Tag: SF/F

Review – The Hands of the Emperor

Posted July 28, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Review – The Hands of the Emperor

The Hands of the Emperor

by Victoria Goddard

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 899
Series: Lays of the Hearth-Fire #1
Rating: five-stars
Synopsis:

An impulsive word can start a war. A timely word can stop one. A simple act of friendship can change the course of history.

Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god. He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person. He has never once touched his lord. He has never called him by name. He has never initiated a conversation.

One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday.

The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy. The acceptance upends the world.

Belatedly posting a book I read in 2022, and apparently never cross-posted the review of here!

I really loved The Hands of the Emperor. It’s a huge book in which not a lot actually happens, but it’s full of hope and heart, with a central relationship of love and respect that had me riveted. I was recommended it as “imagine The Goblin Emperor from Csevet’s point of view”, and that’s sort of fair — except that you have to imagine that Csevet has Maia’s drive for reform and for goodness.

Cliopher is the Last Emperor’s secretary, and has been slowly pushing a revolutionary agenda for the world now that the Fall (a magical event you mostly learn about through its personal effects on Cliopher and somewhat on the others) has changed everything. He has opinions and morals informed by his Islander background, and these influence his place at court, how people see him, and the fact that he finally decides to reach out to the Emperor as a person and offer to take him on holiday.

From that unfolds one of the book’s major themes: the Emperor Artorin’s need for freedom, his past before he became Emperor, and his growing reliance on Cliopher to change things and help him find freedom by finding his heir.

Cliopher is in some ways a bit too capable, a bit too perfect, and there are so many scenes of people getting their comeuppance because they weren’t kind to Cliopher, or didn’t understand his work and his morals, etc, etc. But it’s enjoyable every time, and it’s especially enjoyable because Artorin decides he must make other people see and respect Cliopher. The friendship between them is lovely.

It’s a long read, but one which I savoured completely. I’m looking forward to reading the other novels and novellas in this world, and my only complaint is that it stopped too soon and we didn’t get to see whether Tor retires to live with Cliopher, Conju, Rhodin, etc. There are so many scenes I loved that I couldn’t talk about them all, and several which I reread again immediately because I wanted to feel it all again right away.

I haven’t talked about a quarter of what there is to discover in this book, but that’s OK. You can go and discover it for yourself.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Dominion vol 1: The Resurrection of Jason Ash

Posted July 25, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Dominion vol 1: The Resurrection of Jason Ash

Dominion: The Resurrection of Jason Ash

by Thomas Fenton, Jamal Igle, Steven Cummings

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels
Pages: 49
Series: Dominion #1
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

A gripping supernatural thriller of biblical proportions...quite literally. When detective Jason Ash arrives on the scene of a particularly strange murder in the suburbs of New Orleans, little does he know that he is about to take on the case of a lifetime. As dead people begin to come back to life, revealing that they hail from a realm where angels fight for power, it becomes clear that an epic battle between good and evil is at play, one threatening the very future of humanity.

I’m not entirely sure what’s going on with the page numbering and so on with Thomas Fenton’s Dominion, as the versions of each volume on Amazon have only around 50 pages, though elsewhere they consistently get shown as 150 pages. The cover images match the cover images for the versions with 150 pages, so… it’s just weird.

So hopefully what I’m reading isn’t just a fragment missing the last two thirds, but I can only read what’s available, in any case. Volume one of Dominion feels fairly typical: the beginning is a little confusing, but then it switches to the point of view of a young cop, who quickly gets drawn into a conflict involving angels (and gains strange powers as a result).

That’s about as far as this first volume goes, with the conflict wrapped around the story of child kidnappings that gets the cops involved. I’m curious where it’s going, but it feels like I’ve seen this story around before… several times.

Still, I’ll be picking up the next volume to see what the author does with the setup, so though I’m fairly lukewarm, it’s not that the story was bad.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Summers End

Posted July 21, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Summers End

Summers End

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 265
Series: Shady Hollow #5
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A unique take on dark academia, featuring everyone’s favorite vulpine sleuth, Vera Vixen.

It’s late August in Shady Hollow, and the heat has intrepid reporter Vera Vixen eager to get away. She agrees to chaperone the annual field trip to Summers End, an ancient tomb built by an early woodland culture, along with her good friend Lenore Lee to come with her.

But when the two enter the tomb, they find bones that are distinctly more
modern. Digging a little deeper, Vera and Lenore discover that the deceased was involved in a recent excavation at the site, and very unpopular with their colleagues. Now the fox and raven have to delve into the dark world of academia and archaeology to determine which creature thought they were clever enough to get away with the perfect murder.

