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couldbestephen's reviews
203 reviews
The Magestics by James W. Berg
1.0
If you’re looking for a riveting debut fantasy novel, filled with intriguing characters and unique magic, keep looking. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. In an objective/technical sense, this might be the worst book I’ve read in a long time. “The Magestics” is a shining example of the importance of competent editors (both line and developmental) and honest beta readers.
The writing style and voice screams untrained amateur. “Never show, only tell” seems to be the author’s motto. Clunky prose and poor grammar made the reading experience legitimately painful most of the time. The dialogue between characters is atrocious and the tags often make no sense and do not match the energy of the conversation. Em-dashes are never used and ellipses used rarely, making for some incredibly weird dialogue. At any given time, we may be interacting with up to 8-9 different characters, none of whom have a distinct personality other than the traits we are explicitly told about but they never display. And the typos. Oh God, the typos. They somehow got worse as the book progressed. “Feinted” instead of “fainted,” “ladder” instead of “latter”… Even if the author had just been able to hire a line editor to catch mistakes, that would have made this marginally better.
The world building is nonsensical, messy, and often downright contradictory. I think the author was just coming up with things on the fly half the time. Everything we learn about Bergonia and its history comes in painful exposition dumps that stops whatever momentum James was able to build. You’d think the worldwide magic ban would pose more of a problem than it does, but there’s always loopholes and exceptions for why spells are being flung left and right. There’s a difference between “magic” (the spells are mixed up English words, no original language was created here) and Magesti (the nature magic the Magestics can wield). What that real difference happens to be is beyond me and the author. The plot is just 4 groups MacGuffin hunting and none of the hunts are interesting. The biggest crime is how bland everything is. This is just a run-of-the-mill fantasy world with no distinct cultures, basic creatures, and a shitty magic system.
The worst part of this book is how blatant of a self insert fantasy this is. The main character’s name is the author’s name spelled backwards. The Gandalf/Dumbledore insert is the author’s partner’s name spelled backwards (Jesse becomes Essej). The numerous characters we encounter all seem to be named after people the author knows, either employing some weird tactic to hide it (the merpeople’s names are things like Ard-Rich and En-Steve. I want you to guess how you rearrange those to get the real names). The big bad, Drol Greb? That’s Lord Berg. James loves backwards things.
Getting through this book was a work of pure spite. I was never given the chance to be immersed in this world because of all the glaring mistakes and poor writing. I just have to ask if anyone in James’ life has been honest about his skill level as a writer or if everyone legitimately thinks this is peak literature. This book could have potentially been a D class children’s fantasy if more time had been spent actually making it readable. What we’re left with is not worth the money or time.
The writing style and voice screams untrained amateur. “Never show, only tell” seems to be the author’s motto. Clunky prose and poor grammar made the reading experience legitimately painful most of the time. The dialogue between characters is atrocious and the tags often make no sense and do not match the energy of the conversation. Em-dashes are never used and ellipses used rarely, making for some incredibly weird dialogue. At any given time, we may be interacting with up to 8-9 different characters, none of whom have a distinct personality other than the traits we are explicitly told about but they never display. And the typos. Oh God, the typos. They somehow got worse as the book progressed. “Feinted” instead of “fainted,” “ladder” instead of “latter”… Even if the author had just been able to hire a line editor to catch mistakes, that would have made this marginally better.
The world building is nonsensical, messy, and often downright contradictory. I think the author was just coming up with things on the fly half the time. Everything we learn about Bergonia and its history comes in painful exposition dumps that stops whatever momentum James was able to build. You’d think the worldwide magic ban would pose more of a problem than it does, but there’s always loopholes and exceptions for why spells are being flung left and right. There’s a difference between “magic” (the spells are mixed up English words, no original language was created here) and Magesti (the nature magic the Magestics can wield). What that real difference happens to be is beyond me and the author. The plot is just 4 groups MacGuffin hunting and none of the hunts are interesting. The biggest crime is how bland everything is. This is just a run-of-the-mill fantasy world with no distinct cultures, basic creatures, and a shitty magic system.
The worst part of this book is how blatant of a self insert fantasy this is. The main character’s name is the author’s name spelled backwards. The Gandalf/Dumbledore insert is the author’s partner’s name spelled backwards (Jesse becomes Essej). The numerous characters we encounter all seem to be named after people the author knows, either employing some weird tactic to hide it (the merpeople’s names are things like Ard-Rich and En-Steve. I want you to guess how you rearrange those to get the real names). The big bad, Drol Greb? That’s Lord Berg. James loves backwards things.
