Book Review: An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose, #1) by Charlaine Harris

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: An Easy Death
Series: Gunnie Rose, #1
Author: Charlaine Harris
Publisher: Saga Press
Publication date: October 2, 2018
Length: 306 pages
Genre: Fantasy / speculative fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

In a fractured United States, a new world where magic is acknowledged but mistrusted, a young gunslinger named Lizbeth Rose takes a job offer from a pair of Russian wizards. Lizbeth Rose has a wildly fearsome reputation but these wizards are desperate. Searching the small border towns near Mexico, they’re trying to locate a low-level magic practitioner believed to be a direct descendant of Grigori Rasputin.

As the trio journey through an altered America—shattered into several countries after the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression—they’re set on by enemies. It’s clear that a powerful force does not want them to succeed in their mission. Lizbeth Rose has never failed a client, but this job may stretch her to her deadly limits.

In this fantasy novel set in an alternate version of the United States, the US as we know it no longer exists. Instead, after the assassination of FDR prior to his inauguration, the country has split apart. What was once California is now the Holy Russian Empire, ruled by Tsar Alexei after settlement by the exiled Romanovs. The East Coast states have largely sworn allegiance back to the UK and are now Britannia, the South is Dixie, and the southern border of Canada has moved further south, now enclosing the Great Lakes territories and then some.

Meanwhile, the action of An Easy Death takes place in Texoma (our current Texas, more or less) and Mexico. It’s a lawless area, or so it would seem. There’s a very old West vibe here, jarred somewhat by the existence of trucks and cars, electricity, and even refrigerators (for those lucky enough to afford them). People like main character Lizbeth Rose earn a living as “gunnies”, hired gunslingers who provide a variety of protection services. In Gunnie Rose’s case, she works as part of a crew who specialize in helping folks cross the dangerous territory from Texoma into New America, through mostly empty lands ravaged by bandits and wild, vicious dogs.

After a job gone bad, Lizbeth is the last person left from her former crew. Shocked and in mourning, the last thing she wants is to have a couple of Russian wizards, known as grigoris, show upon her doorstep. They want to hire her to help them find a man whose blood could be key to keeping their tsar alive… but they have many enemies working against them, who almost immediately begin trying to kill them and their gunnie.

As the trio sets out into Mexico, they face trial after trial — the dangers of deserts and wild lands, plus the even greater threat posed by assassins and deadly wizards. Lizbeth is continually forced to think fast and shoot faster, all the while questioning whether her clients have told her the whole truth and wondering who the true enemy really is.

An Easy Death (which is what gunnies say to one another when heading out on a job, rather than, you know “good luck” or “see ya”) is a fast-paced adventure in a world that occasionally made my head swim, especially in the early chapters. In fact, I originally tried the audiobook, and just couldn’t wrap my head around the setting and situation. Fortunately, the print edition comes with a handy map, and that helped me settle in and start truly appreciating the story.

The world-building here is so creative. Situating a Western adventure in the mid-20th century leads to some weird moments of cognitive dissonance — and add to that the existence of magic and wizards, and well, it’s utterly odd but also utterly absorbing.

I could possibly have done with a little bit less time spent chasing or being chased through the desert, but that’s a minor quibble. As the first book in a series, An Easy Death does the heavy lifting of establishing a world, its politics and factions, and the various types of people who live in it.

Lizbeth is a terrific character, hard as nails, always heavily armed and excellent with her firepower, and with hidden depths that I think we’ll see more of as the series moves forward. As of now, there are four published works in the series, with a fifth scheduled for release in fall of 2023. I’m not quite ready to commit to the entire series just yet, but I do know that I’ll be looking for book #2 on my next library visit! I will definitely want to continue onward with the series and see where it all goes!

*A Longer Fall – #2 in the Gunnie Rose series*

22Feb2023

Book Review: Mr. & Mrs. Witch by Gwenda Bond

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Mr. & Mrs. Witch
Author: Gwenda Bond
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication date: March 7, 2023
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

In Mr. & Mrs. Witch, the next novel from bestselling author Gwenda Bond, a couple discovers at the altar the surprising secret identities they’ve kept from each other.

