Acolyte by Stephanie Fisher

Title: Acolyte

Author: Stephanie Fisher

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Tempris # 2

Paperback, 651 pages 

Publication: April 16, 2020

Source: Personal Library
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Magic marked her for suffering.

Magic will save her.

Magic will lead her home.

How far is too far when it comes to love?In a matter of moments, everything Taly ever thought she knew came crashing down around her. Her mother’s spells were broken, her powers unleashed. She’s no longer mortal but fey, and every day serves as a reminder that her entire life has been a lie.To make matters worse, Taly has been captured and imprisoned by a woman claiming to be the Time Queen. Her only way home is to play the Queen’s game and train in the art of time magic. The Queen has commanded that she become an Acolyte — a task that could take years to complete. Meanwhile, Skye is left as the last line of defense to protect Tempris from an invading horde of walking dead. He still doesn’t have a name or a face to put to his enemy, and there are traitors inside the city. Everyone keeps saying that Taly is dead, but he can’t accept it. He won’t. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back — even if it costs him everything.A renegade queen, forbidden magic, and a love that reaches across time and space — Taly and Skye will be tested, their loyalties pushed to the point of breaking, as war looms on the horizon.

MY THOUGHTS

Acolyte started exactly where we left off in the first book, Shardless, with Vaughn being reprimanded, Taly in a time loop space with the Time Queen and Skye battling the Shades. The second book expanded a lot more on the history, character backgrounds and their motives. Biggest question of all was: Who was the villain and why did the Queen close the gates all those centuries ago?

Acolyte was just as good as the first book, but I wished we had more scenes with Taly and Skye together. There were a few but it wasn't the same. Most of the book involved Taly learning time magic while Skye figured out how to save Taly since everyone around him thought she was gone.

I really enjoyed seeing and learning more about Skye's older brother Kato. There was so much more depth to him than first impressions but in this book, we had the opportunity to peel back the layers to better understand why he acts the way he does. I like him just as much as Skye and Taly.

The final few chapters had my heart racing with anticipation. I can't wait to read the third book whenever it gets published. Hopefully this year! All in all, Acolyte was a great sequel. To be honest, I'm surprised this series isn't as popular as other books, if not more. The series is truly magical, breath of fresh air, exceptionally written with standout character, plot and worldbuilding. Seriously, this is a series you don't want to miss. Highly, highly recommend!

How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason

Title: How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse

Author: K. Eason
Genre: Sci-Fi Fantasy
Series: The Thorne Chronicles # 1
Hardcover, 416 pages
Publication: October 8, 2019 by Daw Books
Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
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Rory Thorne is a princess with thirteen fairy blessings, the most important of which is to see through flattery and platitudes. As the eldest daughter, she always imagined she'd inherit her father's throne and govern the interplanetary Thorne Consortium.

Then her father is assassinated, her mother gives birth to a son, and Rory is betrothed to the prince of a distant world.

When Rory arrives in her new home, she uncovers a treacherous plot to unseat her newly betrothed and usurp his throne. An unscrupulous minister has conspired to name himself Regent to the minor (and somewhat foolish) prince. With only her wits and a small team of allies, Rory must outmaneuver the Regent and rescue the prince.

How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is a feminist reimagining of familiar fairytale tropes and a story of resistance and self-determination--how small acts of rebellion can lead a princess to not just save herself, but change the course of history.

How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is the perfect union of Science Fiction and Fairy-tale. Although to be absolutely fair, it’s more Science Fiction than Fairy-tale but great nonetheless. The story begins with a blessing and a curse. Rory Thorne is the first princess born in a long, long line of princes to the Thorne Consortium. On her name day, everyone in the multiverse came to witness the significant day…even the thirteen fairies whom no one has seen for thousands of years. Each fairy blessed/cursed Rory with a gift. Kindness, Beauty, courage through adversity and of course to see through illusions and lies. Apparently, it’s exactly what a princess needs.

