Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 51

The Brotherhood of the Wheel – R.S. Belcher

About the Book

A unique new urban fantasy by the author of The Six-Gun Tarot, exploring the haunted byways and truck stops of the U.S. Interstate Highway System.

In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon–a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order’s original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.

Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, RV gypsies–any of the folks who live and work on the asphalt arteries of America. They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Wheel.

Jimmy Aussapile is one such knight. He’s driving a big rig down South when a promise to a ghostly hitchhiker sets him on a quest to find out the terrible truth behind a string of children gone missing all across the country. The road leads him to Lovina Hewitt, a skeptical Louisiana State Police investigator working the same case and, eventually, to a forgotten town that’s not on any map–and to the secret behind the eerie Black-Eyed Kids said to prowl the highways.

384 pages (hardcover)

Published on March 1, 2016

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

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

— 

The Brotherhood of the Road was one of those books I never really thought I’d read. However, I picked it up and it took exactly one paragraph for me to be hooked. The reason for that is simple. Belcher has one hell of an addicting style of writing. Lyrical, flowing, full of imagery and start atmosphere, this book instantly sucked me in.

And then he hit me with all the mythology and urban legends and I was in heaven.

Belcher creates a whole new culture with The Brotherhood of the Road, a nomadic sort of life where almost everything worth happening happens on the move. The United States is a landmass drawn by highways and byways, and this is where the action happens – fast moving, across states and landscapes. Nothing happens in one place for very long, but despite this sprawling world where this book takes place, Belcher manages to make everything feel so shockingly intimate. The world is huge, but the specific important places are drawn with vivid, realistic detail that makes them shine. There’s an intimacy between the characters and the places they find themselves in that makes everything feel so familiar. A diner they may have never been in before feels like any diner you’ve ever been in, and that makes a huge difference in the narrative. This book doesn’t take place in a strange world, it takes place in the world we live in, and we know it does because we can picture it.

Now, there is an Other-type place that does come into play, and everything I’ve just said can be flipped on its opposite side regarding this place. The strangeness of it claws at your skin. You feel it in your bones. It’s not right. Nothing about this place is right, and all the familiarity that Belcher uses to describe our world is just… gone… from this one. The stark contrast is felt, and the atmosphere is oppressive and weird. It’s like a glove that is one size too small.

So as you can see, Belcher is the master of atmosphere and place. Now he weaves mythology, mystery, murder, and urban legends into all of this and things really start getting magical (literally and figuratively). The plot is just as fast moving as Jimmy’s truck, and as intricate and detailed as the world that Belcher has created. There’s a bit here for everyone, and plenty that you’ll recognize from the vanishing hitchhiker, to the tales of serial killers that haunt highways throughout the nation. Into that sort of setting, Belcher has mixed in a nice dash of magic and mystery, from the Knights of Templar who serve as protectors of the innocent and road warriors of a sort, to gods, great hunts, and human sacrifices.

This book really amazed me. It was full of edge-of-your-seat tension, and was impossible for me to put down. The characters were fantastic, and while there are the hard beaten cops in the story, the real shining lights are the people that never really get to play protagonist roles in books – the truck driver with tobacco stained teeth, the kid in a motorcycle club who has anger issues but is trying to save his family’s club, and hints of other magic, shifters and magic talismans, demons and the power of belief. It never really stops, and Belcher doesn’t let it stop. There is so much here that I really only felt like Belcher scratched the surface of the world he has created. I have no idea if he plans on writing another novel set in this world, but I sincerely hope he does because there is so much more here that I want to know about.

The plot is fantastic, and I must say I was rather surprised with just how much Belcher packed into a novel that is this size. I was constantly surprised, constantly guessing, and holding that book with a white-knuckle grip. I didn’t expect things to happen the way they did, nor did I expect the magic and urban legends to weave so seamlessly into a mystery like this. It’s gritty and dark, and showed me a bit into the culture of those who live on the road, if in an urban fantasy sort of way.

My one complaint is that sometimes the perspectives change unexpectedly. This gives readers an omniscient viewpoint of what is happening, but in mid-chapter with no warning it sometimes caught me off guard and I’d have to reread a section when I realized that what I had just read was from a different character’s POV than I first expected.

All in all, despite that one small complaint, this book was absolutely fantastic. Creepy and real, with characters that I loved because they were so different than the typical. Belcher wrote something spectacular here. The Brotherhood of the Wheel is full of atmosphere and heart. If you get spooked easily, you might not want to read it in the dark.

 

4/5 stars

SPFBO Review | Under a Colder Sun – Greg James

About the Book

A Grimdark Fantasy Adventure set in a world of Darkness and Chaos!

Khale the Wanderer: dark warrior of legend, a reaver with a demon’s soul.

