Format: eARC

A- #BookReview: In the Shadow of the Ship by Aliette de Bodard

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A- Reviews> book reviews
A- #BookReview: In the Shadow of the Ship by Aliette de BodardIn the Shadow of the Ship by Aliette de Bodard
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, ebook
Genres: alternate history, science fiction
Series: Universe of Xuya
Pages: 96
Published by Subterranean Press on September 30, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

Nightjar, sentient ship and family matriarch, looms large in Khuyên’s past. Disappearances drove teenage Khuyên from it, but death will steer her back.
Now an adult and a magistrate, Khuyên came for her maternal grandmother’s funeral but finds herself unwittingly reliving her past on the decaying Nightjar. Children are still disappearing as her childhood friends once did; and worse, her beloved Cousin Anh vanishes after pleading for her help.
Khuyên sets out to save Anh alongside Thảo, a beautiful and mysterious woman who seems to know more than she should about Khuyên and the ship. But saving Anh requires doing what Khuyên couldn’t do before: face her family, face the ship, face her own hopes and fears for the future—a future that might well include Thảo, but only if Khuyên can stop listening to the critical voice in her head.
A voice that sounds an awful lot like Nightjar’s...

My Review:

The Universe of Xuya isn’t so much a series as it is a sprawl of alternate history that extends from the early 15th century – the point where the butterfly flapped its wings differently from the history we know – all the way out to an undetermined point VERY far in the future.

It’s a vast, sprawling canvas of a universe that hinges on a single year in history (1411) where two events turned left instead of right. An internal political struggle at the Imperial court of Ming-dynasty China sent the Empire looking outward instead of in (as it did in our history) and a fleet of Imperial ships that planned to head east along the coast was struck by typhoons and found itself drifting north, across the Bering Strait to Alaska, resulting in an earlier “discovery” of North America, from Asia instead of from Europe.

And with those two almighty flaps of the butterfly’s wings, history goes down the other leg of the trousers of time (to thoroughly mix my metaphors) and results in the universe of this series, where China and eventually an independent Việt empire become the dominant influences in the world instead of the West – not that, by the time of this particular entry in the sprawl, the West hasn’t established its own hegemonies in the greater galaxy.

The past is another country, they do things differently there. And if they did things differently than what we know, the future would be an even more different country that it will be on history’s current trajectory.

But the thing about the Xuya Universe is that even though the author has a broad outline of what brought it about and some stories set in the historical past that illustrate some of the points, most of it is set in the future. The galaxy is big, the history and future history is potentially very long indeed, and there’s plenty of scope for pretty much anything to happen pretty much anywhere.

Which leads back to the Universe of Xuya being more of a sprawl than the way we usually think of ‘series’. Each story set in the Xuya Universe is intended to be standalone, and while it might link thematically with other stories, that doesn’t mean it will feature any of the same characters as previous or future entries. There’s obviously a publication order for the series, but the internal chronology is ever changing, and considerably more fluid than is usually the case.

I fell into this series, somewhere in the middle, with The Tea Master and the Detective, because it’s a Sherlock Holmes pastiche and that was an entry point that worked for me – as it usually does. (Also, Tea Master is one of the longer works in the series so it has time and space to get a new reader stuck into the world that’s already been built.) I’ve read around Xuya, but not thoroughly – at least not yet – ever since. Although I’ve just had the light dawn that several of the short stories that were in various SFF magazines are also available as podcasts and that’s an avenue to be explored.

I know I haven’t talked about this particular entry in the series yet, and that’s a bit by design as I have mixed feelings about whether this story is a good place to start. I found it fascinating but I don’t think it’s a good entry point. The author has an excellent precis of the history of Xuya, with a list of stories that give both a loose chronology and some suggestions of stories that might make good places to start on her website – so if you’re looking for an entry point or have visited Xuya and are wondering how it all fits together, take a look.

The story of In the Shadow of the Ship is deceptively small and at first seems simple. It’s the story of a young woman who left a conservative and restrictive home because she didn’t fit in. The life that was mapped out for her, even before her birth, was one she had no interest in or desire to follow. That it seemed like she never had a chance to earn her mother’s love or acceptance made it that much easier to leave the world of her birth behind.

She’s been successful, if lonely, in the intervening years. But when she learns of the death of her grandmother, duty and respect call her home. But home is not a planet, or even a station. Home is a decaying mindship, a refugee from the galactic war that destroyed so much and left so many refugees, ship-bound and planet-dwellers alike. A war that her home, her ship, her family, was on the losing side of.

A home that wants her back – even if her mother still does not.

As an adult, Khuyên has knowingly kept the secret of her family’s status from the empire she serves, even though she knows they are war criminals and that she is guilty by association – and silence. She can’t make herself turn them in, and she can’t bear losing her job and her purpose in the universe she’s made her own.

At the same time, as an adult, when she returns for the funeral, she is able to see that the ship is manipulating her and everyone around her, and that the terrible things she was told to ignore when she was a child are no longer ignorable – or honorable. And that they are wrong.

And that there is no second escape. This time, the only way out is through – no matter the cost.

Escape Rating A-: I enjoyed In the Shadow of the Ship, although it is a very shadowed story indeed and probably needs to be read with the lights on. There’s an underlying creepiness that is totally justified but isn’t revealed until past the halfway point.

Although there’s also a lovely sapphic romance that redeems that darkness – it just takes a while to get there.

That two of the characters of this story were mindships felt like the one, solid link to the Xuya Universe, at least so far as I’ve read into it. A reader who has come at this series from different angles might find more linkages, but it was fine as it was.

The story that it did remind me of, however, was the author’s “The Mausoleum’s Children”, one of this year’s Hugo nominees for Best Short Story. (BTW the award was won by “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer, which I read and loved.)

In my review of “The Mausoleum’s Children”, I said that the themes were a bit too big for the package, that it would have worked better in a longer format. Those themes; survivor’s guilt, living with trauma, returning to the place that broke you in the hopes of saving others, and more, received that longer treatment here In the Shadow of the Ship, which made me like both stories just that much better.

#BookReview: Shoestring Theory by Mariana Costa

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
#BookReview: Shoestring Theory by Mariana CostaShoestring Theory by Mariana Costa
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genres: cozy fantasy, fantasy, fantasy romance, romantasy, time travel romance
Pages: 400
Published by Angry Robot on October 8, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

A queer, madcap, friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers time travel romance with the future of the world at stake, this charming fantasy tale is sure to satisfy fans of Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree.
The kingdom of Farsala is broken and black clouds hang heavy over the arid lands. Former Grand-Mage of the High Court, Cyril Laverre, has spent the last decade hiding himself away in a ramshackle hut by the sea, trying to catch any remaining fish for his cat familiar, Shoestring, and suppressing his guilt over the kingdom’s ruin. For he played his part – for as the King, Eufrates Margrave, descended further and further into paranoia, violence and madness, his Grand-Mage – and husband – Cyril didn’t do a thing to stop him.
When Shoestring wanders away and dies one morning, Cyril knows his days are finally numbered. But are there enough left to have a last go at putting things right? With his remaining lifeblood, he casts a powerful spell that catapults him back in time to a happier period of Farsalan history – a time when it was Eufrates’s older sister Tig destined to ascend to the throne, before she died of a wasting disease, and a time when Cyril and Eufrates’s tentative romance had not yet bloomed. If he can just make sure Eufie never becomes King, then maybe he can prevent the kingdom’s tragic fate. But the magical oath he made to his husband at the altar, transcending both time and space, may prove to be his most enduring – and most dangerous – feat of magic to date…
Featuring a formidable Great Aunt, a friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romance, an awkward love quadrangle and a crow familiar called Ganache, this charming story is imminently easy to read and sure to satisfy fans of fanfiction who like their fantasy lite.

