Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire

 

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.

Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher (Audiobook)

 

In the past 4 years, or so, I have become a HUGE fan of T. Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon. 

Ms. Vernon is the author of the Hamster Princess books, which both of my daughters have enjoyed (as have I!). Those books were my introduction to her, along with her social media presence, which I found through Seanan McGuire. 

Ordinarily, I don’t like horror. I never wanted to watch scary movies as a kid. I got nightmares from E.T.  But based on recommendations I read the Twisted Ones and The Holllow Places and I realized that I loved Ms. Vernon’s writing and I could make it through the scary parts unscathed with her as my guide. 

I started devouring her back catalog and putting all new releases on hold at the library.  I have subscribed to her Patreon and I convinced my wife to read Nettle and Bone, which she loved (as did I). I even backed the kickstarter for the rerelease of Digger, which was wonderful. 

I was very excited when I heard she had a new book out in 2025 called Hemlock and Silver and I was even more excited when I got an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

This new book is loosely based on the Snow White fairy tale, with some Rose Red in there too. Our main character is reminiscent of other Kingfisher protagonists - a somewhat awkward older (but not old) woman who is brilliant and skilled and in a bit over her head.  She is an expert on poison and is recruited to try to figure out what is making the princess sick. Without spoiling things too much, I can tell you that you may never look at a mirror the same way again after this novel. 

This book was wonderful and was a story I could have lived in forever. 

This was the one of the best new releases I have read in 2025 so far and it will probably be on my Hugo ballot next year! Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

I listened to this at 1.75 speed. 

Lucky Day by by Chuck Tingle

Who here doesn’t know about Chuck Tingle? Author of dinosaur erotica, unwitting target of the Rabid Puppies who turned their own hate against them, he is a neurodivergent pink-masked beacon of hope who preaches that love is love. I excitedly read Camp Damascus, his first traditionally published novel last year, and really enjoyed it! It was a tad rough in spots but the story and the message outweighed any minor issues. I loved his second traditionally published novel, Bury Your Gays, even more! 

So I was very excited when NetGalley and the publisher gave me an ARC of his new book, Lucky Day, in exchange for an honest review. 

I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it as much as Bury Your Gays.  The premise is that one day a bunch of incredibly unlikely things happen, like fish raining from the sky, and millions of people die from unlikely accidents. The protagonist is a statistics professor who just breaks when her mostly estranged mother is killed in front of her and retreats from her fiancée and the world until a former FBI agent convinces her to join his investigation of what is causing these unlikely events. 

The cosmic horror driving the plot and its resolution didn’t feel all that compelling to me, and the third act heel turn of a character felt abrupt to me, but the main thing I disliked in this book was how the protagonist just abandoned her fiancée. I know it is supposed to be emblematic of how broken she was, but it just made her very unlikable to me.  This books was good but not great. 

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I have said in the past that 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. I enjoyed Service Model when the publisher and NetGalley gave me an eARC in exchange for an honest review, and it wasn’t bad. My main complaints were too many pop culture references and some incoherent worldbuilding. His other big novel from last year, Alien Clay, really didn’t do much for me. I hated the protagonist and felt it was dreary. 

When I reviewed Service model, I explained that I would definitely check out this author’s next book. And here we are!

Shroud is a much more interesting first contact novel than Alien Clay. Scientists crash on a planet, meet some eyeless aliens who live in the dark, and survive until rescue. We also get some sections from the aliens’ point of view. 

Although not a riveting page turner, I did enjoy this book. 

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

 

I have loved Charlie Jane Anders’s writing since her io9 era. I really enjoyed All the Birds in the Sky and her YA trilogy. I think it was back in 2017 when I was at NYCC and got an ARC of The City in the Middle of the Night and got her to sign it and she was thrilled because she didn’t think they had them available for giveaways yet. (That may be my favorite book of hers.)

So I was overjoyed when I got an eARC from Tor and NetGalley of her new novel, Lessons in Magic and Disaster. It is a story about a trans woman teaching her lesbian mother magic, as the back cover promises, but it is about so much more. It is about love and loss and parenthood and childhood and how to exist in the world. This book made me laugh and it made me sad in all the best ways. The flashbacks to the life of the protagonist’s mother were some of the most riveting sections of the book. I wonder what a nonSF book by this author would look like? Probably also amazing. The view of academia and anti-trans right wing hate in this book seems almost quaint compared to the hate and vitriol I’m seeing in the news today- it’s hard to believe that the real world has gotten so much worse since the author wrote this novel. I cannot recommend this book enough. 

Galaxy Grifter by A. Zaykova

 

I’m always looking for a good space opera. I love a universe with lots of aliens and spaceships, as do many. Sometimes I feel like everyone is still chasing the Firefly vibes, and that is why I requested an eARC of Galaxy Grifter from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I think this book was aiming for an easy breezy vibe, like the chillest parts of Firefly, but this book really missed the mark for me. 

Maybe I’m more alert to anti-semitism than I used to be, but when you make your protagonist an amoral thief from a rich privileged family who only cares about material things and you name him Levi in a book where no one else appears to be Jewish, it really feels antisemitic, playing into all of the heinous stereotypes that I had hoped that we had left behind in the 20th century. When you have him drug people to get information and act as an accessory to multiple murders and then you still want us to root for him, I think you are barking up the wrong tree. I don’t understand why the female lead ever has sex with him, let alone falls for him. Much of the dialog is stilted (like when the male lead talks about how he enjoys being a thief) and the overall plot is dull. I cannot recommend this book. 

The Elysium Heist by Y. M. Resnik

I’m a sucker for a fun heist story - who isn’t? All I knew when I requested this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review was the tag line that it was a sapphic Ocean’s Eleven type tale. It sure lived up to that billing! This book threw together an interesting group of women to pull off a heist at a casino. I enjoyed a lot of this book, even if the characters often felt like stereotypes. I could rest easy if I never had to encounter the virginal prostitute trope again, and I felt that the author could have used one more pass from a Jewish sensitivity reader. I enjoyed the fact that one of the protagonists was an observant Jewish woman, but her embracing of her own lesbianism felt rather quick, and I don’t think the author realized how her villainous husband played into several antisemitic stereotypes. The prostitute’s asexual sister who was in love with the casino’s AI was fascinating and I wish the whole book had been about her. I don’t mean to sound too critical - this was a fun and breezy summer read.