King Alosse: ruler of Colm, willing to risk everything to save his city and its people.

Princess Milanda: an innocent, kept pure since birth, unknowing of her fate.

Neprokhodymh: the cursed city of sorcerers where Khale must make a choice that will scar him for life, or fall into darkness forever.

215 pages (Kindle)

Published on April 28, 2014

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent as part of the SPFBO.

—

I love dark characters. I absolutely dig the antihero, the guy who is in it for himself. It’s easy to love or hate him, and that’s what makes him so damn wonderful. Enter Khale. Now, Khale is basically the central focus of the entire book (or a majority of it, at least) so how you enjoy the book with be entirely dependent on how well you tolerate Khale.

Khale is dark, and rather amoral, he’s hard to get to know, and can come off as a bit one-note at times. His shadowed past is okay, but sometimes I wanted to know a bit more about what makes him who he is. Having an amoral, dark, somewhat repugnant human as a main character is okay. That’s not a dealbreaker, and for people like me, you lay out a character like that and I’m there with bells on. However, the nature of the beast is that readers will either love that sort of main character, or hate it, and the entire book will depend on which side of that line you stand on.

It’s a gamble.

There are other characters, and they all felt a bit one note to me, each had major characteristics that made them who they were. I think they were supposed to balance each other out – the innocent princess, the dark antihero, the dedicated protector of the princess. In a lot of ways, this worked, but like I said, all the characters fell a little flat to me. Not overly much, but the pastel colors are there at times. However, they did balance each other out nicely and add some different color to to the book.

This book is dark. That’s obvious from the first page. It’s really dark, and sometimes it felt a little too dark. It could have used a bit lighter to balance things out. The world is stark and bleak, the characters are dark as well, the plot is relentless and full of strain and worry. I wouldn’t have minded a bit of sunshine to peak through every now and again.

This is a fairly short book, and a really quick read. The pace is absolutely relentless, and unforgiving. Things happen quickly and there is no waiting for readers to catch up before the book is off and moving to the next adventure. It’s a lot of fun, and an obvious member of the grimdark fantasy genre. As someone who isn’t a big fan of grimdark, this one pleasantly surprised me. It has everything in it that makes it part of that genre, but it’s well done despite the few issues I have.

The world building left something to be desired. The world is more hinted at, and talked about. Very little is actually seen or felt. Things are hinted at, or stated, but I never really saw any of it. And all those little details I like in my books, the culture, social issues, vibrant history, traditions – none of that really existed in any real form here.

That illuminates the biggest problem I had with this book – so much is told rather than shown to readers. The world building was vague, at best, and I lamented that. I like the details. Hell, I love the details. I harp on details in just about every review. I want your world to come alive. I want to feel like I live in it, and I just didn’t with this one and I regretted that.

James is a great writer, and he had a way with painting scenes and situations to make them interesting when I least expected it. This book was surprisingly addicting, and while it did have its issues, I don’t really feel like they impeded my overall enjoyment very much. This is a dark book about dark characters in a dark world, and that will either bounce off readers, or thrill them. I do think it is worth picking this one up to see which side of the line you land on.

3/5 stars

6/10 SPFBO rating

 

 

 

The Water Knife – Paolo Bacigalupi

About the Book

In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel “cuts” water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with no love for Vegas and every reason to hate Angel, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas refugee who survives by her wits and street smarts in a city that despises everything that she represents.  With bodies piling up, bullets flying, and Phoenix teetering on collapse, it seems like California is making a power play to monopolize the life-giving flow of a river. For Angel, Lucy, and Maria time is running out and their only hope for survival rests in each other’s hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only thing for certain is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.

371 pages (hardcover)

Published on May 26, 2016

Published by Knopf

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

—

I loved this book.

No, that’s not strong enough.

This book blew me away.

The Water Knife hits pretty close to home. I live out here in the bone dry west, where water is cherished and restricted. We watch the mountains every winter and anticipate what it will mean for the summer. My parents live in Las Vegas and frequently ask me about the snow in the mountains because the more snow we have, the more water they have.

In some ways I feel like I’m already living parts of this book, and every summer I will think of this book as our water gets more and more restricted.

This is a near future thriller. Technology is just advanced enough for it to feel like the close future, but what is really different is show destabilized the west is. The United States is still a governing power, but for all intents and purposes, the people who control the water really rule here. They control life and death. They control the flow of immigrants. They are the real power.

Immigration is a big, big deal (another issue that is common with today). Whatever happened in Texas isn’t really explicitly discussed, but it is a very big deal (I assume Texas dried up). Immigrants from Texas are the lowest class of people. They are marginalized, pushed aside, and ignored. They find havens in slums and are ruled by crime bosses. On the other side, the Chinese are over here building up all sorts of arcologies where the rich can live in nice apartments, have flushing toilets, and take showers.

