thereadingrambler's reviews
1043 reviews

The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

On the surface, The Siege of Burning Grass is about a twentieth-century-esque war set in a secondary world focusing on Alefret, one of the founding members of the Pact, a pacifist organization, after his own countrymen bomb him, take him prisoner, and then torture him in the name of pursuing peace. That description makes it sound like this is a high-octane kind of book, but it is anything but. The book is a carefully considered romp through some of the most difficult philosophical questions about violence, war, and peace. When does pacifism become passivity and complicity? When (if ever) is violence necessary? When (if ever) is violence the answer? And to what question? I had to put this book down multiple times just to think over what I had just read. I’ve been struggling lately with the fact violence is often The Solution in a lot of fantasy novels. This belief is that if you just kill the right people, then the day/country/world will be saved. And that’s part of the fantasy we want: That if we just figure out the Right Thing, then all of the problems in our world will be fixed. Everything would be so much easier that way. But that’s not how it works. For the biggest problems in the world, there is no straightforward or simple solution. All of the solutions require work—a lot of work—and demand significant sacrifice and struggle. This is what this book is about: Complicated questions with no easy answers. No, not even no easy answers, no real answers, just decisions that must be made, and every choice will come with costs and people who will have to suffer, but we cannot stagnate and hope the problems will go away. This is the best kind of work that speculative fiction can do: bring us out of our own world and into another one where we can examine these questions through different lenses that present us with things sideways and upside down.

Mohamed’s writing style is elegant and engrossing. She seamlessly blends plot and character development with philosophical meditation; the reading experience doesn’t feel weighted too much one way or the other—at least for my reading tastes. This is a book that does hold you at a little bit of a distance from the narrator/main character. While you are in Alefret’s head, this isn’t a story about him as much as about the moral conflicts he is struggling with. We are not precisely watching Alefret’s character develop or change in response to the new situations he is put in—really, he doesn’t change that much as a character at all; the final conflict is resolved through his commitment to his principles—but rather how those principles are tested and tried. They are shown to be difficult, complex, faulty, and inconsistent—but also something he holds dear and sees as more right than any of the other options presented to him through the book.

While I never felt a closeness to Alefret, I did feel a deep and burning hatred toward Qhudur. He is Alefret’s companion (”minder”) through this adventure and his greatest enemy. From the beginning of the book, Alefret calmly rests on the knowledge that Qhudur is going to kill him eventually. Alefret and Qhudur are philosophically extreme opposites to the point that Qhudur calls Alefret a monster for his refusal to fight. Qhudur is the one primarily poking holes into Alaefret’s philosophy. Alefret initially dismisses a lot of Qhudur says—he is worn down by the war and the torture and is not exactly happy about being on this adventure—but some of Qhudur’s actions and rationales begin to seep into Alefret’s mind, turning the antagonistic relationship into more of one between two foils.

There are a few action sequences—I don’t want to give the impression that this is a group of people sitting around discussing philosophy; in fact, people are pretty rarely just sitting around at all. This is a book about praxis. What will you believe when you are forced to confront the actions those beliefs require and the consequences coming from them in the most intense way: war? If you like the writing style and the speculative philosophy of Ursula Le Guin, I would definitely recommend The Siege of Burning Grass.

Content Warnings

Beulah by Christi Nogle

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Content Warnings

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is a short book that packs quite a punch in terms of plot and characters but will not be everyone’s cup of tea due to the cavalier approach to violence and the quirky narratorial voice. This was exactly my cup of tea though. The book follows Eveen the Eviscerater, who is one of the Dead Cat Tail Assassins, an undead woman who is sworn to a century of assassination services to Ayeril, the Matron of Assassins. There are three vows to her order: the contract must be just, the assassin can only kill who the hit is contracted for, and the assassin must kill the target. When those who have given their lives to Ayeril are resurrected, they have forgotten everything about their pasts and are resurrected far enough away from their death-date that anyone who might’ve known them is probably dead. Eveen is very good at her job and enjoys it well enough, but everything is thrown off-course when she discovers that she recognizes her target for the night is someone she remembers from the Before. This sets of a series of events through the night about what Eveen might remember, who this girl is she is contracted to kill, and why.

The book immediately takes an irreverent tone that jolted me in the best way possible. I did not enjoy A Master of Djinnor Ring Shout, so I wasn’t sure if Clark was going to continue to be an author I followed, but I was drawn in by the tagline for the book: Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats. Nor do they have tails. But they are most assuredly dead. From this, I thought the book was going to be gritty, dark, and intense. The book opens with this line, but the reader quickly finds out this line is on a business card. This is a brilliant and hilarious twist to reader expectations and from there we are on a raucous ride that makes some of the most ridiculous jokes, including a very clever breaking of the fourth wall.

That said, because there is a streak of black (this is a book about an undead assassin after all) and sardonic humor throughout this book, it is not going to be for everyone. This is not written in first-person nor is it a “dear reader” kind of narratorial style, but there is a strong and unique narratorial voice that deftly and definitely shapes the way the reader understands the story. This was something I greatly enjoyed, but I understand why people might not.

