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. :)

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. 

The Summer War

I was really excited to see a new Naomi Novik novella was out! I hadn't heard anything about it, and was really happy to see that it was more of the fantasy-style like Uprooted and Spinning Silver (it really reminded me of the world of Spinning Silver, so I was rather surprised that the two aren't connected, even by being in the same world).  

In The Summer War, when Celia is 12 years old, she discovers that she is a sorceress when she curses her brother to never find love again. Desperate to try to undo the curse, she has only a little time to find him before she is wed to the crown prince of the realm. But when the prince and the king pull a double cross, she finds herself at the whims of the mortal's ancient enemy, the immortal summerlings.

I really enjoyed The Summer War. It was a fast read (I read it in a day because it's fairly short). I liked the characters, especially how Celia learned and grew as a person as she grew up. The dynamics between her and her brothers were interesting as well 

I also liked the summerlings and how they thought so differently from the mortals in the story. For immortals, they were very much willing to die in glory so their names could live on in story. Their revenge plan was also kind of funny in that they expected a mortal to do something the way they expected, and were so surprised and angry when they didn't. It was a neat touch that they could only do things in the mortal realm during summetime, and would go running back to their world when the autumn winds hit.

All in all, this was a super fast and enjoyable read (especially after my last few reads). 

Untethered Sky

Fonda Lee's Untethered Sky is the story of Ester, a lady who, after a manticore kills her family, trains to become a ruhker, someone who hunts the monsters with the help of giant rocs, the only creatures capable of killing manticores. She is paired with the roc Zahra, training the fledgling to become a fearsome hunter. But the rocs belong to only themselves, and Ester and Zahra's partnership is tested when they become embroiled in the empire's largest manticore hunt ever.

I really, really liked the world of Untethered Sky. I liked how Lee made the manticores so fearsome. We are used to living in a world where we are generally the top predator; in Lee's world, that isn't the case, and the whole human world is rightfully terrified of the monsters. It also takes another monster to fight the manticores - the ruhkers take their own lives into their hands at the beginning of training a fledgling, plus acting as bait for their rocs to kill manticores once they are fully trained.

I also liked the characters. Most of the ruhkers are driven by their love (and obsession) over their birds and Ester is no different. Neither is Darius; their friendship and partnership grows thanks to training their rocs. But they are also all individuals; Namsin is more at home in high society than Ester, and Darius has no interest whatsoever in that world. It made for an interesting dynamic between the three of them.

The pacing of the book is really good, too. Untethered Sky follows Ester and Zahra from the moment they first meet, spanning six years of Zahra's training and accomplishments killing manticores. While I didn't necessarily see the ending coming, it felt inevitable based on what happened. I quite enjoyed Untethered Sky; it was a fast read (it is a novella), and I hope that Lee will one day revisit the world to tell more stories of the ruhkers!

The Deep

 I've been wanting to read The Deep for awhile now, but finally sat down to read it a few nights ago.  It tells the story of a mermaid (Yetu) who, as the historian, holds all the memories of her people, of their trauma and how they came to be. While she is gifted, she is also extremely sensitive, and the memories are literally killing her. So when the time comes, as it does every year, to let her people remember, she decides to run and save herself, rather than take the memories back at the end of the ritual (and so die).  While she slowly regains herself and her sense of self away from the memories, she becomes increasingly aware that the memories are killing the rest of her people, and so needs to decide whether to live or to save them all.

I really enjoyed The Deep.  I loved the worldbuilding around where the merpeople came from (they are descended from pregnant African slaves who were thrown overboard - the idea is that in the womb, babies are not breathing air, so what if they were born of the sea and never needed to breathe air? A very interesting narrative that has roots in songs - this article talks a bit about it, as well as the idea that people would like a memorial along the Atlantic trade routes, which is definitely deserved considering how many people died along them)  And the idea of holding all the trauma from generations of your people (and it wasn't just the trauma, it was their actual memories) was really interesting - as historian, Yetu wasn't really living, she was living the lives and trauma of all the people who came before her.  

Definitely check it out if you have the chance (and are okay with reading fantasy)!

Starless

Starless is a short fantasy novella by Evan S. Sullivan telling the story of Calan Castillon. It goes back and forth between his youth and ten years later when he is part of an invasion to another land.  The other land, Cavadere, invaded their lands during his youth and Calan's father was killed during the war to repel the invaders.  Now the kingdoms who were invaded have created their own great fleet and strike out to conquer the enemy who invaded them.  Calan was sent to honour his family's alliance with another kingdom, and Calan is incredibly resentful that his family abandoned him like that.