Summers End is the latest in Juneau Black’s Shady Hollow series, and it takes the story out of the immediate environs of Shady Hollow, to a nearby archaeological site which has obvious analogues with sites like Stonehenge and Newgrange: it’s both a tomb and a calendar, surrounded by ritual and stories. Vera and Lenore are there to chaperone some kids to see the site and learn about it, and have a little bit of a holiday.

And of course there’s a murder, and of course Vera Vixen has to be in on it — not least because, predictably, someone important to her is involved (if only by proxy). We learn a little more about Lenore, and about her sister, who ends up accused of the murder. It’s a neat way of taking us out of Shady Hollow and ensuring that it doesn’t feel too much like the supposedly friendly little town is rife with crime (same with the previous book, which turned out to be a very different sort of crime).

I enjoyed the setting, though the dramatic denouement started pushing into being a little too much. I was surprised that we didn’t see more of Orville, but on reflection it’s actually quite nice to still see Vera operating separately — she’s an independent fox, and while she enjoys partnering up with Orville (inasfar as that’s appropriate given she’s a reporter, not part of the police), it’s nice to see her going solo. Or, as in this case, with her own sidekick.

If the other books in the series leave you cold, I doubt this’ll change things, but I found it a fun installment.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Winter Prince

Posted July 17, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Winter Prince

The Winter Prince

by Elizabeth E. Wein

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Pages: 216
Series: The Lion Hunters #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

The story of Medraut - strong, skilled, daring, and never to be king...

Medraut is the eldest son of Artos, high king of Britain; and, but for an accident of birth, would-be heir to the throne. Instead, his younger half-brother, Lleu, is chosen to be prince of Britain. Lleu is fragile, often ill, unskilled in weaponry and statesmanship, and childishly afraid of the dark. Even Lleu's twin sister, Goewin, seems more suited to rule the kingdom.

Medraut cannot bear to be commanded and contradicted by this weakling brother who he feels has usurped his birthright and his father's favor. Torn and bitter, haunted by jealousy, self-doubt, and thwarted ambition, he joins Morgause, the high king's treacherous sister, in a plot to force Artos to forfeit his power and kingdom in exchange for Lleu's life. But this plot soon proves to be much more - a battlefield on which Medraut is forced to decide, for good or evil, where his own allegiance truly lies...

It’s really hard to know what to say about Elizabeth E. Wein’s The Winter Prince, because I’m still muddling through what I think about it — even though I’ve read it before. It’s an Arthurian story, written from the point of view of Medraut, reflecting largely on his relationship with his brother (Arthur’s legitimate son), Lleu, and his relationship with his mother, Morgause. Morgause haunts the story, scarring Medraut’s mind as much as on his body.

In a way, a good quarter of the narrative feels like a fever dream (which makes sense, given that Medraut literally has a fever throughout most of it). The relationship between Lleu and Medraut never entirely makes sense, fraught with jealousy and hurt and anger, weighted by things that shouldn’t be said (and which Lleu says anyway).

It’s beautifully written, and the darkness of Morgause’s hold over Medraut is well done. Nobody here is a particularly good person, with a streak of cruelty deep in them all (some of the things Artos does and says to Medraut are not just). As an examination of that cruelty, it’s powerful.

I don’t know if it quite comes together for me fully, but I remember loving the following books quite a lot, and I’m looking forward to revisiting.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – In Deeper Waters

Posted July 12, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – In Deeper Waters

In Deeper Waters

by F.T. Lukens

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 307
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

A young prince must rely on a mysterious stranger to save him when he is kidnapped during his coming-of-age tour in this swoony adventure that is The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue meets Pirates of the Caribbean.

Prince Tal has long awaited his coming-of-age tour. After spending most of his life cloistered behind palace walls as he learns to keep his forbidden magic secret, he can finally see his family's kingdom for the first time. His first taste of adventure comes just two days into the journey, when their crew discovers a mysterious prisoner on a burning derelict vessel.

Tasked with watching over the prisoner, Tal is surprised to feel an intense connection with the roguish Athlen. So when Athlen leaps overboard and disappears, Tal feels responsible and heartbroken, knowing Athlen could not have survived in the open ocean.

That is, until Tal runs into Athlen days later on dry land, very much alive, and as charming--and secretive--as ever. But before they can pursue anything further, Tal is kidnapped by pirates and held ransom in a plot to reveal his rumored powers and instigate a war. Tal must escape if he hopes to save his family and the kingdom. And Athlen might just be his only hope...

F.T. Lukens’ In Deeper Waters is a fun story in which (spoilers ahead, kind of, but they’re mild and obvious ones) a prince falls in love with a merman, while struggling with his own hidden magic. There’s a bit of a Little Mermaid retelling woven in with Tal’s story, giving Athlen some background and helping round out the denouement.

