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A girl who has always wanted to live out her slasher movie dreams gets her wish.


My Heart is a Chainsaw

Saga Press, 2021, 405 pages



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.


WARNING: I have seen a lot of slasher movies. Blood and gore beneath the cut. )

Also by Stephen Graham Jones: My review of The Last Final Girl.




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A surreal, dark Russian fantasy, the sequel to Vita Nostra.


Assassin of Reality

Harper Voyager, 2021, 256 pages



The eagerly anticipated sequel to the highly acclaimed Vita Nostra takes listeners to the next stage in Sasha Samokhina’s journey in a richly imagined world of dark academia in which grammar is magic—and not all magic is good.

In Vita Nostra, Sasha Samokhina, a third-year student at the Institute of Special Technologies, was in the middle of taking the final exam that would transform her into a part of the Great Speech. After defying her teachers’ expectations, Sasha emerges from the exam as Password, a unique and powerful part of speech. Accomplished and ready to embrace her new role, she soon learns her powers threaten the old world, and despite her hard work, Sasha is set to fail.

However, Farit Kozhennikov, Sasha’s dark mentor, finds a way to bring her out of the oblivion and back to the Institute for his own selfish purposes. Subsequently, Sasha must correct her mistakes before she is allowed to graduate and is forced to do what few are asked and even less achieve: to succeed and reverberate—becoming a part of the Great Speech and being one of the special few who dictate reality. If she fails, she faces a fate far worse than death: the choice is hers.

Years have passed around the Institute—and the numerous realities that have spread from Sasha’s first failure—but it is only her fourth year of learning what role she will play in shaping the world. Her teachers despise and fear her, her classmates distrust her, and a growing love—for a young pilot with no affiliation to the school—is fraught because a relationship means leverage, and Farit won’t hesitate to use it against her.

Planes crash all the time. Which means Sasha needs to rewrite the world so that can’t happen...or fail for good.


A girl who is a Verb in the Imperative tense, reverberating with the Great Speech. )

Also by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko: My reviews of The Scar, Vita Nostra, Age of Witches, and Daughter from the Dark.




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Book one in the Tower of Somnus LitRPG series.


Foundations

Mountaindale Press, 2022, 463 pages



First contact gone wrong. Humanity judged and found wanting. Unlimited power up for grab.

The Galactic Consensus arrived on ships as large as skyscrapers, crafted from glittering alloys that no human scientist could even begin to understand. They followed the trail of century old television transmissions to welcome us into the galactic community… only to recoil in horror at what they found.

They concluded that humans were unfit to be trusted with the advanced technologies that member-states of the Consensus freely traded with each other, installing a relay to warn other ships that we were under embargo, but more importantly, allowing humans entrance into the Tower of Somnus, a multiplayer game of sorts that could be played in one’s sleep. The hope was that humanity would learn proper behavior from playing the game with our more civilized neighbors.

Katherine ‘Kat’ Debs, a hereditary employee of one of the megacorporations that ruled the world, eked out a meager existence in a massive arcology of glittering glass and chrome. She dreamt of one day earning enough money to buy her freedom, and was more than willing to break a law here or there in the process. When she is offered an opportunity to enter the Tower of Somnus free of corporate control, she jumps at the chance. After all, the 'game' was more than just a status symbol, players retained the fantastic powers they earned in the game in the waking world as well.

A perfect opportunity to take control of her destiny, or die trying.


An odd genre mashup that's almost professionally written. )




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A darkly woke hellscape of sex and dating. Funny, vulgar, clever, and cringey.


Rejection

William Morrow, 2024, 272 pages



Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the touchiest problems of modern life. The seven connected stories seamlessly transition between the personal crises of a complex ensemble and the comic tragedies of sex, relationships, identity, and the internet.

In “The Feminist,” a young man’s passionate allyship turns to furious nihilism as he realizes, over thirty lonely years, that it isn’t getting him laid. A young woman’s unrequited crush in “Pics” spirals into borderline obsession and the systematic destruction of her sense of self. And in “Ahegao; or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression,” a shy late bloomer’s flailing efforts at a first relationship leads to a life-upending mistake. As the characters pop up in each other’s dating apps and social media feeds, or meet in dimly lit bars and bedrooms, they reveal the ways our delusions can warp our desire for connection.

These brilliant satires explore the underrated sorrows of rejection with the authority of a modern classic and the manic intensity of a manifesto. Audacious and unforgettable, Rejection is a stunning mosaic that redefines what it means to be rejected by lovers, friends, society, and oneself.


A Millennial meta author who thinks he's very clever (and mostly is). )




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Her high school boyfriend became a serial killer, but maybe he didn't do it?


The First Girl

Thomas & Mercer, 2025, 314 pages



She believed her serial-killer ex was innocent, but now history is repeating itself. What does she really remember?

Writer Karen Walker knows more than most about murderers. Her first love went on to become The Bagman, a notorious serial killer now locked away for life in a maximum-security prison.

Karen has spent her life running from the weight of having loved him, defended him and, ultimately, leading the police to his door. But now, ten years later, just as she’s about to publish her account of his crimes, a young woman is abducted in horribly familiar circumstances.

It can’t be The Bagman…can it? He’s safely behind bars, thanks to her. But she has to know for sure.

Returning to the hometown she thought she’d left for good, Karen is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man she’s never escaped. If there’s any chance of saving the kidnapped girl, she’ll have to face up to what really happened back then, once and for all…


She was his first, she's not a Final Girl. )




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A space opera about alien artifacts and adventurous academics that feels like the wrong genre.


The Stardust Grail

Flatiron Books, 2024, 312 pages



Save one world. Doom her own.

Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For ten years, she returned stolen artifacts to alien civilizations—until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now she just wants to enjoy a quiet life as a graduate student of anthropology, but she’s haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future.

Then an old friend comes to her with a job she can’t refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory, and they aren’t the only ones hunting for it.

Maya sets out on a breakneck quest through a universe teeming with strange life and ancient ruins. But the farther she goes, the more her visions cast a dark shadow over her team of friends new and old. Someone will betray her along the way. Worse yet, in choosing to save one species, she may condemn humanity and Earth itself.


Aliens, academics, artifacts, in a space adventure that doesn't come together. )




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In the seventh Destroyerman book, alt-World War II is raging.


Iron Gray Sea

Roc, 2012, 448 pages



In Taylor Anderson's acclaimed Destroyermen series, a parallel universe adds an extraordinary layer to the drama of World War II. Now, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy, the crew of the USS Walker, and their allies battle an ever-growing host of enemies across the globe in a desperate battle for freedom.

War has engulfed the other earth. With every hard-won victory and painful defeat, Matt Reddy and the Allies encounter more friends-and even more diabolical enemies. Even, at last, in the arms of the woman he loves, there is little peace for Reddy. The vast sea, and the scope of the conflict, have trapped him too far away to help on either front, but that doesn't mean he and Walker can rest. Cutting short his "honeymoon," Reddy sails off in pursuit of Hidoiame, a rogue Japanese destroyer that is wreaking havoc in Allied seas. Now that Walker is armed with the latest "new" technology, he hopes his battle-tested four-stacker has an even chance in a straight-up fight against the bigger ship - and he means to take her on.

Elsewhere, the long-awaited invasion of Grik "Indiaa" has begun, and the Human-Lemurian Alliance is pushing back against the twisted might of the Dominion. The diplomatic waters seethe with treachery and a final, terrible plot explodes in the Empire of New Britain Isles. Worse, the savage Grik have also mastered "new" technologies and strategies. Their fleet of monstrous ironclads - and an army two years in the making-are finally massing to strike.


A slow grinding war gets a slow grinding series. )

Also by Taylor Anderson: My reviews of Into the Storm, Crusade, Maelstrom, Distant Thunders, Rising Tides, and Firestorm.




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Book six in the Destroyermen series.


