Siavahda's Blog, page 29

April 11, 2024

You’ll Have To Pry It From My Hands: Earthflown by Frances Wren

Earthflown by Frances Wren
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Ace-spec MLM MC, gay MC with depression, M/M, minor sapphic characters
PoV: Third-person, past tense; multiple PoVs
Published on: 16th April 2024
Goodreads
four-half-stars

Earthflown is a love story that tries – and fails – to leave the water crisis behind. Set in near-future, post-flood London, it takes a grounded approach to fantasy archetypes where futuristic medicine meets a bit of magic.

When Ethan saves the life of a firestarter, it's nothing unusual. He's the only healer on call at the hospital – and that gunshot wound isn't going to regenerate itself. But his patient turns out to be Corinna Arden, heiress to a pharmaceutical empire controlling Britain's water supply. Her twin, Javier, is a man who (a) starts sending Ethan flowers at work, (b) seems terrified of a secret, and (c) has the cheekbones and earnestness to make up for both.

Ethan indulges in (what he thinks will be) a brief, harmless romance – but is swept up in a deadly collusion over Project Earthflown: the largest reconstruction tender since London clawed its way out of the rising sea.

Determined to follow the money, Ollie is a journalist who finds a corpse at the end of a too-convenient tip. The fate of water – and who profits – might depend on the perennial question: has Ethan lost his mind, or is he just an idiot?

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I received this book for free from the author via BookSirens in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Highlights

~finally, flying cars!
~fire powers are more socially acceptable than empathy
~sending flowers is a rich asshole move
~watches that keep secrets as well as time
~never underestimate a paranoid journalist

There are some books that need to be self-published, because traditional publishing just wouldn’t know what to do with them; Nora Sakavic’s All For the Game series, pretty much everything by Andrea K Höst, The Creature Court trilogy by Tansy Rayner Roberts – I could go on. (And on, and on.) Books that are boundary-pushing, that can’t be neatly pigeon-holed, that are so wildly original or subversive or strange – or all three! – that they terrify publicity and marketing teams.

Earthflown is the newest addition to that illustrious company.

That being said, it’s not exactly what it claims to be on the tin. A Potable Study of Love and Collusion implies a lot more focus on economic inequality and a (the?) water crisis than we actually got. Although Earthflown is ostensibly about the behind-doors-backstabbing of the Arden family working to keep their exclusive control of Britain’s potable water, that part of the story is very much in the backseat. I found it very hard to keep track of the politics involved and wasn’t always clear on who was voting for what – I think there were several parliamentary votes about the water issue? but maybe also some other stuff? – or really, what the stakes were for the Ardens: they currently produce and control CM15, which makes water potable, but there’s a push to move the country to a new water-cleansing technology, and sometimes they seemed to be trying to block that, while at others hinting that they wanted the contract for building and installing the new tech? All of which is tied up with the polite feud they have with another branch of the family tree? But most of that was all in the background, which made it difficult to be emotionally invested in (or keep track of).

But that doesn’t matter in the slightest, because where Earthflown shines is in its beautifully flawed, grey-shaded characters and their interactions with each other, the way their lives intersected and overlapped. The story circles around Javier – an Arden – and Ethan, who, in a world where superpowers exist, is a priceless healer; around them are Rina, Javier’s firebending twin who is toxic at best and abusive at worst; Vegas, Ethan’s best friend and roommate; Oliver, Vegas’ on-again, off-again boyfriend and intrepid gumshoe journalist; and far off to the sidelines, poor Nick, a detective constantly dragging Oliver out of trouble by the scruff of his neck and currently under the impression he and Ethan are in a relationship. This misapprehension is entirely Ethan’s fault, and one of several ways in which we’re made very clear on the fact that Ethan is not exactly a perfect person. He can, in fact, be a bit of a dick. Though he cares very much about Vegas – their dynamic is almost sibling-like – he’s not great at remembering to care about other people as people.

So it’s kind of ironic, and definitely hilarious, that he falls very hard for an empath, aka Javier, who has spent his life keeping his superpower a secret. His immediate family know, and one or two family friends, but in a world with a lot of paranoia over and prejudice towards empaths, you can’t really blame him for keeping it on the down-low.

The surprise is that he’s also a sweetheart, which feels a bit like a miracle given a) his family as a whole and b) the awful, and awfully normalised, way his twin treats him. Seriously, it’s enough to make your skin crawl.

Corinna had been looking forward to this murder for weeks – she wasn’t there for the last one.

ENOUGH SAID.

Wren’s storytelling is a perfect balance of emotion and action, the prose smooth and incredibly moreish; before you can blink, you’re sucked in, and it’s an absolutely delicious ride. I couldn’t put Earthflown down for the two days it took me to devour it whole; I’m stunned and delighted by how well Wren keeps things moving while simultaneously doling out a whole heap of Feels and giggles. This isn’t a light-hearted book, but prepare yourself for giggle-snorts nonetheless, because there’s a bright thread of comedic moments woven through the cli fi-thriller-noir thing Wren has going on.

His sleeves were buttoned-up to the wrists like a sociopath.

And so much tension. Between Javier and Ethan, sure, even once they’re together (come on, that’s really not a spoiler, is it?), less because of relationship drama (thank the gods) than because their relationship is…threatened from the outside. Rina, for one, is not a fan, and it’s never a good idea to get on the wrong side of someone who can set you on fire. But there’s also Oliver, slowly and steadily piecing Things People In Power Don’t Want Him Looking At together, sniffing around Rina’s shooting and the ‘suicide’ Nick’s investigating. Everyone, except maybe Ethan, has secrets that they’re Very Determined to keep secret – and even Ethan ends up working to keep the secrets of others. Every page has you wondering if this is when it happens – is someone going to discover what Rina’s up to? Is Javier going to get outed? Is Oliver going to get fired (or arrested)? Will this be the chapter where someone strikes payback, where someone is Found Out, where the simmering hate behind the vapid smiles detonates into an inter-family war? There’s never a good moment to take a break and put Earthflown away, because something is always happening, always at stake.

Blood is thicker than water, and twice as cheap.

Even if, a lot of the time, that something is ‘only’ Javier and Ethan, who start out polite, progress to sweet, and transmute into something very intense indeed. In a good way. I challenge anyone not to become extremely invested in their relationship – not because they’re hot together, but because they complement each other unexpectedly perfectly. Because the scenes where they make each other smile left me glowing; and the moments where they communicated clearly like Actual Adults were such a relief; and each time they had each other’s back made me want to applaud. They’re not perfect, because they as people are imperfect; Wren has done an amazing job at making the entire cast multifaceted and painted them all in shades of grey. But Javier and Ethan are pretty damn wonderful together.

Jav had spent most of his life trying to stand in the undertow. It was a relief to be swept off his feet.

(Although I will say that I hope the conversation between Ethan and Javier, wherein Javier explains that he’s on the ace-spectrum, happens on-page in the final version of the book – in my arc, it’s only referenced to, which seems an odd choice.)

The worldbuilding is kept relatively simple – flying cars aside, it doesn’t look too different from our world, except that sea levels have risen and something’s happened to the water supply. Still, it’s a world that feels both convincing and cohesive, with its own politics, corporations, and cultural mores – though I do regret that we really didn’t see what life is like for normal folx. The Ardens are 1%-ers, and although Ethan works at a public hospital, he has enormous privilege as a healer. I would have liked to see how the CM15 subsidies and government contracts and whatnot affected us commoners on the street. We know sending a bouquet of live flowers is a Very Big Deal, in a world where potable water is expensive; what other changes has that made on everyday life? Even the fact that London is now divided into zones by height-above-sea level doesn’t impact the story much, because we saw very little of the lower, poorer zones. The same is true of Glass, a very addictive illegal drug made out of CM15; we’re told there’s something of an epidemic, but we don’t see it.

Then again, that’s probably one reason the next book in this series (it’s not a standalone, whatever it calls itself) is likely to focus on Nick, one of our only working-class characters – presumably we’ll get to see more of the ‘real world’ with him as a guide.

Speaking of the sequel leads us fairly neatly into discussing the ending, so…let’s discuss it.

Despite being objectively magnificent in every other way, Earthflown does have one flaw: an ambiguous ending. An implied ending. By which I mean, we get a lot of educated guesses and assumptions and inferences about how various plotlines will resolve themselves off-page, but we don’t see those resolutions for ourselves. The author’s note implies we can trust those guesses and assumptions etc, but as someone who is both nitpicky and obsessive about details, it was a pretty big blow not to have everything concretely wrapped up or answered by the final page. Worse is the fact that the events of the climax are game-changing – and there’s a huge bomb dropped on the very last page – and I was immensely frustrated and upset not to see how all of that played out. A sequel is in the works, but it will almost certainly focus on Nick, when what I really want is to continue following Javier and Ethan.

I have to admit to being really confused about the choices made by the author with regards the ending. I don’t think I’ve ever read something that took a similar approach to closing the story; pretty literally telling us how things will go and be resolved, rather than showing us. It really strikes me as bizarre. And besides just being strange to me, it’s now clear that I also don’t like ‘implied endings’. I don’t want to infer what happens, I want to read it. That…does not seem like a lot to ask for.

The author has said that we’ll see Ethan and Javier in the background/on the sidelines of book two, so we will see how things fall out for them eventually, albeit probably from a distance. I guess I can’t say whether or not that’ll satisfy me until I have the book in my hands.

But if you’re good with that – basically, if you can accept this as the first book of a series instead of a standalone – then you’re pretty golden. I had so much FUN with this one, folx, and I pretty much immediately wanted to read it again! My e-arc is full of highlighted lines and passages. There is no getting around or ignoring the fact that I stayed up till 3am reading Earthflown, and had to have it pried from my fingers in order to go to bed.

Yes, the ending bothers me. It doesn’t change the fact that Earthflown had me hooked from the first page to the last and made me enjoy every moment of it. This is a big, major win. I kind of can’t believe it’s a debut!

Wren is clearly an author to watch, and I strongly suggest you keep an eye on them – starting with preordering yourself a copy of their book!

The post You’ll Have To Pry It From My Hands: Earthflown by Frances Wren appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

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Published on April 11, 2024 01:57

April 10, 2024

I Can’t Wait For…Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger

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 Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger!

Sheine Lende (Elatsoe, #2) by Darcie Little Badger, Rovina Cai
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Lipan Apache MC
Published on: 16th April 2024
Goodreads

Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe launched her career and in the years since has become a beloved favorite. This prequel to Elatsoe, centered on Ellie's grandmother, deepens and expands Darcie's one-of-a-kind world and introduces us to another cast of characters that will wend their way around readers' hearts.

Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can't afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago following a devastating flood - and the loss of Shane's father and her grandparents. They don't think they'll ever get their home back.

Then Shane's mother and a local boy go missing, after a strange interaction with a fairy ring. Shane, her brother, her friends, and her lone, surviving grandparent - who isn't to be trusted - set off on the road to find them. But they may not be anywhere in this world - or this place in time.

Nevertheless, Shane is going to find them.

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Do you know Elatsoe??? If you do not, I have good news for you: it’s an amazing contemporary fantasy in a world like ours but where all sorts of magics are real and thriving, and it’s a very awesome story about a girl and her ghost-dog with illustrations by Rovina Cai! You should go read it immediately.

If you do know Elatsoe, I have good news for you: WE’RE GETTING A PREQUEL! Following Elatsoe’s amazing grandmother! Who USES GHOST-DOGS TO TRACK DOWN MISSING PEOPLE! How ridiculously amazing is that?!

