wordsofapaige's reviews
644 reviews

 I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Adrian Tchaikovsky has written another winner, and, naturally, it's filled with animal-inspired aliens you can't help but love. Crab-like creatures who makes great accountants, anyone? This is the start to a truly epic adventure that sees you travel across the universe, visiting various planets and experiencing the unspace. The unspace is a particular favourite of mine. Tchaikovsky has taken FTL travel and made the bit in-between a terrifying non-existent place where no one but you exists. Plus there's a presence that might just drive you insane.

It took me maybe 50 pages to truly get into this book. The first section barrages you with names and species and factions, and it took me a while to truly put everything together. However, once I had that down I flew through the rest of the story. Planets have been colonised, alien species met and factions created, so you're well and truly flung into a universe where humanity has colonised space. It makes for a refreshing change as the story can focus purely on the main plot, with no first contact style sub-plots going on.

The architects are truly epic species. Moon-sized creatures that appear and destroy planets with no apparent understanding of the living beings around them. They make for a terrifying nemesis as there's no apparent plan, or threats, and it's not even clear if they know they're in a war. The humans wage war on the architects, however we have no idea if the architects know this, or if they're just going about their business as usual. I'm excited to continue the series to find out what is actually happening with the architects and why they do what they do.

To me Idris and Solace are the main characters here. Two people who lived through the war, and who met in an epic battle against an architect. They've been apart ever since but Solace is sent to find Idris to try and recruit him.
Idris is a Int, which means he can survive unspace and can touch the minds of the architects. He is one of only a few people who survive this process and Ints are incredibly important people to have by your side.
Solace belongs to a group of genetically engineered women soldiers. She made for a wonderful character as she gets caught between her loyalty to her sisters and her loyalty to Idris and the crew.
In addition to these two are a whole host of other characters. We have the rest of the crew, who all have their places and uses, and who really help create the sense of loyalty within the group. I loved the cast of characters here.

I can't wait to continue the series and to learn more about the architects and unspace. Tchaikovsky has written the start to a series of epic proportions, and you'll be missing out if you don't pick this one up. 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

I completely and utterly fell in love with this book. There's been a rise recently in myth retellings and The Witch's Heart deserves a place among the best of them. Norse mythology is a favourite of mine and somehow I never know of Angrboda's story, so I'm eternally grateful that Genevieve Gornichec decided to take her story and turn in into this beautiful book.

This worked perfectly for me. I know a little of Norse mythology so I knew where this book was headed once it revealed who Agrboda's children were, but I still didn't know the ins and outs and her place in the events. Gornichec to crafts such an important and meaningful place for her, as I believe that Angrboda's story doesn't extend much past her being the Mother to Loki's children. Gornichec has woven Angrboda in the very fabric of these momentus events and given her a place of epic proportions.

As much of the story is set in the furthest reaches of an isolated wood the cast of characters is small but mighty. Between Angrboda, Loki, their children and Skadi we find a story of love and friendship and events that changed the world. They make for a wonderful group, with their conflicts and their complicated relationships, and they're ultimately the pillar of this story.

Norse mythology is known for its fluid approach to sexuality and gender and Gornichec doesn't shy away from this. The characters are just who they are, and there need be no explanation for it. Angrboda and Skadi's relationship to each other is fluid and easy, and Loki just appears however he wishes to.

I was utterly hooked from the beginning and I barely put this book down until the very end. Gornichec managed to bring tears to my eyes, and that's a rare thing indeed. I utterly adored this one and Gornichec is now firmly on my auto-buy author list. 

 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When my first reaction to a finishing a book is to shout about how it can't end like that and to immediately scour the internet for mention of the sequel and when I might get to read it, you know you've found a winner. That's exactly what happened with House of Styx.

After pushing through the world building of the first 50 pages and being slightly confused by some of the descriptions, I soon found my stride and after that I struggled to put House of Styx down. Whether I was imagining what Derek Künsken had envisioned I'm not sure, but it worked for me and who doesn't add their own imagination into books anyway? I soon found myself looking in wonder at the mystery under Venus, seeing the sun through the clouds and enduring the storm Venus can throw out. Despite the fact very little of the action takes place on solid ground Künsken has crafted a deadly environment for our characters to work around. They're always working against Venus, and the planet is almost the antagonist for the majority of the book.

