Urban Fantasy – Marked for Plot

Novella Readathon #s 31-32: The Curse Bearer Duology

As a middle school English teacher, I get swamped with essays and book reports about Percy Jackson and comparable titles. This means I sometimes grow weary of gods and monsters in the modern world, especially if they lend themselves to a more lighthearted or comedic romp of a story. I avoided When Among Crows mostly because I found Roth’s Divergent books to be fine, but relatively unremarkable in the crowded YA dystopia landscape. However, this book hit generally settled in a much better spot for a more mature look at a similar idea. If you’re looking for a story based on Slavic folklore with a bit of action, a bit of character development, and a bit of spookiness, this will be a satisfying read. I thought it was a hair predictable and lacked a wow factor, but I immediately put the sequel on hold with my local library. A much shorter summary of my thoughts about the sequel are at the end of this review.

Read If Looking For: Baba Jaga, monsters that typically don’t get much screen time, secrets in every backstory

Avoid If Looking For: plot twists you don’t see coming, deep internal monologues, realistic portraits of queer men

Novella Readathon #16: Brimstone Slipstream

I underestimated Brimstone Slipstream, and for that I think I owe Matt Weber an apology. I looked at the cover of this novella and assumed it would be a high-octane dragon racing story; Nascar meets Fantasy. I would have enjoyed this of course, otherwise I wouldn’t have bought the book. Instead I got a delightful epistolary novel masquerading as a long-form news story, one whose political undertones are far more interesting and serious than my expectations. In fact, it looks like book 2 in the series, a full-length novel, is going to be more traditionally structured and plotted. Goodness knows I’ll find out before too long, because this kind of knocked my socks off. Finished the whole thing after driving for 5 hours, when I should have been asleep and bone tired. At ~50 pages, this is probably more a novelette than novella proper, and it is well worth the time. Plus, it works well as a standalone, not requiring sequels for the story here to feel like a complete product. Plus it only has five ratings on goodreads. Be a trendsetter! Dragon lovers unite!

The Premise:
Zaya and Kiriki are the rising stars of Brimstone Slipstream. Notably, their success hinges on a whip-smart ground crew and their mastery of psionics. Anyone can become empaths, but the skill comes more naturally to their ethnic group, who form the majority of the working class but almost never the financially stable. This report chronicles moments from their rise to fame and success, their support team which is akin to family, and the history of both the city and dragon racing.

Read If Looking For: narrative reporting, the brutal exhaustion of a culture without maternity leave, evocative infodumps, transparent portrayals of well-meaning people with biases

Avoid If Looking For: flashy dragon racing sequences, fully explained worldbuilding, books that follow the laws of physics

Novella Readathon #12: A Necessary Chaos

I have not yet read a proper Romance for this project, though plenty of the novellas feature romantic subplots. A Necessary Chaos entered my TBR when it was described as ‘Mr. and Ms. Smith, but Fantasy and Gay.’ This pitch combines three of my favorite things – I don’t know why I love that movie so much, sue me – and I hoped it would be a nice tonal change after The Lathe of Heaven. The two had a pretty stark contrast; as A Necessary Chaos is, quite frankly, a bit of a mess. It was a mess that worked for me however, because it was so tailored to the things that I enjoy. As it stands though, I can only recommend this for people for whom the premise is immediately exciting.

The Premise:
Vade is a Whisper, a member of the Empire’s magical secret police, seeking revenge on the rebels who killed his sister. Althus is an anarchist in the Phantom Dragon, hoping to bring the system crashing down. The two have been lovers for years, meeting up to spy on each other. Just as they start thinking that their feelings are too serious for a fake relationship, however, they each receive the needed push to finally commit to killing the other. Perhaps them being honest with each other about who they are was the key to unlocking a true relationship all along, and it will bring an Empire to its knees.

Read If You Like: steamy action romance, cool magic powers, torture demons, love was the real magic all along

Avoid If You Dislike: unredeemably evil villains, abrupt changes in allegiance, typos

The School for Invisible Boys

This book has been sitting in my classroom library for a little over a year, and it hasn’t gotten a ton of movement. This is fine: most books don’t. However, as I’m revamping my curriculum, I began to realize that my favorite 6th grade unit, Fantasy book clubs, has no queer options. Fixing that got added to my summer to-do list. I don’t think The School for Invisible Boys is the right pick for my curriculum, but I had a great time with it, even if I can see the areas where I’d like it to shift. Certainly it took me back to my own childhood, even though I wasn’t a Catholic school kid.

