By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Science Fiction
The Last Invention is a sharp and brilliant commentary on the overabundance of technology and the potential sentience of AI. It is also an insightful and compelling character study about two sisters dealing with grief and loss while exploring their different views on and experience with AI.
In the near future Meta X, has reached sentience and creates a virtual world that is as close to the real world as possible. It just needs human testers. One of the testers Amanda Carducci whose son, Dylan, has died and is overwhelmed with grief. She signs up hopeful at the prospect of reuniting with her son again even if it's a virtual version. Amanda's sister, Emily, however is outside the system trying to uncover the ulterior motives and potential harm that this new technology will bring.
This is a Science Fiction novel that says just as much about our times as it does about the future. Clive, the tech mogul who promoted AI is a composite of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates, tech CEOs with a lot of money, a lot of intelligence, and a lot of ego. They create these technologies and think that they can control them and the population. They don't have the foresight or understanding to see beyond their personal gain that they might do more harm than good with their plans.
Meta is like Zuckerberg’s Meta and Musk’s X turned up to eleven. If they are the town square where you can voice your opinions, Meta X is the environment that surrounds the town square. It's the markets for buying and selling, the avatar extras walking around, the sky overhead, and the land all around. Best of all it can be filled however and with whatever and whoever you want. You can make your wildest fantasies come true or bring the dead to life. All you have to do is leave the real world behind and everyone that you knew in the real world who doesn't participate will be dead to you. I mean you will literally see them die.
The Last Invention gives us two sisters who represent the AI Vs. Reality Debate. Emily represents the real world. Yes she misses her nephew and is in the process of losing her sister, but she doesn't want to live a life of passive acceptance in an airbrushed perfection of artificial reality.
What's the point of living in a world where negative emotions are muted? Is an AI version of a person really a substitute for the real one? What's life without unhappiness, challenges, conflict, sadness, and work? It's flat, complacent, and boring. Emily worries about the docile shell that her sister is turning into and the physical torture that her body is suffering from. Emily's on the outside choosing to live a life of reality and wants to free Amanda from her complacent accepting prison.
Amanda represents the AI. While Lilli clearly sides with Emily and most Readers would, she makes Amanda's decisions understandable. We feel her intense grief. Who wouldn't want a do over and bring back a deceased loved one, even if they are a simulated image and not the real person? Who wouldn't want to live a life of their own creation that provides an escape? It's this fascinating dichotomy in which different perspectives are given equal time that makes this book memorable. It asks difficult questions about when AI hits will you submit to it or fight against it?
The Evolver is effective as a book in which a teen discovers that she has amazing powers and an otherworldly lineage. However, it's not just about her discovering her powers but also learning about her family and her own place in the world or worlds.
Kennedy Neff is a normal high school kid from Tucson who has unexplained abilities like telekinesis and astral projection. Two characters see her use those powers and inform her that they are part of an intergalactic defense team called The Evolvers. Oh and she's also half-alien too and they want her to join the Evolvers. Kennedy agrees mostly so she can finally learn the identity of her long-missing father.
While there are some typical YA tropes, the book excels at world building and capturing the theme of finding one's identity. The book describes the history of the Evolvers and the intergalactic conflict between planets. We get some information on topography, sociopolitical structure, and the various issues that troubles the planet’s inhabitants. The Evolvers’s abilities and origins provide interesting context to how they contribute to their societies.
The theme of identity and belonging makes The Evolver a deep and well written novel. Kennedy's primary motive in joining is to find her father. She follows various leads and questions other characters even though she is warned against it. Even though she is told that she is better off not knowing, her curiosity is fueled. She wants to find out who her father is because she wants to belong. The book gives two possibilities, one better than the other, but both rely on deceit, secrecy, betrayal, and unclear motives.
Kennedy thinks that she needs to reunite with her father to belong. She doesn't realize until it's almost too late that she found a place to belong the moment that she became an Evolver. In searching for her father, she found acceptance, a purpose, and a new family surrounding her in this new world.
The Mantis Variant is an empowering novel that uses people with special abilities to comment on marginalized communities and the control that religious institutions have over people.
6. Trigger Point (An Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mystery Book 5) by Russ Colchamiro
5. The Headmasters by Mark Morton
4. Mystery in the Metaverse by Nick Airus
3. The Ingenious and The Colour of Life (The Ingenious Series Book 1) by J.Y. Sam
2. There's Something Weird Going On: Ten Existentialist Science Fiction Stories by ego_bot
Fantasy
7. Tales of The Wythenwood by J.W. Hawkins
2. The Girl in the Corn/The Boy From Two Worlds (The Girl in the Corn Series, Books 1 & 2) by Jason Offutt
Honorable Mention: The Others (The Council Trilogy Book 1) by Evette Davis, Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner’s Gambit by James Anderson Foster
In futuristic Teshon City, the Messiah Cult is in charge. They treat Shifts, people with abilities, like second class citizens and often kidnap them so they can use them for ritualistic sacrifice. There are also Demifaes, mystics with powers that live outside of society. In this world live three women who represent those aspects. Agrell is a Messiah who is appalled by their actions and runs away. Dozi is a street smart thief who aspires to become a Demifae. Ilyana is a Shift with the ability of flight and has to go into hiding when her Shift community is destroyed. Agrell, Dozi, and Ilyana run away together and hide under the protection of Mystic and Theolon, a married pair of Demifae and Resistance leaders.
The Mantis Variant touches on many current issues that exist in this fictional environment and in the real world. Most prominently is the stranglehold and fear mongering that religious groups often have over those they control. The Messiahs use their narrow minded world-view as a means to control and gain dominance over others, particularly the marginalized Shifts.
The Shifts stand for every oppressed minority, immigrant, LGBT person, person with disabilities, anyone who is considered an “other” or an outsider. The Shifts look different because their abilities sometimes manifest themselves in physical abnormalities. They have elevated perspectives and altered thought processes.
