Black Goat Blues

Black Goat Blues is the second book in the Mythos War series by Levi Black. I read this book out of order as a standalone and was immediately drawn into the story and wound up reading it in one sitting. After finishing it, I sourced the first book and am looking forward to reading it as soon as I can.

This is a Lovecraftian horror urban fantasy with all the trimmings.  There are elder gods aplenty, machinations, revenge, crazy (extremely creepy) cultists, a brooding atmosphere which explodes into action, and there's even a backwoods horror filled semi-homage to classics with a 'Deliverance'/'Chainsaw Massacre' vibe.  The protagonist is a wonderfully flawed character with a serious attitude and an unswerving mission.  She (yes, she's female) is deeply vulnerable and nevertheless badass.  She walks around in a flowing semi-sentient black leather coat made from the flayed skin of a fallen angel.  She winds up collecting and inspiring a 'crew' on her stated mission to track down and kill her former mentor, Nyarlathotep, a.k.a. The Man in Black.  Her crew includes a skinned hell-hound originally sent to hunt her down, a damaged young man bent on personal revenge who is accidentally sucked into her world and the goddess Ashtoreth.

This book is powerfully written.  The dialogue is machine gun fast and pitch perfect.  The writing is spare and electric.  It's literally nonstop taut creepy action for 288 pages.  The denouement is satisfying and inevitable and left me really wanting to read the next book in the series.

I'm generally not a huge fan of horror.  I make an exception for Lovecraft pastiches and I'm so glad I did.  This is high octane stuff; extremely well written.

Available in hardcover, ebook and audiobook formats, 288 pages, from Tor-Forge (Macmillan).

Five stars, super creepy and very very well written

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

Creatures of Will and Temper

Creatures of Will & Temper is a fleshed out story covering the bare bones of Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray.  The author, Molly Tanzer,  freely adds to and twists the Wilde icon into something that is different and original and wholly itself.

This book ticked a lot of boxes for me; among other things it has Victoriana, demons, an impressively built and well thought out magic system, dastardly antagonists, some mystery subplots and fencing! *swoon*.

It takes a lot of chutzpah to stand up and rewrite, however well intentioned, Wilde.  Wilde. Ms. Tanzer is very competent, the writing is very well done (and not overdone).  The plotting is tight and for an almost 400 page book, the story arc moves along at a brisk pace.  I didn't find the story dragging at all.  There were a few moments of internal eye rolling from me for the anachronistic dialogue and sarcastic sibling squabbling (say that five times fast :).  It's much more a function of it being a YA modern light romance urban fantasy and that I'm a grumpy old fart than sloppy writing however.  This is a surprisingly deftly written book.

Must read for fans of YA urban fantasy, especially Victoriana.  It's not extremely graphic except for one particular brutal passage, which does set up a plot element but felt out of proportion compared to the rest of the book.

Four stars, deftly written prose, fencing demonists, strong(ish) female protagonists.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

The Forsaken Throne

The Forsaken Throne is the 6th (final?) book in Jeff Wheeler's Kingfountain series. The series is an epic multi-book fantasy with some crossworld tie-ins from the author's other series.  There are several interconnected storylines, most of which are tied up in this, possibly final, installment.

I enjoyed reading this one a lot and seeing how the storyline would unfold and resolve, though, as other reviewers have mentioned, the pain that the heroine Trynne suffered seemed unending.  Lady of Sorrows, indeed.  Building a rapport with characters only to see them pushed and broken and betrayed over and over again felt wearying to me and I often took a pause for a few days.  This was not a read-in-one-sitting book for me.  I liked it very much that she was emphatically not a pampered soft and pliable princess.  She is honorable and, frankly, pretty badass. 

By my rough reckoning, the main series includes well over 2000 pages; that's a lot of room to develop a world and characters.  The plotlines are in my opinion, certainly worthy of the epic scale of the books.  I never had problems keeping the characters straight in my head, though I wouldn't suggest this book as a standalone, especially to people who aren't die-hard epic fantasy fans.

Though I would certainly class this series as comfortably inside the fantasy genre, it's not the same sort of gritty massively epic fantasy of G.R.R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie, full of pitched battles and people disemboweling one another.  Never fear though, there's lots of evil magic vs. good magic, betrayal, sacrifice and dishonesty.  I liked the ending a lot, without spoiling anything.

