theblackdog

The Obelisk Gate defies what often happens in trilogies in that all of the characters must have major setbacks that could break them and things must seem very bleak. Essen does have some losses along the way, but she experiences so much growth in her abilities and herself that there’s a much more hopeful tone by the end.

We also finally dive into Nassun and her current situation. It’s better than expected but not without its risks. I do see a very good setup for a clash later because of some of the people from Essun’s past making a connection with Nassun. There’s also going to be a clash over methods, but there’s hopefully going to be a realization that they’re working towards the same goal. There’s so much character growth from Nassun as well, and we see Jija get his deserved fate.

I look forward to reading the next book.

Another great book, and I did not expect the reveal near the end. Jamesin has crafted another rich world much like she did with the Inheritance series. I am drawing parallels with who the Stills, Orogenes, and Guardians represent. I look forward to seeing further development of some of the other named groups in the next books.

Hollywood if it was run by fae, when queerness had to be kept secret, and it was hard as heck to make it if you were not white. It makes for a great story as we watch Luli Wei go from being a kid who loves movies to a teen who is an extra on set before taking her ambitions to the studio. Along the way she makes some friends, plenty of enemies, and she will start to learn a few things about herself.

There’s a lot to take in here, and the setting is rich for other stories in this world. It would not surprise me if Vo intended for this book and The Chosen and the Beautiful to take place in the same time. There are so many things about this version of Hollywood that get treated as normal but are strange that I would have liked more detail. Machines that are alive, similar fey experiences for writers? I want to see more!

I was happy to see positive queer representation, even if this is at a time when Hollywood and the world views queerness in a negative light. Luli has to be careful with her activities, but she’s never depicted as a monster for it.

I got this from my library but I’ll probably buy a copy because I’ll want to read it again.

Things are changing for Jack as he comes out of his mourning for his sister Kate. He starts out bored at a party and then he is led to a house of a medium where strange things happen immediately after walking over the threshold.

This is a very good continuation of the Repairman Jack series, though it is less of a standalone than previous books. There is a major callback to The Tomb, and now Jack's past fixes are tying more and more into current events so the reader will need to read the past books or at least get familiar with the universe.

There is more character development of Gia in this book and it takes an interesting turn. She is more involved with a fix than in previous books, and we find that she is less content with sitting on the sidelines waiting for Jack. I don't know if this will continue or if she would rather stay out after what happens here.

Overall this stands strong, but there is also setup for potential events in the next book as there are a few major loose threads for Jack that will need to be resolved. Then again, Wilson has set up this series to have the larger story arc which shows no signs of finishing just yet.

This is a darker book than I am used to reading. Poor Adrienne can't catch a break at all and that really makes her character development suffer. I know some other reviews have said she wasn't that interesting of a character, but I would argue that the plot as written never really allowed her to develop. This story is more about Marie and how much of a terror she is, and well, she won't end up redeeming herself st the end. None of the characters do, really.

I ended up cringing at Julien's secret not just because of what it was, but because it seemed way too convenient to throw in there to make him a bad guy. It wasn't until the prologue where I was reminded these were based on actual people and the man who Julien is based on might have actually done what he is accused of.

I think more could have been done with this book or it could have been given a more coherent backstory that was better paced. There is a lot of nothing happens and then suddenly several events occur at once.

Overall I found the book decent, but a little more cleaning and work on pacing would have made it better.

This is a fun collection of short stories and it's hard to pick a favorite one, though the closest one at the top involves a young woman being escorted to what will be her destiny, and the love her protector has for her despite having to let her go. It's hard to get bored with this anthology because there are a number of different story styles to explore. You have fantasy, true life, surreal, action, romance, it's all there. If there is a downside, it's that some of these stories left me wanting to read more about this character or to see their story continue. Yet, that's not such a bad thing. I hope some of the authors have continued with these stories and characters, and it has gotten me more interested in them.