Mixed into this slew of political and social destabilization are some characters that fall all over the map. Lucy is a reporter who has lived so long in the hot zone of Phoenix (where this takes place) that she’s basically turned native. Angel is a mobster style enforcer for the woman who rules the Colorado River. Maria is a refugee from Texas who is just doing her best to survive in a really shitty situation. They all gradually come together to paint a really complex and diverse personal portrait of the downfall of Phoenix and how the struggle for water has impacted millions of people across every social class.

The action is nonstop, and the book itself is completely and absolutely addicting. The tension is high, edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff. What is amazing is how Bacigalupi manages to keep readers hook and moving along quickly despite the fact that we never really know exactly what is happening until at least the halfway point. There are hints here, and hints there, and it’s obvious that something important is going on behind the curtain, but Bacigalupi keeps his readers strung along until the big Ah Ha moment.

The characters are just as riveting and deftly crafted as the political and social aspects. They are dynamic and well rounded, and absolutely heart wrenching in their own ways. In fact, it’s rare that I come across a book with characters that are just as impossibly dynamic as the world that they live in, but damn, Bacigalupi managed to pack this one full of amazing elements.

This book was incredible. Absolutely phenomenal for so many reasons. It’s thought provoking, believable, complex and uncomfortable. Yes, uncomfortable, and that’s actually a good thing. Uncomfortable books push readers to look at things a bit differently, and out here in the Wild West where the water issues really do regularly happen, I’m watching this book unfold around me. Every summer I see this in a small scale, and it’s incredible how Bacigalupi turned something that so many of us witness out here in our own small ways, and blew it up into a richly detailed, poignant narrative that everyone needs to read. These are real issues. This is a real problem. This is possible.

And damn, Bacigalupi hit the ball out of the park. This is one of the best books I’ve read (listened to, actually) in a long, long time.

 

This book is too good to rate.

SPFBO Review | Priest – Matthew Colville

About the Book

After years spent in the inn he bought and never opened, Heden is drawn out, and sent into a dark forest to investigate the death of a knight.

Nothing is what it seems. Why was Heden chosen for this mission? Who killed the knight and why? Why won’t anyone talk to him? As the Green Order awaits Heden’s final judgement, he finds his morality, perspective, and sense of self are each challenged and then destroyed.

Perhaps nothing, even right and wrong, can survive in the haunted wood.

370 pages (kindle)

Published in 2010

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent as part of the SPFBO.

—

I put off reviewing this book for a while because, honestly, I’m kind of stumped by it. I really, really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, but there are some aspects of it that just bugged me. But I enjoyed it so much I feel bad for not liking parts of it – if that makes sense. So I decided to push off writing the review until I couldn’t avoid it anymore.

Priest is interesting, because it unashamedly pays homage to a lot of fantasy influences that have come before from Lord of the Rings, to The Name of the Wind, to Harry Potter, and more. We even have a bit of homage to some current grimdark authors. Really, the list goes on. It’s a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed reading a book that was so comfortable being influenced by, and paying homage to so many of the authors and books that have given the genre so much.

Normally a book that is so obviously influenced by others would bug me, but I actually really enjoyed this one. I could tell that Colville genuinely loves the genre, and he’s not really taking away from the books I’ve mentioned, or borrows from them. He more or less bounces some ideas off of them. It’s obvious where those ideas come from, but they are 100% his all the way and I absolutely loved that level of passion that transcended his book.

Priest plays on a few tropes, from a priest (obviously) protagonist with a mysterious-ish past, some King Arthur style knights, a seductress and more. The synopsis says that not everything is what it seems to be, but sometimes that trying-to-not-be-obvious thing is so obvious that it kind of defeats the purpose of that statement. Some of the scenarios are unbelievable and felt pretty forced and contrived. Sometimes certain scenes felt longer than necessary and rather wordy.

The priest, Haden, is an interesting character, and the rather episodic feel of the novel kept things fresh and moving quickly for me. However, I can see where some readers will find the episodic nature of the novel trying. That’s going to be a personal preference thing. The issue I did see with the episodes is sometimes Haden sort of changed his personality based on the situation. Sometimes he’d be super wise, the next moment he’d transform into some grimdark sword welding badass, and then he’d feel kind of like Dumbledore. You just never really knew who he would be next. It was kind of fun, but it got a bit trying as well. I wanted Haden to be who he was, and instead I felt like he was changing personalities like a person would change clothes.

Where Colville really shines is his characterization, and his world building. There is a lot here, and there is a lot going on, but his characters felt like they were really three-dimensional (despite some of their more unbelievable moments). This book has just about every kind of epic fantasy creature you can imagine in it, but Colville manages to make them all his own, and it was really quite fun to see what he would march out next.

