Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 40

Miranda and Caliban – Jacqueline Carey

About the Book

Miranda is a lonely child. For as long as she can remember, she and her father have lived in isolation in the abandoned Moorish palace. There are chickens and goats, and a terrible wailing spirit trapped in a pine tree, but the elusive wild boy who spies on her from the crumbling walls and leaves gifts on their doorstep is the isle’s only other human inhabitant. There are other memories, too: vague, dream-like memories of another time and another place. There are questions that Miranda dare not ask her stern and controlling father, who guards his secrets with zealous care: Who am I? Where did I come from? The wild boy Caliban is a lonely child, too; an orphan left to fend for himself at an early age, all language lost to him. When Caliban is summoned and bound into captivity by Miranda’s father as part of a grand experiment, he rages against his confinement; and yet he hungers for kindness and love.

352 pages (hardcover)

Published on February 14, 2017

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

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This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

—-

I owe a lot of why I love literature to Jacqueline Carey. Her books are among the first that I read when I first started exploring all things SFF, and I fell in love with them for a lot of reasons. However, one of the reasons she has always stood out to me is because I consider her an incredibly sensual writer. Now, I don’t mean that as, you know, a sexual author (though she can be considered that). What I mean is, no one really manipulates, or overwhelms readers with the sensual nature of her writing quite like Jacqueline Carey.

Miranda and Caliban was a horse of a different color for Carey. I haven’t ever read The Tempest, and I’m not a huge Shakespeare person. I think I’ve maybe read two of his plays, and seen a few more, but that was years ago so much of it is forgotten by now. Anyway, The Tempest and me have zero acquaintance, and I was a bit nervous going into things. Would that impact my enjoyment of the book?

I decided to see how far into Miranda and Caliban I could get before my ignorance started to bug me. I got about a forth of the way into the book before I figured it was time to get the cliff notes version of The Tempest. I don’t really think that’s essential, and some people might not be bothered by having no knowledge to go off of, but it started to annoy me. There were small details that I felt like I should understand, or be at least kind of familiar with, and I just wasn’t. I don’t like feeling like that. And the short overview of the play did help quite a bit, and as I read, some things just started to make more sense to me. I started having “ah ha” moments, and I liked that. Pieces fit better. An example of this would be the spirit in the tree. I was completely baffled by this. I had no understanding of any part of this, or how to mentally visualize it or understand it. As soon as I got my handy overview of The Tempest, it stopped bugging me because I got it.

The fantastic part of this is that Shakespeare is basically everywhere online, so if you’re in my camp, it won’t be hard for you to shake a stick and hit something relevant to your understanding.

Now, the other downside of my ignorance is that I think some of Carey’s genius and creativity was probably lost on me. One of the things, other than her sensual writing, that I love about Carey is how she tends to flip my character expectations on their heads, and in the process of doing that, she usually absolutely wallops me with some extremely powerful emotions. Not really being very familiar (well, familiar in any respect) with The Tempest probably made some of those moments that make me sit up and notice Carey a bit less powerful. I’m pretty sure I understand most of where Carey got creative with her plot vs. the Shakespeare original, and while I just absolutely loved it, I’m sure a person with more of a familiarity with the play will enjoy these moments a bit more than I did.

This isn’t to say that the book wasn’t pure genius, because it was. I don’t think that it is essential to know the play beforehand. You know how there’s that fantasy series that you’ve been wanting to read, and it’s like seven books long and each book is a standalone, so you decide, what the hell, you’ll start with book three because it looks good. Now, book three is great, but once you read it you decided that, while you loved it, you’d probably appreciate all the details and creativity a bit more if you had the foundation of books one and two to go on first. Yeah, it’s kind of like that.

Miranda and Caliban was rather astounding. Very different from Carey’s other work, but just as genius. I loved the creativity of the world this is set in. As I’ve said before, Carey is a sensual author, and she really wraps all of your senses up in the book she’s written here. The world isn’t just interesting, it requires your complete attention, and the payment for that complete attention is a powerful tug on your emotions.

The world is experienced mostly through the eyes of the two characters who make up the title. The reader will sort of grow along with them, so the book starts and you learn about the world through an innocent child’s eyes, and as the child grows, so does her understanding of the things she sees and takes part in. Caliban adds an interesting, tempered innocence to things. The world is colored by their perspectives, and they both balance out to create a world that is packed full of atmosphere. It’s dark, but it’s also promising. It feels small, almost like a cage, but the feeling of the world being so much larger is always there, looming over everything.

Miranda’s innocence was fantastic, but the way Carey handled Caliban’s growth and development, and the developing connection between the two of them was what really astounded me. Caliban really changes from how he’s introduced in the novel, but somehow, despite those changes, Carey manages to still remain true to him. He never really loses his insecurities, for example. It was beautifully done.

Carey has a way with making a slow moving plot completely addictive. She takes her time, really develops the world and the characters, twists a few things here, turns a few things there. Maybe you won’t notice some of this at first, but there are plenty of ah ha moments along the way where you’ll have to just sit back and enjoy how all those details play out as things unfold in the novel.

