Siavahda's Blog, page 24
June 30, 2024
In Short: June
It’s been a kind of frazzled month mentally, but otherwise mostly calm. Lots of goslings by the water, a few ducklings, and even a red squirrel! Plus a visit from the in-laws, who are lovely, not the scary kind. I’m worn out, I think mostly by the heatwaves, but it was a decent month.
ARCs Received
MANY BEAUTIFUL ARCS! I almost couldn’t BREATHE when I got approved for Space Oddity – IT’S ONLY CATHERYNNE VALENTE’S NEXT NOVEL, NO BIG DEAL – and many of the rest of these are featured on my Unmissable list! EEE!
Read
I just managed to make it to 12 books read this month – as many as in May. It was a near thing, though. I’m still struggling to read properly – and I’m not even close to reading as much as I consider normal. Grah!
Hands of the Emperor was a beloved reread I was very happy to revisit; Rakefall blew me away; Long Live Evil was very funny and meta, and then THAT ENDING; Sorcery and Small Magics was hilarious and enchanting; and The Phoenix Keeper is officially my new favourite of 2024, given that it is PURE JOY. And Tasmakat was a wildly impressive ending to the arc of the main characters, leaving very curious about where the series is going to go next now it’ll be focusing on other people.
Poisoned Primrose and Letters To Half Moon Street were both every bit as soft and lovely as I’d been promised, whereas Faithful Dark was very twisty and left me with plenty to think about. I definitely need to review that one.
Mystery at Dunvegan Castle was a let-down after the previous book in the series, which rocked, but I’ll still be tuning in for book four; and The Sapling Cage was just fine, when I was expecting brilliance. Sigh.
To the best of my knowledge, 20% of this month’s books had BIPOC authors. I’ve definitely done worse, but I’d like to do better.
Reviewed
Uh, WAY more reviews that I expected to manage!!! And I’m quite proud of most of them, too. Yay! (My reviews for The Spellshop and Bone Harp should go live next month.) Maybe this makes up for reading less [than I’d like]?
DNF-ed
But Sia, I hear you say, there were only three books in your DNF round-up yesterday! Why do you have four here?
Well, because I was trying out the beginnings of several books I hadn’t read – something I normally don’t do until the 1st of the following month after my DNF post goes live – and House of Frank was just ABOMINABLY awful. So I will go back and edit my DNF post later to add it.
(Seriously, I hate it SO MUCH.)
ARCs Outstanding
I’ve finished a bunch of these now, and just need to review them! Which is actually the hardest part, but I’ll manage!
Unmissable SFF UpdatesMy Unmissable SFF of 2024 list is always getting updated, what with cover reveals, and new books being announced – or discovering books long-since announced, but which I didn’t hear about until just lately! After several new additions, the end of June brings us to a total of 101 Unmissable books!
How did my predictions/anticipated reads for May go? I declared seven books Unmissable for this month, and–
there were four five star reads (Running Close to the Wind, Cuckoo, Rakesfall, and The Daughters’ War)one was a four and a half stars read (Saints of Storm and Sorrow)one I am still reading (The Wilderness of Girls)one I have not gotten to yet (The Fire Within Them)5/7! That is pretty damn excellent! Let’s hope this winning streak continues for the rest of the year!
MiscI had a spike in visitors coming from Facebook this month and was puzzled – then really touched when I found Christopher Buehlman’s post linking to my review of Daughters’ War, saying that I really got the book. I only occasionally tag authors when posting my reviews (and only for the positive ones, obviously!), and I didn’t tag Buehlman, but I love it when one of my reviews makes an author happy.
Looking Forward
There are, of course, a bunch more July releases I’m excited for than just these, but of the books I don’t have arcs of, these four are at the top. I’ve really been enjoying Harris’ fantasy, and The Moonlight Market has me hyped; Breaking Hell wraps up Cameron’s Age of Bronze trilogy; In the Shadow of the Fall is a novella that sounds amazing and has been getting a lot of love; and Rihasi is the beginning of a new arc in Neumeier’s Tuyo universe!
Here’s to a jubilant July for all of us!
The post In Short: June appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 29, 2024
June DNFs
One less DNF this month than April! That might be because I’ve been reading less, though. Or maybe just encountering fewer books that disagree with me! Let’s go with the latter, that’s more optimistic.
The Gods Below: Book One of the Hollow Covenant by Andrea Stewart Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MCs
Published on: 5th September 2024
ISBN: 0356520692
Goodreads
'Stewart's worlds are some of the most exceptionally inventive in modern fantasy. A must read!'
Shannon Chakraborty
After a divine war shattered the world, humanity struck a pact with the god in return for regular tribute of magical gems, Kluehnn would restore the world to its former glory. But as each land is transformed, so too are its people changed into strange new forms - if they survive at all.
Hakara is not willing to pay such a price. Desperate to protect herself, and her sister Rasha, she flees her homeland for the safety of a neighbouring kingdom. But tragedy strikes when they're separated, and Hakara is forced to abandon Rasha to an unknown fate.
Yet when Hakara discovers she can channel the power of the magical gems, she's invited to join a clandestine plot to destroy the God Pact. To win Hakara to their cause, the conspirators reveal a startling Rasha is alive - and they can help rescue her.
But only if Hakara goes to war against a god.
The Gods Below begins an epic new fantasy series from Sunday Times bestselling author Andrea Stewart, where two sisters find themselves on opposite sides of a war against gods
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-29T12:46:21+00:00", "description": "The Gods Below; The Spice Gate; Mistress of Lies.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/june-dnfs-3\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Gods Below: Book One of the Hollow Covenant", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Andrea Stewart", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "0356520692" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 2.5, "bestRating": "5" }}I was supremely bored, reading this. The worldbuilding had potential – there were a couple of details I was intrigued by, especially the underground realm of the gods, which has its own star and also a sea???
But absolutely none of the characters held my interest at all – even as the cast started to get bigger towards and past the 20% mark. It was the very odd sensation of, all their various plotlines/goals should interest me – a woman trying to get back to her younger sister; said younger sister training to become a godkiller; a guy out to find the path to the underground god realm; a woman who wants justice for her executed father and also to save her clan from its decline – there was even an actual god amongst the PoV cast!
But they all bored me. Each one seemed so one-dimensional; none felt like fully developed people. They each had one defining goal/personality trait, and that was it. Any interest I had in the aforementioned goals was drained away by the monotone writing.
The slight interest I had in the underground world of the gods just wasn’t enough to keep me reading. Which reminds me of how I felt when I tried rereading Bone Shard Daughter in order to refresh my memory to read the sequel; I know I loved it the first time around, but I DNFed on the reread. So maybe, probably, I just don’t jive with Stewart’s writing style, unfortunately.
The Spice Gate by Prashanth Srivatsa Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Desi-coded cast and setting
Published on: 25th June 2024
Goodreads
Delve into this debut fantasy and journey through the Spice Gates as Amir, a young man born with the ability to travel between the eight kingdoms, unravels the power that keeps the world in balance.
The weight of spice is more than you know.
Relics of a mysterious god, the Spice Gates connect the eight far-flung kingdoms, each separated by a distinct spice and only accessible by those born with a special mark. This is not a caste of distinction, though, but one of subjugation: Spice Carriers suffer the lashes of their masters, the weight of the spices they bear on their backs, and the jolting pain of the Gates themselves.
Amir is one such Spice Carrier, and he dreams of escaping his fate of being a mule for the rich who gorge themselves on spices like the addicted gluttons they are. More important than relieving his own pain, though, is saving his family, especially his brother, born like him with the unfortunate spice mark that designates him for a life of servitude.
But while Amir makes his plans for freedom, something stirs in the inhospitable spaces between the kingdoms. Fate has designs of its own for Amir, and he soon finds himself drawn into a conspiracy that could disrupt the delicate dynamics of the kingdoms forever.
The more Amir discovers truth and myth blurring, the more he realizes that his own schemes are insignificant compared to the machinations going on around him. Forced to chase after shadows with unlikely companions, searching for answers that he never even thought to question, Amir’s simple dream of slipping away transforms into a grand, Spice Gate–hopping adventure. Gods, assassins, throne-keepers, and slaves all have a vested interest in the spice trade, and Amir will have to decide—for the first time in his life—what kind of world he wants to live in…if the world survives at all.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-29T12:46:21+00:00", "description": "The Gods Below; The Spice Gate; Mistress of Lies.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/june-dnfs-3\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Spice Gate", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Prashanth Srivatsa", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 2.5, "bestRating": "5" }}The premise is great, but the prose is like nails on a chalkboard, arrhythmic and jerky and unable to decide on a vocabulary style. Odd phrasing, odd word choices… It just…grated, constantly. I forced myself to read the first 25%, hoping it would get better, but there was no sign it was going to improve.
his back was on the verge of detaching from the rest of his body, and his throat ached for anything liquid.
Anything liquid? Like gasoline, or urine, or mercury???
The woman’s face emerged from shadow, revealing her in a stark violet gown and a pruned bottom
tf is a pruned bottom?
“They will also see to it that you do not expend our secret
From context it’s clear that this is meant to mean ‘you do not share our secret’ but I don’t know what to do with that phrasing. Who ‘expends’ a secret?
He could smell a heady scent of honeyed sweetness with a floating hint of pungency, as though the breeze were battling an old foe.
This sounds good right up until I actually start thinking about it, and then it sounds really weird.
At first glance, the worldbuilding was very promising – I am loving the slow increase in Desi-inspired settings! – but it started to fall apart for me really quickly. The foundational premise – that the realms are obsessed with spices – was fine, until we started getting contradictory statements that ‘obsession’ actually meant ‘addiction’. It drove me nuts: are spices addictive in this world or not? One second it’s yes, the next it’s no. Which is it? Is describing it as addiction meant to be hyperbole? THIS IS PRETTY IMPORTANT, I NEED YOU TO BE CLEAR ABOUT THIS!
And then right around the 20% mark there was a HUGE REVEAL, at which point we’re hit with the most ridiculously convoluted reasoning trying to justify why a bunch of incredibly important, powerful people would put the responsibility for ALL THE REALMS in the (dramatically unwilling!) hands of a spice carrier – you know, a member of the caste considered the lowest of the low? Who has no resources, no wealth, no access, no freedom of travel, is only one step up from being property? Yes, this is ABSOLUTELY the person you should conscript into doing this top-secret, ultra-important mission for you!
NOT.
Don’t even get me started on how this guy somehow fell in love with a princess, who returns his feelings. HOW??? How did they even MEET, often enough and long enough to develop a relationship??? And why are you just telling telling telling me how he feels about her, instead of showing me???
The infodumping applied to everything, not just the alleged romance. Tell tell tell.
But the biggest problem was the prose. I could probably have put up with the rest of it – unless the plot got even stupider; seriously, you needed an INFINITELY better reason to put this poor man in the position of [total spoiler] – but the writing style was just…I hated it. And from glancing at other reviews, it looks like the worldbuilding goes down the drain, so really, there just wasn’t anything worth sticking around for, unfortunately. Alas!
Mistress of Lies (The Age of Blood, #1) by K.M. Enright Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Biracial Filipino-coded MC, bisexual MC, trans love interest, M/M/F polyamory, secondary MLM character, trans character
Published on: 13th August 2024
ISBN: 0316565369
Goodreads
FATE IS A CRUEL MISTRESS
The daughter of a powerful but disgraced Blood Worker, Shan LeClaire has spent her entire life perfecting her blood magic, building her network of spies, and gathering every scrap of power she could. Now, to protect her brother, she assassinates their father and takes her place at the head of the family. And that is only the start of her revenge.
Samuel Hutchinson is a bastard with a terrible gift. When he stumbles upon the first victim of a magical serial killer, he's drawn into the world of magic and intrigue he's worked so hard to avoid - and is pulled deeply into the ravenous and bloodthirsty court of the vampire king.
Tasked by the Eternal King to discover the identity of the killer cutting a bloody swath through the city, Samuel, Shan and mysterious Royal Bloodworker Isaac find themselves growing ever closer to each other. But Shan's plans are treacherous, and as she lures Samuel into her complicated web of desire, treason and vengeance, he must decide if the good of their nation is worth the cost of his soul.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-29T12:46:21+00:00", "description": "The Gods Below; The Spice Gate; Mistress of Lies.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/june-dnfs-3\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Mistress of Lies (The Age of Blood, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "K.M. Enright", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "0316565369" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 3, "bestRating": "5" }}This was one of my most-anticipated reads of the year…but I was just bored.
Mistress of Lies is…fine, I guess? It starts strong, with Shan, our Blood Worker (blood mage) MC murdering her terrible father, but the big bang of the beginning fizzles out immediately.
