Feb 10 2022

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Book Review: Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham

Title: Age of Ash

Author: Daniel Abraham

Series: Kithamar #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Overview: Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold.This is Alys’s.When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives. Swept up in an intrigue as deep as the roots of Kithamar, where the secrets of the lowest born can sometimes topple thrones, the story Alys chooses will have the power to change everything. -Goodreads

The Review:

Abraham’s writing sings to my soul.

I find his stories incredibly addicting. I had a massive TBR in between me and this book, but kept finding myself opening it to read a couple pages at a time. The first several passages were so gripping, by the time I was “supposed” to be reading it, I was already almost 20% in.

There are so many things I love about Abraham’s stories. One being the subtle, yet robust world building that just oozes off the pages while you’re focused on other things. He doesn’t take a lot of time setting the scene, but when he does, it’s beautiful and absorbing. Kithamar feels like a real place, a familiar place. Yet at the same time it’s unique in so many ways that only living day-to-day with another culture can bring. I loved spending time on these streets, filth and all, and can’t wait until I get to go back.

Another thing I love is the deep character immersion that only happens when an author isn’t self-conscious about taking his time to really immerse you with his characters. I thrive on that kind of connection and found myself despairing, angry, and a whole myriad of other emotions right alongside them. I talked to the book a couple times, which for me is a sign of true investment. And the cool thing is he probably hasn’t even scratched the surface on what’s planned for this series (with upcoming perspectives for characters we saw only on the periphery here), and that’s incredibly exciting.

This was one of those books I enjoyed so much, I could set aside my over-critical mind and just appreciate the journey. It’s only in retrospect while trying to compose this review where I consider what might not work for other readers. There were no major earth-shattering revelations in this story. Very few what I’d call “action” scenes. And in truth I find it hard to describe exactly why reading it was as wonderful as it was, aside from highlighting broader themes of Abraham’s work. It’s one of those cases where if his writing and unique perspective of subtle, character-driven storytelling works for you, then this book is a grand slam. And after hearing some things about the big-picture development of the series as a whole, I’m so there for every last word.

Recommendations: if you love subtle, immersive world-building and highly character-driven novels, then Age of Ash will be right up your alley. I loved my experience with Long Price Quartet and so far Kithamar is starting out just as strong.

I’d like to thank Orbit Books, Daniel Abraham, and Netgalley for the chance to read and review an early copy of Age of Ash – y’all made my year!

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by Niki Hawkes

Feb 3 2022

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Book Review: Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

Title: Foundryside

Author: Robert Jackson Bennett

Series: Foundryside #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Overview: Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic–the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience–have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims. Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them. To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined. –Goodreads

The Review:

I picked up Foundryside on a total whim, and haven’t had this much fun with a book in ages!

I don’t like to know much about my books before diving in, so with this one I was going off of general impressions of the cover and a random comment about the book having a fun magic system. I was expecting a rather hard-edge fantasy, and was taken completely by surprise at the levity and general light-heartedness of the story. It was charming! And a not unwelcome blown expectation.

You know how some books have a great idea for a magic system but it never explores it fully and you’re left thinking it was cool, but mostly an opportunity wasted? That is sooo not the case here! The magic system was loads of fun – a perfect combination of Sanderson’s allomancy from Mistborn and Rachel Aaron’s … we’ll call it “object persuasion,” in her Eli Monpress series. So good!! It was abundant without ever becoming too much. And the desire to learn more about how it all works already has me hounding for the second book.

You also know how even sometimes when the book explores the magic system fully how sometimes all of the other components suffer, so it’s ONLY a good magic book? That wasn’t the case here either. I’m not going to pretend it was the best at handling all the other elements, but it did them all well enough to allow me to shut off the critical part of my mind and just go with it. I loved the idea of the different houses driving the innovation forward with “first to market” competition. I loved the characters we got to know (and a couple of their basic profiles reminded me of a few in Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold, but that could just be a coincidence) and particularly loved how each profile was integrated into the story – it was a cool progression! and I’m totally on board with the overall plot.

There are few books that evoke that same sense of wonder and excitement I got as a kid while reading things like Harry Potter and, later, Fablehaven. This struck all the right chords for me and gave me that same sense of wonder and novelty. I loved it.

As I’ve been reading a lot of dark, gritty series lately, I was starting to think something as outright cheerful as this wouldn’t work for me anymore. There were some situations in this story that worked themselves out much better than they would have in an Abercrombie book, and it reminded me that not everything has to end in death and torture for me to gain a lot of meaning and substance from a book. This story brought back a bit of optimism and fun into my experience, for which I’m quite grateful.

Recommendations: for a fun, light-hearted adventure filled with cool magic, great characters, and an action-packed plot, Foundryside is going to be a new favorite to recommend.

