Michael Barnes
This book is over a massive timescale but incredible small and personal focus about the quiet end of the world. Its the postapocalyptic setting, but gentle. The author’s experience in biology shines through her writing as she imagines the diverse forms that humans and their societies might take in the far distant future.
Under the Eye of the Big Bird is a collection of fourteen stand-alone stories with recurring 'characters/features that gradually form a larger narrative, and the reader is encouraged to put together a history from bits and pieces of individual lives. We never see the full picture, however, and I imagine that assembling a concrete timeline would take careful detective work.
Some of the stories bring a touch of touch of existential dread as in any encounter with real difference, this initial sense of discomfort is important. The gentle strangeness of Under the Eye of the Big Bird encourages the reader to confront their biases, and it also lends weight to the narrative theme of human extinction
I read Maria Dong's Liar, Dreamer, Thief because a review of her novel Psychopomp sounded like just my thing, but it isn't in my library and the publication hasn't appeared on Australian Kobo (or I would have bought it in a heart beat), so I picked up the only novel of hers in my public library Liar, Dreamer, Thief.
So grateful I did its brilliant. For the first 50 pages I struggled a bit but then something clicked and I was propelled into this - its not an unreliable narrative story, as those stories seem to have a sense of deception, our ethnically Korean narrator Katrina Kim living in the US sees the world refracted through a mind that she understand isn't how others see it. This refraction through the world of a book she read as a child 'Mi-Hee and the Mirror-Man'.
The mystery begins with the apparent suicide of her co-worker Kurt (who she isn't stalking no matter what her roomate Lonie says) and eventually ties in her fellow workers, roomate, even her parents is a resolution that makes the whole tale worthwhile.
Even more desperate to read Psychopomp now, may even have to buy a paper copy rather than ebook.
I haven't read any of Bora Chung's work before, a deficiency I expect to address after finishing this extraordinary collection of short stories.
Each of these eight tales are very original and difficult to categorise other than science fiction 'with a twist' none more so than the first story where we meet people working at the Center for Immortality Research, with most of the senior staff displaying very mortal pettiness. The End of the Voyage a zombie tale where seemingly rational people get suddenly and startlingly infected with cannibalism. We root (pardon that unwitting pun) for a species of plant-human hybrids as they try to save their patch of land from what else, but humans. We are moved when an AI-enabled elevator develops a fondness for a woman suffering from the onset of Parkinson`s. We recoil in horror as a suspicious husband gets more than he bargained for, when he tries to keep track of his wife`s movements, this is another one where a classic science fiction trope gets hit with a twilight zonesque twist but it was her story 'To know her' the last in this collection which affected me most deeply giving a more deserving end to Korea's late Byun Hee-soo tragic story.
Reading up on Bora Chung in a piece titled ' Bora Chung shows us what sci-fi with its fists raised looks like' and revealing "In fact, one way the writer describes her own brand of science fiction is “demonstration sci-fi” — a term shaped by her 12 years as a political activist, attending rallies for victims of the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster and LGBTQ rights, as well as campaigns for a comprehensive anti-discrimination law and workplace safety reform", has only made me want to read her more.
I found this narrative as engaging and action packed as the first with the bonus of having a background on each of the characters in this chosen family/scoobygang and drives providing a richer story. It begins almost immediately after the events in Ocean's Godori. Once again I would search various terms as they came up, which someone mor familiar with Korean culture mightnot need to but I found it added to the experience.
When I read some authors of action filled narratives I find myself skipping the fight scenes as I lose track (or if I am honest, I don't find it engaging when all know the hero is going to succeed no matter how dire the circumstances seem) but not so with Elaine U. Cho's work. The descriptions are clear and they provide supporting details which hold my attention.
