Title: The Liberation (2016)
Author: Ian Tregillis
Pages: 464
Series: The Alchemy Wars #3

Review: Robot sentience dawns and engulfs the world like a plague. In the third and final volume of the Alchemy Wars trilogy, author Ian Tregillis continues his brilliant alternate history tale with a tense build-up and an explosive payoff.

Tregillis is a master at framing and answering the “what if?” questions inherent in the genre. “What if human-created robot slaves obtained Free Will?” Multiple answers are presented, as separate factions of free “Clakkers” split off. What is so captivating about this novel is how Tregillis uses the chess pieces that he’s laid out in the first two novels (The French underdogs, the Dutch overlords, the free Clakkers, the slave Clakkers, the messiah-like Clakker named Daniel, Queen Mab and the Lost Boys, etc.) to show which strange bedfellows will align to better serve the end goals of their specific group.
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Title: The Bone Clocks (2014)
Author: David Mitchell
Pages: 624

Review: This has been sitting on my TBR shelf for quite some time. I had it in my head that it was a generic time-travel novel, but I was pleasantly surprised to find David Mitchell’s signature interwoven narratives, beautiful prose, and a time-travel undercurrent that slowly unraveled as the book came to a head.

David Mitchell’s use of language to immerse the reader in a setting is unlike any other author I’ve read. He deftly moves between genres, narrators, and time periods, while always presenting something that feels simultaneously literary and engrossing. The sextet story structure would translate extremely well to a 6-episode limited television series on Netflix or HBO.

The plot moves forward at such a slow pace, but then the conclusion in the penultimate chapter ends up feeling rushed and gratuitous. Fortunately, Mitchell brings the novel to an end in a quiet, satisfying way that is both hopeful and bittersweet.

★★★★½ out of 5
✪ SPECULATIVE SHELF STARRED BOOK

Other David Mitchell ratings:
Cloud Atlas (2004) – 5 stars
The Bone Clocks (2014) – 4.5 stars
Black Swan Green (2006) – 4 stars
Ghostwritten (1999) – 3 stars
Slade House (2015) – 2 stars

Title: Prince of Thorns
Author: Mark Lawrence
Pages: 384
Series: The Broken Empire #1
Read via: Kindle

Review: The main conceit of this novel revolves around the notion of the “anti-hero.” Prince Jorg, the leading man, is a horrible person. He lies, cheats, steals, rapes, murders, pillages, plunders, etc. Despite these minor shortcomings, I held out hope that he would overcome his psychopathology and seek redemption for his wrongdoings. To a fault, I’m firmly tied to the conventional tropes of the genre, which did not set me up well to embrace this novel.

Author Mark Lawrence effectively communicates Jorg’s all-consuming rage and thirst for revenge that stems from the murder of his mother and brother. Everything is a bit too easy for him, though. He’s seemingly invincible to ghouls, monsters, and the strongest of men. Despite his desperate and improvised plans, he’s met with very little resistance when executing said plans. As you learn more about Jorg’s past, you realize that this may be by design, but it lowers the stakes of what is occurring. Additionally, Lawrence’s plotting feels haphazard and cobbled together. Jorg flits from place to place, driven by his random whims and impulses–with not enough time spent in any one location for major plot beats to hit as hard as they should. Overall, I struggled to invest in the characters and the plot, but, surprisingly, I’m hesitant to give up on Jorg and his potential for redemption just yet…even Darth Vader turned his back on the dark side, right?

★★½ out of 5

Title: Promise of Blood
Author: Brian McClellan
Pages: 545
Series: Powder Mage #1
Read via: 3M eBook/Hardcover

Summary: Tamas is a powder mage, a rare being who gains supernatural powers by consuming and manipulating gunpowder. After overthrowing the king, Tamas must unite with his estranged son, Taniel (also a powder mage), and Adamat, an embattled investigator, to quell the chaos and impending war that his uprising has created.

Review: This one had been on my radar for awhile and it never quite piqued my interest enough for me to pick it up. I’m glad I gave it a shot, but on the whole, I was disappointed.

The three primary characters (all male) are mostly uninteresting and undifferentiated. The secondary characters are a real strength with oddball characters Ka-Poel, the mute, and Mihali, the chef with a god-complex, turning up to contribute to the story in unexpected ways. The tertiary characters were abundant, thin, and hard to care about-especially when a few of them turned out to major players in end-game story and I was left wishing I knew them better.

McClellan moves his narrative forward fluidly with no time wasted on flashbacks or long interludes. Everything exists to serve the final confrontations and provide set-ups for future novels. Unfortunately, it didn’t feel like the story built in any significant way and I ultimately wanted deeper engagement in the novel than I was able to find.

★★ out of 5