My Review:

I picked this one up for the cat. Which is fair, because from a certain perspective, this whole story is, in fact and for real, all about Shoestring the cat. Even though, like Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol, Shoestring is dead, to begin with.

If you’re also here for the cat, I will give you one spoiler, a spoiler that I seriously wished I had at the beginning. Because at the end, Shoestring will be just fine. Really, truly. (Not knowing that gave me some terrible approach/avoidance problems when I began reading the story. I was having as hard a time dealing with Shoestring’s apparent death as Cyril was.)

In a terrible future that should never have been, Cyril has been barely surviving as what used to be the Kingdom of Farsala literally rots all around him. It’s been years with bad air, almost no sun, and a starvation diet for both himself and poor Shoestring.

Cyril’s only reason for continuing this meager, guilt-ridden existence is to catch fish for his familiar, Shoestring. Everyone else he ever cared about is dead. From a certain perspective – namely Cyril’s – it’s all his fault.

But Shoestring’s passing is the cosmic kick in the pants that Cyril needed. Without Shoestring, he’s faced with two choices. He can either wither away into death, as all mages do when their familiars die, or he can get off his magical ass and go back and fix things.

Or at least try, making this whole marvelous story a fix-it fic, set in a magical world that needs a hell of a lot of fixing. The only problem is that Cyril isn’t really the right person to get the job. But he is the right person to keep his loved ones alive – and they absolutely are.

Escape Rating B: I had some mixed feelings about this book, in spite of how much I generally adore fix-it fics. Part of that can be laid at the feets of poor Shoestring, as I was nearly as heartbroken at his early, first-chapter death as Cyril was.

And, I’ll admit, I’m used to the protagonists of fix-it fics – which I usually love – being somewhat more competent hot messes than it seems Cyril could ever possibly be. He does not look before he leaps. It often seems as if he doesn’t even look after he leaps. Or at all. He doesn’t act – he reacts – and generally cluelessly at that.

Which is how his country got in the mess it did in the first place. Because Cyril is the heir to the Grand Mage of the whole entire kingdom and he’s supposed to be a whole lot more capable than he has ever demonstrated being. His great-aunt, Heléne, the current high-court witch, is that great and it seems from Cyril’s barely-adult perspective that she always has been.

But Heléne is slowing down, and Cyril hasn’t been stepping up. Which is why everything went pear-shaped. Because he didn’t see the rot in the kingdom at a point where it could be stopped. This time around, he has to do better, to be better, and at the beginning, he isn’t.

He does, eventually, and with frequent application of several boots to his ass, get better enough to figure out what went wrong the first time around – but he’s a bit slow on the uptake. Frequently. Often.

Which is why the comparisons between Shoestring Theory and Legends & Lattes fall spectacularly apart. They are both cozy fantasies – but they take vastly different approaches to both the coziness and the fantasy.

For one thing, Viv in Legends & Lattes is very competent and gets shit done. It’s just that what she wants to get done is very cozy in that her goal is to open a coffee shop. She has doubts, she has fears, she backslides in her ambition to eschew her old, violent ways as a mercenary – but she gets the job done because of herself.

Cyril gets the job done in spite of himself. In the end he does get there, but he faffs around a LOT. If it wasn’t for his friends he wouldn’t manage to get his head on straight. He IS, actually, quite capable – but he’s never been pushed to apply himself until now and it takes him a LONG time to get out of that mindset.

A lot longer than it took this reader to figure out who the true villain of the piece really was, and that Shoestring’s restoration would be part of Cyril’s reward for finally getting his act together.

In the end, I liked Shoestring Theory, but not nearly as much as I expected to. There just wasn’t enough of Shoestring himself in the story, and Cyril turned out to be a surprisingly incompetent protagonist for a fix-it story.

But I did enjoy the way the story turned itself inside out, that all of Cyril’s intentions and memories of that first, terrible, time around turned out to be not what he thought they were, and that he did manage to get to the truth and the whole truth of what went wrong the first time – and that it wasn’t ALL his fault.

So, in spite of Cyril’s frequent faffing around, the one thing he always was that shone through was that he loved deeply if not always wisely, that he had a huge capacity for trust even if it was sometimes misplaced, and that the story, the kingdom and even Cyril himself are finally saved by the depth of his loyalty to those he loves – and the reciprocation of that love and loyalty in full measure in return.

A+ #AudioBookReview: Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A+ Reviews> audio reviews> audiobooks> book reviews
A+ #AudioBookReview: Rough Pages by Lev A.C. RosenRough Pages (Evander Mills, #3) by Lev A.C. Rosen
Narrator: Vikas Adam
Format: audiobook, eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical mystery, mystery, noir
Series: Evander Mills #3
Pages: 272
Length: 9 hours and 15 minutes
Published by Forge Books, Macmillan Audio on October 1, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

Private Detective Evander "Andy" Mills has been drawn back to the Lavender House estate for a missing person case. Pat, the family butler, has been volunteering for a book service, one that specializes in mailing queer books to a carefully guarded list of subscribers. With bookseller Howard Salzberger gone suspiciously missing along with his address book, everyone on that list, including some of Andy's closest friends, is now in danger.
A search of Howard's bookstore reveals that someone wanted to stop him and his co-owner, Dorothea Lamb, from sending out their next book. The evidence points not just to the Feds, but to the Mafia, who would be happy to use the subscriber list for blackmail.
Andy has to maneuver through both the government and the criminal world, all while dealing with a nosy reporter who remembers him from his days as a police detective and wants to know why he's no longer a cop. With his own secrets closing in on him, can Andy find the list before all the lives on it are at risk?
Set in atmospheric 1950s San Francisco, Rough Pages asks who is allowed to tell their own stories, and how far would you go to seek out the truth.

My Review:

The case that Andy has to solve in Rough Pages begins by circling back to the events of the first book in the series, Lavender House. In that first book, Andy Mills found a purpose, became part of a found family, and solved a murder, all while keeping the police – of which he used to be a part – from learning the truth about the residents of Lavender House.

That every single member of the family, and the staff, were queer. He managed to keep their secrets in spite of his own already being common knowledge – at least among his former ‘brothers in blue’ in the San Francisco Police Department.

So Rough Pages begins by taking Andy back to Lavender House, because they need his detective skills again – even if they don’t know it yet.

