Category: Book Reviews

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Book Reviews, books, Life

A Long Overdue Update

K.A. Doore

🎶 Here we go, here we go, here we go again 🎶

First off: I’m hot at work on the 2026 queer SFF books list. It’s turning out to be a doozy—we’re well over 180 queer books and I’ve only just reached September—but I anticipate having it out sometime in October this time around.

So if that’s the only reason you read this blog, welp: there you go. You’re welcome.

There’ve been… quite a few changes in the Doore-verse since we last checked in. I finished catastrophe!WIP and queried it. Then I wrote a whole ‘nother book about vampires and gators and hemophobia and queried that. I attended Sirens Conference in New Haven, CT, my first writing/books conference in, oh gosh, four years? It was great, and just the sort of reminder of what I love about books and publishing and the people involved that I needed.

(Speaking of Sirens, they’ll be back in 2027 and I can’t effuse enough about how great of a conference this is. Lots of people who like books just spending a few days together, talking about books.)

And good timing, because shortly thereafter, I signed with a new agent. We’ve been busy at work these past few months and I have so many exciting things in the pipeline. Plus cool new ideas that I’m busy writing into reality. Of course, with publishing everything is slow and nothing is guaranteed, so take all that with a grain of breath and don’t hold your salt.

…wait, that’s not how it goes.

And that’s not the only big news around here. I’ve also—after a lot of hesitation, talking it through, wringing my hands, listing out every worst case scenario—decided to take a few years off from day-jobbing. I’ve been juggling the equivalent of two full time jobs for years now and it’s taken its toll.

I’ve been pretty transparent about writing while balancing a dayjob and young kids, so I wanted to be transparent when that changed. Balancing the three has meant a lot of early mornings, tears, and sacrifices, and honestly—I wasn’t doing a good job of balancing it at all. Stepping back lets me spend more time with my family, reclaim my health, as well as let my wife focus on her career during a very critical time (buy me a coffee sometime and maybe I’ll get into it, phew).

As a side effect, that means more time for the queer SFF books list, more time for shouting about books in general, and, yes, more time for writing. So yay: maybe you’ll hear more from me.

It has also meant more time for reading, so for the first time since last January, let’s do a quick What has Kai been reading?

The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang
I finished reading this on the plane back from a summer trip. This was a good one to read all at once; I’d actually started it a few months ago, but I couldn’t immediately figure out where it was going, so I found myself reaching for other books instead. But then I committed on the plane and damn. I absolutely loved the way linguistics/language is so important to the plot, and how the MC clings to naivety and idealism, only to finally be forced to face reality—and expose it. This book (novella, really) has a slow but inevitable momentum and is best read all at once.

The Dragon Has Some Complaints by John Wiswell
I’ve always enjoyed John’s dark whimsy, and I’ll always be glad to read more of it. Thankfully, this was more of it. He’s a writer I can trust to be inclusive, and not only that seems to be doing that Golden Age SFF thing of writing towards the future/society he wants to see. So while there are Evil People and Evil Societies, the one we spend our time in is full of kindness, care, compassion, and people coming together.

Garrodigh, our three-headed dragon and protagonist, is hilarious, and there were several bits I was in tears about, and several times I had to share a line with my wife, because it’s just exactly my kind of humor. It’s a fast, fun, book, and doesn’t shy away from horrible things, but Everything’s Gonna be Okay. Which, you know, you can’t always trust a book to deliver you safely to an end, and I appreciate I can trust John to do that.

The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton
One of those books I’d been hearing about for a while, with good reason. I struggled to really sum this one up after I finished it, because it’s many things. It’s layered and tangled worldbuilding, it’s a flawed MC who thinks they’re Hot Stuff, it’s really good and delicious prose, it’s clever characterization, it’s pain and joy and not quite fun, not really, more angry and insistent. But what it really is, is indulgent.

Indulgent in its prose, indulgent in its characters, indulgent in its worldbuilding, indulgent in its plot—to the point where I almost put it down, truthfully, because it felt like it was going nowhere and our MC was just going to spin in tighter and tighter self-destructive circles until at the end of an exceptionally indulgent chapter, everything changed. The characters were likewise indulgent, with their whims, their wishes, and their ambitions (or lack thereof).

This is also another entry into the subgenre I’m calling Moon Wrong (yes, Fifth Season is a fine entry in the subgenre) and I’m keen on reading the next book in the series (trilogy?) just released this summer because a) are we fixing Moon Wrong? and b) where do you go from that ending?

Thrall by Rebecca Mahoney
See, finding books like this is part of the reason I keep creating the queer SFF books list. Lesbian vampires in the mountains of Tennessee? I don’t need to know anymore, sign me up. Except it’s not quite lesbian vampires, as our MC remains a pre-vampire thrall for the majority of the plot. That said, her love interest is still a muscular gal on the archery team with impeccable aim and their arc is delightful.

I picked this book up on Saturday, meant to finish reading another book first, decided to just skim the first chapter on Monday night.. and finished it two days later. This is both a great vampire book and somehow so much more: it’s vampires on a secluded college campus, yes; it’s lesbians, yes; it’s fighting for a life when you’ve so long been denied one, been in service to others, yes; and it’s the careless cruelty of chance.

