source: Tor.com

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss

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Started: 3/17/19
Finished: 3/21/19

First in the Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series, we have Dr. Jeckyll’s daughter teaming up with Holmes and Watson in 1890s London to find the murderous Mr. Hyde and get the monetary reward because poor Miss Jeckyll is dead broke.  The book is being written by a character we don’t meet (in the narrative, anyway) until much later in the book, but we know she’s writing it right away because the other characters have conversations with her about the narrative, within the narrative.  It’s loads of fun.

Update: NOPE. It started out fun and interesting, but the writing style got really irritating (although not the interruptions from characters – that was still mostly fun).  It’s full of exposition, all tell and no show, and it’s all happening in the dialogue, which makes the dialogue really clunky and painful to read.  It’s a pity.  I really wanted to like this book.

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

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Started: 3/6/19
Finished: 3/9/19

This is the first in a trilogy about a Regency period noblewoman with parents who died scandal-ridden, who, as she turns 18 and starts her first season in London, finds out she’s got this supernatural power to fight nasty demon-types, and she might just have to save the world (but not in book 1).  And of course, her mentor is a smoldering earl accused of murdering his wife.  Such fun!

The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman

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Started: 3/1/19
Finished: 3/6/19

This is a post-apocalyptic world where nearly all white people died and the people who live die by the time they’re 20 (of what sounds like the plague), so the world is populated by kids.  The language is all dialect or pidgin, hard to get used to, but you get there.  It’s told in the first person, so that language is all you get.  It’s sometimes hard to remember that the main character is only 15. At other times, it’s painfully obvious and terribly sad that they’re all just children.  I was having trouble deciding if I liked it, or even if I thought it was good, and since I finished it over a week ago and I can’t let it go, I think that’s a yes on both counts (although I’m not crazy about the VERY end).

Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

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Started: 2/7/19
Finished: 2/14/19

I liked the opening framing device more than I liked the rest of the story, although it was interesting.  I didn’t love it – I feel like there were so many more stories to tell here, and the one tertiary story the author included basically only had an end.  It was missing the beginning and the middle, which took all of the emotion (which I was clearly supposed to feel) out of it.

The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick

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Started: 2/5/19
Gave up: 2/7/19

This could have been (and might be, to a different reader) an interesting story about belonging and ownership of self and taking action to control your life, but it felt like several stories all muddled together.  It starts in a factory with child labor, but it leaves there quickly (and abruptly), with no sign any of that will be revisited.  Then it switches to a school, with great details about tiny things that appear to have nothing to do with the plot (but they’re neat).  In both settings so far, there are off-hand crude comments involving sexualizing young girls that I found really disturbing.  We’re following one main character, but I have no idea what she’s going to do or even what she wants to do.  I gave it up.

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

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Started: 2/4/19
Gave up: 2/7/19

This is a horror story set in a store that is identical to Ikea, but isn’t Ikea.  The premise is kind of funny, but the novelty wears off quickly.  And then the story got actually scary (or scary enough), so I stopped reading it at night, and then I found I didn’t care enough to pick it back up during the day.  No ringing endorsement here.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

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Started: 1/23/19
Gave up: 1/25/19

This is the first book in the Craft Sequence.  I wanted to like it, but I couldn’t get into the story.  I didn’t find the characters particularly interesting, and the pacing was odd, so I wasn’t feeling involved.  I gave up after a couple of days of avoidance.

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

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Started: 1/13/19
Finished: 1/14/19

The Goblin King in this book is SO very David Bowie, which is great.  I think the characterization of the main character shifts halfway through, and not for the better.  Her motivations aren’t consistent, and she gets all worked up about things that could be resolved if she would just TALK to the guy.  Same goes for him, of course.  On the other hand, she’s a teenager, and she’s acting like a teenager, so maybe I should be praising the author for her realism instead.

One Way by S.J. Morden

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Started: 12/30/18
Finished: 1/3/19

The Mars base has to be built, but it’s risky and dangerous, so let’s get convicts with life sentences to do it.  Pretty good, but the main character has this lack of curiosity (that gets lampshaded in the story) that means I was frustrated when he wouldn’t take the next logical step.  A built-in character flaw is one thing, but when that character is the reader stand-in, it’s hard not to see it as a clumsy attempt to keep the reader from figuring out what’s going on.  There’s a sequel.  I might read it.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

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Started: 12/27/18
Finished: 12/30/18

It got rave reviews, but now that I’ve read it, I’m not sure why.  The story jumps from section to section, there are parts that don’t fit at all, and we’re inside the main character’s head, but the character’s not fully developed.  There’s too much telling instead of showing, and at the same time not enough telling to understand her motivations.

Mother of Invention by Caeli Wolfson Widger

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Started: 12/14/18
Finished: 12/17/18

Set in the near future, it’s about a biotech company looking for ways to improve pregnancy and early motherhood.  It took a weird turn at the end, had one big block of exposition that I found irritating, and wrapped too neatly and quickly.  The ending didn’t make sense for two of the male characters.

The End of the Day by Claire North

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Started: 11/27/18
Gave up: 12/1/18

Someone visits people before Death does.  Could have been good, but there’s no plot (I got a quarter of the way in – nothing) and the main character isn’t interesting enough to carry the book without a sense of purpose to what action there is.  Gave it up.

The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt

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Started: 10/13/18
Finished: 10/25/18

Not great.  Again, it’s the writing.  The story is fine, but there’s SO much exposition dumped into dialogue, there’s lampshading which only serves to point out small inconsistencies or weirdnesses that I might not have noticed without it, and there’s too much telling and not showing.  Callie’s an expert at this or that?  Show me, don’t tell me.  I will not be continuing this series.

The Black Company by Glen Cook

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Started: 10/11/18
Gave Up: 10/13/18

I’d been looking forward to reading this – grimdark fantasy series with a mercenary army – but the writing style was impossible.  I wasn’t getting any information about the characters, the action scenes were muddled.  I couldn’t tell what was happening, who it was happening to, or why I should care.  Good reasons to give up reading it.

Mindtouch by M.C.A Hogarth

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Started: 9/15/18
Finished: 9/20/18

What a pleasant surprise this was.  I heard of it in a Tor.com article about books with ESP, and it’s certainly that, but it’s also just a really nice book.  There’s no action, not a lot of drama.  The characters are all aliens and engineered species, but it’s about people who are different finding each other and learning how to cope with new things and becoming friends.  I was totally engrossed and happy to realize it’s the first in the Dreamhealers series.