Review: The Goblin Emperor

Title: The Goblin Emperor
Author: Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette)
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Goodreads

When the airship carrying the emperor of Ethuveraz and his three sons crashes, Maia Drazhar, only child of the emperor's fourth (despised, goblin) wife finds himself unexpectedly inheriting his father's throne. 18 years old, raised in exile, and bearing a resemblance to the mother the court so hated, Maia is a vulnerable and unprepared outsider. The court is bewildering, the gaps in his often-neglected education are a constant hindrance to him, and within a week it is discovered that the crash that killed is father and half-brothers was no accident. 

Out of Ten: 9/10

Review at a Glance: A delightfully complex political fantasy with an unusual approach to the genre and one of my favourite main characters ever.

Review: You know that feeling when you've just constantly been rereading a book for 18 months but haven't reviewed it? No? Just me? So here's the upshot. I have now read this book... going on 6 times. In less than 2 years. That's a lot even for me.

This one is going to be tough for me to review for a lot of reasons but partly because it's such an unusual book, at least in my (not totally inextensive) reading experience. It's a little bit quiet and a little bit dense and a lot political and I really, really like it a lot.

Something I really appreciated about this book is that it dives right in, there's very little in terms of introductory exposition, and trusts the reader to be able to catch up. Formal and informal tenses are used which was, for me as a reader, a novel and slightly disorienting experience at first, but one I found I really enjoyed. Not only did it help give a sense of the sort of social world that this story inhabited, but it also helped showcase character. This definitely isn't a book that I'd recommend to people who like high-action plots or dislike long names but, since I like a little linguistics (and a lot of politics) thrown into my fantasy when I can get it, it was a perfect fit for me.

About those names: there are a lot of them. There are a lot characters and a most of them have a first name and a last name and a title or two. Addison manages to make so many of them memorable, even when they only have one or two scenes and are very minor. The ones that are around for longer are, in general, clearly rendered people with personalities that really stand out.

Maia himself is a really unusual character, suited really well to the story. Having been raised in virtual isolation (first with his mother and then, when she died, handed over to a guardian that hated him), he's an interesting blend of vulnerability and skepticism. He desperately wants friends but is both unsure in social situations and well aware that being emperor complicates every relationship he might have with other people. Despite his lack of formal schooling in, well, basically anything he needs, he rapidly proves himself far more canny and difficult to manipulate than any of the court had expected. It is a genuine pleasure to see, in a heavily political fantasy, a character who is empathetic, well-meaning, willing to try, and determinedly hopeful have their efforts met with anything other than scorn. It was wonderful to see Maia be allowed to keep those traits, rather than, as I've seen in quite a few books, have them completely destroyed within the first half of the book, to be replaced only by bitterness. By page 20 I was messaging the friend who had recommended this book to me basically yelling "LET HIM HAVE FRIENDS. GIVE MAIA FRIENDS."

And here, I think, is where this book really stand out for me. It's kind of the opposite of a grimdark fantasy. It isn't that bad things don't happen (they do), or that there aren't unjust and cruel people in the world, (there are). It is that this book refuses to make these the fully accepted norm. While Maia doesn't start off with any allies at court, he does find them. Amid the difficulty and the overwhelming-ness of what is, to him, an alien situation, he still finds goodwill, and people willing to help. He is able to win people over, to build bridges with many of them, and to learn and accomplish things- even within a messy and complicated political system.

A system which I really liked seeing the ins and outs of. When I say this book is dense, this is what I'm referring to. We get insights into the day-to-day proceedings of the political system, right down to how land-claims disputes are mediated (the resource management student in me clapped delightedly. Like a seal). Most of the book is, rather than action or even the plot regarding finding out who sabotaged the airship carrying Maia's father and brothers, Maia learning to navigate the complicated system, to work within it, and when it is necessary to make a move that circumvents it. Is it a perfect system? No. But no political system in the history of the world has been perfect and I think this book does an admirable job of showing the strengths and weaknesses of it's political system. The proceedings of the court and so many of the discussions in this book also lend the world a sense of scale.

