The Second Chance of Darius Logan by David F. Walker

Welcome Back, Booklovers! The Second Chance of Darius Logan caught my attention in the search for YA SFF written by Black men with Black boys as the lead. One would be surprised at just how little is out there. And luckily it didn't take too long for my library to get the audiobook. So keep reading to hear my thoughts.

Darius Logan has spent most of his life on the streets or in and out of foster care and group homes. After a run in with the police after a drug deal gone wrong he gets a second chance by being recruited to join a special program through the Super Justice Force. This program called, Second Chance, is a program that helps ex convicts start a normal life after prison. Darius will be the first one through the program who hasn't gone to jail and they promise to help him get his life back on track.

The story starts out so interesting with a vibe that reminded me of Black Lightning with the way this crime ridden world riddled with metahumans is described.  I thought the concept of rehabilitation by helping with the special tax force was interest however since Darius doesn't have powers of his own that complicates things. Darius meeting the superheroes he grew up admiring  and encountering their different personalities is a strong point here. Where this story started to lose me was the heavy info dumping. Too much felt told instead of shown particularly when it came to the romance. It progressed quickly and I thought I had missed a section. Darius himself needed to be fleshed out more however a decent job was down fleshing out the side characters.

Being familiar with David F. Walker's work on Bitter Root I'm wondering if this would've read better as a comic or graphic novel instead of as prose. The pieces were all their for an interesting YA superhero story but the execution doesn't quite land. It does end in a way where if a book 2 isn't already in the works there's plenty of opportunity to do some cool things in the sequel. 

The Blood Gift by N.E. Davenport

Welcome Back, Booklovers! It's February already! The year is already flying by and after a series of DNFs I wanted to pick up an engaging fantasy but I wasn't sure if I should jump into anything by a new author. Then an arc of The Blood Gift by N.E. Davenport came through. So I decided to jump back into this world for the final installment. 

We see more of the world of Iludu this time around as Ikenna and crew search wide and far for allies. No one really wants to get involved because they don't want their people to die at the hands of the Blood Emperor. So Ikenna's new team (who have yet to figure out a team name) find an unlikely ally in Ajani, the Accacian warlord from book one who has his own reasons for wanting to bring down The Blood Emperor. 

No one can accuse this book or moving too slow because it was very fast-paced with multiple plot lines. I actually think some of the plots could've been cut and streamlined because I was hoping we'd have more time with certain characters. The cast is so large that not every character got a lot of time on page. The world of Iludu itself is interesting and we get to see more of it this book. And we got some glimpses into their past history with each other and how every country has their different version. Different countries within this world follow different gods and goddess and Ikenna finds herself in a tug of war between them while trying to garner enough magic to take down an empire.

I will say tonally book two felt different than book one. Ikenna was impulsive in book 1 and that carried over in book two. But she felt more immature here. Which I would've thought everything she experienced would've made her a little more rational. Especially since she was taking on a leadership role here as a general gathering people for a rebellion. It was frustrating when she would act petulant just to annoy the people around her. And then you have characters like Ajani who are only four years older years older referring to her as a child as if she's years younger. It was hard to believe this girl spent years in a strict military academy. And instead of growing out of her childish way she stayed consistent in them all book.

That being said when she wasn't being a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian I did enjoy Ikenna. A bad ass character is always fun but my favorite scenes were the ones where she was with Reed and able to let her guard down. And despite what went down at the end of book one he's very supportive of her. Because he also had a strong connection to her grandfather, he was one of the only ones who could understand what she was going through. I also liked her scenes with her grandfather's old associates as they allow Ikenna to see another side of her grandfather that she hadn't seen. They also offer some insight to his relationship with her mother and how it differed from his relationship with Ikenna.

This book needed more death. And not just because I had my own mini list of characters who get a blood spike at any moment. The violence in book one made me physically uncomfortable multiple times while reading. There was a feeling of anyone could die at any time. With the exception of one death everyone who died here deserved to die. Even the ending was just too happy and idealistic. It just didn't fit this world for me and felt a little rushed.

Overall I think readers who enjoyed the first book for the action and the romance will be satisfied. Especially if you enjoyed the romance and wanted some more spice. No details are spared! 

The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

Welcome Back, Booklovers! For November I needed a book that was a change from my normal reads and I've been really trying to get into more sci-fi books and the blend of sci-horror along with the shorter length was enough to get me to pick up The Scourge Between Stars. Thanks you to Tor Nightfire for sending me an arc.

After failing to colonize another planet the remnants of that mission have been wandering through space with hopes of returning back to Earth. Starvation seems like their biggest threat until a mysterious alien species infiltrates their ship Calypso, and starts causing death and destruction. First mate Jacklyn must assume captain duties and figure out how to keep the rest of the ship alive.

