Review: Costumes for Time Travelers, by A.R. Capetta

 

Anyone who has hiked through time knows the town of Pocket. It’s the place travelers first reach after they stumble away from their hometime, passing through on their way to any other when. To Calisto, Pocket is home. They love their grandmother’s shop, which is filled with clothes from every era that are used to make costumes for time travelers. Calisto has no intention of traveling—it’s too dangerous. For Fawkes, traveling is life. He put on time boots when he was young and has been stumbling through eras ever since. When he floats into Pocket, Calisto meets him for the first time, though Fawkes has seen Calisto—in glimpses of what hasn’t happened yet. He’s also seen the villains chasing them both. Now Calisto and Fawkes must rush—from Shakespeare’s London to ancient Crete to California on the eve of a millennium—to save Pocket, and travelers, from being erased. From the Lambda Literary Award–winning author of The Heartbreak Bakery comes a fairy-tale romance that weaves in and out of time, from kiss to kiss and costume to costume.

"Destiny is a temporal disorder."

A.R. Capetta's Costumes for Time Travelers is a delightfully cozy time travel adventure. It pays homage to a few staples of the genre while giving its own spin, with a fun focus on tailoring not only as an art but also as a kind of time travel. The nonbinary main character Calisto is a young and enthusiastic tailor apprentice who has never time traveled, and the contrast with time savant Fawkes makes for a fun dynamic.

Theirs is a love story out of order, sweet and gentle. In fact, given the premises I expected far more angst than what I got, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The book ambles gently, setting up a threat to reality, but it never feels like the stakes are too high. Perhaps the narration lacks some urgency in that regard.

The points of view are also all over the place, with an open third person narration that jumps too suddenly from one perspective to the next. It's a lovely book, but it may have benefitted from some rewriting.

Costumes for Time Travelers is a sweet summer read.

✨ 3.5 stars

 

📚🥾 So you want to read about out-of-order time-travelers?

Here's my review of Ian McDonald's Time Was  

 

Review: Time's Agent, by Brenda Peynado

Since humanity discovered the existence of pocket worlds, academics have embarked on exploratory missions as agents for the Institute for the Scientific and Humanistic Study of Portal Worlds to study this new technology and harness the potential of a seemingly limitless horizon. Archeologist Raquel and her biologist wife Marlena once dreamed the pocket worlds held the key to solving the universe’s mysteries.
Now, forty years in the future, Raquel is a disgraced ex-agent, pocket worlds are controlled by corporations squeezing every penny out of all colonizable space and time, and Marlena now lives in a pocket universe Raquel wears around her neck in which time passes faster than on Earth, and no longer speaks to her. Standing in the ruins of her dream and her calling, Raquel seizes one last chance to redeem herself, to her wife and her own failed ideals and confront what it means to save something―or someone―from time.

"Without time, everything is beautiful."

Brenda Peynado's Time's Agent is a sci-fi novella about time and grief, an alt-history take on the disappearence of the Taino people in what today is the Dominican Republic. Set in a world teeming with hidden entrances to pocket worlds, it deals with capitalism and colonialism and it's vibrant with fascinating concepts and a lush prose that really sells the imagery.

At its heart, it's a quiet story about how to deal with loss, especially the death of a child, and how it can tear a marriage apart. The main character, a sapphic woman in her thirties, has to deal with this loss alone for a portion of the book, as her wife needs time and space and solitude. The two plots end up mixing well into a delicate but heart-wrenching epilogue.

Time's Agent is a small gem.

✨ 4 stars

Review: Countess, by Suzan Palumbo

Virika Sameroo lives in colonized space under the Æerbot Empire, much like her ancestors before her in the British West Indies. After years of working hard to rise through the ranks of the empire’s merchant marine, she’s finally become first lieutenant on an interstellar cargo vessel.
When her captain dies under suspicious circumstances, Virika is arrested for murder and charged with treason despite her lifelong loyalty to the empire. Her conviction and subsequent imprisonment set her on a path to justice, determined to take down the evil empire that wronged her, all while the fate of her people hangs in the balance.

"Success or perish."

Suzan Palumbo's Countess is a Caribbean sci-fi retelling of The Count of Montecristo, an anti-colonial novella that takes the beloved character of Edmond Dantes and makes him a queer immigrant woman on a quest for revenge. Set in an inter-galactic Empire, the book follows the classic's plot pretty closely, giving it its own spin and exploring well the themes of homophobia, racism and colonialism.

The low page number doesn't do the story any favors, picking up speed and summarily summarising plot points that should have been given time to breathe. This is especially true in the second half, where the main character barrels through scene after scene after finding a crew of rebels. The heightened finale, though heart-breaking, doesn't fully work because we didn't have the time to truly appreciate the characters.

