Siavahda's Blog, page 36

Must-Have Monday #164

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.

FOUR books this week!

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

Like Thunder (The Desert Magician's Duology #2) by Nnedi Okorafor
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Nigerian cast
Published on: 28th November 2023
Goodreads

This brand-new sequel to Nnedi Okorafor’s Shadow Speaker contains the powerful prose and compelling stories that have made Nnedi Okorafor a star of the literary science fiction and fantasy space and put her at the forefront of Africanfuturist fiction

Niger, West Africa, 2077
Welcome back. This second volume is a breathtaking story that sweeps across the sands of the Sahara, flies up to the peaks of the Aïr Mountains, cartwheels into a wild megacity—you get the idea.

I am the Desert Magician; I bring water where there is none.

This book begins with Dikéogu Obidimkpa slowly losing his mind. Yes, that boy who can bring rain just by thinking about it is having some…issues. Years ago, Dikéogu went on an epic journey to save Earth with the shadow speaker girl, Ejii Ubaid, who became his best friend. When it was all over, they went their separate ways, but now he’s learned their quest never really ended at all.

So Dikéogu, more powerful than ever, reunites with Ejii. He records this story as an audiofile, hoping it will help him keep his sanity or at least give him something to leave behind. Smart kid, but it won’t work—or will it?

I can tell you it won’t be like before. Our rainmaker and shadow speaker have changed. And after this, nothing will ever be the same again.

As they say, ‘ Onye amaro ebe nmili si bido mabaya ama ama onye nyelu ya akwa oji welu ficha aru .’

Or, ‘If you do not remember where the rain started to beat you, you will not remember who gave you the towel with which to dry your body.’

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-27T20:21:37+00:00", "description": "Desert magicians from our future, and divine magicians from other worlds!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-164\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Like Thunder (The Desert Magician's Duology #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nnedi Okorafor", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Any new Okorafor book is a cause of celebration! This one is a sequel to Shadow Speaker, which was re-released earlier this year. Be sure to read that one first!

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
Published on: 28th November 2023
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.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-27T20:21:37+00:00", "description": "Desert magicians from our future, and divine magicians from other worlds!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-164\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Godly Heathens", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "H.E. Edgmon", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I got to read this one early, and it blew me away. I love it SO MUCH! It is intense and gorgeous and all sharp edges, and it will be on my Best of 2023 list next month!

My review!

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Achillean MC, sapphic MC
Published on: 28th November 2023
Goodreads

Heartstopper meets A Knight’s Tale in this queer medieval rom-com YA debut about love, friendship, and being brave enough to change the course of history.

It’s been hundreds of years since King Arthur’s reign. His descendant, Arthur, a future Lord and general gadabout, has been betrothed to Gwendoline, the quick-witted, short-tempered princess of England, since birth. The only thing they can agree on is that they despise each other.

They’re forced to spend the summer together at Camelot in the run-up to their nuptials, and within 24 hours, Gwen has discovered Arthur kissing a boy, and Arthur has gone digging for Gwen's childhood diary and found confessions about her crush on the kingdom's only lady knight, Bridget Leclair.

Realizing they might make better allies than enemies, Gwen and Art make a reluctant pact to cover for each other, and as things heat up at the annual royal tournament, Gwen is swept off her feet by her knight, and Arthur takes an interest in Gwen's royal brother. Lex Croucher's Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is chock full of sword-fighting, found family, and romantic shenanigans destined to make readers fall in love.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-27T20:21:37+00:00", "description": "Desert magicians from our future, and divine magicians from other worlds!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-164\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Gwen & Art Are Not in Love", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lex Croucher", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This sounds like it could be cute and fun? Kinda curious to see what a contemporary England ruled by King Arthur’s descendants would look like…

Yeseni and the Daughter of Peace by Solange Burrell
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: West African cast & setting
Published on: 30th November 2023
Goodreads

The year is 1748. Elewa, known as ‘the Daughter of Peace’, bears a heavy responsibility on her young shoulders: to maintain the fragile truce between the warring peoples of her West African kingdom.

But as she begins to understand her role in the peace negotiations, even greater pressures emerge. Elewa discovers that she has Yeseni, a powerful gift that allows her to see events from any point in time, and to travel into the past and future.

When she experiences horrific visions of life aboard a slave ship, she realises she has to face the ultimate crossroads. She could use her gift to intervene in the past and try to prevent the transatlantic slave trade ever taking place. But that means she, as the Daughter of Peace, would be leaving her village behind at a precarious moment in the reconciliation process.

Whichever path she chooses to take, the future of her people lies on her shoulders.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-27T20:21:37+00:00", "description": "Desert magicians from our future, and divine magicians from other worlds!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-164\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Yeseni and the Daughter of Peace", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Solange Burrell", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’m not clear on whether this is Adult or YA, but I’m intrigued whichever it is. Reconciliation for the people you know and live among…or changing the shape of the entire world? I don’t see how it couldn’t be a change for the better, but it would also definitely change a lot, and I can see how that could be terrifying.

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

The post Must-Have Monday #164 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Simply Divine: Godly Heathens by H. E. Edgmon

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
Published on: 28th November 2023
ISBN: 1250853621
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.

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

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-26T12:49:53+00:00", "description": "A nonbinary Seminole teen discovers they're the god of magic from another world - and the rest of their pantheon wants them very, very dead.\n\nEasily one of the best books I've read this year.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/simply-divine-godly-heathens-by-h-e-edgmon\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Godly Heathens", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "H.E. Edgmon", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "1250853621" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~heartbreakingly human gods
~past lives biting you in the ass
~wanting to live doesn’t make you a villain
~come for the god of magic and you better not miss
~‘burn the world down for you’ polyamory

Suggested theme song: GODS ft NewJeans by League of Legends

No shade (ahem), but in hindsight, now that I’ve read Godly Heathens, Edgmon’s first duology – the Witch King books – feel like the literary equivalent of dipping a toe into the publishing waters to check the temperature. Was the world ready for their weirdness?

Oh? It was?

Well then – TIME TO UNLEASH THE REAL GODS GOODS. Because Godly Heathens is a hands-off-the-wheel, no-holds-barred, without-a-parachute plunge into unmitigated and unapologetic feral queer weirdness – one with teeth.

“There are no cis gods,” they scoff.

Gem is stunning; Gem is magnetically mysterious; Gem is a sex deity magnanimously bestowing their favours upon anyone brave enough to ask. But behind the carefully crafted facade, Gem is Not Okay; desperate to be loved, anxious, locked in bitter standoff with a mother who seems determined to see the worst in everything Gem does and is, swallowing down meds for depression, and terrified of inheriting their dad’s schizophrenia. That last one is a little too on the table, as Gem has been consumed by strange, intense, too-tangible dreams and visions for as long as they can remember. Dreams they have no intention of sharing with anyone – especially Enzo, the best friend they’re helplessly in love with, for all that he lives far off in New York and all their communiques must, by necessity, be digital.

For now. Because Gem is going to graduate and get the hell out of their tiny Southern town, and when they do, they’re heading straight for Enzo. (Though there’ll be nothing straight about it, hopefully!)

It’s a plan they treasure. One that shatters like glass in their hands when they discover that they’re a reincarnated god from another world; this life is just the latest of hundreds they’ve lived out on Earth. And the rest of their pantheon? They’re here too, and with a few exceptions, they want Gem annihilated.

And Gem might even deserve it.

maybe a happy ending was never possible for me. Maybe some people don’t deserve one, and maybe I’m one of them.

If that’s the case, I’m still gonna fight like hell to get as close as I can.

Godly Heathens is a mind-fuck to explain: the worldbuilding and set-up are easy to understand and absorb quickly – there’s nothing especially complicated about the gods Edgmon’s created, nor the world they originally came from, nor their conflict with Gem. Even Gem’s powers, while thrilling, aren’t hard to wrap your head around. There’s a Quest Object that needs to be found, a magic knife that’s the only thing that can kill a god for good – okay, sure! I’ve got it. It’s exciting, but not hard to follow. Even the writing is direct and unornamented – to be honest, it’s much plainer than I usually prefer my prose.

