Stars Above (Lunar Chronicles Short Story Collection) Spoiler-Free Review

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like all short story collections, "Stars Above" is a mixed bag. However, seeing as all of the tales are set within the world of The Lunar Chronicles, I enjoyed every one of them. Here's a brief, spoiler-free summary:
"The Keeper"- This story tells Michelle Benoit's story in more depth. It touches on her relationships with both Scarlet and Dr. Tanner, and finishes with how she came to protect Cinder. Well written and plotted, it manages quite a bit of story and character development for its length. 4 stars.

"Glitches"- This story follows Cinder as she joins the Linh family in New Beijing. She's a child, she has no memory of "the other family," and she's a cyborg. Young Cinder and Peony are precious, and I enjoyed reading this part of the story. 4 stars

"The Queen's Army"- Naturally, this is a story about Wolf and how he became an elite member of the Queen's Army. This story has a decidedly different tone from the previous two, and it was one of my favorites. Taken from his parents and genetically modified, Wolf (or Z, as he's known at the time) must deny his gentle nature and become a killer if he wants to survive. 4.5 stars

"Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky"- A cute story about pint-sized Thorne at school. The most interesting thing about this story was that Thorne was from a wealthy background, and how that shaped his character. Otherwise, this one didn't do much for me. 3.5 stars

"After Sunshine Passes By"- Next is a story about Cress as a child, and how she came to be put in a satellite. This one is quite short, and it is basically a reworking of the beginning of Rapunzel in the world of TLC. 3.5 stars

"The Princess and the Guard"- Winter and Jacin are the titular characters in one of the longer stories in the anthology. Basically, this story just explores their childhoods and backstory. Jacin was the character I felt the most distant from in TLC, so it was good to get more of his personality and character. Winter is, as usual, completely charming with a stain of sorrow. 4 stars.

"The Little Android"- A pretty straightforward retelling of "The Little Mermaid," but with an android (Mech6.0). It was a standout in that only Cinder has a brief cameo (as far as the main LC characters go), and we get to see more of the world and everyday people of TLC. Bittersweet and well done. 4.5 stars

"The Mechanic"- I'll admit that I was primed to like this one, since it is the story of Cinder and Kai's meeting from Kai's perspective. It was great fun to get in his head, since he is one of the more impassive/emotionally unavailable characters. As I suspected, he's pretty funny. I would read an entire book with him as the POV character. 4.5 stars

"Something Old, Something New"- Obviously, there is a wedding involved. This story was the sappiest, and definitely had the most corny parts, but it also surprised me with some truly hilarious bits. The mental images of all the male characters decorating for a wedding together was worth the read by itself. It went on a bit long for me, but it also neatly tied up the story and sent the characters into the next stages of their lives. 3.5 stars

Overall: A fun, breezy read with some standout stories, a liberal dose of humor and mayhem, and more of lovable characters. Definitely a must for Lunar Chronicles fans. 4 stars

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Fantasy Novella Review: Mourning Cloak by Rabia Gale

I have been reading a lot of books for a review program through work, but on the sides, I've also found time to squeeze in a few other books (still working on Six of Crows), but it's basically one chapter at a time.

So, the beautiful novella enters the room.

Quick reads with an interesting plot thread, fully developed characters, and intricate worldbuilding: is it possible?

I read Intisar Khanani's Sunbolt a month ago, and I loved it so much that I encouraged (read:coerced) everyone around me to read it*. Alas, the sequel is not out yet . . . so in the meantime, I obtained a free copy of Mourning Cloak, by Rabia Gale. (Which I discovered thanks to following Khanani on Goodreads). Both of them are fabulous fantasy reads by independent authors, and you should definitely check them out.

This novella is currently free ( (July 2015 only)–use code SSW50 at checkout!) on Smashwords

The Mourning Cloakby Rabia Gale

Based on the cover, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect . . . erm, darkish steampunk? A fairytale fusion?

I was partially correct: Mourning Cloak is a seamless fusion of fantasy and sci-fi, with a rich world and complicated, flawed characters.

Mourning Cloak is the story of "former chosen-one," Kato Vorsok. He tends a bar, keeps a low profile, and he wants nothing to do with the god who deserted him, or the past that betrayed him.

But then a wounded mourning cloak-a winged demon creature who can turn to mist or pass through walls-shows up on his doorstep, and she knows his name. Normally, Kato would have killed this creature without a thought, but she knows too much, and he follows her out into the night.

5 Highlights:

1. Kato. Flawed, angry, bitter, his character jumps off the page. He is an interesting premise in himself: a hero "chosen one" who failed** to deliver a victory, who survived and left his faith and friends. Of course, like any good story, Mourning Cloak isn't quite that simple. Kato has a fully realized character arc, and I was rooting for him all the way.

