Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts

9 Feb 2024

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: TO BE TAUGHT, IF FORTUNATE by Becky Chambers (Review)

09 February 8 Comments


Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!

TO BE TAUGHT, IF FORTUNATE

Author: Becky Chambers
Series: N/A
Source: Gifted at Christmas
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: September 3, 2019
Representation: queer characters

Summary:
At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in subzero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life.

A team of these explorers, Ariadne O’Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system fifteen light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds. But as Ariadne shifts through both form and time, the culture back on Earth has also been transformed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the story of the wonders and dangers of her mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

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(note that these are affiliate links! I receive a small amount of compensation at no cost to you)
Content Warning: animal death, confinement, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, grief, sexual content, depression

This was such an interesting and thought-provoking read about decisions we make and the impact we have on others. Like a lot of other Becky Chambers novels, this one is encouched in "science" that really just explores the idea of how we can associate ourselves to others through atypical means.

I really like books with queer characters, found family, and overall queer themes, so To Be Taught, If Fortunate appealed to all these elements for me. It has a strong focus on the relationship between the characters and their journey of self-discovery, which is a typical aspect of Becky Chambers books.

This is a pretty short novel but it packs a lot of information and themes into it. I thought it was so interesting to see the idea of how different worlds create different feelings in people, the need to take as little as possible while still enough to gain knowledge, and the leaving with no trace behind. It felt like a camping trip in space, which made it pretty interesting.

I think the ending was really well crafted. I wish the conversation had been a little longer to get a bit more perspective on how they wanted to continue onwards, especially because it ended pretty shortly thereafter. I would have liked a bit more discussion about the importance of how you make decisions that affective a collective rather than being "selfish."

To Be Taught, If Fortunate is a great read if you're interested in a thought-provoking and emotional journey that explores the wonders of space and the transformative power of human connection. Do be cautioned that the animal death scene is very traumatizing and leads the characters into a pretty heavy state of depression.

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30 Aug 2023

Blog Tour: THE SHAPE OF TIME by Ryan Calejo (Review)

30 August 2 Comments
I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on THE SHAPE OF TIME by Ryan Calejo Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours.

Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

THE SHAPE OF TIME

Author: Ryan Calejo
Series: Rymworld Arcana #1
Source: ARC via Publisher
Publisher: Amulet Books
Publication Date: September 12, 2023

Overall Rating:
Diversity Rating:
Representation: Black main character, Black side characters

Summary:
First in the middle-grade mind-bending Rymworld Arcana adventure series from award-winning author Ryan Calejo, The Shape of Time is destined to be an instant classic.

Fourteen-year-old Antares De La Vega is a natural born adventurer. He dreams of journeying across burning deserts, trekking through wild and uncharted jungles, sailing the farthest reaches of the seas—and yet, he’s never even stepped foot outside of South Florida. But that all changes when strange creatures come leaping out of lightning bolts to kidnap him.

Locked away in a secret prison in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, Antares meets fourteen-year-old Magdavellía, a mysterious and iron-willed girl who opens his eyes to a shocking that this world is a far different place than he’s been led to believe. He learns of the existence of the Flat Earth Society, an ancient secret order, whose main function is to keep the world beyond the great Ice Wall a mystery—a land known as Rymworld. But Rymworld is in trouble. Led by a nameless evil, a sinister group of mystics seek to seize control over its only true time itself.

Antares and Magdavellía must set out beyond the edges of any map to discover the a lost and forgotten island where there is rumored to exist a legendary artifact—a mythical compass that just might hold the key to foiling the mystics’ plans. Following a series of intricately concealed clues left behind by Magdavellía’s parents (clues Antares seems to be the key to unlocking), they must wield both geometry and alchemy, outsmart molemen and mermaids, and outrun fiendish outer space aliens––all while attempting to solve a riddle as old and mystifying as the sun.

Includes Black-and-White Illustrations
Purchase:
Amazon (affiliate)
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.

