Jessica Strider

Pros: brilliant world-building, interesting characters, interesting politics, thought provoking

Cons:

For Parents: no swearing, minor suggestive content, a few kisses, some violence, nothing graphic

Seraphina has a secret to hide regarding her mother. Her distant father warns her to avoid calling attention to herself, but her love of music makes it hard for her, especially when she becomes the assistant to the court composer. It's a mere two weeks before the Treaty Eve festivities when the Ardmagar Comonot visits to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the peace pact between the Goredd nation and dragonkind. Not everyone is happy with the peace, especially since Prince Rufus recently died in a suspiciously draconic way. The Sons of St. Ogdo are stirring up the populace against the vile scurge even as members of the royal court make snide remarks behind the backs of the draconic embassy members. The depth of Seraphina's knowledge of dragons and her willingness to stand up for them in the face of prejudice, brings her to the attention of Prince Lucian Kiggs, Captain of the Queen's Guard, as more and more incidents occur. As the days count down both her secret and the peace pact are in danger.

This is a brilliant novel. The writing is top notch and the world-building excellent. It's a pseudo-European world, but one that remembers there are other nations with other peoples, many of whom travel and have political and economic ties to each other. The religion is obviously based on Catholicism, with a plethora of interesting saints (including St. Ogdo the dragon slayer). I loved that the politics around the peace weren't simple. The racism of humans to dragons and vice versa is covered (in multiple forms), as is the peace pact between the human nations that came about beforehand, which allowed the humans to present a united front to the dragons. I also liked that the book pointed out the uncertainty that people feel when forced to trust that their former enemy is trading in good faith.

The dragons are coldly logical, refusing to allow feelings to affect them. But when they take human form, they can have trouble dealing with the wash of emotions that come over them. Dragons that forget themselves face harsh punishments - the excision of those emotions and any memories that could revive them.

Seraphina is a wonderful character. She lies to protect herself, knowing that she's hurting herself by doing so. I loved that many of her lies are uncovered, forcing her to face the consequences of her actions and make difficult decisions based on them. Lucian's great, always asking questions and sometimes getting burned by the answers. Princess Glisselda was fun to read about, with her obvious intelligence and political savvy. It was refreshing to see a friendship develop between women that didn't involve any backbiting or gossip. I also loved Orma, who tries so hard to appear human but doesn't quite grasp all of the intricacies involved even as he often has to prove he has no emotional attachment to Seraphina.

The book has some great examples of how to stand up for yourself - and others - when facing bigotry. It isn't easy and Seraphina sometimes does the wrong thing, but it's great seeing examples of how to deal with bullying behaviour head on. It's equally good that it shows the potential backlash and consequences that standing up for something can elicit.

I personally found the jump between the prologue and the first chapter very confusing. The prologue shows Seraphina's birth, which made me think the book would progress through her life, but the first chapter jumps several years ahead, and you have to read a few chapters to understand how she got where she is now. Logically prologues tend to stand apart from the rest of the book so that was my failure of attention rather than a flaw in the text.

I loved this book. The characters felt so real and Seraphina's loneliness so heartbreaking that I cried several times while reading it. The mystery is a little on the slow side, but I found the world and happenings so fascinating that I didn't care. If you love fantasy, get this book.

Pros: great world-building, entertaining

Cons: surprisingly swift resolution to numerous problems

The Western Star returns to England from the edge of the world purportedly carrying treasures untold, but the hold is full of barrels of dirt, rocks, and seawater, and the crew has mysteriously died. Stephen Parris, physic to the ailing King Edward VI, attempts to increase his knowledge of the human body by dissecting corpses, an act that would mean his execution if discovered. The most recent body he examines, from The Western Star, is remarkably preserved and has some bizarre characteristics. Christopher Sinclair is an alchemist, determined to find the elixir of life, and believes the tales of wealth the admiral of The Western Star told before he died. He convinces the king to finance a second mission for the repaired ship and persuades Parris to accompany him on his voyage of discovery.

This book is set in a world very similar to our own where the Earth is, in fact, flat, and a mysterious substance called quintessence - the fifth element, the essence of life - is found in creatures that live close to the world's edge. The book, consequently, has a lot of fantastical creatures, starting with a beetle that can fly through walls and a manticore that can speak mind to mind using its tail as a connection port. Learning about the different creatures and their miraculous properties was highly entertaining.

I'm currently learning about the history of science so it was a real pleasure to see Aristotelianism argued against atomism (not to be confused with the modern atomic theory).

The book doesn't pull any punches with regards to what life was like, either with England in its time of tribulation (with the succession), shipboard life, or the challenges of learning about a new land. I especially appreciated that the Spanish inquisition was used accurately - as a way to wipe out heresy, not a series of witchcraft trials. Again, the horror of the institution isn't toned down at all, and the true targets, conversos (Jews and Muslims who professed conversion to Catholicism while retaining their beliefs in secret), are briefly shown in focus. Witchcraft does come up, but in the contexts of body snatching and magic.

I really liked Parris and his inquisitiveness, as well as his daughter Catherine, and her desire to learn more about the natural world and avoid marriage for the time being. I felt that Catherine grew over the course of the book, though mostly at the end, when the consequences of her actions throughout the book become clear. Parris too grows to some extent.

Sinclair is pretty interesting as a character, though he's not very likeable. I found his experiments cool, but his willingness to manipulate people to get his way became disturbing as the book wore on.

Most of the action in the book was predictable but there were some interesting twists, mainly concerning the creatures encountered and revolving around the ending of the book.

The ending came rather suddenly and wrapped things up a little too neatly. A number of people mastered powers too quickly to be believable. I did, however, appreciate that there was no cliffhanger leading to the next book in the trilogy.

Pros: lots of action, interesting characters, thought provoking, accessible science

Cons: some of the characters were underused, not as much emotional connection with characters as I would have liked

Kaden Lane and a small group of other brilliant college students come up with a way to add programmable code to Nexus 3, a drug that allows people to communicated telepathically. Their still incomplete code, which has the potential to transform humans into transhumans, puts them and their upgraded Nexus 5 on the hit list of the Emerging Risks Directorate, a subsection of Homeland Security, taxed with maintaining laws restricting research into certain areas of science. Kaden believes in the best of humanity, and knows that Nexus 5 could do great things for people. ERD officer Samantha Cataranes has seen the worst that mind altering drugs can do, and believes - along with her organization - that Nexus 5 will be horribly abused.

