Beth Tabler's Blog, page 169
August 27, 2022
Review – The War of the God Queen by David Hambling
WAR OF THE GOD QUEEN is an indie dark fantasy by David Hambling. I’m a huge fan of his Harry Stubbs series that I reviewed previously on this site (link: https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-the-elder-ice-and-broken-meats-by-david-hambling/). However, I was surprised to hear about him moving from writing occult detective novels and horror to a more fantastical series set during a Hyborian Age-like Bronze Age.
This is a direct sequel to The Dulwich Horror but has more in common with Brian Lumley’s later Titus Crow novels than the previous occult mysteries. Which is to say the best response to dealing with Cthulhu and his ilk is to stab them in the face. It also doesn’t require reading said book to understand it.
The premise is that the protagonist of The Dulwich Horror, Jessica, has been cast back into time. It is a pulpy adventure that takes place in a pre-Bronze Age Stone Age civilization. References are made to A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and the Barsoom novels with a joke that the protagonist, Jessica, isn’t like any of those supermen with their knowledge of engineering as well as military tactics.
Jessica is a Edwardian woman who finds herself soon the head of a time-lost band of women who are all of varying ethnicities. They avoid becoming the property of the local tribes due to some fast thinking and the belief they’re goddesses. They have an enemy in the Spawn of Cthulhu, however, who threaten to wipe out humanity before it can ever become a threat to even the lowliest of his servitors.
Much is made of Jessica trying to survive in a time without any form of metallurgy, hygeine, or amenities. It is also a work with a feminist slant as the women band together to try to assert their dignity. It is also a adventure about slaying prehistoric eldritch monsters. I liked the latter element a lot more and note this is a very Pulpy Conan-esque view of the Bronze Age and almost wish he’d gone full Howardian.
David Hambling has an engaging and entertaining writing style as well as a fascination with time travel. The Cthulhu Mythos here is less inscrutable and more overtly malevolent but it works well for a story about women attempting to avoid becoming fodder for their Innsmouth-esque plot to take over the world. Thankfully, all of the implied ick that kidnapping women from across time to breed monster babies is thwarted as well. It’s not that kind of book. It’s more, “stab the crazy squid cultists in the face.”
If this sounds like your sort of thing then definitely check it out. I love David Hambling’s occult mysteries more but this was a quirky and fun book despite its sometimes dark subject matter as well as offbeat concept.
Buy from Amazon
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August 26, 2022
#SPFBO8 Review and Cut – The Empire’s Lion by Nathan Tudor
“This book will be a real winner for people who like their fantasy to be thick (in all the best ways), heavily world-built, and deeply rooted in Roman history.”
What it’s about:She left a slave. She returns a conqueror.
As an Adept, Reiva blasts fire from her hands and leaps over walls. But when her first solo mission leaves her half-dead amidst a heap of massacred allies, she gets just one chance at redemption.
The Empire orders her to crush the one kingdom she thought she would never see again: Talynis, the land of her birth, the land she left in chains.
Standing in her way is the Wolf, a vicious assassin hellbent on killing Adepts—and a single cut from his cursed blade will destroy Reiva’s magic forever.
Even if she can survive, victory may come at a price too high to pay…
My ThoughtsI think the thing that caught my eye first and foremost is the beautiful cover on The Empire’s Lion. It does everything a cover should do; it draws your attention, and gives an excellent vibe of what you’ll find within the book. I knew it was Grecco/Roman + magic immediately, and sinking into the first pages, that impression is quickly and efficiently confirmed.
The Empire’s Lion is a chonker (849 pages on my Kindle) but anyone who knows me will know that this isn’t a problem in my eyes! If you connect with a chonker, you just get more to love! More to savour! Tudor’s writing is crisp and clean, and I liked Reiva. The worldbuilding is solid, but I found the rapid-fire of names that I needed to learn in early chapters slowed me down some. This, of course, is a matter of taste and style and not at all a flaw; I understand how hard it is to set the scene when you’re a big worldbuilder. I found Avi’s chapters were more guilty of this, whereas Reiva’s chapters were build more gently and it made her POV much easier to connect to.
Don’t assume that just because the book is heavily world-built that it’s slow! Reiva gets herself into trouble very quickly and the action hangs on to you and doesn’t let go.
The biggest barrier for me was Tudor’s narrative style, which often felt like I was being held and arm’s length. There’s a distance to his prose that sometimes undercut the urgency of the action. For some reason, this stood out more in Avi’s chapters, which is probably why I connected to those chapters less than Reiva’s.
