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Angry Robot Book Review: Evocation, by S.T. Gibson

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication: May 28, 2024 by Angry Robot Books
ISBN: 9781915202680 (ISBN10: 191520268X)
Language: English

Description

The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.

But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.

Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…

The first book in a spellbinding and vibrant new series from The Sunday Times bestselling author of A Dowry of Blood.

My Review

I have a limited edition proof copy of this book, sent by the publisher in December last year. I started reading it in January, but then life and blog tours got in the way, so I managed one chapter before I had to put it down. Last night, I read it all. In about five hours. I think the cover of my edition is way cooler that the standard edition. And I got a mini chocolate bar with my book.

From reading the first chapter I didn’t know if I’d enjoy the book. David is not a likeable character at the start. However, as the story progresses and the reader meets Rhys and Moira, and then other people in their circle, we learn something of them all. David, particularly, makes major character changes over the course of the novel as he becomes sick and is forced to confront his dead father, and a demon. Rhys and Moira are both antagonistic to him at the start, which we learn is due to David misdiagnosing the cause of a haunting in their house and blaming Moira. This is apparently the plot of the novella that precedes this novel. I haven’t read the novella, but picked up some of the story from mentions in this novel.

Rhys has ambitions of becoming important, while Moira suppresses her ambitions under the rules her mother taught her, and David has the insouciance and confidence of old money. They clash, because they all need therapy. David is driven by the fear of failure, of perfectionism, beaten into him by his abusive father. He’s a sober alcoholic, who copes with his stress by obsessively working both as a medium and a lawyer, while maintaining a punishing food and exercise regimen (he’s clearly struggling with orthorexia). Rhys has a load of Catholic guilt about being bisexual, about being an occultist, about having ambition. Moira needs to learn to put herself first sometimes, and to accept her own power.

Moira is the first one to realise, with the help of her friend Kitty, also a powerful magic worker, and wife of one of David and Rhys’ friends at the Society, that there is more than one way to do relationships. Moira at times acts as the hinge that keeps the two men from killing each other, holding them together when they’re falling apart, fighting demons or dying. As the story develops, and they all confront their feelings and trauma, they realise they can form a family that works for them.

It feels a bit like Moira is the one who is doing a lot of the work, of parenting two men in their late twenties who clearly didn’t get the parenting they needed as children. It’s unfortunate that this dynamic is one often found in heterosexual relationships (a woman becoming wife and surrogate mother to a man), and I found criticism of S.T. Gibson in other reviews of this book for that dynamic, but it’s what relationships are often like, and in a book that has demons and magic, the reality is grounding. I enjoyed the character growth they all go through and the resolution is satisfying.

S.T. Gibson is a really talented writer who knows enough about a variety of occult, magic and religious traditions to write convincingly about the many traditions that make an appearance in this book. It was fun playing ‘spot the tradition or folklore reference’ as I read the book. I want more of these books, more adventures for David, Rhys and Moira. And Leda, David’s half sister – who is utterly cool. I reckon if Kitty, Moira and Leda decided to, they could take over the Society, although Lorena would still be more powerful.

Recommended for fans of urban fantasy. Not much sex, for those who aren’t into it, but lots of angst and romance.

TBR Pile Review: Radical Intimacy, by Sophie K Rosa

Format: 208 pages, Paperback
Published: March 20, 2023 by Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745345161 (ISBN10: 0745345166)
Language: English

Description

An impassioned discussion about the alternative ways to form relationships and resist capitalism.

Capitalist ideology wants us to believe that there is an optimal way to live. ‘Making connections’ means networking for work. Our emotional needs are to be fulfilled by a single romantic partner, and self-care equates to taking personal responsibility for our suffering. We must be productive and heterosexual, we must have babies and buy a house. But the kicker is most people cannot and do not want to achieve all, or any of these life goals. Instead we are left feeling atomised, exhausted and disempowered.

Radical Intimacy shows that it doesn’t need to be this way. A punchy and impassioned account of inspiring ideas about alternative ways to live, Sophie K Rosa demands we use our radical imagination to discover a new form of intimacy and to transform our personal lives and in turn society as a whole.

