John
An enjoyable cozy mystery set in a quaint Irish village. There were some stretches of imagination (the sleuth has 4 school-age siblings who work in the family bistro and never attend school?), but overall well written. Enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, and an answer that is obvious only in hindsight. I look forward to reading more books in the series.
Contains spoilers
An enjoyable read in a novel high fantasy setting, but not a very satisfying ending. I did enjoy the parallel stories, depicting events in two different timelines with many of the same characters, one telling the story of how they met, which the other tells of their adventures in the present. There were queer relationships throughout the book, but they were present and unremarkable, which was both nice and unusual. It was also fascinating that while the main character jumped into several bodies through the story, several of them female, the main character maintains a male perspective without really commenting much on the physical aspects of the body he is inhabiting (which makes sense after one learns of his true form). Ultimately, though, this read like an introductory book, setting up the first part of the bigger story. I sure hope there are more books featuring these characters yet to come, since I did enjoy their company during my reading.
I enjoyed the story, but I did not feel it was one of Scalzi’s better books. While the world building was imaginative and at times amusing, the main character was nearly entirely a puppet throughout the narrative. Things happened to him, he was never really in control of his situation. And it’s sad because I often felt he was on the edge of making his own way in the really messed up world he was trust into, and was disappointed with how he ended up. I honestly don’t understand how this made the Hugo finalists list.
Entertaining but unsatisfying
While I enjoyed reading this novel, by the end I felt it very unsatisfying. The hero of the book never faces a challenge they couldn't easily overcome, and frequently had successful ideas that unrealistically no one had come up with before. All this while freshly turned 18. The ending was sudden, without any real build up or resolution. If this was a standalone novel, it would have received a one star rating, but I gave it three in the hopes that this was entirely a “setting up the situation” book and subsequent ones have actual drama, difficult challenges, and maybe even some conflict. If book 2 isn't a vast improvement, there's no point in continuing.
I just finished “The Kuiper Belt Job” by David D. Levine. Quite satisfying! It's a Space Opera wrapped around a puzzle box of heists and capers, with a mystery that kept me guessing till near the very end. Each section of the novel was narrated by a different member of the crew, adding their insights, suspicions, and past experiences to the narrative, and was very well executed. I enjoyed it quite a lot.
I found the book to be a quite enjoyable sci-fi political action space opera yarn full of twists and surprises. Just what I needed to push the Covid blahs away for a while. My only gripe is that the end of the book doesn't really wrap up anything. Rather, it pretty much ends setting up book 2. That said, major thumbs up!
This book was recommended in a Facebook group of fans of Space Opera. GIven the review in the recommendation, the ad copy in iBooks, and the low price, I grabbed a copy without reading the “sample” I could have downloaded. I was unprepared that the story would involve significant amounts of magic right from the start. And the first chapter was all about drivers of magic-fueled racing cars, which are not a stale of the space opera I thought I had purchased. I almost put the book down at that point, but the first main character we meet, Nilah, is thrust into a tantalizing mystery that compelled me to keep reading. In the second chapter, the character of “Boots” is introduced, a garrulous and embittered veteran of a war in which she fought for the losing side, she now is making her living selling treasure maps to gullible treasure seekers. She too gets thrust into the same mystery. The story spirals nearly out of control at that point, with both of them being captured by the crew of a pirate ship (that Boots once served on and sold a bogus map to), and still being pursued by an overwhelmingly powerful and relentless foe. It certainly turns into a grand space opera yarn at that point, with lots of action, perilous conflict, personal sacrifice, and yes, magical feats. I especially enjoyed the fact that the good guys employ heaping amounts of intelligence and ingenuity rather than simply blowing through their opponents with superior firepower. They are smart, capable people facing down formidable odds. The book has a thoroughly (to me) satisfactory ending while leaving some major threads open for the follow-up books. I enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected after the first chapter.
I've just now finished reading Curtis Craddock's third, and sadly final, book in his Risen Kingdoms novels. This was a joy to read. The characters remain fresh and surprising yet entirely consistent with the previous stories. The novel is full of swashbuckling daring-do, (aero)nautical adventure, and twists and surprises at every turn. The author continues to bring strong, smart, and capable female characters to the fore, in every way equal to the men in the setting. I'm sad that this is the final chapter we'll get in the lives of these characters, but I'm hopeful in time the author will return to the setting to explore some of the other nations and cratons floating above the gyre. Even if he doesn't I'm quite satisfied in the way the story ended.
