Genre: Adventure

Entry #4 in Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries series, by this point you’re likely a devoted fan of the series and should have a pretty good idea of what to expect; Murderbot’s sarcastically dry and witty humor, a healthy balance of thriller and political scheming plot, and good ol’ high sci-fi goodness. While the abbreviated novella format continues to limit the amount of worldbuilding and concurrent storylines Wells can run with simultaneously, Exit Strategy is by far the most serialized story yet and one of the most cohesive. Referencing and tying together all of the first three novella’s narratives, Exit Strategy is easily the most balanced entry that finds a happy medium between Artificial Condition’s undercover stealth movements and Rogue Protocol’s more action thriller flavor. Additionally, this novella also utilizes every narrative plot thread featured in the past three stories, filling in the previous gaps and question marks Murderbot and the reader experiences as the scope of the series and bigger picture takes to shape. Exit Strategy’s story feels like a direct sequel to the first novella All Systems Red while the other two novella’s stories add context and larger ramifications for Dr. Mensah and Murderbot’s ongoing survival. However, with only…

Necromancers, cavaliers, copious amounts of magic and challenges, oh my! Tamsyn Muir’s debut novel and the start of her Locked Tomb series, on paper Gideon has everything going for it. While featuring many hallmark elements of fantasy epics such as an emperor with numerical houses/factions, pseudo magician + knight pairings, and an unknown challenge for representatives to ascend to the “Lyctor” status, Gideon the Ninth separates itself from the rest of its genre firstly by setting the series not in the traditional fantasy-realm past, but instead in an interstellar futuristic expanse. Secondly, this novel’s reputation featuring “lesbian necromancers” proceeds itself and has that instant hook for booktok and social media recognition (though important to note, while having a wandering queer eye, this is not a romantasy novel). While technically being classified as fantasy and sci-fi, Gideon’s second half functions more as a whodunnit survival thriller meshed with dark academia elements and is very compelling when Muir gets it just right. Unfortunately, despite the ambitious plotting and creative ideas found throughout the story, Gideon the Ninth is held back by a few but very notable flaws with its approach to storytelling as well as its confusingly vague and messy world-building. Additionally,…

“If the world was ending you’d come over, right? You’d come over and you’d stay the night…” because you broke your leg in a bear trap- Never has my heart felt so warmed by a post-apocalyptic survival road trip adventure, but Erik J. Brown’s debut novel All That’s Left In the World did that and so much more. A YA survival story of two lonely teenage boys finding a home in each other after most of the world died all around them, the book’s characters, tone, pacing and plotting feels pitch-perfect and is an incredibly well-crafted novel. A lot of other reviewers had previously mentioned how wholesome and cute it is, which had me raising an eyebrow given the genre and premise (I sometimes find post-apocalyptic stories slow and repetitive), but it really is such a hopeful and heartfelt book that far surpassed all of my expectations. Providing much needed queer representation is a sub-genre of science fiction that lacked clear standouts while avoiding being too graphic, harsh or scary, All That’s Left In the World is an outstanding and well-rounded book that’s sure to satisfy a wide variety of readers, even adults as well despite its YA classification and…

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a curious case of a lot of great ideas implemented in a slow and laborious manner. Incorporating aspects of historical fiction, fantasy, light romance and folklore, the elements were there for what many positive reviewers have describe as a cozy and enchanting read. Unfortunately the narrative and tone was not for me and I alternated between struggling to stay interested in the story and being baffled at seemingly random lurches in unexpected directions. The main highlight for me and the area Heather Fawcett was consistently strong in was the folklore aspect layered into the story. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is full of lengthy and detailed stories told by the villagers of Hrafnsvik, encounters with the Fair folk, and even recapped from Emily’s own research. These stories placed in self-contained chapters are often longer than non-folklore chapters given that the story is presented via Emily’s written journal, some entries being extremely short and uneventful. These stories all have some sort of theme that connects to whatever Emily is experiencing at the time, and the imaginative quality of these tales often surpasses the novel’s actual story itself (like modern Grimm fairy tales). The interest within…

There’s honestly a lot of great ideas going on in Peng Shepherd’s All This & More including science fiction time and reality bending, second chance life choices and romance, an underlying mystery revolving around the unreleased tv show season, and the unsettling appearance of Chrysalis. This is all done on top of a “Choose your own adventure” branching storyline book setup. Yet despite how ambitious and creative Peng’s concepts are on paper, it was amazing how uninteresting and tedious this was for me to read. I don’t know what it was exactly, but this book felt heavily catered towards suburban mother book club members in their late 30’s to 40’s based on Marsh’s characterization and the tone. I thought the Choose your own adventure concept and branching choices were decently executed but the pacing, unusual choices in focal points, and Marsh’s character were all not to my taste and squandered the excellent premise. Also to properly review and critique the book in its full entirety, I went back and read through every potential choice including any parallel sections and each short ending. An unrelated nice touch though was the “System Error, you shouldn’t be here” due to cheating and not…