Review: The Challenger

The Challenger by Taran Matharu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Taran Matharu's back with the second book of his second trilogy - well, that's a bit misleading since Summoner has a full-length prequel and all, and who knows if he'll follow up this series with a prequel novel as well? For now, though, we're continuing to explore, through Cade's eyes, the mysterious world on which he and his schoolmates, and a few 80s girls, and a few Roman legionnaires, find themselves stuck, now facing some major new threats - most memorable among them, Caesarion, son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, who of course rules this world with a lot of the ancient bread-and-circuses, gladiator-fighting playbook. (And he's managed to pick up English pretty quickly in the space of only a few years too, so there's that.) Though this one does kinda feel like a case of Middle Book Syndrome, Matharu's singular gift for action propels the book at an unstoppable pace as always, and even more than any book since his debut in The Novice, the action simply doesn't stop until the very last page, when another weapons-grade cliffhanger slams Cade and the reader full force. Luckily, we've already got the third book in the series lined up for a 2021 release - and let's just say I'm glad I didn't look at the summary of that one on GR before finishing this one first!

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Review: The Ravens

The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige put their minds together to start a pretty strong new YA/NA fantasy series about witchy sorority sisters, some of whom may have a few secrets in their pasts - and family legacies too. Split between two third-person POVs, Vivi and Scarlett, it seems pretty clear to me that Vivi is Paige's character (she shares a lot of background with Amy from Dorothy Must Die, raised by a single mother, very poor, and living out in a pretty desolate place - the Nevada desert - when we first meet her), so it stands to reason that Morgan wrote Scarlett and her years of experience in the Ravens sorority. I could be wrong, of course...but what I'm right about is that this is a really cool magical thriller, laden with magical bonding and the usual relationship troubles, both sisterly and romantic. Hell, while most YA readers are kinda done with love triangles at this point, I think Morgan and Paige did one that works very well and keeps me, the reader, super invested. Already we're looking at a sequel soon, The Monarchs - can't wait for that!

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Review: Black Sun

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rebecca Roanhorse made her name with futuristic post-apocalyptic fantasy inspired by the legends of the Navajo, and now she's set her sights on the past with the start of an all-new epic fantasy inspired by pre-Columbian Indigenous civilizations. Combining not only Native American (especially Aztec and Maya) influences, but also Polynesian as well, Roanhorse gives us a world of gods and monsters, magic and mayhem, pirates and prophecy, and oh so much riding on what happens when a blind young man hitches a ride on a ship of dubious repute, captained by a powerful Teek (a people whose unique magic reminds me, at least, of sirens.) There are several POV characters we've got in this story - though by far, my favorites are Serapio, blinded at a young age and meant to be connected to a certain crow god, and Xiala, the Teek sea captain whose dynamic with Serapio is intensely shippable and shippably intense. I'll admit, when the POV brings us back to the mainland and a few dramatic reveals about the Sun Priests whose power is threatened by Serapio and the forthcoming Convergence, I really find myself wishing to be back at sea just because I love Serapio and Xiala so much more as characters and as people. But it's a damn fine story, full of vibrant characters (and pretty extensive diverse representation, not only of disability but also LGBTQ+, as Roanhorse makes frequent inclusion of bi and/or pansexual characters, nonbinary and trans characters complete with neopronouns, etc. etc.) and movie-quality visuals from the cover on down deep. While we may be waiting quite a while for a third book in the Sixth World series, if we get more adventures in this series during that time - especially a much-needed Book 2! - it'll be so worth the wait.

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Review: The Shadow Crosser

The Shadow Crosser by J.C. Cervantes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zane Obispo's trilogy of Mayan demigod adventures comes to an end at last, and I'm sad that I wasn't able to read this in publication order with the larger Riordan-verse, since I wound up reading both Tristan Strong Destroys the World and The Tower of Nero first. But The Shadow Crosser opens on a decidedly ominous note, only to ramp up the action and thrills in a way that can only be described as hellishly awesome. And it includes an unexpected sci-fi twist that I'm frankly surprised Yoon Ha Lee and/or Carlos Hernandez didn't beat J.C. Cervantes to including in a Rick Riordan Presents title first - though also, lowkey grateful they didn't, because Hernandez already gets into a lot of space-time shenanigans as it is (though who's complaining?), and if Lee did it, it'd be downright mathematical to a degree not seen in any kidlit book past, present, or future. So I'm kinda glad Cervantes did it, and in a way tailor-made to appeal to me too! So, for the first time for sure, I'm bidding a Rick Riordan Presents series ave atque vale, and hoping to see more great work from J.C. Cervantes in the future!

