Tag Archives: Tor.com

The Black God's Drums

Book Review of The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark

I received a copy of P. Djèlí Clark‘s The Black God’s Drums through Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Instead, she wants to soar, and her sights are set on securing passage aboard the smuggler airship Midnight Robber. Her ticket: earning Captain Ann-Marie’s trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper keeps another secret close to heart–Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities concerning Creeper and Ann-Marie…

Review:
Man, Tor.com has put out some stellar novellas lately! (And those covers, so pretty.) This was short, true, but it packed a mighty punch. The language, world-building and characters grip you and it managed a full story in 110 pages. I do generally prefer longer works and I think this would have lent itself to being longer. (Though I realize Tor specializes for shorter works.) All in all, two big thumbs up from me. I’ll be looking for more of Clark’s writing.

Medusa Uploaded

Book Review of Medusa Uploaded (The Medusa Cycle #1), by Emily Devenport

I borrowed a copy of Emily Devenport‘s Medusa Uploaded from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
The Executives control Oichi’s senses, her voice, her life. Until the day they kill her.

An executive clan gives the order to shoot Oichi out of an airlock on suspicion of being an insurgent. A sentient AI, a Medusa unit, rescues Oichi and begins to teach her the truth—the Executives are not who they think they are. Oichi, officially dead and now bonded to the Medusa unit, sees a chance to make a better life for everyone on board.

As she sets things right one assassination at a time, Oichi becomes the very insurgent the Executives feared, and in the process uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship that is their home.

Review:
I thought that this was basically ok, but it didn’t blow me away. I liked a lot of the characters, I greatly appreciated the diversity and that women played a big role in the revolution (even if they played almost none in the power structure of society), and I thought the whole thing had an interesting premise.

But from the blurb and cover I’d thought Oichi would be an actual worm and I was disappointed to find that was just a particular human slur. Further, since Oichi seemed to be able to tap into all technologies and impersonate anyone, I felt that everything happened far too easily. And that without considering how no one on her team turned out to be duplicitous, everyone she trusted turned out to be trustworthy (even children). How lucky that is.

Lastly, though I know the music played an important role, all the music references got tiresome. I was also skeptical about how they’re all contemporary. How many generations in the future and Bach, Holst, and Louis Armstrong are still the go-to composers? The movies references are all from modern-ish times too. After a while I found the references anachronistic. Surely the Earth that these generation ships departed from (or wherever) had written at least something new that was worth remembering.

Artificial Condition

Book Review of Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2), by Martha Wells

I borrowed a copy of Martha WellsArtificial Condition from my local library. I reviewed book one, All Systems Red, here.

Description from Goodreads:
It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

Review:
I only have a short review for this short novella, but it’s enough. Marvelous. I adore Murderbot, here called Eden. The sarcasm of this character is at an all time high in this book and I love it. I did think it a little convenient that Murderbot just happened to board the right ship to meet Art and have everything work out so well. But it’s a novella, so there wasn’t much room for more. All in all, I can’t wait for the next one.