But the thing is, nothing about this book is simple at all. It just looks that way at first, briefly – like a child’s scribbled sketch, all easy lines and primary colours. But page by page Edgmon turns that sketch into something else; adding detail, more colour, shading, depth, background, foreground, layer after layer of paint that slowly but completely transforms the simplistic little picture we thought we were looking at.

And what you have at the end? Is a gods’-damned masterpiece that, to continue the metaphor, should be hanging in the freaking Louvre.

The bogeyman has come to call, and with him comes proof that I crawled willingly beneath the bed.

Take, for example, the idea of gods in human bodies. Edgmon could easily have just… left it at that, but instead Godly Heathens really digs into what that means, what the implications of it are, what questions arise when you have gods in human forms. What value, if any, do their human identities have against their godly memories and past incarnations? Are they a part of our world, now they’ve lived so many lives here, or do they still belong to their world of origin? How do their aspects and powers change over time, as the world changes, as what-they’re-gods-of changes? And Gem: do they really bear responsibility for the sins of their past self? Are they a different person now, or the same one? Is it fair, is it right, to punish them for things another version of them did? Is it on them to fix those things, or not – and if not, then who is it on?

“We are not just gods walking around steering human bodies. We are also humans housing the souls of gods.

Even the less-dived-into parts of the worldbuilding are fascinating, like the relationships between the different gods – Life and Death being sisters; Death and War being girlfriends – and the divisions Edgmon chose to make in creating the pantheon – for example, rather than having one god of nature, Life, Land, Water and Weather are all separate gods, and I wish I could ask Edgmon why, because I would love to hear the thought process that went into that!

the whole world could put their hands on you, and it wouldn’t make you any less mine–I’ve left you stained deeper than they could dream of

And all the ways that Edgmon fucks with the usual tropes, with The Way Things Always Go, is just *chef’s kiss* Nothing here is tidy, nothing here follows the expected patterns, absolutely fucking nothing here hews to convention and thank fuck for that, because my gods, I needed this book. I needed Gem. I needed a story that says ‘discovering you’re the Chosen One/a superhero/a literal honest-to-god god does not explain away, or fix, all the ways in which you’re Not Okay.’ And I wanted this book, this story; I wanted the sharp edges, and the monstrous love, the fucked-up MC who will fuck you up worse if you touch the people they love…but is still fragile and desperate to be loved, themselves, underneath the badassery.

“If they kill him, no one will be safe from what I do next.”

What I’m saying is, Godly Heathens has the vibes and aesthetic and wildly beating heart of someThing I’ve been hungry for, starving for, for a very long time; someThing I suspect there’s no English word for, but that Edgmon clearly knew we needed. I am grateful; I am ecstatic; I am both sated and deliriously ravenous for more, and not just because of that ending.

(Thank the gods we don’t have long to wait for the sequel!)

I’m gonna fix this. I’m gonna make this right. Because I deserve everything I want.

And even if I don’t, I don’t care.

What about the plot, you say? Don’t die. That’s – I think that sums it up okay. There are enemies coming at Gem and their allies from every direction – including their own pasts and human families – and the main, major goal is to survive, to defend, to fight back, to find what they need to do that (like the knife). That means finding each other, (re)discovering and mastering their powers, trying to keep their human lives from falling apart as they go to war against their fellow gods – you do not need to worry about their not being enough story, enough action, to more than balance out the under-the-surface complexity of emotions, introspection, self-discovery.

And of course, there’s the Mountain-moving, breathtakingly intense, delicious-and-wondrous love story that spans aeons and eternities, that poor Gem somehow has to wrestle into something humans can hold.

If human minds are not meant to hold the burden of our memories, how is my human heart expected to carry the weight of the eternal devotion with which I’ve loved these two?

Oh – did I not mention the polyamory??? Gem’s two love interests, and the relationship they start to build together, is everything I could ever have asked for, and I would really like to write a freaking THESIS on it, but I cannot because SPOILERS! Gods damn it.

“I am the god who has ruled alongside you since the dawn of another time. And I have known and loved you in your every flawed iteration. Every name you have gone by, every face you have worn, I have been at your side. My soul knows yours, and yours knows mine, and if I have to wait a little while for you to remember, that’s fine. I’m gonna keep saving your ass in the meantime.”

Look, just – come scream in my comments about your Feels when you’re done reading this book, okay? I’LL BE WAITING MOST EAGERLY.

(THE SCENE WITH THE SNAKE. You’ll know it when you get to it – and I defy you not to cry at the snake on the book’s cover afterwards. WHO PUT THAT THERE, AND HOW DARE THEY?)

On the one hand: I think kissing her might be life-affirming. On the other hand: everything else.

There’s no denying that Godly Heathens is a book that goes hard and pulls no punches – but it also manages to be hysterically funny, in very queer ways–

He’d disappear if he weren’t built like a tank. (Though, I notice homosexually, he is smaller than Willa Mae.)

very real live teens ways–

“Do you have clothes here I can sleep in?”

My first instinct is to say Clothes? Why would you need clothes? because I am terrible and horny–not related to each other, just equally true.

And some that just make you cackle–

Are you trying to get me to embrace my magic by reminding me young Republicans exist and I could hex them?”

Godly Heathens is a book with no easy answers; one that does not talk down to its YA audience, and will crack open the heart of any adult who dares to pick it up. It’s raw and vital and absolutely feral, slicing through so many layers of but we don’t talk about that; revelling in the kind of savage emotion we’re not supposed to feel, let alone acknowledge out loud; gripping you by the back of the head and forcing you to take a good hard look at how fucked-up and chaotic and messy reality is, even before gods get involved. It’s about love untamed and unleashed and unstoppable, about fairness versus justice, about how the nice pretty ideals we tend to hold up in Fantasy, particularly, aren’t so neat and easy to apply in the real world.

In that way, this is so much a story for those – teens and otherwise – who feel (who are) let down by the genre; those of us who stand on the outside looking in; those of us who’ve always felt more in common with the monsters than the heroes; those of us who are messes, damaged, not-nice.

This is a book for us.

For anyone worried you might be the villain in your own story.

Maybe you are.
I think you deserve a happy ending, anyway.

Godly Heathens is a book that injects itself straight into your veins and hits you like lightning, cracks your ribs open and rips your heart out–and do not expect to get it back. This is not a book you will forget, or that you get to walk away from whole; this is a book that will leave you with scars…but scars you’ll treasure.

And seriously – when you start crying about the snake on the cover, hit me up.

Godly Heathens incarnates next week – and missing it would be a sin. Preorder it, beg your library for it, get your local indie to order it in – I don’t care how, but you have to read this one.

The post Simply Divine: Godly Heathens by H. E. Edgmon appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Mini Review: Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

Sword Catcher (Sword Catcher, #1) by Cassandra Clare
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC
PoV: Third-person, past-tense, dual POVs
ISBN: B0BQ69W3VG
Goodreads

In the vibrant city-state of Castellane, the richest of nobles and the most debauched of criminals have one thing in common: the constant search for wealth, power, and the next hedonistic thrill.

Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher—the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. No other future is possible.

Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city, but Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge.

After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld. He offers them each what they want most; but as they descend into his world of intrigue and shadow, they discover a conspiracy of corruption that reaches from the darkest gutters of Castellane to the highest tower of its palaces.

As long-kept secrets begin to unravel, they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? Can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war—and the world into chaos?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-23T14:53:04+00:00", "description": "Absolutely nothing about this book stood out for me.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/mini-review-sword-catcher-by-cassandra-clare\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Sword Catcher (Sword Catcher, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Cassandra Clare", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B0BQ69W3VG" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 2.5, "bestRating": "5" }}

I say this as someone who was mega into Clare’s Mortal Instruments series as a teen, and have loved her Dark Artifices trilogy as an adult: there’s really nothing special about Sword Catcher. It’s not bad, but it’s very, very forgettable.

