Tag: sci-fi

Biblioshelf Musings – This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria

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Hey Bibliofriends!

This week’s Biblioshelf Musings are about This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria. If I’m being perfectly honest, the reason I picked up this book was because it has been sat on my TBR shelf for so long and I needed to clear out a bit of space. Also, being a YA SFF standalone was a bonus as it meant I wasn’t in danger of adding any sequels to my ever-expanding TBR. Read on to find out more in my spoiler-free review!

Book: This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria
Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy / YA
Publication Date: February 2021
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 383
Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons.

Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.

My Musings

This Golden Flame blends Ancient Greece history with Artificial Intelligence exceptionally well. The story is told is told through the split narratives of Karis and Alix and each of their viewpoints offer differing glimpses to the world around them.

Karis is practically enslaved as a member of the Scriptorium – classical Greek architecture and columns surround her and references to her himation really put you in the mindset of Ancient Greece. Whilst her values and motives come across quite strongly, I found her to be a little nondescript throughout the first half to two thirds of the story. She seems to be a character that despite being driven to find her long lost brother, seems to have lost her way herself. I found her quite difficult to warm to until she had forged relationships with other characters in the story.

Alix on the other hand was a brilliant character. Without stereotyping Automatons, I couldn’t help but see him as a cross between C-3PO and David from the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Emotions pour out him, all over his dialogue which I found incredibly intriguing considering he is meant to be programmed and without conscience. I loved seeing his perspective on the world and the vulnerabilities he exuded made him an endearing character.

When we first come across Karis (who is on a mission to discover the whereabouts of her long lost brother), we see her attempting to wield runic magic. The introduction of this plot device, paves the way for the central themes of manipulation and control which are integral to the whole story. Runes are used to unlock buildings, automatons are carved with runes which feature as their main operating instructions and they are even used as a way to try and control the rebels within society. The idea of authority and having power over people or automatons is driven by the usage of runes and this compelling and poignant convention was really hammered home through the voices of the characters and the overarching plot. Bear in mind, this being YA fiction, we don’t delve too far into the nitty-gritty of sentient rights and politics, however Emily Victoria balances these points really well with the whole tone of her story.

The pace was pretty steady throughout. There was enough action to keep pushing the story forwards and character relationships were driven at an appropriate rate and in enough detail. By the ending of the story, things become a gradually more tense as we head towards the final showdown. All-in-all, events were concluded satisfactorily with no major twists or surprises. The resolution gives enough closure over the futures of the characters which is exactly what I need from a YA standalone. Overall, the main enjoyment factor for me in This Golden Flame was the balance of the ancient and the futuristic. It’s quite a unique concept that I haven’t yet come across in the rest of my readings and made for an entertaining read.

Connect with me here:

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Biblioshelf Musings – We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart

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Hey Bibliofriends!

This week’s Biblioshelf Musings are about We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart. I first heard about this novella on Book Riot’s SFF Yeah podcast back in 2021. At the time, it sounded intriguing and I’m a bit of a sucker for anything set underwater so a post-apocalyptic submarine adventure seemed right up my street. Read on to find out more in my spoiler-free review!

Book: We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart
Genre: Science Fiction / Novella
Publication Date: March 2021
Publisher: Tor.com Publishing
Pages: 160
Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Remy is a Chorister, one of the chosen few rescued from the surface world and raised to sing the Hours in a choir of young boys. Remy lives with a devoted order of monks who control the Leviathan, an aging nuclear submarine that survives in the ocean’s depths. Their secret mission: to trigger the Second Coming when the time is right, ready to unleash its final, terrible weapon.

But Remy has a secret too— she’s the only girl onboard. It is because of this secret that the sub’s dying caplain gifts her with the missile’s launch key, saying that it is her duty to keep it safe. Safety, however, is not the sub’s priority, especially when the new caplain has his own ideas about the Leviathan’s mission. Remy’s own perspective is about to shift drastically when a surface-dweller is captured during a raid, and she learns the truth about the world.

At once lyrical and page-turning, We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep is a captivating debut from newcomer author Andrew Kelly Stewart.

My Musings

It’s not often that I read many novellas but I find that they’re the perfect quick reads for getting through the TBR. We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep is set in a post-apocalyptic world upon a submarine which is trying to escape the rest of the world on the surface. The crew mates of the sub are organised into monastery style groups with Remy, our leading protagonist as one of the choristers.

