Review: Jessica Cluess – House of Dragons

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House of Dragons
Cluess

Every 50 years or so, a new Emperor must be chosen. The chosen ones are the oldest, strongest and best trained of their family. But this year, something seems to have gone wrong. It’s the younger siblings’ turn to compete for the throne with their dragons – except in some cases, the youngest has been murdered or isn’t the youngest!

I have to say I was stupidly excited to get a novel with dragons. It feels like it’s been too long since my dragon fix! Unfortunately, this one turned out to have more perspectives from the humans, and not enough from the dragons (except for towards the end of the book). Turns out that this novel has the same title as a Game of Thrones something? Anyway, I had to actually put the author in to find it in GoodReads.

I think it’s a bit rich to call one of the contestants a liar. She’s just a bit shady about her abilities! I’m absolutely buying the soldier, thief and servant as accurate character descriptions, but honestly the murderer is more like a psychopath! I didn’t really get attached to any of the characters, except perhaps Emilia. Everyone else was pretty average. I honestly feel like Emilia was my favourite because her perspective was the first one I read. Of course, I’m always going to complain about too many perspectives in a novel as my pet peeve – and here there are five different view points!

I am going to look for the next book when it comes out, because you know, dragons. And with the events in the last couple of chapters, I think it’ll be more exciting, and have more dragons! I was feeling disappointed at the end though, because I think it could have wrapped up and I would have been satisfied by the ending. Instead, the epilogue leaves it open for the next book. On the epilogue… it makes absolutely NO SENSE in the context of the rest of the novel. Read it, and see if you agree with me.

I did finish off this novel, and it’s hopefully shifted me out of my COVID-19/reading slump. I’m also behind on reviews, and feeling pretty guilty about it. 4 stars from me, even if it’s more of a 3 star read now that I’ve reviewed it.

Penguin Random House | 4th August 2020| AU$19.99 | paperback

Review: Xanthe Mallett – Reasonable Doubt

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Reasonable Doubt
Dr Xanthe Mallett

“We all put our faith in the criminal justice system. We trust the professionals: the police, the lawyers, the judges, the expert witnesses. But what happens when the process lets us down and the wrong person ends up in jail? … Exposing false confessions, polices biases, misplaced evidence and dodgy science, Reasonable Doubt is an expert’s account of the murky underbelly of our justice system – and the way it affects us all.”

This book was both interesting and problematic. I wasn’t really sure what to do with the information I learnt beyond that forensic science is really cool! once again, I loved the blood splatter analysis. It reminded me fondly of a blood spatter book I read over 5 years ago.

However, the take homes from these stories are that some of the time (or even most of the time!) DNA or other forensic evidence can be interpretted incorrectly or even damaged during analysis. Something that may seem to put someone safely in jail with irrevoccable guilt, can possibly implicate them when they aren’t actually guilty.

Many of these cases come about where people ignored the evidence at hand. Or, they actually got a confession from someone for doing the murder, but then ignore that to put the person they ‘suspect’ in jail. You’d hope that these days people would be trained better to see how these biases arise, but half the time the expert seems to not be the expert. It’s thought-provoking, but also frustrating.

The acknowledgements bring up some questions about the lawyer cracked up on cocaine being the author’s friend! I read both of Tim Winton-Munro‘s non-fiction works, and while I thougth the first was good, the second was average. Is it just the time when people of that age start writing non-fiction about their lives? What determines who gets a publishing contract. But I digress…

Something cool that I did learn was that people are really bad at recognising people of other ethnic backgrounds. This could otherwise be known as “White people are unconcious assholes”. If you have a witness to a crime and give them a picture of other witnesses they will randomly select someone who looks familiar – regardless of whether they were another bystander or actually the suspect.

There’s lots of dodgy stories where people in positions of authority do idiotic things. I could say everyone should read this book to know what NOT to do if they are ever suspected of homicide. This book needs a tl:dr, since smart people might read the whole thing but it’s not necessarily the smart people that are the problem.

