Tag Archives: book reviews

June 19, 2018

Future Warrior, by Lexi Revellian

By Mark Gardner

When Liam Roth fails to arrive from 2135 – his own time – to collect her for a date, Floss discovers that the timeline has changed. In the now totalitarian future, the rich and successful Roth she knew is a failure with an abysmal Citizen Credit Rank, who works as a barista and struggles to make ends meet. Through him, Floss and Jace meet an amateur dissident group who offer the Time Rats the biggest, best-paid job of their lives: overthrowing the Global Union’s oppressive rule.

I’ve enjoyed the first two Time Ratsbooks, so liking the third was a foregone conclusion. The story is fun and exciting with more time traveling. Everyone likes to read about a ragtag group of rebels overthrowing the totalitarian monolithic government. It’s also fun to see characters we’ve come to know in different situations. Liam Roth as a failure was a great read, because he essentially becomes another character. I spent half the book wanting him to return to the Liam Roth of books one and two, and the other half hoping that this new Liam Roth would soldier on as it were. As usual, the characters are well written, and I hope that Lexi writes more in the universe.

Four out of five stars for Future Warrior, and with all three books in Kindle Unlimited, you should totally check them out.

LexiRevellian

Lexi Revellian enjoys reading intelligent, pacey books with humour, and that’s what she tries to write. She believes it’s a crime to bore the reader. Her day job (using her real name, Lexi Dick) is designing and making jewellery and silver; she has made pieces for Lady Thatcher, the Athenaeum and Her Majesty the Queen.

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June 14, 2018

Rebirth, by L. Fergus

By Mark Gardner

The God of Evil has forgotten who she is. After defeating the Harbingers, the gods deemed Kita a threat to all existence. Stripped of her memories, she is left to languish in Angelica, a new playground city for the ultra-rich of the United Earth Empire. There, beneath the waves of an oceanic moon, Kita makes her living using her skills as an assassin to protect the pampered elite. But fate is fickle. Trouble is brewing on the frontier: first contact has been made between humanity and an alien race. Humanity has been watching Kita for a decade and knows her history. They also know that even in her diminished state, she is powerful and they want all the weapons they can muster against this new threat. Can the humans convince Kita to fight for them or will she remember who and what she is and escape to the other side?

The story of PL/Kita and her unknown past with hidden talents is nothing new in the world of literature. I’ve read most of L. Fergus’ books on Wattpad, and while Rebirth isn’t the first story in a long series, it is one of the best (Birthright is another solid read.) In a world where literature is accessible to almost anyone, there’s a lot of content out there. You can read many LGBT fantasy stories by many talented authors, and L. Fergus’ prose and attention to detail is top-notch. When some authors go into a lot of description, my brain often gets distracted, and it pulls me out of the narrative. This isn’t the case with Rebirth. There is a lot of description, but it’s presented in such a way that it feels natural reading about Kita and her world.

Rebirth gives us something I think is wonderful: We see how Kita, as PL, sees her world. We share in the wonderment. We share in the confusion. We’ve read her as a powerful God, and now we see her at the other end of the spectrum. In modern society we struggle with classism. We struggle with identity. We struggle with the basic tenants that make us part of society. We witness all these foibles as Kita discovers who she is. We follow her pratfalls as she comes to grips with her mistakes.

One of the important things that Rebirth tells us is identity. In the first chapter, Kita performs a daily ritual to make herself “normal.” She hides her true self out of fear of what society and others think of her. She hurts herself to conform to the ideals of her environment, and in doing so, she loses her identity. This commonality in the LGBT community has gone on for many years, and many wonderful people hide what they offer the world. I think it appropriate that Rebirth be published during pride month.

I enjoyed reading Rebirth, and I was glued to the page as the saying goes. Every book is not without flaws. I found some of Kita’s antics a little immature, but no worse than the antics of a celebrity or a spoiled millionaire. But still sigh-worthy. As a stand-alone, I’d rate Rebirth four and a half stars. As of the writing of this review, the book is available for purchase tomorrow, and I recommend fans of science fantasy check it out – especially since it’s free to read via Kindle Unlimited.

L. Fergus is a Wattpad featured author of science fiction, including The Fallen Angel Saga, which has more than two hundred thousand reads. The books Birthright and Rebirth have won over ten awards, including Best Overall. Like L. Fergus’ main character Kita, L. fosters teenage girls to give them a supportive place to grow up and thrive.

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May 31, 2018

Kill the Farm Boy, by Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne

By Mark Gardner

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, a hero, the Chosen One, was born . . . and so begins every fairy tale ever told. This is not that fairy tale. There is a Chosen One, but he is unlike any One who has ever been Chosened. And there is a faraway kingdom, but you have never been to a magical world quite like the land of Pell. There, a plucky farm boy will find more than he’s bargained for on his quest to awaken the sleeping princess in her cursed tower. First there’s the Dark Lord who wishes for the boy’s untimely death . . . and also very fine cheese. Then there’s a bard without a song in her heart but with a very adorable and fuzzy tail, an assassin who fears not the night but is terrified of chickens, and a mighty fighter more frightened of her sword than of her chain-mail bikini. This journey will lead to sinister umlauts, a trash-talking goat, the Dread Necromancer Steve, and a strange and wondrous journey to the most peculiar “happily ever after” that ever once-upon-a-timed.

