User Profile

After a break from the Starship's Mage series for a year, I started UnArcana Stars and rolled into Sword of Mars without pause. Glynn Stewart's breakneck pace continues here, with the plot steamrolling deep into the consequences of the events of the previous novel. All the requisite elements of fantastic Space Opera are on display: intricate world-building, galaxy-spanning economies and solar system-wide military actions filling the pages. And of course, don't expect the author to settle into any sort of status quo.

I find it difficult to praise without spoiling, so all I can say is that the open conflict referred to by the back of the book is massive in scope and bloody in consequence. It's everything I expect, but mostly fear as I do love the universe and many of the characters. Damien Montgomery is in fine form as Sword of Mars effortlessly blends military space battles alongside heroic adventures that put Star Wars to shame. All that said, I'm going to take another break. The pace of these novels just goes so fast that I need time to sit back and absorb the latest reality.

Highly Recommended.

I took a break from the Starship's Mage series for about a year and so jumping back into this series via UnArcana Stars feels like a mental adrenaline shot. Glynn Stewart writes incredible space opera, with highly developed world-building and a complete and utter lack of regard for the status quo. I've always enjoyed his writing and this is no exception. UnArcana Stars is a triumph within the universe of the Protectorate of Mars, and I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has gotten this far.

What makes this novel stand out is that it does not hold back. Glynn Stewart will break that implicit agreement between author and reader that the foundational elements of a universe are sacrosanct. World-shattering events just keep crushing the reader with their far reaching scope, and UnArcana Stars takes this even further as it ties together multiple plot threads from the previous novels and brings them all together. Our heroes are constantly faced with unbelievable odds and even when you think they're okay, the antagonists come up yet another surprise. I often felt like I needed to take a break from UnArcana Stars, just because it was so fast paced!

And so to summarize - a book that rewards its fans with invested subplots coming to fruition, surprise after surprise having long-term impact, and heroes doing their best facing long odds.

Highly recommended.

In the Shadow of Lightning absolutely deserves its high rating, being a very fine mixture of black powder military fiction combined with a magic-system based fantasy society. The result is magic like we treat technology, with factories and scientific advancements, as well as economic, societal , and cultural impacts. To say that the world-building is excellent is an understatement. Combine this with a plot that is epic in scope... war looming, Empires at risk, and magic disappearing, and well, this is exactly my cup of tea.

There is a grim realism in the establishment of this world and so this is not an escapist fantasy. Corruption, politics, complex internecine struggles... it's a bloody serious mess before you even include the armies full of muskets and godglass. I loved the complexity of the Guild family establishment, as well as the Empire's upper level politics. I appreciated the toll the war takes, showing the dangers of godglass and yet how it's completely infused into society. It's a good thing that Demir Grappo is ultimately a good person, because there is a real lack of that in this world. In fact, all the main characters are fairly easy to cheer for, and that helps make this novel an easy read.

Highly Recommended.

Rise to the Fly is exactly what I expect from Cheryl Rees-Price: a phenomenal police procedural, full of characters driven by a mix of logic and emotion that is so realistic that most authors fail to capture. Everyone is flawed and has made mistakes, and relationships are always fragile, but when DI Winter Meadows and his team arrives to solve yet another murder, we get to witness everything fall apart. Before going further, I loved this novel and recommend it to any and all murder mystery readers.

That said, I wish I hadn't read the back of the novel, because it sets up expectations that weren't in the story. If possible, you should skip reading what marketers thought would help sell the book, because the novel is fantastic but being mislead, I closed the book feeling a bit underwhelmed.

To explain what I mean... well, the core of novel retains what I love about a Winter Meadows novel. Meadows is incredibly sympathetic, and there is a finely-crafted multi-layered mystery that could possibly be solved before the heroes solve it. Certainly I was kicking myself at the end for not spotting the clues. That said, the end of the novel was a mad rush, and Meadows's team felt a bit absent. I would have appreciated a longer page count so that the extended characters could have gotten more 'screen time' -- it's been a while since we've seen our heroes grow.

What I'm saying is that Rise to the Fly is very episodic: a standalone novel that doesn't ask you to read any of the previous novels. That's fine. But I'm a fan, and I want more than that.

Recommended.

