The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Waves

I can't remember why I wanted to read The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Waves. But when I first started reading it, a friend of mine saw me with it and said it was good. So I had really high hopes for it....and almost stopped reading it because I found it rather boring in the beginning. 

In The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Waves, one hundred years ago, the emperor of a country (I think? I'm going to call it a country) disappeared. No one is entirely sure what happened, but the Sea God, who was like a brother to the emperor, forsook the people and disappeared beneath the waves, bringing dangerous storms to their shores. In a desperate attempt to stop the storms, the people started sacrificing women, known as Sea Brides, to the god. And the storms would abate for a year, at which point they would need to sacrifice another girl to the god. This year, everyone knows Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village, is going to be the Sea Bride. But when the time comes for the sacrifice, Mina, the younger sister of the man who loves Shim Cheong, sacrifices herself instead, wanting her brother to be happy and her family to be safe. But when she enters the Spirit Realm, home of the Sea God, everything is not as it seems: the Sea God has been cursed and asleep all this time. And Mina learns that she has just one month to break the curse before she becomes a spirit herself!

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Waves starts out as a kind of typical teen romantasy - a girl and a guy (Mina and Shin, in this case) who want nothing to do with each other end up thrown together and slowly start to respect and then love one another. Also, Shin just happens to be the immortal being who has been protecting the Sea God all this time (made me think of Twilight, honestly because Mina happens to be 16 - gave me some Edward/Bella vibes in terms of the relationship). Mina also is a typical headstrong female lead character - charging around and doing stuff even when people ask her politely not to. So that was all pretty annoying.

But then somewhere along the way, the narrative seemed to shift. Mina promised Shin she wouldn't leave his House without him....and actually listened. Shin always honored whatever he said he was going to do, and willingly took her to places to help her on her quest. Mina also got to know his guardians/friends/brothers (Namgi and Kirin) well, and everyone started to respect one another, even if they didn't 100% get along all the time. It was...refreshing.

I also really liked all of the main characters. Besides Mina and Shin, I liked the contrast between Namgi and Kirin. Not just the differences between their personalities, but also how they weren't what you would expect (Namgi in particular in this regard - he was a creature that even Kirin didn't really trust at the beginning of the story, but they became brothers in truth by the end of the narrative). 

While some of it was a tad predictable (I had strong suspicions pretty early on about the Sea God, though I will admit I started doubting them a bit as the narrative continued), I overall really enjoyed The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea in the end. It is a really good story about not just love but loyalty and family as well. I liked the world, I liked the characters, I liked the plot; I would be interested in reading more by Axie Oh one day! :)

Operation Bounce House

Someone recommended Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl to me a little while ago. While waiting to get a hold of it from the library, his newest book, Operation Bounce House, came out, so I decided to give that a try.

In Operation Bounce House, the people of New Sonora become the target of a corporation's new game, Operation Bounce House, where human players can pay to build mechs and fight against the evil "New Sonoran terrorists." Only....there are no terrorists, just a bunch of farmers who are trying to peacefully live their lives. But unknown to the game's creator, Oliver Lewis and his sister still have functioning bots who help them on their farm, including an advanced AI named Roger who coordinates the worker drones. And after they come under attack, Roger initiates their defensive mode. These farmers aren't going to just lay down and die while Earth steals their land: they're going to fight!

While I, overall enjoyed Operation Bounce House, I have to admit that the premise and plot made me very uncomfortable. I can see something like this happening, potentially even here on Earth right now. The way the Earthers talked about the New Sonorans being "other" and "subhuman" is a known propaganda tactic used in wars (I remember reading about how soldiers in the World Wars would call the enemy by different terms to make them not-human in their heads). So yeah, be warned if you're reading this book: it is very uncomfortable at times. 

 Plus, you know, a lot of people die. It's not a happy book.

But as I said, I still did enjoy the book. Dinniman is a really good writer, particularly in a cinematic sense: I could picture the action really well (and think this would make a fantastic TV series or movie). I loved all the characters and how they all worked together to try to stay alive (and how they decided to stick it to the game company). The worldbuilding was really interesting, how the main characters were part of the "orphan generation" because all their parents who were born on-world died (and how the fix ended up the thing the Earthers used to claim the New Sonorans were "subhuman," even though they were the same with the exception of that one change in their genes so that they wouldn't die like their parents did). 