I absolutely lurved Kill the Farm Boy. I’ve read more Delilah Dawson than Kevin Hearne, but I’ve read and enjoyed them both. The easiest way to describe Kill the Farm Boy is that it is Spaceballs, but in a fantasy setting. Everything that I loved about Spaceballs is everything I love about Kill the Farm Boy. Puns, double entendre, slapstick situational comedy, and a general irreverence to the genre the writing duo parodies. Plus, Dawson and Hearne don’t take themselves seriously. When the authors can laugh at themselves, the reader will too. I can totally imagine Dawson and Hearne at the bar of a hotel after a day at a convention, daring each other to write this story.

If I had to complain about anything, it would be that while the writers are aware of the genre they poke fun at, the tropes are alive and well in this parody. Several plot twists were plainly evident, and if this story had a character that broke the fourth wall, I’d expect them to pop up and declare, “plot twist!” Now that I write this down, I think that a character breaking the fourth wall would’ve been just the ticket. It works for Ferris Bueller and Deadpool, why not an irreverent parody of fantasy. Kevin Smith famously said that he made all his money with phallus and flatulence jokes.

The story obviously parodies The Princess Bride, Shrek, and just about every Dungeons and Dragons campaign ever made. The humor is at times crude, often juvenile, but always there. There’s a reason the tag line is “Once. A pun. A time.” For the same reasons that people enjoy Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and the Three Stooges, they’ll enjoy Kill the Farm Boy. To steal a meme from the Internet, “I don’t always read the punnies, but when I do, it’s to Kill the Farm Boy.” There will be a lot of consternation about the humor, but what did they expect? I’m awarding this story 3.14 stars, because I like pie.

Delilah S. Dawson writes whimsical and dark Fantasy for adults and teens. She is a winner of the RT Book Reviews Steampunk Book of the Year and May Seal of Excellence for 2013. Delilah teaches writing classes at LitReactor and wrote the Island of Mesmer world for Storium. Delilah lives with her husband, two small children, a horse, a dog, and two cats in Florida.

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Kevin hugs the hell out of trees and loves doggies and pretending that he knows stuff about hockey. He is also fond of comic books, tacos, fresh air, clean energy, and friendly people. He’s been told that his handwriting is really quite lovely.

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May 29, 2018

Head On, by John Scalzi

By Mark Gardner

Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it. Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field. Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth—and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.

It’s a relief to know that people are who you think they are. People often end up disappointed when they meet their heroes or people that they admire. Over Memorial Day weekend, I had the opportunity to be on a panel with John Scalzi while we were both at Phoenix Comic Fest. I was relieved that Scalzi is as intelligent and perceptive in person as he is with his writing. (I may have even gushed a little about Old Man’s War.)

I think Head On is a better story than Lock In. Since we already knew so much of the world from Lock In, Head On felt like returning to a comfortable series where we knew what to expect. Scalzi continued to play by his rules and we cringed each time a threep was destroyed.

Whereas Lock In leaned more toward sci-fi action/adventure, Head On felt more like a sci-fi mystery. I was on the edge of my seat as they’re wont to say, and I wasn’t sure whodunit until the end of the story. I also appreciated Scalzi’s subtle commentary on professional sports and reality television.

Four stars is my rating. I hope that there is enough interest for Scalzi to keep writing the life and times of Chris Shane and the intriguing world in which he and his colleagues inhabit. I for one would be a ready reader to future installments.

John Scalzi is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Old Man’s War series, three novels of which have been nominated for the Hugo Award, and for his blog Whatever, where he has written on a number of topics since 1998. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2008 based predominantly on that blog, which he has also used for several charity drives. His novel Redshirts won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel. He has written non-fiction books and columns on diverse topics such as finance, video games, films, astronomy, writing and politics, and served as a creative consultant for the TV series Stargate Universe.

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May 8, 2018

Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells

By Mark Gardner

It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue. What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

 

I moved Artificial Condition to the top of my reading list after getting the approval email from NetGalley because I absolutely love The Murderbot Diaries. Wells’ writing is superb, and her wit and subtle snark shines in the form of a rogue SecUnit who would probably slay humanity if only it could finish watching the future’s version of Netflix.

In Artificial Condition, we see more of Eden’s world, and the behind-the-scenes politics and machinations that push the story forward. I love that although Eden can totally murder all humans, it’s still afraid of other sentient constructs. She and ART bond over their love of space soap operas, and Eden’s allies increase.

