Ahoy there! I be a Zelda fan and loved studying psychology when I was younger so when I saw this title I had to give it a whirl. While I found parts of the book enjoyable, there was too much repetition and so I found meself skimming later chapters. It read as a primer of sorts for those not familiar with basic psychological history. Nice concept and glad to have tried it but it wasn't completely to me taste. I recceived a copy from the publisher in exchange for me honest musings. Arrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  So this book and me have a checkered past.  All me crew was aghast that I had never read this book.  Seems like every cutthroat, scalawag, and tongue-wagger on the seven seas thought the Gentlemen Bastards were fine fellows to fancy.  Me first mate even suggested this one and was confused by me strong negative reaction.  It was only good reflexes that caused me cutlass to miss his tiny black heart.  I tried multiple times to read this and threw me 'ands up in disgust at the unnecessary hubbub.  I may even have originally rated this 2 stars on Goodreads despite having abandoned ship.  So what caused the winds to shift in me reckoning? Michael Page the answer be.

Who is Michael Page?  Apparently one of the best audio book narrators that ever lived!  Fie to any of me crew who doesn't recognize his brilliance.  I found the audio book by chance in a local library and it happened to be the only thing available to me at the time.  Mehaps that be due to its 21 hour and 59 minute length?  Well all I had was time so I decided that it was better to listen to this book than the drunken warblin' of the crew singing off key.  And then I slowly learned what all the fuss be about thanks to Michael Page's magnificent voice at 2x the speed.

First of all, the world-building is exquisite.  The city of Camorr reminds me of an even dirtier, more vicious Venenzia.  My how I love that port.  Camorr has a late medieval kinda feel with 13 gods and their respective priesthoods, a bondmage's guild, an underground crime organization, a Duke, and other respective city-states.  Add in lots of ships (Arrr!), islands, treacherous bridges, drafty hovels, mud, stench, and canals.  Overall Camorr is a dank, dark, miserable city.

Ah, but what fun can be had.  Revenge, cons, close calls, giant man-eating sharks, magic, fights to the death, and above all trickery.  And goodness, but can the Gentlemen Bastards play the game.  Because this gang doesn't have yer ordinary layabout petty thieves.  Oh no.  These men are educated, crafty, tenacious, and always after the big prizes.

While the world-building got me interested, the characters and the con kept me listening.  Locke Lamora may think he is more intelligent than everyone but his smart mouth and smarter plots made me root for him.  Then add in the rest of the gang - the fighter, Jean Tannen; the jack-of-all-trades, twins Calo and Galdo Sanza; and Bug, their young apprentice.  The side characters like the shark fighting sisters, the merchant Don Lorenzo Salvara and his wife, the priest Father Chains are also well drawn and wonderful.  Part of the story is also told in flashbacks which add to the flavour and give further history of the city and background to how characters' lives evolved.

And the glorious ending.  I was very satisfied with this book and will be readin' the next.  The minor quibble is the slow intro that initially led me to abandon ship and that there are sections that seem to drag with either mundane details or not much action.  But thanks be to the glorious Michael Page for making me realize the true craft of the novel.  And much thanks to Scott Lynch for writing it.

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Ahoy there me mateys! This here be book one of the Eternal Sky fantasy series. I am slowly making me way through this author’s backlog while waiting for the red-stained wings to come out in May 2019. And this was such a fantastic read.

This story be inspired by 12th and 13th century Asia. Ye follow the tales of Temur, the grandson of the Great Khan and the former Princess Samarkar who gave up her title to become a wizard. Temur was mistaken for dead after a losing battle and struggles to find new purpose in exile. Samarkar is dealing with the loss of having children and trying to earn and use her magic. A hidden cult is sowing strife between various nations and these two disparate people are pulled into the disarray.

But the book is so much more than that. Elizabeth Bear gives the reader stunning mythology, characters, world building, and a captivating plot. One of the secondary characters is a talking Tiger hybrid (love it!). In each region, the sky changes depending on which culture lives there. For example, Temur’s sky shows one star for each of the Khan’s sons and grandsons. With each death, the star winks out. There are angry corpse spirits, butterflies, cool magic, an awesome horse, and fun politics. While I thought the set-up for both characters was fantastic, it did take a longer while to get the action moving in comparison to other series. The plot seemed to have little direction for the first half of the book. I was okay with that.

Time flew by when reading this novel and I am so very glad that I read it. The good news is the rest of the trilogy be out so I won’t have to wait years for them. The bad news . . . making time to fit them in me schedule. But I shall mateys, I shall. Arrrr!

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Ahoy there me mateys! This be the fifth book in me Ports for Plunder – 19 Books in 2019 list. I wanted to read this ever since seeing Sarah @ theillustratedpage’s post called “10 Science Fiction Books By Authors of Color” back on 11/20/17. In 2018 I read Thompson’s novella, the murders of molly southbourne, and adored it. So in 2019 I finally made time to read rosewater. Sarah’s post described the book thusly:

"Nigeria, 2066. Kaaro lives in the city of Rosewater, a settlement that grew up around an alien biodome. He spends his days providing psychic protection for a bank, but secretly, he’s the most powerful psychic of Section 35, a secret agency within the Nigerian government. As other psychics begin dying one by one, Kaaro will defy the agency to find an answer. Thompson brings his futuristic vision of Nigeria to stunning life, complete with psychics and strange alien organisms."

