Grade A #BookReview: Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner

Grade A #BookReview: Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. WagnerMechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, ebook
Genres: artificial intelligence, dystopian, post apocalyptic, robots, science fiction
Pages: 320
Published by DAW on December 17, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.orgBetter World Books
Goodreads

The debut novel from Erin K Wagner is a chilling nonlinear sci-fi that examines androids as a labor force in conflict with both human farmers and homegrown militias in near-future Appalachia
Deep in the hills of Appalachia, anti-android sentiment is building. Charismatic demagogue Eli Whitaker has used anger toward new labor policies that replace factory workers with androids to build a militia–and now he is recruiting child soldiers.
Part of a governmental task force, Adrian and Trey are determined to put a stop to Whitaker’s efforts. Their mission is complicated by their own shared childhood experiences with Whitaker. After an automated soldier shoots a child during a raid to protect Trey, both grapple with the role of androids and their use in combat.
Interrelated with the hunt for Whitaker, farmers Shay and Ernst struggle after they discover their GMO crop seeds have failed and caused a deadly illness in Shay. To help manage, they hire android employees: Sarah as hospice, and AG-15 to work the now-toxic fields. The couple’s relationship to the androids evolve as both humans get progressively more sick.
Timely and chilling, Wagner's nonlinear debut shares intimate narratives of loss, trauma, and survival as the emergence of artificial life intersects with state violence and political extremism in rural Appalachia.

My Review:

I picked this up because I fell hard into the author’s debut novella, An Unnatural Life, and was hoping for more of the same. I absolutely got it with Mechanize My Hands to War, as this was both more in its continued exploration of a future relationship between humans and sentient AIs, and more literally, as I wished that An Unnatural Life had a bit more time to explore its variations on that theme and this book is nearly twice as long.

Which it absolutely needed to be to get all the things it needed to, even as tightly packed in layers as it turned out to be.

The outer layer of this story is a bit of a near-dystopia. Or a could-be apocalypse. It’s 2061 and the U.S. is on the brink of a whole lot of things that could go really, really pear-shaped. That the setting of this story isn’t all that far out from when we are now is definitely part of the point.

The surface story is about two senior agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – and it’s the “explosives” part of that mandate that has dragged the Bureau into this situation.

A private militia has been growing throughout the heartland, recruiting people who feel that the lives they have built have been stolen from them by a government that is poisoning the land of their farms with poorly tested chemicals and/or filling their factory jobs with robots.

They’re not exactly right – but they’re not exactly wrong, either. Howsomever, their methods are problematic in the extreme.

First, they’re stockpiling explosives, which always draws the ATF’s attention. Second, they are recruiting and training child soldiers, and that gets everyone’s attention even as it complicates every single one of the ATF’s operations.

Because no human wants to shoot a child – even if that child is aiming a weapon right at them.

The situation reaches a flash-point, figuratively and literally, when a robot DOES shoot a child while following its orders and its programming to the letter.

In the midst of the firestorm of controversy, no one is willing to even think the hard truth – that the problem, and the blame – rest not with the programmed unit Ora, but with the humans who programmed him.

Escape Rating A: The story, the outer layer of it at least, is deceptively simple. And then things get really complicated, both in the story itself and in what’s hiding underneath it. Whenever I stop to think about it for even a minute, more ideas pop to the surface and swim underneath.

On the surface, that single story is already multiple stories. The first is the story of the extremely uncivil war between the Civil Union Militia and the ATF as proxy for the entire U.S. government. But underneath that layer, there’s the breakdown of the U.S. into factions, an extension of the tension between the cities and the heartland, that already exists.

A conflict that is exacerbated by the presence of robots as factory workers, mail carriers, and home health aides, doing any job that can be programmed reasonably effectively. But also as soldiers – and cops.

And that’s where Mechanize My Hands to War does what science fiction does best. Because on the surface that story is simple enough. The robots ARE, in fact, replacing humans in a lot of jobs, displacing a lot of people who had work that did not require a higher education, and not leaving nearly as many such jobs behind as there are people who need them. It’s a fear that has been played out recently in both the Writers Guild of America/Screen Actors Guild strike of 2023 and the Dockworkers’ strike of October 2024.

