The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao

Pages: 512 

Publisher: Titan Books 

Released: 13th of June 2023 

This Hindu philosophy-inspired debut science fantasy follows a husband and wife racing to save their living city—and their troubled marriage—high above a jungle world besieged by cataclysmic storms.

High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else. If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.

Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. And she desperately seeks change.

Their marriage is already thorny—then Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden limits. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name; she needs him to tip the balance of rule in their society. As their paths become increasingly intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them believes. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya's discoveries might destroy their marriage, their culture, and their entire civilization.

What I Have to Say 

This book was fascinating. The setting of this book and how it embraced the Hindu themes of reincarnation was fantastic, the philosophy and themes of the book left me with much to think about, but the main thing that had me interesting in this book was Iravan and Ahilya's marriage and how each one viewed the other so differently. 

Iravan and Ahilya have problems, big problems. They aren't communicating properly and it's having an impact. This book really leaned into the the biases that people can have and how they can affect the way they see one another. Actions that are understandable for Ahilya to make from her perspective, are completely different for Iravan and vice versa. It gave me so much to think about! 

The only problem with this is that when being introduced to Iravan it was through the lense of Ahilya's pain and anger. He made a huge mistake and it came across as controlling and manipulative. So I just didn't warm to him. I'm honestly still not sure what to feel about his actions at the start of the book. I wasn't rooting for this couple at all. 

That was only a minor thing to me, but if you need a really strong romance to get behind this isn't the book for you. 

4 star 

My thanks goes to Netgalley and Titan books for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Fifth Horseman by Jon Smith

Pages: 320 

Publisher: Balkon Media 

Released: 7th of February 2023 

Internationally published bestselling author Jon Smith makes his adult debut with The Fifth Horseman, a modern light-hearted fantasy that rides roughshod over established mythology and the rules of life… and death.

The Fifth Horseman is a darkly comic tale of two thirty-somethings caught between our world and the afterlife, who must embrace their role as reapers to prevent the End Times. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Father Ted, perfect for fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Terry Pratchett, and Neil Gaiman.

Death is just a day job you can’t quit…

Emma and Mark had a bad day. The worst part of it was dying. But, according to Death, the Rider on the Pale Horse and first horseman of the apocalypse, things aren’t that simple. Turns out the sand in their hourglass is stuck in place. Somewhere between life and death, they’re put to work as Death’s assistants, reaping the souls of the living until it’s time for their final clock out…

To compound matters, despite their omnipotence, the four horsemen are facing an existential threat – one they’re ill-equipped and ill-prepared to combat. They’re suddenly getting old, weak, and succumbing to illness. What has brought on this uncharacteristic frailty? Does Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx, have more up his sleeve than just the coins proffered by the dead to secure passage to the afterlife? And why do you never see baby pigeons?

Emma and Mark must reap like their afterlives depend on it, to help prevent the End Times – even if it means scuppering the one opportunity they have at being granted a second chance at life.

Filled with humour, romantic tension, and suspense, Jon Smith utilises a witty, lightly sarcastic ensemble of flawed but loveable characters. It will appeal to mainstream fantasy readers and hopeless romantics, as well as those who enjoy a good story, a good laugh, a few tears, and a happy ending.

TW: Child Death, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Violence, Death, Injury,/ injury detail, Suicide and Suicide attempt 

What I Have to Say 

I don't think I can put into words how much I hated this book. First it went straight into someone trying to commit suicide with no warning. I wasn't ready for that kind of content. Then it was just boring. It was meant to be funny, but I didn't really think it was to be honest. But most of the book was just one death after the next, just one reap after the other. There were different conditions and at some points he tried to get philosophical but it just felt really repetitive. 

Then there was the misogyny. I'm not even gonna go into the fact that he had War as a woman because that's apparently all that men fight about. But the main character Emma was treated terribly. The entire "romance" in this book was Emma being pursued by Mark who just can't take no for an answer. And of course because this is written by a man, we all know how it ends. Also at every tricky death, she wavered and Mark stepped in and made the hard choice because apparently men are better at this sort of thing. 

The ending came out of nowhere. I thought I could see how it was going to go but then something completely different which wasn't really foreshadowed happened instead. 

To say this book wasn't for me is putting it really really lightly. Do not read without checking the trigger warnings. 

 

If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Publisher: Picador

Released:  20th of September 2018 

Our narrator’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage for company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can set about tackling his bucket list, the Devil appears with a special offer: in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, he can have one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week . . .

Because how do you decide what makes life worth living? How do you separate out what you can do without from what you hold dear? In dealing with the Devil our narrator will take himself – and his beloved cat – to the brink. Genki Kawamura's If Cats Disappeared from the World is a story of loss and reconciliation, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters in modern life.

