galacticvampire's reviews
350 reviews

"Oh what if The Great Gatsby was exactly the same but from Jordan's pov and there's some magic here and there. Also, everyone is gay except Tom, because he's the antagonist." 

This is not a retelling. It's fanfic. Self-insert fanfic. And it's such a shame because this would've been a brilliant low-fantasy set in the 1920s if it didn't try to follow the original plot happening beat for beat.

Why?? There was so much to be explored between orientalism and an actual original magic system and yet we spend time rehashing Great Gatsby scenes slightly to the left. It makes for great fanfic, but not so much for a novel.

The prose is truly beautiful and it deserved its own story to tell.

Going over the Jewish and Palestinian struggles since before the israeli settlement, this book goes in detail of how the conflict evolved year by year.

Every chapter also offers testimonies written at the time, giving perspective how both sides viewed the issue at different stages.

It doesn't really pretend to be impartial, reinforcing multiple times the ethnical cleansing happening in Palestine and not really showcasing the terrorist side of Hamas, but it does show effort in empathising with the desire of Jews for sanctuary.

All in all, it's a heavy and oftentimes infuriating read, but well worth it.

This is absolutely my favourite Junior novel so far! Ram is, as always, a delight to follow, and he balanced the other characters very well.

Their portrayal was a little confusing, sounding and acting more like 10-12 year olds then the 14 they were supposed to be, specially considering we already have a baseline for comparison in all the other books.

All in all, it was really sweet and fun to read, while still giving every character complex motivations and exploring the cruelty of the occlusion zone.

Getting another aftg book was beyond any expectation I could ever have. 10 years later, we finally get to close that last plotline, the last boy to finally get his shot at life. 

This is very clearly part of a different world than the one where the main series takes place. Yes, it still is All For the Game, but it's also calmer, more grounded. 

The Sunshine Court is a story about healing. It's not plot-heavy or fast paced, but that isn't to say it's boring in the slightest. It builds and builds and builds, and Jean is such a deliciously complex character. 

He's rude and broken and sensitive but so, so caring. He worries so much and you can't deny he's genuinely a good soul who's been mistreated into brashness. 

And it's impossible for Jean not to outshine everyone else, and that would be okay if Jeremy didn't have a POV on the books as well. I like Jeremy. He's fun. But as soon as Jean steps in California he becomes less of a character and more of moral support reference. The other Trojans are cool, but I'm yet to be impressed by them 

I am really satisfied with what was delivered, and can't wait for more!

Babel presents a compelling thesis while weaving a tight and cohesive plot. There's so, so much to think and absorb about imperialism and systems of power, but the story itself is also impossible to put down.

In an alternative 19th century England, words are literally magic. The lost meanings between translations can come to life with the right tools, but what happens when globalization begins introducing foreign concepts to everyday English and the gap between original and translation gets smaller and smaller? The Empire imports.

Following four Translation students, each brought from a different country to provide Babel with new languages to use as resource, the story explores the challenges of being a minority in academia, the comfort of individual success in exchange of systemic change, the ethical dilemma of violence in face of oppression, and the exploitation of POC youth to maintain colonialism. All while presenting the prose as both narrative and academic paper full of footnotes¹.

Babel is enraging, it's heartbreaking, it's purposely Too Much because it's also Too Much for them. The writing is beautiful and the characters fascinating, and even when it was hard to get through heavily detailed descriptions, it was even harder not to care.

¹ Really, really full.

Absolutely incredible. If you can get the audiobook I highly recommend it, as Philomena's deadpan delivery only makes all the nonsense she speaks sound even funnier.

This book is several "how many The Rise of Skywalker loose threads can we explain" under a trenchcoat. 

Some of them work. We have a clear reasoning as to why and how Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter. How a sith dagger with the location of a wayfinder ended up in Pasaana. Why Lando was there. But none of that matters when many of those decisions were wack to begin with, and there's only so much an author could do.

Having both Rey's parents and Lando/Luke looking for them felt like a desperate attempt to patch up two unrelated stories, and Lando's missing daughter is the biggest example of that.

We don't know who her mother is, how she was kidnapped, how Lando felt facing fatherhood. The only reason for that was to explain his involvement on the plot and a throwaway line in a deleted scene of the movie. This is a whole new level of fridging.

All that aside, the book isn't bad at all. We have some quite cool action scenes, and everything that expanded on the dark side was very interesting. But the wobbly reasoning for the whole set up made the entire thing fall flat.

The audiobook narration and production are great though. Absolutely carried the story.

Camp Damascus is a entertaining thriller that expands on themes of queer horror. 

The first half of this book was a solid 5 stars. The gaslighting, the feeling of dread, the religious brainwashing and unsettling interactions; it was all executed extremely well. You can really feel Rose's fear and confusion, and it was also a thriller really well crafted for the reader to slowly put the pieces together. 

I particularly love Chuck Tingle's writing style. It's captivating and funny without dampening the creepy elements, and I really want to see more horror out of him. 

The second half of the book felt under baked. It moves really quickly from a religious mystery to a YA save-the-world mission, with the characters just telling each other things instead of we actually following the actions and development. 

From Rose's abrupt break from 20 years of religious indoctrination (no doubting herself, no trying to justify it. Just straight up ok they're evil) to her flavourless romance (if SHE doesn't know why she's in love how can we?) it just felt like a lot of wasted potential. Even the most important thing they do to stop the villains happens off-page! 

In the end, it was a quick and fun read, and since most of my issues were with structural elements, I believe Chuck Tingle has a great future within the genre.

Last Shot follows Lando and Han as they are pulled back to action by troubles from their less-than-honest past. Switching back and forth both between the two of them and their past selves, this book really gets to shine when developing the characters.

Scoundrels aren't meant to mature, so what happens when they do? While Han struggles with fatherhood and a government position, Lando can't admit to himself that he wants to settle down. The internal conflict in both cases is spectacular, Lando specifically being more tridimensional than ever 

The plot is quite whatever. The villain is a non-issue and completely uncharismatic. I really didn't feel stakes rising at any point. The back and forth between now and then also hurt the pacing, and didn't add anything to the story other than interrupting the flow. (I have a feeling they were added solely for the cameos).

I understand that it's a Star Wars novel, and for Lando and Han fans on top of that, but I believe this would've been an extremely strong addition to the saga if it had trusted itself to be an adult narrative about maturing and left the action more to the backdrop.

(my favorite scenes 100% were the ones with baby Ben. He could've been so much if not for all the muder :'()

This is a very short short story, so I think it's really hard not to feel like wanting more... Nevertheless, this was great!

The details are truly disgusting and gut rolling, a true feat of writing. With so little the author manages to paint a uniquely disturbing atmosphere and I was enthralled.