What comes across is that this is a world the author has worked on probably for a long time, and definitely with a lot of love – and wants us to love it too. Clare wants to show us all of it; no detail is too small to be lovingly described. Sword Catcher is much more description than it is plot; clothing, upholstery, food. And I don’t mind that! I love description, the lusher the better! Give me all the purple prose! But this isn’t lush enough to justify how little momentum the story has, and what’s being described…isn’t all that interesting. Most of the countries we hear about are clearly inspired by countries in the real world – Hind is clearly an India analogue, for example, and the mysterious Ashkar are heavily drawn from Medieval/Renaissance-era Jews (to the point that their ruling council is called the Sanhedrin, a real Jewish term). Castellane itself, the setting of the book, is just Generic Fantasy City, with your typical backstabbing nobles and underground criminal politics, horse-drawn carriages and doctors who are still into bleeding their patients. Nothing about it stands out in any way from a million other fantasy settings.

Plot-wise…there definitely was plot – several different sub-plots, in fact – but it all felt very slow and drawn-out and meandering. The plot was very clearly not the point. Even when quite important things were happening, they lacked any sense of intensity – which is surprising, because I would have said Clare has amply demonstrated in her YA that she can write page-turning intensity very well. But this book just gave me brain-fog and sent me to sleep, even when lives were on the line or the like.

For me, Sword Catcher was brain-fluff; it was a book I could pick up when I wasn’t able to handle anything more complex. Even then, in that mood, there were more than a few moments where I was bored nearly senseless, and others where I was just annoyed about how slow and obtuse most of the characters were. Individually, on paper, most of the characters should have been interesting, but together they had no chemistry. I never felt the emotions of the characters, or felt for them; they all seemed unforgivably bland. Case in point: arguably the most important relationship of the book, that between Kel, the titular Sword Catcher, and Conor, the prince he loves and protects, had no substance to it at all – I had no idea why Kel was so loyal to Conor, was told it more than felt it, and got no sense that it was a reciprocal love; if anything, I thought Conor was an unbelievable asshole who needed a good dunk in reality.

Basically: it was fine. Almost aggressively so. I don’t recommend it, and despite the promise of Dramatic Things To Come, I have no intention of reading the sequel.

The post Mini Review: Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares

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 Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares!

Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: M/M
Published on: 5th March 2024
Goodreads

A sweeping, psychedelic romance of two men caught in a looping world of artificial realities, edited memories, secretive cabals and conspiracies to push humanity to the next step in its evolution.

For fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Ubik, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Evangelion.

Fox is a memory editor – one of the best – gifted with the skill to create real life in the digital world. When he wakes up in Field of Reeds Centre for Memory Reconstruction with no idea how he got there, the therapists tell him he was a victim in a terrorist bombing by Khadija Banks, the pioneer of memory editing technology turned revolutionary. A bombing which shredded the memory archives of all its victims, including his husband Gabe.

Thrust into reconstructions of his memories exploded from the fragments that survived the blast, Fox tries to rebuild his life, his marriage and himself. But he quickly realises his world is changing, unreliable, and echoing around itself over and over.

As he unearths endless cycles of meeting Gabe, falling in love and breaking up, Fox digs deep into his past, his time in the refugee nation of Aaru, and the exact nature of his relationship with Khadija. Because, in a world tearing itself apart to forget all its sadness, saving the man he loves might be the key to saving us all.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-22T11:11:58+00:00", "description": "A memory editor and his husband are caught in the blast when a bombing shreds the memory archives - and nothing is what it seems!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-welcome-to-forever-by-nathan-tavares\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Welcome to Forever", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nathan Tavares", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Tavares’ debut, A Fractured Infinity, was one of my favourite releases of last year, so I lit up when I learned he was publishing a new book! (Which, how did I not know he was working on something new?! I only found out when the arc showed up on Netgalley! My book-sleuthing skills are getting dusty, clearly!)

Memory is such an enormous part of our identity that any story that wants to play with the idea of it – storing it, losing it, changing it, reconstructing it! – can get my attention. Fox’s world sounds like a potential dystopia – gotta be wary of any government/system that’s into editing memories, although I suppose it’s possible to use that kind of thing for good (erasing trauma, maybe? If you remove the memory of the trauma, would the psychological effects disappear? That would be kinda awesome, not gonna lie). And what about Fox himself? Is a memory editor an ethical thing to be, in his world? Gotta be braced for a morally grey, or maybe indoctrinated, MC here. But it also says Fox is ‘gifted with the skill’, so does that mean it’s not something learned, but something innate, like a psychic ability? Possibly, possibly…

I’m very curious about a few of the tiny mentions in the blurb – ‘the skill to create real life in the digital world’; what does that mean? Does most of life take place in virtual reality in Fox’s world? Or something similar? We’ve seen that in sci fi many times, but I’d be plenty interested in Tavares’ take on it. And then there’s ‘a world tearing itself apart to forget all its sadness’ – is that the goal of this potentially-a-dystopia then, keeping everyone HappyTM always, all the time? GREATLY SUSPICIOUS.

And what’s a ‘refugee nation’? Is the whole nation seeking refuge somehow? As in, is the landmass itself moving away from where it used to be? Or just the human population?

There’s so many bits and pieces that sound potentially REALLY interesting – and of course, it’s kind of hard to resist the appeal of seeing the same two people fall in love over and over (or try to) with their memories compromised. I don’t know why that seems romantic – rationally, it should be a bit tragic, probably? – but somehow, it is!

I think we just like the idea that some people are destined to be together, and will be, no matter what gets thrown in their way.

ANYWAY, I hope I’ve given you plenty of reasons to preorder Welcome to Forever, because I am DEFINITELY going to need people to read this so I have someone to shriek with about it!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #163

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.

Just FOUR books this week!

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

Til Death Do Us Bard by Rose Black
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 21st November 2023
Goodreads

Marriage isn't always sunshine and unicorns... sometimes it's monsters and necromancy.

It's been almost a year since Logan 'The Bear' Theaker hung up his axe and settled down with his sunshiny bard husband, Pie. But when Pie disappears, Logan is forced back into a world he thought he'd left behind.

Logan quickly discovers that Pie has been blackmailed into stealing a powerful artifact capable of creating an undead army. With the help of an old adversary and a ghost from his past, Logan sets out to rescue his husband.

But the further the quest takes him, the more secrets Logan uncovers. He'll need all his strength to rescue his husband - but can he save their marriage?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-20T09:52:00+00:00", "description": "West African epic fantasy, Malaysian magic, and a sunshine bard LITERALLY named Pie!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-163\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Til Death Do Us Bard", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rose Black", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Everything about this sounds like it’ll be super fun, adorable, and brain-fuffy, which is EXACTLY what I’m craving at the moment. Plus, look at all those unicorns on the cover! Surely that means some will appear in the story. (And we all know I’ll pounce on any book that promises me a unicorn!)

Warrior of the Wind (The Nameless Republic Book 2) by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: West African-coded cast and setting, nonbinary love interest
Published on: 21st November 2023
Goodreads

From city streets where secrets are bartered for gold to forests teeming with fabled beasts, Suyi Davies Okungbowa's sweeping epic of forgotten magic and violent conquests continues in this richly drawn fantasy inspired by the pre-colonial empires of West Africa. 

There is no peace in the season of the Red Emperor.

Traumatized by their escape from Bassa, Lilong and Danso have found safety in a vagabond colony on the edge of the emperor’s control. But time is running out on their refuge. A new bounty makes every person a threat, and whispers of magic have roused those eager for their own power.

Lilong is determined to return the Diwi—the ibor heirloom—to her people. It’s the only way to keep it safe from Esheme’s insatiable desire. The journey home will be long, filled with twists and treachery, unexpected allies and fabled enemies.
But surviving the journey is the least of their problems.