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by Niki Hawkes

Feb 3 2022

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Tackling the TBR [78]: February 2022

It’s once again time for my favorite feature: Tackling the TBR! There’s nothing I love more than picking out which books to read next, and this slightly organized method of reading has really amped my enjoyment to the next level. Bring on the mantras!

Read the best books first.
&
Life is too short to read books you’re not enjoying.

However you put together your TBR for the next month, the goal is to reduce the amount of obligation in reading and increase the fun.

Here’s a look at how the system works:

1. Identify the titles that take top priority in your TBR.
2. Combine them all in your own Tackling the TBR post.
3. Throughout the month pick from that pile as the mood strikes you.

Here’s what mine looks like:

February 2022 TBR Tackler Shelf:

Last month I shared my confliction between reading books I had pre-determined has high priorities and other books that have caught my eye lately… well, I decided to try mood reading for a change, and It. Was. AWESOME!

I picked up many things on a whim (several of which came from my pre-determined list, which I’m totally okay with), and had one of the most enjoyable reading experiences in ages. I’m definitely going to continue this new strategy for a while. I’m calling it “structured mood reading” because I’m still taking the time to curate and evaluate my reading list, then choosing from a whim within it. All of the titles you see above are the pool from which I’m selecting my reading for February 2022, and I’m excited for so many of the titles. Even staring at it now, I’m not sure which one will be chosen next to read, and that prospect is new for me and very, very thrilling (take it where you can get it haha).

Have a great month in reading!

by Niki Hawkes

Jan 28 2022

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Book Review: Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

Title: Memories of Ice

Author: Steven Erikson

Series: Malazan #3

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 5/5 stars

The Overview: The ravaged continent of Genabackis is a terrifying new empire, the Pannion Domin, that devours all. An uneasy allliance resists: Onearm’s army, Whiskeyjack’s Bridgeburners and former enemies – forces of Warlord Caladan Brood, Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii mages, and the Rhivi people of the plains. And the Crippled God intends revenge. -Goodreads

The Review:

It took me three months to read Memories of Ice, but it was worth every single moment.

My favorite thing about this series so far is how expansive and immersive it is. I love good world building in books, especially the kind that continues to introduce new elements, then expand on them as the series progresses. Every single chapter of this book had something mentioned in passing that I wanted to know more about. So many different branches and possibilities that I just can’t wait to spend time with in future books. It’s awesome.

Let’s talk about the characters. All 1000 of them. Actually, this is the first novel where I finally felt like I had a decent handle of all the playmakers in this series. Mind you, I still used the kindle XRay feature constantly to make sure I knew who was who, but I had to use it perhaps a little less often than in previous books. I find all the characters wildly interesting. All of them. And the development of these characters is in line with how everything else is written for the series. You’re basically just plunked into different situations with these people and their depth is gradually revealed through their words and actions. I don’t feel connected to them through deep individual character exploration you can find in other series, but rather in a camaraderiec manner where I feel closer to them because of all the shit we’ve been through together. It’s totally relatable and immersive and unlike anything I’ve experienced before.

This series is so unique. There are elements in here that wouldn’t work for me in any other context. Totally fanciful, ridiculous things that jump the shark left and right, but somehow you just go with it despite that mental twinge of “this is really freaking weird.” I think it all works because of how committed the author is to his trajectory. He immediately builds your trust that he’s taking the story somewhere and everything within exists for a reason. Sit back, shut up, and trust the process. He has my complete confidence in his ability to deliver on his promises, so I’m uncharacteristically willing to give the ridiculous stuff the benefit of the doubt to see where it takes me. I appreciate how fully committed to the vision you have to be to love this series, and I’m all there – totally ready for the next chapter.

Overall, as dense and time-consuming as these books are, I’m enjoying the hell out of them and can’t wait to see where it goes next. Some of the scenes in this book were downright cinematic with drama and excitement, and I’ll be replaying them in my mind for quite a while.

Someone’s off-handed comment (definitely not meant as a spoiler, but I’m really, really good at making inferences) inadvertently wrecked a major plot point for me, so I’m feeling sad about that and trying not to let that disappointment affect my rating and overall satisfaction with the book. I think I would’ve been singing the praises at a solid 5-stars otherwise – this was truly a masterpiece with countless promises of amazing things to come.

Recommendations: this is the most dense, vicious, complex, expansive thing I’ve ever read. I would never recommend it casually because it takes a lot of time and energy to read. But from my experience so far with it, it’s totally worth the effort. Pro tip: get the kindle ebook version if you can so you can flip back and look at character names in context of the story. I would definitely not be enjoying this nearly as much without that feature. The beauty is in the nuances, which are nigh impossible to keep track of without help.