The Lamontaine family at Lavender House has adopted a baby. Or nearly so. The paperwork and the inspections and the questions have not quite run their course. It would still be much too easy for social services to take the baby back. If the family’s secret comes out – they certainly will.

At first, the case doesn’t seem like much. A friend of the family, the owner of a queer bookstore, is missing. Nearly all of the family have bought books from the shop. The butler/majordomo, Pat, volunteers there on his days off.

But it’s not just the owner that’s missing. Because he kept a list of all the subscribers to his book service, a kind of book club for queer books, mailed to subscribers all over the state of California – and even beyond. It’s not just that he’s missing – his list is missing too. A list that includes every single member of the Lamontaine family old enough to read.

Mailing ‘dirty’ books through the mail was illegal and ALL books with a hint of queer contents were considered ‘dirty’ automatically. If that list is in the wrong hands, they’re all in trouble and they’ll lose the baby.

So there’s the obvious possibility that Howard and his business partner DeeDee, who is also missing, might have been arrested by the feds, and that the feds have the list.

But it could be worse, because Howard may have gotten himself in trouble with the mob, either because his boyfriend is a mobster’s nephew or because he planned to publish the memoirs of a gay mobster – anonymously, of course. Either of those circumstances is more than enough to land him in big trouble with some very shady characters.

The feds will just ruin everyone’s lives and send as many as possible to jail. But the mob? Blackmail is the most likely outcome. Or, they might send somebody to ‘feed the fishes’. Unless they already have.

Escape Rating A+: I am absolutely hooked on this series, and Rough Pages was a totally worthy successor to the first two books, Lavender House and The Bell in the Fog. And it’s even better and more utterly absorbing in Vikas Adam’s narration, which I’ve had the pleasure of listening to for all three books so far. And OMG but I hope there are more.

I fell into this book so deeply that I had to let it process for a couple of days before I could write anything coherent. With a book this good it takes a while for the ‘SQUEE!” to settle down. I’m not exactly certain that it has even now, but I’ll certainly try.

This is a book that can be read – or listened to – from multiple perspectives with multiple hooks, all of which ‘hook’ the reader rather firmly.

Mystery readers, particularly readers who love noir detective fiction will feel right at home in the foggy streets of Andy’s San Francisco. Andy Mills is exactly the type of hardboiled detective featured in the work of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain – or he would be if Andy wasn’t queer.

At the same time, this series is historical fiction, set in the early 1950s, among San Francisco’s gay community. Also, it’s set at the point in U.S. postwar history where everyone was trying to repair and/or return to a ‘normalcy’ fractured by war. The tolerance of the war period was over and McCarthyism was on the rise, searching for liberals, queers and communists in every closet, under every bed, and any place where anyone who stood up or stood out might ask questions, persecuting and prosecuting them unmercifully in both the courts and the press, driving them out of jobs, homes and even the whole country.

The fear that Andy, his friends, his found family, and the community he serves, live under every day is as palpable as Andy’s personal fear that his former ‘buddies’ in the SFPD will find him and beat him again and again – and that they might not stop when he’s merely ‘near‘ death the next time.

And in this particular case, Andy’s job and his life intersect with an issue that, while it never goes away, has reared its ugly head as high in our present day as it did during the 1950s setting of the story. And that’s censorship and the repression of thought and speech that is always its ultimate goal.

The combination of themes gives this story a resonance from past to present while also telling a terrific story, putting the reader squarely at Andy’s side during a compelling investigation, and feeling right along with him as he does his best to protect the people he has come to hold dear – in a life that he never expected to have.

Some readers will be here for the mystery, some for the history, some for the portrait of gay life in a time and place where everything had to be hidden – and the cost of that attempt at hiding one’s truest self on every action and reaction. And anyone who believes in the power of words and thoughts and books and reading to change lives and form communities – and just how much some parts of society will attempt to suppress those same words and thoughts and even lives, will find Rough Pages to be a story that sticks long after the final page is turned.

A- #BookReview: The Village Library Demon Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A- Reviews> book reviews
A- #BookReview: The Village Library Demon Hunting Society by C.M. WaggonerThe Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: cozy fantasy, cozy mystery, paranormal
Pages: 339
Published by Ace on September 24, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

A librarian with a knack for solving murders realizes there is something decidedly supernatural afoot in her little town in this cozy fantasy mystery.
Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies—and solving murders. But she's concerned by just how many killers she's had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count...but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural. But when someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon, Sherry begins to think she’s going to need to become an exorcist as well as an amateur sleuth. With the help of her town's new priest, and an assortment of friends who dub themselves the "Demon-Hunting Society," Sherry will have to solve the murder and get rid of a demon. This riotous mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder, She Wrote is a lesson for demons and murderers.
Never mess with a librarian.

My Review:

Teeny, tiny Winesap, New York might just be the murder capital of the whole, entire world, and from a certain perspective it’s all Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle’s fault. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

That sounds terrible, doesn’t it?

Which is exactly what Sherry realizes when the latest victim of the town’s absolutely-not-a-serial-killer crime spree is the gentleman she’s been seeing for several months now. (Sherry, as a woman of a certain age, has a difficult time thinking of him as her ‘boyfriend’ because that just sounds ridiculous – but it is the truth all the same.)

But Alan Thompson’s murder is the first death that has touched her personally, and it shakes her out of her waking daydream of being Winesap’s equivalent of Jessica Fletcher, assisting the police with their investigations no matter how much it embarrasses them.

After all, just like Jessica, Sherry is good at it, and the local police clearly need her help. Just as much as Sherry needs to feel useful and needed and smart and at the center of everything – something that she’s otherwise never been in her whole, entire life.

Alan’s death shakes Sherry and rattles her self-absorbed, contented little bubble. She doesn’t feel any compulsion to investigate Alan’s death – she just wants to grieve for the man who might have been the love of her life. If she’d let him.

Which is the point where the story switches from Murder, She Wrote to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not that there are any actual vampires around Winesap in need of slaying. But the town might be sitting on a Hellmouth all the same.

Because suddenly there are demons – or at least A demon – possessing random townspeople who all berate Sherry, at increasing volume and at all hours of the day and night, to stop crying over Alan and put on her big girl panties and investigate his murder – whether she wants to or not.

As far as all of those possessed townspeople are concerned – or at least as far as the demon possessing them is concerned – investigating murders is Sherry’s purpose in Winesap and she needs to get right to it.

So she asks herself, “What Would Buffy Do?” (not exactly but close enough) and puts together her very own Scooby Gang to figure out what’s really going on in Winesap and what she needs to do to set it right.

Even if it involves closing a Hellmouth. Or her own.

Escape Rating A-: Were you teased by that blurb description of Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Murder, She Wrote?

I absolutely was, because that’s not exactly a combo that anyone would expect to see, pretty much ever. They absolutely are two great tastes – but whether they’d be great together is definitely an open question.

It turns out that it is, but not in the manner that you might expect. Just like it certainly is a cozy fantasy mystery, but likewise, not in the way that blurb might lead a reader to expect. And I definitely have quibbles about the description of it being “riotous” because that’s not true at all.