I – like lots of people! – loved the world of Elatsoe, and am so excited-delighted to get to see it again – I would have been happy to do so no matter WHAT Little Badger chose to write about in this verse. But this??? This sounds EXTRA amazing! Of all the characters to feature, I’m so happy we’re getting Elatsoe’s grandmother – she was such a cool figure in the background of Elatsoe, with how her life and work with the ghost-dogs influenced Elatsoe.

And now we’ll get to see her up close! Plus – is that blurb implying Shane will have to travel out of the world to find her mom and the missing boy?!

It’s only a week until we find out – you still have time to preorder yourself a copy!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

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Published on April 10, 2024 08:53

April 8, 2024

Must-Have Monday #181

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.)

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, F/F, secondary biracial Indigenous character, minor MLM character, minor bi/pansexual character
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

Set on the stormy shores of Nova Scotia in 1832, A Sweet Sting of Salt is debut author Rose Sutherland's bold and magical queer retelling of the Celtic folktale The Selkie Wife with a feminist twist.

In 19th century Nova Scotia, village midwife Jean Langille’s first love ended in a quiet her childhood sweetheart married to a man on the far side of the colony, Jean's reputation in tatters. Now, all she wants is to be left alone in her cottage by the shore, to do her work and try to forget she ever knew how to love at all.

Then, a labouring woman appears in the salt marsh behind Jean’s home in the dead of night. Muirin is beautiful, enigmatic . . . and barely speaks a word of English, having come from away to marry the fisherman who lives up on the hill. As Jean picks apart the knot of Muirin's silence and the two women grow ever closer, Jean feels a growing unease. She suspects the marriage between Muirin and her husband Tobias may not be all it seems.

When Jean’s own past comes calling in the form of an unexpected visitor, stirring up old rumours and drawing her relationship with Muirin into question, she finds herself caught up in a deadly foxhunt with a desperate man in search of a mysterious stolen treasure. Jean must brave the depths of her own heart to save the woman she loves and uncover what Tobias is hiding—a Pandora’s box containing a wave big enough to drown Jean and Muirin both.

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I got to read this early, and the moment I finished it it went on my Best of 2024 list! I love this so much – there’s very little actual magic, and you need to know going in what a selkie is because the book never stops to lay it out for you…but my gods, it’s a beautiful book and a wonderful love story!

My review!

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Jewish MC
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

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It’s been a while since I read anything by Bardugo – I loved the collection of folktales set’ in her Grisha verse! – but I checked out the sneak peek on this one, and between that and the glowing reviews from reviewers I trust most faithfully… I’m looking forward to nabbing myself a copy!

The Last Phi Hunter by Salinee Goldenberg
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Thai-inspired/coded setting and cast
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

Ambitious Phi Hunter and perpetual lone wolf, Ex, finds his road to glory interrupted when a heavily pregnant runaway enlists his help to escape through the ghost-infected forest…

Ex, the youngest member of the Phi Hunters Order, has spent his life slaying the ghosts and demons of Suyoram Kingdom. While he takes great pride in his mystical trade, collecting dwindling bounties and peddling butchered spirit organs lacks the glory he craves. He’s determined to hunt down Shar-Ala, a demon of nightmares, of madness – who has eluded even Ex’s masters.

In a provincial village along the way, Arinya, a charming muay-boran champion, saves him from an ass-kicking, despite being nine months pregnant. In return, she asks him to escort her through the dangerous, spirit-filled forest, where ghosts salivate over the scent of the unborn.

But as more of Arinya’s secrets emerge, and the elusive demon nears, Ex must face dangers from both men and monsters, or lose not only the respect of the Phi Hunters, but the Hunters themselves, along with the woman he’s trying not to fall in love with.

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Monster-hunters are not usually my thing – I tend to side with the monsters! – but adventure-fantasy pulling from Thai mythology??? And I mean, that COVER! Who could resist???

Archangels Fall by Andrew Bryan
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

When the archangel Gabriel crashes down into a London Accident and Emergency department on a busy Saturday night, Grace's already hellish shift turns into a living nightmare. Soon the spiritual sensitivity that has tortured her most of her life is revealed to be a unique gift passed down through generations-one that could save humanity.

Meanwhile, having come to admire humanity's resolve, the Damned and his dark angels prepare to defend the very beings they were tasked to lead astray. As archangel Michael's minions descend to cleanse creation of humankind, its chief corruptor, the Damned must rally his reluctant compatriots, make hard choices, and choose a side, fast. Can an unlikely band of heroes and imperfect humans come together in time to find their salvation in the Lightbearer?

Blending the grit of Game of Thrones with the supernatural flair of Good Omens, Andrew Bryan introduces us to a world of archangels and fallen angels that weave through human history closer to the mythology's origins than ever before.

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I am MAJORLY into angels, and this sounds like an interesting take – the Lightbringer being the one to rally a defense of humanity?! Come on, I HAVE to check that out!

Catchpenny by Charlie Huston
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: MC with depression
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

A thief who can travel through mirrors, a video game that threatens to spill out of the virtual world, a doomsday cult on a collision course with destiny, and a missing teenager at the center of it all. With the world on the brink of every kind of apocalypse, humanity needs a hero. What it gets is Sid Catchpenny.

"I absolutely loved it. Catchpenny is a brilliant book, full of heart and the language is pitch-perfect. If Elmore Leonard had ever written a fantasy novel, this would be it.” —Stephen King

Sidney Catchpenny has had a bad run. Laid low by a years-long bout of debilitating depression, he’s all but squandered his reputation as one of the most uniquely talented thieves in LA. There aren’t many who can do what Sid does. He’s a sly , a special kind of crook with the uncanny ability to move through mirrors. And the spoils he’s after are equally unusual. Forget jewels and cold cash—Sid steals curiosities— items imbued with powerful mojo , a magical essence gleaned from the accumulated emotion that seeps into interesting, though often banal objects. That spot on the carpet where your old dog used to lay at your feet? The passed-down family heirloom nobody wants but everybody refuses to throw away? These curiosities are full of mojo, which is both the currency of the criminal underground and the secret source of magic in the world.

When a friend from Sid’s past comes looking for his help with an important client, and the chance to pay off old debts presents itself, Sid seizes the opportunity … as best he can. But the case he stumbles into is more complicated than it seems, and it portends a seismic shift in the world, one that will leave no one untouched. As the fog of his depression begins to lift, Sid sees connections everywhere he looks, and the once disparate threads of the case—a missing teenage girl, an entire bedroom saturated with mojo, and Sid’s own long-dead wife—begin to coalesce.

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The magic system here sounds really interesting, and early reviews promise that Sid is the dark-humour kind of depressed, which, I feel you my dude. Definitely going to give it a go; I have my fingers crossed for it!

The Book That Broke the World (The Library Trilogy #2) by Mark Lawrence
Genres: Science Fantasy
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

The second volume in the bestselling, ground-breaking Library Trilogy, following The Book That Wouldn’t Burn.

We fight for the people we love. We fight for the ideas we want to be true.

Evar and Livira stand side by side and yet far beyond each other's reach. Evar is forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover her book if she's to return to her life. While Evar's journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he's never seen, Livira's destination lies deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

And all the while, the library quietly weaves thread to thread, bringing the scattered elements of Livira's old life – friends and foe alike – back together beneath new skies.
Long ago, a lie was told, and with the passing years it has grown and spread, a small push leading to a chain of desperate consequences. Now, as one edifice topples into the next with ever-growing violence, it threatens to break the world. The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.

The Library Trilogy is about many things: adventure, discovery, and romance, but it's also a love letter to books and the places where they live. The focus is on one vast and timeless library, but the love expands to encompass smaller more personal collections, and bookshops of all shades too.

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The first book in this series was pretty damn impressive, and I have no idea where Lawrence is taking this story next. I probably won’t pounce on this right away, but it’s definitely going on the tbr!

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

An extraordinary, gloriously uplifting novel about the power of friendship and the puzzling ties that bind us

Clayton Stumper might be twenty-six years old, but he dresses like your grandpa and drinks sherry like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution.

When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton's life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. As Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve—and it's a secret that has the potential to change everything.

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This just sounds whimsical and ridiculous in the best way, like a great cosy read! Been really looking forward to this one for a while!

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Pacific Island-inspired/coded setting and cast
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology.

In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. An unwanted marriage, a painful illness, and unpaid debt ... gone. But as with all things that promise the moon and the stars and offer hope when hope has gone, the tale comes with a warning.

Every wish demands a price.

Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong.

Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time - hope.

But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.

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AHHHHHHH, I’M SO EXCITED TO FINALLY GET TO READ THIS! Everything about it gives me the biggest heart-eyes! And there are so many potential clues/Easter eggs in that gorgeous cover…!

The Smoke That Thunders by Erhu Kome
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: West African-inspired/coded setting and cast
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

From a debut Nigerian author: a spectacular young adult fantasy rooted in West African mythology and brimming with adventure.

In this mesmerizing fantasy rooted in Urhobo and West African folklore, sixteen-year-old Naborhi longs for a life away from her small, traditional clan in Kokori. But as her rite of passage approaches and she is betrothed to an arrogant young man, Naborhi feels her dreams slipping away from her.

Then Naborhi becomes bonded to a mysterious animal and begins having harrowing visions of a kidnapped boy. She soon meets Atai, the son of an Oracle from a rival queendom, and learns that she is being guided by the gods. She and Atai, along with Naborhi’s eager-for-adventure cousin, Tamunor, set off across the continent to rescue the mysterious boy. But when they find him―and find out his true identity―Naborhi realizes there is more than just her freedom at stake: she must stop a war that has already been set in motion.

With lush, unique worldbuilding and a dynamic cast of characters, The Smoke That Thunders is a gripping story of political intrigue, fierce love, and what it means to be free.

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Non-European mythology, bonding with a ‘mysterious’ animal (a magical version of a real-world animal, or a mythological beastie?) and a CROSS-CONTINENTAL quest? Um, I love this??? Yes please, gimme???

Of Sand & Silk (The Divine Tapestry, Book 1) by Claire Butler
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Middle Eastern-inspired/coded setting and cast, M/M/F
Published on: 13th April 2024
Goodreads

A deadly trial to keep his throne. A dangerous game to win his heart.

King Heroux was a famed warlord who sought to extend his Merovian lands by invading and conquering foreign kingdoms to create a vast and wealthy empire.

Until Henri killed him.

Now Henri has claimed his entire empire. The desert land of Merovia is different from anything he has ever known. The heat is punishing and the customs are strange. But more formidable than that are the people who do not want to embrace him as their new king, and the other Merovian kings who are keen to exact revenge on him for slaying one of their own.

As former regent and brother to the late King Heroux, Malik understands his people’s hatred toward the foreign king. But with a long-forgotten threat rising in the north, and the pending summit which will pitch all Merovian kings in a fight to the death to retain their kingdoms, Malik has little time to concern himself with Henri. Even if he does find him aggravatingly handsome.

When a highly coveted courtesan known as the Silk Rose is gifted to Henri in the hopes of securing an alliance, motives are questioned and loyalties are tested. But the Silk Rose has her own secrets, and she refuses to be sacrificed in this world of gods and kings.

Set in a rich Middle Eastern inspired world, Of Sand & Silk is an adult fantasy romance filled with intrigue, elemental magic, deities, plot twists, bisexual awakening, multiple POV, and MMF romance.

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Middle Eastern setting, court intrigue, DEITIES (!!!) and bisexual awakenings??? BE STILL MY BEATING HEART! This is all so VERY up my alley; here’s hoping it’s as great as it sounds!

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

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Published on April 08, 2024 01:11

April 6, 2024

A True Pearl: A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rosie Sutherland

Set on the stormy shores of Nova Scotia in 1832, A Sweet Sting of Salt is debut author Rose Sutherland's bold and magical queer retelling of the Celtic folktale The Selkie Wife with a feminist twist.