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Review: The Tower of Nero

The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It only occurs to me after finishing this novel - the official fifteenth in the mainline Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, not including the two trilogies that spun off into non-Greco-Roman pantheons - that Rick Riordan's never really given any of them a sense of a straight-up ending. Up to now. But given that this one is meant to be the last in the mainline 'verse - at least for now, though Uncle Rick absolutely leaves the door open to continue a lot of side characters' stories, though they'll likely wind up in the hands of Rick Riordan Presents authors if nothing else (Reyna, especially, comes to mind, as does Nico, who really deserves his own spinoff series with Will) - it really stands out that this one makes it a point of NOT ending on a cliffhanger for once. No, we finally wrap up Apollo's adventure in a mortal shell, with tons of difficulty against the last and worst of the Triumvirate of immortal Roman emperors, the city-burning fiddler and casually matricidal Nero. Man, it's a good thing we were able to defeat Donald Trump in this year's election, otherwise this book would probably hit a little too hard with Nero threatening to fiddle while New York burns. Kronos, Gaea, eat your hearts out. But to the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, I now bid a most gracious ave atque vale while waiting for Riordan's next book - rumor has it he'll be working in Celtic mythology next? Makes sense, really.

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Review: The Silvered Serpents

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Four years ago, I tried to read a Roshani Chokshi book for the first time - her debut, no less. I didn't enjoy it so much, and couldn't even finish it - and the election happening around that time turned into a complete disaster. Is it coincidence that around the time of the next election, I'm reading another Chokshi book, and I finished it and enjoyed it and it's looking like we might just squeak through a victory against the fascist pretender in chief? Damn, I sure hope so. That said, though, it's a damn good book that Chokshi's given us, well worth the extended wait since its predecessor last year. I can see now why she dedicated this one to Nicolas Cage - it's very much a treasure hunting kind of story, globe-trotting to the level I love to see in James Rollins's Sigma Force adventures as our multicultural ensemble travels from Paris to Russia, Siberia, and Istanbul in search of an artifact that promises to completely upend the world of magical Forging forever. And if it could save some of them from dying young, bonus! But of course, Chokshi doesn't make things even the slightest bit easy for her starring cast, who find themselves facing all sorts of obstacles, Egyptian mythomagic, and naturally, a dangerous cliffhanger or two as we await the inevitable trilogy conclusion. Hopefully that one won't be as long a wait...

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Review: Skyhunter

Skyhunter by Marie Lu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And to stop myself from stressing out too much about this year's increasingly nerve-wracking election results, I hereby review Marie Lu's latest YA fantasy thriller - somewhat in the vein of The Young Elites, and yet, coming across as even deeper into the future than any of her scary apocalyptic future visions, with its depiction of the ruins of the Early Ones (basically, modern society.) Though unlike The Young Elites, it shies away somewhat from having straight-up counterpart cultures - you know, how the Sealands took inspiration from Italy, Spain, and Malta; the Skylands were Anglo-French; the Sunlands were North African-like, that sort of thing. But reading this book, it's still not hard to read it as a critique of America, with the Karensa Federation being imperialist as hell and only one nation on the entire continent refusing to fall to the Federation and its reanimated Ghost armies and poison gas attacks - the latter of which have caused our protagonist Talin to lose her voice permanently due to scars on her vocal chords, meaning she must communicate in sign language. A bit of a combination of Adelina, disabled as a young girl, and Elisa from The Shape of Water with the specific disability Lu wrote into her character. As with most of Lu's books, though, this one is not only smart and thoughtful in its sociopolitical critique, but amazingly fast-paced in its action as well. Though this time, it builds up to a positively Aveyardian cliffhanger, reminding me so much of Glass Sword it's not even funny. One thing's for sure, I hope Lu gets to go on tour in person for the inevitable sequel to this one - which, if I'm not wrong, will once again be the conclusion of a duology. At least I know from Warcross that Lu's one of those authors who can do the duology trend right...

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