Siavahda's Blog, page 44

June 8, 2023

Fun and Frustrating: The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
PoV: 3rd-person, present-tense
Published on: 11th July 2023
ISBN: 1668008491
Goodreads

A diverse, exciting debut space opera about a young tea expert who is taken as a political prisoner and recruited to spy on government officials—a role that may empower her to win back her nation’s independence—perfect for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor.

The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the last Emperor’s surrender means little to a lowly scribe like Enitan. All she wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when her lover is assassinated and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and weaves her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital. There, she will learn just how far she is willing to go to exact vengeance, free her sibling, and perhaps even secure her homeland’s freedom.

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

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~let’s hear it for non-traditional family structures!
~when will colonialists realise colonising is cringe (and also evil)
~tea-growing is the chillest hobby
~being a spy for/with/against the Emperor is so very not-chill
~a truly unbelievable number of coincidences

The Splinter in the Sky is an extremely readable, swift-paced sci fi standalone of political intrigue and colonialism. Ashing-Giwa’s prose has that indefinable, engaging quality that soothes the mind and lets the story sweep you away; chapters slip past with comfortable ease, and before you know it, you’ve finished the book entirely!

That being said – hold your horses, tiger. Splinter is a fun read, but comparing it to the works of N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor is unfair to it, and pretty misleading for readers. Someone tell the marketing department to calm down, please.

The truth is that Splinter is a little hard to talk about – or rate – because it’s full of contradictions. Not inconsistencies – I spotted no plotholes and had no ??? moments with the worldbuilding, nothing like that. But this is a book that is very straightforward…despite tackling issues like colonialism and the entire plot revolving around secretive political intrigue. The worldbuilding that has gone into the Korikese, Enitan’s people, is original and interesting…but the Empire is incredibly boring and lacking in detail. This is the hardest thing Enitan has ever had to do…but the answers she’s searching for just fall into her lap again and again.

I was disappointed that the titular Splinter – a giant rhombus-shaped flying city – was so dull: everything inside it is just black. Obsidian, onyx, and jet everywhere. There was nothing beautiful or interesting about it, nothing to describe – not even black-on-black carvings or something – which means nothing to picture. It has occurred to me that Ashing-Giwa might have meant for this blankly black monolith to be a metaphor for the dark hollowness at the heart of the empire… But even if that’s so, the effect is incredibly mind-numbing. And – though again, this might have been deliberate, give how many white people complain that we white people don’t have any culture – even aside from the flying city being The Dullest, the actual Empire itself didn’t seem to have much of a culture either, beyond ‘conquer everybody’. There was a little bit about the Emperor being a living god, but the upper classes at least don’t really believe it, and other than that…it all felt so generic. I wanted so much more worldbuilding then we got, and it felt like the plain black aesthetic was a way to make the city eerie and Other without having to imagine and create a new culture. I would love a whole novel (or series!) set among the Korikese, because their world and culture sounds so incredibly interesting, but we barely got to see them at all, and the Empire was just…blandly awful.

So that was disappointing.

What actually annoyed me was how convenient everything was. There’s a conspiracy, but the clues and reveals required to take it down barely need to be looked for before they manifest, neatly wrapped and helpfully labelled with pretty little bows on top. The secret puppet-masters of the Empire don’t come across as particularly good at their scheming when a rube from the provinces – so to speak – can uncover them so quickly and easily. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was frustrated; but some of the coincidences that came in the lead-up to the climax were just beyond belief. What’s worse is that the worst of them weren’t even plot-relevent; they could have been cut without impacting the story at all. GAH!

But none of this can outweigh the fact that Splinter in the Sky is fun. Books that you can just disappear into are worth their weight in gold; particularly books that you can disappear into even when your brain is misbehaving. When I was restless and twitchy and couldn’t focus on anything, Splinter in the Sky was a story I could vanish into with no effort at all. It’s powerfully immersive, delightfully moreish, and requires nothing from the reader but the time it takes to read it.

We don’t have enough books like that.

So yes, I can nitpick all day, but ultimately, Splinter‘s flaws are irrelevant. It’s purpose is to entertain, and it does that exceedingly well. And if you’re willing to be entertained, I think you will be.

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Published on June 08, 2023 00:27

June 7, 2023

Cover Reveal: An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson

S.T. Gibson has had me under her spell since I first read her work; without fail, it is always dark, decadent, and utterly delicious. So I’m MOST EXTREMELY DELIGHTED to be a part of the cover reveal for her next novel, An Education in Malice, set in the same world as the incredible Dowry of Blood!

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
Published on: 13th February 2024
Goodreads

Sumptuous and addictive, An Education in Malice is a dark academia tale of blood, secrets and insatiable hungers from Sunday Times bestselling author S.T. Gibson, author of the cult hit A Dowry of Blood .

Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua's College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold.

On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla.

But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and dark magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.

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Is that not a ridiculously beautiful cover?! Usually I prefer more illustrated covers, but I have a definite soft spot for ivy, and I adore the colour-scheme – especially how the gold pops! Duncan Spilling, the artist, has done a wonderful job, imo.

I imagine the printed version on the books themselves will have gold foil where there’s gold now, which would be gorgeous!

A few details have me intrigued – like the hourglass tucked almost out of sight, half-camouflaged by the ivy. And what about the dark grey vine-thing, the one that crosses some of the text? That doesn’t really look like a vine. Is it another plant, are the whispy bits meant to be roots? HMM.

Also, knowing Gibson, I wouldn’t be surprised if the flowers here meant something specific in Victorian flower language…but I’m terrible at identifying flowers, and have no idea what these ones are! Someone smarter at that than I will have to work that out!

TL;DR: definitely a cover I’d be happy to have on my shelf!

You can preorder An Education of Malice at Blackwells, Waterstones, and of course, the Big River company!

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Published on June 07, 2023 05:00

June 5, 2023

Must-Have Monday #140

Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.

This week is SUCH A COOL WEEK! We have SEVENTEEN books – even if some of them are new editions of older books, and some aren’t SFF, that still makes it the joint-biggest Must-Have Monday we’ve ever had!!!

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

The Master of Samar by Melissa Scott
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 5th June 2023
Goodreads

Rejected by his aristocratic family, Gil Irichels has been content to make his living as a traveling cursebreaker, working with his lover, the feral mage Envar Cassi, and their bodyguard, swordswoman Arak min’Aroi. After a series of deaths leave him the sole heir to the family’s house and fortune, Irichels’s main concern is to do whatever he must to settle the estate and return to his previous life. But these is something very wrong in seaborne Bejanth, starting with the deaths of his kin and spreading into the complex web of politics and magic that holds the city together. As he struggles to discover the truth behind his family’s losses, he realizes that there is more at stake than the fall of one house. Someone is unraveling the web of curses on which the city depends, and Irichels is the only person who can stop them—if it’s not already too late.

I have been LOSING MY DAMN MIND since this was first announced, and if you think I am actually here instead of buried in my blanket fort reading it, you are deluding yourself. This post is scheduled, people; by the time you read this, I will be reading Master of Samar. ANYONE ATTEMPTING TO INTERRUPT WILL BE GLITTER-BOMBED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

A girl matches wits with a war god in this kaleidoscopic, epic tale of oppression and the cost of peace, where stories hide within other stories, and narrative has the power to heal… or to burn everything in its path.

In the winding underground tunnels of the Library, the great celestial peacekeeper of the three systems, a terrible secret lies buried.

As the daughter of a Library god, Freida has spent her whole life exploring the Library's ever-changing tunnels and communing with the gods. Her unparalleled access makes her unique – and dangerous.

When Freida meets Joshua, a mortal boy desperate to save his people, and Nergüi, a Disciple from a persecuted religious minority, Freida is compelled to break ranks with the gods and help them. But in order to do so, she will have to venture deeper into the Library than she has ever known. There she will discover the atrocities of the past, the truth of her origins, and the impossibility of her future…

With the world at the brink of war, Freida embarks on a journey to fulfill her destiny, one that pits her against an ancient war god. Her mission is straightforward: Destroy the god before he can rain hellfire upon thousands of innocent lives – if he doesn't destroy her first.

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How am I supposed to sleep tonight, knowing this is out tomorrow??? HOW?! This is another book I want so bad it makes my stomach hurt. IT’S ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON, WRITING ABOUT GODS AND LIBRARIES AND MULTIPLE WORLDS, IF YOU ARE NOT EXCITED YOU ARE SIMPLY WRONG.

And there’s an excerpt up at Tor.com to prove it!!!

Relentless Melt by Jeremy P. Bushnell
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

Stranger Things meets the Golden Age of Detective fiction in a rollicking supernatural detective thriller that introduces Artie Quick, a sales assistant at Filene’s in Boston, who moonlights as a amateur detective.

The year is 1909, and Artie Quick—an ambitious, unorthodox and inquisitive young Bostonian—wants to learn about crime. By day she holds down a job as a salesgirl in women’s accessories at Filene’s; by night she disguises herself as a man to pursue studies in Criminal Investigation at the YMCA's Evening Institute for Younger Men.
Eager to put theory into practice, Artie sets out in search of something to investigate. She's joined by her pal Theodore, an upper-crust young bachelor whose interest in Boston's occult counterculture has drawn him into the study of magic. Together, their journey into mystery begins on Boston Common—where the tramps and the groundskeepers swap rumors about unearthly screams and other unsettling anomalies—but soon Artie and Theodore uncover a series of violent abductions that take them on an adventure from the highest corridors of power to the depths of an abandoned mass transit tunnel, its excavation suspiciously never completed.

Will Theodore ever manage to pull off a successful spell? Is Artie really wearing that men's suit just for disguise or is there something more to it? And what chance do two mixed-up young people stand up against the greatest horror Boston has ever known, an ancient, deranged evil that feeds on society's most vulnerable?

I discovered Relentless Melt last-minute, but I’m already obsessed with it??? This sounds so weird and so queer and so great??? SEND HELP!

Open Throat by Henry Hoke
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Magical Realism
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

A lonely, lovable, queer mountain lion narrates this star-making fever dream of a novel.

A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Lonely and fascinated by humanity’s foibles, the lion spends their days protecting the welfare of a nearby homeless encampment, observing obnoxious hikers complain about their trauma, and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their gender identity, memories of a vicious father, and the indignities of sentience. “I have so much language in my brain,” our lion says, “and nowhere to put it.”

When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers call “ellay.” As the lion confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, they take us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles and the toll of climate grief, while scrambling to avoid earthquakes, floods, and the noise of their own conflicted psyche. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: Do they want to eat a person, or become one?

In elegiac prose woven with humor, imagination, sensuality, and tragedy, Henry Hoke’s Open Throat is a marvel of storytelling, a universal journey through a wondrous and menacing world told by a lovable mountain lion. Both feral and vulnerable, profound and playful, Open Throat is a star-making novel that brings mythmaking to real life.

I heard about Open Throat via one of my favourite booktubers, Jesse On Youtube, and yep, yes, absolutely, GIVE IT TO ME NOW!

Kushiel's Dart (Kushiel's Legacy, 1) by Jacqueline Carey
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, secondary Roma-coded character, queernorm setting
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

The lush epic fantasy that inspired a generation with a single precept: Love As Thou Wilt

The first book in the Kushiel's Legacy series is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. A world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, deposed rulers and a besieged Queen, a warrior-priest, the Prince of Travelers, barbarian warlords, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess...all seen through the unflinching eyes of an unforgettable heroine.

A nation born of angels, vast and intricate and surrounded by danger... a woman born to servitude, unknowingly given access to the secrets of the realm...