It’s also vampires with teeth while also somehow still being fun and sexy; vampires that are still terrifying and old soul vampires who are Just Fucking Tired. I loved the questions about who you are when life changes, and if you can still be the same person and if that even matters—if you still deserve to live and love and thrive.

That’s it for fiction, but I also listened to The AI Con by Emily Bender which is one of those Reaffirming Things I Already Knew while also Teaching Me New Infuriating Shit kind of books. It might have kicked off my current WIP, and now I’m also listening to More Everything Forever by Adam Becker, another takedown of the AI hypetrain and the techbros profiting from it.

That was fun. Let’s do it again in September!

Book Reviews

2018 Books of Awesome, Part: Those Books that Are Out Already

K.A. Doore

It’s that time of year again! That glorious time when I get to exclaim loudly (and with a fair amount of cursing) about all of my favorite books I read this year. Which this year is again ALL OF THEM.

On the one hand, it has been tough to find the time to read with a Constant Toddler, writing, and a dayjob, and having once read one hundred books in one year, reading “only” twenty-six feels almost like failure. But! On the other hand, reading less means I simply don’t have the time to finish books I don’t enjoy, so whereas before I’d maybe only really end up enjoying about a third of that hundred, now I enjoy each and every book I’ve picked up.

Because who has the time to read books they don’t enjoy??

Last year I read 100% fantasy, 95% written by women. This year it was closer to 60% fantasy and 89% women(or nb)-written. This year I’ve read a lot more literary than usual, which has been a nice change of pace. I do truly read and enjoy all genres, but in trying to be as fluent and well-versed in my own genre as possible, I’ve unfortunately neglected reading others. Thanks to being a part of a 2019 Debut Authors group, though, that was thoroughly rectified this year.

…and it also means that nearly half the books I read this year aren’t out until next! Alas, I’m sorry, but also: boy is next year gonna be AMAZING.

So here is the first half of my Amazing 2018 Year in Books, Part One: Those Books that Are Out Already:

 

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
This is an adventure and a half, complete with djinn and ifrit and ghouls and cursed artifacts and even more cursed lakes and a city and culture thousands of years old which actually has the weight of all that history. Nahri is the best, a thief turned possible royalty who doesn’t magically lose the thief side of her when she discovers her roots. And that ending – that ending. There are still two books to come and I have no idea how Chakraborty will top that ending but I have every confidence that she will.
Read if you like: epic second world fantasy that subverts YA romance tropes, actively interrogates morally gray questions, and is clearly written by someone well-versed in history.
The Fall of the House of Cabal by Jonathan L Howard
This is the sixth book in the series and if you’re interested in gentleman necromancers who handle family disputes, romance, and gibbering horrors with the same unwaveringly dry wit and cantankerousness, then I’d suggest starting at the very beginning. The Fall continues Cabal & co’s constantly humorous and increasingly corpse-filled story as his enemies multiple but so, too, his friends.
Read if you like: dry wit, rampant magic, the undead, the living, & increasingly bizarre situations.
Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber:
True crime podcasts are all the rage lately, but what about the real-life families of the victims? This story explores the implications of sudden fame (or infamy) on a family that had already found their peace. A quick read (or listen, because really you should probably listen to a book about a podcast) and unsurprisingly there’s already a live-action series in production by Apple.
Read if you like: family dramas, murder mysteries, thoughtful explorations of the far-reaching effects of our increasingly small world.
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire:
Well, honestly at this point I will read anything by McGuire, and I have not been disappointed yet. This is the second in her Wayward Children series, which follows the lives of the children who went through portals to other worlds and what happens after. Although this one in particular is about what happened during, and it is full of contemplation about who you are vs who people want you to be and family and love and what you will do for both.
Read if you like: shorter fiction in a telling style; werewolves and vampires and monsters (oh my!); things that go bump in the night; gothic horror tropes; soft sads
Updraft by Fran Wilde:
Wow. This story takes you above the clouds into a city built upon spires of bone and then goes for broke. The worldbuilding is fantastic: Wilde creates a fantastical setting and then isn’t afraid to explore every corner of the resulting implications. I love all the rituals, the way history and law and warnings are passed down through song (because they don’t have paper [because how could they have trees??]), the way the flying felt real and the skymouths were scary af. I am itching to read the subsequent books in the series and find out more about how this city came to be.
Read if you like: thorough & fresh worldbuilding; feeling as if you are flying; songlore; bonelore; lore; deconstructing history; morally gray everything
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente:
This is one of those books you read about and instantly wonder how it hasn’t been written before. If you didn’t know, space opera is a subgenre of sci-fi, and now it is also a book about Eurovision. In space. But where Eurovision is about uniting Europe through increasingly bombastic song & dance routines, Space Opera is about uniting the universe. And Earth has just been allowed to enter the competition for the first – and possibly last – time. All Earth has to do is not place last to avoid complete annihilation, but the odds are stacked higher than Olympus Mons.
Read if you like: fun space romps; fun space humor; absurd & yet still possible alien species; conversations about sentience
From Unseen Fire by Cass Morris:
Magic in an alternate ancient Rome? Yes please! From Unseen Fire includes all the fun politics of I, Claudius plus the elemental magic of Avatar: the Last Airbender. Add in a full cast of awesome ladies and an exceptionally original take of elemental-based magic and, well, I am hooked forever. It’s clear Morris did her research on this one because reading it feels like a walk through the streets of ancient Rome.
Read if you like: kickass magic systems; sprawling epic fantasy; feeling as if you’re walking through ancient Rome
TW: off-screen sexual assault
The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst:
When every living thing has a spirit – including the trees – and those spirits are more than a bit murderous toward humans, you have yourself a bit of a problem, one might say. Add in some intricate worldbuilding, some cities entirely in trees, and a completely reasonable antagonist and you have yourself a fun (well, in a murdery sort of way) & exciting book. It’s Friendship is Magic meets a proper horror story.
Read if you like: not-so-reluctant heroines; murder spirits; murder; questionable politics; brooding rangers; uplifting inter-women relationships
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik:

