Jessica Strider

Pros: excellent characterization, immersive writing, fast paced

Cons: some readers may not like the brutal realism of the narrative (lots of rape - though nothing is graphically described)

The Desert Spear is one of those rare books when the sequel is better than the first book. Mr. Brett really comes into his own in this book.

The plot (and if you haven't read The Warded Man/Painted Man this will contain spoilers):

Jardir, now proclaimed Shar'Dama Ka (Deliverer), has left the desert to conquer- ahem - unite the men of the North under his banner in preparation for Sharum Ka, the final battle with the demons.

Through flashbacks we get to learn how Jardir progressed to his current position, creating a sympathetic, though still brutal, antagonist. And if you don't like realism in your fantasy (rape, bullying, etc.) you won't like this.

Meanwhile, Arlen, going solely by the name ‘the Warded Man', tries to ally the northern nations to fight against Jardir's forces. During this mission he encounters many people he hasn't seen since his childhood, meetings that cause him to question the decisions he has made. And though others hail him as their deliverer, he has no desire to take on that role.

Finally, we are reintroduced to Renna Tanner, whose father Harl became too friendly with his daughters after his wife's death. Her story is quite horrific.

Mr. Brett's characters are fascinating, and remain complete people, each with good and bad points. Even Leesha, Deliverer's Hollow's herb gatherer who, under a different author would be insufferably perfect, is written so well you like her despite her many many abilities. Each character's story is interesting and heartbreaking in its own way. In fact, I wanted to skim by the (well-written) fight scenes just to get back to the character based storylines, they were so good.

The demons get nastier, with a new breed introduced who are watching the two potential deliverers.

Final verdict: read these books. Peter Brett's one of the best new epic fantasy writers around.

Pros: political intrigue, plot twists, tense atmospheres

Cons: many aspects of this book are merely set-ups for the next in the series

Minor Spoiler Alert

Canticle is book 2 in the Psalms of Isaac. It's been 9 months since the events of Lamentation and a celebration is under way to welcome Rudolfo's heir to the Ninefold Forest Houses. When tragedy strikes, the people of the already devestated Named Lands learn that the outside threat they feared is closer than they think.

All the principles are back, rushing towards their destinies, though none of the end results they're expecting. Neb finally gets to go to the Churning Wastes, Winters takes up her crown, Jin Li Tam becomes a true queen and her father comes face to face with those who really orchestrated the destruction of Windwir.

The only negative is that some of the events are a little drawn out and feel like they're just to facilitate events in the next book - particularly Neb's storyline.

Ultimately, it's a great book with lots of intrigue, down time for character development and plot twists you won't see coming.

The second book in the Iron Elves series starts immediately where A Darkness Forged in Fire finishes. The Iron Elves are clearing the Shadow Monarch's sarka har and rakkes from the 7 islands in the Onmedan Sea before heading to the desert to pick up the original Iron Elves. Or so Major Konowa believes. It turns out there are other reasons to head for the desert, and other magics at play. For a second star is returning, and several powerful people would like control of it.

This book deals primarily with the fall out of the first book's actions. Those actions are only moderately explained, so you might want to reread the last few chapter of A Darkness before starting Light. The Iron Elves are not happy with the curse they're under or the power that comes with it. Private Alwyn Renwar has to deal with an artificial leg and the knowledge that death won't stop his pain. And when magical white fire seemingly sets one of their compatriots free of the curse, death suddenly doesn't seem such a high price to pay in order to achieve that freedom.

A lot of authors forget that a large part of the story, especially when it comes to battle, is the downtime between confrontations and how the soldiers deal with the stresses that come from a military lifestyle. Chris Evans brings all of this in nicely, allowing the characters to develop from caricature soldiers into real people.

The pacing is quick though at times it feels little is happening in the story as there's a lot more political intrigue than outright fighting. But it's a quick read and the ending has several surprises that will have you wishing the next book were already out.

Pros: a lot of good interpersonal relationships, unique mythology, excellent worldbuilding, interesting characters (particularly Sieh), some romance

Cons: the political maneuverings of the potential heirs takes a back seat to other affairs (which is only a con in that I was expecting the book to deal more with the politics of the Kingdoms)

The Hundred Thousands Kingdoms is a fantasy novel that grabbed my interest from page one and didn't let it go. Yeine Darr is narrating 2 very interesting weeks of her life. At times she interrupts her own story to mention something she forgot to say earlier or something about the world and its people she thinks you should know. This makes for an engaging read as it's almost like being around a camp fire and hearing a live storyteller (in the way that dialogue feels real even though people don't speak the way dialogue is presented).

Yeine is a leader among her ‘barbarian' people. She is also the half-blood granddaughter of the current ruler of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. And he has called her to Sky for reasons she does not know.

While there, she plans to force her grandfather to admit to her mother's murder.

But once in Sky Yeine meets Nahadoth, Sieh, Kurue and Zhakkarn, one of the Three Gods and his children. They were defeated by Bright Itempas and made slaves to and weapons for the Kingdoms' Arameri rulers. And they have their own plans for Yeine.

