I'm hit or miss with Tor's short stories. I find that a lot of them don't have much substance, or don't bother developing the ideas they hint at.
ThisI'm hit or miss with Tor's short stories. I find that a lot of them don't have much substance, or don't bother developing the ideas they hint at.
This is kinda the case here as well. The story itself isn't so much about the mysterious voice on the radio that could be a Russian spy or a spaceman, or a time traveler. It's about two lonely kids who don't fit the mold that world and that ear is trying to shove them into, and as such, the story is beautifully raw and heartfelt. My problem though - it's not developed enough. It's a hint, a prologue that becomes a sudden and abrupt epilogue.
But it is, definitely, one of the better short stories I read on the Tor.com site so far, so 3.5 stars rounding up for heart.
Merged review:
I'm hit or miss with Tor's short stories. I find that a lot of them don't have much substance, or don't bother developing the ideas they hint at.
This is kinda the case here as well. The story itself isn't so much about the mysterious voice on the radio that could be a Russian spy or a spaceman, or a time traveler. It's about two lonely kids who don't fit the mold that world and that ear is trying to shove them into, and as such, the story is beautifully raw and heartfelt. My problem though - it's not developed enough. It's a hint, a prologue that becomes a sudden and abrupt epilogue.
But it is, definitely, one of the better short stories I read on the Tor.com site so far, so 3.5 stars rounding up for heart....more
What an absolutely wonderful story that brings back so many memories of spending hours in my local library, getting myI'm not crying, you're crying...
What an absolutely wonderful story that brings back so many memories of spending hours in my local library, getting my hands on a new book, the trepidation of opening the first page and escaping into a wonderful new world.
I remember how it feels when you are young, alone, and adrift in this world that seems so bleak and hopeless that any other world would be better than this. I remember yearning for escape and I still remember fondly all the books that gifted me that escape, even if, upon re-read, they turned out not so good after all.
And yes, good librarians are absolutely witches. I believe that.
Merged review:
I'm not crying, you're crying...
What an absolutely wonderful story that brings back so many memories of spending hours in my local library, getting my hands on a new book, the trepidation of opening the first page and escaping into a wonderful new world.
I remember how it feels when you are young, alone, and adrift in this world that seems so bleak and hopeless that any other world would be better than this. I remember yearning for escape and I still remember fondly all the books that gifted me that escape, even if, upon re-read, they turned out not so good after all.
And yes, good librarians are absolutely witches. I believe that....more
This was such a cute little story about little bots that are sometimes too smart for their own good. I loved all the inter-bot interactions. The authoThis was such a cute little story about little bots that are sometimes too smart for their own good. I loved all the inter-bot interactions. The author managed to give all of them some individuality. And in the end, an unorthodox approach saves the day!
Merged review:
This was such a cute little story about little bots that are sometimes too smart for their own good. I loved all the inter-bot interactions. The author managed to give all of them some individuality. And in the end, an unorthodox approach saves the day!...more
This review is only for the Bots of the Lost Ark by Suzanne Palmer.
This is the second story about Ship and its boats and it picks up 60 years after thThis review is only for the Bots of the Lost Ark by Suzanne Palmer.
This is the second story about Ship and its boats and it picks up 60 years after the first one. What happens when bots are assigned into clusters and ordered to assume the personalities of the human crews put in to stasis so that they can better perform their function? Chaos ensues. But never fear, because bot 9 and its improvisation module are here to help....more
I don't usually read a lot of cyberpunk. Mostly because the few books I tried, I couldn't get into the story. I did love the game Stars: 3.5 out of 5
I don't usually read a lot of cyberpunk. Mostly because the few books I tried, I couldn't get into the story. I did love the game Cyberpunk 2077, even though it had its own bugs and frustrating moments. So when I read the description of Dogs of DevTown, I decided to give it a try, and I'm happy I did. This is more of a novella then a novel, so it's short and very readable. I think I knocked it out in two evenings, even though I wasn't rushing myself.