This felt less like an epic fantasy and more like a homage to some genre-loves mixed with a nice detective story. It’s fast moving and the episodic nature was really fun. The characters shine, and the plot is addicting. There are issues here, like I’ve mentioned above, but Colville does a lot that is quite good as well. His characters are fantastic, his world building is wonderful, and I absolutely adored how much passion I felt in this book. All in all, this is a strong SPFBO contender, and I’m glad it was a finalist so I could read it.

 

3/5 stars

6/10 SPFBO score

Burning Midnight – Will McIntosh

About the Book

Seventeen-year-old David Sullivan’s life is about to change—all because of one tiny, priceless item found in the murky bottom of a Brooklyn water tower.

Sully is a sphere dealer at a flea market. It doesn’t pay much—Alex Holliday’s stores have muscled out most of the independent sellers—but it helps him and his mom make rent.

No one knows where the brilliant-colored spheres came from. One day they were just there, hidden all over the earth like huge gemstones. Burn a pair and they make you a little better: an inch taller, skilled at math, better-looking. The rarer the sphere, the more expensive—and the greater the improvement.

When Sully meets Hunter, a girl with a natural talent for finding spheres, the two start searching together. One day they find a Gold—a color no one has ever seen. And when Alex Holliday learns what they have, he will go to any lengths, will use all of his wealth and power, to take it from them.

There’s no question the Gold is worth millions, but what does it actually do? None of them is aware of it yet, but the fate of the world rests on this little golden orb. Because all the world fights over the spheres, but no one knows where they come from, what their powers are, or why they’re here.

320 pages (hardcover)

Published on February 2, 2016

Published by Delacorte Books

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

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

—

I am a huge fan of Will McIntosh. Huge. He’s one of the best discoveries I’ve made in a long damn time. His books, as a rule, blow my mind. Now, I’m not a huge fan of young adult, but if Will McIntosh is writing it, I need to read it. The man could write a dictionary and I’d put it on my Mount To Be Read. No joke.

So, he sent me Burning Midnight to review, and I started reading it the instant I laid my hands on it.

At first blush there are a few things I really liked about this book. First, McIntosh has diverse characters, complete with diverse sexuality, who are largely (but not completely) from impoverished backgrounds. It’s refreshing to read a young adult book that felt so much like a natural sampling of actual young adults. Secondly, many young adult books I read feature go-it-alone teens, but this one has a bit of that, and a strong family unit as well, as is shown in the relationship between Sully and his mother.

Secondly, the premise itself is unique enough to attract attention. Orbs that imbue special abilities can be found by scavengers (of sorts) and then sold to people who can absorb them and then gain special skills – the ability to read fast, added intelligence, and so on. Some orbs are harder to find (and more expensive) than others. People find them, sell them, get money from them. The more rare they are, the harder they are to find, the more money people get. So really, there is a whole economy based on these things, and our protagonist Sully is right in the middle of it all.

The first half of this novel is really setting up the world, the issues involved in it, and the characters (and their respective backgrounds). It’s interesting, and McIntosh manages to keep it all very interesting as he slowly, slowly develops this really interesting stew of elements. It’s not obvious at first, but as readers get more absorbed in the story, it becomes clear that not everything is as good as it seems to be, even one character referring to the orbs and saying, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Really at that point it becomes clear that things are going to start moving a new direction.

At the halfway point, everything takes a really dramatic turn, and the book itself gets a whole new tone. Instead of world building, McIntosh puts everything he’s created into action. The book turns into a fast paced romp that plays heavily on the orbs, discovery, and relationships. It is extremely gripping, and I was absolutely shocked that a young adult book was impossible to put down, and kept me up far too late into the night.

There is a gigantic plot twist that I didn’t even guess was coming. I read so many books, generally I have a faint whiff of what is coming around the corner, but Burning Midnight blew me away. I was so surprised by the way things twisted toward the end I had to put the book down and absorb the change for a while. It isn’t unbelievable, but it is completely shocking – the kind of shocking that only McIntosh can deliver his readers. That jolt to your system that really reminds you why reading is so damn amazing.

Burning Midnight was a delightful book. Diverse characters, tight relationships, a complex economy, realistic backgrounds and desires, and a ton of action topped off with a nice dollop of surprise. This book has it all, and I really didn’t expect it. I wasn’t sure what such a successful adult author could accomplish when he focused on young adult books, but by damn, McIntosh can swim in each pool quite well.

Burning Midnight is fantastic. McIntosh is one of my favorite authors, and this book just underscores all the reasons why. It’s an interesting social commentary that will be easy for teenagers to digest, and captivating enough to transcend genres.