Including critiques of the ‘wellness’ industry that ignores rising poverty rates, the mental health crisis and racist and misogynist state violence; transcending love and sex under capitalism to move towards feminist, decolonial and queer thinking; asking whether we should abolish the family; interrogating the framing of ageing and death and much more, Radical Intimacy is the compassionate antidote to a callous society.

My Review

I have the Left Book Club edition of this book; the standard cover is plain yellow with black writing. All of the Left Book Club contemporary library have the same cover. I have several of them, this might be the first one I’ve had time to read. I started reading it on Wednesday, and almost finished it, but I had to go to bed, so I finished it off yesterday afternoon.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a thoughtful introduction to some of the ideas presented, and well referenced. I generally agree with the direction of the argument, the capitalist, atomised society we live in, focused on the nuclear family, doesn’t support humans in a healthy way. I think read in conjunction with other books, such as Empire of Normality, by Robert Chapman, which I’ve reviewed in the past, and other books from Pluto Press (which I have, but haven’t had a chance to read yet), this book could be a good base from which to work. The writing style was engaging although slightly shallow at times, with arguments not developed as fully as perhaps some would like. Sex is barely mentioned, because intimacy and sex are not synonymous.

TBR/TBL pile review: Alien Clay, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Tor
8 March 2024
9781035013746
400 pages
Audiobook narrated by Ben Allen

Synopsis

They travelled into the unknown and left themselves behind . . .

On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history – yet who were its builders and where did they go?

Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .

My Review

I ordered a hardback copy of this book from The Broken Binding and the audiobook from Audible. I started reading this book earlier in the week, after I finished reading Lords of Uncreation and decided I need some more SF. I should have been reading one of my blog tour books, but I’ll finish that tomorrow. I happened to need something to listen to on Wednesday because I wanted to go out and swim after I had to spend Tuesday at the hospital. I read the first 23 chapters of the hardback book on Monday, on Wednesday I picked up from the right point in the audiobook and listened to all but the last 23 minutes of it while I was out all afternoon. I listened to the rest when I went out today. So yeah, I binged the book slightly.

I’ve read eight of Tchaikovsky’s books now, six are from space opera trilogies, while two, including Alien Clay, are stand alone novels. I enjoy both types. There’s always strong worldbuilding and interesting characters. Alien Clay is no different, the world of Kiln is very deeply imagined and the main character, Arton Daghdev, is an acerbic bitch; he made me laugh so much.

Kiln puzzles the scientists bound by Mandate orthodoxy; Arton Daghdev and his fellow condemned are heterodox, rebels against the Mandate, or common criminals who happened to end up on Kiln as part of their punishment. Daghdev was an academic, skating the edge of orthodoxy, a xenobiologist, and a member of several revolutionary sub-committees, until purges put him on a ship to Kiln, a one-way trip.

On Kiln, he is welcomed by the very orthodox commandant who hopes Daghdev can be turned to orthodoxy. He’s put on the Science Support team, along with a friend from home, Ilmus, a former colleague and ‘disciple’ who was picked up by the police, tortured and exiled to Kiln a year before Daghdev. The team work with ‘the Science’ – professionals, paid to work on Kiln, to prove the Mandate’s anthropocentric orthodoxy.

Life on Kiln is rampant, even in an apparently cooler, drier period, and it evolves in a vary different way to Earth life. Each creature is a symbiotic community, carrying multiple species in many combinations. But ruins suggest there was once a sentient species on the planet, and it’s the job of the Science (and the prisoners sent to die there) to discover as much as possible and confirm the Mandate orthodox belief that the purpose of the universe is humanity.

After a failed coup, Daghdev, Ilmus and the former head of Science (who had a one night stand with Daghdev and is therefore assumed to have known about the rebellion), among others, are punished by being sent to Excursions. Where they are not popular, because changing the teams means changing the decontamination schedules, risking people’s lives.

Excursions are not a popular assignment, because they are the only people who go outside of the domed camp. Outside the camp, Kiln life tries to take hold immediately. Luckily, life is so different on Earth, that it takes Kiln life a while to work it out and a good decontamination can deal with that. It’s all well and good, until Daghdev’s team, led by an old shop steward, and longest living Kiln survivor, Keev, lose their transport to a creature called ‘the Elephant’s Dad’ and are forced to walk back to the camp.

