overall, this is a rich, deep installment of a spectacular new series, epic and heartbreaking and breathtaking in its scope. 

Read on, readers; you're in for a treat.

A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Review: Devolution by Max Brooks

Devolution by Max Brooks
Publication Date: June 16, 2020
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After a volcanic eruption drives them from their native habitat, a band of Sasquatch (Sasquatches? Sasquatchii?) attack a high-tech, off-the-grid community, forcing a knock-down-drag-out battle between two very different---and very similar---tribes of primates.

If you think it's possible to write a bad book with that hook, then honey, I don't really know what to tell you.

Devolution is as much about the breakdown---and reforging---of the human community as it is about the attacking Bigfoot (Bigfeet?). (Though I hesitate a bit to call Greenloop a "community". A community of half a dozen houses is less a community than a cul-de-sac with delusions.) We follow the narrative through found diary entries of the mousy, pushover Katie, who with the rest must find reserves of inner strength and resourcefulness when faced with a predator who's larger, fiercer, and has lost all fear of humans.

I knocked off a star because I thought the epistolary format robbed the (admittedly well-crafted) narrative of some of its tension---it's a bit hard to feel completely at the edge of your seat when you know your protagonist will not only survive, but have the time and ability to write down events after they happen---but that's a relatively small thing. (Also, because I thought the narrative was a bit . . . quick? The changes in the community occur in the space of only a couple of weeks, and that seemed more unrealistic than the attacking Sasquatch.)

Overall, this was a relatively fast and exciting read, great for curling up on a couch on a rainy weekend. (Just avoid windows facing the woods!)

A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Review: Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley

Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley
Publication Date: August 6, 2020
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Shine Lucheyart may be a granddaughter of the ruling Empress, but as a magic-less mundane with a vanished (some say dead) mother and a pale-skinned foreign father, she's forced to live a quiet life of genteel poverty on an isolated country estate, with little company aside from a giant talking cat and her radical, semi-banished aunt. But when her extended family descends on her home for an annual fertility festival---and a pale-skinned scholar from a neighboring republic who's not supposed to be in the country at all gets dumped in her lap---she finds herself caught up in plots and schemes that threaten everything she holds dear.

Overall I enjoyed this a lot, and I think anyone who likes their fantasy steeped in politics and family drama would do the same. Shine is a character very much caught between: though clever and generally well-intentioned (though in many ways still very much the product of her upbringing), and the beneficiary of a society where her sex and lineage give her special status, her lack of magic keeps her very much at the dregs of her social class, a poor relation who will struggle to ever escape that fate. (Mundane members of mage families get treated a bit like illegitimate children, in that they can't inherit and they can't exercise political power.) Her pale (well . . . paler) skin sets her apart from her peers, a constant reminder of her lack of fully belonging.

I think I'd need to read the next book (this is clearly set up for more books) before commenting further on the racial and social elements at play here. The Empire is a matriarchal, matrilineal society where women hold most of the power, but . . . a feminist utopia, this is not. And the as-yet-unseen neighboring republic, glimpsed through comments by Shadow (the pale-skinned foreigner who finds himself quite literally hiding under Shine's bed . . . don't ask, just read the book!), seems to be a counterpoint in many ways, but without seeing it firsthand, it's hard to really give an analysis. It didn't escape my notice that the dark-skinned empire has an economy based on resource extraction, while the pale-skinned republic seems to have a more capitalist manufacturing-based economy---along with a patriarchal, patrilineal social structure---and I'm curious to see where the author goes there.

A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Review: Ballistic (Palladium Wars #2) by Marko Kloos

Ballistic (The Palladium Wars #2) by Marko Kloos
Publication Date: May 26, 2020
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I debated giving this installment 4 stars, because I really like Kloos's writing, but "oh good, the story's finally beginning" is not what a reader should be thinking at the end of Book 2. If Aftershocks read like an extended prologue, Ballistic reads like the first few chapters of the story: we get a lot of quiet background, pieces seem to be moved into place, but just as the main action appears to begin . . . roll credits.

This book and Aftershocks could have been smushed together into a single novel, and I think it still would've read like an extended prologue to the main action. Frankly, I think a reader could easily skip the first book and jump right in here, which isn't what you want to see in a series like this.

I'll pick up Book 3, because again, I really like Kloos's writing. But I'll do so with the stated hope that I'll stop feeling like I'm waiting for the main story to finally begin.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Providence by Max Barry

Providence by Max Barry
Publication Date: March 31, 2020
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Faced with a losing war against a spacefaring race of huge and hostile bug-like creatures (nicknamed "salamanders"), the countries of the world unite (with much grumbling, as this shit's expensive!) to build a fleet of AI-powered Providence-class battleships, crewed by the best and the brightest. The latest Providence battleship---which is never named, unless I missed it, which seems relevant--- are Gilly, the socially awkward tech genius; Anders, a handsomely psycho weapons officer; Beanfield, the Life Officer---think ship's counselor---and Jackson, the captain, a survivor of a devastating salamander attack.

