Northlight has a new cover!

Northlight

She's a Ranger, a wild and savvy knife-fighter, determined to get help in finding her partner who's lost on the treacherous northern border. He's a scholar who sees visions, eager to escape the confines of city life and the shadow of his charismatic mother. With the assassination of a beloved leader and the city in turmoil, the two have only each other to turn to. What begins as a rescue mission turns deadly as together they unravel the secret that lies beneath Laurea's idyllic surface.

 

 

Reviews:

 "A beautifully constructed fantasy with characters who grow and mature before the reader's eyes and who are engagingly human while being fantastically heroic. Her writing flows and the point of view switches are interesting and exciting. This book is a keeper." Rickey Mallory, Affair de Coeur

 "A style and manner reminiscent of McCaffrey's Crystal Singer series." The Bookwatch

 "An unusual saga that starts slowly but builds to a startling climax." Sherry S. Hoy, Kliatt

 "Solid characters and a well-designed world make for good reading." Philadelphia Press

"The plot moves briskly from crisis in Laureal to capture by the Norther barbarians to discovery of the true meaning of the Northlight of the title, with ample foreshadowing from the mysterious spooky something in the air of the frontier. And the culmination quite satisfactorily evokes the sense of wonder." Tom Easton, Analog

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2czh4mef

Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/3pvx9cp6

Everywhere else: https://books2read.com/u/3L7GXb

Book Reviews: A Monster-Wild West Mashup Fails

 Melinda West, Monster Gunslinger, by KC Grifant (Bridgid’s Gate Press)

I’m a softie for mash-ups like Jane Austen with supernatural creatures or, in this case, the Wild West with monsters. Throw in a strong, competent woman protagonist and you get a fun read, one in which I’m willing to overlook a lot. I won’t insist on peerless prose or immaculately consistent worldbuilding in a “fast, fun read” novel.

Melinda West, Monster Gunslinger had a great deal going for it, starting with a landscape inhabited by a slew of weird, wildly creative monsters (giant flying scorpions, psychic bugs, things with made-up names). All the creatures seem bent on mayhem, leaving me to wonder whatever happened to the herbivorous varieties, but such details are not essential in “fun, fast read” Monsters-in-Wild West tales. At the outset, I found the easy banter between Melinda and her partner, Lance, appealing, as they offer their services to desperate settlers beset by the aforementioned monsters.

Therein lay the first of several elements that kicked me out of the story. I lost sympathy for Melinda (and Lance, but mostly Melinda) when a wave of scorpion-monsters emerges from a mine and begins to swarm. Melinda demands payment from the sheriff of the beleaguered town. As in, right now or they’ll let the creatures do their worst. We call bullying vulnerable folks “punching down,” and it’s not okay in a sympathetic character. As it turned out, the sheriff had the payment ready, but what if he hadn’t? Would Melinda and Lance let the town be destroyed? Were they in it only for the money? I found this exploitative moment so off-putting, I never re-connected with the characters.

Following this, there’s a lot of dialog about getting together enough money to retire (someplace without monsters), a reunion, and the beginning of a quest that is no more believable than anything else in this world. By this time, the inconsistencies in worldbuilding, emotional distance from the characters, and amateurish prose turned continued reading into a slog. The prose occasionally rose to the level of adequate but was all too often clunky, pretentious, and laced with emotional manipulation of the reader. As I said, I can put up with a lot for the sake of a “fun, fast” story. I rolled my eyes at, “They continued upwards, the horses losing steam while they stomped through the snow mounds,” but kept going (these are normal horses, not mechanical, btw, and I leave it to you to imagine a horse stomping through snow). Here’s the line that caused me to stop reading: “His face hung grimmer than she had ever seen.”

Of course, YMMV.