This is a novel that examines the morality of augmenting humans to help them become more than human and how the tools of such augmentation can be used to benefit and harm people. Both Kaden and Sam start the book firmly entrenched in their positions, but the events of the story make them both question what they believe. This questioning is thought provoking for the reader, for whom the various pros and cons aren't immediately obvious, but also allow the characters the chance to grow as individuals.

There's a fair amount of action, culminating in numerous showdowns at the end of the book.

I loved that Naam has an ‘extras' section at the end of the book where he explains the science that he extrapolated from to come up with Nexus and the other scientific advances in the book. It's amazing the things we're currently capable of, and both inspiring and terrifying to see what might come next. The science contained in the book is clearly and concisely explained. There are no long expository passages weighing the book down. It starts fast paced and continues so throughout.

I had two complaints about the book. The first was that one of the characters was underused, in that I expected interesting things to happen with that person's storyline but nothing really came of it. The second is that though you really get into Sam and Kaden's heads, you don't feel a close connection to them, or the other people who they interact with in the book. When the bodies started piling up I didn't really care about anyone that was dying. I wasn't too afraid for Sam and Kaden, mainly due to Sam's augmentations, but again, I wasn't as invested in them as I wanted to be.

This isn't a subgenre of SFF that I normally read, so I was afraid I'd find the science over my head. Naam does a great job of making the science accessible and the action fast and furious. There's enough down time to appreciate the difficult position Kaden is in while wondering how (and if) he'll escape it. It's a book that makes you think about science and technology and where we're headed as well as what role governments should play - if any - with regards to regulating the advancements to come. In other words, it's a great hard sf novel.

Pros: fun, wide variety, readable translation, interesting characters, informative introduction

Cons: commentary could have been more in depth

This is a collection consists of 72 of the lost tales Franz Xaver von Schönwerth recorded in the Eastern Bavarian region of Oberpfalz in the late 1850s. Rediscovered recently and translated into English, this collection allows modern readers more insight into the Germanic oral culture of what we now call fairy tales.

There's a short forward by the historian who discovered the papers on how this volume came to be published. The translator of the collection, the chair of folklore and mythology at Harvard, does the introduction and commentary on each of the stories. The introduction explains where these stories fit with the other tales that have come down to us and points out that fairy tales morphed from stories told by and to adults into stories told more often by women (whether mothers or nannies) to children. Which is why there are so many princesses and female rags to riches stories, and so few such tales about boys. This book brings back several tales of ‘Cinderfellas' and other disenfranchised young men. The commentaries, coming at the very end of the collection, mention the similarities between these tales and others we're familiar with. There's only room for a little explanation, so some of the commentaries are merely synopses while others have a bit more depth to them.

While some of the tales have morals and happy endings, several don't have either, with some truly unscrupulous people getting away with horrible things and curses going unbroken. And since these were oral tales you can expect a lot of twists out of left field, where the stories turn on previously unmentioned characters and events.

The collection is separated into seven categories: Tales of Magic, Enchanted Animals, Otherworldly Creatures, Legends, Tall Tales and Anecdotes, and Tales About Nature. It's a decent attempt to separate the stories, but the reality is that most of the stories can fit into several categories and that some stories with similar elements end up in different sections. There are a few with overly Christian themes (including some tales with the devil as the antagonist), and some with more 'pagan' themes. There are a lot of dwarfs and witches/evil women, and a smaller number of elves, gnomes, mermaids and other fantastical creatures. And curses. Lots and lots of curses.

One story ended with a very modern idiom, which made me wonder what the original German said, but on the whole I thought the translation was great, immersive and entertaining.

The stories are only a few pages each and the collection as a whole is a quick and pleasant read. While most of these wouldn't be considered ‘children's stories', they're not overly bloody or ribaldrous. The collection is fantastic for the variety of tales told and for the ways they used the fairy tale tropes we've become familiar with.

Pros: fast paced, complex, interesting morally ambiguous characters, thought provoking, several international locales

Cons: took a while to get into

When Josephine Cebula is gunned down at Taksim station, the ghost riding her flesh jumps to a new host in order to follow the man who, though obviously after the ghost and aware it left the body, for some reason made sure that Josephine died. It's quickly apparent that a secret organization is hunting ghosts, and ‘Kepler' is their current target.

The book begins with a murder and catapults you through several countries in various bodies as ‘Kepler' (named so by its hunters) tries to figure out who's after it and why. Flashbacks to earlier lives show other murder attempts, other lives, other ghosts and how they all deal with the flesh they wear.

The idea of beings that can transfer between bodies isn't a new one, but North does some great things with it. I loved that the ghosts were all individuals, treating their flesh in different ways. Some, like Kepler, are respectful, learning about them, and offering them money and improved circumstances for the time they lose. Others are less concerned with the humans around them, wanting to glory in the achievements, beauty and wealth of others without putting any effort into learning the skills necessary to achieve anything of their own. I liked that the ghosts can't access the memories or abilities of their flesh, meaning they can pretend to be that person, but only with effort on their part to learn the habits and skills of their borrowed flesh. I also liked that the people they take over have no memory of what's happened to them. This allows them to be tracked while also making what the ghosts do - stealing time from their hosts - more insidious. Kepler argues at one point that most people don't care - or are even happy - to lose an hour or two of their lives, especially when working or doing boring tasks. Few people would even notice if they were taken over for a minute or two, long enough for the ghost to get lost in a crowd. But consider the ghost that stays for 6 months or a year. What about 10 years? Or 30? Who'd be ok with losing that amount of their lives?

And what happens when you're effectively immortal, but unable to have a home, loved ones, possessions? What does that kind of lifestyle do to you after hundreds of years, when you're constantly moving from body to body, running from hunters or just bored of who you are?

The book asks some tough questions as none of the primary characters - except the main antagonist - is entirely good or evil. There's so much grey area and you really get to know - and like - the characters that it's hard to remember that this all started with a murder, and that Kepler, who seems so kind and loving, has done some horrible things in its past - depending on your point of view.

Because there's so much to learn about the ghosts, the killer and the plot, I found the opening slow. Not in terms of things happening, but in terms of trying to get a handle on everything that was happening. By the time I had a grasp on things I was thoroughly invested in Kepler and so drawn into the story that it was hard to put the book down.

I'd recommend this for book clubs as there's a lot of discussion possibility here. And if you like action and mystery with body hopping protagonists, give this a try.

