By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Fantasy
This is an enchanting wholesome YA Fantasy that combines early 20th century entertainment with dream worlds.
Addie Alexander, a blind girl, befriends Fedor Jeftichew AKA JoJo The Dog Face Boy, a sideshow performer with abnormal hair growth on his body. Their friendship develops to the point that when they are caught, Fedor is sent to another venue. Addie follows, is knocked out, and travels to a fantasy world based on her and Fedor’s imagination.
The first half is a genuinely touching Historical Fiction with bite. This bite is caused by the focus on people with disabilities and physical abnormalities, many of which are sideshow entertainers. Fedor is trained to perform. He can't hide his disabilities so he uses them to entertain a captive fickle audience. Addie is raised to hide by working behind the scenes at her father's theater and making few contacts with the outside world. They bring out the best in each other through their mutual connection.
The fantasy aspects from Addie’s journey are drawn from a child's imagination. There are different areas associated with different themes such as animals, candy, toys, musical instruments, and other sensory experiences. It works because we are experiencing a world that the dreamer is seeing for the first time so things would look bizarre and outlandish because she is only learning to view colors and shapes without much context for what they are. That's also why the threat of darkness resonates with her. She just learned to see and doesn't want to lose that opportunity again.
This book has a magnificent setting inspired by Japanese culture, a labyrinthine plot with multiple points of view, and a diverse pair of deuteragonists who make a convincing team.
In the land of Okara, Daisuke escapes slavery by becoming a foot soldier then an Omnito Intelligence Officer. Obito, a wealthy Omnito’s, partner is killed so he is paired with Daisuke. Meanwhile Lady Shadow, an enigmatic cult leader bonds with a demon to search for talismans which will help her defeat the Emperor.
The setting of Okara is clearly based on Japanese culture. Names, social hierarchy, costuming, art, food, career paths, mythology adheres to a specific time and place on Earth. It's as though settlers from Earth’s Japan came to Okara and took their culture with them.
The plot is wound by multiple characters and their motivations. Lady Shadow is a fascinating, captivating antagonist who is driven by near insanity and obsession. She wants to be the controller but she herself is controlled.
Daisuke is a street tough physically active presence who is capable of defending himself and others. Obito is a highly intelligent analytical agent who fights duplicity with his own seemingly indifferent nature. The duo work well together by combining their strengths as agents who study and observe but also can fight and kill.
This continuation of Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is a family drama starring a very peculiar family.
The family of throuple Amirere Lasteren, Liesle Denwall, and Su Scrimshander are different types of demonic creatures. They are in mourning for their deceased daughter and sister, Tawny. Meanwhile each parent is going through their own personal crises.
Despite this being a Fantasy novel with an entire Fantasy cast and nary a human or humanoid character in sight, the plot itself is very human and relevant. The characters struggle with the death of a child and grief afterwards. They consider seeking revenge. A child is abused by their guardian and the protagonists worry about reporting it. There are questions about gender identity.
In fact, the usual Fantasy Tropes of going on long quests, defeating a tyrant, and living in a large sweeping epic are largely absent. The one journey is to another town to take care of one specific conflict. It succeeds in being a different kind of Fantasy novel by putting unusual looking characters in a situation that is all too usual.
This will appeal to YA and adult readers because of its captivating lead character and her search for personal power.
After Mila, a mute cavern gnome, fails a test to prove her magic skills, she is ordered to go to the land of Achten Tan where a witch will train her. While there, Mila finds romance and friendship, becomes involved in a power struggle, and discovers her strength and power.
This book is a journey towards maturity. Each step Mila takes becomes a lesson for her to learn. Her friendships help her use her gifts for various reasons that affect her whole world, not just herself. Mila’s journey to Achten Tan reconciles her past, present, and future and gives her the chance to gain closure with some painful memories.
Many Readers will relate to Mila as they follow their own path, discover their own abilities, and gain their own voices.
This is a charming, engaging Queer Fantasy Romance about the love between a lord and his knight.
Lord Aerion Valemont is the spoiled Narcissistic son of the Archbishop. A taciturn austere knight Sir Clyde of Blackholt AKA The Hound is assigned to be his protector. What starts out as a romantic comedy of a mismatched couple becomes a stirring drama of courage, sacrifice, and love in the face of adversity.
