the mercy of gods by James SA Corey

 

Goodness was this book grim!!

I still remember when I first read a book by James S. A. Corey - I remember sitting in a park in Brooklyn reading a copy of Leviathan Wakes I borrowed from the library. I already loved space opera and it hit me right in the right spot. I continued to enjoy the series, although I didn’t love the time jump and the final book feel flat to me. 

So I was really excited when I got an eARC of the first book of their new space opera trilogy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

This was a good, well written book. Sometimes, when two authors collaborate, it works seamlessly and one would never know it was a joint effort by two different minds - and that is how I feel about this book, and all books by James SA Corey. I enjoyed the world building, even though I find some of the set up to be a little hard to swallow. 

But this book is grim. Humanity of conquered cruelly and brutally and the main characters spend most of the book grieving and hurt and broken. The authors do a good job of depicting their mental states realistically, but that results in too-realistic depictions of trauma. Finishing this book was a slog because of that. 

I’ll still read the next one though, because I need to find out what happens next. 

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

 

Lev Grossman is not the twin whose books I love more - his brother Austin Grossman’s novel Soon I Will Be Invincible is a masterpiece. But I also really enjoyed Lev Grossman’s Magicians trilogy, as well as his first book, Warped, which shows his love of TNG. For a long time I wondered what he was up to. Now I know - he was writing The Bright Sword, a chonker of a doorstooper fantasy Arthurian novel. 

This book was wonderful! Way too long, but wonderful. If you told me it was originally going to be a trilogy and then got smushed into one volume I wouldn’t be surprised. This book is a King Arthur tale focused on everyone except Arthur and the other well known round table members. They all get an incredibly long backstory chapter or two which could’ve been their own novellas. This book was a great joy to read and I highly recommend it.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

 I used to think I didn’t like Adrian Tchaikovsky’s books. I mean, I was told that I SHOULD like them since I’m a big fan of Peter F. Hamilton’s space opera doorstoppers. But when I tried to read one of his books a few years ago I rage-quit it like 12% of the way through. 

But then when his novella Elder Race was nominated for a Hugo, I read it and enjoyed it. I also read Ogres when it was nominated, and it wasn’t half bad. So when I read the description of Service Model on NetGalley, I thought it sounded good so I requested it in exchange for an honest review. 

It wasn’t bad. 

There was a lot about it I liked. The first several chapters were wonderful and I really enjoyed the protagonist’s POV - it felt like a very relatable robotic perspective.  

Two things, however, kept this book from being amazing in my eyes. First of all, there were too many pop culture references that really took me out of the story. Secondly, the world building fell apart, especially in the Farm section. I just couldn’t see how it made sense with everything that came before and after, vis a vis the existence of living humans. 

Other than that, it was enjoyable. I’ll definitely check out this author’s next book. 

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

 

I really enjoyed the Dead Djinn in Cairo series, and I was excited to be able to meet and get a book signed by P. Djèlí Clark one year at NYCC, so I was really looking forward to reading the Dead Cat Tail Assassins when I got an eARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I had high hopes for it but in the end I liked it “just okay”.

Part of it was the subject matter - I have never found the stories of professional assassins to be my thing. I enjoyed alot of the world building here, and some of the magic was interesting, but I find the trope of skinny characters having to eat massive amounts to be off putting. In fact, I found a lot about the protagonist to be off putting. She callously kills a pigeon-equivalent bird very early on in the story for no good reason and I just lost all possibility of caring for her fate. I didn’t see the twist coming, and I enjoyed the surprise, but the ending felt a little too contrived and jokey to fit into the tone of the rest of the book. I’ll read his next book for sure, because it is well written, but this one wasn’t doing it for me. 

The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 

Last year, I got a eARC of Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and I really enjoyed it! Before that, I’d seen her name around on best of lists and upcoming books to look forward to, but it wasn’t until the Hugo nomination for the Daughter of Dr. Moureau that I decided it was time to put her to the top of my to-read pile. I enjoyed it and also really enjoyed Silver Nitrate. 

When I reviewed it, I wrote that it reminded me of how I felt when I read 11/22/63 by Steven King - I really enjoyed both books, and for both books I really would have liked to see how the author would have written the story without anything supernatural going on. 

Well, I feel like I got my wish! The Seventh Veil of Salome is not a horror novel - except for the horrors of racism and sexism. It is historical fiction set in old Hollywood during the filming of a movie version of the biblical story of Salome, while alternating sections retelling the author’s version of that tale. Not being familiar with the story, I found this novel fascinating and engrossing. The characters feel real and the story has a sad but realistic feeling ending. I couldn’t have enjoyed it more. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire

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 Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear . I hope for eARCs of the wayward children books every year and once again this year I was finally lucky enough to get one!

This story is an even numbered book, so it is not advancing the main story forward - it more of a character study of Nadya. We met Nadya way back when the gang went on a journey to resurrect Sumi. We hadn’t learned that much of her story except that her Door led to a world of water with turtles in it, and that she eventually made it back there. 

This story is heartbreaking - we learned that Nadya was abandoned at a Russian orphanage by a teenager who was planning on giving her up even before she saw that she was born with a missing arm. The orphanage part isn’t the heartbreaking part - it is the way Nadya is treated by the right wing religious couple who adopt her as an act of charity, not love. Nadya’s time in her world is wonderful but too brief, and I was so sad when she was ripped away at the end of the novella, heartened only by my memory of her ultimate happier ending. 

I tried to savor this book but failed, rushing through to the end because I couldn’t put it down. 

I cannot wait to devour the next one!