In 19th century Nova Scotia, village midwife Jean Langille’s first love ended in a quiet her childhood sweetheart married to a man on the far side of the colony, Jean's reputation in tatters. Now, all she wants is to be left alone in her cottage by the shore, to do her work and try to forget she ever knew how to love at all.

Then, a labouring woman appears in the salt marsh behind Jean’s home in the dead of night. Muirin is beautiful, enigmatic . . . and barely speaks a word of English, having come from away to marry the fisherman who lives up on the hill. As Jean picks apart the knot of Muirin's silence and the two women grow ever closer, Jean feels a growing unease. She suspects the marriage between Muirin and her husband Tobias may not be all it seems.

When Jean’s own past comes calling in the form of an unexpected visitor, stirring up old rumours and drawing her relationship with Muirin into question, she finds herself caught up in a deadly foxhunt with a desperate man in search of a mysterious stolen treasure. Jean must brave the depths of her own heart to save the woman she loves and uncover what Tobias is hiding—a Pandora’s box containing a wave big enough to drown Jean and Muirin both.

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.

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~midwives get RESPECT
~know! your!! myths!!!
~not all men sure but DEFINITELY this one
~the MC is Too Logical
~sapphic selkies ftw

A Sweet Sting of Salt is what I think is called low fantasy – there’s not a lot of magic at all, and what there is doesn’t try to explain itself. But it’s also a fantasy in the sense of, this is almost a historical fiction novel, but it’s one where queer characters get their happy endings without too much homophobia; where women escape and make lives for themselves outside of the patriarchy, again without nearly as much trouble as people of the time period probably would have experienced. It’s fantasy in the same way a daydream is fantasy, in that one aspect, and I really appreciated it.

There’s enough queerphobia in the real world, I don’t want to read about it in my fiction, okay?

But though it’s low-magic, don’t think this is a low-stakes, low-tension novel, because it most certainly is not. Anxiety for the characters had my guts in knots for a good half of the book, and there’s real, and really awful, violence, with the threat of worse hanging over the heads of the MC and her love interest.

It’s not a chill time, is what I’m saying here. A Sweet Sting of Salt is, well, sweet, but it’s also heart-in-your-throat nerve-wracking when it’s not giving you heart-ache – or both at once! Don’t curl up with this one expecting a calm cosy read, because that is NOT what you’re going to get!

Jean was outed by the spiteful mother of the girl she loved years ago, but earned back the respect of her neighbours by becoming a very skilled midwife. (This is not a coincidence; Jean’s amazing mentor, the half-Indigenous Anneke, deliberately set Jean to learning midwifery because few people are so bigoted they’re willing to ostracize the person their lives, or those of their female relatives, will almost certainly depend on someday.) And as the blurb says, the story gets moving when a heavily pregnant woman Jean didn’t even know about (what kind of pregnant person wouldn’t make sure the local midwife knew about their condition?) appears on her land late at night, only to go ahead and have the fastest and easiest delivery Jean has ever seen.

The mysterious woman is Muirin, who barely speaks a word of English – and yet, Jean is able to pick up on something between Muirin and her husband, Tobias, that makes her insist Muirin and the newborn stay with her for a while ‘just to make sure all’s well’.

I despise the lack-of-communication trope, where things could be cleared up so easily if characters just talked to each other clearly and honestly – but in Sweet Sting of Salt, the issue is that Muirin legitimately can’t communicate, as she knows very little English. And although the reader knows – or at least strongly suspects! – that Muirin is a selkie, and that’s probably why she’s so (charmingly) odd and doesn’t speak English, Jean reaches very logical conclusions to her own questions about Muirin’s nature and origins. A whole lot of assumptions are made, but they’re well-reasoned given what Jean knows of the world. This isn’t one of those stories where the supernatural is staring the MC in the face the entire time and they almost wilfully refuse to see it; although I was frantic for Jean to figure things out and get to helping Muirin, I could absolutely follow her reasoning when she came up with explanations for Muirin’s lack of family, her ignorance of the local culture, and even her strained relationship with Tobias. It was – kind of amusingly frustrating, that Jean was so rational? That there were so many perfectly obvious, perfectly reasonable explanations for all of Jean’s questions? There was just no way for someone in Jean’s position – in life, in history, in geography, even in the patriarchy – to put it together that Muirin isn’t a foreigner in a bad position, but an honest-to-gods selkie.

Part of that – and this is really my only critique of the book – is that selkies never come up in Jean’s thoughts or any other part of her life. I was really surprised that Sutherland never took the time to let the reader know what a selkie actually is – especially given that there was one scene in particular, when a child is asking for water-legend stories, that would have been the perfect moment to introduce the concept and make sure the reader knew the myth of the selkie. If you don’t already know what a selkie is when you go into this book, there’s a good chance you’ll be pretty confused when the reveal does come, as the book is written as if it’s taken for granted that every reader knows about selkies.

I mean, I do? But I’m a myth-nerd born in Ireland, where selkie stories are traditional. I’m not sure how or why Sutherland – or her editor – expects most readers to know what she’s on about. Selkies are not a type of magical creature that show up a lot in fantasy fiction; everyone knows what a dragon is (debates about how many limbs they should have aside) but selkies? Joane Harris’ The Blue Salt Road is the only selkie book I can think of from a reasonably-big-name author, and I don’t think it made enough of a splash (hah!) to put selkies on the map, as it were.

But as I said, this is a very low-magic historical fantasy, where the selkie reveal is a comparatively minor plot-point near the end of the book. Infinitely more important is the relationship that develops between Jean and Muirin, how trust becomes friendship becomes another kind of love; and there are definitely feminist themes, as the blurb promises, but Sweet Sting of Salt never feels like an IssuesTM book – I never felt like I was being preached at, or that Sutherland was stating the obvious and rubbing my face in it, as other heavier-handed storytellers have done.

I think it helps that the focus of the book is so intimate; it’s not an IssuesTM story because it is Jean-and-Muirin’s story. And a big part of that story is the legal powerlessness of women in this time period; is the specific danger most women and femmes face from most cis men, ie the threat of someone who is bigger and stronger than you; is the slowly growing horror of just how awful Muirin’s situation is – one that she is only in because of supernatural means, but that plenty of human women have experienced through history, and still do today. But I appreciated that these were all treated less as themes and more like real, practical problems faced by the characters, if that makes any kind of sense. It’s not about lessons for the reader, it’s about the stumbling blocks and hindrances and outright dangers the characters have to overcome to get their happy ending.

Sweet Sting of Salt is told from Jean’s perspective, and I think that was an excellent call. One of the things that drives Jean wild with worry as the book progresses is that she just doesn’t know what’s happening to Muirin – who is trapped with her ‘husband’ in a house even further away from town than Jean’s, somewhere even more isolated from other people. That tension, that worry, that fear, is one that builds in the reader too, as we – along with Jean – slowly start to put together that Tobias, Muirin’s husband, is not the caring and loving partner he initially appears to be. The more we realise that, the more we worry for Muirin, the more I was vibrating out of my skin with the need to know if she was okay and also to get her the hell away from him. Sutherland is an absolute master of pacing and tension – and at creating a character who wins our hearts so completely, despite having relatively little page-time.

Because it’s so easy to see why Jean cares for Muirin, why she falls in love with her. Muirin is captivating from the first moment she appears; odd, yes, but bright, shining through the pages. Her imperfect English isn’t enough to hide that she’s not just intelligent, but curious about everything and eager to learn. She is innocent, not in the shy-delicate-pure sense of the word, but innocent like a wild animal, unafraid to touch or hug or nuzzle, unashamed of her body and its workings, sometimes frustrated with her ignorance but not blaming herself for it. With Jean, she is frank and direct, making no attempt at demureness or being ‘ladylike’, free with her laughter and her feelings. She is fiercely alive, present, vibrant. She lights up the room. I’ve rarely come across a character who stole my heart as fast as Muirin did!

It’s no wonder Jean is drawn to her, then. But it’s something specifically, uniquely Jean that makes her care, care enough to push and push at the boundaries of propriety as she tries to put her finger on what it is about Muirin’s marriage that bothers her. It never reads as insta-love; instead I got the very clear sense that Jean is a person who is compelled to make sure others are well, that she wants to right wrongs when she can regardless of who’s involved, and that she is not willing – and maybe not able – to look away when she knows something is wrong. Yes, it gradually evolves into something more personal, into feelings that are specifically for Muirin, but long before that it’s clear that Jean is a pretty amazing person even when not motivated by love. She’s much more grounded, more down-to-earth, than Muirin is, but that’s one of the things that makes them so complementary, such a perfect fit for each other.

Of course, there’s Tobias in the way, and dear gods, just as I’ve rarely come across a character who stole my heart as fast as Muirin did, I have not often encountered villains I wanted viciously dead as badly as I did Tobias. Perhaps because Tobias’ evil is so disgustingly, terrifyingly mundane, too real and every-day. The gradual – I honestly don’t know whether to call it a transformation or a reveal, because for all that Tobias initially appears overprotective but very loving…he’s been a kidnapper and rapist from the moment he stole Muirin’s sealskin. Even while he still passes for a ‘normal’ husband, he’s anything but. So is it his true colours showing, when he becomes more controlling, more violent, more overtly dangerous? Or is it a change, a poisoning of his personality by jealousy and possessiveness and hate, the way a reasonably normal man can be swayed by, I don’t know, incel rhetoric or the like, and turn into a toxic version of his old self? I’m inclined to the former; I think if you believe it’s fine to kidnap someone via magical compulsion – if you don’t see how sex with someone who cannot (and for the record, fucking does not and would not) consent is rape – then you are already a terrible person, and it probably doesn’t take much ‘pressure’ at all for you to become more obviously, overtly cruel and violent.

I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Sutherland wanted me to take away from Tobias’ arc within the story.

This is the commentary on the selkie myth I have always wanted; an acknowledgement, a pointing-out, that capturing a magical shapeshifter and forcing her to be your wife and bear your children is fucking fucked-up, not any kind of romantic! That there is something deeply wrong with all the fishermen in all those stories who stole a selkie’s sealskin so that she would have to stay with him; that the ending of those stories, wherein the selkie gets her skin back and runs the fuck away back to the sea, is not tragic in the least, and the fisherman isn’t the one we should be feeling sorry for! The half-selkie children – often the ones to inadvertently return their mother’s skin to her, in the myths – sure, I feel really sorry for them. But their dad? Can take a long walk off a short pier, as far as I’m concerned.

(This book also manages to address something else that has always bothered me about the selkie myth; namely, what about those half-selkie children??? I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that the answer delighted me!)

~~Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t think I had enough thoughts for a proper review when I sat down to write this?~~

Sutherland has taken the grain of sand that is the Selkie Wife myth and built upon it, layers upon layers of incisive insight, thoughtfulness, honesty, history, secrets, and love – familial, platonic, romantic, toxic, true – and the result is a pearl, precious and wondrous and perfect in your hand. If you’re willing to brave a deep dive into All The Feels, you will find yourself richly rewarded. It’s certainly going on my Best of 2024 list!

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a beautiful, moving, passionate book, and I can’t recommend it enough.

The post A True Pearl: A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rosie Sutherland appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

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Published on April 06, 2024 13:35

April 4, 2024

A Charred Mess: The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond

The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC
PoV: Third-person, past-tense
Published on: 28th May 2024
ISBN: 1250290325
Goodreads
one-half-stars

Kill the dragon. Find the blade. Reclaim your honor.

It’s that, or end up like countless knights before her, as a puddle of gore and molten armor.

Maddileh is a knight. There aren’t many women in her line of work, and it often feels like the sneering and contempt from her peers is harder to stomach than the actual dragon slaying. But she’s a knight, and made of sterner stuff.