I had a hard time finishing this book. It took a long time for all of the actors in the story to appear, and I found very few of them to be particularly sympathetic. What kept me going was the need to understand the two central mysteries of the story. The conclusion was satisfying in that it answered all of the posed questions, brought justice to the guilty, and ended logically. I'm not sure I'd recommend the book, however. I thought it was excellently written; I just didn't care for it much.
I quite enjoyed Joseph Carriker's novel, set in the world of Aldis, the setting for the Blue Rose table-top role-playing game.
The prologue opens the book with a dire situation that looks like certain doom to a pair of agents of some sort. The main text of the book then follows the adventures of a trio of agents sent to find out what happened to the first pair. Most of the book takes place in and around the smugglers city of Serpent's Haven, a ramshackle city built in the middle of a dire swamp, with all of the muck that comes with that sort of environment. Haven is thoroughly a hive of scum and villainy. The three protagonists are Soot, a self aware raven (in this world, self-aware animals are relatively common and called “Rhydan”) who has several magic abilities including the ability to heal wounds; Ydah, a brutish-looking warrior who is still dealing with a deeply personal loss she suffered a year previously; and Morjin, a master spy with a talent for predicting the future and a heart of gold that is his Achilles heel. The three who are more comfortable working alone must band together to unravel the mysteries around Serpentl's Haven before those mysteries come looking for them!
Most of the book worked very well for me. I quickly came to care about the main characters and several of the supporting cast. The pacing was excellent, managing to avoid a droopy middle section by continually ramping up the pressure on the protagonists. The descriptions were colorful without being overwrought. I had a strong sense of place in the city, and could easily picture it from the imagery the author provided. The surrounding countryside was less clear to me, possibly due to my lack of experience in swamps. It was at various times described as being mostly scrub and grasses poking up out of squelchy mud, and at other times as having plentiful trees. Most confusing to me was the hunt for a pool of water surrounded by a thick corpse of trees that wasn't seen until the characters were nearly in it. One other amusement was that, after being described as “rare” or at least uncommon, Rhydans make up a significant portion of the cast, nearly half of the introduced characters. That was fine by me; their presence added a great deal of flavor to the world.
The book also presented the amazing diversity that is a cornerstone of the setting. Beyond having self-aware critters running (and flying and slithering) around, the humans and humanoids in the novel didn't bat an eye at who people preferred as bed partners, nor whether they took part eras to bed at all. Morjin is an unrepentant flirt who falls into love (and bed) with both male and female lovers equally, and is an open “constellation” marriage with a man and a woman back home in the capital city (quit some distance from where the action takes place). This was presented merely as an aspect of the character as he woos another man in Serpent's Haven. Additionally one of the other characters is shown to be asexual or aromantic towards the end of the book, and while it leads to a awkward moment, everyone recovers with great ease and remain fast friends. It's refreshing, honestly, to escape the typical tropes that come from an adherence to heteronormativity.
About the only thing about the book that didn't work for me was how it ended. The exciting story introduced in the prologue ended in an exciting climax. But instead of a short denouement to wrap things up neatly, there were three more chapters detailing the loves of the characters as they made their way back to the capital city of Aldis, the living arrangements they all come to, how they celebrated a winter holiday, and introduces what seems to be the plot for a follow up work. I won't say it was tacked on, since it flowed naturally from the rest of the story, but it did have a feeling of a movie that went on longer than it should have (I'm looking at you, “Return of the King”). Perhaps I'm just too stodgy and set in my ways, but I prefer less drawn-out resolutions once the story presented in the first scenes has been resolved.
Overall a strong book, which I did enjoy a great deal. As I'm in the planning stages for a game set in the same universe, it helped bring the setting into clearer focus, and helped me understand the tropes and customs that are present in the niche genre. If you enjoy romantic fantasy, or have an interest in the setting g for the Blue Rose game, I strongly recommend picking this book up and giving it a read.
While I was entertained by the book, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of the 7th Sea role-playing game setting. While the novel takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of some of the nations of the fictional continent of the setting, it does so at the expense of really getting to know the main character. For most of the story she is merely reactive, not really showing that she's growing in maturity or the ability to make her own way in the world. Perhaps the title of the novel was a too accurate description.
There were other moments in the novel that really strained my ability to suspend disbelief. For example, in one part of the story we're expected to believe that two people can carry a casket sized crate of gold coins through a deadly maze, up a steep flight of slippery stairs, through a jungle, and up onto the deck of a ship all while carrying their unconscious crewmate. Have you ever done the math to calculate what a crate of gold coins would weigh? I suspect the author did not.
The author likes to employ the gimmick of providing a scene where the characters are in dire straights and then setting the following scene a significant amount of time prior to the first scene. This can be effective if sparingly used, but I felt it was overused in this novel. Add that to a very abrupt ending, and I walked away unsatisfied. An interesting if overly convoluted plot marred by incredulous feats, character development that mostly happens “off camera”, and gimmicky storytelling.
