Black Crow PR – The Constellation of Moon

Moon Reads: Service Model

Posted on June 7, 2024

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Rating:

Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.

Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Service Model. If you know nothing of me, I work in tech as an engineer, so this was right up my street.

I am sure by now you know a little about the plot. But if not, stay with me, we follow Charles as he accidentally (?) kills his master due to a fault, in a world that has made the most of robots and has them everywhere possible, even where you didn’t think it might be possible. What comes next is his journey as he tries to understand why he made that mistake and as he encounters different personalities and robots who start to show him a side of him that he didn’t expect to find.

Even before you start to read the story, the dedication and thanks had me ready for it. Including the fact it talks about the book “You look like a thing and I love you” by Janelle Shane which if you want to understand robotics and AI better, is a worthy read with an amusing way to learn.

But as soon as I saw that, I knew this was a book that would be a delight and obviously a mastery in worldbuilding and in philosophically trying to understand what makes us human (which is to me part of the core of what Adrian does through his writing by exploring everything that is NOT human). And the book did not disappoint.

I could tell you all about Charles adventures, but the thing that stuck to me from the beginning is that this is about about identity, about routine and classifying things into flows and boxes, and also about grief. It is an incredibly human book in topic even if it doesn’t seem to be as you read the story and encounter mostly non human characters. And yet… Charles is trying to understand why he is feeling the way he is feeling about his master, and about the world overall. But there is also the fact that there are things he is struggling to compute, and what do you do when you can’t easily “compute” something? When things don’t fit in a box or a neat process or flow? And how Charles approaches these challenges is utterly fascinating, including the fact that he talks about efficiency and resources, and again, shines a light on how we feel and make decisions as humans, but also about what we expect from robots and the limitations machine learning and AI have and how the unexpected can wreak havoc and chaos.

It is, as usual a masterpiece in thought, but it is also incredibly amusing and it made me laugh a few times. References to things we do or culture are there, and it pokes fun at things we may consider normal but that aren’t for a robot. And funnily enough it made me think of the books “A Psalm for the Wild Built” and it’s companion, because it hits on those questions of humanity and non humanity.

A must read for anyone who grapples with the idea of AI going too fast or taking over jobs, and also if you want a different sci-fi than the utopia of living in space and robots being perfect.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Lost War

Posted on December 26, 2023

The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

If you have read my review for The Bitter Crown which is the second book and kept wondering what I thought of the first, well, here we are!

The Lost War starts like a lot of fantasy settings, in a pub. And it takes a full ride form there. Starting with the fact that Aranok isn’t a young 16-25 year old but rather set in his years with war experience and more life under his belt than just that. And he isn’t perfect or the most handsome.

I loved reading about characters that were each their own world, that weren’t just kids or young adults saving the world. These are adults, struggling with life in a different way, trying to recover a life after a long and difficult war, technically some are heroes and yet they don’t fully feel like that.

To me it felt like an epic Dungeons and Dragons story where it starts in a pub and suddenly what you thought was a chest turns out to be a mimic (and no this does not happen in the book, but interesting stuff does happen). And I enjoyed this as it gave an epic but organic feeling to it. If you’ve ever had a D&D session or many of them, you know that sometimes chaos reigns and joining the story is a feat or the constraints become interesting. And this is all good and fine as friends and if you forget a bit here or there or something changes, you’re totally fine.

The Lost War is a polished refined version of that fun. A contained adventure with some critical ones rolled here and there and sometimes some natural 20s and overall more or less barely enough to make it rolls of the dice, and I love that. Not everything works out but also not everything goes to hell, it is well balanced, with twists and turns, and a very fine twist which I enjoyed a lot as it it was nice and chaotic and also explained some little things that at first you just can’t put your finger on but know something is up.

It was a mastery of storytelling and I enjoyed it a lot.

If you love D&D adventures, chaos, older adventures and badass ones too, a good mix of chaos and kingdom, come try this series out. I’ve really been enjoying it!

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Bitter Crown

Posted on December 23, 2023

The Bitter Crown by Justin Lee Anderson

Rating:

Welcome to a chaotic review and blog tour post for The Bitter Crown. I somehow managed to leave my review for The Lost War in draft instead of publishing it ahead of today, so you will get the review for book 2 in the series before the review for book one which will come in the next review.

I read both books back to back, in the span of a week or so. They’re slightly chonky and remind me of old 80’s and 90’s novels in the worldbuilding and the adventures, a good fantasy specimen is what I would say. This means that if you didn’t read them one after the other immediately there’s a lot you might forget about this world and story. This brings me to probably my favourite thing in this book, which was the fact you get a “recap” as a relatively seamless part of the story.

This made for some interesting “this sounds too familiar, wait, it is a summary, a previously on” and I loved that.

Now for the actual review, it is hard to do without spoiling too much. With the end of the Lost War, there is now a lot of stake and more than anything, the truth is at stake, and it is hard when so very few actually know what is true or not. And honestly this whole concept of truth was also some of my favourite themes in the book, alongside what do you do when you have to rebuild yourself, your relationships and everything in your life now that you know the truth. Hard work, let me tell you.