Born with a scarlet mote in her left eye, Phédre nó Delaunay is sold into indentured servitude as a child. When her bond is purchased by an enigmatic nobleman, she is trained in history, theology, politics, foreign languages, the arts of pleasure. And above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Exquisite courtesan, talented spy...and unlikely heroine. But when Phédre stumbles upon a plot that threatens her homeland, Terre d'Ange, she has no choice.

Betrayed into captivity in the barbarous northland of Skaldia and accompanied only by a disdainful young warrior-priest, Phédre makes a harrowing escape and an even more harrowing journey to return to her people and deliver a warning of the impending invasion. And that proves only the first step in a quest that will take her to the edge of despair and beyond.

Phédre nó Delaunay is the woman who holds the keys to her realm's deadly secrets, and whose courage will decide the very future of her world.

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Phedre’s Trilogy of the Kushiel’s Legacy series is being reissued in extra-shiny editions! The original covers by Jude Palancar are getting foiling – I especially love the pattern added to Kushiel’s Avatar.

What’s the occasion? I’m actually not sure – initially I thought it was for an anniversary, but I’m pretty sure the first book came out in 2001, so it’s at least not that anniversary. PERHAPS SOMEONE EXTREMELY SMART SIMPLY THOUGHT IT WAS TIME TO MAKE SURE THESE INCREDIBLE BOOKS REACHED A NEW GENERATION OF READERS. I am very good with that!

To the best of my knowledge these contain no new or bonus content. But: shiny!

Translation State (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary MCs, queernorm setting
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

The mystery of a missing translator sets three lives on a collision course that will have a ripple effect across galaxies in this powerful new novel by one of the masters of modern science fiction. Translation State is at once a sweeping space adventure and a brilliant exploration of how in order to belong, we must first become.

When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something entirely unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of hir ability.

Reet knows nothing about his biological family. He loves his adoptive parents, but has always secretly yearned to understand his identity, the roots that would explain why he seems to operate just a bit differently. After all, no one else hungers to study the world by ripping it apart, by slicing into those around them in order to make sense of things. So when a political group approaches him with the claim that he has ties to a genetically mysterious, long-deceased family, Reet is only too eager to believe them.

Qven was created to be a Presgr translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presgr and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something different isn't "optimal behavior". It's the type of behavior that will have you eliminated. But Qven rebels anyway, determined to find a way to belong on their own terms.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presgr is on the line—the paths of all three will collide in a chain of events that will have ripple effects across galaxies.

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My feelings on Translation State ended up a bit mixed, but I did have a ton of fun reading it!

My review!

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, Black gay secondary character, F/F
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

A young noblewoman must pair up with a rumoured witch to ward off a curse.
It is the year 1814 and life for a young lady of good breeding has many difficulties. There are balls to attend, fashions to follow, marriages to consider and, of course, the tiny complication of existing in a world swarming with fairy spirits, interfering deities, and actual straight-up sorcerers.

Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. It begins innocuously enough with her dress slowly unmaking itself over the course of an evening at a high-profile ball, a scandal she narrowly manages to escape.
However, as the curse progresses to more fatal proportions, Miss Mitchelmore must seek out aid, even if it means mixing with undesirable company. And there are few less desirable than Lady Georgianna Landrake—a brooding, alluring young woman sardonically nicknamed “the Duke of Annadale”—who may or may not have murdered her own father and brothers to inherit their fortune. If one is to believe the gossip, she might be some kind of malign enchantress. Then again, a malign enchantress might be exactly what Miss Mitchelmore needs.

With the Duke’s help, Miss Mitchelmore delves into a world of angry gods and vindictive magic, keen to unmask the perpetrator of these otherworldly attacks. But Miss Mitchelmore’s reputation is not the only thing at risk in spending time with her new ally. For the rumoured witch has her own secrets that may prove dangerous to Miss Mitchelmore’s heart—not to mention her life.

Sadly, I think I’ve somehow drifted away from Alexis Hall’s sense of humour, since I haven’t clicked with his last several books. But I do think Mortal Follies is objectively lots of fun, and perfectly lovely in its own right – if the blurb sounds good to you, you should definitely give it a go!

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

Casey McQuiston meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in this mid-century romdram about a scrappy reporter and a newspaper mogul's son--perfect for Newsies shippers.

Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city's biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can't let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy.

Andy Fleming's newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He's barely able to run his life--he's never paid a bill on time, routinely gets lost on the way to work, and would rather gouge out his own eyes than deal with office politics. Andy agrees to work for a year in the newsroom, knowing he'll make an ass of himself and hate every second of it.
Except, Nick Russo keeps rescuing Andy: showing him the ropes, tracking down his keys, freeing his tie when it gets stuck in the ancient filing cabinets. Their unlikely friendship soon sharpens into feelings they can't deny. But what feels possible in secret--this fragile, tender thing between them--seems doomed in the light of day. Now Nick and Andy have to decide if, for the first time, they're willing to fight.

I continuously hear amazing things about Cat Sebastian, it is past time I read her work, and We Could Be So Good sounds like a wonderful place to start. I already feel swoony and I haven’t even got a copy yet!

Show Girl by Alyson Greaves
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

Alex is a young man in the employ of James McCain, founder of McCain Applied Computing and old family friend. But when their trade show models fall ill just days before the event that could make or break the company, someone has to step in and fill their shoes... and their dresses.

A romance, and a journey of self-discovery.

I admit, I was not expecting sweet romance from the same author who wrote Dorley Hall, but that is wholly down to my own lack of imagination. I’m convinced Greaves can do no wrong, which means this is going to be excellent!

The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Hanna Alkaf, Margaret Owen, Preeti Chhibber, Kat Cho, Mason Deaver, Natasha Diaz, Hafsah Faizal, Victoria Lee, Jessica Lewis, Darcie Little Badger, Kwame Mbalia, L.L. McKinney, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Yamile Saied Méndez, Candice Montgomery, Marieke Nijkamp, Karuna Riazi, Randy Ribay, Kayla Whaley, Julian Winters
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Q/BIPOC MCs
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

Crack open your spell book and enter the world of the illustrious Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary. There's been a murder on campus, and it's up to the students of Galileo to solve it. Follow 18 authors and 18 students as they puzzle out the clues and find the guilty party.

Professor of Magical History Septimius Dropwort has just been murdered, and now everyone at the Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary is a suspect.

A prestigious school for young magicians, the Galileo Academy has recently undergone a comprehensive overhaul, reinventing itself as a roaming academy in which students of all cultures and identities are celebrated. In this new Galileo, every pupil is welcome—but there are some who aren't so happy with the recent changes. That includes everyone's least favorite professor, Septimius Dropwort, a stodgy old man known for his harsh rules and harsher punishments. But when the professor's body is discovered on school grounds with a mysterious note clenched in his lifeless hand, the Academy's students must solve the murder themselves, because everyone's a suspect.

Told from more than a dozen alternating and diverse perspectives, The Grimoire of Grave Fates follows Galileo's best and brightest young magicians as they race to discover the truth behind Dropwort's mysterious death. Each one of them is confident that only they have the skills needed to unravel the web of secrets hidden within Galileo's halls. But they're about to discover that even for straight-A students, magic doesn't always play by the rules. . . .

Contributors include: Cam Montgomery, Darcie Little Badger, Hafsah Faizal, Jessica Lewis, Julian Winters, Karuna Riazi, Kat Cho, Kayla Whaley, Kwame Mbalia, L. L. McKinney, Marieke Nijkamp, Mason Deaver, Natasha Díaz, Preeti Chhibber, Randy Ribay, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Victoria Lee, and Yamile Saied Méndez

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Give me all your magic school stories – especially the diverse ones! Plus, this remains a ridiculously cool concept, having every author write part of the same overarching story. I’m more than willing to put up with a murder investigation if the trade-off promises this much fun!

Secret of the Moon Conch by David Bowles, Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Mexican and Aztec MCs
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

Award-winning authors David Bowles and Guadalupe García McCall join forces to craft a sweeping fantasy romance about falling in love despite all odds.

In modern-day Mexico, Sitlali has no family left and has caught the attention of a dangerous gang leader. She has no choice but to make the perilous trip to the US border and track down her long-absent father. The night before her journey, she finds a beautiful conch shell detailed with ancient markings.

In 1521, Calizto is an Aztec young warrior in Tenochtitlan, fighting desperately to save his city from Spanish imperialists. With his family dead and the horrors of war surrounding him, Calizto asks a sacred moon conch for guidance.

Connected by the magical conch, Sitlali and Calizto can communicate across centuries, finding comfort in each other as they fight to survive. With each conversation, they fall deeper in love, but will they be able to find a way to each other?

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I immediately want to go OH NO because I am already invested and desperately want Sitlali and Calizto’s love story to work out, BUT THEY ARE CENTURIES APART HOW CAN IT??? Time travel??? It’s gonna have to be time travel, I will not stand for a tragic ending where they’re parted forever, okay???

The Byways by Mary Pascual
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Neurodiverse MC
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

High school student CeeCee Harper has special needs, a temper, and a reputation for trouble. Angry at the rumors and afraid she’ll never fit in, she makes a wrong move—and lands in the Byways, a world of alleys, magic, and forgotten people . . . some that aren’t even human. And if she doesn’t escape quickly, CeeCee learns, she’ll be trapped for good.

Searching for a way out, she gets lost among monsters, drug pushers, the homeless, and political upheaval, and soon finds there are those who will stop at nothing to keep her from leaving. But the Byways pull people in for a reason. CeeCee must figure out why she got stuck in the first place—before her loved ones are put in danger and she loses them forever.

A dark retelling of Alice in Wonderland meets Neverwhere, this contemporary fantasy will enchant Neil Gaiman and Christina Henry fans.

Alice in Wonderland crossed with Neverwhere…with a neurodiverse MC??? Pascual, you have my attention.

A Spark in the Cinders by Jenny Elder Moke
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince meets Jennifer Donnelly's Stepsister in this fairytale reimagining about a kingdom on the brink of ruin, and one wicked stepsister’s journey from side character to heroine of her own quest

The story has reached it's happily ever after, the peasant girl has married her prince and become queen, all is well in the kingdom. . . But for Aralyn, the princesses stepsister, the story is only just beginning. The kingdom of Novador has had a streak of misfortunes, with drought, famine, and disease plaguing the lands. According to a prophecy, restoring an ancient magical artifact-- the Protector's Blade-- is the only thing that can pull the kingdom back from the brink of destruction. With inside information from her fairy godmother, Aralyn teams up with lady knight Vee to go questing for the shattered pieces of the blade that have been scattered to the furthest reached of Novador. To win each element of the dagger, the girls must prove themselves by using their strengths to conquer their greatest fear. Aralyn uses wisdom, Vee physical prowess, and Queen Ellarose who is ruling the kingdom, uses benevolence. Together, these three powerful women fight to take their place as the rightful heirs to the kingdom.

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I would really like to applaud whichever genius realised Tran Nguyen needs to be painting All The Covers – I’ve been seeing more books with covers by her lately, and I just massively approve. KEEP IT UP PUBLISHERS!

Saint Juniper's Folly by Alex Crespo
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC, M/M
Published on: 6th June 2023
Goodreads

Cemetery Boys meets The Haunting of Bly Manor in this spellbinding debut! Alex Crespo’s queer haunted house mystery is equal parts spine-tingling thrills, a celebration of found family, and must-read for paranormal romance fans.

For Jaime, returning to the tiny Vermont town of Saint Juniper means returning to a past he’s spent eight years trying to forget. After shuttling between foster homes, he hopes he can make something out of this fresh start. But every gossip in town already knows his business, and with reminders of his past everywhere, he seeks out solitude into the nearby woods, called Saint Juniper’s Folly, and does not return.

For Theo, Saint Juniper means being stuck. He knows there’s more out there, but he’s scared to go find it. His senior year is going to be like all the rest, dull and claustrophobic. That is until he wanders into the Folly and stumbles on a haunted house with an acerbic yet handsome boy stuck—as in physically stuck—inside.