Out in the Kiln environment, pretty much unprotected from the symbiotic life forms, they change. By the time they return, they are themselves and yet, more than that. Kiln has found the keys to unlock Earth biology. The planet has found a new mind that it can use. Slowly, the survivors spread their change across the rest of the prisoners, until they can work in unity while being still individuals. It’s a new revolution.

Tchaikovsky’s work has always had a political edge, if you know where to look, and he usually has a point to make. The point made in Alien Clay might piss off people who read sci fi because they like it when things get blown up in space and evil empires are replaced by less evil empires. Replacing one with t’other doesn’t work; you need a complete change of system. Replacing the Mandate with a revolution wouldn’t work – revolutions tend to get taken over by people who want power and will lie, murder, and steal to get it. The Russian Revolution is an excellent example of that. The impetus came from grass roots organisations to improve the lives of peasants and workers (the SRs and anarchists), and it was taken over by middle class idealogues who were interested in power – Lenin, Trotsky, and eventually the Bolsheviks under Stalin – and murdered their way through their former allies. Yes, life was probably better than under the Tsars for many people, but it was still shit, because power was still centralised under a ‘big man’ and small group of sycophants. Decentralised, local organisation, directly elected councils that can be recalled and replaced if they piss off the people, a lack of hierarchy, worked in some places for several years at a time, until Stalin and his collection of nut bags decided murder and invasion were better. The Red Army only won the Russian Civil War because of the Anarchist Army (the Red and Black) which voted for their officers. I’ve been listening to Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, who are part way through a 6-part series on the Kronstadt rebellion, and Behind the Bastards, that’s just done a 4-parter on Stalin’s chief of secret police. Lots of cross-over there. I highly recommend both podcasts, by the way.

Reading Alien Clay when I’ve been listening to Behind the Bastards and Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff probably influenced my interpretation of the message of this book. It appeals to my socialist heart. Authoritarian regimes love a scientist or artist that’ll support their orthodoxy, because they need them to prop up their nonsense, but hates scientists and artists that use their intelligence and skills to point out the lies of the regime.

I love that Adrian Tchaikovsky has included an important, although secondary, character who is non-binary and probably Autistic in Ilmus. They’re the first to join the planet on the march back to the camp, the first to open themselves up completely to the whole. The tension between Daghdev and Ilmus, as they fear each other was the one who turned them in, and betrayed the rebellion at the camp, and the force of their friendship that helps them bridge the tension, is an emotional counterpoint to the humorous narrative of pain and confusion Daghdev feels on Kiln before the changes Kiln makes to them all.

The beings that live on Kiln are absolutely terrifying. I have a really strange phobia of parasites; the idea of things growing on me or taking up residence in me, and sprouting, absolutely terrifies me. That scene in Hannibal series 1 where they find bodies with mushrooms growing out of them, and one of the victims is alive with mushrooms sprouting from them, still horrifies me. So, I can’t say the species on Kiln don’t freak me out, but at the same time, it’s a really cool idea! Instead of the popular science understanding of competitive evolution, there’s a a species that specialises in one thing and will build a communal life with other species so that everyone gets their needs met. I love the way Tchaikovsky has his narrator describe the life on Kiln and events. It’s by turns lyrical, sarcastic and humorous. The stone crab that helps the marching Excursionistas get back to the camp is probably my favourite species.

The narrator of the audiobook was really good; I enjoyed the intonation and rhythm of the narration. At the end of the audiobook, there’s an interview between Adrian Tchaikovsky and Ben Allen, which covers Tchaikovsky’s influences and research. He originally studied zoology and then law, so Tchaikovsky has a background in science, among other areas; when he’s making up xenospecies it’s usually based in proper science. Which I appreciate.

I need to go to bed now, so I’m going to stop rambling and tell you to go buy Alien Clay.

TBR Pile Review: Floating Hotel, by Grace Curtis

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
Published: March 21, 2024 by Hodderscape
ISBN:9781529390582 (ISBN10: 1529390583)
Language: English

Description

Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. Year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury – and a magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as:

Why are there love poems in the lobby intray?

