*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc A Desolation Called Peace – Book 2 of the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #ADesolationCalledPeacebookreview

I loved the first book A Memory Called Empire – see my review, which made my Outstanding Reads of 2020, so I was thrilled to be approved to read this one.

BLURB: An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.

In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity. Whether they succeed or fail could change the fate of Teixcalaan forever.

REVIEW: First of all, if you happened to pick this one up without first reading A Memory Called Empire, then put it down and go looking for the first book. This one picks up more or less immediately after the first book finishes, featuring the same characters and continuing the same narrative arc. So you’ll probably flounder and given that the writing style is dense, layered and challenging, you won’t enjoy or appreciate it as you should.

I liked that we got more of Mahit and Three Seagrass, though at the start I was worried in case Three Seagrass wouldn’t feature so much. I love the fact that they are both human, separated by differing cultures that make it very difficult to understand each other. Though at times, it’s easy to forget that – until they are confronted by an alien presence whose thinking and values is utterly different. And devastatingly lethal… That’s all I’m going to say about the plot, as I don’t want to venture into Spoiler territory.

It was interesting to further explore some of the characters who had only walk-on parts in A Memory Called Empire – particularly Eight Antidote, the young emperor-in-waiting. Seeing this eleven-year-old desperately trying to live up the expectations of his tutors and the empress Nineteen Adze was both poignant and gave us a ringside seat to the machinations of Teixcalaan politics, which is truly a shark tank of conflicting loyalties and ambitions. I also enjoyed following Nine Hibiscus, now promoted to be the ultimate warleader in charge of the armada of the fleet sent out to engage the alien threat. Her relationship with Twenty Cicada, her loyal No. Two who went through training alongside her is strikingly close – he is probably the only person she completely trusts… Which made the ending bittersweet and left me with a lump in my throat.

The aliens were very well depicted – it’s a big ask to successfully give an effective sense of ‘other’, but Martine triumphantly succeeds in doing so. This isn’t a foot-to-the-floor, action-packed story, as the writing is too dense and layered to move the story along at the usual brisk clip we’re accustomed to seeing with space opera adventures. But I think it works, nonetheless. For me, there was one jarring note that caused me to knock off a point – the steamy sex scene. There were a couple of details too much. I don’t know why we were treated to such a graphic scene, as the first book didn’t tend to linger on the sexuality of the characters in general and it was an unwelcome surprise. However, it isn’t a dealbreaker as I’m aware that although it is only February, this is probably going to be one of the best books I’ll read in 2021. Highly recommended if you enjoy reading space opera featuring beautifully depicted, complicated characters and an amazing world. While I obtained an arc of A Desolation Called Peace from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Friday Faceoff – Who doesn’t want to fly around in a spaceship? #Brainfluffbookblog #FridayFaceoffspacebattlecovers

This meme was started by Books by Proxy, whose fabulous idea was to compare UK and US book covers and decide which is we prefer. This meme is being nurtured by Lynn’s Book Blog and this week we are featuring covers with SPACE BATTLES. I’ve selected Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke.

Ballentine, September 1975

This offering was produced by Ballantine in September 1975. And no… I know there aren’t any spaceships as such – or are there??? Look carefully at those twinkles in the sky – they are far too regular and in formation to be anything other than an armada of ships about to attack this peaceful colony! This one is a very close contender. I love the artwork, the lighting and the funky font – and the vintage feel of it. If it wasn’t for the next cover, this one would be my favourite.

Del Rey Book, October 1977

Published in October 1977 by Del Rey Books, this is my favourite. I love the really clever, creative use of the author and title fonts, where the spaceship seems to flying under it. The use of the strong reds, oranges and the sizzling yellow of the explosion down near the bottom of the cover and right in the middle, gives both a pleasing symmetry and grabs my attention. This is such a cool, imaginative design that consciously harks back to an earlier time. Why don’t we see more fonts like this nowadays? It sings out in thumbnail and looks really effective.

Thai edition, March 2018

This Thai edition, published by สำนักพิมพ์เวลา in March 2018, is a more muted affair. But it is an effective cover, nonetheless. The darker sky allows us to see the battle raging overhead, which looks beautiful from the planet surface. I also like the colony building in the foreground – this is a more modern version of the first cover. However, I’m not convinced about the title font, which simply disappears into the cover when in thumbnail.

This Persian edition, published in 1994 by پاسارگاد, is another strong offering, particularly if you are a fan of space battles (I am!). We have the Moon to the right and Earth near the centre of the cover and an exploding ship lighting up the whole scene in a really dramatic way. While I love the design, I would have preferred to see more made of the title font, with a more contrasting colour and maybe a bit bigger.