The prose is mostly lovely, but it was scattered through with oddly-phrased sentences and the occasional jarring word choice that kept knocking me out of my immersion. Like
Unlike Shan, he didn’t have the benefit of a lifetime.
That’s meant to mean, didn’t have a lifetime of experience at Thing, going from context, but that phrasing???
The worldbuilding was so vague as to be nonexistent. What we did get was generic af; vaguely Medieval Western Europe, vaguely Regency. Guys wear cravats, but people say ‘okay’, which made me twitch every time. Society is ruled by Blood Workers (why do so many reviewers keep calling them/comparing them to vampires??? It’s blood magic, not vampirism), which should have opened up so much potential in crafting a very unique society, but if you swapped out the Blood Workers for a non-magical nobility, you’d hardly notice. Those without magic are poor and downtrodden – so, the working and lower classes in a Regency setting, basically. I liked the metal claws the Blood Workers wore, but I need more than some pretty jewellery to keep me interested.
I really wanted to laugh at the idea that Shan is this super spymistress. Um, what? Why not show us that, instead of just telling us over and over? There’s no evidence that she’s as brilliant at intrigue as the book keeps insisting she is; I want EVIDENCE. And why on earth does she call herself the Sparrow, and her second-in-command is the Hawk? You get that hawks EAT sparrows, yes?
Also, love how she ‘tested’ Samuel’s blood to make sure he was the missing heir, but…where did she get the immortal king’s blood to test it against, hm??? ‘Caus I’d bet solid gold that dude does NOT let any of his blood anywhere ANOTHER BLOOD WORKER could potentially get her hands on it.
Sigh. I probably could have stuck this one out – the prose was smooth enough – but I didn’t want to. Shan had potential, but that potential rapidly dissolved into nothing; Samuel I didn’t care about at all. There was nothing interesting about the magic or the setting, and I’m a worldbuilding fanatic, okay, if your worldbuilding is meh I am gone. And the plot? Again, generic, bland, nothing to make it stand out or catch my attention. And I have too many other things to read to waste time on a book I don’t actually care about.
Thus: Sia out, thank you and no thank you.
Did you DNF anything this month?
The post June DNFs appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 27, 2024
A Wildly Imaginative Success: The Failures by Benjamin Liar
The Failures (Wanderlands #1) by Benjamin Liar Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC
Published on: 2nd July 2024
ISBN: 0756415284
Goodreads
In an unparalleled blend of apocalyptic science fiction and epic fantasy akin to masterpieces like Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, debut author Benjamin Liar presents the first gripping installment of The Wanderlands trilogy. The vast machine-like expanse of the Wanderlands, crafted by long-lost gods, is teetering on the brink of eternal darkness. Amidst this decaying behemoth, a diverse group of heroes, driven by prophetic dreams, embark on a perilous journey. Their mission? To mend their crumbling world—or witness its irrevocable end.
Benjamin Liar masterfully weaves intricate tales across time and space. With unique world-building, this tale plunges readers into a mechanical planet-sized realm abandoned by its divine creators. It’s a tale of second chances and redemption, for these heroes have once tried—and failed—to salvage their home. Now, they’re presented with another shot at salvation or doom.
What sets The Failures apart is not just its genre-defying narrative but also its ingenious fusion of humor, charm, and profound depth. Liar’s debut, though dark and twisted, sparkles with witty prose, keeping readers riveted and eager for more. As you traverse The Wanderlands, you’ll uncover a multitude of interlinked stories, an intricate puzzle that begs to be pieced together. This is not just a book—it’s a captivating experience.
Benjamin Liar—writer, musician, filmmaker, and game designer—ventures into the literary world with The Failures as his first published novel. With accolades in music and short filmmaking, and a recent foray into virtual reality game design, Liar proves to be a multifaceted talent. Though his pseudonym might hint at deceit, one thing is certain: his storytelling prowess is undeniably genuine. Dive into this compelling epic, and lose yourself in the vastness of The Wanderlands.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-27T12:35:31+00:00", "description": "How do I sell you on a book I can't tell you about???", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/a-wildly-imaginative-success-the-failures-by-benjamin-liar\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Failures (Wanderlands #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Benjamin Liar", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "0756415284" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights~a mountain the size of a world
~bring back the trees
~dreams are dangerous
~a suspicious number of immortals
~I have more questions than I started with and That’s Okay
What the fuck even did I just read???
I don’t know, but folx, it fucking rocked!
There’s no neat little summary I could write that would come close to doing The Failures justice, or give you any real idea of what you’re getting into when you pick this book up. I can’t cut this into bite-sized pieces for you. I can’t simplify it. Any attempt would water it down and be so completely misleading anyway.
So how to tell if you should pick this book up, if no one can describe it properly?
GOOD QUESTION.
This is not the book for you if you desire something light or sweet or easy. But despite the vibes of the cover, I wouldn’t call it grimdark; it’s certainly grim in places, but there’s none of the despair or bitterness I associate with grimdark. (Well, maybe not none. But it’s not fundamental to the story or its world.) If you enjoy stories that juggle multiple plotlines, some of them very far apart from each other, prepare yourself to be challenged keeping up with all the ones Liar weaves; on the other hand, if you get frustrated by major questions going unanswered (and bear in mind this is the start of a series, so we will presumably get answers eventually) Failures might not be your cup of tea. There is an annoying dearth of female characters (one of our POV leads is a woman, and one of the Major Players pulling all the strings is too, but the vast majority of the cast is made up of men); however, all the characters are impressively human (even the barely-human ones), and I was delighted by how often many of them rejected tropes, tradition, and The Way These Things Always Go. Boredom and fuck it are just as likely to be motivators as the desire to save lives or seize power; the wooed absolutely know they’re being played; and one scene in particular had me yelling ‘FINALLY SOMEBODY SAID IT’, because yeah, that is not how love works, actually, you utter twit.
There’s something indescribably epic about the contrast – or combination? – of these really, intensely believable characters in a setting that is so utterly vast and mysterious and full of as many monsters as wonders. The two play off of each other; the characters feel more human by contrast, and the epic scope of this world is underscored by how very relatable most of the leads are. Because the world of the Failures is not relatable. It’s not incomprehensibly alien, either – at least not the parts we see in this first book – but…
What has stayed with me most clearly in the weeks since I finished reading this is the sheer IMMENSITY of this world. Worldbuilding is hard, and complicated, and you can often tell when a sandbox is one an author has been building for years and years before they ever started writing. This is definitely one of those times, as Liar lays out for us in the author’s note (but then, can we trust anything said by a man who calls himself Liar???) This world is sprawling, massive, with many moving pieces. It has a rich history, having gone through multiple Ages that we know about (and probably plenty more that we don’t), all of which have left their mark. There are far more factions than ‘us vs them’, which is what most stories ultimately come down to, whether it’s one country vs another or rebels vs the empire, etc. There are multiple magics. Everyone has their own goal or goals and most directly go against everyone else’s. There are entire civilisations that don’t know about each other’s existence! Which I guess is something that happened in our world too, but is more noteworthy here because the setting is a mountain. Singular. All these characters, plotlines, and kingdoms exist on one mountain.
But it’s a mountain the size of a planet. Hence why most of them have no idea the rest exist.
The Failures isn’t Weird Fantasy – there’s nothing experimental about the writing style, the prose isn’t arranged in spirals and other strange shapes on the page, and there’s no mind-fuckery à la Vellum by Hal Duncan or Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera. But it is brilliantly, delightfully weird, with something new and unexpected everywhere you look. A mountain the size of a planet! A world without a sun! A maybe-goddess sending dreams to children because…why? Howling rabid monster-babies. Silver fire. Assassins whose souls have been torn in three. Machines made by the ancients. Two idiots from our world who’ve unknowingly become priceless prizes to be won. Unkillable giants. Magic mechas. Failed (or are they?) chosen ones. Underground kingdoms that know nothing of the world/s above. Dirt magic. I could keep going and going and going, and it would barely scratch the surface of everything Liar has poured into this world and its story.
Don’t be fooled by the book’s opening, wherein a number of strange and mysterious people gather around a fire for a secret meeting. Don’t be disappointed by how cliche some of them seem. Don’t trust how stereotypically over-the-top it feels. If you hold on for just a minute, The Failures unfolds like a Kamiya Satoshi origami; complex, breathtaking, impossibly imaginative. Unpredictable as fuck; seriously, don’t even bother trying to guess where any given plotline is going to go, because you will get it wrong, you are not going to see the twists coming. And I loved that so much; I was (and am) so impressed with how all these dazzlingly disparate pieces ended up fitting together; with how there was never a plotline I wanted to skip over, or character I wasn’t interested in (bar West, right at the beginning, but look how that turned out!); with how deliciously intricate and labyrinthine each skein of story was. And with the fact that Liar never made me feel stupid or overwhelmed (or frustrated by all the mysteries); sometimes big huge doorstopper books make you feel small and idiotic, like you’re the failure for not knowing what’s happening, but I never got that here. It was always clear to me that I didn’t know everything that was going on, but in a way that was deliberate, intentional. I could keep up – I just didn’t know, don’t know, all of Liar’s secrets yet.
Which is fair. We’re only on book one of a trilogy, after all.
That being said: this is not an easy read. You can keep up, but you’re going to have to work for it. Liar is not out to make you feel stupid, but he doesn’t exactly hold your hand, either. There is no infodumping; there is virtually no telling. You learn by being shown, and thinking about what you’re shown, and remembering it to connect to other things you’re shown later. As I said earlier, the world here is VAST, and you need to be able to hold all of it in your head. Every detail is relevant. I think great writing, great characters, and great pacing make it much easier than it might otherwise be, but some readers are going to be overwhelmed, or feel that the payoff isn’t worth the effort. No book is for everyone!
Although personally – evidently! – I think the payoff is so worth it.
If you ask me, The Failures is the epitome of what fantasy is actually supposed to be, supposed to do: blow our minds and show us something that is nothing like our world. Fantasy is the genre of imagination and invention, but we are but mortals and inventing completely new and original ideas is hard – and also polarising, because lots of us don’t WANT completely new things, because completely new also means unfamiliar, and unfamiliar can be…off-putting? Uneasy-feeling? Hard to connect with? Impossible to fit neatly within the context of our own experiences? Some people don’t want fantasy that really, truly feels like another world, and that’s okay!
But if you DO. If you DO want that.
Then folx, this is the book for you.
The post A Wildly Imaginative Success: The Failures by Benjamin Liar appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 26, 2024
I Can’t Wait For…The Kindness of Meat by T.J. Land
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Kindness of Meat by T.J. Land!
The Kindness of Meat by T.J. Land Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Trans MC, trans love interest, M/M/F polyamory
Published on: 15th July 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-26T17:59:42+00:00", "description": "A cartel heir on a prison planet is about to get an extra dose of sunshine.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-the-kindness-of-meat-by-t-j-land\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Kindness of Meat", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "T.J. Land", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Tony is one of a hundred security guards stationed at Green Endeavors, a cutting-edge scientific research facility on a lush jungle planet.
Like many of his co-workers, he’s a convict, working on an uncolonized alien world in exchange for years off his sentence. But while most of them are simple thieves, Tony, prior to his arrest, was heir to the infamously violent, staggeringly wealthy Red Vulture Cartel.
It would be easy for him to feel out of place among a bunch of dumb uniformed grunts and xenobotany nerds. Luckily, one dumb grunt in particular has become his best (and only) friend: Thunder Skultz, disgraced veteran, fellow trans man, and cheerful idiot. (Possibly also the love of Tony’s life. Jury’s still out.)
So Tony’s less than thrilled when their bosses decide to expand the compound’s security and add a third member to his previously two-man team.
Her name’s Carol.
She’s unbearable.
Bubbly, chipper, naïve – everything Tony hates.
Everything that Thunder, apparently, can’t get enough of.
SCIFI ROMANCE + DRAMA, M/M/F, POLY, TRANS MAIN CHAR
T.J. Land has written some of my favourite books – most notably Lovequake, a very queer sci-fi adventure wherein an eldritch alien comes to Earth, names himself after an ice-cream, and keeps adopting very cool humans as he travels the globe searching for the last few pieces of his once-shattered soul. Lovequake is the book that has a) knocked me out of a depression spiral and b) brought me great joy post-major-surgery, so, you know. Please take my word for it that it is EXCELLENT.
(I also particularly recommend Land’s To Add Drunkenness To Thirst, a vampire/vampire hunter enemies-to-lovers where they are actually enemies and also hilarious; Every Wickedness, wherein a demon and an angel team up to overthrow Heaven; and Evil Men, where everyone is terrible, including the dragon.)
