Michael Barnes
I always enjoy reading the Wayward Children novellas and this one is an origin story for one of the children we have encounted before - Nadezhda 'Nadya' a drowned girl who I first read about in Beneath the Sugar Sky (which ends happily for Nadya returning to her Belyyreka, a water world).
A story of Mother Russia, turtles and not thinking you know what people want because they were born missing the lower part of her right arm.
A solid entertaining contemporary horror that I have come to expect and can rely on to deliver from Darcy Coates after reading a number of her novels. In this story the ground work is laid early on with the introduction of the various parties and groups to a private and secluded tropical island by Eton, a “Mr. Beast”-esque online influencer who has become a billionaire and has monetary prizes in store for his guests.
The central protagonist is Ruth who was the a survivor of a cult called Petition which she begins to realise committed the Jones style massacre on this island 20 years earlier. Ruth was a child how had survived a awful experience so its believable she hadn't recognised where she was until she arrived.
That's another aspect of Coates writing of horror, she always includes suspense and twists but she never relies on an unbelievable coincidence to progress her plot. Its in the last third of the novel where the horror and butchery begins to unfold with well developed reveals to explain all that had happened up until then.
A satisfying and well crafted conclusion though when I thought the smart and competent character deserved to make it - that one hurt.
Having read Andrew Joseph White's young adult fiction 'Hell followed with us', and 'The spirit bares its teeth' I pre-ordered 'You weren't meant to be human' thinking I knew what to expect. I was grateful that his unapologetically bold, unflinching, and provocative from those works was carried into this work but I did find it hard to keep reading through some of the experiences described in White’s raw, visceral and intoxicating prose. Like Esmay Rosalyne said in Grimdark magazine ".. maybe I just kept turning the pages out of a sheer desperate desire for this tragic nightmare to be over as quickly as possible, and I fully realise how privileged I am in saying that".
What happens to the protagonist Crane an autistic, mute, and transgender man is sometimes unrelentingly desolate and even the descriptive landscape reflects this a dystopianish near-future version of rural West Virginia where festering masses of worms and flies offer salvation to the broken souls of society in return for fresh corpses and unwavering loyalty.
I was so grateful for the tiniest bit of salvation that came from allowing someone to flee this nightmare and in reading the author's notes discovered this was only thanks to the intervention from his wife (for this I thank you).
Like Esmay Rosalyne quotes in her review "My heart absolutely broke while reading You Weren’t Meant to Be Human, not only for Crane, but also for all the marginalized people in real life who are forced to survive instead of thrive in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile when all they want to do is just peacefully live as their true authentic selves".
It's an amazing work and ensures that I will seek out any future novels by White.
I loved Courtney Smyth's first book in the Undetectables series and everything that made it a wonderful tale of chosen family, modern young adult, queer, struggling with physical health and the supernatural are further developed in this sequel.
Mallory, Diana, Cornelia and Theodore are hired to solve a murder on a TV shoot by the victim herself an past/maybe present love of Diana's. This tale is from Diana's point of view and the I appreciated reading how her hearing loss/damage affected her and how she deals with it. Also her focus in dealing with the challenges of this investigation highlight how different a person she is too Malory the protagonist from the first book. I wonder if the next will centre on Cornelia?
The mystery is more complex and with more moving parts than the first book but its beating heart is these friends and how they would do anything for each other, except maybe have an honest talk about how they feel yes I am looking at you Mallory.
On to The Unfathomable Curse, which I know is ultimately fathomable to our intrepid team.
Whilst I finished the novel and I can see CJ Leede has mad skills with an ability to craft a unique and clear narrative style the book was not was not for me.
Robin Marx at Grimdark Magazine sums it up well
"With its uncompromising tone and unsettling main character, Maeve Fly is destined to be a divisive book. The violence is graphic, and Leede does not shy away from depictions of sexual assault or animal abuse. Maeve is a forceful and liberated woman, but she’s simultaneously a black hole of need and dependence. She’s a fascinating character, but also an unrepentant monster. There’s no inciting incident from her past that turned Maeve into a killer, she’s a monster with no origin story. The people she kills and mutilates generally aren’t deserving of their fates. They don’t “have it coming.” There’s some sparse and under-cooked commentary about misogyny and gendered violence, but it’s undermined by the fact that Maeve acts more savagely towards women than any of the male characters in the book, and her brutality has a relentlessly sexual component. Maeve is not the subversive feminist icon some prospective readers may be looking for".
