Twelve DNFs in one month is officially a new record, and kinda alarming.
I spent a while thinking about wtf is going on…and my conclusion is that my patience keeps decreasing. I feel like it’s a waste of time to stick with a book that’s just fine, rather than one I’m actively enjoying and/or am interested in; on top of that, I’ve definitely been having more trouble caring about characters and their stories, which has made the prose even more important than usual (because enjoying the prose is all that I’m really getting out of books at the moment). And we all know I’m super, super picky about prose.
Basically – if it doesn’t bring my joy, out it goes!
That does mean that most of these aren’t objectively bad by any means. But they didn’t thrill me, excite me, or wow me with their writing, and so they ended up here.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
ISBN: 0316383902
Goodreads
From the author of The Magician's Daughter comes The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door, a mythic, magical tale full of secret scholarship, faerie curses, and the deadliest spells of all—the ones that friends cast on each other.
All they needed to break the world was a door, and someone to open it.
Camford, 1920. Gilded and glittering, England's secret magical academy is no place for Clover, a commoner with neither connections nor magical blood. She tells herself she has fought her way there only to find a cure for her brother Matthew, one of the few survivors of a faerie attack on the battlefields of WWI which left the doors to faerie country sealed, the study of its magic banned, and its victims cursed.
But when Clover catches the eye of golden boy Alden Lennox-Fontaine and his friends, doors that were previously closed to her are flung wide open, and she soon finds herself enmeshed in the seductive world of the country's magical aristocrats. The summer she spends in Alden’s orbit leaves a fateful mark: months of joyous friendship and mutual study come crashing down when experiments go awry, and old secrets are unearthed.
Years later, when the faerie seals break, Clover knows it’s because of what they did. And she knows that she must seek the help of people she once called friends—and now doesn’t quite know what to call—if there’s any hope of saving the world as they know it.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I’m sorry, but this put me to sleep. 35% in and it was a slog. Where’s the magic? We’re told constantly about how much Clover loves studying, but I have no idea what’s being studied. How does magic work? What exactly is involved in casting this spell? Why can’t we see Clover learning to cast with a partner, instead of only being told after she’s got the hang of it? It made the magic feel so humdrum. There was no wonder, which is bizarre considering that the MC didn’t grow up with magic. Where is her delight in it, you know?
The friendship…I didn’t buy it. I really liked how they all had wildly different motivations, but they didn’t feel like friends to me, and I didn’t understand what they all saw in each other. As a group, I don’t think they worked.
This was the 3rd Parry book in a row that didn’t work for me, so we’ll call Declaration a fluke and I’ll stop picking up her books, I think.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: MLM MC
PoV: 3rd-person, past-tense
Published on: 8th October 2024
ISBN: 1915998204
Goodreads
A queer, madcap, friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers time travel romance with the future of the world at stake, this charming fantasy tale is sure to satisfy fans of Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree.
The kingdom of Farsala is broken and black clouds hang heavy over the arid lands. Former Grand-Mage of the High Court, Cyril Laverre, has spent the last decade hiding himself away in a ramshackle hut by the sea, trying to catch any remaining fish for his cat familiar, Shoestring, and suppressing his guilt over the kingdom’s ruin. For he played his part – for as the King, Eufrates Margrave, descended further and further into paranoia, violence and madness, his Grand-Mage – and husband – Cyril didn’t do a thing to stop him.
When Shoestring wanders away and dies one morning, Cyril knows his days are finally numbered. But are there enough left to have a last go at putting things right? With his remaining lifeblood, he casts a powerful spell that catapults him back in time to a happier period of Farsalan history – a time when it was Eufrates’s older sister Tig destined to ascend to the throne, before she died of a wasting disease, and a time when Cyril and Eufrates’s tentative romance had not yet bloomed. If he can just make sure Eufie never becomes King, then maybe he can prevent the kingdom’s tragic fate. But the magical oath he made to his husband at the altar, transcending both time and space, may prove to be his most enduring – and most dangerous – feat of magic to date…
Featuring a formidable Great Aunt, a friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romance, an awkward love quadrangle and a crow familiar called Ganache, this charming story is imminently easy to read and sure to satisfy fans of fanfiction who like their fantasy lite.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Genuinely enbarassed that despite so much evidence that we don’t get along, I picked up YET ANOTHER Angry Robot book. No one should be surprised that I didn’t like the writing style; I never do, from AR.
Great premise, very blunt and dry writing. Probably objectively fine, but not for me!
