Format: 332 pages, Paperback Published: June 1, 2021 by Titan Books ISBN: 9781789096620 (ISBN10: 1789096626)
Blurb
Ten Low is eking out a living at the universe’s edge. An ex-medic, ex-con, desperate to escape her memories of the war, she still hasn’t learnt that no good deed goes unpunished.
Attempting to atone for her sins, she pulls a teenage girl from a crashed lifecraft. But Gabriella Ortiz is no ordinary girl—she is a genetically-engineered super soldier and decorated General, part of the army that kept Ten prisoner. Worse, Ten realises the crash was an assassination attempt, and that someone wants Ortiz dead…
My Review
I’m on a bit of a space western kick at the moment after reading Frontier last week. I’m reading Hel’s Eight next.
There are spoilers below, don’t read if you don’t want to know what happens.
Summary: I enjoyed this one. going to read Hel’s Eight now, as soon as I finish writing this review.
The unmissable follow-up to the highly acclaimed Children of Time and Children of Ruin.
When Earth failed, it sent out arkships to establish new outposts. So the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive on Imir, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost.
Then strangers appear, on a world where everyone knows their neighbour. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling new technology – for they have come from the stars, to help humanity’s lost colonies. But not all is as it seems on Imir.
As the visitors lose track of time and memories, they discover the colonists fear unknown enemies and Imir’s own murky history. Neighbour turns against neighbour, as society fractures in the face of this terrifying foe. Perhaps some other intelligence is at work, toying with colonists and space-faring scientists alike? But not all questions are so easily answered – and the price may be the colony itself.
Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.
Format: 16 pages, Audible Audio
Published: November 24, 2022 by Tor
Language: English
My Review
I have copies of all of the books in this series and have listened to them all as audiobooks.
I found this one really confusing. On the surface it’s simple, a team of Humans, portids, uplifted octopuses, the aggregate lifeform from Nod, and a pair of corvids, visit a new planet, called Imir. Something strange is going on there though. The people are afraid of something outside of their small colony and they don’t know what it is. Things keep going strangely wrong. They keep happening over and over again, in slightly different ways. Miranda, the person who embodies the aggregate lifeform from Nod, is deeply invested in the events and can’t escape from Imir.
The simulation hypothesis is explored in this novel; are we living in a simulation? What is sentience? The ideas are explored through the characters of Gethi and Gothi, a pair of Corvids who need to be together to explore and draw conclusions.
I really liked Gethi and Gothi, they’re funny and drive the plot forward. I love the way they talk back to Avrana Kern and their discussions about sentience, and their conclusion that they aren’t sentient, and also that either everyone is or no one is.
If you enjoyed the first two books in the series I highly recommend this third book. I think this is the final book in the series, which would be a shame, as I want to know where else the sentient species go and who they meet.
Paperback, 480 pages Published July 7th 2022 by Head of Zeus (first published October 5th 2021) ISBN13: 9781788543248 Edition Language: English Series: Burningblade & Silvereye #2
Blurb
Standing on opposite sides of a looming civil war, two siblings discover that not even ties of blood will keep them from splitting the world in two.
Four hundred years ago, a cataclysmic war cracked the world open and exterminated the Elder races. Amid the ashes, their human inheritor, the Dawn Republic, stands guard over lands littered with eldritch relics and cursed by plaguespawn outbreaks. But a new conflict is looming and brother and sister Maya and Gyre have found themselves on opposite sides.
At the age of five, Maya was taken by the Twilight Order and trained to be a centarch, wielding forbidden arcana to enforce the Dawn Republic’s rule. On that day, her brother, Gyre, swore to destroy the Order that stole his sister… whatever the cost.
Twelve years later, brother and sister are two very different people: she is Burningblade, the Twilight Order’s brightest prodigy; he is Silvereye, thief, bandit, revolutionary.
For centuries, the Dawn Republic has ruled over the land unopposed. No more.
Deep below the Gap, Gyre Silvereye discovered a city, hidden far from human eyes. There, the ghouls have dwelt for four hundred years in hibernation, awaiting the moment to wreak their vengeance on the Dawn Republic.
With their help, Gyre can finally see a way to overthrow the all-powerful Twilight Order. But the ghouls do not give their trust easily, and Gyre will need to secure the alliance of the human rebels to the south if they are to even stand a chance. And uniting the two won’t be simple.
