I am so behind on review it will take the rest of the year to get caught up. But to just give you all snapshots of some great reads, I’ve decided to host a series of mini reviews. If you follow me on social media, you might have seen mini-er reviews online, so this is a mixed bag of book reviews and awesomeness!
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Where Peace is Lost by Valerie Valdes
A refugee with a secret, a dangerous foe, and a road trip that could either save a planet or start a war. Where peace is lost, may we find it. Five years ago, Kelana Gardavros lost everything in the war against the Pale empire. Now Kel Garda is just another refugee living on the edge of an isolated star system. No one knows she was once a member of an Order whose military arm was disbanded and scattered across the galaxy. And no one knows that if her enemies found her, they might destroy the entire world to get rid of her. Where peace is broken, may we mend it.
Kel’s past intrudes in the form of a long-dormant Pale war machine, suddenly reactivated. If the massive automaton isn’t stopped, at best it will carve a swath of devastation that displaces thousands of people. At worst, it will kill every sentient creature on the planet. Where we go, may peace follow. When two strangers offer to deactivate the machine for a price, Kel and a young friend agree to serve as their guides. The journey through swamps infested with predators and bandits is bad enough, but can they survive more nefarious dangers along the way? And will Kel’s fear of revealing her secrets doom the very people she’s trying to protect? Where we fall, may peace rise.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I will never turn down a space, secretive past, reluctant found friendship book and Where Peace is Lost fits the bill. This is one of those books that snuck up on me. My initial thoughts were that I loved the friendship Kel has with the community she has found as a refugee. At the same time, I enjoyed the world. This idea that this small planet wouldn’t be drawn into the galactic warfare because of its insignificance. It felt very much like a piece of SF worlds and stories I don’t read too often about.
As Where Peace is Lost continues, I found myself being more drawn in. The ways in which Valdes examines this world, the careful construction of their ‘lack of allure’ for the galaxies, the ideas of community and choices. Where Peace is Lost becomes a story about rebellion and friendship. About realizing that we can try so hard to forget our past, to leave the fighting and conflict behind, because we think it’s ‘easier’. But how there’s a moment when we can’t sit by anymore, when we need to realize not making a wave is action in and of itself.
Additionally, I loved the character banter and this tenuous friendship group that forms across the pages. I was able to switch between my paperback copy and the audiobook from the library and the narrator, Rebecca Mozo, was able to infuse the characters with just enough sass and fragility. Find Where Peace is Lost on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, Libro.fm, and Google Play.
Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle
Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume.
The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor.
What’s a retired assassin to do but save the City by the Bay from an army of the dead?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Ebony Gate is perfect for readers searching for an adult urban fantasy series to sink into. The setting is one of my favorite elements of this series opener. I loved the way you can feel the dangers lurking behind corners, down sidewalks, and in the fluttering breeze. Emiko is surrounded by loyalties and lines in the sand. By clans who are betraying each other behind their backs, who never hold their cards out, and might be hiding an even more dangerous secret.
But my favorite element has to be Emiko. She’s a reluctant hero, someone who just wants a quiet moment, to escape from her past. As Ebony Gate progresses, we find out more about what she’s running from. The legacy, reputation, and nightmares behind her eyes. Throughout the book, Emiko has to interrogate her motivations, what might be best, and how the best heroes are often the ones who don’t want to be. This series opener is rooted in home, in the city, in the why of protection. Part of my love has to be the fantastic narration of Natalie Naudus who is my instant buy audiobook narrator. I’ll read anything she narrates.
Find Ebony Gate on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, Libro.fm, and Google Play.
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.
Once unleashed, the Arctic Plague will reshape life on earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.
Review
I wasn’t sure what to think going into How High We Go into the Dark except that it had been hyped up to me. It’s an ambitious multi-generational story about love, death, and life. What is the most impactful from the book, even weeks after finishing, is the way Nagamatsu envisions how our world will process death and grief. Having all experienced a pandemic in our living and recent memories, so many pieces and snippets don’t seem like a far stretch away. I was able to chat with some people after finishing who all read and we all agreed these discussions of grief and processing these moments, were the most impactful.
How High We Go in the Dark is, in many ways, about how we fight for the future and preserve the past. The times we can learn from our mistakes and the price we end up paying. Sometimes we can poke things too buried and too dangerous. If you are interested in reading a book about how we find moments in fragility. In the spaces we think are the end of the world, of the life we know, of the people we love. Then this is worth picking up.
But?
I think there were some POVs which slowed the pacing down and lost some of my attention, but I do wonder if a bit of expansion in a few of them might have driven home the world or the themes more concretely. As a whole I enjoyed the multi-generational “Love Actually” intertwined POV approach. That being said, I listened to this on audiobook, and the separate narrators made a huge difference Not only did it help to keep the stories clear in my head, but it also gave it a cinematic feeling from the beginning. Find How High We Go in the Dark on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, Libro.fm, and Google Play.