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The God of Lost Words was the final installment in A.J. Hackwith's Hell's Library trilogy. I loved the first book and much of what I liked in the first carried through to the rest of the series. Even though I continued enjoying the overall story, I found myself getting a little tired by the end. There was a lot of purple prose and parts of it felt somewhat preachy and self-important. I thought that those elements were more balanced in the first book but the second and third began to feel like a soapbox extolling the value of stories and libraries where the case was being made by cramming the text full of deep and profound statements in almost every paragraph.

It's somewhat ironic that in an attempt to speak to the importance of stories, these books stopped focusing on the story and instead spent so much effort on the language.

That said, I still enjoyed the world building and story arc. I also felt like Hackwith did a good job of building very real character development and found myself deeply invested in the main characters (although I felt Brevity was a bit shortchanged and her development was a little shallow).

I'm not sure I can recommend the entire series with the enthusiasm I gave just the first book, but if you loved the first I think you'll be satisfied with the rest.

I just finished reading the last book of @susankayequinn@wandering.shop's solarpunk/hopepunk Nothing is Promised series. I posted a brief review after the first book in the series, but you have to read all four books to get the full arc as the story doesn't resolve between installments. (Aside: I think the divisions of the books make sense, especially since they tend to follow different POV characters in each as the plot plays out, but the books resolve more like chapters of a larger book and don't stand alone. Think LOTR, not Harry Potter. You're taking a breather from the action, not tying things up while setting up a sequel).

Anyway, on with the review. The stories were all very engaging. I found myself eager to keep reading and very eager to pick up the next volume. Quinn did a really good job of drawing you into the POV characters' back stories and how they played into the main plot without it feeling superfluous. I cared about them and the glimpses into their lives outside the core events but it wasn't too much that it felt like a distraction. It was also a really good way to do the world building of showing us how society has changed without just being a wikipedia page about chosen families or the pandemics or whatever.

While these characters were good and engaging, I did find myself wanting to hear a bit of perspective from the less privileged living in this world. Because of how the plot plays out, most of the people you meet and follow are in positions of power or at least stability and education. The world of Nothing is Promised is chock full of climate refugees and others who probably have very interesting stories to tell, even if they weren't drivers of the primary action. There's a brief glimpse of some folks who live in rural Nigeria and I think it might have been nice to check in with them and others in similar situations as events play out. Most of it wouldn't touch them directly, but hearing how the high-level machinations and politics of the main story trickle down or drift in and out of their awareness would have added some richness.

My only other complaint with the series was the big heists that drove the plot forward. It strikes me that both the spoils from those events as well the consequences on the lead characters could have arisen without the trope of assembling a crack team that happens to tap the convenience of a close-at-hand master hacker, a master robotics engineer, and all the other experts you need to pull off the implausible.

These gripes are minor and I'd recommend the series without hesitation. I think it's telling that what I wanted was more depth into more characters or more of the problem-solving by out-witting and exploiting hubris that made the rest of the books so good.

I think solarpunk is a very important genre as we move into a world dominated by the effects of climate change and late stage capitalism. We're used to the dystopias and post-collapse stories that all seem to cover picking up the pieces of broken civilizations. Those stories can tell us how we can rebuild and there's value in that, but what's missing from so much of that is how to face the destabilizing forces and what we might be able to do to prevent the collapse. Stories like Nothing is Promised give us a way to look at the abuses of power and see paths to fight back so that when we see parallels in the here and now we can be inspired to do something about them.

Let's keep embracing this type of book and this type of author to tell stories of hope and positive social change so we have front-of-mind the ideas of what we can actually accomplish and how to do it.

When You Had Power was just the first book in @susankayequinn@wandering.shop ‘s series Nothing is Promised and the novels are clearly meant to be read together so I can’t really comment on the story as a whole but only first impressions. With that said, I enjoyed what I’ve read so far. The world Quinn describes is intriguing and I’m excited to learn more about it in coming books.

I also enjoyed the characters even though I don’t feel like I know any of them very well yet. The book is short and leaves you wanting to get to know the people better and I’m looking forward to going a little deeper in the rest of the series. What you do see, however, is some interesting insight into the effects of multiple pandemics and displacement and what that does to a person’s sense of home and family. It’s only lightly explored in most near-future fiction and I really appreciated Quinn’s thoughts on the topic.

All-in-all I’d recommend When You Had Power as a good, easy read but make sure you’ve got the rest of the series ready because you’ll want to dive right in. I either need to wait for the next books to arrive or try to figure out where I left my Kindle.