Genres: Adult, Speculative Fiction
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
ISBN: 1635575435
Goodreads
The Crucible meets True Grit in this riveting adventure story of a fugitive girl, a mysterious gang of robbers, and their dangerous mission to transform the Wild West.
In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw.
The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows.
She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.
Featuring an irresistibly no-nonsense, courageous, and determined heroine, Outlawed dusts off the myth of the old West and reignites the glimmering promise of the frontier with an entirely new set of feminist stakes. Anna North has crafted a pulse-racing, page-turning saga about the search for hope in the wake of death, and for truth in a climate of small-mindedness and fear.
The first chunk of this was super readable and compelling, despite being all about pregnancies and infertility, topics that I don’t usually want to read about. The quiet reveal that this is actually set in the future – or possibly an alternate timeline? But I think the future – was a great surprise.
Alas, I actually got bored very quickly once the MC joined the outlaws. I know, I’m surprised too, but there you go.
That being said, I do think this is excellently written, so if the blurb holds any appeal for you I do recommend giving it a go!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: MLM MC, M/M
PoV: 3rd-person, past-tense
Published on: 14th January 2025
ISBN: 1965743013
Goodreads
Erik Weston never expected that returning to his mother’s sleepy Pacific Northwest hometown would thrust him into a war between nature’s wrath and humanity’s greed. Erik hopes to find solace in the routine work at his family’s lumber mill, but each day spent felling ancient trees deepens his grief, clashing with his reverence for the forests he’s forced to destroy.
One fateful night, Erik’s life is upended when he discovers a wounded dryad hiding in the shadows of the mill’s back stock, wounded by the brutal machinery of the mill. As he nurses the dryad back to health, their forbidden bond awakens a passion Erik has long repressed, bestowing up it the name Roman.
But this connection triggers a deadly retaliation from nature, unleashing a storm of vengeance upon the town. Now, Erik must choose between the simplicity and comfort found in his new small-town life and the otherworldly love he’s found with Roman—a love that could burn everything to the ground with a simple spark.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Someone take this author’s thesaurus away from them, please, this is just embarrassing.
Satisfied that his body was freed of the nature that consumed him during his work hours,
What would you think that sentence means, if you came across it in a book? Because what is meant is that he’s washed off the leaves and dust from the day’s work, which…that’s just not how you say that. It doesn’t work on multiple levels.
The cabin was cool; he’d need to rectify it with a fire and a quilt. The thought of such simplistic comforts left him happy,
‘rectify it’? RECTIFY? And you mean simple comforts, not simplistic comforts, ffs.
He racked his brain for a brief moment and tried to recount his day.
Now, this would be completely fine, except that what is meant here is that the character is trying to remember what happened that day. Which is not what this sentence means. ‘Recount’ specifically means to tell someone about something; it does not mean ‘remember’.
It had been on a whim, a decision made in panic.
You’re talking about an impulse, not a whim, methinks. ‘Whim’ and ‘panic’ don’t really go together, even though technically it’s probably fine?
But it was quite, cozy, and familial.
This line is about a town. A town is familial??? Even if it contains members of your family, I don’t think that means you can describe a town as familial.
He couldn’t stop his mind from wandering to his missing co-workers and the oddity of the situation.
‘oddity of the situation’?
This novella is so overwritten as to be painful, a very clear case of someone who needs to let go of the thesaurus and back away slowly. The result is prose that manages to be both pretentious and jarringly weird, with plenty of sentences that just don’t mean what the author thinks they mean. I would be so embarrassed to submit this to a literary agent or publisher, and I have no idea why it’s being published in this form.
(Yes, I know this is an arc, but books aren’t generally completely rewritten between arc and final copy, so I’m going to presume most of this isn’t going to be edited out.)
Hey BDA Publishing, if you decide you need a new editor, I’m currently available. I also freelance as a copywriter, so hit me up if you want someone to wrangle this into submission, jfc.
Genres: Adult, Horror
Representation: Nigerian cast and setting
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
Published on: 22nd October 2024
ISBN: 1835410626
Goodreads
A powerful Nigeria-set horror tale of possession, malevolent ghosts, family tensions, secrets and murder from the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement and 'Queen of African Horror'. For readers of Tananarive Due, Chikodili Emelumadu and Paul Tremblay.
Bata, an 11-year-old girl tormented by nightmares, wakes up one night to find herself standing sentinel before her cousin's door. Her skin, hair, and eyes have turned a dazzling white colour, which even the medicine-man can't heal. Her cousin is to get married the next morning, but only if she can escape the murderous attack of a ghost-bride, who used to be engaged to her groom.
