Tag: fiction

Blurb Book Review: The Future by Naomi Alderman (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Imagine if technology could inform billionaires about an impending apocalypse. Imagine if that technology could give those billionaires advanced notice so they may flee to luxurious bunkers to wait out the apocalypse.

In this novel, Lai Zhen is given access to this technology as a gift from her lover Martha Einkorn. Zhen, a coding genius, wants to know how this program works, so she takes it to a good friend where the two of them take their time untangling the code. When Zhen discovers the program has been shut off remotely, she goes to one of the billionaire’s bunkers to reactivate it.

The program informs her of an impending apocalypse and helps her flee to a lush island stocked with every supply imaginable. Three billionaires also occupy the island; their plane went down on its way to a luxury bunker.

Without the billionaires in charge of their companies, Martha and her three compatriots move to change the world.

This novel was a bit of a slog. There are excerpts from a fictional chatroom/message board for survivalists. The posts in the novel relate back to the Bible and what, exactly, ownership means. I felt, fully and truly, that these message boards could have been cut from the novel without losing anything of value. By the end of the novel, I felt like the author was a bit heavy-handed in the constant rabbit/fox stories presented.

The narrative style flowed well enough and the characters were wonderfully distinct throughout. The novel begins with the program pinging a billionaire, then dives into the life of another billionaire. They have their orders: to flee quickly and quietly. Then the novel falls into backstory. Sometimes backstory within backstory.

The information was good and relevant, but I was wondering when we were going to get back to the billionaires getting the message to leave. What prompted the message? Why are they leaving? What apocalypse has befallen the Earth? These questions are answered, but I got impatient waiting for it.

I was tempted to stop reading partway through because of this impatience, but the characters were well enough written that I kept on reading. The payoff was absolutely worth it. There isn’t a twist, not exactly, but there’s a double reveal that made the slog worth it.

The cover is particularly well done. It represents the message of the book beautifully. The image of the fox being prominent over the rabbit is apt, as is the use of gold, silver, and cream.

As a side note, I’m pretty sure we could take Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos and insert them into the three billionaires featured in the novel. The biggest question is; would things work out the same if we removed these three from their companies? I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.

Blurb Book Review: Generation Ship by Michael Mammay (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Colony ship Voyager has been travelling for 250 years to get to the planet Promissa, where they plan to land and colonize. Except every probe that reaches the surface goes dead before it can transmit information. With roughly four and a half months until their journey is complete, scientists must work out the problem while being hindered by the Governor’s political desires and a growing faction of people that believe colonization is wrong.

The novel counts down to arrival date, detailling how the Governor skews information and manipulates media so the residents of the ship see only what he wants them to see. Pushing against him are the scientists who want more information from the surface of the planet before committing to sending large groups down. In addition, the ship’s Charter has a mandate of a death date: the person’s 75th birthday, which helps preserve resources. A small group begins to protest this mandate, since they’ll be colonizing soon anyway and so there shouldn’t be much strain on the resources. This protest evolves into not colonizing as it’s unethical.

Which presents a problem. As a reader, I understand that the ship has very limited resources, so people can’t live out their natural lives. New generations need to be born and with each birth there must be a death. Also, if the people decide not to colonize, how do they expect to be able to support a growing population if they get rid of the death mandate? This wasn’t answered in the novel, or if it was, I missed the explanation.

Other minor problems nagged at me as well. Landing was dangerous because they couldn’t get the probes to send information about microbes and whatnot. Political forces demanded landing parties go anyway and people were selected on the whims of the Governor. They were all tested for agoraphobia because they’d lived on a ship for something like five generations, therefore, people weren’t accustomed to open spaces. Some of the people who tested poorly were still sent down. That makes no sense. In addition, if the elders are slated to die anyway, why not send them down to the planet? They’d worked up until their 70th birthday, so work was a huge part of their lives anyway, and they could be useful in testing the atmospheric conditions and survivability of the planet.

Another minor issue that nagged at me was the media. The ship had televised news and entertainment. Why didn’t they have a science channel as well? As a reader, I’d expect that in the later generations, a timeslot would be allocated for information about the planet.

While the bulk of the novel takes place before arrival, there is just enough information at the end to explain why the probes weren’t sending information. But I felt like the author had a really good concept that was only explored at the tail end of the book. Yes, this novel is more about the struggle as they reach the planet, but in the end, the reader discovers that both the planet and the ship have gained a kind of cognizance. Now THAT would be an interesting book: how the ship behaves to protect the crew, how the planet behaves to protect itself, and how humans bung all that up. But I suppose that could all be written in a sequel.

Overall, the novel was all right. Good enough for me to finish it, but frustrating that (what I felt was) the best part was at the end and not really explored.

Blurb Book Review: Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

I kept stumbling across rave reviews of this novel so I thought I’d give it a read. I haven’t read anything else by the author but am familiar with titles that include the phrase, “Got Pounded in the Butt” or somesuch thing. Based on the reviews, I figured this book would be a serious horror.

It was not.

I’ve read a lot of horror in my day. Many dark evenings were spent deep in the trenches of gore, psychological horror, thriller, and graphic murder mysteries. While it’s not my thing right now, I’m familiar with spine-tingling creepiness nestled between the words of horror novels.

This novel made me tip my head in amusement, not horror. I mean, a girl coughing up a bunch of bugs? Sorta gross, sure, but more amusing than anything else. Before I get too much farther, here’s the basic plot:

Rose is twenty and on the cusp of graduating high school. Her uber-religious upbringing entailed taking two years off school to study the tenets of the Kingdom of the Pine, so she’s a bit behind her peers. KotP also runs the most effective gay conversion camp, Camp Damascus. Rose, while enjoying a late summer day with friends, notices how she really wants to impress another girl, not the boy she arrived with.

