October Daye #10: Once Broken Faith

Sometimes shattered, never open. Nothing matters when you’re broken. Let’s restore Once Broken Faith, by Seanan McGuire.

Synopsis:

Politics have never been October “Toby” Daye’s strong suit. When she traveled to the Kingdom of Silences to prevent them from going to war with her home, the Kingdom of the Mists, she wasn’t expecting to return with a cure for elf-shot and a whole new set of political headaches.

Now the events she unwittingly set in motion could change the balance of modern Faerie forever, and she has been ordered to appear before a historic convocation of monarchs, hosted by Queen Windermere in the Mists and overseen by the High King and Queen themselves.

Naturally, things have barely gotten underway when the first dead body shows up. As the only changeling in attendance, Toby is already the target of suspicion and hostility. Now she needs to find a killer before they can strike again—and with the doors locked to keep the guilty from escaping, no one is safe.

As danger draws ever closer to her allies and the people she loves best, Toby will have to race against time to prevent the total political destabilization of the West Coast and to get the convocation back on track…and if she fails, the cure for elf-shot may be buried forever, along with the victims she was too slow to save.

Because there are worse fates than sleeping for a hundred years.

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

In the course of her last adventure, October Daye discovered a cure for elf-shot. Since that’s kind of a major world-shaking innovation, the High King has called a convocation where all the movers and shakers of the fairy world will assemble to discuss what is to be done about it. But wouldn’t you know it, but no sooner has Toby arrived than a monarch is murdered. Now, for the sake of making the elf-shot cure available to those who need it, she’ll have to uncover who is behind the assassination – hopefully before anyone else gets offed.

This was a particularly strong entry in the series. It’s a really good setup for a mystery, and good pacing with steadily rising tension as people close to Toby are targeted. It also delivers some good worldbuilding for the setting, such as a map showing how the Kingdoms of the Westlands map to the west coast of the United States.

This was a great installment in the October Daye series, one of the best so far.

Final Rating: 5/5

The Luminous Dead

Death surrounds. My heartbeat’s slowing down. I won’t take this world’s abuse. I won’t give up, I refuse. Let’s bury The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling.

Synopsis:

A thrilling, atmospheric debut with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the creeping dread of Annihilation, in which a caver on a foreign planet finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival.

When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.

Instead, she got Em.

Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .

As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.

But how come she can’t shake the feeling she’s being followed?

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

The planet of Cassandra Five is a miserable, barely-habitable hellhole of a colony world, sustained only by the mining industry. With the shallow deposits already tapped out, Cavers are hired to go on expeditions into vast cave systems deep below the surface in search of ore. It’s a lonely and dangerous job with a high mortality rate, and requires invasive body modification to be fused with a mechanical suit because naked flesh draws the attention of monstrous local lifeforms called Tunnelers, but it’s the only way to earn enough cash to get offworld. Our protagoist, Gyre, lies about her credentials in order to score a sweet gig with a massive payout. Only after she’s begun the descent does she learn that it’s an off-the-books operation being run by a single overseer instead of a full team and that previous attempts to penetrate this particular cave have had insanely high mortality rates. But it’s too late to back out now: the only way out is through.

The Luminous Dead is at its heart a horror book, which exploits several different aspects of Gyre’s situation for thrills and chills. Little of the horror is visceral in nature – there are a couple of moments of Gyre stumbling across the gruesome remains of her predecessors who attempted to conquer the cave, but they are kept few and far between so as to pack all the greater punch when they do appear. Likewise, the monstrous Tunnelers are an ever-present threat hanging over the narrative, and to a savvy reader there can be no doubt that the climax will eventually involve Gyre encountering one – but up until that dramatic reveal, they are described only vaguely and circumspectly, letting the reader stew in uncertainty. Much of the horror is more intellectual, based on isolation and paranoia: Gyre is all alone in the tunnels, far from help. Her only human contact for the months which the expedition will require will be Em, he taciturn employer, who is keeping secrets from Gyre about the purpose of the mission and on occasion gets caught outright lying to her. When Gyre starts seeing weird things that make no sense and which Em claims to see on her end of the camera feeds, Gyre finds herself forced to ask herself some unpleasant questions: Are these perhaps hallucinations, induced by stress and/or psychotropic mushroom spores? Is Em messing with her suit’s visual feed, causing its sensors to display images that aren’t really there? Or is Em lying to her, saying that she can’t see things which she actually can? The tense relationship between Gyre and Em is what really makes this book.

