Rose/House by Arkady Martine

A new Arkady Martine book? Yes! Yes! Yes!

I loved loved loved A Memory Called Empire when it came out.  It was stunning and wonderful and I didn’t want it to end.  It was everything I wanted in a space opera - politics and romance and space stations and aliens beyond the edge of known space.  It brought back all of those good Babylon 5 feels.  And A Desolation Called Peace was a fantastic follow up that I also loved to pieces. So I was beyond overjoyed when I got an eARC from Subterranean Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  

Rose/House did not disappoint. Unlike her earlier work, this book was not space opera. Instead it is a near future sf world with a smart house’s AI haunting a deceased architect’s masterpiece. The characters were perfectly drawn in just a few pages, yet they continued to reveal more depth and nuance as the story progressed. I could not put this down. One of the best things I read all year. 

Pulling the Wings off Angels by KJ Parker

A while back, I became a big fan of K. J. Parker. It started when I read an eARC of A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K.J. Parker and loved it! It was grabby (in a “can’t put this book down” kind of way) and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I said I’d be looking out for more books by K. J. Parker and I later really enjoyed an eARC of the Long Game, which was a delightful book! After that, I went back and read Sixteen Ways to Defend A Walled City, which was also wonderful. Parker’s books that I have read have been first person tales whose protagonists are usually clever bastards (in a thoroughly enjoyable manner). The protagonist of Pulling the Wings off Angels is no different - a lackluster seminary student who starts off the book in debt to his loan shark, who wants to exploit the protagonist’s family legend of a captured Angel. I don’t want to spoil the plot, which was full of delightful surprises. This book, like some of Parker’s that I have read, does not seem to have heard of the existence of women. Otherwise, I have no complaints. This novella was a treat from beginning to end! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Even Though I Knew The End by C. L. Polk

I’ve been hearing good things about C. L. Polk for a while, but I just wasn’t able to read the Kingston Cycle when it was nominated for the best series Hugo this past year. I was curious when I saw a new (presumably) stand-alone coming out from them on NetGalley, and I got an audio eARC in exchange for an honest review. And I’m so glad I did!

Even Though I Knew the End is sort of a historical noir urban fantasy. It’s set in 1940s Chicago in a world where magic is real and devils will make you a bargain if you ask them. The protagonist, Helen, used to be an official magic user from a hierarchical organization, but she got kicked out and is now a warlock/private eye. The worldbuilding is excellent, the use of language is amazing, and the characters feel real immediately. I kept being surprised by where the book was going in the best of ways. The audiobook narrator was a bit slow for my taste, but did s good job differentiating the characters. I listened to it at 1.75 speed. 

I highly recommend this book. It was exciting, sweet, moving, and both lovely and loving. 

Into the West by Mercedes Lackey

I have loved Mercedes Lackey’s books for thirty years. As I said in my review of her last book, I still have the SFBC omnibus of the Last Herald Mage trilogy on my shelf and I can’t tell you how many times I read it. 

Until recently, I haven’t read many of her Valdemar books in the last few years. I listened to the audiobooks of the Collegium Chronicles series, which was fun, but I felt it dragged on too long, with too many kidnappings, and Mags’s accent drove me bananas. I lost touch with the series when my library stopped buying the ebooks of the Herald Spy series after Closer to Home, and I was disappointed in Spy, Spy Again, the third volume in the series focusing on Mags’s kids. 

Last year, I really enjoyed Beyond, her new novel about the origins of the kingdom of Valdemar. So I was very happy to get an eARC of the sequel, Into the West, from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book continues on directly from the last one.  It is a weird book.  The pacing is so strange, and the book never seems to give much focus to the interesting characters, instead sticking mostly with Duke Valdemar, who is somewhat dull, and his sister in law, who takes way too much time to get over her schoolgirl crush on her brother in law, which was always kind of creepy.  The book spends a long time on logistics of the journey of barges down a river, and after some loooooooong slogs it just seems to give up on that with a deus ex machina that takes most of the suspense away from the journey.  Then there is a big battle at the end that feels tacked on and unnecessary.  There were a few fun infrastructure tidbits of how the castle is built that I smiled at, but the ending felt abrupt.  Is there going to be another book? It felt like a definitive ending.  But We would need another one to explain how the vrondi end up where we know them to be, as well as to establish Companions.  It’s not Valdemar without magical white horses!