How many Imperial spies are currently on board?

What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver’s conference?

And perhaps most pertinently – who is driving the ship?

At the centre of these mysteries stands Carl, one time stowaway, longtime manager, devoted caretaker to the hotel. It’s the love of his life and the only place he’s ever called home. But as forces beyond Carl’s comprehension converge on the Abeona, he has to face one final question: when is it time to let go?

TBL List Review: Lords of Uncreation, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Final Architecture, Book 3
By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
Series: The Final Architecture, Book 3
Length: 20 hrs and 49 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 27-04-23
Language: English
Publisher: Tor

Summary

From Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time and winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Lords of Uncreation is the final high-octane instalment in the Final Architecture space opera trilogy.

He’s found a way to end their war, but will humanity survive to see it?

Idris Telemmier has uncovered a secret that changes everything – the Architects’ greatest weakness. A shadowy Cartel scrambles to turn his discovery into a weapon against these alien destroyers of worlds. But between them and victory stands self-interest. The galaxy’s great powers would rather pursue their own agendas than stand together against this shared terror.

Human and inhuman interests wrestle to control Idris’ discovery, as the galaxy erupts into a mutually destructive and self-defeating war. The other great obstacle to striking against their alien threat is Idris himself. He knows that the Architects, despite their power, are merely tools of a higher intelligence.

Deep within unspace, where time moves differently, and reality isn’t quite what it seems, their masters are the true threat. Masters who are just becoming aware of humanity’s daring – and taking steps to exterminate this annoyance forever.

My Review

I’ve read or listened to quite a few of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s books in the last few years. I’m reading one currently, and I’ve just finished listening to this book. I’ve met Adrian a couple of times at FantasyCon; he’s from Lincolnshire and got his honorary Doctorate in January 2019, at the same ceremony I received my Masters at Lincoln. He’s a bit of a weirdo, but not a bad one. His son is autistic (some people I know who grew up with Mr Tchaikovsky have speculated that he’s ADHD but I don’t know), and he tries to include neurodivergent characters in his more recent books. I particularly enjoyed the crows in Children of Memory, who are ADHD and Autistic. I’m considering getting paperback copies to add to the Little Neurodivergent Library at work.

In the The Final Architecture books, the ‘ints’ are neurodivergent – most have deliberately damaged brains that allows them to process the world in a way entirely differently to the majority of the population. Some are naturals – like the first ‘int’, Saint Zavienne, and some of the Partheni new class who have the ‘right’ genetics for sensitivity to unspace travel, but most have an acquire brain injury that makes the neurodivergent. They are significantly disabled by their brains, and Idris is one of the most disabled. He’s also the oldest, one of the original class, almost a hundred years old; never aging, never sleeping, always anxious, always highly stimulated. His obsession with finding the Masters, the ones driving the Architects to destroy sentient life in the universe, pushes him close to death, multiple times. Usually he only survives because of some piece of tech or emergency procedures taken by his friends and occasionally his enemies.

I found Idris to be a bit of a wet blanket, but he admits to being a weak, ‘little’, man. He’s small and physically weak from his early years of deprivation, his long life of hard labour fighting the Architects and travelling in the unreal. He has a strong spirit and his frustration with people who won’t listen and who won’t consider the implications of their actions resonates. He is opposed to genocide, which is a perfectly reasonable position to hold, and he seeks the first cause. I can agree with that position. I don’t think we’ll find an intergalactic species desperate to recreate the conditions of their original universe at the centre of our problems however.

Idris is the driver of the mission, but the driver of the plot is Olli, who along with Kitt the Hanni are the remaining crew of the Vulture God, while everyone else is on the Eye buggering about in unspace. Olli, being a suspicious bint, doesn’t trust anyone, particularly the ‘parthos’ – the women of the Partheny. And she’s right to be suspicious, as she uncovers a breakaway group plotting a coup, and helping the arc-ship building cabal. A pointless war breaks out between Hu and the Partheny. Olli and Kitt take the ship, and an Ogdru (an aquatic species that can navigate unspace) called Junior out of it and try to save everyone.

