J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

Review – The Exile and the Sorcerer by Jane Fletcher

Genre: fantasy: sword and sorcery

Pairings: f/f

Representation: cis lesbian, cis bisexual

Warnings: none

Review:

Decent low fantasy with touches of heat.

General
It’s going to be hard to review this one. I absolutely hated the first half of the book. Tevi is just not a compelling protagonist and is very reactive. She seldom if ever has any agency, and basically lets things just happen to her as she drifts aimlessly through her exile. Also frustrating was the lack of through line for the first half. Yes, we have this vague quest, but Tevi doesn’t take it seriously and doesn’t really even think about it until the halfway point, so we the reader are also left thinking the book is just going to be a meandering ‘Tevi reacts to circumstances’ book.

And then we hit a POV shift. And then the book completely turns around.

Jemeryl the sorcerer, while not the most likable of characters overall, has agency. She DOES things. Her backstory is short, concise, and to the point, and for that reason it seems so much easier to get into her head and empathize. The point of the POV switch is also where the through line picks up, and suddenly Tevi’s quest matters, and we have a purpose, and a plot, and a driving force in the book. Also we have the romance between Jemeryl and Tevi which, while short, was steamy in places and well done.

Worldbuilding
I liked the worldbuilding in this book a lot. The towns are well drawn out, the histories feel complete, and the few pages of just background text we get which should have read like info dump, really didn’t. In fact, they served to round out the story well, and at times I was more engaged in those than the actual narrative. The magic system is a little hard to understand (less a system and more just existing), but doesn’t seem to be a focal point of the book, either. Tevi’s backstory, as told through Jemeryl’s POV, is interesting, as is the history of her island. I also do always appreciate a book that puts queerness as canon.

General nitpicks
There were a few POV fails in the book, where we went from third limited to some type of author voiceover, which threw me from the narrative. They waned as the book progressed, and the story relied more on block text of stories than authorial narration towards the end. I also just…with the cover…if this book hadn’t been recommended to me by three separate people I would have never bought it. The book deserves better cover art than this, really.

I’d actually recommend any new readers to this book to read the second half first, starting at the sorcerer’s POV. This section makes Tevi much more sympathetic, and makes her journey to the mainland much more relevant. I don’t think the reader would miss much by skipping the first half of the book, and then if desired, one could go back and read the front half to fill in worldbuilding and character arcs.

 

You can order THE EXILE AND THE SORCERER HERE

To read the review for the next book in the series, THE TRAITOR AND THE CHALICE, click here.

Cover reveal for Second Don!

It’s almost time! The text has been finalized, the blurb written, and the book is in layout. Time to check out the amazing cover!

(Second Don releases October 7th, 2017)

Blurb:

To possess a Talent is a gift. To possess two is a blessing. To possess all is to teeter on the precipice of insanity.

The Charted Systems are in pieces. Mercy’s Pledge is destroyed, and her captain dead. With no homes to return to, the remaining crew sets off on a journey to find the mythical planet of Ardulum—a planet where Emn might find her people and Neek the answers she’s long sought. Finding the planet, however, brings a host of uncomfortable truths about Ardulum’s vision for the galaxy and Neek’s role in a religion that refuses to release her. Neek must balance her planet’s past and the unchecked power of the Ardulans with a budding relationship and a surprising revelation about her own genealogy.
Ardulum: Second Don blends space opera elements and hard science into a story about two women persistently bound to their past and a sentient planet determined to shape their future.

Review – Addict by Matt Doyle

Genre: sci fi / cyberpunk

Pairing: f/f

Rating: 3.5 stars – an interesting world with a noir feel

Review

Plot
Cassie is a PI, there’s a lady in trouble, it’s a match made in cyberpunk heaven. One part noir, one part tech, throw in a bit of furry and kink and you have Addict.

Thoughts
The writing was very smooth and it was an easy read. Cassie was an interesting character, and I really loved the tech world. I found the plot hard to follow in places, and the villains in some cases a bit too ‘mustachio-twirling’, but it was all in good fun. Unfortunately the long bouts of dialogue and confusing ‘who done its’ made it difficult for me to really delve into the narrative. My favorite parts were where we were learning about the world (panther suit FTW), or the last two chapters, where we get to see some personal growth of Cassie. I would have loved more about the world in general, especially the body modification parts, but Cassie did a good job of carrying the narrative and being a sympathetic character.

The action scenes were well written, the blocking spot on, and the dialogue seldom felt stilted. Fans of light dystopian, cyberpunk, and urban sci fi I think would really enjoy this book.

 

Buy the ebook here

Buy the print book here

Review – Nightshade by Brooke Radley

Genre: Fantasy

Pairing: f/f

Review

This book had just about every element I look for in a fantasy–magic, women in positions of power but also morally ambiguous, ladies loving ladies, fisticuffs… and yet…

Plot
Eleanor Reed is a mage fresh out of magic school and through some author handwavium (there is a ton of this, so heads up) ends up going undercover to bust The Drug Ring Of The Century with a poorly fleshed out BFF. The whys are unclear, the where is pretty unclear (they have three moons, so not our world, but still medieval), and the reasoning is murky at best. The first forty-seven pages are basically a wash, as the author uses them for info dump after info dump, telling us about the world instead of showing it. I was three pages away from DNF, but finally got interested on page forty-eight, and didn’t find a reasonable hook until page eighty-three. That is a long time to go without a hook or character connection.

Other issues kept cropping up in the first fifty pages that consistently jarred me from the narrative. The text contradicted itself in no less than five places during this time (did Tony approve or not approve of Eleanor helping Ben out? Did Ben fail his first mission or not fail his first mission?). Major plot holes kept popping up (why was Cassandra at the first bar to begin with, scoping Elanor out? If Eleanor was so well guarded at the end of the book, how does she sneak out? How in the hell does Eleanor manage to scythe almost every other day with no one noticing, when she is residing at Villain Base Camp?)

The beginning and end of this book were not strong, and felt like the author just forcibly manhandling the plot in the direction they thought it should go. The story is really its strongest when Eleanor and Cassandra interact, and when the plot and setting is allowed to unfold through their eyes. The sexual tension is palpable in this area, the characters resonate, and things flow smoothly. This could have been a really fun book had it started cold at page eighty or so, and had a more drawn out ending in which we really got to see a decent battle between the kingdom forces and the thieves. Which brings me to my next quibble…

Magic System
It almost worked. Almost. There is no well defined magic system, so if you’re into that, move along. The system has costs, which is good (energy, so pretty basic), but the handwavium is strong in this area. Eleanor is a water mage but either knows or doesn’t know aspects of other magic, depending on what suits the narrative. The magic use either drains her or doesn’t affect her too much, depending on what suits the narrative. And at the end of the book Eleanor is using so much magic, from so many disciplines, that any attempt at rigor is basically thrown out the window. The water magic made a lot of sense when she was pretending to be a basic witch, and I really liked the explanations that came with it, and how the use was described. Once she was allowed to go full mage again, the loose rules system went completely out the window.

Overall
It had so much potential that was never realized. The book could have been strengthened a great deal with more ‘in late, out early,’ as well as much more focus on plot consistency. I could see this being a strong novella, or strong novel, if the end was reworked and the first eighty pages cut.

 

You can buy Nightshade here.

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