Review: Zero Factor by Stacy Gail

This sci-fi romance was not bad, but nothing to write home about either.  Although, I supposed I'm writing here about it, in any case.

Zero Factor, by Stacy Gail, is a dystopian action romance set in a militarized future with cyborg militia soldiers, radioactive pollution, and starving masses. The future is sharply divided between the haves and have nots.

The heroine has psychic powers, and is trying to keep a low profile to avoid conscription by the government which apparently rounds up psychics for nefarious purposes.  While delivering food, she has a vision of the group she's with being attacked and dying.  At a loss for how to prevent it, she shares it by kissing one of the soldiers who's watching over her group.  When he realizes that the attack is a plot by his commanding officer, he foils it and they go on the run together.

The story didn't have anything terribly wrong with it, but I just didn't respond to it for some reason.  The world building is a compilation of ideas that I've seen before.  I didn't feel the chemistry between the leads (death for a romance book).  And I didn't love the protagonist, although I didn't hate her or get annoyed with her either.  I don't know.  I just didn't respond to it.  It was literally a Zero Factor for me as well, I suppose - not important enough to matter.  YMMV.

SF/F Stories with Native American Leads

In an attempt to celebrate great examples of sci-fi and fantasy books with Native American protagonists, I'm writing down a list of my favorites.  It's part of a series of posts covering SFF stories with non-white protagonists. See also SFF stories with Asian Leads, SFF Stories with Black Leads, and SFF Stories with Middle Eastern Leads.

First...

The Aggregate Stats

• Total number of works/series/authors on the list: 17/5/6
• Author with most works on the list: Patricia Briggs by a landslide - 8 books and 1 short story.
• Most common trope: Coyote. A close second is the female half Native American/half white tomboy protagonist with grease under her fingernails from all her work as a mechanic or mechanical tinkerer. She can handle her own in an adventure and is prepared to defend herself if she has to, but would rather be left alone, especially since she has secrets to hide. Unfortunately, her secrets draw her into the preternatural world she's trying to avoid. Seriously, this describes half the protagonists!
• Biggest overall surprise: There's only one full-blood Native American, and there are no (non-urban) fantasies on the list. There are also no stories set within a Native American culture (or magical version thereof), the stories always have the protagonist living in a white world. 

and now for...

My Favorites

Review: The Assassin's Curse by Lindsay Buroker

This is sort of like a yummy little snack to tide over fans of the "Emperor's Edge" series until she publishes the next hearty helping of bookiliciousness.  Recommended. 

The Assassin's Curse, by Lindsay Buroker, is a short story set in Buroker's steam-punk fantasy series, Emperor's Edge. If you're not familiar with the series, start with The Emperor's Edge before you read this one. Right now, at least, the first book is free, which is crazy, because it's a great book and a great series.

In any case, The Assassin's Curse starts off with Amaranthe and Sicarius training hard, but pretty soon Amaranthe finds a reason to investigate some suspicious smoke in the distance rather than finishing training. Of course, this soon snowballs into an mini-adventure which takes place over the course of a couple of hours.

The story doesn't move any of the main plot or character development arcs forward, and it doesn't show us any new facets of their personalities, so you can skip it without worrying about whether you're going to miss out on part of the series. OTOH, if you like seeing the Amaranthe interacting with Sicarius and getting herself in and out of scrapes (and who doesn't, really?), then you're guaranteed to like this, too.

Review: Telesa - The Covenant Keeper by Lani Wendt Young

Great world-building and three-dimensional characters help this YA paranormal romance stand out in this crowded sub-genre.  And I have to give the author extra kudos for basing the paranormal part of her story on Samoan mythology instead of just having the typical vampires and werewolves (not to say I don't love werewolves...).  Recommended, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Telesa, by Lani Wendt Young, is the story of Leila, teenager who travels to Samoa to get to know her long-deceased mother's family and heritage.  She also is trying to escape her very rich, very white grandmother, who is her guardian now that her beloved father passed away. She starts to get settled into her new environment, but strange things start happening to her and pretty soon she falls down the rabbit hole of the exotic paranormal.

It's a good set up.  By having the main character come recently from the States, Young introduces us to Samoa very smoothly.  And she does a great job of immersing the reader in the locale - sounds, smells, speech patterns, attitudes, etc. - without it feeling like a flowery travelogue.  The book is rooted in a sense of place that I found almost as appealing as the characters and plot. And I found the characters and plot pretty darn appealing. 7CQ28RUGKYQ6

Review: Dragonswarm by Aaron Pogue

This engaging sequel to Taming Fire mostly lives up to the promise of its predecessor.  I recommend it for anyone who read the first book, and recommend the series in general for anyone who's looking for a good heroic high fantasy.

