Review: A Dreadful Splendor

A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I knew of B.R. Myers more for her dark YA fantasy mysteries, especially her Night Shift trilogy which I devoured in my Wattpad days. Here, for her adult literary debut, it took me a couple of years to finally get around to reading it, but when I found it on the shelf at Vancouver Library (in Washington, with the title spelled in American), I found it well worth the wait. Though a bit later in history than the works of Jane Austen, this one nevertheless feels like a murder mystery she would’ve written in collaboration with Agatha Christie. Affairs of the heart and bloody murder? What more to be asked for?

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Review: Blood Over Bright Haven

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m kind of in two minds about this book. It’s a dark academia fantasy, a standalone piece, and it gets a lot of R.F. Kuang comparisons because it’s dark academia from an Asian author with strong social justice themes.

Unlike Kuang’s Babel, however, it’s largely presented from the point of view of a white woman, and while it’s significant that she has to fight the patriarchy at every turn - Sciona is the city’s first ever female highmage, and the boys’ club makes it very clear they can barely tolerate her presence and want to lord it over her all the time - she’s also mired in a lot of privilege as a white person, especially when it comes to the book’s second protagonist. 

Review: Swim Home to the Vanished

Swim Home to the Vanished by Brendan Shay Basham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fort Vancouver Regional Library has always been very good at spotlighting unique books for Native American Heritage Month, which is how I found this book and its eye-catching cover art. I’ve never been all that partial to magical realism, but this book made the style work pretty well, all things considered. It’s not a feel good book, most definitely not, but it does a good job of blending surreal dreamlike quality, verbose prose, and a general feeling of dissociation from the world. I’d say that the most powerful aspect for me, though, was how Damien didn’t speak Diné bizaad all that well - I can relate if only because I’m also still largely unable to speak my own little-known ancestral language. But it’s not for nothing that Tommy Orange took note and blurbed this one, so I’ll for sure keep an eye out for new Brendan Shay Basham books in the future.

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Review: The Stone Witch of Florence

The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Okay sure, I’m in a reading slump lately for a lot of reasons, but…seriously, how does one write a story set in medieval Florence with plagues and witchy wonders and still make it boring? How? Inquiring minds must know. Unfortunately, despite the prettiness of the packaging, it’s an official DNF from me on this one.

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Review: The Verifiers

The Verifiers by Jane Pek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

They whom I replaced at my current job recommended me this book when they gave a brief visit and explained that they were going to be training as a paramedic. They had this book in hand and sayd they were reading it for a book club. Having read it, I have to say their book club has great taste. It’s an unconventional murder mystery where protagonist Claudia Lin is a sort of PI at a firm that specializes in solving mysteries linked to dating apps - ghosting, missed connections, the works. But the twist…oh yes, a twist very similar to some thar I’ve worked on in my own manuscripts, though not the same way that Pek does (my twists on AI aren’t dating related, and my twist on dating apps is much more magical.) That said, though, Finn Cooper and Claudia Lin could get along pretty well if they were to ever meet. But for now, Finn could be a fan of Claudia’s, especially since in universe there will be an official film adaptation that needs to exist in our world too.

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Review: 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers

888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers by Abraham Chang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Okay I’ll be honest, that triple dose of Don Henley needle drops on the first official page set my expectations a little too high, but that’s even after seeing the low GR rating tempering them. I do love the film nerd and music nerd of it all, don’t get me wrong. Hell, the amusing dreams of conversations with big name directors from America and China alike, these scenes alone would be great little short stories. This book could’ve just as easily fallen into John Green pretension, but despite hitting his same combo platter of favorite tropes, it manages to be a hell of a lot more endearing. But that’s a low bar to clear.

Review: Wrath of the Triple Goddess

Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Happy Halloween, or: It’s the Great Polecat, Percy Jackson! The new trilogy continues with Percy seeking his second godly letter of recommendation for New Rome University, with his latest task being to house sit for Hecate and her pets while she’s away. Easier said than done when there’s always the temptation to touch something you shouldn’t, and when it’s Grover who does just that, cue another madcap adventure across the magic side of New York as he, Percy, and Annabeth fight to recover what they’ve lost from Hecate’s house. Though this one doesn’t get quite as introspective as last year’s Chalice of the Gods, it’s still an important episode for Percy, not only for how honest he is in the end, but also for the fact that this mission might just help restore Hecate to her former glory. Not exactly prophesied, but then again we all know Percabeth will be at New Rome University together in the end…so the question is, which god will be the one to challenge Percy for his third and final letter of recommendation? Hopefully we find out in a year’s time…