With the tagline, “Be gay. Solve crimes. Take naps”? Who wouldn't want to read Courtney Smyth queer paranormal mystery involving fae, witches, daemons, vampires, and ghosts.
The characters are wonderful combination of competent and complex with our protagonist Mallory expressing all the frustrations and feelings of rage due to the challenge of fibromyalgia that has inhibited her social life and her career goals. Her best friends Cornelia and Diana have moved on with lives since founding the eponymous detective agency without solving their first crime the murder which gives rise to the fourth of the team sweet ghost Theodore.
I loved the savvy smarts these scooby gangers display, the dialog that highlights the longstanding friendship. The relationships between the protagonist Mallory and her friends Diana and Cornelia are the most parts I enjoyed most about the book which each bring different talents and passions. Imagine Alfred Hitchcock's The Three Investigators books but with more developed and contemporary young adults but with Buffy's scooby gang antagonist. The story is at turns humorous, warm and cosy, then also dark, painful and sarcastic, with moments of intense social commentary.
It maybe not be queer as fuck (for that I recommend H.A.Clarke see Scapegracers) but certainly queer as heck and thoroughly enjoyable story which is only improved knowing that their adventures continue in The Undead Complex and The Unfathomable Curse.
In my local public library this is a very popular novel even with numerous copies I only recall seeing on the selves once and so I took the opportunity to borrow it and I can well understand the appeal. The author herself in the book's notes cites Georgette Heyer as an inspiration (an author I haven't read but my partner has enthusiastically devoured and I respect her judgement) is the story of two sisters who well accommodated and independent as characters in such a Regency novel as you could wish.
So far on behalf of the women in their circle they have foiled a blackmail plot, rescued young girls kidnapped to provide the virgin cure, freed a married woman being drugged to death by her husband because she could not bear an heir and closed an asylum conducted with all the terrible darkness and evil of handling the mentally ill or inconvenient women.
Throw in a dashing noble highwayman (with a touch of the sentenced to NSW and absconded) a dastardly plot to reveal from 20 years ago for the romance and guest mentions of Ann Lister, Beau Brummell.
But it was the incorporation of details such as the very minor character Madame d'Arblay who was introduced by the protagonist Lady Augusta ‘Gus’ Colebrook to her twin sister Julia, who is suffering from cancer of the breast, an all too common affliction in their family, to explain the surgery which was performed on her to save her life from breast cancer. The author acknowledges these six pages we drawn from the letter sent by Fanny Burney to her sister detailing he own experience is when I realised just how much I wanted to read more of Alison Goodman's work.
Premee Mohamed is an author I will always make time to read, though given how prolific a writer she is that posses challenges of their own. I could easily make a to be read ziggurat from her writings.
This award winning novel is a remarkable meditation on war, pacifism and sacrifice. It has to be as much of the tale is of the two characters slow progress across a war torn landscape towards a the flying fortress city of the enemy. Dylan Haston describes it thus "Alefret, radical pacifist imprisoned by the Varkal military, and Qhudur, bloodthirsty internment camp guard. Prior to the novel’s start, Alefret had been imprisoned and held without trial for war crimes: namely, being the de facto leader and author of “The Pact”, a loosely organized pacifist movement. A representative section of the group’s titular Pact reads, “For the preservation of human life, no sacrifice can be too great; we in the Pact will hold it above all else…” Alefret and the other signatories of the Pact were taken into custody after a Varkal bomb backfired and blew up a patch of their own city, taking one of Alefret’s legs with it".
Alefret is an interesting, complicated protagonist: he is an extremely large man (seven feet four) who is viewed as a "freak" and a "monstrosity" by Qhudur and the people in his home village:
So huge, so ugly; look at that face, must be simple, he'll never speak, never read, never think, not really. He'll eat you out of house and home if he lives. And you can forget having in-laws, forget being taken care of when you're older, you'll die alone and penniless, you should never have let him be born. All those things people said to them as Alefret watched. As if he could not understand the words. His parents had never defended him, only nodded, wept, nodded.
He wished he could hate them for it, but even now, with them both dead, he could not; there was only a great bewilderment, because he could speak, and could write, and think, and they dismissed it all, till he himself wondered whether he really could do any of those things or was simply imagining them, locked into a skull as thick as everyone said he had. As thick as a bull's, they said. No room for a brain. And that great misshapen forehead: like horns.
Even when he was older, and had made his living teaching mathematics and geometry and science to the village children, when he had his own school at the family farm, sold his own wool and eggs, even when he purchased his house, the village said: We love you. And in the next breath: You monster.
