Book Review: Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

I've been on a bit of a Sanderson binge lately, trying to re-read the Stormlight Archive books in time for Wind and Truth. Turns out, I had originally missed this novella, set between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War. I'm glad I got the chance to read it, since it offers some very interesting hints about the Cosmere. Here's the official blurb:

When a ghost ship is discovered, its crew presumed dead after trying to reach the storm-shrouded island Akina, Navani Kholin must send an expedition to make sure the island hasn't fallen into enemy hands. Knights Radiant who fly too near find their Stormlight suddenly drained, so the voyage must be by sea.

Shipowner Rysn Ftori lost the use of her legs but gained the companionship of Chiri-Chiri, a Stormlight-ingesting winged larkin, a species once thought extinct. Now Rysn's pet is ill, and any hope for Chiri-Chiri’s recovery can be found only at the ancestral home of the larkin: Akinah. With the help of Lopen, the formerly one-armed Windrunner, Rysn must accept Navani's quest and sail into the perilous storm from which no one has returned alive. If the crew cannot uncover the secrets of the hidden island city before the wrath of its ancient guardians falls upon them, the fate of Roshar and the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.

As a novella, I'll only give some brief thoughts after the jump.

Book Review: Spellbreaker by Blake Charlton

Spellbreaker is the third and final novel in the Spellwright series. It's probably my favorite of the three given all that happens alongside the setting. Here is the official blurb:

Leandra Weal has a bad habit of getting herself in dangerous situations.

While hunting neodemons in her role as Warden of Ixos, Leandra obtains a prophetic spell that provides a glimpse one day into her future. She discovers that she is doomed to murder someone she loves, soon, but not who.

Leandra’s quest to unravel the mystery of the murder-she-will-commit becomes more urgent when her chronic disease flares up and the Ixonian Archipelago is plagued by natural disasters, demon worshiping cults, and fierce political infighting. Everywhere she turns, Leandra finds herself amid conflict.

As chaos spreads across Ixos, Leandra and her troubled family – her misspelling wizard father Nicodemus Weal and dragon-of-a-mother Francesca DeVega – must race to uncover the shocking truth about a prophesied demonic invasion, human language, and their own identities–if they don't kill each other first.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Book Review: Spellbound by Blake Charlton

This is the second book in the Spellwright trilogy by Blake Charlton. This continues the story 10 years after the prior book with some new characters. Here's the Goodreads blurb:

Francesca DeVega is a healer in the city of Avel, composing magical sentences that close wounds and disspell curses. But when a newly dead patient sits up and tells her that she must flee the infirmary or face a fate worse than death, Francesca finds herself in the middle of a game she doesn't understand―one that ties her to the notorious rogue wizard Nicodemus Weal and brings her face-to-face with demons, demigods, and a man she hoped never to see again.

Ten years ago, Nico escaped Starhaven Academy, leaving behind his failed life, in which he was considered disabled and felt useless. Now, in Spellbound, he's starting fresh, using his newfound gifts in the dark Chthonic languages to pursue the emerald that holds his birthright. Unfortunately, he can't escape the chaos of his old life. His mentor suffers from an incurable curse, agents of the fabled Halcyon hunt him day and night, pieces of Francesca's story don't add up, and the prophesized War of Disjunction looms on the horizon.

Nico and Francesca don't know it yet, but they are going to have to fit together the pieces of an age-old puzzle and discover the demon's darkest secret….

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Book Review: Spellwright by Blake Charlton

I picked up Spellwright by Blake Charlton when I got an alert it was on sale for just 75cents. This was an incredible price and while I could always just get it from the library, I decided to just buy it and give it a try. I had heard about it a long time ago and had it on my to-read list, just never high enough. Here is the Goodreads blurb:

The fresh, original first novel of a magical fantasy trilogy, about a dyslexic wizard who cannot spell his spells, yet is destined to contend with an ancient evil that threatens to destroy not only all the magic in the world, but all the people as well.

Nicodemus is a young, gifted wizard with a problem. Magic in his world requires the caster to create spells by writing out the text . . . but he has always been dyslexic, and thus has trouble casting even the simplest of spells. And his misspells could prove dangerous, even deadly, should he make a mistake in an important incantation.