So LE DUH I’m excited for their newest novel!!! Land has an incredible imagination – they’re constantly jumping genres and are always subverting tropes, and for the last few years, none of their books have been like any of their other books. For me, that’s a major plus in a storyteller!
What we have been getting more of from Land lately are characters that are morally grey at best, so I’m not too surprised to see a cartel heir featured in this one. But also two sunshiny characters (Thunder might not be as chirpy as Carol, but he is described as a cheerful idiot, so I’m guessing he’s not going to be very grim)? HMM. This will definitely be amusing.
Who or what is the meat of the title? And given Land’s very clear anti-prison stance in their fiction, what’s the likelihood that this prison planet isn’t going to stay a prison planet? PRETTY HIGH, I’M GUESSING.
I’m not quite sure to expect, because it’s Land, who loves taking me by surprise – but because it’s Land, I know I’ll love it!
The post I Can’t Wait For…The Kindness of Meat by T.J. Land appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 25, 2024
10 Books I’m Most Excited For in the Second Half of 2024
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!
This week’s theme is, you guessed it, the books we’re most looking forward to in the second half of the year. You are, of course, free to check out my list of Unmissable SFF of 2024, which features ALL the SFF I’m more excited for in 2024. But if you made me pick just ten for the second half of the year… I guess I’d have to go with these!
The West Passage by Jared Pechaček Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Gender weirdness
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The West Passage", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jared Pecha\u010dek", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
A palace the size of a city, ruled by giant Ladies of unknowable, eldritch origin. A land left to slow decay, drowning in the debris of generations. All this and more awaits you within The West Passage, a delightfully mysterious and intriguingly weird medieval fantasy unlike anything you've read before.
When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.
Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil.
The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for the world is about to change.
‘Eldritch’ is one of those terms that makes me pounce like a kitten jumping on a feather toy, and I adore everything I’ve seen and heard about The West Passage. It sounds weird and surreal, like a dream with teeth, and I have SUCH high hopes for it!
Plus, it’s going to be illustrated!!! You can see some of the art, and read an excerpt, here!
Deep Black by Miles Cameron Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Representation: Black MC
Published on: 1st August 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Deep Black", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Miles Cameron", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Marca Nbaro had always dreamed of serving aboard the Greatships, with their vast cargo holds and a crew that could fill a city.They are the lifeblood of human-occupied space, transporting an unimaginable volume - and value - of goods from City, the greatest human orbital, all the way to Tradepoint at the other, to trade for xenoglas with an unknowable alien species.And now, out in the darkness of space, something is targeting them.
Nbaro and her friends are close to locating their enemy, in this gripping sequel to the award-nominated Artifact Space, but they are running out of time - and their allies are running out of patience . . .
Written by one of the most exciting new voices in SF, this space thriller will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
I’ve been dying for the next Arcana Imperii book since finishing book one, Artifact Space, aka one of my Best of 2021 reads! Yes, we got a collection of short stories set in this verse, BUT I NEED THE REAL SEQUEL, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!
The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC with clinical anxiety, brown sapphic love interest, brown trans secondary character
Published on: 13th August 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Phoenix Keeper", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "S.A. MacLean", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
A socially awkward but determined phoenix keeper must partner with her longtime rival to save her beloved exhibit from falling into obscurity in this charming, romantic fantasy debut.
Aila is a little obsessed with phoenixes.
As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, her childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix-nabbing cripples the flagship program at a neighbouring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.
But saving a species takes more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks — Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. Inspiring zoo patrons? That’s another story. Finding the courage to ask for help from the hot dragon keeper at a neighbouring exhibit? Virtually impossible. And don’t get Aila started on her arch-rival from the glamorous leader of the zoo’s wildly popular griffin show, who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve better as a performer than a conservation exhibit.
Aided by both friends and enemies, Aila must conquer her social anxiety if she is to restore her breeding programme. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success isn’t only a matter of keeping her the future of a species depends on her.
I have been BEGGING for (Adult) fantasy featuring fantasy vets or zoos for YEARS – and now we’re getting one!!! And it’s queer!!! And it’s illustrated with ‘scientific’ diagrams of the phoenixes!!! HI YES I’LL TAKE A DOZEN PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!
Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 17th September 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Buried Deep and Other Stories", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Naomi Novik", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
A thrilling anthology of thirteen short stories that span the worlds of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance trilogy, including a sneak peek at the land where her next novel will be set.
From the dragon-filled Temeraire series and the gothic magical halls of the Scholomance trilogy, through the realms next door to Spinning Silver and Uprooted, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik’s most beloved stories. Here, among many others, we encounter:
• A mushroom witch who learns that sometimes the worst thing in the Scholomance can be your roommate.
• The start of the Dragon Corps in ancient Rome, after Mark Antony hatches a dragon’s egg and bonds with the hatchling.
• A young bride in the Middle Ages who finds herself gambling with Death for the highest of stakes.
• A delightful reimagining of Pride & Prejudice, in which Elizabeth Bennet captains a Longwing dragon.
• The first glimpse of the world of Abandon, the setting of Novik’s upcoming epic fantasy series—a deserted continent populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural mysteries.
Though the stories are vastly different, there is a unifying theme: wrestling with destiny, and the lengths some will go to find their own and fulfill its promise.
Naomi Novick is one of my auto-buy authors; if she writes it, I will read it! I love her prose, and I’m especially excited for a glimpse back into the Scholomance world, and a look forward to the world of her next series! (About which I know nothing, so I’m extra grabby-hands.)
Space Oddity (Space Opera, #2) by Catherynne M. Valente Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary pansexual brown MC
Published on: 24th September 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Space Oddity (Space Opera, #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Catherynne M. Valente", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}These are the voyages of the Starship Glam. The further adventures of Dess and Mira and Oort, and introducing Marvin the half-human, half-Esca ingenue on drums. Earth is safe, for the moment, and taking its first steps into the greater galactic community—you know that won’t go well. Another Grand Prix is always right around the corner. And of course, other possibly-sentient species can emerge at any time…
Catherynne Valente is another auto-buy author for me – I would pounce on anything she writes, but a sequel to the glitterpunk Space Opera?! I may just explode into sparkly confetti!!!
The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC
Published on: 24th September 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Naming Song", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jedediah Berry", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
"The Naming Song understands the fundamental magic of language, and breathes that magic onto every page." --Holly Black, #1 New York Times bestselling author
There's nothing more dangerous than an unnamed thing
When the words went away, the world changed.
All meaning was lost, and every border fell. Monsters slipped from dreams to haunt the waking while ghosts wandered the land in futile reveries. Only with the rise of the committees of the named--Maps, Ghosts, Dreams, and Names--could the people stand against the terrors of the nameless wilds. They built borders around their world and within their minds, shackled ghosts and hunted monsters, and went to war against the unknown.
For one unnamed courier of the Names Committee, the task of delivering new words preserves her place in a world that fears her. But after a series of monstrous attacks on the named, she is forced to flee her committee and seek her long-lost sister. Accompanied by a patchwork ghost, a fretful monster, and a nameless animal who prowls the shadows, her search for the truth of her past opens the door to a revolutionary future--for the words she carries will reshape the world.
The Naming Song is a book of deep secrets and marvelous discoveries, strange adventures and dangerous truths. It's the story of a world locked in a battle over meaning. Most of all, it's the perfect fantasy for anyone who's ever dreamed of a stranger, freer, more magical world.
Give me SFF that is genuinely like nothing else I’ve ever seen, and I’ll be there with bells on. The premise of Naming Song has had me hooked since I first heard about it, and I am extremely hopeful that I will be wowed!
The City in Glass by Nghi Vo Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The City in Glass", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nghi Vo", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
In this new standalone, Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo introduces a beguiling fantasy city in the tradition of Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin.
A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.
The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.
And then the angels come, and the city falls.
Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.
She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.
Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.
The City in Glass is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story, of death and resurrection, memory and transformation, redemption and desire strong enough to burn a world to ashes and build it anew.
It’s Nghi Vo; if you’re not excited for a new book from her, you’re doing this whole Life thing incorrectly. And Vo giving us her take on angels and demons, creatures I’m fascinated by but so rarely see done interestingly??? YES PLEASE!!!
The Nightward by R.S.A. Garcia Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Science Fantasy
Representation: Caribbean-coded MC?
Published on: 15th October 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Nightward", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "R.S.A. Garcia", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Nebula and MIFRE award-winning author R.S.A. Garcia’s scifantasy debut novel—the first in a duology—in which Caribbean mythology meets The Witcher, introduces a world where women warrior-magicians rule, and a child princess and her bodyguard must flee an attempted coup and evade the wave of darkness sent to kill her.
For 500 years Gaiea’s Hand has stood as a ward against the Dark. The Age of Chaos is a faded memory. The Goddess has left Gailand and given her Blessing to the Queens to rule in her stead.
Princess Viella of the court of Hamber is the Spirit of Gaiea, presumptive heir to the throne and budding wielder of magic. And yet she’s still a child—not yet ten years old—and a day spent evading her teachers and her dutiful bodyguard, Luka, is much more satisfying than learning about telepathy, illusions, and other spells, or obeying even her mother, the Queen.
There is time enough…until there isn’t.
For the night the Queen hosts the Ceremony to confirm Viella as the next Hand of Gaiea, everything changes for her—in the most horrific way the assassination of Viella’s mother.
Now Viella is Queen.
Luka, despite resenting his position as royal babysitter, does not hesitate. He rushes his charge from the Court and vows to keep her safe. Yet he is unsure how to help a burgeoning Hand of Gaiea, let alone contend with his place as a man in a matriarchal world and the secret that is burning inside him.
Together, they are on the run from darkness in a world where the lines between magic and technology are blurring and it’s up to a child and her protector to bring clarity and light back to the Queendom.
Exactly which part of that premise am I NOT supposed to be swooning for??? Hmm??? HMM???
I’ll wait.
Metal from Heaven by August Clarke Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer cast
Published on: 22nd October 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Metal from Heaven", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "August Clarke", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
For fans of The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth: a bloody lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change – and simmering class warfare.
He who controls ichorite controls the world.
A malleable metal more durable than steel, ichorite is a toxic natural resource fueling national growth, and ambitious industrialist Yann Chauncey helms production of this miraculous ore. Working his foundry is an underclass of destitute workers, struggling to get better wages and proper medical treatment for those exposed to ichorite’s debilitating effects since birth.
One of those luster-touched victims, the child worker Marney Honeycutt, is picketing with her family and best friend when a bloody tragedy unfolds. Chauncey’s strikebreakers open fire.
Only Marney survives.
A decade later, as Yann Chauncey searches for a suitable political marriage for his ward, Marney sees the perfect opportunity for revenge. With the help of radical bandits and their stolen wealth, she must masquerade as an aristocrat to win over the calculating Gossamer Chauncey and kill the man who slaughtered her family and friends. But she is not the only suitor after Lady Gossamer’s hand, leading her to play twisted elitist games of intrigue. And Marney’s luster-touched connection to the mysterious resource and its foundry might put her in grave danger – or save her from it.
H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal From Heaven is a caustic, dizzying eco-fantasy that addresses labor politics, corporate greed, and the relentless grind of capitalism, while also embodying a visceral lesbian revenge quest against the people and institutions who control and oppress the helpless.
"A riotous phantasmagoria that epitomizes the phrase 'be gay, do crime.'" - Melinda Borie, Collection Development Librarian, Floyd County Library (New Albany, IN)
If you’ve been here a while, you know that I am absolutely rabid for the Scapegracers trilogy by HA Clarke. (Reviews of book one, two, and three!) Well, THIS IS HIS ADULT DEBUT.
MY SHRIEK WHEN I HEARD ABOUT THIS BROKE A WINDOW, OKAY, YOU CANNOT COMPREHEND HOW VIOLENTLY EXCITED I AM FOR IT.
It’s august clarke, I would eat his prose raw, but then that premise?!
*screams at a pitch only dogs can hear*
You can read an excerpt here!
Interstellar MegaChef (Flavour Hacker #1) by Lavanya Lakshminarayan Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Desi(-coded?) queer MC
Published on: 5th November 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-25T16:29:39+00:00", "description": "No one who's been paying attention will be surprised by literally any of my choices here.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-books-im-most-excited-for-in-the-second-half-of-2024\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Interstellar MegaChef (Flavour Hacker #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lavanya Lakshminarayan", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Looking for your one shot to rise to the "top of the pots" in the cutthroat world of interstellar cuisine? Look no further--you might have what it takes to be an Interstellar MegaChef!
Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili... and an invitation to compete in the galaxy's most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus's austere, carefully synthesised cuisine. No one from Earth--where they're so incredibly primitive they still cook with fire--has ever graced its flowmetal cookstations before, or smiled awkwardly for its buzzing drone-cams. Until now.
Corporate prodigy Serenity Ko, inventor of the smash-hit sim SoundSpace, has just got messily drunk at a floating bar, narrowly escaped an angry mob and been put on two weeks' mandatory leave to rest and get her work-life balance back. Perfect time to start a new project! And she's got just the idea: a sim for food. Now she just needs someone to teach her how to cook.
A chance meeting in the back of a flying cab has Saras and Serenity Ko working together on a new technology that could change the future of food--and both their lives--forever...
Great British bake off in space, but anticolonial and queer??? IT’S AS IF THIS WAS WRITTEN JUST FOR ME PERSONALLY. I love foodie SFF, and this one sounds delicious. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it!
(I can never resist a bad pun, okay?)
Which books are YOU most looking forward to for the rest of the year???
The post 10 Books I’m Most Excited For in the Second Half of 2024 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 24, 2024
Must-Have Monday #192
Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
SIX books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Filipino-coded cast and setting, bisexual biracial MC, sapphic biracial love interest, Filipino-coded disabled love interest, secondary trans character
Published on: 25th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-24T08:01:00+00:00", "description": "Filipino-inspired fantasy, war with goblins, and the last human in the galaxy!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-192\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Saints of Storm and Sorrow", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gabriella Buba", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
In this fiercely imaginative Filipino-inspired fantasy debut, a bisexual nun hiding a goddess-given gift is unwillingly transformed into a lightning rod for her people's struggle against colonization.
Perfect for fans of lush fantasy full of morally ambiguous characters, including The Poppy War and The Jasmine Throne.
María Lunurin has been living a double life for as long as she can remember. To the world, she is Sister María, dutiful nun and devoted servant of Aynila's Codicían colonizers. But behind closed doors, she is a stormcaller, chosen daughter of the Aynilan goddess Anitun Tabu. In hiding not only from the Codicíans and their witch hunts, but also from the vengeful eye of her slighted goddess, Lunurin does what she can to protect her fellow Aynilans and the small family she has created in the convent: her lover Catalina, and Cat's younger sister Inez.
Lunurin is determined to keep her head down—until one day she makes a devastating discovery, which threatens to tear her family apart. In desperation, she turns for help to Alon Dakila, heir to Aynila's most powerful family, who has been ardently in love with her for years. But this choice sets in motion a chain of events beyond her control, awakening Anitun Tabu's rage and putting everyone Lunurin loves in terrible danger. Torn between the call of Alon’s magic and Catalina’s jealousy, her duty to her family and to her people, Lunurin can no longer keep Anitun Tabu’s fury at bay.
The goddess of storms demands vengeance. And she will sweep aside anyone who stands in her way.
Saints of Storm and Sorrow is exactly as awesome as its premise – a Filipino-inspired fantasy featuring a bisexual stormcaller on the run from her vengeful goddess…hiding out in a convent, where she’s in a secret romance with another nun-novice…quietly resisting the worst efforts of the Codicíans (fantasy-Spaniards) colonising her home. Until it’s no longer possible – or bearable – to do so quietly. Morally grey heroines, Women’s Wrongs, an unexpectedly great love triangle (and I hate love triangles), and incredibly immersive prose – this is an amazing debut, absolutely *chef’s kiss*, and you can expect to see it on my Best of 2024 list!
The Daughters' War (Blacktongue) by Christopher Buehlman Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, F/F
Published on: 25th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-24T08:01:00+00:00", "description": "Filipino-inspired fantasy, war with goblins, and the last human in the galaxy!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-192\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Daughters' War (Blacktongue)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Buehlman", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Enter the fray in this luminous new adventure from Christopher Buehlman, set during the war-torn, goblin-infested years just before The Blacktongue Thief.
The goblins have killed all of our horses and most of our men.
They have enslaved our cities, burned our fields, and still they wage war.
Now, our daughters take up arms.
Galva — Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill — has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind.
The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted — not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.
Another probable Best of 2024, but much more horror-y; this is a kind of prequel to Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief, but you can read this without having read that if you so choose! I wouldn’t call it grimdark, but it is dark; the goblins are monstrous, and I’ll be having nightmares about That Ship’s sail for years. And yet…still very moving, with moments of beauty and hilarity. It’s excellent!
Unexploded Remnants by Elaine Gallagher Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 25th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-24T08:01:00+00:00", "description": "Filipino-inspired fantasy, war with goblins, and the last human in the galaxy!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-192\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Unexploded Remnants", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Elaine Gallagher", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
An A.I. wages war on a future it doesn't understand.
Alice is the last human. Street-smart and bad-ass.
After discovering what appears to be an A.I. personality in an antique data core, Alice decides to locate its home somewhere in the stargate network. At the very least, she wants to lay him to rest because, as it turns out, she’s stumbled upon the sentient control unit of a deadly ancient weapon system.
Convincing the ghost of a raging warrior that the war is over is about as hard as it sounds, which is to say, it’s near-impossible. But, if Alice fails and the control unit falls into the wrong hands, the balance of power her side of the Milky Way could fall apart. As Alice ports throughout the known universe seeking answers and aid she will be faced with impossible choice after impossible choice and the growing might of an unstoppable foe.
Reviews are pretty mixed on this one, but I’m always curious about aliens, and if the MC is the last human, that must mean everyone else is not-human, yes? Plus, what happened to humanity? I probably won’t read it right away, but it’s going on the tbr!
We Shall Be Monsters (We Shall be Monsters, #1) by Tara Sim Genres: Fantasy, YA
Representation: Desi-coded cast and setting
Published on: 25th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-24T08:01:00+00:00", "description": "Filipino-inspired fantasy, war with goblins, and the last human in the galaxy!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-192\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "We Shall Be Monsters (We Shall be Monsters, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tara Sim", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Frankenstein meets Indian mythology in this twisty, darkly atmospheric fantasy where the horror is not the monsters you face but the ones you create.
After her sister Lasya’s sudden death, Kajal vows to do whatever it takes to bring her back. No cost is too great, even if it means preventing Lasya’s soul from joining the cycle of reincarnation. But as Kajal prepares for the resurrection, her sister’s trapped soul warps into a bhuta—a violent, wraith-like spirit hell-bent on murdering those who wronged it in life. With each kill, the bhuta becomes stronger and fiercer, and Kajal’s chances of resurrecting Lasya with her soul intact grow slimmer.
Blamed for Lasya’s rampage and condemned as a witch, Kajal is locked away with little hope of escape. That is, until two strangers who label themselves rebels arrive and offer to free her. The catch: She must resurrect the kingdom’s fallen crown prince, aiding their coup to overthrow the usurper who sits the throne. Desperate to return to Lasya’s body, Kajal rushes to revive the crown prince . . . only to discover that she’s resurrected another boy entirely.
All her life, Kajal has trusted no one but her sister. But with Lasya dead and rebels ready to turn her over to the usurper’s ruthless soldiers, Kajal is forced to work with the boy she mistakenly revived. Together, they must find the crown prince before the rebels discover her mistake, or the bhuta finally turns its murderous fury on the person truly responsible for Lasya’s death: Kajal.
I did not enjoy Sim’s Adult Fantasy, but I’m tentatively interested in this one. Monstrous/morally grey/dark girls doing terrible things is kinda my jam, so I’m crossing my fingers that this’ll be good!
Point of Hopes: A Novel of Astreiant by Melissa Scott, Lisa A. Barnett Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC, bisexual MC, matriarchal queernorm culture
Published on: 27th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-24T08:01:00+00:00", "description": "Filipino-inspired fantasy, war with goblins, and the last human in the galaxy!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-192\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Point of Hopes: A Novel of Astreiant", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Melissa Scott, Lisa A. Barnett", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}The city of Astreiant is full of magic, danger and bureaucracy, and never moreso than when something or someone is making guild apprentices disappear without a trace. Philip Eslingen has just been discharged from his mercenary company and as a Leaguer and a stranger, makes an ideal suspect. Fortunately for him, Pointsman Nicolas Rathe from the Point of Hopes station doesn’t agree, but he knows the only way to prove that is to find the missing children and the real culprits. Together they must follow a twisted trail of deceit and magic in a city on the brink of exploding into violence. If they can’t learn to work together, the results could be catastrophic, even fatal. And if they can’t trust each other, the price could be higher than either of them realize.
One of my favourite series is getting republished! The Astreiant books are my top comfort reads; I reread the entire series at LEAST once a year. I haven’t heard that this edition has new content, so long-term readers don’t need to buy this one – but if you’re unfamiliar with the series, this is a great time to start it!
I Dream of Dancing (The Sapphia Institue) by Gwen Leonhard, Joel Glover, Simon Keller Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC, brown sapphic love interest
Published on: 30th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-24T08:01:00+00:00", "description": "Filipino-inspired fantasy, war with goblins, and the last human in the galaxy!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-192\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "I Dream of Dancing (The Sapphia Institue)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gwen Leonhard, Joel Glover, Simon Keller", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
After spending her last semester at the Sophia Institute of Art and Magic in heartbreak, Acelina realises that she must finally overcome her shyness. She decides to ask her friend Florence out on a date. To her own surprise, she learns that being rejected is nowhere near as scary as being accepted – especially because being an undead girl sometimes brings unwanted side effects to the table.
‘I Dream Of Dancing’ is a queer love story about two young women falling in love. About two souls finding each other in a world of prejudice and unspoken rules. About communication and forgiveness. About being true and accepting – to both oneself and to others – about trust, and what it truly means to fall in love.
At the same time, it’s a story tackling insecurities and trauma. It talks about topics of abusive parents, guilt in past actions, and jealousy. And the joy of finding someone who loves you exactly as you are – whether you are undead or not.
A trans woman at magic university? Okay, I’m listening! I’ve heard almost nothing about this one, but I’d be really like it to be great!
Also, ‘undead’?!
Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!
The post Must-Have Monday #192 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 23, 2024
Hope Among Horrors: The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman
The Daughters' War (Blacktongue) by Christopher Buehlman Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, F/F
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
Published on: 25th June 2024
ISBN: 1250887682
Goodreads
Enter the fray in this luminous new adventure from Christopher Buehlman, set during the war-torn, goblin-infested years just before The Blacktongue Thief.
The goblins have killed all of our horses and most of our men.
They have enslaved our cities, burned our fields, and still they wage war.
Now, our daughters take up arms.
Galva — Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill — has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind.
The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted — not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-23T13:06:56+00:00", "description": "Buehlman ripped my heart out of my chest and honestly, I kind of want to thank him for it.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/hope-among-horrors-the-daughters-war-by-christopher-buehlman\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Daughters' War (Blacktongue)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Buehlman", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "1250887682" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights~giant war-corvids!
~a wizard with a messed up sense of humour
~if you’re going to fall in love with a queen, make sure she’s a good one
~brace for nightmares
~carrots that swim
Well, that ripped my heart out.
The Daughters’ War is the prequel to The Blacktongue Thief, which you do not need to have read to enjoy this book. I do think a lot of the events in War will hit harder if you’ve read Thief already, but I have no idea what Buehlman’s intended reading order is and I don’t think either option – starting with War, which is chronologically first, or Thief, which was published first – is wrong. You do you!
But if you read Thief first, you know how War is going to end – if not the exact details, then certainly in sweeping generalities – and I think that makes for a very different reading experience. I’m going to do my best to avoid spoilers for both War and Thief, but I will just briefly say that having read Thief, reading War was extremely bittersweet. And yet, knowing how it would end did not stop me from becoming wildly invested in the characters and their relationships; it did not stop the events of this book from mattering to me. I thought I would be able to hold myself a little emotionally distant from the story – to protect myself from what I knew was coming! – and fellow readers, I could not.
Daughters’ War devastated me.
Buehlman, I applaud you, sir.
Galva was my second-favourite character in Thief, after the main character and narrator, so I was perfectly okay with waiting for a sequel when it meant we’d get a Galva-centric prequel first! And Buehlman took an approach that I wasn’t expecting, but think was the perfect choice: although the book is in first-person, the story is being narrated by an older Galva – so we have both the version of Galva we’re familiar with (and love so much) from Thief, but still get to see her as a younger woman as well. We get her older self’s commentary on her own behaviour and actions, and those of the people around her, as well as the war effort itself. To say nothing of her thoughts on the actual experience of battle and war: it was almost shocking, seeing a younger Galva being afraid of something! GALVA?! Feeling FEAR?! But it also made her…more approachable? Hm, no, that’s not quite the word I want. The Galva of Thief is glorious, fearless, and untouchable; Daughters’ War reminds us that she’s a human being like the rest of us, one who experiences awkwardness and naïveté and, yes, fear.
