REBECCA LANGHAM
  • Home
  • Rebecca Langham
    • Bio
    • SERIES: The Outsider Project
    • Novellas
    • Interviews
    • Contact
  • KARA RIPLEY
    • About Kara
    • Romance Stories
  • ceLEStial book reviews

REVIEW: THe Fletcher by k. aten

16/8/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
GENRE: Adventure Romance

MAIN PAIRING/S: F/F

HEAT LEVEL: Low. Implied only.

​‘The Fletcher’ is K. Aten’s debut novel and, bearing that in mind, does a rather good job of engaging the reader and constructing strong characters. You can certainly see the evolution and development of her storytelling skill since then, though.

As a lesbian born in the mid 80s, I went through my entire teenage life alongside Xena: Warrior Princess and, of course, this was where I first learned of Amazons, the legendary women at the heart of Aten’s book. Though Amazons, historically, were likely Scythian and not Greek, I’m drawn to anything that has such an intriguing backdrop as the Ancient Greek world and Amazonian women.


I noticed many similarities with Xena at times, however, as nearly all the details featured in the classic episode “Hooves & Harlots” cropped up in The Fletcher. From the centaur conflict and eventual birth of a hybrid child, to the challenge to the queen’s power, fights with chobos, or the use of an overhead gesture as a sign of peace. There’s still plenty here to show off Aten’s imagination and it’s not necessarily a negative to see so much content mirror the first (and I believe, best and most iconic) appearance of the amazons on Xena, but I found my internal monologue about the overt parallels distracting -- particularly in the first half of the novel.

The book features some fun and adventurous moments, including (and please read this as though you’re Cary Elwes in Men in Tights) an archery contest! There's a touch of magic in Kyri's athletic feats, hinting at a larger fantasy arc that I imagine Aten picks up in Book 2. She's done well to create a platform for the rest of the series. Not at all easy to do!

Our main character, Kyri, goes through some very sweet personal growth, building a new family and realising a host of new things about herself. At times, her reasons for avoiding her romantic interest seemed a little unconvincing, but she herself realises this eventually too, which is great to see. It was also so great to see a sweet story unfold without any overly graphic scenes, as such stories seem to be few and far between.

The story does lack a strong through-line though, in that there’s no real external conflict. Kyri wants to be an Amazon and that’s the crux of the story: passing the tests and assimilating into the culture. I myself have struggled to learn to balance internal and external conflict in my writing and I know from reading Waking the Dreamer that Aten has already made huge leaps in this area. I imagine I can learn lots from her--as a writer--as I continue to read her books, which are released with impressive frequency.

Despite this lack of conflict, there was enough happening in The Fletcher to keep me interested and engaged. I’m actually so terrible at following up on a series and the fact I want to read the next one tells me there’s a certain something in this story that’s got me hooked.

Picture
0 Comments

review: rise of the resistance by jackie d

25/1/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
REVIEWED BY REBECCA

GENRE: Dystopian (light on the scifi)

PAIRING: F/F

HEAT LEVEL: Explicit (one scene)

WARNINGS: Lots. Racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia, anti-refugee sentiments, murder, suggestions of rape etc. This is all presented all abhorrent, and most of it isn't detailed or explicit, but those confronting themes are there and some readers may wish to be aware of this going in.

REVIEW

Rise of the Resistance by Jackie D is, overall, a solid dystopian fiction that finds itself caught somewhere between being a thought-provoking and didactic political thriller, and a fairly typical lesbian romance with a generic futuristic backdrop. As a fan of the former who is somewhat tired of the latter, this was a difficult book for which to write a review.

Kaelyn Trapp, otherwise known as Phoenix One, is cryogenically frozen — one of a chosen four— sleeping away seventy years until the time is right to stage a coup and overthrow a morally bankrupt government. Arrow, Kaelyn’s guardian, a true believer in what this (potentially ignorant) Australian reader can only best describe as ‘the American Dream’, an idealistic woman of integrity, has worked her whole life to prepare for the war to come. What isn’t to love about this plot?

