Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 55

I believe in full disclosure so….

I feel pretty weird about doing this, but I also think it has to be done. This year I was a beta reader for two books that are currently published (a few more that have upcoming publication dates). I have struggled a little bit with how to approach these novels. While I feel obligated to review them (and I want to review them), I feel like being a beta reader for them takes my objectivity out of it, which is a problem for me. Is it really a review if I can’t objectively judge it?

Am I pondering my navel?

The thing is, I read both of these books during the beta phase of things, and I re-read both of them since they’ve been published. But I was a beta reader, and that was pretty effing cool, and I liked both of these novels a lot at the get-go so there really isn’t anything new to say here. But I haven’t really said anything about them yet, at least not to you guys.

So.

I need to review them, because I want all of you to know how awesome they are, too. Therefore, I’m going to write two book bites, one for each book. And because I wrote this and warned you first, you’ll know the next two book bites that go up on my website are books I beta read, and therefore I lack objectivity, so take them for what they’re worth.

You have been warned.

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P.S. I will probably copy and paste this verbatim every time I review a book I’ve beta read, just so you guys know where I stand on things.

Featured Review | Planetfall – Emma Newman

About the Book

From the award-nominated author Emma Newman, comes a novel of how one secret withheld to protect humanity’s future might be its undoing…

Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi’s vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown.

More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony’s 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.

Ren continues to perpetuate the lie forming the foundation of the colony for the good of her fellow colonists, despite the personal cost. Then a stranger appears, far too young to have been part of the first planetfall, a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Suh-Mi.

The truth Ren has concealed since planetfall can no longer be hidden. And its revelation might tear the colony apart

336 pages (paperback)

Published on November 3, 2015

Published by Ace/Roc

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

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

—

I will freely admit that I have a love/hate relationship with Emma Newman’s books. When they are good, they are so very good. When they don’t quite work with me for some reason, I tend to be unable to overlook whatever it is that didn’t work. It’s a thing that colors the way I read the book. I don’t know why, it’s probably a stylistic issue, but it makes her books tough for me to review.

Planetfall is a book I really looked forward to. It was far different than anything else I’ve read by the author, and I enjoy seeing what an author is capable of when they veer a direction I didn’t expect. Planetfall is a character based colonization novel taking place on a far flung world where a religious zeal has overcome the inhabitants and colors just about everything.

By this point in time, life has reached a sort of equilibrium. Things have normalized a bit. Routine has been established, but there is still a lot that is unknown, so when a lone individual shows up at the colony, things get stirred up a bit. How is it possible for someone to survive alone in such a strange world, and how did he get there? This person’s arrival puts some stress on a mysterious past and buried secrets, which puts more strain on a protagonist that is obviously almost at the breaking point already.

Renata is an interesting character, and I both loved her and had a very hard time connecting with her. Renata is a fascinating window into the world of someone with mental illness, and the mental illness plays a big role in the plot. She is one of the most intense characters I’ve read, purely for the huge secret she is hiding if for no other reason. It kind of hangs over her and colors her whole life. Everything she does, she does with that secret in mind and all of its weighty implications. However, there was a gap between me and Renata that she never really managed to bridge. While I do think that part of this was on purpose, to help the reader understand and feel her absolute isolation, it did make it hard for me to fully connect with her on the deep level I wanted.

Renata is interesting, and jumps off the page in part due to how well she’s crafted, and in part because she’s so intense and that intensity is captivating. She’s the perfect person to tell the story she tells. However, she slowly reveals everything that happened in bits and pieces, and that slow pace might drive some readers nuts. However, I think most people will find themselves hooked despite all of that. Yes, the reveal is slow, almost painfully slow, but due to that slow pace, Newman packs in so many details, and develops her society, past, and present so incredibly well.

In fact, that’s what I loved the most about the book. There is so much here, so much depth and detail, and while it takes so very long to figure what happened and what is happening, the structure of the novel, the world, and the culture that Newman has developed managed to keep me hooked in a situation where, otherwise, I probably would have put the book down.

Newman is a master of atmosphere, flooding this book with a sense of tension and mystery that was almost overpowering. It was quite interesting to see just how well she could create a world, culture, and characters, while slowly and methodically leading readers along with perfect plot reveals. Though this was paid for with a rushed ending that left me a little underwhelmed.

As I mentioned above, Renata has some mental illness. I have to applaud Newman for how well she portrayed this mental illness. The anxiety was so real I felt absolutely crippled by it. The desires, thoughts, drives that all worked to create this were likewise well done. While I did, at times, feel like the mental illness was used a little ham-fistedly to advance the plot in certain directions, the actual creation of a character who suffered with this problem was so incredibly real and raw, I had to give Newman a standing ovation for it.

At the end of the day, this novel is chalked up with the rest of Newman’s novels. When it worked, it really worked well. When it didn’t, the issues nagged me enough to color my overall enjoyment of the book. Planetfall was incredibly strong, and gave me a lot to chew on. No, this is not a perfect novel, but I decided that it was the imperfections that kept this one interesting, and kept it relatable despite some of it’s far-flung ideas.

