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Posted by The Reader

 


Read Man Of Steel: A Retrospective Review

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Superman 2025, I don’t think any DC CBM has been released with such a cloud of anxiety over it. You have the DC fans along with the James Gunn fans who genuinely want this movie to succeed wildly and herald the start of a new (and hopefully joyful & colourful) DCU. In another corner you have the DCEU or mainly Snyder diehards who might have a vested interest in this reboot, seeing that it came at the expense of the further expansion of their beloved Snyderverse storyline that Zack Snyder has more than hinted at and gloriously shown in his EPIC 4 hour vision. Then there’s the middle of the road CBM fans like me who would like a new movie that doesn’t fall to the usual pitfalls and entertain us while giving us a good story. We want to watch Supes fly, kick ass and be his good natured self. 

James Gunn had a massive problem on his hands going about this adaptation but say one thing about James Gunn. The man knows his comics and he’s a true geek through and through (just look at who the antagonist was for the Suicide Squad movie). He had revealed that he used All-Star Superman (by Grant Morrison) as his template and created a new story with a younger superman for the true beginning of the DCU.

The movie begins with an intro crawl demarcating how the new DCU isn’t our world but a facsimile wherein superheroes and gods and monsters have been present since the past 3 centuries. And then it runs down all the way to 3 minutes and we get our first view at what is happening with Superman. Beaten down by the Hammer of Boravia due to his intervention in Boravia’ invasion of Jahranpur, Supes calls upon Krypto who rushes him off to the Fortress of Solitude wherein a focused dose of sunlight heals him. He’s also nursed by a battery of Superman Robots who are indifferent to Krypto and his rascally destruction within the Fortress. We are then also introduced to Supes’ alter ego Clark Kent and the coterie of individuals within the Daily Planet office. We also get introduced to Lex Luthor and his team consisting of Ultraman, the Engineer and a bunch of folks who are helping him run with his obsession to defeat Superman. There’s also the “Justice Gang” consisting of Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl & Guy Gardner Green Lantern.

The movie set ups the situation wonderfully and also does a quick introduction to the vast array of characters. The plot is basically focused on Lex’s efforts to bring down Superman by convincing the Government that the Kryptonian has nefarious schemes afoot. This is helped by Lex & his team uncovering Clark’s parents message and unleashing it to the world.

Say one thing about James Gunn, the man truly know how to write characters and dialogue. From David Corenswet’s Superman to Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane to Edi Gathegi’s Mr. Terrific to Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor to Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner to the CGI-Krypto. These were the main highlights for me but there’s so many more like Wendell Pierce’ s Perry White to Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen to Taylor Pruitt Vince’s Pa Kent whom I would have liked to see more of. I honestly think I would have loved to watch a 5-6 hour version of this movie wherein I had gotten to see more of the character cast and their interactions. Such is the richness of these characters, that one can feel bad that there’s not enough time for everyone.



Another interesting aspect of the movie is that it drops the audience into a world that’s formed and doesn’t explain anything about it. A lot of it will feel familiar or be known to DC comics fans but for the general audiences, it might be a bit confusing. The plot is also very pacey and the story moves along quite fast. In fact in certain scenes, I wish it had slowed down for the viewers to really feel the intensity of the moments.

This film has the typical James Gunn humour however the crass jokes thankfully were tamped down. I don’t know if that was something that the Studio enforced upon Gunn or James himself course corrected. Lastly there were three cameos which I was pleasantly surprised with. Two characters were from upcoming projects and man were they hilarious. The third character was from Gunn’s TSS and it was cool to see where they were considering what happened to them in TSS.