I was beginning to wonder if I'm just not an SFF novella person because it's been awhile since I read once I enjoyed. However this pulled me in. It felt like a full length novel in the right way. It's an approachable sci-fi read with a set up that felt real. I think the author's background in astrophysics helped. It's a simple concept that's been done before but Ness Brown manages to hit the right levels of emotion while not solely relying on atmosphere to carry the story. And the ending leaves you with a sense of hope while leaving room for much more.

Set in Space TBR

Welcome Back, Booklovers! here's something about outer space that's intrigued me ever since I was a child. Growing up I was fascinated by promos for Space Camp, so many 90s and 00s videos being set in space, shows like Lloyd in Space, and of course the Zenon movies. After a visit to The Kennedy Space Center, space is on my mind more than ever. Sci-fi both fascinates and scares me with the sometimes complex language and explanations. So I'm trying to ease into space stories and work my way up rather than diving into confusion. I wanted to make a list of books set in space with Black characters that are on my TBR.

Disney Pixar Lightyear Izzy Hawthorne: Destiny Awaits

This middle grade novel is a sci-fi, space adventure following the events of the film from the unique perspective of one of Buzz's new friends.

Children of Stardust

Zero Adedji dreams of joining one of the Saba guilds―groups of intergalactic travelers who explore space, retrieve lost treasures, and hunt down criminals. Instead, he must scrape by as a guide to travelers stranded on his home planet of Anansi 12. Then he meets Wanderblatch, a strange creature with an even stranger object: a golden pyramid that houses a legendary Kobasticker called the Jupiter. When the Jupiter chooses Zero as its next host, he is recruited by a top Saba guild so he can harness his newfound powers.

But the stakes are rising, and Zero and his friends Camih and Ladi are tasked with recovering an artifact known as the Mask of the Shaman King, which can grant wishes at a terrible price. And they’re not the only ones on the hunt―Space Mafia head Rozan Leombre is desperate to use the Mask to break his family’s curse. The trio must use their wits, courage, and friendship to achieve their quest and protect the galaxy.

Blast Off (Abby in Orbit)

It's the first day of third grade, and Abby Baxter is determined not to make any mistakes. It’s a little trickier than it was last year, though, because Abby is starting school on the OASIS International Space Station, where her parents are scientists. Abby is so focused on getting used to microgravity, watching her little brother, Nico, and meeting her new classmates that she almost messes up Mami’s big experiment. Can she figure out how to make things right, or is she destined to be sent back to Earth?

Where It Rains in Color

Colonized by the descendants of Earth’s West African Dogon Tribe, the planet of Swazembi is a blazing, color-rich utopia and famous vacation center of the galaxy. No one is used to serious trouble in this idyllic, peace-loving world, least of all the Rare Indigo.

But Lileala’s perfect, pampered lifestyle is about to be shattered. The unthinkable happens and her glorious midnight skin becomes infected with a mysterious disease. Where her skin should glisten like diamonds mixed with coal, instead it scabs and scars. On top of that, she starts to hear voices in her head, and everything around her becomes confusing and frightening.

Lileala’s destiny, however, goes far beyond her beauty. While searching for a cure, she stumbles upon something much more valuable. A new power awakens inside her, and she realizes her whole life, and the galaxy with it, is about to change…

The Scourge Between Stars

As acting captain of the starship Calypso, Jacklyn Albright is responsible for keeping the last of humanity alive as they limp back to Earth from their forebears’ failed colony on a distant planet.

Faced with constant threats of starvation and destruction in the treacherous minefield of interstellar space, Jacklyn's crew has reached their breaking point. As unrest begins to spread throughout the ship’s Wards, a new threat emerges, picking off crew members in grim, bloody fashion.

Jacklyn and her team must hunt down the ship’s unknown intruder if they have any hope of making it back to their solar system alive.

The Sevenfold Hunters by Rose Egal

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm not usually a sci-fi girl but I spent the past weekend in fictional London at Carlisle Academy where things aren't exactly what they seem. This series starter lured me in with hints of mystery surrounding an elite school and promises of alien hunting. I received an arc from Page Street of this unique debut.

The Sevenfold Hunters is a dual pov YA sci-fi that follows Artemis and Abyan, two girls from similar parts of London who've been living very different lives. 

Artemis has been living a fairly normal life up until a few months ago when her boyfriend was killed after they were attacked by the Nosaru on an outing. Since then she's been trying to unravel the mystery surrounding Carlisle Academy which appears to be an elite private school with a stricter admissions process than Oxford and Cambridge.

Abyan and the rest of her crew are still grieving the loss of beloved teammate Jared who was killed by the Nosaru, vampire like aliens. As if Abyan needed one more reason to be out to destroy them. Losing a teammate was bad enough but now school administration is pushing her team to move on and has brought in newbie Artemis as a replacement. 