But the robots and the AIs did not create and program themselves to do these jobs and replace those workers. (They might, someday, but that would be a different story entirely – or a later one.) The robots are merely an easier and more reachable target for those who have been negatively impacted by the changes.

They represent the scapegoat that people are supposed to focus on, so they don’t attack who is really responsible – the corporations who have studied the calculus of profitability and know that replacing five humans with one human and four robots is better for their bottom line.

And it’s easy to see the robots of this story as the immigrants in today’s screaming – and all too frequently erroneous – headlines.

Which is where the story turns back upon itself into that original SFnal premise. Just because the robots were intended to be self aware but not sapient, does not mean that they have not evolved beyond their programming. That the more that the programmers attempt to create a complicated enough decision making matrix for the units, one that would keep another robot from killing another child even though that child is a clear threat, the more independent thought processes the robots have to work with.

The place where THAT might lead gives the story an open-ended and very SFnal ending. But the points that it raised keep dancing around in my head. As the best science fiction stories absolutely do.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 12-8-24

It’s beginning to look a lot like the end of the year is coming on fast. Entirely too fast! Which means both holiday presents to wrap and New Year’s Resolutions to make.

I’m not really talking about actual New Year’s Resolutions – because those seldom work. It’s more about cogitating on what changes need to be made for Reading Reality. Last year it was the decision to start posting on Instagram, something I’d been debating for a couple of years and finally made the plunge because Twitter was getting weird and I felt the need to start posting on a different – and less weird – social media channel.

And Twitter/X got even weirder and more toxic, so I think the Insta decision was a good one. But it’s looking like it’s time to bail on the whole X thing and that’s what I’m looking at now, both at Bluesky and Threads. If you have any thoughts or experience or both on either service, I’d be VERY interested in hearing about it!

With cats in the house, wrapping presents is always a problem. They ALL want to HELP. Which means playing with the wrapping paper. After all, if it interests us, it interests them even more! And we pay SO MUCH attention to THEM when they’re playing with it. Even better – at least from their perspective.

So, we brought the vacuum cleaner into the room with the big table. We’re planning to run the “Monster Vacuum” while we wrap. Based on past performance, we think a five minute blast of Mr. Vacuum will vacate the room for at least an hour!

Because that little story absolutely BEGS for cat tax, here’s a picture of Hecate looking rather dignified. This might become her “official” portrait.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Holiday Giveaway Event!

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Holiday Book Bingo Challenge Giveaway in the 2024 Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon is Kai

Blog Recap:

Holiday Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event!
A- #BookReview: How to Steal a Galaxy by Beth Revis
A- #BookReview: A Snake in the Barley by Candace Robb
C+ #AudioBookReview: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
B #BookReview: The Hero She Deserves by Anna Hackett
Stacking the Shelves (630)

Coming This Week:

Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner (#BookReview)
Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron (#BookReview)
Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood (#AudioBookReview)
Dead as a Dodo by Hailey Edwards (#AudioBookReview)
I Made It Out of Clay by Beth Kander (#BlogTour #BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (630)

As the year winds – or perhaps that should be dribbles – to a close, the stacks are definitely getting smaller. Which is probably a good thing. This week’s stack is fun in that I think they’re all pretty – although, as usual, they are pretty in pretty different ways.

The title I’m really, really curious about is Christopher Moore’s Anima Rising. One of my friends loves his work, so I’ve tried to get into it multiple times and bounced off. But this one looks like it might work for me. We’ll see. The cover is certainly gorgeous.

The book I’m particularly looking forward to, or at least to one story in it, is Love in Other Worlds. One of my favorite authors, M.L. Buchman, has a story in the collection titled, “The Hanukkah Pretzel Prophecy” and I’m both curious and looking forward to reading it. Because, well, what could pretzels have to do with Hanukkah? Inquiring minds REALLY want to know!