This was a fun, if odd, book.  I’m glad I read it.  

Into the Windwracked Wilds by A. Deborah Baker

 

This 3rd book in the Up and Under series by A. Deborah Baker, Seanan McGuire’s second pseudonym, is excellent! I liked it even more than book 2. 

Once again, I will say that I love Seanan McGuire. (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 started reading her works under her own name, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, which is amazing, but I picked it because I was intimidated by her long running October Daye series. I had read some Urban Fantasy before, and I fondly remember Mercedes Lackey’s Diana Tregarde books, but my tastes run more to science fiction and then secondary world fantasy, so I was hesitant to dive into such a long series. I picked up the first book, Rosemary and Rue, when it was on sale as a kindle daily deal, and I found it somewhat disappointing compared to her other work. I reminded myself that it was her first published novel, so I cut it some slack. Then Incryptid was nominated for the Best Series Hugo in 2018 and I dove into that instead. I loved it! So I vowed to give Toby another chance. And I was so glad that I did! It is no one of my favorite series. 

I really enjoyed Middlegame when it came out and voted for it as best novel on the Hugo Awards at the time. The writing there was lyrical and a little dreamlike in a way that was a little different from most everything else of hers (but reminded me of the Parisitology books a little). 

One thing about Middlegame that especially reminded me of the Parasitology books was the excerpts from a children’s book included in the novel. In the world of Middlegame, A. Deborah Baker was an author who wrote the Up and Under Books. And Seanan McGuire, being the incredibly talented and prolific author she is, wrote out the entire book of Over the Woodward Wall as part of the process of writing Middlegame. 

That was quickly followed by book 2, Under the Saltwise Sea, and now this new volume, Into the Windwracked Wilds. I love everything about this book, from the cover on down. I listened to an eARC of the audiobook, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, who gave me the eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

This book was much better paced than book 2. It began with far less recap and jumped right into the story. We learned much more about the Crow Girl, one of my favorite characters in the series. (I wonder how much of the author is in the Crow Girl?). The characters don’t seem much closer to the Impossible City by the end of the book, but the character progression makes up for any possible complaints I might have. 

I was worried I wouldn’t like the narration - the only other audiobook I have listened to by Heath Miller was his wife’s novel, Space Opera. I adored that book and hated the narration on the audiobook. But Mr. Miller’s voice and style was a perfect fit for this tale. 

Knot of Shadows by Lois McMaster Bujold

As I have mentioned before on the 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 deserve the best series Hugo award for the Vorkosigan Books, and also deserved it equally for the World of the Five Gods series. I have 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 - the first and so far only new book since her novel length entry, Assassins of Thassalon.  Thank you, Subterranean Press, for the eARC. As usual for a subterranean press edition, there is a new cover with gorgeous cover art. This book was a joy, like all the Penric stories are, and my only complaint is that after the recent novel, this novella felt more like a snack than a meal. It would not be the best place to start with the series, but if you’ve read any of the others before, you will really enjoy this one.

MANIAC OF NEW YORK, VOL 2: THE BRONX IS BURNING by Elliott Kalan

I first encountered Elliott Kalan when his podcast, the Flophouse, did a bonus episode in conjunction with The Greatest Generation to review Star Trek V. I fell in love with him as a podcaster when I listened to I, Podius, the I, Claudius rewatch podcast he did with John Hodgman. After that I started listening to the Flophouse regularly, and I realized that he was the writer of Spider-Man and the X-men, which was hilarious. So when I heard him talking about Maniac of New York on the podcast, I decided to try it, even though horror is NOT my genre. 

But I needn’t have worried - the writing is so good that I forgot to be scared. Kalan creates a very realistic view of how our world would react to a Jason Voorhees-like serial killer on the loose in Manhattan. 

I was very happy when NetGalley and the publisher gave me an eARC of volume 2 in exchange for an honest review. 

Volume 2 ratchets up the tension and the action in quite believable ways. I was hoping for more progress on the whole museum plot thread from book one, but that’s a minor quibble. The ending? I did NOT expect that. I can’t wait for volume 3. 

How To Defend Your Lair by Keith Ammann

  

I discovered Keith Ammann like most people, I assume - through his website. Reading his incredibly thoughtful and thought/provoking analysis of Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons monster tactics really opened me up to a new way of thinking about how to be a Dungeon Master. My DMing got much better and I really enjoyed reading what he had to say. 