Getting through this book was a work of pure spite. I was never given the chance to be immersed in this world because of all the glaring mistakes and poor writing. I just have to ask if anyone in James’ life has been honest about his skill level as a writer or if everyone legitimately thinks this is peak literature. This book could have potentially been a D class children’s fantasy if more time had been spent actually making it readable. What we’re left with is not worth the money or time.
What We Lost in the Swamp: Poems by Grant Chemidlin
4.0
Queer poetry is some of the few subgenres of poetry I actually enjoy and connect with. “When I Realized I Was a Green Tree Frog in Another Life,” “The Boy and the Blue Bird,” and “Touchdown” were some of my favorites.
In all technicality, I think most of these count as prose instead of poems and there were a few shorter ones that felt kinda Rupi Kaur-esque (if you live that style, good for you, I find it a little lazy) that made this into a 4 star book.
All in all, I did enjoy these, as a casual enjoyer of poetry, this was an engaging read, and I love supporting queer artists who make good shit like this!
In all technicality, I think most of these count as prose instead of poems and there were a few shorter ones that felt kinda Rupi Kaur-esque (if you live that style, good for you, I find it a little lazy) that made this into a 4 star book.
All in all, I did enjoy these, as a casual enjoyer of poetry, this was an engaging read, and I love supporting queer artists who make good shit like this!
To Ride Pegasus by Anne McCaffrey
3.0
There’s something strangely comforting about classic science fiction. Most of the time, the technology and linguistic choices for “the future” don’t age well, there’s some “problematic” content that makes you wonder if it’s just a product of its time or if it wasn’t ok even then, and wow, the cover art for the books is… imaginative. But generally the stories are solidly written, the characters are three dimensional, and the world makes sense.
This collection of short stories sets the stage for the rest of the Talents Saga. It gave me similar vibes to Asimov’s Foundation, with the characters of Henry Darrow and Daffyd op Owen acting as the Hari Seldon of their series, all trying to establish a base for their people (Seldon and his Foundation, Darrow and Owen their Center). I did enjoy Pegasus more than Foundation. The characters are much more fleshed out and I actually cared what happened in the story. The politics feels incredibly real, the powers are “reasonable”, it’s just a solid science fiction entry all around.
On reread, finding the problematic elements is disappointing. There are moments of ableism (one character is mentally handicapped and his description is incredibly outdated), racism (a Roma character who gains powers becomes a thief, ethnicities in Jerhattan are… strangely handled?), and sexism (a lot of the female characters here only exist to please their generally older male counter parts… Anne, what we’re you doing there??). It bothered me enough that I couldn’t really rate this higher than 3 stars.
Book still holds up, but rereading with awareness of social issues does sour it a little.
This collection of short stories sets the stage for the rest of the Talents Saga. It gave me similar vibes to Asimov’s Foundation, with the characters of Henry Darrow and Daffyd op Owen acting as the Hari Seldon of their series, all trying to establish a base for their people (Seldon and his Foundation, Darrow and Owen their Center). I did enjoy Pegasus more than Foundation. The characters are much more fleshed out and I actually cared what happened in the story. The politics feels incredibly real, the powers are “reasonable”, it’s just a solid science fiction entry all around.
On reread, finding the problematic elements is disappointing. There are moments of ableism (one character is mentally handicapped and his description is incredibly outdated), racism (a Roma character who gains powers becomes a thief, ethnicities in Jerhattan are… strangely handled?), and sexism (a lot of the female characters here only exist to please their generally older male counter parts… Anne, what we’re you doing there??). It bothered me enough that I couldn’t really rate this higher than 3 stars.
Book still holds up, but rereading with awareness of social issues does sour it a little.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Ableism, and Racism
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2.0
Divergent and Ender’s Game meet dragons and magic. The result is lackluster.
It’s very clear Rebecca Yarrows is a romance writer. The scenes where the main character and her love interest (very Tris and Four coded. Extremely Tris and Four coded. This book screamed of Divergent influence guys) were together and romantically entangled were probably the “strongest” portions of the novel. Everything else, from the world building to the magic, was pretty crappy. It felt incredibly generic.