For Review:
Anima Rising by Christopher Moore
The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida, translated by Bruno Navasky
Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow #2) by Xiran Jay Zhao (ebook and audio)
A Line You Have Traced by Roisin Dunnett
One Way Witch (She Who Knows #2) by Nnedi Okorafor
A Ruthless Angel Weeps (House of Croft #3) by Sophie Barnes

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Love in Other Worlds (Christmas Romance Digest #2) edited by Tracy Cooper Posey


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

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#BookReview: The Hero She Deserves by Anna Hackett

#BookReview: The Hero She Deserves by Anna HackettThe Hero She Deserves (Unbroken Heroes) by Anna Hackett
Format: eARC
Source: author
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genres: action adventure romance, contemporary romance
Series: Unbroken Heroes #4
Pages: 252
Published by Anna Hackett on December 4, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazon
Goodreads

When he goes to investigate a blaring smoke alarm, the last thing he expects to find is Hollywood’s hottest actress…naked.
Deputy Sheriff Sawyer Lane likes the pace of life on Maui. After years as a Navy SEAL and in Ghost Ops, he likes that no one shoots at him. Coming to the island saved him. He still can’t sleep, but he’ll take the sun, sand, and solitude.
Then Oscar-winning actress Hollis Stanton rents the house next to his and torpedoes his solitude. When she sets her coffee machine on fire, he meant to help, not see every glorious inch of her from her russet-red hair to her red-painted toenails.
Soon, they’re running into each other everywhere, and it doesn’t take all of Sawyer’s finely-honed skills to know she’s in trouble and hiding from something. Or someone.
Hollis Stanton usually loves her life—movie roles she enjoys, an Oscar on her mantel, financial security. She’s come a long way from the poor, gangly redhead in hand-me-down clothes. But one stupid party held by a powerful movie producer changes everything.
She accidentally overhears something she shouldn’t have.
Now, someone is following her, breaking into her house, and crashing into her car. Her plan is to lay low in Hawaii. What wasn’t in her plan is the big, muscular, and rugged deputy sheriff next door. Nor is their scorching attraction.
When danger closes in, Hollis realizes Sawyer is the real deal—a hero with scars, who helps those in need.
A hero who will do anything to protect her.

My Review:

And she absolutely does. After all the fake heroes she’s played opposite in all of her movies, Oscar-winning actress Hollis Stanton deserves a real hero of her own just when she needs him the most.

Even if, at first, she’s not willing to admit that she needs anyone to keep her safe, or that Deputy Sheriff Sawyer Lane is the hero she’s been holding out for all along. For more than just the present danger.

(And yes, I invoked that earworm deliberately. If this story doesn’t make Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” ring through your head, here’s the video to fix that. You’re welcome.)

One of the unfortunate things about information and cellphone cameras being available everywhere, all the time, is that a person can run but they literally cannot hide, at least not if they’re a movie star like Hollis Stanton.

Hawaii, like Alaska still is to some extent, used to be a place that was so far out there – far out in the Pacific Ocean – that once upon a time a person could run away from themselves and whatever demons were literally chasing them.

Of course, the demons that were only figuratively chasing them, the demons inside their own heads, came right along with them. After all, no matter where you go, there you are.

Hollis Stanton is being chased by very real demons. She overheard something she shouldn’t have at a party hosted by a shady Hollywood mogul, and then weird shit started happening around her. So she ran, to the house of a friend outside the tiny village of Paia, on Maui. She covered her tracks as best she could, but she’s a hot commodity and anyone who sees her instantly recognizes her.

Sawyer Lane, very much on the other hand, left the SEALs and Vander Norcross’ Ghost Ops team with a whole lot of demons. But Sawyer’s demons are inside him, and he brought them along with him to Paia.

The place, the job, the friends he’s made there are helping him lay those demons to rest, but it’s a long process that still gives him plenty of sleepless nights. Like all of the nights. Still.

At least until the fire alarm goes off in the ‘vacation home’ down the road, and his sometime neighbor calls Sawyer to ask him to go down and check it out. And finds himself checking out Hollis Stanton, ALL of Hollis Stanton, standing on a teetering chair in just a slipping towel trying her damndest to shut the damn thing off.

It’s already too late for her coffee maker. And it’s too late for Sawyer Lane – and Hollis, too – they just don’t know it yet. And might not survive the conflagration to come.

Escape Rating B: Just like the story reminded me of “Holding Out for a Hero”, the hero in the story reminds Hollis Stanton of the hero of the Jack Reacher TV series. The book’s cover does a damn good job of leading the reader in that same direction, although your reading and TV viewing mileage may both vary.

One of the things that I’ve loved about all the entries in the Unbroken Heroes so far, The Hero She Needs, The Hero She Wants and The Hero She Craves (and if you’re sensing a theme here you’re right) is that the heroines get their rescue parties started all by themselves. Not that the heroes don’t help a LOT, but the women of this series have all been active – and effective – participants in everything that happens around them.

