Dual Review – Two YA Audiobooks

Tags

4.5 stars, 5 stars, aliens, Book Review, culture war, fantasy, Jaimee Draper, Morgan L. Busse, Nnedi Okorofor, Robin Miles, romance, scifi, space opera, Steampunk, young adult

Today I am reviewing two audiobooks. Both are classified as Young Adult, though I found the written voice in both to be mature enough for me to enjoy them. Both books are also award winners.

Abut Tainted (Soul Chronicles, #1) by Morgan L. Busse,

Narrated by Jaimee Draper

What Happens When Your Soul Dies?

Kat Bloodmayne is one of the first women chosen to attend the Tower Academy of Sciences. But she carries a secret: she can twist the natural laws of science. She has no idea where this ability came from, only that every time she loses control and unleashes this power, it kills a part of her soul. If she doesn’t find a cure soon, her soul will die and she will become something else entirely.

After a devastating personal loss, Stephen Grey leaves the World City Police Force to become a bounty hunter. He believes in justice and will stop at nothing to ensure criminals are caught and locked up. However, when Kat Bloodmayne shows up in his office seeking his help, his world is turned upside down.

Together they search World City and beyond for a doctor who can cure Kat. But what they discover on the way goes beyond science and into the dark sphere of magic.

**********************

Review of Tainted

4.5 stars

Tainted is a multi-award winning YA steampunk novel by Morgan L. Busse. Having read her Ravenwood series, I was eager to check out this steampunk tale and received a complimentary copy of the audiobook.

While it is categorized as steampunk, instead of clever mechanical devices, psychic ability is featured in this book. Kat’s abilities are mysterious and undisciplined. On the run, Kat is both chased and supported by bounty hunter Stephen who does not know about Kat’s abilities. The powers that be, however, know about her and want her for their own nefarious purposes.

Both characters are flawed with many obstacles to overcome. These challenges hinder their relationship and add to the suspense. Will they grow to understand each other or will they end up on opposite sides?

The Christian aspect of Tainted is low key and nicely woven into the story.

The narration of Tainted is okay. However the voice sounded quite youthful and came across as tentative. When I read the follow-up book, Awakened, I will switch to ebook.

Tainted is the winner of:

2017 REALM Award Winner for Horror/Paranormal/Steampunk

2017 Alliance Award Nominee

2017 Rone Award Nominee

**********************

Links

Add Tainted to your Goodreads shelf:

Purchase Tainted:

**********************

About Binti by Nnedi Okorafor,

Narrated by Robin Miles

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself — but first she has to make it there, alive.

**********************

Review of Binti

5 stars

The novella that begins as a coming of age story of the young woman leaving her home to go the to greatest university in the universe quickly morphs into something far more ageless and interesting. Binti’s futuristic African upbringing influences her actions on the ship bound for Oomza Uni when the ship comes under attack from deadly foes.

Binti uses intelligence and a lucky artifact to find her way among the Meduse who would rather see her dead due to a very unfortunate cultural misunderstanding. Hope and determination are key elements of this engrossing story that left me wanting more. I plan to continue the series. Perhaps when I do so, I will learn more about the interesting technology found in the novella – the artifact and the ship.

I absolutely loved the narration of Binti. Robin Miles’ African dialect added warmth and authenticity to the story.

Binti is the winner of:

2016 Nebula Award for Best Novella

2016 Hugo Award for Best Novella

**********************

Links

Add Binti to your Goodreads shelf:

Purchase Binti:

**********************

Machine (White Space, #2) by Elizabeth Bear – Review

Tags

5 stars, aliens, artificial intelligence, Book Review, Elizabeth Bear, medical scifi, mystery, scifi, series, social government, space opera, Star Trek, Stargate SG-1

About Machine by Elizabeth Bear

Meet Doctor Jens.

She hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she’s never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee.

But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can’t resist a mystery and she begins doing some digging. She has no idea that she’s about to discover horrifying and life-changing truths.

**********************

Review of Machine

Machine starts out when Jens and the crew of I Race to Seek the Living (yes the ship names are a little absurd) investigate Big Rock Candy Mountain and I Bring Tidings from Afar. Two ships and passengers that could not be more different, yet experiencing oddly similar circumstances.  All the people on both ships are in deep sleep.  One crew sleeps in cryogenic pods, the other is unconscious.  Dr. Jens and her crew begin the rescue operation that is both a medical mission and an investigation.   This opening grabbed my attention and held it until the last page.

Back at the Core and the hospital, things get even more mysterious.  There is a lot going on.  I can’t possibly do a synopsis justice.  So I will just say, that what I though was going to be a science fiction tale of adventure and futuristic technology (see book title), turned out to be a mystery.  Machine is a mystery wrapped in space opera.  Jens likes mystery because she likes to figure things out.  She just doesn’t expect solving the mystery would be so treacherous.

There are so many thing I liked about this book.  First lets talk about the Synarche, a community of various races that includes humans, that has evolved to a relatively socially advanced cooperative society that considers the well-being of all its synizens. Individual tendencies that stray from the preferable ideal are considered to be sophipathic, but can be right-minded (an advanced therapy that uses memory replacement, brain chemical balancing and technology to make that all happen).   I find this to be a fascinating social government that seems at once idyllic and also oppressive.

I loved how all species are treated as people.  Right-minding means prejudice is undesirable.  Even AI’s (though they born into debt and owing service), are treated as people.   This also means that Jens interacts with several other species and AIs, so it is not just humans that are the heroes of this story.   The author often uses they/them/their to replace gender pronouns for many species.  At first this was disorienting, since I think of these as plural pronouns, but eventually my mind adjusted.