But her thoughts of this girl are interrupted by the visage of a strange looking woman with stringy hair, long fingers, and white eyes hiding in the trees nearby. Whenever Rose thinks of her attraction to other girls, this creepy woman shows up. At one point, the creepy woman actually breaks one of Rose’s fingers, so she’s not a mirage.

Now, I can get behind this plot. LGBTQ+ people are tormented by their demons. Okay. Those demons are tethered to the person at the gay conversion camp. Sure. Rose doesn’t remember attending the camp and is shocked that her parents don’t seem fazed by her coughing up a billowing cloud of bugs or when she tries to tell them about the creepy woman. Great.

These elements could contribute to a gut-wrenching creepfest but instead I felt little more than amusement. I finished the book only to see how things would be resolved; would Rose vanquish her demon? What of the demons of the others affected?

After finishing the novel I sat and thought about why this didn’t tug at my heartstrings or ice my belly. I suspect it’s because the author keeps the reader at a distance. Variations of the phrase, “I found myself…” in the narrative put a wall between the reader and the character’s experiences, as did the use of “suddenly” and “seemed to”. Bottom line: it was all telly and not showy.

Not every scene needs to be shown. Many scenes can be (and should be) told to keep the narrative flow running. But a novel that’s all telling makes for an emotionless read.

Along the same lines, I believe an editor should have caught the overuse of “I blurt” and “…is all I can think to say”. Those phrases appeared so often that I wanted to highlight them and send the manuscript back to an editor.

The overall message, however, is good. Vanquish your demons and find comfort and support in your found family instead of your blood relations, especially if the person you are goes against the person your relatives expect you to be. People deserve to have the room to learn who they are without punishment or shame. If that means someone has to leave a room and find a new one with more supportive people, so be it.

From what I know, this author is popular online and writes inclusive stories featuring LGBTQ+ characters. This novel had the potential to be great, but turned out feeling rushed and emotionless.

Blurb Book Review: Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Image by Goodreads.com

Lydia is a translator for a Logi, an alien species that has an embassy on Earth. The Logi communicate telepathically and only a small selection of humans can understand them. Lydia enjoys her job and has a good rapport with Fitz, her Logi employer, although translating for too long will give the effect of drunkenness in her. One night, after overdoing it with translating, Fitz is found dead in his study. Lydia lives in his residence and was the only one home. Too bad she can’t remember what happened, or even if she was the one who killed him.

The author does an excellent job of keeping the reader firmly implanted in the world. These Logi aliens are commonplace and accepted by most humans, which is reflected well in how Lydia interacts with Fitz and her social media. The world doesn’t feel too far into our future, which is a feat in and of itself. Glasses supply a constant feed of social media and recording the world around the wearer and scrolls offer another kind of access to the internet, social media, and recording yourself. Everyone is constantly being watched and potentially recorded and Lydia dealt with this in a way that felt believable.

The author also uses language to keep the reader firmly entrenched in the narrative. Words like ‘idee’, ‘veearr’, ‘ayaie’, and ‘enpeecees’ are used just like the acronyms are now and it makes sense that these acronyms would become words in the future.

The novel was engaging enough, but it’s a mystery that I doubt can be solved by the reader until the last bit of the book. The clue of how Lydia knows who the killer is doesn’t make sense to the reader until Lydia explains it at the end. Other than that, the book takes some odd twists and turns, which I found entertaining enough to consider seeking out the author’s other novels.

Blurb Book Review: Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

I don’t normally read a lot of fantasy, but the “high fantasy and low stakes” remark on the back cover caught my attention. I ended up loving this book so much that I wanted to crawl in between the pages and live there. The author’s narrative style was engaging and made for an easy read. My single and only complaint is that some scenes could use a little fleshing out. They felt a bit bare-boned in places and I craved just a tiny bit more padding between bits of action and dialogue.

The author did well in describing the different characters so I had an idea of what a hob or rattkin was despite my lack of fantasy background. I particularly enjoyed how the author presented each species as more than the expected criteria. Like the main character, Viv, is an orc but isn’t bloodthirsty and violent. Although she can and will wield a sword when needed. This was wonderfully refreshing.

There’s the teensiest bit of romance as well. Once Viv settles into running the shop she realizes she has warm feelings for Tandri, a succubus who has been helping with advertising and general management of the shop. These feelings don’t come to light until near the end and the author did a wonderful job in building their relationship so the warmth felt natural.

The stakes are, indeed, low. Viv opens a coffee shop in Thune after living a life slaying beasts and receiving bounty. She gets a hold of a Scalvert’s Stone, which the superstitious believe to have the ability to bring fortune and success. She buries the stone in her new shop and marvels at the wonderful people that come into her life. Cal the hob helps her renovate an old livery, Tandri the succubus helps her with advertising and running the shop, Thimble the rattkin becomes her baker, and a dire-cat comes and goes as she pleases.

Viv worries about the stone often enough that it never leaves the reader’s mind. An old party mate, Fennus, comes around to sniff it out, and the Madrigal’s group of thugs warn of payments needed to keep the peace.

These threats are present, but not the focus. The gentle pace of the novel created a soft world, one of delight and joy, with only enough stress to make the joy seem balanced.

The novel also featured a short story in the back, “Pages to Fill”, which gave some insight into the turning point for Viv. She’s in the midst of a quest when she decides she wants something more from life. More than beating people up, more than hunting down bounties, more than bloodshed. For me, it was like a last sip of the world before I had to let it go.

I recommend this novel to anyone who plays D&D, or perhaps would like a softer tone on monsters and mayhem.