Book Review: TIDAL CREATURES

TITLE: Tidal Creatures (Alchemical Journeys #3)

AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire

453 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250333551 (hardcover; also e-book and audiobook)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

Tidal Creatures continues to build out the world Seanan McGuire introduced us to in Middlegame and deepened in Seasonal Fears. Like Seasonal Fears, it starts off by introducing us to a new batch of characters that personify/anthropomorphize a new set of universal concepts. In this case, embodiments of the Moon in all the forms such embodiments have taken throughout all the world’s mythologies. Unlike the main characters of Middlegame (who are forced to become the embodiment of the Doctrine of Ethos by their Maker) and Seasonal Fears (who become embodiments only after winning a competition), the human embodiments of the Moon are chosen by the Moon gods/goddesses themselves and the situation is less “embodiment” and more “time-share.” The human avatars of the Moon are able to go about their lives as essentially human, except when the Moon needs to shine through them and the resident Moon god/dess must take full control. I loved this idea that in a universe where almost every natural concept/constant is embodied, the ways the embodiments function can be so varied.

Where Seasonal Fears was a road-trip novel, Tidal Creatures is a murder-mystery. (It’s been long enough since I’ve read Middlegame that I’m not sure what classic genre I’d place it in (I really need to do a re-read), but at this point I’m almost positive part of McGuire’s plan for this series is to use the trappings of a different classic genre for each entry.) Someone is killing the moon gods of the San Francisco area. Which is a problem because part of the job of the Moon gods is to cross the sky above the Impossible City (the heart of all creation, thanks to the alchemy of an author named A. Deborah Baker). The moon gods who notice what’s happening must figure out who is doing it before they can wrest control of the Impossible City (and thus, the universe) for themselves. This is a very “fair play” mystery – meaning all the clues are there for the reader to figure out the who, why, and how (because how the murder that start the book was even possible, given the victim was the living embodiment of the moon and fully empowered when it happened, is part of the mystery). Readers who enjoy having a juicy mystery in the middle of their fantasy/horror hybrid novel will not be disappointed and will probably enjoy the challenge of figuring it all out before the characters do.

Several of the main characters of the novel are the local embodiments of three moon goddesses and a moon god: Judy (Chang’e), Anna (Artemis), Professor Williams (Diana), and David (Máni). They are more like co-workers than friends, and even though they are all embodiments of the Moon, they are embodiments of different Moon deities, with different mindsets and histories, so they are not automatically best friends and comrades. I really appreciated that while two of these moon deities are familiar to just about anyone who experienced a public-school education in the United States, McGuire went out of her way to make the other two deities from non-Eastern-European traditions, and to give us a deep sense of what those deities were like in those traditions. She made me want to learn more about Chang’e and her peaches of immortality, Máni, and others who are mentioned but play less significant roles in the way the story plays out (Losna, Aske).

The moon deities are not the only main characters. There’s also Kelpie, a woman who thought her current unusual body type (mostly human, but with orange skin and legs that end in hooves and a few more subtle differences) was the result of a horrible lab accident that also wiped her memory. She learns what she really is and goes on the run from her employers, the Alchemical Congress of the United States, after her friend and mentor is killed for seemingly failing in a project designed to get the Congress access to the Impossible City before it is claimed by its rightful rulers. She encounters a boy name Luis and his mother, Isabella, who is an hechicera (a type of sorceress), who join her in her quest to find someone who can help her understand herself and help stop the man pursuing her.

In Kelpie, we have one of the most stunning portrayals of a person escaping and overcoming the trauma of gaslighting that I think I’ve ever read – a woman whose whole sense of self and purpose gets uprooted and who still finds ways to stay strong, move forward, and come to terms with what she really is. In Isabella, we get a stark indictment of the ways in which European colonization practically (and in some cases, totally) eradicated other belief systems (by absorption or by destruction).

I found aspects of each of the main characters relatable, and I came to care for all of them as much as I did the main characters of Middlegame and Seasonal Fears. And for those wondering, I can say without spoilers that while the MCs of Seasonal Fears only get a few passing mentions, the MCs of Middlegame enter the story much earlier, and play a much bigger role, than they did in Season Fears.

Fans of Seanan McGuire, fans of mystery-fantasy-horror hybrids, fans of tales of moon deities: you’ll find something to love about this book. BUT – you should probably at least read Middlegame if not Seasonal Fears before Tidal Creatures, to understand the alchemical underpinnings of the world and the history of the Alchemical Congress.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free via NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I received and read the ARC well before publication date but dropped the ball on posting the review until now. Tidal Creatures is currently available wherever books are sold.

You can read my review of book two in the series, Seasonal Fears, HERE. Somehow, I never posted a review of Middlegame. I’ll have to reread it and fix that one of these days.

