review Archives - Page 34 of 63

Yzabel / July 4, 2015

Review: City

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Intelligent canines in a far-future city preserve the legends and lore of their absent human masters.

Thousands of years have passed since humankind abandoned the city—first for the countryside, then for the stars, and ultimately for oblivion—leaving their most loyal animal companions alone on Earth. Granted the power of speech centuries earlier by the revered Bruce Webster, the intelligent, pacifist dogs are the last keepers of human history, raising their pups with bedtime stories, passed down through generations, of the lost “websters” who gave them so much but will never return. With the aid of Jenkins, an ageless service robot, the dogs live in a world of harmony and peace. But they now face serious threats from their own and other dimensions, perhaps the most dangerous of all being the reawakened remnants of a warlike race called “Man.”

In the Golden Age of Asimov and Heinlein, Clifford D. Simak’s writing blazed as brightly as anyone’s in the science fiction firmament. Winner of the International Fantasy Award, City is a magnificent literary metropolis filled with an astonishing array of interlinked stories and structures—at once dystopian, transcendent, compassionate, and visionary.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A hard one to rate, for sure. 3.5 stars?

On the one hand, it’s one of the classics of “old science fiction” I’ve always wanted to read—I only recently linked its English title to the French one. And, like many stories written several decades ago, it retains a quaint charm. Science that was prominent in minds at the time (atomic power…). Themes of a better world, of Man evolving into better beings, renouncing the old ways of killing, even of living in cities. Openings towards strange, new dimensions, even though reaching for those would involve a complete change of perception. But also sadness: the end of a world, of several worlds, humanity devolving into solitary creatures, then nothing, leaving Earth into the “hands” or dogs and robots. A sort of paradise, untainted by the concepts haunting human beings… yet here, too, a solitary one, for while the dogs developed their own society, they, too, were haunted by the idea of Man, kept alive by Jenkins, the faithful robot who served the Webster family.

On the other hand, I have to admit that a lot of those were painfully outdated for a 21st-century person. I’d probably have appreciated these stories more if I had read them when I was much younger—in other words, especially when it came to all those “atomic” thingies, back when I still had recollections (although heavily filtered through my child’s eyes) of Chernobyl, and a vague fear of the Cold War. I would’ve missed other themes, for sure, but maybe some of the “scientific” ones wouldn’t have struck me as so wobbly. Granted, this was unavoidable; a lot of SF classics would suffer the same fate. It did bother me to an extent, and that was really too bad.

The biological side of science here didn’t make much sense either: mutants; people turning themselves into creatures adapted to life on Jupiter; ants developing a kind of clockwork/steam power; dogs being given words and voice while still forced to rely on robots for want of hands (why would surgery on vocal chords translate into heavy genetic changes in just a few generations?). And generally speaking, the Earth described in “City” was just too big, too empty, to justify the maintainenance of robots as a whole (no factories were mentioned, for instance), with the passage of thousands of years emphasising the “how did they manage to last for so long?” question.

And yet, I cannot deny these stories, as well as the way they are linked, a certain power. Not in the writing itself, not in the obsolete or weird science, but in how they conveyed strong feelings. The despair of one man, whose fears doomed humanity to lose an important philosophical theory that could’ve changed the world forever. The end of a city, abandoned by people who preferred to live in the country, an echo of the suburbian dream. Men left behind and choosing to dive into endless sleep in the last surviving city, forever enclosed within countermeasures long forgotten, for there was no point to staying awake anymore and kill their boredom with hobbies become meaningless. Robots performing tasks even after their owners had died and gone. Dogs keeping a promise, passed down from a long-dead ancestor, a promise the meaning of which had been somewhat lost. Man, both the god-creator and a legend in which dogs only half believed.

It *is* definitely strange, for the human characters were not particularly striking. I guess the book managed to tell what it had to tell through other means, among which the dogs and Jenkins?

So I could not wrap my mind around the nonsensical science… but the feelings were here, and kept coming back at me, along with reflections on what it means to be human, on what humans could d/evolve into. And although this wasn’t my favourite read of the year, it will stay with me for some time no matter what, and I would still recommend it.

Yzabel / July 2, 2015

Review: Black-Eyed Susans

Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

A girl’s memory lost in a field of wildflowers.
A killer still spreading seeds.

At seventeen, Tessa became famous for being the only surviving victim of a vicious serial killer. Her testimony put him on death row. Decades later, a mother herself, she receives a message from a monster who should be in prison. Now, as the execution date rapidly approaches, Tessa is forced to confront a chilling possibility: Did she help convict the wrong man?

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

4 stars. This is the first time I read anything by this author, and I admit that when I picked it among my ever-growing pile of ARCs to read, I didn’t even really remember what it was about. Which was probably for the best, as comparisons with other authors (such as often seen in blurbs) sometimes affect me in a negative way. You know, the “this is the next X”, or “X meets Y in this breathtaking novel.” So I was able, for once, to approach a story without remembering that. And it was good.