For Taylor, Saint Juniper is a mystery. The surrounding woods speak to her, while she tries—and fails—to practice the magic her dad banned from the house after her mother died. Taylor can’t seem break out of her spiral of grief, until a wide-eyed teenager barges into her life, rambling on about a haunted house, a trapped boy, and ghosts. He needs a witch.

The Folly and its ghosts will bring these three teenagers together. But they will each have to face their own internal struggles in order to forge a bond strong enough to escape the Folly’s shadows.

I have been assured that this really isn’t horror-y at all, just spooky-cute, so I will probably be giving it a try, since I’ve heard so many great things about it!

Winter's Gifts (Rivers of London #9.5; Kimberley Reynolds) by Ben Aaronovitch
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Published on: 8th June 2023
Goodreads

he brand new novella in the Sunday Times #1 bestselling Rivers of London series.

THEY DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY ACROSS THE POND...

When retired FBI Agent Patrick Henderson calls in an 'X-Ray Sierra India' incident, the operator doesn't understand. He tells them to pass it up the chain till someone does.

That person is FBI Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds. Leaving Quantico for snowbound Northern Wisconsin, she finds that a tornado has flattened half the town - and there's no sign of Henderson.

Things soon go from weird to worse, as neighbours report unsettling sightings, key evidence goes missing, and the snow keeps rising - cutting off the town, with no way in or out...

Something terrible is awakening. As the clues lead to the coldest of cold cases - a cursed expedition into the frozen wilderness - Reynolds follows a trail from the start of the American nightmare, to the horror that still lives on today...

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I will almost certainly read this, because I can’t imagine skipping a Rivers of London book, but I have to admit I’m not especially interested in Kimberly. Eh. Aaronovitch is an amazing writer; I’m sure I’ll end up enjoying myself anyway!

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

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Published on June 05, 2023 01:01

June 3, 2023

A Letdown in the Last Quarter: Translation State by Ann Leckie

Translation State (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary MCs, minor nonbinary characters, queernorm setting
PoV: 1st-person past tense, 3rd-person past tense.
Published on: 6th June 2023
ISBN: B0BH4JGLMC
Goodreads
three-half-stars

The mystery of a missing translator sets three lives on a collision course that will have a ripple effect across galaxies in this powerful new novel by one of the masters of modern science fiction. Translation State is at once a sweeping space adventure and a brilliant exploration of how in order to belong, we must first become.

When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something entirely unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of hir ability.

Reet knows nothing about his biological family. He loves his adoptive parents, but has always secretly yearned to understand his identity, the roots that would explain why he seems to operate just a bit differently. After all, no one else hungers to study the world by ripping it apart, by slicing into those around them in order to make sense of things. So when a political group approaches him with the claim that he has ties to a genetically mysterious, long-deceased family, Reet is only too eager to believe them.

Qven was created to be a Presgr translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presgr and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something different isn't "optimal behavior". It's the type of behavior that will have you eliminated. But Qven rebels anyway, determined to find a way to belong on their own terms.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presgr is on the line—the paths of all three will collide in a chain of events that will have ripple effects across galaxies.

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

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~are you human if you want to eat people?
~wherein the purchase of a shawl makes me bawl
~always beware conspiracy theorists
~especially when they might bring about the end of the human race

Translation State is the fifth book in Leckie’s Imperial Radch universe, and though you really don’t need to have read the standalone Provenance, I don’t recommend jumping into Translation without having read the original trilogy first. Ancillary Mercy, in particular, provides a lot of context for Translation that you might be a bit lost without. (Although if you have read it, you probably won’t need to reread it before reading this – Translation ought to jog your memory enough just fine.)

As I now definitely expect from Leckie, Translation State is fun; not a quippy thriller-thing, but twisty and thoughtful and in places even kind of cosy. Although the various plotlines have potentially huge implications for all of human space (and non-human space, for that matter) each one is very…peopley, more character-driven than action-driven, quick and deft but also impressively introspective. I mean, it’s Leckie; it is well-established that she can balance plot and introspection beautifully. And just as Breq of the first trilogy is an incredibly interesting being to use as a character – as well as her being an interesting person in her own right – Leckie has set up a wonderful cast here in Translation State.

We open with Enae, whose situation reminded me quite a lot of Halla’s at the opening of T Kingfisher’s Swordheart – except worse. Both Enae and Halla have devoted huge chunks of their lives to taking care of ailing relatives; but it’s pretty clear that Halla’s valued her highly, whereas Enae’s, as becomes clear over the course of the book, was emotionally and verbally abusive, crushing Enae’s spirit to a horrible degree. Seeing hir blossom as sie turns the mind sie’s never really been allowed to use to hir new job was a genuine delight. The Shawl Scene – you’ll know it when you get to it – made me tear up, I was so happy for hir!

Another seriously delightful character is Qven – the only first-person pov in the book. Qven is a Presger Translator – a creation of the terrifying, implacably deadly alien Presger, made to act as a go-between between them and the other sapient species of the universe. The Presger Translators were a big, interesting question-mark in the original trilogy; extremely weird, extremely important, and, honestly, extremely funny. But there’s not really anything funny about poor Qven’s childhood; a whole lot of it is pretty disturbing by human standards (although nothing’s graphic on-page), and after a combination of traumas – one of which can be compared to attempted sexual assault, although really it’s a fair bit worse than that – they’re deemed capital-f Flawed. This is, as you might imagine, very Not Good.

And finally, there’s Reet – a perfectly normal orphan raised by loving parents, drifting through his life but more or less content about it. He’s probably the character I found most relatable – despite the urges to bite people and take them apart. It’s not like he ever acts on it! He just wants to eat his snacks and watch his favourite tv shows – the Murderbot vibes are strong with this one! But when a sort of cultural club offers him answers about his ancestry, he accidentally becomes involved in some very tangled and dangerous politics…

It takes a while for these three to end up in the same space, but I never felt like things were moving too slowly; I enjoyed my time with each character, even before the ‘proper’ plot really got going. I’ll admit, Qven’s parts were definitely the most interesting – Leckie very successfully conveys the extreme Otherness of the Translators, especially the young ones, and as someone who swoons for worldbuilding I wanted to know everything there was to know about what they actually are and how they work. There was a really good balance of disturbing and funny – you want to laugh when you learn how rigidly the Translators adhere to what they’ve been taught is Proper Human Behaviour, like taking tea and making small-talk – and then you learn about…well. Spoilers.

I think most people who’ve read the other books will work out what’s happening pretty quickly, and see the big reveal coming, what the big Thing is that tangles these three characters together. That didn’t ruin anything for me, though. This is much less a what book than it is a why book – which does mean that if you want the action of the Ancillary books, well, you’re not going to find it here. The stakes do get very high, but it never reaches that frenetic, turn-the-pages-as-fast-as-you-can tension I remember from the Ancillary trilogy. I suppose most of the plot takes place in a relatively short timeframe, but it never felt like things were moving especially quickly to me. Not too slow, either! Just, not super fast-paced and packed full of emperors trying to assassinate themselves and whatnot.

The Big Picture story of Translation State is primarily concerned with a question that the Radch carefully never asked the Presger, but which is kind of an ethical must-ask: who, exactly, do the Translators belong to? We know the Presger created them…out of stolen and massacred humans, mixed with bits of the Presger themselves. Does that make them Presger? Does it make them Presger property? Are they human enough to be human, and if so, what obligations do the rest of humanity have to them? Do they have human rights? Should they?

What I really enjoyed about this aspect of the book was that there was no easy answer. Certain biological facts make certain things necessary for Presger Translators, and all the debating and philosophising in the universe can’t change those facts. On the one hand, that does, arguably, make a very large part of the book – which is arguing and debating and philosophising most fiercely – redundant. I can see that being a bit annoying for a certain kind of reader. But I think Leckie does a good enough job at getting you invested enough in the characters that the debate really does matter to you – it did for me, at least. And I was extremely interested in how the debate was affected by the politics of all the different species represented in the Presger Treaty; particularly in how the relationships of the Radch, specifically, to other species tipped the scales in one direction or the other. Like Provenance, Translation State takes place outside of the Radch and follows humans who don’t belong to it, and this is our first time really seeing how much power the Radch hold as it relates to the rest of humanity – and how much the rest of humanity does not necessarily approve of how the Radch represent humanity’s interests to the alien alliance. There were hints of this in Provenance, but it’s much more explored here.

Basically, Translation State was a pretty fun, interesting, thinky read. …Or at least, the first 2/3s (or maybe 3/4s?) was. But the last bit of the book was a major letdown in several ways.

Translation State presents itself primarily as an exploration of the Translators; their culture, their roles, even their biology. And we do learn more about them than we did before this book. But frustratingly, the Big Mysteries that are held over the reader’s head for the entirety of Translation State are never properly explained. Adult Translators try to explain the Presger to Qven, for example, but give up after a few tantilising hints, insisting that only an adult Translator has a hope of understanding. And that explanation never comes to the reader. Which felt very much like having a piece of cake dangled in front of my face for 400+ pages, and then it being whisked away at the last second rather than put on my plate. It was frustrating as hell.

Much, much worse was the incredibly weak resolution of the biggest, most immediate and personal issue for two of the main characters. I was genuinely surprised that this huge thing – the most time-sensitive plot, with the highest personal stakes for the two characters involved – ended up being resolved off-page. After a whole novel leading up to it, I took it for granted that we would see at least the beginning of that resolution, even if it would probably be a fade-to-black scene. (It’s not romantic or sexual, but an allosexual romantic plotline makes a good comparison; after a whole book of will-they-won’t-they, you’d expect to see them kiss on-page, wouldn’t you? If you turned the page, found a bit of a time-skip, and were told the kiss happened where you couldn’t see, that would be a bit of a let-down, wouldn’t it? And this is a much bigger deal than a first kiss, or full-on sex, which can, after all, be completely devoid of meaning depending on the people involved and their relationship to each other. This is a Huge Lifechanging Forever Thing, and after all that build-up…) So for the book to instead skip over it, handwave it, call it all wrapped up and finished so blithely – I was pretty upset, to be honest. And I have no idea why the decision was made to keep it off-page. I have no doubt in my mind Leckie could have written it, and done it very well. So…the hell?

A more minor gripe: I have zero interest in following characters who are lost in mazes or death-traps or cursed temples – any kind of plotline that means we have to watch the cast go round and round trying to find their way out bores me to tears. (Even if it’s a scenario where a wrong step means death. Sorry, it’s just not my thing.) And a big chunk of the ending was made up of just that. It was extremely random, and felt like a really lazy way to stall everything as an excuse to eat up the time that would bring us to the catalyst point for two of the characters. I can think of half-a-dozen other ways Leckie could have used that page-count to tick the boxes that needed ticking, ways that wouldn’t have had us on the pause button for way too many pages.

Just. What???

So I’m pretty conflicted. On the one hand, Translation State is extremely readable, and I found most of it to be a really great story that I didn’t want to put down. On the other hand, several aspects of the last chunk of the book massively disappointed me.

Thus, I’m splitting the difference and calling it a 3 (and a half)-star book – and I suggest that anyone who wants to read Translation State borrow a library copy rather than buying their own. You can always buy a copy to keep afterwards if it turns out you love it.

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Published on June 03, 2023 09:29

June 1, 2023

4th Blogiversary = Pride Flag Book Recs!

It’s my blogiversary!!! Today is Every Book a Doorway’s FOURTH birthday, and I kind of can’t believe it. I can’t believe I’ve managed to keep going this long; I can’t believe I have actual subscribers; I can’t believe I’ve seen my reviews quoted in publicity materials for real, actual books!!!

