Courting Dragons starts the King’s Fool mystery series. It’s set in the court of Henry
VIII and takes plase in the early sixteenth century. The main character, King’s fool Will Sommers, is based on a real
jester there.
This was a fairly
good book with a lot going on. The author weaved historical events and people into
the mix, in this case the courtship of Henry and Anne Boleyn, which served as a
background and occasionally took over from the murder mystery. The mystery
itself was interesting, even if the solution and motivations were rater lame,
after promises of spies and intrigue.
Historical
facts were well researched, and there were a lot of them, which made for a
heavy reading, especially in the beginning. However, I had trouble immersing
myself in the historical world. Mostly, I think, because of the first-person
narrative that constantly pulled me back to the present. The language was a bit
too contrived as well in its attempt to sound historical.
Will was an
interesting character. He could go about as he pleased, had the ear of
important persons, and could talk himself out of all kinds of situations. His
jests weren’t terribly funny though. His personal life was colourful with many
lovers, men and women alike, even if he only loved his Marion. He wasn’t much
of a sleuth, however, even though he got there in the end, but if you like
historical mysteries, give this a try.
I received
a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
City of Last Chances is the kind of fantasy I currently like best:
compact in scope yet telling a large story. Ilmar is a city occupied by Palleseen
invaders, a people obsessed with perfection, be it language, thoughts, or
behaviour. Religion or magic aren’t allowed—gods don’t
exist in their world view—and dissidents
are submitted to correction, i.e. hangings.
Unfortunately
for them, Ilmar is a messy city, with a forest that is a portal to unknown
worlds filled with monsters and protected by mysterious people; a district full
of ghosts that take over the living; many magical systems, and demons powering
the factories. There are several resistance factions waffling about, crime
lords and aristocrats that have their own ideas of how to get rid of the
occupiers, and seditious ideas spreading among the university students.
Seemingly
random events spark a revolution—or try to. People are swept into
events they have no control over, with no one knowing what’s really happening
or if these actions are wise. When the dust settles, nothing has changed.
The story
is told through a large cast of characters. Some play a greater role in the
events—or rather, are impacted more by them—some appear briefly, only to
instantly die. Many of them have their own agendas and all are powerless to
influence the world around them. Some rise above their selfishness, but no one
emerges as the hero of the day.
With such a
large cast, no one becomes the main character, which for me was the weakness of
the book. When a new character after another was introduced, with most of them
not driving the narrative in any way, it was difficult to take interest in
them. The few that reappeared several times were great, complex characters, and
the story would’ve been sharper and more impactful if the story had
concentrated only on them.
My
favourite was Yasnic, a priest and only follower of an exacting god. He starts
as a downtrodden and weak, but manages to carve out a slightly better life for
him and his god in the end—the only character with some sort of
growth arc. I could’ve read a whole book from his point of view. Other
characters were either tragic, or cunning enough to be able to return to their
earlier lives after the upheavals.
The pace
was slow. Descriptions of even minor characters are detailed, and the narrator directs
the story rather bluntly at times. Everything is duplicated. There are two
mysterious districts, two McGuffins—the revolution and a protective amulet—every character has their parallel or counterpart, and even some events,
like hangings, are repeated.
Small,
random events don’t so much cause the revolution as they give the characters a
reason to take part in it, even if it’s not in their interest. A tighter
narrative concentrating on the few main characters would’ve made a better
reading experience. But the ending was satisfying, which made up for the
slowness of the book. If you like character-driven fantasy, this is for you.
A Hard Day for a Hangover ends the great Sunshine Vicram trilogy—and all too soon. The mystery series of a small-town
serif and her family, friends, and ever-growing staff of uniquely talented deputies
has just found its legs and should really continue.
The last
book picks up a couple of days after the previous ended, with the
characters still recovering from the injuries they’d sustained. A lot is going
on from the start, but the main story revolves around a young woman who’s found
badly injured, which leads to the trace of similar cases.
It’s a dual
point of view investigation, as Sunshine’s daughter Auri adds her skills and
enthusiasm in the game. The two POVs were better balanced than in the previous
book, with neither dominating, and the mother-daughter duo worked well together.
The ongoing
issue with Levi and his uncle was concluded, though rather easily, considering
it’s been the main issue throughout the trilogy. The storyline likely fell
victim of the abrupt ending of the series and had to be given any kind of
closure.
The when-will-they
romance between Sun and Levi progressed in lightspeed too. Not that the readers
haven’t waited for it, but with a couple of more books, it could’ve progressed
more naturally. Also, Auri wasn’t given much time to digest the news of who her
father really is. In the end, there wasn’t enough room for romance. Levi
remained a distant character, more talked about by Sun than seen. He would’ve
needed his own point of view chapters to really make his story work.