Exploring a future in which men like Donald Trump have not only been allowed to rule, but have been elevated to the cult-like status representative of many of history’s authoritarian dictatorships, this novel has plenty to offer. The ‘President’ and his heir, both MacLeod, make for fascinating reading. Jackie D explores how racist, homophobic, xenophobic leaders manage to seize, manipulate, and maintain power.

“First, he paid off a major media organisation. Its sole purpose was to discredit the others until people who were loyal to him only tuned in to that outlet…Next, he started to discredit our FBI…It didn’t matter how many of his statements were proven as lies, or how horrible his remarks about women and minorities…”

And I have no doubt that this novel has been inspired by a deep-rooted societal concern about Trump:

“Nora sat on the couch. She ran her hands down her form-fitting red dress. She was perfect. Hell, if she hadn’t been his own daughter, he probably would’ve tried to sleep with her by now.”

Nora, MacLeod’s daughter, is the character I found the most fascinating in this story. She’s deplorable in many ways, but also far more intelligent than her father, and the only member of the cast to do something that I found genuinely surprising. Nora is a political mastermind working within a patriarchal, sexist framework in which the inequalities of today have been exacerbated and even legalised. If Nora appears in the next book in some significant capacity, I’ll be reading it.

Kaelyn and Arrow are likeable, but also unremarkable. Kaelyn is said to be the absolute best person to restore democracy and freedom, but some aspects of her personality and supposed expertise struck me incongruent with this claim. She is good at giving speeches filled with a lot of platitudes and patriotism, but many of the finer aspects of leadership are left to the reader to assume. There were also some instances where her lack of knowledge (probably more for the reader’s benefit so that Arrow or her mother could then deliver an explanation) didn’t make sense to me. That said, I suspect she is meant to personify the traits of American culture that are most admirable, an ideological foundation of fairness and compassion. Which is just kinda nice, really.

Arrow is almost nauseatingly ‘good’, the proverbial knight-in-shining-armour, where even her faults are positive. I didn’t mind either of the two leading ladies, but I also didn’t feel particularly connected to the pair because they were presented as practically perfect. When someone in the novel pointed out the fact that these two were in their positions of power and influence because they’d been born to the ‘right’ families, I cheered a little. It had been frustrating me that two people, both born to presidents and living a fairly protected life, were apparently the only ones who could save America (and this is very much a book steeped in all things American). Arrow is a warrior who has a few action scenes that many readers will enjoy. I was pleased to see that Arrow didn’t resort to fatal gunshots as her first method of defence (or attack). 

The romance between Kaelyn and Arrow is, I imagine, what many readers will come to see. Given that the relationship frustrated me because it kept detracting from the dystopian elements I was enjoying so much as well as what I perceived as deep repetition of the “we shouldn’t go there because we have a duty to others” trope, lots of people will love it. But this is what I meant earlier when I said this book was, I thought, caught between wanting to be a standard romance ‘lesfic’, with the meet-desire-angst-denial-more angst-give in-deny again-HEA plot line many know and love, and a speculative fiction with a heck of a lot of meat on its bones. 

Readers like me will want less focus on the internal dialogue attached to the relationship and more exploration of the dystopian setting and its deep-rooted psychological conflicts. Romance-lovers will possibly want to see the reverse. You can see why this review got so long, right? I mean, I love parts of this book, but I also wanted to skip sections.

I have my fingers crossed that subsequent novels in the series will explore characters ‘on the ground’ so to speak, looking at History From Below. I think this will really draw out those complex social and political concepts that are there, but not quite developed. I’d be really interested to hear from anyone else who has read this one. What did you think?! 

PURCHASE from AMAZON, BOOK DEPOSITORY, or BOLD STROKE BOOKS.


0 Comments

review: princeless - Raven the pirate princess by jeremy whitley

6/1/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture

Genre: fantasy (comic book)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

Rating: 5 stars

Reviewed by Anon.

