Review of Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses edited by Juliana Rew

This is Third Flatiron Publishing’s Summer 2020 anthology, published June 3 of this year. It leans to science fiction and runs 192 pages. For anyone who’s been following my reviews, you may have noticed that Rew does a couple of these a year, plus periodic collections of “best of.” This review may contain spoilers.

For this anthology, Juliana Rew advertised for stories about an unusual theme: a “positive future.” Twenty international authors responded with visions of what a bright future for humanity might look like, including how social media, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, space exploration and medicine could produce improvements in human lives. Some of the stories focus on how climate change might be mitigated, or how war might become obsolete. One story is about reintroducing endangered species to the wild, and another gives us a replacement clone for a dead child. Although most stories are entertaining takes on the future, a couple of them stand out as haunting. In “To the Stars and Beyond” by Chloie Piveral, a youngster on a colony ship goes on a search for soil to place in her dead aunt’s coffin. And in “Just Like Living with Dad” by Jenny Blackford, we encounter transmigration and ghostly goldfish.

The book finishes off with a humor section of short-shorts called “Grins and Gurgles.” Contributors include Christopher Muscato, Robert Bagnall, Jenny Blackford, Paul A. Freeman, Angelique Fawns, Patrick Hurley, Gustavo Bondoni, David Cleden, Eneasz Brodski, Emily Martha Sorensen, Koji A. Dae, Chloie Piveral, Liam Hogan, Mike Adamson, Alexandra Seidel, Neil James Hudson, Ville Nummenpaa, Matt Tighe, Mariev Erie Matriarch, and John Kiste.

Four stars.

Review of Magic’s Genesis: The Grey by Rosaire Bushey

This is a fantasy novel subtitled 30 Stones Saga Book 1. It was published on 21 May 2018, and runs 314 pages. The author has published 5 other novels in the same series. This review contains spoilers.

Wynter is a retired assassin, settled down with a wife and children and working as a bowyer. He loses everything to a plague, and possessed by the evil ghost of his dead wife, he leaves the village where he’s been living. Lydria is the daughter of a soldier, traveling with her father through the wood. Something strikes the earth nearby, plowing a huge crater and leaving Wynter, Lydria and the cat Kimi possessed of magic invested in stones that attach to them. This is a powerful magic, but exacts a toll when used. Lydria and the cat are taken in by the Eifen people, which allows Lydria time to heal and learn to use her powers. Wynter allies with Nethyal, a renegade Eifen, and establishes a kingdom in the north. Threatened by his apparent power, the weak King Ahlric dispatches an army to deal with him. Now the kingdom is going to be torn by a destructive war. Is there anything Lydria can do to stop Wynter?

This is a quick, easy read, and spends a lot of time investigating the culture of the Eifen, who seem something like a cross between elves and Native Americans. They commune with the spirits and believe that the Grey area between the extremes of good and evil is where their best path lies. When Wynter, Lydria and Kimi appear in their world, they take steps to deal with the uncontrolled magic. Because of this emphasis on the importance of Grey, the story doesn’t go quite as you’d expect. Wynter, though mad and focused on evil, accomplishes good in many ways, leaving his followers to wonder about what they should do.

This is a creative and interesting slant on the current political climate. Wynter is charismatic, but ruthless, too. He deposes petty lords and landowners in the northern region and gives anyone who comes to him an opportunity settle their land and work for themselves. There seems to be a plentiful harvest, as people benefit from their own labor, and Wynter chooses capable organizers to handle training and apportionment of duties. This is standard for the socialist revolution and the utopian society, but in this case, the man behind it is unstable and mad, driven by a vengeful ghost and focused on power for himself. This is more realistic than most takes on the utopian communist society, acknowledging what happened in the Bolshevik Revolution and the socialist movement that elected Hitler Chancellor in 1933. There’s a nice symbolism here in how accomplishing things with magic takes a physical toll on the user. Wynter also uses up some of his subjects to feed his hunger for power.

