Book Review – Upgrade

13 Apr 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I read Upgrade by Blake Crouch sometime last year. This is the second book by the author that I’ve read, with the first being another stand-alone novel, Dark Matter (paid links). You can find my review of that book here.

I read this book in e-book format.

Here is the blurb:

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.

This book looked at the consequences of rapid advancement in genetic modification and created a fast-paced story with plenty of action. At the same time, Logan had to examine his own humanity and come to terms with his family’s dark past. It took me some time to get invested in the story, but once I pushed through the first few chapters, I couldn’t put it down.

The plot almost moved too fast at times, leaving me less time to think about the implications of the technology depicted in this story. But it was still a rush to read and I’m going to look out for more books by this author. This one was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in 2022.

Have you read any science fiction that looked at the consequences of genetic engineering? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Skull Throne

11 Apr 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett is the fourth book of five in The Demon Cycle series. I have been meaning to finish this series and I’m not sure why I kept putting it off, since I’ve enjoyed the earlier books.

You can read my review of The Daylight War (book 3) at this link here. I did not formally review The Warded Man (book 1) or The Desert Spear (book 2) on this blog (paid links).

I read the mass market paperback edition.

Here is the blurb:

The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty.

Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honor and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all.

But Arlen Bales, the Warded Man, stood against this course, challenging Jardir to a duel he could not in honor refuse. Rather than risk defeat, Arlen cast them both from a precipice, leaving the world without a savior, and opening a struggle for succession that threatens to tear the Free Cities of Thesa apart.

In the south, Inevera, Jardir’s first wife, must find a way to keep their sons from killing each other and plunging their people into civil war as they strive for glory enough to make a claim on the throne.

In the north, Leesha Paper and Rojer Inn struggle to forge an alliance between the duchies of Angiers and Miln against the Krasians before it is too late.

Caught in the crossfire is the duchy of Lakton–rich and unprotected, ripe for conquest.

All the while, the corelings have been growing stronger, and without Arlen and Jardir there may be none strong enough to stop them. Only Renna Bales may know more about the fate of the missing men, but she, too, has disappeared…

This is not a series that you can jump into at any point. The action in this book picks up immediately after the events of the previous volume, with no time spent rehashing the storyline. The questions brought up by the cliffhanger ending of book 3 are quickly answered, although there isn’t an immediate resolution to the situation.

The plot in this story follows our ongoing collection of main characters, with much of the action centered in the Hollow and the nearby lands of Everam’s Bounty, Lakton, and Angiers. The author jumps through multiple point-of-view characters to tell the story, but focuses in the right parts of the story so that the pacing never slows too much. He manages to have me simultaneously cheering for characters on opposing sides, even when the situation is dire.

I stayed up most of the night reading the last 200 pages of this book. The tension and the impending sense of doom built so much that I couldn’t stop myself. Although be warned, this was the most heartbreaking part of the series so far and approached a “red wedding” level of devastation.

I’ve already started the final book, The Core, so that I can discover if there will finally be a Deliverer who can end the demon threat (paid link).

The new editions of this series have rather boring covers. I prefer the ones that I’ve used here, where each book features one of the main characters on the front. The mass market paperback edition of The Skull Throne also featured a glossary and a family tree for some of the Krasians at the back, both of which were very helpful.

Have you read any of The Demon Cycle? Who do you think will be the Deliverer? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Foxglove King

06 Apr 2024 3 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I picked up The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten at an early-release signing at New York Comic-Con in 2022. This is the first book in The Nightshade Crown series from Orbit books. Read on below to see what I thought (paid links).

I read a paperback ARC of this book.

Here is the blurb:

When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. And in the ten years since, she’s lived by one rule: don’t let them find you. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city.

Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore’s job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter, and relative security. But when a run goes wrong and Lore’s power is revealed, she’s taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem working for the Sainted King. Lore fully expects a pyre, but King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what’s happening and who in the King’s court is responsible, or die.

Lore is thrust into the Sainted King’s glittering court, where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted. Guarded by Gabriel, a duke-turned-monk, and continually running up against Bastian, August’s ne’er-do-well heir, Lore tangles in politics, religion, and forbidden romance as she attempts to navigate a debauched and opulent society.