Savannah Wilde is a witch, a very powerful one—an identity that only her fellow witches know. Following a whirlwind romance that surprised herself and her family, Savvy is all set to marry the love of her life. But she isn’t the only one with a secret that needs to be kept, even from her soon-to-be husband.

Griffin Carter is a top agent for a clandestine organization that, well, used to primarily hunt witches, but now mainly tries to shut down supernatural threats their own way. He can’t wait to lay his eyes on the woman he’s about to spend the rest of his life with.

As Savvy walks down the aisle to Griffin, the wedding quickly goes from blessed day to shit show when their true identities are revealed. To say there’s bad blood between their factions is putting it mildly. Savvy and Griffin are tasked to take the other out, but when they discover a secret that could take down both of their agencies, they realize the only way to survive is to team up. With assassins hot on their trail, will Savvy and Griffin make it out alive to try again at ‘I do’?

If you’re looking for a deep exploration of the perils of modern love and marriage… this is not that book!

BUT, if you’re a fan of the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, love silly contemporary romances, and want some powerful witchcraft (and adorable familiars) thrown into the mix… well, Mr. & Mrs. Witch may be the perfect choice.

We open with Savvy and Griffin’s wedding day. They’re each ecstatic, about to marry the person of the dreams, their one true love, their everything — until the day absolutely and completely goes off the rails. Savvy is a talented witch and an agent of CRONE (a secret society of witches, obviously), and Griffin works for HUNTER, an equally secret society dedicated to fighting supernatural threats, with a dark history of hunting witches. Savvy and Griffin have no idea about one another’s true vocations, and things are about to get ugly.

The plot goes back and forth between “now” — the wedding day and beyond — and the past, from the couple’s first meeting, through the development of their relationship, and finally catching up to the present. They each get POV sections, so we get to know them as individuals as well as together, and also get to see just how much they’re hiding.

Mr. & Mrs. Witch is truly silly fun. As for my earlier reference to Mr. and Mrs. Smith — a movie about a married couple who are ignorant about each others’ careers as professional assassins, and end up with orders to kill each other — well, that kind of gives you the main story arc of this book. Savvy and Griffin are on opposites sides of a secret war between witches and hunters, but it turns out that the bosses of each of their factions may have ulterior motives. Once Savvy and Griffin get past their shock and hurt feelings about the secrets hidden in their relationship, they realize that their only hope for survival (not to mention their postponed Happily Ever After) is to join forces to fight the big bads.

On top of all the silliness, there are great friendships, interesting family dynamics, and awesomely adorable familiars (including a capybara named Captain Bear, because why not?).

In terms of the romance and steam factor, I’d classify this book as graphic: Sex scenes are explicit, but they do tend to be brief. For me personally, I tend not to appreciate super graphic sex scenes in my romance novels, but these were minimal enough that they didn’t get in the way of enjoying the book.

Having read Gwenda Bond’s two previous novels (Not Your Average Hot Guy and The Date From Hell), I was fully prepared for the funny, ridiculous, over-the-top tone of this romantic adventure, and I was not disappointed.

Mr. & Mrs. Witch is not at all a serious book… but if you’re looking for good escapist fun, this might be a perfect fit!

20Feb2023

Novella review: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: To Be Taught, If Fortunate
Author: Becky Chambers
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Publication date: August 8, 2019
Length: 153 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A stand-alone science fiction novella from the award-winning, bestselling, critically-acclaimed author of the Wayfarer series.

At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in subzero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life.

A team of these explorers, Ariadne O’Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system fifteen light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds. But as Ariadne shifts through both form and time, the culture back on Earth has also been transformed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the story of the wonders and dangers of her mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

The title of this novella is a line from former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim’s message carried on the Voyager space probe in 1977:

We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship — to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate.

These lines provide a beautiful summary of the theme of Becky Chambers’ deeply thoughtful novella, To Be Taught, If Fortunate. The novella tells the story of the four-person crew of the Lawki 6 mission — a team of astronauts sent on a decades-spanning mission to explore four potentially life-supporting planets located outside Earth’s solar system. The astronauts embark on their journey knowing that their friends, families, and colleagues will all be gone by the time they return to Earth some 80 years in the future — but knowledge is their holy grail, and they’re devoted to their higher purpose.