The Dragonswarm, by Aaron Pogue, is a straight-forward high fantasy adventure that's tightly focused on the protagonist.  The first book was a really good coming-of-age of a hero sort of book, and this one continued by not only upping the ante in terms of magic and impact on the world, but also having him continue to grow emotionally.

The premise is that Daven, the main character, gets some dragon blood in him through an accident that happens in the first book.  This gives him crazy powers that other humans don't have.  He's also street-wise and an accomplished swordfighter with an intellectual bent.  No small-minded anti-heroes here!  Unfortunately, he's wanted by a tyrannical king (where wanted = wants to kill him), hated by powerful wizards, in love with a beautiful girl, but is mostly concentrating on the imminent dragonswarm apocalypse.  A guy has to have his priorities, after all.

Review: Time Mends by Tammy Blackwell

Time Mends takes up where Destiny Binds left off, both chronologically and emotionally, so read that first, then come back for this riveting and rewarding read.  

Time Mends, by Tammy Blackwell, is the second book in the The Timber Wolves series, it reminds me a little bit of the Empire Strikes Back in that it's an emotionally darker story that is clearly serving a different purpose than the first one.  This is Act II, not more of the same as we saw in the first book.

At first blush, the Timer Wolves series looks like it would be just another Twilight-wannabe, with its beautiful-yet-unpopular girl, slow introduction into a paranormal world, and a love triangle between the the girl, a longtime friend, and a mysterious new comer. It gets beyond that quickly though, by having a strong heroine with both agency and integrity and a plot that gets away from the manipulative "team this" vs "team that" and into a riveting star-crossed lovers story.

The Soul Linked Saga

If there were a literary equivalent of the walk of shame for book reading, then this review would be me doing it.  These books are the craziest wish-fulfillment excuse for a series I have ever read.  The premise for this science fiction romance series is farcical.  The writing is mediocre.  But somehow I couldn't keep myself from reading all three.  It's my crack!  Be warned.

OK, so, here goes.

The premise is that among the thousand worlds there is a mysterious race, called the Jasani, who are born as triplets (called male-sets) and that each male-set does everything together, including sex, because they share a soul.  The Jasani are also magic-wielding shape-shifters (the first book is about the dragon-ish triplets, the second is the wolf-ish, and the third is great cat-ish).

The Jasani home world is modeled after an old west theme except on a world of lavendar skies and blue grass.  It comes complete with a horse and cattle ranch owned by the first set of triplets, and a small local town for shopping when they need the change of scenery.  Oh, and the first heroes are also the ruling royalty of the Jasani.

Graceling

Fabulous.  This inventive, romantic fantasy has taken an interesting conceit and turned it into a deeply touching, character-driven adventure.  Part-way through writing this review, I had to stop writing to read the book again just because I remembered how much I enjoyed it.

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore, is set in a fairly standard, low-magic fantasy world, except instead of traditional magic, the world contains people who are very occasionally born with a grace.  A grace is a preternatural ability for anything from baking bread or whistling to fighting or mind reading.  Gracelings are recognized because at some point in childhood, their eyes change so that each eye is a different color.  Once that happens, in the country of Middluns, they become the property of the King.

This story is told from the point of view of the King's niece, Katsa, who has a grace for killing and has been used as the King's enforcer.  It's definitely a twist.  She's both the beautiful damsel and the brutal, antisocial thug.

Satisfaction Guaranteed and Perfectly Satisfied

I liked the characters and was in the mood for a friends-to-lovers contemporary romance, but they felt sketched in to me rather than fully fleshed out.  Meh.

Satisfaction Guaranteed and Perfectly Satisfied, by Tori Scott, are the first two of a planned trilogy.

They weren't horribly written, but the first one squicked me out at first when it seemed like the love interest was going to try to force or manipulate the female lead into having sex with him.  It got less squicky later, but I felt it still went too fast to be emotionally believable.  When they started, they had fallen out of touch and she had never really thought of him as a love interest.  A few hours later, they were passionate lovers.  A couple more hours and they were engaged and the book was over.

I liked the secondary characters better and they got together in the second book, which was a still too short for the story, but better than the first.

The Hedgewitch Queen

I really enjoyed this romantic fantasy novel.  It's a palace intrigue with some adventuring around the countryside thrown in.   Be warned - the main plot arcs aren't resolved by the end of the book.

The Hedgewitch Queen, by Lilith Saintcrow, is set in a world that felt a bit like a magical three musketeers, but told from the point of view of an idealistic young royal who has to flee with her musketeers (or, in this case, the Queen's Guards) after a palace coup.  The guards, of course, are led by a loyal, hot, mysterious captain of the guards.

