Book Review – The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams

Goodreads Synopsis:

Following directly on from the events of TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER, the Norns and the Storm King Ineluki have been defeated at the Battle for the Hayholt; Seoman and Miriamele, the new king and queen, order their victorious armies to shadow the retreating Norns.

One of the enemy group is escorting the huge funeral cortege of one of their leaders, on their journey they become detached and trapped in the ancient fortress of Tangleroot on the frontier. As well as their dead lord, they carry a great magical artefact, a stone called the Heart of What Was Lost, one of the last relics of their ancient civilization. Soon the fortress is invested, the battle commences, and bloodshed and magic flow.

Review:

It’s been a long time since I read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series but I adored it, and when I heard Tad Williams was finally returning to the world of Osten Ard I was very excited.

This novella is set directly after the end of the first series showing what happens between the Norns and Isgrimnur’s human army. The story is told through several viewpoints, including that of both the humans and that of the Norns which helped you to sympathise with both sides. One thing I particularly enjoyed was that despite my memory of the original series being quite faded, I was still able to enjoy the book and it was able to jog my memory quite a bit. I feel that even if I hadn’t read the original series, I would still have enjoyed it due to the excellent writing and setting. The fact it was Osten Ard was just a bonus.

Due to the fact that this is set after the end of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, I don’t wish to talk too much about it as I don’t want to spoil the series, which is one of my favourites, as even just discussing characters would potentially give away spoilers. The characters were all fantastic though, and it was very interesting to see into the society of the Norns and how it was structured around different groups (if this was something we’d already seen, it’s something that I’d completely forgotten)

I really enjoyed this novella and it has also made me want to go back and re-visit the world of Osten Ard by re-reading the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series because it reminded me just how much I enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this novella to fans of the series, and to those who haven’t read it, I would recommend reading Memory, Sorrow and Thorn first then coming to read this.

Advertisement

Book Review -The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

So this is another book I read for #DiverseAThon – I picked it up from Waterstones as the cover was just enchanting and as a big cat lover, I couldn’t resist a book about a cat.

This novella follows a couple who have moved into a small guesthouse in Tokyo and both work from home. Their neighbours adopt a cat who slowly starts to come visit them. The story follows the visits of the cat as they get more frequent and as the cat gets more bold until they even start feeding the cat and create a little bed for it.

As a fan of cats, I adored the cat, nicknamed Chibi, in this book and the interactions between the couple and the cat was charming. The book was a delight to read and went into such depth and detail that it was wonderful. The translation was very well done as it still felt very Japanese but that didn’t affect the readability of it. The writing is magical and I absolutely adored everything about this novella and really enjoyed the small snippets of the characters lives that we got to see.

I would highly recommend this novella, especially since it’s quite short so doesn’t take long to read and the cover is gorgeous.

Book Review – The Djinn Falls in Love & other stories

Goodreads Synopsis:

A fascinating collection of new and classic tales of the fearsome Djinn, from bestselling, award-winning and breakthrough international writers.

Imagine a world filled with fierce, fiery beings, hiding in our shadows, in our dreams, under our skins. Eavesdropping and exploring; savaging our bodies, saving our souls. They are monsters, saviours, victims, childhood friends.

Some have called them genies: these are the Djinn. And they are everywhere. On street corners, behind the wheel of a taxi, in the chorus, between the pages of books. Every language has a word for them. Every culture knows their traditions. Every religion, every history has them hiding in their dark places. There is no part of the world that does not know them.

They are the Djinn. They are among us.

With stories from: Nnedi Okorafor, Neil Gaiman, Helene Wecker, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherine King, Claire North,  E.J. Swift, Hermes (trans. Robin Moger), Jamal Mahjoub, James Smythe, J.Y. Yang, Kamila Shamsie, Kirsty Logan, K.J. Parker, Kuzhali Manickavel, Maria Dahvana Headley, Monica Byrne, Saad Hossein, Sami Shah, Sophia Al-Maria and Usman Malik.

