#bookreview: New Name | A.C. Williams

New Name by A.C. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I took a long break between reading the first two books in the series and finally completing this one, so I had a bit of a rough start. One thing to remember (lol) is that Xander discovers a lot about her past and who she is in Namesake. So when this one started off, especially since I took such a long break, I had to back up a bit with "Aura, who?" But it's pretty much a new start for her anyway.

If I said Namesake was dark, this one goes kind of... darker... in many ways before finally going PLOT TWIST but ACTUALLY! Then becomes pretty much hopeful again. Which on one hand is kind of cool because Aura really needs a break, but on the other... I guess there were enough subtle cues that I'm okay with it happening.

Williams sets it up so it sounds like there should be another book in this world, even though this book 3 of a trilogy - and honestly, if she does one exploring that whole side quest on the Al units and why this one guy is hunting down the Alpha Prototype, I'd be all for reading it. (I see other short stories in the Morningstar Universe but none that addresses this. Though Promise: A Morningstar Series Novella might be interesting to read.)

Note: When I say "darker", it's not so much about being more graphic. I think the level of violence is about the same, but it's really very... sex-negative. I get that Williams is portraying villains in this (and is giving the Stormcloud sisters a Very Difficult Childhood), but their main means of control and coercion seems to be primarily sex, especially kinky sex, and abuse in the name of kinky sex.

So "content warnings", if you will: difficult discussions on abortion vs bodily autonomy, mentions of pedophilia, and copious references to rape and sexual assault.

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This finally finishes up March's TBR stretch goal. hahaha. I'll work on December's goal, but I think I'll give up on the stretch goals. 

#bookreview: Wings of Truth | Aaron DeMott

Wings of Truth by Aaron DeMott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Two warring nations separated by a deep dark secret, a captured queen, an honourable crown prince, cultural misunderstandings, secret factions that might just destroy the whole world... and only! one! tent!

It is also a clean read, despite that trope.

Is this science fantasy? I feel like it's science fantasy because it reads very fantasy with these non-human characters (the Vincetii are purple-skinned and have wings) plus they drink this strange metal thing to... I guess regain power? And Enrik, the Alandran Crown Prince, has a magical sword called Vinrid, which I really thought stood for "getting rid of the Vincetii" lol.

BUT when you get into the details of the Obelisk and other Weapons of Power, it all starts to sound very sciencey in a "we kinda destroyed the world and now we don't know how all this tech works" way and now they need to find out how. Like with secret manuals and underground labs.

It's a light, enjoyable read and leans into the fun and fantastic. Enrik and Natiah have great chemistry, even if they fall in love really, really quickly lol.

There MAY be a slight squick moment when Natiah reveals that her vow either makes her Enrik's wife or slave, which again is very on-brand with current fanfic type tropes, but it's also very squint-and-you'll-miss-it because this is, as I said, a very clean story. No sexy times, a lot of war deaths, but nothing really described in detail.

Overall, Wings of Truth is a solid story simply told, if a little trope-ish.

Note: I won this book in a giveaway! :)

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Buy now! (affiliate link)

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This is November's updated book on the 2023 TBR Challenge. I may, unfortunately, have to skip this month's stretch goal again, but we'll see.

#bookreview: Hantu Macabre | Jill Girardi

Hantu Macabre by Jill Girardi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hantu Macabre started off great. Suzanna Sim, the half-American, half-Malaysian protagonist is based in George Town, Penang, so I started off loving the Penang vibes. The setting is described with so much detail and love that you can tell that Girardi really did enjoy living here. There's a series of grizzly murders and Sim sets off to solve them with the help of her assistant, a toyol named Tokek. Some of the cases take Sim to other parts of Malaysia as well, but I felt those places weren't described with as much care or detail as she did George Town.

The thing that ultimately felt off to me was the way it was written and/or structured. The series of murders are all interconnected, but in many ways, it felt like a bunch of short stories/novelettes that were put together instead of a cohesive novel.