Phoenix and Teo are very effectively counterpointing our swoony-yearny-KDrama pair of Ocean and Haven. I'm pleased that they have more than what Joseph Campbell called (in that memorable Bill Moyers series) "the zeal of the organs for each other," but equally pleased they're not shilly-shallying around. Lest I leave someone with the wrong impression, this story is not steamy. It's passionate, just not graphic, more the "fire flickered and died" way.
The story is resolved in consistent and positive way, there is more I would like to know (the earing worn by Ocean for example) and with some of the bad'uns having escaped at the end means there can certainly more to tell. I have seen a reading app categorise it as a Duology and the authors website makes no mention of any further works in this solar system I would be happy to read more.
This was my bookclub's book of the month so I am using this review more a prompt for the meeting. When the said it was Ted Chiang’s collection of science-fiction short stories - Stories of Your Life and Others, I subsequently realised I confuse Ted Chaing with Ken Liu of the Dandelion Dynasty series (Silkpunk). Which I found relevant when think about the "silkpunk aesthetic, I was influenced by the ideas of W. Brian Arthur, who articulates a vision of technology as language. The task of the engineer is much like that of a poet in that the engineer must creatively combine existing components to solve novel problems, thereby devising artifacts that are new expressions in the technical language". Relevant to the story in Story of Your Life .
I initially mistook this collection for Ken Liu's The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
Tower of Babylon: From the Tower of Babel (Babylon) myth springs this fully developed fantasy novelette. The protagonist of Tower of Babylon is Hillalum, a miner from Elam and a member of a group of miners who have come to Babylon to mine the vault of heaven near the top of the tower.
Understand: This first person science fiction novelette is narrated entirely in the point of view of Leon, a man who suffered brain damage and was given an experimental treatment, hormone K therapy. The therapy regenerated his damaged neurons, but an unforeseen side effect was that they came back with many more dendrites, raising Leon’s intelligence and motor skills considerably. When Leon’s doctor asks him to participate in a study in which he will be given additional treatments of hormone K, Leon quickly agrees. The concept here about how thoughts could act as software also front and center of Story of Your Life.
Division by Zero This short story examines the marriage of two professors. Renee is a brilliant mathematician whose recent suicide attempt is related to her work (I don’t want to reveal how); her husband Carl is a biologist. Many years ago Carl made a suicide attempt of his own; he has since been emotionally healed. The facts about mathematics are fascinating, especially as they pertain to the conflict in Renee and Carl’s marriage. I found this story not just intellectually interesting, but also poignant, though I was skeptical that the conclusions Carl draws late in the story were enough to result in what happened to him.
Story of Your Life (arrival) narrated in first person by Louise, a linguistics expert who is asked by the military to serve as a translator between aliens and humans.
Seventy-Two Letters This fantasy novella, set in an alternate Victorian England, begins in Robert Stratton’s childhood. As a boy, Robert is fascinated by his toy automatons’ ability to move powered only by seventy-two letter names inserted into them via paper slips. _Golem R F Kaungs Babel Aphros: The Sea God of Foam In Greek mythology, Aphros (meaning "foam") was one of the Ichthyocentaurs, a unique group of sea deities with the upper body of a man, the lower front of a horse, and the tail of a fish. Alongside his brother Bythos, Aphros was born from the union of the sea god Poseidon and the nymph Aphrodite (or in some versions, the primordial sea deities).
The Evolution of Human Science This is a very short story, only a few pages long, and written in the form of an editorial from a scientific journal. The subject of the editorial is the gap between the scientific achievements of DNT(digital neural transfer)-capable “metahumans” and the regular humans’ ability to grasp these. Prompted me with some of the arguments raised in David Brin's Uplift series.
Hell is the Absence of God. It takes place in a world in which God exists, and Hell is a plane below the ground, occasionally revealed to people on the mortal plane as if through a glass floor. Hell is also the plane that houses those are not devout descend after their death. There is a Heaven, too, widely assumed to be better although less is known about it. Hell is the Absence of God is, more than anything, an exploration of man’s need to come up with explanations for the inexplicable. As such I found it startling, yet while the world depicted in the story is surreal, the characters’ responses to it are familiar and utterly convincing.
