booksthatburn's reviews
1463 reviews

SIGILS OF SPRING weaves together the search for a therapist with the intrusion of a ghost hunter and a side of kidnapping, forcing Quintin to work through some issues in unexpected ways. As per usual, what Quintin and Laurence are trying to accomplish in their personal lives is disrupted by the intervention of someone wildly out of their control, and not at all welcome. Some things happened in RITES OF WINTER that were traumatic for both of them, let alone all the childhood shit that Quentin is newly poised to deal with if only he could get the right tools.

I don’t think I’ve said this nearly as often I should have, the narrator is a delight, easy to listen to, and managing to convey a variety of voices with ease. I'm reading the whole series by audiobook and having a great time.

Quentin is trying to find a therapist he’s comfortable with, one where he can work through his issues and be a better person, a better partner, and perhaps someday stop having nightmares about the abuse he endured as a child. Unfortunately, some guy with a YouTube channel and way too much time on his hands has decided to harass Quintin until he confesses to being haunted by his mother's ghost. The actual answer, that he’s telekinetic, would just make things worse, so Quentin, Laurence, and the kids have to hide away from a crowd of enthusiastic ghost hunters hoping to see proof of something that isn't happening. Quentin can't prove a negative, and the ghost hunters won't take no for an answer.

The kidnapping itself is both introduced and resolved here. Because it’s mentioned in the book's description I was expecting it to happen much earlier than it did. My advice to any other readers in the same position would be to enjoy the story that’s happening, since things take a while to escalate to that point. This is not the last book in the series, far from it, and it leaves several things for later. Some are related to therapy, plus dealing with the aftermath of the kidnapping. The teasing nature of the epilogues are leading toward something far more substantial with Rufus, but that hasn’t fully materialized yet.

It’s technically possible for things to make sense to someone who tried to start with SIGILS OF SPRING, partly because Quentin's need to find a therapist means that we get convenient summaries of much of what has happened that he’s trying to work through. Because the series is organized into distinct arcs, grouped by the titles, this is the second book in the second sequence, and anyone determined to jump into the series partway through would do much better with RITES OF WINTER as their starting point.

As is usual for this series, SIGILS OF SPRING is a very character-driven book. The setting is grounded in a particular part of California (with brief forays elsewhere in the last two books), and the generally realistic setting allows for fun specificities to come through without  trying to explain all the details of this place. I've never been to California and don't need to in order to get what's happening. The worldbuilding as to place is light, but specific. The worldbuilding around psychic abilities, magic, and deities unfolds gradually throughout the series, letting each book carry only as much as is relevant. This method generally avoids infodumps, except when one of the characters is the one learning the information for the first time. Even then, the specifics are paired with explanations of relevance in a way that generally keeps the details from feeling like a lecture. 

In many respects, Quentin and Laurence's relationship has gotten to a much more comfortable stage, it’s everything else that gets stressful. At least as far as the big questions of "do they want to be together for the long term" and "do they have the goal of trying to make this work", the answers seem to be "yes and yes", they're just figuring out what that looks like. In RITES OF WINTER, Quentin made a commitment involving Laurence that's more serious and binding than even marriage would be, and Laurence is trying to process that and take it as the declaration of sincerity that it is. I didn't discuss it in my review of RITES OF WINTER because it's towards the end and would be too much of a spoiler, but I love the way that Quentin bound himself to sharing an afterlife with Laurence without needing to stop being an atheist. It lets him stay true to himself while also taking seriously the fact that Laurence's belief system features unequivocally extant deities. It's also part of him accepting how much he'd been abused, understanding that he'd need an afterlife's respite to deal with as much as he could instead of being immediately reborn as a new person who didn't remember the damage but held on to the pain. Since he lived two decades of his life in a state very much resembling that possibility, he's especially determined not to inflict that state of pain without memory on any future version of his soul.

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS is a collaborator's view of colonization, as a girl with the power to wield death agrees to work with a prince among the colonizers because he promises to use her in pursuit of lasting peace. 

Ruying has been trying to keep her twin sister alive and their grandmother cared for even as everything else is falling apart. Their city is divided, literally, with half of it carved away for use by the Roman colonizers from another world who have held the city in their grip for more than two decades. The Romans brought a powerfully addictive drug with them, promising it would unlock the people's magic but all it has brought is pain. After losing their father to the drug, Ruying is trying to wean her sister off of it, bargaining away whatever possessions she must in order to keep her family together. Already in this precarious state, Ruying is unable to say no when a mistake lands her in Roman dungeons, faced with torture and death unless she agrees to help one of the princes with his dreams of peace through Death like only Ruying can wield. 

