Siavahda's Blog, page 90

10 Heroines Who Choose to Challenge

It’s International Women’s Day, and if you didn’t know (as I didn’t, until a few minutes ago!) IWD has annual themes. This year, the theme is Choose to Challenge, so to honour that, here are 10 heroines who challenge what it is the world – ours or theirs – thinks they should be.

The Gift (The Books of Pellinor, #1) by Alison Croggon
Genres: Epic Fantasy
Goodreads

Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child when her family is destroyed in war. She is unaware that she possesses a powerful gift, a gift that marks her as a member of the School of Pellinor. It is only when she is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great Bards of Lirigon, that her true heritage and extraordinary destiny unfolds. Now she and her teacher, Cadvan, must survive a punishing and uncertain journey through a time and place where the dark forces they battle with stem from the deepest recesses of other-worldly terror.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Gift (The Books of Pellinor, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alison Croggon", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Maerad is raised as a slave, but a fateful encounter reveals that she is actually a Bard – long-lived guardians of the Balance who work incredible magics and can speak to every living thing. More, her rescuer begins to suspect that she might be the Foretold, the one who will rise to meet a great evil – the only one with any chance of defeating it.

Maerad faces resistance from other Bards for a variety of reasons, but when push comes to shove, the most influential council of Bards insists she can’t be the Foretold – because she’s a girl. Misogyny is, happily, not something Maerad has to face off against too often, but the entire Pellinor saga challenges and subverts the traditional Chosen One trope – even as the books are written in a framework that deliberately echoes those traditions. The Pellinor books contain all the wonder and magic that I, personally, never found with Lord of the Rings, but front and center is a young girl who gets her period and doesn’t know how to read and is, maybe, not entirely hopeless with a sword. Just.

Maerad’s very existence is a challenge to her world, one she has to choose again and again – and the Pellinor books as a whole very much challenge readers to re-examine their own beliefs and unconscious biases, not just about gender, but about Fantasy as a genre too.

Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1) by Jacqueline Carey
Representation: Bisexual MC, secondary M/M or mlm, F/F, queernorm world
Genres: High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good... and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission... and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair... and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.

Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Kushiel's Dart (Ph\u00e8dre's Trilogy, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jacqueline Carey", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Phedre was given over to be raised as a courtesan – and even when she’s revealed to be a god-chosen anguissette, someone who can find pleasure in pain, few think of her as more than that. That’s not nothing – in her land, sex workers are sacred – but it does mean she’s underestimated by most. Even the man who trains her in spycraft keeps his secrets from her.

But even over the course of the first book in the series, she becomes far, far more than anyone – including herself – ever thought she could be, accomplishing feats that could easily be called miracles. Without ever giving up who she is, she challenges and triumphs over ever assumption, every dismissal, every impossibility. Especially when she has to travel outside her homeland, to countries with far less gender equality and no respect for sex work at all, she overturns, subverts, or deliberately uses the beliefs people have about women – including other women – to her own advantage, without ever giving up her femininity.

And in throwing herself at enemy states, gods, and fallen angels, she very much chooses to challenge, over and over again, what everyone thinks a woman can do – and be.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
Representation: Disabled bisexual MC, assorted queer cast
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy? As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured.  And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing.  And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Hench", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Natalie Zina Walschots", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Click here for my review!

Anna is a temp in data-input, struggling to afford ramen. The only thing ‘special’ about her is that the temp agency she’s with? It’s a temp agency for henchpeople. As in, all the nameless nobodies who work for the supervillain – the ones who are always mercifully knocked out instead of killed in the movies, and never mind the permanent brain damage that must leave them with…

Anna challenges the reader’s expectation – and understanding – of villains and their henches from the get-go, but after a superhero carelessly leaves her with a permanent disability, she sets out to challenge her world’s view of superheroes. And when enough people start to listen, she rises to the occasion to prove that she can do more than almost anyone would believe of a disabled woman. She challenges the assumptions people make about disposable temps; she forces everyone, including the reader, to re-evaluate the importance and potential devastating use of spreadsheets; and more than anything, she refuses to fade out of the picture the way the superheroes – and the society that supports them – wants her to. One of the best parts of the book is the found-family she gains in the process, but there’s no denying the fact that her enemies think she should be small and silent, expect her to be helpless without superpowers and with her disability.

But Hench says fuck that, and it’s glorious.

Power and Majesty (Creature Court, #1) by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Representation: Background M/M or mlm
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

“She almost missed the sight of a naked youth falling out of the sky. He was long and lean and muscled … He was also completely off his face.”

A war is being fought in the skies over the city of Aufleur. No one sees the battles. No one knows how close they come to destruction every time the sun sets.
During daylight, all is well, but when nox falls and the sky turns bright, someone has to step up and lead the Creature Court into battle.

Twelve years ago, Garnet kissed Velody and stole her magic. Five years ago, he betrayed Ashiol, and took his powers by force. But now the Creature Court is at a crossroads … they need a Power and Majesty who won’t give up or lose themselves in madness …

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Power and Majesty (Creature Court, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tansy Rayner Roberts", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Velody is supposed to be a dressmaker. Even when she gets drawn into the world of the Creature Court – where shapeshifting magic-users battle the sky every night to keep it from devouring the city – she’s supposed to be a Lady, the highest magical caste women can hope for. But instead her magic makes her a King, which sets the whole Court reeling.

More, she becomes the Power and Majesty – the King of Kings.

Velody shakes the foundations of the world she’s in by her very existence, but she doesn’t just challenge the Creature Court’s ideas of what she should be. Her magic comes with a wildness that gives her a feral fire rarely glimpsed in female characters; the kind of sharp-toothed, grinning savagery that licks blood off the fingers and calls it sweet. It challenges her view of herself even as it challenges the reader to keep up, to understand that a woman can like pretty dresses and still laugh mid-battle, that she can care about flowers and courts at the same time. To understand that savagery and sweetness can go hand in hand, and it in no way makes her less of a woman.

Which is not to say, either, that she embraces violence and the vicious culture of the Court, because she doesn’t. She fights hard to change that culture, encouraging respect and gentleness and putting her money where her mouth is in her determination to find a better way to do things. She challenges the reader’s idea of what a heroine is supposed to look like, and completely overturns the Court’s idea of what their King of Kings is supposed to be like.

Also, you’ll never guess what she shapeshifts into.

Sea Change by S.M. Wheeler
Representation: Physically genderless/agender MC, minor M/M or mlm
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

The unhappy child of two powerful parents who despise each other, young Lilly turns to the ocean to find solace, which she finds in the form of the eloquent and intelligent sea monster Octavius, a kraken. In Octavius’s many arms, Lilly learns of friendship, loyalty, and family. When Octavius, forbidden by Lilly to harm humans, is captured by seafaring traders and sold to a circus, Lilly becomes his only hope for salvation. Desperate to find him, she strikes a bargain with a witch that carries a shocking price.

Her journey to win Octavius’s freedom is difficult. The circus master wants a Coat of Illusions; the Coat tailor wants her undead husband back from a witch; the witch wants her skin back from two bandits; the bandits just want some company, but they might kill her first. Lilly's quest tests her resolve, tries her patience, and leaves her transformed in every way.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Sea Change", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "S.M. Wheeler", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Lilly is not the soft, feminine creature her parents want her to be, and far from enjoying the pretty dresses they put her in and playing with the other little girls they introduce her to, all she wants is to run down to the shore – where her best friend, a kraken, is always ready to greet her.

Yes, I said it. A kraken. His name is Octavian.

Lilly challenges every feminine stereotype you can think of: she is not elegant, she is cool to her parents, she is ‘sharp’, she speaks to adults as if she is one herself. Her father’s violence means nothing to her. And when the time comes, she doesn’t whimper and cower, but packs up and leaves without ever looking back.

Girls are meant to have best friends, but to sacrifice them for lovers; Lilly refuses to give Octavian up for anything. In fact, she instead is ready to give up anything to bring him home when he’s taken – and she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty, either. She deals with skinless witches and digging graves without complaint, and although she passes herself off as a boy after another witch (this one with skin) takes her biological sex, she continues to consider herself a woman, regardless of what’s between her legs or missing from her abdomen and chest.

So it would be impossible to claim she’s not a woman who chooses to challenge just about everything she possibly can, with regards her womanhood and anything else that gets in her way.

The Councillor (The Councillor, #1) by E.J. Beaton
Representation: Bisexual MC, past F/F, queernorm world
Genres: High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

This Machiavellian fantasy follows a scholar's quest to choose the next ruler of her kingdom amidst lies, conspiracy, and assassination.

When the death of Iron Queen Sarelin Brey fractures the realm of Elira, Lysande Prior, the palace scholar and the queen’s closest friend, is appointed Councillor. Publically, Lysande must choose the next monarch from amongst the city-rulers vying for the throne. Privately, she seeks to discover which ruler murdered the queen, suspecting the use of magic.

Resourceful, analytical, and quiet, Lysande appears to embody the motto she was raised with: everything in its place. Yet while she hides her drug addiction from her new associates, she cannot hide her growing interest in power. She becomes locked in a game of strategy with the city-rulers – especially the erudite prince Luca Fontaine, who seems to shift between ally and rival.

Further from home, an old enemy is stirring: the magic-wielding White Queen is on the move again, and her alliance with a traitor among the royal milieu poses a danger not just to the peace of the realm, but to the survival of everything that Lysande cares about.

In a world where the low-born keep their heads down, Lysande must learn to fight an enemy who wears many guises… even as she wages her own battle between ambition and restraint.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Councillor (The Councillor, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "E.J. Beaton", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Click here for my review!

Lysande isn’t a sword-carrying warrior-queen; instead, she’s the queen’s scholar. There are still Fantasy fans who believe a Strong Woman has to be an Amazon warrior, but Lysande’s strength comes from her intelligence, her encyclopedic knowledge, and her empathy. She doesn’t choose to challenge the queendom rigid hierarchy – the queen does that, by making her, lowborn scholar that she is, the one who will select the next monarch – but she does step up to the plate on every count.

