Tag: SF/F

Review – The Farthest Shore

Posted May 10, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Farthest Shore, Ursula Le Guin

This has always been my least favourite of the Earthsea books, and I think that’s sort of inevitable given the central conflict, the issue that the whole book centres around. It’s about magic dying out, about death and fighting death and being afraid of death, where few people are whole and entire and able to see the world as it is rather than wishing it was something else. Ged is one of those people, of course: he’s the Archmage for a reason, and more importantly, he’s faced the dark part of himself and accepted it.

But it’s not primarily about Ged: it’s primarily about Arren and his journey to kingship. We saw Ged from an outside POV in The Tombs of Atuan, and it’s not as though Tenar completely trusted or respected him instantly… but Arren’s distrust and indifference at times grate, especially set against his hero worship at first.

I can see the beauty of the story, of what Ged does, but I don’t enjoy it. It’s a shadow of a story, a feeling of foreboding – the shadow at the door. It’s, in part, an ending to an adventure that I wanted more of. It makes sense that Earthsea has to change, but that doesn’t reconcile me to the fact.

Needless to say, Ursula Le Guin’s writing is great and that’s not the problem.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F, Ursula Le Guin

Review – All the Birds in the Sky

Posted May 9, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders

Oh, dear, I still don’t know what to say about this one, having put off reviewing it to let me think it over. I know that other people found it weird, and even decided not to finish it; I was never tempted to put it down and not finish it, but at the same time, I’m not sure how to talk about it or identify what I liked.

At heart, it’s a dialogue between fantasy and sci-fi; the power of nature and the power of technology; playing out the story where natural powers have to save the world from technology, but also vice versa, and a-slant. In the end, the story comes together as a symbiosis of both, equally flawed and equally powerful. If you’re exclusively a reader of one or the other genre, you’ll probably find this profoundly unsatisfying, because as far as I can tell, it never picks a side, never decides to be one or the other. It’s both.

That aspect was probably more interesting to me than the characters, through whom it was played out. I didn’t dislike them, but I wasn’t a huge fan either, and though there was a sort of inevitability to how they came together and apart and together again, it’s not something I had any strong feelings about.

It was interesting, and definitely an absorbing read, but not one I had strong feelings about in general.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Bryony and Roses

Posted May 7, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Bryony and Roses, T. Kingfisher

It didn’t surprise me when I finished reading this and read T. Kingfisher’s note that it was inspired originally by Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter. It’s definitely not the same story, but something of the same atmosphere came across, and of course there’s the gardening aspect which is important in both. This explores the force that punishes the Beast rather more, I think: rather than a long-standing curse which fades into a known factor in the background, the Beast’s curse is very much an active thing which can be affected by things that Bryony and the Beast do.

There’s a rather darker background to this story, too, with the ivy spirit wound throughout the story, the dead girl and the bloodstained room, the cruelties of the ivy spirit. There’s also more sense in why the curse came to be, explaining both the cruelty of it and the helping magic of the house.

I thought it was a very good interpretation, and it’s amazing how authors can make the Beast loveable, every time. He’s kind and a bit snarky and he’s a craftsman, and he’s also willing to muck in and work with Bryony in her garden.

And Bryony’s family is pretty satisfying too, the support of her sister and the fact that she’s basically the support for her family, with her father long out of the picture. It’s got all the elements of the traditional fairytale, but gives them more depth and takes it in surprising directions.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter

Posted May 5, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 5 Comments

The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter, Rod Duncan

I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages, and seeing that there are now three books in the series (which I think I read is complete as a trilogy?), I thought it was about time I got round to it. I’m not necessarily a reader of steampunk for steampunk’s sake, but the set-up intrigued me, and especially the double life lived by the protagonist.

I have to say that I missed some things which other reviewers spotted, like the date this is set, but I enjoyed it all the same. It does feel a bit gimmicky and faux-Victorian, and I’d like to see more of the whys and wherefores of the level of technology maintained, but overall it works quite well.

I’m not majorly entranced by the story, but I’m curious enough to read on. Elizabeth is a fun character – capable, determined, intelligent – and the fact that the title defines her as someone’s daughter feels all the weirder because that person never appears and doesn’t really define her as a person at all. She’s independent and, in fact, so much of the novel is driven by her determination to be her own person and keep her own freedom.