When Miryem’s family comes close to ruin because her father doesn’t have the heart to collect on all the debts owed him, Miryem steps up and soon realizes she’s got a knack for turning silver into gold – not literally, of course. Unfortunately, she makes the mistake of boosting about her skill and someone does take her literally. Someone who happens to be the king of a frozen, fae kingdom just beyond our world. What follows is a twisting path of a story through terrain that almost feels familiar – just enough to be unsettling.
Read if you like: fairy tale retellings; fairy tale retellings where you’re not really sure how many fairy tales are being retold; demons; long, cold nights; subverting genre expectations; horrible people getting exactly what they deserve
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson:
If you like your fantasy extra long and extra epic, you need to be reading Sanderson. This is the third book in his Stormlight Archives series, or more like the ninth, tenth, and eleventh when compared to normal books. Sanderson continues to impress and expand upon worlds and characters in ways that are always satisfying and always a surprise. He also continues to learn from his past mistakes and is doing a better & better job of reflecting the diversity of a real world.
Read if you like: spending weeks or months reading the same book and never regretting it; all the best characters; worlds connected to other worlds in other books; solid epic
Armistice by Lara Elena Donnelly:
This is a direct sequel to Amberlough, and you should probably read that first. And if you have, then I shouldn’t need to convince you to keep reading this spy thriller / cabaret adventure / anti-fascist gay romp. Well, okay, romp is probably not the right word. Armistice picks up sometime after Amberlough ends and answers nearly as many questions as it raises, while continuing to raise the stakes. Seriously I said anti-fascist gay romp, why are you still here?
Read if you like: second world fantasy with no magic; uncomfortably similar political situations; twisty & turny & thorny plots; sensuous writing where you can hear/smell/taste the world
City of Lies by Sam Hawke:
It’s a murder mystery set during a siege, what’s not to love? City of Lies is a fresh take on the epic genre, where the relationship between siblings being highlighted more than any of the romantic ones, where you’re never quite sure if the magic is real or not, and where the plot ratchets up and up and UP until you think it can’t possibly go any further, AND THEN IT DOES.
Read if you like: epic battles; awesome endings; stories about cities; contemplative narratives about the duty of a country to its people; quiet scenes juxtaposed with swordfights; MURDER MURDER
By Fire Above by Robyn Bennis:
This is the very direct sequel to The Guns Above, a flipping romp of a fun, exciting, explosions-filled story the likes of which I just haven’t read in ages. It’s just dark enough in places to make its lighter moments even better. It’s the kind of book you can read in a day and mull over for a month. But also laugh the entire time.
Read if you like: airpunk; understanding airship mechanics even if you never realized that was a thing you wanted before; fart jokes; camaraderie; really intense airship battles.
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab:
Another direct sequel, this time to Vicious, which asked the question: if given super powers, what would real people actually do? They wouldn’t save the world, that’s true. But some might still try, in all the wrong ways. Schwab has been improving by leaps and bounds with each book of hers and this one is no different.
Read if you like: morally gray characters doing murder; rooting for all the wrong (or right??) people; angry women getting vengeance; MURDER MURDER
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse:
Climate change has caused the oceans to swamp the Earth and usher in a wholescale apocalypse, but the Dinehtah people live on. After all, they’d already survived one apocalypse at the hands of the United States. They could survive another.
This is a dark but hopeful book, a story about the end of things, but also the beginning. There are gods, yes, and monsters, yes, but the line between them and humans is very thin, if nonexistent. It’s also action-packed and blood-soaked, and all I want is more fantasy like this.
Read if you like: post-climate change fiction; stories that don’t center white people; cinnamon roll side characters; gods being gods; urban fantasy with a fresh feel.
TW: child death

 

 

 

Image of books on a table from Unsplash.

Book Reviews

2017 Books Of Awesome

K.A. Doore

After quite a few nights/days spent rocking a sleeping baby and reading a book, I thought I’d also rock my to-read list this year.

Ahahaha.

Turns out, sleeping newborns turn into not-sleeping infants turn into crawling, interested-in-what-you’re-reading babies. And if they’re not trying to pry the book from your hands, then you’re trying to pry the cat bowl from theirs.

