Review: Sword Catcher

Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cassandra Clare's first fantasy series for adults has, naturally, already made the bestseller lists, and also gotten a lot of flack from those who think she hasn't put her old plagiarizing ways behind her. Namely, they look at the fact that one of the protagonists is a boy named Kel with a strong connection to a crown prince in a realm where red and gold are the royal colors, and think that he's a ripoff of Kell from V.E. Schwab's Shades of Magic universe. No, it's pretty safe to say that this story and Schwab's share little similarities other than that, and while Clare's newest series is something of a mixed bag at first, the positives outweigh the negatives enough for me to round up a 3.5 rating to 4.

Review: The Girl in the Eagle's Talons

The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Stieg Larsson allegedly had plans for as many as ten novels with Lisbeth Salander, but ever since his death, and now with a second Swedish publisher taking over rights to this series and handing the reins to yet another author, it's become more clear than ever that this series really should never have continued without its original creator. The trilogy that David Lagercrantz wrote from 2015-19 at least started out reasonably well only to fizzle into forgettability - if I were to go back and reread them, I'd almost certainly knock off stars from my original hyped-up ratings and reviews. Karin Smirnoff starts a new trilogy here that's a mixed bag right from the start. At least Lisbeth gets to finally bond with a blood relative (after a fashion) with whom she has much more in common than, say, Camilla or Zala. Her niece Svala takes so much more after her, and it's interesting to see this kind of dynamic which neither Larsson nor Lagercrantz attempted. Unfortunately, Smirnoff doesn't know what to do with Blomkvist and saddles him with a pathetic and boring storyline that had me skimming pages just to get back to Lisbeth (even Larsson was prone to this flaw, but at least Blomkvist really felt like a character with agency and personality in the old days, even if Larsson idealized him in certain uncomfortable ways.) Not to mention, the book opens with some pretty gross necrophiliac type content, which really soured the experience for me. At this point, I don't see myself continuing the series...although maybe if the next one shows up on the Lucky Day table at the library in a couple of years and I've got a dearth of books on hand, who knows.

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Review: The Chalice of the Gods

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The much-hyped return of Percy Jackson, more than ten years since the last official Percy Jackson and the Olympians adventure and with tons of other stories from Rick Riordan in between, is proof that Riordan is at his best form when he's got the original Persassy Jackson (and his signature silly chapter titles) fully in command of the storytelling. And luckily, this bite-sized little book isn't actually the Grand Finale as it was initially marketed to be, but rather, Part 1 of a finale trilogy, focusing on Percy's attempts to get letters of recommendation from different Olympians so he can enroll at New Rome University along with his favorite Wise Girl in the world, Annabeth.

Review: Holly

Holly by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

King said he was welcoming one star reviews from the many MAGA types he freely insulted through Holly’s perspective in this book, and while I do enjoy a few digs at Der Orangeführer and his many supporters in Holly’s unspecified red state home (okay, a lot of digs, but that’s nothing new from Stephen King anyway), it was really the constant Covid content that made me round my 3.5 down instead of up. I mean, it does make sense that Holly, who is famously neurodivergent and cautious and guarded in her life, devotedly wears masks everywhere and inquired about vaccination status (and regrets that her Trumpist mother refused the vaccine and died of Covid.) But as with the movie Glass Onion, it really doesn’t serve much purpose in the narrative other than being an unnecessary extra layer of political messaging that overly dates the story. (And I highly doubt that for all King says about Holly’s views on Covid matching his own, that he’s anywhere near as super cautious as she is.)

Review: Fourth Wing

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm being generous with the extra star for this one, and it's mostly because I can relate to Violet wanting to be a scribe, rather than a soldier. It's too bad she had to have a mother who comes off like a watered down version of the Commandant from An Ember in the Ashes who wouldn't allow her to pursue a path she really wanted at Basgiath War College.

I say "watered down" because unfortunately, for a book full of dragonfire and burning passions, a lot of the story is watered-down versions of so many YA and NA fantasy greatest hits from the last ten years:

Review: The Fragile Threads of Power

The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Six years and change since Schwab last wrote and published a full length novel in the world of the Shades of Magic, six years since I first bid that trilogy vas ir...anoshe, and now we're back with the long-awaited, long-hyped first book of the sequel trilogy. Just like the first book of the original trilogy, though, I do have to say that it doesn't quite live fully up to the hype for me. For this one, as grateful as I am to return to the series that's deservedly Schwab's signature work, I still have to give this one a 3.5 rounded up to a 4.

Review: Of Thieves and Shadows

Of Thieves and Shadows by B.S.H. Garcia
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I found this one on the shelf at the library in Gresham. It sure looked interesting, and I was especially intrigued when I picked it up and saw that it was from an Oregon-based author. Self-published epic fantasy? Yes please. But while the book had some interesting ideas, especially from a world building standpoint - a movie adaptation of this one would be very eye-catching with its cast of human and variously furry elfin characters - the story itself is difficult to follow, as is the geography because it's very hard to tell where certain characters are in relation to the provided world map. And the prose is oddly, bizarrely flowery, even by epic fantasy standards. Oh well, guess this one just wasn't for me.

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