Tag Archives: fantasy

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Book Review: Mechanical Magic, by Lorraine UIrich

Here I am, at the end of another year, trying to finish up my author alphabet challenge. I set out to read a book by an author whose surname begins with every letter of the alphabet each year. Just as almost every previous year, we’ve reached mid-December, and I still hadn’t read an author whose name starts with a ‘U.’ I find these the hardest to find usually. So, I purchased a copy of Mechanical Magic by Lorraine Ulrich to fit the bill.

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When Aster Genisov, a creator of mechanical novelties, is asked to help a wounded elf, his special talents and painful past could be the key to the elf’s survival.

Y’rean was born to touch the sky, but when his wings are destroyed by a cruel master, not even the life he begins to build with Aster can assuage his despair. Aster has the means to help him—it’s written in his gypsy blood—but is love enough for Aster to face his past and embrace his talent for mechanical magic?

my review

It’s a good thing that I don’t bother with star ratings here on the blog because this would be a hard book for me to rate. I think if I had read it five years ago, I would have loved it; I probably rated it five stars. I was very into M/M romances at the time, and I think I would have appreciated the quietness of the story. But tastes change with time, and now the sedateness of the story left me wanting. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was bored. But it definitely wasn’t hitting the notes I currently enjoy. However, if you are someone who enjoys a calm, soft romance, this is a good one to pick up.

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Other Reviews:

Mechanical Magic By Lorraine Ulrich

 

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Book Review: Kingdom of Endless Slumber, by Paige A. Cook

I picked up a copy of Paige A. Cook‘s Kingdom of Endless Slumber as an Amazon freebie.

Kingdom of Endless Slumber

Isadora has been possessed by demons for as long as she can remember. While the rest of the world sees her as a misguided, bipolar trainwreck to be medicated into silence, death has other plans for her.

Plunged into a new world where beings have horns, scales, and tails–Iz must learn to control her new dark powers. As the first Necromancer to live in Bellesberry for 100 years, she has her work cut out for her. She’s lived her entire life on auto-pilot being unable to take the reigns back from the demonic entities who lived inside of her. By some miracle, in this new realm, she is free of them. Free to be herself. Too bad she doesn’t know who that is yet. Much to her luck, she lands square in the camp of an adventurers’ party! Looking past the blue-skin and horns, they are incredibly alluring with human-enough features.

The rag-tag group of friends welcomes Iz to join the group. Their company includes an atheist cleric, two orc “sorcerers,” and a whirlwind of chaotic attraction that Iz has never experienced before, especially in this quantity. Will Iz find herself swept up in discovering a new place she feels like she belongs or will her past demons catch up to her all too quickly?

my review

“Fuck. I’ve been Isekai’d.”

Look, it’s finals week. I am super stressed. I purposefully chose a book that looked like it would be utterly and deliriously ridiculous (in a good way) for the sheer diversion it could provide. And, at first, this book delivered. I was enjoying the light fem-dom nature of it. I liked the heroine. I was intrigued by the possible harem participants. The anime-style guild adventure (complete with magic buffs and declarative magic) was working. At first.

I was annoyed at the anachronism, true. Every time references to corn chips, cheerleader outfits, bikinis, and such showed up in a non-earth world with no obvious contact between the realms, I was pulled out of the narrative. But it was fine. I wanted a silly distraction. That was the point.

Then, the author seemed to just give up. There came a point when things stopped making sense. I thought I was missing chapters or something; the plot started jumping so abruptly. I still don’t know why the group went to the Stone King, for example, or if they succeeded with whatever the plan had been. Or when that plan was made.

This started out as a safe 3-star read. It ended at about 1.5.

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Other Reviews:

The Scum Villains Self-Saving System covers

Book Review: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

This may be a little piecemeal because I actually read book one last year. (I don’t think the rest were out yet.) Then, last week, I went and bought books 2, 3, and 4 so that I could finish up the series and count them as my X-author for my yearly author challenge. However, I didn’t know the last one is a short story collection. I haven’t actually read it yet. But I want to keep them together. So, I’m including it here anyway.

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Half-demon Luo Binghe rose from humble beginnings and a tortured past to become unrivaled in strength and beauty. With his dominion over both the Human and Demon Realms and his hundreds-strong harem, he is truly the most powerful protagonist…in a trashy webnovel series!

At least, that’s what Shen Yuan believes as he finishes reading the final chapter in Proud Immortal Demon Way. But when a bout of rage leads to his sudden death, Shen Yuan is reborn into the world of the novel in the body of Shen Qingqiu—the beautiful but cruel teacher of a young Luo Binghe. While Shen Qingqiu may have the incredible power of a cultivator, he is destined to be horrifically punished for crimes against the protagonist.

The new Shen Qingqiu now has only one course of action: get into Luo Binghe’s good graces before the young man’s rise to power or suffer the awful fate of a true scum villain!

my review

You can go here to see the review I initially wrote for book one on its own. But here, I’m going to review the first three books together. (I’ll come back and add a word about the short stories later.) I initially thought the beginning of the series was a bit of a sloppy mess. This was in part because it is, but also because it took me a little while to fall into the style of the writing. I don’t know if it’s a feature of Danmei in general, this author in particular, or a deliberate narrative choice. But I didn’t immediately love the style. But either I got used to it, or the writing and pacing smoothed out. It stopped bothering me after a while.

I liked these characters a lot, and I appreciated that the author took on some heavy topics. This is not the light, fluffy read you might expect. Part of me wishes it was, though, or at least that we were given a little more conversation between Shen Qinqiu and Lou Binghe. The lack of closure, even as we’re given a happy ending, is my biggest gripe. I really wanted some of the tragedy to be discussed and dismissed.

All in all, however, I have several more Mo Xiang Tong Xiu books on the shelf. I’ll for sure be reading them.


Other Reviews:

Joyfully Jay: Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System series