Review: We Free the Stars

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It took a little more time for Hafsah Faizal to conclude her debut duology - a combo, I think, of pandemic-related production problems, the size of the book (nearly 600 pages!), and the pressure of bringing it all to a strong, satisfying conclusion. Well, let's just say that Faizal absolutely delivers on that front once again, bringing us another high-stakes, high-speed fantasy adventure that gets into some of the darkest territory in YA history. I can see why my friend Allie Macedo's a big fan of this series - it's damn fine stuff, and I can't wait to see what Faizal writes next. Till then, though, this series gets a well-deserved ave atque vale, and a hope that we get to see more stories in the far-flung lands of Arawiya and further.

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Review: The Scorpion's Tail

The Scorpion's Tail by Douglas Preston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson return in their second adventure together, this time taking the reader to a different part of the West and a different part of history. This time, we go down to the New Mexico desert, a setting not out of place with the Gideon Crew series (particularly the second of that series if I remember correctly) and dealing with more deep-historical cold case material. In this case, deaths linked to the atomic bomb tests at Los Alamos. Though it's still not to the level I'd come to expect from Preston and Child over the years, it's still a pretty serviceable thriller from them, at least until something better comes along. And I feel like I'm going to remember it for more of the right reasons than, say, Crooked River.

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Review: The Mask Falling

The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Samantha Shannon is absolutely one of the most ambitious authors in the SFF business today - I mean, she announced her debut novel as the first of a seven-part series for God's sake, and over the last near-decade we've been getting steadily closer to making that septology a complete reality. Now, we're at the halfway point - the fourth book, four years after its predecessor, taking us to Scion France and getting us deeper in a new side of this dangerous alternate-historical/alternate-futuristic culture. And, of course, deepening the romance between our Underqueen Paige and her once and future Warden Arcturus - I can't believe I'm shipping them as much as I am now, given that I've rejected a lot of similar ships (Rhys/Feyre, even though I warmed up to them over time, and of course Alina/Darkling, a ship I'd still rather firebomb into oblivion than see set sail). Let's just say that this book is absolutely Shannon's magnum opus up to this point, so beautifully capturing its Parisian setting and numerous layers of magical intrigue, and all building up to one of the most literally weapons-grade cliffhangers in history. God, I hope Shannon's not gonna take another four years to give us Book 5, though given that she's promising a long, long book (at least a thousand manuscript pages last I heard), who even knows?

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Review: All the Tides of Fate

All the Tides of Fate by Adalyn Grace
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maybe I'll round this one up to a four star read eventually on a second go-through, but for now, my first impression of Adalyn Grace's second half of her debut duology is a 3.5 rounded down. A lot of that may owe a bit to my general confusion as to why duologies are still a thing, because in this case, it's absolutely an example of the series not feeling like two books were enough to really cover everything the world within had to offer. Certainly not with seven lands, seven types of magic (each with some of its own subtypes), and Amora and Bastian feeling like such larger than life characters that two books simply could never do them justice. But those two characters, as inextricably linked as they are, help make the book as gripping an adventure as its predecessor for sure. Though I'm disappointed that Grace is concluding this series so soon, at least her upcoming Belladonna is just as promising if not more so, so I'll be giving this series a good vas ir...anoshe now.

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Review: Remote Control

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't realize until very recently that Nnedi Okorafor had a new book out, so I put it on my library ebook list with barely a second's glance. Then I got it, and I realized, wait a second...this is a novella? Damn, but once again Okorafor gives us a bite-sized Africanfuturist and Africanjujuist (I went and looked up to confirm that she didn't use the label "Afrofuturist" for her work, and while I hadn't heard that she'd coined these terms before today, her definitions in her "Africanfuturism Defined" essay absolutely apply here) story that packs a punch well above its weight, with its unique fusion of science-fantasy as only Okorafor could do it. Alien artifacts leading to mysterious magical consequences, and the involvement of real-world African faiths? It's everything we've all come to expect from Okorafor and more. Though I was able to read it all in one sitting, guaranteed this story will stick in my mind for quite a while.

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