Overall this has wound up being not only one of my favourite books of the past few years, but definitely one of my favourite books ever. It's fiddly and political and intrigued by the minutia of the world and I really like Maia, he's the type of character that you don't often see in the genre.

I have some more ramble-y thoughts here that touch on a few slightly more spoiler-y things (especially if you want more on the political system), although nothing, I think, that would compromise the reading experience.

Top Ten Books by North American Indigenous Authors that I've Read/Am Reading/ Am Looking Forward to Reading

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.


So I'm doing something a little different this week. The theme is supposed to be for celebrating the Fourth of July (in the States) or Canada Day (here) or... do other countries even have a day where they celebrate themselves? Is that a weird North American thing?

But I wasn't super comfortable doing that this year, especially with the announcements that my provincial government has made in the past few days. (Regarding reducing the amount of effort that is being put into reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous peoples, who have been treated pretty terribly by settler Canadians for the past few... centuries.) So instead we're going to be talking about some books written by Indigenous authors. It's also gotten kind of long (even by my standards) so I apologise for that. This is a combo of fiction and non-fiction books.

1. A Promise is a Promise by Michael Avaarluk Kusugak, Vladyana Langer Krykorka, and Robert Munsch: This one's a children's book that I remember reading when I was really young... it draws on Inuit lore, specifically the Qallupulluit- a humanoid creature that lives beneath the ice of Hudson's Bay and pull children down under if they get to close. This one was quite enough to freak me out when I read it and follows a young Inuk girl named Allashua after she draws the attention of the creatures.

2. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse: Wow I probably should have organised these from... North to South or East to West or something instead of jumping around but. Too late now. Trail of Lightning takes the reader much further south, to what is now the area around Albuquerque and is set after the rising waters have made most of the planet unlivable, and supernatural beings once again walk among humans, causing trouble and assigning tasks and bothering gifted monster-hunter Maggie about her love life. (No that's not what it's about. Well. A little bit. Maggie continues in a long, proud tradition of heroes who wish the supernatural would just let them have some privacy, please. Mostly it's about hunting for monsters. And fighting monsters of both the real and memory varieties.) I've reviewed this one and you can see that here.

3. The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline: I've had this book on hold for quite a while and I'm still waiting on it... I was initially reluctant to read it because I have a couple of things about marrow-based horror. (Um. Not what you're expecting. I don't actually have a fear of having my bone marrow personally stolen or any real cringe factor about that. Just. Long story.) But I've heard really good reviews and it sounds like a really important read. Oh. Right! Summary: when most of the world loses the ability to dream and discovers that the cure to the madness dreamlessness brings on may lie in the marrow on North American Indigenous people (the only ones who still can), they find themselves the target of "recruiters" and on the run from those who would take their marrow- the cure- by force.

4. Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson: Another one I haven't read yet but would like to! I feel like I'm going to have to be in a very specific frame of mind to read this one, though, given that it tackles some heavy topics that I generally avoid in my reading. It sounds really good and everything it's just that I am a sensitive plant about certain things for um... reasons. Anyway. 

5. Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time edited by Hope Nicolson: An anthology focusing on LGBTQUIAA+ and two-spirited sci-fi short stories. I've got this on hold right now, I was SO EXCITED when I found out my library was getting a copy in, because I feel like it's been on my TBR for such a long time. 

6. Mapping the Interior by Stephan Graham Jones: I actually took this out of the library a while ago, drawn by the cover alone... and then proceeded to slip into a reading funk and have to return it before picking it up. That particular funk out of the way, I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it again because it's a horror novella about a boy trying to map the inside of a house that doesn't want to be mapped... a house that's maybe pretty haunted. 

7. Take Us To Your Chief and Other Stories by Drew Hayden Taylor: Honestly this one had me at the title because I am a fan of aliens but also it ESPECIALLY had me about drawing parallels between the concept of extra-planetary visitors and the experience that North America's Indigenous peoples had with the European arrival. 

8. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: This one appeals to the environmental science degree training that I'm never going to fully shake. I'm not that far in but I think the narrative voice is really appealing so far. One of the highlights for me of taking environmental science (with a lot of biology thrown in along with quite a bit of politics) was learning to constantly seek out new ways to think of any given environmental challenge (and solution) and to consider other perspectives (especially those of Indigenous people, who are too often ignored or discounted and who often know A LOT more about the system than anyone whose just showing up and attempting to manage it) and so far I think Robin Wall Kimmerer's perspective is going to be really valuable. I'm hoping I'll learn a lot! (I've already learned more about sweetgrass than I knew before so that's good.) (I'm saying that totally without sarcasm. I have some weird interests.)

9. The Right to Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Coultier: Another environmental science-appeal book for me. The ideas from this book got quite a bit of spotlight in a few of my courses (it was even mentioned by name several times), but I never did get around to reading the book itself.

10. 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act by Bob Joseph: Since there are definitely more than 21 things that I don't know about the Indian Act, this one seems like a good start. I'm familiar with little pieces of it but not the whole thing and that seems like something I should probably remedy, and I've heard that this is a good way to start familiarising myself with it.  

Review: Smoke and Iron

Title: Smoke and Iron

Author: Rachel Caine
Series: The Great Library
Volume: 4
Genre: Fantasy, Alternate History Speculative Fiction
Release Date: July 3, 2018
Goodreads   Chapters    Amazon

eGalley received through NetGalley

In a desperate move, Jess gambled the lives of those he cares about on his ability to lie- and to pass himself off as his twin. Now Jess is separated from his friends, facing (almost literally) the jaws of the lion as he attempts to work to take down the Archivist from inside the Library. His gamble has landed Wolfe in a Library prison, Morgan in the Iron Tower, the rest of his closet friends are on a ship, being transported to face judgement as traitors. Jess finds himself, and his mission, at risk of failure as he tries to maneuver himself and is friends into position and as the position of the Library itself grows more and more tenuous and the rebellion gathers steam.

Out of Ten: 8/10

Review at a Glance: A fantastic continuation of The Great Library series that builds tension and manages several different plot threads and points of view throughout.

Review: Okay, so here we are again! When last we left Jess, he'd just risked the lives of just about everyone on a gamble that was... his best possible option, of a host of bad options. It divides his core group into four separate streams that are barely able to communicate with each other (if at all). Morgan and Wolfe are both in their own prisons, and we get to see from both of their points of view, as well as Khalila's over the course of most of the book (as well as snippets of a few others). 

Something that I really like about this series is the sense of scale. The world is a BIG place, and everyone that the members of the core group meet holds a stake in what's happening. This rebellion is rapidly moving well beyond what Jess's band of friends and allies is able to control, or even be fully aware of. They're spread too thin, they've been kind of slap-and-dash throwing plans together as they face situation after situation in quick succession and haven't really had time to regroup and come up with a cohesive plan of vision as to what they're even going to be aiming for in terms of bringing down the power the Library holds, while also avoiding a power vacuum. Because they aren't trying to burn the Library to the ground and destroy everything about it, they're trying to save it from itself and the corruption that has taken root in it over the centuries. This is one of the bigger conflicts within the series, and a point where Khalila, with her combination of idealism and determined calm, really starts to flourish. As a long-term fan, I was pretty delighted. This plotline was something that also felt refreshingly nuanced as someone who has read A LOT of books where the approach to a damaged system is to just. Totally destroy it with no plan for managing the chaos that rises from the complete loss of order. (Granted: different situations require different approaches. I'm with our main characters on their approach to their situation: a burn-it-all-to-the-ground approach would have some VERY messy fallout and leave a power vacuum at risk of being filled by something even worse that what they're trying to rid themselves of.)