So when I saw his new book, How to Defend Your Lair, available on NetGalley, I requested an eARC. 

Frustratingly, his new book is not really for me. As a Dungeon Master, I use mostly official D&D adventures (what they used to call modules when I was a kid). I’m not creating my own worlds and adventures- I prefer to have that done for me. I’ll change things up, of course, but I’m not usually making things up from scratch. 

This book is much more designed for the DMs out there that are making up their entire adventures. And it mostly seems to do a good job, I guess? But a lot of it feels like filler to me, and dull filler at that. But I’m sure this book will be great for the right audience. 

The best american science fiction and fantasy, 2022, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse and John Joseph Adams

 

I have started to really enjoy these best of the year anthologies - it’s a great way for someone like me, who usually prefers single author short story collections, to catch up on recent short fiction. This one was great! It has gems from such favorites of mine as Sam J Miller and Catherynne Valente. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

 The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal 

I have been eagerly awaiting this book for years! I have loved Mary Robinette Kowal ever since the Calculating Stars. Actually, I fell in love with her writing before that - she wrote a blog post on tor dot com before that book came out about her visit to NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab that was just amazing and has stuck with me for years. I loved the Fated Sky just as much (if not more so) than the Calculating Stars, and I went back and found a short story collection of hers, Word Puppets, that was great, and I really enjoyed Ghosttalkers as well. So when she announced her next book was going to be “The Thin Man” in space, I was immediately hooked. 

In college I discovered noir. A good friend of mine introduced me to Bogart movies, and I found an omnibus at the school library of Daishell Hammett’s novels and I devoured them. The Thin Man was not my favorite of his works, but I still enjoyed it a lot so I had very high hopes for Ms. Kowal’s new novel and I was over the moon when I was given an eARC from Tor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

There was a lot I liked about this novel. I liked the future this book shows, where people can take a cruise ship from Earth to Mars, with all of the wonderful ridiculousness of cruise ships in a science fictional setting. I loved the dialog and the writing style - the book is a page turner, like all of Ms. Kowal’s books. 

But I hated the protagonists. The narrator is Tesla Crane, and the name just makes me wince. I know how revered Nikola Tesla is in scientific circles but in 2022 it’s hard not to associate the name with Elon Musk, which is a much less pleasant association. Tesla is an incredibly wealthy scientist and engineer who was injured in an accident years ago and still suffers from physical and mental injuries. The way her chronic pain and PTSD were written felt very realistic. The problem is her wealth. I know the protagonists of the Thin Man were wealthy during the depression but it reads really different in this novel. Tesla’s spouse is arrested very early in the book by the cruise ship’s security and Tesla’s reaction to that makes her look like the solar system’s worst Karen. She uses her money to act terribly to ship’s security, most of whom are just doing their job, and it really soured me on her character early on and for the rest of the novel. Her pompous, expensive, high powered attorney is meant to come off as funny but is just obnoxious. 

Furthermore, the mystery doesn’t feel fair. I won’t spoil it here, but much of it involves clues that we are either never given or given so late in the book that it isn’t satisfying at all. The solution feels like it’s pulled out of left field. 

The book still has more positive than negative attributes, but it is not Ms. Kowal’s best work. 

Number One Fan by Meg Elison

 

I read The Pill by Meg Elison when it was nominated for the Hugo Award last year -it was one of the best stories I have read in years and it still haunts me to this day. In the third year of a global pandemic that most people, including our public health experts, seem to want to ignore despite nothing changing medically, makes it feel all too real. So when I saw a novel by Ms. Elison on NetGalley, I happily requested an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

This book is not SF exactly, but is definitely SF adjacent. In this novel, a popular fantasy author is kidnapped and tortured, and the story invokes some thinly veiled versions of fannish awards and controversies to add to the backstory of the rapey incel who is the antagonist. This was a hard book to read. It is obviously leaning heavily on Misery by Steven King, as the title would suggest, but the torture was visceral and painful to endure even as a reader. 

The author undercut the tension early in the novel when she cut away to the victim’s assistant and later to an FBI agent instead of keeping the perspective close on the victim. Also, those side characters felt less fleshed out than I would’ve expected. 