Remy’s narrative voice was so beautifully written. Her perspective of life on board the sub is incredibly vulnerable and innocent. She can’t quite remember life upon the surface but doesn’t fully believe the spiel and directive which the Caplain continues to weave. Although the Leviathan should be a refuge for her, Remy doesn’t consider it a place of home or safety. As a girl in disguise, the friendships and bonds she makes are few and far between – this constant secret, allows the atmosphere of the novella to feel quite edgy and tense. You cannot help but warm to her character, especially towards the end of the story when Remy has to demonstrate her true potential and fight for what she believes is right.

The dystopian submarine warfare of the plot with its nuclear missile overtones and masculine vibes of religious grooming and control are perfectly balanced with the archaic forms of monastical heritage. Latin phrases and the inclusion of choral hymns juxtapose the military style discussions of launch keys and tactical strategy. Mentions of whale songs in the deep reinforce the lyrical, resplendent storytelling that Andrew Kelly Stewart weaves.

This is the perfect novella to dip your toe into the dystopian elements of the sci-fi genre. The pace is kept graciously consistent before rapidly ramping up to an explosive conclusion. Villainous characters achieve a shot of redemption, and whilst some take it… some don’t. We get to see perspectives on life both above and below the surface and are allowed to make our own minds about what the right or wrong courses of action are. My main take away from reading this was the superb storytelling – the way Andrew Kelly Stewart made me feel about Remy’s character, the military/monastic blends in the narrative, and those ending chapters ramping the tension right up just had to make me give it a solid 4 stars!

Connect with me here:

Twitter | Goodreads | Book Sloth: @thebiblioshelf |Email: thebiblioshelf@gmail.com

Biblioshelf Musings – A Touch Of Death

The Biblioshelf4 Comments

Good morning Bibliofriends,

I was overjoyed and thrilled when Rebecca approached me to read and review the first book in her Outlands Pentalogy. A Touch of Death follows the story of Nate and Catherine as they embark on a journey as wanted criminals through the Kingdom of Cutta. After running into a spot of trouble in the mountains, Nate and Catherine become infected with a mysterious disease and are then wanted for an investigation into their strange circumstances. A notorious criminal and dissenter, the last thing Nate wants is to submit himself to interrogation at the hands of a department where its inmates seem to vanish. The pair decide to evade capture and go on-the-run seeking sanctuary and a new life in The Outlands. It’s only when the disease seems to become more deadly and impact upon their health, do the pair face a tricky decision: continue to seek a new life and possibly die trying… or return to the heart of the kingdom hoping to find an antidote without being detained and condemned.

Book: A Touch of Death (Book #1 – The Outlands Pentalogy) by Rebecca Crunden
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian, Fantasy, Romance
Publication Date: 24th Feb 2017
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Pages: 308
Rating: 📚📚📚.5

A Touch of Death is an intriguing, dystopian thriller which left me curious as to how the series is going to develop next. I absolutely loved the attention to detail at the world-building in the Kingdom of Cutta. The fact that this place has a map won me over from the start, but the drip-by-drip feed on information and detail helped me to construct the kingdom in my mind. It really helps me to become invested into a place if I feel like I can visualise it in my head. Whilst the Kingdom of Cutta clearly has that dystopian feeling with the mention of radiation destruction, rabids and mutants, the characters, setting and feel of the whole novel gave off a brilliantly balanced futuristic fantasy vibe. By breaking the novel down into parts rather than chapters, it was clear to see how each element of the plot linked into the next and helped the story to flow.

Right from the off, it was immediately clear that Crunden is an author who isn’t afraid to take a risk. The lashing torture during the opening scene was a fairly harrowing reminder that A Touch of Death is firmly cemented in the adult section of the genre. It was a powerful opening prologue and helps you to understand later on why the characters fear Redwater prison so much.

I adored the city of Talon and it is now on my literary travels bucket list. The no-judgements imposed upon visitors as long as you follow the rules, time spent in the stunning library as well as the glorious sounding architecture and food makes it seem like the perfect place for communal living and offered up a stark contrast to the other places we’d visited in Cutta so far which were heavily regulated and policed.

The characters Tove, Zoe and Evander were a welcome introduction part way through the story. They provided some folklore, humour and helped to freshen up the plot of two characters on a quest to escape the kingdom. I really liked the different dynamic they added to the story.