My biggest issue is that the writing style throughout was incredibly… modern? I’m not asking for LotR style prose, but come on. The main character asked if she was “toxic” for loving a man she shouldn’t. There were so many lines that just pulled me out of the Renaissance-esque setting we were in. The plotting was very obvious, the twists are incredibly predictable.
The saving grace for this book is that is was very readable. Until some clunky writing would take me out, I would occasionally be sucked in. For that, I’ll give it 2 stars.
If you read this and enjoyed it, good for you! As someone who has read a good chunk of dragon fantasy, this wasn’t good. This could be a spring board for genuinely good fantasy for readers though! I’d recommend The Dragonriders of PERN next!
It’s very clear Rebecca Yarrows is a romance writer. The scenes where the main character and her love interest (very Tris and Four coded. Extremely Tris and Four coded. This book screamed of Divergent influence guys) were together and romantically entangled were probably the “strongest” portions of the novel. Everything else, from the world building to the magic, was pretty crappy. It felt incredibly generic.
My biggest issue is that the writing style throughout was incredibly… modern? I’m not asking for LotR style prose, but come on. The main character asked if she was “toxic” for loving a man she shouldn’t. There were so many lines that just pulled me out of the Renaissance-esque setting we were in. The plotting was very obvious, the twists are incredibly predictable.
The saving grace for this book is that is was very readable. Until some clunky writing would take me out, I would occasionally be sucked in. For that, I’ll give it 2 stars.
If you read this and enjoyed it, good for you! As someone who has read a good chunk of dragon fantasy, this wasn’t good. This could be a spring board for genuinely good fantasy for readers though! I’d recommend The Dragonriders of PERN next!
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
4.0
If you love hard science fiction, filled with deep lore, history, and culture where you follow the political machinations of an ambassador trying to keep her small station free from the grip of a large empire, you will adore this book.
The writing is so solid. There’s definitely a learning curve with all the terms and titles and names, but this book doesn’t treat you like you are any less intelligent than any of the characters. Mahit was a compelling main character, a “barbarian” from space figuring out her place in a culture she has studied and knows so well. The culture of Teixcalaan is rich and beautifully complex.
The only real issue I found was that when I was reading this, I was burning through it. When I put it down, it would take a week for me to remember, oh yeah, I’ve been reading and really enjoying this. It’s not like I wasn’t engaged while in it, but it was hard to get back in it when gone.
Still doesn’t knock my rating, this is a good freaking book that science fiction/space opera/space politics should devour.
The writing is so solid. There’s definitely a learning curve with all the terms and titles and names, but this book doesn’t treat you like you are any less intelligent than any of the characters. Mahit was a compelling main character, a “barbarian” from space figuring out her place in a culture she has studied and knows so well. The culture of Teixcalaan is rich and beautifully complex.
The only real issue I found was that when I was reading this, I was burning through it. When I put it down, it would take a week for me to remember, oh yeah, I’ve been reading and really enjoying this. It’s not like I wasn’t engaged while in it, but it was hard to get back in it when gone.
Still doesn’t knock my rating, this is a good freaking book that science fiction/space opera/space politics should devour.
Alice by Christina Henry
1.25
Alice in Wonderland works as a piece of surrealist fantasy because it has grounding “in the real world.” We have a point of reference to why things are strange because Alice comes from a world like ours, with no talking rabbits, no size changing potions, and no croquet with flamingos and hedgehogs. Wonderland is separate from Here. In this novel, Wonderland and Here are one. The characters such as The Cheshire, The Rabbit (of which there were two), and The Walrus are name only versions of their Wonderland counterparts, and most of them are human trafficking rapists. The world of Alice has Magicians (who are supposedly gone. There is a twist that will leave you very unsurprised), potions, mermaids, but they’re all normal, except their not, but they are… it’s a mess. The writing is occasionally fun, Henry occasionally uses language that sounds like it could belong in Lewis Carroll’s work, but then the moment passes and you’re left with an empty feeling.
I think this books is mostly supposed to be dark romance. But Alice and “Hatcher” are just so bland, you don’t care. Hatcher is a broody killer with a tender heart, and Alice is a grown woman who is still “childlike.” It’s a problem. All in all, not worth the read.
