Book review: Arc of the Universe | Nikki Alexander

Arc of the Universe by Nikki Alexander
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dr Carrie Davenport has been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to design a system of government for the first colony in Mars. Complications quickly arise - a date with a girl she met at the bar leads to a racially-profiled arrest, the violent encounter goes viral, and team member Adam Kirkpatrick tries to take over her spot.

Set in the near future (about 2035?), Nikki Alexander crafts an alternate future that seems plausible - assuming Trump hadn't won the US elections in 2024. Somewhere in the timeline, America has had its first (half?) Latina president, and things seem to have changed for the better - none of this present lunacy. However, under the surface, things remain the same. Adam Kirkpatrick parrots many talking points against DEI and "woke" (and is a thoroughly dislikeable character). Beauregard Ball and his company that's sponsoring Project Mars appear to be progressive, but the first batch of colonists are 95% white and no one is batting an eye. It's the same old, same old, and Davenport manages to overlook a lot of things because of her position of educated privilege, until the violent arrest and the subsequent backlash takes the spotlight.

Whilst tagged as Science Fiction, Arc of the Universe is focused more on the journey leading to Mars - and the legal side of things, rather than the science getting them there. The latter only appears as milestones - a successful probe launch puts the pressure on Carrie's team to finish drafting their proposal, the ensuing celebration offers her an opportunity to scope out the people involved. Instead, there's a lot of focus on governance, democracy, constitutions and legal speak.

The overarching question that runs through the book is "What are we doing to make the future better?" Carrie has to wrestle with whether what she's doing - lecturing about law and drafting a constitution for Mars - is good enough, or if she has to follow in the footsteps of her activist mother and protest on the streets for change. There's pressure on her to do all the big things, like protest and sue and fall into the whole "activism rabbit hole". But is that the best use of her time and position? Especially when it goes against her nature?

Overall, Arc of the Universe is a thoughtful look at how to address different issues with nuance. It's also a reminder that everyone has a different role to play - and that even if someone is not out on the streets yelling for change, the things they do quietly in the background can have the same - or even greater - impact.

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from Strawberry Tree Books. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Book review: The Hodder Bible Commentary: James | Daniel K. Eng

The Hodder Bible Commentary: James by Daniel K. Eng
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a while since I read a Bible commentary. This was interesting to read, but also a bit slow going because the writing style is pretty academic. Or maybe I haven't read a non-fiction book in too long haha. Pretty sure the messed up formatting* also contributed to some of my difficulty following some of the points.

James includes insight that's timely for these trying times - perseverance in hard times; how the church should be fair and just, not favouring the rich and powerful; judging others in the church vs not of the church; taming the tongue; heavenly vs earthly wisdom; submission to God; social injustice, etc.
(Also slightly amused by the connotation that "eat the rich" could possibly have originated from James HAHAHA)

There's food for thought about how some of the things stated by James had different cultural meanings to the original audience (diasporic Jews) and what it means to us now. And how some of these still parallel Eastern cultures/understanding of community instead of Western Christianity.

* I just wish that these publishers would format a proper ebook ARC instead of sending a PDF conversion, because all the tables were messed up (as well as most formatting to show the chiastic structure). It's super annoying, and I had to download it on the NetGalley Shelf to see what was going on there.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Book Review: DOSA Files: Tales from the SVR Universe, Volume 3 | H.L. Burke

DOSA Files: Tales from the SVR Universe, Volume 3 by H.L. Burke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this one more than Volume 2 - I think maybe because it feels thematically tighter. There's a focus on relationships and family dynamics in all of them, except New Year, New Cat, New Life, which was kind of a conman's literal come-to-Jesus moment. I don't know if adopting a cat will really change your life.

Monsters by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt sets the tone for this, with all the family-feels, and a little bit of romance. Here, Nate Preston/Bazinga, the only single man on his team, perpetually mans the DOSA phone lines on Friday nights and saves a seven-year-old from the monsters under his bed (can't say more without spoilers). It's very charming, and even if you can kinda predict the romance, the power/antagonist reveal was a surprise!

