Saved by the Spell by Tanya Huff: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Saved by the Spell by Tanya Huff

Saved by the Spell is cozy urban fantasy set in modern day Ontario, Canada. The country doesn’t really feature except in odd mention of ice hockey and a few words in French here and there, and neither do spells, despite the name. The magic in this world is inherent and springs from within and doesn’t require spellcasting.

The book description is a bit off too, the Goodreads one even more than others, as it gets even the name of the one character it names wrong. This isn’t a story from the point of view of the Hero, or the students. The main character and the first-person narrator is Abigail Bellman, the English teacher at the High School for Magical Arts. She’s also the homeroom teacher for 9th graders who have just started at the school after passing a rigorous test. Only forty is accepted to each High School for Magical Arts out of millions.

It’s the first day of school, and the teachers are in various states of excitement and dread. But things start going wrong from the introductory event onwards and every time something does, one student in Abby’s homeroom class stands out. By the end of the day, Abby can only come to one conclusion: the student is a Hero. Problem is, narrative requires that there’s also a Villain, and that spells disaster. Since the student is Abby’s responsibility, so is finding the Villain.

Abby sets out to discover who the Villain could be while handling her classes and trying to keep the students safe among increasingly bizarre incidents. It’s a bit haphazard investigation, not proper sleuthing. But she’s determined to protect the Hero. She’s hoping for an outsider, but she’s not that lucky. The Villain is someone from their school. But while she uncovers A Villain, has she found one for their particular Hero, or is there another Hero?

This was a nice and cozy book. It’s basically only two acts, with the discovery of the Villain and the final confrontation happening pretty much simultaneously while the investigation seems to be only getting started. It doesn’t really matter; unlike some books that skip the third act, this felt satisfying enough. I guessed the Villain from early on, but that didn’t matter either. It’s not without its triggers though. If you’re a teacher, this feels too much like reality of school life, with maybe slightly less angsty and nicer students than average school.

Abby is a good main character, resourceful and resilient, and a good teacher. She’s also a bit of a cardboard. For all that she’s the first-person narrator and we spend the entire book inside her head, we learn almost nothing about her beyond a few factoids. Even her age and looks are obscure, and she has no hopes, dreams or fears outside school and work. But she comes alive enough through her work and is easy to root for.

The students were a delightful bunch, and came across more human through Abby’s observations of them. There’s some representation (Abby’s bi, one student’s parent is trans), but it’s not forced; it’s simply how things are. And there’s no romance, despite the hunkiness of the principle [sic] being constantly brought up. The world turned out to have an interesting backstory, and the Hero’s job isn’t done yet. But that will not happen here.

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

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture (Novel), Vol. 7 by Mikage Sawamura: review

4.5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's conjecture vol.7 by Mikage Sawamura

It’s been well over a year since the previous volume was published, and it’s been a long wait. The collection of short stories titled EX came out a couple of months ago and was delightful, but as they were separate stories from many points of view, it wasn’t quite the same, though it was fun to see the main characters from the outside perspective.

Volume 7 is titled What Sleeps Beneath the Story and it takes place in fall of Naoya’s second year at the university. There are three mysteries. First one is about a missing student. Inspired by one of Takatsuki’s lectures, he’s played a game where one tries to access another world by a lift. A friend of his tries to find him. Naturally, Takatsuki and Naoya have to try the game themselves. The explanation is surprising, sad, and mundane once again.

The second mystery reconnects the two with Tooyama, the architect who suffers from the same problem as Naoya, and for the same reason too, having visited the Obon festival of the dead. They’ve been a bit distant after the events in spring when Takatsuki and Naoya went back and almost died. But now he needs their help. A construction of villas has stalled, because an old woman is defending a marsh where a guardian spirit lives. Again, the story turns out to have a sad and mundane explanation.

The third mystery is about a restaurant selling mermaid meat. Obviously Takatsuki wants to explore. It reconnects them with Sae, the mermaid woman they’ve met a couple of times before, but not since she saved their lives in the land of the dead. Not that Takatsuki remembers it, thanks to the other inside him who took away his memories. This mystery too turned out to be mundane, but a bit gruesome. It also connects them with Hayashibara, a detective from Kenji’s department who was introduced in EX and whom Kenji had hoped to keep away from Takatsuki.