Pros: great artwork, interesting story, thought provoking messages

Cons: story drags a bit in the middle, some unnecessary characters

A drug dealer on the Enterprise teleports to a planet that has been making the chronometers on the ship count backwards. When an away team follows, the fugitive passes through a portal to Earth in the 1930s. A change there affects the present, forcing Kirk and Spock to go after him.

The story has Kirk fall for a woman who's making things better for those living in the depression era, but Spock discovers that she's fated to die and saving her life is what changed the timeline.

There are a lot of differences between the original screen play and the episode that aired under this name. Several characters are removed entirely or condensed, making the plot tighter. The guardian is the same in essence but not in execution. I thought some of the changes made the story stronger but others changed its ultimate message. See my blog for a spoilery compare/contrast section (http://scififanletter.blogspot.com/2015/01/comic-review-star-trek-city-on-edge-of.html).

The artwork is in a realistic style that I enjoyed. The shading is done in such a way that each panel looks more like an oil painting than a comic book page. Expressions are clear and give added emotion to the story. Even full pages of dialogue have interesting backgrounds and character motion.

Ultimately, I preferred the TV episode to the screenplay, but I think the screenplay has a lot to offer and this comic rendition of it is beautifully done. It's an excellent story and a wonderful tribute to Star Trek fans to make it available.

Pros: tense, compelling, humerous, hard sf

Cons: swearing, some exposition

Mark Watney is presumed dead after being hit by flying debris and having his suit depressurize during the evacuation of the Ares 3 mission on Mars in a dust storm. But hours after his crew departs on the only ship, Mark wakes up. Now he's alone on Mars with no way home and supplies only designed to last a crew of 6 for 31 days.

This is a novel of survival under extreme conditions. It's predominately told from Mark's point of view via daily journal entries. Mark is a resourceful man with a dry sense of humour, which helps keep the novel upbeat even though things are constantly dire. It's a compelling book that's hard to put down with lots of tense moments.

It's also hard science fiction, meaning there's a good amount of science explanation and mathmatics going on. Most of the time it's quick and engagingly told (often using humour). Communications are reproduced with the time lag and flight times are dictated by real physics. According to an interview I read by him the only scientifically inaccurate point in the book is the dust storm on Mars at the beginning of the book.

There's a fair bit of swearing, which I'm not keen on, but a lot of it was understandable given the circumstances. My only other complaint is that a lot of necessary information was given in conversations in ways that - though they worked in the text - would sound odd in real life. So, for example, people would say things like “It's nice to be back in Houston.”, rather than simply “It's nice to be back.”, so the reader would know where the conversation was happening. Similarly, people often explained things to coworkers that their coworkers should know, like how various scientific things work, or what they're called, so that the reader would learn this information. It's a catch-22 in that the reader needs the information and there are only 2 ways to get it across, via dialogue or exposition. Dialogue is the more interesting way of reading it, so he made the right choice. And most people won't notice he did this, they'll just enjoy the fast paced story.

This is a fantastic book and I can understand why it made so many top 10 lists for 2014 and why it's been optioned for film.

Pros: quick summaries of notable stories, timeline of when stories were written, interesting text boxes with additional information, mentions alternate spellings/versions

Cons: as mentioned in the introduction there are too many knights and stories to cover them all

As with the other books in Osprey's Myths and Legends series, this is a great introduction if you're interested in Arthurian Legends. The author, Daniel Mersey, wrote a volume on King Arthur, and this volume on the knights is meant to accompany it in fleshing out the legends.

The book has entertaining synopses of several of the earliest legends about Arthur's knights, told by Chretien de Troyes and his contemporaries in the late 12th Century. There are several stories about Lancelot and Gawain, as well as Tristan and Isolde, Yvain, Erec, Balin and Beaumains.

If you don't know much about the knights, this is a fantastic introduction, with text boxes breaking up the stories that have added information regarding where different characters were popular, alternate spellings, which ones potentially came first, etc. The literary timeline's also great, showing when the different stories were written.

It's an attractive edition with reprints of several images that accompanied older editions of the stories as well as new illustrations by Alan Lathwell.

Of course, with such a slim volume a lot is going to be left out. The author mentions that in his introduction and includes a supplementary reading and watching list (including preferred translations for the texts) for those who want to learn more.

Pros: Helen's a complex character, interesting plot

Cons: Alastair's mistreatment of Helen is more told than shown

Helen Huntingdon's husband is part of Copperhead, an organization that aims to rid the city of the fae - and the dwarvven. Under his direction she replaced her normal face with a fae one, an act that now leaves her in peril of being overtaken by the fae and having her own existence wiped out. She's not alone, almost 100 other influential women in the city have had the same operation.

Helen brings her sister Jane to a Copperhead meeting in order to remove the fae mask of the host's wife, but when the host turns on their new weapon against the fae, something goes horribly wrong. The wife is left in a fae trance while Jane, accused of murdering the woman, has disappeared. Helen must convince the rest of the 100 fae faced women to have the operation to return their original faces while she searches for her missing sister, because it sounds like the fae are gearing up for another attack.

Helen is a great character. While Jane, the protagonist of the first book, and her older sister, is direct and often tactless with her sense of right and wrong, Helen has learned to manipulate the people around her into thinking she's a bit empty-headed and have them do things for her when she smiles and flirts. She feels guilty that she wasn't brave enough to join the fae war like Jane, and resentful that Jane left her - at 13 - to watch their mother die of a slow illness afterwards. Helen doesn't want to responsibility that's left with her when Jane disappears. She wants to be shallow, discussing fashion with other socialite women, dancing, and flirting. She wants to find Jane so she can hand over the fate of the 100. But when push comes to shove - again and again and again - she knuckles down and does when she has to. Indeed, as the book progresses you discover how much of her flirtatious attitude masks insecurity and how capable she really is when she trusts herself. We learn what she actually did after the war - how she helped and what decisions she made that trapped her in the present, with a husband who isn't who she thought he was. It's fascinating seeing the different sides of her, and watching her decide who she wants to be moving forward. It's a story about seeing yourself as you truly are and accepting the good and bad in you. It's a story about growth.

The Copperhead plot was pretty interesting, as was the mystery of what happened to Jane and the danger facing the city. There's a touch of romance that develops organically from the story. In addition to Helen there are a number of other interesting women who play a large part of the story. It's cool to see female friendships and interactions in a fantasy setting.