I think Lysande is more of a challenge thrown down to the reader than to the people in her own world, though. We have the stereotype of the scheming woman, but Lysande ‘schemes’ with compassion, with the determination to make things better for her people. She is brilliantly intelligent without being selfish or manipulative, defying the idea that a woman can only be brilliant if she wants something. And perhaps most of all, it is Lysande’s want that most bucks our ideas of what a woman should be: Lysande is not only casually queer, she is casually sexual. She experiences sexual attraction, and is not ashamed or conflicted about it; if a prospective partner returns her interest, then they have sex, and there is no guilt or morning-after regrets, only mutual pleasure. It sounds so simple, but reading it is revelatory, proving that, even if being at ease with ourselves as sexual beings is something we talk about, it’s still not something we see very often. Especially not from women.

And don’t even get me started on what people in our world would say about the fact that Lysande openly and unashamedly enjoys dominating her partners!

Lysande bucks many conventions of our world, but most especially sexual ones. Women aren’t supposed to want sex like that; they’re certainly not supposed to be the dominant one in bed. But she does, and is, and it’s marvelous.

Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Representation: Very minor background polyamory
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

“Bujold builds a better fantasy romance with compelling characters and the fascinating clash between their cultures, she a farmer’s daughter, he an adventurer on the trail of a deadly demon.”—Locus

One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold has won numerous accolades and awards, including the Nebula and Locus Awards as well as the fantasy and science fiction genre’s most prestigious honor, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, four times (most recently for Paladin of Souls).

With The Sharing Knife series, Bujold creates a brand new world fraught with peril, and spins an extraordinary romance between a young farm girl and the brave sorcerer-soldier entrusted with the defense of the land against a plague of vicious malevolent beings.

Meet Fawn Bluefield and Dag Redwing Hickory in Beguilement, the first book in Bujold’s unforgettable four-volume fantasy saga, and witness the birth of their dangerous romance—a love threatened by prejudice and perilous magic, and by Dag’s sworn duty as Lakewalker patroller and necromancer.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lois McMaster Bujold", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Fawn is young and inexperienced, knowing little about the world outside of the farm she was born on. She’s good at all the things ‘womanly’ women are supposed to be good at: cooking, weaving, knitting socks. She’d make an excellent farm wife, if that was what she wanted to do. Looking at her, you might struggle to see how she challenges anyone’s ideas about women.

Well, for one thing, she’s smart. Ignorance is not the same as stupidity; she doesn’t know things, but she’s hungry to know, and once she does know she can put the pieces together in ways that far more experienced people never could. The idea that someone can be comfortably feminine – can be ‘house-wifely’ – and still brilliantly intelligent? Is not an easy one for most people to get their heads around. Even many people who call themselves feminists are quick to dismiss women who want to be house wives, who find happiness and fulfillment in that, and I’ve seen too many people assume women like that must be ‘a bit slow’. Which is bs.

As a world, we’re struggling to reimagine the roles women can claim, can make for themselves. We have to remember that not every woman wants to be a CEO – and that doesn’t make her worth less than the girl who wants to be president when she grows up. Fawn challenges the idea that small, cute ladies who knit and keep the house tidy are people who don’t matter; she more than matters, she saves the day on more than one occasion, and she does it by being herself, knitting and all. She challenges the idea that house wives can’t be brave and adventurous even if they want a nice home to come – well, come home to. And she challenges the idea that youth, especially youth in women, means a person’s opinions and desires and ideas can or should be dismissed.

The Merciful Crow (The Merciful Crow, #1) by Margaret Owen
Representation: Oppressed minority, Bisexual love interest
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, High Fantasy
Goodreads

A future chieftain.

Fie abides by one rule: look after your own. Her Crow caste of undertakers and mercy-killers takes more abuse than coin, but when they’re called to collect royal dead, she’s hoping they’ll find the payout of a lifetime.

A fugitive prince.

When Crown Prince Jasimir turns out to have faked his death, Fie’s ready to cut her losses—and perhaps his throat. But he offers a wager that she can’t refuse: protect him from a ruthless queen, and he’ll protect the Crows when he reigns.

A too-cunning bodyguard.

Hawk warrior Tavin has always put Jas’s life before his, magically assuming the prince’s appearance and shadowing his every step. But what happens when Tavin begins to want something to call his own?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Merciful Crow (The Merciful Crow, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Margaret Owen", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Fie is a Crow, the lowest of the low in her world. And she is everything girls aren’t supposed to be: street-smart, bitter, angry. She hates, and is not punished by her people or the narrative for it; she’s mocking when the two rich boys who fall into her family’s lap don’t know the first thing about living rough. Far from being sweet and gentle, from bowing her head and meekly accepting her circumstances, she wants to burn the whole fucking world down for how it treats her and her people – she has so much rage, and it’s justified, and honestly it’s so damn cathartic to read about a heroine who also wants to scream at the unfairness of it all.

But if she’s not a princess in silks, then The Rules say she should be a fighter, good with a sword and dagger. Right? Well, she’s not that either. She fits in neither niche, and it’s not her fault, even if I doubt she’d want to fit in either one. What Fie has is grit and bared teeth and fury with nowhere to go; she doesn’t fit anyone’s idea of a heroine. She’s not a lucky street-rat; she’s not a plucky princess; she’s not a secret warrior. She’s herself, real and raw, spiky and more than a little bit savage. She’s fucking wonderful, and she doesn’t so much challenge the ideas of what a girl ought to be as she burns them down and stamps on the ashes with her nail-studded boots.

#RealGirlsRage

Radiant (Towers Trilogy, #1) by Karina Sumner-Smith
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

Xhea has no magic. Born without the power that everyone else takes for granted, Xhea is an outcast—no way to earn a living, buy food, or change the life that fate has dealt her. Yet she has a unique talent: the ability to see ghosts and the tethers that bind them to the living world, which she uses to scratch out a bare existence in the ruins beneath the City’s floating Towers.

When a rich City man comes to her with a young woman’s ghost tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. The ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare person who generates so much power that the Towers use it to fuel their magic, heedless of the pain such use causes. Shai’s home Tower is desperate to get the ghost back and force her into a body—any body—so that it can regain its position, while the Tower’s rivals seek the ghost to use her magic for their own ends. Caught between a multitude of enemies and desperate to save Shai, Xhea thinks herself powerless—until a strange magic wakes within her. Magic dark and slow, like rising smoke, like seeping oil. A magic whose very touch brings death.

With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Radiant (Towers Trilogy, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karina Sumner-Smith", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Xhea is another girl who would flip the bird at our ideas of femininity. Unlike Fie, she’s not burning up with rage; instead, she’s cool and closed-off, knowing damn well there’s no one in the world who gives a real damn about her. She’s bitter, but resigned, and doesn’t have scruples; she scrapes together a living by dealing with the ghosts attached to the people grieving for them. It’s not a scam – she really can see ghosts – but she’s making her money off people who are in mourning, or who are going out of their minds at being haunted.

A ‘proper’ girl would probably do it for free. Right? Yeah, no. Not if she wants to eat.

Girls aren’t supposed to be bitter. They’re not supposed to be ruthless. They’re not supposed to be the kind of strong that lets them survive on their own. They’re not supposed to resent their ‘betters’, the wealthy and privileged who live in floating towers above Xhea’s city. They’re supposed to be sugar and spice and everything nice, not salt and brine and nothing fine.

They’re not supposed to tear the entire rotten system down, either, but Xhea’s not here for your sexist nonsense, thanks.

The One Who Eats Monsters by Casey Matthews
Representation: F/F or wlw
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Long ago, before history broke in half, elder gods exiled the vengeful deity Erynis to a far corner of Earth. When Ryn is found weakened after saving the life of an innocent villager, the U.S. military mistakes the battered immortal for a feral teenager and places her in New Petersburg, a decaying city full of monsters.

In her clash with the city’s demons, Ryn is confused by her intense emotional connection with Naomi Bradford, a senator’s daughter she has sworn to protect. But while her claws can kill anything that dies (and a few things that cannot), she must also contend with the human race. They lie, they speak in riddles, and to protect her friend, the immortal must navigate the senseless rules of their flawed civilization. Worse, they are fragile—and giving her heart to one makes Ryn afraid for the first time in her eternal life.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T21:47:44+00:00", "description": "In honour of International Women's Day, 10 incredible heroines!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-heroines-who-choose-to-challenge\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The One Who Eats Monsters", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Casey Matthews", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Click here to read my review!

Our last two girls have been bitter and sharp-edged, but Ryn is a full-on monster. And I mean that literally: she is the monster that other monsters have nightmares about, a feral, primordial goddess-creature who feeds on and destroys the spirits that are born out of human evil. She takes the form of a teenage girl for purely tactical reasons, but oh, she is not interested in being feminine. She doesn’t dress up nice; she bares her teeth and bites people who try to make her, instead.

Goddesses are supposed to be soft, or else they’re supposed to be razor sharp, but they’re always supposed to be polished. Girls are supposed to be elegant. Ryn is none of those things: I meant it when I called her feral. She doesn’t understand humans and doesn’t care to; she puts up with no shit from anybody, not hesitating to lift grown men off the ground by their throats if they overstep the very, very narrow bounds she grants them. But she’s no Artemis or Athene, either, and she’s not an action-movie bad-ass. She’s more elemental than that; she’s not a weapon, she is the weapon, but the fight-scenes aren’t polished and choreographed for maximum audience enjoyment. They’re savage.

What I’m trying to say is, she’s not feminine in the way that our society says she should be, and she’s not not-feminine in the way our society says is sometimes okay. She challenges our ideas of what a girl is, what a girl is allowed to be, what a girl can do. She’s a thrown-down gauntlet to our ideas of what a heroine is, while at the same time? Not giving one single fuck about what anyone thinks of her.

And that’s 10 – but they’re far from the only ones! Who are some of your favourite heroines?

The post 10 Heroines Who Choose to Challenge appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #27!

We’re being spoiled with TEN releases this week!

Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
Representation: F/F or wlw, queernorm world
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

In this charming debut fantasy perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Girls of Paper and Fire, a witch cursed to never love meets a girl hiding her own dangerous magic, and the two strike a dangerous bargain to save their queendom.

Tamsin is the most powerful witch of her generation. But after committing the worst magical sin, she’s exiled by the ruling Coven and cursed with the inability to love. The only way she can get those feelings back—even for just a little while—is to steal love from others.

