jjwilbourne's reviews
239 reviews

Amazon Decoded: A Marketing Guide to the Kindle Store by David Gaughran

funny hopeful informative fast-paced

4.5

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

All Systems Red by Martha Wells has been in my to-read pile for a few years now because I don’t read fast enough to clear the hundreds of books that release every year. But I finally started this series because I thought it might be nice to have something quick to read as a pallet cleanser between the weightier novels.

MurderBot—as it so affectionately refers to itself—a SecUnit with a deactivated governor has been contracted to work with a new survey team to access the profit viability of a planet. The group realizes that something is amiss when another team goes missing. Can the team and its SecUnit work together to survive an attempt at sabotage?

After reading the first installment, I understand a lot of the hype around this series. MurderBot is… cute? This might be a deep cut, but it kind of reminds me of watching Amy Winfrey’s Making Fiends web series when I was in high school. I’m not exactly sure why because I don’t think the story is absurdist like Winfrey’s work. There just seems to be something strangely adorable about a robot who couldn’t care less about the humans it works for—like a cat who sticks around because it has nothing better to do and would much rather nap than play.

Underneath the layers of hooks that this series uses to draw you in is the beginnings of an AI story of self-discovery. Absent of clear, self-identified purpose, the AI is depressed and withdrawn, and it reminded me of my own “walking depression” issues that were fully blown while working in manufacturing. Unlike most SciFi stories featuring sentient robots, the novel spends little if no time exploring what it means to be human and skips to the part about the place a free robot can play in the world. We don’t get a definitive answer, but I imagine the sequel explores this idea further.

If you think a space sci-fi mystery with a fair bit of action and featuring an AI protagonist is something you’d interested in reading, definitely read All Systems Red by Martha Wells. If you’re afraid of starting a new series because of the commitment, this one is not only short but also quite self-contained.

The Firemage's Vengeance by Garrett Robinson

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

At long last! The epic conclusion to The Academy Journals trilogy by Garrett Robinson: The Firemage’s Vengeance. 

A murderer lurks the halls of the Academy. After Dean Forredar’s son goes missing, he is determined to find who is responsible for his child’s disappearance. And Ebon, son of Drayden, is at the very top of the Dean’s List (heh). Together, Ebon and his friends must not only prove their innocence and unveil the true criminal but must also do so without revealing the very real crimes they’ve been forced to commit to stay alive.

Robinson has done a great job continuously complicating the lives of our young heroes. The consequences of every action they take in this novel is loaded with the tensions of morality. Torn between loyalties and toiling with the weighing of greater goods, Ebon is forced to make some of most gray choices thus far. 

Like the finale of the first volume of the Nightblade saga, my favorite parts of this story are in the climax, and I hesitate to discuss that here because I don’t want to ruin that for you. But I will say that it gave me the triumphant feeling that I love when I get to the end of stories that lean heroic. And that’s the feeling I’m signing up for when I read stories like this.

I recommend this story to anyone who loves the magic school setup in high fantasy stories. If you’re a Harry Potter fan and you’d love to try a story with a similar vibe to the second half of the series, I’d grab it!

*Full Disclosure — I work for the publisher, but I wasn't paid to review this book. While this is an honest review, I was involved in the production of the audiobook, and I receive a small royalty for purchases of the audiobook version*

Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

At this point, I’m fully on the Mary Robinette Kowal train. But even though I went into Without a Summer fully expecting her to knock it out of the park, there was a part of me that tempered my excitement. I’ve been burned before, and it will happen again. But which category would the 3rd installment of the Glamourist Histories end up in?

After the climactic events of Glamour in Glass, Jane and Vincent have attracted the notice of yet another family in want of their talents with glamurals—this time a Londonite. This presents the perfect opportunity. Vincent is eager to get back to work, and Jane has made it a goal to help her sister Melody find a proper suitor as the war has caused an inhospitable climate for finding someone Melody’s age. The problem extends further as even the literal climate has been affected. Trapped in perpetual winter, Europe’s unnaturally cold summer threatens everyone’s spirits, the economy, and the crown itself. And Jane and Vincent have somehow found themselves in the epicenter of the intrigue.

It wouldn’t be a Kowal novel if we didn’t have an examination of society. Like the previous installment, MRK has taken the events of history (the year without a summer in 1816) and folded it into her alternative history version of our world where magic is a part of society. This results in the exploration of a facet of magic in this universe that we haven’t explored prior: coldmongering. The scapegoating of a segment of society for the ill-luck of what was a natural event in both our world and her alternate version of it realistically depicts how societies will blame those they don’t understand or fear even when they’re not directly related.

In many ways, this novel is a return to the more intimate story we had in the first installment and, at some points, remind’s me of Jane Austen’s Emma as Jane attempts to direct her sister’s attention. But drawing comparisons to Austen’s work is difficult to avoid considering the content.

