I really want to rate this bundle of the trilogy to say once again: this is a 5/5 trilogy that I loved immensely. All the themes are dealt with perfecI really want to rate this bundle of the trilogy to say once again: this is a 5/5 trilogy that I loved immensely. All the themes are dealt with perfectly and the characters are amazing...more
“YES.” That is the only word I found when I went to look at my first draft of this review and I thought I should keep it. It really translates my stat“YES.” That is the only word I found when I went to look at my first draft of this review and I thought I should keep it. It really translates my state of excitement and joyfulness upon finishing this book, how this book did justice to a remarquable cast of characters, while juggling with an epic number of plotlines.
It is important to note that 90% of the characters in this books are women and I loved all these ladies SO MUCH. When I say that this book has almost only women protagonists I’m not kidding, I can only remember one or two names of men, and they were really secondary characters. Women were everywhere in this novel: as side characters, main characters, antagonists… This was amazing to me. It didn’t even strike me before nearing the end of the novel and trying to do a mental list of the important characters.
Regarding the chronology in relation to the five first books, this is the equivalent of the start of the second season of the Craft Sequence. (Max Gladstone said that in answer to a goodreads question here.) So this is the sixth book both in publication and chronological order, and mostly set some time after the events of Full Fathom Five since Kai is back as a main character in The Ruin of Angels. This book could be read as a standalone, but I still think it would be even MORE enjoyable if one has read the others! There are guest appearences of some characters previously met in the other books, mentions of some events of importance… I had binged-read the first five right before jumping on that one and I can say this was the best experience possible!
There is A LOT happening in this book. It felt like a murder mystery, with thefts and family secrets and big corporations and… you got the idea! The start of it all is that Kai is back in this really weird city because her sister asked for her help. She’s unconvenienced by this but family is family and she went anyway. I have mentionned it in the review of the first five books, but I feel compelled to say again that Kai is a trans woman of color. There is also a heist happening at one point of the novel involving several women, and a lot of them are queer. Like, all of them if I’m not mistaken. Like I said, SO MANY COOL (QUEER) WOMEN.
Max Gladstone made a little twitter thread on what this book is about and he says it best: "Hey! Listen! RUIN OF ANGELS hits stands NEXT WEEK! Kai, and Izza, and a train heist, and sisters, and a squid tower! This is a book about troubles in close relationships, about good intentions gone wrong, about self-deception and self-liberation, and family. Also, venture capital, surveillance culture, startups, the Future (which is Murder), geopolitics, soul trade, mapping, & criminal evangelism." WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT. This book has everything, everything I tell you.
The wolrdbuilding going into this city is mind-blowing, when Kai first put step into the city, she almost passed out and I can say that it has the same effect on the reader. There is a lot to take in but it is so rewarding in the end.
And the end! Oh my god (😉), it hints at something big coming, at more stories, more more more and I’m super ready.
This series keep on proving to me with each new book that yes yes yes this is one of my new favourite that I will re-read a lot in the future. One of these where I will discover new details and secrets with each new reading, where I will fall in love with the characters again and again, and be eagerly waiting for more wonderful additions to this wonderful sequence. Add to that those gorgeous cover art and I’m sold for ever and ever to the Craft Sequence.
A review copy (eARC) of this book was provided by the publisher. Some things might change in the final copy. Review first posted on my blog...more
A story set on a distant planet and focusing on some kind of robot (or SecUnit) in charge of security for a team of scientists just couldn’t go wrong.A story set on a distant planet and focusing on some kind of robot (or SecUnit) in charge of security for a team of scientists just couldn’t go wrong. I actually started reading this novella without reading anything about it. I was expecting a bit more action or violence since the series has the word “Murderbot” in it, which (surprisingly) led me to believe there would be lots of murder. Still, I was nicely surprised when I dived in a story that really focuses on what’s happening inside the main character’s head and the relationship (or absence of) between him and the other characters.
The first page (yes it’s a first page, I set the font size very large haha) did the trick, I was sold: “I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As an heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”
The team has a number of scientists and at first I was not motivated to try and remember everyone’s name and just didn’t make any effort for this. I still ended up knowing a little bit of info about all of them and having no difficulty whatsoever to know who was who. Just like the SecUnit, I didn’t care about them and ended up warming up to them in the course of the story.
“That sounded like a great plan, in that it didn’t involve me.”
