Catching Up on Book Reviews

By EricMesa

November 10, 2024 - 16 minutes read - 3246 words

It’s been a while since I posted a book review on here and rather than have a whole bunch of book review posts, I thought I’d collect the most recent ones into this post.

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to the audiobook, so, in all likelihood, I’m going to mispell everyone’s names

As I said with the first entry in this series, Yarros does a great job writing a compelling fantasy story. The romance is there, but it’s not what brings me into the story. We’ll get back to that momentarily. The best thing I could say about novel is that when I got to the end, I was upset that I have to wait until some time next year to continue the story. Yarros gives us a complete story (well, 2 of them - more on that as well) and does leave us with quite a compelling reason to come back, but even without the events of the last chapter, I would be there for the aftermath of the macro events of this book. If you need another reason to get into this book before I get to the details - there were multiple moments where Yarros had me reacting strongly to events in the book - like the precursor feeling to crying. Usually this involved Violet’s squad mates, but the penultimate chapter (not including Xaden’s epilogue) with the Sorengale family - I almost had to pull off the road for a moment.

Ok, let’s get the romance part of the story out of the way. First, the sex scenes - they’re…..fine? I don’t know. I’m not the target audience for the sex scenes. I don’t wish I was doing different stuff or with a “dangerous” person or other fantasizing stuff that people might enjoy from those scenes. They don’t seem awkwardly written. There is some repetition to the writing, but there’s really only so many ways to describe what’s going on. Ok, that’s done. Now the relationship part. I’ve of two minds here. First of all, given what Violet learns in the first book (almost everyone she loves has lied to her in some way or another) and Xaden’s continuation of his dishonesty (lying by omission), it makes sense that Violet spends most of the book a real mess when it comes to Xaden. It doesn’t help that her lust for him is really strong plus the whole dragon soul bond thing. But, on the other hand, it did get very tiresome for them to keep having the same fight over and over. Frankly I started having flashbacks to a high school relationship that was just as toxic - even if many of the details weren’t exactly the same.

I mentioned early on that this book is really 2 stories. I was thinking about this while swimming earlier this week (not much else I can do as I go back and forth staring at the line painted one to the bottom of the pool). I think Yarros’ timeline for The Empyrean just didn’t match up cleanly with being divided into a book. This one starts exactly where the last one ended. So, it’s technically still the final competition of the first year of school. Then, a few chapters in, we get into Violet’s second year. Here the drama comes from what was revealed about certain people last year plus the fact that she now knows what Xaden has been up to. Additionally, second years have to go through a simulated interrogation in order to advance to their third year. So we have a good setup for our plot. She has things in her mind that can’t come out, but they’re going to try and get her to spill what’s in her mind. But almost exactly halfway through the book, there’s a very satisfying end to that plot and a brand new plot begins (and so the book is officially split into parts 1 and 2). This second part is a continuation of the stakes raised in the first book (the Venon and their Wyvern) plus a realization of where Xaden comes from. Since his father was a traitor, Violet never realized who she was dealing with. Of course, we already established in the first book that her country does soviet era (or Egyptian Pharaoh era) editing of history to eliminate rivals from having existed.

Just like last time, the narrator was incredible. The emotion they put into the emotional scenes was chef’s kiss.

Other than the minor complaints I had above about some of the relationship issues, the only bad thing I can say is that I can’t continue the story right now.

Blood of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder, #3) by Brian McClellan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

McClellan does a great job ending this second series from the Powder Mage world. I don’t know if he has further stories to tell in this universe, but I’d certainly be willing to check them out. If not, he has given Taniel, Ka-Poel, Vlora, and Olem a great send-off.

It’s hard to speak of this story without spoilers since it’s the finale in a trilogy, but I think that McClellan does a good job presenting us with several issues to think about with how wars and spycraft rarely lead to neat consequences. This book also has governmental issues catch up with the war - something not often seen in these kinds of fantasy books.

If you got through the first two books, I think this is a fine ending, even if things do get a little trippy during the climax.

System Collapse by Martha Wells

System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s Murderbot being Murderbot. I love it. A direct follow-on from a previous entry (this series has released somewhat out of order and I don’t feel like spending time figuring out which was the previous book). At this point in the series you either enjoy Murderbot or you don’t. Unlike other entries, this one is not a good jumping on point. It really depends on having read the prior book.

Highly recommend and I will continue to buy each new Murderbot book.

Rosemary and Rue (October Daye, #1) by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am torn in how I feel about this book. I read it because I enjoy Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series and I also enjoyed Middlegame. Also, it seemed to be in a genre I like - PI, cop, or detective that works in our real world except there are fantasy creatures. I’ve read a bunch of books/series like this, most prominently Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. McGuire’s narrative kept me engaged with rapt attention. I never wanted to stop reading. I wanted to find out what was coming next.