Firestorm

Ace, 2011, 422 pages



Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy and the crew of the USS Walker find themselves caught between the nation they swore to defend and the allies they promised to protect. For even as the Allies and the Empire of New Britain Isles stand united against the attacks of both the savage Grik and the tenacious Japanese, the "Holy Dominion" - a warped mixture of human cultures whose lust for power overshadows even the Grik - is threatening to destroy them both with a devastating weapon neither can withstand.


The war is getting bigger, everyone's climbing the tech tree. )

Also by Taylor Anderson: My reviews of Into the Storm, Crusade, Maelstrom, Distant Thunders, and Rising Tides.




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POTUS #21: A crooked machine politician does a heel-face turn.


The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur

Grand Central Publishing, 2017, 336 pages



Despite his promising start as a young man, by his early 50s Chester A. Arthur was known as the crooked crony of New York machine boss Roscoe Conkling. For years Arthur had been perceived as unfit to govern, not only by critics and the vast majority of his fellow citizens but by his own conscience. As President James A. Garfield struggled for his life, Arthur knew better than his detractors that he failed to meet the high standard a president must uphold.

And yet, from the moment President Arthur took office, he proved to be not just honest but brave, going up against the very forces that had controlled him for decades. He surprised everyone - and gained many enemies - when he swept house and took on corruption, civil rights for Blacks, and issues of land for Native Americans.

A mysterious young woman deserves much of the credit for Arthur's remarkable transformation. Julia Sand, a bedridden New Yorker, wrote Arthur nearly two dozen letters urging him to put country over party, to find "the spark of true nobility" that lay within him. At a time when women were barred from political life, Sand's letters inspired Arthur to transcend his checkered past - and changed the course of American history.


A forgotten president from the Gilded Age of Impressive Facial Hair. )




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Three law school students decide to skip out on their loans and set up shop as unlicensed street lawyers.


The Rooster Bar

Doubleday, 2017, 352 pages



Law students Mark, Todd and Zola wanted to change the world - to make it a better place. But these days these three disillusioned friends spend a lot of time hanging out in The Rooster Bar, the place where Todd serves drinks. As third-year students, they realise they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specialising in student loans, the three realise they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam.

So they begin plotting a way out. Maybe there's a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process. But to do so, they have to leave law school, pretend they are qualified and go into battle with a billionaire and the FBI....


Grisham is still phoning it in. )

Also by John Grisham: My review of The Appeal.




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A post-apocalyptic C-3PO in search of meaning.


Service Model

Tor, 2024, 376 pages



To fix the world they first must break it further.

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service.

When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away.

Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose.

Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming.


It's not Murderbot. It's better. )

Also by Adrian Tchaikovsky: My reviews of Children of Time, Children of Ruin, Children of Memory, Empire in Black and Gold, Dragonfly Falling, Blood of the Mantis, Salute the Dark, The Scarab Path, The Sea Watch, Heirs of the Blade, The Expert System's Brother, The Expert System's Champion, Made Things, And Put Away Childish Things, Shards of Earth, Eyes of the Void, and Lords of Uncreation.




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Sex! Sex and smut! Sex and smut and violence!



Kindle Unlimited Reads for March 2025


My Kindle Unlimited reads this month included a large share of sex and smut. Some because of recommendations pushed at me, some because I was curious about this "spice" of which the kids speak.

Spoiler: it's mostly awful and not worth reading. Some falls in the category of PWP (Porn Without Plot), others seemed to have a little bit of plot accidentally mixed into the porn.

Worth noting that the books I sampled were definitely written for a male audience. I haven't read much female-targeted smut, but from what little I have, I am very aware that these are separate genres. Female smut might have explicit sex and graphic descriptions of organs, but there seems to be a lot more, well, foreplay and buildup and emotional bonding, and I guess cuddling is a thing too.

For the male audience? They pretty much get busy without preliminaries, the women are instantly eager and enthusiastic about the most ridiculous feats of bedroom acrobatics, and the men perform like they have a Viagra gland infusing their bloodstream and cyborg wieners.

Look, I'm a straight dude and no prude, but a 10-page blowjob scene written in the purplest of prose does not arouse me. I can't take it seriously. I can take wizards and cyberspace and elfin girls beating up 300-pound ogres more seriously.

This is not all I read, of course (I can only take so much before my irony gland overloads).

Also I should note, for pedantic accuracy, that not all these Kindle books were available on Kindle Unlimited - sometimes I will just download the sample chapters for a regular ebook. Once again, the fact that I DNF most of these books does not mean they are necessarily bad (or worse than the books I actually finish). But I speed-run through a huge grab bag of books that I sample because they look vaguely interesting, or someone on the Internet said something interesting about it, or I just liked the cover. Only a few make the cut.

All His Angels Are Starving, by Tess C. Foxes



All His Angels Are Starving


Not much smut, but lots of violence. I finished this one: full review here.

On Astral Tides - Book One - From Humble Beginnings: A Modern-day return of magic LitRPG



On Astral Tides



Chosen by the Gods, Akio must rise… or fall!

A Heavenly messenger warns of an upcoming apocalypse, thrusting Akio into a new reality filled with endless dangers and miraculous opportunities.

But those who dwell within jealously guard their wealth and power.

Accompanied by an enigmatic and beautiful Faerie princess, the only chance for Akio - and Earth - is to gather companions, level up, and become the unlikely saviours of both their worlds.

When you start from nothing, the only way to go is up!

On Astral Tides is a Light Novel inspired LitRPG containing territory control and alliance building, social aspects, relationships and romance.


DNFed at 1%

Yeah, I barely made it through the first chapter of this. The writing was just so bad. Half-Japanese half-British dude describes his looks in a mirror, articulates every passing thought he has about his boring freelance coding job, and has some text banter with his little sister. I found it cringey and would not even consider it good if found on a fanfiction site. Had no patience to keep reading until something supernatural happened. I don't even know if this one gets smutty.

I Was An OP Demon Lord Before I Got Isekai'd To This Boring Corporate Job...



I Was An OP Demon Lord Before I Got Isekai'd To This Boring Corporate Job...



A wolf in sheeps' cubicles!

Trapped in a corporate hellscape, Vic Legion is shocked when the hot new secretary at Helcom makes some bold claims. Namely, that he is an overpowered demon lord whose identity and powers have all been stripped away by the angels secretly in control of the planet. Only breaking the seven planetary seals upon him can restore him to his original powers and free him from his jailers...and now that he's aware of his true nature, they're going to be in a rush to kill him before he causes a problem.

Sounds a little crazy, right? But when this nutty, busty blonde reveals herself to be a demon slave vowed to his service--in fact, one of four--and the chaos ramps up all around them, Legion has to learn to lean in. As he quickly discovers he's been surrounded by enemies all this time, the trick is going to be balancing his new secret identity alongside work and play...oh, yeah, and staying alive while he hunts for the keepers of the remaining seals.


DNFed at 17%

When you browse manga bookshops like BOOK☆WALKER, you see a lot of titles like this: "How to Treat A Lady Knight Right," "Why Does No One In This World Remember Me?", "The Dorky NPC Mercenary Knows His Place," etc. Very ... on the nose titles, that seem to be spelling out exactly what they are about, a scratch for every itch. I don't think all of these are smut or harem, but I found this title kind of funny. A demon lord who winds up in a cubicle job? Okay!

Well, 17% of the way through, and we've had a busty secretary follow him home, infodump about how he's a demon lord who's been dumped on Earth with no memories and now he's being hunted by angels, and also she's one of four demonesses devoted to his service.

I guess later in the book he meets the rest of his harem, but the first part of the book is like three sex scenes in a row with the first girl. Doesn't seem like there's much room for anything but sex in the rest of the book.