This is a story that takes a number of twists and turns. If you're a fan of mysteries you will figure some of them out, but others will come out of nowhere.

What I found was I liked Beatrice and Max much more than I liked Iris. Actually I am not sure you are supposed to entirely be rooting for Iris in this. She's bored at her job because they aren't using her talents effectively and then she gets this assignment to map out an abandoned bank building. However, she loves to drink and isn't the most punctual so you do see she is a flawed character, maybe too flawed. I wonder if Pulley was trying to avoid creating a Mary Sue character and she just went a bit too far in the other direction. Still, she manages to stay realistically smart, and there isn't an over the top deus ex machina character to come save her at the end. Iris does what she could but maybe if she hadn't been as utterly bored as she was at first, she wouldn't have gotten in as deep as she does later on.

Despite this, the plot is fun to read and there is a lot that happens. It does get tied up pretty well at the end, though you will not get a fully fleshed out ending. The fate of some characters have been left up to our imaginations. Part of me wonders if one of the major characters ended up connecting with a minor character that turns out to have more of a role than you think.

Overall it was a good read and I probably will read this again.

I found that this book is good if you're the kind of person who likes action movies for the action and couldn't care less about the plot or character depth. Lowell Ransom is bored with being a social worker in Baltimore so he decides to become a Private Investigator. His first call is from a woman named Doris who wants to see if her husband is cheating on her. Instead he finds the husband is involved with secret work with his employer, and from there it gets into a whole mess of discovering politics and backdoor dealings.
Lowell is just way too lucky as a character, things that should have gone horribly wrong or been a major obstacle end up working out because either he knows someone (thanks to being a former Vietnam vet) who can get him exactly what he needs (weapons, equipment, etc.), or someone else shows up at exactly the right time to save him when he's about to end up with a bullet in his brain. Never mind that he was lucky to manage to get his very first case to be one that ends up paying off very handsomely in the end so that his wife now has no reason to complain about his change in career. That's the factor that makes him less interesting, he's a beginning PI who only has his Army training from 20 years ago and not only manages to land a big case on the first try, but his plans almost never go wrong.
Really, this book is good for a quick read on the beach, and at least the descriptions of Baltimore and Washington DC are accurate for the time, but it's the kind of read where you don't really have to think about the plot, you just want to see some explosions.

For never having read the Jake Lassiter series, it didn't feel like I was missing much in the way of backstory. I was able to follow along and get into the action. The beginning of the story started out well, a lawyer is accused of a murder and Lassiter has been hired to defend him. As Jake and Victoria try to find the truth behind what happened, they find the rabbit hole goes much deeper.

I found the early story action was good, but then it starts to slow down towards the end before the courtroom scenes. It seems like this would fit as an episode of Miami Vice or a similar show.

The major complaint I have was chapter 40. The entire narrative has been told from a first-person view, then it abruptly switches to third-person view, but only for this chapter. Then it is back to first-person view. It took me out of the story for a bit because I was trying to figure out why that happened. If it was supposed to be because the characters were being spied on, there were no context clues to suggest it. I also think part of the ending was abrupt as there wasn't a gokd reason given for Jake to change his mind about his possible retirement.

I would say that this makes for good beach reading if that is what you are looking for.

Wow, I grabbed this on Kindle First and it was worthwhile. The plot has good twists and turns and you have those moments where it looks like everything is about to go wrong but an appropriate rabdom event changrs everything. They weren't lazy plot events either, such as a neighbor showing up because he hears the fight between Zoe and “Tally man” in her apartment because that would actually happen.

Zoe extremely believable as a character. She escapes traumatic harm but it has fundamentally changed her, and not all in good ways. She struggles with guilt and a loss of self, while putting herself in harms way again so that she can actually “win” this time. Even so, you see some growth with her as she tries to track down what happened to her and to also find the man who would have killed her.

This is a book that is hard to put down, even during some of the slower parts of the plot, such as being reminded that police work is not kicking down doors all the time. You find it will pick back up rather quickly.

