Through Clouds of Smoke: Freud's Final Days by Suzanne Leclair

On a lark, I requested an eARC of this graphic novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The description sounded interesting; I thought that this would be a comic exploring the final years of Sigmund Freud, who was a fascinating historical person. I was looking forward to getting some insights into the man, but I was disappointed. The dialogue was stilted at best. None of the characters talked like real people, and I’ve gained no insights into who Freud was as a person. The art was interesting, but I found the lettering to be frustrating to read. I would suggest that you skip this one.

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future by Octavia E. Butler

I first read Octavia Butler when my science fiction book club read Kindred a few years ago (we loved it but felt it was fantasy and not science fiction). I read her collection Bloodchild and Other Stories when I got it in a nebula award winning humble numbed and really enjoyed it. After that I would buy kindle editions of all of her series when the collected editions went on sale and I read and loved the Xenogenesis trilogy. But her other books stayed on my TBR shelf, getting passed over for newer things, until I recently read Octavia E. Butler: The Last Interview and Other Conversations which reminded me how much I loved her.  I’ve recently read Wild Seed and Parable of the Sower.  So I was excited when I saw this book on NetGalley and I got a copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  

I was hoping for an essay collection.  Instead this book is one essay.  It is a reprint of a magazine article with some disappointing and distracting illustrations.  It’s a good essay! I enjoyed it! But I wouldn’t pay what the publisher is charging to own this.  

Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead by K. J. Parker

 

A while back, I became a 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 and Pulling the Wings off Angels, which were both delightful books! After that, I went back and read Sixteen Ways to Defend A Walled City and How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It, which were 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 titular Saevus Corax is no different - a man who is too clever by half that runs a business reclaiming armor and other loot from battlefield corpses. I don’t want to spoil the plot, which was full of delightful surprises, but suffice it to say that Corax is more than he originally appears, and he cleverly gets into and out of various and sundry scrapes. 

When I tried to start reading this book the first time, I wasn’t quite in the mood for it, and couldn’t get more than a few pages in, but when I went back to it, I could not put it down. It has that same grabbiness as the other Parker books that I have read. 

With Parker’s books, you know exactly what you were going to get. This book feels very similar to every other Parker book that I’ve already read, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Anyone that has ever enjoyed any of his books before should enjoy this one. 

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

Ravensong by TJ Klune

Ok, that’s it, I’m giving up on this series.

I was curious about this series before I started it. I really enjoyed the Extraordinaries trilogy by TJ Klune (although his strong pro- and anti- police stands in different volumes gave me whiplash), but I didn’t really vibe with Under the Whispering Door. I enjoyed the sentiments of House on a Cerulean Sea but felt the world building was weak in a way that took me out of the book.  But I still liked the author enough that I was full of anticipation when NetGalley and Tor gave me an eARC of Wolfsong and Ravensong, reprints of the first and second books of Klune’s Green Creek series in exchange for honest reviews.

Going in to that first book, I thought it was going to be more urban fantasy than paranormal romance. I was wrong. It was totally a paranormal romance, which was interesting because I don’t usually read in that subgenre. The first book was enjoyable but a slog - as I said I’m my review of that volume, there was like a novella’s worth of story here and the book was like 500+ pages.  I also didn’t like the age gap between the romantic leads.  

Sadly, this sequel was more of the same in the worst ways.  There felt like there was barely a short story’s worth of plot in Ravensong and it was so long and boring to get to it.  The characters are not interesting enough to spend time with and, once again, the main romantic relationship of this book also starts with an age gap with one of the parties below the age of consent.  It’s icky. I was bored and even the cliffhanger epilogue wasn’t enough to get me to pick up volume 3.