(Or it might be more correct to say, she experienced those things; I’m not convinced Thief!Galva still does. Pretty sure Thief!Galva gives zero fucks about awkward situations, is far too experienced and canny to be naive, and definitely doesn’t fear death.)
It makes her easier to grasp and understand; she’s not so untouchable here. That being said, from the first page it’s clear that, although younger!Galva and Thief!Galva are different, they’re not fundamentally different. The Galva of this book still (already?) holds tight to what she considers proper behaviour and honour; she still does not suffer fools well; she still gives all of herself unstintingly to whatever course she believes correct. She might be more open, and perhaps more emotionally vulnerable, than the Galva of Thief, but she’s very much the same character: potential readers don’t need to worry that Daughters’ War is going to present an unrecognisable version of Galva.
I loved that we got to see how Galva came to the worship of Dal-Gaata, the goddess of Death. The fact that Galva is/was a handmaiden of Death is definitely one of the things that makes her feel more like a more-than-human paladin than a normal person – who worships Death??? – but Buehlman actually managed to make me follow and understand Galva’s path to Her. I didn’t think that was something I’d be able to get my head around, but – hard as it might be to believe! – I got the appeal. And I am majorly impressed that Buehlman was able to pull that off. If asked, I would have said no one could make me understand why you might want to worship Death – but Buehlman did.
All she asks is that you look upon her with love, not fear; know that this is for your sake, and not hers, a gift she gladly offers. When you know the meaning of the Hourglass Reclined, when you delight in the Song of the Tongueless Mouth, when you understand the mystery of the Union on the Shore, you will at last reject the temporal promises of the great eye who is blind to his own blindness, you will know a peace that is not fragile.
A strength that is tireless.
A love that cannot be disappointed.
And yours will be the Paradise of the Last Grain.
In Thief, we saw what the world looks like after the (most recent) wars with the goblins. It made for an incredibly interesting setting, for many reasons. Through Galva’s eyes, and with the added insight of the older self who is narrating for us, we now get to see how the world got that way, and how unbelievably nightmarish the process was. Buehlman’s experience as a horror writer – including Medieval horror – serves him far too well here; I lost count of how many times I had to put the book down and walk away for a minute, nauseated by the horrors of, not just war – which is always horrifying – but specifically war with the goblins.
[This is where I’d normally stick a quote to demonstrate my point, but I’m not willing to copy out the passages that have been giving me nightmares since I read them.]
We knew the goblins were the bad guys. We did know that. Even if you haven’t read Thief, you know that. But ‘bad guys’ doesn’t really cut it. I can’t tell how much of what the goblins do/did are their own ways, their usual culture, and how much are tactics deliberately designed to horrify and terrify the humans they’re fighting, but wow are they good at the latter. It’s a level of pure fucking evil that would honestly be cartoonish coming from the pen (typewriter? keyboard?) of most writers, but Buehlman is too good to allow you to distance yourself from these horrors that way. There’s no room left to scoff, to reject any of it as ridiculously over-the-top, or reassure yourself in whispers that no one, ever, could ever really do that to another species they know is sapient.
Buehlman never lets you look away, never lets you forget, and makes it very hard to remember this is all fiction and never happened and goblins definitely don’t exist.
Fuck.
It’s pretty fascinating, when I take a step back from it (which I can, now I’ve had weeks to think about it): Buehlman’s approach to horror here, the way in which he presents these nightmarish ideas and acts, is simultaneously sickeningly detailed and yet also bald, blunt, almost unbiased. When Galva and her fellow fighters catch a small goblin scavenging party eating humans, there’s no purple prose, and it’s not plain, either, but it feels plain. Buehlman is just…showing the reader these things, not rubbing your face in them as some horror writers might; not dragging these moments out with disturbingly loving description. And yet there’s enough sensory description to make it visceral, to make it far more real than a dry recitation of the facts would have been. It’s an impressive line to walk, and an impressive effect, and I’d appreciate it more if it hadn’t left me gagging half a dozen times – maybe a full dozen – over the course of the book.
Point being, I really cannot overstate that there is a lot of very dark stuff in here that will keep you awake at night. There’s no book you need to read, and you don’t need to read this one if humans being eaten and skinned and lobotomised is Not For You. Please take care of yourself.
Minor spoiler [View post to see spoiler]
Honestly, I was surprised that I managed to get through Daughters’ War – I do not have a strong stomach for this kind of thing – but I think this is where Buehlman’s real genius shines, because: this is not actually grimdark. Horrifying things are happening, but this is not a book that says horrifying things are intrinsic to life, and/or to human nature. It’s a very delicate balance, but it is balanced; for all the nightmares, there are also moments of brightness and joy and friendship, even hilarity, even love – between Galva and her brother, Galva and her sword-sisters, Galva and her war-corvids, and even a quiet but beautiful romance. Buehlman does not pretend that war is not monstrous (whether you’re fighting goblins or other humans), but we are also left with the sure, solid comfort that there is love and light even in the darkest times, that humans can and will display incredible courage and honour and kindness in the worst of circumstances. Life is often unfair, and not everyone is brave or honourable – some people become their worst selves in times like these; war is one of those things that allows terrible people to become worse, and even to flourish, sometimes.
But most people, when push comes to shove, are trying to do their best. And that is enough to give me hope; that is enough for me to cling to and to keep me going.
Also, eat fish and shellfish, but stop eating the flesh of animals. Esselve loves them also, and blesses with health those who spare them.”
“This will not happen.”
“I know. But you asked.”
“What about fish?”
“Excuse me?”
“She loves sheep and cattle, but fish can get fucked? What are they, carrots that swim?”
Carrots that swim has lived rent-free in my brain since I read that passage and I am STILL LAUGHING AT IT.
Ahem.
a rich name is expensive in obligation.
It may be that this is present in Blacktongue Thief and I just don’t remember, but I was surprised – pleasantly so! – to see how little respect Galva has/had for the hierarchies of power. Her world is more-or-less Medieval Europe, with nobility and kings, and being a noble herself, I wasn’t expecting her to be so critical and contemptuous of the ‘well-born’. Possibly this is something she learned at her very prestigious war college, which only accepts students based on merit, regardless of their backgrounds, but she is very aware that many of the people who are in charge of the war effort really shouldn’t be. Most of those in command are there because they’re nobles, not because they’re actually good at strategy or leading soldiers – and we get plenty of evidence of how stupid a system that is over the course of the book (and the war). It adds another layer of frustrating tragedy to the whole thing, because it’s easy to see how much better events could have gone if good commanders had been giving the orders.
In fact, power and the critique of and contempt for those who have it is really an ongoing theme throughout the book. Galva’s unit – of women who command giant, flightless war-corvids – is an experimental one, and it’s not an accident that everyone in it is a woman: despite the existence of female soldiers, even female generals, there’s still an air of ‘let’s not waste actual men on this nonsense’. And when it becomes clear that the experiment is a wild success, the fate of the birds is directly tied to the sex and social class of their humans. It’s enough to make you tear your hair out; the kings and generals and whatnot are so consistently stupid and short-sighted, more interested in keeping their power than in seeing the human species, you know, survive.
There may be exceptions – Galva and one of her brothers are both nobles who are not asshats, who believe their privilege comes with responsibility, not the freedom from it – but the system, Galva is very clear on, is completely fucked. It elevates those who don’t deserve elevating, and that’s a bad thing at the best of times, but when we’re talking about a war, it means people die who didn’t need to. Men who refuse a woman’s orders get their units slaughtered; as do nobles who have no skill at tactics or strategy but think blue blood will somehow compensate for that. Spoiler: it does not!
And honestly, it’s made even more tragic when you remember that this is not the first war against the goblins. It’s not the first war, period, and you would think people would learn that command positions need to go to those with merit, not wealth, but it took our world an appallingly long time to learn that, so I guess it’s not weird that Galva’s is as stupid. But still: if I remember correctly, this is the third war against the goblins within the last generation or so. You’d think the humans would have realised by now that they can’t take the losses accrued by inferior commanders, the way they maybe can in a human vs human war. You’d think desperation would have driven them to adapt, would have forced them to change their ways.
But no. Because of course not.
You see why I had to cling to those moments of levity and hope. There’s just so much pointless loss.
No one is so furious as a small man caught in a misdeed.
As I said at the start of this review, going into Daughters’ War was one of those times where I tried to hold myself emotionally distant from the story and characters. I’d read Blacktongue Thief; I knew in general terms how Galva’s war was going to go. I didn’t want to get attached to anyone, because odds were good that Galva was the only named character who was going to survive. (I will not tell you whether or not I was correct, guessing that.) But I wasn’t able to stay coolly detached, any more than I was able to let the horror bounce off me; Buehlman is just too good a writer, and Galva too great a narrator, to allow me to keep my distance. I could not do it, dear reader; I cared so much, even when I knew for sure that I shouldn’t. And Buehlman, the brilliant bastard, broke my heart for it, over and over and over again.
I don’t regret it for a second, though. In fact, I now want to devour Blacktongue Thief again, and then come back and reread War, despite knowing exactly how much it’s going to hurt (if it doesn’t hurt even more the second time around, with everything from Blacktongue fresh in my memory).
IT’S THE ADDICTIVE KIND OF PAIN, OKAY? I DON’T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN IT BETTER THAN THAT.
Why did Buehlman decide he needed to write this prequel before the sequel to Blacktongue Thief? I’m not sure – maybe it was to make sure we really grasped the full nightmare of the goblins; maybe it was to better establish Galva’s relationship to Mireya, which is briefly glimpsed in Thief and is probably going to be pretty important to the series. (I would like to write a whole essay on Galva and Mireya’s relationship in Daughters’ War – it’s definitely one of the most beautiful parts of the book, and one of my favourites, too – but this review is already VERY LONG and honestly, you’ll enjoy it more if you read about their romance for yourself.)
I don’t know why we got Daughters’ War – but I’m not sorry. I am traumatised, but I loved it. It’s a magnificent novel, even if it’s far darker than anything I usually read – but that only makes clearer Buehlman’s skill, that I enjoyed the book despite that. (Because of that? Not sure I’d go that far.) I never want to see a goblin again, but I’m so glad we got to see so much deeper into Galva, and how she grew into who she becomes.
The Daughters’ War is definitely not going to be for everyone, but those it is for will love it.
The post Hope Among Horrors: The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 21, 2024
Sweeps You Away Like a Great Typhoon: Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba
Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Filipino-coded cast and setting, bisexual biracial MC, sapphic biracial love interest, Filipino-coded disabled love interest, secondary trans character
Protagonist Age: 25
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; dual PoVs
Published on: 25th June 2024
ISBN: 1803367814
Goodreads
In this fiercely imaginative Filipino-inspired fantasy debut, a bisexual nun hiding a goddess-given gift is unwillingly transformed into a lightning rod for her people's struggle against colonization.
Perfect for fans of lush fantasy full of morally ambiguous characters, including The Poppy War and The Jasmine Throne.
María Lunurin has been living a double life for as long as she can remember. To the world, she is Sister María, dutiful nun and devoted servant of Aynila's Codicían colonizers. But behind closed doors, she is a stormcaller, chosen daughter of the Aynilan goddess Anitun Tabu. In hiding not only from the Codicíans and their witch hunts, but also from the vengeful eye of her slighted goddess, Lunurin does what she can to protect her fellow Aynilans and the small family she has created in the convent: her lover Catalina, and Cat's younger sister Inez.
Lunurin is determined to keep her head down—until one day she makes a devastating discovery, which threatens to tear her family apart. In desperation, she turns for help to Alon Dakila, heir to Aynila's most powerful family, who has been ardently in love with her for years. But this choice sets in motion a chain of events beyond her control, awakening Anitun Tabu's rage and putting everyone Lunurin loves in terrible danger. Torn between the call of Alon’s magic and Catalina’s jealousy, her duty to her family and to her people, Lunurin can no longer keep Anitun Tabu’s fury at bay.
The goddess of storms demands vengeance. And she will sweep aside anyone who stands in her way.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-21T15:46:44+00:00", "description": "This queer, Filipino, anti-colonial fantasy is exactly as awesome as it sounds!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/sweeps-you-away-like-a-great-typhoon-saints-of-storm-and-sorrow-by-gabriella-buba\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Saints of Storm and Sorrow", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gabriella Buba", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "1803367814" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4.5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights~no vows of chastity for these nuns
~supporting women’s wrongs 100%
~don’t touch someone else’s pearl (not a euphemism!)