Orion Publishing Group, August 2012

This edition, produced by the Orion Publishing Group in August 2012, is cleverly disturbing. A planet or the Moon is in the foreground, while a molten blob that looks like a planet in mid-implosion provides most of the backdrop. Putting the lettering against the blazing yellow of the lava would have been an even smarter move if they hadn’t used such a very wussy font that immediately disappears. And I loathe that text strip near the bottom of the cover, announcing it is Gateway Essentials… really? They couldn’t have just coloured the font white and let the contrast provide the necessary visibility? Because that nasty yellow stripe immediately draws the eye away from the drama, compromising the impact of the design. Such a shame! Meanwhile, do let me know which is your favourite.

Review of INDIE Ebook The Valhalla Call – Book 4 of the Hayden War Cycle by Evan Currie #Brainfluffbookreview #TheValhallaCallbookreview #SciFiMonth2020

I really enjoy Currie’s writing – see my reviews of the first two book in The Scourwind Legacy series – Heirs of Empire and An Empire Asunder. But during the last year, I’ve chosen to follow his military sci fi series, featuring super-soldier Aida Sorilla, given it’s light years away from our current worries. See my reviews of On Silver Wings, Valkyrie Rising, and Valkyrie Burning. I am linking this review to #Sci Fi Month 2020.

BLURB: Lieutenant Sorilla Aida has a new mission and new allies, gear, and support as she is tasked with a job that could ensure that the human race stands a chance of reaching a technical parity with the mysterious alien alliance. Humans and SOLCOM are not the only ones making moves, however, and the Alliance has brought up their varsity to end the little side war before it gets out of hand. Are they really interested in humanity or human worlds, however, or is something more at play?

REVIEW: If you have encountered this offering before reading any of the previous books in this series, my firm advice would be to park it and then go and get hold of On Silver Wings, the first book in the series. This is essentially one long story broken up into smaller sections, despite the time lapses between each adventure. So you will be missing far too much of the context and by the time you are able to pick up sufficient knowledge of who is doing what to whom, the chances are you won’t be in a position to fully appreciate what is going on anyway.

I appreciated getting more of Sorilla and her new challenges with her latest piece of tech. As she was the principal protagonist in the first couple of books, it has been something of an adjustment as the focus of the story shifts into a more epic narrative with viewpoints from both human and alien commanders. The science is very well handled, with sufficient detail to satisfy the nerd in me yet without being overwhelming or silting up the narrative pace. And I don’t think that anyone does space battles better than Currie, including the build-up and making sure his readers are aware of the stakes. It is this superpower of his that makes me happy to overlook the fact that some of his aliens think and act uncannily like their human counterparts. The only other niggle is that this book could do with a bit more editing, as there are too many misspelt words. But it wasn’t a dealbreaker, as years of reading arcs with shocking formatting issues has trained me to cope with such glitches without throwing up my hands.

Overall, this is a cracking addition to an enjoyable adventure and I am happy to report that you can ignore the comments about this being the final book in the series – it isn’t. Which is just as well, as it does leave everything on something of a cliffhanger ending. I am also happy to report that I have the next book in the series already lined up on my Kindle, waiting to be read. Recommended for fans of enjoyable military science fiction.
8/10

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc Fearless by Allen Stroud #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #Fearlessbookreview

I can’t lie – it was the cover that caught my eye on this one. Bold, bright and with a ship speeding through space – just what I needed😊. Better still, there is a protagonist without legs, which I further liked…

BLURB: AD 2118. Humanity has colonised the Moon, Mars, Ceres and Europa. Captain Ellisa Shann commands Khidr, a search and rescue ship with a crew of twenty-five, tasked to assist the vast commercial freighters that supply the different solar system colonies.

Shann has no legs and has taken to life in zero-g partly as a result. She is a talented tactician who has a tendency to take too much on her own shoulders. Now, while on a regular six-month patrol through the solar system, Khidr picks up a distress call from the freighter Hercules…

REVIEW: This one is written in first-person viewpoint (I), across several protagonists. It starts with what should be a routine call for help – and turns into something far more stressful and unexpected. I loved the initial scene-setting and how lethal acceleration is to the oh-so-fragile crew, which is done really well. The world is vividly depicted without lots of info-dumping and I quickly bonded with the Shann, the captain. When something then goes wrong, the captain quickly and decisively deals with it – and while we were regularly in other characters’ viewpoints, it was Shann who was my solid favourite. I felt her character and motivation was by far the most well nuanced and established. However, there were times when she seemed oddly detached from the crew, who she’d spent years alongside. We’re told they are a tight-knit bunch, but Shann doesn’t seem to know them well enough. I liked the fact that despite she is clearly tough-minded and brilliant, she is also fiercely individualistic and maybe that has compromised her leadership skills. This sort of nuanced characterisation is unusual in such an action thriller.