 

5/5 stars

SPFBO Review | The Weight of a Crown – Tavish Kaeden

About the Book

THE WEIGHT OF A CROWN

Thousands dream of it; still more die for it. Yet, how many can truly bear it?

After centuries of bitter conflict the realm of Esmoria is at last united under the banner of a single king. On the surface the realm appears to be enjoying its first taste of peace, but lingering resentment and the untimely death of the new ruler threaten to return Esmoria to political chaos.

Meanwhile, in the farthest reaches of the frozen north, a dethroned monarch’s plot for revenge awakens a long-forgotten evil. As darkness and treachery descend upon the realm, a young escapee from a forced labor camp, a disenfranchised soldier, and an epileptic engraver’s apprentice find themselves at the heart of the troubles.

448 pages (ebook)

Published on August 11, 2011

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent to me as part of the SPFBO.

—

The Weight of a Crown is epic. I mean, E-P-I-C. There are numerous storylines, and tons of plot threads. There are a lot of characters, and a ton of diverse interactions between peoples and cultures. This book really has it all.

This book is surprisingly immersive. There is a lot that is going on, but it’s obvious that this is the opening chapter to a sprawling story. That’s both a good and a bad thing. For fans of sprawling epics, this is the entry to something amazing. For people who enjoy a little closure in their books, this one will probably frustrate you as there really isn’t any closure and the book ends on a few cliffhangers.

However, there are some issues that come along with this being such an epic story. There are a lot of infodumps, and plenty of things that never really felt as fully explained as it could have been. For example, the magic system never really clicked with me. It’s there, but it never felt fully explained or made complete sense to me. There was a lot of telling rather than showing, and some of the chapters and action felt a little uneven.

A lot happens in this book, and it’s interesting to see how such diverse perspectives and stories weave together into a rather cohesive narrative. And I did enjoy the characters quite a bit. While on the surface they are exactly who you’d expect to be in a story like this, slowly they unfold and become something else, something deep and different than how they start out.

During most of the book, the main characters remain separate, and it’s hard to really tell how all these different stories and side stories will weave together and form one unified story. However, toward the last third of the book, the characters all come together and a new conflict wells up. Things start getting really interesting at this point.

However, like I said above, the book doesn’t really end so much as stop. There is no resolution, and I was left sort of unprepared and wanting more. The book was huge and covered so much ground, and I just wanted something… else at the end. This is obviously the first chapter in a much larger story. This sets the stage.

The political landscape is wonderful. This book takes place in a land that has been overthrown and ruled by force. Kings have fallen, some have died. They have all carved their own influence in the land. The world is on the cusp of revolution, and dropped into the middle of this is a myriad of different characters with unique backgrounds. It’s all very well done, and the colorful tapestry that is painted is captivating.

The Weight of a Crown isn’t perfect. I think this will be a rather divisive book – you’ll either love it or you won’t. Fans of epic fantasy should check this one out, but you should be aware of the issues with the ending, and some of the problems along the way that I’ve mentioned. The characters were fantastic, and I absolutely loved the buildup of the complex political situation. So no, this book wasn’t perfect, but it was incredibly enjoyable, and a fresh breath of air into the epic fantasy genre. It set a wonderful, detailed stage for future books in the series, and it wasll worth the time it took to read it.

 

3/5 stars

6/10 SPFBO rating

Revisionary – Jim C. Hines

About the Book

When Isaac Vainio helped to reveal magic to the world, he dreamed of a new millennium of magical prosperity. One year later, things aren’t going quite as he’d hoped. A newly-formed magical organization wants open war with the mundane world. Isaac’s own government is incarcerating “potential supernatural enemies” in prisons and internment camps.

Surrounded by betrayal and political intrigue, Isaac and a ragtag group of allies must evade pursuit both magical and mundane, expose a conspiracy by some of the most powerful people in the world, and find a path to a better future. But the key to victory may lie with Isaac himself, as he struggles to incorporate everything he’s learned into a new, more powerful form of libriomancy.

352 pages (hardcover)

Published on February 2, 2016

Published by Daw

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

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

—

I am intensely sad that this series is over. I’ve loved every single book in it, and knowing there won’t be another one is one of the biggest injustices in the genre right now. WE ALL NEED TO PRESSURE JIM C. HINES INTO WRITING MORE BOOKS SET IN THIS WORLD.

Look, I even shouted that. Hang on, I’ll put it in bold.

WE ALL NEED TO PRESSURE JIM C. HINES INTO WRITING MORE BOOKS SET IN THIS WORLD.

There. Now I mean business. Get behind me, internets. Let us make this happen.