I’m not curious enough to try the next one - I’m tapping out here. 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine--The Dog of War by Mike Chen

 

Star Trek is my fandom. I saw Star Trek IV in the theater in 1986 when I was ten.   I remember when I became a Trekkie (spring of 1989) and I have loved Trek ever since. If you re curious, my current ranking of best Trek series as of today is:

LDS

TNG

DS9

SNW

PRO

DSC

TOS

VOY

PIC

TAS

ENT

But this could change tomorrow.  I have been a Next Gen fan since season 2, and have been to more than my fair share of Trek conventions. I remember as a kid picking up Star Trek comics at a Creation convention and being so excited to get more stories from the Enterprise.  I recently have started reading more Star Trek comics (I just finished and enjoyed Godshock) so I was happy to get an eARC of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine--The Dog of War by Mike Chen from IDW and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story was fun and light. Set during the Dominion War, shortly after the retaking of DS9, it involves everyone going wild over a corgi that Quark has acquired while  also dealing with some recently found Borg technology. The overall story is very frivolous, and the characterization and likenesses of some of the characters feel off, but it is mostly a fun romp.  It was an enjoyable way to pass the time.  

System Collapse by Martha Wells

We all love Murderbot, right? Murderbot is one of the absolute best characters to come out of SF in years. I remember when I read the description of Martha Wells’s All Systems Red and thought to myself “I’ve got to put that on hold at the library!”  And I was right - it was excellent. I have eagerly awaited each new Murderbot book and also have been reading some of Ms. Wells’s other fantasy books. The Witch King was good, but my heart belongs to Murderbot. 

So I was very excited when NetGalley and tordotcom gave me an eARC of System Collapse, the new Murderbot book, in exchange for an honest review. 

This was stellar. Before this, Fugitive Telemetry was my favorite Murderbot book, but this one surpassed it. I was so excited to see the fallout from Network Effect and to see what else was going on on that planet. And more ART is always appreciated. This book moved the story forward while simultaneously giving us a close look at Murderbot’s emotional state and it was very satisfying. 

This book is a must buy!

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 

I’d seen the name Silvia Moreno-Garcia around on best of lists and upcoming books to look forward to, but it wasn’t until the Hugo nominations this year were announced that I decided it was time to put her to the top of my to-read pile. I started reading the Daughter of Dr. Moureau while on vacation in Mexico this summer, which felt fitting. I enjoyed it and was excited when I got an eARC from NetGalley of her newest book, Silver Nitrate, in exchange for an honest review. 

This book reminded me of 11/22/63 by Steven King strongly - 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. 

This book is set in Mexico in the 90s and our focus is on a woman who is a film editor and her best friend, a mostly washed up actor. Their lives and their difficulties feel so real and so poignant that I was almost sad when the Nazi magic started coming to the fore. 

The horror is creepy and interesting but not so scary to be off putting to me (I don’t usually do horror) and I really enjoyed this book. I was a little disappointed that the author didn’t delve a little deeper into what it meant that the villains were literal Nazis. In the current state of the world, ignoring the actual victims of the Holocaust, even in fiction, feels like the first step on the road to antisemitism. But maybe I’m feeling especially sensitive due to current events. 

I enjoyed this book and I think even people that don’t love horror could enjoy it. 

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Can you capture lightning in a bottle twice? This book suggests that the answer is yes!

I first heard about Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes from Seanan McGuire’s Twitter account. She often will talk about upcoming books that she loves, and she described it in such a way that I was very much looking forward to reading it. 

It didn’t disappoint- it was a very nice, sweet, cozy story, and I really enjoyed it. It might have bordered on being too twee, and the inventions of cinnamon rolls and other coffee shop staples felt a tad too convenient at times, but that didn’t detract from the joys of the book. 

So I was overjoyed when Tor and NetGalley gave me an eARC of the prequel, Bookshops and Bonedust. Set years before L&L, this book focuses on a Viv who is just starting out in the mercenary business when she gets injured and stuck in a seaside town to recuperate. The cast of characters was even more fun than the last book, and Viv seemed either to be more well rounded or just better written in this volume. 

I loved revisiting this world and I cannot wait for Mr. Baldree to let us know more of what’s happening with Viv. This is a must buy for anyone who enjoyed the original. 