I’ve mentioned atmosphere a little bit, and I think I need to again. Carey really makes her readers feel strongly. I felt intensely for all of the characters, and by the end of the book I started to feel things that I didn’t expect about some of the characters, and the world itself. This book felt a little dark to me, which also surprised me, but it was tinged with such hope and such powerful love. But oh, the atmosphere…. Carey really makes this book bleed atmosphere. Every page is carefully planned, and every word is carefully chosen, and it pays off in spades.

Miranda and Caliban was fantastic. It was everything I never knew I wanted to read. Carey is a genius author, and even though I’m not familiar with the play this is based on, I still consider this one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.

5/5 stars

Magic of Blood and Sea – Cassandra Rose Clarke

About the Book

A pirate princess and a cursed assassin find their fates intertwined in this gorgeous and thrilling adventure.

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an ally pirate clan. She wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to a handsome and clueless man. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns that her fiancé’s clan has sent an assassin after her.

And when this assassin, Naji, finally finds her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse—with a life-altering result. Now, Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work to complete three impossible tasks that will cure the curse.

Unfortunately, Naji has enemies from the shadowy world known as the Mists, and Ananna must face the repercussions of betraying her engagement that set her off on her adventures. Together, the two must break the curse, escape their enemies, and come to terms with their growing romantic attraction.

544 pages (paperback)

Published on February 7, 2017

Published by Saga Press

Author’s webpage

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This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

—

I read this book a few months ago. I mostly read it so far before it’s publication because I absolutely love Cassandra Rose Clarke’s writing to such an extent that I just can’t put her books off if I have access to them.

Magic of Blood and Sea was different than anything else I’ve read by Clarke. It’s kind of a mix of epic fantasy, high adventure, with a dash of fairytales thrown in for good measure.

Magic of Blood and Sea is really two novellas in one. The first half details mostly Ananna’s plight. We are introduced to Ananna when she is fleeing a marriage her parents have arranged for her – with dramatic consequences that haunt her throughout the novel. Instantly I was in love with this character, her headstrong nature and her obvious naiveté regarding some aspects of life, while she’s incredibly knowledgeable with others.

A little further we are introduced to Naji, an assassin. He seemed a bit more mysterious and world wise than Ananna, though in truth they really balanced each other out well. Ananna was light to Naji’s dark. It takes some time for the two of them to really grow and get a rapport together, but their relationship is slow forming, and it feels natural in that respect.

Naji, however, never really stopped being his shadowy, mysterious self, and Ananna never really stops being her effervescent self. In this respect they never really lost that kernel of who they were, regardless of the adventures they end up being thrust into for this reason or that reason. I really loved how, regardless of situation or relationship, Clarke managed to make both characters grow and develop without ever losing sight of who those characters were in the first place. And I need to give her credit for the ending, which also shows two characters remaining true to who they are, and felt perfect for the book itself.

The plot is quick moving, and it has to be since Ananna is basically on the move from the first page. Naji’s curse took some time for me to fully understand, and I never did get a good grasp of his magic (though, to be honest, that didn’t really bother me in the slightest since Naji’s mysterious nature is part of who he is). Both characters have their own enemies, and their alliance is obviously uncomfortable, which makes things even more interesting and strained. They also never really get to rest between adventures. The consequences of Ananna running from her marriage, to Naji’s curse dog them through the book, and drive them into some really interesting situations where they meet some truly fascinating characters. When I say there is never a dull moment, there literally never is a dull moment in this book.

If I did have some niggling complaints, I would say that perhaps at some points the plot seemed to drag on a little too long, and I also think the relationship between Ananna and Naji felt a little too slow in developing, and then almost forced a little toward the end. To be honest, I think some of that forced feeling is due to how mysterious Naji is, that suddenly seeing a warm side of him came as a bit of a surprise to me.

The world is really delightful. I’ve said it on this blog a few times in the past, but I really don’t enjoy books that take place on boats. I don’t know why, but I just don’t. I actually actively try to avoid them. Boats do not interest me. However, I got past that really fast with Magic of Blood and Sea. Ananna is just too bright of a character to not want to follow, boat or not, and her tie to the sea and her absolute love of being a pirate is really infectious. It doesn’t really end with that, though. There are interesting sea creatures and adventures, battles and the like. There is a magical island that they get stranded on (which was absolutely fantastic, and where a lot of the personal development happens), they make it to a kingdom, and various pirate havens. Ananna has a knack for making friends in the most unlikely of places, and Naji does well at balancing her with a little of his incredible self-restraint.

Magic of Blood and Sea was a delightful book and I absolutely tore through it in record time. It was a lot of fun, but it was also a fantastic study of how well crafted, deep characters can mix well, and even improve, a plot. I think a lot of times we poo-poo adventure filled novels in speculative fiction. Cassandra Rose Clarke proves why that’s not really a wise course of action. This book is a fast paced, wham-bam adventure that doesn’t stop until the book is over. It’s one of the most entertaining books I’ve read in a while. All of that adventure is coupled with some really dynamic characters and a world that is… well, unique and memorable are probably the only words that I can use to describe it.

