The Best We Could Do

The Best We Could Do is an illustrated memoir by Thi Bui. While this is not a book I would normally have chosen to read, it was picked by my new book club as one of the reads for the summer. The following review will have spoilers – can you have spoilers in a memoir?

The Best We Could Do was well done. There are some interesting and powerful messages in the text. The biggest point in its favour was the illustrated narrative – it was a fast read! Which is something I appreciate in a genre I am not drawn to. The illustrations – yes, think comic book, but for adults – is coloured in black, white and rust. The rust really adds to the historic feel of the story.

One panel from the book The Best We Could Do – image from the internet.

The story is one person’s reflection on their family history with a particularly strong focus on Thi’s relationship with her parents. In fact, a considerable amount of time is spent looking at both her mother and her father – their childhood and early years of marriage.

Thi Bui’s family is from Viet Nam and her memoir touches on some of the turbulent years of the country before her family finally fled to America. I don’t know anything about Viet Nam or its struggles. But I do know something about Cambodia. I could not help but draw a number of comparisons between the stories I have learned of Cambodia and what I was reading about Viet Nam. It reminds me how difficult life is in many parts of the world. How hard change is for the people living through it. But most striking for me, was the hardships faced by refugees fleeing abhorrent conditions, taking nothing with them, and then faced with so much uncertainty and cultural difference when they immigrate to a new country. That reminder was what I took away from the book. And a stronger desire to be more understanding and compassionate when interacting with people coming to Canada as refugees.

We do not know what they have been through and so it is difficult to appreciate how challenging this move is. Particularly for families fleeing for their lives. They bring nothing with them but a sliver of hope. Hope that leaving everything behind will mean more opportunities for their children. Hope that they will be able to rebuild a life in a foreign land where the customs are so different. It is very humbling to reflect on the sacrifices these families make and the numerous challenges they face. I work with a number of newcomers, so I found this aspect of the story very meaningful to me.

Book cover for The Best We Could Do – image from the internet.

The other strong theme running through the book is that of maturing. The challenges we face as we grow from child to adult and how that reshapes our relationship with our parents. Tied to this idea are the traits we pick up and adopt because of our parents’ histories. What we carry forward from their experiences – for good or ill. I was less interested in this personal reflection. I feel I have thought about my own relationships to my parents and as I am not a parent, I cannot look in the other direction.

While the story The Best We Could Do, is not one that I naturally gravitate towards, it is a powerful and well composed book. Except for the non-linear beginning which left me rather confused about Thi’s father and his past. However, the illustrated nature of the book helps to break down the complexity of the narrative. I would give it 4.5 stars out of 5 and recommend that you try the story. It is not a huge time commitment, but it is certainly eye-opening for those who have not gone through such challenging circumstances.

Twelve Dancing Princesses

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Today I am going to talk about K.M. Shea’s Twelve Dancing Princesses. This another of the Timeless Fairy Tales, which are individual fairy tales set in the same world. In fact over time they have developed another world wide arc that is playing out in the background and in the Fairy Tale Enchantress series.

As always, beware of spoilers.

Book cover for Twelve Dancing Princesses. Image from the internet.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses is unlike many other retellings as it focuses very little on the princesses. In fact the main character, Quinn of the Farset military, gets roped into trying to break the princesses’ curse by her fellow forest soldier. Only a little time is spent following the princesses – three nights to be precise.

Since the Twelve Dancing Princesses is the 10th book in the series, it plays more of a role in the world-wide story arc than the books at the beginning of the series. For this reason it is less of a stand-alone. It is also less constrained to the traditional plot line of the twelve dancing princesses. Yes there are nightly dances and yes the king is searching for someone to solve the mystery (and break the curse). But this story is about Quinn, how she meets the young King of the Elves and saves them. In saving the Elves, Quinn also saves the Princesses.

Interestingly enough, the Princesses are not entirely blameless in their curse. Two of the twelve are the reason the others become cursed. I like that there is a greater range of characterization of the twelve princesses, however little time is spent with them.

