Review: The Prince and the Program

Thanks to DSP Publications for the review copy!

Reasons for Inclusion: Mordred is bi, M/M relationship 

My Review:

(4/5 stars)

Mori, once known as the Deathless Mordred Pendragon, solicits the help of some otherworldly contacts to land a too-good-to-be-true job at a mysterious tech company. And then he befriends a man he knows only through chatlogs, and all the while things are getting stranger and stranger. 

This was a very bizarre book, but I enjoyed it. Humor keeps the story moving: Mordred’s troubles with the demonic bureaucracy, puzzling through code that’s mostly made up of caffeine, and dealing with Imp, his irritating ramen-obsessed familiar.

There’s a lot going on. It gets even more interesting when, while trying to figure out what the hell his employers are actually up to, Mordred starts talking to one of the company higher-ups, Alan. They discuss programming languages, mathematics, the concept of souls, and soon talking to Alan is the high point of Mordred’s day. But both are hiding things: Mordred can’t reveal his true nature, and neither can Alan. Mordred eventually learns why he can’t meet Alan: he’s an AI. And possibly a reincarnation of Alan Turing. This sets a wedge between them for a while, and watching them overcome it was one of the best parts of the book.

It seems impossible that they will ever meet in person. Until the demons gain the upper hand, and the two are sent on a quest through the bizarre world of the dead (and undead),  a place full of traces of myth, zombie horror, computer nerd jokes, and emotional moments.

I especially loved Mordred’s snaky comments in the narration. The side characters were interesting, and his relationship developed in a way I really liked to read.

The Prince and the Program was a lot of fun, and I already know some people I’ll be recommending it to.

 

Review: The Mark of Noba

 

Written by the Twinjas!

Reasons for Inclusion: Tetra is dark-skinned and comes from a queer-accepting culture that doesn’t have gender roles. She’s also bi/pansexual. More diversity is expected in future books.

Publisher’s Summary:

Sterling Wayfairer has one goal for his senior year: make his mark. He’s been slipping into the background his whole high school career—distracted by his mother’s mental health, unsettled by the vivid dreams that haunt him at night, and overshadowed by the athletic accomplishments of his popular best friends. But this year is going to be different. He’s going to break a few rules, have some fun, and maybe even work up the nerve to ask his crush out on a date.

But things don’t go exactly as planned. Students are disappearing, Sterling starts losing time, and it all seems to center around Tetra, a girl no one else seems to notice but him. When he finally tracks her down for answers, they aren’t what he expects: He and Tetra hail from a world called Noba, and they’re being hunted by a Naga, a malevolent shapeshifter that’s marked them for destruction. 

Tetra and Sterling have distinct abilities that can help them fight back, but their power depends heavily on the strength of their bond, a connection that transcends friendship, transcends romance. Years apart have left their bond weak. Jumpstarting it will require Sterling to open his heart and his mind and put his full trust in the mysterious Tetra.

If he doesn’t, neither of them will survive.

My Review:

(4/5 stars)

Before the strange girl showed up at his high school, Sterling Wayfairer only had mundane troubles to deal with: getting his grades up, dealing with his mother’s mental illness, explaining his strict curfew to his friends.

Now, he now has a glowing hand, gaps in his memory, and a bizarre new roommate who can control water and read minds. Tetra tells him they’re both from a world called Noba- and that they’re spiritually bonded. Her mission: to take down a body-stealing  monster.

Most of the troubles Tetra and Sterling deal with are typical high school issues: relationships, dating, friends, prom planning. Even though I’m not personally a big fan of mundane things like that, it was a lot of fun to see Tetra trying to fit into a culture that’s so different from that of her home planet. It takes her a while to get things, such as the fact that a “boyfriend” isn’t just a boy you know, and that you shouldn’t talk about sex at the dinner table.

Gender roles are another thing that confuse Tetra. On Noba, gender doesn’t really matter that much, so things like girls and boys being separated for gym puzzles her.

The issue of trust was very well done. Tetra can’t just swoop into Sterling’s life and recruit him, she has to earn his trust first. And manipulating his family into accepting her as an exchange student isn’t the best way of doing that. Neither is keeping secrets.