Basically, I loved it.

 

4/5 stars

SPFBO 2 | Larcout – K.A. Krantz

About the Book

Blood-beings can be chattel or char.

Fire seethes through the veins of every Morsam, demanding domination and destruction. Combat is a hobby. Slaughtering the inferior blood-beings is entertainment. Life is a repetitious cycle in the prison fashioned by the gods. But mix-race abomination Vadrigyn os Harlo suspects the key to freedom lies with safeguarding the blood-beings; until her blood-born mother uses foreign magic to turn the Morsam against Vadrigyn. Betrayed, bound, and broken, Vadrigyn struggles against the dying of her essential fire. Yet the ebbing flames unleash the dormant magic of her mixed heritage…

The magic to destroy free will.

Seized by the gods and dumped in the desert nation of Larcout to stop history from repeating, Vadrigyn discovers her mother’s legacy of treason and slaughter still festers. To survive the intrigues of the royal court, the roiling undercurrents of civil war, and the gods themselves, Vadrigyn must unravel the conspiracy behind her mother’s banishment. But manipulating free will unleashes a torrent of consequences.

If she fails the gods, she will return to the Morsam prison, stripped of all magic and all hope.

If she succeeds, she can rule a nation.

Kasthu. Roborgu. Inarchma.

Live. Learn. Burn.

388 pages (paperback)

Published on June 1, 2015

Published by K.A. Krantz

Author’s website

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This book is a finalist in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off.

—

This one made the final round, and I can see why. The writing is nice and flowing, the story is compelling, and both of those facts put together make this book incredible readable.

The first few chapters of the book kind of boggled my mind as a lot of information and details are thrown at the reader without much of an explanation. It felt incredibly chaotic. If you push through those chapters, sort of file all the details away in your hindbrain until later, you will be rewarded. The book, after that, gains a bit of confidence and the story seems to start to tell its story much easier than that forced start.

Larcout is full of intrigue. There are layers and layers of plot here, that seem to wrap and weave around each other. It all clicks into place eventually, but I did keep coming back to the feeling I had during those first few chapters at odd occasions. Sometimes the plot felt forced. Sometimes there was a bit too much going on. Sometimes the secondary characters were confusing, or I had a hard time differentiating between people/places/events. This wasn’t a constant feeling, but it did reoccur at random occasions throughout the novel.

Part of the reason why I think that was the case was because of how much is going on in this novel. Krantz is building a world, cultures, and political systems. On top of that, there is the creation of characters to populate this world, the struggles those characters go through, and a nice dash of intrigue on top of it. There is a lot of information in all of that, and I think sometimes Krantz infodumps, or maybe tries to force the information out too quickly. And to be honest with you, I understand why. This book is an epic, and as with all epics, there is a lot here that the author wants their readers to chew on, but I did feel like it overwhelmed the plot at certain points – too much information forced out too quickly, and it did cause some confusion.

Vadrigyn, our POV character, is an interesting character to follow. She is violent, but Krantz never pushes that violence over-the-top. She’s also sort of a fish out of water in some respects, and a lot of really interesting developments circle around her challenges, and her personal growth and development. It’s quite well done, and as a POV character, she’s really addicting. Sometimes I felt like her motivations and movements were a little confusing, but by and large, that was easy to ignore. Circling back to the fish out of water comment, that fish-out-of-water-ness is part of why I adored her as a POV character so much. Krantz really makes readers feel just how different Vadrigyn feels compared to those around her, and that feeling really resonated with me and helped me care about the character, and the story being told.

The world is fairly well built, though I’m a sucker for details and I found myself wanting a few more of those details throughout the novel, but unless you’re like me and you really fixate on that stuff, then you probably won’t even notice it. This book had a sort of dark atmosphere and tone, which makes sense once you get into it. I was pleased by just how well Krantz worked the atmosphere to the advantage of the book as a whole.

Larcout is an ambitious novel. There is a lot going on here, and the book sometimes gets bogged down by its own explanations/movements/politics. The start is slow and requires a little determination to get through, and other than some points throughout the novel where things get a bit bogged down, this book was immensely readable. I quickly found myself curious about how things would turn out. It’s not perfect, but it was a solid effort, and incredibly enjoyable. In the end, Larcout has the potential to be absolutely brilliant, but I felt like it might have needed a heavier hand with editing. Regardless, it’s off the beaten path, and surprisingly addicting.

 

3.5/5 stars

The Heart of What Was Lost – Tad Williams

About the Book

The Heart of What Was Lost takes place in the half-year after the end of To Green Angel Tower, and tells of the attempt by Isgrimnur and a force largely made up of Rimmersgard soldiers to destroy the remaining Norns as they flee back to their homeland and their mountain. It also answers some questions about what actually happened in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Green Angel Tower.

210 pages (hardcover)

Published on January 3, 2017

Published by Daw

Author’s webpage

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This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

—

I’m embarrassed by how long it’s taken me to get to writing this review, but life has been something else and I figure better late than never, right?

