Review of Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden

This science fiction novella is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Awards. Ogden has worked as science teacher and software tester and she is the co-editor of Translunar Travelers Lounge. This is her debut novella. It was published by Tor.com in February of 2021 and runs 112 pages. This review contains spoilers.

Atuale is the daughter of a Sea-Clan lord and has had her body altered so she can live on land with her husband and true love Saareval. However, a plague is killing the people of the clan and now her husband is deathly ill. Atuale has one hope left, a black market mercenary known as the World Witch, who is also her old friend and lover Yanja. She needs to use Yanja’s starship to travel off planet and find a cure for the plague, but their world is locked down because of the sickness. Can the two of them succeed in finding a cure?

This is an exotic, well-imagined setting where the various worlds are connected by jump gates and the occupants are adapted by gene-editing in order to live in particular environments. Most of the narrative is related to the quest plot and the interactions between Atuale and Yanja, who has had their body altered from female to male since they last saw one another. Yanja has something of an attitude about being jilted for Saareval, but they work it out. There’s a certain amount of imagery in the descriptions, and all ends well as Atuale returns with the cure for the plague. It gets extra points for attempting a romantic quets/adventure plot and a science fiction setting.

On the less positive side, I got the feeling I was missing a lot of the backstory here. I ended up with a lot of questions. Maybe these are characters Ogden has developed in other stories? There’s very little description of the living conditions on Atuale’s home world, which seems to be fairly primitive. This brings up the question of why the back market space-going mercenary Yanja is living there. The characterizations don’t feel quite right, as these are highly exotic people, but they interact like ordinary humans–there is no difference it culture. The community of worlds through the jump gates seems to function like a local community in the pandemic when I would expect a little more distance. Atuale violates all the rules, but there are no real consequences—she is just rescued by someone who rewards her persistence with the cure. And, where did Atuale get her body mods done? On her world? Then why don’t they have the technology to find a cure? There are also a couple of elements to this story that seem tailored to what must be publishing requirements at Tor. The first is Yanja’s trans sexuality, and the other is a comment out of nowhere that Saareval’s clan practices equity. Then why is Atuale still so proud of her heritage as the Sea lord’s daughter? Is she on board with the equity or not?

Three and a half stars.

Review of “Just Enough Rain“ by PH Lee

This fantasy novelette is a 2021 Nebula Finalist and was published in Giganotosaurus 5/21. P.H. Lee is well established as a short story writer and uses “they” as a pronoun. This review contains spoilers.

Anat and her Mom both have a personal relationship with God, and God seems especially partial to Mom. So much so that he comes to the funeral and raises her from the dead. Mom is really concerned that Anat is 38 and not married, so she asks God to intercede. He sends his Angel to connect Anat with a nice man, but the guy flees. He’s a jerk, but on the other hand the Angel is awesome. Anat contacts God and asks for the Angel’s phone number. It doesn’t seem that they have one, but God makes the arrangements. The first date is a disaster, but after that things go better. Will Mom get what she wants out of this relationship?

This is a very entertaining story that reimagines the relationship with God as one where he arrives in the body of a stranger and performs miracles, or calls you on the phone. Mom long conversations Him. In addition, there is some discussion of insecurities and life callings and how a supportive relationship can help these. The world-building, imagery and characterization are all strong. This gets extra points for being a highly positive story.

On the less positive side, the discussion of insecurities and life callings isn’t quite enough to make this a life-changing story. There’s little conflict, and it ends up feels more entertaining than monumental.

Five stars.

Review of “When It Pours” by Carol Scheina

This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. Scheina is a deaf writer who lives in Northern Virginia. The story runs 990 words, and this review contains spoilers. 

The luck forecast is good today, but Kelly always has a cloud of bad luck that follows behind her. She makes it to the grocery store, but on the way home it starts to rain and her grocery bag breaks, scattering chips, pita and apples everywhere. A wonderful woman named Mel helps her pick things up and they have coffee. This develops into a relationship, but is Kelly being irresponsible in inflicting her terrible luck on Mel? What should she do?

Mel is the heart of the story, as she has the strength of character not to care about Kelly’s failings, and refuses to be fended off. This is the supportive partner that everyone needs; plus, it provides a glimpse of the romantic love story that could develop from their meeting. There’s some good imagery in the glimpses of rolling apples and blushing cheeks, and the backdrop of weather as a metaphor for luck develops as we read.

On the less positive side, this seems limited in scope, as Kelly and Mel only interact in a small, personal way. The story would have more weight with a more universal message. The glimpses we get of the players, although good imagery, don’t quite add up to characterization, so it may be hard to readers to connect deeply with Kelly and Mel.

