Review: Day 115 on an Alien World by Jeannette Bedard

Someone needs to be alive to call for help. 

A dishonourable discharge left Margo unable to find honest work on Earth. Signing onto a colonizing mission heading to a new world promised a fresh start. Or at least that's what she'd thought. 

Strapped into a crashing colony ship, she realized how wrong she'd been.

They hit the ground and the straight forward colonizing mission becomes a scramble for survival. Accidents keep happening—too many to blame on random bad luck. A trail of evidence leads Margo to a startling conclusion—one of her fellow colonists is a saboteur.

Tomorrow is the colony's first communications window with Earth and their only chance to send a message home. 

Will Margo stop the saboteur before it’s too late? 

Find out now.

***

I picked this one up on Netgalley because I was first interested in the cover. The lone colonist in a barren world. I was pleasantly surprised to find how well the two perspectives were woven together until the merge into a big bang of a finish.

We hear Margo's part in her own words beginning before the launch in her own words as her journal is read by another crew member after her transport crashes and she's proclaimed dead. The two pieces tie together and build intrigue in each other, tying the early misfortunes of the crew with the current happenings as their numbers dwindle. When the two pieces come together it feels like a breathless race to the finish.

If you love seeing what happens (particularly in space) when a bunch of incompatible people and their secrets are crammed together in a tight space with a steady stream of mayhem to set things off (as I do), then Day 115 on an Alien World doesn't disappoint.

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

Review: Constellation XXI by Edward Hoornaert

Although Sienna Dukelsky had been the most promising student pilot at Keening AstroSpace Academy, she inexplicably settles for a routine, unglamorous job guiding incoming spaceships to safe berths at Farflung Space Station. Rumors, never verified, blamed her surprising decision on a boyfriend who got expelled from Keening.

Crispin Hunt, fleeing enemy forces, is greeted by a tugship captained by Sienna, his former girlfriend. Love rekindles—until an old betrayal boils up. Her ship loses power while aimed dead on at the space station, forcing Sienna to confront the terrifying truth about Crispin and his cargo…and her routine job suddenly becomes the most important in the entire galaxy.

Edward Hoornaert’s romantic space opera, Constellation XXI, continues the Repelling the Invasion saga of the Dukelsky family, begun in The Guardian Angel of Farflung Station and Escapee.

***

Constellation XXI is the third Edward Hoornaert SFR I have read and the most recent volume of his Repelling the Invasion series.


Hoornaert's characters are inherently good and easy to root for. It's what I like most about his stories. They are complex and real in ways I find easy to identify with. I've become very fond of the Farflung universe he's created and always enjoy settling back in to it and catching up with everyone.

Looking forward to the next one, this series is one I always watch for news on.

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

Review: The Step-by-Step Guide to 200 Crochet Stitches by Tracey Todhunter

I thought I'd give Tracey Todhunter's The Step-by-Step Guide to 200 Crochet Stitches a try when I found it available on Netgalley. I've always been a knitter, first and foremost, but have taken on learning basic crochet when a particular project jumped out at me and made me say "I have to make that!"

The book is beautifully put together from the colours standing out against the white background to the easy to read charts. (The charts gave me shudders at first as I've never tackled charted crochet before but within a few rows, I was reading the charts more than the written instructions.) It didn't take long to want to make everything so I picked up some contrasting yarn and randomly picked three. Pictures are below.

Todhunter's guide is a great addition to any craft library. Comprehensive and colourful and one you'll be picking up over and over.

35 Embossed Shells

107 Honeycomb

187 Flower Garden

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

Review: Edges by Linda Nagata

From the Edge of Apocalypse:

Deception Well is a world on the edge, home to an isolated remnant surviving at the farthest reach of human expansion. All across the frontier, other worlds have succumbed to the relentless attacks of robotic alien warships, while hundreds of light years away, the core of human civilization—those star systems closest to Earth, known as the Hallowed Vasties—have all fallen to ruins. Powerful telescopes can see only dust and debris where once there were orbital mega-structures so huge they eclipsed the light of their parent stars.

No one knows for sure what caused the Hallowed Vasties to fail, but a hardened adventurer named Urban intends to find out. He has the resources to do it. He commands a captive alien starship fully capable of facing the dangers that lie beyond Deception Well.

With a ship’s company of explorers and scientists, Urban is embarking on a voyage of re-discovery. They will be the first in centuries to confront the hazards of an inverted frontier as they venture back along the path of human migration. Their goal: to unravel the mystery of the Hallowed Vasties and to discover what monstrous life might have grown up among the ruins.