While there are some hints of  romance it was refreshing that romance didn't overshadow the rest of the story. Friendship shines in this book with the Sevenfold being a tight knit team finding themselves torn apart after Jared's death. Readers often get told characters are friends in books with large casts but we don't always see those relationships played out well on page. The Sevenfold banter with each other on a day to day basis and we see the ways in which the team is disconnected because of their grief. Newcomer Artemis finds it hard to fit in with the crew because they don't like that she's replacing Jared and they're even more suspicious when they find out she's his ex girlfriend. It doesn't help that she's terrible at fighting and she's discovering new things about herself.

As much as I love a loud badass sometimes it's nice to see a protagonist with quiet strength which we see here with Abyan. She's an elite fighter but doesn't constantly have to shout it from the rooftops, which makes her an ideal leader for the crew. Though she has her moments where her own agendas get in the way of missions there's a realistic fallout from that.

I will say the fights felt a bit breezed through when they faced off with the Nosaru and I wanted to linger a little bit more to really feel the impact. But the revelations at the end of this book have me ready to see how the Sevenfold are impacted in book 2 and this was a solid start the series.

Flood City by Daniel Jose Older

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I recently read my first Daniel Jose Older book and now I'm on to my second. Flood City's premise sounded interesting to me last year but I don't usually read sci-fi because I struggle with understanding the genre. But I figured since I gel with his writing style and since this is MG it would be a litter easier for me to process.

Flood City is the last city left on Earth after floods covered the planet. It's protected by the totalitarian Starguard who keep everyone fed though the food tastes like wet towels.  Meanwhile the Chemical Barons, who once ruled earth and are looking to reclaim city without it's pesky inhabitants getting in the way.

Interesting that he wrote this back in 2011 when dystopian books were all the rage and he wanted to write an adventure story with monsters and fighting. And while white stories dominated the shelves and these stories barely if at all have brown people in them Flood City is full of brown people of various shades. The barons are a group of white people who escaped to space because they knew the flood was coming.

We see Flood City through the eyes of different characters. Max was born in Flood City and can navigate it better than anyone else.  Max has music skills but is bored of the sameness of the music allowed by the Star Guard. Yala joins the Star Guard even though she doesn't agree with them and is in space trying to survive their hostile training environment made only worse by being one of the few human recruits. Ato is a baron in training who ends up in Flood City after a mission doesn't go as planned and finds himself questioning everything he's been taught.

The audiobook was narrated by his wife Brittany N Williams and her narration was so good. I've been struggling with audiobooks lately but her voice brought this story to life. This is a fast-paced and fun story that mixes sci-fi along with fantasy elements. There's cool technology and strange creatures like the iguana-gulls that can tear you apart with their beaks and cut through metal with their claws. And I don't know if this was intentional but in my mind I was picturing a dystopian style New Orleans. 

My favorite part was the daily announcement through the Flood City Gazette. It's a Star Guard published newspaper that adds some comic relief while annoying the citizens.

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I finished The Blood Trials a few days ago and while I usually like to give my raw instant reaction, I needed a few days to digest and put my thoughts in order. One of my most highly anticipated reads of 2022, it didn't disappoint. Thank you, Harper Voyager for sending me a copy for review.

Ikenna lives in the Republic of Mareen where a potential war is brewing between Mareen and the Accacian Empire. She has trained her whole life to serve Mareen however things change when her grandfather is murdered. Her grandfather held one of the highest ranked positions as Legatus Commander but that still didn't earn him respect in a world that hated him for his half Khanaian heritage. Convinced it's the only way to uncover the truth and avenge his death, Ikenna joins the Praetorian Trials. Ikenna and her friends knew it would be brutal going in but they had no idea how brutal until they find themselves fighting in a literal battle of life or death inflicted upon them by their training officers. Ikenna must find the strength to stay alive as a target for death by her peers while also hiding a special gift and hunting down her grandfather's killer. 

This was a fast-paced military sci-fi fantasy with a little mystery blended in. The world of Mareen is like Earth but not. Familiar phrases don the pages rather than purple prose making it an easy read. There is futuristic feeling tech and I liked the contrast of how Mareen is vs Khanai not just in terms of what the people look like but their values, traditions, and foods they eat.

N.E. Davenport has a way of depicting violence that many fantasy writers struggle with. Sometimes I'll read about violent actions happening in a story but don't actually feel the full effect. Here it doesn't feel like things are just happening. You can actually picture every gruesome detail. I found myself squirming while reading some parts and there's images I won't get out of my head any time soon. And I'm not even a very visual reader! 

