The Unblessed Child

The Unblessed Child is a 2020 young adult fantasy novel by R.J. Kaldanis. It was self-published by the author in February of 2020. It is the author’s debut novel and the first book in The Blessed Chronicles. I was provided with an advanced copy of the novel by Netgalley for review purposes.

The novel takes place in a world where there are two types of people, the blessed, who can wield one of the four elements, and the unblessed, who cannot. The novel follows Aardriyah, an unblessed girl who has been raised to believe she’s unwanted and unimportant, compared to her siblings. Shortly before she turns 19, she begins having strange, vivid nightmares of beasts and worlds beyond what anyone could imagine. She soon finds herself being hunted by a mysterious figure with powers she’s never seen before. To uncover the truth about her dreams, Aardriyah goes on a journey that will change not only herself, but has implications for the world at large.

The Unblessed Child has a whole cast of characters, but there are only about four or five that I feel are so vital that I need to mention in this review. First, Aardriyah, our main character. She’s had to learn to be strong and self-sufficient after being looked down on her whole life for being unblessed and having red-hair, which is hated by the citizens of the island where she was raised. Then, there’s Chastion, her older brother who was adopted into the royal family because he was an exceptionally strong water blessed child and the queens needed an heir. Chastion was once Aardriyah’s lovable older brother, but years apart have made him into an entitled and arrogant man who she loathes more often than not. When Aardriyah begins to have these strange dreams, Teme, an old man in the village, seems to have an idea as to why and help her along her journey. While he claims to want to help, it’s clear that he’s got a few secrets that he’s keeping from her. On her journey, Aardriyah meets Rachida, a fire blessed, who she befriends. Rachida was my favorite character because she was funny and sassy and it was nice to have a little bit of a break from serious moments for a bit. Lastly, there is Princess Kibo, another child who was adopted by the queens of the water blessed. While helping Aardriyah, the reader isn’t able to get much of a feel for who Kibo is, because her motivations aren’t really explained and very little of her true personality is shown. Unlike most novels, I can’t really say that this book has a main antagonist.

Since this novel was the first book in a series, there was a great deal of world-building that had to be included in the story. Kaldanis needed to show the reader what this world was, how it worked, how the powers of the blessed worked and why things are the way that they are in terms of political power and social constructs. In my opinion, she did an excellent job of that without making it seemed forced or like an exposition dump. I also enjoyed the magic system and the way that it was explained, with society being categorized based on the elemental magic and the division between each caste. The magic system has a lot of potential that I hope to see in future books in the series. The writing also really surprised me. It felt natural and fluid and it didn’t feel like this was a debut novel. The writing style wasn’t overly flowery or descriptive and that helped me follow the story easily, as opposed to getting lost in the depictions of the world the story took place in.

While I enjoyed elements of this novel, there were a few things that took away from my enjoyment. One was that Aardriyah lost nearly all her agency once the plot truly kicked off. Prior to her having to leave her home, she’s shown to be strong and frustratingly stubborn, but once she’s told she has to leave, without being told why, she goes along with it. She does what she’s told, out of character, with a minimal amount of fighting back or arguing. I found it annoying as well that she kept circling back to resenting her brother, even when there were much bigger and more important things she needed to worry about. Another thing that annoyed me was the fact that Teme very obviously knew exactly what was happening and who was after Aardriyah but didn’t share that information until near the very end of the story. Others tried to get him to reveal what he knew earlier, but they didn’t make much of an effort and, when asked, he just pushed them off, saying he’d explain later. This didn’t make any sense to me and, if Teme knowing what was going on had been revealed later, it would’ve worked a little better. In his second appearance, the reader knows, and the characters know, that Teme knows more than he’s saying, but the secrets aren’t revealed until close to the end of the book. The pacing for this novel was a little wonky. The plot moves quickly to get Aardriyah to leave Veros, but then it slows down dramatically until the last 15% of the book. In that last section of the book, the pacing picks up as the reader is told what Aardriyah’s dreams are about and why she’s being chased before setting the stage for the next book. The ending feels rushed as a result because so much information is being revealed in so few pages. I finished the book feeling slightly unsatisfied and a little off-kilter because of the pacing issues. The plot itself isn’t terrible, but there weren’t very many surprises.