As for the ending, I was a little disappointed that most of the weirder stuff did end up turning out to be merely hallucinations, since that always strikes me as the easy answer – no need to come up with an explanation that masterfully ties everything together in a way that makes sense, turns out it really was all just random hallucinations after all. Still, even if it’s a disappointing endpoint to arrive at, the strong character arcs that Gyre and Em went though along the way made it a journey worth taking. Thus, I can say that, overall, I enjoyed this book a lot.

Final Rating: 4/5

Shadowed Souls

From shadows, we’ll descend upon the world, take back what you stole. From shadows, we’ll reclaim our destiny, set our future free, and we’ll rise. Let’s cast some light on Shadowed Souls, edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes.

Synopsis:

In this dark and gritty collection—featuring short stories from Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Kevin J. Anderson, and Rob Thurman—nothing is as simple as black and white, light and dark, good and evil..

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what makes it so easy to cross the line.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s Cold Case, Molly Carpenter—Harry Dresden’s apprentice-turned-Winter Lady—must collect a tribute from a remote Fae colony and discovers that even if you’re a good girl, sometimes you have to be bad…

New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire’s Sleepover finds half-succubus Elsie Harrington kidnapped by a group of desperate teenage boys. Not for anything “weird.” They just need her to rescue a little girl from the boogeyman. No biggie.

In New York Times bestselling Kevin J. Anderson’s Eye of Newt, Zombie P.I. Dan Shamble’s latest client is a panicky lizard missing an eye who thinks someone wants him dead. But the truth is that someone only wants him for a very special dinner…

And New York Times bestselling author Rob Thurman’s infernally heroic Caliban Leandros takes a trip down memory lane as he deals wih some overdue—and nightmarish—vengeance involving some quite nasty Impossible Monsters .

ALSO INCLUDES STORIES BY

Tanya Huff * Kat Richardson * Jim C. Hines * Anton Strout * Lucy A. Snyder * Kristine Kathryn Rusch * Erik Scott de Bie

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

We’re looking at another anthology, and today’s theme is: antiheroes. Those who live in the shadows and fight for Good, whether Good likes it or not. Let’s get started.

“Cold Case” by Jim Butcher is part of The Dresden Files, and has Molly Carpenter sent by Queen Mab to Alaska in order to deal with some Cthulhu cultists. Another good entry in the series, with some explanation of how Molly’s new role as the Winter Lady functions.

“Sleepover” by Seanan McGuire is part of the InCryptid series, and has the half-succubus protagonist get kidnapped by kids who want her to rescue their sister who has herself been kidnapped – send a demon to beat a demon, is how their thinking goes, nevermind that Elsinore is not technically an actual demon. It was decent; though since the sister’s kidnapping turns out to just have been a misunderstanding, it kind of lacks a dramatic climax.

“If Wishes Were” by Tanya Huff is part of the Vicki Nelson series, and has the vampire protagonist investigating a series of deaths caused by a jackass genie who has escaped from his lamp. This was a good and enjoyable entry in the series.

“Solus” by Anton Strout is part of the Simon Canderous series, and has its two protagonists sent to resolve a haunting – though they spend more time bickering with each other than dealing with the ghost. I have no prior experience with this series, and this did not make for a flattering introduction to its characters. This is a miss.

“Peacock in Hell” by Kat Richardson is part of the Greywalker series, apparently – it’s different enough from everything else set in that universe that I wouldn’t have known it was in the same setting if Goodreads hadn’t informed me. In any case, it has a thief hired to steal a soul out of hell. It was decent.

“Eye of Newt” by Kevin J. Anderson is part of the Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, which I have had the misfortune of encountering before. It’s a comedy where the jokes aren’t funny, and a mystery where the solution is given away by the title. No thanks.

