Revenant Gun, by Yoon Ha Lee

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


With each book in this series, I figured out a bit more and liked it better. I could hardly get a grip on the first book at all, but at this point I got into the characters and began to care about it.

The K-drama perspective adds depth in a way that you just don't get in standard David Webber military SF. Everyone, no matter where they line up, is concerned with aesthetics and allows themselves distractions. It comes off as people living very intensely, fighting for their lives but also over calendrical calculations and art arrangement. The characters go beyond real into a sort of technicolor.

Jedao is a pretty amazing protagonist--he has lived all of this more intently than anyone, including being dead and placed in suspended animation, then versioned for this final episode.

Pacing is still an issue--the book takes about 100 pages to get going, and then gets weird at the end. Calendrical effects come off much more as magic than anything scientific, and I never figured it out to any greater depth than "If a certain system of time measurement, including holidays and observations, is adopted it will grant powers within its influence". Meh. But the twist that makes so much fall into place is worth all of it. So many books don't end well, and this one does. Lee says the series is complete, but there's room for more if he ever changes his mind.



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A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies, by Alix P. Harrow

Apex Magazine Issue 105 by Jason Sizemore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Review for A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies.

Librarians as magical figures are a staple in fantasy literature, and I think the reasons are easy enough to discern--most writers spend a lot of time in them and develop a real attachment to the atmosphere. I am a serious library user myself, but am also a librarian, and am pretty sure our magic is confined to locating books right in front of the noses of patrons (I no longer practice and have lost some of the mojo--a library aide did this for me just the other day). The idea of books responding to the patrons (in ways only the librarians can see) was a fun one. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and would recommend it to anyone.



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The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, by Phenderson Djèlí Clark

The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by P. Djèlí Clark

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This story is structured as a fantasy history done in vignettes, and is based in historical research. I really like these kind of stories, they are perfect for short fiction and give that atmosphere of authority to a story that makes it extra entertaining. This one is excellent, and I think it's a contender for the Nebula and the Hugo for sure.



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The Court Magician, by Sarah Pinsker

The Court Magician by Sarah Pinsker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a good story, almost a 4 but not quite. Pinsker sets us up with an introduction about a curious orphan, and stage magic, and real magic, but the point of the story goes past those. The theme is common enough--what will you give up to learn the "real truth"? But the way this one works out saves it from being too ordinary. I think it's probably a contender for the award, but I haven't read them all yet...



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And Yet, by A. T. Greenblatt

The protagonist of And Yet is now an accomplished scientist, a theoretical physicist.  He got peer-pressured into going into a haunted house with some "friends" as a kid, and he's pretty convinced it is a real physical phenomenon worth investigating, so he's back.  His disability plays into it.

It's a good bedtime snack of a story, quickly told.  The author has published in a disabled SF anthology, so this is an area of activism for her.  Convincing?  No, not really.  But nice anyway.

Alice Payne Arrives

Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The summary starts out as something of a button-pusher--lesbian check, steampunk check, women of color check. The blurbs definitely read that way. But the book does well at lifting up and affirming the perspective Alice brings, and by the end of the book I was seeing something new in time travel. The romance was pretty standard issue, but it drove the plot OK. It's really a good setup for the next book. It's nominated for the Nebula as a novella--in a good year it should contend but maybe not win.



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The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections, by Tina Connolly

The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections by Tina Connolly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Usually short fiction doesn't have enough time to develop the depth I like in a story. But this one was great on several levels. I'm a foodie and really connected with the idea of food bringing back powerful, realistic memories--it would only take a touch of magic, and that light touch was deftly conveyed in how the protagonist (the baker's wife, and food taster for the evil Duke) remembered her husband making pastries. It's extraordinarily clever and delivers a complete experience in a brief read. This one is a real contender for the Nebula.



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Witchmark, by C. L. Polk

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a good, fun read, fine for a first novel, and its structure sets up well for the sequel. Sets it up to be better than the first, in fact. I guess there weren't better candidates for a Nebula? Well this is good encouragement, though the book is not a winner.

The setup is not a strong point--we have Dr. Miles Singer, "witch" and runaway scion of a wealthy family. He's a heroic character, but as others have pointed out, really naive, in a way that is hard to believe given his experience. He's hiding out from his father, the Voice of the Mages--in his home town, in medical practice. Hmm...

This being a modern book, we get all the trappings of gay romance in the person of Tristan, a literally inhumanly beautiful being who has come to investigate the disappearance of souls from Miles' home country of Aeland. Submission to their beauty is both tragic and inevitable, and much futile romantic resistance dialog is delivered.

The book moves forward, but not quickly until the very end, when we are treated to a lot of juicy reveals that are the setup for the series. One might have wished for a bit more meat earlier on.

All in all it's a decent, if predictable book, and probably worth picking up the sequel



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The Vital Abyss, by James S. A. Corey

The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a decent read, but pretty dark stuff. The protagonist is able to reflect very dispassionately on his experiences, because he made a decision to have his empathy centers cut out. Now he has empathy for no one, including himself. There's a few connections to the main line of the story--the only one I could identify was Michio Pa from Cibola Burn. I struggled with where in the timeline the story goes--it's published after Nemesis Games, but the action definitely takes place before it. Still, I think the ending is going to explain some things that happen later in the series.

That said, it doesn't seem like an essential read unless, like me, you are compulsive about reading complete series.



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