I also liked how so much only happened because the Earthers were terrified. The very thing they feared would happen did happen only because they attacked New Sonora. Had they left the planet alone, nothing would have happened.

Operation Bounce House is a fast, addicting read (I stayed up really late to finish it last night). If you're okay with the dark subject matter, it's definitely worth checking out. But do be aware of the subject matter as it is an uncomfortable look at where our culture could go.

The Secret Garden

I remember enjoying the movie The Secret Garden when I was younger, but I never did read the book. So when I saw it recently at work, I decided to give it a try. After all, it's a children's classic (the edition I saw was an Oxford Children's Classic). I thought there must be a reason that it's still in print.

The Secret Garden is, if I'm being charitable, the story of the friendship between three young people: Mary Lennox, the spoiled orphan who finds herself suddenly alone at her uncle's Misselthwaite Manor after her parents dies of cholera in India; Colin, his sickly (and spoiled) son; and Dickon, the sweet animal charmer. The three of them get into Colin's mom's walled garden that his father shut up when she passed away 10 years ago, and bring it back to life. Though if I'm being more realistic, it's the story of two incredibly spoiled and privileged young people somehow becoming good friends because they won't put up with each other's shit while Dickon tags along. And while that is a less charitable explanation, it's also very true. Both Mary and Colin were incredibly spoiled because they were only children whose only companionship was servants who gave into their every whim. Mary's mother just wanted to party and forget about her, while her father was too busy governing or something. Colin's father didn't want to even look at him because he was the reminder of his wife who died in childbirth (and even had her eyes). Both of them had servants tending to their needs (and servants who would never say no to them), so they both grew up to be terrors.

But after Mary's family passed away in India, she found herself shipped off to her uncle's house in England. There, the servants had no time for her, and sent her to amuse herself outside. Having grown up without any real experience with the authority of adults, she does as she pleases and finds her way into the locked garden (while fully aware of the history of why it was locked and forbidden in the first place). At night she sometimes hears someone crying, and though the servants tell her it's just the wind on the door, one night she takes it upon herself to go see what's going on and so discovers Colin. Contrary to everyone's expectations, Colin takes a liking to her, and so their friendship starts. But where he is used to getting his way, so is she; when he has a tantrum she is the first person to ever stand up to him and just tells him off.

While I found the beginning of the book a bit slow and hard to get into, I did like how Mary grew as a person. She starts taking an interest in her surroundings and the people around her, and slowly finds herself liking more and more people. And while Colin has a similar arc to her, he remains a kind of overbearing child, lecturing the others and leading their activities. Unfortunately the latter part of the book seems to switch to be about him; the book ends with the servants seeing him and his father (and so learning of his recovery) and ignores Mary (I was really hoping to see the three of them together at the end, actually becoming a family, because that's what both of them needed. Not just Colin).

I liked Dickon, but he is a much more minor character. He doesn't grow or change at all in the book - he remains the same sweet and rather saintly boy who everyone, human or otherwise, trusts.

The book also took a bit of a weird turn when the children started talking about Magic in relation to Colin gaining strength and recovering. While I think it was supposed to be a nod to children's games, it felt a lot like we were being preached at (especially with Colin lecturing about the subject). I felt like that was a rather unnecessary addition in the book, as just going outside and starting to move around was magic all on its own. 

While a bit tough to read at times (and sometimes a bit odd), I do like the book's message about getting outside and getting fresh air. Just reading it made me want to go out and start playing in my own garden (though I admittedly have to wait awhile still as my garden is still currently sleeping under a blanket of snow)!

Nine Goblins

I've never read anything by T. Kingfisher before (I think she mainly writes horror, which isn't really my thing). But Nine Goblins sounded fun, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Nine Goblins is the story of the Nineteenth Infantry (aka the Whinin' Niners), a goblin infantry troop of the Goblin Army fighting in the Goblin Wars (or the Glorious Conflict Resisting The Ongoing Human Aggression, as per the goblin generals). In their most recent engagement, they attack a wizard, who, while trying to flee the battle, accidentally transports nine members of the Whinin' Niners with him, deep into enemy territory. Now the goblins just want to get home to Goblinhome.