~drown all colonisers
~brace yourself for ALL the Emotions
~a love triangle that is actually excellent
~if she lets down her hair, RUN
Saints of Storm and Sorrow grabs you by the throat and does not let you go for an instant.
It’s also a book where, to be honest, I feel like my main task is just to make sure you know about it – because once you do, it sells itself. A bisexual nun who can summon typhoons by letting down her hair is caught between the goddess she’s hiding from and the totally-not-Spaniards who’ve colonised her home? In a setting inspired by the Philippines?? What else could you possibly need to hear to convince you that Saints of Storm and Sorrow is a must-read?!?
I know, I know, sometimes we get super excited for books with amazing pitches that, in the end, are let-downs. But this is not one of those times. Saints of Storm and Sorrow is every bit as incredible as it sounds. There is no wasted potential here. If I may add a little more alliteration – Saints of Storm and Sorrow is simply superb.
Anitun Tabu herself, garbed in light, the dark moon of her face too beautiful to gaze upon, the black river of her hair a halo lashing in unseen winds. She was crowned in lightning, the spear of heaven’s judgement in her right hand.
“You called my name, Daughter?”
Lunurin is biracial, the daughter of a woman of the archipelago and a Codicían priest – but although she’s spent a good chunk of her life playing a Christian (and therefore Codicían) nun, in her heart she’s anything but. Not for lack of trying; Lunurin works hard to be soft and pleasant, both for her lover and the Church that’s given her a (kind of) sanctuary; she has kept her head down for years, playing the dutiful Christian novice. Behind closed doors, though, she has her romance with Catalina, another biracial novice, with Catalina’s younger sister filling an almost daughter-like role to round out their little family. Interestingly, despite Catalina’s Christian faith being far more genuine than Lunurin’s, Catalina seems to have no shame or complicated feelings about being queer, despite the fact that her sexuality, and her love for Lunurin, go completely against the church’s rules. But in all other respects she’s a good Codicían woman – and very clearly wants Lunurin to be one too.
Lunurin isn’t, though. And not just because she’s a stormcaller – chosen by Anitun Tabu, goddess of the sky and weather, ‘blessed’ with immense power only kept under wraps by the same powerful talisman that hides Lunurin from her goddess. Lunurin sees the hypocrisies and abuses of the Church and the Codicíans, and can’t close her eyes to them; whenever she can, she helps the poor and abused escape the Church’s reach, often with the help of Alon. In Western terms, Alon is basically a prince, the heir of the island’s ruler since his older brother was exiled; he’s also, secretly, one of the tide-touched, able to manipulate salt water with the blessing of Aman Sinaya, goddess of the sea. And he’s the only one who might be able to help when Lunurin and Catalina make a horrific discovery in the early chapters of the book – one that will lead all three of them to the breaking point, and tear them, and maybe even their island, apart.
It took everything in Lunurin not to laugh until she wept. What divine calling could there be when a primordial goddess of the heavens, with lightning for blood and storms at her beck and call, curled under Lunurin’s breastbone, whispering, “Daughter, won’t you drown them for me?”
Drawing inspiration from the Philippines, its history, and its mythology, the setting of SoSaS feels new and unique, a gorgeous and entrancing contrast to the generic Medieval-Europe-esque backdrop that is so confusingly popular in Fantasy. The world Buba has created here is beautiful and intricate, one that I fell more and more in love with the more I learned about it. The people’s relationship to the land and sea and sky, the matriarchal politics, the pearls, the hair, the wildly different (from Christianity) approach to religion, the trio of goddesses whose chosen ones are so integral to the Aynilan way of life… It’s all incredible. No detail has been missed or hand-waved or not-thought-through, with the result that it feels real enough to be a place you could visit it in person if you chose. It doesn’t feel invented, which is the highest praise I can give to a land that doesn’t exist.
For example, let’s talk about mutyas. In the (unnamed) archipelago that Lunurin lives in – clearly a fantasy version of the archipelago that is the Philippines in our world – cultures vary somewhat from island to island (we know that there are hundreds of languages spoken in the archipelago, and in the prologue, we hear of an island ruled by rajs who have tossed out the Codicíans entirely; Lunurin’s island of origin Calilan had a Datu, who was some kind of ruler; and Aynila, which is the setting of SoSaS, has the Lakan who rules the entire island alone, as best I can make out) but mutyas are one of the many things that tie everyone together. A mutya is a piece of jewellery – usually some kind of hair comb for women with magic, but for others it can take just about any form – set with the pearl the person found when they underwent their naming dive. If a person finds a special kind of pearl, it marks them as goddess-chosen – a stormcaller like Lunurin, tide-touched like Alon, or a firetender, depending on the pearl and the goddess. This is a relatively simple piece of worldbuilding, I guess, but for one thing, it’s a beautiful concept, and for a second, it’s woven throughout the entire book. Lunurin’s mutya is one of the things that helps her control (read: suppress) her magic, so it’s something she nearly always has on her person; it’s a sacred, highly personal object that every Aynilan character we come into contact with has and wears, usually openly; by the time we see someone fondle another person’s mutya uninvited, I didn’t need Buba to spell out for me how shocking and violating that was, because she’d already made sure I’d absorbed exactly how important a mutya is. Every concept Buba invents or introduces us to is like that; easy to understand and remember, shown naturally rather than info-dumped on us, and never forgotten or not-followed-through on.
And the magic system! Again, at first glance it looks fairly simple; we have stormcallers who can work the weather, tide-touched who control waves and ocean currents, and firetenders who manipulate heat and flame. But if you look a little deeper, and pay attention, it becomes clear that it’s more complex than that. For example, each kind of magic-user is marked or chosen by one of the three goddesses. We don’t know how or why a person is chosen, but it does seem to be true that the goddesses can’t work their will on the world except through their chosen. For all that she hates the Codicíans, the storm goddess Anitun Tabu can’t destroy them herself – she needs Lunurin for that. Functionally, then, the goddess-chosen are not just the go-betweens between the gods and their people, but literal funnels for the wills of their goddesses. The magic-users are the linch-pin in the relationship between gods and humans; they are arguably that which sustains, and/or allows, the symbiosis between gods and humans. Is that not an absolutely fascinating set-up?!
Not to mention that this is emotion-based magic, tied to the feelings of the person working the storms or sea or fire. Tied, also, to their hair; God can’t help you when a stormcaller lets down her hair, okay? At that point, it’s far too late to run for cover.
“Go to a stormcaller for vengeance, for they do not heal, and they do not save.”
But it gradually becomes clear that all three kinds of magic are actually, also, integral to human life in the archipelago. If the goddess-chosen are the symbiosis of the gods and humans, they’re also what allow humans to live in reasonable balance with the natural world around them. Before the Codicíans came, magic-users didn’t just fulfil important societal roles (the tide-touched were magical healers, which is a whole nother THING that is BRILLIANT but I won’t spoil it for you): the firetenders kept the volcanoes dormant; the stormcallers protected the archipelago from terrible storms; and the tide-touched turned aside tsunamis and carried ships from island to island on magic-made currents. It was never a mastery of the natural world – which would have meant mastery over the goddesses, after all – but it was an elegant system that benefited everyone. The simplicity and genius of that idea? I loved it!
It serves as a powerful, visceral metaphor for the archipelagan way/s of life vs that of the Codicíans, who have come in knowing nothing – and caring nothing – for the islands or the peoples of those islands.
One could use even cage bars to stand.
The Codicíans are, in a word, awful. Not cartoonishly so – if they were, it would be easier to bear. It would hurt less; it would enrage less. But no; these fantasy-Spaniards are painfully believable, as Europeans, as colonisers, as that particularly ugly kind of proselytising Christians. And how to deal with them is one of the central themes, questions, of the book; is it better to submit? To pretend to submit but resist quietly when they’re not looking? To try and compromise with them? To resist loudly? To resist violently?
It is impossible to pretend that this is a question – questions – that exists only within a fantasy setting; to ignore the fact that this is a question that is being asked louder and louder in the real world. It is a question that has been asked throughout history, obviously, but for white readers especially, it is a question that demands an answer right now. (And always.) Because it is generally white people who condemn the violent resistance of minorities and other oppressed groups; it is generally white people who, when pressed, will sometimes admit they understand the impulse to violently resist, but insist that ‘violence is never the answer’. It is generally white people who have no experience, and therefore no true understanding, of what it is like to be the oppressed group. There’s a reason our schools and society hold up and praise Martin Luther King Jr, and ignore or actively decry Malcolm X, and it’s a reason that’s hard to look in the eye if you’re white.
Saints of Storm and Sorrow puts white readers in the place we’ve never been in real life. Buba’s prose is powerful and immersive, creating a story that feels less like something you read than something you experience. I felt everything as if I were inside Lunurin’s skin; the injustice, the insults, the fury, the pain, the desperation, the trying so impossibly hard to be…not good, but good enough; good enough to be valued, good enough to be considered a person, good enough to be safe.
This is as close as someone with my skin colour can get to understanding what it’s like for those in power to see your entire people as less. Sure, my Welsh and Irish ancestors knew oppression under the English – terrible oppression – but not the same kind as this, and I am not my ancestors or in their situation; I in the present day have no idea what that feels like. But Buba conveys Lunurin’s position, experiences, and emotions so well, so intensely, and I’m not claiming that I get it now, but I am saying that this book pulls no punches and sweeps you under and into it, the thick of it, the tangled morass of conflicting desires and needs and feelings that gradually gets simpler and simpler and simpler as the rage burns everything else away – until there’s nothing but the rage left.
How does one deal with this situation? I’ll never know. But Buba puts me in it, as much as anyone can – makes me feel it, as much as anyone can – and then asks: what would you do?
Would you be good – would you be NICE – would you bow your head and take it, all of it, forever? Would you only object politely, quietly, ‘properly’? Could you? Really?
Years she’d made herself small thinking hiding was the best way to protect herself and others. That anything else was too big a risk. But it hadn’t changed the outcome, she only lost a little more, and hurt more deeply, and watched more of her people suffer. She couldn’t keep hoping that if she made herself innocuous enough, she would be safe. Someone would always find her wanting. Like her mother, like her father, like Magdalena and all the sisters of the convent…
Alon is trying, trying to be ‘good’. Standing as a starker and starker contrast to Lunurin as the book goes on, Alon is desperately trying to keep the peace, is fighting so hard to keep all sides happy. Doing what he can to help his people without making waves among the Codicíans (and there’s a point there, maybe a metaphor, about his magic, him being one of the tide-touched and not making waves). He does not think the Codicíans are right or good, but they are powerful, and he is very sure that any violence on the part of the Aynilans will only make things worse. In many ways he’s pretty much the ideal of a ‘good’ oppressed minority, exactly the kind of BIPOC person too many white people think someone like him should be: polite and nice and inoffensive. Not making waves.
But does it help him? Does it help his people? Can he accomplish what he wants by being inoffensive to the offenders? How can he? It’s not sustainable. You can’t have a compromise when one side wants to destroy everything the other is. You can’t protect your people with words when those in power won’t listen; when those in power won’t give you the power to protect them.
What are you supposed to do then?
“Your god can’t help you now.”
And let’s be really clear: the colonisation is not coming from, or fuelled by, just the secular arm of the Codicíans. The Christianity is an equal evil; maybe even a worse one. The Christians are also Codicíans, of course, but their religion is inextricable from the mindset that tells the Codicíans that they are better than the people of the archipelago. Their religion fuels that mindset, reinforces it, validates it. Christianity’s obsession with converting people, with stamping out other faiths, with cannibalising other faiths, is a fundamental part of the colonisation process. This has been true throughout history, and it’s very true in this book, epitomised by the way the Church has stolen and renamed a statue of Lunurin’s patron goddess, Anitun Tabu.
Though Lunurin did not dare speak or even think the goddess’s name for risk of drawing her eye, she knew the statue over the altar was no Codicían saint.
When storms raged and the goddess’s thwarted gaze roamed over Aynila, Lunurin could hear her in the thunder. “Daughter, how can you hide from my sight? How can you let them defile me so? Can’t you see they are erasing me? Won’t you call me by my true name?”
Like: Jesus was a pretty cool dude. I dig him, even if he was weird about a fig tree that one time. But Christianity as practised, particularly as practised during this period of history, is immensely fucked-up. Are there Christians who are good people? Plenty! But baked into Christianity is the idea that non-Christians are, at best, flawed, and we can’t gloss over how that fuelled (and still fuels) colonisation and oppression. And even when the religious beliefs are good, the power structure of what is now the Catholic church – like many power structures – allows terrible people to flourish; it arguably encourages members of that structure to become terrible.
