#n.e. davenport

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's New Works by Black Authors TBR - Part 1

Category: Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction & Science Fiction

[just0nemorepage]

The Blood Trials || N.E. Davenport || The Blood Gift Duology #1 || 448 pages Top 3 Genres: Fantasy / Science Fiction / Young Adult

Synopsis: It's all about blood.

The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen's deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive.

The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered.

For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her.

Who trained her to keep that a secret.

But now there are too many secrets, and with her grandfather assassinated, Ikenna knows two things: that only someone on the Tribunal could have ordered his death, and that only a Praetorian Guard could have carried out that order.

Bent on revenge as much as discovering the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials--a brutal initiation that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that--if found out--would subject her to execution...or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather...and then she needs to kill them.

Mareen has been at peace for a long time...

Ikenna joining the Praetorians is about to change all that.

Publication Date: April 2022. / Average Rating: 4.22. / Number of Ratings: ~3420.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Blood Trials | Author: N.E. Davenport | Publisher: Harper Voyager (2022)

[lokoja]

Book 2 😮‍💨

[rosemariecawkwell]

TBR Pile Review: The Blood Gift, by N.E. Davenport

Format: 420 pages, HardcoverPublished: April 1, 2022 by Harper VoyagerISBN: 9780008640088 In this stunning conclusion to N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed sci-fantasy duology, elite warrior Ikenna and her rogue cohort must outrun bounty hunters, their former comrades, and a megalomaniacal demi-god, all in the hopes of saving their friends and enemies from the racist and misogynistic…

[sophilozophy]

Currently Reading: The Blood Trials, N. E. Davenport

Blending fantasy and science fiction, N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology of loyalty and rebellion, in which a young Black woman must survive deadly trials in a racist and misogynistic society to become an elite warrior.

It’s all about blood.

The blood spilled between the Republic of Mereen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mereen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mereen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive.

The blood of the former Legatus, Verna Amari, murdered.

For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mereen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her.

Who trained her to keep that a secret.

But now there are too many secrets, and with her grandfather assassinated, Ikenna knows two things: that only someone on the Tribunal could have ordered his death, and that only a Praetorian Guard could have carried out that order.

Bent on revenge as much as discovering the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials—a brutal initiation that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that—if found out—would subject her to execution…or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather…and then she needs to kill them.

Mereen has been at peace for a long time…

Ikenna joining the Praetorians is about to change all that.

Magic and technology converge in the first part of this stunning debut duology, where loyalty to oneself—and one’s blood—is more important than anything.

[haveyoureadthispoll]

It's all about blood. The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen's deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive. The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered. For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her. Who trained her to keep that a secret. But now there are too many secrets, and with her grandfather assassinated, Ikenna knows two things: that only someone on the Tribunal could have ordered his death, and that only a Praetorian Guard could have carried out that order. Bent on revenge as much as discovering the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials--a brutal initiation that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that--if found out--would subject her to execution...or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather...and then she needs to kill them. Mareen has been at peace for a long time... Ikenna joining the Praetorians is about to change all that.

[bookishfeylin]

Black Fantasy TBR Part 3

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

This portion of my tbr has a few more sci-fi books than fantasy books, but I felt it still belongs :) So here is the third and final part of my Black fantasy TBR. You guys knows the drill--please look up all age ratings and trigger warnings, and ofc there is no particular order to this list.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Flameborn by Jamel Cato

Sweep of Stars by Maurice Broaddus

The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion

Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley

Tentacles and Teeth by Ariele Sieling

Earthrise by M.C.A. Hogarth

Girl of Flesh and Metal by Alicia Ellis

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Updraft by Fran Wilde

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow

The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott

To Find You by Cerece Rennie Murphy

The Kindred by Alechia Dow

Awakening by Rebel Miller

Immortal Plunder by Kelly St. Clare

Kill Three Birds by Nicole Givens Kurtz

The Dream Weavers by Chantae Oliver

Niko by Kayti Nika Raet

[annerbhp]

Do you have any book recs?

My brain has not been in a "pick up a new book and read it" place for a long while. But my "put this book in a to-read pile" game is super strong!

Here's two that I've been told about that I was like, yes, I'd like to read those:

Leila Chatti's Deluge. This is a collection of poetry. I've read some of the poems and just...I really want to read the rest and just spend time with these words one of these days.

N.E. Davenport's The Blood Trials, which I have been told might be right up my alley.

[rockislandadultreads]

New Title Tuesday: Science Fiction

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini

July 25th, 2234: The crew of the Adamura discovers the Anomaly.

On the seemingly uninhabited planet Talos VII: a circular pit, 50 kilometers wide.

Its curve not of nature, but design.

Now, a small team must land and journey on foot across the surface to learn who built the hole and why.

But they all carry the burdens of lives carved out on disparate colonies in the cruel cold of space.

For some the mission is the dream of the lifetime, for others a risk not worth taking, and for one it is a desperate attempt to find meaning in an uncaring universe.

Each step they take toward the mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last.