Eventually, they end up saving the universe. Olli gains various items from the Hegemony, after she becomes heir to ‘The Razor and The Scythe’, as Unspeakable, head of a crime syndicate, and by the end of the novel, head of her own nation. Olli is my favourite character, and I really want a novel about her adventures as Unspeakable. Her attitude of ‘fuck it’, her willingness to try whatever she needs to do to survive and to help her friends survive, and her magic legs from the Hegemony, make her an engaging, fun character.

The story is complicated and has several parts. First the mission on the Eye, then the war, then the rescue, and finally back to the mission. The narrative uses multiple voices to tell the story – a limited 3rd person omniscience – and there is some overlap between the chapters as the same events are told by different characters and then taken forward. Since events happen across hundreds of thousands of kilometres of space, this is quite helpful. I enjoyed seeing events from multiple perspectives.

The narrator, Sophie Aldred, is very good. She gives each character their own personality. She has really good pacing and inflection, although some of her pronunciations are wrong. I enjoyed listening to this audiobook. I found myself looking forward to getting back to it while also finding ways to stretch it out because I didn’t want the story to end.

If you’ve enjoyed Adrian Tchaikovsky’s other books, you’ll probably enjoy this one. The man publishes two or three books a year, so you’ll probably always have something to read/listen to. He’s really good at space opera with relatable human (and nom-human) characters.

TBR Pile Review: Faebound, by Saara El-Arifi

Format: 392 pages, Hardcover
Published: December 15, 2023 by Harper Voyager
ISBN: 9780008596965
Goldsboro Books Exclusive Edition

Two elven sisters become imprisoned in the hidden world of the fae where danger, and love, lies in wait. Faebound is the first book in an enchanting new trilogy from the internationally bestselling author of The Final Strife.

A thousand years ago, the world held three fae, elves, and humans. But now the fae and humans exist only in myth and legend, survived by the elves who are trapped in an endless war over the remaining lands.

Yeeran is a colonel in the elven army and has known nothing but a life of violence and hardship. Her sister, Lettle, is a diviner whose magic promises a different future for her and her sister, but the prophecies have yet come to pass.

When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven Lands, Lettle, fearful for her sister’s life, follows her into the uncharted territory beyond their borders. In the wilderness the sisters encounter the largest obeah they have ever seen. Part leopard, part stag, the obeah’s magic is harnessed to make weapons for the elven war. It is during this hunt that they are confronted with the a group of fae who take them captive. Imprisoned in a new land, they must navigate the politics of the fae court all while planning their escape.

Now Yeeran and Lettle are fighting a different kind of between their loyalty to their elven homeland and the intoxicating world of the fae, between what duty decrees is right, and what their hearts tell them they need.

My Review

Alright, one last review for the day and then I’m off to bed. I’ve just read about 300 hundred of the 395 pages this evening. I read the rest last month. I’ve been busy. Now I have to wait for the next one! And it promises to be so good!

I don’t normally like romantic fantasy, even though it seems to be a really popular genre at the moment. I prefer fantasy with a romantic sub-sub-sub plot. Fantasy that could stand without the romantic elements. There should be more that just lust and romantic love moving the plot forward. Nor should sex be substituted for actual character development.

But.

I like this one. The characters are fun, there’s battles, murder, prophesy, finding and losing family, betrayal, talking animals…all the fun stuff. The plot does rely a bit on the enemies to lovers trope, but that’s a romantasy staple and in the context it actually works. El-Arifi doesn’t use sex as a substitute for character development, although there is some in there. On the beach, of all places.

The main characters are Yeeran and Lettle, a colonel in the Waning army and a Seer. They are sisters in their late thirties and twenties, respectively. That makes a nice change. Main characters that aren’t children. They’ve had a hard life. Yeeran chose to join the army and fight in the Forever War, while Lettle was too young to leave, and had to stay with their father. After poisoning him as dementia took control, Lettle seeks solace in an old temple, and meets her mentor, a Seer, who takes her to their capital and trains her in divination. Yeeran rises to become the youngest general in the Waning army, while Lettle becomes a powerful diviner, although divination, the gift to elves from the moon god is increasingly ignored and disparaged.

