Review: The Last Uncharted Sky

The Last Uncharted Sky by Curtis Craddock
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sadly, I can see why this series overall didn't make much of a splash on the fantasy scene these last few years, despite the glowing recommendations in the blurbs from the likes of Brandon Sanderson. As interesting as this series always has been, and as unique, it's a classic example of diminishing returns - even this book, with its biggest plot shake ups yet, just falls kinda flat. Honestly, having gone through the whole trilogy, I really think it would've worked a hell of a lot better with Isabelle as the sole protagonist. Jean-Claude, unfortunately, manages to be quite boring in comparison, probably because he just doesn't have such a strong conflict in universe the way Isabelle always does. But it's worth it to get to the end of this one because of how well woven the in universe religious aspects get, especially in the last few pages. To this series, I now declare ave atque vale.

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Review: The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this one up after seeing the later books in the series vaguely out of the corner of my eye on Lucky Day shelves at different Fort Vancouver Regional Library branches, and also after hearing that Chris Columbus was going to be directing a film adaptation for Netflix with Steven Spielberg producing. I didn't really pay much attention to the cast announcement at the time, other than remembering that Helen Mirren would be in it. After reading the book, I can see where they got the right idea with Pierce Brosnan as the obnoxious Red Ron (who definitely lives up to the stereotype of aging leftist agitators as verbally pugnacious and lowkey racist, but Brosnan, I'm sure, will easily be able to pull it off) and Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim (though, before I saw that Kingsley would be playing him, I pictured Ibrahim to be a Black man.) Some of the characters in the titular club are definitely more likable than others (Ibrahim and the enigmatic Elizabeth were instant faves of mine, while Ron...ehh, as you can imagine, he was not my favorite.) And there were quite a ton of characters to go around as well, but this book is generally a lot bigger and more ambitious than it lets on. The inclusion of international intrigue, with a lot of backstory rooted in Cyprus, really makes me wonder if Tess Gerritsen didn't read this book before getting inspired to write The Spy Coast (though she definitely played things differently, with a primary setting in America and an international setting in Malta.) Needless to say, I've already got Book 2 on order at the library. But I do have to wonder...what did the real Tony Curran, the actor, do to Osman to make him name the book's first murder victim after him?

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Review: When Among Crows

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Veronica Roth has been on quite the kick of novellas (and shorter than average) novels these past few years, and now she's got one of her most densely packed novellas yet. Densely packed with Polish mythology - her mom's side of the family being Polish, she turned to them for more inspiration - and also borrowing on her experiences with chronic pain as she did when writing Carve the Mark, it's as meaty a story as any of us have come to expect from one of the best wordsmiths in the business. So meaty, in fact, that I wish Roth could've written a full length novel out of it - just like with Arch Conspirator last year, it feels like there's not enough space to really tell the story. But this one is somewhat of an improvement on last year's novella because it doesn't have more POV's than most people have fingers, and also because Roth not only draws on her culture, but also makes references to similar stories and myths in other cultures around the world. That, plus the modern Chicago setting, gives this book a certain Dresden Files vibe, which is always welcome when we're eternally waiting years for the next book in that series.

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Review: Colton Gentry's Third Act

Colton Gentry's Third Act by Jeff Zentner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Though he's not done with YA just yet - he's got a new collaborative novel in verse with Brittany Caravallo scheduled to come out this summer- it's interesting to see Jeff Zentner make a pivot into the adult literary fiction scene. He still has a foot in the YA door with this one, however, since it makes frequent use of flashbacks to the title character's younger days and his initial romance with high school sweetheart Luann. But it's also not all that removed from the realms he's written in for his YA novels either - the Southern setting (more Kentucky than Tennessee this time, but still in that same region), with a protagonist breaking away from more traditional young men's pursuits (he played football in high school but ended that career with a terrible injury), and running afoul of the fascist industrial complex.

Review: Five Broken Blades

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This one, sadly, is an official DNF for me. It sounded like it could’ve been great for me, with its premise of disparate assassins forced to collaborate to kill a king who absolutely bloody deserves it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get far because of the book’s peculiar structure - it jumps from POV to POV every chapter, and the chapters are all quite short, and all the POV’s are almost indistinguishable from each other. That it’s in first person present tense doesn’t help in this regard - it’s very difficult to pull off multi POV in that style. Just ask Veronica Roth. Or Pierce Brown, whose books have taken longer and longer to write because of how ambitious they are in scope. Sadly, Corlamd doesn’t pull it off for me, but I’m sure she’ll find herself a loyal readership with others.