I think this books is mostly supposed to be dark romance. But Alice and “Hatcher” are just so bland, you don’t care. Hatcher is a broody killer with a tender heart, and Alice is a grown woman who is still “childlike.” It’s a problem. All in all, not worth the read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Abandonment, Violence, and Toxic relationship
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
2.0
As a debut novel, it’s fine. It’s a cute piece of feel good fiction I can see people really enjoying. Unfortunately, the writing never stood out as anything special and the dialogue was incredibly clunky at times. I was engaged throughout, finishing the book in about 4 hours of interrupted reading time, so I’ll give the author that. All in all, do not go into this book thinking that “The Game” is the biggest part of the book. This isn’t Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for adults. It’s fluff. And that’s fine. For me? A very aggressive 2 star read.
**Spoilers below**
The romance was weird. I liked Hugo as a character and Lucy was ok. Having them initially meet when she was 13, now 26, with a history of sleeping with older men who used her as a muse… I’m sure Hugo wouldn’t do that, but still.
The confrontation between Angie and Lucy was awful. No bark, no bite, this scene didn’t live in my head. It was just words in the page without any life. This should have been a huge moment of emotional catharsis for us the reader as well as Lucy, but instead we get cardboard cut outs and the trope of the “good girl who wishes she was like her rebellious sister,” complete with psychological babble.
The game… the gameeee. Why couldn’t this have been more interesting? This wasn’t Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for adults, cuz at least Charlie and Co explore the factory. We spend so much time in the House and Hugo’s place, with some little teases here and there. Dalton(?) leaves almost immediately, he would have been some good tension throughout. I know this isn’t that kind of book, but still.
**Spoilers below**
The romance was weird. I liked Hugo as a character and Lucy was ok. Having them initially meet when she was 13, now 26, with a history of sleeping with older men who used her as a muse… I’m sure Hugo wouldn’t do that, but still.
The confrontation between Angie and Lucy was awful. No bark, no bite, this scene didn’t live in my head. It was just words in the page without any life. This should have been a huge moment of emotional catharsis for us the reader as well as Lucy, but instead we get cardboard cut outs and the trope of the “good girl who wishes she was like her rebellious sister,” complete with psychological babble.
The game… the gameeee. Why couldn’t this have been more interesting? This wasn’t Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for adults, cuz at least Charlie and Co explore the factory. We spend so much time in the House and Hugo’s place, with some little teases here and there. Dalton(?) leaves almost immediately, he would have been some good tension throughout. I know this isn’t that kind of book, but still.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
4.0
I haven’t been so fully engrossed in a book that I sat down and read it in one sitting in so long. I’ve seen this mostly billed as a critique of the publishing industry, but the way it handles white feminism, passive white liberalism, and internet culture as a whole is something to behold. It’s almost scary how well Kuang writes from the perspective of a disgruntled white woman. There were times where the text wanted me to sympathize with her even though I fully agreed with the critiques and accusations leveled against her and I was left feeling split.
There were a few times that I felt Kuang just kind of… brushed over certain elements/tropes herself that could have been explored more. The last act of the book, until the ending, definitely stalled a little, which is something I’ve noticed in most of Kuang’s works. Her endings tend to struggle a little before she sticks the landing.
I think this book will have the most impact and have the largest audience among the people familiar with the book world and understand how internet culture shifts and twists. Not to say others won’t be as equally entertained, but a deeper understanding of the elements discussed here will only make you appreciate the book more.
There were a few times that I felt Kuang just kind of… brushed over certain elements/tropes herself that could have been explored more. The last act of the book, until the ending, definitely stalled a little, which is something I’ve noticed in most of Kuang’s works. Her endings tend to struggle a little before she sticks the landing.
I think this book will have the most impact and have the largest audience among the people familiar with the book world and understand how internet culture shifts and twists. Not to say others won’t be as equally entertained, but a deeper understanding of the elements discussed here will only make you appreciate the book more.
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
fast-paced
2.0
In some ways I’m glad this was just a short novel, because if I had to sit through a whole 300 page book to get to the disappointing ending, I wouldn’t have. I would have DNFed this book. 5 friends with history meet at haunted house, become victimized by ghosts. Very tropey, not developed well, and the writing style was pretentious. Very purple prosey. And as someone who loves a bit of extravagant, artistic writing, it hurt to see it not utilized well here. The characters were flat. Besides the main character being depressed and a relationship breaker, everything else about her was told to us by other characters explaining to her who she is. The other characters fall into uninteresting tropes, tropes which the author calls out, but want to really address.
The Hunger Games: Special Edition by Suzanne Collins
4.5
Still holds up as a solid novel, setting up the coming rebellion Katniss will find herself in