ThatBookIsOnFiyah

5/5 stars. I have read all of Swan’s fantasy novels, but this is the first of his sci-fi stories that I have read. I have been anxiously anticipating The Infinite State since it was announced, and I am not disappointed in the product of Swan’s imagination. With the vibes of ‘1984’ and ‘V for Vendetta,’ a totalitarian regime, the Decurion Empire, controls its citizens, and their thoughts, through displays of power, intimidation, and fear. One woman dreams of a different life, safely away from this country and the Eternal Father (Pater Aeternus), after the sudden death of her husband, an important party member. She inherits a hefty sum of money from her husband’s estate and decides to buy her own planet. This story does a wonderful job of distinguishing the importance of free thought and living free from the fear that a misspoken word could result in death. Katherine, our planet-buying widow, sets out to establish a country where all citizens have input into the decisions of the countr...

4/5 stars. I have heard a great deal about this book in the last couple of years. It is the first novel by Ishiguro, written in the early 1980s, and tells the story of a mother whose oldest daughter recently committed suicide. Her younger daughter comes to visit and causes her to reflect on her life before she had children, while living in Nagasaki, Japan, in the early 1950s. Historical fiction is a fascinating genre for me, and Japanese historical fiction has been on my TBR quite a bit in the last couple of years, having read quite a few of Haruki Murakami’s early works last year, and a couple of other Japan-centered magical realism novels by other authors. For this to have been his first novel, Ishiguro writes exceptional prose and his descriptions take the reader into the world of mid-20 th Century Japan. I finished this short novel very quickly, reading about 1/3 rd of it at each session. The story is interesting, if a bit tragic and sad, yet still hopeful in the end, for both ...

4/5 stars. The first book in a new mystery/thriller series by fantasy writer RJ Barker, writing under the pseudonym RJ Dark. This story has an interesting mystery featuring local gangsters and the Russian mob in the northern part of England, but the best part of this story are the characters. In particular, the two main characters who are investigating the mystery, Malachite Jones and his friend Jackie Singh Kattar, make for an unusual friendship. Mal is a recovered addict. Jackie is former military and currently an independent ‘businessman’ running protection for the local community, and perhaps much more. They are friends from their youth, growing up in the Edge, a low-income community rife with crime. Mal is a paranormal investigator, a ‘psychic’ who helps clients through their grief. His newest client is a local woman whose husband recently died in a motorcycle accident who hires him to find her husband’s missing lottery ticket worth millions. Unfortunately for Mal, both the loca...

5/5 stars. Harry August is a kalachakra, a person who lives the same life over and over again but remembers everything that happened before. In each life, Harry learns that the world is approaching its end faster than it should be, but Harry thinks he knows who is causing this to happen. What can he do to put the world back on its correct path? This novel was my first experience with Claire North. I am impressed with her prose and her imagination in building such a fascinating story. I bought Slow Gods recently and plan to read it, but I know she has many other novels that I will be checking into. I am always impressed with a writer who tells a good story but also makes me consider the consequences if the story were actually true! This book was recommended to me by a friend over a year ago and I finally got around to reading it. I wish I had read it sooner. Harry August is an interesting character with the desire to do good for the world, mostly. I highly recommend checking out this un...

3/5 stars. I read some of LaRocca’s short stories earlier this year and was excited to get into his full-length novels. Unfortunately, this novel demonstrated that his longer fiction might not be for me. The story is really about Burnt Sparrow and its inhabitants, and this is an ugly, depraved town, with some of the wickedest perversions I have ever seen portrayed in a book. However, the story bounced around too much. It seemed like it was setting up one story, then changed to something else, then went back to the earlier idea and added a new twist. The novel finished with a completely different focus, a separate piece of fiction from the main character. I understand that this is the first book in a series, but the disparate storylines, with no resolution for any of them, put me off of the story quite a bit. With all of that being said, LaRocca is a fine writer, has created an unusual locale, and developed some intriguing, if completely mad, characters. I certainly would caution a re...