This is a character driven science fiction novel that is far different than any other science fiction novel out there right now. It’s tense, mysterious, and full of emotion and surprise. It takes its time to flirt with you before it reveals all of its secrets, but that just sweetens it up a bit. This is a book you’ll want to savor rather than devour.

 

4/5 stars

Featured Review | Our Lady of the Ice – Cassandra Rose Clarke

About the Book

Hope City, Antarctica. The southernmost city in the world, with only a glass dome and a faltering infrastructure to protect its citizens from the freezing, ceaseless winds of the Antarctic wilderness. Within this bell jar four people–some human, some not–will shape the future of the city forever:

Eliana Gomez, a female PI looking for a way to the mainland.

Diego Amitrano, the right-hand man to the gangster who controls the city’s food come winter.

Marianella Luna, an aristocrat with a dangerous secret.

Sofia, an android who has begun to evolve.

But the city is evolving too, and in the heart of the perilous Antarctic winter, factions will clash, dreams will shatter, and that frozen metropolis just might boil over…

432 pages (hardcover)

Published on October 27, 2015

Published by Saga Press

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

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

—

Our Lady of the Ice intrigued me from the get-go because of that stunning cover. I also read one of the author’s previous books, and absolutely loved it. I had very high hopes for this one, and books that I go into with high hopes, tend to either soar or fail, there rarely is any middle ground.

Our Lady of the Ice is set in an intriguing world, Hope City, Antarctica, a domed city that is both a melting pot, and a rough cut place where the strong survive and crime lords run things. It’s lush and diverse, and there are plenty of problems that impact live in Hope City, like the exploitation of the mainlanders, and the exploitations of the crime bosses. Food is strictly rationed, and passage out of the city is something that people save for years to afford.

That being said, if you’ve made it in Hope City, then you’re golden. You get your own private dome, your own house, your own robots to make your life easier. The social classes are staggeringly different, from cramped quarters in the inner city, where you need to be careful, to your very own dome, complete with your very own private train station, butler and everything else.

Mixed into all of this is a wild range of characters, some carried a bit more of an impact than others. Eliana Gomez is a private investigator, who seems to make it a skill to be purposefully, almost unbelievably, ignorant regarding some of her boyfriend’s darker deeds. Diego was interesting as he is a man that tries to do the right thing, but often doesn’t understand what that “right thing” is, which leads him into dark situations. Marianella Luna is an aristocrat, who took some time to warm up to, but once I had her figured out she quickly became one of my favorite characters, as she had a foot comfortably in both the human and the android world. Sofia is a character that I never really warmed up to all the way. She’s brutal and effective, and provocative as she’s entering evolutionary territory that hasn’t ever been fully explored, but she’s cold and very standoffish.

The situation that has all of these characters woven together is both complex and simple, and not only weaves together many of the characters, but a lot of the social issues that Hope City faces, specifically issues regarding food and electricity. These problems are compelling, not just because they are fundamental to life, but they are also directly impacted by life in Hope City. The crime lord rules the food supply, so when someone decides to try to grow their own food in an agricultural dome, it’s a big deal. It takes away some of his power. And while it might not be a big deal for me to lose electricity at my home, I don’t live in Antarctica, where exposure to the elements could kill a person really fast. On the flip side of that, the wealthy in their own domes don’t generally have issues with food supply, or with electricity.

The plot is fantastic, full of intrigue and slowly unfolding events. Things don’t quite make sense, and it takes time for just about every character to warm up, but quickly they do and things really take off. The inhuman, and the unrelatable quickly become relatable, and surprisingly emotional. Slowly Clark draws together a bunch of different plot threads and powerful ideas to create a book that is both captivating and absolutely impossible to put down. All of the marvelous details she added into her world building weren’t done for entertainment value, most of them play some role in how things unfold, and just what the impact of these things are. Furthermore, it makes events that much more powerful when you realize just how something like the power going out can terrify an entire population.

Our Lady of the Ice takes itself seriously, because it is a serious book. There isn’t much humor or levity to be found in these pages, and it quickly becomes apparent that anything like that would feel wrong. Clark is forcing her characters, and her readers, to attack some weighty topics, and you’ll feel that weight as the book progresses. Furthermore, this book is written to feel like a noir. It’s dirty, gritty, dark, and occasionally oppressive, but incredibly powerful due to that.

Our Lady of the Ice impressed the hell out of me. I couldn’t put it down, and when I finished it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Clark nailed everything about this book, from the world building, to the haunting, intense atmosphere, and the characters that work their way under your skin. This book was powerful, and executed flawlessly. Our Lady of the Ice was one of the best books I’ve read this year.

 

5/5 stars

Book Bite | Luna: New Moon – Ian McDonald

About the Book

The scions of a falling house must navigate a world of corporate warfare to maintain their family’s status in the Moon’s vicious political atmosphere

The Moon wants to kill you.

Maybe it will kill you when the per diem for your allotted food, water, and air runs out, just before you hit paydirt. Maybe it will kill you when you are trapped between the reigning corporations-the Five Dragons-in a foolish gamble against a futuristic feudal society. On the Moon, you must fight for every inch you want to gain. And that is just what Adriana Corta did.

