Tag Archives: Books

Book Review: Middlegame

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Book: Middlegame
Author: Seanan McGuire
Release Date: May 2019
Source: ARC provided by publisher, then audiobook bought from Audible
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Seanan McGuire is a very prolific writer. She has written two different urban fantasy series (The October Daye books and the inCryptid books). She has written a bunch of horror novels, including the acclaimed Newsflesh Trilogy under the pen name Mira Grant. And she has gained, probably, her most impressive accolades from her novella Wayward Children series, the first of which – Every Heart a Doorway – was how I came to her in the first place.

Middlegame is a standalone fantasy novel (which I really appreciated! I love a good epic fantasy series but sometimes they get too exhausting and I enjoy a good immersive standalone book). And guys, it is SO GOOD.

I first started reading it in April 2019, when I borrowed an ARC through my work. However, I only got about a third of the way through it before various issues got in the way and I never finished it. And then I returned the ARC to my employer and that was that. So, when I started my “Storm the Castle” 2020 Reading Challenge with my friends, I knew that Middlegame would be on the list of books in the “Books You Started But Never Finished” Category.

A few weeks ago I caved in and just bought the audiobook. Even though I am slowly getting better at reading print books again, I still do the majority of my reading through audiobooks, especially because I can often listen to them while I’m working. It took me quite awhile to finish the audiobook of Middlegame though, for a few reasons: first off, I started it but then decided I really REALLY just wanted to finish the book Lawrence in Arabia first because it had stolen all my attention; second, the plot of Middlegame was stressing me out so much and giving me so much anxiety that I had trouble listening to it for more than half an hour at a time; and third, I didn’t really care for the narrator, Amber Benson.

Amber Beson is the actress who portrayed Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and by and large I really do like her as an actress. But no matter how hard I tried to get used to her, I just did not like her narration – especially her voices for two of the antagonists, Reed and Leigh. Her voices for the two main characters I didn’t LOVE, but I could handle. Her voices for the two villains just set my teeth on edge every single time. So, that didn’t help. But oh well.

The story itself, however, is AMAZING. I’m going to try to explain what is a rather complex premise and plot without giving away anything too spoilery (I know its been out for almost a year but I still would like to avoid spoilers if I can).

Middlegame is set in a version of America where alchemy exists in secret all around us. Asphodel Baker, one of the great alchemists of her age, sets out to lead humanity to a kind of utopic vision called “The Impossible City” by embodying something called the “Doctrine of Ethos” – a kind of philosophical and magical concept that controls (or perhaps more accurately, creates?) reality – into a biddable human form. However, Asphodel Baker can’t do this on her own, and when her greatest alchemical creation – her protege Reed – kills her, he takes over her task with the help of violent, I would say INSANE, golem-woman named Leigh. And together they create a group of children, created in pairs as twins, with rhyming names, who each MIGHT come to embody the doctrine as they grow.

To be clear, all that is just the PROLOGUE. Stay with me!

The MAIN plot of the book follows one set of these pairs, brother and and sister Roger and Dodger. The twins have been separated at birth by Reed and his associates, but discover each other when they realize they can see through each other’s eyes and speak to each other in their minds despite living on opposite coasts. They do not know WHY or HOW they can do this, and decide they must be quantum-entangled somehow but since they are kids they don’t question it much. They grow up on opposite sides of the country as best friends, but as they become teenagers and then adults a variety of incidents keep tearing them apart (I’m trying really hard not to get spoilery here, folks). They keep coming back together again, and then splitting up, over and over. It was very stressful for me!

Finally, as adults, they reunite one last time as they realize that a) they were created beings, not born in the traditional sense, and b) their creator might be trying to kill them.

The plot of this novel is enormously complex. There are several important characters to keep track of, one of whom you don’t realize will be important until much later in the book. Parts of the novel are told out of chronological order: the book is organized into Parts 1-7, but it continues to return to Part 7 THROUGHOUT the novel! In addition, each part is prefaced with a passage from “Over the Woodward Wall” which is a children’s book that exists in-world for the characters (but not for us) written by Asphodel Baker to indoctrinate children to her ideas. (Fun fact: Seanan McGuire is now actually WRITING this not-real book and it is being published by Tor). On top of all this: there’s TIME TRAVEL in the book. Quite a lot of time travel in the second half (I hope that doesn’t give away too much!).

As I said earlier, this book gave me a lot of stress and anxiety. I want to be clear that this is not a mark against it! It just goes to show how REAL the characters were to me, and how tightly, tensely written the plot was! Every time the two main characters, Roger and Dodger, got separated, or were put in danger, I got very stressed!

This book is brutal and cruel. Both to its characters and to its readers. It is almost physically painful to read. On the other hand, Seanan McGuire’s writing always has a beautiful, almost poetic quality to it. It is especially noticeable in her Wayward Children series, but it is also in evidence here. Some of the passages are just SO PRETTY. Here’s just a few examples:

“Words can be whispered bullet-quick when no one’s looking, and words don’t leave blood or bruises behind. Words disappear without a trace. That’s what makes them so powerful. That’s what makes them so important. That’s what makes them hurt so much.”

“Maybe it would be comforting, to her. The math would be true, and that’s all she’s ever asked from the world. He knows the words that apply to this situation—exsanguination, hypovolemia, hemorrhage— but they don’t reassure him the way the numbers reassure her. They never have. Numbers are simple, obedient things, as long as you understand the rules they live by. Words are trickier. They twist and bite and require too much attention. He has to think to change the world. His sister just does it.”