Hollis, in spite of her timely escape to Maui, has a bigger set of blinders on than the others. Or she’s a bit more naive or has been just a shade too overprotected and oversheltered as a Hollywood star – in spite of her hard-knock start in life.

She keeps thinking she’s escaped when it’s clear that she hasn’t. To the point where I wanted to hit her with a clue-by-four before the story did it for me.

OTOH, Sawyer fit right in with the rest of Vander Norcross’ former Ghost Ops. Which reminds me, for such a badass, Vander (his book is The Powerbroker) is one hell of a mother hen. And seems to have always been one. It’s a fascinating combination.

The interesting thing about this romance is that both Sawyer AND Hollis have serious cases of the “I’m not worthies” and yet, it works BECAUSE they both do. He has demons from his service – as all the men from the Ghost Ops team have unsurprisingly had so far. Her demons are old and familiar – also familial. Her mother STILL doesn’t appreciate, approve or understand – but is more than willing to make demands and milk her daughter for money at the drop of a hat.

Like the rest of the Unbroken Heroes series, The Hero She Deserves is a story where the hero and the heroine rescue each other from demons that they initially weren’t willing to even admit that they couldn’t handle themselves.

That justice was finally served and evil got its just desserts turned out to be the icing on an excellent reading cake, as have been all the books in this series, and absolutely the author’s work in general.

There’s one more Ghost Ops member left for Vander Norcross to mother hen into his happy ever after, and we’ll get that story early next year. It looks like this last entry in the series, The Hero She Loves,  will be set in Alaska, so I’m especially looking forward to it!

#AudioBookReview: Orbital by Samantha Harvey

#AudioBookReview: Orbital by Samantha HarveyOrbital by Samantha Harvey
Narrator: Sarah Naudi
Format: audiobook, ebook
Source: borrowed from library
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: literary fiction, science fiction
Pages: 207
Length: 5 hours and 7 minutes
Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on December 5, 2023
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.orgBetter World Books
Goodreads

The earth, from here, is like heaven. It flows with colour. A burst of hopeful colour.
A book of wonder, Orbital is nature writing from space and an unexpected and profound love letter to life on Earth

Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft above the earth. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

My Review:

It begins in the morning, as all of their alarm clocks wake them for a brand new day. But all of those things are a bit, well, liminal, as day, night, and even sleep are all a bit nebulous and artificial for the six residents of the International Space Station.

The International Space Station, as photographed by Space Shuttle Atlantis.

The alarm clocks are real. Electronic, but still real. It’s the rest of the circumstances that are a bit adrift. Humans are tied to the 24-hour rotation of the Earth – but the ISS isn’t ON Earth. It’s rotating the planet in Low Earth orbit, 250 miles above the surface, 16 orbits per ‘day’.

So it’s artificially morning as decreed by ground control, an attempt to keep the humans aboard the ISS tethered to the planet of their origin. For the people involved, that tethering gets more than a bit unmoored as their mission goes on.

Because they experience MANY dawns every single orbit. It might not even be daylight under them or over them when they wake up – and even if it is it won’t be very soon.

But throughout the meticulous structure of their days, from observation to experimentation to being themselves part of the experiment of life in space, the planet and the life upon it is never far from their thoughts – even when it seems like it is.

This crew, astronauts Anton, Chie, Nell, and Shaun along with cosmonauts Pietro and Roman, may be the biggest part of this story but not the only part. Because they are all reflecting upon the life below them, their personal lives and the life of the planet, even as they look outward towards the future that has specifically just passed them by, literally as well as figuratively, as they and the rest of the world watch as four astronauts in a space capsule head on their outward journey back to the place where many of their own dreams of space began.

Escape Rating C+: I picked this entirely out of curiosity. Because it’s been labelled as science fiction but it won the Booker Prize, one of the big literary awards. In general, SF and Fantasy are the red-headed stepchildren of the literary world and just don’t win the big literary awards like the Booker. SF wins SF awards, and literary fiction wins the Booker.

Having finished this in audio, I’m at least clear on my answer to the conundrum. Orbital is very much in the Literary SF tradition, with the emphasis firmly on the literary in senses both good and less so.