Something ancient and uncontrollable awakens. Trouble heads for Bassa, and the continent of Oon will need more than ibor to fix what's coming.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-20T09:52:00+00:00", "description": "West African epic fantasy, Malaysian magic, and a sunshine bard LITERALLY named Pie!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-163\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Warrior of the Wind (The Nameless Republic Book 2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Suyi Davies Okungbowa", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

African-inspired epic fantasy: we always need more of it, and Okungbowa is delivering! This is the sequel to Son of the Storm, so you should read that first if you haven’t, but: so much yes please!!!

A Spoonful of Malaysian Magic: An Anthology by Anna Tan, Collin Yeoh, Hamizah Adzmi, Ilnaz A Faizal, Ismim Putera, Joni Chng, Joshua Lim, Julia Alba, Rowan C, Sharmilla Ganesan, Stuart Danker, Syazwani Jefferdin, Zufar Zeid
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Malaysian MCs
Published on: 23rd November 2023
Goodreads

A burong descends from Tansang Kenyalang in the midst of a dire catastrophe. A shapeshifter frees Kedah from the dreaded Raja Bersiong only to uncover a darker secret. A woman learns to channel her family’s food magic. A young huntress of supernatural creatures charts her own path of love.

This anthology of short stories offers fresh takes on Malaysian folklore and fairy tales, adds enchantment to the ordinary, and bursts with new, wonderful flavours. Stir a little spoonful of magic into your tea, whether you’re from these shores or from far away.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-20T09:52:00+00:00", "description": "West African epic fantasy, Malaysian magic, and a sunshine bard LITERALLY named Pie!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-163\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Spoonful of Malaysian Magic: An Anthology", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Anna Tan, Collin Yeoh, Hamizah Adzmi, Ilnaz A Faizal, Ismim Putera, Joni Chng, Joshua Lim, Julia Alba, Rowan C, Sharmilla Ganesan, Stuart Danker, Syazwani Jefferdin, Zufar Zeid", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Along with African and African-inspired fantasy, I DEFINITELY need more Malaysian SFF in my life – have I ever read anything Malaysian??? I’m honestly not sure, which is terrible. But a spoonful seems like a good amount to get me started!

The Gilded Crown (The Raven's Trade, #1) by Marianne Gordon
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 23rd November 2023
Goodreads

The Witch’s Heart meets The Priory of the Orange Tree in this debut novel about a woman who can bring people back from the dead, and the princess — and only heir to the throne — that she must protect, no matter the cost.

The first time Hellevir visited Death, she was ten years old…

Since she was a little girl, Hellevir has been able to raise the dead. Every creature can be saved for a price, a price demanded by the shrouded figure who rules the afterlife, who takes a little more from Hellevir with each soul she resurrects.

Such a gift can rarely remain a secret. When Princess Sullivain, sole heir to the kingdom’s throne, is assassinated, the Queen summons Hellevir to demand she bring her granddaughter back to life. But once is not enough; the killers might strike again. The Princess’ death would cause a civil war, so the Queen commands that Hellevir remain by her side.

But Sullivain is no easy woman to be bound to, even as Hellevir begins to fall in love with her. With the threat of war looming, Hellevir must trade more and more of herself to keep the princess alive.

But Death will always take what he is owed.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-20T09:52:00+00:00", "description": "West African epic fantasy, Malaysian magic, and a sunshine bard LITERALLY named Pie!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-163\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Gilded Crown (The Raven's Trade, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marianne Gordon", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This releases in the US next year (with an infinitely better cover, imo) but the UK gets it this Thursday! I have tentative hopes for this one – I hated Witch’s Heart and Priory, but I know what they mean when they use those comps, and what they mean is something I’m here for. Do NOT like the paranormal romance vibes of this cover though, blegh. Fingers crossed, I guess???

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

The post Must-Have Monday #163 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Bringing It To a Close With a Bang: A Power Unbound by Freya Marske

A Power Unbound (The Last Binding, #3) by Freya Marske
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, achillean MC, M/M, secondary M/M and F/F
PoV: Third-person past-tense, dual PoVs
Published on: 7th November 2023
ISBN: 125078896X
Goodreads

A Power Unbound
is the final entry in Freya Marske’s beloved, award-winning Last Binding trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light.

Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. After the death of his twin sister, he thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world.

Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross.

Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, with all his unearned power, is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package.

When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall—Jack’s ancestral family estate, a land so old and bound in oaths that it’s grown a personality as prickly as its owner—Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice . . . and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end.

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

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-17T17:44:35+00:00", "description": "A strong finale to a wonderful trilogy!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/a-power-unbound-by-freya-marske\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Power Unbound (The Last Binding, #3)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Freya Marske", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "125078896X" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~the house is a music box
~of all the places one could hide a knife
~stupidly smart villains
~golden pheasants + peacocks = Yes
~this is The Kinky One, folx

The Power Unbound is a five-star reading experience – I had so much fun, and experienced so much sheer DELIGHT while reading! – that loses a little bit of its lustre when you step back and ponder it after finishing it. That doesn’t stop it from being a fantastic conclusion to a great trilogy, though.

We met both Alan and Jack in A Restless Truth, and it was clear at the time that Marske was setting them up to be our next OTP. (Yes, I know OTP stands for one true pairing, but every pairing in this series is an OTP, don’t @ me.) Now that they’ve gained the spotlight in their own book, I have to admit, of all the marvellous (…pun unintended, I swear) couples in this trilogy, Jack and Alan are definitely my favourite. They both feel more complicated as individuals than any of our previous MCs, and their coming together (ahem) is also much more complicated than it was for Robin and Edwin or Violet and Maud. For one thing, both previous couples were all nobility, to one extent or another – and while Jack is too, Alan is very much not, and his working-class background – and the values, philosophies, and worldview it’s given him – is a major part of his and Jack’s romance; both as a hurdle to it and as a fundamental part of it. Alan despises the nobility, and there really is not one single moment in this book where you can disagree with him. Robin, Edwin, Violet and Maud – and Jack – might all be perfectly lovely people (…well, more or less, re Jack) but that doesn’t make the institution of the nobility a good thing.

I have to say, I never felt like I was being lectured, though. Marske presents Alan’s perspective without commentary – probably because every point he makes, or thinks, is inarguable – and gets on with the story. Alan’s love for his family is a pretty major driving force of the narrative, so we get to see that too, his motivations for all the dodgy and totally-above-board things he does and has done.

“I would put your heart between my ribs and guard it like my own. Is there any way I could make you believe it?”

But with romance being such a big part of this trilogy, I have to admit that it falls a little short here. While I adored how Alan and Jack feel like complimentary puzzle pieces in a way we didn’t get with either of the other relationships, Alan and Jack are also the only couple I can’t imagine having a Happily Ever After now the book is done. The difference in their stations is a hugely important aspect of their relationship, but it’s one that’s never actually resolved. If you’re able to turn all your critical thinking off, then this hopefully won’t bother you, but readers like me are going to struggle picturing them still together a year after the events of the series, never mind a decade later. Their relationship doesn’t seem at all sustainable, and that’s really just hand-waved. I would have preferred that Marske have the two of them amicably part ways at the end of the book, acknowledging that there’s just no way of making things work between them long-term, than the sort of wishy-washy ‘everything’s fine, don’t think about it too hard’ ending that we got.

Ross said, “Ask me if I’ve ever been paid for it.”

“Ask? I only have to look at you. Men would bankrupt themselves.”

Romance aside, The Power Unbound is the big finale, wherein all the plotting and scheming and research and desperation and scrambling and betrayals come to a head – where all there is to know (and do) about the Last Contract is at last revealed and resolved. And there, I have no reservations whatsoever – Marske brought all the clues and groundwork laid over the last two books together into a massively satisfying (and at times heart-pounding) conclusion. There’s little I can say about that without going into spoilers, but I thought all things magical were wrapped up perfectly – not just in what happens with the nature of English magic in the end, which is the core of the story, but in everything it takes to get us to it. The bad guys are bad, but they’re also MADDENINGLY clever, and as much as it makes my blood pressure sky-rocket, I immensely appreciate villains that make me want to scream with frustration as they keep blocking or subverting the actions of our Good cast. You know all will end well – it’s just not in the tone of these books for real tragedy or horror to hit – but I was still on the edge of my seat more than once, alternately petrified that the Bad Guys were going to get away with it, or tearing my hair out as the Bad Guys parried the Good Guys’ plans. Or WORSE, the Bad Guys’ having the support of various institutions of power – it’s more than enough to make you want to burn capitalism down and start over, I swear!