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by Niki Hawkes

Jan 13 2022

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Book Review: The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams

Title: The Dragonbone Chair

Author: Tad Williams

Series: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Overview: A war fueled by the powers of dark sorcery is about to engulf the peaceful land of Osten Ard—for Prester John, the High King, lies dying. And with his death, the Storm King, the undead ruler of the elf-like Sithi, seizes the chance to regain his lost realm through a pact with the newly ascended king. Knowing the consequences of this bargain, the king’s younger brother joins with a small, scattered group of scholars, the League of the Scroll, to confront the true danger threatening Osten Ard. Simon, a kitchen boy from the royal castle unknowingly apprenticed to a member of this League, will be sent on a quest that offers the only hope of salvation, a deadly riddle concerning long-lost swords of power. Compelled by fate and perilous magics, he must leave the only home he’s ever known and face enemies more terrifying than Osten Ard has ever seen, even as the land itself begins to die. -Goodrea ds

The Review:

This review is going to be more of a non-spoiler reading log. I hope you enjoy this journey a “tad” more than I did the one in the book.

Merely mentioning Dragonbone Chair in a recent video about all the unread books on my shelves, I was bombarded with a slew of comments saying I needed to read it ASAP. So I bumped it up a few years in the priority list and gave it a go.

Of all the popular classic fantasy, I think Williams is the only one I hadn’t read something from. I was excited to dive in. But I was also aware that classic fantasy has a tendency to be a bit long-winded and that the joy is often in the journey itself rather than in the destination. I’m not a patient reader, so with comments like “it takes a while to get going,” you can see how this may not be a good match for my tastes right from the start.

But it’s a classic. And beloved by many book friends who love a lot of the same stuff I do. So I gave it a go.

Truthfully, the beginning was about what I’d expected. Very slowly paced and all about immersing the reader in the often mundane aspects of castle life. The writing immediately jumped out to me as beautiful, relaxed, and well-flowing. Like getting a warm hug from your book. I really liked that aspect, so I was content to sit back and enjoy the journey for once. Then some amazing stuff happened for about one chapter and I was hooked!

…And then the novel proceeded to take over 120 pages for X character to get from point A to point B, and I was so disengaged that I started asking, “uh.. exactly when does this get better?”

I was truthfully considering a DNF. But remembering how relatively slow Hobb’s initial Farseer Trilogy was at first, and how many people abandon it before the magic really starts happening, I felt like there was a similar situation here, and if I just kept reading, eventually I’d see why so many love this series.

But, you see, there’s one distinct difference between my experience with this series and Hobb’s. I don’t mind slow plot progression in books as long as there’s a lot of deep character exploration. I’m totally on board for that type of story. However, with the Dragonbone Chair, the characters were interesting, but I really didn’t get a ton of depth from them. Their actions went a long ways towards developing character near the end, but for most of the book I liked them but didn’t feel particularly connected to them.

The overall handling of characters was weird for me. So, we get several hundred pages more or less focused on just a handful of people. I enjoyed reading about them quite a bit. And if nothing else got a connection of familiarity with them. However, we went from a handful of characters doing not much of anything but talking, to a massive influx of new people to keep track of without much time at all to build a connection with them. It felt like I’d picked up a totally different book at about the 75% mark. I wasn’t ready to keep track of so many names, and by the time I realized I needed to, I was already a bit lost.

So the story got way more interesting towards the end of the book, but any connection I had to most of the characters got lost in the jumble. To the point where something would happen to someone and my first thought would be, “holy $#%?, I didn’t even realize they were in this scene (or existed at all, in some cases).” Oye.

Perhaps my level of disengagement near the end was a result of how passive I already felt about the book up to that point.

Here’s the thing. I feel like I’m standing back, admiring a painting called “Blue Explosion,” appreciating that it’s a brilliant work of art and more or less enjoying looking at it, but can’t shake the thought, “but, does it really need that much blue?” The Dragonbone Chair is supposed to make you feel like you’re sitting around a campfire getting an epic tale told to you. It’s supposed to be all about the journey and the lore. While I’m over here wishing the plot had been more concise and the pacing more evenly distributed. That was a really long-winded way of saying that it just wasn’t written for my personal tastes but was still very well done.

So where do I go from here? Despite the rapid-fire of characters near the end, I found myself very interested in the politics. The battle scenes were good. I liked the quest aspect, even though I still couldn’t tell you exactly who’s on it or what their individual motives are. I find myself masochisticly willing to dive into the next book to see if my issues carry over. Perhaps it will keep the same decent momentum and all I need to do is care enough to keep the characters straight.

I started this book as a Buddy Read in my Goodreads group with a bunch of people. We lost a few right out the gate, but then they started dropping like flies until only myself and two others remained. Plodding diligently. We’ve agreed we’ll need the commitment of a BR to get to the next one and it’s currently scheduled for April. I’m still not sure I want to work that hard to read hundreds more pages for a series I’m just okay about atm. But that glimmer of potential is keeping me around. For now.