Eden needs allies, because its rouge slaughter of the miners doesn’t hold water, and the truth just may be more criminal than the story. Humans are so much worse than Eden originally thought, and as Eden examines the artificial condition, so too must we examine the human condition.

Artificial Condition is another home run from Martha Wells, and the wait for Rogue Protocol will be a difficult one. Five stars, get it now!

Martha Wells has written many fantasy novels, including The Books of the Raksura series, the Ile-Rien series as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, media tie-ins, and non-fiction. Her most recent fantasy novels are The Edge of Worlds in 2016 and The Harbors of the Sun in 2017, the final novel in The Books of the Raksura series. She has a new series of SF novellas, The Murderbot Diaries, forthcoming from Tor.com. She was the lead writer for the story team of Magic: the Gathering’s Dominaria expansion in 2018. Her work has appeared on the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Award ballots, and her books have been published in eleven languages.

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May 3, 2018

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells

By Mark Gardner

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

What’s not to love about a misanthropic robot that might destroy humanity, if only they didn’t create such wonderful holo dramas? I think that my favorite aspect of the Murderbot Diaries is that Eden could totally kill all humans, but, like, meh. In a world of highly skilled humans, we often end up doing only what is required in our job because there’s no incentive (other than losing our job) to do more. Oh how I relate to Eden and ter loathing of humanity. How many times have I been at work, and wished that I were Netflixing or reading a book instead.

In All Systems Red, we get the backstory of Eden and ter sordid past as an ineffectual murderbot. Ter really does care about the humans that te is expected to protect. Te doesn’t have to protect them, because of the hacked governor, but te does it out of a sense of professional responsibility.

I enjoyed All Systems Red, and look forward to reading more offerings by Martha Wells, especially more Murderbot Diaries. Five stars! Recommended to scifi fans and misanthropes everywhere.

Martha Wells has written many fantasy novels, including The Books of the Raksura series, the Ile-Rien series as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, media tie-ins, and non-fiction. Her most recent fantasy novels are The Edge of Worlds in 2016 and The Harbors of the Sun in 2017, the final novel in The Books of the Raksura series. She has a new series of SF novellas, The Murderbot Diaries, forthcoming from Tor.com. She was the lead writer for the story team of Magic: the Gathering’s Dominaria expansion in 2018. Her work has appeared on the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Award ballots, and her books have been published in eleven languages.

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May 1, 2018

Cradle of the Deep, by Deirdre Gould

By Mark Gardner

The Keseburg once boasted a complement of fifty thousand. Generations of hardship, space hazards and disease have whittled it down to just under thirty thousand. That was the number when a small crew of resource miners departed on a routine asteroid run three months ago. But when they return home to the ship, all traces of their friends and family are gone. The Keseburg is silent, adrift, and running out of fuel. As they search the massive ship for survivors and answers, something else stalks them. Something that does not belong on the Keseburg.

The story of Issk’ath continues in Cradle of the Deep. What? You thought that the series was about the people aboard the Keseberg? ‘Fraid not. It was always about Issk’ath and its interaction with humanity, or at least the humanity that’s left. Issk’ath deals with guilt, called iterations in the narrative. Each time it does something that could be seen as inhumane, Issk’ath iterates. The parallel with humanity is not wasted here. Some people are wracked with guilt for minor infractions. Inter-generational guilt is a common theme in literature. But at times, Issk’ath is immune from its guilt – we’ve all encountered someone whose agenda precludes all other feelings, including guilt. But what is the nature of guilt, and by extension humanity? If a machine can feel guilt, then what is it about humanity that sets it apart from machine or even our genetic ancestors?

Like Traveler in the Dark, Cradle of the Deep focuses on a small cast of characters. Prior to this story, Issk’ath moves from permissive to overt action to “save” humanity from their frail casings. This causes much iteration, and sets us up for the crew of the Dolan to discover the Keseberg adrift with all souls lost at the hands (pincers?) of a homicidal robot. Can someone dying say no to termination under the claim of humane action? Can an otherwise able-bodied person choose to end their life for convenience?

The odd naming structure that baffled me in book one is gone from book two. It’s much easier to understand who is talking to whom in this story. Themes of predestination, choice, and rebellion are rife in this installment of Ex Situ. The narrative did suffer a little bit in this book, with some omnipotent head-hopping. I was able to follow who was doing/thinking what, but at least once or twice, I had to reread a paragraph when I got lost. The story was a fun read, and the ending worked well setting up book three without short-changing the reader. I’d give Cradle of the Deep four stars.

Deirdre Gould lives in Central Maine with her three children and husband. She’s also resided in northern Idaho, coastal Virginia and central Pennsylvania, but all of them just led her back home. The winters sure are cold, but that just means the zombies run slower. The area is isolated, but that just means the apocalyptic diseases don’t spread as quickly. And the storms are bad enough that no one thinks you’re crazy for “prepping.” It’s kind of ideal for a post-apocalypse writer when you think about it.

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