In short, I quickly realized I wasn’t going to read as much as I’d like. While humbling, this was also freeing. Since I have so much less free time between baby, dayjob, writing, and well, generally keeping the house from descending into cat hair chaos, I was much pickier about the books I read. And – surprisingly! – I ended up loving almost all of the books I read this year.

Also interesting how this list is much more solidly fantasy than previous years… hmmm…

Because I don’t have as much time as I used to, I’m going to cheat and use/expound upon the tweet thread I already made for my #2017InBooks. Sorry/not sorry.

So here are (almost!) all those books, in no particular order, for you & for posterity & for a better year-in-review than I can ever do, in 140 (280?!) characters or less:

    • A Darker Shade of Magic* by V.E. Schwab – Fun! You’ve probably read this! I was late to the game but I can see what everyone was talking about. Pirates, magic, doom & gloom & good gay times. Honestly, the whole Shades of Magic series.
    • Hellspark by Janet Kagan – linguistic sci-fi will always always be my jam. What is sentience? What is language? Why is that spider-thing crawling up my leg?
    • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – timely YA insta-classic take on police brutality that pulls NO punches. We’ve got racism, riots, and class tensions with subtlety and nuance in >80k words.
    • The Nightmare Stacks* by Charles Stross – because Stross’ Laundry Files will always be my curl-up-with-hot-cocoa-and-Lovecraftian-nightmares series.
    • The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden – Demigods! South Africa! Robot revolts! Dik diks! Positive trans potrayal! Wholesale destruction! Need I say more?
    • Amberlough* by Lara Elena Donnelly – dear god I’m still having dreams about this book. Disturbing. Delightful. So gay. Do you like spy thrillers and cabaret and too-parallel politics? Then yes.
    • The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin – Stone magic meets astronomy with apocalyptic adventure and a mother-daughter relationship that friggin shattered me. This whole series is definitely core SFF canon now, by the way.
    • Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer – I honestly still don’t know what to think about the Ignota Terra series except that it’s a) full of intense worldbuilding and b) not even slightly what I expected. Did I mention it’s intense? It’s… intense. But rewarding.
    • Winter Tide* by Ruthanna Emrys – You got some social commentary in my Lovecraftian horror and I like it.
    • The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis – Airships! Explosions! Adventure! Snarky fops! No central romantic plot!! Honestly just a lot of fun and a great way to end the year.

* – Consumed in audiobook form.

Book Reviews

2016 Books of Awesome, Part One

K.A. Doore

It’s that time of year again! Time to look back at the books I read and share with you the ones I enjoyed the most – the ones I would recommend or the ones that just struck me deeply.

It’s always interesting to me to look back at what I’ve read, because it gives a broad picture of what I was up to, what interested me, and where I ended up. It’s a more subjective measure of my year than anything I could come up with on my own.

This year I only read 31 books. Life kind of… happened. Between learning a new job, struggling to write, three months of total exhaustion, moving across the country, having a baby, and then struggling to write again while also juggling said baby (not literally, of course – I’m not a monster), I found it difficult to fit in as much reading as I once could.

Taken in a different light, I should really be saying – wow! Somehow I read 31 books! But that doesn’t please the perfectionist in me, so we’re just going to skirt around numbers and dive straight in to the best part: talking about books.

I made a goal at the beginning of the year to read mostly women, mostly fantasy, and especially aim for voices outside the mainstream white, straight, & male. I did end up with a few of those, but otherwise I stuck to my goal, even if I didn’t finish my 2016 TBR list. And interestingly enough, although I “only” read 31 books – a far cry from last year’s 52 and the prior year’s 70 – they were top notch. I loved almost all of them, which is why even though I read less this year, I still have ten awesome books to share with ya’ll.

Without further ado, here are my 2016 Books of Awesome, Part One:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

“Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. For his crew, he pulls together: a convict with a thirst for revenge; sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager; a runaway with a privileged past; a spy known as the Wraith; a Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums; and a thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Kaz’s crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction — if they don’t kill each other first.”

I loved that the world in this book was so heavily Slavic. It made for a nice change of pace. Speaking of pace, it’s a bit breakneck which made it very, very difficult to put down. I read this in two days. It’s so much fun and I never saw what was coming next. Even better, it’s a complete story in itself, but enough threads were left open for a sequel – which is definitely on my TBR list.

 

The Accidental Terrorist by William Shunn

“Nineteen-year-old Bill Shunn is a man on a mission—a Mormon mission, that is, trolling for converts door-to-door a thousand miles from home. This riveting memoir—by turns hilarious, provocative, and thrilling—traces his accidental journey from that humble beginning to hunted fugitive and international terrorist.”

I love me some funny yet poignant memoirs occasionally, and this one did not disappoint. This was a delightful and informative look into the world of Mormon missions and just what those pairs of well-dressed young men are doing in your neighborhood. Interwoven is the story of Joseph Smith, the man & the myth behind Mormonism. I learned way more than I’d expected and had a fun time at it, high praise in my book.

 

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

“Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep the Wood’s powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.”