You know, I really cut my fantasy teeth on Osten Ard, so the opportunity to go back there was something I wasn’t willing to pass over. I actually waited for this book with an amount of anticipation that would probably stun most of you guys. Tad Williams series, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, was everything to me.

This is a novella, clocking in at just over 200 pages, it’s a fast read, but it’s a powerful book. Williams wastes no time dancing around important issues, or spending long amounts of time on character introductions and the like. He just dives into the book feet first, and takes his readers along with him.

The pacing is flawless, and the plot is addicting. I do recommend you read Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn before you read this one. It’s not really a good place to start your introduction to the world. Seeing as how this one takes off right after the Big Huge War in his other series ends, most of what you read about won’t make sense unless you experienced the Big Huge War in the books themselves.

Readers will find themselves reintroduced to some of your favorite characters from his previous books, and there are some new ones added in as well. What really amazed me was just how well Williams managed to add the details of a land healing after such an incredible struggle. There are stories told, and observations, that show how no one really made it out unscathed. Everyone and everything is impacted somehow.

Relationships are also forming as people pick up the pieces from everything that has happened. Some of these are unexpected, and the war itself has left just about everyone with some emotional baggage that taints everything. Some people are trustworthy, some will give you that instant bugs-crawling-on-your-skin feeling. And there is still plenty of danger, some of which I anticipated, and some caught me off guard.

I could say a ton of things about this book, about the perfect pacing, the delight I felt at being back in a world that meant so damn much to me, and how this world was one of the cornerstones in my science fiction and fantasy obsession. I could say that this novella was the perfect length and I loved how Williams went in, pounded his readers with an addicting story, and then left them gaping, stunned, and wanting more. I could talk a bit about how he somehow managed to take a perfectly crafted world, and add more detail and depth to it in 200 pages, which I would have thought impossible if I hadn’t witnessed the feat myself. I could also go on and on about how perfect Williams is using his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series as a springboard to tell more stories that are sure to hook readers just as his other series did.

I could tell you all of that, and I could go on for days about how incredible this book was, and how everyone should stop everything they are doing right now and just read the damn thing, but I won’t.

Instead I will sum my diatribe up by saying that Tad Williams is one of the authors that started my love of reading, not just fantasy, but reading anything. Williams was one of those authors that made me love the written word, and truly appreciate the hell out of a story well told. He showed me what the art of creating and writing really was, and how a well-crafted story isn’t just engrossing and entertaining, but transformative. I am so very glad that he is back in Osten Ard. I loved everything about this book. I loved how short, sweet, and direct this novella was, without sacrificing any of the emotional gut-punch I associate with his books.

Perfection. Everything about this book was pure perfection.

So why don’t you do yourself a favor and just go read it.

 

5/5 stars

I’m BAAAAAAAAACK….

You guys, January kicked my ass. I mean it in the most literal sense of the word. This was one of those months where I just hung on and tried to make it through with all my bits and pieces in tact.

It was HORRIBLE.

First of all, I got the plague. Actually I ended up with bronchitis and a sinus infection. My 17 month old ended up with pneumonia, two ear infections, and about eight (8) teeth coming in at the same time. I haven’t been that sick in YEARS, and the poor kiddo had so much going on… I can’t imagine how she felt. And having to be that sick with a baby who has pneumonia is just about the hardest thing ever.

When that started to clear up, said baby’s lungs started to sound better (yay) but then she started projectile vomiting all over my fantastic house. So back to the doctor we went. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her – she had no fever or chills or anything and it was completely random. They gave her some medication, which helped but didn’t cure anything. We went to the doctor three times about this barfing issue, and finally her pediatrician said if it didn’t clear up, we’d have to get her tested for brain tumors and etc. (Apparently random projectile puking is how babies with tumors in their brains deal with pressure issues caused by said tumors. That was just amazing to hear.)

Are you KIDDING me?

Right about then, I started throwing up, which was also fantastic because throwing up is *so much fun* (/sarcasm font), but it also cleared Cora (the baby) of the brain tumor issue because, as her doctor said, “If one of her points of contact has been sick then it tells me this is a bug, not due to inter cranial pressure.”

There was much relief in the valley. Intermixed in all of this somewhere is the fact that I was supposed to have a surgery to check and see if I have cancer (yeah, that little beast again) on January 10, but I was too sick so the doctor canceled it. It’s been pushed to February 14.

And DONALD TRUMP.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? 

What the hell, January!?

So that was January. I spent last week just breathing out a bunch of pent up tension and making sure my kid is okay. I finally have my voice back and a normal energy level. Six of Cora’s teeth have broken through (she now has all of her top teeth through the gums, and she’s working on the bottom row). Her ears seem to be cleared up and we’ve been projectile vomit free for about a week now.

YAY.

And since I took a few days to get my head screwed on straight, I feel like I’m actually capable of writing a book review that makes sense. I have a TON of books to catch up on, both for the SPFBO and for review books authors and publishers have sent me. I’m going to try to get through my backlog as fast as I can, but my life is pure chaos, so currently I’m aiming for three reviews a week.

