Book Review: Ghostdrift by Suzanne Palmer

Ghostdrift by Suzanne Palmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Finder Chronicles has been one of those series I eagerly anticipate the next installment. Each story is set in a completely different setting than the previous novel, giving the world depth, but Fergus always remains a fun, interesting main character - and he has growth throughout each adventure.

Ghostdrift is billed on the back cover as the fourth and final novel in the Finder Chronicles. That makes me sad. No more of these adventures?! This does make a satisfying resolution to Fergus' story though, as he comes to accept who he is and what's been done to him. The ending of Ghostdrift leaves the world and possibilities open to new stories though. So I will hope for more when the author decides to return to Fergus.

Read the entire series! Then read it again! I can only imagine reading these books back to back would make an even better adventure!

Review eARC provided by Netgalley.

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Book Review: Kinfolk

Kinfolk by August Niehaus
My GoodReads rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall Kinfolk was an enjoyable book.

 
Kin, the main character, was supposed to be a war-hardened badass but he came across as an incompetent, constantly horny, distracted basket case. His awesomeness is told to us more often than shown to us.

Fraya, the captain of the pirate crew Kin serves with, is always kissing her crew, flirting with them, trying to seduce one or more of them... and it's never explained why she's like that. It's implied her crew loves her and would do anything for her, but it seems more like her crew are just thirsty for her. Most of the rest of the crew are side characters.

 
The main antagonist, Tana, is a cartoony villain who seems like she just wants to have sex with everything. In fact, a lot of the characters seem like all they want to do is have sex with the main character. Tana's motivations are revealed late, but not thoroughly explored nor explained other than cursorily.

Cessie, the young girl Kin kind of adopts, is awesome and the only believable character.

The best part of the book is that there's a treasure hunt, but it's not resolved, and that ongoing threat is saved for future books.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy from Netgalley for the purposes of this review.  

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Book Review: Murderbot #7 System Collapse - No Spoilers

 

System Collapse by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

No Spoilers there, but this is another exciting, fun entry in the Murderbot Diaries. It opens en media res and the action rarely stops.

MB and it's close friend ART are a fun, playfully antagonistic pair with a high regard for the protection of their humans, and maybe the mission too.

MB is growing as a real, feeling being and it's nice to see it grow and realize it needs help sometimes, both physically and mentally. MB's mental health and PTSD is a constant subplot as its story progresses.

When's the next book out?!

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Book Review: The Ninth Metal

The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A superhero origin story in disguise as a rough family drama.

Only, the superheroes are more anti-hero. There's really no likeable characters in this book. John, arguably, the main character is a murderer and his family is basically the local mafia. Stacie, the rookie cop, is a wholesome character but is changed by the events of the book. Victoria basically tortures a kid "for science" but knows it's wrong and wants to free him. There are other characters that come and go, all are driven to extremes because of the gold-rush atmosphere after a meteor crashes into their town and leaves masses of a new metal that has world-changing properties.

Speaking of the meteor - it's like if the vibranium meteor from the Marvel movie Black Panther crashed in Minnesota instead of Wakanda. The metal has many properties similar to that comic book metal, at least as portrayed in the MCU movies.

Hints sprinkled throughout the story indicate there may be more to the metal than just as a power source and creation of superheroes. Lovecraftian dreams, portals to elsewhere are just a part of the subtle world-building I hope is explored deeper in the sequel. I didn't realize this was the first book in a series until I looked it up on Goodreads. I'm intrigued enough by the world-building to read the sequel when it comes out.

Review eARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

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Book Review: Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back

From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back by Elizabeth Schaefer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not nearly as good as the first one. I found myself not caring about most of the characters that were created for this book. There wasn't any "WOW, So that's what was going on during the movie!" in most of the stories as there was during the first book.

That being said here are a few of the stories that stood out to me:
The Willrow Hood story - interesting to have some of his (and the camtono's) backstory.
The Man Who Built Cloud City story - I knew what was going on with him pretty much from the start, but it was still a cute story.
The Wampa story was interesting/sad.
The tauntaun stories made me mad at the Rebels...


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Book Review: Hench

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hench grabbed me off the street and held me for ransom! I could not put it down.

As I was reading I thought to myself "Oh I know how where this is going", and it kind of did but in a way that surprised me. I was pleased I hadn't guessed the ending.

The main character, Anna, is the only main character that really gets any development. Keller and Quantum Entanglement both get some development, but I'd consider them secondary characters. Everyone else is a bit player there to serve Anna's development. That's not a bad thing as it's her story.

Perched high above my city I watch, waiting for the sequel.

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