Review: Breath of the Dragon

Breath of the Dragon by Shannon Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee (no relation) team up to make an action packed new YA fantasy series, meant to honor the ways of Shannon Lee’s father, the late Bruce Lee. And Fonda Lee, while it’s been quite some time since she wrote a fighting boy in YA (her debut Zeroboxer being a sci fi take on MMA), it’s like riding a bike. She never forgot. And on this book, set in a fantasy world modeled on China with sharp political and class divisions, not to mention some interesting takes on tropes about almost everyone in the world having superpowers while our protagonist doesn’t, he knows very well how to make a name for himself in a world that otherwise wouldn’t accept him. Jun wears the clear influences of Tavi, Mirabel, and especially Deku on his heart - not really his sleeve, since it’s a martial arts kind of story and even on the cover he’s got bare arms. It’s only the first half of his story, though, so by next year we’ll be ready to witness how it all ends.

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Review: The Dagger and the Flame

The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can see why this one had a fairly long wait list at the library - it was almost two months after I ordered it there that I finally got to read it. Though this French inspired fantasy is marketed as YA, it definitely aims for more of an NA readership, with its dark tone (particularly when Ransom takes in more Shade, it’s very opium-like in nature), and especially its spicy moments. Not to the level of Rebecca Yarros or Thea Guanzon or SJM, but this book, like Guanzon’s Reylo-inspired books, is a great example of enemies to lovers actually done right, tense and engaging because it’s so hard to tell which side of that particular trope spectrum this book will fall on in the end. Except it’s not the end, not when Doyle is already about to publish a sequel by the end of this year…

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Review: The Whispering Night

The Whispering Night by Susan Dennard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In which a less brooding Wednesday than Addams goes to the Rave’N…sorry, the Nightmare Masquerade. I said I wasn’t likely to continue this series after The Hunting Moon, but after more cover love with this gloriously creepy image, Dennard suckered me in for one last visit to Winnie Wednesday’s hometown…or is it? For being the end of a trilogy, it feels like there’s a lot of loose plot threads left hanging. Unfortunately that’s more or less to be expected from a series that, for me, defines “missed potential.” Maybe this one should’ve stayed in the Twitter and Instagram polls, because it just never came to life for me as a book or three. That, plus Dennard bizarrely prioritized this over the Witchlands with only one book left in that series - did she sign a contract she couldn’t get out of? Thankfully, her true flagship series is finally expected later this year, along with a new standalone fantasy mystery of a similar vibe to this series, The Executioners Three. In spite of myself, I’m still looking forward to Executioners, if only because I’m hoping Dennard can get right with that one, what she wasn’t able to do for The Luminaries.

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Review: Goddess of the River

Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A couple of years after her first foray into Hindu legendary fantasy with Kaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel returns to retell aspects of the Mahabharata from another woman’s perspective. In this case, it’s the goddess of the river that she focuses on, a goddess after whom India’s greatest river took its name. Granted, I ought to read the old stories at some point, especially if I’m to truly understand where Patel is coming from in her work - although I certainly wouldn’t be smart enough to read it in the original Sanskrit as Oppenheimer would’ve attempted circa a century ago. What I do understand best about this book, though, is how it teaches the importance of restoration, one stone at a time. Restoration of nature, or justice, or balance? Why not all of the above? Heaven knows we need it.

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Review: Onyx Storm

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The long awaited third book of Rebecca Yarros's smash hit Empyrean series may be the very middle point of the planned five book saga, and the point where every bookstore of every size is doing midnight release parties probably for the first time since the original Hunger Games trilogy ended, if not the original Twilight Saga, but it's definitely at a point where Yarros can absolutely afford to throw all the chaotic dragon shit at the wall and see what sticks, and it's never been more clear than now with how much of a magnificent mess we've gotten.

