Category: Reading

Voting for the Hugo Awards

One of the privileges of a WorldCon membership – whether you’re attending the convention or just supporting the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) with a membership – is the ability to nominate and vote on the Hugo Awards. After the committee filtered through the nominees to determine the top six in each of fifteen categories, they assembled a Voter Packet that was made available to the membership. That Voter Packet includes a mix of excerpts, entire books, trailers for one movie and a couple movies in their entirety.

In terms of quantity of material to review, it was certainly overwhelming. I made a deliberate effort to read the material provided in the Novels, Short Stories, and Astounding New Writer categories, and was lucky enough to have seen half of the movies already. As I polished off what I was going to make it through in a specific category, I logged into my ballot and updated that section. Pictured below is the Novella category with no votes logged.

Screenshot of 2024 Hugo nominees for the Best Novella category

Each category starts will all items listed as Unranked; you select the numbers one through six for each item you’re voting on. You may also use the No Award option at the bottom, if you think none of the nominated works deserve the award. You don’t have to rank all six items, and you can place the No Award in between rankings if you think some items should earn an award and some shouldn’t.

Oddly, to me at least, there is betting on the Hugo Awards. I only found out about that because there was some fraudulent voting in this year’s process that the committee identified and removed from the counts. Regardless, the entire process of assembling the nominees, and Voter Packet, and tabulating the votes is tremendous effort by a team of volunteers. I applaud them and appreciate the new literature this process has exposed me to.

Thoughts on Witchy Winter

Sans spoilers, because I’m nice that way.

Normally when I receive an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of a book, it’s a few months before the publication date. Witchy Winter by D.J. Butler actually released in 2018, and joined my collection within the last year. One of the prizes for a reading challenge at our local library (they now have multiple challenges each year, including winter and summer) was the option to select a book.

You may be familiar with this problem… you’re presented with a decent selection of books across multiple genres, and you’re only allowed to pick one. How do you pick???

Our library simplified the process with some highlights about the book, helping narrow down the selection before flipping to the back covers to read the marketing blurbs. With highlights sticking out of every book, it reduced the immediate list to two or three books. One thing that jumped out for me, as an Illinois resident, was the mention of Cahokia; we visited the site in 2013 near the end of our big roadtrip.

This book hit so many high points for me: well-developed characters, multi-threaded plotlines tying together, various types of magic, and a neat alternate history that still has Europeans in the Americas while retaining Native American civilizations.

But… it’s the second book in the series. There are enough references to the first book that I could probably get away without reading it, yet enough hits at the past action that I definitely want to backtrack. Having just read Witchy Winter, I can then skip to books three and four.

Given the choice, I’d suggest you start with book one, Witchy Eye.

Let’s talk about sex.

More specifically, let’s talk about how we talk about sex.

I read a fantasy novel recently (shocking, I know) that had some fairly explicit sex scenes between consenting adults. The scenes were well written, except for the male character – who has already acknowledged his promiscuity – periodically referring to his partner as aberrant or amoral because she was interested and actively engaged in their sexual encounters. And every time he did, it wrenched me out of the scene I was reading.

I can break down what bothered me about this into two main categories:

  • Barring any religious or personal beliefs on the participants’ parts (and there were none at play here) that restrict when they have sex or who they have it with, it is a natural process and should not be viewed as aberrant or amoral.
  • There’s the inherent sexism of a promiscuous male referring to his partner that way when they were both clearly enjoying themselves. Frankly, the concept that women don’t enjoy sex is outdated and detrimental to the survival of our species.

As a society, we need to accept that there are people who enjoy sex, just as we should understand that there are some people who have no interest in it. There should be no shame in either choice.

Thoughts on Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Last year, I briefly mentioned Brandon Sanderson’s amazing, record-setting Kickstarter for the four secret books he had written during the pandemic lockdown. (This was in addition to the books he was openly working on.) Not surprisingly, I bought into that Kickstarter, receiving a digital copy of each book on the first day of each quarter this year. I recently finished the third book, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and realized I hadn’t mentioned any of them here. Brandon Sanderson states that this is his personal favorite of the Secret Projects; mine (so far) was the first one: Tress of the Emerald Sea.