The supporting characters are okay; it’s great that Elizabeth has a female friend who, though different from her, ends up drawn into her adventures and helping her. There’s also a good range of characters helping and hindering her, for many reasons, and sometimes the hindering is well-meaning. That makes it feel all the more real; things don’t go smoothly for Elizabeth, and sometimes that is due to well-intentioned people.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: Angry Robot, book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Bone and Jewel Creatures

Posted May 4, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Bone and Jewel Creatures, Elizabeth Bear

Bone and Jewel Creatures has an interesting setting, which I’d love to explore more – it barely scratches the surface of the potential magic, and the political situation seems fairly sketched in – and an interesting character. How often do you get a 96 year old protagonist with arthritis? Although being a stubborn old lady isn’t unique, the fact that the effects on her work are touched on and the concern other characters have for her is quite cool.

Because it’s a novella, there’s a lot of stuff that would be fun to explore and go further into, and there’s a lot of suggestion and doing your own legwork, but it has a satisfying story arc of its own, and works well as a standalone piece. I didn’t actually know of, or feel the lack of, anything else set in the same universe. You have all the details you need.

The writing is good too, with some lovely moments of description – the wariness of the child, the glitter of the titular bone and jewel creatures. Overall, I found it pretty satisfying, which is rare in a novella; normally I just want more of it.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Elizabeth Bear, SF/F

Review – Rat Queens: Demons

Posted April 30, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Rat Queens vol 3: Demons, Kurtis J. Wiebe, Tess Fowler

I’m not sure how different the art is in this volume — I can’t compare since my copies of volumes one and two are elsewhere — but I was left overall unsatisfied; I felt like it could’ve been better. Characters were clear enough, etc, but I didn’t feel it stood out, apart from Stjepan Sejic’s covers. I remember loving Stjepan Sejic’s art, so that’s not surprising; Fowler’s art is competent and expressive and all that, but it just doesn’t have the same feel.

Overall, this volume is a bit of a mess, too. It’s uneven as to which characters have anything important to do — Dee has almost nothing, in this volume — and it ends on an unsatisfying note. This volume is mostly about Hannah and her past, and I’m starting to really crave more background for the Rat Queens as a group. How did they come together, why do they stick together? They seem pretty disparate at times.

The interlude with Betty and the dragon is kind of fun, though, and it was obvious more time was going to be spent with Hannah and her family’s issues.

Possibly it’s because I wasn’t that invested in the first place, but I think this is the last volume of Rat Queens I actually buy. (I might borrow volume four from someone, if and when it exists.)

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, SF/F

Review – Blackbirds

Posted April 29, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Blackbirds, Chuck Wendig

Originally reviewed 20th April, 2012; received to review via Netgalley

I got Blackbirds from Angry Robot on Netgalley, to review. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it from the description, and the pre-existing reviews, but I wanted to give it a go because the idea is something relatively simple that could be turned into a really good story. The core idea is that a girl (Miriam) gains a power which means the first time she has skin-on-skin contact with someone, she sees how they die.

I enjoyed the character of Miriam: she’s a tough talking girl who swears like a sailor and does whatever she has to do to get through life, trying to tell herself that all these deaths she witnesses (and can’t prevent) don’t matter to her, and that she can’t do anything about it. There’s a lot that isn’t explained about her gift, which is equal parts frustrating and intriguing: I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel, to fill in the gaps that Blackbirds has left.

I liked the other main characters, too: Ashley and Louis. Well, Ashley is kind of unlikeable, but I like what was done with him, and Louis… well, you can’t help liking Louis and rooting for him, even though the story is telling you the whole time that nothing good is going to come of this.

There are a couple of things that I didn’t find convincing enough: the motives of the people who were after her; Louis’ attraction to her; the whole Ashley thing. Some of that might be resolved in the next book, but either way, the momentum of the story carried me past anything that gave me pause. I read it in one sitting — if it sounds interesting to you, then I’d say go ahead and pick it up, as long as you can get past the fact that there’s graphic violence, swearing and sex!

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Chuck Wendig, crime, Flashback Friday, mystery, SF/F

Review – Century Rain

Posted April 26, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Century Rain, Alastair Reynolds

I reread this with my sister for the first time in about ten years. It’s a book I’ve always thought fondly of; I enjoyed it, as a teen, but my sister adored it. It’s actually the book that got her back into reading after years of not caring for it at all. I enjoyed several of Reynolds’ other books, too, but haven’t read any of them for… actually, far too long. So how did it measure up?

Pretty darn well. The hard SF aspect I enjoyed less than I used to (though I also grasp it better than I used to, I think), but the politics I enjoyed more, and followed a lot better. I was still lamentably slow about a couple of points (let’s just say that close reading is a good idea before you ask the author about something which turns out to be incredibly obvious), but I’m more politically engaged now, so that aspect was more interesting to me than before.