Going on the shortcomings of the movie and it’s in this regards, I’ll have talk through some mild spoilers. So if you wish to stop here then I won’t mind it. For those who wish to read ahead in spite of some spoilers, kudos to you brave sports. 
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One of the movie’s main twists is that the Kal-El often likes to listen to a message from his parents Jor-El & Lara Lor-Van. He only gets to listen to the first part as the latter half is corrupted. The film reveals thanks to Luthor’s machinations that the remaining part of the message is them instructing him to conquer and rule over Earth. Also to repopulate Earth with many children of Kryptonian heritage. However the movie doesn’t again make it clear if that truly is the case or something that Luthor & Engineer tweaked the original. If this is truly the case, then it’s a mighty twist on the whole Kryptonian parents side. Contrasting this with Russell Crowe’s Jor-El, this is definitely going to be jarring to a whole lot of Superman fans.

Because of the movie's pace and several cuts, this movie definitely felt as if there were quite a few connective tissue scenes missing and I really wish that Gunn is able to release the extended version on HBO Max wherein we can get to see more. Because I would have loved to see the dynamic between the Daily Planet crew. Maybe even more of Lex and his henchfolks. 

Another aspect which didn’t work for me, was that the Superman introduced in this movie acted a bit dumb. In the opening sequence, after the Hammer Of Boravia leaves, Superman isn’t concerned to trace him. He also doesn’t try to find out how Lex and his minions gained access to his Fortress given how the condition its left in. Maybe because he's still a younger Superman, given that its only his third year. However it was a tad surprising given how well-written Supes was otherwise. 

One character whose character left me bemused was Eve Tessmacher. Given how strong Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois is. It was a bit perplexing to see why Eve’s character was such a ditzy one. Speaking of characters, another confounding thing was Jimmy Olsen’s being fawned upon by all the gals. It just didn’t make any sense. Now if it was the “Jimmy Olsen” from BVS, it would kinda make sense. Skyler Gisondo is easy on the eyes but not to the levels that seem to be implied here. Lastly Ma Kent's character was caricaturish beyond belief and it just detracted from my enjoyment. Plus Hawk Girl was wasted in this movie and she barely did anything besides say that she hates Justice Gang title. 

I think James Gunn is more than a little lucky that he has such a huge fan base. Because for some of the drawbacks of the movie (Evil Kryptonian parents, floozy female characters), other directors would have been excoriated beyond belief. He somehow is shielded from these criticisms. Which is good for him but a weird thing to notice. 

Is it better than Iron Man or Man Of Steel? That's very hard to say. I think Iron Man was a very compact and straighforward film. Man Of Steel was way more epic, Superman is more Comic Booky than either of them. I enjoyed all three of them for different reasons and I'm really hoping that there will be an extended cut for SUPERMAN which addresses some of my concerns in which case, it will be an interesting comparison to make then. 


CONCLUSION: Overall I liked this movie and it was a good start to the DCU. I’m very much excited for Supergirl & Clayface on the movie side. Even more enthused for Peacemaker S2 & Lanterns on the TV side. I really hope that we get more DCU movies, characters & TV shows as I think there's a genuine newness to this universe but I would like to see other creators also get to work their magic within. 

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Posted by The Reader

 



Official Author Info: Nicholas W Fuller has been writing all of his life. He began writing his first novel while still in fifth grade—a science fiction story featuring an alien race inspired by his neighbor’s basset hounds. While that work remains incomplete, Nicholas has worked on various blogs and stories over the years, including publication in JCM Berne's Grimdwarf Magazine and earning an honorable mention from ElegantLiterature.com. Nicholas also started a youtube channel in early 2023 where he posts videos talking about books and other fun nerdy things as well as his interviews with authors and other creatives.

When he is not writing or making videos, he’s probably thinking about writing, maybe playing video games with his brother, possibly tickling one or both of his two children, or perhaps traveling with his wife… but likely also pondering writing. He hopes to continue to make things up and put them on paper for an ever wider audience.

Today we are thrilled to take part in the cover reveal for SHATTERED: A Sanguine Stars Novella. Checkout the gorgeous cover featuring art by Robert Trotea & design-typography by Jeff Brown.


OFFICIAL BLURB: 
Shattered is the story of doing the right thing... And the consequences of those actions.

It's the story of Poey Targe, a Master Sergeant in the Sorento Royal Senate Guardians, and his struggle to keep his planet safe.