Liking What You See: A Documentary This story explores a future world in which scientific progress in the field of neurology has made it possible to induce calliagnosia, a condition which makes it possible to look at beautiful people and remain unmoved by their beauty.
An excellent debut from Elaine U.Cho who I will be looking to read any future works (obviously including the second in the Alliance duology 'Teo's Durumi'. Who isn't a sucker for chosen family in small spaceship crew (such as the also enjoyable Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas). \
For me this is a 'windows' book I have very little knowledge of Korea or Korean culture and I relished the Koreanesque aspects of this novel, even if it meant I had to keep consulting online resources as t the meaning of words as it wasn't till I had finished that I found Elaine U.Cho had included an excellent resource for this at the back of the novel.
In a nutshell -"A disgraced Korean space pilot and her misfit crewmates are pushed into a high-stakes conflict when her best friend is framed for murder, leading to a thrilling adventure across the solar system that explores themes of colonialism, capitalism, and identity. The story unfolds with rich character development, engaging interactions, and a blend of action, romance, and cultural exploration set in a futuristic world dominated by Korea's space agency".
Did I mention there are dashing space pirates, I feel I need to mention the dashing space pirates on to Teo's Durumi.
I enjoyed this Asian take on a future fantasy post apocalypse where due to Earthrages (think earthquakes/massive storms but even worse) humanity had to take to the skies in flying cities constructed from plants by architects, People who can manipulate plants and build structures out of them. There are also sungineers…who develop technology separate to the powers wielded by architects.
It's an engaging story with the narrative being driven by the architects who by wielding this power run the risk of losing themselves in the 'ecstasy' and this power going wild destroying their cities. Plenty of mysteries at the heart some involving the past (how could they not when one of the two narrative views is an archaeologist). If you liked N.K. Jemisin The Broken Earth series, and if you didn't why not, then give Kritika H. Rao's tale a try.
This is a sequel to “Meru” which about the protagonist's parents and the circumstances that led to Akshaya's unique hybrid biology I think you could read Loka as a stand alone novel but then you would miss out on how much her own mother Jayanthi is reflected in Akshaya character and how much her mother has to have grown to change her decision.
It was very readable and the changing environments and different challenges kept the pace. Warning there is a death of a loved character that I kept expecting to appear later by miraculous rescue but never came.
I enjoyed seeing how the book approached medical disability of Akshaya's sickle cell disease I also love the way S.B.Diva's engineering approach came in with the use of the breather masks to help Akshaya's crisis.
A short sharp and amusing tale. Deploying all the standards for the Victorian Governess stories but with the twist that the governess is deeply disturbed. Imagine Charlotte Bronte's eponymous hero but psychotic.
A revenge tale that is okay because like many Victorian antagonists they are all terrible human beings.
I bought Sinopticon after reading editor/translator Xueting Christine Ni excellent 2024 Sinophagia and like that amazing collection this one didn't disappoint either (obviously Xueting Christine Ni now joins the category for me of will read anything with her name on it) . Also don't be concerned if you aren't familiar with Chinese culture or history that you won't enjoy these stories. I know very little and these stories still resonated with me.
There are 13 stories all worthwhile and those I choose to highlight are more a personal choice than any literary criteria. As a fan of the zombie genre Flower of the Other Shore was as beautiful love story that shows the genre can still provide new stories. As a westerner who had the great good fortune to be in mainland China during a Qingming Festival I really felt The Great Migration, by Ma Boyong. Also The last Save by Gu Shi is what great science fiction is built on a single idea explored to its ultimate conclusion.
Like Sinophagia the stories end with a notes about the author’s background and context on the story. The only drawback is it meant I went down rabbit holes to find the other works by the author mentioned in the notes. Also the balance of authors gender and new and established authors is a mix other anthologies would do well to follow.