The book really made me want to throw it against a wall, through, when dealing with the law enforcement aspects of the plot (and later, the trial part also).  The author took pains in parts of the book to have her protagonist mention that the protagonist was an author who met with and learned from real police detectives in order to be able to authentically write about police investigations. This makes it all the more irritating (and ironic, I guess?) that the actual investigation into the kidnapping in this novel was so unbelievably bad. In the real world, the investigators would’ve gotten the victim’s historical cell site data which would’ve let them know where her phone had been taken. They also would probably have tried to get real time cell site location data once the kidnapper started answering the victim’s phone and posting from it on social media. In addition, the trial part drove me up a wall. No judge worth their robes would have allowed the type of questioning that the defense attorney got away with in the novel. And it was s criminal trial, so the prosecutor is NOT the victim’s lawyer, a mistake Ms. Elison made more than once. 

Those problems aside, the book did have enjoyable parts and kept me reading to find out what happened. It wasn’t for me, but it might be for you. 

Ruby Fever by Ilona Andrews

 

My wife has enjoyed Ilona Andrews’s books for years, so when I saw a new book from them on NetGalley, I requested a copy from the publisher. Thanks for the eARC! Let’s see what my wife has to say:

The end of Catalina‘s story was less satisfying than I hoped. There was something a bit awkward about the way this book was written, almost as if the authors were simply tired of this portion of the series. Nevada’s story ended much stronger, and this is actually quite a bit weaker than the previous book in Catalina’s series. However, it was still enjoyable, it left me looking forward to when they kick off the next series. 

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

 

I didn’t know what to expect from this fantasy novella. The description was intriguing- a Persian inspired secondary world fantasy with blood magic? I decided to give it a whirl, thanks to an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

I really enjoyed this book! The writing style was both lyrical and down to earth, if that makes any sense. The descriptions of the different kinds of magic made just enough sense without feeling like you were being weighed down with a Player’s Handbook. I got a little bit squeamish about some of the medical descriptions during an autopsy, but it wasn’t anything over the top. The mystery fooled me - I didn’t see who the perpetrator was until only a page before the reveal, and I liked how the author and the narrator both acknowledge that the antagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be evil. I think the author mostly handled the cast of characters well, although the mother character was such a nonentity that she could’ve been excised easily. I also really appreciated both the realistic sibling relationship and the well-realized trans, ace, and non-binary  characters. I definitely recommend this book and will look for more from the author in the future. 

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

 

I requested this book from Netgalley based on the recommendation of Seanan McGuire, one of my favorite authors who often recommends books on Twitter that I end up liking. It’s billed as a new take on a first contact story, which I was really in the mood for - I feel like I’m reading a lot more fantasy lately and not enough science fiction. Which is not to say I don’t enjoy fantasy, I do! But science fiction is where my heart lies, and between Hugo reading and other stuff, I realized I’m reading a lot more fantasy than science fiction and I miss spaceships and robots. A Half-Built Garden doesn’t have any robots,  it it has some cool spaceships in it so that’s a win!

But seriously- the main conceit in the book is that a near-future Earth is just barely climbing it’s way out of a climate crisis, and traditional governments and corporations don’t hold the same kind of sway they used to - at least not everywhere. Instead there are a number of environmental reclamation zones that are self-governed by a mixture of leading edge science and Reddit-style consensus. The Earth stuff alone is fascinating and well-written and I could’ve devoured another 200 pages of backstory here. But into this world lands an alien ship making contact - these aliens destroyed their world and live on a ringworld and are seeking out other life forms to rescue them from what they believe is the inevitable doom of a planetary existence. The rub is that humanity is divided - the corporations are ready to jump ship and strip mine a whole new solar system, while the protagonists want to have a chance to actually finish fixing the earth and don’t want to be forced to leave. 

This was a truly wonderful book. I even enjoyed the parts I didn’t like - for example, I found the multiparty-marriage setup of the protagonists to be off putting and unpleasant- mainly because the narrator and her primary wife seemed to have rushed into it and it didn’t feel like a fully realized, vibrant relationship. I also felt like the corporate presentation veered towards caricature on occasions. But overall the story felt honest and loving and kind and just what I wonted. It was also nice to see a Jewish protagonist that actually felt Jewish. Representation matters, and I always like to feel like there is a place for me in this genre. 

Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I also got an audiobook eARC from MacMillian Audio and NetGalley and it was excellent! Sometimes lately I find narrators too slow for me and I need to speed them up, but not here! The narrator was excellent. 

