Siavahda's Blog, page 66

In Short: April

I’m off the meds that were messing me up last month, and BOY does it show!

ARCs Received

Now that Netgalley has the option to cancel requests… I cancelled a bunch of mine. I reminded myself that being excited to read a book isn’t a good enough reason to request it – there’s the all-important question of, can I review it? That’s why I don’t request books by Nghi Vo any more – I don’t think I’m capable of doing her books justice – and there are books I’d like to read without the obligation of having to review them hovering over me.

That being said, I’m MASSIVELY excited for so many of these! Especially The Dawnhounds, Thief Mage Beggar Mage, and The Spear Cuts Through Water – I was refreshing the page for Spear multiple times a day until it turned from wish for it to request, and I maaay have shrieked a little when I got approved!

Read[image error]

I read 20 books this month! That’s exactly twice as many as in March! WOO!

New-to-me standouts were the third and final season of Ansible by Stant Litore (soul- searing) Slatter’s Sourdough and Other Stories (how did I not read it years ago?!) and Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane (which I already expected to be incredible, but which still completely blew me away). It was truly a most excellent month for reading!

Case in point: 40% of the books I read this month were by BIPOC authors!!! I’m pretty sure that’s the highest score I’ve EVER managed in one month since I started keeping track!

Reviewed[image error]

I decided not to post all of these this month – it just makes life easier if I can build up a buffer – but WOAH. Nine full reviews!!! And that’s without counting the mini-reviews or the DNF ones! Gotta be honest, I’m feeling pretty proud of myself. Especially for my review of The Hourglass Throne, which I agonised over but which turned out great.

DNF-ed[image error]

As many DNFs as last month, but at least it wasn’t more – although I was sorry not to click with some of these.

ARCs Outstanding

Finally starting to get these down to manageable numbers again, for which I’m grateful. I’m working on reviews for Wrath Goddess Sing (unequivocally adoring) and The Ballad of Perilous Graves (unequivocally not adoring), and now that I’ve reread the earlier books in the trilogy I can jump into The Origin of Storms!

Misc[image error]

The Unmissable SFF of 2022 list continues to be updated; this month, with the cover and new synopsis of The World We Make (I didn’t realise the series was a duology!!! Did you?!) and When the Angels Left the Old Country; and the additions of The Witch and the Tsar, a historical fantasy about Baba Yaga, and Grant Morrison’s Luda, about a magical drag queen.

I made a rec list of SFF for International Asexuality Day, and another for Autism Acceptance Month (which I still think should be renamed Autism Appreciation Month). I managed to write a line or two about all the books I read for r/Fantasy’s 2021 book bingo, and interviewed Erica McCorkle about her book Merchants of Knowledge and Magic.

So it’s been a pretty busy month!

Looking Forward[image error]

May is PACKED with releases I’m excited for, a few of which I’ve read already, but most of which I haven’t! I’ve now read The Hourglass Throne twice, but I still can’t wait for it to come out so more people can read it! To say nothing of how excellently the street team has been doing promoting it!

Of the books I haven’t read, I’m most excited for Siren Queen (Nghi Vo is a literary goddess), Darknesses (sapphic counter to Dracula!), and Uncommon Charm (ALL THE REASONS). And I suspect I Kissed Shara Wheeler is going to be a lot of fun, even if it isn’t SFF – I’ve utterly adored both McQuiston’s previous books!

I’m also really looking forward to Wyrd & Wonder – this’ll be my third year taking part! I have lots of plans, but we’ll see how many of them come to fruition.

In short: ONWARDS TO MAY!

The post In Short: April appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

April DNFs

Five DNFs this month, which feels like a lot. It’s especially heartbreaking because these are all books I was incredibly excited for. Alas!

[image error]Glitterati by Oliver K. Langmead
Genres: Sci Fi
Published on: 15th March 2022
ISBN: 9781789097979
Goodreads

Simone is one of the Glitterati, the elite living lives of luxury and leisure. Slave to the ever-changing tides – and brutal judgements - of fashion, he is immaculate. To be anything else is to be unfashionable, and no one wants to be unfashionable, or even worse, ugly…

When Simone accidentally starts a new fashion with a nosebleed at a party, another Glitterati takes the credit. Soon their rivalry threatens to raze their opulent utopia to the ground, as no one knows how to be vicious like the beautiful ones.

Enter a world of the most fantastic costumes, grand palaces in the sky, the grandest parties known to mankind and the unbreakable rules of how to eat ice cream. A fabulous dystopian fable about fashion, family and the feckless billionaire class.

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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The problem with Glitterati is that it does one thing very well – making its MC vapid and contemptable, even despicable. But by definition then, we don’t give a damn about him being upstaged, or having his trend stolen – there’s absolutely nothing to make the reader attached to him, and that’s more an effect of the vapidity than the despicability, because despicable characters can be interesting, even weirdly likable if they’re also funny or acting on feelings we all have but most of us repress. Etc.

Simone is an airhead in the most extreme definition of the word, and also gross and stupid and horrible. That’s not even the tiniest bit interesting. So why would I care what happens to him?

I thought that Langmead might compensate with lovely prose, or by going wildly imaginative (and hopefully descriptive) with all the fashion stuff, but he doesn’t. There’s some interesting worldbuilding, like the way glitterati communicate through body language rather than facial expressions (which might damage their makeup or, horror, cause wrinkles!), but there’s not enough of it to keep me reading past the first third of the book. To say nothing of the worldbuilding holes: bodily fluids are The Most DisgustingTM, but the glitterati like sex? Um.

(Also? He doesn’t have his trend stolen. That’s an extremely generous, biased way to describe what happened. So on top of him being boring, his outrage at having his trend nicked is just eye-rolling.)

No thank you, I’m not interested in hanging out with this brainless little twit one moment longer when you give me nothing to enjoy about the experience.

[image error]

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

I really, really loved what Sanctuary was trying to be and do, but it just didn’t work for me. I found the prose very unpolished, more like a draft then a finished book, and the vocabulary choices got on my nerves – like saying ‘unexplainable’ rather than ‘inexplicable’, and yes, that’s super petty and nitpicky, but I can’t help it – things like this really bother me.

I do think I might come back to it at some point, though; some time when I want to read something low-key and pretty soothing.