This was basically pure male fantasy (which is all harem novels, I guess): a super-hot girl shows up in an ordinary guy's apartment and says "Hi! You are super-special and have an amazing destiny and you are not the ordinary schmuck you think you are, also let's fuck! Would you like to fuck some more? Hey, anytime you want to fuck just call me, I'll be right over here, ready to fuck!"

Yeah, I mean, I get it. I'm male. It's probably a good thing this stuff wasn't around when I was fourteen, it would have bent me.

The John Blake Chronicles - Volume 1: Three Square Meals



The John Blake Chronicles - Volume 1: Three Square Meals



You've just found the ultimate erotic science-fiction series!

It's 2779 and a retired Terran Federation Marine has taken up life as a trader. Follow John Blake's adventures as he travels the galaxy on his freighter, the "Fool's Gold". This is the first book in a massive epic full of beautiful women, rampaging aliens, gunfights, space combat, and a mysterious heritage that will shake the foundations of the galaxy...

A multi-award winning adult space opera by M Tefler.


DNFed at 5%

So way, way back in the day DAW and Ace paperbacks published the John Grimes series, by A. Bertram Chandler. It's about a gritty space captain who is sometimes a freelancer and sometimes a naval officer, working his way up to Commodore, and having lots of space adventures. It's classic golden age space opera, and as was typical in SF written in the 60s and 70s, there are quite a few random beautiful women falling onto his dick. Basically an R-rated Star Trek.

I remember those books fondly. My father introduced me to them (this is his collection, which I inherited), and I read a lot of them before I was even old enough to really be interested in the sexy space ladies.

The John Grimes series, by A. Bertram Chandler

So, I heard about this "John Blake" series, which apparently sells well enough to make it the author's full time job now. I downloaded a sample of the first book.

It's very close to PWP. John Blake finds a stowaway on his ship, who at first he thinks is a young boy before she reveals that she's actually a petite girl running away from the last planet he was on. But she quickly clarifies that she's 18. So it's all okay when he tells her straightforwardly that he'll let her stay onboard as long as she's willing to service him on demand. She is very okay with this, and the next twenty pages is a lot of servicing. In which we learn that John Black is not entirely human, he has a huge tool with four testicles, and... let's just say it gets weirder from there. I think the author figured out exactly what fetishes there was a market for, and boy does he deliver.

Your Kink Is Not My Kink and Your Kink Is Fucking Weird.

Not judging those who like this kind of thing (okay, maybe a little), but one-handed reading pretending to be a space opera is a pass for me. I wanted a modern John Grimes series, not Penthouse Letters in space.

The Dog Walker, by Rian Stone



The Dog Walker



Rex has spent his entire adult life running from the shadow of his stepfather — a womanizing,
manipulative man who treated relationships like a game to be won. Now with a successful career
in the Navy and his own firm moral code, Rex tells himself he's nothing like the man who raised
him. He's better than that. He has to be
.

But as Rex navigates the complex world of modern dating, analyzing every interaction and
female behavior pattern like tactical data, he begins to see uncomfortable parallels. From married
women to single mothers, fellow sailors, and bachelor party strippers, each relationship forces
him to question whether his calculated approach to romance is really so different from Jon's
manipulations.

In this groundbreaking exploration of contemporary romance from a male perspective, R A
Stone delivers a brutally honest examination of love, self-deception, and the patterns we
create — both to find connection and to avoid it.


With sharp wit and brutal honesty, The Dog Walker challenges our assumptions about
relationships while asking profound questions about authenticity, vulnerability, and the stories
we tell ourselves about love.


DNFed at 16%

This book had a fair amount of sex, but it's not smut. Instead it was an intriguing book recommended by a YouTuber, a "sex and romance" book written by and for a male POV.

I didn't immediately realize that Rian Stone is a Red Pill guy, but this novel was at least more introspective than your typical manosphere ranting about Betas and Shit-Tests. I enjoyed The Dog Walker for a while, but it started to get tiresome because it's just a series of vignettes about Rex, a frustrated young Coast Guard sailor, fucking different women. The pattern is the same for each one: he wants to be a decent guy, not like his asshole stepfather. He's a nice guy who doesn't mistreat or use women! So he overthinks every interaction, seems to have lots of unsatisfying guilt-and-neurosis-afflicted sex, and whines constantly about how things just keep going wrong for him.

Does he eventually get better? Does he learn Frame and Dread and turn into a Chad? I dunno, I got tired of reading about him banging one chick after another and then aftergaming each hookup. In a different mood, maybe I'd have finished this, it is well-written and yes, it's a believable and psychologically insightful novel from the POV of a hapless and kind of annoying dude.

Worth the Candle, by Alexander Wales



Worth the Candle



Juniper was always the Dungeon Master, never the player. He was always a creator of worlds rather than the one who walked within them…until now.

Somehow, the tables have turned in the most dramatic way possible. Juniper finds himself in a world filled with the wildest fantasies a mind could come up with, and his fingerprints are all over it.

Throughout this world, echoes of his own ideas and plots leave him feeling like he’s always one step behind. He finds bits and pieces of ancient influence strewn about every town he goes through. One thing is clear, though: Juniper walks this magical new world in someone else’s shadow.

It might all add up to something vital...if only he can survive long enough to figure it out.


DNFed at 9%

I was recommended this series repeatedly as a top-tier litrpg. The writing is okay, and there is a hint of psychological depth inasmuch as the main character is introspective and analytical. But after a few chapters I was not sold.

I get the appeal: it's a "rationalist fic" which, if you're not familiar, is a genre of fiction popular in the rationalist community (evolved from LessWrong and Eliezer Yudkowsky of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality fame) in which characters spend lots of time really, really thinking about their actions and their consequences. Philosophy, utilitarianism, and game theory are common themes. I would even say Brandon Sanderson and his "magic has rules, which you can discern with enough trial and error" style of writing, is ratfic-adjacent. In Worth the Candle, the protagonist is isekai'd to a fantasy world that appears to be literally based on his own D&D campaigns. He quickly realizes this and besides trying to optimize himself for this environment, flatters the reader by running through numerous explanations for how he wound up here that the genre-savvy reader will no doubt think of. So it's sort of meta with a clever main character, but it's still basically just another story about a dude who's dropped into a fantasy world to become a D&D character.

I remain baffled by people who read very mediocre novels and think they've found a gem because... they're marginally better than most of what you find on Royal Road? I won't say this book is strictly worse than, say, Dungeon Crawler Carl, which I have enjoyed enough to continue, even though the writing often leans on puerile humor and obvious tropes. But DCC is more fun and creative, whereas Worth the Candle seems too much in love with its own conceits.

The Sky That Broke the Hills, by T.C. Rubright and R.E. Rubright



The Sky That Broke the Hills



"The Sky That Broke the Hills" is the first book of the "Dire Skies Trilogy," a fast-paced gaslamp fantasy epic that follows young Feldregor "Slaga" Boyden from his time as a mim (military indentured man) toiling away in a backwoods fort in Stheara, all the way to the distant, glittering capitol: Royalist Point.

When he and his friend Floort try to pawn a mysterious watch, he learns painfully that he was born with a condition called sharna macha, in which contact with magic makes him violently ill, but also gives him power: he can disrupt and dispel magical forces. Later, as Floort is about to be unjustly hanged in front of the whole fort, they are attacked by a fierce band of uplanders and a powerful, unseen mage. In the chaos, they escape with the help of a former enemy, the mysterious Major Dietrick. They go off in search of Bill Skye, the Master Witch Warden, who can train Slaga to turn the sharna macha to his advantage, if he can avoid the many agents of the crown, who have banned magic and all who use it. On the road they are attacked by bloodthirsty bandits, dodge cavalry, fight off bounty hunters, corral a wayward airship and more, while Slaga learns what he can do to magic and what magic can do to him.