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Review: Dragonsteel Prime

Dragonsteel Prime by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The origin of Sanderson’s brand, this book was a surprise to me, being featured with his Words of Radiance leatherbound Kickstarter - I was only expecting Secret Project #5! But here we get one of Brando Sando’s very first manuscripts, the one he wrote in college at BYU, fresh from the vault as a special treat. Looking at this book, it’s easy to see how it’s written by a much younger hand - especially with the heavy Funetik Aksents, as well as plot details big and small which turn up in Sanderson’s later works (I’m looking at you, Shattered Plains, and bridges.) But as a rare and distinct Sanderson Curiosity, it’s great to see where he got his start, because I can tell you I’ve been doing the same, taking elements of my college manuscript and tinkering with them on other projects too. It gives me just a little more hope for my own future career as a writer…

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Review: Castle of the Cursed

Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m amazed this book doesn’t have a higher rating here on GR, because I have to say, it’s some of Romona Garber’s best work. Hella Spanish and hella Gothic, it’s the closest thing I’ve seen yet to a YA version of Crimson Peak, enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if Guillermo del Toro were to snap up the film rights and at least exec produce, if not direct, an adaptation. In which case it would also take some inspiration from Hellboy as well - especially once the true source of the terror is revealed, which also calls to mind a certain video game starring a certain pre transition Elliot Page in mo-cap. The only reason it’s not five stars from me is because the ending is just a bit too off the rails, but it’s too well crafted to get less than a strong four from me.

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Review: The Pomegranate Gate

The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I saw this one on the shelf at Powell’s and ordered it right away at the library, not realizing it was about a year old and the sequel was just about to drop too. None of the libraries here have the sequel yet, though I’ve at least gotten in line for the ebook at Multnomah County Library when it’s available. I’m glad it won’t be too long a wait, because at least I’ll be able to jump into the next book relatively quickly. While waiting for Shannon Chakraborty’s long delayed second adventure of Amina Al-Sirafi, this book does for Jewish legends what The City of Brass did for Islamic legends. It’s set in an alternate history and geography, based on Spain in the time of the Inquisition and Reconquista, which with two protagonists both trying to escape to a free country while also dealing with the supernatural power struggles of the Mazikim, whose world is accessible via several gates all throughout the Mediterranean region, as well as deeper into Europe and Africa where the most far flung Jewish diaspora had gone at the time. Admittedly I’m here much more for the history than the characters, although Toba is an interesting one due to her immense linguistic skills. Thankfully, it won’t be long before I get to read the next one…


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Review: Celestial Monsters

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It took Aiden Thomas a couple of years to follow up on The Sunbearer Trials and its shockingly dark ending, but now here they come with the duology's conclusion and...unfortunately it left me feeling whelmed at best. Though the first book was a 3.5 rounded up to a 4 because of the ending, this one is for me more of a 2.5 rounded down to a 2 because of its lackluster nature. Thomas had been very open about taking inspiration from Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games both, but for this book, it felt like they were doing The Sun and the Star in a similar environment to the ending of the Quarter Quell from Catching Fire. In other words, dark and murky, but drawn out to over 400 pages, making it unfortunately dully repetitive as well. While Teo, as the protagonist, provides the trans rep that has been Thomas's bread and butter from the start, his story arc (particularly his chemistry-free pairing with Aurelio - seriously, Aurelio is such an unlikable rich brat that I wish he could've died off in the first book) feels oddly low stakes and boring for what's supposed to be an apocalyptic adventure. It's very clear that this series should've been Xio's story from the start, because Xio gets all the interesting stories and character development in this one. For a number of reasons, I've been starting to outgrow Thomas lately as a writer, so I think this might be the last book of theirs I read for a good long while. Even if they do finally write a sequel to Cemetery Boys like they've been hinting for so long.

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Review: We Solve Murders

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While Osman takes a hiatus from his signature Thursday Murder Club mystery series, he starts a new one with a slightly more international cast, if not a more likable one. In fact, most of the characters - except old Steve, who really ought to cross over with the Thursday Murder Club sometime, if not for the fact that he lives miles away from their community - just aren’t likable at all. Though that leads to some dark amusement when the murders are all of insipid influencers, a prime suspect is a crap actor best known for his role in a Fast and the Furious type franchise, also involved is an author who is basically J.D. Robb crossed with the stoner retired house DJ who’s been known to frequent my buddy Koda’s place, and the villain is a cackling Frenchman who may or may not just be ChatGPT. I lowkey hope Osman doesn’t make a series out of this one, but I think we all know the answer to that question, don’t we?