This was a wonderful middle grade read! It definitely has the ability to become an instant classic and it showcases a great Black main character.

The story immediately had my attention and I was constantly wondering what would happen next. I loved how the different time characters were introduced and then used throughout the story. 

It follows some typical tropes while adding some unique world building and a nice range of characters. I thought it had some elements of A Wrinkle In Time (one of my favourite books growing up) and that made me enjoy it even more. I felt nostalgic for this book while reading it and can't wait to pass it along to my niece!

Overall this was a great, engaging read, perfect for middle graders who love science fiction or you want to break them into the genre!

Ryan Calejo is an award-winning author born and raised in sunny
south Florida. His critically acclaimed Charlie Hernández series has been featured in half a dozen state reading lists and has earned starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus, was a Texas Bluebonnet Master List Selection, and won an International Latino Book Award, a Sunshine State Young Readers Award, and a Florida Book Award (Gold Medal). He lives in Miami.


Connect with the Author

2 winners will receive a finished copy of THE SHAPE OF TIME, US Only.
Ends October 3rd, midnight EST.


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25 Aug 2023

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: IN CHARM'S WAY by Lana Harper (Excerpt)

25 August 0 Comments
Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!

IN CHARM'S WAY

Author: Lana Harper
Series: The Witches of Thistle Grove #4
Source: eARC via Publisher
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publication Date: August 22, 2023

Summary:
A witch struggling to regain what she has lost casts a forbidden spell—only to discover much more than she expected, in this enchanting new rom-com by New York Times bestselling author Lana Harper.

Six months after having been hit by a power surge that nearly obliterated her memory, Delilah Harlow is still picking up the pieces. Her once diamond-sharp mind has become shaky and unreliable, and bristly, self-sufficient Delilah is forced to rely on friends, family, and her raven familiar for help. In an effort to reclaim her wits and former independence, she casts a dangerous blood spell meant to harness power with healing capacities.

While the spell does restore clarity, it also unexpectedly turns Delilah into an irresistible beacon for the kind of malevolent supernatural creatures that have never before ventured into Thistle Grove. One night—just as things are about to go terribly sideways with a rogue succubus—a mysterious stranger appears in the nick of time to save Delilah's soul.

Gorgeous, sultry, and as dangerous as the knives she carries, Catriona Quinn is a hunter of monsters—and half-human, half-fae herself, she is the kind of sly and morally gray creature Delilah would normally find horrifying. Though Delilah balks at the idea of a partnership, she has no choice but to roll the dice on their collaboration. As the two delve deeper into the power that underlies Thistle Grove, they uncover not only the town's hidden history but also a risky attraction that could upend Delilah's entire life.

Purchase:
Flames and stars, living in this town could be exhausting.

I sank down by the tree's base, pebbles and blades of grass pressing imprints into my bare knees. Then I closed my eyes and reached for the flower, cupping my hands around it without grazing the petals.

Sensing the flow of magic, Montalban brought her focus to bear on the spell, too, facilitating my work with it. She couldn't make me stronger than I was; that wasn't how familiars helped. But her added attention was like a lens held to the sun-anything I cast, she rendered finer and more precise.

Like most magically imbued flora, viridians couldn't just be plucked by mundane means. They needed to be harvested with the use of a particular preservation spell, to keep their potency intact. Magical botany was like that; infinitely fascinating and challenging, and also finicky as fuck. Hence, why I loved it. It demanded expertise and finesse, a deep understanding of theories and disciplines that the other Thistle Grove families largely cast aside in favor of relying on their natural talents. Even the Thorns didn't bother with it much, given their affinity for magically coaxing plants into simply doing whatever it was they wanted them to do.

But arcane knowledge, and its practical applications . . . that was where Harlows shone.

Especially this Harlow.

I took a slow breath, twitching my fingers into the delicate position called for by the spell, lips parting to speak the incantation. The words floated into my mind's eye in swooping antique copperplate; I could even picture the yellowed page upon which the rhyming couplets had been inked.

