Review: Weavingshaw

Weavingshaw by Heba Al-Wasity
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first in a new trilogy, Heba Al-Wasity's debut novel pairs very well with the works of her fellow hijabi fantasy writer Hafsah Faizal - particularly A Tempest of Tea and A Steeping of Blood, being that this book is set in a fantasy counterpart of Victorian England with a significant minority community of a MENA fantasy counterpart culture, the Algaarans. Though this book is less a vampire story about colonialism and more of a straight up gothic ghost story, it's no less great for it, with the pages flying fast in this compulsively readable atmosphere. I hope to see the second book drop as soon as possible, and that this series does maintain its original trilogy promise in a world increasingly dominated, for whatever reason, by duologies.

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Review: The Tapestry of Fate

The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"This ain't no Shangri-La
To you, no Shangri-La
This ain't no Shangri-La
Nobody knows no Shangri-La..."
-Don Henley

After a long, long hiatus (especially by her standards), Shannon Chakraborty returns with the second adventure of Amina al-Sirafi, in which she and her crew get sidetracked while tracking down a string of powerful artifacts for the peri council and wind up on a mysterious island that looks like paradise but is anything but. It's a relatively slow-moving story compared to its predecessor, but Chakraborty absolutely maintains Amina's weapons-grade sarcasm and narrative style, while balancing with interludes that explain the story behind Queen Lab and her woven enchantment isle from which no one can escape. As usual, Chakraborty admits to having gone down a ton of research rabbit holes while writing this book, particularly where textiles are concerned. And as a longtime reader of hers, I should've seen the ending to this book coming because it proved shockingly reminiscent of that of The Kingdom of Copper...iykyk. Here's hoping it's not another three year wait before we get the third and final projected Amina al-Sirafi adventure, but when that day comes, I shall preorder regardless.

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Review: River of Bones and Other Stories

River of Bones and Other Stories by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A few years ago, N.K. Jemisin published an impressive collection of short stories, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?, further showcasing her great grasp of the scale of space and time which all the best genre writers need. Now it’s Rebecca Roanhorse’s turn to impress with her own short story collection, with stories rooted in both Native American and Black culture befitting her unique background, and crossing through all the speculative genres and subgenres you can think of. And being radically inclusive in ways that may seem contradictory to what we know of history, and Roanhorse knows a certain type of reader may feel that way, so she challenges them in the acknowledgments section. All in all, here’s proof again: never let it be said that Roanhorse isn’t one of the best in the business, now or ever.

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Review: Paradox

Paradox by Douglas Preston and Aletheia Preston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Douglas Preston's Extinction promised potential follow ups with its plot threads left hanging - namely, the disappearance of the newly recreated Neanders into the Colorado mountains. While this book mostly doesn't bring the Neanders back - saving them instead for a well placed sneak peek to the planned third book, Resurrection, which still needs a Goodreads page of its own - here, Douglas and Aletheia Preston team up instead to write a Catholic relic conspiracy/serial killer thriller worthy of tiding over us Sigma Force fans while we wait for James Rollins to end that series's interminable hiatus. Running on theories about Jesus, Buddha, and other historical religious figures being secret aliens, this book improves on its predecessor in every way, and someday I hope to see Aletheia Preston either take over this series entirely or start something new. She's definitely honed a talent on par with her father's.

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Review: The Snowman

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

And I thought The Redeemer was dark, but this one takes the devil’s food cake. I have a feeling that Nesbø might want to have this one follow up on The Devil’s Star for his Netflix adaptation of Harry Hole, not only because it’s so much darker and colder than that book in contrast, but also because there is no Snowman in Ba Sing Se, if you know what I mean. Looks like the next one will be again in a tropical locale, but this time I’ll be reading a ton of other books first, because my reading palate could use the cleansing.

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Review: The Redeemer

The Redeemer by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The sixth Harry Hole mystery, the first to follow the culmination of the Waaler storyline, is as different as it gets from The Devil’s Star. Here, it’s the dead of winter in Oslo as a new killer stalks the Christmastime streets, a killer with connections to the Salvation Army and the Yugoslav war, with references to the same town where Dr. Luka Kovać on ER used to live before he came to America. The best part of this book, however, is the discussion of why high control religious environments tend to cause so much perversion - arrested development at its worst.

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Review: Release Me

Release Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tahereh Mafi picks up on her New Republic series, aka Shatter Me: Series Two according to the cover, right where Watch Me left off. And I have to say, the more I read about James and Rosabelle, the more I'm like...I just don't ship them. Rosabelle is an interesting character all by herself, but James's romantic fixation on her just doesn't ring true for me, and that's coming from someone who's found something to love in almost every pairing Mafi's ever written. But then along comes this book's cliffhanger ending, where Mafi throws in a wrench like you wouldn't believe, and with the third book in this series, Escape Me, already set for September of this year while Mafi delays the long awaited finale to This Woven Kingdom...thank God it's only a brief wait this time around.

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