But the life she left behind in the catacombs is catching up with her. And even as Lore makes her way through the Sainted court above, they might be drawing closer than she thinks.

I’m sad that I hadn’t read this book sooner because it featured a fascinating female protagonist, creative world-building, political intrigues, and plenty of romantic tension. Even though the plot does fall prey to some cliches, it all comes together for a great read.

We know that Lore is special from the outset, so in some ways this is a standard hero’s journey tale. She gets into trouble and is forced to spy on the court, putting her immediately into the way of courtiers, a prince, and a king. Her partner in this mission is a celibate monk who is one of the best characters in the book as he struggles with divided loyalties to his religion, his nation, and Lore, who might become more than a friend.

The magic in this world was based on the mythology of fallen gods and the two who remained to rule over life and death. Some people also take poison like a drug to extend their lives (albeit at a price). I love stories where magic is immersed in the foundations of the world, so this was exactly the type of tale I gravitate toward. I stayed up all night reading the last ~200 pages of the book because I couldn’t put it down.

The next book in the series, The Hemlock Queen, comes out on April 9, and will be on its way to me soon (paid link).

Have you read any of Hannah Whitten’s books? She has also written The Wilderwood series that is on my to-be-read list (paid link). Let me know in the comments (above).

Read more of my reviews here.

Reading for the Nebulas

04 Apr 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , ,

I recently received my ballot information for this year’s Nebula Awards and thought that I might be able to spend some time reading the nominated works. However, when I looked at the deadline and how much I would need to read, I don’t think I’ll be able to get through enough of them to make any fair decisions.

These are the novels that have been nominated.

Prior to the announcement, I had only read one of the novels and none of the works in the other categories. . I reviewed The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz recently and you can find my thoughts here (paid link). That leaves me with five novels and all the novellas, novelettes, and short stories to read (and that is without counting the award for Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction or the game writing category).

I think that my strategy will be to start with the short stories. Then I can move on to the longer categories. I don’t expect that I will get to the novels, but the process at least makes me more aware of some books that I hadn’t heard of prior to this.

You can find all of the nominations here. Voting closes on April 15th and the winners will be announced on June 8th at the 2024 Nebula Conference in Pasadena, CA.

March 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

02 Apr 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Help, help! I’m in a reading slump!

March wasn’t a very good month for me in terms of reading. I was distracted by other things in my life and I didn’t have as much time to devote to books, unfortunately. What did I actually finish reading in March? Just these two books:

I did review The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin here. And I should have a review of The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten up soon (paid links).

I am still in the process of reading a few others which you can see here:

I didn’t make any further progress on The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, but I still plan to get back to this one. My audiobook listening habit also struggled, so I haven’t finished the second book in the Outlander series, Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. As of the time I’m writing this, I have a little under seven hours left to go. I started reading the Utopia Science Fiction anthology last week, but I was not in the right mood to read short stories and ended up finally starting The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett, which is book 4 in The Demon Cycle (paid links).

What’s ahead for April? And how do I break out of my reading slump?

I rearranged what I originally had on my April list, since I didn’t get to most of what I had planned to read for March. Here are the books that I now have on for this month:

I put them roughly in the order I think I might read them. The Core is the fifth and final book in The Demon Cycle, so I expect I’ll want to finish that series once I get through book 4. I think I’ll probably get back to The Sandman series of graphic novels for a quick read and then move on to book 5 of The Wheel of Time – The Fires of Heaven. I expect Iron Flame to be a quick read, and after that I don’t know if I’ll actually get to the other books during April. I should be able to at least start Voyager, the 3rd book in the Outlander series, but since each one is longer than the last, I don’t know if I’ll finish it this month (paid links).

On top of those goals, I have been debating whether I should read some of the fiction nominated for the Nebula Awards. That will be the topic of a post later this week, so I’ll leave my thoughts on that until then.

As far as getting over my reading slump, that’s hard because I do have some travel plans this month. One trip involves a long flight, so that usually gives me some free time to read, but otherwise the logistics of packing and planning always takes time.