I like the imagery the author created. The multicolored holograms reflecting off the skyscrapers of DevTown. The sea of humanity clogging the streets at any time of day or night, looking for their next vice. The rain, the stench... It is a tantalizing but also depressing image, since this DevTown, even though modern looking, seems soulless and unforgiving. I reminded me a little about the dystopian landscape of Blade Runner, and I love that movie (the original one.
I also liked our protagonist. Shan is prickly and can come across as rather rude and uncaring, and she tries very hard to live like she is an island, but I have known people like that. In her line of work, the only person you can trust is yourself. The only person you can afford to care about is yourself as well. She tracks and kills people for money after all. So if she wants to stay on this side of the grave herself, she can't ask too many questions. Just enough to find the person she is paid to kill and get the job done. She gets paid, then she forgets about it. Much safer to live that way... only nobody is really an island, no matter how much they try. And sooner or later something happens that will make even the most isolated person decide to dig deeper. The other characters in the book were sufficiently fleshed out to be interesting, even memorable for some of them. I found the main villain rather over the board though.
Also, there is a big logical hole with the villains motivation. I won't talk about it here because that would spoil the book, but that made the villain a lot less believable for me, and elicited a few eyerolls until I finished the story.
(view spoiler)[My biggest problem with this book, and the reason I only gave it 3.5 stars, is a huge plot hole that the author left in the story. I understand that he probably wrote himself in a corner and didn't know how to keep the story going if he patched that particular plot hole, but it was so big and obvious, a semi truck could have fallen into it. So the author goes to great lengths to tell us that Shan has no mech augments whatsoever. He also makes sure we know that she has never been on the Net, because she doesn't have mech augments or a port to jack into the system. So how can she catch a virus that transmits itself through the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals that connect different mechs to the Net? She doesn't have any, remember? Okay, maybe it's a virus that can jump the hardware to wetware barrier (insert eyeroll here). It's a cyberpunk book, so everything is possible. So I could have rolled with the fact that unaugmented Shan caught a computer virus. The problem though is that she is a closed system. She doesn't have mech. She isn't connected to the Net. No Wi-fi, no Bluetooth, remember? So how is the creator of the virus able to communicate with her? It's a virus that infects mech. She is full human. There is no logical way for it to happen. That's the point where I lost interest in the story. I can only suspend my disbelief so much. (hide spoiler)]
But if you are willing to ignore that particular problem and just roll with it, this book is a fun read. Plus, it's short, so it's a nice little pallet cleanser between longer books.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
I have a hard time formulating my feelings towards this story. On one hand, it was a quick and easy read. You can read this review and more on my blog
I have a hard time formulating my feelings towards this story. On one hand, it was a quick and easy read. The amount of research that went into the Japanese folklore and traditional housing was impressive, though I kept getting a lot of Fatal Frame vibes out of it. Which isn't bad in itself, because that game scared the crap out of me.
On the other hand, the story itself is rather meh, at least to me. It's a typical haunted house story where a group of friends decide to spend the night in a reputedly haunted house and bad things happen. Well, in this case, two of the friends want to get married in that particular haunted house, like starting your married life by drawing attention of a ghost is such a good idea.
So the premise has been done before. In fact, that's like the classic of all slasher/horror movies - a group of friends in a confined space, getting offed one by one in horrible ways... Thankfully, this is a ghost story, not a slasher story, so the bloodshed won't be as pronounced.
My problem with this story is that I hated all of the characters. They were horrible people both to themselves and to each other. Honestly, I had no clue how they could even call each other friends. It seemed like they all hated each other guts. Nothing in their behavior spoke of friendship. Of old resentments that have been left to fester? Yes. Of past infidelities that nobody speaks about but are still there, like a big elephant in the room? Certainly. Real friendship? Not a trace.
