I dig these kind of games. Always fun to go bargain hunting, or see if you can make your favorite team for the right price. So I made one for Exo-Squad. Enjoy!

Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire

 I love Seanan McGuire’s books - she is one of my favorite authors, hands down, and for good reason -she consistently writes numerous excellent, honest, and fun books every year.  I was thrilled when DAW and NetGalley gave me an eARC of her newest Incryptid novel, Calculated Risks, which is the tenth novel in the series.  In order to get ready for it, I binge read books 7, 8, and 9 immediately beforehand.  Calculated Risks was fantastic, but there were a few things about it that gave me pause.  Spoilers to follow.

To recap, the Incryptid series involves a family of cryptozoologists that work to protect the natural diversity of the hidden world. Every few books, the point of view narrator shifts to another member of the same family, which has the added benefit of keeping the series fresh and invigorated. Books 9 and 10 are told from Cousin Sarah’s POV.  Sarah is from a species of selfish telepathic wasps, more or less, and book 9 ended with her saving the earth while simultaneously transporting an entire college campus to another dimension, during which she also erased herself from the memories of the family members that she was with. The logical result of that was that the first half of the book consisted of family members angry and yelling at each other while confined in a small space, which was not exactly what I was looking for in escapist reading during the pandemic.  Once the characters rebuilt some trust with each other, the story became more fun and enjoyable to me.  The adventure in the other dimension was interesting, but some things felt a little too convenient, and I would’ve preferred to spent more time exploring the other dimension and less time with the early chapters’ squabbling. Finally, at the end of the novel, Artie, one of my favorite characters, allows his mind to be wholly erased in order to save everyone and get them all home to Earth, leaving his body a shell.  Sarah is then able to “restore” his mind from his parents’ memories, his sister’s memories, and Sarah’s own memories, and whatever amount of Artie’s psyche was shared with Sarah through her telepathic bond.  However, based on everything explained in an earlier chapter about how Sarah reconstructed a memory of one of Artie’s childhood birthdays, this restoration could not have fully worked - the Artie that was “restored” could not possibly be the Artie that existed before, and it felt like that was ignored in favor of a happy ending.  It reminded me a bit of the Illyria plot in Angel when Fred was killed and replaced.  I assume that this will be dealt with in a future novel or short story, but it left me feeling unsatisfied.  I don’t want anyone, however, to take this critique as meaning that I didn’t like this book. I loved it! But I was bothered by these things.  

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

 I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. I have never used the following word before, but I believe it is appropriate here: squee!

I first learned of Becky Chambers when someone from my science fiction book club picked The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet for their selection. It bowled me over with how much I loved it. That book was everything I want from Cozy science fiction. I love the characters, setting, just everything about it. I eagerly anticipated and immediately devoured the next two Wayfarers books when they came out and I was thrilled when she won the Hugo for best series. So I was both delighted and dismayed when I saw that this book was announced as the last book she planned for this universe.

This book was like a warm hug. This book was like being wrapped in a heated blanket on a cold winter day with a mug of hot cocoa with just the right amount of marshmallows in it. 

The plot of this book is not the point of this book. If I were to describe the plot, I would say that a bunch of different aliens end up stuck at a space  truckstop and end up getting to know each other. As they get to know each other, we get to know them, their worlds, their cultures. And it is a pure joy. I cannot thank NetGalley and the publisher enough for an advanced reader copy of this book. It was my most anticipated release for 2021 and I am so thrilled that I got to read it early. 

If you’ve never read a book in the series before, you could easily start here if you wanted to. The author doesn’t repeat some of the world building nuggets that you learned in earlier books, but they’re not necessary to enjoy this novel. For fans of the first three, you will be happy to see a minor character from the first book get a larger role here. I don’t want to spoil who it is because of the pleasure I had in realizing it myself.

This book was practically perfect in every way and everyone should get themselves a copy as soon as it’s available. Again, I say: Squee!

Hilo Book 7: Gina - The Girl Who Broke the World by Judd Winick

 Who doesn’t love Judd Winick? My wife remembers him from the Real World, and I remember him from when he brought Jason Todd back to life.  But he’s now a superstar in our house because of Hilo.  Our 8 year old daughter was introduced to Hilo by the Story Pirates podcast, and after she devoured the first book, we had to rush to the library for the next 5! It involves a kid from outer space who lands on Earth and his two human friends having adventures.  Book 7 focuses on one of his human friends, Gina.  

My 8 year old read it and this is her review: “The book was great! I loved it so much that I couldn’t stop reading it. I was so sad when I finished the book because it meant I would have to wait another year to read the next one.” Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen

I love a good superhero story. I grew up on the Superfriends (Wondertwins rule!) and I enjoy comics, but I especially love a great prose superhero story. A good one just hits me square in my reading happy spot. My favorites are the Velveteen Vs. series by Seanan McGuire and Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman. Hench, by Natalie Zina Walschots, is another new favorite. So when I read the description of We Could Be Heroes, about a superhero and a supervillain who don’t remember their backstories, I thought, cool, sign me up. When I got the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, I tried to get into it, I really did. It’s not bad, but I just kind of bounced off it. The book seemed like it didn’t know what it wanted to be. It kept switching from an intimate character piece on memory loss to a superhero mystery to a heist novel to an action story, and it didn’t do any of it very well. The two main characters had no depth and felt like cyphers all the way through, even as they learned more about themselves and their lost memories. The villain’s plan was rather nonsensical and the entire final third of the book was a long slog. In the acknowledgments, the author explained that the novel started out as a short story idea. I think that’s where it should’ve stayed. There just isn’t enough meat on these bones. 

Ozy and Millie: Perfectly Normal by Dana Simpson

Dana Simpson is the author of the fantastic Phoebe and Her Unicorn series, which my daughter and I love.   But Phoebe and her Unicorn is not her first comic strip - prior to that, she wrote Ozy and Millie, about a pair of foxes. My daughter wanted to read this, and she wanted to review it. Here is her review:

It was a great book and I enjoyed it very much! The book was exceptional and I wanted to keep reading until if finished it! The fact that Ozy’s father is a dragon is funny! I think that the person who wrote this book is a very good author and I can’t wait for the next book to come out!

 

SHAPERS OF WORLDS, edited by Edward Willett

Shapers of Worlds is an anthology based on the Worldshapers podcast, a science fiction podcast, by which I mean it is a podcast about science fiction, not a podcast that consists of science fiction. Instead of audio stories, it consists of interviews with SFF authors. This anthology consists of a mix of both new stories  and reprints. 

This collection feels rather uneven to me. Just a look at the contents list shows a vast difference in the types of authors included. Highlights are short pieces by John Scalzi and Seanan McGuire, two of my favorite authors and clearly superstars in the field. Surprising is the inclusion of a work by John C. Wright, a Sad Puppy who I think would be shocked to find himself in the same anthology as Scalzi. Frankly, I have no interest in reading anything of his and skipped his story entirely. Overall, a mixed bag of stories.