Someone in Time edited by Jonathan Strahan

As I have said before on more than one occasion, I am wary of anthologies - I worry about changes in quality and tonal whiplash between stories in themed multi-author collections. But when I saw the lineup for this time travel romance themed anthology I had to try it! (Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.) Some of my favs are in here, including Seanan McGuire, Catherynne Valente, Theodora Goss, Sarah Gailey, and Alix Harrow. I really enjoyed the McGuire story especially.

Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire

 

I feel like I have been waiting for this book for years! I really, really enjoyed it, but I might have built it up in my head a little too much. 

I love Seanan McGuire. (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 started reading her works under her own name, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, which is amazing, but I picked it because I was intimidated by her long running October Daye series. I had read some Urban Fantasy before, and I fondly remember Mercedes Lackey’s Diana Tregarde books, but my tastes run more to science fiction and then secondary world fantasy, so I was hesitant to dive into such a long series. I picked up the first book, Rosemary and Rue, when it was on sale as a kindle daily deal, and I found it somewhat disappointing compared to her other work. I reminded myself that it was her first published novel, so I cut it some slack. Then Incryptid was nominated for the Best Series Hugo in 2018 and I dove into that instead. I loved it! So I vowed to give Toby another chance. And I was so glad that I did! It is no one of my favorite series. 

I really enjoyed Middlegame when it came out and voted for it as best novel on the Hugo Awards at the time. The writing there was lyrical and a little dreamlike in a way that was a little different from most everything else of hers (but reminded me of the Parisitology books a little). 

I remember going to a comic book store in October 2019 when I got her to sign some Ghost Spider and Nightcrawler comics (she was amazing, BTW, and was so kind to my then 7-year-old daughter, who was wearing a ghost spider hooded sweatshirt) and asking her if there would be a follow up to Middlegame. She couldn’t tell me that there would be, so I was extra excited when Seasonal Fears was finally announced. I was even more thrilled when I realized that it was a book she had been talking about for years on her livejournal blog. 

So I was overjoyed when The publisher and NetGalley awarded me an audio eARC of Seasonal Fears (I had already preordered a kindle copy beforehand).  This was a fantastic book in so many ways. I loved the writing style, so very reminiscent of Middlegame. I loved Harry and Melanie, and how real they felt as little kids in the earlier parts of the narrative. I loved the entire Seasonal control structure we learn about in this book. I wish we had spent more time with Harry and Mel as teenagers before their world changed, so I could’ve appreciated their loss more. And I feel like there was a place about 1/3 of the way through where the story dragged a bit, when Harry kept asking Jack the same things over and over again. I also felt the conclusion was a bit rushed. That being said, I really enjoyed this book a ton, and as a bonus, it was nice to see Roger and Dodger again!

I was less pleased with the audiobook narrator. I loved Amber Benson on Buffy, but she just left me feeling flat on this audiobook. She didn’t engage me and I kept feeling myself drifting. I don’t think she did anything wrong, but her style just didn’t work for me. 

Batman: The Detective by Tom Taylor

 

I have enjoyed every comic book by Tom Taylor that I have read. He’s great! I especially loved his run on All New Wolverine (Gabby is the best!) and X-men Red. I also really enjoyed his time on Nightwing. I know there’s a lot of great stuff he’s written that I haven’t gotten to yet, which is why I was so pleased when NetGalley and DC gave me an eARC of Batman:The Detective. 

This was a very satisfying Batman story. It hooks you right away at the beginning and I always appreciate a Batman story that leans into “Worlds Greatest Detective“ rather than just “Caped Crusader.”  And it had Knight and Squire! One of the things I most appreciated about the Batman Incorporated run is that it introduced me to these previously-unknown-to-me characters. And now Squire is all grown up and is Knight and has her own Squire! I love seeing this kind of growth and change in comics. The mystery was fun, the action was great, and I would recommend this to anyone who likes Batman. 

Boys, Beasts & Men by Sam J. Miller

I love a single-author short story collection. I find it a fantastic way to get to know a new-to-me author. I enjoy sampling their writing in bite-sized chunks and experiencing the breadth of their styles and depth of their skill. And Boys, Beasts & Men by Sam J. Miller is the quintessential example of why I feel this way. 

I had heard of Sam J. Miller when his Blackfish City was nominated for a Nebula but I hadn’t gotten around to reading it, so I was very happy that NetGalley and his publisher were able to grant me an eARC of his new short story collection (which I hope is the first of many) in exchange for an honest review. 