This is a novella, so the world-building goes fast, and there is a lot of it. Almost none of it is given through exposition; the reader has to figure out everything from the dialog and descriptions. For instance, this story takes place on one night, which happens on the night of a major festival. In the background of pretty much every scene are people celebrating in various ways through the streets. From these comments, the reader can (should) pick up on why this festival is happening, and eventually the story of the festival ties into the plot.

This is a balanced character- and plot-driven book. Eveen grounds the book and her relationship with Fennis and Sky gives her balance and propels her forward through the plot, which is opaque to reader and characters for much of the book. They are trying to unravel the mystery of why Eveen has been given this contract and also how this contract is even possible given the confines of things like time, space, physics, reality, and the will of the gods. This is not a mystery, though, the reader is given many of the clues to figure out what happened and how the characters are going to solve it, but we skip over the final confrontation planning montage and right to said final confrontation. This didn’t bother me as, for the most part, their plan goes off without a hitch and gives the reader a satisfying (if bloodthirsty) ending—so seeing them plan it would’ve just spoiled the ending. A planning montage always means the plan is going to fail. And I didn’t want to see Eveen fail. I was really rooting for her by the end of the book—even if her solution to 90% of her problems is violence.

I would recommend this book to people who like Murderbot—a somewhat reluctant main character who really would prefer to just enjoy simple pleasures and be left alone but unfortunately is very good at their job and unwillingly cares about other people in their life and even more unfortunately discovers a massive conspiracy they somehow are in the middle of without even realizing it.

The Jaguar Mask by Michael J. DeLuca

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I received this book as an eARC from the publisher through Netgalley.

TLDR: This was a very well-written and well-executed book, but I was not the target audience for this book due to the magical realism elements and the plot presentation style.

The Jaguar Mask by Michael J. DeLuca is another fantastic addition to Stelliform Press's catalog. DeLuca is a repeat author for Stelliform and is a growing name withing the solarpunk genre. His masterful writing style and deft character development are on full display to a great effect. The only problem with this book: I am not the target audience but this is only because I don't usually enjoy magical realism.

The book is about Felipe/Felix, a jaguar who, through the aid of various masks, can appear as human, and Cristina, a young women whose mother was recently a collatoral fatality in a politically motivated assassination. Felipe/Felix lives with Luz and Anibal, who are both involved in protest movements against the Guatemalan government. Cristina is just trying to make it through her grief and coming to terms with what has happened. She is an artist who is struggling with the tension between needing to make money to care for her nephews (who were foisted upon her by her absent sister) and wanting to paint her visions. The two are brought together because of the murder and because Luz and Anibal's activism, leading them on a journey through Guatemala to write the wrongs in the world and the wrongs they've perpetuated against themselves, all within the backdrop of the exploitative and destructive mining operations that are decimating Guatemala and its indigeneous human and nonhuman populations.

Throughout the whole book, DeLuca asks the reader to just accept certaint things as true, and this is the element of magical realism I don't usually like. If there is going to be some sort of magical or fantastical element. For instance, the mechanics of Felipe/Felix's jaguare shifting is never really discussed. Cristina comments that she doesn't know how he uses the gear shift in his car with his paws; she doesn't hold his hand but specifically comments on holding his paw, although obviously a jaguar would need all four feet to walk--things like that. These kinds of things are very common in magical realism, and magical realism is an excellent choice for this story--the genre emerged out of post-colonial protests, movements, and activism in the broadest defined Latin world so in a book that is explicitly about protest and activist movements agaisnt neo-imperialist powers in Guatemala magical realism is not only the natural but probably the necessary choice. I am not faulting the book; in fact, I am praising the book for this choice. I just personally don't like this genre as a reader.

Note: Please note that I do not star rate books.

Content Warnings

Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

This is the story of Lanie Stones, the youngest Stones daughter and the first necromancer born into the Stones family in 100 years. Her mother is the official assassin for Liriat, and her father is the executioner. Her sister wants to follow in both parents’ footsteps as she just loves killing people. The book opens with the revelation that the Stones parents have both died through mysterious circumstances and were apparently deeply in debt, and the debtors, the Scratch family, have come to collect. Lanie is only 15, so she writes to her sister, Nita, to come and deal with this as she is older and an adult. From the time Nita steps foot back in their childhood home, everything starts to unravel—she comes accompanied by a man whom she wants to have children with to carry on the Stones line, but she…acquired this man through unsavory and dubious means. The mysterious circumstances of their parents’ deaths become even more mysterious and suspect. Lanie’s powers continue to grow. And that’s only the very first part of the book. There are so many twists and turns in this that I can’t even say anything more without giving an important detail away.

This book was an absolutely wild ride that did not slow down at all. The book has this wonderful blend of humor and heartbreak while dealing with macabre and dark subject matter—after all, Lanie is a necromancer, and Nita is a gleeful serial killer. The writing style is delightfully wry, and Cooney clearly *loves* language and delights in finding the exact right word for something—and then almost immediately using that word in sparkling wordplay or a clever pun. The joke set up, timing, and landing always worked—at least for me.