The novel deals with Tessa, the victim of a serial-killer, who survived and managed to send her would-be murderer to jail, where he’s waiting for the death penalty to be applied. Years later, now a mother with a bubbly, cheerful daughter of her own—a daughter who’s as carefree as the pre-killer Tessa—she is still haunted by those memories, or rather by the lack thereof: no matter what, she still can’t remember everything from her ordeal, and what she remembers of it may or may not be the truth. Moreover, Tessa’s starting to have second-thoughts: what if the man about to die was an innocent, and the real psychopath still out there?

“Black-Eyed Susans” deals with several interesting themes: psychologic and physical trauma (Tessa after the “event”), lies (what was told and untold when it came to the trial), forgiveness (the man on death row), fear (being potentially stalked by the actual killer, or even seeing him target the daughter)… There are very likeable characters, like Charlie, and others who sow constant doubts as to their loyalty and real intentions. There came a moment when it was difficult to tell what was only in Tessa’s mind, what was triggered by other people’s delusions, and what may have been actual happenings—although I still managed to narrow down my suspicions regarding to the killer to two, then one person relatively soon.

This book also has two things I really like: an unreliable narrator, and a narrative switching from present to past to present again. While the latter can be a deal-breaker for some readers, I personally like that technique. It made it tricky to determine where were the turning points, while at the same time giving hints. Some of those were just a tad bit heavy-handed, but… Overall I liked the story overall no matter what.

Yzabel / June 30, 2015

Review: The Red Mohawk

The Red Mohawk by Anonymous

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

Everything seems peaceful in the small town of B Movie Hell until a mysterious serial killer in a skull mask topped with a red mohawk shows up and starts butchering the locals. Government agents Jack Munson and Milena Fonseca are sent to track down and eliminate the masked psychopath. But as they soon discover, the residents of B Movie Hell don’t want their help. This is a town like no other, and the locals have many dark secrets….

Already a hit in France and Germany with film rights optioned by Tobey Maguire’s Material Pictures, The Red Mohawk is a fun, outrageous and bloody thriller full of cinematic references and homages to many cult movies.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

An entertaining novel, one that follows closely in the footsteps of a (bad) slasher movie, indeed—so I would advise to read it as a parody, and not take it too seriously, even though it deals with a serial killer and, well, plenty of dead people. It’s full of references to 70s and 80s movies and music, of tropes constantly played upon (the FBI agent with a bottle problem, the small town setting with its lot of people all knowing *something*, the serial killer escaped from an asylum…), and there’s no doubt that this could be easily turned into a movie as well, since its format is basically the same.

There’s lots of humour, lots of gore as well, and action of the cheesy type, that made me snicker on a regular basis. The characters are mostly stereotypes, obviously, but at least everybody gets their share of it: even though at first, I thought “my, the women are all underdogs here”, the guys don’t fare better, and end up the same way. The asylum part was definitely funny in a sort of gross way, as doubt was sown as to who was actually running it, and a certain FBI agent decided to show an inmate who was the boss. It’s… special, but it still made me laugh.

There *is* a plot, too, in spite of the apparent whatever-goes road the story takes at first. It’s not just random killing here and there. The Red Mohawk does have a plan and an objective, and let’s say there’s method to his madness.

An issue for me—which may have been an issue with my copy, but is perhaps still in the published book—was the half-done editing. I noticed too many mistakes and typos (affect instead of effect, grammar mistakes, repetitive expressions) that kept pulling me out of the story. While I enjoyed the latter, the writing style itself wasn’t that great. Also, the story seemed to peter out a little by the end, as if it was being rushed to its conclusion.

Nevertheless, in spite of the issues in style and editing, this novel provided me with a hefty dose of fun. 3.5 stars out of 5.

Yzabel / June 28, 2015

Review: Thirteen Days of Midnight

Thirteen Days of Midnight by Leo Hunt

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

When Luke Manchett’s estranged father dies suddenly, he leaves his son a dark inheritance. Luke has been left in charge of his father’s ghost collection: eight restless spirits. They want revenge for their long enslavement, and in the absence of the father, they’re more than happy to take his son. It isn’t fair, but you try and reason with the vengeful dead.

Halloween, the night when the ghosts reach the height of their power, is fast approaching. With the help of school witchlet Elza Moss, and his cowardly dog Ham, Luke has just thirteen days to uncover the closely guarded secrets of black magic, and send the unquiet spirits to their eternal rest. The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

3.5 stars. Entertaining and somewhat funny at times, while still conveying a sense of danger—alright, maybe not terribly frightening per se for me, as I don’t frighten easily when reading books, but I think it has the right potential nonetheless. Half the Host at least was creepy in more ways than one, from the Shepherd with his glasses to the Prisoner with his shears… and even the Innocent, for the questions he raised (who would leash a *baby* as their pet ghost, really?!). The Host wasn’t a bunch of good guys, apart from a couple, and even those remained on the fence and never said the whole truth, only intervening at a “right” moment that could’ve been just a tad bit sooner for good measure.

