Review: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water

Title: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water

Author: Zen Cho

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: War (mentions), violence, blood, death, genocide (mentions), sexual harassment (brief), gun violence, deadnaming

Back Cover:

Zen Cho returns with The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, a found family wuxia fantasy that combines the vibrancy of old school martial arts movies with characters drawn from the margins of history.

A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there. Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon, joins up with an eclectic group of thieves (whether they like it or not) in order to protect a sacred object, and finds herself in a far more complicated situation than she could have ever imagined.

Review:

This is a confusing little book. Not so much in the story, but in the details and context that aren’t actually in the story and that I only found while researching for this review. So there’s two parts to this review: What I thought of what’s contained between the covers, and the context that somehow didn’t end up in the book itself.

The Book

This book is very short – just under 4 hours in audiobook form, 176 pages according to The StoryGraph. It reads a lot more like a long fairy tale or folktale than a novel or novella. There is no urgency to the plot, the story is straightforward with only two minor events that could even be possibly considered twists (only one of which actually affects anything), and the characters are brief sketches more than fully realized people.

I think part of the problem was trying to pack so much into so little. This book is so short that there isn’t a lot of space for developing anything, and yet there is some kind of East Asian vaguely-fantasy setting, Guet Imm the nun and 4-6 bandit characters (I can’t remember how many exactly), and a journey plot that takes the group from where they met Guet Imm to a town to sell some goods and then to a third town to meet with a person. None of it gets fleshed out because there just isn’t time.

That said, I did actually enjoy this book. I’ve read a fair number of folktales, and reading it like a folktale – without the modern novel expectations of worldbuilding and character development and such – it was fairly enjoyable. It deals with a lot of heavy topics but doesn’t have enough development to get too serious, and the characters are fine to follow around without getting invested enough to feel too upset when they get hurt. It’s not the kind of book that becomes a favorite, but it was a perfectly acceptable reading experience.

Things I Learned While Researching For This Review

When doing my usual preliminary research for this review, I discovered Zen Cho’s website, where I learned there is some depth and context to the story that somehow didn’t make it into the book itself.

To start with, the back cover describes it as a “wuxia fantasy.” Wuxia is a Chinese fiction genre, so I assumed that the story was set in China, despite Gwet Imm not being a Chinese name. However, according to the author, the book is actually set in Malaysia – specifically during the Malaysian Emergency, a guerrilla war between the British and Malaysian independence fighters between 1948 and 1960. Which explains several things:

• The jungles that they keep walking through, as there are a lot more jungles in Malaysia than China.
• The “secret war” (obviously guerrilla warfare now that I have the context) that is mentioned but never encountered.
• The soldiers who are a different ethnicity from the native people and do things like destroy temples and genocide people.
• The “bandits” who are native people and part of the secret war by hiding in the jungles and attacking the soldiers.

I wish this book had been longer. With this context, there is so much that could have been done with the story that just didn’t happen. I didn’t even put together that there was a guerilla war going on in the background, let alone that this was a people fighting for their independence from a colonial power. Heck, I didn’t even work out that this was set in Southeast Asia and not some fantasy version of China. The limited length of this story did it a disservice, and there could have been so much more depth and interest to this story if it had been allowed to expand beyond sketches of characters on a simple delivery quest. I liked the story for itself, but now that I have the context and see what it could have been, I find myself disappointed by the lost potential.

Review: Elysium Girls (DNF)

Title: Elysium Girls

Author: Kate Pentecost

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Death, death of children, death of parents, natural disasters, blood, forced institutionalization (mentions), murder (mentions), bullying, terminal illness

Note: Trigger warnings in DNF books only cover the part I read. There may be triggers further in the book that I did not encounter.

Read To: 29%

Back Cover:

In this sweeping Dust Bowl-inspired fantasy, a ten-year game between Life and Death pits the walled Oklahoma city of Elysium-including a girl gang of witches and a demon who longs for humanity-against the supernatural in order to judge mankind.

