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Necrobane: A Review

Daniel M. Ford blew me away last year when I got to read The Warden. At the time, I had said that I was hoping that I would get to spend more time in Aelis’s world soon, and guess what? Necrobane is here.

This book picks up immediately where The Warden left off, so heads up. Here there be spoilers.

Aelis is a necromancer and a noble scion. She’s a child raised in wealth in a large city, trained in magic and combat. In short, she is the antithesis of most of the people that she is, as a Warden, charged to protect. In her efforts to defend the village of Lone Pine, she accidentally activated an unknown number of animated dead of Mahlgren, necromancy-fueled remnants of the last war. While she was able to defeat the handful of skeletons that arose within the chamber she was exploring, she learned that there are far more similar crypts scattered throughout the realm. Now that they’re active, they’re likely to be heading in the direction of her new home. Just as the villagers were beginning to trust the outsider, now she’s got to warn them about an impending invasion of restless dead that are technically only emerging because of her actions.

Rather than leave the people of Lone Pine to fend for themselves, Aelis quickly hatches a plan to seek out a control mechanism that could potentially deactivate the entire enemy force. She narrows down the likely location to a stronghold of a fallen empire and gathers her allies. She may be a skilled and talented Necrobane, able to defeat animated dead with her own magic, but this struggle isn’t a solo venture. Up first, of course, is Maurenia. The half-elf is a skilled soldier and engineer, and her status as Aelis’s lover doesn’t hurt her chances to be invited along. Next is Timmuk, a dwarf merchant and a coworker of Maurenia’s on their last excursion across the frontier of Ystain. Last but not least is Tun, a half-orc woodsman who assisted Aelis on her previous adventure. Tun’s skill as a tracker is invaluable in their journey through the wilderness. Together, they hope to cut off any animated dead before they’re able to even approach Lone Pine. Ideally, they’ll put them down before any tensions between the humans and orcs along the frontier can be strained and reignite a war. Plus, maybe they’ll find some treasure along the way! As long, that is, as the control mechanism actually exists…

Ford’s writing and world-building remain top-notch throughout Necrobane, and it makes a spectacular continuation to the story established in The Warden. The stakes are higher now, and Aelis’s skills are going to be pushed to their limit if the party has any chance of succeeding. I am still wildly in love with this series, and will continue to recommend it for any fantasy fan who enjoys D&D and books like Gideon the Ninth and Legends & Lattes. I know at this point that we’re expecting a 3rd book in Aelis’s adventures in the near future, and I am ready for it.

My utmost thanks (once again) to Netgalley and Tor Publishing for access to an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review. Today is publication day, so go grab yourself a copy.

National Library Workers Day

Today is National Library Workers Day.
Today is a reminder that not everyone
Who works in a library is a librarian,
But the library doesn’t work without
All of them.

To keep a library running, you need people.
People who care about other people;
People who know how to find answers;
People who know how to fix things;
People who know how to clean things;
People who want to help;
People who want to learn and grow;
People who aren’t afraid of change;
People who are courageous in the
Face of people who would sow fear;
People who are good with money;
People who are good with kids;
People who are good with teens;
People who are good with adults;
People who are good with seniors;
People who are artistic;
People who are young and old;
People who are there to build others
Up, not merely themselves;
People who long to tear down
Hatred, not stoke its flames;
People who want to share in their
Community;
People who have seen the struggles
Faced by libraries in the past who can
Guide them into the future;
Skeptics and believers;
Leaders and followers;
People who exist within and without
All of the categories that so many strive
To create to enforce a rigid order;
Night owls and early birds;
People who want to use the library’s
Services and expand them;
Shushing people, laughing people;
The people whose eyes grow wide
With sheer wonder when they see
Everything that a library can be;
People who want to make the library
A place that is truly welcoming and
Safe.

Because without all of these people doing
What they do, a library
Isn’t a library. It’s just a building full of books.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In: A Review

Shesheshen woke up early, and is understandably upset. Her hibernation in her lair was interrupted by a trio of would-be monster hunters, and she was only able to kill and eat one of them before the others escaped. Using some of the dead hunter’s remains (and other bits of the ruins where she lives), the shape-shifter is able to build herself a bit of human-like body framework so that she can sneak down into the nearby town to see what’s changed since she was last awake. Borrowed bits of flesh and bone give her body more of the appropriate shape, allowing her to fake her way through some interactions. When her disguise fails in the middle of a festival celebrating her imminent death, she’s chased back out of town. The crowd, including the two survivors of the raid on her lair, pursue her until she falls off of a cliff.

