The Rage of Dragons

Evan Winter

Book 1 of The Burning Series

Fantasy novel where an entire people (The Omehi) have traveled across the sea to escape what I can only guess is some sort of magic induced plague. In their new land, they are not welcome and are immediately thrust into a 200 year war, where we pick up. The Omehi are a highly caste structured society, and our protagonist is Tau, a Lesser. Tau has noble friends, but has no real tolerance for caste castigation, which of course gets him into trouble. He joins the military and becomes a phenomenal fighter, taking advantage of the "magic source" in ways that others can't or won't.  In the end, Tau learns that he is not the only one who has concerns about caste, not the only one who questions the magic source, and not the only one fully gutted by the cost of war and violence. 

I'll definetly keep up with the series, but since Books 3 and 4 are not yet published, no hurry...

3 stars (out of 4)

Gideon the Ninth

Tamsyn Muir

Book 1 of the Locked Tomb series

This is really a strange genre bender. In most ways, it is pure, high fantasy. Necromancers doing magic, nine houses under the rule of the emperor, adepts and cavaliers doing battle. But it also hints at a far future, sci-fi. The houses are each from different planets. Life and technology seems to be in a post-apocalyptic phase. Cool. 

Gideon Nav is a member of the Ninth house, has a brutal history of abuse at the hand of the house princess Harrow. She is constantly trying to escape, but never successful. When the emperor calls for representatives from each house, Gideon is drafted to be the cavalier (personal bodyguard) for Harrow and they skooch off to the first planet. The goal is to learn how to transcend into a Lyctor, the immortal servant of the emperor. The payoff being new wealth and security for the diminishing Ninth house. Duels, bone constructs,  ghosts, murder, and political intrigue. Quite fun. And while the plot pretty much unfolded as you expect while you read, this is OK and largely satisfying. The twists and surprises were surprising to the characters, not to the reader. Looking forward to the next installment. 

4 stars (out of 4)

The Mask Falling

Samantha Shannon

Book 4 of The Bone Season series

Having defeated the poltergeist that powered SenShield, Paige, Scion's most wanted voyant, is whisked off to Paris. She is connected with Domino, an international intelligence operation working to destabilize Scion, and she is working on her own to connect with the French voyant society. Warden has traveled with her as her bodyguard / fellow revolutionary. And the twists keep coming. Paige begins to fully embrace her role as Black Moth, Underqueen the London. She is learning about international politics, and reliving the french version of her experience in Sheol. Shannon does a great job of keeping this story interesting and new, with each reveal feeling necessary and natural. In hindsight, this does feel like a filler book in the story arc. But you have to have that at some point in a 7 book series. Now just to wait until the end of the decade for the remaining volumes to be written. 

4 stars (out of 4)

The Mime Order

Samantha Shannon

Book 2 of The Bone Season series

The Pale Dreamer has been rescued from Sheol, and returned to the Seven Dials in London. But she is ready to start a revolution, to fight back against the Rephaim and their control of Scion and subjugation of clairvoyants. But she is basically alone in this. "Hey, you're back, you're safe now, don't rock the boat". But Nashira (blood-heir to the Rephaim throne) has different ideas as she hunts the Dreamer and sets in motion a coming out party. Meanwhile, Paige has her own coming out story to tell and has a love of London and life as her foundation. I love how this story is clearly about the Mime world where the previous was clearly about the Rephaim world. In many ways, the plot elements stand alone which is why, IMO, it is such a strong story. 

4 stars (out of 4)

The Bone Season

Samantha Shannon

Set in the mid 21st century London, with a history that dates back to mid-19th century, Shannon has created a world unlike any I have encountered. This London is known as a Scion, a protectorate city where the government keeps citizens safe from clairvoyants. The underworld of clairvoyance is organized and regulated by a hierarchical structure based on the type of access a voyant has to the netherworld (Mediums, Binders, Seers, etc). Our protagonist is Paige, aka Pale Dreamer, who is a dreamwalker. She can sense and enter the dreamscape of others. The prime storyline here begins when Paige is kidnapped and taken to Sheol, which is a voyant prison colony near Oxford. It is here that she has her eyes opened to the real power structures of the world, with Rephiam (non-human netherworld immortals) masters, scary monsters and human corruption. Paige is a product of Bone Season XX, a once in a decade harvesting of human voyants for use by the Rephiam. But the Pale Dreamer is not a typical voyant, either in gifting or in spirit. And she will fight to get back home.