Book Review: SILVER NITRATE

TITLE: Silver Nitrate

AUTHOR: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

368 pages, Del Ray, ISBN 9780593355381 (paperback, also hardcover, e-book and audio)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: Sometimes, horror slams into your life blatantly and unavoidably, and sometimes it slowly insinuates its way into your life, growing incrementally with plenty of easy-to-miss warning signs. Thus it is in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Silver Nitrate – a subtle sense of unease at the start grows into full-blown supernatural horror by the end, a journey that, like the characters, you won’t be able to stop once you start no matter how many signs there are warning you away.

In 1990s Mexico City, Monserrat (a movie sound editor), her childhood best friend Tristán (a struggling actor), and Abel (a retired director) uncover the secrets of a “lost film” from the 1960s, a film Monserrat and Tristán have been obsessed with since high school and which Abel actually directed but left incomplete, leading to the realization that magic is real and to a cult that wants to bring their dead leader back to life. Along the way there are magical changes of fortune, ghosts, and dark presences.

I’ve become quite a fan of “lost film” and “forgotten television series” stories over the past few years (see: Will Ludwigsen’s Acres of Perhaps, for instance), and I was already a big fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia (I haven’t read everything she’s ever written, but I’m working on it), so of course the combination of author and concept would catch my eye. Silver Nitrate, in case you haven’t already figured it out, did not disappoint.

Moreno-Garcia’s characters are always nuanced and complex. Montserrat, Tristán, and Abel are no exceptions. Montserrat juggles frustrations with family and a misogynistic boss with her self-admittedly unrequited love for Tristán. She could do better on both the employment and romantic fronts if she could just let go of these things/people she loves, but she can’t bring herself to break from either. Tristán had it all as a devilishly handsome soap opera star in a tempestuous relationship with his co-star girlfriend until a car accident took both away from him. He too cannot let go: of the love, of the guilt, of wanting to regain his career. And Abel – well, Abel starts the story at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum from Montserrat and Tristán, having given up career and love and become an alcoholic recluse … until they come along to rekindle his interest in his lost project. They are not quite “three points on a triangle,” but they are on an emotional continuum. Moreno-Garcia illustrates the push and pull they exert on one another in small moments and large confrontations that keep the book’s emotional stakes high.

That emotional push and pull also makes it easy for each of them to ignore the warning signs that things are getting dangerous, and that what seemed like a light bit of magic at first is pulling them into something darker and potentially fatal. I don’t want to say too much about the reveals in the last quarter of the book, but I will say Moreno-Garcia is great at blending the literary equivalent of a “jump scare” with the kind of psychological horror that typically eschews jump scares. And she kept me guessing right up to the denouement as to how things were going to play out.

Fans of psychological and supernatural horror, fans of “lost film” stories, and fans of period pieces (yes, as much as it pains me to say it, stories set in the 1990s are now “period pieces”) will all find Silver Nitrate a worthy read. Check it out.

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I received and read the ARC before the book was published but dropped the ball on posting the review. The paperback edition was released on May 21st, 2024, and is available in all the usual places. Also, Moreno-Garcia’s newest novel is The Seventh Veil of Salome, which also has to do with a classic period of filmmaking. I’m hoping to read that soon.

Book Review: VICTORY HARBEN TALES FROM THE VOID

TITLE: Victory Harben: Tales from the Void

EDITOR: Christopher Paul Carey

436 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462665 (paperback, hardcover, hardcover collector’s edition)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

Victory Harben: Tales from the Void brings together under one cover the novellas featuring Victory Harben and her friends that appeared in the back of the novels that made up Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.’s “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc” between 2020 and 2022, accompanied by a new novella seeing publication for the first time herein as well as interstitial first-person narration by the titular character that ties everything together.

A short bit of background, for those not familiar: When Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. decided to launch a new series of canonical adventures of ERB’s famous (and not-so-famous) creations, they also decided to expand the canon with new characters tied to the classic ERB canon. Victory Harben is one of those characters: her mother, Gretchen Von Harben, first appeared in Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins; her uncle and grandfather first appeared in Tarzan and the Lost Empire; her father, Nadoc, is a denizen of Pellucidar; and her godfather, Jason Gridley, appeared in Tazan at the Earth’s Core, Back to the Stone Age, A Fighting Man of Mars, and Pirates of Venus, making him one of the first characters to appear in multiple ERB series. In fact, the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc” kicks off with Gridley and Victory trying to solve a problem with the Gridley Wave, which allows for communication between Earth, Pellucidar, Mars and elsewhere, and being plunged (separately) into an unpredictable journey through time and space.

So this book was largely a “re-read” for me, of novellas I’d already encountered in other ERB books – but this time presented in the main character’s chronological order. It was fun revisiting these stories and seeing how they fit together. It’s a credit to the authors (Christopher Paul Carey, Mike Wolfer, Geary Gravel, and Ann Tonsor Zeddies) that each novella is eminently readable on its own – other than the question of “where will Victory (or Jason) go next?” there are no cliffhangers. Each novella has a solid beginning, middle, and end with all major plot points resolved.