What even. But also, MUCH YAY!!!

Since I started EBaD to talk about queer SFF, I figure there’s no better way to celebrate today than with Pride Flag Recs, like I did last year – I want to make it a yearly tradition! Especially because it’s lots of fun (I encourage anyone who feels like it to give it a go!)

Rainbow Reads came up with the original Pride Flag Book Recs – which is exactly what it sounds like; recommending a book for every stripe in the (original) Gilbert Baker pride flag and what those colours represented, plus the new brown+black stripes for QPOC.

I actually went a little bit further, and added the stripes from the Daniel Quasar flag shown below – so, not just brown+black, but the trans colours as well!

Thus: to celebrate 4 WHOLE YEARS OF BLOGGING – the books!!!

PINK – SEXUALITY

A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, #2) by Freya Marske
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Goodreads

Magic! Murder! Shipboard romance! The second entry in Freya Marske's beloved The Last Binding trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light

The most interesting things in Maud Blyth's life have happened to her brother Robin, but she's ready to join any cause, especially if it involves magical secrets that may threaten the whole of the British Isles. Bound for New York on the R.M.S. Lyric, she's ready for an adventure.

What she actually finds is a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and a beautiful stranger in Violet Debenham, who is everything—a magician, an actress, a scandal—Maud has been trained to fear and has learned to desire. Surrounded by the open sea and a ship full of loathsome, aristocratic suspects, they must solve a murder and untangle a conspiracy that began generations before them.

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A Restless Truth is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of fun, and it genuinely impressed me with its frank, open approach to women’s sexuality. I don’t often enjoy sex scenes (regardless of the genders involved) but Restless manages to be sexy as hell, so – much kudos! It also left me with the biggest book hangover I’d had in about a year – no other book seemed like it could possibly measure up. Gleeful and delightful!

RED – LIFE

To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Nampeshiweisit, #1) by Moniquill Blackgoose
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual Native American-coded MC, Black sapphic love interest, Native American love interest, secondary autistic character, minor F/F
Goodreads

A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy—and quickly finds herself at odds with the “approved” way of doing things—in the first book of this brilliant new fantasy series.

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.

Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.

For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.

Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it.

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To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is, in a big way, about conflicting ways of life – that of Anequs’ people and the Anglish, the colonisers – although from where I’m standing, it’s hardly a competition (this book reminds me of how many white women ran away to join Indigenous peoples when North America was colonised, and how much sense that made and makes). Anequs is very open about being out to create a better life for her people – that’s her primary motivation for joining a dragoneering school, the reason she studies so hard and refuses to let anyone intimidate her into running home. She wants to honour her people’s way of life, not the way the Anglish think things should be done – one of the most powerful moments in the book is when she says, clearly, that she’s not there to make her people more Anglish.

My review!

ORANGE – HEALING

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Sapphic MC, trans and nonbinary rep, past F/F
Goodreads

In a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third, fourth, and fifth) shadow as a reminder of their crime—and a warning to those they encounter. Within the Department, corruption and prejudice run rampant, giving rise to an underclass of so-called Shadesters who are disenfranchised, publicly shamed, and deprived of civil rights protections.

Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world.

With a first-person register reminiscent of the fierce self-disclosure of Sheila Heti and the poetic precision of Ocean Vuong, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is a bold debut novel that examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.

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What does healing look like in a world that doesn’t want you to heal? That doesn’t want you, full stop? I Keep My Exoskeletons To Myself is a book about surviving and healing in a steadily more and more dystopian future – but the first-person narration is so addictive, so much like a real person talking to you, that I was unable to put it down despite how grim the world was. It’s honest and really clever and surprisingly, hilariously funny, and I really need to reread it so I can review it properly because it is one of the best books of 2023 and no one is talking about it!!!

YELLOW – SUNLIGHT

At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Representation: Pacific Islander-coded MC, queerplatonic M/M
Goodreads

Cliopher Mdang has been appointed Viceroy of Zunidh by his beloved Radiancy, the Last Emperor, who has now left him behind in the Palace to safeguard the world during his absence on a quest to find an appropriately magical heir. When he returns, he will abdicate, and Cliopher will at last retire, satisfied with having achieved most of his life's political goals--even if his long-suppressed personal dreams are starting to bubble up.

(Surely he used to have hobbies besides running the government?)

All he has to do is wait patiently for his lord's return... until adventure quite literally hits him from behind, and what was once safely hypothetical becomes intensely real.

Cliopher has always followed the stars of his chosen course: the epic oral histories of his people, the poetry of the rebel poet Fitzroy Angursell, decades of devotion and service to his Radiancy... They were enough to change the world. But are they enough to guide Cliopher home?

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At The Feet of the Sun (which you should absolutely not read without first reading the previous book, The Hands of the Emperor) is basically a 1300+ page fantasy epic about a) becoming a legend and b) the most intense, beautiful queerplatonic relationship I have ever read. True, it never uses the world ‘queerplatonic’, but there is a word unique to the characters’ world that seems to mean much the same thing: fanoa, a word with a deep, rich history, and one whose meaning is fully explored over the course of this incredible book.

(And listen, even if it didn’t literally have Sun in the title, most of the book takes place in a Pacific Island-coded setting and there is plenty of sunlight, plus an actual quest to the Sun himself! So it definitely qualifies for this stripe!)

GREEN – NATURE

Hild (The Hild Sequence, #1) by Nicola Griffith
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC
Goodreads

Hild is born into a world in transition. In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, usually violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods’ priests are worrying. Edwin of Northumbria plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief.

Hild is the king’s youngest niece. She has the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world—of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing human nature and predicting what will happen next—that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her. She establishes herself as the king’s seer. And she is indispensable—until she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, her family, her loved ones, and the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.

Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early medieval age—all of it brilliantly and accurately evoked by Nicola Griffith’s luminous prose. Recalling such feats of historical fiction as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, Hild brings a beautiful, brutal world—and one of its most fascinating, pivotal figures, the girl who would become St. Hilda of Whitby—to vivid, absorbing life.

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Listen, speculative history is a sub-genre of SFF, fight me! But don’t fight Hild, because she is a literal genius and you shouldn’t even think about it, okay? For your own good. Seriously.

Hild is placed into the role of prophet or seer – I say ‘placed into’ because she doesn’t exactly choose it for herself; it’s a little complicated. But she doesn’t have visions – she reads people, and the world around her, in order to extrapolate what’s coming; what direction are the birds flying in from? How early in the year have the squirrels started gathering food for winter? What are the hedgepigs up to; which flowers are blooming? Griffith’s prose is rich and decadent, and she lovingly describes every part of the world Hild exists in, especially all things animal and vegetable (and even a few precious minerals). It’s actually pretty easy to relax your focus enough to skim over all the human politics and just read Hild as a long epic poem on the beauty of nature, if you want to. (Although the politics are fascinating, and I do encourage you to pay attention to them!)

TURQUOISE – MAGIC

The Map and the Territory (Spell and Sextant #1) by A.M. Tuomala
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown aroace MC, brown gay MC
Goodreads

When the sky breaks apart and an earthquake shatters the seaside city of Sharis, cartographer Rukha Masreen is far from home. Caught in the city's ruins with only her tools and her wits, she meets a traveling companion who will change her course forever: the wizard Eshu, who stumbles out of a mirror with hungry ghosts on his heels.
He's everything that raises her hackles: high-strung, grandiloquent, stubborn as iron. But he needs to get home, too, and she doesn't want him to have to make the journey alone.

As they cross the continent together, though, Rukha and Eshu soon realize that the disaster that's befallen their world is much larger than they could have imagined. The once-vibrant pathways of the Mirrorlands are deserted. Entire cities lie entombed in crystal. And to make matters worse, a wild god is hunting them down. The further they travel from familiar territory, the more their fragile new friendship cracks under the strain.

To survive the end of their world, Rukha and Eshu will need more than magic and science—they'll need each other.

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The Map and the Territory is literally about a magical apocalypse – in that magic is going haywire and manifesting strangely (and usually dangerously) in different places, so each city experiences its own unique apocalypse. So magic is very much front and centre! And that’s without going into Eshu’s beautiful song-magic, or the mirror-roads that connect all human places, or the many and varied ways we see other wizards working magic (since each wizard’s methods seem to be unique to them, even if they sometimes share similarities with others. Eshu’s song-magic is not exactly like the song-magic another wizard uses, for example.)

But it’s the way that Tuomala manages to make the magic feel magical that has me entranced with this book. It’s relatively easy to make magic impressive, or even beautiful, but it takes something special to make it wondrous, to give the reader goosebumps and thrills and that catch in your throat (you know the one I mean). Tuomala does that, which is why I can’t justify using any other book for the Magic stripe of the flag!

BLUE – HARMONY

Theory (The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming #1) by Sienna Tristen
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown aroace MC
Goodreads

WINNER OF THE 2019 READERVIEWS AWARD FOR FANTASY!WINNER OF THE 2019 IPPY AWARD FOR FANTASY!

“Life is transformation. You change or you die.”

Ashamed of his past and overwhelmed by his future, Ronoah Genoveffa Elizzi-denna Pilanovani feels too small for his own name. After a graceless exit from his homeland in the Acharrioni desert, his anxiety has sabotaged every attempt at redemption. Asides from a fiery devotion to his godling, the one piece of home he brought with him, he has nothing.

That is, until he meets Reilin. Beguiling, bewildering Reilin, who whisks Ronoah up into a cross-continental pilgrimage to the most sacred place on the planet. The people they encounter on the way—children of the sea, a priestess and her band of storytellers, the lonely ghosts of monsters—are grim and whimsical in equal measure. Each has their part to play in rewriting Ronoah’s personal narrative.

One part fantasy travelogue, one part emotional underworld journey, The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming is a sumptuous, slow-burning story about stories and the way they shape our lives.

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The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming duology isn’t a traditional kind of quest story at all – but it’s very much a journey towards inner harmony. The protagonist Ronoah is, to put it politely, a mess of anxiety, and a huge part of the duology is his learning to cope with that, face it and deal with it. It’s not as simple as saying that he battles it and wins and is never anxious again (oh, how we all wish it was that easy!) but reading along as he grows into himself, and learns to love who he is and be brave, is amazing – especially since Tristen’s prose is some of the most beautiful I have ever read.

My review of Book One: Theory!
My review of Book Two: Practice!

PURPLE – SPIRIT

The Fifth Sacred Thing (Maya Greenwood, #1) by Starhawk
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: MCs of colour, queer cast, polyamory/free love
Goodreads

Imagine a world without poverty, hunger, or hatred, where a rich culture honors its diverse mix of races, religions, and heritages, and the Four Sacred Things that sustain all life - earth, air, fire, and water - are valued unconditionally.

Now imagine the opposite: a nightmare world in which an authoritarian regime polices an apartheid state, access to food and water is restricted to those who obey the corrupt official religion, women are property of their husbands or the state, and children are bred for prostitution and war.

The best and worst of our possible futures are poised to clash in twenty-first-century California, and the outcome rests on the wisdom and courage of one clan caught in the conflict.

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The Fifth Sacred Thing is a book that defines Spirit for me – I’ve gone through all sorts of philosophical phases, but I keep coming back to this book, where witches work together to create a utopia I can actually believe in. I love how much Fifth Sacred Thing acknowledges anger, and injustice; how Starhawk never pretends it is not unfair and almost impossibly hard to forgive people who’ve hurt you. But she’s also the only author who made the idea of be the better person click for me, make sense to me – maybe because she doesn’t pretend it’s not unfair and hard.