As I’m a sucker for necromancy in general, of course I couldn’t help but look for the questions it raised. And there were several. The baby I mentioned, for starters. Why Luke’s father turned to such a type of magic, and why he bound such a large Host, when nothing at first indicated he even needed one (this is explained later in the book). Whether Luke would accept this part of his inheritance and be lured towards a desire for power, or try to remain who he was and have a normal life. Choices to make, and forgiveness. This wasn’t just about getting rid of a bunch of ghosts, but also choosing to protect or to condemn other people.

I liked the dynamics between Luke and Elza—there’s a smidge of a budding romance in there, one that doesn’t detract from the plot, and develops slowly: good! Luke realised he couldn’t clutch forever to his little life as one of the “popular” crowd, in the face of something much biger and dangerous. Elza was resourceful, and overall a nice person, trying to help people who had been treating her like an outcast just because she didn’t want to fit their mould. Holiday, too, was a bit of an ambiguous person: picking her friends among the popular ones and discarding the others, but not to the extent of becoming a mean girl. She was barely more than a crush, yet at least she was a believable one. As for the lawyer, well… Even though you don’t get to see him much, he was perfectly cast in his role.

Oh, and Ham. Ham the deerhound. A very short part of the novel is actually from his point of view, and that was quite funny. It would’ve been annoying if it had been longer; kept to a few paragraphs, it wasn’t, and definitely made me smile.

Other characters were less defined, unfortunately: Mark, Kirk, even Luke’s mother, who remains ill/asleep for most of the novel. That last one was a bit of a letdown, as in turn, it was difficult to properly get to know her and to share Luke’s worries for her for any other reason than “she’s his mom”.

Sometimes Luke’s reactions made me cringe, as he seemed to switch from one to the other real quick. It didn’t happen that often, and it could be explained by panic and worry; only it made me wonder why he’d get such reactions. (For instance, when it’s been made clear that you’re haunted by ghosts and that those have put a certain person in a coma, dragging that person to a hospital won’t be very useful, especially not considering all the people who die in a hospital.) A couple of times, too, I picked some absolutely obvious clues that totally eluded the characters (re: the familiar); on the other hand, all things considered, maybe that’s a case of being too genre-savvy on my part, so I can’t very well hold it against characters who were either totally new to the supernatural, or barely fledglings (Elza admitted herself she was self-taught).

There was a slight lull in the middle while the characters were powerless and trying to figure out what to do—not that Luke’s father had been very helpful to begin with. They came up with an interesting idea in the end, so I forgave them.

The writing was OK, nothing exceptional, nothing blatantly annoying either. It should flow nicely enough for the intended audience. (Also, my Kindle copy was a bit oddly formatted; however, this is an ARC, so likely to change.)

Conclusion: 3.5 stars rounded to 4, because in spite of the points I mentioned, I pretty much enjoyed it. The story is also self-contained, yet open-ended enough to leave room for a sequel (someone’s bound to come back and collect their dues here, not to mention what may or may not happen between Luke and Elza, and how their fellow pupils would react to it).

Yzabel / June 27, 2015

Review: The Truth According To Us

The Truth According to Us: A Novel by Annie Barrows

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Evoking the same small town charm with the same great eye for character, the co-author of GUERNSEY LITERARY & POTATO PEEL SOCIETY finds her own voice in this debut novel about a young debutante working for the Federal Writer’s Project whose arrival in Macedonia, West Virginia changes the course of history for a prominent family who has been sitting on a secret for decades. The Romeyn family is a fixture in the town, their identity tied to its knotty history. Layla enters their lives and lights a match to the family veneer and a truth comes to light that will change each of their lives forever.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

This was a strange read, one that I both liked, but less than I had hoped and expected. To be honest, I found the book a wee bit too long. Somehow, it felt like it could’ve been tightened, and although the last chapters, after the “reveal”, were needed, they still seemed to drag a little.

The style here mixes present tense first person narrative, past tense third person narrative, and excerpts from letters. I liked the tone of those, especially Layla’s, as they were witty, and at the same time revealed her lack of experience in other circumstances than those she had grown up in. I’m not sure what to make of the past/present/POV choice—as usual. I’ve seen this technique used more and more in the past few years, and I can never tell if it’s a good idea or if it irks me. Both, I suppose. Here, I was more bothered when the third person narrative jumped from one character to another within the span of a couple of paragraphs.

Macedonia had the charms of a little town in summer, with its quirky people, its own unspoken rules, its skeletons in the closet, whether in the past (the soldiers who spend the night in the house of a lady… of the evening, or the general who was actually crazy enough to shoot his own son) or in the present (what happened to Vause, Felix’s actual occupation). I found myself wanting to discover more about its history as seen through the eyes of its inhabitants.

Layla didn’t strike me as particularly interesting, yet turned out better than I thought, at least, proving to others (and to herself) that she could be more than a future trophy wife, and that she wasn’t so stupid—only sheltered. While she didn’t approach her task as a historian in the most objective manner, which is impossible anyway as history is never objective, she still did it with the intent of writing about Macedonia’s past in an interesting way. What I didn’t like was the emotional part of her involvement when it came to a specific character, as it was so painfully obvious that she was being played… and after that, unfortunately, she kind of fell flat.

