Review: The Coffee Shop of Untold Stories: Tsubasa’s Café

The Coffee Shop of Untold Stories: Tsubasa’s Café by Firdaus Ahmed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once again, Firdaus Ahmed gifts us a story about a singular cat…but as much as Tsubasa would have you believe it’s all his story, there’s more to it when you consider the humans he’s known in his many years. Especially Jo, the young woman come to York to write a book, and Ryu, the elegant owner of the café bearing Tsubasa’s name. The intertwined legacies of these characters makes this small book so much stronger than you would expect - strong like the Eclipse Mocha, the one drink on Tsubasa’s menu that would almost certainly be my go-to. (And thankfully now that autumn is here, the café at my work has added a seasonal Mexican Mocha, the closest I’ll be able to get to the Eclipse. I think I shall treat myself and imagine it’s Ryu and Tsubasa’s hospitality, including their very fair prices…because to paraphrase this book, the café isn’t for profit, it’s for what the people want. And need.)

View all my reviews

Review: The Art of Legend

The Art of Legend by Wesley Chu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s been a while since we left off on The Art of Destiny, and Wesley Chu now returns with the conclusion to the trilogy, where we see exactly how this epic journey will end when the prophecy’s terms have already been broken. Except they may just un-break in time to be fulfilled, and while the series doesn’t end quite as strongly as I was hoping for, it doesn’t lose Chu’s signature sense of action or humor - the latter best represented by Qisami, my fave character all along. To this series, I now bid ave atque vale, especially since we’re still waiting for Chu to finish his trilogy of collaboration with Cassandra Clare…

View all my reviews

Review: Katabasis

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

R.F. Kuang continues her dark academia era with a new standalone fantasy novel about two embattled, embittered grad students reading Magick at Cambridge, forced to follow their eminent (and eminently unlikable) advisor into the underworld because without him, their careers will never get started. And boy howdy is Professor Jacob Grimes one of the most disgusting characters Kuang has ever created - and considering her propensity for highlighting historical war crimes and the incurable racism of certain assbite people, that’s saying something. It also says something that racial issues are on the back burner at best in this book, when it’s been Kuang’s bread and butter for years. This one is a slow burn in hell, at times a real slog because it’s very clear that Grimes (a rapacious, womanizing, plagiarizing shit-for-brains) doesn’t deserve to be saved, and Alice and Peter deserve better than to force themselves through supernatural peril to save him. But the sunk cost fallacy and all that. And all the philosophy that Kuang can lob at us, because that’s also her bread and butter. And speaking of food and digestion, I was surprised to see Crohn’s disease incorporated into the narrative - that condition gets very rare representation to the best of my knowledge. I know a few people who might appreciate this book just for that…

View all my reviews

Review: The Raven Scholar

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As the beginning of a new epic fantasy trilogy, this book couldn’t decide if it wanted to be dark academia or magical competition, so why not both? Well, more accurately, it’s a magical competition mystery with a touch of dark academia at the core, helped by the word “scholar” in the title. After all, it requires reading a lot of in universe legends in order to understand what is happening as the gods’ chosen champions compete to see who will be the next emperor. In that sense, it’s got a bit of Gideon the Ninth in its DNA too - and funny how I’m seeing more of that lately while we wait endlessly for Tamsyn Muir to finally publish the fourth and final novel in that series, with a sequel gap of three years and counting…but I digress.

View all my reviews

Review: The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Take Murder on the Orient Express by way of Chloe Gong, who as I remember set one of her novellas on another version of the Trans-Siberian Express, but with a bit more mystery and a bit less magic. Add in the cosmic creepery of Annihilation, but this time with a storyline that can actually be followed, and a strong, if on the nose, railway metaphor for capitalism and unchecked development and scientific hubris. Mix thoroughly, and this is the alchemical result.

View all my reviews

Review: The Jasad Crown

The Jasad Crown by Sara Hashem
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can see now why it took Sara Hashem so long to bring us the sequel to The Jasad Heir, because she caught the duology train like so many other writers and concluded her series with a great big doorstopper, almost 700 pages long. This one book could’ve easily been two for a total of a trilogy, but the duology trend, it really does have its own gravity. But for one of my favorite romantasy series (though Thea Guanzon’s books still take the chocolate cherry cake), it’s a suitably bittersweet ending, especially in the actual ending which catches up with certain characters weeks, months, years, and finally a decade after all the action is said and done. I hope to see more from Hashem soon, but for now, it’s ave atque vale to Jasad and her ever warring neighbors.

View all my reviews