2020 book 185

 Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare

Taking a brief break from epic fantasies to slide in this month's book club book under the wire! This is sort of a romance/women’s fiction-y thing, but it’s British, and I always like those. This centers on a woman, an editor at a craft book publisher with an eclectic personal style, who has to move out of her Extremely Bad ex's apartment, and winds up flat sharing with a (male) night nurse. So they have opposite schedules and communicate via post-it notes. That part is all very cute. There’s also a whole plotline where the heroine realizes she has ptsd and deals with that, and another plotline with the nurse's brother in jail for a crime he did not commit. Much of this was a little bit too on the nose, but I think the side bits about the gay WWII vet and the crochet designer becoming an Internet celebrity help balance things out. A-/B+.

2020 book 184

Robin Hobb’s Fool's Fate

The final book in the Tawny Man trilogy does feel like an ending, except I know there are two more series left to go! Anyway, fairly satisfying stuff, though I did have some issues with the way a thirteen year old girl was portrayed. But yeah, totally great epic wrap up for sure. A-.

2020 book 183

 Robin Hobb’s The Golden Fool

The second book in the Tawny Man trilogy has a lot going on but also not much going on? Which was fine, because I enjoy reading about these characters (even though Fitz still acts like a sulky teen while being in his 30s). This one had more homophobic characters and also characters being pretty rude about a guy who I think is supposed to have Downs Syndrome, so that was somewhat unpleasant. Anyway, it’s all setting up an epic journey of adventure in book three, so I’m looking forward to that. A-.

2020 book 182

 Robin Hobb’s Fool's Errand

This is the start of another trilogy in Hobb's world, once again focused on Fitz, set fifteen years after the first trilogy. Fitz has been chilling as a hermit, but he's called upon to use his unique skills to track down a missing prince. Adventures and magic ensue, but this was overshadowed for me by the very bad timing of having to read the deaths of beloved animal companions just a week after the death of my own beloved animal companion. Sob city. SOB CITY. A-.

2020 book 181

 Robin Hobb’s Ship of Destiny

The conclusion to the Liveship Traders trilogy is a satisfying one, as all the story strands come together, secrets are revealed, dragons are revealed, etc. There are a lot of rape threats and an actual rape, which obviously I would have preferred to do without. This is kind of balanced by the extremely interesting and awesome women characters, who continue to have a lot of personal growth to become even more awesome. A-.

2020 book 180

 Robin Hobb's Mad Ship

More magical ship adventures ahoy. This one ramps up the political intrigue, adds more characters (including one familiar one!), has some romance and a bunch of interesting women (unfortunately it also has some rape). Gradually all the pieces are coming together and making sense in the larger context of the universe here, and I have faith Hobb can stick the landing with volume 3. A-.

2020 book 179

 Robin Hobb's Ship of Magic

This is the start of a new trilogy set in the same world as the ones about Fitz; I was psyched to start because these characters sail around on LIVING SHIPS! Yes, some boats are magically alive and have personalities and feelings!! I mean, there are also a lot of interesting humans in this one. It has a lot more POV characters—Althea, the daughter of a ship captain, stuck with a horrible sexist brother in law; her father's first mate; her nephew, in training to be a priest; various other of her relatives; an extremely unpleasant sociopath who wants to be King of the Pirates; a couple of living ships, sea serpents etc. I liked the first three and all the ships a lot but wanted someone to kill the two awful dudes. Smash the patriarchy!  Parts of this I read with dread (including the ending) and parts have me rooting for romance and friendship and happy living ships. Only two more 800 page books to go to see how it wraps up! A-.

2020 book 178

 Robin Hobb's Assassin’s Quest

While I don’t at all mind a slow paced fantasy novel, I don’t love fantasy novels with interminable road trips (or whatever the version of road trip is where a group of people is marching inexorably forward for hundreds of pages), so I was a little frustrated during this book. Still, I was invested in the characters and their relationships (even when they were being stupid), and really liked how things wrapped up. Content warning for a brief discussion of rape. A-.