Then the entirety of the charm sluiced out of my head like water sliding through a sieve.

All of it, vanished in an instant. The words themselves, the lovely script, the aged grain of the paper. Where the memory had lived, there was now nothing. A cold and empty darkness, a void like a miniature black hole whorling in my head.

The panic that gushed through me was instantaneous, a prickling flood that engulfed me from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes, a flurry of icy pins sinking into my skin. And even worse was the terrible sense of dislocation that accompanied it, as if the entire world had spun wildly on its axis around me before falling back into place subtly misaligned. I'd known that spell, only moments ago. Now, I didn't. It was simply gone, lost, as if it had been plucked directly out of my head by some merciless, meticulous set of tweezers.

"Crawwww!" Montalban croaked into my ear, shifting fretfully from foot to foot as my distress seeped into her.

"I'm okay," I managed, through the terrible tightening in my throat. "It's okay."

But it wasn't. It felt nauseatingly like existing in two realities at once. One in which I was the old Delilah, a living library, a vast and unimpeachable repository of arcane information. And another in which I was a tabula rasa, almost no one at all. Just a facsimile of a person rather than anybody real and whole.

The dissonance of it was horrifying, a primal terror unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. The way, I imagined, some people might fear death, that ultimate disintegration of self if you truly believed nothing else came after.

Though to me, the idea of living with a mind that couldn't be trusted felt worse than even the possibility of a truly final oblivion.

I sank back onto my haunches, wrapping my arms around my chest. Goose bumps had erupted along the expanse of my skin, and I broke into a clammy sweat despite the buzzy warmth of the air, the humid heat that permeated the forest from the lake. "It's okay," I whispered to myself under my breath, rocking back and forth, feeling abysmally pathetic and weak even as Montalban nuzzled my cheek, desperate to provide some comfort. "You're alright. Try to relax and let it pass over you. Like a reed in the river, remember? Don't fight against the current, because the current always wins."

Sometimes, the simple relaxation mantra Ivy had improvised for me from her meditation practice worked, bleeding off some of the panic. Other times, it did absolute fuck all.

The worst part was that no one understood why this was still happening to me. As a Harlow recordkeeper, I should have been shielded from a conventional oblivion glamour in the first place. Given our role as the memory keepers of our community, Thistle Grove's formal occult historians, we were all bespelled to be immune to such attacks. But Nina's form of the spell had been superpowered, whipped to unfathomable heights by the kernel of divinity that had been lodged inside her, the deity's favor she'd been granted by Belisama.

Why that entitled Blackmoore bitch had been deemed deserving of a goddess's favor in the first place was still beyond me.

In any case, even after the mega-glamour dissolved-helped along by my cousin Emmy's and my uncle James's efforts-I wasn't rid of it entirely. Six months later, I still sometimes lost memories like this, little aftershocks of oblivion riving through me even after all this time. Other times, I reached for knowledge that I should have had-that I knew I'd once possessed-only to discover an utter, sucking absence in its place. As if some vestigial remnant of the spell lurked inside me like a malevolent parasite, a magical malaria that only occasionally reared up.

The lost memories did return sometimes, if I relaxed enough in the moment, or if I was able to revisit their original source-reread the page that held the charm, pore over the missing diagram. But sometimes they simply didn't, as if my brain had been rewired and was now inured to retaining that piece of information. And it was all horribly unpredictable. Just when I'd begun to tentatively hope that I might be on the upswing, I'd tumble into yet another mental vortex, a churning quagmire where I'd once reliably found the diamond edges of my mind.

But the self-soothing methods Ivy had taught me were always worth at least a try. I repeated the sappy "reed in a river" mantra to myself several more times-trying my damnedest not to feel like someone who'd ever wear Spiritual Gangster apparel in earnest-all the while inhaling deliberately through my nose and exhaling out of my mouth. The familiar smell of Lady's Lake calmed me, too, the distinctive scent of the magic that rolled off the water and through the woods, coursing down the mountainside to wash over the town. It was the strongest up here, an intoxicating smell like some layered incense. Earthy and musky and sweet, redolent of frankincense and myrrh laced with amber and oakmoss.