Countess is an ambitious experiment.

✨ 3.5 stars

Review: Sargassa, by Sophie Burnham

Selah Kleios is twenty-two years old and suddenly one of the most important women in the empires. The role of Imperial Historian is her birthright, something she’s been preparing for since birth—but she was supposed to have more time to learn the role from her father, the previous Historian. In the wake of her father’s sudden and shocking assassination, Selah finds herself custodian of more than just the Imperial Archives, the towering central library that safeguards all collective knowledge of the Roman Imperium and its client empires. There’s also the question of the two puzzling classified items her father left in her care—an ancient atlas filled with landscapes that don’t exist, and a carved piece of stone that seems to do nothing at all.
Soon, though, it becomes clear that the Iveroa Stone is more than just a slab of rock. With the reappearance of an old lost love who’s been blackmailed into stealing it for an unknown entity, Selah finds herself in a race to uncover the mysteries the Stone holds. But she isn’t the only one with an interest in it—she’ll have to contend with the deputy chief of police, an undercover spy, and her own beloved half brother along the way. What begins as an act of atonement and devotion ultimately pulls her into the crosshairs of deep state conspiracy, the stirrings of an underground independence movement, and questions that threaten to shake the foundational legitimacy of Roma Sargassa’s past, present, and future.

"She will always choose change."

Sophie Burnham's Sargassa is an incredible alt-history novel, set in a world where the Roman Empire never fell and injustice runs rampant. When Selah's father dies, she has to fill his shoes pretty quickly and take his place as Historian, a hereditary job that's meant to be like a custodian of ancient knowledge. But the world she has to move in, a world where indentured servitude was never stopped, forces her to come to terms with some very harsh truths.

This is a multi-POV epic that also follows her slave-adjacent half-brother, a nonbinary rebel, a righteous cop, and an idealistic thief. Their characters meet and play off of each other beautifully, even the racist misogynist of a cop who's tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time. The luring corruption of the city functions as a backdrop to this delightful mystery as a millennia-old lie unfurls into the light and battle-lines are drawn.

The setting is perfect, with fantastic pieces of worldbuilding, little things you can really trace to the actual Roman Empire. At the end of the book is a helpful compendium explaining how this colony came to be, and the revelations only enrich the experience. You get the sense, early on, that not everything is as it seems, and it's fun to follow the clues clearly left for the reader.

Between the themes of systemic violence and slavery, there wouldn't seem to be much time for love stories, but two delicate queer romances unfold organically, following the course of the novel to its incredible conclusion. In particular, the sapphic love story featuring Selah has the strongest foundation, and a strong development.

Sargassa is the fantastic first book of a series that promises to be explosive.

✨ 4.5 stars

ARC Review: The Crack at the Heart of Everything, by Fiona Fenn

Orpheus can't believe it's come to this. After helping his childhood friend conquer the realm by raising an army of hell-beasts, the befuddled dark sorcerer finds himself banished when the price of his magic endangers the palace. Isolated and betrayed, the feared spellcaster isn't exactly thrilled when his irritating and handsome rival keeps stepping between him and certain doom.
Ill at ease in the barren wasteland his powers created, Orpheus slowly warms to the charismatic ex-general's relentless overtures. But as his feelings grow more intense, the former villain struggles with an inconvenient calling towards heroism. Will dabbling in good deeds get him killed or open the doors to happily ever after?

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fiona Fenn's The Crack at the Heart of Everything is a sweet standalone fantasy with a twist that recontestualizes everything we thought we knew about the story. We follow the main character Orpheus as he attempts to navigate a curse and come to terms with his evil deeds done in service of his queen, while contending with his newfound feelings for his cheerful companion and seeing the world outside for the first time.

It's a story about isolation, betrayal, and the love we can still find, no matter our circumstances. Orpheus is a compelling character, a man who only wants to do what's right, a traumatized person with self-harm tendencies. He cries often, but his tears aren't seen as a weakness, and his search for comfort is a strength. His companion slowly chips at the wall Orpheus has had to build, with his steadfulness and his great heart. This is not a romantasy, but the sweet romance grows organically, alongside with the main plot.

The worldbuilding is intriguing, snippets of the past revealing themselves slowly until the reader pieces together the truth. Some parts are still nebulous - one wonders at a few things - but the story still works. Despite the urgency and the trauma, there's also a strong cozy vibe.

The Crack at the Heart of Everything is a delightful debut.