The stories in this collection run the gamut from scary to angry to sad to kind but they all have a raw humanity that I loved. I recommend this book highly and hope to read more from Mr. Miller in the future. 

Teen Titans Academy Vol. 1: X Marks The Spot By Tim Sheridan

It has been a while since I read a Teen Titans comic. I fondly remember the year I borrowed the entire Geoff Johns run from the library. Wow, where does the time go? I also loved the original Teen Titans cartoon on Cartoon Network (before the “Go”) so I was intrigued by this new volume that appeared to introduce Red X into continuity. 

This was a fun book. I liked the introduction of lost of new kids with weird or possibly no powers. It really felt like it was trying to go for a Generation X feel. The older classic Titans characters didn’t get quite enough focus, but that’s hard with such a big cast. I particularly liked the kids from Gotham. 

This was a fun read! Thanks to DC and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

Yay! Unexpected sequel to amazing book that was as good as the previous volume!

Like many people, I first encountered Katherine Addison when I found the Goblin Emperor on a bunch of awards ballots and was immediately enchanted. Within six months of reading it, I doubled back and listened to the audiobook  - that novel was charming and delightful and wonderful.  (I also adored her unrelated book, the Angel of the Crows, and I think more people need to read that.) I was thrilled beyond belief when Tor and NetGalley gave me an eARC for The Witness For the Dead, a related book in the same universe as The Goblin Emperor.  That book was a book of my heart -  It was the most enjoyable reading experience I had in months when I read it the first time.  

So I felt triply lucky when Tor and NetGalley gave me an eARC for The Grief of Stones, the direct sequel to the Witness for the Dead.  And it was perfection itself! We resume with Thara Celehar, the Witness for the Dead, continuing to hear petitions and talking to the recently deceased.  He solves some mysteries, has some adventures, and continues to visit the gentleman who runs the opera company that he became friendly with in the last book.  

This book filled me with joy. I almost missed my stop on Metro North because I was so close to the end and I didn’t want to stop! Content warnings for several suicides, several murders, and a stillborn child.  

If you liked The Witness For the Dead or The Goblin Emperor you will adore this book.  I can only hope there is a follow up soon!

January Fifteenth by Rachel Swirsky

 

I first heard of Rachel Swirsky when reading Camestros Felapton’s Hugosauriad (which was, as he explained, “a dinography of the Hugo Awards — tracing the history of the awards via the medium of dinosaur stories”).  That is where I learned of Ms. Swirsky’s short story If You We’re a Dinosaur, My Love, a lyrically beautiful story that touched me deeply. I have always kept my eyes open for more work by her, so I was very excited to see a new novella by her on NetGalley. 

January Fifteenth is set in a near- future USA that has enacted a Universal Basic Income. The story examines a slice of life of four women on the titular day when they get their UBI check. We see each of the protagonists throughout the day from morning til night - a woman on the run from her abusive ex wife, a reporter raising her orphaned younger sister, a spoiled rich college kid, and a pregnant fifteen year old FLDS kid. We see many of the good and the bad changes wrought on society by a UBI. This book gave me a lot of food for thought, but the best part is the characters - they all feel very real and well rounded. This book was excellent and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is nominated for a Hugo and/or Nebula next year. 

The Star Trek Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel

 So disappointing! I was really hoping for a modern update to the original Trek cookbook, which included both in-universe recipes and recipes solicited from the actors of various Trek shows, interspersed with notes on how prop foods were made on the various shows. This book doesn’t even have cellular peptide cake (with mint frosting)!

The Long Game by K. J. Parker

 

A few months ago I read an eARC of A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K.J. Parker and loved it! It was grabby (in a can’t put this book down kind of way) and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I said I’d be looking out for more books by K. J. Parker and I was thrilled when Subterranean Press granted me an eARC of the Long Game in exchange for an honest review. This was a delightful book! The unnamed protagonist was a scoundrel and not unlike the protagonist of A Practical Guide to Conquering the World. The magic system involving demonic possession was pleasantly reminiscent of Bujold’s Penric books. This novella was a treat from beginning to end!