“What Dwells Within” by Lucy A. Snyder is part of the Jessie Shimmer series. It seems to be an interquel, set between the first and second books, I believe – it’s been a while since I read the main trilogy, so the details aren’t fresh in my mind. In any case, it was an enjoyable tale about Jessie hunting down a devil.

“Hunter, Healer” by Jim C. Hines is not actually part of a series so far as I can tell, though I’m not familiar enough with the author’s work to say for certain. In any case, it was a very good story about a healer who helps magical creatures trying to resist an attempt by her hunter father to get her assistance in taking down a murderer.

“Baggage” by Erik Scott de Brie is part of the Justice/Vengeance series, something I had to muddle through the author bios at the back of the book to figure out (a short intro before each story clarifying whether it’s part of a series – is that really too much to ask)? In any case, it was another good one, with a retired supervillain-turned-superhero finding herself being stalked by a shadow demon.

“Sales. Force.” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch does not seem to be part of a series, and has a heartbroken hitwoman hired to investigate if a new love potion on sale has any black magic mixed in. It was a decent story, though a bit predictable in how it played out.

“Impossible Monsters” by Rob Thurman is part of the Cal Leandros series, and is a nasty and violent story about the protagonist murdering a serial killer. Even in an anthology about antiheroes, this one stood out for its grimdarkness. It definitely succeeded at what it was aiming to do, but I can’t call the experience of reading it enjoyable. Still, in terms of technical competency it was better than the stories I’ve marked down as bad, so I guess I’ll let it slide by with an average. I’m definitely not adding the Cal Leandros series to my reading list, though.

So, overall, this collection had 5 good (“Cold Case”, “If Wishes Were”, “What Dwells Within”, “Hunter, Healer”, “Baggage”), 4 average (“Sleepover”, “Peacock in Hell”, “Sales. Force.”, “Impossible Monsters”), and 2 bad (“Solus”, “Eye of Newt”) stories. That’s pretty solidly weighted towards the positive, and this book made for an enjoyable read, so I’m giving it a thumbs up.

Final Rating: 4/5

The Nanotech Succession #2: Deception Well

Deception. Disgrace. Evil as plain as the scar on his face. Deception (An outrage!). Disgrace (For shame!). He asked for trouble the moment he came. Let’s descend into Deception Well, by Linda Nagata.

Synopsis:

In a war of belief, faith is a virus, and it’s spreading fast. Remnants of an alien nanotechnology infest the surface of the planet, Deception Well, giving rise to deadly plagues that make the Well uninhabitable-or so most believe. Jupiter Apolinario saw it differently. He believed the planet was host to an ancient, alien mechanism of transformation meant to embrace all life forms in an ecstatic communion. Jupiter disappeared on the planet along with a handful of followers, though whether they were taken by death or transcendence, no one could say. Ten years later, Jupiter’s son, Lot, stands at the center of conflict. Like his father, Lot has a seductive presence, and a charismatic nature that seems more-than-human. People are helplessly drawn to him. Their faith in him is strong and their numbers are growing, but Lot is beset with doubts about his father’s teachings. So he sets out to learn the truth about Jupiter, about his own powerful calling as a prophet, and about the real nature of Deception Well, where a razor-thin line divides bliss from damnation. Enjoy all four books of the Nanotech Succession, a collection of stand-alone novels exploring the rise of nanotechnology and the strange and fascinating future that follows.

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

The second book of The Nanotech Succession is a distant sequel, set long after the human diaspora into space and mostly unconnected to the plot of the previous book. The setting is an orbital city connected by space elevator to the mysterious and deadly planet of Deception Well, which kills any who attempt to brave the surface. Our protagonist is Lot, the son of a cult leader who preached that salvation could be found by joining in communion with the planet and attaining oneness with it, and got a lot of people killed in his last attempt to reach it (officially including himself, but the faithful still preach that he made it and they will one day be able to join him). With resources on the station running low, tension are running high amongst its inhabitants – not helped by the damaged alien superweapon hanging tantalizingly in orbit for anyone brave or foolish enough to attempt to try seizing control of it, or the mysterious approaching ship which may be coming to render aid or destruction to the people who it already betrayed once in the past.

