“To call the scene a disaster does it a terrific disservice. The final death toll was never fully calculated, for heaven only knew how many bodies might lie wedged in the rubble. And alas, there was no time for excavation.” – Hale Quarter
An excellent book with a few concerns.
I’ll be honest: it really concerned me that this book was written by a white guy. I have hesitations about whether this is entirely his story to tell, and I’d like to hear a POC’s perspective on it. I think it was written and handled well, but I’m saying that will the full awareness that it’s not fully mine to judge. Frankly, this is a story that includes the n-word a lot and presents the first person perspective of a Black man in a world […]
The Phantom of the Slaughterhouse doesn’t sing, but he does build creepy mechanical spiders
3.5 stars Wen, a young woman, whose family were clearly of a higher social status before her mother got sick and died, now works as a doctor’s apprentice for her father. Wen and her father are Itanyai. They both live in a large factory complex, Gochan One, treating to the workers of a large slaughterhouse. In the same larger compound, there is a factory producing textiles and one making advanced war machines, to further the military might of their country. Most of the workers at […]
Where the Devil’s Always Watching
East of the Mississippi and as far west as they eye can see, right up until you hit the mountains themselves, is the Devil’s territory. And he protects his own.
A Modern Spin on the Underground Railroad
Underground Airlines made a lot of Best of 2016 lists, and I was lucky enough to snap it up at the library before the hold list got too long. It’s a story about what the world would look like if the Civil War had never happened, and slavery was still legal in America. Not surprisingly, it’s kind of a horrifying look. The protagonist is something of a bounty hunter, tracking down escaped slaves before they can make it to Canada and freedom, and his personal […]
Tudor royals, books, shapeshifters and all manner of complications
According to history, when King Edward VI, Henry VIII’s son died young and childless, certain noblemen who wanted to make sure a ruler of the Protestant faith ruled the country put his young cousin Lady Jane Gray on the throne. She ruled for nine days, before Mary Tudor arrived with her armies, removed the poor girl and had her beheaded. This book bears a vague resemblance to that story. In the England of this story, the conflict in England isn’t between Catholics and Protestants, it’s […]