Piranesi

 Book Title: Piranesi

Author: Susanne Clarke

Date Started: July 27th 2021

Date Completed: July 29th 2021

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Piranesi was a lot of fun, and a way quicker read than I had expected. Full of intrigue, wonder and a lot of good characterisation, while it isn't quite the masterpiece some sell it is, it's a very well-crafted piece of fiction.

Overall, the book is well-paced and planned. Clarke puts a lot of thought into building tone and atmosphere, without overdoing the description. A great deal of this story relies on picturing the House and the things Piranesi comes across, and Clarke pulls it off with very succinct prose. Piranesi himself is a bit of an idiot but he's balanced well with his kind-heartedness. And who doesn't love a book that can pull off mysterious puzzles where the audience are invited along to solve what's happening themselves.

The best way to go into this is without knowing much about the story, but the tone is definitely more towards The Secret History meets Circe meets The Maze Runner (I seemed to have it in my head that it was a classical retelling, perhaps from the cover and marketing).

Iron Widow

 Book Title: Iron Widow

Author: Xiran Jay Zhao

Series: Iron Widow #1

Date Started: July 17th 2021

Date Completed: July 25th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Historical, Action

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

Iron Widow was so, so much fun. It's marketed as Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale (I would say more Hunger Games), but honestly just the summary is enough to instantly sell it: a reimagining of the only Empress of China where massive metal creatures shaped as mythological beasts are piloted to fight invading hoards of aliens. But the corruption behind the scenes is more of a threat than the doom that approaches them from outside their walls.

I will admit that there are times when the book falls into cheesiness and might be slightly overdone, but it's such a cool way to explore Chinese cultural and mythological elements in both a historical and modern way that any little things that don't land perfectly are irrelevant. I love how and how rich the cultural influences were and how well the Chinese elements that might not be as well-known in the West were explained without info-dumping.

I also need to write about Zeitan herself, who is an utterly fantastic heroine. I'm going to parallel it to The Poppy War for the sole purpose of citing complex, questionable women who are humanised and that we are able to have empathy for. Also, shout out to the polyamorous relationship; I've never really seen it used before and quite honestly I'm not that familiar with it, but it was great.

It's so hard to articulate the modern contradictions for identifying as something and recognising (and accepting) the negative background and aspects of it, but Zhao does it. There are historically negative associations with being a woman; it doesn't mean femininity is bad. There are parts of Chinese culture that have hurt its people (one example criticised in this book is traditional foot-binding); that doesn't mean there aren't aspects that should be celebrated. Zhao fluently communicates that paradox, and it's genuinely moving and liberating.

Even aside from the politics, Iron Widow is just fun and exciting and engaging. If you also haven't seen Zhao's videos on Asian cultural influences in popular culture including Mulan, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Kung Fu Panda, then I highly recommend them. Her skill at picking up apart existing storytelling works is just as strong - if not rivalled - by her skill at creating her own.

The Bone Shard Daughter

 Book Title: The Bone Shard Daughter

Author: Andrea Stewart

Series: The Drowning Empire #1

Date Started: July 6th 2021

Date Completed: July 17th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

The Bone Shard Daughter was one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time. I read a lot of fantasy novels, and I'm particularly fond of high-fantasy with Asian influences which this novel sits comfortably in, and this is definitely at the front of the pack. The story was meticulously and diligently planned, the characters and world full-fledged and realised, and it was just an absolute joy to read.

Stewart has constructed such a well-built world, so different to so many, but so well-rooted and made accessible to the audience through the prose. The East Asian-inspired setting is lush and epic, and the constructs (creatures created from animal matter and controlled by the bone shards of the title, taken from the citizens of the empire as children and used to power the monstrous creatures until they have no energy left to live) are such a cool idea, and so well utilised in the story. You get the sense that Stewart isn't a making-it-up-as-she-goes-along writer (though, of course, I don't know!) but that she puts a great deal of thought into how she weaves her tapestry. So when you read it, it performs flawlessly.