I very much liked the effort Tudor put into the in-world texts that opened every chapter. It made the world live and breathe, setting an excellent tone. In fact, it was in the epigraphs that I found my favourite line, and a theme that I love seeing crop up in fiction:
‘Much is made of Lazarran virtue. But there is no greater Lazarran vice than pride—and it was our wounded pride that drove us to resort to such underhanded treachery as happened in the siege of Dav-maiir.’
Ultimately, I am a character reader first and foremost. So while I found Tudor’s worldbuilding well executed and his concepts intelligently assembled, the style of his prose made it difficult for me to sink as deeply into his characters as I like to. Again this is not something that is necessarily a flaw in his style, it’s simply my taste showing. It often felt like his characters were keeping me out rather than drawing me into the knitty gritty of their beating hearts, which made it difficult for me to keep up when things got muddled up in the sharp-as-a-knife action.
This book will be a real winner for people who like their fantasy to be thick (in all the best ways), heavily world-built, and deeply rooted in Roman history.
However, for the purposes of SPFBO, this is a cut.
My condolences to the author, and I wish Tudor the very best of luck.
Buy from Amazon
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Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations for August
Kindle Unlimited is a service that can theoretically provide you with limitless numbers of books for the price of one normal release every month. This is a tremendous blessing for those of us who are fast readers. I pretty much have read every single Red Sonja comic ever written thanks to Dynamite Entertainment putting almost all their comics on the service.
However, what we here at Before We Go want most is good Kindle Unlimited books. As such, here is a recommendation of a bunch of entertaining ones that I’ve enjoyed and can say rise above the dross.
1. Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations for January
https://beforewegoblog.com/five-recommended-kindle-unlimited-books/
2. Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations for February
https://beforewegoblog.com/five-recommended-kindle-unlimited-books-february-edition/
3. Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations for March
https://beforewegoblog.com/five-kindle-unlimited-recommendations-for-march-2022/
4. Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations for April
https://beforewegoblog.com/five-kindle-unlimited-recommendations-for-april-2022/
5. Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations for May
https://beforewegoblog.com/kindle-unlimited-recommendations-for-may/May
1.Against All Oddsby Jeffrey Haskell
Space Opera is one of my favorite genres and I hate that it’s so hard to seperate the wheat from the chafe. Against All Odds is about the heroic adventures of a space captain named Jacob Grimm, who finds himself unfairly blamed for a war crime. I really enjoy Jeffrey Haskell’s writing style and he manages to create a easy-to-understand as well as well-written setting for his characters to tool around in.
About Against All Odds
The wrong crew. The wrong ship. The right Captain.
Idealistic navy lieutenant Jacob Grimm just wanted to honor his mother’s sacrifice in the last great war. When he’s forced to return fire and destroy a squadron of ships to save his own, he thinks he’s the hero…
Until they discover the ships are full of children.
Disgraced and denied promotion, Jacob’s career is over. That is until the head of ONI needs a disposable officer to command a battered destroyer on the rim.
There’s just one problem, Interceptor hasn’t had a CO in months and the ship is a mess. Worse, the system he’s assigned to is corrupt and on the verge of all-out civil war with the Alliance.
However, no one told Jacob he was disposable.
Pirates, smugglers, and Caliphate spies complicate the situation and one captain with an old ship can’t enforce the law, let alone stop anyone.
The single greatest discovery of all time is about to change intergalactic politics forever. If Jacob doesn’t find a way to succeed, then it won’t just be the end of the Alliance, it will be the end of freedom for humanity.
Buy from Amazon
2.The War of the God Queenby David Hambling
War of the God Queen is a semi-sequel to the horror novel The Dulwich Horror. Despite this, you don’t need to read the latter to understand the former. Basically, Jessica is a young woman from the 1920s who finds herself involuntarily transported back to the Bronze Age where the spawn of Cthulhu reign. Not wanting to become one of their slaves, she stages a breakout for other time-lost slaves to wage war against the Spawn. I really enjoyed it.
About War of the God Queen
Jessica: a modern woman, thrown back into the bronze age, alone and lost among a strange people.
Amir: a nomad warlord, fighting a hopeless battle against monstrous invaders, looking for a miracle to save his people.
To Amir, the beautiful stranger is a sign from heaven. And Jessica, though no warrior, has hidden talents even she does not appreciate. When Jessica recruits other women abducted through time, they find ways to fight back against the seemingly invulnerable Spawn, and wage a war like nothing ever seen — with the future of humanity at stake. But the Spawn are not Jessica’s only problem…
You’ll love this epic fantasy driven by characters facing the challenge of becoming what they could only dream.