The Unblessed Child was an enjoyable book. I liked the world-building and magic system a lot and the premise of the story was intriguing. At the same time, the pacing and some other elements of the plot needed work. It was difficult for me to connect with many of the characters. It’s a quick read and a good fantasy story, so I might read the sequel when it comes out to see what happens next.

Rating: 3.2 Stars

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When It's Time For A Book To Go

All good things must come to an end, including ownership of a book. I've reached the point in my reading journey where I have too many books and nowhere near enough shelves in my house to hold them all. Some of you may be thinking "Why don't you get books from the library? Why not try ebooks?" To answer the second question first, I do read ebooks, but I'm also a book dragon, so I feel this need to collect as many physical books as possible. I don't take full advantage of library the way that I used to because, well, I tend to forget that it's an option. Anyway, this post is not about all of the books I have.

I wanted to talk about what happens when I get rid of books. Mainly how I decide which books go, and what happens to them. Because I do occasionally sit down and go through my book collection, pulling out books that it's time to say goodbye to.

The biggest factor to deciding if I'm going to keep a book or get rid of it is if I read it. I know it sounds obvious, but there are quite a few books I bought, intending to read, and just haven't. Sometimes it's because I've outgrown the story or age group and sometimes it's because I've realized I'm not a fan of the genre. If I've owned a book for more than a year, and I haven't even attempted to read it, I doubt I ever will. The second biggest factor for me in deciding which books to get rid of is how much I enjoyed a particular book. If I disliked a book or DNF'd it, I'm unlikely to read it again. Meaning it's pretty much just taking up space on the shelf. Aside from a few books that I've kept for sentimental value or ones authors have sent to me, any book that I don't intend to reread gets put onto the chopping block. Lastly, I try to decide if there's someone I know who might enjoy the book in question. Sometimes, I'll buy a book because I want to give the genre or author a chance, and I don't like it. That doesn't mean my sister or a coworker wouldn't like it. So, if I don't like a book, I might give it away to a friend or family member who enjoys that genre. The way I see it, I'm not getting rid of that book, I'm just giving it a new home.

Now that I've explained my methods for deciding what books I get rid of, let's talk about what I do with the books I decide to get rid of. (Not including the ones I give to family/friends). First, I try to donate them to the library. If the library won't accept them, due to the number of books or having enough of that particular title, I find a used bookstore and see if they're accepting drop-offs. Whatever they don't accept, I sell on eBay or another reselling site. Is it the most original tactic? Probably not, but the book finds a new home anyway.

So, that's what happens with the books I decide to get rid of. What do you do with books you no longer want?

God Emperor of Dune

God Emperor of Dune is a 1981 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It was published by Putnam. It’s the fourth book in the Dune saga following Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. My reviews on the previous books can be found here.

God Emperor of Dune takes place 3,500 years after the conclusion of Children of Dune. Leto II Atreides has reigned as emperor of the known universe for millennia. In an effort to preserve humanity’s future, Leto sacrificed his own by becoming inhuman. Under his rule, the desert planet of Arrakis has become a lush paradise, the all-important spice mélange has become scarce and humanity as a whole has been prevented from exploration. A rebellion led by Siona Atreides, a distant descendant of Leto’s, has arisen to oppose the god emperor, but unknown to Siona, Leto’s Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never could’ve conceived.

By far, this was the book I enjoyed the least in the series. It’s mentioned in the introduction, written by the author’s son, that Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune formed their own quasi-trilogy and God Emperor of Dune was the start of a new trilogy and that’s evident by the overall tone of this novel. Dune was never the most optimistic story, and it has a recurring theme of “you can’t change what’s meant to happen” but this novel was far darker and far more cynical than its predecessors. While I applaud Herbert for making Leto a tyrant and not trying to shy away from the fact that he’s a tyrant, this series has reached a point where those elements got tiring for me.

My biggest issue with this novel is the pacing. The copy I read was nearly 600 pages, but there’s a large section of the book where nothing of importance seems to happen. The beginning has a lot of things happen, the end has a lot of activity, but the middle is nothing. Siona plans her rebellion. Leto talks a lot about the future and his Golden Path but says very little of substance. There’s a lot of talking and plotting that never seems to go anywhere. This book basically had a lot of filler, and from the writing, I think the filler was meant to make the reader consider the overall themes of the book, but the middle of the book is so dry and boing, that I just found myself getting irritated. This series has also veered away from its science fiction roots. It’s technically still sci-fi, due to cloning, space travel and advanced technology, but most of the plot fits better into the fantasy category than science fiction. I wish the narrative had stuck closer to science fiction.