Career Shift by Erin Dydek explores more family dynamics, especially around career choices. Brooke keeps her super-sight from her overprotective, anti-Sable parents, whilst Darren deals with the disappointment of being a "useless" dog-shifter and artist.

Marmalade by Gordon Deane has an illegal immigrant trying to escape the clutches of the Supervillains using her Sable gifts to steal, and somehow falling in with a British ex-secret service agent! Especially loved the spy vibes in this one.

Hoaxed by Leiana Arwen, while enjoyable, felt the most juvenile of the stories. Jane, the only non-Sable in her Superhero family, feels left out now that her older brothers are all on the same Superhero team. She creates an elaborate hoax in order to spend more time with her Superhero brothers - which was hilarious, until everything went wrong (that plot point felt shaky, but eh, teens do teen drama things and fall for anything out of guilt.)

Sparked by H.L. Burke was a surprising revelation. As I read it, I had this feeling that I knew something about Oliver and his quest to find his biological father... so this is actually a prequel (?) story to Wishing on a Supervillain, and fills in the bits on how Oliver decided he wanted to meet a supervillain, instead of a superhero. This one feels stronger as a story on its own compared to The Good Twin in Volume 2, which I now only realise is also related to a side character in Wishing.

A final mention is Search History by Janeen Ippolito, which I felt was a story for writers, rather than readers. Yvette Morris is trying to decide if she wants to join her fiance in DOSA, while also trying to figure out why the plot lines of her latest fantasy heist novel mirrors actual heists carried out recently by a Supervillain. I appreciated the twist of having an author valued for their plotting skills, though the comments on marketability and self-publishing were a bit hard hitting. lol

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Book review: Nine-Tenths | J.M. Frey

Nine-Tenths by J.M. Frey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whew, so I put in my name to win an ARC on the strength that I loved Frey's previous books, primarily the Accidental Turn series and Skylark's Saga. I didn't think I would actually *get* the ARC but I did. So yeah, here's me reading a queer romcom I didn't expect to read.

Colin is a disaster person, trying to figure out life at 24. He's coasting along, working as a barista at his best friend's coffee shop, secretly gushing over the mysterious dragon who comes in every morning. Dav is the (secretly disaster) dragon who sits in that coffee shop every morning, staring at Colin without saying a thing. It's like a coffee shop meet cute, except the thing that actually brings them together is more like a tragedy. And absolutely hilarious (for the reader, that is).

But the problem with getting together with a dragon (besides all the secrets) is the fact that under dragon law, Colin becomes Dav's... property. Which doesn't make for good relationships in the long run, even if Dav doesn't subscribe to it either. Unfortunately, he's stuck in the system, one that he can't-and doesn't know how to-change. And OF COURSE, to complicate things even further, all of this has to happen in the Very Public Eye.

Nine-Tenths had a bit more spice than I usually read (which isn't a bad thing, just not what I was expecting) but that aside, I loved this alternate universe where dragons rule the world. WHICH, because the premise is that dragons live a long, long time, allows for the story to both be modern with Instagram virality and paparazzi WHILST ALSO having all that lovely old-time Regency-type trappings like balls and snobby nobles and duels.

The fact that Dav and Colin are trying to overturn centuries of draconic colonisation and pull the British Empire into the modern day makes for very amusing reading. I did struggle a little with the politics and historical figures mentioned because I apparently have 0 knowledge of Canadian history. I don't suppose you really need delve into the details to enjoy the story, but I felt there were some characters or events that were supposed to ping recognition, while I just went "Uh, okay? Whoddat?" (I mean, I know Queen Elizabeth and Robert the Bruce, but the only reason I know Laura Secord is because Frey posted about her online.)