I wrote this three hours ago:
I'm a little more than halfway through “An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors”, a debut novel from Curtis Craddock, and I'm seriously enjoying it. A fantasy based loosely on Europe of the Musketeers era, but the nations are chunks of rock floating in a turbulent sky, with airships plying the traderoutes. Sorcery is reserved for the nobility, and it's all twisted and a bit obscene. The principle characters are a princess of one of the ruling families, born with a deformed hand and a lack of sorcerous ability, and her sworn protector, a musketeer. With no warning, they are thrust into the middle of vast political schemes and machinations, which are igniting sparks that could lead to all out war. There are fascinating mysteries to solve at every turn, and shocking revelations when least expected. And on top of all that, there's a hint the heroine may be part of the fulfillment of prophecy that may mean the end of the world. The world building is turned up to 11, and so far the story is equally vivid. I sure hope it ends as well as it's begun!
Three hours later and I've finished the book. Wow, I so did not disappoint. An absolutely thrilling climax with multiple page-turning escalations. I rarely give books a full five stars. But this novel certainly earned them. I can't wait to read Craddock's next outing!
A very enjoyable sequel to Arabella of Mars, the wonderful YA novel Mr. Levine put out last year. Arabella has a tendency towards rash action, but is smart enough to get herself and those she cares about out of danger when needed. A great role-model for young readers, and quite a compelling character for readers of all ages. This time she sets off to rescue her husband-to-be who has been captured by the French, lead by the tyrant Napoleon, on Venus. Together with her chaperone, the stately Lady Corey, she hires a crew to mount a rescue, but things don't go at all to plan. Great action, well-rounded characters, and a nearly believable setting of planetary romance and sailing between the planets all combine for a very satisfactory story. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next (and last?) book in the series.
I just finished Scalzi's latest offering, “The Collapsing Empire.” This is not set in the same universe as “Old Man's War,” but is instead an entirely new setting, one where mankind is spread across the stars which are connected by a hyperspace-like phenomenon called the Flow. A newly (and reluctantly) crowned “Emprox” learns some disturbing truths about the Empire she now heads and the nature of the Flow, a physicist escapes his homeworld with a revolution and a natural disaster nipping at his heels, and the heads of dynastic and monopolistic families vie for power and influence in a time of rising uncertainty. I found it very enjoyable but entirely a prologue for what appears to be a much larger epic. If he thinks he can finish this story in anything less than five hefty books, he's not seeing the potential of his newly constructed universe.
I just finished the latest Toby Daye novel, “Once Broken Faith”. I thought it an enjoyable read, but it felt short and not very notable. Unlike previous installments, it didn't really feel like anything monumental or world-changing happened. It felt more like this one was just picking up the pieces left on the table after the previous book. Maybe I'll feel otherwise after some reflection. Still, “not very notable” Toby Daye books are better than most! :-)
I originally read this book many years ago (nearly thirty, I think), and I enjoyed the re-read. It's a satisfying story, not hugely original, but well written and well paced. It does reflect the technology of 1950's America, and more so the attitudes. There are parts that are repulsively sexist by modern standards. But such attitudes were common in the age in which this novella was written. All in all, I find this to be one of the more enjoyable of Heinlein's early works.
It's been a good number of years since I originally read this book, but I certainly enjoyed the re-read. And it was interesting reading it after so much more has been added to Star Trek lore, including all of the information about Klingons from TNG and DS9. In the thirty years since the book was originally published, we've also have technology revolutions which make a lot of the technical terminology look positively obsolete in the 21st century, no less the 23rd. But the story is charming, the retrospective look at Trek as it existed thirty years ago is amusing, the link to the “Here Come the Brides” TV show starring Mark Lenard (who played, among other roles, Spock's father, Sarek) is entertaining, and the occasional references to other Science Fiction properties gave me a few laugh-out-loud moments (such as a casual mention of Kastaberous, a clear reference to Doctor Who). Definitely a recommended book for those who enjoy the Star Trek novels published in the mid 80's.
I'm a long time fan of Jack McDevitt's. I've been reading his work since his first novel, The Hercules Text back in the late 80's. I just finished Thunderbird, a recent work, and I was sincerely disappointed.
This novel is a followup to his novel, Ancient Shores, which was published in 1996. I quite enjoyed Ancient Shores, a combination of xenoarcheology mystery story and thriller, pitting scientists up against the overwhelming odds of the federal government, with science winning the day.
