Rai
It is hard to write a review that is more than just “CAT IN SPAAAAAAAAAACE” for this book. Pumpkin (the cat) is clearly MVP of the story but, as a cat-lover, I might be biased. It's also brilliant to see a non-binary main character who isn't an alien. So there's two reasons to hype this book up.
The Last Gifts of the Universe is a bit of a slice-of-life sci-fi that follows Scout, their brother Kieran and Pumpkin the space cat, as they scour the universe for caches containing information from civilisations that came before - hoping that one day there will be something on what wiped out everyone and everything else. On one seemingly average mission, they discover a cache that hints at knowing what the big-bad enemy was but they are interrupted in their recovery of it by corporate mercenaries intent on copywriting it all and shoving it behind a paywall. Not being particularly well-equipped to fight off super soldiers Scout and Kieran lose the first cache but get enough from it to pinpoint the next one in the series.
What follows is a series of mad-dash races to see who gets to each next cache first, as Scout desperately tries to reason with the corpo-goons that this is information that needs to be free. The reason behind the end of all civilisation isn't something to be hidden away for only the wealthy to access.
In between these confrontations Scout, Kieran and Pumpkin get on with their jobs aboard their ship, The Waning Crescent, and spend their downtime with video games, TV serials and pizza. In their exploring of what little cache data they saved, Scout finds a recording from Blyreena, who made a last stand against the encroaching darkness hundreds of year before. Will Scout find answers in Blyreena's last words?
Besides the cat in adorable space-booties and the exquisite normalising of a non-binary character, The Last Gifts of the Universe presents some excellently thought-out themes that will engage you, while the characters keep you coming back for more. It's about ends and beginnings, loss and hope, and fighting for what you believe in and those you love. Adeptly balanced with action and cosy vibes, this is a must-read for sci-fi afficionados.
Crossings is a thriller, set in small-town Australia, with some supernatural/spiritual elements behind the mysterious, and violent, events that coincide with our main character's abusive ex returning to town.
I was reading this expecting some more of the fantastical, which turned out to be largely absent. The blurb mentions a giant white kangaroo, which is one of the supernatural elements, sort of, but not much else in the speculative realm. The mysterious giant roo doesn't make an appearance until halfway through the book and while there are some other weird goings on, this is still a thriller that happens to have some supernatural elements.
Those supernatural elements are, however, a little confused and not explored in much depth. While trying not to put spoilers in reviews is my preference, there are some ahead because I want to demonstrate what I mean by the previous statement.
–!!!spoilers!!!–
There's the giant white roo, which no one knows how it grew so big, or so white, or how it gives people visions but leaves no trace of itself behind. There's a brief mention of looking for kangaroo related myths and legends but no follow-up. The roo, as it appears to the MC (Lisa), turns out to be the ghost of the giant white kangaroo, which explains how it never leaves a trace but when she finds the body of the roo dead (still dishing out visions) it turns out those who saw it before her might've seen it pre-ghost form. Then there's the giant red kangaroo, which may or may not be a were-kangaroo situation and actually be her abusive ex.
Then there's zombie animals seeking revenge on those who killed them. But there's also a bunch of other deaths that aren't revenge killings. There's a giant kangaroo skull in her ex's basement and a pile of human skin that seems to have been cut off with a blade, including a tattoo, which she maybe sees later on the arm of the giant red roo, who is maybe behind all the zombie animals and killings? But maybe her ex is resisting it? The giant red managed to survive being shot several times, even in the chest, and then survive a rampant bush fire that carbonised everything else in sight but somehow it just disintegrated in water leaving nothing but a giant kangaroo skull (but wait, wasn't that sat in her ex's basement?). Not for any reason other than the white roo showed Lisa a vision of a river at one point.
–!!! end of spoilers!!!–
Possibly, this could've been a much more cohesive story if the disparate elements were explored more deeply and woven together. As it stands, the end of the story becomes a bit of a deus ex machina, everyone assumes the ex died in the bushfire that had been threatening to sweep the town and that he was responsible for everything. Almost in the same breath they decide that no-one will ever know what really happened here and, at this point, it doesn't matter. Lisa alone had theorised things were more than they seemed so after everything is burnt away by the bushfire or washed away by the river, there's nothing more to say or do, leaving the reader somewhat frustrated at the lack of answers.