If you've seen any of my other reviews (they're linked below for anyone interested) you'll know that one of the sticking points for me with these books is my complete inability to become invested in Morgan as a character and... that remains true to a degree, even having seen from her point of view a lot more. I do like her more than I did in the previous books, though, so there's that at least. She's a bit more fleshed out here, once we've gotten an insight into her head. Her plotline was the one that felt the most like it was going around in circles and was the most interesting for me to read, especially with everything that was going on in Khalila and Jess's points of view. I feel like I keep... waiting... for something to click and that just doesn't happen. I think, compared to the other characters, she still feels kind of static, although I think seeing from her point of view definitely helped that.

Wolfe's point of view was not one I was expecting to get (him being an adult character and this series being YA), but it did offer some insight into exactly what a dangerous situation Jess had thrust them all into- Wolfe was out of communication and basically unaware of the plan. Much of his storyline is more builds tension as Wolfe tries to decide whether or not he can put his faith in a plan he knows nothing of, and I did like the insight into his head as he does his best to handle being back in a prison, much like the one that nearly broke him when he was younger. It also expands a bit more on his character, which is always nice.

Jess's point of view, along with Khalila's, carries most of the action as he frantically tries to gather information and organise people within the Library's home city of Alexandria. Over the course of this book we see how tenuous the plan that Jess has in place is and how he is in very nearly over his head- and the consequences that his miscalculations have. 

This series handles a vast cast of characters with clear character traits and ideals, and their relationships with one another. Even within the core group, those relationships are constantly shifting. Especially in this book, after Jess has broken the trust of several members of his group- most especially Santi, as Jess's plan got Wolfe captured again. The book takes time to build relationships in a way that I find I really like, and for me they pull the story along quite as much as the plot does. There's such a great diversity in character dynamics throughout the book and I really like that I find almost everything these characters do to be believable, but not always expected.

Overall, this was a great book that escalates the story and continues to increase the complexity of the politics surrounding the story. If this series is a five-act play, this books is definitely the rising action, building tension to a climax, and leaving our main characters facing still more, and possibly greater, challenges in the final book which I, for one, am eager to read. 

---

My reviews of the rest of the series so far:

               

Series I’ve Given Up On/Don’t Plan to Finish

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

1. Maximum Ride by James Patterson: Honestly 1/3 of this list could comprise series by James Patterson but I'm limiting myself to one. One of the first reviews I ever posted on this blog was actually of the last Maximum Ride book I ever read (back when I did more of a book-talk-y style and there were spoilers) (it is terrible). It was also weirdly popular though like I think it's the most views I've ever gotten on a review... which is kind of sad now that I think about it. ANYWAY. I actually got all the way to the second-to-last book before finally accepting that these books were leading nowhere I was interested in going and that I didn't actually get anything out of reading them. Looking back even the early books weren't great, but they definitely got worse once the series past it's logical endpoint (book 3, or at very most book 5).

2. Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa: this is kind of a weird one because I WILL occasionally go back and reread bits and pieces of the first 4 books in the series, I really like a lot of the concept that Kagawa was working with... I just have no interest in the new characters in the next arc(s?)

3. Wayward Children by Seanan McGuire: I've only read Every Heart a Doorway and I think it was... mostly just not what I was hoping it would be, in a lot of ways. I didn't love the writing style and, while I did like the idea, I wasn't crazy about this particular take on it. There were a couple personal buttons that it pushed that were more "me" things than things that were necessarily bad about the book itself too.

4. Razorland by Ann Aguirre: I read the first trilogy for this and I think I mostly just... found my enjoyment declining as the series continued on. Coupled with my disastrous attempt at reading Mortal Danger, when the second leg of the Razorland series was announced I'd lost interest in both the story and Ann Aguirre's writing style.

5. Monsters of Verity by Victoria Schwab: Probably the weirdest addition to this list. I really enjoyed This Savage Song but I spoiled myself on a couple big things in Our Dark Duet and then automatically went "if I don't read it then it didn't happen" because that's logical. Also I know this is a duology but... it fits in all other respects.

6. The 100 by Kass Morgan: I really enjoyed reading the first book but I just wasn't able to recapture that feeling when I tried to pick up the second... and I watched some of the show as well and now my wires are all crossed and I can't totally recall what happened in which and it's a whole mess.