Short Book Reviews: The Keeper's Six by Kate Elliott

The Keeper's Six, by Kate Elliott (Tordotcom)

 I’m an unabashed fan of stories featuring kick-ass older women. My favorites include The Stone War by Madeleine E. Robins and Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population. Now I add The Keeper's Six, by Kate Elliott. The story opens with middle-aged Esther getting a frantic, cut-off phone call from her adult son, Daniel. It turns out to be every mother’s nightmare: He’s been kidnapped. Only this is not the mundane world and Daniel’s kidnapper turns out to be a dragon lord who lives in an island of stable reality in the midst of the non-real, ever-shifting, fatally treacherous Beyond where Dark is deadly but Bright daylight is even more so. Esther is not without resources. Although they are on temporary suspension by the Powers-That-Be, she is a member of a Hex, a five-person magical team, a combination freelance fortune hunters and SWAT team. Their sixth member is Daniel, Keeper to the Keep (a bungalow on Oahu where Daniel’s partner and their quadruplet toddlers live) that provides passage and anchor between ordinary reality to the Beyond. After some persuasion, for Esther is responsible for the suspension and hence not in the Hex’s good graces, she convinces them to track down Daniel and rescue him, whatever it takes. Daniel, meanwhile, has been organizing the dragon lord’s servants to demand better working conditions through collective bargaining while whipping up heavenly pastries.

The story is by turns dramatic, thriller-tense, full of reversals and plot twists, inventive in both world-building and character development, touching, and funny. (I love the idea of magically indentured servants going on strike.) And a sweet could-be-love story. Elliott pulls off the difficult feat of weaving in backstory and innovative world-building without losing the dramatic movement of the opening scenes. It’s a stand-alone, self-contained gem. I expect fans will clamor for a sequel or five. The Keeper’s Six is so perfect, I hope she resists.

 

Short Book Reviews: A Wild West Thriller with a Black Heroine

 Lone Women, by Victor LaValle (One World)

In the early 20^th Century, a Black woman named Adelaide Henry sets out from California to the wilds of Montana. Like many others, she dreams of homesteading a much-hyped paradise. Everywhere she goes, she lugs an enormous steamer trunk…which she sings to as it makes ominous thumping sounds.

Montana turns out to be anything but a paradise. The weather is unimaginably brutal, and the physical labor of setting up a homestead is unrelenting. Worst of all is the crushing loneliness. From practically the moment she sets foot in the shack that came with her deed, neighbors appear--women desperate for a friend, and men equally desperate for female company and possible courtship.

Not all the visitors are benign and they all harbor secrets. There’s a family of grifters, thieves, and murderers, whose innocent-appearing blind children are the most vicious of the lot. A single woman schoolteacher with a clouded past and a child shunned inexplicably by everyone. A lesbian couple, one Black, one Chinese. Adelaide, with her work ethic and essential decency, soon settles into the community. She’s ever anxious to protect her own secret:

What’s in the trunk? And what havoc will it wreak if it gets out?

Gorgeously written, the book alternates between passages of emotional depth and suspense horror. Everyone hides something, and some secrets are more deadly than others. The layered unveiling of those secrets, and the compassion of the central character are handled with exceptional skill.

Highly recommended.

Short Book Reviews: Thoughtful Sociological SF from Rachel Swirsky

January Fifteenth, by Rachel Swirsky (Tordotcom)

Rachel Swirsky is one of the most thoughtful, provocative writers in contemporary science fiction. Her work embodies the human experience with all its pathos and glory, without ever preaching or descending into hyperbole. In January Fifteenth, she begins with asking “What if…?” What if Universal Basic Income happened? Who would it help, and how? Which problems would it solve, and which make worse? And how many lives would be untouched, because some problems cannot be solved by money?

Instead of an exposition-laden diatribe, Swirsky takes us inside the lives of four very different women. With compassion but notably without judgment, she plays out their days before, the day of, and after the annual UBI payouts. 

Hannah is a middle-aged mother fleeing an abusive ex-spouse, an escape made possible by her monthly UBI. But “doing a geographic” cannot solve her well-founded fears of discovery, nor can it take the place of unexpected and effective help.

Janelle is a single, Black, struggling journalist wrestling with a rebellious, activist younger sister. Her life has become an unending drudge of barely making ends meet by interviewing strangers about UBI, even though her sister and—formerly—she herself opposed the policy.

Sarah, a pregnant teenager, a prisoner of a religious cult that practices child marriage, polygamy, and keeping women poor and ignorant, trudges to the UBI disbursement center. Her money will not buy her freedom, even if she could imagine such a thing, for it belongs her elderly husband.

