It is time to abandon ship, me mateys! I made it to the 25.7% through the novel before I had to give up. I believe this author is just not for me. I previously tried reading her fantasy book, the mirror empire. In that novel, I found the concepts to be interesting, the world building to be fascinating, and most of the characters to be written well. Yet somehow the plot failed me. I am not sure if the plot was just too slow or the descriptions were overdrawn but I abandoned it. Yet Hurley’s writing was good enough that when I heard she had a new sci-fi novel coming out, I thought I would give it a shot. I felt the same way about the stars are legion as I did about the fantasy book.

I actually thought the plot was an awesome set-up. Zan is a character who wakes up not remembering her past but is told she keeps being reanimated to help save the world. She has failed all the previous times but perhaps this time will be different. Zan is kick-ass, resourceful, and intelligent. She finds herself performing tasks like fighting or repairing spacecraft with little effort but no memory of having learned how. Through the snippets of memory that Zan does begin to retrieve, it is evident that complex politics and plots are unfolding.

Oh and this book is completely women dominated. In fact, I don’t believe I read a single mention of a male at all. So that was kinda cool. But again the plot just failed me. The writing and characterization were intriguing. But after yet another description of one of the living ships that Zan visits, I was done. I wanted more fighting and most of all more of Zan’s discoveries about herself. I wanted more interpersonal relationships. But perhaps ye will find this author to yer taste. Lots of other people seem to as it has a 3.8 Goodreads rating and a 4 star Amazon rating. I appear to be in the minority again and shall not be reading another book by this author anytime soon.

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Ahoy there me mateys! It's been the kinda times where me readin' has to be done in fits and spurts. So I decided to read this collection of stories in me spare moments. First this cover caught me eye.
Then the blurb drew me in hook, line, and sinker.

For those new to me crew, before the sea called me name, I loved horses and horse stories. Still have a soft spot in me salty heart fer 'em. Not only do these stories have horses but they also have magic, legendary creatures, historical settings, and feisty female characters. They all take place in and around Saratoga Springs in New York at the turn of the 20th century. The stories are interconnected and should, in me mind, be read in the order presented in this collection. Plus the first story was Nebula Award Finalist in 2010 fer Best Novella. Starts with a bang.

The first story was me favorite of the three. Imogen lives at Hawk's Folly Farm which she has inherited from her husband. She is in danger of losing the property unless her horse can win the Stakes. Imogen has always had someone telling her how to behave and what to do. And forcing her to hide her magic. Things unravel when she gets upset. She has a lot to be worried about. This is a coming-of-age story with some romance thrown in. I loved Imogen getting stronger within herself. Also the secondary characters are fun. I am not a huge romance fan but I have to say that this one made me happy and it was silly and amusing. Also the use of pucas in this story rocked. Don't know what a puca is? Just be surprised and enjoy.

The second story is a placeholder story that sets up the circumstances for the last one but it is still entertaining. The third story has a new character named Lourdes, and I loved her too. She is strong willed and principled and very different from Imogen. Overall I found this collection to be the perfect read for the time that I had and me mood and inclination. If ye like ponies, magic, romance, and quite a bit of fluff then ye might want to give this one a try.

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Ahoy there me mateys! I continue me streak of awesome readin’. While I was not granted an eArc, the library granted me a copy right at the perfect mood moment (Arrrr!). However I get me treasure is okay by me.

Previously I had read some of the broken empire trilogy and wanted to read more of Mr. Lawrence’s work. Then I found out he had written a book about an assassin nun. Sign me up!

When we first meet our main character, Nona, she is eight years old and about to hang for a murder, which she committed. Abbess Glass, a nun from the Sisters of Sweet Mercy, intervenes and offers her a chance to survive if she trains at the convent. What did Glass see in this girl to save her?

Nona is a fantastic character and no ordinary eight year old. At times she seems almost a wise little adult and then something will happen that makes her seem very young indeed. I loved her for her intelligence, her loyalty, her viewpoint of the world, and above all her ideas of friendship. She certainly drives the novel but most of the secondary characters were wonderful as well. Particular favorites included Hessa, Abbess Glass, Sister Apple and Arabella.