As a Harlow, my sense of the lake's magic was both more intimate and more acute than that of members of the other families-and the flow of it up here, so close to its wellspring, reassured me. Left me safe in the knowledge that I was still Delilah of Thistle Grove, on her knees on Hallows Hill with her beloved familiar on her shoulder. A Harlow witch exactly where she belonged.

Abruptly, the harvesting charm slid back into my mind. A little frayed around the edges, some of the words blurring in and out of sight, as if my memory were a dulled lens that had lost some of its focus. But it was back, restored, intact enough that I would be able to use it to collect the viridian.

"Oh, thank you," I breathed on a tremulous sigh, my limbs turning jellied with relief, unsure whom I was even thanking. Ivy's mantra, the goddess Belisama, the magic itself? When it came down to it, it didn't really matter.

Sometimes, you had to take the smallest of victories and run with them.

Sometimes, they were all you had to cling to.


Excerpted from In Charm's Way by Lana Harper Copyright © 2023 by Lana Harper. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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5 May 2023

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: GHOSTLY GAME by Christine Feehan (Excerpt)

05 May 1 Comments
Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!

GHOSTLY GAME

Author: Christine Feehan
Series: GhostWalkers #19
Source: eARC via Publisher
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publication Date: May 2, 2023

Summary:
Gideon "Eagle" Carpenter is used to rolling with the punches life has thrown at him. It's the only thing that's kept him alive. He and his team of GhostWalkers have seen and experienced it all. He does his best to live with all the sins written on his soul. Then he hears the laughter of a woman with the ability to erase--even for a few previous moments--the darkness of his past.

Laurel "Rory" Chappel has always been a nomad. She's accustomed to taking care of herself, despite the physical challenges she lives with. She thinks she's too weak to find real love, but that doesn't stop her interest in Gideon from turning into a full-on addiction. He's all rough edges and danger contrasted with a tenderness that makes her feel safe. Still, after a life spent in motion, she's not sure she knows how to stay in one place.

Gideon hopes he can persuade Rory to take a chance on him with every electric touch. But soon, life conspires against him, forcing the GhostWalker to risk everything to protect the woman he loves....

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“I’m not getting the GhostWalker vibe off her,” Gideon said, his eyes on the woman talking to one of her many male customers.

It didn’t matter that her hair was piled on her head in a sloppy knot that was falling out tendril by wayward tendril; it was obvious she had masses of hair, and it was dark cherry red. The real deal. Cherry red. He’d never seen that color of hair on anyone before. Every time she moved under a light, it blazed into vibrant life. It was difficult to keep his eyes off her.

She had those eyes. A deep green. Emerald? Jade? No, emerald for certain. Her eyes sparkled when she talked to her customers. She looked directly at them even when she was mixing drinks, her rhythm never faltering. Sometimes she would laugh softly, the sound musical, turning heads no matter how low it was in the noise of the crowded bar.

“You’ve been here several times over the last couple of weeks, Javier.” Gideon made it a statement. It would be difficult to get anything past Javier.

Gideon had held out as long as he could. The doctor hadn’t given him permission to come see Rory in person, but he couldn’t resist the compulsion any longer. Javier wasn’t happy about it, but he’d come along to ensure Gideon didn’t tear open any wounds. In other words, Gideon thought a little ironically, babysitting.

“I’ve watched her closely,” Javier admitted. “I can’t see any indication that she’s a GhostWalker, other than she has extraordinary reflexes. Her bartending skills are amazing. She’s fast and can handle multiple orders. She doesn’t seem to forget faces or names. On the other hand, I’ve followed her home every night, and she doesn’t run or exhibit any kind of behaviors or skills a GhostWalker might under cover of darkness. She walks, Gideon. Even if there’s a threat to her, which, on more than one occasion, I shut down.”