All this to say, Marske has NOT lost her skill at making her readers feel all the Feels, so you’re in not just for a pretty perfect ending to a really great series, but one that will give you plenty of emotions while you read it through.

Two points that you don’t really need to know, but I have to comment on anyway: I love how much we learned about the nature of magic over the course of this trilogy. I remember what a revelation Violet’s rings were in Restless Truth, how much they added to something we already thought we understood the rules of. Power Unbound continues this, not so much changing the rules on us as revealing them – putting us right alongside most of the cast, who are also having the foundations of their world changed by reveal right under their feet in real time. Storytellers revealing that Things We (And The Cast) Have Taken For Granted are not, in fact, true – or at least, that there’s more to the truth than what Everyone Knows – is one of my favourite things, and I’ve loved that arc within this trilogy. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it will skilfully done, and I massively approve.

The second thing, which is not something I realised while reading but thought about afterwards, is: I’ve enjoyed Edwin’s arc over the course of this series so much. He already went through a lot of growth in Marvellous Light, but there’s even more of it in Power Unbound, and it made me so happy. I love how he went from an unregarded, disrespected ‘waste’ of a magician to – well. To what he is by the end of things. In a few ways, this trilogy is his story, and I am super okay with that.

An excellent conclusion to an excellent trilogy – these are books I’ll reread with pleasure for years and years!

The post Bringing It To a Close With a Bang: A Power Unbound by Freya Marske appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske

A Power Unbound (The Last Binding, #3) by Freya Marske
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, achillean MC, M/M, secondary M/M and F/F
PoV: Third-person past-tense, dual PoVs
Published on: 7th November 2023
ISBN: 125078896X
Goodreads

A Power Unbound
is the final entry in Freya Marske’s beloved, award-winning Last Binding trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light.

Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. After the death of his twin sister, he thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world.

Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross.

Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, with all his unearned power, is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package.

When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall—Jack’s ancestral family estate, a land so old and bound in oaths that it’s grown a personality as prickly as its owner—Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice . . . and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end.

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

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-17T17:44:35+00:00", "description": "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHighlights\n\n\n\n~the house is a music box~of all the places one could hide a knife~stupidly smart villains~golden pheasants + peacocks = Yes~this is The Kinky One, folx\n\n\n\nThe Power Unboun", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/a-power-unbound-by-freya-marske\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Power Unbound (The Last Binding, #3)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Freya Marske", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "125078896X" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~the house is a music box
~of all the places one could hide a knife
~stupidly smart villains
~golden pheasants + peacocks = Yes
~this is The Kinky One, folx

The Power Unbound is a five-star reading experience – I had so much fun, and experienced so much sheer DELIGHT while reading! – that loses a little bit of its lustre when you step back and ponder it after finishing it. That doesn’t stop it from being a fantastic conclusion to a great trilogy, though.

We met both Alan and Jack in A Restless Truth, and it was clear at the time that Marske was setting them up to be our next OTP. (Yes, I know OTP stands for one true pairing, but every pairing in this series is an OTP, don’t @ me.) Now that they’ve gained the spotlight in their own book, I have to admit, of all the marvellous (…pun unintended, I swear) couples in this trilogy, Jack and Alan are definitely my favourite. They both feel more complicated as individuals than any of our previous MCs, and their coming together (ahem) is also much more complicated than it was for Robin and Edwin or Violet and Maud. For one thing, both previous couples were all nobility, to one extent or another – and while Jack is too, Alan is very much not, and his working-class background – and the values, philosophies, and worldview it’s given him – is a major part of his and Jack’s romance; both as a hurdle to it and as a fundamental part of it. Alan despises the nobility, and there really is not one single moment in this book where you can disagree with him. Robin, Edwin, Violet and Maud – and Jack – might all be perfectly lovely people (…well, more or less, re Jack) but that doesn’t make the institution of the nobility a good thing.

I have to say, I never felt like I was being lectured, though. Marske presents Alan’s perspective without commentary – probably because every point he makes, or thinks, is inarguable – and gets on with the story. Alan’s love for his family is a pretty major driving force of the narrative, so we get to see that too, his motivations for all the dodgy and totally-above-board things he does and has done.

“I would put your heart between my ribs and guard it like my own. Is there any way I could make you believe it?”

But with romance being such a big part of this trilogy, I have to admit that it falls a little short here. While I adored how Alan and Jack feel like complimentary puzzle pieces in a way we didn’t get with either of the other relationships, Alan and Jack are also the only couple I can’t imagine having a Happily Ever After now the book is done. The difference in their stations is a hugely important aspect of their relationship, but it’s one that’s never actually resolved. If you’re able to turn all your critical thinking off, then this hopefully won’t bother you, but readers like me are going to struggle picturing them still together a year after the events of the series, never mind a decade later. Their relationship doesn’t seem at all sustainable, and that’s really just hand-waved. I would have preferred that Marske have the two of them amicably part ways at the end of the book, acknowledging that there’s just no way of making things work between them long-term, than the sort of wishy-washy ‘everything’s fine, don’t think about it too hard’ ending that we got.

Ross said, “Ask me if I’ve ever been paid for it.”

“Ask? I only have to look at you. Men would bankrupt themselves.”

Romance aside, The Power Unbound is the big finale, wherein all the plotting and scheming and research and desperation and scrambling and betrayals come to a head – where all there is to know (and do) about the Last Contract is at last revealed and resolved. And there, I have no reservations whatsoever – Marske brought all the clues and groundwork laid over the last two books together into a massively satisfying (and at times heart-pounding) conclusion. There’s little I can say about that without going into spoilers, but I thought all things magical were wrapped up perfectly – not just in what happens with the nature of English magic in the end, which is the core of the story, but in everything it takes to get us to it. The bad guys are bad, but they’re also MADDENINGLY clever, and as much as it makes my blood pressure sky-rocket, I immensely appreciate villains that make me want to scream with frustration as they keep blocking or subverting the actions of our Good cast. You know all will end well – it’s just not in the tone of these books for real tragedy or horror to hit – but I was still on the edge of my seat more than once, alternately petrified that the Bad Guys were going to get away with it, or tearing my hair out as the Bad Guys parried the Good Guys’ plans. Or WORSE, the Bad Guys’ having the support of various institutions of power – it’s more than enough to make you want to burn capitalism down and start over, I swear!

All this to say, Marske has NOT lost her skill at making her readers feel all the Feels, so you’re in not just for a pretty perfect ending to a really great series, but one that will give you plenty of emotions while you read it through.

Two points that you don’t really need to know, but I have to comment on anyway: I love how much we learned about the nature of magic over the course of this trilogy. I remember what a revelation Violet’s rings were in Restless Truth, how much they added to something we already thought we understood the rules of. Power Unbound continues this, not so much changing the rules on us as revealing them – putting us right alongside most of the cast, who are also having the foundations of their world changed by reveal right under their feet in real time. Storytellers revealing that Things We (And The Cast) Have Taken For Granted are not, in fact, true – or at least, that there’s more to the truth than what Everyone Knows – is one of my favourite things, and I’ve loved that arc within this trilogy. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it will skilfully done, and I massively approve.

The second thing, which is not something I realised while reading but thought about afterwards, is: I’ve enjoyed Edwin’s arc over the course of this series so much. He already went through a lot of growth in Marvellous Light, but there’s even more of it in Power Unbound, and it made me so happy. I love how he went from an unregarded, disrespected ‘waste’ of a magician to – well. To what he is by the end of things. In a few ways, this trilogy is his story, and I am super okay with that.

An excellent conclusion to an excellent trilogy – these are books I’ll reread with pleasure for years and years!

The post A Power Unbound by Freya Marske appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang!