I thought I would hate the romance and was prepared to but I found myself rooting for their complicated dynamic. Another thing N.E. Davenport does well is writing unpredictable characters. Just when I thought I had a character figured out they would switch and I realized I didn't know them at all. Ikenna herself is morally gray and utterly selfish. There were so many times I wanted to shake some sense into her as she lets her grief effect her discernment as lives are on the line including her own. I liked that she did end up having to face the consequences of her actions head on. 

I also liked how the very white environment was addressed. Because Ikenna put herself into this position where she's almost killed multiple times over the color of her skin. I liked that we get a scene with her family friends pulling her aside and asking her why she ignored their messages reaching out to offer support. They also tried to make her see that she didn't need to put herself through the trials to get revenge for her grandfather. She convinced herself that there was only one path but if she would've been less impulsive she would've realized sooner she could've rallied support among her grandfather's allies. These are the types of conversations and reflections I need to see more of.

My biggest critique would have to be the very lengthy first chapter that took some time to get into. And the way the first few of chapters read very teenish and on the nose. Adult readers really don't need to be told over that so and so was misogynist or racist. It's easy to tell by their actions. Also the second half had a stronger sense of the world than the first half.

I think this book will be a good read for readers who like YA SFF but are looking to transition into more Adult SFF reads. These are characters who are heading out into the adult world and are cussing, drinking, and making irrational decisions under less guidance. Things get messy! I also think people who want a fast-paced less dense SFF read will appreciate this one also. It also had a very episodic feel to it and there were nights where my heart was racing and I couldn't put it down. I'm looking forward to Book 2.

Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brisett

 Welcome Back, Booklovers! I've been wanting to read more science fiction by Black authors so when Tor Books gave me the opportunity to read Destroyer of Light I took on the challenge. 

There's an alien race called krestge who invaded Earth and the remaining inhabitants of Earth fled to the planet of Eleusis. A woman named Deidra has her daughter, Cora kidnapped from her by the rebel army. The rebel army is kidnapping children and turning them into soldiers, sex trafficking them, and killing them. Dr. Aidoneus Okoni, the ruler of this army, plans to use Cora’s unique powers to shift into another dimension.

It follows a few different characters which include a set of twins investing the kidnapping of a missing child of mixed alien and human parentage. He has a special eye color which Okani is seeking. It also follows Stefonie who has genetic coding that can blend in with time and move around and experience other memories. I didn't really care about the twins and they weren't as heavily featured as Cora who despite all the sexual violence against her had a compelling story. The story flips back and forth between years, weeks, hours, and present day which makes it hard to follow along at times.

I thought the author did something very different than many authors are doing with their retellings of Persephone. Don't come into this book expecting a Hades and Persephone romance because you'll be greatly disappointed. This book instead goes dark with the myth of Hade's kidnapping of Persephone. There were frequent scenes depicting child rape and violence at the hands of child soldiers. The audiobook had great narrators who really brought this story to life by knowing when to inflict the right emotions. They kept me reading but up until the end it was a very confusing story. After I finished I was still in a bit of a haze trying to make sense of everything. 

Start with This Then Grab This!

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I often see preconceived notions of adult books being inaccessible. And sometimes people find them harder to navigate because the books aren't always marketed in your face like YA.  So maybe some of these suggestions can help with branching out into adult sff.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna is heavy epic fantasy about outcast girls who find their power and if you're eager for something in a similar vein I suggest you read Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston which is another epic fantasy about a young woman training to be a force in her world.

    

      

Who didn't love Cinderella as a little girl? But these two stories aren't the simple tale of the girl with the glass slippers who went to the ball. Cinder by Marissa Meyer gave us a dystopian twist presenting Cinderella as a bad ass mechanic. So if you loved Cinder try The Shadow in the Glass by JJA Harwood, a gothic retelling of the classic tale where Ella gets seven wishes that each come with a price to pay.

 

 

The Good for Nothings by Danielle Banas is a smart and funny sci-fi adventure about Cora and her merry band of misfits who are offered their freedom in exchange for going on a dangerous quest across the galaxy. If you're looking for another offbeat space opera Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes has you covered. Captain Eva and her crew must undergo a series of missions to earn money to pay her sister's ransom. But this is no easy feat when dealing with pyscho cats and a fish-faced emperor's advances.

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azhad is a stunning high fantasy set in a city along the Silk Road where people of all faiths have rebuilt after a djinn attack and a girl finds herself in the middle of a war between two feuding djinn clans. Middle Eastern food and folklore provide inspiration for a dynamic atmosphere. Once you're done you can check out S. A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass where a girl stumbles upon a secret city of djinn that make be the key to discovering her own heritage.

 

If you enjoyed the magic in Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Corthron and the look at every day life of Black people during the Jim Crow era than I suggest you read The Conductors by Nicole Glover which is set in the post Civil War era and you'll find the unique take on magic to be similar in some ways.