But whatever. January is almost over, and I won’t be sorry to see it gone.

So that’s where I’ve been. I hope your month has been better than mine.

The Underground Girls of Kabul – Jenny Nordberg

About the Book

An investigative journalist uncovers a hidden custom that will transform your understanding of what it means to grow up as a girl

In Afghanistan, a culture ruled almost entirely by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration and the arrival of a daughter is often mourned as misfortune. A bacha posh (literally translated from Dari as “dressed up like a boy”) is a third kind of child – a girl temporarily raised as a boy and presented as such to the outside world. Jenny Nordberg, the reporter who broke the story of this phenomenon for the New York Times, constructs a powerful and moving account of those secretly living on the other side of a deeply segregated society where women have almost no rights and little freedom.



The Underground Girls of Kabul is anchored by vivid characters who bring this remarkable story to life: Azita, a female parliamentarian who sees no other choice but to turn her fourth daughter Mehran into a boy; Zahra, the tomboy teenager who struggles with puberty and refuses her parents’ attempts to turn her back into a girl; Shukria, now a married mother of three after living for twenty years as a man; and Nader, who prays with Shahed, the undercover female police officer, as they both remain in male disguise as adults.

At the heart of this emotional narrative is a new perspective on the extreme sacrifices of Afghan women and girls against the violent backdrop of America’s longest war. Divided into four parts, the book follows those born as the unwanted sex in Afghanistan, but who live as the socially favored gender through childhood and puberty, only to later be forced into marriage and childbirth. The Underground Girls of Kabul charts their dramatic life cycles, while examining our own history and the parallels to subversive actions of people who live under oppression everywhere.

350 pages (hardcover)

Published on September 16, 2014

Buy the book

—

I said a while back that I read nonfiction as well as speculative fiction, and occasionally I’d read a nonfiction book and I’d review it on my website because I can. The Underground Girls of Kabul is one of those nonfiction books that I think should be read by just about anyone who reads books. Yes, it was that good.

My library has a few online sources for people, such as myself, to check out audiobooks. I sift through them, and randomly check out an audiobook for no real reason other than I like the title or the cover looks interesting or something like that. The Underground Girls of Kabul was one of those books that I just ran across and randomly decided to give it a shot.

The Underground Girls of Kabul was written by a Swedish investigative journalist, and before you ask, the audiobook was out of this world amazing. This is a really hard book for me to summarize, because there’s just so much involved in it. I fundamentally think that we don’t understand enough about the Middle East, and this book proves it, probably not in the way you expect.

Afghanistan is one of those mysterious countries that we know of, we know where it’s at, we know a war happened there, but as for the culture, the struggle of the women, the plight of the kids, the local food and cuisine, we really don’t know anything about that. We don’t understand the minutiae of daily life for an Afghani woman or child. When you think about how much of a society – any society – is women, you’ll realize how much we just don’t understand, and even reading a book like this, a million books like this, won’t change that, it will help.

So this book. Wow, this book. God, I don’t even know where to start. I really, really don’t. Basically Nordberg uses all of her investigative skills to basically dive deep into this sort of underground counterculture that is actually quite common, incredibly common, in fact, for many young girls in Afghanistan. And her writing is absolutely superb. She follows a prominent female politician, one of the only, who graciously opens up her life and thereby opens up a doorway for Nordberg to really uncover and explore a bit of these underground girls.

If you’re interested in gender issues, politics, current events, or any meshup of all of those, you’ll want to check this one out. Basically Nordberg uncovers what is known as bacha posh, or girls that are raised as boys in Afghanistan. She discusses the history (and there is quite an extensive history of this), and how it’s evolved in current day practices, and uses the politician, and her young bacha posh as a doorway to look into the lives of many other young bacha posh and their lives.

There are a ton of reasons why people raise bacha posh in Afghanistan. There is a belief that raising a bacha posh will help the woman conceive sons, a sort of magic all its own. Some raise a bacha posh as protection for their actual son – a body guard of sorts. The bacha posh must protect the “real” boy. Some do it because they only have daughters and having a son will raise their social status. Some do it because they believe their daughter should understand what it is like to really live, at least for a time. There are a ton of other reasons. The point is, this is a common, underground practice, so common that the Afghani people actually have a word for it, and a way to speak about it.

So that’s fascinating, but where things really get interesting is when Nordberg gets into the nitty-gritty of the psychological impacts of this practice. Usually when a young girl hits puberty (marriageable age) they are suddenly transformed back into a girl, with the incredibly diminished status of a girl (It has been said that Afghanistan is one of the worst places in the world to be born a woman, and this book really explores a lot of what makes that sadly true). She finds quite a few bacha posh who have refused that transformation, one of whom is interested in sneaking into Iran or other countries to get an official sex change, another who works in the military. This really upsets their gender identity, and leaves generations of young girls who were raised as bacha posh, with some hefty psychological issues and no net in their society to catch them. It’s tragic, but it also illuminates this really silent, subtle, largely overlooked revolution in that country. The women have found a way to survive, and while it is FAR from a perfect system, it really has the smell of a social revolution.

