Arrow's Flight

Arrow's Flight by Mercedes Lackey

(Book #2 of the Heralds of Valdemar series)

Rating: 🍁

Link to Blurb

This was a very frustrating read, enough so that I gave up partway through. Given the enjoyment I got from the first book in the series, it was very disappointing. Why? Where to begin...let's try making a list:

1) One of the things I enjoyed most about book 1, Arrows of the Queen, was Talia's growth from an abused, repressed child to a confident, wise-beyond-her-years Herald. For this installment in the series, the author undoes all of Talia's emotional growth and reverts her back to that insecure, hesitating child. All because of some court rumours. Seriously? As soon as Talia finds out about the rumours, the bulk of the narrative becomes focused on her lack of confidence and internal processing of her self-doubt. It was rather tedious after a while.

2) The fact the Kris so easily doubts Talia's ability to control her gift is highly questionable to me, given that so much emphasis is placed on the inerrancy of a Companion's choice. Ronan chose Talia to be the Queen's Own. According to every single character we've met in this world, the Companions never make mistakes. Everyone apparently knows and accepts this as a truth - they've based their entire system of government on it. And yet Kris, who is surely at least somewhat aware of his uncle's political aspirations, immediately and continuously doubts Talia based on a question from his uncle regarding her character? What?

3) I cannot stand a plot that only works if the characters don't talk to each other. If Talia had just once mentioned to Kris all the doubts she was now having, or if Kris had just once pushed her a bit to find out what was wrong, or spoken to her about his own doubts, instead of repressing and dancing around the issue, this book would have been over by chapter 4. Incredibly frustrating.

Maybe the book picks up in the latter half, but the pacing would have to be incredibly fast for anything significant to happen beyond getting Talia back to where she was at the end of book 1. Oh well. I may try to find a synopsis and then skip ahead to book 3, as I really do enjoy the world of the series and kind of want to see where it goes. Hopefully things will improve.

Allegiance of Honor

Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh

(Book #15 of the Psy-Changeling series)

Rating: 🍁🍁🍁

Link to Blurb

Okay, first things first: If you haven't already read the first fourteen novels in this series, don't start here - go back, start at the beginning and work your way up. Trust me, it's worth it. If you want to dip your toes in to test the waters first, try one of the novellas. They work a little better as standalones.

Allegiance of Honor is a little different from earlier installments in Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series in that it doesn't follow the developing romance of a new couple. Instead, we get to revisit all of the couples we've previously encountered, which I quite liked. It was nice to get a peek into their respective HEAs.

As Ms. Singh pointed out in her introduction, this novel is meant to be a sort of transition to phase two of the series, wrapping up some loose ends and setting the stage for new things to come. I'm excited to see what those things are!

My Favourite Things:

- Getting to see inside Nikita's head, and the continued development of her relationship with Sascha

- The hint of a budding ... something ... between Nikita and Anthony

- Yay for more of the mysterious BlackSea pack!

- It looks like we're going to be seeing more humans in the coming novels, if I'm interpreting things correctly. This is exciting, as they've been largely underrepresented until now.

- Father Perez and his Nina!

- Pupcubs. *drops mike*

Things That Made Me Go "Hmm...":

- I know the Psy erased parts of their pre-Silence history to "protect" Silence, but from what I understand, there has to have been some record of previous Psy-Changeling children. Why is Naya treated like the only one ever? I get that she's the only one currently and that that's a big deal, but surely someone somewhere has info on previous mixes like her?

Fate's Edge

Fate's Edge by Ilona Andrews

(Book #3 in The Edge series)

Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁

Link to Blurb

I've really enjoyed Ilona Andrews' Edge series, and Fate's Edge is no exception. At various points it had me laughing out loud, seething in rage, and/or sitting on the edge of my seat. I love the gritty tone - these are not happy-go-lucky people in an everything-will-work-out world. My only beef was the cop out on the romantic development between Kaldar and Audrey.

Audrey was being all strong and sensible, denying the possibility of a relationship with Kaldar, and then for some reason that's never explained, she suddenly decides to throw caution to the wind and commit herself to him.

Show/hide spoiler What precipitated that decision? We never really find out, because 20 pages or so later, the book's done.

George and Jack are back in this installment, which made my day. They're my two favourite characters in the entire series, despite the fact that they're adolescent boys (which if you've read my reviews you know are not my favourite character type to read about). I look forward to Ilona Andrews' treatment of them in future novels.

