#Stephen Aryan

[beneathathousandskies]

Book Review: New York Minute - Stephen Aryan

Hello! Today I am reviewing New York Minute by Stephen Aryan, a mystery noir novella set in an alternate New York city. This novella packed one hell of a punch, to the point where I immediately went to order a physical copy so I could read it all over again; and is very much one I would love to see continued. Disclaimer – I received a copy in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts are my…

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Chaosmage | Author: Stephen Aryan | Publisher: Orbit (2016)

[sffinsiders]

Review: New York Minute by Stephen Aryan — SFF Insiders

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

1260, Persia: Due to the efforts of the great Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire covers a vast portion of the known world. In the shadow of his grandfather, Hulagu Khan, ruler of the Ilkhanate, is determined to create a single empire that covers the entire world. His method? Violence. His youngest son, Temujin Khan, struggles to find his place in his father’s bloody rule. After another failure, Temujin is given one last chance to prove himself to Hulagu, who is sure there is a great warrior buried deep inside. But there’s something else rippling under the surface… something far more powerful and dangerous than they could ever imagine… Reduced to the position of one of Hulagu’s many wives, the famed Blue Princess Kokochin is the last of her tribe. Alone and forgotten in a foreign land, Kokochin is unwilling to spend her days seeking out trivial pursuits. Seeking purpose, she finds herself wandering down a path that grants her more power than a wife of the Khan may be allowed. Kaivon, the Persian rebel who despises the Mongols for the massacre of his people, thirsts for revenge. However, he knows alone he cannot destroy the empire. When given the opportunity to train under the tutelage of Hulagu, Kaivon must put aside his feelings and risk his life for a chance to destroy the empire that aims to conquer the world.

"One day, our country will be free". Stephen Aryan's The Judas Blossom is a solid historical fantasy dealing with the Mongol conquest of the Persian Empire. Set in the Thirteenth Century, this sprawling epic tinges history with a dash of magic, giving an arcane and strange power to one of the main characters. Will it be used as a means of conquest, or for a just purpose?

I don't know nearly enough about this part of history to know if real events are followed closely, but through the four main characters we see first-hand the ugliest parts of war, while seeds of rebellion are planted and shadow organizations attempt to steer the course of history.

I do have a gripe with the narration, very didascalic for my liking. Events are described as if in a treatise, rather than a novel. The dry narration doesn't allow the characters' inner lives to shine, only expounding the facts.

One of the main characters is a princess sold into marriage to a Khan; lost amongst the tyrant's many wives, she will find elsewhere a place for herself, and, too, a romance with a woman who is more than she seems.

The Judas Blossom is an intriguing first installation in a series that promises fireworks.

✨ 3.5 stars

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[mysticparadigms]

Review of The Warrior by Stephen Aryan

Wow.

I would not have imagined that the sequel of a book I loved would have a better action plot than the first book and yet still be the worse of the two.

I don't have as in-depth of a review of this book as I did of The Coward. This is because there isn't as much for me to say.

Frankly, this book had so much potential, but it felt rushed. I thought there was too much emphasis on the politics of the Five Kingdoms, and it felt like Kell and Willow's quest was more something that kept Kell away and explained Willow's motives than it was its own story. And this was a shame because Willow's home and fighting The Malice is a million times more interesting than what I think is meant to be a political story with subversive commentary on the Crusades and how someone from the oppressor country gains membership with an oppressed minority and then holds status as representative of that group. Could just be me, though.

Willow's story deserved more. It deserved to be more fleshed out. It deserved to have any sort of explanation of The Malice. It deserved to have an ending for Yarra and Odd. It deserved a depiction of what the Alfár experienced after leaving their homeland and whether they were able to build a new society for themselves and have children again.

Also, I know I discussed my distaste for human-Elf/Fae romances in the last review, but Willow and Kell should've ended up together. At the very least, we should've seen Kell's feelings from the first book that were mentioned get resolved. We should've seen a lessened stigma towards the Alfár in the Five Kingdoms.