We learn about the mission through Ariadne, the mission engineer, who writes a letter back to Earth — this is the narrative we read. Ariadne describes the ship’s journey through space — the years of torpor (deep sleep/stasis in which the crew members pass the years of long transit, awakening when they reach their destinations), the glory of discovery as they set foot on each new world, and the traumatizing despair that sets in when they seem to have reached a dead end with no means of continuing the journey.

The story is full of moments of sheer joy, as the team revels in each new world and its wonders — but there’s also sorrow, as communications from Earth inexplicably stop arriving, and the crew is left to consider what, if anything, they might find upon their eventual return.

I’ve described Becky Chambers’ books as “gentle science fiction”, and I’d say the same applies here. Not gentle as in boring or uneventful, but gentle meaning focusing on the people, their emotions and relationships, their hopes and fears. There are no evil forces, no catastrophic invasions, no epic tragedies, and certainly no space battles or laser guns! This is science fiction on a human scale — it’s what the people experience, think, and feel that matters here, and that’s plenty.

We are human. We are fragile. Are we who you want out here?

The writing is lovely, and through the medium of Ariadne’s letter back to Earth, we get to know her on a deep and intimate level. What would a person feel in these circumstances, cut off from home, living in a restricted space with three other people, seeing the passage of time by the changing length of her hair and fingernails each time she emerges from torpor? This book makes the reader feel it all as well, all within just 153 pages.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate is a spare, finely-tuned portrait of humanity’s quest for knowledge and pursuit of higher purpose, as well as a moving depiction of particular people in a unique circumstance.

Don’t miss it!

17Feb2023

Book Review: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Sea of Tranquility
Author: Emily St. John Mandel
Publisher: Knopf
Publication date: April 5, 2022
Length: 272 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal–an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.’

I’m not sure how to even begin describing the beauty of Sea of Tranquility. The writing here is so precise, and the narrative arc so carefully constructed, that I was spellbound from start to finish.

Part of me hesitates to describe the plot at all, other than what’s already shared in the book’s synopsis. I read the book without first reading anything about it, and I’m so happy that I did. Letting the wonder unfold around you is really the best way to experience Sea of Tranquility.

But to give a brief idea — the various sections of the book occur in completely separately timelines and locations. From 1912, across time and space all the way to the 2400s, there are vignettes — some very short, some with more detail and length — delving into specific actions and moments in the lives of the characters.

As you might guess, there is a connection that ties all these vignettes together eventually. As each piece slotted into place, I experienced continuous “aha” moments as elements became clearer. And while some concepts are more mind-blowing than others, there’s a sense throughout that there’s more to the book, and more to our lives, than we could possibly even hope to truly understand.

If you haven’t yet read Sea of Tranquility, then what I’ve written probably makes little sense, but I truly don’t want to discuss specifics and risk lessening the pleasure of discovery for anyone considering reading the book.

At under 300 pages, Sea of Tranquility is easy to get through quickly, but the images and ideas linger long after reading the final lines. This is my first 5-star read of 2023, and will absolutely be going on my “favorites” list.

In case it’s not obvious: Highly recommended.

12Feb2023

Book Review: The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Stolen Heir
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date: January 3, 2023
Length: 358 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both.

Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.

Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.

Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black returns to the opulent world of Elfhame in the first book in a thrilling new duology, following Jude’s brother Oak, and the changeling queen, Suren.

I was so excited to hear that Holly Black would be returning to the world of her excellent Folk of the Air trilogy! And a book about Oak — how fun did that sound?

Except… surprise! — Oak isn’t the main character! Nope, it’s Suren, last seen as the pitiable child queen of the Court of Teeth, horribly mistreated and abused by her parents, who want to use Suren as a tool to overthrow the High King and Queen of Elfhame.

In The Stolen Heir, years have passed. Suren has been living wild in the mortal world, a creature who haunts the forests, keeping an eye on her one-time mortal family, from whom she was cruelly ripped away as a child, and staying busy by breaking enchantments on humans. But one day, Prince Oak, a boy who treated her with kindness once and now grown into a mesmerizing young adult, tracks her down and asks for her help. Lady Nore, Suren’s cruel mother, is starting trouble in the north again. With Suren’s aid, Oak is sure he can stop her.

And so begins their quest, a journey of miles and kingdoms, in which they encounter trolls, malevolent queens, a storm hag, and animated stick soldiers. As the danger mounts, Suren realizes that Oak himself perhaps cannot be trusted. What’s his true motivation in seeking her out? And is his kindness and warmth just further manipulation, or are there actual feelings there?