I had a really hard time connecting with Calan.  Some of the things that happened, particularly in his youth, seemed really weird to me (I'm not positive how old he was, but he was able to wander around his city freely without an escort around the age of 8 or 9, and he's the nephew of the king).  He didn't seem to understand how alliances work even though the book said he had political training once he was a bit older.  And he was kind of just generally sullen, unlikable, and not particularly useful in the events of the story (his commanding officer disliked him and I actually found myself agreeing with the commander because through the early parts of the story, Calan was mainly standing around and doing nothing - though I will concede that this part of the story took place on a boat, and Calan says he has had no experience on one before).

Starless is a fairly short read (about 110 pages).  I mention this because it felt like the story actually started around page 70 or so.  Most of the things that happened before that were backstory that wasn't particularly needed; with the story coming from Calan's perspective alone, we could have taken his word on what he was feeling towards everyone else, particularly in his family, without the events needing to be shown.  Even the events that fueled his nightmares weren't particularly needed for the narrative itself.

I did find the ending of the book to be interesting though.  I admit that I clued in on what was most likely going to happen around page 70, but was still curious to see how it all unfolded and why.  Calan reminded me of Arthas from Warcraft III in many regards with what happened in Starless, though their stories are by no means the same.  

I was also intrigued by many of the other characters surrounding Calan.  His cousins seemed particularly interesting (the princess heir to the throne who can apparently best two grown men/knights with a sword, and her younger brother who just wants to be a musician, not a prince) and it was a shame that this story didn't show more of them.  I also wish the differences between the kingdoms had been explored in more detail (why do the women of the South get to use swords when the women of the North don't?), although I do understand there wasn't space for such things within Calan's narrative.  I am hopeful that more of these characters and cultural differences will be explored in Deathless, Sullivan's new novel that I believe is set in the same world as Starless.

I'd also like to mention that the list of characters really came in handy when I started reading Starless, particularly in terms of the Castillon family (the king, his son, and his brother all have names starting with "R," so it took a bit to figure out who was who).  I do wish there had been a map though to show the different kingdoms, particularly while trying to follow the events of the war. I firmly believe that fantasy books should all have maps to help the reader follow along.

Binti: The Night Masquerade

Well the library doesn't have the last book in the Binti trilogy, so I bought it on my Kindle and read it right away after finishing Binti: Home.  Unlike the time lag between the first two books, Binti: The Night Masquerade takes place pretty much right where Binti: Home leaves off.

Binti and Mwinyi return to her home to find the building burnt to the ground (and several nearby homes damaged as well).  She discovers Okwu has hidden in the lake and has called reinforcements.  So she calls on the elders to meet with her and asks them to invoke Himba deep culture over the Khoush and Meduse to make peace once and for all.  The elders agree.  But at the time of the appointed meeting, the elders do not appear.  So Binti is left to invoke the deep culture on her own.  Amazingly, thanks to her Meduse DNA and the alien technology she has recently awakened, she is able to invoke deep culture on her own.  The Meduse chief and Khoush king agree to peace.  But one of the Khoush king's underlings fires on the Meduse, restarting the war anyway.  Binti is hit in the crossfire and dies.

The war heads to space, leaving the Himba behind.  Mwinyi discovers that Binti's family is safe - they were sheltered in the living root of an Undying Tree (a root that was part of their home's foundation).  Mwinyi and Okwu ask if they can take Binti's body to Saturn because that's where she was going to next thanks to a recurring dream she kept having with her mysterious alien artifact good luck charm.  The Himba have a funeral for Binti, then a newly born spaceship fish (the spaceships in this world are animals - this fish is the daughter of the fish Binti has been travelling in up to this point of the story) arrives to take Mwinyi, Okwu, and Binti's body to Saturn.  But when they arrive at Saturn, Binti is miraculously brought back to life.  It seems that the microbes in New Fish were able to do it *somehow* because New Fish was just born.

So they all travel back to Oomza Uni where Binti gets to learn about her crazy genetic makeup (and that she can only go 5 miles on land away from New Fish; New Fish can go 7 miles up).  The end.

I found myself disappointed by the ending of this series, even though I kind of had a feeling that Binti was somehow going to come back to life (her death was around the halfway point of the third book).  Binti's death was written very well.  And while she may not have succeeded in ending the war, she brought together two human tribes who looked like they were going to work together in the future.  When she was brought back to life, it just felt like the narrative was cheapened (especially since it really did feel like "space magic brought her back to life." Oh, and she refused to talk to her family right away to let them know she was still alive - that seemed selfish in the way that her siblings accused her of being all through Binti: Home). 