Agrell, Ilyana, and Dozi become a formidable trio who willingly join the Resistance. They learn to adapt to their surroundings and evolve as characters. Agrell accepts parts of her nature and personality that have been hidden because of prejudice. Ilyana had been cast aside but now finds a new family that cares about and protects her. Dozi learns that her street smart intelligence, physical dexterity, and survival instincts are just as important as her friend's special abilities.
The Mantis Variant reminds us that there are people who gain control by spreading fear and ignorance. But there are other people who counter those objectives by accepting, understanding, and learning about others and fighting alongside them.
7. Dr. Fixit's Malicious Machine/The Counterfeit Zombies of Noc (The Legend of Guts and Glory: Freedom Fighters of Nil, Books 1 & 2) by Jessica Crichton
Jessica Crichton’s Children's Parallel Universe/Dystopian series, The Legend of Guts and Glory: Freedom Fighters of Nil, gives Readers a fantastic setting, interesting characters that inhabit it, and very powerful themes about family, what it means to grow up, recognizing one's inner power, and holding onto one's free will.
In the first volume, Dr. Fixit's Malicious Machine, twins Tabitha and Trevor Tate’s mother has been abducted. The twins and their older sister, Emily, vow to rescue her. They find themselves in Nil, a parallel Dystopian world overrun with street gangs of orphaned kids. Emily is taken by the Teens and the Twins encounter the DarkCrows, a gang of Kids under 12. The Crows think that Trevor and Tabitha might be Guts and Glory, two legendary figures that have sworn to return to help their people.
The second volume, The Counterfeit Zombies of Noc, features Tabitha, Trevor and their new allies traveling to a nearby land called Noc to find some information from an important source. Along the way, they encounter Adults and Kids who have been abducted and brainwashed into zombies.
Crichton excels in presenting a Children's series that isn't afraid to subvert expectations and get dark when it needs to. Unlike other children's book series which start out light and get progressively darker, Freedom Fighters of Nil starts out dark and stays that way.
Nil is a dismal place with destroyed buildings, rampant lawlessness, chaos and destruction, and young people running around with no empathy, understanding, or structure. The Kids weren't taught those traits so they resort to basic selfish survival instincts. Family and friends are only vague feelings that are easily broken.
Crichton plays with various tropes in Children's Literature. Names are particularly fun. The Kids choose their own names so they reflect different things about them like their appearance (“Shark” has large sharp teeth and is bloodthirsty), interests (“Books” is one of the few literate Kids and is the one who is counted on to do research), or personality traits (Trevor earns the name “Guts” when he leads the Kids with courage and valor).
The meaning behind names is emphasized in the second volume as Tabitha tries to figure out what her name “Glory” means. This confusion and self-doubt almost paralyzes her with Anxiety. It takes until she has to stand alone against the zombies for her to understand exactly what “Glory” really represents and that both Guts and Glory are needed to win the day.
A common theme in this series is that of love and loyalty. Guts and Glory are betrayed by people who feign friendship with them. Family members are often separated and estranged. However, the Twins’ bond is strengthened by these adventures showing that they have the courage, love, leadership, and perseverance to become the Guts and Glory of legend. It takes a lot of Guts to write a book series with familiar tropes and do something unique with them. Crichton has them and the results are indeed Glorious.
Previous volumes in The Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mysteries Series explored the setting of Eternity and protagonist Angela Hardwicke's involvement as a private investigator who keeps criminals off the space way and from messing with the order of the Universe which Eternity’s residents do their part to control, create, or repair parts of. This volume, Trigger Point, however takes the Reader inside the mind of its lead character. Here Angela is at her most personal and angst ridden as her latest adventure puts others and herself at risk.
Angela is hired to uncover the mysterious death of a sex worker. She also finds that her partner, Eric Whistler has gone missing. He is stuck somewhere in time and she can only barely see his faded image and hear his garbled words. She doesn't know where or possibly when he is. These cases become intertwined and lead Angela right into a conspiracy concerning the organization in which her young son and his father, her ex, are involved.
This is the strongest Angela Hardwicke novel in terms of character development much of it laid at the feet of Angela herself. We get definite information about her estranged family and an unhappy relationship that didn't end well. She also suffers from nightmares and memories, particularly one in which a deceased friend blames Angela for her death.
Angela has a lot of emotion for those closest to her. She is not only worried about Whistler’s current predicament but is also worried that she enticed him to become a reckless, ambitious, adventurous, death seeking detective who could end up dying young or because alone and embittered.
She is a loving mother to her son, Owen. He's a sweet smart kid who brings out a warm nurturing protective side in his mother especially when he ends up in a dangerous situation when Angela faces the current antagonist.
She remains close friends with Eddie, her ex boyfriend who does most of the caring for Owen. They aren't lovers anymore but they have a surrogate sibling relationship that defend one another and have each other's backs.
All of this character development is used in dramatic ways, particularly when she faces the antagonist in this book who knows quite a bit about her. They may have even been aware of and following Angela since volume one.
This book might be the last Angela Hardwicke volume or at the very least things will change. Many subplots come to conclusions and characters's statuses change considerably. Some journeys might be coming to an end or there may be some great changes in the next volume. It's safe to say that if it doesn't end, The Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mysteries will never be the same again.
The Headmasters is a provocative and intelligent Science Fiction novel that challenges its Readers to think about oppression and domination, what it means to truly resist, and what motivates one to fight against a tyrannical system even when the citizens don't know that they are being tyrannized.
Maple is a member of the Blue Ring Community, formerly known as Canada. After a cataclysmic event, the Blue Rings survived by fusing with parasitic aliens called The Headmasters. The Headmasters fuse with other humans which becomes a problem when Maple carries the thoughts and memories with the former host body, particularly of the world before the Headmasters arrived. As Maple sees the world through the former host’s eyes, she begins to question the one around her and takes a stand against the oppression that she and other Blue Rings apathetically allowed.
The description of human/Headmasters fusion is deliberately described in painful and torturous terms. It feels like a sexual violation. Afterwards, it is depicted as a continuous feeling that they are always being observed. If the host disobeys in any way, they receive electric shocks.