Part I, the one titled "Hantu Macabre" itself, felt like the best part of the book.
Part II was a leeeeetle bit too outlandish for me, involving magical Japanese swords and undying generals from the Japanese occupation. But whatever. Here's where we figure out who the recurring antagonist is, and that she's going to be the actual main nemesis in this book.
Part III flipped back to a more Malaysian paranormal crime feel, and also reveals more about Suzanna Sim's past. It's the most substantial part of the book and should've probably been the climax. See, there was this big black magic event that happens and felt like it could be the Big Battle but it doesn't... end... there.
In Part IV, Sim spends a lot of time doing nothing especially interesting before the final show down happens. It does, however, also solve the mystery of Sim's past besides resolving the main crime issue of the whole book. And then it ends on a line, which I guess sets it up to have more books in the series.

Ultimately, I felt like, as a novel, Hantu Macabre started off with great promise but kind of petered out.

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I've been behind on posting reviews, so I figured eh, whatever, I'll post even if it's not a Wednesday. lol. So, bonus post, I guess? Or belated one.

This one's for October's TBR challenge. I have a couple of ARCs to read this week for books that are releasing in October, so I'll probably be skipping the stretch goal. 

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#bookreview: The Epic of Bidasari and Other Tales

The Epic of Bidasari and Other Tales by Aristide Marre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are four tales included in this book, which was first published in 1901. This edition doesn't seek to retranslate or even clean up much of the text, so the writing isn't exactly...stellar lol.

The Epic of Bidasari itself is amusing, a Snow White type of fairy tale written in epic verse that's divided into six songs. There are several key differences: Bidasari is a lost princess; the evil queen (Lila Sari) isn't related to Bidasari in any way; there's no magic mirror (heh) but the queen sends out her maidens to scour the land for "a face more beautiful than mine". It's not just pure vanity, though. The reason she does this is because her husband tells her TO HER FACE that if he finds anyone more beautiful than her, he'll take her as his second wife. Which, I mean, I can sympathise a little?

But of course, as this is a fairy tale, this very act of Lila Sari looking for the beautiful maiden then makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's nice to note that the actual stepparents in the story (well, not really "step" but the merchants who find and adopt Bidasari) are the good guys.

There's hints of Sleeping Beauty, insofar as after escaping the palace, Bidasari is cursed to sleep throughout the day until the spell is broken. But seeing that her prince charming is a married man who's all like "I love you because you're more beautiful than my wife" and who goes back to visit his first wife and says "but it's all your fault that I married her because you beat her and hid her from me!!"... ugh.

Yeah, so not very romantic at all. Anyway, it's all very dramatic and twisty, with a lot of false accusations, quests and side quests, and "I cannot bear to part with you!" declarations so maybe it's worth it for that kind of OTT drama. Which kind of feels on par of what little I know of the stories of that era. (Most of these would have been told orally, and probably incorporated music and dance and singing.)

The main problems with the readability of this text (besides it being really old-school) is the inconsistency in titles (lack of modern editing!), where Lila Sari is Queen on one page, but Princess on another, and Djouhan Mengindra is sometimes Sultan, sometimes King, sometimes Prince. It's fairly easy to follow at first, but when the other Kings/Princes from other lands come into play, that's where the reader needs to track who's who very carefully. It's rather amusing, though, to look at transliterations from an earlier century and snigger a little at how odd they look - eg: dyang, mantri, tjempakka - or to try to puzzle out what on earth that word was really supposed to be.

I skimmed through the second one, Sedjaret Malayou, because I've read the full text of (Sejarah Melayu: The Malay Annals) which is a much, much better (and complete) translation. I feel like I should get around to reading the newest translation, though (The Genealogy of Kings), which would probably be more accurate and less clunky, seeing that it's a 2020 translation by Muhammad Haji Salleh.

The Princess Djouher-Manikam is another fascinating tale, this time set in Baghdad. It's about a princess who really has no agency and is just shunted from place to place and through harrowing events "because of God's will" (but mostly because of horny men who think they should own every pretty woman they see). It gets a little annoying the longer goes on, but towards the end, the princess does take matters into her own hands in a meaningful way to direct her own life, albeit by dressing up as a man. It's hard to criticise this meaningfully because those were the constraints of the time, for a woman in her culture.