I thought the overall pacing worked well and mostly the characterisation was successful, though it’s always a challenge to get that completely right in such a action-packed story. I also thought the action scenes were very well written, with a strong balance between the characters’ thoughts and emotion amidst the unfolding chaos.

However, while the initial emergency has been dealt with, our intrepid crew are still facing a major hazard with a host of questions that have been raised, but not fully addressed. I’m assuming that this is the start of a series, but there is nothing to suggest that is the case. If it isn’t, then I am beyond disappointed – I want more! On the grounds that I believe it is the beginning of a series, this one is highly recommended to fans of high-octane space opera adventure. While I obtained an arc of Fearless from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

Three SPACE OPERA Mini-reviews: Record of a Spaceborn Few; Arkadian Skies; and Skyward #Brainfluffbookminireviews

Record of a Spaceborn Few – Book 3 of the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers

BLURB: Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.
Tessa chose to stay home when her brother Ashby left for the stars, but has to question that decision when her position in the Fleet is threatened.
Kip, a reluctant young apprentice, itches for change but doesn’t know where to find it.
Sawyer, a lost and lonely newcomer, is just looking for a place to belong.
When a disaster rocks this already fragile community, those Exodans who still call the Fleet their home can no longer avoid the inescapable question: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?

I did find the accent of the narrator just a bit difficult to get to grips with at the beginning. But I love the different narratives as we go on learning about the daily lives of people still living on the generational ships. In multiple viewpoints we get to discover yet another pocket of the highly detailed world she has created, where humanity is now out among the stars, after having destroyed Earth.

While I’m aware there has been some criticism over the lack of a plot, I found the unfolding stories of each of the main protagonists was sufficiently engrossing to hold me to the end – and there were a couple of shocks along the way, too. The ending was beautiful – very poignant and left me with a lump in my throat. Highly recommended for those who enjoy reading and/or listening to stories of everyday happenings, rather than large conflicts.

9/10

Arkadian Skies – Book 6 of the Fallen Empire series by Lindsay Buroker

BLURB: With the man who kidnapped her daughter imprisoned aboard her ship, Captain Alisa Marchenko is closer than ever to reuniting her family. But her new guest has been in a coma for weeks, with the secret to her daughter’s location locked away in his mind. She must find a way to sneak him into a state-of-the-art hospital on Arkadius, a planet in the heart of Alliance territory. Not an easy task when she and the cyborg Leonidas, her most trusted ally, are wanted by the Alliance army.

As if that mission weren’t daunting enough, the Staff of Lore has appeared on the planet. As has the man who stole it: Alisa’s father.

I enjoyed jumping back aboard the Nomad for another action-packed adventure with Captain Alisa Marchenko and her quirky crew. Though the ship seems to be filling up with all sorts of unexpected passengers in this eventful instalment of the series…

Still trying to track down her missing daughter, Alisa is yet again diverted up another cul-de-sac. The romance with Leonidas does seem to provide rather too much distraction from her main aim of tracking down the missing child. That said, as ever the action is well depicted, the characters are nicely snarky and convincing, with some enjoyable layers and there are moments of real tension and danger that makes this yet another successful page-turner. I’m glad to have got back in touch with the series and it won’t be too long before I’ll be tracking down the next book.

8/10

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  Mini-review of Arkadian Skies

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Skyward – Book 1 of the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson

Spensa’s world has been under attack for decades. Now pilots are the heroes of what’s left of the human race, and becoming one has always been Spensa’s dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring skyward and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with that of her father’s—a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving Spensa the daughter of a coward, her chances of attending Flight School slim to none.

I really enjoyed this action-packed adventure, featuring a gutsy teen brought up on tales of derring-do by her grandmother while having to daily face the disgrace of her father’s supposed cowardice. I felt she was both sympathetic and plausible, which isn’t as easy to achieve as Sanderson makes it look. While the initial premise wasn’t particularly original, Sanderson throws in sufficient twists so that I couldn’t predict exactly what would happen next, so this became a real page-turner I could get lost in. The beautiful drawings of the space fighters were a bonus that I’m sure would have been easier to appreciate on a newer, spiffier Kindle.

I really liked how the puzzle of exactly why a human enclave ended up on this shattered world was addressed and unravelled, alongside Spensa’s adventures. I’m delighted to have acquired the Audible version of the sequel, which I’m looking forward to tucking into very shortly.

