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

Title: The Warren
Author: Brian Evenson
Pages: 96
Read via: Kindle
Summary: A mysterious being named ‘X’ grapples with his own existence and the questions behind what it means to be human.
Reminiscent of: Planetfall, Moon, 2001: A Space Odyssey

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: I had heard that this one was weird, frustrating, and confounding. It certainly checked all three boxes.

The most intriguing and also most beguiling part of this novella is something not mentioned in any plot synopsis that I’ve seen. A case of dissociated personality and identity is at the forefront of the conflict within The Warren. When I came upon the abrupt ending, I felt in need of 20 or 30 more pages of content to reach some sort of resolution that I never ended up finding. I reread the final chapter four times trying to uncover some still undiscovered deeper meaning. Perhaps they were for the reader to ponder, but The Warren presents existential questions that are not answered by the author nor the narrative itself. I never reached any profound conclusions from them myself and I likely won’t think on them on further.

It was written in an accessible, yet mystifying way that kept me engaged but never really allowed me a firm grasp of what was happening. This is simultaneously the crux and the downfall of The Warren.

★★½ out of 5

Title: The Rook
Author: Daniel O’Malley
Pages: 506
Series: The Checquy Files #1
Read via: 3M (ebook)

Summary: Myfanwy Thomas wakes up with her memory wiped clean. The only hints into her secret agent past life are letters written by herself…to herself. These letters help her rediscover her identity, while also assisting her in solving the mystery of a saboteur in her midst.

Review: Daniel O’Malley presents a witty voice and engaging book structure in The Rook. All characterization of Myfanwy Thomas, the protagonist and narrator, is told through letters interspersed throughout the narrative. This serves as a real-time glossary for both the reader and the amnesiac main character. It provides amusing and detailed backstory without the traditional interwoven exposition. It is within these letters that O’Malley’s storytelling really shines–filling in details splendidly. In a strange way, I ended up losing my investment in what was happening in the main narrative because the letters were more compelling.

My biggest criticism of this novel was the length. It would’ve benefited greatly from being about 150 pages shorter. This sort of book deserves to be consumed quickly, and the length made quick consumption prohibitive. The recently released sequel, Stiletto, is 100 pages longer than this one, so that presents a challenging barrier to entry. I hate to judge a book based on it’s length (I’m always happy to do it based on it’s cover), but it factored into my level of enjoyment so it’s certainly hard to ignore.

★★★ out of 5

Title: Dark Matter
Author: Blake Crouch
Pages: 352
Read via: Hardcover/Kindle
Summary: A college physics professor is abducted, injected with a mysterious substance, and then wakes up in an alternate version of his life. The book chronicles his harrowing attempts to return to his original timeline.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Minor spoilers below…

Review: This is a taut thriller that reads very quickly. Short staccato sentences bring an urgency to the narrative and kept me hooked as a reader. It reads like a movie, which is why it’s not surprising that author Blake Crouch has already signed a lucrative movie deal with Sony for the rights to the film version. I can picture Bradley Cooper or Matt Damon occupying the role of Jason Dessen, stopping at nothing to return to his wife and son. Much like a movie, it feels like you owe it to the material to finish it in two hours or at least one sitting.

It is certainly a unique piece of fiction that oftentimes reminded me of other films that possessed shared elements: the quantum physics of Interstellar, the mind bending worlds of Inception, the twisty reveals of The Prestige, the emotional heft and plot beats of About Time, It’s A Wonderful Life, and even Adam Sandler’s Click.

My only reservation in giving this a full blown 5-star review was the ending. It made sense and concluded in a way that it needed to, but it also felt predictable and a bit hollow. I was hoping for one final twist or revelation that never came. Other than that, this was a gripping, edge-of-your-seat, popcorn movie thriller that easily positions itself as one of my favorite books of 2016.

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