There were many
great storylines left hanging too, like Quincy’s romance and the Dangerous
Daughters, both of which were just getting started. The series still has a lot going
for it and I hope the author will continue it after all. As things stand,
I enjoyed the book greatly. It was fun and the mystery was intriguing. And in
the end, it gave me the satisfying and emotional closure that I needed.
The Serpent in Heaven is the fourth book in Gunnie Rose alt-history fantasy series that
takes place in alternative 1930s America that has been divided to several new
countries after the Great Depression. Britannia in the east coast is ruled by
the British, and former California and Oregon form the Holy Russian Empire
ruled by the Tzar Alexei, the haemophilic son of Nikolai II, now an adult. Texas
and Oklahoma form Texoma, where the series originally took place, following
Lizbeth Rose, a sharpshooter who hires herself as a guard on dangerous missions
through the lawless state.
The
previous book moved the focus to San Diego, where the Tzar’s court is, and to the
machinations of courtiers and grigoris, the powerful magic wielders that are
allowed to operate openly in the empire. This book ditched Gunnie completely
and focused on her half-sister Felicia, who as a granddaughter of Rasputin is
one of the few people whose blood can alleviate the Tzar’s haemophilia.
The change in
the point of view was good and put a new gear in the story. In the previous
books, Felicia has been the target of people who want to kill all the Tzar’s blood
donors. Now she’s a student in a school for grigoris, trying to lay low, and going
through a freakish growth spurt that brings her up to speed with her real age,
fifteen, after her father had suppressed her growth with magic for years to
keep her safe.
But she isn’t
as unnoticeable as she had hoped. While the school empties during an epidemic
of Spanish flu, her dead mother’s family comes gunning for her. Their
motivation is a bit lame and doesn’t really justify the body-count that ensues.
Most of it was caused by Felicia who discovers she is more powerful magic
practitioner than she had known.
This was maybe
my favourite book in the series so far. The world is more familiar, there was
more magic, and the story was fairly straight-forward. Felicia was a very
different character from Gunnie, but I liked her voice and character. Having grown
up in the slums of Mexico, she was tough and resilient. However, I would’ve
liked some reaction from her to all the deaths she caused, but like with Gunnie,
they didn’t affect her at all.
The romance
was sweet, though maybe unnecessary at this point, especially with all the drama.
She’ll end up bossing Peter around if they stay together. Felix was my favourite
side character, but others were good too. Gunnie only made a cameo appearance,
but she wasn’t needed. All in all, I hope the following books continue with
Felicia’s story.
Nalini
Singh’s Guild Hunter series has advanced to its fifteenth book. What began as a
series about vampire hunting woman and her archangel, has expanded to an entire
world of vampires, angels, and archangels. In Archangel’s Resurrection the
world expands even more, tens of thousands of years into the past.
We follow Alexander
through his childhood and advancement in ranks over the millenia, until
he becomes the Archangel of Persia. He’s already thousands of years old when he
meets Zanaya who is only at the beginning of her journey to become the
Archangel of North Africa, and he’s willing to wait a thousand years more,
until they’re more equal in strength, to start their first romance.
It’s a
story of two powerful, stubborn archangels who love for a thousand years and
fight for another, only to return to each other to start the cycle of toxic
love affair again. But neither can let the other completely go, even when
Zanaya choses to sleep for ten thousand years to avoid the madness of angels.
The first
half of the book is fairly slow, the details brushed over, with only brief
moments of the two together. And when Zanaya finally awakens in the modern world,
it’s only to perish at the hands of the Archangel of Death, and so Alexander
has to wait a decade more for her to heal.
The main story
happens in the last third of the book. Zanaya and Alexander are finally mature
enough to break the cycle of stubbornness and anger and become vulnerable
enough with each other to let the other in to start a proper relationship.
There’s also some aftermath of the war with Lijuana to deal with that threatens
to destroy their newfound happiness.
Despite the
tempo difference between the two halves, this was a good book. It was
interesting to see what the long lifespan of angels does to them, and to meet
familiar names from earlier books. The toxic romance was a change of pace too
and kept the story fresh. In the end though, I couldn’t help wishing that it
hadn’t taken them quite that long to get to their senses. The ending hints at
the next romance, which will likely be even longer in the timespan than this
one. I can’t wait
to read it.
Moonlight and Magic is the fourth book in Jones’ Betwixt and Between series that follows
two forty-something women who suddenly find out that they are powerful witches, charmlings.
The first three books were about Defiance. This one is about Annette.
Having
powers came as a huge surprise to Annette, because unlike Deph, she knows who
her parents are and they’re not magical at all. So, it must mean her father isn’t
who she thought. Determined to find out the truth, she travels back home to ask
her mother about it.