Anyway…

Revisionary is the last book in the Magic Ex Libris series, and it’s a lot different than the previous books. First of all, there is a sort of peace between the characters that hasn’t really existed before. Everyone’s relationship has been figured out. They are all as pleased with the situation as they can be. It’s quite wonderful to see how a love triangle doesn’t have to be some awkward thing, but a sort of nice, warm relationship(s) that can provide balance as well as the frustrating emotions that are often highlighted.

Secondly, the world is in an uproar. People know about the magic, and it’s changing the game in big, big ways. As you’d expect, some people embrace it, while others are scared of it, and others still want to use it for their own aims. There is governmental issues, and there are personal issues, and there are some interesting tug-of-wars that happen between both. For example, when Isaac can use magic to help cure or heal people, but he isn’t allowed to due to government regulations. He often finds himself in bad situations, hated by the people who he can cure, but also can’t, and left feeling helpless and overwhelmed by the emotional fallout.

He’s also the center of a lot of attention, and that has changed him a bit. It has also changed all of his relationships. His relationship to Lena is long distance, as he is based in Las Vegas. His relationship to his family is strained (but in a lot of ways it always was). His relationship to the public is… interesting (see previous paragraph). He seems to know himself better than he has in previous books, but how he fits in with the people he loves so much has absolutely changed, and the fact that he is recognized by many, and his magic is so politically and socially powerful often makes situations awkward.

So yes, things have changed. Isaac isn’t hiding anymore, and that puts a whole new spin on the game.

This book is quite political, and it has to be to deal with this whole new situation that Isaac finds himself in. There is a lot of betrayal, and a ton of plot twists. Magic itself seems to be evolving as much as the characters are, and it’s neat to see just how all of that impacts everything else. It’s quite a mixed bag that Hines throws at his readers, but it’s easy to sort it all out, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

Ultimately this is a book that shows how decisions made in previous books play out in a grand way. Isaac has grown up to be the man he was meant to be. He has to face a lot of political schemes, and plenty of painful betrayal. The world is struggling with the knowledge that there is magic, and it’s almost ripping itself apart as people panic in varying degrees. Lives are changed, and the struggle is eerily parallel to a lot of things that are currently happening in our own world. The ending is final, and surprising, and perfect.

Revisionary was probably my favorite book in the series. A lot of things that have been slowly building are played out, and I can really tell that Hines put a lot of thought, a lot of careful planning, and a lot of love into crafting this perfect ending for his readers. This entire series is one of transformation, but Revisionary is really where readers see just what kind of butterfly has been developing all this time.

And damn, folks, it is beautiful.

5/5 stars

SPFBO | What Remains of Heroes – David Benem

About the Book

Lannick deVeers used to be somebody. A hero, even. Then, he ran afoul of the kingdom’s most powerful general and the cost he paid was nearly too much to bear. In the years that followed, his grief turned him into a shadow of his former self, and he spent his days drowning his regrets in tankards of ale.

But now an unexpected encounter casts Lannick upon an unlikely path to revenge. If he can just find the strength to overcome the many mistakes of his past, he can seize the chance to become a hero once more.

And with an ancient enemy lurking at the kingdom’s doorstep, he’d better…

486 pages (kindle)

Published on April 17, 2015

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was part of the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off.

—

I’m going to be honest here. It almost takes an act of God to get me interested in grimdark these days. The grimdark subgenre feels so flooded to me. There are so many books in it, and so much of it feels like it’s trying so hard to be so edgy that it ends up feels just like the book next to it on the shelf, which is trying to do the same thing. Now, don’t get me wrong. There are some true gems out there, and, like urban fantasy, when I find a book or series in grimdark that I love, I love it hard, but it’s getting to be harder and harder for the books to really impress me.

So, in a lot of ways, this is an, “It’s not you, it’s me,” letter to What Remains of Heroes.

The problem really is with the tropes. Now, they will work for some readers, but they just didn’t really work for me. Benem tries to subvert tropes, to take typical characters or plotlines and twist them into something different. Now, in some ways this really works, but I don’t think it worked as well as the author was hoping it would. We have the old hero who is drinking his days away, the naive cleric who uncovers a plot, a hired killer who felt incredibly two-dimensional to me and a bunch of villains who enjoyed sitting around twirling their mustaches. Backstories exist, but never really sharp enough to make me feel incredibly attached to anyone. Benem twists things a bit, and he does manage to make the characters different than I expected them to be, but they were still the typical group of characters I’d expect in a book like this, which is unfortunate.

One big problem I had was how women were portrayed in this book. While there isn’t any explicit rape scenes depicted, just about every woman referred to has had some sort of painful sexual abuse happen at some time in their life. Fine (not really), but the issue is, most times when things like this are used in books, they aren’t necessary and I’m just about 100% sure that the book could have progressed just as well if all the women hadn’t been sexually abused at some point in their lives. And perhaps I am exaggerating a bit here, but that point really bothered me on a very visceral level.