The final piece in this book is Makota Radja-Radja (The Crown of Kings), which isn't so much a single narrative, but a collection of stories/extracts about various kings that's intended to showcase how a king should act. It was a little jarring to read at first because most of the stories are centred around Middle Eastern countries, but the foreword sheds light that it was originally written in the 1600s by a Bokhari who lived in Djohore (Johor). The text jumps around a lot and doesn't have any meaningful arrangement or sequence, though I don't know if that's a translation problem or the fact that it feels like just a fragment of the original text.

ANYWAY. Read this for the TBR challenge. I don't know if I'd recommend it as a "you should read this" but if you're on a fairy tale/folklore kick and want to know more about stuff from Asia, this would fit. I'd say just focus on The Epic of Bidasari and The Princess Djouher-Manikam though.

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This was supposed to be August's stretch goal but it took longer than expected, because I had other books to review and post. Plus, I did change my book at the last minute. 

#bookreviews: Girls of Paper and Fire | Natasha Ngan

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Okay, I am having trouble writing this review because I did really like it, but at the same time, it was just... okay? Not sure how to reconcile this. I'm thinking it's more of a 4? 4.5? star, because I did enjoy reading it, but I'm not at gushing levels of love.

Plot-wise... it's not anything really new. It feels like one of those old-time Chinese (or well, generally East-Asian) royal dramas where you have all the concubines in the palace, some there willingly, most there by force. There's a yearly selection of "Paper Girls", and obviously the one taken there by force stumbles into a plot against the king... Only there's no flying kungfu, except where the demons have bird forms. And since this is a harem story, obviously Angry-I-Hate-The-King protagonist falls in love with someone who is not the king.

Content warnings at this point would be: LGBT romance, sexual abuse, physical abuse. Obviously, the king does not take "no" for an answer, and there's quite a lot of raping and looting going on in the wider world of Ikhara. It's not graphic - which is why I suppose it still fits under YA - but it's not something everyone can stomach. Oh, and if you're against authors killing dogs, you might want to skip Chapter 2.

I think what I quite enjoyed throughout the book was the setting. There's layer after layer of Chinese culture embedded into every scene; no obvious cutting away to "oh, but that feels really White" or "look at me I'm so exotic!" scenes, at least for me. Added bonus: the Chinese half of Ngan's heritage is Malaysian, so I loved the little touches of Malaysiana amidst the very Chinese court setting. Ikhara itself is a land cobbled together by a conquering king, so besides the obvious difference between the castes (Paper - fully human, Moon - fully demon, Steel - humans with some demon features), there's that subtle intermingling of human cultures, with saris alongside kebayas and cheongsams.

Thinking back, this isn't really a book I would have bothered to pick up on my own; I would have found the blurb much too romance-focused, and maybe a little too generic. But Ngan was reading at SRFC in 2019, and there was a Malaysian connection, so I figured I might as well just get a copy and have it signed. heh.

So now, even though I'll likely never read it again or bother to read the sequel, it'll just sit on my shelves because it's signed to me. haha.

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Interested in the series? Get it here:

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Whoo! I'm caught up on The 2023 Booktempter's TBR reduction challenge, with August's free read.

#bookreview: Songs in the Night | Laura Frances

Songs in the Night by Laura Frances
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up because I kinda liked Slave, which is a totally different series I haven't finished. (Maybe I should finish that one.)

There is Eris, the unwanted child from the evil land, marked with a darkness she doesn't know of yet. And then there is Etan, the servant boy from the good land, who rises to be a knight. They meet once, twice. They never forget each other. Then war comes.

The story switches between both of their perspectives. Which is fine, but they don't actually meet each other again until about the 70% mark. I don't know why this irks me. Maybe it's the parallel storylines that don't quite meet. Maybe I just found Etan annoying. (Maybe I am in an irritable mood, I have been finding many characters and books annoying.) Then they have all sorts of assumptions about each other (or he does about her).

Or maybe it's the frequent use of foreshadowing lines that pull you out of the story.

Whatever it was, it was an interesting story, but it didn't quite pull me in.

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I went backwards to complete June's stretch goal from the 2023 Booktempter's TBR reduction challenge!