Before she’s
even taken off her coat, things get out of hands. A warlock appears, but one
only she can see; a ghost of a little girl needs help, and her mother’s new man
turns out to be even more evil than the warlock—who doesn’t seem all that evil after
all.
It takes
most of the book to set things straight, before Nette can return home to Salem,
where she discovers that the warlock wasn’t who she thought—and turns out to be something better.
But the troubles follow her home. Luckily her new family—and the house—are there to help her.
This was a
good book. Fairly short, but with a good mystery and a complete plot. It’s
still difficult to imagine Nette is a grownup woman in her mid-forties, but she
was a fun character now that we get her point of view. She didn’t get to use
her new powers much, but when she did, she made a difference, in more ways than
one. And if a few things were left unsolved, like the statue, they’ll likely
continue in the next one.
The
familiar cast didn’t have a large role, but they seemed fresh through Nette’s
eyes. Nette’s mom was a good and surprising addition, and the warlock was
excellent. Ghosts and other incorporeal heroes aren’t my thing, but considering
Nette’s infatuation with Percy, the spirit controlling the house, this was an
improvement—in more ways than one. And the little cliffhanger at the end ensures I’ll
continue with the series.
Junk Magic
starts a new spin-off series, Lia de Croissets, set in the world of Chance’s Cassie Palmer and
Dorina Basarab series. While it can be read separately, it also presumes that
the reader is familiar with what’s going on in the other two series, namely the
war with gods, and how the world works, i.e. the Magic Corps, vamps, weres, and
fay. None of it is explained in any way, so a new reader to Chance may find it
difficult to understand everything that’s happening.
Accalia—Lia—de Croissets is a daughter of a war
mage and a werewolf. She hasn’t taken the bite to Change to a werewolf though,
ostensibly so that she could become a war mage, but in truth because she
carries a disease that prevents it. Because of it, she’s at odds with the were
world. And that was before she shacked up with an outcast were.
Her
boyfriend, Cyrus, has begun to rescue other outcasts, mostly teenage boys. When
one of them suddenly transform to a monster of nightmares, Lia sets out to
investigate. It leads her to a doctored drug that triggers old supernatural
genes. And then she is dosed with it herself.
This was a
familiar affair of Chance’s, with political machinations—werewolves this time instead of
vampires—sinister
villains, chapters-long, confusing battle scenes, and a powerful underdog
heroine who must face them if not alone, then vastly outnumbered. Lia was a
good MC, intelligent, resourceful, and goodhearted, and unlike Cassie, knew
what was going on the whole time. And like all Chance’s heroines, played it so
close to her heart that the villain came completely out of the blue. Moreover, missed
its mark badly this time.
Of the
supporting cast, Caleb, Lia’s war mage partner, was the only one that we’ve met
before, and I liked that he was finally given a bigger role. Cyrus, her
boyfriend, was a great character, but following a
relationship that’s been going on for a while wasn’t as satisfying as watching
a new one grow. Lia’s students and the rescued boys were a good addition, but
there were so many of them that most of them were left in the background.
All in all,
this was a good, coherent book and a great start to the series. I’ll be reading
more.
Folk Around and Find Out is the
second book in Good Folk: Modern Folktales, a spin-off series of Reid’s Winston
Brothers. The first was a let-down, but this one had a bit more kick to it.
Hank Weller
is the owner of a strip club, Charlotte Mitchell a divorced mother of four
whose husband left her with one of Hank’s strippers. Bad blood ensued, though
not from Charlotte’s side, because she’s wilfully oblivious to gossip.
Charlotte
needs an inside access to the club. Her cousin has gone missing and might be
working as a stripper there, but the girls are protective of their own and won’t
spill the beans to an outsider. First she tries to audition as a stripper, much
to Hank’s horror, as she is a church-going teacher’s aide. Eventually, she
becomes the bookkeeper. Romance ensues.
The romance
was good. It was slow with many complications like boss dating an
employee, town pariah dating a respectable woman, and a man who doesn’t like
children dating a mother. All the obstacles were won little by little. Hank and
Charlotte were believable people, and the romance grew organically. The
children were great, with their own personalities instead of just backdrops.
All the
rest was a bit off. Hank had a backstory as a rich kid turned a bad-boy, which
was referred to, but nothing was made of it. Charlotte had an odd mother who
interfered in the beginning, but it wasn’t dealt with in the end. Hank and
Charlotte had a bit of history that he didn’t remember, but which meant a lot
to her, yet it sort of went away on its own.
Charlotte
also had trouble with her ex’s family, but just as it was coming to a climax, a
deus ex machina solution in the form of Cletus Winston (who else) was handed
outside the narrative and the problem went away. None of the potential drama
outside the romance led to anything, and as a consequence the romance itself
didn’t quite reach the emotional height it could have, as it was never really
tested. The emotional payoff was in the epilogue and involved the children.