4 stars (out of 4)

Empire of Gold

S.A. Chakraborty

Book 3 of The Daevabad Trilogy

Finally this becomes a fantasy epic. For the first time, we are following 3 different storylines that are enticing. The pacing is perfect. When we are switched to a new storyline, we are ready and each switch pushes all three stories forward. We get enough origin history to finally understand character motivation and everything resolves. The basic plot summary follows Ali and Nahri as they find a way to return to Daevabad and rescue the city. There is a cost for every character as they choose redemption, either for themselves or for their people or their city. But there is also payoff in these choices. This final volume is so good that I fully recommend the entire series. 

4 stars (out of 4) 

Kingdom of Copper

S.A. Chakraborty

Book 2 of The Daevabad Trilogy

A fantasy story set in the east, with eastern mythology. I was not quite as much in love with this 2nd book. It took some work to get through. The political background was more confusing than needed and I really only found myself interested in one plot thread. Like any good fantasy epic, there were 3-5 concurrent threads interwoven. In the end (about 2/3 through) it picked up steam again, focused on the Ali-Nahri storyline that was most interesting and set the stage for a potentially interesting final volume. The plot here continues to follow Nahri as one of the last remaining Daeva healers as she is politically wed to the emir, in love with the emir's brother (but also hates him for having killed her bodyguard). Add to this the fact that the bodyguard (Dara) is not dead but returned to life as an ifrit warrior controlled by Nahri's thought dead mom who really only has deadly revenge on her mind. Oh, and the racial-political tensions in the city are at an all time high. 

3 stars (out of 4) 

Best Served Cold

Joe Abercrombie

A standalone story in the world of The First Law trilogy. While I was hoping that this would follow on some characters of the trilogy, filling out the story and giving what was lacking, alas no. While there are some overlapping minor characters, this is effectively a straight up revenge thriller that has no redeeming characters. Everyone is flawed and if the message is that vengeance does not bring closure, that message is hammered home... literally felt it hammered into my cold, dead, brain. The fun of the First Law was left behind, leaving only parts that need to be endured. I didn't.

1 star (out of 4)

Last Argument of Kings

Joe Abercrombie

Book 3 of the First Law Trilogy

The big finale does in fact wrap things up. Bayaz pulls all the strings he needs to pull, revealing that this entire trilogy is but a small part of a larger story. The puppet king is on the throne, the north and the south defeated for the moment, Ninefingers gets his freedom of sorts. We never really get to explore any character enough for a hero to develop. Yes, everyone is flawed. But the most heroic are secondary and left to stories untold. This world has so many possibilities, but left me flat. Sorry, can't recommend it. 

2 stars (out of 4)

Before they are Hanged

Joe Abercrombie

Book 2 of the First Law Trilogy

True to fantasy form, we are divided among disparate parts of the world. Glokta is in the south, defending a city under siege. The main of the union army is in the north battling the invading horde. And magi Bayaz has taken Ninefingers, Luthar and Maljinn (a demon-blood girl seeking vengence on the southern barbarians) on a jouney to find a hidden something (too secret to tell us). In the end, the plot is disappointing as each individual story is engaging, but nothing really takes you anywhere. Maljinn is perhaps the most intriguing character, but we will need to see if she becomes important.

2 stars (out of 4)

The Blade Itself

Joe Abercrombie

Book 1 of the First Law Trilogy

A fantasy world where magic is sort of in the background. In this world, the northmen are warriors who earn their name in battle. The fiercest of these is Logan Ninefingers - the Bloody Nine. He has the ability to speak to spirits, which makes him valuable down the road. The Union is basically a corrupt colonial power held together by violence and graft. Key to this is Inquisitor Glokta, former soldier who was tortured and crippled (but survived) in a battle in the south. The story keeps coming back to him as a weirdly central character, almost as a connective narrator with fingers in all parts of the story. Luthar is a union soldier, high born, entitled and perfect puppet. This first volume really sets the stage and develops the world. The most interesting is the story of the northmen, and the hints what the story is really about. We are not swept away, but kept interested.