[This is where I initially wrote a rant on all the ways the Catholic structure/system is fucked, but I’m here to talk about an amazing book, not Catholicism, so instead of getting side-tracked let’s just take it as read that I have receipts and the Catholic power structure is deeply dodgy on its best day.]
And honestly, I am glad that Buba doesn’t try to gloss over this, or give the Church a pass. Nope! Nope, no way, nuh uh, we’re not fucking doing that. Besides, it would be deeply strange to explore colonisation in a Philippines-stand in and not acknowledge the harm Christianity did and does in that part of the world and literally hundreds of others. It was a huge Thing. Feel free to read up on it.
For Lunurin, the Church not only wants to demonise her for her non-Codicían ancestry (or kill her for her magic, if they discover it); they also belittle her and dismiss her as a woman, and again, that’s something that is baked into Catholicism. I will, again, not write you another rant essay. But I will point out that fervour with which the Church hunts indigenous ‘witches’ and the fact that the majority of goddess-chosen are women (including trans women!) are extremely unlikely to be unrelated.
(Aynila’s matriarchal culture, powerful elemental magic wielded by women, a pantheon of goddesses… Of course the Codicíans and their Church are determined to crush this culture, these people. Of course they are. It’s not just that they see Aynilans as lesser; the Aynilan way of life is an active threat to everything the Codicíans believe to be good and natural.)
What I’m saying is, the Church is Lunurin’s enemy. It’s the enemy of the whole archipelago, and certainly its goddesses. It’s not just the Codicíans that are the enemy; it’s also the Christian god – or at least his representatives on Earth. There’s no pretending otherwise.
Lunurin did laugh then. The ache of it was grounding. All of her hurt. Her time in the cage made it impossible to swallow her bitterness. “Yes, I’ll apologize, like the last three servants he had caned and caged till their backs festered. What shall I apologize for–my blood? My mother who seduced a priest? Shall I beg his pardon for being a soulless water witch?”
Saints of Storm and Sorrow is very much a story about colonisation and oppression, and examines those things from all angles – the racism and the misogyny, the role of the Church, the Aynilans who side with the Codicíans for power (not realising that the moment they sell out, they’ve lost all power). It’s a book that looks at the different ways to resist these things, the question of which way (if any) is good or best; it looks equally at the whys and the hows. Buba doesn’t simplify or water any of it down for us; these are complex, ugly, many-layered issues, insidiously working its way into every aspect of the story, every facet of the characters’ lives. It’s not as simple as Aynilans good, Codicíans bad; as mentioned, there are Aynilans, especially those in the structures of power, who are all too happy to work with the Codicíans. Nor are the Codicíans a monolith; they have their own internal politics and shifting balances and power struggles. From some angles, it’s plenty complicated.
If you look at it head-on, though, it’s really not complicated at all.
“Ten years I’ve humbled myself. I have cut myself down and swallowed every offending sliver. The time for that is past.
Buba has chosen every detail of her world, and most especially her characters, very carefully. Everything about Lunurin, Catalina, and Alon has a wealth of symbolic meaning for us to ponder (if we choose – you can just as easily allow the story to sweep you along without analysing every little thing, but if you DO enjoy analysing it all, there’s plenty of food for thought). For example, Lunurin is not a native of Aynila – she was born on another island. This feels subtly important. The Codicíans, after all, are not natives either. But Lunurin considers Aynila her home; she considers its people her people. The Codicíans do not. The Codicíans do not even consider Lunurin a person, not really, despite her Codicían father – and sure, some of that is because she’s a woman, but most of it is because she is not white, not white enough – only half, by blood, and not at all in her heart. Her Codicían blood has granted her some security and some measure of privilege for many years, but she is still less, to them.
Catalina is biracial too, and just as Lunurin and Alon stand in opposition when it comes with how to deal with the Codicíans, Lunurin and Catalina are opposing examples of being biracial in this context. Even in the beginning of the book, when Lunurin is still playing at being a good little Codicían nun, she is playing at it. Whereas Catalina, as becomes clearer and clearer, is not playing; she means it, all of it, wants more than anything to be Codicían, to be Codicían enough. Lunurin embraces the archipelago; Catalina refuses to acknowledge that side of her heritage at all. Thus do the politics of their peoples worm their way into Lunurin and Catalina’s romance, because…well, of course they do. No spoilers, but I thought Buba handled that wonderfully, realistically, all-too-believably. I’m very curious to see what other readers end up thinking of Catalina.
Personally I want to fire her into the sun, but ymmv.
And where the two women are both all-or-nothing when it comes to their respective positions, we have Alon kind of in the middle: not agreeing with the Codicíans, and having no desire to assimilate, but trying to walk a line, hold the line, between the Codicíans and his own people.
The three of them form a love triangle, yes, but it’s this other triangle – I don’t know whether to call it philosophical, or political, or what – that is much more interesting to me.
Aman Sinaya preserve him, she even smelled good. The floral sweetness of the sampaguita garlands mingled with the nuttiness of her hair oil. He decided the better part of honor was not breathing.
That being said, the love triangle? Is actually pretty great. I generally don’t have very strong feelings about the romantic arcs of the stories I read, and I actively dislike love triangles unless they end in polyamory. But – probably because Alon and Catalina represent such different stances in and approaches to the world they live in – I actually got so invested in this one! Part of this is Buba’s super-immersive prose, which I’ve already mentioned; but the biggest part of it is…how do I put this? Is: the different expectations, even demands, that Catalina and Alon each place on Lunurin. The different shapes she has to fit into for each of them, and Lunurin’s struggle – though ‘struggle’ doesn’t feel like the correct word – to figure out and accept what her own, real shape actually is. The way this pushes her to push back against both Alon and Catalina’s expectations (and demands), and how intimately this is tied into her growing desire to push back against the Codicíans. It’s a love story that is inextricably tied to the politics of her world, and that is extremely cool to me!
The love triangle is also a very important catalyst for Lunurin’s…I think we can call it growth. I’m a bit worried I’ve given the impression that she’s a swoony, useless kind of heroine: she isn’t. She is fiery, passionate, full of anger – it’s just that she has been keeping that side of herself suppressed for a very long time (for very good reasons!) But while it’s events that lead her to stop suppressing her rage and power, it’s her relationships with Catalina and Alon that teach her that she doesn’t always have to be the strong one, the powerful one. That softness does not cancel out strength. That it is very okay to lean on people when you need to. She has to re-figure out what romantic love really is, but more vitally, she also has to learn how to love herself – including the magic she was raised to see as bad and dangerous; including the rage; including her vulnerabilities, and the (perfectly natural!) need for support and care and kindness.
She cried without worrying how high the river would rise, or if anyone’s roof was leaking, or if she’d start a mudslide. She wept without fearing her unspooling power would draw her father-in-law’s or the Codicíans’ wrath.
I’m making it all sound very Hallmark-y, but it’s not. It’s not.
(And also, I am HERE for men who absolutely worship the women they’re in love with. Alon gets a lot of things wrong, but he gets All The Points for being completely heart-eyes at literally everything Lunurin does – including when she’s being terrifying.)
“Yes.” The word was a growl.
He kissed her again, fervent as worship. “Yes.”
He kissed her a third time, gentle as silk. “Yes.”
I expected to love Saints of Storm and Sorrow; I was not expecting to feel as if I living the story, going through all of it myself. I didn’t expect to feel so much, swinging from fury to panic to delight constantly. I wasn’t expecting there to be so many layers of meaning woven into the tiniest of details. I wasn’t expecting a book that would place feminine rage and power front and centre. I had no idea I would fall for this world, and these characters, as hard as I did.
It’s phenomenal. I can’t believe this is a debut novel, and I can’t wait for more: for more people to read this and love it and scream about it with me; for the sequel, of course; and for anything and everything Buba writes in the future.
REMEMBER THE NAME GABRIELLA BUBA, MY FRIENDS. REMEMBER IT.
(And go preorder Saints of Storm and Sorrow already!!!)
The post Sweeps You Away Like a Great Typhoon: Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 19, 2024
I Can’t Wait For…Talio’s Codex by J. Alexander Cohen
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Talio’s Codex by J. Alexander Cohen!
Talio's Codex by J. Alexander Cohen Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC, queer love interests, non-binary and trans characters
Protagonist Age: mid/late-30s?
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-19T14:10:10+00:00", "description": "FANTASY LEGAL THRILLER!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-talios-codex-by-j-alexander-cohen\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Talio's Codex", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "J. Alexander Cohen", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Is love worth destroying his reputation?
Ten years ago, the theft of his codex destroyed Talio Rossa’s career as a magistrate in the four cities. But when his ex-wife—finally willing to forgive finding him in bed with a man—presents him a long-shot legal case, he has the chance to get his career back on track.
While fighting to rejoin the legal community, Talio uncovers a conspiracy so big it threatens the origins of the four cities themselves. Their prosperity is only thanks to their connection by magical floating waterways and the brilliance of their legal system, now regarded as near scripture.
To save his career, Talio must work with both the one who doomed his marriage and the hooded, heretical man who sets his heart aflame but is determined to plead guilty to a murder he didn't commit. To stand a chance of winning the case, saving his career and the man of his dreams, Talio will have to uncover an explosive secret destined to blow the legal system apart.
Fantasy legal thrillers are not thick on the ground, but that’s what Talio’s Codex purports to be! Which – is an amazing concept I would love to see more of, please and thank you! As a worldbuilding nut, I ABSOLUTELY want to dive into the legal system of a world that has nothing to do with ours – AND you’re giving me queerness too?
GIMME!
From what I’ve read of early reviews, poor Talio’s living in a queerphobic society – something that would usually make me uninterested in a book, because I really do not have any interest in queerphobia in my fiction…but I’m willing to make an exception for a story serving me up a ton of fantasy laws-and-legal-system. It may be that Talio’s Codex is too heavy and grim for me – especially as the legal case Talio gets caught up in has something to do with a person being non-binary, apparently? But I’m hopeful – the content warnings on the author’s website promise a happy ending, and most of the time I’m willing to see characters through a lot of angst as long as things end well!
Also, I have been promised sky-ships – there’s even one on the cover! Along with a…is that some kind of ocean in the sky??? The blurb mentions ‘magical floating waterways’… I am confused, but extremely intrigued!
What’s a codex, in this world? I gather that losing it is a Very Big Deal, but that doesn’t tell me exactly what it is. Could it be something like a record of all the cases a lawyer or magistrate has worked on? But why would losing something like that be a career-ender? No, it must be something much more important than a simple book of records… Could it be magical in some way? Is it an important symbol, or does it have a practical purpose too? HMM…
As a BIG fan of intrigue (even if I can’t always keep perfect track of the very complex court stuff) I’m already itching to know what the secret Talio uncovers is. Getting different cities to cooperate on anything at all is NOT EASY, so working together on a conspiracy??? It has to be something very…I don’t know what the right word is here…something Very, anyway, to get politicians and law-makers and whatnot who would typically be at odds to instead work together to Hide The Thing.
HMMM…
So yes, I’m excited and hopeful for this one, and fully intend to pounce on it when it comes out next month!
(If anyone has fantasy legal thrillers to rec me, don’t bother suggesting Justice of Kings. Been there, done that, despised it utterly.)
The post I Can’t Wait For…Talio’s Codex by J. Alexander Cohen appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
June 17, 2024
Must-Have Monday #191
Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
TEN books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi, Science Fantasy
Representation: QBIPOC and BIPOC cast
Published on: 18th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Rakesfall", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Vajra Chandrasekera", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Rakesfall is a groundbreaking, standalone science fiction epic about two souls bound together from here until the ends of time, from the author of The Saint of Bright Doors
Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace the claws of death, loves that leave their mark on civilization, and promises that nothing can break. This is one such story.
Annelid and Leveret met after the war, but before the peace. They found each other in a torn-up nation, peering through propaganda to grasp a deeper truth. And in a demon-haunted wood, another act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey throughout the ages. No world can hold them, no life can bind them, and they'll never leave each other behind. But their journey will not be easy. In every lifetime, oppressors narrow the walls of possibility, shaping reality to fit their own needs. And behind the walls of history, the witches of the red web swear that every throne will fall.
Tracing two souls through endless lifetimes, Rakesfall is a virtuosic exploration of what stories can be. As Annelid and Leveret reincarnate ever deeper into the future, they will chase the edge of human possibility, in a dark science fiction epic unlike anything you've read before.