Through the night, Bata battles the vengeful ghost and finally vanquishes it before collapsing. On awakening, she has no recollection of the events. And when the medicine-man tries to exorcise the entities clinging to her body as a result of her supernatural possession, Bata dies on the exorcism mat.
There begins her journey. She is taken into Ibaja-La, the realm of dead brides, by Mmuọ-Ka-Mmuọ, the ghost-collector of the spirit realm. There she meets the ghosts of brides from every culture who died tragically before their weddings; both the kind and the malevolent. Bata is given secret powers to fight the evil ghost-brides before being sent back to the human realm, where she must learn to harness her new abilities as she strives to protect those whom she loves.
By turns touching and terrifying, this is vivid supernatural horror story of family drama, long-held secrets, possession, death - and what lies beyond.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The blurb calls this powerful, but I found it kind of cartoonish more than anything else. (Nor that animated shows/movies can’t be powerful, but you know what I mean.) Complete with the ghosts blasting each other with lasers from their hands and eyes. Also, I got to 22% and am not sure if the Horror just comes later, or if this book is really more Fantasy than Horror (which is what it felt like).
I really like it when we get Adult stories narrated by younger characters, but that wasn’t really what was happening here; we weren’t limited by or informed by the 10yo’s knowledge of the world, so this wasn’t really what I was expecting it to be!
I don’t think there’s really much wrong with the writing itself, so if you like the blurb, you could give it a shot. I’m not really recommending it? But I’m not urging you away, either.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC
PoV: 3rd-person, past-tense
ISBN: 1777620252
Goodreads
Aza Gen, curse cleaner and snooper at keyholes, never set out to break all the rules. She lives a sheltered life as a curse cleaner for Maripesa's ruling family. At thirteen, the day of her first period, she acquires an ability to split herself and see from two perspectives. She keeps it a secret, not knowing where this Talent fits in the magical structure of her society.
Magic can so easily slide into chaos. That's why the belief in it was phased out over eons. But the island of Maripesa took a different approach. They used those eons to breed a system that uses magic to maintain order. Types of spells are genetically bound to family clans. The upper clans curse. The mid clans repair or heal those curses. The lower clans have no magic. Anyone who breeds outside their clan is executed. It is a simple and perfect balance of power.
Years later, Maripesa's rigid calm devolves under an upper clan spellwar and, not coincidentally, Aza loses everything. Sick, fearful and grieving, she's thrust alone into the unfamiliar city where she encounters hypocrisy and deception—so much worse than the twin evils of curses and maladies. But there are also good people with wells of kindness and wisdom; the experience of romance and sexual awakening; profound new kinships; and a burgeoning awareness of her own power.
She finds women who have magic similar to hers. Women's magic—minimized, ridiculed, suppressed through generations—becomes her focus. Aza realizes that because it crosses and includes all clans, it can subvert the system. Her rage at mounting injustices will not stop until every outdated rule is undone.
Book One of The Last Magic City unfolds through four characters from different clans. In addition to Aza Gen, there are Ferjival Puraples, son of the ruler, and an angst-ridden antagonist; Benelek Kruik, a fun-loving, charismatic woman whose generosity and ambition don't always coexist easily; and Vijo Besin, healer of maladies, scholar of all magic, romantic soul with perhaps too much patience for his own good.
Aza, Ferjival, Benelek and Vijo show us the way through this charm-filled, twisty, heartfelt journey about the chaos that hypocrisy and hubris can bring and the healing that kindness will always manifest.
I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Another case of, didn’t enjoy the prose = couldn’t get into the story. Which is a shame, because I was especially excited for this one, and all the things the author told me were in it! I think the writing here was a little rough, and I found it wild that the main character had this incredible ability for so long, but didn’t start really experimenting with it or trying to find out what it was until the novel starts, give or take a decade after it manifested.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
Published on: 19th November 2024
ISBN: 0356517551
Goodreads
Follow a star investigator and her rival as they journey through layers of reality to save the world as they know it in this whip-smart adventure fantasy about rival guilds, reality-bending magic and unexpected mystery.
Kembral Thorne is spending a few hours away from her newborn, and she's determined to enjoy the party no matter what. But when the guests start dropping dead, Kem has no choice but to get to work. She's a member of the Guild of Hounds, after all, and she can't help picking up the scent of trouble.