The story is enjoyable and I like what it does for the bigger plot-line. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

When thinking about my review for this book, however, there were two things that I wanted to discuss. The first was the idea of authenticity – how much should a re-imagined story follow the original plot-line? Clearly, the author has chosen to take the Twelve Dancing Princesses in a different direction. She is barely interacting with the titular characters. Is this good, bad, or just a thing?

For me, I don’t think you need to follow the original tales that closely. In fact some of my concerns for other books in this series is that they tried too hard to follow our general understanding of the fairy tales which made for very clunky endings. These are good places to start, then let creativity run free.

I will make one additional note though, if your story deviates too much from the original source material – call it something else. I watched a movie that was supposedly about King Arthur but was so wildly different from the tales I grew up with it was abrasive. The movie would have been a hundred times better if it were called A Roman Soldier or such. To title your book in a specific way, like the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and then write a story about a forest ranger, can be off putting to some readers. They will expect one thing and get something completely different. Which is not the best example, because the curse and the twelve princesses do follow the traditional plot very well. The reader just follows a different character to get to the same information point.

The other thought I had while preparing this reflection was about favourites. The Twelve Dancing Princesses is the favourite fairy tale of a friend. She loves the different incarnations of this story. This, however, is not my favourite. I much prefer Beauty and the Beast. I really like relationships that start as mistrust and turn to love. But I also really like that Beauty and the Beast takes place over a long period of time. These characters learn to love each other slowly. So, it made me wonder, what fairy tale is your favourite? Which story do you read in all its different incarnations?

The Snow Queen – Book Review

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I just finished reading the Snow Queen: The Complete Saga by K.M. Shea. This fairy tale is written in two parts: Heart of Ice and Sacrifice. The Complete Saga also includes a number of short stories at the end.

As with any review, beware of spoilers.

Snow Queen: Heart of Ice book cover from the internet.

The Snow Queen takes place in the same world as the other Timeless Fairy Tales by K.M. Shea only a hundred (or so) years earlier. I am not positive, but I am pretty sure it was written after the author had written several of the other books in the same world. So, it is a bit of a prequel to the great world events, while at the same time acting as a complete story.

Rakel is the Snow Queen, a princess born with Magic. In this time frame magic users are hated and feared. Rakel is despised by her parents and locked first in a cold, isolated tower then exiled to a distant mountain peak in the northern kingdom of Verglas. While Rakel grows to love her magic, she is frightened of people – as they often want to kill her or call her a monster. All that is about to change when the Chosen decide to invade.

While her first instinct is to let the people of the kingdom suffer, that doesn’t last long. And soon Rakel sets off to save a neighbouring village. She wields her magic to protect her people and over time becomes the hero of her kingdom.

For Rakel, her journey is about making friends, learning to trust other people and to live in a world beyond her ice castle. She finds love in a colonel from the invading army, a best friend in an outgoing thief and loyalty in the Captain of her guards and the attendant who has served her for the past 8 years.

Snow Queen: Sacrifice book cover image from the internet.

It is a sweet story that clearly delineates good versus evil. Yet, it does take time to look at motivation and method. The story draws parallels between the power Rakel has and uses as the Snow Queen and that of her enemy, the leader of the Chosen. While Rakel is reluctant to kill, Lord Tenebris, leader of the Chosen is off to enslave everyone without magic. Both these characters have faced discrimination, yet both have come out of that experience with two different objectives. Rakel would rather hide away from the world. Her goal is not to cause pain to others because she knows what it is like. Rather, her strength lays in her ability to forgive (also in her incredible control over ice, snow and temperature). Tenebris wants to punish those that have hurt him. He will be the strongest and will demonstrate his strength by ensuring no one has the power to hurt him again. He also wants revenge. Death and destruction are his goals.

The death count may be low for Rakel, but just to be clear her army does not hold the same views. They are killing the enemy, occasionally there is imprisonment, but there is still a lot of death. So, yes the good guys try to be better, but in war there no real heroes. And that is something this book does not really touch on. Granted this is a nice, straightforward fairy tale of good versus evil. The message the book spells out is that forgiveness and love are stronger and more important. But I think it tries to portray the battle as too clean. In a war like this, both sides would have lost. However, that would have made for a different and more complex tale to tell.

Snow Queen: Snowflakes book cover image from the internet (this is the collection of short stories).