Three stars.

Review of “Young Love” by Katie Robles

This is another flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. This story is science fiction and runs 317 words. Robles works with children with disabilities and also writes humorous self-help books. This review contains spoilers.

Margaret and Phil are approaching their twentieth anniversary and looking for a way to revitalize their marriage. Their friends the Patels have recommended a treatment, and even though they’re a little concerned about the effects, they decide to do it. They arrive for the appointment and get strapped into the chairs. The procedure is quick, and they’re not sure anything has happened, but then they try out a kiss.

On the positive side, this has strong characterizations and shows instead of telling. The author doesn’t say how old these people are, but they wear reading glasses and have been married 20 years. We gather their uncertainty about the treatment from their conversation and their love for each other from the way they hold hands. There’s a certain amount of Frankenstein tension in the procedure because they have to be strapped into the chairs—apparently this is some kind of brain treatment—but then everything works out great for them.

On the less positive side, this is a straight-forward, third person narrative with no twist, and it seems a little too sweet and sugary. There’s no real conflict here, and only a hint of danger in the procedure before it rolls on to a Happily Ever After ending. That means you feel “Aww, that’s nice” but it’s not really deep or memorable.

Three stars.

Review of The Element of Fire by Martha Wells

This novel is also listed as Ile-Rien Series, Book 1, and according to Wells, it is the first novel she wrote. It was originally published by Tor in 1993, and this version was revised and re-released by Wells in 2006. This review contains spoilers.

Roland is king in Ile-Rein but his mother Dowager Queen Ravenna is the power behind the throne. Urbain Grandier, master of dark sorcery, has unleashed a plot against the king, and the old King Fulstan’s half-fay daughter Kade Carrion has appeared unexpectedly, further complicating the intrigue. Thomas Boniface, Captain of the Queen’s Guard and Ravenna’s longtime lover, tries to sort out what’s happening and defend the throne against the mounting dangers. Can he be successful, or will he lose his own life in the attempt?

This has the feel of historical fantasy. The story is based in a setting that resembles 17th century Europe, with the addition of Unseelie fay that are so predatory that the city and palace have to be warded against intrusion. The intrigue is complex and there’s plenty of action. Wells also doesn’t flinch at sacrificing characters along the way so that others have to step up and take responsibility. I was especially impressed with the research that went into making the details of this sound authentic. I’ve noticed it in Wells’ other work, too, but this sort of cements the feeling that she spends a lot of time in research before creating a new setting.

On the less positive side, there is a readability issue here. We’re dropped into a tale with too many moving parts, and it feels messy. Because of the large number of characters, it’s hard to sort out who’s who and define the undercurrents of what’s going on. Kade Carrion is an interesting person, but clearly drifting and unfocused in what she wants. It’s like she’s only showed up to annoy her family, and in an almost cliché, falls for the handsome Boniface who is old enough to be her father. We do see a couple of her minions here, but again, she’s operating solo, and not as powerful as I’d expect from her origins. The Unseelie fay just seem malevolent and fairly mindless, without much of a plan except to attack humans, and Kade’s apparently ongoing battle with the fay courts remains only suggested. There’s too much here to be really developed in a single novel.

Regardless of these niggles, Boniface manages to carry the story to a satisfying conclusion.

Three and a half stars.

Review of Finna by Nino Cipri

This science fiction novella was released by Tor.com on 25 February 2020. It has a slightly young adult feel and runs 144 pages. This review contains spoilers.

Ava and Jules work for LitenVärld, a Swedish big box furniture store, and their romantic relationship is currently on the rocks. While they’re trying to avoid one another, an elderly store customer slips through a portal in the Bachelor Cube showroom into another dimension. Of course, minimum-wage employees Ava and Jules are equipped with a guide box and sent after her. On the other side of the portal, the two find the customer has been eaten by carnivorous furniture, but they locate a reasonable facsimile. What will it take to successfully retrieve her into their own reality?

This is humor, of course, and very creative. Nothing hugely momentous happens, but it’s an entertaining ride. Ava and the non-binary Jules struggle with their relationship and end up somewhat finding themselves on the journey. They manage to make life better for their facsimile of Ursula Nouri and her anxious granddaughter, and also gain the courage to explore new worlds themselves.

On the less positive side, most of the emphasis is on the dry humor and the narrative. Character development and world-building is adequate, but not spectacular, and imagery seemed a little skimpy. I didn’t end up with much of a vision of anything but LitenVärld as a typical big-box furniture store with a maze of different showrooms. Finally, this is something of a cliffhanger, and I’m wondering if we’ll see more adventures from the daring duo.