Upon her next awakening, she’s startled by the presence of a human woman who has treated her wounds, wrapped her in blankets, and stoked a fire. The woman, an outsider not from the village, introduces herself as Homily. Before the monster can really focus on what’s happened, she’s being fed soup and entreated to rest by a woman who is clearly oblivious to Shesheshen’s monstrous nature, taking any oddities about her as symptoms of having just fallen over a cliff. Homily loads her into a cart and strikes off back to town. Soon, she’s in Homily’s room at a local inn until she can finish convalescing. A couple of things strike Shesheshen, then. First, the people of the village seem terrified of Homily. Second, she is beginning to feel… feelings. An odd sort of mutual attraction seems to be blooming between Homily and the woman she knows as Siobhan. Homily feels a genuine attraction to the monster she’s rescued, but she has no idea what Siobhan actually is.

As the two are getting to know each other and growing closer, though, the reason for Homily’s presence in Underlook comes to light. She’s the daughter of the Baroness Wulfyre, one of the family that rules the isthmus where Shesheshen lives. She’s also a master monster hunter in her own right, and had come to the village to assist her brother in hunting down the Wyrm of Underlook. Unfortunately for her, her brother Catharsis was the monster hunter that Shesheshen devoured before she and Homily met, and all of her remaining relatives believe that Shesheshen has cursed their line. Now Shesheshen is torn. Does she continue her charade or reveal her monstrous nature to Homily and hope that she can be forgiven for who she is? She’s finally met someone who might be a suitable host for her eggs, but if Homily figures out her identity, siding with her admittedly toxic family means Shesheshen’s death.

John Wiswell has released a brilliant debut novel with Someone You Can Build a Nest In. It’s a delightfully bizarre fantasy romance told from the perspective of a monster, and I’m utterly entranced by it. His descriptions of Shesheshen’s odd morphology and attempts to human are charming and disturbing simultaneously, and the Wulfyre clan (barring Homily) are suitably horrible. All in all, it’s an unconventional love story that will leave you questioning what relationships can be, and whether we can grow to become more than what our parents expect us to become.

My utmost thanks to NetGalley and DAW for an eARC of this title in exchange for a fair review. Someone You Can Build a Nest In is out in stores today, 4/2/24. Check it out.

The Angel of Indian Lake: A Review

It’s Halloween in Proofrock, Idaho, and all of the ghosts are coming home.

It’s been almost four years since Dark Mill South rampaged through the town, just over eight since the Independence Day Massacre. Jade Daniels, survivor of both of these incidents, is now out of prison and back in her home town, finding a new place to… well, to exist. She can’t be said to be thriving, but that’s to be expected in a town that still largely blames her for the slaughters. She’s taken a position teaching history at the high school, carrying on the legacy of her favorite teacher. History’s a good subject for the girl who needs to know about all of Proofrock’s dangers, after all. Stacy Graves. Ezekiel. Drown Town. After all, she faced down killers twice and lived. Now she’s got medication and therapy, and she’s finally working her way through her trauma (at least as far as the murders go).

But now, The Angel of Indian Lake is the third book in Jade’s story, and that means it’s time for Scream 3’s trilogy rules:

1.) “You’ve got a killer who’s gonna be superhuman. Stabbing him won’t work, shooting him won’t work. Basically in the third one, you gotta cryogenically freeze his head, decapitate him, or blow him up.”

2.) “Anyone, including the main character, can die.”

3.) “The past will come back to bite you in the ass. Whatever you think you know about the past, forget it. The past is not at rest! Any sins you think were committed in the past are about to break out and destroy you.”

On Friday, October 13th, 2023, two of Proofrock’s teens went missing, along with one’s younger brother. Because it has to begin on Friday the 13th. Those disappearances become more significant when bodies are found on Halloween. Jade herself initially dismisses the vanishing teens, even though the older two are her students. Before the bodies are found, she can write it off as a young couple who have taken off to find their fortunes somewhere beyond Idaho, or maybe to save a little brother off to find his errant father. She tries to convince herself that it’s only a coincidence, that a new slasher cycle isn’t starting. It can’t start now, not when Proofrock’s final girl, Letha Mondragon-Tompkins, is out of town. But things are starting to pile up.