The takeaways I got was that even if you know you are innocent don’t tell them anything! Police will absolutely lie to your face if it gets them the outcome they want. I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Let’s just hope that I never end up on the scene of a crime – but then as a Caucasian, blonde hair, blue-eyed slimly built female, I’m probably not going to be a suspect.

Pan Macmillan | 28th July 2020| AU$32.99 | paperback

Review: Brandon Sanderson – Steelheart (N)

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David knows Epics, guns, and that he sucks at metaphors. He wants to take down one Epic in particular, Steelheart. Now that the Reckoners are in town he has a shot, if he can convince them he’s right.

Interesting flip on super-powers on earth. The maxim power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely comes to mind. An event known as Calamity results in super-powered humans, without any humanity. These people, called Epics, do as they please regardless, when they please. Combining a twist on superheros as villians with a manufactured dystopian future. David is a fact-smart but people-dumb protagonist who’s point of view we follow through the completion of David’s vendetta against the Epic, Steelheart.

On the surface the story is straight-forward battle against the big bad, revenge for lost family, and freeing people from tyrannical rule. It goes deeper than this given the underlying theme of what happens when you create a power vacuum by removing a semi-benevolent dictator. Which Steelheart is if only because he considers all ordinary people his property to do with as he wishes, after all you cannot rule without subjects. There are also themes of choice, revenge, the belief of good vs evil, tall-tales, and a lively argument on the pros and cons of rifles vs handguns. Beyond that there are excellent characters in David and the Reckoner team. Each bringing a different viewpoint on the situation and the plans they develop to topple Steelheart. Creating enough conflict that it is not just a clear system of kill and move on for the Reckoners. And everything is planned out to the nth degree.

I’ll say this for the story as a whole it keeps you guessing up to the end on if the Reckoners will be successful. The ending was a shock but also made a weird level of sense, having been in Davids point of view from start to finish allows us to follow the logic of his realisations as well. The final twist shows the 3 McGuffins that allow the Reckoners to be even the slightest bit successful at assassinating Epics are more than they seem. Makes for a nice twist at the end without compromising the enjoyment of rereading the book later.
A few loose ends for the story, but expected ones since this is the first book of a series.

Great way to spend a Saturday or Sunday. And I will come back to read it again in the future, since this is where my happy lives. And, given it was the first of many Sanderson novels I read, as an introduction to Sanderson’s writing style I’d highly recommend.

Review: Ernman and Thunberg – Our House is on Fire

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Our House is on Fire
Ernman and Thunberg

“When climate activist Greta Thunberg was eleven, her parents Malena and Svante, and her little sister Beata, were facing a crisis in their own home. Greta had stopped eating and speaking, and her mother and father had reconfigured their lives to care for her. Desperate and searching for answers, her parents discovered what was at the heart of Greta’s distress: her imperiled future on a rapidly heating planet.”

I fully admit that I don’t follow politics and I specifically ignore the news because I find it quite depressing and frustrating. Thus, although I was aware of the ‘Greta phenomenon’ happening, I wasn’t really aware of the specific circumstances about it. This book won’t give you those either. What it will provide you with is a thoughtful commentary by Greta’s mother on some of the challenges of raising a neurodiverse child.

What did annoy me was the focus on Greta’s mother (whose name I still don’t remember) and her status as a celebrity. I’m really sorry, but I have no idea who you are, and why you might be important. I respect you for being accepting of your neurodiverse, eating disorder and autism-having offspring. But you aren’t the only person with that particular combination of problems. I feel like this book was marketed as being about Greta, but it wasn’t focused enough on her. Maybe borrow it from the library, it’s not worth buying (unless you are then going to pass it around to different people).

This book actually made me feel a bit more guilty about not making better choices for the planet. I had sunk into a ‘enough’ mindset, rather than thinking about how I could improve. I have the cash flow to afford to shop more responsibly, but I don’t always make that choice. This book could serve as a good reminder that we can do more, and that it’s not completely hopeless to try to save the planet.

