Bookshelf Roundup 02/05/23: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on February 5, 2023 13 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
Thank you to Tor Books for a finished copy of Hopeland by Ian McDonald. The last time I read the author was his Luna series, and it’s been too long! Also thanks to the publisher for sending an ARC of Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini. If you’ve been following my Waiting for Wednesdays, it’ll come as no surprise that I’m so excited to check out this follow-up to To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, but it can be read as a standalone as a novel of the larger Fractalverse.
With thanks also to Head of Zeus and the kind folks at Kaye Publicity for offering me a review copy of City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. After the disappointment of Children of Memory I’m kind of looking forward to getting back to the author’s fantasy, and this one sounds amazing from all the reviews I see.
Courtesy of the teams at Thomas & Mercer and Wunderkind PR I also received a review copy of The Family Bones by Elle Marr, which was pitched to me as perfect for true crime and Knives Out fans. Honestly, it had me at locked-room mystery.
With thanks also to Subterranean Press for a couple of surprise ARCs this week: Ragged Maps by Ian R. MacLeod, a new collection including a never-before-published novelette, as well as another collection called The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness by James Tiptree, Jr. which collects numerous short fiction pieces that span the author’s long career.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60847626-the-last-tale-of-the-flower-bride
Quite a few new audiobooks in the digital haul this week. Courtesy of Brilliance Audio I received a listening copy of the fourth book of the Underwater Investigation Unit series Sea Castle by Andrew Mayne, and from HarperAudio I received a listening copy of The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi. The rest of my haul is thanks to Macmillan Audio, who sent me ALCs of Angel Maker by Alex North, Murder at Haven’s Rock by Kelley Armstrong, The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland, and Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton.
Reviews
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (4 of 5 stars)
The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (3 of 5 stars)
The Terraformeres by Annalee Newitz (2.5 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
Audiobook Review: Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
Posted on February 4, 2023 9 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Series: Book 2 of Alex Stern
Publisher: Macmillan Audio (January 10, 2023)
Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Narrators: Lauren Fortgang, Michael David Axtell
Hell Bent take us back to the verdant lawns of and ivy trimmed campuses of Yale, where protagonist Galaxy “Alex” Stern had gotten her second chance in life after pulling herself out of a downward spiral of drugs and chaos. Now at Lethe House, the ninth of the university’s secret societies, she has taken on the role of Virgil, whose duties include conducting magical rituals and keeping all that power in control. Oh right, and she can see ghosts.
At this point, if you haven’t read Ninth House yet, be aware this review may reference events and reveal possible from the previous book. For those who are caught up though, you may recall that we left things on a bit of a cliffhanger, with the disappearance of the former Virgil and Alex’s mentor, Darlington. As the story opens, it is made clear that he has been sent to hell, and it is uncertain if anyone would be able to bring him back. Alex, however, is determined to try. Researching together with Pamela Dawes, who as Lethe’s Oculus is the chief archivist, they come across a reference to the Gauntlet which is said to be a pathway to hell. But the secrets to this portal is closely guarded, as Alex soon discovers. The more she persists in her quest to get to Darlington, the more danger she seems to bring upon herself from all corners.
Hell Bent manages to capture everything that made Ninth House such a tautly suspenseful and gripping read while simultaneously improving upon some of these aspects. This time, the plot steps a little further away from the politicking of academia and the intrigue of secret societies (though rest assured there was still plenty of both!) to focus more on magical rituals and demonic elements. Needless to say, this made for an even more entertaining read, automatically put this sequel above the original in my eyes.
Alex also sees a lot of growth between the two books. We already know she’s a survivor, her character having lived through unspeakable trauma and abuse to come through on the other side—not unscathed but alive and extraordinarily evolved. One noticeable change is a softening of Alex’s personality as she comes off as less aloof and standoffish in this novel. This time, she has friends and close confidants with whom she feels comfortable working, and the effects are immediate: the conversations are easier, wittier, and more confident. Alex now has reason to be a better friend and person, and her complex feelings for Darlington also fuel her drive to get him back.
Then there are the demons. Hell Bent was certainly a more exciting read than Ninth House was, though the latter still reigns in terms of intrigue and mystery. But for pure action and nail biting suspense, the win goes to this sequel. Once the requirements of the Gauntlet ritual are made known, you can’t help but hang on every word wondering what might happen next. The plotting feels much tighter in Hell Bent, setting a quick pace early on that hardly wavers.