8/10

Review of INDIE Ebook Valkyrie Burning – Book 3 of the Hayden War Cycle by Evan Currie #Brainfluffbookreview #ValkyrieBurningbookreview

I have read and enjoyed the two previous books in this series, particularly the first one, On Silver Wings – see my review here. So I was pleased to see that Himself had also picked this one up…

BLURB: The war that began on Hayden’s World years ago has blossomed into a brawl across the stars, and yet that single and otherwise largely unimportant colony continues to be a central point in the conflagration. Human forces have pushed outward, now taking enemy worlds in response to the attacks on their own, but they don’t have the numbers or the power to hold what they take. Now the alien Alliance shows a sliver of it’s true power, and the war for domination of the skies over Hayden burns brightly once more…

I have cut short the rather chatty blurb, but you do get the gist – this is a continuation of the military space opera adventure featuring Sorilla Aida as a super soldier who ends up back down on the planet Hayden, once again. Inevitably as this adventure has worn on, we get a wider number of characters pulled into the story as there are also sections from the viewpoint of the aliens who are attacking Hayden. They seem rather too similar in outlook and culture to the human commanders embroiled in this war, however this is not a dealbreaker.

Currie has a fluid writing style that whips the story along with plenty of pace and action. What I did miss from this slice of the adventure was enough of Sorilla who I fell in love with during On Silver Wings and I would have liked to have seen more of her – especially after that amazing stunt she pulls with the space tether. The outstanding aspect of this book are the space battles, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Currie has set out the rules by which his technology works and gives his reader a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the ships embroiled in his battles, which works really well. There was a shocking outcome which reminded me all over again that Currie is not afraid to kill off characters that I’ve grown to enjoy.

I found this an entertaining and readable adventure and look forward to more Hayden goodness in the future. Recommended for fans of military space opera.
8/10

Review of INDIE Ebook Valkyrie Rising – Book 2 of The Hayden War Cycle by Evan Currie #Brainfluffbookeview #ValkyrieRisingbookreview

I read and enjoyed the first book in this entertaining military science fiction adventure, On Silver Wings so this was an obvious choice from my TBR pile when I yearned for more full-on action with some nasty aliens.

BLURB: Two years after the initial invasion of Hayden’s World, the newly reinforced Hayden Militia is in a state of stalemate with the remaining enemy forces but neither side is content to leave things at that. The alien alliance has dispatched their varsity to clean up the resistance on Hayden while the USF has officially activated Task Force V, the latest and most advanced combat ships built by humans. In the end there are some things you decide in the skies, but some can only be settled in the mud.

While I am sure you could pick up this one without having had the pleasure of reading On Silver Wings, my firm advice would be to read it first as I think you could slightly flounder at the start of the second book, otherwise. I was pleased that this book opened with my favourite character, the scary super-soldier Sorilla, who featured so memorably in the previous book. But this time, we see her gritting her teeth at the prospect of a series of invasive surgical procedures as her military wetware is being upgraded. I was pleased to see this, as authors often airily allude to these additions, but it is relatively rare to see our protagonists having to pay the price for all those awesome fighting skills.

However, while she is recuperating, all is not well. Those pesky aliens are still causing havoc, which causes the infighting amongst the human spacefaring nations to abruptly stop their feuding and frantically begin arming against this technically superior threat. Since the disastrous first encounters that have wiped out so many captains, many posts are now being filled by suitably experienced women, giving rise to the derisive nickname by some of the more chauvinist elements of the Valkyrie Force… Disappointing to see that sexism is still alive and well in Currie’s future universe – but all too realistic, I feel.

Military sci fi often requires a number of viewpoint characters in order to give the reader a ringside seat in a variety of settings as the action swings around. This time around, we find ourselves in the head of an alien fighting on jungle planet, Hayden, along with Sorilla, Admiral Nadine Brookes amongst others. Sorilla is still a solid favourite, but Nadine runs a close second.

While the first book is characterised by some cracking action scenes on the colony planet fighting a rearguard action after having been initially overrun, this book contains some excellent space battles. Currie writes the techie stuff well – sufficient detail so that I could follow what was going on without silting up the forward action by too much description. He is also good at keeping the viewpoint character and her reactions to the fore in the middle of all the high-stakes fighting.

This book took a bit longer to get going than the first book – but then, we needed to find out what was happening in order to understand what is at stake, but once the full situation is laid out, I was whisked up in the tension of an incipient alien invasion. This is a strong second book, taking the action on yet leaving some major questions open – particularly around the aliens and their motivations. Recommended for fans of engrossing military science fiction, I will be continuing this series.
8/10