7. The Diviners by Libba Bray: I want to love it I want to love it I want to... but I just don't.

8. The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan: Possibly a little bit entirely because I audiobooked the first two books and there doesn't seem to be an audiobook available for the third. Also as a side note I dislike the covers of these books SO MUCH that I didn't want to put it in the graphic but.

9. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: I have done my due diligence with this one. I read the first book and the second book and most of the third one (twice. I tried to get through A Court of Wings and Ruin twice) but I just... don't get the appeal, I guess. I think I'll just rely on friends whom this series does work for to give me a rundown of what Nesta is up to in all the consecutive books that's really what I need to know.

10. The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson: I didn't mind Steelheart but as the story continued my interested waned. I've not had much luck with my forays into Brandon Sanderson's work although, granted, I haven't read Mistborn yet, which I've been repeatedly told is his best so we shall see...

Books to Read By the Pool/At the Beach (Summer TBR)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

I... don't really have specific beach reads, by genre or anything, so this is more of just a TBR list.

1. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal: I recently went through Kowal's Shades of Milk and Honey series and really enjoyed how well she wrote in a historical context, and integrated magic into regency society. This one sounds even more up my alley- space travel! Historical ladies in STEM! Historical ladies in STEM doing SPACE THINGS.

2. Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine (The Great Library #4): I've been a fan of The Great Library series since reading the first book. I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of this for review and I've been waiting for closer to the release date to actually read it. 

3. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: I've owned this since it came out... and I still haven't read it. It isn't that I don't want to it's just that... I haven't. I am looking forward to picking it up, though!

4. The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang: I feel like this list has a lot more adult speculative fiction on this list than would be representative of my usual reading habits, but perhaps I'm branching out.

5. Binti by Nnedi Okoraror: This is another one that I've had for a while and am looking forward to picking up. I've been in a sci-fi mood lately and I've also heard really fantastic things about the audiobook of this one. 

6. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley: I don't know too much about this one but the cover is stunning and it comes highly recommended so I snagged it at the library.

7. The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson: I have had this novella for an embarrassingly long time and still haven't read it. 

8. City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty: I've got the audiobook on hold right now but I might see if the physical copy will take less time for me to get my hands on because it sounds great.

9. A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh and Elise Chapman: It's pretty and I've heard really good things about it.

10. Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin: if you say the words "Pride and Prejudice retelling/twist" I am there. 

Review: Trail of Lightning

Title: Trail of Lightning

Author: Rebecca Roanhorse
Series: The Sixth World
Volume: 1
Genre: Post-apocalyptic, fantasy
Release Date: June 26, 2018
Genre: Speculative Fiction, Fantasy
Goodreads

eGalley received through NetGalley

Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has experienced a rebirth since rapidly rising seas drowned much of the continent. Beings of legend now walk in this new world, and not all of them are content to leave the humans be. Maggie Hoskie is a supernaturally gifted monster hunter, starkly aware that, talented as she is, she has less at her disposal than her mentor, a legendary hero who abandoned her without offering a reason. When Maggie is enlisted to try to save a young girl from a monster, what she uncovers threatens more than just a few lives, and- accompanied by her jury-rigged old truck and an unconventional Medicine Man (in training)- Maggie sets out to stop it. 

Out of Ten: 8/10

Review at a Glance: A dominantly character-driven (and action-filled) journey through a post-climate-apocalypse world haunted by supernatural monsters and immortals.

Review: I do love a good climate apocalypse. This is a bit more of a supernatural climate apocalypse (or at least: this climate apocalypse blurs the lines between "humans messed with the natural world and feedback loops led to the climate apocalypse" and "humans messed with the natural world and the natural world messed back"). My mental map of the United States, especially the Southern states, is a little bit disgraceful (and even more disgraceful when it comes to my awareness of the extent of traditional Indigenous territories... most of the territory maps I've studied are more Northern). (Which is my long winded way of saying that I am familiar with neither the traditions and beliefs of the Diné, nor where in America Albuquerque is located. I had to do a bit of Googling.)