✨ 4 stars

Review: The Lowest Healer and the Highest Mage, by Hiyodori

In a country where mages have all the power and healers supposedly only exist to support them, Clematis—a talented healer—is despised for her past attempts to defy the mageocracy. In her early thirties, she’s already on year seven of a life sentence for treason. But when the most powerful mage in the nation suddenly loses all her magic, the government wants unconventional Clematis to help get it back.
The mage is a tall, distant woman called Wist, and Clematis knows her all too well. They used to be classmates. Best friends. Perhaps more. Wist is also the person who reported Clematis for leaking state secrets. She’s the reason Clematis spent the last seven years in prison. Clematis wants revenge for her betrayal, but she wants freedom even more. She’s got thirty days to recover Wist’s magic: miss the deadline, and she’ll be shunted back to prison for the rest of her life. Yet attempting to resurrect Wist’s lost magic will force her to face the real reason why Wist betrayed her—and to face her unresolved, unspoken feelings for the mage who stabbed her in the back and walked away.

"I never forgot the sound of you calling for me. Not for a second."

Hiyodori's The Lowest Healer and the Highest Mage is a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid that combines a compelling protagonist and sole POV character with a surprising plot that keeps you on your toes as it slowly unveils the background of the characters and their history. Clematis and Wist navigate the consequences of an old betrayal that put them at odds with each other, while trying to solve a problem that might prove to be fatal for their world.

Clematis is a delight, caustic and angry and incredibly competent. Her old friend Wist is remote and mysterious and she has secrets which will change everything Clematis thinks she knows. Their relationship, in the present and the snippets of the past, is a compelling one, and so is the way they learn to trust each other again. The supporting cast does its job, with two very fleshed-out and interesting characters in the form of a friend Clematis made more recently, and a Healer that Wist trusts to treat her.

The snippets of world-building paint a vivid picture, albeit a fragmented one, that I hope to see explored more in the other books of the series. The contrast and politics of the usage and abuse of magic, with Healers as glorified batteries for Mages that, at least in the nation where the characters live, have no system in place to check their treatment of Healers, makes for an interesting conflict.

The Lowest Healer and the Highest Mage is a captivating novella.

✨ 4 stars

Snippet: Empire of the Feast, by Bendi Barrett

We awaken with Riverson, 32nd ruler of the Stag Empire, as he attempts to govern without the memories of his previous lives. To survive the ever-sharpening gears of war, he will need to mend the political schisms threatening to tear his empire apart while maintaining the erotic rituals holding off the eldritch horror known only as the Rapacious.

“We will eat the stars and drench the darkness in ecstasy.”

Bendi Berrett's Empire of the Feast is a sci-fi novella with a touch of magic, compact and luxurious. In less than a hundred pages, the author paints the delicate balance of an intergalactic empire held together against an eldritch foe only thanks to the power surges created by a never-ending orgy. Despite the particular subject, the book isn't too explicit, and follows the efforts of the newly resurrected Emperor attempting to regain his footing and stop a coup, having been brought back memoryless and with a different gender. This delightfully queer page-turner of a novella packs a complex journey that resolves in less than a day; it only stumbles in the Epilogue, where it tries to tie too neat a bow to the detriment of a perfect roller-coaster.

✨ 4 stars

Review: A Necessary Chaos, by Brent Lambert

In a world of magical empires and the anarchists that would tear them down, two mages, Althus and Vade, are each assigned to spy on the other by opposing sides. But when they both catch feelings, what happens when they’re commanded to kill their target? They must each decide if they'll follow orders or find a way to make their romance thrive beyond the lies.

"Grief never performed a single resurrection."

Brent Lambert's A Necessary Chaos is a sci-fi novella with magical aspects, a thrilling enemies-to-lovers romance between two men tasked to spy on each other. The dual POV allows to delve into the psyche, the past, and the motives of the main characters; we begin in medias res, with the deception of their love affair having gone on for years, and follow the inevitable shattering of the illusion when both characters are tasked to get rid of each other.

On the background is the larger conflict between an Empire that meddles with demons and human experiments, and the rebels who try to stop the carnage. When the truth is finally revealed, we race towards a high-stakes ending where characters need to learn to trust each other in order to avoid untold horrors. The novella was perfectly contained, giving tantalizing glimpses of a larger worldbuilding while managing to stick the landing. The main characters are skilled operatives, competent fighters with secrets, and the explosive finale is well-earned.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of typos.

A Necessary Chaos is a solid novella debut.

✨ 4 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

for: espionage, enemies to lovers

Review: The Red Scholar's Wake, by Aliette de Bodard

Xích Si: bot maker, data analyst, mother, scavenger. But those days are over now-her ship has just been captured by the Red Banner pirate fleet, famous for their double-dealing and cruelty. Xích Si expects to be tortured to death-only for the pirates' enigmatic leader, Rice Fish, to arrive with a different and shocking proposition: an arranged marriage between Xích Si and herself.
Rice Fish: sentient ship, leader of the infamous Red Banner pirate fleet, wife of the Red Scholar. Or at least, she was the latter before her wife died under suspicious circumstances. Now isolated and alone, Rice Fish wants Xích Si's help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xích Si means Rice Fish can offer Xích Si protection, in exchange for Xích Si's technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it.
But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xích Si find themselves falling for each other. As the interstellar war against piracy intensifies and the five fleets start fighting each other, they will have to make a stand-and to decide what kind of future they have together.

