The Tainted Cup

Robert Jackson Bennett
Completed 5/26/2025 Reviewed 5/26/2025
4 Stars

I was very surprised by this book.  It’s a murder mystery wrapped in a fantasy world with giant sea creatures which attack the city during the rainy season.  I think this is the first murder mystery I thoroughly enjoyed.  I was able to follow the progression of the investigation, was surprised by the big reveals, and really liked the two main characters.  The world building is great, although the names of the cities, regions, and other characters had me a bit confused at times.  Many times during murder mysteries, regardless of the genre or setting in which it takes place, I get lost in the details.  There was just something about the way this book was written and the premise of the investigators that kept me from getting lost, and kept me completely engrossed.  This book is nominated for a 2025 Hugo Award.

Dinios Kol is an engraver, a person altered to have an eidetic memory through the use of scents to record and play back the information in his mind.  Recently commissioned, he is apprenticed to Ana Dolabra, a disgraced investigator, to find the murderer of an influential military leader.  His death was due to contagion of plague spores that rapidly grow trees out of a person’s body.  It’s a quick but exceedingly painful death and the spores can proliferate rapidly in a humid environment.  Dinios is perplexed by his employer, a goofy woman who needs to be blindfolded to avoid too much visual stimulation from her environs.  So Dinios does the legwork and Ana puts the pieces together.  When ten engineers are found to have died the same way, shortly before a leviathan from the sea attacks the city, the mystery explodes into huge investigations, putting Dinios and Ana’s lives in danger.  

Dinios is a wonderful character. I instantly liked him.  He’s quiet, introverted, and very respectful of Ana, despite her reputation and quirks.  But he has secrets, some that he keeps, and some that he is not even aware of himself.  Din is the narrator as well.  This gives us a lot of insight into him despite his being staid and socially awkward.  I really enjoyed his progression from novice to confident assistant, although he is rather naïve throughout the book.  

Ana, on the other hand, gave me the feeling of an old hippie cat lady.  Wandering around with a blindfold on most of the time, and revealing only as much of her deducing to Din as is needed for him to be successful on his assignments, I could see her whirling around in tie-dye or 80’s southwest dress with a lighted chili pepper necklace and a perm.  While I wouldn't say this book is a comedy, she adds a lot of levity to the grave situations she and Din face.  

I was impressed at how much personality the other characters had, as there were many of them.  This is some of the best character development I’ve read from Bennett, even better than his Foundryside from the Founders’ Trilogy.  Most of the characters were multi-dimensional, with ranges of emotions rather than just being a good or bad person.  Even the vile head of the most powerful family in the city had depth in her manipulative ways.  

I’ve read in the blurbs for this book that this has a “Holmes and Watson” feel to it.  Unfortunately, I’ve never read any, so I can’t compare.  However, the relationship between Din and Ana is simply marvelous, with engrossing interactions and fun banter.  I’m thinking I will need to read the next book in the series to see where Bennett can go with them.  Din is also a quietly gay man, or at least bisexual, so I’d like to see how he develops as a person beyond his social awkwardness.  This is definitely a four star book out of five.  Thoroughly enjoyable.

Reread 5/31/2026, Review Updated 5/31/2026
5 stars

I reread this book because it’s sequel, “A Drop of Corruption” has been nominated for a 2026 Best Novel Hugo and I wanted to reread this to refresh my memory.  Once again, I absolutely loved this book.  I think this second read was more enjoyable than the first last year.  I found Ana’s jabs much funnier.  Add in Din’s stoic humorlessness and I just ate it up.  I took a lot more care in understanding the details of the mysteries flying around.  Mystery books are not usually my thing because I forget details.  So this time, I worked extra hard at keeping them in the forefront of my mind.  I also paid more attention to the integration of the mystery with the attacks of the Leviathans.  It amazed me at how well they blended into one complete whole rather than feel like the giant sea creatures were just thrown in for extra drama.  My experience with this reread was so positive, I’m going to up my rating to five out of five stars.  I loved it that much.  I still would choose Someone You Can Build a Nest In over this book, but I feel a little better about it having beaten Nest at last year’s Hugo ceremony.