Edges is a new entry point into the classic story world of Linda Nagata’s The Nanotech Succession.

***

Edges started out reminding me of Think Like a Dinosaur by James Patrick Kelly in which people are digitized then reinstated at a new location to allow for distant travel. In Kelly's novelette, only one version of each person is allowed. In Edges, things can be much more complex. Duplicates of individuals are not only allowed, they are central to the story.

In Edges, world building and tech take the lead over the cast of characters and it took a bit to invest in the science of the story rather than the people in it. The ship, Dragon, is as more of a character than part of the setting. I like how the processes the people go through, duplicating and merging, are central to the complexity of the plot.


I'm new to Nagata so have not read any of the books in her series The Nanotech Succession. In spite of this, I was able to keep up with what was going on in her universe without any difficulty. I didn't feel like the tale was slowed down by any back story, though I can't say if I'd read The Nanotech Succession I would think differently.

Overall, I liked Edges. It did take some time to get used to the amount of detail about the ship's workings and the transient nature if its crew. A good finish (lots of action) however I felt the initial premise of the book (finding out what is going on in the Hallowed Vasties) wasn't satisfied and will have to look to the next volume to find out since Edges is definitely more about the journey than the destination.

I received a review copy from Netgalley.

Review: Beginners Guide to Colorwork Knitting by Ella Austin

If you long to knit stunning fair isle jumpers and brightly colored blankets for your home this is the perfect book. Learn all the techniques for how to start knitting with color and create really desirable projects as you learn. Choose from brightly colored stripy socks and work your way up to a patterned beanie hat and even a stunning sweater with a colorwork yoke. Even if you can only knit and purl--with this book you'll be making gorgeous colorwork accessories before you know it!

***

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.

Ella Austin's Beginner's Guide to Colorwork Knitting earns points for me in all four (five) categories. I found it an indispensable resource on basic colour theory. I usually find a variegated that I a) like, and b) has a matching solid. The book gives an easy to understand why when it comes to mixing colours and tones to come up with a balanced and beautiful palette.

I also look for a knitting book that will enhance the skills and resources I already have; one which will fit in to my way of doing things without forcing me to re-write anything. I was able to enhance my understanding of steeking and double-knit with an online video, then jump back to the book to help reinforce my understanding.

A great addition to anyone's knitting library. The pictures are beautiful and the patterns are easy to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my review copy.

Review: Aurora: Aurizun by Amanda Bridgeman

The battle is over, but the war is just beginning . . .

The Zeta invasion has occurred and the world now knows the truth: that an alien threat exists. While the UNF scramble to maintain calm, the pressure mounts to finally reveal their black ops ALPHA soldiers. The only question is, who will be entrusted to lead them?

Harris is still reeling from the devastation that occurred during Decima, and when a startling discovery is revealed, he suddenly loses the trust of the UNF. Next in line is McKinley, but still recovering from his injuries, he’s struggling to accept what he has now become. Carrie, on the other hand, is the strongest she’s ever been, but her linkage to Harris, and his to the Zetas, sees them forced out and treated as the enemy.

The power they once had within the UNF is lost.

Without a ship or a leader, and with enemies closing in on all sides, the Aurora team must fight to regroup and claw their way back from oblivion.

Carrie, Harris and McKinley face their most explosive showdowns yet, in this action-packed instalment that will leave readers on the edge of their seats!

*****

Aurora: Aurizun is the seventh (count 'em, seven) in Amanda Bridgeman's intense science fiction series, Aurora. I've enjoyed them all and my reviews of some of them are below.

If you haven't given this series a go, I recommend it if you:

a) love strong character driven SF
b) love finding extraordinary adventure close to home and other corners of the solar system
c) love well crafted antagonists
d) love it when a story sends you crashing into the ending

The series has grown and developed in a consistent way since the outset. The world building has truly blossomed with the tragedy at the end of book six (Decima) and the aftermath in this volume. Bridgeman's characters continue to be one of the biggest attractions to me and I continue to jump into each book to find out what they are doing now. We've lost some and gained some along the way (a decade of story arc time has passed) and this has served to give each a real depth. 

For many reasons, Aurizun uses the past to anchor a sturdy pivot point for the next two books. So many transitions happen, Aurizun feels set to be the book that launches the rest of the series. Bridgeman continues to use her mastery of contrast to not only heighten the power of her imagery but to also keep the tension rolling throughout.

Aurora: Aurizun was well worth the wait and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on book 8!

My previous reviews can be found here for Aurora: Darwin (Book 1), Aurora: Centralis (Book 4), Aurora: Eden (Book 5), and Aurora: Decima (Book 6)

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.