Also, what was Odd? What happened when everyone left? It felt like his story only existed to tie up loose ends rather than to tell the story of a semi-villian's redemption arc for its own sake.

This could've been so much better than it was.

I still would recommend people read the series, and I'm glad that I read it, but damn, I'm let down by the focus of the second book being on some dumb queen rather than someone who risked her life to save her people from an affliction impacting the whole of her world. I'm let down by how rushed it felt, both in the writing and in the plot timing. And I'm let down by this being the last book in the Five Kingdoms—there were still so many more stories to be told.

Edit: By the way, this book totally contradicts the first book's whole thing of not glorifying battle and death. That's all this book does.

[roseunspindle]

Books by “A” Authors I own and Need to Read (Part 3)

[the-thimble-reader]

[stars-on-fyre]

So I finished reading The Coward by Stephen Aryan and the only thing I didn’t like was the ending because damn y’all let Kell Kressia rest he’s been through enough 😭

[nikihawkes]

80% DNF Q&A: The Warrior by Stephen Aryan

Title: The Warrior Author: Stephen Aryan Series: Quest for Heroes #2 Genre: Fantasy Rating: 1/5 stars The Overview: The story of Kell Kressia continues in Book II of the gripping fantasy duology. Kell, two time saviour of the Five Kingdoms, is now the King of Algany. He has fame, power, respect, and has never been more miserable… Bound, by duty and responsibility, Kell is King only in name.…

[phoenixes-and-wizards]

there’s just something about percy in the second episode angrily saying that it’s okay if poseidon ignores him so long as he doesn’t ignore sally and we’re led to believe that this has been the case this whole time, but then we cut to 1X07 and we discover that it took one melted sundae for poseidon to come running. plus this is SALLY JACKSON we’re talking about. the woman who made bedtime stories out of myths and took her kid to museums when they could’ve just as easily been at playgrounds. sally KNOWS that you have to burn something really important to you in order to get the gods’ attention, and yet, she still does it anyway, confident in the knowledge that poseidon still holds enough affection for her to come, even if she didn’t desperately need someone to lean on for 0.5 seconds before she has to go back to being strong, i just can’t with this show ok

[twinsarekeepers]

I’m curious as to your honest thoughts on the show? Like I love pjo and all but the show was a bit of a let down writing wise. There’s always the point of “it’s an adaptation, not a carbon copy” like yes but this new writing isn’t exemplary better than the book just because it’s rewritten by the author himself

I think the show is well-written not because Rick is attached to it, but because I actually like the way the writers are approaching adapting the source material. I have a lot of issues with the original books in terms of writing quality because frankly speaking, I don’t think Rick is a very good writer. He has a lot of interesting things in those books that he never explores or drops within the first two and this fandom gives him and the books too much credit imo.

This is why I’m not very moved when people try to ascribe meaning to a certain scene or choice he made in the books to get mad at the show for changing. As an example, one of the main things people were upset about was the kids “knowing everything” in the show when they were getting tricked left and right in the book. Many posts were dedicated to how the book version is superior because it illustrates how they’re just twelve years old kids so of course they’ll make mistakes and get tricked by monsters.

That’s a perfectly fine interpretation but I was twelve years old when I first read tlt and I was able to anticipate almost every single trap, despite being pretty gullible and naive at that age. My knowledge of Greek mythology consisted of Disney’s Hercules, maybe two Google searches, and my second grade teacher’s reading of the kid friendly version of the Odyssey. No where near the level of Percy who’d been learning for a whole year in an established class on the topic with Chiron or Grover who was literally a satry born into the world or Annabeth, who spent the majority of her life dedicated to studying specifically quests and Greek mythology and was also on the run fighting monsters for a good portion of her childhood. Like twelve year olds can be dumb but those three stumbling into every trap was asking me to suspend my disbelief too far. I remember being upset that they weren’t able to figure it out because it was obvious that Rick wasn’t making that choice to show any personality flaws or character dynamics (because he would’ve had them learn and grow but they never did they just kept being not smart), he just wasn’t able to figure out a way for them to fall into those traps organically so he had to dumb them down.