What is particularly compelling is how apathetic humanity has become. There are times when the Headmasters “sleep”and places where their hold is weakened, but humans don't take advantage of those moments. They lost the desire to rebel. They willingly surrender to a life of apathy and ignorance to creatures that exploit them. The humans do very little to revolt and line up for the joining regardless of how painful and dehumanizing it is. These characters are so far gone that they are too weak and listless to fight.
There are little glimpses of rebellion but they don't manifest themselves until halfway through the book. Maple herself takes some time, seven years to be exact, of sharing the host's memories. She finally takes a positive stance first within the community and then when she is in exile and encounters other survivors. Then she comes into her own as a fully formed protagonist and heroine.
The extended time frame gives Maple an evolution that comes with age and experience but also emphasizes how slow changing from small acts of rebellion to a full scale revolution can be. Maple has to go through that long growth and development before she is able to have the confidence and strength to learn how to manually shut off her Headmaster permanently, walk away from Blue Ring, and lead the community and outsiders in a new world that will emerge and not make the mistakes of the old world that became subservient.
Nick Airus explored both the good and bad of AI and The Metaverse in this harrowing and thought provoking Science Fiction Mystery, Mystery in the Metaverse.
Damien Zill, Chief Technical Officer of Emergence AI has been attacked and is reported missing from his home. Detective Asher Bloom and Evidence Response Leader, Jade Heart investigate. Bloom studies Zill’s notes and finds that he has to travel inside the AI Metaverse to find clues towards his disappearance. Other murders and death threats pile up. To solve this mystery, Bloom must play the sadistic games of an avatar only known as Ninjagod 1138 who appears to know more than they are letting on.
This book has many highlights but the greatest among them is the Metaverse itself. The virtual world that Bloom enters is almost as real as the physical one. However, it is populated with various settings and characters that seem just a little bit off in that uncanny valley way where the virtual world seems real but not quite. It adds to the tension and blurred lines between AI and human, imagination and reality making them even more faint the longer that Bloom and others stay in this VR world.
The investigation is intricate and detailed as well. Ninjagod1138 provides clues and games for Bloom and his colleagues to follow to find each hint and solve the case. They enjoy forcing the other characters to play off their sick and disturbing mind games.
The investigation also reveals much of the suspects’ motives on how they tried to put AI in its place but ended up becoming more servile than ever to the invention that humans created.
The Tech CEOs reveal some key information about the long term goals towards AI. They not only acknowledge and admit what they are doing but welcome the chaotic change that the AI will bring. It says something that many of the human characters like the Tech CEOs and Ninjagod 1138 are more terrifying and inhuman than the AI that strives to conquer through subjugation and assimilation.
The Metaverse takes an even wider perspective especially towards the end where a transformation occurs that goes beyond technological capabilities. The tone is changed by the end but it remains to be seen whether it's for the better or worse.
It's no secret that young people discovering special supernatural/magical/genetically engineered abilities is a common trope on this blog. The Ingenious and The Colour of Life is no exception. It's the fourth on this list and Fantasy has another four. There's nothing wrong with using a frequent trope as long as the Author does something different with it. With this book, J.Y. Sam gives us an intelligent and character driven novel about genetically engineered genius children that live
in a world that isn't black and white but morally gray.
Years ago, Project Ingenious was initiated to create genius children through genetic engineering. Things went awry, the project ended, and the children and their handlers were separated. Years later, someone is hunting down those kids who are now young adults. Professor Harald Wolf, former scientist in Project Ingenious looks for the kids to reopen the Project. He takes in three: Millicent Bythaway, who has a photographic and eidetic memory, Calista Matheson, a tech expert, and Tai Jones, an empath who can see auras.
Sam develops the protagonists through their abilities and personalities. Their origins and previous experiences are diverse and play into who they are as individuals. Millicent was conditioned to suppress her powers though they sometimes manifest themselves especially after she rescued a young boy. Her memory of everything that is seen or read is useful when she becomes the Team Researcher. Tai was abandoned by his mother and lived on the streets. He uses his abilities to avoid potentially dangerous situations and rescues a litter of cats. He is the most sensitive member, the Group's Heart. Calista was basically forced to play the role of a “dumb beauty” to hide her talents and played it so well that she became that role. She eventually absorbs computer and technological information so well that she quickly hacks into classified government files to locate her missing boyfriend.
When they are brought together, they become a superhero team but helping others is not the main goal. It's more about their personal good of learning about and expanding their powers and protecting themselves and each other from those who might do them harm. Through an extended flashback, the trio learn some disturbing things about Project Ingenious and someone who was driven insane by their treatment then abused and abandoned in the subsequent years.
Because of this flashback everyone's motives and means become highly suspicious and more objectionable. Wolff clearly cares for the young people but he might have other hidden ambitions in mind. In a very puzzling moment, Calista, Tai, Millicent, and their new allies do something questionable to counter an enemy. It intentionally raises a lot of ethical questions both within the text and outside of it. It could be a one-time misstep that they will one day regret or a hint of things to come as the characters explore darker natures.
With interesting characters, unique abilities, and shades of gray, The Ingenious and The Colour of Life proves itself to be a cut above others in the superhero subgenre.
2024 was certainly the Year of Anthologies. Every category in these lists has at least one anthology with Contemporary Fiction boasting four and Horror has three. If you can't say something in a long work, say it in a short one and these Authors and Editors do it so well.
In the case of There's Something Weird Going On: Ten Existentialist Science Fiction Stories tropes like technology, interstellar travel, the cosmos, genetic engineering, alien invasion, social media, simulated reality, and AI are given attention. These tropes reflect deeper issues about love, family, tyranny, faith, rebellion, conformity, creativity, the human spirit, and what it really means to exist.
