2022 book 92

 Katherine Addison's The Grief of Stones

I probably should have reread Witness for the Dead before starting this one, since it’s a sequel, but Addison does a good job of reminding who all the characters are without a ton of exposition. I mostly liked this a lot but will warn that is is pretty unsavory (why does this fantasy world have child pornography?). Anyway, this finds the Witness trying to solve another murder, and stumbling onto more mysteries along the way, but this time he has an apprentice (a widow, new to the field) in tow! I am into this character and his pals and am glad that there are hints at a third book in his story. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 14th.

2022 book 91

 Ursula LeGuin's Powers

The final book in this trilogy is a little bit grimmer and sadder than the first two, but once again I am in awe of LeGuin's worldbuilding and characterization. The protagonist here is a boy who's a slave, but a well educated one, with the power to remember everything he’s ever read—and occasionally to remember things that haven’t happened yet. This one feels like more of a coming of age/journey kind of story than the others, but it’s an enthralling journey at least. My only complaint is that I wanted a few more chapters at the end. Or like another book. A/A-.

2022 book 90

 Ursula LeGuin's Voices

Wow, this was really good. Is this whole series about the power of storytelling and books?? In this second volume, the protagonist is a young girl in a place where people loved books and peace and diplomacy, until they were conquered by an army whose religion says that the written word is evil. But she can magically open a secret room full of books. And then the two protagonists from the previous book (now twenty years older) come to town and set great changes into motion. But also this is just about people caring about each other and trying to make a better world! I love it! A.

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Content warning for mentions of offscreen rape and torture.

2022 book 89

 Ursula LeGuin's Gifts

I don’t see people talk much about LeGuin's Annals of the Western Shore series, a YA fantasy series she wrote later in life, but I’ve mentioned before that I’m dipping in and out of all the LeGuin I’ve never read and I was in the mood for a fantasy series, so here we are. I thought this was a strong first volume, about a bunch of families with capital-G Gifts, who live up in the mountains and are isolated and have their own societal rules etc. The narrator is a young blind boy from a family with the power of undoing (very unpleasant), and his best friend is a girl who can communicate with animals (amazing). And it’s the story of his life, how his mother taught him to love stories, about love and grief and companion animals. There are some grisly parts but on the whole this was just a really engrossing and comforting book (needed just now in the world). A/A-.

2022 book 88

 Linda Holmes' Flying Solo

I was in a mood and I was also mad that the last couple books I read were just MEH, so treated myself to the new Linda Holmes, which I knew would be good. And it was! It’s about a woman, about to turn forty, who returns to her hometown to clean out her beloved great aunt's house, where she gets interested in the story of a wooden duck she finds (luckily her high school boyfriend is now the local librarian). Lots of laugh out loud moments, and I will say as a single forty-something woman I found this protagonist very relatable. I also appreciated that while there was a romance, there was a lot to show that there is something to be said for living your life the way you want to (lots of cool old ladies in this book). I did have to suspend my disbelief a LITTLE that a freelance nature writer could take so much time off work, but otherwise this was a satisfying read for sure. A/A-.

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

2022 book 87

 Jane Glatt's Unmage

So maybe my problems with this book were about expectations, because it started strong, set fourteen years after the first two, with Kara's younger half brother enmeshed in their mother's world of magic and politics, and she’s trying to get him to escape and come live on their guild-free island, and I was like, cool, he'll escape, and they’ll learn magic and take on the bad mages and reform the system. But instead he basically spends the entire book on the run trying to escape, just wandering around and hiding for two thirds of this novel, it’s very tiresome. And then the end isn’t triumphant, it’s grisly and sad. Also, a lot more typos in this one. Lots of references to offscreen rape and torture. Not a good time. B-. 

2022 book 86

 Jane Glatt's Unmagic 

The second book in Glatt's Guild series is more of the same; I remain uninterested in the romance but it’s more of the plot here. I do still like the main character a lot and her non-romance-related actions are cool: she’s off in search of a friend who vanished mysteriously, who is trapped magically with a mage with amnesia. There were some occasionally awkward writing bits, but still entertaining. B+.

2022 book 85

 Victoria Goddard’s The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul

New Victoria Goddard!!! This is the second book in her Red Company Reformed series, but I was glad to see it picks up Pali's adventures a little bit earlier, so we get to see some of the other events in Goddard's world from her point of view (and of course Greenwing and Dart make an appearance) and see some of her academic life. I love Pali as a character (and her friendship with Jullanar) and this book has slightly less angst than some of the others, but I did wish for maybe a little more action? Of course, that’s all Pali is wishing for too, so perhaps that’s the point. :) I’m just super caught up in this world at this point (which is good, because you have to have read several other books to totally get this one) and can’t wait to see what all these middle-aged pals do next. A/A-.

2022 book 84

 Jane Glatt's Unguilded

I had the impression this was a cozy sort of fantasy based on the description, and while parts of it had that vibe, it was a little darker than that. It’s the story of a teen girl in a country ruled by powerful guilds; her birth mother is a mage and they’ve been waiting to see if the girl would develop magic. When it seems like she hasn’t, her birth mother helps her run away so she won’t be forced to breed future potential mages (there are a lot of references to rape/sexual abuse and some rape threats—sooooo not cozy). I will tell you that her birth mother only helps her for selfish reasons and is a horrible person. Anyway, the girl now has to make her own way in the world, finding friends and a new home and figuring out that actually, she can /see/ magic. Great characters here, the romance was fairly abrupt but I was on board by the end, good action. I did wish the back half was fleshed out a little bit more, but I still enjoyed this and am off to start the sequel. A-/B+.