One of alien species is the Rashaqin.  From what I remember from my first meeting of a Rashaqin (Cheerilaq in Ancestral Night), the description of giant praying mantis was what I took away from it.  Normal sized praying mantises can be kind of scary looking to the bugs they prey on.  Imagine one towering over you.  Male Rashaqin are smaller, tiny enough to sit on a human’s shoulder, like Dr. Rilriltok.  Females however…..  But Goodlaw Cheeirlaq is only a threat to the bad guys, and in fact, is one of the heroes of this story.

One of the bad guys, aka the machine, reminds me a little of the spider-like replicators of the TV series Stargate SG-1.  Not that the machine is necessarily spider-like, but it does replicate with a purpose.

While we are talking about old scifi TV shows, Star Trek fans will also recognize a parallel to Nomad from The Changeling.

Machine is a 1st person narrative told from the perspective of the human Dr. Jens.  Since most of the people reading this books will also be human, this was a good choice.  Several other characters, human and other-worldly, have important roles, but this is Jens’ story.  Jens is not perfect and often questions not only what goes on around her, but also her own life choices, making her a character to sympathize with and invest in.

The author attempted to create a futuristic use of language for a few words, but did not stray too far from what we are familiar with.  Every now and then, 21st century western jargon creeps in.  In particular, I recall ‘stay frosty’.  I am pleased that the author envisions that humans of today will have their own influence on the use of language in the future.

Machine is not a light read.  It is complex and detailed but with enough suspense and sense of adventure to keep the story rolling along.  At 496 pages, it is longish, but I found I was sad when it ended. While the story takes place in the same universe as Ancestral Night, it is totally standalone.  If you read Machine first, you might find spoilers for Ancestral Night, but I think you can read them in any order.

As I was reading Machine, I highlighted several passages.  I thought I’d share a couple with you here:

The best we can do is not pretend that we don’t belong to a system; it’s to accept that we do, and try to be fair about using it.  To keep it from exploiting the weakest.

The most important thing in the universe, it turns out, is a complex of subjective and individual approximations.  Of tries and fails.  Of ideals, and things we do to try to get close to those ideals.

It’s who we are when nobody is looking.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

**********************

Links

Add Machine to your Goodreads shelf:

Purchase Machine:

**********************

Stars Beyond (Stars Uncharted, #2) by S.K. Dunstall – Review

Tags

5 stars, aliens, Book Review, first contact, S. K. Dunstall, sci fi, scifi adventure, seris

About Stars Beyond by S.K. Dunstall

The crew of Another Road are back, closer than ever to the biggest score in the galaxy. . . if they can stay a step ahead of the Justice Department agents and Company men tracking them.

An engineer with a fondness for weapons. A captain with no memory. An obsessive genemodder who loves to tinker. Meet the crew of Another Road.

Josune, Roystan, and Nika have escaped the company thugs trying to kill them. They’ve gotten a new spaceship to replace The Road (after it was blown up underneath them). And their new ship is armed to the teeth with dangerous weapons, courtesy of Josune. All that’s left to do before they head out to find the legendary lode of transurides is to restore Roystan’s memory. To do that, they need to collect the genemod machine Nika has ordered.

But first, they have to shake off the Justice Department agent and the Companies tracking them.

It should be easy. They’ve done it before. What could possibly go wrong?

**********************

Review of Stars Beyond

If you like your fiction to be character-driven, you have come to the right place.  Stars Beyond is full of great characters that, individually have potentially great stories.  Together, the intermeshed greatness is vivid and glowing.  Even the chapters are named after the character who’s point of view is exposed in the chapter.  So to review this book, I will review a few characters.  Warning, there may be spoilers if you have not read Stars Uncharted.

Hammond Roystan – the quiet hero with the mysterious forgotten past.  Despite, the fact that he never even gets his own chapter, Hammond is critical to the story, more than any other character.  You have read Stars Uncharted, you get the idea.  But keep paying attention to Roystan.

Alistair Laughton – is the intriguing new character.  Asked to take leave from the Justice Department, he is back again – at their request.  But while he was on leave, his adventures were most intersting….

Nika Rik Terri – the body modder.  A really good, in demand body modder.  That is until someone tried to frame her for murder and kill her.  Somehow she ended up with Roystan and his ragtag crew.  And for some reason, Laughton is looking for her.  These characters are so interconnected it must be fate that links them.  Or maybe Roystan.  See there he is again.

Bertram Snowshoe – well if it weren’t for Snow, we would not get to hang out with the evil mercenary Captain Oliver Norris.  And he is.  Evil.  Nasty.  Norris, not Snow.  Snow is the modder apprentice, but manages to be a pretty good gunner too.  Snow, like most of the ragtag crew, has many talents.

What is it  about the term ragtag that automatically gets my attention?

Jacques Saloman – chef and cargo master.  Mostly chef.  You gotta love a man who thinks food, good food, is the solution for everything.  And on Another Road, it pretty much is.

Leonard Wickmore – bad guy.  Wickmore got the first chapter in Stars Beyond, where we learn he is after Rik Terri.  He is a thoroughly despicable character that did not deserve to live past book one.  I prefer my villains to evolve and grow just as much as the protagonists and if not, they need to be eliminated….somehow.  But Dunstall thought he was needed in this story.  Okay, if you need someone to boo and hiss at, Wickmore is your man.

The Ort.  First contact species with a need for a special body modder.   Everybody seems to want Rik Terri.

The Vortex.  While not technically a character, the spaceship-ripping Vortex is an astronomical phenomenon that happens to be very close to the center of all that is important.  Beware the Vortex.  Roystan does.

These motley characters are combined with a story line that gallivants enough to throw in a few surprises.  (Surprises are good.)  Beware the Vortex cannot be said enough.

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

**********************

Links

Add Stars Beyond to your Goodreads shelf:

Purchase Stars Beyond:

 

**********************