This novel has a cast of characters, but there’s not a lot I can really say about them. Leto II is the main character, but as a result of his extended life and no longer being human, he doesn’t really have much of a personality or character growth. Most of the scenes he’s in involve him either plotting to achieve his Golden Path, finding it funny that no one else realizes what he’s doing or  waxing poetic about humans unwittingly continuing the same cycle of violence and oppression even as they work to break the cycle. There is Moneo, a descendant, servant and close confidant of Leto’s. He’s torn between being scared of Leto’s non-human side and doing everything in his power to keep the emperor happy and making the Golden Path come to fruition. Hwi Noree, the Ixian ambassador, is sent to serve in Leto’s court and he falls in love with her, as she was designed to ensnare him. While I didn’t have anything against her, Herbert didn’t really give the reader a reason to like her or care about her relationship with Leto. We’re not really shown how she’s irresistible to Leto, or the other characters who fall under her spell. The reader is told that she was designed to make Leto fall for her, but nothing is really shown to enforce that idea. Lastly, we have Siona, who was my favorite character because she had a real personality. She had agency and a goal, which no other character aside from Leto is shown to have, and she read like an actual person. While she wasn’t necessarily a “good” person, she was the best character in the novel because aside from Leto, she was the only one who had real conviction behind her actions, not just blind devotion.

I know this review has been negative so far, however I don’t want to make it seem like this is a terrible book. It’s just a very boring one that I struggled to get through. There are three things about this book that saved it from being a 0 Star book. The first is its message about the nature of humanity. All of Leto’s actions, every act of oppression he’s caused, he’s done because he knows something needs to change within humanity. He spent years keeping humanity as a whole safe, but not allowing people true freedom, in preparation for what will happen when he’s no longer around. He spent three thousand years controlling humanity so that when he’s gone, they’ll become something better than it once was. The second is its discussion about messiahs and godhood. In Dune Messiah, Paul Atreides struggles with being a messiah to the Fremen and dealing with the blood their holy war, in his name, has spilt. In this novel, that idea was taken a step further to explore the idea of godhood and the affect that has on the person being worshipped. And it’s not a nice image, but the acknowledgement of the problems with worshipping a person as a god makes the progression of events and resolution of the plot really work. The last element I enjoyed was the subversion of a particular trope. Early in the novel, it’s mentioned that Siona, as an Atreides, is going to be tested soon. Her “test” is mentioned dozens of times before it happens. The expectation, even in-universe, is that this test will cause Siona to abandon her rebellion and hatred of Leto. If anything, Siona being tested results in her becoming even more convinced of the need for a rebellion. As a result, the conclusion came as a pleasant surprise to me.

God Emperor of Dune was a disappointment for me. Herbert clearly had a lot of very big ideas, but didn’t quite manage to explore on those ideas in an interesting and entertaining way. I liked elements of the plot, but not the plot overall. I can see how this novel sets up the events of the last two novels in the Dune saga written by Frank Herbert, but given how much I disliked this novel, I don’t think I’ll be reading them. Right now, I’m no longer invested in the rest of this story, as its moved so far away from what was seen in the original Dune. Instead, I might read one of the prequel books, particularly the ones focused on the war against the Thinking Machines. A war against robots seems more entertaining to me than god emperors playing 5-dimensional chess with themselves.

Rating: 1.6 Stars

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June Wrap-Up

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It's the end of the month, which means it's wrap-up time.  Now, let's get into the books.

Books I Read and Reviewed

Warrior of the Wild* by Tricia Levenseller- 4.2 Stars

The Enixar: The Sorcerer's Conquest by Mikkell L. Khan- 2.7 Stars

Empress of All Seasons* by Emiko Jean- 3.4 Stars

The Knight's Daughter by S. H. Cooper- 3.1 Stars

Chaos of Stars* by Kiersten White- 3.6 Stars

Books I Read, Only Reviewed on Goodreads

The Tablet by Robert Thomas Minsky- 4 Stars (Goodreads review)

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring* by J. R. R. Tolkien- 5 Stars

The Witches of Willow Cove by Josh Roberts- 4 Stars (Goodreads review)

Woman by V.P. Evans- 3 Stars (Goodreads review)

A River of Darkness* by Masaji Ishikawa- 4 Stars (Goodreads review)

From A Shadow Grave by Andi C. Buchanan- 2 Stars (Goodreads review)

Genres Read

Children's Books: 1

Fantasy: 7

Thriller: 1

Contemporary: 1

Non-Fiction: 1

Figures

Number of DNFs: 0

Total Books Read: 11

Pages Read: 2,641

Average Rating: 3.5

What did you read in June? Any recommendations?