The premise and setting are very interesting, but the protagonist is a bit of a weak link. I took an instant disliking to Lot, a whiny entitled teen who constantly wavers between goals: one minute he’s wanting to pick up where his father left off lead the cult to salvation, and the next he ‘s wanting to prove that he’s a different person than his father and a perfectly sensible person who doesn’t believe in any of that cult nonsense. He’s also genetically modified to be able to produce mid-control pheromones which make people fanatically loyal to him, which is a really creepy power to have, particularly when he feels attraction to a woman who was his father’s lover and tries to use his pheromones to manipulate her into letting him take his father’s place… blech!

Fortunately, later revelations did allow me warm up to Lot a little bit: namely, the reveal that he and his father were actually unwitting vectors for an alien contagion called the communion virus, unknowingly being manipulated by the hidden corruption lurking in their DNA to draw together brainwashed cultists as the first step towards eradicating humanity. Once I realized that Lot was a victim himself, someone who was being used by the alien virus within him to bring destruction to the human society around him, I was able to start sympathizing with him. That revelation came pretty late in the book, though, and didn’t really make up for all the time I spent reading about him thinking he was just unpleasant.

This book has its highs and its lows, its parts that work and parts that don’t; and overall, I think it averages out as decent. I liked more of it than I disliked, and feel comfortable recommending that interested readers give it a try.

Final Rating: 3/5

The Dragon Done It

I know what you’re doing here, so come on, oh come on, oh come on. There ain’t no motive for this crime; the dragon was a friend of mine. Let’s interrogate The Dragon Done It, edited by Eric Flint & Mike Resnick.

Synopsis:

Pity the poor private eye (or official investigator, for that matter), who has to solve a case which may involve death by black magic, evidence that may have been altered or planted by an itinerant sorcerer, and supernatural entities.

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

The latest anthology I’m looking at is a collection of detective stories set in fantasy world. It does have an introduction laying out its purpose (yay!) but does not include author introductions with the short stories (boo!). With that out of the way, let’s examine the stories.

“The Long and Short of It” by Mike Resnick has a private investigator hired by a pair of circus performers who’ve had a curse put on them. A pastiche of noir detective fiction, it leans very heavily on the humorous side, and succeeded at tickling my funny bone. The jokes came fast and furious, and there’s something about the specific narrative stylings of the hardboiled detective genre that really makes me enjoy parodies of it – noir detective bits were also my favorite part of the various Bulwer-Lytton Contest compilations. An excellent start to the collection.

“Dead Wolf in a Hat” by Graham Edwards is another humor-heavy noir parody, about a detective investigating a hat-wearing wolf who gets shot dead outside his office. It had a lot of interesting elements that interested me, and I could almost say it’s as good as the first story – but only almost. Unfortunately, comedy and dead dogs aren’t quite a perfect tonal match. You remember that episode of The Simpsons where the audience is informed that a puppy has been hit by a car right before Homer launches into his comedy routine? Yeah, the unnecessary violence against what turns out to be a perfectly innocent pooch caused this one to end on a sour note for me, so I can only call it average overall.

“This Town Ain’t Big Enough” by Tanya Huff is part of the Henry Fitzroy / Vicki Nelson series, and has Vicki discover that another vampire has been hunting on her turf. It’s a bit light on the investigation elements for a detective story, but I like the characters and it’s nice to see them in action again. A solid story.

“The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds” by Neil Gaiman is another noir parody, set in the land of nursery rhymes and featuring Jack Horner investigating the murder of Humpty Dumpty. Gaiman is in fine form, delivering witty humor interspersed with tons of nursery rhyme references – and I’m not exactly a scholar of the form, so who knows how many I missed. A definite winner.