And the ghosts of their past follow.

This is a prequel to the "Fractalverse" series.

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK

When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he's seen. He's run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines.

This is the first volume of the "Downworld Sequence" series.

The Blood Gift by N.E. Davenport

After discovering the depth of betrayal, treachery, and violence perpetrated against her by Mareen’s Tribunal Council and exposing her illegal blood-gift to save her Praetorian squad, Ikenna becomes a fugitive with a colossal bounty on her head.

Yet, somehow, that’s the least of her worries.

Her grandfather’s longtime allies refuse to offer help, and the Blood Emperor’s Warlord is tracking her. She’s also struggling to control the enormous power she was granted by the Goddess of Blood Rites…and come to terms with the promises she made to get such power.

Amidst all of this, the Blood Emperor wages a full-scale invasion against Mareen and leaves a trail of decimated cities, war crimes, and untold death in his wake. As the horrors increase, Ikenna and her team realize they must assassinate the Blood Emperor and quickly end the war. But the price to do so is steep and has planet-shattering consequences.

The price to do nothing, though, is annihilation.

War has erupted. Alliances are fracturing. And Ikenna is torn between her loyalties, her desires for revenge, and the power threatening to consume her. With the world aflame, only one thing is certain: blood will be spilled.

This is the second volume of the "Blood Gift" duology.

The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter

In the quaint religious town of Seagate, abstaining from food brings one closer to God.

But Beatrice Bolano is hungry. She craves the forbidden: butter, flambé, marzipan. As Seagate takes increasingly extreme measures to regulate every calorie its citizens consume, Beatrice must make a choice: give up her secret passion for cooking or leave the only community she has known.

Elsewhere, Reiko Rimando has left her modest roots for a college tech scholarship in the big city. A flawless student, she is set up for success...until her school pulls her funding, leaving her to face either a mountain of debt or a humiliating return home. But Reiko is done being at the mercy of the system. She forges a third path—outside of the law.

With the guidance of a mysterious cookbook written by a kitchen maid centuries ago, Beatrice and Reiko each grasp for a life of freedom—something more easily imagined than achieved in a world dominated by catastrophic corporate greed.

[merry-kuroo]

Clear My Bookshelf Goal 2024

Since I plan on going back to my Ph.D (if I'm admitted for the 2025 program), I'm starting to formulate a plan to clear out a lot of my belongings (clothes, shoes, etc).

I have way too many books on my shelf and no room for new ones. So my goal for 2024 is to:

1.) Read the books on my shelf

2.) Donate or sell them after I finish reading it

So, I'm making this list so I can hold myself accountable. I'll reblog my progress when a book on my shelf has been read and moved to my donation pile 😊

This will be updated again because these are just the books in my apartment. I have a ton back at my Mom's house that needs to be read through and donated.

Books:

The Vanished Queen by Lisbeth Campbell []

The Hazelwood by Melissa Albert []

Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow []

One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston []

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport []

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman []

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn []

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell []

Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea []

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger []

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri []

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides []

Where She Went by Gayle Forman []

Frankly in Love by David Yoon []

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black []

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu []

The Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie []

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle []

City of Dusk by Tara Sim []

Furyborn by Claire Legrand []

Rebel by Marie Lu []

[kopfkino-o]

Top 10 Reads This Year

Time for my 2023 wrap up! Here’s my top ten reads this year in no particular order. A few of the books below were so amazing they even made my "God Tier" reads.

1. Lightbringer by Pierce Brown

2. One Dark Window / Two Twisted Crowns (Shepherd King Duology) by Rachel Gillig

3. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

4. The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters

5. The Will of the Many by James Islington

6. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

7. City of Ruin by Charissa Weaks

8. The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

9. Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlmann

10. The Final Empire (Mistborn) by Brandon Sanderson

Honorable Mentions because this list was so hard to make:

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

A River Enchanted / A Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Babel by R.F Kaung

Howling Dark (Sun Eater #2) by Christopher Ruocchio

Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Blood Gift | Author: N.E. Davenport | Publisher: Harper Voyager (2023)

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Sci Fantasy is My New Favorite Thing

Probably the three modes that are best represented on my bookshelf are sword and sorcery, space opera (all the Star Wars) and urban fantasy. I tend not to be a sci fi girl, and any sci fi I do read tends to be extremely soft. So when I saw The Blood Trials described as "sci fantasy" in all the marketing materials, I was intrigued. And then I swallowed Kenna's story in a weekend and thought that the two weeks until the second book came out might kill me. Let's talk The Blood Trials.

UPDATE: Communities of readers are important, because it has been brought to my attention that this book could use some content warnings for gore, violence, and cannibalism. This review doesn't go in detail on those, but please be aware if you read this book! It's adult sci fantasy, not YA, so it gets heavy in places.