I felt that Helen and Alastair's relationship wasn't as well defined in the book as it could have been. There's more telling than showing to indicate that their relationship is bad. Early on he takes her mask - the only thing that keeps her safe from being taken over by the fae when outside. He sees it as a way of protecting her. She sees it as a way of controlling her. Without other interactions it's hard to know if she is being unreasonably restricted by him (I'd argue she isn't considering how easy it is for her to sneak out). Only later in the book do we see his darker side, but even then, some of the revelations about him at the climax still came as something of a shock to me.

As much as I enjoyed Ironskin I have to admit I liked Copperhead more. Perhaps it was because the story was more original, perhaps it was because Helen was such a delightful character to get to know. I'm really enjoying this series and look forward to finishing it off in Silverblind.

Pros: lots of intrigue, lots of action, lots of unexpected plot twists, fascinating characters, brilliant writing

Cons: middle drags a bit, lots of swearing

Note: this is book two of the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, and as such both the synopsis and review contain spoilers for book one. If you haven't read The Emperor's Blades, it's a fantastic fantasy novel.

Picking up immediately where The Emperor's Blades left off, the novel continues to follow the murdered Emperor Sunlitan's children: Kaden, heir to the throne, is now able to enter the vaniate and use the Kenta gates built by the Csestriim; Valyn, is considered a traitor by the Ketral under whom he studied for the past 10 years, learning how to kill to protect the Empire; and Adare, who leaves the capital to find an army she can use to wrestle power from the general il Tornja.

There is so much going on in this book. The characters all travel a lot to get closer to their various aims, discover those aims need to change, and in the course of the book change drastically as people. It's fantastic seeing characters react to situations based on limited and often faulty information, make decisions that affect their future - often very negatively - and watch them muddle through. The book feels more like reading history than a structured work of writing. Alliances change, trust is misplaced and/or broken, characters do things they regret and see things they're helpless to stop.

Several battles pepper the book and the climax revolves around a war. There's a lot of action, blood and gore. There's also a lot of politicking, much of which went in directions I did not expect, especially in Kaden's storyline.

The characters are varied in how they act, react and change. They remain entertaining and engaging throughout the novel, though I did find that the middle of the book dragged a bit, especially around some of Adare's arc. The ending was fantastic though, and sets things up for what ought to be an amazing third book.

There is a lot of swearing, which fits the characters but isn't something I'm particularly keen on. I'd place this on the lighter side of grimdark, because most of the characters remain sympathetic, even as they often end up doing horrible things. It feels like a cross between Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy and Daniel Abraham's Dagger and the Coin series.

I really recommend this series.

Pros: realistic characters, interesting plot, interesting background, fast paced

Cons: don't see the scene the entire book revolves around, Alastair's accent comes and goes

For Parents: some non-graphic violence, minor sexual content, drug abuse

Fifteen year old Quin is nearing the day when she, her cousin (well, third cousin but one of their relatives remarried so they're really only half third cousins), and John, the boy she loves, are initiated as Seekers. They've been training for this for years, learning how to fight to make the world a better place. But John knows that Quin's father is more brutal than she understands. And the Seekers are no longer the noble warriors that she's been taught they are.

The book is split into 3 parts. The first segment deals with the teens' hopes before the initiation and the immediate aftermath of the ceremony. The second segment deals with events some time later, as the protagonists have tried to move on from what's happened. The third brings the players together again to decide whether their futures will be determined by the choices of their past.

I loved the characters. As events unfold each protagonist makes decisions that deeply affects the rest of their lives. Subsequent decisions aren't necessarily good ones, even though each does their best to move on. I especially liked learning more about Maud and the history of the Dreads. I hope more of this history will be revealed in future books.

Quin starts off fairly naive, but ended up going in directions I hadn't expected. At first I thought she was wrong about John and how he would deal with the knowledge he was looking for, but as the book progressed I slowly realized that she was right and that his quest was destroying him. At the same time, I liked John, sympathizing with his plight, as a youth. But time and decisions make him less noble. Shinobu has the most startling transformation between the first and second sections of the book. Here too, his reasons for his actions are completely understandable, even if his decline is not pleasant to read.

This is brought up by a character in the book, but it seemed bizarre that both Quin's mom and Shinobu's dad try to warn them away from their initiation but refuse to explain why. It's impossible to make an informed decision without information and these two know for a fact that their children don't understand what they're making an oath to do. Similarly, lightly warning the kids off only made the kids more determined to take their oaths.

Alastair, Shinobu's father, is a big, red-headed, Scottish man. Sometimes he speaks with a Scottish accent (cannae, etc.), and sometimes he doesn't. There doesn't appear to be a reason why his accent comes and goes.

My main complaint with the book is that the pivotal moment of the book, the scene the entire book turns on, the scene where Quin and Shinobu go on their first mission to become Seekers, is never properly described. We're given a few glimpses, enough to know it was horrible, but not enough to properly understand what Quin and Shinobu actually did on the mission. And this knowledge is essential to understand and sympathize with their following actions. Their despair, depression, Quin's bout of OCD, their extreme hatred of her father (but not so much Sinobu's) all come down to what happened in that scene. I think retaining this scene would have increased my emotional attachment to Quin and Shinobu as well as made John's mission more sympathetic, but I also understand that the scene would have been dark and bloody and the author probably wanted to keep a younger rating for the book.

Ultimately I really enjoyed the book. It's well written, fast paced and at times thought provoking. It's got an interesting magic element underlying how the Seekers can do what they do. It's got some characters who really go through the wringer. Can't wait for the next book.

Pros: thorough, entertaining, educational, lots of illustrations

Cons: mentions religious reconstruction using archaeology but doesn't give much information about what's been discovered, drawings of some Viking artefacts rather than photographs

This is a great introduction to Norse mythology on the whole and an excellent one if you're interested in Thor in particular. There's a one page rundown of important characters and another with places. The source materials of the myths are briefly discussed, specifically the Poetic and Prose Edda, and during the retellings the author often pauses to explain cultural and situational material necessary for understanding what's going on.

The stories themselves are quite entertaining, though while Thor's exploits against the giants are referred to, there's little description of those battles.

There are a good number of newly commissioned and older artworks illustrating the stories. I would have liked to see some photographs of archaeological finds rather than drawings though.

The author mentions that the sources are light when it comes to how the Norse gods were worshiped but that archaeology has started shedding light on this issue, but doesn't mention any of the finds or what we've learned about their religious practices from them. The author does, however, mention information about religious practices that have survived in written form (eg. Tacitus).