So if you’re looking at this as an example of SF, it’s really not. If you’re interested in literary SF there are better examples. I’m particularly thinking of Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea. If this makes you curious about SF and are looking for something that has a bit of this feeling but also has a real, honest-to-goodness PLOT, take a look at Becky Chambers’ To Be Taught, If Fortunate, which is also a love letter to Earth and the life upon it while still managing to GET somewhere as it goes.

The audio narration by Sarah Naudi was utterly lovely, and does account for the plus in the grade. This is a relatively short book, and the beauty of the narration was enough to carry me through.

I liked the idea of this story, because space travel fascinates me. I loved the feeling of being in the astronauts’ and cosmonauts’ heads as they go about their work and the world revolves below them instead of underneath them. The prose is luminous and frequently rises to the poetic.

But there’s just not enough there to coalesce into an actual story. It’s more like a day in the life, and the whole point of each individual day in the life of the residents of the International Space Station is that it’s not supposed to be all that exciting. As one of them jokes, “If you’re an astronaut you’d rather not ever be news.” And he’s very much right.

In the end, I was left with the feeling that Orbital does its very best to never allow its bare scrim of a plot to get in the way of its poetry. Which made the individual observations lovely but does not a good story make. Nor does it make for good science fiction.

As always, your reading mileage may vary.

A- #BookReview: A Snake in the Barley by Candace Robb

A- #BookReview: A Snake in the Barley by Candace RobbA Snake in the Barley (An Owen Archer mystery Book 15) by Candace Robb
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, ebook
Genres: historical fiction, historical mystery
Series: Owen Archer #15
Pages: 325
Published by Severn House on December 3, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.orgBetter World Books
Goodreads

Where is taverner Tom Merchet? Owen Archer unearths a series of troubling secrets and a dangerous foe intent on retribution when his good friend goes missing.

"A standout . . . Robb reinforces her place among the top writers of medieval historicals" - Publishers Weekly Starred Review

York, 1377. Owen Archer is determined to find his friend, taverner Tom Merchet, who has been missing for five days. His wife, Bess, is frantic with worry.

AN ENIGMATIC STRANGER.

Who is the elusive Widow Cobb that Tom was seen visiting? And who is the man spotted following Tom before he vanished? As Owen hunts for clues, Bess decides to visit the widow’s lodgings and makes a terrifying discovery.

RETRIBUTION IS BREWING . . .

Owen digs up past sins and long-buried secrets that answer some of the questions surrounding Tom’s disappearance. But who is the sly and malevolent figure intent on destroying his friend, and why? A shocking confession will rock Owen to his core . . .

An action-packed, evocative and masterfully plotted medieval mystery in the critically acclaimed Owen Archer series, perfect for fans of C.J. Sansom, Ellis Peters and Paul Doherty.

My Review:

The previous entry in this marvelous long-running series, A Fox in the Fold, was all wrapped up in Owen Archer’s past. This current entry dives deeply into the past of Owen and Lucie Archer’s friend and neighbor, tavernkeeper Tom Merchet.

At the heart of this particular mystery is something that almost seems foreign to us in this era of instant communication and always available – if not always true – information. The past is another country, as the saying goes, and they do things differently there. One of the things that is very different is just how easy it could be to reinvent yourself – for good or ill – by moving a distance that doesn’t seem all that far to us, but represented a significant investment in time, money and danger in Owen Archer’s – and Tom Merchet’s – late 14th century.

Owen Archer, his wife Lucie, and his neighbors and good friends Tom and Bess Merchet, are all middle-aged by this point in the series (1377) which began in 1363 in The Apothecary Rose. Owen wears his past on his face in the form of an eyepatch that covers the wound that saw him mustered out of the King’s Archers and into a life as the King’s wandering investigator.

But Tom Merchet’s past has remained firmly down the road both literally and figuratively, in places and people he left behind and buried before Owen came to York to investigate whether – or not as the case turned out to be – Lucie murdered her late husband.

Everyone in York knows that Tom lost his first wife and child, and very nearly the York Tavern along with them. And that Bess saved him and the tavern both with her skills as a cook and manager, and that they grew together into a happy and loving marriage.