Jemisin has developed a distinctive voice, which was a pleasure to read. Her characters are engaging and sympathetic - even when they're doing things you otherwise wouldn't agree with. The plot is deceptively simple, gaining in complexity as the story progresses. You'll think you know what the ending is going to be. You don't.

The contest between Yeine and her cousins to see who will become the heir to the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was more of a backdrop to other events than the main plot, which surprised me. I would have liked to see more of the conflict - backbiting, political maneuvering, etc.

The Gods and their history are fascinating. From their various births, their jealousy, hatred and love, to the war that rips them apart, you can't wait to learn more about them.

It's a great book and the sequel promises to show more of the world Jemisin has created.

A fast paced novel filled with vampires, werewolves, tea and parasols, this book will appeal to a wide range of readers. The main character, Alexia Tarabotti, is feisty and fun reminding one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at some times and Elizabeth Bennett at others. A clever reworking of the Victorian era.

The author line-up in The Dragon Book is a bit unusual for a collection by “the masters of modern fantasy”, especially considering that some of the authors in the book would likely not appreciate their works being classified as fantasy. The stories themselves are diverse and entertaining, with some completely unexpected takes on the mythos of dragons. Most of the stories are alternate histories, where dragons exist in the real world. A few at the end of the book have fantasy world settings. (My review code is as follows ^ = thumbs up, ^^ = 2 thumbs up, v = thumb down)

v “Dragon's Deep” - Cecelia Holland (I liked the beginning of the story, about a village whose taxes have been raised and what the villagers must do in order to survive, but an ... unpleasant event occurs part way through that made the ending less plausible - and palatable - for me.)
^ “Vici” - Naomi Novik (I haven't read her novels, but if this story, set in ancient Rome, is an example, then I'll definitely be picking them up.)
^ “Bob Choi's Last Job” - Jonathan Stroud (An interesting detective story where dragons can cloak themselves to look like humans.)
^ “Are You Afflicted with Dragons?” - Kage Baker (Loved the premise, that dragons are small pests, kind of like pigeons, and need to be dealt with. However, I found the ending too abrupt.)
^ “The Tsar's Dragons” - Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple (Taking place just before the Russian Revolution, both Rasputin and Leon Trotsky make appearances.)
^ “The Dragon of Direfell” - Liz Williams (This story, about a magician called in to deal with a dragon, was cleverly written and had a great ending.)
^^ “Oakland Dragon Blues” - Peter S. Beagle (Another great story, a cop's called in to move a dragon who's obstructing traffic, not that he'd later admit that's what it was. Shows how reality is shaped by belief.)
v “Humane Killer” - Diana Gabaldon & Samuel Sykes (Two stories that intersect, one half tells of a magician and her knight protector, the other half tells of a knight in training and his scarred sister companion. Neither group is what they appear and both are sent to kill the same dragon. I found the story rather long and boring with rather unsympathetic characters.)
^^ “Stop!” - Garth Nix (A man walks onto an US army a-bomb test site. Sounds odd but the story works and is one of the best in the collection.)
^ “Ungentle Fire” - Sean Williams (A coming of age story where a boy is sent to slay a dragon, but is unsure whether following his master is still the correct course of action.)
^^ “A Stark and Wormy Knight” - Tad Williams (A fantastic tale of a dragon telling her son a bed time story. It uses dialect, but the tale itself is fun, not the least for being from the dragon's POV.)
^ “None So Blind” - Harry Turtledove (Colonial soldiers examine a mountain range inhabited by savages concerning rumours of dragons.)
^ “JoBoy” - Diana Wynne Jones (A strange but interesting story of a man whose father mysteriously dies and who, himself, falls prey to an undiagnosable illness.)
^ “Puz-le” = Gregory Maguire (Ellen's so bored from being stuck in the cottage due to rain that she decides to do a puzzle. Only the picture keeps changing. The character's aren't that likable, but Maguire writes them so well you don't really care.)
^^ “After the Third Kiss” - Bruce Coville (This story has the feel of a fairytale in that it's bizarre, has an evil step-mother and a relatively happy ending. There are some great twists in the tale of a girl changed into a dragon who needs her brothers kisses in order to become human again. It was another one of my favourites.)
^ “The War That Winter Is” - Tanith Lee (An ice dragon terrorizes those living in northern climes, freezing whole villages with his breath, until a hero is born. A tale about discovering your own purpose in life rather than doing what others want you to do.)
^ “The Dragon's Tale” - Tamora Pierce (A second story told from a dragon's POV, this time a young dragon who wants to help a woman and her child.)
^^ “Dragon Storm” - Mary Rosenblum (Tahlia of the ‘bad-luck eyes' has a way with dragons, but a bully from the grove where she lives threatens her life, and the role she might play in keeping the groves safe from the Kark. A highly enjoyable story, with interesting characters.)
^ “The Dragaman's Bride” - Andy Duncan (Mountain youths are disappearing and Pearl, a magician stumbles onto the reason for the mystery.)

The book has, in my opinion, 5 exceptional stories and 2 bad to mediocre stories. The others were fun reads and did show originality in dealing with dragons. Ultimately, this is a great collection for anyone who loves dragons or who wants to know more about them.