Four stars for this installment and four for the series as a whole.  I'll be picking up his other books.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

Hotsuka's Story

Hotsuka's Story is the first book of a 6 book series called The Dragon Pearls. This beautifully written narrative takes place in a world based on Eastern mythology with djinni, nagas, quarrelsome gods and goddesses and spirit beings (meijin, roughly equivalent to celestial angels). Meijin have hierarchies and different responsibilities, and Hotsuka's job was to travel all of existence and observe the creations and beings contained therein.  Hotsuka becomes infatuated with a human woman and the consummation of his infatuation and the subsequent child produced threaten to unbalance the entire universe.

The writing is truly deft and immaculately paced.  I was drawn along and never once felt myself dragged out of the story by an awkwardly written bit of dialogue or plotting.  

According to goodreads and Amazon, this 6 book cycle is author J F Mehentee's first published work.  It's an impressive debut.  Further amazement ensued when I learned that all 6 books were self-published simultaneously 1st Nov, 2017 and promoted by Xpresso Book Tours on NetGalley.   Books aren't just written and they don't just spring into creation fully formed.  The author's credits in the afterword credit editor James Christy and copy editor Richard Shealy and I have to say that they did a stellar job.  I found not one single typo or formatting error and the structural and story arc editing were seamless and completely unobtrusive.

Kudos for the gorgeous cover also, by  Deranged Doctor Design. The cover is what first caught my eye, and I'm so glad it did.

Just a really wonderfully written book.  I intend to acquire the rest of them asap.

Five stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

The New Dark

Yet another YA dystopian quest fantasy with a young female heroine destined (special triskelion birthmark!) to save everyone and lead to a more enlightened future whilst finding herself. Set in the second generation after some unspecified apocalyptic event that broke down society and left most technology nonfunctional and all but forgotten (despite being roughly 15 years ago), Sorrel goes on a disconnected quest to reunite with her brother and love interest.

There are glimmers of real potential for something out of the ordinary in this first book. I hope the author develops the world further and shares more backstory for the events leading up to the present and the reasons for them.  I had a lot of problems with the motivations for many of the characters, and the dialogue was very uneven and awkward in places.  The love interest subplot felt tacked on, honestly.  It's a YA dystopian novel with a female protagonist, ergo there must be a love interest.  He's unappealing and not very compassion inducing.  Sorrel herself is prickly and immature and I spent most of the book really wishing someone would shake her.  Nearly ALL of the characters wind up making uninformed naive choices that nearly get them killed (taking free drinks from someone you have just said that you don't trust in a dangerous strange place? Not the best judgement on display).

There are a lot of uncomfortable themes including sexual abuse, slavery, racism, violence, torture, etc.

The biggest problem with this book for me was that whatever cataclysmic event(s) which changed the world happened, they happened roughly 15-20 years previous to the narrative.  That is not nearly enough time for societies to form and splinter, developing independent culture and language, and despite the story arc happening in cities that are walking distance from one another, none of them were really aware of one another.  There was so much emphasis on really creepy passages (they're basically the only ones which are well written and fleshed out).  The almost-sexual-abuse was creepy in a sustained manner.  It just went on and on. The roving mutants who attack the peaceful settlement and triggered the whole story are not explained at all.  They just come out of nowhere and maim and murder and rampage.

It was also difficult for me to form any sort of bond with Sorrel. She murders, tortures, poisons and whines her way through the book.  She's not likable in the slightest.

This was a very difficult book to enjoy.  I am, admittedly, not the target audience, perhaps people who really enjoy YA dystopian novels will like this one.

Two and a half stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

Tales from the Good Ship KafkaBury

From the author's preface:

What can you say about Franz Kafka and Ray Bradbury except—what wonderful examples of the most precious freedom we have: the freedom of—imagination

That's certainly a high bar to aim for, an homage to Kafka and Bradbury. I opened this book with some amount of trepidation, because, honestly, there are a scant handful of stellar authors who could stand in a room with either Kafka or Bradbury and not suffer a lot by comparison.

I was unfamiliar with Bruce Taylor before reading this book and was very pleasantly surprised by the 26 (by my count) included 'stories'.  I use quotes around 'stories' because very few of them have an overall narrative story arc; for the most part, they're first person PoV vignettes.  Many of them are quite lyrical and almost poetic, they're all quite well written.  Mr. Taylor (aka Mr. Magical Realism) has a very strong and distinctive voice.  He's clearly not trying to be anyone else.  Several of the included pieces seemed very autobiographical or taken from real experiences.  One of the first lessons of writing is 'write what you know', and it's one that the author has clearly mastered.