And finally, a huge shoutout to the wonderful audiobook narrators Lauren Fortgang and Michael David Axtell who reprise their roles from the first book. Once more they both delivered amazing performances and I hope there will be another sequel real soon—I would not hesitate to listen to Fortgang and Axtell again.
More on The BiblioSanctum:
Review of Ninth House (Book 1)
Book Review: The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
Posted on February 3, 2023 15 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
Mogsy’s Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Tor Books (January 31, 2023)
Length: 352 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
I wanted to like The Terraformers a lot more than I did. Needless to say, the premise, having been compared to the works of Becky Chambers and Martha Wells, immediately caught my attention. However, when taken as a whole, the execution of the novel made it a challenging one to embrace.
The story first starts by following Destry, a top network analyst working for the Environmental Rescue Team on the Earth-like planet Sask-E. Vat-grown specifically to perform her job, Destry’s duties include patrolling the surface of the planet overseeing terraforming efforts while riding on a bio-robotic moose mount named Whistle. So far, so awesome. But then Destry and her colleagues stumble upon a city hidden deep inside a volcano—a city that, if discovered by her superiors, would have deadly repercussions for everyone o Sask-E. Caught at a crossroads, Destry ultimately makes a choice that will ripple across generations and change everything for better or worse.
Skip forward then to hundreds of years later, the focus suddenly switches to a whole new direction. This first time jump was what started me down the path of disillusionment, realizing that not everything is as good as I believed it to be. It didn’t help that the author made me care about the characters and the scenario in the introduction, creating entire lives and histories, only to then turn around and pull the rug from under me, snatching me away from all the things I’d inevitably grown attached to. How rude!
Up to this point, the story had sensation of being heavily stage-managed, nothing really occurring organically, instead relying on character tropes and feel-good cliches—which wasn’t exactly a negative point against it. In fact, the vibes worked quite well for the lighthearted Wayfarers-type atmosphere and tone the novel was trying to establish. But the problem again arose with the abrupt and unceremonious way we were ripped from the first timeline, essentially hitting a reset button, and I was decidedly NOT as patient and forgiving the second time around. Almost immediately, characterization took a nosedive; for the rest of the book, I struggled to connect with anyone else for they all came across as either an embodiment of idealized goodness or pure depravity with no middle ground.
The tragedy of course is that The Terraformers contains much deeper ideas about environmental conservation, the concept of intelligence and what defines it, along with other such thought-provoking themes—even if the narrative sometimes goes about it in some goofy ass ways. Also, when they weren’t completely nonsensical, some of the messages in the book were laid on a bit too thick for my tastes. Still, in the end, none of it mattered anyway, because all of it was lost in the noise.
I honestly believe I would have enjoyed this novel more had it not been so frustrating. There were moments that truly shone, such as the first third of the book. Then there were the world-building elements involved, like the terraforming processes and engineered creatures, which were all very fascinating. The first section featuring Destry would have made an excellent standalone novella, for instance, or it could have been expanded into a more impactful novel. Instead, what The Terraformers ended up being was more like a collection of ideas cobbled together without a plot or focus to drive it. What ultimately made this book a middle-of-the-road read for me was its failure to pull it all together coherently, or for a overarching story to fully materialize. Rated 2.5 stars for potential unrealized.
Waiting on Wednesday 02/01/23
Posted on February 1, 2023 12 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
System Collapse by Martha Wells (November 14, 2023 by Tordotcom)
“The million-copy, New York Times bestselling Murderbot series is back in another full-length novel adventure!
Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.
Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back.
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.
But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!
Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.”
Book Review: The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Posted on January 30, 2023 10 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction
Series: Book 21 of Aloysius Pendergast
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (January 17, 2023)
Length: 416 pages
Author Information: Website
I have read a few Preston & Child novels in the past, but never any in the Aloysius Pendergast series. Needless to say, I’ve always been drawn to its mysteries which often feature elements of horror and the paranormal from what I’ve been told. So even though The Cabinet of Dr. Leng is the twenty-first book in this impressively long-running sequence, I was excited at the opportunity to read it when offered a review copy.