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic (The Pentagonal Dominion #1) by Erika McCorkle
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
ISBN: B09V1TBNPV
Goodreads

On one of the many planes of the Pentagonal Dominion, priestess Calinthe trades in information, collecting valuable secrets for her demonic employer. Calinthe has a secret of her own: she’s intersex, making her a target for the matriarchal slavers of the Ophidian Plane whose territory she must cross in her search for hidden knowledge. But thanks to her friend Zakuro’s illusions, Calinthe presents as a woman- a comfortable, if furtive, existence in a world determined to bring her to heel.

But when, instead of a mere secret, the priestess uncovers an incalculably powerful artifact, Calinthe finds herself in a high-stakes negotiation with the same matriarchs who sought to enslave her. On the table: Calinthe’s discovery, a charm powerful enough to transform a mortal into a god… against a secret so deadly it could quell all life on every plane of the dominion. If Calinthe plays her cards perfectly, she and Zakuro could escape Ophidia wealthier than either of them ever dreamed possible.

But if she plays them wrong…

…she’ll learn slavery in her pursuers’ hands is a fate far worse than death.

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

Alas, this one just didn’t work for me. It was a pretty simple case of a first-person voice I just didn’t connect with, and the worldbuilding (of which there’s a lot, normally my favorite thing) was explained through footnotes rather than via the narrative. I’m not sure that would have been a problem for me…if the footnotes had been functioning links in the ARC I had. But they were not, so I just had numbers dotted throughout the text, and had to keep flipping to the end of the chapter to get the references. Which is annoying as hell, especially in an ebook.

And when there’s nothing about the book holding my interest and making that kind of inconvenience and effort worth it? Well…then I’m not going to put the effort in. Insert shrug here.

Prince of the Sorrows (Rowan Blood, #1) by Kellen Graves
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
ISBN: B09VM6ZF4B
Goodreads

Without an academic endorsement to make him valuable to the high fey, Saffron will be sent back through the veil to the human world. The place he was traded from as a changeling-baby, and a place he is terrified of. And while getting an endorsement shouldn't be impossible, it's hindered by the fact his literacy is self-taught, using books stolen off of Morrígan Academy's campus of high fey students.

When mistaken identity leads to Saffron learning the true name of brooding, self-centered, high fey Prince Cylvan, what begins as a risk of losing his life (or his tongue) becomes an opportunity to earn the future he wants. In exchange for an endorsement, he and Cylvan form a geis where Saffron agrees to find a spell to strip power from Cylvan's true name. While Prince Cylvan doesn't know Saffron can barely read, Saffron is determined to meet his end of the deal in order to remain in Alfidel—or, maybe, just to remain by Cylvan's side, as affections grow stronger every night they spend alone in the library together.

But as other human servants soon fall victim to a beast known only as “the wolf”, Saffron realizes he has embroiled himself in a manipulative reach for power like he never anticipated—and even Prince Cylvan cannot be trusted. Between the wolf, uncovering forbidden magic, and his growing feelings for the prince, Saffron will have to decide which is most important to him—his endorsement, the lives of his friends, or the prince’s life and wellbeing.

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

Yeah, no.

Alarm bells started ringing for me in chapter one, when the circumstances under which Saffron gets hold of a magic ring are…just unbelievable, frankly (why would an immortal magical creature give some random human a ring that can control them? That’s like a genie handing over their lamp!) But my main problem with this is the prose, which is almost great, but keeps slapping me in the face with awkward or flat-out incorrect words that jar me out of the story.

thinking he could snipe one of the small pies

Unless you’re planning to be sarcastic to the pies…?

Saffron frowned and prepared to squabble back

This is just such awkward phrasing! Why not simply ‘argue back’?

Letty adjusted Saffron’s hair until it was presentable, then summoned him to his feet

Is magic involved in summoning him to his feet?

The sun barely slipped beneath the horizon in the distance, casting the world in a hazy purple that was the ideal time for spirits to wander.

Purple is not a time.

Basically, this needed a good, ruthless editor. The bones of something really great are here, but the constant jolts of incorrect words or very awkward, pretentious phrasing meant I just couldn’t get invested in the story. Which is a shame!

The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 27th September 2022
ISBN: 9781616963811
Goodreads

In this first full-length novel from the acclaimed Birdverse, new love blossoms between an impatient starkeeper and a reclusive poet as they try together to save their island home. Nebula, Locus, and Ignyte finalist R. B. Lemberg (The Four Profound Weaves) has crafted a gorgeous tale of the inevitable transformations of communities and their worlds. The Unbalancing is rooted in the mystical cosmology, neurodiversity, and queerness that infuses Lemberg’s lyrical prose, which has invited glowing comparisons to N. K. Jemisin, Patricia A. McKillip, and Ursula K. LeGuin.

Beneath the waters by the islands of Gelle-Geu, a star sleeps restlessly. The celebrated new starkeeper Ranra Kekeri, who is preoccupied by the increasing tremors, confronts the problems left behind by her predecessor.

Meanwhile, the poet Erígra Lilún, who merely wants to be left alone, is repeatedly asked by their ancestor Semberi to take over the starkeeping helm. Semberi insists upon telling Lilun mysterious tales of the deliverance of the stars by the goddess Bird.

When Ranra and Lilun meet, sparks begin to fly. An unforeseen configuration of their magical deepnames illuminates the trouble under the tides. For Ranra and Lilun, their story is just beginning; for the people of Gelle-Geu, it may well be too late to save their home

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 feel genuinely upset about not enjoying this one, and I do think it’s a me-problem – everyone else loved Four Profound Weaves, the novella Lemberg wrote in this verse and which I was quite meh about, and so far the early reviews for Unbalancing are overwhelmingly positive too. And I’m confused, because on paper this is a checklist of so many things I love – and I adore Lemberg’s short stories!

But reading this just felt exhausting. It felt like a chore. I still love the premise and the diversity, I’m still in awe of Lemberg’s imagination, but I got halfway through the book and just did not care how it was going to end. I didn’t find the prose beautiful, as somarimy other reviewers have; I thought it was quite plain and also kind of stilted, stopping and starting with a very jerky rhythm. Things moved so fast I had no time to process or understand them, and as much as I appreciate jewelry that indicates your nonbinary identity and discussions of sexuality and consent, those are not what I came to this book looking for. I wanted a fabulous story about stars and magic, and that was kind of lacking. It didn’t help that I didn’t find either of the main characters very interesting, and wasn’t the slightest bit invested in their romance.

