Books Received in February 2018

Many thanks, as always, to the publishers who sent me books this past month.

Rice Boy by Evan Dahm - I'm not really interested in fantasy quest stories anymore (I've simply read too many of them), though this one does seem to subvert a few of the tropes. It's an indy title and you can check it out for yourself here.

Rice Boy is the "hero" of a charming YA fantasy adventure. He is anything but your typical protagonist of these types of things. He's not especially skilled, no swordplay or sorcery in his family, and no legacy.

He's just a little guy eking out a little rural life, but he's called to start the hero's journey anyway. The action that follows in Evan's sprawling, spacious, 400-plus-page graphic novel is weird, funny, exciting, and stunningly original. While you're furiously turning pages to find out what happens next to Rice Boy, his exhausted mentor known as "The One Electronic," and the endangered kingdom itself, you'll meet some wildly imaginative new creatures along the way like the affable Gerund, the mysterious Tree Keeper, and Bor the Very Large (he's large). RICE BOY is Tolkien-esque in its heft, Saga-like in its driving plot, and wholly unlike anything you've read before.

Semiosis by Sue Burke - An interesting first contact story between human colonists and the sentient plant life of their new home. I've reviewed it here.

Colonists from Earth wanted the perfect home, but they'll have to survive on the one they found. They don't realize another life form watches...and waits...

Only mutual communication can forge an alliance with the planet's sentient species and prove that humans are more than tools.