As the leader of the Moon’s newest “dragon,” Adriana has wrested control of the Moon’s Helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family’s new status. Now, in the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation-Corta Helio-confronted by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana’s five children must defend their mother’s empire from her many enemies… and each other.

416 pages (hardcover)

Published on September 22, 2015

Published by Tor

Buy the book

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

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Note: While I wish I had the time to write a full-length review of this book, I don’t, so what you get is a kind of hybrid book bite/featured review.

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It’s hard for me to tell you just how much I loved Luna: New Moon. This is a hard bitten near future science fiction tale set on the harsh landscape of the moon, where air is purchased and lives are bought.

Five powerful families rule the moon, including most if not all of the business that takes place, as well as the justice system and just about everything that is necessary for life. This creates an interesting political and social dynamic, a rough mafia world where social class could mean the difference between life and a rough, painful death. Intermixed in all of this is a ton of politics, of both the business/government and personal sort.

One of my favorite things about McDonald as an author is his ability to create incredibly vibrant characters that practically leap off the page and captivate me. That skill of his carries over into Luna: New Moon. His rich, diverse tapestry of characters brings to life a lot of the social and political struggles that are faced in this novel, and make a lot of situations quite jarring. It’s one thing to hear that people who live on the moon have to buy the air they breathe, and too bad if they run out of money. It’s another thing to experience that worry and heartache, that slow torture, through a character that feels as real as you are.

The plot is engrossing, and there is so much going on that keep things moving forward quickly. Mixed with that is the fact that McDonald completely pulls in his readers with his flawless prose and his well-realized world. There really isn’t anything to fault here. Once you start it, you won’t be able to put it down. So much hinges on simple things that aren’t quite so simple, like relationships between families, which quickly become a tangled, complex web.

In fact, just about nothing is what it appears to be on the surface. Relationships aren’t just relationships, but complex political machinations that can cause vast ripples, and influence countless lives. It is quite genius how McDonald has managed to create a novel that is surprisingly human and relatable in so many ways, but incredibly detailed and thought provoking in others.

There are a lot of wonderful things I could say about Luna: New Moon. I can pretty much boil it all down by saying that this was the science fiction novel I’ve been waiting for. It’s human, far reaching, thought provoking, complex, and relatable. It’s a tangled web of intrigue in such a well-realized world, I feel like I could live there. Ian McDonald really hit it out of the park with this one.

 

5/5 stars

The Accessibility Problem

Warning: This is long and rambling. 

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A few years ago I lost my ability to walk. It happened in about the amount of time it takes to snap a finger. One minute I was walking, and the next minute I couldn’t. I never really thought of accessibility issues until I had one. It wasn’t until that happened that I realized how absolutely frustrating it was when someone parked in the handicapped spot at a store when they didn’t need to because they were only going to run in really quickly. I can’t tell you how many times I had to sit in the car while my husband ran in a store or another place because all the handicapped spots were taken up with cars that didn’t have passes for them, and everywhere else was too far away for me, so I couldn’t go.

I learned that I hated it when places didn’t have ramps, because I couldn’t go where I wanted to go and do what I wanted to do, and there was nothing I could do about it. I’d sit helplessly at the bottom of the stairs looking up at a place that might as well have been Tibet for all the good it would have done me. My husband would go up the stairs, take pictures of whatever it was that was up there, and come back down to show them to me. I’d pretend I saw whatever it was, and experienced it.

I had three extensive spine surgeries, and now I can walk again, albeit (very) slowly, and usually with a limp. I have lost complete feeling in my right leg except for the front of my thigh right above my knee, and two of my toes. I had physical therapy for a few years where someone would hold onto my hips, and another person would swing my legs while I held onto bars and learned how to walk again, somewhat normally, while only being able to feel two of my toes.

I have what is considered an “invisible illness.” And it wasn’t until all of this happened to me that accessibility issues started becoming near and dear to my heart. Now, to look at me, you’d probably not think that I had any sort of limitations. I usually walk without a cane (though on my bad days I still drag it out) because my physical therapist said that a cane would diminish the strength of my muscles, and I can’t afford that at all. I wear all of my braces under my clothes, so you can’t really see them. I have a little bit of a limp, and I walk pretty slowly, but most people probably don’t notice anything. They probably just think I’m not in a rush. You certainly never see the amount of pain I am in. I have become very, very good at hiding how things, like stepping up a curb, sometimes makes me want to scream. No one sees how hard it is for me to do simple things, like get dressed. It’s not something I just do; getting dressed has become an ordeal. It’s a torturous event.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, hypermobility type, is super fun (/sarcasm font). Both of my shoulders dislocate if you look at them wrong. My right hip does some fun things that make life both painful and difficult, and now my left knee is blowing out. Navigating stairs, even two stairs, is just about impossible for me these days. Walking is hard. Sitting is hard. Standing is hard. And while most people can’t tell there is a problem, I have reached a point in my life where, if there are stairs and no alternative, I typically won’t go there (wherever “there” is). I’ll send my husband. He will take pictures of whatever it is I want to see, and I’ll pretend I saw it. It is pretty assured that at some point in my near future, I will probably need permanent mobility assistance. Until then, I have to take very, very good care of myself to prolong what little mobility I have as long as possible.