I’m inadequately talking about this book. There is so much in it, so very, very much that I honestly can’t really even put it into words. It covers just about everything, and uncovers a whole aspect of Afghani culture, and this silent struggle for women’s rights, that we out here in the west are absolutely blind to.

So, The Underground Girls of Kabul was one of the best books I read last year. The only reason it didn’t make it on my best books list was because it’s a nonfiction, and I was only talking about speculative fiction. However, I felt the need to mention it here, because really, it needs to be read.

 

5/5 stars

The Cold Eye – Laura Anne Gilman

About the Book

In the anticipated sequel to Silver on the Road, Isobel is riding circuit through the Territory as the Devil’s Left Hand. But when she responds to a natural disaster, she learns the limits of her power and the growing danger of something mysterious that is threatening not just her life, but the whole Territory.

Isobel is the left hand of the old man of the Territory, the Boss—better known as the Devil. Along with her mentor, Gabriel, she is traveling circuit through Flood to represent the power of the Devil and uphold the agreement he made with the people to protect them. Here in the Territory, magic exists—sometimes wild and perilous.

But there is a growing danger in the bones of the land that is killing livestock, threatening souls, and weakening the power of magic. In the next installment of the Devil’s West series, Isobel and Gabriel are in over their heads as they find what’s happening and try to stop the people behind it before it unravels the Territory.

352 pages

Published on January 10, 2017

Published by Saga Press

Author’s webpage

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This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

—

Silver on the Road was one of my favorite books. Gilman just nailed every aspect of that one, and basically floored me in the process. That was the book I had been looking for. I waited for The Cold Eye eagerly. If Silver on the Road floored me that much, then The Cold Eye was sure to overwhelm me.

The Cold Eye was pretty much everything I wanted it to be, plus some. This is another Weird West novel, which is a (sub)genre that I’m really learning that I love. Gilman hits the readers hard with atmosphere from the get-go. This is a sort of unexplored, misunderstood, confusing area of the continent, and Isobel is rather untried, still learning who she is in the middle of it all. Mix those two together, and you have a ton of uncertainty, and a nice dash of this sort of unexplored territory. It’s almost haunting, and once the mystery really takes root, that haunting vibe sunk deep into my skin and gave me some really unexpected chills.

Isobel has grown a lot, and while there is a gap of time between the first book and the second, it’s not enough to account for how self-assured she currently is. It’s the events of the previous book, and her bond with her mentor that have forced her to grow. She might not understand the land, or really understand her role in it, but she is a lot more comfortable in her own skin, and she doesn’t shy from mystery, or unexplained phenomena. There is plenty of uncertainty in this book, a lot of it circles around Isobel trying to figure out what the hell is going on, but somewhere between the first book and the second book she stopped being a young adult, and started being a self-assured woman.

Her relationship with Gabriel has also changed. They are connected, and their bond is sort of father/daughter, but there’s also an undercurrent of something else there, as well. Or maybe I just imagined that. Gabriel is quite attached to Isobel, and incredibly invested in her learning and progress, and they work well together. The big difference is, in this book Gabriel is content to take his cues from Isobel, rather than urge her forward and explain things along the way. He lets her do her thing, and he waits in the wings, ready to answer questions or offer assistance if needed.

I enjoyed the strong, confident woman Isobel has become, and with the events in this book, she needs to be that. She needs to be a strong, capable lead character, and she filled those shoes perfectly. This doesn’t mean that she knows everything, or doesn’t make mistakes, but it means that she’s a memorable lead in a story that requires a memorable lead.

The mystery is fantastic, and it’s just as haunting as the landscape where the whole thing takes place. The book moves along quickly, and it’s incredibly gripping. Again, it’s the atmosphere that makes it work so well, and the progression of the characters. I was honestly surprised by how eerie I felt this book was. The world is larger, more unexplored, more undefined than it was in the first book, and I loved the way that Gilman created this sprawling, haunting landscape, and filled it full of people and cultures that felt so unbelievably real.

Things wrap up, and the ending was perfect for the book itself. I’m anxious to see what Gilman can come up with next. This series is one of my favorites. I had high expectations going into this book, and I’m pleased to announce that Gilman surpassed every single one of them. If you haven’t started this series yet, why not? It’s one of the best things in the genre right now.

 

5/5 stars

SPFBO 2 | Paternus – Dyrk Ashton

About the Book

The gods and monsters of myth have returned. In a breathtaking story that takes place in a single day, two ordinary humans are caught up in the final battle of a war that’s been waged since the dawn of time.

Gods, monsters, angels, devils. Call them what you like. They exist. The epic battles between titans, giants, and gods, heaven and hell, the forces of light and darkness. They happened. And the war isn’t over.

17 year old Fi Patterson lives with her stuffy English uncle and has an internship at a local hospital for the aged. She doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, misses her dead mother, wonders about the father she never knew. One bright spot is caring for Peter, a dementia-ridden old man whose faraway smile can make her whole day. And there’s her conflicted attraction to Zeke — awkward, brilliant, talented — who plays guitar for the old folks.

