Adrienne Martini Reviews Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Bookshops & Bonedust, Travis Baldree (Tor 978-1-250-88610-1, $17.99, 288 pp, tp) November 2023. Cover by Carson Lowmiller.

Don’t get me wrong; I love a book that chal­lenges my idea of what a story is or how language can work or both. But the last few years have given me a new appreciation for a story where the biggest hurdle is which character can be the most humane, even if ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher

Paladin’s Faith, T. Kingfisher (Argyll Productions 978-1614506096, $6.99, 422pp, eb) December 2023.

T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon) ventures back into her Saint of Steel universe with Paladin’s Faith. Each book in the planned seven-book series is nominally about one of the paladins whose spirits were broken when their animating saint died. But Kingfisher expands what we know about these paladins, their god, and his demise with each volume. ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Art of Destiny by Wesley Chu, The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe, and The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab

The Art of Destiny, Wesley Chu (Del Rey 978-0-59323-766-3, $29.99, 651pp, hc) October 2023. Cover by Tran Nguyen.

The second book in a trilogy is always a rough go. You can’t pay off any of the larger story arcs you set up in the first book, but you still have to close out book two with a sense something has changed within your characters – but that they haven’t ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei, Starter Villain by John Scalzi, and Winter’s Gifts by Ben Aaronovitch

The Deep Sky, Yume Kitasei (Flatiron Books 978-1-250-88553-1, $29.99, 416pp, hc) July 2023.

In Yume Kitasei’s The Deep Sky, a billionaire offers humanity hope after an overwhelming number of environmental calamities have come home to roost. She’ll provide starter funding for a one-way mission to Planet X. Each govern­ment that provides additional cash will get to place its citizens on board in proportion to the donation. That scheme ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Dual Memory by Sue Burke

Dual Memory, Sue Burke (Tor 978-125080-913-1, $29.99, 352pp, hc) May 2023.

In Sue Burke’s Dual Memory, AI runs the world. Most of the machines are not fully capable of rising above their programming and making independent decisions. However, at least one, Par Augustus, has crossed over from a simulacrum of human-like thought to full autonomy – and is able to network with all of the other machines to ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Warden by Daniel M. Ford

The Warden, Daniel M. Ford (Tor 978-125081-565-1, $27.99, 320pp, hc) April 2023.

Does Daniel M. Ford’s The Warden break new ground and expand what we think a fantasy adventure can be? It does not. But does it produce everything a reader would expect in a fantasy adventure and some fresh takes in just the right proportions to make it feel both familiar and new? Yes, it most definitely does. ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Thornhedge, T. Kingfisher (Tor 978-1250244093, $19.99, 128pp, hc) August 2023.

Thornhedge, a short novel by T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon), concerns a princess in a tower. The princess isn’t the main character; rather, the story is about Toadling, the human-ish person who is destined to stop the princess from mur­dering everyone she sees. As you’d expect from Vernon, this is a fairy tale told slantwise.

Toadling didn’t start ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis

The Road to Roswell, Connie Willis (Del Rey 978-0-593-49985-6, $28, 416pp, hc) June 2023.

In short, The Road to Roswell is a romp in multi-award-winning author Connie Willis’s signature style. If what you need is the science fiction novel equivalent of a screwball movie with aliens, look no further. It is right here.

Things aren’t always what they seem in Ro­swell, New Mexico. Our hero Francie is fresh off ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Translation State by Ann Leckie

Translation State, Ann Leckie (Orbit 978-0-31628-971-9, $29, 432 pg, hc) June 2023.

With Translation State, Ann Leckie returns to the Radchaai universe she built in the Ancil­lary trilogy. This time, the focus shifts from the powerful and ritual-bound Radch to the rest of the humans who are just trying to live their lives without interference from system-wide events. That goes about as well as you’d think.

In the ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Witch King by Martha Wells

Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom 978-1-25082–6794, $28.99, 432 pg, hc) May 2023. Cover by Tommy Arnold.

‘‘I’m just trying to learn how everything works,’’ one of the secondary characters says in Martha Wells’s Witch King. Same, secondary character. Same.

For the last few years, Wells’s Murderbot stories have been collecting readers and awards across the genre. All of the praise is well-earned. These science fiction stories about a ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

A House with Good Bones, T. Kingfisher (Tor 978-1-250-82979-5, $26.99, 256 pg, hc) March 2023. Cover by Karolis Strautniekas.