There’s a wildfire burning in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and many of the residents of Proofrock are leaving town. The wealthy soon-to-be residents of Terra Nova, across the lake from Proofrock, are desperate to save their under-construction homes from the blaze. They’ve offered a cash reward to anyone who stays to help create a firebreak: $1500 to anyone taking an axe, $3000 to anyone taking a chainsaw. Soon, an impromptu fire brigade has assembled out in the woods, and someone—or something—is stalking them. Local game warden, Seth Mullins, was supposed to be in the fire watchtower, but he’s gone off-grid (and may be the source of the fire). Banner Tompkins, Letha’s husband and Proofrock’s current sheriff, is hoping to set out to the far side of the lake to find Mullins, leaving his and Letha’s daughter Adie at the police station with his secretary. What Banner knows, though, is that several dead bodies have been found, and all signs indicate that they’re Jade’s missing students. Despite Jade’s insistence that there’s not a new slasher in town, Banner isn’t so sure. As the day wears on, things are only going to get worse, and as the rules state, anyone can die this time around.

Stephen Graham Jones has knocked it out of the park with The Angel of Indian Lake. It’s a spectacular, gory finish to the series that instilled me with a love of slasher films. I’ve been a fan of Jones’ writing since I first picked up Mapping the Interior, and this book is a brilliant showcase of his skill. Setting the primary action over the course of a single night and shifting narration fully to Jade’s first-person perspective, he’s pulled all the stops and no punches as Jade breathlessly races toward her destiny. The time of Proofrock’s reckoning is at hand, and for Jade, it’s personal. Let’s go.

My utmost thanks to Saga Press and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a fair review. The Angel of Indian Lake is out today. Go get yourself scared.

Cascade Failure: A Review

There’s no family like found family. I adore found family stories, and I love sci-fi, and that means that L.M. Sagas’ debut novel, Cascade Failure, was right up my alley.

Jal is a mutant, genetically engineered to work in space mines. He’s stronger and faster than a normal human, and on top of that, he can see ridiculously well in the dark (though he needs to wear special tinted lenses any time he’s in standard lighting). He’s also on the run. The Guild, one of the three major powers in the galaxy, thinks he’s a deserter from his unit. All he wants to do is get back to his sister and niece, the only family he still has.

Eoan is an artificial intelligence. They’re the captain of the Guild ship Ambit, and because they’re an AI, they are able to take on jobs for the Guild that a lot of other captains won’t risk. Nash is a modified human who serves on the Ambit as combination medic and engineer. She keeps the old, rusty ship in the sky and keeps the crew on their feet. Saint is the big guy, equal parts brawler and pilot, and a former soldier who once served alongside Jal. Together, the three have been doing alright. When Eoan spots Jal skulking through a space station where the Ambit is docked, they decide to take a chance, luring him on board. After a brief confrontation, Jal reluctantly agrees to accompany them to the Guild’s council of captains so that they can try to clear his name.

On the way, the Ambit picks up a distress call. The source turns out to be a dead planet, where something has gone horribly wrong with the terraforming (or maybe horribly right). There, the crew finds a young engineer who believes that she has found evidence of a massive conspiracy between the two other galactic powers, the corporate Trust and the labor collective Union. She believes that she can fix the terraforming problem that killed the world she was found on. She’s going to need Jal, Saint, Nash, and Eoan’s help to do it, and stopping the death of more planets might just get them all killed in the process.

Sagas’ writing is strong, and the characters of Cascade Failure are solid, moving beyond standard sci-fi archetypes. It’s a fun and engaging sci-fi thriller that’s perfect for fans of things like Cowboy Bebop and The Murderbot Diaries. It’s out from Tor Publishing Group today, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

My utmost thanks to Tor and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

The Last Bloodcarver: A Review

Once in a while, a book will come along that just surprises the hell out of me in the best way. The Last Bloodcarver is one of those books. The city of Theumas is heavily industrialized, pushing the limits of technology and science. Nhika is struggling to get by, peddling oils and herbs and generally posing as a healer. Thing is? She actually can heal people, reading someone’s body with a single touch to diagnose them. Nhika is a heartsooth, in the tongue of her people. The citizens of Theumas, however, fear the abilities she wields, and call her a bloodcarver. The power to manipulate a a body requires only energy and knowledge, and when Nhika has both, she can be deadly. However, she would far rather honor the memories of her lineage, her deceased parents and grandparents, and all the other heartsooths from the island of Yarong that have gone before her. Nhika is the last surviving member of her family, and to the best of her knowledge, the last heartsooth.