“The Whistling Room” by William Hope Hodgson is the oldest story in this collection, being a tale of the proto-Lovecraftian supernatural investigator Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. The language is a bit antiquated, and seems to involve a fair bit of strange magi-babble and references to Carnackian mythology that I’m unfamiliar with – just what is an Aeiirii or a Saiitii, anyways? Still, one has to respect the classics, and overall it’s passable.

“Doppelgangster” by Laura Resnick has some wise guys getting knocked off by a supernatural assassin which takes on its victims’ appearances. Well, the mob ain’t gonna put up with that; and they might not know anything about magic, but they know a lot about whacking guys, so the battle of monster versus Muggles is on. This was excellent, a real entertaining read.

“Claus of Death” by Michael M. Jones is another noir parody, featuring Santa Claus as a hardboiled detective, and is the first one that doesn’t hit the mark for me. I know it was trying to go for humor by juxtaposing the traditional image of Santa against the tropes of hardboiled detective fiction, but the dissonance was just a little too much.

“McNamara’s Fish” by Ron Goulart has a detective hired by a husband and wife, each convinced that the other is cheating on them, with a troublesome magical fish at the center of the mess. A solid, decently amusing tale.

“Gunsel and Gretel” by Esther M. Friesner is the obligatory Maltese Falcon pastiche, this time featuring the witch from “Hansel and Gretel” getting caught up in the struggle for the infamous Black Bird. With an excellent sense of humor and one good twist after another, this was an extremely enjoyable story.

“Alimentary, My Dear Watson” by Lawrence Schimel is a Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland crossover. It is not good, as you might have guessed from the title being a bad pun. Next.

“Fox Tails” by Richard Parks gives its own unique twist on the hardboiled detective genre by transplanting it to historical Japan, with an investigator hired to track down a kitsune who is believed to have abducted a lord’s son. Of course, things turn out to be more complicated than they first appear. This one was decent.

“A Case of Identity” by Randall Garrett, set in an alternate history where Richard the Lionheart didn’t die and the British Empire never declined (and also magic exists), has protagonist Lord Darcy investigating the disappearance of a Marquis from within his own castle. With good worldbuilding and a well-plotted mystery, this a very good entry in the anthology.

“The Case of the Skinflint’s Specters” by Brian M. Thomsen has a detective taking on Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. It’s fairly predictable in terms of plot, but decently executed.

“The Black Bird” by David Barr Kirtley is another take on The Maltese Falcon, but far inferior to the earlier “Gunsel and Gretel”. In fact, it’s frankly incomprehensible. Nothing of value here.

“The Enchanted Bunny” by David Drake has its protagonist stumble into a fantasy world where he is mistaken for a great wizard and tasked with helping an enthusiastic but bumbling prince slay a dragon, with the prince’s evil elder brothers and the very real wizard serving them trying to undermine him at every step. In terms of theme, its connection with the rest of the collection is somewhat tenuous, as its protagonist is an unemployed writer rather than a detective and the plot is more a series of wacky shenanigans than a mystery investigation; but in terms of quality, it’s excellent. I definitely ended up enjoying it.

“The Adventure of the Pearly Gates” by Mike Resnick has the recently deceased Sherlock Holmes solving a mystery in Heaven. It’s a bit short and simple, but basically decent.

“The Seventh Chapter” by Harry Turtledove has a monk investigating a holy order which has apparently been flouting their vows. It turns out to be a misunderstanding based on an obvious semantic loophole – a cop-out of an ending which lacks any sense of payoff. The holier-than-thou main character didn’t exactly make for a likeable protagonist, either. A miss.

“The Detective of Dreams” by Gene Wolfe has a detective hired by H___, a Baron of K___, to investigate strange dreams being suffered by A___, R___, and V___, with a variety of other letters of the alphabet appearing in various supporting roles; and in case you can’t tell, I find this particular writing convention to be annoying as f___. And while the premise of a detective trying to determine the culprit behind a series of bad dreams had potential, the ending just left me rolling my eyes. Another miss.

Finally, “The Witch’s Murder” by Dave Freer and Eric Flint has an Italian monk investigating a closed-room murder which the townsfolk are blaming on a witch. The plot was so simple that I solved it as soon as Palinni and Mascoli inspected the crime scene, but it was decently written. Not a stand-out, but better at least than the two stories which preceded it.