If you're hoping to get a detailed look at why Beck is so twisted, a la Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, you won't find that here. It is explained towards the end but even then it is left up to the readers imagination. Still, he's not a deep character, you just know he has a twisted idea of justice.

I found the book very enjoyable and I will definitely read it again

This book offers a slice of life viewpoint of living in rural China in the early 90s. Lu Xiaolu is a man who didn't really apply himself in school so he goes to work in the nearby saccharin factory. We get to hear his stories about the people he works with and his relationship with Bai Lan.

The narrative feels like if you're sitting there listening to someone tell stories about their life. Each chapter felt like it was another evening of stories from Lu Xiaolu. It's not in the perfect order and sometimes it goes off on other tangents before getting back on track.

Without knowing intimate details of factory life in China I cannot say if some of these stories are embellished or not. However, I wouldn't be surprised to hear if the various teams did have inside jokes and nicknames for one another, and rules not always being followed.

I found the book enjoyable and something fun to read, though I felt it got a bit more abrupt at the end. We also don't really get a sense of what happened in the years when Lu decides to leave his town and go to Shanghai. There was so much of a buildup in showing how he was different and factory life didn't really suit him, yet we really don't get to find out how he finally finds his success. At least we did get to see him grow up a bit.

This was another fun tale from The Hangman's Daughter series that doesn't take place entirely in Schongau, but in the city of Regensburg. Here we finally get to see more of Jakob's past during the war and an event that will come back to haunt him nearly 25 years later. Of course Simon and Magdalena get tangled up in what happens to Jakob in Regensburg without even trying, but the action gets interesting, and there's a lot you have to pay attention to. Of course you might be able to figure out who the real bad guys are early on, but you still want to know what they are up to. I think one part of the ending was wrapped up a little too neatly, but in a historical context it makes sense. Still, I wouldn't have minded it going another way.

The series still seems to be going strong, so I am curious how the next book will hold up.

In a single sentence, Crooked Little Lies is like a soap opera. You could make each chapter into a daily episode and you would have a month long story arc to work with. Thankfully despite the drama that occurs, it is paced well.
Lauren is an easy character to want to hate at first. She had what seemed to be the perfect life until a nasty accident and subsequent painkiller addiction created a mess of everything. However, we get a very distinct sense of how hard she is struggling to make things right again, even though she still suffers from memory loss. However, if it wasn't for her chance encounter with Bo Laughlin, she probably would have been worse off by the end of the book.

Annie is definitely the kind of person who just wants to take care of the ones she loves, including Bo, so I can see why she takes it so hard when he goes missing. She has had her share of heartaches and maybe that's why she has a problem with accepting help from others or even trusting them. Yet it does seem to help her in the end, even with facing another potential tragedy.

The plot itself can get pretty twisted, hence why I called it a soap opera. When Lauren suspects her husband is having an affair, you can't really blame her for wondering. I suspected the same thing. Jeff clearly had something to hide, but I didn't expect the eventual rabbit hole to go as deep as it went. No one is the same at the end of the book, and that's how it should be.

The thing to remember is that while Bladerunner is based on this story, it was used for setting and a few of the characters, but a number of the details and plot are loosely used or discarded. However, it is a very good story and it leaves you considering what is real, what isn't, and whether or not that is okay. Deckard and Rachel are about the same as their characters, same with Pris, though the final battle against Roy is not as climactic. We at least get a little more detail of why the world is the way it is, though you don't get the sense of a crowded place. It feels largely abandoned and there are good reasons for it. You do get more of a settled ending here but it also left open the possibility of further writing in this universe.

I picked this up on Kindle First based on a friends recommendation and he did not steer me wrong.

Lex is a well thought out character who has an interesting past and her world is about to get much bigger. After being in the right place at the right time to save her niece she by all means should be dead, but isn't. What follows is finding out that she has powers, but so does her niece, and others want her for their own agendas. From there it's Lex tracing just who wanted Charlie and why, while discovering what she is capable of.