Maggie joins the ranks of so many main characters before her in that her life is just constantly being interrupted by supernatural beings who want something from her and like to meddle. Seriously the immortals in this book are... hmm... entitled and creepily involved in Maggie's personal life, like, back off. It's bad enough that you keep sending her off on random quests and things, please let her have her own personal life, maintain professional boundaries, or whatever. MYOB, Ancient Immortal Powers, M.Y.O.B. 

Maggie is kind of the withdrawn, jaded, hit-first-ask-questions-later hero type. Honestly she's one of the best examples of the trope I've seen in YA/NA- partly, I think, because so often in the fantasy literature I'm familiar with, this role is almost exclusively both a) given to male characters and b) played off as something totally appealing and cool and a good thing to be. Trail of Lighting gives us Maggie, a character fits this trope, but lets us see that she's a person who is struggling, she's scared a lot of the time, she's still trying to come to terms with her power, and that she's had her faith (in people, in her abilities, in the world) badly shaken (if not totally shattered) on multiple occasions. She's faced a lot of trauma that she's still struggling to process, and she's got her walls up. Basically I really appreciate how this particular trope is fleshed out and given new dimension in Maggie as a character. It isn't necessarily that the trope is deconstructed on Maggie, although I'd love to see it continue to work it's way there, but it's certainly more believable on her. I hope you realise that I'm restraining myself from writing an essay about her character. You came here for a review, not an essay. (Or possibly you came here for pizza and are confused and disappointed to find just words. I don't pretend to know your business). 

Kai was a more difficult character for me to fully wrap my head around, possibly because, unlike Maggie, I didn't spend the entire book seeing from his point of view. By the time I was about halfway though I did kind of feel like yelling "Maggie he's hiding something I don't know what it's something and I know you've got more than enough of your own crap going on but please ask him about it because I just know it's going to come back and bite us later" and I was. Not wrong. So that did add a bit of frustration to the reading experience. That aside his dynamic with Maggie was otherwise interesting because- with her taking the stoic warrior role who has Seen Some Things- he winds up in a role that makes him seem more open by comparison. He also provides knowledge and insight that we wouldn't otherwise have had (sometimes literally: he's better with seeing into the supernatural world that Maggie is during at least one confrontation), and his abilities remain a bit mysterious... His relationship with Maggie proceeded kind of in fits and starts just because of who they both were as people and also because of the situation they were in, and it didn't really feel unrealistic, which I appreciated.

With these two as the lead characters, it did kind of stand out when many of the supporting characters didn't feel nearly as developed or authentic. There were some that felt real despite having spent little time with, and others that just... somehow didn't. Some felt mostly just like... concepts of a character (the one character we know is on-page stated LGBT+ felt a bit trope-y, for example... not so much that there aren't people in the community with the traits he has but more that he hadn't been... fleshed out enough around them?) This might be because they're slated for further fleshing out in successive books, given that we're certainly not done with all of them. Neizghání was a strange case in that I struggled to find... justification for any of his actions beyond ~vague supernatural reasons~ and "being a genuinely terrible person who DOES NOT know our heroine as well as he thinks he does" felt kind of mystifying, partly because... there just isn't that much else to him? Like I get that people think of him as a hero because he's fought monsters but he's awful to Maggie. Like. Abusive awful? Never meet your heroes, I guess. The contrast between her memories of him and him when we meet him is staggering.

I feel like I'm beginning to ramble so I've just got to say: when Maggie stood on top of the truck in the book I was super excited because. COVER IMAGE! IN THE BOOK! (I get excited about weird things, possibly.)