What are you reading in April? How are your reading goals for the year going so far? Let me know in the comments (above).

Book Review – Sunshine by Robin McKinley

22 Mar 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I read Sunshine by Robin McKinley a few months ago after it was a pick for one of my book clubs. I had previously read and loved a couple of books by this author (The Blue Sword, The Outlaws of Sherwood) a few decades ago, so I was happy to get back to this stand-alone vampire novel (paid links). Read on to see what I thought.

I read the e-book edition.

Here is the blurb:

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it’s unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn’t been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don’t, when they’re vampires.

They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion – within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight.

She knows that he is a vampire. She knows that she’s to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, as dawn breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day…

This was a good read, although it wasn’t what I expected. Sunshine is set in an alternate semi-post-apocalyptic fantasy world, after humans have engaged in a war against vampires and other supernatural beings. It features just enough other magic to know that you cannot make any assumptions about how things work here.

Sunshine, the protagonist, is content in her role as a baker at the local shop. She rents a room in a house nearby and has a long-term boyfriend. But her comfortable place in the world is shaken when she takes up the unlikely acquaintance of a vampire, Constantine, imprisoned alongside her by his rivals. Sunshine has her own power and helps Constantine, sparking a forbidden relationship between them.

As Sunshine tries to hide her obsession with the vampire, his enemies stalk the town. One of my favorite characters was Sunshine’s landlady, since she turned out to be a lot more than she seemed. The final outcome was left a bit too vague for me, but I suppose that leaves it up to my interpretation. The world that the author sets up in this book was so interesting that I wish she’d write more in this setting, even if it doesn’t follow Sunshine and Constantine.

What other vampire fiction have you read? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

18 Mar 2024 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Shannon Chakraborty (previously writing as S.A. Chakraborty) won a spot in my short list of “buy-the-next-book-in-hardcover-right-away” authors after I read her Daevabad Trilogy. I loved these books and ranked them as one of the best series that I read in 2021. When her latest book (the first in a new series) was released last year, I picked up The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi right away (paid links).

You can find my reviews of her other books here:

I read this in hardcover.

Here is the blurb:

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.

This book was a lot of fun and, while it is the start of a new series, it could also be read as a stand-alone novel, since the events of the immediate crisis are concluded in this volume. Amina is a wonderful protagonist as an older women with a rich history that is gradually brought into the current events of her new story.

The action was well done and I never felt bored for a book that runs almost 500 pages. The antagonist is suitably evil and threatening, although of course Anima’s quest encounters other bumps and complications along the way that add to the tension of the story.

I thought that the way that Amina’s quest ends nicely wraps up the current situation. However, she has to make a deal that opens her up to further adventures. I expect that she will feature in upcoming books, and I’ll be waiting to read them.

Given that this novel is also set in an ancient Arabia type of setting, I had to wonder if the world that Amina lives in could be the same as that of the Daevabad series, but I think I’ll have to wait to draw my conclusions on that.

Have you read anything by Shannon Chakraborty? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Combat Codes

13 Mar 2024 3 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , ,

I don’t remember how I first came across this book, but I added it to my to-be-read list after listening to the author speak at a panel by Orbit Books. The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin is the first book in The Combat Codes Saga (paid links).

I read the e-book edition.

Here is the blurb:

In a world long ago ravaged by war, the nations have sworn an armistice never to use weapons of mass destruction again. Instead, highly-skilled warriors known as Grievar Knights represent their nations’ interests in brutal hand-to-hand combat.

Murray Pearson was once a famed Knight until he suffered a loss that crippled his homeland — but now he’s on the hunt to discover the next champion.

In underground and ruthless combat rings, an orphaned boy called Cego is making a name for himself. Murray believes Cego has what it takes to thrive in the world’s most prestigious combat academy – but first, Cego must prove himself in the vicious arenas of the underworld. And survival isn’t guaranteed.