His sister Maya still fights for the Order. But after recent events, she is no longer certain where her loyalties lie. Chasing the origins of a mysterious artefact to a long-lost library, she just might find the truth – whether she is ready for it or not.
My Review
I have two editions of this book, and the first one in the series. I have Goldsboro Books special editions in hardback, and paperbacks. The paperback from Head of Zeus arrived on Thursday, because I had it on pre-order. I have two copies of the first book in the Burningblade & Silvereye series too,Ashes of the Sun, which I reviewed in March 2021. I also have both as audiobooks. I couldn’t get on with the audiobook narration for this one, or I’d have reviewed it before now. It’s very unfortunate, since I quite liked the audiobook of Ashes of the Sun and was looking forward to listening to this one too.
Gyre Silvereye and Maya Burningblade are siblings on opposite sides of the social order. As a Centarch, Maya represents the ruling Order, heirs to the mysterious Chosen, while Gyre is a rebel, a thief and determined to bring the Order down, with the help of the ‘ghouls’, a sentient species who are almost extinct and hated by humanity.
The ghouls are a rather large, humanoid species, with hair and fangs, who use dhak, a form of magic. They live in the hidden Refuge, an ancient ghoul city that is now almost empty after 99% of the ghouls died because of the plague that also wiped out the Chosen. Ghouls use constructs to do all the heavy lifting, and have weapons that Gyre can use in his rebellion. He ropes Elariel, a ghoul who worked for Naumoriel (villain in the first book), into helping him. He offers the ruling parliament of the ghouls a way to get revenge on the Chosen and the Order by supporting his rebellion with weapons and tools. Elariel undergoes a terrible operation as punishment which makes her look human to help with the mission.
Kit is now happily running around in multiple construct bodies, lamenting only her inability to fuck, although she does discover how much she enjoys voyeurism and fighting in multiple places at once. The three leave Refuge for Deepfire, where they collect three large wagons and a lot of alchemical equipment, and Sarah, an alchemist formerly of the Order who joined the rebels in Deepfire. They travel through the Splintered Kingdoms to Khirkhaz, a mountainous and forested region where a Commune led by the ousted Apphia, Baron Kotzed, fights to retake the area from the Republic and return to her family’s tower.
Meanwhile, Maya, her partner Beq, and their scout, Varo, go looking for an Archive in the mountains in the north west, beyond Deepfire and near the coast. Many Centarchs had attempted to clear the place of plaguespawn to reach the Archive, but had failed. Maya and her small team find a village, a mystery and information about the Thing and Maya’s deiat. Beq gets over-excited by the possibilities of the archive. They return to the Forge, where they are sent out on a secret mission that involves them going to the capital of the Republic, Skyreach to break into Kyriliarch Prodominus’ private warehouse. There, they discover a great secret and more information about betrayal in the Order.
The two groups meet in Khirkhaz during the fight to defend Apphia’s claim from the Republic. They go off on a mission of their own that could destroy or save the world…
The world and its history is explored further as the two groups travel across the continent by different means, and we learn more about the Chosen and the ghouls. It becomes increasingly obvious that humans have been lied to for centuries and that the Order is fractured. Who can anyone trust? The tension lies between what the reader knows from following Gyre and his group, and what Maya believes to be true based on what she is told and what she finds in her adventures. They are both driven by idealism, which doesn’t do well in the real world. Gyre finds his Khirkhaz Commune is really a collection of argumentative, disunited factions from different backgrounds, only nominally led by Apphia. Maya discovers that she’s been lied to repeatedly, although we don’t really see how it changes things for her, other than her internal confusion about who to trust. Hopefully, it’ll become clearer in the third book.
The relationship between Gyre and Maya is fraught before they meet up in battle, but it becomes more so as they realise they need to work together. Gyre is deeply affected by his sister’s actions in the last chapters, but still helps her. I’ll be interested to see the fall out in the next book. I have a feeling that Gyre and company might be arrested and Maya is placed in an even more compromised position, or the Corruptor will overcome the Order. Pretty sure Tanax and Basal are corrupted. I hope the ghouls are able to save themselves though and humanity gets its collective head out of its collective arse. The Order and Republic are clearly positioned as compromised and controlling in these books, while Gyre and the rebels as ‘heroes’, but it’s more complicated. No one group is evil or good. They’re humans; venal, greedy and selfish in some cases, deceived and deceptive, selfless, determined to improve the world, and generous. The technology has limits even if magic is involved and people get exhausted, no one can fight forever, weapons and tools break and ammunition or fuel runs out. Like in the real world.
