Shorefall – by Robert Jackson Bennett (Review)
March 29, 2021 March 28, 2021 by Will
The Founders #2
Fantasy, High Fantasy
Del Rey; April 21, 2020
493 pages (ebook)
Goodreads • Author Website
4 / 5 ✪
I was kindly provided with a review copy in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters or affects my opinion. Many thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.
Warning: Contains spoilers for Foundryside (and, oddly enough, Gears of War 2)
In Foundryside, Sancia Grado and her ragtag team of allies managed to save the city of Tevanne from destruction, carving out a chunk of it for themselves in the meantime. Three years later, the Mountain lies in ruin and the campos feud with one another to fill the power vacuum left following its destruction.
I'll be honest though. Don't remember a ton of what happened in the first book. I remember Sancia—the master thief able to see scrivings—and I remember Clef—the talking key with the heart of gold (because he's made of gold you see). There was something with one of the campos, a fire, infiltrating the Mountain and… that's about it.
Anyway, skip ahead three years and you'll find Sancia passing time within the scriving firm of Foundryside, intermittently stealing, innovating, and making out with her girlfriend, Berenice. None too soon after we rejoin Sancia, the Foundrysiders execute a bold play to steal from one of the campos in a desperate attempt to secure their future and the first step in their plan to liberate Tevanne from the grip of the merchant houses.
But no sooner do they return home in triumph—ready for a drink and a quick toss—then a new threat looms on the horizon. A new, and infinitely larger threat.
In a stunning move, the Dandolo campo has seen fit to resurrect Craesedes Magnus, First of the Hierophants, basically a god in all but name. And the legendary scriver is coming straight to Tevanne. While the Foundrysiders aren't sure why the Dandolos have done this, or what exactly it is that the First Hierophant intends, they are sure that they don't want to know anything about it. But instead of fleeing the city, they decide to stay and fight.
For while the Foundrysiders can't match the legendary hierophant himself, they may know someone who can. Though to save their city Sancia and the gang may just have to tie themselves to an even greater threat than Craesedes Magnus—for what can stand up to a god but another god?
Straight out of the gate the story got rolling with a thrilling heist. It was great to see Sancia and the gang doing what they do best—stealing things and running away. And it gave us time to reconnect with the characters we might've somehow forgotten. Be it Orso, former campo child and the outfit's brains; Bernice, the beautiful and genius scriver Sancia has fallen for; Gregor, strong and silent, another scrived human with blood staining his shadow; and Clef, pretty much just a key now. A key that won't open any door.
From there we get on to the meat of the matter—resurrecting a god. Or attempting to stop one. Turns out, it's not an easy thing to do. Through this part the atmosphere grows tense, the story mysterious, dark. Then everything kicks off for good when Craesedes Magnus rolls up.
I hate to say it, but my favorite character in Shorefall is probably the dark god himself. He certainly acts like an ancient immortal—someone who's seen and done everything and lived through worse. But also there's a hidden agenda to him. And his endgame turns out to be a twist I ddi not see coming, something truly surprising for something so close to invincible and powerful as he. Moreover, it's his relationship with Sancia herself—also Gregor, and some of the others from the Dandolo campo—that makes his character so interesting. I won't give any more about him away, but to say he's a truly great character with a depth that profoundly surprised me.
I don't have too many issues with Shorefall. Mostly it's a lot of fun. A great read with a lovely world and interesting characters. But I do miss Clef. His banter with Sancia was one of the things that made Foundryside such a great read (and pretty much the only thing I remembered about the book prior to reading its successor). While Bennett does attempt to do a similar thing in Shorefall using some of the other characters, it just doesn't have the same appeal that the Sancia-Clef relationship had. The dialogue here is more cumbersome, and more empty. While I never got sick of Clef and Sancia no matter what the pair were discussing, that doesn't hold true for Sancia and pretty much anyone else.
The tale is more rollicking fun, but with a darker, more somber mood to it. The world is changing, and not necessarily for the better as all Foundrysiders hoped. With an awakened god looming on the horizon the team feels more powerless than ever before. It's like the moment in Gears 2 where they use a gigantic rock worm to sink Jacinto, and fly away knowing that while they "won", their one and only home now lies in ruin. Even when there is brightness and joy in Shorefall, there is also some sorrow.