Review: Among Serpents

Among Serpents by Marc J. Gregson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book of Marc J. Gregson’s dystopian throwback trilogy is not only a fast paced and bleak Empire Strikes Back, but also reminiscent of Thunderhead and Wind and Truth in its sobering reminder of how deeply fascists can entrench their insurmountability. Amping up the family drama between Conrad and Ella and Uncle (dear God but Uncle is a bastard and birdshit artist par excellence), this book sets the stage for what promises to be an epic conclusion in next year’s third novel, Downfall. And yet, somehow, I get the strange feeling that after all the setbacks Conrad has to endure in this book, it’ll take a miracle for it to all be wrapped up in one more book…

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Review: Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks

Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks by Stephen Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book came out when I used to work at the Stanford Bookstore, but for some reason, I never properly read it till now. Having seen it used as a source for the recent Christine McVie biography Songbird, however, I had to pick it up at last. Diving deep into the majesty of Stevie’s best songs, including her solo career, it’s a wonder to see just how many of hers lay dormant on the shelf for years. Not just the obvious like “Silver Springs” or “Smile At You,” but also an obscure fave of mine: “Freedom,” eventually recorded for the album Behind the Mask. It’s clear now that despite his pretensions of awesomeness, Lindsey’s best role in the band was to be the inspiration for some of Stevie’s most biting and most awesome songs, and she’ll always be the queen while he’ll never be the king. If only I could meet Stevie someday. But if we’re lucky, she’s got many years left in her to see how well the culture may carry on in her eventual absence.

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Review: A Monsoon Rising

A Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thea Guanzon returns with the second part of her projected trilogy of some of the best romantasy in the business, earning her status once again for me as the genre’s true queen. Not SJM, not Yarros - I said what I said, Guanzon gets right what so many others haven’t. Inspired by both Southeast Asia and Reylo (and hell, there’s even a few characters who resemble other First Order villains, namely a rat-faced Hux analogue), Guanzon’s love story is a master class of sexual tension that transcends all the other enemies-to-lovers trend hoppers by light years. Goodreads has yet to include the third book in its listings yet, but rest assured, I will be reading. 100%.

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Review: Voyage of the Damned

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Sorry to say that this book, after all its immense hype from the BookTok machine among others, was a very quick DNF for me. I could only get about 30-40 pages in before I figured out I wasn’t gonna vibe with it, especially thanks to Ganymedes as the protagonist. I get that this is a society full of privileged little shits, and he’s the least privileged, from the least of the twelve lands, dealing wuth a father who hates everything about him from his weight on down, with no actual Blessing (because everyone’s doing the Encanto thing these days), but still, he’s so bloody obnoxious with his attempts at being a First Person Smartass that it makes it impossible for me to care about him. I will give him credit where it’s due and compliment his use of bisexual finger guns on the very first page, but that’s about as much grace as I can extend this book, because after that it was too much of a misfire for me to continue.

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Review: Spell of the Sinister: A Fairy Godmother Novel

Spell of the Sinister: A Fairy Godmother Novel by Danielle Paige
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Though the fairytale retelling trend in YA has largely died out since its 2010s heyday, leave it to Danielle Paige to keep it alive. And it'll probably have a resurgence in the coming years thanks to the success of Wicked (though let's be real, Dorothy Must Die should've had a movie adaptation first.) But here, Paige brings her latest fairytale retelling to its conclusion with a fast-paced dual-POV-rivals story that, while not specifically Ozian, nevertheless wears its Wicked influences on its sleeve as proudly as one can expect from Paige. She's stuck to her stylistic guns pretty well over the years, and I'd really love to see where she goes next after this, because she's one of the few YA authors I'm still regularly keeping up with these days for many reasons.

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Review: Gardens of the Moon

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A coworker at my new job recommended this one after he saw me reading some Brandon Sanderson. I'd heard of Steven Erikson before, but never really paid attention to his work up till now. Here, I can see that he's sort of the missing link between Guy Gavriel Kay's parallel worlds, inspired by real history, and the diverse but grimdark fantasy settings of the new millennium. Thankfully, this book isn't really all that grimdark, but I can sort of see where it serves as a blueprint for the likes of Mark Lawrence or Joe Abercrombie, even more so than the obvious GRRM influences. It is decidedly...mid, overall, but the worldbuilding (helped by Erikson's professional experience in anthropology) is very interesting, with the different regions in this empire paralleling real world history but not exactly on a one-t0-one basis. I've already got the second book on order at the library in Vancouver, so we'll see how much further I get in this series in this new year.

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