When a scam job goes wrong, Nhika ends up in the clutches of The Butchers, a gang of thieves who deal in rare animals. As far as they’re concerned, a proven bloodcarver is just that, and they plan to sell her to the highest bidder. That bidder turns out to be a 15-year old girl named Mimi. Nhika is whisked away from Butcher’s Row to an elaborate estate and introduced to Mimi’s brother Andao, the and informed that they are the children and heirs of one of Theumas’ leading tech magnates. Their father has died, and they suspect foul play. Only one man was witness to what happened to Mr. Congmi on the night he died, and that witness is now in a coma. It is with the desperate hope that he might have memories of the death that Mimi and Andao sought out Nhika and her abilities. If Nhika can heal him, he might be able to tell the siblings what actually happened to their father.

Nhika must soon begin to navigate the upper echelons of a society that would kill her for her talents, learning more about medicine and politics in order to blend in at the Congmi estate. How long she can keep her secret when the grounds are buzzing with people? Was Mr. Congmi’s death really just an accident? Is that doctor’s young aide flirting with her? Will she be able to find peace in her family’s traditions when everyone she loved is dead?

Vanessa Le has created an enthralling world in The Last Bloodcarver. Using her own Vietnamese heritage as a background, she’s wound magic and history together in an immediately engaging story. This book starts off fast and doesn’t let up. This is planned as book one of a duology, too, and I’m already looking forward to the follow-up work.

The Last Bloodcarver is out from MacMillan today. My utmost thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

A Failure of Memory

I was sad yesterday,
Because a conversation
Turned to you, and I
Could not find the memory.
My mother and my
Oldest sister talked
About watching you play
Cards at the folding
Tables in the church
Basement, and it just
Wasn’t there, and I
Felt as though I had
Done you a disservice.
But in trying to find
A memory that I may
Not have been old
Enough to form, I found
So many more thoughts
Of you, and the love
You showed for your
Grandson. And in those
Other memories of you,
I think I’ve found joy.

The Passing of a Legend

My introduction to the work of Akira Toriyama came in the form of Dragon Ball Z, specifically the Cell Saga, when I was visiting my cousins in Denver. We didn’t have cable at home, and so Cartoon Network was a rare enough treat, but the Toonami block was extra special. From Steve Blum voicing the host, Tom, to Kyle Hebert’s narration, I was almost immediately hooked. I had seen some depictions of the characters before (on pogs, of all things), but I had no idea who they were, or why one guy had black hair in one picture but blonde hair in another until my cousins showed me their new favorite show.

I was hooked almost immediately, and started learning everything I could about the characters. I watched every episode that aired during that visit. We played Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout on the PS1. We started to collect and play the Dragon Ball Z card game (my first starter decks were Cell Saga Gohan and Cell Saga Android 18). We played with the array of action figures they’d gotten from KB Toys. They started recording the show on VHS for me so that I could borrow the tapes from them when I wasn’t in Denver. We started a long-running game where we played as our favorite characters (I was Trunks, the time-traveling, sword-wielding badass in a cool jacket) and pretended to fight on their trampoline.

Over the next few years, I would expand my anime and manga horizons to new series by creators who talked about how much they were influenced by Dragon Ball as kids. I got to meet voice actors at conventions who launched their careers working on the dubs of DBZ (some Ocean Group, some Funimation). My earliest forays into manga-style drawing were fanart pieces of Dragon Ball characters. I sought out Toriyama’s non-Dragon Ball works as well, like Sandland (a brilliant single volume story). I started to recognize his hand in things like the Dragon Quest series and Chrono Trigger.

I found out in the middle of my workout last night that Toriyama-san had died. I regret that I never had the opportunity to meet him, but he was never one for public life. Regardless, I’m beyond grateful for his work, and for the impact that he had on the industry. He will be sorely missed.

The Butcher of the Forest: A Review

I read Premee Mohamed’s The Butcher of the Forest yesterday, and I’m pretty sure I’m not okay. It’s a fantastic novella, and that’s the problem. It’s too good, and now it’s done.

Veris lives in the valley that is ruled over by the Tyrant. She spends her days raising rabbits and helping her aunt and her grandfather with gardening and other tasks around the house. Most days, that would be more than enough, but today is not like most days.