When Sal is named Successor to Mother Morevna, a powerful witch and leader of Elysium, she jumps at the chance to prove herself to the town. Ever since she was a kid, Sal has been plagued by false visions of rain, and though people think she’s a liar, she knows she’s a leader. Even the arrival of enigmatic outsider Asa – a human-obsessed demon in disguise – doesn’t shake her confidence in her ability. Until a terrible mistake results in both Sal and Asa’s exile into the Desert of Dust and Steel.

Face-to-face with a brutal, unforgiving landscape, Sal and Asa join a gang of girls headed by another Elysium exile-and young witch herself-Olivia Rosales. In order to atone for their mistake, they create a cavalry of magic powered, scrap metal horses to save Elysium from the coming apocalypse. But Sal, Asa, and Olivia must do more than simply tip the scales in Elysium’s favor-only by reinventing the rules can they beat the Life and Death at their own game.

Review:

On the outside, this book looks awesome. Title? Awesome. Author’s last name? Awesome. Cover? Awesome. A demon in disguise and a girl-gang of witches making magic-mechanical horses to take on Life and Death? Awesome.

The reality of the story is, unfortunately, less awesome.

Above all, it is slow. It’s not even a slow burn, it’s just slow. Sal is hated by the whole town for having visions of rain that didn’t come true (which, first of all, she was nine years old at the time, and it seems cruel and petty for the entire town to turn against a literal child for believing something untrue). She thinks she’s finally going to be able to prove herself to the town when Mother Moreyna names her as her successor, but then it turns out Mother Moreyna just wanted a successor for the optics and she isn’t going to actually teach Sal anything. Then Asa shows up, who also has magic because he’s a demon.

Sal does many things that I think could have counted as a “terrible mistake” that would get her exiled, especially if the town decides to be strict and petty – which they definitely seem inclined to do. I kept waiting for one of them to finally make the people kick her out so we could get on with the awesome part of the plot. And it just kept not happening. Sal kept puttering around town wishing people would stop hating her, Asa tried to decide if he should do the mission he was sent for or not do it and stay with the humans he’s so interested in, and nothing happened.

There were a fair number of plot hooks (what actually happened to the murdered guy who used to live in Asa’s house? Why does Sal keep getting visions of rain? What is the point of Asa’s mission?), and I think they might have been enough to hold me if I wasn’t expecting something totally epic that the first 29% of the book didn’t deliver. It may get more awesome later on, and I’m not discounting the idea that I might pick this one back up when I’m in the mood for something slower or have the patience to wait for the awesomeness to start. But right now I don’t, so I’m leaving it here.

Webcomic Spotlight: Heartless

Title: Heartless

Author: Emily Griggs

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Blood, death, vampirism/drinking blood, manipulation through mind control

Summary:

It’s 1852, and Clara Adams has had her future planned out for her: find and marry a proper young man, then settle in for a life of quiet obedience and domestic bliss. She’s resigned to her fate, until a bout of curiosity leads to her untimely murder, and resurrection, at the hands of monsters that she’d never dreamed might be more than fictional. Death brings Clara unexpected freedom, along with new dangers and the sudden weight of responsibility. Thrust into unlife with no way back, Clara has to learn quickly, for her unique gift might tip the scales in the secret war against her murderer for control of all London!

Heartless is an action/adventure comic set in early Victorian London. It’s about vampires, self-discovery, more vampires, the struggle against oppression, and very pretty dresses. The entire main cast is LGBTQIA+, with an explicitly asexual protagonist.

Review:

“Heartless” is a story about an ace girl in Victorian London who accidentally becomes a vampire and discovers that her being ace gives her basically what amounts to a vampire superpower. And it’s about as awesome as it sounds.

The art is great. (See right.) It’s not super polished, but it’s stylistic and somehow manages to make these vampires absolutely gorgeous. I love it.

