Jan 26 2023

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Book Review: Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews

Title: Sweep of the Heart

Author: Ilona Andrews

Series: Innkeeper Chronicles #5

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Welcome to Gertrude Hunt! We are so happy to see you once again. Your innkeepers, Dina Demille and Sean Evans, will see to your every need. No matter what accommodations you require, the inn will oblige. Physics are not an issue for us. Our Red Cleaver Chef is delighted to impress you with his culinary mastery. Rest assured that your safety is our first priority. Enjoy yourselves, relax, and above all, remember the one rule all visitors must abide by: the humans must never know. Sweep of the Heart is a serial novella set in the Innkeeper Chronicles featuring Sean Evans and Dina Demille. -Goodreads

The Review:

A new book from IA I hadn’t realized was coming out? Sign me up immediately!

These authors are some of the very few who qualify for the “drop everything and pick up on release day” category. As the Innkeeper series is actually a web serial first and only later published into volumes, I suppose I could be even more on the ball and read them as they’re published. As it is, these books are very episodic and wildly entertaining.

My favorite thing about Sweep of the Heart was the alien interactions. Hosting a matchmaking event at the Inn, the main characters had to navigate many off-world politics while keeping their guests from being eaten by other guests. It was loads of fun – the different biological makeups adding even more variety to an already enjoyable read. I also liked the element of competition in the book, as these species were all in attendance seeking the hand of a single ruler in marriage. Now, how the marriage and, er, succession producing would work between two different alien species was a little over my head, but the technicalities of it didn’t seem to take away my enjoyment of the story.

That’s something I can say about all of IA’s works. They’re so much fun and some of the few stories that can take me out of critical mode into just enjoy it mode almost every time. The fun components here were entertaining enough that I think under different circumstances I may have given it a five stars, but it took me a bit longer than it should have to get reacclimated with the story and the characters. It had been so long since I’d read book four that I spend a lot of time at the beginning trying to remember context and who everyone was (yet another reason why I should probably follow the series online instead of waiting for it to go to print). Once I figured it out though, it was smooth sailing to the end.

I consumed this one on audio and would endorse going that route for the series. Most of IA’s works are narrated by Renee Raudman, but this one was performed by Nora Sofyan and honestly I didn’t even notice the shift until researching for this review. I thought she did an excellent job at bringing the story to life and had a good mix of character accents.

Recommendations: the Innkeepers is another delightful series from my ultimate favorite urban fantasy writers. If you want the full effect of everything going on in this series, consider reading the Edge series first, as there is some crossover.

Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Jan 23 2023

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Book Review: Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Title: Children of Ruin

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Series: Children of Time #2

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 2/5 stars

The Overview: Long ago, Earth’s terraforming program sent ships out to build new homes for humanity among the stars and made an unexpected discovery: a planet with life. But the scientists were unaware that the alien ecosystem was more developed than the primitive life forms originally discovered. Now, thousands of years later, the Portiids and their humans have sent an exploration vessel following fragmentary radio signals. They discover a system in crisis, warring factions trying to recover from an apocalyptic catastrophe arising from what the early terraformers awoke all those years before. -Goodreads

The Review:

Children of Time is still my favorite book of 2022. Children of Ruin… not so much.

Truthfully I had a hard time finishing this one. At 80% I was forcing myself through it to the point where I initially called a DNF before deciding to just speed read to the end. I mean, I’d heard it wasn’t as good as the first one, but I wasn’t expecting to be so completely disengaged.

So what changed between books one and two? My theory is character connection. CoT was a brilliantly composed character study that managed to make me care deeply about the creatures involved. It was especially impressive that he managed to evoke that given that it was also a multi-generational story. CoR showed glimmers of good character work at the beginning, but quickly set it aside in favor of extensive theorizing and info dumps. Even the return of some familiar faces didn’t help, and in some ways actually made things worse, as none of them showed any of the depth I remember from the first book.

As you may have heard, CoT focuses on a society of spiders, whereas CoR focuses on cephalopods (octopi). I wouldn’t say spiders are any less alien to human ways of thinking and functioning as a society than cephalopods, but the way Tchaikovsky chose to present both offered wildly different experiences. The spiders came across somewhat relatable, where as the cephalopods’ society and forms of communication were so alien it was hard to form a connection to them. The creatures used complex color patterns to communicate. And the use of general impressions and imagery in place of dialogue was amazing and creative and cool… but it wasn’t engaging in the slightest. My favorite part about CoR was learning more about these creatures, but they weren’t solid, distinct enough “characters” to make me feel more than a curious interest in them.