Wren is a source—a rare kind of person who is made of magic, despite being unable to use it herself. Sources are required to train with the Coven as soon as they discover their abilities, but Wren—the only caretaker to her ailing father—has spent her life hiding her secret.

When a magical plague ravages the queendom, Wren’s father falls victim. To save him, Wren proposes a bargain: if Tamsin will help her catch the dark witch responsible for creating the plague, then Wren will give Tamsin her love for her father.

Of course, love bargains are a tricky thing, and these two have a long, perilous journey ahead of them—that is, if they don't kill each other first..

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Sweet & Bitter Magic", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adrienne Tooley", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Between the stunning cover and the promise of beautiful prose, Sweet & Bitter Magic is probably the book I’m most excited for this week!

All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter, Angela Slatter
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

Long ago Miren O'Malley's family prospered due to a deal struck with the Mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren's grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren's freedom.

A spellbinding tale of dark family secrets, magic and witches, and creatures of myth and the sea; of strong women and the men who seek to control them.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "All the Murmuring Bones", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "A.G. Slatter, Angela Slatter", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Although I thought the ending was a little weak, I still hugely enjoyed reading this one and think a lot of others will too – especially if you like your heroines ruthless and your magic a little dark.

We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Sci Fi
Goodreads

Remy is a Chorister, one of the chosen few rescued from the surface world and raised to sing the Hours in a choir of young boys. Remy lives with a devoted order of monks who control the Leviathan, an aging nuclear submarine that survives in the ocean’s depths. Their secret mission: to trigger the Second Coming when the time is right, ready to unleash its final, terrible weapon.

But Remy has a secret too— she’s the only girl onboard. It is because of this secret that the sub’s dying caplain gifts her with the missile’s launch key, saying that it is her duty to keep it safe. Safety, however, is not the sub’s priority, especially when the new caplain has his own ideas about the Leviathan’s mission. Remy’s own perspective is about to shift drastically when a surface-dweller is captured during a raid, and she learns the truth about the world.

At once lyrical and page-turning, We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep is a captivating debut from newcomer author Andrew Kelly Stewart.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Andrew Kelly Stewart", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I have heard very good things about this one, and I’m looking forward to getting to read it for myself. I’m usually wary about going near anything featuring some form of Christianity, but the premise is interesting enough that I’m willing to risk it!

The Queen's Weapons (The Black Jewels #11) by Anne Bishop
Representation: F/F or wlw, mental health
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Enter the dark and sensual realms of the Black Jewels, a world where power always has a price, in this sweeping story in the New York Times bestselling fantasy saga.

They are Warlord Princes, men born to serve and protect. They are the Queen's Weapons, men born to destroy the Queen's enemies--no matter what face that enemy wears.

Daemonar Yaslana knows how to be bossy yet supportive--traits he shares with his father, the Demon Prince, and his uncle, the High Lord of Hell. Within his generation of the family, he assumes the role of protector, supporting his sister Titian’s artistic efforts and curbing his cousin Jaenelle Saetien’s more adventurous ideas. But when a young Eyrien Queen, someone Titian thought was a friend, inflicts an emotional wound, Daemonar's counterattack brings him under the tutelage of Witch, the Queen whose continued existence is known only to a select few.

As Daemonar is confronted by troubling changes within and around the family, he sees warnings that a taint in the Blood might be reappearing. Daemonar, along with his father and uncle, must uncover the source of a familiar evil--and Daemon Sadi, the High Lord of Hell, may be forced into making a terrible choice.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Queen's Weapons (The Black Jewels #11)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Anne Bishop", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

As I said in my review, I absolutely adored this latest (and perhaps last?) installment in my beloved Black Jewels series. I have no doubt whatsoever that other followers of these books will love it too. (Although if you haven’t read the earlier books, don’t start here!)

Fragile Remedy by Maria Ingrande Mora
Representation: M/M or mlm
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Nate is a GEM—Genetically Engineered Medi-tissue created by the scientists of Gathos City as a cure for the elite from the fatal lung rot ravaging the population. As a child, he was smuggled out of the laboratory where he was held captive and into the Withers—a quarantined, lawless region. Nate manages to survive by using his engineering skills to become a Tinker, fixing broken tech in exchange for food or a safe place to sleep. When he meets Reed, a kind and fiercely protective boy that makes his heart race, and his misfit gang of scavengers, Nate finds the family he’s always longed for—even if he can’t risk telling them what he is.

But Gathos created a genetic failsafe in their GEMs—a flaw that causes their health to rapidly deteriorate as they age unless they are regularly dosed with medication controlled by Gathos City. As Nate’s health declines, his hard-won freedom is put in jeopardy. Violence erupts across the Withers, his illegal supply of medicine is cut off, and a vicious attack on Reed threatens to expose his secret. With time running out, Nate is left with only two options: work for a shadowy terrorist organization that has the means to keep him alive, or stay — and die — with the boy he loves.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Fragile Remedy", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Maria Ingrande Mora", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’m rarely willing to dip my toes into the sci-fi side of spec fic, but again, I’ve heard nothing but praise for Fragile Remedy. I’m not 100% sure my head is in the right place to be able to handle a book about struggling to acquire life-saving meds right now, but it’s definitely going on my tbr.

The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

From award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst, a standalone epic fantasy set in a brand-new world of towering mountains and sparkling cities, in which a band of aging warriors have a second chance to defeat dark magic and avenge a haunting loss.

Twenty-five years ago, five heroes risked their lives to defeat the bone maker Eklor—a corrupt magician who created an inhuman army using animal bones. But victory came at a tragic price. Only four of the heroes survived. 

Since then, Kreya, the group’s leader, has exiled herself to a remote tower and devoted herself to one purpose: resurrecting her dead husband. But such a task requires both a cache of human bones and a sacrifice—for each day he lives, she will live one less.

She’d rather live one year with her husband than a hundred without him, but using human bones for magic is illegal in Vos. The dead are burned—as are any bone workers who violate the law. Yet Kreya knows where she can find the bones she needs: the battlefield where her husband and countless others lost their lives.
But defying the laws of the land exposes a terrible possibility. Maybe the dead don’t rest in peace after all.  

Five warriors—one broken, one gone soft, one pursuing a simple life, one stuck in the past, and one who should be dead. Their story should have been finished. But evil doesn’t stop just because someone once said, “the end.”

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Bone Maker", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Beth Durst", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’ve loved Sarah Beth Durst’s books all the way back to her debut Enchanted Ivy, and I don’t expect that to change any time soon! I don’t know how she manages to fit such incredible stories into standalones, but she always does, and I’m excited for this one!

Sing Me Forgotten by Jessica S. Olson
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

Isda does not exist. At least not beyond the opulent walls of the opera house.

Cast into a well at birth for being one of the magical few who can manipulate memories when people sing, she was saved by Cyril, the opera house’s owner. Since that day, he has given her sanctuary from the murderous world outside. All he asks in return is that she use her power to keep ticket sales high—and that she stay out of sight. For if anyone discovers she survived, Isda and Cyril would pay with their lives.

But Isda breaks Cyril’s cardinal rule when she meets Emeric Rodin, a charming boy who throws her quiet, solitary life out of balance. His voice is unlike any she’s ever heard, but the real shock comes when she finds in his memories hints of a way to finally break free of her gilded prison.

Haunted by this possibility, Isda spends more and more time with Emeric, searching for answers in his music and his past. But the price of freedom is steeper than Isda could ever know. For even as she struggles with her growing feelings for Emeric, she learns that in order to take charge of her own destiny, she must become the monster the world tried to drown in the first place.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Sing Me Forgotten", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jessica S. Olson", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’m not particularly into Phantom of the Opera, or any of its retellings, but early reviews have praised Olson’s prose, so I might give it a try. Regardless, I knew I needed to include it!

Galactic Hellcats by Marie Vibbert
Representation: Gay character
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Sci Fi
Goodreads

Ki is a petty thief. Her best friend wills her his solo-flyer—call it a space motorcycle: temperamental, fast as hell, and expensive to maintain. Any reasonable person would sell it to get off the street, but Ki isn’t reasonable.

Margot is a military vet at loose ends. She blows her entire back pay on a solo-flyer, a decision she instantly regrets but can’t bring herself to undo. Margot meets Ki and thinks she’s the sympathetic friend she needs when she feels most alone. Ki thinks Margot is an easy mark for food money. They’re both right, but lunch leads to a joy ride to planet Ratana, where Margot is arrested by border control.

Ki enlists Ratanese local Zuleikah, a bored rich girl who can think of no stupider, and therefore better, way to spend her time than busting someone out of jail. Together they rescue Margot, but find themselves trapped on a hostile planet on the cusp of civil war.

When Zuleikah convinces them that their best bet for escape is to kidnap—er, rescue—Prince Thane from his dreary role in the crumbling monarchy, it results in a chase across the desert and into the farthest reaches of the universe.

If they can learn to trust each other, and if the repo men, cops, and three different galactic governments don’t catch them, the Galactic Hellcats might just use their solo-fliers to carve a place for themselves among the stars.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Galactic Hellcats", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marie Vibbert", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This sounds delightfully bonkers, and a lot of early readers have talked about how much fun it is, so if you’re looking for something a little lighter, maybe check it out!

The Second Bell by Gabriela Houston
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

In a world which believes her to be a monster, a young striga fights to harness the power of her second heart, while her mother sacrifices everything to stop her...

In an isolated mountain community, sometimes a child is born with two hearts. This child is called a striga and is considered a demon who must be abandoned on the edge of the forest. The child's mother must then decide to leave with her infant, or stay and try to forget.

Nineteen year-old striga, Salka, and her mother, Miriat, made the choice to leave and live a life of deprivation and squalor in an isolated village. The striga tribe share the human belief that to follow the impulses of their other hearts is dangerous, inviting unspoken horrors and bringing ruin onto them all.

Salka, a headstrong and independent young woman, finds herself in a life threatening situation that forces her to explore the depths of her true nature and test the bonds between mother and child...

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Second Bell", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gabriela Houston", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I bounced hard off this one, which is a shame, because I think the premise is awesome. I think the problem is more me than not, though – if The Second Bell sounds interesting to you, do give it a try! Just because I didn’t get on with it doesn’t mean you won’t.