2020 book 177

 Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin

This one starts a little weird, because it feels like it negates a lot of the ending of the first one, but eventually I got into it. The pace is slow, which at times I really enjoyed, and at other times was frustrated by (someone stop that bad guy already!!). Good animal pals and interesting women in this one, and I remain invested in all the various characters and their relationships. A-.

2020 book 176

 Robin Hobb's The Assassin's Apprentice

Well, I wanted more fantasy series to read, and it turns out Robin Hobb is a woman, and this series has like 16 books and thousands of pages, so let’s go! In this first one, a little boy, the bastard son of the king's heir, is growing up, mainly raised by his father's stablemaster, and then apprenticed to the king's assassin (as the title indicates). Also he can psychically talk to animals!! I really liked this, though there are some rough and heartbreaking parts. Great narrative voice, and kept me interested (I woke up this morning like “I gotta get back to reading to find out what happens to Verity!”). I’m looking forward to reading more! A/A-.

2020 book 175

 C.L. Polk's The Midnight Bargain

I love a historical fantasy, which this isn’t, because it’s explicitly set in a fantasy world (the fancy rich people are Black!), but it has a real Regency/Austen kind of feel. So our heroine is on the marriage market, but is determined to avoid marriage and use her magic to become a sorceress, because married women are prevented from using magic until menopause. Except her family reallllly needs her to marry well because they are deep in debt. And the richest guy in town is super cute and sympathetic, and his sister stole a magical book she needs, and maybe they should band together to solve their magical problems caused by patriarchal societies? I liked the relationships between the main three a lot, but did think the story spun in circles for a chapter or two too long (I love him! But I don’t want to lose my magic! Etc etc). Still a really fun read, and reminds me I’ve been meaning to check out Polk's Witchmark series. Nadi 4-eva! A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2020 book 174

 Tracy Deonn's Legendborn

This YA debut has been getting a fair amount of buzz, and I was mildly intrigued by the concept—a teenage Black girl and modern day Arthurian knights fighting demons or something—but often I find YA fantasy annoying so was planning to pass on this. And then I discovered IT IS SET IN CHAPEL HILL. The protagonist, Bree, is in an early college program at UNC! Well, of course then I was dying to read it. The author clearly went to UNC and her details are spot-on (I am not sure we needed so MANY descriptions of the campus, but obviously I was here for it). Anyway, so the deal here is, Bree's mother died in a car accident, and when she sees magic stuff at UNC, she realizes she saw magic stuff the night her mom died, so maybe it wasn’t a simple hit and run? And also Arthurian secret societies? And a cute boy? And a million queer teens! (I can’t tell if the series is setting up a love triangle or a throuple, but honestly, hardcore rooting for the latter.) Not to mention literal Black Girl Magic, laying bare some truths about racism in the South, and basically telling Julian Carr to go eff himself??? Some really powerful writing about Black pain. Y’all, I went into this a skeptic and it proved me wrong on every page. Even if it didn’t talk specifically about UNC (one of my alma maters), I would think this book was AWESOME. Freakin' A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 15th.

2020 book 173

 K. Eason's How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge

This sequel to Rory Thorne is .... fine. I maybe would have liked to have more spaceship adventures before being thrust back into intergalactic battles and diplomacy. The non-Rory parts were a lot more interesting than the Rory parts, here. I mean, a sentient bioweapon is some good stuff. I’m not sure if the end implies a third volume is forthcoming, but if so, it needs to sound a lot more compelling. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2020 book 172

 K. Eason's How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse

Rereading this because a sequel is due shortly, and also because I remembered it being fun and satisfying! And it was! It’s a fun mix of fairy tales and science fiction, with a great heroine and secondary characters. Our protagonist is the descendent of Sleeping Beauty and her prince, also gifted/cursed by fairies as a baby, and now as a royal teen has to deal with political machinations and plots and the media and maybe marriage. Great stuff, and I especially love her relationship with her bodyguards. Can’t wait to read the sequel.