DNFed at 8%

Well-written, but "gaslamp" was a strike against it, as I just tend not to like gaslamp/steampunk. That said, I might have finished this book if it wasn't telling a story I've read many times before. A pair of lowly "mims" (basically serfs) are conscripted to do shit-work for the army, hoping to one day be elevated to actual soldiers, who will still be treated like shit but theoretically be free man. I already know that of course they will escape their servitude and go on Adventures, but I just don't care about yet another story about expandables going from zero to hero. If you like this kind of story, though, I think it was written at a professional level.

The Last Nazi, by Jeff Putnam



The Last Nazi



An ancient map. A missing relic. A race against the past.

Smuggler and ex-Army pilot Cole Harper is no stranger to dangerous jobs, but when a sharp MI6 agent pulls him into the hunt for a legendary artifact—the Spear of Destiny—he finds himself facing an enemy he thought was long gone.

From the back alleys of Tangier to the forgotten ruins of a lost Templar stronghold, Harper and his reluctant partner must stay one step ahead of a ruthless ex-Nazi commander determined to seize the relic’s rumored power for himself. But the danger runs deeper than they imagined. Someone inside British intelligence betrayed them, setting them up to fail. And as the pieces fall into place, Harper realizes the war never really ended—it just went underground.

Navigating shadowed ruins, unraveling cryptic clues, and pushing his luck to the breaking point, Harper must use every ounce of wit and grit he has to stop the enemy before history’s darkest legacy rises again.

With gunfights, betrayals, and a final showdown deep beneath the Turkish sands, The Last Nazi is a heart-pounding adventure perfect for fans of Indiana Jones, Uncharted, and Casablanca.

The war is over. The fight has just begun.


DNFed at 10%

Oh, nice AI art on the cover.

(I don't hate AI art. I know it makes a lot of people rage-stroke when they see it, but I just dislike lazy and obvious AI artifacts in a professional product. Use AI, but at least do some photoshopping to fix those googly eyes and insectile airplanes...)

As for the story, it's a pulp adventure that is clearly trying to capture the Indiana Jones fanbase. Cole Harper is a former WWII Army pilot now working as a smuggler in post-war Cuba. There is a dame, of course. A hot femme fatale with ex-Nazis on her trail drags Cole into a running gun fight across Havana; he helps her because of course he does.

The first few chapters were all action and somewhat wooden dialog, and read rather like a YA novel. As a preteen boy I might have liked this, but my tastes now are more discerning and it wasn't original or creative enough to make me read through a lesser Indiana Jones fanfic.

(Also, honestly, the AI art just seemed really low effort.)

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Sean Duffy returns with Irish 90s noir.


Hang On St. Christopher

Blackstone Publishing, Inc., 2025, 306 pages



New York Times bestselling author Adrian McKinty continues the Edgar Award–winning Sean Duffy series with Hang On St. Christopher.

Rain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It’s July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after twenty-five apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to “Shortbread Land.” Duffy’s a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It’s an easy gig, if he can keep his head down.

But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protégé is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something’s not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hit man and why?

This is Duffy’s most violent and dangerous case yet and the whole future of the burgeoning “peace process” may depend upon it. Based on true events, Duffy must unentangle parallel operations by the CIA, MI5, and Special Branch. Duffy attempts to bring a killer to justice while trying to keep himself and his team alive as everything unravels around them. They might not all make it out of this one.


Duffy is getting long in the tooth, but he's still a hard Irish man and a music snob. )

Also by Adrian McKinty: My reviews of The Cold Cold Ground, I Hear the Sirens in the Street, In the Morning I'll Be Gone, Gun Street Girl, Rain Dogs, Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly, The Detective Up Late, Hidden River, and The Island.




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AQ update at the bottom, so skip past all this nonsense if that's all you're here for.

"Required Reading"



The Great Gatsby

If you read online author/writing circlejerks on Twitter, Facebook, reddit, etc. you have probably seen the latest "controversies" swirling around about publishing. First, is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel or a boring tedious rich people drama inflicted on generations of high school students by teachers who want to make them hate reading?

This iteration started with Brad Torgersen posting this:



Brad Torgersen is one of the original Sad Puppies and a right-winger, so people pretty much lined up along tribal lines to defend or attack his opinion.

A tweet

I don't know who "Veronica" is, but this is about the level of engagement the argument quickly devolved into: mostly male and right-leaning twitterati declaring that indeed, The Great Gatsby is boring and stupid and the only reason anyone reads it is that it was shipped to troops stationed overseas in large numbers and now generations of high school teachers have made kids read it instead of good stuff like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert Heinlein. A lot of dunking on public education and teachers, and not-so-thinly veiled disdain for women, on the presumption that they prevent boys from reading boy stuff.

And on the other side, people like Veronica sneering at boys who'd rather read adventure fiction than lit-ra-chure.

Well.

First of all, I have not read The Great Gatsby. Somehow I escaped it in my assigned reading in high school. (It's now on my TBR list because I want to evaluate it for myself.) But while I greatly dislike the smug, condescending attitude of Veronicas, I think all the fans boasting about how they read Lord of the Rings under their desks while pretending to read whatever had been assigned to them are also wrong in a number of ways.

First of all, there is value in reading "difficult" books, and even books that are not "fun." This isn't just an "Eat your vegetables" perspective. I get the argument that forcing kids to read books they don't like will kill their love of reading. It is very hard for me to say how seriously to take this, because I was an avid reader literally before I even started school, and I was reading adult novels well before high school. (I read James Clavell's Shogun in sixth grade. I thought the torture and the freaky sex was weird and a little disturbing. There's a whole page about medieval Japanese dildos... But the samurai and ninja were cool.) So being forced to read books I didn't like wouldn't have been enough to kill my reading tastes. But if you're a teenager who doesn't really love reading in the first place, would being made to read The Great Gatsby instead of Jedi Academy turn you into a lifelong non-reader?

Well, I do think kids should be made to read some literature. Difficult books, books that are core to our cultural canon, and books that introduce ideas, themes, and history that may be unfamiliar to them. Books written from a point of view, and in writing styles, that may not be familiar to them. That is part of education. We expect students to learn math and science and history even if they don't find those subjects "fun." Obviously it is preferable to present subjects to them in a manner that will hopefully be engaging, enjoyable, and convince them of the value of what they're being made to learn. But sometimes you study things because to be a functional educated adult in our society, you should know things. And the literature that has formed the foundations of our culture is part of that.

Of course English class is a lot more subjective than math or science class. In the US, English teachers usually have a lot of latitude in choosing what books will be required reading. Some schools, and some states, have standards that dictate certain titles or authors, but no two classes are going to have exactly the same lists.

I was very fortunate. I went to public school in California, back when California public schools were actually good. (Don't laugh: this is true! California's education system was once the model for the nation.) I took AP English and our teacher assigned us a lot of the usual classics: Dickens, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Hardy, Flaubert, etc. I hated Madame Bovary. I can appreciate it now for what it was, but I think a story about a bored 19th century French housewife ruining her life with fantasy can't really connect with a teenager and so it's not a book I personally would put on a high school reading list. But our teacher also liked science fiction, so she had us read Childhood's End, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and Earth Abides.

Some books I read in high school

Maybe the experience of other students was different and they had less diverse reading lists, but I think that being exposed to something outside my usual range (I was already reading almost exclusively SF and fantasy on my own) broadened my horizons, and when I began adding classics and literary novels again to my reading as an adult, it made me a much broader reader who caught references that someone who only ever wants to read genre will miss. The attitude of some of the Torgersens and Correias is basically "Why should boys ever be expected to read anything but Exciting! Boy! Adventures? They don't need any of that feminine literary crap, wtf is a 'theme' even?"

Like, c'mon guys. I can see today what happens when you encounter readers who never read anything but comic books, litrpgs, and fan fiction. They bounce right off anything with complex sentence structures, difficult themes, or a plot that takes more then two pages for shit to blow up.