"I go with my wife". Aliette de Bodard's The Red Scholar's Wake is a book about sapphic space pirates. It's hard sci-fi, with sentient ships that manifest themselves through human avatars, and Rice Fish is one of such ships; the resulting romance could take some suspension of disbelief, but it's intense in what's at stake. The book reflects over consent, and over neglect in previous relationships, in a sound manner. The relationship between the main characters is a bit instantaneous, and the way it starts isn't auspicious; things happen much too quickly, but in the end the relationship doesn't come without struggles, and I found that believable.

The books shines the most when it explores the main character's relationship with their respective children: Xích Si needs to save her daughter from indentures servitude, while Rice Fish has to face the misunderstandings that came from her first marriage. On that note, Rice Fish's first wife's perceived aromanticism is villanized in some way, but it might be a question of perspective; Rice Fish was, after all, traumatized by her first wife's choice of words - and actions - and so the narrative reflects that.

The use of Vietnames honorifics (little sis, big sis) might confuse some, but it's very clear there's no familiar relationship between the main characters (one's a ship!)

This is part of a bigger narrative universe, and it shows in the lack of explanations for many things, for example the overlays. I don't want to have my hand held (or I wouldn't read speculative fiction), but I'd like some context when it can be provided.

The Red Scholar's Wake is a solid sci-fi adventure with stunning prose.

✨ 3.5 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, by Foz Meadows

for: arranged marriage, previous toxic relationship

Review: Locklands, by Robert Jackson Bennett

Sancia, Clef, and Berenice have gone up against plenty of long odds in the past. But the war they’re fighting now is one even they can’t win. This time, they’re not facing robber-baron elites, or even an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe—a ghost in the machine that uses the magic of scriving to possess and control not just objects, but human minds.
To fight it, they’ve used scriving technology to transform themselves and their allies into an army—a society—that’s like nothing humanity has seen before. With its strength at their backs, they’ve freed a handful of their enemy’s hosts from servitude, even brought down some of its fearsome, reality-altering dreadnaughts. Yet despite their efforts, their enemy marches on—implacable. Unstoppable. Now, as their opponent closes in on its true prize—an ancient doorway, long buried, that leads to the chambers at the center of creation itself—Sancia and her friends glimpse a chance at reaching it first, and with it, a last desperate opportunity to stop this unbeatable foe. But to do so, they’ll have to unlock the centuries-old mystery of scriving’s origins, embark on a desperate mission into the heart of their enemy’s power, and pull off the most daring heist they’ve ever attempted.

"There is no dancing through a monsoon". Robert Jackson Bennett's Locklands aims higher than ever and crafts a tale of gigantic scope, a novel about transhumanism, choices, and sacrifices. Set eight years after Shorefall's devastating conclusion, it follows the original cast as they make a new society, something so vastly different from everything that came before, a new way of being. They fight for a chance to survive, battling against the ancient being that they awakened in the past, and finding unexpected allies. It's all-out war, vast and desperate, the very surface of the earth altered.

And yet at its heart, it's also a quiet story of loss and despair, about what a single man can accomplish in the face of a personal tragedy. It's terrible to imagine that much of the pain and catastrophies suffered by humanity were done in the course of attempting to right a wrong. Against the backdrop of the war mysteries are revealed, and the tragedy at the center of it all pulls at heartstrings in its simplicity.

Sancia and Berenice suffer through a trial of their own, as they're forced to face the consequences of what happened in the first book. They're an older couple now, they've been together for years, and they're comfortable in their skin and their love and in the ties that bind them; they know each other, inside and out, but darkness looms ahead, and choices that must be made.

The epilogue is masterful, tying all the final threads together to form a heartbreaking conclusion that nonetheless is filled with hope.

Locklands is the perfect finale to an imaginative trilogy.

✨ 5 stars

Review: The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera

Nestled at the head of a supercontinent, framed by sky and sea, lies Luriat, the city of bright doors. The doors are everywhere in the city, squatting in walls where they don’t belong, painted in vivid warning. They watch over a city of art and avarice, of plagues and pogroms, and silently refuse to open. No one knows what lies beyond them, but everyone has their own theory and their own relationship to the doors. Researchers perform tests and take samples, while supplicants offer fruit and flowers and hold prayer circles. Many fear the doors as the source of hauntings from unspeakable realms. To a rare unchosen few, though, the doors are both a calling and a bane. Fetter is one of those few.
When Fetter was born, his mother tore his shadow from him. She raised him as a weapon to kill his sainted father and destroy the religion rising up in his sacred footsteps. Now Fetter is unchosen, lapsed in his devotion to both his parents. He casts no shadow, is untethered by gravity, and sees devils and antigods everywhere he goes. With no path to follow, Fetter would like to be anything but himself. Does his answer wait on the other side of one of Luriat’s bright doors?