Finally, Olivia parties with her wealthy, entitled college student friends, vying for who can spend their UBI in the most wasteful fashion. Her life is a parade of drug-induced visions, superficial relationships, and fear that her parents will find out she’s flunked out. On the surface, she is the most financially well-off character, yet by far the most enslaved.

January Fifteenth is science fiction at its best: stories that are challenging, accessible and, most of all, human. 

Recommended.

Short #BookReviews: A New Tiger and Del Novel from Jennifer Roberson

 Sword-Bearer, A Novel of Tiger and Del, by Jennifer Roberson (DAW)

Ah, the pleasure of sitting down with a new Jennifer Roberson novel, especially a new Tiger and Del novel. From the first paragraph, I know I am in the hands of a superb storyteller. I’ve been following the adventures of “the Sandtiger” and Delilah since Sword-Dancer introduced them to a world of adoring fans. It’s taken them a number of novels and many adventures to come to a mutually respectful, often passionate relationship. In the process, Tiger has discovered his own innate talent for magic, something he never wanted and has done his best to rid himself of.

Now they’ve settled into a life of respectability, raising their young daughter while teaching student sword-dancers and owning a share in a local cantina. All that comes to a crashing halt with a series of bizarre, terrifying weather catastrophes. They’re off on another adventure to discover the source of the storms, a quest that will demand every bit of magic and sword skill the two can muster.

The plot description doesn’t come close to capturing the magic of the story itself, the memorable characters and their choices, the harshly gorgeous landscapes, the sizzling action, superbly handled tension, evocative details, and plot twists. I love the vividness, courage, and frailties of Roberson’s characters. In her hands, the most extraordinary heroes become appealingly human. Most of all, though, the books portray the abiding love between Del and Tiger, their devotion based on trust and respect, with generous moments of juicy desire. I love how they’re each able to accept differences of opinion without the slightest doubt and to rely not only on their own skills but their partner’s. Eight books later, the romance is still alive. Not only alive, but deep, quiet, and true. If this, for nothing else, the Tiger and Del books are worth cherishing and re-reading.

 

Short Book Reviews: Speaking With Ghosts Can Get You Killed

 Daughter of Redwinter, by Ed McDonald (Tor)

What a great read! From the first page, this book grabbed me and carried me along. Superb action, wonderful characters, ever-escalating stakes, and mystery. The story opens with Raine, our heroine, creeping out the back way from a monastery under military siege, looking for an escape route, only to encounter a mysterious wounded woman who is desperate to get back in. On the woman’s heels are a group of warrior-magicians, bent on stopping her even if it means tearing down the walls. The military besiegers are willing to aid the magicians, but what they’re after is inside — people with “grave-sight” that allows them to see, and sometimes speak with, the dead. Raine is one of those with the talent that means execution, should it be discovered. All her life she has hidden, lied, and run away to save her skin, and she’s made some spectacularly bad choices along the way.

The book was full of drama and poignant emotion, hard-bitten action and sweet romance. The balance between slowly unfolding mystery, lightning reversals and betrayals, and coming of age of a most remarkable heroine was exceptionally well handled. Most of all, from the very first paragraphs, I found myself relaxing into the hands of a master storyteller, confident that wherever the tale took me, it would be a wild and infinitely satisfying ride. I was never disappointed.

 

Short Book Reviews: The Mystery of the Crow Folk Revealed!

This latest novel in the “Warrior Bard” series will delight Marillier fans. After the events in The Harp of Kings and A Dance with Fate, everyone seems to have settled happily. Liobhan, who is both a skillful musician and an elite Swan Island warrior, is with her sweetheart, nobly born Dau, although by tradition they are not allowed to go on missions together. Her half-fey brother, Brocc, has retreated to the Otherworld with his fey wife and infant daughter, whom he adores. Swan Island continues to train young warriors and provide their special blend of espionage, counsel, and martial prowess. Then, of course, everything falls apart. Brocc’s attempts to establish a truce with the vicious Crow Folk lead to his and his daughter’s expulsion into the mortal realm. Dau’s latest mission puts him at risk of encountering the brother who tortured him and Liobhan, and a crown prince has gone missing and is possibly dead. Disparate story lines gradually weave together as the true menace emerges, along with the alliance that will defeat it.