Other characters I found annoying on a regular basis, and it seemed that mostly nobody knew what they really wanted. Not unexpected (*I* don’t know what I want in life, after all!), but annoying after a while. I still don’t know if everybody was completely selfish reflections of how bleak human nature is, stupid, full of love, lying to themselves, hiding their inner pain, wanting only what others had… All of that, I guess? On the one hand, it was interesting, showing that the “idyllic little southern town” was all but. On the other hand, characters like Jottie constantly made me think “can’t you be happy with one choice in your life, for a change?” (Basically, she denied herself for 18 years, then when she finally chose for herself, it was “too easy”, thus worthless. I wouldn’t call 18 years “too easy”, but maybe that’s just me.)

I would have liked to see more events unfold from Willa’s point of view. She had both a ruthless and childish take on things, which fitted her 12-year-old self, balancing between carefree childhood and wanting the grown-ups to see her as an equal, someone they’d confide into. As they obviously wouldn’t, she tried to discover things by herself—and got more than her money’s worth in that regard. I didn’t really like how she reacted in the end, as it made her part of the narrative less involved.

Conclusion: Interesting background (Macedonia, the WPA, the strike), but not so interesting for me when it came to the characters, who were a little too predictable and also annoying. 2.5 stars.

Yzabel / June 20, 2015

Review: Crashing Heaven

Crashing Heaven by Al Robertson

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

A diamond-hard, visionary new SF thriller. Nailed-down cyberpunk ala William Gibson for the 21st century meets the vivid dark futures of Al Reynolds in this extraordinary debut novel.

With Earth abandoned, humanity resides on Station, an industrialised asteroid run by the sentient corporations of the Pantheon. Under their leadership a war has been raging against the Totality – ex-Pantheon AIs gone rogue.

With the war over, Jack Forster and his sidekick Hugo Fist, a virtual ventriloquist’s dummy tied to Jack’s mind and created to destroy the Totality, have returned home.

Labelled a traitor for surrendering to the Totality, all Jack wants is to clear his name but when he discovers two old friends have died under suspicious circumstances he also wants answers. Soon he and Fist are embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens not only their future but all of humanity’s. But with Fist’s software licence about to expire, taking Jack’s life with it, can they bring down the real traitors before their time runs out?

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

3.5/4 stars. This book is definitely of the bleak cyberpunk varity. People escaping their lives through augmented reality. Being able to bring the dead ones to life by using the memories they left imprinted into servers, which in turns makes them puppets, as the living can do a roll-back to specific moments of their former lives whenever they want. “Gods” that may or may not be AIs, revealing the inner despair of those who worship them, as they don’t seem to be anything else left to clutch to—and ironically contrasting (or not?) with the Totality, openly proclaimed AIs. The world the story’s set in is mainly a decadent solar system. Earth isn’t such a nice place anymore. Humans live on Station, and formerly on Mars and the moon, before the Soft War destroyed this, and the peace is fragile at best.

Jack Forster, the protagonist, an accountant unwillingly turned soldier, has spent years in prison after having surrendered to the Totality and being branded a traitor. When he’s finally set free, it’s only to face dire prospects: almost completely cut from the weave (augmented reality internet), thus unable to see the world as everybody else does; closely monitored by Internal Security as a parolee; haunted by the very case that prompted caused him to be sent to the front; and, last but not least, soon to be wiped off, personality-wise, by Hugo Fist, a combat-AI shaped as a puppet and installed within him.

Jack could just take it easy, live his last weeks quietly before his mind is obliterated by Fist’s, make peace with his loved ones (what’s left of them: his friends all turned their backs on him after his surrender). And yet, he keeps wanting to do something, to make things right, to reopen that old case and discover who had him and the other people involved disappear in various ways—even though this means being pitched against those who have so much more power than him. It’s somewhat useless, futile, but still heroic in its own way.

The writing was a bit rough on the edges at times, with bursts of short sentences that, even though they fit the pace, felt somewhat awkward. As we’re thrust into the world of Station, we have to piece things together, which wasn’t always easy (but to be honest, I prefer to have to do such “work” rather than be fed pages of info-dumping). There were some predictable turns of events, too, especially at the end. However, the action made them interesting, and mostly I managed to ignore what bothered me in terms of style, and to remain focused on the story.