Written in third person with lush, beautiful prose, I think I could have loved this. In blunt first person, not so much, unfortunately.

Fingers crossed for fewer DNFs in May!

The post April DNFs appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Clubbing in the Future: Dark Factory by Kathe Koja

[image error]Dark Factory by Kathe Koja
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi, Magical Realism
Representation: Gay MC, M/M
Published on: 10th May 2022
ISBN: B09PHWV5J7
Goodreads

Dark Factory is a state-of-the-art club where reality is customizable: just scroll down the menu, and change your world. Ari Regon is the club’s floor manager, a wild card who makes things happen, Max Caspar is a stubborn and talented DIY artist. And they’re both chasing the same thing: the ultimate experience, a vision of true reality.

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

Highlights

~clubbing with virtual reality
~music that brings the house down
~what is reality anyway?
~and can we change the answer?

If you know Koja already, then she needs no introduction; if this is the first book of hers you’ve considered, then no introduction can do her justice.

Dark Factory is the intertwined story of Ari and Max, two very different people with – at least initially – very different views on immersive experiences. Ari is the heart of the eponymous Dark Factory, a club that uses a Santa-sack of technology to create a kind of catered reality for its patrons, a wild fantasy party that never ends and can’t be found anywhere else. Max, on the other hand, is a strong believer of meat over virtual, creating living and immediate art installations in garages and groves for people to experience in person, without Y – Y being an advanced virtual reality technology that more and more games and clubs are making use of.

They’re diametrically opposed characters, and when they first meet it’s with barely-repressed hostility – but quite quickly they realise that their individual philosophies are both missing what the other person has to offer. Ari, in particular, recognises genius in Max and understands how much more they could accomplish together – and it doesn’t take as long as you’d think for Max to come to the same conclusion.

I have to admit, I didn’t understand everything Ari and Max said and thought about what they saw and wanted to do, but the heart of it was the creation of experiences that are real, as real as possible – to the point of reaching for, and even creating, a new kind of reality. Woven through the narrative is the quiet but powerful assertion that people like Max – and Felix, an incredible DJ who hears a hum beneath the sounds of the world – are seeing something the rest of us can’t; are seeing, perhaps, objective reality rather than the subjective one the rest of exist in. The quest, then, if it can be called that, is Ari, Max’s, and Felix’s determination to learn how to show other people that objective reality – or even bring them into it with them.

the security lights blooming like orange moons in a rain so fine it is barely mist, like moving through someone’s exhaled breath.

Dark Factory has been described elsewhere as near-future SF, and there’s also some is-it-isn’t-it supernatural undercurrents, but mostly I’d recommend this for readers who are happy to read books where the fantastical elements are more subtle. Dark Factory strikes me as a cross between sci-fi and magical realism, with the dial turned down on the spec-fic and turned up on the characters, their relationships and dynamics with each other. And it really, really works.

But it’s Koja’s unique, signature writing style that makes Dark Factory as unputdownable as all her previous books. Koja’s prose is fundamentally unique, not so much in the way she uses language (although she has a peerless grasp of language as well) as in the way she uses structure, particularly sentence structure; run-on sentences snap into dialogue and out again, quick and gleaming and sweeping the reader away. It’s wonderfully appropriate that Koja has written a book about immersive reality when her own prose is some of the most immersive I’ve ever read; it gives Dark Factory a weight it wouldn’t have otherwise, makes the reader feel what Ari and Max are talking about even if we don’t completely understand. It becomes something we know, something we get, even if we can’t put it into words; visceral and mesmeric and wickedly enchanting.

Ari watches that quiet face, feeling his own heart alive and glowing like a saint’s in a church window

And of course, we have to talk about the experimental structure of this novel; the inclusion of ‘extras’ such as news articles and interviews with the main characters, the companion website for Dark Factory the club, music and social media woven in and out of the pages to make Dark Factory something as unique as the experience Ari and Max are trying to create. I never thought it was going to be gimmicky, and it isn’t in the slightest; what it does is blur the lines between fiction and reality even more than a good book usually does, leaving you with brief flashes of uncertainty as to whether Ari and the rest are really real or only fictional – and is there a difference, really, when experiencing fiction affects you as much as a ‘real’ experience would? If our realities are all subjective, and I experience Ari and Max and Felix and what they go through, then doesn’t that make them real in my own subjective reality?

I can almost hear Koja whispering Yes.

Dark Factory enters our reality on May 10th. Don’t miss it!

The post Clubbing in the Future: Dark Factory by Kathe Koja appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…The Peacekeeper by B.L. Blanchard

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

This week my Can’t-Wait-For is The Peacekeeper by B.L. Blanchard!

The Peacekeeper by B.L. Blanchard
Genres: Speculative Fiction
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

Against the backdrop of a never-colonized North America, a broken Ojibwe detective embarks on an emotional and twisting journey toward solving two murders, rediscovering family, and finding himself.

North America was never colonized. The United States and Canada don’t exist. The Great Lakes are surrounded by an independent Ojibwe nation. And in the village of Baawitigong, a Peacekeeper confronts his devastating past.

Twenty years ago to the day, Chibenashi’s mother was murdered and his father confessed. Ever since, caring for his still-traumatized younger sister has been Chibenashi’s privilege and penance. Now, on the same night of the Manoomin harvest, another woman is slain. His mother’s best friend. This leads to a seemingly impossible connection that takes Chibenashi far from the only world he’s ever known.

The major city of Shikaakwa is home to the victim’s cruelly estranged family—and to two people Chibenashi never wanted to see again: his imprisoned father and the lover who broke his heart. As the questions mount, the answers will change his and his sister’s lives forever. Because Chibenashi is about to discover that everything about their lives has been a lie.

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It’s the potential worldbuilding that has me excited for Peacekeeper – I’m intensely interested in what a never-colonised North America might look like! And what it’s relationship with the rest of the world might be.

RE the main plot, I’m curious as to how a Peacekeeper differentiates from a police officer (I’m hoping the answer is, quite a bit). The job title is already a good sign – somehow keeping the peace sounds much more positive than policing the community, you know?

On the other hand, if the emphasis is on keeping things peaceful rather than stirring them up by finding the perpetrator…? That seems an unlikely take, though.