With a darker, somber atmosphere, Shorefall is the predecessor that makes you feel, makes you care about the world of Tevanne. While it doesn't have the same back-and-forth, carefree dialogue of the original, Shorefall takes you to a few more grey areas, a few more moments of weakness on its journey of hope and despair. It's not exactly a dark book, but it does have its moments. It's a tale of love and friendship, but also of half-truths and two evils. It's half mad-dash, half atmospheric thriller, and half powder keg. See? This book gives you 150% and doesn't disappoint—if that's not a reason to read it I don't know what is.
Tagged 2021, ARC, Book Review, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Robert Jackson Bennett, TBR9 Comments
The Dispatcher – by John Scalzi (Review)
The Dispatcher #1
Scifi, Novella
Subterranean Press; April 20, 2017
2hr 18min (audio)
Taylor Barnes was the first to die. About 8 years prior to the present, he and his wife were in Iceland celebrating their anniversary. Unbeknownst to him, she had been having an affair and was preparing to leave him, but had been unable to summon the courage to confront him about it. And one day while out hiking in Iceland, she finds a workaround—and pushes Taylor off a cliff to his death. The next thing he knows, Taylor wakes up at home: confused, disoriented, but very much alive.
Soon after murder victims stop dying, soldiers start waking up at home after being shot or blown up, death row inmates cheat death the moment their sentence is carried out. In 999 out of 1000 cases, those murdered come back to life. After 8 years, there's a whole system to the chaos.
Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher—a professional assassin tasked with humanely disposing of people in the throes of death. But not all Dispatchers are so conscientious. As with any profession, this one harbors a dark side, where its purveyors exist in a moral grey area. When a fellow Dispatcher goes missing, Valdez teams up with the police to find his friend before it's too late—and while doing so is forced to confront all the dealings his fellow Dispatcher had his hands in. But while he may cheat death the first time, even Dispatchers aren't immune when a natural, non-violent death comes a-knocking.
For the most part, I found the Dispatcher a lovely read with an engrossing story, a concise conclusion, and an interesting, well-thought-out premise. It's a fairly short read—only a little over two hours (if you go the audio route and 1x speed)—and I would've liked to see a bit more from the world before being whisked away. While the mystery is a rather compelling one, it's hampered by the time constraint, and everything seems to come to Valdez a bit too easily because of this. We're presented with the issue, then we learn about it, and arrive at the conclusion. There's very little detective work, chasing leads, ghosts, or dead ends.
This may not be the detective story you've always wanted. The one that turns your brain inside-out before ultimately blowing your mind as it concludes its journey. But it's interesting, entertaining, and leaves no thread un… unthreaded? Seeing as how there is light at the end of the tunnel, I'm happy to give this a recommendation. With another Dispatcher novella coming out soon (through Subterranean Press—though it's already out in audio), we may yet be able to explore more of the world, and jump back behind the eyes of Tony Valdez.
Tagged 2021, Audiobook, Book Review, Novella, Scalzi, Scifi15 Comments
March 16, 2021 by Will
Ughhh so little motivation. So little free time. Never enough sleep. Reading hasn't been going great.
So, that's where I've been. I'm sure I'll get over it… at some point.
The Second Bell – by Gabriela Houston (Review)
March 8, 2021 March 7, 2021 by Will
Fantasy, Dark Fantasy
Angry Robot; March 9, 2021
4.9 / 5 ✪ – Almost perfect!
I was kindly provided with a review copy in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters or affects my opinion. Many thanks to Angry Robot #AngryRobot for the ARC! All opinions are my own.
In the mountain village of Heyne Town, there exists a tree known as the Hope Tree. Here, before they are due to give birth, women will leave blankets, food or provisions outside the village—just in case. In case their children are born as stryga.
