Tag: SF/F

Review – Dead Man in a Ditch

Posted October 29, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Dead Man in a Ditch by Luke ArnoldDead Man in a Ditch, Luke Arnold

Dead Man in a Ditch is very much like the first book in many ways: Fetch gets in over his head, does questionable things because he can be led around by his nose, makes a mess of everything and resolves to do better, with questionable results. I’m amazed by the way these two books have made that work for me, in that I keep reading in the blind desperate hope that somehow he will stop doing the wrong thing. You know he’s not going to, and yet you still really, really hope he will.

Part of that in this book is because there are no great choices, it’s true. But I do have trouble feeling that Fetch is growing, because the whole point of him is that he keeps making the same damn mistake again — that’s been engaging for two books, but could it sustain more? I don’t know if more is planned, and I’d gladly read another book because it’s good pulpy noir-ish fantasy fun, but I’m lacking a certain level of satisfaction.

I could tell you more about the plot, but it really amounts to what I said. Fetch tries to investigate things, like weird accounts of magic that cannot be magic, and it leads into a larger plot that sees his vacillation writ large and messing things up for other people, across a fantasy city after all the magic is gone. (That’s Fetch’s fault, too.) He is just the ultimate loser, in so many ways, and I really do have to reiterate that I completely applaud the way the author still makes me care about him despite that.

So, if there’s another book, I’ll read it for sure; after that, I guess it depends where Fetch’s personality drifts off to next. This keeps sounding like faint praise, but I really enjoyed reading it — I sped through it!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Deadline

Posted October 26, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Deadline by Mira GrantDeadline, Mira Grant

Georgia Mason is dead, and Shaun Mason is alive. Certain people are going to have cause to regret that, if Shaun can only get beyond his grief and his fragmenting sanity in order to find them. Deadline opens a while after Georgia’s death, when a certain amount of balance has been found in the After the End Times office, and people are figuring out how to be a team after the loss of their leader. But they don’t have long to do that before Kelly Connolly from the CDC shows up with news of a dreadful plot, and then of course the bullets start to fly again.

There’s a fair bit of journalism in the first book, albeit hands-on investigative journalism in places, which fades into a political thriller toward the climax. This second book is more in that category, with less actual reporting — by necessity, since the characters are quickly sent on the run. There’s a lot more of certain characters, like Becks, Maggie and Mahir, not to mention Dave and Alaric, which helps flesh out the team a bit (and makes up for the lack of Georgia to balance Shaun’s personality)… but I do still miss Georgia, really.

It feels a little middle-booky, in some ways, but there are some deeply satisfying reveals, and some real “wait, what?” bits.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Goblin Emperor

Posted October 26, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 5 Comments

The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

I know, I know, another reread! It was for a readalong, this time — I could hardly ask other people to read it without reading it myself, right? Right??

In any case, I’ve reviewed this so many times now that I won’t linger. But it is interesting to note that my memories of the book are profoundly positive: sure, there’s a coup or two, and there are some deaths, and past references to abuse and neglect… okay, okay, I see what you’re getting at, but the point is that those don’t define the book, for me. They happen, as bad things always do, but it’s not what I think of when I think of this book.

Instead, I think of the profound grace with which Maia takes his sudden elevation, his determination to be better, his mindful and deliberate rejection of pettiness (though he’s not human, and it does slip through, and he then patiently and carefully atones for it). I think of the way he offers goodness, and kindness, and understanding, and gradually finds his allies from the people who respond to it with kindness in their turn.

That’s what I find so hopeful about this book. Maia might be tempted to descend to the level of his tormentors, but he never does. He sometimes has to take his time, or put something aside to think about later, or he does something despite being terrified… but every time he tries to meet the world with mindfulness and grace, and thus, succeeds.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Kushiel’s Dart

Posted October 17, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 7 Comments

Cover of Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline CareyKushiel’s Dart, Jacqueline Carey

This was a reread, and not the first, largely prompted by the readalong. It’s weird, though; I reread it relatively recently, and yet there were so many details that I didn’t remember ahead of time, and I forgot bits about how it all comes together.

In any case, Kushiel’s Dart follows the adventures of a courtesan, Phèdre nó Delaunay, from unwanted child to plaything of the powerful to spy in enemy territory to ambassador for the Queen. She has been marked out as belonging to the angel Kushiel, making her an anguisette — or a masochist, in plain terms — and this makes her courted and desired… and very useful to Delaunay, a disgraced nobleman committed to protecting the heir to the throne.

