Zoe Hana Mikuta - Gearbreakers / Godslayers

Audiobook Review + Zoe Hana Mikuta

YA NA / FF / Post-apocalyptic / Mechas / First Person Present Tense.

Love betrayal combat mechas.

Can it get any better?

 

Xiran Jay Zhao - Iron Widow 1 - Iron Widow

Audiobook Review + Xiran Jay Zhao

Iron Widow is the first part of a duology / trilogy / series (?) with the same name. It describes Wu Zetian's rise through the ranks, in a Chinese inspired scifi / fantasy setting featuring a mystical 'spirit power' (a kind of paranormal energy source) and very large mecha-like creatures called 'Chrysalis'.

Amy Kaufman - Red Star Rebels

Audiobook Review + Amie Kaufman

First person, present tense, YA. romance / science-fiction. Classic recipe, and typical Amie Kaufman.

But... Published in 2026, this book is a bit of a let-down compared with her earlier co-op work with Jay Kristoff, especially the Aurora series, or The Illuminae Files.

Amy Tintera - Reboot

Audiobook Review

Love. Life. And zombies.

This is a YA first person present tense audiobook exploring the 'I died and came back as a zombie' trope. Fortunately, it's better than the average wannabe-writer 'Isekai' project.

Linden A. Lewis - The First Sister / The Second Rebel / The Last Hero

Audiobook Review

Linden A. Lewis proves that you should be careful how you title your book. Searching for 'The First Sister' on Goodreads gives more than ten pages of results 😅

After that little aside we get back to the core question: how's the book?

Emily Suvada - This Mortal Coil / This Cruel Design / This Vicious Curse

Audiobook Review

Post apocalyptic YA with great concepts that becomes a little too far-fetched in the latter half of the third book. Concept: the world is overrun by a virus that blows up people. The only way to survive is eating the flesh of someone who’s sick but didn’t yet explode.

From there we move into split brains, gen splicing, and virtual reality, served with a dash of betrayal and a royal helping of romance. Like I said, pretty good all the way up to the virtual reality, that’s where it looses some steam.

Richard Kadrey - Sandman Slim 1 - Sandman Slim

Audiobook Review

Sandman Slim is everything Bobby Dollar tries to be... hardboiled, noir-styled, supernatural detective. It's moody, dark, first-person present tense, and the hero is just as much a jerk as you and me... if not even more so.

Marko Kloos - Frontlines - Points of Impact (2018) / Orders of Battle (2020) / Centers of Gravity (2022)

Audiobook Review

After not being entirely sure where to take the story (or that's my impression, at least) the author returns to the main thread and plot of the series: the fight against the Lankies.

These three books (6,7,8) wrap up the series, and in the final book he gives his protagonist love couple a fair and well-deserved send-off. The final book does hint at the nature of the Lankies but doesn't go into detail. This clearly leaves space for another series of books using new characters.

Harper North - Manipulated 1 - Modified

Audiobook Review

Apocalyptic setting. Check. Female teen protagonist. Check. First Person Present Tense. Check.

What could go wrong? Well, a lot. A regular dose of disbelief won't work on this one. Slave / miner / teen girl gets injected with some kind of genetic mod and becomes Miss Perfect. Ah... that should have been a red flag.

Sorry, the story just doesn't seem to work.

Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff - Aurora Burning / Aurora's End

Audiobook Review

Very good. Very, very good. Ah, the first review of 2023 should be a positive one, shouldn't it?

I thought they couldn't pull it off. Ending the first book with an overpowered enemy is one of the two 'beginning writers' problems. (The other one is an overpowered protagonist.)

But they managed to do it. They managed to pull it off.

Countdown to 2023... Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff - The Illuminae Files 01 - Illuminae (2015)

Countdown + Audiobook Review + Book Review

I'll be damned. They did it again. (Or before. Time is relative.) The Aurora Cycle was great (still have to add the reviews for books 2 and 3) and this book, by the same authors, does it again. Although, in this case, it's... different.

Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff - Aurora Cycle 1 - Aurora Rising (2019)

Audiobook Review

Third Person Present Tense, Young Adult SF.

Most books in the YA category tend to be Fantasy, but this is a SF trilogy with some interesting aspects, and it's well written.

There are some not-entirely-believable scenes, but it ain't bad, and the character interaction is fun.

Claudia Grey - Defy the Stars (2017)

Audiobook Review

It's another SF / Romance (it's almost hard to find non-romance novels these days) which is a bit more SF than romance. Yet another first-person present-tense novel, and that's probably the reason why I read it. The story itself wasn't that special.

Django Wexler - Wells of Sorcery 3 - Siege of Rage and Ruin (2021)

Audiobook Review.

Ah, good stuff. The final book of the trilogy. Isoka and her princess / lover return to Isoka’s home city Kanzhoka to rescue Isoka’s sister Tori.

What they find is a city set on fire, with the rebels led by nobody but Tori. More first person present tense YA action fantasy with a slice of romance, but not excessively so.

Django Wexler - Wells of Sorcery 1 / 2 - Ship of Smoke and Steel / City of Stone and Silence

Audiobook Review.

Street orphan fights her way up to local ward boss, and has managed to hide her magical talents from the rest of the world... until they catch her, and send her to take control over the largest ship in the world, a 500 year old ghost ship that shouldn't exist.

Maria V. Snyder - Navigating the Stars / Chasing the Shadows / Defending the Galaxy (2018....)

Audiobook Review.

I’ve been searching for more first-person present tense material to understand what I’m doing right and wrong myself. This is another YA that isn’t too bad, except for one specific scene, where the (hurt) protagonist (a 17-year-old girl) climbs onto the landing gear of a space shuttle, and then literally travels half the world, 16000 kilometers, at 600 kmph.

Bella Forrest - The Girl Who Dared to Think / ...

Audiobook Review

Just like Christopher Nuttall, Bella Forrest is sometimes accused of plagiarism. I think that's not entirely fair, because she wrote some interesting stuff, but it's clear that she's sometimes - strongly - 'inspired'.

Then again, it is impossible to write something entirely original, so let's just shrug.

Corey J White - Voidwitch series - Killing Gravity / ...

Audiobook Review

A little trilogy about a paranormally gifted (created?) telekinetic in a far away future. At roughly 220 pages per book these are not very large, but they are easy and entertaining reads.

Verdict: enjoy 'm!

Veronica Roth - Divergent

Movie Review / Audiobook Review.

There's a movie, and there's a book. I've seen and read both. The movie wasn't too bad, although the main character in the movie seems a bit 'soft' compared with the book.

Both movie and book are okay, but aimed at the angsty teen crowd hungering for some apocalyptical romance.

Writing is hard

Column + Writing

For the whole of my life, I've been dreaming about becoming a writer. I never thought I would ever write in first-person present tense. But actually, the longest (if not the best) story I've written so far is in first-person present tense. Scary.