As I have reviewed most of the novellas when I reviewed the novels with which they originally appeared (HERE, HERE, and HERE), I will concentrate the rest of this review on the new novella included herein, “Victory Harben and the Lord of the Veiled Eye,” written by Christopher Paul Carey (who also created Victory Harben and most of her supporting cast). The novella takes place after Victory has found a way to “force” her interstellar jumps (rather than waiting helplessly for them to happen), so perhaps a bit more than halfway into her timeline and introduces us to another new Burroughsian interplanetary society: one lead by a ruthless leader (the titular Lord of the Veiled Eye), a conqueror of planets and decimator of societies. Victory quickly finds herself, as usual, in a situation in which she does not have all the facts but must act on her instincts to discern good guys from bad guys and how to help. In addition to an intriguing new villain I suspect we have not heard the last of, Carey also introduces another strong woman (in the ERB tradition) with Axia of Ptarxes, a world coming under control of the Lord. The novella alternates thrilling action sequences with thoughtful ruminations on the nature of despots and the way they absorb and/or destroy native cultures.

If you’re not familiar with the extended Edgar Rice Burrough Universe and would like to get a good sense of its depth and breadth, Victory Harben: Tales from the Void is a great starter, as between Victory and Jason and another character, you get to experience more than one part of that universe: Pellucidar (the hollow Earth), Caspak (the land that time forgot), Va-Nah (the world inside the moon), the moons of Barsoom (Mars), and more. And you get to see the distinctive styles of several (but not all) of the authors currently expanding the ERBU.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Victory Harben: Tales from the Void is currently up for pre-order on the Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. website.

Reading Round-Up: August 2024

Here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in August 2024!

BOOKS

I read 8 books in August: 3 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 2 in audio format. They were:

1.       My West Side Story: A Memoir by George Chakiris and Lindsay Harrison (E-BOOK, Non-fiction Challenge)

2.       A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, (Narrated by Tim Curry) (AUDIOBOOK)

3.       Superman Batman: Saga of the Super Sons by Bob Haney, Dick Dillin, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, and others (PRINT; Graphic Novel Challenge)

4.       Stormgate Press Quick Reads Book #1: The Purple Mystique by Charles Millhouse (PRINT)

5.       Tournament Manners: A Martial Arts Mystery by Jess Faraday (E-BOOK)

6.       In the Hands of Women by Jane Loeb Rubin (PRINT) REVIEW HERE

7.       The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam by G. Willow Wilson (AUDIOBOOK; Non-fiction Challenge)

8.       A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins by Ann Tonsor Zeddies (e-book) REVIEW HERE

STORIES

Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “The Darkness Between the Stars” by Richard Thomas in Lightspeed Magazine #171, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Resistance” by Cat Rambo

3.       “The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strain'd” by Archita Mittra

4.       “Under the Skin” by Deborah L. Davitt

5.       “Mud Maidens Rise” by K.A. Wiggins

6.       “Look at the Moon” by Dominique Dickey

7.       “What's in a Name?” by Matthew Hughes

8.       “Child of the River” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

9.       “The Lazarus Cabal” by Sean Lee Levin, from The Lazarus Cabal, edited by Michael Croteau

10.   “Daily Nightly” by Jim Beard, from Moonstone Double Shot May 2024, edited by Joe Gentile

11.   “Streets of Blood” by Richard Scanlan

12.   “The Time Capsule” by Alice Towey, from Clarkesworld #214, edited by Neil Clarke

13.   “The Sort” by Thomas Ha

14.   “A Night in Purple” by Charles Millhouse, from Stormgate Press Quick Read Book #1: The Purple Mystique, edited by Charles Millhouse

15.   “Death in Purple” by Charles Millhouse

16.   “Into the Valley of Death” by William Meikle, from Creature Feature, edited by William Meikle

17.   “Home from the Sea” by William Meikle

18.   “A Rock and a Hard Place” by William Meikle

19.   “One Ear Left Over” by Jonathan Olfert, from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #413, edited by Sean H. Andrews

20.   “An Isle in a Sea of Ghosts” by J.A. Prentice

21.   “Once There Was Water” by Katie McIvor, from The Dark #111, edited by Sean Wallace

22.   “The Operculum Necklace” by Megan Chee

23.   “Bite Me, Drink Me, Get Me” by H. Pueyo

24.   “To Call the Lightning” by Rebecca Burton, from Kaleidotrope Summer 2024, edited by Fred Coppersmith

So that’s 24 short stories in August. Less than “1 per day” again, which keeps me slightly behind for the year! (August 31st was the 244th day of 2024.)