Ruying is a fascinating main character. Normally I don't like characters who make terrible decisions when a better option is clearly available, but that's not quite what's happening here. There's an ongoing discussion of which definition of "better" should be applied. Ruying's choice might not be the one I would make, but I completely understand why she does what she does, and I don't know for sure if I'd actually disagree under the same circumstances. That tension makes for an excellent story, with Ruying fully committing to her choices once they're made, but then remaining open enough to reevaluate her situation as new facts come to light. At her core, her goal is to protect her family at any cost, and that drives her to a great many things which she would not otherwise accept. Ruying isn't the only one making such choices, early on she interacts with a sort of friend who has been collaborating with the Romans in exchange for access and power. She judges him at first, then comes to understand why he does so. Ruying finds herself in a colonized/colonizer romance, always aware of the coercion which is inextricable from her position. She cares for Anthony, but any safety she feels is always at his discretion. He might really love her, but there's no risk for him in that, not really. Whereas Ruying knows that if she loses his favor, she and her family could lose everything in an instant.

The worldbuilding is excellent. It focuses on the people, the language, and culture, frequently including passages and their translations. There are also frequent reminders of how the Roman invasion changed things, never letting the reader forget that it hasn't always been this way, even though for the reader, it has, because this is our first view of this world. As the first book in the series, this doesn't have to resolve any particular major plot point because it's still setting things up for later. Ruying makes an important decision towards the end in a way that serves as an emotional resolution/climax of the story, while establishing a new status quo for the sequel. 

RITES OF WINTER begins with an airplane trip and a sudden diversion from Quentin and Laurence's path homeward after their unplanned and very traumatic trip to Quentin's childhood abode in PAGE OF TRICKS. Quentin is exhausted by the showdown with his father and the revelation of the years of abuse he endured at his hands. He's plagued by nightmares when he sleeps, then telekinetic fits triggered by the nightmares. The whole frustrating combination makes the long trip from England all the way to California require several stops, preferably with a few days in between to acclimate to the new time zones. Unfortunately (but eventually perhaps fortunately), their stop in New York involves Quentin being kidnapped by a Black Dog, and Laurence traveling to Annwyn to find him.

As a sequel, RITES OF WINTER seems set up to serve as a good bridge between the previous arc involving Quentin's abusive father, and what is shaping up to be the next major story arc involving a malevolent figure, this time connected to Rufus (Laurence's tutor in magic). I've particularly enjoyed the way each book in this series feels episodic. They're coherent as stories from beginning to end, but each occupies very specific places within the series and in connection to the books around one another. One of the ongoing plot threads which receives much attention here is Quentin's need to process his new revelations about his traumatic childhood, as well as specific acknowledgement from Laurence that he also has things to process in addition to his drug abuse and addiction. The main storyline in this book revolves around Quentin being kidnapped and taken to Annwyn, and Laurence teaming up with some newly acquired friends to get him back. This kidnapping itself is both introduced and resolved, as well as giving the opportunity to establish some new connections for the future. 

This is definitely not the final book in the series, and the epilogue continues to tease an upcoming villain who was first introduced in the epilogue to PAGE OF TRICKS. Normally I have to work a bit to figure out what the good entry points into a long-running series might be, but the titles ease my way in this. They seem to be grouped by theme, with PAGE OF TRICKS as the final book in the sequence with [court title] of [thing] as the naming convention that began with JACK OF THORNS, and RITES OF WINTER as the first in the [magic word] of [season] string of titles (next up is SIGILS OF SPRING). 

Previously I'd described Quentin as sex-repulsed and likely asexual. This is the point at which I asked for clarification from the author and got answers, because his sex-repulsion was trauma-related but it's hard to tell at this point whether he's potentailly interested in sex generally, or if he's demi and just interested in Laurence. The author's response is that he's sex-repulsed and demisexual, specifically interested in Laurence. This is consistent with how Quentin is portrayed throughout the series, but it's nice to know the official answer. 

The worldbuilding focuses on Annwyn and related non-earthly realms, building out this picture of the afterlife Laurence is destined for when he eventually dies, as a pagan and follower of Herne. There were two women in the dream he had several books ago which revealed his lineage to him, and we're finally getting more detail on the woman who isn't his ancestor because she fled into Annwyn to escape Herne.

I'm very excited about the new magical friends Laurence met here, I have high hopes that this couple will be the stars of their own book at some point. Even if they aren't, I like them a great deal and want them to stick around. They make a great addition to the ensemble, and their interactions with ghosts have great potential for future plots.

I continue to love these books, their handling of abuse and the very slow process of recovery is so cathartic to read. Laurence and Quentin have a lot to work through, and they're taking to time to do it properly amid each new strange incident.