I’m not saying any of this for pity. I’m saying it because this is a personal issue for me. I fundamentally do not understand why accessibility issues are still a Thing. There was a problem at World Fantasy Con where there weren’t ramps for individuals in wheelchairs. I wasn’t there, but I read about it online, and I’m glad there was an outcry about this issue. If I had been there, I probably would have been in the same situation as the people in the wheelchairs. I wouldn’t have been able to get on that stage. I wouldn’t have been able to go there, so I would have stood around awkwardly or proxy experienced it through others who could go/do/experience.

In some ways losing my mobility in a second was a lot easier than slowly losing it over the course of a few years. It just happened in a flash, and suddenly I had to deal with a whole aspect of the world I had never had to really face before (If you ever doubt that mobility issues make life hard, try to navigate the Las Vegas Strip with a wheelchair. Just try. I dare you.). Now I’m watching my mobility slowly go, and unless I have my cane, I’m really the only person who knows there is a problem. In a lot of ways, this makes me a silent and passive observer to a world where I both fit and don’t fit at the same time.

The kindness of strangers often wins out and makes life easier. When I am out in public with my cane, people generally do their best to accommodate me when buildings and events don’t. If people know me and know my limitations, they automatically make allowances for me. I don’t have some issues, like problems with how wide doorways are, or having wheelchair accessible seating, but I did once, and I get it. Small things make life so much more difficult when you have a mobility restriction, and these small things often edge out valuable participants. By and large, people are always helpful, but there are still times when I have to say, “No, my cane isn’t part of a costume. I really do need it.”

The issue is that this shouldn’t even be a Thing anymore. There shouldn’t be a reason for someone to have to stay off a stage in a panel they are part of, at a convention, because the convention center/staff/whoever hasn’t had the forethought to think of a ramp. People shouldn’t be excluded because they were overlooked and/or forgotten. In situations like this, when the other panelists come down to the floor in a show of support and solidarity, they get huge props. But they shouldn’t have to do that because a lack of something as simple as a ramp shouldn’t be a thing that happens.

I saw a lot of praise this year about conventions that had sign language interpreters in attendance, and I thought, “Good. I’m glad that conventions are finally getting this accommodation, but what does it say about us that this is something to be praised rather than part of our normal convention going experience?”

That’s the thing that really irks me about this issue. Accommodation is still something to be praised rather than a normal thing. It’s an event rather than an occurrence. Furthermore, there are still times when there are problems and people get excluded or edged out due to these problems. The dialogue about this is still minimal in the genre. There is still almost no discussion about these problems until something happens and there is a small outcry.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires buildings and events to accommodate those with disabilities, but this is sometimes forgotten or overlooked, and I hate that those with disabilities are often in that camp where the overlooked dwell. (To be fair, I’m sure the hotel was ADA compliant, I’m not sure the convention planners thought about it much). A huge problem, I think, is that a lot of people don’t consider many of these issues because they don’t fully understand them. Most people who aren’t in wheelchairs probably don’t consider how a simple impediment could prevent a wheelchair user from entering a room/moving around. And while I rarely think this is done out of malice, sometimes it really isn’t thought about extensively.

The there is a lack of awareness. If you don’t have a disability, then I think disabilities are typically a thing that happens to other people. I don’t think it’s something that gets thought of as much, or as often, as issues like feminism or racism, or many other -isms, but is just as important and it impacts a huge percent of the population.

Thankfully there are people who speak out when an injustice happens. There are groups online that focus on conventions and accessibility. People are becoming more tuned in. But there is still work to be done. There are still issues that need to be addressed. No one should have to stay on the floor because the convention didn’t think about getting a ramp to the stage. The fact that, in many places, these issues aren’t a priority is rather disheartening.

Recently there have been more discussions on these topics. I’m hearing about disabilities being represented on more and more diversity panels, and awareness is rising. Conventions are making it easier for individuals to find necessary accommodations, but this issue at WFC points out the fact that while we have come far, there is still a long way to go.

Featured Review | Wake of Vultures – Lila Bowen

About the Book

A rich, dark fantasy of destiny, death, and the supernatural world hiding beneath the surface.

Nettie Lonesome lives in a land of hard people and hard ground dusted with sand. She’s a half-breed who dresses like a boy, raised by folks who don’t call her a slave but use her like one. She knows of nothing else. That is, until the day a stranger attacks her. When nothing, not even a sickle to the eye can stop him, Nettie stabs him through the heart with a chunk of wood, and he turns into black sand.

And just like that, Nettie can see.

But her newfound sight is a blessing and a curse. Even if she doesn’t understand what’s under her own skin, she can sense what everyone else is hiding — at least physically. The world is full of evil, and now she knows the source of all the sand in the desert. Haunted by the spirits, Nettie has no choice but to set out on a quest that might lead to her true kin… if the monsters along the way don’t kill her first.

