Sci Fi and Fantasy

The Children of Blood and Bone

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Huh. I thought The Children of Blood and Bone was a Cybil. I wonder why it isn’t a Cybil. It’s very Cybil-like. Oh, published in 2018, that’s why it’s not a Cybil. Next year! 😉

The very beginning of the book reminded me of something else. I don’t know what, but something… but then the three kids went off to save magic and I was no longer strongly reminded of another story. Except, later in the book when the Prince begins to figure out his magic and there’s that whole magical dreaming thing with Zélie – that reminded me of another story. I can’t quite put my finger on the title/series but there’s something about this one that just feels familiar and that distracted me from this story more than I would have liked.

I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Will Amari really be queen? I am guessing there will be obstacles there.

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Noir

2 Comments / 2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Woot! A new Christopher Moore book! (Sure was a long time coming, wasn’t it?) Noir was a lot of fun but not so much funny. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, because it was. I liked it a lot, more than Sacre Bleu and Serpent of Venice. He did a good job with the genre and didn’t let the humor overshadow the genre or the story. I’m not sure I loved the Moonman story line but it worked well enough that it didn’t annoy me.

I’m definitely a fan and wouldn’t be opposed to seeing Sammy and Stilton again, someday. (Or Lone, or Jimmy, or Moo Shoes, either.)

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The Keeper of the Mist

2018, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Hah, another 2016 Cybils book. I think this is (maybe) the last book from that list that I’ve had on hold at the library. Maybe. I can’t remember. There might be another. Whatever.

The Keeper of the Mist was pretty good. I was a little frustrated with Keri, particularly in the beginning. She spent far too long thinking other people could do things better than she. Imposter syndrome, too much imposter syndrome. This is why our girls grow up to be women who feel this way. Sure Keri mostly fixed it all in the end but after you’ve spent 100 pages telling girls that the heroine doesn’t think she can do shit, it’s not so much comforting as it is conditioning. Stop it with the imposter syndrome story line for girls.

Anyway, yea. The book was pretty good. I thought it was a series but so far, it seems as though it is not. Too bad, I’d have liked to learn more about what happened to the Bookkeeper.

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Books 5 & 6 in The Gender Game series

2018, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Gah, I thought The Gender Game was a six book series. It’s not. It’s a seven book series and I’m so annoyed, lol.

Book five was pretty much a bust for me (and I think for TW) book six was slightly better, (except all the people seem to have died, maybe? Hard to say with this series.)

I’m very ready for this thing to be OVER. I sure hope book seven is waiting for us at the library this weekend. (I also wish she had named these books better. I really hate their titles.)

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Two Pyper Rayne Books

2018, Books in Bed, Mystery, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I picked up one of the Pyper Rayne books from the new arrivals shelf because it had a cute cover and an amusing title and I was hoping it was a campy paranormal book like some other series I’ve enjoyed. But, since it wasn’t the fist book in the series, I ended up returning it and just reserving the first two, instead.

The first one… was a little slow and not as campy as I’d like. I went ahead and read the second one, in hopes of finding a character (besides Ida May) but nope. I’m bored now, moving on.

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The Gender War

2018, Books in Bed, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I feel like The Gender War lagged a bit, in places. Lots of not much happening and then a lot happening and then back to the lull and then BOOM. I was glad to see the boys playing a bigger role in the resistance/war. I could do without the whole “marriage” thing between Vigo/Violet but whatever.

I think I’ll be able to read all of the rest of the series back to back, that will be good. I’d like to just blast through it in March and be done.

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Clockwork Dynasty

2018, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I probably should have just skipped Clockwork Dynasty. It’s not steampunk, it’s science fiction and not really great science fiction. Have you seen The Terminator? It’s like that but different with fewer likable characters.

I can see why some people will really like this – the story starts Russia during Peter the Great’s era and lands smack in the 21st century. That’s a lot of ground to cover and they did a fairly good job of it, particularly early in the book. But, nah. I should have gone with my gut after the first 25 pages and put it down.

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Rebel of the Sands

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I thought Rebel of the Sands was a Cybil. Turns out, it isn’t. If I’d known that, I probably wouldn’t have read it. Not that I didn’t enjoy it — it was fine. The problem was that I didn’t really like Amani until close to the end. I also found it a little repetitive in places — the book needed a better/different editor, I think.

This is the first book in a series, I doubt I’ll read the next one.

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The Wrong Dead Guy

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Speaking of coincidences (yesterday’s book post) I had just been thinking that I need to see how far behind I am on the Sandman Slim books when TW came home from the library with a book by Richard Kadrey. It wasn’t a Sandman Slim book – but still, what a coincidence! She also said that it didn’t seem to be part of another series or if it was maybe it was the first book.

TW read it first and chuckled her way through much of The Wrong Dead Guy. I took that as a good sign but when I started reading it, I thought for sure it was not the first book in a series but definitely part of a series. We were given an awful lot of backstory types of info but not enough backstory for a stand alone book full of weird random characters that have some connection that was murky, at best. I stopped reading and asked her if she was SURE it wasn’t part of a series. She said she didn’t think so and since I was enjoying it and feeling too lazy to look for myself, I just kept reading.

Almost half-way through the book, I couldn’t take it any more because this REALLY felt like a book in a series and I was beginning to get annoyed by that. Sure enough, it’s the sequel to The Everything Box, which I have not read. I was annoyed – I hate not reading the first book. But, I was so far into it by then that it didn’t make a lot of sense to stop reading it until I can get the first book, so I just carried on.

It was very amusing, as you’d expect if you have read Kadrey’s other books. I’m looking forward to backtracking and reading The Everything Box – that’s going to clear up a lot of questions for me, I’m sure. (I’m also never going to make the mistake of NOT checking on a book if it feels like part of a series again!)

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