InCryptid Series Review

Lately I’ve been filling my book shelves with urban fantasy books and I especially like reading books in a series. The benefit to a series is that if I like the characters and the books, there are more. I don’t have to wait.

I hate waiting. :-)

I first read the “October Daye” series by Seanan McGuire and when I ran out of books, I discovered her “Incryptid” series.

The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Review

I’ve been reading the fast and fun series by Annie Bellet called The Twenty-Sided Sorceress series. I have read the first five books of this seven-book series. They are:

• Justice Calling
• Murder of Crows
• Pack of Lies
• Hunting Season
• Heartache

This is, as I said, a fast and fun series about a sorceress who is also a gamer. She plays Dungeons and Dragons, video games, and likes pop culture, especially nerdy pop culture. This means there are a lot of quips and quotes from a multitude of fantasy and scifi works. Fans, like myself, will enjoy the references and the apparent in jokes that she regularly works into the stories.

There are some books that I wish would never end. I wish I could live in their world and follow the adventures of the characters forever. Stealing Symbols & Souls is one of those books. I started reading this book and couldn’t put it down. In fact, the way I got myself to put it down was by reminding myself that if I read it too fast it would be over. And since this is the first (hopefully) in a series of books about Stephanie Blackraven and her friends, there’s nothing yet to follow it. (Hint, Hint, D.T.…)

When I first started reading this book I was pleased to see that it wasn’t just another cookie cutter high fantasy novel. The characters are interesting and the world is different enough from our world or other fantasy worlds to be engaging, but not so much that I was confused. It starts out like a coming of age story, with the main character, Maia, traveling with a hired killer called a kishion. She is either on the run or in hiding—it’s not clear which and has to make her way across some inhospitable lands to save herself and her kingdom.

Update: Book Discontinued Prior to February 25, 2017

I just discovered that this book is no longer available for sale on Amazon, and I cannot find it anywhere. But I have left the review intact in case Mr. Normoyle reconsiders.

Review of World War 97 Part 1

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and I was not disappointed. In fact, if there was any disappointment at all, it was that it’s a serial and I had to wait to read Part 2. The story starts out quickly with a character who is immediately engaging and interesting. It’s a fun surprise to learn that his brother is the president of the United States. So often books star the obvious people, and I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a sibling of someone famous. Not that this book really answers that question…

This story is hard to describe. It’s an alternate history story, but it’s set in modern day Seattle. It’s a modern crime investigation, but the deaths are being discovered in the 1800s. It’s science fiction, but it’s also a murder mystery.

I started reading this book and immediately got hooked. The main character, Gina Stone, is engaging and interesting. She presents a believable portrait of a beleaguered police officer who has decided to take a less stressful job in a small town. It’s just that her small town is New Essex and it’s across a portal in a world where the American revolution never happened.

A few years ago I got to read and review the book Gift of Change by D. T. Sanders (Buy on Amazon). So when the sequel came out, I was intrigued. From the very first page, Friends Change did not disappoint. It is just as fast-paced and fun as the first book, but with a lot more characterization.

Jason and Fallon Change A Lot

The change in the title of this story is not a misnomer. Jason and Fallon go through momentous changes in this book and come out at the end almost inhumanly different. Their lives are very scary and I would not want to live them, but reading about them sure is a lot of fun! The first section sees Jason and Fallon barely making it back to the space port with their ship practically in pieces. It’s a miracle that they were able to get there at all. Almost immediately they are captured in the guise of getting them healing. And Fallon and Jason have to get free of a sadistic group of sex peddlers who only keep them alive because they hope they can figure out the technology keeping Fallon and Jason alive.