The main goblins were all a lot of fun. There was Nessilka, the reluctant sergeant trying to get everyone home (she was good at leading, but didn't like doing it). Murray, her corporal - an engineer who was demoted to the infantry because he was too good at designing devices (goblins expected giant clunky devices with lots of spikes, not neat little efficient devices). Algol,  her second corporal, an animal-lover. And Blanchett, who, after a Mechanics Corps accident, now only communicated through his one-eyed teddy bear. 

The remaining five goblins were Weasel, their stuttering and shy hunter, Mishkin and Mushkin, the twin new recruits, Thumper, and Gloober. These five were around but not as prominent as the other four.

I was not expecting Nine Goblins to also be about Sings-to-Trees, an elf veterinarian who will care for any creature great or small, mundane or magical. Though since he featured so prominently in the first few chapters, I (rightly) assumed he woukd be crossing paths with our nine goblins sooner or later.

The plot takes some interesting turns. First, skeleton deer appear at Sings-to-Trees' home, looking for help. From his books, he discovers they are cervidians, who only appear around areas of large magical disturbances. Then the Whinin' Niners try to raid a farm only to find it completely empty of both humans and animals (but find a moldy dinner sitting out with a few bites missing). So after finding Sings-to-Trees and telling him about the farm, the main four goblins go with him to try to discover what exactly is going on. And they are not prepared for the horror they find...

Overall, I quite enjoyed Nine Goblins. I loved the main goblins. The world building is really fun (I really liked how in goblin culture, the more you're complaining about something = the more you like it). There is a horror element to the story, so as long as you're okay with reading that genre, Nine Goblins is a rather fun read. :)

The Astral Library

I picked up Kate Quinn's newest book, The Astral Library, thanks to the contest Chapters/Indigo was having; if you pre-ordered it, you were entered into a contest to win a trip to P.E.I. I knew I wanted to read The Astral Library at some point, as I like Quinn's books and was interested in what she would do in the fantasy genre, so I pre-ordered it. I sadly did not win the contest, but I got a great book out of the deal. :)

The Astral Library is the story of Alix Watson, a young woman struggling through life. She was abandoned by her mom at the age of 8 into the foster care system. Having aged out of the system, she's now struggling to survive: holding down multiple jobs, only about $36 to her name, late on rent payments, and desperately trying to price out the groceries she can afford. But when her card gets declined at the grocery store, she loses her most steady job, has no hours at another job, is getting evicted from her apartment, and seems to be the victim of identity fraud, things look bleak. But then she steps through a door at the Boston Public Library and enters the magical Astral Library, where she's given the chance to live in a book. But as she readies herself for her new adventure, the Librarian receives word that some of the Astral Library's other Patrons are under attack. Alix tags along (much to the Librarian's chagrin) as they hop from book to book, looking for the other Patrons to bring them to safety.

I will admit: the first two chapters are a bit rough to read: it was crazy depressing going along with Alix as her world blew up. But once you get to the actual Library, the book really takes off. The characters are a lot of fun, especially the Librarian, the Gallerist (the curator of the Astral Gallery), and the Programmer (the guardian of AGNIS - the Astral Gaming Network Interspace System). I also really liked how people were able to move through books, paintings and games (and the differences between them). Some things were a tad predictable (like how the library had a perfect set-up for Beau), but others caught me by surprise (like who the villain ended up being). 

After I got through the first two chapters, I didn't really want to put The Astral Library down. It's a really fun story that I recommend for anyone who loves libraries. :)

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

I, like many people nowadays, have been feeling super burnt-out by like everything. So when I stumbled on Anne Helen Petersen's Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, I was hoping it would be helpful, shedding light on why I feel this way.