Three and a half stars.

Review of Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This fantasy novel is a finalist for the 2019 Nebula Award. It was published 27 July 2019 by Del Rey and runs 367 pages. This review contains spoilers.

It’s the 1920s in Mexico, but the Jazz Age hasn’t come to the small town of Uukumil, where Casiopea Tun and her mother, as poor relations, work as near-servants in her wealthy grandfather’s house. Casiopea is especially annoyed by her cousin Martin, who constantly demands she run errands for him and polish his boots. He gets her in trouble with their grandfather, and Casiopea is left at home while the family goes to a nearby spa. Casiopea goes to her grandfather’s room to mend his shirts and notices he has left the key he normally wears on a chain around his neck. She uses it to open his old chest, expecting to find treasure, but instead she finds a pile of old bones. She gets a shard of one stuck in her hand, and suddenly Hun-Kamé, the Mayan God of Death, assembles from the bones. He explains that she is now his captive, and that she must help him regain the throne in Xibalba, the Underworld, stolen by his brother Vukub-Kamé. He buys her a new, modern wardrobe and they set off on an adventure that passes through Mérida, Veracruz, Mexico City, El Paso, and ends in Baja California. The two are linked by the bone shard, and as they travel, Casiopea is slowly dying, while Hun-Kamé absorbs her life-force and becomes constantly more human. When the contest comes with Vukub-Kamé, Casiopea finds he has recruited Martin to help him. Can she successfully outwit her cousin and place Hun-Kamé back on the throne? Or should she look after herself, instead?

This is basically a dream-come-true romance with the feel of young adult, as Casiopea transforms from a Cinderella figure in a small town to a grand adventurer traveling with a handsome prince. Along the way, they meet various supernatural entities who call Casiopea “Stone Maiden” (another figure from Mayan tradition, associated with an archaeological site at Xunantunich, Mexico). The subtle and gradually shifting relationship between the two main characters stands out as the best feature of the narrative. This has a strong Latin flavor, a slight tongue-in-cheek quality, and regardless of the romantic content, avoids a trite ending.

On the less positive side, Martin is pretty much the stereotype of an evil stepsister, and other characters are hardly present. Most of the text is about Casiopea’s journey, and somehow there never seems to be a real threat of failure. Hun-Kamé fills the shoes of a handsome prince fairly blandly, and I’d have preferred a little more darkness from the God of Death.

Four stars.

Review of Someday by David Levithan

This is young adult fantasy romance novel published by Knopf and runs 392 pages. It follows Every Day and Another Day, novels with the same characters, a prequel “Six Earlier Days” and the short story “Day 3196.” The novel Every Day was a New York Times Bestseller and nominated for a Lambda Award. It was recently made into a motion picture which is also available for rent/purchase. This review contains major spoilers.

This novel picks up where Every Day leaves off. The protagonist, who calls themself A, is a non-binary consciousness that wakes in a different body each day. They fall in love with the girl Rhiannon, and as a result, reveal too much of themself. This leads to wild accounts of demon possession and the arrival of the fundamentalist Reverend Poole, who turns out to be an evil version of A. Scared by all this, A goes on the run. A means to leave everything behind. They delete their email address and flee the Northeast for the Denver area. But A is starved for affection, and when they find a message to them on Rhiannon’s Facebook page, they are drawn back to her like a moth to a flame. Once in contact, they find the evil and dangerous Poole (also known as X) is holding their friends hostage as a way to get to A. What can they do?

I was really taken by Every Day, which develops a lot of suspense at the end very suddenly, so I’ve been waiting a while for this sequel. It continues a lot of the strong points of Every Day. It’s clear Levithan is interested in the worth of every individual, and a lot of this is about respecting others and treating them well, regardless of who they are. A’s existence is dependent on stealing bodies, but they maintain very strict rules about respecting their hosts and trying to do their best not to make anyone’s life worse during the one-day possession. This novel develops that theme further, including an equality march on Washington D.C. where a lot of the action takes place. Definitely Levithan’s strongest point in this series is how he presents the lives of A’s hosts, a one-day glimpse of each, with all their joys and problems.

On the not so positive side, this doesn’t develop much angst, conflict, drama or suspense. Early in the book A goes through some tough hosts, but this issue clears up once they are back in the Northeast and reunited with Rhiannon. It’s clear that A has to do something about X, and A does come through at the end, but there’s no buildup in the action line to this point. There is a suggestion in the text that A might go over to the dark side, but events don’t support this or provide any discussion of the morality involved. Instead, the book continues to concentrate on the “everybody’s okay” equality theme to the point that it’s intrusive. As a result, Levithan can’t resist making X a sympathetic character. Someone has apparently told Levithan A needs to use the pronoun “they,” too, which leads to the usual grammatical muddle. And last, all these people eventually started to sound the same, which means the author gave up characterization to use his own voice instead.