As a general rule of thumb, stories that try to tell me love conquers all make me cringe. This doesn’t. And part of that is that most stories that do try to tell me that, they don’t actually show us how, and they don’t show us how to do that against real, true evil. It’s easy to be kind and loving when things are going well; how do you do it against invaders, fascists, people who want to wipe you from the earth? The Fifth Sacred Thing tackles that head-on, unflinchingly, and I think I could love it for that alone even if it didn’t have the witches, the bees, the magic.

Every time I come back to this book – or even think about it – it raises new questions, challenges my thoughts and opinions and beliefs. I think that’s a good thing.

My review!

TRANS – A TRANS LEAD AND AUTHOR

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual trans MC, secondary trans characters
Goodreads

Drawing on ancient texts and modern archeology to reveal the trans woman's story hidden underneath the well-known myths of The Iliad, Maya Deane's Wrath Goddess Sing weaves a compelling, pitilessly beautiful vision of Achilles' vanished world, perfect for fans of Song of Achilles and the Inheritance trilogy.

The gods wanted blood. She fought for love.

Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the "prince" Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman's body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.

But the gods--a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries--have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.

An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight...and chooses to trust.

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You do not need to know or care about Greek legends to love and adore Wrath Goddess Sing; you don’t need to know anything about Bronze Age history or Ancient Egypt or comparative mythology. You don’t need to have even heard of the Trojan War. You can go into this book completely blind, and it will do nothing but delight and bewitch you. Equally, you can know All The Things and Deane will still dazzle you with her (extremely knowledgeable, well-informed, wildly imaginative and breathtaking) unique approach to the story of the hero Achilles.

Perfect!book is perfect, basically!

My review!

QPOC – A BIPOC MC AND AUTHOR

Darknesses (Darknesses, #1) by Lachelle Seville
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black bisexual MC, Black pansexual love interest, F/F, Black secondary characters
Goodreads

It’s been a year since Oasis stumbled away from Blessed Falls with wings carved into her back and too many scars to count.

A year spent razing delusions of being an angel's vessel, proving to her brother that she doesn’t belong in a psych ward, and mourning the loss of her mother's vinyl pressed ashes.

A year spent struggling to feel human again.

Enter Laura, the mesmerizing stranger who claims to hear Oasis’ heartbeat, who reads her hand-written memoir like scripture, who makes her feel closer to found than lost.
Laura is the most recent face of the eternal Count Dracula, ruler of the shadows, chimera of the Devil, and embittered victim of libel.

The Van Helsing Institute have been waiting for a glimpse of the dragon’s underbelly, and eagerly approach Oasis for her help in a ploy to kill Dracula for good. But not every wound from Blessed Falls has cicatrized, and Oasis realizes she may be a danger to Laura—and to herself.

Yet no one is as dangerous as Laura—the first vampire, the Devil's plaything, and the person with whom Oasis finally feels human.

Oceans of time have passed since she last had a drink, and she will not let Oasis go easily.

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THIS BOOKS IS THE BEST VAMPIRE BOOK.

No really: all other vampire books are dead to me. Lestat, much as I love him, doesn’t hold a candle to Seville’s hilarious, wicked, brilliant Laura, and I’m convinced that Stoker somehow travelled in time and stole Seville’s ideas because clearly, Darknesses is the actual canon, the only will I will accept. I still cannot believe how clever, sexy, funny, intricate, and wild this book is: no matter WHERE you think this book is going, you are wrong. I’m not sure any book ever has spun me around as hard as Darknesses did, and made me absolutely love it. You won’t believe this is a debut, and you will definitely add Seville to your auto-buy list, because gods, how could you not???

My review!

Ta daa – a book for every stripe!

Happy blogiversary to me, and happy Pride to everyone else!!!

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Published on June 01, 2023 08:21

May 31, 2023

In Short: May

I seem to have barely read at all this month??? I’m not quite sure what I was doing instead. Although my hand was messed up for two weeks there…

ARCs Received

I’m going to have to name my firstborn child after Marty Cahill at Erewhon for sending me an ARC of The Feast Makers by H. A. Clarke, aka the final book in the Scapegracers trilogy, aka objectively the best queer witch books IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!

(This is not hyperbole; seriously, if you haven’t read these yet, READ THEM!)

Inanna is a reimagining/retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh, with the titular goddess – one of my favorite deities! – as one of the three main characters; thus, one of my most-anticipated reads of the year! As is Water Outlaws; I loved Huang’s YA as a teenager, Water Outlaws sounds incredible, and after Tor.com posted an except the other week, I was rabid to get my hands on it – and Giselle from Tor’s publicity team was kind enough to send me a copy!

And although I was surprised Map of the Otherlands is up on Netgalley already – the pub date is in January! – no way was I not going to request it after how much I loved book one!

TL;DR, A MOST EXCELLENT MONTH FOR ARCS!!!

Read

Wow – I really didn’t read a lot this month! I knew I wasn’t doing well, but this is a little ridiculous. Just 13 books??? Sigh.

The majority of the books this month were stellar, though – Witch King, Best of Catherynne M Valente Volume One and Bang Bang Bodhisattva were shining standouts, but Amongst Our Weapons, Bitter Medicine, and Ink Blood Sister Scribe all knocked my socks off too!

My hate-hate relationship with Wurts’ Wars of Light and Shadow series continues. I cannot believe how bad it is, but it continues to be a marvellous insomnia cure.

To the best of my knowledge, 15% of this month’s authors were BIPOC. Less than half what it was last month. Not sure whether to sigh again, or cringe – maybe both.

Reviewed

I wanted to get a lot more reviews written this month, but c’est la vie. And while I don’t think what I wrote for To Shape a Dragon’s Breath did that book ANY justice, or that the one for Splinter in the Sky (which you’ll see next month) is anything special, I was really happy with how Ink Blood Sister Scribe and Witch King turned out!

DNF-ed

Honestly, all three of these books made me so mad, the first two because they’re just stupid, and The Sun and the Void because I’ve looked forward to it so long and it was a hard letdown. You can read my DNF reviews from yesterday for more details, if you want them.

ARCs Outstanding

I am deep in Pomegranate Gate, Sandymancer, and Surviving Sky at the moment, and enjoying myself immensely – and have finished several others that I still need to review. I’m beginning to think I won’t finish Grimoire of Grave Fates by its pub date, though.

Misc

May is Wyrd & Wonder month, and while I wasn’t as productive as I would have liked, I did get the things I most wanted done! Which was mostly lists: 5 Worlds I Would Run Away To was a lot of fun, as was choosing which faerie-featuring books to recommend. And I managed to keep up tradition by publishing this year’s list of Cool Magic Systems and Cool Magical Abilities (do I kind of wish past!Sia had used some word other than ‘cool’? A little, but it’s hard to make me feel cringe these days!) All in all, I’m very pleased.

Looking Forward

I may have already read The Archive Undying, but that doesn’t stop me VIBRATING WITH EXCITEMENT as its pub date approaches! Besides, I think everyone needs to read it at least twice to fully get it – as I’ll explain in my review, when it’s eventually up… The Library of Broken Worlds sounds utterly amazing (and you can read an excerpt over at Tor.com) as well as being from one of my favourite authors – just like The Master of Samar, which we only have to wait ONE MORE WEEK for!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Yes, I am much excited.

HENCEFORTH TO PRIDE MONTH!

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Published on May 31, 2023 11:21

May 30, 2023

May DNFs

Three DNFs this month: neither more nor less than April!

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1) by Rebecca Yarros
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Disabled MC
ISBN: 1649374046
Goodreads
one-star

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

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Reader, I did not even get to the dragons.

‘His eyes are the shade of gold-flecked onyx’ THAT IS NOT A SHADE.

YES I AM THAT PETTY. OR THAT OCD. WHICHEVER.

This was just written in a way that is so very not my style, and also I think pretty much everything about it is appallingly bad and makes no sense. (Sure, stick the kids of traitors you executed in your war academy, where they will grow up to run your army while absolutely not holding grudges. Sure, lose half the incoming class by making them climb a thread-thin bridge, which in no way reflects the necessary skillset. Sure, why WOULDN’T the class villain try to kill a dragon, in dragon-rider academy, when dragon-riders are at the top of social hierarchy??? For that matter, WHY WOULD EVEN THE MOST WORK-OBSESSED MOTHER FORCE HER DISABLED DAUGHTER INTO DRAGON-RIDER ACADEMY, WHERE SHE IS 99.9% LIKELY TO DIE, DESPITE HER HAVING SPENT HER LIFE PREPARING TO BE A SCRIBE INSTEAD? Come on. Everything about this is embarrassingly stupid.)

Whatever everyone else is seeing in it, I am not seeing.

Dark Moon, Shallow Sea (The Gods of Night and Day Series) by David R. Slayton
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 31st October 2023
ISBN: 9798200966769
Goodreads
two-stars

Raef wants revenge on the knights who killed his goddess, the moon. Her death darkened the night sky, stopped the tides, and left the shades of the dead without a path to the underworld.

Seeking revenge, Raef breaks into the knights’ temple and opens a box, expecting to find gold and jewels among the bones. Instead, he finds a living man, Kinos, sleeping inside.

Raef steals Kinos.

As they run from the knights and grow closer, Raef thinks he’s found a friend, love, and perhaps a secret that may lead to his goddess’s return. If they can’t solve the mystery of Kinos's imprisonment, the moon will never rise again and the world will drown in ghosts.

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

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I noped out when the man who told the people chasing them that he was a heretic who worships the moon goddess goes to the goddess’ abandoned temple to hide, saying no one will look for them there.

WHY NOT, RAEF?

WHY WOULDN’T THEY LOOK THERE?

WHY WOULDN’T THAT BE THE FIRST PLACE ON THEIR LIST?

HUH? HUH?? HUH???

So dumb.

Even before that, though… the writing isn’t bad as such, but it’s so plain and basic that it might as well be. It was like being fed a meal of plain porridge; absolutely no flavour, and extremely dispiriting to chew through. Everything was blunt, everything was predictable, the setting is just ‘generic Fantasy City’. There’s no description, and there’s a lot of ridiculous cliches. The dialogue was stiff and stilted; it read like a bad script, with none of the natural flow you see when real people talk (even when one or more of the speakers are feeling awkward).

I cannot believe everyone continued to call the casket/chest Kinos was in ‘a box’ – I know, that’s probably terribly petty, but it sounded so ridiculously stupid. ‘The man in the box’ ‘when we find him, we’ll put him back in the box’ ‘he needs to go back in the box!’ Dude. No. Please call it something else.

Speaking of calling it something else, I cannot stand when real-world names show up in fantasy worlds. I know Phoebe is a moon-related name, but it is also a name from our world, so if you call your goddess that, I’m going to flinch. Also, Hyperion for a sun god? Really? Come on. You can do better!

Ultimately it was all just so simple and boring. There were definite hints that the plot was going somewhere a bit more complicated – I liked the hounds of fire, I liked that our knight-of-the-sun-god was a misfit, the bishop is Not Stupid for a change – but I had zero interest in finding out what it might be. Simple prose, simple characters, simple worldbuilding. Forcing myself to read through it made me want to claw my own skin off. Hard DNF.

The Sun and the Void (The Warring Gods, #1) Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Venezuelan-coded setting and cast, F/F
Published on: 25th July 2023
ISBN: 0316336440
Goodreads
one-half-stars

In a lush world inspired by the history and folklore of South America, a sweeping epic fantasy of colonialism, ancient magic, and two young women's quest for belonging unfolds.

Reina is desperate.

Stuck living on the edges of society, her only salvation lies in an invitation from a grandmother she’s never known. But the journey is dangerous, and prayer can’t always avert disaster.

Attacked by creatures that stalk the region, Reina is on the verge of death until her grandmother, a dark sorceress, intervenes. Now dependent on the Doña’s magic for her life, Reina will do anything to earn—and keep—her favor. Even the bidding of an ancient god who whispers to her at night.