Archangel

Archangel by Sharon Shinn

(Book #1 of the Samaria series)

Rating: 🍁🍁

Link to Blurb

I really wanted to like this book. It's well-written, and the world is so very fascinating! I'd come across it in a short story the author contributed to a collection a while ago, and put Archangel on my to-read list because I wanted to know more.

And it's still fascinating! Very unique in a genre that often struggles with tropes and stereotypes. But the shine wore off for me part way through when I'd pretty much figured out how the world worked and realized that I really didn't like any of the characters. That's a deal-breaker for me, though I know it isn't for others. The quality of the writing kept me going for quite a while longer, but it reached the point where I no longer cared what happened to any of the characters and that was it. I was done.

If you're someone whose enjoyment of a book is based more on world-building, plot and intrigue, give this book a try. If, like me, it's all about connecting and being taken along on a journey with the characters, you might want to give it a pass.

Old Man's War

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

(Book #1 of the Old Man's War series)

Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁

Link to Blurb

I generally don't read a whole lot of pure sci-fi, despite the fact that it’s one of my favourite genres. There’s so much potential for imagination and exploration, things you can do and say with sci-fi in a way that’s more powerful than with regular literature. And yet you won’t see much of it on my bookshelf. Why? It largely comes down to the characters who inhabit the story. If the author can’t make me at least sympathize with one or more of the main protagonists (or even the antagonist – I’m not fussy), I cannot enjoy the book no matter how amazing/revolutionary/significant the plot or writing may be. Much of sci-fi is littered with characters that make me want to shoot them out the nearest airlock. I don’t want to get into the reasons why I think this is the case right now (*coughsystemicmisogynyandracismcough*). I bring it up only by way of explanation for why I’m only now getting around to reading John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War.

I’m kind of kicking myself for waiting so long. Old Man’s War is thoroughly enjoyable – a fun, fast-paced, thoughtful space adventure. The concept of an army made up of senior citizens, combined with an awareness from Scalzi’s online presence that he is indeed A Good Egg^TM, was enough to make me put it on my to-read shelf. Scalzi did a great job of navigating the internal world of a 75-year old man (John Perry) whose life was going through some radical changes over a relatively short period of time in a believable, thought-provoking way. There were moments that I laughed out loud, moments that I questioned some of my own understandings of humanity, moments of happiness that made my heart hurt with the pain that comes from recognizing the cost involved in reaching that happiness. John Perry is a fun and interesting guy to spend time with.

The external world created by Scalzi was a lot of fun too. Not one I’d like to live in, but fun to visit. It’s a war out there, with many different species vying for the too-limited planetary resources. I can’t speak to the accuracy or plausibility of all the science-y stuff, but it all made sense on some level for me. If there’s one criticism I have of the book, though, it’s the amount of time spent explaining the science behind some of the different technologies. I tended to skim most of those, but that probably has more to do with my lack of interest than anything else. Still, there was only one instance where I was forced to go back and reach the science-y explanation in order to understand what was happening, so I question whether the rest were really necessary. They felt more like a ‘Hey look at this cool thing I learned while researching for this book’ moment on the part of the author than anything else. I will say that he at least explained the stuff well – my non-scientific mind was able to grasp the concepts he was outlining with relative ease.

On the whole, I’m glad I read Old Man’s War, and will be putting the next books in the series on my to-read list posthaste.

Precious Cargo: My Year of Driving the Kids on School Bus 3077

Precious Cargo: My Year of Driving the Kids on School Bus 3077 by Craig Davidson

Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

Link to Blurb

Powerful. Poignant. At times laugh out loud funny. At other times, heart-squeezingly sad. Supremely human and real. Ultimately an uplifting, challenging read.

Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

(Book #1 of The Vampire Chronicles series)

Rating: 🍁🍁

Link to Blurb

Meh. I get why this book was a huge deal when it was written, and had I read it back then my socks would probably have been appropriately knocked off. Telling the story from a vampire's perspective, and thereby making him a sympathetic character, was a revolutionary approach. Reading it now, though? Socks and shoes are securely in place.

It's well-written, I'll give it that much, with a palpable sense of slow-building tension. But I want to put lots of emphasis on the slow. It almost felt like we were experiencing the story in real time, which isn't a good thing when the story covers multiple centuries. To be honest, I just didn't care enough about the characters, including Louis, to push through the cold molasses pacing with any sort of anticipation or enjoyment. It was, in short, a well-written slog.

I've heard that this may be one of the few cases where the movie is better than the book. Maybe I'll watch it and find out - at the very least, it's an hour or so of young Brad Pitt. Time well spent. ;)