MOVIES

I watched four movies in August:

1.       We Are Doc Savage (2024)

2.       Logan (2017)

3.       The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

4.       West Side Story (1961)

The week ending August 31st was the 35th week of the year, so I’m still behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

TELEVISION

·       Batman: Caped Crusader Season 1, Episodes 1 – 10 (10 episodes) REVIEW HERE

·       Slow Horses Season 3, Episodes 1 – 6 (6 episodes)

·       Only Murders in the Building Season 4, Episode 1 (1 episode)

·       The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Episodes 1 – 3 (3 Episodes)

That’s 20 episodes of television, which puts me still well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

LIVE THEATER

I saw two live theatrical performances in August:

1.       Back to the Future: The Musical (Winter Garden Theater, New York City) REVIEW HERE

2.       Once Upon a Mattress (Hudson Theatre, New York City) REVIEW HERE

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  24 read; YTD: 226 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 83 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 1 read; YTD: 16 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 14 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0 read/watched; YTD: 2 read/watched.

Movie Challenge: This month: 4 watched; YTD: 21 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 20 episodes watched; YTD: 169 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 2 shows attended; YTD: 11 of 12 attended.

Book Review: IN THE HANDS OF WOMEN

TITLE: In The Hands of Women

AUTHOR: Jane Loeb Rubin

340 pages, Level Best Books, ISBN 9781685123468 (softcover, also e-book)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

Jane Loeb Rubin’s In the Hands of Women is an engrossing historical fiction novel (a genre I readily admit I am not well-read in). Taking place in the early 1900s and set against the backdrop of the pre-WW1 immigration surge and the Women’s Suffrage movement, the book tracks the life and career of Hannah Isaacson as she attends Johns Hopkins Medical School to become one of the first accredited female doctors working in the relatively new field of obstetrics, and then returns to her family in New York City to practice.

Hannah is a multi-faceted narrator. She is a survivor of poverty and trauma (the death of her mother when she was just a toddler from breast cancer, the remarriage of her father, the death of her best childhood friend from consumption) who has been motivated by that trauma, and by the love of the older sister who raised her and the support of a local physician who believed in her, to pursue a career in medicine at a time when women weren’t encouraged to be doctors (leaving many to “settle,” as it were, for nursing or midwifery). Stalwart friends and family surround her both at medical school and when she’s practicing in New York. I enjoyed the depth of character Rubin gives to not just the supporting cast but even the tertiary characters. In addition to Hannah, the book has a lot of strong and complex women characters, from Hannah’s older sister Tillie to her medical school best friend Elspeth to her secretary Ina and including some real-life women at the time: Johns Hopkins trustees Mrs. Garrett and Mrs. Thomson, and controversial Suffragist movement / sex education advocate Margaret Sanger at the beginning of her career. Not every strong woman in the book is on Hannah’s side though. There’s a particularly nasty prison warden who plays a significant role in the second half of the book.

The book’s male characters are equally split between supportive (Dr. Boro, her mentor; Tillie’s husband Abe; Hannah’s stepmother’s second husband) and horrible (several other medical students at Johns Hopkins, among others). The attitude that even accomplished professional women were “second class” in relation to men, that they should be thankful for men’s attention and also clean up men’s mistakes without complaint, permeates the book as it permeated the time, as does the limited options for women in terms of understanding and thoughtful healthcare, including birth control and abortion rights, of the time. I would like to say these issues made the book feel purely historical, but unfortunately, we know very well how much and yet how little has changed in the past 120 years. The novel informs without preaching, the issues of the time a natural part of the narrative and reflective of our current environment.

In addition to women’s rights, the book also puts a laser-focus on immigration, the waves of Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews that filled the southern half of Manhattan in the years between the end of the Civil War and the advent of Prohibition. The majority of the main characters are recently immigrated or first-generation Russian Jews but their story is reflective of what immigrants of other nationalities and faiths were experiencing at the time. The squalor so many of them lived in, having fled even worse in Europe, impacted the city’s crime rate and public health. The overlapping issues of poverty, crime, and public health (and even more so, women’s health) become the focus of Hannah’s career.

Hannah also has a personal growth arc that takes her from a naïve medical school student to a woman who can stand up to bullies (both the political and romantic/sexual type). I enjoy novels where characters come into their own, and Rubin accomplishes that subtly and completely.

Highly recommended to fans of historical fiction that centers complex female characters!

Book REVIEW: GWEN & ART ARE NOT IN LOVE

TITLE: Gwen & Art Are Not in Love

AUTHOR: Lex Croucher

410 pages, Wednesday Books, ISBN 9781250847218 (hardcover, also e-book and audio)

MY RATING:  4 stars out of 5

I am sucker for anything Arthurian, and especially these days for anything that tweaks the Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot triangle, so a title like Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, with appropriate medieval dress characters on the cover, was bound to attract my attention. Especially so if the book posits queer relationships for the titular king and queen. I somehow missed the part of the book description that says this novel takes place “hundreds of years after King Arthur’s reign.” And you know what? I’m not disappointed at all.