Pros: great sense of perspective, deals cleverly with repeating days

Cons: starts in the middle of the action so it's harder to get a grasp of the situation

When Keiji Kiriya dies in his first battle with the alien Mimics he doesn't expect to wake up the previous morning as if those days were just a dream. He quickly realizes that time is repeating and decides to train hard and become a great Jacket jockey like Rita Vrataski, aka the Valkyrie, aka the Full Metal Bitch.

This novel was the basis for the film Edge of Tomorrow, which I thought was really well done. Sure, the ending didn't make much sense, but it was a fun film. The ending in the book is different, and does make sense.

You get point of view chapters from both Keiji and, later on, Rita, which help put you into the action and understand why those two act the way they do. They're interesting characters, with a lot of supporting characters around them that you get to know fairly well.

There's enough exposition to understand the armoured suits the soldiers wear (the Jackets) and the alien menace, but beyond that there are only snippets here and there about how the world has coped with the war and how Keiji and Rita ended up enlisting.

While a few days are heavily detailed, the majority are skipped outright, giving you a good impression of time passing and Keiji learning how to fight without becoming boring or repetitive.

It's an action packed story that's also a quick read at just under 200 pages.

Pros: realistic teen male characters, positive reactions from teens under pressure

Cons: frustrating plot

Thomas wakes up in an elevator with no memory of his life. When the elevator stops, doors on the ceiling open and he's helped out by a group of boys living in the Glade, surrounded by a Maze. Once a month a new boy arrives and once a week supplies come up the elevator. The furthest back anyone remembers is two years.

The day after Thomas arrives something unusual happens. The elevator opens again. This time, there's a girl inside.

As I've mentioned in previous teen reviews, there are two types of kid/teen books. Those you read and appreciate only as a youth and those that are equally good when you're an adult. I'd put the Maze Runner in the first category.

I'll start off with the positives, as my complaints contain spoilers to explain my points.

This is a great book for teen boys. As a loner in school I can sympathize with Thomas, both in his desire to learn more of what's going on as well as his need to keep his own counsel on matters of importance.

I especially liked how, despite the problems facing them, the boys set up a community that focuses on hard work and co-operation. Too often visions of boys in solitude show social break downs, pitting each one against the other or banding together in small violent groups (think: Lord of the Flies). In this book, when someone steps out of line they are dealt with. Violently. Not because the boys are incapable of other forms of justice (they have a jail cell) but because they can't afford the break down of order that could arise with rebellion or psychosis. In a tough situation they act with the good of the many in mind. And it works.

The glade was well planned, with the inhabitants utilizing specialized vocabulary to explain their existence and the problems facing them. It also allowed the author to have the kids use realistic language without filling the book with curses, which I thought was clever.

Now for the bad points - from an adult perspective. The Maze Runner is a book of questions. Thomas is teeming with them, and the reader is too. The problem is, no one knows the answers. While Thomas learns more about the glade and the maze, there's no one to answer the more important questions - what is the purpose of the glade/maze and why were these boys sent there. This is a series, with the idea that answers will be forthcoming in future books, but I found it frustrating that so little was revealed, even at the end of this book.

The book depends heavily on repetition. Thomas mentions several times how odd it is that he has memories of a life - movies, school, etc. - but can't remember faces or names of people and places. Another aspect is the repetition of information. Someone would mention something and a few paragraphs later someone else would ask about it. And sometimes the information is contradictory.

Potential Spoiler Alert (I'll make it as general as I can while explaining my point)

At the end of the novel a group of characters try a risky plan to escape the maze. They have to reach a certain place and type in a code. Doing so turns off the Grievers - the monsters that inhabit the maze. They know this, but afterwards someone questions what might have happened to those who remained behind and the consensus is that the Grievers got them despite the fact that the Grievers were turned off by the code.

End Spoiler Alert

But my biggest complaint was that I never liked any of the boys. There was nothing wrong with them besides being a bit annoying at times. They were all three dimensional characters, with good points and bad points. Unfortunately, we only see them through Thomas' eyes. And as Thomas' opinions of them changed, waffling between liking them and hating them, so too did mine as a reader. It meant that when people started dying at the end, I didn't care. That always disturbs me. Fictional or not, if the author is doing a good job I should feel something when someone dies.

Still, the book had enough positives that I'd recommend it for teen readers, if not necessarily their parents. The book has no sex, a little violence (mostly off screen) and lots of fake swearing.

Pros: ‘realistic' internet, relevant (net coming under government control/interference, environmental problems)

Cons: grammar tense shift from the real world (past tense) to the net and character's thoughts (present tense) was distracting

Pro/Con: very involved story (you have to pay close attention), slow paced, two lesbian love scenes (both are short and less involved than what you'll find in a traditional romance novel)

Trouble walked away from her life as a cracker and her girlfriend, when the Evans-Tindale law passed, making net crimes prosecutable in the real world with harsh penalties.

Three years later, a new cracker's using the name Trouble and forces the real Trouble out of retirement.

For a book dealing with the internet and computers, the technobabble's surprisingly easy to comprehend. It's a book that requires attention, but I'm not the most well versed when it comes to computers and had no difficulty following the story. Having said that, it's possible people more in the know will pick up on errors regarding cracking and net use that I didn't notice.