The book is fascinating. As the author says on Goodreads, “almost all of the book happens within a 400 yard circle” at the convent where Nona is in school. However there are a series of flashbacks where ye are granted glimpses of Nona’s background and how she ended up being condemned to the noose. This book has prophecy, politics, magic, an awesome non-traditional school system, etc. Yet the book scrambles the ideas around and I couldn’t help being foiled again and again in my figgerins about where the plot was going. All I do know fer sure if that I want the next book!

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Ahoy there me mateys! I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

If ye haven’t read the first book in this series, cold-forged flame, then ye might want to skip this post and go read me review for the first installment. If ye keep reading this log then ye have been forewarned and continue at yer own peril . . .

Now I cannot say enough goodness about the first book. I reread it in preparation for this second installment and enjoyed it just as much the second time around. I adore Ree as a character and the world-building so very much. I cannot believe I had to wait 268 days between the two, however it was worth the wait!

One of the awesome circumstances of the first story is that Ree cannot remember anything about herself, her nature, or even her name. I am a sucker for that kinda thing. By the end of story one, ye know her partial name and some of her nature but have way more questions than answers. As does Ree.

I was so exited to see where she would go next. It of course did not go anywhere that I expected! This story takes place several years after the events in the first one. While this episode has a lot less mystery than the first, I still found it engrossing and enthralling. In this second installment, Ree meets another archon which sets off another mission fer Ree, answers some of her questions, and of course gives her so many more. My favorite aspects are following Ree in her journey to reclaim parts of herself and her attempts to figure out what has been lost. The glimpses ye do get are tantalizing. It was also extremely nice to see Aadet again.

Oh and this cover is awesome. Don't ye want to read about giant black cats? Ye know ye do. And that is all I am going to say about this one cause it is short and awesome and ye should discover what happens fer yerself. I want the third one!

Random fact about book two from the author's website is this:

"And you’ll see the Mayan calendrical system with a minor fictional paint job showing up in Lightning in the Blood because years ago I read about it for fun and wound up incorporating it into a story more or less wholesale, complete with fiddly little details about Year-Bearers."

I need to go off an' do research bout Mayan calendrical systems now. Go out and get the first episode if ye haven't. Read this one if ye have.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Macmillian-Tor/Forge!

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Ahoy there me mateys! So along with me love of the sea, I also have had a fierce love of dragons. The Copper Cat Trilogy, of which this is book one, was on someone's list of awesome dragon books. The problem was that the author lives in London, the books were published in the UK, and I was not anywhere near that port! Getting a hold of these novels was proving troublesome. Then I heard rumors of books one and two being found on the other side of the pond. Arrrrr! Got me copies.

I found this one to be a highly enjoyable read. While the dragon is fun (aren't they all) the highlights for me were the characters of Wydrin, Frith, and Gallo. Wydrin is the Copper Cat of the story. She is strong, intelligent, snarky, and loves her knives. Frith is a complete and total jerk whom I ended up loving anyway. And well Gallo just has to be experienced fer yerself.

The magic in this story made me happy. The plot diverges a bit with a stint on an island of magical training but I adored that entire section. I also adored a creation of the dragon's called "the brood." Books are cleverly involved. The dragon is more like a force of nature. In my mind she was like a giant locus devouring everything in her path with flames and fury. She is not a nice dragon.

The only minor problems that I had were that the world building was kinda neutral and that I didn't love how the dragon was dealt with in the ending. I am told that book one was originally four shorter stories that tied together. That aspect makes a lot of sense. That being said, I loved the characters and so will likely read book two at some point (plus I already own it - Arrrr!).

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Ahoy there me mateys! This novel was on me radar forever and finally got around to reading it. While I did enjoy many parts of the novel, overall it was just an okay read for me. Mostly I found myself comparing it to other robot related novels and finding it slightly lacking.

This story involves the history of the robot war against the humans run by an AI named Archos. The story is told by a survivor of the robot war, Cormac, who finds surveillance footage left behind by Archos and relates the history of the war through journals, newsfeeds, and other media.