I picked this up based entirely on the idea of a dragon preying on a small village that wasn’t actually a dragon. I loved this because of the cranky wizard at its heart and the actually-quite-terrifying Wood. The MC is plucky and equally cranky and the story runs ahead at equal amounts trot and gallop. There’s even a kick-ass best friend to help balance out the romance.  This is the kind of fairytale for grown ups that I adore.

 

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis

“January 29, 2035.

That’s the day the comet is scheduled to hit—the big one. Denise and her mother and sister, Iris, have been assigned to a temporary shelter near their hometown of Amsterdam to wait out the blast, but Iris is nowhere to be found, and at the rate Denise’s drug-addicted mother is going, they’ll never reach the shelter in time.

Then a last-minute encounter leads them to something better than a temporary shelter: a generation ship that’s scheduled to leave Earth behind and colonize new worlds after the comet hits. But each passenger must have a practical skill to contribute. Denise is autistic and fears that she’ll never be allowed to stay. Can she obtain a spot before the ship takes flight? What about her mother and sister?”

Ooooh, I love Duyvis’ writing so much. First her magnificent YA fantasy, Otherbound, and now an apocalyptic YA with both equal amounts terror and grace. But the terror is all in who is considered useful enough to live post-apocalypse and who gets to decide. When the marginalized have a hard enough time in daily society, what happens during the end of the world?

For an apocalyptic story, it was surprisingly hopeful. I loved how Duyvis never focused on chaos and anarchy, and instead drew more than enough tension from mundane questions, which in turn made the worldbuilding feel especially realistic.

 

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.”

As usual, Seanan spins the creepiest, most entertaining yarns. I always love how she’ll take a particularly common cliché and worry at it until she’s completely turned it on its head, yet it still remains achingly familiar. This knack shines brightest with fairytales, her forte, and here she is, exploring the inevitable, yet unexplored, consequences of all those tales: what happens to the children who come back?

There’s much more to the story than just that question – like murder and mystery and a self-identified ace main character- and it’s all somehow wrapped up within the confines of a novella.

 

To be continued!

Book Reviews

2016 TBR List Update, April

K.A. Doore

Another four books read from the list means another update! An airplane ride this past month meant I got to read two books back to back and I’ve been overall devoting more time to reading, since my brain has been so foggy.

I just finished Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, a sci-fi-esque exploration of what would happen if aliens showed up off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria. I say sci-fi-esque because while yes, there are aliens, it features a lot of supernatural elements, too, and science is never at the forefront. I loved it for that and I loved it because it’s just so refreshing to read a story where aliens don’t destroy New York or something else ridiculous. Yes, more of this please.

Keeping with the books I absolutely adored theme, have you read On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis yet? You should read it. Seriously. Go. Now. I’ll wait.

*drums fingers*

*checks watch*

Ah – you’re back? You read it? Good. Now we can squee together about how awesomely amazing it is to have a YA book tackle so many real things and present the end of the world in such a hopeful, humanitarian way. I loved that all of the characters were fully fleshed out, human beings with flaws and hopes and dreams, and no one was Evil, but no one was Good, and it was just beautiful on a number of levels and that ENDING, yes yes, and the cats and yes I cried about the cats every. single. time. they came up.

Gah. Real contender for favorite book of the year, right there.

Before those two, I read (see: listened) to Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. This made it onto my TBR list largely because it was such a big hit last year and I kept reading/hearing about it everywhere. I like to keep up to date.

It was, however, not a book for me. It was well written overall, but I was just not drawn into the story. I think this was largely because it retread a lot of YA themes that have been popular in the last few years that I haven’t enjoyed, but others (obviously) have.

And last, but not least, I finished Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M Lee way back in March. This made it onto the list because it a) features a female main character who shares my name (rare!), and b) TIME POWERS.

While I enjoyed the story and the characters, I was thrown a bit by the sudden change in direction of the plot. Also I was a little disappointed that there weren’t a lot more fights using said TIME POWERS. Honestly. The world needs more epic battles with TIME POWERS.

That said, it looks like this is the beginning of a series, so I will keep an eye out for the sequel. Which will hopefully include more TIME POWERS.

  • Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (YA)
  • Uprooted by Naomi Novik
  • The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
  • A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab
  • Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
  • Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M Lee
  • The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
  • The Accidental Terrorist by William Shunn
  • The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
  • Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
  • The Sons of Thesian by ME Vaughan
  • Too Like the Lightning Ada Palmer
  • The Shadowed Sun by NK Jemisin
  • Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (YA)
  • The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
  • Twelve Kings in Sharakhai by Bradley P. Beaulieu
  • The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
  • Prophecy by Ellen Oh
  • The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
  • Flex by Ferrett Steinmetz
  • On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyviss (YA – 2016)
Book Reviews

2016 TBR List Update

K.A. Doore

I have been making fairly steady progress on my 2016 TBR List of Awesome. Considering there are a number of other books I’ve read in the meantime, I think getting through five in two months keeps me right on track. I’m glad I put this list together because it’s very easy to get distracted by new/shiny books and ideas and to go down a path of research, without actually making progress reading the new stuff in my own genres. Also, so far, they’ve all been fun!

I just finished Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which was just the kind of fantasy I love. Fun and full of magic and more than a bit of adventure. It very much felt like more of an adult Tamora Pierce or Dealing with Dragons kind of story.