What does justice look like in this world? If Chibenashi finds the killer, what will happen to that person? We know his father, a confessed killer, is imprisoned, but does that prison look anything like the real-world American prison complex??? I hope not!

Guess we’ll find out in June!

The post I Can’t Wait For…The Peacekeeper by B.L. Blanchard appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #83

SIX books this week, including new installments in some very big series and a book from one of my auto-buy authors!

Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods by Catherynne M. Valente
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 26th April 2022
Goodreads

From New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente comes an inventive new fantasy following a boy journeying away from the only home he’s ever known and into the magical realm of the dead in order to fulfill a bargain for his people.

Osmo Unknown hungers for the world beyond his small town. With the life that Littlebridge society has planned for him, the only taste Osmo will ever get are his visits to the edge of the Fourpenny Woods where his mother hunts. Until the unthinkable happens: his mother accidentally kills a Quidnunk, a fearsome and intelligent creature that lives deep in the forest.

None of this should have anything to do with poor Osmo, except that a strange treaty was once formed between the Quidnunx and the people of Littlebridge to ensure that neither group would harm the other. Now that a Quidnunk is dead, as the firstborn child of the hunter who killed her, Osmo must embark on a quest to find the Eightpenny Woods—the mysterious kingdom where all wild forest creatures go when they die—and make amends.

Accompanied by a very rude half-badger, half-wombat named Bonk and an antisocial pangolin girl called Never, it will take all of Osmo’s bravery and cleverness to survive the magic of the Eightpenny Woods to save his town…and make it out alive.

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Could I possibly be more excited for this??? No, no I physically could not! First off, it’s by Valente, which means it’s already a drop everything and read it book. Secondly, it’s a genderbent Persephone retelling drawing on Finnish folklore, and no, there is no part of that sentence I do not adore. Thirdly, I read long-ago drafts of the early chapters on Valente’s Patreon, and they were amazing. And finally, I defy anyone to listen to this excerpt of the audiobook and not fall immediately and completely in love!

(And yes, I raised my hands and said the words.)

Maria, Maria: Other Stories by Marytza K. Rubio
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 26th April 2022
Goodreads

“The first witch of the waters was born in Destruction. The moon named her Maria.”

Set against the tropics and megacities of the Americas, Maria, Maria takes inspiration from wild creatures, tarot, and the porous borders between life and death. Motivated by love and its inverse, grief, the characters who inhabit these stories negotiate boldly with nature to cast their desired ends. As the enigmatic community college professor in “Brujería for Beginners” reminds us: “There’s always a price for conjuring in darkness. You won’t always know what it is until payment is due.” This commitment drives the disturbingly faithful widow in “Tijuca,” who promises to bury her husband’s head in the rich dirt of the jungle, and the sisters in “Moksha,” who are tempted by a sleek obsidian dagger once held by a vampiric idol.

But magic isn’t limited to the women who wield it. As Rubio so brilliantly elucidates, animals are powerful magicians too. Subversive pigeons and hungry jaguars are called upon in “Tunnels,” and a lonely little girl runs free with a resurrected saber-toothed tiger in “Burial.” A colorful catalog of gallery exhibits from animals in therapy is featured in “Art Show,” including the Almost Philandering Fox, who longs after the red pelt of another, and the recently rehabilitated Paranoid Peacocks.

Brimming with sharp wit and ferocious female intuition, these stories bubble over into the titular novella, “Maria, Maria”—a tropigoth family drama set in a reimagined California rainforest that explores the legacies of three Marias, and possibly all Marias. Writing in prose so lush it threatens to creep off the page, Rubio emerges as an ineffable new voice in contemporary short fiction.

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This sounds weird and wonderful in the extreme, and I’m looking forward to curling up and vanishing into its pages!

The Damning Stone (Tales From Verania, #5) by T.J. Klune
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 26th April 2022
Goodreads

A year has passed since the Dark Wizard Myrin attempted to take control of the Kingdom of Verania. Though the scars of the final battle remain, Veranians have come together in unity in order to rebuild. Good King Anthony sits on the throne once more, with Morgan of Shadows at his side.

However, a king is not immortal. One day, Anthony will step down, paving the way for his son, Grand Prince Justin, to assume the throne.

And Justin wants anything but.

Unfortunately for him, he finds himself with bigger things to worry about than just becoming the ruler of a country. At the celebration of the might of Verania and its people, a delegation arrives, led by a man who calls himself a magician. This man represents the King of Yennbridge, who has come to claim what was promised to him years before: the hand of the firstborn son of the King and Queen of Verania.

With his ridiculous friends at his side—Sam, Ryan, Kevin, Gary and Tiggy—Justin sets out to make the visiting king’s life a living hell. Which, of course, backfires spectacularly, and when the dust settles, Justin finds his friends changed in ways he can’t expect, leaving him standing alone.

Except he’s not as alone as he thinks, given the King of Yennbridge will do anything to prove he’s worthy of the frozen heart of the Ice Prince.

Prince Justin has finally met his match.

Let the games begin.

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I haven’t caught up with this series yet, so I very carefully did not read the description for fear of spoilers, but I’m still excited!!!

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 26th April 2022
Goodreads

"Patel’s mesmerizing debut shines a brilliant light on the vilified queen from the Ramayana….This easily earns its place on shelves alongside Madeline Miller’s Circe." –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions—much good it did me.”

So begins Kaikeyi’s story. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on tales about the might and benevolence of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the devout and the wise. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear.

Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With this power, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen, determined to carve a better world for herself and the women around her.

But as the evil from her childhood stories threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. And Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak—and what legacy she intends to leave behind.

A stunning debut from a powerful new voice, Kaikeyi is a tale of fate, family, courage, and heartbreak—of an extraordinary woman determined to leave her mark in a world where gods and men dictate the shape of things to come.

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An epic re-imagining of the Ramayana, with an asexual lead! CAN YOU SAY AWESOME???

The Discord of Gods (A Chorus of Dragons, #5) by Jenn Lyons
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 26th April 2022
Goodreads

The Discord of Gods marks the epic conclusion to Jenn Lyons's Chorus of Dragon series, closing out the saga that began with The Ruin of Kings, for fans of Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss.

The end times have come.