The Ministry of Time

Kaliane Bradley
Completed 5/17/2025 Reviewed 5/17/2025
5 Stars

I rate this book very high although I know that many people may not like it as much.  It’s a time travel/thriller/romance set in the near future.  There isn’t that much science in it.  It was the emotional and thriller aspects that captured me.  I only guessed a few of the mysteries of who was doing what, but even with that, I was simply enamored with it.  I guess I really am a romantic at heart, as was evidenced in previous book reviews.  I read the bulk of the book in two days, including a 140-page marathon that kept me up until 1:30 this morning, LOL.  It’s filled with humor and intrigue and yes, some naughty bits.  This book has been nominated for the 2025 Hugo and Arthur C. Clark awards.  I don’t think this is my top pick for the Hugos, but it is pretty close. 

The main character is an unnamed narrator.  She is part British, part Cambodian (like the author).  She is a civil servant translator who applies for a job which pays a lot and requires high security clearance.  She gets the job in the Ministry of Time, finding out that she will be a “bridge” to assist people transported from the past assimilate into present society.  She is assigned to Commander Graham Gore who supposedly died on a nineteenth century Arctic expedition to find the Northwest Passage.  Also known as “1867”, Gore is a handsome, upright, uptight, chain-smoking Victorian who eschews many modern inventions, though he loves Spotify.  The narrator rather successfully brings him into the present, while navigating her growing feelings toward him.  At the same time, she appears to be a target of a mysterious “Brigadier” who is systematically trying to assassinate the participants in this Ministry experiment.   

Despite having read a fair number of time-travel books, romances, Victorian period pieces this past year or so, I thought the premise of the book was very intriguing.  The group of ex-pats from the past are monitored for their being accepted by our time, as well as vice versa.  One ex-pat seems to be rejected by the present while at the same time, rejects her “hereness”.  Others, like Margaret who died from the Bubonic Plague in the 1600s, and Arthur who was killed during WWI, balance their “hereness” and “thereness,” and take to the present like champs.  They don’t always show up on modern scanning devices unless concentrating on their hereness.  They work hard on assimilating.  The romance is a little predictable, but I thought the progression was well done.  And of course, I was thoroughly frustrated by Gore’s stiff upper lip, but have become quite used it, especially coming off the Victorian romance of Spectred Isle.  

I didn’t know until I finished the book that the author was Cambodian and British, as was the narrator.  So the themes of genocide, refugees, and assimilation were very present and well done.  They pertained to the narrator as well as the ex-pats.  I really identified with her, as a gay man who spent most of his life trying to assimilate into straight society.  She was “white-passing,” a concept many people who feel different or “other” spend excessive energy on.  This made her relatable, even as her sister embraced her otherness and worked to make sure mainstream society got what she went through growing up being ridiculed and bullied for.  

The ex-pats were incredible.  Gore, with his Victorian reticence, suffering under the weight of doing what he thought was acceptable versus his own feelings.  Arthur, the WWI soldier who was gay, trying to figure out what he wanted out of assimilating in the present.  Margaret, the 17th century woman who finally explores life as an out lesbian, embracing Tinder and film and feminism.  They are all loveable.  Margaret provides a lot of great comic relief.  Arthur is simply the sweetest guy ever.  

I thought the thriller part was also pretty well done, although I saw some things coming, while completely missing others.  But that’s pretty par for me.  Many of my friends in book club often figure out the mysteries well before the end.  I think I liked it because it wasn’t as convoluted as many time travel thrillers are.  Having read the book in two days, the twists and turns were fresh in my mind as they unfolded toward the reveals at the end.

I give this book five stars out of five.  I was thoroughly engaged with the characters and the time travel.  I thought it ended with excellent reflections on living life in the present with hope and forgiveness to get through the future.  The ending also left you hanging a little, not necessarily for a sequel, but to make you think about the implications of what decisions you make in the present may have on the future.  I think if this were read in my book club, the other members might find it schmaltzy or trite.  I thought it was one of the best sci fi romances I’ve read in the recent past.  