Magic Mutant Nightmare Girl (Magic Mutants, #1) by Erin Grammar
Representation: Bisexual MC
on 10th March 2021
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Fight like a magical girl in this paperback original contemporary fantasy in which a Harajuku fashionista battles mutants—and social anxiety—by teaming up with an elite group of outcasts. Perfect for those obsessed with the technicolor worlds of Sailor Moon, The Umbrella Academy, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Book One of the Magic Mutants Trilogy.

Holly Roads uses Harajuku fashion to distract herself from tragedy. Her magical girl aesthetic makes her feel beautiful—and it keeps the world at arm's length. She's an island of one, until advice from an amateur psychic expands her universe. A midnight detour ends with her vs. exploding mutants in the heart of San Francisco.
Brush with destiny? Check. Waking up with blue blood, emotions gone haywire, and terrifying strength that starts ripping her wardrobe to shreds? Totally not cute. Hunting monsters with a hot new partner and his unlikely family of mad scientists?
Way more than she bargained for.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-08T09:51:22+00:00", "description": "Witches, submarines, and black jewels are just some of the delights promised by this week's 10 new releases!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-27\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Magic Mutant Nightmare Girl (Magic Mutants, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Erin Grammar", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is another book I didn’t connect to, unfortunately, but I suspect it’s another case of me not meshing with the story rather than Grammar doing anything wrong. I think if you’re a fan of things like anime-style Magical Girls, or intrigued by the tagline ‘cute rules the Cosmos’, you should give it a go!

Those are all the ones I know about! Have I missed any? Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #27! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Telling Apart the Gods From the Monsters: The Helm of Midnight by Marina Lostetter

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.

The Helm of Midnight (The Five Penalties, #1) by Marina J. Lostetter
Representation: MC of colour, queernorm world, minor nonbinary characters
on 13th April 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

A legendary serial killer stalks the streets of a fantastical city in The Helm of Midnight, the stunning first novel in a new trilogy from acclaimed author Marina Lostetter.In a daring and deadly heist, thieves have made away with an artifact of terrible power--the death mask of Louis Charbon. Made by a master craftsman, it is imbued with the spirit of a monster from history, a serial murderer who terrorized the city with a series of gruesome murders.

Now Charbon is loose once more, killing from beyond the grave. But these murders are different from before, not simply random but the work of a deliberate mind probing for answers to a sinister question.

It is up to Krona Hirvath and her fellow Regulators to enter the mind of madness to stop this insatiable killer while facing the terrible truths left in his wake.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-05T19:03:58+00:00", "description": "An intricately layered fantasy in a truly unique world.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/telling-apart-the-gods-from-the-monsters-the-helm-of-midnight-by-marina-lostetter\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Helm of Midnight (The Five Penalties, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marina J. Lostetter", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4.5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~not a Jack the Ripper story
~masks with souls
~the gods have an Agenda
~or do they???
~Monkeyflower

I am very, very worried that Helm of Midnight is being marketed all wrong – because it’s almost everything I love, and I almost walked right past it. I only stopped to take another look after hearing other reviewers whispering about unusual magic systems and strange worldbuilding, which are, you know, my jam. So I decided to take a gamble. Maybe I could put up with reading about a sort-of-murder-mystery if the trade off was brilliant worldbuilding.

But the thing is, Helm of Midnight is not a murder mystery. It is unique and impressive and genuinely special, but what it is not is a thriller, a police procedural. The blurb for this book is so misleading. The catch-the-killer aspect of this story is just a mask.

(Literally!)

Beneath that mask, this book is something very, very different.

And you don’t need to look closely to see that. Helm makes it very clear, on the very first page, that we’re not treading familiar roads with this one; the book opens with a brief excerpt from a fictional scroll, written by someone we later learn is a kind of prophet-figure in Helm‘s world, and this excerpt concisely describes the five gods Emotion, Nature, Knowledge, Time, and the Unknown.

It’s not the fact that Nature is masculine that made me sit up and pay attention – although that is very cool. It’s the fact that three of the gods are nonbinary, and use nonbinary pronouns; Emotion = zhe, Knowledge = fey, and the Unknown = they.

But this excerpt isn’t really about the gods, so much as it’s about the Five Penalties (from which, one gathers, the series’ name comes), and this cements the certainty that this isn’t going to be your typical fantasy story. Because this scroll is talking about an ’emote tax’ through which people must share emotion. Time must be shared through a time tax. The other Penalties are a bit more mundane, but – emotion taxes? Time taxes? Nonbinary deities?

We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Where we are is the Valley, the only place in the world safe for human habitation. It’s large, this Valley, don’t worry; large enough to be divided into five nations, so we’re not talking about a little tucked-away hamlet. It’s protected by a barrier the gods sacrificed themselves to make, because beyond the Valley, well… Here be monsters doesn’t begin to cover it. But within the barrier, there is society; civilization that depends upon gemstones imbued with emotion and uses time as currency, where the uniquely talented can have their skills preserved after death in masks, so that their skills or knowledge don’t die with them.

Like the Mayhem Mask, which holds the anatomical skills of the serial killer Louis Charbon. And which is stolen, in a bizarre and deadly heist featuring monsters and men disguised as monsters, in the first chapter.

Krona and her sister Lia are Regulators – something like police, if police officers wore armour that made them look like artisanal chess pieces – and it was their team, Captain Lia’s team, watching over the mask when it was stolen. Making it Krona’s top priority to get it back.

Getting it back is complicated.

The book switches between three perspectives; Krona’s, as she and her fellow Regulators, including her sister, try to retrieve the mask and unravel the rapidly-growing mystery surrounding it; Charbon himself, set 10 years before; and Melanie, whose storyline takes place two years before the mask’s theft. Although Krona gets the most page-time, it’s hard not to argue that Charbon and Melanie’s chapters are actually the most important, as both contain and explore world-shaking revelations that would change – everything.

Ascribing unknowable evil to something was just an excuse not to understand it, a way to wash one’s hands of it.

I have some sympathy for whoever wrote Helm of Midnight‘s blurb, because it’s difficult to talk about what makes this book so jaw-droppingly incredible without giving away spoilers. But this is not a murder-mystery. It’s not even, really, about retrieving the stolen mask. As deftly as Lostetter weaves the world of the Valley together, she just as deftly unpicks the threads and holds them up for us to get a closer look at. She flips the tapestry to show us the knots and bindings underneath, the complicated hidden truths built into every aspect of this world. As soon as she establishes a rule, she makes us question it. And in a lesser author’s hands, maybe that would turn into a disorientating, confusing mess, but not here. Here it turns into something deep and rich, with layer after layer of secrets and magic and monsters and gods to sink your teeth into.

I think the best example I can use to showcase this – meaning, the only example I can think of which doesn’t spoil anything – is the varger. Varger are unkillable, hideous monsters that come in five breeds, each with its own special, horrifying ability. The only thing varger do is kill, and the only way to stop them is to hit them with the metal their breed is vulnerable to, and drain their power until they dissolve into a gas, which can be captured in a specially sealed bottle. And then you put the bottle somewhere very safe where no one can ever, ever get to it, because if the varg gets out, things get ugly.

All of Krona’s chapters in Helm of Midnight begin with a few lines about someone who, as a child, had an encounter with a varg. It’s not clear whether the person speaking is Krona or not; these passages are the only parts of the book in first-person, but there just aren’t enough context clues to tell who’s speaking. Regardless, this story-within-a-story talks about how this child – a young girl – found a wild varg and gradually, over time, tamed it. She brought it salves, and the ever-present, oozing sores of all varger eventually healed and went away. Instead of ripping her to pieces, the varg becomes her friend. She even, at one point, weaves it a collar out of flowers.

This flies against literally everything else we know about varger. It contradicts Krona’s knowledge of and experience with varger; it contradicts the reader’s experience of the varger who appear on-page. But gradually, bit by bit, as we get more of this first-person story, it becomes very clear that what ‘everyone knows’ about varger is wrong. It’s contradicted by this little girl’s story. Oh, no question, varger kill people. They’re still dangerous. But.

Something is going on here.

The entire book is like that: as one hand establishes a fundamental aspect of the worldbuilding, the other hand takes it away. Nothing can be taken at face value, and none of the tenets of Krona’s, Charbon’s, or Melanie’s understanding of the world can be trusted. It’s not a case of unreliable narrators so much as, the characters themselves are living in a world that is lying to them. Within a society that lies to them. Magics misdirect and monsters might not be monsters. Maybe gods and prophets aren’t gods and prophets, either.

Maybe a serial killer had a really good reason to do what he did.

Which brings me to the characters, who also contain hidden depths – sometimes hidden even from themselves. But I absolutely adored Krona and Melanie! They’re wonderful people and wonderful characters. Krona has idolised her big sister for their entire lives, became a Regulator because Lia did, and has no interest in the spotlight so long as she can be there for Lia.

Maybe she was just a shadow, a follower – whatever Tray thought of her. But there was one good thing about treading closely in someone else’s footsteps: when they stumbled, you were right there to pick them back up again.

Her relationship with her sister is a bright, shining thread woven throughout the book, but Krona doesn’t need to be held against Lia to be interesting: she has a strong sense of right and wrong, is stubborn and determined, but also has an endearing shyness when it comes to talking about her private wishes and dreams. One of the sweetest moments was when we learn that she has a whole shelf of tiny clockwork toys because that’s what she uses to pay one of her informers – he doesn’t realise she’s gathered a small trove of them just for him. (And Thierry, the informer, is another fabulous character, whose frank self-awareness is such a refreshing change from male characters who think they’re the gods’ gift to the world! It might be a bit strange to love a character who readily admits to being a coward, but – I love that he knows that about himself and isn’t ashamed of it.)

If Krona has a tough exterior but an inner softness, Melanie is the opposite; more feminine than Krona, her softness could easily be mistaken for weakness, but there’s steel beneath her careful manners, and a refusal to accept that the world won’t bend when she needs it to. Her life revolves around her mother, who is terminally ill, and her filial devotion is pretty humbling. I loved how her love and care for her mother morphed into a desire to help others who are ill; she’s fundamentally another good person, although I think one who might be more ruthless – in the name of practicality – than Krona, despite their disparate stations in life.