The story is about Clara learning to be a vampire, basically. There’s an overarching plot with a rival vampire lord trying to screw things up in London, but it’s more of a backdrop to Clara accepting that she doesn’t fit into traditional society and figuring out how to vampire.

Which leads to one of my two criticisms: “Heartless” feels more like Part One of a longer work than a complete work in itself. It stopped at a good spot for Clara’s personal arc, but there’s too many loose plot ends to feel complete. (I really hope there is a “Heartless Volume 2” forthcoming.)

My second criticism is minor: I’m not sure how I feel about vampires who are “weak to the allure of both sexes,” aka bisexual, being the lowest class of vampire and not able to have any sort of prestige or political power. Being bisexual myself, it rubbed me the wrong way a little.

“Heartless” is fantastic. It’s a quick read (less than 150 pages), it perfectly intersperses moments of humor into a serious plot, it’s gorgeous, I love all these vampires, I want to see more of this story. Go read it.

You can read it here!

Review: The Gilded Wolves

Title: The Gilded Wolves

Series: The Gilded Wolves #1

Author: Roshani Chokshi

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Death, blood, antisemitism (mention), racism, colorism, colonialism

Back Cover:

No one believes in them. But soon no one will forget them.

It’s 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood.

Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history–but only if they can stay alive.

Review:

I didn’t find myself checking the page numbers hardly at all while reading this book, and that means it’s great because I check page numbers obsessively even on books I’m enjoying.

This book is set in Paris during La Belle Epoque, but there’s also magic, and it was so beautifuly atmospheric. From hotels to museums to lavish Order of Babel parties, it’s a beautiful backdrop to what really makes this story amazing: the characters.

There are six major characters in this story: Séverin, Laila, Zofia, Enrique, and Tristan, who make up our heisting team, and Hypnos, the Order of Babel member who makes them do the heist in the first place and keeps showing up to help even though the team doesn’t like him. Séverin, Laila, Zofia, and Enrique are all point-of-view characters (although the narrative is third-person, so the “point of view” is minimal). I adore their dynamics. They’re not the friendly-banter type (except for Enrique), but they’re all close to each other and you can tell and sometimes there’s tension between some of them but it’s always so fantastic to see them together and yes. I love them. I especially have a soft spot for Zofia, who is not explicitly stated to be autistic but I totally headcannon her as autistic.

This is a heist book. Séverin got cheated out of his membership in the Order of Babel years ago, and Hypnos promises to get it back for him if he will steal an artifact … from another Order of Babel member. So the team works on that heist and inadvertently gets mixed up in a much bigger fate-of-society-type problem. Saying any more would be spoilers, but the climax had me blitzing through pages hoping for a happy ending for our team.

There were also some themes of colonialism – not heavy-handed, but just there, both in metaphor and because this is France in the 1890s and there was colonialism and racism there. I think every single one of our main crew is a person of color or mixed-race (I’m not completely sure about Zofia, but she is Jewish, so she has prejudice to deal with, too). The main plot hinges on the fact that two of the Order of Babel houses have taken over and erased the legacies of the other two houses, which is obviously a metaphor for colonialism, but the book doesn’t try to shove it down your throat and just lets it be there.

(It’s also technically queer, with two cannonically bi main characters, but that’s not a big part of the story.)

I only had two complaints about the book. First, the magic system was extremely confusing. Magic objects were Forged, and the Forging process was done by people who had that power, but that power came through something called a Babel Fragment (maybe?), which the Order of Babel is supposed to protect, and also there rings that the matriarchs/patriarchs of Order of Babel houses might be Babel Fragments? It surprisingly didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story, but I’m still not really sure how it all works. The other thing I didn’t like was a character’s death after the climax, seemingly for no other reason than “you didn’t expect that, did you?” To be fair, the character who died was probably my least favorite, but I still liked them and it seemed really unnecessary.