The Folded Sky, is the third in Bears White Space space opera, following Ancestral Night and Machine. It takes place roughly in the same time period as Machine, thus some time after Ancestral Night (the actual Ancestral Night ship makes a brief cameo in the novel). If you will recall, these novels revolve around a spacefaring community of aliens, humans among them. If you enjoyed those books this one has everything those have and is just as enjoyable.
"Sunya is a researcher traveling to the edge of the galaxy. She studies information and the collection and interpretation of information, and a cache of ancient alien information is the biggest known. But her arrival there is not easy. Pirates are blockading the system. The star that the cache is orbiting, as well as the space station for the researchers, is probably going to go supernova any time now. And then there are the attempted murders. And just what are those mysterious things Sunya is seeing in the corner of her vision?" - Paul Weimer at Nerds of a Feather
You don't need to have read those two books to enjoy Folded Sky but seriously why wouldn't you they are great. Its a great story a ancient mystery, space pirates, AIs of various levels of snark and did I mention cats.
This one is for all of those postgraduates who at 2am in the morning after having finished marking, subsisting on instant ramen, wondering how bad the mold in their shared rental is, and trying to remember what day it is…who have had that dark moment of the soul and think is this worth it? This one's for you.
Saberin C at grimdark magazine summaries it thusly Katabasis is the story of two PhD students who travel to hell with the sole purpose of rescuing the soul of their advisor, Professor Jacob Grimes, who exploded in a freak magical accident that may or may not have been one of the post-grads’ fault.
Alice Law is a graduate student in Cambridge’s Department of Analytic Magick and her drive is if she works hard enough, is clever enough, unrelenting enough she can win that elusive prise an ongoing position in academia.
Along for the journey to hell is her ex Peter Murdoch, her only significant academic rival (indeed grimes the asshat plays them off against each other). Peter is charming, brilliant, seemingly maddeningly unbothered by the stress and strains of post graduate work (don't worry we learn this is all surface) —and equally desperate to bring Grimes back, if only for reasons he refuses to disclose. Thes two are fully developed and painfully relatable. Finding relatability in a character who can cast spells and hold multiple degrees isn’t easy, but Kuang makes Alice feel completely relatable
The world building of the magic system and hell is brilliant and would make the book worth it for that alone, but the character study of these two souls is equally satisfying. The hell we visit is syncretic—Greek, Chinese, Hindu, and modern theoretical magick all blend together into a believable metaphysical dark academic architecture.
One of my favourites which is what I have come to expect from R.F Kuang an author who I can guarantee I will read anything she publishes.
In an opening note, Johnson acknowledges that it is a book born from rage. You can feel it pulsing out of the pages as you read. Its is angry, it is visceral and it is in every sense of the world righteous.
The world crafting for Wiley town and Ashtown, are amazing and where where those same dynamics are negotiated with violence.
Adrienne Martini at Locus magazine gives us this beautiful description
"What kicks Mr. Scales’s story off is the gruesome murder of a dancer, who is essentially turned inside-out in front of a room full of paying customers. Mr. Scales – all of Ashtown’s enforcers are Mister, no matter what their gender identity is – is sent into Wiley City for answers. And those answers only lead to more questions. ‘‘I fix things, I guess. It’s what I do,’’ Mr. Scales says. Ultimately she does, but not in the way anyone would anticipate.
While Mr. Scales’s arc is tightly plotted and powerfully rendered, what stands out more is how Johnson plays with the idea of what we use stories for. Do we use them to find something true? Or heal something broken? And how can we do that while negotiating what we see in our actual lives when it comes to power and class? What do we do when the stories we know are proven to be built on lies?"
But it isn't just about the justified anger but about using rage to build something better.
If you have read the first in the duology The Scarlet Alchemist and you enjoyed it, then you should read this one as it resolves the story in a consistent and satisfying way even if it made me want to skip ahead to find out if character had died like it looked in the story.
