The Secret Throne [Queen of Dreams 1] Peter F Hamilton - Two young sisters find that their father is actually an exiled prince of another land when he is kidnapped by political enemies and they have to rescue him for their evil clutches.
This was basically Hamilton does Narnia. It's pretty much a kid's book series, to much the same level Narnia is - the plotting is still sensible and motivations aren't ridiculous, but there isn't really the feel of consequences for actions, as seen by the fairly cavalier attitude toward genocide. This was a bit jarring from an author who I'd generally consider a dirty old man from his other writing. This was well written, nicely paced and an easy read. It won't set the world on fire but I liked it enough to read all of the trilogy.
Illuminae Amie Kaufman - Generally follows the story of some teenagers that start the day by receiving a orbital bombardment followed by a planetary invasion. After that, things begin to really go downhill - for everyone involved.
This is written in a pretty unusual style, it's like System Shock, where instead of a narrative it's a series of reports, conversation logs, descriptions of camera footage etc. Was a bit strange at first, but it was a fantastic story. I went looking for the sequel immediately after finishing it. This one would be my pick for best of this set of reviews.
The Punch Escrow Tal Klein - Company that controls most teleportation technology desperately tries to cover up the shocking secret behind their proprietary technology after a terrorist bombing causes a malfunction.
This one wasn't bad overall, but I had difficulty believing that anyone actually found their secret shocking, given it was pretty much in 'well, duh' territory.
The Ruin of Angels Max Gladstone - Like most of Gladstone's stuff, this one is a bit hard to summarize. Kai Pohala, the main character from a previous book, Full Fathom Five, goes to a city run by a squid cult to help her sister, and gets caught up in local politics. While I liked the individual components of this one, overall I found it a bit of a struggle to finish for reasons I had a hard time pinpointing. I think I felt bad for the bad guys in this one, the heroes were basically an unlikable bunch of shit-stirrers that were entirely unreasonable.
Born in Fire KF Breene - Supernatural bounty hunter with mysterious past gets tangled in vampire affairs against her better judgement. This was basically competent but generic urban fantasy.
Obsidian Son [Temple Chronicles 1] Shayne Silvers - Nate Temple, a wizard and billionaire playboy (
), investigates the mysterious murder of his parents while fighting off an invasion of shapeshifting dragons in modern day St Louis. This was pretty fun, but was kinda uneven in the writing. The main character is also a giant dickhead, which was a bit off-putting. I'll probably read more of them.
Annihilation [Southern Reach 1] Scientific exploration expedition completely lose their minds while investigating an inexplicable alien artifact. Mounting evidence suggests that this wasn't an unexpected outcome by their superiors.
I liked this one, but it was pretty damn weird. I read this one because the movie trailer looked interesting - I have no idea how they'd make a movie out of it though, 90% of it is one person's inner monologue.
Paradox Bound Peter Cline - Man from a small town joins up with a strange woman he has obsessed about since he met her as a child, in a quest to find the American Dream, an actual physical object which apparently confers the ability to grant immense power over the hearts and minds of everyone who lives in the USA. Sort of a weird premise, but it's played pretty straight. Entertaining and one-off which is a nice change.
The Last Coin James P Blaylock - I'm not actually sure what this one is about, something with judas' 30 pieces of cursed silver apparently - the prologue was ok, but the first chapter about a dumbass trying to steal his aunt's cats was so painfully stupid I gave up on it.
The Prey of Gods Nicky Drayden - This was pretty much American Gods but in a South African setting. I'm not entirely sure if the black sex murderer goddess is actually the same one in both books. Decent, but not great.
Skysworn [Cradle 4] Will Wight - The much anticipated fight between Lindon and his arch-enemy Jai Long finally happens, only to get completed overshadowed by the disaster kicked off by Jai Daishou's increasingly poor life choices. This one was good fun and continues the high quality of this series, with the only downside being that it seemed a lot like it was cut in half. I preferred the more self contained nature of the earlier books, but I'll read it anyway. This guy has ended up as one of my favorite indy authors.
White Silence [Elizabeth Cage 1] Jodi Taylor - First book of a new series from Taylor - I quite liked her previous series ( Chronicles of St Marys ), and this one pretty much lived up to that quality. The main character has some psychic abilities which she has learned to suppress, but which have made her of interest to a secretive government run hospital, which effectively kidnaps her after her husband's death. Hauntings, ESP, time travel and other hijinks ensure. Only downside was I found the ending to be a bit of a cheap shot. I'll read more of these.
The Murders of Molly Southbourne Tade Thompson - Molly Southborne was born with a very unusual condition - when she bleeds, the blood eventually grows into a perfect copy of her, which while initially friendly, inevitably goes crazy and tries to kill her. This story isn't so much about why this is happening or how to stop it but the reality of living with it. This is a horror book, not a fantasy.
It wasn't the best book of this review lot, but it was one of the most interesting - it made me think about it a lot afterwards. Only downside was it was kind of short.
The Stone in the Skull [Lotus Kingdoms 1] Elizabeth Bear - A massive mechanical automaton and an ex-elite royal guard from a destroyed kingdom travel across the country to deliver a vital message to the Rajni (queen more or less) of a small kingdom that is in a lot more trouble than it knows. This one wasn't bad per se, but I found it kind of boring up until near the end. I probably won't read further books in the series.
Edgedancer Brandon Sanderson - This one caused me a lot of confusion, I thought it was new, so I got it, but then I realized I'd read it, but it got less familiar as it went on. As far as I can tell, the first chapter was part of some other book I'd read ages ago, but it's been done up into a complete book now. In any case, solid Sanderson fare set in the Stormlight world about one of the more unlikely of the newly awakened Knight's Radiant: a young street girl called Lift and her pet Voidbringer ( it claims it's actually a Spren, not a voidbringer, but it would say that wouldn't it ).