This was an atmospheric book with fantastic character dyamics and only a few small flaws. This is the fantasy heist book I wanted and didn’t get out of Six of Crows. I’m not sure if I’m going to read the sequels – I’m worried that character death might throw off the group dynamics, which was the best part of this book – but I might just be hopeful and give them a try anyway. This book was great enough that book two deserves a chance.

The Gilded Wolves series:

1. The Gilded Wolves
2. The Silvered Serpents (September 22, 2020)
3. Currently Untitled (2021)

Review: Tsarina

Title: Tsarina

Author: J. Nelle Patrick

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Back Cover:

Imperial Russia swirls with rebellion. The Reds are gaining ground, and the loyal Whites struggle to hold Saint Petersburg. But Natalya isn’t afraid. Wrapped in fur and tucked inside her lavish home, she feels safe. Alexei Romanov, her first love, has told her a secret: Hidden within the Winter Palace lies a Faberge Egg enchanted by the mystic Rasputin. With it, the Romanovs will never fall from power. The Reds will never take the country. And one day, Alexei will ascend the throne and Natalya will be beside him— the tsarina of Russia. But when the Reds raid the Winter Palace, the egg vanishes and the Romanovs are captured. Natalya must find the egg to save Alexei, her way of life, and her royal future. To do so, she’s forced to ally herself with the enemy— a young Red named Leo who wants the egg for his own purposes. But as they brave a war-battered landscape of snow and magic, Natalya realizes that the world isn’t as simple as it seemed back in Saint Petersburg. Nothing– not friends, not politics, and not love– are as clear as Red and White.

Review:

This might be historical fiction, or it might be historical fantasy. I’m not quite sure where to draw the line. In any case, it was the fantasy element of the magical fabrege egg that appealed to me in Tsarina. So I checked it out from the library and started reading one ambitious Saturday after finishing two other books.

At page twenty, I was ready to give up. So far, it was a picture of Russian high society, Natalya and Alexei’s romance, and a very brief bit about what the egg could do. The society was interesting, and the romance was awfully sweet, but it wasn’t what I signed up for. I wanted a revolution and quest for the egg and whoever the heck Leo was. If it wasn’t for my 100-page rule, I would have given up.

Then the revolution happened, and Natalya was so worried about Alexei that I felt terrible because I knew how that ended. But I kept reading because I actually like Natalya. She was brave and strong and such a patriot. Leo was also a patriot, but he had such a different upbrining, he came to a much different conclusion of what Russia needed. It made me sad, really. There was so much bloodshed between two groups that loved the same country.

The storyline wasn’t exactly what I expected, either. I thought Natalya would go after the egg. Really, the egg was important, but it came second to getting out of St. Petersburg, escaping Leo, and getting her friend Emilia to Paris. Plus, I knew where the egg was the whole time, so the suspense wasn’t as much of “where’s the egg?” as it was “how the heck is Natalya going to get it out of there?”

Despite a not-so-stellar beginning, Tsarina turned out to be a pretty good book. According to the author’s note in the back, most of the history isn’t accurate (although Rasputin’s daughter was a real person), so I can’t say I learned a lot about the time period. But I did enjoy the story, which is definitely something.

Review: Silver Phoenix

Image from Cindy Pon

Title: Silver Phoenix

Series: Phoenix #1

Author: Cindy Pon

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Back Cover:

No one wants Ai Ling. Deep down, she is relieved – despite the dishonor she has brought on her family – to be unbetrothed and free, not some stranger’s bride banished to the inner quarters. But now, something is after her. Something horrible. And as pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to realize that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams isn’t only a quest to find her father, but a venture with stakes higher than she could imagine. Just as she will need the mysterious power growing within her, she will also need help. On a quest of his own, Chen Yong offers that help…and perhaps more.