Then a group of very strange and frightening men show up for a “visit”…

Fi and Zeke’s worlds are shattered as their typical everyday concerns are suddenly replaced by the immediate need to stay alive — and they try to come to grips with the unimaginable reality of the Firstborn.

“Keep an open mind. And forget everything you know…”

Paternus has been called “American Gods meets The Lord of the Rings,” and claimed to be reminiscent of Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light as well as Clive Barker’s Weaveworld.

Contemporary Fantasy / Mythic-Fiction. New Adult Fiction – as opposed to Teen or YA, though savvy 16 or 17 year olds might survive without permanent damage.

Published June 20, 2016

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was part of the SPFBO.

—

This year started out far different than I anticipated. My 16 month old landed a case of pneumonia and I ended up with a bad case of bronchitis. In the spirit of self-care, I had to take quite a bit of time off from pretty much everything. My baby is getting better, but I’m still quite sick, and until I get better, reviews will be random and infrequent. The problem is, I keep coughing, and I’m coughing so much and so hard it’s almost impossible for me to type out a review. Case and point, it took about 45 minutes for me to get this far in this review because I had to stop so often to hack my lungs out.

Glamorous, I know.

Paternus is one of those books that doesn’t really fit anywhere, and because of that it stands out from the crowd. When I look around on Goodreads and elsewhere, I see this book being compared to a lot of other books or authors. People have compared it to American Gods, to Dean Koontz, Scott Hawkins, and others. I can see where there are similarities, but I also kind of think that comparing this book to others is doing it a bit of an injustice. This book is its own animal, and I think it needs to be recognized as such.

There are a few things that Ashton did incredibly well, one was which was those pesky little details that I love so much. Ashton must have spent a ridiculous amount of time doing research and really picking over every aspect of his book. Everything from the mythology, to the magic system, to the way he subtly twists his world is just perfectly thought out, and almost flawlessly executed.

The story flowed nicely, and I really loved Ashton’s use of atmosphere, which is felt in just about every page. This book is dark, and it starts out dark, and absolutely finishes that way. There are some graphic scenes, but nothing gratuitous. Ashton makes you feel the almost oppressive tension that builds throughout the book. He keeps the plot moving nicely, and in order to make the details that finely honed, and the atmosphere that intense, you have to be an incredible author, and Ashton certainly is.

Paternus isn’t a perfect book. The first chapter was a little rough, and I felt like it took some time to get things moving to a point where I was absolutely gripped by the book, but it did happen. Furthermore, the ending left me wanting a bit. I wonder if this is the first book in a series? I felt like Ashton could easily build on the field he’s set out in this novel and it would be unfortunate if he didn’t. Another little niggle I had was regarding some infodumps that were sprinkled throughout the book. They weren’t often, and with the fantastic writing they were easy to overlook, but they were there, and they should be mentioned.

All in all, Paternus really surprised me. It’s not perfect, but that’s fine, it doesn’t need to be. I was absolutely blown away by the amount of research and detail that went into this book. The writing seemed to effortlessly flow, and the atmosphere was powerful. Yes, there were some flaws, but perfect books are boring, and in the end I was glad that this book wasn’t perfect. Paternus is its own beast, and it absolutely deserves a read.

 

3.5/5 stars

Happy 2017!

I’ve been a bit quiet recently.

Once again, the reality of my health has hit me in the face, and I just couldn’t deal with one more thing, so I downsized for my own sanity. I focused only on my myriad of doctor appointments, work, my kids, and getting through the holidays. So, I’ve had some radio silence over here. I was so bogged down I couldn’t think. Literally.

2016 was a difficult year. It can basically be summed up by this exchange. I went to my doctor to get a routine checkup, and he walked in the room and said, “Hi Sarah, how are you?” and I just burst into tears. I mean, not just tears, but snot, and snorting, and an entire box of kleenexes and everything else that goes along with it. It was humiliating, but that’s how I’ve been feeling recently, and that’s why I’ve been so quiet.

My Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome has soundly kicked my ass, and I’ve been really, really struggling. Physically things have been terrible. I’ve had huge, serious, numerous dislocations each day, my chronic pain is through the roof, and my emotional state has been a direct reflection of my physical issues. Thankfully, I (finally) found a doctor who is managing my chronic illness and helping me figure out other people I can see who can help with the various comorbities that come along with this chronic illness. I got a handicapped parking pass, which is a huge help, and various medications, treatments, plans, etc to help me manage this. Honestly, things have become so bad I’ve felt like I was drowning in my chronic condition, and right now it just feels really good to have a plan of attack, a plan to manage things, and a team of doctors available to help.

In other news, on January 10 I’m going in for a minor surgery so my doctor can see if I have uterine cancer or not.

Never a dull moment, right?

So maybe with all that in sight you can understand why I’ve been so quiet recently. I just haven’t had the headspace for another thing.

