Review: Dead Lions

Dead Lions by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again, Herron presents a fast paced, (almost) single sitting read in the world of the Slow Horses, with the story that was later covered in great detail in the second season of the Apple TV series adaptation. I will say for sure, though - one big detail that doesn’t translate into the TC series as much is Jackson Lamb’s persistent flatulence, which somehow manages to be even more in your face in this non visual medium. Though I did like the series adaptation better on this one, it’s still a damn good action thriller of a book, and I’ve already got Book 3 waiting in the wings…

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Review: Twelve Months

Twelve Months by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jim Butcher is back after another five year hiatus for The Dresden Files, after personal battles took out his old energy that made him one of the most prolific fantasy writers in the business in the 2000s. Finally following up on the Battle of Chicago duology novels released back to back in 2020, it's clear that Butcher was working through those real-life problems through his novels, as Harry Dresden and his remaining friends struggle to pick up the pieces in a city that's been bombed back to the Dark Ages - literally. But the supernatural threats to the world continue apace, and one in particular feels like it's setting up for the eventual conclusion of the series in Butcher's projected "apocalyptic trilogy." But, if this ends up being the last book in the series, I'd say it ends on a pretty high note all the same.

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Review: Slow Horses

Slow Horses by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Now that I've got Apple TV back again, I was finally able to get back into the Slow Horses TV series adaptation, and as I work my way through the third season on streaming, I've got the first two books sitting on my library stack as we speak. The first book is not at all as slow as its name suggests - it's a blazing fast read, and the first season of the show did a great job of encapsulating everything that made it so compulsive. Even the long info-dumps in the prologue and epilogue read super quickly, and in a sardonic tone that wouldn't be out of place if Jackson Lamb himself (referred to by full name as he often is) were to be a parody of a film-noir narrator. I'll be breaking away to read the new Dresden Files book next before picking up the sequel, but I already can't wait to see how well Dead Lions captures the energy that made the show's second season its best yet for me.

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Review: Shadows Upon Time

Shadows Upon Time by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was wondering after Ruocchio and Pierce Brown released their long delayed sixth novels which of the two young masters would finish their saga first. That question is now officially answered as Ruocchio caps off the saga of the Sun Eater, Hadrian Marlowe, in a 900 page epic that finally truly gives his sobriquet its true meaning. Filled to the brim with world shattering weapons to be used against increasingly deadly truths of the metaphysics of the universe itself…all building up to a mournful ending as if Ruocchio was fixing his gaze on PB and telling him, “your move, boyo.” At long last, the time has come to tell Hadrian Marlowe, ave atque vale.

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Review: Alexandria: The City that Changed the World

Alexandria: The City that Changed the World by Islam Issa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Islam Issa presents a definitive, comprehensive, digestible, and all around fascinating history of one of the world’s greatest cities of all time. Delving into every era in detail - ancient precursors, Ptolemaic Greek, early Christian, caliphate conquest, Napoleonic, all the way to the modern Egypt Issa knows well - it still manages to teach me much I hadn’t known before. Like how Alexander himself never saw this city built in his honor, or how Egyptian figs are actually the fruit of a sycamore tree. But as a cosmopolitan center of world culture and politics back in the day, it’s the model city to which all others today must strive to follow, if they are to leave nearly as much of a mark even when their time appears to have come and gone.

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Review: The Awakening of Roku

The Awakening of Roku by Randy Ribay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Randy Robay concludes his first duology in Chronicles of the Avatar with Roku leaving his adolescence behind and truly becoming a man of the world. Tracing a mysterious illness to its source, learning the ways of waterbending and witnessing for himself that the Water Tribes have much more distinct customs than we ever thought (Ribay shouts out some good research material he made use of while learning about real Inuit peoples), but also, this is where we start to really see the corruption of Fire Lord Sozin and his eventual fall to the dark side, which gives the very end of this book a bittersweet note. My guess, though? Based on the considerable presence of Avatar Kuruk in this book, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ribay was setting up to finally write his duology next.

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Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I first heard of this book several years ago when Charlie Jane Anders used it as an example for a Star Wars book she wanted to write, as an exploration of how the Empire could successfully wipe out all historical records of the Republic and the Jedi could be considered a myth less than a decade after they were purged. It took years before I finally found a library copy - in Beaverton, whereas it was unavailable in Vancouver or Portland before - and I had no idea how expansive the scope of this novel would be. Spanning many post apocalyptic centuries, this is exactly the novel that doesn’t lend itself well to optimism in a nightmarish time of history. But then, remember - it was even bigger atrocities, namely those of WWII, that inspired this book to begin with.

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