Review:

I received this from NetGalley and I was so excited as I’d heard of quite a few of the authors in this book and I loved the idea of reading a collection of short stories based on the Djinn.

Because it’s a collection of short stories, it’s difficult to discuss too much as they were all so different in such brilliant ways. One thing that struck me though was that I constantly kept adoring each and every story. There were some that were weaker than other, but there wasn’t a single story in this collection that I didn’t enjoy and all the interpretations of Djinn were fantastic. They took place in diverse settings, with diverse characters and were just a delight to read. I had to stop myself from rushing through the book so that I could stop and savour each story.

I would definitely recommend this collection of short stories as they were all fantastic and have given me a bunch of new authors to look up!

Book Review – Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds

Synopsis from NetGalley:

From the author of the Revelation Space series comes an interstellar adventure of war, identity, betrayal, and the preservation of civilization itself.

A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur – and for humanity – peace is not to be.

On the brink of the ceasefire, Scur is captured by a renegade war criminal, and left for dead in the ruins of a bunker. She revives aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Something has gone terribly wrong with the ship.

Passengers – combatants from both sides of the war – are waking up from hibernation far too soon. Their memories, embedded in bullets, are the only links to a world which is no longer recognizable. And Scur will be reacquainted with her old enemy, but with much higher stakes than just her own life.

Review:

I received this book on NetGalley and was super excited as Alastair Reynolds has been on my to-read list for so long but I just didn’t know where to start. As this is a novella, I felt it would be the perfect introduction to his writing and the description sounded fascinating.

The novella focuses on Scur and her time aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Last she remembered, she had been left for dead by a man called Orvin and so she has now awakened on a transport vessel that is drifting aimlessly through space. The ship contains fighters from both sides of the war, along with some civilians. The three groups must work together in order to figure out where they are and how to get home, if their home still exists. She also discovers that Orvin is also a passenger on the ship, and so must find and deal with him too.

Now, I’m a huge fan of survivalist stories and especially ones set in space, so of course I ended up loving this novella. The characters are great and the concept of a slow bullet – a bullet implanted in you that records your memories and past – is also really intriguing and ends up playing an important role later on.

I would definitely recommend this novella, I felt it was an excellent introduction to the writing of Alastair Reynolds and has definitely made me want to read many more of his books!

Book Review – Chameleon Moon by RoAnna Sylver

Goodreads Synopsis:

The city of Parole is burning. Like Venice slips into the sea, Parole crumbles into fire.

The entire population inside has been quarantined, cut off from the rest of the world, and left to die – directly over the open flame. Eye in the Sky, a deadly and merciless police force ensures no one escapes. Ever. All that’s keeping Parole alive is faith in the midst of horrors and death, trust in the face of desperation… and their fantastic, terrifying, and beautiful superhuman abilities.

Regan, stealth and reconnaissance expert with a lizard’s scales and snake’s eyes, is haunted by ten years of anxiety, trauma and terror, and he’s finally reached his limit. His ability to disappear into thin air isn’t enough: he needs an escape, and he’ll do anything for a chance. Unluckily for him, Hans, a ghostly boy with a chilling smile, knows just the thing to get one. It starts with a little murder.

But instead of ending a man’s life, Regan starts a new one of his own. He turns away from that twisted path, and runs into Evelyn, fearless force on stage and sonic-superheroic revolutionary on the streets. Now Regan has a choice – and a chance to not only escape from Parole, but unravel the mystery deep in its burning heart. And most of all, discover the truth about their own entwining pasts.

They join forces with Evelyn’s family: the virtuosic but volatile Danae, who breathes life into machines, and her wife Rose, whose compassionate nature and power over healing vines and defensive thorns will both be vital to survive this nightmare. Then there’s Zilch, a cool and level-headed person made of other dead people, and Finn, one of Parole’s few remaining taxi drivers, who causes explosions whenever he feels anything but happy.