There is a development of Maya and Beq’s relationship carries through their chapters, as they support each other and realise how important they are to each other. I like their relationship; they’re young and inexperienced, and trying to work out what they are to each other. It’s sweet. Thankfully, the author manages not to make their sexuality a big deal, it’s just a background fact that both are girls and they are in a relationship. It’s the development of their relationship that’s important, not the fact it exists.
Beq is a marvellous character, geeky, intelligent and brave, who doesn’t have much confidence in herself, but can do anything she sets her mind to. I also enjoyed the little scene where she’s reading while waiting for Maya to finish her visit Jaedia in the hospital, and doesn’t notice Maya come out of the room because the book is so engrossing. Been there, done that. Haven’t we all? She also struggles with jokes and is very literal. She’s practical and loves Maya deeply although she doesn’t seem to have many other relationships or friends.
Kit, having died and then returned as the controlling intellect in a construct army, is a lot more fun that in the first book. Death seems to have allowed her to put aside her angst and enjoy life. The abilities she has as a construct allow her to be in so many places at once, which helps her and Gyre to escape from various traps, fight battles and rescue each other. The image of chicken sized mechanical spiders carrying smoking ceramic bombs attacking Maya and Legionaries made me giggle but at the same time are very practical. They would be useful.
This is a world where both magic and technology mix to allow aircraft, long distance almost instantaneous travel, but humans still live in squalor in cities, hide behind high walls in the countryside, and the magic and tech developed by two species though to be extinct is limited to a certain class or group. It’s a blending of science fiction and fantasy that works well. I enjoyed Elariel’s questioning of the social rules and distinctions, because things are very different on ghoul society, where helping anyone in pain is an obligation, all the work is done by constructs, and decisions are made by a representative group. Her complaints about clothes are funny, and true. They are uncomfortable.
Details like Elariel being in pain because she isn’t used to walking in shoes or the difficulties of getting wagons along forest paths bring a touch of reality to this book. The descriptions of the environments people travel through and the different societies of the continent seem to have been well thought out. The writing is fluid and gripping, it’s punchy and fast paced at times while also having slower, more reflective sections. I stayed up rather later to finish the book and can’t wait for the next in the series. I know it’ll be out next year and the title ‘Emperor of Ruin’ which sounds promising.
Because I’m a bit obsessive, and I have Ashes of the Sun in the Orbit paperback edition (US publisher), and Blood of the Chosen in the Head of Zeus edition (UK publisher). I’ve just bought the opposites so I have both books in both editions. I’ll get the Goldsboro Books special hardback of the third book and the two different paperbacks. They have different covers, I’m not just being pedantic about having matching publisher’s editions. I am however aware that most people don’t do this,
Now to my criticisms. There aren’t many. Elariel’s appearance, especially the comments about her attractiveness get a bit repetitive and aren’t really adding to the plot. Other people’s reactions and her utter cluelessness get the message across adequately. The ability of the ghoul swords to cut through unmetal armour where it’s thin is mentioned in every fight, which is just unnecessary, the reader won’t forget that these swords are pretty amazing even if they do have limits. I knew we were heading into the final fight when Maya and Gyre meet up to go to the Purifier and that they would be betrayed, because the same thing happened in Ashes of the Sun. It’s a little formulaic, even though it works.
Generally, I was impressed by this solid sequel, even with the minor irritants. I recommend it to fans of science fiction and fantasy.
Paperback, 351 pages Published October 3rd 2017 by Akashic Books
Blurb
Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.
Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human.
When the autopsy of Matilda‘s sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother’s suicide some quarter-century before, Aster retraces her mother’s footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she’s willing to fight for it.
My Review
I’ve reviewed this book on my podcast Everything Is Better With Dragons, episode 2 which will be available soon, but I’m sharing a written review for those who don’t listen to podcasts.
I liked this book.