So it doesn't seem plausible, at least to me, that the protagonist would insist on staying in that house and would follow along with their crazy schemes. From the little background we get on her, I would have imagined that she would have high tailed out of there ASAP, just like their friend Lin suggests. That all "I'm staying because they are my friends" line isn't plausible when you consider the relationship dynamics described in the book. That's no friendship. That's co-dependent abuse.
And because all of the protagonists were such horrible people, I couldn't care less what happened to them, which also diminished the impact of the story for me. In fact, I'm rather disappointed that more of them didn't die in that house. If none of them had walked out of there come morning, I would have cheered, actually.
I am beginning to think that this author just isn't for me. She is great at creating interesting and frankly disturbing worlds and premises, but I simply can't connect with her characters. I had that problem with the Rupert Wong series, and I have that problem with this novella as well.
PS: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more
I thought the first book was excellent (and you can read my review if you are interested), because it introduced us to an unusual woStars: 5 out of 5.
I thought the first book was excellent (and you can read my review if you are interested), because it introduced us to an unusual world full of flawed but engaging characters who were faced with an impossible situation. It was literally life or death. The book was fast-paced and very readable. I'm happy to say that the second book lives up the expectations set up by the first. Rake and the Sentinels have stopped the progression of the Divide and saved the galaxy, but the fact remains that the Legion abandoned them at the edge of nowhere. Their reserves are dwindling, morale is low, and Cav is once again faced with an impossible task - invent a warp drive from scratch to move the giant derelict ship towards the only existing warp gate and into the galaxy proper. If he can't succeed, all the remaining Sentinels (that's four thousand people) starve to death. No pressure.
I thought the stakes were high in the first book. Well, they are even higher here. Especially for Rake and Cav. Because it doesn't matter that you managed to save as many Sentinels as you could from the collapsing Divide. If you can't get them back into the inhabited part of the universe and find a base of operations.
As I had mentioned in the first book, the author has a talent for creating very relatable characters. And I'm not just talking about the main protagonists, but also about most of the supporting characters. Some of them are only introduced for a couple pages, and I'm already in love with them. Like all the Corsairs and grumpy Gideon.
In this book, most of your characters will have to face the consequences of their past actions and inactions. Rake will call on a life debt she'd never planned to have. Cav will discover an earth shattering truth about his past. and Jackin... let's just say that we learn a lot more about who he was, and how he ended up with the Sentinels.
All of them will have to deal with the past and also find a new purpose and a way to move on. Because no matter how monumental a task escaping the Divide was, what awaits them is even bigger. Because the universe is about to get a lot smaller, and a lot of races will fight over the available real estate. Humanity has to present a united front or be wiped out. And right now, humanity is anything but united. Rake and Cav have their job cut out for them. But at least now they have a lot more allies and resources.
I can't wait to see where this story will go from here. I really hope a certain character is still alive, and that our heroes will mount a successful rescue in the next book.
PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
This one isn't the best in the Culture series, but it's the first installment. So it does an okay job introducing the world and the different philosopThis one isn't the best in the Culture series, but it's the first installment. So it does an okay job introducing the world and the different philosophies. The series itself gets much better with the consecutive books....more
Excellent modern take at the Romeo and Juliette myth, only if both Romeo and Juliette decided to join forces and kick ass.
Once again, I am happy to aExcellent modern take at the Romeo and Juliette myth, only if both Romeo and Juliette decided to join forces and kick ass.
Once again, I am happy to announce that you can't go wrong with an Ilona Andrews book. They all range from good to excellent, no matter what series you pick up. Though I have a particular soft spot for Kate Daniels and the Innkeeper series. I somehow missed all the other books in the Kinsmen series (an oversight that I will rectify as soon as I get a hold of the first two books), but I loved this entry into the series. Oh, and by the way, you don't need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one. I went in fresh and ignorant of the world of Rada and enjoyed it immensely. Each book is meant to be read as a standalone, from what I gathered.