Eva Kesare is unwanted.

Illegitimate and of mixed heritage, Eva is her family’s shame. She tries her best to be perfect and to hide her oddities. But Eva is hiding a secret: magic calls to her.

Eva knows she should fight the temptation. Magic is the sign of the dark god, and using it is punishable by death. Yet, it’s hard to deny power when it has always been denied to you. Eva is walking a dangerous path, one that gets stranger every day. And, in the end, she’ll become something she never imagined.

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

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I’ve been frantic to read this book for years – it was on my Unmissable SFF list of 2022, before the pub date was pushed back to this year. But when I was able to read it, I choked on it.

The prose is extremely clunky. I talk about writing rhythm quite often: this has a terrible rhythm, stopping and starting and so jerky. It was teeth-grating. But I pushed as far as I could because – Venezuelan-inspired fantasy! Non-humans everywhere! Queer girls and dark gods! What about that doesn’t sound amazing? If the prose was bothering me, surely it would get better, or I’d get used to it?

Well, it didn’t and I didn’t, either.

Eva straightened out, the back of her neck prickling.

The above line is supposed to be Eva sitting up straight in her chair in response to A Thing. Who says straightened out instead of straightened up? It sounds just a little bit off, just a little bit wrong, and that niggly, anxious-unhappy feeling stayed with me through all 22% I read.

the edges of the ore contacted the crystal contraption

??? Contacted? Why can’t you just say touched?

Eva’s jaw rippled in indignation.

Her jaw what?

The dialogue is arguably even worse. No one speaks naturally; every character is a mouthpiece for clumsy into-dumping. The character behaviour is incredibly confusing – less so with the main characters than with the extensive secondary cast, but still, I didn’t understand why anyone was doing or saying the things they did. And granted, it’s a big book – there’s room for the characters to develop more and become more interesting – but for the first quarter of the book, they’re both kind of…limp? The term that springs to mind is ‘milksops’, believe it or not. They both have a little bit of spine, but for the most part they seemed to just…drift through the pages. Reina in particular was sold to me as a Dark Ruthless Girl, and, um, that is definitely not the case in the part I read.

Oddly and sadly, very little is described to us, so this Venezuelan-inspired fantasy I was so excited about? I have no idea how to picture any of it. That was incredibly disappointing; I was so excited for the imagery we’d get in a story like this!

Basically, I wanted lush prose to match lush imagery, and got neither. This read as so awkward and clumsy, more like a first draft than a polished final version. I really wanted to love it, but I just can’t.

Let’s hope Pride brings fewer DNFs!

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Published on May 30, 2023 03:27

May 29, 2023

Must-Have Monday #139

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 to be excited about this week!

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

Witch King by Martha Wells
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Brown cast, secondary F/F
Published on: 30th May 2023
Goodreads

A story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.

"I didn't know you were a... demon."
"You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' Witch King....

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.

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Listen: Murderbot is amazing, Murderbot is the best bot, not least because it finally got Wells some (only some, she deserves STILL MORE) of the attention she deserves – but yes, I’ll admit it, I’ve been pining for Martha Wells’ incredible, unique take on fantasy for a while now. I missed it!

Well, Witch King was worth the wait. This is a beautiful, very unconventional take on epic fantasy that I really cannot recommend strongly enough and could not have delighted me more. If it’s not on all the Best of the Year lists come December, I will riot!

My review!

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual biracial/latina MC, F/F, bisexual MC
Published on: 30th May 2023
Goodreads

In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection--a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

In the great tradition of Ninth House, The Magicians, and Practical Magic, this is a suspenseful and richly atmospheric novel that draws readers into a vast world filled with mystery and magic, romance, and intrigue--and marks the debut of an extraordinary new voice in speculative fiction.

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It’s been a while since a book took me by surprise as much as Ink Blood Sister Scribe did; not only was it not what I was expecting (in the best way!) the twists and turns kept me guessing right up to the final pages. I most ardently approve!

My review!

Uranians: Stories by Theodore McCombs
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 30th May 2023
Goodreads

At the end of the Victorian era, a handful of public intellectuals advocated for tolerance of the “Uranian”—a man who loved other men. Some went so far as to propose that these “intermediate sexes” might, in fact, constitute a totally different species, even serve as intrepid guides in our march toward an uncertain future.

The five speculative stories in Theodore McCombs’s kaleidoscopic collection span several possible worlds, teasing the boundaries between coexisting realities and taking up the question of queer difference from one surprising vantage after another. In “Toward a Theory of Alternative Lifestyles,” a heartbroken gay man waits in line at an exclusive Berlin rave promising visions of parallel lives across the multiverse. In “Six Hangings in the Land of Unkillable Women,” at the turn of an alternate 20th century, a policeman’s wife feels that if you want an execution done right, you just have to do it yourself. And in the operatic novella “Uranians,” an expedition of queer artists, scientists, and one trans priest embark on a lifelong interplanetary voyage that requires them to renegotiate their connections to a remote and hostile Earth, while keeping their ship’s biome—and each other—alive.

Each story unfolds with the depth and complexity of an entire universe; each is inhabited by characters learning to divest from a society that has marked and rejected them. Discerning which dreams of Western civilization to hold fast to and which to leave behind, these outsiders set their gazes on new horizons and prepare for the changes to come. Arch but tender, clear-eyed and compassionate, Uranians brilliantly illustrates the vital role that queerness plays in every possible version of our world.

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Well, this sounds odd as heck, but odd usually works for me, and Theodore McCombs comes highly recommended. Will definitely be taking a peek at this one!

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig
Representation: Chinese cast, major queer characters
Published on: 30th May 2023
Goodreads

For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a riveting, roaring adventure novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power.

When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet.

But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans-tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung's alliance-have new plans for the area. Even worse, Shek Yeung's cutthroat retributions create problems all their own. As Shek Yeung navigates new motherhood and the crises of leadership, she must decide how long she is willing to fight, and at what price, or risk losing her fleet, her new family, and even her life.

A book of salt and grit, blood and sweat, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is an unmissable portrait of a woman who leads with the courage and ruthlessness of our darkest and most beloved heroes.

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I’ve been getting conflicting info as to whether this is fantasy or not, but even if it’s pure historical fiction, I’m still dying to read it! Shek Yeung is a figure I know just enough about to know I VERY MUCH want to devour a novel all about her!

Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 30th May 2023
Goodreads

An unashamedly proud, loud, and hilarious novel about a small town that’s forever changed by a big gay wedding, perfect for fans of Red, White & Royal Blue and The Guncle

Two grooms. One mother of a problem.

Barnett Durang has a secret. No, not that secret. His widowed mother has known he was gay for years thanks to an unfortunate internet search history when Barnett was in high school.

The secret is Barnett is getting married. At his mother’s farm. In their small Louisiana town. She just doesn’t know it yet.

It’ll be an intimate affair. Just two hundred or so of the most fabulous folks Barnett is shipping in from the “heathen coasts,” as Mom likes to call it.

It’s no secret that the wedding will be the biggest, gayest event in town’s history, but what no one in town can predict is that after the whirlwind, glitter-filled week, nothing will ever be the same. Big Gay Wedding is an uplifting book about the power of family and the unconditional love of a mother for her son.

You’re all invited to the biggest, gayest wedding of the year. RSVP as fabulous, thank you very much.

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This has been hyped all over the place, and I’m a little hesitant that it might be the wrong kind of sweet for me, but I’m very happy to take the chance and give it a go!

The Alchemy of Moonlight by David Ferraro
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC
Published on: 30th May 2023
Goodreads

When Emile’s aunt declares he must marry or be disowned for being gay—he runs away to hide as a servant in Count Montoni’s mansion. In their service, Emile tends to the family who all suffer a strange affliction on the full moon. And after overhearing suspicious family arguments, he finds a body on the estate, drawing the attention of a handsome doctor as well as the count’s charismatic nephew, Henri.

Before Emile can sort out his affections or unravel the growing Montoni family mystery, his identity is revealed and his aunt comes to collect him.

When she arrives, Count Montoni forces everyone to depart to the remote Udolpho Castle—where there are no witnesses and no chance for escape. There, Emile realizes that he will have to risk his life to find the love he deserves—and survive the Montoni family.

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I know very little about this one – I can’t even remember how it made it onto my radar – but let’s be real, that cover has me sold! Do want to reiterate that it’s YA, though, so anyone else interested goes in with the right expectations.

Shanghai Immortal by A.Y. Chao
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Chinese cast and setting
Published on: 1st June 2023
Goodreads

This richly told adult fantasy debut teems with Chinese deities and demons cavorting in jazz age Shanghai.

Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell as a child, Lady Jing is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and all sasshole. As the King’s ward, she has spent the past ninety years running errands, dodging the taunts of the spiteful hulijing courtiers, and trying to control her explosive temper – with varying levels of success.

So when Jing overhears the courtiers plotting to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she seizes her chance to expose them, once and for all.

With the help of a gentle mortal tasked with setting up the Central Bank of Hell, Jing embarks on a wild chase for intel, first through Hell and then mortal Shanghai. But when her hijinks put the mortal in danger, she must decide which is more important: avenging her loss of face, or letting go of her half-empty approach to life for a chance to experience tenderness – and maybe even love.

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I do not recall ever seeing the term ‘sasshole’ before, but I immediately know that I will love any character who fits that label. Every part of this sounds like so much fun!

Stronger Still by D.N. Bryn
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown queer MC, M/M
Published on: 1st June 2023
Goodreads

Rubem has become the voice of the auroras—of their rage, at least.

Between his threats and Tavish’s diplomacy, most of the world is finally listening. But pockets of denial linger, including the Findlays’ old trading partner, the self-governing city of Venalt. While Venalt was once a thriving metropolis of watery channels and garden balconies, now its dying aurora is the only thing holding back the sea monsters that threaten to sink the city.

As Rubem navigates Venalt’s stubborn government factions and apocalyptic prophecies, he discovers that someone in power wants the city destroyed—and they’re willing to kill its aurora protector to see their plans through. Rubem is quickly becoming all that stands in their way, but he seems always one step behind and never quite strong enough.

And like the world’s auroras, he’s growing weaker by the day…

Join Rubem and Tavish for another adventure of mystery, murder, and monsters, in a Venetian-inspired city where the Findlay family lingers on in well-buried secrets. While many These Treacherous Tides books can be read as standalones, the No-Man’s Lander series is best enjoyed chronologically.

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The sequel to last year’s Odder Still has me pretty damn intrigued, but I still need to read the first book! Must get on that…

Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC
Published on: 1st June 2023
Goodreads

Brian, an aimless slacker, works doubles at his shift job, forgets to clean his room and lays about with his friends Nik and Darby. He's been struggling to manage his transition to adulthood almost as much as his monthly transitions to a werewolf. Really, he is not great at the whole werewolf thing, and his recent murderous slip-ups have caught the attention of Tyler, a Millennial were-mentor determined to take the mythological world by storm. Tyler has got a plan, and weirdly his self-help punditry actually encourages Brian to shape up and to stop accidently marking out guys who ghosted him on Grindr as potential monthly victims. But as Brian gets closer to Tyler's pack, and alienated from Nik and Darby, he realises that Tyler's expansion plans are much more nefarious than a little lupine enlightenment...

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This sounds utterly ridiculous, but in a great way! Definitely going to have to pick it up!

Divinity 36 by Gail Carriger
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC, M/M, nonbinary rep
Published on: 1st June 2023
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.

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I shrieked a bit when I found out about this – I adored The Fifth Gender (it was one of the first books I ever reviewed here!) and if I understand correctly, Divinity 36 has the same setting/is from the same universe??? Honestly, even if it isn’t, this still sounds fantastic – the whole concept of celebrity and religion being indistinguishable is one I’m excited to see explored. GIMME!