I couldn’t help but see Hugo Fist as the puppet in that Buffy episode, “The Puppet Show”: creepy, aggressive, and foul-mouthed. He and his fellow combat-AIs were shaped as puppets in order to be more appealing to children, as their birth directly followed a terrorist attack on the moon, one that killed hundreds of kids… And this was just frightening and wrong, because Fist and the other puppets would likely have been terrifying for most children. There’s such a dicrepancy here, which is part of those twisted themes I enjoyed in the book: toys turned killing machines (the Totality’s minds *are* minds, not mere rotes unable to evolve or have ideas of their own), the lines getting blurred between what’s right and wrong, people lost in their worship to the point of ignoring their own dreams (Corazon) or clutching at the past (Lestak and Issie)…

I liked the relationship between Jack and Hugo, in any case. Fist kept nagging him about what he’d do once he’d inherit his body, urging him not to do anything dangerous in order not to damage it, and Jack managed to face this in quite a stoic way. It’s not even like Fist was threatening him: none of them had a say in it, in fact, as it was all a matter of lease and contract in a world ruled by corporate entities and automated such contracts.

The puppet also evolved throughout the story, as any properly-devised AI should, and was definitely more of the jerk with a heart of cold kind, rather than remaining a murderer of artificial minds (or worse). I couldn’t help but to smile at his gleeful antics, the “fun” he took in getting into the action after Jack decided to see things through, the way he went about manipulating data and breaking into servers, reflecting a change he wasn’t even aware of.

Conclusion: A bit rough in parts due to the style, and not always too easy to follow, but I thoroughly enjoyed the themes developed here, as well as the main characters.

Yzabel / June 17, 2015

Review: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Nine

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Nine by Jonathan Strahan

My rating: [rating=5]

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

4.5 stars. Usually, collections of short stories are hard for me to rate, as they always contain the good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak. This time, I can say this was a different experience. There’s no story in here I didn’t like at all: at worst, I was slightly indifferent, and only to a few of them. This anthology’s definitely worth the read (unless you don’t like horror stories being mixed with SF/F, which is a point of view I can understand).

My favourites:

* Moriabe’s Children: in which a parallel is drawn between deep-sea monsters and all-too-human monsters dwelling on the shore.

* Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler: Even though the world developed here isn’t particularly original, I found this story pretty entertaining and fun to read.

* Tough Times All Over: A romp in a city full of thieves, smugglers, mercenaries and various other shady types, all running after a mysterious parcel that keep eluding them and passing to yet the next person in the chain.

* Cold Wind: Predators and preys from long ago, in a modern city that has forgotten who they once were.

* Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8): Psychopaths on a road trip, and the way they perceive their journey and the people they meet. Not the easiest story to get into at first, due to its writing style, yet this style then contributed to keeping me me enthralled all the way.

* I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There: In which con-artists and magic collide, told from a somewhat jaded yet mischievous point of view.

* Grand Jeté (The Great Leap): A widower about to lose his daughter too decides to invest into forbidden technology to create what could amount to a golem. However, his own child isn’t dead yet… and accepting the one who’s going to “replace” her isn’t so easy.

* Shay Corsham Worsted: A retired secret services agent tries to prevent an old weapon from becoming a problem… but the secret’s been so well-kept that nobody seems to know what it was about anymore.

* Tawny Petticoats: Another story of con-artists in a fantasy world, where nothing goes as planned and everybody’s trying to outwit the other parties. Fairly enjoyable.

* The Fifth Dragon: A story of love, friendship, choices and loss, as the moon’s being colonised and gravity-related physical issues start getting in the way.

* Four Days of Christmas: Very short but to the point. The story of Santa toys, from their manufacturing to how they get rediscovered much later, their harshness-denouncing journey made creepier due to these being “jolly” toys.

* Covenant: A good twist on the theme of serial killers, repentance and irony of fate.

* Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology: A group of academics expand on the theme of “what if Cimmeria was real, and how it would have evolved in our contemporary world.” A story where imagination becomes real, giving birth to a whole nation completely escaping its creators.

* The Scrivener: This story meshes fairy tales with subverted themes of writing and literary criticism.

* Amicae Aeternum: A girl has to leave, and wishes to spend her last night with her best friend, saying goodbye to all the things she’ll never see or have again. Both very nostalgic and full of hope for the future.

In-between:

* The Long Haul from the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009: Marriage dynamics in an alternate world where the Hindenburg disaster never happened, and where airship became a norm in contemporary times.

* The Insects of Love: Mysterious and hinting at memory/time slippage. I would’ve liked it to be a little clearer on this latter part, though.

* Shadow Flock: A heist story, enjoyable but a little wanting in terms of a conclusion.

* Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying: Adopted teenagers girl gather and perform black magic in their quest for identity. The apparently ineffective spell gives them what they want… at first.

* Kheldyu: Action, stealthy infiltrators, interesting techological evolutions, and an “ecological” plot.

* Calligo Lane: Fascinating space-bending magic based on origami. However, the plot wasn’t really defined.

* The Truth About Owls: A tale about a young girl exiled from her country, having to adapt to a new life but also unable to fully embrace her own roots.

* Collateral: (Already read in Upgraded) In which an enhanced soldier has to face the consequences of her choices and training, and come to conclusions after sifting through what’s right and what’s wrong.

The ones I liked the least:

* The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family: Interesting, especially for the theme it wields, but it wasn’t rooted enough in sci-fi or fantastical elements for me. (Not a bad story.)