352 pages (hardcover)

Published on October 27, 2015

Published by Orbit

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent for me to review by the author.

—

I’ve been fortunate to read some truly amazing books recently. It seems like just about every one of them that has arrived at my house has been something I’ve ended up truly enjoying on a surprising level. That doesn’t happen often, so I savor it when it does.

Wake of Vultures was sent to me by the author, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve been on this kick recently where I haven’t read anything about a book; I just dive in. Therefore, when I opened it, I had no idea it was a western, or steeped in mythology, with a protagonist that I fell in love with instantly. All I knew was that it was written by an author I really admire, and had a blurb from another author I really admire on the cover.

Wake of Vultures takes place in a dry, barren west that springs to life. It’s as rough as the people who populate it. Violence is normal, and after cutting life out of the barren soil, the people are hard as the earth they live on. It creates a sort of interesting relationship between a landscape that really doesn’t have much to brag about in the way of beautiful things, and the people who make the uninteresting landscape completely interesting. And, to be honest with you dear readers, I get it. I live in the west. There are lots of places out here that are dry, cracked, full of cattle and not much else. It’s the people that make some of these landscapes interesting.

Nettie, or Nat, is one of the best protagonists I’ve ever read about. She is unapologetically, completely herself. She wants what she wants, and there’s no real reason for her to mentally mull over her desires or their consequences. She just goes for it. She is more comfortable among the men, and rather than making a huge issue of it, she just wears pants, works on the ranch and lives her life. It’s really refreshing, in a way, to read about a character who is just wholly who she is in every respect. I loved, loved, loved how Bowen crafted Nettie/Nat, who ended up being one of the most vibrant, colorful, admirable and real things about the world she built.

Nat is unique in a lot of ways. She’s a half-breed in a world that doesn’t welcome that sort of thing, and is very misunderstood. She doesn’t really fit in with any one gender. After she starts seeing all these supernatural things around her, she sort of has one foot in the human’s world, and one foot in the supernatural world. She’s balanced on a lot of lines, and she’s perfect for this world that Bowen has created, a world that is shockingly real, but almost dreamlike and surreal at the same time. The unique tapestry that makes up Nettie is the perfect compliment to her reality. Somehow she makes everything she encounters seem that much more real and genuine.

The plot is just as delightful as everything else I’ve mentioned so far. It’s raw, rather dark and brittle. Gory, but also beautiful. Bowen has this perfect knack for taking a dark book, pushing it to its limit, and then balancing that darkness with some beautiful, hopeful, tones. A grisly death at the start, the unraveling of a world that is crafted out of a myriad of different myths, and then the cog that ends up driving Nat throughout the book is nothing short of genius. Throughout all of this, there is a lot of growth and development. Nat is a young person, and this book forces her to grow quite a bit. Her personal growth next to such an addicting, surprising, fast-paced plot works together to create a book that is absolutely impossible to put down.

Wake of Vultures features a lot of different myths from a lot of different cultures, and none of them really worked out the way I expected them to work. I enjoy my myths, but I enjoy them more when the sexy Vlad the Impaler vampire isn’t walking around with his shirt hanging off and women fawning over him (for example). However, the myths that Bowen works with are, as I said, unique and absolutely her own. They compliment the world well, and keep things interesting (as if interesting was ever a problem with this book…). They added another level of mystery and complexity to the world and the situations that Nat finds herself in. Much like ML Brennans series, I truly enjoyed how Bowen took a lot of things that could have easily been tropey, and twisted them to be unique and one-of-a-kind to the book she’s written.

As for the tone, If you’re a fan of Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig you’ll want to do yourself a favor and check out Wake of Vultures. While the worlds and time periods are vastly different, the same dark, wry tone is found in each novel.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Wake of Vultures was just about everything I wanted it to be plus some. It was one of my favorite, most delightful reads so far this year. Everything about it was amazing, from Nettie who was one of the most individual, perfectly crafted protagonists, to the plot that never quit, and the mythology that wrapped itself around this textured world that Bowen has created. This book was a delight, and absolutely recommended.

 

5/5 stars

Featured Review | The Builders – Daniel Polansky

About the Book

A missing eye.

A broken wing.

A stolen country.

The last job didn’t end well.

Years go by, and scars fade, but memories only fester. For the animals of the Captain’s company, survival has meant keeping a low profile, building a new life, and trying to forget the war they lost. But now the Captain’s whiskers are twitching at the idea of evening the score.

226 pages (ebook)

Published on November 3, 2015

Published by Tor.com

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

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

—

Generally speaking, I don’t have time to write two reviews in one day, nor do I like to do so because I have a life and life takes up time. However, I just finished The Builders and I just had to write a review, and I positively couldn’t wait to put it online. Why? Because this book rocked something fierce.

I’ve been involved in some sort of weird, really unexpected, relationship with novellas recently, which is something I never thought I’d say. I have learned that I love them, and that a novella done right can pack one very powerful punch. Furthermore, the shorter length is easier for me to digest between my day job, keeping house, changing diapers, and doing the various other things that keep me busy.