On the less positive side, the characters never quite come into a sharp focus here. Kimi the cat especially seems too human to be real. Also, it’s unexplained how Wynter supports his own household, no mention of whether he receives taxes or tribute from the new settlers in his kingdom—I don’t think he’s living off magic–and this is generally a huge failing in trying to establish a new power structure. The narrative is fairly matter-of-fact, and doesn’t generate much drama, even though a couple of important characters die, and there are plenty of opportunities for disagreements between the principals.

Three and a half stars.

Review of Stories of the Raksura Volume 2 by Martha Wells

This book includes two novellas, The Dead City and The Dark Earth Below, and several short stories based on the Raksura world. It was originally published in 2015 by Nightshade Books and runs 232 pages. The series remains a popular read and seems to have a dedicated fan base, compendiums, etc. In 2018 it received a Hugo nomination for Best Series. This review contains spoilers.

In The Dead City, Moon is fleeing the runs of Saraseil, a city where he’s had his first close contact with the Fell. He stops at a settlement by a lake and pays some of the coin he has from Saraseil at a caravanserai for a room overnight. While he’s there, the settlement is attacked by spider-like creatures called miners. Should Moon risk exposing himself to help the settlement?

In The Dark Earth Below, Jade is soon to deliver her first clutch. Moon is hovering, anxious that it go well, but problems are developing on the forest floor beneath the tree home of the Indigo Cloud Court. Member of the Kek tribe that live among the roots have disappeared, and they ask for the Raksura’s help in locating their loved ones. Does this signal an unknown threat to the colony? And more important, will Jade deliver her clutch safely?

These stories include Wells’ trademark well-developed characters and vivid backgrounds. Both the novellas present mysterious events that unravel gradually as Moon and the other Raksura investigate and make decisions on what to do. These provide extra, entertaining glimpses of life in the Three Worlds and some good action sequences.

On the less positive side, there was a big section of promotion at the beginning of this book that reduces the content. The stories lack the drama of some of the other Raksura works, so are only mildly engaging. In addition, I have my standard complaints about the fantastical beasts and lack of structure in the environment. Given how uncomfortable Jade was before childbirth, I was also a little surprised that she was ready to roll so quickly after delivery. A magical recovery?

Three and a half stars.

Review of Stories of the Raksura Volume 1 by Martha Wells

This book includes two novellas, The Falling World, The Tale of Indigo and Cloud and a novelette “The Forest Boy,” all related to the Raksura world. The collection was originally published in 2014 by Nightshade Books and runs 224 pages. The series remains a popular read and seems to have a dedicated fan base, compendiums, etc. In 2018 it received a Hugo nomination for Best Series. This review contains spoilers.

In The Falling World, Moon’s consort Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court, has set out with a small entourage to negotiate a trade agreement with Ocean Winter, another Raksuran court. Twenty days later, a group arrives from Ocean Winter to discuss an agreement—Jade’s party has failed to arrive. Concerned, Queen Pearl holds the Ocean Winter delegation hostage until they can find Jade. Retracing her journey, Moon, Stone and a group of warriors finds they’ve been caught in an ancient trap. Is there a way to free them?

In The Tale of Indigo and Cloud, Wells goes back to the origins of Indigo Cloud Court. Daughter Queen Indigo has been on a visit to Emerald Twilight Court, and brings Cloud, a runaway consort, back with her. Indigo feels Cloud has been abused by his consort queen and she means to rescue him, but the two of them seem to have undercurrents of interest going on, too. Queen Cerise is dismayed, as this will certainly cause war between the two courts, and because of alliances, involve other courts within The Reaches, as well. Is there anything she can do to stop it?

In “The Forest Boy,” the fledgling Moon is caught in a trap and then taken in by a groundling family. He is careful to hide what he really is and stays with them successfully for a while, rooming with their other children and helping the family with their trade business. Then the children are attacked by a predatory Tath. Can Moon save them without revealing his Raksura form?

These are entertaining stories based on a world that is already well defined, and the characters are well-developed. We get vivid images of what the world and characters look like and are drawn into the drama and interactions. Wells manages to heighten the conflict through emotional reactions from the characters. These are her standard selling points, and “The Forest Boy” is especially touching and memorable—there’s nothing like terrified children to really get to you.

