Review: Light from Uncommon Stars

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

First off, I have to be honest: I ordered this book, and got it from the library, weeks before the shooting at the Lunar New Year festivities in Monterey Park, CA, where this book largely takes place. Reading it only after the shooting was quite surreal, as was the fact that after I finished the book, I went and watched the movie Tár and saw a lot of strong parallels between the Queen of Hell and Lydia Tár herself - prodigious musical instructors with tendencies to leave a lot of devastation in their wake, with suicides among both their ranks of protégées. 

Review: Fortuna

Fortuna by Kristyn Merbeth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Five star reads have become pretty rare for me in recent years. But this book, which I vaguely remember having a place on the shelf at Stanford Bookstore when it first came out…how the hell didn’t I read it sooner? At least now I know I have sequels to pick up soon, continuing the story of these two trouble twins, Scorpia and Corvus. Thanks to Merbeth’s editor for convincing her to add Corvus’s POV, because she does a damn fine job of deepening the intrigue through his perspective. The comparisons to Becky Chambers - super inclusive and diversely cast space opera - ring true, and I’d like to say this book rivals Hugo winner Arkady Martine as well. It’s an under the radar masterpiece, with 500 pages flying by in a snap, and it absolutely deserves more attention than it’s received. And also, that bi pride colored cover, so bloodydamn synthwave…it is PERFECTION.

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Review: Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of a Scythe

Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of a Scythe by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

By now it's been about three years since Shusterman concluded the original trilogy of Arc of a Scythe, but he clearly had some more stories to tell, and he did so with a little help from his friends and family. This far future world, being so far out from our own, had a lot of hidden potential as the original trilogy barely scratched the surface. Highlights for me include the secret origin of the dreaded fascist villain Scythe Goddard, a little story featuring the Terranova family in the gap between the cliffhanger ending of Thunderhead and The Toll picking up several years later, and (especially for me as someone who's long been fascinated with Barcelona) the story where we meet Scythes Gaudí and Dalí and their contrasting Catalan styles. I sure as hell hope that some of these stories get adapted into an eventual Arc of a Scythe film or TV series - which is an absolute must for this, one of Shusterman's best works ever.

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Review: The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy

The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, the only reason it took me this long to read this book (aside from the fact that audiobooks came out months before ebook or physical versions) is because while I did order a signed copy from Chakraborty’s hometown indie, Thunder Road Books in New Jersey, my apartment complex is absolute garbage at taking deliveries at, y’know, my actual building. And no one told me there was a package from New Jersey with my name on it in the parcel room across the complex, and Thunder Road never emailed me, even in my junk folder, with updates on the package in transit.

But after three months, I found the package, I opened the book, and I was duly impressed with Chakraborty’s meticulously researched, enchantingly lush style as always.

Let’s just say that even before The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi drops this spring, I think a long overdue Daevabad reread is in order. I haven’t reread since at least 2020 when the final book came out!

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Review: Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You can imagine my excitement last spring when Brandon Sanderson made the surprise announcement of no less than four new novels, with special quarterly releases as part of the Kickstarter-funded Year of Sanderson in 2023. You can imagine that I contributed to the tune of...well, it escapes me how many dollars exactly, but I contributed enough to get the physical copies of each of the four books in their special limited editions. While those limited editions have (as can be expected in this era of too many supply chain disruptions) been delayed, at least there have been ebook and audiobook versions released for this first book, this first quarter of the year, and I managed to get the ebook on my phone for pretty easy reading.

Review: The World We Make

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even YA isn't immune to the ongoing strange trend of duologies being all the rage, as N.K. Jemisin indicates with her latest novel, her first in almost three full years. This series was initially announced as a trilogy, but it became clear this year that Jemisin was going to end it with the second book, which makes a lot of sense once you've read the acknowledgments at the end of the book. Jemisin was understandably burnt out writing such a series, with its stressful thematic relation to the real world as it grapples with terrible increases in racism, xenophobia, and a general disregard for human life.

Review: Cursed

Cursed by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’d been hoping last year that when I read Gilded that it would prove to just be so much Prolonged Prologue, but this duology conclusion instead just comes across as…plain old Prolonged. I’ve said it many times that I really don’t understand why duologies are such a thing, and they’ve been so absurdly common in YA SFF especially the last five years or so. Credit to Meyer for following g that trend, though, while also sticking with the fairytale retelling trend of the early to mid 10’s. Unfortunately, this time around, it feels so seriously phoned in, full of dull characters and plodding storylines. At least Meyer brings the story to a clear end, but her glory days are behind her at this point, I’m sorry to say. Or maybe the Erlking just isn’t the story for me - it’s not the first time I’ve read a retelling of that particular legend and come away wanting in terms of entertainment. Who knows.

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