The Builders wasn’t a novella I wanted to read, if I’m honest with you. I had no intention of reading it until an author I admire to a ridiculous extent, Delilah S. Dawson, told me that it was absolutely amazing and I had to read it. I went on Netgalley and got a copy. I decided to read it, and figured I’d get into it about ten minutes before I wanted to read something else.

Let me tell you how wrong I was. There was no putting this down. There was no moving on to something else. This book devoured me. It absorbed me. It ate me whole and left me gaping when it was over. I wanted to read it for the first time all over again.

The Builders is dark fantasy done right. The characters are all anthropomorphic, which isn’t something I’ve ever read before, but I enjoy new experiences, so why not. I expected that to turn me off, but in fact I loved it even more for the fact that these weren’t humans I was reading about. All of their animal traits translated perfectly into flawed, unpredictable characters that really left an impact on me. The salamander with incredible speed, the mole that everyone was afraid of, the mouse who knows he has many weaknesses, but speed isn’t one of them. And these characters all served to build up a really interesting world that I wanted to learn more about. In some ways, I didn’t really feel like this novella was big enough to contain these interesting, dynamic characters and their violent word.

What I really didn’t expect was the fact that I’d end up caring as much about a mouse, a salamander, a stoat and a few other animals as I’d care about any human being I’ve read about in any handful of novels I have fallen in love with.

The plot was just as compelling as the characters. It moves quickly and I was instantly sucked in. It isn’t linear at the start, and the chapters are short as Polansky flits between a few weeks ago (or more), to the night when all the fun stuff really starts happening. There is a genius to this, as it allows the readers to briefly get introduced to each character, and their nature before the plot moves forward. On the flip side, these short introductions mean that some characters will shine brighter than others, and some will feel like they fade into the background a bit more than they perhaps should.

There is a lot of violence, and while it’s obvious that revenge is always a huge plot point, the details of everything that happened to cause such hard feelings don’t become fully obvious until later on. Slowly, slowly Polansky reveals everything that has happened before, and everything that is happening under the surface. I enjoyed how he deliberately revealed important aspects of the plot, and discovered that he did quite a good job at keeping things moving in this way.

The Builders also had me laughing so hard I woke up my sleeping baby at one point. Polansky used this ironic, black humor throughout the book that kept this dark novel from really feeling dark (to me). In some (really unexpected) ways, the humor in this novella reminded me quite a bit of some of the humor I’d find in a K.J. Parker book, and I have to admit that’s a big reason why I loved this book so much. Furthermore, it means something when an author has me cracking up in the middle of some incredible violence. The humor was important, as it kept the book from feeling too oppressive, and kept me interested when I might not have been otherwise.

So, what am I saying here? The Builders was fantastic. Humorous, dark, and riveting, this book shocked me. I started it expecting to put it down, and ended up finishing it in one (very busy) day because I couldn’t detach from it. This novella is released today, and I completely recommend you all read it. You won’t regret it. The Builders was a delightful surprise.

 

4/5 stars

Featured Review | Dreamseeker – C.S. Friedman

About the Book

When Jessica Drake learned that her DNA didn’t match that of her parents, she had no idea that the search for her heritage would put her family’s lives in danger, or force her to cross into another world. In an alternate Earth dominated by individuals with unnatural powers called Gifts, Jessica learned that there was a curse within her blood, one so feared that all who possessed it were destroyed on sight. For she was a Dreamwalker, and the same dark Gift that would allow her to enter the dreams of others would eventually destroy her mind and spread insanity to all those around her.

Now she is back with her family, but there is no peace to be found. Her childhood home has been destroyed, her mother’s mind is irreparably damaged, and the Gift of the Dreamwalkers is beginning to manifest in her in terrifying ways.

When a stranger invades her dreams and creatures from her nightmares threaten to cross into the waking universe, Jessica knows she must return to the alternate Earth where she was born and seek allies… even if doing so means she must bargain with those she fears the most.

336 pages (paperback)

Published on November 3, 2015

Published by DAW

Author’s webpage

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

—

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m a huge fan of C.S. Friedman. Her foray into young adult seems to be hit or miss with most readers. It’s far different from her usual dark fantasy, antihero fare. That being said, I’m not a huge fan of young adult books, but I look forward to each new book in this series, and I’m thrilled that the publisher sends them to me.

There’s a reason for that. Friedman’s young adult is a bit more mature in feel and tone than so many young adult books I’ve read. That is heightened a bit in Dreamseeker, where our protagonist Jessica Drake is primarily driven to save her mother, and protect those she loves. Furthermore, her mother’s condition is a direct side effect of the events that took place in the first book, and due to that, Jessica has to grapple with some pretty hefty, pretty adult emotions and decisions and she grows quite a bit as a result.