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 26th March 2024
Goodreads

“What if I told you that the feeling we call love is actually the feeling of metaphysical recognition, when your soul remembers someone from a previous life?”

In the year 4 BCE, an ambitious courtier is called upon to seduce the young emperor — but quickly discovers they are both ruled by blood, sex and intrigue.

In 1740, a lonely innkeeper agrees to help a mysterious visitor procure a rare medicine, only to unleash an otherworldly terror instead.

And in present-day Los Angeles, a college student meets a beautiful stranger and cannot shake the feeling they’ve met before.

Across these seemingly unrelated timelines woven together only by the twists and turns of fate, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime. Within the treacherous walls of an ancient palace and the boundless forests of the Asian wilderness to the heart-pounding cement floors of underground rave scenes, our lovers are inexplicably drawn to each other, constantly tested by the worlds around them.

As their many lives intertwine, they begin to realize the power of their undying love—a power that transcends time itself…but one that might consume them both.

An unpredictable roller coaster of a debut novel, The Emperor and the Endless Palace is a genre-bending romantic thriller that challenges everything we think we know about true love.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-15T16:53:57+00:00", "description": "Two queer lovers being reborn again and again throughout history, always finding each other.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-the-emperor-and-the-endless-palace-by-justinian-huang\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Emperor and the Endless Palace", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Justinian Huang", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

If that cover – by artist Yixin Zeng! – doesn’t make you stop and catch your breath, I don’t know what will. But this one already had my interest before the cover reveal – I found it on one of my far-too-many late-night Edelweiss-surfing jaunts, and might have maybe FLAILED A BIT.

Because – everything about this sounds incredible??? I’m fascinated by the concept of reincarnation, but I’ve seen very few examples of it in fiction that I enjoyed, so I’m always looking for more examples in case THIS TIME is the time it’s done right (imo). I don’t think this will be The One, because the idea of souls having gender (and therefore a person being reborn as the same gender every time) seems ridiculous to me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not already HEAVILY INVESTED in a love story that encompasses multiple lifetimes!

That gets my Inner Romantic in a way not many things do, I’ll be honest.

And my Inner Queer Historian was super excited to see it confirmed in an early review that the first lifetime of the story involves Dong Xian, and the cut sleeve. I knew Emperor and the Endless Palace was going to start out in ancient China (maybe they’ll all take place in China??? We shall have to see!) but I didn’t know Huang was going to use actual figures from history, which just delights me for some reason I can’t put my finger on. Because it anchors it a little more in reality? Which makes it a little more special, somehow? That doesn’t make sense, but there you go.

‘Genre-bending’ is also something that gets me excited – we already have reincarnation, of course, but early reviews have mentioned magic (and there’s the ‘otherworldly terror’ mentioned in the blurb, too), so there’s fantastical elements for sure. That plus queerness makes ‘romantic thriller’ sound massively appealing rather than vaguely alarming (the way it might if this were lit fic, for example).

Lastly, I like very much that Huang’s instructions for the cover were apparently ‘lush, psychedelic, and romantic’, because that suggests to me that that’s what we’re going to get from the prose and story. Or at least, I can hope so!

Alas we must wait till March for this one – but you can preorder it in all the usual places now!

The post I Can’t Wait For…The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #162

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.)

System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7) by Martha Wells
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Asexual agender MC, queernorm world
Published on: 14th November 2023
Goodreads

Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment in Martha Wells's New York Times bestselling Murderbot Diaries series.

Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.

The Murderbot Diaries
All Systems Red
Artificial Condition
Rogue Protocol
Exit Strategy
Network Effect
Fugitive Telemetry
System Collapse

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martha Wells", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

AT LAST! Wells confused a lot of us by setting the sixth instalment of her Murderbot series before the fifth – meaning that System Collapse is the actual sequel to the plot begun in Network Effect, aka book 5. WHICH HAD A PRETTY INTENSE CLIFFHANGER. So I know I’m not the only one dying to get my hands on this and finally learn how that part of Murderbot’s story goes!

Shadow Baron (Burnished City Trilogy) by Davinia Evans
Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 14th November 2023
Goodreads

'A firework of a fantasy vibrant, explosive, deliciously dangerous and impossibly fun. A must-read debut' Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne

Siyon Velo might be acknowledged as the Alchemist. He may have even stabilized the planes and stopped Bezim from ever shaking into the sea again. But that doesn't mean he has any idea what's he doing-and it won't be long before everyone knows it.

Then mythical creatures once confined to operas and myths are spotted around Bezim. A djinn invades one of Zagiri's garden parties, and whispers of a naga slithering through the Flower District are all Anahid hears at the card table.

Magic is waking up in the Mundane. It's up to Siyon to figure out a way to stop it, or everything he's worked hard to save will come crashing down.

Praise for this
'From the razor-sharp social climbing to the glimmering alchemist's library to the hidden realms beneath it all, I loved getting lost in this dazzling debut' S. A. Chakraborty, author of The City of Brass

'Notorious Sorcerer 's unique magic system adds to this delightful fantasy setting, leaving readers eagerly anticipating the next book in the Burnished City series' Booklist

'Notorious Sorcerer feels like a dream you don't want to wake from . . . I devoured it and want more!' Melissa Caruso, author of The Obsidian Tower

'A delightful and fast-paced ride full of flashy swordplay, high society, and thrilling magic. . . Sheer, glorious fun!' Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light

'Notorious Sorcerer is a real delight, with compelling characters and wonderful worldbuilding that sucks the reader in and keeps them engaged from beginning to end' Mike Brooks, author of The Black Coast

'A brilliant alchemical recipe! Notorious Sorcerer is a delicious melange of my favourite things, remixing historical magic with class consciousness. I couldn't put it down' Olivia Atwater, author of Half a Soul

'If you like a healthy dollop of rollicking fun with your epic fantasy, this is the book for you' Megan Bannen, author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Shadow Baron (Burnished City Trilogy)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Davinia Evans", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I adored the first book in this series, Notorious Sorcerer – and as someone who just finished the arc of this one, I can confidently announce that Shadow Baron is every bit as excellent! Maybe even better??? I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS SERIES, FOLX, I CANNOT EVEN!

The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 14th November 2023
Goodreads

It’s thirty years from now. We’re making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry old people who can’t let go?

For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.

But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their "alternative" news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that "climate change" is just a giant scam.

And they're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they're not going anywhere. And they’re armed to the teeth.

The Lost Cause What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they're often the elders that we love?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Lost Cause", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Cory Doctorow", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Doctorow is probably the only author I’d trust with this premise, and I’m halfway through the arc and enjoying the hell out of it! Although I have to admit I still don’t see how he’s going to pull off the reconciliation Mentioned in the tagline…

The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q by Felicia Davin
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs, polyamory
Published on: 14th November 2023
Goodreads

Paris, 1825 . Losing her husband is the best thing to happen to Delphine in ages. After he used magic to control her, Delphine’s only regret is that she didn’t kill that petty tyrant herself. Widowed, Delphine can pursue her dashing rescuer, the androgynous novelist Camille Dupin—and solve the mystery of her first love, a man called Ari who disappeared before Delphine could tell him she was pregnant with his child. Ari isn’t dead. Three years ago, he stole a magical weapon from a powerful man and was exiled to a distant prison. When a stroke of luck allows him to escape, he sets out to confront the man who ruined his life and reunite with Delphine. He never expected to find her in bed with Camille, or to find himself falling in love with both of them.

Camille loves Delphine and was almost ready to let her guard down. Ari’s reappearance stirs up old hurts and threatens them all—Ari’s enemy will stop at nothing to get his stolen artifact back. Camille’s conscience won’t let her abandon Delphine and Ari in danger, but she won’t stay to have her heart broken once they’re safe. Before Delphine, Camille, and Ari can imagine a happy future, they’ll have to reckon with the past.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Felicia Davin", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is the standalone sequel to Davin’s The Scandalous Letters of V and J, which came out earlier this year. You don’t need to have read it to read this one, although at least some of the main characters in this one were secondary characters in the previous book, I think. Myself, I’ll definitely be pouncing on it!