She's not the only one. Her professional and personal nemesis, notorious burglar Rika Nonesuch, is on the prowl. They quickly identify what's causing the mayhem: a mysterious grandfather clock that sends them down an Echo every time it chimes. In each strange new layer of reality, time resets and a sinister figure appears to perform a blood-soaked ritual.
As Kem and Rika fall into increasingly macabre versions of their city, they'll need to rely on their wits - and each other - to unravel the secret of the clock and save their city.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this book at all! It’s just not for me. I’ve enjoyed Caruso’s YA before, but…eh. Too urban? Too fast-paced? I’m not really a fan of time loops to begin with, and even though this isn’t a typical time loop… But I definitely encourage anyone intrigued by the blurb to give it a try! Or at least check out some more detailed reviews.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
PoV: 3rd-person, past-tense
ISBN: 1959411659
Goodreads
"Such an absolute joy to read. Highly recommended."–TJ Klune, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea
In this fresh-yet-familiar gothic tale—part historical fantasy, part puzzle-box mystery—the worlds of Dracula and Sherlock Holmes collide in a thrilling exploration of feminine power.
At the dawn of the twentieth century in Paris, Samantha Harker, daughter of Dracula’s killer, works as a researcher for the Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena. But no one realizes how abnormal she is. Sam is a channel into the minds of a power that could help her solve the gruesome deaths plaguing turn-of-the-century Paris—or have her thrown into an asylum.
Sam finds herself assigned to a case with Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter of the criminal mastermind and famed nemesis of Sherlock Holmes and a notorious detective whom no one wants to work with on account of her previous partners’ mysterious murders. Ranging from the elite clubs of Paris to the dark underbelly of the catacombs, their investigation sweeps them into a race to stop a beast from its killing rampage, as Hel and Sam are pitted against men, monsters, and even each other. But beneath their tenuous trust, an unmistakable attraction brews. Is trusting Hel the key to solving the murder, or is Sam yet another pawn in Hel’s game?
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
It’s not bad, but it’s extremely meh. Meaning, it’s not doing anything very special – although I might feel differently if I was a major Dracula or Sherlock fan, perhaps. I can’t tell you if there are any Easter eggs in here for readers who are fans, because I wouldn’t have caught them if there are…I hope there are, that would be cooI.
Most of the tension in the first third hinges on the Let’s Not Communicate trope, which I despise and strongly feel is lazy storytelling. There were some nice feminist moments, like acknowledging and highlighting the shop girls of Paris, and I was genuinely impressed to see a grindylow, which is not a mythological beastie that appears often in the stories I read. But I was bored by the characters, by the sexism, by the eye-rollingly over-the-top secret societies or cults or whatever. The worldbuilding was terribly basic. There was nothing hooking me to keep reading, to read this book instead rather than some other one. You know?
It probably would have been a solid three star read had I finished it, but I just had no interest in finishing it. So I won’t.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
PoV: 1st-person present-tense
Published on: 17th December 2024
ISBN: 1645661679
Goodreads
Two bold young women defy the gods and mortals, living and dead, in this darkly mythical, Finnish folklore-inspired fantasy duology for readers of T. Kingfisher's Nettle & Bone, Danielle L. Jensen, Thea Guanzon, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec.
In the Finnish wilderness, more than wolves roam the dark forests. For Siiri and Aina, summer’s fading light is a harbinger of unwelcome change. Land-hungry Swedes venture north, threatening the peace; a zealous Christian priest denounces the old ways; and young women have begun to disappear.
Siiri vows to protect Aina from danger. But even Siiri cannot stop a death goddess from dragging her friend to Tuonela, the mythical underworld. Determined to save Aina, Siiri braves a dangerous journey north to seek the greatest shaman of legend, the only person to venture to the realm of death and return alive.
In Tuonela, the cruel Witch Queen turns Aina’s every waking moment into a living nightmare. But armed with compassion and cleverness, Aina learns the truth of her capture: the king of the underworld himself has plans for her. To return home, Aina must bargain her heart—as Siiri plots a daring rescue of the woman she loves the most.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I can’t tell you how excited I was for this book – Finnish mythology! When do we EVER see Finnish mythology?! But Rath’s blunt, dry, telling-telling-telling prose was a slap to the face. This is written in first-person present-tense, which almost never works for me, and absolutely doesn’t in this case. Instead of letting us get a feel for the characters and their situation, Rath just informs us of how much Siiri and Aina love each other before they’re immediately separated – no effort is made to make us feel it, to show us and convince us of how strong their relationship is. Aina’s kidnapping comes in the very first chapter, before we have any chance to get invested in these characters; on top of that, Rath does The Thing of using zero sensory description in describing her monsters…which leeches the horror from them. Hi, when you describe your monsters very matter of factly? They aren’t scary. It’s a whole thing. I need authors to stop doing it.