* The Devil in America: The mix of slavery and ancient magic could’ve been interesting, but it was so disjointed that it made it hard to follow.

* Someday: I kept thinking “why not” when it came to this society’s depiction of mating and having children, but in the end I couldn’t decide what was actually the point.

Conclusion: A recommended read. A few of the stories lacked a properly defined plot and punchline, but this is something that was much more pronounced in other anthologies than this one.

NB. When I write “punchline”, I don’t mean “the most original one in the world”… just an ending. Leaving things too open-ended in short stories always seems weird to me.

Yzabel / June 14, 2015

Review: The Mirror

The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

The night before her wedding, Shay Garrett has no idea that a glimpse into her grandmother’s antique Chinese mirror will completely transform her seemingly ordinary life. But after a bizarre blackout, she wakes up to find herself in the same house—in the year 1900. Even stranger, she realizes she is now living in the body of her grandmother, Brandy McCabe, as a young woman. Meanwhile, Brandy, having looked into the same mirror, awakens in Shay’s body in the present day to discover herself pregnant. Did Shay die and get reincarnated as young Brandy, who is about to get married herself? The answer is far more complex and bizarre than either woman can imagine.

Shay’s mother, Rachael, weaves back and forth between the two time periods in this riveting story of three headstrong women grappling with identity, love, and family drama. From courageous, compassionate Shay, who suddenly finds herself fighting against the confines of a society decades away from women’s liberation, to Brandy, struggling to adapt to a more modern world, Millhiser’s strong characters are up to the task presented by this imaginative yet humorous adventure.

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This reprint (manner of speaking) of a 1978 novel was definitely interesting to read, although I confess not having paid enough attention at first when it came to the original publishing date… and was confused in the beginning. But that’s not fault of the book’s, only mine.

The story weaves the lives of Shay and Brandy, the first being the latter’s granddaughter. A mysterious mirrors switches their minds in time, forcing Shay to live as Brandy in 1900, and Brandy as Shay in 1978. Of course, each of them has to face a world they don’t understand: Shay as a “proper” bride-to-be whose mind and manners are way too open for the people around her, and Brandy as a young woman in a society way too liberated, compared to what she used to know. As daily challenges pile one after the other, managing their families not being the least of them, both react and adapt differently.

I admit I was more interested in Shay’s role, narrated in parts 1 and 2. Brandy seemed more passive—in keeping with her education, probably, but it made her walk in Shay’s shadow almost all the time, so to speak. Compared to her granddaughter, she had more trouble adjusting. On the other hand, Shay had history to rely on, to help prove the people around her that she wasn’t just crazy and indeed knew of some future events. I wasn’t convinced the first time she admitted being another person in Brandy’s body, thinking “is she stupid? She’s going to get committed in no time!” However, it also made me wonder how would anyone react in such a situation. Trying to act the part can only take you so far, after all.

Other ideas are explored as well, especially the chicken-and-egg matter of not knowing if you have to simply reenact a past already “written” in order to end up existing, or if your very presence if this past is now threatening everything, and you don’t know what actions are going to make it work, or on the other hand destroy everything. Shay had to use the little knowledge she had of her family (her parents had her a little late in life, and she hadn’t known some of the characters she then encounters as Brandy) in order to piece everything together—and it wasn’t always easy, for instance when she realised the guy she had to marry wasn’t her grandfather, thus wondering what it’d lead to, and how/if history would right itself.

Another point raised here: Shay’s control over her family’s life. It made her appear as overbearing, always knowing what would happen, who the children would marry, etc., prompting them in turn to do things differently just to prove her wrong… yet history still righted itself at some point. It was hard to tell whether Shay was trying to control everything, or saying what she knew because, well, she knew it, and it escaped her lips from time to time. Keeping such a secret for so long sure must be hard.

It’s a bit too bad that Brandy’s part felt definitely weaker. From the way young Brandy was presented at first, in the accounts of the McCabes, she seemed more resourceful and rebellious (for a 1900 girl, that is); but the Brandy shown in the third part of the novel was too often silent, retreating into herself, and I couldn’t find here the person who was supposed to be curious. Although that was the culture shock speaking, I thought she could’ve made more of an effort, instead of waiting on Shay to solve the problem on her end. Her story was also more removed from that of her family’s, so while Shay’s part appeared as more involved, Brandy’s left less room to focus on the dynamics among the Garretts. Too bad, as the novel explores parents/children relationships as well as time travel.

Another thing I regretted not reading more about: the mirror itself. Part 3 of the novel introduces a theft, yet nothing was really resolved there. For the whole book, it’s presented as some kind of cursed artifact, and it would’ve been nice

I liked the depictions of daily life in 1900, as Shay tries to adapt. However, the writing itself was too often descriptive as well, telling more than showing what happened.