A minor infraction forces her to redeem her honor in the most dramatic way possible, she must retrieve the fabled Fireborne Blade from its keeper, legendary dragon the White Lady, or die trying. If history tells us anything, it's that “die trying” is where to wager your coin.

Maddileh’s tale contains a rich history of dragons, ill-fated knights, scheming squires, and sapphic love, with deceptions and double-crosses that will keep you guessing right up to its dramatic conclusion. Ultimately, The Fireborne Blade is about the roles we refuse to accept, and of the place we make for ourselves in the world.

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.

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~dragon history > human present
~beware mixing magical items
~absolutely zero questions are answered
~someone please kick this squire in the nuts already
~don’t judge this one by its cover

No, no, no, ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Hard fail. The only reason I actually pushed through and finished this was that it was so short I figured I might as well. But maybe I shouldn’t have, because the twist-reveal-and-ending was actually a really cool idea…executed so poorly. And I find that more annoying than a book that is just bad and boring with no interesting ideas in it.

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN SO GREAT.

BUT IT ISN’T.

It starts well, with a transcript of an interview between a knight and the mage council; the knight is giving an accounting of how he slayed his most recent dragon. It quickly becomes clear that dragons in this world emanate strange and dangerous magic that makes traversing their lairs very dangerous – those a dragon kills become ‘dragon ghosts’ who unintentionally guard their killer, and if you get past them and succeed at killing the dragoon, well…dragon corpses are even more terribly dangerous, and there’s no way to predict what kind of dangerous before the dragon is dead.

This is all reasonably interesting. What’s more interesting is that the mages reveal that this particular knight is a lying scumbag, and it did not go down the way he said it did.

But forget all that, because that has no bearing at all on the actual story, which is very, very TiredTM.

Nothing about Maddileh distinguishes her from The Woman Who Wants To Be A Knight template. We have seen this exact same character THOUSANDS of times before, facing exactly the same challenges in exactly the same setting; a quasi-Medieval patriarchy where women can’t be knights or mages. We do not know how Maddileh managed to become a knight despite that, especially since her mother doesn’t approve; it may have something to do with the king liking her a lot, but we have no idea why he does and we don’t see their relationship at all. We do not know how Maddileh earned her epithet, the Knight of the Stairs – there’s one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to her possibly defending her younger brothers from monsters by guarding a staircase, but we don’t get the story behind or around that. We do not see what Maddileh’s life as a knight is actually like: where does she live, who pays for her horses and tourney fees and (presumably expensive if they must reflect her rank) clothes, does she have the respect or friendship of any knights or do they all hate her, does she spend her time riding around the kingdom helping the needy or is she strictly a ‘dancing attendance upon the king’ type of knight?

We don’t get any of that, because she’s just a cardboard cut-out, a prop – and not a good one. For crying out loud, she has exactly one personality trait – she doesn’t like or trust magic.

THAT IS LITERALLY IT.

We get two timelines, more or less; the present, where Maddileh and her deeply suspicious squire are in the dragon’s lair, hunting the Blade; and another starting six months before, showing us – kinda – how Maddileh got the knowledge and tools she needed to potentially survive taking on this particular dragon. In between, we also get excerpts from an in-universe book on dragons and their history. That was fairly interesting – although maddeningly, there isn’t even any speculation on how dragons went from being sentient sapient beings to mindless animals – but neither timeline of the actual story was.

The squire has his own agenda, and frankly, it is a garbage agenda. Besides the reveal being info-dumped on us (like very nearly EVERYTHING ELSE IN THIS STUPID BOOK) it made very little sense, and almost all of it hinged on information the reader had no way of knowing beforehand – the worst kind of reveal. (Do not get me started on the fucking BOWL.)

And then – the twist. No spoilers, but it was legitimately a really cool reveal, albeit again, pure info-dump. But then came the second twist, the bigger, much more important one, and –

Look: it was rushed. It happened way too fast to be as impactful as it should have been. There was zero explanation as to how it worked, what exactly they did. And it was written in plain, blunt language that drained it of any possible mystique, any sense of awe. Capped off with a Very FeministTM oration that was clearly supposed to fill me with Girl Power vibes, but fell flat on its face because a) I didn’t care enough about the characters to care and b) I was still trying to understand wtf just happened and what the ramifications of it were supposed to be.

(At this point it will probably not surprise you when I say that my questions were not answered.)

Also, I’m calling bs on that blurb, because there is no amount of mental gymnastics you can perform that would justify describing Fireborne Blade as containing ‘sapphic love’. Even the Puritans wouldn’t see anything to object about in the ‘relationship’ (a term I use extremely loosely) between Maddileh and the woman who is not, even if I squint and turn the book upside-down, her love interest. The freaking Westboro Baptists wouldn’t bat an eye at handing this book to their kids (unless they have issues with women knights or dragons or anything else that isn’t queerness). There is maybe a moment – another one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-its – where Maddileh has a reaction to being touched by a pretty girl. But it’s so brief and so vague that I could argue in a court of law that Maddileh instead had a moment of anxiety, or wariness, or FREAKING GAS, and every person in that jury box would agree with me!

What romance? What are you talking about? They don’t have any kind of relationship, never mind a romance!

Honestly, if I didn’t know going into this that the MC was supposed to be attracted to women, I would have had no idea she was queer. It’s so not-present I’m not even 100% comfortable calling this a queer book. I will do so, because my rule is that if the MC is queer, it’s a queer book, and if you know how to interpret that one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment – if only because you’ve read the blurb – you know what we’re supposed to take away from it, ie that Maddileh is attracted to women as well as men (which is much more strongly established).

If you didn’t read the blurb, though, you really would have no clue.

‘Sapphic love’. FFS. Gods, I hope whatever idiots wrote the blurb edit it before release day. THAT IS WILDLY INACCURATE AND MISLEADING, PEOPLE. (Although the blurb, of course, is not Bond’s fault, unlike everything else in this book.)

This story desperately needed to be a full novel: every aspect of it, except maybe the dragons themselves, is underdeveloped and has no room to breathe. The breakneck pace of a novella did Fireborne Blade absolutely no favours; it needed more pages so it could slow down and immerse us in the world, give us time to connect to the characters – give the characters space to have actual personalities! In its current form, what is original and interesting comes too late (in the form of the plot twists) or in too-small doses (the info on the dragons) to be worth bothering with. There’s nothing in the characters, world, or plot to hold a reader’s attention, and the prose is too weak and basic to make up for that lack.

Definitely one to skip!

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Published on April 04, 2024 03:07

April 3, 2024

I Can’t Wait For…Keepers of the Stones and Stars by Michael Barakiva

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 Keepers of the Stones and Stars by Michael Barakiva!

Keepers of the Stones and Stars by Michael Barakiva
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 21st May 2024
Goodreads

Save the world. Get the guy.

Keepers of the Stones and Stars is a witty, young adult contemporary epic fantasy about a cheeky quintet of teens chosen by magical gems to save the world.

Reed is leading his best life: he’s just kissed the boy of his dreams, his band is starting to get actual paying gigs, and he’s a shoo-in to getting elected as next year’s Student Council president. But he’s ready to give it all up when his suspiciously aristocratic guidance counselor tells him he has been chosen to go on the adventure of a lifetime.

Because Reed is the first of five Stone Bearers who have been chosen by magical gems and granted super powers. All he has to do is unite all five and lead them to seal a portal that will release an onslaught of uncontrollable chaotic magical energies, and destroy the world as we know it. It’s up to the Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz, Emerald, and Amethyst Bearers to save the world, fulfilling their roles in a centuries-old cycle that dates back to the 17th century Mughal court and the first Bearers of the Stones.

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I haven’t seen anyone talking about this book, and that seems like a shame. As for my obsessed little self, I’ve been keeping track of it since the pub deal was announced – waaaaaaaaaaay back when it had another title entirely! Can you blame me? This promises to tick so many of my boxes – not just queer teens saving the world, but with magical jewels!!! Do you have any idea how much of a magpie I am??? I LOVE sparkly enchanted objects, okay? Gemstones, tiaras, necklaces, rings, whatever – and my absolute favourite is definitely jewels that aren’t enchanted but are inherently magical themselves, as I suspect these Stones must be!

And I was really happy when I found out that this is set to be a chonky book – 500+ pages in ebook form! Aside from the fact that I just like big books, I’m hopeful that a higher pagecount means there’s space for all five of the Bearers to shine, and that there’s room for all the history and mythology supposedly in here. The blurb mentions a history going back to the 17th century Mughal court – which is very specific, clearly I need to research that time period and see what was going on then that might have inspired Barakiva! – and early reviewers have mentioned Aztec mythology being present too!

How those two fit together, I have no idea, but I’m massively excited to find out. It sounds like Barakiva’s done his worldbuilding, which, we all know I go heart-eyes for worldbuilding. I already really want to know where the Stones came from – not to mention what they can do: do the different Stones have unique powers? And while we’re at it, what makes someone a Bearer?

Plus, you know, there’s the mystery of that title. Because we know the ‘keepers’ of the Stones will be Reed and the four others – but where and how do the stars come into it???

Only about a month and a half left until we find out!

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Published on April 03, 2024 09:34

April 1, 2024

Must-Have Monday #180

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.

This week is packed, with ELEVEN books this week!

(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Asexual sapphic MC, asexual sapphic love interest
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.

However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.

Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?

Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.

And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.

My newest favourite!!! This book is SO MUCH: ridiculously funny, intensely heartfelt, gross, cosy, horrifying, delightful – all while accurately representing how difficult it is to eat spaghetti neatly! In a word: PERFECTION!

My review!

The Jinn Daughter by Rania Hanna
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Middle-Eastern MCs
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

A stunning debut novel and an impressive feat of storytelling that pulls together mythology, magic, and ancient legend in the gripping story of a mother’s struggle to save her only daughter

Nadine is a jinn tasked with one job: telling the stories of the dead. She rises every morning to gather pomegranate seeds—the souls of the dead—that have fallen during the night. With her daughter Layala at her side, she eats the seeds and tells their stories. Only then can the departed pass through the final gate of death.

But when the seeds stop falling, Nadine knows something is terribly wrong. All her worst fears are confirmed when she is visited by Kamuna, Death herself and ruler of the underworld, who reveals her desire for someone to replace her: it is Layala she wants.

Nadine will do whatever it takes to keep her daughter safe, but Kamuna has little patience and a ruthless drive to get what she has come for. Layala’s fate, meanwhile, hangs in the balance.

Rooted in Middle Eastern mythology, Rania Hanna deftly weaves subtle, yet breathtaking, magic through this vivid and compelling story that has at its heart the universal human desire to, somehow, outmaneuver death.

I love how strange and unfamiliar this story sounds – like something completely new to me. And unfamiliar = exciting! I want more books drawing from mythologies and influences I don’t know much about, and Jinn Daughter definitely qualifies!

The Faithful Dark by Cate Baumer
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Ace-spectrum MC, major transmasc character, major bisexual character
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

In a holy city where sins and blessings can be revealed through consecrated touch, Csilla - born without a soul - is worthless to the Church that raised her. But when a series of murders corrodes the magic that keeps the city safe, the Church elders see a use for her flaw: she can assassinate their prime suspect, a heretic with divine heritage, without the stain of sin.

The heretic, however, makes a counter-offer: clear his name and catch the real killer, without becoming a target herself, and he'll use his power to get her a soul. When their investigation catches the attention of Ilan, a ruthless Church Inquisitor demoted for his failure to solve the case, he reluctantly offers his help in order to earn back his position. He’ll bring in the murderer— or failing that, Csilla and the heretic. But as the death toll rises and their hunt pits them against the Faith, Csilla will find that salvation comes at the cost of everything she believes in.