Anyway, here is the set up. The Adlers and the Baenas are the only two secare families on Rada, and they had a blood feud going ever since the first colonization. The reasons for that feud have been lost to the sands of time, but the families still hate each other on sight and try to kill each other on occasion. So imagine the leaders of these two families, Ramona Adler and Mathias Baena, being put in such a situation that to save their families and their reputations, they have to become allies. Sparks fly and enemies dies.
What I like about Ilona Andrews books is that her characters are always alive, especially the protagonists, and most of the supporting characters as well. They are vivid, they jump out of the page at you, and they are believable. Both Ramona and Mathias are very strong individuals who had to become the heads of their respective families at a very young age. They aren't just figureheads. They are smart, business savvy and efficient. They are also deadly when it comes to wielding their secare weapons. And they had been married to their work basically, and rather unhappy in their personal lives, even if they didn't realize it until the proverbial shit hit the fan and their spouses eloped with each other.
I like that they respect each other even though they are sworn enemies. They recognize each other's strengths and combine them in order to get the results they want - get their families' research back and eliminate a treat. And the rest of their relationship sparks from that place of mutual respect. They are strong and independent and well adjusted individuals that don't need each other to be happy. They choose each other. Now that's how a real relationship should be.
This book is a breeze to read. It's fast, it's witty, and it flies by in a whirlwind of dance and secare blades. I wish it was a bit longer because I devoured it in a day.
My only complaint is that the main villain of the story (I am talking about the in-laws from hell), was a little bit caricaturesque. How could a successful politician, even non-Rada native, be so ignorant about kinsmen politics? That's not very believable. But that's a very small gripe towards what is otherwise and excellent book.
Thank you, mighty authors, you did it again!...more
I don't usually like grim dark as a genre, because most books are too grim and too dark for me (and yes,You can find this review and more on my blog.
I don't usually like grim dark as a genre, because most books are too grim and too dark for me (and yes, the pun is totally intended). What I mean is that most authors dish out gore and violence for the sake of it instead of integrating it into the plot. So after the gazillionth gruesome murder or ignoble rape, I as a reader become unsensitized to it. Plus, if horrible things (including death) can happen to any of the characters, you get less attached to them, so when bad things happen, you just shrug and move on.
That's why I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Yes, it's dark. Yes, it's violent. But both of those things are integral to the story and the worldbuilding, not just written for shock value. So while I was squeamish in some parts of the book, and didn't agree with a lot of the decisions the protagonist made, those were never out of character.
Now let's talk about the two aspects that make or break a book for me: the worldbuilding and the characters.
The worldbuilding here is wonderful! You can feel the weight of history in the description of the cities and villages the protagonist is traveling through. We know that thousands of years ago, there was a vast and powerful empire that was ruled by the Demon Emperor. The empire was prosperous, but that prosperity came at the price of countless sacrificed souls that were fed to the demons who built and operated the cities, maintained the roads and made sure the vast imperial machine functioned properly. We don't know what happened, but there was a horrible war that scarred the face of the earth and overthrew that demon empire, leaving empty cities that were still perfectly preserved and maintained by bound demons, but stepping into them meant death for simple mortals, because the wizards, who emerged victorious from this war, had eliminated all demonologists. Nobody was left to talk to demons.
It the world better or worse after the war? That would be for the reader to decide. Sure, no more innocent souls are sacrificed to the demons, but what's left of humanity now lives in the equivalent of our Dark Ages. Poverty, disease, huge disparity in living conditions between the wizards and nobles and the rest of the populace. And this society is stagnant. The wizards are happy to keep the status quo. There had been no progress, no innovation, no effort to improve the living conditions in a thousand years since the Demon Empire fell. So you bet you this place is violent and dark.