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Review: Heir

Heir by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For a while this book was only known as “Sabaa’s Bane,” and now, having finally read it, I can see why. Returning to her star-making saga of An Ember in the Ashes with a hard hitting next generation story - and a vastly expanded world map to show how much development Tahir put into this fictional world - it’s also a complex high fantasy, YA in marketing only, with three primary POV’s that show just how brutal the next war is going to be.

Review: Exposure

Exposure by Ramona Emerson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m not surprised that Ramona Emerson wasn’t going to stop at just Shudder, because there was clearly room for much more story to tell with Rita Todacheene. And so it goes with another paranormal murder mystery in New Mexico - this time set in a bone chilling Gallup winter, with a killer targeting indigent Native people under the direction of a vengeful God, or so the delusion would have it. Seriously, though, this particular religiously twisted killer is the second coming of Silas from The Da Vinci Code, right down to the self flagellation through a terrible whip known as “la disciplina.” Emerson is one of the unsung heroes the mystery genre needs right now, not only for her Diné cultural perspective (important every day, but especially on Indigenous People’s Day), but for her genre blending ways, breathing new life into the literary world with each new book.

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Review: Sunbringer

Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Back to Hannah Kaner’s ongoing trilogy, now caught up while the rest of the world also waits for Book 3, and at least I didn’t have to wait a long time after the first book’s devastating cliffhanger. This second book, though, definitely hits a bit of middle book syndrome, where the storyline feels like it’s spinning its wheels as it tries to compensate for having so many characters and POV’s to follow. Yes, this includes one who was believed to be out of the picture, but in this genre, no one’s ever truly gone. That said, it’s still one of the best surprises this book has to offer, and it’s setting the stage pretty well for the third and final novel…whenever that one comes along.

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Review: Long Live Evil

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven't read anything by Sarah Rees Brennan in quite a while, in part because she went on a very long hiatus due to health problems in her life. Unsurprisingly, she works her personal experience with cancer into the story of this book, a sort of isekai where the protagonist, Rae, gets to go into the world of her favorite epic fantasy series, Time of Iron, and live her own version of the life of the villainess who seduces the evil young Emperor. Interestingly, the series - which combines elements of A Song of Ice and Fire and Throne of Glass and Fourth Wing - is officially published in universe by an anonymous author, which is itself some serious wish fulfillment I can get behind.

Review: Dark Rise

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'd never read a C.S. Pacat book before, but Jay Kristoff says Pacat is friends with him, and on that basis I was ready to finally try one of her books. (As I understand it, Pacat is genderfluid and uses both she and he pronouns.) Unfortunately, it seems I set my expectations too high on this one and only opened myself up to disappointment. This book seemed pretty promising with its dark historical fantasy setup in early 19th century London, a setting similar to V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic, but unfortunately, Pacat wasn't able to interest me much in his characters. Or at all, really. I kept finding myself wandering away from the pages of this one with embarrassing regularity, which is a shame because I checked out both this book and its sequel together - that's how high my expectations were, I guess. But sadly, it's an official DNF, and I'm not sure I'll be going back to try any more of Pacat's other works. Though at least she's got a lot of good friends like Kristoff and Shelley Parker-Chan whose works I'll continue to read and enjoy...

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Review: Red Star Falling

Red Star Falling by Steve Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I almost wanted to give up on Berry and Blackwood's collaboration with the Luke Daniels series after the first book last year was such a disappointment. But after eventually getting to read this latest book in the series, I have to say it's a serious improvement. Not quite to four star territory, I'm afraid, but still a better Berry book than his Cotton Malone novel The Atlas Maneuver earlier this year. For me, I think it was the fact that this book was rooted in the same decommissioned Soviet-era missile system that served as a key aspect of the climax to one of my favorite Clive Cussler novels, Plague Ship, that helped make this one a much more memorable read for me. That, plus the inclusion of numbers stations, an old favorite subject for conspiracy-minded moments. And while the current Russian president isn't mentioned by name (and on the same subject, when I said his name in front of a Spanish-speaking colleague yesterday, she thought I was calling him a homophobic slur in that language), just as Berry has made mockery of Trump in recent years, so he now uses Konstantin Franko as an insulting stand in for Putin and his imperialist aims in Ukraine. It's a good throwback of a book, and hopefully a sign that Berry is getting back to the heights he's had no trouble reaching in years past.