Frey also gets very real about mental health. Colin has pretty severe anxiety caused by the unexpected death of his father, and many of the hiccups in his relationship with Dav stems from trying to navigate around that and finding better ways to cope while in an extremely public and high-stress situation. I also love the fact that Colin has a very solid network of family and friends who actually care for and support him - and that Dav also respects that despite the weirdness of dragon law.

There's some fan-fic, tropish vibes at times, and Frey frames the whole story in a very meta way. The first I enjoyed, the second was intriguing, but not quite it for me. Which, thinking about it, is a bit strange because it was that very self-aware meta fiction thing that really drew me into The Untold Tale.

All in all, Nine-Tenths is a fun read, with some very real, big feelings.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from the author. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Book Review: On Magic and Miracles: A Theological Guide to Discerning Fictional Magic | Marian A. Jacobs

On Magic & Miracles: A Theological Guide to Discerning Fictional Magic by Marian A. Jacobs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The general church approach to fantasy fiction is often one of wariness - and often dependent on the individual pastor and their reading preferences. There are some clearly "accepted" fantasy works, such as CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. But everything else falls in a grey area - traditional fairy tales with elfs and pixies are okay, but Greek mythology may or may not be acceptable, whilst all kinds of Chinese mythology are "obviously evil".

This weird double standard in the church is often related to how "acceptable" a certain kind of mythology and/or culture is, and obviously, whether those particular myths are related to religions currently being practiced. In simple terms, Greek mythology appears more acceptable because it's both white-coded and a mostly dead religion, whilst Chinese mythology often relates to spiritual rituals or beliefs that are still being practiced.

In On Magic & Miracles: A Theological Guide to Discerning Fictional Magic, Marian A. Jacobs delves into scripture to explain what's often seen as "magic" in the bible vs "miracles", with 5 discernment questions to help you tell the difference. This takes up Part 1 of the book - and it's interesting ground to cover. Jacobs brings up both ends of the spectrum: materialism, where all these "supernatural" stuff doesn't exist at all, and overspiritualism (overcorrection?), where EVERYTHING is affected by spirits and demons.

Look, I've lived in the trenches of the latter - with "pastors" declaring that even wearing clothes with an animal image can imbue you with the spirit of the animal - and I live in Asia - where it's very obvious that the spiritual realm exists. So whilst I feel like Jacobs is balanced in her treatment, she does cater a more to her (intended) Western audience, with its unthinking acceptance of Western cultural practices as part of Christianity. There's a focus on New Age, pagan lifestyles, and occult practices, with interviews with ex-witches, and everything else swept mostly under a general "Eastern religions".

Part 2 looks at how the 5 Discernment Questions should be applied to fiction, with consideration to literary conventions and author intentions as well as the final message of the story. And how, at times, you need to READ THE WHOLE BOOK before you can judge whether something is good or bad. Many stories start with a not-ideal situation and bad characters with the goal of ending in a good place and evil defeated or bad characters given a redemption arc. And in recent days, with our poor comprehension skills and outrage culture, many readers write off something from the start without understanding the whole thing. This happens very often in uber-Christian circles, where you're not even supposed to depict evil - when the point of some stories is to point out that EVIL IS EVIL. It concludes with an example of how Jacobs herself applied the framework to the Harry Potter series, the series that pretty much divided the church about fantasy works back in the day.

Side note: Critical reading is important, people!

While Jacobs says it's not really a book for parenting, it does phrase an entire chapter on "how to choose good fantasy books for your kids" vs discerning good reading material for yourself. Which, I mean, you can apply to yourself, but it does have a bit of a parenting vibe lol. This isn't an issue, I just found it funny.

Overall, On Magic & Miracles doesn't tell you what you should or shouldn't read (or write!), but offers a framework to think about what you're reading - as with any theological guide, it comes down to spiritual discernment of what's good and beneficial for you. It's a solid work to look at for general theological principles, and is not a "what books am I allowed to read" list.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from the B&H Publishing Group. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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