I am not the intended audience for the Space Team series - as a reader that prefers highly complex plots, realistic multi-layered characters and self serious worldbuilding. And while I remain entertained and actually laugh out loud every so often, The Search for Splurt felt like a big drop in writing quality compared to its predecessors.

Without spoiling and using just information from the back of the book... this novel is a sequel for The Wrath of Vajazzle, and focuses a lot on Lady Vajazzle. This is a shame because she was the weakest part of the previous book, being a one-dimensional cartoon villain with little personality other than competence. She is evil for the sake of evil, and it's both boring and frustrating for her to show up throughout this novel again, and again, and again.

The universe is also a lot smaller in this novel, focusing on a single mysterious planet. Part of the charm of this series had been the scope of a galaxy-spanning adventure, ensuring Cal was always a fish out of water and his teammates keeping him straight in an otherwise ridiculous and creative list of settings and aliens. We get none of that here.

The crew is still funny, and they alone save the novel. Again, this type of book isn't my usual cup of tea, and I suspect the events in this novel are summarized in a few paragraphs when you start Space Team 4.

Not recommended unless you're a true fan.

The Wrath of Vajazzle continues the adventures of the Space Team, with a focus on incompetence that borderlines on stupid, but instead manages to be both funny and yet deeper than it looks. I'm going to be honest, it's not my usual cup of tea because it takes itself so lightly, so I'm surprised I've made it this far with high opinions.

The sequel opens up the universe, introducing the Greyx, Vajazzle, and a bunch more locations. We bring back the original group of well-meaning idiots and put them through the meat grinder (in particular, for every annoying comment Cal drops, the universe forces him to experience pain in equal measure). Everything about the team's interactions from firefights to the silence of waiting is filled with comedic tension. It works, it really does.

Sadly, Vajazzle is one-dimensional, which is a shame because the previous novel had introduced antagonists that were realistic rather than moustache-twirling villains. Fortunately, her intellect and brilliance makes up for a rather boring personality.

Personally, I think Space Team can only be read in small doses. But it delivers plenty of entertainment during that time. Recommended.

I was looking for great Grimdark fantasy, and boy does The Blacktongue Thief deliver. As a single-person POV, the novel revolves around Kinch's personality and narrative style. He's clever in the worldly sense, but also with the way he phrases words and explains concepts. Combined with an imaginative medieval fantasy world that has seen humanity brought to its knees by goblins and giants, this novel has put Christopher Buehlman high on my list of authors to follow.

The worldbuilding in this is fantastic - with a lot of time spent fleshing out both internal and external concepts. The Thief's guild that Kinch belongs to is elaborately sketched out, and how he (and it) interacts with the world lets you see the internal workings of the human lands as well as the general technology of the times, but also the exceptional things like magic and lost artifacts. Galva receives an equal amount of backstory, which is good because it would have been so easy for most authors to write a badass swordswoman and call it a day. But in addition to tying her historically to the goblins, the creative handmaiden of death religion comes up often and reminds me how truly different this world is.

And then there's the goblins and giants. The antagonists are different... alien even. They are described in detail such that you really fear them for how different they are from humanity, and then we get a dose of realism in terms of politics and how human nations would deal with having borders with such creatures. It's brutal and grim.

In case it's not obvious, I'm in love with this book. The worst part is that there's no follow up as of the writing of this review.

Highly recommended.

Space Team is a classic space adventure with a focus on comedy (think Hitchhiker's Guide), that is filled with plenty of incompetence and manages to straddle the line between stupid and funny. As it takes itself lightly, you end up with a highly irrelevant and yet entertaining tale exploring the cosmos with a plot that is surprisingly clever despite the characters being out of their depth.

My usual tastes run more on side of serious, high-stakes military science fiction, so it's a surprise that I enjoyed Space Team so much. The brilliance is in the cast: there is so much personality that by the end of the novel, you could mentally put them in a room and predict what antics each member will cause (on themselves and each other).

That said, the main character is self-aware that he talks too much, and the narration is mainly from his POV so if the first couple of paragraphs turns you off... it won't change. If you're like me and you're chuckling from Cal's suffering, then you'll be pleasantly surprised by a story that's deeper than it looks, and manages to avoid cliches while still being about a band of idiots saving the galaxy.

Recommended. It's not Douglas Adams... but it's close.

