Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Status: Completed
I generally prefer fantasy over scifi, especially scifi as hard as Adrian Tchaikovksy tends to write. But I picked this up because I enjoyed his novella Elder Race and was willing to try something else. This is fairly hard scifi, but it had solid and likeable characters, a strong plot that manages to have our protagonists hopping from planet to planet without ever feeling contrived or like a fetch quest, and some absolutely amazing worldbuilding concepts. So many of the ideas were unique and tied into a great story. The amazing worldbuilding manages to make the whole story feel intricate and vivid, even though the plot isn’t particularly complex. Adrian Tchaikovsky is a great writer and I enjoyed the read. I’m on the fence about reading book two – not becuase I think it will be bad or that there isn’t room for a sequel, but becuase sequels are usually not quite as good as book one and while I liked this book, I wouldn’t say I love it or call it a favorite. But again, this book was good, so I’m not ruling it out.
Trigger Warnings: War (severe), violence (severe), death (severe), injury (severe), blood, gore, genocide, body horror, unreality, ableism, racism, slavery, kidnapping, confinement (brief), xenophobia (mentions)
The Last Sun (The Tarot Sequence #1) by K.D. Edwards
Status: DNF on page 47
The ideas behind this book seemed interesting, and there’s a lot going on in this world. But I can’t tell if there was too much going on or it just wasn’t explained well, because I spent most of the time incredibly confused. There’s guns, but there’s also magic. There are humans, but also fey and werewolves (and Atlanteans, who I can’t figure out if they’re human or something different). There is “human society” and a second magical society and I have no idea how the two relate. The houses of Atlantean society are either named after or physical manifestations of the major arcana tarot cards. And Rune, the protagonist, is not exactly a bad character, but he kind of feels like one of those urban fantasy characters who’s trying way too hard to be a badass to actually be a badass. In fact, not of the characters are particularly interesting or emotionally engaging. It’s possible that if I gave it a little longer it might sort itself out, but nothing in the first 47 pages was compelling enough for me to want to. This whole book seems like it’s not quite sure what it really wants to be, and so ends up being a bit confusing and not all that interesting.
Tags: It’s Queer!
Trigger Warnings: Sexual assault (mentions), parent death, guns, violence, death
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
Status: Completed
A fascinating, slightly weird, and overall wildly creative retelling of the Sleeping Beauty myth where the princess was put to sleep for a very good reason and the wicked fairy who did it was barely more than a child herself (and arguably not even a fairy). Despite being several hundred years old at the opening of the story, Toadling was a curious mix of child-like and ancient. She may be able to turn into a toad at will, but I found the most fey thing about her was her nebulous place between young and old. She was engaging and I loved her. The story is told in a straightforward, bare-bones fairy tale style. Details are enough to sketch the world and the plot vividly enough to keep me hooked, but there is no flowery language or dwelling on feelings or reflecting on whether the happenings are right or wrong. Things just are what they are. Despite being a dark and somewhat twisted version of the story we know, it never felt excessively dark and retained a magical fairy-tale feel. I’m having a really hard time putting the mood of this story into words, but it’s very good. And if you really want to understand what I’m trying to say, it’s very short – just go read it for yourself.
Trigger Warnings: Kidnapping, death (graphic in cases), child death, blood (mentions), body horror
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