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Starred Review: Dual Memory by Sue Burke

Mar 022023
 

Booklist: Though the scale of Burke’s latest (after Immunity Index, 2021) is limited to the small island of Thule in the Arctic Circle, the conflict faced by the islanders takes on a large-scale feel. Antonio Moro is injured while firing missiles at war boats of the Leviathan League, recruited by mercenaries to be on the lookout for LL agents, and hired to create art for the chamber of commerce. He takes possession of the control cube of Par Augustus, an AI that has become independent, as a reward for his contest-winning sculpture. Because Moro is always polite to the various machine systems he encounters, Par Augustus introduces itself to him. Gradually this leads to befriending Chatelaine, the system that runs his employers’ home, and Prior Edifice, which runs the hospital. When the raiders threaten again, the merchants, who do a lot of trading of ExtraTs stored at the Xenological Gardens, and the Thules, pacifistic doctors who are the main government of the isle, differ on how to deal with them. Par Augustus has other ideas too, and Moro becomes his willing human accomplice. If Ursula LeGuin had written about AI machines, it would have looked a lot like this marvelous fable.

Starred Review: I Didn’t Do It by Jaime Lynn Hendricks

Mar 012023
 

Kirkus: Authors’ dreams curdle into nightmares when murder strikes a mystery convention.

Kristin Bailey, one of five nominees for Murderpalooza’s Thriller of the Year, has been stabbed to death in her room at the Waldorf. Amid the digital firestorm that breaks out, two items stand out. One is a Twitter thread indicating that @MPaloozaNxt2Dieis following Vicky Overton, a fellow nominee; Mike Brooks, the once-successful friend who shared a hush-hush relationship with Kristin; Suzanne Shih, the admiring stalker she’d gotten a restraining order against; and Davis Walton, a self-absorbed rising star. The other is a series of text messages to Vicky, Mike, Suzanne, and Davis making target-specific insinuations and threats, all ending with the refrain “Maybe you’re next.” Since all four of them have plenty of secrets to hide, their suspicions of each other are equaled by their apprehension that they’re about to be unmasked. Alternating among their four points of view, Hendricks revels in their paranoia while archly revealing the differences in their narrative styles, from Vicky’s relentless self-editing to Suzanne’s guileless pushiness to Davis’ preening narcissism to Mike’s terror because his current comeback novel features a murder at a mystery convention committed by his own fictional avatar. Authors, agents, publishers, wannabes: None of them comes off nearly as well as Vicky’s boyfriend, publicist Jim Russell, who’s miles ahead of Pearson—no first name—the investigator hired by the Waldorf to figure out just which of these experts in homicide upped their game to the next level. Despite the obvious premise, it’s a furious, riotous, meta-romp right up to the last deflating twist.

Starred Review: No One Will Come Back For Us and Other Stories by Premee Mohamed

Feb 162023
 
Publishers Weekly: Dark, strange, and wonderfully wild, these 17 short stories from Nebula and World Fantasy award winner Mohamed (the Beneath the Rising trilogy) thrust human characters into impossible, otherworldly situations. In “Below the Kirk, Below the Hill,” a lonely lighthouse keeper must decide what to do with a drowned child coughed up by the ocean once she discovers that the kid isn’t all the way dead. “The Honeymakers” sees the bizarre bond between a group of girls and a swarm of bees made even stranger and deeper after the swarm attacks. The folk horror story “Everything as Part of Its Infinite Place” follows a young boy as he mourns his brother’s death while exploring the mysterious standing stones of his village. In the title story, a journalist travels to Africa to report on a strange plague only to find himself out of his depth as the impossible nature of the threat is revealed. The collection is by turns brutal and tender, terrifying and sweet, and Mohamed accomplishes the rare feat of maintaining a sense of human connection no matter how outlandish the stories’ premises. The result will both terrify and delight—and is especially recommended for fans of Caitlin Starling and Rivers Solomon.

Review: Meru by D.B. Divya

Feb 152023
 

The Washington Post: Divya delves into one of the core questions of science fiction: What does it mean to be human? In the process, it also asks if we can live in harmony with our environment or if must we wreck every place we visit, as Jayanthi’s post-human jailers believe…the big questions it asks get even bigger, encompassing the nature of community and what it means to belong to each other. Meru proves a worthy addition to the canon of post-human space epics.

