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Daily Archives: March 19th, 2024

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.