2.5/5
A Prelude to Ashes is a prequel novella to Thiago Abdalla's debut novel, and SPFBO8 entry, A Touch of Light. It introduces the world, the nations and the people that will fill the pages of A Touch of Light to great effect and piques the reader's interest and draws you into the series.
My full review can be found at BookNest.eu, here: https://booknest.eu/reviews/rai/2444-a-prelude-to-ashes-the-ashes-of-avarin-0-5-by-thiago-abdalla-book-review
Last summer, we were introduced to Kell Kressia, a man who was mistaken for a hero and sent on a quest to save the world from the terrible Ice Lich in the far Frozen North – and not for the first time. The Warrior picks up two years after he returned victorious and finds Kell stagnating: having been married off to Sigrid, and now appointed King, when he'd rather have gone back to his quiet life on the farm. Offering him a timely escape, comes Willow...
My full review can be read online via Grimdark Magazine, here:
https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-the-warrior-by-stephen-aryan/
Black Tide brings together a “human car wreck” and a depressed movie producer at the end of the world to save each other from themselves and some new inhabitants to Earth. This is a small-scale, focussed sci-fi horror that plays out primarily on a distant beach in the Pacific Northwest as our two misfits get trapped by lost keys and terrible maws full of razorblade teeth.
In some ways, Black Tide gives off 80's action vibes (think Alien, or Predator), and it's quite self aware - no sooner had the comparison with Alien popped into my head than one of our main characters name dropped Ellen Ripley. The book nods to the movie world in a few other places, which should be expected with a producer among our very small cast and feels like Jones writing what he knows for his first novel (he graduated with a degree in Film Production, afterall). As such it makes Black Tide feel cinematic and something I could certainly imagine getting optioned for a feature film.
My one tip to new readers would be not to be put off by the prologue; I found it a little bit navel-gazey and relied a lot on telling rather than showing. After the slightly painful meeting of our two MCs in the first couple of chapters, things pick up exponentially.
This isn't exactly your typical alien invasion story and it shines for it, adding a bit of cleverness into the mix that you don't always see in horror. There's plenty of tight, tense scenes; uneasy moments, and; injuries a-plenty, all mixed up with human resilience, fortitude and badassery.
From champion of Africanfuturism, [a:Nnedi Okorafor 588356 Nnedi Okorafor https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1507148868p2/588356.jpg], author of the [b:Binti 25667918 Binti (Binti, #1) Nnedi Okorafor https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433804020l/25667918.SY75.jpg 45491127] novella series, is this first episode in the coming-of-age story of Sunny, an albino African American girl living in Nigeria who discovers she is a magical Leopard person - one who can use juju. Sunny has been suffering at the hands of bullies in school because of her appearance, one day Orlu intervenes and walks Sunny home. These two become friends and in doing so Sunny meets Chichi, Orlu's friend and neighbour. Chichi has a hunch about Sunny and when it turns out to be right, Sunny is thrown into a whole new world and a whirlwind of new experiences.The key to this new world is to learn. That is how you earn chittim, which is used as currency within the Leopard world. Reading a book that places such a high importance on the idea of continual learning was wonderful. Despite being a 34 year old and our protagonist being a mere 12, I was wishing I could live in Okorafor's world because even with all the scary stuff Sunny & co have to face it is a world that seems much better than our own.Sunny, Chichi, Orlu and newest friend Sasha discover they have been brought together to fight against an evil that threatens the world and Sunny finds out this threat is linked to her Grandmother's death, a woman she never knew but who holds the key to who Sunny really is.This is a brilliant story about friendship, outcasts, belonging, justice and selfhood. If you're looking for an alternative to a certain book series about outcasts in magical schools... look no further!