In this novel, the protagonists Yumi and Nikaro (aka Painter) both have fantastical jobs, which means they have jobs that are specific to the world the story is written in; these are not jobs that are recognizable in our world. Yumi is a Chosen One, one of fourteen young women who through ritual rock stacking can summon spirits and bind them to different uses for society. Nikaro is one of many nightmare painters, tasked with guarding a city from the living nightmares that creep in and feed off people’s fear while they sleep. Nightmare painters capture the nightmares by focusing on them while capturing them on canvas as something harmless. Through a spirit’s cry for help, Yumi and Nikaro are linked magically and tasked with helping each other’s world through their struggles.

This is an easy book to read, especially if you have time to read it all in one sitting. It has all the unexpected twists and fantastical worldbuilding that fans have come to expect from Sanderson, all built on the “what if” concept of fantastical jobs, accented by Aliya Chen’s amazing artwork. It’s okay if you missed the Kickstarter, all of the released Secret Projects books are also available through his website.

Thoughts on The Girl Who Fell Into Myth

Are you looking for a new high fantasy series with rich worldbuilding and strong female characters? This is the perfect time to jump into Kay Kenyon’s The Arisen Worlds series, at the very beginning. The Girl Who Fell Into Myth was just published on March 1st, so you can read it before the second book (due in September) is published. This review was originally published in the January 1, 2023 issue of Booklist.

Kay Kenyon launches The Arisen Worlds high fantasy series with The Girl Who Fell Into Myth, as Liesa is reluctantly summoned from her father’s Numinasi “consulate” in rural Oklahoma to her ancestral home of Osta Kiya to learn the way of her parents’ people. Literally adding insult to injury – she is struck by lightning en route to Osta Kiya –  Liesa is immediately greeted with intolerance, forced to change her name to Yevliesza, a proper Numinasi name, and generally ostracized while learning about the culture. Her father, already ill, is imprisoned, primarily for his crime of not returning with her sooner. Despite unearned enmity from powerful members of the court, Yevliesza thrives, discovering her hereditary magic and joins a triad of young ladies learning to control the same power. When disaster inevitably strikes, Yezliesza learns who her friends and enemies are, and where her true power lies. Kenyon masterfully creates a world adjacent to our own that balances their fear of technology with the use of magic, creating a civilization that is both advanced and medieval.

Thoughts on A Killing Moon

I made a mistake at Capricon: I bought A Killing Moon, the first book in Alexis D. Craig’s Winged Guardians series.

I read the first couple chapters at the convention, along with pages 119 through 121 to be sure I’d be comfortable reading them out loud to an audience. The panel’s title was judging a book by page 119; the presenters skipped to 119 or thereabouts and read a couple pages, then the audience gauged whether they’d be interested in reading the book before the title was revealed. As I explained after revealing the cover, the book kicks off (in the prologue) with a sex scene, so I skipped ahead to see if the page selection was going to be appropriate for all ages attending the panel.

I can’t reiterate this enough: when given the opportunity to buy books directly from the author at an event, buy the whole damn series. I had to set A Killing Moon down for a couple review books, then breezed through it and wanted more… you know, those other three books that I failed to buy at the convention.

The book itself is a paranormal romance filled with shapeshifters, along with some assassination attempts and palace intrigue. The protagonists are a werewolf and were-crow, and many other were-species are mentioned in this robust hidden world intertwined with ours. Craig clearly has a knack for writing characters that obviously belong together both in and out of the bedroom (living room, and other places) and showing the character evolution as they reach that realization.

If you’ll excuse me, I have to go place a book order.

Thoughts on The Raven Song

No, I haven’t blogged about this book before, that was The Raven Spell, the first book in this series. In that post, I mentioned that the next book in the Conspiracy of Magic series by Luanne G. Smith was coming soon; it was as delightful as the first book, with a publication date of October 2022. This review was originally published in the August 2, 2022 issue of Booklist Online.

