Tag: book discussion

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Deal With The Devil by Kit Rocha — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
by Kit Rocha

Tor Books
July 28, 2020

From Goodreads:

Nina is an information broker with a mission–she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America.

Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he’s fighting to survive.

They’re on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process…

Or they could do the impossible: team up.

Thanks to the good people at Tor Books and Raincoast Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me with four words: “mercenary librarians,” and “super soldiers.” Nothing after that mattered. 

After receiving the ARC, I looked into the author a bit since I had never heard of Kit Rocha before. That’s when I saw Kit Rocha usually writes erotica. That threw me for a loop! I’ve never read erotica and never been interested in reading any. But all of a sudden I start wondering if I’m about to crack open an erotica novel with mercenary librarians doing super soldiers and vice versa. And now that I’ve finished the book, I still don’t know if that’s what I read or not. 

It may not sound like it, but that’s a compliment. As someone who has no frame of reference for erotic books, I couldn’t tell you if this qualifies, but I also can’t say that it doesn’t. Sure, there’s sex, but nowhere near what I would have thought would be in an erotic story (again, no frame of reference.) What I know I found was a great story full of action, suspense, and pretty decent characters.

Oddly enough, considering my lack of interest in erotica (and romance) I found I really enjoyed those aspects of this book. The main characters with their back and forth, their longing for each other, mixed with a mistrust for, well… everything, was a a roller-coaster ride that had me burning through pages.

The chapters bounce us around from Nina’s head to Knox’s, and getting to know what she’s thinking, and what he’s thinking, but seeing them unable to connect the dots was maddening. It’s like when the staff of The Office was watching that logo bounce around the tv screen, desperately wanting it to perfectly hit the corner. And then it finally does and everyone cheers. That’s what the relationship felt like.

The plot could have used a little more… something. It was fine. There’s nothing wrong with it, and I wasn’t bored, but I just wanted a little more. Instead of it being an integrated aspect of the story, it was more or less an excuse for the characters to spend time together and be in a certain place. The stuff that happened could have happened anywhere for a number of reasons. I guess I wanted something that only could have happened in one a specific place because the setting and everything else was so deeply engrained with everything else.

Then again, maybe that’s me expecting too much.

Overall this book was a ton of fun to read. I looked forward to picking it up each time, and if there’s a sequel it will definitely be on my TBR. 

Fun fact about this post: Kit Rocha is the pseudonym for co-writing team Donna Herren and Bree Bridges.

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Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

SHOREFALL
by Robert Jackson Bennett

Del Rey Books
April 21, 2020

From Goodreads:

The upstart firm Foundryside is struggling to make it. Orso Igancio and his star employee, former thief Sancia Grado, are accomplishing brilliant things with scriving, the magical art of encoding sentience into everyday objects, but it’s not enough. The massive merchant houses of Tevanne won’t tolerate competition, and they’re willing to do anything to crush Foundryside.

But even the merchant houses of Tevanne might have met their match. An immensely powerful and deadly entity has been resurrected in the shadows of Tevanne, one that’s not interested in wealth or trade routes: a hierophant, one of the ancient practitioners of scriving. And he has a great fascination for Foundryside, and its employees – especially Sancia.

Now Sancia and the rest of Foundryside must race to combat this new menace, which means understanding the origins of scriving itself – before the hierophant burns Tevanne to the ground.

Thanks to the good people at NetGalley and Del Ray Books for providing me with an eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, this is book two of The Founders Trilogy, and now I need book three. Now. Right now. Go ahead, RJB. I’ll just sit here and wait. *checks watch, looks around for 3 seconds, checks watch again* Okay, maybe I can’t just sit around waiting for it, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to keep living on in quarantine without the next book!

What was so good about it? Well, I’m glad you asked. My answer is simple. Everything.

It’s these characters! 

In the start of book one, I didn’t know how to feel about any of them. Who am I supposed to like, and who do I hate? Who’s a good guy, who’s a bad guy? By the end, I still didn’t really know who was good or bad, but I loved them all. This rag tag group of survivors continue doing the one thing they seem best at: surviving while cutting you with sarcastic quips.