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Review: The Silverblood Promise

The Silverblood Promise by James Logan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Take that rec from James Rollins seriously - and James Islington too, while we’re at it. James Logan makes a real great trifecta of Jameses in the modern realm of fantasy greats, with this first well crafted entry in a new series of Mediterranean inspired intrigue and trade and war games…and the disgraced young noble turned card sharp forced to investigate some uncomfortable truths in the heart of the world’s greatest city. Building on influences from Venice and Arabia and Russia and Ancient Greece and Egypt, this book would be perfect if not for its tendency to bog itself down in the machinations of the various Seven Silkens’ schemes, as well as the unfortunate lack of a world map. But Logan does his best in the world building department with the book’s various cultures, as well as the twists on religion (yes, it’s very medieval Catholic, complete with a disgustingly hedonistic pontifex who clearly learned his craft alongside the Borgias), and of course the Phaeron pyramid game…now that scene alone, just for its sheer tension, demands a movie adaptation immediately. In the meantime, though, I’ll have to just wait for Book 2, which promises to take us to this book’s equivalent of medieval Russia. Better have those parkas and ushankas ready, Lukan…

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Review: Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I was in high school, one of my favorite books was Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks, the story of a boy destined to be the greatest supervillain on the planet, except for the fact that everyone at the university for evil geniuses is so dysfunctional that they can't help but plot against each other until they're all killed off.

This book tries to take a similar premise and raise it up to a more adult level, with a peculiar 1950s period setting, and jack up the black comedy quirk factor to the point where I could almost see Wes Anderson taking on the task of filming a movie adaptation, with Ralph Fiennes to play the plummy Dean Harbinger Harrow, of course.

Review: Dragon Rider

Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know a guy or two who loves some litRPG type material. I'm going to need to make sure this book is on their TBR piles, and everyone else's, because if you're not reading Taran Matharu as faithfully as I do, are you even a fantasy fan?

Here, Matharu shifts gears from the YA sphere where he spent the last decade or so into a decidedly more adult realm. Sure, protagonist Jai is still in his teens, but this book definitely ramps up the violence and language into R-rated territory, but that fits the pattern of Matharu's books being increasingly more mature in content with each new series.

Review: Interior Chinatown

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This mind-bending satire of race in Hollywood from an Asian-American perspective has been on my radar for a while, in part because of a lot of different updates about planned movie and/or streaming adaptations. As I remember it, stars like Jimmy O. Yang, Simu Liu, and Chloe Bennet have been attached to the project at different times, and I'd really love to see how the adaptation pulls it off. It helps that much of the book is written in screenplay format already, which makes it a much quicker read than you might think since there's less text per page. But the text that's on the page is a massively on point commentary on numerous levels. It addresses not only the various stereotypes of Asians in media, but also the model minority myth, relations between Asian and Black people, and also some past horrors in Asian history (though most Westerners would know that Communist China under Mao committed so many atrocities, many wouldn't know about the atrocities carried out under Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalist Party.) And some of the meta-humor - since the book takes place largely in relation to a fictional police procedural, deliberately written to be as obnoxiously clichéd as possible - very clearly draws on Yu's experience as a Westworld writer, with the various Asian Background Characters having to abide by a lot of similar rules to Westworld hosts. The library up the street from my work had this one on a special display for AAPI Heritage Month, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it - it's fast, it's smart, and it needs that adaptation yesterday. Especially if, as expected, Yang plays the lead role and Yu writes the scripts.

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Review: The Will of the Many

The Will of the Many by James Islington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Up to now, I haven't read any of James Islington's books before, but I think that'll have to change now that I've finished this one. I believe it was recommended in the Red Rising subreddit, in part because of its similar Romanesque styling and propulsive story arcs. But Vis Telimus, our protagonist here, is nowhere close to a copycat of Darrow. In fact, in some ways, he's Darrow's opposite, but also they could probably relate to each other because of how much their respective empires have taken from them. Vis grew up as a prince named Diago, but he's been in hiding since his family's homeland became just another colony of the Catenan Empire. And he's not sneakily infiltrating the academy to bring down the Empire, but because there's a mystery that he needs to solve. A mystery whose answers, when they come...well, not everything is solved in this book. In fact, there's a hell of a lot of story threads left hanging. But thankfully Islington is already working on the second book, because while the book does take its sweet time building up to its ending, that ending is a massive mind blower on multiple levels, and I, for one, demand resolution on all those levels ASAP.

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Review: A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery

A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery by Curtis Craddock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Craddock returns to his gaslamp steampunk fantasy world with a new novel full of intrigue - and at least one cheeky little reference to one of the biggest name authors who helped bolster this book with his blurb, Brandon Sanderson, getting tuckerized into "Lord Brandon Mistwaithe." While the book does a pretty good job continuing the story from where its predecessor left off, with Jean-Claude and Isabelle trying to solve the great ontological mysteries of their weirdly spinning Franco-Spanish-styled worlds, it also proves surprisingly slow paced and repetitive, with not much to make the book stand out compared to its predecessor. It doesn't help that Craddock seems to have gotten some bad translation advice on the French language in this one, with a few pretty glaring errors that kept taking me out of it (most notably, "Le Ville Celeste" - insert Colin Farrell's Penguin doing his rant about the worst Spanish he ever heard, "EL RATA ALADA?!?!") But the finale of this book proves a pretty shocking one - let's just say devout Catholics are gonna take some serious exception to this book's version of the Virgin Mary, even more than, say, any of Jay Kristoff's blasphemous takes on Catholic mythology in Empire of the Vampire. What really surprised me, though, was how the very end set up a case of And Now For Something Completely Different for the finale, which I've already ordered at the library and will soon be reading. Probably after I move, though...