“For a man on a mission, a hundred years can pass in the blinking of an eye. Oh, it helps to have access to the philosopher’s stone, to have the fruits of a thousand years of alchemical progress at one’s fingertips, but really, it was always the mission that mattered. James Reed was born knowing his purpose, left his master in a shallow grave knowing his purpose, and fully intends to ascend to the heights of human knowledge with the fruits of his labors clutched firmly in hand. Damn anyone who dares to get in his way.”

“She looks like peaches and cream, like Saturday afternoons down by the frog pond, innocence and the American dream wrapped up in a single startlingly lovely package. It’s a lie, all of it. He believes in exploiting the world for his own gains, but she’d happily ignite the entire thing, if only to roast marshmallows in its embers.”

There is also something to be said about determination and hope in this book. These characters balance just on the edge of giving up and giving in every other page, and yet somehow manage to keep trying and keep fighting, in the face of failure and death and worse. And it is also about love – familial love, the love for family and friends, rather than romantic love. And that was something else I really appreciated about this book. No knock on romance – I love a good romance – but this was something different. You’re going to think this is a weird comparison – but it is different in the way Lilo & Stitch was different from the usual “princess falls in love” Disney fare. As someone with three siblings, it was something I could really appreciate (even if I don’t get along quite so well with my siblings as Roger and Dodger do).

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. Just as I have enjoyed everything I have read by Seanan McGuire so far (and I have so much more of hers to read!). I highly recommend this book. Just… maybe not the audio version…

And, even though I didn’t intentionally time the finishing of this book and the writing of this review quite so well on purpose, it is actually quite nicely timed because the trade paperback printing of Middlegame is being released on April 7th. So you can pre-order if you like! How apropos is that?!

For links to buy the book: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound

And Tor.com has a couple passages available to read on their website as well: from Part One and Part Four

Book Review: The Body in the Garden

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Book: The Body in the Garden
Author: Katharine Schellman
Release Date: 7 April 2020
Source: ARC provided by publisher (obtained through my work)
Rating: 6 out of 5 Stars (I can do that if I want to!)

Photo by me

Let me begin this review with a little backstory (kind of like I did for Disney’s Land). I love many things. I am a very enthusiastic, some might say obsessive fan, of quite a few pop culture subjects. But here are a few of my EARLIEST obsessions: Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes, the Regency England fantasy novels of Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, and murder mysteries in general.

I read my first Jane Austen novel – Pride and Prejudice – in 5th grade (I was reading WELL into a college-level by fourth and fifth grade) and became immediately obsessed, proceeding to read all of her novels. At about the same time, I had become obsessed with mystery novels. I started with age-appropriate books such as Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children, but very quickly moved on to Sherlock Holmes, who is still one of my greatest loves. Not long after that I read Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede – a book that combined Regency England historical setting, fantasy, and a pair of beloved character solving a mystery. Her sequel The Magician’s Ward, and her trilogy of related Regency Fantasy novels co-written with Caroline Stevermer (Sorcery and Cecilia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician) all follow in this same delightful vein.

I would easily rank Mairelon the Magician as one of my top 5 favorite novels – it is my most-commonly-read “comfort novel.” When I am sad or restless or can’t focus enough to read anything else, I read Mairelon the Magician. I have read it approximately 5 PER YEAR since I first picked it up 1995 or 1996, which means I have read it approximately 120 times!

So, to bring it back to the present: I received an ARC of The Body in the Garden by Katharine Schellman through my work. I discovered to my delight that it combines my favorite things: it is takes place in Regency (1815) England, it is a murder mystery, and it features an awesome woman detective and a dashing sea captain (a la Captain Frederick Wentworth from Jane Austen’s Persuasion). I told my friend about this perfect storm of my favorite things in one book and he replied with this Doctor Who gif:

(if you’ve seen the Doctor Who episode “The Doctor’s Wife” you get why this is so funny)

I was only 20 pages into the book and I was already absolutely DELIGHTED!

The main plot is this: Mrs. Lily Adler, recently widowed and heartbroken has returned to London from the country at the insistence of her (former) mother-in-law. There she meets up with two old friends: Lady Serena Walter (a school friend) and Captain Jack Hartley (her husband’s best childhood friend). While attending a ball thrown by her friend Serena, Lily has the supreme misfortune of accidentally overhearing an argument, pertaining to a blackmail, between persons unknown through a hedgerow, which then leads to gunfire. She and Captain Hartley then discover the dead body of an unknown young man. When the Bow Street Runners (the very early version of a police force only recently coming into itself in the early 1800s) are bribed into NOT investigating the murder, Lily Adler decides that something must be done, and determines to take on the case herself. She quickly enlists the aid of the dashing and protective Jack Hartley, and a smart determined young heiress from the West Indies who has been uncomfortable in London society because of her mixed parentage. Together they risk their reputations and their lives to solve the murder.

To say I enjoyed this book would be gross understatement! I should add, as further backstory, that I suffer from severe depression. I USED to be a prolific reader (2-3 books per week) but as some know, depression can absolutely DESTROY higher brain function. The ability to read, to write, to concentrate and focus just completely EVAPORATE. I haven’t been able to really read in at least 4 years. I switched to audiobooks a couple years ago, which helped. And in the last few months I have been slowly relearning how to read again. But VERY slowly.

So when I say I inhaled this book in THREE DAYS (just 20 pages the first night, then about ⅓ the second night, and finally finishing the whole last ⅔ in one sitting on a third day), you may perhaps understand how big a deal this is for me!

I just loved this book THAT MUCH. It was like my brain just CLICKED back on for awhile! It was AMAZING.