Thankfully when it comes to the Old World that she is about to discover, vampires, witches, and werewolves are real, but they're realistic. They also don't really get along with one another. Some of it is centuries of politics, some of it is because they can physically affect one another. It's refreshing to see a different take on supernatural beings

There were so many nuances and things that had to be mentioned about Lex that at first I was afraid Olson had introduced too many threads that would need to be wrapped up. Thankfully any that didn't seem to drive the plot have been resolved now, but we have one major thread about her sister that I have a feeling is going to weave itself throughout the series.

Another thing I liked about this book was that we didn't get a ton of info dumping to explain Lex, it just appeared as it was needed, especially when it came to her sister.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to the next one.

This is a good book to set up a high-level look at the world and introduce us to Kendra. You get some insight into her past and that it appears some sort of apocalypse has happened to her people now. Admittedly you can guess at some of why her past events happened, but there are enough details to explore later to find out why. At 58 pages, this is a very fast read, but you're left ready to jump into the next part as this does end on a bit of a cliffhanger. We now have two new characters that just appeared, but we don't know much about them yet.

The premise of the book is how the Book of Common Prayer may have influenced Shakespeare's writings, but I found it was more than that. I learned more about the tension surrounding the BCP and revisions that were being made at the time Shakespeare wrote some of his plays. However, I did find that parts of the book were more about the interpretations and history lessons of the BCP and thin on how it could connect with Romeo and Juliet or Much Ado About Nothing.

I did find some things to consider about whether or not there may be influences, whether it is gently mocking marriage or showing us how people thought of funerals back then. It does make for good, if somewhat dry reading.

Summerhill was one of those books where once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I got into learning about as much as I could about what Summerhill is and how his mission to “Stick with Katherine” takes him across several fantastic worlds and realities. The pacing is good and you're never left feeling like you need to slog past this part to get to the action again.

Despite the fact that Summerhill himself has an ability to make things work out, he manages to make some blunders along the way. In the end it does work out but it's like he decided in his journey to try to swim across a river fully clothed instead of a proper swimsuit. Maybe as an anthropomorphic canine he won't have as much of a problem as a human would. Still, he figures out a lot and it opens the door to a futher adventure. I would love to see how he takes on the Consortium in the future.

This ended up being a fast read and while the setting was interesting, it felt a bit jumbled. Then again, Rhein is supposed to be a character who has moments where he is not all there, which may be why not everything was coherent.

Rhein is a famous artist who is currently suffering from a major block. He decides to go to a place simply known as The Oasis where one can live in complete isolation. He has kept to himself, but now that is all about to change.

The legend of the Remorites is interesting but it doesn't really go anywhere until later on. Even then it feels a bit tacked on. Readers of sci-fi will be familiar with the idea of parallel worlds or timelines that branch off based on the decisions we make, while leaving behind the possibilities that could have been. However, tacking this on to a murder mystery as well may have been a bit too much.

Focusing on the mystery aspect only, there are plenty of twists and turns, and you will be wondering who is responsible for the murders until the end. Once it becomes clear you can appreciate the cunningness of some of the characters.

Admittedly this wasn't one of the stronger books I have read. I think this could have been done as a sci-fi book about the Remorites and an idea of second chances as one story. The murder mystery could have been its own story.

It's easy to say the zombie genre is played out, but Braineater Jones is a fun take on what it's like to be a zombie. In this world, zombies exist but what keeps them from eating brains is booze. That's right, enough booze and you don't need to have cranium for dinner.

Since Jones currently has no idea what he was before he turned (and you don't turn because of a bite) he ends up being a private detective in the part of the city where the zombies live. As he tries to figure out who he was and how to get along as a zombie, he manages to stumble across some bigger fish to fry.