So, tallying up the score, I count 6 good (“The Long and Short of It”, “The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds”, “Doppelgangster”, “Gunsel and Gretel”, “A Case of Identity”, “The Enchanted Bunny”), 8 average (“Dead Wolf in a Hat”, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough”, “The Whistling Room”, “McNamara’s Fish”, “Fox Tails”, “The Case of the Skinflint’s Specters”, “The Adventure of the Pearly Gates”, “The Witch’s Murder”), and 5 bad (“Claus of Death”, “Alimentary, My Dear Watson”, “The Black Bird”, “The Seventh Chapter”, “The Detective of Dreams”). A pretty standard bell-curve, slightly tilted towards the positive side; and given that the poor “Alimentary, My Dear Watson” and “The Black Bird” were both quite short while the outstanding “Gunsel and Gretel”, “A Case of Identity”, and “The Enchanted Bunny” all rank as among the longest of the collection, I am comfortable in saying that this book provided far more positive than negative experiences overall.

In short, this collection contained a good number of decently enjoyable stories as well as a few downright excellent ones, and I’m definitely happy to have read it.

Final Rating: 4/5

Gatekeeper #1: Rogue Myths

If you built yourself a myth you’d know just what to give, what comes after this. Let’s hunt down Rogue Myths, by Layla Lawlor.

Synopsis:

When legends go rogue, call an expert …

College student Kay Darrow doesn’t believe in magic, myths, or monsters, until she finds herself fighting for her life against a creature out of her worst nightmares. When the dust settles, she’s the brand-new owner of a life-draining magic sword that just claimed her as its next wielder.

Armed with a magic sword she doesn’t know how to use and partnered with a cynical, truck-driving fairy mentor she doesn’t trust, Kay sets out to take down her monstrous nemesis before it gets her—and finds herself caught up in the world of the Gatekeepers, who protect people from mythical monsters gone wrong.

She’d better ace Monster Hunting 101, because there’s no do-over for this final exam.

Rogue Myths is a full length New Adult urban fantasy.

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

In this urban fantasy, an ordinary college student unexpectedly comes into possession of a magic sword, which life-bonds to her and saddles her with the unenviable task of going out to hunt big fanged things that go bump in the night. Guided by a grouchy sidhe mentor, she sets out to save the city from the resurgent threat of the Greek sea monster Scylla.

First impressions matter; and the impression made by our protagonist, Kay, was unfortunately not good. The book starts with her and her roommate thinking that they hear some animal like a coyote rustling around outside at night, and inexplicably deciding to go out and confront it. Really? Forget mythical monsters, that’s a dumb move even if it just turns out to be a raccoon with rabies. I mean, what do you plan on doing, politely asking the wild animal to leave? Then, when Kay’s roommate has second thoughts and decides to go back inside, Kay continues looking around alone, in the dark, with only the light from a dying cellphone. This is dumb-teen-in-a-horror-movie level stupidity from our protagonist. So, the book’s beginning left me decidedly unimpressed.

Fortunately for this book, while it might have dug itself a hole at the start, it did gradually win me over. It gave Kay a varied set of challenges to overcome – not just hacky-slashy stuff, but also wrangling answers out of her tight-lipped “mentor” and trying to get her Muggle friend to see through the Somebody Else’s Problem field that hides the supernatural from the normies – and did a good character arc with Kay’s attitude towards her new Gatekeeper responsibility going from wanting to foist it off onto somebody else, to being determined to protect the people she cares about by slaying Scylla, to questioning the morality of her duty.

So, despite a shaky start, this one ended up being solid, and I’ll be checking out the sequels.

Final Rating: 3/5

Obama Biden Mysteries #2: Hope Rides Again

When the hope of morning starts to fade in me, I don’t dare let darkness have its way with me. And the hope of morning makes me worth the fight, I will not be giving in tonight. Let’s saddle back up for Hope Rides Again, by Andrew Shaffer.

