Jen – Made of Stardust and Stubbornness

“And the Mighty Will Fall” Review

Posted on November 22, 2024 by Jen

“And the Mighty Will Fall” (NeoG No. 4) by K.B. Wagers

The mission of the Near-Earth Orbital Guard is to ensure the peace and security of the solar system. Commander Maxine Carmichael and Lieutenant Commander Saqib Vahid are at the Mars Orbital Station (MOS) to help facilitate the official handover from NeoG to Mars civilian control as part of the ongoing negotiations. Members of the extreme wings of the fight for Martian independence refuse to remain silent, and are willing to resort to violence to make their voices heard; Max and Saqib find themselves fighting for their lives. The attacks both on the MOS and the ground of Mars sets off a chain reaction that could destabilize the last few years of cautious peace.

The leader of Free Mars, Sylvia Moroz, knows better than anyone how fragile harmony is, having seen for decades the Coalition of Human Nations’ inability to negotiate for peace. Without any assurances—and knowing her splintered people all too well—anything less than complete liberation will only lead to more bloodshed. She’s not opposed to fighting, but when there’s an attempt on her life, she finds she must look for help from the NeoG and Commander D’Arcy Montaglione. The pair will have to overcome their past to figure out who they can trust and how to stop the attacks on the ground before more lives are lost.

Trapped inside the station, Carmichael and Vahid are scrambling to not only get to the bottom of the attackers’ motives, but also to simply survive. Because with the rest of the Zuma’s Ghost crew stuck down on Mars, it’s up to them to do what they can to keep the MOS from fully falling into the wrong hands… and keep Mars from descending into all-out war.

Review

I really had fun reading this one. It was an exciting read all the way through. There was a lot going on and sometimes it was hard to keep track but it worked well enough. I liked the way the author wrote Maxine being able to handle a lot of things and get through everything and do what needed to be done. I also liked the way the ending of the book actually deals with the fallout of everything Maxine had to do to survive. I also liked that everyone on the ground was working together to figure out what was going on and help Maxine. I felt like everyone was well written and I liked the way everyone interacted. There were a few interesting twists and turns in the book that kept things exciting.

While this is the fourth book in the NeoG series it’s mostly a standalone so I went ahead and read it before reading the other two books. While, I do think it helps to have at least read the first book in the series, I don’t think it’s a strict requirement. How well it works for someone as a standalone novel is going to depend on how easily one can stand being dropped into a story without everything being explained. It’s like reading one of the Star Trek tie in novels without having seen the show. Naturally there were a couple obviously important details that would have made more sense having read the other books, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the story. If anything it made me want to read the other two books sooner rather than later.

Book Details

Author’s Website: K.B. Wagers
Publisher / Date: Harper Voyager, November 2024
Genre: Science Fiction
Page Count: 464
Completion Date: November 21, 2024

“Thistlefoot” Review

Posted on November 17, 2024November 17, 2024 by Jen

“Thistlefoot” by GennaRose Nethercott

The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home outside Kyiv—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide—erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore: a powerful and poignant exploration of healing from multi-generational trauma told by a bold new talent.

Review

This was a great story. It starts off a bit slow and the personalities of the characters can be a little annoying for opposite reasons but it makes sense for the story and how they’re dealing with everything. There’s a lot of history involved and not just their own personal history but the family history. I like the way the Yaga siblings are basically opposites with how they handle the world, one always running one always needing to be in control. In the end though both are needed to defeat their enemy. Each sibling has their own gifts and both end up being important. I really like the way final confrontation plays out and the way the book ends – which is also a beginning.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Thistlefoot”

Book Details

Author’s Website: GennaRose Nethercott
Publisher / Date: Anchor, September 2022
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Horror
Page Count: 435
Completion Date: November 17, 2024

“The Relentless Legion” Review

Posted on November 16, 2024November 16, 2024 by Jen

“The Relentless Legion” (The Divide No. 3) by J. S. Dewes

The Sentinels have rallied under the leadership of Adequin Rake, and Cavalon Mercer has uncovered the horrifying genetic solution his grandfather is about to unleash on the unsuspecting outer colonies.

Both Rake and Cavalon race against time to save the universe once again. They’ll need every resource, every ally who might answer the call.

It might not be enough.

Review

This was a great conclusion to the series! I love the characters and their relationships. The friendships and camaraderie were the best part of the series. I liked the way the friendship between Adequin and Cavalon developed without turning into anything else which worked for the plot. And it was good that the additional relationship Adequin has doesn’t really become obvious until the end of the book when there’s actually time to go there. I liked the way there were multiple twits and turns! There were two specific stations that I don’t want to spoil but I really liked that in both it required a huge amount of friendship and trust to solve.

Overall, I enjoyed how everything played out and the way the situation with Augustus was resolved even if I did feel like the ending was a bit rushed. Everything was wrapped up a little too quickly without a lot of explanation of how it would be. Augustus had a lot of control and influence but once he’s stopped there seemed to be no conflicted.

All that said, I still wish the world of the books had been explained in more detail. I believe it would have helped to have a clearer idea of how everything was situated. Even with the space gates that allow for traveling vast distances it feels as though for this series the “Universe” has been shrunk down to one Galaxy (instead of billions) which humans live in and just happen to be near the edge of the Universe. Especially with the idea of being able to patrol the divide (the edge of the entire Universe) and having characters working on the other side of the “Universe” at times.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “The Relentless Legion”

Book Details

Author’s Website: J.S. Dewes
Publisher / Date: Tor Publishing, November 2024
Genre: Science Fiction
Page Count: 474
Completion Date: November 15, 2024

“Machinehood” Review

Posted on November 8, 2024November 8, 2024 by Jen

“Machinehood” by S.B. Divya

Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive, but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process.