The Ruin of Beasts (Those Who Break Chains) by Maria Ying
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: East Asian sapphic cast, F/F, polyamory
Published on: 14th November 2023
Goodreads

The conclusion to the long hunt of centuries, the fulfillment of an ancient family pact: what awaits, at the end of all things.

The House of Hua made a binding promise with a demon—in exchange for strength and a lasting legacy, the family's descendants must work to seal away the eldritch being known only as Nuawa, a creature that's long chafed against its captivity and has at last broken free. It will not rest until the Huas are scorched, the family name cast into oblivion.

Viveca, Olesya, and all their retainers must marshal their every resource if they want to destroy Nuawa for good. But it has grown arrogant and potent, and at its side stands a mage far more powerful than any other the Huas have ever faced.

Now, more than ever, both sisters stand to lose everything.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Ruin of Beasts (Those Who Break Chains)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Maria Ying", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I can’t tell you how much I’ve adored the lush, gorgeous prose of this series – and its immensely delicious queerness! I’m kind of heartbroken that the trilogy is coming to an end – I don’t want it to be over! – but at the same time, I’m breathless with anticipation for the final showdown. EEE!

In the Pines by Mariah Stillbrook
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 14th November 2023
Goodreads

Two witches, two secrets, and a curse that could tear a family apart.

Olivia and Ellie have lived their lives knowing a dark entity is stalking their family, determined to kill them all. After the death of Olivia’s son, she abandons her magic and her family, leaving Ellie in a nightmare of heartbreak, her marriage crumbling and her sister gone. Determined to save their mother Arianna from a spell that left her comatose, the two sisters must come together to unravel the riddle of the curse that has haunted their family for generations.

But as they delve into the past, the truth they uncover is more twisted and treacherous than they ever could have imagined. Will they be able to break the curse, or will it consume them all?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "In the Pines", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mariah Stillbrook", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

In the Pines showed up unexpectedly on my feed, and I haven’t been able to get exact details on the queer rep. But it sounds plenty interesting, and the early reviews seem very happy with it! (I can never understand characters who abandon magic, though. If you had it, why would you ever give it up???)

Merciless Waters by Rae Knowles
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 14th November 2023
Goodreads

The sea never changes. Neither do Lily and Jaq.

Aboard the ship Scylla, there is no future or past. Jaq, her fickle lover Lily, and their all-female crew exist in an endless present. It’s better this way. At least it keeps Lily by Jaq’s side, where she belongs. But the meddling gods care little for Jaq’s longing, and despite her protective rituals, their punishment arrives all the same:

A man, adrift on the open ocean. Delivered to snatch Lily from Jaq’s arms forever.

Jaq knows what to do. She’s lost Lily before. Her lover will return—when this interloper, this distraction, is snuffed out. But Jaq’s murderous schemes may not be enough. The intruder’s presence infects her crew with a plague her spells cannot cure: memory. And as the women recall how they came to Scylla, their minds bend one by one towards revenge.

Including Lily’s. Especially Lily’s.

Now Scylla draws closer to shore, leaving Jaq with an impossible choice. Deny Lily and evoke her ire. Or join her—and possibly lose her for good.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Merciless Waters", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rae Knowles", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Whereas Merciless Waters has been on my feed for months, making me very impatient indeed to get my hands on it! A crew of all-lady pirates? Memory curses? Murderous sapphics? Um, ALL THE HELLS YES!

Splinter by Jasper Hyde
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Black MC
Published on: 16th November 2023
Goodreads

This Is The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Reborn…

In a small town hidden behind the hills of New York, things are far from ordinary. As Sleepy Hollow’s youngest Medical Examiner, the pressure intensifies for Dr. Drusilla Van Tassel when the headless bodies of her sister Katrina’s friends start surfacing. Meanwhile, Drusilla’s ex-lover Ichabod Crane returns to town, dredging up feelings better left buried.

Things take a turn for the worst when Drusilla comes face-to-face with the Headless Horseman, who is back to settle old scores – and she and her sister are the perfect targets. Drusilla can repel the horseman with an unknown power, but her sister isn’t so lucky, and she goes missing.

However, when Drusilla discovers Ichabod is a monster hunter, she has no other choice but to turn to him for help. Even if that means working with a man she feels an inexplicable attraction to. Will they find Katrina and banish the headless horseman once and for all?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Splinter", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jasper Hyde", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’ve never cared about Sleepy Hollow and the whole Headless Horseman thing very much, but maybe this will help change that???

Render to Silver by Catherine Labadie
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 17th November 2023
Goodreads

The Founts of Silver are holy women blessed by the favor of their God...or they are cursed vessels meant to be shattered. Given no other choice, Fount Marzanna clawed her way up their ranks until she was able to begin planning her escape with one of her fellow Founts from Aebbenary, the prosperous island ruled by Silver's decadent church.

Instead, the accidental working of a Miracle sets her apart and attracts the notice of the High Priest. He intends to use her to spark a revival in the city, and eventually the world, which has begun to turn away from a religion that rewards greed and ambition as piety. He's not forthcoming with how, and while tensions in the city rise, while two rival houses contemplate war, Marzanna realizes the role she resents with all her heart won't let her walk away without untold sacrifice.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Render to Silver", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Catherine Labadie", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Render to Silver was initially published way back in March, but this week is the ebook release! Which is very important to me, because my messed-up hands can’t hold paper books any more, so I needs my ebooks!!! And I’ve been PINING for this one – I’m so so so glad the author decided to release it digitally too after all!

Princess of the Pomegranate Moon by Emily Wynne
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans bi/pansexual MC
Published on: 17th November 2023
Goodreads

In this late age, seasons have lost their steady cadence, and the Pomegranate Moon rises over the Mountain.

In the Season of Shadows, a silver light is cast by a moon crowned with an ominous rainbow mist—the Pomegranate Moon. A small, fearful village crouches below, hidden in the shadow of a forbidden sacred mountain rumored to be the gate to Faerie.

Out of the darkness emerges Elsinore—a dancer in a brightly colored dress and rainbow shawls. While she drums a hypnotic beat and dances with floating flames, the townsfolk watch and wonder over her origin and identity—mysteries Elsinore herself seeks the key to.

A hallowed priestess and sorceress, Elsinore has spent a lifetime embracing the woman she has always known herself to be. But deep within, the painful enigma of her youth keeps her shackled to the past, haunted by guilt and grief. Disregarding the whispers and ancient warnings, Elsinore descends into the heart of the Mountain, seeking the final truths of her identity.

Will Elsinore uncover what she needs to become whole, or will she lose herself to the Mountain?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-13T09:39:00+00:00", "description": "Murderbot, alchemy, and a crew of lady pirates!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-162\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Princess of the Pomegranate Moon", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Emily Wynne", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I heard about this gorgeous-sounding book last week over on Before We Go, whose review completely sold me! I want to dive into Elsinore’s story so bad! Can you blame me???

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

The post Must-Have Monday #162 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Sunday Soupçons #26

soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor

Sunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!

Two very different books I enjoyed a lot!

Divinity 36 (Tinkered Starsong, #1) by Gail Carriger
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer MC
ISBN: B0BZWZM5JG
Goodreads

The aliens are coming for us and they want our voices.

New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger brings you a gloriously warm and unique scifi about the power of art, celebrity, and found family.

Phex is a barista on a forgotten moon. Which is fine – he likes being ignored and he’s good at making drinks. Until one day an alien hears him singing and recruits him to become a god. Now Phex is thrust headfirst into the galaxy’s most cutthroat entertainment industry, where music is visible, the price of fame can kill, and the only friends he has want to be worshiped.

