Orbital

Samantha Harvey
Completed 2/15/2025, Reviewed 2/15/2025
2 stars

I wanted to like this meditation on space and Earth from the viewpoints of six astronauts in the International Space Station.  It had pretty prose, but not much else.  There’s no plot, just reflections on life in space and sweeping observations as the ISS orbits the Earth sixteen times in one twenty-four-hour period.  And at two hundred pages that should have been right up my alley.  But alas, it was not meant to be.  I could only read about wonder for so long before I got bored and my mind drifted.  At one point, I fell asleep and my e-reader slid back about twenty pages.  When I awoke, it took me about fifteen pages of reading to realize I had already read those pages.  This won the Booker Prize, which is the big book award in the UK.  I’ve only read two other Booker Prize winners, Possession by AS Byatt and Life of Pi by Yann Martel, both of which I loved.  I think Orbital won because it was pretty, and perhaps it could be because it’s a literary tip of the hat to Science Fiction.  Just guessing. 

There’s an interesting narrative that goes along with this book.  Many reviews say that it’s a love letter to Russia and Russian culture.  I didn’t get that.  Two of the astronauts are Russian.  Everybody gets along on the ISS even though they are supposed to remain separated for political reasons.  But I didn’t understand the criticism.  Maybe it’s because I tuned out so many times throughout the book.  Truly, the only character I got any sense of was Chie, the Japanese woman whose mother died that day.  She ruminates on how if her grandfather hadn’t been home from work sick, watching her baby mother while her grandmother went into town shopping, she would have been vaporized by one of the atomic bombs in WWII.  Anyway, back to the Russian criticism, I didn’t see anything that was particularly offensive, even in this time when the Russian dictator and his oligarchs are so brutally trying to obliterate Ukraine.  

I have little else to say about this book.  Despite being pretty, it felt like a waste of time.  Despite being a slim volume, I would much rather have read just about anything else.  I give this book two stars solely for the prose.  It had nothing else of value for me.  

Ravensong

TJ Klune
Completed 2/12/2025, Reviewed 2/13/2025
4 stars

This is the second in the Green Creek series, following Wolfsong.  It tells the story of Gordo, a human who is the witch for the Bennett werewolf clan.  I really liked the form, beginning in the middle of the last book when he and part of the clan went looking for the bad guy for three years.  We didn’t hear much of this story last time.  It fills in the gaps and at the same time, portrays Gordo’s younger years.  At first I was a little disappointed it didn’t follow Ox and Joe, but I became engrossed in his internal struggle with lifelong abandonment issues.  Like all Klune’s books so far, the theme is about family and kinship, love and loss, and it’s wrapped in supernatural action and conflict.  

Gordo’s father was the witch for the clan.  He had his son tattooed with sigils and magical art at a very young age so that he could build his power early.  But it was a horribly painful experience that was the first in a series of betrayals Gordon felt.  Later his mother died and his father left with the bad guys.  Gordo, at a young age, fell in love with the older Mark, the upcoming alpha’s brother.  However, because of the age difference, Mark never let Gordo too close, although he knew they would be mated.  Later, a group of religious fanatic hunters came and nearly obliterated the Bennett clan.  Alone, Gordo apprenticed as an auto mechanic from Marty, who eventually left the shop to him upon his death. Once the Bennett clan reorganized, they left Green Creek so that Thomas, the alpha, could take the role of alpha of all.  Gordo buried himself in his work, eschewing the remaining clan, especially Mark.  Years later, Gordo struggles with his huge resentments against Mark and the Bennetts as the new clan under the leadership of Ox and Joe rebuilds and faces new challenges from the new generation of hunters and an onslaught of magically-diseased Omega wolves.

Yes, another complicated tale.  But it exhibits the complex world building of TJ Klune.  The magic is not exactly well-defined, but it goes hand in hand with Gordo’s understanding of and growth in it.  Specifically, the magically-diseased Omega wolves are the result of ancient magic used by his father to destroy wolves.  Gordo has no knowledge of this magic, but by being genetically linked, his signature has some power.  The book also has several plotlines.  In fact, I felt like the book could have ended several times as each subplot gets some resolution.  It made the book feel a little long, but necessary as the complexity needed to be unraveled and overcome.  