The two main characters, Lily and Jack (well, three I suppose if you include the heiress Ofelia Oswald), are completely wonderful. They are fully-realized, complex people who bond over their shared love for and grief over the loss of Lily’s husband, Freddy. But they also share a sense of justice, and fairplay, and hilarious SARCASM and wit. I was glad to see that they did NOT form a romance over the course of the book, but a great and touching respect and friendship. I adored them both, and I am going to jump in now, before the book is officially released in April and other people discover these characters: I am going to marry both Lily AND Jack. They are mine. You cannot have them!

The plot of the murder mystery was well-crafted and clever and kept me guessing. I thought I had it figured out and then a twist about ⅔ of the way through proved me wrong. I didn’t figure out the truth until RIGHT as the characters were ready to reveal themselves.

In addition, this book was ENORMOUSLY well-researched. It is clear that Katharine Schellman both loves the time period and has the work ethic and attention span to research the fine details that give a good story its texture and its realism. I have taken several college and graduate level courses on the subject of Jane Austen, and both Georgian and Regency-era novels, and so I recognized (perhaps more than the average reader) the kind of historical research that went into this book. It was very impressive! And really added to the overall effect and enjoyment of the book.

I really cannot stress enough how much I loved this book! I was on twitter a couple nights ago raving about it and the author herself very kindly responded. She was so friendly and she is seriously becoming one of my new favorite internet-people.

What makes me even more excited is that the cover of the book announces that it is “A Lily Adler Mystery.” Both this and the ending imply that another book (possibly many other books!) is either already being written or is at least contracted to be written. I am so happy that there will be more of these! The only downside to reading a book before it has even been released is the fact that it means waiting EVEN LONGER for the next one!

Everyone should go pre-order this book NOW while you can! (Katharine Schellman also has a pre-order sweepstakes going on her Instagram, so there’s that).

For links to pre-order there is, of course: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound

For the Instagram sweepstakes head here to Katharine Schellman’s profile

Book Review: Disney’s Land

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Book: Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World
Author: Richard Snow
Release Date: December 2019
Source: Hardcover bought At Barnes & Noble
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

I love Disney. Let me just be clear about that. I know it’s “cool” right now to criticize Disney (the company as a whole). I see comments and articles all over Twitter and Facebook and such about how horrible the company is, or how the Academy Awards are rigged to give them (more specifically Pixar) the Animated Feature Award every year, or how badly they treat their park employees, etc. I know all these things, and I agree with plenty (though not all) of them. There are many issues with the company as a whole that need to be addressed. Absolutely.

But I still LOVE Disney. Most little kids do, but many adults grow out of it. I never did. I never will. I have no wish to do so. It’s practically a religion to me. I love the movies (most of the time… no, I did not go see the live-action Aladdin nor the “live-action”-but-really-CGI Lion King). I love the tv programs. I love the Marvel movies (despite their many flaws). I haven’t entirely loved what they’ve done to the Star Wars films, but… *shrug* I ADORE the parks. I have loads and loads of Disney merchandise – art books and prints and dolls and pins and and and…

All this is to say: OF COURSE I was going to buy Richard Snow’s new book about the invention and design of Disneyland. And OF COURSE I was going to love it.

Now, Richard Snow is a well respected journalist, editor, and history writer. He has worked a quite a few documentaries including the Burns’ brothers’ The Civil War. And his last book, Iron Dawn: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle That Changed History, won a prize for Naval Literature. So perhaps it was a bit odd that a history writer who has written about such serious topics would choose to write about something as “frivolous” as Disneyland. Thankfully, Richard Snow happens to be a HUGE fan of theme parks, and Disneyland in particular, and thankfully his editor and agent give him full rein to explore this topic, and thankfully he knew and PROVED that Disneyland is not such a frivolous topic after all.

His book Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World, is an enormously well-researched deep-dive into not only the park itself, but Walt Disney’s life and frame-of-mind leading up to and during the build of Disneyland, as well as providing snippets into the lives of the many many people (animators, designers, “imagineers”) who made Disneyland possible, all while also keeping the narrative deeply grounded and rooted in its context of post-WW2 1950s America.

To say this book is thorough and filled with more research – primary, secondary, interviews, etc – than you can shake a stick at would be a massive understatement. The bibliographies section is 7 pages long (in small print!) and has given me a mind-bogglingly huge new goal to find and read as many of the materials cited in the book as possible. But more than that, this book is also delightfully well-written: the prose is smart, and entertaining, and often very funny. And Richard Snow approaches the subject with so much respect and love, while remaining balanced, honest, and fair about Walt Disney’s (and others) faults and shortcomings, that I believe even the most hardened anti-Disney heart MUST come away with at least a LITTLE respect for the overall concept and project of Disneyland, and the men and women who made it possible.

If you, like me, love Disney. You absolutely definitely must read this book. If you are a tepid about Disney, I think even YOU might enjoy this read. I also believe that anyone in a creative business would find this book highly enlightening, inspiring, and possibly instructive. So get to it people!

(Next on my list of nonfiction – I read a LOT of nonfiction – is a book on a related topic to this one. It is The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt, which is about the women who worked for Disney Animation often with little or no recognition in the early days. One of my favorites of these women is Mary Blair. I’m really looking forward to this book!)

A Quick Note on Reading Progress

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This will be a short post for now, because I’ve been sick all week. I came home from work on last Thursday evening feeling pretty crappy and by Friday morning I was completely miserable and bedridden. I didn’t start feeling even semi-ok until this Wednesday afternoon. So I’m a bit behind on things, including drafting the next couple blog posts.