Welcome to the divinity. Where there is no difference between celebrity and religion, love and belief, acolyte and alien. Where the right kind of obsession can drive a person crazy or turn them divine.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-12T16:18:17+00:00", "description": "The music industry as religion + aliens, and spirits of the land at war with each other.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/sunday-soupcons-26\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Divinity 36 (Tinkered Starsong, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gail Carriger", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B0BZWZM5JG" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 3.5, "bestRating": "5" }}

I pounced when I learned Carriger was going back to the same sci fi setting as Fifth Gender, which was a) one of the first books I ever reviewed for this blog and b) a TON of fun!

The Tinkered Starsong series (at least in this book) has no crossover whatsoever with Fifth Gender, but that’s fine, because we get new very lovable characters and fascinating worldbuilding (which is strange, but actually easier to understand, I think, than what we got in Fifth Gender). The music industry is now synonymous with religion – popstars are called gods, and their fans are worshippers. It’s an oddly easy premise to wrap your head around – let’s be fair, it’s not the biggest jump to imagine the music industry as a religion, is it? – but we don’t have to wrestle with it too much in this book, since Divinity 36 is the story of Phex, the main character, trying out to become a god. It’s nothing like X Factor or any of those shows – the industry/faith is controlled by an alien race called the Dyesi, who have an almost mathematical formula for creating new bands, aka ‘pantheons’; while they do consider how the public at large responds to new pantheons late in the training stage, who makes it into which pantheon and which pantheons ‘ascend’ to become demigods is absolutely not down to public voting.

One of the more interesting aspects of the music in this universe/set-up is that it’s visible; godsong is performed on or under special constructions called Domes, and different sounds create different colours and patterns on the domes – and on the Dyesi members of the pantheon, since the Dyesi’s skin also responds to sound with colours and patterns (presumably the inspiration for their coming up with the Dome technology in the first place). The pantheons that make it are the ones whose music creates beautiful (mostly according to Dyesi aesthetics) colours and patterns. So it’s not enough to be a good singer, even an amazing singer; you have to be able to manipulate the Dome tech pleasingly, in coordination with the other singing members of your pantheon (some pantheon members do not sing, and instead are a bit like what we’d think of as back-up dancers, except there’s nothing ‘back-up’ about them).

Is this groundbreaking, wildly addictive sci fi? No. It’s very soft – a huge amount of focus is on the other people, of various species, trying out for godhood alongside Phex, and the slow forming of potential pantheons as relationships and compatible skillsets come together. There’s something about the whole thing that feels very passive – maybe because Phex really isn’t in control of any part of the process he’s undergoing? – but that didn’t strike as a bad thing; instead, it all feels very gentle and easy, pretty perfect for when your brain is just not up to handling anything that requires a lot of work. Divinity 36 is a book you can just drift along with, and that’s pretty blissful in the right circumstances.

There’s what’s clearly the beginnings/groundwork being laid for a romance in later books that had me rolling my eyes – while I REALLY enjoyed the secondary characters around Phex, the ones who are part of his tentatively-forming pantheon, I couldn’t STAND the love interest. Thankfully, we don’t have to deal with him much, and maybe he’ll improve in the next books.

Phex himself is…an interesting character, but not in the usual sense: he’s interesting because he’s not interesting. Especially at first, Phex almost seems to have little to no personality, or drive, or passions; he very much just rolls with whatever’s going on, accepting what the universe throws at him without comment. And to be fair, this makes perfect sense to me, because his past involves the kind of childhood trauma (never gone into graphically) that could definitely result in an adult who’s just content to go along with anything that isn’t actively awful. I can see some readers finding this annoying, but over the course of the book Phex does reveal – or maybe develop? – more of a personality (I suggest ‘develop’ because it really does seem possible that he only starts to figure out who he is as a person once he’s surrounded by people he cares about, which is a situation he’s never been in before). I really liked watching Phex discover his desire to take care of others, and how that in turn develops into outright protectiveness. The person he is at the end of the book is…someone I was weirdly proud I got to see come into being.

If that makes any sense at all.

Highly recommended for anyone looking for a sci fi interesting enough to keep you invested, but that you don’t have to work at.

Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC
ISBN: B06ZZBDGS7
Goodreads

In this gorgeous, dark fantasy in the spirit of Jacqueline Carey, a princess and a duke must protect the people of their nations when a terrible threat leaves everyone in danger.

With the Mad King of Emmer in the north and the vicious King of Pohorir in the east, Kehara Raehema knows her country is in a vulnerable position. She never expected to give up everything she loves to save her people, but when the Mad King’s fury leaves her land in danger, she has no choice but to try any stratagem that might buy time for her people to prepare for war—no matter the personal cost.'

Hundreds of miles away, the pitiless Wolf Duke of Pohorir, Innisth Eanete, dreams of breaking his people and his province free of the king he despises. But he has no way to make that happen—until chance unexpectedly leaves Kehara on his doorstep and at his mercy.

Yet in a land where immanent spirits inhabit the earth, political disaster is not the greatest peril one can face. Now, as the year rushes toward the dangerous midwinter, Kehera and Innisth find themselves unwilling allies, and their joined strength is all that stands between the peoples of the Four Kingdoms and utter catastrophe.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2023-11-12T16:18:17+00:00", "description": "The music industry as religion + aliens, and spirits of the land at war with each other.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/sunday-soupcons-26\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Winter of Ice and Iron", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rachel Neumeier", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B06ZZBDGS7" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4, "bestRating": "5" }}

I DNFed this book earlier in the year, but I came back to it – as I said in the DNF review, I have to be exactly the right headspace for Neumeier’s writing, but gods, when I’m in the mood for it, absolutely nothing else will do!

I still don’t have a clue why the blurb comps this to Jacqueline Carey, because Winter of Ice and Iron in no way resembles or echoes any of her works – but it doesn’t need to, because it’s damn excellent in its own right. In this world, unhuman spirits referred to as Powers develop in any land dwelled on by humans, which then bond with the ruling bloodline of that land. (It’s not at all clear whether Powers bond to those already ruling the area, or whether it’s being chosen by the Powers that turns a bloodline into a ruling family.) Every kingdom has its Great Power, bound to that country’s monarchy, and then all the Powers of that kingdom’s duchies etc are subservient to that Great Power, as the dukes and such serve the King or Queen.

It’s a really fascinating concept that Neumeier does a lot with – I will be forever impressed with how much worldbuilding, and how much really unique worldbuilding, she packs into her standalones! – but I think what I appreciated most about this book – besides Neumeier’s strangely serene prose, which I get intense and insatiable cravings for in certain moods! – is how unconventional the whole shape of Winter of Ice and Iron is. This isn’t unique to Winter – most, maybe even all, of Neumeier’s stories go in unexpected directions, and subvert the story-beats we tend to expect – but I thought it was especially well done here. Neumeier isn’t afraid to put her characters into difficult situations without neat, easy solutions; to have their plans fail or twist in ways they Did Not Want; to go ahead and let/make the Bad Things happen, when you’re so sure that she can’t possibly ACTUALLY be ruthless enough to write that!

And then she does, and then you FLAIL, and also snarl at anyone who interrupts your reading time because suddenly, abruptly, the book shifts from ‘weirdly serene, despite Plenty Of Plot’, to ‘if-you-make-me-put-this-down-I-swear-to-the-GODS-you’ll-regret-it’!

The romance was especially interesting, to be honest: I liked that it started out as a political necessity that turned into genuine appreciation for each other, but I liked even more that Innisth has his male servant/lover who he does not give up when he gets married. I liked the unconventionality of that arrangement.

Although the whole thing of Innisth being queer is, I think, Not Great, since a) his sex with men is tied to the sadism required of him by the Power he’s bound to, which is immediately wtf, b) his lover is also his servant, which = dodgy power dynamics that I don’t love, and c) Innisth is kind of a semi-villain, and the only other queer character Neumeier has written so far was an outright villain, and so I’m not inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt here. I knocked off half a star for how the whole thing was handled.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed Winter a hell of a lot, that I thought the worldbuilding and cast and need-to-save-the-world were all wonderful. It’s a genuinely excellent book, albeit one that takes a little while to really get going, and that requires you to be in the mood for a particular kind of…meditative?…prose.

What have you been reading?

The post Sunday Soupçons #26 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.