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

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Published on May 29, 2023 03:03

May 28, 2023

(Yet More Of) The Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction!

Magic portal artwork by Tithi Luadthong

Every year for Wyrd & Wonder, I make lists of unique magic systems and cool magical abilities. What’s the difference? Well, I define a magic system as something that allows the practitioner to do many things, whereas an ability lets them do one thing – even if that one thing can be utilised in a lot of different ways!

And then I scour everything I’ve ever read to present you the ones I think are most interesting!

So, as per tradition – here is 2023’s list of some of the very coolest magical abilities!

The Floating Islands (The Floating Islands #1) by Rachel Neumeier
Goodreads

When Trei loses his family in a tragic disaster, he must search out distant relatives in a new land. The Floating Islands are unlike anything Trei has ever seen: stunning, majestic, and graced with kajurai, men who soar the skies with wings.
Trei is instantly sky-mad, and desperate to be a kajurai himself. The only one who fully understands his passion is Araene, his newfound cousin. Prickly, sarcastic, and gifted, Araene has a secret of her own . . . a dream a girl cannot attain.
Trei and Araene quickly become conspirators as they pursue their individual paths. But neither suspects that their lives will be deeply entwined, and that the fate of the Floating Islands will lie in their hands.
Filled with rich language, and told in alternating voices, The Floating Islands is an all-encompassing young adult fantasy read.

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The kajurai of the tiny Floating Islands kingdom can fly – because they’ve been granted dragon-magic that lets them see the wind.

And manipulate it. But we’ve all seen elemental-manipulation magic before – it’s the seeing the wind that makes the kajurai incredibly cool to me! Even if that would not be quite so useful if they couldn’t also manipulate it…

Inkheart (Inkworld, #1) by Cornelia Funke, Anthea Bell
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

12 year-old Meggie lives with her father, Mortimer, a bookbinder. Mo never reads stories aloud to Meggie because he has a special gift: when he reads a book aloud, the characters come out of the book and into the real world.

One night, when Meggie was a small child, Mortimer was reading aloud from a book named Inkheart when an evil villain named Capricorn, his aide Basta, and a fire-eater named Dustfinger escape from the book and into their living room. At the same time, Mo's wife Resa gets trapped within the book.

Twelve years later, Capricorn is on a hunt to find and destroy all copies of Inkheart and use Mo's abilities to gain more power for himself in the real world. Meggie discovers her father's secret and, along with the help of Dustfinger and Meggie's eccentric aunt Elinor, fights to free her father and destroy Capricorn.

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In Inkheart and its sequels (the whole series is beautiful and I recommend it most strongly) Mo, the father of main character Maggie, can read things out of books by reading said books aloud. The problems are twofold; for everything that comes out of a book, something goes into it – and Mo has zero control over what (or who!) those things are.

Kind of makes you understand why he might put a total ban on reading aloud!

It’s not just the idea of objects and characters being summoned out of my favourite reads that earns Inkheart a spot on this list – I also really appreciate how much thought Funke put into the ramifications and implications of this kind of magical ability. Every book is its own self-contained world! The characters are alive long before Mo brings them out of the pages! People who go into a book don’t die, they keep on living in the world they’ve fallen into! Which…kind of makes every writer of fiction a full-on god???

Mind blown.

Libriomancer (Magic Ex Libris, #1) by Jim C. Hines
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of the secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. Libriomancers are gifted with the ability to magically reach into books and draw forth objects. When Isaac is attacked by vampires that leaked from the pages of books into our world, he barely manages to escape. To his horror he discovers that vampires have been attacking other magic-users as well, and Gutenberg has been kidnapped.

With the help of a motorcycle-riding dryad who packs a pair of oak cudgels, Isaac finds himself hunting the unknown dark power that has been manipulating humans and vampires alike. And his search will uncover dangerous secrets about Libriomancy, Gutenberg, and the history of magic. . . .

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Another book-related magical superpower is that of the libriomancers – people who, much like Mo of Inkheart, can draw objects and even people out of a book’s pages and into our world. Unlike Mo, libriomancers have great control over what they take out of a book – and they don’t have to trade anything in to pull something out. I’d call that a pretty big advantage over poor Mo!

Land of the Burning Sands (Griffin Mage, #2) by Rachel Neumeier
Goodreads

Gereint Enseichen of Casmantium knows little and cares less about the recent war in which his king tried to use griffins and fire to wrest territory from the neighboring country of Feierabiand...but he knows that his kingdom's unexpected defeat offers him a chance to escape from his own servitude.But now that the griffins find themselves in a position of strength, they are not inclined to forgive, and the entire kingdom finds itself in deadly peril. Willing or not, Gereint will find himself caught up in a desperate struggle between the griffins and the last remaining Casmantian mage. Even the strongest gifts of making and building may not prove sufficient when the fiery wind of the griffins begins to bury the life of Casmantium beneath the burning sands...

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Two Rachel Neumeier books on this year’s list! Well, it’s not my fault she’s so great at coming up with interesting magics.

The second book of the Griffin Mage trilogy – which I think can be read as a standalone if you want to (though why would you, when the first book is also so great???) – features Tehre, an eccentric but brilliant prodigy of the Maker’s art, or gift. Making is a gift that’s a little tricky to define – it’s definitely a soft magic, not a hard one – but I guess the best way to say it would be: the things makers make are better than the things made by not-makers. For instance, in the first book of the trilogy, we briefly meet a woman who has the Maker’s gift for tableware and vases – and not only are her creations very hard to damage, flowers placed in her vases last longer than they naturally would.

Tehre’s Making is much, much bigger than that. Her gift runs towards buildings and bridges – architecture and engineering. She has to study to fully understand the engineering and such involved in designing her creations, like anyone would, but she does have an instinctive grasp for it, and for understanding and manipulating different building materials – and she can design, and build, buildings and bridges that no one else would ever think of, or could pull off if they did. She spends a lot of Land of the Burning Sands trying to work out an equation that can predict how cracks will run through a material placed under stress – and the thing she Makes when she figures it out is just. SERIOUSLY WOW.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy (The Chathrand Voyage, #1) by Robert V.S. Redick
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy
Goodreads

Six hundred years old, the Imperial Merchant Ship Chathrand is a massive floating outpost of the Empire of Arqual. And it is on its most vital mission yet: to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace between Arqual and its mortal enemy, the Mzithrin Empire. But Thasha, the young noblewoman in question, may be bringing her swords to the altar.

For the ship’s true mission is not peace but war—a war that threatens to rekindle an ancient power long thought lost. As the Chathrand navigates treacherous waters, Thasha must seek unlikely allies—including a magic-cursed deckhand, a stowaway tribe of foot-high warriors, and a singularly heroic rat—and enter a treacherous web of intrigue to uncover the secret of the legendary Red Wolf.

The Chathrand is the last of her kind. Now, having survived countless battles and centuries of typhoons, it has gone missing. This is her story.

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Pazel’s Gift is unreliable, but it’s undeniably useful; when it hits, he can understand every language he encounters, whether written or spoken – and when his Gift ‘passes’, he gets to keep his perfect understanding of those languages! (Although apparently he keeps his native accent no matter what he speaks.) As we see in the first book, his Gift even allows him to hear languages that are inaudible to normal humans! How that works, I don’t know – we just have to accept that it’s magic – but I find that a very cool detail.

Of course, there’s a cost – when his Gift passes (which usually takes a few days) he gets hit with ‘brain fits’, horribly scary phases where he can’t understand any language and also speaks in gibberish himself. That’s bad enough, but his superstitious peers are liable to beat him, abandon him, or even throw him overboard to drown when the fits come.

An amazing ability, and a downside that would be much less of a problem if he wasn’t surrounded by idiots who think he’s possessed or something!

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

The Goblin Emperor meets "Magnificent Century" in Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.

To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.

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The title for this one is pretty literal: among Kadou’s people, the ability to ‘taste’ metal via touch is relatively common, allowing a person to recognise the metal in front of them. (No fooling such a person that your gold is just gilt over bronze, for example.) The more sensitive the ability, the easier it is for someone to taste the purity of a metal – how much gold is there in the nation’s gold coins, for example? Has it suddenly been debased with more cheap metals? That particular question is actually very plot-relevant, but the magic is pretty fascinating even separate from that.

One thing I appreciated about this power is that it’s very individual; gold doesn’t ‘taste’ the same to everyone with this ability, and neither does any other metal. The sensory impressions each touch-taster experiences from each metal is unique to them; sometimes it’s a sound, sometimes more of an image, etc. That’s the kind of neat, small detail that turns a magical ability from a cool thing to something I can almost believe in!

The Winter Knight by Jes Battis
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Arthurian legends are reborn in this upbeat queer urban fantasy with a mystery at its heart

The knights of the round table are alive in Vancouver, but when one winds up dead, it’s clear the familiar stories have taken a left turn. Hildie, a Valkyrie and the investigator assigned to the case, wants to find the killer — and maybe figure her life out while she’s at it. On her short list of suspects is Wayne, an autistic college student and the reincarnation of Sir Gawain, who these days is just trying to survive in a world that wasn’t made for him. After finding himself at the scene of the crime, Wayne is pulled deeper into his medieval family history while trying to navigate a new relationship with the dean’s charming assistant, Burt — who also happens to be a prime murder suspect. To figure out the truth, Wayne and Hildie have to connect with dangerous forces: fallen knights, tricky runesmiths, the Wyrd Sisters of Gastown. And a hungry beast that stalks Wayne’s dreams.

The Winter Knight is a propulsive urban fairy tale and detective story with queer and trans heroes that asks what it means to be a myth, who gets to star in these tales, and ultimately, how we make our stories our own.

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There’s quite a bit of magic in Winter Knight, but one tiny magical ability especially delighted me: the knights of the round table are able to keep their swords in reflective surfaces, like mirrors and windows. (This might be a sneaky explanation behind Excalibur being in the lake in the old stories – a lake definitely counts as something reflective, right?) Even better, swords don’t have to come out of the glass etc that they went into; you can hide it in one mirror and pull it out of a window later. Convenient!

Emerald Blaze (Hidden Legacy, #5) by Ilona Andrews
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

As Prime magic users, Catalina Baylor and her sisters have extraordinary powers—powers their ruthless grandmother would love to control. Catalina can earn her family some protection working as deputy to the Warden of Texas, overseeing breaches of magic law in the state, but that has risks as well. When House Baylor is under attack and monsters haunt her every step, Catalina is forced to rely on handsome, dangerous Alessandro Sagredo, the Prime who crushed her heart.

The nightmare that Alessandro has fought since childhood has come roaring back to life, but now Catalina is under threat. Not even his lifelong quest for revenge will stop him from keeping her safe, even if every battle could be his last. Because Catalina won't rest until she stops the use of the illicit, power-granting serum that's tearing their world apart.

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Emerald Blaze is the first full novel in which Catalina features (she first appears in the earlier books in the series, and you should definitely read those first), and in her own trilogy we learn much more about her magic, which we first hear about in the last book of the first trilogy. Catalina is able to make people love her – and while that’s very helpful in small doses (like when you want someone to answer your questions, or slip you evidence they never would otherwise), if she lets it last too long the ‘love’ turns rabid, and the person or people affected become so desperate to possess her they’ll literally tear her apart.

Definitely not a magical power I’ve seen before!

Unbreakable by Mira Grant
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

The girls of Unbreakable Starlight were part of an ancient tradition of magical warriors defending the Earth from the forces of the Outside. They knew their powers and their place, and they planned to fight to the very end. They just didn't think the end would come so very soon.

And they never dreamt that when the dust settled, two of their members would be the last magical protectors in the world.