Relos Var's final plans to enslave the universe are on the cusp of fruition. He believes there's only one being in existence that might be able to stop him: the demon Xaltorath.
As these two masterminds circle each other, neither is paying attention to the third player on the board, Kihrin. Unfortunately, keeping himself classified in the "pawn" category means Kihrin must pretend to be everything the prophecies threatened he'd become: the destroyer of all, the sun eater, a mindless, remorseless plague upon the land. It also means finding an excuse to not destroy the people he loves (or any of the remaining Immortals) without arousing suspicion.

Kihrin's goals are complicated by the fact that not all of his "act" is one. His intentions may be sincere, but he's still being forced to grapple with the aftereffects of the corrupted magic ritual that twisted both him and the dragons. Worse, he's now tied to a body that is the literal avatar of a star - a form that is becoming increasingly, catastrophically unstable. All of which means he's running out of time.

After all, some stars fade - but others explode.

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Another series I’m not quite up to date on, but!!! IT’S THE FINAL BOOK OF THE CHORUS OF DRAGONS!!! I’m screaming into my pillow. Just a bit. !!!

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 26th April 2022
Goodreads

With her signature mix of the grim and the delightful, award-winning author T. Kingfisher takes the old bones of fantasy and fairytale and makes them into something entirely new in this enchanting adventure.

After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra—the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter—has finally realized that no one is coming to their rescue. No one, except for Marra herself.

Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra's family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.

“Nettle & Bone is the kind of book that immediately feels like an old friend. Fairytale mythic resonance meets homey pragmatism in this utterly delightful story. It's creepy, funny, heartfelt, and full of fantastic characters I absolutely loved!” —Melissa Caruso, author of The Tethered Mage

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This isn’t the book I’d give to someone who’s never read Kingfisher’s work before, but it’s a perfectly lovely standalone for those who’ve read some of her other books!

Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases I should know about? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #83 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Sunday Soupçons #8

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

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

Two mini-reviews for you this week!

The Red-Stained Wings (Lotus Kingdoms, #2) by Elizabeth Bear
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
ISBN: 146687208X
Goodreads

Hugo Award–winning author Elizabeth Bear returns the epic fantasy world of the Lotus Kingdoms with The Red-Stained Wings, the sequel to The Stone in the Skull, taking the Gage into desertlands under a deadly sky to answer the riddle of the Stone in the Skull.

The Gage and the Dead Man brought a message from the greatest wizard of Messaline to the ruling queen of Sarathai, one of the Lotus Kingdoms. But the message was a riddle, and the Lotus Kingdoms are at war.

Elizabeth Bear created her secondary world of the Eternal Sky in her highly praised novel The Range of Ghosts and its sequels. She continued it the first book of the Lotus Kingdoms, The Stone in the Skull.

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I loved this SO MUCH MORE than the first book!!! I don’t know if that’s because the story is so much more active in this book – so much more is happening, whereas most of the first book felt like set-up – or because I’m off the terrible meds I was on last month that were definitely messing with many ability to read (and appreciate what I was reading).

Either way, I was pretty glued to the pages of Red-Stained Wings, and if anyone is hesitant about going on with the trilogy after Stone in the Skull, I would definitely encourage you to give book two a go. All the set-up in Stone massively pays off, while at the same time it’s slowly revealed that a great deal more is going on under, or behind, the scenes of volcanic eruptions, invading armies, and holy rains failing to fall.

Jewels! Goddesses! Sorcery! Nuclear wastelands! Spot-the-spy! Terrifying nuns! Deeply meaningful red coats! I was swooning and on the edge of my seat both, the whole way through.

(Although I have no idea where the cover illustration comes from – there are no rocs in this book, which was disappointing!)

Bitter (Pet #0.5) by Akwaeke Emezi
Genres: Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
ISBN: 0571371205
Goodreads

Bitter is thrilled to have been chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school where she can focus on her painting surrounded by other creative teens. But outside this haven, the streets are filled with protests against the deep injustices that grip the town of Lucille. Bitter's instinct is to stay safe within the walls of Eucalyptus . . . but her friends aren't willing to settle for a world that the adults say is "just the way things are.

Pulled between old friendships, her creative passion, and a new romance, Bitter isn't sure where she belongs - in the art studio or in the streets. And if she does find a way to help the revolution while being true to who she is, she must also ask: at what cost?

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I almost put Bitter aside unfinished, not because it’s a bad book (it isn’t, it’s amazing) but because it deals with a lot of rough topics, which made parts of it hard for me to read.

I’m glad I did finish it, but at the same time, I have mixed feelings about the resolution – I feel like the way the day was saved, the way change was accomplished, is actually pretty depressing, not hopeful. Change for the better won’t happen without supernatural intervention, basically. It undercuts what I think the book was going for – although Bitter is brilliant at conveying how gods’ damn complicated revolution is, and how you don’t have to be on the front lines to help and to matter.

I loved the fantasy elements, and how they add so much to your understanding of Pet, which comes after Bitter chronologically (even if it was written first). There’s no question it’s a brilliant book. I just…the ending seemed to be trying to be hopeful, and I don’t think it was.

What have you been reading this week?

The post Sunday Soupçons #8 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Blood-Magic With Heart: The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Refugee BIPOC nonbinary aroace MC with c-PTSD, BIPOC trans male side character, queer BIPOC female side character with c-PTSD, QBIPOC supporting cast, nonbinary side characters that use neopronouns, WLW side pairing, muslim inspired religious characters, chronically-ill side characters
PoV: Third-Person, Past-Tense
Published on: 9th August 2022
ISBN: 9781616963798
Goodreads

In this intricately layered debut fantasy, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic discovers a strange disease causing political rifts in their new homeland. Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a gripping narrative with a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family.

Firuz-e Jafari is fortunate enough to have immigrated to the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa, fleeing the slaughter of other traditional Sassanian blood magic practitioners in their homeland. Despite the status of refugees in their new home, Firuz has a good job at a free healing clinic in Qilwa, working with Kofi, a kindly new employer, and mentoring Afsoneh, a troubled orphan refugee with powerful magic.

But Firuz and Kofi have discovered a terrible new disease which leaves mysterious bruises on its victims. The illness is spreading quickly through Qilwa, and there are dangerous accusations of ineptly performed blood magic. In order to survive, Firuz must break a deadly cycle of prejudice, untangle sociopolitical constraints, and find a fresh start for their both their blood and found family.

Powerful and fascinating, The Bruising of Qilwa is the newest arrival in the era of fantasy classics such as the Broken Earth Trilogy, The Four Profound Weaves, and Who Fears Death.