I enjoyed A Song in Flight very much, especially the chance to spend more time with my favorite characters, watch Dau and Liobhan recover from the traumatic experiences of the last book, and delve the mysterious origin of the Crow Folk. Without having read the previous two books, however, much of this one would have been confusing. This is an issue every author who writes multi-volume series faces. If you put in enough background to fully orient a new reader, you risk losing faithful fans through repetition and boredom. Marillier does a fine job reminding the reader without bashing over the head, but in the end, it’s best to read the previous volumes in order.

Book Reviews: Naomi Novik's Deadly Magical School

The Last Graduate, by Naomi Novik (Ballantine)

I’ve loved Naomi Novik’s work since discovering her “Napoleonic Wars With Dragons” series (Temeraire). It seemed to me that with each book, both in that series and more recent publications, she has grown in skill and depth. I read the first two volumes of “Scholomance” back-to-back. It’s fair to say I inhaled them, they were so good.

I’ve been reading a bunch of magical school stories recently, and the Scholomance books redefine the genre. Many of the other books use a boarding school-like setting, whether it’s Hogwarts or the school of magical juvenile delinquents in Promise Me Nothing, by Dawn Vogel or the more troubled environment of D. R. Perry’s Sorrow and Joy. The schools and their teachers are charged with educating (and sometimes reforming) their students. Not so the Scholomance. Created by elite wizards to protect their adolescent offspring from being the prime targets of supernatural nasties (“maleficaria”), the school exists in a pocket carved out of the void, with only a narrow access to the outer world. There are no teachers, mail service or messengers except to a limited degree the incoming freshman classes, and the school may be sentient, trying to do its job regardless of the cost. Students take their classes as seriously as if their lives depended upon them, which they do. At the end of the senior year, the doors of the graduation hall open and all the incoming and resident nasties flood in, forming a gauntlet that only a few students survive. Even so, their odds are better than if the kids had stayed at home.

Into this world comes Galadriel (who hates her name, so she’s “El”), daughter of an unrepentant hippie witch who lives in a yurt in Wales (wrap your mind around that!) and gives away her best spells for free in a world of precisely measured tit-for-tat. A prophecy has marked El as destined for destruction and dark magic, and she’s become a self-isolating pariah noted for her uncensored rudeness. When heroic Orion Lake keeps saving her life, she can’t get rid of him. Gradually, they become friends (and more than friends). Much to her amazements, El gathers together a small team of fellow students, since cooperation and coordination will provide their only hope for surviving the graduation ordeal. At the end of their junior year, El and her friends joined forces with the graduating seniors, with surprising success.

Now it’s their turn, as graduating seniors. El has grown from a grouchy recluse to a young woman of courage and compassion, a born leader. She can inspire, cajole, and persuade the other seniors to work together to save the entire class, but that will leave successive generations of students to face the same heavy mortality. El wants to save them all and put an end to the yearly massacre. She comes up with a plan to graduate every single student, culminating in a mass extinction of the maleficaria. Her scheme will take every scrap of ingenuity, persuasion, and sheer magical power she possesses. To make matters worse, the school itself seems to have turned against her…

Novik combines a different and much grittier take on the “magical school” trope with a compelling central character who changes and grows. El faces her fears and insecurities, as well as the temptation of evil sorcery, to become a passionate and compassionate leader. Her voice drives the movement of the books. I can hardly wait to see what impossible-seeming tasks she tackles next!

Short Book Reviews: A Heroine of the Magical Underclass

 Servant Mage, by Kate Elliott (Tor)

Kate Elliott always delivers entertaining stories with relatable characters, and Servant Mage is no exception. Indentured fire-mage Fellian leads a drab life, half-starved and clinging to memories of her childhood, before the rigid, fundamentalist Liberationists came to power and enslaved anyone with magical power. The usurped Monarchists have formed an underground rebellion, and they need Fellian’s Fire magic. Of course, one among them is devastatingly handsome, thereby setting expectations of romance to come, as well as the restoration of a noble, altruistic king.. Here’s where Elliott departs from the usual and becomes deeply subversive. Fellian holds steadfastly to her own values when presented with an attractive man and the lure of a benevolent monarchy restored. Instead, she asks piercing questions and relies on her own judgment, time and time again. She is keenly aware that the other conspirators need her special talent, and she’s not about to exchange her autonomy for a new community. In short, she thinks for herself. Through her, Elliott strongly questions the romantic notion so prevalent in fantasy: the noble aristocracy, devoted to the welfare of their subjects. Fellian insists that to trust future generations of entitled rulers is folly and that exchanging one form of top-down rule for another is no guarantee against despotism. This emperor might be just and fair, but in a generation, common people like her might find themselves just as oppressed.