Unsurprisingly this is an adaptation of [a:Octavia E. Butler 29535 Octavia E. Butler https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1242244143p2/29535.jpg]'s [b:Kindred 60931 Kindred Octavia E. Butler https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1339423248l/60931.SY75.jpg 1049657] from 1978, in which author Dana is pulled back in time to protect a young white boy in the US South in the 1800s. As a black woman, this is a dangerous place and time to be and to stand out. Each time she gets pulled back to save him from a different threat she ends up stuck in the past for longer and longer periods of time. On one occassion her (white) husband gets pulled back with her and they have to hide the true nature of their relationship to survive.Dana struggles when faced with the slavery, racism, misogyny and violence in the past that she had only read about until then. She eventually becomes another victim to it and is pushed further into desperation as she tries to find a way home and never to be pulled back again.What only lasts a few weeks in the 1970s is years spent in the past and both Dana and husband are changed forever by their experiences.There are a lot of heavy themes in Kindred and this new graphic novel adaptation is an excellent way to introduce the story to a greater wealth of readers. Butler used sci-fi concepts to explore key themes that are intrinsic to our lives in the real world. As saddening as it is to realise, Kindred remains as relevant now as it was 40+ years ago.CW: racist slurs, sexism, sexual assualt, rape, slavery, child death, murder
Brave New World was first published in 1932 by a man who was nominated for a Nobel Prize on nine separate occasions, so you can imagine that much of what can be said about Brave New World has already been said. It is used as set texts in school curricula and has had innumerable books, articles and research papers written about it. In context, this review is but a drop in the ocean. Nevertheless, I'll do my best to express my thoughts on this, one of the top three dystopian classics.
I am always wary around titles that have been deemed ‘classics' as history has taught me that I usually find them quite disappointing. There is an element of that here as my immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were to wonder if it were really a dystopian novel or just a philosophical thought-experiment from the 1930s. I found the treatment and portrayal of women in the book to be quite frustrating and very misogynistic. Huxley seems scared stiff of women and their potential for sexual liberation and so paints them in an damning light and punishes them terribly.
Huxley's misogyny has been criticised and acknowledged on a much wider scale, for example, Higdon wrote that it plagued much of Huxley's work pre-1931 and continues on to summarise exactly what I was feeling:
A careful consideration of Lenina's attitudes, decisions, and actions shows that the overlay of misogyny careened Huxley into contradicting his ideas, into failing to see that Lenina is more heroic in her resistance to the Fordian world than are the men his narrative praises, and into taking an unearned and mean-spirited revenge on Lenina. In brief, Lenina's resistance goes unnoticed in the novel because of the novel's misogyny. (Higdon, 2002)
...in an enlightening general discussion of misogyny in dystopias, Deanna Madden concludes that the men in Brave New World “have a spiritual dimension that the women lack ... mired in the physical, the women interfere with or prevent the men from achieving spiritually” and that “Huxley's misogyny has its obvious roots in a more general inability to accept the body.” (ibid.)
What use is winning if we lose everything in the process, even ourselves? This is the question that runs central to Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar. We see a war brought to the doors of Sirm; one that has been hundreds of years in the making led by a man, Micah, who is driven as much by vengeance as faith. On the other side, we have Kevah, a retired Janissary famed for his daring victory over a deadly mage ten years prior to the events in Gunmetal Gods. Both Kevah and Micah have lost loved ones, both have suffered and among all the parallels between them it is hard at the start of the book to know who to root for.
To read my full review, please head over to Black Dragon Books: https://www.blackdragonbooks.co.uk/review-gunmetal-gods/
A spectacular modern-day sci-fi romp through an alternate Earth with mountainous creatures and a bunch of nerds trying to study them. Jamie, our narrator, stumbles into a job as a lifter of things for KPS but, for some reason, doesn't ask what KPS stands for. Upon arriving at his new workplace it becomes apparent: the K means Kaiju. Jamie and three other newbies to the company become quick friends as they try to wrap their heads around their new surroundings and the ‘animals' they're going to be protecting.