Also, shout out to Julian Callos for some ridiculously fun cover art!

The Premise:
Hector is a 6th grader at a Catholic middle school. Life is pretty hard for him right now. His new stepdad and stepbrothers are far more rough and tumble than him, and he feels consistently judged and bullied by them. He feels like his mother has left him by the wayside, and his decision to ask his best friend Blake to be his boyfriend had disastrous results. Now he’s on the run to avoid getting beaten up, only to find himself turning invisible. Turns out he’s not the only lost boy that St. Lawrence’s Catholic School for Boys has running around its hidden halls. Oh, and there’s also a giant tentacle monster too.

Read If You Like: the power of friendship, paranormal investigations, too many tentacles, Fantasy as allegory for the real world

Avoid If You Dislike: middle grade stories, tidy endings, muddled portrayal of healthy family dynamics, censoring slurs in kids books

Comparable Media: The Misfits, Lunar Boys, Spy School

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr – Vignettes on Death

This book has been sitting on my desk as a potential whole-class read for high school level comics classes. It’s award-nominated and generally has a phenomenal reputation. At 128 pages, this story is absolutely worth a look if you’re in the mood for something contemplative with some light humor elements. It feels very much like an Autumn book, in that it asks readers to think about their own relationship with death, but it remains pretty accessible throughout. Plus, it’s popular enough that you can likely nab a copy from your local library!

The Premise:
A child destined to discover immortality is born, and with it comes layoffs. Death finds herself without work, trapped in a human body and the pesky mortality that comes with it. This comic covers her many lives (she gets brought back by her companion Life often) as she comes into contact with the child (and later teen, adult, and elderly man) who caused her downfall.

Read If Looking For: a god experiencing mortality, episodic story structures, casual cigarettes, quiet storytelling with vibrant colors

Avoid If Looking For: the political machinations of gods, experimental art, novel and original endings

Comparable Media: Cloud Atlas, Sandman. I’ve also heard that it pairs delightfully with Daytripper and Karmen, both of which I’m intent on reading soon.

Psycop – A Guilty Pleasure Binge Read

As a teenager, I was mildly obsessed with the Stephanie Plum series, which featured a chaotic detective (private eye?) who solved crimes and was torn between a hot Italian cop and a hotter brooding guy named Ranger. At one point I even went to the library’s book club when the newest book came out, which was me and a bunch of middle aged women. I got invited to their Jazzercise class. It was awesome. Anyways, Psycop feels a bit like that, but spooky and gay. I was really into thrillers growing up – David Baldacci had me in a chokehold before college – and it’s been nice to reconnect with that part of my reading history. Psycop isn’t building my brain up or pushing me to consider anything serious, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. This review covers my thoughts on the first three books in this series, all novella length.

The Premise:
Victor Bayne is part of a supernatural investigations unit. He can speak to the dead, which is mostly a pain in his ass except when it helps him do his job. That’s why he’s addicted to psychic suppressants. His partner just retired right in time for a murder scene to pop up that is mysteriously free from voices. Also on this case is Jacob Marks, a hunky mundane cop who recently jacked Victor off in the bathroom while they were at the retirement party for Victor’s old partner. Each book follows a new crime or mystery to be solved, often with a brand new cast member to spice up the dynamic for the book

Read If Looking For: a lead with a bunch of baggage, quick pacing, paranormal thrillers with a side of romance

Avoid If Looking For: books free from ‘pointless’ sex scenes, thematic depth, criticisms of the US police state

Comparable Media: Steaphanie Plum, Magic for Liars, Bones

Hench – Revenge is Best Served With Excel Spreadsheets

I don’t do many rereads, but when I saw the audiobook for Hench was available without a wait time, I couldn’t resist checking it out. Villain, the sequel, releases later this year, and I will definitely be putting it on my reading list. I think I’m a little more hesitant about some of the thematic work in Hench than I was during my first read, but this is a rock solid revenge story that stands out in a cluttered Superhero landscape.

The Premise
Anna is a Hench, but really she just does data entry and analysis. When her first time working in the field goes wrong though, she finds herself with a terrible injury, a grudge against the world’s most powerful superhero, and a desire to start revealing the great harm that ‘heroes’ do to society. She tumbles down a rabbit hole that gives her with the resources to turn her from a minor supporter for villains into a person feared and despised by ever super in the world.