Spectred Isle

KJ Charles
Completed 5/5/2025 Reviewed 5/9/2025
3 Stars

This book was enjoyable romantasy fluff.  This is my first book by KJ Charles, a British woman with quite a prolific M/M romantasy body of work.  This, like many of her works, is a period romance taking place after WWI.  It is very British in its emphasis on manners and reputation.  Charles has a very large following despite being mostly self-published.  This book actually won a paranormal romance award when it was published.  I won’t say it’s great, but I had a hoot with it and particularly enjoyed the Green Man mythos it drew from.  And I am a sucker for gay romances, being a romantic at heart myself.  Alas, no sequels have been written yet despite two more being planned.

 

Saul Lazenby was disgraced and discharged from the army for having an affair with an enemy civilian and possibly leaking military secrets, though nothing was ever proven.  He does not know if his lover was a spy or not, or whether he loved him or not.  Formerly an archeologist in the Middle East, he now is an assistant to an older man who is obsessed with the occult.  Saul, a skeptic, goes on what he feels are wild goose chases to confirm paranormal areas for his boss.  At each step, he meets Randolph Glyde, a mysterious man who turns out to be truly involved with paranormal activity.  At first, they hate each other, but it turns into an enemies-to-lovers tale as the story unfolds.  Together, they try to uncover the source of strange occurrences around London while trying to avoid a newly formed government agency trying to rein in all the experts on the occult.

The character development of Saul is pretty good.  He starts out a nay-sayer, trying to avoid any interaction with people in general.  He’s sullen and withdrawn, having been cut off from everything he held dear in his life.  When he meets Randolph, he very slowly begins to open up, allowing himself to feel attracted to someone.  Since being expelled from the army, he has only been having anonymous hookups, feeling guilty about everything.  That changes with Randolph as they keep on having chance encounters and actually begin talking to each other rather than bickering.  Saul doesn’t come bursting out of the closet by the end of the book, but he does let himself fall in love.  

Randolph, on the other hand, carries a lot of his own guilt and grief.  His whole family were killed during a ritual during the war, a ritual to combat the paranormal war that was being waged behind the scenes.  Now, as the sole inheritor of the family’s magical responsibility, he tries to figure out all the paranormal activity happening around London and avoid bringing the unknowing Saul into it.  Randolph started out a little too foppish for me, but I relaxed my opinion of him as Saul’s interest and involvement grew.  Before I knew it, I was biting at the chomp for them to finally have their moment.

The prose is pretty good, as is the world building.  The paranormal stuff was strange, with monsters climbing out of the fen.  These swamp beast-men were definitely scary but also rather bizarre.  What I liked most when Randolph called the power of the Green Man to him to fight these creatures.  I would have liked more background on the Green Man mythos though, as it is rather esoteric.  We know it’s ancient and earth-based, but really little else.  

I give this book three stars out of five.  I think Charles could have done a lot more, but maybe that’s what she’s planning in the rest of the trilogy.  If she ever returns to finish it, I’ll definitely read it.  In the meantime, I have another trilogy by her that I got on sale with similar themes.  So I have my work cut out for in the field of gay romantasy.  I hope to get to those by the end of the year.  And this book was a nice break from the heavier reading of the Hugo and Nebula nominees.  

Alien Clay

Adrien Tchaikovsky
Completed 5/1/2025, Reviewed 5/1/2025
3 stars

I’m not a big fan of this book.  In the past, I really enjoyed Tchaikovsky’s prose, as in Made Things and Service Model.  In fact, I thought the latter was brilliant.  This book, however, was slog.  The prose got in the way of the action and the dialogue.  While not as pretentious as Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, the interruption of statements and conversations made for an immense lack of continuity.  I often had to go back and read the sentences in quotes to remember what the conversation was about.  The only good thing about it was that it reiterated facts about the planet on which it takes place so that I got an excellent sense of it.  This book was nominated for 2025 Hugo and PDK awards.  I would have thought a book like this would have been more likely a Nebula nominee considering how often prosy books are nominated.  However, since the author has been generally ignored by the Hugos throughout his prolific career, I wouldn’t be surprised if this won.