The main character is some kind of robot, or man-machine who pirated itself (it uses this pronoun so I'll be using it as well) and enjoys being alone, watching any kind of entertainment. What’s not to love about this? This SecUnit is also super relaxed, blasé and snarky, bored about everything, just getting on with life and what it has to do to be left alone. Except when it has to interact with humans, then it is the most awkward of all the SecUnits. To avoid interacting with the humans it works with, he keeps its armor and helmet on at all times. That made me think of the kids who wear a hat or a knit cap on at all time because they feel safer that way.
“What was I supposed to do, kill all humans because the ones in charge of constructs in the company were callous? Granted, I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked the real ones, but you can’t have one without the other.”
I laughed, I giggled, and I was on the edge of my seat. The way All Systems Red was written stroke a chord with me and it left me deeply content, thankful for such a nice story. Even while writing this review and rereading all the passages I had highlighted (or rather, the PAGES), I was laughing and hurting that I couldn’t quote everything or even hand this novella to everyone just like that.
This novella really left me with a warm feeling. I cannot wait to read more on this Murderbot Series. This one and Killing Gravity are my favourite novellas from 2017 so far! All Systems Red was only 87 pages on my ereader but it didn’t felt too short at all. It left me wanting more, but I don’t think it lacked of anything. I really need to take a look at the other stories Martha Wells has written because I loved everything here!
A review copy (e-galley) of this book was provided by the publisher. Some things might change in the final copy. Review originally posted on my blog...more
I almost rated it 4/5 because the "there is a storm coming" that I loath is used at the end but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I loved this book a lot and will read book2 I almost rated it 4/5 because the "there is a storm coming" that I loath is used at the end but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I loved this book a lot and will read book2 this summer! It was so so so enjoyable, will definitely write a better review soon!
For the little story, I was on the train coming back to my parent’s house for my birthday when I started this book that I had on my ereader because it was not too long and I’d been wanting to read it for a while. I knew that – as I was going to receive some books on my birthday – I should not start a book too long or that I was too excited about, one that I could put on hold without problem so that I could read my highly anticipated birthday books. But Nice Dragons Finish Last was so good that I actually put the new books (one being by Rachel Aaron herself, under the name Rachel Bach) down and stayed with that one, even starting the sequel on the train back a few days later! Basically: I adored this book. Its setting, characters, plot, everything!
So Julius is a dragon, but he’s been sealed into his human form because (to make it short) his mother is tired of him always staying in his room playing video games and studying online courses. He’s not lazy, he’s just quite small (and young- for a dragon- at 26yo) and doesn’t share the other dragons’ taste for ambition and schemes to get richer/stronger/etc so he hides and keeps his head down to stay safe and not be used as a pawn. In his sealed form, he is banned into DFZ –also known as Detroit, but the city has been destroyed when an ancient entity came back and flooded it. The setting is of a dystopian city, in an almost post-apocalyptic environment, set in the future (a comet caused magic to return in 2035) and to make this even harder for him: dragons are forbidden to enter the DFZ.
One could think Julius is “too” nice or “too trusting”, but I know for a fact that he’s not “too” of anything, I actually related to him SO much it was crazy. I don’t mean to say I’m always as nice as him, but every choice he made, I would have made the same. I never thought “ughhh why are you doing that?? Nooo you stupid!” like you often find yourself thinking when reading some books. I mean some people might find themselves think that when reading it, but I didn’t. For me he was the perfect protagonist to follow. I loved how he thinks, how he acts, how he chooses to behave. I’m not saying Julius is perfect, but I liked him as a character, it was really refreshing and relaxing to read about someone kind, non-aggressive (This doesn’t mean he never fight, he still does but he has to to protect people and… not actually die; he just needs to be certain that it’s the only solution) and who stands by his choice to be compassionate. It’s not the usual kind of bravery but it still is.
I guess one could also feel disturbed by the dragons’ personalities that are a little bit stereotyped but they are dragons, not humans, so it didn’t bother me. It’s like when aliens in science-fiction have weird quirks and stuff, I don’t find it annoying; I would if they behaved totally like humans, it would be too easy to say “hey here’s a dragon in a human shape that behave totally like a human but I swear that’s a dragon underneath all that normalcy!”. So big thumbs up for the dragons that really felt like dragons!
Marci was more impulsive, down-to-earth, pragmatic. She knows more about this city or this world than Julius does so that’s also why she looks like the one who knows more, she had to fight for herself and do what she could to survive while Julius was just kicked out of his “palace”. I loved her self-confidence on her magical abilities, her optimism despite the terrible things that happened to her and her professionalism despite her young age(I think she’s almost the same age as Julius, or a year older).