Recommendations: this is a beloved classic fantasy that would be a great match for those who love Tolkien and Jordan (…I’m not one of those people). It’s also the series that inspired George R.R. Martin, and you can totally see bits of influence throughout. The writing is beautiful and it’s more about the journey than the destination. It’s perhaps is a mite less engaging than I want, but I know it will work well for more patient readers.

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by Niki Hawkes

Jan 6 2022

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Novella Reviews: Wayward Children 1-3 by Seanan McGuire

Book Info: Every Heart a Doorway (book #1)

Rating: 4/5 stars

I’d been eyeballing this series since a friend recommended it to me a couple of years ago. I’d thought they were full-length novels, but was pleased to discover the series as bite-sized novella chunks. Very satisfying.

This first book could’ve taken a lot of directions. One of my favorite things about it is that I was never quite sure where the author was going with the story. Seanan McGuire is, most prominently, an author I look to for the unconventional. I loved that most of this book took place at a boarding school for these wayward children. School settings are my favorite, and this had enough “learning cool new things” components for it to be a good one. Then the tale took on an unexpected murder mystery, and I found myself completely on board.

Granted, the magic of this first book was more in what it promised in future books rather than just on its own merit. It had a lot of great setup, and the anticipation for what’s to come is why I was left feeling really positively about it.

Book Info: Down Among the Sticks and Bones (book #2)

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

So far, this was my least favorite of the series. While I continued to like the writing voice and overall concept, I had a lot of issues with pacing and plot decisions.

I was very interested in the backstory of these two characters, and appreciate the almost nursery-rhyme presentation of the narrative early on. However, the beginning was a bit long-winded, especially considering readers already knew what was going to happen from the first book.

Then we get to the new realm, and that’s really where my disappointment in how it was executed manifested. First off, the world itself wasn’t very well-realized. There were enough atmospheric details and explanations that my brain could sort of create a picture, but the narrow focus on just immediate characters made it feel like we were walking around in little bubbles. It didn’t seem like a real place with a functioning society. It felt like a big old castle with only three occupants and a town with only two or three folk, until the mob scene drew them out of the forest. Or wherever they were hiding. I’m finding it hard to explain, but essentially, the world-building was really thin, and more there for overall atmosphere creation than anything else.

One of the most compelling things about this series is allowing me to psychoanalyze these very troubled characters and try to figure out what circumstances and trauma cause them to behave the way they do. This opportunity is probably why I’m so tickled with the series so far, because it’s giving my brain a lot of extra food for thought (keeping me engaged). Based on what we know about these characters so far in the series, their behavior at the end of the book did not make a lot of sense to me. Both girls felt wildly out of character, and it bothered me enough that in my Buddy Read for the story, we spent a lot of time discussing what would’ve made more sense to have happen. The biggest dock to my rating was from this unsatisfying inconsistency of character.

However, this is just one facet of the story McGuire is building, so I was still eager to pick up the next book, despite some objections with this one.

Book Info: Beneath the Sugar Sky

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I’d no idea what to expect next. Would the series take all the characters in the first book and use the following novellas to tell their backstories like they did in Down Among the Sticks and Bones? I was okay with that trajectory, but feared I’d miss the boarding school element too much to stay invested. Luckily for me, Book 3 managed to progress the storyline developing at the boarding school while also giving some great backstory tidbits and other world exploration.

It was fantastic.

Or should I say “fantastical” because we got to explore our first nonsense world in this novella.

I, for one, am definitely more at home in the logical worlds, but since the beauty of this installment was more about the characters and the sense of adventure and camaraderie, it didn’t bother me too much (I have a hard time with the ridiculous in books, which is why my stint into Piers Anthony, Pratchett, and Douglass Adams was very, very brief). Overall I love how it progressed the story in multiple worlds and how it started a convergence of realms.

Additionally, Beneath the Sugar Sky had a number of instances where it promoted female body positivity which was integrated naturally, feeling very organic to the character profiles, and 100% freaking fantastic. It also explored the idea that your worth as a person is made up of so many components that aren’t always tangible or visible things, and continually appreciating those things rather than focusing on external appearance and how society indicates you “should” be can be a very powerful shift in mindset. It’s not ignoring the stigmas around you, because that’s nigh impossible in the culture we live in, it’s allowing reality to be what it is and still have a quiet confidence in why you are special. Cora is definitely a character I’ll have my eyes on going forward. Loved.

Overall, this series (so far, books 1-3) has been an absolute highlight to my year, and I can’t wait to explore more. I appreciate that I’m getting much more out of these books than just your basic portal fantasy story. I’ve come away with so much unexpected food for thought, which is incredibly exciting.

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