I think the first thing we need to do with a book that is explicitly multi-genre is to define some stuff. Depending on who you ask, science fiction is either its own genre of speculative fiction (a category of fiction that literally covers everything that is not the real-world here-and-now) or a subgenre of fantasy. That ambiguity--and the preponderance of internet memes that go "Sci fi is when [Actor] looks like this, and fantasy is when [Same Actor] looks like this"--really highlight the amount of crossover that happens between these genres. Now, if you want to highlight some differences, a pretty simple one is that sci fi deals with science, technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes/multiverses, and aliens, whereas fantasy usually involves magic. And then Arthur C. Clarke pops up with "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and totally muddies the water again. Thanks, Art.

So if the general is all wibbly wobbly timey wimey, let's get specific. What does Sci Fantasy mean for N.E. Davenport's The Blood Trials? I'm going to tell you that it comes down to the fact that the book has both super futuristic technology and a kickass soft magic system. I'd say the sci fi/technology elements are pretty soft in the grand scheme of things too. The preponderance of soft magic and soft sci fi is kind of wild, given how hard and sharp-edged the narrative is. Although that's just this whole book; it carefully balances opposites to create a whirlwind of dynamic forces wrapped in Ikenna's grief and rage and narrative threads.

I also desperately want to describe this book as "dystopian," but I don't want to give you Hunger Games vibes, because that's not the vibe I got with this book, and crucially, Kenna isn't a Katniss analogue. Kenna is in a social position or relative privilege (although that's not a simple statement, and systemic racism in the world makes that privilege less privilegey than it would be for a white character). If this book is dystopian, it is so in the broader sense of dystopian fiction, which offers "fresh perspectives on problematic social and political practices that might otherwise be taken for granted or considered natural and inevitable." Kenna is about to break power structures both within her society and in the broader world.

I'm not sure if there is a specific genre for "trainee endures and survives literally murderous elite supesoldier training," but if there is, The Blood Trials falls into that genre too. These parts of the book are where the most Hunger Games vibes are, but the context is significantly different.

Then we get to the characters. Our cast of characters are just incredible in their range, given that the context is completely elite supersoldiers and trainees. Kenna is out here to get the credential to then burn it all down. Selene is out here to avoid being turned into a socialite brood mare and have just...all the sex, Zayne is almost too sweet to be real in the situation, Chance is objectively a homicidal zealot, and Reed is so clearly traumatized by his life that his survival skills are clashing HARD with his innate compassion. Caiman has a hella interesting character redemption arc, and towards the end of the book, Dannica comes out of left field to be a hard contender for my favorite secondary character.

I don't have enough good things to say about this book, and I cannot wait for The Blood Gift to Release in a couple of weeks!

[lacependragon]

I've read 14 books so far this year. And like, the reason I think about this is because I wanna read more stories. I always wanna know more, read more, absorb more, be more, y'know? So I wish it was more. But they've mostly been amazing so.

(My library stacks are so big because I am a picky and persnickety person and I will read a chapter, go "not right now" and take it back to the library and make note what mood I need to be in for it. Works well! Gotta be in the right mood.)

I've given 9 books 5 stars this year. I'm good with that.

Five Star Reads So Far This Year:

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I loved the magic. Loved the intrigue. Loved the slow build of horror as you realize what the secrets are, and the excitement as you pull into the story. Definitely continuing.

Jade City by Fonda Lee. God the longer I sit on this book the more I love it. The magic, the fighting, the expertise clear in the action scenes, the characters and their relationships, the gut punch twists that you realize were hinted at but you didn't see them anyway... Yeah, it's good shit.

New Worlds: Year One by Marie Brennan is a non-fiction essay collection based on her worldbuilding essays she posts because of Patreon. I love these so much and I think they're one of the best ways to get help with world building.

Beginnings, Middles, & Ends by Nancy Kress is a non-fiction book on writing. This one gave me some great ideas on how to plot as well as how to express the "promises, progress, payoff" concept that Brandon Sanderson is so fond of talking about.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury. God. I love this. It was fun, it was dark, it was deep, it was action-packed, it was filled with twists and intrigue. And the reveals all work fantastically without ever feeling cheap or telegraphed. Absolutely phenomenal.

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport. This is basically my perfect book. It's gritty, it's full of revenge, it's got dark decisions and grim characters but they are trying and they are loyal and they care about each other. Each step toward anger is a step made in love. I cannot wait to read the second one when it comes out.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. God this is just fantastic. Two very morally grey, very driven women in bad situations team up in order to save themselves and each other and fall in love along the way. But this isn't a romance, this is a story of rebellion, revenge, and war, and it comes through so well. The magic is fascinating and the overall grim but hopeful tone is just so good.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. A very short, whimsical feeling book that uses a lot of repetition and slow flashback reveals to build an almost heartbeat into the book. It's such a kind, warm story that brings with it this beautiful amount of love. It's a deeply spiritual book but not in any religious way I can find. It's about the way you feel intimately connected to the world when you read it. Every plant. Every bit of water.

To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers. Talk about books that reduce you to tears. This was emotional, insightful, and brilliant. It's a story about the very nature of humanity, and the ways we connect, and the pain of isolation and the unknown, while also the hope and love that comes from the unknown. 130 pages and worth your time.