That said, I soon realized that what I’ve done is jump unknowingly into the middle of a mini-arc and that much of the events of the story was already in motion, having been set up in the previous book Bloodless. Fortunately though, the authors do such a good job catching you up that the entire experience felt practically seamless for a newcomer like me. The book introduces Aloysius Pendergast and his love interest Constance, who has made a bold move in trying to change her past. Amazingly, her quest has brought her to late 1800s New York City where she plans on tracking down Dr. Enoch Leng, the monster who had taken everything she loved and destroyed her life. But even after disguising herself and covering her tracks, her enemy is a formidable foe who won’t be long fooled.
Meanwhile, back in the present day, Pendergast is determined to give Constance all the advantage he can. Enlisting the help of his friend NYPD Lieutenant Commander Vincent D’Agosta, they try to find a way back to her. And in the FBI, Pendergast’s colleague Special Agent Armstrong Coldmoon is assigned to a bizarre case involving a murder and an attempted theft at a museum.
There are many threads unfolding here, and for the most part they remain separate, as expected for a larger story arc in progress. This simultaneously made things easier to follow but also was a source of confusion wondering how all the pieces are supposed to fit together. As I said, the authors are considerate in keeping the separate plotlines as straightforward and simply as they can, but there is another factor in play here: Time travel.
The Cabinet of Dr. Leng is a mixture of mystery, thriller, and science fiction. I knew this this wasn’t going to be your typical series, but I confess I was still taken by surprise when time traveling came into the picture. Now, time traveling stories and I have a tricky relationship. I’m usually all for them, but they almost always come with a caveat to ignore any plot holes or absurd explanations that might arise. I feel the book handles the logistics behind time travel and the concept of multiple universes well enough, but without spoiling anything, I also thought that in the process of laying everything out there were sections I felt were too drawn out or completely unnecessary. Sometimes it’s better to let your readers’ imaginations do the work, but that’s just my opinion based on personal preference and I do tend to nitpick a lot when it comes to time travel stories.
Also beware that once you start this book, you’ve pretty much committed yourself to reading the next one as well, as this is pretty obviously the first half of a two-parter. That would also explain how Coldmoon’s thread sort of just hangs there, and I assume his character will take on a much greater role in the follow-up. But there’s plenty more I also want to know, given how the book ends. Preston & Child have created a simply diabolical and creeptastic villain in Dr. Leng, and just thinking about what he did to Constance and her family makes my skin crawl. Some of our characters were left in quite a bind, and I will be waiting with curiosity to see what plot developments will emerge, what solutions will present themselves.
Bookshelf Roundup 01/29/23: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on January 29, 2023 22 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
But first, THORIN UPDATE! Puppy is getting so big now!
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
Some interesting new books hitting my mailbox earlier this month. With thanks to Tor Books for an ARC of The Warden by Daniel M. Ford. “For fans who have always wanted their Twin Peaks to have some wizards” is how this was described, and I also recently found out the author was local. Looking forward to checking it out.
Also thank you to Del Rey for a finished copy of Nocturne by Alyssa Wees, an unconventional retelling of Beauty & the Beast set in 1930s Chicago. This is one of my must-reads for February (wow, where did January go?!)
My thanks also to William Morrow for an ARC of City of Dreams by Don Winslow, the follow up to City on Fire which was the first book of a fiery crime trilogy about the Irish and Italian gang wars in New England during the 1980s. I expected a second book of course, given how the previous one ended, and I can’t wait to find out what happens next.
With thanks to the brand new imprint of Entangled Publishing, Red Tower Books, as well as Kaye Publicity, I received an ARC of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, described as an epic love story set to the backdrop of war and a military school for dragon riders. It’s always exciting to see a new fantasy imprint launch, and this New Adult “romantasy” sounds like a lot of fun!
From the amazing team at Minotaur Books I also received a surprise copy of The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz. My one and only experience with the author had been a YA horror novel about zombies, so I’m curious to try something of a different flavor by Mr. Hurwitz. This one is listed as the 8th book in the Orphan X series but many reviews report that it can be read as a standalone.
I also want to thank the kind folks at both 47North and Wunderkind for sending me a copy of Meru by S.B. Divya, the first book of a new space opera series about humans restricted to earth while their space-faring posthuman descendants discover a new Earth-like planet.
