Posted May 13, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Knight’s Wyrd, James D. Macdonald, Debra Doyle
Received to review via Netgalley
My ears pricked up as soon as Sherwood Smith’s introduction mentioned Rosemary Sutcliff. I loved Sutcliff’s books as a kid, and anything that had the same flavour sounded great to me — and the good news is that there was some of that realism, some of that taste and smell of another era (even though this is also fantasy).
I hadn’t heard of it before, so it was all new to me… sort of. It feels familiar and mythic in its structure, in the way that Will’s destiny plays out, but with a touch of that earthiness that I associate with Sutcliff, grounded in small details of everyday life. Will’s a likable protagonist, someone who generally wants to do the right thing even though he is not, in himself, particularly heroic. He sees something he can do, should do, and he does it — but not without thinking about the inconvenience of whatever it is.
It’s not a super-complex story, but there’s a virtue in the simplicity of it and the straight-forwardness of its protagonist. I enjoyed it very much.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Debra Doyle, James D. Macdonald, SF/F
Posted May 12, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
The Last Heir to Blackwood Library, Hester Fox
A book about a mysterious library — it might as well come stamped with “Nicky, buy me!”.
The book starts when Ivy inherits Blackwood Abbey, a mysterious and isolated stately home that she had no idea she was the heir to. Without knowing much about the area, or what her new role might be, she travels with hope to take up her position as the new Lady Hayworth. Mysterious things begin to happen as soon as she arrives in the place, but she’s reassured when she finds the library, hoping to find her solace and excitement there.
I’ll try not to say too much, for fear of spoiling the surprise. Suffice it to say: the library isn’t a particularly ordinary library, and Ivy’s role as Lady Hayworth is nothing like she imagined.
For the most part, I enjoyed reading this, but it had a few weaknesses. The main one is difficult to get to grips with, given the plot: a particular character has to both experience things and then totally forget about them, and the book deals unevenly with showing that to the reader. Certain events are never described, and yet the relationship/character-building within those scenes would be essential to really feel satisfied by the ending, to my mind — while it would give the game away too soon to include them. It made certain things feel a bit rushed.
Still, I did enjoy this, and the “click” as certain things came together.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Hester Fox, romance, SF/F
Posted May 11, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
Babylon’s Ashes, James S.A. Corey
I don’t know if it’s in part the way I read it (quite spread out, not all at once), or just the sprawling nature of the series by this point, but this one did not come together well for me. It feels dark and uncompromising: people are awful to each other, and I have to be in the head of characters who do and think violent, dreadful things. Everything is bad, and there’s not much hope. That made this a very difficult read for me.
Part of the problem is the sprawling cast. There are ways it could be made tighter and still have the scope, like dropping some of the more-or-less unnecessary POV characters (whose names I barely remembered between appearances). On the one hand, putting Holden in the centre gives him too much credit and the book pushes against making him the Main Character for all of humanity… but this is a book, and sometimes that kind of thing can tighten things up and make it feel easier to get into.
I also have a question about something weird where I’m not sure if I missed something, or whether something actually weird happened, that I should really look back and find out…
The book brings us to an interesting place, it’s just also a pretty wretched place. Everyone is suffering, and even the Rocinante isn’t a safe home to return to where no harm will touch. And that makes sense, it’s realistic, but for me it was all maybe a little too grim.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, James S.A. Corey, SF/F
Posted May 10, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
The Navigating Fox, Christopher Rowe
Received to review via Netgalley
I really enjoyed The Navigating Fox, but I find myself not sure what to write about it. Let’s try to start at the beginning: this is a world where “voiceless” animals like the ones we know can be given human-like intelligence and voices. Quintus Shu’al is a navigating fox, the only one of his kind (at least, as far as we know or he knows). As the book opens, he’s being investigated for his part in the loss of a whole expedition he promised to guide to find a remedy for the Empress’ sickness.
It quickly becomes apparent that things aren’t what they seem, and that there’s a lot of scheming going on by various different parties, leading to Quintus guiding a whole cavalcade to the end of the world to close the gates of Hell (apparently).
The story runs two threads in parallel: the earlier journey, with the lost expedition, and the later journey to the gates of Hell. As those threads converge, we get to see more of the world — though there’d still be plenty more to learn if there were to be a follow-up, because it’s a pretty fascinating setting.
Despite the quirkiness of the idea of a book with talking animals, it’s not quirky in execution (for the most part, at least). It’s treated seriously, without taking itself too seriously, if you see what I mean.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Christopher Rowe, SF/F
Posted May 7, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Mammoths at the Gates, Nghi Vo
Received to review via Netgalley
Cleric Chih returns to the Singing Hills abbey for the first time in this novella series, and finds things have changed: Cleric Thien, a beloved mentor, has died, and they’re just in time to participate in his memorial, and Almost Brilliant’s chick is growing fast and eager to meet them. Plus, there’s a pair of mammoths at the gates of the abbey, and some kind of quarrel growing up.
Homecoming can be strange, and Chih finds some of that difficult: a childhood friend is grown and even acting as the leader of the abbey, and the younger ones look up to them as an elder now. Almost Brilliant isn’t ready to travel with them again, and the abbey is strangely quiet (with everyone absent to go and record some fascinating uncovered previously-drowned ruins)… They have to navigate that and settle back down for a while, and try to figure out how to manage the whole mammoth situation (inasfar as that’s something they even ought to be managing).