And Chabron…poor Chabron. For those concerned about the gore – there is some, but we never see him with his victims, only the aftermath (which is bad enough). But his plotline is the most… I want to say subversive. The one that challenges the reader’s expectations, and the society he lives in, more than any other. But is he wrong? Is someone lying, and if so, who? About what?

What is going on?

This isn’t about fantasy police. It’s about the very nature of magic, where it exists and what it can do. It’s about the time tax, where the poor die young and only the richest live into their wanton 80s. It’s about the gifts the gods gave and the conspiracy to hide them, steal them. It’s about secret cults and impossible enchantments.

It’s about the world everyone knows not being the real world at all.

I’m so happy that I ignored the blurb and gave this a try. The attention to detail, the strangeness, the enchanted gemstones and the beautiful masks, the layers upon layers of story – I loved this book. I love the world Lostetter’s created, I love her prose, I love how different it is. I’m going to be thinking about it for a long time, and looking forward to the sequel. It’s definitely going to be one of my favourite reads of 2021, and I think it could be for a lot of other people too.

TL;DR: If you want fantasy like you’ve never seen it before? Then preorder Helm of Midnight, because it won’t disappoint.

The post Telling Apart the Gods From the Monsters: The Helm of Midnight by Marina Lostetter appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

WWW Wednesday: 3rd March

I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?The Waking Engine by David Edison
Representation: Gay MC, M/M
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Welcome to the City Unspoken, where Gods and Mortals come to die.

Contrary to popular wisdom, death is not the end, nor is it a passage to some transcendent afterlife. Those who die merely awake as themselves on one of a million worlds, where they are fated to live until they die again, and wake up somewhere new. All are born only once, but die many times . . . until they come at last to the City Unspoken, where the gateway to True Death can be found.
Wayfarers and pilgrims are drawn to the City, which is home to murderous aristocrats, disguised gods and goddesses, a sadistic faerie princess, immortal prostitutes and queens, a captive angel, gangs of feral Death Boys and Charnel Girls . . . and one very confused New Yorker.

Late of Manhattan, Cooper finds himself in a City that is not what it once was. The gateway to True Death is failing, so that the City is becoming overrun by the Dying, who clot its byzantine streets and alleys . . . and a spreading madness threatens to engulf the entire metaverse.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-03T18:55:02+00:00", "description": "Weekly check-in!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/www-wednesday-3rd-march\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Waking Engine", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "David Edison", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

It’s been years since I last read this, and I remembered that it was weird…but not how weird. Almost-but-not-quite-pretentiously weird. The Waking Engine is one of those books that no one else seems to have heard of, and I wanted to reread it so I could review it – something I really want to do with this blog is wave glittery pom-poms for beautiful weird books no one’s ever heard of, so.

But also I’m enjoying this a lot. Even if it’s like a fever dream. Maybe because it’s like a fever dream, considering my tastes!

WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Genres: Sci Fi
Goodreads

I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.

It took me so long to hate him.

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.

And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.

Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.
Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-03T18:55:02+00:00", "description": "Weekly check-in!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/www-wednesday-3rd-march\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Echo Wife", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Gailey", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This was…addictive and urgent and horrifying. I didn’t expect to enjoy it and I’m almost mad at myself that I did – I couldn’t get into any of Gailey’s queer magic stories, but I got hooked by this??? Wtf, brain? I’m so disappointed in you.

I probably won’t write a review for this one, although I may include it if I do a batch of mini-reviews in the near future.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?The Door Into Fire (The Tale of the Five Book 1) by Diane Duane
Representation: M/M, M/NB, queernorm world
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Herewiss is the only man in centuries to possess the Power of the blue Flame, but he can't use or control it—not even to help his friend and lover Prince Freelorn, exiled from his native land of Arlen and pursued across the Middle Kingdoms by the usurpers and their allies.

Invoking perilous sorceries and the even more dangerous assistance of the fire elemental Sunspark, Herewiss manages to rout the armies besieging Freelorn and his little band of followers. Together they flee eastward to seek temporary refuge in the mysterious lands near the edge of the world they know.

But now Herewiss faces a devastating choice. His time to master the blue Fire is running out. Should he abandon his fruitless search and join Freelorn in his fight to regain his kingdom? Or should he seek out the ancient keep in the Waste where doors lead into other worlds—perhaps even the door whose use will teach him to control the Power that he must master or die?..

"The Door Into Fire," on the strength of which Diane Duane was twice nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in the SF/fantasy field, is the first volume in a critically acclaimed series that has been hailed as a cult classic of fantasy for its unique take on sword and sorcery and its unforgettable characters.

Reader advisory: The Door Into Fire contains mature themes and situations set in a sexually diverse culture.

"Expands the limits of the swords and sorcery genre. Exciting, magical, intelligent." -- Publishers Weekly

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-03T18:55:02+00:00", "description": "Weekly check-in!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/www-wednesday-3rd-march\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Door Into Fire (The Tale of the Five Book 1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Diane Duane", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Next up is another book I want to review and do some cheerleading for; Door into Fire, the first book of the mega-amazing, queer epic fantasy series Tale of the Five. When I was a baby queer I caught a few whispers about this series – it was out of print then, Door into Fire originally being published back in 1979! – but only when I dug really deep into the queer-fantasy rec lists. But Diane Duane has done an incredible job getting them into e-format, and more people really need to read them! I mean, this is epic fantasy with swords and dragons – and casual queerness, genderfluid fire elementals, and group marriage!

This is the 2019 edition; ignore the cover, the book inside is breathtaking, and I’m determined to get more people to realise it!

What have you been reading?

The post WWW Wednesday: 3rd March appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

10 Fictional Jobs I Would Love (and rock at!)

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!

Today’s prompt is Characters Whose Job I Wish I Had, and as a fantasy reader, it was very hard to narrow it down to just 10!

His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1) by Naomi Novik
Goodreads

Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors ride mighty fighting dragons, bred for size or speed. When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes the precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future – and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Naomi Novik", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Look, if ‘dragon captain’ isn’t on your list, then you’re doing it wrong. The captains in the Temeraire series might not share any kind of psychic bond with their dragon companions, but that doesn’t make their connection any less magical. And I mean, come on. Who doesn’t want to be a dragon rider?

Swept Away (The Secret of the Unicorn Queen, #1) by Josepha Sherman, Gwen Hansen
Goodreads

DISCOVER THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN QUEEN

When her eccentric friend Dr. Reit invents an amazing transport into other worlds, Sheila McCarthy accidentally falls through the portal into the kingdom of Arren. There, Sheila finds herself part of a band of warrior-women. Astride unicorns, they gallop toward a dazzling city made of marble. But will they arrive in time to stop the evil king and his wicked wizard henchman from carrying out their deadly plans? And will Sheila ever be able to return home?

Thus begins the spellbinding story of an ordinary teenager trapped in an extraordinary place.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Swept Away (The Secret of the Unicorn Queen, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Josepha Sherman, Gwen Hansen", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Listen, I am equally happy to be a dragon rider or a unicorn rider. I would be delighted with either one.

The Last Sun (The Tarot Sequence, #1) by K.D. Edwards
Goodreads

Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home.
With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court. In looking for Addam, can Rune find the truth behind his family's death and the torments of his past?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Last Sun (The Tarot Sequence, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "K.D. Edwards", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

‘Scion’ isn’t really a job so much as a title of rank in the Tarot Sequence world, but if you’re the right kind of Scion (like Rune!) then it is a job, with plenty of responsibilities – and I’d like to think I’d be the kind of Scion that would make Rune proud. Magic, wealth, influence, longevity, and the possibility of a soul-bonded Companion? Just point me towards the sign-up sheet, thanks.

The Gift (The Books of Pellinor, #1) by Alison Croggon
Goodreads

Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child when her family is destroyed in war. She is unaware that she possesses a powerful gift, a gift that marks her as a member of the School of Pellinor. It is only when she is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great Bards of Lirigon, that her true heritage and extraordinary destiny unfolds. Now she and her teacher, Cadvan, must survive a punishing and uncertain journey through a time and place where the dark forces they battle with stem from the deepest recesses of other-worldly terror.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Gift (The Books of Pellinor, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alison Croggon", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Kind of like the Tarot Sequence’s Scions, the Bards of the Pellinor verse are something you’re born, not a job you can train for. But also like Scions, it’s a role that’s supposed to come with a long list of responsibilities, not least of which is taking care of the earth and the people who live on it. Bards make the world more beautiful by taking care of everybody in it, and they deify the arts. So…magic, being able to talk to animals, all the epic poetry I could ever want, and free rein to take care of people??? Yes please!

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle #1) by Nghi Vo
Goodreads

With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.
A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully.
Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.
At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nghi Vo", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

The monks of Singing Hills travel around collecting stories and recording literally everything. With talking-bird companions. And they get to be agender. HI YES WHERE DO I SIGN???

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
Goodreads

From Annalee Newitz, founding editor of io9, comes a story of time travel, murder, and the lengths we'll go to protect the ones we love.
1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, seventeen-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend's abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting too.
2022: Determined to use time travel to create a safer future, Tess has dedicated her life to visiting key moments in history and fighting for change. But rewriting the timeline isn’t as simple as editing one person or event. And just when Tess believes she's found a way to make an edit that actually sticks, she encounters a group of dangerous travelers bent on stopping her at any cost.
Tess and Beth’s lives intertwine as war breaks out across the timeline--a war that threatens to destroy time travel and leave only a small group of elites with the power to shape the past, present, and future. Against the vast and intricate forces of history and humanity, is it possible for a single person’s actions to echo throughout the timeline?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Future of Another Timeline", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annalee Newitz", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Time-traveller whose goal is to alter time to make it more (intersectionally) feminist??? Fuck yes!

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Goodreads

Childhood friends Patricia Delfine, a witch, and Laurence Armstead, a mad scientist, parted ways under mysterious circumstances during middle school. But as adults they both wind up in near-future San Francisco, where Laurence is an engineering genius and Patricia works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s ever growing ailments. But something is determined to bring them back together—to either save the world, or end it.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "All the Birds in the Sky", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Charlie Jane Anders", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Using magic to punish jerks is pretty literally what I spent my teen years daydreaming about, and I would love to have that job. I admit avoiding Aggrandizement might be an issue.