Before that, I finished The Accidental Terrorist which was not at all fantasy, but memoir, and absolutely fascinating. I’ve always been curious about Mormons and what, exactly, they’re doing out walking the streets in their crisp white-collared shirts, and this severely humanizes them. Plus, it laces quite a bit of Mormon history into the story, interestingly paralleling the author’s own experiences. Illuminating and surprisingly hard to put down.

The Ghost Bride was a different sort of fantasy – much more ethereal, much less full of magic – that I enjoyed. I think this one was published in an earlier year, but it was worth making the exception to add it to my list. Driftingly dark and occasionally disturbing and honestly, I never quite knew where it was going to go next.

Six of Crows was more in line with contemporary YA, but without most of the dreary and cliched trappings I’ve come to expect. Somehow, the author pulled off a great book with a twisty plot and relatable characters, even when one of those characters would normally be described as a horrible human being. I loved the Slavic flavor of the magic and the cultures. I’m so glad to be seeing more and different cultures used as a base for fantasy in lieu of the traditional European.

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps was not at all what I expected and perhaps much too short. I only realized after the fact that this was actually a novella, but it could easily be expanded further. The ideas were there, and the themes, but alas. I enjoyed it, even as I also recognized this book wasn’t quite for me.

So there we go – five down, sixteen to go. I’m hoping to be halfway through in the next two months, while somehow juggling all the research I suddenly need to do (whole ‘nother blog post).

  • Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (YA)
  • Uprooted by Naomi Novik
  • The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
  • A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab
  • Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
  • Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M Lee
  • The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
  • The Accidental Terrorist by William Shunn
  • The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
  • Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
  • The Sons of Thesian by ME Vaughan
  • Too Like the Lightning Ada Palmer
  • The Shadowed Sun by NK Jemisin
  • Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (YA)
  • The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
  • Twelve Kings in Sharakhai by Bradley P. Beaulieu
  • The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
  • Prophecy by Ellen Oh
  • The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
  • Flex by Ferrett Steinmetz
  • On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyviss (YA – 2016)
Book Reviews

2015 Books in Review, Part Two

K.A. Doore

Here is part two of my 2015 Books In Review. Part one is here.
 

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis

“Amara is never alone. Not when she’s protecting the cursed princess she unwillingly serves. Not when they’re fleeing across dunes and islands and seas to stay alive. She can’t be alone, because a boy from another world experiences all that alongside her, looking through her eyes.”

This is the kind of book where I finished it and immediately looked up the author and everything else she has written. Unfortunately, this is Duyvis’ debut, but fortunately she has another book coming out this year.

All that’s to say that this was a YA that made me so, so happy. Interesting fantasy world: yes. Awesome female main character: yes. Awesome bi main character: yes yes. Very high stakes that keep getting higher: yessity yes yes. No love triangle: OMG YES. Fun(?) moral choices: yeeessss.

I don’t often unequivocally recommend books, but here you go. Read it.

 

Clariel by Garth Nix

“Sixteen-year-old Clariel is not adjusting well to her new life in the city of Belisaere, the capital of the Old Kingdom. She misses roaming freely within the forests of Estwael, and she feels trapped within the stone city walls. And in Belisaere she is forced to follow the plans, plots and demands of everyone, from her parents to her maid, to the sinister Guildmaster Kilp. Clariel can see her freedom slipping away. It seems too that the city itself is descending into chaos, as the ancient rules binding Abhorsen, King and Clayr appear to be disintegrating.”

My last WIP had an ace main character, so before I started the draft zero I wanted to see what kind of ace representation was already out there in the YA world. Answer: nothing. Real answer: well, almost nothing. Clariel is the only one I’ve found so far with an ace MC, and boy is she awesome.

I’m a fan of the Abhorsen series, so I’m surprised I didn’t pick this one up sooner. If you haven’t yet, and you like necromancers and fairyesque worlds, you should read the first in the series: Sabriel. This one is a fun, if sometimes exceedingly dark, worthy successor in the series. The only downside is that the audiobook isn’t read by Tim Curry. 🙂

 

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

“After a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, Dellarobia Turnbow has settled for permanent disappointment but seeks a momentary escape with a younger man. As she hikes up the mountain road behind her house to a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. For her, it’s a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders, and the media.

The bewildering emergency acquaints rural farmers with urban journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and a biologist personally invested in the outcome. As the community lines up to judge the woman and her miracle, Dellarobia confronts her family, her church, her town, and a larger world, in a flight toward truth that could undo all she has ever believed.”

You know me and literary fiction: there’s a reason most of my favorite list is fantasy. But goodness, this was a fulfilling, yet restless, book. Most descriptions bill it as a story about global warming, but it is so much more than that: a story of chaos and transformation.

Of course, I loved the parts about the butterflies the most, and all the detailed information about their lives. Absolutely insane what they go through. On top of that, I loved the depiction of science and scientists. As someone married to a scientist, I understand the frustration of watching your research be willfully misinterpreted. That careful underscoring of what, exactly, is science as well as why, sometimes, people ignore science was what really made the book.