Shattered, the first in the Sanguine Stars series, is a short, action-packed read with a bit of political intrigue and a dash of humor that sets the stage for everything to come.

""If Star Wars and Battle of the Planets had a baby, that baby would love this novella! Come for the richly imagined world building, stay for the sci fi action!"

-JCM Berne, author of Wistful Ascending, Hybrid Helix series


"Shattered is a thrilling sci-fi read, opening the door to a sprawling space opera series. I look forward to reading more in this universe down the road."

-Bryan Wilson, Author The Forsaken Planet, The Power of the Stars series

The best part, SHATTERED is currently FREE on the author's Patreon for the next 5 days. So you can grab a copy over here

Protest, While You Still Can

Jul. 10th, 2025 05:55 am
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Posted by monbiot

Without resistance, a combination of new laws and new technologies of control will rush us towards dystopia.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian  4th July 2025

No one can be trusted with power. Any government will oppress its people if not constantly and inventively challenged. And the task becomes ever-more urgent as new technologies of surveillance and control are developed.

The UK government is run by a former human rights lawyer. Its home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has expressed her admiration for the Suffragettes in parliament. Yet such credentials do nothing to defend us from attacks on our fundamental rights. With a huge majority, no formal constitutional checks and a ruthless, scarcely accountable governing machine, this administration is abusing its power to an even greater extent than its Conservative predecessors.

Though there is tough competition, Cooper’s proscription of the protest group Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 is probably the most illiberal thing any home secretary has done in 30 years. If Palestine Action’s legal challenge to the order fails, you could receive 14 years in jail as a terrorist merely for expressing support. It’s a massive threat to the right to protest and to free speech.

In 2001, as the act came into force, I warned that it could be used to ban nonviolent protest groups and imprison those who support them. Supporters of Tony Blair’s government told me I was talking rubbish: its purpose was to keep us safe from people who wanted to kill and maim us. At the time, Cooper was a junior minister. She must have known what the act could do. Now she vindicates the warning.

Like the drafting of the Tory anti-protest laws, this application of the act appears to be a response to lobbyists. The junktanks of Tufton Street, in concert with the billionaire media, have called for ever-more extreme measures for protesters demonstrating against the genocide in Gaza. The government seems to have been sharing the contact details of police and crown prosecutors with the Israeli embassy: there appears to be deep entanglement between domestic law enforcement and the interests of a foreign state.

In response to lobbying, the UK has become arguably the most repressive of all nominal democracies. Both in legislation and application, it looks more like a repressive autocracy. You can see this not only in the extreme sentences for peaceful protest but also in the extraordinary double standards deployed – a classic sign of the authoritarian mindset: “for my friends everything, for my enemies the law”. While climate protesters are arrested for setting foot in the road, even when a group of farmers in tractors blocked the road where Keir Starmer was giving a speech, forcing him to flee, not only were no arrests made but, as far as I can discover, no minister said a word about it.

Far from repealing the draconian anti-protest laws imposed by the Tories, Labour is augmenting them with a clause (section 124) slipped into the current crime and policing bill. Scarcely noticed by either legislators or the public, it greatly increases police powers to stifle protest. The police will be able to ban demonstrations close to a place of worship that they decide could be intimidating to worshippers. As almost every urban area contains a place of worship, this empowers the police, using only their own discretion, to shut down any expression of dissent.

Palestine Action is not a danger to democracy. But Yvette Cooper is. I have no doubt that, were they active today, the home secretary would proscribe as a terrorist organisation the Suffragettes she claims to honour.

One of the causes of the global democratic recession is the escalating inequality of arms between governments and their people. At the time of the French Revolution, governments feared the people, as the distance between pikes and pitchforks was not so great. But as states developed ever-more sophisticated weapons, their powers could no longer be matched by those they sought to crush. In combination with facial recognition technology, now being widely deployed in the UK among many other nations, autonomous weapons systems, for both military and civil use, would greatly increase the distance between state and citizen power. This is the future we appear to be rushing towards, with scarcely any democratic debate.