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Review: Navola

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It's not the first time I've tried reading a book by Paolo Bacigalupi and found it lacking, and based on this one, I don't think I'll be making another attempt to get into his bibliography. Though the book is billed as a Renaissance Italian take on Game of Thrones, it's nowhere close to that series' level of addictive, propulsive storytelling. Even when George R.R. Martin's books are going nowhere fast, it's still a ride I couldn't help but want to keep going on. But this book...I slogged through about 100 pages or so before finally giving up. Nothing about it is keeping my interest, even the attempts at worldbuilding by showing how much this faux-Florentine, faux-Venetian city-state trades with clearly Middle Eastern and Far Eastern inspired nations. The real problem is the protagonist Davico, who tries to portray himself as a man of culture and intelligence but instead comes off as a dull, banal boy - and creepily fixated on his adoptive sister to boot.

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Review: Everything We Never Had

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Four stars for this one but I don’t think I’ll be putting it on the “why isn’t this a bloody movie yet” list, only because it’s a powerful book that would be even more difficult to stomach in visual form. But let’s be honest, Ribay is a shoo in for the National Book Award again on this one. Back in his Filipino-American contemporary milieu for the first time in five years, this book combines a lot of aspects of his previous books - mixed race Filipino-American boys who don’t have the best relationships with their families, as well as pointed political commentary about racism in America and colonialism and corruption in the Philippines.

Review: Vilest Things

Vilest Things by Chloe Gong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wasn't as impressed with Immortal Longings last year as I was with Gong's Secret Shanghai novels, and the GR ratings reflect that a lot of others were similarly unimpressed. But this book, I do have to say, is a noticeable improvement. By this time, we're a little past the weird not-quite-cyberpunk game aspect of Book 1 and much more into fantasy politicking, with a detailed world map showing how San-Er is located at the peninsular tip of a massive landmass resembling imperial China both past and present. While the protagonists are still eminently dislikable - except for August, the only one I'm really rooting for because Calla and Anton are screwing him over so hard with their endless campaigning against each other - I especially loved how Gong wrote this book as a critique of Chinese imperialism, especially the fact that outlying provinces in the north aren't allowed to follow their traditional religions or speak their native languages. R.F. Kuang would probably approve as well, I'm sure. And, once again, this book ends on a diabolical cliffhanger with no title or release date for the third and final book in sight...yet...

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Review: Godkiller

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can see why this book has been such a hit, and it’s a shame I’ve been sleeping on it as long as I have. It’s a surprisingly small book, but still packs a punch well above its weight class, channeling the likes of Samantha Shannon, L.R. Lam, and Brianna da Silva. It’s a world where the gods are NOT good, but the goddess of beauty has to be the worst by far - the brief snippets of story we get about her are some pretty on point allegories for the dangers of the excessive pursuit of beauty. But that’s just a drop in the bucket that is this multi POV adventure, whose sequel I’ve finally ordered at the library so I can catch up well before Book 3 comes along…

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Review: The Chronicles of Viktor Valentine

The Chronicles of Viktor Valentine by Z Brewer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I was in high school, senior year, I got to volunteer behind the librarian's desk, and the librarian recommended me a lot of good books to try out - including The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, which had flown under my radar until that time. Now, fourteen years after ending the original series and ten years after ending the first spinoff Slayer Chronicles, Z Brewer is back with their latest legacy sequel, a stealth job of it that focuses on original characters of whom Vlad himself would approve, plus some vampires both (to quote Young Frankenstein) "famous...and infamous!"

Review: Sunrise Nights

Sunrise Nights by Jeff Zentner
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'm really starting to feel like I'm outgrowing Zentner here, between this book and how I was whelmed at best with Colton Gentry's Third Act. To be fair, this one is very different for Zentner, not only a collaboration with another author (and I've never read anything by Brittany Cavallaro yet, though her solo books do seem interesting), but also partly a novel in verse (half verse and half dialogue, but still somewhat jarring to read), and also no longer in Zentner's usual Deep South settings, but instead in Michigan, which I believe was Cavallaro's idea so no fault to her on that one. But the story in this book just feels like a half-baked, watered-down John Green love story (and I say this being extremely not a fan of John Green), right down to the fact that one of the teenagers in this couple is disabled (though far from just being set-dressing, her degenerative eye condition is pretty essential to her character.) Unfortunately, for me, it's gonna have to be a DNF.

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Review: The Reckoning of Roku

The Reckoning of Roku by Randy Ribay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Randy Ribay hasn't published any new novels since at least pre-Covid, but this year, he's got two of them - including this start to a new Chronicles of the Avatar duology, taking over from F.C. Yee after his work on duologies for Kyoshi and Yangchen. Here, Ribay gives Roku a slightly similar storyline of self-doubt to Kyoshi, whose having been mistaken for a false Avatar has become the stuff of legend by the time he's been identified as the Avatar as a teenager.