Towards the beginning of the book, I thought I knew where it was going. Saintcrow uses some pretty familiar cliches, such as a magical jewel that proclaims the rightful ruler, hedgewitchcraft being less prestigious than court sorcery, etc.  However, she ended up surprising me a bit towards the end.  She manages to put in enough moral complexity that I'm still not sure how certain things will - or should - be resolved in the next book.  Kudos if she manages to wrap things up with an HEA without resorting to a deus ex machina.

Review: Darkness Dawns by Diane Duvall

I had some issues with this vampire-type paranormal romance, but I've definitely read worse.

First the good.

I liked the characters.

I liked the heroine and how she's introduced.  She's strong in a regular human way, not in the sense of having special powers.

I also liked the hero.  He's dark and brooding in a humanizing "don't always know the right thing to say" kind of way rather than in the overly melodramatic kind of way.  There are also a bunch of secondary characters and the author seems to be trying to breathe some life into them.

I also liked the arc with the head good vampire and the mystery woman.  It isn't resolved by the end of the book, which bugs me a little, but I think overall the author does a good job of juggling different arcs in the book.

Wilder's Mate

Smexy, paranormal steam punk romance set in the wild west.  The premise is hot, but the execution left me wanting.  

Wilder's Mate, but Moira Rogers, is the first in a series.  It tells the tale of the inventor Satira, whose mentor has been kidnapped and taken into lawless vampire country.  She's aided by Wilder, a werewolf (in this universe called bloodhounds).  Bloodhounds are created to combat vampires and are governed by a quasi-governmental guild.   They have their furry couple of days in the full moon as expected, but they also have a few days of sexual frenzy during the new moon.

I liked the setting and the overall plot.  For some reason, though, I just didn't enjoy the relationship.  It was one of those stories where they instantly lusted for each other, but it just felt jarring.    I liked her and I mostly liked him, but being inside their head when they thought of each other didn't do it for me.

The Storm That Is Sterling

A decent read.  If you liked the first Zodius novel, The Legend of Michael, you'll probably like the second one too.  In terms of tropes, you're looking at a special-ops/soul-mate/genetic experimentation romance thriller series.

The premise for the series is that a group of soldiers were inculcated with an alien virus (against their knowledge) that gave them special powers.  They're all called GTech.  They can all wind-walk and heal extremely fast, and some of them also get additional unique powers.  Each book features a new romantic pair as well as movement in the various plot lines.

In the first book, some of them turned evil and then the evil group split up and the government doesn't trust any of the turned super soldiers, so we're looking at a setting that includes at least four major factions: US government, Zodius (bad supernatural soldiers), Renegades (good supernatural soldiers), and General Powell's camp (he who started the mess in the first place).  It has a definite soap opera complexity to the story arcs.

Hidden

This is a nice urban fantasy novella that blends family with pack dynamics and investigative action.  It's surprisingly approachable for readers new to the Otherworld series.  Series fans will really enjoy seeing the next milestones for Elena - getting to know her twins and seeing part of her transition to alpha.  

Hidden, by Kelly Armstrong, was a nice read.  I've read most of the Otherworld series, and they're really uneven for me.  Elena POV books (of which this is one) are my favorites so factor that into your evaluation.

The Otherworld is our contemporary world with a modest amount of paranormal-acy.  There's only one werewolf pack of about a dozen members in North America.  Other than that, there are scattered non-pack werewolves, called mutts, that aren't allowed to settle down in one place.  There are other paranormal races, but they don't factor into this story and aren't really powerful in this world.  Elena Michaels is the only female werewolf, and she's been chosen to replace the current alpha.

True Colors

Summary: Good stand-alone novella set in the Elder Races universe.  Recommended for fans of  paranormal romance.

True Colors, by Thea Harrison, has likable characters and a sexy-yet-believable relationship at its core, with a little bit of a thriller thrown in.  I liked it, and, if you're looking for a quick read of the werewolf-meets-soul-mate variety, then this fits the bill.

The premise is that a serial killer is targeting the rainbow chameleon shape shifters, and it looks like our sweet school teacher/chameleon heroine is next on the list.  The hero is a werewolf policeman (more or less) who leads the case.  They almost immediately recognize in each other their soul mate and the rest of the story is them getting to know each other and settling into the relationship while figuring out who the killer is.  HEA, the end.

OK.  That all being the case, I'm a little torn in looking back at this story.  I think if it had been written by almost anyone else, I would be able to end this post with a happy "I liked it" type of statement and go along my merry way.

Zero Sight and Zero Sum

Summary: Holy cow, these books were great!   The premise sounds like a typical intrepid-hero-attends-a-magic-academy that clutters YA.  But it's YA in the same way that Ender's Game is - which is to say that it magnificently transcends the age of the protagonist.  And the voice is a lot more Harry Dresden than Harry Potter.  I can't recommend them enough.