#bookreview: The King's Sword | CJ Brightley

The King's Sword by C.J. Brightley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's an okay enough story - prince escapes an assassination attempt, fearsome but outcast soldier helps put him on the throne.

I like the worldbuilding - it's very colourful and complex and quite interesting.

I just didn't feel like the story itself engaged me very much, like it doesn't quite pull the reader in. The last battle was also a little anticlimactic.

Caveat: read this in several disjointed sessions while travelling so maybe I didn't have the focus to fully engage.

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This is July's stretch goal from the 2023 Booktempter's TBR reduction challenge!

#bookreview: The Princess Bride | William Goldberg

The Princess Bride by William Goldman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this more, but as it is, I enjoyed the actual abridged parts of Morgenstern's story but every time William Goldman had an aside or explanation I just kept getting very annoyed.
(Thus this really short review)
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This is July's book from the 2023 Booktempter's TBR reduction challenge! I guess I have another justification for the short review: I'm travelling and have no time to think about long reviews haha. Maybe I'll update it later. But probably not. 

#bookreview: The Neverending Story | Michael Ende

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I put this on the TBR challenge because I had the physical book and I couldn't for the life of me remember whether I'd read it before. And now Goodreads tells me that back in 2011 I was sure that I had. idk. The story was vaguely familiar; it's popular canon and referenced in many places, after all. But I'm still not entirely sure if I'd read the book before or watched the movie. Maybe both.

Anyway. Whether this is a new read or a re-read, I did enjoy it quite a lot. I liked the structure of the book, the 26 alphabetical chapters, rather like a very long A to Z novel. I liked the meta-ness of Bastian the reader becoming Bastian, a character in the story. It made sense that the story had to include Bastian's transformation, bringing it full circle until he got back to the human world.

This book was published many many years ago, when people were more patient readers, when big fat books were IT. I'm just thinking that in the publishing industry today, Ende would have been told to cut the book into two, the first one ending when Bastian enters Fantastica and saves the Childlike Empress, and the second one being his journey through Fantastica. Because, you know, why sell one thick book when you could make more money selling TWO books instead?

It reads like two separate books anyway. The first half is more exciting, more action packed. Atreyu is a noble protagonist, even if he isn't ultimately the hero. Then you hit the second half and it's a bit of a slog as Bastian steadily becomes more and more annoying. Still, it doesn't feel complete without either half, so I guess it is what it is.

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#bookreview: Old Man's War | John Scalzi

Old Man's War by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gonna keep this review short, because this is mostly just for records. And also because I am tired and lazy.

I enjoyed it. I skipped some sciency bits, but those were actually quite few and far between. Overall an interesting premise and I would love to read the rest of the series if I find them!

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#bookreview: Namesake (Morningstar: Destiny #2) | A.C. Williams

Namesake by A.C. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So following on from Nameless, things get really, really dark. I mean like super dark. So I guess content warnings for rape and suicide ideation.

After the losses in the first book, things started to look up a little, at least at the start. After all, they did manage to find what they were looking for. Their sacrifices were not in vain. And their trip to McLeod's home forces some deeper conversations and discussions about their pasts - not just Xander's, but just about everyone left on the Prodigal.

The core of this book is the discovery of who Xander really is. And whilst it was amazing and mindblowing, Williams did a good job in laying down enough clues and hints for that delicious tension of ooohh I think this is what happened! and but how would it actually work? leading up to the reveal. (I was almost right about what happened, but am obviously not science-y enough to guess how lol)

But things don't stay peaceful for long...

I mean, who expected it to? They've got syndicates on their tail after all.

But coming back to the Morningstar: Destiny Trilogy's underpinnings of faith, where Nameless explores personal convictions, Namesake goes so much deeper into holding onto faith in dark times. Xander keeps asking the questions Where are you, God? and Why me? Why is all this happening to me? as she struggles through everything that has happened to her, everything that has brought her to the Prodigal, especially all the deaths she leaves in her wake. Because of her. Because of who she is. Because of the people who are trying to get her. And it culminates in the big one: Can I still then believe?

Namesake ends on another cliffhanger, and I'm excited to head into New Name when I have the time!