One new eARC in the digital haul this week, with thanks to Angry Robot for an early copy of The Judas Blossom by Stephen Aryan, the first book of a new fantasy saga which reimagines the Mongol Empire’s invasion of Persia. I’m excited to start it!
Reviews
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall (5 of 5 stars)
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2.5 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
Thriller Thursday Audio: What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Posted on January 26, 2023 19 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 5 of 5 stars
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Macmillan Audio (January 17, 2023)
Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Narrator: Karissa Vacker
I’ve never read any of Kate Alice Marshall’s YA books, but should she ever wish to make mystery thrillers her full-time thing, the genre would be lucky to have her! Her adult debut What Lies in the Woods was nothing short of amazing; my heart was in my throat from practically the start to finish of this enthralling read.
The story follows Naomi Shaw, one of three women whose lives were changed forever when they were just eleven years old. That summer, Naomi was stabbed seventeen times and left for dead. Along with her two friends, Cassidy and Olivia, who were also in the woods at the time, the trio provided the eyewitness testimony that put serial killer Alan Michael Stahl behind bars for life. More than two decades later, Naomi gets the news that Stahl has died in prison, reawakening many unpleasant memories. Needing to talk to her two best friends again, she travels back to her hometown of Chester to see Cass and Liv.
But upon her arrival, Liv is distraught, going on in an almost desperate panic about needing to come clean about a secret. Ever the more levelheaded of the group, Cass convinces her to wait until all the dust has settled surrounding Stahl’s death, but that very night, tragedy strikes. As Naomi’s emotions threaten to spiral out of control again, she must go back to that awful summer and relive the memories of what really happened in the woods that day, because the truth is, not all of it will match up with the evidence she and her friends provided in court.
Marshall handles the pacing of the plot so expertly, it’s like she was born to it. Sure, there were some predictable twists along the way, like when you sense something is wrong and expect the other shoe to drop, knowing it probably will. Still, most of what happened genuinely surprised me. Besides, the last half of the book was so packed with bombshells that ultimately you reach the point where surrendering yourself to the unrelenting madness becomes inevitable, and the feeling was simply euphoric.
It’s clear also that the author put her experience writing YA and middle grade to good use, though fair warning, things do get kind of dark. The backstory for Naomi, Cass, and Liv was done very well, focusing on the bond that was formed between the three of them when they were just young girls with vivid imaginations. Marshall does for them what Stephen King does for his characters with his stories about boyhood camaraderie. Outcasts in their own right, the girls had an obsession with Greek goddesses and pagan rituals, leading to a major discovery in the woods one day that will become their greatest secret and the lynchpin to this entire novel.
There’s so much more I could say, so much more praise I could give, but What Lies in the Woods is absolutely the type of psychological thriller where the less you know going in, the better. I also can’t say enough positive things about the audiobook. The amazing Karissa Vacker was the narrator, and she was also the voice behind another fantastic thriller I listened to recently, All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham. Well, it looks like this was another winner!
All told, I highly recommend What Lies in the Woods. It was at once exciting and unnerving, exhilarating and paralyzing. The story had me hooked and hanging onto every word.
Waiting on Wednesday 01/25/23
Posted on January 25, 2023 8 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
A Twisted Love Story by Samantha Downing (July 18, 2023 by Berkley)
“From the bestselling author of My Lovely Wife comes a reckless, delicious thriller about a young couple that gives a whole new meaning to the dangers of modern dating.
Wes and Ivy are madly in love. They’ve never felt anything like it. It’s the kind of romance people write stories about.
But what kind of story?
Because when it’s good, it’s great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears.
When it’s bad, it’s really bad. Vengeful fights. Damaged property. Arrest warrants.
But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconnections needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy–and she’s a detective.
There’s something Wes and Ivy never talk about–in good times or bad. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead.
If they can stick together, they can survive anything–even the tightening net of a police investigation.
Because one more breakup might just be their last…”
Book Review: Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Posted on January 24, 2023 20 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Mogsy’s Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Book 3 of Children of Time
Publisher: Orbit (January 31, 2023)
Length: 512 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
We have now reached the third book in the Children of Time series. If we travel back to the spring of 2017 when I read the first book, which incidentally was also my first novel by the author, I had to this to say: “Children of Time is one of the smartest, most remarkable and innovative science fiction novels I’ve read in years and now I can’t wait to read more by Adrian Tchaikovsky.”