Yet, my small disappointment comes from a feeling of bait and switch. The premise of a detective novel (fantasy or not) is that our protagonist solves the mystery by eventually putting all the clues together. Without spoiling how October Daye solves the mystery of this book, it did not involve sleuthing. That’s not to say that Daye doesn’t try to solve it, but the resolution was….not what I wanted.

I will at least read the next book in the series because this book felt a lot like it was setting up the environment and relationships we would carry into the next books in the series; viewing it as a prologue novel to see where things go. At least with Wayward Children, even though I like the first book, it was a giant leap in enjoyment and quality in book 2 now that we understood the basic rules underpinning the world.

A few little things:

Boy does McGuire know how to put protagonists through the wringer. That prologue….and the first chapter! WOW!
I’m glad that Dresden Files (and other authors here and there) contributed to my understanding of Fae culture because this one just jumps in with the Cait Sidhe and mentions of Maeve and Titania and so on.

Provenance by Ann Leckie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very fun story to read. It takes place after the events of the Imperial Radch trilogy, but has nothing to do with it. (This is what I WISH Disney would do with Star Wars. If Tattooine is such a backwater how does everything keep happening there?!?)

Instead we find ourselves on Hwae and end up with a political thriller/mystery. While we do interact with some of the cultures/aliens we saw or heard about in the first three books, this one is much more like our normal world. Or rather, I had to bend my brain a little less to read it.

Since it’s a mystery, I’ll leave the plot to itself, but wonder about the “vestiges”. I wonder if Ann Leckie was inspired by Victorian England (I think it’s Victorian, if not earlier) where people suddenly became obsessed with collecting baubles. It was like a super-charged version of what some of us do now when we buy a magnet or other trinket when traveling. We do have some versions of this in modern times, but by turning it up to 11 we get an interesting society with very different stakes for what’s worth dying over.

While you can read this as a standalone, you will get so much more out of it if you read the first three books. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Milk Street: The New Rules: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook by Christopher Kimball

My rating:3 of 5 stars

Milk Street continues their tradition of finding inspiration for meals around the world. Nearly every recipe was inspired from Asian, Middle Eastern, or South American cuisine. It’s a great way to open up your palate while also learning some tricks to cook in a less fussy manner. I’m very behind on all the recipes I’ve tagged from various cookbooks, so I haven’t tried any from this book yet. However, I’ve enjoyed many previous Milk Street recipes and don’t see why these would be any different.

Shogun, Volume 1 by James Clavell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ll caveat my review with the fact that I know next to nothing about 1600s Japan. I’ve read one or two books here and there about samurai and the Shogun era, but not enough to know whether this book is factual, full of orientalism, or both.

Disclaimer aside, I really liked this book. I can see why it’s had 2 different TV adaptations. It started off a bit slowly and the author tends to have a lot of repetition in the dialogue. For example, in early conversations between Blackthorne and his crew, if someone is complaining about something, they’ll repeat the same phrase each time they speak. However, the book eventually finds its stride and gets pretty good.

I saw the Hulu/Fx show before I read the book, so I know the basic plot (assuming they both have the same ending). On the one hand, I think the TV show does an EXCELLENT job trimming the fat on this book. A lot of those early scenes with the repeated dialog were unnecessary. A few other scenes go on a little too long on various digressions. I also really enjoyed the show turning Yabu into a comic relief character. It still mostly tracks with Book!Yabu, but it provides a little extra levity that helps mask some of the otherwise easy-to-spot plot twists. However, the show mostly focuses on Blackthorne, causing Torenaga’s story to be slightly sidelined. He still come across in the TV show as a Batman-level master planner, but some of the subtleties to his relationships with various characters were elided over a bit in the show.

Similar to the way I viewed Game of Thrones (final two seasons notwithstanding), I get a lot more out of being able to be in the characters’ inner monologues than I do from the show - even though the actors were quite incredible (and deserving of their Emmys this week).

As far as the audiobook is concerned, the narrator does a good job with multiple voices. Obviously, they can’t do magic and this book has a very large cast so there are SOME overlaps (meaning you can’t just rely on how the voice sounds to tell who is speaking), but it’s some of the best single-author performances I’ve heard for such a large cast.

Do I recommend this first half of the story? I think it depends on how fast-paced you need your fiction to be. This one has a very slow start. Even though Clavell wrote this about 10-15 years before A Song of Ice and Fire, the comparison is apt. This is a story of political intrigue combined with a stranger in a strange land. It might be too slow for you. Given that it was written in the 1970s if you happen to know a lot about 1600s Japan, you might find flaws in the behavior of character or other plot issues. I am really enjoying it, but I think I might recommend watching the TV show first and then reading the book if you want to go deeper.