Aster is clearly Autistic, like Rivers Solomon, and later in the book we learn Aster is probably non-binary too. A bit of intersectional representation! Aster also comes from the lower decks of the arc ship she’s travelling in. The society of the HSS Matilda is highly stratified by skin colour, the darker you are the lower down the ship you live and the worse your living conditions are. Aster, unlike many of her deck mates, has a lot of mobility between decks due to her position as assistant to the Surgeon General, Theo. Aster has a complex relationship with Theo, neither really know what they are to each other beyond their professional relationship, and both struggle to express what they feel for each other.
Complex relationships are a theme in this novel.
Theo has a complex relationship with his uncle, Lieutenant, who eventually becomes Sovereign. Theo is frightened of his uncle and aware that his uncle is highly conflicted about his feelings for Theo.
Lieutenant has a complex relationship with morality. He is attracted to his feminine nephew, appalled by his attraction and also by the ‘pollution’ of the family bloodline represented by Theo’s skin colour. He’s also jealous of Theo’s relationship with Aster. He assumes it’s sexual, although it doesn’t get that far. He can’t punish Theo directly, because they are equals as Commander of the Guard and Surgeon General, but he can hurt Aster. After his ascension to Sovereign, he takes his sadistic hate out on everyone on Q deck, where Aster lives. He claims that his authority comes from a deity, and that as a ‘pure’ human he is better than lower deck residents.
The society in the book is heavily based on the Antebellum South of the U.S., so incredibly unequal, racist and screwed up. Aster and her friend Giselle are irritants in the society they are forced to tolerate. Aster because she is able to code switch in both gender and language, doesn’t get the point of a lot of the social conventions and has the ability to move about. Giselle because she’s bat shit crazy and is happy to cause mayhem and be a Devil. It is her ability to withstand abuse and trauma, and react in unexpected ways that prevent the Guards or any authority from keeping her down.
Another complex relationship, that between Aster and Giselle, defines and triggers major events in the novel. They love and hate each other, but they also need each other. Aster couldn’t interpret her mother’s notes without Giselle, who sees the world from an entirely different angle, possibly upside down and inside out. Giselle is paranoid, and has delusions of persecution; she is convinced someone is trying to poison her for much of the book. She gets into all sorts of places because she wants to hide from her persecutors.
Aster has complex relationships with maternal figures in her life, firstly her absent mother and secondly Q-deck leader, Aint Melusine. Lune, Aster’s mother, left a riddle for her child to unravel, which becomes Aster’s driving interest, along with botany, astronomy and chemistry. It is Aster’s need to answer the question of Lune and where she went that gives Aster the resilience to survive persecution by Lieutenant and to save HSS Matilda from pointless wandering.
Ainy Melusine replaced the mother Aster never knew. She is not particularly maternal despite being a Nanny on the upper decks, and teacher to the children of Q deck, but she does her best for Aster who she recognises as an unusual child from an early age and helps her to gain an education beyond that normal for a low deck child. Melusine is also Theo’s mother, which complicates her relationship with both Theo and Aster, as she can’t tell either of them. Theo’s father was a previous Sovereign, and the relationship between him and Melusine was clandestine and considered immoral on the upper decks.
These complicated relationships and characters travel through space on a large arc ship that has been travelling at near light speed for 350 years, although on Earth a thousand years has passed. They are powered by Baby, a miniature star, who provides power for the drive and provides light for the crops on a complicated layering system of fields. The ship is clearly and vividly described as is the society that has evolved in different decks and over the ship as a whole. The contrast between the metal and decay of the lower decks with the lush extravagance of the upper decks provides a visual narrative about the people of the Matilda. Despite the harshness of their lives, the lower deckers are inventive, loving and preserve their own food, languages and storytelling cultures against all odds.
The narrative is broken up with stories that Melusine has told Aster in the past. These stories are colourful and clearly draw on Black American and African stories. Melusine or Aster reflect on the stories and what they mean to them, which brings them seamlessly into the narrative.
The narrative is mostly told from Aster’s perspective but occasionally Theo, Melusine and Giselle have chapters. I found this a really interesting structure and have used a similar structure in my novels. I enjoyed the direct plotline with past events being pulled in as memories that fit into the story seamlessly. There’s no skipping between past and future. It’s a lot less confusing that way, at least for me.
The writing and the language used is particularly effective for showing the different cultures and social structure with its minute gradations based on minor differences in skin tone. The language has impact, especially during traumatic events. Some things are heavily implied and some are outright stated, depending on the needs of the narrative. I have the audiobook as well as the paperback and listening to the story had a strong impact on me.