More like darkly snarky and filled with a lot of wry ruefulness – along with a bit of righteous fear and a whole heaping helping of pulling back the corners of a surprising amount of self-deception.

I think that the blurb description should be reversed, because at the opening it’s very much Murder, She Wrote, to the point where Sherry acknowledges that she often feels like she’s playing the part of Jessica Fletcher in a story for someone else’s entertainment, just as Angela Lansbury played Fletcher in the TV series.

What makes the story work AND descend into the creeping darkness of Buffy is that Sherry discovers that feeling is the literal truth. Winesap is a stage set where murder plays are acted out in order to entertain and amuse an epically bored demon.

Because immortality is both lonely AND boring, and this particular demon, like so many humans, has discovered the joys of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, particularly the stories of Agatha Christie, and is having a grand time watching Sherry and her fellow villagers play out ALL the parts for her.

Particularly as the demon doesn’t actually know how it will end. She claims she’s not forcing anyone to do anything – the increasing frequency and volume of her importuning of Sherry notwithstanding. The demon claims she’s only making suggestions and providing opportunities, that all of the murderers Sherry has ‘caught’ have acted of their own free will.

As has Sherry in her zeal for investigation.

All of which, if true – and it might not be, after all demons lie every bit as much as humans if not a bit more – makes the story a whole lot darker than it first seemed. And opens up the possibility of a sequel – which has the possibility of being even more fascinating as Sherry would have to enter into the thing with full self-awareness.

Along with the awareness that her cat, Lord Thomas Cromwell (the blurb infuriatingly misspells his name – and it MATTERS) really does contain the spirit of the actual historical figure, Lord Thomas Cromwell, the architect of Henry VIII’s infamous divorce, and that her cat is not only watching and judging her – as they all do – but has the ability to tell her all about herself whenever he damn well pleases. Or whenever the demon lets him. Pretty much the same thing.

I hope we’ll get to see them both again.

Grade A #BookReview: Darkside by Michael Mammay

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
Grade A #BookReview: Darkside by Michael MammayDarkside (Planetside, #4) by Michael Mammay
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: military science fiction, science fiction, space opera
Series: Planetside #4
Pages: 336
Published by Harper Voyager on September 24, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

In this thrilling, action-packed fourth installment in the Planetside series from acclaimed science fiction author Michael Mammay, retired Colonel Carl Butler gears up for another military investigation, full of danger, corporate intrigue, and tech people would kill for—perfect for fans of John Scalzi and Craig Alanson.
Colonel Butler has paid his dues and just wants to enjoy his retirement on a remote planet. But the galaxy has had other plans. He has been roped into searching for a politician’s missing son and an industry magnate’s missing daughter. He has been kidnapped, violated numerous laws, and caused the destruction of colonial facilities. He’s famous—or infamous, depending on who you ask—praised and reviled in equal measure across the galaxy for his exploits.
And he is determined to never let the government drag him into another investigation.
But when a runaway twelve-year-old girl whose father has gone missing asks him for help, well…it’s a lot harder to say no.
The girl’s father, Jorge Ramiro, was supposed to have been on Taug, a moon orbiting the gas giant Ridia 5, working on a dig with a famous archaeologist. But now there’s no sign of him and no record of him being there. Mining operations on the moon are run by two different consortiums, Caliber and Omicron—both of which have tried to kill Butler in the past. Butler doesn’t believe in coincidence.
Landing on Taug with his right-hand man Mac, computer genius Ganos, and an elite security squad, Butler soon finds that they’ve charged back into the crosshairs—because Ramiro is not the only who has disappeared, and the perpetual darkside of this moon is hiding more than the truth about a missing archeologist…

My Review:

Carl Butler has the worst best luck in universe. Or the other way around. He always gets his team out of whatever FUBAR situation he’s gotten them into. Then again, it’s a FUBAR situation that they’re in because FUBAR follows him around like a lost puppy that doesn’t seem to realize it’s already found a forever home.

Or, to put it the way that Butler’s ace hacker Ganos put it, “This is a Carl Butler operation. When is it not the worst-case scenario?”

Carl and company put themselves into this particular mess because an almost literal lost puppy – or at least a young girl with puppy dog eyes – has shown up on his rather remote doorstep.

He’s retired and he’s enjoying it. Dammit. At least that’s what Butler says, anyway.

But he can’t resist Eliza Ramiro and her crowdfunded campaign to hire him to find out what happened to her missing father. Based on her story, he’s pretty sure it’s going to be bad news. At 12, she’s old enough to know that as well.

Still, she needs to KNOW and not just assume. And he gets that. And he’s probably a bit bored – even if he’s trying to tell himself that he’s not.

His team knows he’s going as soon as Eliza tells her story. It just takes Carl a while to catch up. Which is fine because they are way ahead of him on planning this trip he says he doesn’t want to take – when they all know that he really does.

The problem that Butler discovers when he reaches the last place Jorge Ramiro was seen is that everyone on Taug is way, way ahead of him as well. Including not one but two interstellar mining corporations who have each done their damndest to kill Butler in the past – and are unlikely to have compunctions about doing so in the present.

Especially on a remote little moon where each corporation is sure that they control all the shots on the surface and all the lawyers and spin doctors they could possibly need to make sure that what happens on the darkside stays buried there forever.

Escape Rating A: I got caught up in Carl Butler’s (mis)adventures back in the first book in this series, Planetside, and I’ve been just as captivated by each of the subsequent “clusterf–ks” the man has somehow managed to get himself into, Spaceside and Colonyside. And now here we are on Darkside, literally the darkside of a moon. And it looks like Butler is going to leave this moon as the scapegoat for everything that happens – even the stuff that happened before he arrived – again.

Which seems to be his role in the universe. I wouldn’t say he’s exactly “OK” with that role, but he’s willing to accept it as long as the job gets done and he and his people get out more or less in the same number of pieces they started in. He’s honestly less invested in whether he, himself, gets out intact – but his team is VERY invested in THAT, in spite of himself.

What makes this book, and this whole series, work, is that it rides or dies – and does it ever ride – on the universe-weary voice of its protagonist, Colonel Carl Butler (ret.) Butler had and still has a reputation for getting the job done. At the same time, he had more than enough rank in the military to have gotten a good picture of how the universe’s sausage gets made. He’s pragmatic about pretty much everything except the fate of his team, and will bend ALL the rules to the point of breakage to take care of business.

He’s experienced enough and smart enough – when he lets himself take the time to BE smart – to understand how the levers of power get pulled – and to make sure that a realistic number of them get pulled in his favor whenever possible.

Above all, he’s loyal to his team – and they’re loyal to him. And that loyalty inspires others to be loyal as well. One of the things that he does very well, that shines as part of his personality, is the way that he does his best to bring out the best in everyone he works with.

He’s a good man who does some very bad things – but tries to mitigate the damage whenever he realistically can. Which doesn’t mean he isn’t perfectly willing to ream EVERYNONE involved in this CLUSTERF*** a new one. Then again, they deserve it. And we’re right there with him hoping that they all get exactly what they deserve.