The Assassins of Thasalon by Lois McMaster Bujold

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! When I was getting close to the end of that series I began to despair, so I decided to give the Penric novellas a try. 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 book - and it is the first novel in this previously novella-only series! Thank you, Subterranean Press, for the eARC. There is a bit of a tune jump in this one, and you see Penric’s delightful home life before a sorcerer/assassin goes after his brother-in-law! This new character adds some fascinating dimensions to the world, and it brings Penric finally to the capital city of Thasalon of which we have heard so much. We get to see some fan-favorite character recur and the party sequence was just wonderful. I hope we keep getting more Penric books! I’ll keep reading them!

Tiger Honor by Yoon Ha Lee

As I have mentioned before, I discovered Yoon Ha Lee, as many people did, with Ninefox Gambit.  That book hit me like a freight train - there was so much happening, and I didn’t know if I understood half of it,  it what I did get, I loved.  I devoured the Machineries of Empire series and have been saving the short stories, reading them slowly, because I don’t want them to end.  I read his YA novel, Dragon Pearl, when it came out, which I frankly did not love.  I’m not sure if I just found the plot too haphazard, or if the YA tone didn’t work for me, or if I didn’t enjoy the Space Fantasy aspects, but when I read it, I kept thinking two things: this protagonist is making all of the wrong choices, and the writing style is too simplistic and is turning me off.  

I decided to give Tiger Honor, another book in the same universe as Dragon Pearl, a try (thanks, NetGalley, for the eARC in exchange for this honest review!).  I didn’t love this either,  it I enjoyed it more than I did Dragon Pearl.  I think my main problem is that I am not the target audience - this is more middle grade than YA, and so the conventions are different.  I felt the pacing was off, and several of the secondary characters felt like cyphers, and the protagonist felt both too competent t and incompetent at the same time.  I may just wait for the author’s next adult novel.  But I will recommend it to my kid.  

The Jade Setter of Janloon by Fonda Lee

I can’t believe I waited this long to jump on the Fonda Lee bandwagon! I’ve been hearing about Fonda Lee and the Green Bone Saga for years - her books keep showing up on recommended lists and best of the year lists, but somehow I never got around to finding the time to read them.  But when I saw a book by her from Subterranean Press on NetGalley, I thought I should request it to try it out.  It was wonderful! Her characters are so well drawn, and her world building is wonderful! Even though this was a short book, I felt like it was a real place and well defined.  The only note that clanged to me was when a character who was not a warrior ended up killing someone in a fight, and his emotional response to this did not seem to fit with what I had thought of who the character was up to that point. But maybe that’s just me.  In any event, I loved this book and an putting all three Green Bone Saga books high up on my TBR pile. Thanks for the eARC in exchange for this honest review.

Classic Monsters Unleashed edited by Kim Newman

As I have said before on more than one occasion, I am wary of anthologies - I worry about changes in quality and tonal whiplash between stories in themed multi-author collections. But this is one of the better ones I have sampled lately. A new-to-me story by Seanan McGuire is always a treat. Give this one a try! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

The Kaiju preservation society by John Scalzi

 I was excited when I got the new John Scalzi book from NetGalley and Tor in exchange for an honest review - I’m a big fan of his work. But his last few novels have been weaker than some of his earlier work, and I think it was due to his habit of rushing through writing them to make his deadlines (as he has eloquently described on his blog). I also had some concerns about this new book, since on his blog he described it as also being written very quickly after a different novel idea fell apart. 

The first two chapters are a REAL turnoff. Scalzi’s protagonist is a glib millennial in New York City in March 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic, and as someone who lives in New York and works in Manhattan, I can tell you that Scalzi has failed utterly to capture the mood and attitude of the people living through that specific time and place. Instead his characters feel flat and unreal in a way that totally destroys any ability or desire to want to read any further. 

It feels like a failure of worldbuilding, except the world he fails to build realistically is OUR real earth, before it even gets to the parallel earth filled with giant monsters. He envisions a global conspiracy that thousands of people know about but no one talks about that is supported by every government on the planet. Throw into it a secret effective one-dose covid vaccine early in the pandemic that gets kept solely for the benefit of this global conspiracy, and it’s not just a world that’s unbelievable, but one I wouldn’t want to exist. 

Once the plot gets going, the writing doesn’t get better. The characters are all ciphers. At 1/3 of the way in, none of the characters have any individual personality. They all exhibit that trademark Scalzi-character wit, but in an undifferentiated way. This is especially frustrating in dialogue exchanges without tags, because it is very easy to lose track of who is talking. I know from his blog that Scalzi has done this to make it sound better in audiobook format, but it really shortchanges the clarity of the words on the page. By the end of the book, i still could not differentiate the characters, breaking them down only into Narrator, Villain, and Everyone Else (and they all sound just like Narrator). 