After a somewhat slow start, the pace picks up the further along the quest Suren and Oak manage to travel. There are dangers and betrayals, daring rescues and near misses. As the story progresses, Suren also starts to learn more about her own history, including the possible unraveling of everything she once thought she knew.

While I enjoyed The Stolen Heir once I got further along, it doesn’t quite measure up to the Elfhame books. Suren is hard to get to know, and the quest as it’s presented is confusing and a bit muddled. Eventually, the pieces come together more strongly, and the final third is actually quite good, with breathtaking action sequences, a few horrifying developments, and plenty of big reveals.

The Stolen Heir ends mid-story — we’re left hanging at a crucial moment of change. This book is #1 in a duology, with #2 — The Prisoner’s Throne — scheduled for publication in 2024. Obviously, I’ll have to read it! I can’t just be left hanging after that ending forever…

I recommend The Stolen Heir for fans of the Folk of the Air trilogy. Word to the wise — Jude and Cardan are discussed in this book, but they don’t actually appear at all. Here’s hoping they show up in The Prisoner’s Throne!

11Feb2023

Audiobook Review: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers, #4) by Becky Chambers

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
Series: Wayfarers, #4
Author: Becky Chambers
Narrator: Rachel Dulude
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Publication date: April 20, 2021
Print length: 336 pages
Audio length: 9 hours, 55 minutes
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.

At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.

Reading (or listening to) Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series is like being immersed in a cultural study, learning traditions, histories, and sociological norms… but here, the cultures are alien rather than human, and the action takes place in far-flung locations within the Galactic Commons.

In fact, in book #4 of the series — the final book — there’s not a human to be found. Instead, we settle in with a group of sapient non-humans from four different species as they wait out a space emergency that leaves then all stuck at a transit point, with only one another for company, support, and distraction.

Ouloo runs the Five-Hop with her exuberant child Tupo. Together, they welcome travelers with snacks, a garden, a bath house, and a place to restock and refuel before continuing on their way. Most visitors only stay for a couple of hours. There’s really nothing of interest on the planet Gora, but it is conveniently located between wormhole tunnels, so Ouloo does a pretty good business at her interplanetary version of a truck stop.

However, an accidental satellite collision leads to explosions and debris, and all travel on and off planet is halted while the emergency is dealt with. This strands the current batch of travelers at the Five-Hop, with no way to leave and no communications with the outside world. With no other options, the visitors settle in and start getting to know one another.

As with the other books in the series, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is fairly gentle for a science fiction story. In fact, when the first explosions rocked Gora, I thought for a split-second that the planet was under attack… but no. Such violence would not be in keeping with the overall tone of the series. Yes, war and battles and calamities occur, but mostly as background or off the page. Throughout the Wayfarers books, the focus is on the people and their relationships, and the same is true in the 4th book.

One of the characters in this book is familiar from book #1 — Pei, of the Aeluon species, a cargo ship captain who faces a life-changing decision about her own destiny. The others, however, are all new, although most belong to species we’ve at least seen in passing before. As they spend time together, they learn about their lives, their differences and similarities, and find ways to bridge the cultural gaps between them.

In many ways The Galaxy, and the Ground Within feels like an anthropological study (although maybe that’s not the right word for a book about non-human species?). Through the characters, we’re introduced to the different species’ societal norms, traditions, physical features, dietary needs, and more. It’s all quiet fascinating, and a real tribute to the author’s skilled world-building and imagination.

At the same time, there’s not a ton of plot going on, other than strangers are stuck together, forge bonds, then go their separate ways. There are ups and downs, arguments and reconciliations, and even a medical emergency that requires everyone to put aside their differences and work together… but honestly, that’s about it.

That doesn’t mean this book is boring. It’s not! As I said before, for a science fiction novel, it’s very gentle. That’s not a bad thing, just unusual for the genre.

As with the other three books in the series, the audiobook narration by Rachel Delude is very well done. She provides distinct voices and inflections for each of the characters, and it’s quite a wonderful listening experience.