I read a lot of books.  I find myself often reading a passage in a book and trying to recall where I've read something similar in tone and timbre to a passage.  That didn't happen one single time with this book.  I've literally never read anything that 'sounded' the same to me; nothing that 'went to the same place' in my brain.  The stories themselves are short (the book is 189 pages) and varied.  Like all collections, there are some that resonated more with me than others (that's why I love collections and anthologies).  They're all well written, some of them are very very good, and a few of them are outstanding.  I try to pick at least three standouts from any collection I review and in this case it was difficult since there were several really excellent vignettes. I finally settled on these three which spoke to me.

Watermelonmania - Magical realism with a healthy dose of surrealism in a techno coffee bar. This one's a lot of fun.


The Legend of the Slugosaurus - a truly silly but fun creation fable for anyone who has ever lived in a rainy climate and wondered why slugs exist.


Return - is a sweet and magical love story.

As an aside, these stories are fairly topical and there's quite a lot of current events in the included themes.  Many of them are also set in the Pacific Northwest USA, especially Seattle and environs.  I'm not sure how dated they'll be in 20 years, but right now they're very relevant, readable, enjoyable and well written.

189 pages
E-book and paperback formats. Paperback available via Amazon's printing service. DRM free e-book also available from the publisher.
Published by ReAnimus Press.

Four stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

This is a new edition of the 1974 original classic written by Patricia A. McKillip, released by Tachyon Publications.  So much has been written about this book and much of it is absolutely true.  The prose is luminous and beautiful.  The story is deep and profound and entertaining at the same time.  When I was reading, I was completely immersed in the narrative itself, for me one of the benchmarks of a really well written fantasy.  I found myself thinking over phrases and bits of the book when I wasn't reading though; it changed me.  For me, that's a hallmark of great literature.

Patricia McKillip is a fantastically gifted author.  She's really really really good at writing.  The book is beautifully simple to read and wonderfully nuanced and complex at the same time.  It's a story about love and revenge and wanting, and how those things change us and the risks (and rewards) involved in making ourselves vulnerable.

The story itself is appealing, and well discussed in other reviews, but it's the writing, the language, that keeps me revisiting this book.  Every single time, I think it can't be as good as my nostalgic memory of my 40/30/20/10 year younger self remembers, and every single time, I'm blown away and notice things I didn't appreciate on earlier readings.

What a beautiful book.  Throughout a lifetime of almost literal nonstop reading, this is one of the few that I keep coming back to and one that I still own my original physical copy of. 

Five stars, one of my favorite books ever.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

The Overneath

Peter S. Beagle is one of a handful of authors who are absolute no-miss-wonderful for me.  I'd try to make a sports or cultural icon analogy, but I am a book nerd at the end of the day.  I read.  I read a lot.  I believe I have read (and reread) everything widely available which he's published.  There are two things I've found to be true with Peter Beagle's oeuvre. 1)The books and stories are accessible, enjoyable, and readable for anyone and 2)the meanings and messages change subtly every time they're read.  That's literally as close to magic as makes no difference, and I have absolutely no idea how he does it.  I guess I don't honestly really want to know how he does it, because I'm afraid that, like most magic, it won't work properly if it's dismantled.

The Overneath is a collection of 13 stories, including two Schmendrick stories.  I was so excited to be allowed to review the Overneath because Schmendrick (and The Last Unicorn) was really the watershed book for me growing up and between Peter S. Beagle and Madeline L'Engle I turned into a ravenous bookworm and never got better.

I therefore expected the Schmendrick stories to be central for me in the collection with 11 bonus stories which I expected to like, but not be blown away by.  I am truly surprised that that wasn't the case.  Oh, both of the stories are wonderful, and Schmendrick Alone has never been published elsewhere, but for me at least, they weren't the standouts in this collection.  It's brutally difficult to pick three to concentrate on, but for me they would be:

Trinity County California: You'll Want to Come Again and We'll Be Glad to See You. Combining modern realism with dragons and drug control, this is a beautifully written gritty fable about monsters... and the illegal dragons they exploit.

The Way it Works Out And All. Avram Davidson, (yet another of my favorite authors) and Peter S. Beagle go road tripping interdimensionally together.

Music, When Soft Voices Die is a melancholy parable about pursuing a connection to the unknowable pain at the center of existence.

I lied, I couldn't quit at three...  They all resonated deeply with me, but two more especially:

Great Grandmother in the Cellar is a wonderful creepy fairy tale about loyalty and family and Olfert Dapper's Day which gives some of the back story of one of the original catalysts for The Last Unicorn.

This is as good as it gets. Peter S. Beagle is an amazingly generous gifted storyteller and we're lucky that he has shared his stories with us.

Five stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.