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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~blood-magic as hidden science
~allll the found-family love
~queernorm everything
~gorgeous Persian-inspired setting
~so many delicious treats!

The Bruising of Qilwa is a beautiful, slow-paced novella with an intricate setting and big found-family vibes – to say nothing of it being casually and frankly queer. The Persian-inspired, queernorm setting is a wonderful change from the white cishet quasi-Medieval Europe aesthetic we see so often in Western fantasy, and Jamnia’s prose is lovely and descriptive, making that setting come alive for us in these pages.

The main character, they-Firuz (and I loved how pronouns were handled here!) is a half-trained blood-mage who fled their homeland with their family, just a few of the many refugees that have flooded into hostile Qilwa. Firuz is lucky enough to get work in the local free clinic, but they have to hide their blood-magic, which is forbidden and feared in Qilwa. That becomes even more complicated when Firuz discovers and adopts a powerful young blood-mage who’s completely untaught, and who desperately needs training Firuz struggles to provide. And all of this takes place against wave after wave of anti-refugee hatred, with unjust laws passed and riots in the streets all trying to drive the refugees away.

The Bruising of Qilwa is a book with enormous heart, gently and skillfully tackling topics ranging from immigration to racism to colonial history – and of course, there’s the mysterious plague that Firuz is trying to isolate and cure. It’s all a little bit too complicated for the book’s page count, however; I wish Bruising had been written as a novel, with twice as many pages, so there would have been room for everything Jamnia wanted to do with this story. As it was, it felt ever-so-slightly cramped.

It’s a beautiful book, asking some tough questions while giving us a perspective my white, middle-class demographic doesn’t typically get, with a wonderfully human cast I fell completely in love with. The scale of the story is quite small and zoomed in, which does come at the cost of a lack of urgency in the plot; I didn’t feel glued to the pages until the very last part of the book. On the other hand, it brings us much closer to the characters, and I think for this story that was the right trade-off. Bruising is much more a book about people then it is some magical disease that needs to be tracked down and stopped, really.

I did think some of the worldbuilding was got across a little awkwardly (although the worldbuilding itself was exquisite) and I was very disappointed by the ending, which not only had a (in my opinion) pretty cliche ‘ah hah!’ reveal of the villain, but also left the biggest mystery of the book unsolved: who or what was killing Sassinians in their homeland and making them flee, creating the refugee ‘problem’ in the first place? Who was behind the attempted genocide? We don’t know, and the lack of an answer left the book feeling unfinished to me. Will there be a sequel where we learn more? I can only hope so.

That doesn’t change the fact that it was still a beautiful read, and a book I’m glad to have read – I won’t be cancelling my preorder! And I’ll definitely be following Jamnia’s career to see what they write in the future. My feelings about Bruising‘s ending might have cost it a star, but this is still a fabulous book I very much recommend.

The Bruising of Qilwa releases in August, but you can preorder it from all the usual suspects already!

The post Blood-Magic With Heart: The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Wild and Wonderful: Sourdough and Other Stories by Angela Slatter

Sourdough and Other Stories by Angela Slatter
Genres: Fantasy
PoV: 1st Person, Past Tense
Goodreads

Welcome to the beautiful magic, restless passion and exquisite horror of Angela Slatter's impeccably imagined tales.

In the cathedral-city of Lodellan and its uneasy hinterland, babies are fashioned from bread, dolls are given souls and wishes granted may be soon regretted. There are ghosts who dream, men whose wings have been clipped and trolls who long for something other. Love, loss and life are elegantly dissected in Slatter's earthy yet poetic prose.

As Rob Shearman says in his Introduction: 'Sourdough and Other Stories manages to be grand and ambitious and worldbuilding-but also as intimate and focused as all good short fiction should be . . . The joy of Angela Slatter's book is that she's given us a set of fairy tales that are at once both new and fresh, and yet feel as old as storytelling itself.'

Contains: 'Introduction' by Robert Shearman, 'The Shadow Tree', 'Gallowberries', 'Little Radish', 'Dibblespin', 'The Navigator', 'The Angel Wood', 'Ash', 'The Story of Ink', 'Lost Things', 'A Good Husband', 'A Porcelain Soul', 'The Bones Remember Everything', 'Sourdough', 'Sister, Sister', 'Lavender and Lychgates', 'Under the Mountain, 'Afterword' by Jeff VanderMeer.

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~a ruby for a heart
~wolves guarding a cathedral
~wings
~happy endings not guaranteed
~a mosaic novel

Sourdough is a collection I’ve picked up before and always put down again; I have a weak stomach for certain flavours of nastiness, and the first couple of stories here are ones I struggled with. (No sexual violence or anything like that – but murdered kittens and gallowberries? I – no.)

But this time I pushed through those first few stories, and folx, I’m so freaking delighted that I did! Because Sourdough is every bit as bewitching as everyone has always said it is.

This collection reminds you of the Grimm fairytales while being wholly original; Slatter’s style hearkens to something ancient while being completely new. That newness is partly the fact that her stories are narrated in first person – giving her characters more life, immediately, than the fairytales we’re used to – but mostly it’s something wonderfully strange and eldritch about Slatter’s imagination, the ideas she comes up with, the way she weaves them together, anchoring them in visceral detail even as they’re filled with a wild, ephemeral magic; dolls given a little bit of life with a slice of their maker’s soul; a young woman marrying the angel of the forest; men who’ve lost their wings and just want them back; dresses sewn of water and weed in exchange for wishes; bread loaves that can break an enchantment. Snapshots from each story stay with you; I won’t be forgetting any of these for a long while, and I can easily see myself remembering specific images and moments from this collection forever, even once I’ve forgotten the context.

Slatter’s writing is like that.

I can’t even say that there are stronger and weaker stories here; it would be more accurate to say there were stories I enjoyed more and some I enjoyed less, not so much because some stories are better, but because I always want a happy ending and I flinch from certain kinds of ugliness, and Slatter does not play nice and cater to my tender sensibilities.

I am too soft for her stories, but I love them, so much that I don’t mind if they cut me or leave bruises; they’re worth it.

For a long while, the cat wouldn’t eat, but eventually I coaxed milk into her mouth and loved her into living.