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bookreview: Under the Pendulum Sun | Jeannette Ng

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Under the Pendulum Sun came very heavily recommended to me. But as all TBRs go (even physical ones), it just sits on the shelf for a while... for 4 years in this case.

Let's start off with the heavy stuff, a content warning for incest in this case. If this is something you will never touch, then this is a book you'll want to skip, even if it only develops midway through. [Spoilers at the end of this review!]

Arcadia, the magical land of the fae, is a dark, mysterious place. Nothing is as it seems, everything is a construct, seemingly made to mirror or mimic the real world - but in strangely bizarre ways. No one knows if the fae have souls and yet missionaries do what they have always done - go into the darkest reaches of the world to bring the word of God. It is a very well-constructed world, one full of fancy and also full of darkness, and Ng does a fantastic job leading us through it. She utilises many familiar elements from fairy tales: Mab the Queen of the Fae, changelings and stolen children, the fae hunt - and yet it's intertwined with extra-biblical myth: Enochian the language of angels, origins of Lilith.

Catherine Helstone plunges blindly into Arcadia in search of her missing brother, Laon. There, she wrestles with the gospel and with sin. Is salvation only for humans or does it extend to the fae? Do the fae have souls or are they soulless, like animals or constructs? If they are soulless, can they then still be saved? Is there a point in having a missions outpost in the fae worlds if salvation is not extended to them?

Yet she is not the only one wrestling with faith. Laon, the missionary brother, struggles with sin and worthiness. Is he worthy to carry the gospel if there is sin in his heart, even if he doesn't act on it? Where is the line between resisting temptation and being sinful because he cannot let go of his lustful thoughts? What compromises can he make to carry the gospel to the innermost parts of Arcadia? Or will the requirements of the Pale Queen invalidate his testimony and his good works?

Ng peppers the book with quotations from scripture, as well as excerpts of medieval-sounding texts that present missionary efforts and theological arguments in an alternate earth where the fae are real. It sounds more Christian than I would expect from a fantasy book, exploring deep questions of faith and Christian theology; yet as it is a fantasy world and a fiction book, it does not provide any semblance of answers, only more questions.

Ultimately, however, the set-up of the creation of the fae and the fantastical underpinnings of fae society as imagined by Ng presents a skewed gospel; a reminder, that you will, that this is not a biblical work. Under the Pendulum Sun leads to an almost-inevitable ending, one I wish were not her conclusion.

Still, I would put it as a sort of fantasy counterpart to Steve Rzasa's sci-fi exploration of whether aliens can be saved in For Us Humans: A Tale of Alien Occupation.

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#bookreview: Nameless (Morningstar: Destiny Trilogy #1) | AC Williams

Nameless by A.C. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nameless is space opera, a perfect read for someone like me who just wants the far-flung worlds and fancy tech without having to understand how a spaceship (or all that tech) works. At any rate, I picked this one up mostly to support a fellow Realmie (not that I recall ever meeting her; we just hang out in the same conference/socmed spaces) and didn't go in with much in the way of expectations.

Xander doesn't know who she is. Rescued from a derelict spaceship, all she possesses is a coat with the name she's adopted, faint memories of things that no one else seems to know about, and a strange sense of right and wrong that's at odds with everyone she's met so far. Yet, as she journeys to discover who she is and pieces together her odd dreams and fragmented memories, she may soon discover that she doesn't like who she was and where she came from.

Nameless isn't super blatantly Christian fiction - while it's clean in a sense (there are no graphic sex scenes or real-world swearing), it deals with a broken, fallen world that is upfront about its brokenness. There's blood and gore, innuendos and attempted rape... and whilst Xander is innocent, naive, and lucky enough to be able to protect herself from unwanted attentions, the setup in this story world is such that all this is commonplace, and Xander may well be the only exception - other than the people of Sanctum, whom everybody hates because they are all hypocrites.

I think what I like about it most is that it's an exploration of what it means to be a good person in bad situations, of what it means to make the best of things when you've already messed up your life, and of how one can still hold on to personal convictions when everyone else says that you are weird and wrong.

I'm curious as to where it's heading and look forward to reading the next book in the series!