Still I thought I would drop a quick note, at least, to share a few reading updates.

For my 2020 “Storm the Castle” Reading Challenge, I have completed four books (Solaris, Lawrence in Arabia, Monster of Elendhaven, and Binti: Home). I am close to finishing two more books (Middlegame and Disney’s Land), which will put me close to ⅓ of the way through my 21 book challenge.

In addition, I have made some small progress on the 2020 “Finishing the Series” Challenge by completing books 1-4 of the Artemis Fowl series. Still, I have not made as much progress as I would have hoped in the first two months of the year (partly because I was sick, and partly because a couple of the books I chose – Lawrence in Arabia and Middlegame – are VERY long).

Next on my reading radar I have a few books lined up. First is The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt, which, like Disney’s Land, is a history/biography of those involved in the development of Disney, this time the women who worked in animation with little recognition. Second, is The Body in the Garden, an ARC I received from work (being released in April), which is a mystery set in 1815 and featuring a woman who takes it upon herself to investigate a murder (in other words this book was pretty much made for me). I also have an ARC for The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water (being released in June), that I’m going to try to get to. I may also jump into the next Artemis Fowl book – they are short enough and fun enough to get through while also working on longer books, and I’d like to say I finished at least ONE of the many series’ I hoped to for that reading challenge.

So that’s it from me for now! How are your reading goals coming along for the year? What books are on your radar for March?

Book Review: Steel Crow Saga

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My second official book review for the new blog is here!

As I mentioned previously, I read Steel Crow Saga near the end of 2019, and it was definitely one of my favorite books of the year. As with most of my reading lately, I read this book on Audible (remind me to more fully sing the praises of Audible later, folks!)

So, to the point!

Book: Steel Crow Saga
Author: Paul Krueger
Source: Bought on Audible
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Steel Crow Saga is an absolutely brilliant new fantasy novel (released Sept 2019) by Paul Krueger (this is his second book, having published Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge in 2016 – though I haven’t read that one, I now plan to). In its early marketing it was the tagline “Pokémon combined with Avatar the Last Airbender” (quoted from Fonda Lee) and let me start by saying that that comparison holds up in the best way possible! It was the tagline that sold me on the book (I’m all here for more fantasy and SF writers not only being influenced by anime but actually ADMITTING to it), and I was NOT disappointed.

The world of Steel Crow Saga is inspired by Asian cultures and has a vaguely 1910-1920s feel (it is clearly not modern, there is a somewhat “old-world” feel to it, but there are trains and rudimentary cars, and radio, so…). There are four main Asian-esque countries involved: The Tomoda Empire (based on Japan), the Shang Dynasty (China), The Sanbu Islands (The Philippines), and Jeongson (Korea) with a vaguely Indian-inspired people on the outskirts. Long before the beginning of the novel, The Tomoda Empire had conquered and colonized the other three… If this all has a very ATLA feel to it, you are right… Paul Krueger leans into the comparisons and the homages with joy and abandon, but it never feels like a copy or a rip-off.

The real plot of the novel picks up just after the three colonized countries (Sanbuna, Jeongson, and Shang) have risen up in an enormous rebellion/war and overthrown the Tomoda Empire, and follows the progress of four main characters.

First, there is Prince Jimuro: a prisoner of war for the last two years of the rebellion, Jimuro is the last surviving member of the imperial family of Tomoda, who inherits his throne from the ashes of a defeat. Now he is being permitted by the victors to ascend to his throne in order to solidify Tomoda’s surrender and forge a new peace.

Then there is Tala, a battle-hardened soldier from the Sanbu Islands, who has lost everything she ever loved in the course of the war and carries a terrible, damning secret. She has been tasked with the mission to deliver Jimuro safely to his throne while evading many opposing forces that wish to stop them, and despite the fact that she hates him with a deep, cold fury.

Third is Xiulan, a low-ranking princess of the Shang Dynasty who has become a detective after the style of her favorite (Sherlock Holmes-esque) book character, and who secretly plans to bypass her despised oldest sister to first in line for the throne, by presenting her father with the war criminal Prince Jimuro.

Lastly, there is Lee, a thief and con-artist from an oppressed population within Jeongson, betrayed by her latest partner, whose one rule – “leave them before they leave you” is challenged when Princess Xiulan saves her from the gallows in order to enlist her to the mission to track down and capture Prince Jimuro.

These four characters begin with separate missions and motivations, working along different paths (physically and metaphorically) but will encounter each other and entangle as the narrative progresses. In addition to this four main players, however, we also a have a wide cast of highly important supporting characters including Tala’s brother Dimangan, Jimuro’s childhood friend who happens to be trans, Xiulan’s devious but strangely-compelling oldest sister, and, of course, the primary antagonist who remains nameless through most of the story: a terrifyingly powerful and mysterious man in a long purple coat who has abilities no one should have.

And then there are the shades. This is where the Pokemon references come in, because many of the people in this world have the ability to do what is called “Shade-Pacting” – choosing an animal companion (or more to the point letting the animal choose you) and, essentially, merging parts of your souls to become partners, with the animal shade now living inside you, ready to be called to battle at the call of their name. Tala’s shade companion is a crow. Xiulan possesses a white rat. Lee wants nothing more than to have a shade of her own, despite the fact that her people have never before been allowed to learn how to pact with one. And Jimuro’s people, the Tomodanese find the practice of pacting to be akin to slavery, an act so disgusting to them that it had become one of their most prevalent excuses for colonialism – to stop the Shang and Sanbuna peoples from practicing this barbaric tradition.