It’s a quick read and obviously not really aimed at an adult fantasy reader, so it’d be unfair for me to judge it by the same yardstick as I would a book aimed at my usual reading tastes. For me, the romance all felt a bit quick and superficial (though very like my memories of being a teen), and the fast pace made the danger and peril seem pretty low-key (even though it’s life and death for Tal).

I did like Tal’s relationships with his siblings, which felt genuinely warm, but felt the theme of the royal family’s treatment of their people was very lightly treated and could’ve gone further. It’s made clear to Tal that something’s up, but it’s like his one gesture fixes that problem and it slides into the background.

World-building wise, there’s nothing here that isn’t required for the story, giving it a bit of an empty feeling round the edges of the map. Again, that’s probably asking too much of what this book is meant to do. Bottom line is that it was a fun quick read, all the same!

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Murder on the Titania & Other Steam-Powered Adventures

Posted July 2, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Murder on the Titania & Other Steam-Powered Adventures

Murder on the Titania & Other Steam-Powered Adventures

by Alex Acks

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 286
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Captain Marta Ramos, the most notorious pirate in the Duchy of Denver, has her hands full between fascinating murder mysteries, the delectable and devious Deliah Nimowitz, Colonel Geoffrey Douglas (the Duke of Denver’s new head of security), a spot of airship engineering and her usual activities: piracy, banditry and burglary. Not to mention the horror of high society tea parties. In contrast, Simms, her second in command, longs only for a quiet life, filled with tasty sausages and fewer explosions. Or does he? Join Captain Ramos, Simms and their crew as they negotiate the perils of air, land and drawing room in a series of fast-paced adventures in a North America that never was.

Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures includes 4 novellas and a short story about piracy, banditry, burglary, jail-breaking, several brilliant bits of detective work and all manner of otherwise lawless hijinks performed by the valiant Captain Ramos and her crew.

Alex Acks’ Murder on the Titania is a collection of shorts featuring the same two main characters: Captain Marta Ramos and her second-in-command, Simms. They’re pirates and thieves, but Captain Ramos has an interest in murder — solving it, not committing it. The first story is rather oddly from a different third-person limited point of view, and sits a bit oddly with the others where the hero is more clearly Marta, though it doesn’t make for a bad introduction to the world.

It’s a fun enough collection of stories, with a bit of the Sherlock Holmes archetype about Marta Ramos, though Simms doesn’t quite fit into the Watson mould.

The world around the story is kind of sketched in, which was a bit disappointing. There’s clearly some stuff going on there and thoughts that have gone into it, but… we don’t see a lot of it.

Very distracting to have a Duke of Denver, by the way. That’s Lord Wimsey, y’know — and Gerald is an ass, but he’s not that much of an ass. Peter simply wouldn’t allow it.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – System Collapse

Posted June 26, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – System Collapse

System Collapse

by Martha Wells

Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 243
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is
 not going to work.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I love Martha Wells’ Murderbot books, but System Collapse ultimately didn’t quite work for me. I think it might’ve been tighter at the novella length like the earlier books, or more fleshed out with a longer plot. This way, it felt like there was a certain amount of filler, where I’d have tightened up e.g. the opening. Admittedly part of that gives Murderbot the time to talk about redacted and build up the curiosity about that, but honestly I kept just reading that as being evasiveness about the events of Network Effect anyway…

Overall, the plot felt pretty thin. There were some nice moments, like Murderbot’s realisation of how to reach the colonists — and the fact that that helped boost Murderbot’s performance. Important development does happen here, too: more glimpses of ART’s crew, a little peek at what Three might do now, some aftermath from Network Effect for the colonists, and of course, Murderbot’s obvious need for trauma therapy (which has been a long time coming).

I just… hoped for a bit more when promised another novel in the series, and perhaps that’s also part of my rating here. Here’s hoping for more of Murderbot and ART soon (and perhaps, maybe, a few more glimpses of Three, and the other newly freed SecUnit).

Rating: 3/5

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Review – A Mirror Mended

Posted June 19, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Mirror Mended

A Mirror Mended

by Alix E. Harrow

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 128
Series: Fractured Fairytales #2
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues.

Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her story ends and she's desperate for a better ending. She wants Zinnia to help her before it’s too late for everyone.

Will Zinnia accept the Queen's poisonous request, and save them both from the hot iron shoes that wait for them, or will she try another path?

A Mirror Mended follows more or less straight on from A Spindle Splintered, and Alix E. Harrow doesn’t give you a lot of background or reminding about the first book — they’re probably best read back-to-back. They don’t follow straight on in time, but they might as well: part of the issue in A Spindle Splintered is that Zinnia hasn’t really thought about what the events of the previous book mean for her. She’s running, still.