This wasn’t
a bad book, but something has changed. What felt like a charming, quirky little
town in Winston Brothers series has turned into a more realistic version with
judgemental people making the life of others difficult, just because they can.
The charm is gone and not even Beau and Cletus were able to bring it back. But
the preview of the next book at the end promises Isaak’s story which we’ve been
waiting forever, so I’ll definitely read that one too.
Set in
alternative England of 1830s, it tells the story of Robin Swift who is whisked
away from his home in China as a child to live with a demanding scholar in
England. His sole purpose is to learn languages well enough to be accepted to Babel,
an institution of translation at the heart of Oxford.
Translation
is how magic works in that world, the difference between what the words mean
powering the spells. For a long time though, magic is in the background of the story,
the focus on Robin and his companions. It’s a good narrative choice that allows
the story to explore the hostility and racism they face in the academia. At
first, academic curiosity and the honour of being in Babel carries them despite
the troubles. Little by little, magic rises to the fore and Robin comes to
understand that it isn’t for all and moreover, it’s been used for exploiting his
people, forcing him to act.
Robin is an
excellent character. He’s an observer for most of the time, with events
happening to him. And when he does act, the consequences are usually bad for
him. His story isn’t easy, and the reader is upset for him for much of the
time. His friends are each interesting too, but remain slightly distant.
This was a
hefty book, but it didn’t feel long. The narrative flows easily and the story
progresses swiftly. The historical world is well researched and believable. The
magic system is unique and not without its consequences. The footnotes didn’t
work for me as well as I’d hoped though. They don’t form a dialogue with the main
narrative like the best do, or add anything useful. Also, in the e-book version,
the superscripts were so small that I often didn’t notice them, and then I had
to try and search the text for what the footnote referred to.
Babel proves
that Miss Kuang can write with brilliance, no matter the genre or topic. I’m
definitely looking forward to what ever she chooses to publish next.
I received
a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Carnival of Ash is an alt-history novel set in the 16th century Italy, at the
time of city states. It takes place in Cadenza, a made-up city somewhere near
Venice. Where Venice takes pride in its glass industry, Cadenza’s entire
existence is based on words. Poets are revered, and the leader of the town is
chosen by his ability to turn a beautiful phrase.
And then he
dies, and a politician more concerned with finances and impending attack by
Venice is chosen to lead. It starts a series of events that plunge the city into
chaos and destruction.
This is a
book that takes the poetic form very seriously. It’s divided into twelve cantos
that each tell a story of a different character. Some of them touch the lives
of other characters who in turn get to tell their stories; some only make one
appearance. In a relatively short space, with carefully chosen words, the
reader is shown a crucial moment, or gets a longer account of the character’s
life.
At first it
seems like the form is all there is. But gradually, a story emerges. Not everyone
is happy about the state of affairs in Cadenza; not everyone revered the late
leader; not everyone becomes a great poet; and not everyone makes it to
greatness with their own words—or in their hometown.
A few
characters rise above the others. Carlo is an aspiring poet who arrives at
Cadenza just as the leader has died. With brashness of a youth, he tries to
make a name for himself, only to be ridiculed; the worst fate there is. Honour
demands that he clears his name with a glorious act, by killing himself or burning
the city. Instead, he ends up living in the basement of a burned church with an
eccentric gravedigger. Eventually, he makes friends among the poets and ends up
being at the right spot at a crucial moment.
There are
sisters Vittoria and Maddelina. The former is an ink maid whose sole purpose is
to write letters, the latter a free spirit befriending the young poets. Vittoria
is plunged into a personal crisis with the leader’s death, leaving Maddelina the
thankless job of trying to save her.
Then there
is a group of women convicted of real or imaginary crimes to live in a convent
with their tongues removed, their sole task to remove all mentions of the rivals
of the former leader from the books. After his death, the women decide to take
revenge on him by removing his memory, but things get out of hands.
Even the
characters that make only a brief, onetime appearance have interesting stories.
There’s a murder mystery and a delightful union of long-lost lovers. They may
seem like separate stories, but each contribute to the whole, telling a story of
corruption and a fall out of glory. And all the while, behind the scenes, the
ordinary people of Cadenza prepare to take to arms to clear the town of poets
and the tyranny of words for good.
This was an
excellent book. The world felt authentic, even though it didn’t pile on
historical details, and even with some fantastical elements in the mix, it didn’t feel purely like historical fantasy, although it is marketed as such. The characters were all interesting, and
the slowly unfurling descend into chaos was believable. Language was beautiful,
and in the end, the form served the story very well. If you like historical
fiction, alt-history, or historical fantasy, this is a book for you.
