Book Review: Borderline by Mishell Baker
Millie is broken, and perhaps not still good. But she is trying. Having lost her filmmaking career and her legs in a failed suicide attempt a year ago, her path back to a stable life has been a tough one. When Caryl Vallo from the Arcadia Project offers Millie a position, things are even more complicated. For the Arcadia Project, in the manner of the Men In Black, keeps track of the visitors to Earth not from space, but from the Fairyland next door. And Millie’s past problems and current nature are not a problem, but rather a selling point to the organization. Even as a simple sample assignment goes haywire, Millie learns that she is not the only person with issues in the Arcadia Project. But can Millie rise above these challenges before the fallout from that simple assignment causes problems that will extend far beyond her life, or even Tinseltown? Borderline is the debut novel from Mishell Baker.
Book Review: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
You and your husband have been at the center of a lot of events in history over the last few decades, especially involving a tricky succession and regency that nearly blew up an entire planet more than a few times. But all that is in the past. Sadly and tragically, your husband is now dead. Your former charge is now a secure Emperor on his throne, and you yourself are Vicereine of a colony. Your son is now firmly in the Ducal seat that your late husband held, and is doing well. More so, thanks to Betan genetic engineering and breeding, you are pretty sure that you have many decades of productive life left. So, what do you do *now* — especially if you are Cordelia Vorkosigan? Not go to Disneyland, that’s for sure. And definitely not fade away.
Book Review: Swords and Scoundrels by Julia Knight
Vocho and Kasha are duelists, or were, once upon a time. In these less enlightened times, not only are they no longer in the Duellists Guild, the Guild itself isn’t quite the institution it once was, after the fall of a King and the rise of a new order. Vocho and Kasha take whatever jobs they can to survive, and those jobs often involve the liberation of goods and funds from the more well off. However, the problem of being highwaymen is that sometimes you wind up with a cargo far beyond what you bargained for, a cargo that several factions are looking to capture, or destroy, with the fate of cities and even a kingdom in the balance. Now, with such a hot potato, the pasts of Vocho and Kasha seems poised to catch up with their present. Swords and Scoundrels is the first in the Duellists Trilogy from Julia Knight. Julia Knight, under the name Francis Knight, is also known for writing the Fade to Black series.
Book Review: The Empress Game by Rhonda Mason
Space Opera machinations, a Princess and Prince on the run, and vicious combat both in and out of the ring mark the plot of Rhonda Mason’s The Empress Game. I’m a sucker for Traveller-style Space Opera, with multiple star-spanning empires and kingdoms and republics, politics between different worlds, intrigue and adventure on far-flung worlds. The Empress Game provides us with an Empire that seems to dominate a swath of the galaxy, but is not alone in its suzerainty. It is the intersection of those polities, or on the boundaries of them, that rich and interesting characters and story can occur.
Book Review: Planetfall by Emma Newman
A colony on an alien planet was founded by a religious visionary inspired by a mysterious incident on Earth to create an expedition to the distant world. A 3-D printer repairer and expert in recycling, Renata Ghali is an important member of the small, fledgling colony. And with that visionary in God’s City, communing with God, Ren is one of the remaining pillars of the community, keeping it together. She also has terrible secrets, public, about what is really going on the colony and what happened when the colonists first arrived. Even more so, Ren has strong secrets about herself, that until now she has managed to keep from the colony. But the arrival of an unexpected visitor to the colony from without is the inciting incident that may upset the unsteady equilibrium that Ren has going. Planetfall marks a change from fantasy to science fiction for Split Worlds author Emma Newman.
On Fury and Fairies and the Remnants of Gods by Gillian Polack
The other day, someone said to me that Tolkien’s elves were the real thing, because he was a Medievalist and so he knew. I’m a Medievalist and I know, too, and what the real thing is depends so very much on where one is and what one is writing. I’m not at all certain that Tolkien would have liked to be told that the closest thing to his elves in Old French tales are the blonde fairies (with hair that is red-gold, like fine wire, and the palest of skins and the prettiest of rose colouring on their cheeks) in the Arthurian romances. They are not the stuff of folkdom. They’re not even terribly legendary. They’re the object of quests by knights who don’t quite fit at court. They have the best tents and the most beautiful horses and an unlimited number of handmaidens more beautiful than anyone else in sight apart from the fairy herself. They’re not that real. When I stop and think about Tolkien’s elves, they’re not quite as perfect, but they come close at times. They’re not perfect because they’re annoyingly “I know so much and don’t see why I should tell you.” Neither of them have wings. These fairies are not the hidden folk of any of the various regions in Western Europe. They’re a literary construct. In fact they appear in the Marvel and DC of their time. I shall refer to the lead fairy (the one who the knight wins) as the Nick Fury of the magic realms from now on when I need to, on panels.