Most of the world building was done in the first book, and Friedman does a great job at expanding upon the foundation she put in place in Dreamweaver. In a lot of ways this was beneficial. There were no infodumps, no moments of extensive teaching and learning. There were still moments where the characters had to learn and develop, but I never felt like it weighed down the plot. In a lot of ways, this book felt less uptight and strained, and a lot easier to fall into. Instead of the focus on development, Friedman does what she does best – she added a hell of a lot of depth and detail, not the least of which was adding some necessary complexity to the magic system.

Dreamseeker focuses a lot on relationships, the powerful force of friendship and the kinship of family – the family you are born into and the family you create. In the course of two books, Jessica and her crew had to grow and develop a lot, and in many ways Friedman pushes all of her characters to their limit in this book. It was delightful to watch them bend and strain, to grown in unexpected ways and fill the world(s) that Friedman has created for them.

There are quite a few unexpected developments that take place, and some more expected and predictable plot points as well. Friedman managed to give some secondary characters in the previous book some well-deserved limelight, while gracefully introducing new characters that quickly become interesting or promise to become important further in the story. This also created a fantastic depth to a lot of the organizations, situations, world building and so much more. Actions have consequences, many more far reaching than I typically see in a young adult novel.

Really, there was a lot here that was done so well.

But.

I had a hard time believing some of it. For example, I never really believed that any adult would buy the reasons that Jessica and crew gave their parents/family members about why they had disappeared – and accept said reason without really investigating at all. That felt far too convenient to me. Some of the decisions that were made were shortsighted, and some mistakes too obviously pushed the plot forward.

Those are small complaints, though. This is a strong novel that expanded on what Friedman built in Dreamweaver. Her foray into the young adult arena is a success. This is a fun, addictive series that shows off many of the reasons why C.S. Friedman has been one of my favorite authors for many years.

 

4/5 stars

Featured Review | Of Sorrow and Such – Angela Slatter

About the Book

Mistress Gideon is a witch. The locals of Edda’s Meadow, if they suspect it of her, say nary a word—Gideon has been good to them, and it’s always better to keep on her good side. Just in case.

When a foolish young shapeshifter goes against the wishes of her pack, and gets herself very publicly caught, the authorities find it impossible to deny the existence of the supernatural in their midst any longer; Gideon and her like are captured, bound for torture and a fiery end.

Should Gideon give up her sisters in return for a quick death? Or can she turn the situation to her advantage?

160 pages (ebook)

Published on October 13, 2015

Published by Tor.com

Author’s webpage

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

—

I’m not sure what the reasoning is, but I used to hate novellas and now I love them. Of Sorrow and Such is a perfect example of why novellas can work so well. It’s short and sweet, not too long, but long enough to really pull readers in. This is a book that you can read in one or two sittings if you’re dedicated (or addicted, like me). However, it has all the depth and details that you’d typically find in a normal length novel.

In short, Of Sorrow and Such was rather amazing with all it packed into its meager 160 pages.

And that cover. That cover art is amazing.

Of Sorrow and Such is a shockingly dark novella. There is a thread of morbid, ironic humor that runs through it, but it’s a dark book. There is no way to get around that fact. The humor can lighten the mood, but more than that it serves to point out a lot of the injustices and inequalities that our protagonist struggles with on a daily basis.

Slatter does a great job at setting a scene and a tone, and she starts working this magic from the first page, painting a picture of Edda’s Meadow that really brings it to life for the reader. It seems like a fairly typical place, quite mundane in many senses, and then she narrows her focus down to the protagonist, Patience Gideon.

Gideon is a character that jumps off the page. She is so incredibly three-dimensional; it’s hard to believe that she isn’t real. She’s not really a good person, but she’s not a bad person either, and her wry, often dark observations bring to light a lot of the small details that make up her life. She’s incredibly loyal to those she loves, and doesn’t mind burning bridges when necessary. Her loyalty to those she loves is inspiring, and often a driving force for many of her actions. The themes of love, loyalty, and determination are very well done and balance out the darker tones of the novel nicely.

Mistress Gideon works as the town healer, but she’s also a witch. She’s also a woman in a man’s world. There are a lot of battles that Gideon is fighting on a daily basis – the battle to keep attention away from her and her witchery, her drive to protect those like her that need protecting, and her desire to be independent and free to live her life the way she wants. She often points out the injustices of her world and it paints a stark portrait. There is also a lot of emphasized tension in Gideon’s daily activities, her interactions with the townsfolk she lives among, and her desire to be an independent woman in a world where that’s not really a thing.

The writing is flawless. The humor is just right, and hits all the right notes; the world is vibrant and shockingly well developed considering the length of this book. Slatter really excels at her characters and the atmosphere. She does a great job at creating people who feel just as real as the world they live in. No one is perfect, and some stupid, very human decisions really get things going. Everyone has a secret, some of which are heartbreaking, all of which are humanizing.

Learning about Gideon’s life, and learning about her past is just as interesting as the situation she finds herself in around the halfway point. The pace was perfect, and Slatter seems to know how to hook her readers and keep them absorbed in every element of this book. One of the best things I can say about Of Sorrow and Such is that not a word was wasted. This book is absolutely effective. It was an emotional, heart wrenching, dark, and shockingly beautiful read.

