Review - "Confessions of the Fox"

Confessions of the Fox
by Jordy Rosenberg
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 5th July 2018
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Confessions of the Fox is a reimagining of the legend of Jack Sheppard, a thief and gaol-breaker of the early 18th century in London, in which Jack is a trans man. It is told in the form of an authentic manuscript, found by Professor Voth, whose annotations of the manuscript in themselves tell a parallel story.

To be honest, I found it a little hard to get into the manuscript story. Mostly because it's written to emulate actual 18th-century writing and I find that hard to read in general, but also because, until about 65-70 pages to go, there's not much action really happening in it (defining action as adventure! explosions! risk of death! those kinds of things). On the other hand, I got really quickly into Professor Voth's story told in his footnotes. Which was kind of a problem, because that was a much more minor part of the book than the manuscript. But overall, the story was definitely good, just not really great until the last part (although there was a good bit in the middle which was absolutely Chaotic in both the manuscript and footnotes so).

Pretty central to Jack's story is his relationship with Bess, but I felt like I didn't get enough of a development of that in the manuscript. I realise it's not in first person so couldn't really give an insight into his feelings (although it's kind of an omniscient third person so did actually do insights from time to time - it also had multiple POVs/focuses which was a bit strange given that it was supposed to be Jack's confessions, and it's not really explained, but for a (potentially paranoid or obsessive) conjecture near the end, but anyway), but the relationship happens fairly rapidly. Like, we're told they mean a lot to each other but it doesn't always feel like there's a lot in the text to back that up. But that may have actually been a byproduct of the writing style. Who knows.

I have to confess, finally, that I was getting a little bored around the 70% mark, because it is a bit of a slow story - the real action comes in the last 20%, although the action in Voth's story is enough to keep you reading if just to know what happens next in that. It's also fairly ambiguous how Voth's story ends (or at least I found it to be) - is he just paranoid and obsessed with the manuscript, or is there really a mysterious group of people sitting outside of time?

And, to preempt anyone looking up Jack Sheppard and seeing his fate, this book does have a happy ending.

Five for Friday: Space

So, there was an accidental three week hiatus (I may or may not have kept forgetting), but today is a Friday, and I remembered, so it's (finally) back! Up next, I'm reccing books set in space (and less well-known ones too, so if you don't see something on here, it's because I considered it too well-known).

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Rating: 3 stars
Content Warnings: rape in flashback scene, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt mention, incest in book 2, dubious consent, suicide, torture in book 3

Synopsis: Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress.

The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao–because she might be his next victim.

Comments: OK, I'll be honest right now. I won't ever stop reccing this book/series. Yes, so it's somewhat like bear with until the last 40 pages. But do those last 40 pages ever make up for it. And books 2 and 3 are also epic.

Joyride by Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: Earth sucks.

The stars have been blocked out for so long that people have forgotten there was anything else besides the World Government Alliance watching over them. Uma Akkolyte is a girl who shoots first, leaps before she looks, and is desperate for any means to leave her planet behind. And so she does. When Uma jacks an alien spaceship and punches through the stratosphere she sets forth on an adventure with an unlikely crew who are totally not ready for all the good, bad, and weird the universe will throw at them.

Comments: Found family in space, what more could you want? It's also gay, so. What are you waiting for?

Starflight by Melissa Landers

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Life in the outer realm is a lawless, dirty, hard existence, and Solara Brooks is hungry for it. Just out of the orphanage, she needs a fresh start in a place where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. She's so desperate to reach the realm that she's willing to indenture herself to Doran Spaulding, the rich and popular quarterback who made her life miserable all through high school, in exchange for passage aboard the spaceliner Zenith.

When a twist of fate lands them instead on the Banshee, a vessel of dubious repute, Doran learns he's been framed on Earth for conspiracy. As he pursues a set of mysterious coordinates rumored to hold the key to clearing his name, he and Solara must get past their enmity to work together and evade those out for their arrest. Life on the Banshee may be tumultuous, but as Solara and Doran are forced to question everything they once believed about their world—and each other—the ship becomes home, and the eccentric crew family. But what Solara and Doran discover on the mysterious Planet X has the power to not only alter their lives, but the existence of everyone in the universe...

Comments: Found family combined with slowburn enemies to lovers, aka me in tears because I love these tropes that much. Book two also has the runaway princess trope mixed with friends to lovers.

Mirage by Somaiya Daud

Rating: 4.5 stars

Synopsis: In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too, will have adventure, and travel beyond her isolated moon.

But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects: she is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double, someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place.

As Amani is forced into her new role, she can’t help but enjoy the palace’s beauty—and her time with the princess’ fiancé, Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection...because one wrong move could lead to her death.

Comments: OK, so yes, it's a bit of a cheat to be reccing a book that's not even out yet, but hey. It's really that good. And it has a really well-developing yet excrutiatingly painful surrogate sister relationship. Also, while you're at it, enter my giveaway for a preorder of this book!

Yohancé by Paul Louise-Julie

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: Yohance is a Space Opera Graphic Novel inspired by a fully African Aesthetic.

Comments: Two words: Space. Heist. That's all you need to know about this book. So now go read it.