I listened to the audiobook of this novel, which was narrated by the author, and it is always interesting to see how an author interprets his own work. 

The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire

  

What a fascinating book! 

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 was overjoyed when The publisher and NetGalley awarded me an eARC of Sleep No More - I couldn’t stand waiting any longer to find out what happened after Toby was ensorcelled to believe that she had never left her mother.  It turns out that Toby wasn’t the only one affected (or is that effected?). A large chunk of Faerie was totally rewritten and it was a thrill to see our characters acting familiarly yet differently based on their new roles in this revised timeline.  It reminded me of the TNG episode Condundrum in all of the best ways.  As the book progressed, the cracks in the illusion start to show in interesting ways.  I was very excited to see January, the cyber-dryad show up in a pivotal role.  That was a stellar entry in this series. 

But! It was not the only one this year! For the first time ever we get a mainline novel from the POV of someone other than Tobey! This book, which I also got an eARC of from the publisher in exchange for an honest review (and a physical ARC in an amazing influencer box, thanks again!) is from Tybalt’s POV. 

Tybalt is now October’s husband. In the first few books, he was on the frenemy to ally trajectory until I realized that he was the love interest! I disliked him alot at first but he grew on me over the years. His overprotectiveness went from irritating to endearing. And I’d recently started reading the short stories in this series that are from Tybalt’s POV so I was intrigued by this book. 

In addition, I’ve always enjoyed stories that went behind the scenes of stories we’ve already seen- I remember being amazed and in love with the 1955 redux section of  Back to the Future II and this book shares a lot of the fun stuff with that. It’s cool to see the events from a different perspective and Seanan McGuire does an excellent job here. You can see the meticulous attention to detail she puts into every part of the story. 

But I’ve had a tough time writing this review - while I enjoyed the book and thought it was well written, it made me dislike Tybalt in a way I haven’t since book 2.  His mind set and attitude are very off putting to me. I understand that his pregnant wife has been effectively kidnapped and, based on his personal history, that is especially traumatic for him, but his anger and unkindness and uncharitable attitude through much of the book make him a much less pleasant narrator to follow than October is. Maybe the difference is that October is a Hero and Tybalt is not? He’s the protagonist, sure, but he’s not out to save the day as much as he is out to save his wife. 

This book has made me think a lot about the characters I have known and loved for years and it is impressive that Seanan McGuire is able to do that in such a long running series. She’s clearly not phoning anything in and is at the top of her game. I just wish that I found Tybalt more likeable. 

Octavia E. Butler: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

 

I am so happy I read this book! Actually, I am happy and grateful. I first read Octavia Butler when my science fiction book club read Kindred a few years ago (we loved it but felt it was fantasy and not science fiction). I read her collection Bloodchild and Other Stories when I got it in a nebula award winning humble numbed and really enjoyed it. After that I would buy kindle editions of all of her series when the collected editions went on sale and I read and loved the Xenogenesis trilogy. But her other books stayed on my TBR shelf, getting passed over for newer things. 

So I was intrigued when I saw this collection of interviews with Octavia Butler on NetGalley - it seemed like a real sign from the universe. 

I have a secret to confess. I love afterwards/acknowledgments in books. I often (actually always) read them first because I love to know what an author was thinking when they wrote their book. So this collection was fantastic for me! It was like an entire book of acknowledgements!!! It helped me remember why I loved Ms. Butler’s writing and her way of thinking about the world. Since I finished this I’ve read Wild Seed and Parable of the Sower and I can’t wait to dive into the next Octavia Butler book on my virtual shelf. I highly recommend this book. 

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu

 

I’ve been hearing about this book everywhere, it seems like. It was on Tor.com’s and several other websites’ lists of books to watch out for in 2023 so I kept my eyes peeled and requested it when I saw it on NetGalley. The back cover blurb made it seem like a science fictional retelling of Hamlet, which sounded fascinating. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. 