Review:

I think it must have been the Chinese class I just started that convinced me to pick up this book, because I can’t think of another reason. The title caught my interest a while ago (Silver Phoenix was my screen name at one point), but it just didn’t sound all that interesting to me until I found myself checking it out from the library.

Ai Ling was interesting. From what I know of ancient Chinese culture (and admittedly, I don’t know much), she seemed a little more brave and independent than I would have expected. I liked her, but it seemed like she didn’t exactly fit the story.

Chen Yong I also liked. He was sweet and supportive and a dang good fighter, and I enjoyed him and the tentative maybe-romance between him and Ai Ling. I didn’t love him, though, kind of because he was really private. It seemed like everything Ai Ling learned about him she learned secondhand.

Li Rong, Chen Yong’s younger brother, was actually my favorite character. He was a flirt and a goofball with a fabulous sense of humor – one of those guys who will make you laugh no matter the situation. It made me sad that he was in so little of the book.

The plot seemed a little disjointed at times for me. Ai Ling’s betrothal goes south, and her father doesn’t return from a trip. So she leaves to go find her father, but keeps getting attacked by evil things. It isn’t until over halfway through the book when Ai Ling discovers what’s really going on and why she actually came on the journey. Some of it felt a little predestined-ish to me, which seemed like a cop-out at times. It was good, but not fantastic.

I loved seeing lots of Chinese magic and mythology. The plot hinged on reincarnation, which I couldn’t completely suspend my disbelief over, but I loved discovering the Chinese take on gods and mythical creatures and heaven and other mythological stuff.

Apparently, there is a sequel, Fury of the Phoenix, which I did not know about until I explored Cindy Pon’s website. I do not think I will read it. Silver Phoenix was good, not great. I did enjoy the story, but I have no desire to continue.

The Phoenix series:

1. Silver Phoenix
2. Fury of the Phoenix

Review: Dark Triumph

Image from Robin LaFevers

Title: Dark Triumph

Series: His Fair Assassin #2

Author: Robin LaFevers

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Warning: This book is second in a series, so this review will probably contain spoilers of book one, Grave Mercy.

Back Cover:

Sybella arrived at the convent’s doorstep half mad with grief and despair. Those that served Death were too happy to offer her refuge – but at a price. Naturally skilled in the arts of both death and seduction, Sybella is the convent’s most dangerous weapon. But those assassin’s skills are little help when the convent returns her to a life that nearly drove her mad. Her father’s rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother’s love equally monstrous. And while Sybella is a weapon of justice wrought by the god of Death Himself, He must give her a reason to live. When she discovers an unexpected ally imprisoned in the dungeons, will a daughter of Death find something other than vengeance to live for?

Review:

After the awesome fun of Grave Mercy, I couldn’t wait for Dark Triumph to come out. But when I finally got my hands on it, I became a little less excited – this book follows Sybella, a different assassin-nun mentioned in Grave Mercy, and I wanted more of Ismae.

In Grave Mercy, I remembered Sybella as being the deadliest and slightly insane. So I was surprised at how much I liked her. She’d suffered so much at the hands of her father and brothers…she was so scarred and angry and all she wanted was vengeance. She also had an interesting faith journey – even though her religion was a little crazy, I could relate to the feelings.

I don’t usually mention the “bad guy,” but I just have to say something about D’Albret because he was so completely and utterly evil. He’d kill people on suspicion. He’d kill people for failure. He’d kill people because he didn’t like them or because they weren’t essential to his plans. He’d kill a newborn baby for no reason whatsoever. Rape and incest were just fun for him. I cannot think of another character I’ve read who was as evil as Sybella’s father.

While a few of the characters carry over from the previous book (the duchess, the Beast of Waroch, Ismae, and Duval), most of them only had minor parts. The general cast of Dark Triumph was a whole new set of people.

The plot of Dark Triumph was somewhat similar to Grave Mercy‘s – Mortain’s daughter sent undercover to a noble house to kill people – but was still very different. There was very little courtly intrigue (D’Albret was more into murder than intrigue) and lots of senseless death. There was even quite a bit of incest, which I would normally have hated, but it was in the past and it was handled as a traumatizing event, so I didn’t mind.