I received
a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
(Spoilers ahead. I tried to avoid anything explicit, but it’s impossible to review the book without them.)
The Thief (The
Queen’s Thief 1) was originally published in 1996 and was well received with
several awards and nominations. It’s now been reissued by a new publisher to
reach a new generation of readers.
I belong to
the generation that would’ve read the book when it originally came out, but I
hadn’t. I think I would’ve loved it then. However, time has done its thing, and
it hasn’t been altogether kind to it.
The book
follows Gen, a thief who is made to join a mission to steal a piece out of
mythology, located in an enemy kingdom. It’s either that or remain in the gaol,
so off he goes with a nameless magus (if his name was ever given, it wasn’t
used again), his two apprentices, and a man of arms.
They sneak
into the enemy kingdom through mountains. It’s slow going and the narrative is
slowed more by a bunch of completely unnecessary stories about gods. You can
skip them all. With a great difficulty, they finally achieve their impossible
task. And then things go wrong.
The book is
narrated by Gen in the first-person point of view, and if I recall correctly,
there weren’t many of those in fantasy back when the book first came out. It
was a very odd choice for the story, and it wasn’t done very skilfully, especially
when the story required other peoples’ point of view. The narrative was very
impersonal, and in parts he just told what happened, even the dialogue. A brief
sample of the next book at the end has a third person POV and it worked better.
Even though
we spend the whole book with Gen, we learn absolutely nothing about him. I don’t
know his age even. He has no inner monologue. He observes the others, but rarely
comments and never in a meaningful way that would relate to him. Even when he
is in charge, the reader isn’t with him, except for the brief part where he
does the actual stealing.
The
narrative is so impersonal, that for the entire book, I was convinced Gen is a
woman. I know he was referred to as ‘he’ already at the beginning, but nothing
about him made me believe it. He didn’t sound like a man inside his head. He
didn’t even need to shave after having been in a gaol for a long time, even
though a great show was made of washing him otherwise. I kept expecting the other
shoe to drop, but it never did. Nevertheless, I think the story worked fine, if
not better, with my version of him.
The reason
for the odd narrative is revealed at the end when it turns out that the whole
story is a lie. The reason Gen plays everything so close to his chest is
because he lies not only to his companions but to the reader as well. And I hated
it. It’s not the clever twist the author probably intended it to be. It’s just disgustingly
lazy, aching to ‘it was just a dream’ ending. Nothing we learned about him is
true (except the gender, apparently). So, in a way, it was good I wasn’t invested
in him, and that I imagined him as a woman. My version was as true as what the
readers got.
The stupid
ending ruined the book, prompting me to give it two stars. However, since I was
fairly entertained until that point, and liked most of the story, slow and
old-fashioned though it was, I’m giving it three stars. But I won’t be reading
the rest of the series.
I received
a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Golden Enclaves ends The Scholomance trilogy, and what a wild ride it has been. El,
the sourly mage-to-be, has spent four years trying not to become an evil maleficer
in the school for mages that has tried its best to kill her. She’s desperately
trying to avoid fulfilling the prophecy of her as a destroyer of enclaves, the safe
havens of mages. She’s now out of the school, which she has destroyed, and she’s
saved everyone. All except Orion Lake, the boy she’s reluctantly come to love.
The book begins
right from the cliff-hanger ending of the previous one. Orion has pushed El out
of the school and stayed behind to fight a maw-mouth, the worst monster there
is, a hungering blob that devours the living, never stopping. She tries to save
him, but he won’t let her.
Grieving
and traumatised, she’s moping in her mother’s yurt in the healing commune, when
her friends from London enclave ask her help in killing a maw-mouth, a near-impossible
feat which she’s done before. Someone’s attacking the enclaves by emptying them
from their protective magic, which either plunges them into the void, killing everyone
inside, or weakens the wards, opening them for monster attacks.
With
nothing better to do, she sets out to help, with her friends facilitating her,
as her ability to survive the outside world is sketchy at best, thanks to her isolated
childhood in the commune. And then she learns the secret behind the enclaves,
the evil magic they’re based on. She has to decide, if she wants to save the
enclaves, or become the destroyer of the prophecy after all. It’s not an easy decision and nothing in the book is black and white, good or evil. Everything she does has consequences, and some of them are catastrophic.
This was an
excellent book and a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy. The book moves
smoothly from one disaster to another, forcing El to reveal exactly how
powerful she is. All her closest friends are with her, ready to help, which she’s
sort of coming to terms with. She isn’t without enemies who have waited for her
to graduate for a long time, but she also learns that she has allies and a
family that loves her.