On the less positive side is my standard complaint about this series, the constant surprise of fantastical beasts and unstructured environment. These characters have spent their whole lives in this world, and they should know about the predators and that they should avoid ancient ruins. There should be more structure to the plant and animal species, and in the way technology is developed and transferred. I also have the same complaint about the transformations. Conservation of mass means there is some kind of magic going on there.

Four stars.

Review of Harbors of the Sun by Martha Wells

This novel is volume 5 of the Books of the Raksura. It was originally published in 2017 by Nightshade Books and runs 416 pages. The series remains a popular read and seems to have a dedicated fan base, compendiums, etc. In 2018 it received a Hugo nomination for Best Series. This review contains spoilers.

The Raksura expedition to help the Kish investigate rumors of powerful weapons in an ancient city has been betrayed, and now it’s hard to know if they can trust anyone. Different factions seem to be working for their own agendas and the Raksura have lost control of the ancient weapon. Some of the Raksura are held hostage on the flying boat, and Moon and Stone, scouting for it, find they’re being followed by a Fell kethel. It has been sent by the Fell-born queen Consolation to look after them. This is annoying, but they can’t just kill it. Eventually they find the hostages and stop use of the weapon, but now the Fell are massed to invade the Reaches. Can the Raksura save their ancestral home?

This installment of the story continues directly from the previous book, and picks up where it leaves off. It’s not a page-turner, but there are great character interactions and moments of drama as the captives manage to outsmart their captors, and Moon and Stone are forced into recognizing the Fell kethel is not only endurable but also turning out to be an asset to their search. The Fell-born queen Consolation becomes instrumental in defeating the Fell invasion.

On the less positive side, this moves slowly, feeling padded the same way the last installment did. It’s also has lots of moving parts, so much so that the prime dramatic moment, when Jade has to choose between saving her consort Moon and saving the Reaches just gets lost. We skim over it; Jade assumes Moon is dead (oh, well) and then flies off to deal with other pressing issues. Wells could have played this out more with some soul searching and some anguished grief, at the very least. Also, I’m thinking maybe she got distracted about this time with a little Murderbot story, as this is the last novel in the series, and it’s left Consolation and her court hanging high and dry. There’s another dramatic story line waiting there.

Four stars.

Review of Edge of Worlds by Martha Wells

This novel is volume 4 of the Books of the Raksura. It was originally published in 2016 by Nightshade Books and runs 400 pages. The series remains a popular read and seems to have a dedicated fan base, compendiums, etc. In 2018 it received a Hugo nomination for Best Series. This review contains spoilers.

Everyone in the Indigo Cloud Court dreams of a Fell invasion. Soon afterward, a delegation from the groundling Empire of Kish arrives at the Indigo Cloud Court, asking for assistance to open an ancient city of their ancestors on the sea near the deep ocean. The Raksura mentors are concerned that this is related to the dream and that the city was actually built by their own forerunners and conceals more deadly weapons that will be attractive to the Fell. Can they refuse to deal with the problems when all the auguries point to invasion and destruction of the Reaches? And, does the weapon in the city have power of its own to affect events?

On the positive side, there’s a deepening of threat from the Fell, plus the impact of arcane ancient weapons on the current world. As an extra complication, Indigo Cloud discovers there are other half-Fell, half-Raksura clutches, including the Fell-born queen Consolation. There are factions among the groundlings, too, and betrayals that keep things interesting.

On the not so positive side, this installment feels padded at 400 pages and might have been more readable if edited down a little. There’s a lot of aimless wandering in the ancient city that comes to nothing, and the entertaining character interactions aren’t quite enough to support it. The ancient world is still pretty nebulous and inconsistent, and it still feels like Wells is making this up as she goes along. Oddly, Moon receives a homosexual overture from a groundling that he rejects. This seems awkward, and I can’t see any reason to include it, as Moon clearly has a homosexual lover within the Indigo Cloud court and has slept with groundling women. To young? Whatever, there’s no real discussion about his refusal or why this was included. Regardless of these issues, the novel is an enjoyable story.

