Category: Reading

I’m not actually sure when this review posted (found it… May 4, 2018), it was written for Booklist, and I had referenced it back in 2018 on this post. I have since read the sequel to The Grey Bastards, and am looking forward to subsequent novels by Jonathan French.

Jackal is a Grey Bastard, one of several brotherhoods of half-orcs committed to defending the no-man zone between human civilization and the invading bands of orcs.  At least, that’s what Jackal and most of the half-orcs believe they’re doing.  Jonathan French turns fantasy on its head by featuring half-orcs as the unlikely heroes of his story, awkwardly sandwiched between their orc and human progenitors.  Further complicating matters in Ul-wundulas, or the Lot Lands, are the presence of isolationist elves, homicidal centaurs, and a group of halfings who are religious zealots working towards the return of their god.  The ugly secrets, betrayals, and twists in this book keep the pages turning as Jackal and his friends discover and fight back against the dark magics and conspiracies involved.  Between the lies they’ve been fed and the isolation between the various races, Jackal begins the book with little real knowledge of the world’s problems and his hoof’s place in fixing or causing them.  By the surprising conclusion, he’ll have answers that lead to more questions, and ultimately to a sequel. 

This was an interesting read for a couple reasons. I had recently reviewed the last two books of Marshall Ryan Maresca’s ambitious urban fantasy/steampunk series, the Maradaine Saga. The Velocity of Revolution is nothing at all like that, except for being equally brilliant. It has a distinctive setting and unique magic that really makes it stand out. There’s an excerpt available on the author’s website if you want to take a peek. This review was originally published in the February 1, 2021 issue of Booklist.

Marshall Ryan Maresca engages in another round of delightful worldbuilding in this standalone fantasy novel, The Velocity of Revolution. Magic is generated from the land: a combination of mushrooms, creating a psychic link between people who consume them, and speed, generated by their vehicles. Ziaparr is a conquered city, paying debts incurred in the previous war and providing resources for the current one. Forced into a strict caste system based on foreign or native descent, the lower castes are rebelling against the foreign impositions and rediscovering their heritage with the now-illegal mushrooms. Nália Enapi, a skilled rider, is on her first mission, learning the connection between mushrooms and her cycle’s speed, when she is captured by civil patrol officer Wenthi Tungét. The government uses mushrooms to connect their minds, setting Wenthi on an infiltration mission with access to Nália’s imprisoned mind allowing him to fit into both the rebellion and a lower caste. Coupled with Nália’s ever-strengthening presence in his mind and revelations of reality for the lower castes, Wenthi is torn between justice and duty. 

This innovative setting, coupled with unexpected and delightful twists, make this a must read novel for fantasy readers. 

I’ve been reviewing science fiction and fantasy books for almost five years now (wow!), and of almost a hundred books that I’ve reviewed, I’ve only rejected two. (The third one doesn’t count because it was Biblical fiction miscategorized as science fiction… probably because of the dinosaurs.) I’m not going to name the books here… they didn’t appeal to me, but I understand that they may appeal to other readers whose tastes differ from mine. But because I’m writing the reviews for somebody else, I end up explaining why I’m not recommending them.

I described the first book I rejected to a co-worker shortly after starting it: “To be honest, I’m not terribly impressed with the book… it seems single-threaded, after reading a series where there are several point of view characters and little to no predictability. Somebody once described John Grisham’s books to me as “written to be movies” for that same reason – a single plotline and one person telling it. If I have to guess, the main character will accomplish her mission, losing some of her team along the way, and live happily ever after. But I’m less than a quarter of the way into it, so that’s only a guess.”

My guess was fairly accurate, and I later apologized to a friend who read the book.

The explanation for the second book I rejected was almost triple the length of my reviews, but it provides too many identifying details about the book to share here. The plot, like the previous reject, felt predictable and cliché (is that redundant?) in what should have been a fabulous premise. I was actually excited by the blurb, and increasingly disappointed as I waded through the book.

We all encounter duds from time to time, so I consider myself lucky given how few review books have turned out to be something outside my reading range.