The adventures continue and I still have a soft spot for Aranok, Allandria and Samily more than for the rest, I am biased because they really grew on me as the lost war happened and then even more here, particularly given the interesting new challenges presented to Aranok and Allandria (not to spoil things, but this was also a fascinating thing to read).

Overall, The Bitter Crown is a good sequel, giving a lot of adventure, more views of this world, a pinch or two of chaos and a very real and human set of characters. They aren’t perfect, they mess up, make mistakes, act crazy, and have consequences.

If you enjoy epic fantasy, a feeling like you’re walking through a Dungeons and Dragons campaign played by a bunch of adults (for the most part the ages of the main cast are varied and it goes more to older characters rather than very wet behind the ears ones, which was also refreshing to read), pick up the Eidyn Saga, it is really fun and I can’t wait for what comes next.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Hunting Moon

Posted on November 19, 2023

The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard

Rating:

The Luminaries left me wishing for me, as you can read from my previous review of it. Since I followed the Twitter polls that started this and that were quite fun, it was natural to keep wanting more.

The slightly disjointed feeling of comparing that thread on Twitter (now X) is less evident here, mostly because by now in The Hunting Moon, it has evolved into much more of Susan Dennard’s own story rather than a choose-your-own-adventure type of thing. So in some ways, this book is more fun, and feels like the plot is unique and just smoother and to me those are winning points.

We also have Winnie questioning so much, and I found it interesting to see those doubts show up and the fight to trust and to do your best. There is so much going on, and so many ways to try to find out things, but the main things are we have the Dianas to look into (and that’s a whole thing, which damn I thought we’d get *redacted* happen in the end and we didn’t and now I await the next book) but we also have Winnie’s feelings about what being part of the Lumaries really is and if she is up for it, she sees the cracks all of a sudden that she didn’t when she was so focused on redeeming her family back in. It’s almost like “I got my goal, now what?” followed by a “Maybe this isn’t actually what I wanted but I also don’t want to be a pariah”. Small town vibes for sure.

And finally, the other part of the book that we have is Jay, who is still a whole mystery and Winnie has so many complex feelings on this alongside so much to try to discover and learn.

Overall, it is a slow pick-up to a fast-paced second half of the book where things just click. However, the werewolf mystery I knew the answer to it from the very first book. Seeing Winnie finally put the pieces together was both frustrating (like come on girl, you’ve got this) and also rewarding because she does put it together and manages to make big decisions in her own time.

If you enjoyed the first book, this is well worth the read. And if you didn’t read the first but like stories with a small town vibe, urban fantasy notes, werewolves, a bit of romance, intrigue, treason and framing, alongside some family interesting drama, that is easy to read and you’ll just won’t want to put it down, then definitely pick both books up and then join me in waiting for the next one because there’s so much* to find out still.

*One thing I did like is that there is progress here on discovering mysteries like the Whisperer, and part of the Dianas and the werewolves, so you feel progress and we discover new mysteries, rather than just feel cheated by a second book without resolving most of the threads left hanging from the first, which is also a HUGE win for me in ay sequel/series.

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Art of Prophecy

Posted on April 10, 2023

The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Welcome to a late blog tour entry since the post delivered this a little too late for me to make it on the actual day I was scheduled to post it. But, fear not because I still set up a picture of it and started reading the book, which quickly became a devouring the book (no, I did not stay up until way past 2 am reading, absolutely not…)

Anyway, I shall say that I adore Taishi and the relationship with Jian is full of chaos and I totally loved it.

Now onto more coherent stuff. The book reads a little like a cinematic script, not in a way to say it isn’t fleshed out, but rather that it is written so you can almost see the shots, the way the camera pans in or out, the specific angles, you can hear the voices of the characters in your head. Which leads me to absolutely insist that Michelle Yeoh play Taishi because it is a perfect cast, and in my head a version of her is totally Taishi. This whole casting in my head led to me deciding to rewatch Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (if you haven’t seen this film, stop, and go watch it, mind-blowing, each rewatch just adds extra flavour to it).

In case you hadn’t noticed, I enjoyed this book a lot, it is a fun fantasy book, with a lot going on for it. I do admit there where two things I struggled a little with. One, the Sea Grass. My brain could not for the life of me comprehend it. I would read bits and pieces about it and the scenery and think I understood it, and then a few chapters later go “wait, I thought it worked like this”. I think some of it is because of the whole cinematic style of writing that was so into shots and stuff, that the descriptions and overall way of presenting it could have been a little more cohesive, but once it did click for me, which was about half way through the book, it starts making a lot more sense, and not fully grasping it isn’t the end of the world or takes away from experiencing the book.