This was a good story. And with the chaos of the real world, sometimes we need these unrealistic heroes to exist so we have something to strive for. Sure no one is going to be as perfect as Rakel, the Snow Queen (not just because magic on that scale doesn’t exist). But we can all try to be a bit more like her: kinder, more empathetic, and far more forgiving.

Final rating for the Snow Queen: 4.5 out of 5 stars. Another good book my K.M. Shea.

Sinister Magic – Book Review

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It is summer reading! Look at how many books I am getting through. So, this latest book was urban fantasy rather than scifi. This is book 1 in Lindsay Buroker’s new series, Death Before Dragons. The title Sinister Magic. Beware of spoilers.

First, to be upfront and honest, I like Buroker’s writing. I don’t love all her series and I haven’t read all her books – though I have read quite a few. This is still good writing. The characters are engaging. There are a range of personalities and viewpoints. There are also a range of races in this particular novel.

Book cover for Sinister Magic: Death Before Dragons, Book 1. Image from the internet. Please notice how bad-ass Val is with her magical tiger and cleverly named sword. (Note that is sarcasm abut the name of her sword.) Yes, there is also a dragon.

For one of the first times I do not love her female protagonist. I certainly want to love Val (Valmeyjar). She has obvious issues: inflammation of the lungs possibly related to stress that is certainly a problem when slaying evil monsters. She has relationship problems, mostly because everyone she knows has their life in danger by proximity – including an ex-husband and daughter. Though, I do like that she has family. A mother she struggles to relate to along with her own ex and daughter. But few other friends, mostly a tiger from another dimension. She is also a half-elf. And who doesn’t remember being a child and wanting to be a half-elf?

I love Val’s let’s get this done attitude. She is confident, snarky and stubborn. All excellent traits in a storybook heroine. I love that she has a moral outlook, a challenge when she is essentially an assassin against magical beings. What I don’t love about Val is her approach to killing everything. She is off to save her friend, but in doing so causes a great deal of damage. While this is pretty standard fare in action films, it does question how morally sound is Val’s decision to kill things for a living. Especially when the Dragon appears and offers a different system. Granted we don’t know the details about the Dragon Courts Justice system, but mass slaughter is not the primary method.

I do like how there is some effort put into questioning Val’s methods for dealing with rogue magical creatures. I am not suggesting they should be ignored, but is killing them without trial or effort at rehabilitation really the best option? The fact that Val appears to be so narrow minded in her dealings with magical creatures (amusing because she is half magical herself) is my biggest problem with the story.

This is not a reflection on the writing. Rather, Buroker’s portrayal of Val left me thinking poorly of the main character. And while I agree you can have great stories with unlikeable protagonists, these are not usually the stories I read. While on one hand I admire Val for her ability to defend herself and friends while taking down large and scary monsters. I find Val’s use of weapons heavy handed when dealing with problems. I prefer characters that solve problems cleverly with words (and occasionally swords), like Amaranth in the Emperor’s Edge series. Though, Sinister Magic is at least aware of all the collateral damage Val causes.

Conclusion: Sinister Magic is a good book, but I don’t particularly like the main character. Still, I am interested to see where the series goes next. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

All Systems Red – Book Review

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All Systems Red is the first book in Martha Wells’ series the Murderbot Diaries. It is actually a novella rather than a full length novel. As I sit here on the back deck, I really don’t know what to say about this book. I liked it but I didn’t love it. I am interested enough that I have ordered more books in the series from the library. Ultimately it did not move me – I neither loved it enough to gush, nor hated enough to complain.

Book cover for All Systems Red by Martha Wells; first novella in the Murderbot Diaries series. Image from the internet.

It was not what I expected, which I suppose is something. First from the title, I thought Murderbot was more actively killing humans. It wasn’t. I was mildly surprised that its job was security – but very low end security.

From a friend’s review I also expected it to be funnier than it was. There were no laugh-out-loud moments in the story.

I was interested in how Wells developed the character and dealt with a constructed lifeform. I thought the setting was different enough and the future of mega-corporations fine – not new, but certainly concerning.