To say this novel is jam-packed with world-building and action would be a massive understatement. Paul Krueger constructs this world with an astounding attention to detail, “creating a rich new mythology and characters so real you can smell their pipe smoke and adobo” as Delilah S. Dawson in her blurb for the book. The writing is rich and potent, with the fun addition of dozens of nerdy references (to anime, to movies, to other books, etc) and easter eggs – some of which I still have not identified if Paul Krueger’s twitter feed is to be believed. The action is fast-paced and exciting, with fight sequences that on one hand seem MADE for film, and on the other hand are so deftly described that you can picture them easily without visual aid.

The character development is also written with compassion, sensitivity, and beauty. The characters challenge each other’s prejudices and flaws, learn from each other organic ways, and build relationships and romances with touching, intense, and sometimes comedic, authenticity.

In addition to all of this, the novel is also exceptionally socially and politically aware. It features two bisexual characters, a gay character, and a trans character, all of whom are fully-realized and compassionately written (even when they are being idiots and/or assholes), and who are treated as nothing unusual or Othered by the narrative. The narrative and the characters also reveal and interrogate the complexities of imperialism, colonialism, and racial/ethnic prejudice with the incisiveness, intensity, humanity, and intellectual rigor one might expect in a particularly-well written philosophical or political thesis.

In other words, I really cannot sing this book’s praises loudly enough.

As I wrote in a tweet right after finishing it last year, “come for the kickass magic and fight scenes, stay for the excellent examination of colonialism, imperialism, racial/ethnic prejudice, and family loyalty…”

Can I give it 6 out of 5 stars? Is that allowed? Too bad, I’m doing it anyway!

For more info:

You can read  the first two chapters here on tor.com

You can also read more praise of the book and here an excerpt from the audiobook on the Penguin Random House website

And the paperback printing is being released in May! You can pre-order that on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound

Lastly, here’s a piece of art Paul Krueger himself commissioned from artist Yoshi Yoshitani, of the two character Lee and Xiulan:

Book Review: The Monster of Elendhaven

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One of the first books I read for my 2020 “Storm the Castle” Reading Challenge was the novella The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht. I read this book on Audible (a good majority of my reading is done through audiobooks these days). It is a fantasy/horror story and it was a) very dark and twisted, b) very good, and c) very gay. I loved it!

I used to write book reviews semi-regularly, but I am very out of practice so this will probably not be horribly structured or formal. And I haven’t decided how I am going to quantify my feelings into a number or star system, so that’s very up-in-the-air right now… (shrug). That said, I will try to keep this review from being TOO spoilery, while still providing enough information for you to decide if this book sounds like something you’d like to check out or not.

The city of Elendhaven lies in the far north, on the edge of a dark, mysterious ocean. It is a city filled with gruesome myths and haunted by plague and betrayal and death. In this city, the story begins with the “birth” or perhaps “creation” of the main character: a creature shaped like a man but not entirely human, a thing with no name until he baptizes himself and decides his name is now Johann. Johann, tall and dark and menacing, yet somehow nearly invisible in society, quickly learns how to make a “living” for himself by whatever criminal and violent means necessary: stealing, stalking, killing, etc. He also discovers that he, apparently, cannot die. Stabbed, beaten, jumping off very tall buildings… it doesn’t matter the method, he does not die.

In the course of his criminal endeavors, Johann begins stalking a wealthy young man he sees often in the bars around the city, named Florian. Florian is small and frail and almost femininely-pretty, but when Johann finally attacks him in a dark alley, Florian is unafraid and unimpressed, but intrigued by the possibilities Johann’s talents might afford him. Florian is, in fact, a sorcerer… possibly the very last one of a breed who have been hunted and executed to near-extinction.

Thus begins a dark, twisted partnership as Johann becomes Florian’s willing servant on a mission of depraved science experiences, murder, and revenge. 

oil slick stock image

This novella is black as pitch, sleek and glimmering and beautiful and yet greasy, like an oil slick. It is amazing how much of a punch it packs in a slim 160 pages (about 4.5 hrs on my audiobook)! Johann is violent and terrifying, yet strangely guileless – obsessed with, enamored of delicate but depraved, nearly-heartless Florian. The relationship between the two is a tangle of fascination, disgust, obsession, and deeply-buried genuine affection. And Florian’s plans and motives are so secretive and mysterious that it takes the entirety of the novella to really put together all the pieces. (At one point I thought Florian might be trans, but I was wrong. Gay as shit though). The story is half-horror as Florian instructs Johann to carry out his ruinous revenge of the city and the people who had so horribly wronged him and his family; and it is half-romance as Johann tries to charm Florian with his bizarre mix of flattery, affection, and sado-masochistic penchant for violence.

Jennifer Giesbrecht’s prose is wonderfully baroque, gothic, and poetic. The language lingers, takes it time, stays on the tongue and against the teeth. It features such lines as:

“Power was sweeter than apples. It was cheaper than water, and sustained the soul twice as well. If Johann was going to be a Thing with a name, then from now on he would be a Thing with power, too.”