The final chapter deals with how myths of Thor have been used in modern times, like how they were co-opted by the Nazi party when trying to create a sense of nationalism for Germany after World War I. It also goes into Thor's portrayal in comics and movies.

If you don't know much about Norse mythology or Thor, this is an excellent book to get you up to speed.

Pros: lots of information, political components told like a story with digressions on economics, weather, etc.,

Cons: I personally found the weather talk - though essential to the subject of the book - dryly told and boringly technical

This is an examination of the effects of the end of the medieval warm period during the reign of King Edward II of England. The book gives some background into the population explosion and increased farming that took place during the 400 hundred years when Europe experienced warmer temperatures (including the Viking expansion into Greenland), before delving into the political trials England faced at the time. Much of the book is given over to the war between England and Scotland and how it affected politics (Scotland allied with France at times to force England to back off) and economics (Scotland raided the English border over and over again, forcing the king to raise armies, draining his coffers). Two chapters - of particular interest to me - detailed the effects of the wet, cold weather on crops and the diseases that accompanied the resulting famines, decimating herds across England and the Continent.

While I found some of the weather discourse too technical and therefore boring, the rest of the book was very readable and fascinating.

If you're interested in how politics and the weather can combine to created a famine, and what else famine brings with it, this is a great book. Similarly, if the politics of England and Scotland or the lives and times of Edward the first and, predominantly the second, interest you, then definitely give this book a go.

Pros: interesting world-building, great protagonist

Cons: banter between Jane and Rochart didn't quite match Jane and Rochester

Jane Eliot has worn an iron mask over half of her face since the end of the fae war 5 years ago, when she was cursed with rage. The mask keeps the rage at bay, but marks her as an ironskin, a reminder of worse times, and shunned by society. Upon the engagement of her sister to an aristocrat greatly above their station, she takes a post as governess to a young girl who's... different. Jane believes she knows how to reach the child, but Dorie is not an ironskin like Jane. And as Jane starts to fall for her brooding new master, she wonders if she's the right person to help Dorie after all.

This is a fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre. But while the plot remains largely the same, there are a lot of major and minor differences. At times when she diverges from Jane Eyre, Connolly writes in a nod to the original. For example, Jane in this one never went to a boarding school, but she did teach at one and comments that she's glad she never had to attend it, given the horrible conditions the girls faced. The ending is noticeably different, so don't think that having read Jane Eyre will preclude your enjoying this book or remove all the plot surprises.

I really enjoyed the fae aspects of the book, from the war to the curse to learning about the dwarvven and their interactions with the fae. I liked that the fae had understandable reasons for the war (that you discover at the end of the book). And I liked that the book kept much of the traditional view of fairy stories (the Irish and Welsh versions where someone who know someone was kidnapped by the fairies and later returned), rather than modern literary fairy tales.

Jane, as with her namesake, was a great protagonist. Though young she's determined and hard working, stubborn and loving. I didn't feel the same connection between her and Rochart as I did between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, their banter not hitting quite the same notes, but the relationship did grow naturally over time, which I appreciated. Their ending surprised me as things got pretty bleak fast and I wasn't sure how the author would be able to resolve things.

One of the main divergences from the original is the fact that Jane has a living sister with whom she has a complicated relationship. Both of them envy and resent things about the other. It was nice to see how things developed between them as well as Jane's relationships with the other female members of the staff.

This is the start of a series and I'm curious to see where the author will take things, as book two is from her sister's point of view.

Pros: lots of political intrigue, culturally diverse, brilliant world-building, interesting story

Cons: some issues with genders, several protagonists became unlikeable

The dark star of Oma is rising, infusing power into blood magics that were lost for 2000 years. Dhai on a dying world use that power to form gates to a mirror world they wish to conquer, one like theirs but where history went in a different direction, leaving the Dhai pacifists among more warlike neighbours. But not everyone wants to see their reflections on this new world enslaved, and as more and more people on the imperilled world learn what's happening, they start fighting back.

There's a lot going on here and a ton of characters to keep track of, many of whom have similar sounding names. There is a glossary of characters and terms at the back to help you if you forget who someone is. The different nations are all distinct, with vastly different governments, attitudes, cultures, and languages. It was fascinating reading about how each nation dealt with different problems.

The politics of the different nations, and how they interacted, was fascinating. I enjoyed how Hurley brought in past battles and showed that various nations' wars helped shape the current political climate.

There were a wide variety of characters the story followed (several men and women at different levels of power and skintone). I started off liking most of them, though some of their choices as the book continued made me less sympathetic towards them. In a few cases I ended up respecting what they achieved, even if I didn't much like them as people anymore.

The magic system of drawing power from stars/satellites, was pretty cool. I liked how that contrasted the satellite plus blood combination necessary for calling on Oma. The deadly flora of the world was also cool to read about.

I did have some issues with the world building, mostly with how gender was used/defined. The Dhai, we are told, use five genders: female-assertive, female-passive, male-assertive, male-passive, and ungendered. I couldn't understand how being passive vs assertive changed your gender. I understand that you can have a linguistic marker of politeness or class (Japanese uses different pronouns to denote this), but again, how does it change gender? That leaves 3 genders, which is what the Saiduan use, denoting male, female, and ataisa. Why then does Roh, a Dhai, have trouble understanding which pronoun to use for the ataisa when his language has something similar (ungendered)? Yes, the two languages use different words (ze vs hir), but that's a linguistic difference, not, necessarily a gender difference. I was left wondering if the ataisa and ungendered were in fact different genders, rather than different words for the same ‘doesn't fit into male or female' category.

I also disliked how the genders in Dorinah are basically swapped. Women are larger, stronger, better educated, assertive, domineering etc. than men. Men, meanwhile, are only around as possessions, useful for status, sex, and children. They're weaker and powerless over their own lives, fully submissive to the women who own them (their mothers and wives). I was ok with the idea of gender swapping the country (making it matriarchal), but when you give the men all the stereotypical characteristics of women and all the women the stereotypical characteristics of men, you're basically saying that traditionally female attributes are weak/useless and male ones are strong/worthwhile. Rather than pitying Anavha, Zezili's husband, I found myself reviling him, and felt bad about it considering he's basically a stand in for an 18th century British woman (stereotypically speaking, of course).