In A House with Good Bones, T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon) travels back into the horror section like she did with What Moves the Dead. This time, the subject is roses rather than fungi, but rest assured, there are still the dead.

Sam, a 30-something archaeoentomologist, returns to ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Tsalmoth by Steven Brust

Tsalmoth, Steven Brust (Tor 978-0-76538-284-9, $27.99, 288pp, hc) April 2023.

Steven Brust’s Tsalmoth is the 16th book in his (allegedly) 19-book series. Each book focuses on one house on the great wheel of power in Dragaera, but each story within the series concerns Vlad Taltos, an assassin whose backstory is more complicated than it first appears.

Taltos is an Easterner in a world full of dragons, who aren’t really ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Dead Country by Max Gladstone

Dead Country, Max Gladstone (Tordotcom 978-0-7653-9591-7, $17.99, 256 pp, tp) March 2023. Cover by Goni Montes.

Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence created a world in which slivers of soul are used as currency and lawyers are as close to clerics as you can get. All six books in the sequence can be read independently of each other, mostly, but reading them all in any order tells a more complete story ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Illuminations by T. Kingfisher

Illuminations, T. Kingfisher (Red Wombat Studio, $4.99, 248pp, eb) November 2022.

Illuminations, the latest middle-grade book by T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon), opens on a very, very bored Rosa Mandolini. Fortu­nately, the Studio Mandolini, her family’s art/magic business, is full of storage rooms, stuffed to the brim with boxes of interesting, ancient wonders. One such box resists being found and opened. And thus begins Rosa’s adventure.

As you’d ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Origin of Storms by Elizabeth Bear

The Origin of Storms, Elizabeth Bear (Tor 978-0-76538-017-3, $28.99, 384pp, hc) June 2022.

If I were a TV producer who wanted to take on an epic fantasy story à la Game of Thrones or Wheel of Time, I would look no further than Elizabeth Bear’s Lotus Kingdom books. To be honest, I’d much rather see an interpretation of Bear’s work over yet another Euro-based, medieval-esque retread of dudes ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik (Del Rey 978-0-59315-835-7, $28.00, 416 pp, hc) Sep­tember 2022.

Naomi Novik’s The Golden Enclaves wraps up her Scholomance trilogy. If you’ve not read A Deadly Education or The Last Graduate, I’d suggest skipping this review in order to read the first book fresh. This is definitely a series better enjoyed if you begin at the beginning, where you’ll meet El and what become ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu

The Art of Prophecy, Wesley Chu (Del Rey 978-0-593237-63-2, $28.99, 544 pp, hc) August 2022.

New York Times bestselling author Wesley Chu’s The Art of Prophecy, which kicks off his War Arts Saga trilogy, is the anti-Dune. Rather than chart the development of a random kid who fulfills a prophecy despite all of the obstacles in his way, Chu focuses on a kid who knows he’s ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White

August Kitko and the Mechas from Space, Alex White (Orbit 978-0-7564-1483-2, $17.99, 464 pp, tp) July 2022.

August Kitko and the Mechas from Space is the first book in Alex White’s Starmetal Symphony series. It does pretty much what it says on the tin: jazz musician August Kitko finds himself thrown into a battle against mechas from space. The fate of humankind hangs in the balance. It’s excellent fodder ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch

Amongst Our Weapons, Ben Aaronovitch (DAW 978-0-7564-1483-2, $27.00, 302 pp, hc) April 2022. Cover by Stephen Walter & Patrick Knowles.

Amongst Our Weapons is not the book to start with if you want to read some Ben Aaronovitch. Instead, pick up series opener Midnight Riot (Rivers of London in the UK) to be fully in­troduced to the world of Detective Constable Peter Grant and the magical demimonde that ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager 978-0-06302-142-6, $27.99, 560pp, hc) August 2022.

With Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Transla­tors’ Revolution, the multi-award nominated R.F. Kuang travels to 1830s Oxford University to build a tale about a tower built on languages whose fate is all but guaranteed. Her story about ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Becky Chambers (Tordotcom 978-1-25023-623-4, $21.99, 160pp, hc) July 2022. Cover art by Feifei Ryan.