Slatter writes with such elegance and imagination that her stories are entrancing, even when I want to run away from them. They are all exactly the perfect length, no longer or shorter than they need to be; no superfluous description or introspection, every word laser-cut and placed as carefully as a gem in its setting. Take a step back – or pay close attention – and you swiftly realise that the collection itself is a mosaic, that the stories are not each separated things but weave in and out of each other, quietly and subtly and powerfully. Throw-away characters mentioned in passing in one story feature in one of their own later; the main characters of each tale can turn up at the edges of someone else’s later in the book. It’s something I don’t think I’ve seen before, and it’s a game-changer; I read for the beautiful and terrible magic, but the mosaic effect quickly hooked me too, to the point that I was scrutinising every character and scribbling notes on whether or not I’d seen them before, and where, and when. It rapidly became a kind of mini-obsession, a fun and addictive one, trying to spot how each story wove into others before the reveal happened. I approve immensely.

I don’t typically read a lot of short stories, or collections, because so often I’m left wanting more of the stories I enjoy. Slatter manages to write short stories and give me more afterwards without compromising the power of the story in question – although sometimes she makes me regret wanting it! Be careful what you wish for, here.

But genuinely, it gives Sourdough a very different feel than any other collection I’ve come across; like it might almost be a secret novel rather than a series of short stories. I loved the effect, loved how they all felt like pieces of one bigger story, how they came together to build this shared world they’re all set in. Again: outside of Arabian Nights-esque set-ups, it’s not something I’ve seen before, and the execution is very different to the Arabian Nights motif – different, and excellent.

‘I’m not a witch,’ I said.

‘You’re a woman, aren’t you?’

At least in this collection, all the narrators are women, and there’s something to be said about that by people much smarter than me: how they are all women who make choices, even when that choice is to accept the choices of others; how they all have desires and go for the things they want; how none of them apologise for who and what they are. I never got the ‘femininity is inherently magical’ vibe that always makes me uneasy; this is a book about women, yes, but it never felt purposefully or accidentally TERF-y to me. It’s just…a book about a number of very interesting, very different women. And the stories they make, or find themselves in, and what they do with those stories.

Thinner than the soup in an orphanage, thinner than the horizon.

Ultimately, I’m annoyed at myself it took me so long to read Sourdough, and I went ahead and bought the rest of Slatter’s collections the moment I finished it. Even if some stories prick me, this is a world I don’t want to leave yet, and I’ve fallen head-over-heels for Slatter’s imagination and style. I need more of it!

It’s just that simple.

The post Wild and Wonderful: Sourdough and Other Stories by Angela Slatter appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans

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

This week my Can’t-Wait-For is Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans!

Notorious Sorcerer (The Burnished City #1) by Davinia Evans
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC, M/M
Published on: 13th September 2022
Goodreads

Since the city of Bezim was shaken half into the sea by a magical earthquake, the Inquisitors have policed alchemy with brutal efficiency. Nothing too powerful, too complicated, too much like real magic is allowed–and the careful science that’s left is kept too expensive for any but the rich and indolent to tinker with. Siyon Velo, a glorified errand boy scraping together lesson money from a little inter-planar fetch and carry, doesn’t qualify.

But when Siyon accidentally commits a public act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight. Except the limelight is a bad place to be when the planes themselves start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send the rest of the city into the sea.

Now Siyon, a dockside brat who clawed his way up and proved himself on rooftops with saber in hand, might be Bezim’s only hope. Because if they don’t fix the cascading failures of magic in their plane, the Powers and their armies in the other three will do it for them.

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Once I hear that your fantasy is queer, you have my attention. When you tell me that the romance subplot is best described as a ‘meet snark‘, I’m hitting the preorder button!

It doesn’t at all hurt that it sounds like Notorious Sorcerer is going to be dealing with classism, that it’s already been blurbed as having a ‘refreshingly new’ kind of magic, and that I’ve adored all the excerpts Evans has posted on Twitter and in her newsletter so far. Going from those excerpts, I already know I really, really enjoy Evans’ prose – and that’s a big deal, because prose I don’t get on with is the #1 reason debuts/authors I don’t know disappoint me. AND THAT’S DEFINITELY NOT GONNA HAPPEN HERE. !

I’m very intrigued by what appears to be a winged figure on the cover, and the Powers mentioned in the description – will they be elemental-type beings? Gods? Extremely powerful now semi-mortal magic users??? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out!

As I said, I’ve already preordered this one. You should too!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #82

EIGHT wonderful SFF releases this week, from queering King Arthur to Afro-futurism and time-travelling books!

Spear by Nicola Griffith
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 19th April 2022
Goodreads

The girl knows she has a destiny before she even knows her name. She grows up in the wild, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake come to her on the spring breeze, and when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she knows that her future lies at his court.

And so, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and, with a broken hunting spear and mended armour, rides on a bony gelding to Caer Leon. On her adventures she will meet great knights and steal the hearts of beautiful women. She will fight warriors and sorcerers. And she will find her love, and the lake, and her fate.

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Hands down the book I’m most excited for this week! I’m a massive fan of Griffith’s, and the idea of her writing a queer take on the Arthurian mythos?! HELLS YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU! And of course, I have to leave the cover in full-view because LOOK AT IT!

The Rarkyn's Familiar (The Rarkyn's Familiar, #1) by Nikky Lee
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 19th April 2022
Goodreads

An orphan bent on revenge. A monster searching for freedom. A forbidden pact that binds their fates together.

Lyss has heard her father’s screams; smelled the iron-tang of his blood. She’s witnessed his execution.

And plotted her revenge.

Then a violent encounter traps Lyss in a blood-pact with a rarkyn from the otherworld and imbues her with the monster’s forbidden magic. A magic that will erode her sanity. To break the pact, she and the rarkyn must journey to the heart of the Empire. All that stands in their way are the mountains and the Empire’s soldiers—and each other.
But horrors await them on the road, horrors even rarkyns fear. The most terrifying monster isn’t the one Lyss travels with...

It’s the one that’s awoken inside her.

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The early reviews for this are super intriguing; apparently the bond between human and magical creature is done very well, which definitely has my attention. Plus, check out that cover! AndThe most terrifying monster is the one inside you is absolutely my Aesthetic; I really hope Lee goes properly dark with it rather than dark-lite. Can’t wait to find out!

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe, Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Sheree Renée Thomas
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black cast, queer MC/s
Published on: 19th April 2022
Goodreads

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

Whoever controls our memories controls the future.

