Royal romance

A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Picked this up because some of my goodreads buddies read it together and I was looking for a light palate cleanser. I had a hard time liking this and almost dropped it about a hundred pages in. Maybe I should have started with the first of the series.

Too many things rubbed me the wrong way. I found Nya to be annoying and whiny (yes, I am missing her backstory, because I didn‘t start with the first book…). Johan‘s made-up fantasy language was very, very weird. One of the main characters being the Duke of Edinburgh was just plain odd. I kept imagining the 90-odd-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II and that really did not work.

However, a synopsis somewhere mentioned a fake engagement—my favourite romance trope—and there were the odd funny moments, so I decided on ignoring odd stuff and to pretend this is a fantasy novel set on an imaginary planet.

The inevitable drama and misunderstanding between the main characters was ok, they were even somewhat adult in their reasoning. Nya definitely became more likable over the course of the book. Lukas‘s crisis felt very stuck-on at the last minute, as if the author wanted to include a popular topic in fiction and didn‘t manage to mesh it well with the rest.

I finished the book, but I am not sold on the series or the author. I did not truly enjoy this, although it had its (rare) moments. If my romance reading buddies hadn‘t liked this so much, I would probably have DNFd this. ★★¾☆☆

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Yappy bot! Arf arf!

Descender #14 by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Back to the beginning, ten years ago. Going over the same story we covered before. A little too repetitive, isn‘t it? Wait, is this told from the POV of Bandit? Arf arf! Even the yappy bot gets a backstory! Pretty heart breaking.

And finally back to the main storyline! Yay! But…. too short!

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Telsa‘s story

Descender #13 by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Backstory for Telsa. Very nice. I did not like her much before this. But with the context of this she becomes a more likable character. And Quon proves to be an utter twat.

In terms of allover plot more of a filler.

Still lovely watercolour artwork.

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Flora does not flower for me

The Book of Flora by Meg Elison
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

„Let’s see what I can grow into, see how long it takes me to reach the light.“

The first three chapters were not an easy read. First Flora‘s pretty horrible childhood and then Ommun and Alma—I am not a fan of her. This book was fighting an uphill battle to make me like it from the start.

Reading this back to back with Book of Etta would probably have work well. I struggled to place everybody, as it was a while since I read Etta and the author made no effort to explain things.

After picking this up and putting it down again for 3 weeks and not even making it halfway, I declare defeat. I do not like any of the characters. I don‘t care what happens next. I don‘t like the plot, it just doesn‘t work for me. I can‘t put my finger on why it doesn‘t. Maybe it‘s me. The first two books got 5 stars each from me. Perhaps I expected too much. I don‘t know, was the plot too aimless? The characters all remained very one-dimensional as well. How can the first book be so great and this one…. not.

DNF at 43%, chapter 18.

I received this free e-copy from 47North via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you! And sorry.

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But some of us are the next step in evolution.

Asimov’s Science Fiction, September 2016 by Sheila Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

THE MIND IS ITS OWN PLACE, CARRIE VAUGHN, ~24 p., ★★★★☆

“Carrie Vaughn is best known for her New York Times bestselling series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty who hosts a talk radio show.“
I really liked that series! But it seems as if she is more of an SF author than UF, right?

“If someone locked you in a room full of crazy people, was there any chance that you weren’t crazy?“
Well, that is the question. How delusional or crazy is our MC here?

“But some of us are the next step in evolution.”
And wouldn‘t that be cool… Not telling you, what exactly, sorry. I enjoyed this!

Story excerpt here: https://web.archive.org/web/201610101…

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To dream is to live

The Incal Vol. 5: The Fifth Essence – The Dreaming Galaxy by Alejandro Jodorowsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To dream is to live.

John Difool has had it. After that whole impregnating thing in the last volume he wants a vacation and go somewhere nice with Animah. But first he has to infiltrate the Death Star War Star…

Red Alert! Subspace! Space Battle! I like the battle action in this a lot. Star Wars and Dune, right? Very much so. And some Eastern mysticism.

This one has really nice artwork! More homogenous than the previous ones. The layouts taking most or all of the page are really great. Still knocking off one star for unsatisfying plotting and story telling.

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More action with the dark elves atevi

Invader by C.J. Cherryh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I like this much better than the first book. Bran Cameron, the annoyingly whiny navel-gazer from the first book, has grown. Oh, he is still somewhat preoccupied with his mail and wracked with self-doubt, but he has managed to become a more likeable person for me. There are still long stretches of the mentioned navel-gazing, or rather long stretches of introspection, philosophical quandaries over differing perceptions and cultural concepts of two very different species. But somehow all of this starts to come together in this sequel to create a more interesting whole.

Plus I decided to go for the audiobook, which probably helped me to make it through Bran‘s internal debates more easily. The whole things sounds a bit old (must check when it was done), but the narrator does a good job of personating the growing cast of characters. And by the end of this I almost started the next one straight away. Mean moment to finish the book.

4.5 stars, I will definitely continue.

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He had it coming…

The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections by Tina Connolly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“A young food taster to the Traitor King must make a difficult choice in this story of pastries, magic, and revenge.“

Imaginative confections. An usurper of the throne get his just dessert. Not a terribly surprising ending. Has the feel of a traditional fairytale. ★★★¾☆

Can bed read for free here: https://www.tor.com/2018/07/11/the-la…

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Pining and appreciation…

Uncanny Magazine Issue 25: November/December 2018 by Lynne M. Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review for “The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society,” by T. Kingfisher, 1.885 words, 4 pages, ★★★½☆

“There was a land of elven halls and hollows, … there was a campfire, and around it sat a half-dozen men, and a great bull selkie, and a horse the color of night..“

Normally humans fall for the fey and pine after them…

It was ok. Not sure what makes it so special that it gets nominated for a Hugo award.

Can be read for free here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/t…

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Magic

Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One by one,
Two by two,
The Hardesty witches
Are traveling through.
With a storm of curses,
They call from their tomes;
They will drink your blood
And dine on your bones.

A good title for this book could have been „Trouble with Witches“.

Zombies, vampires, werewolves, the fae, the mentioned witches and other critters that you have to figure out for yourself… And Mercy—“Not that clever. But I am a coyote and apparently stupid lucky.”—Thompson. I loved having so much of Zee, he has always been one of my favourite characters.

I had a lot of fun reading this! It might not have been terribly complex or twisty. But it had a cohesive plot, well-drawn characters, great action scenes, suspense, things to smile and laugh about, tension and some scary moments. Good fun, I was entertained!

Anything else would be spoilers.

Additionally I salute Patricia Briggs for ensuring that all of Zee‘s spells were worded in perfect German*. They sound much better and more poetic in German, rather than in the translated English, by the way.

*You wouldn‘t believe how much badly translated German can be found in English language novels. It’s terribly jarring, if you speak the language.

Water, be my friend,
come and stay by my side.
Flow, release, bind, grab,
entangle the witchcraft, catch it,
diminish the curse, decay the spell,
take it away, hear me.

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