It’s a lot, but as with the other novellas in this series, I loved it. We see a little more of the world, of all the stories those at the abbey gather and curate, and a little more now of where Chih comes from and what has shaped them. Especially fascinating to me, we learn a little more of the neixin, and meet several of them.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Nghi Vo, SF/F
Posted May 5, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments
Thornhedge, T. Kingfisher
Received to review via Netgalley
T. Kingfisher’s Thornhedge takes the story of Sleeping Beauty and bends it till it breaks, flipping things round to give us a different perspective. That massive thorny hedge makes a great defence — but what if it was keeping something in, rather than out? What if we really, really don’t want Sleeping Beauty to wake?
Toadling is a changeling, raised in Fairy and then sent back to her original parents to avert disaster. Fayette is wilful, powerful and destructive, and Toadling… well, she knows how to turn into a toad, and how to command water. She has minor magics, nothing like Fayette’s strength, but somehow she has to contain her and protect the world.
Into the familiar story comes a knight, as you’d expect — but he’s a pretty singular sort of knight, one rather more interested in books, and not entirely sure what to do with a sword. He’s drawn to Toadling and the way she’s trapped within the thorny hedge, and he’s determined to fix things. Somehow.
The friendship that grows up between Halim and Toadling is really sweet, and I love his gentleness and the warm humour around him. I raced through this and loved it; fans of Kingfisher’s work won’t be disappointed.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, T. Kingfisher
Posted April 28, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Under the Smokestrewn Sky, A. Deborah Baker (Seanan McGuire)
Received to review via Netgalley
Under the Smokestrewn Sky continues and completes the story of Zib and Avery’s first travels through the Up-And-Under. I was pretty sceptical in beginning this journey, since it spun off Middlegame — a great book, don’t get me wrong, but not one I really wanted to see a sequel or spin-off for, somehow.
Still, the series is not very related to Middlegame‘s story, and is self-contained and quite different in tone. This final volume wraps things up, bringing Zib and Avery to their final destination. The language remains playful and reminiscent of Cat Valente’s voice in the Fairyland books, and mostly avoids being too much.
As for the story, well, there are certain things that I found really predictable and others that I hadn’t been expecting. The narration made light of the first part, pointing out that Niamh also saw it coming, so just played into the whole meta-textual bit there — but still, I was a little disappointed that it had been obvious to me for so long.
It’s a mostly satisfying end, though I have lot of questions about where the characters other than Zib and Avery go from there. I suppose there may be more, since the last pages mention that Zib and Avery do return to the Up-and-Under… and I shall read it eagerly if so.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Seanan McGuire, SF/F
Posted April 26, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions, Lina Rather
Received to review via Netgalley
I really liked Lina Rather’s previous novellas, so I leapt on this one even without reading what it was about. It follows Sarah Davis, an apprentice midwife who is more than a little uncanny herself, in a year when uncanny children are being born all over London. By chance, she meets Sir Christopher Wren’s wife, who is pregnant, and becomes her midwife — and thus gets drawn more and more into the strangeness, tugged between Sir Christopher’s ambitions for her uncanny powers, and those of the midwives she works with.
It’s an interesting setup, and I liked that the motivations of everyone had some justification behind them. Everyone thinks they’re a hero and doing the right thing, in their own head, and I could see that these characters did too.
As a novella, it doesn’t get into an enormous amount of depth with most of the characters, but Sarah is pretty clear, and her fledgeling relationship with Margaret, and the liminal world of almost-respectable, almost-unrespectable that she inhabits and struggles with.
I love Sisters of the Vast Black more, but I’m glad I picked this up!
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, horror, Lina Rather, SF/F
Posted April 9, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments
Rattling Bone, Jordan L. Hawk
I didn’t realise this was coming out, and leapt on it as soon as I did! It’s lovely to revisit Oscar and Nigel, and see them a little further into their relationship — in fact, with Oscar taking Nigel to meet his parents. It’s… predictably awkward, especially as soon as they discover Nigel’s job and what the two of them work on together. I like that the contention isn’t about Nigel being trans or about it being a queer relationship, and there’s no tension about the non-binary character either; instead this is pure family dynamics, secrets being kept, etc. I enjoyed that there were complexities there, that it wasn’t just both parents being a united front of anger for exactly the same reasons.
Of course, those secrets are relevant to the story, and Oscar finds himself having to use his newly acknowledged talents to help his family — whether they want him to or not.
I was a little worried that the jealousy/inferiority complex stuff so characteristic of Whyborne in the early Whyborne & Griffin books was going to come out here with the references to Oscar’s childhood friend, but luckily it didn’t really go that way too much. The ending is cute, too.
So much more I’d like to know about the background stuff and their sponsor…
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Jordan L. Hawk, queer fic, romance, SF/F
Posted April 7, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Chosen and the Beautiful, Nghi Vo
I’m really sad this one didn’t work for me, because I love Nghi Vo’s work usually. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m not a huge fan of The Great Gatsby, and only ever read it once, a long time ago. Perhaps it’s that I’m not familiar with the American culture surrounding The Great Gatsby — some readers from the US seem to have such strong feelings around it!
Vo’s writing is great as ever, really easy to read, but I just couldn’t quite make myself care about Gatsby or Daisy or what they were up to. Jordan Baker herself is more interesting, at least as portrayed by Vo, but so much revolves around Daisy and Gatsby. The magic and wonder is an interesting surrounding to the story, but I felt like I never got a close enough look at it.
All in all, just not one for me. Siren Queen was great, with a lot of similar worldbuilding going on, so I’m inclined to lay it at the feet of The Great Gatsby.
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Nghi Vo, SF/F