And she doesn’t
give up on Orion, if her plan basically is to kill the maw-mouth that got him. But
he has a surprise for her—and the reader. Orion has been a tragic figure from the start, an
exploited hero who wants nothing more than to help others by killing monsters.
I badly wanted a good ending for him, even if it would mean putting him out of
his misery. It’s not an easy decision for El, but in the end, she knows what
she must do—which was nothing I could’ve predicted.
An ending
to a great trilogy is seldom perfect, but I am perfectly satisfied with this
one. It’s not a fairy-tale or happily-ever-after ending, but it’s good enough
for everyone, and it suits the world and the characters. And El may even have
found a way to become content after all.
A Sense of Danger is urban fantasy spy mystery and romance that was meant to be a
stand-alone and reads as such. It follows Charlotte and Desmond who work for
Section 47 in Washington DC, a black-ops agency employing paramortals, people
with special abilities, who hunt paramortal terrorists. Not only is the agency highly
secret, ordinary humans don’t know about paramortals.
Charlotte
Locke is in her mid-thirties and an analyst for the Section. Her magic allows
her to see written errors and untruths, which is useful when tracking evil
people. She can also hear if a person is speaking the truth or lying, and she can
sense danger. She’s very good at her job, but frustrated, because her immediate
supervisor keeps blocking her reports. On the private front, she’s swamped with
debt from medical bills, which forces her to have a second job as a waitress.
Desmond
Percy is a cleaner, aka an assassin for the Section, and excellent at his job.
He can manipulate energy from electricity, which among other things allows him
to heal fast. He’s recently survived an attempt to his life that killed his
partner, and he’s on a private mission to find a mole inside the Section who
leaked their location to a terrorist he’s been after. This brings him to
Charlotte, who is currently investigating a terrorist connected with his.
They’re
ordered to work together in a sting operation to capture the terrorist. But
they’re privately trying to find the mole, all the while knowing that everything
they do will be leaked to the terrorist if they’re not careful. And they know
too that they both have private agendas, which makes it difficult for them to
trust each other.
This was an
action-packed mystery with enough twists that I couldn’t immediately guess who
the mole was and even then I didn’t know everything. It’s told from the first-person
point of view of both Charlotte and Desmond, giving the reader a good insight
to them. I liked them, but I especially liked that Charlotte wasn’t a nerdy or
stupid damsel who stumbles on the truth and needs to be rescued by Desmond from
her ineptitude. She was a stone-cold killer who went after the mole with unwavering
determination. That left Desmond with a supporting role, but he was mature enough
to handle it. Romance was slow burn, but satisfying.
The only
thing that left me wanting was Desmond’s backstory. He’s the son of a man high-up
in charge of the Section and their relationship isn’t good. Much is made of it,
but the father doesn’t even make an appearance. I found this especially surprising
since Desmond had forged the father’s clearance for his operation. I kept
expecting some kind of confrontation or consequence for it, but it didn’t come.
Since this
was meant as a stand-alone, the ending is conclusive, but it also leaves an opening
for more books. And luckily, the next one is arriving already in November.
Looking forward to reading it.
Jennifer
Estep is a prolific writer of fantasy and urban fantasy, but Only Bad Options, Galactic Bonds 1, is her first sci-fi novel. It has action and some romance,
but mostly it’s about the trauma of being abandoned and maybe finding someone
to ease the loneliness with.
The world
is a combination of science and magic, a collection of psionic abilities, where
the latter complements the first, like in making new technological innovations.
Humanity has spread all over the galaxy, there’s faster than light travel, and
no non-human people. Everything is clean and technologically advanced, and if
there’s suffering, it isn’t shown. Much of the world is derivative, but
everything works within the framework of the book.
There is a
constant war going on between aristocratic Regals who mostly have psionic
abilities, a technological alliance no one knows anything about, and a third faction
that mostly control the raw material like minerals. All the technological advancements
are in the service of the war.
Vesper
Quill is a developmental engineer working for a Regal family that manufactures
weapons and spaceships for the ruler of the galaxy. She has some magic that
helps her see how tech works, which she has put to a good use, only to have
others steal her designs.
A spaceship
has crashed and she’s the only one who knows it was because of a technical flaw
in the design. When she tells the leader of the family the truth, she suddenly
finds her neck deep in trouble on a war zone. Her only options are to die or to
find an ally that is likeliest to survive.
Kyrion
Coldren is a Regal and the leader of Arrows, the ruler’s special forces who fight
with a combination of weapons and psionic abilities. He’s feared throughout the
galaxy as the ruler’s assassin. When he’s injured in a battle, he finds himself
being saved by Vesper, which forms a galactic bond between them—a connection between two people, romantic
and non-romantic, both metaphysical and physical—a much desired but incredibly rare occurrence.
