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My Brain Is Small – a review of An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

by with No Comment Sci-Fi

I kid you not. I read two books in a row with a character with the same name.

This was a pure coincidence, because throughout June, the internationally recognised Pride Month, I will be reading novels featuring LGBTQIA+ protagonists and authors. This author, who uses they/them pronouns, has an intersex protagonist and a trans-feminine love interest.

Aster works as a botanist on a starship called The Matilda. As the lower decks face power cuts on a regular basis, Aster’s bunkmate Giselle breaks a code found within Aster’s late mother’s diary entries. This leads Aster on a mission to find out what she was hiding, what is wrong with her home and the history of it. All the while, the medic she is apprenticed other has news that their leader is dying and about to be replaced by a far more corrupt leader.

The writing style was brought down this novel a lot for me. This is not a book for everyone and one I would not call accessible on the first read. The main POV characters, largely Aster, are very scientifically minded and analytical. This meant that the POV from a third person perspective almost felt non fiction and essay like for me. I stay away from non fiction in text form because I struggle to keep focus, and that’s how I felt about this book. Too much like a non fiction author giving a go at writing fiction.

One character was intriguing enough for me to continue reading. Giselle and her derangement was the only thing that kept me going, the only character in this novel with a personality and arc worth observing. Maybe it was just because she was so different from everyone being so monotone? And the things she does to get shit done too, now I write about this and think on it. We see one POV chapter from her perspective, and I think it may have been far more entertaining to read this story through her lens.

The plot had potential when paired with interesting worldbuilding. The politics of this novel was one of the few things I could understand and I enjoyed learning about that side of things and the poverty of the lower levels inside of this spacecraft. But more focus was put into sciences. I understand that it is a trope of sci fi, and maybe I’m realising how I don’t like this specific kind of sci fi. Ah well. I still liked the sci fi politics.

All that was ruined for me by a confusing ending. To my knowledge this book was a standalone. It ended on too many disappointing uncertainties. Too much depression. So much hard work to end in an eternal sadness for dear Aster. Literally. I would be okay with this kind of an ending if I knew why they decided to end this book in such a way, but as established there was a lot in this book I didn’t pick up.

So all in all, I was too stupid to enjoy this book.

An Unkindness of Ghosts gets a score of 2.5/5. Maybe I shouldn’t have dropped the science subjects the first chance I got.

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Everything’s Split – a review of Fractured by Teri Terry

by with No Comment Sci-Fi

Slated was one of my favourite books last year and high up there as one of my favourite sci fi stories of all time. Granted I haven’t consumed many. But I was thrilled to get into the sequel now that questions have been answered. And more rose throughout.

Kyla now knows about the other half of her, the one that wasn’t erased by the government. And she has found an old mentor who has been hinting about it all this time and ushering her to join the freedom-fighting FreeUK. When Kyla finally has the faith to seek him out she must decide whether his instructions are faithful or not as more flashbacks contradict his words. Does she want to live in ignorance with the happy, normal life she was reprogrammed to have? Or has she the guts and the power to take down the government, whatever it takes?

I wished there was more worldbuilding exploration like in the last book. While it was subversive to stay in the same town, the locations didn’t feel fresh or further explored. This was very much a character and interpersonal centred exploration hinging around FreeUK and their goals. It doesn’t make me too mad, but it made me disappointed. With how much the world hooked me last time it failed to do so this time around. Luckily there were other things to keep it going strong.

Kyla’s character weakened ever so slightly but her arc strengthened. I’m guessing the weakness being how she flipped and flopped between decisions was understandable considering she had two personalities present in her for most of this book, but her struggle with that and with which side to play to was exemplary. It really makes her an everywoman. The struggles she faced felt very real and relatable this whole time, along with her reactions and the things she got put through.

Another character worth noting was Nico. The more you read about him, the more engaging his character gets and you really experience certain emotions about him. I won’t say what specifically due to spoilers, but him and Kyla are arguably the strongest out of a weak bunch of characters. Their interactions run the whole show and it was always entertaining when they were in scenes together.

The plot was very tense and kept me on the edge of my seat a lot. Being character driven, it always came down to how someone would react and what someone was planning, and to see that through the sometimes naive and sometimes keen perceptions that Kyla held as the first person narrator was tense. Getting in her brain during those moments were fantastic.

But with the events that came out of the end of this book, I’m keen to see how all this changes when Kyla becomes her own person in the final installment. Stay tuned for that review later this year.

Fractured gets a score of 4/5. Unlike Kyla, I’m not split on this one.

Yours in writing

Amy

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Humans are Pop Culture – a review of The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow

by with No Comment Sci-Fi

The Ilori have taken over the Earth and are shaping it to their vision, and forms of self expression are made illegal to minimise the spread of rebellion. But two beings have found ways to fight against it. First is Ellie, a human providing salvation to her peers through a small library of books she hid. Second is Morris, a lab made Ilori and human sympathiser in love with pop music. When their paths cross, they band together in order to find ways to save each other from getting caught by the Ilori and to find a way to save the world from being turned into lifeless hosts waiting to be possessed.