If you enjoyed the first two novels, I’d encourage you to read this one. And if you’re looking for an alternate history regency romance with a few dashes of magic for either you or someone you know, I definitely recommend picking up this series.

The Concise 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

informative medium-paced

4.0

The Mindmage's Wrath by Garrett Robinson

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Mindmage’s Wrath is the next entry in Garret Robinson’s ever-expanding Underrealm saga. Book 2 of The Academy Journals is, chronologically, book 7 of Underrealm, and once again, we see new depths of the world he’s built for his readers.

After the attack on the High Seat, Ebon and his friends return to school. But he and his friends there’s yet more danger lurking at the Academy when a teacher is found dead. The trio has several clues about who is responsible, but no one would believe their outlandish theory—especially not their new Dean who seems to have it out for Ebon because of his family ties. Fearing for the lives of their classmates, Ebon, Theran, and Kalem, attempt an investigation themselves, and it leads them to dark places and powerful magic they’re unprepared to face.

Like the first book, The Alchemist’s Touch, we have another fantasy bordering school adventure that’s perfect for readers who loved Harry Potter but wouldn’t mind a few more books with a similar direction but with a decidedly darker tone.

I left the first book wanting more out of the story—more wonder. Here, we get a step more of that element, but a large plate full of dark mystery and gritty suspense. In my mind, I imagine this story to be a YA fantasy, but the story pushes the boundary of what I thought could be done in a YA book. Though I will admit, I don’t read a lot of YA, so I could be mistaken.

The Dean is a familiar face if you’ve read the Nightblade saga, but that familiarity draws us back to the darker periods with this character, positioning him in a similar position as a “Profession Snape” archetype. This brings a fair bit of sympathy for the characters and complicates their ability to solve the murder mystery and save the school from the threats of outside forces.

The climax of the novel leads our heroes down a much darker path than you might expect. That makes me excited to see how far down into the void Robinson will take his readers.

I recommend this story to anyone who loves the magic school setup in high fantasy stories. If you’re a Harry Potter fan and you’d love to try a story with a similar vibe to the second half of the series, I’d grab it!

*Full Disclosure — I work for the publisher, but I wasn't paid to review this book. While this is an honest review, I was involved in the production of the audiobooks of other books in this series, and I receive a small royalty for purchases of those audiobook versions.*

The Vision by Tom King, Michael Walsh, Gabriel Hernández Walta

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

With Disney+ soon to release WandaVision, one comic in a very long list of comics became priority number one: The Vision by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta. 

In an attempt to live up to his desire to be more human, Vision, the synthezoid who saved the world thirty-seven times, has created the perfect android nuclear family and moved just outside of D.C. to establish a perfectly pedestrian life to complement his perfectly un-pedestrian career with The Avengers. But their world isn’t ready for the odd family, and when danger comes to their front door, all attempts at what is normal quickly collapses as the family copes with the stresses of morality.

I can easily say that I’m much more an MCU fan than a Marvel Comics fan. While I’ve enjoyed several comics that I’ve read sporadically in my childhood, I was never a comic book “reader.” Perhaps it was the fact that I didn’t have easy access to comics in the 90s. Perhaps it was because the MCU didn’t yet exist to push me down the rabbit hole. Perhaps—and this is perhaps the main reason—I hadn’t yet read a comic that truly embodied what fantastic comic book storytelling could really, truly be.

The Vision, a 12 issue, self-contained story, is the first time I’ve genuinely loved a comic.

Through the use of a framing device that speaks directly to the reader, often giving away upcoming plot points, the narrative approach to The Vision sets it apart from my previous readings. The narrator functions as a system of footnotes that adds to both the mystery and dramatic irony of the story, giving the reader morsels of information paced in perfect harmony with the dialogue or images of the story at hand.

Further, the story itself, like any good Pinocchio story, is an exploration of what it means to be human—whether or not the soul of an individual can be truly captured. And, ever deeper: how humans are capable of rationalizing and compartmentalizing their actions as a means of dealing with cognitive dissonance. Additionally, it explores themes of fate.

If you’re a sci-fi reader and MCU fan that is looking for a proper gem in the Marvel Universe to give comics a proper try, I highly recommend this as an entry point.

Kitchen Sink by Spencer Hamilton

dark reflective medium-paced

4.0

Infinite Doors (Dark Crossings) by Sean Platt, David W. Wright

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

What if you had a chance to wipe the slate clean? What if you could go back and take a path you wish you’d taken long ago? Could you defy fate or would fate win out?

These are the questions Platt and Wright wrestle within their short stary Infinite Doors. It’s a Dark Crossings story, so it comes with a Stephen King flavor of short story exploration. For a story so short, I hesitate to say much about it, but if you’re looking for just one more tale for the Halloween season, fit this one in!

Threshold by Sean Platt, David W. Wright

3.0