— Jennifer Giesbrecht, The Monster of Elendhaven

And the first description of the city of Elendhaven is nicely indicative of the tone and style as well:

“Southerners called its harbour the Black Moon of Norden; a fetid crescent that hugged the dark waters of the polar sea. The whole city stank of industry. The air was thick with oil, salt, and smoke, which had long settled into the brick as a slick film, making the streets slippery on even the driest days. It was a foul place: foul scented, foul weathered, and plagued with foul, ugly architecture—squat warehouses peppered with snails and sea grass, mansions carved from heavy, black stone, their thick windows stained green and greasy from exposure to the sea. The tallest points in Elendhaven were the chimneys of the coal refineries. The widest street led south, rutted by the carts that dragged whale offal down from the oil refineries.
Hundreds of years ago, the North Pole had been cut open by searing magic, a horrific event that left the land puckered with craters like the one Elendhaven huddled in. For five centuries, the black waters had been poisoned with an arcane toxin that caused the skin to bubble and the mind to go soggy and loose like bread in broth. Once in a while, the fishermen would pull up an aberration from the ocean floor: something frothing and wet with its insides leaking out its eyes. ‘Demons and monsters,’ visitors whispered, ‘such creatures still sleep inside the Black Moon.’”

— Jennifer Giesbrecht, The Monster of Elendhaven

I’ve seen a few reviews of this novella online. Some people really liked it, and others gave it a tepid response, claiming that it starts well but is missing something. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what they think is missing. Sure, the ending is ambiguous and open-ended, but I think that is all to its merit. I admit I do wonder what could have been, had this story been fleshed out into a full-length novel, but in general I love novellas – I love the big explosive power of the tiny package – and I think this novella works very well. I really enjoyed it, and I believe anyone who likes their fantasy with a horror-twist and a bit of a gut-punch will enjoy it as well.

I’m still shaking out how to do my reviews, but for now I’d say it’s a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

For more info:

You can read the first chapter on tor.com’s site here

You can also check out the author’s playlist and some fanart on Jennifer Giesbrecht’s website here

5 Things to Know Me By

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If you are remotely active on Twitter, you might have seen one of the newer memes floating around, in which people list the 5 (or 7 or 10) albums (or tv shows, movies, etc) to listen to in order to understand them.

Tweets like this:

And this:

And this:

I have no idea who started it (who EVER knows where these things start???) but it’s a pretty fun way to share some of your favorite things.

I RT’d and responded to a few on Twitter, but I thought it might be fun to share a few such lists here on my still-new blog. So without further ado, 5 things to know me by:

5 Music Albums:

  1. Let Live and Let Ghosts by Jukebox the Ghost (just fyi: Jukebox the Ghost is my favorite band of all time and I have seen them live 4 times – the last time for free as a person on their official guest list!)
  2. Abbey Road by The Beatles (I grew up on the Beatles – my mother raised me well – and I struggled with picking one for a long time, but I think this is my favorite of their studio albums)
  3. The Cowboy Bebop Movie OST (I love anime, and I love anime music, and the Cowboy Bebop soundtracks are some of the best ever made. The movie soundtrack in particular is pure MAGIC)
  4. Break the Cycle by Staind (this album was SO IMPORTANT to me during my particularly emo moments of high school)
  5. The Essential Barbra Streisand (look, I cannot stress the importance of this singer and this album enough. During many very very long road trips, my mother and I would keep ourselves awake by singing along to this album – on cassette tape no less – at the very top of our lungs… and it also began my lifelong love for showtunes and Broadway, starting from like the age of 7 or something like that)

(Honorable Mention goes to Phoenix by The Classic Crime, which has been so important for me emo moments of the last 10 years)

5 Movies:

  1. The Labyrinth (magic, portal fantasy, fantastic music, amazing puppets and artistry, and David Bowie… need I say more???) (Also, The Dark Crystal, because DUH)
  2. The Neverending Story (Also DUH. Those 80s fantasy movies are SO VITAL to my development as a reader, a writer, and a person)
  3. Robin Hood (the Disney animated version)
  4. The Fall (the 2006 Tarsem Singh film – if you haven’t seen it, YOU NEED TO NOW)
  5. The Last Emperor (by Bernardo Bertolucci – the extended four hour version, I cry EVERY SINGLE TIME)

(Honorable mention goes to My Neighbor Totoro, which I watch a lot at night when I am depressed and/or insomniac)

5 Books:

  1. Watership Down by Richard Adams (I love this book so much I am planning to get a tattoo with a quote from it)
  2. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (ditto this one, on the tattoo thing)
  3. Dune by Frank Herbert (I read the first book in 6th grade and worked my way through the whole series by the end of 8th grade)
  4. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (I’m cheating sort of but whatever) (In 4th grade my elementary school librarian noticed that I was reading far above my grade level and gave me these books to read, and life has never been the same since then. They are an integral part of who I am and the reason I first decided I wanted to be a writer)
  5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (I read this book in 5th grade and adored it, and have since taken 2 college courses on Jane Austen and written several papers on the various aspects of the books)

(With an honorable mention to Neuromancer by William Gibson and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien)

5 Musicals:

  1. Les Miserables
  2. Phantom of the Opera
  3. Rent
  4. Wicked
  5. Company

(Yes, I tend to prefer the Standards, over newer musicals… though I did really enjoy Hamilton and Hadestown!)

5 TV Shows (live action):

  1. Star Trek (all of them, don’t make me just pick one!)
  2. Doctor Who (Whovian forever!)
  3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yeah man!)
  4. Law & Order (I watched every season of the original series with my mother from the age of 9 or 10 or so, and I have had an obsession with crime dramas and murder mystery shows ever since)
  5. M*A*S*H* (still the best comedy show ever made ever)

5 Animes:

  1. Robotech (the one that started it all for me!)
  2. Sailor Moon (MOON PRISM POWER!)
  3. Dragon Ball Z (KAMEHAMEHA!)
  4. Cowboy Bebop (You’re gonna carry that weight…)
  5. Neon Genesis Evangelion (can you tell how important the CLASSICS are to me???)