Synopsis:

In the sequel to the New York Times best-selling novel Hope Never Dies, Obama and Biden reprise their roles as BFFs-turned-detectives as they chase Obama’s stolen cell phone through the streets of Chicago–and right into a vast conspiracy.

Following a long but successful book tour, Joe Biden has one more stop before he can return home: Chicago. His old pal Barack Obama has invited him to meet a wealthy benefactor whose endorsement could turn the tide for Joe if he decides to run for president.

The two friends barely have time to catch up before another mystery lands in their laps: Obama’s prized Blackberry is stolen. When their number-one suspect winds up full of lead on the South Side, the police are content to write it off as just another gangland shooting. But Joe and Obama smell a rat…

Set against the backdrop of a raucous city on St. Patrick’s Day, Joe and Obama race to find the shooter, only to uncover a vast conspiracy that goes deeper than the waters of Lake Michigan—which is exactly where they’ll spend the rest of their retirement if they’re not careful.

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

When the first book in the Obama Biden Mysteries series came out, I dismissed it as a mere novelty, a frivolous work cashing in on Joe Biden memes from The Onion. Though I read it on a lark, it did not impress me as having any particular worth or merit beyond the superficial, and I saw no need to check out the sequel. It was a piece of pop-culture ephemera that would very shortly be past its sell-by date, I thought; because, what were the odds of Biden ever becoming politically relevant ever again? So unlikely that, why, the odds of it happened were about the same of me ever reading Hope Rides Again, hyuk-hyuk-hyuk.

Welp. Here we are.

The plot, such as it is, involves Obama’s blackberry being stolen while he and Biden are on a trip to Chicago. Attempting to track it down, they get wrapped up in a case involving a gang having stolen a large shipment of firearms, and various implausible wacky hijinks ensue for some reason or another. Look, I dunno, I don’t really “get” this series; your guess is as good as mine.

It’s bad. Obviously. “Obama and Biden doing detective schenanigans” was a one-joke premise, and those can rarely sustain even a single book, let alone two. Well, maybe sometimes you can wring out a whole series, in exceptional cases (I type even as I alt-tab to eagerly add “Last Night at the Resplendent” to my shopping cart), but this isn’t one of those. There were some humorous moments, but not really enough to overcome the awkwardness of the premise; plus, some eye-rolling pandering-to-the-base stuff about the importance of not losing sight of Hope and Change. For the most part, the novel is very much not taking itself seriously, which is driven home when the very first page opens with Biden giving an in-character criticism of the implausibility of the previous book in the series; but then it goes and tries to get sincere and meaningful and I start to think it would be better off being a bit more absurdly over-the-top and out-there; and then it throws in maybe a real magic leprechaun and I switch back to thinking “no, too far, dial it back!”

Anyways, overall, it didn’t work for me.

Final Rating: 2/5

October Daye #9: A Red-Rose Chain

You used to call me Rose Red. How could I ever forget? Full of love and passion you said. Now I’m full of hatred and filled with dread. Let’s fashion the links of A Red-Rose Chain, by Seanan McGuire.

Synopsis:

Things are looking up.

For the first time in what feels like years, October “Toby” Daye has been able to pause long enough to take a breath and look at her life—and she likes what she sees. She has friends. She has allies. She has a squire to train and a King of Cats to love, and maybe, just maybe, she can let her guard down for a change.

Or not. When Queen Windermere’s seneschal is elf-shot and thrown into an enchanted sleep by agents from the neighboring Kingdom of Silences, Toby finds herself in a role she never expected to play: that of a diplomat. She must travel to Portland, Oregon, to convince King Rhys of Silences not to go to war against the Mists. But nothing is that simple, and what October finds in Silences is worse than she would ever have imagined.

How far will Toby go when lives are on the line, and when allies both old and new are threatened by a force she had never expected to face again? How much is October willing to give up, and how much is she willing to change? In Faerie, what’s past is never really gone.

It’s just waiting for an opportunity to pounce.