Separately they’d never survive, much less uncover the secret of Parole’s eternally-burning fire. Together, they have a chance. Unfortunately, Hans isn’t above playing dirty, lying, cheating, manipulating… and holding Regan’s memories hostage until he gets his way.

Parole’s a rough place to live. But they’re not dead yet. If they can survive the imminent cataclysmic disaster, they might just stay that way…

Review:

Gosh, I’m not quite sure where to start with this novel because I just adored it so much. Seriously, it’s probably going to be one of my top novels of the year because it’s just amazing in so many different ways.

First off, I got a free review copy of this through AceBookClub on Twitter which is a fantastic book club and I’d definitely recommend it. It’s so nice and refreshing to read stories that don’t focus on romance. They’re ace. Literally.

So, the summary from Goodreads is comprehensive enough that I don’t really need to discuss much in terms of the plot and instead I’m going to focus on the amazing characters. They’re all just so wonderful with a range of interesting powers such as Rose, one of my favourites, whose power revolves around plants. Also, three of the characters are in a healthy polyamorous relationship with a child that’s been established before the novel starts and so it’s just full of lovely love for each other and their child. Rose has a prosthetic leg (made by one of her wives), Regan suffers from anxiety and Evelyn is trans and there is a small section focusing on the importance of using the correct pronouns when referring to her. And of course, because this was for AceBookClub there are of course asexual characters. As you can see from the book cover, the characters are also from a range of ethnicities with a large variety of skin colours.

While reading this book, I was constantly delighted to discover more and more diversity while also enjoying a fantastic plot. It was super enjoyable to read and I just fell in love with all the characters and I was so happy to see parts of my identity represented in a really amazing setting and in characters with lots of fantastic powers. The entire book was just a delight and I ended up finishing it way before AceBookClub which is why this review is so late as I wanted to wait until they’d finished before posting it and then it was February and I was only posting reviews of black authors.

I highly, highly recommend this book and I’ll probably be constantly recommending it all the time because it’s just that great. I also have a review of one of the short stories, Runtime, which is a prequel and serves as a great and cheap introduction to the world of Parole if you’re not sure about making the commitment to buying the book.

February 2017 Wrap-Up

So, February is the first full month of blogging I’ve had and it’s been excellent! I’ve managed to get more traffic than January, more followers and discovered lots of excellent new blogs to follow myself!

As some of you may know, I was only reviewing books by Black Authors because it was Black History Month and that went really well! I even squeezed in a couple extra posts too as I had so many reviews to post. If you want to check those out, they’re all under the “Black History Month” category. I mixed my reading for that between some free classics which I made a list about here and between Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels focusing on authors from my list here. I did also read plenty of books by other authors and so I’ve got a lot of reviews to catch up on now! I had planned on making a second Sci-Fi/Fantasy post focusing on male authors this time but I ended up not having time although I do plan on doing that eventually. Maybe later this month!

I noticed that I was nominated for a couple awards and I’d like to thank all those that nominated me! That’s lovely of you. As I’m still really new, I don’t really know anybody well enough to tag them so I’ve not responded to any of those yet.

A lot of the posts I make are currently book reviews and so I’m thinking of starting doing a couple of the weekly posts I see floating around since I always enjoy reading those on others blogs. I haven’t decided which yet but if you have any suggestions, let me know!

Anyway, on to the books read!

I read a whopping 26 books this month so I’m not going to list and link them all individually as that would take forever! However, you can just go view my Goodreads profile if you want to look up any of them in more detail.

 

It’s really hard to focus on highlights because I enjoyed so many of these books! I have reviews up for quite a few of them and am working on reviews for several more. I managed to make quite a bit of progress on several of my challenges too, so I’m thinking about adding another one as thanks to my focus on black authors this month, I’m pretty certain I’ve managed to achieve my POC reading challenge goal already (or am only a few books away from completing it). I’m thinking about starting the Diversity Bingo Challenge although if there are any other interesting challenges out there, I’d love to hear about them.

So! Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think! Are there any you’d like me to discuss more? Are there any books you’d recommend for March based on what I read? Let me know below!