Books Received in October 2022

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it!

This month I was privileged to receive a book from Tor.com.

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire - This is book 8 in McGuire's Wayward Children series and is set to publish on January 10th, 2023 (though publication dates have moved a lot the past year, so...). I've really enjoyed this series. I suspect most of us have dreamed at times of being able to leave this world for one that suits us better. This tells the stories of those who return. Several can be read as standalones, including this one, if the thought of reading 8 volumes is daunting. They're also novellas, so they're easier to whip through.

A young girl discovers an infinite variety of worlds in this standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-wining Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire, Lost in the Moment and Found.

Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go.

If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here.
If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back.

And the headphones that you swore this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it….

Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she discovers that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds.

And stepping through those doors exacts a price.

Book Review: Becoming Crone by Lydia M. Hawke

Pros: interesting older protagonist, fun magical creatures

Cons:

After a year of difficult changes, Claire is gifted a pendent for her 60th birthday that unlocks the gate of a witches hut and even more difficult changes.

This is book 1 of the Crone Wars. It’s unusual to find a female protagonist post-menopause, so reading about Claire’s life was kind of a treat and kind of an uncomfortable look at what’s coming for me. She’s an interesting protagonist who took pains to not rock the boat and now finds the boat has sailed without her. What do you do when your life gets upended at her age? Look for a new purpose.

The use of magick is limited as Claire’s being introduced to that part of the world. The creatures she faces were fun takes on myth. Especially the gnomes.

The book moves quickly and has a satisfying arc.

If you like urban fantasy and want something a little different, this is a good read.

Shout-Out: The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt

Far off the edge of human existence, beside a dying star lies a nameless ship abandoned and hidden, lost for a millennium. But there are secrets there, terrible secrets that would change the fate of humanity, and eventually someone will come looking.

Refugee, criminal and linguist Sean Wren is made an offer he knows he can’t refuse: life in prison, “voluntary” military service – or salvaging data in a long-dead language from an abandoned ship filled with traps and monsters, just days before it’s destroyed in a supernova. Data connected to the Philosopher’s Stone experiments, into unlocking the secrets of immortality.

And he’s not the only one looking for the derelict ship. The Ministers, mysterious undying aliens that have ruled over humanity for centuries, want the data – as does The Republic, humanity’s last free government. And time is running out.

In the bowels of the derelict ship, surrounded by horrors and dead men, Sean slowly uncovers the truth of what happened on the ship, in its final days… and the terrible secret it’s hiding.

NeoText flipbooks - Wereworld by Benjamin Percy and Francesco Francavilla

NeoText is a publisher of “illustrated short fiction and narrative non-fiction”. Their catalogue consists of true crime, pulp mysteries and SF noir. The stories are available on Amazon for a nominal fee, while a few are up in full on their website as free ‘flipbooks’.

If you want a good Halloween read, try Wereworld written by Benjamin Percy and illustrated by Francesco Francavilla.

 

“What if The Purge were supernatural? What if, instead of one night a year, the world went wild once a month?”

   

 You also can read it on their site or purchase it for the Kindle for less than $2.

Shout-Out: Wish You Weren’t Here by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

The Rook family run a little business: ghost hunting. And things have picked up recently. Something’s wrong. It’s been getting noticeably worse since, ooh, 2016?

Bad spirits are abroad, and right now they’re particularly around Coldbay Island, which isn’t even abroad, it’s only 20 miles from Skegness. The Rooks’ ‘quick call out’ to the island picks loose a thread that begins to unravel the whole place, and the world beyond.

Is this the apocalypse? This might be the apocalypse. Who knew it would kick off in an off-season seaside resort off the Lincolnshire coast? I’ll tell you who knew – Linda. She’s been feeling increasingly uneasy about the whole of the East Midlands since the 90s.

Barren by Peter V. Brett

Pros: fast paced, realistic relationships

Cons: homophobic world which may be distressing for some to read

Selia Square’s time as speaker of Tibbet’s Brook hasn’t always been easy, and as the demons start to swarm mistakes from her past threaten to destroy the Brook.

This is a demon cycle novella set around the time of the events in the novel The Core. You’ll be lost if you haven’t read the novels.

I liked Selia, though I’ll admit that the large age gap between her and her lover did give me pause. The novella is strongly focused on her sexuality and how being a lesbian goes against the religious and moral codes of the peoples of the Brook. Though it has a happy ending, some readers may find the negative language and how an earlier affair ends distressing. The author creates his own terms so there are no slurs, but it’s still a world that doesn’t accept gay couples.

The interpersonal relationships were handled realistically. Grudges festered, past events haunted the present, the youth didn’t care much about what happened before they were born. The town and its borroughs felt real and lived in.

It’s a quick read that fleshes in what happened in Arlen’s home village after he gave them the fighting wards and helps his father redeem himself.