One thing I really like was how, though there were real world consequences for things that happened on the net (sore fingers from trying to crack IC(E) security systems due to the nerve pulse they give off) there was no ‘you have to make it back to a home port before you can get off the net' (like in the Matrix or Tekwar). Though other crackers considered it a lack of skill to use it, users could hit an emergency disconnect.

I also liked that there were societal divisions on the net between those who were light and shadow (ie, criminals and cops/regular users), on the dollie (connection slot that only allowed data transfer) and those on the wire (brainworm connection that translated data as sensations and illusions).

The protagonists are both unapologetically lesbian. Given that the book was originally published in 1998 I thought it was great that the author felt no need to apologize for or justify their sexuality. And while they're discriminated against, they manage to form communities, both on and off the nets. And for those of you who are curious, there are two quick but complete love scenes. If you've read a modern romance novel you've probably read more explicit stuff already.

The book was a fairly slow read, as the plot and technology were fairly involved. My only complaint was with the verb tense changes between narration and thoughts and again between the real world and the net. I found the switches distracting and caused me to lose my place in the story.

Well ahead of its time, Trouble And Her Friends is an interesting, relevant read.

Don't be fooled by the Luna insignia on the spine, Poison Study is not a romance thinly disguised as a fantasy novel. When Yelena, a convicted murderer, is given a stay of execution in return for becoming the Commander's new food taster, she has no idea how complicated her life is about to become. Yelena faces death from all sides, from the General whose son she killed, the southern magicians who fear her uncontrolled hidden magic, and the poison in her body, used as a means of keeping her from escaping. Her frantic attempts to survive, told in Snyder's entertaining first person narration, will keep you turning pages and leave you reaching for the sequel.

For readers 12 and up who want some fantastic elements to make their history more palatable, there's Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, coming out in October of this year. It's an alternative history steampunk, a sub-genre that is becoming very popular.

The book begins with two characters in very different circumstances. One is a girl, dressing up a boy, in order to join the British airforce. The other, Alek, is an Austro-Hungarian prince who's just been orphaned. The death of his parents sparks a war (World War I) and that's when things get interesting.

The book shows many different things. There's the ideological differences of nations (Germany & Austro-Hungary on one side, France, England and Russia on the other) and religious/technical differences (Darwinists vs ‘Clankers' - those who use machines). The Darwinists have created creatures from the lifethreads of various animals to perform jobs that machines do in nations that consider such tinkering abominable.

Scott Westerfeld does a great job of realizing the steampunk machines on one side of the war as well as the more interesting ‘beasties' on the other. My only complaint here is that the description of the airship Leviathan isn't as detailed as I would have liked. It was hard for me to picture some of the aspects of the beast. Maybe a cross-section diagram of the ship would have helped in this respect.

Speaking of diagrams, the gorgeous artwork throughout the book by Keith Thompson really brings the story to life. Seeing the beasties, the mechanical walker and the characters helps one better enter this world.

Beyond that, the story was tight and fast paced, though I found Alek a little tiresome as the book wore on. He never seemed to learn from his mistakes - always acting first and thinking later. Which isn't out of character as he's only 15. As an adult I simply wanted him to smarten up a bit.

Be prepared to wait for the sequal. This is a great beginning, explaining the background to the war, the people and all of the technologies involved. There's definitely more to come.

And the coup de grace? Westerfeld has an afterward explaining the actual history vs his imagined one - so kids can have a fun story and learn what was true and what wasn't. And it's an interesting mix.

A fascinating look at male/female relations throughout history. Neither a rant nor a justification for injustice, this book clearly explains how and (as much as he could) why half of the human population has for numerous reasons mistreated the other half. He shows how for the most part women have either been demonized as whores or elevated beyond reality as goddesses. Even in modern times the idea that women should control their bodies (abortion) or their sexuality and procreative abilities (contraceptives and promiscuity) have encountered opposition by religion, philosophy, nationalism, science and women themselves.

Pros: thought provoking, plus sized protagonist, interesting story

Cons:

Cora Miller is still having nightmares months after returning from the Moors and no longer believes Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children can help her. So she transfers to the other school for children who have found doors to other worlds, Whitethorn. Upon arrival she realizes she's made a terrible mistake. But while it's easy to enter Whitethorn, it's very hard to leave.

This is the 7th novella in the Wayward Children series and relies on knowledge of the prior books to really work. You find out what happened to Regan after the events of Across the Green Grass Fields as Cora deals with the trauma of visiting the Moors in Come Tumbling Down.

Cora is a fantastic character and though it's not her origin story (so no mermaid adventures in the Trenches) it was wonderful watching her grow and realize that she doesn't need to be in a portal world to be a hero. And that sometimes you just have to deal with your problems head on.

I found the book thought provoking as it pointed out some of the daily horrors humans inflict on each other, especially towards those with larger bodies.

The story is engaging and the perfect length.

Pros: interesting characters, lots of conflicting motivations, challenging heist

Cons:

Ryia, The Butcher of Carrowwick, has been hunted by the Guildmaster of Thamorr for years. As the muscle for Callum Clem, leader of the Saints in the slums of Carrowwick, she has a fairly safe home. But when the opportunity comes to rob the Guildmaster and remove him as a threat she jumps at the chance. But this is a mission requiring a team, and though her teammates are mostly Saints, they've each got their own plans for how this mission will end.