Don't worry Durian is okay.
Sophia Rose over at Caffeinated Reviewer has a good summary "For five centuries, human life has been restricted to Earth, while posthuman descendants called alloys freely explore the galaxy. But when the Earthlike planet of Meru is discovered, two unlikely companions venture forth to test the habitability of this unoccupied new world and the future of human-alloy relations.
For Jayanthi, the adopted human child of alloy parents, it’s an opportunity to rectify the ancient reputation of her species as avaricious and destructive, and to give humanity a new place in the universe. For Vaha, Jayanthi’s alloy pilot, it’s a daunting yet irresistible adventure to find success as an individual.
As the journey challenges their resolve in unexpected ways, the two form a bond that only deepens with their time alone on Meru. But how can Jayanthi succeed at freeing humanity from its past when she and Vaha have been set up to fail?"
I enjoyed this ultimately hopeful novel and non anglo centric space science fiction stories are alwyas welcome as some say Infinite Diversity Infinite combinations. I will certainly read the next in the series about Jayanthi and Vaha's offspring Loka.
This is a pandemic novel and written in 2022 carries all the experiences, learnings and failures that that period held. There is an out break of plague (infact its THE plague) but its not an outbreak/zombie book. No shade on anyone else that's one of my favorite genres but this isn't one of those stories. This one begins a few days before the outbreak at The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center. We meet the teens dumped there and how they respond as they learn they are abandoned by their private company, guards and adults and when they try to leave are met with a police barricade enforcing a lockdown. How they try to organise, develop and survive is the story.
Told from three points of view: Logan, who communicates via a sign language she and her twin sister developed between them; Emerson, a new resident of Hope who’s also nonbinary; and Grace, a girl with some big anger issues who winds up reluctantly in charge of the group.
In many ways reflective of how the world responded to the COVID-19 outbreak it highlights that we as a community could have learned much from that experience.
Having just finished this author's recent and amazing 'Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng' I was worried that this tale would suffer in comparison I was pleased to find it was just as engaging for me. Kylie Lee Baker has joined R.F.Kuang as an author who works I will priorities reading.
The Scarlet Alchemist ticked all the right boxes for me
- Set in an alternative Tang Dynasty China
- Rich chemical/alchemical lore
- Class consciousness where the rich can live forever consuming alchemical gold and the poor can't ( and of course are consumed to make it)
- and 100 year old ethereal, cunning Wu Zetian fast becoming a favouite of mine for stories (see Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao)
This is the first in a duology and I can not wait to dive into the next The Blood Orchid.
This is one of my most page turning novels I have read so far this year. I have been a fan of Kylie Lee Baker and this novel only adds to my desire to read more of her work.
Be aware this is a COVID pandemic novel and does not shy away from the fear and horrific culture of racism against Asians (like racist arsehats distinguish between Chinese and other Asians minorities) during this period (which still hasn't ended).
Cora Zeng is a biracial Chinese American crime scene cleaner. Some reviewer describe her as a germaphobe, I describe her as someone who is taking perfectly reasonable precautions. Cora grew up with her half-sister Delilah. Delilah's mother is Chinese and she grew up speaking several dialects. Cora struggles with Mandarin, as her mother is white. So already we know Cora struggles with her identity. Fair warning the book begins where her sister is pushed by a racist white man shoving her off a rail platform and Delilah’s head meets a train and this will not be the only horrifically described gory scene in the book. Cora Zeng now works as a crime scene cleaner, and she and her coworkers (who are also of Asian heritage) have noticed a scary pattern of Asian American women being brutally murdered and having bats left at the crime scene.
Oh and Cora thinks her sister is now a hungry ghost.
I also appreciated the well craft twist and the misdirection's that lead up to this twist. So much so I went back a reread the novel to see how well these details had been crafted.