This was a good volume, even if it wasn’t as exciting as the previous one or at all scary. There’s a Halloween party at Takatsuki’s office that once again makes Naoya realise he isn’t as isolated as he intended to be. He reflects the same with Tooyama, who clearly has had to keep himself away from people. And the girl with a crush on him makes an appearance. The previous mention was in EX and was told on Nanba’s point of view, so it was nice to have Naoya’s view. And there was proper interaction with Naoya and the other Takatsuki. Naoya was able to ask him questions that had troubled him, like why it insists that he smells of the underworld. Takatsuki had hoped that Sae would be able to tell him more about the other, but she doesn’t recognise it.

Naoya has become more active in the course of the books, reflecting how he’s coming out of his shell. He’s more natural in his interactions with Takatsuki and in his friendship with Nanba. And he learned a new truth about himself from the other Takatsuki that he was able to accept more easily than he would’ve earlier. And Sae has a warning for him and Takatsuki both about how they should hang onto their humanity lest they lose it.

There was no cliffhanger ending and the mysteries were complete. But I’m definitely eagerly waiting for the next volume to find out where their journey takes them next.

Threads of Red by Julie Wright: review

2.75 stars on Goodreads

Threads of Red by Julie Wright

Threads of Red is based on Red Riding Hood. Red lives in a small farm with her sister and parents. They’re poor, but their mother has plans for Kristell, the younger sister, to marry a rich boy. Kristel doesn’t want to, but their scary mother always gets her way. Kristell’s attempt to flee her fate sets the main story into motion. She’s fatally poisoned, and Red has to go to find a way to heal her from their grandmother who has been ostracised to a cottage deep in scary woods. For some reason, Goldi, Red’s rival for the affections of Carrigan, and Carrigan, follow. On their way there, they face obstacles and uncover a secret plot.

First up, this is not a romance or a love story. It does feature two suitors, one for each sister, but both are wet blankets there to fulfil a role as a prop. One of them finds some backbone, but the other remains a tool till the end. The hated suitor Kristell flees from isn’t shown once.

This is not solely a Red Riding Hood retelling either, although that’s the main element. It’s a mishmash of all classic stories. There’s Goldilocks, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, at least. I’m sure the author was clever, but the elements of those stories sprang out of nowhere, and the plot of the book followed. A treason emerged out of blue with no grounding in the world or backstory, or even a hint that it might be in works. A mildly evil character turned into a supervillain of long making with zero foreshadowing.

This is a story of women: mother, daughter, grandmother, and a frenemy turned BFF. As such, it works ok. It mostly comes alive in the friendship of Red and Goldi, where the author had to actually invent something instead of relying on fairytale elements. The relationship between Red and her mother was too much based on evil stepmother trope to be interesting, the sister was absent for most of the story, and grandmother showed up late.

Mostly though, this was boring. The setup took forever, the story local didn’t come to life at all, the journey through the forest had minor inconveniencies that had nothing to do why the forest would be a forbidden place for decades, and while Red dealt with the main bad, the solution to the story was conducted outside the pages. The suitor was handed to her on a platter when the rival retreated. I’m guessing they live happily ever after, but that’s where the story diverged from its fairytale origins, leaving it for the readers to imagine.

I was about to give the book three stars, but Goodreads introduced quarter stars in time for this review, so it’ll get 2.75 stars where those apply.

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

City of Others by Jared Poon: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

City of Others by Jared Poon

City of Others starts The DEUS Files urban fantasy series. It’s set in Singapore, which isn’t exactly overused in books directed at western markets, and follows DEUS, Division for Engagement of Unusual Stakeholders. It’s a government department whose job it is to keep the supernatural community, the Others, happy and out of sight.

The main character and first-person narrator is Benjamin Toh, middle manager in his early thirties and the leader of a three-person team, four if you count the intern. None of them are regular humans, not that their boss knows it. Mei is a witch, Jimmy a diviner, and the intern is a jinn.

Ben is Gardener, basically a cultivator of Chinese xianxias, but in a very concrete way. Inside him is a huge forest that represent his abilities, memories and powers, which he prunes and grows to have extraordinary powers like healing. Ben is Chinese, an only child of a widowed father with whom he has a rather strained relationship, and gay. He’s a very responsible person who thinks it’s his job to protect everyone, take all the risks and handle everyone’s jobs for them. He’s gotten away with it most of his life and doesn’t see a problem in his way of thinking.