Towards the end, Catherine’s thoughts that the world would be a better place without the strict and harsh ruling of Crown and Council (government) that dominate all in the Kingdom of Cutta, seemed incredibly poignant in today’s modern world and in particular the current challenges and opinions posed of governments during this global pandemic. I seem to have an affinity with these types of storylines due to my own personal political stances and views so Catherine’s perspective was really relatable.

The ending of A Touch of Death is neatly lined-up for the next book in the pentalogy. I would say that I think I needed a little more information throughout the story as to why Nate is so against Crown and Council, other than just his personal views and the treatment put upon him. I feel this was hinted at slightly, that there might be some other underlying reason there, but I wanted this to just be slightly more evident and almost leave me burning (pun intended!) as to what is going to happen next as the story doesn’t end on a cliffhanger or dramatic twist. Nevertheless, I’m still intrigued to explore more of the Kingdom of Cutta and learn the fates of characters who have been left with such a harsh hand dealt to them all – I’ll definitely be downloading the sequel!

You can connect with Rebecca at her website, Twitter or Goodreads.

You can find out more about The Outlands Pentalogy here:
Goodreads | Amazon

What’s your favourite dystopian book? Do you think you’d prefer to live in a world 1000 years from now or are you happy in 2020? As always, drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

#Friday56 – The Space Between Worlds

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I’ve got that feeling again guys – it must be Friday!

This week’s Friday 56 comes from The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. I was so thrilled to get approved for this book from Netgalley so big thanks to the publishers Hodder and Stoughton, Netgalley and the author for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Hosted by Freda’s Voice, the Friday 56 is a weekly bookish prompt. It’s quite easy to do and could cover no end of different books and genres so seems great if you’re looking for a quick snippet to discover something new!

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that’s ok.)
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it)
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post here in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url.
*It’s that simple.

You  understand you’re alive, don’t you? she says, more than once. You are alive, Caramenta. You are still whole.
She calls me a dead girl’s name, and pronounces her alive. But even if she’d gotten my name right I wouldn’t really believe her. I used to be at least 382. Now I am 7. How can I possibly be whole?

The Space Between Worlds is a gripping dystopian Sci-fi novel set across a multiverse of 382 versions of Earth. This novel is action-packed with doppelgänger difficulties, raging wars and revolutions as well as some poignant ideas about the true meaning of finding yourself in a universe where 382 versions of you exist.

If this gets your Sci-Fi senses all a-tingling then check out my full review here!

How would you feel if there were 382 (or fewer!) versions of yourself out there in the big expansive void? Would being a world walker give you freedom or give you a bad case of the imposter syndrome? As always, leave me your #Friday56 links or drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

#BiblioshelfMusings – The Space Between Worlds

The Biblioshelf3 Comments

Hi Bibliofriends,

Hope you have been having a good week. This week’s review post is from my first-ever approved NetGalley title! I had so much fun reading The Space Between Worlds and couldn’t believe in when Hodder & Stoughton approved me for this book so big thanks to them, Netgalley and Micaiah Johnson for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

How would you feel if there were 382 versions of Earth out there in the multiverse each with a doppelganger of ‘you’ on it? How would you then react if you could travel to 375 of those Earths because ‘you’ no longer existed on them? Would you get Imposter Syndrome? Or would you be thrilled at the opportunities that living countless new lives could bring?

The Space Between Worlds is an insightful yet gritty Sci-fi novel which seeks to answer these questions whilst at the same time contemplating what it means to be ‘you’ in a multiverse where multiple versions of you could possibly exist.

Below:
Book Details
Mini-Musings (Review in brief)
Book Synopsis
Detailed Musings (Spoiler-free review)

Book: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Genre: Science Fiction
Publication Date: Expected on 4th August 2020
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 336
Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Mini-Musings (review in brief)

I don’t tend to read much Sci-fi and usually stick to the more fantasy side of the wider genre but the blurb for The Space Between Worlds intrigued me so much that I had to read it. The world felt really dystopian and the balance between the shiny, rich Wiley City compared to the rural wastelands was reminiscent of the divided world in The Hunger Games. It took me a little while to get into it as I felt the need to concentrate on what was happening, especially with so much talk of multiple versions of one person flying around, but the further I traversed into the story, the clearer I understood how this multiverse worked. There are so many dimensions and levels that each chapter was like peeling back another layer of the onion. The Space Between Worlds has plenty to offer both those looking for a sci-fi mind-bender of multiple earths, as well as those looking for the morality and human elements behind the storyline. It was a truly captivating read and I’m so glad and thankful that I was given the opportunity to read it.