Now let's consider our protagonist. He is a blank slate at the beginning of the book. He literally emerges from the ground with no memories of who he was. But his willingness to kill and commit violence is there from the start. I would say that he doesn't even bat an eyelash at his first 2 murders. He has some questions about his third one, the young boy, but it's more in the vein of Was the old me really someone who could kill so easily, than in the vein of OMG what did I just do? I could have incapacitated and bound him. I didn't have to kill him. The more we learn about Khraen's past, the more we realize that he isn't much better than the Demon Emperor he used to be, no matter if he keeps telling himself that he will be a better person. He is just as selfish, prone to anger, and ready to commit the worst of atrocities then justify them afterwards. I had to murder that woman because my undead girlfriend needed body part. And since she was already dead anyway, why not collect her soul to feed to a demon later? That sort of things.
And the further in the story we go, the worst Khraen gets. No matter what justifications he invents in his mind for the horrible things he does, he is slowly become the same monster he sees in his shattered memories. Only the Demon Emperor committed his atrocities to serve his god and to preserve and empire, the new Khraen just wants revenge on all the wizards who, in his eyes, betrayed him and took what's his. Neither justification is valid, in my point of view.
Yet despite the violence and the increasingly unlikable protagonist, this book grabs you and keeps you hooked. I want to know what happened to the old Demon Emperor to make all of his allies turn against him. I want to know who shattered his obsidian heart. I want to know which necromancer has Henka's heart or if she lied about it. I want to know what happens next, so I will definitely be buying the next book in the series....more
I am not going to rate this book. I tried very hard to stick around, to power through, and to see how this story ends... but I realized thaDNF at 57%.
I am not going to rate this book. I tried very hard to stick around, to power through, and to see how this story ends... but I realized that reading this became a chore, not a pleasure, so I'm calling it quits.
To tell the truth, this story is boring. Nothing really happens. Yes, the protagonist recieves an object and starts having weird nightmares, but he doesn't actually DO anything about it until around 40% into the book. Apart from that, he just... drifts through the story. He reminiscents a lot. He has a lot of angsty moments that frankly, as a reader, I didn't understand or cared about.
That right there is my biggest problem with this story - I don't care about any of the characters. They aren't real enough to me, even after sticking around for half the book. I don't know about their motivations, I don't care about what they will discover in the end. The stakes simply aren't high enough. There is no clear and present danger. Their lives don't hang in balance waiting on this revelation... it's just 4 friends who received some weird gifts and decided to do a reunion and try to figure it out.
Add to that the fact that the story moves at a glacial pace, and you end up with a snooze fest.
PS: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review....more
This is one of my favorite Zelazny stories. It's imaginative, it's dark, but also intensely lyrical. Jack isn't a good protagonist. In fact, he is a bThis is one of my favorite Zelazny stories. It's imaginative, it's dark, but also intensely lyrical. Jack isn't a good protagonist. In fact, he is a bit of an antagonist, but he is still the perfect vessel through whic eyes we will discover this world. Because he is just as cold and cruel and ruthless as this world is......more
As far as zombie books go this was one of the better ones. I have seen way too many trope ridden monstrosities in this genre3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
As far as zombie books go this was one of the better ones. I have seen way too many trope ridden monstrosities in this genre, so a book with decent characters is a breath of fresh air. So all in all, I enjoyed it a lot. Plus, it takes place in Australia instead of the usual US setting, which added more originality to the setting. It's always interesting to see how authors from different parts of the world imagine their countries would handle such a disaster.
However, I didn't care for the main protagonist at all. He came across as extremely childish and unwilling to accept the new reality of the world. I understand that what's going on is horrific and that his whole world just changed drastically, but he never really takes charge of his story. He is more than content to let his brother make all the hard decisions and be in charge of their survival. Plus his last decision at the end of the book is the ultimate act of cowardice, even if he paints it like doing a favor to his brother. (view spoiler)[Really dude? Your brother just lost his father too. You are the only family he has left. Do you really think that he will be better off if you kill yourself as well? (hide spoiler)]
But weak protagonist aside, this was an entertaining read. I will check out the next book....more
This was a good collection of short stories. They all kept my attention and some gave me glimpses into very interesting worlds I wouldn't have minded This was a good collection of short stories. They all kept my attention and some gave me glimpses into very interesting worlds I wouldn't have minded exploring a little longer.
