geekylorraine

I was recommended this book by some people over at a Reddit page known as Suggest Me A Book. So, first of all, thanks to those guys and gals for suggesting it to me. I asked for a modern-day urban fantasy story and they sure delivered!

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE AND SPOILERS

The best thing about this novel, in my humble opinion, is the character. He's well-fleshed out and really entertaining to read. He's a bit of a dick, but somehow likeable. However the author pulled that off, I'm not sure.

The side-characters are also suitably interesting and enjoyable to read. You've got an interesting variety of characters, from an immortal alchemist, to a fallen arch-angel, to something known as a Jade. I've heard of Jade's before, sure, but I always thought they were dragon-type things, not what's described in this book. I won't give to much away, but Candy, the Jade in this book, is pretty bad-ass.

There's a lot of world-building in this book. After all, it's the first book in a series of an alternative reality where things like angels, something called Kissi, Jades, Vampires, Magicians, and much more roam the earth. The author has managed to weave all sorts of bits of information about the world into the story, without any of it seeming info-dumpy or hard to keep up with.

I'm going to stop here, because I've already started the next book in the series. A) I keep getting confused between what was in book 1, and what I've already read in book 2, and don't want to spoil the second book. B) The book is calling me back, and I need to read it!

Review originally posted on Geeky Galaxy.

I closed this book and actually said “No!” out loud. You know why? The book ends with a question. My answer to the question wasn't no. My yelling no is because I'm never going to know the answer to said question. And I'm asking myself if that means there never was an answer to the question, or if we just never find out the answer. Yes. That's a whole paragraph of me talking about the final few sentences of the book. I could probably write a whole novel in response to this book. But I won't. Instead, see below my trying to sum up how much I adored this book, without actually writing a novel.

The Plot

Aside from the ending, which I explained above, I adored the narrative style of To Be Taught, If Fortunate. It's told in a sort of after-action report. If reports were more casual and more human. It's as if the main character sat down, wrote up the goings-on, and sent it off to Earth in the hopes of it being read. And I loved that. Writing that makes me consider the ending again, there's no answer to the question because it's up to us to answer it. I'm just annoyed I won't get to read what happens next. And I really need to know what happens next.

The World

Here's the trick with this book, it's a study of four different worlds. And Becky Chambers manages to explain each one in such a way that I could imagine exactly what the planet was like, what the characters were feeling due to planetary conditions. For the most part, the environment is described without express emotion, but I somehow still embraced a sense of wonder that came with each discovery. It's like I wasn't reading fiction, and was enjoying the writings of someone who had actually been responsible for aiding in cataloguing life on other planets. It was amazing.

The Characters

Becky Chambers has a knack for characters. Despite the science, the planets, the technology, it all comes back to the four characters this whole thing is centred on. It's how these planets impact them, their thoughts, how they cope with environments, how they find joy in the little things, and deal with adversity. This whole thing is character-driven right up until the end, where Becky Chambers makes you a character, the reader makes the ultimate decision. And damn, I loved and hated that.

I'm not going to break the characters down like I normally do. I loved all of them. Despite this being a report of sorts, the characters personalities shone through and they're each unique and so fun to read about. You need to read this (and it's super short, so it won't take too long!) to really grasp how Becky Chambers manages to work her magic with these characters.

I should probably stop rambling now! Have you read this novella? What'd you think?

Each time a Prince comes of age, a Selection occurs, to find the Prince a wife from a member of the public. America Singer is a seventeen year old girl who is a Five. She never wanted to be Selected, and when she was, it changes everything.

Overall, this book wasn't too bad. It was quite different, at least, not exactly the same as some of the other ones out there. The romance in the book drags on for an awful long time though. I've just finished the third book and it dragged on throughout that one as well! Despite that, I enjoyed the plot. America is a really down-to-Earth character that, despite her circumstances, is somehow relatable, even though her name is annoying as hell.

Yet again, we have a YA book with a love triangle! How unique! The love triangle really wasn't necessary. It didn't add anything to the plot. The romance was having enough trouble as it was without a love triangle!

I'm not really sure why I went on to read the rest of the books. I wouldn't really recommend anyone else to read it, unless you want one of those stories where the love is awfully annoying and eye-roll worthy.

I had a few issues with this book. The main character is just so boring. He's like a walking, talking cardboard cut-out with no emotions. Like an android.

And the plot. He's stuck in a tunnell with water, how does he get through? Oh look, it just so happens his Uncle left a suit. He's stuck in a tank of water? Oh look, magical cream that gets him out. He's looking for a way to take down a plane? Oh, just so happens he left a Nintendo Cartridge that blows up. Seriously? This whole thing was all too convenient. It's like Rider had no challenge at all, the whole thing was just laid out on a plate for him to follow. The kid never makes a mistake! Also, the explanations for when, how things happen. The plane blowing up, for example. It's only mentioned Rider places the Explosive Nintendo Cartridge a couple of minutes after he placed it. It's like the author suddely though, “Crap, I need a way to blow this plane up” a few minutes after Rider had already left the plane, so he adds a little sentence about playing an explosive thing in there. Pretty damn convenient. Like everything else that happens in this story.

Saying all of the above though, I can imagine kids liking it. Spies, explosions, violence, all fun for kids. Just not so fun for adults, who can't stand the bad plot.

Posted at Squirtoon's Bookish Blog

4.5 stars, rated down that .5 for reasons I'll explain below!

Minor spoilers below

I started and finished this book in the same day. Hell, in a few hours. I read it in one sitting. It's one of those books where you need to know what happens as soon as possible. This is the first police procedural book I've read in a long while, and boy am I glad I picked it up. It was a lot closer to what I imagined would happen with something like this. The media, the police, the country, would focus on the dead rich girl, and not pay enough/any attention to the foreign Eastern European girls, even though paying attention to the others was the key to breaking the case. There was so many twists and turns to this novel, which in themselves were enjoyable, but were slightly dampened by the fact I had a pretty good guess on who the killer might be from about the 50% mark. This is what dropped that .5 for me. I like to be kept guessing until the very end. I don't like the books where you very quickly know who the killer is, and you're left rolling your eyes as the detective slowly bumbles towards the answer.

My favourite thing about this novel was the character building. The protagonist had a brilliant, unique personality and voice. The secondary characters were so different, with intriguing stories of their own, and the victim's family fit so perfectly into everything, with their craziness and pretentiousness. All the characters were just fantastic.

I picked this book up with Kindle Unlimited, and if you're subscribed, I would highly recommend you to grab a copy as well. I'm pretty sure you won't regret it.