This book goes so many places, it’s hard to review it coherently. We follow Phèdre’s childhood, her training both as a courtesan and as a spy, her assignations, her exile, her return… and all sorts in between. There are a lot of characters, and a lot of characters to love, though I’ll confess that I had less patience for Delaunay on this readthrough than I ever had before. He all but buys Phèdre when she’s a child and wields that over her to control her (even if that’s also to protect her), while giving her a home and almost everything else she asks for. He keeps her in the dark, so she couldn’t possibly consent freely, and endangers her with his schemes. I have sympathy for him, but more condemnation than I ever remember feeling, as well. He takes advantage of her and her foster-brother Alcuin, and I couldn’t get past that this time.

I continue to love it, as a whole, despite the ridiculously over-ornate language at times (which more or less works for me after a chapter or so, despite how purple it feels — it’s like you have to acclimatise). It’s still one hell of an epic, and it’s just the first book. I think part of why I love it is that you can get so deep into analysing the motives of a character who dies less than halfway through the book; the characters all feel like people, with their own stories, and their own histories.

If you’re worried about the sex scenes, the sadomasochistic aspects are usually somewhat glossed over, and almost every sex scene I can think of does have a key part to play in either the plot, the character-development, or both. I’m a poor judge of whether something succeeds as a sex scene in terms of “sexiness”, but that doesn’t feel like the aim. Sensualness, yeah, but not crude titillation. Phèdre is a courtesan, but she has her pride and sees what she does as an art (which it is, in the culture of Terre D’Ange).

I’ve really got to start on the next book this time, and actually finish rereading the whole trilogy!

Rating: 5/5

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SciFiMonth 2020

Posted October 15, 2020 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

SciFiMonth 2020 banner

(Banner art by Tithi Luadthong from 123RF.com)

Well, folks! It’s taken me a while to make a post about it, but I have indeed signed up for this motley crew of spacefarers. Check out the announcement at There’s Always Room for One More!

I don’t have big plans for SciFi month… or I’m trying not to, since I read based on my whim and I can’t promise that’s going to include sci-fi. But I’m considering starting on a full series read of the Expanse series, and I’m also idly toying with the idea of reading the Vorkosigan books.

Maybe I’ll do both?

 

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Review – Feed

Posted October 7, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Feed by Mira GrantFeed, Mira Grant

At the start of the pandemic, I really wanted to reread this. The themes of the loss of freedom, the fear over spending time with other people, the fear of exposure to a live virus and what it can drive you to… I’m pro-lockdown and pro-quarantine, as a scientist, but it just chimed so well with everything that was going on. I got a bit too anxious and stopped for a while, and picked it back up again in the last few days, as the US election comes closer and closer. Gah. This book has got to stop being relevant.

It’s a good thriller, though in the end what gets me every time is the bond between Shaun and Georgia. I don’t think it would get under my skin so much without that. The politics are fun, Shaun’s acts of derring-do are fun, but the story lives and dies with Shaun and Georgia’s bond, for me.

I think that’s all I have to say this time; it’s a fun ride, with a punch to the gut at the end.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Widow of Rose House

Posted October 5, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Widow of Rose House by Diana BillerThe Widow of Rose House, Diana Miller

This was an impulse purchase that worked out very well for me! Alva Webster is notorious, a widow who supposedly held orgiastic parties right before her husband was murdered. She’s moved back to the US after his death, has bought a house called Liefdehuis, and wants to re-design it and create a lovely place to live… while writing a book about the process aimed at middle-class people. They’ll buy her book because of her notoriety, she reasons, and then some will enjoy her work.

She runs into Sam Moore, a scientist, who really wants to look into the local folklore surrounding Liefdehuis. There’s a ghost, supposedly, and he’s eager to put that to the test. Alva’s not keen, but is eventually driven to seeking him out for that.

If you’re a fan of the Veronica Speedwell books, I suspect this would be up your alley. Alva is a bit less independent than Veronica, partly due to her rather traumatic past, but there’s a kinship there. The love interest, Sam, is just a delight — bright and optimistic most of the time, oblivious to the stupidest societal things, protective and full of love. I could maybe wish Alva was a little less tentative in some things, but some of the breakthroughs of the story are hers and her slow but sure understanding that her past is done is well done. Sam’s family are also a delight, and I could definitely wish for a few more books with them and Henry…

The book does contain references to domestic violence, and some violent scenes. Alva is blackmailed, and her family are also abusive (though more in a neglectful sort of way). There are several fairly explicit sex scenes, which do somewhat further the relationship between Alva and Sam, but are probably skippable too. I don’t know enough about the period to say whether it’s historically accurate, but it felt like there was some license being taken about how Alva’s servants (for instance) would react.

Very enjoyable, all in all!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Piranesi

Posted September 29, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of Piranesi by Susanna ClarkePiranesi, Susanna Clarke

I didn’t read anything about Piranesi before starting it, though I was vaguely aware of some reviews and reactions from friends. I’m one of the people who found Clarke’s previous novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, really fascinating — for all that it’s 1,000+ pages long, I ate it up in great big chunks. I wondered if the magic could be repeated, especially in a novel as slim as Piranesi. I’d say it has, and even that I like the worldbuilding of Piranesi even more.