Stryga (or strzyga or strzygón in Slavic mythology) are children born with two hearts. The first heart is their primary, human one—tying them to humanity and the path of normalcy and righteousness. The second is a much darker heart connected to a second soul, one that indulges its evil desires and preys on humanity. If a stryga were to follow the darker desires of its second heart even once, it would never be able to stop, turning this human into a dark demon. Although, in Heyne Town, all born with two hearts are considered evil and banished upon birth. Thus their parents faced a choice—to abandon their child outside the village; to dispose of them some other way; or to join their inhuman offspring in seclusion, never to set foot in the village again on pain of death.
Nineteen years ago, Miriat and her newborn Salka were exiled from Heyne Town, and taken to the remote haven where all exiled stryga live. Here they live in squalor, unable to leave and hated by the outside world. Here they are taught to control their darker nature, to never once listen to their second heart.
But Salka is young and headstrong. When she is exiled to the far off Windry Pass for a moment of weakness, she must do everything she can just to survive. But as the snow piles high and the temperature plummets, food becomes scarce and predators start to hunt humans as prey, Salka will be forced into a no-win situation: will she use her second heart to survive, or pay the ultimate price for the sake of her human soul?
By in large I really enjoyed the Second Bell. While I'd heard of strygas before, Gabriela Houston introduces a fresh take on the creature more often depicted as a monster in other media. In Slavic lore, it refers to a child born with two hearts and two souls, the second pair of which transforms it into a demon much alike a vampire. In the Witcher, a striga is a child cursed before birth. It is born a demon—a foul-smelling, heavily-muscled monster that runs about on all fours and violently attacks anything that wanders too near its lair. Houston's take on the stryga humanizes it tremendously compared to these, as the child must only suppress the desires of its second heart in order to retain its humanity. Even so, not all parts of the legend seem to hold true. As with any other story, what is fact and what isn't is open to interpretation. The villagers in Heyne Town fear and loathe all strigoi in equal measure. Whether or not they have ver indulged their second heart is immaterial. All are evil.
Note: I've been talking a lot about stryga being cursed children, born with two hearts. This is true, but not complete. While the affliction dooms from birth, strigoi will grow up like anything does. The only cure (in this book, at least) is death. Likewise, one can't catch stryga. You're either born one or you're not—there's no in-between.
The Second Bell is all about the story and its characters. Salka and Miriat share a unique relationship that should be quite relatable, and yet unlike any other. While they are obviously kin, only one is human. Her mother is Salka's link to her humanity—by refusing to indulge her second heart, she feels closer to her mother, to her humanity, but in denying it she feels like she is cutting off a part of her own soul. The Second Bell is therefore a tale of what it means to be human. Salka is Miriat's child and her whole world. But if her daughter were to listen to her demon heart, would she lose her humanity, the main connection she has to her mother? The Second Bell is also a tale of a mother and a daughter, and their bond.
While the world-building of this story was a bit patchwork, I understand the choice was instead to focus on the story of Salka and Miriat, the story of what it means to be human. Still, I would've liked to see a bit more from the world. There are some things—like the tree and the dola and more—though the entire world seems like it was built for 'men and strygoi, but nothing more. While the story centers on the strygoi, they cannot possibly by the only legend in this land: I would've liked to hear about some of the others, if only just in passing. The land itself was often painted in greens and browns and white, rather than showing any real detail.
Otherwise, I really have no other notes. The story was good and thorough and made for a quick and immersive read, while still leaving lasting connotations after the book is finished. I hope to see more from the author and this world!
Tagged 2021, Angry Robot, ARC, Book Review, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Myths & Legends5 Comments
Phoenix Flame – by Sara Holland (Review)
March 1, 2021 February 27, 2021 by Will
Havenfall #2
Fantasy, YA, Romance
Bloomsbury YA; March 2, 2021
3.5 / 5 ✪
I was kindly provided with a review copy in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters or affects my opinion. Many thanks to Bloomsbury Young Adult and NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.
In many ways, Phoenix Flame manages to improve upon the mistakes made by its predecessor, shaping up both the interactions and the character development, while also maintaining the elements that I most enjoyed. Namely (somehow) the romance.