This book was definitely written with a lot of mixed martial arts (MMA) and Brazilian jiu-jitsu in mind. Fortunately, I have watched a good amount of those sports and even rolled with my husband at his local jiu-jitsu class once. The author uses the names for many of the positions in those sports, so I think that a reader who is familiar with them will get a better visual picture of the fights in this story.

At first I had trouble determining whether this book was fantasy or science fiction. After seeing a bit more of the world, it was clearly science fiction, but to the characters like Cego, some of the aspects like his own background and the presence of seemingly magical sprite-like creatures made it seem more like fantasy.

The story is told through two point-of-view perspectives: that of Cego – the up-and-coming kid who is stuck fighting in the slave rings, and Murray – the old fighter who retired after a devastating loss. While much of the plot is predictable as a coming-of-age story for Cego, a couple of intriguing twists occurred toward the end which have encouraged me to pick up the next book in the series.

Have you read any fantasy or science fiction novels that featured a specific fighting style like this book? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Road to Roswell

11 Mar 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I picked up The Road to Roswell after having an opportunity to listen to Connie Willis talk to my local science fiction club about her writing (paid links). This is her most recent novel and is a humorous stand-alone story. I listened to the audiobook edition, narrated by Jesse Vilinsky.

Connie Willis isn’t a new author to me. I have read several books in her Oxford Time Travel series, starting with The Doomsday Book (paid links). I’m sure I’ve read some of her short stories in magazines, but I tend to lose track of which shorter works I have read.

Here are my reviews of some of her other books:

I listened to this as an audiobook.

Here is the blurb:

When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.

Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien’s abduction spree. Before long, he has acquired a charming con man named Wade, a sweet little old lady with a casino addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love for old Westerns, and a UFO-chasing nutjob who is thoroughly convinced the alien intends to probe them and/or take over the planet.

But the more Francie gets to know the alien, the more convinced she becomes that he’s not an invader. That he’s in trouble and she has to help him. Only she doesn’t know how—or even what the trouble is.

Part alien-abduction adventure, part road trip saga, part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind. Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?

This book was a lot of fun to read and played on UFO and alien-abduction tropes, both to move the story along, and to provide some great laughs. Francie is the perfect protagonist for this, starting out as a skeptic, but being unable to disbelieve what happens to her. The group that is swept along in the adventure is a wonderful assortment of characters and they all add their own unique personalities to the story.

The plot didn’t go where I expected it to, but that’s okay in the end. The story also features a touch of rom-com. The audiobook was easy to listen to and I was swept into the story immediately. This was a fun read and is definitely a stand-alone novel, so it won’t add to my massive list of series that I need to finish.

Have you read anything by Connie Willis? What is your favorite story? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Spear

08 Mar 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , ,

I read Spear by Nicola Griffith recently (end of 2023) and had no idea what to expect from it going in (paid links). Like a couple of my other recent reads, this was technically a novella, essentially a short novel. This was the first book by this author that I had read. I listened to the audiobook edition, which was narrated by the author.

I listened to the audiobook of this.

Here is the blurb:

The girl knows she has a destiny before she even knows her name. She grows up in the wild, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake come to her on the spring breeze, and when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she knows that her future lies at his court.

And so, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and, with a broken hunting spear and mended armour, rides on a bony gelding to Caer Leon. On her adventures she will meet great knights and steal the hearts of beautiful women. She will fight warriors and sorcerers. And she will find her love, and the lake, and her fate.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It featured a girl without a name who finds her place in the world when she dares to leave the familiarity of home for adventure in the world. She comes upon the body of a slain knight and takes up his spear, gaining inspiration from the weapon to give herself a name.

Once she comes upon the slain knight’s companions, it was clear that this book was a retelling of Arthurian legend. While I’m far from an expert, I have read a fair number of these types of stories and am always interested to read a new take on classic tales. Even knowing those legends, this book was able to tell a compelling story that still surprised me.

It is clear from the early part of this book that the protagonist is a lesbian. While there is a love story within the novella, it isn’t the main focus of the plot. Other themes include the meaning of family and becoming accepted by others.

Have you read any books by Nicola Griffith? Which ones would you recommend? Let me know in the comments (above)

Find more of my reviews here.

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