I also discovered new authors and put some of their novels into my TBR pile, so this anthology accomplished its purpose....more
I am honestly not sure where all the 5 star reviews are coming from. Did I try to read a different book than everyone else?
This thing needsDNF at 35%.
I am honestly not sure where all the 5 star reviews are coming from. Did I try to read a different book than everyone else?
This thing needs a good editor who would have cut out at least 1/3 of the filler and useless word vomit that bloats this book. Then maybe we would have had a decent story.
As it stands, this story is full of flashbacks that undercut current events and kill any attempt at action on the spot. And all the characters have to describe all of their feelings in minute details ALL the time... And plus also, for two couples who claim to love each other soooooo much, they sure can't communicate worth a darn. As a result, they all come across as self absorbed entitled as#$les. Not somebody you want to root for, or even follow through a book.
Finally, I am at 35% and the story is barely starting. Heck, I haven't even reached all the events described in the book blurb!
This is boring and frustrating, and I'm out.
PS: Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy. Sorry I didn't like it....more
This was a delightful little novella and a very nice introduction to the author, as far as first impressions go.
The story itself is quite an interestiThis was a delightful little novella and a very nice introduction to the author, as far as first impressions go.
The story itself is quite an interesting take on time travel that I haven't seen explored before, even though there is a certain logic to it. If someone was sent back in time to change the past, the present they come back to wouldn't be like the one they left. And if they are sent again to change it back because say another faction changed something in the past to suit their agenda... well, there is no guarantee that the change they make will bring back the same present they were born in. So what you have left with in the aftermath of a time war is a bunch of time agents trying to fulfill the agenda of governments that don't exist anymore, or have never existed, depending on the twists the time war took along the way. That just keep changing things and fighting each other through time because they have no present to come back to. In some cases, they never even existed in the new present, because their parents never met or they died when they were a child.
This is meaningless slaughter both of people and of the time continuum until one time agent realizes that time is already so irrevocably broken that fighting over it doesn't make sense anymore. His solution? Eliminate all the other time agents, then eliminate anyone who might ever invent a time travel machine. Anywhere. Anywhen. It's brutal, it's ruthless, and it's very in character with our protagonist.
He isn't a nice person. I would go as far as call him a psychopath, but anyone who'd fought in a time war for endless iterations of said time would have to be. He sits in the bottleneck between the broken remains of the time that was before and doesn't let anyone with time travel technology get past him into what will become after. And he is perfectly happy to enjoy his little paradise of now in solitude. Until a time traveler comes from that after and claims that he created their whole civilization...
It was a fun read, even though all the characters in it were equally awful. Like I already said, the protagonist is a killer with absolutely no remorse or scruples, and the people he is fighting against are coming from a society that is just as awful, so as a reader I couldn't really root for either of them. They both deserved to be erased out of time for different reasons. Heck, the only character I was rooting for was the dinosaur, but that's because how cool would it be to have a pet dinosaur?
But even thought the characters are awful, it's a fun romp through the broken shards of time watching them heap horrible things on each other. The ending was not what I had expected, but I admit that it has a certain poetic justice to it. It also leaves the door open for a sequel.
All in all, this was an enjoyable read that kept my attention for an afternoon and I wouldn't mind revisiting this if the author ever writes a sequel.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
You can read this review and more on my blog Stars: 3.5 out of 5
That was a very unusual book. I struggle to even put it in a category. Scifi? Fantasy?You can read this review and more on my blog Stars: 3.5 out of 5
That was a very unusual book. I struggle to even put it in a category. Scifi? Fantasy? Post Apocalypse? Grim dark? A little bit of both with a bunch of other stuff mixed in?