In college, as part of a course on science fiction, I created my version of a world in which Camelot never fell. It was very different from the world Lex Croucher created for Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, but that didn’t stop me from really enjoying the world Croucher did create, and the characters they populated that world with.

In the present day of the novel, Arthur’s descendant line no longer rules Britain, and the city of Camelot is a shadow of its former self even though it is still the capital. King Arthur’s descendant Arthur is well known as a womanizer and gadabout. He’s also engaged to the current Princess of England, Gwendolyn, and neither of them is happy about it. Especially not when they’re forced to spend the summer together as a lead-up to their nuptials, where they quickly discover that Arthur likes men, and Gwen has a crush on the only female knight of the realm, Lady Bridget. Add in Bridget’s bookish brother Gabriel, next in line for the throne, Arthur’s man-at-arms and confidante, Sidney, and Gwen’s lady-in-waiting Agnes, and you have a fine group of main characters with sometimes-competing agendas and interests who find they have to work together to survive not just the summer tournaments but bigger problems.

Because there is also political upheaval across the land. A group of cultists who want a return to the “pure” ways of King Arthur are making increasingly bold moves against Gwen’s father, the current King. This starts as background world-building but slowly builds to being a major part of the book’s climax. Croucher seeds this development well. Near the end, I found myself thinking back and going “Oh, that’s what that was about...” a couple of times.

All the main characters are well-developed. The book is not in alternating first-person (as so many queer romances seem to be), but the primary points-of-view are Gwen and Art’s, allowing us to see events through both their eyes (sometimes, the same event). Even with chapters focused on the two of them, I felt like we got to also see complexities in the personalities of Bridget, Gabriel, Sidney, and Agnes that fleshed them out as real people rather than love interests and sidekicks. I can’t say the same is true for the older adults of the book – Gwen and Gabriel’s parents, Arthur’s father, and the other members of the King’s Court that we see are for the most part one-note. But that’s okay. They perform the function tertiary characters are supposed to perform and don’t necessarily need to have deeper inner lives in an alternate-historical romance like this. (I hesitate to call the book a fantasy romance (or “romantasy”) because other than the difference in history, I don’t recall any truly “fantasy” elements in the world-building.)

In addition to characters I cared about, the book was paced well. There are just enough sub-plots and side-encounters to keep the ultimate outcome of the romances and the political intrigue delayed without feeling like they are just delaying tactics. The book is just the right length for the story Croucher wants to tell, neither too short nor too long.

If you’re looking for an Arthurian romance that takes place outside of, and builds on, the known Arthurian lore, with queer protagonists and plenty of swordfights and happy endings all around (well, except for the bad guys), then Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is for you. Check it out.

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I received the e-ARC well before publication date but never posted the review. Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is available now wherever books are sold.

Book Review: THE BRIDES OF HIGH HILL

TITLE: The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle, Book 5)

AUTHOR: Nghi Vo

115 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250851444 (hardcover, e-book, audio)

MY RATING:  4 stars out of 5

At the start of The Brides of High Hill, the fifth book in Nghi Vo’s wonderful Singing Hills Cycle of novellas, Cleric Chih is in the process of accompanying a family to the titular estate, where the daughter will be married to the lord of the manor. Chih quickly discovers that not all is as it seems: the Lord has a history of short-lived marriages with tragic ends and a strangely ill son from one of those previous marriages; the Bride-to-Be’s family has secrets of their own; and why can’t Chih remember how they parted ways with Almost Brilliant, the neixin who usually accompanies them, and came to be traveling with the family?

Vo packs a lot into each Singing Hills novella, and The Brides of High Hill is no exception. What at first seems like a simple tweak to the legend of Bluebeard morphs into an Asian-inflected gothic suspense novel with a possibly haunted estate and then morphs again into a rumination on colonialism and on revenge as an unending cycle.

Chih of course finds themself at the center of all of this, not only as chronicler but also as the person who must try to find a solution that satisfies all the parties involved. This is not the first time we’ve seen Chih operate without Almost Brilliant at their side – but is the first time we’ve seen Chih unsure of where Almost Brilliant is. And that makes a difference in Chih’s confidence in their ability to recall details about Lord Gao’s family and the bride-to-be’s. It’s a side of Chih I feel like we haven’t seen before and continues the character growth we’ve seen in the preceding four novellas.

Vo does a wonderful job setting the mood of High Hills with details about the architecture, the smells, and the distinct differences noticeable between daylight hours and the nighttime. I understood Chih’s sense of disorientation, shared their discomfort at not being able to put their finger on exactly what was creating the sense of wrongness, felt like I was there in the misty, uncomfortable dark.

I can’t speak too much on the aspects of the book that touch on the ravages of colonialism and cycles of revenge (and how we break them), or on the parts that involve gaslighting, without spoiling major plot points that are best left discovered as they unfold. I can say that when I realized what was going on, I found Vo’s handling of the gaslighting in particular to be expertly done, with great care and understanding of the victim’s questioning of how to trust their feelings in the future. Likewise with the “how do we break violent cycles” issue.

