May and June 2022 Bookclub Books

I neglected to post about our book club book for May, and since we are already in June I'm going to make it a joint post. Both of these books are books I've read and reviewed before, and also loved. I'm just going to post my reviews for them again, so there really isn't anything new here, except I added an update to The Icarus Hunt, and a couple of new thoughts to The Sword of Kaigen.

I often wonder if I will still feel the same about books that I've loved in the past and with these two, I still felt the same about them, especially The Sword of Kaigen, where I had all the same feels all over again. I read the print copies of these books the first time around, and for book club I decided to listen to the audio versions. Both narrator's were fantastic!

 

May 2022 Book Club: The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn 

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Mystery, Space Opera
Content: Strong language

 

Smuggler Jordan McKell has partner Ixil, an alien whose two "ferrets" ride his shoulders and telepathically exchange simple messages. They take a job on the odd-shaped ship Icarus. But the ragtag crew was found at taverns, the secret cargo sealed tight, the employer missing, and a saboteur is aboard. After a beautiful crew member helps uncover the nature of their cargo for Earth, Jordan suspects they are in a vast conspiracy set to change human history. Unfortunately, he's right.

This book was highly recommended by a friend and it was also brought up twice as a possibility for book club. Needless to say, I added it to my to-read list, and I'm really happy that I finally got around to reading it. It was a good mystery set in space and I really like Zahn's writing style. I think he's best known for the Star Wars books he's written, and I could see some of that influence in this book. The opening scene in the bar reminded me a lot of the cantina, and the main character had some Han Solo type personality traits. I really liked his personality and sense of humor. 

 

“For a change, Lady Luck seemed to be smiling on me. Then again, maybe the fickle wench was just lulling me into a false sense of security while she reached for a rock.”

 

I wouldn't compare this overall to Star Wars though. I actually liked this book better than anything Star Wars, but that's just me. This is an interesting mash up of mystery, sci-fi, noir, and space opera, and there are plenty of twists and turns in this story to keep you intrigued. I didn't see them all coming, so that was a real plus.

I loved that this was a standalone, but also hated that it was. It was nice to read something and just get to the end of it without having to read a lot of sequels, but at the same time I wouldn't have minded a sequel to this one. I'm definitely open to reading more books by this author.

Update: Still 4 stars for me, and apparently there is a sequel in the works! It looks like a companion novel with mostly different characters, but I'll take it.

June 2022 Book Club: The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang

 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Some minor cursing; an off page rape; off page killing of children during a battle, their bodies are mentioned and briefly described. 

A mother struggling to repress her violent past,
A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?

Wow, just wow! This book really blew me away. I wasn't expecting to love it this much at all. It started out a little slow with some history lessons on the world, but once I hit chapter 6 it started to take off. By 30% in it was impossible to put down. Is it perfect? No. The modern day setting combined with the old world feeling of most of the book threw me a little at first, and the glimpses into Misaki's past life felt a little more urban fantasy than the rest of the book, but those were minor things compared to everything else that was so amazing.

One thing that I really loved about this book is that it delivered everything I was hoping it would deliver. Every time I wished for something it would eventually end up happening. Another thing I loved about this book was the elemental magic. It totally reminded me of Avatar, the Last Air Bender. This, combined with the sword fighting, made the battle scenes pretty epic. Those scenes also kept me on the edge of my seat.

I also love when a book gives me a perspective of a character that I did not see before, and this book did that brilliantly with one character that I really disliked. I ended up understanding that character later on, and no longer disliking them. The thing I loved the most about this book was the way the characters grew and developed.

 
    “You learn over time that the world isn’t broken. It’s just… got more pieces to it than you thought. They all fit together, just maybe not the way you pictured when you were young.”
 

This book packed such an emotional punch, and anytime a book makes me feel the way this one did, it's guaranteed to get 5 stars from me. I'm pretty stingy with 5 stars, so this is the first book I've given 5 stars to in over a year. If you enjoy reading epic fantasy I highly recommend this book. It will break your heart and put it back together. It will have you staying up at all hours of the night reading it. It will have you crying at 2 am. It will give you all of those feels that you have come to love from epic fantasy.

 
    “Wholeness, she had learned, was not the absence of pain but the ability to hold it.”
 

Update: Still 5 stars. I would say the biggest drawback would be that there are plot threads left without resolution, but the story ends nicely. Also, I didn't think it was necessary for the author to change the names of time measurements. Minutes, seconds, hours, etc. would have worked fine in the story and been less confusing.