Penguin Random House | 4th March 2020 | AU$32.99 | paperback

Review: Patrick Lencioni – DEATH by Meeting (S)

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DEATH by Meeting
Patrick Lencioni

“Death by Meeting” is nothing short of a blueprint for leaders who want to eliminate waste and frustration among their teams, and create environments of engagement and passion.

A friend gave this book to my wife, and she read it across two days. I’ve never seen her so excited, even with the other books she’s reviewed for me (eg. Brew a Batch, Permission to Screw Up). This review is therefore written from her perspective.

The cover, as you can see, is a business guy head desking on top of a meeting agenda. I figured I’d just skim over it and then read the other bookies waiting in my bedroom. A trusted business friend recommended it to me – otherwise I wouldn’t have picked it up on my own. Once I had it, I thought I might get more insights into meetings.

Most of the book is a fictional story about a leadership team and how they are currently running their meetings. You get suckered in (invested) in how they improve their meetings. Given that it has this story you see real life examples of how it can be used and not just the plain theory. The characters give some of the reader’s thoughts back at them like ‘Why do we need more meetings? or ‘Really? You want me to do this in a meeting?’ where it is answered in the story as a group and the characters chatting about it.

Unlike the other business books where they try to cram in a bunch of theories and just hop about in meaningless or difficult to follow manner the story creates a framework. I would have preferred a little more of the ‘Fast Forward’ (non-fiction) at the end with the theories. This could have included more examples with the team doing the good meetings, the different types of good meetings. It was really interesting and enjoyable. This really has one meeting theory that can be summarized on a single page, so it’s not a reread of the whole book, just a revisit of the summarized theory at the back if need be.

Perhaps the most gleaming commendation for this book is that my wife stayed up late, and read this over two days. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so absorbed! Also, she’s a passionate fiction hater, and I could hardly believe she was reading a fictional story (and I teased her mercilessly too).

Interview with Leslie I. Landis

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An Interview with Leslie I. Landis

Leslie Landis has been a teacher, a financial planner, a bank trust officer, worked for a U.S. Senator, an associate director in television and a licensed therapist. Her first book, is a humorous take on our food and diet obsessed culture titled The Art of Overeating: A Bellyful of Laughs About Our Food-phobic Culture. CHENDELL: A Natural Warrior is her first novel. Leslie lives with her husband in Los Angeles.

Why did you write a YA novel?

My book, Chendell: A Natural Warrior, has an environmental theme. People of all ages care about the environment but young people are especially tuned into the environmental degradation caused by global warming. They know it is their future that is most at risk.

How did you come up with the idea of CHENDELL?

Through media exposure, I certainly noticed how popular the superhero genre is.

When I thought about why I was not interested in this category, I realized that the typical superhero characters were not “real” to me and they usually battled against “unreal” struggles such as someone trying to blow up the world. So I thought why not a superhero who was fighting a real world problem – ecocide and biocide – the willful destruction of the environment and the annihilation of living organisms.

Why is one of your protagonists Chinese?

There are three reason I made one of my protagonists Chinese:

  1. I’ve been to China and I found the Chinese people to be gracious, warm and kind.
  2. I know what it feels like to experience anger and hostility just because I was American. I’ve traveled to other countries during a time when we had an unpopular U.S. president. I feel the people of a country should be treated as individuals, not as representatives of a government.
  3. I’m personally very interested in other cultures and ethnicities. Having a Chinese character was just more interesting to me.

Why don’t you kill bugs?

I do kill bugs – if I have to. For example, if a mosquito is going to bite me or a bee is going to sting me. But fortunately for me, those have been rare occurrences. Other than those situations, I don’t kill bugs because they are alive. Because they are just living their little bug lives. Because they serve a function in the scheme of life. I just don’t go out of my way to kill anything.

Have you written any other books?

The Art of Overeating: A Bellyful of Laughs About Our Food-phobic Culture – A humorous view on our food obsessed culture.

Why do environmental problems worry you the most?

The future of every living creature depends on the health of our planet.

Why do you think your book is unique?

In my book, the superhero is fighting a real world problem. And my protagonists are a woman and a man who are truly equal. They can’t be more equal than when they are Chendell.