The pacing is slow, deliberate and so provides plenty of time to meditate on the nature of war. A engaging and deliberate novel.
Firstly I was promised Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague, and whilst those things did happen they were not quite the apocalyptic reckoning I was expecting.
I should have known when the 'This Devastating Fever' referred to love, or maybe lust according to the conjured shade of Leonard Woolf husband to Virginia Woolf, and not some comet borne end times disease.
Sophie Cunningham novel has been deservedly praised for its originality and style and weaving the protagonist Alice and author struggling to bring her novel together and the story of Leonard and Virginia Woolf whose own timeline is explored, and even intrude into Alice's.
My own personal taste but I would have like to read more about Alice's experiences in contemporary Australia but that's because I am a contemporary Australian but I think Sophie Cunningham has done an enviable job weaving these disparate strand into a remarkable cloth.
If you have been reading the Singing Hills saga since the spellbinding The Empress of Salt and Fortune as have I then I can promise you this novella continues in that outstanding series tradition. This tale begins with a darker tone with our wandering Cleric Chih and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant uncovering a persons remains in the ground.
Hunger pervades this story, reminding me of the stories from lone Wolf and Cub 'The town where hunger lives' Jayne over at Dear reader sums it up better than I can. "... This is a disturbing little novella.... It’s beautifully written, evocative, and really creepy. But then the events are ghastly and have been played out countless times through countless famines. In this case, famine isn’t just the weather or war but an actual demon who must be appeased. For much of the story, Cleric Chih does their mandate which in this case involves listening to past trauma and then fights off the nervous feelings the place gives them, before witnessing the horrific resolution. This story which they collect will also contain a bit of them".
Also they provided the title and cover of the next in the series, which only makes me HUNGRY for more. "Your Boos mean nothing I've seen what makes you cheer". (thank you Rick of Rick and Morty)
So its the suicide end of the suicide mission. Following on from The Clockwork Boys (its best to view these books as two parts of the same book) its full of wit and care between a small group of people expecting to spend the rest of their extremely brief lives in one another's company against long odds and in great danger.
The Wonder Engine, while still full of Vernon’s trademark practicality, compassion, pragmatism, and humour, reaffirms Clockwork Boys‘ somewhat darker direction. There’s still plenty of practicality, compassion, pragmatism, and humour – but this time a lot more of that humour is the gallows kind.
I think the resolution wraps up the mysteries encounted to date, which I had feared dues to their disparate nature may have left some unresolved. Spoiler warning one of our plucky band does not survive this adventure.
I am fan of T. Kingfisher and have read her four published Paladin of Steel novels (and by the gods I hope there are more coming) so I was enamored to read these tales set in the same world but in an earlier time (but not so early that I encounter a younger version of a character who shows up in the Paladin's Faith novel - shout out to our world changing artificer Ashes Magnus.
Its a fantasy suicide squad of a paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar who must discover how a rival city state is creating giant automatons to conquer surround lands by the expedient of almost unstoppable walking siege engines stomping stuff until you agree to their demands. Our protagonist expects they will die on this job (a pardon is dangled) but she fills the first half with the refrain of probably going to die' in her head. But its the snark, snappy banter and having the ultimate straight man to play off with the 'paladinest of paladins' in the party.
This first book int he duology focuses on getting the city making these 'Clockwork Boys' and includes encountering a mysterious 'Wonder Engine, a tree/woodlan cult lead by a possessed deer/human and the welcome addition of a gnole any book of T Kingfisher's is automatically improved by the addition of a gnole character.
A fast paced, welcome addition to the world building of the Saint of Steel on to The Wonder Engine.
Difficult to add anything in this review that hasn’t already been said before, and I can confirm after reading it is certainly deserving of all the acclaim it has received. Whilst I was reading this book in the various out door place over the few days on two occasions different women walking past through out comments about how much they enjoyed/ what a great book it was.
Re imaginings of the ancient Greek stories/myths seem to be hot right now, for myself I also enjoyed the view from the other side of the Trojan War with Girl, Goddess, Queen but whereas Bea Fitzgerald rewrote the end (thank goodness) for Cassandra - in The Song of Achilles the music of Madeline Millers lyrical prose was tinged with the for-knowledge of Patroclus death. On reflection I think that was necessary to give the love between him and Achilles its poignancy. I also loved that the needed to be no elaboration/explanation as to why Achilles loved him, I think some of the best loves are like that.