I struggled a bit to learn and follow the humans in the story. Their names were confusing as was the use of pronouns. I don’t know if I struggled because the pronouns did not match my expectation of gender for the names or if they were intentionally misleading because Murderbot didn’t care. Aspects of the world were difficult to understand. Were all the researchers on the planet corporations looking for mineable resources? Are there any governments in this future space setting, or only money making corps? How are constructs different from augmented humans? What parts are organic?

Certainly there are some interesting questions about personality and defining life. And I do give the author huge props for creating a shy, apathetic artificial construct who wants to spend all its time watching the entertainment feed.

Overall, the writing is strong. The author is able to raise some interesting points about humanity and our future. While I found it a bit confusing, other readers may not. It was not something that resonated with me, but it was a well written book (novella) – 4.5 stars out of 5.

We will see how the other novellas go.

Girl from the Stars Book 1-Daybreak – Book Review

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Gir from the Stars is a five book series by Cheree Alsop. I read the first book Daybreak, which I thought was fine, but not nearly good enough for me to invest in purchasing four more books. I might have ordered the rest from the library, if my library carried this series. Since I found the series lackluster, I wasn’t going to write a review. It wasn’t terrible enough to deserve a good rant and not good enough to share with the world. Still, beware of spoilers.

But that changed. I was browsing the synopsis of the other four books – out of curiosity – when I discovered these books have really high ratings, life 5 stars (out of five). Why? I am baffled. While the plot chugged along, the characters were not the best I have read. The crew of the SS Kratos is a cliched mix of different aliens. But since the aliens were not well described, I feel like they are all early Star Trek – humans with different coloured skin and eyes. Especially as the lead is half human half damaclan. Clearly we have some mingling of genetics which means the aliens are more human than not.

*** Insert break while I actually read the reviews of other readers, rather than just looking at the star count. ***

Book cover for Daybreak; book 1 in the Girl from the Stars series by Cheree Alsop.

Okay, I am going to do something a bit different I am going to comment on some of the common reviews of other people.

First, I am noticing that people who liked the book liked the fast pace adventure and the main character’s ability to kick ass. I will agree that Liora Day (the half Damaclan warrior with a traumatic past) can kick ass. She is also filled with flaws, like the inability to work with or communicate with others. An interesting problem as she is also a telepath. Yes, I appreciate that she can fight hordes of bad guys, but I am less enthused by the fact she is constantly being rescued by men. This does detract from her strength as a character.

Sure, the story moves quickly. Unfortunately this fast pace means we skip past actual character and plot development. For example (because examples are important): in the opening chapters of the story, the Captain of the SS Kratos is killed. One of the Lieutenants is sworn in as new captain. What is mentioned in passing, is the new Captain is the son of the previous Captain. There is no explanation as to why father and son are serving together. There is very little time spent on how Devren is coping with the loss of his father. He is granted one moment of grief, then continues on his day. Also, why did Devren rescue Liora from the cruel circus? And why not any of the other imprisoned species?

I will ignore the giant world destroying artifact that is tossed into the book as a key plot element that everyone will fight over. But I will not just support Captain Devren’s decision to withhold the device from his government. Yes, I am sure many of his superiors are corrupt and going to use the artifact for evil purposes. But, Devren is the son of a Captain. He has a long space military history. He is used to following orders – at least he should be. Why is he suddenly defying generals, throwing his lot in with the rebels he had previously been fighting against and in one quick move condemning the rest of the crew who we are led to believe Devren views as family? A little more dialogue would have gone a long way on this point.

A number of people commented on the books ending, or lack thereof. I can see what they mean about it being abrupt. However, I am not entirely opposed to the loose ends of the final chapters. I am more bothered by the journey to that point. The motivations of the characters and how they interact with each other and their world is the greater flaw. Devren is a great example of a character who does things because the plot says so. There is very little justification. Liora also does things, like go off on her own to hunt down her stepfather she suddenly learns is still alive. As a character she swings back and forth between running away from everyone else and trying to belong. While this is a great internal conflict, it needs to be explored more thoughtfully. Otherwise her actions hold no logic.

This feels like the author wanted an epic space opera. There are elements of Star Trek in the superficial nature of the universe and the multiple species, all working well together and all appearing mostly human. Unfortunately, the book lacks the character development to make the crew of the SS Kratos memorable. Thus it is difficult to be bothered by their deaths. Also, how big is this crew? Or the ship for that matter?

