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Ardis Ardis's Favorite Books Award Winners Reviews Science Fiction

Velocity Weapon is Fun and Brilliant

written by Ardis

Don’t forget to check out my Book Club Discussion Questions for Velocity Weapon, but beware – all Discussion Question posts are full of spoilers.

Biran flicked his gaze to a small collection of family items the decorating crew had nailed to his foyer wall, and zeroed in on one picture: Sanda, on the day they promoted her to captain of her gunship. Her grin wide, prideful. One arm slung, protectively, around Brian’s shoulders. She’d always looked out for him. Made a career of it.
His turn.

I knew when I picked it up that Velocity Weapon would be firmly in my wheelhouse. A space opera promising mystery, tragedy, epic intergalactic politics, and rogue AI? I’m 100% in. My buy-in was cemented when I saw that Noumenon’s author Marina J. Lostetter had provided a glowing quote for the back cover.

Even with hopes this high, I was blown away by all Velocity Weapon had to offer.

April 2, 2020 1 comment

Ardis Literary Fiction Reviews Science Fiction

The Little Animals

written by Ardis

He is not making much headway, and Leeuwenhoek passes him by like a meteor, cutting a swathe through the milling necks. He looks back to see Vermeer standing, doffing his cap, whether to a goose or a person he cannot see, a dark blot in the midst of a rippling, cacophonous, white canvas.

Sarah Tolmie’s The Little Animals is billed as a scifi historical fiction about a dude who discovers tiny animals and has to deal with that knowledge. Tiny animals? I’m in!

What was apparent to everyone but me (I have since gathered) is that the “tiny animals” he’s discovered are microscopic organisms. It’s cool, but I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t a little disappointed not to be reading about, like, really small elephants and stuff.

Once I accepted my loss, I had to admit that the story I was reading was actually very cool in its own right.

April 1, 2020 0 comment

Ardis Ardis's Lists Award Winners Literary Fiction Science Fiction Short Story Collection

The Philip K. Dick Award, 2020

written by Ardis

Each year the Philip K. Dick award is given to “the best science fiction paperback novel published in the United States in the previous calendar year” at Norwescon. This year, the award ceremony will take place in Seattle, WA, on April 10th.

Between now and then, I will be working to read and review all of the nominees. Hopefully, I’ll have time to circle back before the ceremony and update this list with my bet (and my vote), but if the past is any indication I’ll be reading down to the wire.

For now, read on for a little about each book as a nominee. One by one I’ll add review links to this page, so if you’re following along (or reading along), be sure to bookmark this page and check back for the latest updates.

February 18, 2020 0 comment

2020 Ardis Literary Fiction Reviews

Dear Edward

written by Ardis

“Are you ok?” … “How’s the pain?” … “How’re you doing?”
Edward is unable to answer any of these questions. He can’t consider how he’s feeling; that door is far too dangerous to open. He tries to stay away from thoughts and emotions, as if they’re furniture he can skirt past in a room.

Going into a book bracing for overwhelming tragedy is always hard. Contemporary, realistic grave tragedy must be difficult to write, and is certainly difficult to read.

That is exactly what you have to do when you crack the spine on Dear Edward, which follows a young boy after he becomes the sole survivor of a terrible plane crash.

February 11, 2020 0 comment

Ardis Fantasy Reviews

The Hazel Wood failed to deliver

written by Ardis

I walked a block on rubbery knees, feeling the way I did the time a van clipped my bike and sent me reeling into a line of parked cars. Ella had dropped her cigarette and jumped on the fallen bike, screaming at the top of her lungs as she sped after the car. Bleeding in three places, I watched her go, glad she knew I’d rather have retribution than comfort.

As excited as I was to read Melissa Albert’s 2018 contemporary fantasy The Hazel Wood, I cannot but say that it failed to deliver on its promise. Which is unfortunate, because there was some serious promise!

The initial premise was a huge draw, setting a reality-meets-fairytale dynamic in a grim urban fantasy world. With a strong set of characters and a clear mystery to follow, this should have been an easy win. And at first it kind of was.

February 6, 2020 0 comment

2020 Ardis's Lists Lists Uncategorized

Interesting Books Released in February 2020

written by Official Decree

February is upon us and we have been scouring the new book releases to find those books we’re most excited about.

Check out this list of books we can’t wait to read in February, and let us know which ones you’re excited about (and which ones we may have missed)!

February 5, 2020 0 comment

2019 Ardis Fantasy Reviews Young Adult

Ninth House is Everything I Wanted It to Be

written by Ardis

But would it have mattered if she’d been someone else? If she’d been a social butterfly, they would have said she liked to drink away her pain. If she’d been a straight-A student, they would have said she’d been eaten alive by her perfectionism. There were always excuses for why girls died.

Leigh Bardugo’s latest book Ninth House is by every measure a success, and it’s easy to see why.

In Ninth House, Alex Stern begins her new life as a student at Yale University. But with her background, and her ability, she’s not like the other students. In Ninth House we explore, through Alex, a blend of the real and the unreal as she learns about Yale’s exclusive clubs and their influence, their dealings with magic and ritual and power.

January 21, 2020 0 comment

Ardis Ardis's Lists Award Winners Reflection

Ardis’s Top 15 Books of the Decade

written by Ardis

This past decade brought change and opportunity, perhaps none more for me than a renewed commitment to reading. It didn’t really start until 2016, when I finally started to see my Goodreads challenge as more than just a perfunctory exercise. I started keeping up with books as they were published, following authors and publishers on their various media, and engaging with book reviewers and reading communities.

The world opened before my eyes.

2016 and 2017 were near miraculous years in genre publishing as far as I’m concerned, but the whole decade was full of beautiful, inspiring stories that continue to push the bounds of what we can, as storytellers, accomplish.That said, here are my top 15 books of the decade (presented in chronological order by publish date).

January 9, 2020 0 comment

Ardis Ardis's Lists Byron Lists

Interesting Books to be Released January 2020

written by Official Decree

Happy New Year!

Have you decided to read more books this year? Do you want to explore a variety of genres? Are you interested in what we are adding to our (already hopelessly behind) stack of stuff to read? This post is for you!

At the beginning of every month, we scour the interwebs for info about new book releases. We read a lot of sites for recommendations: Amazon, B&N, other bloggers in our WordPress Feed, NYT, Washington Post, AV Club, Ars Technica, Popular Mechanics, and many many more that google-fu or spam email might provide. We each make lists of the particularly interesting stuff that stands out to us, we talk about them, and we get really excited about the coming month! This year, we’ve decided to share those monthly lists with the public!

Here are the books on our radar screen for January 2020:

January 6, 2020 0 comment

2019 Ardis Reviews Thriller

Breathtaking and Unsettling: The Family Upstairs

written by Ardis

It all happened so slowly, yet so extraordinarily quickly, the change to our parents, to our home, to our lives after they arrived. But that first night, when Birdie appeared on our front step with two large suitcases and a cat in a wicker box, we could never have guessed the impact she would have, the other people she would bring into our lives, that it would all end the way it did.

We thought she had just come to stay for the weekend.

Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs is a fitting read for early winter, for its whipping winds and dropping temperatures, early dark and long, fitful nights. This book will leave you glad for that extra-cozy sweater, blinking out your window into the darkness beyond.

More than anything, Jewell has perfected the art of the “slow build”, as what starts out perfectly normal, patently ordinary, grows more wild and weird and unanswerable until you’re flipping page after page with bated breath, listening for that telltale cough that lets you know you’re not alone.

November 12, 2019 0 comment

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