The author does an excellent job of setting up the main characters. It makes the opening feel a little slow, but the payoff comes quickly when you understand who the heist team members are and the conflicting motivations that drive them. It's the motivations that make this book compelling, knowing that they all want to double cross each other, but for different reasons. You know - early on - that things are going to go poorly, and it's a wild ride seeing just how everything falls out in the end.

The characters are quite interesting with different reasons why they're working for Callum Clem. I especially enjoyed seeing Ryia, The Butcher of Carrowwick, develop a conscience.

The adepts and their telepathic/telekinetic magic is handled well, kept in a fair bit of mystery. The crew mainly uses their own form of magic, sleight of hand and make-up to achieve their ends.

After the opening chapters the book is very fast paced, with plans and counter-plans, fights and derring do. If you like grimdark fantasy but with a more upbeat feel, this is a great book.

Pros: brilliant worldbuilding, interesting characters, thought-provoking, international setting

Cons:

Olga (Welga) Ramirez only has a few months of shield work left before she ages out of it, which is why she's ready to ignore the tremors her zips (enhancement drugs) seem to be causing. To placate her boyfriend, she asks her sister-in-law, Nithya, a biogeneticist, to look into it.

Protecting drug manufacturing funders from protesters as a shield is a semi-dangerous but rewarding and steady job in a world where most people can only find gig work. When a new protest group, the Machinehood, ignores the established ‘rules' and kills the funder, leaving a manifesto behind, Ramirez realizes the world is about to change.

I really liked the two main point of view characters. Welga's a bad ass former soldier who loves to cook. Her side of the story deals with the physical aspects of modifications. Nithya is the primary wage earner in her family which makes things a challenge when she discovers she's pregnant and has to stop using the drugs that allow her to work. Her story is about juggling family and work. Her story also deals more with ethical problems. The book also has a minor non-binary character which was cool to see. And while the story shows that racism isn't dead, this character faces no in text negativity, so maybe humanity in this future has progressed in that respect.

The worldbuilding was incredible. The amount of history the author created is mind boggling, especially given its detail with regards to politics, conflict, ethics, and most importantly science (with the development of mech technology, then bots, then zips and veemods). I also appreciated the differences in attitude shown by people of various ages with regards to the technology (as it changed) and privacy issues. Also the mixing of technologies - static and moldable items - was really cool, and showed that people adapt new technologies at different speeds depending on their wealth and rural vs urban positioning.

There's a large emphasis on the gig economy and how having machines take over most physical work makes employment difficult for humans. Global warming also shows up in the form of climactic shifts in regions of the world (like Arizona being subject to repeated dust storms).

I loved that the book had an international setting with one major point of view character in India, major mentions of North Africa and Singapore, nods to China and Europe in addition to a fair amount of action taking place in the United States.

This book would be fantastic for book club meetings as there are a lot of interesting discussion possibilities, specifically around ethics, but also with regards to technological advancements and how things like privacy and the gig economy will change in the future.

I noticed in a few places the author gave the same information twice, in one case using almost the same language both times. This isn't really a problem beyond the fact that the repetition was unnecessary and therefore a little distracting.

The ending felt a little simplistic given the complexity of the problems the characters are dealing with, but it did wrap things up well.

This is a fantastic book, alternating fast paced action scenes with slower paced visions of life. There's a lot to think about in this complex possible future.

Pros: intense worldbuilding, interesting characters

Cons: abrupt ending, several unanswered questions

Miri is angry at the selfishness of her parents who brought her into a dying world, especially Professor Jac Boltanski, “humanity's last hope”. She always knew Jac would be her offset, the parent chosen to die for the sin of procreating when their child turns 18. And Miri's 18th birthday is two days away. She's home again after running away 2 years ago, and no longer sure she's making the right choice.

Meanwhile Jac has discovered a problem with her project and travels to a lab far from home, knowing her time is short.

The book is short and to the point, focusing on the characters and the world they inhabit. It's told from the points of view of Miri and her mothers, Jac and Alix. Miri is angry and lashes out, but has also been through a lot of challenges, so you understand at least part of where she's coming from. Jac's focus on work is admirable considering she's trying to undo climate change, but it's clear she missed out on a lot of family stuff because of it. I really liked Alix and felt she got a rough deal. I felt sorry for her not having her wife around for their last few days together.

The worldbuilding was excellent and intense, with so much of society broken down but the acknowledgement that the rich will still get the best food, care, and opportunities. I appreciated that the authors (writing duo Emma Szweczak and Natasha Calder) show us how the poor and the rich lived, and how easy it is to take certain things in life for granted when you've known nothing else.

The anti-natalists are terrifying, but also somewhat sympathetic. In a world where overpopulation has caused so many problems it's easy to see how so many people would advocate against procreation and create the offset. This is brought to a head when the characters visit a ReproViolence clinic and it becomes clear that the offset isn't the only violence surrounding procreation.