The Wayfarers series has been a reading goal of mine for a while now, and I’m delighted that I finally took the time to make it a priority. It’s a lovely feat of storytelling. Rather than a continuous narrative broken into four books, this series is built on the concept of taking a singular galactic society and examining it through four separate stories. It’s unusual, it’s all rather peaceful and beautiful, and it absolutely works.

8Feb2023

Novella review: Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Arch-Conspirator
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: February 21, 2023
Length: 128 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy via the publisher
Rating:

From dystopian visionary and bestselling phenomenon Veronica Roth comes a razor-sharp reimagining of Antigone. In Arch-Conspirator, Roth reaches back to the root of legend and delivers a world of tomorrow both timeless and unexpected.

Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end.

Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but Antigone’s parents were murdered, leaving her father’s throne vacant. As her militant uncle Kreon rises to claim it, all Antigone feels is rage. When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest.

But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.

This slim novella is tautly written and beautiful presented. Word to the wise: It does help to have a passing familiarity with the classic story of Antigone before reading Arch-Conspirator… but I suppose it would work even without reference to the source.

In this dystopian reimagining of the tale, humanity has reached the brink of its own end. The planet is mostly uninhabitable. There’s one city left; outside it is the wilderness. All goods are scarce, buildings are decaying, and blowing dust covers everything. The only hope for humanity’s future is the Archive, where genetic material taken from people after death is stored. A quasi-religious value is attached to these Archives — the stored samples represent immortality for the dead, a way of saving and then resurrecting their souls.

It was hard to imagine a time when it hadn’t been this way — when plants grew untended in the wild, maintained by their own seeds spreading; when the plains beyond the city were overrun with animals that we had not bred ourselves; when genes persisted through the generations, presenting a person with their grandmother’s brow, their great-grandfather’s jaw. Everything required effort now. Everything required editing.

Antigone and her siblings are considered soulless abominations — their parents conceived them naturally, rather than going through genetic manipulation to achieve best results. They’re scorned and shunned, but as the living children of the murdered king and queen, they also represent power and legitimacy. With their uncle Kreon, now the ruler, looking to consolidate power and squash all attempts at rebellion, it’s only a matter of time until Antigone herself is caught at the center of the resulting devastation.

Arch-Conspirator is chilling to read. Being aware of the basics of the classic story, I knew that this would be a story with a tragic ending. Feeling the inevitable looming makes every page an exercise in suspense and sadness. Author Veronica Roth weaves this brief tale together with gorgeous writing and precise plotting. The end took my breath away!

5Feb2023

Book Review: The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Grief of Stones
Author: Katherine Addison
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: June 14, 2022
Length: 245 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

In The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison returns to the world of The Goblin Emperor with a direct sequel to The Witness For The Dead…

Celehar’s life as the Witness for the Dead of Amalo grows less isolated as his circle of friends grows larger. He has been given an apprentice to teach, and he has stumbled over a scandal of the city—the foundling girls. Orphans with no family to claim them and no funds to buy an apprenticeship. Foundling boys go to the Prelacies; foundling girls are sold into service, or worse.

At once touching and shattering, Celehar’s witnessing for one of these girls will lead him into the depths of his own losses. The love of his friends will lead him out again.

I really enjoyed The Grief of Stones, but at the same time, I’m not sure whether there’s any point in posting a review! This book is not a starting point. If you haven’t read The Goblin Emperor and The Witness for the Dead, then there’s absolutely no way to follow what goes on in this book.

Also, side note: If you haven’t read The Goblin Emperor… well, what are you waiting for?? Rush right out and grab a copy! It’s THAT good.

Anyway…

In The Grief of Stones, we continue onward with main character Thara Celehar. Thara is a Witness for the Dead — he can interact with the deceased after death by making contact with the body, gaining access to their final thoughts and experiences. Through his calling, he’s able to ask questions on behalf of family members, and even the police. He offers grace, compassion, and closure, and is very good at what he does. He’s also an essentially lonely man, haunted by events from his past, and is often seen as a person deserving of awe but also fear by ordinary people.

The story opens soon after the events of The Witness for the Dead, in which he solved a murder case involving a talented but greedy opera singer. In this new book, Thara is petitioned by a grieving marquess three months after his wife’s death of an apparent heart attack. The widower believes, without proof, that his wife was actually murdered, and asks Thara to discover the truth.