I am incredibly fortunate to be exposed to so many good books. Rounding out my commentary on books for 2020 is this fresh take on Arthurian legends: Queen of None by Natania Barron. Forget what you think you know about Camelot, she recreates it from an entirely different perspective with new twists on the familiar characters. This review was originally published in the November 1, 2020 issue of Booklist.

In Queen of None, Natania Barron delves into Arthurian legend from the perspective of Anna Pendragon, Arthur’s younger sister. Prophesied by Merlin to be forgotten, Anna was barely a woman when she was married off to an older man to forge an alliance for her brother. Years later, she returns as a widow to Arthur’s court, where her eldest son, Gawain, is already training as a knight. She finds herself a pawn once again, caught between her brother, half-sisters, and Merlin’s plans while searching for her own happiness. Her lingering affection for Bedevere, illicit father to her twin boys, may be ignored again in favor of another alliance that will further her brother’s needs. Surprises come from within as well, as Anna discovers that she too has magical abilities, inherited from her mother’s side of the family, shared to some extent with her half-sisters Morgen, Morgase, and Elaine. Barron’s take on Arthurian legend gets readers exactly where they expect to be in the end, with entirely new insight on how to reach that point.

This is a travesty. I read this amazing book back in February, and somehow I haven’t told you about it yet. I suppose that’s good in a way, you don’t have to wait as long for the sequel as I’ve had to; it’s due out in March. This review was originally published in the April 15, 2020 issue of Booklist.

In this fantasy debut novel, Kingdom of Liars, by Nick Martell, Michael Kingman and his siblings were branded as traitors when their father was tried for the murder of the king’s oldest son. Ten years later, a series of missteps sets him on a path that he hopes will clear their family name. That’s the concept, despite Michael being found guilty of the king’s murder in the prologue. Michael and his siblings fell from high nobles who played with the king’s children to living on a poor side of town with their foster father, struggling to pay the fees to keep their addlebrained mother in an asylum. Their mother can’t be a Forgotten, as that memory loss condition only affects magic users, so Michael searches for solutions to her medical problems in addition to his other adventures. Michael progressively finds himself in worse situations, certain the next one will provide the answers he so desperately seeks. Teenagers will appreciate how Michael and his siblings come into their own, and fantasy readers of all ages will be delighted with Martell’s robust setting.

Back in May, I wrote about interdimensional travel in The Long Earth, which was triggered by reading another book about parallel worlds – The Space Between Worlds, by Micaiah Johnson. The basic premise to interdimensional travel in that book is that you can only travel to worlds where the parallel version of you is no longer alive, which results in the recruitment of people living on the edge of society, as they’re less likely to have stayed alive across the various worlds. This review was originally published in the August 1, 2020 issue of Booklist.

Micaiah Johnson makes her debut in science fiction with The Space Between Worlds, exploring parallel universes through Cara’s eyes. Cara is a traverser, a member of an exclusive team that can travel across the multiverse, but only to worlds where she has already died. Cara’s former life was in the wastelands outside Wiley City, where each day was a struggle to survive the runners and the environment; she still visits her family there periodically. In her new life, she travels to similar worlds to retrieve information for her employer, the Eldridge Institute, which they use to mine resources across the multiverse, allowing the environment of the local wastelands some recovery time. When a new world opens up to Cara, her life comes crashing down as the striking similarities between her multiple lives converge. Cara must draw from her experience across the multiverse, and navigate the mess her relationships have become in meeting multiple variations of friends and enemies. As her current and former lives become hopelessly entangled, Cara makes life-altering decisions that affect her and those around her.

“An ageless hermit runs a secret way station for alien visitors in the Wisconsin woods”

That’s the opening line of the description on the back of Way Station, by Clifford D. Simak. I’m not sure if I read it before I started the book, I may have just skimmed the back: “never seem to age” and “last surviving veteran of the American Civil War” jump out at me.