Well, the short answer is that life sucks for everyone (particularly in the United States, which is where Petersen lives and is writing about). I thought this book was really good at showing how things have changed over time for everyone (not just millennials): companies have reduced good salaried jobs in favour of hiring more temp workers (aka freelancers), everyone is expected to work more and more hours (and that corresponds to less and less leisure time), people are afraid they will socially move downwards (out of the middle class), and, thanks to social media, people are now performing their lives rather than actually living them. But I thought the book was less good at showing how any of this was specific to millennials. Sure, many millennials were trying to start work during the 2008 recession, making it very difficult to make money, especially when many of them were struggling with student debt. And some millennials (younger ones in particular - this was not at all my experience) were raised in heavily scheduled ways, where everything they did was organized and often in hopes of being a good point for a college application. But these are things that are transcending any one generation. Millennials are parenting their own children in the same way. People of other generations had difficulties finding jobs in the recession. College tuition is even more expensive now than it was when millennials were attending, so younger generations will have even bigger debts. So, while I found this to be a largely informative read regarding the history of jobs in America over the last forty or fifty years, that was all it really was. The book also offers little in the way of solutions (the final chapter admits as much), which is rather unfortunate; it might have served as a rallying cry had there been more than just historical fact.

While, in some ways, I didn't really relate to the things Petersen was specifically mentioning, being an older millennial from Canada, I will admit that there were some areas of the book that really made me stop and consider my own life. One that particularly stood out to me was how everyone seems to feel pressure to monetize their hobbies (which was also kind of top of mind for me after watching Ryan George's video on the same topic just a few days before reading the chapter) instead of just enjoying them. That really made me stop and think.

So if you're looking for an interesting primer on how the working world has changed over the last few decades (particularly in corporate America), while a bit depressing, Can't Even is worth the read. 

Though I will admit, I was annoyed at the grammatical errors in the book - there were a number of places where there were extra words, making sentences a little nonsensical on first read.

Automatic Noodle

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz sounded like a super fun read. A group of robots wake up after being deactivated for a few months in the restaurant they were working in. They decide to open their own restaurant, even though they know they're technically not allowed to own property or businesses (or even own a bank account). So with the help of one of their human friends from before they were deactivated and a sentient car, they decide to start making the best hand-pulled noodles they can. But after some anti-robot activists get wind of their restaurant and start review-bombing them, how will their restaurant dream survive if no one can find them on the restaurant app?

Overall, I quite enjoyed Automatic Noodle. While the first chapter is a bit rough trying to keep all the robots and acronyms straight (there's a lot of world building thrown at you right off the bat), I ended up quite liking the main characters (I didn't have much of an opinion on the sentient truck). My biggest complaint was that the book just kind of ended. Staybehind, the ex-military robot-turned maintenance man for the restaurant, managed to infiltrate the inner circle of the anti-robot group and get evidence of their review-bombing to save the restaurant's online reputation. Then the book fastforwarded to after the reputation was saved, but the robots decided they don't even really want to bother using the app anymore because they have become successful enough using an old-school website and through neighborhood foot traffic. The end. It was very abrupt and underwhelming. 

Project Hail Mary

 A friend of mine wanted to do a sort of book club together with some books including Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. We just happened to start reading it right before the movie is due to come out, so that was a happy coincidence. :)

In Project Hail Mary, astronaut Mark Watney Ryland Grace wakes up from a coma in another solar system. He's really disoriented and doesn't really remember what was happening at first, but he slowly pieces together, with help of his slowly returning memories, that he and two other astronauts were sent aboard the Hail Mary to Tau Ceti in a desperate attempt to save the Earth. A bacteria, Astrophage, has been discovered traveling back and forth between our sun and Venus, and it seems to be feeding off of our sun's light; in just a few short years, without a solution, over half of the world's population will die as crops fail due to the cooling of the air. So the world's governments got together to send a team to Tau Ceti, a nearby star, that seemed to be unaffected by Astrophage (the other neighbouring stars all seemed to have similar dimming problems).

But Ryland wakes up alone; his fellow astronauts passed away in transit. So now he has to solve the problem on his own.

Or at least, that's what he originally thinks until he encounters an alien star-ship. It seems that an alien species from another solar system (40 Eridani) are having similar problems due to Astrophage, and are also at Tau Ceti to try to find a solution. When the aliens saw the Hail Mary arrive, they made contact in the hopes that the two species can find a solution and save both their worlds together.