There's also such a great balance of multiple complex, conflicted lead characters that each have full stories in their own right, but clearly have further to go until their paths inevitably intertwine. The politics and conflict they face are so believable because it's rooted in these characters and their positions and perspectives in the world. One of our heroines doesn't believe poverty exists and it's understandable, thus the need to teach her otherwise becomes to much more visceral and compelling.

I've gushed enough already, but there's plenty more to enjoy in the book itself past the base elements of literary storytelling. Part of what's so good about The Bone Shard Daugther is its action and its excitement, the puzzles that you're able to work out alongside the characters, and the mysteries that still plague them onwards to the next book, which I will be picking up the second it comes out.

The Harp of Kings

 Book Title: The Harp of Kings

Author: Juliet Marillier

Series: Warrior Bards #1

Date Started: June 22nd 2021

Date Completed: July 6th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure, Mystery

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

The Harp of Kings is another mystery in a strange court with uncanny hands in the plot from Juliet Marillier, the iconic writer of fairy tale fantasy adventure stories with strong female characters and addictive action. I didn't actually realise it was a further telling of another of her series, Blackthorn and Grim, until I started reading - not that you need to know that at all, but it's a nice little nod in the text.

Ultimately, this novel wasn't my favourite of Marillier's, mainly because I just didn't get into it in the same way I've fallen into some of her other work. I didn't connect to the characters as well as I usually do, and much of the joy of Marillier's writing is her characters. The cast is all fine in theory; the brave but stubborn female warrior perhaps too devoted to her brother, the wise but hesitant bard brother who's probably a bit too devoted to his sister, and the grudging rival along for the ride (and inevitably the male love interest for the series). But they don't come to life off the page for me, and so it was hard to feel any stakes or much drama.

Something that is maybe a bad habit, but one that I often overlook because I'm just having so much fun, is the tendency of these books to knock you over the head with the explanations resolving the mystery at the end. It really is explicit in how the clues and conundrums connect in the end, which is;t always the most satisfying. In The Harp of Kings, especially, there's a lot more weight in the emotional changes than in events themselves, so when you get to the end it's almost a surprise when you're reminded how their actions have actually solved the major mystery from the start of the book and here's why.

Honestly, it was a bit lacklustre for me overall. If this was the first Marillier book I'd read, I don't know if I would keep coming back to them like I currently do. Marillier's work is one of my favourite collections to default to if I'm not sure what to read next, because they're always a fun ride - this was one still a ride, but not quite as fun as I'd like readers to know her writing as.

Ariadne

 Book Title: Ariadne

Author: Jennifer Saint

Date Started: May 31st 2021

Date Completed: June 14th 2021

Genres: Historical, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

Jennifer Saint's Greek myth retelling was definitely enjoyable, but nothing particularly new. The trend of mythology retold through the female figures often overlooked or used only as side characters is one that I've always been a fan of, and this addition is nothing to be sniffed at even if it just adds to the catalogue. Ariadne herself is a cool figure to look at, one that seems to so far have flown under the radar, and Saint's novel has a good deal of characterisation to flesh her out as a complex human being and do justice to her role in the notorious stories.

Ariadne's story will be familiar to many, though through the lens of its traditional hero Theseus as he sets out to defeat the monstrous Minotaur of Knossos in Crete. This story takes up a surprisingly small amount of the start of the book, I suppose because Ariadne doesn't get to see much of the action of the original story herself. Like a lot of modern myth retellings, I felt that the book lacked some direction or a goal after this initial 'mini-retelling'. The rest of the book incorporates various other self-contained myths into the epic of Ariadne's lifetime - I'm actually not totally sure if they are all traditionally connected or not, but it's compelling and entertaining nonetheless.

Saint tries to balance this pacing by also giving us the perspective of Ariadne's sister Phaedra and how the consequences of the Labyrinth affected her also, while narration strings together time as other myths are slowly introduced to construct the overarching point that men are pigs and ultimately can't be trusted. It's obvious from the start and knocks you over the head a bit, and I feel the book blames the individual male characters themselves and pretty much entirely overlooks the society which perpetuates and pushes such attitudes, but whatever.