The kick ass nature of Liora, her random falling in love with the doctor, and the mysterious (yet very evil) creatures of her childhood feels more like Star Wars. Unfortunately, neither aspect is well developed. So the reader meanders between two leads: the ship’s crew and the female warrior. In the end, neither side is satisfied, but a lot of messy action happens in between.

For the potential of the storyline and the effort to have a non-sexual male-female relationship, I give this story 3 out of 5 stars. Hopefully, the writing gets tight over the rest of the series, though I doubt I will ever know.

The Night House – Book Review

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Title: The Night House
Author: J.C. McKenzie
Beware of spoilers.

Book cover for The Night House, image from the internet.

The Night House is the first book I have read by author J.C. McKenzie. From the synopsis of other books by this author, I am going to say The Night House is a bit different. First, this is a stand alone book. Which I quite like. Second, I found the Night House felt similar to Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series. Maybe it was the blade wielding white-blond assassin characters found in both stories. Survivors of great tragedy that killed their families, these two strong, snarky women would become a force to be reckoned with as they uncover dark plots in black magic tainted castles. Obviously there are many differences between these two characters. Their stories are not the same, but there was a general presentation of plot and character that was reminiscent of the other.

In The Night House, Taya is camping with her best friends when the apocalypse sweeps through as a blue wave of destruction. It opens a portal to another reality where medieval- esq raiders originate. They have come to our Earth for resources, including slaves. Taya, trained in a variety of martial arts by her father, is a survivor of the first death wave. But surviving on the West Coast of Canada as winter settles in is not easy. Captured, Taya is hauled through the magical portal by Lord Thane and forced to choose how her survival will look going forward. Spoilers, she chooses the path of a warrior in Thane’s personal army. Besides, Thane has offered Taya a chance at revenge, and that is something she is not willing to pass up.

There are lots of things I liked about this story. I liked the pure fantasy of magic and super fighting skills. Though their methods for problem solving are rather primitive – stab with pointy objects. I like the Canadian setting. It is understated, but present. And since most modern fantasies I come across take place in the US, it is a nice change. Though, really, there is not much that is distinctly Canadian other than some place names.

The Arkavian’s are a mix of medieval knights and vikings on steroids. And as each one is described as massive, I can only assume they are actually on steroids. Their world is simplistic and not well developed. But they are fine for moving the plot along.

The first few chapters of the book dealing with Taya’s survival after the portal opens is interesting. I like the way the author discusses some of the challenges faced in this post-apocalyptic world; finding food, shelter and other survivors. Not a lot of time is spent on this, as Taya is then captured and dragged through the magic portal. Not much time is spent developing Arkavia either. A lot of short hands are used so the reader feels they have a good enough idea of how things are going for Taya.

I did like the character dialogue. I think the author was rather good at conveying information through dialogue and building interest with the characters this way. While there were areas of the story I would have liked to see explored a bit more, I do appreciate the pace of the story. It moved, and at points time jumped. This was used in an effective manner, so I didn’t feel like I missed a great deal. Besides, in real life time does have a way of slipping past so we don’t realize that days, weeks or even months have gone by.

Overall I enjoyed this book, which looks different in tone than McKenzie’s other novels; 4.5 stars out of 5.

Sentinels of the Galaxy – Series Review

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The series is Sentinels of the Galaxy by Maria V. Snyder. There are currently two books: Navigating the Stars & Chasing the Shadows. Beware of spoilers in the following reflection.

Maria V Snyder’s Sentinels of the Galaxy series currently has two books. The third is not out until November, but it is already on my reading list. So, short review – I like this series.

The first book, Navigating the Stars, follows Lyra Daniels as she is forced to move across the Milky Way Galaxy to a new planet because of her parents’ research. Her parents are expert archaeologists studying terracotta warriors found on different planets. Lyra is nearly 18 Actual Years old and she definitely acts like a teenager. She spends time getting into trouble on the advanced data-communications-navigations system, the Q-net. But there are troubles ahead when looters come and attack the dig site. Lyra is drawn into danger. The book ends with Lyra’s death and her subsequent resurrection as Ara Lawrence.