Gideon didn’t like that. The bartender everyone called Rory was a very attractive woman, although she didn’t seem to notice that she was. She didn’t flirt with her customers so much as genuinely try to connect in a friendly, positive way. If a man asked her out, she gave him a grin but refused gently.

Gideon liked the sprinkling of freckles across her nose and her generous mouth. It would be easy to fixate on both. “You did a background search on her?” Javier was a genius with computers. Gideon knew Javier had. He’d read the report multiple times and committed it to memory. He hoped Javier had updated it.

“Not much to find. She moves around a lot. Lost her parents early. Put herself through bartending school and uses that to earn her way. She doesn’t stay in one place very long. She goes to a state, travels within that state for a little while and moves on to the next one.”

“Anyone following her?”

“Not that I can find.”

Gideon slid his fingers around the neck of the beer bottle and rolled it back and forth. “I’m really drawn to her, Javier, more than any woman I’ve ever been around. The chemistry for me is off the charts. That doesn’t happen. Not like this. Not just with the sound of her voice. Her laughter. Now, watching other men around her, my attraction to her could be a little on the dangerous side, and you know I’m really not that man.”

Javier studied him, one eyebrow arched.

“Not over a woman,” Gideon clarified. “How can I trust it? You know Whitney pairs us. Would he pair someone who isn’t a GhostWalker just to experiment?”

Javier shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past the bastard to do anything, but what would it matter even if he did pair the two of you? Look at Kane and Rose. They’re happy together. Whitney didn’t make that happen. He might be able to make you attractive to each other, but he can’t manipulate your emotions.”

“And if she’s a plant?”

Again, Javier shrugged. “Then she’s an enemy, Gideon, and I’ll kill her. Whitney doesn’t get to have spies in our home.”

Every cell in Gideon’s body instantly rejected Javier’s casual threat. “Not happening, brother. I wouldn’t be able to let you do it,” he admitted. “That’s another black mark to put in the column against her.”


Excerpted from Ghostly Game by Christine Feehan Copyright © 2023 by Christine Feehan. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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30 Mar 2023

We Can(ada) Read: HENCH by Natalie Zina Walschots

30 March 0 Comments

We Can(ada) Read is by Canadians for EVERYONE to learn more about some amazing Canadian authors!

HENCH

Author: Natalie Zina Walschots
Series: N/A
Source: Audiobook from Audible; eARC from publisher
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: September 22, 2020

Overall Rating:
Diversity Rating:
Representation: LGBT side character

Summary:
Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy?

 As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured.  And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing.  And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

A sharp, witty, modern debut, Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics. 
Purchase:
Amazon | Chapters | TBD
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.

Content Warning: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Medical experimentation, Chronic illness & pain, Body horror, including eyeball trauma, Murder, Torture, Kidnapping.

I wanted this to be SO much better than it ended up being. It was missing something - and it could have been that it had such long chapters instead of breaking up the action a bit more. I loved this take on superheroes and villains but it just didn't quite connect with me the way I wanted it to.

This also just felt like it was missing the point the whole time - was it a sarcastic take or an introspective one? Was it to showcase that there are morally grey in every person or that the "bad guys" just have a bad reputation? It took the idea of The Boys and Vicious together but created something that was almost unreadable for me.

Not sure I recommend this one!

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9 Sept 2022

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: THE SANDMAN: ACT 1 by Neil Gaiman

09 September 0 Comments

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!

THE SANDMAN: ACT 1

Author: Neil Gaiman
Series: Sandman Audible Original #1
Source: Audiobook via Audible
Publisher: Audible Originals
Publication Date: July 15, 2020

Summary:
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times Magazine as “the greatest epic in the history of comic books”, The Sandman changed the game with its dark, literary world of fantasy and horror - creating a global, cultural phenomenon in the process. At long last, Audible and DC present the first-ever audio production of the New York Times best-selling series written by acclaimed storyteller Neil Gaiman (who also serves as co-executive producer). Adapted and directed by multi-award-winner (and frequent Gaiman collaborator) Dirk Maggs, and performed by an ensemble cast with James McAvoy (It, Parts One and Two, X-Men: First Class, Split) in the title role, this first installment of a multi-part original audio series will transport you to a world that re-writes the rules of audio entertainment the way that The Sandman originally re-defined the graphic novel.