Stunned by her sister Mary’s sudden death at the end of The Raven Spell, Edwina Blackwood is forced to retreat from London when a stalker magically destroys her shop at the beginning of Luanne Smith’s The Raven Song. Even her departure from London is threatened when their train tickets are pickpocketed from her love interest, Ian Cameron, and they resort to the witches’ safe house and a magical train to reach Sir Henry’s Elvanfoot’s home in the north. Thinking themselves safe, Edwina and Ian relax as the witches and fair folk prepare for the Gathering, a celebration of Midsummer, and Edwina explores her increasing abilities with fewer restrictions than in London. As Ian investigates something sneaking through the veil between the mortal and fairy worlds, he finds increasingly disturbing connections between his work and Edwina’s stalker, and runs afoul of his employer who mistakenly thinks he’s hindering the fair folk. The surprises about both characters and the setting throughout this story will delight readers as Smith continues to skillfully play with folklore.

Thoughts on Notorious Sorcerer

This book, reviewed for the August 2022 issue of Booklist, grabbed my attention almost immediately with its distinctive magic, which entails pulling objects from different planes. I’m eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

Davinia Evans’s debut novel, Notorious Sorcerer, introduces the city of Bezim, the only place on this plane where alchemy works, though it’s illegal due to a magical event that destroyed half the city. Siyon, a bravi who lacks the funds to become a proper alchemist, skirts the edge of legality by selling ingredients retrieved from the other planes to the alchemists who avoid arrest by being rich or part of the city’s prominent families. The protagonist draws the Inquisitors’ attention when he accidentally performs impossible magic very publicly, rescuing his friend Zagiri from a fatal fall, then experiences a waterfall of disasters that lead the Inquisitors to arrest the entirety of the elite Summer Club. Siyon is the city’s only chance to rescue the prefect’s son from another plane, as well as harness the Power of the Mundane to rebalance the planes, before the other Powers invade to correct the balance. Notorious Sorcerer’s unique magic system adds to this delightful fantasy setting, leaving readers eagerly anticipating the next book in The Burnished City series. 

Thoughts on The Mystical Murders of Yin Mara

You may, perhaps, have heard of the Maradaine novels by Marshall Ryan Maresca, a dozen interconnected novels spanning four different series. Perhaps you were scared off by the concept of starting a series that already has a dozen books… believe me, I understand, and someday I will read The Wheel of Time books. And maybe the 400 pages of An Unintended Voyage seemed a bit long for you to jump into, even though it’s a standalone novel set elsewhere in the world.

How about 146 pages? Maresca recently release a novella, The Mystical Murders of Yin Mara, intertwining hints from Maradaine with his extensive world-building as Phadre Golmin and Jiarna Kay travel from Maradaine to study magical and mystical theory as research assistants at Yin Mara College. Their studies are both aided and complicated by a series of murders beyond their experience, and well outside the capacity of this small city’s constabulary to solve on their own.

As is typical of a detective story, you’ll wonder how many deaths it will take our heroes to solve this conundrum. But you’ll also wonder what they’ll put at risk for that answer… their careers and those of the other researchers on their team could be in jeopardy as they chase clues across private property and ultimately air an accusation at a public event filled with high profile donors to their research.

My goodness, are you still here? You could already be reading this fabulous book instead of lingering for my conclusion. Quick, read this delightful novella before he releases another one! (You know, to clear space on your to read pile for that one too.)

Thoughts on Wild and Wicked Things

No, I’m not referring to my life decisions, it’s a book title. Specifically, a book by Francesca May, which was delightfully entertaining. This review was originally published in the February 1, 2022 issue of Booklist.

In Wild and Wicked Things, Francesca May presents a unique setting in England shortly after the Great War, the first war in which magic was openly used as a weapon. Magic has been banned, even down to minor uses of herbs with potential power, punishable by death. On Crow Island, however, residents skirt around the magic ban, and rumors abound regarding some of the island’s residents. Annie arrives on Crow Island somewhat hesitantly, summoned by her absent father’s lawyer to fulfill his final request, with the understanding that inheriting his estate will provide her with the financial freedom she and her mother have never had. She finds herself drawn to both magic and her neighbor Emmeline; both are entangled in her friend Bea’s drama, which began a year ago when Bea moved to the island. Additionally, Annie discovers her father’s research into magic, which leads her to some foolhardy actions. This paranormal queer romance keeps the reader guessing as Annie and Emmeline’s youthful mistakes complicate their lives.