The story is compelling and I found it hard to put the book down. Chapters are short so it's easy to squeeze a couple in.

I found the ending rather abrupt, expecting to see more of how things worked after Jac learned what was happening with her project. There were a number of questions I wanted to see resolved that were left hanging. The authors have expressed that this may be the first of a series, so here's hoping there are more books.

The Offset was an interesting read. The premise reminded me of Unwind by Neal Shusterman, bleak but with a hint of hope.

Pros: excellent worldbuilding, fun characters, community, interesting mysteries

Cons:

Henrietta and Benjamin Rhodes's funeral parlour hasn't drummed up much business, but their work as sparrow and finch, solving murders and mysteries, has them questioning all the fires that have been breaking out around town. Fires that seem to have magical help. Fires the local firefighters aren't putting out. A fire killed Raimond Duval, a friend of their friends. The most recent fire burned down an entire street except for the house of Valentine Duval, Raimond's son. The Rhodes soon learn of stolen goods, a hidden treasure, and discover one of their old enemies is in town.

The book takes place a few months after the events of The Conductors. While you don't need to have read that to understand this book, it does introduce all of the characters and their interpersonal relationships, which along with the mystery is what makes these books so fun.

I love that there's a loving couple at the heart of the book. I love that Hetty has several female friends to talk to about everything. I love seeing the Rhodes interact with their group of friends. This sense of community is strangely missing in a lot of fantasy literature and it's so wonderful to read.

The setting is Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, with several flashbacks to some of the jobs the couple undertook as part of the Vigilance Society (basically the underground railway). It's a world where magic is real, and most cultures have their own kind of magic, with white Americans using wands for sorcery and the black Americans using celestial magic. In the background are mentions that laws are being considered to limit the use and teaching of celestial magic. Magic is integrated into every aspect of life, showing up at baseball games, balls, gunfights and for daily tasks. There's also potion craft, which one of Hetty's friends excels at.

The book touches on many goings on so it's not always apparent what's part of the central mystery and what isn't. Much like real life the characters learn things in offhand and unexpected ways.

This is a great series and I highly recommend it.

Pros: lots of intrigue, thought provoking, nuanced

Cons: /

This is the third book in the Masquerade series, with a 4th book on the way. If you haven't read the previous two books recently, it's worth doing a reread as there's so much nuance that you'll be lost if you don't remember the details of all that's happened.

The book is told from several points of view including: Baru, Xate Yawa, Aminata, and Svir. There are scenes set in the ‘now', contrasted with a direct continuation of the events from book 2 as well as scenes set 23 years prior, continuing Tau-indi's story of when Cosgrad and Farrier stayed with the Mbo princes.

It's not a quick read. There's so much going on and so much nuance that I often had to stop to process what the characters were doing and what that might mean for their future. It's easy to fall into Baru's trap of forgetting there are other players on the board when she acts. Each time I assumed things would go the way she'd foreseen because she's a savant, but everyone in the story has their own motivations and few align with hers, so there's generally a mess of consequences you don't expect.

It's a book filled with hard truths about colonialism, racism, sexism, and what people and nations will do to gain power over others, and what they'll do to keep that power. As such, it's very thought provoking, forcing you to see people and ideas from varied perspectives. In several instances the author uses reversed language to get these ideas across, so 'matronize' instead of ‘patronize', ‘anti-mannist' instead of ‘feminist', etc.

I was surprised that I still found Baru a sympathetic and likeable character after all she's done. I still want her to succeed. With all the horrors going on (and there are a lot of them) there's still a sense of hope to the story, that in the end things just might work out the way Baru wants. I even started to like Yawa, which was kind of a shock given her previous actions. I really enjoyed seeing Tau-indi's growth, overcoming what happened to them at the end of the last book. It felt like the various characters were all growing as people, learning more about the world and themselves and really taking a look a the world they were making and deciding if their choices had helped or not.

While this isn't the series end, this book does tie up several plot threads into a satisfying climax. I can't wait for the final book to wrap up all the remaining loose ends.

Pros: very tense, interesting characters

Cons: is a bit gory at times

Ten years ago four friends went into the forbidden elder's section of the reservation for their end of season elk hunt. Now the spirit of one of the elk they killed is back for revenge.

This is the first contemporary fiction book I've read in years so it took me a while to get into (in part because I'm not conversant with the shorthand for car names so spent some time trying to figure out what the character was talking about). The book is split into 4 sections, each dealing with a different point of view character involved with the elk event.

I wasn't a fan of Ricky and Gabe, but really enjoyed reading Lewis and Cassidy's stories, hoping they could shake the horror coming their way. The pacing was great, really ratcheting up the tension in all the right places.

In the first sections the author makes you doubt what's going on, especially with Lewis. Is there really an elk spirit or is he having a psychotic break from reality? Either way things get horrifying fast. I almost stopped reading it was getting so intense.

While the horror is mostly one of anticipation, there is some gore. Thankfully the descriptions aren't overly graphic. Part of the earlier horror is simply seeing the level of everyday, casual racism natives face. The characters are constantly double checking their surroundings for danger, ignoring slights, conscious of how ‘native' their actions appear, due to criticism from others: natives and non-natives alike, for being both too native and not native enough. There's a strong undertone that no matter what the characters do it will never be ‘enough', whatever ‘enough' even means. Because the characters aren't just up against the supernatural, they're against the biases and prejudices of themselves and everyone around them.