Thunderbird does not live up the the legacy of its predecessor. While the pacing in Ancient Shores was a race down an ever-steepening hill till you finally reached the bottom, the pacing in Thunderbird was uniformly flat. It was never really boring, but it never really got exciting. Instead of a pace that increased the closer you got to the climax of the story, it was a story that moved steadily forward at a constant pace. Because I was reading it via my iPad, I didn't even realize I was getting close to the end of the book until I looked down and realized I had less than twenty pages to go. This was disappointing because one thing I came to love about McDevitt's writing in the 90's and early 2000's was his mastery of pacing.
On top of that, the ending was perplexing, disappointing, and abrupt. Here there be spoilers: The book takes us to so many interesting places, and introduces us to many, many enigmas. We meet three different alien races, start building relationships with one of them to the point where we were exchanging books and cultural artifacts, find alien worlds, and even a future version of Earth. All of these situations hold the promise of interesting discoveries and conflict, and we just barely start scratching the surface of many of them. And then, out of the blue, Chairman Walker decides to pull out the metaphorical spark plugs and dump them into the depths of Lake Michigan. No discussion, no desperate pitch to save the day, and absolutely no closure for any of the intriguing possibilities that had been brought up. It made no sense to end the book this abruptly, and with so little sense of drama. I get that the chairman was scared out of his wits, but and this was an easy way to end the book, but it really didn't give me much satisfaction.
This is the third book of McDevitt's recent releases that I've been rather disappointed by. I hope that this is a temporary lull in the author's skill in writing exciting, engaging, and satisfying books, and that in the near future, I'll look forward to his name appearing on the shelf on a new work. But with the current trend, I'll probably be a lot less inclined to pick up his next novel.
I felt that this was one of the weaker Secret History books. It starts with what really felt like a stand-alone shirt story that offered tantalizing glimpses of Molly's history, but that glimpse was all we got for the rest of the novel. The remainder of the book dealt with Shaman's and Molly's infiltration into Casino Infernale and the Shadow Bank. It started off feeling somewhat formulaic, but there were some twists that kept it from becoming completely stale. (There unfortunately were some elements that were completely predictable, like flunkies turning traitor.) It was nice to see what Eddie was capable of without his torc, and it's always a pleasure to see Molly let loose, at least when she wasn't made nearly useless by far too frequent use of “null zones.” Overall a pleasurable read in the series but not up to the standards of previous books.
A light read which sometimes seemed to focus more on the scenery and social life in Santa Fe than on the story, but was satisfactorily enjoyable. Characters were well imagined, the pacing was good, and the details of the setting, namely the tearoom and the local area, were sufficient to ground the story firmly in reality. There is a supernatural element that is introduced and slightly explored, but not resolved, which leaves a thread open for later books in the series. I really only had two complaints. First, the ending felt rushed, with a minimum of build-up. It was nearly a case of “blink at the wrong time and you'll miss it.” And second, the story succumbed too much, in my opinion, to the cliches and tropes of female-led murder mysteries. Where is it written that the women who take up sleuthing must always fall for the bad boy detective who is damaged goods? Despite my complaints, it was an enjoyable read and I will likely pick up the next book in the series.
A thoroughly engaging read. I very much enjoyed the author's exploration of what it means to be a person. The hero's native language is genderless so all people are referred to with female pronouns regardless of their gender expression. While on the one hand, it makes it hard to envision some of the character, it also works to make the distinction between sexes a meaningless one for the story. That combined with the fact that the main character is a severed shard of an artificial intelligence inhabiting a human body, programmed to believe she is less than human, makes for a very interesting viewpoint (especially when people around her come to a different conclusion while she remains oblivious). The action builds nicely into a satisfying climax, but only comprises the opening act for a larger story. Now, if you'll excuse me, time to dig into the sequel.
I found “The Long Earth” to be an interesting thought experiment, populated with interesting characters, all in search of a plot. The narrative wandered around from present to past and back, often without warning, but I never really found it jarring. I just didn't feel the story went anywhere, or if it did, it was extremely subtle. Still, it was enjoyable enough that I've already picked up the sequel.
This was one of those books that was enjoyable while reading, but ultimately less than satisfying when it was done. The main character only occasionally became sympathetic, and his views of the universe were unrelentingly negative, which were never really explained (especially in light of other viewpoints presented in the novel that were significantly at odds). He was angry, but if there was a cause for his anger, I don't recall it.
The imagination behind the setting, though, is immense. The images and concepts presented as background material are really what kept me reading. From the mind-bogglingly cosmic construction of Orbitals, to the unimaginable size of some of the starships presented, to the intriguing development of some of the alien cultures, there's plenty to gawk at in this book.