Buy from Amazon
3.Backyard Starship by JN Chaney
Val Tudor is an ordinary guy, as much as ex-Army Intelligence officer can be, when he receives word his grandfather has died. Much to his surprise, in the barn behind the house, Val discovers that his grandfather left him a starship as well as remit to become a galactic peacekeepers. Basically, the FBI of the galaxy. The books are procedural space adventures and I really enjoy them.
About Backyard Starship
When Van Tudor returns to his childhood home, he inherits more than the family farm.
His grandfather used to tell him fantastic stories of spacemen and monsters, princesses and galactic knights. Little did Van realize, the old man’s tales were more than fiction. They were real.
Hidden beneath the old barn, Van’s legacy is waiting: a starship, not of this world.
With his combat AI, an android bird named Perry, Van takes his first steps into the wider galaxy. He soon finds that space is far busier and more dangerous than he could have ever conceived.
Destiny is calling. His grandfather’s legacy awaits.
Embark on the adventure of a lifetime with USA Today Bestselling Author J.N. Chaney and Terry Maggert in this brand new science fiction series. If you’re a fan of found spaceships and galactic quests for glory, this might just be the story you’ve been waiting for.
Buy from Amazon
4.The Vilification of Aqua Marine by Megan Mackie
I’m a big fan of superhero literature and am always willing to give them a chance. In this case, Aqua Marine is a young woman who is the daughter of the world’s most infamous supervillain and wants to be a hero. Unfortunately, her powers absolutely suck and she’s only able to manipulate a cup of water’s worth at a time. A chance encounter with a handsome supervillain almost kills him and
About The Vilification of Aqua Marie
One Parent was a superhero, one parent was a supervillain, Aqua Marine is a work in progress.
Despite Aqua Marine’s super lineage, this wannabe superhero can only control a cup of water at a time. Not very effective as far as superpowers go. Never mind being able to stop the new nefarious villain, The Overlord of the Dance from taking over part of the city.
That is until she discovers there is a cup of water in the human heart when she accidentally blows his out.
Now her villainous mother wants her to join the League of Extraordinary Evil.
Aqua Marine would like to hide under a rock.
And Overlord of the Dance is apparently not quite dead yet, and he would like to have a word with her about becoming his new nemesis.
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, Aqua Marine’s is a slip and slide, with capes.
Buy from Amazon
5.Agents of MORTAL by MK Gibson
I’m a big fan of MK Gibson and his various series. So I was very interested in this story as well as its unusual setting. Basically, Alaska has been turned into a preserve for all of the world’s fairies and supernatural creatures including gods. Unfortunately, due to the fact the government sucks, humans are still expected to police them. This is the job of MORTAL and they are more like the cast of Reno 911 rather than a deadly efficient spy agency. It’s funny and good for an afternoon’s read.
About Agents of MORTAL
What happens when all the myths, legends, and things that go bump in the night come out to the world as real? Well, the world does as it always does: It rejected them.
Welcome to Avalantis, Alaska, the world’s first supercity with over 50 million myth and mundane citizens and home of those rejected by society. Although due to pesky things like murder end explosions, there are a few fewer citizens. When the former Greek god Hermes dies, three unusual cops from the Avalantis PD are recruited into a secret organization known as MORTAL, who has apparently been watching the Myths for longer than mankind realizes.
Their mission is to find and apprehend the mysterious figure known as “The Laughing Man”, the one responsible for a recent string of deaths. These three new recruits will have to use all their skill, strength, and wits to find and defeat the “The Laughing Man”. That is, if they don’t kill each other first.
Buy from Amazon
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August 24, 2022
Review – The Cape is a Lie: The Ballad of Kevin by M.K. Gibson
THE CAPE IS A LIE: THE BALLAD OF KEVIN by M.K. Gibson is a work that I was automatically going to be attracted to because it is a comedic superhero story (like I write) and by one of my favorite indie humorists. M.K. Gibson’s Villains Rule, Technomancer, and Agents of MORTAL books have all been extremely enjoyable. They’re rarely books to take seriously but they’re easy to just sit back and enjoy the mayhem of.
The premise is that Kevin Coello is halfway between a legitimate independent journalist and a Twitch streamer. He has the business of reporting om the huge battles that routinely happen between the various superheroes (Capes) and supervillains (Cowls) that occur in his home city of New Fransisco. This is his primary source of revenye and Kevin gets closer than anyone else to these life-threatening conflicts between good versus evil.