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Review: Huge

Huge by Brent Butt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Who would've guessed that the deadpan Canadian comedian behind Corner Gas had such a deadly good thriller in him? Well, it's the sort of book that you can almost read in Brent Butt's own distinctive voice, until it starts mutating into a uniquely demented take on the slasher genre, with a serial killer who only wants to make the world laugh with him instead of at him. If only he was actually funny, because it's not so funny anymore when he's getting the drop on anyone and everyone who pisses him off. But to balance out the major league darkness of Hobie Huge and his warped ways, there are a couple of well developed good guy comedians in this 90s-era Canadian Prairie circuit. Dale, the middle-aged American with a strained relationship to his family, and Rynn, a young Irish lass with a hell of a funny bone, especially when it comes to roasting Canada for its horrendously cold winters. I really hope Butt writes more good books now that the Corner Gas franchise is dormant, because the world needs more of his brand of entertainment.

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Review: The Watchers

The Watchers by A.M. Shine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one is getting a 2.5 rounded generously up to 3 in large part because of the promise of the upcoming film adaptation this summer, written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night. But also because of the creepy af incorporation of Irish faerie mythology - these Fair Folk have teeth in all the ways. Unfortunately, this book suffers from a preponderance of characters I can't bring myself to care for all that much, but I think Ishana Night Shyamalan's movie version will be all the better for it because it'll be adding striking visual elements, and what I'm sure will be a command performance from Dakota Fanning in the lead role. And since the Shyamalan family business is notorious for twists (seriously, it's a family business - M. Night personally funded the production for this one so it was able to get interim waivers during last year's strikes), I suspect that Ishana's idea of a twist for the film will be that unlike the book, there will be no sequel. Even though Shine is soon to come out with a sequel called Stay in the Light, which incidentally calls to mind M. Night's earlier hit Split...but who knows? I guess we'll find out Ishana's twist next month when the movie comes out, and guaranteed I'll have my butt in a theater seat opening weekend for it.

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Review: Base Notes

Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I can see why this, the only novel Lara Elena Donnelly's come out with since her well-crafted Art Deco war story that wasn't a war story, the Amberlough Dossier, is so much lower rated here. It could've been a much better story, and it's certainly darkly fascinating for its depiction of a depraved perfume maker in New York. After all, if you really think about it, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and the same goes for perfumes, which historically have been made from all kinds of plant and animal resources without care for obtaining them ethically. But Vic Fowler, who has figured out a vaguely supernatural method of bottling memories in perfume, really has to resort to that old black magic to make it work.

Review: Aftermarket Afterlife

Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As much as I've been a fan of Seanan McGuire for many years, and of this series in particular, I'm sorry to say that McGuire has been slowly losing me with this series, and it's never been more apparent than with this latest novel. The unlucky thirteenth in the series, it shifts gears to yet another POV protagonist, the sixth one so far by my count. Props to McGuire for seeking to keep things fresh with another perspective, especially one who would have known all the Price sibs (by blood or by adoption) as long as they've been alive. But Mary just isn't as engaging as Verity or Antimony or even Alex, which is a shame because all their adventures and personalities were the main draw for me in the first place. She may have been a constant figure in the lives of the Price family, but somehow her narrative comes off extremely detached and makes it hard for me to get into this book.

Review: An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors by Curtis Craddock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somewhere in the ether between Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires lies this unique spin on gaslamp airship steampunk fantasy, heavily inspired by days gone by in France and Spain in particular. It's a world that uses religion as an excuse to punch down on the other - as Isabelle, one of our protagonists, finds out the hard way, being a woman with a disability, and no magic even though she's supposed to be from a magical elite family. Luckily, she's got a powerful intellect on her side - this book is just as heavy on the math as it is on the magic, with the brawn represented by her protector, the smartass aging musketeer Jean-Claude. As a Spanish-style rival kingdom seeks to arrange a marriage for her with a romantically cursed prince, this book is loaded for bear with imperial intrigue, building to an ending that I really should've seen coming. Part one of a promising trilogy? Yes, I can see why one of the Vancouver library branches had this one on a special shelf for first installments in great series.

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Review: The Weavers of Alamaxa

The Weavers of Alamaxa by Hadeer Elsbai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hadeer Elsbai picks right up where The Daughters of Izdihar left off with that weapons-grade cliffhanger, starting off first with Giorgina on the run underground in the city of Alamaxa while Nehal is stuck in a prison cell at the behest of the sinister Zirani queen, Ralisa, who will stop at nothing to eliminate weavers from the world. Just as the previous book drew a lot of Avatar parallels to Avatar Kyoshi, so this book incorporates a villain very similar to Amon, with a religious fundamentalist streak to make her even worse than Amon ever was. Just like the first book in the series, it's a blazing fast read that demands to be done in a single sitting, because you're going to need to know ASAP how Nehal and Giorgina and all the other ladies fighting to smash the patriarchy and the theocracy can beat all their combined enemies. So, to Alamaxa, I now bid a well earned ave atque vale.

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