I admit that I struggled with rating this book because there are certain aspects of it that I absolutely loved, and others that I was less than thrilled about. I had to make a compromise and settle on 3.5 stars.
Let's talk about the thing I absolutely loved - the worldbuilding. This is a gritty and unforgiving world that wasn't created for the human race. In fact, we learn pretty early on that humans came to this world as refugees from their own dimension that was facing immediate destruction. So even though the air is mostly breathable, the water potable, and the soil can grow imported crops, most of the native plant and wildlife can kill you in dozens of imaginative albeit rather painful ways. Not to mention that what livestock and crops the refugees brought with them have slowly been dying out or mutating beyond recognition through the centuries since their arrival.
This is a harsh world and you get a distinct feeling that the human race isn't welcome there. If fact, it's on borrowed time. Even without failing crops and livestock dying out, less and less people are born each year. Cities that were full of people and hope for a new future when they just arrived in this world now stand abandoned. Roads and highways are crumbling because if lack of use, and great feats of architecture that had once made life easier (like aqueducts and sewerage channels) are now broken and forgotten...This general decay and desolation is very reminiscent of some of the darker works by Glen Cook, like the Black Company series, or the Dark Tower cycle by Stephen King. There is a sense of wrongness about the land, like the world had "moved on" and left the humans behind, to slowly die out. And of course, humans being humans, they find new and imaginative ways to abuse and kill each other. Did I mention this book is dark? Very, unforgivably dark.
This is where I will need to mention the part that I didn't like, and that's the characters. They are all absolutely depictable horrible excuses for human beings, especially those who fancy themselves gods instead. There isn't a single one of them that has anything that even resembles a moral compass, and the atrocities they commit seemingly in passing were so bad at times that I found myself rooting for the natives.
For me, it is rather hard to like a book when I just want to kill all of the protagonists to either put them out of their misery or to prevent them from committing any more atrocities. And in the case of the Boneman, who seems the least horrible of them all, his sin is the one of inaction. He sees the horrors his brother is committing. He saw all the horrors he committed in the past... yet he follows him nevertheless. Like fateful hound devoid of free will. Don't' know about you, but to me that's a character that's extremely annoying to read about.
I understand that the author's idea was to show that his characters deserve the fates they will be getting and that the horrible actions they committed are counterbalanced by the harshness of their environment... Kinda like they deserve the prison they ended up with because they are all so horrible.
I can appreciate that idea, but I don't like it. Maybe because my tolerance for pain and suffering and people behaving like absolute Neanderthals has significantly lowered during these 2 pandemic years. I want to have at least one protagonist I can root for. I am not interested in following a bunch of villains and settle for the less villainous of them surviving in the end.
But other readers might find this book right up their alley. So I would say give it a try, to discover an unusual world if nothing else.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
Stars: 2.5 out of 5 This book had so much promise! The premise was intriguing, and the book started strong with Vern on the run and not much explanatioStars: 2.5 out of 5 This book had so much promise! The premise was intriguing, and the book started strong with Vern on the run and not much explanation of what had happened but with a growing sense of urgency that even the reader could feel. The book was good for the first half at least, while we followed Vern as she learned to live in the woods and tried to raiser her children by herself. Unfortunately, by the second half of the book, the novelty of the story ran out, and I discovered a couple things that started gradually dampening my enjoyment of the book until they ruined it completely. I’m sad to say that I finished this as a hate read. I was so close to the end that I had to finish it just to say that I did. First of all, the story just keeps circling the drain for most of the book. Vern knows that the answers to what’s happening to her are back in Cainland, but she never actually does anything to find them. She knows that the woods are not safe anymore for her little family, but her answer is to go back to civilization nilly willy and follow a dream. No recon beforehand, no explanation or basic training for her children before she subjects them to such a traumatic change. It’s a wonder she even got to her destination at all. The way they were dressed and the way they acted, she should have