A lot of genre authors (and readers) are defensive over the perception that for decades, genre fiction has been looked down upon by publishing, by literary critics, by "real" authors. The story of taking a writing class and being sneered at when you admit to wanting to write sci-fi is a common one. Long ago, this was "nerd shit." But is it really true now? I don't think so, not so much. And y'all need to admit that Dickens and Flaubert and yes, maybe even Fitzgerald, had something to say to you today.

This is why whenever I talk to fellow fans, I will die on the hill of insisting you should read stuff outside your favorite genres now and then. And that you don't have to "enjoy" everything you read to get something out of it.

Publishing's Anti-Male Bias



Somewhat related, another author went viral for this Tweet:



Note the response. I will get to that.

Now, I don't know who John A. Douglas is. Apparently he's also in that right-aligned authorsphere, so his hot take is not unexpected. (He's an indie-published author with some kind of D&Dish orc book? I may give it a try on KU.)

But, ya know, he's not completely wrong. "Modern publishing hates male readers" strikes me as a bit of a persecution complex, but most of the retorts online pointed out that women make up most of the book-buying public today, so of course publishing is going to cater to their tastes. And this is true but it's not the whole story. There were some arguments about whether publishing "should" try to reach out to boys, whether failing to appeal to male readers is leaving money on the table, or whether no, it's boys and men who should broaden their horizons and read more fiction by and about women. The argument there is that girls have had to read boy-focused books forever so why shouldn't boys read more female POV books now?

Fair point (I say, as a dude who writes a series from a girl's POV), but I would argue that Alexandra Quick is not a particularly "female" story but has attracted an audience of both male and female readers because it's just an adventure series whose protagonist happens to be female. Much of what dominates the genre market today is "romantasy." Can we just be honest and say that's a romance subgenre that only appeals to women? (Yes, yes, I know that's not literally true, I'm sure there are a handful of male romantasy fans.) Even outside of romantasy, much of what is published in SF and fantasy today is by or for a female perspective. Pointing this out frequently draws accusations of misogyny and male tears, but look, telling guys who don't find these books appealing "The problem is you: you need to change your reading tastes!" is... not a winning marketing strategy.

"jelloannaa's" retort, that men should read A Court of Thorns and Roses, just completely misses the point. Look, lots of women don't like Lord of the Rings. Fine. But lots do. I'm going to controversially suggest that, if we narrow both male and female readers down to those who actually like the fantasy genre, the proportion of women who would like Lord of the Rings is far greater than the proportion of men who would like A Court of Thorns and Roses. Because LotR may have a lot of signifiers of "male fiction": it's a band of brothers adventure novel with grand sweeping military engagements and kingdoms and stuff, and there are only a handful of female characters who have a few iconic scenes but are mostly secondary. But it's still a story that appeals to everyone! Meanwhile, I'm just gonna say it: while I have not read ACOTAR, every summary I've read indicates a very, very female-centric romantic fantasy that has little to appeal to any man who doesn't have quite unusual tastes. The "fantasy" worldbuilding appears to be a veneer over your basic "Plain girl becomes the love interest of multiple hot brooding dangerous men" storyline. We. Just. Don't. Like. That. Stuff. And I've read romances! But men who look at what's on the shelves and say "This isn't for me" are not saying "Eww, girl cooties!" but are treated as if they are.

It's unfortunate that much of the whining comes from the manosphere- a bunch of guys who genuinely do despise women and anything with girl cooties on it. But in my fleeting interactions with the publishing industry and writing communities, it's evident to me that the whining has some basis in fact. Anything that might appeal too much to male tastes is treated as an embarrassment, something to be reluctantly tolerated but not encouraged. And too often you see people like Veronica and jelloanna who resort to browbeating the audience for having the wrong tastes.

Also, ya know, "BookTok slop" is a real thing.



Like, "Books have too many words?" Wut?

Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War ebook



The Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War ebook is now updated with a new cover from Bordraw, who made the previous Alexandra Quick ebook covers.

Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War ebook cover, by Bordraw

As for Alexandra Quick and the End of Time, I have added a few words, but not many. I am stuck on a major plot point and I've been pondering it for a while now, sketching out and discarding idea, using various brainstorming schemes, and have yet to figure out a way to execute it in the way I need to, and the rest of the story will not make sense unless I do.

This happens to me a lot when writing, and I don't understand what it is about my plotting style that causes this. Other authors seem to be able to plow through their story and just make stuff happen. I can't figure out how to make A happen before B and fit C into D and it grinds me to a halt for days or weeks. And this being the last book, I am well aware that everything needs to come together now! So I am not suffering "writer's block," more like a "writer's obstacle."
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Amy is becoming the Jessica Fletcher of the California writing community.


Amy Among the Serial Killers

St. Martin's Press, 2022, 400 pages



Carla Karolac is doing just fine. Having escaped the clutches of her controlling mother and founded a successful writing retreat in which participants are confined to windowless cells until they hit their daily word count, she lives a comfortable, if solitary, existence. If only her therapist, Toonie, would stop going on about Carla's nonexistent love life and start addressing her writer’s block, she might be able to make some progress. But then Carla finds Toonie murdered, and suddenly her unfinished memoir is the least of her concerns. Without quite knowing why, she dials an old phone number.

Amy Gallup, retired after decades as a writing instructor, is surprised to hear from her former student Carla out of the blue, three years since they last spoke. She’s even more shocked when she finds out the reason for Carla's call. Suddenly, she finds herself swept up in a murder investigation that soon brings her whole old writing group back together. But they’ll need all the help they can get, as one murder leads to another and suspicions of a serial killer mount across San Diego.

Full of Jincy Willett’s trademark dark humor, an unforgettable cast of characters, and two of the most endearingly imperfect protagonists who have ever attempted to solve a murder, Amy Among the Serial Killers shows us what can be gained when we begin to break down our own walls and let others inside…as long as they aren’t murderers.


C'mon Jincy Willett, just admit you're writing a series. )

Also by Jincy Willett: My reviews of The Writing Class, Amy Falls Down, and Winner of the National Book Award.




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POTUS #20: The end of the Republican-born-in-a-log-cabin era.


President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier

Simon & Schuster, 2023, 624 pages



An “ambitious, thorough, supremely researched” (The Washington Post) biography of the extraordinary, tragic life of America’s twentieth president—James Garfield.



In “the most comprehensive Garfield biography in almost fifty years” (The Wall Street Journal), C.W. Goodyear charts the life and times of one of the most remarkable Americans ever to win the Presidency. Progressive firebrand and conservative compromiser; Union war hero and founder of the first Department of Education; Supreme Court attorney and abolitionist preacher; mathematician and canalman; crooked election-fixed and clean-government champion; Congressional chieftain and gentleman-farmer; the last president to be born in a log cabin; the second to be assassinated. James Abram Garfield was all these things and more.

Over nearly two decades in Congress during a polarized era—Reconstruction and the Gilded Age—Garfield served as a peacemaker in a Republican Party and America defined by divisions. He was elected to overcome them. He was killed while trying to do so.

President Garfield is American history at its finest. It is about an impoverished boy working his way from the frontier to the Presidency; a progressive statesman, trying to raise a more righteous, peaceful Republic out of the ashes of civil war; the tragically imperfect course of that reformation, and the man himself; a martyr-President, whose death succeeded in nudging the country back to cleaner, calmer politics.


A very short presidency, but an interesting life. )




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Teen moms in the 60s discover witches are real.


Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Berkley, 2025, 482 pages



There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid...and it’s usually paid in blood.


Childbirth is body horror. )

Also by Grady Hendrix: My reviews of Paperbacks from Hell, We Sold Our Souls, Horrorstör, My Best Friend's Exorcism, The Final Girl Support Group, and The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires.




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A bloody survival horror LitRPG.


All His Angels Are Starving

Podium Publishing, 2025, 426 pages



A high school student is thrust into a battle to the death with flesh-eating angels in the first installment of this heart-pounding LitRPG series.