Fast forward to today, and I find myself struggling to put my feelings into words about this latest installment. Because the truth is, if I was rating it solely on my enjoyment, I would be forced to rate this book much lower than I want to. As much as it pains me to say this, and I have a feeling this will be an unpopular opinion, but the story just didn’t do it for me. While the writing was superb, which is nothing less than I would expect from Tchaikovsky, I can’t say I really enjoyed myself. The most I can say about Children of Memory was that it was okay.
Set many years after the events of the previous book, Children of Ruin, this third volume in the sequence once more focuses on the different species of uplifted creatures as well as a line of enhanced Humans who have bonded closely with the arachnoid aliens known as Portiids. The octopoids have also come into their own to feature in a major role alongside a new race of life form discovered from the planet Nod, and the joining of these disparate spacefaring species has amazingly created a new society in which all of them coexist in relative peace. Together, they now look outwards to the greater universe beyond in search for even more civilizations and intelligences.
In their explorations, they come upon a colony where thousands of years before, their ancestors had arrived on the spaceship Enkidu carrying its precious cargo of sleeping passengers preparing to settle the planet. Instead of paradise though, the colonists found hostile conditions and hardship. Generations later, the descendants of a small cohort from the original crew of the Enkidu have still yet to make the planet completely habitable, but then that’s when the visitors arrive. They have come to help humanity’s colonies, or so they say, yet there’s more to them that meets the eye. But then, perhaps not all is as it seems with the colony either.
So, what made this a miss when the first book was such a hit? To be honest, I felt the series was already in decline with Children of Ruin, a sequel marred by uneven pacing and heavy exposition. Unfortunately, these issues have only gotten worse in Children of Memory. I felt the main plot dragged and was encumbered by over lengthy descriptions and too many meandering side discussions and other distractions. Ultimately, as much as I wanted to like this book, the story was made to feel unnecessarily complicated and difficult to follow at times.
Also more diluted in this installment was the “biopunk science” which put the first book on the map, especially with regards to the population biology and social organization aspect. The evolution of human culture took on a more central role, an intriguing topic in its own right, but just a little too off the track from what got me interested in the series in the first place. In as much as there is a main character, I was also not too impressed with Miranda. On the surface, the potential for this unusual character would appear to be limitless, but without spoiling anything, I suppose it shouldn’t have come as a shock that the character development might be on the weaker side.
Will there be more books after this? Well, seeing as the announcements of the sequels to Children of Time actually came as a surprise to me both times, I think it will be hard to say. But then, personally I saw little point in trying to improve or expand upon the already perfect, and we all know what they say about quitting while you’re ahead. I write all of this as someone who is a fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky, but as Children of Memory has proven to me, there’s little doubt that we are straying farther and farther away from everything I loved about the first book. If it does turn out we’ll get another sequel, I expect I’d probably be nervous instead of excited.
More on The BiblioSanctum:
Review of Children of Time (Book 1)
Review of Children of Ruin (Book 2)
Bookshelf Roundup 01/22/23: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on January 22, 2023 18 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
With thanks this week to sister imprints Redhook and Orbit Books for ARCs of a couple exciting upcoming releases this spring! First up is The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller. I know I should catch up with her previous series before jumping on board something new, but this historical fantasy sounds so good. Next up is The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart and for once I’m actually caught up on The Drowning Empire trilogy which is amazing, so you can imagine how excited I am to read this final installment.
From the kind folks at Tordotcom I also received an ARC of The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon, which first drew my attention because the author also wrote the Star Wars Visions: Ronin novel. But then I found out this one also has giant robots. From Nightfire, I also received Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder, a novel of eldritch and cosmic horror.
And finally, After the Rapture by Nany Stohlman is something a little different. I’m not usually one for flash fiction, but all the ones in this make up a larger narrative and can be read like a story. It’s a post-apocalyptic collection, of course. With thanks to Mason Jar Press and Roger Charlie for the review copy!
Some exciting new audiobooks in the digital haul this week! With thanks to Penguin Random House Audio, I received The Drift by C.J. Tudor which I dove into right away. I also picked up The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood because I am always up for some mythological fantasy, and Such Pretty Flowers by K.L. Cerra, a southern gothic thriller that also has a dash of horror.
Reviews
How to Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (4 of 5 stars)
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano (3.5 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
The BiblioSanctum 