Thara’s investigation leads him to a shady underground world of pornographers and to the discovery of abuse at a school for foundling girls. The more he learns, the more he realizes that someone needs to give voice to those who are powerless. But his investigations also put him in personal danger.

This is a fascinating story, and Thara remains a wonderfully complex character. In this book, he gains an apprentice, and also develops his growing friendship (and perhaps more?) with the director of one of the city’s opera houses.

Although a bit slow at the start, the story quickly picks up steam, and by the time Thara ends up in a situation of grave peril, it’s particularly breathtaking. I actually found myself very upset and scared on his behalf, and having finished the book, I just wish I had a sequel in my hands already to see how Thara’s situation develops.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t see this working — at all! — for anyone who hasn’t read the previous books. The language and society would likely be utterly impenetrable.

The passage to the ulimeire was only partly invested with revethmerai…

That’s just one random sample — but if that doesn’t make sense to you, that’s a pretty good sign that you won’t enjoy reading The Grief of Stones.

The naming conventions and language in the world of The Goblin Emperor are complex, and even as someone who’s read the previous two books twice each, I struggled a lot to keep all the various character names straight in The Grief of Stones — for whatever reason, even more than with the other books, which is why I ended up giving this one a 4-star rating.

Goodreads lists a next book, The Tomb of Dragons, but without a release date. I hope it’s not too long a wait! (And I’d love to see one of these books at least visiting Maia (The Goblin Emperor), but I’m guessing that’s unlikely).

Overall, I’m glad to have read The Grief of Stones and to have spent more time with Thara Celehar… but the end result is that I’m now dying for another re-read of The Goblin Emperor!

4Feb2023

Audiobook Review: Spare by Prince Harry

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Spare
Author: Prince Harry
Narrator: Prince Harry
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: January 10, 2023
Print length: 410 pages
Audio length: 15 hours, 39 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Source: Audible (hardcover from library)
Rating:

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

I know there’s been a lot of general chitchat online about Prince Harry basically oversaturating the market with multiple presentations of his story. There was the Oprah interview that more or less kicked things off, the multi-part Netflix series Harry & Meghan, and now, the release of his memoir, Spare. Given how much coverage has already been dedicated to this royal couple, is a book really necessary? Is there anything new that hasn’t already been shared? Yes, and yes.

In Spare, Prince Harry narrates his life (literally, for those listening to the audiobook), essentially starting with the devastation of Princess Diana’s tragic death in 1997. For Harry, a boy of just twelve years old, her death was beyond comprehension. In fact, as we see in Spare, he spent years deeply believing that his mother was actually in hiding, just waiting for the moment when it would be safe to reunite with her boys. Throughout the section of Spare that covers his youth, he refers to his mother’s “disappearance”, never her “death”. It’s chilling, to say the least.

The book is divided roughly into thirds, covering his childhood and youth, his army service, and his relationship with Meghan. The first third, Out of the Night that Covers Me, is the most powerful, and actually brought me to tears several times. Strip away the Royal Family trappings, and what we have is the story of a boy suffering a tremendous loss and not having the support or resources to deal with it. The events, as they unfold through Harry’s memories, are overwhelming, baffling, painful, and isolating.

As the narrative moves into Harry’s teen and young adult years, he covers his growing devotion to working and living in Africa, his search for meaning and purpose, his experiences in the army (in the book’s second section, Bloody, But Unbowed), and the ongoing strains of his family relationships, especially with his father and brother.

And finally, section three of the book, Captain of My Soul, gets into his romance with Meghan, the viciousness of the media attacks on her, and the couple’s departure from official royal life. Most of this is familiar already, but it’s still interesting to hear Harry’s perspective and gain new insights on the internal struggles he experienced and the painful interactions with the family members he should have been able to count on.

I listened to the audiobook, which I think is the way to go. Prince Harry does the narration, and of course, it’s especially moving to hear him tell his own story.

For the most part, I found him sympathetic and straightforward. Yes, I suppose we could scoff at the “poor me” aspect of it all — after all, being royal is the ultimate state of privilege, isn’t it? He acknowledges all of this, and yet also points out the absolute weirdness of suddenly being cut off after a lifetime of trained dependency. His father isn’t just his father, he’s also his boss, his business manager, and the controller of all of his funds. Harry points out that he’s never carried money or placed an order online. What kind of way to live is that? (He does mention that he has an inheritance from his mother that he and Meghan didn’t want to touch, since they wanted it to be for their children… which, okay, that’s a nice goal, but then it’s hard to feel too sorry for them when Harry gets into the extremely high cost of security, then mentions buying their perfect home in Santa Barbara).