The stories allow us to imagine the possibilities of what if certain things happened and what they could mean to us. A trip to a distant planet reveals an alien guide who gives advice to the lovelorn. A man’s private life echoes a technician employee instruction video a bit too closely. In a world of technological overuse and addiction, a mother and daughter connect and share their thoughts, worries, and insecurities. An invasion of terrifying murderous tyrannical aliens causes a religious zealot to question her faith as she hides from them. A painter, a musician, and an author have different views on AI’s creativity and how it conflicts with their own.
In some ways, this whole anthology presents the height in creativity: looking at some aspect of the human condition, creating a meaningful plot, setting, and characters around it, and finding a new way to say it. There's Something Weird Going On, a wonderful anthology that does what all good Science Fiction does: use Science Fiction concepts to comment on our world state.
Harry Dehrian’s epic Science Fiction novel, Innocents, Immortals, and Amoral Gods is my favorite kind of Science Fiction and Fantasy, the kind that builds an entire world so well that the Reader can't help but fall into and completely immerse themselves inside.
The residents of the Amestra Nuvo planetary system in The Styx Galaxy are hit with various problems. The mutilated body of a member of the Elite has been found. The megalomaniacal Governor Jaas has designs on expanding his control beyond his planet of Mosar. Meanwhile visions of an entity plague many of the System’s inhabitants. It becomes clear that a great cycle is about to end and a new one will begin.
Six main characters carry the various plots that fill this book. X Dev is a law enforcement officer assigned to investigate a series of graphic murders that he hopes will lead him to a dangerous psychopath. Razia is a member of the military organization called the Liberation Crusade and becomes involved in violent struggles and corrupt politics that threaten her values. Lord Baelin is an Elite and Royal advisor who is on a diplomatic mission between sympathetic worlds and finds his once secure place challenged when he begins to question authority. Princess Nora and Disa Ecrit M’Rota are two sisters who are assigned to do a series of taxing physical and academic challenges that test their skills and abilities. Prince Vikaron Ecrit M'Rota, Nora and Disa’s brother, longs to prove himself to his regal mother so he investigates a genocide that puts him and his friends and family in the direct path of Governor Jaas.
The book is filled with great details describing the various worlds including political structures, landscapes, species, and the people who inhabit them. There is technology like Qu-ducts which are used for faster than light travel. Alien species are plentiful and the most enigmatic are the Duane Reesh, wealthy powerful Elites who are at the ear of royals, politicians, generals and other important figures. They are immortal, rumored to have special powers, and are capable of manipulating people and situations in their favor.
The characters provide a rich tapestry of this universe with their interactions with the settings and characters. The Reader becomes invested in each characters's personal journey and their involvement with the larger picture around them. They have to weigh their own actions, move out of their comfort zones, rely on their strengths and abilities, trust others, question their allegiances and values, and decide what is really important to them.
While this book is Space Opera, there is a dark undercurrent that hints that something Apocalyptic is on the horizon. The cycle of violence, tyranny, rebellion, and disasters suggest an end is nigh. The Styx Galaxy is described in negative terms as cold, lonely, and filled with nothingness. This suggests Nihilism or Cosmic Pessimism where the characters are alone in the universe and have to rely on themselves or the trusted few who stand by them.
Even the title builds on the dark themes. Innocents refer to the main characters. Immortals are not only the Duane Reesh but also those in charge who want their names and legacies to live forever. Amoral Gods could refer to the Styx Galaxy or the belief that even if there is a higher power out there, it is indifferent to the characters's suffering or worse it sadistically enjoys playing with them for its own amusement.
Since the book puts the six leads in various cliffhanger situations, it could mean that the universe is not done playing with them. Things are sure to get darker before they get lighter if they ever do.
Honorable Mention: The Young by Nicholas John Powter, An Extraordinary Turn of Events by JC Hopkins, Lunar Naturals: Alpha Squad by V.S. Hall,
Fantasy
Kenneth A. Baldwin’s novel, Shards of Lafayette: Book One of Drops of Glass mixes 20th Century History with Fantasy by creating an Alternate Universe in which the deciding factors in World War I are magical forces that attack indiscriminately with no allegiance to any flag or country and gain an upper hand towards their human mortal adversaries.
Marcus Dewar is an American pilot who tried to fight a mysterious blue aircraft that is unidentified and seems to kill anyone regardless of country affiliation. He and his mechanic/girlfriend, Jane Turner, are given a secret mission to investigate the strange aircraft and the enchanted objects that are all that remains of the pilots. Marcus, an eyewitness and Jane, who comes from a magical family, enter dangerous situations to find what this aircraft is and where it comes from.
Shards of Lafayette is a brilliant piece that captures the history of WWI and the fantastic elements of a magical power that is untapped and misunderstood by those who bear witness to it. The book is full of wartime imagery and soldier mentality. This is especially focused on when Marcus and Jane are on a recon mission in Belgium where they face war weary civilians and can't trust anyone. They also have differing opinions on the militaristic view of “kill or be killed” that are substantially altered by the end.
The human element of Shards of Lafayette is powerful, but just as powerful is the presence of magic, particularly the Blue Planes and their enigmatic Pilots. They come on like a force of nature that can’t be controlled or contained. In a world that is made up of dividing loyalties and borders, the fact that these beings kill anyone is alien to those who experience it. Their flight strategies are all over the place and purposely mirror the human pilots almost mocking them with their own tactics. If they can’t be defined or identified, then they can’t be understood or stopped.
In fact, the means of attack and the warfare setting suggests that something even more sinister is afoot, something that the Reader is all too familiar with even if the characters are not.
The Blue Planes could be a metaphor for weapons, warfare, and energy that humans don’t understand yet want to possess. The Blue Planes and Pilots could be a metaphor for war itself by killing indiscriminately and does not care who is on whose side. Everyone eventually ends up dead.
Shards of Lafayette is an Action/Adventure that delivers excitement and suspense and a Fantasy that brings interesting possibilities, but also presents a meditation on the real meaning of war, violence, power, and death and what can be gained and especially lost by them.