Kevin’s life takes a turn for the surreal, though, when there’s some inconsistencies in his last battle. One of the supervillains could take a punch to the face from the most powerful super in the world but said “ouch” when he hit her with a bread roll. There’s footage missing from the televised version of the conflict that the other networks shared and even his online version (but not his original tapes that haven’t been hooked up to the net).
Kevin is an unlikely hero, though, and not prepared to jump to the conclusion that there’s anything sinister afoot. He’s been a fan of superheroes since his childhood, after all, since a group of them rescued him from the destruction of San Fransico where his parents died. Kevin’s friend, Cool Greg, is less than enthusiastic about the whole thing and advises our antihero to let it go. But, unfortunately, people are already cluing into the fact Kevin knows a lot more about the inner goings on of superheroes and their identities than they let on.
I really enjoyed this book and think that it nicely creates a believable superhero world that explains away some of the strangeness of MCU or DC comics-like settings. I saw the twist coming from a mile away but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good one. The appeal is following Kevin as he slowly puts together the pieces and just what is really going on.
There’s a surprising amount of moral ambiguity too as the Capes are targets of a hate group that is group that is wrong about 99% of everything they believe but may be right about one thing. There’s some strong X-men vibes with superhumans being a racial allegory and caught between extremist ideologies. Pretty heavy stuff for what is a light ridiculous comedy that could have starred Simon Pegg or Jack Quaid.
Does the book have some flaws? There’s a bit of gross out humor where Kevin throws up every time that he’s stressed about people trying to kill him, which is surprisingly often, and that wasn’t to my taste. I also felt that Kevin was a bit too quick to accept some arguments but I also didn’t have my suspension of disbelief broken either. It’s a solid and entertaining book that I strongly recommend as an afternoon’s read.
4.5/5
Buy from Amazon
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Review – The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
WITNESS FOR THE DEAD is a spin-off novel, not a sequel, to THE GOBLIN EMPEROR. The Goblin Emperor was a delightful steampunk fantasy about the ascension of a half-goblin, half-elf to the Emperorship of his developing nation. One of the side characters was Thara Celehar, a medium capable of speaking with the dead who assisted the protagonist in securing his reign. Now he has his own book and I was very excited to read it, albeit a bit disappointed because I wanted to read more adventures of the aforementioned goblin emperor.
The premise is that Thara has been assigned to the city of Amalo, that is a decidedly awful vice-ridden city that is in desperate need of someone to witness for the dead. Unfortunately, the local clergy are more interested in playing politics than they are tending toward their flock. After offending virtually every ally he could make, Thara ends up recruited to solve multiple mysterious deaths and find himself neck deep in other plots.
The primary crime he’s investigating is the murder of an opera singer who had an infamous reputation around the city as a compulsive gambler, mooch, and blackmailer. The problem is not coming up with a list of who would do her harm but who in the city of Amalo didn’t want to do her harm. Nevertheless, it is part of the duty of a Witness for the Dead to find justice for the dead so he must track down the killer, no matter their motivation.
Celehar’s adventures aren’t limited to just dealing with this one murder, though. He finds himself wrapped up in numerous other strange and unusual cases that usually start mundane but quickly become less so due to his gift. He’s asked to consult on a will dispute, only to find fraud and political pressure brought against him. We also get fascinating scenes like a trial by ordeal involving visiting a haunted hill.
I really enjoy Katherine Addison’s world-building that is entertaining and a strange mix of steampunk as well as traditional high fantasy elements. This world has photography, streetlights, trains, airships, and printing presses but also ghosts as well as supernatural races. Goblins and elves lack their traditional fantasy qualities with them being largely indistinguishable from humans. It adds an interesting racial dynamic since elves tend to treat goblins as second-class citizens.
Unfortunately, I do have one small complaint and that is Thara Celehar is kind of on the stoic side. He’s reserved, calm, and doesn’t really go through any sort of changes in the story. Instead, he serves as a fulcrum for exploring the world. A bit like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poroit, he’s a tool for unearthing other people’s secrets rather than a changing character.
In conclusion, Witness for the Dead is a really excellent book. I think if you liked The Goblin Emperor you’ll love this but you don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy this. The stakes are surprisingly low and that makes a more interesting fantasy novel, IMHO.
4/5
Buy from Amazon
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August 23, 2022
Review – A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow
A Mirror Mended continues the story started in A Spindle Splintered, with Zinnia traveling into various versions of the Sleeping Beauty tale to save the princess from her own story. It’s obvious that Zinnia is creating as many happy endings as possible because she feels she has no control over her own fate. She knows that her illness will catch up to her (sooner rather than later) and she will die. As far as avoidance techniques go, it’s a pretty creative one. It’s also alienated her from her best friend, Charm.