Between Foundryside and Shorefall, our cast of characters have been busy. They’ve been building. Creating a life for themselves that is part of what they used to be and partly something new. Their relationships have developed into something deeper and more meaningful and they’ve all changed a little as people. And none of this is given in an info dump. It’s something you see for yourself as the pages turn.

It’s this magic system!

This might be my favourite magic system I’ve ever read. RJB takes the time to acknowledge the science of how things work just before he shows you how the rules of physics, time, distance are snapped in half for our enjoyment. It’s not quite magic and science working hand-in-hand, but I’m a reader who really appreciates when science is addressed.

It’s this writer!

Robert Jackson Bennett might be a poet with prose, but I couldn’t tell you. Not only because I wouldn’t trust myself to make such a bold distinction, but also because I was relentlessly pulled through the pages without the time to look at sentence structure, style of prose, or choice of words. RJB is effortless to read. As someone who often stops dead in the middle of a page to ask myself, “why would the author use that word?” I can’t recall a single thing making me stop to ask myself anything.

It’s this trilogy!

When I found myself near the end of the book, and thinking I had reached the books ending, I felt a little disappointed. It was a better ending that I had read in a lot of books, but it wasn’t the kind of ending I expected after Foundryside. But the thing is, that wasn’t the ending. I turned the page, the ending began, and I could barely hold on to my seat! Chaos isn’t a wild enough word. 

Shorefall takes everything you knew from reading Foundryside, and changes it all. You think you know the characters, and they change. You think you know the magic system, and it expands. You think you know Tevanne, and it sheds its skin and becomes something new. 

RJB, if you happen the read this, just tell me what I need to do to get book three out of you. Keep in mind that the law frowns on human sacrifice. I’m not saying it’s off the table, just know the part about the frowning.

Fun fact about this post: This is the earliest I’ve ever posted an ARC review!

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Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

RUTHLESS GODS
by Emily A. Duncan

Macmillan
April 7, 2020

From Goodreads:

Darkness never works alone…

Nadya doesn’t trust her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him. Malachiasz is at war with who–and what–he’s become.

As their group is continually torn apart, the girl, the prince, and the monster find their fates irrevocably intertwined. They’re pieces on a board, being orchestrated by someone… or something. The voices that Serefin hears in the darkness, the ones that Nadya believes are her gods, the ones that Malachiasz is desperate to meet—those voices want a stake in the world, and they refuse to stay quiet any longer.

Thanks to the good people at NetGalley and Macmillan for providing me with a eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wicked Saints, the predecessor of Ruthless Gods, was a strong debut with enticing characters, a great premise, a unique magic system, and limitless potential. Ruthless Gods, however, didn’t follow through on any of of the first book’s promises the way I had hoped.

As we rejoin our beloved characters from book one. A little time has passed, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing really happened and it seems like maybe they just say around waiting for the second book to start.

They thing proceed to embark on a journey that none of them knows anything about, including why they’re actually doing it at all. Each one of them then spends the rest of the book flip-flopping back and forth enough to frustrate any politician. It goes something like this:

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate hime, I LOVE HIM, I hate him, I hate him…

This kind of conflict can be great if there are reasons for each step, but without any reason at all it reads much more like a group of people who should be medicated.

Without a clear goal to the seemingly random quest and characters would say one thing and do another, everything about this story seems listless and random.

I was excited to read this sequel, but unfortunately I found nothing but letdown. It was left open for at least one more book, but at this point, I can’t imagine I’m going to pick it up.

AllBooksReviews

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

WANDERERS
by Chuck Wendig

Del Ray
July 9, 2019

From Goodreads:

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it. As the rest of society collapses all around them–and an ultraviolent militia threatens to exterminate them–the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart–or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

There are many words that come to mind when I think about describing Wanderers. Thoughtful. Prophetic. Disturbing. Entertaining. Funny. Heartfelt. Relevant. Amazing. And that’s just the tip of this epidemic iceberg. If I had to boil it down to a single word to describe Wanderers: Important.