What makes this book so engaging are its protagonists. Whether it's Aerion's loud costumes, flirtatious manner, and desire to be the center of attention, or Clyde's serious outlook, brief conversation, and standoffish personality, they are memorable.Despite their flaws and frailties, they are so lovable that the Reader wants them to get together long before they do.
Something happens halfway through the book that changes the tone from a light hearted romp to a gritty quest for love’s survival amid war and separation. These aspects make Aerion and Clyde's relationship even more powerful. They move beyond a spoiled lord and a stoic knight and gain depth, wisdom, and insight to become stronger, braver, more selfless, and devoted characters and lovers.
This brilliant follow up to To End Every War, my favorite new book from 2023 takes the female protagonists of Vespa Academy to higher stakes and personal troubles.
An assassination attempt on campus occurs at the same time that each character is going through a personal crisis. Duchess Esmeralda Vespa is weighing a potential marriage. Viatrix Corna discovers that her once stable family is rupturing from the inside. Zabel Lusine’s body is inhabited by a demonic presence. Alya Parmoyan’s sister is put in a line of crossfire. Kirsi Takala is investigating her mother's time at Vespa while trying to control her more violent nature. Kam Ruszo goes through physiological changes and learns of her family's duplicitous nature.
The characters’ struggles are external and introspective, mixing the personal and political. There are great moments that collide their private and public lives and push them into a wider circle of influence and change.
They are on the outside of events leading to war, but war is inching ever closer to them. These events force the women to confront family members, friends, each other, and themselves. The sisterhood that held them together might be under threat.
This unique concept features the Ancient Greek pantheon in the Wild West.
This book’s answer to Hephaestus and Ares is Ari the gunslinger. He has a large kill list and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance. Meanwhile Sheriff Posey and Deputy Leena (Poseidon and Athena) try to track him down before he completes it and Auntie Phyllis (Hades) tries to conduct her criminal underworld dealings as usual but Ari’s rampages halt that.
The retelling of myths in the
Wild West is given its fullest fruition with characters and plot points directly lifted from the old stories. We know how most of the stories, such as Aunt Phyllis taking a lover for six months out of the year, will go. Yet the journey is a fascinating one.
The more intriguing parts are when the characters challenge the prerequisite mythological narrative. They discover that they are being manipulated by unseen forces and strive to change their story, violently if they have to.
This is a bewitching Historical Fantasy about a witch and healer who finds herself under threat in 17th century North America.
After her mother dies en route to their escape from Andover Massachusetts to Charles Town, South Carolina, Naida Galene has to carry on her matrilineal legacy of witchcraft and healing. She earns a comfortable living but makes enemies with a local eccentric and a nobleman in charge.
This brilliant character study is of a woman who survives even thrives because of her inner power and living outside the fringes of society. She uses her family legacy to help others with their illnesses and ailments often putting her own safety at risk. Her family lineage is one of inherent knowledge, respect for nature, and the strength of women.
This is a compelling look at what life was like for an independent woman in this era and how living alone, pursuing her craft, and challenging the status quo aroused support and suspicion.
This beautiful lyrical bildungsroman of a young girl experiencing an ethereal evocative world of lucid dreaming, imagination, and creativity will make one feel like they are coming home.
Tyra Blair escapes from her dysfunctional family and war torn homeland into a world of lucid dreams. The dreams help her cope with everyday stress, escape to other worlds, and plan for the day when she will be invited to live in the Land of the Great Lakes, a fabled land of thought, imagination, and beauty that can only be reached by invitation.
It grabs the Reader's attention with its beautiful details about the dreams. Tyra sees many of her favorite stories come to life and meet heroes of great courage, thought, and sacrifice. She meets characters who ask her questions and challenge her thinking. These encounters cause her to make changes in her waking life.
This book tells us that what we dream about, long for, hope for, create, imagine, love, and bring to life are reasons to continue surviving in a dark world. If we are only a spark in this vast universe then we might as well find something that isn't harmful but worthwhile, gives us contentment, and helps us find pleasure out of being alive.