I think I say this in every review of a Singing Hills Cycle installment, but these books truly can be read in any order; you do not have to know anything about what transpired in books one through four to enjoy The Brides of High Hill. I highly recommend picking it up – or picking up the first book in the series, Empress of Salt and Fortune, and savoring each novella in turn.

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I did receive the e-ARC well before publication date but never posted the review. The Brides of High Hill is available now wherever books are sold.

Book Review: A PRINCESS OF MARS: SHADOW OF THE ASSASSINS

TITLE: A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins

AUTHOR: Ann Tonsor Zeddies

314 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462698 (paperback, hardcover, limited edition)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

The Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (or ERBU) continues to expand with Ann Tonsor Zeddies’ A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins, the first new canonical novel to truly feature Dejah Thoris in the main role since she was introduced in Burroughs’ first Barsoom novel (also titled A Princess of Mars) in 1911 (when it was originally serialized in All-Story magazine as “Under the Moons of Mars”). Despite the title, A Princess of Mars focused more on John Carter, the amnesiac and long-lived Earthman who is mysteriously transported to Mars and finds himself caught up in the political and existential crises of a world not his own, than it did on the titular Princess. Carter does meet and fall in love with Dejah Thoris, princess of the human city-state of Helium, and her scenes introduce us to a woman adept at statecraft, quick to make decisions, handy with weaponry, and not easily wooed/swayed by the presence of a handsome stranger.

People who have never read Burroughs, who rely only on the television and movie interpretations of his work from the 1950s and ‘60s to inform their opinion of him, are surprised to discover just how progressive (for his time) Burroughs was in writing his female characters. Dejah Thoris, Jane Porter, Duare of Amtor, Dian of Pellucidar, and so many others are not the wilting damsels-in-distress of so much media of the time. They are all strong, intelligent, proud women capable of not only getting into danger but rescuing themselves from it (as discussed in “The Women of Edgar Rice Burroughs” panel at Pulpfest 2024, as discussed in my post earlier this week).

Ann Tonsor Zeddies takes what we know of Dejah Thoris’ personality and history from the Barsoom novels she featured prominently in and delivers a prequel novel that shows us how she grew into the woman John Carter falls in love with. Dejah starts off the novel straining against her father’s (Mors Kajak, jed of Lesser Helium) reluctance to treat her like an adult. While her brother gets to go off on scientific expeditions, Dejah is expected to stay in Helium and await the wooing of suitors from the city’s warrior class. The unexpected arrival of an embassy from another city-state and the bad timing of an attack by a tribe of Mars’ green men conspire to place Dejah in the position of representing her father, and her city, at a series of Olympics-like games in the previously unheard-of city of Zor. (The timing of this novel, which so heavily features sporting competition and the awarding of honors for same, coming out amid the 2024 Summer Olympics may or may not have been planned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. If it wasn’t, it is certainly fortuitous.)

Shadow of the Assassins is somewhat an origin story for Dejah Thoris. We get to watch her grow from a girl who thinks she knows everything to a woman who recognizes that to be a good leader, one must surround oneself with trusted and smart advisors – and not just be in their company, but also listen to them. She bungles her initial interactions with the Jeddak of Zor, Jan Vajo, and his sister Phortara, ignoring the advice of the older friend of her mother’s sent as adviser in Dejah’s retinue. She also takes ownership of her mistakes and strives to make amends – although almost too late – and in the end makes a series of decisions that not only save herself and her friends but also her embattled father.

Zeddies also crafts exciting, engrossing chase and fight scenes full of tension that alternate wonderfully with the scenes of courtly intrigue. Both the action scenes and the intrigue scenes work together to deepen and further the mystery Dejah Thoris must solve: what is really going on in Zor and how will it affect Helium?

Since this is a prequel, we know that Helium will be okay, but the threat still feels palpable. Few of the familiar characters from Burroughs’ original Barsoom novels appear outside of Dejah’s parents and grandparents. But there are winks at some of the friends and threats that appear in the Burroughs books and there are new characters introduced who add to the interesting tapestry of the Barsoom books without contradicting anything we already know and who hopefully will continue to appear as the ERBU grows.