But their peace has been disturbed by a series of unfortunate and downright strange events. Someone is digging holes around their property. Tom has been skulking about town at odd hours, visiting strangers suspected of theft – and worse. Bess is sure it’s all tied to a past that Tom has always refused to talk about – and that whatever happened then has come back to haunt him now – and that it’s taken him away from her. Possibly for good. Meaning for something very, very ill indeed.

And she’s right about that. But wrong about pretty much every single thought and speculation that has led her – and her now missing husband – to this terrible pass. Because of a past that has refused to let him go.

Escape Rating A-: I adore this series, and have since I read the very first book, The Apothecary Rose, as I myself was walking the streets of York on a trip just over OMG 30 years ago. Time does fly and some of it has been fun. The reading parts, certainly.

Reflecting back on the series, how much time it has covered both in the ‘real world’ and in Owen and Lucie’s historical York – even if it hasn’t been nearly as much time for them as it has been for us – I can’t help but think over how much has happened in both sets of those years. While at the same time marveling at just how little prior knowledge of the series a reader needs to have or remember to get into this 15th entry in it. (Meaning that you could start here but it’s all just so good you really should start at the beginning!)

It’s all down to the fact that, throughout the series, Tom Merchet has revealed little of his past. That he has one, yes. What it consisted of, what sins he’s committed, he hasn’t discussed. At all. Even with his wife.

So when Tom goes missing Owen doesn’t have any clues about where to start because Tom didn’t leave any. Owen is just as lost as we are – or the other way around! – investigating events that happened nearly two decades ago if not more, committed to and perhaps committed by a man he knows NOW but who may not much resemble the person he was THEN.

As Owen investigates, he hears conflicting reports of Tom in both the past and the present. He knows that the behavior that resulted in Tom’s near death beating in the now doesn’t make much sense even in the abstract and certainly bears no resemblance to his friend. Which doesn’t mean that the long-ago events which left behind so much enmity in Tom’s former home couldn’t have been committed by a much younger – and likely more hot-headed – version of that same man.

The heart of Owen’s investigation, the mystery he has to solve, lies in the past. A past that Tom has kept from his wife, a past that he’s ashamed of. But someone wants him dead in the present very, very badly. Someone who has left a trail of corpses behind them and then attempted to frame Tom for their deeds. Someone who obviously left Tom for dead in the hopes that the frame would fit his corpse better than it does a living man who has tales to tell.

Unless Tom has been hiding a villainous nature all along. Or a nature that was once villainous enough that he can be blackmailed now to keep it quiet. Leaving Owen to navigate his way through the rather pointy horns of multiple dilemmas, all of which must be resolved in order to bring the true villain – or villains – to justice.

And, as always in this series, it’s a delight to watch him work – especially this time around as he doesn’t begin with a clue and we get a refresher on everyone and everything all over again. Even the parts that seem familiar have to be re-examined with fresh eyes and it’s a great reminder of the bones of all the stories that have come before in the series while giving new readers a place to jump in.

The major plot of this particular story and its biggest mystery, is primarily domestic in nature this time around. But that does not mean that the roiling boil of royal politics does not touch upon York, particularly upon Owen in his semi-official position as the Princess of Wales’ agent in the North. The old king is on his deathbed, his Prince of Wales is several years in his grave, and the heir apparent is a child that all his uncles are already squabbling over – as well as over the throne on which the young Richard II-to-be will sit. If he lives that long.

The English royal family feud better known as the Wars of the Roses is about to boil over, and even in far north York, Owen Archer is likely to be in the thick of it. Hopefully in the next book or two – or maybe several! – books in the series. As one of the things I love best in this series is the author’s deft mix of Owen’s domestic business in York with the doings of the great and the mighty in London, I’m looking forward to finding out what happens on both fronts whenever the next book appears.

May it be soon!

A- #BookReview: How to Steal a Galaxy by Beth Revis

A- #BookReview: How to Steal a Galaxy by Beth RevisHow to Steal a Galaxy (Chaotic Orbits #2) by Beth Revis
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genres: science fiction, science fiction romance, space opera
Series: Chaotic Orbits #2
Pages: 144
Published by DAW on December 3, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsitePublisher's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.orgBetter World Books
Goodreads

Sparks fly when Ada and Rian just-so-happen to find themselves at the same charity gala—but there’s something rotten behind the sparkling gowns and dazzling wealth on display

This heist turned rom-com from New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis is perfect for fans of sexy, romantic science fiction and readers of Martha Wells and Becky Chambers

Ada had no intention whatsoever to continue working for the rebel group that hired her to retrieve the government’s plans for a nanobot climate cleaner if they weren’t willing to pay her for it, but then they offer a different perk: an undercover mission to a charity gala where Rian will be in attendance. Rian, meanwhile, has volunteered his services for the gala believing that the rare items up for auction will attract Ada’s eye. Hoping to catch her in the act and pin her with a punishable crime, Rian has no idea Ada’s really after.

