Alyce Caswell - Author
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Book Reviews

Heart of Ohdearness

5/7/2023

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Shatterpoint (Star Wars Legends)
​by Matthew Stover

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​Mace Windu returns to the world of his birth, Haruun Kal, on a mission that is both urgent and personal - his former Padawan, Depa Billaba, has gone missing and a disturbing message was left in her voice inside the head of a corpse. Mace soon begins to understand the darkness that has claimed Depa. He will have to cling to the tenets of the Jedi Order to stop himself repeating her mistakes.

I am not sure who this main character was, but he certainly wasn't Mace Windu. And he certainly didn't have Mace Windu's "voice". Who knows, I might've forgiven the book its flaws if the author had chosen a random name instead...nah. Too many flaws. The first half drags badly, but I stubbornly pushed through to the much better second half (which had an admittedly exciting climax).

Too bad both halves of the book are equally problematic. The POC who live in the jungle are portrayed as permanently violent and illiterate; the antithesis of the white folk who live in town (as for any POC who grew up in said town, they are portrayed as being much more civilised). Now that was ... A Choice. A bad one.

My copy of this novel includes a short story called "Equipment", also by Stover. Not 
especially brilliant, but quite a relief to read after the terrible novel that preceded it.

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A Fistful of Drudgery

26/6/2023

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​A Fistful of Charms (The Hollows #4)
​by Kim Harrison

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When Jenks' son gets into trouble while working with Nick, Rachel drags herself out of Cincinnati and swims to the rescue. Her ex has stolen a dangerous item and it could spell disaster if it falls into the wrong hands. So this isn't your usual run. And of course Rachel is going to find a way to make things even more dangerous for herself, especially now that Ivy has joined the fun.

This was honestly one of the worst books I've ever read. The pacing was all over the place and the plot was both baffling and uninspired. Nick's character has been so poorly written and so annoyingly inconsistent that I'm glad he seems to be out of the picture again. As usual, Harrison managed to redeem herself slightly with the ending, but I won't be giving her a free pass this time. Especially since she gave us so many leery descriptions of Jenks, while continually reminding us that he's 18. So it's TOTALLY OKAY for Rachel to be constantly ogling him. Umm. No, it's really not. If he looks like a teenager, then that says a lot about Rachel - none of it good.

I think I'll have to avoid this series for a bit. Hate reading is not one of my hobbies.

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Game Over

13/4/2023

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Battle Scars (Star Wars Jedi/Disney canon)

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T​he crew of the Stinger Mantis, introduced to fans via Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, are on the trail of a MacGuffin - all thanks to a defecting Imperial, who they may or may not be able to trust. Once again, their lives are in danger. But this time, Merrin's heart is also at stake. This adventure is bound to end badly for someone.

I wish I wasn't writing yet another bad review of a Disney-canon Star Wars novel. Alas, I am. I've not played the game so I don't know if people are in character or not, but that's really not important when the writing is so shockingly awful. Was this even edited? At all? 40% of this book is junk prose that should have been crossed out with a red pen. Paring it down to a novella would have done wonders.

The story itself isn't terrible, though I'm bemused that Merrin hooked up with some random and was then shocked to be betrayed by said random (who she literally just met!). The lack of development in their... relationship?... made it seem like Merrin had ignored all common sense because she really needed to get laid. Gah. I want more sapphic shenanigans in my Star Wars books, but not like this!!! So I will delete this crime against literature from my memories and instead relive the superior enemies-to-lovers storyline in the Aphra comics. Tolvan/Aphra 4 life!

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Reading Outside the Comfort Zone

3/5/2022

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Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland #1)
by Anthony Horowitz

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Atticus Pünd could ignore what seems to be the accidental death of a housekeeper, but when the body count continues to rise he is drawn to a small English village - the typical setting for the typical English crime novel. But he is fictional and so is his world. Even he could not conceive what a few missing pages might lead to when an editor goes on the hunt for them...

Look, this is an incredibly clever book and it was almost masterful in its execution. But it is definitely not my thing. I read it because A) my aunt sent it to me and B) the cover was exquisite (except, as it turns out, I had got my hands on an uncorrected proof and sadly the real cover isn't as good). I'm also a little tried of this type of female character that male authors seem to enjoy writing - usually they make abysmal decisions that make me dislike them enormously.

Anyway, Horowitz achieved what he set out to do. Which is create a book that plays with the crime genre and inserts the reader as a detective themselves. So this is actually very good and I can appreciate that...but it's not good enough to make me swear off my undying hatred of the crime genre. ;)

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Boy, do I miss the cookie cutter!

12/10/2021

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Retribution (The Pack #2)
by Geena Tillman

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Markus is hunting a pack traitor when he happens upon a small town and stays in the B&B belonging to Missy, a local derby champion. Markus thinks he knows where the danger is. But it might come from an unexpected source. Meanwhile, stuff happens with the pack at home.

I would have really loved this book to actually focus on the characters mentioned in the blurb. I don't expect, in a PNR series, to have to read about book 1's couple having sex in book 2 when the story is supposed to be following another couple instead. To make matters worse, other couples were also getting page time and constantly interrupting the plot. This could have been so much better if it was spread out over more books. A disappointing read.

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Hell No

31/7/2021

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​The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy (Smythe-Smith Quartet #4)
by Julia Quinn

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Sir Richard Kenworthy needs a wife ASAP and wants to target someone who's desperate, overlooked, and not a terrible companion in the long run. He sets his eyes on Iris Smythe–Smith during one of those awful musicales and proceeds with his plan to ruin her reputation. He doesn't expect to actually start feeling anything for his victim. Iris must survive her husband's plans for her.

You'll notice that what I've just summarised doesn't sound like a romance novel. Honestly, this book should be called The Red Flags of Sir Richard Kenworthy, because he sure dropped a lot of them. Holy abusive husband, Batman! Iris and her sisters-in-law were actually great characters and I'd have liked to read this book about them, with no Richard in sight. But unfortunately Richard was in this an awful lot -and he was so disturbing that I nearly DNFed multiple times. Give this one a miss.

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    About

    ​Alyce Caswell, when she isn't drinking her way through a giant pot of tea, can be found dabbling in multiple genres and writing forms. She has self-published several titles in her space opera family saga, which is divided into two series: The Galactic Pantheon and The Pantheon War. Her most recent book is The Shadow of the Gods.

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  • Home
  • Books
    • The Galactic Pantheon >
      • The Tortured Wind
      • The Twisted Vine
      • The Flickering Flame
      • The Shifting Ice
      • The Whispering Grass
      • The Creeping Moss
      • The Galactic Pantheon Novellas
      • The Adventures of Grace Pendergast, Galactic Reporter
    • The Shadow of the Gods
    • Dealing with the Demon
    • Love and Lockdown
    • The Eyes of Charon
    • Sweet Delights
  • Other Works
  • Book Reviews
  • Get in Touch