Ms. Hen reviews This is How You Lose the Time War

 

This is How You Lose the Time War

Amal El-Mohtar

Max Gladstone

Saga Press

2019

Ms. Hen does not know how she decided to read this novel, but she had it on a post-it note on her desk for a long time, so she decided to buy it. She knew she must have read about it, or listened to a podcast about it, but she does not remember.

This novella is written by two people, which Ms. Hen thinks is interesting. It's an epistolary book, which means it is written in letters. The entire book is not letters, some are sections in third person, but it is a conversation between two people, Red and Blue, and they are agents in a time war.

Red and Blue send letters to each other, and they receive them in unique ways. One is through the rings of a tree, an another is delivered by a Canada goose. 

They travel through time, and avoid each other, but pine for each other at the same time. Lots of images of nature appear in this book, birds and insects and flowers. Ms. Hen loved the description of birds, because she is a fan, being one herself.

A statement in the book spoke to Ms. Hen because it is something she has been thinking about, "It's not that I never noticed before how many red things there are in the world. It's that they were never any relevant to me than green or white or gold. Now it's as if the whole world sings to me in petals, feathers, pebbles, blood." Ms. Hen has noticed the red things in the world recently, and how they pop out in her vision. She thinks this might happen to a lot of people.

This novel reminds Ms. Hen of other works, like the fairy tale novels she has read recently, such as A Spindle Splintered. It also reminds her of Doctor Who, of course, because of time travel.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is charming and beautiful. It's short, but sometimes Ms. Hen likes to read things that are fast. This book is about love through time, and despair and desperation. Ms. Hen believes this book would delight the right type of person, one with Ms. Hen's impeccable sensibilities. 

 

Ms. Hen reviews Master of Poisons

 

Master of Poisons

Andrea Hairston

Tor

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she saw the author at the Arisia con in January, and she thought she was so fantastic Ms. Hen decided she wanted to read a book by her. The author did a reading from her forthcoming book, and Ms. Hen was impressed by her presentation.

This is different from the novels Ms. Hen usually reads. MASTER OF POISONS is fantasy. Imagine LORD OF THE RINGS with Afrofuturism, climate issues, and pirates, and that's this book.

The Masters of Poisons, or Djola, is a man who is captured on a pirate ship, and performs evil deeds. He drinks seed to forget his troubles, but makes friends along the way. Awa, a young sprite is training to be a griot, or storyteller, tries to learn to perform her work the best she can. The two meet each other eventually, and try to save the empire.

The characters go to a place called Smokeland, which is a type of fantasy world where things are not real. Dead people can live there, and people can slip in and out, and magic happens. Ms. Hen thought this reminded her of the Other World that exists.

Ms. Hen likes that some chapters are from the point of view of animals. The reader hears from a dog, a horse, and an elephant, which Ms. Hen thinks is charming. Ms. Hen believes that animals have opinions similar to humans, and their voices should be heard.

The prose in the novel is exquisite. Each sentence is like a poem. It reminded Ms. Hen of reading MOBY DICK, which Ms. Hen considers one long prose poem about chasing a whale.

Ms. Hen thinks this is a difficult book to read, but it's worth it. It's difficult because the prose is so lush, one could sink in it, and not be able to get out. Ms. Hen recommends this if you want to get lost in another world.

Ms. Hen reviews The Kid Mobster

The Kid Mobster

Michael Decicco

2017

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel, because she met the author at an event, and he found out she wrote reviews, and he gave her his book. She likes reading young adult novels at times, as her readers know, so she decided to try out this book.

This novel is about a high school senior named Eddie who works as a courier for a company that services banks. He is saving money for college, but he decides he needs to make more money. He starts to work at a call center for a man named Mederick, and his business raises money for the police and fire departments.

Eddie works with a group of strange people, and his ex-girlfriend's sister, Ruth. They call people and try to make money. The office moves to a different location, and Eddie doesn't understand what is going on, because he is young, and nobody spells it out for him in the beginning. Mederick is part of the mob, and the people who surround him are shady.

One of the good aspects of this novel is the character's voices. They sound like the low-down wise guys that are on TV about mobsters. Ms. Hen could hear what the characters were saying, and she knows what these people are like. These are the types of people that Ms. Hen stays away from, wheelers and dealers, and the kind that will crush a person if they get in their way.

But the character Eddie is too innocent and unbelieving to accept that his coworkers are scumbags. He almost succumbs to their depths, but he learns his lesson, that if something seems too good to be true, he should beware.

Ms. Hen likes to look for chickens or eggs when she reads a book, and there is a place where the characters eat eggs, or would like to, "Heading their way, I felt angry, and I drooled as I passed a case full of rich-looking cakes and pies and booths with steaming plates of bacon and eggs and pancakes..." Ms. Hen always thinks that eggs are enticing, and even though Eddie could not afford breakfast that day, she knew he enjoyed eggs when he could. Mederick was not kind to Eddie, who should have known better, but mafia types are not nice people, no matter how much they have, they want more, and they will do whatever they can to get it.

Ms. Hen enjoyed this novel. It is not her usual cup of tea, but she likes to dive into different types of worlds sometimes. She can imagine this novel as a TV show, with the wise guys cracking at each other. Everyone has to learn life lessons somehow, and Ms. Hen believes Eddie will never make the mistakes again.