I was perhaps a third of the way through the book when I thought to check the publication date. The alien technology used at the way station conflicts with the modern technology of the era, so the protagonist, Enoch Wallace, receives updates about the world through the mail, in the form of newspapers and magazines. That convenient conflict makes the book ageless to a point – it clearly pre-dates mobile phones and portable technology becoming mainstream (because of what other characters have access to), but could easily be any time in the latter half of last century because Enoch isn’t interacting with human technology.

1963, as it turns out. And I find that striking, that Simak wrote the story in such a fluid way that it could have been set anytime within a forty year span. I suppose that partially explains why it won a Hugo award. (According to the Wikipedia page, it is alternately known as Here Gather the Stars.)

It is a delightful book, enjoyable for all ages. Check your local library or bookstore, or borrow my copy, if you want a good read.

There’s a thrill when I receive a packet of books to review, and an added bonus when I recognize the author on one or more of the books. So when I received The Obsidian Tower, the first of another trilogy by Melissa Caruso, I was practically bouncing off the walls. This review was originally published in the May 1, 2020 issue of Booklist. Part of the thrill was seeing how the world has progressed since the previous trilogy; there are clear impacts from those adventures.

Melissa Caruso’s newest book, The Obsidian Tower, is an action-packed adventure set well after her Swords and Fire Trilogy. The world has changed in some ways: Raverra and Vaskandar cooperate in times of magical crises through a group called the Rookery. Yet Raverra’s political schemes and Vaskandar’s confrontations between Witch Lords make the world seem unchanged. Ryxander (Ryx) should have been a vivomancer like the rest of her family, but her magic was warped by a childhood illness, causing anything she touches to die; even powerful vivomancers can only touch her briefly. She has instead become the Warden of Gloamingard Castle, forging alliances through diplomacy. A diplomatic mission turned into a disaster when the envoy opened the Door to the Black Tower, unleashing an unknown threat into the land. Ryx and her new allies from the Rookery must race escalating threats while averting a diplomatic crisis. Ryx explores her abilities and limitations as she learns the extent of the problems she unleashed in this first book of a new series.

I just finished reading a book about traveling between parallel worlds. It was an amazing book, and at some point down the line, I’m sure I’ll share the review of it here. While reading it, it struck me how clever Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter were in creating a mode of travel for The Long Earth that was so clearly available to the masses.

When access to the means of travel, in this case, across the multiverse, is controlled by a corporation or by price, the story will be about a select group that can travel. In The Long Earth (the name of both the first book and the series), the plans for the “Stepper” were released online, and involved mostly items that are available at your local hardware store. And a potato to power it.

If you ever had a potato clock, you can appreciate the simplicity of it with at least a vague understanding that you can power something with a potato. Or pair of potatoes, for the clocks. The Stepper plans were deliberately accessible and available to everybody.

Another twist in The Long Earth was that humanity only evolved on ours, referred to as Datum Earth. No need to wonder if you’re going to meet yourself, or an evil version, on the next Earth over. People stepped either east or west, with the nearest Earths, as measured in steps from Datum Earth labeled “low”. Some people went higher, building new homes far from the civilization they knew, exploring the new frontiers.

And some people found they didn’t need the steppers. Interesting adventures were had by all.

I’m fortunate in that I’m provided with many good books to read. This review was originally published in the January 1, 2020 issue of Booklist.

Award-winning author Anne Charnock begins Bridge 108 by introducing readers to Caleb, a twelve-year old from climate-ravaged Spain, living illegally in England as one of Ma Lexie’s assistants. He found his way there with Skylark’s assistance, not realizing that he was being trafficked and enslaved. A spur of the moment decision leads Caleb to freedom and on an adventure to find a better life for himself, with the added possibility of locating his mother, who he was separated from before meeting Skylark. As his world turns upside down time and time again, he gradually realizes that his parents’ dream of escaping to England – legally – was naive, causing him to reflect on the people who have aided or hampered his quest for a better life. This coming of age story sees Caleb sampling multiple jobs in a dystopian world, striding solidly forward in his efforts only to have them come crashing down due to outside forces. The potential reality to this late twenty-first century setting, with drought, wildfires, and closed borders, makes Bridge 108 both appealing and frightening.