I jumped in with zero knowledge of The Stormlight Archive (I haven’t even read the synopsis’) and I found Dawnshard a fascinating and completely compelling read. I am sure that there are spoilers for the first 3 in the series (although I wouldn’t know what they are), and I’m sure there are things I didn’t understand, or get the significance of. BUT, I had a great time reading Dawnshard and I found Sanderson’s writing so accessible that I actually found it really easy to understand what was going on.
Review: A Mirror Mended (Fractured Fables #2) by Alix E. Harrow
Synopsis: Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty, is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just […]
Review: A Touch of Death (The Outlands Pentalogy #1) by Rebecca Crunden
A Touch of Death is a semi-finalist in SPSFC.
would enjoy, and I was right. This book takes the apocalyptic sci-fi genre and somehow makes it it’s own.
Review: What Branches Grow by T.S. Beier
hat Branches Grow is one of the SPSFC semi-finalists and was assigned to FanFiAddict in the semi-finals.
This is very much the story of a journey. Early on Delia and Gennero meet and Gennero ends up following Delia into the wastelands. Somewhere along that journey he decides he doesn’t want to return to the town he lived in, and instead befriends her and joins her on her quest to reach a mythical city that isn’t ravaged by the wastes. I enjoyed all of the nods to other post-apocalyptic worlds.
Review: Lost Solace by Karl Drinkwater
Lost Solace is a semi-finalist in SPSFC and was assigned to FanFiAddict in the semi-finals.
Lost Solace starts in the middle of the action, at some point in the past Opal has stolen a ship and hacked the AI so it is helping her. The backstory to this gets revealed slowly over the course of the book and it’s so well woven into the narrative. We quickly find a lost ship and the story really goes from here.
Review: Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E Cooney
Where do I start with this incredible book? I was completely blown away by the premise, the writing, the characters, and I was very sad for it to be over. I’ve tried to explain the plot to multiple people, but there’s something about it that is just completely inexplicable and it just WORKS.
Review: Gallant by V.E. Schwab
I make no secret of the fact that V.E. Schwab is one of my favourite authors, and one of my auto-buy authors. I’d had Gallant on pre-order for a long time and couldn’t wait for it’s release.
I feel like recently Schwab’s writing has become more dream-like and whimsical than some of her earlier books. Gallant is no different. Alongside the illustrations and not-quite tangible elements to the plot Gallant turns into a haunting exploration of a family and their secrets. There isn’t a crazy huge plot and actually its far more of a character-based story that has some more intense moments.
Review: At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp
Nijkamp has written a wonderful, diverse YA book that really hits home. You never learn too much about the teens lives’ before they were sent to the Juvenile Centre, there are theories about what each teen may have done but you never really find out about their lives before. The focus is far more on the current situation, how a group of forgotten teens try to survive the pandemic that has broken out.
Review: Of Honey and Wildfires (Songs of Sefate #1) by Sarah Chorn
I’m going to start by saying wow, I was utterly blown away by Sarah Chorn’s lyrical writing. It took me a moment to get used to because it’s such a different writing style to what I usually read, but quickly enough I was swept up in the writing.
Of Honey and Wildfires has a Western-meets-fantasy vibe. There’s the Company who control the entire region where Shine is found, and then there’s the people that live within this territory. These people seem to be lacking in terms of technology and medical care found outside the Company territory. It provides a great backdrop for this stunning story.
Review: The Gifts by Liz Hyder
I really enjoyed The Gifts. Told from several perspectives it starts with a hook and doesn’t let you go until it is over. This is a story that is both incredibly dark but told in such a way that the real darkness of the story never actually really comes to the surface.
I spent all of the book rooting for the women, and towards the end I really wasn’t sure what was going to happen. It became hard to put down as I just wanted to know what was going to happen.
Review: Zero Day Threat (The Ungovernable #1) by R.M. Olson
Zero Day Threat is a semi-finalist in the SPSFC! This is my personal review and does not reflect the thoughts of the rest of my team.
Zero Day Threat has a trope that we all love, found family. R.M. Olsen takes a ragtag group of criminals and turns them into a family, who might fight at times, but ultimately work together to perform a heist to steal a piece of technology. We mainly read from Jez’s point of view, an incredible pilot who can perform every manoeuvre possible with her arms tied behind her back, literally.
Review: Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
Synopsis: Mickey7, an “expendable,” refuses to let his replacement clone Mickey8 take his place. Dying isn’t any fun…but at least it’s a living. Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one […]