Zero Sight and Zero Sum, by B. Justin Shier, are the first and second books in the Zero Sight Series respectively.  They're set in a broken-down, near-future America.  Dieter Resnick, the protagonist, is a young man with a single purpose - getting the hell out of his current life and into something better.  His master plan involves keeping his head down, getting an academic scholarship to an Ivy, and living happily ever after somewhere far away from the gangs and poverty and abuse of his current life.

The first part of his plan hits a snag when he gets in a fight with higher stakes than he hoped for, and things take an unexpected turn.  If you've read much in the genre, you have some idea where things are headed in the first book, but you won't care because the journey is fantastic.  The second book tops the first - fleshing out secondary characters and starting them on their own arcs, having more unexpected twists, and really turning up the slow-burn love triangle.  It's a better crafted story in general, although the first one was very good to begin with.

This series came out of nowhere for me.  Zero Sight is Shier's debut novel, and it was dang good.  So good, that I didn't have the patience to write a review before starting the second one.  Part of that rush to read the next book was the ending though - it feels like the book is the first half of a two-part novel rather than the first novel in a series.  The second book's ending is more successful, although I'll still be waiting with bated breath until he releases the third book.

It's a series that doesn't condescend.  He's telling the story of a brilliant, honorable, and driven young man in a richly detailed world and emotionally complex circumstances.  This first person POV gives us the chance to be inside one of my new favorite minds, but you can't sleepwalk through it. Not that you want to - it's a gripping read.

Burning Up

Summary: I liked it.  This anthology features four well-crafted stories of true love and hot sex in a fantasy, paranormal, or steam punk setting.  Although all the authors each have popular series, all of the stories stand alone and can be enjoyed by non-fans.  Woo hoo.

Burning Up totally works as an anthology.  Although the stories were pretty disparate in terms of setting, it felt like they hang together in terms of personality, if you will.

Whispers of Sin, by Nalini Singh, is the first story.  In it, a Chinatown resident is attacked by a thug trying to shake her parents down for protection money.  She's saved by a changeling (were-leopard) member of the pack that's trying to claim San Francisco as their territory.  It's true lust and protectiveness at first sight, and it evolves into something deeper as they continue to spend time together.  Their respective family and pack really enrich the story.  I've never read her popular Psy/Changeling series, but I've heard of it, so will probably look it up based on this story.

Deadly Games

The latest installment in the Emperor's Edge is just as rewarding as I've come to expect from this fantastic fantasy/steampunk series.  

I'm totally hooked on the whole series, so I may be slightly biased, but I have to say that Deadly Games, by Lindsay Buroker, is another winner.

In case you're not familiar with it, the Emperor's Edge series is about Amaranthe, who starts out being an gifted, by-the-book police woman in a chauvinistic, militaristic, steam-punk society and ends up leading a band of outlaw mercenary in an attempt to redeem her reputation and help the empire.  The secondary characters are strong, and each book splits the POV between Amaranthe and one of her motley crew.

Farro and Sulfer

This fantasy duology was unexpectedly awesome!  Compelling, believable story and characters.  

Farro and Sulfer, by Arreana, took me off-guard.  Despite some enthusiastic reviews, this book did not look promising.  The cover art screams "self-published", and, for some reason, the first few pages just seemed overwrought to me.  But, since I was reading the first chapter free anyway, I kept on reading to the next few pages and ended up totally hooked.

So, the story starts from the POV of a girl who has been tortured (literally and brutally) for some time, but she soon finds herself in a new circumstance.  The first book is a bit of a palace intrigue, and the second book has a quest structure.

You soon find out that this is a fantasy with a clearly developed, but not cliched, setting.  It felt a little ancient-Egypt-meets-medieval-Europe to me, and the author does a good job of unfolding the world without a lot of info-dumps.

It was not a perfect book.  The dialog was reasonable, but not anything I'm going to quote or especially remember.  Sometimes it seemed like smart bad guys ignored potentially effective manipulation/deceit tactics in favor of torture-and-violence just to make the heroine especially martyred.  And I had to use some suspension of disbelief on the magic system.

But...but...despite its flaws, I had a fantastic time reading this story.

Gods Tomorrow

Summary: A good read, and surprisingly good for the $.99 e-book price.  It's a near-future science fiction police procedural set in a big brother setting.  Very Minority-Report-ish.

Gods Tomorrow, by Aaron Pogue, is the type of book that makes me a Kindle convert.  Police procedurals aren't my favorite, I don't know the author, and the cover art is amateurish.  If it had shown up in my local bookstore, I probably wouldn't want to pay full price to take the chance that it might be good.  Since it's just a buck, I can experiment.  And it was a happily worthwhile experiment.