But perhaps Bat Eater’s most remarkable achievement is its seamless weaving of horror with incisive social commentary. It's full of uncomfortable truths: the fetishisation of Asian women. The book includes Cora's observation "Everyone wants Asian girls to look pretty. No one wants them to talk.” The sharp sting of systemic racism, racially motivated hate crimes, police brutality, media manipulation and copaganda. Baker handles these topics with both sensitivity and brutality, crafting a narrative that is as unsettling as it is necessary.
Needless to say much of this is confronting and reflecting the horrible racist culture we have in our culture and I can understand why some might not want to read this book. Like Monika Kim's "The eyes are the best part' this is a remarkable book giving a window into the impact our B.S cultural narratives have on Asian minorities that a lot of non-Asians (like me) would benefit in being forced to confront.
It's book 3 and the writing, characters and world building all becoming more assured. Further characters stories are developed as are the relationships. If you have enjoyed the other books in the series this will certainly satisfy however minor caution I had thought his was a trilogy but the cliff hanger ending and reveal means I hope this is an ongoing series so prepare yourself for that. Hitting a short chapter that concludes this step in the narrative only to have it end and the last 30 page an except from the first novel was a frustrating.
When I began reading The Shutouts I didn't know it was set in the (Cli-Fi) climate fiction world of her debut Yours for the Taking (2023) but I certainly didn't feel I missed out on understanding the situation or if any of the characters stories were lacking because they were explained in the previous novel.
"Set in parallel points of view 2041 and 2078. In 2041, the world is falling apart due to rapidly accelerating climate change. As storms, fires, and viruses destroy cities, millions of climate refugees find themselves without homes. Kelly, a hacker and activist, is traveling across the United States and writing letters to the daughter she left behind. Seven years earlier, Kelly joined a group she believed would save the world. Starting from her childhood, Kelly recounts in devastating detail how and why she left—and, even more importantly, why she’s returning.
In 2078, a group of queer characters seeks out new ways of surviving in a world that is unimaginable and nearly uninhabitable. Max, a nonbinary person who grew up in the Winter Liberation Army, discovers truths about their home that make it impossible to stay. Survivalist Orchid sets out to save her ex-girlfriend Ava from the Inside Project, a highly selective, government-funded climate protection program. Meanwhile, Ava and her daughter, Brook, have escaped the Inside after unearthing a deadly secret. Finally, climate refugee Camilla decides to wait for her friend Orchid to return, while their group travels further north for safety. As Max, Orchid, Ava, Brook, and Camilla try to survive both together and apart, they begin to discover the known and unknown connections among them. A page-turning queer, feminist dystopia". -From Kirkus reviews
As the novel races to a finish, the dual story lines converge satisfyingly. The novel ends with a perfect blend of sadness and hope that refuses to downplay the dangers of climate change nor discount humanity’s desire to survive.
A fun science fiction story, imagine the golden age science fiction stories of Robert Heinlein about plucky teens saving the solar systems but without the heteronormativity, American exceptionalism and masculine hegemony (yeah that doesn't leave much does it).
The story of 5 teenage underdogs trying to find their place in a universe that is intent on discarding the rejects. M. K. England sets up a unique and brilliant world of Earth and space in the year 2194. Space travel is a constant, there are hundreds of fully-functioning colonies, and Earth has a strict no-return policy.
Our chosen family are all washed out the selection process for the Academy and I loved how England drops us into the action from almost the first page with out any build up or backstory. The teens stories are organically revealed. Becca Evans at " Nax Hall, the young, attractive, hotshot pilot, is openly bi. Readers get to sympathize with teenage hormones and unfortunate timing, quickly-developed crushes, and lots of inconvenient emotions as Nax recognizes his attraction to other members of his crew and reminisces on past relationships". One of his crew is trans (with a sad, real connection to our own current events). She is a brilliant, kick-ass character, and also was a favorite.
