Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire (Audiobook)

 

This is yet another fantastic Wayward Children novella!!

I love Seanan McGuire’s writing. (Note: I review a bunch of her books so I am copying part of some of my other reviews here to save time.). She has quickly become my favorite living writer and I feel very lucky that she is so prolific. I was first introduced to her work when her book Parasite, written as Mira Grant, was nominated for a Hugo Award. I loved it and quickly devoured the Newsflesh series before I realized that Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire were the same person. 

I was already a big fan of Ms. McGuire’s when the first wayward children book, Every Heart a Doorway, came out, and I loved it! As a kid who grew up loving the Oz series and resenting the Christian imagery in Narnia, it was right up my alley. It is a wonderful book and this is an excellent series, definitely deserving of its Best Series Hugo win.  In this series, the odd numbered books are the main timeline, and the even numbered books tell stories outside the main timeline - sometimes introducing us to new characters when they travel through their Doors, and other times showing up backstory of preexisting characters. 

I was overjoyed when tordotcom and NetGalley awarded me an eARC of Through Gates of Garnet and Gold, especially since it is an odd numbered book, meaning it is advancing the main timeline. 

And we are back with Nancy, who started us off in the first book as our main character before she went back to her world, the Halls of the Dead, where she remains motionless as a statue for most of her time there. 

But Nancy returns to the school because something is killing the residents of her world. The adventure ropes in perennial favorites Sumi, Kade, and Christopher, and introduces a new girl from a world of moths and stories.

It sometimes felt like part of the reason behind this book is existing is to answer some critics of the first book that thought that Nancy was suicidal in wanting to return to the halls of the dead. By more fully fleshing out this world, the author helps to explain the appeal of this realm for Nancy, and how it has nothing to do with wanting to be dead. The cause of all the problems ties back into another character from earlier books, but I do not want to spoil that reveal here. Suffice it to say, that this book really moves the story forward in interesting and surprising ways and I cannot wait for the next odd number book in two years.

I listened to this at 2x speed. 

Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson

Oh how I wanted to like this book more! I had really enjoyed Robopocalypse and its sequel by Daniel H Wilson when they came out, so I was really interested with this first contact type novel based on its description. I was very hopeful when I got an eARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

The main problem for me with this book was that I didn’t care about any of the characters. I understand that writers trying to make characters realistic, and giving people flaws can make them interesting and maybe even relatable. However, the alcoholic deadbeat dad and his redemption arc were just not something that I cared about at all. It also felt very trite to me. That made it really hard to get invested in anything that happened in this book. I’ll check out Wilson‘s next book, but I would give this one a pass.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

 

I didn’t know anything about this book before I started and wow was I in for a treat! 

Actually, I knew one thing about it. I would see this book pop up on Audible occasionally as a suggestion in the Science Fiction section, but it didn’t seem like it would be for me. The back cover blurb made it seem like an irritating comedy. So I never got it. Now that it is getting a new edition by Saga Press, it has a much more interesting and enticing dust jacket blurb, so I requested an e ARC from the publishing and NetGalley and exchange for an honest review.

I thought The book with a lot of fun! A modern day scientist (Bob) gets his head frozen, and he wakes up in the dystopian far future as a computer program replica of his personality and intelligence. His brain gets hooked up to an exploratory spaceship, and the rest of the book involves him (and copies) exploring the galaxy.  The pacing and timing are a bit off, but I think the purpose is to dredge up the feeling of having to deal with Time dilation. The pacing does read a lot more like a self published book than a professionally edited manuscript, but that doesn’t attract from its intelligence and charm. I really enjoy the book and I cannot wait to start the sequel.

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I was late to the Lois McMaster Bujold party and only discovered her when she was nominated for Best Series for the Vorkosigan saga. I think it was the Baen book covers that turned me off. But I’m on board now! 

She definitely deserved the best series Hugo award for the Vorkosigan Books, and also deserved it equally for the World of the Five Gods series. I have still not read any of the novels in that series yet, but once I started reading the Penric and Desdemona novellas, I couldn’t stop. I was hooked instantly and binged my way through the series. Thankfully, Ms. Bujold is still writing more Penric stories. 

I was thrilled to get a copy of this new Penric novella - Thank you, Subterranean Press, for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. As usual for a subterranean press edition, there is a new cover with gorgeous cover art. 

This book was very enjoyable, like all the Penric stories are. Unlike several of the last books, I was really afraid for Penric in this one - I thought there was a chance he would die, which wouldn’t necessarily mean the end of the series but would change it a great deal. This book included POV sections from Penric’s daughter and adopted ward, which I really enjoyed, but the transitions were sometimes a little jarring. I would’ve preferred actual chapters, personally. But these are minor quibbles. 

Can’t wait for the next one!

A Philosophy of Thieves by Fran Wilde

 

I met Fran Wilde at NYCC a few years ago and she made my day by complimenting me on the Wonder Twins tshirt I was wearing. I had first heard of her when I read Updraft, which I remember liking but not loving. over the years I had enjoyed several of her short stories so I was excited when I got an eARC of her new book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. A Philosophy of Thieves was billed as a heist book so I was really looking forward to some fun heists. 

But when I read it, I disliked everything about this book. I mean everything: the characters, the setting, heist, the plot, everything. I hated it all. The characters were trite, they were boring, and their problems were petty and cliché. This was a slog from start to finish. I’m very disappointed, but I will happily try the next book from this author. I’m hopeful this was just a blip.  

Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD: book 1: The Thin Blue Ley-Line by Keith R. A. DeCandido

I’ve been reading Keith R.A. DeCandido’s reviews on Tor dot com for years and I’ve loved them.  His Trek rewatches and superhero reviews are excellent, and I have been enjoying his Babylon 5 rewatch immensely. I’ve not been too enamored of his prose fiction in the past, but I thought i should give it another go. 

So when I saw one of his novels on NetGalley I was curious to see if I would like it, and I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for this honest review. This book, unlike the dragon precinct books, which are fantasy police procedurals in a generic D&D style fantasy world, is a fantasy police procedural in what is supposed to be modern New York City. 

I was very disappointed by this book. If I didn’t know the writer from his excellent reviews and web articles, I would’ve thought it was from a two-bit hack who knew nothing about fantasy, New York, police procedurals, or writing in general. 

The characters were interchangeable, unlikable, and boring, and the plot by the numbers.  After seeing the author complain in his superhero movie reviews about how many superhero movies devolve into the heroes having to close a glowing circle in the sky, imagine my surprise when the climax of this book involved the heroes having to close a glowing circle in the sky. It was so trite! And although I am not a police officer, I know a little bit about how the NYPD and law enforcement in New York operates, and if the author had done any actual research beyond watching law &order reruns, it doesn’t show here. I cannot recommend a book that irritated me so much. 

Nobody’s Baby by Olivia Waite

 

As I said when I reviewed the first book in this series, I am a big fan of generation ship stories, so I was intrigued when I saw Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite on NetGalley and I was very happy to be granted an advanced reader copy by the publisher. At the time I said that I thoroughly enjoyed that book and hope that this author writes more in this setting. My hopes were answered with this new volume, Nobody’s Baby, (which I also got an eARC of from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review) in which the protagonist Dorothy Gentlemen’s nephew Rutherford find an abandoned baby, which is a real mystery on a ship in which everyone is living in replicated bodies that are designed to be sterile until they reach their destination.  Even more so than in first book, the mystery itself seemed almost besides the point, since I was more focused on the characters and the world building. Now, I didn’t mind that, since the characters and the world building are what I am here for. I also enjoyed this book a lot and look forward to many more in this series.