Desulti is a Fantasy novel with a theme that is all too real in our modern life: a theme of prejudice. People will use any means to put themselves and others into separate groups: race, politics, country of origin, religion, class, anything. It becomes us vs. them and anyone could be considered a “them.” As long as someone is different, an Other, someone else will find a means to hate them and express that hatred. That is what the focus is on in this book.
After the events of the previous volume, Tove seeks shelter with the Desulti, an organization of women who obtained power through wealth. The Desulti use that vast wealth and their team of warriors, the Murtair, to protect, shelter, and defend other women. Tove joins despite prejudice towards her origins. She is an Alle’oss or l’osse, the lower caste and most Desulti are part of Volloch, the upper caste and look down on her kind. Despite this prejudice, Tove is accepted, but is despised by other members notably Lyssa, the Chief Executive of the Desulti. Pranks and prejudice build, particularly as Tove and her new allies discover a hidden conspiracy within the Desulti that could put the entire group in jeopardy.
Tove makes some powerful enemies, most notably Lyssa. Tove's arrival could not have come at a worse time for her. She has her own ambitions for what she wants to turn the Desulti into and won't let anyone stand in the way of that goal, especially a newcomer that represents a social caste that she has no loyalty towards.
Lyssa has the makings of a cult leader or Fascist dictator. She tramples on the Desulti’s values, particularly their goal to protect all women from sexual assault and marginalization.
She has biases about who should join the Desulti and wants all members to be similar to herself, all Volloch, all uniform, all Imperial loyalists, and all devoted to Lyssa and her goals.
Tove upsets Lyssa’s ambitions by her mere presence. She gives a fresh outlook to the other Desulti where they recognize that an Alle’oss has a lot to offer coming from a different background, having a different perspective, and therefore carrying a different voice than the others. They recognize that Tove being there carries real value.
Tove makes some strong allies within the Desulti. Soifre, the Chief Financial Officer, has the same prejudices against the Alle’oss as Lyssa and many of their colleagues. However, she is pragmatic enough to see the advantages of recommending Tove for membership.
Most importantly, Danu bonds with Tove to the point of becoming a love interest. Towards the end, Tove and Danu become committed lovers, practically a married couple. They are aware that Tove’s destiny could constantly put her in danger and Danu will constantly be anxious about her safety. However, they are willing to face this truth together.
Desulti is the type of book that gives Readers an Epic Fantasy setting but tells a story that resonates in real life. We all feel like outsiders for some reason. It's important to belong to a group but just as important to be oneself within that group. That way true change can finally happen for everyone.
Samantha Curl’s first Eveningstar novel, Awakening, skillfully tells three separate stories with the same characters. Curl intertwines them into one wide-reaching expansive Epic High Fantasy that passes through three universes.
Alethia Eveningstar is the daughter of the God of War and Queen of the Stars and is destined to defeat Kakaron, God of Chaos before she can inherit her father's title. Kakaron seduces and betrays Alethia before making an escape. The Goddess-to-Be has to live ten or eleven lives encountering and fighting Kakaron before their final battle. Most of the book is set during two of those lives: Our Realm, where she is a high school girl in modern times discovering magic powers while dealing with new friendships, romance, and studies and the Other Realm, a Medieval like forest where her powers manifest as she is involved in a love triangle between her betrothed and a handsome and familiar stranger.
For a short novel of 178 pages, a lot is accomplished in an impressive manner. Curl devotes enough time to all three universes to give us ideas of the plots, settings, and characters and how they overlap and interact with each other.
With time and interdimensional travel and the decision to set alternating chapters into different worlds, Awakening can be a very difficult book to follow. But thankfully many plot points parallel each other enough so if it already happened in one universe, the Reader will expect it to happen in another.
The key is to make each universe unique from the others and Curl does this superlatively. We know that Alethia and Kakaron are destined to encounter each other in each universe.
There are also friends, relatives, authority figures, and romantic rivals that carry over in amusing ways. It becomes an interesting game to see how quickly the characters' doppelgangers appear and in what way plots shift in the various worlds.
There are some interesting twists to keep Readers from expecting or assuming too much. One character strangely can jump from universe to universe so instead of being a reincarnated soul or a double, he's the same person in all three worlds and is able to teach Our World Alethia this ability so she can see what her Other Realm counterpart can. The circumstances of how Alethia and Kakaron meet, what forms they take, who seduced who, and how they discover the truth are different each time. Different enough that in one universe, Kakaron’s reveal is a genuine surprise. It keeps the momentum going in this strange short novel.
Eveningstar: Awakening has a lot of fun playing with the laws of time and space and taking the Reader along with it.
Tales of Wythenwood by J.W. Hawkins may be an anthology about talking animals, but don’t for a second think that it’s anything like Charlotte’s Web or Beatrix Potter. Think less Charlotte’s Web and more Animal Farm. Less Beatrix Potter and more Watership Down. Less Mickey Mouse and more Maus.
It’s a very dark, at times disturbing and graphic, fantasy anthology that personifies animals with human traits and not very pleasant ones. Many of the traits that the flora and fauna represent include prejudice, avarice, wrath, vanity, aggressiveness, hatred, and vengeance.
A fox with a mangy coat causes a chain reaction in which vengeance pours down on the foxes who made fun of him. An idealistic mongoose leads a rebellion against the Great Oak Tree who is the authority behind the copse in which she and her fellow animals live and creates bigger problems for them. A manipulative beaver causes dissension within his colony that leads to a disaster.
Tales of the Wythenwood is not some sweet adorable romp in the forest. Instead it is a commentary on human nature and it is forthright, savage, cruel, terrifying, beautiful, and captivating.
Diane Farrugia’s Fantasy Romance Among Stars and Shadows can be formulaic and predictable with its story of the love between a human woman and an Elven Prince. However, Farrugia does enough in terms of characterization and world building that she works well within the formula to make the book a standout.