All over the world, autonomous weapons systems are in development, largely for use in warfare. Ukraine and Russia are in the midst of a robot arms race, accelerating at shocking speed. In Gaza, Israel has automated its target selection, with horrifying results.

As security sources explained to +972 magazine in April 2024, Israel’s Lavender AI program had marked about 37,000 Palestinians as suspected “Hamas militants”, selecting them as potential targets for assassination. A further program, with the sinister name of Where’s Daddy?, was tracking them to their homes so that they could be bombed at night, often killing not only their families but many other people in the same block. “Once you go automatic,” one of the sources told the journal, “target generation goes crazy.” Almost everyone in Gaza had been given a Lavender rating of between 1 and 100. As soon as the number in the AI system was high enough, the name wouldbe added to the kill list. That would be treated as a military order, even though the operators knew that at least 10% of the targets were misidentified.

Anyone who imagines that such systems would not be embraced by governments for use against their citizens is deceiving themselves. As autonomous target selection aligns with the autonomous delivery of munitions, which could range from teargas to rubber bullets to metal bullets, governments will acquire terrifying new powers to contain dissent. Real robocops are likely to have propellers, not legs.

As the Stop Killer Robots campaign points out, such machines dehumanise us: we become a set of data points, to be interpreted by an algorithm. Once an autonomous weapons system has been programmed, oppressive regimes can absolve themselves of responsibility for what it does. AI reinforces prejudice and discrimination: the way it develops ensures that Black and brown people and other minorities targeted by the police will be disproportionately selected.

Once such systems are in place, they will be very hard to dismantle. When you create a market you create a lobby, and the lobby will insist on retaining and expanding its investments. Autonomous weapons systems, for both military and civilian use, should be prohibited under international law before they progress any further.

Technologies of control are ramping up while democratic rights are ramping down. We drift towards extreme political repression, driven by the demands of capital and foreign states, accelerated by automation. This is why we must protest – now, while we still can.

www.monbiot.com

Miriam Gershow

Jul. 9th, 2025 02:05 pm
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Posted by Unknown

Miriam Gershow is the author of Closer, Survival Tips: Stories and The Local News. Her writing is featured in The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, and Black Warrior Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of a Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, an Oregon Literary Fellowship, and is a two-time finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Gershow is the organizer of

The Grip of Power

Jul. 8th, 2025 04:53 am
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Posted by monbiot

Cynical operators seek to divide rural and urban people. But what we want is fundamentally the same.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 28th June 2025

Power hides by setting us against each other. This is never more true than in the countryside, where the impacts of an extreme concentration of ownership and control are blamed on those who have nothing to do with it. Rural people are endlessly instructed that they’re oppressed not by the lords of the land, but by vicious and ignorant townies – the “urban jackboot” as many participants in the Countryside March, organised by the Countryside Alliance used to call it – stamping on their traditions.

Near Bridport in Dorset right now, an entire village appears to be facing eviction, following the sale of the Bridehead Estate for about £30m. The official new owner, Bridehead Estate Ltd, is registered to the same address, with the same officers, as a company called Belport. The Telegraph reports that the estate “was bought by Belport, a private equity firm, on behalf of a wealthy client last autumn”, but no one knows who the client is. So far I’ve received no response to the questions I sent to Belport.

People in Littlebredy, a village of 32 homes, wholly owned by the estate, say they have been ordered to leave from January. At the beginning of this month, access to parts of the 800-hectare (2,000-acre) grounds, widely enjoyed by local people, was terminated, with red signs to this effect and padlocks on all the entrances. No one knows who is doing this to them. The sense of powerlessness is overwhelming.

One person has been evicted already, to make way for an estate office. When she complained about her treatment on social media, the first reply stated, without a shred of evidence: “You’re being evicted so that young fighting age male refugees, who are escaping war in France, can have somewhere safe to live, who, as far as our government is concerned, have priority over you … VOTE REFORM!” That’s how divide and rule works: never mind the anonymous plutocrat evicting her, the true culprits, somehow, are asylum seekers.