Life on Kaiju Earth is a lot more exciting than lockdown COVID Earth back home: with everything on the planet trying to eat you while you try to study it, there are some close calls, although Jamie seems to take it all in stride. As a massive sci-fi nerd himself, he has the mental capacity to perceive of such a reality and so it's all not quite as much of a mind-melting shock as it could be.
Scalzi's writing is quick, chatty and funny, and this is the perfect book to decompress with. It's cool - there are giant monsters - it's fun - there's some great action - and, it has some heart too as the crew genuinely care about each other and the Kaiju around them. Capitalism rears is ugly head and threatens everything on both Earths and our team of plucky newbies take it upon themselves to fight back and save the day. They might not have a plan, per se, but they've got the right attitude.
The Kaiju Preservation Society is wonderfully written, includes diverse characters (without making a scene about it) and has a nicely cynical view of US politics back in 2020/21. Plus, Kaiju. I mean, what's not to get excited about there? As Scalzi himself says in his note at the end of the book, this is a story to feel better after the shit few years we've had back in reality. It's not meant to be a genre-breaking masterpiece for the ages; it's meant to be fun. In that, Scalzi has certainly excelled himself.
The Coward takes a look behind the heroes in their tales and sagas to reveal who the real people behind the songs and daring deeds are. Written primarily from the point of view of main character, Kell Kressia, The Coward sees a damaged man thrust back into the world of heroism he had been hiding from for the last ten years. Once, he desperately wanted to be a hero and tagged along on a quest with eleven (11) men to defeat an Ice Lich in the Frozen North that threatened the Five Kingdoms with failing crops, famine and death. Only Kell returned and he is not keen to repeat the ordeal. Now, the weather has turned sour again, crops are failing and the King has summoned Kell to save the world once more.
Kell takes us on his second epic quest as he relives some of the horrors he faced as a teenager. Along the way, he is joined by a rag-tag group of misfits each with their own reasons for following him into the grim Frozen North. What they experience and what they find out in the icy wasteland surprises even the cynical Kell. Meanwhile, the head of the church of the Shepherd, Reverend Mother Britak, is manipulating events in the Five Kingdoms to bring about a holy war to bring all in line under her one true god.
Through Kell's story, Stephen Aryan examines feelings of fear, courage and obligation, as well as the physical and mental toll heroism takes on the individual. Kell describes symptoms much akin to PTSS and it is a refreshing - albeit dark - take on epic fantasy giving it a touch of realism. We explore the tragedies of death, loss and the grief that goes with it but also friendship, belonging and love. The Coward packs a lot into its pages.
If this sounds heavy, fret not, as the prose is accessible and short chapters will have you sailing through it in no time. This could easily be read as a standalone if you're worried about waiting for book two (The Warrior) but there's still enough there to set the stage for a sequel. My only real criticism is that, for a traditionally published book, there were quite a few editing/proofreading misses and mistakes. The overall experience made up for it but nevertheless it did lose some points in my mind over this (I was reading the paperback version, these issues may have been rectified in digital copies or later printings).
This was Mark Lawrence's debut and first in The Broken Empire trilogy where we follow Jorg, a prince to one of a hundred kingdoms all vying to become Emperor and reunite the lands. He's also a character who has suffered some unimaginable hardship and loss. He has seen terrible things and it broke him as a child so that now, as a young man, he is whip sharp and hardened.
Prince of Thorns is a fast-paced dark science-fantasy (grimdark, specifically) following Jorg and his road brothers as he tries making his first advances to be King. I knew this was going to be a Sci-Fantasy before starting out but if I hadn't there are plenty of clever little nods to it that Lawrence has worked into the prose before the point where it becomes readily obvious. At times, you can tell this was a debut and the writing could use a touch more polish and this doesn't impact on the story.
When you think of a rollercoaster it's fast, frenetic and a little bit scary, which is what you'll get from We Are the Dead without having to queue for two hours first. WATD is the debut novel from Mike Shackle in his grimdark series The Last War, following its characters through the dark and deadly life in an occupied territory as they try to resist the enemy and take back their country, Jia. The book's main storyline takes place over a span of eight days, which adds to the fast-paced nature of it, and follows five main points of view: Tinnstra, Jax, Dren, Yas and Darus.