Overall, a good enough time travel story (that didn’t forget to play on the theme of paradox in its own way, a.k.a. the stroke and death), yet one that seemed to lose interest for itself towards the end (Brandy’s part). 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / June 11, 2015

Review: The Gates of Atlantis Complete Collection

The Gates of Atlantis Complete Collection by Wendy Knight

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Centuries ago the great city of Atlantis had to be hidden from humans. Now magically buried in the depths of the ocean, it is the source of all magic. All is well in the magical world…until the leaders of Atlantis listen to the whims of a mad man.

A group of teens set out on their own unique quests to fight for the world they love. They face dangers they didn’t know existed. As they battle their way through mysterious tunnels and secrets of the ancient world, they find themselves in a race against time. One by one, the mad man will shut down the Gates of Atlantis and destroy the magic. Can these unlikely heroes stop him before it’s too late?

Book 1, Banshee at the Gate by Wendy Knight: Half-human, half-banshee Seven loves her life with her awesome brother Haran and her dad while delivering souls safely to death…until Death comes calling for Haran.

Book 2, Guardians of the Gates: Mermaid Talia wants to be a Guardian. Exander wants to leave Atlantis and explore the upper world. An accident at one of the gates gives them both their chance, but they also make a startling discovery—someone is destroying the gates.

Book 3, Secrets of the Mine: Adam believes in myths and magic. Clancy doesn’t. Two normal kids’ lives change when they embark on the adventure of a lifetime on the back of a sea kelpie…if only they can get away from the strange creatures that are determined to stop them.

Book 4, Magicians of the Deep: A trip to Ireland changes Colin’s life when a bite from a mysterious fish awakens unlimited knowledge and dormant magical powers. He knows exactly how to save a magical world, but can he get there before it’s too late?

Book 5, Madness Behind the Throne: Phoibos, bullied and taunted by other kids, believes something is wrong with Atlantis. His charm with the nobility and skill as warrior as he grows make him believe nothing will stop his quest to purge Atlantis from everything he finds impure.

Book 6, Battle for Acropolis: Talon keeps getting in trouble. It’s not his fault things around him randomly burst into flame, but he’s not sticking around to find out what happens next. When foster sister Hattie encourages him to run, they make a break for it, only to find an unexpected destiny awaiting them in Atlantis. They just have to get there first. When they do, they find a lot of help. Characters from all the previous books appear to help fight Phoibos. These unlikely heroes risk it all to save the magic and fight for Atlantis.

Review:

(I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Banshee at the Gate:
2 to 2.5*

+ Interesting in terms of mythological content, especially as banshees aren’t so often featured.
+ Nice and heart-warming relationship between Seven and Haran, and fun dynamics between them and their allies.
+ No stupid love interest out of nowhere, for a change. This is meant to be adventure, and adventure we get.
– Confusing in how Atlantis was tackled in the beginning, presented as something obvious all the characters know about; I felt like there was a previous story I had missed. Perhaps I did.
– Villains too easy to get rid of in my opinion. Coming into banshee powers too easy as well.
– Plot sometimes a bit silly.

>> So far this reads definitely more like children/middle grade than truly young adult—I wouldn’t recommend it to readers above 12-13 (Seven, the protagonist, is 13, too).

Guardians of the Gate:
2*

+ Merfolk with a strong backstory of friendship and loyalty. Again, no useless romance.
+ Wily Leprechaun and good lessons about “careful what you wish for (and how you wish for it)”.
+ More info about the other ancient races (Giants, Dragons).
+ Ties into the first book.
– Plot dragged in parts and I found myself skimming at times.
– Adults shown as idiots who can’t/won’t do anything to help, which is too often the case in books, and isn’t believable.
– Lack of consequences (shouldn’t the villains try to act against the young heroes by now?).
– Some more ties with the first book would’ve been appreciated, especially at the end of this one.

>> Confirming this is definitely for kids, and not YA.

Secrets of the Mine:
2.5 to 3*

+ The kelpie. I liked reading about him.
+ Archaeology and finding forgotten civilisations.
+ Antagonistic characters that learn to cooperate.
– Slightly annoying characters (childish instant dislike).
– The writing wasn’t too exciting.

Magicians of the Deep:
1*

+ Learning more about Indiatlantis.
+ The way magical creatures are actually affected by the portals closing one after the other.
– Seems to be for an even younger target audience.
– Too much telling.
– More pronounced than in Book 2: how much Atlantis is like our (Anglo-Saxon) world: school, malls… Why couldn’t it be more different, as mysterious as it’s supposed to be?
– Repetitive crossovers with book 2.
– Callous characters (the Laytons seem like a nice enough family, at least the parents, but Colin just doesn’t seem to care? Also what he learns about his family later was dropped like a brick.
– This particular book jumped from one thing to the other (for instance, discussing an important matter, then suddenly, “anyway, let’s go to the mall”). It reminded me of how I’d sometimes play when I was younger, but in terms of plot and writing, it didn’t sit well at all with me. To be honest, I’m really not sure I would’ve liked reading this as a kid.