I did enjoy the sexual politics of the different countries, how many husbands/wives different groups had and whether that was a matter of status or openness of their cultures. Seeing the Dhai culture's openness with regards to loving both genders freely was also refreshing. I'd have like to learn more of how the Dhai deal with marriages, as I imagine genealogies would be hard to track with multiple husbands and wives in the same marriage (and an openness to affairs), as would preventing incest (assuming that's not allowed there, which isn't a given, considering Ahkio and Liaro are cousins).

Lilia's actions towards the end of the book felt rushed. While much of the book took time to thoroughly develop things, Lilia manages to take several important actions with little preparation or training, which didn't seem as realistic as what happened earlier.

This was a slower read for me, mainly because so much was happening. I needed to take my time with the book in order to keep track of everything. It had some things I loved, some things I liked and some things that irritated me. On the whole, it's a fascinating story with some great in depth world-building and some intricate real world style politics. I'll be curious to see what happens next.

Pros: interesting & diverse characters, solid world-building, some thought provoking philosophy

Cons: several highly disturbing (though not graphic) scenes, Lolita style relationship

Five months after a devastating accident that physically cut him in half, Alexander Romanov is released from the hospital. With little money and no plans, he encounters a young girl nearing her spesh metamorphosis and - due to the programming inherent in his pilot spesh - has to help her out. He takes a job as a ship captain to help pay for the treatment she needs and, once she's done her metamorphosis, assembles a crew for an unknown mission.

The book is split into three sections. The first section introduces the characters, the second deals with the fallout of discovering their mission, and the third revolves around a mystery. While I really enjoyed the first two parts, the third got irritating as two of the characters claim to have solved the mystery but refuse to explain what happened, presumably so the reader has time to put the clues together. It felt artificial, though there is a reason given for their delay in the text. The resolution was interesting as it referred back to several of the philosophical questions the book as a whole posed.

The world-building in this book is solid. There are four groups at play: 1. Natural, unmodified humans 2. Speshs, people whose parents decide before birth what specialized job their child should have, and are then genetically modified physically and psychologically to do the work and enjoy it. 3. Clones. And 4. the Others, several alien races that have interactions with humans. You'll also encounter human politics, with a child Emperor, various religions (and religious extremism), numerous branches of racism, etc. Different planets have different specialties, atmospheres, and customs, while travel between planets is done using hyper-tunnels and takes a surprisingly short amount of time.

For the most part I liked all the characters, at the beginning at least. The captain's a great POV character. I love his demon tattoo (and what it does for him), and the way he analyses his world, questioning the way things are, even when he's ok with the way things are. Kim's a great character, though I did have issues with her... relationship with the captain (and others, as her being 14 and having sex with people significantly older wasn't something I'm comfortable with, even if the characters - for the most part - considered it normal, or at least, not unusual). Her specializations made her self-assured, despite her lack of experience. Janet was my favourite character until the half-way point when her upbringing came to the fore. I liked that she'd taken charge of her life, getting several specializations and was willing to be a mentor for Kim.

The one character I didn't much like was Puck. His antagonistic attitude and desire to prove that a natural human could be just as good as a spesh made him kind of irritating. I did, however, appreciate that he was gay and that his being natural showed off the prejudices of his crewmates.

This is a book that makes you think, though some of the scenes that open the way to philosophical discussion are disturbing to say the least. While nothing's particularly graphic there are mentions of rape, slavery, and war. I could easily see this being put on university reading lists and/or used for book clubs, as there are some very interesting essay and discussion topics brought up, particularly around genetic modifications and freedom. So, for example, as disturbing as I found the hunting scene, I did appreciate the questions about class, ethics and humanity that the captain ruminated on that arose from it.

In addition to her relationships, I had a few issues with what happened to Kim at the end of the book.

I'm not sure I would want to read it again, but it was an interesting, if somewhat uncomfortable, book to read.

Pros: fascinating characters, interesting narrative approach, develops new world-building aspects

Cons: character driven

A week after the events of Ancillary Justice, Breq, now fleet captain and assigned to Mercy of Kalr, departs on Anaander Mianaai's orders to Athoek to make sure the system stays safe. In addition to her experienced lieutenants, Seivarden and Ekalu (of the Kalr), she has a new 17 year old one, Tisarwat, to train. Once they arrive at the station, they find a suspicious captain, disturbed by the lack of communication after the attack on Omaugh Palace and the destruction of several gates, racial tensions, and minor issues covering larger problems that need to be addressed.

As with the first book, the real aspect of interest is in how Breq sees the world. You don't get flash backs to when she was Justice of Toren, though that's often in her thoughts, instead you get her trying to keep up with frequent run downs of the sort of information she would have have had instantaneously as a ship, sent to her by her ship, Mercy of Kalr. It's an interesting way of seeing things, and allows Breq to pretend she's still one part of a larger whole while also being a narrative means of showing the reader what's happening in places outside Breq's physical sphere. There is a plot, but in many ways this feels like a character driven novel because Breq's presence is so overpowering. If you don't like her unique way of seeing the world, you won't enjoy this book.

Breq comes across as a tough as nails captain. Sometimes she's too tough, pushing her crew beyond what she should, something I suspected would eventually cause her problems, but her extensive experience means she's able to pull back at just the right moment. Even knowing what Breq was trying to do, I thought she was too hard on Tisarwat at times. Not only had the lieutenant been through a traumatic experience with little recovery time, she's given little to no positive reinforcement when she does things right. So while Tisarwat was an interesting character, seeing her through Breq's eyes made her less sympathetic than she probably deserved to be. It was fun seeing her grow up and mature.

I was a little surprised at the number of secrets she kept from her crew, her true identity as Justice of Toren and what happened with Tisarwat being the main ones, but it does make sense that the crew might balk at such things, so keeping them secret probably made sense.

There's more information about how the military works and there's a unique supporting cast. I enjoyed learning more about the military and political politics, both between the ships but also how it applies to a station and planet once they get to Athoek. I'm hoping we learn more about the Presger in the next book. What little was revealed here merely whet the appetite.

Pros: fun, quirky characters

Cons: more action than plot

Sophronia and her friends are enjoying school a year after their last adventure when Sidheag receives a distressing letter. She disappears and when Dimity and Sophronia attend Sophronia's brother's engagement ball, they rejoin her and stumble upon several plots.

This is the third book in the Finishing School series, and it is best read in order as plot points from the previous books, specifically several direct consequences from book two, are important to what's happening here.

As with the other books, the girls are all quirky and fun to read about. We see them apply their talents in different ways as they rise to the challenges they face. The book is a quick and enjoyable read.