The writing also feels noticeably weaker than in prior books. For example, here is a paragraph from chapter ten: “We all screamed and Satie did a thing and our helicopter did another thing and somehow we got past Edward, but not before I saw an image I would take to my grave.”  This really feels like phoning it in to me. There are SO many instances in this book of the narrator telling the audience that they can’t describe something,  or they can’t explain something, or it makes no sense, but it just happens. If the author cannot explain something, maybe that’s a sign that there is a problem? 

I will keep rereading my older Scalzi novels and I will look forward to whatever new novels he comes up with and I will keep enjoying his blog like I have for years. But I can’t give this one a pass. 

Batman: The Imposter by Mattson Tomlin

This was a weird out-of-continuity elseworlds-style Batman story. Batman is more clearly neurodivergent in this comic, Dr. Leslie Thompkins is much younger and a tries to provide Batman with therapy, and there is a noticeable lack of costume villains. The story and the art are clearly aiming for a more high brow experience, but it just felt rather tired and dull, like the author didn’t really want to write a Batman story unless he could put his stamp on it. And the “innovative “ art style was much better executed in the original run of Batwoman for example. This is skippable. 

Crazy in Poughkeepsie by Daniel Pinkwater

 

After enjoying the eARC of Adventures of a Dwergish Girl I got from NetGalley in the past, I was excited to get an eARC for Daniel Pinkwater’s new book in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, this new book doesn’t hold up to Pinkwater classics like Alan Mendelssohn. 

The book got off on the wrong foot with me with the “guru” character, who might have seemed funny in the 70s, but now oozes with some unpleasant cultural appropriation vibes. The plot also made even less sense than some other Pinkwater books and, overall, this one seems skippable. 

Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham

 Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham

I’m getting old. At this point in my life I think of all of the books I have not yet read and all of the books I wish to reread, and I have decided I am not going to finish books I don’t like. Sadly, I am giving up on finishing Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham at the 48% mark. 

I was initially very excited by this book. I really enjoyed the Expanse novels (except for the last one, it didn’t end particularly well) and I know that Abraham had written well-received fantasy novels before his foray into science fiction, so I was excited when Orbit gave me an eARC of a new book in a new trilogy in exchange for an honest review. 

I tried. I really did! This book is long, and I have read a lot of it, but it doesn’t have that sense of grabbiness that I want from a book - this book is easy to put down and hard to pick up again. The pacing is slow and all the characters (save one) are either boring ciphers or bad people. I don’t like any of them. Except Sammi. She is the only reason I kept reading as long as I did, and I still want to know what happens to her, but not enough to slog through the rest of this tome. 

I’m not saying the book is bad. But it’s not for me. If you want a fantasy doorstop on a slow build, it might just be for you. 

Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld by Seanan McGuire

This is the book I have been waiting for and it did not disappoint!!!!

I am a HUGe fan of 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, Spelunking Through Hell, which is the 11th novel in the series.  This is it! This is Alice’s book! We finally get to travel with her as she roams the multiverse looking for Thomas, her missing husband!

(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.)

In order to get ready for it, I binge read all of the Alice and Thomas short stories on Seanan McGuire’s Patreon page. Are they necessary to enjoy this book? No. Do they make this a much richer and more rewarding novel? Yes, immensely!!

The beginning of the book felt a bit slow to me - which is odd, because it spends a lot of time on action as Alice dimension hops and gets into some big action set pieces, but I can’t really explain it. All of this in the beginning was necessary to set up what follows, so it’s not that big of a deal. 

Should I spoil the best parts of the book for you? No? Well, suffice it to say that if you care about these characters and this series then you will love this book. It was satisfying in all of the right ways. 

One tiny quibble - at one point Alice makes some Star Trek references, but according to the timeline, she left on her dimension hopping journey in the early 1960s before Star Trek premiered. I’m sure she could have caught an episode here or there when she was visiting earth in the past 50 years, but I don’t recall her ever being a big pop culture or sci-fi fan in her earlier appearances. 

My only real complaint is I have to wait a whole other year to find out what happens next!!! This book is a must buy. Thanks to DAW and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.