Review - "Revenant Gun"

Revenant Gun, Machineries of Empire #3
by Yoon Ha Lee
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 12th June 2018
spoilers? some

Goodreads

tw for rape, dubious consent relationships (unhealthy power dynamics), torture, death

Galley provided by publisher

But that didn’t mean those things weren’t worth doing. Someone had to carry on with the small acts that kept civilization moving. And this time it was her turn.

You know those series that make you kind of reluctant to read the final book because you don't quite trust the author not to break your heart into a million pieces? This was one of those ones. I've had the ARC of this for a good 4 months, and it's only now, a full three weeks after its release, that I've finished it. And you know what? Yoon Ha Lee broke my heart into a million pieces.

Revenant Gun picks the story up around 9 years after the end of Raven Strategem. The high calendar has been destabilised by Cheris, who has subsequently gone missing, leaving Brezan to assume the mantle in her stead, opposed by self-proclaimed Protector-General Inesser. More sinisterly, Nirai Kujen, the only hexarch besides Mikodez to avoid the assassination, is eager to restore the high calendar, for reasons known only to himself.

To be perfectly honest, reading the blurb for the first time had me incredibly confused. Thankfully, that clears up within the first few chapters. Kujen has resurrected Shuos Jedao, based on the remaining memories he has stored away, from Jedao before he joined the Shuos Academy. This kind of brings me to my first point (or not point as such, but first comment). Kujen and Jedao's relationship is definitely unhealthy and just reading the chapters they shared made me pretty uncomfortable. There's a really unhealthy power dynamic in there - Kujen can basically control Jedao because he can return him to the black cradle and shut him away if he wants to, so how is Jedao going to be able to refuse Kujen anything. You can see why I didn't really like reading those chapters. Not to mention it gets even more skeevy when the big reveal comes. (Although it's not outright condemned as a relationship in the text, Jedao's POV makes it clear he does know it's not healthy.)

There is also another unhealthy relationship between Jedao and Dhanneth (also with some unbalanced power dynamics - Jedao is Dhanneth's commander, and Kel formation instinct means he pretty much can't disobey him. Not to mention Kujen (again) did some shit to Dhanneth to break him). This one made me sad more than disgusted though - it is definitely not presented as being good, just fyi - because it's exactly what happened to Jedao in the Academy. But he doesn't have those memories because of Kujen, so he's just perpetuating the abuse and he doesn't even realise it.

Despite having parts where I felt fairly uncomfortable, I loved this book. This series as a whole has just got better and better as I read it. I can't believe now that I was considering DNF-ing the first book because I didn't like the characters or the writing. Past me was obviously delusional. I think if I went back and reread Ninefox Gambit now I would like it a lot more, because I know what's coming. I would also probably spend the whole time spotting parallels or foreshadowing and start crying or something too - that's how thinking about this series is going to be for me from now on.

So now all that's left is to avoid the inevitable book slump caused by this book.

Review - "Concerto in Chroma Major"

Concerto in Chroma Major
by Naomi Tajedler
rating: ☆
published: 12th July 2018
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

File this under "books that make me suffer when reviewing because I'm having to relive the whole damn mess". My one word review here would be "Disappointed". Capital d and everything.

The good things

- Were there any?

The bad things

- I wanna say it started off alright, but, in truth, it really didn't. I was only a chapter in when I realised the writing was not for me. I don't want to say bad, because it wasn't nearly as awful as some stuff I've read, but it wasn't good. It was in present tense (already a killer for me), but it was also really purple prosey and it ended up falling flat.

- Anna is the best person to talk about the Polish rep, but let me just say. I got some excellent reactions everytime I sent her something with the Polish character.

- The fatphobia. Yikes.

"Not your type." Halina barks out a short laugh and rests her head against the window, her eyes lost in nocturnal Paris outside. "What's not my type?" "American. And chubby." They laugh derisively. "Like I said, not your type."

"I didn't expect someone of her type to be... hardworking, so to speak." "Her type?" [...] "Oh, come on, Lina," Ari says with a small, uncertain laugh. "People like her, yeah. Didn't you say she's bi? And she's a fatty too. Neither have the best rep."

- The biphobia. Also yikes. (See quote above.) And yeah, it kind of gets challenged, but only by Alexandra, and for the angst plotline. It's not challenged before that, and Ari's biphobia and fatphobia never is. And the whole romance with Alexandra seems designed to teach Halina that actually bi and fat people are alright!

- There is zero tension between Alexandra and Halina. They have sex like 5 chapters in and then there's a two week timeskip and suddenly Alexandra is in love with her. Their whole relationship is predicated on lust and there is no tension. So there's no reason for me to care when it comes to the point that they break up and there's angst.

- This scene.

She [Alexandra] orders a Continental Sour and subtly checks to make sure the kimono fold of her dress is not too revealing. Just the top of her cleavage is showing. Good. Her outfit marks her as the quirky American artist who can bring color to the lives...

- The whole ""love triangle"" between Leo, Halina and Alexandra was tedious and overdone. I say ""love triangle"" because it was more like Leo still wanted Alexandra and thought they were "destined" to end up together, while Halina was, despite being a complete bitch at times, the one Alexandra actually wanted. But of course they had to keep having metaphorical dick measuring contests and not actually like each other.

Those are the major things but if you want more, I made a whole thread here. To quote Michelle, "yoinks".