This was pitched to me way back as ‘Queer gothic fantasy with an ace healer, transmasc priest, and chaotic bisexual angel hunting a serial killer in fantasy Vatican’ and that remains ALL I NEED TO HEAR!!!

Lake of Souls: The Collected Short Fiction by Ann Leckie
Genres: Fantasy, Sci Fi
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie is a modern master of the SFF genre, forever changing its landscape with her groundbreaking ideas and powerful voice. Now, available for the first time comes the complete collection of Leckie's short fiction, including a brand new novelette, Lake of Souls.

Journey across the stars of the Imperial Radch universe.

Listen to the words of the Old Gods that ruled The Raven Tower.

Learn the secrets of the mysterious Lake of Souls.

And so much more, in this masterfully wide-ranging and immersive short fiction collection from award-winning author Ann Leckie.

I like the sound of returning to the Raven’s Tower and Imperial Radch worlds! But will there be shorts set in new places? I don’t mind either way – I’d be happy to check out brand new stuff of Leckie’s, but equally happy if every story is set in universes we already know!

Orphia and Eurydicius by Elyse John
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual gender-nonconforming MC and love interest
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

Their love transcends every boundary. Can it cheat death?

Orphia dreams of something more than the warrior crafts she's been forced to learn. Hidden away on a far-flung island, her blood sings with poetry and her words can move flowers to bloom and forests to grow ... but her father, the sun god Apollo, has forbidden her this art.

A chance meeting with a young shield-maker, Eurydicius, gives her the courage to use her voice. After wielding all her gifts to defeat one final champion, Orphia draws the scrutiny of the gods. Performing her poetry, she wins the protection of the goddesses of the arts: the powerful Muses, who welcome her to their sanctuary on Mount Parnassus. Orphia learns to hone her talents, crafting words of magic infused with history, love and tragedy.

When Eurydicius joins her, Orphia struggles with her desire for fame and her budding love. As her bond with the gentle shield-maker grows, she joins the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece. Facing dragons, sirens and ruthless warriors on the voyage, Orphia earns unparalleled fame, but she longs to return to Eurydicius.

Yet she has a darker journey to make - one which will see her fight for her love with all the power of her poetry.

I pounced on this when it was released in Australia last year, but ended up not finishing it. (Not because it was bad? I just drifted away from it.)I fully intend to give it another go now, though, in honour of its US publication!

Spectrum: An Autistic Horror Anthology by Aquino Loayza, Freydís Moon, Lor Gislason, Jonathan Lamantia, Ashley Lezak, Akis Linardos, Adrian Speth, Caroline Hung, Catherine Forrest, Chris Nelson, Die Booth, John Wiswell, Lucas Shipwright, Nexus Hope, Rain Corbyn, Tim Lieder, Steve Neal, Sarah Musnicky, Onyx Osiris, Olive J. Kelley, Xan van Rooyen, Xochilt Avila, Zach Rosenberg
Genres: Horror
Representation: Autistic MCs
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

Deep in the recesses of our minds are twisted realities that so closely mirror our own. In these pages, our nightmares are laid bare, made to manifest. There is no waking up; there is no going back once you fall into the tapestry of terrors that await. Are you ready? From courteous neighbors gone awry to the burning brightness of everlasting daylight comes Spectrum: An Autistic Horror Anthology reflective of the vast array of neurodivergent artists in our community and the things that keep them up in the night, the things they can’t look away from.

Don’t Blink.

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I am autistic, and I do not know what autistic horror entails specifically – although I have enjoyed both horror written by autistic authors and horror with autistic MCs before, what makes autistic horror distinct from other horror? I don’t know, but I’m eager to find out!

Dayspring by Anthony Oliveira
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

A singular, stunning debut that transcends and transfigures genre—at once a bold retelling of biblical tales and an unforgettable contemporary coming-of-age story, connected in collapsing time across millennia.

There are few love stories in the holy books. Love is what ruins. Love is what costs. Love is a flaming sword at our backs, a garden left to ruin and to wild.

In Dayspring, Anthony Oliveira brings to vibrant, glorious life the gospel according to the disciple Christ loved—his companion in the days before the crucifixion, the only instrument that remembers with fidelity his sound.

Sacred, profane, and rich with explicit desire and a poetic attention to form, Dayspring weaves electric and heart-wrenching stories of passion, grief, destruction, and survival into a narrative unmoored in space and time, one that re-examines and re-frames great and doomed figures from scripture and history, even as it casts its keen eye on the trials of modern life.

Seamlessly blending fiction, memoir, and verse in the exhilarating tradition of Anne Carson and Madeline Miller, Dayspring is an immersive, mesmerizing work, one that wrenches beauty from cataclysm and finds bliss in apocalypse.

Despite not being super sure exactly what this book is about, I’ve been looking forward to it since the pub deal was announced! You queer Biblical stuff, I am there by default!

The Black Girl Survives in This One by Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Brittney Morris, L.L. McKinney
Genres: Horror
Representation: Black MCs
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

Be warned, dear reader: The Black girls survive in this one.

Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.

The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L. L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maritza & Maika Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado, with a foreword by Tananarive Due.

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Okay, so when I first heard about this anthology, I thought it was a collection of horror stories where the reader could go in knowing the Black girls survive – whatever other scary stuff was in there, you wouldn’t have to worry about THAT, at least.

But taking a closer look…it kinda sounds like the Black girls might be the scary ones??? Either in a scary-to-the-monsters way, or monstrous themselves??? Which sounds FREAKING EPIC??? I need this immediately!!!

Darker by Four by June C.L. Tan
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Chinese cast and setting, Bisexual MCs
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

EVEN GODS NEED TO FORGET.

A girl who lost her magic. The boy who found it. And a city having one Hell of a time . . .

As an Exorcist-in-training, Rui is tasked with purging the city of Revenants, souls of the dead who have returned to feast on the energy of the living. For Rui, the fight is personal - a Revenant murdered her mother, and she wants revenge.

But Rui's first encounter with a Revenant is nothing like she expects. And when she is nearly killed protecting Yiran, the spoiled, magicless youngest son of one of the most powerful families in the Exorcist Guild, Rui uses a volatile spell to transfer her magic to him.

The pair soon realise that the spell cannot be undone. And as Revenants overrun the city and Rui's hope of revenge fades, Rui is willing to do whatever it takes to regain her magic. Even if that means making a deal with a shadowy stranger to track down a god who does not wish to be found . . .

A sparkling urban fantasy with an achingly slow burn romance at its heart, Darker By Four is the perfect book for fans of Legendborn and The Mortal Instruments , as well as anyone looking to immerse themselves in a shadowy world brimming with magic.

I have seen no mentions of a love triangle, which is reassuring (I only like them if they end in polyamory), as everything else about this sounds great! And the early reviews have been GLOWING – I’m looking forward to getting to check it out myself!

Call Forth a Fox by Markelle Grabo
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

The western wood is where Ro’s father built their garden, taught her to forage, and told her tales of the faeries who live there—how to summon them, how to protect herself, and warnings of what they are capable of. Now, her father is gone, the garden has withered, and their family is struggling. Her mother and sister want to move into town, but Ro doesn't want to give up the memories of her father and his stories—or the charming village girl who shares Ro's love of the trees. And the forest isn’t ready to let her go either.

One winter night, on her way home from foraging, Ro encounters a fox being attacked by a bear. She fights the bear to save the fox’s life, only to see the bear turn into a boy after her sister shoots him with an arrow. When the boy wakes, he has no memory of who he is—all he knows is Ro’s name and that he has to kill the fox.

Ro never believed in the faeries from her father’s stories, but she can’t deny the magic surrounding her and that both the boy and the fox are victims of a faerie curse. She’ll have to remember everything her father taught her in order to extract herself from this deadly game and keep her precious fox out of harm’s way.

Between the blurb and the cover, this has a wonderful fairytale feel to it, which I like a lot! And I admit to being curious about that fox…

Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror
Published on: 2nd April 2024
Goodreads

A seductively twisted romance about loyalty, fate, the lengths we go to hide the darkest parts of ourselves . . . and the people who love those parts most of all.

Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she's just inherited -- to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement -- Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.

Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family's property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can't really live, either. Not while he's bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There's only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.
He needs to kill Wyatt.

With Wyatt's parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter -- the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who's sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.

I have heard so many amazing things about this book that I had to include it. Dark creepiness and all the fucked-up feels one could ask for (allegedly)! I am very hopeful for it!

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

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Published on April 01, 2024 01:11

March 31, 2024

In Short: March

I just woke up one Tuesday and my depressive episode was over. THANK FUCK. I’m feeling much more back to normal and I can actually read again!!! Honestly, I think the worst parts of my episodes are that I don’t enjoy reading during them. ANYWAY. Yay for feeling better!

ARCs Received

I was approved for The Dollmakers on my birthday, which was an EPIC birthday gift, and all of my arcs this month have spots on my Unmissable SFF of 2024 list! Which is another way of saying that I am RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED FOR ALL OF THEM! Maybe most especially Long Live Evil; I’ve been a Sarah Rees Brennan fan since her very first book, and this isn’t just her return to writing non-ip fiction, but her Adult debut! I already know I’m going to love it.

Read

US Cover

18 books finished this month – much better than February, though still not back to what I’d consider my norm. But there were so many stunning reads this month! Feast Makers was the perfect conclusion to my favourite queer witch trilogy, and though it took me a minute, once I clicked with Projections I couldn’t put it down! Many Drops Make a Stream was an indie book I took a chance on, and adored; I think it’s my favourite take on shapeshifters EVER.

I reviewed both March’s End and Someone You Can Build a Nest In – the latter, in particular, was MOST EXCELLENT – but I’m kicking myself for taking so long to read The Memory Librarian, because yes, it is exactly as mindblowingly good as everyone has always said it was! If you haven’t gotten to it yet, you really, REALLY need to!

A Sweet Sting of Salt is an arc I nearly DNFed, but I’m so glad I didn’t – despite being very low-magic, it was wonderful. And it was nice to reread Birth of the Firebringer, aka book one in the Watership Down-for-unicorns trilogy.

To the best of my knowledge, 11% of this month’s books had BIPOC authors. Though they were both anthologies with multiple BIPOC authors, for what that’s worth.

Reviewed

I did not write NEARLY as many reviews as I meant to this month – do I ever? – but I’m pretty happy about how the reviews for Feast Makers and Someone You Can Build a Nest In turned out.

DNF-ed

A lot of DNFs this month, including lots that were on my most anticipated list for the year. Sigh. But that’s how it goes sometimes! (Although I should note that I DNFed The Dead Take the A Train because I couldn’t handle the gore, not because it’s a bad book!)

ARCs Outstanding

Many, many arcs. I’m making a decent dent in READING them; it’s sitting down and writing up my thoughts that’s proving difficult.

Unmissable SFF Updates

More new books and covers added to my Unmissable SFF of 2024 list! And I did remove two books from the list this month, but only because both have been pushed back and won’t be out until next year. They’re two of my most anticipated books, they definitely weren’t cut because I don’t care about them anymore!

This brings us to a total of 94 Unmissable books!

How did my predictions/anticipated reads for March go? Uh, not well! Of the nine books I declared Unmissable for my birthday month;

One was a five-star read (The Feast Makers)One was fine but I didn’t love it (The Woods All Black)One I ended up really unhappy with (The Floating Hotel)Four were DNFs (A Botanical Daughter, The Mars House, Song of the Huntress, and The Emperor and the Endless Palace)Two I didn’t even get to! (Welcome to Forever and The Truth of the Aleke)

One (and a half?) out of nine is pretty terrible! My predictive skills for March were not-great, clearly! Fingers crossed I do better with April.