What can people do to help our environment?

Buy less, use less, waste less and recycle. Also, people can vote for representatives who take the environment and global warming seriously.

Where/when do you best like to write?

I write best at my office desk in a loft in my home. There is nothing to distract me there. I accomplish the most when I write in the evening.

Do you have any interesting writing habits or superstitions?

I am a terrible typist. I just hope my fingers will go where I want them to go and not where they want to go.

When you are struggling to write/have writer’s block, what are some ways that help you find your creative muse again?

I just leave my computer and think about my story a lot. A whole lot. And sooner or later, ideas come to me and I am ready to resume writing.

What do you think makes a good story?

Character development and a sense of humor.

What inspired your story?

The popularity of what I consider boring and redundant (almost all men) superheroes and their fights. I felt there should be a superhero who fights for the environment – for our planet.

How does a new story idea come to you?

I read a lot of current publications – newspapers and magazines – so trends eventually coalesce in my brain and ideas pop out from there.

Is there a message/theme you want readers to grasp?

If we get in touch with the natural world, we will all hear its message, “Save me before it is too late and I am gone!”

What is the best writing advice you have ever received?

Don’t give up.

Review: Fiona Cummins – The Neighbour (K)

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The Neighbour
Fiona Cummins

Four people have been murdered, their faces painted to look like a doll’s, and their eyes replaced with glass replicas. Everyone has secrets and it seems that nobody on the street is safe, so when a new family moves in, they’re not expected to stay long. Instead, as more murders are committed, the hunt for the killer starts to near its close – but at what price?

This book was structured quite differently to other mystery books that I’ve read. Instead of focusing on the police or a victims POV, the entire case was set in the past, and parts of the book are given from the killer’s perspective in the ‘present day’ as they run from the cops. I really enjoyed this style, as it provided more hints to who the killer was from the way they talked/acted, and opened up new questions by the cryptic way they described events.

Near the end of the book, when all the ‘past’ events had been told, the focus was exclusively on the killer after they have been determined by the cops. The ‘spoiler’ at the beginning that they were found didn’t detract much, as I usually expect in a mystery book that the killer will eventually be caught. For this type of horror/mystery genre, the ending of the book worked wonderfully. It left me feeling a little spooked, and with chills down my spine. I really appreciated this, as one of my least favourite parts of a mystery book is the ending where the detectives all congratulate themselves on solving the case, and the excitement has died down. This book didn’t do that at all, and ended in an amazing, terrifying, manner.

My one issue with this book was with the introductions to characters. While the main characters were distinct and 3-dimensional, it took me a while to be able to tell apart some of the side characters, because there wasn’t enough time early on dedicated to them. That said, I can understand why they were included, as each character provided their own flavour and added to the story in some way. I just wish that they had been fleshed out more thoroughly in the beginning of the book, instead of waiting to the middle/end.

In all, this was quite a good book, that I enjoyed reading immensely. I finished it in under a day, which tells me that it was good enough to prevent me being distracted from it too many times. I would definitely recommend this book, with the caveat that anyone who picks it up understands that it’s equal parts horror and mystery, and is much more scary than a typical mystery novel.

 

Spotlight with Felicia Watson (and Naiche!)

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Conversation with Naiche

Hello everyone! Thanks to Dr. Rosemarie Herbert for hosting me on her lovely blog for the day. I’m Felicia Watson, author of the Lovelace Series, a sci-fi adventure set in the 31st Century. Book One is We Have Met the Enemy and Book Two is the just released Spooky Action at a Distance. In Spooky Action we find the main character of the series, Lt. Naiche Decker, aboard the Uniterrae Defense Corps starship Lovelace, the first real home she’s had since she left her Chiricahua Apache community at age seventeen. With the recent war behind her, she’s looking forward to life as an explorer rather than a soldier. But her latest adventure – exploring a quantum entanglement – proves to be her most dangerous mission yet.

I’ve decided with two books published and a third underway, it’s finally time to sit down and have a heart-to heart with my Main Character. You folks get to listen in. Say hello, Naiche.

