Books Received in February 2016

I've been keeping my book requests down so I have time to go through older titles that have waited (in some cases years) to be read.

So there's only one title today, from Saga Press, the new science fiction and fantasy imprint from Simon & Schuster.


Borderline by Mishell Baker - I'm keen to see more disabled protagonists in fiction, so I was drawn to this book.  I really enjoyed this book and have already reviewed it.

A cynical, disabled film director with borderline personality disorder gets recruited to join a secret organization that oversees relations between Hollywood and Fairyland in the first book of a new urban fantasy series from debut author Mishell Baker.

A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales.

For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble’s disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds.

No pressure.

Shout-Out: Where Futures End by Parker Peevyhouse

Five teens, five futures. Dylan develops a sixth sense that allows him to glimpse another world. Brixney must escape a debtor colony by finding a way to increase the number of hits on her social media feed so she’ll attract corporate sponsorship. Epony goes “High Concept” and poses as an otherworldly being to recapture her boyfriend’s attention. Reef struggles to survive in a city turned virtual gameboard. And Quinn uncovers the alarming secret that links them all.

These are stories about a world that is destroying itself, and about the alternate world that might be its savior. Unless it’s just the opposite.

Update on Medieval Posts

Sorry for the lack of medieval posts so far this year.  They take a long time to research and I've been busy trying to read a ton of stuff to get books off my floor again.  I keep saying I'll go down to a review every two weeks to free up some time, but I'm actually happy doing 1/week, though that means some things may get ignored until I build up my review buffer (which I've currently done again).  

I started working on the next Cathedral post yesterday, on Notre Dame de Paris, but there are a lot of modifications I have to make on my floor plan and exterior sculpture cheat sheet before it's ready to post, so that may be another week or two.  I've also realized that I didn't take as many detail shots as I'd intended and a few of my other shots (of which I only got 1) came out blurry or backlit.  More motivation to go back at some point (when Chartres and Reims are done being renovated).

In the meantime, here's some of the central / Last Judgement portal sculpture of Notre Dame de Paris, depicting demons sending souls to hell and torturing them.

Shout-Out: Bluescreen by Dan Wells

Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni—a smart device implanted right in a person’s head. In a world where virtually everyone is online twenty-four hours a day, this connection is like oxygen—and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it.

Marisa Carneseca is one of those people. She might spend her days in Mirador, but she lives on the net—going to school, playing games, hanging out, or doing things of more questionable legality with her friends Sahara and Anja. And it’s Anja who first gets her hands on Bluescreen—a virtual drug that plugs right into a person’s djinni and delivers a massive, nonchemical, completely safe high. But in this city, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and Mari and her friends soon find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that is much bigger than they ever suspected.

Videos by The Nerdwriter

I recently discovered The Nerdwriter's youtube page and have been slowly going back through his thoughtful videos.  He's got some videos on films and art like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Why it's the Best, Pan's Labyrinthe and Disobedient Fairy Tales, Neil Gaiman's Sandman: What Dreams Cost, and  Inside Out: Emotional Theory Comes Alive, he's also got videos on science and social science topics (the only one of which I've seen so far is How Donald Trump Answers a Question, which is good - and kind of scary).

Book Review: Borderline by Mishell Baker

Pros: fascinating protagonist, thought-provoking, interesting mystery

Cons: 

Millicent Roper, director and UCLA student, is in an institute for borderline personality disorder and an attempted suicide that left her with two prosthetic limbs and a lot of physical and emotional scars.  When Caryl Vallo approaches her with a job offer, she’s intrigued by the secrecy surrounding it.  The Arcadia Project regulates travel between our world and Arcadia, and one of their nobles hasn’t returned as scheduled.

I picked this book up because the protagonist has several physical and mental disabilities.  I kept reading because the writing is so damn good.  

I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t like the protagonist, as she’s introduced as bitter and sarcastic. But as the story’s told from her point of view, the reader’s included in her thought process - why she acts the way she acts, and therefore gets to see the disconnect between her thoughts and feelings and her actions.  In other words, she’s not a particularly nice person from the outside, but from the inside you really sympathize with her.  Much of the division between what she feels vs what she does comes from her borderline personality disorder, but there’s also an element of ‘I’ve been hurt before so I’ll keep others away so I can’t be hurt again’.

I’m not qualified to judge the accuracy of Baker’s depictions of prosthetics, wheelchair use, and mental disorders, so I’d be interested in hearing from those who are.  It was wonderful to see a protagonist deal with physical and mental disabilities - especially referencing the psychiatric treatments that help her deal with the borderline personality disorder.

The book is interesting because Millie works with several other damaged people, who aren’t very polite towards her but are likely just as sympathetic, if you saw inside them.  It’s understood that they’ve all got issues of some sort - like Millie, but she’s not always told what their issues are.  On the one hand, I understood that as a privacy issue it should be left to the individual to decide if they want to tell their story.  On the other hand, I suspect some of the personality clashes in the book could have been resolved if everyone understood what everyone else is going through / what their diagnoses are - so they could avoid triggering negative reactions in each other.

One of my favourite things in the book was the calling out of unintentional/unconscious insults/racism.  These include things she does and things she notices others doing to her.

You’re slowly introduced to what the Arcadia Project does and it’s quite interesting.  The world expands a little at a time with each revelation to Millie about what’s really going on.  And she’s a very clever protagonist, seeing minor clues and putting things together in ways I didn’t catch.  The mystery was really interesting, with several twists I didn’t see coming.  The world is soundly built, with rules - quite specific ones - and lots of room to expand.

This is an excellent urban fantasy novel that doesn’t follow the trends.  There’s no romance, no ass kicking, just damaged people trying to get by in a damaged world.

Out March 1st.

Shout-Out: The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Nix's life began in Honolulu in 1868. Since then she has traveled to mythic Scandinavia, a land from the tales ofOne Thousand and One Nights, modern-day New York City, and many more places both real and imagined. As long as he has a map, Nix's father can sail his ship, The Temptation, to any place, any time. But now he's uncovered the one map he's always sought—1868 Honolulu, before Nix's mother died in childbirth. Nix's life—her entire existence—is at stake. No one knows what will happen if her father changes the past. It could erase Nix's future, her dreams, her adventures . . . her connection with the charming Persian thief, Kash, who's been part of their crew for two years. If Nix helps her father reunite with the love of his life, it will cost her her own.