But isn't that a pretty small crew for a massive battleship, you ask? To which I reply: yes, you're right! That is absolutely a question you should be asking!

Halfway through Providence, I was convinced I'd figured out the twist: the aliens would turn out not to be real, you see, and the entire ordeal would be revealed as some hideous corporate experiment. Or the aliens were real, but the salamanders were just the equivalent of artificially-created drones, and Our Heroes' mission would turn out to be to encounter the real aliens, the intelligent masters behind the curtain.

I won't say if I was correct; best to read this for yourself. But I will say this: this book is either incredibly nihilistic or exactly the opposite, and I still find myself still chewing over which it was.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Killing Fog by Jeff Wheeler

The Killing Fog by Jeff Wheeler
Publication Date: March 1, 2020
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A patchwork of petty kingdoms, nestled in the ruins of a fallen magical empire, face a rising horror when an expedition to discover a lost city goes horribly awry.

Bingmei, who was born with pale skin and hair---a condition viewed as a 'sickness' in her homeland---and who can literally smell people's intentions, was orphaned when her mercenary parents and grandfather were murdered, and now trains for revenge. When she ends up in possession of a magical blade--one of many magical objects left behind by that now-fallen empire, whose use summons a mysterious but deadly fog to strike the wielder down---she ends up joining her mercenary band on a quest that accidentally sets in motion a series of very unfortunate events.

I'd say this read like a YA novel, but I've read too many YA novels that seemed more 'adult' than this. (And this seemed way too long for a YA novel, frankly.) I enjoyed it a lot at the start, but as the story progressed my interest waned dramatically, until by the end I was really ready for the whole thing to just be done.

There's clearly talent here, but there's a . . . simplicity? to the writing that annoyed me so much that I knocked off several stars. It constantly read like the author was terrified his readers wouldn't understand the characters' motivations, so he decided to over-explain, flat-out announcing things that should have been intuited by the reader. I glossed over that tendency at first, but the book's so much longer than its plot really needs that I really couldn't ignore it by the end.

It's hard to say this was bad; I've read bad books and this wasn't that. But it's equally hard to call this good, and  . . . that's the heart of it, I think.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Imaginary Numbers (Incryptid #9) by Seanan Mcguire

Imaginary Numbers (Incryptid #9) by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publication Date: February 25, 2020


Sarah's book! IT'S SARAH'S BOOK!

That's literally what I shouted (yes---out loud, like a lunatic) when a random package from Penguin Random House showed up on my doorstep, containing an ARC and a paper telling me I'd won one of those contests that I always enter but never, ever win, but somehow managed to win this time, and can you think of a more perfect day than that? Of course you can't. Don't lie.

(But I lied, gentle reader, because it turned out this isn't Sarah's book. Not entirely. This is Artie's book as much as Sarah's---well, at least on a 60/40ish or 65/35 split, though I'd have to crunch the page count to be sure. A fun surprise, and a welcome one; I really like Artie, and it was a lot of fun to see inside his head.)

Sarah Zellaby leaves Ohio for the Price family compound outside of Portland, mostly healed from her ordeal but very much aware she (and everyone else) is using the word 'mostly'. A dangerous encounter in the airport leads to far greater dangers descending on the House of Price, as Sarah reunites with her family, has to deal with her very complicated relationship with Artie, and is forced to face her fellow cuckoos and her own cuckoo biology.

It's difficult to say too much about the plot without being too spoilery. Suffice to say: the mice return (though I could have done with more mice! I know they're the seasoning and not the sauce---it's just that after their disappearance in the last book, I was expecting a bit more mice here than we actually get), the cuckoos descend, and by the end, nothing will ever be the same. And I mean that in the most literal way possible.

Are the cuckoos evil?

Yes.

And no.

And yes, oh god yes.

And no.

What they are, above all things, is invasive. I thought the earlier books gave us a good understanding of what that meant, but . . . prepare to learn some new stuff, children. It's gonna be a wild ride.

And that ending . . . oof. That is a big ending in and of itself, to say nothing of the potential . . . implications . . . for a certain longstanding background plot. I shall say no more than that.

Included at the end is a short story called Follow the Lady, which I'd actually recommend you read before the main book, if that makes any sense. It follows Antimony and her crew as, heading home, their car breaks down in a certain small Michigan town where they encounter a very familiar face. Much of the story is more or less a recap of the previous Antimony arc, so if you need a refresher this is actually a pretty great way to get yourself caught up.

Overall: definitely pick this up, and prepare to start whining about how the next one is a year away.