I loved Project Hail Mary. I wasn't expecting an alien species to make contact with Ryland, and, being a language nerd, I loved how they built up communication together. I also loved Rocky (what Ryland calls his new alien friend), and thought the two of them made a great team. 

The book goes back and forth between Ryland's present at Tau Ceti and his past, where he was part of the team that built the Hail Mary, as flashbacks as he regains his memories. The past serves to help him remember things about the ship and how it works, which in turns helps him use his scientific knowledge (he is a microbiologist) to try to find a solution to the Astrophage. I did start getting annoyed with going back to the past at times once the book got going because I was much more interested in what was going on at Tau Ceti than with what happened while they were building the ship. Though there was some interesting intrigue going on as well, once it became clear that everything wasn't quite as clear-cut as I originally assumed regarding Ryland's presence.

I also felt like Ryland wasn't really his own character, but just a further adventure of Mark Watney from The Martian. While it's admittedly been over a decade since I read The Martian, I felt like they were just too similar. Both were science nerd with a lot of random knowledge that was helpful. They also talked and thought in what felt like a similar manner (though again, it might not be; I haven't reread The Martian recently). 

The book also feels similar to The Martian in that everything that can go wrong (but Ryland and company survive) does. I remember feeling like the book must be wrapping up soon, but looking at how many pages are left to go still and thinking "well, at least one or two things are still going to go wrong from here."  So that was a little bit disappointing.

But honestly, I flew through the book in just a few days, barely wanting to put it down. I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the movie (though it'll be interesting to see how Ryan Gosling interprets Ryland Grace - a lot of how he talks in the book reminds me of Ryan Reynolds).  

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days

I've been looking for a good cozy fantasy for some time now. I've always been a fan of the genre, but so often the stakes are high and people die, which is something I really haven't been in the mood for. I was really hoping that books like The Honey Witch or Cat Dragon would be that book, but no such luck. But then I stumbled on Jessie Sylva's How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days, and, dare I say it, this book was almost exactly what I was looking for.

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days opens with Pansy, a halfling, inheriting the cottage of her grandmother. The cottage is a little ways out of her town, much to the consternation of her parents, but she is determined to go and live her own life, in no small part because she feels like she doesn't belong with the other halflings. But when she arrives at the cottage, she finds a young goblin, Ren, living there. Ren claims their family has been taking care of the cottage for years, and so it belongs to them. But Pansy insists that the cottage is hers because she has the key. So they come to an accord: whoever gets fed up and leaves the cottage first loses all rights to it. And thus starts their attempts to make the other one leave (while remaining in line with the rule that neither one can destroy or remove the other's stuff, but they can both add things to the cottage).

Sylva's halflings and goblins have such different ways of looking at the world that this ends up the biggest culture clash ever as Pansy and Ren try to oust the other. But along the way, they start to not only understand one another, but also to fall in love. But that love may be a very fragile thing. Because even though the two start seeing eye to eye, their people have hated one another for a very long time. Will they be able to get through all the prejudice to live a happy life together?

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days is super cute. I loved both Pansy and Ren, and I loved that the narrative shifted back and forth between them each chapter so you got to see exactly what each one was thinking and why. And I loved how Pansy in particular became more aware of her actions as the story progressed, coming to an understanding of goblins in a way that most of her people would never have even attempted. Ren also changed as the story went on, letting down their guard more and more (but still jumping to conclusions from time to time from a life living with the prejudices of other people). I loved how their relationship grew, and was also much more understanding of how they didn't think the other could possibly be thinking of them in that way because they come from two different species with such a history of bad relations. 

My only complaint was the ending. While it made sense in the moment for their people to band together, the last chapter made it feel like the halflings and goblins had pushed aside their differences almost entirely; based off of how the halflings in particular had been so anti-goblin through the whole book, it felt like it was too fast for such a thing to happen.

But all in all, I loved How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days. This was exactly what I was looking for in a cozy fantasy, and I hope I can find more that are similar in the future. :) 

A Treachery of Swans

I saw A. B. Poranek's new book, A Treachery of Swans, at the library and of course had to get it. I enjoyed Where the Dark Stands Still a lot and wanted to see what she came up with next. I have to admit, I was not expecting a France-inspired story, but I was still along for the ride. I did have a bit of a hard time getting into it (I'd say it took around 50 pages), but once I got hooked I didn't want to put A Treachery of Swans down!