Then Yeeran makes a battlefield mistake that costs hundreds of lives. Sent into exile, Yeeran seeks out a way to win back favour with her chieftain/lover. Lettle, and Yeeran’s Captain, Rayan, follow her into exile, through the neighbouring Crescent and meet up as Yeeran is hunting an obeah.

Then things turn nasty. Because the obeah is faebound to a fae prince, who will die when the obeah does, and a fae princess witnesses the death. There is a nasty fight and Yeeran is condemned to death. But first the three elves must be marched through the wasteland to the underground home/prison of the fae.

Just when it looks like everyone is going to die, Yeeran bonds with an obeah herself. This changes everything. The fae won’t kill an obeah, and killing Yeeran would kill an obeah. This gives Yeeran, Lettle and Rayan a few months respite to find a way to escape. Something is happening outside the fae lands, and inside there is dissension in the ranks. The arrival of three elves changes the balance and they will all learn something about themselves and the world.

I’ll admit, my favourite character is Pila, the obeah bonded to Yeeran. She’s a sarcastic bint and I love her. The elves and fae are okay, I suppose, but I want more obeah adventures! I’m joking, although Pila is my favourite, I like the way the characters are developing and the push-pull of duty and attraction. Lettle sees most things more clearly than her sister, but Yeeran is too bound up in her training to accept that Lettle might be right. The tension between the two sister, and the tension between Yeeran and Furi, drive the story forward. These tensions represent the tension between two elvish worldviews and the competing elvish and fae worldviews, that need to be reconciled for them the move forward.

Furi is furious most of the time, be as the reader gets to know her through Yeeran’s eyes, we discover that the anger is a cover for grief, pain and fear. She’s trapped in Mosima, trapped in her duty to people and family, her future is determined for her by a curse, and she has no way out. She turns this outward towards elves in general and Yeeran in particular. Yet, it’s the arrival of Yeeran, Lettle, and Rayan that will eventually free her.

Also, it’s very, very queer. As in the societies are queer normative. And I love to see it.

That’s the big reveal at the end. Which I’m not going to spoil. You all need to go out and get this book. The standard edition will be published in a week or so, and I think I have a copy on order with Waterstones. (Look, we all know I’m a completist, I can’t help myself. I just found out there’s a FairyLoot exclusive edition and I can’t get it! It’s very frustrating!)

TBL List Review: The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being, written and read by Alice Roberts

Format: 392 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2014 by Heron Books
ISBN: 9781848664791 (ISBN10: 1848664796)
Language: English

Alice Roberts takes you on the most incredible journey, revealing your path from a single cell to a complex embryo to a living, breathing, thinking person. It’s a story that connects us with our distant ancestors and an extraordinary, unlikely chain of events that shaped human development and left a mark on all of us. Alice Roberts uses the latest research to uncover the evolutionary history hidden in all of us, from the secrets found only in our embryos and genes – including why as embroyos we have what look like gills – to those visible in your anatomy. This is a tale of discovery, exploring why and how we have developed as we have. This is your story, told as never before.

My Review

The book takes the foetal development from before ovum and sperm meet to birth, and going from head to toe, to discuss both foetal development and evolution. The author is uniquely place to write this sort of book, having spent years as both a scientist and a science communicator. I enjoyed Alice Roberts’ documentaries that I’ve seen, and this book from ten years ago holds up well, although the science continues to move on.

I found this book really interesting. I have some background in biology, but not a huge amount, I only did a year of university chemistry, mostly biochemistry and molecular biology. I suspect if you didn’t manage to pass GCSE biology and don’t watch documentaries, you might struggle with this book, but for the reasonably educated, it’s a good book. It’s a foundation at least, for university study. It’s not a textbook however, it is written with a general audience on mind. If you enjoy Dr Roberts’ documentary series’ you’ll be fine with this book.

I giggled at the occasional digs at creationists, because they deserve it for their wilful ignorance. If you’re sensitive about that, you probably need a slightly less advanced book before you get to this one. And you need to escape whatever cult you’re in that’s stopping you from getting an education…

I’m listening to Ancestors, by Alice Roberts next.