Unlike in the earlier books where the girls come across something strange and decide to investigate it, actively looking for new clues, in this volume they're helping their friend and stumble across the mystery purely by chance. They find out more of what's going on in the wider political world and several of them have to make decisions that will greatly affect their futures.

Sophronia has several major decisions to make in this book regarding her future: whether she likes Felix Mersey, whose father is a pickleman (a political position Sophronia abhors) enough to form an attachment with him; what kind of future relationship she wants with Soap, whose social standing is far beneath hers but whose advice and friendship she greatly appreciates; and what patron she wants when she graduates, as Lord Akeldama's been sending her gifts in an attempt to sway her in his direction.

I personally found the action on the train less interesting than what happened before it. I love the school and the dynamic there, and was a bit sad that so much of the book took place off of it. Having said that, the train did show off the girls' prowess and contained some fun action sequences.

I'm really looking forward to book 4, Manners & Mutiny, which I believe will conclude the series.

Pros: real war feel, lots of slang and specialized vocabulary, superb world-building, varied characters

Cons: tough read, slow beginning

Join the Kingdom's ‘finest' as they fight to keep their colony, Luitox, free from the Forest Collective. But the FnC are hard to fight, hiding deep in the jungle and, though their arrows snipe the troops, they're never there when the troops arrive. Manned dragons fly overhead, ferrying troops and flaming suspected hotspots. Some newly freed dwarves have enlisted but still bear hatred for their former slavers. New technologies are invented as soldiers face a mostly faceless enemy. The army must deal with privations and problems galore, even as the war finally rushes towards a conclusion.

This is a fantasy retelling of the Vietnam war. I don't know much about the war, but this makes me want to learn more. If even a portion of what happens in this book is true it was a truly horrific event. The book touches on all sorts of issues - racism, demonizing the enemy, lack of communication, the incorporation of new and barely understood technology, the horrors of battle, losing friends, those back home not understanding the realities of what's happening, and more.

It's a difficult read in that no punches are pulled. War isn't noble or heroic, it's dirty, full of pain and desperation. You'll be seeing blood, puke and all other bodily fluids. Don't get too attached to any of the characters as the ones that make it to the end do so greatly changed by their experiences.

There's a fair amount of slang to master, but aside from ‘rag', short for dragon, which took me a while to figure out as there was no context for it the first time it was used, I picked it up pretty fast. The book jumps ahead frequently, allowing it to cover more time and give a broader look at the perceptions and realities of the war. You're also getting several points of view: a grunt soldier, two thaums (a cross between a magic worker and a scientist), a dragon rider, people in different levels of command, a journalist, etc. This also helps give a more varied view of the war.

The opening is a bit slow. There's an atmospheric prologue and some scenes with soldiers followed by a chapter that consists of a much needed info dump that explains the purpose of the war. Things pick up fast though and draw you into the lives of the characters.

It's a compelling read, and sometimes its easier to come to grips with the horrors of reality when they're presented as somewhat removed from it. History retelling aside, it's a great book that will have you wishing that real wars were a thing of the past.

Pros: quick paced, interesting protagonist, several plot twists, minor romantic elements

Cons: elements of the ending were problematic

For Parents: kissing, violence, nothing graphic

Seventeen year old Jenna Strong has spent the last 2 years in prison for the murder of her parents, agents of ACID (Agency for Crime Investigation and Defense), because she didn't like the boy they'd picked to be her LifePartner. Sprung by a mysterious organization for reasons she doesn't understand, her life outside quickly goes downhill.

Jenna's an interesting character in that she's sympathetic for readers, but apparently quite prickly to people around her in the book. She's standoffish and quickly alienates several of the people trying to help her, though in her defense, she's given little reason to trust the people helping her. She's pretty street smart, though she does make some decisions that cause her serious problems.

While I saw a few plot twists coming the book goes in a lot of directions I did not anticipate, making it a fun book to read.

There are minor romantic elements that enhance what's happening with Jenna without becoming the focus of the story. And while there is some kissing, there's no other sexual content.

There's a variety of violence in the book (which involves some prison scenes, an interrogation, bombing and more) nothing is graphically described.

Part of the ending required Jenna to be an angry teen who doesn't care that the adults around her know more about what's happening than she does and are better prepared than she is, just that they're not doing what she wants, which was kind of annoying. It also depended on an adult making some very stupid decisions, which I questioned while I was reading. Having said that, I did like the ultimate resolution.

It's a quick paced book with some very tense moments.

Pros: thought provoking premise, interesting characters, quick paced

Cons: some world-building and logistical issues

Ten days before the national update for the boost, networked supercomputers implanted in people's brains, Ralf Alvare, a software engineer, finds himself on the run after learning about an open surveillance gate in the program that would allow companies direct access to people's thoughts and memories. His own boost chip has been ripped out and, newly ‘wild', he's heading to see his brother in El Paso, across the border from the infamous drug lord run city of Juarez, where no one has boosts. But John Vallinger, a lobbyist whose spent years working towards this chip update, sends one of his men after Ralf, intent on stopping whatever resistance the programmer can create.

I thought the story was very interesting, with a lot of good questions being asked about privacy vs access to information. Would you put a chip in your head that allowed you to be smarter and access information anywhere, effortlessly, if it meant that someone could track your every move, see what you're buying, etc.? Would having a brain implant that can affect your thoughts make things better or worse? In the book there's an app that you can apply to make the tasteless protein they eat taste like anything you program in. There were some great scenes where Ellen, for the first time without the use of her boost, gets to taste actual food and experience other sensations without recourse to a fantasy cover for it. Her observations that some things are better natural while others are better in her imagination, were very interesting.

Ralf's family's drama was also pretty fun to read, with the stories getting deeper as more information is revealed. I also liked that his family provided a grounding in how different people reacted to the Boost. His dad rejected and fought against it, his mother helped bring it to the US but then regretted the role she played in making it a ubiquitous thing, his older brother constantly struggled to use it and he spent most of his time in it and is lost without it.

I wasn't a big fan of Suzy. Though she was a member of the Democratic Movement, she seemed unaware of security issues despite the domestic terrorism she could be accused of and made some odd decisions towards the end of the book.

There's a scene towards the end of the book that may cause trigger issues for some readers. Though mostly off page, the scene is violent but necessary for the plot and the person attacked is shown as capable of defending themself earlier on. There's a bit of follow-up in the epilogue that briefly mentions some of the ethical issues surrounding what happened, which I thought was well done.