What drew me to this book was the asexual representation in it. Both main characters Ellie and Morris identify on this spectrum. While it was nice to see them, it wasn’t as revolutionary as other novels with ace leads. And that’s not always a bad thing! We need more stories like this where it is explored but not taking over the whole plot. And I respect the novel for doing that in ways that I strive to. I guess I kind of expected something revolutionary when people recommended this to me as a book with ace rep.

But that didn’t make me like the characters. Even the ones who weren’t ace I found immensely unrelatable. It’s hard to explain – they were both too generic and too untouchable at the same time. I will credit the motivations the characters had were solid, but for some of them that plus their hobbies wound up defining their entire personality. That’s a major character pet peeve for me! If I can’t define a character in three traits like in the Sims, I don’t consider them fully developed. And those traits don’t relate to their goals of freedom or their love of books.

But enough mediocrity and disappointment, let’s talk the best part of this novel – worldbuilding. It feels very rooted in it’s near futureness, that even with the take on aliens it felt like something that could actually happen. Protests, climate change and more make the prologue of this novel, and the alien race of Illori has come to monitor humanity and fix the issues on the planet. Albeit to their vision, it is still a very interesting take to start. It makes for a good hook to start this novel.

Sadly the relationship, plot and worldbuilding was cast into shadow by pop culture. I’m not hating on it, just the way that it is used. Books, bands and clothing references were found on every page. It’s like the author was getting paid by every single company who owned these pop culture pieces to reference them, and each time she did she earned ten dollars. It’s not seriously that big today, right?

If that’s what the author thinks humanity is, I may have lost my faith in it. There’s more to us than the songs we sing.

The Sound of Stars gets a score of 2/5. Humanity isn’t so shallow.

Yours in writing

Amy

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Hindus in Space – a review of Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers

by with 2 Comments Sci-Fi

My start to sci fi was dismal, and I started to think that this genre wasn’t for me. That was until I picked up this novel.

I bought the rest of the series as soon as I finished this book.

Hailimi ran away from the Indranan Empire to avenge the death of her father, but now the rest of the royal family is at risk or already dead. The princess-turned-gunrunner now must return home and team up with her bodyguards in the midst of her planet’s celebrations to stop the assassination of her mother, reclaim her rights to the throne and mend family ties that were broken when she abandoned them.

Worldbuilding was executed well in this novel. I like how it mainstreamed colonization from Earth and turned international affairs to interplanetary affairs, with cultural distinctions flavouring each empire. An Indian inspired world was featured in the spotlight, which I appreciated having seen Hindu culture frequently in my hometown. It still made the Indranan culture distinct from what we know of India today, making it truly feel like an evolution.

The subtleties of technology within the story was fantastic too. I liked how it wasn’t always pivotal to the story and wound up being used on multiple occasions, including accessing the internet from your mind, permanent body modifications and tracking systems. It made the world feel both futuristic and not very far from our own, in a cultural sense mind you. There was no need to flaunt the technology and how revolutionary it was when it was constantly shown, used and exercised in plot relevant ways that kept me interested and excited me.

Every character was very enjoyable and distinct. None were campy, but many had their comedic moments to shine. I was particularly a fan of Hailimi’s Trackers, Emmory and Zin, and the respective quips each of them had with each other and with Hailimi. And, of course, Hailimi herself deserves some credit. She was written incredibly real.

I’m usually not a fan of courts and strategies within them, but it was written very well in this novel. It was mostly easy to follow along with, interlaced with family drama that left me wincing. With the additions of assassination attempts and gunfire, this became a very fun read. I was always wonder what would be revealed next. I also appreciate the novel for not hinging on a big reveal of the conspirators, for being as smart as the reader. There was more to focus on than that so it became very nice to see that unfold in a more natural way.

See what unfold? You’ll have to read to find out. I deeply encourage you.

Behind the Throne gets a score of 5/5. Perfect novel for a fantasy reader dipping toes into science fiction.

Yours in writing

Amy

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This Ain’t Classism – a review of Evalene’s Number by Bethany Atazadeh

by with No Comment Sci-Fi

Somebody please help me. I have read five books in a row and have not liked them enough to keep them. Why is my luck this bad? Will this streak end?

I guess while I debate that, let’s talk book five in that streak. A dystopian disappointment.

In the country of Eden, people are labeled with numbers to dictate their place in society and their associative rolls. Needless to say, when Evalene expects a low number like her parents and gets labelled with #29, one of the lowest numbers in society, her life crumbles. Eight years later she seeks an escape after hearing rumors of a land where numbers don’t matter, where newborn children don’t have that expectation and everyone is treated as an equal. But what happens when she seeks freedom at a time where revolution is on the horizon?

