22:100 Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

I first read the standalone novella, Binti, back in 2018.  Here are my thoughts at that time:

The Himba people have never left their homeland, much less traveled to the stars, but Binti has been accepted to go to the Oomza University which is offworld.  She knows she cannot tell her family, they will never approve, so she sneaks away one night to board the ship that will take her. 

She is other to everyone.  No one is familiar with the Himba people as they remain isolated and do not travel but Binti hopes that those traveling to the University will learn to treat her as an equal.  On the trip, things are going well and she is even starting to make some friends until the ship is attacked by the Meduse.

Earth and the Meduse have been at war for a long time and this is just the latest strike.  Now the Meduse have killed everyone on board except for Binti for there is something about her that is different.  Now she has the chance to try and be a bridge between the Meduse and Oomza University in order to bring peace. 

This was truly a remarkably crafted tale.  At less than 100p long, it was tightly woven with amazingly detailed characters and universe.  Ms. Okorafor is an incredibly talented wordsmith and worldbuilder and I can't wait to read more of her work.

I had no idea what the rest of the series would be about but was hoping it would follow Binti at the University.  It instead brings her back to her village as a broker of the peace talks between the Meduse and humans. Unfortunately there is much fear and Binti has now become too alien after her fusing with the Meduse to be easily accepted by the people she grew up with. Now she must learn her full past, the story of the stone she brought with her on the ship to Oomza University, and the history of the war with the Meduse if there is to be any hope of peace between the worlds.

I will admit to being a bit disappointed at first that this was not the story I was hoping to get (but very thankful that in the Kindle version of the trilogy there was a short story of University days). I did find it a bit harder to get into the rest of the series as a result as I also found the pacing to be a bit slower but the story did pull me in with the masterful writing and intriguing characters. I am definitely a fan of Ms. Okorafor and will be continuing to work my way through her body of work.

Page count: 368p/6,033p ytd/353,423p lifetime 

80:120 Holidays are Hell by Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M. Liu, & Vicki Pettersson

Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel by Kim Harrison ~ A Rachel Morgan short set before the events in Dead Witch Walking.  Rachel is trying to convince her brother to sign the papers to allow her to become a Runner but he is trying to convince her to go back to the West Coast with him and go to college to become a more powerful earth witch.  He compromises and tells her that if she is able to perform this very old and powerful spell to raise their father's ghost and get his blessing on it, he will sign the papers.  She performs the spell but instead of her father, she gets the ghost of a witch who died trying to take out a vampire who was preying on children. A vampire who is still alive, in the neighborhood, and has a new victim.

I've read this one before although I don't remember where but I enjoyed reading it again.  Rachel is a fabulous character and this story is no exception.

Run, Run, Rudolph by Lynsay Sands ~ Jill is watching her niece one morning but when she turns her back to clean up from breakfast, the little one escapes down the stairs into her father's lab.  When Jill goes down to retrieve her, she trips and knocks herself unconscious. Later, after she has left her brother's house, she is stopped by her brother's old partner who confesses that he set up her accident to hit her with her brother's experiment and now wants to take her captive to watch what it does to her.  She escapes him but soon finds out that she is now a shape-changer but avoiding him turns out to be much harder, but also more interesting, than she had imagined.

I haven't read anything else by this author but the story which seems to be part of a larger series was still well contained so I didn't find myself wondering what was going on but at the same time, there wasn't tons of exposition laying it all out. I'm definitely interested enough to search out more of her work.

Six by Marjorie M. Liu ~ Six is an operative for the Chinese government and is sent to find out more about a person of interest.  Her operation is cut short however when another man enters the spa room they are in and things get very weird.  Now she finds herself trapped with this man who is talking about vampires and spiritual energies, who is able to influence people with his voice.  Now they must work together to figure out what exactly is going on.

This is only the second story I've read by Ms. Liu but this was set in a different world, I think.  I was left very confused as to the rules of this world and what was going on and why I should care about any of the characters.  I'm glad I read the other story first because this did not excite me to read more by her.

The Harvest by Vicki Pettersson ~ Zoe has given up her power but not yet her Sign of the Zodiac to protect her daughters and now her granddaughter but the Shadows have discovered her grandchild and stolen her.  Now she must work with her old team in Las Vegas and go back into the lair of the Tulpa and hope she can manipulate him into forgiving her previous treachery against him in order to try and save the child.

I've got a few of these books on my shelves but hadn't read any of them or anything else by Ms. Pettersson but this one was another good example of a story that was obviously part of a larger series but answered the basic questions of the world adequately without tons of exposition.  I'll be trying to move this up on my to read series.

Page count: 374p/20,789p ytd/235,723p lifetime

72:120 Inked by Chance, Liu, Galenorn, & Wilkes

A collection of urban fantasy novellas with tattoos figuring heavily into the story.

Skin Deep by Karen Chance ~ A story that takes place in the world of Cassie Palmer.  Lia is a war mage who has been sidelined due to injury but now she has a magical ward that has taken up residence on her skin which she has no idea how to remove or what it does.  She can't be bothered with that when she finds out that her boyfriend, the werewolf Cyrus, has been kidnapped by someone who is skinning and killing werewolves of no importance.  She is his only chance to find and rescue him so all the other worries will have to wait.

I've enjoyed the Cassie Palmer series but I just couldn't get into this one.  After doing some digging, apparently this is one in a series of novellas about these characters which might explain why I kept feeling very lost, like there was a lot of backstory that I didn't know and should.

Armor of Roses by Marjorie M. Liu ~ Maxine has just found a dying man near her car who was looking for her with a letter from her grandmother.  He is part of a band of children that her grandmother rescued from a very bad woman during WWII but when Maxine starts looking into things, she finds that traveling back in time to work with her grandmother is the only way to try and set things right in her time.

This was my first introduction to this series and while I did feel like there was backstory that I wasn't privy to, I didn't feel like I was missing anything necessary to understanding the basic motivations of the characters or their abilities.  It was definitely interesting enough that I am glad I have some of the books on my shelf to read, probably sooner rather than later.

Etched in Silver by Yasmine Galenorn ~ Camille D'Artigo is on a crap assignment for the YIA to find and take down a rapist and murderer.  However, because her boss wants her to fail she is being given bad intel so when she stumbles upon a dark elf who knows where her suspect is and is willing to help her take him down, she immediately jumps upon the opportunity.  The fact that there are almost immediate sparks whenever they touch doesn't hurt but neither are prepared for just what those sparks really mean.

I love Ms. Galenorn's Otherworld series and have read this story before but wasn't upset to read it again.  Camille and Trillian are a fabulous couple.

Human Nature by Eileen Wilks~ FBI Agent Lily Yu would not normally get called out for the murder of a werewolf in CA except that she is there to support her mate, Cyrus, who has asked her to see if there is anything suspicious about the death.  She pulls a few strings and finds that there was a new tattoo on the victim's throat, right where it was slit, that hadn't been there just a few hours before.  Certainly seems like something to investigate further, especially with a Humans First leader living in town.

This was also my first venture into this world and while there was definitely a lot of backstory and other characters were mentioned as not being present for some reason which wasn't really explained, the basics of the world and the main characters of this story were which is really what matters.  I'm not rushing out to buy her books based on this one novella but I could see them ending up on my shelf at some point.

Page count: 437p/17,470p ytd/232,404p lifetime