There’s no pronounciation guide in the arc, which is a terrible decision on someone’s part, because Finnish does not use the same phonetic alphabet as Finnish and a lot of Finnish words look really strange to an English speaker. (I say that as someone who lived in Finland for years.) Nor is there a dictionary-type thing for the Finnish in this book, so tough luck if you don’t know what a kalman väki is.
Hopefully the final copy will have guides for both, the pronounciation and the Finnish.
Also, it’s petty but I’ll say it: I don’t think it’s smart to name your character Siiri when your book is going out to a US audience. Is anyone not going to keep thinking of Apple’s Siri? Because I did, and it was hugely annoying.
One of my most-anticipated books of the year, and a massive disappointment.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, bisexual love interest
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
Published on: 11th November 2024
ISBN: B0CQHM33D5
Goodreads
Having been saved from execution at the hands of the Draoihn – powerful magic users Raine used to count as allies – Raine finds herself in the Fault, a vast magical wasteland, which is falling apart before her eyes.
Alongside her two closest companions, they are searching for the only person Raine believes can help them get back home: the enigmatic and infuriatingly elusive Queen of Feathers.
But what home are they trying to get back to? Ovitus LacNaithe, power-hungry traitor that he is, has taken control of the Draoihn and is unwittingly doing the bidding of a darker master. He is soon to take control of the Crown of Harranir and plunge the land into unending darkness.
The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance. The stakes have never been higher. It's going to take Raine's dark, terrible powers, as well as the unbreakable bond of three friends, to ensure everyone lives to see the dawn.
The epic conclusion to Ed McDonald's Redwinter Chronicles, Witch Queen of Redwinter brings together breathtaking magic, unflinching fellowship and the gruesome spectacle of war in the most thrilling of fantasy adventures.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I loved both previous books in this trilogy, but my gods, the first third of Witch-Queen is such a slog, drowning in telling-telling-telling, and Raine’s stupid whiny angst smeared over everything, and the not-underworld she’s trapped in is so bloody boring, and let’s not forget the six month timeskip between books!
I cannot make myself care. Even with a potential poly endgame on the table. Even with all the mysteries yet to be un-mysteried. Even with Ovitus needing to get his just desserts. I just do not care. Too much is too convenient; too much is coming out of nowhere; too much is relationship drama and woe-is-me.
I skipped to skim the ending, and that only reinforced my decision to call it quits – so many huge things that the groundwork was never laid for (in the earlier books, I mean, which is where the groundwork should be laid for your epic finale revelations – you can’t just start introducing this stuff at the last minute!), and hi, hate what you did with the three-way romance! Hate it! The actual fuck was that? Urgh!
I’m done. Incredibly disappointed, and done.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: MLM MC, brown MLM MC, M/M
PoV: 3rd-person, past-tense; multiple PoVs
Published on: 1st November 2024
ISBN: 1662519028
Goodreads
In this magical tale of self-discovery from New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, a young widow taps into the power that will change the world—if the man’s world she lives in doesn’t destroy her and her newfound friends first.
In the summer of 1880, the death of Beth Stanley’s husband puts her life’s work in jeopardy. The magic of Arcane Taxonomy dictates that every natural thing in the world, from weather to animals, can be labeled, and doing so grants the practitioner some of that subject’s unique power. But only men are permitted to train in this philosophy. Losing her husband means that Beth loses the name they put on her work—and any influence she might have wielded.
Brandon West and Anton Torrance are campaigning for their expedition to the South Pole, a mission that some believe could make a taxonomist all-powerful by tapping into the earth’s magnetic forces. Their late friend Harry Stanley’s knowledge and connections would have been instrumental, but when they attempt to take custody of his work, they find that it was never his at all.
Tied together by this secret and its implications, Beth, Bran, and Anton must find a way for Beth to use her talent for the good of the world, before she’s discovered by those who would lay claim to her rare potential—and her very freedom.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
It’s fine??? It’s fine. A good, solid three stars. I’m just not enchanted, the way I hoped I would be. The prose is very bestseller-y, meaning light on description but well-paced and super readable. I was hoping to see the characters experiencing wonder at the natural world, and they didn’t – although in fairness I think that’s deliberate, I think Vaughn’s making a point about the white/Victorian mindset towards naturalism, ie that it’s pretty gross and colonialist and greedy, actually!