I love how respectful Elliott is of her readers’ intelligence. She plays fair and gives us all the information we need (such as Fellian’s passion for literacy in teaching fellow servants to read and write) without ramming conclusions down our throats. She lets the characters and unfolding events speak for themselves without telling us how to feel about them. For this, and for superb storytelling and compelling characters, I’ll grab anything she writes!

 

Book Reviews: Forget the Game Tie-In, This is Great SF!

The Necropolis Empire, A Twilight Imperium Novel, by Tim Pratt (Aconyte)

Tim Pratt writes a lot of very cool science fiction. From his “Axiom” series (my gateway into his work) to The Doors of Sleep (which I really, really hope will become an entire series, now that there’s a sequel) to his “Twilight Imperium” novels. When I reviewed the first of these, The Fractured Void, I had no idea that Twilight Imperium is a war-without-end strategic game. I wrote, “Game tie-in novels are common these days, but not those that are so well crafted as to stand on their own merits. I picked it up because I loved Tim Pratt’s other science fiction novels (and after reading it I still have no idea what Twilight Imperium is, nor do I particularly care as long as Pratt turns out books as good as this one).” That’s even more true for The Necropolis Empire. If you, like me, are so much Not a Gamer that you’re into negative gamer-ness, just ignore that part and enjoy the book as a great science fiction tale.

Standing on its own, The Necropolis Empire falls into one of my favorite science fiction subgenres: spooky alien ruins. In this case, very, very old alien ruins from a race we’re really glad has gone extinct. Now if folks would just stop trying to resurrect their tech…

Our young heroine, Bianca, lives on one such world, a pastoral culture built on top of the aforementioned, deeply buried alien tech. Scavenged bits are useful, but mostly the farmers go about their lives…until a ship from the imperialist Barony of Letnev arrives, annexes the planet, and carries Bianca away with a rather incredulous story about her being a space princess. Bianca falls for it, though. Not only is she adopted, but rather than settle down with a nice neighbor boy, she has always yearned for something beyond her own world. That something becomes clearer when she begins changing, developing superhuman speed, strength, senses, healing, and more. The ruthless Letnev believe she is the key to finding and controlling the ancient military relics, which they mean to use to dominate all known space. Bianca has other ideas.

I absolutely love how vulnerable and how competent Bianca is. Her confidence in herself and her abilities stems from more than her new, superhuman powers. As a child, she was wanted and cherished, never coddled but given responsibilities. She grew up with permission to tackle all manner of challenges, and she’s a genuinely nice person. The Letnev, not so much. They’ve perfected arrogance to an art form.

I would be perfectly happy to see an entire series of “The Adventures of Bianca,” although I sadly fear the good folks who’ve created Twilight Imperium are more interested in promoting their game and not so much in a fascinating character who stands on her own.

Very Short Book Reviews: A time-travel supernatural mystery thriller

The Lost Girls of Foxfield Hall, by Jessica Thorne (Bookouture)

Two very different women separated by sixty years of history – garden designer Megan in 2019 and heiress Ellie in 1939 – meet in a moonlit hedge maze. After the usual suspicions are allayed, they discover how much they have in common. The legendary Green Lady, who may or may not be Arthur’s Guinevere. Two stern women with the surname Seaborne, one an archaeologist in Megan’s time, the other a wartime secret service agent in the employ of Ellie’s father – or is it the same person? When Megan starts researching Ellie’s home, Foxfield Hall, she discovers that Ellie disappeared without a trace. Then it’s a race against the countdown to the date of that disappearance, for both women to discover the link between the supernatural feminine figures called Vala, the tunnel through time, and the fate not only of Ellie but of Megan herself.