Angelology (Angelology, #1) by Danielle Trussoni
Goodreads

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her care was entrusted to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Now, at twenty-three, she discovers a 1943 correspondence between the convent's late mother superior and the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller that plunges her into a secret history stretching back a millennium: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim. Blending biblical lore, the Miltonic fall of the rebel Angels, the apocryphal Book of Enoch, and the myth of Orpheus, Angelology is a luminous, riveting tale of ordinary people caught up in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Angelology (Angelology, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Danielle Trussoni", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I have been fascinated by angels for a very long time – blame my Roman Catholic upbringing, I guess – and I would be happy as anything tucked away in secret archives doing research and writing papers on angelic music. I would be a terrible field agent, for sure, but the research role??? Perfection!

Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles by Taisia Kitaiskaia
Goodreads

With a strange, otherworldly style, poetic clarity, and striking honesty, Ask Baba Yaga contains beautifully skewed wisdom to be consulted in times of need.

Dear Baba Yaga,

I think I must crave male attention too much. I fear that, without it, I would feel invisible.
 
BABA YAGA:

When you seek others this way, you are invisible nonetheless. Yr shawl is covered in mirrors in which others admire themselves; this is why they greet you so passionately. It is good to be seen, but it is better to see. Find a being to look hard into, & you will see yrself and what is more than you.
 In age-old Slavic fairy tales, the witch Baba Yaga is sought out by those with a burning need for guidance. In contemporary life, Baba Yaga—a dangerous, slippery oracle—answered earnest questions on The Hairpin for years. These pages collect her most poignant, surreal, and humorous exchanges along with all-new questions and answers for those seeking her mystical advice. 

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Taisia Kitaiskaia", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Pleeeeeeeeeease let me a wild witch who answers an Agony Aunt column. Please. I would be so good at it. I promise I’d only tell them to eat their boyfriends if the boyfriends deserved it!

The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes
Goodreads

A dinosaur detective in the land of unwanted ideas battles trauma, anxiety, and the first serial killer of imaginary friends.
Most ideas fade away when we're done with them. Some we love enough to become Real. But what about the ones we love, and walk away from? Tippy the triceratops was once a little girl's imaginary friend, a dinosaur detective who could help her make sense of the world. But when her father died, Tippy fell into the Stillreal, the underbelly of the Imagination, where discarded ideas go when they're too Real to disappear. Now, he passes time doing detective work for other unwanted ideas - until Tippy runs into The Man in the Coat, a nightmare monster who can do the impossible: kill an idea permanently. Now Tippy must overcome his own trauma and solve the case, before there's nothing left but imaginary corpses.
File Unders: Fantasy [ Fuzzy Fiends - Death to Imagination - Hardboiled but Sweet - Not Barney ]

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-02T19:54:12+00:00", "description": "Exactly what it says on the tin: 10 fictional jobs I would LOVE to have!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-fictional-jobs-i-would-love-and-rock-at\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Imaginary Corpse", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tyler Hayes", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

No, I don’t want to be a detective ex-imaginary friend – but I would love to be the person who runs the bar for ex-imaginary friends. Can you imagine all the ridiculously cool and strange things you must have on-tap at a place like that??? And you would hear all the stories! And probably be expected to come up with magically weird cocktails, which would be so much fun! And I would give Tippy all the root-beer floats he wants for free, for always, because he totally deserves it.

What fictional job would YOU love to have?

The post 10 Fictional Jobs I Would Love (and rock at!) appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #26!

This week we have SIX fantasy and sci-fi releases to get excited about – and I know for a fact at least two of them belong on your best-of-the-year lists!

The Councillor by E.J. Beaton
Representation: Bisexual MC, secondary M/M, past F/F, queernorm world
on 2nd March 2021
Genres: Queer Protagonists, High Fantasy
Goodreads

This Machiavellian fantasy follows a scholar's quest to choose the next ruler of her kingdom amidst lies, conspiracy, and assassination.

When the death of Iron Queen Sarelin Brey fractures the realm of Elira, Lysande Prior, the palace scholar and the queen’s closest friend, is appointed Councillor. Publically, Lysande must choose the next monarch from amongst the city-rulers vying for the throne. Privately, she seeks to discover which ruler murdered the queen, suspecting the use of magic.

Resourceful, analytical, and quiet, Lysande appears to embody the motto she was raised with: everything in its place. Yet while she hides her drug addiction from her new associates, she cannot hide her growing interest in power. She becomes locked in a game of strategy with the city-rulers – especially the erudite prince Luca Fontaine, who seems to shift between ally and rival.

Further from home, an old enemy is stirring: the magic-wielding White Queen is on the move again, and her alliance with a traitor among the royal milieu poses a danger not just to the peace of the realm, but to the survival of everything that Lysande cares about.

In a world where the low-born keep their heads down, Lysande must learn to fight an enemy who wears many guises… even as she wages her own battle between ambition and restraint.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-01T18:52:58+00:00", "description": "We have SIX must-haves this week, ranging from a fantastical succession crisis to the underground railroad to friendly AIs!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-26\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Councillor", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "E.J. Beaton", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

As good as this book sounds, I promise you, it’s even better than that, as I stated in my review. It is SO DAMN GOOD! It’s queer and politic-y and the prose is stunning, the worldbuilding is fabulous, and it’s so intricate and clever and gorgeous and I can’t WAIT until everyone has read it! I need people to fangirl with, damn it! BUY THIS BOOK ALREADY!

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2) by Arkady Martine
Representation: F/F, queernorm world
on 2nd March 2021
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.

In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.

Whether they succeed or fail could change the fate of Teixcalaan forever.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-01T18:52:58+00:00", "description": "We have SIX must-haves this week, ranging from a fantastical succession crisis to the underground railroad to friendly AIs!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-26\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Arkady Martine", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I got to read this one ahead of time too, but you don’t really need my review to know it’s going to be amazing – it’s Arkady Martine, of course it’s amazing, that goes without saying! I adored this for so many reasons, and anyone who loved the first book in the series, A Memory Called Empire, is going to love this one too!

(And if you haven’t read Memory…please read that first. Or lots of things will be confusing!)

The Conductors by Nicole Glover
Representation: Cast of colour, minor trans character
on 2nd March 2021
Genres: Historical Fantasy
Goodreads

Meet Hetty Rhodes, a former conductor on the Underground Railroad who now uses her magic to solve crimes in her community in a post-Civil War world.

As an escaped slave, Hetty Rhodes helped dozens of people find their own freedom north using her wits and her magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband, Benjy, still fight for their people by solving the murders and mysteries that the white authorities won't touch.

When they discover one of their friends brutally murdered in an alley, Hetty and Benjy mourn his loss by setting off to find answers. But the mystery of his death soon brings up more questions, more secrets, more hurt. To solve his death, they will have to not only face the ugly truths about the world but the ones about each other.

Perfect for fans of Victor LaValle and Zen Cho, The Conductors is a compelling debut by a fresh voice in fantasy fiction that will leave you longing for more.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-01T18:52:58+00:00", "description": "We have SIX must-haves this week, ranging from a fantastical succession crisis to the underground railroad to friendly AIs!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-26\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Conductors", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nicole Glover", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I have heard nothing but praise for this book from every corner, and I’m especially excited because several readers have mentioned that the magic system Glover’s created is very cool! And I’m always excited at new takes on magic. Plus, you know – that premise sounds kind of ridiculously awesome???

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft
Representation: Bisexual MC
on 2nd March 2021
Goodreads

He saw the darkness in her magic. She saw the magic in his darkness.

Wren Southerland’s reckless use of magic has cost her everything: she’s been dismissed from the Queen’s Guard and separated from her best friend—the girl she loves. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate, Colwick Hall, to cure his servant from a mysterious illness, she seizes her chance to redeem herself.

The mansion is crumbling, icy winds haunt the caved-in halls, and her eccentric host forbids her from leaving her room after dark. Worse, Wren’s patient isn’t a servant at all but Hal Cavendish, the infamous Reaper of Vesria and her kingdom’s sworn enemy. Hal also came to Colwick Hall for redemption, but the secrets in the estate may lead to both of their deaths.

With sinister forces at work, Wren and Hal realize they’ll have to join together if they have any hope of saving their kingdoms. But as Wren circles closer to the nefarious truth behind Hal’s illness, they realize they have no escape from the monsters within the mansion. All they have is each other, and a startling desire that could be their downfall.

Allison Saft’s Down Comes the Night is a snow-drenched romantic fantasy that keeps you racing through the pages long into the night.
Love makes monsters of us all.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-01T18:52:58+00:00", "description": "We have SIX must-haves this week, ranging from a fantastical succession crisis to the underground railroad to friendly AIs!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-26\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Down Comes the Night", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Allison Saft", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Again, all I’ve heard are good things about Down Comes the Night. I think the prose is supposed to be extra-special too? I do not know, but I have my fingers crossed!

Chain of Iron (The Last Hours, #2) by Cassandra Clare
Representation: Genderqueer character
on 2nd March 2021
Genres: Historical Fantasy
Goodreads

The Shadowhunters must catch a killer in Edwardian London in this dangerous and romantic sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Chain of Gold, from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cassandra Clare. Chain of Iron is a Shadowhunters novel.

Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has loved since childhood. She has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie Herondale and James’s charming companions, the Merry Thieves. She is about to be reunited with her beloved father. And she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero’s blade.

But the truth is far grimmer. James and Cordelia’s marriage is a lie, arranged to save Cordelia’s reputation. James is in love with the mysterious Grace Blackthorn whose brother, Jesse, died years ago in a terrible accident. Cortana burns Cordelia’s hand when she touches it, while her father has grown bitter and angry. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace.

