Category Archives: Challenges

The Golden City

Book Review of The Golden City, by J. Kathleen Cheney

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A note before I get to this review: Most summers my in-laws come for an extended visit to play with the kiddos. That includes this year. I currently have house guests. They will be here for six weeks. As you can imagine, trips to the zoo, dinners, socializing and basically having a grand old time is cutting into my reading time. So, for the next month and a half you can expect reviews to appear less frequently and probably in spurts. It will pick up again, I promise.

The Golden CityI won a paperback copy of The Golden City, by J. Kathleen Cheney from a Goodreads giveaway.

Description from Goodreads:
For two years, Oriana Paredes has been a spy among the social elite of the Golden City, reporting back to her people, the sereia, sea folk banned from the city’s shores….

When her employer and only confidante decides to elope, Oriana agrees to accompany her to Paris. But before they can depart, the two women are abducted and left to drown. Trapped beneath the waves, Oriana survives because of her heritage, but she is forced to watch her only friend die.

Vowing vengeance, Oriana crosses paths with Duilio Ferreira—a police consultant who has been investigating the disappearance of a string of servants from the city’s wealthiest homes. Duilio also has a secret: He is a seer and his gifts have led him to Oriana.

Bound by their secrets, not trusting each other completely yet having no choice but to work together, Oriana and Duilio must expose a twisted plot of magic so dark that it could cause the very fabric of history to come undone….

Review:
I’m pretty ‘meh’ about The Golden City. I liked the writing. The editing was fine. Finding it set in Portugal was a change from the regular US/UK based fiction one normally finds (though I’ve seen others comment it wasn’t accurate, I don’t know one way or another) and Selkie, Otterfolk and Seria were outside the norm magical creatures.

I even liked Oriana and Duilio. But I found them dull. Really, they seemed to exist in parallel plots that they then occasionally talked about. And they were so bound by social convention that there seemed to be no passion in them at all. And Oriana has to be the worst spy in history.

The mystery seemed shaky. Almost 50 people disappear and no one notices? I mean sure, employers might be oblivious, but did none of these people have families or friends that might report them missing? The great magic that was supposed to happen seemed questionable at best, though even the book admits that. And it all seemed to fall apart for no real reason at all. Oriana was still walking around as if no one was after her, and it didn’t seem anyone was despite claims to the contrary. Sure, Duilio dodged assassination attempts, but it’s Oriana that’s supposedto be in danger, but I never once felt that.

And I was distinctly dissatisfied with the ending. It’s not a solid HEA, which I don’t always have to have, but it felt like something had been left incomplete. In fact, what it felt very much like was an obvious tie-in for a sequel, which irks me.

All in all, I would call this OK, not great but not wholly bad either. I’d read a sequel if I came across it for free or could borrow it. But I doubt I’d spend money on it.

Ascension

Book Review of Ascension (Tangled Axon), by Jacqueline Koyanagi

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AscensionI got a copy of Acension (by Jacqueline Koyanagi) from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. The chief engineer thinks he’s a wolf. The pilot fades in and out of existence. The captain is all blond hair, boots, and ego . . . and Alana can’t keep her eyes off her. But there’s little time for romance: Nova’s in danger and someone will do anything–even destroying planets–to get their hands on her.

Review:
Oh man, this book disappointed me so hard. When I first heard of it, I thought, “Lesbian POC as a main character? Hell yeah.” Then someone referred to it as a lesbian Firefly and I ordered it the same day. Man, what a let down.

★Let’s start with the writing, it’s obscured, full of phrases like this: “His voice eventually tore in half, and he was quiet.” What the hell does that mean? It meanders. It repeats itself. It’s too flowery to be functional.

★Then there is the sex, which relates to the obscure writing. It was (I think purposefully) vague about what went where, such that phrases like “she slipped into her” felt very P-in-V. Surely, in that example it was meant to be a finger or some such, but lacking that information it resulted in the most hetero-feeling lesbian sex scene I’ve ever read.

★Then there is the romantic angst. My god, it drug out FOREVER because the MC would neither ask for clarification nor allow anyone to explain it to her. It was drawn out far beyond what could feel natural.

★Then there is the main character. I simply didn’t like her. She was reckless and a little TSTL. She created problems everywhere she went doing stupid things. And no one ever called her on it.

★There is almost no world building. Info bombs are dropped and never explained. For example, ships are referred to as alive but it’s never explained what that means or in what manner (and that’s far before the final reveal). There is no known political system. The science is basically hand waving.

★Outside the main character, there is no character development (and only a little for the MC). You don’t get to know anyone in any depth.

★The finale came out of left field and didn’t feel tied to the rest of the plot at all. And true, even considering the book basically just wonders around almost aimlessly in general.

★But worst of all, the book was bloody boring. There is so much internal angst and philosophical nonsense that my attention started to drift. This is the only book I have ever read that managed to make the genocidal destruction of an entire planet and research station, including people important to the characters, dull. Honestly, there was nothing.

So basically this book was a fail for me, made even more strongly so by my having such high hopes for it, going in.

Clear Water

Book Review of Clear Water, by Amy Lane

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Clear WaterI bought a copy of Amy Lane‘s Clear Water.

Description from Goodreads:
Meet Patrick Cleary: party boy, loser, and spaz. Patrick’s been trying desperately to transform himself, and the results have been so spectacular, they’ve almost killed him. Meet Wes “Whiskey” Keenan: he’s a field biologist wondering if it’s time to settle down. When the worst day of Patrick’s life ends with Whiskey saving it, Patrick and Whiskey find themselves sharing company and an impossibly small berth on the world’s tackiest houseboat.

Patrick needs to get his life together—and Whiskey wants to help—but Patrick is not entirely convinced it’s doable. He’s pretty sure he’s a freak of nature. But Whiskey, who works with real freaks of nature, thinks all Patrick needs is a little help to see the absolute beauty inside his spastic self, and Whiskey is all about volunteering. Between anomalous frogs, a homicidal ex-boyfriend, and Patrick’s own hangups, Whiskey’s going to need all of his patience and Patrick’s going to need to find the best of himself before these two men ever see clear water.

Review:
I think Amy Lane must be either an acquired taste or a basic matter of preference because, while I thought this book was funny and I liked the characters and even the plot, I thought the sweetness way over the top. I thought the gravitas and importance accorded sex over-played. I thought Patrick’s verbal diarrhea unappealing and I found the fact that no one had ever treated him well, even if only to get what they want from him, unbelievable.

Most of all, I was disturbed by how much Whiskey’s love was actually parenting. To the point that Patrick’s actual parent was asking Whiskey (not Patrick) for another chance. I don’t care how cute a character is, or how many tick’s his mental health provide. I don’t want to imagine him sleeping with a functional parent figure. Nope.

So, all in all, a middle of the road read for me. The writing was great. There was a lot of humor. The characters themselves were interesting and likable and they had their own voices. But I just thought the whole thing was taken a step too far to really enjoy wholly.