PositiveNPRThere\'s a lot to love in this expansive debut ... a truly cinematic Western. Its vistas and action sequences are perfectly designed for fans of graphic novels and the big screen alike. Similarly, the body count is crafted for an audience that enjoys adrenaline\'s pulse in its ears. Lin\'s wordcraft is deft and painterly, whether he\'s describing a fight scene or a desert. But genre expectations that could have broadened narrative horizons flatten many of the characters into archetypes, rather than elevating them to memorable story arcs of their own ... That Ming uses these biases to his advantage, while also wrestling with some disconnection from the community because he was raised outside of the language and culture, creates a finely held tension throughout ... brings its readers face to face with the consequences of the Pacific Railway expansion, paired with characters who are likely heroes in other genres but who function as archetypes in this one ... We understand why Ming does what he does, but when he seems to turn from a potentially redemptive arc, every connection he\'s forged to other types of stories and the people he\'s met along the way (those he has not killed) become scenery. A landscape moved through, rather than a possible transformation ... While The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, from its very first pages, states very clearly what it is going to give its readers (crimes, lots of them,) the plot arc feels similarly predestined by its understanding of what the genre requires. At the end of a very long road, the protagonist does not waver. He is offered other options but cannot take them, in part because that\'s not who he is and in part because the plot demands that he doesn\'t deviate, despite all evidence that he could ... I am curious to see more of this landscape, its twined fantastical and historical aspects especially, from more points of view — the Prophet\'s backstory, for instance, and additional members of the troupe.. It is an important, vivid story, with characters led through the landscape by the demands of its plot. The novel is eminently entertaining, and absolutely there for those who love a good fight. For this reader, the variable and evolving arc of the magic troupe\'s journey, and the tensions between bias and isolation, transformation and predetermination captured my imagination even more than Ming\'s revenge plot. I hope we see more of all these stories from Tom Lin in the future.
S.B. Divya
RaveNPRFrom the very first page, Machinehood...achieves what the very best science fiction aspires to—it establishes our future by making it relatable, plausible, and infinitely strange at the same time. That Machinehood goes on to upend long-established laws of robotics, question longstanding political machinations, establish a credible voyeurism-based sub-economy, and take us on a thrilling who-done-it through the advent of the singularity are only a few of the novel\'s accomplishments. Machinehood also introduces us to the plight of humans caught within a future where everything is faster, better, and smarter—everything except humans ... Machinehood takes its rightful place alongside the work of William Gibson, Malka Older, Isaac Asimov, Pat Cadigan, Vandana Singh, and Rudy Rucker as it engages with many of the topics we are wrestling with already, from bodily autonomy and privacy, to 24/7 news, invisible labor, influencer culture, disability, and political and military decisions based on assumptions forged in the past, rather than looking forward. This is an ambitious goal, and one that Machinehood achieves without losing touch with its humanity.
Suyi Davies Okungbowa
RaveNPRWhile this may seem like a comfortably familiar epic fantasy setup, I was delighted to discover that Son of the Storm, the first novel in the Nameless Republic trilogy by Nigerian author Suyi Davies Okungbowa, is absolutely anything but ... Instead, ambition and intrigue cause surprises on nearly every page as characters reach for power in unpredictable and nuanced ways. More importantly, the novel purposefully reveals the lure of power and the generational impact of this intrigue, both from the perspectives of the powerful, and from the points of view of those who do not, will not, or cannot, hold power ... defines these tensions clearly from the start, as a prologue whirls readers into a society already at a dangerous crossroads, at once reaching for new levels of power, and busy walling itself off from risk. The effect is rich, wild, and occasionally dizzying ... Okungbowa signals that he knows he\'s taking the reader on a complex ride with each detail ... It is a rare thing to be able to manage a main protagonist who stubbornly refuses to protag, and Danso — and the reactions of those around him — carries the reader through the novel ... Okungbowa\'s control of power, relationships, plot twists, and politics throughout gets high marks. The narrative occasionally falters when the writing gets tangled up with a character\'s thoughts, but it recovers quickly, often because the characters rarely have time to overthink while they\'re occupied with surviving the fantastic setting and the regional monsters — human and not — that make Son of The Storm well worth exploring ... rewards a second read ... I\'m looking forward to seeing where we go from here — in part because the narrative leaves us once again at a crossroads (a satisfying one) where power is being managed in entirely different ways that are sure to make for more excellent stories.
Ashley Blooms
RaveNPREvery Bone A Prayer, the slipstream—that liminal combination of the literary and the fantastical—debut novel written by a survivor of child sexual abuse, bears within its pages striking beauty and strangeness in equal measure. I\'m not going to veer from the truth any more than author Ashley Blooms does: This book hurts. The detailed author\'s note in the frontmatter only reinforces the fact that Every Bone a Prayer is a difficult, important, and beautifully rendered story of generational trauma, survival, and healing. The characters I met within its pages have stayed with me, their names and stories etched on my memory ... Novels like Every Bone A Prayer are important specifically because they give a lyrical voice, agency, and a resonating mythos to those fighting to reclaim their names, and selves ... a book that is at once haunting and hopeful.