The book is narrated in first person by Arton Daghdev, a xeno-ecology professor and dissident who is sent to the penal colony on planet Kiln by the fascist Mandate, the political power on Earth.  There with many of his associates from academia, he is looked upon as someone who ratted out the others.  While life in the penal colony means almost certain death, Daghdev is fascinated by the ancient ruins near the colony which contain hieroglyphs, undoubtedly written by some earlier civilization.  The commandant of the facility takes a liking to him because he may have the knowledge to help break the code of the writings.  He gets assigned to work that brings him in proximity of the ruins, though he is not actually part of the Science team.  Of course, a rebellion is being plotted of which he becomes part, feeling it’s his only way of possibly surviving his sentence as well as overthrowing everything he doesn’t believe in.  He struggles to survive the planet, the forced labor, and the rebellion, all the while trying to solve the riddle of the writings on the ruins.

I thought the premise of the book was fascinating and timely. It was pretty clear to me that Tchaikovsky is extrapolating on the present, perhaps after seeing how easily we could topple into a dictatorship, despite being British.  The Mandate is ruthless in its weeding out dissents, particularly among the intelligentsia.  I was surprised at all the parallels to what is going on in our society now.  After reading a few other reviews, I found out that this could also be a nod to Great Britain relocating their undesirables to the prison colony of Australia.  Either way, this wasn’t enough to keep me engrossed in the story.

Nor was the character of Daghdev.  While somewhat interesting, I could not stay focused on his thoughts and actions as they were so tediously drawn out by the prose.  By about fifty pages, I wanted to put the book down because I was simply not interested in him anymore.  Whether it was the conflict with his fellow dissidents, his acts in the rebellion attempts, or his forced labor on the planet, I could not keep focused.  I occasionally became interested in the other characters, particularly Primatt, the lead of his labor group.  She had some redeeming qualities despite not being a captive.  Rather, she was there as a scientist and could appreciate Daghdev’s potential.  I also liked the scientist who was kept in isolation for seemingly going insane from unprotected exposure the planet’s environment.  While her story isn’t revealed until the end, she presents a warning of what the future of the prisoners will be.

Needless to say, the most interesting character is the planet Kiln itself.  Its flora and/or fauna (it’s not clear which is which) is actually made of symbiotic creatures coming together to create larger ones.  Whether it’s the tree-like things or the elephant-like things, they all exist because smaller things come together to feed from as well as support every other smaller thing in the collective entity.  The whole planet has learned to live in communities of non-similar things.  Still it isn’t clear what could have possibly made the writings on the ruins as none of them seem sentient.

I give this book three stars out of five.  This will be many people’s cup of tea, but it wasn’t mine.  I had to force myself to continue reading this book.  It didn’t grip me until the last fifty or so pages.  Even then, the prose got in the way of my enjoyment of it.  I think I would have given it two stars, but clearly, Tchaikovsky can write some unpretentious prose to fill out his world.  I just wish he would have been a bit more concise or at least not have such huge paragraphs separating each sentence of a conversation.

Flashforward

Robert J Sawyer
Completed 4/21/2025, Reviewed 4/21/2025
4 stars

I haven’t read any Sawyer in a few years, but I’ve read three of his books previously.  I enjoyed all three, Hominids, Calculating God, and The Terminal Experiment, giving them three or four stars, so my hopes were high for this book as well.  I wasn’t disappointed.  This 2000 Aurora Award winner (the Canadian SF book award) was a fast-paced, very readable contemplation on the effects of knowing the future and what we do with it.  It was couched in a hard science fiction story concerning an experiment at CERN gone wrong.  I enjoyed this book so much, I read it in one night.  Well technically, I read the last 30 pages early the next morning because I couldn’t keep my eyes open at 1:30 a.m.

The book follows three physics researchers:  Lloyd, Michiko, and Theo.  When their experiment goes awry, everyone in the world passes out for just under two minutes.  During that time, everyone sees themselves as they are thirty years in the future, just enough time to figure out their surroundings.  When they wake up, they find disasters all over the world from planes and cars crashing and people falling to their deaths.  The three, as well as the other researchers in the lab, try to figure out what happened and if they are really liable.  Lloyd and Michiko are engaged, but they see themselves not together in the future.  Theo sees nothing, which indicates he must be dead though he is only twenty-seven-years-old in the present.  Theo goes hunting for the reason for his death.  Lloyd and Michiko inter existential crises over their relationship.  And the ultimate question is, can the future be changed or is it fixed.  