Review: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry

The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ransom Riggs is baaaaaaaaaaack! And I am 100% all in for this.

Like Miss Peregrine before it, this latest series opener from one of the best authors in the YA business follows a boy whose family trauma has shaped him into a depressed young man who doesn’t think he stands a chance in the world. But that’s because the world doesn’t respect him like he deserves, except for his buddy with the strange taste in smokables. (I told my buddy Koda that Emmet resembled him a lot in that respect, but funnily enough, Leopold bears a stronger physical resemblance to Kodes, being six foot plus and lean and rangy.)

Review: The Mercy of Gods

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I wouldn’t be surprised if this book was a stealth sequel to The Expanse. I mean, it’s pretty clear from the fact that the human civilization of Anjiin is pretty strongly implied to have come through the protomolecule portal to colonize that world, only to then be colonized themselves by a fearsome super-Borg hive mind. But coming from the same authors as The Expanse, this book was nothing short of disappointing, and that’s putting it mildly. Whereas Abraham and Franck excelled in their character development and science-fantasy politicking in their signature series, this new series is a huge step back with boring characters I couldn’t care about, poorly detailed world building, and generally being one of the slowest books I’ve ever read. I almost got halfway through before just giving up entirely, and I can’t see myself giving this one another shot anytime soon.

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Review: The Wren in the Holly Library

The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If ACOTAR and Crescent City had a baby and raised it on a steady diet of Deborah Harkness novels, it'd be somewhat close to what this book is, and yet a more charitable description than it deserves. I'm definitely a sucker for a bookish kind of leading lady - Belle was always my favorite Disney Princess as a kid - but even Kierse, the Belle of this ball, couldn't carry this book beyond two star territory for me. Oh, how she tried...but then along came the likes of Graves, the rather smarmy and disgusting love interest character who feels less like a Beast and more like a watered-down mashup of Kaz Brekker, Matthew Clairmont, and Edward Cullen, with some truly cringeworthy "sexy" dialogue. Seriously, "what a pretty pussy" made me laugh so hard that I almost quit the book right then and there. Kierse has better chemistry with her ex-girlfriend than she does with Graves, but that's a conversation for another day. For today, though, I'll chalk this one up as yet another romantasy series that I just can't see myself continuing, and unlike with Fourth Wing where I did change my mind, I think I'll stick to that decision this time.

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Review: Arkangel

Arkangel by James Rollins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even for a Sigma book, this one's got everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that makes me demand there be a film adaptation of this series immediately.

Yes, I know by now Amazon has a TV series adaptation planned, but call me cynical but I strongly suspect the streaming world isn't gonna be as kind to this series as it deserves, unless it's anywhere near as much of a hit as the books' bestseller status ought to afford it.

But that Amazon series better last long enough to adapt this book somewhere in its timeline, because it demands it greatly. It's one of Rollins's most classic books in years, building the great mystery of Hyperborea as our friends at Sigma (plus Tucker Wayne and his war dogs Kane and Marco) seek to find it before the Russians do (the book does make some vague references to the ongoing war in Ukraine, with Rollins connecting Russia's attempt at colonization there to the old Hyperborea story as part of their grander ambitions now that church and state are a lot less separate than they ought to be.) No spoilers, but once we do get to Hyperborea, the book gets into some serious thriller territory, verging on horror as well.

Once again, Rollins reminds me of why he's one of my all-time favorite authors, and I'm dying to see what he's got in mind next, because he's promising ever more wild adventures in the next book, which will hopefully be ready to read by this time next year...

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Review: Angel of Vengeance

Angel of Vengeance by Douglas Preston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Leng Quartet (as it were) comes to its conclusion in this latest Pendergast novel, which goes full Alienist with its near total immersion in the 1880s setting for most of our favorite characters. All respect to the late Caleb Carr, though, but Preston and Child outdo Dr. Laszlo Kreiszler with the typical hypercompetence of the Pendergast brothers - both Aloysius the agent and Diogenes the devil, the latter having well established himself as a serial killer and identity thief of rich men from many continents, and in at least one case a holy man, ironically enough.

Review: Some Desperate Glory

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Once again, I find myself picking up the Hugo winner for Best Novel and come up disappointed. And just like last year with T. Kingfisher's Nettle and Bone, there wasn't a sudden long line at the library for it - which should've been a sign to me that the book wasn't going to impress me.