I think the show was able to get across the characters’ childishness without compromising their established backstories. Yes, Annabeth knew it was Medusa right away because that makes sense for a kid who has experience with running into monsters. But, she still acted very much like a child in her interactions with her (and throughout the episode and season). She lashed out and called her a liar and wouldn’t listen to her side of the story because it painted her mother in a bad light. That’s peak twelve year old behavior.

Yes, Percy figured out Kronos was behind everything, but it makes sense because Percy knows Greek mythology and where Kronos resides. He still very much acts like a child when he asks Hades to give him back his mom in exchange for nothing because it’s the right thing to do.

There are dozens of examples like this for a lot of complaints of the show. And this is not me saying that the show is perfect: every single show has flaws. For me, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the dialogue or the exposition dumping. It didn’t hinder my enjoyment though because I don’t think it was egregious (and wrt the exposition dumping, I expected it because the book did it and there’s really no way to “show not tell” Greek myths). I also didn’t like that we didn’t get to really see the huge clashes between Zeus and Poseidon in the weather (we got references to it through news reports but I would’ve liked something more). I was able to look past it because I really liked the storytelling and the themes the show was pulling out of the original source material.

I loved Medusa-Sally parallels and Medusa-Annabeth parallels. I loved the juxtaposition of Pan’s quest to manifest density. I loved Percy and Annabeth’s opposite trajectory in respect to their relationships with their godly parents. I loved exploring Sally’s choice to send Percy to school instead of camp. I loved explicitly coding Annabeth as autistic. I loved Luke’s backstory being brought earlier into the story. I loved the deadline passing and Poseidon surrendering to save Percy. I loved Persues-Andromeda and percabeth parallels. I loved fleshing Grover out. I loved glory vs home seeking being the central theme of the show.

And lastly, I was able to understand that with a limited number of episodes and run time (due to the nature of child labor laws!), they did the best they could and I feel like they did a pretty good job for a first season.

These are not ALL of my thoughts on the show because that would be a very long post. I gave one detailed example of why I think the show succeeded in something the fandom tries to ascribe the books and it was like three paragraphs lol. Anyway this is not the post to try and convince me that the show is bad for whatever reason you have cooked up. I’m not going to change my mind and I doubt I’ll change yours. Here’s to a season 2 that builds on a solid season 1!

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Bloodmage | Author: Stephen Aryan | Publisher: Orbit (2016)

[leabethchase]

Just finished my Percy Jackson junk journal page! So excited for the finale tonight!

[lovelydrusilla]

watching Percy Jackson as an adult now is so .... interesting because. i grew up with them. in my head, for much of my childhood, i was one of them, i felt their emotions, felt their pain, felt their butterflies, i went on these adventures with them. and now i'm watching it and it's still that, it's all that, but also... these are my CHILDREN

[incompleteth0ts]

JUST WATCHED THE FINALE OF PJO AND

O

M

G

Walker and the others did so good❤️ Toby Stephens as Posideon was such a good choice. Not to mention my favorite scene

The way Posideon held the back of his head, the way he laughs like he wants to answer but knows that he'd be crossing a line by doing so. The emotion in Percy's eye because he isn't sure he understands what his father's trying to say but he's so HOPEFUL that the answer is yes, but scared that if it is then where does that leave them as a 'family'

THE PERCY AND LUKE SHOW DOWN!!!

Poor Percy he was so hurt, reading it was bad enough but seeing it PAINED ME. The way all the pieces started coming together towards the end, I feel like Luke telling Percy to tell him the prophecy was to make himself feel better about what he was going to do next, like a reminder that he has no choice but to hurt Percy.

"I didn't think you would give 'em to Grover to wear."

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD😭!!! The tears in their eyes as they fought, the way they were trying to get the other person to see their half of the war, THE WAY PERCY APOLOGIZED AFTER CUTTING LUKE AND REACHES OUT TO HELP HIM EVEN THOUGHT HE'S THE NEW ENEMY

[roseunspindle]

Books by “A” authors I own and need to read. (Part 3)

*2-5