I thought the premise was well developed.  Written in third person, mostly from Lloyd and Theo’s perspectives, the narrative jumped between them just often enough to keep the plot going quickly.  I was in awe of how much philosophy, physics, and relationship drama could be drawn out to convey the premise without getting soapy.  Now, some may argue that it is soapy, but I thought it was decent human drama.  The climax was exciting, with a terrific ending, although I could have done without the last chapter.  It’s the only part that I didn’t like where it went.  

The three main characters were believable, especially Lloyd and Michiko.  Lloyd tries to convince the world that there is no free will, that the future is static.  He must believe this to absolve himself of the guilt over the deaths of so many people because of his experiment.  Michiko believes it is changeable. Always the warm, intense, and hopeful person, she doesn’t believe in predestination and is convinced Lloyd is wrong.  Theo, upon finding out that he was murdered, believes he must try to change the future and pursues all information he can gather about his demise in hopes of avoiding it.  He’s young and brash and quite the arrogant wunderkind.  Still he is likeable despite not thinking through most of his decisions.

This book, like  the others of Sawyer's I read, all have the same style of writing.  Not much prose and a lot of action.  But this book also has long stretches of the philosophy of time and physics and cosmology in layman’s terms.  It was easy to follow, even for someone like me who flunked out of his physics major in college.  I give this book four stars out of five.  It grabs you quickly and keeps you reading throughout the book.  I found myself reading close to forty pages an hour because I was so engrossed in it.  It was a stark contrast to the ten pages an hour I was reading for the last book, with a quick dozing off at about that one hour mark.  

 

Asunder

Kerstin Hall
Completed 4/19/2025 Reviewed 4/19/2025
3 Stars

This is a beautifully written book that just didn’t do it for me.  I liked the premise; Hall has a terrific imagination.  The prose is beautiful.  But I never bonded with main character Karys.  I think I’m getting tired of the hero with the massive chip on their shoulder.  Karys never lightens up.  Some of the secondary characters did, which was a relief.  Never bonding with her made for a tough time staying with the plot and keeping up with the world building.  This book is a nominee for the Nebula Award.  If I were voting, this would be low on my list. 

Karys is a deathspeaker.  She can speak with the recently dead, finding out about the circumstances of their death.  The book begins with her searching a sacred cave shrine for a missing party.  She only finds one survivor: the rest being consumed by a monster.  The survivor is encased in a time bubble, hiding from the monster by being three days in the past.  Karys escapes the mysterious monster and Ferain, the survivor, through the strange magical relic that created the bubble, becomes bonded with Karys, existing in her shadow.  Ferain turns out to be the son of an ambassador.  He promises her that if she can return him to his father, he will give her a large reward.  The rest of the book contains their journey to separate them and get him home.  

There’s another dimension to Karys’ occupation.  She made a compact with a demon-type being that will claim her once time is up.  The time draws nigh and Karys and Ferain race to separate them before she is claimed.  Along the way, they are joined by a past friend of Karys and an academic who dabbles in bonding magic.  They find out through the academic that bonding people together is dangerous magic, one sucking the life force out of the other.  So there’s an additional reason to find a solution for their situation.

Of all the characters, I liked Ferain and the academic, Winola.  They both had a lighter sense of being.  Even Ferain, who was in this life and death situation, had a better disposition.  He tried and failed to lighted Karys up.  Karys did grow some by the end of the book, but she remained jaded and paranoid of letting anyone see who she really was.  Winola was kind of goofy.  I think I generally like the academic personality type, particularly in how it was developed in her character.  And there seemed to be some sexual tension between her and Karys, although this was never explored, just alluded to.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the prose is tremendous.  The amount of detail that Hall wrote in the description of all the characters and locations was mind boggling.  I often marveled at her word choices.  But it was never enough to keep me drawn into the story.  I also had a lot of trouble keeping track of the nationalities and races.  I think it was because it took me so long to read this book that I forgot which were human nationality names and which were being race names.  