After one night of a particularly zesty victory celebration, Zinnia finds herself traveling into another fairytale- except for the first time ever, it’s not another version of Sleeping Beauty. Instead, she comes face to face with the Evil Queen from Snow White.
I’ve never been a big fan of Snow White (especially the Disney version) and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it dumped on its head. Since Zinnia meets the Evil Queen first instead of Snow White, she’s treated to an opposing view of what really happens in the story. Doubly interesting is that this villain knows she’s the bad guy and even knows her own fate (which is really rather grisly).
Just like Zinnia, Eva (short for “Evil Queen”) is looking for a way to escape her story. The book focuses mainly on their changing relationship and how they learn from each other. Now, before you think “boring” and write the book off- there’s also a fair amount of fairy tale shenanigans, including battles, magical witches, and romance. At the end of the day, though, the relationships and character growth were what kept me interested.
I was a little concerned at first because Charm is in very little of this book. I was worried that it wouldn’t give Zinnia the chance to continue to grow as a character without having someone who understood the entire situation. Fortunately, Eva is a quick study and more than made up for the missing Charm (weak pun intended).
Zinnia was in fine form, her snarkiness shining through, but Eva stole the show. Her mix of naivety and condescension made her a blast to read! She was always a force to be reckoned with, and it didn’t go well when people forgot that.
Author Alix E. Harrow packed a ton into such a short book. Every now and again I wished that more time could have been spent on a particular part (especially when a certain character helps raid a castle), but such is the nature of shorter books. I just enjoy Harrow’s writing so much that I’m always eager for more.
Is A Mirror Mended my favorite Alix E. Harrow book? No. But’s it’s well written, added a new facet to the Fractured Fables storyline, and kept me highly entertained.
Buy from Amazon
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August 22, 2022
House of The Dragon – Season 1 Episode 1
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is the prequel series to HBO’s fantastic (for the first few seasons or so) GAME OF THRONES. It’s a pretty distant prequel as well, taking place two hundred years before Daenerys Targaryen attempts her epic quest to assume the Iron Throne, which absolutely ended wonderfully and everyone lived happily thereafter. As you can see from my intro, there’s some bitterness and ill-feeling leftover from Season Eight’s finale which many fans share. Can House of the Dragon recapture the magic?
Do we want it to?Yes. With caveats, yes.
Yes, very much so.
The premise is King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) is having a really crappy two day as he loses both his wife and his heir, a boy, a day later. Viserys is a different kind of monarch in Westeros in that he is neither a religious fanatic, lunatic sadist, or utter incompetent. He’s a bit conflict adverse but that’s hardly the worst quality to have in a setting where conflict is resolved with mass murder. The Targaryens have been rulers in Westeros for a century and they’re at the height of their power due to having a dozen or so dragons.
The issue is succession with Viserys having no sons, one daughter, one brother, and a cousin who was already passed over to make him king. Westeros would very much like to have a man as their king, so that would indicate Daemon (Matt Smith) should be the king but he has the problem of being a relentlessly debonair rogue that everyone is afraid will have them killed when he ascends. Probably because he would. To be fair, they’re all a bunch of scheming bastards and he has a Han Solo meets meets the Tudors ruthlessness.
Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) wants to skewer Daemon’s chances by unexpectedly supporting Viserys’ daughter, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), as the heir instead. This will end up shooting him in the foot as his daughter, Lady Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), already is in position to comfort the grieving Viserys that is old enough to be her father verging on grandfather. Really, Otto all but tries to pimp her out in his grief over his widowdom and she’s suitably disgusted. It’s also doubly awkward because Rhaenyra and Alicent are besties, bonding over being the smartest people in the Red Keep but kept from power by their sex. Oh and the fact they’re teenagers.
A lot of this is set up for later episodes in the series and if you aren’t interested in a show about who will sit on the Iron Throne, backstab one another, betray their loves, or curiously ignore all the incest going on then why are you watching Game of Thrones? I mean, House of the Dragon? The big thing this series has both for and against it is that it is a return to the pageantry, beauty, crassness crossed with high society, violence, and sex of GOT. It feels a trifle more aware of its female audience this time with Matt Smith there to be balance out the fanservice but it’s very much a show that feels like, “Can we just pretend we never had that messy breakup?” The answer would be no except…dragons.