Secret psychic agent in 2066 and aliens. Aye, ye scalawags! The aliens in this novel are housed in a dome just outside the city of Rosewater. Once a year the dome opens and whoever is nearby can be cured of any ailments they have. Cancer, broken arm, whatever – gone – but there are some unsavoury consequences that can occur too. There is no guarantee for the sick but hope makes for a huge tourist industry during the Opening. Kaaro has been in the dome and is rather jaded about the whole ceremony. And life.

After reading Thompson’s novella, I knew that this was going to be different in terms of style and it was. There are three separate timelines which did take some getting used to. One timeline involves Kaaro as a young man and how he used his newfound abilities as a thief. There is another timeline with Kaaro’s life as a secret agent. And then there is the present. The setting of this book is dark, gritty, and can be nasty. Torture and murder are rampant and present on the page. I absolutely loved the world-building in this one and the projections Thompson chose to make about the political climate moving forward from our era. There are a lot of moving parts but with a small bit of effort on me part, the tale turned out to be so worth it.

So if ye like a blend of film noir, first contact with aliens, psychics, murder mystery, dreamscapes, characters with complicated pasts, excellent world-building, puzzles, a plausible future world, and a little bit of romance etc. then ye should pick this one up. It seems intimidating but I know that any crew members of mine are up to the challenge. The destination is worth it. Arrrrr!

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Ahoy there mateys! I be the first to admit that I am not really a graphic novel or comics person. While I like art, I do not have a visual mind at all. For example, me film friends laugh good-naturedly at me all the time when when I watch tv or movies with them because I miss the visual cues of storytelling. This means the tv or movie must be paused so the can explain the plot points I literally didn’t see. I need words! Dialogue! Something! But the First Mate and I had donated books to a local library sale and had time to kill. So of course we chose to remain at the library while time went by. The most avaliable place to sit ended up being next to the juvenile graphic novel section. I had heard good things about this series and saw it so naturally I picked it up. I have to admit that while cute, I was underwhelmed by this. There was barely any real storytelling. I thought it would be one story overall but instead there were basically vigenettes. Me favourite part ended up being the animal facts section. I did think the waffles were silly. Arrrr!

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Ahoy there mateys! I be the first to admit that I am not really a graphic novel or comics person. While I like art, I do not have a visual mind at all. For example, me film friends laugh good-naturedly at me all the time when when I watch tv or movies with them because I miss the visual cues of storytelling. This means the tv or movie must be paused so the can explain the plot points I literally didn’t see. I need words! Dialogue! Something! But the First Mate and I had donated books to a local library sale and had time to kill. So of course we chose to remain at the library while time went by. The most avaliable place to sit ended up being next to the juvenile graphic novel section. I had heard good things about this series and saw it so naturally I picked it up. I have to admit that I liked this tale much better than the first book. It actually made this salty, grizzled, grumpy Captain smile. I enjoyed all the silly animals and their silly super powers. The animal facts still made me happy. I acknowledge that the little cartoons are happy despite their simplicity. Arrrr!

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Ahoy there mateys! I be the first to admit that I am not really a graphic novel or comics person. While I like art, I do not have a visual mind at all. For example, me film friends laugh good-naturedly at me all the time when when I watch tv or movies with them because I miss the visual cues of storytelling. This means the tv or movie must be paused so the can explain the plot points I literally didn’t see. I need words! Dialogue! Something! But the First Mate and I had donated books to a local library sale and had time to kill. So of course we chose to remain at the library while time went by. The most avaliable place to sit ended up being next to the juvenile graphic novel section. I had heard good things about this series and saw it so naturally I picked it up. After liking the second book, I went back to not really caing about narwhal because there wasn’t a fun story here. Narwhal discovers peanut butter. The end. Arrrr!

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Ahoy there mateys! I just don’t get it. How is there a story here? I actually did enjoy the artwork but the story was fragmented. The blurb says that ” The magic and folklore of the wild, windswept North come alive in this book about an adventurous little girl and her habit of befriending anything, no matter how curious it might seem.” Hilda doesn’t befriend the troll and runs away from it and is scared. She also doesn’t like the little wooden man either. She learns the error of her ways because a) wooden man is nice to her and b) she hurts the troll because she failed to read the whole book before doing something impulsive.

Is this a trend with comics and graphic novels that I am unaware of? That the storytelling jumps around and I am supposed to somehow connect the dots? Perhaps it is just me weird non-visual noggin. I am beginning to think that graphic novels and I are not friends. But I am willing to take suggestions from the crew of graphic novels with a story in order to try again. I may like a different one but I am not holding me breath. Arrrr!