Book cover for Navigating the Stars; book one in the Sentinels of the Galaxy series by Maria V. Snyder. Image from the internet.

The second book, Chasing the Shadows, continues to follow the first person narrative style of Ara Lawrence (aka Lyra Daniels). To hide the fact she isn’t permanently dead (only flatlined for a few seconds), Ara became a security officer for the dig site. Using her rapidly growing worming skills (future based hacking), Ara needs to track down the bad guys who not only looted the dig site, but destroyed many terracotta warriors and released the alien shadow-blobs. These hostile life forms (HoLFs) are deadly and growing in intelligence.

I read the first book a few weeks back (maybe a couple of months) and I don’t remember all the details very well. But I feel like I actually prefer book two to the first book. Which is very unusual. As for why I liked Chasing the Shadows better, I think it had more explanation. There was more science, more aliens and generally more explanation of the plot. The first book was more about Lyra/Ara and setting up the world. But the second book was more about explaining the world, about finding answers. And these were interesting answers. I suppose in many ways the second book was more fantasy than the first book.

The author’s take on space travel was interesting. It is generally not my favourite way of dealing with the space travel, but it ranks high for most thoughtful. In this world, there exists a Crinkle Machine, that connects two distant points in space. For this reason ships (and their passengers) are able to travel great distances in the blink of an eye – but with constraints. They are traveling into the future. So while it may not seem like very long inside the Crinkle Process, the rest of their friends and relatives are aging. And actually, Snyder did a good job selling this feature. It was rather sad when you thought about it. But people continued to travel and to age differently than those left on planets.

It does raise some questions, like why those people from Earth manage to maintain the same sorts of outlooks. But for the people on the outer reaches of explored space, it is an interesting problem.

Book cover for Chasing the Shadows; book two in the Sentinels of the Galaxy series by Maria V. Snyder. Image from the internet.

One of the aspects that I don’t love is the teenager-ness of the main character. While, Lyra/Ara is well written and reasonably believable. I find that I am at a point in my personal life when I really don’t want to read about teenagers. They are a strange mix of child (classified as someone adults readily ignore and who sees adults as one dimensional beings) and adult (classified as someone who can be trained in combat). Teenagers are hormonal, with epicly dramatic relationships. And while Snyder does a pretty good job of balancing out Lyra/Ara with her parents being present, it is still one of my least favourite aspects of the books.

Still, these books are well written. They have an interesting take on space, travel and aliens. The characters are complex, detailed and well crafted. And the story is interesting. Rating of 5 out of 5 stars (or 4.5 if I am feeling stingy). Good stories, definitely recommend. And truthfully I am excited for the next book.

Wayfarer’s Keep – Book Review

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Today we are going to look briefly at Wayfarer’s Keep by T.A. White. Note: there will be some spoilers in the following passages, including a briefly discussion about the final boss.

Wayfarer’s Keep is the third book in The Broken Lands series. It stars Pathfinder Shae and Warlord Fallen as they descended upon the stronghold of the Pathfinders.

Book covers for the first three books in the series from the internet.

First a confession: while I have read the first two books in the series, it was not recently. My memory for details is not the very best. So this review is based on what I remember with a focus on my impressions of this story.

It was clearly a book in a series. It actually felt like the third book in a trilogy, there was a sense of completion with its final battle. Though it was not a very firm conclusion, leaving plenty of room for the big bad guy to return. Or related minions to harass the people of this world.

The Broken Lands are a strange place. There are the Highlands, the Lowlands, the Outlands and the Mists. Things are a strange mix left over technology from some great cataclysm and monsters. There are lots of monsters making the world a very hostile place for humans. This book takes the already ferocious creatures and adds the new mythicals – intelligent ferocious creatures. It kind of feels like a comic book where the heroes have leveled up, so their foes must also level up otherwise there wouldn’t be any tension.

The story is composed of a lot of battles. There seems to be a lot of fighting in these stories. And with a Warlord for our second main character, the fighting is heroic and glorious. Which is fine. It is not the smart solution to the problem, but reading about heroes fighting their foes to win the day is a very solid story arch.