This one – almost literally! – BLEW MY MIND. On so many levels! It’s a major level up in weird and unconventional from Chandrasekera’s debut, The Saint of Bright Doors, which was at least pretty linear; Rakesfall is incredibly strange, with so many layers of story and meaning to it. I wouldn’t call it experimental, because Chandrasekera isn’t testing anything, he knows exactly what he’s doing – but it’s definitely boundary-pushing. Or maybe just straight-up boundary-ignoring.
Can’t recommend it enough!
The Unrelenting Earth (Rages, #2) by Kritika H. Rao Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Desi-coded cast, bisexual MCs
Published on: 18th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Unrelenting Earth (Rages, #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kritika H. Rao", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
In this dazzling sequel to the The Surviving Sky, Ahilya and Iravan risk everything—their lives, their culture, and their fragile marriage—in pursuit of the earth-shattering truth about their existence.
"Breathtakingly inventive" epic science-fantasy inspired by Hindu philosophy, for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Tasha Suri.
Two months have passed since Ahilya and Iravan learned the devastating truths behind the earthrages. As the cosmic creatures struggle to break into the world, and Nakshar's architecture disintegrates, the desperate council summons their sister ashrams to a Conclave, to discuss the future of life in the skies.
Ahilya, now a councillor, is determined to share the truth about the cosmic beings and the nature of Ecstatic trajection so she can liberate ordinary citizens and save the condemned architects. Her conviction has alienated her allies and created dangerous enemies. Only Iravan has a chance of persuading the Conclave that Ecstatics are not unstable, but he returns from the jungle struggling with his own Ecstasy. He has little control over his second-self, the primal falcon yaksha, and finds the Conclave hostile to his cause.
As strange, deadly storms break out, threatening refuge even in the skies, Iravan and the other Ecstatic architects face brutal reprisals. And with the barrier restraining the cosmic beings thinning, Ahilya and Iravan know they are running out of time to save everyone. Thrust into the center of the storm, both will have to confront what matters most to them, who they really are, and what it means for the future of humanity.
I adored the first book in this trilogy, and the ending left me with SO MANY QUESTIONS! I hope we get some answers in this one!!!
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima Genres: Adult, Speculative Fiction
Published on: 18th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ananda Lima", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and writes stories for him about things both impossible and true. Stories I Wrote for the Devil lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil, where they’ll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of living people. Ananda Lima speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences―of ambition, fear, longing, and belonging―and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home.
I’m very intrigued by the idea of writing stories for the literal Devil…and very much want to check it out and see what Lima’s done with such an interesting premise!
A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 18th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Shore Thing", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joanna Lowell", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
A delightful queer Victorian love story, featuring a boldly brash trans hero, the beguiling botanist who captures his heart, and a buoyant bicycle race by the British seaside -- from the author of The Duke Undone.
Former painter and unreformed rake Kit Griffith is forging a new life in Cornwall, choosing freedom over an identity that didn't fit. He knew that leaving his Sisterhood of women artists might mean forfeiting artistic community forever. He didn't realize he would lose his ability to paint altogether. Luckily, he has other talents. Why not devote himself to selling bicycles and trysting with the holidaymakers?
Enter Muriel Pendrake, the feisty New-York-bound botanist who has come to St. Ives to commission Kit for illustrations of British seaweeds. Kit shouldn't accept Muriel's offer, but he must enlist her help to prove to an all-male cycling club that women can ride as well as men. And she won't agree unless he gives her what she wants. Maybe that's exactly the challenge he needs.
As Kit and Muriel spend their days cycling together, their desire begins to burn with the heat of the summer sun. But are they pedaling toward something impossible? The past is bound to catch up to them, and at the season's end, their paths will diverge. With only their hearts as guides, Kit and Muriel must decide if they're willing to race into the unknown for the adventure of a lifetime.
This sounds absolutely lovely! Sweet and low-key, perfect for cosy reading. Going to save this one for reading in the garden swing-chair, I think!
Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, YA
Representation: Chinese cast and setting
Published on: 18th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Daughter of Calamity", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rosalie M. Lin", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Jingwen spends her nights as a showgirl at the Paramount, one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai, competing ruthlessly to charm wealthy patrons. To cap off her shifts, she runs money for her grandmother, the exclusive surgeon to the most powerful gang in the city. A position her grandmother is pressuring her to inherit…
When a series of cabaret dancers are targeted―the attacker stealing their faces―Jingwen fears she could be next. And as the faces of the dancers start appearing on wealthy foreign socialites, she realizes Shanghai's glittering mirage of carefree luxury comes at a terrible price.
Fighting not just for her own safety but that of the other dancers―women who have simultaneously been her bitterest rivals and only friends―Jingwen has no choice but to delve into the city's underworld. In this treacherous realm of tangled alliances and ancient grudges, silver-armed gangsters haunt every alley, foreign playboys broker deals in exclusive back rooms, and the power of gods is wielded and traded like yuan. Jingwen will have to become something far stranger and more dangerous than her grandmother ever imagined if she hopes to survive the forces waiting to sell Shanghai's bones.
Face-stealing?! I’d like to ask why anyone would steal faces, but I’d rather know WHY ‘WEALTHY FOREIGN SOCIALITES’ ARE WEARING THEM. That’s a whole nother level of yellowface!!! Gross, evil, and way too believable. Why do we live in a world where I have no problem believing rich white socialites would totally do that???
Jingwen, on the other hand, sounds fantastic, as does the criminal underworld she has to delve into. People with silver arms? The power of gods being bought and sold?? Jingwen BECOMING SOMETHING STRANGE??? That last one especially is my catnip. GIMME, PRETTY PLEASE AND THANK YOU!
Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: F/F
Published on: 18th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Bad Graces", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kyrie McCauley", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Yellowjackets meets House of Hollow in award-winning author Kyrie McCauley’s gripping and magical YA thriller following a group of young women as they face the stress of harsh elements, a mysterious monster, and an unraveling of secrets after their yacht is wrecked off the coast of North America.
Liv Whitlock knows she doesn’t belong there. But after years of stumbling between foster homes, often due to her own self-destructive tendencies, Liv desperately needs to change the trajectory of her life … so she steals her perfect sister’s identity.
Liv starts to rewrite her story, winning a prestigious internship on a movie set filming in Alaska, and finds herself on a luxury yacht alongside pop star Paris Grace, actress sisters Effie and Miri Knight, Olympic gymnast Rosalind Torres, and social media influencer Celia Jones. Liv tries to find common ground with her famous companions, but just as the group starts to bond, a violent storm wrecks their vessel, stranding them on an island in the North Pacific Ocean.
Among the threats of starvation and exposure, they learn there is a predator lurking in the forest, unlike anything they’ve seen before—until they begin to see it in themselves. Every injury they suffer on the island causes inexplicable changes in their bodies. With little hope for rescue and only each other as their final tether to humanity, can the girls endure the ominous forces at work on the island? Or will they lose themselves to their darker natures?
I’ve seen some VERY positive reviews for this one, and I’ve been promised fungal body horror and ZERO stupid catfighting between the girls! Both of which sound awesome.
The Stars Want Blood: Star Eaters Book One by Morgan Lawson Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary MC, NB/M
Published on: 19th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Stars Want Blood: Star Eaters Book One", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Morgan Lawson", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
When a summer's wind whips through the spring gardens, when air meets earth, a fate that has long since been written amongst the stars will unfurl itself…
There was only so long that anybody could handle living while disregarding every single piece of advice from their psychiatrist, and Hazel Culhane was reaching their breaking point. Hoping to recharge themself enough to handle the challenge of getting better, they tuck themself into a hidden cabin for a week. It wasn’t a bad idea, but they couldn’t have predicted that something would be waiting for them in those woods, something significantly more frightening than their own crumbling sanity…
All of the Constellites — the celestial gods borne from the stars of the zodiac constellations — knew what fate had planned for them. It was the same in each generation of them. And as the Virgo god, Ezra Thompson should have been no exception. He doesn’t know why his Gemini counterpart came along so late, or why their newfound divinity doesn’t fit them, but it doesn’t take him very long to figure out that the quirky and unstable Hazel — the Constellite of Geminorum — is still his fate.
Fate has given them love, but with it, destruction. Will they be able to rewrite fate and save themselves? Or will they get pulled into the event horizon that fate has waiting for them?
... and it will demand blood.
The Stars Want Blood is the first installment of the Star Eaters series, a gut-wrenching dark romantasy that ties together religious mysticism, Greek mythology, and astrology. Filled to the brim with mentally ill characters, elaborate lore, and spice, this story is the perfect read for fans of D.Gray-Man, Moon Knight, and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
I always get my hopes up for fantasy involving stars – but I’m usually disappointed. The reviews for this one have one hopeful, though, as do the excerpts I’ve seen in some of the reviews. Fingers crossed!
Under the Dragon Moon (The Belamour Archives Book 1) by Mawce Hanlin Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC, M/M
Published on: 20th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Under the Dragon Moon (The Belamour Archives Book 1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mawce Hanlin", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
To break the thread of weaver’s fate, those who witness must weave anew…
Mael Nguyen doesn’t believe in fate, but he does believe in magic. His entire life revolves around the study of the arcane—spells and rituals, potions and illusions. As far as Mael is concerned, all he needs is a book in one hand and magic in the other. Anything outside of his bookshop, hidden away in the streets of New Orleans, isn’t worth his attention. But when a strange human stumbles into his life and hires him for a job, bringing along his blinding smile and curious magic, Mael finds that Fate is just as dangerous as Magic.
Leo Greyson refuses to believe in fate, but he desperately wishes to believe in magic. As a small time rockstar, full time radio host, Leo has never been one to shy away from experience and adventure. He’s always lived his life on the edge—always moving, never standing still. But when his twin sister is murdered, and he gains custody of her strangely magical daughter, that constant motion comes to a screeching halt. Instead, he is launched into an entirely new world hidden right beneath his nose, and Leo finds himself wondering if Fate really does exist, and if she’s led him right where he needs to be.
A queer take on magic, murder, and romance, fans of The Dresden Files, Howl's Moving Castle, and A Marvelous Light will find family, acceptance, and a fantastical new world to get lost in within the pages of Under the Dragon Moon, the first book in the Belamour Archives.
I adore everything about this premise, and am terribly jealous of Mael getting to live in a magic bookshop. Why don’t I live in a magic bookshop, huh? I am owed answers! But until I get them, I will happily dive into Mael and Leo’s story!
Freakslaw by Jane Flett Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 20th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Freakslaw", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Flett", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Discover the dazzling new queer literary horror novel about chosen family and the risks it takes to become the person you want to be.
‘The glittery punk offspring of Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus.’ Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger
A travelling funfair of seductive troublemakers arrive in a repressed Scottish town. What could possibly go wrong?
It’s the summer of ’97 and the Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change.
Enter the Freakslaw – a travelling funfair populated by deviant queers, a contortionist witch, the most powerful fortune teller, and other architects of mayhem. It doesn’t take long for the Freakslaw folk to infiltrate Pitlaw’s grey world, where the town’s teenagers – none more so than Ruth and Derek – are seduced by neon charms and the possibility of escape.
But beneath it all, these newcomers are harbouring a darker desire: revenge.
And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that’s been simmering for centuries is about to be unleashed…
I think this is a UK-only release, but I have my ways, and I will DEFINITELY be using them because this sounds AWESOME. Also kind of terrifying, from the content warnings in some of the reviews??? But not enough to stop me from checking it out. ‘Lock up your daughters…Tie a horse rope round your sons’??? Who can resist that?!
Mary Ellen, Craterean! (The Crater School Book 3) by Chaz Brenchley Genres: Sci Fi, YA
Published on: 20th June 2024
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2024-06-17T08:33:00+00:00", "description": "Stories for the Devil, a Shanghai showgirl who'll have to become something strange to survive, and boarding school on Mars!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-191\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Mary Ellen, Craterean! (The Crater School Book 3)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Chaz Brenchley", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
Like private schools back on Earth, the Crater School is primarily the preserve of the upper and middle classes. But the hinterlands of Mars are very rural. Farming the Red Planet is hard, and families rely on their children to help with the work. What, then, is a farming family to do with a girl like Mary Ellen who seems interested only in books, and who asks questions that her teachers are hard-pressed to answer?
Then, one day, a chance event changes Mary Ellen’s life. A famous author on a research trip visits her farm and spots her talent. An offer is made, a fully-paid scholarship to the famous Crater School. It seems like a dream come true. But dreams can easily turn into nightmares.
The Crater School series is one of my cosy reads – think the traditional British boarding school stories, but set on Mars! This one sounds like it might be set chronologically before the other books, which means you can read it even if you’re unfamiliar with the series! Me, I’m going to dive right in. I want Mary’s origin story!
Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!
The post Must-Have Monday #191 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