Yet he has always felt that he is destined to be something more than a failed wizard. When a powerful, ancient evil begins a campaign of murder and disruption, Nicodemus starts to have disturbing dreams that lead him to believe that his misspelling could be the result of a curse. But before he can discover the truth about himself, he is attacked by an evil that has already claimed the lives of fellow wizards and has cast suspicion on his mentor. He must flee for his own life if he's to find the true villain.

But more is at stake than his abilities. For the evil that has awakened is a power so dread and vast that if unleashed it will destroy Nicodemus... and the world.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Book Review: Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is the third book that started with Children of Time. It continues shortly after the prior one, Children of Ruin, left off and is another take of terraforming efforts gone wrong and the subsequent events as the descendants of humanity rediscover them. Here is the Goodreads blurb:

Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost.

Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology – and they've arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers' help may be the colony itself.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Book Review: Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is the sequel to Children of Time and I just had to read it after enjoying that one so much. Here's the Goodreads blurb:

Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life -- but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity's great empire fell, and the program's decisions were lost to time. Aeons later, humanity and its new spider allies detected fragmentary radio signals between the stars. They dispatched an exploration vessel, hoping to find cousins from old Earth. But those ancient terraformers woke something on Nod better left undisturbed.

Read on for my mostly spoiler-free review.

Book Review: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

A while back I saw a BlueSky post from Reactor magazine that asked users what modern sci-fi books or series would likely become classics. Children of Time was one of them, and one that I hadn't already read. Coincidentally, I also noticed a friend of mind had recently reviewed it on Goodreads so I decided to give it a shot. Here's the official blurb:

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

Read on for my spoiler-free review (except for the species on the planet, which some blurbs also reveal).

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I picked this up at a book store thinking I would finally read it. I had seen the movie version a long time ago and enjoyed that. Plus I'm a geek and fan of video games, science fiction, fantasy, books, anime, etc and was born in the 80s so I figured I would recognize a lot of the nostalgia hits this book is known for. Here's the Goodreads blurb:

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Book Review: The Long Price Quartet series by Daniel Abraham

Unlike my usual reviews, this one focuses on the entire series of The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham, all 4 books, rather than a single one. Basically, I was travelling while I was reading the first one and didn't get a chance to write up something before the second, so decided to just take the whole series as a whole. These include, A Shadow in Summer, A Betrayal in Winter, An Autumn War, and The Price of Spring. Here is a blurb covering the full series:

The unforgettable fantasy epic series that marks Daniel Abraham, one half of the writing team behind The Expanse, as one of the most enthralling fantasy writers to emerge in recent years

In a world of ancient empires and immortal magics, one man stands at the crossroads of history.

The aggressively expansionist Galt empire has already conquered lands across a huge continent. But the cities of the Khaiem resist Galt's power with the andat creatures of magic with godlike powers. But magic and treacherous politics have brought a bitter harvest of violence and sorrow.

Otah Machi, caught between ancient wonders and a modern empire, has survived more than most men endure in two lifetimes. He is the culmination of a complex inheritance, and his own existence is the fulcrum around which the wheels of epic history rotate through achingly poignant cycles of life and death, love and betrayal.

Now, when the world seems utterly lost, all depends on Otah, and the lost loves and found family he has desperately hoped to protect from the tragedy that beckons. If they can summon the courage and power to forgive and resist darkness, all their hopes could be salvaged—along with their world.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Book Review: Defiant by Brandon Sanderson

Defiant is the 4th novel in the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson. This is the epic conclusion to a series of young adult sci-fi novels Sanderson has been leading. There's even a secondary series that includes author Janci Patterson, though I haven't read those yet. Here is the book blurb:

Spensa made it out of the Nowhere, but what she saw in the space between the stars has changed her forever. She came face to face with the Delvers, and finally got answers to the questions she’s had about her own strange Cytonic gifts.

The Superiority didn’t stop in it’s fight for galactic dominance while she was gone, though. Spensa’s team, Skyward Flight, was able to hold Winzik off, and even collect allies to help with the cause, but it’s only a matter of time until humanity–and the rest of the galaxy–falls.

Defeating them will require all the knowledge Spensa gathered while in the Nowhere. But being Cytonic is more complicated than she ever could have imagined. Now, Spensa must ask herself: how far is she willing to go for victory, if it means losing herself–and her friends–in the process.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.