"Is the chain ever free?". Vajra Chandrasekera's The Saint of Bright Doors is a lyrical marvel of a novel, a richly detailed exploration of agency, cults, and familial abuse. In this standalone, fantastical story, we follow the son of a major cult leader as he leaves home and finds himself in a city with a thousand strange doors. Not everything is clearly explained, but the nebulous nature of some things really sells the atmosphere. The major questions are answered, though, and some more, letting the reader glimpse some tantalizing truths.

The worldbuilding is immaculate, detailing a complex world that's so much more than what it's shown, as clearly said in the surprising final part of the novel, which is exhilarating with its paradigm shift. We explore the city and then the world with Fetter, uncovering secrets and trying to overthrow a tyrannical government that vanishes people into prisons as big as a country. We see him lose himself in many identities as he tries to be many people at once, uncertain of his place in the world, molded by his mother's abuse and by his powerful father's absence. The doors are a riveting mystery that remains partly unexplained.

The supporting cast is a delight, from the jaded revolutionary to the door scholar to his fellow Unchosen. Fetter's mother gets some more spotlight in the second half, and her story sheds some light on the nebulous nature of this world. She is a formidable character, looming large in the narrative, perhaps more than Fetter's father, who's still masterfully painted when we finally get to know him. And then the twist leads to a payoff that, while feeling somewhat abrupt and sudden, still works.

The narrative normalizes queer relationships, although in-story queerness is formally against the law. Fetter is bisexual, and he has to navigate what his relationships mean when he struggles to be someone that he's not. There's an intriguing glimpse of a wlw relationship in the background, which in some way ends up shaping the story.

The Saint of Bright Doors is a stunning debut, a lyrical delight.

✨ 4 stars

Review: Shorefall, by Robert Jackson Bennett

Having narrowly saved the metropolis of Tevanne from destruction, Sancia Grado and her allies have turned to their next task: sowing the seeds of a full-on magical-industrial revolution. If they succeed, the secrets behind scriving—the art of imbuing everyday objects with sentience—will be accessible to all of Tevanne’s citizens, much to the displeasure of the robber-barons who’ve hoarded this knowledge for themselves.
But one of Sancia’s enemies has embarked on a desperate gambit, an attempt to resurrect a figure straight out of legend—an immortal being known as a heirophant. Long ago, the heirophant was an ordinary man, but he’s used scriving to transform himself into something closer to a god. Once awakened, he’ll stop at nothing to remake the world in his horrifying image. And if Sancia can’t stop this ancient power from returning? Well, the only way to fight a god… is with another god.

"What a wondrous thing, to share my life, and be loved". Robert Jackson Bennett's Shorefall pulls no punches. The stakes couldn't be higher as a new menace comes to the city, a threat that must be dealt with in a mere matter of days. Set a few years after the first installment of the series, this books is brimming with action and heart, and it's an emotional journey that makes you grapple with what it means to be human. It's about found families, and choices, and the cost of innovation.

The world-building is superb, expanding the threads in the first book to create an immersive experience. The magic system is terrific, of course, and new applications of it are reavealed, making for gripping scenes. Gregor's backstory is fully revealed, and suffice it to say that it pulls at the heartstrings for the injustice of it all. The villain is extraordinary, set on change and terrifying and not entirely wrong in his assessment.

Sancia and Berenice are still together, and we even get a few chapters from Berenice's POV. Their relationship is solid and sweet, but they never lose track of the goal; they know that the fate of the world is in their hands, and they aren't going to ruin their chances by worrying about each other. After all, they're both extremeley competent.

Shorefall is a stunning sequel to Foundryside.

✨ 4.5 stars

Review: Foundryside, by Robert Jackson Bennett

Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic--the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience--have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims.
Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them. To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined.

"Move thoughtfully, give freedom to others, and you'll rarely do wrong". Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside is the incredible first book in a trilogy that delves deep into matters of free will, that asks the question: what makes something or someone conscious? It explores the damages of capitalism in a setting that is reminiscent of Venice at the heights of its commercial power, governed by merchant houses that have no care for the poor and the afflicted. In fact, there's abuse of power and terrifying experiments that threaten to break the very fabric of reality.

