Feb 5 2024

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Book Review: Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

Title: Empire of Silence

Author: Christopher Ruocchio

Series: Sun Eater #1

Genre: Sci-Fantasy

Rating: 5/5 stars!

The Overview: Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy. It was not his war. On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives—even the Emperor himself—against Imperial orders. But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier. Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fighting a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand. –Goodreads

The Review:

Booktube was right -> this is amazing.

There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t like about Empire of Silence. Having read and reviewed books for an audience for so long, it’s a rare thing when I can turn off my critical mind long enough to enjoy a book with wild abandon. I loved everything from start to finish.

And they tell me it only gets better!

This book was a cool hodgepodge of fantasy and scifi. It read kind of like a Stormlight Archive book in tone and scope, but in a dramatic scifi setting not unlike Red Rising. And did I mention the writing voices was akin to Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind? I realize I’m referencing many SFF heavy-hitters, but Empire o Silence had so many of the best elements of each that I feel it deserves the comparisons.

My favorite aspects of the book were the characters and world-building. The character profiles enhanced it all. The main character reminded me a little of the Mandalorian where he periodically gets the ever-loving crap kicked out of him, but has to figure out how to pull himself back up. Sometimes he gets in his own way, but it’s always interesting to me to see the growth arc of a character like that. I also love the blurring of genres, and how creative the setting. Everything from the human cultures and infrastructures to the delightfully weird flora and fauna… so cool. And the alien villains? Loved them.

The writing was lyrical without being too heavy-handed, the pacing was on-point, the characters were clever and engaging, the world-building was epic and fun, the villains were bomb, and I’m so excited for the rest of the series I can hardly stand it.

Recommendations: if you loved any of the series mentioned in this review, then you’re already primed to like Empire of Silence. Give into the hype-train… it’s worth it.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Jen, Frank, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, and Elizabeth! <3

Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Nov 16 2023

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Book Review: System Collapse by Martha Wells

Title: System Collapse

Author: Martha Wells

Series: Murderbot Diaries #7

Genre: Cheeky Science Fiction

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Overview: Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse. Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back. Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize. But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast! Yeah, this plan is… not going to work. -Goodreads

The Review:

I always love returning to Murderbot’s POV.

After Fugitive Telemetry was released (which bounced back to an earlier timeline in the series), I was worried we weren’t going to get any more storyline beyond Network Effect (the full-length novel). But there IS more! It’s right here!

… and it was just okay.

Truthfully I thought System Collapse dealt TOO much with the after-effects of the events in Network Effect and didn’t have as many compelling plot-advancing events as in previous books. It mostly read like a transition story… which I guess is the typical use for novellas in large series, but I’ve come to expect more impact from Wells’ shorts. This one didn’t quite stack up.

It still had the same great inner monologues and sarcasm from Murderbot. And I especially loved the passages of It trying to process Its FEELINGS from the events in NE. Introverts around the world can unite behind Murderbot as a character. Wells understands social awkwardness on a deep level and it has been a joy to see that celebrated in this series. The crew around Murderbot were also great, although I still struggle to keep all the humans straight, even after recently rereading All Systems Red where I was actively TRYING to distinguish between them. Regardless, it’s the machines and computers who are the most vibrant, anyway, and those entities were in full swing in this installment (sometimes literally).

Overall, I’m tickled to be back progressing Murderbot’s story, even though this one felt more tangential. The setup is now presumably all in place though, so I’m expecting a banger of a next novel.

Recommendations: if Murderbot has been missing from your life up to this point, your FOMO should be hard. It’s sarcastic, action-packed, reflectional, and too much fun to handle. Read it.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, and Mike! <3

Thank you, TOR Publishers and Martha Wells for the chance to read and review an early copy of System Collapse!

Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Mar 16 2023

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Novella Review: Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Title: Elder Race

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Series: N/A

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

The Overview: Lynesse is the lowly Fourth Daughter of the queen, and always getting in the way. But a demon is terrorizing the land, and now she’s an adult (albeit barely) and although she still gets in the way, she understands that the only way to save her people is to invoke the pact between her family and the Elder sorcerer who has inhabited the local tower for as long as her people have lived here (though none in living memory has approached it). But Elder Nyr isn’t a sorcerer, and he is forbidden to help, for his knowledge of science tells him the threat cannot possibly be a demon… -Goodreads

The Review:

While a decent novella, this wasn’t my favorite work from Tchaikovsky by a long shot.