Together with the Merry Thieves, Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the knife-wielding killer through the city’s most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she plans to raise Jesse from the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he is being drawn further each night into the dark web of his grandfather, the arch-demon Belial. And that he himself may be the killer they seek.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-01T18:52:58+00:00", "description": "We have SIX must-haves this week, ranging from a fantastical succession crisis to the underground railroad to friendly AIs!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-26\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Chain of Iron (The Last Hours, #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Cassandra Clare", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I confess to not having read the first book in this trilogy yet, but it would be remiss to not include Chain of Iron here. I haven’t read the blurb, because, you know – trying not to spoil myself, but I know a lot of people who are very excited for this one, and I hope it lives up to expectations!

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
on 2nd March 2021
Goodreads

Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her.

Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: What does it mean to love?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-03-01T18:52:58+00:00", "description": "We have SIX must-haves this week, ranging from a fantastical succession crisis to the underground railroad to friendly AIs!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-26\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Klara and the Sun", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kazuo Ishiguro", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This sounds unique and potentially really interesting; again, I’ve only heard good things. There’s a lot of potential, with that premise, for something meaningful but also quite sweet, so I guess we’ll see how that turns out!

That’s all I’ve got! Did I miss any? Will you be reading any of these books? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #26! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

In Short: February

So how did I do this month? Let’s take a look!

Books Read

13 books read in February, which is one less than last month. But so it goes! To be honest, my fibromyalgia and depression were kicking my arse this month, so I’m actually pleased I managed this many.

To the best of my knowledge, of the 11 authors here… (11, not 13, because Anne Bishop and Becky Chambers both take 2 spots!)

9 are women, and 2 are men. (Not all cis.)Only 1 is a person of colour5 are various flavours of queer

I really need to work on reading fewer white authors. Recommendations are welcome.

Of the books…

6 Rereads

The Long Way to a Small Angry PlanetAll the Birds in the SkyA Stranger in OlondriaWritten in RedThe Library of the UnwrittenPaladin’s Grace

6 Arcs

All the Murmuring BonesThe Velocity of RevolutionThe Queen’s WeaponsThe Black CoastA Desolation Called PeaceThe Galaxy, and the Ground Within

Only Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters was both wholly new to me and not an arc.

Books Reviewed

Six reviews! That’s as many as last month. I think averaging at just over one a week isn’t bad…but I’m still hoping to do better in March!

Books Dnf-ed

I am probably going to be the only one on the planet to not enjoy She Who Became the Sun, but there’s no getting around it; it bored the hell out of me. Insert shrug emoji here, I guess. I don’t think it’s objectively a bad book, but epic without the fantasy doesn’t interest me, and there were no magical elements in the chunk I read. Maybe there are some, later in the book! I do not know; I can only tell you that as book and reader, we didn’t suit.

Dead Money had an incredible premise, but I realised very quickly that the tone was a lot darker than I’d expected. Honestly, that’s probably on me: what was I expecting in a book about capitalism in the afterlife???

The Second Bell…started really well, but rapidly got kind of simplistic and hand-wavey? Which is disappointing, especially because other readers have told me that the magic gets very interesting later in the book. Maybe I’ll give it another try sometime.

The Sword in the Street is the one arc I feel guilty about, because I actually reached out to the author when they were looking for reviewers. I was so excited to see a queer autistic character! But besides being a bit too reminiscent of Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint for me, I found the writing pretty uninspired, and the aforementioned autistic character…kind of upset me. I’m autistic myself, and I know we’re all different and also, duh, autistm does not magically make you a perfect person. But it made me uncomfortable as hell, so…on the DNF pile it goes.

Arcs Received

I swore I was going to stop requesting arcs, but…welllllll… Obviously, I did not do that. Although I do want it noted that a couple of these I’d requested before February!

Arcs Outstanding

Aaand, here are the arcs I received before February, and have not yet reviewed. At this point I’m actually reading my own retail versions of The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry and A Summoning of Demons, since they’ve been published since I got the arcs!

Looking Forward

One thing I realised this month is that, receiving and reading arcs takes away some of the anticipation-joy for the future. What I mean is – I’ve already read Desolation Called Peace, The Councillor, and The Queen’s Weapons. That gives me very little to look forward to, and my special calendar of anticipated releases is a big part of managing my depression. So it’s…strange and not-nice, to realise March is left pretty bare of new books for me to be excited for now.

On the other hand, that leaves March open for a) arcs whose reviews are due by April, and b) not-arcs! Rereads and older releases that I haven’t read yet. And there’s plenty of both, more than enough to keep me busy.

So we’ll see how March goes, but if it’s really a downer to not have so many new releases to be excited about, I’ll probably stop requesting arcs altogether. Which would certainly not be the worst thing in the world!

But now I’m going to curl up with the new T. Kingfisher book, Paladin’s Strength. That sounds like a pretty great way to spend the day.

Onwards to March!

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

Fantastically Funny Fantasy: Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher
Representation: Minor nonbinary characters
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

Stephen’s god died on the longest day of the year…

Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind…

From the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of Swordheart and The Twisted Ones comes a saga of murder, magic, and love on the far side of despair.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-02-27T14:56:36+00:00", "description": "A hysterically funny, wonderful romance you really shouldn't miss!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/fantastically-funny-fantasy-paladins-grace-by-t-kingfisher\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Paladin's Grace", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "T. Kingfisher", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~Lawyer-priests
~a pet civet (think a weasel but EVEN CUTER)
~perfumes that are definitely Not Poison
~(no really)
~awkward romance is the best romance!

I have always loved fantasies where the gods are indisputably real. Where it’s not a question of faith and belief, because the gods are there. The ways in which they’re present are different in every story, and they differ in how much they can affect human beings or the natural world…but it’s a trope I’m very fond of, okay?

I have never thought about how horrific it would be to live in such a world…a world where your god does not require your blind faith because they are real and there and present…and then have your god die.

I mean. Gods don’t die! They’re not supposed to die! They’re gods!!!

But that is how Paladin’s Grace opens: with Stephen, a paladin of the Saint of Steel, going about a perfectly normal day, when suddenly he – and his fellow paladins – feel their god die.

If you’ve been following T Kingfisher for a while, you might have already read other books set in The World of the White Rat, like Swordheart or Clockwork Boys. You don’t need to have read any others – if Paladin’s Grace is your first time in this verse, you’re fine, the Saint of Steel books stand on their own – but if you have read them, then you might know about the other gods of this verse, like the Dreaming God or the White Rat. But we haven’t really come into contact with the Saint of Steel before, so what you really need to know is, the Saint’s paladins are like…holy beserkers. Their whole thing is going into a god-directed beserk state in which they can kill all the bad guys without ever landing a scratch on an innocent.

That’s pretty amazing. It’s also epically, epically bad when the Saint dies, because suddenly, the beserker state is not god-directed anymore.

This is all conveyed quickly and deftly within the first few pages; chapter two opens three years after the Saint’s death, which means Kingfisher doesn’t actually put the reader through the full wringer of Stephen’s grieving. Oh, he’s still grieving – he’ll never be done – but the worst of the suicidal despair is gone by the time the story gets going. Now, Stephen – along with the six other surviving paladins, most of the others having died – serves the White Rat, which is an awesome religious order that is all about caring for and representing the weak and poor, and is all about being Practical. (Unless it comes to a contest between practicality and empathy; in that case, empathy wins every time.) The Rat doesn’t have much use for paladins, so Stephen’s job at the moment is playing bodyguard to one of the Rat’s healers, as said healer is tending to patients in a part of the city where people keep finding decapitated heads.

And he is on his way back to the temple after doing that – having left the healer to tend to a patient overnight – when he is suddenly accosted by a woman who begs him to help her. She’s being chased by members of the Hanged Motherhood, which is a religious order not nearly as cool as the White Rat, and Stephen is a paladin! Of course he will help!

…He helps by pretending he is screwing her against the wall. It’s very awkward. She makes very bad moaning noises, and his armour chafes very painfully. But it makes the Motherhood people go away, so…success!!!

The lady is Grace. She’s a perfumer, not a witch, even if she was gathering plants in a graveyard. She thanks him for his help, and lets him escort her home, and that should be the end of it.

It’s so obviously not.

Paladin’s Grace is a hysterically funny book that balances a heartmeltingly-awkward-genuine romance with an investigation into attempted assassinations – and there’s also the thing about the decapitated heads. But it’s Stephen and Grace who are the stars, without a shadow of a doubt. They just…feel like real people. Their slow slide into romance isn’t idealised, it’s not romantic in the traditional sense. Stephen’s first gift to Grace is socks. (He knitted them himself, and they’re lovely.) Their conversations stumble and are awkward in a sweetly human way. They say silly things and sometimes the wrong things. They both have scars and soft, wounded places inside them. They both need to be gentle – with each other and also with themselves.

But it’s also…one of the healthiest romances I can think of, as well as one of the most natural. Stephen apologises when he’s an ass. Grace deliberately takes some of her internal defenses down. They talk to each other, instead of having stupid misunderstandings For The Plot (which is something I hate). And there’s…no toxic masculinity anywhere??? Even though most of the male characters are warriors of one type or another???

“I didn’t say she was beautiful.”

“All women are beautiful,” said Istvhan, dismissing this. “It is the job of their lovers to make them feel that way if they do not already.”

Stephen is super protective, but he also trusts in Grace’s abilities. One of my favourite scenes is when he steps back and lets her handle a confrontation – there if he needs her, but more than willing to let her fight for herself.

And can I reiterate that this book is so fucking funny???

“It wasn’t like that!” protested Stephen. “And it doesn’t mean anything! She might be married with six kids! She might not even like men!”

“Six kids is workable. A live husband…mm, well, why was he letting her chase through graveyards in the dark without assistance? Clearly unfit for such a woman.” Istvhan nodded to himself. “We will have him killed.”

“We’re paladins, Istvhan. We don’t have people killed unless they’re evil.”

“To leave such a woman in the clutches of the Motherhood? And her with six kids at home to care for? Bah! Clearly an evil man.”

I mean, this is also a book about grieving and healing and assassinations! But it will also make you laugh until you cry. In the best way!

“Where Miss Angelica goes, I go,” he said, in a voice so deep Grace could almost hear it through her boots.

“There is no need to fear that she’ll be attacked here,” said DuValier, forgetting himself enough to actually address the paladin.

“She might require a jar opened,” said Stephen, unruffled. “Or something heavy moved. My duty is clear.”