A highly readable time-travel supernatural mystery thriller, The Lost Girls of Foxfield Hall hits all the notes perfectly with smooth prose, evocative details, compelling characters, and a superbly revealed mystery.

Very Short Book Reviews: Marjorie Liu's Delicious Collection

The Tangleroot Palace, by Marjorie Liu (Tachyon)

This collection was my introduction to the work of Marjorie Liu. I found the stories oddly disquieting while I was reading them but Liu’s skill was so evident, I trusted it all to come together and I was not disappointed. I didn’t like all the stories equally, but that’s to be expected in any assortment of short fiction. These feel as if they’re paced like novels, but I think that’s because of the unusually subtle ways Liu weaves together the various fictional elements. Her work reminds me of that of the late Phyllis Eisenstein, who told emotionally complex, sophisticated stories with simple language. Here the real story lies beneath the mechanics of prose and plot, each thread of the tapestry contributing to a gorgeous and emotionally satisfying whole. And the last piece, a novella that gives its name to the collection, is just jaw-droppingly awesome.

Short Book Reviews: Saving the Prince of the Holy Russian Empire

The Russian Cage, by Charlaine Harris (Gallery / Saga Press)

This is the third installment of the “Gunnie Rose” series, featuring hired gunslinger Lizbeth Rose in an alternate 1930s America in which the United States has fractured into different nations, the West Coast being the Holy Russian Empire. In previous stories (A Longer Fall is reviewed here), Lizbeth encountered, then partnered with and fell in love with, Eli, a gregori (wizard) and Prince of the aforementioned Holy Russian Empire. Their adventures took place in the Southern regions, but now he’s been arrested in San Diego, and Lizbeth sets out to rescue him. As resourceful as she is, and as keen a sharpshooter, nothing has prepared her for the dangerous intricacies of royal court politics, certainly not her previous life, which was poor in material goods but rich with love.

I loved Lizbeth’s first-person voice, a bit Southern-folksy in the manner of Sookie Stackhouse of the True Blood series, but not the same character. Lizbeth has little formal education but a good deal of common sense, kindness, and life experience. While the story moves right along, I most enjoyed the tiny details of Lizbeth’s life. No wonder Prince Eli fell in love with her!

Book Reviews: The Two (Women) Musketeers

For the Good of the Realm, by Nancy Jane Moore (Aqueduct)

The elevator pitch for this charming historical fantasy is “The Three Musketeers With Women.” That does not do justice to the book by a long shot. The concept is familiar enough, from both the novels by Alexandre Dumas and the many film adaptations. In this swashbuckler tale, heroic, chivalrous swordsmen fight for justice and for their unbreakable friendship. The original, written in 1844, featured men in all the fun roles, with women being either weepy and weak or deviously evil. But why should the men have all the fun? I expect just about every female reader or viewer has railed at the injustice of depriving half the human race of such valorous deeds. Nancy Jane Moore, a thoughtful writer and skilled martial artist, has now set things right.

For the Good of the Realm is and isn’t like The Three Musketeers. There’s a realm like France, a royal couple divided by politics, each served by their own dedicated guard, and the head of the Church bent on cementing their own power. In this world, however, the Queen’s Guard is comprised of women, and the King’s Guard of men, and the queen’s advisors are largely women, as is the Hierophante. Add to this the existence of magic, condemned by the Church, arousing superstitious dread but freely used by the enemies of the Realm. There is no green recruit, D’Artagnan, but a pair of women friends from the Queen’s Guard – Anna D’Gart and Aramis, who fights duels as an amusement and cannot quite seem to give up her bawdy relations to become a priest. Each has a lover from the King’s Guard from whom they must keep secrets, but with whom they occasionally join forces.

The structure of this novel reflects the style to which it does homage. The point of view straddles the divide between third and omniscient, less intimate than is currently in vogue but marvelously evocative of Dumas and his contemporaries. Moore’s control of language and tone never falters as she draws the reader into not only a different world but a slightly different way of experiencing that world. Today we confuse “closeness” in point of view with emotional closeness to a character, but as Dumas and now Moore demonstrate, readers can feel very much in touch with a character through the careful depiction of actions and words. This is, after all, how we come to understand the people in our lives. “The adventures of…” implies an episodic arrangement, but here each chapter and each incident builds on what has come before and lays the foundation for what is to come in subtle, complex ways. The final confrontation between Anna d’Gart and the evil, scheming Hierophante is less a Death Star explosion than it is the inevitable showdown between two highly competent chess players.