Ben’s plate is overflowing with tasks from handling complaints of the other, organising his team for the sports day, and arranging permits for his childhood best friend’s undead ducklings. Somewhere he needs to find time for the guy he’s been seeing, Adam, and being on time for dinner with his dad for at least once.

But then an impending doom takes precedence. An entire housing estate is vanishing and people there are acting odd. The cause turns out to be a fellow Gardner who is infecting people with his grief, making it spread and gain so much weight the area is sinking into other dimension. Good thing is that Adam turns out to be an expert of this dimension. Bad thing is that the grief is attracting predators that will destroy the entire city. The team faces an impossible task, made even more difficult because Ben is incapable of team work. It’s high time he learns before it’s too late.

This was a delightful series starter. The cast is diverse, setting is fresh, and supernatural different from the usual. The obvious comparison is Black Water Sister by Zen Cho set in Malaysa, and City of Others suffers a little from it. Singapore is culturally, religiously and ethnically diverse, but the various cultures don’t really come to life here. Characters aren’t described, other than a random reference to a person being Chinese, Tamil or Malay, which doesn’t really tell anything to a western reader, and everyone has a western name, which obscures things further. Singapore itself doesn’t really feature either, and the book could be set anywhere.

But the case is interesting, with twists and turns. Ben’s team is good and Adam is great. Ben grows a lot and his life is better at the end of the book than it was at the beginning. And there will be more books in the series too. I’ll definitely read them.

A Complement of Scoundrels by S.V. Lockwood: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

A Complement of Scoundrels by S.V. Lockwood

A Complement of Scoundrels is set in a secondary world with steampunk-ish elements (no steam) and magic, magic-based technology and technology-based magic. It has an early 20th century feel to it, but it’s not an alt-earth. It’s the author’s debut novel and a very good one at that.

Myria, a young criminal, has been given a chance to lead a team for the first time to break into an unbreakable vault. Against all odds, they succeed, only to be betrayed by their crime boss. Three years later, when she’s released from a prison, she’s ready for her revenge. All she needs to do is to find her old crew and give a slip to the government official who’s supervising her. It’s all easy—until it isn’t. The nice young man watching over her wasn’t as gullible as she believed, and now they’re working for a new boss.

Felix used to be one of the strongest magic users in the military, until pulling off an impossible feat in a battle burned out all his magic, permanently crippling his abilities. The army won’t follow a leader who’s unable to repeat the feat, so he gave the credit to his general in exchange for a cushy government job. But he’s bored out of his mind, so when he’s given the mystery that is Myria, he decides to investigate. What he learns makes him involve his old general.

The task is to take down a popular politician right before the election. Myria and her team know he’s their old crime boss using their stolen magic to fool the country. Felix and the general simply see him as an opponent to the general’s brother, the current leader. But nothing is simple in this story where a conman is against a conman and double-crossing is the name of the game.

This was a great stand-alone fantasy caper. It’s exactly and solely about the con. There are no side-stories or quests, there are no backstories, and no romance. The buildup to the start of the job takes half the book, and while it feels slow at times, the story flows constantly forward. The actual con had so many twists and turns, that it was impossible to guess where it was going or if the team could pull it off.

Myria was a great character, single-minded in her focus on revenge, but not consumed by it. She believed that the original betrayal was her fault and worked to make things right. She was clever and funny at times, and while she operated from the handicap of never having had magic—it had been stolen when she was a child—she never let that slow her down. Felix was a good complement to her and the team with his moral core that got slightly compromised along the way, but never veered completely off.

All characters existed only here and now. We don’t learn anything about their past, Myria the exception and only a small one. It worked fairly well, the characters coming to life through their abilities. Felix was maybe the most sympathetic in his struggle to come to terms with losing his magic. But while I rooted for the characters and liked all of them, I was never terribly emotionally invested in them.

The strength and weakness of the book lay on its worldbuilding. It’s amazingly complicated and complex, and very opaque to the reader. We never really learn all there is to it, as nothing is explained. There’s all sort of technology, magic operating cars and airships, heavy reliance on magic in everything, whether inherent or tech assisted, and criminals stealing peoples’ magic to operate it all. But what really works is that the con itself is completely based on the special features of the world and could only exist within the context of it, making it unique and entertaining.

All in all, this was a great debut that delivered exactly what it set out to deliver, an entertaining story with a light emotional impact. The ending was good and tied all the lose ends, leaving the reader confident that the characters continue their lives after it’s ended—and maybe return for a different job. I’d read it.

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