Jenny Huang’s day starts out stressful enough. Between an argument with her overbearing mom and a surprise pop quiz in first-period English, she’s counting down the weeks until she can escape to college. To top it all off, she’s working up the nerve to ask her best-friend-slash-crush to prom.

But when an earthquake rips her high school into another realm, Jenny suddenly has much bigger problems to contend with. The Survival Challenge is in effect, trapping Jenny and her classmates in a hellish battle royale. There are 851 people stuck in the building, and that number is ticking down—fast. Hunted by murderous angels and guided by strange system notifications, there’s only one kill or be eaten.

By crafting weapons and mastering the mechanics of this nightmarish new world, Jenny levels up and fights to keep herself and her friends alive. But survival comes with a price. The stronger she grows, the more she uncovers of a dark, vengeful side of herself she doesn’t recognize. With every kill—with every bite—she loses more of the girl she used to be.

And one horrible truth keeps haunting the Challenge only ends when one person is left standing. How can Jenny protect the people she cares about if, in the end, she’ll just have to destroy them too?


Imagine Hunger Games taken much, much more literally... )




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Ramen, Wuxia, Presidents, and Pretty-Girl Covers



My Kindle sampling continues to focus on indie authors. I've decided they deserve some love and I will actually click on any cover that looks interesting when it appears in my Facebook or Twitter feed. Obviously this means more get shoved at me, and it's mostly looking for gems in a garbage pile, but cheers to all those authors putting their work out there in a sea of mid and AI-generated content.

I keep trying litrpgs, but now I am exploring Progression Fantasies/Wuxias. Let me say, the landscape is dire and I continue to not understand the highly recommended works that everyone seems to recommend.

Reverend Insanity, by Gu Zhen Ren



Reverend Insanity



If you were reborn five hundred years in the past, knowing everyone’s fate and destiny, how would you use that knowledge?

Fang Yuan, armed with five centuries of memories, returns to his youth in a world ruled by Gu worms, where the strong dominate and the weak perish. No longer an ordinary man, he understands the ruthless law of survival and is determined to rise on the path of Gu Immortality—no matter the cost.

From the moment he refines his first Gu worm, Fang Yuan embarks on a journey filled with betrayal, schemes, and bloodshed. Manipulating every opportunity, he deceives his family, slaughters his sect, and coldly eliminates anyone who stands in his way, all to grow stronger. But as he climbs toward the peak of power, Fang Yuan discovers his true enemy is not merely other cultivators, but the omnipotent force of Heaven itself. With each step he takes, the battle between him and Heaven intensifies, and hidden secrets about the False Immortal Body and the Reincarnation Prison begin to unravel.

In this world where strength is everything, Fang Yuan's path is soaked in blood and intrigue. His enemies are not just powerful individuals, but the invisible will of Heaven. As his power grows, the chains of destiny tighten, the forbidden forces of the Reincarnation Prison awaken, and the mysteries of the False Immortal Body come to light. Can Fang Yuan shatter every shackle and seize control of his fate?


DNFed at 8%

This seems to be one of the most popular Wuxias. I read thread after thread of people raving about how awesome it was that they binged the whole series.

First of all, it's translated from Chinese, and the translation is... rough. Inconsistent tenses, head-hopping, stilted dialog, just a rough read.

The premise seems to be that the protagonist, Fang Yuan, has reached the end of his progression journey but he's about to be killed by his enemies. So he sends himself back in time to when he was a kid, to relive his life, but with 500 years of memories.

This should make him some kind of brilliant schemer, but mostly he just snickers to himself about how foolish and naive everyone around him is because he already knows what their plans are. Which brings up the second point: protagonist is an amoral asshole focused on leveling up and with no real character arc or heroic journey. I don't see why I'm supposed to care about his progression or defeating his enemies.

There's lot of tedious exposition about "Gu levels" and how the Taoist progression system works, and, like, it's not interesting, man.

The Law of the Jungle, by Vasily Mahanenko



The Law of the Jungle



Might is right. This is the primal law of the jungle, and this creed not only rules the animal kingdom, but also shapes the lives of men.

Having harnessed the elusive Qi energy, humanity has divided the world into zones and mastered the creation of extraordinary artifacts, edging closer to immortality. Yet, this evolution has only entrenched the fundamental law: power grants privilege. The strongest claim the finest resources as well as the right to rise above others.


DNFed at 27%

Vasily Mahanenko is apparently one of the OG progression fantasy authors, and Law of the Jungle is up to like 14 books? I actually kind of enjoyed this one for a while; the writing was okay and the protagonist is your typical underdog nobody peasant who through grit and determination is much better than he has a right to be. So when some "Higher Tier" Taoists from a higher tier world arrive and he gets drafted into coming along on a wilderness journey, he slowly earns respect and the chance to level up.

There was an interesting variety of characters, and the journey held my attention for a quarter of the book, but the problem is in the title: everyone is an asshole. I think this is apparently a trope of Wuxia fantasy; everything is a competition, it's all about dominating, and the value system seems utterly devoid of anything like friendship, loyalty, kindness, or mercy. Seniors bully their juniors, the mighty expect groveling and submission from their lessers, and it's just depressing to read about a bunch of privileged entitled assholes either kissing ass or kicking underdogs. The protagonist trying to crawl up to higher tiers didn't interest me enough because I saw no evidence he'll be any different once he's on top.

Half-Elven Thief, by Jonathan Moeller



Half-Elven Thief



There is honor among thieves…but only to a point.

Rivah Half-Elven is a master thief of the Court of the Masked King, the ruling thieves guild of the imperial city of Tar-Carmatheion. Yet her debts hang over her head like a sword that might fall at any moment.

So when a guildmaster of the Court orders her to take a job from a mysterious client, Rivah has no choice but to accept.

But the client wants her to steal the spell book of a fearsome and powerful wizard.

And when you steal from a wizard, death might be the happiest outcome…and it will take all of Rivah’s wits, skills, and courage to survive.


DNFed at 10%

This is the most D&Dish novel that ever D&Ded without using an actual ™.

The protagonist is a half-elven thief. A master thief even! She owes debts to the thieves guild (it's not called that, it's the Shadow Court something-or-other), lives cheaply in a tavern run by a former thief, has a trapped chest in her room, slips on leather armor when she hears trouble, has night vision and knows exactly three spells because her mother was an elf... yes, this book lives and breathes D&D tropes and is written for people who just love written D&D adventures. It's not a litrpg, but you can still practically see the character sheet on every page.

In chapter one, kobolds sneak up from the tunnels under the city. They come through a trapdoor in the inn's basement that the innkeeper "never got around to doing something about."

Okay, so... there's this undercity (which is not a secret!) full of monsters who are known to come up through the tunnels to attack and abduct people, and you've got a trapdoor in your inn's basement leading to this undercity, and you treat it like a leaky roof you'll get around to someday? This seems like Contrived Stupidity to me.

The kobolds tie up everyone else, so the protagonist has to take out eight kobolds by herself. That's a reasonable challenge for 2nd or 3rd level thief/magic-user, I guess.

The writing was very flat and barely even YA level. This is part of a series (future volumes have such exciting names as "Wizard Thief" and "Half-Orc Paladin"), and it reads like someone churning out novelizations of their D&D sessions. There was not a single original idea (it looks like the main plot will be a heist - stealing a wizard's spellbook is the sort of plot that gets generated by a random roll on the "I don't have an adventure prepped for game night" table), so it was nothing I was interested in continuing.

Galactic Terror: A Space Opera, by Michael Robertson



Galactic Terror



They say you can’t run from your past, and now she’s reached the other side of the galaxy, Sparks wonders if they’re right …

Living on a distant planet with a transient population for the past year, ducking in and out of spaceport dive bars, mixing with pirates, bounty hunters, and criminals, she’s become just another being in the crowd.

But she wasn’t born to eke out a living at the very fringes of society. Not with her powers.