I get that this book is trying to be one of those about a character who has to unlearn how horrible her society is when she realizes how corrupt the leadership is, and how racist and sexist and xenophobic and homophobic and all the other bigotries you can think of. But let's be real, if this book was published five or seven or ten years ago, I'd be willing to bet someone would've written a nearly 10k word blog post all about how horribly offensive and racist and homophobic this book is, and then kiss this book's chances of a Hugo award goodbye, eh?

I'll give this one an extra star because it's not entirely full of unlikable characters, but unfortunately this one was a pretty big misfire for me.

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Review: Disquiet Gods

Disquiet Gods by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So it turns out that Ruocchio's original contract for this series with DAW was unexpectedly ended after the fifth book, and the only reason he was able to publish the sixth (and thankfully move past that brutal ending in Ashes of Man) was because his old employer Baen Books came to the rescue. Seems that Baen made the right call, and DAW decided they would get back in the game with this series and soon reissue all the first six books before getting the planned seventh novel, which Ruocchio says will be the conclusion. And in the meantime, there's this fast-paced, wildly epic story setting up the stage for the ending, much like Pierce Brown did with Light Bringer as the Prolonged Prologue to Red God. Now it's just a matter of time to see which of the two young masters, Ruocchio or Brown, finishes his septology first...

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Review: The Light of All That Falls

The Light of All That Falls by James Islington
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The end...or is it? Because the very end of the book acknowledges that a couple of characters developed a side story of their own that would've been enough for a full length novel in its own right. Definitely not as big a book as any in this series - maybe half the length if that. But I don't think I'd be picking up that spinoff if and when it ever happens, because I love Islington's other series, The Hierarchy, so much more than this one. At least this one brings the main characters' story to an end, and a new beginning of sorts, because it's definitely not a rehash of The Wheel of Time with slightly more interesting characters. At least that ending is worth it for how Chris Nolan-like it really is.

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Review: The Seventh Veil of Salome

The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'll just say it: Evelyn Hugo walked so Vera Larios could run. SMG shies away from her typical supernatural style in this one, but it's no less sharp in its commentary or grand in its story for it. Focusing heavily on race in 1950s Hollywood just like Taylor Jenkins Reid's signature book does (and arguably more authentically since it comes from an author of Mexican descent), this book is short but complex, and adds in rich details for the life of Salome herself as she inspired her eventual film adaptation - a life which the Bible forgot, to hear SMG tell it in the author's note at the end. I'm not happy that this book hasn't been nearly as runaway a bestseller as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but if there's justice in the world of literature and film, this one will get the movie treatment before Evelyn Hugo gets out of development hell. Too many people are sleeping on Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and that's a damn travesty.

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Review: The Mars House

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I admit I kinda thought this would be an interesting sci-fi romance, a sort of Red, White, and Royal Blue in space situation (I say having not read RWRB beyond checking out little snippets of it during my bookstore days when the book was first super popular). Boy oh boy oh boy was I wrong, and when I checked back against the blurb and realized that this was more akin to a romance between an oppressed minority and a racist ruler, I noped out pretty quickly.

Review: Ashes of Man

Ashes of Man by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ruocchio's fifth novel of the Sun Eater would have been a three star comedown for me based on the first 400 pages or so, where the plot really slows down and grinds its gears while setting up the next match on the 4-D chess board. This book does bring great promise of the villains behind the villains, the Cielcin gods who want to truly lay waste to everything and everyone in the known universe, but it takes forever for the story to really advance.

But when it does...

That ending.

Damn you, Ruocchio.

That's why this book earns that fourth star in the end.

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Review: Wildwood Imperium

Wildwood Imperium by Colin Meloy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Portland's Narnia concludes in a third sprawling, nearly 600-page brick of paper - with some of those pages, as usual, thicker than usual in order to accommodate Carson Ellis's color prints. It does add a little something new for texture - the Chapeaux Noir, a group of French anarchists with plans to bring down the big old Fantastic Mr. Fox style Industrial Wastes, who ultimately give this book some eerie similarities to another Wes Anderson movie that came out years later: The French Dispatch. Definitely more kid-friendly than that particular Anderson movie, though, but that doesn't mean this book doesn't have its moments of darkness. Particularly the ending, which is majorly surprising in how bleak it gets, until suddenly it isn't so much anymore. But it truly is the end for this series, and while I can't say whether or not Laika Studios would get to adapt all three books into a movie, I can only hope they do get the chance, because they'd do it justice.

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Review: Take Flight

Take Flight by J L Pawley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I guess Pawley is making some steady progress on getting the revamped Generation Icarus series reissued in this new format - I don't think the third book is out yet? But hopefully by the end of this year at least. In the meantime, though, it was great to once again get a throwback to the old Wattpad days with one of the best angel books you're not reading, now in a new form, with a hell of a lot more focus on Tui than I remember (but that's only a good thing, because she's really become one of my favorites in the Flight over the years.) And dear God, did I ever forget how strong the "post dramatic Jess disorder" was with these books...but I should be ready to see how Pawley wraps things up in the newly minted third and final book soon enough...