I felt that the way their relationship was going was a little obvious from the start, but I didn’t mind it that much. Their interactions were interesting and fun, they never clashed or anything, another relaxing thing about the story. There was no “I was lying to protect you”, no “you don’t understand me!”, no “but why are you doing this!” or whatever that really annoy me usually, they were understanding of each other and really worked well as a team.
This is a great urban fantasy story, with mages (lots of kinds, Marci being a Thaumaturgic who looks down on other kinds of mages, since she had to go to college to learn this *superior* way of doing magic), an important number of dragons siblings, dragons seer, a nice dragon who used to play lots of video games, weird creatures all over a weird city, some cool nerdy references, giggle worthy comebacks… Honestly what more do you want? This book was more than satisfying, more than enjoyable, it totally grabbed me and never let go. There are so much more elements in the book that I’m not talking about because it’s so much better to be surprised by them while reading the book. I didn’t think I’d love it this much and am so grateful for those characters! So, yeah, I loved that book.
I already knew Rachel Aaron/Bach for her Paradox Trilogy (read and loved the first two, got the third last week) and she’s definitely one of these authors from whom I’ll read everything! I can’t wait to dive into her Legend of Eli Monpress too! When I have all of them, I’ll totally dedicate a shelf just for her books!...more
This book. THIS BOOK. I wasn’t expecting to gain a new favourite when I started reading this. Of course when I buy a book I’m always hoping to love itThis book. THIS BOOK. I wasn’t expecting to gain a new favourite when I started reading this. Of course when I buy a book I’m always hoping to love it, but this book moved me deeply and I found I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So here I am, writing a review on here so that more poeple can learn about it! I had been meaning to read this book ever since it was published last year, mostly because the cover looks amazing, but what gave me the final push to buy a copy when it was released as a paperback was knowing Laura loved the book (her review) and the beautiful book aesthetic she made for it on twitter.
From the description of the novel, I thought it was going to be a novel with some mild fantasy elements, but it is not. It was not a disappointment to me thankfully, but I thought it was important to say right ahead. Finley is a 10/11 years old girl who loves words and to write stories about the Everwoods in her precious notebook. As readers of the novel, we get a glimpse of her stories at the start of each chapters, sometimes as long a a page or three. Her stories echo her life and her struggle, and she often finds logic in them and explains the world around her through those, where unknown mean-looking boys are transformed into pirates and her cousin into a brave lady knight.
The fourth image in Laura’s aesthetic is actually very representative of this aspect of the story, when Finley and her cousins go into the forest behind their grandparents house to play and explore. It is a very atmospheric read at times, the woods feel almost alive.
Some kind of Happiness is a story about family, what it is to belong to one, to find one’s place and to be accepted. It is also about family’s secrets, about a troubled past that does not only haunts the grown-ups, but the younger ones as well. Where unsaid things hurt more than actual harsh words.
“I start to worry that I should be saying something. Most of the time I think I could be perfectly content without saying a single word, but no one else seems to function that way. There is so much talking in the world, and so much expectation to talk, even if you do not feel like talking. I find it overwhelming.”
I loved Finley as a character. She is always trying to be a good person, listening to others but also giving a chance to people who don’t always have a say in things. She’s also a young girl struggling with a great burden. While the words aren’t said for the most part of the story, I find it important to talk about it here: this book is about a little girl struggling with depression and anxiety. She does not understand, she does not know there are words for the “blue days” and dark thoughts that plague her, but poeple around her will help her figure things out. Not without difficulties.
“How can the world look so perfect when I feel so broken?”
Another thing I was glad regarding her mental illness is that there is no past trauma to explain it, there is no magical explanation nor magical cure. While mental illnesses can be caused by something, it also often isn’t and I more often than not find novels who use a mental illness to create a plot around a troubled past or event when it is not needed. So, another good point for this book! There is also a good portrayal of a therapist, which I appreciated. It is important to show people that those professionals are here to help. While Finley doesn’t react well to this encounter, it is still a good element of the novel in my opinion.
This is a very sad story, but also a very nice one. The way Finley grows closer to her family helps during the sad parts. While it moved me to tears more than once, it is also a story I’m so very glad exists, especially since it is aimed at younger readers. The back of the book says “8-12”, but I can tell you that this is one of those books that anyone can love.
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