In a high-stakes game of theft and deception, Ada plays to win...and Rian will do anything to stop her.

My Review:

In this arresting follow-up to the first book in the Chaotic Orbits trilogy, Full Speed to a Crash Landing, mercenary hacker/thief Ada Lamarr is on the trail of a much more interesting quarry than a mere locked data box. This time she’s not after treasure, she’s after the person who has set himself up as the guardian of a whole, entire museum full of priceless antiquities.

Agent Rian White has his eye on Ada from the moment she arrives at the Museum of Intergalactic History, absolutely certain she’s planning to steal one of the Sol-Earth artifacts no matter how many times she’s says that she’s there for him.

She’s not even lying. She’s certainly toying with the man – but she’s not lying. Not that she wouldn’t like to steal one of the artifacts – and not that she wouldn’t enjoy tweaking the ego of the rich rat bastard who’s the star of this particular charity gala – but she really, truly isn’t there for either of those things.

She really is there for Rian White – for considerably more reasons than she’s willing to admit, even to herself. So all of Rian’s operatives are busy watching her, while she has her eye on her prize all along.

And not that she doesn’t put the dominoes in motion for a couple of secondary prizes along her way.

Ada may not be fooling with White – but someone else already has. Her job – for which she is being paid very good money – – is to remove the scales from White’s eyes and get him to come in on her saving the world caper.

She may be in it for the money, but he’s a true believer. All she has to do is get him to believe – in her.

Escape Rating A-: The caper – and it absolutely is a caper every step of the way – is delightfully frothy, light and sparkling, and filled with witty banter covering plenty of wry undertones and more than a hint of forbidden romance.

Ada is, after all, a thief, and it’s Rian’s job to keep her from stealing anything. But she’s also, in this particular case, the misdirection. He – and his fellow agents – are so busy following Ada that they miss entirely too much of what’s going on around them.

Which is what underpins the whole story of the series – and it’s a doozy once all the sparkling bubbles have popped.

Because White and his fellow agents believe that they are protecting the plan to save a world. This world, in fact. Earth-Sol, the cradle of humanity. They believe that the government that they work for is more-or-less on the side of the angels. That they are doing good while Ada and her employers’ efforts are getting in the way of something both righteous and virtuous.

But that’s not the way the universe works. Especially not when doing good gets in the way of making a really huge, neverending, profit.

The way that this particular story works is that Ada’s seemingly aimless wandering through the Museum Gala is meant to misdirect Rian White, any of his agents, the reader AND the story, all at the same time.

It reads like a bit of light froth, that she’s playing with him, while he’s doing his damndest not to play with her, and that she’s then playing with the scene around her and filling in time while something happens in the background.

And that’s somewhat true and also a bit of a tease for the reader. It makes the story seem much lighter hearted than it really is and keeps White guessing as well. We know Ada is wearing a mask, she even admits as much, but we don’t really see what that mask is in service of.

When she rips it off at the end it’s an ‘aha!’ moment for the reader and an utter shock to White – and that’s when we all get the shape of things to come – or at least we think we do. Ada may have fooled us all again and we won’t learn in exactly what way until the final book in the trilogy, Last Chance to Save the World, coming April. I can’t wait to finally see Ada put all of her cards on the table – and to see if Rian picks them up.

A couple of final notes. Readers who have played Mass Effect may find Ada’s infiltration of the Museum reminiscent of Kasumi Goto’s infiltration of Donovan Hock’s party in Mass Effect 2 – complete with sexy, high-end wardrobe. However, in comparison to Strom Fetor, Hock is fairly penny-ante even if he bears a strong resemblance to a certain real world tech billionaire, amasser of tech companies that he claims to have invented but then destroys, and all around teflon coated, egotistical, arsehole.

