Review: Making It So: A Memoir

Making It So: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I guess I’ve been on a slight celebrity memoir kick lately, having read Geddy Lee’s My Effin’ Life over Christmas, and now this memoir from Sir Patrick Stewart. Though there’s much to be said about his star-making role as Picard (my first and favorite Star Trek Captain), he wouldn’t be the great legend we know today if not for his humble beginnings in a working class family in Yorkshire (trigger warning: domestic violence, a facet of his childhood he’s spoken frankly about before), as well as his days in theater, from regional to international and always including Shakespeare. He may be disciplined, but he’s a humble and honest man too, and I relished learning about Stewart’s craft and style. And there were a few surprises in his story too - like, I didn’t realize he didn’t know Sir Ian McKellen, much less befriend him, till they played nemeses for the ages in the X-Men films. It’ll be a sad, sad day when the world loses Sir Patrick, but I think that day is still a long time coming.

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Review: Empire of the Damned

Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Bloodydamn goryhell, Mister Kristoff.

Baise-moi le visage.

You've done it again. You love your readers, but you love breaking their hearts even more, and now, two and a half years on from the start of your darkest and most epic trilogy yet, it's never been as clear as it is now.

Review: Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's such good fortune that despite the ridiculous Book Twitter attempts to cancel her career before it even got started (the North remembers, as does Pepperidge Farm, and so do I), Zhao now has two completed fantasy series under her belt. I was more than a bit surprised to see that she decided to go with the duology route in this one, but after reading this book, I can see where she made it work at that length of series rather than try to stretch things out into a trilogy. Though this series is unfortunately not my favorite of Zhao's, it's undeniably richly steeped in the stories and legends of China of old, and I'd say she does a great job of wrapping up the story in this one. As always, I can't wait to see what great new story Zhao's got in mind next, but for now, this series gets a well-earned 告别 from me.

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Review: Fate Breaker

Fate Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Aveyard has finished two series to date, but this one, for the first time, really and truly feels like it's all come to an end. To be fair, War Storm had a very open ending, and while Broken Throne had short story epilogues, I'm still dying for Aveyard to return to that story world with the promise of a new follow up series about the War of Red Thunder.

But here, in the last of Aveyard's YA-in-marketing-only epic fantasy love letter to her Tolkien-loving teenage self who needed a little something more than what Tolkien and Lewis liked to write (especially from a gender and cultural standpoint), she brings the story to a strong conclusion that finally earns this series a place on my five-star "read this if it kills you!" shelf, and once again validates my status as a lifetime passenger on the Aveyardian hype train.

Review: The Spear Cuts Through Water

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This one unfortunately is a classic case of not only "interesting premise but poor execution," but also "just not for me." I wanted to like this one, but when the book immediately launches into a long winded second person POV narrative (which is historically off putting for a reason; I'm still surprised to this day I managed to read N.K. Jemisin's entire Broken Earth trilogy, but then at least she didn't do second person POV the whole time like this book does - hell, I checked the acknowledgments in the back and Jimenez wrote those in second person too), it's just way too hard to get into all at once. Sorry to say this one is an official DNF for me.

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Review: Most Ardently

Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gabe Cole Novoa's been hyping up this book for a while, and it's a pretty sharp departure from his past work because it's the first non-speculative fiction book he's published. No sci-fi, no fantasy, and by his own admission, no magic...but definitely he's still got his usual gifts of unexpectedly twisty romance well in hand as he contributes to Feiwel & Friends's lineup of Remixed Classics. This gender-bending take on Pride & Prejudice gives us Oliver Bennet, a gay transmasculine protagonist struggling to live authentically in Regency England while all manner of suitors court him and his sisters. Including, of course, Darcy, who is gay as well in the modern sense.

Novoa's author's note at the end of this book talks about how the Regency had more of a thriving gay scene, even if it was pretty well underground, though nowhere near as much as the Victorian era and its repression of all sexualities. That said, Novoa doesn't paint this setting as an LGBTQ+ paradise either - Oliver and Darcy, as well as Charlotte and her lady love Lu (an original character) all have to stay closeted as far as wider society is concerned, and threats of outing are pretty common a tactic among the book's villains.

While this book is definitely not my usual cup of tea - I think I may have read the original Pride & Prejudice some time ago, but I had to look up a lot of details again to compare to this book - and it's not a happily ever after for everyone who deserves it the most, Novoa still shines brightest when it comes to the love story, as well as the constant twists of who's trying to court whom, and props to him for transforming Austen's comedy of manners and errors into some serious narrative tension. Hopefully soon I'll be able to read Novoa's next, even more eagerly awaited new book, going back to his new universe of Caribbean pirate fantasy with The Diablo's Curse.

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Review: All This Twisted Glory

All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Last year, when I read the second book of Tahereh Mafi's current series, I expected that that book was the middle of a trilogy - hadn't it been announced as such at first? But since then, Mafi not only announced that this new book would not be the end of the series after all, but that she's planning as many as five books total in the series. Now, as much as I love Mafi's work, and she's never losing her position as one of the prettiest prose stylists in the business...I have to say, this series has been unusually hard for me to get into compared to her earlier work.

Review: Sky's End

Sky's End by Marc J. Gregson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For this hella hyped new series opener, I'm going to give it a 3.5 rounded up to a 4. Other reviewers have pointed out how much this book is a throwback to the YA dystopian boom of the 2010s, combining a lot of well known stylistic hallmarks - a protagonist joining one of a large number of postapocalyptic factions, a certain fascination with the number twelve in the structure, first person present tense narrative, and a high dose of action punctuated by minced oaths from a Utah writer...yeah, it's safe to say that while The Maze Runner has lost its luster in part because of its author's awful behavior behind the scenes, here at last is a strong spiritual successor to rival Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart and Skyward YA sci-fi series. Already they've announced the remaining titles in the trilogy, and I'd say the confidence is well earned.

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Review: The Atlas Maneuver

The Atlas Maneuver by Steve Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not my favorite, but still a far better Atlas-titled book than any of Olivie Blake's BookTok overhype.

(There, I said it.)

Cotton Malone's back again, and this time, taking on a bizarre multipronged conspiracy to hack the world's economy with a combination of lost Japanese World War II gold and conning numerous countries around the world into adopting bitcoin as legal tender. Sure, this book already feels a bit dated since bitcoin was more of a household name in the last decade, and Berry's usually impeccable research falls flat a couple of times - like, why the hell is Malta the only EU nation listed among those in the plan for bitcoin adoption?

Review: The Tainted Cup

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Robert Jackson Bennett returns with the start of a brand new series, although this book is pretty standalone in its unique new world. Imagine if Rian Johnson in the midst of his Knives Out era collaborated with Jasper Fforde in the midst of his Shades of Grey era, and you'd have something approximating this book - biopunk fantasy murder mystery with creeping vines and spores out to kill everyone (so a bit of Tress of the Emerald Sea), rampaging leviathans out to sea (so a bit of Attack on Titan, and infrastructure is a constant imperial investment), quirky investigators with various sensory improvements leading to neurodivergence that makes them almost impossible to live normally among their peers, and a unique imperial setting mashing up aspects of other historical places and times that you wouldn't normally expect to work (kind of Greco-Roman, kind of Japanese, and kind of Ottoman - the latter especially since Turkish appears to be the basis of the imperial language.) Bennett's done it again with another home run of a book, and now that I've learned he wrote a few others before he really started making a name for himself with City of Stairs and sequels, I'll have to go back and read some of his earlier works at long last. But I'd be pleasantly surprised if any of them hold up as much as this under the radar masterpiece does.

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