From the opening chapter, I knew I was going to like Rory. Despite all odds and to everyone’s surprise she was born not only challenging the status quo but eventually changing it. Reading this far, you can guess that Rory is no ordinary princess. Only sixteen-years of age, Rory is more intelligent and skilled than most of her seniors. What makes this book stand out and superior than many novels nowadays is that it doesn’t resort to physical combat or flashy battle sequences. It doesn’t involve a ‘girl’ going on a beserker mission of revenge and bloodshed for power or greed. Rory utilized her mind and voice to outsmart the most respected arithmancers (magic-magician), regents and would-be kings and got shit done. No gimmicks here. I found it quite refreshing to see such an independent character with fortitude and cunning, using her mind and words to get what she wanted. The supporting cast was just as multifaceted and unique as our heroine. From Rory’s two trusted advisers Messer Rupert and Deme Grytt to her two bodyguards Thorsdottir and Zhang. Rupert and Grytt couldn’t be more polar opposite but their love for Rory made them an amazing team. I loved their banter. The same could be said for Rory’s bodyguards. I loved that it took equally intelligent women to guard Rory. Never send a man to do a woman’s job, amiright?

The world building was as scientific as they come. While there was what some would considered as ‘magic’ I felt like it leaned more towards technology-science. Messer Rupert is Rory’s Arithmancy teacher. Arithmancy is the ability to manipulate and hex codes. Whether it be that of a database, firewall security or one’s mind. There was a lot of code hacking going on to obtain confidential secrets, passwords and the disabling of cameras and bugs. You get the picture. I thought Eason’s world building was a breath of fresh air. She took a seemly simple idea and made it uniquely her own. I particular liked the aura reading aspect; it was an interestingly fun aspect of the novel.

Every year I discover a gem of a book and this year’s book is without a doubt How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse. Eason’s writing was flawless and I loved how she used the ‘inner monologue' technique, super clever. I thought the world building was well developed and easy to understand. But the best part of the book were the characters. If you’re looking for an extraordinary, nonconforming, out-of-the-box type heroine then look no further. I highly, highly recommend How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Universe. There are countless of novels that try to incorporate science fiction with fairy-tale in the market but none done as well as this book. Read this, you won’t regret it!

Lastly, there was little to no romance here. It's all about girl power!

The Passengers by John Marrs

Title: The Passengers
Author: John Marrs
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Series: N/A

Hardcover, 352 pages
Publication: August 27, 2019 by Berkley

Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

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Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man.

From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, "Which of these people should we save?...And who should we kill first?"

I hope I’m not being too presumptuous by saying that driver-less vehicles are the future. We already see some aspect of it in the Google and Tesla cars. In Marrs’s latest thriller, The Passengers, Marrs paints a world where the emergence of autonomous vehicles are mandatory and the new norm. Say goodbye to human-error accident, traffic, and fuel consumption to name a few. Manufacturers and The Government assured the citizens that the driver-less cars are extremely safe and un-hackable. All good, right? Nope. The opening chapters shows eight hijacked autonomous vehicles with everything televised and broadcast all around the world. Giving the everyday citizens the right to be judge, jury and executioner on which passengers lives or dies.

The Passengers is my first Marrs novel and I must say, I am beyond impressed. While the concept and highly plausible potential of hacking technology isn’t quite new, Marrs took the idea and created an incredible and engaging plot that had me at the edge of my seat the entire time. I absolutely loved the writing and formatting of the book. Marrs timed and executed the chapters and passengers’ revelations perfectly. Marrs ended each chapter with just the right amount of information and detail to entice the reader guaranteeing that they’d continue along with the story. I know I was. I kept telling myself ‘just one more chapter…’. Readers were treated to various point-of-views, alternating chapters between the passengers and jury member, Libby. I’m usually not a big fan of multiple POVs but in this case, it worked well. I felt like I was getting to know each and every character intimately, their feelings and emotion so palpable they lept off the pages. Definitely a character driven novel, we delved deep into human behaviors.

On top of the driver-less vehicles, social media played a significant role in the story. In this day and age, the majority of the world is on some sort of social media platform or another. There isn’t a second that goes by when someone isnt’ sharing or exposing some part of theirs or others’ lives. Everyone has an opinion for everything, even if it’s unsolicited. What’s crazy and scary about Marr’s novel is that it’s all so freaking plausible. Most technology is indeed hackable but combine that with social media…and it’s an entirely different beast. In The passengers, strangers world-wide chimed on the fate of the passengers, making judgments, and deciding who lived or died based on basic thread thin facts. Sounds familiar right? Marrs did an excellent job at capturing that real world reality. 

All in all, I really enjoyed The Passengers. It is without a doubt a masterly well-written thriller. I call it now, The Passengers is going to get an adaptation some time in the near future! I highly recommend The Passengers, it was unputdownable! I can’t believe I haven’t read anything else by Marrs but I plan to remedy that soon.