Review: Heir

Heir by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For a while this book was only known as “Sabaa’s Bane,” and now, having finally read it, I can see why. Returning to her star-making saga of An Ember in the Ashes with a hard hitting next generation story - and a vastly expanded world map to show how much development Tahir put into this fictional world - it’s also a complex high fantasy, YA in marketing only, with three primary POV’s that show just how brutal the next war is going to be.

Review: Exposure

Exposure by Ramona Emerson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m not surprised that Ramona Emerson wasn’t going to stop at just Shudder, because there was clearly room for much more story to tell with Rita Todacheene. And so it goes with another paranormal murder mystery in New Mexico - this time set in a bone chilling Gallup winter, with a killer targeting indigent Native people under the direction of a vengeful God, or so the delusion would have it. Seriously, though, this particular religiously twisted killer is the second coming of Silas from The Da Vinci Code, right down to the self flagellation through a terrible whip known as “la disciplina.” Emerson is one of the unsung heroes the mystery genre needs right now, not only for her Diné cultural perspective (important every day, but especially on Indigenous People’s Day), but for her genre blending ways, breathing new life into the literary world with each new book.

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Review: Sunbringer

Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Back to Hannah Kaner’s ongoing trilogy, now caught up while the rest of the world also waits for Book 3, and at least I didn’t have to wait a long time after the first book’s devastating cliffhanger. This second book, though, definitely hits a bit of middle book syndrome, where the storyline feels like it’s spinning its wheels as it tries to compensate for having so many characters and POV’s to follow. Yes, this includes one who was believed to be out of the picture, but in this genre, no one’s ever truly gone. That said, it’s still one of the best surprises this book has to offer, and it’s setting the stage pretty well for the third and final novel…whenever that one comes along.

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Review: Long Live Evil

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven't read anything by Sarah Rees Brennan in quite a while, in part because she went on a very long hiatus due to health problems in her life. Unsurprisingly, she works her personal experience with cancer into the story of this book, a sort of isekai where the protagonist, Rae, gets to go into the world of her favorite epic fantasy series, Time of Iron, and live her own version of the life of the villainess who seduces the evil young Emperor. Interestingly, the series - which combines elements of A Song of Ice and Fire and Throne of Glass and Fourth Wing - is officially published in universe by an anonymous author, which is itself some serious wish fulfillment I can get behind.

Review: Dark Rise

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'd never read a C.S. Pacat book before, but Jay Kristoff says Pacat is friends with him, and on that basis I was ready to finally try one of her books. (As I understand it, Pacat is genderfluid and uses both she and he pronouns.) Unfortunately, it seems I set my expectations too high on this one and only opened myself up to disappointment. This book seemed pretty promising with its dark historical fantasy setup in early 19th century London, a setting similar to V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic, but unfortunately, Pacat wasn't able to interest me much in his characters. Or at all, really. I kept finding myself wandering away from the pages of this one with embarrassing regularity, which is a shame because I checked out both this book and its sequel together - that's how high my expectations were, I guess. But sadly, it's an official DNF, and I'm not sure I'll be going back to try any more of Pacat's other works. Though at least she's got a lot of good friends like Kristoff and Shelley Parker-Chan whose works I'll continue to read and enjoy...

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Review: Red Star Falling

Red Star Falling by Steve Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I almost wanted to give up on Berry and Blackwood's collaboration with the Luke Daniels series after the first book last year was such a disappointment. But after eventually getting to read this latest book in the series, I have to say it's a serious improvement. Not quite to four star territory, I'm afraid, but still a better Berry book than his Cotton Malone novel The Atlas Maneuver earlier this year. For me, I think it was the fact that this book was rooted in the same decommissioned Soviet-era missile system that served as a key aspect of the climax to one of my favorite Clive Cussler novels, Plague Ship, that helped make this one a much more memorable read for me. That, plus the inclusion of numbers stations, an old favorite subject for conspiracy-minded moments. And while the current Russian president isn't mentioned by name (and on the same subject, when I said his name in front of a Spanish-speaking colleague yesterday, she thought I was calling him a homophobic slur in that language), just as Berry has made mockery of Trump in recent years, so he now uses Konstantin Franko as an insulting stand in for Putin and his imperialist aims in Ukraine. It's a good throwback of a book, and hopefully a sign that Berry is getting back to the heights he's had no trouble reaching in years past.

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Review: Navola

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It's not the first time I've tried reading a book by Paolo Bacigalupi and found it lacking, and based on this one, I don't think I'll be making another attempt to get into his bibliography. Though the book is billed as a Renaissance Italian take on Game of Thrones, it's nowhere close to that series' level of addictive, propulsive storytelling. Even when George R.R. Martin's books are going nowhere fast, it's still a ride I couldn't help but want to keep going on. But this book...I slogged through about 100 pages or so before finally giving up. Nothing about it is keeping my interest, even the attempts at worldbuilding by showing how much this faux-Florentine, faux-Venetian city-state trades with clearly Middle Eastern and Far Eastern inspired nations. The real problem is the protagonist Davico, who tries to portray himself as a man of culture and intelligence but instead comes off as a dull, banal boy - and creepily fixated on his adoptive sister to boot.

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