So when a stranger makes her a tempting offer …

An adventure she’s been desperate to have …

She wonders if now’s the right time for her to step from the shadows?

To return to the planet-hopping, high-risk thrill-ride that used to be her life.

To take back control.

And if the next few months end up looking like the past twelve, then it’s not like she has anything to lose.

Galactic Terror is the first book in a series of space opera thrillers, where every page crackles with high-stakes action and interstellar intrigue.


DNFed at 10%

I guess self-published books have to advertise loud and clear what they are on the cover, but do you really have to tell me that a novel called "Galactic Terror" is a space opera?

This story features a tiny waif-like protagonist names Reyes (really?) who is a Thrystian, a species commonly mistaken for human. She's laying low on a backwater world, concealing her galactic-level prowess at "droneball," some sort of VR dueling sport. She's hustling for small change after some job out in the big bad galaxy went south. She's providing for a girlfriend who's apparently succumbed to depression and addiction. There's a confrontation with an alien who tries to cheat her, she chases him down and proves she's a badass who's reluctant to kill. She has a dark past as some sort of mercenary or something.

The setting is very reminiscent of Star Wars, and it kind of read like Star Wars fanfiction. The writing was not bad, but it all seemed like very bland, generic space opera. Every page did not "crackle with high-stakes action and interstellar intrigue."

Chloe's Kingdom: The Koin Vault Heist, by Gregory Michael



Chloe's Kingdom



Six Motivated Thieves. One Deadly Heist.

Chloe Espinoza is a wild-haired petty thief aboard the Kingdom, a drifting city spaceship. Once rich but now poor, Chloe is determined to break free from the Honeycombs and return to her life in the Gardens. Only one problem: she hardly has enough koin for a burrito, making a lavish apartment seem as distant as the stars. All that might change, however, when Chloe is offered a heist that could make her unimaginably rich. But she can’t break into the impenetrable Koin Vault alone…

A young mastermind who can’t let go of her past.

A mathematical genius in desperate need of koin.

A privileged kid from the Gardens with a debt to pay.

A bartender who’s serving revenge.

A mischievous raccoon with a bottomless appetite.

A battered soul who’s been wronged by the council.


Gone are the days of stealing snacks. Chloe’s crew is aiming for the ultimate prize: the Koin Vault. Their plan? To rob the Treasury and bring down the corrupt council. But in a game where the stakes are jail or death, every move could be their last.


DNFed at 5%

A striking cover and the blurb read like fun. Even made me think it might be a bit Heinleinesque, and I do love some Heinleinian YA SF, when done right. But it's very hard to do right.

"Chloe's Kingdom" was not bad, but it was very juvenile. Chloe is running a gang of juvenile delinquents in her city-ship's ghetto, stealing candy bars from the space bodega. She has a raccoon sidekick.

So, this was cute, but the stakes were low. Presumably they will get higher, but I felt like it was the adventures of some generic spunky thieving girl with her cute animal companion, and not the beginning of a space adventure.

The Geomancer's Apprentice: A Monster Slaying Urban Fantasy Adventure, by Yin Leong



The Geomancer's Apprentice



Who knew feng shui would be this dangerous?

Junie Soong reaches a new low in her life when she’s fired from Starbucks. Her brother is brilliant, her parents are stars in their professions while she … trails behind in everything. Things start looking up when she lands a new job as apprentice to Joe Tham, a struggling geomancer and feng shui master based in Washington, D.C.

Junie finds out monsters are real while she and Joe investigate an eerie sinkhole in their client’s cellar. She also discovers she may be the last of a line of warriors who can channel qi, the essential life force underpinning the universe.

She now must race against time to learn how to wield her powers while fending off shape-shifting, malevolent creatures from the depths of Diyu, the Chinese version of Hell. Not only that, she and Joe must deal with the ghosts that are suddenly manifesting in the cellar.

The Geomancer's Apprentice is the first book in an urban fantasy series featuring Asian mysticism and magic, and terrifying monsters from Asian folklore.


DNFed at 10%

This was pushed to me on Facebook, and though urban fantasy is not really my thing, I sometimes will try them out if they have a new angle. The Washington, DC setting was interesting to me because I know a lot of those places.

Unfortunately, this read like a chick lit novel with some ghost stories. Junie is an underemployed underachiever who's a disappointment to her overachieving mother (oh boy, mother-daughter conflict, such compelling drama...), who gets her a job through distant family relations. So she goes on a little housecall with the last in a long line of geomancers.

So I wanted to see some monsters. Some action. I even gave this book an extra chapter to get there. There's just a spooky sinkhole in a basement, and scary red eyes in the darkness. Too slow, too much internal angst from a bland protagonist, no actual magic or monsters yet. Sorry, if I am committed to reading a book through, I'll give it time to build up the plot, but if I am doing a Kindle Unlimited skim, you better show me shape-shifting malevolent creatures from the depths of Diyu before I get bored.

Lightblade: A Progression Fantasy Epic, by Zamil Akhtar



Lightblade



One day, Jyosh will climb the heavens and slay a dragon god.

Though nothing could seem less likely for a slave, especially one whose body is too broken to cycle sunshine into destructive magical energy. Until he meets a woman who can secretly teach him the lightblade, an energy sword transmuted from sunlight, capable of changing size, shape, and performing incredible magical feats according to the wielder’s skill level.

Except she only exists in his dreams. Each hour of sleep equals a day in these shared lucid dreams, wherein he must master new lightblade abilities, bond with his teacher and other allies, and gain the fortitude to overcome his weakness and crush his enemies.

When Jyosh awakens to learn that a mysterious lightblade master, who also commands an armada of sky ships, is spreading destruction across the land, he’ll face a trial by fire against forces far more frightening than he could ever dream.

And forged from that fire, a Light Ascendent will rise.

Cradle meets The Matrix in this progression sci-fantasy featuring light-based magic, dream training, and dragon gods.


DNFed at 5%

I didn't love Cradle. So advertising a book as "Cradle meets..." is not actually a strong selling point for me, but I was on a Wuxia kick and this had a cool-looking cover and blurb.

Lightblade features a protagonist named Jyosh who's interned in some sort of political prison camp. The evil emperor killed his family and cut off his sister's head in front of him. Through some shenanigans, he has obtained a dream stone that will let him enter a virtual world where time passes more slowly, and acquired some kind of AI training master who can teach him how to create "light blades." There is some build-up of the setting and progression system -- green light is what most people have access to, but the protagonist needs to generate red light to create his lightblade. The AI is actually a copy of, well, basically a Replika the protagonist was previously using as a romantic companion. ("I don't have genitalia" was one of the funniest lines in the first few chapters.)

Problem was, the whole first couple of chapters were an extended training sequence with a little bit of worldbuilding. The dialog and personal interactions were fine, and I know that training sequences are a pretty significant part of most progression fantasies, but I don't dig them that much. This might be a good book for someone who loves progression fantasies, it didn't hook me.

Beware of Chicken: A Xianxia Cultivation Novel, by Casualfarmer



Beware of Chicken



A laugh-out-loud, slice-of-life martial-arts fantasy about . . . farming????

Jin Rou wanted to be a cultivator. A man powerful enough to defy the heavens. A master of martial arts. A lord of spiritual power. Unfortunately for him, he died, and now I’m stuck in his body.

Arrogant Masters? Heavenly Tribulations? All that violence and bloodshed? Yeah, no thanks. I’m getting out of here.

Farm life sounds pretty great. Tilling a field by hand is fun when you’ve got the strength of ten men—though maybe I shouldn’t have fed those Spirit Herbs to my pet rooster. I’m not used to seeing a chicken move with such grace . . . but Qi makes everything kind of wonky, so it’s probably fine.

Instead of a lifetime of battle, my biggest concerns are building a house, the size of my harvest, and the way the girl from the nearby village glares at me when I tease her.

