Book review: a quick, fun fantasy with dragons and queer relationships

The Chase Begins: Catastrophe Incoming Volume 1

by Aimee Donnellan

Published by Aimee Donnellan on June 24, 2023

The good:

-Character tensions.

-Grounding of the city the whole story is set in.

-The select details for major characters that help them stand out.

-The protagonist's identity and complicated relationship was greatly appreciated

-Fun, fast read; easy to read along with weightier tomes.


The not so good:

-Description and language too sparse for my taste (that may just be me though; I've found most writing that the fiction market wants is too sparse for my taste).

-Book one is short and limited to one place, which was just too simple overall. There seemed so much more there to explore. Still, a chase through the one city provided just enough complications to work, if not enough to send us into deeper exploration.


The promising:

-The teaser for Book Two was great and makes me excited to read it. Hoping the chaos promised within brings deeper explorations than Book One. The range of characters introduced was exciting to see, especially getting the two main characters from another angle.

I'll definitely be checking out Book Two. The book was a fun read, and number two looks to be even more fun.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to Aimee Donnellan and Book Sirens for the opportunity.


Aimee Donnellan's website: https://www.aimeedonnellan.com/

Buy the book: https://books2read.com/u/mdX2ME

My review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6012280256

Review of Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky

My review of Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Speculative novella (available in ebook and limited edition signed hardcover)

5 of 5 (wow wow wow!)

I'm already a fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky's writing from some of his SF work, but when it comes to fairy tales I tend to be pretty hesitant, so the opening to this novella had me very leery. But I kept at it, and boy was it worth it. A fantastic read that keeps up a solid pace and plenty of turns that are thought provoking and significantly deepen the story. Very worth the full price of admission. I'll have to grab a hardcover for my collection. This is one to re-read. The POV was fantastic here. Really enjoyed the narration and the use of 2nd person POV (I really enjoy good examples of this to use it against the naysayers --> 2nd person is so so so useful and engaging and here is yet another example of that).

Don't miss out. This is definitely a read you want to dive into. Note: I read an advanced copy from NetGalley and am very thankful for that. Still hoping to snag copy of the hardcover though. It was that good!

External links to the review

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3wvL95Q
Twitter: https://bit.ly/3a63IpE

Thoughtful sci-fi short story by Carrie Vaughn on chess and telepaths

I recommend giving Carrie Vaughn's "That Game We Played During the War".

It was a softly beautiful story. A thoughtful piece about playing chess with a telepath. The protagonist enters the land of her people's former enemies to go play chess with the captain she was once a prisoner of. The former enemies are telepathic, whereas she and her people are not. Makes for interesting interactions, which lead us through a gradual treatment of struggling to get over the darkness of war, and related elements connected to that. While the language in itself was not beautiful per se, the language was very clean and precise and helped the story itself, and the interactions between the characters, shine brilliantly.

Review of Machine by Jennifer Pelland

Here is my review as posted on Goodreads of Machine by Jennifer Pelland:

5/5 stars
bookshelves: sci-fi, relationships, robot-love, androids, psychological, favorites

Read from March 02 to 09, 2016

This is a highly recommended psychological ride with plenty of intelligent commentary on the world. It is an intense character study of a protagonist who must struggle through the raging political battleground of the body after choosing to put her mind inside an android body until a cure is found for her original body's rare disease, rather than waiting it out in stasis inside.