Review: Murder at Spindle Manor

Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review. Call it a weak 4.5-star review.

Murder at Spindle Manor is an entertaining melange of Agatha Christie, Lovecraft, and steam-punk seasoned with some bits of Monty Python-esque humor. Or "humour" as the whole thing has a decidedly late 19th-century British vibe.

This eclectic mixture of elements shouldn't work and yet it works almost perfectly. I don't read many murder mysteries as I find the big reveal less than satisfying. Perhaps that is something I bring to this experience.

Anyone who enjoys movies such as The Naked Gun or any Monty Python shows will find this delightful. The author has somehow managed to meld a pretentious, stuffed-shirt, murder mystery with the farcical version of the same tale.

This book won the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off in 2023. I have read most of the SPFBO winners and found them (with one exception) to be very rewarding experiences. Murder at Spindle Manor continues that trend.


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Review: The Dawnhounds

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star DNF review. That accurately represents my experience with this book.

I barely made it through the first few chapters. The opening chapter was an interesting hook. A crew was returning from exploring distant lands. Something they had brought back with them had infected some of the crew turning them into something....else. The hatches were locked and the uninfected crew was trying to make it home before thirst and starvation took them as well.

And then that crew died.

We moved on to a character that was a somewhat disgraced member of the police. She had been relegated to the night shift "for her own good". We learn little else of interest about this world after that. She has a sexual encounter and runs after a pickpocket.

The story just quickly devolved into something that was decorated with "fantasium" so that it seemed like a fantasy story but was really something more mundane.

The ghost of Dorothy Parker feasted on the rest of the book.

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Review: Scarlet Odyssey

Scarlet Odyssey by C.T. Rwizi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book free via an Amazon Prime program. I had not heard of this author before, but the elevator pitch was intriguing.

This is destined to be one of the best books published in 2020. It will be on my Hugo nomination list for the 2021 awards.

The story centers on Musalodi (known as Salo). He is the son of a tribal chief and the tribe's "witch".

Within this fictional world, magic is only performed by women. It is thought that men are unsuitable for that purpose and are instead fit only for combat, fighting, and hard physical labors such as tending cattle.

Yet Salo's mother has taught him some of the basics of magic. After her death, he learned even more on his own; much to his father's embarrassment. Salo is also mechanically gifted and repairs various equipment used by his tribe.

One source of power is found in crystals taken from the carcasses of various animals. Anyone who has placed Ark: Survival Evolved will recognize some of the mechanical creatures present in the story that live alongside more normal blood and bone creatures.

The use of these crystals to power equipment and larger magical workings lends this book an air of steampunk. I generally dislike steampunk novels. I loved this book as the method of using the crystals was made logical within the context of the story.

Of course, Salo is not the only person to pursue crafts nominally forbidden the character's gender. Ilapara is a young woman who was instructed by her father in the deep arts of physical combat. The two meet up with a mysterious wanderer who seems to be part machine and part human.

The entire story is told within a nominally "African" environment. All of the animals are analogous to animals found in Africa and perhaps south Asia.

There are various powers vying for a superior position in this world. Some are deities...or near deities. Others are powerful magic users. Yet others are just normal people using the available resources to advance the interests of their people.

This book is a tour-de-force initial outing from this new author. Go get this book. You will not be disappointed.

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Review: Her Sky Cowboy

Her Sky Cowboy by Beth Ciotta
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Did not finish. 2 stars to be charitable. I think I made it to chapter 5.

Steampunk is a difficult genre for me. An author does not necessarily have to explain how all technology works in their fictional world. But some of it should be explained and the explanation needs to make some sense as well as being reasonably consistent. (the same goes for magic, but that doesn't apply here)

In this case, the author just assumes the reader will buy in by just talking about technology as if it were window dressing.

I also dislike characters that emote their way to a solution.

In this case, the character went on ad nausea about how socially constrained she was. It wasn't something that was evident from her interaction with other characters. The extensive internal monologues were mind-numbing.

I have read many stories with characters that were similarly constrained by social constructs. The best stories not only feature an illustration of those constraints via interaction with other characters, they also feature constrained characters that spend more time figuring out how to escape those constraints than they do complaining about being constrained. In that way, the characters explain how those constraints were a detriment to the society as opposed to a personal impediment to "fulfillment".

Strong female characters escaping social constraints don't bother me. Whiny female characters do.

While I don't read a ton of romance, I have read some. I can't comment on the quality of that aspect of the book as it had yet to develop.

I might have stuck with the book if it were a stand-alone novel. As the first of a series, I just couldn't see investing myself in it.

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