(Honorable mention goes to Fairy Tail – I am currently working my way straight thru the whole series – all 328 episodes – for the third time! And also My Hero Academia, which I’m really enjoying so far, though I’m a season behind…)

5 Western Animation Shows:

  1. DuckTales (the original mostly – DISNEY AFTERNOON RULES FOREVER!, but also the new version)
  2. Futurama (god I love this show so much!)
  3. Star vs the Forces of Evil (this Disney show was SO GOOD GUYS!)
  4. Adventure Time (obviously)
  5. Over the Garden Wall (this was a 10 ep mini-series and I adore it and it is my best “comfort” watch – I watch it almost every night to fall asleep to)

So, what kinds of things would show up on YOUR “5 Things” lists??? Please share! I’d love to hear about it!

What I’m Currently Reading

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I thought it would be fun to share what I am currently reading, just for the fun of it and so I can keep track of what I’m reading throughout the year. I would also love to hear what other people are reading currently, so please feel free to share in the comments!

Right now I am reading four books:

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem – I am reading this on Audible. It’s one of those classic foundational science fiction texts that, for whatever reason, I have just never gotten around to until now. So I finally just decided I needed to sit down and get to it. I’m about ¾ of the way through it now and I really like it. It’s philosophical and has a lot of really interesting technological, linguistic, and psychological concepts in it. It’s also creepy as shit sometimes, so that’s fun.

Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow – I am a HUGE Disney nerd/devotee. I know all the problematic aspects of the company and I care about them, but it hasn’t changed the fact that Disney is practically a religion to me (I will probably write a post about that eventually). And I have been very interested in the biographies and histories about Disney (both the person and the company). I loved the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty, and the new original docuseries on Disney+ called The Imagineering Story. So I knew I had to read this book! I’m a little over halfway through it now and it is absolutely FASCINATING! I highly recommend it to anyone who cares about Disney or, frankly, doing any kind of innovative/creative business venture.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans – as I mentioned in my About page, I am trying to learn everything I can about small business planning and management because I want to open my own bookstore. To this end, I bought this book a few weeks ago. I haven’t had a chance to work my way through it as far as I’d like, but I’m making progress. I’m finding it very practical and no-nonsense and actionable so far, which I really appreciate. Hopefully I’ll start writing my own business plan within the next month or so. *fingers crossed*

Lawrence In Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson – I LOVE histories and biographies, and I recently saw the classic film Lawrence of Arabia which kicked off a brand-new fixation/obsession for me (I will probably devote a whole post to this later as well). So, of course, the first thing I did was start looking for books about the actual historical T.E. Lawrence and the overall situation and politics of the Arab Revolt of which Lawrence was an integral part. I tried to convince myself I shouldn’t spend more money on books when I have so many I haven’t finished yet, but the last time I was at Barnes & Noble, I just couldn’t resist. So here we are. I’ve JUST started this one, but it already looks to be extremely fascinating!

I’d really love to hear what other people are currently reading! I always need more books to add to my miles-long TBR list! Please share in the comments!

2020 Reading Challenges

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2019 was my year for slowly re-learning how to read. Mainly through audiobooks.

2020 is going to be my year to try a bunch of reading challenges and really push myself to get back to reading the way I used to.

I looked at a lot of reading challenges online, and talked to my two best friends about doing them as well. I was most intrigued by FaeBae Book Club’s “Save the Citadel” Reading Challenge, but I knew that it was going to be too daunting a challenge for me, and for my friends (who were considering joining me). So I decided to use FaeBae’s challenge as a template to create my own reading challenge with a similar D&D inspired concept, but on a smaller, more manageable scale. Some people might accuse me of stealing or copying their challenge, but I don’t really see it that way for a couple reasons: 1) reading challenges are ubiquitous at this point, even if the D&D theme is relatively unique, and 2) I am not trying to copy their approach in that I am not growing a massive following or customer base from this challenge, and I am not making the challenge public to join – it is only something I put together for me and three of my friends (and, more informally, for my mom).

“Save the Citadel” Reading Challenge image from the FaeBae Facebook Group

For the curious, I will post the details of my modified challenge below. And I am linking to the FaeBae Book Club Facebook group page for anyone interested in seeing the much more substantial original reading challenge: here. (Please note that to see FaeBae’s posts and participate in the challenge, you must first apply to the join the Facebook group.)

Button from the “Finishing the Series” Reading Challenge at Celebrity Readers

In addition, to the reading challenge I made for myself and my friends, I am also participating in the 2020 “Finishing the Series” Reading Challenge posted here at Celebrity Readers. This is a more informal challenge, with no strict guidelines and no prize. But I thought it would be a nice way to push myself to finish a bunch of series’ I have started over the years and never finished. 

These include: the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer (read 4 out of 8), The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson (read the original 6, but now there are 4 new ones), the Redwall series by Brian Jacques (read 15 out of 22), the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher (read 4 out of 15), the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (read 6 out of 13), and the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare (read 4 out 6).

On top of THAT, just in case it wasn’t challenging enough, I am CONSIDERING joining a brand new bi-monthly book club set up by my alma mater (undergrad) Rockhurst University, for their alumni. I am really not sure about this one yet, but we’ll see…

Ok, so here’s the challenge I put together for myself and my friends (alas, I do not have a cool graphic for it…). You are, obviously, free to copy/follow along, but it is not officially open for others to join. Sorry.