The book starts like many other fantasy novels, with a heist, but it quickly becomes so much more. The magic system is complex: inscriptions can contain a number of instructions, to make objects do pretty much anything. The limit depends on one's morals, as we discover as the novel goes on. Scriving on human beings is apparently banned, but unfortunately not everyone follows the rules. There's a slight horror vibe to this book when it explores the lengths some people go to in order to obtain power. There's a cautionary tale in the past of this world, a veritable mystery about an ancient war, but the warnings aren't heeded. Mysteries abound and our incredible band of main characters will have to unveil them quickly.

The true protagonist of the novel, Sancia, is a twenty-something thief with a terrible past that allows her to be the best at her profession. A painful past bothers also the cop that reluctantly begins helping her, a man with powerful connections and an agenda of justice; to complete the cast, there's a caustic scriver and his assistant, a quick-witted woman who'll start a romance with Sancia. And then there's the sentient key, who is a sheer delight of a character. Nothing is as it seems, though, and as the characters unveil a conspiracy, they find out that they might have bitten off more than they can chew.

The writing is phenomenal, sharp and cutting and, also, funny in some places, especially with Sancia's remarks and some of her conversations with the key.

Foundryside is a frantic heist book with great depth.

✨ 4.5 stars

Review: Witch King, by Martha Wells

 

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well. But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?
Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions. He’s not going to like the answers.

"Don’t let everything we fought for be for nothing". Martha Wells' Witch King is a standalone novel which alternates between two timelines: on the one set in the past, we follow the body-hopping demon Kai as he joins a revolution and possibly finds himself some love in one of his partners, a noble. The other timeline follows the present as he wakes up from being imprisoned and tries to understand what's happening while saving his friends, among which there are a witch who controls the winds, and her kidnapped wife.

The world-building is pretty intricate and layered; the information isn't spoon-fed, but the reader is immersed in the world with no kind of hand-holding, trusted to gather all relevant information. Not everything is explained, but there's enough to go by and have a sense of the world. The magic system seems fascinating and complex and there's a lot of interesting things going on. It's a solid fantasy adventure with a dash of mystery.

But it feels a bit like soulless homework. Everything goes like clockwork and we have many moving parts and many characters and it's clever, but it lacks heart. We're told that it's a found family story and we see the characters as they met, a human lifetime ago, and as they're in the present, but there's a sort of disconnect. The witch and her wife are never shown together in the present, not even for a small reunion, and in general the ending was pretty rushed after there was so much focus on everything that was happening.

The better-developed relationship was the one between Kai and the noble Bashasa. You get the sense that there's a growing affection, and in the present Bashasa is often on Kai's mind. There's more nuance there, more than with Kai's friendship with the witch Ziede, which is still the one that gets more screentime despite this. And I get it; it's a bit of a historical mystery, inside the novel, whether Bashasa and his demon were in a relationship, and we're left with that question too. But the rest of the cast falls flat despite the numerous quips.

Witch King is a solid fantasy novel for fans of Martha Wells.

✨ 3.5 stars

Review: Tarnished are the Stars, by Rosie Thor

 

A secret beats inside Anna Thatcher's chest: an illegal clockwork heart. Anna works cog by cog -- donning the moniker Technician -- to supply black market medical technology to the sick and injured, against the Commissioner's tyrannical laws. Nathaniel Fremont, the Commissioner's son, has never had to fear the law. Determined to earn his father's respect, Nathaniel sets out to capture the Technician. But the more he learns about the outlaw, the more he questions whether his father's elusive affection is worth chasing at all. Their game of cat and mouse takes an abrupt turn when Eliza, a skilled assassin and spy, arrives. Her mission is to learn the Commissioner's secrets at any cost -- even if it means betraying her own heart.

"We do not have to use the same words or share the same definitions to understand one another". Rosie Thor's Tarnished are the Stars is a YA scifi book with big ideas and a big heart. Set in a distant future, it follows the descendants of the people of Earth as they settled in a space station and, later, on a terraformed planet after Earth's destruction. The majority of the population still lives on the station as the terraforming didn't have the desired effect, and people are dying of a heart disease. The main characters will have to try and find out the truth.

The plot is pretty straightforward and there are no big surprises; even the few big shocking moments were a bit predictable. The timing of certain events also felt a bit convenient. But this book sticks the landing with its heartfelt exploration of abuse and self-discovery. Two of the characters are brought up in a hellish manner, abused by their caretaker. While one understands that the other is being abused, they seem blind to their own abuse, until finally the veil is lifted from their eyes too. I found that very believable. Then we have the precious moment of self-discovery of another character, who's asexual and aromantic and finds the words to describe their nature thanks to another character. Both terms are explicitly used, and it was lovely to find them in the text.