Synopsis (From Goodreads)

Reasons Cara has died:

– The emperor of the wasteland wanted to make an example of her mother and started with her
– One of her mother’s boyfriends wanted to cover up what he did to her
– She was born addicted and her lungs didn’t develop
– She was left alone, and a stranger came along
– The runners came for a neighbour and she was in the way
– The runners came for her mother and she was in the way
– The runners came for her boyfriend and she was in the way
– The runners came for no one, serving nothing but chaos and fear, and she was what they found
– Her mother left her alone in a shed while she worked or got high and she fell asleep alone and hungry and forever

Reasons Cara has lived:

– She doesn’t know but there are 8.

The multiverse business is booming, but there’s just one catch: no one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive.

Enter Cara. Of the 382 realities that have been unlocked, Cara is dead in all but eight

But on this earth, she survived. Born in the wastelands where if a basic lack of resources didn’t kill you, violence would, Cara is happy to reap the benefits of a job and a safe place in the city to call home.

But when one of her eight remaining doppelgangers dies under mysterious circumstances, Cara is plunged into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and future in ways she never could have imagined – and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.

Just like the multiverse itself, the mixture of characters, world-building and themes gave The Space Between Worlds many layers which I felt neatly came together at the end. There was action, adventure, deception, angst and romance as well as overarching themes which complemented to a bigger, more philosophical picture. I came to increasingly like the main character ‘Cara’ and understand her viewpoint on life the further into the story I got. Seeing it through her eyes allowed me to empathise with her character and my connection to her grew more and more as parts of her past and history were revealed.

At the start, I admit it took me a little while to understand how the multiverse and traversers’ abilities to walk between worlds actually happened. This is not time travelling, there are no rockets or spaceships involved, it’s more a sense of transportation from one Earth to another. The ‘science’ behind this is explained more as the novel develops but I loved that it wasn’t reliant on my knowledge of astro-/quantum physics just to keep up – it’s the story that is the main focus here. The presence of Nyame, who is almost like the God protecting the spaces between, helped to balance the scientific with spirituality which added a thought-provoking dimension to the narrative and transformed it from some of the more traditional space-travel novels out there. This balance is neatly woven throughout the story.

The many versions of Earth helped to highlight different real-life elements which pose as barriers in today’s society. The rich and elite live in Wiley City where they thrive with protection, wealth and opportunity; Ashtown showcases the hard-graft and poverty that comes with surviving in a rural wasteland. The idea of the Eldridge Institute (where Cara works) monopolising interstellar travel hints at corporationalism and the sense that totalitarian control and data-tracking are steadily becoming major parts of our everyday human existence. The Space Between Worlds also seems to throw the usual rules of altering the past/future or meeting your doppelganger out of the window. In-fact the whole plot ends up being central to the reliance of this breaking of the rules adding an interesting aspect to the whole narrative.

The novel tackles many key issues relating to mental-health such as loneliness, identity and grief. Feeling lonely on one Earth can be painful enough, but loneliness in a multiverse of 382 of them? Perhaps there’s no word for that. This feeling was made poignantly clear through Cara’s perspective. Her deep-rooted desire to find a people and place where she truly belongs runs through the heart of the entire novel. It is her exploration and experience of these ideals which enables the reader to begin to relate to her character and see her as more than just a one dimensional world-walker.

With each chapter, a new jigsaw piece was put into place to help me understand the story. There was enough action and explanation to keep me in a state of curiosity as to where the plot was going and how it could possibly end. I felt that the finale wasn’t as high-stakes and action-packed as I was expecting, especially given a previous scene in the novel, however reflecting on this I now see that it didn’t need to be. All of my questions were answered yet still leaving me some room to have my own reader speculations about where the characters’ lives could go next – in a way, that’s one of my favourite types of endings.

If you’re just starting out into the sci-fi genre, or you prefer your sci-fi novels with a little less spaceship and a bit more character development, then you would probably would find an awful lot to enjoy in The Space Between Worlds. This novel has so much to offer a reader and the constant references into what lies in the spaces between things – be it worlds, people, places, identities, emotions… completely encapsulates and resonates in the entirety of this book. There were so many quotations and phrases I highlighted which I found to be powerful and moving. For me that’s a sure sign that I thoroughly enjoyed everything The Spaces Between Worlds gave me.

You can find The Space Between Worlds and get your Doppelganger-fix here:
Goodreads
Amazon
Waterstones
Book Depository

Thanks for reading! Happy Wednesday everyone!

T xx