Okay so I don’t generally like comics. I’d much rather make the images in my head than let them be made for me on the page (and comic reading slows me down, so I can’t read as fast as I would like). But wow, was this worth it!

Book one covers the story of Pirate Princess Raven, out for revenge against her brother and fathers who thought she was better off locked in a tower, guarded by a dragon, than inheriting her father’s pirating business. We get to see Raven collect her motley crew, get a decent number of origin stories, and get the first hint of romance (yay!) between Raven and Sunshine.

The comic has all the good stuff. Action. Adventure. Kissing. Various body sizes. More than one skin tone. Solid voice. The crew are diverse and three dimensional and oh-so bingeworthy. We’ve got a chemist (yay!) who loves to make things explode, a mapmaker with an axe to grind, a half-elf thief/dancer (YES PLEASE), and ‘the muscle’, a Brienne of Tarth character, for the Game of Thrones fans out there. Raven herself  is a pirate princess I would follow anywhere. Seriously, sign me up for the next voyage.

The art style as well (by Rosy Higgins and Ted Brandt) is detailed without being overwhelming. It flows well with the writing and the panels aren’t so overwhelmed with detail that you get bogged down in looking (and then get distracted from the story).
​

I promptly went and bought the second book after finishing the first. I’d suggest buying the whole series, because it is really hard to put the comic down. High tension on the high seas for sure. BUY IT!
 
You can snag your own pirate princess and her crew of misfits here in paperback and here in ebook.

0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture

    ABOUT C.B.

    CURRENTLY ON HIATUS FOR UNIVERSITY STUDY AND WORK. 

    Book reviews, Author Q&As and more as shared by an Australian lesbian. My core interests lie in genre fiction: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror etc.
    ​
    My aim is to help provide more exposure to those books that  may not fit neatly into the usual "lesfic" boxes (EG: pansexual women who engage with different aspects of their sexuality, non-binary characters, books with very little romance etc.) or books that don't conform to the most popular tropes that tend to dominate the LGBTIQ+ publishing world.

    That said, I'll put up pretty much any review that I'd like to share. Most will have some sort of rainbow content, but not all. I am a reader who likes to talk about books -- that's really what this little corner of the web is for, to talk about books.

    ​Email: celestialbooks [AT] rebeccalangham.com.au


    Archives

    August 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    July 2016

    Categories

    All
    1. # Submit A Book
    Ace Rep
    Action/Adventure
    Anime & Manga
    Anthologies
    Australian Author
    Author Q&A
    BDSM
    Beneath The Surface
    Bisexual
    Bisexual F/F
    Bisexual M/F
    Bisexual M/M
    Blog Post
    Book Review
    Book Trailer
    Book Updates
    Comic Books/Graphic Novels
    Contemporary Fiction
    Cops
    Crime Fiction
    Dystopian
    Fade To Black
    Fairy Tales
    Fantasy
    F/F/F
    Five Stars
    Gender Neutral
    Give Away
    Guest Blog
    Historical Fiction
    Horror Novels
    Intersex Characters
    Journalists
    Kara Ripley
    Lesbian Sci Fi
    Literary Fiction
    Love Triangle
    M/M/F
    M/M Fiction
    MPREG
    Mystery
    Mythology
    New Release
    NineStar Press
    Non Binary
    Non-fiction
    No Pairing
    Pansexual
    Paranormal
    Pirates
    Polyamorous
    Post-Apocalyptic
    Release Day Blitz
    Religious Themes
    Reviews By Kaelan
    Reviews By L.A.
    Reviews By Rebecca
    Romance Novels
    Science Fiction
    Self-Published
    Space Opera
    Speculative Fiction
    Spy Stories
    Superheroes
    Third Gender
    Thriller
    Time Travel
    Trans Rep
    Urban Fantasy
    Vampires
    Western
    Wolves
    Writing
    Young Adult
    Zombies

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.