Fiction
Martha Wells, Exit Strategy: The Murderbot Diaries: A threat to Mensah, Murderbot’s quasi-rescuer/ally, brings Murderbot out of hiding to face GrayCris’s corporate evil somewhat more directly. As a setup for the promised novel, it works; it’s not clear that novellas can teach us anything more about Murderbot’s expressed misanthropy and observed humanitarianism.
KJ Charles, Band Sinister: Guy and his sister Manda live a quiet country life, hiding from their mother’s scandal (and Manda’s), until Manda breaks her leg on the estate of the brother of the man who ruined their mother. Though Guy tries not to be anything but scandalized by the notorious Philip, he soon finds himself falling very much in love as Manda recuperates. Bonus m/f romance in the background; I actually teared up with both declarations of love. Barriers here are basically external-the condemnation of others and the siblings’ constrained circumstances due to reliance on a rich relative and their general unsuitability for any actual occupation.
KJ Charles, An Unnatural Vice: Justin is a medium who makes his living from telling the gullible what they want to hear; Nathaniel is a journalist who first tries to expose Justin, then just wants to fuck him. This happens for the first time when they are still enemies (fully consensually), if that’s your thing. When Justin gets caught up in Nathaniel’s search for a missing heir, they have to work together for Justin’s safety and Nathaniel’s mission.
KJ Charles, An Unsuitable Heir: Last of the Sins of the Cities trilogy. Pen and Greta are trapeze artists, and as it turns out Pen is also the previously unknown heir to an earldom. But Pen doesn’t want that, because sometimes Pen wants to present as a woman and sometimes as a man, and earls can’t do that. Pen also wants Mark, the one-armed detective who found them. Family drama and danger ensues. After some uncertainty, they’re both very accepting of each other and all about consent and negotiation.
KJ Charles, The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal: Gay paranormal Victorian-era shenanigans, told in case format along the lines of Sherlock Holmes stories. The magic-user here has ghost communications appear on his skin, for what it turns out are pretty terrible reasons. Much more melancholic than some other Charles books, especially since it ends with the horrors of WWI.
KJ Charles, Sceptred Isle: New series set in the same world as her Simon Feximal stories. This is magic as it emerged from WWI-crippled by the loss of most of England’s magicians, who perished in an ill-conceived attempt to use magic to win the war and tore the Veil, allowing more dangerous things into our world. A disgraced vet/archeologist working for a crackpot keeps encountering an aristocratic master of the arcane, and is eventually sucked into his world (and sucked off, because it’s KJ Charles).
Charles Stross, The Labyrinth Index: Told from Mhari the vampire’s semi-omniscient POV (she consults seers), the story picks up with the British government in thrall to the Black Pharaoh. Mhari and other politically wobbly operatives are sent to the US to find the President, since almost the entire country has forgotten him due to a geas cast by the American occult spy agency, which would rather have Cthulhu in charge. And that’s just part of it. I can see why Stross might want to end the series-he has rather written himself into a corner, or rather into an insane geometry now that the stars have come right-but I’d read more.
Ilona Andrews,Magic Triumphs: The final Kate Daniels book, though there’s a setup for more in the same universe should the market demand. We start with baby Declan already a toddler, which makes some sense given the difficulties of fighting epic battles while still nursing. Kate’s father has been quiescent for a while when a new threat starts liquefying entire small towns outside the city limits. (And yes, I mean liquefying, not liquidating.) She’s forced into an alliance with him to deal with it, but how will she avoid his hunger for his grandson? The uncertainty is really who lives and dies, and I’m not sure there were enough of the latter for a post-GoT epic, but it wasn’t an embarrassing conclusion and Kate certainly earned a rest.
Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone: Years after the disappearance of magic and the associated slaughter of the magi, Zélie barely survives, her white hair signifying her despised status as magi-blooded. Though she’s trained as a fighter, she can do little about the guards who constantly demand more in taxes from her teacher and her father. When an attempt to sell some rare fish leads her to the capital city, she encounters a runaway princess who might have the secret to returning magic-but they’re fleeing from the prince, who will kill them if he can, despite the instant attraction he feels to Zélie. It’s a story about fear of the other, and fear of the other’s revenge; solid YA with an African magical system.
Stephen King, Elevation: Slight novella on the usual pattern: something inexplicable happens to an ordinary person, who discovers grace as a result. This is distinguished by not being horror: Scott is losing more and more weight, except his body isn’t changing. It’s just that the scale keeps showing lower numbers, and also whatever he picks up weighs nothing, so standing on the scale with a 15-pound weight produces no difference in the numbers. Oh, and he’s dealing with the hostile lesbian neighbors, whom he’d like to win over (because he’s a nice guy) before he gets to zero and they lose their restaurant to Castle Rock’s conservatism. It was definitely King, but not near his best.