I was shocked by some of the people who died. Which made the ending, that last section, very tense. I DID NOT want that character to die. Not this way. I was on the edge of my seat urging them on, not to give up, just one more step.

The ending fits the story.

If you can handle horror this year (no shame if you can't, 2020's horror enough for a lot of us), this is a good read.

Pros: realistic characters, excellent romance, interesting magic system

Cons:

It’s been a year since Myra Whitlock’s parents vanished and with her sister sick, she’s desperate for money. The governor’s wife discovers Myra’s a Prodigy, a magician who can use paintings to change reality, and offers her a lot of money to resurrect her son. But the governor hates Prodigies and using magic comes with a cost. It’s quickly apparent that the son’s death might not have been accidental after all and Myra’s secret may not be the only thing at stake with this job.

There are three main threads in this book, the murder mystery, a romance, and the family love that causes Myra to risk everything to save her sister. The threads interweave beautifully. The writing occasionally veers into poetry with a lot of gothic overtones.

Myra is a complicated woman who has dreams of going to art school that are frustrated by her lack of money and her inability to control her magic. Her sister has a chronic illness they can’t identify and so don’t know how to properly treat. August has anxiety issues and has spent his life subsuming his desires and personality to save face for his family. None of the characters’ problems are easily solved and that makes them feel realistic. I loved how they variously helped each other deal with their mental and physical health issues, like Myra helping August breathe slowly to get through a panic attack.

I appreciated that magic couldn’t hand wave away illness or poverty and that there’s a physical cost to the user. It makes it feel like a precious commodity, hard earned and so used sparingly.

The ending wrapped things up in a satisfying manner.

Pros: clever plotting, hard SF/

Cons: protagonist is not particularly likable and is surprisingly naive and narcissistic/

Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, those who live outside time, Observe and create Reality Changes which positively affect the greatest number of people throughout history. Only two periods are unaffected by them - the prehistoric age, before time travel was invented, and the far FAR flung future. /

Harlan's skill as an Observer in the 482nd attracts the attention of Computer Twissell, who arranges for him to become a Technician (someone who actually performs the change) and teach his hobby of primitive history to a student./

On an assignment back to the 482nd, he meets the beautiful, non-Eternal, Noys Lambent, who changes his life. He breaks numerous laws to rescue her from the proposed change to her era and makes plans to request her removal from time so they can stay together. /

Naturally, things don't go as smoothly as he hoped they would./

For some reason I always think of Asimov as a writer who's concerned more with science and plot than character. While the science is sound (even to mentioning how time travel can work with the movement of the Earth around the sun), and the plot is clever, character development isn't neglected. /

Harlan begins the book as a self-absorbed resident. He works hard and resents how the others who work towards the changes they all make in history shun him as one of those who actually performs the changes. Meeting Noys changes him. He initially becomes more narcissistic and paranoid, then slowly learns to smile and enjoy his time with her./

The question of why she's interested in him is satisfactorily answered by the end of the book when the plot within a plot is revealed. And by this time, as a reader, I'd warmed to him./

While I am happy to see this title brought back into print, I was annoyed to find that the publisher's cover copy was misleading in terms of the book's plot. Asimov told a fantastic story, just not quite the one the publisher lead me to expect./

If you're not a hard SF fan, don't despair. He includes enough science to understand the plot but doesn't bog down the story with pages of explanation.

Pros: interesting characters, quite scary and intense

Cons: uncomfortable race relations

Sixteen year old Immanuelle Moore is the daughter of a black man from the Outskirts, who burned on a pyre for having relations with her mother. Her mother was a white bride of the Prophet, who went mad after seeing her lover die. Raised as a good believer in the Holy Scriptures, she doesn't understand why the Darkwood, home of the witches who once terrorized Bethel, calls to her so strongly. When she finally succumbs to that call, she unwittingly unleashes a series of curses on her home.

Immanuelle is a great protagonist, conflicted in her beliefs and desires. She's strong willed and passionate. Her terror of the witches and determination to end the curses were palpable. I loved the slow burn romance with Ezra.

The world itself was terrifying for a liberal reader. Bethel is a closed community with very strict religious rules and no recourse against the hidden evils Immanuelle discovers taking place within the church: abuse of power - physical and sexual - and the subjugation of women.

The division between the villages of the ‘holy' white congregation and the shanty towns on the Outskirts of the black former refugees was stark and left me feeling uncomfortable. I would have thought that with the conversion of the refugees, more intermingling would have occurred. The fact that Lilith, the head witch, was a black woman also left me feeling unsettled as it seems to continue this ‘black is evil, white is good' theme, which is clearly undercut by the churches' abuses on one hand but not really by anything on the other. Yes, Immanuelle fought against the witches, but as she was from the village and not the Outskirts it didn't feel like she broke that aphorism. Nor does Vera, as it's unclear if she ever practiced witchcraft or simply used protective sigils.