Ariadne was an entertaining read but it didn't stand out to me. To use Saint's novel as an example for the wider sub-genre of Greek myth retellings for a moment, I feel like there's a recurring trend of complete disaster and sorrow for all of the women whose stories are being retold. And don't get me wrong, women were treated terribly, were punished for men's crimes, and always overlooked and underestimated as individuals. But there's a reason why a certain myth reteller (MM) is fathoms ahead of the rest; she captures the joy and the magic and the splendour of the ancient world that these women also experienced. Yes, trauma and abuse should be repainted by modern authors to draw attention to the fact that that is what they are, but we understand light and dark through comparison and contrast. Ariadne isn't the worst example of this, but I feel like the light in these myths is often ignored in favour of highlighting just how terrible these women's lives were, which ultimately hinders that very argument by pretending every one of their lives was unliveable; which is not always the case.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Book Title: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Author: Hank Green

Series: The Carls #2

Date Started: May 31st 2021

Date Completed: June 14th 2021

Genres: Sci-Fi, Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

I really respect Hank Green and his endeavours, his interests, and the way he tells the world about them. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is another example of that; it's good fun, just as thoughtful as the first one, though perhaps erring a little more on the side of sci-fi adventure than sci-fi mystery. Green has such interesting ideas, meticulously researched and planned and conceived. It is, for the most part, utterly convincing and thoughtful.

A big chunk at the start of the book establishes how things have changed since the end of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, and we also get an introduction to the various different perspectives in the book (was that a thing in the first book? I honestly can't remember). It isn't until around a third of the way through that we start to dig into the meat of this particular story - and then I started to get excited.

The end of the book became slightly out of control, and had it lost its credibility a little for me. There's generally a really good balance between science fiction and 'real life' cause and effect/commentary (I mean, I happily went along with a talking monkey that was once an AI sculpture without question), but the finale felt like it became too 'epic' for its own rules. It was so cool for the different narrative strands to collide, but it lent too much on omnipotent AIs, Sword Art Online-style VR obsession, and an internet personality being able to raise hundreds of billions of pounds in three hours.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor was a really good sequel; it mixed it up story- and theme-wise but kept the characters and core beliefs in line with what we loved in the first book. Half the enjoyment came from seeing these characters grow and develop in their own right, which I suppose is kind of a moral of the book.

Darkdawn

Book Title: Darkdawn

Author: Jay Kristoff

Series: The Nevernight Chronicles #3

Date Started: May 19th 2021

Date Completed: May 31st 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Action, Thriller,  Romance

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

The final chapter in The Nevernight Chronicles ties up pretty much everything surprisingly neatly, and just as satisfyingly as expected. Kristoff's players on his chessboard press forward with calculated, organic moves, all towards the Queen waiting at the very end.

I'd forgotten just how intense these books were. They just don't stop, from start to finish. And it doesn't get old: somehow each action scene feels new, the revelations are just as revelatory, and the things we knew were always going to happen still feel like twists. I actually find it a little funny that the final finale was actually probably the least exciting bit, I suppose because we all knew how it was going to end.

Mia's great, as always. And it's been nice having this big cast of characters the whole way through the series, even if they do step on and off the stage; without taking away from Mia as the protagonist, Kristoff can balance different sub-plots and people so that we become attached to things from all directions. It's one of the reasons his twists and turns land so well; because we care about the whole picture. (Also, just to note, this is how you can write women sexily, and use smut and cursing and crude jokes, without objectifying and shaming women and other groups.)

I also really respect the 'screw destiny' vibe, while still having that prophecy-driven force in the storytelling. The chosen one has always been a problematic trope, but (as with so many things) Kristoff manages to adapt it to complete the story with due justice to Mia and all the other n0n-chosen ones who are just as key to the victory.

I don't know just how much Kristoff did plan ahead, but nothing in Darkdawn felt conveniently moved in the plot just to pull off a twist or a climax, as happens so often. Things fell into place like they were divinely planned - in the way all great fantasy epics are, by nature, constructed, but seamlessly.