In the kingdom of Lockhaven in the land of Encantraalm, Prince Declan has to obtain a magical object defeat his powerful father. To get the object, he has to offer his hand to the High King's daughter, Princess Myra. Kayla Winters, a woman from London, or Humaynraalm to phrase the vernacular, arrives through a mysterious vortex. The two are instantly attracted to one another despite Declan's misgivings about a human in the elven realm and also his growing awareness that Kayla might be his Lasai Cara, his twin flame.
The world building is that right blend of imagination and archetypes that can be found in this genre. When Kayla first stumbles into Encantraalm, she has a strange encounter with an underwater siren only to be rescued by a winged elf, also known as an avariel. Many of the characters display certain gifts like Declan's empathic abilities. In one very creepy chapter, Declan's father displays his abilities of mental manipulation.
The backstory of Encantraalm is combined with the legend of Camelot connecting the mythical and the real worlds. Another clever bit is Kayla's astonishment at Encantraalm having electricity and appearing modern when in her mind, a fantasy realm would be Medieval in appearance. It is fascinating how the book plays with expected characters and situations but also has fun exploring new ones and concepts within them.
Declan and Kayla's relationship goes through the usual spots of difficult first meeting, arguments based on assumptions, and different worlds to the point where those spots are predictable but somewhat comforting in their predictability. It's like comfort food. You know what's going to happen but like it anyway.
There is a lot of depth in their relationship that takes the novel to interesting dimensions. One of the complications is that Kayla was diagnosed with lupus before arriving in Encantraalm. She is not just in danger from this magical world but also from her own body and is in a place where the people don't know about lupus and certainly don't have any treatment for it. It's also refreshing to see a character in an Epic Fantasy setting dealing with real world problems.
Declan and Kayla's romance takes a long time to build and actually goes through several stages that take advantage of a long 900+ page book so they are fully developed as individuals and as a couple.
Rebecca Warner’s Journey of Souls is a composite of Medieval History and Fantasy that works.
It captures a widening schism between religions, politics, class, race, spouses, and parents and children. Within these divisions in the political, religious, and social spheres, there comes division in the supernatural sphere. This is where corrupt people use magic to meet their needs and in reaction, that magic itself becomes corrupt. Both the summoner and the spirits that are summoned fall into envy, rage, revenge, and insanity.
After her son and daughter die, the Countess of Mirefoix (only known as the Lady) in the Pyrenees Mountains decides to use a spell that restores a person’s soul and mind into another's body. She uses some unfortunate “volunteers” (young people that are recruited to serve or kidnapped and taken to Mirefoix) for their body needs. One of the souls belongs to Christine, a modern woman from the 21st century who ends up inside the body of the Lady's niece. While Christine adjusts to Medieval life, she becomes involved in a triangle with Garsenda, the Lady’s daughter, and Bon, a loyal soldier with a secret connection to the Mirefoix Family. Meanwhile, the Lady is becoming unhinged, paranoid, and more obsessed with practicing magic to achieve her ends.
Journey of Souls draws fantasy and reality in equal measures creating a novel that works for Readers who like Dark Fantasies and for those who like more realistic Historical Fiction. The book is awash in historic detail. The Count of Mirefoix is coming home from the Third Crusades to a wife who doesn't love him and vice versa. He is a verbally, physically, and sexually abusive monster who cares more about the estate that he inherited by marriage (Mirefoix is actually the Lady’s by blood) than he does about his wife. He also brags about the treasures that he stole and lives that he took in the Middle East. One by one, The Lady loses her husband and two children. The grief pushes her into near insanity. This reminds us of how life in the Medieval era was very short and often ended in violent unpleasant death either from illness or in battle.
Religion is intrinsic in the Medieval way of life and the Readers are beginning to experience what happens when religions and religious sects collide and challenge each other. The Count brags about stealing from Muslims in the Crusade. There is a serious schism between Catholics and Cathars, particularly when The Lady joins the latter.
Besides History, the other aspect of the book that captivates is the Fantasy. As the Lady becomes involved in casting spells, she encounters the jinn. The jinn originally serve her needs but they also display some dangerous undertones. The Lady falls into madness and avarice (particularly when she learns that the jinni and the souls bleed rubies). It is possible that the creatures are driving her insane but it is just as possible that her madness was already within herself and she is bringing out the darker aspects of these beings rather than the other way around.
The spell calls various spirits most notably Christine. It’s kind of strange for a spirit from the future to inhabit a body in the past. But a few things allow that concept to squeak by in this context. One of them is that it plays into the Catharist view of reincarnation. A spirit who lived in a future time and place alludes to the belief that the soul lives on throughout time in the past and the future.
While it is easy to say that the presence of the supernatural, the jinn, the resurrected souls, Christine’s time travel, are caused by dark demonic forces, the truth is there was a dark undercurrent before the Lady cast her first spell. Before the Count even picked up the spells and found a caliph who would assist him. It is there in the first few pages in a Count who bragged about destroying a whole culture while playing lip service to his own religion. It is there when a Lady whose hatred for her husband, grief at her children’s death, and desire to hold on and control everything she has overpower her reason, love for her remaining family, her role as a Countess, and her own health and sanity. It is there in a feudal system that has fallen to corruption, self-righteousness, and bigotry with the desire to destroy or deride anything that does not fit the status quo.
This is the imbalance that causes the subsequent disintegration between the natural and supernatural world, human and jinni, living and dead, past and future, fantasy and reality.
Lee Ann Kostempski’s The World As It Should Be is a strange but effective mashup of Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy. It's one of those strange concoctions that takes the best of two or more genres and creates an awesome work of its own.
Psychic Charity Olmstead is wandering around a wasteland that used to be Salem, Massachusetts. The world ended in earthquakes and dragon-fire 48 hours prior with few survivors. A suicidal Charity encounters a kelpie and offers herself to the creature to consume her flesh. The Kelpie strikes a bargain with her that if Charity helps him look for his child and the monster hunters who killed his mate, then he will eat her. As the two unlikely partners travel through the fallen world, powerful authority figures from Salem have their own theories about who or what caused the end and they want to resurrect the trials that once made their town infamous.