We are lectured by rightwing parties and the rightwing media about the need for “integration”. But that word is used only as a weapon against immigrants. It is not they who rip communities apart, tear people from their homes and shut us out of the land, causing social disintegration. It is the power of money.

But look, a spider! The cosmopolitan city, swarming with immigrants and trans people, is coming to get you! It will terminate the traditions country people love and impose its own culture instead. It is drummed into our heads that what rural people want is different to what the oppressive urbanites desire. But it’s not true.

Embarrassingly for the self-professed guardians of the countryside, some of the evidence comes from their own surveys. Future Countryside – which tells us it is “powered by the Countryside Alliance Foundation”, the charitable arm of the Countryside Alliance – commissioned polling in 2023. Its question about a wider right to roam in the countryside was phrased in a way that made it sound threatening: “To what extent do you agree that the public should have the ‘right to roam’ meaning that anyone can wander in the open countryside regardless of whether the land is privately or publicly owned?” Even so, there was almost no difference between the responses of urban and rural people: 55% of urban people and 54% of rural people agreed it was a good idea. Even more strikingly, when asked which political party “would do the most to prioritise/protect/promote the countryside?”, only 9% each of urban and rural people named the Conservatives, while 38% in both categories said the Green party.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these answers failed to find their way into Future Countryside’s public presentation of the results. Instead, the only mention of a right to roam was a comment from an anonymous rural respondent: “They weren’t brought up in the countryside. They think they can wander across all the fields with the right to roam.” Links to both the raw polling data and the public presentation on the organisation’s website currently show a “404 error” when you try to open them.

Strangely, writing a year after these results were published, the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner, claimed that a wider right to roam is “completely contradictory to what the public actually wants”. With admirable chutzpah, he accused those calling for it of waging a “culture war in the countryside”.

When YouGov framed the question more objectively, for a poll commissioned by the Right to Roam campaign, it found that 68% of urban people and 68% of rural people supported it. It also discovered, in stark contrast to the claims of certain rural “guardians” who call it “the social glue that keeps rural communities together”, that opposition to hunting with dogs is strong everywhere: 78% of urban people and 74% of rural people are against it. As the access campaigner Jon Moses points out in an article for the Lead, “the issues over which we’re told we’re most divided are often the issues on which we actually most agree”.

That view is supported by some fascinating research published in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. It found that while in several other western countries there is a stark political divide between urban and rural people, this does not apply in Britain. “We do not find any evidence that rural Britons are more resentful, dissatisfied or ‘left behind’ compared to their urban counterparts.” On cultural issues, it found, “ruralites are often less – not more – authoritarian than urbanites … and are less likely to support an undemocratic leader”.

We are fundamentally the same people, despite the best efforts of the culture warriors to divide us. But we must be persuaded that other people don’t want what we want: that we are the outsiders, the interlopers, the weird minority, pushing against the social current.

In reality, the weird minority are the 1% who own half of all the land in England, and the subset of that group who hide their ownership behind front companies and opaque trusts. If the government’s proposed changes to the Land Registry go ahead, it may become easier to discover the true owners of places such as Bridehead, though I suspect we will still struggle.

On 5 July, the Right to Roam campaign will organise a peaceful trespass at Bridehead, to draw attention to the almost feudal powers blighting rural life. The real conflict is not town v country, but money and power v people. That holds, regardless of where you live. Never let powerful people tell you who you are.

www.monbiot.com

Molly MacRae

Jul. 5th, 2025 01:05 pm
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Posted by Unknown

Molly MacRae spent twenty years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Upper East Tennessee, where she managed The Book Place, an independent bookstore; may it rest in peace. Before the lure of books hooked her, she was curator of the history museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee’s oldest town.

