Michael is a thirteen year old foster child fighting for his life in the slums of Baltimore when his Earth power emerges. Given that he was busy killing gang members, mostly in self defense on this occasion, prosecution is waived, but he has to join the Junior Super Corps until he's eighteen. You'd think that gaining super powers and moving to New York City would bring positive changes into his life but not so much. Most of the hierarchy think he's a vulgar loose cannon, which he is, but they're mostly concerned that he might say the wrong thing in public and for an organization with such a shiny image they definitely have things to hide. Their few secrets that Michael doesn't already know, such as the government is really run behind the scenes by a secret group called The Society, he will know soon enough because he's a hacker working for an opposing secret group that takes very seriously the words all Supers hear when they gain their powers....the storm is coming.

The first book of this series focused on the relationship between the two main PoV characters, Livira and Evar, and the conflict between their respective races. Eventually that became intermingled with the eternal conflict taking place within the library itself and things got complicated. The trend of continually expanding the scope continues here and this book starts by introducing two new characters at an unknown point in the timeline of the characters from the first book. These new characters are Ganar, a new race that gets woven into the same eternal conflict, and one that will forever change the nature of the battle. With even more PoV characters in this book you would expect it be just as character driven, but the opposite is actually true. Mark Lawrence instead leans into the brain-burning, timeline twisting eternal library battle and the characters take a bit more a back seat. Is this a change for the better or is this another case of an author letting the big picture story getting in the way of the characters?

This second book of Tandemstar takes us to Kingdoms, where the five gods of the Pantheon blessed a family line as living avatars to rule and technology is restricted. Enter Battine Alconnot, the -not denoting that she did not inherit the blessing of the god Ho, whose childhood sweetheart inherited the throne, but because Battine is Unblessed had to marry her sister instead. She usually avoids the court and her family, but promised her sister to attend this festival. The King tries to talk to Battine alone, saying that she is owed an apology, but before he can explain they are interrupted by the queen and later that night he is found dead. The murderer has unfortunately framed Battine, so with the help of an outsider and a servant ,she sneaks around the castle while looking for the truth. The shocking truth makes no sense to Battine but sends her to an ancient temple seeking the deepest secret of the Blessed.

This is a very unique concept coming from author Mark Lawrence, and I gave it a shot even though I've bounced off some of his stuff in the past, like Prince of Thorns. This time around he was able to grab me though, with a story that builds up in a very interesting way. The world is exposed to you through the eyes of two children, Livira and Evar, and their very different lives. Livira is a duster, who winds up being captured as a child when sabbers invade her meager desert settlement and kill all the adults. She is rescued from that situation and brought to Crath city, which is a wondrous place to a juvenile duster, and home of the Athenaeum, the great library. It is this library that is the centerpiece of the series, and it is a place so large it is impossible to ever explore it all. Evar is a 20 year old who was also orphaned as a child, and he has grown up within the library itself, trapped there with his siblings. As Livira and Evar explore the world around them, we learn about the library from two very different angles, and a multi-layered story begins to unfold.

If my life was on the line and I needed a fictional character to rescue me, Joe Ledger would have to be near the top of my preferred list. This ex-Baltimore cop is the stereotypical killer that fights on the side of good, and he is more than willing to do some very evil things to make sure he accomplishes the mission. He never monologues with the bad guy, he just gets the job done no matter how bad the odds are. So it's always an exciting day when a new Joe Ledger book comes out and offers a chance to spend more time with Joe and the rest of Havoc Team as they save the world from yet another existential threat. This time a number of old threats are back to sow chaos and it is going to take all of RTI's resources to keep them at bay. Is there anything new to be found here or this just old material that's been recycled to feed the hungry fans of the series?

Makk had the misfortune to be born on a day believed to be so unlucky that his parents barely paused long enough to get him tattooed with the outcast mark before dumping him at an orphanage. The stigma of that mark is so strong that before becoming a cop Makk considered joining the House, planet Dib's religious organization, simply because some of the monks wear concealing robes that would hide it. The city of Velon's best detective also grew up in an orphanage and is therefore familiar with their compound when a scholarly monk is found murdered. Almost from the beginning this isn't a typical case. The monk, Orno, is the younger brother of Velon's most notorious criminal. Orno had recently stolen a priceless ancient religious text that no one can read, but it appears to discuss the Culling, when the god known as the Outcast will return and bring about the apocalypse. Then, just to really annoy Makk, he gets saddled with a shiny new detective as a partner. Everyone wants the case solved without any secrets being revealed, but in a world where independent reporters record everything with drones and conspiracy theories are more common than facts, Makk will have difficulty distinguishing the possible from the impossible.

Originally published back in 1959, and winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960, Starship Troopers is a classic sci-fi novel that has been considered controversial from the day it was first published. It bears little resemblance to the 1997 movie with the same name and there are many different takes on why it is controversial. Set 700 years in the future, it's a coming of age story for Johnny Rico, who joins the military upon reaching his 18th birthday. Boot camp is no picnic and I frankly love the writing about Johnny's experiences after signing up. He goes through hell, even earning himself a few lashes for disobeying an order, but in the end he learns to respect and trust those around him. Unlike the YA coming of age stories of today, the adult leaders are not portrayed as morons, and they seem to be people worthy of their rank. A quality that definitely gets passed down to Johnny as he struggles to find his own path in life.

After languishing in a brutal enemy prison for twenty years, Captain Faulkner is finally freed but he immediately finds himself the target of assassination attempts and political conspiracies. Instead of a quiet retirement where his broken mind and body might have a chance to recover, he finds himself back where he was during the war twenty years ago, commanding the Confederate battleship Mantis. Like its Captain, the Mantis is being rebuilt and forcibly brought into the modern era with unpredictable results, which wouldn't matter much if a series of puzzling events wasn't reigniting the flames of war again. After a generation of peace, and officers who rose through political connections rather than merit, the last hope of the Confederation might be a broken man, an antiquated patched up warship, and its crew of random misfits.

Early on in this series, Donut received a magical crown and of course she put it on before reading the description. The warning on the crown stated that the wearer would become a member of the Blood Sultanate and would not be able to leave the 9th floor of the dungeon without killing every other member of the Sultanate. This was a permanent liability as removing the crown does not negate the effect. She eventually replaced the crown, but that too was a mistake, because it allowed that same crown to be forcibly placed onto the head of fellow crawler Katia in a later book. At that point there was no way that both Donut and Katia could both reach the 10th floor, but it was a problem for another day. No longer. The 9th floor, known as Faction Wars, is finally here and it is one of the most deadly floors in the dungeon. Add on the Donut/Katia situation and there is no way that Carl makes it to the 10th floor without losing someone he loves.

Dalton Greaves agreed to join a Unity scout ship after a humiliating break up. Those who sign up to work for the galactic organization either come back to Earth rich or just don't come back. His job is to go down to newly discovered inhabited planets and explain that Unity is there to help them just like they helped Earth. His predecessor was eaten by a potential new member species, so he doesn't expect to survive his ten year contract. Their current assignment doesn't look promising since the horrifying looking insectoids live on a planet teeming with wildlife, so vicious even they stay behind city walls at night. But things start to go wrong even before they land when a rival galactic organization, the Assembly, shows up and the two ships destroy each other stranding their representatives on the planet. Dalton's counterpart is an alien whose race is famed for slaughtering Unity soldiers including humans and considers all humans to be conniving manipulative liars. Since it wastes no time convincing the local hive queen of this, Dalton thinks he's lost all touch with reality when she informs him that she's taking him as a husband, her Fourth Consort.