In reflecting on the pleasure of immersing myself in For the Good of the Realm, it strikes me as a tapestry created by a master weaver. There is an overall picture but the intricate details and skill of the stitchery – the lives and relationships of the characters – are what lend it depth and resonance.

Order it from Amazon here or from your favorite bookstore.

Short Book Reviews: Telepathic Cats in Space Return!

 Prime Deceptions, by Valerie Valdes (Harper Voyager)

Captain Eva Innocente, dauntless hero of Chilling Effect (reviewed here) is back in action, along with her crew that are more like family than her real relatives. And those real relatives are back in her life, catapulting her into another adventure. This time it’s Eva’s sister, offering a huge reward for a missing scientist who just happens to be the brother of one of the crew. The chase leads Eva and her friends from one planet to another, through the halls of Evercon – home of the eternal sf/f/costume/gaming convention – and finally to a planet that Eva would just as soon forget. Enter, also, Eva’s mother, accountant extraordinaire, and a plot to take over the universe via Pokémon-like intelligent toys.

As in the previous book, smooth prose and colorful characters team up with a complex, long-view plot that has lots of action reversals, and quieter moments. The center of the story, though, is the love that binds together the crew of La Sirena Negra into a family-of-choice.

Short Book Reviews: Romance, Magic, and Impossible Choices

The Midnight Bargain, by C. L. Polk (Erewhon Books)

Settling into a new C. L. Polk novel is akin to wrapping myself in a plushy robe, hot chocolate in hand, and then fastening my seat belt. And just after I wrote this, I learned that The Midnight Bargain has been named a Finalist for the Nebula Award. I’m delighted but not in the least surprised.

The Midnight Bargain is set is a culture with many of the same technology levels and romantic sensibilities as Polk’s previous Witchmark and Stormsong, sort-of-Western-European settings in which magic is both prized and limited. In the world of The Midnight Bargain, boys master their magic through rigorous training, but girls are all but forbidden the same knowledge, no matter how strong their talents. Their value lies in the marriage alliances they will bring to their families, through the “bargaining season” of formal, organized courtship, and the magically gifted sons they will bear. Upon marriage, a bride is locked into a magic-nullifying collar, akin to rendering her half-blind, half-deaf, and half-alive, to prevent her from carrying a child whose soul can then be stolen by a demon. Only after she has passed her child-bearing years, when it is too late to achieve any degree of mastery, will her husband, the keeper of the keys, release her.

Into this world comes Beatrice Clayton, powerfully magical and even more powerfully determined to practice her talents to the fullest. Her impoverished but genteel family counts on her to make a brilliant (meaning wealthy) match. Her only hope is to find a grimoire that will teach her how to bind a lesser, and then a greater, demon, thus qualifying her as a Magus, beyond the usual expectations of marriage.

The Midnight Bargain has so many story elements I adore: a strong woman protagonist with a gift for friendship and a determination to live her own life on her own terms; impossible situations requiring unexpected, creative solutions; the enduring value of friendships; and self-worth valued above romance. As with Polk’s previous novels, the story swept me up, turning pages late into the night, in love with Beatrice and the other characters (well, not the loathsome toad ones). My particular favorite was Nadi, minor demon of luck, desperately hungry for human sensory experiences, at times childish and mischievous but always amusing.

At turns romantic, dramatic, and humorous, The Midnight Bargain is highly recommended.

 

Short Book Reviews: Juliette Marillier at Her Most Addictive

 A Dance with Fate, by Juliet Marillier (Ace)

In The Harp of Kings, only the most promising students qualify for the elite Swan Island school for assassins, warriors, and spies. Two such were Liobhan, a gifted singer and even more gifted fighter, and self-exiled prince, Dau. Sent together on a spy mission along with Liobhan’s bard brother, Brocc, it was hate at first sight and an ongoing challenge to work together for the success of the mission. Now Brocc has followed his fae heritage into the Otherworld, leaving Liobhan and Dau to continue honing their skills and an increasingly friendly rivalry. A freak training accident leaves Dau blind. Liobhan blames herself, since the two were sparring at the time, but so does Dau’s vicious, abusive older brother. Rather than expose the secrets of Swan Island, the elders strike a bargain with Dau’s family: he is to return home, where he will be cared for, and Liobhan will serve as an indentured bondswoman for a year. Dau’s brother has agreed not to harm her physically, but there is nothing to stop his cruelty.