3 stars (out of 4)

The Raven

Ann Leckie

A story where the narrator is a god, and an ancient god at that. In fact, it is two stories. The first person account of the god's experience over history in discovering its self-identity and learning to interact with people, and a specific event story about a town in political transition where the actions of the gods is integral. This definitely gave me American Gods vibes, but was way better. I loved the development of identity of the god. How it discovered that it had power, and how that power worked. By definition, anything that a god proclaims must be true. So, the god must be careful to only say true things or, if a statement of fact is made that is not currently true, it will then become true. This is the creation process of sorts. For example, if a god says "All trees are made of metal", it is clearly not true now. So the in order to keep the god status, trees become made of metal. And the amount of power that this requires must be taken into account. Likely this statement would actually kill the god, since turning all trees to metal would take more power than the god has available. So you can see that it is tricky being a god, and takes great care in what is said. With this line of thinking about how gods work, it does allow for an interesting thought experiment about the Christian creation story. Perhaps God was not "creating" most of the time, but stating already true facts about the universe?

While this may seem like a genre departure for Leckie from her space opera Imperial Radch Trilogy (which I loved), it in fact has many themes that overlap. As a reader, I was thinking about power and responsibility, and challenged with my preconceptions about gender throughout. Leckie may be one of my favorite authors.

4 stars (out of 4)

A Gathering of Shadows

V.E. Schwab

Book 2 - Shades of Magic Trilogy

We start with Lila the pirate. She has really come into her own as she is a member (and best thief) of the crew on the Night Spire, under command of Alucard Emery. And it is here she begins to learn magic from Emery. And after a few months, they return to Red London for what is basically the Olympics of magic, where Emery is competing. And where Kell has finagled a way to compete anonymously. And where Lila continues to be able to generate trouble like no other. At the same time, the political machinations around the "events" of the Black Night from Book 1 are still churning and affecting lives of the princes of the kingdom, Kell and Rhy. On the flip side, the sudden power vacuum in White London results in its own machinations, and in Grey London foreshadowing something. Fascinating, clever, and fun.

3 stars (out of 4)

A Darker Shade of Magic

V.E. Schwab

Shades of Magic Trilogy

A really quite interesting world set in several Londons. That is, a London exists in 4 different worlds, with 4 different levels of access to magic. In the past, doors were open between the worlds and people could travel between them. But then bad things happened in Black London, and the doors were sealed. Now only the Antari can make doors, and there are only two Antari left. Kell (who belongs to the royalty in Red London where magic is ubiquitous and good) and Holland (who belongs to the royalty in White London where all magic is used to acquire power). Kell meets up with small time thief Lila in Grey London (where magic no longer exists) and the two of them become embroiled in a magical thriller to save all London from the evil of Black. A nice world that Schwab has created and probably Lila is my favorite character, so hoping she becomes the prime protagonist in book 2

3 stars (out of 4)

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass

Stephen King

Book 4 of The Dark Tower Series

Roland continues his journey to the dark tower with his ka-tet. But most of this book is a flashback telling of Roland in his gunslinger youth. We learn how he becomes a gunslinger, of his first love, of the events that lead him to know of the dark tower and the fate that has been chosen for him. In hindsight, I have lost the thread of the overall search, in a way that it became less important that the story being currently told. I am sure that the big theme picks up in the next volume.

3 stars (out of 4)

The Book of Joan

Lidia Yuknavitch

I don't know really anything about the story of Joan of Arc. Presumably this is a retelling (or re-envisioning) of that story in an alternate future. The future is post nuclear apocalypse on earth, and the resulting moving of humanity (or some wealthy portion of humanity) to space based living. In this space environment, humans are post gender, and basically post biology. They have no biological features that are unnecessary (hair, skin pigment, sex organs, etc.). In this world, personal expression exists in the form of skin grafts added in layers to various parts of the body. And these layered grafts come with burned scar tissue in text patterns to tell stories. If this short description of the world does not fascinate you, go no further. On earth (where Joan is) it gets a bit cheesey along the lines of the Loric energy infusing earth of the Lorian Legacies series. But overall, an interesting tale.