At the top, I said that Carl Butler has the worst best luck in the universe. He’s actually not alone in that distinction. I was listening to Ghostdrift, coincidentally also the fourth book but in the Finder Chronicles, as I read Darkside, and Fergus Ferguson has pretty much the same kind of luck that Butler does. He’s a walking avatar for Murphy’s Law, he gets into the worst situations at the drop of a hat, everyone’s plans go straight to hell in his vicinity, but he somehow manages to survive and bring his team out intact. The two stories are both told in the first-person, and both characters have similar universe-weary voices which they each came by honestly although from different directions. Meaning that if you like one you’ll like the other. I certainly do.

Which means that I was thrilled to read in the author’s blog that he’s working on book 5 in this series and has started planning book 6. Wherever those stories take Butler and his team, I’ll be along for the ride.

#BookReview: One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B+ Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
#BookReview: One Big Happy Family by Susan MalleryOne Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss, supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, large print, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: contemporary romance, holiday romance, relationship fiction, women's fiction
Pages: 320
Published by Canary Street Press on October 1, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

Please don’t come home for Christmas…
Julie Parker’s kids are her greatest gift. Still, she’s not exactly heartbroken when they ask to skip a big Christmas. Her son, Nick, is taking a belated honeymoon with his bride, Blair, while her daughter, Dana, will purge every reminder of the guy who dumped her. Again. Julie feels practically giddy for one-on-one holiday time with Heath, the (much) younger man she’s secretly dating.
But her plans go from cozy to chaotic when Nick and Dana plead for Christmas at the family cabin in memory of their late father, Julie’s ex. She can’t refuse, even though she dreads their reactions to her new man when they realize she’s been hiding him for months.
As the guest list grows in surprising ways, from Blair’s estranged mom to Heath’s precocious children, Julie’s secret is one of many to be unwrapped. Over this delightfully complicated and very funny Christmas, she’ll discover that more really is merrier, and that a big, happy family can become bigger and happier, if they let go of old hurts and open their hearts to love.

My Review:

That phrase is often said ironically, with a bit of a smirk instead of a smile, even an eye roll – as if somehow it’s a contradiction in terms like ‘jumbo shrimp’. When someone says “One big happy family” there’s usually a bit of a caveat to the ‘happy’ part. That something – or perhaps a whole lot of somethings or even someones – aren’t nearly as happy as things appear on the surface.

If they’re even bothering to pretend, that is.

But the Parker family is, at least, generally happy with each other – even if that’s leavened with just a bit of sadness this particular holiday as it’s their first without one of the family’s integral members. Julie Parker may have gotten over her marriage and her divorce from Eldon years ago, but he remained her friend and co-parent if not her spouse, and their adult children, Nick and Dana, miss him a LOT this first Christmas without him. The family holiday traditions just aren’t the same without him, because Eldon was really big on Christmas and he was at the center of a lot of those traditions.

Even if Julie was the person who put in the work to make them all happen. Which is the story of both her marriage AND her life. Julie gets things done, and isn’t good at relying on anyone else in the doing. The family Christmas traditions were a LOT of work – work that ALL fell on Julie’s strong but slightly tired shoulders.

She’s REALLY looking forward to this Christmas, a holiday where her big, generally happy, family is scattering to the four winds. She’s planning on two weeks of bliss and peace – not necessarily in that order – in the coziness of her own house WITH the boyfriend that she hasn’t told her kids about yet.

The only reason Julie has been keeping Heath a secret is that she’s much too worried about her family’s judgment of their relationship. Her kids know she’s dated in the decade plus since her divorce, and they’re fine with that. But she hasn’t let those relationships become serious enough to warrant the boyfriend meeting the family.

Heath is different. On paper, they match up well. Both divorced, both with two children, both owners of successful businesses, both strong and independent and capable. Heath’s a catch, and there’s no catch to the relationship, except for one thing that Julie can’t get out of her head. Heath is 42, and Julie is 54. There’s a lot of living between those twelve years, they are at different places in their lives, and people will judge them – because that’s what people do.

It may be a bigger problem in Julie’s mind than it is in the world at large or certainly among her family – but it is a real problem or at least it certainly can be.

Julie’s not sure their relationship is ready – or more to the point, that she is ready – to make Heath a part of her one big happy family. She’s happy to be able to put that off until after the holidays – possibly indefinitely.

Which is the point where all those plans refuse to survive first contact with the rest of that family, as Christmas turns into one last almighty grab at all their holiday traditions, all at once, with extra added family and a whole entire herd of drama llamas in tow.

Heath turns out to be more than willing to roll with all the punches. The question is whether Julie is, too.

Escape Rating B+: Julie’s issues over this family holiday are far, far, far from the only ones that rear their heads this holiday – but they are the ones that tugged at my heartstrings the most because they are oh so familiar and Julie is right, society will judge her relationship with a younger man. Some will judge harshly and some will say, “You go, girl!” but there will be judgment either way. And they are at different places in their lives and always will be – but that’s true of any couple with an age gap no matter which direction it goes – even if society usually glosses over those differences when the age gap is in the ‘expected’ direction.

But Julie and Heath’s issues together, along with Julie’s need to be in control and in charge at all times and not need anyone else, are not the only snow-covered hill to climb this holiday season. Every single member of this extended family has brought their very own, personal, drama llama to this Christmas feast.

The family isn’t entirely happy – as no family ever is all of the time – but there are a lot of them and the result is a lot of family dramas in a house with such wonderfully wonky acoustics that everyone can hear everything that happens everywhere outside of a closed door, even in a house big enough for SIX bedrooms and all the communal spaces that six bedrooms full of people might possibly need.

So it’s Julie and Heath, her son Nick, Nick’s wife Blair, the uncle who actually raised Blair AND her sourpuss of an estranged mother who didn’t – as well as Nick’s secret plans to NOT take over the family business after all. Julie’s daughter Dana and the man who keeps breaking her heart, over and over again – who is also Julie’s employee. Heath’s children, Madeline and Wyatt,who are ten and eight and no problem at all, but their mother, Heath’s ex Tiffany, got dumped for Christmas so Julie invites her, too. That’s not even everyone but it’s a bit past enough even before Julie ends up in the hospital after an accident.

All that’s missing is the partridge in the pear tree!

I love a good age gap romance – particularly when the woman is the older half of that relationship – when it’s done right. Which it very much is in One Big Happy Family. Howsomever, as an only child myself, the sheer number of family members and the craziness each of them brought to the holiday table – simultaneously – was the stuff of which nightmares are made. I found plenty to empathize with in most of their relationships – but I also found myself wishing there was one less of them – although I recognize that’s a ‘me’ thing and may not be a ‘you’ thing and your reading mileage may definitely vary.

All in all, if you’re looking for a happy ever after portrait of a chaotic family holiday with a family that loves each other completely and is going to stick together no matter what and get through this mess, One Big Happy Family does turn out to be a charming holiday portrait of, in the end, really, truly, one big happy family.