[pods name=“book” slug=“2”] [/pods]Peacemaker is the fifteenth book in the Foreigner series. And the protagonists for this book are Bren Cameron and Cajeiri the heir. It starts almost immediately where Protector leaves off, with a bit extra at the beginning and end. I read this book as a Kindle ebook, so I realize that a lot of the issues I had were because of poor formatting in that version, but it still made it hard to finish completely. But let me start at the beginning. The first 12% of the book (according to my Kindle) was exposition explaining how the characters got to the point we were at in the book. I realize that after 14 novels in a series, this type of thing is needed for people who haven’t been reading it since book one, like I have. But let me tell you, exposition gets very boring after a while. I struggled with completing that first section, and considered skimming until there was some action several times. But I did wade through it. If you’re going to skip, I recommend moving to when the train they are on gets to the Bujavid. It’s pretty boring up until that point. The next portion of the book was the actual story. It jumped between Bren and Cajieri and was basically a build up to Cajieiri’s fortunate ninth birthday. There were three human children from the space station visiting Cajieiri and Jase-aiji was there from the station as well. Meanwhile Bren and his bodyguards are enlisted to clean up the assassins Guild. If you’re wondering why the description is so sparse, it’s because the book was pretty sparse. There was very little from Jago, and even Bren didn’t have much action. Banichi had been injured in Protector and he was still injured in this book, and so that was repeated many times. Even the hijinks of the kids were pretty tame, as they were all on good behavior. The worst thing to happen was Cajieiri forgetting his birthday speech, and so making one up on the spot. Bren was hit in the head in the Guild operation, but other than being light headed, he was okay too. The only other excitement was Cajieiri’s mother. But I won’t say what in case you want to read the book. At the end of the book is another 8% of exposition in the form of a report from Geiji-ji and commented on by Bren. This report is basically a summary of the events leading up to book one in the series and then covering the actions that happened during the series. I honestly don’t know everything it covered, as I got bored again and stopped reading. However, if you’re not already interested in Bren and Cajieiri, I would give this book a pass. I would have liked it more if there were either more action or less exposition, or best, both!

I am really enjoying Existence by David Brin but it is hard to read. Perhaps it’s because I’m reading it late at night, or perhaps it’s just me, but I find I’m only able to read about two pages a day. Which, since the book is 560 pages long, means I’ll probably be still reading it sometime in 2017. As someone who typically reads 2–3 books or more a week, this means that the book is a slog. But I’m loving it! Don’t get me wrong, this book is really interesting and fun, it’s just hard and slow to read. My biggest frustration right now is that there are so many POV characters that I get frustrated when the scene switches to someone else – until, that is, I get into their POV again and then I’m frustrated when we switch back to the first character. There are several engaging characters:

I love to read, I always have. But as I get older I find myself more and more willing to stop reading mid-stream. Ironically, eBooks have made this even more likely, as I stop reading something, thinking “I’ll come back to this…” all the while knowing that, well, I won’t. Devil’s Punch (2012) by Ann Aguirre Thus we come to today. I finished Devil’s Punch by Ann Aguirre. This was a good book. It’s the third I’ve read about Corine Solomon and I’m enjoying the ride. Corine is a woman who can sense the history, especially strong emotional history, of items when she touches them. In recent books she has undergone some changes to become more of a witch, but as is the course of many urban fantasies, she has to make choices that on the face of them are evil and so has been branded a black witch by most other practitioners. When her best friend is stolen by demons and taken to hell (Sheol), Corine puts her life and soul on the line to go save her. That is some friend! Of course, in the course of getting to hell and saving herself and her friends, she has to make more gray choices. There were bits in the middle that were confusing, especially as Corine is slowly being subsumed by a demon queen who has been a parasite on the Solomon line for hundreds of years. But right before the point where I would get so confused about who was in control of Corine’s body, it would be made clear again. The action was fast paced and fun, and the story didn’t stick to standard tropes in fantasy, so I was surprised at how she ended it. The story starts in Mexico, moves to Sheol, and ends up in London. And Corine saves her friend, but with a large cost to herself and her soul. After the break are two more reviews of a book I’m reading and another that I am starting to read. Warrior (2010) by Zoe Archer This was the book I interrupted to start reading Devil’s Punch. I got through 49% before my library copy expired, and I was almost relieved that that happened, as then I wouldn’t have to slog through it any more. The problem with this book was not that it was bad — it wasn’t. It is a mystery set in the early 1900s or late 1800s about a mystical group that is dedicated to protecting the world’s natural magical wonders from falling into the wrong hands. The problem was it felt like it was trying to be two types of book at the same time:

Sleepers by Megg Jensen One of the things I like best about my iPad is reading books on it. And with the proliferation of ebooks there are so many more available to read. I check a lot of books out of the library using Overdrive, but I also like to check out authors I’m not familiar with, especially if they offer inexpensive or free copies of their books. Sleepers was on my list of recommendations from Amazon, and it has the wonderful price of free — hard to beat that. So, I downloaded it, and read it. And honestly, I wish I could get that time back. I realized when I was around 81% through the book that the only reason I was continuing to read it was because I was so close to the end, I wanted to get it finished. Ironically, at that point I decided to go to Amazon.com and write a review of it there. I figured, with only 19-20% of the book left, how much could I be missing? Famous last words. When I wrote the review on Amazon, I disliked it because it was clichéd, boring, the world is fairly undeveloped, and things happen unbelievably quickly (e.g. the main character is in love with one person one day and someone completely different the next). In my Amazon review, I wrote “All I really know is that two countries warred, her country lost, and she was made hostage to the winning country with two child compatriots.” After that review went live, I finished reading the entire book, and realized that that statement is wrong! Oh, it’s correct for the first 80-85% of the book, but at the end the author pops some surprises, and one of the major ones in this story [spoiler alert] is that the “losing” side of the battle was really the winning side. They had used their magic to basically enslave the entire country to prepare it for their invasion. And one of the bits of that magic was to have them all believe that they were the winners in a war. If you are asking yourself, “why would they do that?” Believe me, you’re not alone. This twist seemed somewhat pointless. But there are many other twists that come along in the last 20% of the book, including:

Gridlinked by Neal Asher This book took me a few more pages than normal to get into. There are a lot of concepts in the book that are left up to the imagination of the reader. This includes things like the reason the main character is “Gridlinked” and who he is and what type of military he is. I felt like I’d missed the first book in the series. But because this is Asher’s first book, I’m not sure how that is. But I didn’t give up on the book, and eventually I got into it. Once I stopped worrying about the aspects of the story that I didn’t understand, it was a lot more fun. The main character, Ian Cormac, is a tough character - a lot like James Bond. Humans have given over most government to AIs and the AIs take better care of the universe than humans ever did. They control a network of “runcibles” that allow for instantaneous transport across the universe. When one of the runcibles explodes, taking out an entire planet, it appears to be sabotage and Ian Cormac is sent in to solve the problem and figure out who caused it. But he’s being chased by a wealthy psychopath who will do anything and kill anyone to get to Cormac. I wish this story were more like cyberpunk - but the main character has been linked for too long, so at the very beginning of the story he is removed from the network. So much for the title…. And the “Dragon” is a bit strange. I’m looking forward to more books by Asher. There are so few books of hard science fiction, and this one, while flawed, was good.

The Tombs of Atuan After reading A Wizard of Earthsea I, of course, picked up The Tombs of Atuan, the second book in the series. Just like the first book, this book did not disappoint me. It has all of the excellent writing and storytelling that I expect of Ursula K. Le Guin. One of the best aspects of this book is the point-of-view. It’s not told from Ged’s viewpoint. In fact, he doesn’t show up in the book until the middle. It’s the point-of-view of Tenar or Arha (The Eaten One) and her job as the Priestess for the Nameless Ones. As the reader, we’ve already been given hints that Ged is going to show up in the Tombs at some point because he is destined to do something with the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, at least we’re told that in A Wizard of Earthsea, but he’s not the focal point. What makes this especially intriguing for me is that in typical fantasy, his would be the obvious focal point. After all, he’s the hero, he’s the one who saves the world, he’s the person with the super powers, and, worst of all, he’s the man. Instead, Le Guin takes us into the mind of Tenar who is, in some senses on the side of the enemy. She’s been raised from age 5 to be the Priestess of the Nameless Ones, the ones who are holding half of the ring. And yet we care about her. In fact, it wasn’t all that clear to me that the Nameless Ones were as horrible as Ged portrays them to her. That is the weakness of the story. The dreaded evil Nameless Ones aren’t really as evil as the other priestesses that Tenar lives with. They were creepy and scary in a way that the lightless tunnels and the labyrinth were not. In fact, one of Tenar’s friends wants to run away from those priestesses. So when Ged shows up and talks her into foresaking her gods and leaving with him, I don’t completely buy it. But it’s okay. The book is very interesting and fun and a new take on the Ged Sparrowhawk character after he’s found his adulthood but before he’s come into all of his powers. If you read A Wizard of Earthsea you should read The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore just for completeness sake. And again, you won’t be disappointed. I liked Tombs, I just wish that the character rationalizations were a bit stronger.