Your reading mileage may vary on that bit, but seeing Ada obviously set him up for some comeuppance at a later date did add a bit of just desserts to the impending evil in both worlds that added just an extra fillip of deliciousness to the whole story so far. The ending in Last Chance to Save the World looks like it’s going to be a doozy!

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The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 12-1-24

Welcome to the final month of 2024! Or OMG the holiday season is here. Or both. DEFINITELY both.

I hope that all who celebrated had a wonderful and filling Turkey Day this week. I also hope that, unless it’s your thing, you’ve managed to escape the Black Friday shopping madness. I’m just happy that internet shopping is a thing because the Black Friday crowds are NOT!

Tomorrow is your last chance to sign up and fill out your entries in the 2024 Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon here at Reading Reality and at all of the other Elves’ sites and instas. If you’ve had a big holiday reading weekend, host Caffeinated Reviewer has the deets on ALL the Elves’ challenges right HERE!

Even though tomorrow is the last day of the Readathon, and you still have all day to post your bingo lines here or on Insta, Reading Reality will be posting the Holiday Giveaway Event! including an Event-Wide Amazon/PayPal Prize plus my own $10 Gift Card or Book giveaway. The first day of the Holiday Giveaway Event! is technically today, but today is Sunday and we’re still in recovery mode from yesterday’s All-Star Cat Wrestling Event!

Everybody  needed something at the vet yesterday, so EVERYBODY went. Two humans, four cats, a whole lot of growling and hissing and nobody was happy at all. Except possibly the vet. Although a tech did have to pretty much sit on George to get his part of the circus taken care of. None of them like TRIPS to the vet – although Hecate likes BEING at the vet because they tell her how pretty and well-behaved she is. George, however, is the only one who fights the process, literally tooth and nail, all the way.

But George has been featured quite a bit recently. Also, he wasn’t cooperative  AT ALL. Luna, very much on the other hand, although obviously quite peeved in this picture – she’s willing to own it and let her resting bitch face be preserved for posterity. (Not that she has any. That was fixed before she came to us.)

Seasons Greetings and Merry Meetings and Happy Holidays!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book for Participants in the 2024 Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon Holiday Book Bingo Challenge (ENDS TOMORROW!!!!!)
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of Reading Reality’s Late Fall Giveaway Hop is Steph

Blog Recap:

A- #BookReview: Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot
Grade A #BookReview: What Child is This? by Bonnie MacBird
B #BookReview: Eight Nights to Win Her Heart by Miri White
#GuestPost: Thanksgiving 2024
B #AudioBookReview: Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria
Stacking the Shelves (629)

Coming This Week:

Holiday Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event!
A Snake in the Barley by Candace Robb (#BookReview)
How to Steal a Galaxy by Beth Revis (#BookReview)
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (#AudioBookReview)
The Hero She Deserves by Anna Hackett (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (629)

I hope that everyone had a terrific Turkey Day and has awakened from their tryptophan coma without too much difficulty!

I’ve got a bit of an eclectic stack this time around. The two books in the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series are the result of reading Bayou Book Thief, which was a fun cozy mystery and will be reviewed later in December. Wedgetail and The Hero She Deserves are the latest entries from two authors I follow religiously. Or relentlessly, take your pick.

Orbital just won The Booker Prize, and seems to be up for just about every other year-end prize. It’s SF, which made me curious. It’s actually literary SF, which explains a lot, at least so far. (I’m in the middle of the audio right now. We’ll see this coming week when I finish.)

The prettiest covers this time around are The Gentleman and His Vowsmith, and Orbital. The two that REALLY have my curiosity bump itching are American Hippo and If Wishes Were Retail.

Did you find much to add to your stack this week?

For Review:
The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide
The Hero She Deserves (Unbroken Heroes #4) by Anna Hackett
If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw
The Last Wizards’ Ball (Gunnie Rose #6) by Charlaine Harris
The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay
Wedgetail (Miranda Chase NTSB #15) by M.L. Buchman

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
American Hippo (River of Teeth #1-2) by Sarah Gailey
French Quarter Fright Night (Vintage Cookbook Mystery #3) by Ellen Byron
Wined and Died in New Orleans (Vintage Cookbook Mystery #2) by Ellen Byron

Borrowed from the Library:
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (ebook and audio)


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below: