Monthly Archives: February 2017

Pledge Allegiance

Book Review of Pledge Allegiance (The Finch #1) by Rider England

Leave a reply

I won an Audible copy of Pledge Allegiance, by Rider England, narrated by Greg Tremblay.

Description from Goodreads:
Shaun Blake had once had it all. As captain of the ISS Oregon, he‘d commanded his crew in the Horde War and helped to protect Earth. It was a dream come true for a farm boy from Idaho. 

But the dream shattered a year ago when a Horde ship blew the Oregon out of space, leaving Blake and a single crew member as the only survivors. 

Now, Blake is a gambler and a drunk living in the slums on Iton-3. His only interest is winning money at the WarZone tables and trying to forget who he was. He blames himself for every death that occurred under his command. 

When a woman named Jane Baltimore approaches Blake in a bar and says she has a job for him, he isn’t interested. Until she tells him the job is to captain a ship about to embark on a search and rescue mission. 

There are more surviving crew members from the Oregon. 

And they’re stuck on a planet deep in Horde space.

Review:
This was a fun, if simplistic (and familiar to any sci-fi fan) story. I liked Blake and his crew, but I never felt I got to know them well or that there was the opportunity for any significant character growth. I liked that two of the main characters, two of the best fighters were women. But it felt a little cliche that one was almost childlike in her joy and the other basically emotionless. (To be fair, the male soldiers were even flatter.)

This is a good set up for a further series, but on its own it’s largely a protracted fight scene. And even in that it’s pretty weak, as the characters seemed to triumph a bit too easily. But as a just-for-fun read, I call it a success.

Kudos to the narrator though, I don’t know if Blake would have felt as charismatic if he hadn’t had his distinct drawl.

Book Review of A Taste of Honey (The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps), by Kai Ashante Wilson

2 Replies

I borrowed Kai Ashante Wilson’s A Taste of Honey from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Long after the Towers left the world but before the dragons came to Daluça, the emperor brought his delegation of gods and diplomats to Olorum. As the royalty negotiates over trade routes and public services, the divinity seeks arcane assistance among the local gods.

Aqib bgm Sadiqi, fourth-cousin to the royal family and son of the Master of Beasts, has more mortal and pressing concerns. His heart has been captured for the first time by a handsome Daluçan soldier named Lucrio. in defiance of Saintly Canon, gossiping servants, and the furious disapproval of his father and brother, Aqib finds himself swept up in a whirlwind romance. But neither Aqib nor Lucrio know whether their love can survive all the hardships the world has to throw at them.

Review:
First, 500 stars for that cover. It is amazing. I’d have read the book just for that. Yes, I really would.

Second, wow, I loved this writing style. Yes, it was problematic. At times it became overly florid and some of the dialogue is anachronistic, but mostly I loved it. I especially appreciated the difference in dialect between Aqib and Lucrio.

Third, the ending. For most of the book I was enjoying it, but I wasn’t loving it. The ending pulled this from a four-star read to a five-star read for me. Several complaints I’d harbored for most of the book were resolved in one fell swoop.

Fourth, I love the way gender norms were convoluted. Yes, if I’m honest, I often find this a cheap plot device and in a way it is here too, but I think it’s done usually well and I really enjoyed it. There were several points in the book where I just had to set it aside and laugh. This is never a bad thing to have happen, in my opinion.

Fifth, setting the book in a culture that more closely resembles Islam than Christianity. It’s fantasy, so it’s neither really, but so often you can see the roots of the imaginings and here it’s a refreshing change to find something beyond the strictures of the Christian church.

My only real complaints are the occasional missing word that I didn’t think was intentional, but rather editing mishaps, and  that I didn’t feel overly connected to the characters. You don’t get to know Lucrio at all really and Aqib always felt a little detached; his life speeding by too fast to really grab ahold of. But over all, I really enjoyed this and will be searching out more of Wilson’s writing. I know, for example, that he has some free reads on Tor.com.

Amaranth

Book Review of Amaranth (The Resistance Trilogy #1), by Rachael Wade

Leave a reply

I apparently downloaded Rachel Wade’s Amaranth in 2013. It was a freebie and, as it’s still free, I can only assume it’s a perma-freebie.

Description from Goodreds:
Hoodoo-influenced Southern Louisiana seems like the perfect place for Camille to escape her abusive past and dysfunctional family. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with the handsome Gavin Devereaux and plummet into the world of Amaranth, a place of exile for reformed vampires.

Wrestling to escape a deadly ex-boyfriend while giving Gavin a chance, Camille is confronted with decisions that threaten not only her life, but the lives of her inhuman friends she has come to love. Entangled in her friends’ quest for freedom, she dives into their realm and faces the threats of Amaranth’s ruler—the mother of all vampires—and her own inner demons.

Now Camille must decide whether she will derail her life and make the ultimate sacrifice for the monsters that interrupted her bumpy path back to sanity—what she still wants so desperately—or escape with Gavin before it’s too late for both of them.

Review:
This might have had a good idea in it somewhere but it’s not written well enough for me to tell. Several times I was simply lost and didn’t know what was happening. For example, the book starts in Paris, with Camille talking about leaving her abusive boyfriend in Seattle. Next chapter, she’s in Louisiana talking about leaving her abusive boyfriend, but not the same abusive boyfriend. No idea what happened to the first one or how she ended up with this second one or when she moved to Louisiana. But more to the point, it took quite a while to figure out what was going on. It was jarring.

I marked several passages in which I literally couldn’t figure out what was actually supposed to be happening. Sometimes the writing was just unclear. The pacing is odd and I was often uncertain about time frames. There are several inconsistencies and also a lot of presumed knowledge. I felt like, as a reader, I’d been left out of some essential planning meeting and everyone around me was just going on as if I knew something I didn’t. The characters were one-dimensional and the writing flat.

Gavin and Camille’s relationship is practically insta-love and we’re told how amazing it is, but never shown anything. I never felt any chemistry between them. Then there is Gabe and Audrey. They fall in love off-page and apparently she’s turned into a vampire and let in on all the vampire knowledge that Camille isn’t. Camille introduced her to the vampires and somehow she’s allowed in on all the secrets but the main character isn’t? Yeah, that’s how this book rolled and you sure to feel it.

Worst of all Camille was spineless for most of the book, despite readers being told she’s strong and then she runs off and does something amazingly too stupid to live. Seriously, unbelievably stupid!

Honestly, I just think this needed a lot more work.