Tag Archives: fantasy

zoo city

Review of Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes

I bought a copy of Lauren Beukes‘ Zoo city.

Description from Goodreads:
Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job – missing persons.

Review:
A friend of mine saw that I was reading this and warned me that it gets quite dark toward the end. She wasn’t kidding. Though I admit I really like the last little tidbit of a chapter, do not go into this expecting a happy ending. I kind of did and had to readjust my thinking.

Having said all that, I liked the book. I liked the African setting and characters (They are from several African countries. I don’t mean to reduce a continent of peoples to a single, geographic designator.), the world and magic system, the plot and the writing. I got a bit thrown by some of the non-English words. I could have done with a glossary, but it was followable.

All in all, I liked it. I’m undecided about if I’ll read the next one in the series, but mostly I ended this one happy.

Bearly Awake

Book Review of Bearly Awake (Providence Paranormal College #1), by D.R. Perry

I picked up a copy of Bearly Awake, by D. R. Perry, from Amazon. It was free at the time.

Description from Goodreads:
Bobby Tremain’s life used to seem charmed, but since his dad’s crippling accident, he has an avalanche of problems. He’s the first in his family to have a shot at college, also the first to head north of Louisiana. An early snow calls his Bear to hibernate a week before finals, but he needs to pass or he flunks out of Providence Paranormal College.

Lynn Frampton’s loneliness is almost more than she can take. She went to college on the other side of the country to get away from the persistent curse of unpopularity in a small town. Once at college, Lynn’s prickly personality has pushed everyone away yet again. At least, she’s at the top of her class.

Bobby needs Lynn’s help to stay awake and pass his exam, and she discovers she needs companionship more than she’d ever imagined. Lynn’s all set to transfer to a school back home, but Bobby thinks she’s his mate. Can he keep awake long enough to pass, and more importantly, convince his love to stay?

Review:
So, this wasn’t necessarily bad. It fit the bill of being fluffy and non-taxing, which is what I wanted when I picked it up. But I didn’t feel like it held together very well. The plot jumps around and a fairly large mystery isn’t solved. Worse though, was the main character, Lynn. She’s supposed to be smart and sassy and snarky and sarcastic. I know this because her internal monologue tells me, the reader, about it a dozen times. But I just found her unpleasant. Sure, there’s some fun nerdiness, that I and a large portion of the female populace recognize and appreciate. But it’s treated like she’s something special for it. And her constant, “I’m not like other girls because I’m smart,” is a blatant insult. It infers that other women aren’t smart. Duh. Basically, it felt like the author was trying way too hard to be funny and it just fell flat on its face.

The Black Tides of Heaven

Book Review of The Black Tides of Heaven (Tensorate #1), by J. Y. Yang

I borrowed a copy of J. Y. Yang‘s The Black Tides of Heaven (The Tensorate Series) from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Mokoya and Akeha, the twin children of the Protector, were sold to the Grand Monastery as children. While Mokoya developed her strange prophetic gift, Akeha was always the one who could see the strings that moved adults to action. While his sister received visions of what would be, Akeha realized what could be. What’s more, he saw the sickness at the heart of his mother’s Protectorate.

A rebellion is growing. The Machinists discover new levers to move the world every day, while the Tensors fight to put them down and preserve the power of the state. Unwilling to continue to play a pawn in his mother’s twisted schemes, Akeha leaves the Tensorate behind and falls in with the rebels. But every step Akeha takes towards the Machinists is a step away from his sister Mokoya. Can Akeha find peace without shattering the bond he shares with his twin sister?

Review:
I so wanted to love this more than I did. I liked it, ok, but I didn’t love it. In fact, I checked out book one and two from the library and, though I enjoyed book one, I still returned book two (The Red Threads of Fortune) unread. I liked the non-western fantasy setting. I liked the genderless children (even if the singular use of they clashed with the plural they on occasion, since there were two main characters). The writing is lyrical and I liked that too. But when it comes right down to it, I’m not a fan of that sparse writing style common in Chinese writing. This book covers 30+ years in a novella. As a result, I never felt I really got to know the characters or was invested in the building rebellion. I’m claiming no lack of quality. I can sense that it’s well-written. This just isn’t a style I personally like very much.