A slow, simple, fulfilling life in a place where nothing exciting or out of the ordinary ever happens . . . right?


DNFed at 8%

Okay, once I realized what the gimmick is, I found this amusing but not amusing enough. The protagonist is a guy from our world who somehow (and without explanation) ends up inhabiting the body of a junior Taoist adapt in a fantasy Xanxia world. The protagonist is genre-savy, making this a bit of a satire of Xanxia novels, but I found his internal monologue too casual and annoying.

In the second chapter, we are introduced to the real(?) protagonist... a chicken.

Yes, his rooster apparently becomes self-aware and channels the power of the Tao to become a Xanxia warrior.

This was cute, but the writing style didn't appeal to me and really, I think I'd have to be much more into Xanxia novels to appreciate what looks like a big send-up of Xanxia tropes.

The Life of Rutherford Hayes, by David Fisher



The Life of Rutherford Hayes


Complete review here.

Daughter of No Worlds, by Carissa Broadbent



Daughter of No Worlds



A former slave fighting for justice. A reclusive warrior who no longer believes it exists. And a dark magic that will entangle their fates.

Ripped from a forgotten homeland as a child, Tisaanah learned how to survive with nothing but a sharp wit and a touch of magic. But the night she tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life.

Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic Wielders in the world. But to join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with Maxantarius Farlione, a handsome and reclusive fire wielder who despises the Orders.

The Orders’ intentions are cryptic, and Tisaanah must prove herself under the threat of looming war. But even more dangerous are her growing feelings for Maxantarius. The bloody past he wants to forget may be the key to her future… or the downfall of them both.

But Tisaanah will stop at nothing to save those she abandoned. Even if it means gambling in the Orders’ deadly games. Even if it means sacrificing her heart.

Even if it means wielding death itself.

Fans of epic romantic fantasy like Sarah J. Maas and Raven Kennedy will devour this tale of dark magic, passionate romance, vengeance, and redemption.


DNFed at 7%

Pretty cover, interesting blurb, but it turns out it's a #BookTok-friendly "romantasy." Ugh. I didn't get as far as the romance, but the first few chapters were a very generic setup: Tisaanah was taken as a child from a conquered homeland, and is a slave girl who is very, very hot but is trying to earn her freedom with lap dances. Okay, not really, she's sort of an entertainer but supposedly not actually whoring? Except it turns out she might have made some extra coin on the side whoring and that's what really pisses off her owner. So when she tries to buy her freedom, he whips her almost to death.

The writing was okay but what annoyed me about this book is what I call the "traipsing through the tulips" protagonist, by which I mean a protagonist who does not see the blindingly obvious flaw in her plans because it is blindingly obvious that the bad guy is going to screw her over. What, you're shocked, shocked, that your master's promise to free you if you earned enough money turned out to be empty? A slave with zero leverage is shocked that she has no leverage and no recourse. Shocking. DNFed at that point.

Didn't really care about the world or whatever glorious path of vengeance and hot steamy romance she is supposed to embark upon.

Unnatural Laws (The Whispering Crystals: Book 1), H.C. Mills



Unnatural Laws



Ever wished a portal would open up and swallow you? Don’t. Trust me.

Slinging hotdogs may not be the most glorious side gig, but hey, if it paid for college, that’s all Emma could ask for. And let’s be real, of all the crowds in the world, what were the odds that Comic-Con would get Portalled next?

Emma really should’ve known better. Once again, the universe conspires against her, and now she’s stuck in a world where the laws of physics don’t seem to apply, and even the grass is trying to kill her. She better pay close heed to the Artificial Intelligence guiding her and make some new friends fast, because out here, it’s thrive or die.

And no amount of videogames prepared her for a world where you can actually gain Skills and level up. Or to face a series of trials that seem designed to kill her rather than teach her how to survive... What could possibly be the real goal of the mysterious ‘predecessors’ that built them?

Start reading the completed six-book series today, and get portalled into a whole new dimension!


DNFed at 21%

Interdimensional rifts have been opening up around the world, at random gatherings of large numbers of people. No one knows why or where they came from, but thousands of people at a time disappear. This has just been... happening for months now.

Sounds like a great time to go to Comic-Con, right?

Yes, it's another litrpg. And this one came close to holding my attention. I kind of liked the protagonist - an underemployed Zoomer who's working at a hot dog stand at Comic-Con. I did not like the "protagonist examining her hot sexy body in the mirror" start, nor the emphasis on how hard it was to button her top because of her big boobs (it turns out the reason is her boss deliberately makes her wear too-tight tops to attract customers; sexual harassment suit, what's that?), but I kept going because I wanted to see where it goes. And the voice was somehow engaging enough to make me interested.

Naturally, a rift appears, and everyone at Comic-Con gets sucked into it. And Emma wakes up alone and proceeds to have the new rules of the world she is in explained to her by an AI named Suri. There are hints of a metaplot which reminded me of Dungeon Crawler Carl (it appears aliens or extradimensional beings or something are grabbing Earthlings to throw them into lethal LARP scenarios for some yet-unexplained reason), but for the first part of the book, it's just Emma trying to figure out how to level up and survive, and checking her character sheet. And this where I started to lose interest, because the author spends a lot of time explaining these complicated alternate rules of physics (see, they are breathing air but it's not really air and they aren't really breathing) and how the protagonist has to manipulate "lavi" and build up her "toxic energy resistance," and so we get several chapters of basically breathing exercises and physical training while constantly checking lavi and toxic energy points. So far no other characters have appeared, and there's hardly any fighting. This book reminded me of a GM who really, really loves the complex homebrew system he's created for his RPG campaign and wants his players to get really into exploring and refining their character builds, when the players are less interested in the mechanics than in the adventure. And that was me, waiting for a story to happen. I finally gave up.

Ramen Obsession: The Ultimate Bible for Mastering Japanese Ramen, by Naomi Imatome-Yun and Robin Donovan



Ramen Obsession



Learn the art of making ramen from the comfort of your kitchen

Nothing quite compares to the simple pleasure of slurping up a piping hot bowl of delicious ramen. This cookbook provides you with the traditions, tools, and tips you need to start making flavorful and filling ramen right at home.

What sets this ramen cookbook apart:


  • The history of the bowl—Discover the origins of ramen, regional variations, modern-day interpretations, and more.

  • Learn the 6 steps—Build an unparalleled bowl by learning how to make each critical component: broth, tare (seasoning sauce), aromatic oils and fats, noodles, toppings, and a perfectly combined bowl.

  • 130 recipes to savor—You'll learn to create a variety of ramen recipes that range from easy to challenging, such as Spicy Miso Tonkotsu Ramen with Ginger Pork, and Shoyu Ramen with Littleneck Clams, Scallions, and Butter.



Master creating savory bowls of ramen from scratch with this comprehensive Japanese cookbook.


Ramen, yum! Being able to download cookbooks to a tablet is a convenient benefit of KU, and this one has definitely leveled up my ramen. If you've just been throwing noodles and flavor packets into boiling water, you can do so much better with a small amount of effort. Still haven't quite worked up to that perfect tonkatsu bowl, but I've made some very acceptable miso veggie, Thai peanut, and ajitsuke tamago ramen.

My complete list of book reviews.
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Book One of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.


Lord Foul's Bane

Del Rey, 1978, 480 pages



Thomas Covenant is a leper, a bitter and solitary pariah who is mystically transported to another Earth where time moves differently than ours, one in which magic takes many forms. The Land is threatened by many evils, the most immediate of which is a maddened Cavewight whose subterranean excavations have unearthed the ancient and puissant Staff of Law.

More dangerous to the free people of the Land is the Gray Slayer, Lord Foul, the Despiser, who intends to destroy the actual foundations of the Earth that he might wage war against the universe’s creator. And Foul’s intended weapon in this conflict? None other than Thomas Covenant himself.


A fantasy classic that shows its age. )




My complete list of book reviews.

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