The second thing I will admit is that because of how fascinating, funny and everything the whole Taishi and Jian parts of the plot were, the other subplots suffered for it. For example, Sali is super interesting, but by the time she’s introduced, and this isn’t too far into the book, pretty early on, I was wanting to go back to Taishi and Jian than learn about her. And this is not exactly that her story is boring or not good, it is just a very different dynamic and paled in comparison, which felt like treason to her because she is bad ass and doing a bunch of stuff which I do not want t spoil.

But overall the book was really fun to read, I kept wanting to go back to it and really visualising it happening. If you want to summarise it, a lot of it is about asking yourself about your beliefs and what you’ve been brought up to believe about yourself and the culture you are steeped in. Yes, there is a lot of badass fighting, martial arts and magic and interesting prophecies, shenanigans and the lot, but to me, at the core, it explored identity once it is stripped from you and what ends up defining who you are, or how the characters figure who they are when what they thought they knew isn’t truly who they are.

It reminded me of growing up and getting to a point where I had to ask myself what I truly wanted, and if those wants were my own, of what had been planted in my mind from childhood by my parents, culture and expectations from society. It is a crucial point in your life where you truly look inside yourself and have to confront the truth, unravel the you that makes your core from the things that have been said you would do, be or accomplish.

Anyway, I got a little philosophical just from reading a book, so my review is that if you like Michelle Yeoh, Jackie Chan (particularly some more obscure films rather than the super ultra mainstream ones) and similar, you should read this book, it is really fun, and might also hit your philosophical pondering a little.

I can’t wait for the second one and I am really curious what will happen to all of them.

Also go check all the other stops for this tour:

Book Review

Moon Reads: The Luminaries

Posted on March 3, 2023

Friday Crest design by Jessica Khoury, © 2022 by Susan Dennard

Welcome to The Luminaries blog tour, in which you discover all the clans and maybe a new book to entice you into this universe.

The Luminaries by Susan Dennard

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

I remember when Susan Dennard was tweeting the follow your own adventure tweets and so when The Luminaries was announced, I was very excited for it! I wondered if it would stick to the ending and the path we had “chosen” for our characters, or if things would change, what would be kept, what would go?

As I read The Luminaries I can say that overall, it retained the same feels of that choose your own adventure twitter thread. However, it lead to character development, and to pondering choices, maybe even lengthening the story or something, and you can see hints of that. The story is the same and yet it is also, very different. This difference was at first hard to adapt to, since I was expecting the same feel of the “snippet” I had read, but a thread on Twitter is very different than a proper book and novel.

However, Winnie and Jay still are the same in their own way, and the overall feel was kept through and I loved that. Once I got past the initial oh this is a little different, I started to fall in love with this story, with how much Winnie was trying and how circumstances just seemed to be and no spoilers, but wow.

The characters were fun to read, there is a big focus on relationships, belonging and peer pressure and in part also on that small town/village feel and that closeness or otherness and what makes one part of it or not.

The ending was quite interesting and leaves a lot to find out plus a lot tied in, at least on of the main plot points that the book starts with is resolved, and the overall running one that will tie the rest of the books is there but we get some more information on it. Believe me that it is hard not to squeal about everything that happens and so the best I can say is “you need to read it!”

Book Review

Moon Reads: Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses

Posted on May 1, 2021

I had no werewolves at hand but puppy was happy to pose for book pictures in exchange for belly rubs.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal

Rating: MoonKestrel Logo2 20px Grey

Read before: No

Ownership: Review copy provided by Black Crow PR/publisher so I could be part of the blog tour but this was on my radar beforehand. (Why will make sense as I review this book)

Spoiler Free Review: Technically yes, since we know Brigid is a werewolf…

Normally I give a little introduction on why the book caught my eye, but it isn’t a secret that I suffer chronic pain due to, up to very recently, undiagnosed causes which kept moving the goalpost on why and how to fix it. I mean, I am not a werewolf or a werefox for that matter, and as much as I joke about being a vampire due to photosensitivity, I am alas not one.

But as I read this book, I couldn’t help but keep seeing myself in it a lot more than I expected.

https://twitter.com/themoonkestrel/status/1386226228919771136

I can’t speak for all the conditions listed in the book fully, but I do have part of one, hypermobility, and a lot of what they discuss about symptoms, trying to live a “normal” life, and making the best out of it was interesting. Then thre’s Brigid who is chaotic as hell and adorable, a bonanza of fun and intense that made me want to smush her and mother her and befriend her all at the same time! And Priya herself is trying her best to deal with her own diagnosis, her friendship and how to focus her energy and deal with feeling like she’s failed at normal life.

If I have to summarise in a few words I would say this is peak chaotic friendships of early social media teens with a little bit f urban fantasy, a lot of humour and just a book that makes you either see a side you hadn’t seen of how those with an illness that affects their daily life and is chronic may feel and manage it, or you feel a little bit seen and end up with a lot of laughs at the little hints of things that remind you of your own journey.

For me it was just fun to read, find myself in it, and feel seen. So if you like urban fantasy, friendship, family, wholesome stories and chaos, this is the book for you, also werewolves and chronic illnesses!