I found it all somewhat less, well, charming, without Charm so actively in the mix somehow — her love for Zinnia, her determination to help her, is a really strong part of the appeal. She’s not gone, of course, but for the majority of the story she’s in the background, and Zinnia is trying really hard not to think about her too much.

The romance in this book feels a little too speedy, though I think it could’ve worked for me with a bit more time. I still enjoyed what Harrow did with the meta nature of the story, though, and it’s a fun read.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Across a Field of Starlight

Posted June 16, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Across a Field of Starlight

Across a Field of Starlight

by Blue Delliquanti

Genres: Graphic Novels, Science Fiction
Pages: 345
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

An epic sci-fi graphic novel romance between two non-binary characters as they find one another through time, distance, and war. An amazing story that explores the complexity of human nature and what brings us together.

When they were kids, Fassen's fighter spaceship crash-landed on a planet that Lu's survey force was exploring. It was a forbidden meeting between a kid from a war-focused resistance movement and a kid whose community and planet are dedicated to peace and secrecy.

Lu and Fassen are from different worlds and separate solar systems. But their friendship keeps them in each other's orbit as they grow up. They stay in contact in secret as their communities are increasingly threatened by the omnipresent, ever-expanding empire.

As the empire begins a new attack against Fassen's people--and discovers Lu's in the process--the two of them have the chance to reunite at last. They finally are able to be together... but at what cost?

This beautifully illustrated graphic novel is an epic science fiction romance between two non-binary characters as they find one another through time, distance, and war.

I really wanted to like Blue Delliquanti’s Across a Field of Starlight a lot, because there’s a lot to like about it. The sheer diversity of body types, the queer normativity, the different types of relationships… there’s so much here, and the art is lovely, and the sheer energy in some of the facial expressions and body language is great.

Unfortunately, I found it a little hard to follow at times — the jumps felt too sudden, so that I wasn’t always sure if scenes were supposed to be connected or not. I adored the whole roleplaying game the two main characters set up between them, and I’d have loved a little more of that context to understand more of why they act the way they do together. A little more world-building would’ve been nice, too, to understand a little more than “evil Empire is evil” and “the resistance can be just as bad”.

I still did enjoy it, and I’m sure some of the deficiencies are mine: I’m not as adept at reading visual media as I’d like to be. But for me, I was left with some questions.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Den of Wolves

Posted June 10, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Den of Wolves

Den of Wolves

by Juliet Marillier

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 414
Series: Blackthorn & Grim #3
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Feather bright and feather fine,
None shall harm this child of mine...

Healer Blackthorn knows all too well the rules of her bond to the fey: seek no vengeance, help any who ask, do only good. But after the recent ordeal she and her companion, Grim, have suffered, she knows she cannot let go of her quest to bring justice to the man who ruined her life.

Despite her personal struggles, Blackthorn agrees to help the princess of Dalriada in taking care of a troubled young girl who has recently been brought to court, while Grim is sent to the girl’s home at Wolf Glen to aid her wealthy father with a strange task—repairing a broken-down house deep in the woods. It doesn’t take Grim long to realize that everything in Wolf Glen is not as it seems—the place is full of perilous secrets and deadly lies...

Back at Winterfalls, the evil touch of Blackthorn’s sworn enemy reopens old wounds and fuels her long-simmering passion for justice. With danger on two fronts, Blackthorn and Grim are faced with a heartbreaking choice—to stand once again by each other’s side or to fight their battles alone...

Apparently I never posted this review back when I read the book, so here’s a belated one!

Den of Wolves draws the story of Blackthorn and Grim to a close. I waited quite a while to read it, because I didn’t love the direction their relationship was growing in: I adored their bond, but didn’t love that it had to oh-so-typically become a romance. Books with strong bonds between adults that are exclusive and necessary to each member without being romantic are rare enough.

Still, by this point I was ready to accept the direction and enjoy it, and I did: it felt natural for Blackthorn and Grim to find each other and get past their traumas, eventually (much of the book is spent with them apart). I do enjoy that Blackthorn’s feelings about Grim are a good part of the way she manages to rise above her trauma and do the right thing at the right time.

It was also nice to get some answers about Conmael; that was obviously coming, but it could’ve been anticlimatic or weird, and it wasn’t.

The other story of this book features a young girl, Cara, and her relationship with her father… and his decision to send her away while a wild man, a builder, returns to create something called a heartwood house. Blackthorn meets Cara and begins to untangle that mystery with her; I’ll confess that I’d wanted a certain character to be a bit more ambiguous, rather than turning out to be super evil, but mostly other characters around that story had some shades of grey.

It’s a lovely conclusion to the trilogy, but I am glad I waited and let the fact of Grim and Blackthorn’s coming romance settle before I read it, so I didn’t get cranky about it!

Rating: 4/5

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