Damn you, HBO, but you got me with the dragons. It’s like that moment in Peter S. Beagal’s The Last Unicorn where Christopher Lee talks about seeing unicorns for the first time: “Each time I see the unicorns dragons, my unicorns dragons, it is like that morning in the woods and I am truly young, in spite of myself.” I mean, young again in this case refers to 2019 but that feels like a very long time ago with the Pandemic and other things that make me long for Westeros. Watching George R.R. Martin’s work on screen again is like going on a date with your ex after you’ve both grown and remembering the good times while forgetting the bad. But it’s the dragons that got me here and dragons that will keep me to stay.
I could nitpick about details: Rhaenyra is being set up as the plucky young heroine who should be queen because why shouldn’t a girl be queen without ever questioning the fact that a hereditary despotism’s problems are not what sex the ruler is. Matt Smith is doing triple duty as the comic relief, romantic lead, and a handsome rogue with some truly dark qualities. Some Tyrion-esque humor would have been appreciated but the season is young.
There’s some very uncomfortable parts in this episode with the caesarion scene being genuinely traumatizing. The contrast between it and the violence of the tournament is powerful stuff, though, and underscores that this is a patriarchal society that is no woman’s land. It may be a little too heavy on this theme but the central conflict being between Alicent and Rhaenyra is something that I think will provide plenty of fodder for future episodes.
In conclusion, you’ve probably made up your mind on whether or not to see House of the Dragon. However, I give this a stamp of approval. It could end up disappointing me and we break up the same way we did before for the same reasons. However, so far, things are very good and I am way more excited for this than any program this year.
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Review – Ten Sigma by A.W. Wang
TEN SIGMA is a dark psychosexual story of a woman recruited into a super soldier serum as an alternative to dying of cancer. Mary, later renamed Brin, hates being a burden to her husband and niece but is clearly not getting any better while also inflicting deep financial woe on her family. The Ten Sigma program promises to pay off all her family’s debts and also give them a nest egg to survive what is apparently the imminent collapse of the United States.
One of my only problems with this premise is the fact that the book says “all the free stuff” is what’s caused the collapse of the United States. Ignoring the economic questions of this, I’m pretty sure that most countries get away with socialized medicine and don’t collapse. Here, it’s clear that there’s no “free stuff” for Mary regarding her cancer treatment and the plot can’t advance without her financial ruin so I’m going to say this is the book’s only plot hole.
Anyway, Mary finds herself digitally uploaded to a virtual reality world where she has to advance through the ranks of a punishing series of war games against countless scenarios. If she dies during the battle, she’s deleted from the program. This is not Lit-RPG though and it is a staggering story of psychological damage and conditioning as Mary (now Brin) has her memories erased of her past life while being turned into a murderous killing machine.
Her teammates include the psychopath Syd, the old woman now young Suri, and a deeply troubled man named Walt. Everything other than orders is gradually erased from their mind with a large focus given on the fact that they are to be rendered sexless. Removing the libido from a computer program is probably very easy but leaves lasting psychological scars as one of the primary drives of human relationships vanishes from people who were not Ace in the first place.
Much of the book is Brin’s struggle to reach Ten Sigma and “graduate” from the hideous program that seems like a combination of the SPARTAN II program from HALO and John Scalzi’s OLD MAN’S WAR. It is an objectively evil thing, but the author treats their horrific abuse dispassionately, which makes it even more effective. I got some serious SQUID GAMES vibes from the book and if you like the horrifying contests from that series then you’ll almost certainly enjoy this book.
Speaking of which, this is a book that will certainly not be for everyone. In addition to the relentless punishing violence our heroine is forced to endure, there’s also a lot of terrifying scenes dealing with sex, torture, and threat of rape. Syd is a horrific monster and the only one who can experience any form of sexual gratification, which he associates with killing as well. Charming guy. Needless to say, he tries to get our heroine into his clutches several times. If that causes you to nope the frick out then I don’t blame you.
A.W Wang does an excellent job of making you sympathize with Mary/Brin through her horrific ordeal. They have a grasp on how to make the most mundane and normal memories seem like treasures beyond price as they’re gradually slipping away in the deadening monotony of their training. If I have any complaints, it’s the fact that the program isn’t treated with quite the level of abject horror that it should be from most people, but they’ve been brainwashed to serve it so it’s understandable.
This is not the kind of novel you want to read if you don’t want to get in the absolute grimmest areas of the human psyche even with a sympathetic protagonist, but it is definitely well-written as well as exciting for those who like their science fiction dark as midnight.