It is interesting how magical the advanced old technology is described. It is also interesting some of the imagery chosen by the author. Large, cannon like guns are described as flowers that open up before sending their projectiles.

Book cover for Wayfarer’s Keep from the internet.

Treachery is one of the issues faced by our leads. Who to trust? How to earn the trust of others? The intrigue was okay, but not very subtle. Again, these characters are more blunt instruments that beat the problem to death. While this may not have been the intent of the author, the characters did not actually express any subtlety in their actions. Though, I suppose there was a moment of misdirection. And I did like that the author final addressed Shea’s mysterious past connection to the Broken lands. Even if I was left feeling slightly disappointed there wasn’t more to her much alluded to journey.

The plot as I reflect on it, became a fetch quest into the Badlands – that no one is supposed to enter. Here our heroine faces the Darkness. I don’t remember if it had a name, but it was the Heart of Evil that taints the land and manipulates the minds of the weak. And like every other Heart of Evil Darkness, it cannot truly be killed. Only weakened and chained and left to await the next hapless idiot who tries to free it.

The book was fine. It was probably as good as the others in the series, but I don’t remember them very well to make a confident comparison. It is not my favourite series by this author, but it does have some interesting elements with its post-apocalypse society filled with deadly things to kill. The focus on epic battles was fine, just not my favourite. The final sequence of facing the great old evil was not unexpected and I would probably have liked something less predictable.

For this one, I am going with 3.5 out of 5 stars. If you liked the first two, then I am sure you will like this too.

Fractured Stars – Book Review

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It is summer and that means I have time to read! Welcome to my book review. Today we will look at Fractured Stars by Lindsay Buroker. Note: there may be spoilers, but they are pretty mild I think.

Fractured Stars follows McCall Richter and Arjun “Dash” Deshmukh. McCall finds things, criminals, missing shipments, that sort of thing. She is not really a bounty hunter, as she will call the law enforcement to collect any of the bad guys she does find. But she is successful, owns her own ship and has two big secrets. First, she helped to liberate an android – it is not stealing if the android didn’t want to stay with its previous owner. Second, she is autistic – high functioning, but definitely struggles with people. There is surgery in this futuristic world that would correct McCall’s autism, but she doesn’t want to have it done. Especially after living her whole life this way.

The book cover for Fractured Stars from the internet.

Dash is a weak Starseer, a former bounty hunter and currently a spy for the Alliance. Working as a deputy with a cyborg sheriff, Dash recognizes McCall from his earlier life as a bounty hunter. He knows she is good at her work and that she has scooped a bounty from him on more than one occasion. He is also enough of a Starseer to realize that McCall is hiding secrets.

Their adventure is set before the events of Lindsay Buroker’s Fallen Empire series. Set in a future of teraformed planets with high tech cyborgs and magic starseers, this is a fun space opera adventure. The empire has not fallen, but it is not loved either. And the Alliance is growing. While McCall and Dash have different goals, they do work together to escape a prison, recover a ship and hide their secrets for the people around them – as best they can.

Lindsay Buroker has a great world set in space. It is rich, complex and full of stories. This book is both very different from and very similar to her Fallen Empire series. They are both set in the same world and both feature strong female characters owning their own ships. These are people who want to live between the stars, not bound to one single planet. Romance does happen. Does that mean the characters are any less strong? No, I really don’t think it does.

Further strength comes in different ways. Yes, both Alisa (from Fallen Empire) and McCall are problem solvers. But where Alisa will dive head first into a fight or sweet-talking another, McCall will take a different approach. For McCall people are more of a problem.

This short story prequel tells the story of how McCall acquired her four-legged companion, Junkyard. It is a cute story and really shows off how the character thinks and looks at the world.

One of the setting aspects I really like is the conflict between the Empire and Alliance. Buroker does a really good job discussing the benefits and drawbacks of both systems of governance over her series. I really like that the Empire, while generally described as the bad guys also has its strong, well-reasoned supporters.

Fractured stars is a romance adventure – a space opera. It is well written with thoughtful and engaging characters. It is a great book. And I am deeply torn. I love that it is currently a stand-alone. However, I also really want to read more about McCall and Dash.

5 stars out of 5 – it was a really good read.

Happy Canada Day!