When The Sandman, also known as Lord Morpheus - the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination - is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult, he languishes for decades before finally escaping. Once free, he must retrieve the three “tools” that will restore his power and help him to rebuild his dominion, which has deteriorated in his absence. As the multi-threaded story unspools, The Sandman descends into Hell to confront Lucifer (Michael Sheen), chases rogue nightmares who have escaped his realm, and crosses paths with an array of characters from DC comic books, ancient myths, and real-world history, including: Inmates of Gotham City's Arkham Asylum, Doctor Destiny, the muse Calliope, the three Fates, William Shakespeare (Arthur Darvill), and many more. 

A powerhouse supporting cast helps translate this masterwork into a sonic experience worthy of its legacy, including Riz Ahmed, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, Andy Serkis, and more. Setting the stage for their performance is an unprecedented cinematic soundscape featuring an original musical score by British Academy Award winner James Hannigan. Fans will especially revel in a new twist for the audio adaptation: Neil Gaiman himself serves as the narrator. Follow him as he leads listeners along a winding path of myths, imagination and, often, terror. Even in your wildest dreams, you’ve never heard anything like this.

Purchase:
Trigger Warnings: rape, death, violence, cheating

I started reading this to get caught up before watching the show and I'm glad I did! It was super well produced and a full cast audiobook, which made it a super fun listen.

If I was rating the audiobook alone, this would be a 5 out of 5. The production, the cast... it was stunning. However, the story was kinda boring when it wasn't connected to a larger plot. It was very simplistic, which I guess makes sense considering it's based on a graphic novel series, but I still wanted more.

I liked the two overarching arcs and stories that were included in this first set of stories, but I thought that there was too much of a rush to finish each of them. Where there should have been a big, climatic moment ending in more something, all the conclusions were pretty easy for Morpheus.

This audio production is incredibly faithful to the original works, which is both great and kind of its downfall. As a fan of the comics coming in for a listen, it's really quite the experience. As someone hoping to become a fan from listening, I'm not sure this does it.

While I am curious about the comics now, I'm not that invested to actively seek them out. Some of these were really really hard to listen to because of the storyline topics. A few of these come to mind as ones I wouldn't actively listen to again, especially since they are "one off" stories.

If you enjoyed the show, or comics in general, you'll enjoy this!

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1 Apr 2022

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

01 April 1 Comments

     

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

Author: Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Series: N/A
Source: Audiobook from Audible
Publisher: Saga Press
Publication Date: July 16, 2019
Summary:

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.
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I loved so much about this book - the storyline, the way it was written in letters, the romance. I thought it was beautifully written and the characters were so great. I listened to it as an audiobook and the narrators did a good job with embracing the characters and their emotions.

This follows two women on opposite sides of a war who start writing letters to eachother as taunts, but then through their letter writing, fall in love. I loved the romance aspect of this and the relationship between Red and Blue. Some of the letters were so wholesome and romantic - I loved them.

The prose is also so beautiful. It's poetic and lovely and definitely filled with emotional prose that helped me to get super invested in the characters.

It was just the worldbuilding and sci-fi elements that I thought could use more to it. It had some aspects that made sense, but when it got to other elements, such as braiding and how they were time travelling, I wanted much more to it. There was only a tickle of how this worked, how it impacted us, and what it actually meant to be in this "war."

Also, it was really short! I wanted like another 200 pages of this because the conflict came up really quickly and then was resolved very fast as well. This was more of a novella than a full novel. The "short story" elements to it made it a good read, but there was definitely more that should have and could have been done in this story.

The story itself is a good one, it provides enough to captivate you throughout, but I wanted it to be longer and focus more on the worldbuilding.

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