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August 21, 2022
6 “Dad Bod” Books – Books With a Little Bit of Extra Padding
Whether you are someone who loves a chunky book or one who loves your tales on the slimmer side, sometimes getting into an epic 800+ page tome is a lot of fun. I approach books of this caliber on two levels. First, the obvious one, I am about to be told a tale of adventure/horror/fantasy. That is always something to look forward to. But I look forward to short books in the same way.
So what is it about these “chonky bois” that make this so much fun? It is the second reason. The journey of completion is, in itself, just as much a reward as the story itself. I have read the unabridged version of The Stand. It has an extra 600 pages in it and clocks in around 1400 pages. Did The Stand need to be this long, no? Absolutely not. Please do not bring the tar and feathers at me, sometimes King needs an editor. And this book badly needed an editor, which it received in the revised edition. But there was this extra level of reward to the fact that I read it. It was War and Peace, but for Horror, and I loved that. I remember plowing through it and my hand getting exhausted from holding the mound of dead tree shavings back that were accumulating as I walked the roads of a plague-stricken United States.
The idea for this came from a conversation that I had with authors Krystle Matar, and Justin T. Call. Both are authors of thick books.
Chonk Size - 1005 Pages Brandon SandersonThe Way of Kings
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.
Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.
Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.
The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.
Speak again the ancient oaths:
Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.
and return to men the Shards they once bore.
The Knights Radiant must stand again.
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Chonk Size - 1472 Pages Author Stephen KingThe Stand
Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.
A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge – Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious “Dark Man,” who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them – and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.
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Chonk Size - 1104 Pages Author Frank SchätzingThe Swarm
For more than two years, one book has taken over Germany’s hardcover and paperback bestseller lists, reaching number one in Der Spiegel and setting off a frenzy in bookstores: The Swarm.
Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic, eyeless crabs poison Long Island’s water supply. The North Sea shelf collapses, killing thousands in Europe. Around the world, countries are beginning to feel the effects of the ocean’s revenge as the seas and their inhabi-tants begin a violent revolution against mankind. In this riveting novel, full of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, a team of scientists discovers a strange, intelligent life force called the Yrr that takes form in marine animals, using them to wreak havoc on humanity for our ecological abuses. Soon a struggle between good and evil is in full swing, with both human and suboceanic forces battling for control of the waters. At stake is the survival of the Earth’s fragile ecology — and ultimately, the survival of the human race itself.
The apocalyptic catastrophes of The Day After Tomorrow meet the watery menace of The Abyss in this gripping, scientifically realistic, and utterly imaginative thriller. With 1.5 million copies sold in Germany — where it has been on the bestseller list without fail since its debut — and the author’s skillfully executed blend of compelling story, vivid characters, and eerie locales, Frank Schatzing’s The Swarm will keep you in tense anticipation until the last suspenseful page is turned.
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Chonk Size - 500 Pages Author Justin T. CallMaster of Sorrows
You have heard the story before – of a young boy, orphaned through tragic circumstances, raised by a wise old man, who comes to a fuller knowledge of his magic and uses it to fight the great evil that threatens his world.
But what if the boy hero and the malevolent, threatening taint were one and the same?
What if the boy slowly came to realize he was the reincarnation of an evil god? Would he save the world . . . or destroy it?
Among the Academy’s warrior-thieves, Annev de Breth is an outlier. Unlike his classmates who were stolen as infants from the capital city, Annev was born in the small village of Chaenbalu, was believed to be executed, and then unknowingly raised by his parents’ killers.
Seventeen years later, Annev struggles with the burdens of a forbidden magic, a forgotten heritage, and a secret deformity. When he is subsequently caught between the warring ideologies of his priestly mentor and the Academy’s masters, he must choose between forfeiting his promising future at the Academy or betraying his closest friends. Each decision leads to a deeper dilemma, until Annev finds himself pressed into a quest he does not wish to fulfil.
Will he finally embrace the doctrine of his tutors, murder a stranger, and abandon his mentor? Or will he accept the more difficult truth of who he is . . . and the darker truth of what he may become . . .
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Chonk Size - 662 Pages Author Krystle MatarLegacy of the Brightwash
John Carver has three rules: Don’t drink in the daytime, don’t gamble when the luck has gone, and don’t talk to the dead people who come to visit.
It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from the whispers, the guilt, and the fear he was losing his mind, Carver fell into addiction, dragging himself through life one day at a time.