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This is March's goal for the 2023 Booktempter's TBR Reduction Challenge. The stretch goal is to finish the rest of the series by year end... which is doable as there are only 2 other books! Haha. I was trying to finish them in March as well, but I think that won't happen since I have an ARC and 2 review copies to finish in the next few weeks. 

#bookreview: Exhalation | Ted Chiang; The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends | Peter Berresford Ellis

Exhalation by Ted Chiang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can't deny that Exhalation is a compelling, thoughtful read. There are many things to think about, to delve into, in these nine stories. And all of them are varied enough that each truly feels like a fresh thought.

And yet at the same time, for some weird reason, they didn't feel quite memorable to me. I reached the story notes and went... wait, what was that story about again? And nothing in the title or in the notes clued me in.

So I dunno. I liked it well enough, but it wasn't quite a 5-star.

And that's 9 stories for the #2023TBRchallenge.

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I'm gonna count "On a Ghost's Whim" by Katharina Gerlach for the #2023TBRchallenge, just to up the numbers a bit haha. This is a bonus short story from Gerlach's recent Kickstarter. It was a fun short read, and I got to vote for stuff that went into the story, ha! 

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The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Berresford Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

IT HAS TAKEN ME AN ENTIRE YEAR TO FINISH THIS BOOK.

But yay! I mean, there were 37 stories over 612 pages so I think that's justified, seeing that I also read a bunch of other stuff throughout the year.

This is a great read if you want a look at Celtic myths and legends as a huge overview. It covers Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. Some of them were familiar, some of them not, but there's the overarching fairy tale tropes that remain true throughout. The earlier ones, especially Ireland, Isle of Man, and Scotland seem to deal more with origin myths and fairy creatures, while the latter deal a bit more with the Great Invasion of the Christians.

Stories read for the #2023TBRchallenge:
[Cornwall]
- 29 Jowan Chy-an-Horth
- 30 Nos Calan Gwaf
- 31 An Lys-an-Gwrys
[Brittany]
- 32 The Destruction of Ker- Ys
- 33 N'oun Doare
- 34 The Anaon
- 35 Koadalan
- 36 The King of Bro Arc'hant
- 37 Prinsez-a-Sterenn

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Total of 9+1+9 = 19 stories for the #2023TBRchallenge!

#bookreview: Storm Front (The Dresden Files) | Jim Butcher

Storm Front by Jim Butcher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't want to do anything over CNY so I read this instead.

I got this like a million years ago (I cannot remember which book sale lol) mostly because someone had said that the Dresden Files were a good read. And then I procrastinated because, you know, everything else is a good read. And if I ended up liking it going in, that would be a hefty investment because there are like what, 10+ books in the series? and I only have the one book...

Anyway, it was...okay? Like a crime procedural/thriller but with magic and supernatural creatures/events. Except that Harry Dresden was kind of annoying and rather useless and hopeless. It doesn't help that there are very slight hints about his "tragic background" but hardly anything is revealed in this book, so you don't really feel any sympathy for him either.

I posted this on socmed and immediately got the "you must give him a chance! It gets better in books 5 (or whatever)" And I'm just thinking...no? Like, no one else gives other writers a chance if their first book wasn't great, so eh, whatever. (I'm also thinking that publishing must have been much simpler in the way back when, because similarly, if I'd started on Terry Pratchett with The Colour of Magic I would never have read any of the Discworld books.)

Maybe the later books are a good read, but this one was just okay.

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This was January's stretch goal for the 2023 Booktempter's TBR reduction challenge! (Read in January, but scheduled for later)

#bookreview: Nusantara: A Sea of Tales | Heidi Shamsuddin

Nusantara: A Sea of Tales by Heidi Shamsuddin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nusantara: A Sea of Tales is a wonderful collection of fairy tales, folklore, and fables from the core geographic area of the Malay Archipelago or what used to be called Nusantara. A large majority of the stories come from Malaysia, both East and West (since Heidi Shamsuddin is Malaysian), and Indonesia (because both countries share quite a lot of the same folklore), which I guess automatically includes Singapore (because they were historically always linked before they became their own country).