As for the world-building, I did question, while I was reading the book, the idea that once a chip is damaged or removed that's it, there's no fixing or replacing it. Considering the importance of the chips (you can't pay for things or direct cars without one), and how easily brain injuries can occur that might damage chips, it seems like there should be some alternate options available.

After I finished the book a few other questions came to me about how the world worked. For example, while it's clear that Juarez isn't easy to get to or leave, it's unclear if the Amish wild area is equally blocked off, and if not, how the people there trade with their non-wild neighbours. And does Juarez manufacture all of its needs or does it get a lot of goods through the black market? And if it depends on contraband, how do its citizens pay for it when they don't have chips and their money is worthless outside their city? I was also surprised by how far money went in Juarez. I would have thought fresh, tasteful food would be harder to grow/raise than the manufactured tasteless food the non-wilds ate. It should therefore be more expensive as the market for things like spices would be non-existent outside of the wilds and are time consuming to make.

The book is told in third person present tense (eg: Ellen blinks her eyes open.), rather than the more common past tense. I personally found the jump between events narrated in past tense and the present tense of the main text jarring. Most readers probably won't have a problem with it.

This is a quick, entertaining read, and despite the complaints I had with aspects of it, the questions it raises - about letting a government and corporations have control over what information you can access - are relevant ones for our current world.

Pros: lyrical prose, philosophical, characters face difficult choices

Cons: slow

In a world where water is tightly controlled by the military, Noria Kaitio is training as her father's apprentice to become a tea master. Tea masters historically had a duty to preserve sacred springs, and her family has kept the knowledge of one in the fells behind their house secret for decades. But Noria finds it hard to keep the secret as her best friend Sanja and their village suffer under harsher and harsher conditions.

This is a novel about the importance of water and how people survive under challenging circumstances. It'a a novel that questions motives and wonders who's trustworthy in a world where helping others will get you killed.

There's very little action and the story is unravelled slowly. There's foreshadowing of the ills to come and some gorgeous, lyrical prose. There's also a lot of contemplative passages, mostly about water, but also about being in the moment, noticing the little things that always escape notice. It's a novel about thinking deeply about life and appreciating the life you have, because life is always changing and you can never regain what you've lost.

Despite the slowness with which the plot unfolds, the novel is a quick read. The characters and the situations they find themselves in are intensely interesting.

It's a beautiful novel, and sad. And while it contains hope, it acknowledges that sacrifices are required and that not everyone lives to see better days.

Pros: complex plot, interesting characters, fascinating world

Cons:

Kavekana is an island with no gods of its own, where offshore interests can purchase an idol to store soulstuff. When the priestess Kai jumps into the sacred pool to try to save her co-worker's created idol, Seven Alpha, her actions have many unforeseen consequences.

Izza is a thief. When the Blue Lady she worships dies, she realizes it's time to leave the island before her age makes her eligible for her crimes' punishment: being placed inside one of the stone Penitents that guard the island. But she's soon pulled into the mystery surrounding a poet who's lost his inspiration, and Kai's investigation.

This is the third book published in Gladstone's Craft Sequence series. While it stands alone, like the others, this one uses characters from the first two books and shows some aftermath from what's come before. It's storytelling that doesn't alienate newcomers while giving more depth to those who've read the other books.

The world-building, as with the previous books - is top notch. Gladstone's created a world of interconnected everything: trade, tourism, religion, law, war, history, etc. There's always the sense that there's more to know, that each book is only scratching the surface, and with each book more of the world and its past and people are uncovered. Because the protagonists are from very different social strata, we get to see a lot of the island - security, police, tourism, slums, offices, etc.

The characters are interesting. Kai and Izza are both challenged by what's going on, attempting to solve several mysteries, if from different sides. The Penitents are a chilling - if effective - punishment, that evolves into a police force that's 100% loyal. Even the poet has his moments.

The plot weaves around and eventually comes to a satisfying conclusion, though one that takes place in a world that continues on after the book ends.

These are fantastic books that take place in a fantasy realm with all the complexity of the real world. If you like well written fantasy with some mystery thrown in, and diverse characters, these are for you.

Pros: fun characters, interesting mystery, dry humour

Cons:

For Parents: minor violence, kissing

Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality makes course for London after picking up some gentlemen from Bunson and Lacroix's Boys' Polytechnique. They're to see the results of an experiment in navigating the aetherosphere, something that would greatly reduce travel times. But not everyone wants the experiment to succeed.

In many ways this is a light-hearted Harry Potter, if Harry went to a school for spies in a dirigible set in a steampunk Victorian England, cared more about fashion and Hermione was the protagonist. This is the second book of Gail Carriger's Finishing School series, and it maintains the same level of propriety crossed with rule breaking as the first. The humour is dry, the sort you acknowledge with a snort rather than a guffaw, despite how unbecoming either action would be in polite society.

Sophronia and her gang of misfits are such fun characters, though due to exam results, she finds herself working alone more than she'd prefer, in this volume. It was also nice to see her encounter real consequences for the kind of work she's training to do, making her wonder if this really is what she wants.

The mystery involves several threads, some of which harken back to the events of the previous book. There's also the knowledge at the end that though things were resolved, there are still some questions to be answered.

If you haven't read these books, you're missing out.

This is the second volume in Savannah Grace's rendition of what started as her family's year long trip around the world. The book jumps right into the action as the family reaches Russia by train. There's a bit of flashback information to get you up to speed, and readers who skipped the first book (dealing with China and Mongolia) will find chapter 5's discussion of where they've been interesting. After Russia they stop briefly in Khazahkstan and Kyrgyzstan, then cross back into China and trough it to Tibet and Nepal. The book ends with their trek to the top of Kala Patthar, 263 meters above the Mount Everest base camp

The book is full of fascinating cultural observations and travel details (mostly via her brother Ammon's guidebook lectures). It's interesting to read how different things are handled in different parts of the world. The long wait times and even longer bus rides show the challenges of this type of travel even as Savannah points out the benefits of seeing things as a native and meeting new people.

As the trip wears on tempers wear thin and the last third of the book involves a lot of family drama. It's interesting, though probably more detailed than I needed.

The descriptions remain vivid and really make you want to book your own trip to these places (well, some of these places). The book is quick paced and the writing smooth.

I beta read the manuscript and so didn't see the photos that accompany the text.

If you like travelogues and/or biographies, this one is worth the read.