Currently Reading
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians
by H.G. Parry
Earlier this year, I bought A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians on a whim. First, I liked the cover, and the title was intriguing. When I started reading the first few pages, I was hooked. I picked the trade paperback version up at my local Barnes and Noble. I’ve been reading it in between review books, and it’s just so good. When Orbit gave me access to its sequel (see below), I put it into my review rotation. This book fills a similar niche in my reading as Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, though Parry doesn’t use footnotes. This tale of magic and the politics of abolition in England and France has been a delight, and I’m savoring my time with this book; though, the sequel is next on my TBR.
From the publisher:
A sweeping tale of revolution and wonder in a world not quite like our own, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians is a genre-defying story of magic, war, and the struggle for freedom in the early modern world.
It is the Age of Enlightenment — of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for a revolution in France, to the weather mage Toussaint L’Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic amongst commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas.
But amidst all of the upheaval of the early modern world, there is an unknown force inciting all of human civilization into violent conflict. And it will require the combined efforts of revolutionaries, magicians, and abolitionists to unmask this hidden enemy before the whole world falls to darkness and chaos.
Upcoming Reviews July – September 2021
A Radical Act of Free Magic
by H.G. Parry
Since about 15% into the first book, I knew I wanted this sequel. A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians has been excellent, and I’m glad that I get the chance to remain in that world for a bit longer. I have an electronic copy of this book, but I’ll probably buy the trade paperback version of this because the cover is excellent again. H.G. Parry has got me interested in French history, and I look forward to how she plays with it in A Radical Act of Free Magic.
From the publisher:
This genre-defying story of magic, war, and the struggle for freedom in early modern history tells a sweeping tale of revolution in a world not quite like our own.
The Concord has been broken, and a war of magic engulfs the world.
In France, the brilliant tactician Napoléon Bonaparte has risen to power, and under his command, the army of the dead have all but conquered Europe. Britain fights back, but Wilberforce’s own battle to bring about free magic and abolition has met a dead end in the face of an increasingly repressive government. In Saint-Domingue, Fina aids as Toussaint Louverture navigates these opposing forces to liberate the country.
But there is another, even darker war being fought beneath the surface: the first vampire war in hundreds of years. The enemy blood magician who orchestrated Robespierre’s downfall is using the French Revolutionary Wars to bring about a return to dark magic. Across the world, only a few know of his existence, and the choices they make will shape the new age of magic.
Three Girls from Bronzeville
by Dawn Turner
I don’t read enough memoir. It’s a lovely form of art, and a good memoir makes me feel connected. Memoir also motivates me because it’s a form of therapy, right? To write a memoir, the author has to dig into their life and examine what is and isn’t meaningful. This type of review motivates me continue down my own therapeutic road. Three Girls from Bronzeville hadn’t been on my radar, but a message on Edelweiss brought it to my attention. Let’s just say I’m intrigued. As someone who grew up in rural, downstate Illinois, I often heard about Chicago, as it controlled/controls IL politics, but I didn’t know anyone from Chicago. So, Three Girls from Bronzeville presents an opportunity to learn what growing up in Chicago meant, and it’s a chance to learn about people growing up in the successes of the civil rights movement.
From the publisher:
A “beautiful, tragic, and inspiring” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) memoir about three Black girls from the storied Bronzeville section of Chicago that offers a penetrating exploration of race, opportunity, friendship, sisterhood, and the powerful forces at work that allow some to flourish…and others to falter.
They were three Black girls. Dawn, tall and studious; her sister, Kim, younger by three years and headstrong as they come; and her best friend, Debra, already prom-queen pretty by third grade. They bonded—fervently and intensely in that unique way of little girls—as they roamed the concrete landscape of Bronzeville, a historic neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, the destination of hundreds of thousands of Black folks who fled the ravages of the Jim Crow South.
These third-generation daughters of the Great Migration come of age in the 1970s, in the warm glow of the recent civil rights movement. It has offered them a promise, albeit nascent and fragile, that they will have more opportunities, rights, and freedoms than any generation of Black Americans in history. Their working-class, striving parents are eager for them to realize this hard-fought potential. But the girls have much more immediate concerns: hiding under the dining room table and eavesdropping on grown folks’ business; collecting secret treasures; and daydreaming about their futures—Dawn and Debra, doctors, Kim a teacher. For a brief, wondrous moment the girls are all giggles and dreams and promises of “friends forever.” And then fate intervenes, first slowly and then dramatically, sending them careening in wildly different directions. There’s heartbreak, loss, displacement, and even murder. Dawn struggles to make sense of the shocking turns that consume her sister and her best friend, all the while asking herself a simple but profound question: Why?