And he instantly wants to break it, by killing Vesper if nothing else works.
Little by
little, they form a truce and then alliance. She’ll help him figure out who
tried to kill him, and he’ll help her to reveal the truth about the design flaw
in the spaceships. After that, they’ll break the bond and go their separate ways.
But nothing is ever as easy as that.
This was a
great book with mature characters who had believable backstories and a lot of
baggage. The romance was very slow, taking all the steps from enemies to
neutrals and then friends, without quite reaching the lovers stage. That will
hopefully happen in the latter books. The narrative was first person from the
point of view of both Vesper and Kyrion, which gave a deeper insight into them.
I liked both, separately and together.
There weren’t
all that many side characters and only a couple of them had a meaningful role
in the story. Bad guys were thoroughly bad, but there were a few characters that
might have been either way, making them a bit more interesting.
The book
was full of action, intrigue, and betrayals, some healing and a lot of
self-discovery. It didn’t quite have the emotional impact that the best of
Estep’s books have, but I’m sure that’ll change in the upcoming books. The
ending was satisfying, but open enough for me to look forward to reading what
happens next.
The Viper
is the third book in Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp, a spin-off
series of the original BDB. It follows a group of vampires and wolven falsely
imprisoned in a cruel prison, sometimes for centuries.
Kane, a
vampire aristocrat, has been in the prison for two centuries accused of killing
his shellan (wife). In the first book, he sacrificed himself by detonating a
bomb to save two people fleeing the prison, and though he didn’t die, he’s in
such a bad shape that he can’t heal himself.
Nadya is a
nurse caring for Kane in the prison. She’s not a prisoner, but she doesn’t want
to live in the outside world because an attack has left her physically deformed.
As she takes care of Kane, she starts to think of him as more than a patient,
someone she could love—if only he wasn’t about to die.
The third
book starts where the previous ended. The remaining two prisoners of the group,
with the help of third who managed to escape in the previous book, escape the
prison and take Kane with them. They take him to a wolven healer/goddess, who
heals him by making him a vessel for a viper god, which essentially makes him a
viper-shifter. The first thing he does is head back to prison to save Nadya.
This was
maybe the best book in the series so far. We’re familiar with the people and
the setting, and Kane and Nadya had known each other for a long time, so the
romance doesn’t feel forced or instantaneous. There’s a solid side-plot between
Apex, one of the prisoners, and Callum, a wolven, and the way it was left in
this book promises a difficult journey for them in the next one. And V’s drama
was at minimum, a rather sweet side-quest with Payne, his sister that has
mostly been absent in the BDB books.
However, the romance
remained secondary again, buried under the action and other drama, and its
emotional impact was a bit light. But if you’re looking for UF action with a
side of a romance, this series is great for that.
No Land for Heroes is a Western fantasy set in a world much like post-Civil War US, with
elves, dragons, and other non-human people. It has a solid plot at its core.
Milly Berry, an elf, is a veteran of a civil war. She’s done some questionable
things during the war and is badly traumatised. Now she only wants to live in
peace in an out-of-the map town as its deputy. But her former commander and the
source of much of her trauma finds her and she must defend herself, her family,
and friends.
The book
didn’t settle with the core story though. There were several point-of-view
characters with their own stories that didn’t contribute to the plot (I’m
looking at you Jeb). Gilbert, the love interest, sort of had a backstory that
mattered, but he was made to sit out the part that concerned him. It created a
very messy story that left the reader feeling let down for investing in the
unimportant characters. Added to that were confusing details, like Milly having
twins, only for it to turn out one was adopted, but only after a conversation
that made me think less of her people. No explanation was given why, even though
we did learn who the mother of the other child was.
Characters
were unlikeable and their interactions odd. Milly with her traumas was the only
one worth following. Gilbert was a jerk who kept propositioning women ‘for good
fun’ and passing judgement on everyone he met. I wouldn’t have chosen him as
the love interest, but luckily that part of the story was at minimum and unromantic anyway. Jeb, for all that his story was an add on, was the only one
who felt like a real person.
My biggest
issue was with the worldbuilding. It was basically a Western setting, a
frontier town in a world that was recovering from a civil war to free slaves.
The core plot fit that setting, and would’ve worked fine in real world too. The
fantasy elements didn’t feel integral to the world or the story. The dragon
existed solely as a gimmick that had to be killed in the end, and the magic was
mostly to heal wounds that weren’t even life-threatening. Religions were derivative
and glued on, and the non-human people had no real purpose except to exist as
oddities.