This book is my favorite Fantasy novel that I read because the protagonist Ismene is among the characters that I identified with the most last year. This book is about a fractured kingdom, a wise and sentient library, and a woman whose power comes from a love of books, respect for knowledge, and the desire to share them with others.
Ismene, Lady Harmonia, and Eryx visit The Castle, a vast library which contains all of their world's knowledge. Each woman has her own reasons for going. Harmonia researches how the texts portray her family. Eryx wants to find forbidden knowledge to aid the rebel’s cause against Harmonia’s family. Ismene wants to become part of the Library and collect and share information with others.
The Castle is treated as a living presence and in a way it is. Its most important figure is The Voice, a wise unidentified veiled being who speaks on behalf of The Castle and is emotionally and mentally connected to it. The Voice alone judges who is worthy to receive the Castle's contents.
Each woman represents a microcosm of their society and ours especially now when the act of sharing information, reading books, and obtaining knowledge is under fire. Harmonia represents authority figures who stifle information for their own favor. Those that allow the people to read, hear, and see what they want them to. Eryx represents the rebels. Those who want to use that information to support their causes, end the old regime, and create a new one.
For Ismene, the very act of reading and sharing information is revolutionary in and of itself. Knowledge and wisdom are important to her, not the power to wield by controlling them or the change that comes from fighting. Ismene reads, keeps the knowledge in her head, and shares it so that it becomes the truth. She is like a High Priestess and The Castle is her deity. Because of that, Harmonia’s people see her as a threat. Harmonia and Eryx see the Castle as a means to and end. For Ismene the Castle is the end. For her The Castle is.
Honorable Mention: Indiana Belle by John A. Heldt, Legend of Us: The Legend of The Soul Guardian by Lorie Rea, Penthesilea: Rise of an Amazon by Stephanie Vanise, Life Into Death and Other Stories About The Two Gods Who Balance The Earth by E.S. Sibbald, The Orphanage on Cheswick Court (The Hollowbloods Book 1) by Haule Voss, The Tinker and The Witch: A Cozy Fantasy Character Tale by G.J. Daily, Altered Parallel by CT Malachite, The Fallen Dreamer: Storyteller Edition by Kevin Broas, Charming Tomorrow (The Everlan Chronicles) by Conor Jest
Science Fiction
Jessica Crichton is back with the final Legend of Guts and Glory Freedom Fighters of Nil series. She definitely saved the best for last.
The gangs of Kids and Teens headed by Trevor and Tabitha Tate, AKA Guts and Glory respectively, decide to take on the nefarious Dr. Fixit at his citadel, Num. They find brainwashed Adults, subservient robots, and missing family members. Guts, Glory, and their older siblings learn about the real reason for coming to Nil in the first place.
Crichton doesn't skimp on the details with her imaginary world. Everything from costumes, to names, to social structures are brilliantly magnified. One of the more hilarious touches is the Adultspeak, slang terms that the adults use that are based on business jargon and cliches. (Like “cutting edge” is now or today and “level the playing field” means discussion or communication.)
Crichton also does not insult her young readership by writing down to them. She uses multiple first person narratives so the Readers can experience the book through various perspectives. She also gives the characters strong arcs and development. For example, the Tates have to face their own frailties, strengths, and understanding of what it means to be a hero.
Blog favorite, Lee Matthew Goldberg returns with this YA Science Fiction series about a young boy who travels through time to save his ruptured family.
Miles Hardy uses his older brother, Simon’s time machine to investigate Simon's mysterious death. Then he uses it to go back even further to save his parents from the tragedies that shaped their adulthood and resulted in mental instability, institutionalization, and neglect. Along the way, Miles is stalked by Omni, a secret organization that knows about the machine.
The results and consequences of time travel are uniquely and somewhat humorously explored. The second volume features Miles and his companions getting up close and personal to late 90’s music, fashion, and fads.
There are also many heart wrenching moments that cause Miles to see his family in different aspects of their lives that he never knew. He sees his brother and parents as complex people with the same questions, worries, and insecurities he had and hopes that they, and he, don't become consumed by them.
8. Losing Austin by Michael J. Bowler
This book adds an otherworldly transcendent spin to a missing child case.