I had very mixed feelings about the main character. She bordered between Mary Sue and Everyman as each page was turned. This made her as a character never stand out because while she was universally relatable it was never enough for me to root for her or make a large enough impact.

But I can say that there were exactly two characters in the entire novel that actually had a personality. They were in very generic ways too. One was an optimist, one was abusive and the rest were a generic mishmash. Yay! But seriously, did this never cross Atazadeh’s mind as to how generic her cast was? How nobody had dimension? It was even worse when it was so desperately trying to be a character driven story with these guys. In that respect it fell flat.

The world was interesting but never explored enough. The various positions people held with their number was explained but never shown aside from high and low society. Why bother explaining this without showing it? I would have really liked to see the lives of priests, law and merchants but it was never shown. Pity is an understatement. This is a novel all about classism and prejudice justified by religion and that was rarely touched. It felt like barely any research went into the implications of such.

Pair that with a mediocre rebellion plot, and this is what you get. I say mediocre because there wasn’t a great enough struggle, not enough losses for what was won. It felt too uplifting too quick. I think something went critically wrong once and it was solved by coincidence. I’m sick of coincidences solving everything!

So can I coincidentally have a read that will blow my mind next week please?

Evalene’s number gets a score of 2.5/5. This novel went about as deep as a fish bowl.

Yours in writing

Amy

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Do You Want To Save The Planet? – a review of The Pioneer by Bridget Tyler

by with No Comment Sci-Fi

I never had a desire to read sci fi. Proper sci fi, more than just the dystopian novels I’ve read that border on the genre. But this book seemed simple and intriguing enough for my little brain, so I gave it a go.

With Earth’s ecosystem on the brink of collapse, Jo and her family have trained for years to settle onto another habitable planet. But after an accident that killed Jo’s brother and gave her high blood pressure, Jo is no longer fit to live her dream on this new world and pilot ships of colonists. Without a purpose in her life, Jo soon finds one as she discovers the company that runs the colonisation lied. On what was thought to be a planet with no known alien civilizations, Jo discovers two at war. This blows things out of proportions that could threaten the new planet they boarded to ecologically collapse just as Earth is about to.

Mediocre characters were brought down even further by tedious dialogue. Every character was defined by a single trait, maybe two if they were lucky – including the love interest just there to make sure a romance exists even though the chemistry was clunky. This was especially sickening in the prologue when the dialogue was full of whacky quips that are exposition in the world’s worst disguise. This continued to an awkward level throughout the rest of the novel – the aliens talking in very formal English, the smart one using long words and sentences, the love interest making a “quirky” nickname for the girl he has a crush on. This made out like tween movie dialogue.

While the world was beautiful, the worldbuilding was ugly. This was in spite of things being very well explained and easy to read. A lot of stuff didn’t make sense – like why the alien cultures on the planet were written so oriental, the intentions of certain characters and why they were blind to certain things, why certain people were trusted and not others. This made the stunning and unique world that the story was placed on feels like rhinestones instead of diamonds.

However, the plot was one that kept you on your toes. Information found in unexpected yet sensible places, plot developments I didn’t quite see coming and a linear form that made sense. It was very easy to read and follow along with as a result and definitely the strongest part of this novel. That was because it didn’t rely on fancy sci fi jargon or features to tell a decent story, and this novel being my first dive into science fiction I am thankful for that.

But it’s ultimate falling point is the number of cliches featured. Alien cultures being framed orientally was the big one, but every personality in this novel felt like a cliche. The colonization tropes were cliches, including the whole thing about Earth’s ecosystem being destroyed. It’s a truth I’m sick of, apparently. But the biggest cliche of all was how infatuated everyone was with NASA. So many people with NASA shirts that it felt like an ad. Thank god NASA wasn’t on the cover.

In conclusion, this wasn’t what I hoped my first proper dive into sci fi novels was going to be. I’ll see you in a few reviews time to see if it gets better.

The Pioneer gets a score of 2.5/5. No wonder Earth died – all of its former inhabitants have no personality for the planet to care for it back.

Yours in writing

Amy

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Toasters Have Feelings Too – a review of Engines of Empathy by Paul Mannering

by with No Comment Sci-Fi

We got another book by a New Zealand Author! And a sci fi one at that, really hard to find. New Zealand publishing industries aren’t fond of publishing anything like this. So I was lucky to find this one on an online list to read.

Sadly, though, this one’s not a keeper.

In a near future where human empathy is used as the best clean fuel source out there, Charlotte Pudding gets intercepted by a radical called Drakeforth. He claims that the Godden Corporation is hiding secrets from the public, which can only be found in the folds of Charlotte’s antique desk, a family heirloom she doesn’t want to part with. Things get more out of hand when a Godden Repossession company wants hold of her desk too, and she buys into the story set by Drakeforth. Together they head to one of the few religious sects left in the world to find the resources and insights hidden in the wood of the desk before anyone else can get their hands on it.