Still, there’s a sadness throughout when it comes to telling the story of being part of an emotionally withholding family — a family that’s also a business and an institution, where closest relationships come with heavy strings and expectations and requirements, but not a whole lot of space for difference or grief or nonconformity. It’s hard to imagine the enormous pressure of being under constant scrutiny and harassment — Harry’s harshest stories and commentary are leveled at the corrupt media and the “paps” who show no mercy when it comes to getting a story or a photo, even when these stories and photos put people’s lives at risk.

Overall, I found the storytelling powerful, honest, and unflinching. Harry is open about his own flaws, his emotional struggles, and his doubts and fears. He very clearly explains and illustrates, over and over again, the ongoing impact of his mother’s death and how that informs his worldview, as well as his unending need to keep his wife and children safe at all costs, even if that means breaking with his own family and all that being royal entails.

Of course, media coverage has been focused on the big “reveals” (such as misunderstandings between Kate and Meghan, the fuss over Meghan’s wedding tiara, etc), but in actuality, Spare is at its most affecting as the story of loss, grief, and family.

Well worth reading, and I highly recommend the audio version.

31Jan2023

Book Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Author: Heather Fawcett
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Publication date: January 10, 2023
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love, in this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.

In this tale of professors and faeries, Emily Wilde is an introverted scholar who’d much rather be left to her own devices than be forced to (gasp!) chitchat with the locals at the tavern. Much to her dismay, this is exactly the situation she’s forced into when she travels to the land of Ljosland to study the Hidden Ones – the final type of fae she needs to document in order to finish her masterpiece, an exhaustive encyclopaedia of all types of faerie.

Emily’s antisocial tendencies initially cause offense among the locals, but when her colleague Wendell arrives to join (or take credit for?) her studies, he immediately charms everyone and smooths over Emily’s blunders. He’s gorgeous and charming and sets Emily’s teeth on edge, but he soon transforms their rented hovel into a cozy cottage and gets access to people’s help and their stories which had previously been denied her.

While Emily’s goal is to study, not interfere, she soon becomes aware of trouble in the little village. A couple lives in torment, and Emily soon realizes it’s because their true child has been replaced by a faerie changeling. What’s more, abductions of village youth by the fae are on the rise, and the villagers have given up hope of ever seeing their loved ones again. As potential romance blooms between Emily and Wendell, Emily decides to set things right with the village by seeking out and confronting the dangerous Faerie King — but her chances of walking away from the encounter are very doubtful.

Told through Emily’s journal, we read about her arrival in Hrafnsvik, the initial enmity of the villagers, her first contact with a helpful brownie, and the complications that stem from Wendell’s arrival. As time passes, she documents her research success and challenges, her interactions with the people of Hrafnsvik, and the irritation (and secret attraction) she feels for Wendell. We also see her document her risky forays into the faerie kingdom, as well as the dismay she feels as she becomes ensnared by enchantments and loses track of time… and perhaps loses track of herself as well.

Although the beginning is a bit slow, eventually Emily’s story picks up steam. Her actions are very determined and brave, even while taking foolhardy risks. Although Emily depicts Wendell in her journal with a great sense of annoyance, it’s easy to see through her irritation and to find Wendell just as charming and delightful as she secretly sees him.

I enjoyed the inventiveness of the story, the setting, and the characters very much. I did feel that the device of telling the story through Emily’s journal became a hindrance in the latter half of the story. There’s a lack of suspense in the storytelling — if Emily is writing the story of a dangerous escape in her journal, then we know right away that she DID escape… so while the details may be exciting, there’s no question about the outcome. (I also felt confused after the big climactic moment — because Emily’s description of the event ends after she leaves the scene, yet I wanted to know what happened next in the scene she left! Sorry, being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers…)

Overall, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a captivating, entertaining read. I wished for a bit more in spots, but still enjoyed reading it. There’s a planned sequel, and since several plot points are left unresolved at the end of this book, I’ll be on the lookout for #2!