The plot itself does kind of feel like a standard quest in a lot of ways: supernatural being shows up, assigns the hero a task, hero tries to accomplish said task while getting sidetracked. Combined with another sort of quest: hero discovers horrible thing, hero must investigate. The plot in a lot of ways felt like it took a back seat to the characters. It wasn't that I was uninterested in the plot, I was just more interested in Maggie's journey. The plot itself acted as a vessel for that, as well as to draw attention to the history of the Diné and the effects of colonialism- there was a line that I swear I highlighted but that isn't showing up in my eARC that essentially just says that, for the Diné the rising water wasn't the apocalypse-that had happened a long time before, which was an impactful and meaningful line- and. Okay. Also the plot was a vessel for some pretty cool monster-fighting scenes. The only thing about the plot that did bother me a little was it kind of felt like there was a cliffhanger at the end just for the sake of there being a cliffhanger? 

Overall this novel was an intriguing peak into Diné lore, a quest rich in action and meddling supernatural beings, and, above all, a character driven journey. I really enjoyed reading it and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes next. 

May 2018 Mini-Reviews (a.k.a.The Space Opera Edition)

Okay so (during Bout of Books) I read entirely space operas. Sometimes you've got to have a theme, I guess. Sometimes your TBR is just really betraying of your preferences. These are things that just happen occasionally. 

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
8/10

This is such a quiet story. It's the story of a series of stories, more or less, all of which concern the crew of the wormhole-creating ship Wayfarer. The main character is ostensibly Rosemary, but the story focuses on all members of the crew and their day-to-day trials. The reader, along with the characters, explores a galaxy full of alien species with vastly different biological and social arrangements.

In a lot of ways, this is exactly up my alley for a sci-fi or space opera. I like my sci-fis on the optimistic side, and this book features people traversing differences, sharing experiences, and doing their best to solve problems- even problems like being boarded by gun-toting hostiles- through diplomacy and negotiation. And I liked that component a lot, because I'm predictable all-get-out. This is a book that uses speculative fiction the way I like it used- to hold a mirror up to humanity and attempt to see it in different lights; as well as to poke some more complex topics with a stick and explore them. I'm also a big fan of found family as a trope and the crew of the Wayfarer definitely qualifies as that.

I have mixed feelings about the overreaching plot of this one. I remain uncertain as to whether or not a novel about distances being bridged ending with the acknowledgement that, sometimes, a distance can't be bridged is antithetical or not. In the end, I don't think it is- some distances can't be bridged- especially not if all parties aren't willing to try.

Anyway clearly I really liked this book and it made me be very philosophical which, again, is how I like my speculative fiction. (I like being a bit philosophical about things because I'm a dork. That's pretty much the entire reason.) I feel like this is less a book I want to review and more one I want to talk about at length on very specific, sometimes spoiler-y, points. So that might be a thing I do.

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
7/10

The indirect sequel to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, this novel maintains the quiet, contemplative theme, this time with more AIs! I like a good AI story. This one felt a little slower for me, although I actually tore through it a lot faster (due in part to it being the book was reading on the last day of the Bout of Books read-a-thon). I still quite enjoyed it though.

Both of these books were good and contained so many elements that I like, and I did like really like the reading experience. They just somehow didn't work the mysterious alchemy that transforms a book that I like and recognise that I like into a book that's is UTTERLY MY FAVOURITE. I think that's more me than the book, though, and it was overall quite good.

Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine
7/10

This was an interesting one because it's such an exercise in suspension of disbelief. It imagines outer space as something truly different from what we now know space to be. This is one girl's journey through space-as-would-be-imagined-by-a-contemporary-of-Jules-Verne, with heavy shades of Jane Austen. The space between planets is traversed by flying ships. This first book in a planned trilogy introduces the reader to Arabella Ashby, regency lady raised on a Martian homestead and removed to Earth in the face of her mother's fears that Arabella is growing up far too wild and unladylike for polite society. After her father's unexpected death, a homesick Arabella finds herself marooned on Earth, betrayed by a cousin who is after the family fortune- with Arabella's brother (still on Mars) the only barrier. So naturally Arabella dresses up as a boy, signs up as cabin boy on the quickest Mars-bound ship she can, and sets of to beat the treacherous cousin there.