MacRae lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois, where she recently retired from connecting
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Posted by Łukasz

 


Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael McClung was born and raised in Texas, lived in Southeast Asia for twenty years, and currently resides in Poland. He has published nine novels, a novella and a short story collection. His first novel was published by Random House in 2003, and in 2016 he won Mark Lawrence's inaugural SPFBO contest with The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids. He goes by @mcclungmike on Twitter, but doesn’t do the Facebook anymore, because reasons. He occasionally talks about stuff on his blog at somethingstickythiswaycomes.blogspot.com if you're interested in, uh, stuff being talked about.

Published: November 28, 2012 by Michael McClung Length: 208 pages (Kindle) Formats: Literary awards: SPFBO Award for Best Fantasy Book (2015) Series Amra Thetys #1


LUKASZ

The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble's Braids is the first SPFBO winner. The title is catchy, and the first chapters are definitely engaging. 

The story follows Amra Thetys, a small-time thief living in the gritty city of Lucernis. She’s a thief who won’t steal from those poorer than her, but everyone else is fair game. Amra likes spending her days between jobs drinking wine and avoiding trouble. But when her friend Corbin asks her to hold on to an ugly golden toad statue for a day, things quickly spiral out of control. The statue comes from a temple heist gone wrong, and not long after, Corbin is brutally murdered.

Amra swears to get revenge. But soon, she’s caught in something much bigger than she expected. Nobles are involved, hidden identities come to light, and Amra finds herself tangled in the hunt for a powerful artifact called The Blade That Whispers Hate. An immortal assassin and a mad mage are both after it - and they’ll stop at nothing to get it. For some reason they believe Amra has it. Except that she doesn’t, and she has no idea where it is. The clock starts ticking and if she doesn’t figure that out soon, she and everyone she cares about are as good as dead.

Amra is an interesting character; She’s not particularly friendly or social, and thankfully, there’s no romance subplot weighing down the story. The book is written in first-person, so we get to know her fairly well. She’s smart, quick, and has a knack for one-liners.

That said, I wasn’t fully charmed by Amra. Some of the one-liners and the light banter with other characters feel forced at times. I think she has the potential to grow into a more compelling character later in the series, but in this first book, she still feels a bit flat to me.

The book is short and moves at a fast pace. The worldbuilding stays in the background, you learn about Lucernis and its world as the plot unfolds, which I liked. There’s no overwhelming info-dumping or unnecessary history lessons. The story stays focused within the city limits, and we only get details that actually matter for the plot.

My main issue is that I didn’t feel much connection to the characters. They felt a little flat overall. Will I pick up the sequels? Perhaps, but I’m not rushing to do it right now. It’s a well-written, entertaining start to the series, but it didn’t leave me desperate for more.

MIHIR

The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble's Braids was my introduction to the roller coaster ride that are SPFBO Finals. 2015 was when the face of Indie Fantasy changed with the start of SPFBO. Michael McClung was the winner of the first edition & hence it was only logical for us to want to start the FBC SPFBO Champions League with this dark fantasy gem. 

The story is set in the city of Lucernis, wherein our scarred & street-smart protagonist Amara Thetys has been making her living as a retrieval specialist aka a thief with a dependable reputation.  Taking on a new job with fellow thief Corbin, she assumes that it will be a cakewalk but that’s where things go sideways in a dark way.  Amara is forced to hide an artifact as her friend Corbin gets brutally murdered. She soon finds out why that artifact is such an important thing as she tasks a mage to find out more. Things however are never crystal clear as Amara finds out and beneath the veneer of normalcy in Lucernis, there's a supernatural war brewing.

Mixing sword and sorcery with streamlined pace, Michael McClung's debut is a terrific story that is very much in the vein of works by Scott Lynch, David Dalglish & Douglas Hulick. This debut novel showcases the best of a sword & sorcery tale but also gives us a protagonist that we can root for entirely. Amra is a thief with a very grey sense of morality but she’s written so well that once can’t help but root for her. She’s got scars and a history that’s hinted at but never outrightly stated. The plot opens up quickly and then it’s very much a mystery story within a secondary fantasy world. 

