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Book Review: The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez (Broken Binding edition)

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4.5/5 stars. A standalone science fiction debut novel, from a promising young writer, that many people consider a literary speculative fiction. I have heard so much about this novel and his second, The Spear that Cuts Through Water, that I was excited to receive and read this Broken Binding edition. As one might expect, the writing is beautiful and lyrical, the story is quite interesting, and the characters develop throughout the story in surprising, but understandable, ways. The story begins in a small community on a farming planet that has recently been added to the Umbai company’s expanding empire. The company delivers supplies to the planet, and one captain becomes enamored of a local farmer. He must wait 15 years for her transport to return but, because of time dilation through the space fold, the captain only ages a few months while she is gone. We see his story for the first third or so of the book until a strange alien boy suddenly appears in the farming community and then it...
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Book Review: The Demon Star by Jesse Aragon

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4.5/5 stars. Thanks to #NetGalley for the eARC of this debut novel set on a distant planet featuring scifi, fantasy, and horror elements that all come together in a very satisfying reading experience. The story centers around mythology, self-discovery, the conflict between ‘gods,’ and what that means for the culture of the planet. There are several characters that bear mentioning, Ysira Naktis – a woman sent to be ‘harvested’ by the gods, but who returns stronger than she imagined she could be, Jacen Kheris - a priest of the Church of the Black Sun who betrayed his first novitiate and now drinks to forget, Neri Semira – the boy who is chosen by his father to take on a demon, and Seth Semira – Neri’s uncle who tries to save Neri from a fate worse than death. The mythology of this planet, the characters, and the gods are reminiscent of many older stories from the 70s and 80s but take on a life and a story all their own with Aragon’s deft writing. The main conflict takes a turn very qui...
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Book Review: Our Simulated Selves by Nikki Null, read as part of SPSFC-5

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4.5/5 stars. The best science fiction often addresses mental, emotional, social, societal, and political issues in subtle ways. This novel examines the mental and social concerns related to personal gender dysphoria in very direct, and often disturbing, ways. This novel is a thorough exploration of the potentiality of brain scanning technology, and asks the question, “can we use that technology to address mental or emotional health for people suffering with a variety of personal issues?” This story gave me a great deal of personal insight into the mind of a sexually questioning person, addressing the physical and mental toll that being born in the wrong body can have on that individual. I have personally never experienced these emotions, as I am a cisgender male, but the author appears to share much of her own experiences with the telling of this story. I appreciate the strength of character that her experiences, and the writing of this story, required. Our Simulated Selves is a we...
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Book Review: ab initio by Jacob Terracina, as part of SPSFC-5

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4.5/5 stars. This novel, set in the near future, about a small startup company that is working to develop a sentient machine learning ‘brain,’ is the debut novel from Terracina, a Silicone Valley tech employee. I am certain that some of this story is about his own experiences, but there is so much more. This novel is about relationships, mental and cognitive illnesses, how age affects the human body, and what the consequences of developing a true A.I. brain might mean for humanity.  I read this story as part of the Fifth Annual Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC-5) that was originally started by Hugh Howey as the sci-fi equivalent to Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) competition. It is one of the best hard sci-fi novels that I have read in some time and is similar in some ways to the writing of Greg Bear, but with a decidedly modern flourish. Terracina’s writing skill is well-developed, especially for someone writing their debut novel. This story ...
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Book Review: House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

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3.5/5 stars. While this story intrigues me with its contemplation of friendship, Puerto Rican life, and vengeance, it also frustrates me at times. Overall, Iglesias is a talented writer who weaves a story of a hurricane and its aftermath into a revenge tale about five friends trying to get justice when the mother of one of them is murdered. He ties the struggles of living in poverty on the island of Puerto Rico with battling with gangsters, inner demons, and actual demons.  My frustrations lie with the writer’s use of language in his story. I have some knowledge of Spanish, but not enough to read passages written in that language with no corresponding translation. I understand what he is trying to do with this technique, but I wish he or his editor would have considered the implications for accessing a broader audience. Early in the novel, I sought translations for these passages, but these moments really threw me out of the story. Further in, I quit looking for a translation and ...
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Book Review: Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

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5/5 stars. Jones writes some of the most interesting life-experience stories masquerading as horror novels, or in this case, a novella - about a young American Indian boy who wakes up one night to see his dead father walking through his house. The story revolves around the boy's experiences in trying to connect with his father but is really about how difficult every day has become for his hard-working mother, himself, and his little brother, since the death of his father. In less than 100 pages, Jones takes a significant life event and turns it into a coming-of-age tale that shares the experience of poverty with the reader, expounds on what it means to come from a tight-knit community (the reservation) but then to be alone trying to survive. This story delves into single motherhood, the difficulties of raising a child with special needs, and the loneliness and fear that comes from being different. Mapping the Interior is a powerful reading experience, ghost story, and coming-of-ag...
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Book Review: The Hive by Ronald Malfi

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4/5 stars. A psychological thriller/horror story set in a small community in Maryland called Mariner’s Cove, where several of its inhabitants are overtaken by the urge to turn the local water tower into a ‘hive.’ One ten-year-old boy, Cory, realizes that something is wrong as graffiti begins showing up throughout the neighborhood, and his neighbor starts acting strangely. Malfi does an excellent job of ramping up the tension, paranoia, and uncertainty in the story, as the community members become increasingly obsessed with their project and focused on the Endgame. What is happening in Mariner’s Cove and what is Endgame? In some ways, this story reminded me of Joe Hill’s King Sorrow, that I read earlier this year, especially as the tension builds and the community members are uncertain of what will happen in the end. I was surprised to see, in his afterword, that Malfi has been sitting on this story for ten years. This is a powerful story for him to have held on to for so long. It has...
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