What I Have to Say 

This book was very weird, but not in a bad way. The concept alone is very quirky and the way that Kawamura describe death was also strange, but very interesting. There was definitely a lot of symbolism to find there. In general, the book is extremely philosophical, looking at various things that seem like they don't matter that much but make the world very different when they are missing from it. 

The cat, Cabbage. Was definitely the best part. I don't want to give anything away, but we had a real glimpse at his personality and the way he saw the world. And having a cat called Cabbage was always going to be a way into my heart. Cabbage and Lettuce are beautiful creatures and the world would definitely not be as good without them! 

As someone who reads a fair amount of Japanese literature, I was able to put up with some of the style differences, but if this is the first book that you're reading that was originally written in Japanese, you may find it off-putting. The flashbacks flow on from the text, instead of being separated into a separate scene and the narrator tends to go off on tangents a lot before casually rejoining the scene. Also, some of the translators choices felt a bit off to me, especially in case of thinking something rather than speaking it. In Japanese thoughts are written very much like speech, with "I thought" coming after the thing that is being thought. If felt to me like much of these sentences were fairly directly translated, meaning that you think that the character is saying something aloud when it's actually only thought. This was very off-putting when it happened. 

Overall though, it was an interesting concept and a fun story. 

So if you could have an extra day of life but something had to disappear from the world in exchange, what would you get rid of? Would you be able to live without cats? 

Let me know in the comments! 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Picador for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Women of the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 368 

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre 

Released: 18th of May 2017 

A resistance widow. A silent co-conspirator. The only one who survived. 

The Third Reich has crumbled. The Russians are coming.

Can Marianne von Lingenfels and the women in her care survive and build their ravaged world anew?

Marianne - widow of a resistor to the Nazi regime - returns to the grand, crumbling castle where she once played host to all of German high society. She assembles a makeshift family from the ruins of her husband's movement, rescuing her dearest friend's widow, Benita, from sexual slavery to the Russian army, and Ania from a work camp for political prisoners. She is certain their shared past will bind them together.

But as Benita begins a clandestine relationship and Ania struggles to conceal her role in the Nazi regime, Marianne learns that her clear-cut, highly principled world view has no place in these new, frightening and emotionally-charged days.

All three women must grapple with the realities they now face, and the consequences of decisions each made in the darkest of times . . . 

What I Have to Say 

This book was interesting, but it frightened me a lot. I don't think I can read books about the lead up to the Second World Two and Nazi Germany for a while. It's just too close to what's happening politically in America right now and I'm not sure I can handle reading that. So much of the stuff that was shown in this book is so close to what's happening in America right now. The only comfort I can take is that I'm seeing a lot more resistance. 

The book itself though was pretty good. The characters and their different stories were really interesting and the way their personalities interacted showed how good characters they were and the way that their experiences defined their characters so much, both what they went through during the war and their interactions with the Nazi party before the war. 

Marianne's journey throughout the novel was really something as well. Her political opinions were so strong, whereas the other women didn't believe so strongly in things. It was interesting to see how that hardened her and how her pressure on the other characters to see things as black and white as she does effected them and her relationships with them. 

This is a novel about the shades of gray. This is a novel about the German people, how complicit they were, but also about how they were treated afterwards. It goes into morality and consequence and blame in a really fascinating way.

My thanks go to Bonnier Zaffre for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 400
Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 23rd of March 2017

Nix has spent her whole life journeying to places both real and imagined aboard her time-traveling father’s ship. And now it’s finally time for her to take the helm. Her father has given up his obsession to save her mother—and possibly erase Nix’s existence—and Nix’s future lies bright before her. Until she learns that she is destined to lose the one she loves. But her relationship with Kash—best friend, thief, charmer extraordinaire—is only just beginning. How can she bear to lose him? How can she bear to become as adrift and alone as her father?

Desperate to change her fate, Nix takes her crew to a mythical utopia to meet another Navigator who promises to teach her how to manipulate time. But everything in this utopia is constantly changing, and nothing is what it seems—not even her relationship with Kash. Nix must grapple with whether anyone can escape her destiny, her history, her choices.

What I Have to Say 

The perfect sequel to the wonderful The Girl From Everywhere. When I finished The Girl From Everywhere, I couldn't wait to explore more of the world, or should I say worlds, that Heilig has created and more of the mechanics of navigating. It's rare for a book to give you exactly what you want, but The Ship Beyond Time most definitely gave me everything I wanted and so much more. 

I enjoyed the philosophical questions that were raised throughout the book. The questions about whether or not the navigators should use their ability to change things, whether in the worlds of myth or history were so fascinating. And Kashmir's doubts about whether he was truly a real person if he had been created by Nix turning up in his home were just heartbreaking. 

I have just adored both these books. I'm not ready to leave the world of navigators behind yet, so I'm hoping  that Heilig will write more books about Navigating, if not about Nix and Kashmir. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review.