Now to be fair there are many things about the novel that I liked:

- This story is set just far enough in the future that the start of the robot war seems plausible. The technology advances could happen. For example we already have self-driving cars. Such technology turning on us was fun.
- There were some awesome characters that I really cheered for. In particular I loved the husband and wife team of Dawn and Marcus in New York City, Paul in Afghanistan, and Mathilda Perez.
- The toy scene was creepy.
- There are a diverse bunch of characters and scenery.
- I really enjoyed how the author tied the stories of the seemingly unrelated different humans together.

Some things I didn't like:

- Though the story was supposed to be told from multiple perspectives, the filter of Cormac made many of the segments seem flat and/or unbelievable. Cormac commentated on issues and added his own thoughts on the other characters feelings and experiences. I wanted more of the segments to feel like first-person encounters.
- Archos was a very odd bad guy. I mean I know AI are supposed to be way smarter than humans but the computer seemed to make stupid and irrational choices. Humans could have been wiped out fairly quickly and weren't.
- There were a lot of unanswered questions about certain situations. The robots relationship with nature for example.
- Also there are several human story lines with no resolutions. As a couple of those were my more favorite characters, I was grumpy.
- How Archos is taken down. Sigh.

Now I did learn that there is a second novel that perhaps would answer some of the outstanding questions I have. I am just not sure if I will read it yet.

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Ahoy there me mateys! I have no idea where I first heard about this novel but it it was kismet to have picked it up to read. Ye see when I was perusing the news, I read a fascinating (and depressing) piece on the Japanese internment camps of WWII. Later that same day, I picked up this novel thinking it would be a young adult novel but found instead a fantastic historical fiction book about a Japanese family in America and how WWII affected them.

Ye see this story was "based on Otsuka’s own family history: her grandfather was arrested by the FBI as a suspected spy for Japan the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, and her mother, uncle and grandmother spent three years in an internment camp in Topaz, Utah." Yet the novel is told from multi-person perspective of a single family who remain nameless in the novel.

I don't know how to do this book justice - it was that good. I found this novel to be evocative, lyrical, haunting, engaging, and heart wrenching. I read it in one sitting and found meself avoiding picking up another book and pondering the ramifications in what I had read for a couple days before I could even begin to process the effects of this book on my being. And yet I continue to fail at capturing its resonance despite this effort of putting me thoughts down.

This dark period in United States history was captured beautifully and soul-crushingly in this author's work. Especially in the details. Small details helped me feel the horror of the family's pain. Images of slippers, the smell of horses in the racetrack stalls where the family was forced to live, a single rosebush. The last chapter in particular was extremely powerful.

Words truly fail me. But I recommend this one without a doubt.

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Ahoy there mateys. It's time to walk the plank . . .

This was the author’s debut novel and has a wonderful cover but I found this to be an highly disappointing read that never lived up to its promise. The premise is that a woman named Jamie has always felt hemmed in by society and other people, so she flees to the far ends of the universe to live in a colony with few people and a lot of space. Life is working out until a virus devastatingly hits the universe. She believes herself to be the only person alive on her planet in that part of the solar system and suddenly finds that there is too much space in between the stars. Is she doomed to be alone?

Jamie does end up finding other survivors who aim to make it back to Earth. The rag-tag crew of misfits that Jamie ends up with go through a series of "adventures" to make it back to Earth. The introduction of Jamie recovering from the virus until she finds the first survivors was wonderful. It was suspenseful and sad and made me excited to read. But once the whole gang is gathered up the novel began to fail me.

Basically, without any spoilers, Jamie is a very annoying waffling character. The space and science elements were barely there and instead it became about Jamie fighting her feelings about her old and new love interests for basically the rest of the novel. Ugh. Also the other characters seemed to be mostly caricatures who didn't get explored nearly enough. The exception was Finn whom I found to be the most compelling and interesting character.

It's odd that while reading this, I kept wishing that we could get out of Jamie's head and actually have other point of views. I was so tired of her whining. There also was relatively little real action. What did happen also seemed rather bland and predictable. The upside, I guess, was that every time I thought I would put it down and not finish, there would be a snippet of an interesting idea that made me continue. None of the ideas panned out for me but they did keep me going. How different groups of survivors chose to live in the new world were compelling. But a lot of the connections and consequences seemed coincidental and stretched credibility.

Basically I felt this was a triangle romance from an unappealing point of view with a slight veneer of space and post-apocalyptic universe. However I would be willing to give the author's next work a chance.

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