Book Reviews – Page 68 – Carol's Notebook

Bishop to Queen by Lexy Wolfe

July 20, 2020June 11, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

I have mixed feelings about Bishop to Queen by Lexy Wolfe. I didn't know it was the second in the series until I started to get this post ready. I did feel like this worked fine as a stand-alone and given the beginning and end of this one, I do wonder how the first fit in, but don't think I'll bother going back to read it. On the one hand, I enjoyed reading Bishop to Queen. I flew through it and maybe put off doing some work to read it instead. It was a fun book that moved along at a good pace. The characters were interesting and amusing if slightly one-dimensional. The idea of what makes a being human and what makes someone "good," while not a new topic in sci-fi, was explored well here. There were a couple of things I didn't like about the book too. First, as I mentioned, the characters were not a multi-dimensional as I could...

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

July 16, 2020January 23, 2024 by Carol2 Comments

Eight Perfect Murders is clever. Mal posted a list of eight "perfect" murders on a blog years ago and now someone is using the list to conduct their own murder spree. Maybe. I love all the references to other mysteries, but if they're on your to-read list, be aware that this book contains lots and lots of spoilers, and not just for books on the list. I've read several Mal references, but need to pick up Malice Aforethought and A Secret History and maybe watch the movie version of Death Trap. I found The Drowner to be the most uninteresting on the list and will just skip it. It's probably not a good sign that my favorite parts of the book were the bits about mysteries by other authors. The mystery in Eight Perfect Murders is actually well done. Mal, who is telling us the story, is a well-rounded, flawed character. He owns a mystery bookstore but doesn't read mysteries anymore. He's...

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

The Fifth Season is an amazing book. It's set on a post-apocalyptic earth that's plagued by constant seismic activity. This leads to frequent near-extinction events called "Fifth Seasons" that keep people always on alert. The evidence of past civilizations litters the planet -- ruined cities, incomplete 'stonelore' handed down from earlier generations, and strange obelisks that float through the atmosphere. The Sanze Empire has survived for centuries by harnessing the power of orogenes -- people born the ability to control their environment. The orogenes can stop earthquakes or start them. They can save cities, or draw power from living creatures and "ice" them. Their powers are terrifying but essential such a volatile world, so the empire develops a caste of Guardians who have the power to neutralize the orogenes when necessary. The orogenes are held in contempt and called "roggas" by ordinary humans. Despite all their power, they cannot control their own lives. They are either hunted down and destroyed...

Westside by W.M. Akers

July 2, 2020July 2, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

Westside is the first in a series starring Gilda Carr, a young woman who looks into what she calls “tiny mysteries.” She's not interested in solving murders - big mysteries mean big problems and Gilda doesn't need that. Her mom died when she was a kid, and her father, Virgil Carr aka “Clubber,” was not only the founder of a notorious Westside gang, he later became a notorious cop, vanishing in a notorious disappearance some years back. Our setting is Manhattan of 1921, but it's a stranger, darker, wilder place. Odd objects, coffee pots, stairway railings, entire buildings just disappear. Things rot and rust quicker. Machines stop working. Guns fail. The trees do well, though, growing fast and unnaturally tall. Streets become streams instead of the other way around. Occasional waterfalls form and descend from rooftops. It is where Gilda lives. And people disappear. In 1914 when over three thousand people vanished on the Westside, thirteen miles of fence was erected...

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

June 29, 2020June 27, 2022 by CarolNo Comments

I thoroughly enjoyed A Memory Called Empire. It was engrossing and smart. It's science fiction centered around political intrigue and a murder mystery. One of the themes of the book is colonialism. Teixcalaan is a galaxies-spanning empire with a capital that is a planet-spanning City. In their language, the word for the world and the planet and the city is the same. Peoples who are not part of the empire are "barbarians" and while in the City are not granted the freedoms and technology of the Teixcalaani. It is an old culture rooted traditions and deeply connected to its poetry. I found the importance of poetry to the culture fascinating and is part of what I loved. Poetry as history, political rhetoric, battle cry, prayer for peace, everything poetry can be but that we don't give the power it deserves. Teixcalaan's size and influence dwarfs the small, but still independent Lsel station. Mahit Dzmare is the new ambassador from Lsel to Teixcalaan,...

The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

When I was pulling together my to-read list for Sci-Fi Summer, I ran across The Aleph Extraction, which sounded fun, but I decided to start with the first in the series instead, The Caledonian Gambit. Starting with the first in a series, or the zero-ith in the case- the numbering's odd, is rarely the wrong choice. The Caledonian Gambit is a fun spy novel that happens to take place in space. I enjoyed it, but the sci-fi trappings weren't really necessary to the story. It could have happened on earth now, with just minor transportation and weapon changes. And that's fine by me. Basically, we have two political entities at war, a special ops team, and a lost pilot that could save the galaxy. We also have the requisite superweapon that could change the tide of the war. And at the end we have two political entities at war, a special ops team and a pilot who will probably have to...