Also Agamemnon F* that guy and Achilles son when it comes to it. Still I need no Cassandra like seeing skills to know that with the success of Madeline Miller's success and release Christopher Nolan film The Odyssey we will see publishers scrambling for other takes on the Trojan War.
This is book 4 of what is proposed to be at least a 7 book series. Each book focuses on one of the paladins whose spirits were broken when their animating saint died.
This is the Paladin Shane story and the industrial spy Marguerite, both of whom we met in earlier books. Shane is, perhaps, the most formal and stiff of the paladins (which is saying something), and Marguerite is inclined to use all of the tools at her disposal to uncover the information she’s in search of which in this case is an invention by an artificer, who to my delight was a old very competent and experienced (and snarky) woman had spent her life using her skills to make mechanical devices that improve lives (and toys for her spoil patron), that will fundamentally change the dynamics of this culture.
And with a tidbit at the resolution from the point of view of another of the paladins - Judith and a very old and complicated demon I am eagerly looking forward to the next book in this series.
It’s a modern gothic novel full of botanical references and historical references to poison. (yay) A few reviewers said it recalls The Great Gatsby with hollow decadent parties and that is certainly there but with at its heart Lena's revenge and its consequences.
C.G. Drews author of 'Don't let the Forrest' (yes on my to be read pile shussh) puts it thus "a desperate ex-med-college student in need of a job to help her family’s financial crisis. Her life is on pause due to burn out from college and indecision on what she wants in life. When she applies for this vague medical assistant position for a very rich family named the Verdeaus…she genuinely has no idea what it entails. She just NEEDS work. And who are the rich if not to pray on the desperate. Lena gets the job and is slowly pulled into the twisted world of rich, cruel businessmen, mysterious boys with mysterious illnesses, dangerous secrets, and a world that is so far removed from reality it feels like a dream. Or a nightmare".
But in a such a gothic story I was grateful that some found happiness, always good to see the kill the gay trope replaced with the gays carve out a measure of happiness.
I think this book confirms, as all great narratives the real monster is capitalism.
Book 3 of the Saint of Steel series if you have enjoyed the previous two this one has all the same wonderful romance and fantasy, (no don't say it) This time the romance is between Piper a lich-doctor, a physician who works among the dead, determining causes of death for the city guard’s investigations (slim, well-groomed and exceedingly pale with nice hands) and Galen is a paladin of a dead god, lost to holiness and no longer entirely sane who is almost beautiful enough to have been a paladin of the Dreaming God (demon hunters). So a welcome change up from the hetero-normative romances so far. Not that there haven't been queer characters in the earlier series and I appreciated how it is treated as just part of the world.
The rest of the story is exploring a clockwork death maze harkening back to the earlier Clocktaur mentioned in passing in the earlier novels and by all accounts horrendous war, but aren't they all.
Another welcome aspect is exploring more about the species gnoles, who we have met in the earlier books with Brindle, who has opinions about mules who we have a return appearance in this story. one of our protagonists is Earstripe, a gnole constable, is the one who found the body that the book opens with and he drives most of the plot. He's also the source of the best banter in the book, which is full of pointed and amused gnole observations about humans and their various stupidities.
His 'humanity' summed thus "A gnole's compassion does not require fur."
The epilogue is a teaser for the next book Paladin's Faith and the death of a god.
I thought this a wonderful debut from Australian author Molly O'Neills characterisations/personalisation of Jenny Greenteeth, one of the low fae of old myths and legends brings a fresh take. Her stand out characters continued with Temperance the witch and Brackus the hobgoblin. At it heart its a road/quest tale with the three squaring off against a fearsome terror that has recently appeared to threaten the green and pleasant land (with a twist to explain just why this sleeply little village is so important) ands it the chosen family and revelations (poor Jenny) revealed over the three challanges set by the king of Fae to forge the weapon to defeat the dread horror.
Also there is a dog, did I mention there's a dog.
Another excellent fantasy romance (don't say it) from T.Kingfisher I enjoyed reading this one even more than the first Saint of Steel book and I enjoyed reading it very much, inspite of its lack of the best bishop of all time Bishop Beartongue. Catherine Heloise over at Smart Bitches Trashy Books sums of this story well in her content warning for it "there is a fair bit of violence, some of it quite gory, because the adventure part of the plot involves killer zombie-golems, were-beasts, gladiatorial arenas, kidnappers and more. Quite a few minor characters die. There is, however, absolutely no sexual violence in this book, despite certain aspects of the premise that might suggest it". Youdon't need to read the first book, this is a self contianed story, but seriously why wouldn't you?