There are a smattering of stories from other Southeast Asian countries - the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand - and, oddly, one story each from Guam and Madagascar. Heidi justifies the latter two as being included because they share the Austronesian language. Frankly, I felt they were just a little too far away to share much cultural similarity and probably could have been kept for a later collection.

Some of the more familiar tales (to me) are several Sang Kancil stories, variations of the Bawang Putih, Bawang Merah tale, Si Tanggang, The Swordfish Attack of Singapore and The Curse of Mahsuri. Some of the other tales are vaguely familiar - whether because I have heard of/read them before in other collections or they are similar to European tales, I cannot quite tell. But quite a few were new to me, especially those from Borneo and from other countries. I was delighted to discover Pak Pandir stories for the first time. How did I not know these exist?

Heidi includes notes at the end of each tale or, sometimes, at the end of a group of similar tales. This provided a lot of background knowledge about where the story comes from (and where similar stories are told across the region), explanations of untranslated words and names (where they hold specific meanings that add nuance to the story), as well as some hidden meanings behind cultural practices that are not quite apparent face value.

Some other books you may be interested in checking out include: Tales of Superhuman Powers: 55 Traditional Stories from Around the World, Pearls on a Branch: Arab Stories Told by Women in Lebanon Today, Tales of Japan: Traditional Stories of Monsters and Magic.

Nusantara: A Sea of Tales is a timely book that collects tales from oral storytellers and
older print sources that are increasingly hard to find before they are lost to us altogether.

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And that's book 1 from the 2023 Booktempter's TBR reduction challenge!

The 2023 Booktempter’s #TBR reduction challenge booklist!

Since I've got a hefty TBR and Matt over at Runalong the Shelves is doing a TBR reduction challenge, I figured why not?

Because many of my books are still in boxes after the moves (in 2019 and 2020, ha!!), I'm restricting the books even further to the current 3 open boxes and 1 shelf of unread books, plus unread ebooks on my Kindle. 

The idea is that once I clear these boxes and the shelf, I can move on to the next unopened box. And work from there until there are no more boxes clogging up my office. (Will that actually happen??? Probably not in the next year or so). 

So, here are the books I've lined up so far. I may not end up doing the stretch goals because I DO also have e-ARCS to review and I try not to post more than 4 reviews a month. I also don't think I have the time to read more than that.

I'll be linking the books to their Goodreads page here first, and then updating the links to my review post once I've read them. 

JANUARY: End to end temptation

• Newest book in Mount TBR = Nusantara: A Sea of Tales by Heidi Shamsuddin. This is the last book I remember buying. Could be wrong, but eh. Review: 25/1.
• Stretch goal: Oldest book in Mount TBR = Storm Front by Jim Butcher. Not sure if it's really the oldest, but it's from a BBW sale that's coming up to a decade ago so I figure it counts. Review: 1/2.

FEBRUARY: Short steps

• 28 short stories = Whitstead Harvestide: A Speculative Anthology by Abigail Falanga (ed); The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Berresford Ellis. I've been midway through these since 2022, so I might as well get around to finishing them off for this challenge. If that doesn't make up 28 short stories, I still haven't read Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Review: 22/2 (5); and 1/3 (9+1+9). EH that's only 24, oh well. 
• Stretch goal: 4 novellas one for each week of the month OR shortest book in Mount TBR = I don't know if I have any for this, so I might just skip this one. 

MARCH: Fresh starts

• Start a new series = Nameless (Morningstar: Destiny Trilogy #1) by A.C. Williams. It was this or The Witcher, since I bought the omnibus when it was on sale, but... I'm more likely to finish the stretch goal of reading the whole series if I do this one. Review: 22/3
• Stretch goal: Read all the remaining books in the series by year end = Namesake (#2) Review 3/5; New Name (#3) Review 13/12. 

APRIL: Open and Shut Case

• Standalone = Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng. Just because it's in the box. Review: 19/4.
• Stretch goal: finish the last book in a series in Mount TBR = huh, idk. Most of my unfinished series' are stuck in one of the unopened boxes. This isn't technically the "last book" in a series, but I figure Snakewood by Adrian Selby should fit somewhat because I read The Winter Road without reading this one and they're somewhat connected?