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Review: The Reformatory

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my first time reading a book by Tananarive Due, which is definitely going to have to change. While Stephen King trod similar ground with his book The Institute a few years back, Due goes back to 1950s Florida, taking some inspiration from a real-life ancestor of hers who perished in such a "school" as the one depicted in this book. Not only is the full scope of Jim Crow laws in effect, but the Gracetown School for Boys harbors some seriously horrible secrets, which protagonist Robbie has to learn about from talking to the haints that continue to stay bound to this place. With the warden making his sinister designs very clear from the very start, and Robbie's sister Gloria fighting to rescue him (which requires outside help from up north since all the local white folks are too fearful and racist to rely on in any way), it's as page-turning as the blurb suggests. But absolutely not for the faint of heart, as you can well imagine.

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Review: Death and Glory

Death and Glory by Will Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The fifteenth mystery in Will Thomas's decades-running Barker and Llewelyn series keeps things fresh and unexpected as Victorian London's top enquiry agents take on a mystery involving former Confederates, thirty years after the end of the Civil War. As well-known as it is that there were many who continued to believe in the "Lost Cause" even to the present day, this book also dwells on aspects of the Confederacy that even I didn't know, or perhaps forgot about. Such as their plans to eventually annex a number of Latin American and Caribbean nations (to the point where the Knights of the Golden Circle in this book count among their number a Colombian, born after 1865). But also there's a conspiracy element that I won't spoil here, other than to say that it's eerily plausible, especially based on Thomas's afterword where he talks about having researched this theory in his local library in Tulsa. And because if I remember correctly, he pulled a similar twist with another historical killer a few books ago, so if any author can make me believe such a story, it's Thomas.

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Review: Kingdoms of Death

Kingdoms of Death by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think Ruocchio was originally planning a trilogy for this series, but much like his fellow hella young science-fantastist Pierce Brown, his work really grew far beyond its original scope, and very quickly too. So it was first extended, as I remember, to five books, then six, and I believe a seventh is on the way as well. But for now, here's what looks to be the middle of the Sun Eater saga, a noticeably shorter book than its predecessors, but no less full of action. Especially when the series goes back to its gladiating roots, with the twist of the Cielcin (now more developed beyond being just a monoculture - as Hadrian is surprised to learn, there's more than one Cielcin language, for one thing) being far more involved in the process as their villainy grows ever more repulsive. Seriously, this book gets surprisingly gruesome, but it also has a surprisingly soft and uplifting ending, all things considered. That said, I'm ready to keep going into Book 5, already on order at the library.

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Review: The Trees

The Trees by Percival Everett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Working my way through Percival Everett's bibliography in reverse order, I've now found one that's very different from all the other books I've read from him, because it covers very dark subject matter indeed - confronting the history of White supremacy and lynching, with references to some of the most infamous such incidents in American history, and also some very long lists of historical lynching deaths. Not just Black folks, but Asian too, and the lists appear not only in the text, but on the cover as well.

Review: An Echo of Things to Come

An Echo of Things to Come by James Islington
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Licanius Trilogy continues with a 700-plus pager of an epic, including a much-appreciated recap of The Shadow of What Was Lost and the trilogy's expansive backstory. Now, the story continues with a lot more focus on Caeden, whose secret past has been revealed, at least to the reader - and yet there's a lot more pieces to the story than just that shocker of an ending on the first book. As with the first book, An Echo of Things to Come is very much rooted in the style of The Wheel of Time, now with emphasis on the dark side of magic not unlike the tainted saidin, but with a lot more shades of gray in its morality. I've now got Book 3 on order, but it may be a while before it comes to me, because it seems someone else in Vancouver is working their way through the library's few copies on hand...

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Review: Icon and Inferno

Icon and Inferno by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OLD PINECONE GENERAL'S WARNING: Any resemblance in this book to real life events is entirely coincidental, the book having come out several weeks before the real-world events that so eerily imitated it.

The two books of this latest series from Marie Lu, this YA/NA borderline action thriller with just a touch of sci-fi - now very clearly in the futuristic world of the Lu-niverse, with Emika Chen and Warcross getting some cameos, and clarifying that Warcross really was a lot less further out in the future than I thought - well, they're both actually pretty good standalone stories for the most part. Aside from this book giving Winter and Sydney a lot of trauma to work through from their last mission, and how it went so badly awry after a huge mid-book twist or two in Stars and Smoke.