The book also includes a new John Carter of Mars novella, “John Carter of Mars: Swords of the Mind,” written by Geary Gravel (who also wrote the ERBU novel John Carter of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten, part of the company’s “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc, which I reviewed HERE). The novella is a sequel of sorts to Gods of the Forgotten as well as to Burroughs’ novel Thuvia, Maid of Mars, but you do not have to have read either novel to enjoy this novella. John Carter discovers that his son Carthoris is missing and goes to investigate. An old threat is found to not only still be active but also stronger in power. Geary expertly weaves together and extrapolates from Burroughs’ concepts to expand the mythos with new dangers. And to introduce a new character! One of the things I’ve enjoyed about the new ERBU books is the introduction of the “next generation:” Suzanne Clayton (granddaughter of Tarzan), Victory Harben (daughter of Gretchen von Harben), Janson Gridley (son of Jason and Jana), and now Djon Dihn (son of Carthoris and Thuvia). Burroughs had no problem extending the family trees of his characters (having given us Korak, son of Tarzan, and Carthoris and his sister Tara, children of John Carter and Dejah Thoris), and I think he’d be happy to see the way that tradition is being carried on in the new spate of canonical ERBU books.

I hope this is just the first of several Dejah Thoris prequel novels from Ann Tonsor Zeddies, who also wrote the novella “Victory Harben: Stormwinds of Va-Nah.” I am excited to see where she’ll take Dejah and her new friends next, in the years between this book and A Princess of Mars.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins can be pre-ordered now (in paperback, hardcover, and limited-edition collector’s hardcover versions) at the Edgar Rice Burroughs Incorporated website.

READING ROUND-UP: July 2024

Here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in July 2024!

BOOKS

I read 15 books in July: 9 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 3 in audio format. They were:

1.       Represent! by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler and Brant Day (PRINT)

2.       Let the Games Begin by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler and Betty Yuku (PRINT)

3.       Hunter's Tall Tales by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler, and Danelle Prestwich (PRINT)

4.       A Scout Is Brave by Will Ludwigsen (E-BOOK) REVIEW HERE

5.       Caesar Now Be Still (Wilson Hargreave #1) by Frank Schildiner (E-BOOK) REVIEW HERE

6.       Changes in the Land by Matthew Cheney (PRINT)

7.       Prez: Setting a Dangerous President by Mark Russell, Benjamin Caldwell, Wilfredo Torres, Mark Morales, and others (PRINT, Graphic Novel Challenge)

8.       Reflections (Indexing #2) by Seanan McGuire (AUDIO)

9.       Star Trek Adventures: The Operations Division Supplemental Rulebook by Chris McCarver, Andy Peregrine, Jack Geiger, and others (PRINT)

10.   Dancing on the Edge by Russ Tamblyn (AUDIO, non-fiction challenge)

11.   Lovely Creatures by KT Bryski (PRINT)

12.   A Stick-Figure Macbeth by Mya L. Gosling (PRINT) REVIEW HERE

13.   Super Sons: The Complete Collection Book 1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Jorge Jiminez, Patrick Gleason, Carlo Barberi, and others (PRINT, graphic novel challenge)

14.   We by Yvgeney Zamyatin, translated by Clarence Brown (AUDIO)

15.   Victory Harben: Tales from the Void, edited by Christopher Paul Carey (E-BOOK, ARC (book to be published in September)

STORIES

Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “The Last Lucid Day” by Dominique Dickey in Lightspeed Magazine #170, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “The Only Writing Advice You'll Ever Need to Survive Eldritch Horrors” by Aimee Picchi

3.       “The Heist for the Soul of Humanity” by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek

4.       “The Aliens Said They Want to Party” by Joel W.D. Buxton

5.       “Songs of the Sorrow of Thorns” by Amayah Perveen

6.       “The Red Queen's Heart” by Vanessa Fogg

7.       “A Guide on How to Meet the Deity of Many Faces” by Oyedotun Damilola Muess

8.       “Between Above and Below” by Carrie Vaughn

9.       “The Girl Who Loved Peacocks” by Seanan McGuire, from the Author’s Patreon

10.   “The Terms and Conditions of Kindness” by James Bennett, from The Dark #110, edited by Clara Madrigano and Sean Wallace

11.   “That Maddening Heat” by Ray Cluley

12.   “Every Hopeless Thing” by Tia Tashiro, from Clarkesworld #214, edited by Neil Clarke

13.   “Pellucidar: Dark of the Sun” by Christopher Paul Carey, from Victory Harben: Tales from the Void, edited by Christopher Paul Carey

14.   “Victory Harben: Clash on Caspak” by Mike Wolfer

15.   “Victory Harben: Stormwinds of Va-Nah” by Ann Tonsor Zeddies

16.   “Victory Harben and the Lord of the Veiled Eye” by Christopher Paul Carey

17.   “Jason Gridley of Earth: Across the Moons of Mars” by Geary Gravel

18.   “Beyond the Farthest Star: Rescue on Zandar” by Mike Wolfer

19.   “Grottmata” by Thomas Ha, from Nightmare Magazine #142, edited by Wendy N. Wagner

20.   “Automaton Boy” by Sara S. Messenger

21.   “The Museum of Cosmic Retribution” by Megan Chee

22.   “Tamaza's Future and Mine” by Kenneth Schneyer, from Asimov's Science Fiction 582/583, edited by Sheila Williams

23.   “The Phantasmagoria of Castle Specfel” by Greta Hayer, from Kaleidotrope Summer 2024, edited by Fred Coppersmith

So that’s 23 short stories in July. Less than “1 per day” again, which puts me slightly behind again for the year! (July 31st was the 213th day of 2024.)