The city of Lucernis very much has a noir tone and it helps that the author really leans into it. We are shown its gritty streets and grim nature and it feels like a city with an edge. Amra’s travails as she struggles to figure who is hunting her and why get nicely contrasted with the ambivalent nature of the city she does business in. The author showcases the brutal nature of the life of most of the general populace and mixed within is some pointed commentary about class, socio-economic divides and the nature of law and crime. From a character perspective, we only get Amra’ s POV but the writing is done so effectively that we get a fascinating picture not only of Amra but her friend Holgren and the many other characters that she comes across or interacts with. The author peels several layers from Amra and we get to know her plucky and snarky mind. Her loyalty towards her friends and her dogged resolve to find what truly is behind her and the dagger. As POV characters go, she’s definitely one of the memorable ones that I have come across in indie side of dark fantasy. 

The plot is a tight one and it keeps barreling towards an action-packed climax as is the norm for most noir stories. The biggest twist is the supernatural aspects that are added within and make complete sense. The story ends with a revelation of an impending apocalypse; and yet the tale feels complete. I absolutely am stoked for the forthcoming sequels.

The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble's Braids is a fascinating debut that showcases how talented Michael McClung is. I very much enjoyed this debut that is very reminiscent of the Lies Of Locke Lamora in its setup but less grimdarky and with a much more straightforward protagonist. The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble's Braids should be on your TBR if you are tired of chonky tomes and want something quick, dark and dangerous. 


Camilla Trinchieri

Jul. 2nd, 2025 01:05 pm
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Posted by Unknown

Camilla Trinchieri worked for many years dubbing films in Rome with directors including Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Franco Rossi, Lina Wertmüller and Luchino Visconti. She immigrated to the US in 1980 and received her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. Under the pseudonym Camilla Crespi, she has published eight mysteries. As Camilla Trinchieri, she has published The Price of
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Posted by Caitlin G.

 


Buy The Two Lies of Faven Sythe

FORMAT/INFO: The Two Lies of Faven Sythe was published on June 3rd, 2025 by Orbit Books. It is 352 pages long and available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Faven Sythe's mentor is missing. Her only clue to her location? A starpath leading to the Clutch, a floating graveyard of ships, full of dangerous debris, supposedly haunted by a mysterious ship known as the Black Celeste. With seemingly no one else concerned about her mentor's absence, Faven has no choice but to investigate the Clutch herself. Fortunately, she knows just the pirate for the job: Bitter Amandine, one of the few people to have ever visited the Clutch and survived. Unfortunately, Bitter has also sworn never to return there. But when Faven makes an offer too good to refuse, Bitter and her crew buckle up for a daring trip across the galaxy. They'll soon discover, however, that some ghosts are best left undisturbed...

The Two Lies of Faven Sythe is a delightful mashup of classic pirate tropes and fresh sci-fi ideas. The pirates running around this story are very much direct descendants of their eighteenth century brethren, from the way they talk (savvy?) to their weaponry (shotguns apparently are much better at getting past shields than modern laser guns). And yes, there is a main port of call that all the pirates like to go to, a futuristic hidden station in the vein of Tortuga, where all pirates can resupply, make deals, and generally hide away from the law.

But all of these familiar elements are nestled together with original sci-fi elements. First and foremost of these are the crystborn. This species is essentially an offshoot of humanity created when some humans centuries in the past volunteered to blend with ancient alien tech so that they could interact with the lightdrives that allow faster than light travel. Crystborn are capable of weaving a starpath into a lightdrive, essentially giving it a safe route to travel from one point to another. But every path woven shortens a crystborn's lifespan, making the starpaths extremely hard to come by, frequently costing a fortune.

Of course, where did that ancient alien tech that created the crystborn come from? What caused them to die off? That's just one of the mysteries to dive into this book, as Faven tries to look for her lost mentor. Being a standalone book, you'll have the answers you're looking for by the end of the tale, making this a nice contained swashbuckling adventure into mysterious ruins at the edges of the galaxy.