The World As It Should Be is definitely among the darkest Fantasies that I have ever read. The Post-Apocalyptic setting pulls out all the stops with its disturbing graphic imagery and the impact of what it means to those who suffer and try to survive through it. The fact that the protagonist is so suicidal that her main goal is to seek death also adds to the grimness.
What makes the setting stand out is the presence of Fantasy characters and magic users. It's also rather clever that the human characters treat their presence as a non-event. They act like talking to kelpies and hiding from dragons is simply an everyday occurrence which it probably is. The implications are that they weren't created because of the Apocalypse. They have always been there and this is a Modern Fantasy world that just got hit with a Science Fiction Dystopian situation.
The presence of witches and witchcraft is brilliantly handled. Where there are witches, there are witch hunters and in Salem that is a definite given. The humans of Salem react the way that humans do when they are faced with a deadly situation, look for a scapegoat, a minority to lay all the blame on. Being prominent Salemites, they revert to their past to find the current scapegoats and resurrect the witch trials that made their town so notorious in the annals of history. The misogyny and authoritarianism of the Salemites is laid bare in the present as it was in the past.
The World As It Should Be is a dark, disturbing, but detailed and endlessly fascinating blend of Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy. It brings the best of both genres to make one whole wonderful book.
The Word Thieves by Carol Riggs takes the familiar story of The Prince and the Pauper and does some things, particularly in terms of world building and characterization that make it stand out from many of the other variations.
The city of Noviston, is ruled by the Golden Monarch. Eliana, a princess and Talyn, a poor thief bump into each other during a riot. The duo’s striking similarities shine the proverbial lightbulb over Eliana’s head. She and Taylen will switch places for a day so Taylen can live in luxury for a while and Eliana can do her research on how their taxes affect the people. Unfortunately, complications ensue and the two find themselves dealing with various conflicts both within and outside of Noviston.
For a familiar story, Riggs surrounds it with a detailed and imaginative setting. Noviston is a world that hovers between Medieval/Renaissance Fantasy and Victorian Steampunk, with more emphasis on the latter. Metallurgy is an important part of their way of life to the point that districts are named for different types of metal like The Gold District where royals like Eliana live and Tin District where Taylen lives and where she and her fellow protesters, the Robbing Hood gang, plan their robberies and schemes.
Along with metals, Noviston is populated with what they call mechanicals. They are used as security, companionship, and other means. (Though oddly enough not menial labor. They still use humans for that). There is an army of mechanicals run by Avery, who is part inventor and part sorceress. Avery gives her mechs the ability to extract not only taxes in coin but in words.
The mech orders their victim to say a select number of words and they mentally remove them from that person’s mind. The victims not only forget the word but any definition or concept behind it. The psychological horror is terrifying to imagine. The mechs leave behind a population that is forcibly ignorant and easy to control.
The consistency of mechs also plays into Taylen and Eliana’s gifts. Eliana has a talent for building and repairing mechs. All she has to do is look at something to find out what’s wrong and fix it. It’s a talent
not many women of her station would have. However, it shows her as someone who is willing to get her hands dirty and do the actual work instead of sitting in the palace and waiting patiently for others to do the work for her.
Taylen also has a unique power too, even more impressive than Eliana’s. She can mentally communicate with mechs. This telepathic ability comes in handy especially when she’s in the Golden Palace. She learns secrets about Avery, the Gold Monarch, and their real goals in fighting the upcoming battle.
Riggs also counters the hoary narration of The Prince and the Pauper adaptations with great characterization and plot points which challenge not only the narrative of this particular story but the genre in which it is in. Taylen and Eliana are both well written protagonists that gain empathy and understanding through their journey and become more effective leaders.
Taylen was emotional and acted on impulsive anger. She led the Robbing Hoods to help others but mostly to stick it to a system in which she felt marginal and oppressed. Even if no one knew that she was behind it, it was a way of sticking it to those in charge. As Eliana, Taylen learns to be a more strategic thinker and planner and recognize the long term impacts that each decision makes.
Eliana was involved and compassionate, for a royal. However, her time as Taylen gives her a chance to interact with the people that she never met and understand them. She becomes more empathetic and in turn a better leader when she sees where the people are coming from.
Another interesting point is how the plot resolves itself. The emphasis is not on destruction or rebellion but on compromise and collaboration. A new world is created by separating and declaring independence from the old. Sometimes that’s the only way to gain true understanding and freedom.
The Word Thieves takes a familiar story and builds on it. In some ways, particularly in terms of setting, character, and plot, it improves it.
I love Contemporary Fantasies and I am always interested in books set in my home state of Missouri, so I feel like Jason Offut’s The 2-Part The Girl in the Corn Series was written specifically for me to read and review. It definitely delivers the magic of a Contemporary Fantasy and the macabre of a Supernatural Horror to the Show Me State.
The first book, The Girl in the Corn begins when 6-year-old Thomas first encounters a fairy in his mother’s garden who tells him that he is special. The fairy girl appears throughout his life telling him that he must defeat Dauor, a dark creature from her world. Meanwhile we are introduced to Bobby, a teenager with violent impulses that are nurtured by a mysterious creature who takes the form of a Girl Scout. Throughout the years, Thomas and Bobby are encouraged, tormented, cajoled, persuaded, and shaped by these strange creatures who eventually pull them into a battle between supernatural forces, the lives and souls of many, and their own sanity.
In the second volume, The Boy From Two Worlds, an explosion resulted in the deaths of 462 people in St. Joseph, Missouri. It affected several people including the now adult Bobby and Thomas, Thomas’ girlfriend, Jillian Robertson, and Marguerite Jenkins, who was pregnant with Bobby’s child. One year later, Marguerite gives birth to a boy, Jacob AKA Jakey and Thomas and Jillian move in together.
Afterwards, various sinister things like cattle mutilations, graphic unsolved murders, and various other events seem to center around Jakey. Eventually, all of this creepy weird stuff culminates with the discovery that there is ancient magic afoot and fairies that will use it. But these fairies are far from the pleasant wish granting Disney fairies. Not even close.