A- #BookReview: The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A- Reviews> book reviews
A- #BookReview: The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse KirkwoodThe Restaurant of Lost Recipes (Kamogawa Food Detectives, #2) by Hisashi Kashiwai, Jesse Kirkwood
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: cozy mystery, foodie fiction, literary fiction, magical realism, translated fiction, world literature
Series: Kamogawa Food Detectives #2
Pages: 224
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on October 8, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is the second book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Kamogawa Food Detectives series, for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.
We all hold lost recipes in our hearts. A very special restaurant in Kyoto helps recreate them...
Chef Nagare and his daughter Koishi serve their customers more than delicious food at their Kamogawa Diner down a quiet street in Kyoto. They can help recreate meals from their customers’ most treasured memories. Through ingenious investigations, these “food detectives” untangle flavors and pore through old shopping lists to remake unique dishes from the past.
From the swimmer who misses his father’s lunchbox to the model who longs for fried rice from her childhood, each customer leaves the diner forever changed—though not always in the ways they expect…
A beloved bestseller in Japan, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is a tender and healing novel that celebrates the power of community and delicious food.

My Review:

The premise of this series is simple, beautiful and TRUE in all the best ways.

Hunger may be the best sauce, but nostalgia comes a close second. The difference is that hunger makes everything taste better – while nostalgia can only be satisfied by the correct combination of flavors and smells. The one that takes us back to the original that we remember so fondly and are able to reproduce so rarely.

It’s that reproduction – and the memories that come along with it – that makes this series both fascinating and heartwarming.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives are Chef Nagare and his adult daughter Koishi. Their little hole in the wall restaurant in Kyoto is a place that only the locals know. There’s no sign outside and they do almost no advertising. What little advertising they do isn’t even about the restaurant.

Their one line ad in a gourmet magazine proclaims, “We Find Your Food!”, which is exactly what they do. The clients for their food detection service come because they are desperate to recreate a taste – and the feelings that go along with it – that they barely remember but can’t let go of.

That they succeed isn’t magic – but it is. All it takes is a story and a fading memory and a whole lot of detection on the part of Chef Nagare – as well as a whole lot of taste-testing on the part of Koishi – to recreate just what the client has been searching for.

Each case – each story – is just a bit different. The process is the same, but the results are as variable as the clientele. Along the way, linking the separate vignettes into a harmonious whole, is the story of Nagare and Koishi, their banter, their gentle teasing, their excellent father-daughter relationship – and the way they include the missing member of their family, Nagare’s late wife Kikuko – in a way that demonstrates love and care and gentle grief and moving on all at the same time.

There may not be magic in the fantasy or magical realism sense in this book or this series, but the story is absolutely magical all the same.

Escape Rating A-: This is the series that got me firmly hooked on these cozy mystery/fantasy/magical realism type stories (the ones that trace their origin inspiration to Before the Coffee Gets Cold). After devouring this book in one sitting, I’m now certain that this is my favorite of them all in spite of the fact that nearly all of the others, there’s not even a hint of any actual magic.

It still seems like magic, but I think that magic can be put down to two factors – or at least this is how it’s working for me. One factor is the background story, the relationship between Nagare and his adult daughter Koishi and that it does work. Their relationship is just plain good in a way that seems magical because I honestly can’t imagine ever living with my parents as an adult and having them actually treat me as a functional adult. We weren’t that fortunate – although Koishi is.

We don’t get a lot of their daily lives in the spaces between their customers’ stories, but the bits we do get seem to be building on each other in a way that I simply find charming and heartwarming and I hope that other readers do as well.

As much as I enjoy the individual customers’ stories, Nagare and Koishi are the people carrying the story overall, and the other part of what I love is that the ‘magic’ of their food detective business comes down to good interview techniques on Koishi’s part, good investigative skills on Nagare’s part, a willingness to chase down any clue as well as, of course, Nagare’s skill in the kitchen and his willingness to experiment as often as it takes to get the dish exactly right.

The stories wouldn’t be half as much fun if they could just snap their fingers and make it happen. The breathless anticipation on the part of the customer – and the nervous worry on the part of the chef and the detective – make each customer’s story really pay off for both them AND the reader.

I do enjoy the individual stories, but without Nagare and Koishi to tie it all together the books wouldn’t work nearly as well, at least for this reader.

I’ll admit that I’ve been salivating for this book since the minute I finished the first book in the series, The Kamogawa Food Detectives. I mean that both literally and figuratively, as the food described within both stories as well as their presentation is absolutely mouth-watering. So don’t go into this series hungry. I mean it! You have been warned!

IMHO, this was totally worth the wait. I loved it and ate it up in one sitting. I’m just happy that there are several more books in the series in the original Japanese, so I have hopes that more will be translated – preferably as soon as possible!

#BookReview: Murder at King’s Crossing by Andrea Penrose

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
#BookReview: Murder at King’s Crossing by Andrea PenroseMurder at King’s Crossing (Wrexford & Sloane, #8) by Andrea Penrose
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, large print, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical fiction, historical mystery
Series: Wrexford & Sloane #8
Pages: 368
Published by Kensington on September 24, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

For fans of Miss Scarlet and the Duke and Bridgerton—a masterfully plotted mystery that combines engaging protagonists with rich historical detail and “an unusually rich look at Regency life,” (Publishers Weekly), plus a touch of romance that readers of Amanda Quick and Deanna Raybourn will savor.
Celebration is in the air at Wrexford and Charlotte’s country estate as they host the nuptials of their friends, Christopher Sheffield and Lady Cordelia Mansfield. But on the afternoon of the wedding, the festivities are interrupted when the local authorities arrive with news that a murdered man has been discovered at the bridge over King’s Crossing, his only identification an invitation to the wedding. Lady Cordelia is horrified when the victim is identified as Jasper Milton, her childhood friend and a brilliant engineer who is rumored to have discovered a revolutionary technological innovation in bridge design. That he had the invitation meant for her cousin Oliver, who never showed up for the wedding, stirs a number of unsettling questions.
Both men were involved in the Revolutions-Per-Minute Society, a scientific group dedicated to making radical improvements in the speed and cost of transportation throughout Britain. Is someone plotting to steal Milton’s designs? And why has her cousin disappeared?
Wrexford and Charlotte were looking forward to spending a peaceful interlude in the country, but when Lady Cordelia resolves to solve the mystery, they offer their help, along with that of the Weasels and their unconventional inner circle of friends. The investigation turns tangled and soon all of them are caught up in a treacherous web of greed, ambition, and dangerous secrets. And when the trail takes a shocking turn, Wrexford and Charlotte must decide what risks they are willing to take with their family to bring the villains to justice . . .

My Review:

The difference between “I’ve got a bridge to sell you” and “I’ve got revolutionary plans for building bridges to sell you” should be the width of a chasm – but it’s not nearly as far as one would expect in this latest entry in the Wrexford & Sloane Regency mystery series, after last year’s Murder at the Merton Library and the previous year’s Murder at the Serpentine Bridge.