2022 book 83

 Dhonielle Clayton's The Marvellers

Once again I am begging editors to take a firmer hand, because this book is OVERSTUFFED. Clayton clearly has so many details of this world in her head, but that doesn’t mean every single one of them has to appear in this first book! Anyway, this is the story of Ella, a girl from a family of Conjurers, a branch of magic developed by slaves and their descendants. Now she's the first Conjurer to be admitted to the fancy magic school (which apparently is for every other magical child in the world?), but of course she's faced with mean girls and cruel and prejudiced teachers. Then someone breaks out of wizard prison (there are also POV chapters from her viewpoint), Ella's favorite teacher goes missing, and more mayhem ensues. That’s not even getting into her roommate with a mysterious backstory (obvious to the reader), who does prophetic knitting (ok, AMAZING), and her other friend who can talk to animals and magical creatures and also has a slightly mysterious backstory. I wished that more time was spent on them hanging out and making friends instead of all these kind of disjointed chapters, and when the climax finally does come, it’s super quick and not really very interesting. I think this series has a lot of promise but this first one could have used some streamlining for sure. B+.

2022 book 82

 Ursula K. LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness

LeGuin is one of those authors I just never read when I was younger, just never came across her work somehow. So I’ve been doling them out during this pandemic as a little treat. And actually I’m glad I never read this when I was younger, because I don’t know if I’d have gotten it or fully appreciated it. It’s the story of an Envoy from an outer space collective who's coming to see if a new planet wants to join up for trading purposes, advancement, etc. The new world has interesting gender stuff going on, which is mainly what I knew about this book going in. But really this is a story about humanity, about love and loss and meaning and storytelling. I’d have torn through this much quicker if I hadn’t come down with shingles (!). A/A-.

2022 book 81

 Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron

Well, you can always count on Rowland for a satisfying read. This one involves a prince (his older sister is the sultan) plagued with panic attacks who gets involved with some drama at court with his sister's baby's father (interesting world building here), which leads to more drama, politics, a mystery involving counterfeit coins, and a new bodyguard who at first thinks he's flighty but comes to respect him….and maybe more. I will say the mystery element didn’t totally work for me, because the villain is obvious and it’s frustrating how long it takes everyone to figure out, plus that plot gets a little muddled in the middle. But I loved all the characters and their friendships and the family relationships. The romance was cute too. This did end weirdly, like it doesn’t seem like it warrants a sequel but I expected more wrap-up. I will read a sequel if one comes out! A/A-.

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

2022 book 80

 Alice Oseman's Loveless

I really liked Oseman's Radio Silence when I read it a couple years ago, and after binging the Heartstopper show this week, figured I’d give her newest novel a go. And I did like it! It's about a girl and her two best friends heading off to college, where she's SURE she will finally experience/understand romance/sex, but instead realizes she's not into any of that. I definitely wished the protagonist figured her shit out a little earlier in the story (the description makes it sound that way so perhaps my expectations were off, it ended up feeling very asexuality 101) but I loved all the characters, I loved the discussion of how meaningful and important friendships can be, and I loved the humor. B+.

2022 book 79

 Terry Pratchett's The Wee Free Men

I gave up on that other series and this has been an especially crappy week for the world, so comfort reading it is. Nothing better than a practical heroine smashing monsters with a frying pan, accompanied by a horde of brawling be-kilted little fairy warriors. Funny, moving, and clever.

2022 book 78

 Tanya Huff's Fifth Quarter

The second book in this series focuses on a new cast of characters somewhere entirely different, which was a problem because I found both of the protagonists here to be very unpleasant to read about. One is a young assassin woman who would be great if she didn’t want to bang her brother, the other is a guy who keeps body swapping with people to extend his life, and has stolen her brother's body (she ends up sharing her body with her brother till they can steal it back). And then it becomes clear there's going to be a romance between these two characters, which I was doubly not into (I also didn’t think the writing on that was great). A bard and a prince do eventually come into the mix, as does a senile and terrifying necromancer, but I should not be rooting for most of the main characters to die in a book like this. The plot is also really slow, as everyone is just traveling around after each other for the entire book, boring and exhausting. If you’re wondering why I forced myself to finish, it’s because I want to read the next two books. Though the next one also focuses on these characters and I don’t know if I can do another book with them. C.

2022 book 77

 Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters

Catching back up with classic fantasy series and I loved this one! It centers on a bard, whose brother the king exiled her from the family when she refused a political marriage to train to be a bard instead, and now she’s pregnant which is technically treason, oops (she is in a relationship with a woman but had a fling with a dude which is apparently fine, lots of cool queer characters in this, especially cool since it was written in the 90s). This is also a world where bards have magical powers to interact with nature spirits etc. Lots of great political plotting and families and friends and magic and love of all kinds. Just a really enjoyable read. A/A-.