2020 Storm the Castle Reading Challenge:

Choose from 3 different classes and read the designated number of books per challenge/category:

             Druid: 1 book per challenge

             Rogue: 2 books per challenge

             Wizard: 3 books per challenge

There will be seven challenges. We have a year, from Jan 1st 2020 to Dec 31st 2020 to complete all seven challenges. So, if you are a druid you will read 7 books total, if you are a rogue you will read 14 books total, and if you are a wizard you will read 21 books total. You should announce your class by Dec 31st 2019. Books cannot be used to fill more than one challenge. Books must be more substantial than, say, a picture book or single-issue comic, but otherwise are open to interpretation. (I’m thinking we can keep a spread-sheet with a list of everyone’s books as we read them. That way we can keep count and just see what awesome things everyone is reading.) Whoever finishes the seven challenges first, wins. The winner will receive a prize of a Barnes & Noble or Amazon gift card, toward which each participant will contribute $5.

 The Challenges:
1) “It’s dangerous to go alone, take this!” – a book that was gifted or recommended to you
2) Receive advice from an ancient hermit in the woods – a book that’s been in your TBR pile the longest (or at least a really long time – 10 years or more?)
3) Consult the tomes of wisdom and knowledge at the Great Library – a nonfiction book on science, history, etc.
4) Battle ghosts in a haunted castle – a book you intended to read in 2019 but didn’t get around to
5) Witness the birth of a baby unicorn – a book newly released in 2020
6) Recover a long-lost mythical treasure – a book you started but never finished
7) Storm the villain’s castle – a book in the epic fantasy genre

My Favorite Books of 2019

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For a long time now – three or four or five years – I’ve been mostly unable to read due to a combination of severe depression, time constraints, and a touch of internet addiction. This has been excessively painful to me because books and reading is a very huge part of my identity. I have been a reader my whole life. In high school and through most of my undergrad, I could read somewhere around 4-6 books a month. That number grew smaller and smaller as I got further into grad school, and by 2015 I was reading practically zero.

I simply could not physically READ. Could not focus on the page, could not absorb the words, could not digest what I was seeing.

The thing that finally broke books back into my life, and frankly, SAVED my life, was audiobooks. I started “reading audiobooks off and on back in 2013 or 2014, but in 2019 they became my lifeline. After a years-long reading drought, I “read” 29 books in 2019 – mostly audiobooks, with a handful of ebooks and just a couple print books.

A lot of the books I read in 2019 were not new releases. They were older books I’d been planning to get to for years, but there were a few new releases in the mix. Out of all the books I read in 2019, here are my favorites in no particular order (some new, some not):

Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz (published 2000) – this book is the memoir/autobiography by Gene Kranz, the head flight director of NASA during the Apollo era flights who was immortalized in the movie Apollo 13 (as portrayed by Ed Harris). This book covers Gene Kranz’s experiences from his entrance into the space program in its earliest days during the Mercury era flights, all the way through his rise to becoming one of the head flight controllers, and his eventual retirement. It is an absolutely fascinating look into one of the greatest times in human history, which is both astounding and inspiring. Of course, I’m a huge space/NASA nerd, so I might be biased.

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan (published 2018) – I am a huge fan of nonfiction books in general, and especially both biographies and books about science. This book is both – as Michael Pollan set out to write a well-researched book about the science of psychedelics and ended up writing about how personal life and experiences as well. Plus, as a person who has suffered from depression my entire life, I was especially fascinated by and invested in the topic of this book. To put it succinctly, this book blew my mind, and I have been recommending it to every person I know since I finished it.

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan Mcguire (published 2018) – this book is the third installment in Seanan McGuire’s series of novellas called The Wayward Children series. The first book, Every Heart a Doorway, remains one of my favorite books ever. And this, the third installment, is also absolutely fantastic. Seanan McGuire captures the breathless excitement, but also the pain, inherent in portal fantasies in ways that break my heart every time. She also always portrays diverse characters such as those who are LGBTQIA, PoC, and fat (*gasp*), with enormous sensitivity, humanity, compassion, and JOY. She has two more installments (so far) that I have not gotten to yet, but they are on the TBR list for this year.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (published 2019) – I love science fiction/fantasy novellas (like the aforementioned Wayward Children series, as well as such brilliant books as Binti and The Dream-Quest of Vellit Boe) so I knew had to read this novella, especially after seeing such glowing reviews. I mean! An epistolary novel about two kickass women spies on opposite sides of a time war who accidentally fall in love? How could anyone in the world resist such a story?! This book is written with the kind of lush poetic language that cracks your ribs open and tears your heart out with so much tenderness and beauty you don’t even mind. I can only dream of writing like this. Everyone should read it. Period.

Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger (published 2019) – my favorite novel of the year, by far, was Steel Crow Saga – only Paul Krueger’s second novel in what is definitely going to be a long and glorious career. The tagline for this book was “Pokemon meets Avatar: the Last Airbender,” which was definitely the thing that first sold ME. And I can say that while the book definitely fits and lives up to this comparison, it is far more than just a mere mashup. Come for the cool pokemon-like animal-spirit partners, kickass fight scenes, and enormously hilarious snarky characters… stay for the deep, incisive, and insightful critiques of colonialism and imperialism, power and responsibility, family loyalty, guilt, and genuine atonement. Plus you get amazing LGBT characters, hilarious one-liners, a bunch of excessively nerdy anime/pop culture references, and gratuitous descriptions of adobo.

So that’s my top five favorite books I read in 2019. Not all newly published in 2019, but whatever…. *shrug*

If you’ve read any of these books, please tell me what you thought! And please feel free to share your personal favorites of 2019 in the comments! I’d love to hear what everyone else was reading last year, what touched your heart (or kicked in the face – in a good way!), what books I should have read and didn’t (I’m always looking for more books to add to the insanely-long TBR list!)