Misc

This month marks the conclusion of r/Fantasy’s annual book bingo, and I juuust managed to hit my last couple of bingo squares before the cut-off!

I intend to make a full post with my bingo reads (and very belatedly finish the post I started writing for the 2022 bingo!) but no promises on WHEN I’ll manage it.

I do encourage people to check out the bingo (2024’s prompt list will be going live tomorrow) especially if you want something to nudge you into reading outside of your comfort zones. There’s a few on this year’s card I definitely wouldn’t have picked up – or that I would have DNFed – if they hadn’t been for bingo squares!

Danielle Trussoni has announced in her newsletter that she is writing a continuation of her Angelology series – but only for her newsletter readers, so go subscribe if you’re interested. It’s not clear if this third instalment is going to be a short story or novella (which would be my guess, if it’s something she isn’t going to be sharing elsewhere) or the full novel we were all expecting to close out the trilogy. I’m hoping for a serialised novel, but I won’t hold my breath. Sigh. I really loved Angelology when it first came out, so whatever form this new instalment takes, I hope it’s great!

Also I made a (very simple) sparkly gif to celebrate the release of august clarke’s Feast Makers, and I regret nothing!

Looking Forward

Even without including books I have arcs of (though I’m VERY invested in reading the final versions of some of them!) April is still full of releases I’m excited for! Sequels, debuts, and new books from authors I already know I adore – I predict an excellent (and very packed) reading month!

May we all have an amazing April!

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Published on March 31, 2024 13:07

SFF For Trans Day of Visibility!

Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility, everyone! If you’ve been here a while, you know I celebrate big days with rec lists, so here’s one for today!

(Apologies that it’s so short; I try not to repeat books I’ve recced before, these days, and I’ve featured most of my faves before!)

The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Trans MC, trans love interest
Goodreads

A baroque work of intimate myth exploring one woman's interdimensional search for beauty and embodiment, through kaleidoscopic renderings of hospital corridors, brutal breakups, and passionate romance.

The Fifth Wound is a phantasmagorical roman à clef about passion as a way of life. In one dimension, this is a love story--Aurora & Ezekiel--a separation and a reunion. In another, we witness a tale of multiple traumatic encounters with transphobic violence. And on yet another plane, a story of ecstatic visionary experience swirls, shatters, and sparkles.

Featuring time travel, medieval nuns, knifings, and t4t romance, The Fifth Wound indulges the blur between fantasy and reality. Its winding sentences open like portals, inviting the reader into the intimacy of embodiment--both its pain and its pleasures.

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This is a gorgeous, hypnotic, decadent, experimental accounting of a period in one trans woman’s life – but the imagery of her thoughts, the way she sees the world, makes it both literary fiction and phantasmagorical fantasy at once. It’s very hard to explain: it’s one of those books that has to be experienced, because no description is going to do it justice!

Prophet by Sin Blaché, Helen Macdonald
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Desi masc nonbinary/genderqueer MC, M/M
Goodreads

Daring, surprising and superbly plotted, this is a fresh, thrilling page-turner from a dynamic new duo in genre fiction

Your happiest memory is their deadliest weapon.
THIS IS PROPHET.

It knows when you were happiest. It gives life to your fondest memories and uses them to destroy you. But who has created it? And what do they want?

An all-American diner appears overnight in a remote British field. It's brightly lit, warm and inviting but it has no power, no water, no connection to the real world. It's like a memory made flesh - a nostalgic flight of fancy. More and more objects materialise: toys, fairground rides, pets and other treasured mementos of the past.

And the deaths quickly follow.Something is bringing these memories to life, then stifling innocent people with their own joy. This is a weapon like no other. But nobody knows who created it, or why.

Sunil Rao seems a surprising choice of investigator. Chaotic and unpredictable, the former agent is the antithesis of his partner Colonel Adam Rubenstein, the model of a military man. But Sunil has the unique ability to distinguish truth from lies: in objects, words and people, in the past and in real time. And Adam is the only one who truly knows him, after a troubled past together. Now, as they battle this strange new reality, they are drawn closer than ever to defend what they both hold most dear.

For Prophet can weaponise the past. But only love will protect the future.

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Blink and you’ll miss the line where he says so, but Rao isn’t cis. What he is is a whole lot of trouble with one of coolest superpowers, utilised the most intelligently, that I’ve ever seen! This is a compulsively readable sci fi that deals with some very weird and unique ideas, but the real appeal is the two main characters and their very complicated dynamic. Ignore the boring cover; this one’s pretty psychedelic, albeit much easier to read than Fifth Wound!

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe, Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Sheree Renée Thomas
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi, Science Fantasy
Representation: QBIPOC MCs, F/F
Goodreads

In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, activist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums, exploring how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms.

Whoever controls our memories controls the future.

Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate.

That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free.

Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian existence…and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the traditions of speculative writers such as Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with the artistic genius and powerful themes that have made Monáe a worldwide icon in the first place—The Memory Librarian serves readers tales grounded in the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, but also reaching through to the worlds of memory and time within, and the stakes and power that exists there.

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There is a non-zero chance I’m the last person to read this and everyone else looking for trans SFF leapt on this masterpiece ages ago – but just in case you haven’t come across it before, I can tell you that this is a masterpiece! Not every story features a trans or non-binary MC, but a lot do, and the Dirty Computer setting is an invention of Monáe’s, who is herself non-binary. Making the entire Dirty Computer universe and everything in it a non-binary creation!

Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans nonbinary Seminole demiromantic pansexual MC, polyamory, brown trans love interest, plus-sized Indigenous trans love interest, QBIPOC cast, very minor fibromyalgia rep
PoV: First-person, present-tense
Goodreads

Infatuation. Reincarnation. Damnation.

Gem Echols is a nonbinary Seminole teen living in the tiny town of Gracie, Georgia. Known for being their peers’ queer awakening, Gem leans hard on charm to disguise the anxious mess they are beneath. The only person privy to their authentic self is another trans kid, Enzo, who’s a thousand long, painful miles away in Brooklyn.

But even Enzo doesn’t know about Gem’s dreams, haunting visions of magic and violence that have always felt too real. So how the hell does Willa Mae Hardy? The strange new girl in town acts like she and Gem are old companions, and seems to know things about them they’ve never told anyone else.

When Gem is attacked by a stranger claiming to be the Goddess of Death, Willa Mae saves their life and finally offers some answers. She and Gem are reincarnated gods who’ve known and loved each other across lifetimes. But Gem – or at least who Gem used to be - hasn’t always been the most benevolent deity. They’ve made a lot of enemies in the pantheon—enemies who, like the Goddess of Death, will keep coming.

It’s a good thing they’ve still got Enzo. But as worlds collide and the past catches up with the present, Gem will discover that everyone has something to hide.

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Yes, Godly Heathens is YA, but even if you don’t typically read YA, I strongly urge you to give this one a try, because, just – wow. Freaking WOW. This whole book is one big mic-drop, honestly; the premise is ridiculously cool, and don’t be fooled by what (at first) seems like simplistic worldbuilding, because it’s all much more complex than you’d think!

Also, I challenge you to read this and not fall in love with the absolute trainwreck that is Gem. Go ahead. I dare you.

Besides, the sequel (and final book) is out next month, so you won’t have to wait long to find out what happens next!

My review!

The Scapegracers (Scapegracers, #1) Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Butch lesbian nonbinary MC, major bisexual Asian, assorted queer and BIPOC and QBIPOC minor characters-American character, major queer Black character,
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
Goodreads

An outcast teenage lesbian witch finds her coven hidden amongst the popular girls in her school, and performs some seriously badass magic in the process.

Skulking near the bottom of West High’s social pyramid, Sideways Pike lurks under the bleachers doing magic tricks for Coke bottles. As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider, she’s had a hard time making friends. But when the three most popular girls pay her $40 to cast a spell at their Halloween party, Sideways gets swept into a new clique. The unholy trinity are dangerous angels, sugar-coated rattlesnakes, and now–unbelievably–Sideways’ best friends.

Together, the four bond to form a ferocious and powerful coven. They plan parties, cast curses on dudebros, try to find Sideways a girlfriend, and elude the fundamentalist witch hunters hellbent stealing their magic. But for Sideways, the hardest part is the whole ‘having friends’ thing. Who knew that balancing human interaction with supernatural peril could be so complicated?

Rich with the urgency of feral youth, The Scapegracers explores growing up and complex female friendship with all the rage of a teenage girl. It subverts the trope of competitive mean girls and instead portrays a mercilessly supportive clique of diverse and vivid characters. It is an atmospheric, voice-driven novel of the occult, and the first of a three-book series.

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Yes, I’ve recommended this series before – but this is the first time I’ve gotten to recommend the complete trilogy, because book three was only released this week! These are YA too, but that doesn’t stop them from being electric and razor-sharp with absolutely breathtaking prose – and magic that feels so real. The MC Sideways only starts using they/them pronouns at the very end of book two, but there’s a lot of gender feeds going on before that!

My review of The Scapegracers
My review of The Scratch Daughters
My review of The Feast Makers

You can find some of my other trans and non-binary SFF recs at the links below!

Fantasy Featuring Fabulous Trans Leads
Your Gender Binary Is Imaginary: Non-Binary Characters in Fantasy (+bonus scifi)
Your Gender Binary Is Still Imaginary: SFF For International Non-Binary People’s Day!
Celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility With SFF!
SFF Faves From Trans and Nonbinary Authors!
Your Gender Binary Remains Imaginary: SFF For Non-Binary People’s Day!

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Published on March 31, 2024 12:03

March 30, 2024

March DNFs

A mix of arcs and books I bought myself, but hoo boy, there were a lot of Fails this month.

Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black trans bi/pansexual MC, genderfluid bi/pansexual love interest, bi/pansexual love interest
ISBN: B0C572T6GP
Goodreads
three-half-stars

Infinity Alchemist is a spellbinding novel about a quest that leads three young alchemists toward unexpected love and unimaginable power.

With their signature "prowess" (FIYAH) and "unbridled creativity" (New York Times Book Review), acclaimed author Kacen Callender turns their formidable skill to young adult fantasy for the first time.

For Ash Woods, practicing alchemy is a crime.

Only an elite few are legally permitted to study the science of magic—so when Ash is rejected by Lancaster College of Alchemic Science, he takes a job as the school’s groundskeeper instead, forced to learn alchemy in secret.

When he’s discovered by the condescending and brilliant apprentice Ramsay Thorne, Ash is sure he's about to be arrested—but instead of calling the reds, Ramsay surprises Ash by making him an offer: Ramsay will keep Ash's secret if he helps her find the legendary Book of Source, a sacred text that gives its reader extraordinary power.

As Ash and Ramsay work together and their feelings for each other grow, Ash discovers their mission is more dangerous than he imagined, pitting them against influential and powerful alchemists—Ash’s estranged father included. Ash’s journey takes him through the cities and wilds across New Anglia, forcing him to discover his own definition of true power and how far he and other alchemists will go to seize it.

Featuring trans, queer, and polyamorous characters of color, Infinity Alchemist is the hugely anticipated young adult fantasy debut from the extraordinary author of Felix Ever After, King and the Dragonflies, Queen of the Conquered and more.

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.

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This was going really well until I started to approach the halfway point – when a huge, major, life-and-game-changing event is summarised for us instead of playing out on the page. That is something I really can’t stand, but for once I actually pushed on.

But then we have the utter nonsense that is Ash’s imprisonment. Look, when alchemy comes down to focus and imagination, how can you keep an alchemist imprisoned without drugging them so they can’t focus? If you leave them clear-headed, what’s to stop them from blowing up a wall and escaping?

Nothing. But that doesn’t happen, because Reasons, I guess?