Incredible - I have always been a fan of Groundhog Day-style stories, with Edge of Tomorrow being one of my favourites. The Perfect Run came out of nowhere for me, seamlessly combining time travel resets with the X-Men. In fact, the latter is more reminiscent of Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners series, with a well-defined magic system and an incredible variety of superpowers (and weaknesses).

To say that this surprising mashup works is an understatement... and Maxime Durand shows true worldbuilding and narration skill in taking a single person POV and building atop video game concepts. Our hero is overpowered and his personality is fun (quip-based comedy that I enjoy but if you detest you better run far far away), and opposing him is a cast with equally overpowered superpowers and are incredibly devious. I love the antagonists, if you can even call them that, and nothing in this novel is black and white.

The world is real, rich, complex, multi-layered such that you can only understand everything with the help of time travel resets. Dozens of subplots are running regardless of what our hero is doing, resulting in an ever-changing complex narrative that constantly surprises. My only nitpick is that the timelessness of this novel will stand to question... there are a lot of pop-culture references and I fear that in twenty years this book may feel incredibly dated. That's my only complaint!

Highly recommended. Read it. Read it now.

Prador Moon is the tip of the iceberg for the Polity Universe, and I picked it up in order to decide if I'm going to invest in the other 10+ novels. If you're in a similar position... well, what I found was a moderately interesting science-fiction setting that was mainly let down by un-engaging characters.

The Polity Universe's defining characteristics (in this novel) appear to be the recognition of AIs as sentient life, as well as teleportation being a commonplace technology. This creates a unique setting, but Prador Moon is about the beginning days of a galactic war with the Prador, and so the military angle consumes most of the page count and it's not the author's strong point. The space battles lack emotion due to a lack of main characters aboard those vessels, and the ground combat is too simplistic and consists mainly of small squad infantry actions. If scenes with space ships and lasers is boring, you're in trouble.

On the bright side, we are exposed to a number of POVs from the Prador, and this alien race is surprisingly well characterized and is actually more interesting to me than either main character Jebel or Moria. We find out a lot about their culture, their government, and way of thinking that is somewhat stereotypical but still intelligently presented.

In the end, Prador Moon is just too scattershot. There's too much plot to cover with too many character POVs (6?) in too short a page count. As such, I was never invested in any characters, and this novel stands solidly mediocre with a hint of brilliance behind its world-building.

I jumped from Prador Moon to Shadow of the Scorpion, still unsure if I'm fully bought into the Polity Universe enough to read another 10+ novels. This introduction to Agent Cormac is... fine. At its heart is an espionage thriller that happens to be set in the future. Unlike Prador Moon, the galactic scale conflict is at an end and has been replaced with something like Jack Ryan... in space!

Improving on the first book, there is a tight focus on Cormac that introduces the Polity and its ESC organs at a steady pace. There are a number of technologies that Neal Asher builds into the foundation of the Polity which are slowly explained, and knowing these things allows us to keep up with the thriller when the science-fiction elements are critical to the plot. To be perfectly honest, this is a better introduction to the Polity Universe than the previous novel.

However, I've read a lot of thrillers and this is thoroughly in the mediocre camp. There is no sense of mystery and the stakes are never well-expressed (or grounded in things you care about). Cormac is a bore and aside from being excellent at his job, doesn't really stand out from generic soldier-guy. I would suggest the Murderbot Diaries as an example of how personality can really elevate a novel, or refer you to something like Jack Ryan for the thriller-side.

In summary - it's fine. But there's better out there.

Make Me is definitely one of the better Jack Reacher novels, following Lee Child's refined formula perfectly while also improving on issues from past Reacher novels. The mystery is interesting and well-foreshadowed, we're mainly focused on Reacher with antagonist POV sprinkled in to add suspense, and the locations are unique yet down-to-earth. Issues improved? We get to witness Reacher working with a competent counterpart that exists other than to tick off "Reacher gets the Girl" on Lee's checklist, and the antagonists are not cartoon villains, which definitely raises this novel above the bar.

I always loved Lee Child's ability to take a low stakes situation and make it as thrilling as something like lost nuclear bombs or conspiracies to assassinate presidents. This is precisely one of those, and the tiny town of Mother's Rest is a wonderful example that even the smallest injustices need retribution.

While this isn't quite as good as my personal favourites (Bad Luck and Trouble, and Never Go Back), Make Me belongs firmly in the second tier of Reacher novels. Recommended.