Read If: clever characters work for you, unreliable narrators are a plus, you think iguanas deserve only the best

Avoid If: you dislike critiques of policing, body horror makes you squeamish, you demand nuanced and thorough themes

Comparable Media: The Boys, Watchmen, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

The Inheritance – My New Addiction

How have I never read an Ilona Andrews book before? Why have I delayed long on picking up one of their books? Where can I find more? These are the questions running through my head as I type this. It is 11:00 pm on a Sunday night. Tomorrow morning my dog will wake me up at 5:30 for a morning walk before I try and get a quick gym workout in, followed by the daily onslaught of questions that comes with teaching 11 year olds. My bedtime was an hour and a half ago, and I probably won’t fall asleep until midnight.

The Inheritance touched something inside me. Not anything particularly deep or meaningful. No, this book touched the ‘holy shit that was so much fun’ part of my brain, which is a part of my reading life that’s been a bit neglected recently. I want more, and I want it now. The rest of the series has not yet been published, which is a grave injustice for which I have no remedy.

The Premise
Ada is an Assessor. When portals to hostile alien worlds began to open up and humans got magic powers, corporations discovered a lot of money could be made from alien ecologies. The government employs Ada to use her magic powers to identify useful materials in the Breaches and keep the guilds from underpaying taxes on what they collect. When a mission goes wrong and she gets stuck alone in a Breach with nobody but Bear the Dog, she knows survival will be nearly impossible. Thankfully, something super special happens that gives her a fighting chance, and possibly the single most important human being alive. Meanwhile, Elias (the guildmaster for the recent mining expedition) is gathering a team of experts to try and close the Breach as he realizes that the survivors might not be totally honest about everything that happened leading up to the catastrophe.

Read If: you want popcorn fantasy with a middle-aged mother in focus, badass German Shepherds sounds appealing,

Avoid If: overly tragic backstories piss you off, you want characters to slowly grow in power and skill, you’ve got a phobia of bugs and spiders

Comparable Media: Solo Levelling, Mage Errant, Dungeon Crawler Carl

The Cloak and It’s Wizard

After reading The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, I knew that I wanted something a bit less intense and heavy for my next read. The Cloak and its Wizard seemed just zany enough to satisfy. This met my needs for a fun and mindless breather book, though I found that I was ready for the story to wrap up about 100 pages before the book itself did. Ultimately, if the idea of a snarky magic item telling the story appeals to you, this is likely at least worth a look.

The Premise
The Cloak of Sunset and Starlight hasn’t attached itself to a wizard for a full century. When an unusual initiate joins the Order of the Open Eye, however, he can’t resist. Veronica is a surgeon, and the only reason she’s a wizard at all is because she was immune to the mind-altering magic that the Order used to try and remove her memories of her brother’s death at the hands of a monster. The cloak and its new wizard quickly get on the wrong side of The Order, but things are also looking especially grim with an unusually large number of interplanar beings invading Earth.

Read if: you enjoy harmless chaos, you want something lighthearted and pulpy, like adults with functional lives outside of The Plot

Avoid if: you’re looking for something deep and meaningful, you’ll get annoyed with the phrase ‘my wizard’, you like twists to help move the story forward

Comparable Media: Dr. Strange, Striker V, Dad Magic

An Inheritance of Magic – Featherweight and Enjoyable Urban Fantasy

An Inheritance of Magic has been buzzing around my circles as one of the better Urban Fantasy series to come out in the past few years. This isn’t a subgenre I spend a ton of time with, but I’ve found that widely loved series tend to be reliably enjoyable for me (other than Dresden Files), and An Inheritance of Magic certainly lived up to that premise. It’s not perfect, clearly wants to prepare you for a long series, and seems to be a solid and readable ‘zero to hero’ story.

The Premise:
Stephen is an aspiring mage who wants nothing more than to make enough to pay rent and to start hunting down his father who vanished mysteriously a few years ago. When a strange woman claiming to be a distant relative of the mom who walked out on Stephen when he was a baby, his life is set to change. The assholes of that family see him as nothing more than a pawn, and the cost of growing in magic is exorbitant. Still, it gives Stephen the clues he needs to finally start making progress in his own craft and the connections needed to begin looking for his father. Before any of that though, he needs to make sure that the capitalist chokehold the rich have on magic doesn’t crush his dreams before they can even begin.

Read if: you enjoy reading about plucky underdogs making it work, are in favor of Orca whales crashing billionaire Yachts off the coast of Spain, are looking for something tropey and simple

Avoid if: comedically evil villains put you off, you dislike explanations of magic, religious logic problems put you off

Comparable Media: Tarot Sequence, Arcane Ascension, Witch Hat Atelier