This isn’t the thriller sequel I’d hoped for, but it is still a valuable book for kids struggling to deal with difference.

Three and a half stars.

Review of Free Dive by C.F. Waller

This novel is a science fiction thriller published by Cosby Media Productions that runs 336 pages. It has apparently made the Amazon #1 Best Seller list in the past and was nominated for a couple of awards. This review contains spoilers.

Dexter Knight and his partners Cam and Lydia have developed AI operated robots to steal salvage from the ocean floor, and are currently working on retrieving teacups from the Titanic which they can sell for a nice price. Eventually one of their sales goes wrong, and a mob with guns moves in to kidnap them and hijack their operation. Uncertain of who they’re working for, the team deploys their robots in the Marianas Trench, where an unknown object starts to look like an alien artifact. Knight is attracted to the research team’s scientist Ronny, a little put off by the tough Russian ramrod Katya, and struggles to deal with the project’s gun-toting management. The artifact starts to look more dangerous as they continue to investigate. Is this a threat to human civilization?

On the positive side, this is a well-written adventure story with entertaining characters and a nice, rising action line that develops considerable suspense. There’s plenty of space in it for the character interactions and a few plot twists to keep the story interesting. It didn’t turn out like I was expecting at all. The maritime details are sketchy but generally believable. Waller also has an interesting take on AI bots, and I thought their behavior here was a little unsettling. Hmm. Following up on that could actually produce another interesting novel.

On the not so positive side, I had some suspension of disbelief issues with the activities of the aliens and the tolerance of the technology the research team used in the Trench. Yeah, in an emergency, I can see stretching things a little, but (as little as I know about ocean exploration) I think working at the Trench depth went a little beyond that and wouldn’t really be possible. Also, I thought some of the characterizations were a bit over-the-top, which detracted some from the story.

Entertaining but not er, deep. Three and a half stars.

Review of Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

This novel is urban fantasy, and number 11 in Briggs’ highly successful Mercy Thompson series. It’s published by Ace and runs 368 pages. Briggs also writes the Alpha and Omega series which is set in the same universe and uses some of the same characters. Although Briggs works mainly with these two series now, early in her career she also wrote more traditional fantasy novels which remain good bets for fantasy fans. This review contains spoilers.

Mercy Thompson is a Native American car mechanic, a shapeshifter and Coyote’s daughter. She has fallen for and gotten married to Adam Hauptman, previously her neighbor and alpha of the Columbia Basin werewolf pack. A few months back, Mercy made a public declaration that the pack would defend everybody within their territory. This made the Tri-cities seem like safe, neutral ground, and now there is a plan in work to set up meetings there so the government can negotiate with the dangerous Grey Lords of the fae, who have previously been sequestered on reservations. Adam’s security company is chosen to deal with preparations. Mercy gets a call from a local farmer and takes some of the pack out to deal with his goats that have turned zombie. After interviewing the farmer, she suspects the zombies were created by a black witch who first tried to lure the man’s son. Investigating, Mercy finds the witch is from the Hardesty family, a group who has also targeted the local witch Elizaveta, torturing and killing her family in an effort to create a coven. The investigation reveals that Elizaveta has also been practicing black magic. Can Mercy deal with the witches? The zombies? The government officials? And what is Coyote up to now?

Briggs is highly reliable, and this is more on the adventures of familiar characters her readers know and love. It’s warm, safe and inclusive. For all her tough exterior, Mercy has a lot of friends that are willing to step up and defend her, or even to help out when she gets into something over her head. Briggs creates strong characters, plus sticky relations and ongoing intrigues between the different factions, the werewolves, vampires, goblins, witches, Native American walkers, etc., etc. that inhabit the Tri-cities area. There’s always a strong element of romance, too, as Mercy and Adam are pretty taken with each other.

On the not so positive side, this was a little hard to get into. There’s no hook at all. It’s an ongoing narrative, and Briggs seems to pick up one novel where the last left off. But, for her readers, there’s a gap of a year or so where details of what happened in the last novel can get lost. Mercy eventually gets around to filling us in on recent events for her, but until we meet the goats, there’s only conversation to get us started on this story.

It’s another successful adventure for Mercy. Highly recommended for fans of urban fantasy.

Four stars.