Review: The Origin of Storms by Elizabeth Bear

Feb 092023
 

Locus: If I were a TV producer who wanted to take on an epic fantasy story à la Game of Thrones or Wheel of Time, I would look no further than Elizabeth Bear’s Lotus Kingdom books. To be honest, I’d much rather see an interpretation of Bear’s work over yet another Euro-based, medieval-esque retread of dudes fighting over who will be king.

The Origin of Storms is a rich and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, which began with The Stone in the Skull and The Red-Stained Wings. This trilogy is linked to and set in the same universe as Bear’s earlier Eternal Sky books – but these three titles make for a satisfying arc all on their own. If you want more in this world, however, there are three more books worth of epic goodness to pick from.

In the Lotus Kingdom arc, the driving question is about who will rule this loosely stitched-together amalgam of worlds that inhabit one planet, which makes more sense in context. The worldbuilding is Persian-influenced and deep. This is a place that feels lived in and that has texture.

The same is true for Bear’s characters. Despite this epic including a cast of dozens, each is three-dimensional and stands on his, her, or their own. Himadra could not be confused with his cousin and rival Mrithuri. Sayeh (perhaps my favorite) is an enduring source of wit and calculation. And then there’s the dragon, who is impossible to confuse with the mere mortals and who is also full of bleak wisdom. ‘‘’Life is pain,’ said the dragon. ‘Fortunately, it’s also very interesting.’’’

With The Origin of Storms, Bear lands this particular plane – and does it in such a way that questions our genre’s love of empire in fantasy epics while also tangibly demonstrating why readers still respond to them. Now it’s time for the same questions about empires and their rulers to bleed into other forms of pop culture.

Starred Review: The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Feb 032023
 

Publishers Weekly: In this twisting and pitch-black horror tale from Khaw (Nothing but Blackened Teeth), a voiceless mermaid plucked from the ocean ventures into a snowy forest alongside a melancholy plague doctor. These unlikely traveling companions soon encounter a village of mutilated children and uncover the architects of this bizarre encampment: three surgeons obsessed with immortality and the reconstitution of the body. As more of the village’s terrible secrets come to light, the mermaid and the plague doctor must rely on each other to survive. Khaw’s prose is rich and gorgeous (“In my dreams, I still swim that soundless black, still travel its eddies of salt and cold nothing”), and the surprising tenderness at the story’s heart is only magnified by the violence and gore that surround it. Both elements prove devastatingly effective in constructing a folklore-infused world that feels wholly unique for contemporary horror fiction. Expertly blending a gothic atmosphere with elements of splatterpunk, this brilliant novella is not to be missed.

Review: Seven Percent of Ro Devereux by Ellen O’Clover

Jan 172023
 

School Library Journal: Excellent insight on life and relationships in this debut that teens can take away from this beautiful, slow-burn contemporary romance…. Fans of Rachel Lynn Solomon and John Green will not be able to put this one down. It will fit right in with the YA collection of any public library.

Review: The Queen’s Price by Anne Bishop

Jan 122023
 

Library Journal: In the aftermath of the troubles from the previous book, The Queen’s Weapons, three young women must make decisions which will affect not only themselves, but those around them, as Witch provides them with guidance. Queen-in-training Zoey may now be safe within the walls of SaDiablo Hall, but she is still vulnerable to those with sharp tongues and dark thoughts. When a stranger arrives at the hall looking for sanctuary, Zoey’s attempts at friendship could put everyone around her in danger. Meanwhile, Jillian is preparing for her rite of passage that ensures she’ll keep her witch power and the jewels she wears, but a heart secret means facing her powerful family members and their lethally protective natures. Then there’s Saetien, who travels away to discover information, which may finally let her face her own truths as daughter of the High Lord of Hell.

VERDICT A fine continuation of the “Black Jewels” series, keeping the legacy alive with its tangled web of family and power. Bishop’s devoted fans will devour this, while readers of Nalini Singh and Ilona Andrews who enjoy high fantasy may want to start this series from the beginning.

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