On the plus side, this book felt much more complete than the previous two (the previous two both felt to me like they should have been expanded into full novels).  But that's probably because this book was largely just the resolution of things that had happened in the previous book. 

All in all, the Binti series is an interesting read.  If you love worldbuilding, you will enjoy a lot of aspects of this book because that is very much its strength.  But if you're looking for a deeper narrative (and a more fleshed out book), you should probably give these books a pass.

Binti: Home

I wasn't completely sure if I wanted to keep reading more of Nnedi Okorafor's Binti series, but the library had book two so why not?  They're novellas, which means they're super fast reads.

Binti: Home takes place about a year after the first book.  Binti and Okwu have settled into life at Oomza Uni.  But Binti has been struggling with post-traumatic stress from her ordeal in the first book.  She's also found herself increasingly prone to bouts of rage.  Fearing that she has become unclean, she decides to return home and go on a pilgrimage.  Okwu decides to accompany her - he will be the first Meduse to step foot on Earth in peace.

Their arrival is difficult.  Binti's family welcomes her home, but the place turns into chaos when Okwu arrives and the Khoush attack him.  Binti manages to stop anyone from dying.  But later at her home, she has an argument with her sister which almost turns violent (Binti spits in her sister's face in anger, something she would never have done before).  Retreating to her room, she sees the Night Masquerade.  I wasn't really sure what the Night Masquerade really was, but it is something that only men and boys see, not women.  Right after that, Binti's paternal grandmother, one of the Desert People, arrives to take Binti to meet their high priestess.  Binti discovers that she has alien technology in her DNA and is given the choice to awaken it. After she makes the choice, she learns that her home has been attacked and Okwu may have been killed.  The book ends with her heading home to see what has happened.

Like the first volume, Binti: Home has some fantastic worldbuilding.  I do still wish these had been lengthened into full novels though; I feel like there was so much more that could have been explored.  I also wish Okwu had been in this volume a little bit more than he was. 

Binti

I have a pile of nonfiction I want to read.  But it's the long weekend so I decided to take a break and read the novella Binti instead. Binti, written by Nnedi Okorafor, is a Hugo and Nebula award winner.  I've seen it go by at work a few times and was intrigued (although I will freely admit I didn't actually read the synopsis on the back of the book). 

Binti is the first of her people, the Himba, to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution in the galaxy.  But in going she is going against her family and her people's traditions; the Himba are of the land and do not leave it.  Stealing away in the dead of night, she leaves her homeland for the first time ever.  And even before she steps foot in space, she finds herself an alien among the majority Khoush in the spaceport.  But she makes her way relatively free of incident onto her transport, where she meets some of her fellow students.

Now I was enjoying this story as a fish out of water story. I liked Okorafor's world building.  The Himba people were very interesting and I was hoping to learn more about the Khoush as Binti interacted with them on the shuttle.  Unfortunately that was kind of glossed over because pretty much everyone on the shuttle except Binti gets murdered when an alien race, the Meduse, arrive. 

The story actually did lose me a bit around this point. 

The Meduse try to murder Binti too, but she is magically able to protect herself with an ancient artifact she happened to have with her as her good luck charm.  The artifact hurts the Meduse.  But it also allows her to communicate with them.  She discovers that the Meduse are heading to Oomza University to retrieve their chief's stinger, which was stolen from him and somehow ended up in the school.  Binti convinces them to arrive peacefully and let her act as an interpreter for them to get the stinger back.  She does so, and as a gesture of goodwill, the school asks that the Meduse send her new friend, Okwu, to the school as well.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of all this.  I'm glad that it all worked out, but the fact that the Meduse murdered a whole bunch of students didn't seem to matter at all to the university's deliberations and final decision on the whole thing.  I guess the ending just seemed a little too abrupt for my liking; Binti really seemed like it should have been a novel, rather than a novella.

All in all, the world building is fantastic and I would love to know more about all the cultures in this book (the Himba, Khoush, and the Meduse).  But the story itself could have been expanded a fair bit (and in my opinion, would have been the stronger for it).

After Life

I do not remember getting Simon Funk's After Life on my Kindle. I started reading it for the simple reason that it is apparently a novella (I only say apparently because it was far longer than the other novellas I've read at about 120 pages, but it is still a novella). When I rated it on Goodreads I discovered that someone at work had recommended it to me. While I still have no memory of this whatsoever, based on the fact that it is science fiction, I now have an idea of who.