From the opening chapter, this book left me wanting more. More action, more confrontation, and more answers! Every time a question was answered, two more took its place.

The sleepwalkers are driven down the road by a cast of characters I won’t soon forget. Oddly enough, considering they become known as shepherds, they’re all black sheep of their respective flocks. Such personality in each one, and real enough that you can feel the joy when something good comes their way, or the dragging disappointment when they make a decision that you, the reader, don’t agree with. And there are plenty of bad decisions being made!

At 782 pages, it’s a long story! (If it’s ever made for the screen, it better be a Netflix series and not a 2 hour movie.) But the story doesn’t lose you. It doesn’t go off in tangents of whimsy. Believe it or not, it’s very streamlined. I tried to look at it and see what could have been cut, and the answer is nothing. Everything Mr. Wendig left in this book was crucial to telling the story. He didn’t even spend time leading into the “walkers”. You start reading, and in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, “I wonder how long it’ll be before we actually see a—Oh, there’s one.”

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. I read it around the same time as a certain Bionic Bookworm, and I know she hated the ending. I pretty sure I don’t hate it. But I do have questions. And I don’t just mean the normal kind of questions where the author would say, “I’m leaving that up to your imagination!” Before giggling and running away to hide in a forrest (unless you’re inside somewhere, in which case they would have to hide behind a couch or a vending machine, but still giggling.) My questions are more like, HOW? Many things are explained, scientific reasons given that are convincing enough for lamen like me. And then there are a few things left completely unexplained. Small things, to be fair. Small but nagging. 

But why do I call this book important?

Wanderers tackles a wide gamut of cultural issues that are all extremely relevant, even more so in the wake of the current Coronavirus situation. In addition to that, racism, religion, sexism, politics, technology dependance, violence, and society as a whole. I wouldn’t say there’s a deep dive on any one of these issues, but they’re all there. At the very least, a book like this has the potential to start a dialogue that could turn into something bigger. It’s not going to solve racism, but maybe it makes a few people think twice. Maybe someone puts a little more kindness into their day and it spreads as far and as wide as any virus. 

This is easily my favourite book of the year so far. Warning: it’s going to stick with you. It’s a book hangover waiting to happen. And it’s the kind of book that made me worry that the more great books I read, the harder it’s going to be to find books that are great. Don’t wait. Start now, especially because it’s going to take a while!

Fun fact about this post: I first discovered Chuck Wendig on his blog where he doles out writing advice, long-ass posts about apples, and macro photography on Monday, and does it all while being absolutely hilarious. www.terribleminds.com
AllBooksReviews

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

THE UNSPOKEN NAME
by A.K. Larkwood

Tor Books
February 11, 2020

From Goodreads:

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

The good people at Tor Books and NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Unspoken Name was a fascinating premise with some great characters, but despite a plethora of glowing reviews from the rest of the world, the plot just didn’t come through for me.

The premise is a young girl, chosen to be ritual sacrifice, given a chance at the last minute to escape death and become something far greater. A life spent helping, and learning from, a great and powerful wizard. (No. Not the wizard of Oz.) Under his training, she’ll become a warrior, spy, and assassin, though the degree she does any of those things is up for debate.

I was in love with this premise. It showed so much process, but I found it to be full of half-truths. And very quickly, the book becomes about something else completely. But more on that later.

The characters were fantastic. I enjoyed them all. Deep, developed, and all with their own lives and backstories. These weren’t just people waiting in the wings until the novel needed them. However, after getting to know them, they started to do things that completely went against their nature, at least as far as I understood it. Gave me the impression that many of their decisions were based purely on plot development, which made everything feel just a little cardboard.

I usually enjoy when a book can surprise me. This book did that a lot, but not in a good way. Most of twists and turns didn’t make sense to me, which as I said above, the characters had something to do with. But also, you’re told this book is one thing, and it ends up being another all-together.

With the amount of love this book is getting, I feel like I’ve missed something. I would suggest you take my review as a grain of salt (or less) and try it out yourself.