MOVIES

I watched one movie in July:

1.       The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

The week ending July 28th was the 31st week of the year, so I’m still way behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

TELEVISION

·       Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episodes 1 – 20 (20 episodes)

That’s 20 episodes of television, which is well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

LIVE THEATER

I didn’t get to any live theatrical performances in July!

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  23 read; YTD: 202 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 15 read; YTD: 75 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 15 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 12 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 1 read/watched; YTD: 2 read/watched. (I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie earlier in the year and finally watched the movie this month.)

Movie Challenge: This month: 1 watched; YTD: 17 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 20 episodes watched; YTD: 149 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 0 shows attended; YTD: 9 of 12 attended.

Theater Thursday: OR, WHAT SHE WILL

I think my first encounter with the writing of Liz Duffy Adams was as part of the writing staff for Serial Box’s (now Realm’s) four seasons of Ellen Kushner’s Tremontaine (the prequel audiobook series to Kushner’s “Riverside” fantasy series). I really enjoyed her episodes (but that’s a whole different blog post at some point). She’s been a playwright for far longer than I’ve been aware of her, and I began seeking out her published scripts, many of which are neo-Restoration or touch on that period.

I finally got to see a live performance of one of her works when Red Bull Theater produced a reading of OR (retitled Or, What She Will) at the Sheen Center Shiner Theatre in New York City on May 6, 2024 (yes, I’m behind on my theater reviews. Forgive me.) The reading was directed by Gayle Taylor Upchurch, and featured Kelly Curran as Aphra Behn, b as Nell Gwynne and others, and Santino Fontana as King Charles II and others.

This was an incredibly fun, high-energy evening. All three actors were wonderful; I was extra impressed when I found out they’d only had one rehearsal, that afternoon. They made effective use of a handful of props, including masquerade masks, and b and Fontana were a master class in transforming from one character to another, sometimes mid-sentence, through body language and vocal inflections. Fontana’s King Charles II and William (a former lover and fellow spy of Aphra’s) were equally earnest and slimy; b’s Nell Gwynne was sexual and sensual, her Maria the epitome of hapless and long-suffering. At the center of it all, Kelly Curran’s performance as Aphra Behn was captivating.

For those who may not know, Aphra Behn was a poet and former spy for King Charles II during his exile. She was one the first English women to make a living by writing, moving into playwriting after her time as a spy. Some of her early life is shrouded in mystery, as is whether she actually went to debtor’s prison and who paid off her debts to free her. She did eventually go to work for the King’s Company and the Duke’s Company, theatrical troupes that would have brought her into contact with famed actor Nell Gwynne.

OR attempts to answer some of the questions of Behn’s adult life in the form of a neo-Restoration comedy, postulating romantic/sexual liaisons between Behn and King Charles II, Behn and Nell Gwynne, and giving a possible origin point for the affair between Nell Gwynne and King Charles II. There’s lots of bedroom farce type comedy, characters being shuffled from room to room or being forced to hide in wardrobes to keep them from seeing each other, as Aphra Behn tries to juggle not just visits from three different present and former lovers but also from Aphra’s elderly servant woman Maria and from Lady Davenant, patroness of the Duke’s Company, from whom Aphra hopes to secure work after being released from debtor’s prison.

I can only imagine what a fully staged production of OR would look like, with all the slamming of doors, hiding in wardrobes, and quick costume changes with two actors playing the majority of the roles. During the reading, the cast did a wonderful job of implying all of this physical comedy without much in the way of actual movement.

The script allows for the possibility of Lady Davenant, who enters in a breathless rush and delivers a two-and-a-half-page monologue without pause before sweeping out again, to be played by either of the performers who are not playing Aphra. In the reading, Santino Fontana delivered the energy and the comedy perfectly – although as is the nature of readings, he lost his place mid-monologue and turned finding it again into a bit that had the audience laughing along with him.

OR, set in the 1660s, is particularly topical right now, dealing as it does with, as the program notes state, “a cyclical view of history: against a background of drawn-out wars and a fervent counter-culture of free love, gender fluidity, political optimism and pastoral lyricism…” that we’ve seen in the 1960s and are seeing currently. Written during the early years of the Obama administration, it feels even more contemporary in the political climate of Fall 2024.

If you can find a performance of OR in your area, I highly recommend seeking it out. I may as well also mention here that Liz Duffy Adams’ Born with Teeth, about the professional and personal relationships between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, is playing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival through the fall. I have yet to read the script or see a production, but it sounds as interesting as OR.

A full list of the works of Liz Duffy Adams can be found on her website.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.