Becky Chambers’s A Prayer for the Crown-Shy picks up where A Psalm for the Wild-Built ends: Sibling Dex (a monk) and Mosscap (a robot) have begun their journey from the wilds back out into the built world. The robot has questions about happiness (which lead to conversations about more than ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor 978-1-25082-915-3, $30.99, 368pp, hc) October 2022.

My reading habits have shifted after the last two-plus years. Anything gritty or tense has got to be followed by at least one lighter title or maybe two, otherwise I cannot regulate my re¬sponse to anything happening to the characters. It seems like the last two-plus years have done the same to many SFF writers. The ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Rosebud by Paul Cornell, The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler, and And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed

Rosebud, Paul Cornell (Tordotcom 978-1-25076-539-0, $14.99, 110pp, tp). April 2022.

Just to get it out of the way, the Rosebud in Paul Cornell’s Rosebud is a survey ship, not a sled. Said Rosebud has happened upon a mysterious black sphere out in space, and its digital inhabitants “a balloon, a goth, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects” decide to investigate ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Last Exit by Max Gladstone

Last Exit, Max Gladstone (Tor 978-0-76533-573-9, $18.99, 400pp, tp). March 2022.

Max Gladstone’s voice is one that defies easy description. It’s both succinct and verbose, dour and silly, dark but also light. Last Exit, his homage to the great American road story, is peak Gladstone, the voice he has de­veloped through his Hugo-nominated Craft series and his award-winning This is How You Lose the Time War. Yes, ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher (Tor 978-1-25024-404-8, 256pp, $25.99, hc) April 2022.

I am already a fan of T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon). The three books (so far) in the Paladin series are full of light romance (with occasional corpses) and have kept me going through the last 18 months. Her young-adult stories like the Lodestar Award-winning The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking are fun for adults as well ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart (Ballantine 978-1-98482-064-8, 324pp, $28, hc) February 2022.

Rob Hart’s The Paradox Hotel sums its own energy up with one line of dialog: ‘‘We’re at DEFCON Level Holy Shit.’’ Hart not only starts in media res, he puts us on the rollercoaster that is the Paradox Hotel just as it is tipping down the first big hill. The pace never really lets up until the ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore

Battle of the Linguist Mages, Scotto Moore (Tordotcom 978-1-250-76772-1, 448pp, $28.99, hc) January 2022.

Scotto Moore’s debut story Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You was a weird trip into the wild world of streaming music and touring bands. It was a strange delight – and at about 128 pages, it was just enough too muchness to be fun. Battle of the Linguist Mages is very much a Moore creation ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Ogres, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris 978-1-78618-528-0 $30.00, 144pp, hc) March 2022.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Ogres is hard to warm up to at first, mostly because it is written in the second person. It’s so hard to do well, the second person. Stick with it. Tchaikovsky knocks it out of the park, once you find your way in.

Ogres is the story of Torquell, a young man who is six feet tall, ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather

Sisters of the Forsaken Stars, Lina Rather (Tordotcom 978-1-250-78214-4, $16.99, 192pp, tp) February 2022.

The events in Sisters of the Vast Black, Lina Rather’s first novella in her ‘‘space nuns’’ series, have caught up with said space nuns in Sisters of the Forsaken Stars, at least those who remain in the Order of Saint Rita. The Central Governance, which sprung from Old Earth and intends to rule ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed

The Annual Migration of Clouds, Premee Mohamed (ECW Press 978-1770415935, $15.95, 168pp, tp) September 2021. Cover by Veronica Park.

Premee Mohamed’s The Annual Migration of Clouds isn’t interested in telling a story like Ogres’s, one where the main character goes on a journey to become a hero. At first, though, it feels like that’s the arc that is being set up: Reid, a young woman, receives a one-in-a-million ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr (Scribner 978-1-9821-6843-8, $30, 640pp, hc) Sept. 2021

Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land is hard to sum up for all of the best reasons. His voice is clear, strong, and gorgeous. The story tells the truth about books and being a human by looking at both slantwise – and it sticks with you long after you’ve finished it. Yet, despite the author’s Pulitzer-winning pedigree, Cloud ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2021 by Adrienne Martini

As is usual with these end-of-the-year columns, I’m not sure what the best approach would be, partic­ularly given that my 2021 standouts are mostly con­tinuations or conclusions of long-running series. Maybe, first, then, Antho­ny Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, the one book that stands alone.

Doerr is a known entity in literary fiction circles. His All the Light We Cannot See ran the table of celebrity book clubs and award ...Read More

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