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The Chaos of Stars

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The Chaos of Stars is a 2014 young adult fantasy novel by Kiersten White. The novel was published by HarperTeen in September of 2014. While I'd known of the author prior to reading, this was the first novel of hers I've written. The cover is what really drew me in, despite the old adage about not judging books by their covers. It can be purchased here from Bookshop.org or here from Amazon.

The novel tells the story of Isadora, the human daughter of the Egyptian deities Isis and Osiris. When she grows tired of her family's treatment of her, she's given a chance to travel to California to live with her brother. Her new life in the United States comes with its own challenges and dangers however, and Isadora struggled to keep her old life and her new life separate.

There's a very interesting cast of characters in this book, as you'd expect for a story focusing on the family lives of gods. Isadora, our narrator, was my favorite character. Raised by gods, she's become disillusioned by her family after learning that, although her parents will live forever, they're going to let her die. She wants a life outside of the Egyptian pantheon and to be defined as someone other than just Isis's daughter. She also has a lot of sass and personality, which I liked. Her parents are, as mentioned, Isis and Osiris. Osiris is the typical emotionally-unavailable father, given that he spends most of his time in the land of the dead. Isis alternates between seeming to care about her children to only being focused on how they're a reflection of her. Neither characters are inherently villains, but they're not meant to be likeable or sympathetic. Other Egyptian gods such as Horus, Anubis and Nephthys make appearances in this story as well. Once the setting changes to California, the reader is introduced to Sirius, Isadora's older brother, along with Tyler and Ry, friends she makes during her stay. Tyler and Ry are by far the two most relatable characters in the story, wanting Isadora to have fun and experience new things. Despite not knowing her for long, they care about her and each help her open up in their own way. I especially liked Ry and how his relationship with Isadora developed. In short, this book has a plethora of characters to enjoy.

I enjoyed the writing in this novel for two reasons. The first is that scenes in the present are interwoven with dreams Isadora is having and trying to figure out the meaning of. Each chapter begins with an anecdote, from Egyptian mythology, as told by Isadora and with a little more candor as a result. The stories really add to the characterization of the deities being discussed. The dreams give the reader a sense of the stakes of the story.Both elements feed into the foreshadowing within the story. The second reason why I enjoyed the writing was because White does an excellent job of setting a scene without going overboard. Whether the scene is describing Isadora's home in Egypt or the museum she volunteers at in California, it's very easy to picture the setting in your head while reading. Lastly, I was genuinely surprised by the main plot twist of the novel. Isadora has this feeling that something bad is going to happen for most of the novel, but the revelation of who is behind these events is executed perfectly.

The Chaos of Stars is a novel that is more character-focused than plot-driven. While there is a clear plot within the story, centered around Isadora trying to keep her life in Egypt separate from her life in California and keep everyone safe, most of the novel focuses on Isadora's growth and her coming to terms with her place within her family. This means that the pacing for the book is a little slow in parts. One event related to the main plot will occur and then a few chapters will pass before something related to that plot-point will come up again. This meant that while this was a quick read for me, I wasn't invested in much of what was going on for the middle of the book. As I mentioned above, I enjoyed the main plot twist/reveal of the story, however some of the earlier and smaller twists were very obvious to me early on. I'm not sure if all of the ones I'm thinking of were meant to be plot twists, but if they were, they didn't really surprise me very much. While I mentioned above that I liked Ry and Isadora's relationship, it was very clear to me early on that they were meant to fit into the friends-to-lovers trope. I don't have a problem with this trope, but it was so clear to me early on that that's what was being set up that I was hoping it wouldn't happen. I liked their friendship, but felt so-so about their romance.

The Chaos of Stars is a solid fantasy novel. The writing overall was pretty amazing. I found the premise interesting and I liked the elements of Egyptian mythology. The pacing and some of the foreshadowing could use improvement in my opinion. I'd recommend this novel to anyone looking for a quick read, especially if they're interested in a character-driven story.

Rating: 3.6 Stars

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