…

Stephen tilted his head so that it was very clear he was looking down at the man in golden livery. “I am also very skilled at reaching things on high shelves.”

Can you not just hear the menace in his voice with that last line? Can you not picture his face as he says it? “I am also very skilled at reaching things on high shelves.”

HOW CAN YOU BE SO FUNNY AND SO THREATENING AT THE SAME TIME?

And Grace! Oh, Grace, I love her so much! She is so bad with people and so great with perfumes, and she thinks she’s awful at sex because her ex was so very terrible, and she has the urge to say hysterical things at terrible moments, and I adore her utterly. And I love how big a role her friendship with her landlady, Marguerite, has, how it’s such a huge part of the book. THANK YOU, ROMANCES ARE NOT THE ONLY RELATIONSHIPS THAT MATTER, A LITTLE LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE AT THE BACK, PLEASE.

Having men want to rescue you was worlds different than simply having a female friend who had your back. If she needed a body buried, the only question Marguerite would ask was, “How deep?”

Damn straight, ‘how deep?’ That’s how you determine true friendship!

Which is all to say, Paladin’s Grace is fabulous beyond words, and you should read it immediately, because the sequel is out tomorrow!!!

The post Fantastically Funny Fantasy: Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

So Many Ways to be People: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

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.

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2) by Arkady Martine
Representation: Cast of Colour, F/F or wlw, sapphic MC
on 2nd March 2021
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Goodreads

An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.

In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.

Whether they succeed or fail could change the fate of Teixcalaan forever.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-02-26T15:41:57+00:00", "description": "An epically beautiful sci fi that asks what it means to be a person.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/so-many-ways-to-be-people-a-desolation-called-peace-by-arkady-martine\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Arkady Martine", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~kittens in the vents
~indie comics
~aliens that are really definitely Not Human At All
~bored at work??? sign up for First Contact!
~sneaky imperial heirs
~Disruptive Persons

I think it was really stupid of me to request an arc of A Desolation Called Peace. I clearly did not think it through, because I did not realise that after reading an arc I would have to review it, and how on earth – or off it! – do you talk about Arkady Martine’s writing? The English language fails me utterly. I want the holographic drawing board Mahit and Three Seagrass use with the aliens so I can try and just draw my feelings, instead of needing to use words.

I would draw fireworks and exclamation points and a book made of stars, and I would draw them all REALLY BIG, and just maybe I might be able to make you understand a fragment of how amazing this book is.

It’s not – not exactly – the story that makes it special. On a superficial level, this is a first-contact story, and if I sketched out Act One and Act Two and so on for you it might sound – familiar. Recognisable. The shape of it is something we’ve seen before. We know how to hold it in our hands, in our heads.

But Martine has taken this shape we know, and opened it up for us like a geode, and there is just so much inside. Beneath the surface. The shape is familiar but what’s inside it isn’t, and what’s inside it is so beautiful and deep and raw and true. There are so many layers. There are so many facets, and each one is real and each one is different and no one can see them all.

(Except us, because we’re reading this story and not living it. Because Martine shows us each one, carefully, pointing each one out with gentle subtlety so we won’t miss it.)

Even more so than the previous book, A Memory of Empire, this installment, A Desolation Called Peace, is about different ways of being a person. Empire was heavily concerned with the struggle of coming from a colonised culture (or a culture under threat of colonisation), and the difficulty of loving, admiring, wanting to be one of the colonisers. And that’s still here in Peace, because Mahit is still here and that is something she’s probably always going to struggle with.

Maybe it would be better to put it like this: Empire asked, what is a human? The Teixcalaanli divide between human and barbarian – aka, anyone who is not of Teixcalaan – is an intrinsic aspect of Teixcalaanli culture, and therefore was always going to be a major part of Empire‘s story.

But A Desolation Called Peace is asking something even bigger. Here, Martine asks: what is a person?

The most obvious example of this is the first-contact aspect of the story, the introduction of absolutely-very-definitely-not-human aliens: beings who have a very different culture, a very different understanding of personhood, than any of the human cultures we’ve yet met in this series. But this isn’t the only example Martine asks the reader to think about. Another, touched on in the previous book, is the concept of imago-lines, the Lsel Station tradition (tradition does not seem like the right word, but I’m not sure what a better one would be) whereby the memories and personality of a predecessor are implanted into a new, adult person, with the goal of the old and new personalities merging and no knowledge or experience ever being lost. Is Yskander, Mahit’s imago, a person? What does it mean if he is; what does it mean if he’s not? What does that make Mahit? What does that make the end-goal Mahit, who is a product of her original self and Yskander? All of which is incredibly disturbing to the handful of Teixcalaanli who know about the imago technology.

What about the Shards, the space equivalent of fighter-jet pilots, who can, thanks to new technology, communicate in ways that both aids and cripples them in battle? What about the Sunlit, the Teixcalaanli police we met in Empire, who are created (or run?) by a similar technology?

What about Eight Antidote, the Imperial Heir who is only eleven years old? We caught a glimpse or two of him in the previous book, but here, he’s not only a PoV character but a major one, albeit one most of the other characters aren’t aware of. And I do think the question – what is a person? – applies to him as well. Far too many people – adults – dismiss the opinions and feelings of children. Children are often treated as though they are not real people, not really people yet. In fact, there are fascinating parallels to be drawn between the aliens’ ideas of personhood – of the process of becoming a person, and therefore their view of their young – and the way human children are treated, and I wish I could write an essay about that but it would involve far too many spoilers.

My point is, carefully woven into the breathtakingly beautiful prose and the emotions and the urgency and the nuclear option – woven throughout that is the quiet question: what is a person? And you don’t have to think about it if you don’t want to! A reader could simply sit down and enjoy Peace as an epic sci fi novel, one with aliens and spaceships and a do we kill them or will they kill us? plotline. Martine does not demand that you answer – try and answer – the question this book poses. It is allowed, and it is easy, to let yourself to be entertained, to be sucked in to this incredible galaxy wrought out of stunning prose and an incredible imagination. If you want to sink into a story as you would a warm bath, you absolutely can do that with this book.

(Although not if you haven’t read the first book first. Sorry. That’s non-negotiable).

But you can also let Martine’s hands cover yours…and show you how to break open the shape you know, and see the geode inside.

You know. If that’s your thing.

A Desolation of Peace is out next Tuesday, March 2nd!

The post So Many Ways to be People: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

WWW Wednesday: 24th Feb

I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?The Helm of Midnight (The Five Penalties, #1) by Marina J. Lostetter
Representation: Queernorm world, minor nonbinary characters
on 13th April 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

A legendary serial killer stalks the streets of a fantastical city in The Helm of Midnight, the stunning first novel in a new trilogy from acclaimed author Marina Lostetter.In a daring and deadly heist, thieves have made away with an artifact of terrible power--the death mask of Louis Charbon. Made by a master craftsman, it is imbued with the spirit of a monster from history, a serial murderer who terrorized the city with a series of gruesome murders.

Now Charbon is loose once more, killing from beyond the grave. But these murders are different from before, not simply random but the work of a deliberate mind probing for answers to a sinister question.

It is up to Krona Hirvath and her fellow Regulators to enter the mind of madness to stop this insatiable killer while facing the terrible truths left in his wake.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-02-24T19:33:18+00:00", "description": "The weekly check-in!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/www-wednesday-24th-feb\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Helm of Midnight (The Five Penalties, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marina J. Lostetter", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I thought this was going to be another Jack-the-Ripper-esque thing, and not only do I not care for that kind of thing at all, but I’ve been burned way too many times by fantasy takes on Jack. But then there were mentions of interesting magic and there was a sample you could download for free…and I was hooked pretty much instantly. It’s ornate and baroque and it feels like something made out of porcelain and I love it! Unless something very weird happens, this is looking likely to be one of my faves of 2021.

WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC, major AFAB character
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Gene-edited human clans have scattered throughout the galaxy, adapting themselves to environments as severe as the desert and the sea. Atuale, the daughter of a Sea-Clan lord, sparked a war by choosing her land-dwelling love and rejecting her place among her people. Now her husband and his clan are dying of an incurable plague, and Atuale’s sole hope for finding a cure is to travel off-planet. The one person she can turn to for help is the black-market mercenary known as the World Witch—and Atuale’s former lover. Time, politics, bureaucracy, and her own conflicted desires stand between Atuale and the hope for her adopted clan.
Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters has all the wonder and romance of a classic sci-fi novel, with the timelessness of a beloved fairy tale.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-02-24T19:33:18+00:00", "description": "The weekly check-in!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/www-wednesday-24th-feb\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Aimee Ogden", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I became obsessed with this novella after an excerpt was posted pre-release on Tor.com, and devoured it in one go when it was released yesterday! So, so exquisite. I don’t know if I can write a review of it that will do it justice, but I need to try!

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?A Dark and Hollow Star (A Dark and Hollow Star, #1) by Ashley Shuttleworth
Representation: All-queer cast
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Choose your player.

The “ironborn” half-fae outcast of her royal fae family.
A tempestuous Fury, exiled to earth from the Immortal Realm and hellbent on revenge.
A dutiful fae prince, determined to earn his place on the throne.
The prince’s brooding guardian, burdened with a terrible secret.

For centuries, the Eight Courts of Folk have lived among us, concealed by magic and bound by law to do no harm to humans. This arrangement has long kept peace in the Courts—until a series of gruesome and ritualistic murders rocks the city of Toronto and threatens to expose faeries to the human world.

Four queer teens, each who hold a key piece of the truth behind these murders, must form a tenuous alliance in their effort to track down the mysterious killer behind these crimes. If they fail, they risk the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike. If that’s not bad enough, there’s a war brewing between the Mortal and Immortal Realms, and one of these teens is destined to tip the scales. The only question is: which way?

Wish them luck. They’re going to need it.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-02-24T19:33:18+00:00", "description": "The weekly check-in!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/www-wednesday-24th-feb\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Dark and Hollow Star (A Dark and Hollow Star, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ashley Shuttleworth", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’ve been looking forward to this book for literal years – ever since the publishing deal was announced! – so hells yes, it’s ready and waiting on my ereader. I’M SO EXCITED.

What’s everyone else reading this week?

The post WWW Wednesday: 24th Feb appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.