Review: Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed

Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


There are two stories here. One is the story of two longtime BFFs separated by class, race, and genius, now teetering on the cusp of adulthood and wondering how to reconcile their vastly different places in the world with an enduring friendship that might be blossoming into something more. The other is a tale of cosmic horror, of the hidden magical secrets of this world and the worlds beyond. If you'd asked me before picking this up which I'd prefer I'd have picked the latter without blinking; eldritch horror is the best of all horrors, and anyone claiming otherwise is a liar. But to my surprise, it was the story of Johnny and Nick---she a white world-famous child prodigy who has quite literally changed the world, and he the very brown working-class son of Guyanese immigrants, working at a grocery store and wondering about his future---that had me reading on.

Johnny and Nick have been BFFs since early childhood, when both were taken hostage during a terrorist attack and ended up getting shot with a single bullet, then remaining friends ever after, despite living in two very different worlds. Their relationship sits the heart of this story, and the author achieves a rapport between the two that took definite skill. Their relationship---he, unsure of his place in the world and very unsure of his place in her world, she keeping more secrets than anyone too young to drive ever should---pops off the page, with dialogue that feels fresh and real. I kind of found myself wishing I was reading a story about them facing something other than eldritch horrors, and that's pretty insane for me, cause usually I'm the person yelling that the book needs to stop with the interpersonal crap and get back to the eldritch horrors. (And oh, that ending . . .)

The main issue here is that the story really needed time to breathe. A lot more time. Once our main antagonist enters the story (and to be frank, that entity seemed less 'eldritch horror' and more 'video game villain') we're sent off on a worldwide adventure that feels oddly rushed and insubstantial. The story veers wildly from place to place, plot point to plot point, with our characters getting hit with quests and revelations and infodumps and new scenery. . . and nothing really has enough time to gel. Too often the worldbuilding felt unfinished, with Johnny giving infodumps in the place of plot development.

Overall, this had a lot of potential, and the author manages some really great rhythms between her two protagonists. But it needed to be longer than it was, with more care given to the worldbuilding.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publication Date: January 7, 2020


The latest book in the Invisible Library series is definitely better than some of the previous installments, but alas, still fails to achieve the sublime perfection of the first book. (I blame the plot's stubborn refusal to stay in Mad Victorian World, as I have dubbed Irene and Kai's current home base; none of the other worlds we see come close to matching the glorious batshittery of that one, so part of me just keeps wondering why we keep leaving the awesome world to go see so many less awesome worlds. I'd thought the events of the most recent book set up plausible ways for Kai and Irene to stay put in a plausible way, but if this book is anything to go by, that's not to be.)

The good news: It's time for a heist! It's hard to go wrong with heists. Irene, with Kai tagging along, gets roped into joining a crew of Fae (and one interesting dragon) who are stealing a mysterious painting in a version of Vienna under constant lockdown by a special government agency hunting magical creatures. (With an added twist I saw coming much sooner than I wanted to.) Along the way we learn some very interesting info about Kai's family, and then some very interesting and very dangerous info about different members of Kai's family, which seems like it'll be very relevant in future books.

The less good news: the plot meanders a bit, the heist could have been a bit better, and I had trouble differentiating between several members of the heist crew.

Overall: a good installment, but not a great one. I was entertained, which is the most important thing, and some tantalizing tidbits of dragon lore tied everything in with the overarching series plot in a reasonably interesting way. This was better than some recent installments, but again: still not quite up to the level of the first book.

Review: Frozen Orbit by Patrick Chiles

Frozen Orbit by Patrick Chiles
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Publication Date: January 7, 2020


Four astronauts blast off in a nuclear-powered ship en route to Pluto, chasing after a secret decades-old Soviet mission that went awry. (I'd recommend readers avoid this book's Amazon/Goodreads description, as it basically spoils the big reveal. And not subtly, either.)

This was . . . not to my taste. Hard science fiction soars when it explores new realms of the possible, but it's also infamous for flat characters, tedious science descriptions, and emotionless prose. Frozen Orbit, alas, falls prey to two of those three mighty sins: the characters are pretty lifeless and the prose tends to plod. Moments that should feel emotional instead feel hollow, clunky. (I actually found the scientific descriptions to be somewhat interesting, which is unusual for me in this subgenre. )

The political machinations at home seemed unrealistic, and I didn't find any of the subplots (the 'mystery' of the Soviet commander's journal, the A.I., the relations between the crew) very engaging. It takes about two-thirds of the book to actually get to Pluto, which surprised me, and not in a good way; the early sections felt almost like filler.

Overall, I thought the description made the book sound a lot more interesting than it turned out to be---in part, I suspect, because the description basically spoils the 'mystery' of what was waiting at Pluto.

I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.