MAY: Crowning Glory?

• A book about revolution or a change of those in power = I'm going to put The Old Man's War by John Scalzi as a placeholder here though I don't really want to start a new series without the subsequent books, because well, it's been in the box for a while now too. Review: 17/5. Huh, not so much revolution, but just war. Eh, whatever. 
• Stretch goal: A tale with a member of a royal household in a leading role = The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. Didn't write a full review on the blog, but it's up on Goodreads here.

JUNE: long reading days or longest nights

• The largest tale on Mount TBR = The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. I cannot remember if I've ever read this before or if I only remember the story from watching the movie, but this is a pretty long one. Is it the longest? idk. Review: 28/6
• Stretch goal: The shortest novel in your pile = Well, the Goodreads page says it's a short novel (163 pages) so I guess Songs in the Night by Laura Frances. Review: 26/7

JULY: Holidays are coming!

• The author who lives the furthest from you on the globe = The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Mostly because USA is further than the UK (from Malaysia), and I feel like I should get around to reading this. Review: 6/7 (because I finished reading it on the way to USA lol!! And it's currently Weds here, but Thurs on the laptop)
• Stretch goal: A tale with an empire featuring heavily in it = Maybe The King's Sword by C.J. Brightley unless something else comes up. Don't know if it's exactly empire. Am open to suggestions. Review: 19/7.

AUGUST: Holiday treats

• Free read! = Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan. Mostly because I met the author at SRFC and got the book signed so I really should read it. Review: 9/8
• Stretch goal: A translated work / a character on holiday = I might go with Muara by Pauline Fan, (ed), Badrul Hisham Ismail (ed), Izzudin Ramli (ed) and Hafiz Hamzah (ed) on this. Not exactly translated, but a mix of works in English & Malay. Changed my mind and read The Epic of Bidasari and other tales instead. Review: 13/9

SEPTEMBER: Seven deadly tempts

• A book linked to one of the seven deadly sins = Fatal Greed by John W. Mefford, just because it has "greed" in the title. DNFed because I don't really like it. So I read Lust by Mike Wells instead, which was kind of 1/3 of a book (so I guess a Novella?). Review on Goodreads.
• Stretch goal: An author who has published more than seven books = Set in Darkness by Ian Rankin. Finished reading this, added a star rating, but will be skipping the review. 

OCTOBER: Spooky season cometh

• A book with a spooky or dark theme: Hantu Macabre by Jill Girardi. Review: 20/10.
• Stretch goal: A book connected to nighttime in some way = Apparently, I have previously downloaded a book called Midnight Marriage by Lucinda Brant. I have just read the summary and I have no idea why I have it on my kindle but okay! We shall find out!!! Edit 15/12: I read this, left a star review, but not going to do a blog review. 

NOVEMBER: Small press, big stories

• A book published by a small/indie press = The Girl with Ghost Eyes by M. H. Boroson. Published by Talos Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing. I'm gonna cheat on this one and replace it with Wings of Truth by Aaron DeMott, published by Onicranium Dragon Books so that I can merge my reading list. (Cheat because it was just published on 1 Oct 2023 and I won an ebook copy in a giveaway lol). Review: 15/11
• Stretch goal: A book where peace is the end result = Huh, how would I know this if I haven't read it? I'm gonna assume that Steampunk Cleopatra by Thaddeus Thomas is going to end in peace. lol Also open to suggestions for this one.

DECEMBER: Don't forget to say thank you

• A book someone else gifted you = In Defence of Doubt by Val Webb. My sister sent this to me from Australia last year.  31/12 update: Ended up reading a bunch of novellas from Bookiut, does that count as books someone else gifted me, since they were given to me at GTLF? In that case, I guess this review.
• Stretch goal: A wintry-based tale = Umm maybe The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, since the blurb starts "Just before dawn one winter's morning..." I'd love to read The Winter's Tale, which I know I own, but I just don't know which box it's in, so it's not in the scope, lol. 

I'll probably update the list further on in the year if I decide that something else in the box/kindle fits better. Or if I cave and open another TBR box.