I will say, The Two Lies of Faven Sythe is definitely a plot-forward book. Faven Sythe, with her mixture of naivete about how the galaxy works but her daring to keep asking questions and plunge into the unknown, is definitely a standout character; pirate Bitter Amandine is also fun to watch, strutting about with her larger-than-life pirate personality. The rest of the supporting cast, however, is fairly forgettable. I couldn't tell you much about the crew to differentiate them from each other, aside from remembering that one tends to sport a very cool pair of sunglasses. This book may be a fun ride, but it is not particularly packed with memorable characters.

CONCLUSION: The Two Lies of Faven Sythe is definitely an adventure worth checking out. If you're looking for a thrill ride close to a summer blockbuster, this is the book for you. An engaging mystery, seedy pirate dens, high stakes adventures at the fringes of the galaxy, it's all here in one nice neat standalone package.

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Posted by Caitlin G.

 


Buy The Silverblood Promise

FORMAT/INFO: The Silverblood Promise was published on May 7th, 2024 by Tor Books. It is 528 pages long and currently available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: After a scandal saw him kicked out of academy and destroyed what was left of his noble family's fortune, Logan Gardova hasn't been exactly welcome at home. Instead, he's spent the last several years gambling and traveling about, trying his best to forget about the day that changed everything. But when Lukan receives word that his father has been murdered, he realizes he has to put the past aside and find out why on earth anyone would want his father dead. His only clue leads him to Saphrona, a city ruled by merchant princes, where anything can be bought for the right price. Unfortunately, to find more answers, Lukan will have to help right an injustice in the city, one that could send a delicate peace between nations up in flames.

The Silverblood Promise is an exciting classic fantasy adventure that takes our hero everywhere from the court of a thief king to a faceoff with mythical beings. Despite its 500+ pages, it moves exceedingly quickly. I frequently found myself sitting down to read a few chapters and realized I'd devoured 75-100 pages without realizing it.

Something to be prepared for is that while Lukan is on a quest to find out what happened to his father, most of the story isn't about that at all. Lukan's one clue is the name of someone located in the city of Saphrona. But in order to get the next clue, he needs to help get someone out of a jam, which leads him to accidentally inserting himself into an effort to stop a plot to shift the power balance in the city. While some of the things Lukan discovers may end up being tied into the overall mystery, when the dust settles, don't expect Lukan to have suddenly solved his own father's murder. Instead, he's completed one set of adventures in Saphrona, and is off in the direction of his next clue.

The supporting cast is full of familiar archetypes, from smart-mouthed street orphan Flea to a mercenary leader who doesn't have anything personally against Lukan, it's just business. None of them break the mold, but they don't need to in order to help make The Silverblood Promise a fun and engaging adventure.

What's holding The Silverblood Promise back, in my opinion, is lead character Lukan. Now, I will be the first to admit that I like my characters to be exceedingly competent and knowledgeable. I want to see the best-of-the-best going toe-to-toe with equally matched villains. Lukan, however, is juuuust competent enough to get by. He doesn't make huge mistakes, but he's impatient and quick to take things at face value. In short, he reminded me of Luke Skywalker from STAR WARS in his farm boy era, where he just wants to run off and save the day without wondering too hard if anybody is hiding more beneath the surface than you can see at first glance. Hopefully, though, just like Luke, Lukan will find himself growing along his adventures and become a more proficient character over time.

CONCLUSION: The Silverblood Promise is here to scratch your classic fantasy adventure itch. It's a tried and true story, full of familiar beats, with just enough twists to keep things interesting. It never felt like a weighty tome and I appreciated how it kept the story moving. I will definitely be back to check out the next installment, The Blackfire Blade!

Priyanka Taslim

Jun. 29th, 2025 02:05 pm
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Posted by Unknown

Priyanka Taslim is a Bangladeshi American writer, educator, and lifelong New Jersey resident. Having grown up in a bustling Bangladeshi diaspora community, surrounded by her mother’s entire clan and many aunties of no relation, her writing often features families, communities, and all the drama therein. Currently, Taslim teaches English by day and tells all kinds of stories about Bengali

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