This is a dark, rather bloody novel and sometimes it can feel a bit gratuitous. I kind of expected it, but there were points when I felt people went violent just because they could, and it wasn’t exactly necessary to advance the plot. However, it is a grimdark book, and if it’s blood and dark plots you’re after, this one has it in spades. Despite my niggling, this is probably one of the points where Benem really shines. He manages to make this blood, and violence realistic, even if it does feel gratuitous at points.

Aside from that, the writing was really good, and the plot flowed at a fast pace. The world building left a little to be desired, but otherwise things were pretty interesting, if predictable. This is a pretty standard heroic fantasy, and if you’re into that kind of thing, then this will probably amaze you. As for me, it was… typical. It had a whole lot of interesting elements thrown into a story that wandered in and out of compelling. There were plenty of well thought out points, but ultimately the attempt to subvert tropes fell a bit flat to me. What Remains of Heroes was well written, and the story was entertaining but at the end of the day, this one just didn’t work for me.

 

2/5 stars

4/10 SPFBO rating

SPFBO Review | Shattered Sands – W.G. Saraband

About the Book

For years, Tamazi felt she was nothing like the other slave-girls. It was not until her master disappeared, the Great Vizier of the desert kingdom of Rilmaaqah, that a power older than the sands themselves took hold of her; a power that could finally free her, or enslave her forever.

Rilmaaqah is in chaos. The fires of rebellion spread, and the winds of change threaten the Mageocracy, as the common people rise with the courage to claim their share. But the sands hide many things, and it falls to an unlikely group of people to put a stop to death, before she sings her lullaby to the living.

445 pages (ebook)

Published on August 7, 2015

Buy the book

This book was part of the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off

—

Shattered Sands was a really interesting book, and in the end I think I wanted to like it more than I actually liked it. There was so much that was noteworthy and wonderful about the book, but ultimately I couldn’t overlook how dark and cruel the plot was. Now, I’m putting this first because I think readers should be aware of it. There is almost no light to balance the darkness. I enjoy dark plots, and I love blood and violence. I enjoy reading books about struggle, but this one had so much struggle and cruelty that it was almost oppressive and it made it hard for me to actually want to read this book. That sounds horrible, but sometimes it’s hard to read a book that you know will depress you. So be aware of that.

However, that’s really the only complaint besides some editing issues that I had. Other than that, this book really amazed me. The world building was absolutely superb. Set against a right Middle Easter-esque backdrop, full of all those details I tend to love so much, the world really shines. There are slaves, and class issues, the magic is woven through things perfectly. The culture is extremely well thought out and developed to play nicely against all that is going on in the plot.

The plot is a bit slow moving, and takes some time to really warm up and take off. The start might make some readers struggle until they get to the point where things really get going. In some ways, the author writes this book a bit differently. Instead of infodumps (no one likes those), Saraband assumes that readers will be able to pick up hints along the way and piece things together when necessary. That’s actually a pretty good way to write, but there are some issues when things happen and I’m not really sure why they happened. Inevitably I missed something along the way, but it happened, and it is possible to get a little confused by certain points if hints were missed or forgotten through the reading.

Shattered Sands is rather brutal, and there’s a brutal history that brings readers up to this brutal point in the book. However, I found it rather fantastic that women played such a huge, important role in a grimdark book. That’s not really something I run across often in grimdark, and I loved the fact that Saraband managed to not only make his protagonists female, but he managed to make them shine so bright in such a dark book.

Saraband has a skill for twisting and turning events, for pushing them to their limits and then making them break. This has the end result of making characters and people that you’d never really expect to read about. Nothing is what it seems to be, and none of the characters change in expected ways. It was a surprising delight to read a book full of the unexpected.

Shattered Sands is addicting, and it is uncomfortable, but that’s part of what makes it so damn noteworthy. It’s nice to be uncomfortable sometimes, especially if those thing that make you so uncomfortable also make you think and see things a bit differently. This book does accomplish just that in spades. In fact, unless I am mistaken, this was a debut novel, and that really surprised me. There is so much here, so much depth, and so much dark exploration and a world that is absolutely stunning. This felt more like the book someone would write after they’ve already written and published a few.

But in the end, I think I wanted to like this book a lot more than I ultimately did, and when I sit down to try and figure out why, the only thing I can come up with is how dark it is. I love dark books, but perhaps I’m getting to that point where my darkness needs to be balanced by some light, and I just didn’t really find that here. It made reading this book hard, and while I do think that some readers will really enjoy that, I struggled with it.