2. The world/setting, Highwind, is revealed in fascinating glimpses: a hospital, "cyborg" style metal implants, prayer magic, deserts and golems. Seriously, there is a lot of stuff that effortlessly slips into the author's narrative. I want to know more.

3. The prose. Where have all of these lovely wordsmiths been hiding? Rabia Gale has an elegant, poetic way of writing sentences and stringing phrases together, which made Mourning Cloak so fun to read.

4. The plot. This sort of ties into #1. Without giving away too much, I can say that the plot twist was established early on, but it still delivered, and that every detail turns out to be important. Cryptic, much?

5. The supernatural element. A lot of steampunk novels deal with the friction between "science and machines" and either religion, tradition, or faith. Rabia Gale didn't go for that easy pass. Instead, it's ALL present in her world. There are priests with prayer magic, mechanical implants, monsters (both supernatural and man-made), and they all exist in a world that employs wards, charms, and medicines. The conflicts are not so clean cut and obvious.

Honestly, my only complaint with this novella was was the switching first person POV. I don't mind switching first person POV***, but when it switched from Kato's perspective to the mourning cloak for the first time, I was confused. It startled me out of the story. I feel like some sort of divider, or marker, was necessary to show when the POV jumped. Granted, their inner voices are quite different, so I caught on fast, but still . . .

Summary:

In short, this is an action-packed fantasy novella with a rich world and interesting characters. The writing is strong, and I will definitely buy the sequel.

4.5 stars out of 5

BONUS: The entire novella was inspired by the name of this glorious butterfly:

Taken from the Author's Pinterest page

Footnotes:

*Sunbolt review to come, I just need to sort out my feelings so it isn't a thread of reaction gifs. 

**Naturally, his failure turns out to be pivotal.

***I'll give any interesting POV choices a pass if the author does it well. I love grammar, and order, but I also like it when someone rocks the boat ;)

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Since I Am Not So Great at Blogging, Here's Something I Can Do!

As anyone who stumbles upon this page will see, I am an erratic blogger. However, I do like to write book reviews! Reading is really how I ended up writing anyhow, so I think this time, I'm going to go full circle.

The last book I read was Stitching Snow, by R. C. Lewis:

Take a minute to admire this cover. Pretty cool.

Stitching Snow was (as you might have guessed by the cover) a retelling of Snow White. It also happened to be in space (and no, it is not a rip off of Cinder, but a totally different sci-fi take).

In brief, Essie, a cage fighter on a lonely mining planet of Thanda, gets kidnapped by a *mysterious young good-looking dude named Dane. Essie is a brilliant inventor, and she "stitches" machines together (the coding, programming, and designing is referred to her as stitching), which I thought (as a crafty person) was a cool metaphor. Essie's only companions pre-Dane were seven mining droids with disparate personalities (one of the more original takes on the Seven Dwarves, for sure).

  Anyhow, after Dane figures out that Essie is the lost Princess Snow he's been hunting, he kidnaps her and they hurtle off into space adventures. There is a lot of baggage, an evil queen, and a truly terrifying king (Essie's abusive father, think Deerskin, *shudders*), and some obnoxious techies as well.

What worked/what I liked: 

1. Essie is a strong heroine who overcomes a dreadful past, and not all of her strength is physical/kickbutt. She's a programmer, which is very cool. Unlike many YA heroines of the same type (I'm looking at you Katniss), she ultimately decides to do the right thing for the greater good, and doesn't let her past reduce her to a passive victim.

2. No love triangle 

3. The Seven Dwarves as robots 

4. Every major element of Snow White made it in, in a unique sci-fi way, from the Huntsman, to the apple.

5. The cover. Just look at it for a minute.

What didn't work/What I didn't like:

1. The flimsy worldbuilding. Honestly, the author had the makings of a fascinating new world with all the cultures and trappings of sci-fantasy, aaaand, she just didn't do much with it. I really wanted to know more about Essie's universe.

2. In that same line, I felt like the author only brushed the surface of the characters outside of Essie. The evil queen, Olivia, in particular, felt more like a caricature than a character, and [outside of being vain and evil] I wasn't exactly sure why she did what she did. (You can fill in the blanks and guess, right, but that's no substitute for a well drawn character)

3. Dane was boring. Other than being principled (minus the abduction part) and a devoted son, and in love with Essie, there wasn't much there. This is more minor, as he was the love interest/plot catalyst, not the main character, but I would have liked to see more personality. His motivations and actions were understandable, as were his feelings for Essie, but he just felt flat to me.

4. Essie's computer skills were awesome-but I don't think we saw them enough. I would have liked to know more about her "stitching," and how she learned to do it so well.

5. Honestly, everyone and everything but Essie and her robots seemed half-formed. I think that was, overall, my biggest problem with the book. There were a lot of storylines and complex threads, but few of them were fully explored. It's hard to write more without spoilers, so I'll leave it there.

Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

*Seriously, where do all of these mysterious good-looking dudes with a past come from? I think there is a factory. In space.