I really enjoyed this novel. I read the last 100 pages in an afternoon, so engrossed by the action and events, I had to know what happened next, and I’d love to see a sequel.
A unique collection of stories by the greatest fantasy writers working today.
Sparking myths and legends from Asia to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons are the most universal and awe-inspiring of magical creatures.
Whether they are fearsome, rampaging monsters or benevolent sages with much to teach humanity, dragons bring creation, destruction, and adventure in stories told all around the globe.
In this landmark collection, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan combines nearly thirty never-before-seen short stories and poems, written by modern masters of science fiction and fantasy, and illustrations by acclaimed artist Rovina Cai.
Featuring stories from Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Garth Nix, Ken Liu, Kate Elliott, and many more, The Book of Dragons breathes fresh life and fire into the greatest magical beasts of all.
Content: – Introduction by Jonathan Strahan – What Heroism Tells Us poem by Jane Yolen – Matriculation by Elle Katharine White – Hikaya Sri Bujang, or The Tale of the Naga Sage by Zen Cho – Yuli by Daniel Abraham – A Whisper of Blue by Ken Liu – Nidhog poem by Jo Walton – Where the River Turns to Concrete by Brooke Bolander – Habitat by K.J. Parker – Pox by Ellen Klages – The Nine Curves River by R.F. Kuang – Lucky’s Dragon by Kelly Barnhill – I Make Myself a Dragon poem by Beth Cato – The Exile by JY Yang – Except on Saturdays by Peter S. Beagle – La Vitesse by Kelly Robson – A Final Knight to her Love and Foe poem by Amal El-Mohtar – The Long Walk by Kate Elliott – Cut Me Another Quill, Mister Fitz by Garth Nix – Hoard by Seanan McGuire – The Worm of Lirr poem by C. S. E. Cooney – The Last Hunt by Aliette de Bodard – We Continue by Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky – Small Bird’s Plea by Todd McCaffrey – The Dragons poem by Theodora Goss – Dragon Slayer by Michael Swanwick – Camouflage by Patricia A. McKillip – We Don’t Talk About the Dragon by Sarah Gailey – Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It by Scott Lynch – A Nice Cuppa poem by Jane Yolen
Hardcover, 176 pages Published January 22nd 2019 by Tor.com (first published May 2nd 2017) ISBN 1250214718 (ISBN13: 9781250214713)
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighbouring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
First English translation of the celebrated Golden Age Science Fiction Classic.
“This stunning classic stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein. No devotee of great sf should miss The City of the Stars.” New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear
Tankar Holroy, Lieutenant in the Stellar Guard of Earth’s Empire, floats in space after his spaceship is sabotaged. Rescued by an enormous, unknown ship, he awakes to discover himself saved by the People of the Stars who are born and live in space with minimal contact with planets and their occupants whom they call, with contempt, planetaries.
The chilly welcome he receives from the ship s leader, the Teknor, is followed by overt hostility from the other inhabitants of the Tilsin. Only a woman named Orena reaches out to him.
Tankar soon realizes that he was rescued for his knowledge of tracers, the technology that allows Empire ships to track others through hyperspace, a technology the People of the Stars lack. Out of spite, he refuses to deliver the one piece of knowledge that can protect the people who saved but now spurn him – and the consequences will be catastrophic.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it’s a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.
Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he’ll be switched off, and they’ll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.
The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad — very mad.
I haven’t been feeling great so my reviews are a bit behind. I have a stack of books next to my laptop that I need to tell you all about. I’ve got three Pen & Sword books for you and an indie about comic book history.
Several generations after ‘The Fall’, the scattered clusters of civilisation that grew in its wake live in ignorance of the past. No-one wants to know what caused such devastation or why. No-one, except Ethan. Ethan used to believe in the guardians; mysterious lights in the sky that, according to folklore, protect the survivors, so long as you believe in them. But the death of his parents shattered his faith and forged within him a hunger to know more. One night, a light grows brighter in the sky and crashes to the planet’s surface. Ethan then embarks on a heartbreaking journey in which harrowing discoveries unveil the secrets of the past, and place him at the centre of a deadly conflict. Powerful, thought-provoking and emotionally absorbing, The Planetsider is a gripping, post-apocalyptic thriller that will keep you hooked until the very end.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 