Review: The Subjugate by Amanda Bridgeman

Two troubled homicide detectives race to find a serial killer in a town filled with surgically reformed murderers, in this captivating near-future SF thriller.

In a small religious community rocked by a spree of shocking murders, Detectives Salvi Brentt and Mitch Grenville find themselves surrounded by suspects. The Children of Christ have a tight grip on their people, and the Solme Complex neurally edit violent criminals - Subjugates - into placid servants called Serenes. In a town where purity and sin, temptation and repression live side by side, everyone has a motive. But as the bodies mount up, the frustrated detectives begin to crack under the pressure: their demons are coming to light, and who knows where that blurred line between man and monster truly lies.

*****

Anyone else find themselves suddenly nervous when reviewing something new from an author you relentlessly follow for her other series? As an Aurora junkie, I've done this before with Bridgeman's The Time of the Stripes and am doing it again with The Subjugate.

I have come to know Bridgeman's novels as solid fiction built around a core of realistic and motivated characters. She creates characters who aren't always nice, don't always have realistic expectations, become exasperated with themselves and most importantly, are never, ever, perfect. Kinda like us.

Then she sets them to work.

In The Subjugate, Salvi Brentt and Mitch Grenville hunt down a serial killer. Both detectives have their own hidden histories they need to reconcile not only to solve their case but to move forward. I love a good buddy story and was rewarded with this book, the plot comes from their relationship as much as it comes from their investigation. They struggle to see what lurks on the underside of everything while doing their best to avoid confronting their own demons. Their powerful interplay is the polish that links so much of this story together.

Also, for me, setting and my own thoughts flavoured the story. I don't travel much but one of the few places I've visited is San Francisco so it was easy for me to envision where this book happens. At the time I was there, it was crowded, touristy, and I heard more car horns there in three days than in ten years where I come from. We also have a town named Bountiful nearby. In recent years, it has been in the news and not for really positive things which for me added a personal layer of suspicion to Bridgeman's fictional Bountiful.

In The Subjugate, we see what happens to an investigation when many of the tools the investigators rely on aren't available. We feel their blindness investigating the murders in a tech-free town and this gives that aspect of the story a palpable depth and gives the villains a nice boost of evil.

I recommend The Subjugate for lovers of gritty SF. Great cast of characters and a strong story make this a good read!

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review: Contrition by Haven Cage

In the end, everyone must pay for their sins.

Trial after trial, Nevaeh's loved-ones have struggled to save her from a dark destiny. The time has finally come for her to return home and join the Earth-bound angels in a war threatening to destroy the Human race. 

Is it really Nev who's walking the Earthly plane, though? 

True, being surrounded by evil for weeks on end would change anyone, but Nev's friends suspect something is wrong with the Nevaeh they've extracted from Hell's grip.

Archard, Arkin, Maggie, and Malach prepare to fight the impending apocalypse brought on by the rebellious Dominions, while trying to accept the new Nevaeh and help her gain control over her powers. 

Will Nevaeh be able to save the world, or will she make everyone pay with their lives?

***

Contrition is the third and final install in Haven Cage's Faltering Souls Series. You can read my review of the previous books here. Contrition (with its gorgeous cover) picks up where Severance left off and though it remains true in so many ways to the first two books, it shines with a depth of spirit and empowerment in strong contrast to the darkness and depravity of Severance.

For starters, I don't read many alternating first-person POV books. What doesn't always come through is distinction from one character's inner voice to the next. In Cage's books, we get to know her characters from the inside out. They let us know who they are and also give us their own unique perspectives of each other.

I love how Cage ties everything together from the first two books. Characters wrenched from us earlier in the series are taken from us again, for good or not, and others make devastating choices. Again, Cage lets her darlings tell their stories and I found their twists, turns, and heartbreak all the more real because of it.

Finally, Cage brings us home to the places and settings we've come to know. Her reminders and backstory  don't leave me feeling like I'm skimming through an overdone rehash or having my face shoved in to a big, self-serving block of text. Ties to the past are light, complete, and extremely balanced with and complementary of the current part of her storyline.

If you like your dark paranormal to quicken your breath, your villains unforgivably rotten and your heroes (and heroines) to wrap your heartstrings around their fist a good half-dozen times before they pull them then I recommend Falter, Severance and Contrition. I'm sad this series is over and I've become a fan of the author.

I received a review copy of Contrition in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Reading 5x5

What if you had different authors each write the same story? What would each of them bring to the piece in terms of style, tone, and resolution? That’s the question this anthology sets out to answer.

Reading 5X5 asked twenty-five authors to tell five stories in five different ways. We started with story briefs in five different genres – each brief with just the basic information required to tell a story. Then we asked five authors to write that story, each in their own way. The result is twenty-five great, fascinatingly different stories.

***

To put a fine point on it, I requested Reading 5x5 purely out of curiosity as a writer. As a reader, my initial thought was "who on earth would want to read the same story five times? Then do it four times more?" I was interested in looking at the mechanics of how such a collaboration might come together. What would a brief look like?

Part way through the first story, I zipped to the end to skim the first brief. By the end of the second story, I found myself enjoying the stories and had mostly forgotten about the briefs! Eventually I found each group of five sufficiently varied that I had little send of reading the same story several times. All in all, a nicely rounded collection of short stories. The similarities are there for one who might want to dissect the briefs and analyze the writing.

Other than one story which felt forced, the rest were four and five stars shorts, rich in description and world and satisfying in spite of limits of their length. Recommended for anyone who enjoys SF and Fantasy short stories.

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Inspired Shawls: 15 Creative Patterns for Year-Round Knitting by Laura Zukaite

My review of Inspired Shawls: 15 Creative Patterns for Year-Round Knitting by Laura Zukaite (also known as Liz's four rules for a knock-out knitting book.)

1. Don't skimp on the pictures! Take them outside, for starters, and do it somewhere gorgeous and simple.

2. Feel with your eyes. Make sure the textures come to life. I want to feel gossamer laces between my fingers, caress the delightfully full and smooth touch of silk and the sturdy crunch of wool simply by looking.

3. Balance the pictures with a well composed layout. Keep it simple (my eyes aren't as young as they used to be.) Guide me with a grand font, keep me turning the pages, and reassure me nothing has been left out.

4. Make sure it's something I'd trash that wooden bowl thing on the coffee table for. If I'd leave it in the centre of the table for everyone who came through my door to see because I want them all to know about it, you've put together something special.

5. (I know, right!) Make me want to put confidence in my craft and pick up "real yarn" to realize everything the book has inspired in me.

I have to say, Inspired Shawls hits all the marks for me. The beach looks so much like the coast of Vancouver Island just north of my home! I've had as much fun browsing the pages as I have poking around the various yarn-makers websites (so I know where to by skeins from Art Yarns here in town.)

I'm very please with this book! Thank you to the publisher. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.