Man, this book was weird! In a good way! The style was as interesting as it was unexpected. Chapters would shift - some were close in from the Hamlet- analog’s perspective, some were “excerpts” from books or articles from the Ophelia-analog’s perspective, some were text messages, it was a wild structural ride! The setting - a locked down scientific research facility with an AI that was the Horatio-analog added a weird creepiness to the story that fit right in. This was a very interesting, enjoyable book. I recommend you check it out! 

Under the Smoke Strewn Sky by A. Deborah Baker

This 4th (and presumably final) book in the Up and Under series by A. Deborah Baker, Seanan McGuire’s second pseudonym, was a worthy conclusion to this series. 

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 book 3, Into the Windwracked Wilds. 

In this final volume, some secrets are revealed that I truly did not see coming until about a page beforehand, but in retrospect made perfect sense. This is just another example of how excellent Ms. McGuire is at storycrafting and why I keep coming back. A wonderful conclusion to an unexpected companion series. Now, to just get more followups to Middlegame!

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. 

Heath Miller was a perfect fit for this tale.  I listened to the book at 2x speed. 

Starling House by Alix Harrow

I first heard of Alix Harrow when her short story “A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” was nominated for a Hugo Award. I read it, and I loved it. When her first novel came out, The Ten Thousand Door of January, I read it right away, and was a little disappointed. The book felt disjointed, and I didn’t care for the protagonist or her struggles very much. I felt like the author didn’t successfully make the leap from short story to novel.  I read Ms. harrows, two fractured fairytale Novelas when they were nominated for the Hugos and I enjoyed them, although they felt a bit glib.I think I’m part because I’m getting a little tired of the hard-drinking, Devil-May-care protagonist trope. But they were entertaining, if not exactly treading new ground, and I enjoyed them more than her first novel, so I was intrigued when I read the blurb for her newest book, Starling House. I was excited when the publisher and NetGalley granted me an eARC and wow. Just wow.  Was this book ever a leveling up!

I’m not a huge horror fan, but after reading some T. Kingfisher novels over the last couple of years, I find myself enjoying it more.  And this book was an excellent book of the “creepy house” variety.  

The protagonist, Opal, felt very real and three dimensional.  Her life and her struggles were rooted in reality and didn’t seem either overly glamorized or exaggerated. I loved the slow build and unfolding of the mystery and all of the secondary and tertiary characters. And it was creepy in just the right way. And I love the house! The titular Starling House is practically a character itself and I love it so. 

This world felt real and lived in and shone a light on a part of the world (rural Kentucky) that I don’t often see in SFF books. The resolution of the novel was satisfying on several levels - in this type of book, it is essential to stick the landing, and this one does so in a very satisfying way. 

I highly recommend this to anyone who likes horror, likes Alice Harrow, likes thoughtful, well written books that are a tad creepy. 

I listened to this on audiobook. The narrator was good, if a tad slow of speech. I started this on 1.5 speed and was up to 2x before I was halfway through. 

City of Bones by Martha Wells

As I have said before, Murderbot is one of the absolute best characters to come out of SF in years. I remember when I read the description of Martha Wells’s All Systems Red and thought to myself “I’ve got to put that on hold at the library!”  And I was right - it was excellent. I have eagerly awaited each new Murderbot book and also read some of the Rakusa series when it was nominated for the Best Series Hugo,  it I have not made the time to dive into Ms. Wells's back catalog.  So I was excited when NetGalley and the publisher gave me an eARC of the reprint of City of Bones, one of Martha Wells’s earlier works, in exchange for an honest review. 

I enjoyed this novel.  We follow an unscrupulous relic dealer and a more naive trainee wizard as they work together to track down some ancient secrets.  The world building was very interesting in the novel - the striated society made sense and felt real.  Khat was an interesting protagonist - selfish but not unlikable.  The book was a little long,  it nonetheless enjoyable.  A satisfying early work by this author.  

Gryphon in Light by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon

I have loved Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books for thirty years. As I said in my review of her last Valdemar 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. 

Two years ago, I really enjoyed Beyond, her new novel about the origins of the kingdom of Valdemar. I also enjoyed the sequel, Into the West, although it was a weird book and the pacing felt off.