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

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

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

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Listen, I live under a rock and have no access to popular music; I have very little idea of who Monae is, and I definitely haven’t heard the album this book builds off. I’m still going to read it, though, because it sounds absolutely amazing. Here’s hoping it works as a standalone!

Hope: A History of the Future - A Novel by G.G. Kellner
Genres: Sci Fi
Published on: 19th April 2022
Goodreads

One quiet afternoon in 2037, Joyce Denzell hears a thud in her family’s home library and finds a book lying in the middle of the room, seemingly waiting for her―a book whose copyright page says it was published in the year 2200. Over the next twenty-four hours, each of the Denzell family members discovers and reads from this mystical history book from the future, nudged along by their cat, Plato.

As the various family members take turns reading, they gradually uncover the story of Gabe, Mia, and Ruth—a saga of adventure, endurance, romance, mystery, and hope that touches them all deeply. Along the way, the Denzells all begin to believe that this book that has seemingly fallen out of time and space and into their midst might actually be from the future—and that it might have something vitally important to teach them.

Engaging, playful, and thought-provoking, Hope is a seven-generation-spanning vision of the future as it could be—based on scientific projections, as well as historical and legal precedence—that will leave readers grappling with questions of destiny, responsibility, and the possibility for hope in a future world.

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Off the top of my head I can’t think of another glimpse-of-the-future story that provided that glimpse via a time-travelling book, and I love it. I don’t really know what to expect of this one, but stories that revolve around books are always my jam.

Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Gay MC of colour
Published on: 19th April 2022
Goodreads

From critically acclaimed Shaun David Hutchinson comes a gritty and raw portrayal of the oftentimes traumatic experience of growing up.

Virgil Knox was attacked by a monster.

Of course, no one in Merritt believes him. Not even after he stumbled into the busy town center, bleeding, battered, and bruised, for everyone to see. He’d been drinking, they said. He was hanging out where he wasn’t supposed to, they said. It must’ve been a bear, or a badger, or a gator—definitely no monster.

Virgil doesn’t think it was any of those things. He’s positive it was a monster. But being the new kid in a town where everybody knows everybody is hard enough as it is without being the kid who’s afraid of monsters, so he tries to keep a low profile.

Except he knows the monster is still out there. And if he isn’t careful, Virgil’s afraid it’ll come back to finish him off, or worse—that he’ll become one himself.

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Howl seems to be using a monster attack as a metaphor for sexual assault, which makes me extra curious to know if this is a werewolf-esque situation where the MC will turn into a monster too…

Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky, #2) by Rebecca Roanhorse
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Mesoamerican setting + cast, bi/pansexual MC
Published on: 19th April 2022
Goodreads

Return to The Meridian with New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Roanhorse’s sequel to the most critically hailed epic fantasy of 2020 Black Sun—finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Lambda, and Locus awards.

There are no tides more treacherous than those of the heart. —Teek saying
The great city of Tova is shattered. The sun is held within the smothering grip of the Crow God’s eclipse, but a comet that marks the death of a ruler and heralds the rise of a new order is imminent.

The Meridian: a land where magic has been codified and the worship of gods suppressed. How do you live when legends come to life, and the faith you had is rewarded?

As sea captain Xiala is swept up in the chaos and currents of change, she finds an unexpected ally in the former Priest of Knives. For the Clan Matriarchs of Tova, tense alliances form as far-flung enemies gather and the war in the heavens is reflected upon the earth.

And for Serapio and Naranpa, both now living avatars, the struggle for free will and personhood in the face of destiny rages. How will Serapio stay human when he is steeped in prophecy and surrounded by those who desire only his power? Is there a future for Naranpa in a transformed Tova without her total destruction?

Welcome back to the fantasy series of the decade in Fevered Star—book two of Between Earth and Sky.

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Roanhorse’s worldbuilding wowed me in book one of this series, Black Sun, and I’m eager to dive back in in the hopes of learning more about Xiala and her people. Fingers crossed they get more page time in book two!

Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary by Laura Stanfill
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Magical Realism
Published on: 19th April 2022
Goodreads

Georges Blanchard is revered in the small French town of Mireville both as a master serinette maker and for a miraculous incident in his childhood that earned him the title "The Sun-Bringer." As his firstborn son, Henri Blanchard is expected to follow in his footsteps—but Henri would rather learn to make lace than music boxes.

When Henri discovers a stash of American letters in his father’s drawer, he learns he's not the firstborn son of Georges Blanchard at all: Henri has an older half-brother born to one of Georges's American customers. When he crosses the ocean to encounter his half-brother at last, Henri discovers that there's an entire world beyond Mireville—and there may be a perfect place for him yet.

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The idea of training canaries to sing using hand-cranked organs just delights me on every level, and that’s the business Henri is trying to get out of. Early reviews have described this as magical realism, with Henri having some unexpected and uncontrollable abilities that I’m eager to learn more about. Gimme!

Sofi and the Bone Song by Adrienne Tooley
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MCs
Published on: 19th April 2022
Goodreads

In this gorgeous, queer standalone fantasy, a young musician sets out to expose her rival for illegal use of magic only to discover the deception goes deeper than she could have imagined—perfect for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens!

Music runs in Sofi’s blood.

Her father is a Musik, one of only five musicians in the country licensed to compose and perform original songs. In the kingdom of Aell, where winter is endless and magic is accessible to all, there are strict anti-magic laws ensuring music remains the last untouched art.

Sofi has spent her entire life training to inherit her father’s title. But on the day of the auditions, she is presented with unexpected competition in the form of Lara, a girl who has never before played the lute. Yet somehow, to Sofi’s horror, Lara puts on a performance that thoroughly enchants the judges.

Almost like magic.

The same day Lara wins the title of Musik, Sofi’s father dies, and a grieving Sofi sets out to prove Lara is using illegal magic in her performances. But the more time she spends with Lara, the more Sofi begins to doubt everything she knows about her family, her music, and the girl she thought was her enemy.

As Sofi works to reclaim her rightful place as a Musik, she is forced to face the dark secrets of her past and the magic she was trained to avoid—all while trying not to fall for the girl who stole her future.

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Tooley’s prose in Sweet & Bitter Magic, her debut, was lovely, and I’m excited to see her put her beautiful writing to describing music! Especially music and (maybe?) magic!

Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases I should know about? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #82 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.