I have enjoyed reading every T.Kingfisher novel I have encountered (check my reviews if you doubt) and this first in the Saint of Steel Series is no exception. I warmed to the characters especially since their various competences in respective areas, Grace's as a perfumer, Stephen as great as he is as the fighting type did you know he is quite the knitter, and the head of the Order of the White Rat Bishop Beartongue She soon became a favourite.
The story itself AJ over at Smart Bitches, Trashy books describes it better than I …" It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s suspenseful. It’s a fantasy romance AND a spy story AND a courtroom drama. It has lines like, “Am I the only person concerned about the severed head situation in this city?” (Yes, Stephen, you are.) It would be easy for such a packed plot to go off the rails and lose track of what it’s trying to be, but it never does. Grace and Stephen’s relationship is always the heart of the story, right from their first awkward encounter". That said its one of the best meet-cutes I have read.
I have jumped to the next in the book but tracking down the other stories set in the world Swordheart and The Clocktaur War duology are a priority.
This was a joy and lives up to all my expectation from Amber Chen's debut in this series Of Jade and Dragons. This alt Quin Dynasty with a focus on engineering/ creation rather than magic (but still fantasy with our favourite competent, non nonsense protagonist Ying this tale is more high seas adventure than engineering guild rivalries of the first novel.
And the chosen family of the all women pirate crew I am sure I ma not the only one who wanted a whole novel devoted to them and their stories. Any fans of 20,000 leagues under the sea will love this as much I.
As many others have mentioned this doesn't feel like a conclusion to this story, with so many threats not yet resolved. What is the story of the mysterious master engineer who built the fearsome underwater blades, and Ying once more missing but we know can't be dead. I want to read more, and I hope someone is handing Amber Chen a big bag of gold to continue her tale.
I picked this up because I enjoyed Stark Holborn's Ten Low and Nunslinger just as fun read. This is an archetype serialized Western just like in the days of the pulp fiction and whilst it holds all those hallmarks: good and bad guys of both sexes, bandits, whores, drunks, Native Americans, blazing guns, chases, jailbreaks, daring rescues, miracle escapes and all sorts of mayhem. Short sharp chapters which conclude with a cliff hanger and the next chapter beginning with us deep in the action after the escape helps creating this tribute to those earlier stories. Also it's women characters are given depth, character and agency better than most of those westerns.
Visitandine nun Sister Thomas Josephine is a survivor of an attack on a California-bound wagon train in 1864. She’s rescued by an obsessive cavalry officer, kidnapped by a taciturn and mysterious deserter, and then the innocent nun is falsely accused of murder and goes on the run, building a legend as the Six Gun Sister as she flees across the south west.
The story is told in the first person through her eyes. A favourite of mine - the Native American woman who sets out to avenge her slaughtered and enslaved tribe.
The Sovereign concludes the story of our favourite disaster lesbian/bisexual couple/trouple? if we count Sabine who in this last book face an uprising decades in the making, and invasion a plague all at the same time trying to deal with love that by an any external metric is not 'good' for either of then. If you have read the first two books in the series then you don't need t worry as C.L.Clark sticks the landing on this conclusion, if you haven't read them yet best read them first before this one.
I have yet to read anything by C.L Clark that I haven't been enthralled by and she is now an author who I will always read when I find her new work.
If you have read and found the previous two sworn solider stories by T Kingfisher as entertaining as I then I can promise you this third story which sees the titular Sworn Solider Alex Easton is just as engaging. This tale sees our protagonist travelling to the United States to assist the doctor from
What Moves the Dead to investigate the uncanny shenanigans in a closed coal mine, in as an enjoyable addition to the series that makes me hope for more.
Have just read the first book about our snarky protagonist Alex Easton the titular Sworn Solider of the series I followed on with this one. If you haven't read the first it won't be a problem, but honestly read 'what moves the dead' its enjoyable/creepy story where these interesting characters are introduced (a personal favourite unflappable British mycologist Miss Potter and yes in the book she is identified as a relation of Beatrix Potter).
It’s a supernatural rather than eldritch horror but I still found plenty of humour a style characteristic of T.Kingfishers work. Alex remains an excellent lead character with a distinct, often hilarious, POV. This tale takes place in their homeland of Gallacia. I loved the whole “lovingly exasperated” take that Alex and the locals seem to have about their own country and its culture and history.
On to Sworn Solider 3 "What Stalks the Deep".