A Wizard of Earthsea I last read this book when I was around 10 years old, and I know I enjoyed it then. But when A Legend of Earthsea came out on the SciFi Channel, I decided I needed to read it again. I wasn’t disappointed.

Ursula K. LeGuin is not a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame because she writes bad books, and A Wizard of Earthsea is just what you would expect from a Hall-of-Famer. In fact, I would say that anyone who wants to know the Fantasy genre should read this entire series, but especially A Wizard of Earthsea. Some things you should note:

Crucible by Nancy Kress When I first picked up this book and read the inside cover, I thought “I haven’t ever read the first book in this series, so I don’t want to read this one yet.” But something made me pick it up anyway, probably that it was by Nancy Kress who’s Beggars in Spain impressed me deeply in the 90s. It turns out that I had read the first book in the series (Crossfire), but the blurb was so different from my memory of the story that it confused me. Crucible was a disturbing story for me, especially in the aftermath of the United States 2004 Presidential election. It is the story of a planet of farmers. They came to their new world in a colony ship with four approximately equal groups: Chinese, Arabs, Quakers, and whites. I’m not going to describe their colonization, that’s the subject of a different book and review, but suffice it to say that they lived in veritable peace and harmony for a long time. There was some relative wealth and relative poverty, but in general the society was fair and egalitarian and it seemed to work. Then the spaceship, The Crucible, arrived from earth. It was carrying, ostensibly, a group of scientists and military who wanted to study the first non-human intelligence that had ever been found and that shared the planet with the colonists. But it turned out to contain a lot more than that. What was disturbing to me was the similarities I saw between the leader of that ship and the elected leaders of the United States. One in particular fell in love with the planet Greentrees, and so did all in his power to protect her. This amounted to declaring martial law, because there was a possibility that the aliens could come back to the planet and destroy all the humans. Of course, this hadn’t happened in decades, but he was able, by increments to convince the populace that what he was proposing was not only necessary, but right and desirable. And the population went along with him and, in general, loved him for it. I’m not going to spoil the end for you, but let me just say that the parallels between the U.S. right now and this book were scary to me. And I hope that the parallels stop short of how Kress ended her story. This is a very strong scifi story with lots of twists and turns. There are aliens and space battles, and even sentient plants. But in the end it is really a story with a commentary about life as we live it today. And as a hint, don’t read the inside cover blurb. While it is essentially accurate, it is very misleading about the true tone of this book.

Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson I don’t generally like books that don’t have clear cut endings. Bad guy is caught, white hats save the day, etc. Forty Signs of Rain isn’t like that. In a way, the white hats fail and the bad guy is mother nature taking back what she gave. It’s not really a story of hope. But then again, it could be. In this election year, I find myself thinking a lot about politics and how we govern ourselves. Clearly, Mr. Robinson had that in mind with this book. He very blatantly discusses the politics of Washington D.C. and the NSF and is not terribly impressed. And as we vote ourselves more bread and circuses, I have to say I don’t particularly blame him. But this isn’t a political novel, not really. It’s set just a few years in the future (“Phone, call Roy” is the most technological advance you see - and that’s around now) and global warming has taken a turn for the worse. The arctic ice pack has broken up and the gulf stream may have stalled causing, possibly, rapid climactic change. This was a fascinating look at the way that politics and science collide. And while it is a disaster novel, it also has suggestions for what we can do about it. I found the references to game theory and “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” interesting, but Frank, the character who brought them up spent 3/4ths of the story a flat, boring character who was only interested in analyzing life rather than living it. Luckily, Frank was not the only character. Charlie, the work-at-home dad who was the environmental adviser for a member of Congress, was by-far, my favorite character. His discussions with his toddler son Joe were humorous and he had very strong beliefs that he was happy to expound upon. His wife, Anna, works at the NSF and is just a little less flat than her co-worker Frank. Then there’s Leo back in California, who seemed to be introduced mostly as a foil to all the rain in Washington, D.C. But we don’t read SciFi for characterizations either. The science is interesting and inventive, the moral is not too heavy-handed, and the destruction is ultimately quite satisfying. This book is not Robinson’s best, but it’s a fun read with some interesting twists and turns throughout. If you find yourself feeling preached at, that’s probably a common feeling, but Robinson didn’t let the preaching get in the way of showcasing how science and government collide.