There's also a little bit of wlw romance, with a quick enemies-to-lovers that despite its startling speed packs quite a punch when a moment of betrayal eventually comes. The relationships between various female characters - including the supporting cast - are certainly quite varied and interesting, ranging from an old love, to a friendship marred by loss, to a mistress/pupil relationship turned sour. The villains' motivations turned out to be a bit confusing, but the Commissioner got a backstory that was more complex than I thought.

The world-building was simple but clear enough, and the idea of clock-hearts sounded interesting enough that I would have liked it to be explored more.

Tarnished are the Stars is a good read for a questioning teen who likes the genre.

✨ 3.5 stars

Review: The Mimicking of Known Successes, by Malka Older

 

On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university—and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems.
Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake—and, perhaps, their futures, together.

There is life on Jupiter. Malka Older's The Mimicking of Known Successes is a cozy holmesian mystery set on a colony on the giant planet. Humanity has depleted Earth's resources and moved to Jupiter to live on floating platforms; but there's who wants to fix Earth's ecosystem in order to return there. Our Watson, Pleiti, is a scholar at university, working on that very same problem, and when a university man disappears, the investigator Mossa rekindles her old flame with Pleiti and lets the woman help her in the investigation.

What follows is a delightful mystery novella, perfectly self-contained, filled with interesting details about the world-building. The colonies on Jupiter are vividly described, and the situation on Earth clearly explained. Alongside the investigation, Pleiti reflects on her old relationship with Mossa, and it was lovely to see their romantic tension reignite into a satisfying conclusion.

The Mimicking of Known Successes is a lovely mystery for readers wanting to branch into scifi.

✨ 3.5 stars

Review: The Final Strife, by Saara El-Arifi

 

Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes. Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts. Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: it can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm.

"A world run by people who think they are better will never be better for everyone". Saara El-Arifi's The Final Strife is a stunning debut with roots in african and arabian mythology that will haunt you and break your heart, exploring issues of xenophobia, class struggle, child abuse and slavery with a deft hand. One of the main characters also has a drug addiction that she must learn to overcome, her need for it born from her past and her terrible living conditions as she's a member of a lower cast.

In this small world, nightly plagued by strong hurricanes, people are divided by the color of their blood, ensuring a reign of oppression that borders on inhumane, with quarterings and a systematic mutilation of an entire caste, rendering the clear-blooded caste mute and handless, relying on a silent language to communicate with each other. The occasional depictions of such brutal acts are vivid, and highlight the injustice and pain and terror the population is feeling. In the backrop of this brewed a revolution that was quelled soon, but it's not too late to change things for the better.

The blood magic system is incredibly well-developed and the snippets of worldbuilding, leading up to major revelations, introduce a world which is much larger that we anticipated, turning what seemed to be a typical "tournament fantasy" into something much more exciting. For the first half of the book the conflict is slow-developing, but things finally kick into high-gear with a couple well-timed revelations and strong moments of characterization. Unfortunately while two of the POV characters have much focus, the third one doesn't get much; I'm hoping she'll be more explored in later installments.

This book is marketed as a wlw friends-to-lovers and while that does happen eventually, and it's beautiful and tender and throughout the book we can see all these little moments as the two POV characters grow close to each other, this is more of a triangle situation where one of the characters is bisexual and first has a relationship with a childhood non-POV male friend, before finally turning to the other female character. Which is fine! Give me some conflict. But it's marketed in such a way that I don't expect the male character to be a love interest at all, and when it happend it threw me for a loop for a good chunk of the book.

The Final Strife is an incredile novel about oppression.

✨ 4 stars

Review: The Soulstealers, by Jacqueline Rohrbach

 

Arnaka Skytree grew up believing she was chosen to bring new magic to the world. As the heir to the cult of druids responsible for keeping their floating palace habitable for the wealthy aristocracy, she’s expected to wield her power as those before her did: by culling the souls of peasant women.
But when Arnaka learns more about the source of her magic, and that her best friend’s soul will be harvested, she embarks on a journey to end the barbarous practice and to restore a long-forgotten harmonious system of magic practiced by the original druids. Along the way, she discovers she’s not the only girl chosen to restore balance to their world—many others have powerful magic inside, and with them, she will tear the floating palace from the sky so everyone can live in the sun—out of the shadow of the eclipse.

The premise was definitely interesting. Jacqueline Rohrbach's The Soulstealers is a well written Young Adult novel that nonetheless doesn't quite deliver, an intriguing and dark tale whose lukewarm delivery doesn't do it justice, juvenile at times despite the subject matter. There's so much to explore: the conflict between mother and daughter, brother and sister, between classes, between sexes. Occasionally, gems shine through; but on the whole it feels scholastic, unearned. The brutality of the magic system is almost glossed over after an explosive first chapter and the occasional moving reminder, with the narrative taking big leaps in time that don't help matters. By the end, I wasn't even sure of the protagonist's age.