And I think that was being done really well, but it’s not the kind of thing I want to read.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
ISBN: B00BIV0X5M
Goodreads
In the world of Celestial Matters, Ptolemaic astronomy and Aristotelian physics are valid scientific models of the surrounding world and cosmos. The Earth lies at the center of the universe, surrounded by crystal spheres which hold each of the planets, the sun and the moon, all enclosed in the sphere of the fixed stars. Earthly matter, composed of the classical four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, naturally moves in straight lines. Heavenly matter naturally rises and moves in circles. This is the universe as understood by the ancient Greeks.
The science of the ancient Chinese also applies, but as the novel is told from the perspective of the Greeks, it is less well understood. Xi, the Chinese notion of spirit and flow, can be manipulated to move objects and energy. The Chinese five elements of earth, metal, water, wood, and fire are transmuted one into the other. Part of the central theme of the book is the two system's mutual misunderstanding and bafflement of each other.
In this world, the Delian League (Greeks) and Middle Kingdom (Chinese) have been fighting a war for nearly a thousand years, ever since the time of Alexander the Great when the warrior-culture of Sparta and the Athenian Akademe were fused into a half-world conquering force. Their technologies are locked together, however, and neither empire can gain the upper hand. Each side secretly despairs of its chances and has come to consider desperate measures.
The story is narrated by Aias of Tyre, a scientist of the Delian League, who is preparing to embark on Project Sunthief as scientific commander. This project is an audacious and desperate mission to sail a spaceship carved out of a piece of the moon herself out through the spheres, to catch a piece of the sun and bring it back to earth to annihilate the Middler capital city. This, the league hopes, will finally end the war and give it victory.
I picked this up for the Published in the 1990s square in this year’s r/Fantasy bingo (Celestial Matters was released in 1996), and because I thought the concept has a lot of potential – a world where Ptolemaic astronomy and Aristotelian physics are how the world really works! And that part is very cool, especially since ancient China’s understanding of natural sciences is also somehow correct. If I had finished this, it would be solely to find out if we ever learn how these two systems can co-exist.
I made it past the 40% mark; the writing is pretty readable. But it’s been months since I was really reading it – I started the next chapter today, but that didn’t reignite my interest. I just don’t feel any drive to continue with it. The characters are very meh; it doesn’t help that they’re all privileged af, with only one woman in the cast (and she a very stereotypical Strong Warrior Woman type, which interests me not at all). The first-person narration does nothing for me; Aias isn’t dreary or especially pretentious, but I find him really dull – I wish this had been written in third-person instead. (Although I think I understand why it wasn’t, and it probably was the correct call for telling this particular story.) The gods are real, but not very present. The Delian League doesn’t care about anything but war. I don’t think we’re ever going to dig into the slavery that the League runs on, either. (Don’t talk to me about historical accuracy, the sun revolves around the earth in this story! Real-world accuracy is not required!!! It is an authorial choice, and one I don’t enjoy!)
Again: it’s fine. It doesn’t tick my particular boxes, but I can see people enjoying this, maybe even really loving it. Just not me!
Let’s hope for fewer DNFs in November, jfc
Re: North is the Night, I always find it frustrating when novels don’t set up a character’s baseline and throw readers right into the rising action. It sounds like this book about two characters’ bond doesn’t do the job of showing or developing that bond, which seems like an obvious mistake when you say it, but can total pass a writer by in the writing process. Something I try to keep in my myself.
Exactly! If your whole story hinges on a relationship, you’d better get me invested in it BEFORE you separate the characters!
I think it’s a problem of storytellers wanting to get to the Exciting Parts quickly, and forgetting they need to give readers a reason to care about what’s going on first. I guess it’s an easy mistake to make because the writer already cares about the characters/situation and forgets that the rest of us don’t yet?
Yes I totally think that’s the issue. And it happens! I’ve read lots of books where the author forgets to show us what a character is usually like or what they usually do and instead puts them in a situation where they act or do things unlike themselves, which totally lacks the punch they think it has as I have no baseline for their actions. In the novel I’m, uh, “writing” (maybe someday), I realized I needed to go back and add in a prologue that does establish the character’s competency because where I originally wanted to start the story, it would be just as she’s thrown into a totally new and shaky situation.
I have THE SCHOLAR AND THE LAST FAERIE DOOR on my TBR but I’m not sure why haha maybe I’ll skip it…
Lots of other people loved it??? Just, ah. Not me!