The strongest part of this novel was definitely the plot. Everything was connected very well, with Mannering’s foreshadowing, causes and effects. This made the story very easy to follow along with and yet it still featured unexpected moments. And a very satisfying ending. One so strong, that it bumped up its mediocre rating by a fair bit.

But what made it mediocre in the first place?

It was gimmicky. And not to the point where it made it charming, at least not for me. Maybe for some. But it left a bitter taste in my mouth, aside from the banter between the two leading characters. Minor characters with surnames like Burrito, alternative swear words and slang that felt written by a twelve year old, and a power system that gives feelings to inanimate objects. I genuinely couldn’t tell if this novel wanted me to take it seriously.

And oh dear, we got a Mary Sue for a main character! Charlotte’s personality was not distinguishable. Neither were her flaws. And her strengths just happened to be perfect for this novel. She wasn’t painful to read, but it was clear she wasn’t an everyman trope. Everything fell into place too much for her and she was cliched in quite a few ways. She literally deus-ex-machina’d the bad guys!

The worldbuilding in this novel was just plain confusing, especially the pivotal part of the novel in which electronic are powered by social relations. It was explained as it being just the way things were without any explanation as to how the process unfolded. Furthermore, there were references to British things but I didn’t know if it took place on Earth or another planet. The religion felt too scientific to be classed as one. And why was the weakness of the antagonists the fact that their whole process to get the desk off Charlotte was that it had to be consensual?

In conclusion, this many wrongs won’t match the right. It has the potential to be good to somebody, but that ain’t me.

Engines of Empathy gets a score of 3/5. Plot doesn’t make the story, after all.

Yours in writing

Amy

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The Future Is Now – a review of The Toll by Neal Shusterman

by with No Comment Sci-Fi

It is baffling how often a final book in a series can either close the narrative perfectly or go against everything that the series stood for. So how does the Arc of a Scythe series end? We got a lot to talk about with this book.

The world has fallen into disarray since Scythe Goddard has taken over the Scythedom without the artificial intelligence Thunderhead to interfere or guide the rest of the world. Citra and Rowan need to be found and resurrected to ensure the scythedom doesn’t fall under Goddard’s rule, Greyson Tolliver needs to guide the world as the sole confidant in the Thunderhead, and Scythe Faraday with his newfound assistant Munira need to find the land of Nod as the one failsafe to stop Goddard. Because in the middle of masses of people being killed, opposing forces grow more violent, the likes never seen since the Thunderhead was created.

This book worked very well at showcasing every point of view and closing their character arcs. In the previous novel I was uncertain of what the many perspectives in the novel were for, but this novel those and the new POVs all made perfect sense and offered perfect closure. From Rowan’s redemption arc to the Thunderhead’s understanding of the world, all pieced together near perfectly. I could understand where everyone was coming from, even the villains! God, the villain’s perspectives worked so well. They weren’t sympathetic unless they naturally needed to be, you didn’t need to know their entire backstory, and Shusterman knows how to paint them as their own heroes. Brilliant!

I also found it fascinating how the ending brought humanity full circle, almost to a point where we are at today. I won’t spoil it, but it does follow the trope in Dystopia of fixing the future becoming a little bit more similar to our society today. And it does it so well. The fate of humanity in its ‘current state’ has a very well established background and the way to fix it is equally fascinating. I will say the ending doesn’t wind up being completely happy, but it still finishes very well to see the new state of this version of humanity.

The almost non linear fashion worked really well with this novel too. The singular narratives and plot points were chronological within their own timelines, but it was a very good decision to have each develop when they needed to – to pause and rewind time to when it most makes sense in terms of getting the story told properly. Shusterman did this expertly for a novel that takes place over close to three years. Much better than other novels who tell things non linearly.

I can only hope the movie series will do it justice.

The Toll gets a score of 5/5. It’s the circle of life guys, just without the lions.

Series rating time!

Scythe – 5/5, this book instantly made me fall in the series.

Thunderhead – 4.5/5, I was lovingly scared for humanity

The Toll – 5/5, everything came full circle.

I will always recommend this series as a gateway to dystopian fiction. It accomplishes so much more than the genre stereotypes set out for – an exploration of the human state through a society deprived of something core to us in our current world. That core was mortality. Such a huge core explored expertly through portrayals of morality, beliefs, purpose and of course death. So many characters show all these aspects beautifully, and yet I hope this not what our future will actually be. All things said, this is the highest rated series on my blog to date.

The Arc of a Scythe series gets a score of 5/5. It’s staying proudly on on my bookshelf.

Yours in writing

Amy