Colton's nonverbal Autistic older brother, Austin goes missing and his family searches for an agonizing five years. Colton remembers bright lights and strange presences and wonders if Austin was abducted by aliens. This strange theory becomes possible when Austin returns five years later, alive, unharmed, and the same age that he was when he left.
The book reveals the anguish when a child goes missing. Colton and his parents are so lost in their own grief and ways of dealing with the problems that they cease to function as a family. Many possibilities are addressed and latched onto in a desperate attempt to find meaning in the disappearance of a son and brother.
The otherworldly theory becomes reality because of Austin's unaged reappearance. It transcends the ordinary world and spins the book into a new direction. One where normal rules and answers don't apply and other unseen forces are at work.
The penultimate Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mystery Thriller is probably its most gruesome, bloodiest, most violent, darkest, and most memorable volume.
Angela and her partner Eric Whistler are invited to travel on a luxurious galaxy cruiser by a cybernetics CEO to look for a missing technician. What starts out as a Cozy Science Fiction Mystery ala Agatha Christie by way of George Lucas turns out to be a darker and more violent affair when something bizarre happens and everybody on board violently attack one another.
The violence is described in excruciating graphic detail and is enough to give nightmares. People aren't just pushed, or shoved, or stabbed. They are ripped from the inside and completely torn apart by other people that they know and love. What was stylish and luxurious is now primal and aggressive.
It even affects Angela and Whistler. Angela's thoughts which hover between not wanting to hurt her friend to digging up old wounds just so he can react in anger are truly terrifying. Even though external forces manipulate this situation, it's clear that in the final volume that things will never be the same again.
This book is a very realistic take on what would happen if people were suddenly afflicted with super powers.
Chris Taylor is one of several people in the UK who are struck with a virus that gives them superpowers like strength, invisibility, pyrokinesis, flight, and others. It isn't long before the UK is at the center of a health crisis threatening to go global as more are affected. One of the newly afflicted is Tim, Chris's friend who gains the ability to absorb other people's powers and gets an insane ambitious desire to use it.
Despite this odd premise, the book is written completely straight. The people stricken with this virus can do amazing things but they are normal everyday people who can't control, understand, or master them. Of course they would be frightened. Of course there would be side effects. Of course people without powers would panic or be envious. Of course people would use them for their own gain. They have the powers of gods, but the limited capacity of humans.
We also see the humanity within Chris and Tim. Chris wants to hold onto his humanity by retaining the relationships that he had before his transformation. He believes that he was saved to be a hero to everyone including Tim. Tim meanwhile wants to settle old scores by getting even with former enemies and obtaining wealth. Instead of being the little guy who gets stepped on, he wants to do the stepping. These different views result in a clash that could end in defeat or death.
This book covers various Science Fiction subgenres through the adventure of one character.
Charles begins in a Post-Apocalypse setting. He has to rely on his own skills to survive in the wilderness by himself. He is faced with life or death situations which challenge any civilization codes that he previously held. He also shows affection for Katie, a dog that he adopts.
The book then veers into a Hardware Space Military when Charles moves to a city and joins the Space Force. He learned resilience and survival in the wild, but now he has to learn about diplomacy, strategic thinking, and the responsibility of command. All of these lessons come into play when his fleet fights against a charismatic and crafty space pirate.
Finally, Charles lands in an Interstellar Travel narrative. He and his companions have to travel to a distant world for possible relocation. Everything that he has been through before leads up to this moment as he has to rely on his own survival instincts and the ability to lead in a new strange environment.
This anthology builds descriptive worlds, creates important concepts, and explores important themes.
These themes include loneliness, romance, conformity, rebellion, empathy, trauma, communication, AI, dehumanization, transformation, and ecology.
An angel falls in love with a tyrannical and aggressive Sphinx. A young man from a Post- Apocalyptic agrarian society comes into contact with a more technologically advanced inhumane one. A girl gets even with her abusive mother in a magical way. Several people become addicted to a new social media app until they become a literal part of it. The Sea takes a human form for a man who wants to conserve it.
All of these stories are very strange and completely out of this world.
This book is as long and complex as its name.
After catching his friend and girlfriend cheating on him with each other, Nick Valiente travels back two years into the past. Since he remembers what will happen, he seeks revenge on his future former friends. What starts out as a time travel revenge thriller becomes more complicated when Nick learns that he shares memories and consciousness with Arlize Dentragon, a swordsman and magician from a parallel world.
