Fantasy – Page 6 – Made of Stardust and Stubbornness

“Children of Blood and Bone” Review

Posted on September 30, 2023October 12, 2024 by Jen

“Children of Blood and Bone” (Legacy of Orïsha No. 1) by Tomi Adeyemi

They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.

Zélie remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. When different clans ruled – Burners igniting flames, Tiders beckoning waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoning forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, anyone with powers was targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Only a few people remain with the power to use magic, and they must remain hidden.

Zélie is one such person. Now she has a chance to bring back magic to her people and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must learn to harness her powers and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where strange creatures prowl, and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to come to terms with the strength of her magic – and her growing feelings for an enemy.

Review

This was fun read. I loved the characters and the world building. Everything was great about this book! I really enjoyed reading it as everything unfolded. The point of view characters had their own stories to tell and a lot to figure out about what they wanted and how they were going to get it. I liked that it wasn’t as easy to bring magic back as Zélie wanted and that there were larger concerns beyond just bringing magic back. This is the first book in a trilogy and I’ve already finished the second book. The third will be released next summer and I’m looking forward to seeing how this all goes.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Children of Blood and Bone”.

Book Details

The face of a young black woman is visible at the bottom of the cover from the nose up she's wearing a read head covering and her white hair is flowing up towards the top of the book cover. The title and authors name are shown in the middle of the cover in red and black

Author’s Website: Tomi Adeyemi
Publisher / Date: Macmillan Children’s Books, March 2018
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Page Count: 352
Completion Date: September 25, 2023

“The Haunting of Tram Car 015” Review

Posted on September 10, 2023October 12, 2024 by Jen

“The Haunting of Tram Car 015” (a Dead Djinn Universe story) by P. Djèlí Clark

Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities — handling a possessed tram car.

Soon, however, Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi Youssef are exposed to a new side of Cairo stirring with suffragettes, secret societies, and sentient automatons in a race against time to protect the city from an encroaching danger that crosses the line between the magical and the mundane.

Review

This story takes place prior to “A Master of Djinn” which I read first. Anyway I really enjoyed this one – it’s a short story but one that felt complete as the agents were dealing with a someone easier case than the larger story. I like the way it worked out and the addition of the suffragettes sub-plot ended up feeling like it fit in. I liked seeing a couple of the side characters from the later story in here as main characters. Overall it’s a fun read.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “The Haunting of Tram Car 015”.

Book Details

View of a city square with multiple buildings and people in view and a green tram car moving overhead

Author’s Website: P. Djèlí Clark
Publisher / Date: Tor Books, February 2019
Genre: Alternate History, Fantasy
Page Count: 96
Completion Date: September 7, 2023

“The Wicked Bargain” Review

Posted on September 3, 2023October 12, 2024 by Jen

“The Wicked Bargain” by Gabe Cole Novoa

On Mar León de la Rosa’s sixteenth birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice. But their magic isn’t enough to reverse a wicked bargain made by their father, and now el Diablo has come to collect his payment: the soul of Mar’s father and the entire crew of their ship.

When Mar is miraculously rescued by the sole remaining pirate crew in the Caribbean, el Diablo returns to give them a choice: give up their soul to save their father by the harvest moon, or never see him again. The task is impossible–Mar refuses to make a bargain, and there’s no way their magic is a match for el Diablo. Then Mar finds the most unlikely allies: Bas, an infuriatingly arrogant and handsome pirate–and the captain’s son; and Dami, a gender-fluid demonio whose motives are never quite clear. For the first time in their life, Mar may have the courage to use their magic. It could be their only redemption–or it could mean certain death.

Review

This was an interesting book. It has some great parts to it but feels a little immature. Granted the main characters are teenagers reacting like teenagers to everything. I feel like it could have done with a bit more editing and figuring out how the story was meant to go. I got tired of how long it took Mar to realize they could actually control their powers – the sudden realization didn’t feel like it made a whole lot of sense. But again, teenagers. I’m glad it worked out in the end though and it was mostly a fun read.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “The Wicked Bargain”.

Book Details

A young person is shown taking up most of the cover facing right with their head turned forward. They're wearing a brown shirt and pants and a necklace. They have one hand up with a flame in it. Behind them is the ocean and a pirate ship. The title and author's name are shown over them.

Author’s Website: Gabe Cole Novoa
Publisher / Date: Penguin Random House, February 2023
Genre: Fantasy Young Adult
Page Count: 360
Completion Date: September 3, 2023

“Abeni’s Song” Review

Posted on August 12, 2023October 13, 2024 by Jen

“Abeni’s Song” by P. Djèlí Clark

On the day of the spirits festival, the old woman who lives in the forest appears in Abeni’s village with a terrible message:

You ignored my warnings. It’s too late to run. They are coming.