M.R. Carey, Someone Like Me: Fran is the survivor of a brutal childhood attack still suffering anxiety and apparent hallucinations now that she’s a teenager; her one comfort is the imaginary fox friend who protects her (or tries). Liz is the more recent survivor of her ex-husband’s attempt to choke her, which ended when she fought back-except she doesn’t think it was her; it felt like someone else took over. Liz’s teenage son Zac links the two of them, but their connections run deeper than that. It’s a page-turner, but it really needed more Ameripicking. For example: Fran is supposed to be a Pittsburgh African-American teenager; she would not think “it’s all right for some.”
S.L. Huang, Zero Sum Game: Cas Russell is a mercenary who uses her genius gift for math to make sure she’s firing, hitting, and running in the right places. When she stumbles across a mysterious thing called “Pithica,” she might have bitten off more than she can chew. Lots of competence porn-Cas’s abilities are far more than human, and anyone who has ever read a book can guess that this is related to Pithica, but how and why provide the suspense-along with the action scenes. There are a number of places where the reader can see what’s coming before Cas can, and that makes sense given Cas’s non-neurotypicality (and the people exploiting it) but it’s still kind of annoying even if it has diegetic justification. Near the end, it leaned way too hard into the myth that people in cities immediately start looting and destroying stuff for fun when there’s a natural disaster. Interesting, but ultimately not my thing.
John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire: As the links between the planets of the Interdependency continue to collapse. Much palace intrigue ensues, mostly driven by strong, snarky women, so it’s my bag. (Also long-dead links reopen, leading the scientists investigating to find something other than what they expected, which is also quite interesting.) A very good second-entry-in-the-series offering.
Molly Ostertag, The Hidden Witch: A little young for me (which is ok! I took a chance!). This is a followup to The Witch Boy, in which Aster is finally training as a witch, and his friend Charlie meets the new girl in town. Though Charlie does her best to befriend the new girl, she’s wary and has a dangerous secret, which of course intersects with Aster’s witchcraft and his attempt to help his corrupted ancestor as part of his witch training. It’s charming and well-done and almost everyone is incredibly well-intentioned unless they’re acting from a place of deep hurt.
Chuck Caruso, The Meaning of Blood and Other Tales of Perversity: Tales of perversity is right, but not my kind. Lots of blood and vengeance, sometimes taken out on the wrong person (and sometimes not), in different settings from old West to modern community college.
Rachel Caine, Smoke and Iron: What promises to be the penultimate book in the story of the rebels against the Great Library. Separated for most of the book, key players try to survive captivity of various kinds and orchestrate a final strike against the corrupt leadership of the Library. Despite many reversals, they end the book having achieved many of their goals … only to find the rest of the world has its own opinions about what should happen to the Library. The story moved swiftly and I’m looking forward to the conclusion.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
KJ Charles, Band Sinister: Guy and his sister Manda live a quiet country life, hiding from their mother’s scandal (and Manda’s), until Manda breaks her leg on the estate of the brother of the man who ruined their mother. Though Guy tries not to be anything but scandalized by the notorious Philip, he soon finds himself falling very much in love as Manda recuperates. Bonus m/f romance in the background; I actually teared up with both declarations of love. Barriers here are basically external-the condemnation of others and the siblings’ constrained circumstances due to reliance on a rich relative and their general unsuitability for any actual occupation.
KJ Charles, An Unnatural Vice: Justin is a medium who makes his living from telling the gullible what they want to hear; Nathaniel is a journalist who first tries to expose Justin, then just wants to fuck him. This happens for the first time when they are still enemies (fully consensually), if that’s your thing. When Justin gets caught up in Nathaniel’s search for a missing heir, they have to work together for Justin’s safety and Nathaniel’s mission.
KJ Charles, An Unsuitable Heir: Last of the Sins of the Cities trilogy. Pen and Greta are trapeze artists, and as it turns out Pen is also the previously unknown heir to an earldom. But Pen doesn’t want that, because sometimes Pen wants to present as a woman and sometimes as a man, and earls can’t do that. Pen also wants Mark, the one-armed detective who found them. Family drama and danger ensues. After some uncertainty, they’re both very accepting of each other and all about consent and negotiation.
KJ Charles, The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal: Gay paranormal Victorian-era shenanigans, told in case format along the lines of Sherlock Holmes stories. The magic-user here has ghost communications appear on his skin, for what it turns out are pretty terrible reasons. Much more melancholic than some other Charles books, especially since it ends with the horrors of WWI.
KJ Charles, Sceptred Isle: New series set in the same world as her Simon Feximal stories. This is magic as it emerged from WWI-crippled by the loss of most of England’s magicians, who perished in an ill-conceived attempt to use magic to win the war and tore the Veil, allowing more dangerous things into our world. A disgraced vet/archeologist working for a crackpot keeps encountering an aristocratic master of the arcane, and is eventually sucked into his world (and sucked off, because it’s KJ Charles).
