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Skip Trace by Kelly Jensen and Jenn Burke
This is the 3rd Chaos Station book! I haven’t reviewed the first two here, but I enjoyed them and obviously kept reading the series. The first book is a second-chance lovers romance, with scifi thriller stuff! There’s super soldiers, a government conspiracy, outer space shenanigans, aliens, secrets, and kissing. And the second book builds off various plot-related repercussions in the first book– thriller and romance both– while expanding on the relationship between the two leads, Zander and Felix. This third book, while continuing on the major plot points from the previous two books, ramps everything up by, like, ten. It does this great plot thing where terrible events happen that…
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REVIEW: Clockwork Heart by Heidi Cullinan
Alt history, yay! Airships! Steampunk that’s more than just fashion! Austrian princesses who need their own books ASAP! This was pretty different from her other books, actually. Which is great, because authors should try new things. For instance: the sexytimes vocabulary was way different than her usual, possibly because she was going for a dated/historical feel? I liked this book, on the whole, though I’m not into exhibitionism/gang-bangs/etc. and the two leads here totally are into it which made it a little awkward. They were very sweet, though, and I liked how it had action/espionage mixed with a romantic plot. Read: January 15, 2016
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Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
This was unexpected! And not in a good way. It felt like a very different book from Ancillary Justice, though the overall morality of the worldbuilding is the same. Unlike the first book, this one is set (mostly) all in one place, during one time period, with negligible character growth and no redemption arc/quest. It does add lots of interesting tidbits to the world of the Imperial Radch, like details about certain colonies and the people who live on them. It also delves more into class structure, racism/colonialism/classism, and how one person coming down from on high won’t fix everything, which I liked. Unfortunately, I didn’t like almost everything else,…
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There Will Be Phlogston, vN, The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal
Desperately trying to play catch-up, as always! Here’s three tiny reviews of books I’ve read several months ago. There Will Be Phlogston – Alexis Hall I hated Byron Kae’s sister in previous books because she made her sibling’s life very unhappy, but it turns out she’s more complex than just “horrible bully.” She wants to escape her terrible parents! She feels stifled by society and its expectations! She wants to find love! And she finds it, alongside a super repressed gay guy and their boyfriend. Surprise! It’s a threesome! And way more complicated than that, of course, because Alexis Hall does nothing simple in his books. Anyway, I loved it.…
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The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton
The Philosopher Kings gets off to a bad start, tbh. The Just City has separated into multiple cities, all with differing ideas about what Plato Really Meant, Aristotle-the-fly disappeared, Pallas Athene never came back, and worst of all Simmea, my favorite character from The Just City, dies. She’s murdered during an art raid. She’s dead! And that really hurt. Apollo didn’t much like it either, and he spends the majority of the book trying to come back from his overwhelming grief. Maia is also dealing with things, including her rapist from The Just City wanting to apologize and be friends again. Everybody’s depressed from the raids and people dying and…
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In Discretion by Reesa Herberth
This is a short little scifi horror/romance story about two ex-lovers who meet again on a space station while on the run from angry zombies, assassins, and their own unresolved issues (it wasn’t a happy break-up). I really liked this! I wish it was longer, as I didn’t entirely understand the background conspiracy plot which lead to the zombie outbreak. A little more room for worldbuilding would’ve made it more emotionally satisfying when the conspiracy came to light. As it was, I mostly didn’t care since it was barely there. And the characters, Kazra and Thanson, really stole the whole show. They’re childhood sweethearts who broke up in a bad…
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Meatworks by Jordan Castillo Price
This showed up in my recommendations after reading a Jordan L. Hawk book, I think. They don’t really have anything in common except a first name and that they write m/m romances– also Meatworks is, if anything, a dystopian-ish[1. everything is super regulated and you basically have to sign in/out of every single building and the robots are always following you and the government is always watching.] scifi book set in an alternate universe where robotics evolved faster than anything else. So, like, people have robot limbs! But no smart phones. Meatworks reminded those really gritty late 1980s punk novels, the kind where you’re not entirely sure whether the protagonist…
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Peripheral People by Reesa Herberth & Michelle Moore
I picked up Peripheral People because of the scifi MYSTERY angle, with the romance being a bonus. (I’m also always on the lookout for scifi books starring people other than straight white dudes. Especially ones with aliens! Just fyi.) Scifi mysteries are far and few and I desperately need to find more of them. Especially if they’re as good as Peripheral People! Admittedly, this one has a serial killer, a plot detail I’m not much into, but the rest of the story kept me occupied enough that I ended up not minding the serial killer so much. It was a twisty enough mystery that I didn’t even figure out who…