Review: Under Wildwood

Under Wildwood by Colin Meloy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second sprawling story of the world of Wildwood also demands a Laika-produced claymation film adaptation, so here's really hoping that the Wildwood movie next year does well enough to merit a franchise. For this book, we get a brief glimpse of Prue in the real world of slushy wintertime in St. Johns - if I'd been able to read this book when I was younger, I would be a lot more aware of Portland actually possibly getting snow in the winter before I moved up to Oregon. Then, after a brief visit to the office of some quirky Ukrainians (whose dialogue is pretty damn accurate, based on my brief conversation with a Ukrainian food seller at the Vancouver Mall last weekend), off we go to the Wildwood again, though now with a lot of emphasis on the industrial wastes separating Oregon's Narnia from Oregon's biggest city. That part alone is what demands the Laika adaptation quickest of all, because it'd be something to see how well they capture that industrial vibe - and how well it compares to, say, Chicken Run or Fantastic Mr. Fox.

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Review: The Vermilion Emporium

The Vermilion Emporium by Jamie Pacton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At first, after reading The Absinthe Underground, I didn't think I'd be able to find this earlier novel by Jamie Pacton at any of the local libraries. I guess I didn't look hard enough, because a few months later, after seeing The Vermilion Emporium on a Barnes & Noble shelf and checking the library website in Vancouver, I found it available to place on order, and so I did.

Review: Moonstorm

Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yoon Ha Lee brings his signature style of gender diverse Korean space opera to YA, and it surprises me greatly that this book doesn't have a higher Goodreads average, because it deserves one. Well, maybe my review will help bring it up a couple points or so. Sure, it's a bit predictable in its story beats, being a mecha story with a protagonist infiltrating the ranks to take down the empire that subjugated her people. And a lot of other reviews inevitably compare it to the popular YA mecha drama Iron Widow, albeit steeped in Korean culture as opposed to Chinese. But there's definitely one thing that Lee does right that Xiran Jay Zhao does wrong - Lee writes a gripping story with characters you can actually root for. Which is why I was able to read this book in one sitting, and will happily come back for more in the planned second and third books of this trilogy. And for a film adaptation if ever we're lucky enough to get one.

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Review: Demon in White

Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I almost was worried that this book, at nearly 800 pages, would prove too bloated to make me want to continue with this series. How wrong I was. Even with this great size of a book, Ruocchio is really hitting his storytelling stride again. With all sorts of lavish detail to bolster this series’ ever excellent world building…but by far my favorite scenes were in the library with the revelation of the history of the Mericanii lords. From George Washington on down, 77 presidents in all, though the last one was a technocrat under whose rule I’m not surprised Mericanii leadership in civilization ended…consider this a warning from Ruocchio to preserve democracy, especially since this book was written in the tail end of the Trump years.

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Review: Dr. No

Dr. No by Percival Everett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As Finn from Adventure Time would say, "MATHEMATICAL!"

As Cosmo from The Fairly Oddparents would say, "It's a show about nothing!...how do we know when it's over?"

As John Cage would say, "4' 33"."

This book has a literal lot of nothing going on, it's a nothingburger in an organic nothing bun with a spread of nothing condiments. And while I've still experienced little of Percival Everett's expansive bibliography yet, it's still got me wanting to read more, even though I didn't like this one as much as Erasure or James. Still, though, Everett maintains his signature blunt satire and philosophically rambling style with a James Bond send-up that's about as anti-Bond as it gets, and on that bottom line, he delivers.

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Review: Mirrored Heavens

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rebecca Roanhorse brings her biggest story yet to its long awaited conclusion in 600 pages or less - well, technically, yes, a little bit less than 600. But it does take its time to reach that conclusion for our cast of (sometimes anti) heroes - to the point where I almost wondered if Roanhorse was waiting to make a surprise announcement that this wouldn't be the end of the series after all. Nope. It's the end of the road for Serapio, Xiala, Ixtan, Naranpa, and now Balam getting some spotlight as well. There's so much going on as the characters struggle to pick up the pieces the last two books left them with - the dramatic irony of Ixtan believing that xir lover Naranpa is no longer alive, Xiala having to regain her Song at dark, dark cost, and of course my favorite, Serapio, struggling to break free from the stranglehold of the religion in which he was raised, turning him to do such dark things in his life. I'd say, though, that what Roanhorse really has to say about all these diverse and diversely motivated characters is that in the end, love will win, if you fight for it. And for that, I bid Between Earth and Sky the ave atque vale it deserves.

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