Case, the engineering wiz, Zee, the high-kicking medic, and Rion, the slightly-posh and roguishly handsome smooth talker. Along the way, they meet up with Asra, who promises to get them a ship if they can just help her steal it. And I love every single one of them. These characters are unique, flawed, and undeniably interesting. Each one is brilliant, if atypical, and make up a crew that patches each other’s cracks and works well together.
And while the story is resolved I wouldn't mind spending more time with these characters in this world and the ending certainly leave that open with a new crew and a their spaceship in a big system of worlds.
I'm a fan of huge fan of Neon Yang’s Tensorate novellas So I was excited to read this transmutation of saint Joan of Arc into a foul-mouthed and combative protagonist Misery Nomaki.
The world building is incredible, sufficiently strange but with weird but firm underlying structure With the battles fought by holy mechs It’s a little Pacific Rim, a little medieval Europe with the combative arguments of power between monarchs and the catholic church. The ritualistic, authoritarian trappings of empire around that which call to mind Yoon Ha Lee’s Hexarchate or Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch; and the giant sacred space robots and the battles between the Empire’s space robots and the forces of the rebel Heretics – smaller in number but able to engage in more novel formations thanks to said heresy. (of course I am rooting for the heretics, because science)
As a space opera at heart, there will be terms and names that make your brain sputter in confusion. Just go with it, the meaning will soon be clear enough. An example of this wielding of language to create different space the groups of mechs called servings then of course a battle group would be termed a banquet.
"The narration begins with someone asking an angel for Misery's story, to make sense of things, which explains the omniscient narration and the interludes that explain some of the backstory of humanity going into space, how the Church of the Faithful was created and how the Heretics split off. The holy war between them is officially at a truce, and there are stones that can be manipulated by those considered saints or are holy parts of the Church. There are also those infected with the Void, the emptiness and mutated aspects of space. It gets into the mind first, creating hallucinations and then personality changes before completely obliterating the human form with mutations and violence. From the start, Misery is aware of the void sickness inside her, as she has a hallucination following her and running commentary or telling her what to do; this sickness had also killed her mother years ago. But she is able to manipulate the holy stones, changing their shapes or moving through their doors, so everyone believes she is the next Messiah that was prophesied. She must train to use the mechs in combat against remaining Heretic forces while not really believing in her own hype. Her goal is survival, and if the rest of humanity survives too, that's a bonus".
The book ends in what I think suggests the story has more to tell and I have seen suggestions its is a duology or trilogy and I certainly would love to see more of this world and Misery.
It was great to return to E∂ian world of MY LADY JANE! The focus is on Mary Queen of Scott's while in France we meet Francis her childhood friend and future spouse, not not that one they other Francis. Cynthia Hand amuses with her collection of historical details. It was a joy to encounter Jay Grey, Edward and now Elizabeth (good queen Bess) you don't need to know this history but it does highten the enjoyment. For example I learned that John Knox was a real figure who published 'The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women'
A fun historical rump for those who loved My Lady Jane and The Princess Bride.
This one was fun. The fantasy Dark Lord/lady/nonbinary who we get to discover is actually a good is one I never tire of reading L.G. Estrella's The Unconventional Heroes beginning with Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf, Hannah Nicole Maehrer's Assistant to the Villain and my first exposure to this genre Paul Dale's The Dark Lord's handbook.
The narrative driver in this one is the Dread Lord Gavrax wakes up in a summoning circle with a whole in his memories and looming dread ritual with three other evil (differing values of Evil) wizards he has to spend much of the story playing catch up with goblin minions, townsfolk used to suffering under the yoke of a dark lord, stalwart (though in many ways clueless) heroes and a kidnapped princess who is by every measure smarter than he is. Also the more Gav learns of Gavrax the less he likes and not sure he wants his memories back.
Mediation on what we are as a person, our thoughts or our actions, and a clever use of Chekhov's moat squid mean I am hoping to read more from Caitlin Rozakis after finishing this one.