But what I have been wanted for decades now is a continuation of the main timeline. We see Elsepth grow from the brat in the Arrows trilogy into a strong, powerful young woman during the Mage Storms.  But what happens next? Well, here is the beginning of a new trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon to tell you.  

Larry Dixon is Mercedes Lackey's husband and sometimes co-writer on Valdemar books, specifically the Owlknight trilogy and the Mage Wars etiology focusing on the gryphons.  As I kid, I really dreaded reading the books co-written by Mr. Dixon.  I felt that they were not as well written as Ms. Lackey's solo Valdemar novels.  So I had some trepidation going in to this book, an eARC of which I got from DAW and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  

My fear was not completely unfounded here, but neither was my eager anticipation.  This book did continue the story! Finally!! We see Elspeth again, if briefly! We are told what is going on in Valdemar, politically speaking, and it seems like some “Make Valdemar Great Again” types are causing all sorts of troubles.  Writing style-wise, this book did not seem markedly worse than the last few solo Valdemar books I have read.

But oh is this book a sloooooooooow slog! It takes forever for anything to happen! We get a lot of internal navel gazing of the main human and gryphon protagonists with a lot of telling, not showing, of their characters.  The human is a little too perfect, which is saying something in a series about white clad heroes on white horses, and the gryphon is a little too stupid and selfish for me to deal with at times.  But my main gripe is that we get like 50 pages worth of plot spread out over the whole book, and all of it seems to be prologue for the sequel when the real story begins.  A book needs to stand on its own, not just be setup for the next book, and this book falls down there.  

But I did enjoy it, and I am excited to see where the story goes from here.  Totally recommended for completists,  not a great place to start the series. 

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

I was very curious about this book. I really enjoyed the Extraordinaries trilogy by TJ Klune (although his strong pro- and anti- police stands in different oils gave me whiplash), but I didn’t really vibe with Under the Whispering Door. I enjoyed the sentiments of House on a Cerulean Sea but felt the world building was weak in a way that took me out of the book.  I was full of anticipation when NetGalley and Tor gave me an eARC of Wolfsong, a reprint (revision?) of the first book of Klune’s Green Creek series. 

Going in, I thought it was going to be more urban fantasy than paranormal romance. I was wrong. It was totally a paranormal romance, which was interesting because I don’t usually read in that sub genre. The world building was ok, if vague. But it kept such a tight focus on this small town and small cast of characters that it was alright that the world building was fuzzy around the edges. 

I really enjoyed the voice and character of Ox, the protagonist. He felt very real and his emotions rang true. Most of the other characters felt flat, and I have fundamental qualms about the romance since the couple met when one was a teenager an the other was ten. Even though nothing physical occurred until the younger one was 17, this still felt emotionally icky to me. 

And it was soooooo loooooong! There’s like a novella’s worth of story here and the book is like 500+ pages. It’s too much. I enjoyed it but there were times when it felt like a slog. 

But I’m just curious enough to try the next one. 

What’s all this then?

 

The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar

 

What a trip this book was! I have heard the name Lavie Tidhar for years but had never read anything by this author - I didn’t even know his gender. But I had always heard good things so when I saw a book by him on NetGalley, I requested and received an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

The description talked about a mystery involving a science fiction book that didn’t exit that held the secrets of the universe. Sounded interesting, I thought, I’ll give it a go. 

Wow! I can’t remember the last book I read like this that wasn’t written by Phillip K. Dick! The book was trippy and weird, leaving me wondering what really happened in it in all the best ways. 

Each section is from the point of view from a different character - the wife of the missing mathematician, the face-blind bookseller, the erudite ex-Bratva thug, and so on. Each section is in a different writing style and tone that fit the character. A large chunk towards the end is told in epistolary format, advancing the story through fictitious correspondence of golden age science fiction writers. 

I’m still not exactly sure how it ended,  but I keep thinking about it, so I guess I liked this book! Give it a shot and you may like it too.