There are even more problems on the horizon for the duo. The Naga is getting closer, and Sterling’s visions of a fiery apocalypse are getting stronger. 

The books leaves off on a cliffhanger. I’m really looking forward to the next books in the series, and especially to seeing Tetra’s world.

(ARC received through Netgalley)

Review: Coal

Reasons for Inclusion: Black protagonist. Elves are matriarchal and have varied skin tones. 

Publisher’s Summary: Coal has lived most of his life in the fey realm with his elven best friend, but when a human child he promised to protect unintentionally breaks a law in front of the fey elite, he will have to choose between betraying his best friend or saving the child’s life. 

My Review:

(4/5 stars)

Coal, a human boy among elves, has always been seen as just the barely-tolerated pet of Princess Chalcedony. When he protects a human child against elvish law, he risks destroying the few friendships he has, and might even lead the fey to war. 

The tense and often hateful relations between elves, dwarves, and humans allow for a look at racial dynamics free of generalizations or preaching. The elves, humans, and dwarves usually hate each other. While Chalcedony has managed to keep the political battles between elves and dwarves from boiling over, the disdain is still there. As for humans, they live apart from elves ever since a vicious war several centuries ago. Because of that war, elves see humans as stupid brutes and nothing more, leading to the discrimination against Coal. 

I loved the characters: principled, hard-working Coal, powerful and well-meaning Chalcedony, Coal’s mixed-species swordmaster Grigory, who also faces discrimination. 

Chalcedony’s ability to change her hair and skin color (and her preference for dark skin when the rest of her family has light) raises interesting questions about the perception of race in this world. Coal is disliked by most elves for being a human; his race doesn’t come into it. Nobody really calls attention to Chalcedony’s choice, seeing it as just another part of her being. Little Elizabeth is curious about Chalcedony’s color-changing, but not critical, and in the way of a child she accepts it as just another new thing in the world.

I like how the characters change over the course of the book. They’re confronted with real issues of responsibility, trust, loyalty, right and wrong, no longer the hypothetical ones of lessons. Coal has to decide if it’s worth going against everything he knows to do the right thing, and then what to do after that. Chalcedony has to decide how far she’s willing to go to enforce her will as heir. How they deal with these issues permanently affects them and their relationships.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, and it looks like the rest of the trilogy is going to get even darker, with more ethical questions and difficult choices.

Anthology: The Sea is Ours

Reasons for Inclusion: Southeast Asian authors, characters, and setting. Several queer characters and disabled characters.

Publisher’s Summary: Steampunk takes on Southeast Asia in this anthology. The stories in this collection merge technological wonder with the everyday. Children upgrade their fighting spiders with armor, and toymakers create punchcard-driven marionettes. Large fish lumber across the skies, while boat people find a new home on the edge of a different dimension. Technology and tradition meld as the people adapt to the changing forces of their world. The Sea Is Ours is an exciting new anthology that features stories infused with the spirits of Southeast Asia’s diverse peoples, legends, and geography.

My Review:

(4.5/5 stars)

(ARC received from Netgalley)

While science fiction is very popular in Southeast Asia, those voices aren’t heard very often by the Western world. This English-language anthology aims to change that. 

 The collection starts off beautifully, with the tales of a girl who learns to use music to fly with sky whales, and a volcano-mining airship captain who comes to love the princess she thought would be useless. The following stories are just as amazing: queer girls find dragons in a wildlife preserve, a wooden figure comes to life, a mechanist rescues a clockwork cyborg, and more.

These stories fit an enormous amount of character and creativity into a small space, never relying on awkward exposition or “explaining” either the culture or the plot points. They characters exist without having to justify themselves to the audience. And the diversity goes beyond race and culture; there are some queer characters, some disabled characters. Most focus on women, women as inventors, leaders, explorers, and on women of different backgrounds working together- a nicely feminist tilt that’s becoming more prominent in steampunk.

 I hope more Southeast Asian stories enter into the English market, because this collection was amazing. I want to see more from this incredibly diverse but underrepresented region of the world.

Review: Capture

Reasons for Inclusion: M/M romance, bisexual characters 

Publisher’s Summary:

Over two hundred years ago, when dragons were hunted for their blood, the King of Torsere offered them sanctuary. In return, the dragons bestowed a magical gift on the King’s people, allowing those born with the mark to become dragon riders and forge a mental connection between dragon and rider. 

