MixedPasteThe colorful supporting characters succeed in fleshing out Aaslo’s personal development and bringing witty banter to the journey. Some also deliver fresh takes on tired fantasy tropes ... But others, such as the reluctant prophet and the street rats, fit cookie cutter molds and don’t grow as characters. It’s unclear whether this was a conscious decision on Kade’s part to make them caricatures, but it does cause some interactions to become gratingly repetitive ... The gods’ subplot gets stuck in petty bickering at times, though, which only muddles the urgency of humanity’s ultimate fate ... But when the narrative follows Aaslo and company, the fast-paced action and humorous dialogue keeps the story moving at a brisk pace—except for some uneven plot points. The protagonists are always traveling somewhere, but it’s unclear how they intend to save the world. Kade punctuates the story with multiple high-stakes action sequences and battle scenes, but it’s difficult to point to a single climactic event with a resolution. Even the ending resolves too quickly ... may have a somewhat meandering plot, but its characters and clever dialogue make it a fun reimagining of a tired fantasy trope.
Amaryllis Fox
RavePaste... gripping ... Fox also weaves a seemingly commonplace narrative about her marriage and daughter’s birth, but she writes with such poignant introspection that this narrative becomes the soul of her memoir ... When Fox describes meeting with targets or sources embedded deep within terrorist networks, she writes with the strong conviction that the purpose is not to defeat the enemy but to understand them ... Fox’s lyrical prose paints her marriage and motherhood experiences with aching loneliness, as living undercover gradually eroded her sense of true self ... From beginning to end, Life Undercover sets aside high-octane street chases and gunfights for an equally riveting narrative of compassion, revealing that the path to peace is through understanding the common humanity in us all.
Jessica McDiarmid
PositivePaste... thoroughly researched. Through extensive interviews with the victims’ friends and families, McDiarmid provides an intimate account of each person—their personality, hobbies, aspirations—ensuring they’re viewed as three-dimensional individuals. McDiarmid also weaves in haunting statistics highlighting the injustice of each loss ... The statistics are sometimes jarringly inserted into the narrative, but this flaw is easily overlooked given the abundance of information about tragedies that have received little attention ... The women and girls lost on the Highway of Tears haven’t received the justice they deserve. But in telling their stories and shining a light on the justice system and society that have failed them, McDiarmid hopes that change will finally happen—beginning with us.
Lina Rather
PositivePaste... ambitiously tackles theology, personal faith crises, centralized governance, the sentience of creatures, bioengineering, sexuality, sin, and redemption—all in 160 pages ... Due to the novella’s brevity, it’s initially difficult to distinguish one character from another. But as each sister’s history and secrets are revealed, it’s easier to determine how a character’s past influences their actions. Pacing issues parallel the initial muddied characterizations in the beginning, and much of the world-building occurs through dialogue between characters rather than through the narrative ... Fortunately, Rather ties everything together with dazzling mastery in the novella’s second half. The time she invests in the characters during quiet moments pays off as a series of plot twists and reveals propel the narrative forward at breakneck speed ... Even as Rather raises the story’s stakes to concern the fate of the whole galaxy, the narrative remains intensely personal and focused on the individual sisters ... By the hopeful and open-ended conclusion, you’ll be left wanting to spend more time with Rather’s characters ... doesn’t shy away from the big themes despite its small package, and it will successfully whet the appetite of anyone looking for a fresh take on the space opera genre.
Patricia Wiltshire
MixedPaste...outside the particulars of each case, Wiltshire often repeats the descriptions of how she prepares the crime scene objects for analysis and what grasses, pines and nettles are found in each scene. The repeated litanies of pollen and fungi quickly become tired, and there’s no clear logic linking the crime scenes Wiltshire describes. Wiltshire’s autobiographical accounts are similarly disorganized. Her characterizations of influential people in her life are often cursory, and people are reduced to adjectives rather than vivid imagery ... She also makes somewhat callous moralistic observations of the crime scene victims ... The book’s flaws do not detract from Wiltshire’s brilliance and scientific expertise in crime-solving; her precision is evident in how she takes the reader step-by-step through her methods. But given the book’s detached treatment of not only botanical topics but also of people, the text would’ve been better suited as an academic piece or an introductory manual to forensic ecology.
Annalee Newitz
PositivePaste MagazineThe Future of Another Timeline boasts an unabashedly queer feminist agenda. With their thorough research and incorporation of key historical figures and events, Newitz crafts a tale that illuminates just how fragile women’s rights are ... Feminist readers will readily join Tess on her mission, but readers who aren’t already on board may feel further alienated. The urgency of women’s issues in our own time, however, necessitates this heavy-handedness ... Although it bears flaws in its character development, The Future of Another Timeline is a relevant social commentary disguised as a cautionary tale.