The old woman hasn’t come to save them, only to collect one child as payment for her years of service and protection. When warriors with burning blades storm the village and a man with a cursed flute plays an impossibly alluring song, everyone Abeni has ever known and loved is captured and marched toward far-off ghost ships set for even more distant lands.

But not Abeni. Abeni escapes the warriors in the clutches of the old woman, magically whisked into the forest away from all she’s ever known. And there she begins her unwanted magical apprenticeship, her journey to escape the witch, and her impossible mission to bring her people home.

Abeni’s Song is the beginning of a timeless, enchanting fantasy adventure about a reluctant apprentice, a team of spirit kids, and the village they set out to save from the evil Witch Priest who stole away Abeni’s people.

Review

I enjoyed this book but younger readers would probably enjoy it more as it was a bit to fantastical – everything made sense but the impossible mission was a bit much and I think the style choices do work better for younger audiences. And the thing is this story is in fact meant for younger audiences (I didn’t realize it was middle grade rather than young adult until after I read it that’s on me). It’s just using very heavy fantasy elements to describe real world things like the slave trade as that’s what happens to the people in her village. It was still a fun read and I liked following along with Albeni as she met the other characters and figured out how to work with them. The ending resolution is good too.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Abeni’s Song”.

Book Details

Author’s Website: P. Djèlí Clark
Publisher / Date: Starscape, July 2023
Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade
Page Count: 336
Completion Date: August 10, 2023

“To Shape a Dragon’s Breath” Review

Posted on August 5, 2023October 13, 2024 by Jen

“To Shape a Dragon’s Breath” by Moniquill Blackgoose

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.

Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea on how a dragon should be raised—and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, then her dragon will be killed.

For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart and determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.

Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it.

Review

This was a great book and I’m looking forward to the next one as this is meant to be the first book in a series. The ending of the book works so that it could be a stand alone, but there’s definitely more of the story to be told. The setting is an alternate history version of Earth but still with colonizers and indigenous populations that are dealing with the aftermath of being colonized, and dragons! The characters were great to read about – the central conflict between Anegus and the teachers was well done. I also enjoyed seeing the difference between Anequs who knows exactly who she is and where she belongs and another indigenous character who grew up among the colonizers never knowing the truth about his people. There is a third character in the book who is meant to be autistic, though never outright stated given the time and place, who is awesome. He ends up being friends with Anequs and makes for a very interesting character with his own conflicts to deal with. There are some parts that got a little slow to get and perhaps some other things could have been explained better but I enjoyed it regardless.

I would highly recommend reading the interview with Moniquill Blackgoose, An Indies Introduce Q&A with Moniquill Blackgoose, for more context to the setting for the story and the characters. There are no spoilers for the book in this interview besides setting and information about Anequs and the dragons.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “To Shape a Dragon’s Breath”.

Book Details

The cover is dark red with the face of a dragon in the middle with spikes of hair on top and along its nose. There are red flowers on either side of the dragon's head. The title is written out down the cover one word on each line with the author's name at the bottom.

Author’s Website: Moniquill Blackgoose
Published: Del Rey, May 2023
Genre: Alternate History, Fantasy, Young Adult
Page Count: 528
Completion Date: August 1, 2023

“Under Every Sky” Review

Posted on July 29, 2023October 13, 2024 by Jen

“Under Every Sky” by Kenzie Brooks

Seventeen-year-old Maeve Barnes is poised on the brink of freedom—from her city, her past, and her unruly magic. Mere weeks from now, she will be on a plane bound for London and well on her way to starting a nice, ordinary life for herself.

But luck has never been on Maeve’s side. A beautiful stranger appears with a dire warning: the Shadow King is coming. All Maeve’s carefully laid plans for her future are put on hold when the shadowy demon crashes through the wards of the city, attacking her family and churning long-buried secrets to the surface.

In the days that follow, three things become abundantly clear. One, the Elder Council is useless. Two, Hanna—the caustic and evasive stranger—knows more than she is letting on. And three, someone inside Leto is colluding with the Shadow King to bring death and destruction within the city walls.

Amidst a flurry of unlikely alliances, near misses and heartbreaking realizations, Maeve must come to terms with her magic, her resentment toward Leto, and the possibility that she won’t make it to London, after all.

Review

I wasn’t sure about this book at first because Maeve was a little frustrating – but I did remind myself she’s only seventeen and dealing with a lot. I did like that as soon as everything started happening she went to work. There were still some moments of “I can’t do this!” but they were brief and made sense for the moments they happened. The rest of the characters were great too though this was the sort of story where adults end up being almost entirely useless and kids have to save the world. But I knew what I was getting into when I started the book. Overall the story is great and the resolution of a certain plot point actually ended up working out in a way I liked.

Book Details

Blue cover with various circles and symbols on it with the title and author's name in the middle.

Author’s Website: Kenzie Brooks
Publisher / Date: Self Published, May 2023
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Page Count: 366
Completion Date: July 24, 2023