Review: The Diabolical Miss Hyde

The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A bit predictable, which was worse in the first half of the book. The last third or so was better. A little too romance-y for me too.

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Review: The Spider's War

The Spider's War by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: Pretty impressive wrapup to an really interesting series.

Hmm. What to say. I loved: Yardam. The fact that banking is used as a weapon. Pirates! "Your soul is a circle." Conversations between Yardam and Michael Weston. Kit. The players. The fact that the Big Bad is presented as a human being with immense flaws but is still loved by some despite them.

For an epic fantasy series, Sword and Magic series, it is remarkably complex in its presentation of war and what war does to people, nations, hope, and the amount of misery caused by the decisions of only a few. I also liked the take on religion as seen as justification for endless, mindless war. Ignore everything but the belief you are told to accept, reject your own mind, intelligence and experience. Listen to my voice.

Highly recommended.

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Review: The Widow's House

The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

The chessmen move across the board attempting to find a way to end what seems to be unending warfare. A dragon seems to be the last best hope. But then things seldom go as expected in this complex series. Last book next!

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Review: The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Flavia, who's mother died on a mountain, experiences the unsettling return of her mother's body.

Flavia is such a unique character and the family is so very English in their oddness and tolerance for strange behavior and beliefs.

Can't wait to read the next in the series.

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Review: The Tyrant's Law

The Tyrant's Law by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Wow.

What I love about this series, is that the monster of the series, isn't a monster at all. He's likeable, other than the fact that he's a tyrant, who murders people with hardly a thought. Yet, personally, he's flawed and unsure of himself, and doubts himself. And yet he enslaves and murders people without a thought.

I've always hated bad guys who are bad in every way because that just doesn't seem realistic. Someone loved them once, after all. They love someone, surely.

Also, that ending! It's killing me to stop reading the series given how this one ends, but, well, I am going to take a slight break and then read the last two books of the series soon.

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Review: The King's Blood

The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, on a roll. Continuing on immediately to Book 3 which really tells you all you need to know...

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Review: The Dragon's Path

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Sword and Sorcery done well.

Intricate plot with intriguing characters. Dragons gone, but a mysterious goddess seems to be on overwatch duty as the various races of Antea struggle for power, money and conquest.

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Review: Magic Bites

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Complex world-building, who-dunnit plot, and interesting characters.

It took me awhile to grow to appreciate this book. At first I kept negatively comparing it to Urban Shaman but finally decided it was different enough that the comparison wasn't entirely valid.

The world-building is quite complex and imaginative. The plot was pretty convoluted and had me guessing wrong several times. And altho it was a bit more violent and bloody than I generally like, the story grew on me, especially as I met some characters I really came to care about.

I'll probably read at least the next in the series, and decide if I'm going to read the rest after that.

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Review: A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: Really fun read with characters you can't help but cheer for.

What with a hurricane barreling down on us, and the better half out of town, I just kept reading, laughing and enjoying this book.

Our hero, Kell, is a magician who can travel between dimensions. Multiple Londons, differing situations in each, yet all tied together somehow. Kell manages to run afoul of a thief, Delilah, who more or less overwhelms him with stubbornness and logic and ends up traveling across dimensions along with him. Between the two of them, they manage to create mayhem wherever they go. And along the way, attempt to foil several evil plots.

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Review: The Heart of Matter

The Heart of Matter by Evan Currie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Interesting thought experiment on tactics in space battles with aliens

If you like tactics, and like the idea of extrapolating it into space, this book is for you. Otherwise, probably not. I found it pretty interesting. The aliens are suitably opaque with their motives known but not much else. The why of their attacks still not understood.

I also enjoy the idea that we have lost colonies out in space, well, humanity does.

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Review: Triggers

Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: As is usual with Sawyer, the ideas are complex and intriguing.

When a memory experiment goes wrong, and the President of the US is involved, the Secret Service races to find out just who it is who is suddenly 'linked' to the President's memories, and has access to every secret of the US government.

A wide cast of characters, an attempted assassination, possible treason, and the question of just who can be trusted complicate the plot. I'll be thinking about the implications for awhile yet.

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