This is Sci-Fi filled with rep, and incredibly well-handled rep at that. We have LGBTQ+ rep, Autism rep and trans rep all within this story. As I don't identify with any of these reps I can't say they're perfectly handled examples, but I feel like everything is done well, and nothing is there purely for the sake of it. I loved reading Pascal's journey, as with all of the characters we encounter in this big, messy family. They fight, the love and they fall for all the wrong people, but ultimately this book is the story of them pulling together to get out of the situation they are in.

This is Sci-Fi at its best and I'm off to explore more of Künsken's work. House of Styx is actually a prequel series so I have more of this universe to explore while I wait on the rest of the series to come out!

The mystery of Venus stays unexplored for now, but seeing as this is a series I believe we will be seeing a lot more of it!

The ending broke me and I read this chunky book in like 5 days. 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

In all honestly several days after finishing this book I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. It was a pretty speedy read for me, and I read it in only a couple of sittings, but I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed by the ending. I thought we were leading up to a big reveal of some sorts, but I actually just felt like I was left with a lot of questions and a somewhat disappointing finale.

The book almost entirely centres around the relationship between Charlotte and Rose. Charlotte being a resident at the care home that Rose works for. Rose is often described as a believer, but it's never quite explained as to why this is. Although it sets the story up for you to never know what is real and what is not. Rose allows everyone to walk all over her, and most infuriatingly she lets her boyfriend walk all over her the most. He's unemployed with no prospects while she works to keep their rent paid, and when he does attempt to get a job it's quickly made clear that he hates it and promptly leaves it. He's a pretty awful character and I spent most of the book hoping Rose would
come to her senses and leave him. Charlotte is a fairly inexplicable character, seemingly fine and with all her facilities she doesn't quite fit in the care home, she's generally mean to everyone there and seems to know a lot more than she should.

The interjection of the letters is somewhat of a highlight, and definitely what kept me reading. They're old letters from around the time of the Cottingley Fairy photos, and details an older man and his family as they find and detail their encounters with fairies. They're a great way of imparting fairy knowledge on the reader without them being patronised. The story from the letters would probably make for a great book in itself, as it's got a lot of intrigue and I still want to know exactly what was going on.

The end feels like its barrelling towards a spectacular finale. And yet somehow it suddenly just lost whatever magic I was feeling and provides no answers as to what was going on in the rest of the book. What was real, what was not, why certain things happen. I wasn't a fan of ambiguity and I have to say that sadly the ending was far too weak for me.

This is worth picking up if you're interested in the Cottingley Fairies.

 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My goodness I really enjoyed this one. We follow Adam, the first man, who has been alive all this time living many many different lives all over the world. His weary, indifferent view on the world and humanity actually makes him a wonderful character to follow. All of humanity are his children, but instead of being overly protective Adam is indifferent to them, and will kill without mercy or regret when he needs to. However, if its an animal Adam is protective and this is where his emotion really shines through. The surrounding characters are animals who were also in Eden and have been around as long as Adam have, including creatures like Butterfly, Pig and Magpie, they're all animals in human form. Adam deeply cares for these characters and they really are shining stars of this show.

I was absolutely pulled in by Birds of Paradise and I really struggled to put it down. This isn't a religious book, of course Langmead is taking ideas from Christianity, with Adam and Eve and Eden, but he crafts a whole other mythology around it, and at no point is this preaching anything. The mythology feels wonderfully original and it is wholly enthralling. The plot takes us on the hunt for pieces of Eden, and as we travel Adam gives some insight into how his history intertwines with various places, and I LOVED this. Reading about his many lives and how he integrated into each place was just such a great addition to the story.

Adam is a pretty passive main character, he's dragged along by the plot and Magpie is more the driving force here. Adam just tends to go where he's told and do what he's told to do, he generally isn't privvy to any plans and it fits his character extremely well. Having a passive main character that works this well is incredibly rare and its what really makes this book shine.