King Ryneq of Torsere is undeniably attracted to Nykin, a young dragon rider. Ryneq’s sister, Cerylea, encourages him to pursue the relationship. But with the stresses of ruling Torsere, a romantic attachment is low on Ryneq s list of priorities. Nykin admires the king from afar, but wants more than to warm his bed for a night or two. 

Torsere remains under threat from the lowland armies of Rodeth and Athisi. To protect their kingdom, Ryneq and Cerylea intend to form an alliance with the elves through Cerylea s marriage to elf prince Morkryn. On the road to the wedding, the lowland army attacks the party. Cerylea escapes, but Ryneq is captured and taken to the impenetrable Risvery Castle. In the aftermath, Nykin volunteers for a perilous mission, endangering the lives of him and his dragon. The odds are against him, but Nykin will risk everything for his duty and his king.

My Review:

(3.5/5 stars)

This story really interested me at first, with a corps of dragonriders protecting a kingdom preparing for an alliance with an elven prince. In the middle of all this, a king and dragonrider who are mutually attracted but not ready to make a move.

When King Ryneq is kidnapped by an alliance force of the two enemy nations, rider Nykin takes desperate measures and gets himself kidnapped as well in the first steps of an elaborate plot to save his king. 

Most of the story is taken up with the various tortures villains Hatak and Seran inflict on their prisoners. I’m not squeamish, but the violence felt like a bit too much after a while. 

I loved the dragons, wonderful long-lived creatures once enslaved by a wicked king but now loyal to Torsere, though never subservient. They possess magical powers to communicate with and heal their designated riders, powers that save Nykin’s life more than once.

I’ll probably check out the sequel stories; I want to see what the characters do next.

Review: Mad About The Hatter

Reasons for Inclusion: M/M romance, bisexual characters.

Publisher’s Summary:

 This isn’t his sister’s Wonderland….

Henry never believed his older sister, Alice’s, fantastic tales about the world down the rabbit hole. When he’s whisked away to the bizarre land, his best chance for escape is to ally himself with the person called the Mad Hatter. Hatter—an odd but strangely attractive fellow—just wants to avoid execution. If that means delivering “Boy Alice” to the Queen of Hearts at her Red Castle, Hatter will do what he has to do to stay alive. It doesn’t matter if Henry and Hatter find each other intolerable. They’re stuck with each other.

Along their journey, Henry and Hatter must confront what they’ve always accepted as truth. As dislike grows into tolerance and something like friendship, the young men see the chance for a closer relationship. But Wonderland is a dangerous place, and first they have to get away with their lives.

My Review:

(4/5 stars)

Wonderland is once again under the tyranny of the execution-happy Red Queen, and this time it’s up to Alice’s brother and the Mad Hatter to save it.

The story’s take on Wonderland is both classic and new. Beloved and hated characters make appearances: the Red Queen, the Cheshire Cat, the Bandersnatch, even Alice herself. There’s plenty of wordplay and bizarre settings reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth, and of course, the original Alice stories.

Hatter and Henry travel through a mountain range scarred by bakers’ pastry-themed wars, a garden where everything is backwards, the Neutral Forest where nothing is too little or too much, the city of Ruin where the residents take pride in keeping the place as artfully run-down as possible. They spend some time on Earth as well, a place Hatter finds just as strange as Henry does Wonderland.

Unfortunately, some of the jokes get old fast, and the constant humor makes the emotional beats difficult to take seriously. The references to fast food and Star Wars are distracting, even if they allow for funny comments from Hatter. But that doesn’t last for long- the characters quickly get back to their quest. 

All in all, this was a very fun book, full of the odd logic and unforgettable characters of Wonderland. 

(ARC received through Netgalley)

 

Series: Children of the Triad

Reasons for Inclusion: Many agender intersex characters who go by id/idre/ids. Relationships can take place between any genders. Poly relationships are accepted in Aeyrie society. Racial hatred is a major theme.

About:

Delan grew up among the Walkers, but has never looked like them, and suffered endless mockery for this fact. Then a meeting with a strange creature- a person of another species- reveals that Delan is really an Aeyrie instead of a Walker, and introduces Delan to a new identity that isn’t the female or male Delan has never fit.  