The main appeal was discovering what’s inside the structure on the cover and how it’s significant to the people of this world. That aspect was satisfying and actually a lot more reminiscent of his other works than I was expecting.

The best part of the story were the characters. The author played around with cultural communication barriers that added variety depending on which POV we were in. I liked that it wasn’t a blanket “technology will solve all of our problems” situation and certain discrepancies in language still existed. There were also a couple of… alternately composed humans (aquatic) that I wish had gotten more of a highlight. That’s the thing about Tchaikovsky’s works: he’s so creative that he just casually throws in ideas that could warrant entire books within themselves. He did the same thing in Children of Time. It’s so much fun to read, but occasionally you find yourself craving some elaboration on the minor stuff.

There was a technology that allowed the user to compartmentalize emotional reactions, where they could still tell they were having them, but didn’t have to feel them directly. This came at a cost, though, as you’d have to face the emotions eventually to avoid a mental breakdown. I loved this aspect and thought the way it was written into the story was brilliant. The “voice” of the character actively changed in the text depending on whether or not this technology was being used. And I thought it a clever way to give the character depth.

Even with great elements, what didn’t work for me was the pacing. A novella shouldn’t feel like it’s dragging with such a low page count. But I felt the good character moments and the plot reveals we’re just a little too staggered. All working towards and ending that was good, but not quite worth the lengthily build-up. I probably would’ve rated it a lot higher had it been a bit more concise. I think the culprit was a little too much introspection and reiteration of events. There were two POVs and we got internal accounts of everything from both sides. While seeing two such different viewpoints of the same situations was kind of the point of the book, I don’t think it needed to be time equally spent.

Recommendations: Elder Race is an interesting short story from an author shaping up to be a personal favorite, but if you’re new to his sci-fi works, this isn’t the best place to start (go with Children of Time… emphatically).

Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Feb 8 2023

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Tackling the TBR [88]: February 2023

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 2023 TBR Tackler Shelf:

Last month I committed to focusing on primarily five series, which went swimmingly and I plan on continuing that this month with Ruin, Warrior, and then a few new in series that will get me up to date in the genre.

THERE’S A NEW KATE DANIELS BOOK! Magic Tides. And somehow I didn’t even know it was coming out!! I dropped everything and picked it up immediately and am already 35% of the way through. I love these authors so much, and this one is just as good as all of their other works. Not to mention I didn’t know they were planning on continuing the KD series considering it kind of ended at book 10. Love it.

I have a fairly conservative (aka realistic) lineup this month of eight books, but the funny thing is that I’m currently reading six of them… O_o! Chalk it up to bad planning on my part, but they all needed to be read near the beginning of the month. Even though I feel a bit scattered, I’m loving everything I’ve picked up so far. Wish me luck to get caught up before March!

Have a great month in reading!

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 10 2023

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Tackling the TBR [87]: January 2023

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:

January 2023 TBR Tackler Shelf:

Wouldn’t you know it – I didn’t read as much as I thought I would last month, so many of the books are making a comeback in January. I keep saying how Ruin by John Gwynne is my #1 priority, and yet I keep letting other more time-sensitive books jump the line. It’s the pitfall of running a book club and signing up for so many buddy reads (actually, I’ve been instigating them, which is even funnier). In any case, come hell or high water, I will be at least cracking the spine on Ruin before the month is out.

With the exception of the Warrior, which technically isn’t slated to get read until the first of February, I actually think I’m going to be able to read everything on this list (famous last words). Sweep of the Heart by Andrews was a last-minute addition, as I was planning to read it ASAP anyway but dropped everything to snag it when NetGalley flashed it across my radar as available as an audio ARC. Sold.

Blade of Dreams, the new Kithimar novel that comes out next summer, is every bit as amazing as I hoped it would be. I’m devouring pages from it every time I have a free moment. Superb.

Even at a glance, I can tell I’m focusing my attentions on the best books first. We’re starting off the year with a bang!

Have a great month in reading!

by Niki Hawkes