In the vein of The Other Wes Moore and The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, Three Girls from Bronzeville is a piercing memoir that chronicles Dawn’s attempt to find answers. It’s at once a celebration of sisterhood and friendship, a testimony to the unique struggles of Black women, and a tour-de-force about the complex interplay of race, class, and opportunity, and how those forces shape our lives and our capacity for resilience and redemption.
The Exiled Fleet
by J.S. Dewes
The Last Watch is a fantastic science fiction debut, and I highly recommend you read it. I loved the book from beginning to end, and I was ready to read this sequel as soon as I finished The Last Watch. What will Rake, Mercer, and the surviving Sentinels encounter next?
From the publisher:
J. S. Dewes continues her fast paced, science fiction action adventure with The Exiled Fleet, where The Expanse meets The Black Company—the survivors of The Last Watch refuse to die.
The Sentinels narrowly escaped the collapsing edge of the Divide.
They have mustered a few other surviving Sentinels, but with no engines they have no way to leave the edge of the universe before they starve.
Adequin Rake has gathered a team to find the materials they’ll need to get everyone out.
To do that they’re going to need new allies and evade a ruthless enemy. Some of them will not survive.
You Sexy Thing
by Cat Rambo
I like Cat Rambo. I’ve taken a couple courses from her, and I think she’s smart, funny, and cares about story. Of course, I wanted to review this book when I saw it on NetGalley. But then, I learned that Tor is billing this as Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off. I love both of those shows; so, I know I’m going to love this book. Also, I’m always into stories where a bunch of rascals have to defend the dream they’ve created for themselves.
From the publisher:
Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat Rambo.
Just when they thought they were out…
TwiceFar station is at the edge of the known universe, and that’s just how Niko Larson, former Admiral in the Grand Military of the Hive Mind, likes it.
Retired and finally free of the continual war of conquest, Niko and the remnants of her former unit are content to spend the rest of their days working at the restaurant they built together, The Last Chance.
But, some wars can’t ever be escaped, and unlike the Hive Mind, some enemies aren’t content to let old soldiers go. Niko and her crew are forced onto a sentient ship convinced that it is being stolen and must survive the machinations of a sadistic pirate king if they even hope to keep the dream of The Last Chance alive.
My Heart is a Chainsaw
Stephen Graham Jones is an author who’s been on my watch-list for quite a while. Everything I’ve heard and read about Jones has been beyond positive, and I’m grateful that I get a chance to review his latest book. Horror doesn’t seem to be as popular now as when I was growing up, which is a shame. There are many excellent horror writers working right now, and Jones seems to be at the peak of those writers. I’m very much looking forward to this book.
From the publisher:
In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones.
“Some girls just don’t know how to die…”
Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange.
Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life.
Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold.
Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges…a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.
The Splinter King
by Mike Brooks
The Black Coast is an excellent start to a new epic fantasy series, and I’m excited and impressed that book two, The Splinter King, is coming out this fall. Especially because these books are huge, over six hundred pages apiece. But I’m not going to complain because I loved The Black Coast. So many plot threads are hanging from that first book, and the world Mike Brooks created was worth exploring. Plus, I really liked how Brooks used language in one of the societies to portray gender indications. I’m ready to go back and experience those cultures more.
From the publisher:
Epic worldbuilding at its finest, The Splinter King is the second book in the unmissable series started with The Black Coast. Filled with war-dragons, armoured knights, sea-faring raiders, dangerous magic and battle scenes.
Darel, dragon knight and the new leader of Black Keep, must travel to the palace of the God-King to beg for the lives of his people. But in the capital of Narida, Marin and his warrior husband will be drawn into a palace coup, and Princess Tila will resort to murder to keep her hold on power.
In the far reaches of the kingdom an heir in exile is hunted by assassins, rumours of a rival God-King abound, and daemonic forces from across the seas draw ever nearer…