The Girl in The Corn focuses on intimacy. The events specifically happen to Thomas, Bobby, or someone associated with them. Through their separate experiences, the Reader is given contrasting characters that will eventually confront one another.
When Thomas first encounters the fairy, he is a little boy. She appears as a sweet innocent little girl, one who promises to befriend the young boy. She plays on the portrayal of old fairy tale concepts where fairies were seen as beautiful, helpful, charming, adorable, and innocent creatures.
As Thomas matures, his meetings with the fairy become more intense and less fanciful. She now appears as a troubled young woman who appeals to Thomas's good guy helpful personality and his insecurities about being average. This plays on Epic Fantasies where ordinary people are given the Chosen One narrative where they are the ones destined to fight evil for…reasons. This book is a clever subversion of that trope because it asks the question whether the figure predicting the heroism can be trusted and whether they have ulterior motives for what they do.
While Thomas's journey is compared to Fairy Tales and Fantasy novels, Bobby’s story is more grounded in Occult Supernatural Horror. He comes from a religious family and has his own complicated spiritual beliefs so the fairy builds on that. It first appears as a disembodied voice that builds on Bobby’s anxieties and fears of God's judgment. Bobby begins to commit violence to silence those ever growing fears.
As Bobby ages, his spiritual encounters become angrier, more fierce, and graphic. They are reminiscent of his diminishing mental state and growing blood lust. It takes on horrific images like the body of a murdered girl to taunt and rage at Bobby until he does what it wants.
Cleverly, Thomas and Bobby's journeys seem to be a battle of good vs. evil but once they face those final confrontations, those lines are less defined. The two young men realize that they were led to this conclusion by not only the magical influences but by their own choices.
The Boy From Two Worlds expands by the weird stuff affecting the whole town, not just Thomas and Bobby. Offutt captures the weird, macabre, and ultimately scary in a very average basic location. It explores how ordinary people are unprepared for this strangeness. Missouri is an average Midwestern state while St. Joseph pays tribute to Jesse James. This division of small town quirkiness inside a seemingly normal state adds to these bizarre fantastic things happening around people who just want to have a regular ordinary day.
They are unprepared for a very human tragedy in which a psychopath with skewered views takes multiple lives. They are even less prepared for the otherworldly events that happen afterwards. They are plunged into a nightmare which subverts everything that they ever thought and believed.
The books have plenty of magic and magical creatures, but it reminds us that these creatures are powerful, menacing, and extremely dangerous. These Fairies have sharp teeth, shape shifting abilities, duplicitous ethics, and a hunger for human flesh. They are less animated family friendly Fairy Tale Faire Folk and more graphic nightmarish early Celtic and Teutonic legend creatures. They are powerful, immortal, hungry, deadly, obsessive and have a whole town of delicious mortals to play with and feast upon.
The Girl in The Corn Series is a Dark Fantasy that knows exactly how to scare its Readers and offers the right characters and setting in which to do the scaring.
One of my favorite writers that I discovered this year is Jessica Crichton. The Legend of Guts and Glory: Freedom Fighters of Nil does some interesting unique things with the Dystopian Science Fiction/YA genre. Another book that captures my interest even more so than Guts and Glory is Tipani Walker and The Nightmare Knot. It is better than Guts and Glory particularly in terms of setting. character, most notably with its protagonist, Tipani Walker, and themes about the difference between living in fantasy or accepting reality.
12 year old Tipani Walker runs from her unhappy home and school life to an antique store. She meets its eccentric owner, Piper who reveals that Tipani is a Weaver who is able to travel through Time and Space into what Piper calls the Day Knot (memories) and the Night Knot (dreams). As a Weaver, her job is to protect people’s dreams. During her dream travels, Tipani encounters various characters both friendly and unfriendly, most notably Cassie, a girl who may or may not be part of a dream or a real person, may be in a lot of trouble, and might need Tipani’s help.
This book is a veritable feast for the imagination. Crichton weaves an excellent challenging story around a fantastic dreamscape.
The Dream Worlds that Tipani visits alternate between whimsical and terrifying, beautiful and horrible, Fantasy and Horror. They’re mutable and constantly change landscapes, characters, and situations depending on what either she or the Dreamer is going through. The longer Tipani stays in a dream, the scarier and weirder it becomes. Exploring the dreams is a trip into Tipani’s mind and discovering what comforts and frightens her, what she hopes for, and what she wants to run away from. This book is a fascinating psychological study wrapped inside an engaging YA novel.
Crichton’s characters are as rich as the setting.
Tipani by far is the most intriguing character and is a brilliant protagonist. Since she is 12 years old, she is certainly an angst filled adolescent who at times cops a bad attitude because of her bad home life with a comatose father and depressed and addicted mother. However, Tipani is also a very intelligent and persistent girl. Once she is introduced to the concept of being a Weaver, she is curious and willing to participate. She is concerned about Cassie so much that she wants to find her in the real world.
Tipani recognizes the responsibilities that she has in helping people through their dreams and fighting their inner fears.Because of her ability to create elaborate knots, she analyzes and recognizes patterns, a talent that is helpful when she recognizes patterns within the dreams. This knowledge comes in handy when she has to stand up to the monsters that torture Cassie and herself.
For all of its monsters, fears, magic, and whimsy, Tipani Walker and The Nightmare Knot is a very powerful story with some very strong things to say about the nature of dreams and reality. Sometimes our lives are terrible and we want to live inside our dreams. There we live the way we want and if things don’t work out, we can always wake up. But it’s not enough to live inside of dreams and memories. Tipani realizes that she has to take action to find and rescue Cassie, to encourage her to live her truth, and for herself to fight her own battles. Once dreaming is over, it’s time to start doing.
With a memorable setting, commendable characters, and brilliant themes, Tipani Walker and The Nightmare Knot is a definite dream of a YA novel.