How can you possibly justify allowing someone with that kind of power to wander around unimpeded, accompanied only by a young (and therefore less experienced!) guard, who is not themselves a proper magic user? THIS KID COULD BLOW YOU ALL UP AT ANY MOMENT, AND THAT’S JUST FINE???

(There’s a scene where a fellow trainee guard points out how dangerous and unreasonable the situation is, to which the response is something along the lines of ‘what good are we if 20 of us can’t take out one alchemist?’ UM, YOU’RE ALL TRAINEES? AND HE’S ALREADY DEMONSTRATED HE’S A LIVING BOMB AT LEAST ONCE? I THINK IT IS VERY REASONABLE TO FIND THIS SITUATION UNREASONABLE, ACTUALLY.)

And this is all after the unbearably-contrived Because Plot dance that was Ash not getting executed for what he’d done – not that I’m sure he should have been executed for it, but the intervention, the arguments and reasoning that stopped the wheels of the law and kept him alive – it wasn’t the tiniest bit convincing.

I just couldn’t believe that rational human beings would ever behave this way – re not drugging a magic user, re the guard, re keeping him alive at all. When you’re telling a story and run into this problem – no real person would do The Thing – you’ve either got to change what happens or come up with something extremely clever to justify it, and that just didn’t happen here.

For the record, although I was really excited to be diving into a fantasy with a polyamorous romance, I didn’t think either of the love interests were worthy of Ash. Both of them come from upper class backgrounds, and at least in the first half of the book (all I read – so for all I know, this gets dealt with better in the rest of the book) neither of them seemed to grasp the difference their wealth made between their situations and lives, and Ash’s. I thought they were both quite awful about it, actually; for me, it massively outweighed their good points, which meant I wasn’t at all invested in the romance plotline/s.

I also really, really hated the reveal of where the Quest Object was. OF ALL THE PLACES ON THE ENTIRE PLANET. OUT OF ALL THE WORLDS YOU VISIT WHILE ASTRAL-PROJECTING. IT’S THERE??? That’s just too easy.

Noooooooooooo thank you. Sia out.

The Dead Take the A Train (Carrion City, #1) by Cassandra Khaw, Richard Kadrey
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, nonbinary secondary character
PoV: Third-person, past tense; multiple PoVs
ISBN: B0BQGJRBQR
Goodreads
four-stars

Bestselling authors Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey have teamed up to deliver a dark new story with magic, monsters, and mayhem, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.

Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs to claw her way to the top.

Julie is desperate for a quick career boost to break the dead-end grind, but her pleas draw the attention of an eldritch god who is hungry for revenge. Her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts her closest friends – and the entire world – directly in the path of annihilation.

The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Khaw’s cosmic horror and Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly.

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This is not a bad book: in fact, from what I’ve read of it (about the first quarter) it’s freaking awesome.

…But as I feared, I am WAY too much of a wimp to be able to handle it. There’s so much gore! Really graphic, gross gore! And seriously icky monsters! And everything is so grim and heartbreakingly – depressing isn’t quite the right word. Hard, maybe? It’s poverty and rich people spitting on you and capitalism just out to stomp on you, but with literal soul-eating demons.

And I cannot handle it, even if the prose is, as expected with Khaw involved, phenomenal. I even love the main character and her friends! But I’m too much of a wimp to survive the actual story.

(I do hope I can give this another go in the future. I really want to read it! I just…can’t. At least not right now. Alas!)

The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; multiple PoVs
Published on: 7th May 2024
ISBN: 1039007570
Goodreads
one-star

Set in a Jewish folklore-inspired reimagining of 19th century Eastern Europe, this queer dark fantasy debut pits two estranged husbands and a daring spymaster on opposite sides of a civil war.

Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.

But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.

Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.

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.

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I should have realised my relationship with this book was doomed the moment I read this travesty

It’s not as if he’s going to be able to cut a transport deal to the east with the Urushkins without getting his balls handed back to him on a silver platter with a side of caviar.”

Dimitri blinked to clear the visions from his mind of what he and Alexey had done with caviar.

halfway through the opening chapter.

CAVIAR IS NOT SEXY. I DO NOT WANT MENTAL IMAGES OF WHAT THESE TWO MIGHT HAVE BEEN DOING WITH CAVIAR IN A SEXUAL CONTEXT. STOP IT. WHY. WHY WOULD YOU EVEN GO THERE. WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU.

YES I AM KINK-SHAMING YOU. BITE ~~YOUR CAVIAR~~ ME AND SHUT UP.

(In complete fairness, this isn’t indicative of Samotin’s skill, or lack thereof, with sex scenes, because the sex scenes are actually perfectly fine. I just feel like there’s something about this caviar thing that proves this writer has a fundamental misunderstanding of what the reader is going to find sexy and/or funny, because seriously – caviar??? Imagine that on your skin! GROSS.)

Dimitri has a lot of reasons to angst, but his complete lack of hope or anything like it makes for pretty miserable reading, and didn’t give me a lot to empathise with. You are, arguably, a Tsar; you don’t get to give up, because you have a responsibility to your people to get them out of the mess you left them in. Alternatively, if you are going to give up, then fucking give up and don’t let your people – the ones who escaped with you into exile – risk themselves in working to get you back your throne.

Pick a lane and commit to it!

Then we have the villain, Alexey, Dimitri’s ex-husband, who wants to rule the imperial court through fear, but also by example re being forward-thinking and demonstrating that he is The Most Modern And Smartest. He leans into them thinking he’s some kind of demon by dressing in all-black, but hates superstition and is vaguely offended they think he’s a demon. But lets the nobles get away with wearing anti-demon talismans, even though a) superstition and b) if they think he’s a demon, then their wearing these talismans is hugely rude and arguably a kind of treason.

Forget the court, it feels a lot more like Samotin can’t decide whether or not he’s a demon. Once again: pick a take/approach and commit to it, for crying out loud.

Then we have the third PoV character, the Tsar-in-exile’s vaunted spymaster, who genuinely thinks this

Vasily just wished he’d never seen Alexey in person. It was hard to reconcile knowing Alexey was evil with thinking that he was insufferably handsome.

You’re a SPY. A SPY. How can it possibly be difficult for you to accept that handsome people are evil? Shouldn’t you of all people know that appearances are meaningless? What with being a SPY? An honest-to-gods SPYMASTER, in fact?

So basically, all three of our main characters are pretty poorly-written, imo, being weak, contradictory, and idiotic to varying degrees.

The main issue, though, is just that I find the writing really basic and blunt. The language level and sentence structure and so on are really simplistic, and therefore boring, no matter how interesting the plot and themes might be. Word choice and phrasing are both so dull – I want prose that’s complex, that engages me, that I’m not editing in my head as I read to make it sound more sophisticated and polished. It kind of feels like, having created an interestingly complicated story, Samotin was worried about us being able to follow it all and dumbed down the writing to make it easier on us.

There’s also an awful lot of info-dumping, which, I get that Samotin chose to set the story after the big war and therefore has to find a way to tell us all about it, but – that was a choice that was made, and you’re responsible for the effects of that choice. Find a better way to get us all this information than dropping it on us like lead weights.

Hard DNF. There’s the bones (hah) of a really great story here, but I absolutely cannot stand the execution of it.

Drakon by A.M. Tuomala
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Lesbian MC
ISBN: 9781936460410
Goodreads
two-half-stars

A hundred years ago, the dragons abandoned Russia and defected to Turkey. Ever since, the Tarasov family has held the Russian border. Now, as war looms in the south and the century-old mystery of the Defection cracks open, the Tarasovs must face their family’s old sins and put aside their differences … or watch Russia fall.

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I think it’s time to admit that I am not going to finish this. I am bored out of my MIND, because this really isn’t a dragon book, it’s almost entirely about a messed-up family of (very down on their luck) Russian nobles. What we got about the dragons and their language was amazing, but for some inexplicable reason the focus is all on these dysfunctional siblings and which of them (if any) murdered their father. I don’t care about murder mysteries, I don’t care about family drama unless it’s far weirder than this, and I definitely don’t care about Industrial Age Russia. I ended up using this as an insomnia cure, because it put me to sleep like magic.

This is so strange given that I adored Tuomala’s latest book, The Map and the Territory (which I STRONGLY recommend) but I guess at least this part of their backlist is really not for me!

A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock
Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M, sapphic MC
Published on: 19th March 2024
ISBN: 1803365927
Goodreads
three-stars

Mexican Gothic meets The Lie Tree by way of Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley in this delightfully witty horror debut. A captivating tale of two Victorian gentlemen hiding their relationship away in a botanical garden who embark on a Frankenstein-style experiment with unexpected consequences.

It is an unusual thing, to live in a botanical garden. But Simon and Gregor are an unusual pair of gentlemen. Hidden away in their glass sanctuary from the disapproving tattle of Victorian London, they are free to follow their own interests without interference. For Simon, this means long hours in the dark basement workshop, working his taxidermical art. Gregor's business is exotic plants – lucrative, but harmless enough. Until his latest acquisition, a strange fungus which shows signs of intellect beyond any plant he's seen, inspires him to attempt a masterwork: true intelligent life from plant matter.

Driven by the glory he'll earn from the Royal Horticultural Society for such an achievement, Gregor ignores the flaws in his plan: that intelligence cannot be controlled; that plants cannot be reasoned with; and that the only way his plant-beast will flourish is if he uses a recently deceased corpse for the substrate.

The experiment – or Chloe, as she is named – outstrips even Gregor's expectations, entangling their strange household. But as Gregor's experiment flourishes, he wilts under the cost of keeping it hidden from jealous eyes. The mycelium grows apace in this sultry greenhouse. But who is cultivating whom?

Told with wit and warmth, this is an extraordinary tale of family, fungus and more than a dash of bloody revenge from an exciting new voice in queer horror.

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.

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I made it all the way to 66% on this one – I tried so hard – but I don’t want to pick it up again. I definitely enjoyed it back near the beginning, but more and more reading it feels like a chore. And then, as so often happens, I remembered that I do not have to read this, so now I’m going to stop.

The writing itself is great, and I loved the sheer weirdness of the set-up: these two life-partnered men, one a stoic taxidermist and the other a doctor/professor of botany, living together in a giant jungle of a greenhouse. Both are grumpy, not likeable in the typical sense, and yet, I liked them both.

Gradually, though, the characters kind of fall apart. And I don’t mean in the fun way, wherein they slowly lose their sanity or grip on reality. (Although arguably that is also kind of happening, at least with one or two of the cast.) What I mean is, pretty much all of them – but especially Simon and Gregor – start doing these emotional 180s, where they suddenly and dramatically announce that they’ve changed their opinion on something important. But these changes come out of nowhere, with no warning and no explanation. And they happen over and over and over. If it had only happened once, I’d have been confused, but I probably would have kept reading. But by the fifth or sixth time one of them had declared themselves of the entire opposite opinion to what they’d been yesterday… Or made some decision, or set out on some very serious action, that seemed completely random… I had whiplash, and had lost all sense of who these characters were supposed to actually be. It was as though big chunks of their personality had become whatever the author needed them to be at the time for the best dramatic effect. And that doesn’t make for good reading – at least not for me.

There was also one pretty big logic fail that really bothered me, which is a little spoilery so I’ll stick it under a tag: [View post to see spoiler]

As for the horror aspect…well, I wasn’t scared, and I’m a complete wimp when it comes to scariness, so that should probably tell you something. To be honest, I was kind of rolling my eyes when the horror aspect started to manifest. I don’t really buy into ‘non-human creations start killing Just Because’. It feels lazy. I wanted an explanation for why Chloe was becoming violent, a good one, and in fairness maybe I would have gotten one if I’d finished the book. But I doubt it, and if we did get one, I doubt it’d be one that would satisfy me. I’m not sure exactly when I lost faith in this author’s promise of a satisfying story, but I definitely did.