That said, if you didn’t like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, there’s a chance Piranesi will be more for you: though I said the magic is repeated, I mean the magical captivating quality that had me riveted to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Piranesi is rather different in tone and scope, at a quarter of the length. For one thing, it has a relatively cramped cast, made up essentially of four characters, one of whom only appears once, and one of whom doesn’t appear until quite late on. The other people mentioned are all dead, and only tangentially important. Well, unless you consider the House a fifth character.

The House is the most fascinating thing, and I could happily have spent at least another fifty pages visiting the Statues, travelling to far-off Vestibules, and watching the Tides. The whole idea of it, this strange house with the sea in the lower levels and thousands of rooms filled with mysterious Statues — argh, I really loved that part! Piranesi himself (it’s the name used for one of the characters, as well as the title) is rather delightful in his innocent inquiry and his love of the house.

I’m trying not to be spoilery, but this bit talks about the ending: without saying too much about what exactly happens, I found the ending rather sad, because of the change to Piranesi. There was such joy in his exploration of the House, it was really awful to think of that joy being shattered by his discovery of his past. In a way he keeps it, but in another way everything has changed. It makes sense as an ending, and the whole book comes together pretty well… but ouch.

Overall, though, I loved it — and just as with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I practically inhaled it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Beneath the World, A Sea

Posted September 16, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Beneath the World, A Sea, Chris Beckett

I was fully on board with the premise of this: a British policeman is sent to a mysterious area in South America, tasked with finding a way to stop the killing of duendes. Duendes have been deemed to be sentient and to be protected under the law, but local people hunt them down and kill them because of their ability to bring out people’s suppressed emotions, often rage and shame. To reach the area, you have to go through the Zona, on a boat, and everything you do inside the Zona… you’ll never remember once you leave it again. The book starts as Ben emerges from the Zona, to find that he wrote some mysterious journals… and probably left the boat, as everyone was advised not to do.

It doesn’t really go anywhere from there, unfortunately. There’s plenty of weirdness, some great little thumbnail sketches of people with all their insecurities bared, and it feels like there’s a plot leading toward some kind of climax, a confrontation between Ben and the weirdness. I didn’t necessarily expect answers to the weirdness, or at least not all of it, but it felt for a while like it had a fairly traditional plot trajectory — and then just at the point where you’d expect action to be taken, Ben decides to run away. He just runs away. That’s it. That’s the story.

Sure, he’s learned stuff about himself that he never knew and didn’t want to know; the Zona and the world within its circle have scared him and changed him… but essentially, he just decides to run away, and there’s no real feeling that there’s any kind of resolution.

Now maybe there isn’t intended to be, but it felt weak to me, especially after the inklings that there was more to come. It’s not that it was a bad reading experience, but despite the promise of the setting… I was left cold by this. I don’t mind weird, and I don’t mind non-traditional stories, but the sense that this was going somewhere and didn’t really made the ending limp for me.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Orfeia

Posted September 16, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Orfeia by Joanne M. HarrisOrfeia, Joanne Harris, Bonnie Helen Hawkins

Orfeia is a fairy tale, drawing the main character Fay from a world of late-night runs (recorded diligently on a Fitbit) to the world of Faerie, pulled on a line of Childe’s ballads and longing. Fay’s husband died when their daughter was young, and now her daughter is gone too — unexpectedly, through suicide. The runs are less a method of coping or escaping than just dulling herself to non-existence… and then one night as she runs she sees light through a crack in the pavement, and sees her daughter, alive but sleeping.

So begins Fay’s quest, driven by her love as a mother even as Faerie slowly steals away her memories and her shadow — and that love really drives the whole story. Her clues are fragments of ballads and riddles, and her weapons are her wits and her voice. She doesn’t remember or understand the world she’s drawn into, even as the other characters insist she’s a queen.

Some of the songs I was familiar with, and others less so, but I enjoyed the way they were used. It can be hard to do something new with something that retells or uses or references old ballads, because you may need to hew pretty close to the original story for anyone to recognise it… but you also want to bring your own twist to it. Harris is well-used to retellings, and doesn’t let source material hamper her one bit.

And alright, it’s a quest story: I was pretty sure of the answers of some of the big questions, but the ride was the important part, along with some of the details along the way. Some of the scenes are so vivid to me — I’m not blessed with a visual imagination at all, but the illustrations help there, and there are other senses to imagine…

Speaking of which, the illustrations are gorgeous, and worth lingering over for the little details.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. I always find Harris’ prose gripping — she has a way with words, or at least her words have a way with me. I ended up reading it in three sittings, and regretting each time I had to put it down.

Rating: 4/5

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