The put-the-duchess-on-the-throne plot was continued in Dark Triumph, but it wasn’t as strong. It moved along, but the story focused more on Sybella and her emotional journey. Which, to be honest, I enjoyed. After all, with Sybella, there’s a pretty high chance of action.

Just like in Grave Mercy, my biggest problem with Dark Triumph was with the romance. And it wasn’t the characters, or the romance itself – I just couldn’t get over how I thought the guy was way too old for Sybella. (I’m not saying who he is – that would be a spoiler.) From my estimates (I don’t think their ages were ever actually mentioned) I put Sybella in the 18-20 range and the guy in the 35-40 area. I’m not sure how true that was, but every time something romantic happened, I kept thinking how this guy was probably old enough to be her dad.

I loved Dark Triumph just as much as Grave Mercy. I grew to love Sybella, but I still wanted to see more of Ismae. I think it would be really awesome if the third book, Mortal Heart, alternated perspectives of the two, but according to the blurb in the back of my copy, it’s going to follow a different daughter of Mortain altogether. But I still want to read it.

His Fair Assassin series:

1. Grave Mercy
2. Dark Triumph
3. Mortal Heart

Review: Grave Mercy

Image from smallreview.blogspot.com

Title:  Grave Mercy

Series: His Fair Assassin #1

Author:  Robin LaFevers

Genre:  Historical Fantasy

Back Cover:

Escaping from an abusive arranged marriage, Ismae finds sancuary at the convent of St. Mortain.  There she learns that Mortain himself has blessed her with deadly gifts – and a violent destiny.  As a handmaiden to Death, Ismae’s assignment is to infiltrate the high court of Brittany and protect the duchess, posing as mistress to Gavriel Duval, who has fallen under the convent’s suspicion.  Once there, she finds herself woefully unprepared – not only for the deadly games of love and courtly intrigue, but for the impossible choices she must make.

Review:

This book intrigued me for two reasons.  One was the cover, which, although it was a standard girl-in-a-pretty-dress cover, also included a crossbow.  The other was the premise of assassin nuns.

Ismae, the main character, was one of those assassin nuns.  And as far as characters go, she was a fun one.  I loved watching the deadly girl try and navigate courtly life – especially when her first instinct when she gets upset is to stick a knife in whoever upset her.  She was exactly the kind of stubborn, kick-butt heroine I love to read about.

Strangely enough, I feel like I didn’t get to know Duval at all.  Sure, he loved his sister, was a good strategist, could be stubborn and could also be sweet, but I didn’t feel like I really knew him.  I don’t know if this will be developed in subsequent books or if I’m just crazy, but I got the feeling he was hiding something.

This book was the perfect blend of courtly intrigue and assassin-related stuff.  I found the court especially fascinating – it was like they were acting out roles, and everybody not only knew other people were acting but knew other people knew they were acting, yet they still acted!  I found it astounding, and yet riveting.

One thing I definitely have to give this book kudos for is plot.  There were a bunch of different plots and subplots (multiple threats to the duchess, Ismae’s service to Mortain, romance between Ismae and Duval), but they were all tied together so tightly that I don’t think you could remove one of them without tearing the whole story apart.

About the only thing I had a problem with in the book was one of the plotlines.  Something didn’t sit quite right with me about the romance.  It could be because of my impressions of Duval, or because I don’t thing a killer like Ismae could fall in love so quickly, but it just felt a little…off to me.

Other than that one minor detail, though, I really enjoyed the story.  It doesn’t make my top favorite books list, but I’ll definitely be reading the second book in the series, Dark Triumph, when it comes out sometime in the spring.

The His Fair Assassin series:

1. Grave Mercy
2. Dark Triumph
3. Mortal Heart