Charles Stross, The Labyrinth Index: Told from Mhari the vampire’s semi-omniscient POV (she consults seers), the story picks up with the British government in thrall to the Black Pharaoh. Mhari and other politically wobbly operatives are sent to the US to find the President, since almost the entire country has forgotten him due to a geas cast by the American occult spy agency, which would rather have Cthulhu in charge. And that’s just part of it. I can see why Stross might want to end the series-he has rather written himself into a corner, or rather into an insane geometry now that the stars have come right-but I’d read more.
Ilona Andrews,Magic Triumphs: The final Kate Daniels book, though there’s a setup for more in the same universe should the market demand. We start with baby Declan already a toddler, which makes some sense given the difficulties of fighting epic battles while still nursing. Kate’s father has been quiescent for a while when a new threat starts liquefying entire small towns outside the city limits. (And yes, I mean liquefying, not liquidating.) She’s forced into an alliance with him to deal with it, but how will she avoid his hunger for his grandson? The uncertainty is really who lives and dies, and I’m not sure there were enough of the latter for a post-GoT epic, but it wasn’t an embarrassing conclusion and Kate certainly earned a rest.
Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone: Years after the disappearance of magic and the associated slaughter of the magi, Zélie barely survives, her white hair signifying her despised status as magi-blooded. Though she’s trained as a fighter, she can do little about the guards who constantly demand more in taxes from her teacher and her father. When an attempt to sell some rare fish leads her to the capital city, she encounters a runaway princess who might have the secret to returning magic-but they’re fleeing from the prince, who will kill them if he can, despite the instant attraction he feels to Zélie. It’s a story about fear of the other, and fear of the other’s revenge; solid YA with an African magical system.
Stephen King, Elevation: Slight novella on the usual pattern: something inexplicable happens to an ordinary person, who discovers grace as a result. This is distinguished by not being horror: Scott is losing more and more weight, except his body isn’t changing. It’s just that the scale keeps showing lower numbers, and also whatever he picks up weighs nothing, so standing on the scale with a 15-pound weight produces no difference in the numbers. Oh, and he’s dealing with the hostile lesbian neighbors, whom he’d like to win over (because he’s a nice guy) before he gets to zero and they lose their restaurant to Castle Rock’s conservatism. It was definitely King, but not near his best.
M.R. Carey, Someone Like Me: Fran is the survivor of a brutal childhood attack still suffering anxiety and apparent hallucinations now that she’s a teenager; her one comfort is the imaginary fox friend who protects her (or tries). Liz is the more recent survivor of her ex-husband’s attempt to choke her, which ended when she fought back-except she doesn’t think it was her; it felt like someone else took over. Liz’s teenage son Zac links the two of them, but their connections run deeper than that. It’s a page-turner, but it really needed more Ameripicking. For example: Fran is supposed to be a Pittsburgh African-American teenager; she would not think “it’s all right for some.”
S.L. Huang, Zero Sum Game: Cas Russell is a mercenary who uses her genius gift for math to make sure she’s firing, hitting, and running in the right places. When she stumbles across a mysterious thing called “Pithica,” she might have bitten off more than she can chew. Lots of competence porn-Cas’s abilities are far more than human, and anyone who has ever read a book can guess that this is related to Pithica, but how and why provide the suspense-along with the action scenes. There are a number of places where the reader can see what’s coming before Cas can, and that makes sense given Cas’s non-neurotypicality (and the people exploiting it) but it’s still kind of annoying even if it has diegetic justification. Near the end, it leaned way too hard into the myth that people in cities immediately start looting and destroying stuff for fun when there’s a natural disaster. Interesting, but ultimately not my thing.
John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire: As the links between the planets of the Interdependency continue to collapse. Much palace intrigue ensues, mostly driven by strong, snarky women, so it’s my bag. (Also long-dead links reopen, leading the scientists investigating to find something other than what they expected, which is also quite interesting.) A very good second-entry-in-the-series offering.
Molly Ostertag, The Hidden Witch: A little young for me (which is ok! I took a chance!). This is a followup to The Witch Boy, in which Aster is finally training as a witch, and his friend Charlie meets the new girl in town. Though Charlie does her best to befriend the new girl, she’s wary and has a dangerous secret, which of course intersects with Aster’s witchcraft and his attempt to help his corrupted ancestor as part of his witch training. It’s charming and well-done and almost everyone is incredibly well-intentioned unless they’re acting from a place of deep hurt.
Chuck Caruso, The Meaning of Blood and Other Tales of Perversity: Tales of perversity is right, but not my kind. Lots of blood and vengeance, sometimes taken out on the wrong person (and sometimes not), in different settings from old West to modern community college.
Rachel Caine, Smoke and Iron: What promises to be the penultimate book in the story of the rebels against the Great Library. Separated for most of the book, key players try to survive captivity of various kinds and orchestrate a final strike against the corrupt leadership of the Library. Despite many reversals, they end the book having achieved many of their goals … only to find the rest of the world has its own opinions about what should happen to the Library. The story moved swiftly and I’m looking forward to the conclusion.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.