Fun fact about this post: Yesterday I said I was going to cut down and requesting ARCs, and then requested two more ARCs. I hate myself.
AllContest of Covers

One Week Until… The Contest of Covers!

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Covers will fight! Covers will die! And after all is said and done, one cover will see be swathed in design glory!

• Nominate your favourite book cover (or multiple covers) via comments on this blog, twitter, or instagram.
• Everyone will vote on each match-up, using the same blog/twitter/instagram comments.
• It will be bracket/single-elimination style.
• First round will start with 16 covers (maybe 32 depending on the amount of nominations)

Round 1 starts May 10th! See you there!

Fun fact about this post: The Contest of Covers needs no fun facts!
AllContest of Covers

Nominate Your Favourite Cover for… The Contest of Covers!

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Hear ye, hear ye! I officially declare the Great Contest of Covers open for entries!!

“Goodness, what are you babbling about now?”

Why, the Great Contest of Covers, of course. A weekly contest butting book cover against book cover for cover supremacy!

“How does is all work? Will there be blood?”

Of course there will be blood! Figurative, metaphorical blood everywhere! Each week, two covers will be put on display, and you, the good public of the Kingdom of Blogsphere, will vote on which should win glory and honour, and which would be shot full of arrows and sacrificed to the Demon Trilogy, Dog-Earred-Pages, Stained-Covers, and Cracked-Spines!

“I’m liking the sound of this!”

Of course you are.

“What are the first two covers to do battle?”

Unknown. The people must bring forth champions to enter the contest and wage war on one another.

“So, we nominate our favourite book covers?”

Yeah.

“This sounds great, but what’s with the weird medieval speak?”

It’s…. fun?

“How long will nominations be open?”

A fortnight, my good lady/sir. At which point, this loyal bard will—

“Fortnite? That game that kids think invented dancing?”

*sigh*

• Submit nominations over the next two weeks (April 23 – May 7).
• You can do so via comments on this blog, twitter, and instagram.
• Voting on each match-up will be handled the same way each week.
• It will be bracket/single-elimination style.
• First round will start with 16 covers (maybe 32 depending on the amount of nominations)

“There. Wasn’t that way easier than trying to talk all like a knight or whatever?”

whatever

Round 1 starts May 10th! See you there!

Fun fact about this post: The Contest of Covers needs no fun facts!
AllBooksReviews

Is there an echo in here? | The Echo Room by Parker Peevyhouse

Posted on by J.W. Martin

THE ECHO ROOM
by Parker Peevyhouse

Tor Teen
Publication Date: September 11, 2018

From Goodreads:

Rett wakes on the floor of a cold, dark room. He doesn’t know how he got there, only that he’s locked in. He’s not alone—a girl named Bryn is trapped in the room with him. When she finds a mysterious bloodstain and decides she doesn’t trust Rett, he tries to escape on his own—

Rett wakes on the floor of the same cold, dark room. He doesn’t trust Bryn, but he’ll have to work with her if he ever hopes to escape. They try to break out of the room—

Rett and Bryn hide in a cold, dark room. Safe from what’s outside.

But they’re not alone.

I was provided with a copy of The Echo Room by the good people at Tor Teen and Raincoast Books in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

The Echo Room had such a great concept. And the first part of the book sucked me right in. Unfortunately, it wasn’t able to keep that pace going.

As you can tell from the synopsis, Rett keeps waking up in a cold dark room. Cool concept, right? Right. But instead of this creating a unique sense of progression, it actually seemed to keep bringing things to a stand still. The pace, which started out like riding a rocket, ground to a crawl.

The twists and turns in this novel were pretty tame. It’s not that they weren’t executed properly, I don’t think. They weren’t really treated like big reveals. It was more like things were hinted at and hinted at and hinted at, and then the story moved on like everyone knew it all along. Strange way to do things.

The way characters would discover things was odd as well. They’d discuss possibilities, A, B, or C. Then they’d agree that B was the most likely and everything would continue on with B as truth, even though there hadn’t been any evidence yet to support that. Again. Strange.