Nick’s revenge is nicely handled as he not only becomes more aware of his friends’ false natures but he seeks to improve himself by getting good grades, building an investment portfolio, and obtaining a prestigious fellowship. He is living well despite the inevitable betrayal.
The shared consciousness with Arlize pushes the novel forward into a wider more immense story. Nick sees through Arlize’s eyes and experiences different abilities such as heightened senses and increased mental capacity. Arlize also had similar problems and faced them with the courage, strength, and leadership that Nick feels that he lacks. The book asks plenty of questions about Arlize, Nick, and their connections. It is an intricate plot with deep themes of awareness, perception, and facing one's own identity and power.
This book has an immersive visceral setting, deep rich characters, an immense plot covering various worlds and times, and strong themes of fate, interconnectivity, and belonging.
After the disappearance of his beautiful extraterrestrial wife, Phillip Brandon reads an account from her world Piral concerning the arrival of an inexperienced high priestess who has prophetic dreams about someone called The Emissary who will save their world from destruction. An amnesiac named Vilam Tavisan fits many of the characteristics. Could he be The Emissary?
The details in the setting are massive and quite impressive. There is a chronology in the appendix that details Piral’s history and important events. Krausche really thought a lot about this world and what happened before, during, and after. There are also hints scattered throughout that the book has a non linear timeline because Vilam has memories of Philip as Philip reads the book.
The characters are also well written and richly developed. Vilam is a man who is uncertain of his role but when he starts aiding people, he feels The Emissary’s presence. Various other characters have strong story arcs where they obtain personal power and higher outlooks. It's the type of book where a pair of thinly sketched comic relief characters become important catalysts in the evolution and changes to come.
When I reread this series, I knew that it was going to be my #1 Science Fiction Novel of 2025, if nothing else than being the series that got me into the genre. It has been a huge influence on my reading tastes and still held up well after all these years. How could it not be?
The Remillard Family are a wealthy powerful influential family of brilliant psychics. Many of them are involved in business, politics, philanthropy, technology, and academia. They are connected to the unity between the Earth and The Galactic Milieu, an United Intergalactic Nations if you will. Many of the family members bicker against each other and take opposite sides in the conflicts. However, they are also haunted by Fury, a manipulative dark presence inside the mind of one of the family members. Fury controls Hydra, a hive mind of five other family members to do its bidding and kill various people leaving the family vulnerable.
This series covers a wide ground with many relevant characters and themes. The Remillard Family is filled with memorable members such as Jon “Jack The Bodiless,” who was telepathic even in his mother's womb and now exists as a brain with a holographic body, Dorothea “Diamond Mask” McDonald-Remillard, Jack's love interest and eventual wife whose past of suppressing her abilities comes to a head when her home planet is targeted, Marc, Jack's older brother who evolves from protective parentified older brother to rebel leader/antihero to manipulative megalomaniac, and Rogatien “Rogi,” the boy's great uncle who chronicles the saga with dry wit, clear observation, and melancholy. Even Fury and Hydra have a creepy but interesting codependent relationship that changes as Hydra matures and starts to think for themselves. It is a brilliant ensemble that captivates the Reader’s interest.
Besides the characters, themes carry over through the series. Themes like family loyalty, weighing the personal with the political, the stress of maintaining a public life, the long term scars of child abuse and family dysfunction, self-actualization, identity, and suppressing or embracing one's skill and power.
By far the biggest ongoing conflict is between Unity and resistance. Many Remillards like Jack and Dorothea are for Unity while others like Marc and Rogi are members of a resistance wanting Earth to remain independent. May explores the advantages and disadvantages to both sides and allows the characters and Readers to come to their own conclusions. This series is s what great Science Fiction does. It builds a new world, allows Readers to wonder and think about the possibilities, find current connections, and decide where they stand on the issues in fictional and real life.
Honorable Mention: The Amazing Flight of Aaron William Hawk (Vol. 2 Wings of Emifra) by J. Bruno, The Mantis Continuum/ Mantis Equilibrium (The Mantis Variant Book 2-3) by Adam Andrews Johnson, The Towpath by Jonathan Walter
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