It was quite a summer for Maddie Morrow. After taking over temporary management of the Inn at Havenfall, she was able to disrupt the soul trade, humanize the Solarians, and prevent a coup. Now, with Marcus awake and back in charge, Maddie has been demoted back to #2—an move that she was equal parts crushed and relieved by. Yet with her uncle still recovering, her input is now more important than ever before. And she must do what's best for Havenfall—no matter the cost.
And yet it's a price she may not be willing to pay. After all, Maddie is in love with a Fiorden soldier. Mostly. There was a certain girl that made her heart skip a beat…—but she's gone, locked away behind the Solarian gate. And Brekken is at Havenfall. Brekken, the boy that Maddie grew up and played with. Brekken, the boy that has become a man, one whom has expressed his interest in being with her. If the Inn falls between her and Brekken, what will Maddie do?
But more pressing concerns highlight the end of Maddie's summer. The black-market trade of soul-bound silver has been disrupted, but is far from over. But now she has a lead on the illicit trade network, one that requires her to go undercover inside Fiordenkill, a winter wonderland that she's always wanted to visit. But this visit will be rife with danger—despite the presence of a particularly distracting soldier—and Maddie must use all her cunning if she's to end the trade, once and for all.
Too bad Maddie doesn't have any cunning.
Seriously, it might've been a more interesting read if Maddie was a bit brighter, a bit more cunning, a bit darker, a bit more riské. But she's not, and that's that. But she's still a teenager—young, immature, immortality-complex, dumb, all the realistic stuff. Phoenix Flame highlights a coming-of-age series, and part of growing up is learning to fail and overcome your mistakes. And Maddie makes a lot of mistakes. And that's fine.
The story is a decent enough adventure; containing enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, yet it never blew me away or surprised me with its choices. As I've said before, Maddie's maybe not the best narrator, but she's what we've got, and tells the story well enough. I enjoyed the glimpses we got of Fiordenkill, but ultimately found them too few and lacking in any interesting detail. Literally all I can remember now is that the land was snowy and cold—the description and world-building really could've delivered more of a punch.
The magic system of Havenfall is… a letdown. To be honest, I forgot that magic was a thing for a great portion of the text, only for Maddie to use it once near the end and immediately drop the subject. I remember in the first book how she discovers her ability and uses it to overcome the Silver Prince. It was a surprise and a joy to her. Not so much in Phoenix Flame. No "she practiced to improve her skill" or "she still marveled in her use of magic". Not even "oh, she had magic, too". It's just not mentioned. As for what and how it works… I dunno. That's never explained, either. It's just another missing piece in what could've turned out to be a great story.
The romance continues to be the main draw of the series, a phrase that continues to baffle me. Young love burns bright—and Maddie's love life is achingly familiar, in an awkward teenage sort of way. It reminded me of my first love: the prickle of heat surrounding every stolen moment; the burning embarrassment of pretty much anything else; the indecision, the constant turmoil of emotions, the lack of anything approaching experience akin to being tossed in the ocean with a tiger strapped to your chest. Instead of the gawky, awkward, cringey, will-they won't-they of normal YA romances, so far Sara Holland has managed to capture the nostalgia that comes with your first crush, your first love (at least, for me). There's still plenty of awkwardness, but it's all on a learning curve. And both Brekken and Taya create plenty of opportunities to learn, though each in different ways.
Phoenix Flame is the second book in the Havenfall series, and manages to build on the relative successes of Havenfall, while simultaneously correcting some of its mistakes. The story is solid but won't blow you away with its inventiveness. The plot is interesting, with a few twists and turns and decent character development. The world-building and description continues to leave something to be desired, and the whole fantasy aspect of this fantasy book needs some serious work. As in Book #1, the main allure of Phoenix Flame lies in its romance. A bundle of emotions and no idea what to do with them made me nostalgic for my youth—but unlike the cringe-worthy, awkward, fumbling experience I'm used to seeing in YA lit, this provided something more thoughtful, more delicate, more unique. And I'm completely surprised that I continue to recommend this serious for its romance. While the story and description and characters still could use some improvement—young love continues to impress.
Tagged 2021, Adventure, ARC, Fantasy, Romance, YA4 Comments