So without anyone to latch onto, I started to feel disengaged from the story. And then the plot got a bit confusing and I lost even more momentum. So by the time I made it to the end (by the skin of my teeth), I was checked out.

I know this author can dazzle me, and by no means am I finished exploring his works. CoR had a lot of great base elements to it, I just think it lost me on some of the execution choices. I’m still looking forward to Children of Memory, but with perhaps a little less enthusiasm than after CoR.

Recommendations: while the biological components were every bit as cool as the stuff found in CoT, all of the other story elements fell a bit flat. At the moment I’d say consider CoT a stand-alone and don’t bother with this sequel, but that may change after I read the third book.

Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Jan 19 2023

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Book Review: Gleanings by Neal Schusterman

Title: Gleanings

Author: Neal Schusterman

Series: Arc of the Scythe #3.5

Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Overview: There are still countless tales of the Scythedom to tell. Centuries passed between the Thunderhead cradling humanity and Scythe Goddard trying to turn it upside down. For years humans lived in a world without hunger, disease, or death with Scythes as the living instruments of population control. Neal Shusterman—along with collaborators David Yoon, Jarrod Shusterman, Sofía Lapuente, Michael H. Payne, Michelle Knowlden, and Joelle Shusterman—returns to the world throughout the timeline of the Arc of a Scythe series. Discover secrets and histories of characters you’ve followed for three volumes and meet new heroes, new foes, and some figures in between. -Goodreads

The Review:

As someone who generally doesn’t care for short stories (they don’t usually provide me enough time to get invested), I liked Gleanings a lot more than I thought I would.

To boot, it was nothing like I expected. I figured we’d get some familiar perspectives in a timeline shortly after climax events in the Toll. Not the case. Instead it was a collection of individual gleaning stories (hence the title) with a compelling array of circumstances that evoked good food for thought throughout. I was honestly expecting to be bored during the book, forcing myself to finish it for the sake of completionism. But instead I found it compulsively listenable and only struggled with one of the stories. I like it when books make me think, and the exploration of morality in this creative world remains my favorite aspect of the series.

There were one or two backstory segments for familiar characters that I quite enjoyed. Since a few of them took place before the Scythes’ had chosen their new names (which is how I remember them from the trilogy), it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out who’s story I was reading. The payoff when I DID realize what was going on was particularly satisfying in part because of that delay/build-up though. Sometimes being an idiot works in my favor.

Recommendations: if you liked the concept of the Arc of the Scythe and want more interesting segments dealing with the morality of the Scythedom, this is a great collection. If you want more closure from series-ending events in the Toll, this will not fit the bill. Overall I found it a great supplemental read.

Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Jan 18 2023

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Book Review: The Toll by Neal Schusterman

Title: The Toll

Author: Neal Schusterman

Series: Arc of the Scythe

Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Overview: It’s been three years since Rowan and Citra disappeared; since Scythe Goddard came into power; since the Thunderhead closed itself off to everyone but Grayson Tolliver. (Shortest Summary Ever) -Goodreads

The Review:

The Toll was a decent ending to one of the better YA series I’ve read.

The series had a consistent and solid writing voice. It reminded me strongly of James S.A. Corey’s writing style in the popular adult sci-fi series, The Expanse. It’s a way of combining character introspection and broad implications in a way that’s kind of telly vs showy but somehow you don’t care because it’s so fluidly done. It made for a story that was easy to breeze through.

I’ve mentioned this at length in my reviews of the first two books, but I love the concept for this series. Particularly the moral debate each Scythe has to have with themselves when deciding who to “glean” (kill) and why. It was fascinating. Events in the Toll broadened the ideas even more by focusing on the power, corruption, and the mentality of “do I conform even though it’s against my moral compass and maybe survive another day, or do I stand my ground and perish as if my sacrifice has no real meaning in the grand scheme of things?”

Good food for thought.

It’s worth noting that my rating probably would’ve been slightly higher had I started this book sooner, as time and distance from the second book had me forgetting some of the minor characters. When I wait too long, I lose a bit of context and depth, and therefore my connection to the story. And my ratings pay the price. It didn’t suffer much, but it was still a factor.

Overall, I’m glad I read this series and I’m looking forward to the new collection of stories that came out in November (Gleanings).

Recommendations: one of the better YA series I’ve read. Pick this one up for cool concepts, a great writing style, and a distinct lack of the usual YA tropes. This series is worth a looksie.

Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Jan 17 2023

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Book Review: Manners and Mutiny by Gail Carriger

Title: Manners and Mutiny

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Finishing School #4

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: Lessons in the art of espionage aboard Mademoiselle Geraldine’s floating dirigible have become tedious without Sophronia’s sweet sootie Soap nearby. She would much rather be using her skills to thwart the dastardly Picklemen, yet her concerns about their wicked intentions are ignored, and now she’s not sure whom to trust. What does the brusque werewolf dewan know? On whose side is the ever-stylish vampire Lord Akeldama? Only one thing is certain: a large-scale plot is under way, and when it comes to fruition, Sophronia must be ready to save her friends, her school, and all of London from disaster–in decidedly dramatic fashion, of course. What will become of our proper young heroine when she puts her years of training to the test? -Goodreads

The Review:

I finally figured out what has been missing in this series.

It wasn’t until I got to this final book and found out where the story has been culminating to this whole time that I realized what the previous books were lacking: a plot arc.

Instead of having every book be self-contained with a satisfying mini arc, each one only served to progress one overall arc of the four book series. In every aspect, from the love interest to the external conflict, and even down to the big reveals of the story, nothing showed significant progress until the finale. Everything that came before was just set up. It’s a small wonder I finished each book feeling slightly unsatisfied. I’m glad I broke tradition and actually read all of these books back to back.

Another thing that was missing was any sort of meaningful character growth. The main character ended up exactly where she started and had very little internal conflicts to work through in the series. This is probably one of the reasons I feel the characters and the series as a whole lacked depth. Heck, half the time I didn’t even understand her motive for the things she did, let alone a complex character exploration. While the culmination of the whole series was decent, the character development still left me wanting.

This is petty, but I found myself annoyed at the name choices for the characters. Sophronia just seems like a stupid name to me. Like something you’d name a posh little white dog. And for whatever reason, one of the love interests was called “Soap.” Stupid.

Overall the series was just meh – middle of the road for me. I loved the classroom stuff (espionage training!) even though there wasn’t much of it. I also really enjoyed the dynamics between Sophronia and her friends. This final book had some decent moments and kept my interest more than the previous books, but all the things I’ve detailed kept it from being memorable. That said, even with my issues, I find myself leaning slightly more positive than negative, so it’ll be a negotiable 3 stars for the series as a whole. Oddly I still have the same enthusiasm to continue with the next set of three books (Delightfully Deadly) and then onto the adult Parasol Protectorate series, as I’m eager to see how they compare and find out where everyone ends up now that I have all of this background story.

Recommendations; I’ll know more how to recommend this once I read the PP series, but for the moment, while this was a fun middle-of-the-road jaunt, it didn’t blow my skirt up. Had I read it without promise of the adult UF series, I probably would be dogging on it a little more, but right now it’s getting a pass until I can see if it amounts to anything. Stay tuned…

Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Jan 16 2023

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Book Review: Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger

Title: Waistcoats and Weaponry

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Finishing School #3

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: Sophronia continues her second year at finishing school in style—with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey stowaway on a train to return their classmate Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland. No one suspected what—or who—they would find aboard that suspiciously empty train. Sophronia uncovers a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos and she must decide where her loyalties lie, once and for all. –Goodreads

The Review:

Though this one was the best yet, I’m feeling a bit underwhelmed about the series.

I can’t seem to find a reason to care about the conflicts in these books or the overarching plot. They’re not bad necessarily, but they lack substance. They also seem a bit random. Halfway through this book, when it suddenly took a different direction, I found myself totally disengaged even though I’d been enjoying it up to that point. I think because it shifted focus to the external plot and left behind the stuff I liked.

The stuff I liked: the espionage finishing school, where the ladies learn the finer points of intrigue. And really the selling point of the series for me. This installment had more learning sequences than previous books, which is probably why I liked it a tad more. I also like the side characters and the banter between them all. The love interests are just okay (I have a clear preference), and the passages where she’s trying to navigate her relationship with both boys are probably the most engaging parts of the series so far. For the record, love triangles don’t bother me at all. I like having options.

While there are some things I like and overall the basic writing is easy flowing and fun, I still think the series is pretty mediocre. There just wasn’t enough time spent showing the reader the development of the external conflicts, so each book so far has just felt like everyone going through the motions but no one really invested in what’s happening.

Recommendations: pick this veritable hodgepodge of genres up for a light YA read. Although it’s not blowing me away, it’s still an entertaining romp.

Other books you might like (same as for the first two books):