The West Passage and The Pandora's Box
Review: The West Passage by Jared Pechaček
I’m calling this fantasy even though there’s hints of a more technological past. The author is calling it epic fantasy, so let’s go with that.
The fact that I have to think about it should tell you how strange this book is. A giant palace, city, world…there’s a world beyond, but even the seasons are different between the towers.
The fact that there’s no truth, no history, only ladies and honey (and honey transforming things…technically that’s royal jelly, but who’s counting?)
This book is just straight up weird. Its also Nonsense, in the literary sense; there’s a plot, but reality tends to shift from place to place and I half expected a bottle labeled Drink Me.
It’s incredibly ambitious for a debut and while I wasn’t entirely satisfied by it, it definitely made me wonder where Pechaček is going. It’s political. People change not just names when they take on certain roles, but genders…and generally, the more powerful roles go to women, but not in the sense of a traditional matriarchy.
No. In the sense that when you take on the role you become a woman, changing your identity and pronouns to match (Yes, there is at least one character who turns one down so he can stay a man and at least one character who takes on a specific apprenticeship so she can become a woman).
The Ladies might be creatures or demons or technology. Or all three.
It’s a wondrous book but, again, I didn’t feel entirely satisfied, and I think it was because the author, as he admits, didn’t know the parts of the world not featured. I want more solidity in my worldbuilding, even in weird fiction.
But other people might differ, and this is definitely a…strange and intriguing book, and a bit of a mystery to boot (even if not centered around a murder or, indeed, a crime).
Recommended for weird fiction fans who can handle really strange shit.
I received a copy of this book for review purposes
Review: The Pandora’s Box by L.S, Franco
This is a solidly written YA book in the tradition of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Unfortunately, that’s the problem.
It feels as if the author took what she liked from those books and wrapped it all up in some fairly standard YA tropes. There’s a magical school, which I’d love to know more about…actually there are two, but we spend little time in the first and the second turns everyone who attends evil. Or something.
The worldbuilding is hodge-podge although the concept of Downtown was…not novel, but an interesting take. And I also found the use of omniscient not quite deft…in places it turned into head hopping.
My final peeve is that when you choose a term to use in your magical world, it behooves you to make sure it doesn’t mean something in a different context that will make anyone familiar with that context snicker every time they read it. Franco’s use of “unbred” for somebody without a magical gift had that effect on me…it is, of course, one of the two terms used to refer to a mare who is not pregnant, the other being “open.” (Yes, the pun is intentional. You’re welcome).
So, I have to admit, I didn’t like this book. But if you want to read HP-ish stuff written by somebody who is not, to my knowledge, a transphobe it’s probably worth picking up.
I received a copy of this book in the Nebulas book bag.