And ultimately… I was surprised by how hard I had to work to buy into the capabilities of the mycelium that kickstarts, and is the heart of, Botanical Daughter. I read stories with much stranger premises every day, and have no trouble rolling with whatever Not Real thing is going on! I’m wondering if the problem here was how hard the book tried to convince me? We get excerpts from Gregor’s scientific notes on his experiment, and every single other plant and fungus used in Chloe’s creation is detailed for us – this one to replace arm muscles, this other one to make a tongue, for example. But the flip side of that is that there’s no human brain for the mycelium to infect/manipulate; that’s removed from the corpse. I feel like I would have had an easier time suspending my disbelief if the brain had been left in; at least then it could be something like ophiocordyceps unilateralis – aka zombie-ant fungus. It would feel a little more grounded in the possible. Instead, when Gregor’s mycelium manages to figure out how to see using the body’s eyes – it just felt completely absurd. How can a fungus process sensory input from the eyes? But if there had been a brain, a brain that knew how to process input like that, and the mycelium took over/made use of the brain…? I don’t know, it would have made more sense to me. And because it didn’t make sense, but was trying to, I think something got lost. My ability to believe in it even in fiction, for one.

I don’t know, folx. This one just wasn’t for me.

Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC, sapphic MC, asexual POV character
PoV: Third-person, present-tense, multiple PoVs
ISBN: B0C9ZPDTR9
Goodreads
three-stars

The acclaimed author of Sistersong transforms the story of Herla and the Wild Hunt into a rich, feminist fantasy in this stunning tale of two great warriors, a war-torn land, and an ancient magic that is slowly awakening.

Britain, 60AD. Hoping to save her lover, her land, and her people from the Romans, Herla makes a desperate pact with the king of the Otherworld. But years pass unheeded in his realm, and she escapes to find everyone she loved long dead. Cursed to wield his blade, she becomes Lord of the Hunt. And for centuries, she rides, leading her immortal warriors and reaping wanderers’ souls. Until the night she meets a woman on a bloody battlefield—a Saxon queen with ice-blue eyes.

Queen Æthelburg of Wessex is a proven fighter. But when she leads her forces to disaster in battle, her husband’s court turns against her. Yet King Ine needs Æthel more than ever. Something dark and dangerous is at work in the Wessex court. His own brother seeks to usurp him. And their only hope is the magic in Ine’s bloodline that’s lain dormant since ancient days.

The moment she and Æthel meet, Herla knows it’s no coincidence. The dead kings are waking. The Otherworld seeks to rise, to bring the people of Britain under its dominion. And as Herla and Æthel grow closer, Herla must find her humanity—and a way to break the curse—before it’s too late.

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.

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I’ve gotta be honest, it’s hard for me to figure out how you can take woman leader of the Wild Hunt falls for a mortal queen and turn it into a story that bores me, but here we are, I guess.

The opening – Herla’s origin story, basically, the rundown of how she became leader of the Wild Hunt – was fabulous. Unfortunately, after that we were slammed into the very dull, sexist court intrigue (kinda) of Saxon Britain, and Holland doesn’t write it nearly as beautifully as Griffith in Hild and Merewood. Plus, without having read Griffith’s books, I wouldn’t really have a clue what was going on or much about the time period, because not much is actually explained in Song of the Huntress. It’s a very much ‘swim or drown’ approach to worldbuilding, which I don’t mind in secondary world settings, but for some reason massively frustrate me in historical ones.

It didn’t help that a big chunk of the first part of the book is confusing as fuck, honestly – not even the worldbuilding or politics, but the actual story. The king has a vision/visitation from an enemy king, and Things Happen – but it was not at all clear what was happening in what order. At first I thought Holland had messed up and accidentally forgotten to mention that two weeks had passed (one of the enemy king’s comments led me to believe The Thing was happening in two weeks), and it took five or six chapters before I was able to work out that no, this all went down in one night. Which is not inherently a problem; the problem is that that wasn’t clear, and even the fall-out of those events didn’t make it obvious when or how it had all happened. I kept thinking my arc was missing chapters, because no one was explaining how they knew this, or that, or when x or y had been said, or when exactly those orders had been given. AND SO ON. It was confusing as hell and maddening to read.

The rest? Was just dull. Herla and Æthel’s fascination with each other felt unconvincing to me, a little too insta-lust, and I wasn’t expecting Herla to be masquerading as a normal human woman for so long. I wanted much more uncanny and primal magic than we were getting in the first half or so of the book, and I was just bored; it all felt so mundane, with none of the eldritch strangeness and magic I was hoping for. To say nothing of the whole ‘Christianity is once again fucking up and also Wrong about literally everything’. Listen: I’m ex-Catholic and pretty anti-Christianity myself, but this is a theme/plotline I have seen so many times, and I’m sick to death of it. If you can fit a warrior queen into this time period, couldn’t you have a Not Completely Idiotic priest too??? It would be a nice twist!

Although it was interesting to have an asexual king in this kind of setting, I have zero patience for miscommunication plotlines – and Ine’s inability/refusal to just tell Æthel that she’s not the problem, ie the reason they’re not having sex, and his weakness in letting the court blame Æthel for her childlessness, enraged me and made me despise him. The revelation that came about his bloodline just…felt really forced and underwhelming, and left me feeling some kind of uncomfortable and unhappy – I don’t know why, but it felt very wrong that he receive the ancestral magics that rightly belonged to the native Brits, even though he didn’t deliberately steal them or anything.

I had some curiousity about a few of the minor points of the story – like Emrys! – but not nearly enough to keep me reading when all the major stuff was sending me to sleep. I may come back and give it another try later – maybe – but I have zero interest in it right now when more compelling books are calling my name!

The Heart of Winter by Shona Kinsella
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
PoV: Third-person, past-tense
Published on: 16th April 2024
ISBN: 1787588327
Goodreads
two-stars

Readers of Sistersong by Lucy Holland, Cast Long Shadows by Cat Hellisen and The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead wil love this fantasy tale of folklore and myth from Scotland.

When Brigit is faced with a forced marriage to Aengus, god of Summer, she flees into the highlands in search of the Cailleach, the Queen of Winter. There, she hopes to learn how to live on her own terms, without the need for a man to speak for her, but can she persuade the Cailleach that she is worthy? Caught between two gods and finding an unlikely ally in the Fae witch, Nicnevin, Brigit will be tested to her limits and beyond.

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I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A very dull book that did not have the prose to keep me reading a story I didn’t care about. 24% in the story was just getting started, and there was absolutely nothing to keep me engaged, to give me a reason to care about how the story would end. All of the characters are embarrassingly one-dimensional, defined by one trait – our MC, for example, simply Doesn’t Want To Marry, and a) I am tired of heroines like this, we have seen this exact character 5000 times before, and b) I need the characters I read about to have more to their personality than that!

And that’s without getting into the very choppy writing, or the cringingly false/forced dialogue. Or the complete lack of explanation as to why Brigit is seemingly unafraid of the Cailleach, displaying no nerves or worry about setting off to bother an extremely powerful goddess – I mean, even among goddesses, the Cailleach is extremely powerful and massively dangerous (albeit not usually depicted as intentionally evil). If I was going to ask her a favour, I would be very nervous – and bring her a lot of presents! But Brigit seems completely unconcerned???

Lastly – and this is just me being nitpicky – I didn’t like Kinsella’s take on Scottish mythology. It bugged me that Kinsella had Aengus as the god of summer to the Cailleach’s winter. The Cailleach shares the year with the goddess Brìghde or Bridget – sometimes she and the Cailleach are two faces or aspects of the same goddess, and sometimes they’re entirely separate deities, but in neither case is some dude the one who brings summer! In any case, while the Cailleach shows up in all the Gaelic mythologies, Aengus is specifically Irish, and therefore has no place in this story ANYWAY. (In fairness, the book does acknowledge that Aengus is of another pantheon, the Tuatha Dè Danann – I skipped ahead to check – but doesn’t explain what that means, or who the Tuatha are, so good luck if you don’t already know. Plus no explanation as to what one of them is doing messing about in Scotland.)

I hope our MC ends up the goddess Bridget, and also that she and Nicnevin become girlfriends, but I simply don’t want to waste my time on meh writing and bland characters.

If you, like me, were hoping for queerness… [View post to see spoiler]I read the ending, and it looks like I was half-right; Brigid becomes a sort of seasonal goddess, but alas, she and Nicnevin don’t get together. Why make a point of Nicnevin in the blurb then??? Maybe I’d know if I read the whole book, but wow, now I have even less interest in doing that.[View post to see spoiler]

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer MC, agender love interest
PoV: Third-person, past-tense
ISBN: 1639732349
Goodreads
two-stars

From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, a queer sci-fi novel about an Earth refugee and a xenophobic Mars politician who fake marry to save their reputations—and their planet.

In the wake of environmental catastrophe, January, once a principal in London’s Royal Ballet, has become a refugee on Tharsis, the terraformed colony on Mars. In Tharsis, January’s life is dictated by his status as an Earthstronger—a person whose body is not adjusted to Mars’s lower gravity and so poses a danger to those born on, or naturalized to, Mars. January’s job choices, housing, and even transportation options are dictated by this second-class status, and now a xenophobic politician named Aubrey Gale is running on a platform that would make it all worse: Gale wants all Earthstrongers to be surgically naturalized, a process that can be anything from disabling to deadly.

When Gale chooses January for an on-the-spot press junket interview that goes horribly awry, January’s life is thrown into chaos, but Gale’s political fortunes are damaged, too. Gale proposes a solution to both their problems: a five-year made-for-the-press marriage that would secure January’s financial future without naturalization and ensure Gale’s political future. But when January accepts the offer, he discovers that Gale is not at all like they appear in the press. And worse, soon, January finds himself entangled in political and personal events well beyond his imagining. Gale has an enemy, someone willing to destroy all of Tharsis to make them pay—and January may be the only person standing in the way.

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Is this super readable and superficially interesting? Definitely. But when every BlPOC reader is telling you the author majorly fucked up here, you really have to listen, whether or not you, a white reader, can properly see it for yourself.

I can see that Tharsese culture isn’t different enough from British culture to read as Chinese-inspired, which right away validates everyone saying Pulley did not do her research, worldbuilding, or writing well and respectfully re a culture that isn’t hers. I can see that the political situation Pulley has created in this book, re immigrants being Unspeakably Dangerous and needing to be literally caged for everyone’s safety, is horrific messaging – especially from a UK author, given the UK’s horrific anti-immigration/refugee position right now. And as a nonbinary person, I have some discomfort with Pulley’s attempt at a genderless society – hard to articulate, but it rubs me the wrong way. The only way to stop femicide was…to eliminate women (and men) entirely? Doesn’t that sound somehow wrong? And if you genetically remove ‘extreme gender traits’ from people, and then declare them genderless, have you not just said that sex and gender (because what you actually did was remove the most visually obvious sex characteristics, not gender traits, those are wildly different things) are the same thing? Which is, uh. TERF logic?

I didn’t read this the whole way through, but I read the first few chapters and the last few, and – this is sci fi. That means you make the rules. Why didn’t you invent a better solution to the problem you made up than putting people in cages, or fucking with their biology in a way that destroys them and takes decades off their life expectancy? Make something up! You are limited only by your imagination! If we can have mammoths on Mars – a NON-TERRAFORMED Mars at that! – then we can have anything! It’s just lazy not to come up with something better.

Putting refugees in camps when they get to your planet…come on. That’s your magical solution? That plus the cages? COME ON.

So no. I’m not going to read this and I can’t recommend it. Skip it, whatever the hype.

Here’s hoping for fewer DNFs in April!

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Published on March 30, 2024 02:44

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