Tinnstra is a young woman consumed by fear and a desperate desire to live but not necessarily the courage to fight for it until she gets caught up in an escape attempt that could give all of Jia hope for a future of freedom. While the blurb on the reverse of the book only specifically mentions Tinnstra, she is not the sole focus of the story; nevertheless her arc presents a refreshingly honest take on violence and war. After all, if you look within yourself, would you really have the courage to fight an unwinnable war knowing it would cause your certain death? Or, would you be petrified and forced to run and hide?
Dren's story - aside from Tinnstra's - shows some of the most growth. From a reckless, rebellious teenager, hellbent on killing the enemy no matter the cost, to a young man who can see the bigger picture and the part he has to play in it. The character development across the board is excellent and Dren's is possibly my favourite.
There is plenty of dark, grim and gritty content here too. Everyone suffers some sort of familial loss, even if in one case it's a twistedly happy affair. There is death on a mass scale, betrayal, failure, torture and the ever-present looming darkness of fear. This is still a tale of rebellion and resistance despite all the odds going against our Jian friends and a brilliant read that is more than it seems.
> Some TW/CW for the book: suicidal ideation, sexual assault, mentions of and attempted r*pe, torture <
{4.5 stars}
Of Blood and Fire from Ryan Cahill is a great debut, marking the start of The Bound and the Broken series, which proved an addictive read. It is a classic epic fantasy with a modern interpretation. Though this starts off in familiar territory - with 3 young men, as close as brothers, on the eve of their manhood trial, which inevitably goes awry and the village bully gets involved - it is very much worth the read.
The central characters are ones you can care about and root for. Calen, Dann & Rist are our three freshly-proven young men who get caught up in a kerfuffle with the big bad Empire after they befriend the mysterious Erik who is travelling incognito with his brother and father. After coming to the aid of their new friends, our main boys are landed in the shit and it gets worse before getting better.
Along their journey these three make discoveries about themselves and the world around them. They witness a baby dragon hatching - the first in over 400 years - they meet elves, giants, dwarves and are chased across the continent by a Fade hellbent on destroying the aforementioned baby dragon.
Without giving too much more away there are stakes, there is loss, there is wonder and awe in this book. At times there are some words used that feel a bit jarring or out of place where a more simple descriptor could have sufficed but I think Cahill shows a lot of promise. Book 2 in the series, Of Darkness and Light, is already out and the next installation is due later this year (Of War and Ruin) so you won't have to wait long to continue the story. Cahill is also planning to release a novella set in The Bound and the Broken world prior to Book 3's release to keep eager fans ticking over.
I would recommend reading the prequel novella, The Fall, as it clues you in to some of the language and magic of this world and gives a good sense of the epic proportions the main series is heading for. Did I mention there are dragons?
Action packed intro to the world that awaits in Of Blood and Fire. I loved the dragons and the bond with the Draleid. The Knights as well. There's just enough balance to make you wonder who really is “in the right”. A couple of things that were missed in editing (word repetition, wrong name used) however I can forgive when it's been produced for free by the author.
This was a disappointing read.
To expand on that; it felt far too much like an introduction. Nothing was really explained and far too much was left up in the air. Some ‘goings on' could have been explained by totally different things, and I somehow highly doubt a ghost from the 1700s is going to know enough about used car sales & internet protocols to write some fake emails and switch recipients.
I was interested in the characters but there were no real stakes and far too much ‘deus ex machina' in effect throughout. I wanted answers and there were none. Far too nebulous and unfinished.
While a little more complex than the blurb makes out, this still feels like a bit of a generic thriller and the framing it as a movie inside a book didn't particularly add much. One of those thrillers where at the start I think “I bet it's so-and-so...” and no matter what twists and turns the author uses to throw me off, it was, in the end, exactly as I predicted. The killer's motives once revealed were quite flat; a Criminal Minds' ‘unsub' would have more depth from a 40 minute episode. The additional dimension of the MC's hallucinations don't really do much besides trying to distract you from the otherwise totally predictable killer's identity.