Today, Veris was shaken out of bed by the Tyrant’s soldiers attempting to tear down her front door. Today, she was put into a carriage and taken to the Tyrant’s castle. Today might be the last day of her life. Last night, the Tyrant’s two children, Eleonor and Aram, vanished into the woods that lie north of the castle. Where the southern woods are often traveled by foragers and hunters, the northern woods are understood by the locals to be dangerous. No one who goes into the northern woods comes out again. Except, that is, for Veris.

Years ago, Veris ventured into those woods to rescue a child, and they both returned. Somehow, that information made its way to the ears of the Tyrant, and now he has had his soldiers drag her to the castle. Today, he has ordered her to find his children and bring them back home, or her life and those of her aunt and grandfather are forfeit. So it is with rapidly dwindling hope that Veris returns to her house to prepare. The northern woods are more dangerous than anyone other than her knows, and all she can do is try. Today, she will gather up her totems and supplies, and she will go to the woods. Today, she will risk everything she has in order to save it from the Tyrant’s whims. Today, she will try to save the children of a monster.

The Butcher of the Forest is quick and beautiful and painful as a knife through the ribs. Premee Mohamed has created a fairy tale to rival legends, with fae creatures and monsters and all the rules one must follow in order to survive. My utmost thanks to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for an eARC in exchange for a fair review. It’s available for purchase on February 27th, but if you can, preorder it through your favorite bookstore today. You’ll thank yourself.

The Trials of Empire: A Review

Richard Swan’s Empire of the Wolf series caught my attention almost immediately when I first saw the cover of The Justice of Kings. It’s hard to miss a cover like that when you’re 1.) a fantasy fan and 2.) a library employee. I picked up the audio books via Libby last summer, when I realized that a second book was out, and now I’ve had the immense privilege of returning once again to the Sovan Empire with book #3.

The Empire of the Wolf is told from the perspective of Helena Sedanka, an orphan who was been taken in and trained by Sir Konrad Vonvalt, an Emperor’s Justice. In that position, he serves as travelling judge, jury, and when needed, executioner, carrying out the will of the courts wherever he may be. Helena acts as his legal clerk and apprentice, producing documentation of their efforts and learning the intricacies of the Sovan legal system along the way. For some time, they were both content to travel the northern reaches of the empire, but an encounter with a zealous church official, Patria Bartholomew Claver, changed everything.

Claver sought a return to the days when the Church of Nema controlled the powers now held by the Order of Justices: ancient magics that could be used to compel action, the ability to confer with the dead, command over wildlife. All of these and more had once officially been the exclusive realm of the church, but they had been taught to the Justices to aid their work. Frustrated by the lack of action from the majority of the Church, Claver found his way to darker places, making bargains with powers that he didn’t truly understand in order to bring about the change he desired. Now, he seems to have set his sights on control of the Empire itself, no matter what demon or deity he has to bargain with to make it happen. He sits at the head of an army of Templars poised to strike down the Emperor, ostensibly in Nema’s name.

Now, Vonvalt’s own unshakable faith in the Common Law is beginning to break. In his attempts to thwart Claver, he has become persona non grata, believed to be responsible for the death of the Emperor’s grandson. A rebellion against the Magistratum has reached its zenith, and the justices are by and large disbanded or dead. Vonvalt will find no safe haven in the capital. What he and Helena need most are more allies who can withstand Claver’s burgeoning Templar army. A journey far beyond the borders of Sova might be able to accomplish just that, but acquiring the aid they need may prove deadly. Such travels will need to be made not only on the material plane but in the various realms accessible only through the ancient magics. Helena and Vonvalt will place their lives and their souls on the line in order to defeat Claver, but it might not be enough to save the empire. Loyalties will be questioned, near-death experiences will be had, and trickster gods will play their hands at last. It’s going to be messy.

Richard Swan brings his fantasy trilogy to a powerful conclusion in The Trials of Empire. His strength in blending traditional elements of western fantasy with jurisprudence makes for compelling reading, especially for someone raised on Lord of the Rings and John Grisham like me. The Empire of the Wolf hews far closer to A Song of Ice and Fire than to LOTR, but the comparison stands. I have enjoyed this series more with each book, and I’m thrilled to say that The Trials of Empire is out on shelves today. You should check it out.

My utmost thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for an eARC of The Trials of Empire in exchange for a fair review.