The Children of Gods and Fighting Men

Shauna Lawless
Completed 8/24/2024 Reviewed 8/24/24
3 Stars

I haven’t read any of the Game of Thrones books, but I have a feeling that I got a mild taste of what it would be like.  This book is a mix of Irish mythology and historical facts, creating an epic tale of the power struggle between the Kings of the different parts of Ireland for the title of High King.  When we were voting for this book in online book club, I was hoping for a little more god-human interaction.  Instead, the mythology is about two races of immortals playing politics with the crown.  It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.  I found it rather tedious at times, though I did pretty good remembering who was who amongst the myriad of characters.  

Gormflaith is the widow of the Viking King of Dublin.  She is trying to position her son Sitric as the next king as well as the High King of Ireland.  She marries off her stepdaughter to the future King of Norway for ally support.  She also belongs to a race of immortals called Fomorians who have fire magic. There is a race of indigenous immortals called the Tuatha De Dannan who are sworn enemies of the Fomorians and are tasked with killing them, although they don’t live among the humans.  One such immortal, Fodla, is released to live with the humans as a spy on King Brian.  Disguised as a disfigured healer, she finds King Brian and his family to be less warmongering than she was led to believe.  Between these two camps is another king and the rise of Christianity to complicate matters.  

One of the things I both liked and didn’t like about the book was that there are no clear good guys and bad guys.  While one might say the Vikings are the bad guys, the indigenous Irish Kings are generally no better.  All have strange views of what peace is and of course they require power to secure it.  What I like about this is that the tale is told from both the Fomorian and the Tuatha De Dannan POV.  This gives you a taste of the morality of both sides with less judgement than a straightforward good vs. evil story.  The downside for me is that I feel rather ambiguous about both sides as well.  I don’t feel like I have anyone to cheer for.  However, towards the end, I was starting to like King Brian’s clan better.  But who knows if this is a ruse that will be revealed in the next book.

I do have to say Gormflaith is kind of a baddie, mostly because all her frustrations and tragedy in life is now vented toward getting Sitric on the High Throne.  But she is not just an evil Borg Queen of a baddie.  With the book being half told from her POV, it’s easier to empathize with her.  Fodla comes off as less of a baddie, mostly because of her realizations that all human men aren’t warmongering imbeciles.  Her task to spy is interesting because she is a healer posing as a human healer.  She is not supposed to use her supernatural powers to heal anyone.  However, this becomes more and more of a struggle as she becomes closer to the clan she was sent to spy on.  

I give this book three stars out of five.  While it is well constructed and well researched, I felt it dragged often.  I found it tough to get into in the first third, and then once I got into the book, I found it tough to stay in it.  I just didn’t find it all that interesting.  I got more engrossed in the last third, wanting to see which king was going to take a leading role.  But knowing this is a trilogy, I was prepared to be only partly satisfied.  I don’t think I’ll read more of this trilogy unless book club votes for the rest of the series.  It’s just a little too much fantasy politics for me.  

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

Shannon Chakraborty
Completed 8/16/2024, Reviewed 8/17/2024
4 stars

This book was a terrific read, especially after the disastrous last book I read.  I loved the main character, the prose, the world building; everything just tickled my fancy.  Except for it slowing down a little before the big climax, it was fast-paced and interesting.  I generally like fantasy from the Middle East, with golems and djinns and the myriads of magical beings dreamt out of the sea and the desert.  This book was nominated for a 2024 Hugo.  It didn’t win, but would have been very high on my list.  

Amina is a retired pirate.  She was one of the greatest, most notorious pirates in the Indian Ocean.  Now she lives at home with her daughter and mother.  One day the mother of one of her former crew shows up and offers Amina a fortune to find the woman’s granddaughter.  The woman basically extorts her into the search, threatening the lives of Amina’s daughter and mother.  Amina takes the job but slowly finds out that there is more to this than just a missing granddaughter.  The kidnapper is a Frank from the crusades who was searching for one of the greatest magical objects ever.  So Amina reassembles some of the main members of her old crew to help her on this quest, with magical islands, bird-men, cthulu-reminiscent sea creatures, and an old husband who turned out to be a demon.