My one real complaint with the book was five hundred pages of Gordo resenting Mark and fighting his true feelings for sooooooo long.  About two-thirds of the way, I was thinking, “Just join a twelve step program already and work through these resentments!”  However, they are also, oddly enough, motivation for Gordo’s defense of the clan as they fend off wave after wave of attack.  When the resolution comes, it’s a little too late, which is nice for a change, not wrapping up neatly.  But Gordo does grow, albeit gruffly.  

I really liked the continued presence, wit, and support of the other humans in clan.  They are mostly his mechanics from the shop and add color to Gordo’s dourness. With the gravity of the plots, they help break the tension with comical exchanges and sharp poignant insight.  Back on the wolf side, Elizabeth, Thomas’ widow and the matriarch of the clan, lends an intelligent and caring presence in her support of Gordo.  

I give this book four stars out of five.  It’s quick, engrossing, and devastating.  Another great book from Klune.  My only reason for not going five stars is the length and intensity of Gordo’s resentment.  It became old after a while, not giving the reader relief until the end.  The conclusion was very satisfying in its eschewing of a happy ending.  It sets the scene for the next book where the clan must overcome more obstacles to make everything right.  Will read the third book after a quick break for a book club book.  

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

Megan Bannen
Completed 2/6/2025, Reviewed 2/6/2025
3 stars

This was an okay romantasy which I read for in-person book club.  It’s got zombies, although the nature of the zombies was intriguing.  And it has torrid parts.  However, I thought the torrid parts were rather pedestrian.  Compared to the intense scenes in The Fourth Wing and its sequel, it seems more like a Harlequin romance.  Still, I thought the book was generally entertaining albeit a little soapy.   It has two more books in the series which I probably won’t read.

The story takes place in a universe where the soul resides in the appendix.  Something has happened so that souls don’t go to the unnamed god upon death.  Instead, they wait around and take over a newly deceased body and reanimate it.  There are Marshalls destroy the bodies by disrupting the appendix.  Then the bodies are taken to an undertaker to be prepared for the afterlife.  Mercy is the daughter of an undertaker waiting for her brother to return from undertaking school.  Being a woman, she’s not supposed to run such a business.  However, she loves salting the bodies, reciting the rituals, and building the wooden boats that take the bodies to the afterlife.  Hart is a Marshall.  Since their meeting, Hart and Mercy have hated each other.  

One day, Mercy receives a letter addressed to “A Friend” from the magical owl mail deliverer.  She begins a pen pal relationship with the friend, falling in love with the idea of him.  Unbeknownst to her, the letters are coming from Hart.  Neither knows who the other is, until they try to finally meet.  Craziness ensues.

It’s an interesting take on relationships, although I think it’s been done in other genres.  It’s just that this time, the setting is rather interesting.  The characters are pretty well developed and the prose is not to bad, except for the sex scenes.  I liked Mercy who deals with carrying the weight of the business from her father who had to retire due to a heart attack.  When her brother Zeddie comes back, he’s no help.  He flunked out of the program and finished a degree in liberal arts.  Now he wants to be a cook.  Her sister is pregnant and can’t really help much although her husband is the driver for the company.  So Mercy is between a rock and a hard place.  

Hart on the other hand is the stereotypical brooding loner.  He is assigned a partner, a very young man with no experience hunting the zombies, called drudges.  He resents being assigned a partner but does take him under his wing rather reluctantly.  The young man, Pen, is actually more interesting, acting as a foil for Hart.  In a great little side story, he starts dating Mercy’s brother Zeddie.  

The book was a relatively fast paced book.  It took a little time figuring out the universe, though.  But I zipped through the last hundred or so pages in no time.  I thought the book in general was predictable, yet the ending was well-done.  The star of the book though is the setting and the mythology.  There’s just enough description of the old gods and the new gods and the migrating souls to keep you somewhat engaged.  

I give this book three stars out of five.  It’s good, just not good enough to pull me into the whole trilogy.  In addition, I’d rather read Rebecca Yarros for straight romantasy, or gay romantasy, like the early works of TJ Klune, which I will return to now that I’ve finished this book.