Anyway, After Life is the story of Alexander, a PhD who finds himself in a bizarre world where humans live easy lives, gaining nourishment from a fountain that spews wheat. Prior to waking up there, he had been undergoing an experimental procedure to scan a brain; the procedure was his own creation. While living in the bizarre world (which he increasingly believes is real), at night he dreams of events that happened to other versions of him. It's a really odd story that becomes more and more compelling the more you read (and start to piece together what happened at about the same speed Alex does). I don't typically read tons of science fiction, so this wasn't a familiar kind of story for me at all. 

I've been reading bits of After Life over the last few days, and finally decided to power through the last 60% tonight. As I said, this is a bit of a longer novella and even though I enjoyed it, I was kind of ready for it to be over so I could start reading something else. I actually feel like I should reread After Life at some point in the future because it deserved a bit more thought than I was giving it (particularly since I've found myself rather tired over the last few nights and not able to concentrate on it super well). Of course, any reread won't be happening for a long while because I have many other books/stories I'll need to get through first!

If Wishes Were Horses

After reading Anne McCaffrey's An Exchange of Gifts back in August, I bought it and If Wishes Were Horses, which is another of her novellas. I decided to start reading If Wishes Were Horses a few days ago. It's short (only 85 half pages), but I've been pretty busy so it took me a bit longer than I thought it would.

If Wishes Were Horses is the story of the Eircelly family (a noble family made up of lots of children who are almost all twins). Their father is called away to a war, so the rest of the family is left to take care of themselves and their village without him. The war drags on much longer than planned, getting nearer and nearer to the eldest pair of twins' birthday. For Tirza, this isn't much of a problem: she may miss out on getting a traditional Ball, but she knows she's getting a crystal as per her family's tradition. But her brother, Tracell, had his heart set on getting his own horse. With the war still raging, horses are impossible to come by. How will Lady Eircelly make his birthday wish come true?

If Wishes Were Horses was a fine story. I liked that it was about the whole family getting through this hardship. I don't think it was as good as An Exchange of Gifts though, which was a bit of a shame (An Exchange of Gifts was awesome and I'd love to read more set in that world!) But even saying that, If Wishes Were Horses was still a great read. :)

An Exchange of Gifts

I saw Anne McCaffrey's An Exchange of Gifts when I was at work.  I've read another one of McCaffrey's novellas a long time ago and liked it; this one sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a read.

Meanne (aka Princess Anastasia de Saumur et Navarre y Cordova) has a Gift entirely unsuitable to a princess: she can make plants grow and create healing potions and salves out of them.  So rather than being denied her birthright (and being forced into marrying someone she does not know), Meanne runs away, faking her death so no one will come looking for her.  She makes her way to an abandoned cottage she remembers visiting as a child.  Unfortunately she didn't realize just how much work living on her own would be.

Luckily, a young boy named Wisp comes to her rescue.  He has run away from who knows where, having the scars on his back as a memento.  Wisp befriends her, helping to teach her how to survive.  Together, the two build an idyllic life, caring for Meanne's plants and snaring small animals.

But after Wisp talks Meanne into going to the local village's monthly market, Meanne's past catches up with her.  She faked her death too well, and her father has sent his men throughout the kingdom to find her murderers.  But now Wisp knows who she is, too.  Things come to a head between them as he finally reveals who he is, what exactly happened to him, and what incredible Gift he has.

An Exchange of Gifts was an excellent read.  I loved it enough to buy my own copy from Amazon (along with another of her novellas, If Wishes Were Horses).  I can't wait to get them!

A Dance for Emilia

I've been wanting to read more books by Peter S. Beagle ever since finishing (and falling in love with) The Last Unicorn.  So the other day, I went looking for what my local library had.  A Dance for Emilia was short (being novella length), so I decided to read it first.

A Dance for Emilia is about losing friends and loved ones.  Jacob and Sam were best friends from forever ago.  Their planned escapades in old age are cut short when Sam passes away unexpectedly.  Sam's girlfriend, Emilia, is also left behind.  She quickly bonds with Jacob as they share their memories of Sam over the course of two years.  But unbeknownst to them, their sharing has been calling Sam back from the dead.  He inhabits the body of Millamant, his old Abyssinian cat.  While they are happy to have him back (even in this strange form), Sam isn't able to stay.  And so he performs one last beautiful dance for Emilia before leaving her and Jacob forever.

A Dance for Emilia is based off of Beagle's real life struggle to cope with losing a friend.  I didn't know that at the time I started reading it, but it was the perfect thing for me to read right now.  As I mentioned in my last post, my cat recently passed away; I found myself feeling like Emilia does in the book, wanting Sam to come back (and not wanting to let him go once he does come back).  While I didn't think it was as good as The Last Unicorn, I really enjoyed reading A Dance for Emilia and am looking forward to reading more of Beagle's work.