Four stars.

Review of The Siren Depth by Martha Wells

This novel is volume 3 of the Books of the Raksura. It was originally published in 2012 by Nightshade Books and runs 290 pages. The series remains a popular read and seems to have a dedicated fan base, compendiums, etc. In 2018 it received a Hugo nomination for Best Series. This review contains spoilers.

One consequence of the Indigo Cloud colony’s move back to the Reaches is that now they are in contact with other Raksura colonies. Consorts are an important resource for the colonies, and it’s not long before someone identifies Moon’s bloodlines. He is claimed by his mother, the powerful Queen Malachite of Opal Night, who declares his status as Jade’s consort void. He has to go to Opal Night, but Jade promises to follow and present her claim. Years ago Opal Night was attacked by the Fell and Moon lost. Malachite also lost a consort to the Fell, who produced half-Fell clutches in a planned breeding program. Malachite rescued the half-Fell children, but failed to find Moon. Now the Fell are moving forward with a plan to use the hybrid children to open keys to forerunner cities and capture the weapons hidden there. Can Opal Night stop the Fell? And why hasn’t Jade appeared to make her claim on Moon?

This installment of the story ups the ante with a nefarious plot from the Fell. Opal Night’s half-Fell children are gently raised and at risk from capture and mistreatment by the Fell. Plus, the Raksura can’t afford for the Fell to gain control of powerful weapons—they’re enough of a scourge already. The strong characters and entertaining byplays continue, with the addition of new family for Moon, both a hulking, powerful mother and various clutch-mate brothers and sisters. Plus, we have Moon’s uncertainty about his personal worth and his relationship with Jade.

On the less positive side, the lack of structure in this world continues. The Raksura are really solid, but every groundling we see seems to be from a different species and the animal populations must mutate constantly, as no one seems to recognize what they are or how to deal with them. A good story regardless.

Four stars.

Review of The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells

This novel is volume 2 of the Books of the Raksura. It was originally published in 2012 by Nightshade Books and runs 356 pages. The series remains a popular read and seems to have a dedicated fan base, compendiums, etc. In 2018 it received a Hugo nomination for Best Series. This review contains spoilers.

Moon has settled into Indigo Cloud’s community and accepted sister-queen Jade’s overtures to become her consort. Because of Fell influence in their current location, reigning-queen Pearl has decided to move the colony back to their ancestral home in the Reaches. In the nearby Golden Isles, they contract for flying boats to transport the Arbora and clutches of young. They make a safe trip, but then find someone has stolen the heartstone seed from their mountain tree home. The living habitat will die without it, and the colony will have nowhere to go. Can they track the thieves across the Serpent Sea and get the seed back?

Wells hits her stride with the second installment of this story. Character personalities come into strong focus as frictions erupt between the characters due to the close quarters on the boats and the heavy work load in getting the ancestral home back into working order. Then there are relations with other Raksura colonies in the area that cause even more frictions. On the mission to rescue the seed, Moon encounters a feral solitary, and at first has sympathy as he understands the Raksura’s loneliness, but finally realizes the other has brought on his own problems. The colony strikes up an enduring friendship with the Golden Isles trading family that owns the flying boats.

On the less positive side, the lack of structure in the Three Worlds continues to bother me. Each community features different species of humanoids and animals, and seems to have developed a different technology. Fantastical beasts appear around every corner. It’s clear Wells is making this up as she goes along.

Regardless of niggles, this is an excellent adventure and with snappy, entertaining character interactions.

Four and a half stars.

Review of Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

I’ve really enjoyed Wells’ Murderbot series, so I’m going back to review some of her older work. This novel is volume 1 of the Books of the Raksura. It was originally published in 2011 by Nightshade Books and runs 290 pages. This book was followed by four other novels and two collections of shorter works, plus various short stories. The series remains a popular read and seems to have a dedicated fan base, compendiums, etc. In 2018 it received a Hugo nomination for Best Series. This review contains spoilers.