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

Time again for another outing in the October Daye series. On a previous adventure, Toby overthrew the false Queen of the Mists and restored the kingdom to its rightful heir. Unfortunately, the old Queen still has her allies – most notably, the puppet-ruler of the Kingdom of Silences, who wants her back on the throne because his legitimacy depends on hers. With the Silences preparing to declare war on the Mists, Toby is sent over as an ambassador – and when that predictably fails, it’s time to overthrow another monarch.

This was another excellent outing in the series. The book does a good job of slowly building up an atmosphere of unspecified dread around the Silences before gradually peeling back the curtain on just how messed up the kingdom is. There’s also a steadily increasing sense of danger as people important to Toby are imperiled. In short, it’s a winner.

The October Daye series has been a hot streak lately, and this book continues it. Here’s hoping the momentum continues in the books to come.

Final Rating: 4/5

Spell/Sword #3: Asteroid Made of Dragons

I’m a ball of fire. Fire from heaven. Terror from nowhere. You’ll never shoot me down. Let’s orbit Asteroid Made of Dragons, by G. Derek Adams.

Synopsis:

Official Sword & Laser Selection!

When a lone goblin researcher stumbles across an artifact containing a terrifying message—that the world is in grave and immediate peril—she scrambles to find help. A very unusual asteroid (one constructed as a cage for dragons) is headed straight for the planet, and Xenon is the only person in the world who knows. As she clambers across hill and dale with her quill, journal, and dwindling coin purse to untangle the mystery, she’ll need plenty of luck to find the right clues and the right sort of help.

Meanwhile, our heroes have their own problems. They have a bank to rob, a sea to cross, and a kingdom to infiltrate. Luckily, Rime is a wild mage—the laws of reality quiver when she gives them a stern look—and her guardian, Jonas, wields a reasonably sharp sword. But Rime is slipping ever closer to the abyss of madness, and Jonas is wanted for murder at their final port of call. To make matters worse, the mage-killing Hunt and its commander, Linus, follow the duo like a patient shadow, bent on Rime’s destruction.

When the wise are underfunded, the brave are overbooked, and the cruel are unconcerned, can the world be saved from destruction?

Source: Goodreads

SPOILERS BELOW

Sometimes, a title alone is enough to make me take notice of a book, and Asteroid Made of Dragons is an example. Now there’s a title which is poetic enough to imply that there’s a story to be told, and enigmatic enough to make me want to know what it is. And when I looked at the synopsis, the description seemed like it might be something I’d like, so I went right ahead and picked it up. Let us therefore dive into Asteroid Made of Dragons, book number three in the Spell/Sword series…

…Wait, number three in the Spell/Sword series? What do you mean, number three? I didn’t see anything about it being part of a series on the front or back cover. Oh, goddamit, it’s secretly a sequel. Now I’ve gone and messed up and started this series completely out of order. Why do authors do this to me!?

In any case, the plot itself follows three groups of protagonists. The first, Rime, is a wild mage who wields powerful magic which will eventually claim her sanity. Along with her companion Jonas, a failed squire on the run for murdering his master, she seeks to find a cure for her condition. The second, Linus, is a mage-hunter willing to go to any vicious extreme to bring down his quarry. He and his assassin companion Sideways carve a bloody path across the land in pursuit of Rime. Finally, the third is Xenon, a goblin archeologist researcher investigating ruins left by the ancient precursor race the Lost, who makes an alarming discovery: long ago, a prison full of rebellious dragons was launched into space, and now it’s on a collision course back down to the planet. In the face of this impending threat, the motley groups of unlikely heroes are forced to temporarily set aside their differences to save the world.

So, this ended up actually being a really enjoyable read. The setting, while in many ways derivative of the standard Dungeons & Dragons fantasy milieu, still had its own unique feel, with high-tech magipunk devices based on Precursor tech existing alongside the more traditional knights, wizards, and magic swords. And the characters were all exceptionally well realized, with well-developed goals, personalities, and character arcs. This is a good story told in an interesting world, and I’m definitely interested in seeing more of it; my only regret is that I’ve accidentally started at the end instead of experiencing it in the its proper order.

Asteroid Made of Dragons is an excellent fantasy story, and I recommend it.

Final Rating: 4/5