been picked up by cops almost immediately. I think my biggest problem is Vern herself. I have never seen a more selfish and pig-headed protagonist in my life! It was okay in the beginning because she was young and on the run, overwhelmed by circumstances. Problem is, she never changes. She doesn’t grow up. She doesn’t evolve and mature. She stays the same bull-headed and selfish teenager throughout the book. She is stubborn, and prideful, and rebellious just for the sake of being rebellious, or that’s what it seems at times. She is the kind of person who would stick her arm in the fire and let it burn just because somebody told her not to do that. That’s just incredibly stupid. She abandons her babies for nights at end alone… in the woods… in a makeshift shelter open to elements. She hurts the only person who had information about Cainland and what was happening to her, instead of listening and trying to get information out of her first. She pouts and shouts, instead of admitting that she can’t read, even though learning to read would help her find the answers she wants. And the most infuriating part is, despite all those shortcomings and acts of tremendous idiocy, she always escapes scoot free. There are no dramatic consequences to her actions. She leaves two newborns in the woods all night? Sure, they are all nice and safe in the morning. No animals found them and hurt them. They didn’t get cold or hungry and started crying. In fact, how the heck did they survive for 8 years in the woods and never once got sick with anything? Vern literally walked them into a mall, dressed them in new clothes, grabbed essential… and just walked out? And the tags on the clothes didn’t’ set off the alarms? The security in the mall didn’t catch her? Right… The further we venture into the story and out of the woods, the more implausible this lack of consequences gets. To the point that I didn’t even care for any of this anymore. Whatever Vern did, she would get out of it looking better than ever, with an “upgrade” to her supernatural abilities. If the protagonist has a “Mary Sue shield” around her, what’s the point reading her story? The ending is even more underwhelming because it reads like the final boss level of a video game – Vern gets her maximum upgrades and goes to fight the bad guys who don’t stand a chance. Only it’s all kind of pointless at that point, pun intended. In conclusion, I wouldn’t recommend this. There are better and more impactful stories out there that don’t need deux ex machina elements to keep the protagonist from dying because of her own stupidity. PS: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more
This was a very interesting and "light" read. And by light I don't mean a dumbed down storyline, but the fact that this story was surprisingly devoid This was a very interesting and "light" read. And by light I don't mean a dumbed down storyline, but the fact that this story was surprisingly devoid of angst and dark themes that seem to permeate most of modern books. Oh we have a few murders here and a rather gruesome accident, but despite that the story is refreshingly devoid of extra angst.
I must admit that I am intrigued by the world the author introduced. It's slightly steampunky/Victorian maybe? And what glimpses we get of the worldbuilding only raise more questions. What are these dragon hives? Why are they only found on this mysterious continent? Speaking of that continent, how far North is it located that the sun barely rises for half a year? And if it's that far North, why isn't the weather colder than described? I understand that this is the first book in a new series, so I think the author did a good job giving us a glimpse into the world without huge infodumps, but dang, I want more answers! Which is one reason why I will most certainly pick up the next book in the series when it comes out.
I also really liked our protagonist. Unlike some typical female heroines in urban fantasy, she is refreshingly mature and no-nonsense. She has a brain and she doesn't hesitate to use it. She is educated and she has manners. If anything, she seems way more mature than her age, but I am not complaining.
I also liked that we don't really have a romantic line woven into the story per se. Yes, she likes her partner, and he seems to like her, but we are spared the teenage hormones and angst that are so common to these types of books. Again, really refreshing. These two people are good partners who trust and respect each other first and foremost. The romance feels an organic development of the relationship they had built before then. I certainly am looking forward to see how it will evolve in future books.
The author also did a great job setting up the stage for the next books. While the main mystery of this book is resolved in the end, and the reader has the satisfaction of discovering who sabotaged the dragon-bone engine and why, bigger mysteries are just hinted at. Honestly, I really want to know who would have wanted to kill our protagonist's father and why.
PS: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
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