These elements work because Lanie is such a delightful and charismatic narrator. Lanie is the sunshine-y, compassionate, pink-clad foil to Harrowhark, our other favorite necromancer. She is clever and powerful while just as kind and loving. Remember that scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Galadriel has the whole “In place of a dark lord, you could have a queen” but then she rejects the ring? Lanie could be that powerful and is tempted and even encouraged to grab that power many times, but her love for her family (even the more homicidal sides of it) and her friends keeps her grounded—and really her love for just everything. In a moment of crisis, one of Lanie’s friends describes her, saying, “Let us say…that this sorcerer’s unusual devotion stems…in part from a natural inclination towards…compassion. Yes, compassion for all things: living, dead, and in-between.” Lanie evinces a love for plants, for mouse skeletons, for her surrogate mother, for her niece, for inert bones. This true passion and willingness to sacrifice herself, to bend all of her considerable intelligence and power toward anything and anyone she loves, is what grounds this book.

The rest of the complement of characters is no less well-crafted, though. The other members of Lanie’s household are striking, even the ones who barely speak. Each one has a clear impact on Lanie and shapes her throughout the book. She always acts in the way she believes (even if she is wrong) will be the best for the other person—even at the cost to herself. One of the most heart-wrenching moments is when Lanie has to face that transition from childhood to adulthood where you realize the people who raised you are people too and have lives, desires, and wishes outside of caring for you.

Pacing is always my bugbear when it comes to books, and the pacing here is perfect. The book slows where it needs to build character relationships—and also draw out the tension. In the middle of the book we shift to this domestic interlude of a child going to school and adults going to work and developing adult friendships and our main quest almost seems to be abandoned as our characters take pleasure in a much smaller scope to life. But even as we delight in everything going so well for Lanie and her family—and we are introduced to some absolutely amazing secondary characters—we know that things cannot stay this good for very long. And this slowdown causes the much quicker crash to hurt all the more. The readers are jolted out of our complacency. It’s a beautifully executed tactic and dances on the reader’s emotions so exquisitely.

This book was surprisingly religious. All of the magic in the world is a boon from one of the gods—your power is directly connected to your devotion to one or more gods. Thus, Lanie’s considerable necromantic ability is tied to her love of the titular Saint Death. One of the continual interpersonal conflicts and debates is about the number of gods, their role in humans’ lives, and how to properly appreciate them and the powers they give out. Even the political backdrop is central to this religious debate. Lanie’s country, Liriat only exists because of a religious separatist group. Multiple of Lanie’s companions are from Liriat’s ancestral country, and their views open Lanie’s eyes to her own magical abilities and powers. At the same time, though, this isn’t a debate about whose religion is “correct.” One of the characters, an older woman named Tan, who takes Lanie under her wing, comments to Lanie that because of her different religious beliefs, she can call on her god in a much different way than Tan can call on hers. There is not a dichotomy set up between Tan and Lanie based on their religious beliefs but a mutual respect that each can learn from the other and that their beliefs share quite a bit.

Relatedly, worldbuilding is fairly complex, elements of magic, history, politics, and even Lanie’s family and physical experience are entwined with and all of the worldbuilding. If you’re fairly new to fantasy worldbuilding, especially worldbuilding which relies more on the reader’s observational and deductive powers versus exposition, this might be a bit tricky to keep everything together as stuff is revealed kind of piecemeal. Now, this is the way I like my worldbuilding, but I know it is not everyone’s cup of tea. All that said, I loved this world. I got kind of Victorian-vibes from the world in terms of aesthetics; the city felt very much like a 19th-century city to me (although nothing about the morality or culture of this world reflects Victorian social mores). I felt very immersed in this world; there were so many fun little details and quirks that the streets of the city felt alive, and the Stones Manor felt delightfully gothic (as in the architecture style). Everything felt very tangible and sensory.

I’m not really sure what comp titles would be for this book honestly; I think it stands apart from a lot of other books out there right now because of its balance of character, plot, themes, and pacing. I would recommend this to people who enjoy darker subjects but not necessarily dark writing. To people who enjoy wordplay and eccentric writing styles but don’t want to be experimental. To people who enjoy being intimate with their narrator and deeply investing in their internal, interpersonal, and external struggles.

This Penis Business: A Memoir by Echo Montgomery Garrett, Georganne Chapin

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Did not finish book.

I received this as an eARC and was initially excited about the title. I love micro-histories and societal critiques and this seemed like it would be a mix of both. I became suspicious when I realized the author is a ciswoman and that this is entitled "a memoir." Nonetheless, I forged ahead, and unfortunately, my worries were confirmed. This is very much a memoir that is supposedly focused on the issue of circumcision but from someone who is not a doctor, researcher, or even has a penis. While I'm sure she's a very knowledgeable woman, I find myself thinking this does more to hurt her cause. Why not platform penis-havers who have first-hand experience? Why not feature medical professionals who could speak to this issue from a professional perspective? We spend a lot of the book just discussing the author's childhood, which has no bearing on the actual topic under discussion. Additionally, the writing style is boring and self-indulgent. I would definitely not recommend this book, and I hope readers can find information about this important issue from better sources.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

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dark emotional fast-paced