Madness behind the throne:
3.5*, possibly 4*

+ More mature characters, possibly because Callidora is an adult, but also because Phoibos even as a child kinds of grows up fast.
+ Political intrigue that is easy to understand for younger readers.
+ The stakes do seem more dangerous here than in the previous books
+ Though the “bad guy” has no excuses, we’re also shown what contributed to shape his vision/madness.
+ Atlantis shown as technologically advanced (computers in the age of Plato), while still being different—more magic, less malls and 20th-century-like American names.
+ Hints about who Phoibos really is
– …Though they make it fairly obvious to guess what his secret is (or not? We’ll see…)
– A few of the adult characters (the king, Lisandra) are somewhat childish.
– The relationship between Callidora and Titanos progressed so fast (although Calli does acknowledge that she doesn’t know herself why that was, and that it didn’t make sense).
– Atlantian years being 100 human years, reconciling both was a bit hard (considering what happened in the previous books, it feels like Phoibos took his sweet time to get to closing the doors, when it was described first as it happening within a mere few days).

>> So far, definitely the one I preferred in the series, because it deals with more political themes and shows more of the other side of the conflict, all this in a way that is easy to grasp by middle-grade readers without being dumbed down.

Battle for Acropolis:
3*

+ Everything comes together and without a repeat this time, since it’s the direct follow-up to previous books’ events.
+ Hattie was adorable.
+ Surprises that were predictable, but in a good way (you know they’re coming, yet you’re happy to see them coming, and happy when they’re finally here). The “finding the grandma” part definitely made me smile: expected, but cute.
– Some characters got discarded pretty quickly, and didn’t feel as regretted as they should’ve been.
– Villain decay at the end—not as epic an ending as I had expected.

>> Enjoyable throughout, although the finale felt somewhat flat.

Conclusion:

2.5/3 stars overall. It was OK for me as a light reading (2/2.5 stars), but I think a middle-grade audience would enjoy it more, hence my higher rating in the end—after all, I’m not really the targetted readership.

On the plus side, the relationships between the characters in general rang true. The creatures that appear in the novels are a good introduction to mythology in general, even if other series dive into this more deeply (Percy Jackson, for instance): Irish (banshees), mermaids, dragons, nymphs…

On the downside, Atlantis itself often felt too much like your average contemporary setting (high school, mall, etc.). Not saying I wanted to see only guys in togas living like in Grecian antiquity—and this setting makes it easy for kids to find their marks—but I expected something more different, not a copy of our modern world (I’m positive young readers wouldn’t mind, and wouldn’t have a hard time to embrace it either).

Yzabel / June 7, 2015

Review: The Witch Hunter

The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

My rating: [rating=1]

Blurb:

The magic and suspense of Graceling meet the political intrigue and unrest of Game of Thrones in this riveting fantasy debut.

Elizabeth Grey is one of the king’s best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. When she’s accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to die at the stake. Salvation comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will save her from execution if she can track down the person who laid a deadly curse on him.

As she’s thrust into the world of witches, ghosts, pirates, and all-too-handsome healers, Elizabeth is forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies, and of love and hate.

Review:

(I was given a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Somewhat OK, but too full of holes (in terms of world-building) and too flat when it came to the characters. I had a hard time reconciling the setting to a parallel Tudor England (minus the Tudors), as some elements were similar, but others were too confusing to make much sense—including language, too modern at times. For instance, no witch hunter seemed to ever question the origin of their stigmas, how they came to be, when it was actually a pretty obvious question to ask (especially in a world that wasn’t heavy on religion, so “it comes from God” wouldn’t have made a satisfying answer).

Elizabeth in general was of the too stupid to live variety. Supposedly strong, supposedly a well-trained prodigy witch hunter, but piling up mistake upon mistake, for a reason that felt a little too weak to be believable (the way she mentioned it, it didn’t seem like she was going through hell, more that it was an inconvenience to her). The reason why she was caught was stupid, a mix of bad decisions (getting drunk because her friend who may or may not be her love interest was seeing someone else) and other bad decisions (what on Earth was she doing with those herbs in her pocket.

The romance I’ll put in the “inserted here for marketing reasons” category. Bland, not useful—becoming friends would have been enough—, a vague triangle that wasn’t really one because it was fairly predictable, and

Also, probably a minor quibble on my part, but this just happened to irk me: “Then I get an idea.” I counted at least four occurrences of it, all as one sentence that was a paragraph of its own, and it just struck me as repetitive and annoying.

There were interesting ideas and themes in the novel, and hooks that could’ve been so much more, when it came to politics and hypocrisy—laws defied by the ones making them, plotting in the shadows… However, I wouldn’t put this on a Game of Thrones level as the blurb claims it is, and it was too muddled overall to make for a terrific plot. Some fantasy books take too long and are too slow-paced to carry their plots properly; here, it would’ve been a good thing, as it would’ve given more meat to the story, and more room for the world-building to unfold.

1.5 stars, close to “it’s OK”, only I realise that I’m already not caring about it anymore barely half an hour after having finished it. I admit I just got to the end so that I could write my review and switch to another book.