“Is everyone of your race both male and female?”

 “Yes. My native language, H’ldat, has only one pronoun: Id, meaning a person of any gender. We use the H’ldat pronoun when we speak the Walker tongue also, since the Walkers consider the word ‘it’ to be an insult. They seem to think there is something special about being only one sex!”

“Id?” I said, bewildered by too many new notions coming at me much too quickly.

“Id, idre, ids. She, her, hers.”

Delan is a servant to the abusive and hateful sorcerer Teksan, who wants to involve id in his plot to destroy the Aeyries. Delan escapes, for a time, living with first the scholar Eia and then finding ids way to the Aeyrie community in the mountains. Delan is at last with people like idre, and everything seems wonderful, until Teksan’s rebels attack, guided by a curse Teksan placed on Delan. Not knowing if ids friends are alive or dead, Delan must travel to Triad, where the many species of the land live together in peace, and seek help from the leaders there.

I really like enclosed societies like the Ula (like boarding schools, spaceships, dragon Weyrs…) and I wanted to spend more time there, learning about their culture and relationships and inventions, so the fact that a lot of the story was taken up with Delan’s journey bothered me. But the scenes we did get of the Ula and Triad were worth the wait.

The extensive use of these nonbinary pronouns is one of the major reasons why this trilogy stands out. Aeyries don’t see gender in the same way Walkers do. It doesn’t matter to them whether someone can lay eggs or not, or who they decide to mate with. That’s just not a big part of their identity. 

The next two books go deeper into the question of interspecies cooperation. In The Moonbane Mage, Delan’s descendant Laril is banished for fighting illegal duels. Bitter, angry, and lost, id is taken in by a devious Aeyrie mage who seems a good partner at first, but quickly turns abusive. The only people who can stand against Raulyn’s plots are Laril and the Walker woman Bet, and then only if they can overcome Raulyn’s influences over them, both magical and emotional. 

Ara’s Field turns the focus back to Triad, where the residents are becoming complacent and ignoring the conflict outside their walls. When they do look outwards and organize peace conferences, well, that’s when the murders start. Bet and her allies must figure out what’s going on before the peace is ruined forever, even if that means reaching out to a completely unknown species.

I loved the variety of characters. Not only are there the flying, creative Aeyries and the land-based farmer Walkers, but there are the telepathic Mers, an all-female aquatic species that travels in groups, sharing one mind. When one is separated from the rest, she has to figure out an entierly new way of living. There’s also the Orchth, a sort of bear/centaur species living in the mountains. Their culture puts a heavy importance on storytelling, and these histories become important later on. 

Each species has a different way of living, a different view of gender, and different grudges with the rest, but if they are to survive, they have to work together.

 

Review: Tapestry

Thanks to Harmony Ink Press for the review copy!

Reasons for Inclusion: M/M romance, society where same-sex couples are totally accepted

Publisher’s Summary:

In Ollas, anything that stirs the emotions is forbidden by the governors—especially music. So when Tallie Tarmelin, a farm boy from a lower-tier guild, is offered a scholarship for his talent in design, he keeps his head down and follows the rules. He’s terrified of breaking one of his society’s many laws and ruining his future. But feeling lost and alone in an unfamiliar city takes its toll, and Tallie accepts sympathy from a guildless social outcast even though he knows it could destroy his reputation. 

Despite the rules against casual touching and fraternizing in public, Jonis Sinter offers Tallie comfort instead of denouncing him for an excessive emotional display, and they fast become friends. Secret friends, though, because Worran, the respectable son of a governor, has asked Tallie to be his partner. 

When Worran’s mother learns of Tallie’s association with an outcast, she dispatches the militia. Worran sends Tallie a warning, and Tallie flees the city and civilization with Jonis. Surviving the wilds will take every ounce of perseverance they can muster, and the rediscovery of music might be their only solace— unless they recognize the love that’s growing between them.

My Review:

(4/5 stars)

In Ollas, while nobody blinks an eye at two boys pairing up, music, dancing, and shows of affection are absolutely forbidden, because emotions are a danger to the stability of society. 