Amidst the war for freedom and peace, the romance bit came out of left field, a sort of enemy-to-friends-to-lovers that progressed way too quickly to be satisfying. I enjoyed more the growing friendship between Arnaka and her servant, along with the glimpses we got of Arnaka's friendship with the girl who would have to become her sacrifice. We also got asexual representation, with one (1) line about not wanting to kiss anyone, and the matter is then swept away. If you want to read this book because of the alleged asexual representation, which is what I wanted to do, I'm afraid this isn't the book for you.

The Soulstealers is a good fantasy book for a young reader with little experience.

✨ 3 stars

Review: The Keeper's Six, by Kate Elliott

 

It’s been a year since Esther set foot in the Beyond, the alien landscape stretching between worlds, crossing boundaries of space and time. She and her magical travelling party, her Hex, haven’t spoken since the Concilium banned them from the Beyond. But when she wakes in the middle of the night to her son’s cry for help, the members of her Hex are the only ones she can trust to help her bring him back from wherever he has been taken.
Esther will have to risk everything to find him. Undercover and hidden from the Concilium, she and her Hex will be tested by dragon lords, a darkness so dense it can suffocate, and the bones of an old crime come back to haunt her.

Badass mom to the rescue! Kate Elliott's The Keeper's Six is an adventure-filled, action-packed novella that features a 60-years-old protagonist, something we don't ever see much of. Esther is an excellent protagonist, experienced and shrewd despite her aches and pains; it was a delight to watch her talk circles around everyone, gleaning information about her son's whereabouts with her negotiation skills and finally finding the truth. I also loved to see her Jewish faith deftly incorporated in the narrative.

This was really a well-rounded novella. In a short amount of pages, Elliott depicts her world and makes you really understand everything of its complexity; the explanations never feel like info-dumps, although having a character who conveniently needs everything explained by the protagonist certainly helps; but those conversations never feel forced. The character in question is fascinating, his past much more so, and in general this story is really organic when it explores the team's past: you get the sense that you really know the members of Esther's Hex, masterfully sketched out in a few words and dialogues.

This is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy; we start off in modern day Australia and make our way to the in-between. I hesitate to call this portal fantasy because it's implied that the dragons used some technology to make the Keeps, more than magic, although magic is certainly used throughout the story. The dragons are fascinating, especially our big bad, and the central mystery slowly unraveling itself, teased ever since the beginning, is worth the wait.

Taking center stage of the narrative is a beautiful established queer relationship between a human man and a non-binary dragon, who met under less than ideal circumstances; the dragon, Kai, has a horrific past that catches up with them and threatens their happiness.

The Keeper's Six is a delightful action-packed adventure that finishes too soon.

✨ 4 stars

Review: The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean

 

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.
Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales and cautionary stories.
But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

This was phenomenal. Sunyi Dean's The Book Eaters skirts the horror genre with its visceral description of the way mind eaters feed, but the real horror comes from the isolation of book eater women and the exploitation of their lives and their reproductive system: since book eaters are a dying species and very few women are born, the women get carted off to various families to produce children, until they become infertile and are brought back to the family they were born in. Every once in a while the babies aren't normal book eaters, but are instead mind eaters, feeding on brains: considered monstrous and once killed, they are now exploited as well, as dangerous enforcers, and kept in place by drugs and by a violent organization that abuses its own enforcers.

The subject matter is incredibly dark, but the book is filled to the brim with hope, impossible and everlasting, showing how the power of stories can help breaking free from a restrictive upbringing. Even when trapped, the protagonist Devon keeps her wits about her, willing to do anything in order to survive and to keep her son alive. This brings her to villanous extremes as well, but all the same, you can't help rooting for her to find peace.

For most of the book, it's very difficult to find any positive interation for Devon, leading to thinking of this book as very bleak. But small pockets of light finally shine through: in her friendship with the brother of her second husband, who shows her kindness and acceptance in a terrible household; in the growing relationship with another book eater woman, who's perhaps leading her towards salvation, and in the acceptance of the attraction between them; in the incredibly complex relationship with her son. Scattered throughout are a few chapters from the point of view of Devon's brother, and they feel incredibly violent and intrusive, not only because of their shattered relationship, but also because of what became of him due to a childhood indiscretion. It's the system of the Families, though, of this terrible patriarchy, that is the real villain in the book.

The setting was intriguing; the book eaters live among us, sequestered away in large mansions, and they don't usually mix with humans. There's no explanation given, no origin story; a chapter's epigraph suggests that it might either be aliens or magic.

The Book Eaters is an exploration of motherhood and womanhood that keeps the reader hooked.

✨ 4 stars