All that changes when Welga’s client is killed by The Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human, part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week.

Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill. Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight.

Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want?

A thrilling and thought-provoking novel that asks: if we won’t see machines as human, will we instead see humans as machines?

Review

I enjoyed this one for the most part but I do prefer the author’s later books “Meru” and the sequel “Loka” to some degree. Though to be fair – the main difference with those two books is they are more about individual struggles vs worldwide struggles which might be someone else’s preference. Also “Meru” and “Loka” are set much farther into the future than this one (it’s only 2095 in “Machinehood”) and I feel like that setting works better with the creation of AIs and how they developed. Especially considering the issues with AIs in today’s world.

I did feel like this book took a bit of effort to get through as there was a lot of world building and development of what was going on. Sometimes I felt like more could have been explained but it also would have made the book even longer. The book has two point of view characters, Welga and her sister-in-law Nithya and one of the things I did like was the way the plot developed around them. I felt like the dual plots worked well as they both figured what was going on with the Machinehood and possible solutions. The family dynamics were interesting to read as well though there was a minor sub-plot that felt oddly place and not necessary to the overall plot (unless there was an intended point I missed). I did like the resolution of the core situation but it was obviously only the beginning of the changes that would be coming and issues that would need to be solved.

One thing that did bug me was that Welga uses intelligence based insults a lot. It was enough that I started to really get annoyed when often I can let it go for the sake of the story. That said it did almost fit with the setting and the concepts around intelligence and whether the AIs had gained sentience. Most of the usage was along the lines of taking about a AI and whether or not it was useful and comparing people to it which is where it got annoying. It makes me wonder how disabled people, especially those with intellectual / developmental / cognitive disabilities, are treated in this universe.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Machinehood”

Book Details

The background of the cover for Machinehood is a computer circuit board that is white and pale blue above that are two round gear shapes one inside the other and then a white band of light in a circle. In the center of all of that is a white robot or android body from mostly the chest up with its head turned towards the center. The title is at the top with the author's name at the bottom.

Author’s Website: S.B. Divya
Publisher / Date: Gallery / Saga Press, March 2021
Genre: Science Fiction
Page Count: 404
Completion Date: November 5, 2024

“This World Is Not Yours” Review

Posted on October 31, 2024October 31, 2024 by Jen

“This World Is Not Yours” by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

After fleeing her controlling and murderous family with her fiancée Vinh, Amara embarks on a colonization project, New Belaforme, along with her childhood friend, Jesse.

The planet, beautiful and lethal, produces the Gray, a “self-cleaning” mechanism that New Belaforme’s scientists are certain only attacks invasive organisms, consuming them. Humans have been careful to do nothing to call attention to themselves until a rival colony wakes the Gray.

As Amara, Vinh, and Jesse work to carve out a new life together, each is haunted by past betrayals that surface, expounded by the need to survive the rival colony and the planet itself.

There’s more than one way to be eaten alive.

Review

This was an interesting story. There wasn’t a lot of in-depth world building in this one but it mostly made sense since the colonists didn’t really understand the world they were on either and that was mostly the point. The writing style was interesting in that each chapter was a short scene in the character’s lives with time jumps of various lengths in between. Some of the chapters were no more than a page long and only contained the internal monologue of the characters. The characters themselves were not all that likable but I felt like it was the point given how toxic their relationships with each other were. The ending was a bit disturbing but I liked it.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “This World Is Not Yours”

Book Details

The cover of This World Is Not Yours depicts a person inside a spacesuit whose face is partially obscured in shadow and appears to be grinning manically. The rest of the cover is very dark with a lot of grays and green colors. The title is across the chest of the spacesuite with the author's name at the top.

Author’s Website: Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Publisher / Date: Tor Nightfire, September 2024
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror
Page Count: 166
Completion Date: October 29, 2024

“Lost Ark Dreaming” Review

Posted on October 30, 2024 by Jen

“Lost Ark Dreaming” by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Off the coast of West Africa, decades after the dangerous rise of the Atlantic Ocean, the region’s survivors live inside five partially submerged, kilometers-high towers originally created as a playground for the wealthy. Now the towers’ most affluent rule from their lofty perch at the top while the rest are crammed into the dark, fetid floors below sea level.

There are also those who were left for dead in the Atlantic, only to be reawakened by an ancient power, and who seek vengeance on those who offered them up to the waves.

Three lives within the towers are pulled to the fore of this conflict: Yekini, an earnest, mid-level rookie analyst; Tuoyo, an undersea mechanic mourning a tremendous loss; and Ngozi, an egotistical bureaucrat from the highest levels of governance. They will need to work together if there is to be any hope of a future that is worth living—for everyone.

Review

I really enjoyed this novella despite its abrupt ending. The great world building and interesting characters make up for a lot. I feel like the author put a lot of thought and detail into the story and created a complex world. I like the way we get three points of view of the tower – individuals from the top, middle and bottom areas, with their perspectives and personalities. They’re all interesting in their own ways and bring something to the story. I did feel like some things could have been written with more depth – like having characters reacting more to a specific plot point part way through the book. I think even the abrupt ending works to some degree because of the story being told – it’s mainly about the three of them learning there’s more than they previously knew and attempting to make a change.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Lost Ark Dreaming”

Book Details

The Lost Ark Dreaming cover shows a group of five towers stretching up into the sky from the ocean with the sun rising behind them. One tower is taller than the rest and in front of the image. The title of the book is written across the front of the towers with the authors name below.

Author’s Website: Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Publisher / Date: Tordotcom, May 2024
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian
Page Count: 178 pages
Completion Date: October 28, 2024