There we go, bridges again! This one is pretty much bridges and bodies all the way down – with the occasional added Bonaparte. Not that Bonaparte is personally on the scene, but rather that this story takes place towards the end of his first brief exile. (Wrexford and company do not, as this story takes place, know precisely when that exile will end, but the handwriting was most definitely on the wall.)

The story begins when tragedy strikes in the midst of celebration. Wrexford and Sloane’s best friends, ‘Kit’ Sheffield and Lady Cordelia, finally tie their own marital knot at Wrex’s country estate. The celebration is intended to be small, close friends and family only, but one guest – or perhaps two guests – are missing, depending on how one counts. One is Lady Cordelia’s cousin Oliver Carrick and the other, Jasper Milton, is one of the dear friends who helped her sneak into mathematics lectures at Cambridge in male disguise.

Her happiness is dimmed when her friend’s body is found with her cousin’s wedding invitation as his only identification, putting her missing cousin in the frame for the murder.

And that’s where the bridges come in and cross the entire case. Her friend Milton had been hinting about a revolutionary new design that would allow bridges to be built in areas where it had been formerly considered impossible. If true and practical – and most likely yes to both because Milton truly was a genius – it would allow the new railroads to reach smaller and more remote towns. In turn, this would allow working class people to move to where their labor was needed instead of being stuck where they were born – and practically trapped.

There’s a lot of money to be made with Milton’s last designs – if they can be found. There’s also the potential for a lot of radical upheaval if those designs come to fruition – both at home and abroad.

Milton’s friends seem to be doing their damndest to place the frame for his murder around Cordelia’s cousin Oliver. At least until they start dropping like flies in their turn, at times and places where Oliver has an ironclad alibi. And yet, as far as Wrexford is concerned – and in spite of Cordelia’s hopes and fears – Oliver’s behavior makes him look guilty as sin.

There are too many in pursuit of those plans, muddying the waters and adding to the body count. Time is running out for Wrexford and Sloane to figure out who really ‘done’ it before the noose closes around the wrong neck. Or necks. Or their own.

Escape Rating B: It took the longest time for this particular entry in the series to grab me. Once it finally did, I was hooked again, but it took longer than usual. It was probably a combination of not being quite the right book at the right time, the domesticity of the early scenes (which I love but not quite so thoroughly front-loaded) AND the fact that the characters were flailing around to get even a glimpse of a direction for a bit longer than is usual for this generally über-competent crew.

Not that they were not trying – just that someone in the mix was deliberately obfuscating the situation and the clues were thin on the ground to begin with – in part because of the aforementioned malign, obfuscatory influence.

So this particular entry in the series had a LOT of plot threads going on, threw out a barrel of red herrings, and it took a fair bit of the book for those herrings to get re-gathered into the proper nets. Howsomever, as much as the process of getting there drove me a bit batty, the actual solution was priceless in the manner of those old MasterCard commercials.

Where this story was lovely was in the way that the relationships among the members of this extended found family continued to grow and deepen. Not just that Kit and Cordelia finally tied the knot, but also that the Weasels are both growing in number and growing up, which should provide plenty of family drama for future entries in the series.

Which I’m very pleased to say will be at least three more as the author has announced on her blog that she’s recently been contracted to continue the series with three more adventures. So I have hope that this time next year Wrexford & Sloane will be back!

A- #BookReview: Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A- Reviews> book reviews
A- #BookReview: Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose DarlingFear the Flames (Fear the Flames, #1) by Olivia Rose Darling
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy romance, romantasy
Series: Fear the Flames #1
Pages: 384
Published by Delacorte Press on September 17, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

An exiled princess teams up with the last man she thought she could trust in the start of a dazzling and unforgettable epic fantasy romance series.As a child, Elowen Atarah was ripped away from her dragons and imprisoned by her father, King Garrick of Imirath. Years later, Elowen is now a woman determined to free her dragons. Having established a secret kingdom of her own called Aestilian, she’s ready to do what’s necessary to save her people and seek vengeance. Even if that means having to align herself with the Commander of Vareveth, Cayden Veles, the most feared and dangerous man in all the kingdoms of Ravaryn.
Cayden is ruthless, lethal, and secretive, promising to help Elowen if she will stand with him and all of Vareveth in the pending war against Imirath. Despite their contrasting motives, Elowen can’t ignore their undeniable attraction as they combine their efforts and plot to infiltrate the impenetrable castle of Imirath to steal back her dragons and seek revenge on their common enemy.
As the world tries to keep them apart, the pull between Elowen and Cayden becomes impossible to resist. Working together with their crew over clandestine schemes, the threat of war looms, making the imminent heist to free her dragons their most dangerous adventure yet. But for Elowen, her vengeance is a promise signed in blood, and she’ll stop at nothing to see that promise through.
An immersive fantasy filled with a sizzling reluctant-allies-to-lovers romance, a world to get lost in, dangerous quests, dragon bonds, and an entertaining band of characters to root for, Fear the Flames marks the stunning debut of Olivia Rose Darling.

My Review:

Historically and fictionally speaking, there seem to be two types of prophecies. Some prophecies are vague and mysterious and mysteriously vague – think of Nostradamus – and resemble 20/20 hindsight, in that they are only able to be interpreted after the fact – which one would think would be a bit beside the point by that point!

Then there’s the other kind, the prophecies that seem really specific – which they kind of are. But they’re specific because they are self-fulfilling. The classic example is Oedipus Rex. The poor man was prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother – but it only comes about because dear old dad tries to prevent it from coming about. There’s also that truly dreadful prophecy about Harry Potter and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named that totally and utterly derails Potter’s whole, entire life.

I’d say I’m digressing but I’m actually not, because Princess Elowen of Imirath’s life was thrown into an equal and equally painful amount of chaos and destruction by an equally terrible prophecy that was brought about by the direct actions of her very own dear old dad attempting to thwart it.

At the celebration of her first birthday, Elowen was gifted with a quintet of dragon eggs. The eggs were positively ancient and assumed to be merely curious fossils at this point in their long existence.

But we wouldn’t have a story if that were true – so of course it’s not. The eggs hatch into not one or two but FIVE baby dragons who instantly imprint on and bond with the equally tiny princess. The prophecy that goes along with the event foretells that the bond between the little princess and her dragons will either doom her country, or bring it to even greater heights of glory – and nothing in either of those fates says anything about the fate of her father, the man who currently sits on the throne of Imirath. Whether doom or glory is coming – he seems to have no part in it at all.

Out of fear and jealousy, to save his country and his throne – or so he believes – King Garrick of Imirath, little Elowen’s father – does his absolute worst to thwart the prophecy. He should have known better.

Fear the Flames is the story of more-than-once-beaten and bloodied Princess Elowen coming home to deliver a brutal lesson that she’s spent her entire life preparing. In many stories, revenge is a dish best served cold, but for Elowen, the only way to achieve both justice and vengeance is in a blast of dragon fire.

Escape Rating A-: Romantasy as a genre, like its sister from another mister Science Fiction Romance, has to straddle the line between its two genres and has to dig itself deeply into that fence line to the point where its feet touch the ground on both sides. Which, all too often, ends up with splinters in some VERY uncomfortable places – even when it’s successful at that endeavor.

