Audio: A memory called Empire by Arkady Martine

• Teixcalaan, Book 1
• By: Arkady Martine
• Narrated by: Amy Landon
• Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 03-26-19
• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio

My Thoughts

This was a planet bound scifi, and it really was more about this alien city, which was not that alien since they are human too. This was politics and mystery.

Mahit has lived her entire life on a station. She has never seen anything else, and she has dreamed of the City. Teixalaan, the empire. She speaks the language, she reads the poetry and she is chosen to be the ambassador. Since the previous one died all the sudden. Which of course is the whole mystery, why did he die? Is something rotten in this vast empire?

Mahit's people also saves the memories, if they are good memories and implant them into others. She gets the bad end of the stick, 5 years of the previous ambassadors life, since he has not be back to the station in 15 years. And she does not have enough time since it is a sort of symbiotic relationship. She will no longer be just Mahit. She is Mahit, and Iskander at the frey.

She is enchanted by the city as she arrives but she can also see the faults as she is new and not stuck in old ways as the Teixcalaan.

“You pump the dead full of chemicals and refuse to let anything rot—people or ideas or … or bad poetry, of which there is in fact some, even in perfectly metrical verse,” said Mahit. “Forgive me if I disagree with you on emulation. Teixcalaan is all about emulating what should already be dead.”

It was a fascinating culture. They sure liked their poetry. If you did not know poetry you were like dead to them. It was all about poetry.

And I liked Mahit, she is doing her best and she knows that she needs to know more to survive. Politics and murder mystery. And she gets a  great sidekick along the way too!

I enjoyed this story, but it did end. So I am curious what the next book will be about, if it will still be about her or someone else.

Narrator

I liked her voice. She brought desperation into Mahit's voice and the superiority to the Teixcalaans, since all are barbarians to them. She did well with male and female voices too as Mahit does have a male voice in her head

Blurb

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.  

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion - all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret - one that might spell the end of her station and her way of life - or rescue it from annihilation.  

A fascinating space-opera debut, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure.

The Mermaid - Christina Henry

Paperback, 321 pages

Published June 19th 2018 by Titan Books Ltd

Historical fantasy

Own

My Thoughts

I do like her books. They are all such great fun!

This one is more Selkie wife than little mermaid.  A mermaid grew bored with her world and wanted to see more. She is given the name Amelia by her husband, a lonely fisherman whom she falls in love with. No magic here (well yes and no.) If she touch land she becomes human, when she goes back into the sea she is a mermaid...creature.

I liked Amelia. She really loved her husband and stayed with him until he died. I liked the village, she knew and pretended not to.

Then comes PT Barnum. Ugh, what an asshat! Oh Amelia, I know that you still want to see the world, but stay away from that asshat! He wants a circus freak. An animal.

Conclusion:

The book is light, and heavy. Fun, and dark. And in that aspect it did remind me of Lost boy. The darkness she got in there. Yes, I do like these magical books of hers. And I have Alice on its way so I will read more by her, wohoo!

Blurb

From the author of Lost Boy comes a beautiful historical fairy tale about a mermaid who leaves the sea, only to become the star attraction of history's greatest showman. Once there was a mermaid called Amelia who could never be content in the sea, a mermaid who longed to know all the world and all its wonders, and so she came to live on land. Once there was a man called P. T. Barnum, a man who longed to make his fortune by selling the wondrous and miraculous, and there is nothing more miraculous than a real mermaid. Amelia agrees to play the mermaid for Barnum and walk among men in their world, believing she can leave anytime she likes. But Barnum has never given up a money-making scheme in his life, and he's determined to hold on to his mermaid. 

Audio: Storm Glass - Jeff Wheeler

Audible Audio, 12 pages

Published June 19th 2018 by Brilliance Audio

Series: Harbinger #1

Fantasy MG YA

Freebie

My Thoughts:

I should have written this two days ago!

Ok, cool world. There are mysteries and as Cettie does not know them yet neither do we. Like how do the floating islands keep on floating? What makes skyships fly? It is a more industrialized fantasy world in a way. But not that much since "magic" rules.

There seems to be ghosts and other things...what I do not know yet

And the rich live in the sky while the downtrodden live below in filth.

Cettie is rescued. Though all I was thinking was omg she is leaving those kids down there! Those kids who surely saw her as their like mum and she was the only one who fed them! But hey, the strong survive, the weak die. Of course omg girl, please tell the nice man what a b%tch his housekeeper is. Sheesh!

Still nice kid.

I thought it would be mostly her story since she was saved and got to see the fancy part of this world, but we also get a princess' pov. She might have everything but that does not mean love, friends and fun. Still roof and food girl, roof and food.

I guess this is YA, but since they are 12 it feels more MG. Since nothing bad happens either so it feels more nice you know.

A nice story. And yes audible freebie for the win!

Narration Kate Rudd

A good voice that fit the story and she did the characters well. Esp that wicked housekeeper

Blurb

Theirs is a world of opposites. The privileged live in sky manors held aloft by a secretive magic known only as the Mysteries. Below, the earthbound poor are forced into factory work to maintain the engine of commerce. Only the wealthy can afford to learn the Mysteries, and they use their knowledge to further lock their hold on society.

Cettie Pratt is a waif doomed to the world below, until an admiral attempts to adopt her. But in her new home in the clouds, not everyone treats her as one of the family.

Sera Fitzempress is a princess born into power. She yearns to meet the orphan girl she has heard so much about, but her father deems the girl unworthy of his daughter’s curiosity.

Neither girl feels that she belongs. Each seeks to break free of imposed rules. Now, as Cettie dreams of living above and as Sera is drawn to the world below, they will follow the paths of their own choosing.

But both girls will be needed for the coming storm that threatens to overturn both their worlds.

TMST

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post on Rainy Day Ramblings where Rainy discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog.

April 16th: Where do you get your review books?

damn it! I forgot! It is 9m and I remembered. S is running from her room and back...sigh.

Ok review books. Sometimes people email, but I do not say yes that often. Mostly I get from publishers when they send out lists. So yes I respond to mass emails. Simple as that.

No more NG since that is so US only now.
Edelweiss is too complicated.

I can not think. She is trying to put a blanket over me now