 

I am Princess X by Cherie Priest

Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons.

Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her.

Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window. A sticker of Princess X.”

A breathless chase through Seattle, where I never quite knew what was going to happen, ending with crazy madness and excitement. The comic portion integrated very well with the story and it was cool to see what May had been talking about just the page before play out in the comic.

It’s one of those this-is-a-cool-idea! books that could have gone horribly wrong, but Priest has enough chops that it not only works, it works well. It’s also a super quick, super fun read – I actually finished it in a day. That doesn’t happen often. 🙂

 

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

“Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.”

This was absolutely ridiculous. But in a good way! I wish I’d had it for Halloween, because it would have been a perfect all-night read. Just spooky enough without actually being scary. Just odd enough to be hilarious. And a perfect commentary on working in the modern retail environment.

The illustrations of the various Orsk products were also brilliant, devolving along with the story. I liked finding all the easter eggs in both the drawings and the story. Another book I read all in one sitting, because it was just too much fun to put down.

 

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

“This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.”

Jemisin has solidified her place in my Absolute Fave Authors A++ category with this novel. It is haunting. It is gorgeous. It is surprising. It may or may not be paying a direct homage to Portal 2 with that ending.

It is, in a nutshell, everything I want from modern fantasy. Diverse and interesting and fully fleshed characters. Diverse and interesting and fully fleshed worlds. Several did that just happen?! moments. New magic systems that make me go why didn’t I think of that?? Moral questioning. Moral darkness. And a very on-point critique of our own society.

The Fifth Season is by far and away my favorite novel of 2015. If you take nothing away from this list, at least do yourself a favor and read this.

Book Reviews

2015 Books in Review, Part One

K.A. Doore

It’s that time of year again! Time to look back at the books I read and share with you the ones I enjoyed the most – the ones I would recommend or the ones that just struck me deeply. It’s always interesting to look at all I’ve read, because it gives a broad picture of what I was up to, what interested me, and where I ended up. It’s a more subjective measure of my year than anything I could come up with on my own.

That said… it’s telling that I read a lot less this year than last. 76 in 2014, but only 50 (give or take, probably give considering there are two weeks left in the year) in 2015. Part of this was due to my changing work life: I no longer have the luxury of listening to audiobooks for a large chunk of my day. Part of this was just my own failure to prioritize reading.

Which needs to change! If nothing else, reading will be a big goal for me in 2016. Reading is just as important as actually putting words on a page for a writer. Also I need to make a dent in this TBR pile. Honestly, it looks like it might fall over and crush me at any moment.

Here are my 2015 Books of Awesome, Part One:

The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin

“In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers – the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe – and kill those judged corrupt.”

THIS BOOK. This. Book. It is everything I love in fantasy: beautiful, well-crafted characters, interesting and new settings, diverse cultures, grappling with complex issues, fun! and fast! and just hooks its claws into you and doesn’t let go until you’re on the last page and then you need to take a few days to recover. Jemisin is one of those amazing writers who can write beautifully and plot tightly and characterize brilliantly and I just – go. Go read her. Now. I’ll wait.

 

Lock-In by John Scalzi

“Not too long from today, a highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent – and nearly five million souls in the United States alone – the disease causes “Lock In”: Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge…”

If you like Scalzi, you’ll like this. If you like fun, fast, and hilarious mysteries, you’ll also like this.

 

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

“There are those who believe and those who don’t. Through the ages, superstition has had its uses. Nowhere more so than in the Discworld where it’s helped to maintain the status quo. Anything that undermines superstition has to be viewed with some caution. There may be consequences, particularly on the last night of the year when the time is turning. When those consequences turn out to be the end of the world, you need to be prepared. You might even want more standing between you and oblivion than a mere slip of a girl – even if she has looked Death in the face on numerous occasions.”

Losing Pratchett this year was hard. He was a big, formative influence for me and many others. To celebrate his life, I immediately read some faves of his. Hogfather is one of his best and a good introduction to his writing.

 

Undertow by Elizabeth Bear

“André Deschênes is a hired assassin, but he wants to be so much more. If only he can find a teacher who will forgive his murderous past – and train him to manipulate odds and control probability. It’s called the art of conjuring, and it’s André’s only route to freedom. For the world he lives on is run by the ruthless Charter Trade Company, and his floating city, Novo Haven, is little more than a company town where humans and aliens alike either work for one tyrannical family – or are destroyed by it. But beneath Novo Haven’s murky waters, within its tangled bayous, reedy banks, and back alleys, revolution is stirring. And one more death may be all it takes to shift the balance.”

Bear has been on my TBR list for way too long and Undertow made me wish I’d read her sooner. I’m much more of fantasy girl than a sci-fi fan, but this book hit all the right spots. It was nerdy enough without being complete technobabble, it has giant talking frogs, and at one point it just goes completely nuts – but in the best way possible.

 

Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire

“Velveteen lives in a world of super-heroes and magic, where men can fly and where young girls can be abducted to the Autumn Land to save Halloween. Velma lives from paycheck to paycheck and copes with her broken-down car as she tries to escape from her old life.

It’s all the same world. It’s all real. And figuring out how to be both Velveteen and Velma is the biggest challenge of her life, because being super-human means you’re still human in the end.”