Tallie is a rising star in the Designers’ guild. He’s even caught the eye of Worran, a respected governor’s son. But then his outsider friend Jonis creates a musical instrument, breaking the Fundamental Laws, and the two go on the run, along with Tallie’s friend Tommin’s pregnant girlfriend. 

They first take refuge with a camp of outsider Vagabonds, and then a friendly shepherd, before making a home in an isolated cave. 

The two boys experience new ways of living: the freer Bonder lifestyle, lived under the constant threat of a raid by the authorities, is sharply contrasted with their old strictly-regulated life in the city.

Living alone is even harder: they must survive illness and injury, find food for the winter, and make every item they use. But they have music to get them through it, music that even seems to be able to cure the pervasive Gray Sickness. If music can do so much good, Tallie and Jonis wonder, can it really be as evil as the Governors say?

I loved the worldbuilding and descriptions, especially the descriptions of daily life in their cave home. Tallie is an artist and Jonis is an inventor, so together they manage to make a good home out of plants, river clay, and the few things they brought with them when they ran away.

But some of the conversations were very awkward. A lot of things were spelled out in dialogue when they didn’t really need to be, or the wording felt really clumsy. The descriptions of music also sometimes got carried away in overblown metaphors. Some of that is clearly down to the fact that the characters are stumbling to explain concepts they have no words for, but some exchanges still felt odd. 

I also found it a little strange that the Founders would ban music and touching, but not other forms of art or romantic place names like “Cascadia”

But asides from that, the storytelling was very good. Everybody that Tallie and Jonis met was important in some way to their journey, and the skills they learned helped them later on. Learning to leave behind the rules their society ingrained in them was difficult at times, making their rebellion all the more powerful.

While sometimes over-the-top, Tapestry is a beautiful story about the power of music to change the world.

Upcoming Shorts from Less Than Three Press

The Secret of Mermaid Cove

Reasons for Inclusion: Lesbian and bi characters. Mermaids are mute on land and so use sign language.

Summary:

After she is caught behaving obscenely with another woman, Sophia is left abandoned. Her friends pretend not to know her, her family is trying to decide the best place to banish her, and Sophia wishes that running away was as easy in fact as it was in theory.

She is saved from scandal, if not her suffocating life, by way of an unexpected marriage proposal from Lord Everett Dobson, the most coveted bachelor in the city. Not in a position to refuse, Sophia accepts his offer and agrees to visit his home at Mermaid Cove for three weeks.

Mermaid Cove proves to be as beautiful as promised, complete with endless beaches, glittering waters, a castle that looks like it was made of sand… family curses and local legends… and two beautiful, mysterious women who cannot talk, but seem to have secrets they want to share…

My Review:

(4/5 stars)

This story took a while to get going, but all of it was beautiful. I loved Sophia’s emotional journey from despair to hope to doubt to joy. She feels trapped by society, which makes her hopes all the more poignant and her fears of it all being a trick far more bitter. The setting was very nicely done, with all the chatter of wealthy elites punctuated by glimpses at something mysterious.

And then the mermaids show up. I especially loved the fact that they used sign language. The Little Mermaid losing her voice is traditional, and this story takes it seriously by having most of the people on the island use the mermaids’ sign language.

I really enjoyed this sweet, magical, and romantic tale.

Witches and Wolves

Reasons: F/F romance

Summary:

Life in the woods is usually fairly quiet, which suits Tory perfectly. She can focus on her witchcraft without the noise of the city or nosy neighbors, and the only visitor she gets is her ex-boyfriend—until late one night when she opens the door to find an unfamiliar wolf who promptly curls up in Tory’s bed and falls fast asleep.

Long used to wolves, Tory lets her be, and has no complaints at all when the morning reveals the wolf to be a beautiful woman. New to being a wolf, out in the woods to learn control and get more comfortable with her new life, Gee eagerly accepts when Tory offers to help her—and she doesn’t seem opposed to any other offers Tory might make.

But not everyone approves of werewolves, and Gee isn’t the only new visitor to the woods…

My Review:

(3/5 stars)

Witch Tory welcomes a werewolf into her forest house, and very soon afterward, she has to defend her new girlfriend from hunters.