Naiche: Hello. I’d say it’s good to meet you, Felicia, but you’re the one who killed off my mother and grandfather, pulled me away from my people, and put me in a brutal war with an alien race. Where I was forced to kill five friends.

Felicia: Uh, yeah, that’s one way to look at it. On the upside, I gave you an interesting life! And also gave you a wonderful CO, Conroy Kennedy, and a Search and Rescue dog, Kayatennae, by your side.

Naiche: Yes, Con is the best friend I’ve ever had and Kay is the greatest dog in the galaxy – but it seems to me you could have given me those minus all the heartache and mayhem.

Felicia: Only if I was writing a picture book for 4-year-olds. And hey, I did show some mercy. I didn’t give you your father’s nose – that has to count for something.

Naiche: Oh, yeah, that makes up for being put through a meat grinder of a life.

spookyacFelicia: In my defense, that’s my job. Moving right along, let’s talk about Spooky Action, where we find that after helping the UDC win the war, you’re going to have a fabulous adventure in deep space. It involves the coolest ship the UDC has ever designed. It’s fast, sleek, and the navigation control actually links directly into the pilot’s brain. Since you’re one of the best pilots in the Corps, I know you’re just itching to get your hands on a ship like that – aren’t you?

Naiche: The ship sounds awesome but what do you mean “fabulous adventure”? Doesn’t it say up there that this is my most dangerous mission yet?

Felicia: You can see that?? Whoops! Anyway, on this mission you’re also going to run into an old friend of yours – Talako Jacoway.

Naiche: Friend?! That jackass? Granted, he sure is good-looking – but so conceited.

Felicia: He’s not really conceited, just
quite confident. And that comes with the territory. Pilots do have a tendency to be a little over-confident. Don’t they?

Naiche: What makes you say that?

Felicia: Oh, no reason. As for Tal, I think ‘jackass’ is pretty harsh. Isn’t it possible that you’ve misjudged him? Like you did with your father?

Naiche: Nah, I learned my lesson there. I know when I’m being unfair to people, now.

Felicia: I’ll guess we’ll see about that.

Naiche: Do you know something I don’t?

Felicia: Always. What part of “omniscient narrator” don’t you understand?

Naiche: If you’re waiting for me to laugh – don’t. How is it you developed me and I’m still funnier that you?

Felicia: I give you all my best lines.

Naiche: You really didn’t save anything for yourself today
. Tell me, what else happens in this book? What is a quantum entanglement, exactly?

Felicia: It’s a stellar phenomenon where the space-time field is in constant flux.

Naiche: How the hell do you navigate through something like that?

Felicia: Good question. One that has stumped the best minds in the UDC – and that’s why there are two ships stuck there, needing rescue. By the Lovelace, specifically. Oh, did I mention that the entanglement is collapsing and if you folks don’t find a way to rescue the 80 people trapped there, they’ll be lost forever? And you have to team up with your nemesis, Jacoway, to do it.

Naiche: Can I read your bio again? Are you sure you’re an author and not a sadist?

Felicia: When it comes to our characters, there’s not much difference.

Naiche: What else happens to me? Alien encounters? Death-defying feats of bravery? Deep emotional connections? Do I get lucky?

Felicia: Yes, yes, yes, and – yes and no.

Naiche: What does that mean?

Felicia: I guess you’ll have to read Spooky Action at a Distance to find out. I hope you’ll all do the same! Good-bye from me and Naiche. And many many thanks to Rosemarie for hosting us here.

Review: Rita Therese – Come

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Come
Rita Therese

“Rita Therese is a 25-year-old sex worker, artist and writer based in Melbourne, Australia. She entered the sex industry at age 18, and has worked as a stripper, porn and as an escort. She currently works as an escort under the alias Gia James. She has written for magazines like Frankie, Vice and Penthouse Australia, and had a monthly sex and dating column for Sneaky magazine.”