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Ahoy there me mateys! As ye all know I absolutely adore dragons and thievery. This book combines both! I saw it on Nikki @ thebibliophibian’s post and had to check it out.

So the story follows Ardor Benn, ruse artist extraordinaire, as he goes on his biggest heist yet – to steal the king’s crown! To accomplish this he must assemble a top-notch team. The team includes:

- Raekon Dorrel – he happens to be Ardor’s best friend and deals with logistics, mathematics, and brawn
- Quarrah Khai – a thief who works alone and doesn’t like interacting with others especially if she has to talk to them
- Elbrig Taut and Cinza Ortemion – “the crazies” who specialize in alternative identities, disguises, and costumes (seriously I love them!)

There are other side characters that help including forgers, harvesters, etc. But these folks are hired for specific side jobs. In addition there is a priest of Wayfarism, Isle Halavend, who be the man who hired Ardor for the heist. He believes there is a major threat to their island kingdom and only by going against his Order can he help save the world.

Okay sounds good so far right? Well where do the dragons come in? Aye, the dragons play a major role in terms of the magic system. So there be this stuff called Grit. Grit comes in several forms like Light, Heat, Barrier, Drift, Void, Visitation, etc. What be Grit? Grit is a powder made from materials like bone, wood, stone, dragon egg shell, etc. To get it, ye have to feed the materials to a dragon who then erm . . . poops it out and sets it on fire. Then a team of harvesters has to track down the hardened poo pile (while trying not to die) which is taken to a factory to be processed. Sounds fun right?

So dragon shells be needed for the rarest type of Grit of all – Visitation. This special Grit is used to summon Visitants who help save the world. Problem is the only dragon shell left is on the crown of the king. Hence Ardor Benn’s task.

This book really was amusing. I loved that the magic was based on powdered dragon poop. I also liked that physics and math had to be taken into account when using the Grit. I liked how versatile Grit could be and thought the author did an excellent job showcasing its uses I thought the main trio of Ardor, Quarrah, and Raekon were just lovely and enjoyed their banter. Their relationships do drive the novel and I loved watching them change and grow together over the course of the novel.

There were some downsides of the book in terms of plot and structure. I think most of this problems stemmed from how long the book was at over 700 pages. Even with that length, some of the more tactical parts of the heist were glossed over. There are some parts of the plot involving Grit that seemed to be unbelievable and ridiculous. They made me smile but really were silly. And the plot really lost focus after the crown had been stolen. The 80-87% of the book was the most difficult but the pace did pick back up again.

I thought that overall the debut was a good one and I am glad I read it. This book could be read as a standalone but I do see that the author plans on writing another book in the series. I am interested to see where he will take the story next. Arrrr!

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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 . . .

This was a heart-achingly beautiful book. I was drawn to this title because of the lovely cover and because there is a character who can draw magic maps. Ye all know how this Captain loves maps of any kind (Arrr!). And while I loved how the maps worked, turns out that they were the least awesome part of the book for me. Because the two main characters, Fatima and Hassan, were the beacons of love and delight in this tale.

Reading this book is like watching a blossom unfold before yer eyes. It takes forever to get to the end point and yet the journey of the blooming is part of the magic. It progresses slowly and subtly and there is a sense of wonder when it be over.

This book starts the voyage in the form of a historical fiction tale. It is set in 1491 in the Iberian peninsula. The last Muslim stronghold, Grenada, is poised to fall to an Aragonese and Castilian force led by Ferdinand and Isabella of what would become known as Spain. Fatima is a slave living in the Alhambra palace during the siege. She is a concubine to the Sultan and a companion of the Sultan’s mother. Fatima is pampered and spoiled but cannot forget that her position is tenuous and she is not free. Her only friend is Hassan, the maker of the magic maps.

The historical fiction part starts to slowly morph into fantastical elements with the introduction of Hassan and his maps. Hassan’s maps are a thing of wonder because they be of places he has never visited. While his skill is utilized, he is not a treasured member of the Court because his magic makes people uneasy. Worse yet, he is gay in a society where that should equal death. But desperate times cause his nature to be an open secret. Fatima often sneaks out of the harem to spend time with her friend. Hassan makes maps so Fatima can visit off-limit places within the palace. One of the other games they share is making up endings to an unfinished tale called The Bird King.

However with the siege in full force, starvation mounting, and surrender on the horizon, both Hassan and Fatima’s lives are irrevocably changed. For a delegation has arrived at the palace to discuss the terms of the treaty to end the war with the Sultan on the losing side. One of these terms is that Hassan must be turned over to the Christian delegation and the Inquisition for being a sorcerer.

And this be where the book truly starts to grow. The magic elements sprout with the addition of a jinn named Vikram. As Hassan and Fatima flee for their lives, the magic elements continue to develop until the reader doesn’t know what is real and what isn’t. I won’t spoil any details for ye here but I am so glad that I was given a chance to read this wonderful book and see the story fully bloom.

So lastly . . .

Thank ye Grove Press!

Side note: the book also introduced me to a type of bird I had never heard of – hoopoes. Arrr!

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