The horror elements are very terrifying. There's a lot of blood and the story centres on events in womens' lives that feature blood. The witches are evil and things get so grim I had to take breaks when reading this. Descriptions aren't overly graphic, so though the imagery can be intense, it never feels gratuitous.

The writing is quite lyrical, which brings the world to life and really drives home the terror.

On the whole this is a fantastic story, provided you can handle a horror novel right now.

Pros: brilliant writing, a set of interconnected stories with thought provoking messages

Con: each story is interrupted to tell the first half of the next, when you get back to it you've forgotten minor details that are important in understanding the novel as a whole

Cloud Atlas is a novel told through six interconnected stories. For example, the musician of the second story is reading the journal written by the man in the first. And the reporter of the third story reads the letters written by the musician and listens to his music. Each protagonist also bears a comet birthmark between their collarbones and shoulder blades, giving the idea that they might be the same person, living over and over again.

The novel begins with The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing. He's a notary on his way back to America from delivering papers to a client's heir in Australia. His ship has stopped at an island to resupply, and there Adam makes the acquaintance of Doctor Henry Goose.

In the second story a disinherited English musician ingratiates himself into a ailing Belgium's home, intent on helping this man finish his musical works, and bettering his own position.

Half-Lives: The First Luisa Ray Mystery shows her meeting a scientist working on a new atomic energy plant, and discovers that this so called safe energy might not be so safe after all.

I won't detail the other stories as it's fun discovering what comes next. My favourite of the novel however, was An Orison of Sonmi-451. It's basically a science fiction story showing how commercialism has overtaken the world and had resonances of Soylent Green, 1984 and Battle Royale. In fact, this is a novel that on the whole, reads easier if you're well versed in literature. I recognized a few other references, but I'm sure I missed a lot of others.

And as the stories start completing themselves, messages of when you save the lives of others you're really saving your own and how our actions, big or small, shape the world around us - even if we don't live to see the effects, come to the fore.

Ultimately, it's a fabulous novel. If you like thinking about the books you read, I'd highly recommend picking this one up.

Pros: interesting characters, tense, fast paced

Cons: scenes of torture some may find disturbing

It is 1939 and the Spanish Civil War has gone poorly for the Republicans, backed by los Nefilim. With his wife and daughter, heir to his crown, sent to Paris in advance, Don Guillarmo is pursued by Nationalist forces while crossing the Pyrenees. A betrayal alerts him to the existence of a pocket realm where his brother Jordi, backing the Nationalists, is helping the Germans plan an invasion of France.

While this is technically the second in a trilogy (following 3 novellas), the book is designed to stand on its own. There's enough background information to jump in here, but I do feel you won't get the same emotional kick if you aren't aware of the relationship between Diego, Miquel and Raphael.

The book cleverly ties the Nefilim (offspring of angels and demons) into the history of the Spanish Civil War and the coming second world war. There's a bibliography at the back of the book that shows the author's done their research regarding the period and how LGBT characters fit in historically, while also allowing readers to expand their own knowledge if they'd like to learn more.

The book gets very tense at times, with depictions of torture. Though horrible things happen, it never felt gratuitous. The story is fast paced, with several point of view characters, so the horror is never overpowering.

The book really shines with its family relationships. The love Diego and Miquel have for each other, and their desire to help each other through difficult circumstances shines through. I also liked seeing Raphael become a young man, making mistakes and learning hard lessons.

The Grigori was horrifying and I can't wait to learn more about it and the other fallen angels.

I'm really enjoying this series and look forward to the final volume.

Pros: interesting characters, fast paced, thought-provoking

Cons:

Gibson Wells, founder of the Cloud tech empire that dominates the US economy, is dying. After Cloud puts Paxton's business under, he applies to work at one of their MotherCloud facilities, where people work and live. He expects this to be a temporary gig, to earn enough money so he can be his own boss again. Zinnia has been hired to infiltrate a Cloud facility and steal proprietary information.

Their paths collide inside the company in a novel that explores how far corporate America will go to ‘make the world a better place'.

The book takes place during the slow economic and environmental collapse of America. The world is not as apocalyptic as Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower, but it's getting there. With fewer and fewer options, more people are opting to work for Cloud, which has both caused many of the problems mentioned in the book even as it tries to (claims to) make things better.

At the start of the book I felt sympathy for Wells, but as I learned more about him, and saw the predatory nature behind his smiles and the abusive personality behind his policies I started to despise him. Though Zinnia is also manipulative I found I still liked her at the end of the book. She's feisty and smart and I wanted her to be happy. I thought she and Paxton made a good couple and hoped they'd stay together, despite some of her choices towards the end. Paxton was a mixed bag. I liked him but he was easily manipulated by everyone around him, which made me feel less sympathetic towards him.

The book was surprisingly fast paced. Adult dystopian fiction generally drags a bit due to excess worldbuilding or political sentiment. The focus here really is on the characters so it was a quick read - and hard to put down towards the end.

That's not to say there weren't some poignant moments where you can see how our own world is heading in this direction. The company is obviously modelled after Amazon and Walmart and their practices of forcing producers to cut costs so they can sell products a the lowest price possible. It does end of a slightly more positive note than other dystopian books as well.

This is definitely worth checking out.