I think this book is typical of what the Nebula committee looks for in nominees.  Strong prose and world building.  While I appreciate it as well, I lose it when I don’t bond with the main character.  Lack of empathy leads to a tedious reading experience.  I give this book three stars out of five, honoring the prose and the plot, but taking off for Karys.  

Bury Your Gays

Chuck Tingle
Completed 4/5/2025, Reviewed 4/6/2025
5 stars

I read this book because I was intrigued by the title.  “Bury Your Gays” is the slang term for killing off the LGBTQ+ character in fiction, even when they are the hero because of the old, McCarthy-istic, moralistic bullshit that the film industry had to deal with.  That’s what the main character of this book receives pressure from the studio board of directors to do.  It then devolves into a mix of horror and science fiction that is dark, gory, frustrating, and a little fun.  I haven’t read much horror in a while, and though the science fiction isn’t exactly original, it makes for a thrilling ride through the underside of the Hollywood system.  This book was published just last year, so it hasn’t been nominated for any awards yet, though his previous book was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award.

Misha is the successful screenwriter who has just been nominated for an Oscar for Live Action Short.  He is also the creator and writer of a streaming series featuring two Lesbian agents.  It has never been openly discussed in the series, but the sexual tension is riveting, making it a big hit.  His plan is to end this season with them falling in love.  Misha is a semi-closeted gay man, but writes characters that, if not openly gay, have a gay subtext.  However, the board of directors want him to kill off the characters, “for the algorithm,” and introduce a more conservative agent.  He refuses.  Of course, they threaten him with lawsuits for breaking his contract.  More sinisterly, the evil characters from his early horror films begin to haunt and stalk him.  He accedes, agreeing to kill the Lesbians at the season finale, but he is still pursued by these ghosts, aliens, and monsters.  And they are not just threatening him, but his boyfriend, his best friend, and other people in close proximity to him.

This book had a grip on me pretty much from the beginning.  His confrontation with his boss at the studio over killing off the main characters sets up an immediate conflict.  But then when the first ghost shows up and threatens to kill him by pulling out his bones at the end of five days, as in Misha’s first screenplay, things take a terrifying turn.  That period ends at midnight on the night of the Oscar ceremony.  Next, a seven-foot-tall alien wearing the skin of a woman and gives a vision of the meaninglessness of the universe through a single touch stalks him.  The horrors continue and Misha tries to find a way to end this based on the monsters’ characters in his screenplays. I was riveted and little frightened, but also found it a little fun, like a good horror tale.  

Misha was a great character.  He’s smart and witty, even though he’s afraid of coming out completely.  When he’s invited to his high school reunion, he does not take his boyfriend Zeke, which puts a strain on their relationship.  But Zeke is no passing boyfriend.  He believes in Misha’s stalkers even though the studio execs, and of course the press, blow them off as crazed fans.  In fact, the tabloids eat this story up, as people upload videos of his confrontations with the “stalkers” from their phones.  They even spread a story that he’s a serious drug abuser.  But Misha deals with this in his own way as he fights the monsters and gets to the bottom of what sent them.  

In addition, this story is a great coming out tale.  Many of his friends know he’s gay, but keep it quiet for him since in Hollywood, the news can ruin a career.  Through well placed flashbacks, the psychology of why he has such trouble coming out emerges, making Misha deal with his past demons as well as the present monsters.  When he finally comes to full acceptance and comes out, it’s with a glorious bang.

I give this book five stars out of five.  I might be a little overly generous with this since the last horror novel I read with a gay main character was Clive Barker’s “Sacrament,” I think, for which I don’t have a review.  So this book feels outrageously wonderful.  I felt like I was in Misha’s skin as he navigated the horrors of the past and present.  The AI nanobots that come into play later in the book are a common trope these days, but I thought it was done well and quite imaginative.  And the prose sucked me into Misha’s world instantaneously.  I definitely want to read his previous book, “Camp Damascus,” which has even better reviews.