Pretty much anything written by Seanan is going to be an A++ gimme, but there’s just something more and beautiful about the Velveteen universe that made me shell out real cash for something I had already read (for free!) on her website. It’s hilarious and poignant and yes, I cried a few times, and then I couldn’t stop thinking about it when it was all over.

 

The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross

“An antique violin, an Erich Zann original, made of human white bone, was designed to produce music capable of slaughtering demons. Mo is the custodian of this unholy instrument. It invades her dreams and yearns for the blood of her colleagues—and her husband. And despite Mo’s proficiency as a world class violinist, it cannot be controlled.”

I’m just going to read everything in the Laundry Files series and recommend it every year, because it’s good and you should read it. The Laundry Files is Elder Gods meets government bureaucracy, except it’s become so much more than that.

 

 

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

“The news headlines are all abuzz about a local string of killings that share the same morbid trademark: the victims were discovered with their eyes missing. Then a beautiful yet eerie woman enters Ellie’s circle of friends and develops an unhealthy fascination with Kevin, and a crazed old man grabs Ellie in a public square and shoves a tattered Bible into her hands, exclaiming, ‘You need it. It will save your soul.’ Soon, Ellie finds herself plunged into a haunting world of vengeful fairies in an epic battle for immortality.”

I read this specifically because it included an ace character, and then I ended up having way too much fun along the way. I loved that it was set in New Zealand, I loved that it focused on Maori myth and culture, and I loved that the characters were fully fleshed out and real.

To be continued!

Book Reviews, Chronicles of Ghadid Trilogy, Writing

Research

K.A. Doore

In gearing up for my next project, I’ve been brainstorming what I’m going to research, how I’m going to research it, and in what format I want to share that research here. Because it’s going to be all magical girls, all the time, it’ll be a lot of fun – I’m planning to binge watch most of the classic anime series and I’ve been scouring the online world for anything with hints of magical girlness in the book world. From what I’ve seen – so far at least – there isn’t much.

Granted, this could mean that there simply is no market, but I’m willing to bet my time (and possibly sanity) that that is not, in fact, the case.

But as I mused over these things, I realized I’d never shared any of my preliminary research for my current, actually done, novel here. Partially because I was so involved with the process at the time, but also partially because I didn’t think anyone would actually be interested.

Then I thought – I was interested. Surely there might be other people, too.

So I’m going to do a short little series delving into the background of my current novel, The Impossible Contract, the research, and what all came together to make it more than just a tromp through some sandy places.

When the idea for this story first popped into my head, I knew it was going to be set in a desert much like our modern day Sahara. Although I currently live in a bona fide desert, it doesn’t quite have the range of extremes that the Sahara does. That’s when I knew I’d need to read some first hand accounts of what it’s like not only surviving, but thriving, in that kind of environment.

Little did I know the size of the rabbit hole I was about to fall into.

The Sahara and its people and disparate cultures are absolutely fascinating subjects. It is the endless dunes that come to mind when you merely think the word, and it is rocks and wind and mountains and oases, wells and flies and camels and deep underground aquifers, gods and demons and unnamable madness.

But it’s also, you know, everyday people living their lives.

I read more than a dozen books on the Sahara alone, but to start you off, I’d recommend these in particular:


Men of Salt by Michael Benanav
This is a first-hand account of travel with a salt caravan from a western perspective. It’s absolutely fascinating and a great way to introduce yourself to the region, if you don’t previously have any knowledge or experience. Since it’s an outsider’s perspective – and a tourist’s at that – it doesn’t get into the nitty gritty of cultural details and makes some assumptions, but it’s a quick, fun read and I found with follow-up research that most of it was spot on.


Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King

Also an absolutely fascinating account of shipwrecked Americans adrift in the Sahara. This novel is based on a true story in the early 19th century and was especially interesting to read right after Men of Salt, because so little has changed. While the story suffers from both an overabundance of minutiae and the problematic outsider viewpoint, it shows a lot more of the everyday culture and just what it takes to survive in the Sahara.


Sahara: A Natural History by Marq de Villiers & Sheila Hirtle

This book. This book. If you want an overview of the Sahara – its history, its cultures, its geography – then you should read this. This book made me absolutely fall in love with the Sahara. It made me wish I’d majored in something other than Classics. It’s certainly not perfect, but I think it accomplished what it set out to do, which is to really make you understand just how complex the Sahara is. And how recent! The great, empty expanse of sand as we know it is only a few thousand years old – the ancient Egyptians certainly experienced it much differently than we do now.

Altogether, it was more than enough to make me wonder why there aren’t more stories set in deserts. And then I might have gone on a reading binge of what novels I could find that met that criteria. But that comes later.

Book Reviews

2014 Books in Review Part Two

K.A. Doore

Better late than never! …Right?

Back in December of yea olde 2014 I wrote up the first part of my 2014 Books Of Awesome. I first put off the second half because I thought I might have a chance to finish a few more books before the end of the year, but then Life Happened and now it’s February. So without further delay, here are my 2014 Books of Awesome, Part Two:
Continue reading “2014 Books in Review Part Two” →