A Local Habitation (October Daye, #2 by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this entry in the series more than the first one. Now that McGuire had set up the world, we were able to have a much more standard mystery. In the end, I was half-right in my guess of who the villain would turn out to be. In my estimation - that’s what makes a good mystery. If I can solve it too early, it wasn’t a good one. If it’s too obtuse to even come close, I also think it wasn’t a good one or perhaps the author cheated. This one managed to be just right.

I’m going to keep it short, because it’s hard to talk about mysteries without spoilers, but if you were on the fence after Rosemary and Rue, give this one a shot to see if it works better for you.

The Pizza Bible: The World’s Favorite Pizza Styles, from Neapolitan, Deep-Dish, Wood-Fired, Sicilian, Calzones and Focaccia to New York, New Haven, Detroit, and More by Tony Gemignani

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gemignani is very opinionated about his dough procedures, but, this might lead to better results. I’ve learned over time that longer fermentation times for doughs yields more flavorful pizza. I haven’t tried the recipes from this book yet, but I noted a few that piqued my curiousity.

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 115, December 2019 by John Joseph Adams and many authors

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Science Fiction

Today is today (Rick Wilbur) - perhaps one of the more guy wrencthing multiple universe stories I’ve read in a while.
Njuzu (T.L. Huchu) - I’ve read that one of the key differences between European sci-fi and non-euro SF is a greater willingness within non-euro SF to blend in gods and goddesses. That’s definitely on display in this story that is a study in grief.
Motherhood (Pat Murphy) - I don’t know when Pat Murphy wrote this short story, but the copyright is in 2019. I imagine it was a reaction to the administration at the time. Boy does this story hit even harder in 2024!! In addition to schaudenfreude, the story is indeed a reminder that circumstances can change, but laws do not automation change with them.
A Bad Day in Utopia (Matthew Baker) - I thought the story did a great job of setting up the world by showing, not telling. I caught that something was amiss right at the beginning with all the names. I thought maybe a novella in this world could be very interesting. I did feel that the last page was a bit too heavy-handed, but maybe sometimes that’s needed to drive a point home?

Fantasy

The Path of Pins, the Path of Needles (KT Bryski) - I did not 100% understand the title of this short story. But I do love this retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. It’s not a fractured fairy tale like Shrek. And it’s not a retelling of motives like Hoodwinked. It is its own thing that makes you think more about womanhood, especially in a village such as the ones in stories like Little Red Riding Hood.
End of the Sleeping Girls (Molly Gutman) - an allegory for many things - including immigration and environmental disaster.
The Silent Familiar (Cat Rambo) - a very touching story. I had no idea it would turn it to be so affecting.
The Mocking Tower (Daniel Abraham) - I did not 100% understand the final paragraph, but I thought the story was well-told and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Non-Fiction

EXCERPT: Sisters of the Vast Black (Tor.com): although it’s not wholly original, I always enjoy a religious science fiction story. Humans have always had religion, so why not in space? This one was intriguing enough for me to recommend it to someone and add to my unending to be read list.
Book reviews: Riot Baby, a Ken Liu anthology, and a SF anthology
Media reviews: 2 tone travel shows
Interview: Daniel José Older: mostly about his novel taking place in revolutionary Cuba and modern day New Jersey.

Seize the Stars by Mary Fan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have finally finished this trilogy. Think Ms Fan has given us a beautiful ending to this series full of the beauty of the performing arts. Due to the main character, Iris Lei, being an artist and growing up in a school meant to build the perfect artists to export across the universe, Ms Fan fills our protagonist’s internal monologue with purple prose that both serves the narrative, the genre (YA romance), and character’s personality.

Because books generally take a while to go through the publishing pipeline, it’s probably unlikely that this book was influenced by the social uprisings that took place in the USA in 2020. However, it’s impossible not to read the book in light of what the world went through 4 years ago. In that way, Ms. Fan was quite prescient in the way she depicts the abolition movement on Adrye (although as a student of history, it’s definitely been a pattern whenever people fight for their rights). There’s bickering within the people on the side of what’s right. There are people coopting the movement for their own goals. There is state violence which leads to unintended consequences and radicalization.

There’s a certain naiveté in the plot that I think comes from Ms. Fan keeping it YA (or maybe high middle grade). And yet, there is so much in here that is mature - the deaths and despair, the corrupt government officials, the coopting of the police, depression with implied suicidal tendencies. It’s a book walking a tightrope between innocence and realism. I think Ms. Fan succeeds in her task there. I procrastinated on getting to this book because I found the second book a little weak because I don’t think I’m the intended audience - a young YA reader who wants some romance. But this book ties it together so sell.

If you are invested in this series, I think this is a great ending for the series and definitely worth reading.

View all my reviews on Goodreads