For Piper, her time as a member of Unbreakable Starlight was the best part of her life, the first and only time that she had been truly happy. She'd had friends, she'd had powers, and she'd had her animal companion to make sure that she understood the patterns she saw in all things. Until it all came crashing down.

For Yuina, whose sister died on the night of the assault that killed most of the world's magical protectors, forgetting what she used to be is all that's mattered to her for years. She's been trying her best to toe the line and be the good little symbol of a forbidden calling that her government wants her to be, and she'll keep trying even if it kills her.

But magical protectors existed for a reason, and even if they've all died and the heralds who used to invite replacements to the fight have been forced into hiding. And if the magical protectors aren't holding the line against the Outside, who is?

Lines exist because somebody drew them, and now, with the world left undefended, the lines are getting blurred. Soon enough, something's going to break.

We made a vow, unshakable:In starlight, we're unbreakable.We’ll protect the world with all we are,And when we fall, we’ll fall like stars.

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This is a very minor spoiler, but: in Unbreakable, Piper – one of the last Magical Girls on the planet – secretly has the ability to recognise patterns. In practice, this means she can often predict what’s about to happen, or how she and her team can defeat the monster of the day – making her unbelievably useful, and utterly deadly when she wants to be. And she can definitely pick up on – and understand – when someone is tapping out a coded message to her…

The Scandalous Letters of V and J by Felicia Davin
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Paris, 1823. Victor Beauchêne has led a stifling existence, unrecognized for both his cleverness and his gender, except in the pages of his meticulous diary. Abruptly cut off from his family’s fortune, he takes the opportunity to start a new life in a shabby boarding house with his beloved spinster aunt Sophie. There, he stumbles upon two kinds of magic: a pen with eerie powers of persuasion and a reserved, alluring art student named Julien.

Brilliant, unconventional Julien is also Julie, a person whose magical paintings can transform their body or enchant viewers. Haunted by a terrible episode in their past, they’ve come to Paris for artistic success—the ordinary, non-magical kind. Victor, too handsome and far too inquisitive, is a dangerous distraction from their ambitions.
Drawn to each other, Victor and Julie strike up a cautious correspondence of notes slid under doors. It soon unfolds into a passionate romance. Outside the bedroom, their desires clash: Julie wants to distance herself from the world of magic and Victor wants to delve deeper. When the ruthless abuser from Julie’s past resurfaces, he aims to take control of her powers and ruin more lives. Victor and Julie are the only ones who can stop him. Do they trust each other enough to survive the threat to their love and their lives?

The Scandalous Letters of V and J is a historical fantasy romance with two nonbinary main characters, told primarily in letters and diary entries. It is approximately 100,000 words long and sexually explicit.

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There are several magics on display in The Scandalous Letters of V and J, but the one I want to focus on is – painting. J, and J’s family, have the ability to change their own bodies – by painting self-portraits. I suspect most of us would love to be able to change how we look, given how beauty-obsessed our world is, but J’s magic means a lot to me because J uses it to alter their appearance and sex to match up with their (fairly fluid) gender identity. Something a lot of us nonbinary or trans people would love to be able to do!

This is only the latest of my lists of magical abilities – you can find the rest below–!

(Some Of) The Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction!
(Some More Of) The Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction!
(Even More Of) The Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction!

Or hop over here to start exploring my lists of especially epic magic systems!

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Published on May 28, 2023 02:41

May 27, 2023

Intimate Majesty: Witch King by Martha Wells

Witch King by Martha Wells
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Brown cast, secondary F/F
PoV: Third-person, past-tense
Published on: 30th May 2023
ISBN: B0B9KVV7JH
Goodreads
five-stars

"I didn't know you were a... demon."
"You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' WITCH KING....

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.

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

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~‘misfits adopt random orphan’ is a trope I will never not love
~women ready to burn the world down to get their wives back
~pain-magic packs one hell of a punch
~ghost-ships that don’t know they’re ghosts
~family means a lot of different things
~‘I’m the demon’ indeed!
~anti-imperialist heroes FTW

Witch King is a story spun out of silk: endlessly soft, smooth and flowing, richly coloured. Quiet as silk is quiet; and surprisingly, impossibly strong, as silk secretly is. Luxurious even when plain; unembroidered, because it does not need to be. Its quality speaks for itself.

It is a masterpiece.

Not the kind we’re used to. As I said; it’s soft, and quiet. This is not a tale of clashing armies and Dark Lords that need overthrowing. There is a quest of sorts, but not the kind you’re thinking of. The battles are more like skirmishes, even if some of them are devastating. World-changing.

Witch King is the story of what happens when the world-changing adventures are over; what does the world do with its heroes, when it decides it doesn’t need them anymore? Intertwined is an earlier timeline, letting us trace the thread of how, exactly, our main character became capital-k Known – but it stops where most stories are just getting going. Wells carefully, deliberately avoids what most of us would think of as the real story, the big story, the dramatic and cinematic war against evil – we see its beginning and its aftermath, but not the war itself, not really.

It’s puzzling, and fascinating, and here, for this book, this story, it is also exactly right. Witch King is not a sweeping, grandiose epic; it is a smaller story, and because it is small it feels more human, more real, more believable. Like something you could reach out and touch, if you could just work out the right magic for slipping your fingers past the print and paper. Because it is a story woven out of human connections and human moments it is easy to grasp, easy to fall into; you come to care about the characters quickly and completely, because they are people, not characters.

People with extremely impressive skill-sets, yes. But still people.

Kai leaned on the rail, concentrating on being enigmatic and not looking as if he was frantically trying to come up with alternate plans

(I do not mean to suggest that Witch King is cosy, or that the stakes are low. Neither of those things are true. But even during the fights, I found it oddly peaceful. Maybe because it pulled me so completely out of my world and into Kai’s; it’s been a while since any book had me this subsumed in its story. Every time I stepped away from Witch King was like surfacing from deep water, like taking a breath I didn’t know I needed – but it was also disorientating; it took me minutes to adjust to this world again, after being so deep in Kai’s.)

If you zoom out a little, and look at the big picture Wells is painting, then this is a story of a group of people – allies who become friends who become family – who pulled their nations together to fight off an indisputably evil empire…and now have to stop that Alliance from becoming a new empire.

(It probably wouldn’t be as terrible a one as their old enemies were. But empires never work out – I say that as someone with a UK passport – especially for the ones being devoured by and into said empire, and our characters know this. Kai and his companions are fiercely, passionately pro-independence for everyone, which is a philosophy I can definitely get behind – and so they are not going to let this happen.)

You might expect this to be fairly grim and cynical, but it isn’t. Kai and co definitely feel betrayed, and oh boy are they pissed, but there is never any sense of futility, of why-even-try, of the despair of having to fight the same fight again. For one, because it’s not the same fight, not at all: there is no genocidal enemy army on their doorstep this time (thank all the gods). And two, because Kai and co are just…not like that. The book opens with Kai and the absolutely amazing Zeide confused and angry and somewhat scared, but from the get-go there is the very clear sense that they are both people who will never lie down and give up; not so much ruthless – they have strict moral codes – but endlessly determined, and maybe even more importantly, capable. They are world-wise and street-smart and they know – they know – exactly what they are capable of, and that there is nothing the world can throw at them that they cannot handle.

“I’m starting to think that a mortal Prince-heir who wanted to consort with a demon in human form may not be a completely trustworthy person.”

Is it obvious that I adore them???

And then we switch to the older timeline, and it is such a startling but wonderful contrast: by the time we see Kai’s past we are used to him being the unstoppable Witch King, so the sudden pivot to his younger, more innocent self is a lot. Past!Kai was definitely someone who, when pushed past his breaking point, was trapped in despair. (For very, very good reasons. I would have despaired too, if I’d been in his position.) And yet Wells wields her words so deftly that I was never left feeling like past!Kai and present!Kai weren’t the same person; it was so easy to see how the one grew into the other.

The answer came back on an eddy in the current: Why should I trust?

Always a good question. Kai replied, I wore chains once, too. He sent the whale an image, a memory, of the old Cageling Demon Court in the Summer Halls of the Hierarchs, how we had huddled there with diamond chains around his throat and wrists, the perpetual rain soaking his ragged clothes, searing his skin.

What we get, what we see, is his origin story, in a way; the painful journey that is him…not so much finding himself as finding his feet, realising his own strength, his own potential, his own capabilities. And we don’t need to see more than that. We don’t need to see him decimating battlefields, because it’s so very clear that he could; that he will; that he did. It would have been redundant for Wells to have actually written the war-parts. And Witch King feels perfectly complete without them. I would absolutely love to have seen more of Kai’s world, and I desperately hope Wells comes back to this verse eventually, but the story told here is perfectly self-contained. We see, are shown, experience everything that we need to and not one bit more. It’s an incredibly elegant efficiency of storytelling that I’ll be mulling over for years.

“Stop being overdramatic.”

Kai would love to, if dramatic things would stop happening to him.

Although both timelines in the book have huge implications for the Big Picture story, Witch King feels more tightly focussed on the Small Picture; you have to zoom out to comprehend the prevent-a-new-empire plotline because the view we have is so zoomed in. At its heart, Witch King is intimate and personal, something small and precious and held close. This novel is a snapshot, a magnifying glass held over a quiet corner, a story woven together out of human connections rather than grand destinies. The driving force of the present-day plot is less ‘we must stop the coalition from becoming an empire’ and more ‘where is our friend’ – it just so happens that the latter is vital to achieving the former; Tahren Stargard, Kai’s friend and Zeide’s wife, is a very important member of the Rising Worlds coalition, and necessary for the renewal of the alliance. So yes, technically, they’re doing a Big Epic Thing – their actions will help prevent a new empire from rising – but the motivations feel much more personal.

Which is definitely on purpose; by ignoring (for the most part) the wider world and zooming in so tightly on a small handful of characters, Wells humanises them in a way few epic fantasy writers can – because Witch King is wholly made up of the kind of small human moments most of us would never think to include or see in an epic fantasy story. Kai discovers a game-changing power because of a moment of simple, fearless curiosity from someone who has every reason to fear him; a small overture of compassion is the beginning of the alliance that will bring down their great enemies; the forging, loss, and creation of new family bonds changes the course of history. The devil (or demon) is in the details, and the details are tiny, the kind that never make it into the history books but which we know from our own experiences can be life-changing.

Think of the teacher who took a chance on you, the stranger who asked if you were okay, the coworker who covered for you just because. All of us, I hope, have experienced those moments, and Wells has built her epic fantasy out of them, and the idea of it alone would be breathtaking even if the execution wasn’t fucking flawless.

Is everyone going to love this book? No – especially those who go in thinking it’s going to be something it’s not. I’m really worried that readers who only know Wells from Murderbot will be confused and upset by how absolutely not-Murderbot it is, and I suspect even some fans of epic fantasy will feel cheated by a story that does not do what we expect epic fantasy to do. And even I, who am passionately declaring this not just a Best Book of 2023 but also a new all-time favourite of mine, will admit that Witch King left me pining to see more of the incredible world Wells has created here than the small corner of it she showed us.

And yet – as someone who fell in love with Wells’ fantasy as a teenager, and has been following her career ever since – as someone who adores Murderbot and reveres Wheel of the Infinite and would really like to wake up as a Raksura tomorrow, please-and-thank-you – I think this is Martha Wells at her best. Prose, plot, themes, characters, worldbuilding – they all shine like flawlessly cut jewels, a parure of perfection. This is a book that makes your heart happy, that steals your breath away, that fills you with so much hope for people and for the world. I love it. There is nothing else like it. I will treasure it always.

If you are looking for unconventional, beautiful, character-driven fantasy – if you walk into Witch King with your eyes and heart open – I genuinely believe you’ll find a new all-time favourite waiting for you too.

Magic portal artwork by Tithi Luadthong

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Published on May 27, 2023 12:59

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