Even though it took me a while to read this book, I found it engrossing right from the start.  The story of Amina’s retired life was actually interesting, probably because it is based in an Arab/African setting rather than European-style fantasy.  And when you read as much as I do, different is good. 😊  The process of assembling her crew was as thrilling as some of the faster paced sections of the book.  And each old member she found added insight into Amina’s life as pirate and a person.  I’ve already forgotten the names of the major characters from her crew, but each personality was interesting.

Of course, the best character was Amina, a complex person trying to juggle her return to the seas with her responsibility to her family.  As this is the first of a series with “Adventures” in the title, we can expect that the conflict will continue into the next books.  But it is done well, with her longing for her daughter and constantly second-guessing her decisions.

Her old demon husband, whose name I think was Raksh, was fun.  He was ultimately a selfish, self-seeking coward, but colorful nonetheless.  I liked how he tried to manipulate her into doing things his way to save his own skin and Amina being able to see through it, mostly.  I also liked the granddaughter.  She was scholar and a self-made magician who had her own reasons for letting the Frank take advantage of her powers.    

I give this book four stars out of five.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, but found it dragged towards the end.  The climax itself was tremendous, but the build up to it was slow at times.  However, I’d still be interested in the sequels as they come out.  I really enjoyed the prose, good descriptions without taking away from the action.  And the different creatures and monsters were fun.  This recently came up as a book club nominee and I’ll probably work on getting it nominated a few more times.  I think it would be a good discussion book.

Isolate

L. E. Modesitt
DNF 8/4/2024, Reviewed 8/6/2024
1 star

Trying to read this book was a miserable experience.  I got to about page 100 after ten days and decided I couldn’t do it anymore.  Nothing happened in this book.  I’m not even sure what this book was about.  I can tell you a little about the main characters and what they wore and what they ate and what their jobs were.  As for a plot, I got nothing.

If you look at the cover of the book, you see a man and a woman standing in front of a car like they are body guards.  That’s the book in a nutshell.  Dekkard and Ysella are body guards.  Ysella is an empath.  She can read people.  Dekkard is an isolate.  Empaths can’t read him.  They protect a councilor, which to us would be a congressman.  Dekkard likes quince jam on croissants.  They kind of like each other.  They both mostly wear grey.  Another councilor dies under mysterious circumstances, but the news reports it as a heart attack.  The councilor Dekkard and Ysella protect gets shot at occasionally and the two have to rush him to safety.  

The world is a sort of steampunk near future.  I couldn’t tell if the government was supposed to be fascist or communist or late-stage capitalism, or some combination, but it was pretty corrupt.  There were people demonstrating demanding the councilors reveal how they voted.  

One hundred pages and there was no semblance of a plot.  It was mostly the day to day activities of two body guards.  This was a book club selection.  There are bets as to how many people will finish the book.  One friend who finished it sent me a scathing synopsis of the rest of the book, where nothing else happens.  I may publish it in my blog, but I won’t include it public site reviews where she will publish herself.  

This is a 1 star book.  Bleah.

My friend’s eloquent response to this book:

If you don’t like it at page 100, nothing changes. I soldiered along because sometimes there’s a payoff when Stuff Finally Happens…. But this is the whole book. Bureaucracy. Lists of people introduced who don’t show up again. Minutae of what the main characters are wearing (spoiler: uniforms). Not what anyone else is wearing… just him and her. Slowburn attraction. Beginnings of snatches of what might be mysteries. More bureaucracy. Laborious detail over ever meal including what everyone ordered, what the first bites were like, whether they were pressed for time while eating. Quince paste shows up 55 times in 100 chapters, and is referenced more than that when he mourns over his tomato jelly and guava jam.

There are more assassination attempts, which always occur when the pair are on duty, and are always easily thwarted with no damage or danger to anyone but the assailants— who die, easily and conveniently. There are potential plots— who is trying to kill Dekkard notCain? Or his boss? Or his girlfriend’s sister’s husband? But 50 pages from the end we’ve forgotten about resolving any of that in favor of detailed exposition on his boss’ stump speeches while he campaigns for office. Lower tariffs are promised. I mean, that’s a whole-ass chapter 60 pages from the end.

Sorry higher tariffs are promised. And regulations for the manufacture and distribution of the not-cars and not-trains.