This time around, Poranek wrote a sapphic romance based on Swan Lake. In this world, a king's sorcière advisor drove the Three Mothers, goddesses who control life, death, and change/magic from their country. Morgane, the Mother of magic, cursed the land as she fled so that nothing beautiful would grow. She left behind a single magical crown that allowed the king to keep the crops growing. But the magic comes at a price, for every time he uses it he falls more steadily into madness. Due to the sorcière's actions, anyone who can use magic, who happens to have gold in their veins instead of the regular red, is shunned, blamed for the blight on the land.

Into this world is born Odile, a girl with golden blood who was taken in, along with her non-sorcière brother, by a sorcière named Regnault. He has been sending Odile on missions to steal Goddess gold, the only thing that can still allow sorcières to summon magic. After many, many years, they have enough for one final heist: Odile will take the place of Marie d'Odette, convince the Dauphin to marry her, and, on their wedding when the magical crown is brought out, they will steal it to summon Morgane back and heal the land! Except....things start to go sideways when the Dauphin's father, King Honoré, is murdered, and Odile's estranged brother is accused of the murder. Odile starts to investigate, wanting to clear her brother's name. She starts to get closer to the Dauphin, as well as to Marie, who witnessed the murder, all the while trying to convince herself that these people are her enemies, and she must stay to her task of stealing the crown.

I honestly quite liked the story (once I got into it). I liked the characters, especially the Dauphin. He is a kind-hearted gentleman, someone who many of the other nobles, his father included, think is too weak, but who has a quiet strength in genuinely caring about the people around him. I also quite liked Odile and how she grew through the story, slowly coming to realize what her father, Regnault, had been doing to her over the years (and what she had lost as a result). I also liked how the other characters, especially Marie, saw the good in Odile, no matter how much Odile insisted she was the villain of the tale.

I will admit that I was able to predict some of the twists and turns of the plot, like who the beast was and the truth of Regnault. But I still enjoyed how the story unfolded and how the characters discovered these things on their own. Though it did feel like there should be a part two to this story (which probably won't happen based on the epilogue), I quite enjoyed A Treachery of Swans as a standalone tale. 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

I read Monk and Robot by Becky Chambers last October (and apparently forgot to blog about it - whoops!) I really enjoyed it, and was looking forward to reading more by Chambers. So the last time I was browsing at Chapters, I stumbled on The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which sounded good. So I bought it and was excited to start it....

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is about a group of spacers on board the Wayfarer, a ship that creates hyperspace tunnels to connect different areas of the galaxy together. There's Ashby, the captain, who is in love with Pei, the badass alien captain of her own ship who comes from a very xenophobic society (if their relationship is discovered, she could be exiled from her entire species, not just her family). Sissix, his Aandrisk pilot (she's from a reptilian species). Kizzy and Jenks, his human mech techs. Corbin, their algae/fuel specialist, who is really good at his job but isn't very pleasant to be around. Dr. Chef, one of the last Grum who loves gardening and cooking for the crew. Ohan, a Sianat Pair (an alien who is infected with a virus that lets them understand and navigate through the universe, but at the cost of years of their life). Lovey (Lovelace), the ship's sentient AI. And newcomer Rosemary, the clerk Ashby hired on to help them secure better jobs. The crew are given the job of a lifetime: create a hyperspace tunnel to Hedra Ka, home of the Toremi Ka, a previously violent species newly entered into an alliance with the Galactic Commons (GC). They need to make their way to the planet then punch a hyperspace tunnel back to known space, a journey that takes them nearly a year (or a Standard, as the GC calls it). 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was a hard read for me. I actually stopped reading it to read Blind Date with a Werewolf (and I really considered not continuing The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet at that point) because I was really annoyed at how slow going the book is. The plot meanders, taking its sweet time to get anywhere. The crew makes stops in various places and meets various people. But for the most part there is little to no conflict. Pretty much all of the crew has secrets, but very little normally comes from them being revealed (for example, Rosemary lied about who she was. But it came to light because she didn't want to lie anymore, and pretty much everyone was okay with it. Ashby was apparently a bit upset, but we didn't get to see that in any real way). This was how almost the whole book operated: every chapter was a new destination or incident, which would have some (in most cases) minor conflict that was usually resolved at the end (but often not resolved in a real satisfying way either - there were a number of times where I thought "oh good, here comes the story" only to have the chapter end and a new adventure begin).

