Review: Empire

Empire by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, thank you, Sabaa Tahir. Thank you for the heartbreak, and the complex plotting, and the heartbreak, and the ever darkening wartime morality, and the heartbreak, and the wide ranging perspectives of what it means to save the world, and did I mention the heartbreak? Because it’s not just the familial and romantic losses that set the stage here, it’s the death of a character I have a feeling you’ve been looking for a chance to kill off for years. Almost a decade at this point, even. And their time has finally come, and I for one am devastated about it. But if there’s one thing I can trust you, Tahir, to pull off, it’s wrapping everything up with just the right amount of sacrifice to our hearts and to our favorite characters. For now, I again bid this Empire ave atque vale, but I am once again ready to read whatever comes next, no matter what.

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Review: A Trade of Blood

A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ana and Din return for their third mystery, and unlike with Robert Jackson Bennett’s other stories, it looks like this will not be a trilogy conclusion. And thank God for that, because each book in this saga has given us just another little taste of the secrets of the empire, and I hope to see at least one or two more books to extend deeper into its heart. But for now, we’re now progressing into a middle ring of the imperial land, with a most insidious mystery involving a pair of feuding families in the style of Romeo & Juliet - with Din’s previously unseen sister Fotia, Fo for short, now betrothed to a young man in one of those families - and some terrifying mind controlling fungus that isn’t supposed to infect humans, and yet. For this book, Bennett is giving us The Last of Us with a Clue expansion pack, and I’m really hoping this one gets another Hugo like the first book because it bloody deserves one.

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Review: Firestorm

Firestorm by Nevada Barr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice..." And for this fourth Anna Pigeon novel, Barr couldn't decide on one or the other, so why not both? Set at Lassen Volcanic National Park, the book begins with a fire raging through the woods, quickly followed by a winter storm to trap Anna with several other wildland firefighters, one of whom is almost certainly a murderer. With its particular setting in far Northern California, it almost feels prophetic, having a wildfire so close to winter in the same region as the Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise in 2018. And unlike the previous book, this one, with its mountain setting and volatile weather, could easily be adapted into an episode of the USA/Crave series with a simple setting switch to Glacier National Park.

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Review: Ill Wind

Ill Wind by Nevada Barr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The third Anna Pigeon novel returns to the same sort of environment as the first book in the series, this time set at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, where Anna comes to appreciate the remains of the old Native culture (this book still calls them by an old name now considered outdated, though it wasn’t seen as such in 1995), while also having to deal with a strange sickness befalling park visitors. With a more urgent case and its desert southwest setting, this book feels like it calls forward to some of those New Mexican thrillers of latter day Preston & Child. Though it’d be tough to adapt for the USA/Crave series unless they decided to move settings to Colorado in a future season, this one is going to stand out for me among Barr’s books by the time I’ve caught up on her backlist.

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Review: A Superior Death

A Superior Death by Nevada Barr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Anna Pigeon’s second story trades in the Texan desert heat of Guadalupe Mountain National Park for the eerie chills of Isle Royale, and all the shipwrecks in Lake Superior surrounding the park. This story probably won’t be so easily adaptable for the USA/Crave TV series, since I can’t imagine a place as landlocked as Glacier would have too many shipwrecks to spare. But it’s a good shift in tone away from the first book, and shows the promise of how diverse the environments in this series will be as it covers park after park across the country.

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Review: The Devil by Name

The Devil by Name by Keith Rosson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fever House ended with the promise of a nearly uncontrollable apocalypse as the riots that inflamed Portland spread all around the world, and this book concludes the duology with the survivors struggling to piece together what's left, and potentially track down someone who may be able to fix the devil's damage. In order to that, they have to get the chosen one out of France - which makes me wonder how much of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Rosson had been watching while he wrote this book. Though this book is a bit repetitive of some of its predecessor's in-universe corporate and governmental record-keeping, it's still a fast paced dark thriller, and while there's definitely room to see where a third book would go, Rosson nevertheless did a great job sticking the landing in this book. Therefore, to Fever House, I now bid ave atque vale.

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Review: Fever House

Fever House by Keith Rosson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first of a duology set in Portland that helps make Keith Rosson the truest heir apparent to Stephen King's empire of Northeastern horror, with Rosson heading up the Northwestern outpost of King's style. It's like if The Stand was split into two books, with Randall Flagg largely hanging in the periphery, and a particular angel held under the corporate auspices of the US government, all while a whole bunch of regular people stuck in various seedy underbellies are forced to contend with a cursed artifact poised to wreck the world. For more details, see Book 2...

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Review: The Dorians

The Dorians by Nick Cutter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book caught my eye at Indigo on my trip to Vancouver, BC (the Granville store to be precise), and I put down a nice red C$50 note on this, plus a goosey little bag to store my souvenirs. And let me tell you, it was money well spent. A uniquely Canadian spin on certain Frankenstein tropes, with a touch of Jurassic Park and Cocoon in the DNA, it’s a fast paced and very creepy sci fi horror story about a group of oldsters pulled out of their MAID consultations (yes, in the event of a film adaptation it’ll have to be Canadian or else that part will really have to be changed) to be subject to the experimental whims of a teenage super genius. It’s perfect for spooky season, and only after I got my copy up north did I see that Beaverton library had it too. But I’ll be using the library to instead work my way through Cutter’s backlist…

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Review: Heaven's River

Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Bobiverse was starting to lose me with Book 3, but this book, nearly double the length of its predecessor, nevertheless held my interest far better than All These Worlds ever did. Part of the reason for that, I think, was because it predominantly follows the Bobs on one particular world, getting a deep dive into the culture of the seemingly cute and cuddly - but also very smart and cunning - Quinlan species. But also, part of it was the fact that I brought my library copy of the book on a road trip to the author's homeland, and I was able to sit and read some bits and pieces of it up near the scenic views of the Capilano Reservoir above North Vancouver, BC. Though the book did drag on a bit longer than it should have, it was the intricacies of Quinlan culture that made me appreciate it the most, and now I can safely say I'm truly ready for the fifth (and final?) book.

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Review: All These Worlds

All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

So…originally, this was the end of the series? Before Saga Press bought it up and reissued all the hardcovers, plus text editions of the follow up Audible originals? That is, if I have my understanding of this series and its jump from indie to mainstream correctly. I probably don’t, but then again, I can say the same about Dungeon Crawler Carl. Similarly to that series, just as I suspected, this one is starting to very slowly lose me, but for the opposite reason. Whereas Dinniman’s books sprawl like a Southern California metropolis, this series has turned into less of a single story and more of a collection of vignettes that happen to take place over a long period of time. And over that time, the whip smart social commentary of the earlier books fades away, even while the book tries to explore more of the alien societies the Bobs meet. I’ll keep reading at least through book 4, but I may just find myself giving up after that. We’ll see.

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Review: Track of the Cat

Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first entry in this long running series that’s been on my periphery for years, it only crossed my radar for real with the release of the new USA/Crave TV series adaptation, whose first episode takes the story of this book and transplants the setting from Guadalupe Mountain National Park in Texas to Glacier National Park in Montana. The series got me good because of how much it throws back to the Blue Sky era on USA Network, but this book is definitely a bite sized bit of darkness in comparison. It definitely has a certain Western eye for detail, especially with certain bits of political commentary about Texans and their conservatism and disdain for big government - some of which still hold up today, despite the right wing becoming the very big government they love to preach against. Unlike the TV series, these books, as I understand it, take place in different parks on each installment, which will be a fun vibe to see - especially since it makes me think of Reacher, but make him a lady ranger instead.

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