I really loved the idea of a romance between a friendly witch and a werewolf girl, but this story ended up feeling a lot more ordinary than that. There was magic used in the fight with the hunters, and in Gee’s transformations, but otherwise the story just felt like a contemporary romance. That might have been the intended effect, but to me it seemed plain.

Even so, it was a happy story, and I liked watching the two girls grow close and protect each other.

In The Hours of Darkness

Reasons: M/M relationship

Summary:

On the frontier planet No Man’s Land, Sheriff Charlie Colcord upholds the law and protects the people of Deadwood Gulch. His job is difficult and often dangerous due to the vicious native creatures which inhabit the plains and mountains of Noman, but Charlie and his riders have one advantage: dragons.

But the dragons come with their own difficulties in the way of a secret known only to a few. Charlie is a man used to keeping secrets, and it’s not the dragons’ secret that keeps him up at night. His secret is known to only one other, and keeping it makes their lives complicated enough that hunting monsters on the plains of Noman is almost relaxing.

My Review:

(3.5/5 stars)

Noman is a planet where cowboys on dragons fight monsters, yet only a few know the dragons’ secret. As an introduction to a series, this story worked well to introduce the world and the characters. We get to see Charlie’s daily life: riding out to fight nasty creatures, wrangling the town’s young troublemaker, and his nights with his secret lover. Not much happened, but that’s probably not going to be the case in future installments. I’m looking forward to seeing where the stories take Charlie and Zorevan next!

(ARC received through Netgalley)

Review: Thrall

Reasons for Inclusion: Lesbian characters. Laret is trans and brown-skinned. Poly relationships are common (Aesa has three parents).

Publisher’s Summary: 

Like heroes from an ancient tale, Aesa and Maeve plan to raid foreign shores, claiming gold and glory for their homeland. Young and in love, neither considers what will happen if one is chosen to be a warrior and the other is left behind.

On a mist-shrouded island, Aesa meets Ell, a woman enslaved by an insidious curse. Maeve walks the path of dark magic and finds Laret, a woman well acquainted with pain. Together, they must break the magic surrounding Ell, an act that will force them to choose between their dreams, their homes, and the women they love.

My Review:

(4.5/5 stars)

“We are born thralls, and we die thralls. But in between, we can be anything.”

In Aesa’s world, men and women are warriors or witches, or thralls, common people bound to fate. Those who want to be more than thralls seek glorious destinies, but sometimes it isn’t as simple as they hoped.

Aesa has worked for years to be taken on by a thrain and join a raiding ship. She finally wins her chance when the glorious Gilka chooses her, but her lover Maeve is left behind.  As Aesa’s journey continues, the reality splits even further from her dreams. Gilka’s ship travels to a mysterious island to seek battles and treasure. They find fae on this island, and the human population split into two classes: the ruling shapti and the docile, passive fini. Gilka wants to fight, plunder, and leave, but Aesa can’t help but see the injustice. Is this what being a warrior is, following orders to murder and steal while leaving these people to suffer? Especially people like the fini, who can’t even choose their destiny as Aesa’s people do.

Aesa’s struggle, and the struggles and growth of the other three protagonists, were what really drew me into the story.

Maeve, the healer Aesa left behind, is a healer witch. But she doesn’t have a wyrd, the special magic ability every witch has. The community doesn’t see her as a true witch without one; she has no chance of joining a thrain’s crew. And when she meets Laret, she must balance her love for this new woman against her old love with Aesa, and her ruined hopes of a life together.

Laret has spent her whole life trying to be recognized as a woman. While Maeve’s people are far more accepting of her gender than her the people of her home country, it’s not the only thing that sets her apart. Laret is a blood witch, controlling powers that can be used to set evil curses. Though she uses this power to break curses set by other blood witches, some people still fear her abilities.

And then there’s Ell, a fini slave on the strange island. For all her life, she’s accepted her place serving the shapti and never even experiencing strong emotions. Aesa’s appearance sparks curiosity in her, and she begins to question her people’s way of life. Can the system of shapti and fini be overcome? What will happen if it is? And is that really what’s best?

In their adventures, the women must wrestle with issues of freedom, loyalty, and justice. The characters were likable, the issues complex, and the battles were exciting. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.

(ARC received from Netgalley)