ANCILLARY MERCY is an excellent conclusion to the Imperial Radch trilogy, with Breq solving a series of issues and helping out other people, but not framing her as some big damn hero able to fix every problem in the empire. She can't and she's not trying to do so. She can't fix the way that Anaander Mianaai is it war with herself, or the way that Breq doesn't know which Anaander Mianaai has which goal. This was an immensely satisfying ending, building on many things from the first two books, especially ANCILLARY SWORD, as this relates to Athoek Station pretty directly even though the previous book ended with them leaving the station.

ANCILLARY MERCY wraps up many details which were left hanging, almost everything I consciously noticed as being unresolved by the end of ANCILLARY SWORD gets handled in some way by ANCILLARY MERCY. There's an almost new story related to the Presger Empire, bringing in one of the most refreshing and delightful characters I've read in a long while. The translator is in a category all her own, and I would not expect any other of my favorite characters to compete with her. I found myself deeply relating to a lot of the ways that she expresses identity, especially for myself as a nonbinary trans person. There's a moment where someone asks whether she did a particular thing as a child and she replies something to the effect that she's never been a child, yes this body was a child at one point, but she wasn't the one in it at the time. I really like much of how she (and Breq) discuss identity. The Presger seemed to have something rather more suddenly shaped by names than any kind of directly human analog could encompass under most circumstances, but it reminds me of other transgender people I know for whom choosing a new name allowed them to embrace a new self in a way that hasn't been part of my own transition. I also like Breq's change in understanding about Ship, and the implications this has for all the various beings that the Radch constructed and consider to be tools. 

This would not be a good place for a new reader to start, as it's the conclusion of a trilogy, but much of the story could make sense to someone who persisted in doing so. It's excellent from start to finish, though it greatly benefits from the context and characterization of the first two books in order to let the reader fully appreciate the more unusual ways that they get into conversations of identity. 

The whole trilogy is great and I'm very happy with ANCILLARY MERCY as the conclusion.

PAGE OF TRICKS is where everything comes to a head, where Laurence, Quentin, Frederick, and Michael end up colliding together in the worst way

PAGE OF TRICKS ties together plot threads from the entire series so far, by way of alerting Laurence and Quentin to Michael's association with Frederick. Unfortunately, that notification was done by means of kidnapping and torture. Everything has been building to the problem of how to let Quentin know that his father abused him as a child. This issue is complicated by the way Quentin blacks out and doesn't retain any memory of the conversation if anyone tries to discuss it with him. Laurence is at a loss, not sure how much Quentin can be pushed to do in the process of confronting and assimilating that knowledge. While this storyline has a definite beginning middle and end, ordinarily I think it would require the earlier books in order to have emotional resonance at this point. Though the emotional catharsis will definitely be higher for anyone who has read the entire series so far, what Quentin's father did is so horrible that if someone tried to start here their experience would more closely match Quentin's, given his repeated amnesia on this topic, which may well end up as a cathartic and fairly coherent reading experience (though not the route I recommend). 

There's a mostly new storyline surrounding Frederick and Michael kidnapping and torturing Laurence in order to force Quentin to come to England and return to his father's clutches. The actual kidnapping and torture is new, but the pressures that led to this moment have been brewing at least since Frederick was first introduced, and technically since the JACK OF THORNS when Laurence first learned of Quentin's blackouts and their very specific set of triggers. 

I like this opportunity to see Nicholas and Michael's relationship from the outside, though it is definitely not the focus. Michael seems content to be protected and used sometimes as his own person and other times as an extension of Nicholas whenever he needs it. Quentin and Laurence's relationship has been adversely affected by Laurence knowing a secret about Quentin's past that Quentin has been unable to process or remember up until this point, leaving Laurence in an uncertain state. Laurence has been stuck in this terrible position of technically keeping a secret, but knowing with his future sight that even if he tells Quentin, it won’t matter because Quentin won’t be able to remember it. Laurence is certain that it'll just hurt Quentin over and over if he tries to break the news to him.

worldbuilding - Until now, a lot of the worldbuilding focused on different kinds of magic and the characters' location in California. Instead, they have to travel to Englandhis provides an opportunity to show some of Inklings, but it’s definitely not trying to be a European tour. This deals at least for now with the storyline about Quentin, his father, and past abuse. This will definitely have effects in future books, as I would be shocked if Quentin is done processing everything that happens, and Laurence definitely will need to process what he’s gone through in this book. That being said, it’s likely that for at least a few books the focus will be outside Quentin's family trauma. Though, I do note that for as many times as he's been mentioned, their younger brother has yet to appear, so he will likely play some role in future books. 

This is not the last book, and the epilogue serves as a teaser for an upcoming villain. It invokes knowledge of a character who has been around in an important though generally minor role for the last few books, but whose own traumatic backstory has not yet been resolved. I like the way the epilogues have generally served this role in the series, connecting together plot threads and giving an idea of what's coming up next. Once again, it's enough information to pique my interest and get a sense of future storylines, but not in a way that would be a cliffhanger.