I wanted this to be new and innovative, but in the end I actually felt disappointed. I’ve read a similar novel/memoir in the past that still stuck with me. What really frustrated me about this was that it had a ‘fearless new talent’ but the writing itself wasn’t that amazing. It seemed to reply on shock factor, and speed, in order to keep the reader interested.

Arg! The biggest irritation for me was the way that the timeline endlessly jumped around. The novel seems to open at the end, where Rita has already lost her two older brothers to suicide. But then it jumps between when she is just starting out as a topless waiter through to being a porn star, and then back to working at a brothel. Honestly I wasn’t sure what was going on. Maybe some more informative chapter headings would help? I wasn’t sure if her abusive relationship was before her rape or her brothers’ deaths, or something else. It made it hard for me to follow the storyline.

Some of the things that Rita tells you how to do are honestly really gross, and probably not very healthy for your biological workings! I am slightly worried that some people might think of this as a ‘how to’ in terms of getting into sex work, and take some of the things she’s described as good things to try at home. If you’re looking at getting into kink or exploring your own sexual side more (nothing wrong with that!) perhaps I could suggest Oh Joy Sex Toy? As the name suggests, this comic takes a light hearted approach to reviewing sex toys, discussing kinks and quirks, and also takes on sexual health.

One of the few things I appreciated about this book was that Rita does touch on the fact that she attended therapy to help her cope. But I’m not sure her ‘alternative’ lifestyle should be blamed at all for her personal failings. Not all sex workers are drug-riddled alcoholics? If you’ve looked at an AMA, or watched You Can’t Ask That you’ll know that sex workers can have healthy sex lives as well as working.

An interesting exposĂ© that provides an ironically happy and sexual read that will last you at least as long as a night out at a club (and make you think about what the dancers are doing in the ‘spare time’ they have). Remember that sex workers are people too, and that they are all different. There’s nothing wrong with this book, I just wish it was a bit better organised.

Allen & Unwin | 31st March 2020 | AU$29.99 | paperback

Review: Agustina Bazterrica – Tender is the Flesh

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Tender is the Flesh
Agustina Bazterrica

The flesh of animals has become poisonous to humans. Unbelievably, the only source of protein left is ‘special meat’. Otherwise known as meat from ‘heads’, there are specially bred humans that are used only for meat and hides. Marco’s job is to check and maintain their quality. And yet, gifted with a beautiful head, Marco isn’t sure if humans are still valid meat.

This is a rich novel that is intended to be confronting and powerful, but is instead I found it off putting. It seemed like a train wreck from the start, and yet I kept hoping for a satisfactory conclusion. Instead what I read made me feel irritated and grossed out. Also there were parts (such as Marco’s ?affair? with the butcher) that I didn’t understand the importance of. This is literature, not light reading. It demands attention and thinking that I just didn’t have the space to give.

Some of the imagery in this novel was very disturbing. For me, it was reading how the pregnant humans had their limbs removed so that they couldn’t kill their own fetuses. See, now, doesn’t that say to a ‘head’ farmer that you shouldn’t do that? To my knowledge, no animal currently harvested for meat does this.

Maybe I missed the point of this novel? Should it have humanised the (non-human) meat industry for me? Unfortunately growing up as a beef cattle farmer’s daughter, I’m pretty pragmatic about meat, and where it comes from. I knew all those beef burgers and lamb chops by name before they were meat, and it never bothered me.

I didn’t realise that this was originally translated from Spanish (the author is Argentinian). That’s not something to hold against it – I’m honestly pretty sure that I wouldn’t have enjoyed it regardless of the language. It’s supposed to be a critique on meat eating, but I interpreted it as an actual hypothetical situation. It turned me off reading in a way similar to the way that The Biggerers did (again, maybe I missed the point?).

A high flaunting novel that missed the mark for me. I finished reading it, but was left disgusted and dismayed. I think the answer from me is ‘yes’ I would do cannibalism if you told me that I had to, in order to survive. But I wouldn’t accept human meat that’s been bred for the purpose.

Faber Factory Plus Ffp | 31st March 2020 | AU$27.99 | paperback