Tag: review

Review – Answering the Questions You Might Have About the Kharbat

N.T. Kova

A few months ago I listened to “Answering the Questions You Might Have About the Kharbat” by Adam-Troy Castro published in LightSpeed Magazine and I have to say, I hated it. The premise of this short story is… confusing. Basically, it is a conversation between a victim of an in-progress Kharbat attack and an expert on Kharbats. Is this conversation happening because the victim has implants which let him converse with anyone at any point? The allusion to candles as a primary light source later in the story would suggest otherwise. So, how is this conversation happening? Not clear. But…

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Review – The Martian

N.T. Kova

I watched The Martian when it first came out in 2015 and really enjoyed the movie. When I recently brought it up in an online discussion, people started to say how I just have to read the book. Now, this is not uncommon for a movie based on a book, but I also heard good things about it, so I decided to give it a whirl. Boy, I’m glad I did. The Martian by Andy Weir is a fantastic read, everyone should definitely Read it! What surprised me the most is that despite having seen the movie and remembering it…

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Review – This is How You Lose the Time War

N.T. Kova

This book is magnificent. It is a tale of an unlikely connection through time and space between mortal enemies. The beautiful prose and the vague, drip by drip introduction to the world and its characters is what make this book work so well. Truly, I don’t want to say much more about the book because everything seems like either a spoiler or a gross mischaracterization. The language is what makes you get lost in this one. However, it is the way the world building is done that keeps you interested. A slow trickle, through hints and turn of phrases. No…

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Review – The Atonement Path

N.T. Kova

This one was… disturbing. Certainly interesting and definitely captivating. A thought provoking piece that I do recommend you read (or listen to). I found it in the Lightspeed Magazine online. A magazine that has plenty of free short stories to read and listen to. This story, I found by clicking on the author’s name, Alex Irvine, and perusing through his works published in the magazine. The style was engaging – we only get one side of the conversation, never actually hearing the questions asked, only the answers to them. It’s part of what makes this story engaging: you want to…

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Review – Salt and Iron

N.T. Kova

Salt and Iron is a short story written by Gem Isherwood for the PodCastle, a fantasy fiction podcast. It took me a little while to get into this story. It is a short story, so it wasn’t too long of a while. I think that’s because in the beginning the protagonist feels a little like a cliché that we’ve seen a little too often. That said, it is a narrated short story so it’s not much effort to get to the good part. Overall, the story is interesting, building a drab fantasy world and a main character on a quest.…

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Review – Sub-Human

N.T. Kova

I actually really enjoyed Sub-Human by David Simpson. It was fast paced, action filled, and enjoyable to read. It had quite a few tropes and clichés, but that said, I think the book handled them well. It is a popcorn flick, and if you expect something more, you’ll be disappointed. However, if you’re looking for something to read something like an 80’s Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, this might be it. It’s fun and interesting, as long as you don’t think about it too hard. I actually couldn’t put the book down at certain times because I was glued to the action…

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Review – Orbs

N.T. Kova

The premise of Orbs by Nicholas S. Smith is relatively interesting, but there are several things that, honestly, just ruined the book for me. One problem is the constant jump in viewpoints, sometimes several times within the same scene! It makes it a quite jarring and confusing. Also, half the time I’m left wondering why the jump happened. Can’t the main character notice the tension in her ex-lover and thus relate to the reader his state of mind? Do we have to jump to his view point for a single paragraph just to find it out? And then, jump back…

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Review – Transmission

N.T. Kova

Transmission is a young adult novel with a 13 year old boy as a protagonist and I actually enjoyed this book. I’m not big on young adult novels as the problems teenagers face seemed irrelevant to me even when I was a teenager, but this book was well written and avoided many of the tropes of young adult sci-fi. Perhaps it is because the protagonist finds out at the very beginning of the book that he is dying and, so normal teenage problems are not really part of his life anymore. There were a few moments that made me cringe…

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Review – The Red Thread

N.T. Kova

I enjoyed The Red Thread by Sofia Samatar. It is a quick read or a quick listen (there’s a button right there on the website). The story is told as a series of short letters to Fox and as the protagonist writes she tells of her current predicament and revisits old memories. I really enjoyed the style and the format. A quick glance into a very different world and a life lived in it. If you have 25 minutes, read it, you won’t regret it. Or listen to it on your way to work. I found it in the Light…

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Review – The Watchmaker’s Daughter

N.T. Kova

The good: it takes place in the late 1800’s in London and our protagonist is a (like the title suggests) Watchmaker’s Daughter. Unfortunately for her, her dad just died and her fiancé broke off the engagement after receiving her dad’s store in the will. So, our protagonist is screwed. No work, no money, no one to turn to. The book gets points for an interesting start for our protagonist and for making us care about her quite fast.  Then, she meets a mysterious man from America… ahhh!, I realized, this is a romance! People label your books properly, so i…

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