The characters weren’t very likeable in the beginning, but they definitely grew on me. By the end, I was very invested in how things would end up for them. I truly wanted a happy ending for them.

The ending wasn’t quite what I was looking for, though I’m pretty sure I’d still pick up a sequel. I’d like to know what happens next, if only to find out more about what happens to these characters I’ve spent time with.

Fun fact about this post: I like the final cover a lot more than the one on the ARC I received.

 

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DISCUSSION | Little Free Library

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Free Little Library. You heard of these things?

It’s basically a little cabinet/book shelf that people put up on their property and fill with books. This little library is available for anyone to come and borrow books, or to contribute their own books. The hope is that it becomes a real community thing. Instead of being kept up and stocked by one person, the surrounding community all chips in.

I kind of want to do this!

via jenniferbrozek.com

Right beside my house is a path to one of the local elementary schools. Dozens, if not hundreds, or kids walk this path every single day. Seems like a free little library on that path would get a lot of use. I can see it right now. A TARDIS that opens up to reveal shelves of books. (Anything holding that many worlds needs to be bigger on the inside)

The other side of the coin is vandalism. Lots of people who aren’t kids walk that path as well. At night and on weekends, our town has lots of bored teenagers. I have visions of my book TARDIS (which hasn’t even been built) suffering destructive attacks, or having all the books stolen, or destroyed. Or they could do something really creative that can’t begin to imagine. I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with poop…

So now I’m at a crossroads. Do I put one up and hope for the best? Should I let the worry of vandalism keep me from doing something that could be really great?

Fun fact about this post: If you aren’t a Doctor Who fan, you’re probably scratching your head over that ‘bigger on the inside’ nonsense. I’ll feed you, baby birds.

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DISCUSSION – Page Edge Preferences

Posted on by J.W. Martin

The other day, I was reading a post over at The Modern Witch’s Bookshelf, and the term Deckle Edges rose to the surface. I had never heard the term, but after a quick google, I saw that I definitely had seen deckle edges before. 

That got me thinking about the different treatments of page edges, and what I thought about each, and which I preferred. And now I want to know your thoughts.

Deckle Edges

You’ve seen these ones, right? They’re the ones that look all old-timey and imperfect. Today, this type of page edge is manufactured, but before the 19th century, most books had this deckle edge. The paper-making process left every single page with a rough edge. Once the book was complete, the deckle could be trimmed off, but this increased the cost of the book, so most of the time, it just wasn’t bothered with.

I’ve personally only seen this a few times, and honestly, I’m not a fan. Sure, it looks cool, especially if the book is set in a time when it would have had this kind of edge, but it’s cumbersome. You ever tried casually flipping through something with deckle edge?

Gilded/Painted Edges

Until recently, it was most common to see gold gilding on page edges. Once the book is bound, the pages are sanded and then have gold leaf applied to it. Sometimes the pages were even sanded with a beveled edge, allowing more surface for the shiny gold to show through. More recently, inked pages are becoming more common. I can’t say for sure, but I would guess ink is cheaper than gold leaf? That, and people probably like seeing colors other than white and gold.

This I can get behind. Again, I haven’t seen too many examples. The only ones that come to mind is Six of Crows, and the anniversary Harry Potter editions. Until I forget what color normal page edges are, I’m all for this.

Image from paperhouses.co

Fore-Edge painting

This is a painting, usually some kind of scene, applied to the longest edge of the pages. Often, the scene could not be seen unless the pages were fanned out just a little, and then the picture would take form.

I’ve only seen this one time. It was for a book called Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters. It wasn’t so much a scene that was painted on the edges, but a message. But the coolest part about it was that the message changed if you flipped the book upside down. I’m good with this, too.

Clean cut, standard

You’ll forgive me if I don’t include an image of a standard book. If you’re reading this post, there’s probably a book right beside you. Pick it up. Look at it. There you go.

 

So, what do you think about these different options for page edges? Love them? Hate them? Did I miss any?

 

Fun fact about this post: I also found whispers of something called uncut pages, where the pages are literally not cut all the way on one side. I didn’t include it because it sounds more like a publisher error than a choice.