I had a fun reading this one, it was a pretty novel concept for me. So I really enjoyed the visuals of the story (flying ships! That moved between planets! Regency aesthetics!), and I quite liked the character of Arabella. There were bits that felt really period-accurate (despite the space-travel). The gender politics, weird thing where any person from India an English person met outside India was secretly royalty (seriously this just seems to be a thing with a certain sort of novel written in the 19th-20th century), and the blithe approach the English took to colonising another planet that already HAD inhabitants- which we know they took to just showing up in other countries and acting like they owned the place in our less inter-planetary world (although they seem to have treated the martians slightly better on the whole than the English treated people Indigenous to the countries they colonized here on Earth... which is a sad statement given how the English treat the Martians in this book... I'm digressing. Colonial politics is not for a mini-review, Kelly). Anyway. It felt like it was something that could have been written at the time, albeit with some decidedly more modern quirks in writing style and characterisation. I'm hoping to get my hands on the sequel soon (the library where I work has it so... soon... hopefully). 

Review: Heart of Iron

Title: Heart of Iron
Author: Ashley Poston
Genre: Space Opera
Release Date: February 27, 2018
Goodreads

Ana was raised by outlaws, who found her as a child, adrift in space with a sentient android (or Metal), D09. D09 is an illegal android, still in possession of freewill, and, when he begins to malfunction, Ana will stop at nothing to help him. When the coordinates to the lost ship that is her last hope are snatched from under her nosed by Rob, a privileged Ironblood boy, she chases after him. After infiltrating an Ironblood party, everything goes wrong and they wind up fugitives on the run, both desperate to reach the coordinates for their own reasons. As they uncover secrets about the Metals, Ana's heritage, and a threat to the Empire itself; Ana finds herself torn between saving D09 and protecting a kingdom whose rulers want her dead. 

Out of Ten: 6/10

Review at a Glance: An entertaining if not entirely engaging space opera retelling of Anastasia.

Review: I never watched Anastasia as a child. I didn't watch really many children's movies as a child as a result of a long story involving Frosty the Snowman. I learned the history of the Romanovs and the Russian revolution well before seeing Anastasia, the widely acclaimed animated feature film. (I was a somewhat unusual child.) I only got around to seeing it a few years ago so I don't have the same sort of nostalgia attached to it that a lot of people probably went into this Space Opera Anastasia retelling with. So it is possible that I just wasn't the target audience.

This was my kick-off read for the Bout of Books read-a-thon and I... didn't hate it? The thing was that I wasn't really that impressed by it either. I realise that this is a space opera so there's a certain amount of leeway. It's more fantasy than science fiction. But the fact remains that it didn't really set up the parameters of the world. I guess it's just a magical thing that only royalty can hold the crown without it rusting? (With the exception of androids who, as one of the main characters points out, literally within the first 100 pages, which is one heck a legal loophole, and also seemed one heck of a Chekov's gun set-up, so I just kept expecting the android gambit throughout the book. Just. Kept waiting for it). The biggest difficulty for me was that the world wasn't really built up, on either a level of history or scale.

It was alright once I got used to it and let go of any expectations I'd gone in with. I didn't love the characters but they were at least consistent within their motivations. They overall just felt very simple? I think things that were supposed to come off as tragic didn't really because I just wasn't that engaged, and I felt like their relationships formed... strangely and for some of them quite fast as well. Rob just... wasn't a very interesting character and also for some reason his name bothered me (I think it was just the spelling), and Ana wasn't much better. It just didn't feel like there was much to them. I didn't dislike them but I didn't get... super attached either. I liked Ana's pirate moms though, they were cool and I hope we get to learn more about them.

 The story itself was pretty simple, the classic "girl is secretly PRINCESS," story, and, while there were other plot twists I didn't find them all that... surprising. I just kind of kept on going through the story going "ah yes that makes sense" I just didn't find myself having any really strong emotional response to the story.

All that said, I did still find the story interesting enough to finish and I'll probably pick up the second book when it comes out, I'm curious about what the author plans to do with some components of the story. Despite my not being super-invested in the characters, I still found following their story entertaining enough, for all it's cliches.