The worst
thing by far, however, was replacing the Native Americans with elves. When the
world is so obviously based on ours, replacing an integral part of it with
fantasy creatures who then appropriate the entire culture with tomahawks,
tipis, and mohawks stood out like a sore spot. I’m not an indigenous person,
but even I foundit really upsetting. If you
want elves, give them their own culture. Black people too were replaced by orcs
who worked as servants and were referred to by their grey skin. I was slow to
figure that one out though. And why does the banker family in a fantasy world have Jewish names and their own special religion, Carpenter, by which they’re constantly referred to?
All in all,
this was a mess that could’ve used a sensitivity reader and heavy editing. But
if you like Westerns with a strong female lead and can ignore the fantasy
elements, then this is for you.
I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In the Serpent’s Wake continues directly from where the first book, Tess of the Road,
ended. Tess is journeying again, this time over the sea to the freezing, uncharted
southern archipelagos full of mysterious peoples, in search of another world serpent
to save her quigutl friend Pathka, and to spy for her queen. No one knows the
way, but that doesn’t stop them from trying.
Unlike the
first book, this isn’t a journey (voyage?) into Tess herself, her trauma and
redemption. She has been sent to observe how a rivalling nation treats the
southern colonies they’ve conquered, and whether or not her queen should do
something about it. She isn’t entirely free from her past though. There’s Spira,
a dragon she has wronged, and Will, the man who is the cause of Tess’s trauma.
Tess isn’t
the sole point of view character anymore. We follow Spira through their
identity crisis, and Countess Marga, the leader of the expedition, who is
forced to face the consequences of her privilege; Hama, the Watcher protecting
the serpent, and occasional other characters, like Tess’s brother-in-law Jacomo
who had followed her in the shadows through the first book to his own redemption story. Not all of
them moved the story forward. Spira’s story especially was more a parallel one
without impact, although it was interesting, and some were unnecessary in
hindsight and only lengthened the book.
This is a
large story told in a relatively short space, and one that takes it well out of young adult category to adult fantasy. Over and over again, Tess witnesses
the oppression and subduing of the native peoples in the hands of the outsiders,
an open criticism of the colonialism in our world and the harm it has caused. She
has a great need to help them, but everything she tries either fails, makes
things worse, or is met with scorn, as she behaves like only the ‘civilised’ world
can bring salvation to the natives. In the end, she learns to ask, what do the
people themselves need and want.
By the time
the story reaches that point, the book rather abruptly ends. Tess would finally
have the means to navigate the natives’ lands to the serpent, only for her
journey to end and Pathka to leave with the natives. She is sent home with a
vague prophecy of the task ahead of her. It left her story so open that I hope
there will be at least one more book that gives her a conclusion. I would hate
to see her journey end here.
Tess of the Road is a spin-off of Hartman’s wonderful Seraphina duology. They’re set in a
world of shapeshifting dragons, lizard-like quigutl, and humans. It’s a
pre-technology world, but with clever gadgets the quigutl invent, like long-distance
communication devices.
Tess is
Seraphina’s human half-sister. She’s seventeen, deeply unhappy, and suffering
from a trauma that is only alluded to at first. Her sole focus is to get her twin
sister Jeanne into a good marriage, hoping it’ll absolve her past and set her
free. But when the marriage is accomplished and she’s still being punished, she
walks away—and keeps walking.
A chance encounter
with a childhood friend, a quigutl Pathka, gives her a destination and purpose.
He wants to find a world serpent, a creature from quigutl mythology that no one
else believes even exists. Together he and Tess, disguised as a young man, set
out to find a creature that calls Pathka in his dreams.
The journey
to the snake is long and eventful. But the events themselves aren’t as
important to Tess as what she learns on the journey about herself. Little by
little, the tangles of her past open, and the reader learns about the trauma that
haunts her. She has imagined herself in love with a young man who promised to
marry her, only to get her pregnant, and then leave. But even that story has
deeper layers, and the trauma they have caused rushes to the surface in bursts
of violence when events trigger her.
It's not an
easy road to recovery for her, and in her eagerness, she often causes more harm—even irreparable—than good. But by the time of the
final call to come home, she’s grown and healed enough to know, that it isn’t
her home anymore.
This was a
wonderful book about healing and forgiving oneself. Tess started as a troubled girl
and grew into a self-confident, determined woman. Pathka, as her companion, was
an excellent character too, suitably alien and with his own family trouble that mirrored Tess’s
relationship with her mother. Seraphina seemed like a different person when seen
through the eyes of an outsider but remained unique. Other characters were more
fleeting, existing to help Tess on her journey and then left behind. Some will
perhaps resurface in the latter book, but if Seraphina duology is anything to
go by, permanent, romantic relationships won’t be the goal.
This is
marketed as young adult fantasy, and as a growth-story, it is that. But the
trauma of Tess’s past and her journey to forgiveness are both triggering and
profound in a way that adults will appreciate the book as well. I will
definitely read the next book too.
