N.T. Kova

Book Reviews and Short Stories

Review – Answering the Questions You Might Have About the Kharbat

N.T. Kova

A few months ago I listened to “Answering the Questions You Might Have About the Kharbat” by Adam-Troy Castro published in LightSpeed Magazine and I have to say, I hated it. The premise of this short story is… confusing. Basically, it is a conversation between a victim of an in-progress Kharbat attack and an expert on Kharbats. Is this conversation happening because the victim has implants which let him converse with anyone at any point? The allusion to candles as a primary light source later in the story would suggest otherwise. So, how is this conversation happening? Not clear. But…

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Review – Exhalation

N.T. Kova

Lately, I’ve been loving short stories and anthologies. Basically, every short story that I’ve read I either loved outright, or it was good enough to be worthy of a read. Well, the stories in Exhalation are definitely challenging this. Not that they’re all bad, it’s just that they are such a mixed bag, that they kind of sour the whole anthology. It starts off strong with The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate. A time travel story in the style of 1,001 Arabian nights, a tale within a tale, which lends itself well to the paradoxes of time travel. Then, Exhalation…

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Review – The Cure

N.T. Kova

The Cure is the second book in the Unbounded series, after The Change. I liked The Change, it was fast paced, action romance with an SFF premise. It had its issues, like the romantic interest being the “brooding brute” trope, but overall, fun and worthy of a quick read. The Cure, is a different story. One problem is that it suffers from being a sequel. The start of the book is full of exposition dumps. Lots of them. I believe this is done for the people who never read the first one. However, for the people who did read the…

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Review – The Change

N.T. Kova

I really enjoyed this book. It was such a fun read. High paced, action filled, and with a touch of romance. It had all the right ingredients to make me want to keep reading. The story starts with Erin, who suffers a terrible car crush and is burnt over most of her body. Although she should have died, she soon wakes up without a trace of the accident on her body. That’s how she discovers she is Unbounded, a nearly immortal being with fantastical abilities. Unfortunately for her, that means she has to abandon her old life and join a…

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Review – The Martian

N.T. Kova

I watched The Martian when it first came out in 2015 and really enjoyed the movie. When I recently brought it up in an online discussion, people started to say how I just have to read the book. Now, this is not uncommon for a movie based on a book, but I also heard good things about it, so I decided to give it a whirl. Boy, I’m glad I did. The Martian by Andy Weir is a fantastic read, everyone should definitely Read it! What surprised me the most is that despite having seen the movie and remembering it…

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Review – Infinity Wars

N.T. Kova

I loved Infinity’s End and I’m loving Infinity Wars. Military science fiction often gets a bad rep. However, this anthology shows that, just like most labels, it is woefully inadequate.  There are such diverse story themes in this anthology: economic inequalities, censorship, AI , and much, much more. Of course, not every story is a hit, but even those that I found a tad drawn out, were interesting and had good characters.  I think my favourite story so far (I’m about half way through) is Dear Sarah by Nancy Kress. We all like to imagine a future where benevolent aliens…

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Review – This is How You Lose the Time War

N.T. Kova

This book is magnificent. It is a tale of an unlikely connection through time and space between mortal enemies. The beautiful prose and the vague, drip by drip introduction to the world and its characters is what make this book work so well. Truly, I don’t want to say much more about the book because everything seems like either a spoiler or a gross mischaracterization. The language is what makes you get lost in this one. However, it is the way the world building is done that keeps you interested. A slow trickle, through hints and turn of phrases. No…

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Review – Octavia Gone

N.T. Kova

I never understood how people read “before bed”: an hour of reading in bed, then just put the book down, turn off the lights, and put your head on a pillow. If I were to do that, I’d be lying wide awake thinking about everything I just read and imagining what might happen next. Well, that was until I read Octavia Gone. Reading this book is the most relaxed I’ve ever felt reading a book.  It was quite tranquil to read about the slow paced, measured investigation done by a practically uninterested party. The pace picks up a bit towards…

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Review – The Atonement Path

N.T. Kova

This one was… disturbing. Certainly interesting and definitely captivating. A thought provoking piece that I do recommend you read (or listen to). I found it in the Lightspeed Magazine online. A magazine that has plenty of free short stories to read and listen to. This story, I found by clicking on the author’s name, Alex Irvine, and perusing through his works published in the magazine. The style was engaging – we only get one side of the conversation, never actually hearing the questions asked, only the answers to them. It’s part of what makes this story engaging: you want to…

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Review – Salt and Iron

N.T. Kova

Salt and Iron is a short story written by Gem Isherwood for the PodCastle, a fantasy fiction podcast. It took me a little while to get into this story. It is a short story, so it wasn’t too long of a while. I think that’s because in the beginning the protagonist feels a little like a cliché that we’ve seen a little too often. That said, it is a narrated short story so it’s not much effort to get to the good part. Overall, the story is interesting, building a drab fantasy world and a main character on a quest.…

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