TBR Pile Review: Mammoths at the Gates, by Nghi Vo

Format: 120 pages, Hardcover
Published: September 12, 2023 by Tordotcom
ISBN: 781250851437 (ISBN10: 1250851432)

Description

The wandering Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in almost three years, to be met with both joy and sorrow. Their mentor, Cleric Thien, has died, and rests among the archivists and storytellers of the storied abbey. But not everyone is prepared to leave them to their rest.

Because Cleric Thien was once the patriarch of Coh clan of Northern Bell Pass – and now their granddaughters have arrived on the backs of royal mammoths, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial. Chih must somehow balance honouring their mentor’s chosen life while keeping the sisters from the north from storming the gates and destroying the history the clerics have worked so hard to preserve.

But as Chih and their neixin Almost Brilliant navigate the looming crisis, Myriad Virtues, Cleric Thien’s own beloved hoopoe companion, grieves her loss as only a being with perfect memory can, and her sorrow may be more powerful than anyone could anticipate. . .

The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entrypoint.

TBR Pile Review: System Collapse, by Martha Wells

Format: 245 pages, Hardcover
Published: November 14, 2023 by Tor Publishing Group/Tordotcom
ISBN:9781250826978 (ISBN10: 1250826977)

Description

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.

TBR Pile Review: Til Death Do Us Bard, by Rose Black

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover
Published: November 21, 2023 by Hodderscape
ISBN: 9781399724685 (ISBN10: 1399724681)
Language: English

Blurb

Marriage isn’t always sunshine and unicorns… sometimes it’s monsters and necromancy.

In a world of magic and adventure, Logan “the Bear” Theaker had hung up his axe and settled down with his sunshiny bard husband, Pie. But when Pie disappears, Logan is forced back into the world he thought he left behind.

The kingdom is in turmoil, and Logan must come out of retirement to save it. But first, he must save his beloved husband from whatever danger he’s in. With the help of an old adversary and a ghost from his past, Logan discovers that Pie has been blackmailed into stealing a powerful artifact capable of creating an undead army.

The fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance as Logan and his team set out to stop the brewing war and put an end to the king’s ban on magic. But in doing so, Logan must confront his own hero complex and come face to face with the one man who’s ever made him feel worthy of love.

Legends & Lattes meets Kings of the Wyld in this thrilling, queer, light fantasy. Follow Logan and Pie’s journey as they fight to save their love and the kingdom they call home.

My Review

I got myself a signed copy of this book from Goldsboro Books a couple of weeks ago and started reading it when it arrived two days ago. I’ve been busy with work and blog tours so I only got three chapters in, until this evening. Four and a half hours later I’ve finished reading the book.

We meet Pie and Logan at a village festival, a few months after they marry and settle down from their lives on the road as a bard and a hero. But things quickly go wrong when Pie disappears on a trip to the nearest city and Logan has to search for him. He calls on a necromancer he once arrested and that sets off a chain of events that eventually include grave robbing, nearly drowning, killing a king and unicorns, lots of unicorns.

This romp of a story is a D&D campaign! Seriously, it has the sorts of characters and structures you get in a really good game, with a really good DM. There’s an inciting event, a quest, a collection of characters who appear and join the expedition, monsters to defeat, an even bigger challenge to over come when it looks like you’ve got to the end, and a final big boss to destroy. It was a lot of fun to read.

It was also heart-breaking at times! Pie and Logan are absolutely wretchedly in love and their arguments are caused by love and their insecurities as they face their pasts and their feelings. I cried, a few times. I

I’m soppy, I know.

They’re so lovely though, and they develop over the course of the novel as they confront their fears and insecurities about being left behind, and express how overwhelming their love for each other is.

I found the countess hilariously funny, relentlessly positive and of all the secondary characters she’s my favourite. She has a sad history, uses her magic for seemingly trivial things like getting the gardening done, and is feared because she’s a necromancer. Yet, she comes through in the end, even though she sort of betrayed Logan before the story started. And she has a CHARTER!

I loved the descriptions of places and people in the book, they were very evocative and quite, quite amusing at times. The contrast between the ‘real’ world, the ‘pocket’ world of the unicorns, and death’s realm were very clear and stark. I loved the descriptions of the library in the capital. Also, totally agree with Logan on the suspended walkways. They are a baaaaaad idea.

Highly entertaining light fantasy. Recommended.