I must also say that Yuknavitch nailed the dialogue/discussions around justice and violence. For example

I don't care which careful slice of history you choose to cling to, there is not part of being human that does not include the death spectacle: the resort to killing, through war or "justice" or revenge.

strikes me as particularly aware of the role and effectiveness of violence through history. Did I ever tell you I love books that make me think.

3 stars (out of 4)

Obsidian Mirror

Catherine Fisher

Time travel, mystery, fantasy creatures. All the things I like. Jack Wilde is at a posh private school, but is angry and the world since his dad disappeared last year. He will do anything to find him. Oberon Venn lost his wife several years ago and it was his fault. The man with a scarred face had his Obsidian Mirror stolen, and in the process was sent into an exile of sorts. Piers is a man who wants his freedom, Summer a Shee who wants her lover, and Sarah a girl who simply wants the world not to end. Lots of characters, each with their own motivations, some clearly written by Fisher, others intentionally withheld, revealed or guessed at as we traverse this first book in a trilogy. Tying the entire plot together is the mirror, which is not completely understood (hence Jack's dads disappearance), that allows time travel. One thing I love about this is the idea of the replicant. Most time travel storylines avoid at all costs the mixing of timelines. If you "see yourself" the timeline implodes. Here, Fisher has created a scene where traveling back to a time before you left just creates a copy of yourself, a replicant. It raises the question of identity and soul, but she doesn't let that stop her from making replicant creation become somehow central to at least one of her storylines. This is very clearly a trilogy, so the entire world must be worthwhile before getting a recommendation. After only one installment, we have to wait.

Wait

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands

Stephen King

Book 3 of The Dark Tower Series

In this installment, our three gunslingers are making their way along the beam in their journey to get to the Tower. Along they way, they pick up Jake again (who was lost in book 1), and encounter more dying technology from the previous world, before it moved on. I really like the mixture of western and sci-fi that is developing here. This is really a significant exploration and quest novel, a dusty-dirty us-vs-them save-the-town hero story, and simultaneously a commentary on technology, an eerie look at what a technological world gasping for life could look like. My sense is that a full review will require a full reading of the entire series.

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The Prey of Gods

Nicky Drayden

In many ways, this is the South African version of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Only better... for me, at least. In addition to magical realism, with gods and demigods breaking into modern society, Drayden adds a cyberpunk flavor and puts it all together in a way that makes me look closely at South African culture. Loved this. The story follows a series of characters that, obviously, will all connect in the end. We have a couple of teens, a politician, a young township girl, a pop-diva, a nail-salon worker. But these characters are also drag queens, drug users, hackers, demigods and demons and afflicted with MS. Add in the AI helper bots ("Alphies"), who have their own perspective/observations on the story and this really gets fun. We get to think about purpose, friendship, the difference between fear, anger, love, praise and belief, the afterlife and integrity. Drayden's writing is easy and light, resulting in an almost trivial feel to the book. Is this really making me think about all these things? Definitely should be on your read list.
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Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia

Mike Resnick

The story of an African tribe moving to a new place (that happens to be a space station in the year 2130, but that is totally irrelevant) to create a utopia based on that tribe's founding values, shunning all things European and all results of colonization. It is told from the first person perspective of the mundumugo (the witch doctor or tribal elder or respected shaman), whose original vision it was to set up this utopia. The story takes place over the course of a decade or so, and each chapter is basically a stand-alone story that addresses a particular difficulty or challenge to the utopia. In each case, the mundumugo uses story and fable to guide the children and the elders how to think in order to maintain and enhance the cultural integrity of this utopia. And in each case, it turns out that only the mundumugo sees the bigger picture. This is a great story of power, colonization, utopia, wisdom, perspective, change, community, democracy, culture, tradition, story-telling and thinking.
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