3/5 stars

6/10 SPFBO score

Audiobook Review | Midnight Taxi Tango – Daniel Jose’ Older

About the Book

The streets of New York are hungry tonight…

Carlos Delacruz straddles the line between the living and the not-so alive. As an agent for the Council of the Dead, he eliminates New York’s ghostlier problems. This time it’s a string of gruesome paranormal accidents in Brooklyn’s Von King Park that has already taken the lives of several locals—and is bound to take more.

The incidents in the park have put Kia on edge. When she first met Carlos, he was the weird guy who came to Baba Eddie’s botánica, where she worked. But the closer they’ve gotten, the more she’s seeing the world from Carlos’s point of view. In fact, she’s starting to see ghosts. And the situation is far more sinister than that—because whatever is bringing out the dead, it’s only just getting started.

9 hours 3 minutes (audiobook)

Published on January 5, 2016

Published by Audible Studios

Author’s website

Buy the book

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

—

First of all, I have to apologize to Audible Studios. They sent me this audiobook about a month and a half ago. Right before I got it, I had about four authors send me their audiobooks. Then life kept happening at irregular intervals, and here I am, finally reviewing an audiobook I listened to a ridiculous amount of time ago.

Anyway

The first thing I need to address is the quality of the audiobook itself. It’s something really special to listen to an author read their own work. It’s neat to hear how they picture the inflections, the voices, the world. Not every author is capable of narrating their own audiobook, but Daniel Jose’ Older definitely is. He has that deep, calm voice that I could listen to for hours. He brings the characters and the world to life, and really makes this incredibly wonderful series, that much better. In fact, I enjoy the audiobooks so much that, by this point, that’s the only way I can really enjoy this series anymore. Daniel Jose’ Older must read me all the books he writes.

Midnight Taxi Tango is the second book in Older’s Bone Street Rumba series. You really need to read/listen to the first book before you read this one. And due to that, while I try very hard to avoid spoilers in my reviews, there will probably be some.

Midnight Taxi Tango is a little different than the previous book in this series. After Carlos experienced that incredible betrayal by someone he loves, he’s left reeling a bit. His emotions are kind of messy. He’s still the same confidant, take control man that we were previously introduced to, but due to what happened before, Carlos suddenly has questions. He questions himself, he lacks trust in himself, he has darker emotions. While I do think that some readers might lament the loss of the calm, cool headed Carlos that we read about in Half-Resurrection Blues, in my mind this transitional, questioning, doubting Carlos with all his deep and messy emotions was so much more believable than if he had carried on as-is from the previous book.

And it’s brave of Older to show this darker, doubting side to such a strong character. It was realistic for him to show the emotional fallout from previous events, and it is nice to read about a protagonist who grapples with those darker emotions that we all feel at times. Furthermore, this gave the book, as a whole, a more personal, deeper feeling to the characters, world, and events as a whole.

Despite that, Midnight Taxi Tango is still a whole lot of fun. As with the previous book, the pace is absolutely relentless. The fact that so much of the book happens on that gray line that divides the living from the dead keeps things interesting and surprising. There are some new perspectives in this book, two women, to balance out all the masculine voices. Older seems to have a special skill for giving each of his characters a unique voice.

Perhaps my one complaint is that, in a world so cunningly wrought, where Older has managed to take a city nearly everyone knows on some level and make it truly his, his antagonists stuck out like a sore thumb. Granted, the book is about a lot more than the struggle between the protagonist and the antagonist(s), but that was a detail that I couldn’t really overlook.

Urban fantasy is a genre I struggle with. The shelves are overflowing with books, but very few tend to stick out to me. A lot of them feel painfully similar to each other. And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it makes wading through the UF genre hard for me. However, when a book or series does stick out to me, it sticks out in a big way. This series, and this author has managed to do just that. He’s taken a genre that has shelves packed full of books, and stood out head and shoulders above the crowd. The writing is superb, the story is addicting, the characters are memorable and vibrant. Most importantly, he has infused his books full of diversity, not just in skin tone, or heritage (both important) but also in what the characters are. For example, Carlos isn’t quite alive, and he’s not quite dead. He straddles the line between both, and there aren’t many individuals who do that.

But most importantly, it quickly became obvious that Carlos and all the other characters don’t just stand out because they are fantastically diverse, but because they are absolutely comfortable with who they are. Their personalities shine through the pages, until they become just as real as anyone else in my life. It’s fantastic to see characters leap off the pages, and it’s wonderful to see an author who is daring to bring a positive change to a genre I love so much.

So basically I can sum all this up by saying, Bone Street Rumba is an incredible series. Midnight Taxi Tango is a fun book, full of raw emotions, addicting characters, and a relentless plot. Older is one of those authors that is doing amazing things in the speculative fiction genre, and I’m really excited to see where he goes. Also, listen to the audiobook. It’s fantastic.

 

4/5 stars