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WoGF Review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Nathan Barnhart (Skynjay) is one of three reviewers for Fantasy Review Barn. Though he read Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books as a kid, he didn’t really get into the genre until a few years ago, at which point he started reading any speculative fiction he could get his hands on. If not reading or playing with his kid, you can find him at the rec getting beat in basketball.
A book picked up purely on the hype, I would have skipped it otherwise. The cover blurb sounds ridiculous, the main character used to be a ship? What could that even mean? But in came the early reviews. They talked about many different things but seemed pretty unanimous in one aspect; the book was praised everywhere I looked.
But hype is a funny thing, and while it has often been enough to get me interested it just as often disappoints. Was this going to be one of those books in which everyone fell in love with the uniqueness and ignored obvious flaws? Perhaps some fell in love with the gender bending society and overlooked a lack of plot? In short, is the book going to be more idea than execution? Let me put minds to rest, oh hell no.
Excuse the language here, but Ancillary Justice is one glorious mind fuck. Every preconceived notion a reader has going in has to be reset. Get used to she as the default pronoun, understand how little it matters in Radch space. Then try to re-figure it all out when in a society that does; suddenly the right gender pronoun matters to avoid insults and we have no more knowledge on how to recognize the clues than Breq.
WoGF Review: Empress by Karen Miller
Nathan Barnhart (Skynjay) is one of three reviewers for Fantasy Review Barn. Though he read Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books as a kid, he didn’t really get into the genre until a few years ago, at which point he started reading any speculative fiction he could get his hands on. If not reading or playing with his kid, you can find him at the rec getting beat in basketball.
Aieee! You’re looking at a nice painting of a forest. Seems pretty good, nicely detailed, and you are thinking it is pretty realistic. But you make the mistake of looking at it a little closer and it all starts to fall apart. It is like the painter has a good idea of what a forest looks like from a distance, but it’s a little fuzzy on the details. Looking closely you realize the painter doesn’t have a clue what individual trees should look like. Little details are wrong, hidden well if skimmed over but glaring if ones eye rest on it too long. This is the world that Karen Miller has built in Empress. While incredibly interesting the world is built almost lazily, changing at times to fit the author’s needs. Throw in some strange language choices and a complete lack of interesting characters and you will find one frustrating book.
Aieee! A girl with no name is sold into slavery. She is told she is a jewel and is taken from wastelands into a big city. She learns her fate is to be sold again as a bed slave and mutilates her face while running away. The rest of the book tells of her rise in power in a land where the bloodthirsty god is always present, Godspeakers roam the streets smiting sinners and warlords get ready for battle. It is a nasty land full of nasty people.
WoGF Review: His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
Nathan Barnhart (Skynjay) is one of three reviewers for Fantasy Review Barn. Though he read Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books as a kid, he didn’t really get into the genre until a few years ago, at which point he started reading any speculative fiction he could get his hands on. If not reading or playing with his kid, you can find him at the rec getting beat in basketball.
Oh friggen sweet. Ok, so here’s how it is. This stuffy British sea captain wipes the deck with a Frenchie ship (ha, wipes the deck). When they take control of the ship it has this giant egg on it, because it turns out there are dragons. This egg is about to hatch so he makes his crew draw straws on who is going to be its best bud because these crazy people don’t want their very own dragon and it is a punishment or something. But when the egg hatches and the loser kid tries to talk with him the dragon is like, oh hell no I ain’t running with no lackey, where is the big dog on this boat? He finds the captain and talks to him in perfect English saying, you and me man.
So Captain Laurence has this dragon, and doesn’t know what to name him, so he calls him Temeraire after some lame ship or something. And the dragon is really smart, but because they are new they have to go off and train on how to be a useful in a fight. Which is awesome, because I totally read all the Pern books and those dragons NEVER fought, they just flew around people and shot falling strings out of the sky. But in this book Europe is at some war between the English and the French, and they totally load the dragons up with gunmen and bombs and attack ships and other dragons with them.
WoGF Review: The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin
Nathan Barnhart (Skynjay) is one of three reviewers for Fantasy Review Barn. Though he read Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books as a kid, he didn’t really get into the genre until a few years ago, at which point he started reading any speculative fiction he could get his hands on. If not reading or playing with his kid, you can find him at the rec getting beat in basketball.
“In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers – the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe . . . and kill those judged corrupt.”
– Cover blurb from The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin
How to describe a book as unique as this? Assassin tale? Well, maybe, but to lump this in with the thousand books with a man in a cloak on the cover would be a travesty. Several have tried to make their assassins unique, but in this book the protagonist would resent even being called an assassin. Try again. Dystopia? After all, the limit of what humanity will allow in keeping such a long and stable peace works right in with Orwell and the like. But perhaps not, dystopias usually deal with a possible future, and this is still very much a fantasy novel. Vampire tale? Hell, I was three quarters through the book before I recognized that this may be the most cleverly hidden vampire tale I have seen, I certainly don’t want it lumped in with that over-saturated genre. I guess completely unique epic fantasy is the best I can do.
A lot of important little touches went in to building this unique experience. While there is an Egyptian flair, it was not the typical “add a pyramid and now it’s not a western influenced fantasy.” Rather the author changed everything; flood cycles instead of years, counting by fours, and adding a caste system that varied between the different city states. As readers we are dropped right into the world, with no long info dumps holding our hands. This may slow down the early book as a reader tries to keep up, but also worked to keep the book from every feeling bloated. The religion is unique, the world is alive, and the city of Gujaareh feels completely real.
WoGF Review: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Nathan Barnhart (Skynjay) is one of three reviewers for Fantasy Review Barn. Though he read Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books as a kid, he didn’t really get into the genre until a few years ago, at which point he started reading any speculative fiction he could get his hands on. If not reading or playing with his kid, you can find him at the rec getting beat in basketball.
This is another example of me finding a book that it feels everyone else already knew about, raved about, and left me wondering why the hell I have not read it before. The Curse of Chalion is my first reading of Lois McMaster Bujold, but will certainly not be my last. Here is an author who knows how to play with pacing, keeping the duller times in the character’s lives interesting somehow, but providing occasional action scenes that don’t lack either. Even better, in my mind, the very strong pacing and plot is outdone by the strength of the characters.
There really isn’t much the author didn’t do just right in this book. The book is the story of Cazaril, former soldier, former rower on a slave ship, and at the start of the book, a penniless man hoping to beg a job from a family he served earlier in life. Hoping for any job at all, he is surprised to be offered a job as secretary/tutor to Royesse Iselle, second in line to the throne. Doing his best to remain inconspicuous, he finds himself dragged into the political arena. Even worse, he becomes aware of a curse hanging over the whole family, and may be the only one who can remove it.