The situation is a recipe for disaster. Dau is right to be fearful of being at the mercy of his older brother and heir to the estate, doubly so because of the extreme vulnerability due to his blindness. Old traumas haunt him, threatening to drag him into suicidal despair. It will take all Liobhan’s healing skills, empathy, and bloody-minded authority to keep him alive. Meanwhile, the violently aggressive Crow People launch ever-increasing attacks on both fae and human communities.

Engaging, dramatic, romantic, and thoughtful, A Dance with Fate is Marillier at her most addictive. Highly recommended.

Short Book Reviews: My Introduction to Rebecca Roanhorse's Work

Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)

This novel was my introduction to the work of Rebecca Roanhorse, of whom I had heard a great deal. From the beginning, I was struck by the originality of her world and cultures that were at once relatable and quite different from the typical Western-European-derived canon. Set in a fantasy pre-Columbian (or non-Columbian?) Central America, the story weaves together the lives of disparate characters, who will all come together at “the Convergence,” a predicted eclipse. The story is told from multiple points of view, jumping back and forth in time. This is often a recipe for reader confusion and disengagement, but I found the characters compelling enough to hold my interest and to welcome each new section. I found the jumps in time distracting and largely unnecessary, but I admit to a personal preference for chronologically linear stories. In the end, though, it was the novelty and richness of the world that enchanted me.

Having Fun With Women Characters in Thunderlord (aka “Jane Austen on Darkover”)

Across genres, we accept the importance of bonds between brothers; I would argue that in speculative fiction, at least, we give less weight to the loyalty and emotional intimacy between sisters. This may be due to the domestic setting for sisterly concerns. Brothers march off to war together, but sisters hold hands when one is giving birth. If one or both is unmarried, sisters set up housekeeping together, often living their entire lives under the same roof. Yet the relationship between sisters opens many fascinating and challenging story possibilities.

I’ve found that once I step away from the models of male-bonding or male-female romantic love as the only possibilities for central relationships, my stories get a lot more interesting and also emotionally powerful. They don’t necessarily have to be the sole or pivotal bonds in a story. Just as in real life, they form a critical foundation for any social setting.

Thunderlord’s  emotional heart is the relationship between the two Rockraven sisters, Kyria and Alayna. This being Darkover, I also included plenty of action and adventures — banshees and laran and bandits, oh my. Through all this — and a love story or two — the sisters are so integral to the tale that at times I felt as if I were channeling Elizabeth and Jane from Pride and Prejudice (or Marianne and Elinor from Sense and Sensibility). Sisters are not always close, but when they are, the relationships are complex, rich, and enduring. Lovers may come and go, the saying goes, but sisterhood is forever.

I didn’t set out to write “The Bennett Sisters on Darkover.” I began with a few pages of Marion’s notes on a sequel to Stormqueen, almost all of it backstory, and the title of the proposed book. I didn’t want to repeat the general plot of Stormqueen or its tragic ending, and I also wanted to experience whatever adventure the story took me on through the eyes of fresh, new characters.

Although the Rockraven family isn’t anything like the Bennetts, I kept finding similarities: a noble but impoverished family, the pressure for one or both girls to secure the family’s financial future by their marriages, their wistful longing to marry for love, how the sisters are different but devoted to each other, and so forth. There are no balls in the neighborhood, no mother with imaginary illnesses scheming to “make a good marriage” for her daughters, no problem about the inheritance of the estate, and certainly no Mr. Darcy to be unpleasant to everyone. Practical Kyria deals with her family’s poverty by donning her brother’s clothes and trapping animals for food. Romantic Alayna dreams of love stories while understanding that such a happy ending means they must be parted, most likely forever. Distances on Darkover are much greater than in Regency England!