But 2017 is here, and it’s time for a new start. We just got back from a week long vacation, which was absolutely necessary, and I’m feeling really refreshed and recharged. I have no big plans for 2017. I plan on just keeping on keeping on, and cutting myself some slack. I don’t want to stress myself out over this website. My health, my need for self-care must come first, as this year has taught me. But, this website is hugely important, and I will continue reviewing.

I’ve been plugging away at my Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off books, and I’m hoping in a week or two to review 3-4 books back to back, and then in another two weeks, do 3-4 more and on it goes until I finish off all the finalists. I’ve also finished some books that are going to be published within the next few months and are absolutely amazing. I have high hopes for the quality of books released this year.

For the past ten years I’ve had the same (one) resolution, and that was to last a calendar year without surgery. 2016 is the first year I’ve actually managed that resolution (yay!), mostly due to the fact that I canceled two scheduled surgeries this year because I couldn’t stomach it. 2017 is starting off with a surgery ten days into things, so I had to really dig a big deep and figure out new resolutions this year. My big one is to actually finish the book I’ve spent about four years writing. This year I will type “the end” and mean it. I plan to make this year a wonderful one, because I refuse to have another one like 2016, where everything hurts and my emotions reflect that. Yes, everything will hurt in 2017, that’s the nature of my illness, but my reaction to that pain, and my emotional state, is what I make it. Life is still beautiful, despite my meatcage, and 2017 will be devoted to constantly remembering that.

So no real big news over here, but just a bit of an update, a what-to-expect thing, and some navel gazing.

I hope your holidays were grand, and your 2017 is as epic as you make it out to be.

Reviews to come, starting tomorrow.

After Atlas – Emma Newman

About the Book

Govcorp detective Carlos Moreno was only a baby when Atlas left Earth to seek truth among the stars. But in that moment, the course of Carlos’s entire life changed. Atlas is what took his mother away; what made his father lose hope; what led Alejandro Casales, leader of the religious cult known as the Circle, to his door. And now, on the eve of the fortieth anniversary of Atlas’s departure, it’s got something to do why Casales was found dead in his hotel room—and why Carlos is the man in charge of the investigation.

To figure out who killed one of the most powerful men on Earth, Carlos is supposed to put aside his personal history. But the deeper he delves into the case, the more he realizes that escaping the past is not so easy. There’s more to Casales’s death than meets the eye, and something much more sinister to the legacy of Atlas than anyone realizes…

336 (paperback)

Published on November 8, 2016

Published by Roc

Author’s webpage

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This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

—

You know, it’s really hard for me to put into words how much I loved this book. I loved it. I loved it so much that I’m kind of in shock from how much love I felt about this book. After Atlas was just about everything I never knew I wanted it to be.

This is the second book in Emma Newman’s Planetfall series. While you can read the books in this series in order, it isn’t really necessary. You won’t get many answers or insights regarding the first book in this second book, and if you just start out on this book you’ll be just fine. Basically, the books are really good at standing alone, and don’t really need each other to prop themselves up. Start here. Start on her other book. Start wherever, and may blessings be upon you.

After Atlas focuses on Carlos Moreno, who was a baby when Atlas left. He was raised in a cult and had quite an exotic, memorable history. He reveals bits and pieces of his history as he goes through the book, and it gets pieced together fairly easily. It’s pretty logical to see the progression from his emotionally jarring past, to the rather caustic, stand-offish man he appears to be in the book.

Carlos is a hard worker, and he has a talent for investigation. He works on an indentured basis, and is basically owned by his boss, GovCorp, and the like. He works for them, and he pays off his debt to them through his work. In a world where most people are connected somehow, Carlos stands out because he works hard not to be connected. His past has made him infamous, and journalists, documentary filmmakers, etc trail him wherever he goes.

So Carlos is an interesting guy. He’s rather isolated, he’s famous and hates it, he has an uncomfortable past that you can feel weighing down every page of the book. He’s basically owned by the people he works for, and there is a lot of pent up emotion that sort of swells in him throughout the novel. It’s felt keenly, and his wry humor, and caustic sarcasm are ways he deals with that.

All of this is to say, Carlos is a fantastic character, his story is wonderful, and his voice is absolutely unique.

As I mentioned above, Carlos is an investigator. The book really circles around a murder mystery that strikes Carlos close to his heart, for numerous reasons. He is called in to investigate, and this is really where things go from interesting to fascinating. Newman wrote a crime who-done-it mystery like she was born to do it, flawlessly weaving together a plot that is absolutely relentless, and a character that is completely, absolutely memorable.

Newman also had a knack for dropping clues and cues in drips and drabs. There are points where you’re picking up information, and you don’t even realize you’re doing it until the “Ah ha!” moment appears in the text. It’s effortless, flawless, and quite a skill she has. I was pleased with the numerous plot twists, and I loved the way she strung her readers along throughout a novel that was just stunningly written.

Newman ignores no details, and she leaves no stones unturned. She isn’t afraid to put her characters through their paces, and likewise make her readers work for their information. The ending is satisfying, and the story is incredible. This is my favorite book of Emma Newman’s so far. She’s a hell of an author, but After Atlas really showed her skill for what it is. She’s a force to be reckoned with.

 

5/5 stars