The Cryptic Bookshelf

     I bought Cage of Souls on a whim. In a rush to finish my 2020 r/fantasy bingo card (yes, I *am* only just getting round to reviewing it, 3 months later), I got it for £3 in an audible sale, and honestly? That's one hell of a deal.  Cage of Souls follows Stefan Advani - student turned activist turned political dissident, as he is sent to a prison known only as The Island. The narrative is split in two, the present day following Advani's experiences in prison, alongside sections showing what, exactly, he did to end up there. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of this sort of structure. I'm a very character focused reader, and I don't like how the secrecy necessitated by non linear narratives obscures information that it might be interesting to have earlier in the book. Tchaikovsky makes it work here though, and the breaks between segments work well to both build tension and give breaks between the heavier, more depressing sections. It's not a technique I'm goin...

  Published in 2005, with a film released in 2010, Kazuo Ishigro's science fiction masterpiece feels disturbingly relevant in the age of pandemics and quarantine. Following a young woman named Kathy as she recounts her time growing up, Never Let Me Go is a love story juxtaposed against a creeping, science fiction horror, juxtaposed against a deeply tragic parable about the power of subtle propaganda to perpetuate deep rooted systemic abuse. Ishiguro’s masterful grasp of restraint, perspective, and emotionality had me gripped from the start. At first, it was the mystery that kept me reading, then it was the overwhelming sense of horror as the truth behind our protagonist’s situation was revealed. From then on, the book is a breadcrumb trail, interspersing fragile glimmers of hope with the unrelenting tide of despair at a conclusion it was clear was coming from the start.  This book isn't going to be for everyone. It's slow, and many of its most interesting parts are sub text...

  Robertson once again proves their strength for character writing. Keifon and Agna feel like real people, as do the friends and acquaintances they meet along the way. I know Keifon, at every stage of his life from a kid in a rough spot, to alcoholic on the streets, to recovering apprentice doctor, older than his compatriots but far wiser. And I've *been* Agna - the girl so weighed down by the expectations imposed by their family and the expectations imposed by what sounds like fairly awful bullying, that she is terrified to even consider the thought that someone might hold genuine affection towards her. Like, there have been points in Agna's storyline where I've just had to put the book down because it's been too much. These people are so real it hurts, and watching them move closer and closer towards healing is all the more moving because of it. One thing I think I underestimated in the last book was Robertson's knack for worldbuilding. This isn't the grand, s...

  The Siege of Skyhold picks up shortly after where The Lost City of Ithos left off, with the apprentice mages recovering from the gruelling battle they just survived. Everyone's a little shaken and channelling that, in typical progression fantasy style, into getting guder. The first half of this book is dedicated to that process, with everyone focusing in on different areas. Sabae is working on her lightning affinity, previously subject to the same neglect as her healing affinity. Talia is busy coming up with something typically gruesome. Godrick is struggling to come up with armour that will take him once and for all out of his father's shadow, and Hugh is doing a thing with wards. It's, as always, fun to watch them all working and experimenting with the exceedingly complicated magic system of Mage Errant, and whilst there are definitely times where the exposition dumps drag, they do just sort of come with the territory in this series - someone clearly likes them if Bierc...

  I’ll keep this as spoiler free as I can, but it’s a very character heavy book, so ideas about what constitutes a spoiler may vary. If the premise interests you, I highly recommend just diving in. Also upfront, this book (and thusly this review), has sexual assault as a major theme. I think I cover how it’s handled fairly well here, but if you need more details, please feel free to lmk.    I don't really know where to start with this book. I tried several times to come up with something, only to find myself flailing, partly because in general I find it easier to talk about books I didn’t like than ones I did lol. The Mirror Season is one of those books that you don't realise is making you feel things, then you get to the end and start contemplating your life choices. The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore is a YA magical realism book following Ciela, ‘La Bruja de los Pasteles’, a young woman with the ability to tell exactly what kind of pastry someone needs to ma...

I don't think I really understood this book. Normally, I love slow paced, character driven fare. My favourite books are Robin Hobb's Tawny Man trilogy, I adore the slow, almost plotless works of SE Robertson, but this one just didn't land for me. The plot is very simple - five teenagers and some adults are sent into space to travel to a faraway Earth-like planet. On the ship, they all start having breakdowns? Idk, it honestly feels like less of a plot, more just a series of vignettes. The space element feels almost secondary - I don't know if this story would be much different if they were going on some other far off trip. For a book like this to work, the characters need to be solid, and unfortunately, these guys weren't. They were conceptually interesting, but their arcs didn't really go anywhere. There were a lot of 'oh look x is having a mental health crisis' only foŕ the character to be better a chapter later. I think this book could have really ben...

  This is an interesting read for sure. The plot revolves around a healer and a warrior teaming up to infiltrate an empire, the catch being that the warrior (Dineas) has to become an amnesiac in order to be believable in the role, and the healer (Zivah) is infected with a deadly disease. Rosemarked is the rare sff book where the fantastical elements are much more than an excuse to have cool adventures and fun worldbuilding. Rather, they are central to the books theme. There's something very cerebral about this book, which is always interesting to see in fantasy, usually being the domain of scifi. Rosemarked, however, is very interested in meditating on its philosophical ideas surrounding identity and belonging in the face of empire. This book asks some very difficult questions, particularly with the romance between its two leads. The core conflict of their romantic arc surrounds the idea that Zivah finds it easier to love the version of Dineas that has forgotten the cruelty of empi...

 Will try to keep this as spoiler free as I can, but ultimately this is a very character driven work, so that's more tricky than usual! Fireheart Tiger is a one hundred page novella by Aliette de Bodard (can we just take a moment to appreciate what a pretty name that is?) published in 2021. It follows a princess named Thanh as she navigates the politics of a beautifully drawn, Vietnamese inspired world. Not as martially gifted or outwardly charismatic as her sisters, Thanh’s mother has given her the job of leading negotiations for her country and withstanding the encroaching threat of colonisation. There’s only one problem - her ex is one of the foreign diplomats and she wants Thanh back. At its heart, Fireheart Tiger is a novel about abuse, especially emotional abuse, and we must watch as Thanh struggles to disentangle herself from the various figures attempting to manipulate her for their own gain. This is a theme that is beautifully and painfully realised on the page, and I foun...

  I feel like this poor book might be suffering from a case of overhype. I wanted to love it and heard good things, but ultimately it just felt… sort of okay I guess? The story follows a girl from modern day DC, Harper, who is transported into an alternate fantasy universe where she meets the mysterious Prince Rhen and his guard, Grey. Rhen and Grey have been fighting a curse (so dark and lonely 😎) placed upon the castle that does funky things to time.   It's a Beauty and The Beast retelling, which is fine, but there's not really anything particularly original about it.  This book is mostly known for having a protagonist with cerebral palsy, which is what drew me to it personally. I don't know that much about cerebral palsy, so I can't speak to how well that was done. This book does, however, avoid falling into a lot of the traps that come with portraying disability in general and is also own voices. So, if you're just looking to read something with good disability...