I never really found myself that interested in novellas before, but the more I read them, the more I realize that a novella done right can pack a punch that is even more powerful than many novels. It takes some incredible skill for an author to create a world this vibrant, and characters this real, and a plot that squeezed my heart and made me think deep thoughts in the space of 160 pages. There is an art to the novella, and books like Of Sorrow and Such make me realize what a complex, fantastic medium it can be.

 

5/5 stars

Featured Review | Six-Gun Snow White – Catherynne M. Valente

About the Book

A New York Times bestselling author offers a brilliant reinvention of one of the best-known fairy tales of all time with Snow White as a gunslinger in the mythical Wild West.

Forget the dark, enchanted forest. Picture instead a masterfully evoked Old West where you are more likely to find coyotes as the seven dwarves. Insert into this scene a plain-spoken, appealing narrator who relates the history of our heroine’s parents—a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That Sings, in marriage to him. Although her mother’s life ended as hers began, so begins a remarkable tale: equal parts heartbreak and strength. This girl has been born into a world with no place for a half-native, half-white child. After being hidden for years, a very wicked stepmother finally gifts her with the name Snow White, referring to the pale skin she will never have. Filled with fascinating glimpses through the fabled looking glass and a close-up look at hard living in the gritty gun-slinging West, this is an utterly enchanting story…at once familiar and entirely new.

160 pages (hardcover)

Published on November 10, 2015 by Saga Press

Previously published on February 28, 2013 by Subterranean Press

Author’s webpage

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  This book was sent by Saga Press in exchange for an honest review.

—

I think God used up his stores of talent the day that Catherynne Valente was born.

Everyone knows the story of Snow White. Not everyone knows the story of Snow White as told by Valente. Because, damn, folks. You’ve gotta check this one out.

My life is really, really hectic right now. It’s taking me about four times longer to read a book than normal because of all that’s going on. However, I read this one in one sitting. I made time for this book, and from the first page I was absolutely enchanted by it.

The first half of the book is told from Snow White’s perspective. She’s a brutally honest narrator, with a rugged, memorable voice that seems to strip herself and everything around her down to its heart. She has a shockingly powerful voice due to that, and her portion of the story absolutely emotionally eviscerated me (in the best possible way).

This story, in a lot of ways, is kind of ironic. Snow White is named such not for her high status and white skin, but as an ideal thrust upon her by her stepmother, who saw beauty as white skin. Snow White’s life isn’t anything anyone would really want. Her father is a silver tycoon who really doesn’t have the time or desire to take care of a child. Snow White’s only real friend are the animals around her as a child, a fox, a bear, a bird. It’s a lonely life, and an isolated one.

That loneliness and painful isolation is felt throughout the book. Snow White doesn’t really belong anywhere, and her otherness is part of what defines her and makes her so memorable, though its shaping of her is painful. As Snow White grows, she seems to become more and more isolated in a wide world that really has no room for a half-breed such as herself. Her stepmother is horrible, and some of her descriptions of her stepmother’s treatment brought tears to my eyes. There is a chapter where Snow White discusses what she thought love was when she was a child, and it tore me apart. It’s rare than an author can gut-punch me with those powerful emotions, but Valente can, and she does.

The second half of the book is told from an unspecified third person narrator, and is just as powerful as the first half, if a bit less intimate. It’s important to view the rest of the story from an omnipotent perspective, as a lot is going on. All of the elements of Snow White’s traditional story are here, but they are turned on their head, twisted, and completely different than you’d expect. For example, Charming, instead of being a prince, is the horse she uses to escape. The reason her stepmother needs Snow White’s heart is nothing short of genius. The reason Snow White falls asleep is also well thought out, introspective, and absolutely perfect for the novel. The ending left gasping because it was so perfect.

Snow White is a capable young woman, running from an isolated and horrible childhood into an uncertain future, chasing the ghosts of her past. The west is a wide, wild place which Valente brings to life. There is just enough magic to please fantasy fans, and make this an interesting crossover novel for fiction fans who don’t mind something a bit offbeat. The world is rough, and Snow White finds herself in the middle of a lot of tricky situations for a woman traveling on her own.

At the heart of this novella is the story of a rather tortured young woman who has to save herself, and that’s what I love about it. Snow White doesn’t need a prince to rescue her, and sometimes fairy tales don’t end the way you expect them to, and that’s okay. Snow White saves herself, and the story is absolutely captivating, and emotionally jarring on some pretty fundamental levels.

However, if I have to say one thing about this novel, it’s that these are some of the best, most quotable, poetic prose I’ve ever read. Ever. I don’t know how one woman can write this well, but Valente can, and I’m absolutely shocked by the powerful magnitude of her talent. There was a point pretty early on in the book were I wished I’d read this one on my Kindle so I didn’t have to write down all the quotable passaged. My hand was getting tired.

I love fairytale retellings, and I love good writing, but I’ve never really been bowled over by either of those things like I was with this novel. Six-Gun Snow White was powerful, emotionally eviscerating, and so very deep. This is one of the most perfect books I’ve read in years. I can’t stop thinking about it.

 

9,568,253/5 stars