I expected it to be mostly about Verity Auger for me; I remembered her as badass, and I didn’t remember much about Floyd at all. But despite myself, I found myself drawn into both stories, and hooked by the way the two stories converged; at one point I had to go grab my sister and yelp about how badly I needed a happier ending. And while there’s plenty of space for more story, at the end of Century Rain — there’s a whole complex past and present sketched out that Reynolds could play with, not to mention the future of the characters — it’s also a satisfying end, if bittersweet. The characters are ready for a new stage of their lives, while their immediate arcs have come to an end.

And can I still see the world going the way it does in Century Rain — the climate change, the increasingly desperate solutions, the loss of information because digital libraries are so vulnerable? Yes; those aspects remain perfectly relevant. It doesn’t seem to have aged badly, which sometimes hard SF can because of the science and the predictions it makes about the future.

Definitely enjoyed it — and more than I expected to, I think!

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Alastair Reynolds, book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Every Heart A Doorway

Posted April 25, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 12 Comments

Every Heart A Doorway, Seanan McGuire

I should probably have written a review the minute I finished this one, but I felt like I needed time to let things settle, and then life took over. For me, it was a really satisfying read, from the plot and setting to the diversity of characters, and it seemed like the perfect length too. Often I want more from novellas, but to me this told the story it had to tell and stopped — with plenty left to think about and wonder about, but not in an unsatisfying way.

My one issue is that there’s one scene that makes the mystery part absolutely obvious: I don’t know if it’s just the way I think, but that was disappointing, because the characters apparently took no notice and then a little while after, there was the actual reveal.

Still, to me the setting — even just the idea — is the central thing: what happens when the story is over, and fairyland spits you back out? I worried about it when I read Cat Valente’s last Fairyland book: how can you go back to normal after that? Wouldn’t normal life be a huge anticlimax — or even just completely baffling? And Every Heart A Doorway deals with that, and with all the different ways people might leave their fairyland, and how they might feel about it. There’s a gorgeously painful part where one of the returnees was trans, and when that was revealed, their world rejected them. And then there’s the way the various worlds fall somewhere on a spectrum between logic and nonsense; the fact that Nancy is (like me) asexual and how that affects her relationships with people; the different ways everyone relates to each other, despite a common background…

Overall, I found it really satisfying, and it emphasised how very much I need to get round to reading more of Seanan McGuire’s work.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: asexuality, book reviews, books, SF/F

Review – Liar

Posted April 22, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Liar, Justine Larbalestier

Originally reviewed 6th January 2011

I first heard of Liar when everyone was talking about the controversy surrounding the original cover. I filed it away in the back of my mind, thinking of picking the book up when it came out. I was reminded of it recently when friends started to talk about it again — through having read it, now — and put it on my last minute Christmas list. Cue me getting it in the mail yesterday, and being almost unable to resist the lure of the first page, which starts with the hook, “I was born with a light covering of fur.”

If you don’t enjoy unreliable narrators, step away right now. Micah is as unreliable as you can get, and the whole book peels back — or layers on — more of her lies.

For the first part of the book, it could be the story of a normal teenager — one who has had bad things happen to her, and who is a loner, yes, but one who is essentially like those around her. It doesn’t stay like that, though: if you’re not a fan of fantastical elements, you probably want to step back now.

The thing with this book is that there are at least two ways of reading it. It’s a delicate balance to walk, but Larbalestier does, in my opinion, walk it well. It wasn’t wholly unpredictable, but I have been spoiled a little by reading other people’s reviews. If you can, and this book sounds interesting to you, then try to go into it knowing as little as possible — just knowing that Micah is a liar (not a spoiler: it’s in the title).

The other thing that pleased me was the fact that the book has non-white characters — chiefly non-white characters, in fact — and LGBT content, plus a generally sex-positive attitude. There’s totally non-explicit sexual references, there’s an understanding of teenagers feeling and dealing with desire, and I didn’t get a ‘sex is bad, hush, we don’t talk about sex’ vibe from it.

(It irks me that there are likely people reading this review thinking, ‘I’d better not give this to my teenage daughter.’ There’s nothing in this that would have damaged my fragile fourteen year old psyche. It’s just people.)

I realise this doesn’t tell you much about how I, personally, felt about this book: I read it within the space of an afternoon, and kept stopping myself after every fifty pages so I could drag it out more and enjoy it for that bit longer. When I put it down, I already had a list of people I want to recommend it to.

Rating: 5/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Flashback Friday, mystery, SF/F