Tag: Review

ALC Audiobook Review – The Sunbearer Trials

biblionerdreflections3 Comments

Today I’m so excited to be reviewing one of my most anticipated releases of the year, The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas.

Welcome to The Sunbearer Trials, where teen semidioses compete in a series of challenges with the highest of stakes, in this electric new Mexican-inspired fantasy from Aiden Thomas, the New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys.

“Only the most powerful and honorable semidioses get chosen. I’m just a Jade. I’m not a real hero.”

As each new decade begins, the Sun’s power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the evil Obsidian gods at bay. Ten semidioses between the ages of thirteen and eighteen are selected by Sol himself as the most worthy to compete in The Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries light and life to all the temples of Reino del Sol, but the loser has the greatest honor of all―they will be sacrificed to Sol, their body used to fuel the Sun Stones that will protect the people of Reino del Sol for the next ten years.

Teo, a 17-year-old Jade semidiós and the trans son of Quetzal, goddess of birds, has never worried about the Trials…or rather, he’s only worried for others. His best friend Niya―daughter of Tierra, the god of earth―is one of the strongest heroes of their generation and is much too likely to be chosen this year. He also can’t help but worry (reluctantly, and under protest) for Aurelio, a powerful Gold semidiós and Teo’s friend-turned-rival who is a shoo-in for the Trials. Teo wouldn’t mind taking Aurelio down a notch or two, but a one-in-ten chance of death is a bit too close for Teo’s taste.

But then, for the first time in over a century, Sol chooses a semidiós who isn’t a Gold. In fact, he chooses two: Xio, the 13-year-old child of Mala Suerte, god of bad luck, and…Teo. Now they must compete in five mysterious trials, against opponents who are both more powerful and better trained, for fame, glory, and their own survival.

***Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing a copy of the audiobook via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my listening experience.***

I’m a huge fan of this author, and this book was one of my most anticipated releases of this year. I was so excited to get the advanced listening copy at the last minute and started listening to it right away. I immediately fell in love with the narrator and the way he brought the characters to life. The story was a fun mix of contemporary elements and Mexican mythology with quite a bit of humor that kept me chuckling at all the antics. I enjoyed getting to know all of the different settings, powers, and creatures that the characters encountered throughout their journey.

The characters were an absolute treat to read with vibrant personalities and compelling arcs. I particularly loved Teo and Aurelio. They both had to deal with their inferiority complexes, and the vibes of their friend to rival to friend relationship were perfection. The trans rep in the book was great, as well, and it was incorporated seamlessly with the story while also providing moving insight into what it is like being a trans person.

The pace of the story plowed forward at breakneck speed as the characters progressed from one trial to the next. It managed to keep the action flowing without sacrificing character development, and each of the five trials amped up the stakes. Despite the ever-growing risks to the characters, I never really feared for any of them. Oddly enough, I found the tone of the book to be surprisingly upbeat despite all the hardships and constant threat of death. I’m not sure if it was the writing or the narrator that set the tone, but I never believed the characters were in any real danger. I didn’t mind it, though, because I loved the characters and thought the adventure was fun regardless.

I saw most aspects of the end coming a mile away, but there were a couple things that took me by surprise. Personally, I didn’t like the ending because the proposed solution to the problem of how the trials finished came too quickly and left me wondering why the sacrifices of the trials ever needed to happen in the first place. Overall, though, this audiobook was a fun and fascinating ride with great trans rep and compelling characters I couldn’t help but love, and I’ll definitely be back for the conclusion of the duology when it releases. Therefore, I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

ARC Review – The Spear Cuts Through Water

biblionerdreflections13 Comments
book review

Hello, everyone! Today I am reviewing The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez. This stunning fantasy adventure will be published on Tuesday, August 30. It was kind of a wild ride and unlike anything else I’ve read before, and I hope you will consider picking it up anywhere books are sold once it is released.

goodreads synopsis

Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Tordotcom, BookPage, LitHub

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.

my review

***Thank you to Del Rey for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

I’m honestly at a loss for words when thinking about how to describe this book and my experience reading it. So, I guess I’ll just start at the beginning. For the first quarter or so, I did not like this book AT ALL. I considered DNFing it multiple times because I had no idea what was happening. The story has a very unique structure that utilizes first, second, and third person narration without much to mark the different voices apart. It took me forever to realize the story (told in third person) was being watched by someone (the second person narrator) in a theater during a dream with occasional narrative input from people the characters met along the way (first person). Knowing this going in would have greatly reduced my confusion and improved my reading experience of the first part of the book. So, you’re welcome. 🙂 I was probably just too dense to figure it out, but in case you’re dense too, I saved you the effort. lol.

Once I discerned what was going on, I quickly fell in love with the story. The prose was stunning and had a lyrical quality that kept me glued to the pages. The world came alive and seemed to leap into being as if I was the one in the dream. The plot consistently surprised me, and I was incredibly impressed with the author’s ability to create a complex, moving story with so many different parts and voices. The pace also picked up considerably once everything got under way at approximately the 25% mark, and it became relentlessly more intense with a wide assortment of adventures filled with violence, magic, mind-reading, and a bit of humor. There was even a good deal of cannibalism, which seriously made my skin crawl. By the end, I was in awe of how it all came together, with even seemingly small details from earlier in the narrative being tied together in ways I never expected.