Desperation has pulled him back to Afghanistan, back to the heat, the dust, and the truth he worked so hard to avoid. But there are others, obsessed with power and forbidden magics, who will stop at nothing to learn the truth of his gifts. Abducted and chained, Carver must break more than his own rules if he is to harness this power and survive.
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Chonk Size - 1005 Pages Author Thomas Howard RileyWe Break Immortals
A drug addict who hunts sorcerers down by tracking their magick, the most renowned swordsman no one has ever heard of, and a thieving magick-wielding woman hellbent on revenge collide during a last ditch effort to stop an insane superhuman serial killer from making himself a god.
The Render Tracers always say magick users deserve to burn. Aren couldn’t agree more, Keluwen would beg to differ, and Corrin couldn’t care less either way.
In a world where most people use swords for protection, Aren uses tools that let him see what no one else can see, and he takes advantage of loopholes that can undo magick in order to stop the deadliest people in the world. He is a Render Tracer, relentlessly pursuing rogue sorcerers who bend the laws of physics to steal, assault, and kill. But his next hunt will lead him to question his entire life, plunging him into a world where he can’t trust anyone, not even his own eyes.
When Keluwen finally escaped her fourthparents’ home and set out on her own to become a thief, she never thought she would one day be killing her own kind. She honed her magick on the streets, haunted by her past, hunted by Render Tracers, and feared by a society that hates what she is. Now she joins a crew of outcast magicians on a path of vengeance as they race to stop an insane sorcerer who has unlocked the source of all magick and is trying to use it to make himself a god.
Corrin is a sword fighter first, a drinker second, and a…well, there must be something else he is good at. He’ll think of it if you give him enough time. He is a rogue for hire, and he has no special powers of any kind. The most magick he has ever done is piss into the wind without getting any on himself. He is terrible at staying out of trouble, and someone always seems to be chasing him. When he gets caught up in a multi-kingdom manhunt, he finds himself having to care about other people for a change, and he’s not happy about it.
They are about to collide on the trail of a man who is impossible to catch, who is on the verge of plunging the world into ruin, and who can turn loyal people into traitors in a single conversation. They must struggle against their own obsessions, their fears, ancient prophecies, and each other. They will each have to balance the people they love against their missions, and struggle to avoid becoming the very thing they are trying to stop.
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August 20, 2022
Review – Seekers: The Winds of Change by Troy Knowlton
If there’s one thing I love about reading fantasy, it’s coming across a new to me or debut author , with a fresh voice to give to the community. Recently I was offered an ARC of Troy Knowlton’s self published debut novel in exchange for an honest review and all I can say is that I’m really glad I accepted.
Told through two main POVs, The winds of Change follows a cast of characters as they attempt to find a Conduit and stop a secret war from brewing. All the while, chaotic and relentless winds of change are blowing through the land of Tiarna, tearing through not just the landscape, but also the minds of those who inhabit it. Full of dangerous enemies, treachery, betrayal and romance, this is a solid debut from an author who I strongly feel has true potential to be a popular author in the fantasy genre.
My favorite character in this book would have to be Oren. I really admired his character arc and how he grew throughout the novel. When we first meet Oren, he is a quiet and reserved character who doubts himself and his purpose. By the end of the book we see Oren truly come into his own and his bravery and smarts really shine through. I think Troy Knowlton did some amazing character work with Oren and really explored who he was as a person. The setting was also well layered and I thoroughly enjoyed the tidbits of lore we got throughout the book. The story didn’t feel dense or overly complicated; in fact it was a pretty light read which was perfect for the tone of the book.
To be quite honest, I wasn’t the hugest fan of the romance side plots but it really didn’t deter me from enjoying the heck out of this book. Troy Knowlton knows how to make his characters POP off the page and they have real human interactions. They hurt, they love, they rage. It was fantastic to see.
One thing I wasn’t expecting in this book but that I really appreciated was the gender issues and LGBTQIA+ themes that were discussed in the book. One of our female characters is the daughter of a High Commander and as such, there are things she is expected to do and things she’s not allowed to do. However, she challenges this every step of the way and doesn’t hider her feelings on how dumb and outdated she thinks those rules are. There is also a male character who is her guard, and who secretly is gay. he is forced to hide that part of himself because there’s blatant homophobia where he’s from, but the other characters encourage him to love who he chooses and to not be shamed of his true self. there were some very good discussions about these topics littered throughout the book.
Overall, I feel like this is the perfect book for readers who want to dip their toes in the fantasy genre, or readers who like their fantasy to be more on the simplistic side. I believe Troy Knowlton shows true promise, and I am more than eager to continue this series and to pick up more of what he writes in future.
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