Which is pretty much the case in Fear the Flames. I have a couple of tiny quibbles, but for the most part Fear the Flames works and it works well. From my own personal perspective, it seemed that although it does successfully straddle that line between fantasy and romance, the foot on the romance side of the equation is just a bit more firmly planted. Your reading mileage, of course, may vary. I certainly found it impossible to put down!

The Elowen we meet at the beginning of her story is the product of long years of torture and darkness at the hands of her father and his henchmen – as well as a daring and desperate escape. She’s reached adulthood as queen, not of her birthright Imirath, but of the tiny hidden kingdom of Aestilian. But her little kingdom is a refuge for many fleeing from her father’s increasing tyranny, and with each new immigrant comes greater danger of either discovery or simple starvation. Or both.

To protect her people, Elowen leaves her kingdom to forge an alliance with neighboring Vareveth, seemingly in a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend as the hand of Imirath’s tyranny stretches further each year.

All of the above is political, and very. Just the kind of epic political warfare that epic fantasy is known for. Elowen’s rise from prisoner to power has the shadows of grimdarkness looming over it in the grandest of style.

And then there’s the romance, a fantastic – in more ways than one – story of enemies to lovers, with all the steamy intensity of forbidden passion and ringed round with the spikes and thorns of an epic betrayal.

That all of this – and it’s compelling pretty much every step of the way – is just the beginning of a truly sweeping story of love and revenge will leave readers panting for more. Which they’ll get in Wrath of the Dragons, coming not nearly soon enough in 2025.

#BookReview: The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
#BookReview: The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi, translated by Jesse KirkwoodThe Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi, Jesse Kirkwood
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: literary fiction, magical realism, world literature
Pages: 208
Published by Grand Central Publishing on September 17, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

From acclaimed Japanese author Sanaka Hiigari comes a heartwarming, life-affirming novel about a magical photo studio, where people go after they die to view key moments from their life—and relive one precious memory before they pass into the afterlife.
The hands and pendulum of the old wooden clock on the wall were motionless. Hirasaka cocked his head to listen, but the silence inside the photo studio was almost deafening. His leather shoes sank softly into the aging red carpet as he strode over to the arrangement of flowers on the counter and carefully adjusted the angle of the petals...
This is the story of the peculiar and magical photo studio owned by Mr. Hirasaki, a collector of antique cameras. In the dimly lit interior, a paper background is pulled down in front of a wall, and in front of it stands a single, luxurious chair with an armrest on one side. On a stand is a large bellows camera. On the left is the main studio; photos can also be taken in the courtyard.
Beyond its straightforward interior, however, is a secret. The studio is, in fact, the door to the afterlife, the place between life and death where those who have departed have a chance—one last time—to see their entire life flash before their eyes via Mr. Hirasaki's "spinning lantern of memories."
We meet Hatsue, a ninety-two year old woman who worked as a nursery teacher, the rowdy Waniguchi, a yakuza overseer in his life who is also capable of great compassion, and finally Mitsuru, a young girl who has died tragically young at the hands of abusive parents. 
Sorting through the many photos of their lives, Mr. Hirasaki also offers guests one guests a second a chance to travel back in time to take a photo of one particular moment in their lives that they wish to cherish in a special way.
Full of charm and whimsy, The Lantern of Lost Memories will sweep you away to a world of nostalgia, laughter, and love.

My Review:

If it’s true that your life passes before your eyes when you die, then The Lantern of Lost Memories is the story of how that precious reel of memories gets made – and more importantly, what that reel is made OF.

Mr. Hirasaki is the proprietor of a very special photo studio, a waystation on the journey between life and whatever comes after. Unlike the people who visit him, Mr. Hirasaki doesn’t remember who he was before he died. He also doesn’t know what comes after, because he’s stuck at his shop. It’s possible that he’ll move on someday, but he’s not eager to move on – at least not yet.

He’s still hoping that someone will come along who knew him in life, and can fill in the blank pages of his own memory. While he’s waiting, he helps others fill in theirs.

The story here is made up of three stories that interconnect – even if the individuals who have arrived at Mr. Hirasaki’s shop are not aware of it as they pass through. And neither is he.

From 92-year-old nursery teacher Hatsue, to the 47-year-old yakuza supervisor Waniguchi, to young Mitsuru, the process is the same. Just before each of his clients arrives, Mr. Hirasaki receives a shipment of photographs from the client’s life, one bundle for each year.

Needless to say, Hatsue’s box is considerably heavier than the others – but that’s as it should be.

For each person, the job is for the client to go through the photos and choose one picture from each year of their lives to represent that year. From those photos, the proprietor creates a lantern, perhaps a bit like an old fashioned zoetrope, and certainly a work of art.

The key part of each story isn’t the lantern – it’s the process of creation and the memory that goes into it. Each of the adults has one picture, an often referred to and much-loved picture – that is faded and worn because it’s been handled so often, even if just in memory. To refresh that one, precious photo, Mr. Hirasaki takes them back to the day it was taken, and spends 24 hours there with them where they can observe but not interact, refresh the photo, and tell him all about the specific memory, the day it happened, and the life that was wrapped around it.

None of which exactly works for the very young, abused to the point of absolute fear and almost complete silence, Mitsuru. It shouldn’t be her time to pass through his shop. But no one should have to go back to the situation she has only temporarily escaped from.

Which brings the story back around, full-circle, to the place it began, with Mr. Hirasaki, his shop of memories, and the reason he has none himself.

Escape Rating B: I’ve been making my way through a whole series of books very much like this one. They follow a similar pattern in which the location is magical or magic-adjacent, the function of that place allows for a semi-detached proprietor to serve a variety of people whose stories function as a series of vignettes within an overarching theme. Some of those stories have happy endings, but the overall tone is often bittersweet, as those vignettes are little slices of life – and not all lives are happy ones.

On a kind of magical realism spectrum, The Lantern of Lost Memories is closest to The Dallergut Dream Department Store and Water Moon, where the location is fully magical and adjacent to the real world but not part of it. A place that can only be found if all the circumstances are met, and if it needs you as much as you need it.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold and The Full Moon Coffee Shop take place  in locations where there is a bit of magic but are fully a part of the ‘real world’, while What You are Looking For Is In the Library and The Kamogawa Food Detectives are fully ‘real’ and easy enough to find and yet, something magical happens out of their very normalcy.

As I said, I’ve been reading books like this a lot this year, and I have more coming. They are all very much hot cocoa, warm fuzzy blankets and warm purring cat kind of books. Not too long, not too short and just right all the way around.

This one tripped me up just a bit, as I was looking for that interconnectedness and wasn’t in the least sure that I found it – not until the very end. It helps to make this story make more sense if, as part of one’s willing suspension of disbelief, the reader also sets aside the idea that time is linear – because that may be our reality but isn’t what’s happening here.

In these interconnected stories, time is a möbius strip that turns back on itself until the end is the beginning and the beginning is the end. Then it makes a whole lot more sense AND gets that much more magical, all at the same time.