Review: Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality

Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality by Roshani Chokshi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first official series of Rick Riordan Presents now reaches its long-awaited conclusion, though of course it's only the first taste of many in this whole wide 'verse of multicultural mythology. Building on the last book's stunning betrayals and cliffhangers (rivaling the grand master and executive producer of this whole imprint, and that's saying something), Chokshi brings the story of Aru Shah and her fellow Pandavas full circle at last, and it wouldn't be a Rick Riordan Presents book without the goofiness of the gods, a bit of rockstarin' awesomeness here and there, some little references to the wider world of myths and magic (Xib'alb'a from the Maya tradition gets shouted out at least once), and a deviously unexpected ending or two that makes it clear how much Chokshi was the perfect storyteller for Aru's many adventures.

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Review: Book of Night

Book of Night by Holly Black
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'm sorry but I really should just give up on trying to find a Holly Black book that I actually like. Even the ones I kinda somewhat enjoy at first, I end up souring on them over time, and a lot of them, I just can't get into, period. For me, with this one (Black's much-hyped adult debut), it was more of the same deal, really. About fifty pages in, at least it was recognizably a Holly Black book, with a world that's pretty modern and well adapted to its fantasy element, and the inland Massachusetts setting, with all the college towns name-dropped, took me back to the days when Cassandra Clare's suggestions helped get me into Questionable Content (before Jeph Jacques became the insufferable, pandering, can't-take-the-slightest-criticism robot fetishist we know him as today). But our protagonist Charlie...man, was she ever so clearly a Holly Black protagonist. I don't know why, but there's something about Holly Black's protagonists that I just find them extremely difficult to connect with or root for, and after about fifty pages, I was so bored that I just gave up. Now I regret putting down money to buy this book, but hopefully it'll find a new home before I move to my new place soon...

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Review: You've Reached Sam

You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book has been bubbling on the periphery of my vision for a while, in part because of how much the internet seems to love it - wasn't it kind of a BookTok viral smash for a minute there? In an era where I'm starting to shift away from YA just a bit (while still writing some YA stories, whether on my own or together with my buddy Koda), along comes a book that makes me wish I could still be working in a bookstore again so I could suggest it to as many teenage readers as I can. It's a short but sweet little contemporary with a gentle fantasy twist, as Julie, grieving the loss of her boyfriend Sam, starts getting to talk to him again on her phone like he's still around, except we know it's a strange metaphysical phenomenon of sorts that's responsible for these conversations. And in the meantime, Julie struggles to maintain her grip on her earthly obligations - a bookstore job here, a school club there (in which she socializes with Asian exchange students because most of the rest of her white classmates are racist as hell in this small town on the back side of the Washington Cascades - and while I'm at it, Ellensburg was quite an unusual and specific choice of setting for this book, close enough to Seattle and Portland to serve as a most tantalizing goal for Julie's future), and of course her struggles with getting into college. It's a rough read at times, but Dustin Thao, in his debut, pulls it off with pretty good grace and leaves me hoping for him to write something new soon.

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: So Many Maestri, So Little Time

***NO SPOILERS FOR MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, BUT SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS MARVEL MOVIES AND TV SHOWS - ESPECIALLY WANDAVISION, NO WAY HOME, INFINITY WAR, AND THE ORIGINAL DOCTOR STRANGE ABOUND WITHIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.***

Maybe in an alternate section of our multiverse, this Doctor Strange sequel would've dropped in May 2021 like nature intended. And maybe Scott Derrickson would've still been able to direct?

But no, the version we got comes to us from another horror maestro, one who also has well-established previous experience in the world of superheroes. And I just can't imagine how anyone could've done this movie better justice than Sam Raimi in the director's chair. With a touch of the old Spider-Man style from the 2000s - Raimi gets a fair few fight scenes choreographed in such a way that Tobey Maguire would feel right at home if he ever got the chance to pop through one of Strange's sling ring portals again - and a generous helping of Raimi's Evil Dead vibes, plus the welcome returns of Danny Elfman behind the conductor's stand and Bruce Campbell getting another most memorable cameo?

All on a backdrop of multiversal shenanigans to rival Fringe, or even Agents of SHIELD - which I do highly recommend you catch up on, especially since Season 4 was the first intro to a key concept around which this film revolves.

It's Raimi's funhouse. We're all just running through it.

"Things just got out of hand..."

Review: Kingdom of Bones

Kingdom of Bones by James Rollins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For the 16th time, James Rollins gifts the world with a stunning new novel about Sigma Force, and this time, he acknowledges from the very first page, with his author's intro, that it may be a bit of bad form on his part to release a novel about a viral threat so soon after Covid became a thing (and yes, Covid is acknowledged in the book, though more as a past event than anything else.) No, but this latest book is less about how viruses spread and more about why they exist, as philosophical as any of Rollins's past works if not more so, and yet as blazing fast as ever to the point where I got to read the whole book in (almost) one sitting. Bringing back Tucker Wayne and his war dog Kane after several years' hiatus (they still haven't had more than two solo adventures!), depicting a Belgian villain who fancies himself the second coming of King Leopold but make it corporate, following the journeys of Black missionaries rather than white colonists into the heart of Africa, and even making reference to the stories of a long-lived Black Christian king descended from Balthazar of the Magi (I admittedly hadn't heard about Prester John before, but then again there's a reason why Rollins is one of the best history teachers I never had in high school.) And as an autistic reader, I very much loved Rollins's inclusion of an autistic supporting character, Benjie Frey, whose passion for animals and Very Britishness makes me wonder if Rollins hasn't been watching at least one Fantastic Beasts movie in his spare time. Fair warning, though - this book will rip your heart out with one particular ending moment (for which Rollins also sends his apologies in the author's note at the end), but he promises some even more tantalizing adventures in that same note, especially since this is one of those books where Seichan doesn't really show up in the picture. Which means she's in for some major trouble next time...

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Review: Fevered Star

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rebecca Roanhorse returns to the Meridian and picks up pretty quickly after where Black Sun fell off, with Serapio and Naranpa now extra pitted against each other as rival godly avatars, Xiala rather heartbroken by the loss (and naturally, losing herself in a new lover for a few nights - I'm really starting to wonder whether or not Roanhorse took inspiration from Clarke Griffin for Xiala's characterization, and as a fan of Clarke, I'm here for that), and all the powers that be outside the city of Tova circling to try and take advantage of the chaos. Fevered Star is shorter than its predecessor, and takes its time to savor just as much, but also feels, dare I say, a bit unfocused in its storyline? Like, it's hard to tell where Roanhorse is taking things after the devastating ending of Black Sun, and frankly I kinda wish there could've been more focus on Serapio because he's always been my favorite character, and I really really really wish he could rise up against fate the way Xiala would want for him. But, y'know, drama. And Roanhorse cranks it up by the time this book is over, leaving me absolutely dying for the finale...

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