I also felt like we were following the wrong characters. The most interesting crew members (with the exception of Sissix) had more minor roles in the book. When Pei and her ship showed up, I was left wondering why we weren't following her as she went off on her more exciting adventures.

But there were some really good moments. I liked how Kizzy had trouble dealing with some boarders; I liked how that was handled by Chambers, and I like how it was resolved with help from Pei. I liked the Corbin story line, once we got there (I honestly wish that had happened sooner - I think the changes in him were interesting and I would have loved to see him grow with the rest of the crew more). I liked how most of the crew accepted Ohan's decision, at least through most of the story. Yes, they weren't happy with it (Sissix and Ashby had some words), but they were still ready to accept what he chose. And I really liked what happened after they finally arrived at Hedra Ka (though in some ways that also felt like the plot finally starting, but then it wrapped up right after).

I also want to say that the worldbuilding in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is great. The alien species were both interesting and different. They had different cultures and different ways, and it was great how the different characters interacted and came to terms with those differences.  One thing that did annoy me though (and I admit that this is super nitpicky of me) was how all the people of one species seemed to speak one language. Yes, the humans had trouble understanding some people who didn't speak their one language. But, say, all the Aandrisks spoke one language and no one ever had trouble understanding someone else who spoke that one language.

So that was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in a nutshell. It had some great moments, and some really interesting characters. But unfortunately it's a slow meander to get to anywhere interesting.  I had much higher hopes for this when I started. :(

I'd also like to note, the other books in the Wayfarers series don't seem to be connected specifically with these characters (the second book follows people who were introduced in this one, but doesn't seem to have the Wayfarer crew in it). So maybe I'll give it a try one day. 

Blind Date with a Werewolf: a Novel in Stories

It's been awhile since I read anything by Patricia Briggs, so it seems fitting that her new book, Blind Date with a Werewolf: a Novel in Stories is the first book I read in 2026! 

In Blind Date with a Werewolf, Asil, the Moor, one of the oldest and scariest werewolves, is given the "gift" of five blind dates for Christmas (which, as he keeps repeating to his "Concerned Friends," is completely unnecessary as he doesn't celebrate Christmas). Asil has been barely controlling his wolf for a long time, after the death of their mate (and has been begging his Alpha to kill him, though the Marrock has always refused), and so thinks this is a bad idea. But his friends are betting against him (the rules are that he must stay with his date for 2 hours, no one must run screaming from the other, and Asil is not to kill anyone) and Asil likes a challenge, so he agrees. The five stories in this book tell the tales (or the aftermaths) of his five blind dates.

Prior to starting Blind Date with a Werewolf, I had been struggling my way through another book (which I put aside in order to read this). I was so happy at the speed in which I got into this book; I finished it in about three nights! Asil is a really fun character: he's full of interesting knowledge because of his age, but is still interested in the people and happenings around him. He's physically gorgeous and likes to play this up, but he never seems arrogant (he's just accepting of it as a thing, and often just wants to get past it). While a very dominant wolf, he is very protective of innocents.

His dates themselves are also very entertaining. He starts out with a vampire LARPer; while Asil isn't into men, he has no problems continuing on the date and even dancing with him. From there he meets someone who loves cats (an interesting option for his "Concerned Friends" to choose for a werewolf!), a platonic date with a fellow gardener, a ghost hunter, and a high society swinger. Of course, nothing goes as planned as vampires, witches, wyrms, fae, and other creatures make their way into his dates.

But along the way, Asil also starts to heal, and even finds his wolf talking to him once again! This is largely thanks to his fourth date, Ruby; something about her calms Asil's wolf, and even though they just go on one short date, Asil's wolf is convinced that she is "their" Ruby. I was really happy with how that all developed, and I hope to one day read more about them. :)

I absolutely loved this book. It was such a fun read and a great start to my year. :D