Moon has memories of a winged mother and siblings, but they’re all dead now, and Moon is hiding the fact that he’s a winged shapeshifter, moving from village to village in the river valley where he lives in the Three Worlds. He’s betrayed and poisoned in the latest village, staked out to die, but he’s rescued by another shapeshifter like himself named Stone. Stone tells him he’s a Raksura, and that he will be welcomed by the Indigo Cloud colony, even though he’s a feral solitary. This turns out to be more complicated than it first seems. Indigo Cloud is struggling, under attack from the dangerous Fell, and Moon is a consort, meant to be mated with a Raksura queen. His presence is an unknown bloodline, and this might save the Indigo Cloud colony, or it could cause worse problems. Is there a way Moon can adapt to this new life? Or should he go back to being a solitary?

This features the usual great points with Wells’ work, including well-developed characters, an interesting setup and a strong plot. The Raksura are civilized predators with wings, fangs, claws, tails and a mane of spines, descended from a forerunner race that also produced the Fell. Raksura have apparently differentiated from the Fell by interbreeding with a different race and now produce Aeriat and Arbora forms. The Arbora are wingless, short and sturdy, and work as artisans, teachers, healers, mentors and hunters. The mentors tend to have minor magical talents and can produce light, warmth and augury. The Aeriat are tall and lean, winged, and include queens, consorts and warriors. The queens have powers to control and engage the community. All have shapeshifting ability and all but queens can shift to a groundling form that allows them to blend with ordinary people. Queens can shift to an Arbora form that can pass for a groundling if they hide their tail. The Aeriat tend to get larger and stronger with age, and are fierce fighters. They are viewed with suspicion by most groundlings, and often confused with Fell. The Fell are also shape-shifters and include queen-like progenitors, rulers, kethel and dakti. Presumably they also have some variety of consorts. The theme of the series seems to finding a place and contributing to a community, and there’s a commentary on sexism, as the consorts are normally heavily protected while queens are aggressive warriors.

On the less positive side, there are a couple of issues. The first is the lack of structure in the world-building. There seem to be a lot of ruins and thriving communities, but each community seems to house a different species of arbitrary, humanoid-type persons, and each region also seems to feature different technology. The animals also seem to be random, with fantastical beasts around every corner. This strikes me as unusual, both from an evolutionary and a practical standpoint. Typically residents would be descended from common ancestors that would produce distinct species over a particular region. That means a traveler shouldn’t be surprised by unknowns. The sentient, plant and animal species ought to be familiar and cataloged. In the same way, technology tends to evolve and be shared from place to place. It should be fairly uniform. The other issue is conservation of mass in the shapeshifting. This could all be due to magic, of course, but in the real world, physics rules. There is no way a massive flying creature with a hundred and something foot wing-span will shift into a reasonable-sized human-type body. Moon describes the sensation of shifting as having lighter bones, but that’s not enough to do it. Sorry. Won’t work.

Four stars.

A Bit of Shameless Self Promotion

First, I’m featured at File 770 as a “Masked Filer” reading Star*line, journal of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. Did anyone know I sometimes write poetry?

Next, I have a new book coming out. It looks like the ebook is already up for sale on Amazon, and the paperback is scheduled for a wider release PDQ.

Here’s the blurb below and the link to Amazon. I’ll send out a free efile copy for reviewers. Let me know if you’d like to do one!

Anna Detroyer is a Black Seminole and a spirit talker, which means she deals with the supernatural. Along with her business partner Paul Angstrom, she runs a private detective agency in Miami, Florida, where the two of them investigate unusual cases. Anna is in love with Paul, but lately he’s been keep in distance between them. When a job in Mexico goes wrong, he pulls out of the business entirely, leaving Anna scrambling to pay the bills. To make matters worse, Paul’s son Joel arrives from the Northwest. Can Anna keep the business going? Can she stay out of trouble with the supernatural? And last, can she ever untangle her love life?