I became very attached to the characters, which was probably a bad idea given the intense levels of violence in this book. They were all vibrant and multi-faceted, and I especially loved how the author managed to make even the minor side characters seem well-rounded and deep despite some of them only having a few scenes. I enjoyed following the main duo on their adventure and began rooting for them pretty early on in the story. Their slow-burn romance was one of my favorite things about the book, and it led to some pretty hilarious scenes involving mind-reading. My other favorite character was the tortoise. I’m not going to say too much about him because of spoilers, but I absolutely adored him. He made me smile every time he spoke despite his unfortunate circumstances.

One of the main themes about the book was acceptance/belonging. Most of the characters were outcasts in their own way and were driven to some extent by their longing for connection and inclusion. So many of the stories were absolutely heart-breaking, especially the Third Terror. On a related note, most of this narrative revolved around a love story, and I don’t just mean the central slow-burn romance of Jun and Keema. Almost every character was motivated by love (not necessarily romantic), either the desire to obtain it or the anger from being spurned. It beautifully highlighted both the redeeming and destructive powers of love.

This book was an absolutely stunning work of art. I’ve never read anything quite like it before. It used common tropes in unique ways to tell a story that felt simultaneously familiar and fresh. It felt profound while reading it even though I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, and the more I think about it now, the more lessons and themes jump out at me. The story was beautiful, and it is one I will think about for a while to come. Therefore, I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

5 stars

ARC Review – Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

biblionerdreflections10 Comments

Hello, everyone! I’ve finally finished my review of Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang. This has been a tough one because I’ve struggled to put into words how much I love this book.

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel.

Babel is the world’s center of translation and, more importantly, of silver-working: the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation through enchanted silver bars, to magical effect. Silver-working has made the British Empire unparalleled in power, and Babel’s research in foreign languages serves the Empire’s quest to colonize everything it encounters.

Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, is a fairytale for Robin; a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge serves power, and for Robin, a Chinese boy raised in Britain, serving Babel inevitably means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to sabotaging the silver-working that supports imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide: Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence? What is he willing to sacrifice to bring Babel down?

Babel — a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell — grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of translation as a tool of empire.

***Thank you to Harper Voyager for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley! My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

How do I even put into words how much I loved this book? I honestly don’t think I can do it justice. However, I’ll start by saying that the title tells you everything you need to know about the book and whether you might like it. You can tell it was written by an academic (LOL, IYKYK), and the rest of the writing in the book has a similar quality to it, which makes the story read almost like an academic annal from years past. There’s tons of really cool footnotes, which I loved, and it was obvious the author did a great deal of homework in preparing this manuscript.

In many ways, this book felt like a love letter to language. The magic system was based on translation, and almost all of the characters were scholars devoted to the study of language. They used the act of translation, and the power it created, to do fascinating things. There was so much knowledge about language and its history buried within this text, and I ate it up. Back in the day (think boarding school and undergrad), I loved studying language, including Latin, French, Spanish, and some classical Greek, and etymology. I’ve unfortunately lost most of my proficiency over time due to disuse, but it was still so much fun reading about the origins of different English words and all the information about the Chinese language/characters scattered throughout this story. In short, if you love learning about language, you will probably enjoy this book.

The story and writing were also incredibly immersive. I was surprised by how alive this version of Oxford felt, as if I was there roaming the campus and halls myself alongside the characters. Kuang also captured the feelings of the journey through academia better than anyone else I’ve ever read. The progression of the characters brought to life the excitement of being one of a few chosen people selected as the next experts in your field, the intensity of bonding with one’s cohort, the inevitable disillusionment once the shine wears off and the workload becomes unmanageable, and the surprising feelings of loss that accompany having achieved one’s goal. I was surprised by how much I related to these characters despite our many differences.

Speaking of the characters, I loved them so much. The first half of the book delves deep into their characterization and the building of their relationships, which made the tragedies of the second half all the more bitter and gut-wrenchingly heartbreaking. However, I’m not going to say any more about that because I don’t want to spoil all the pain. Just know it is coming. 🙂 Back to the characters… Robin’s journey in this book was quite astounding. He was plucked from nothing, literally the edge of death, and he went on to accomplish truly incredible things. The boy at the beginning of the story was so different from the man at the end. The rest of Robin’s cohort and the other supporting characters all felt just as three-dimensional as Robin. There’s so much I’d like to talk about each of them, but I don’t want to spoil the story. So, I’ll just say that these characters allowed for the exploration of so many topics and themes, especially as it relates to group dynamics and cohesiveness of individuals from wildly different backgrounds with various amounts of privilege and clashing worldviews.

There were so many powerful themes explored in this book that I could probably write an entire book about them. It tackled the inherent classism, sexism, and racism prevalent within academia, as well as the tokenism that goes along with it. It also highlighted the destructive nature of colonialism and capitalist systems and proposed a timely and important question: can oppressive systems be changed from the inside or must the system be destroyed outright before meaningful change can occur? This led to another interesting ethical quandary. Is violence justified when the cause is just? The characters also provided a fascinating window into the allure of proxy privilege and how it can be used to keep the oppressed in line and uphold the status quo. Ultimately, I don’t know how anyone could come away from this book without questioning who is paying the price for our largely comfortable, overly consumptive modern lifestyle. After all, the resources to maintain it have to come from somewhere, and, if history has taught us anything, someone, somewhere is likely being exploited to obtain them.

Ultimately, I felt a lot of things while reading this book. I was nostalgic at times. I was enraged and enlightened at others. Then there were the times I was heartbroken, so deeply sad at how unfair life can be. This book was truly a masterpiece. I cannot recommend it enough, and it has become my favorite book of ALL TIME. It is rare that I want to read a book again immediately after finishing it, but I’m ready for a re-read and will definitely be adding this one to my shelves to read over and over for years to come.