Since this is written to be in the style of pulp and detective noir, the situations that occur are perfectly ridiculous, but I found myself enjoying the scrapes that Jones gets himself into. The author does note that he wrote it in the style of what 1930s noir was like so there is adult language and situations along with casual racism and sexism. Thankfully he was not heavy handed with it and they fit the story.

This is a fun casual read and I hope to see either more of Braineater Jones or similar stories in the future.

I originally picked this book up when I was visiting Shore Leave, a sci-fi con in Maryland. I found it was a book that once I started reading it, I found it hard to put down. Asia Burdette is returning home after a needed night out when suddenly she finds herself waking up in her truck and she can't remember what happened to her for the past three hours. From there, she tries to piece together what happened, eventually landing in the office of Dr. Ethan Roberts.

Asia is a fun character. Clearly she is strong and smart, but she clearly has something hiding in her that keeps her wound up. It takes a lot for her to show some vulnerability, and with what we learn about her, it is understandable. Even so, she still has a deep resevoir of inner strength to draw on that she will need. However, if there is one thing that can get her into trouble, it's occasionally being naive.

Ethan has quite few things that he hides from us right off the bat, but as we learn them we find even he has his flaws with relating to people sometimes.

With there being elements of romance in this novel, there are some scenes that are suited for adult readers. They are explicit, but not vulgar, and perfectly realistic. Yeah, you might be blushing after reading some of the chapters.

The rest of the story was well written and the plot itself goes in some fun and unexpected directions. Thankfully it is also consistent and the details are kept tight. Things follow their natural conclusion.

You will end up wanting to know more about the dreams that Asia continues to have and whether or not what she experienced in her memory gap was real, or some rather clever idea from her brain.

I hope to see more good books like this from the author.

Devin is one of the most interesting characters that I have read in recent memory. He appears to be living the good life as the son of rich and well-connected parents, plus he is about to marry the most famous singer in the galaxy. However, from the beginning there are hints he has a darker past. At first it sounds like he got into the standard teenage rebellion but then it went way beyond anything he could handle. You will be reading to the end to find out just what really happened with him then and how it could have been a way to haunt him but instead he uses it to his advantage. I appreciate that his reveals and our discoveries about him were well-paced throughout the story.

Jane was a little slower to get going for me though there was a lot to establish with her. Yet when I expected a decision she made to turn into a damsel in distress situation later, thankfully that didn't happen.

There are lots of twists and turns throughout but they feel natural and it does keep you engaged, plus no character feels unnecessary here. Of course, with what has been revealed, there is a lot of places where it can go for the next book.

This was kind of a miss for me. I enjoyed the Keep and I enjoy the Repairman Jack series but this one felt off. I think it was some of the pacing that did it. We had a lot of build up going on of events going on with Jim, Carol, and Bill, but then the third act of the book was just one event stacked up on another. It was almost as if Wilson realized he needed to get to the planned ending and had to tie a lot of threads together.

Maybe if I had read this after reading The Tomb and The Touch first I might have liked it better. However it does look like this was planned as a middle of the series book as the ending doesn't have a full resolution so I may try to give Reprisal a shot in the future.

This contained some very good lessons for each day of the challenge. I found it worked really well as a group reading as each of us had different ideas and insights from what we read. Food security was something I had not thought about in depth before but this helped bring that and some other issues to the forefront that perhaps can be worked on in my local community.

Lex has become more fascinating, and we have only moved forward a month since end of Boundary Crossed. A few hanging threads were resolved in the start, including learning what ultimately happened to her sister Sam. Actually I am glad that wasn't dragged out into a whole long drama. There are plenty of other situations to worry about instead. Lex is just trying to get along but she doesn't fit in and the rest of Clan Pellar isn't helping.

Actually I just realized that we don't see as much of Lex's power being used that we saw in the first book. However, we see some other awakenings and perhaps we will see more of her boundary magic in the next book.

My thought is this series has gone more from Lost Girl to Buffy, except the supernatural isn't necessarily trying to take over the world or awaken old demons, at least not yet. I look forward to the next book.