I love the description of this book and really hope to read it in the near future; however, it just isn't grabbing my attention at this time. I am finding it more difficult to read anything at the moment, so the plan is to read my newly purchased final copy once things are closer to normal. I wish I had more to say at this time, but I've heard great things and am looking forward to reading it!

This book was like no other. It was a beautiful slow burner. The conclusion was completely unexpected, but exactly as it should have been.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

HEARTS OF OAK is an intriguing, entertaining science fiction/fantasy adventure.
Well written, populated by quirky and oft-amusing characters. I can see why it's compared to Pratchett and Douglas Adams.
A fun, quick read. Recommended if you're looking to be entertained for an afternoon.

A pleasantly weird novella that escalates its strangeness each chapter. Shades of "The Thing" and Hoblit's "Fallen", with a light surrealism that put me in mind of Murakami, Kelly Link, and Jeffrey Ford. As a whole it reminded me of a goofier Golden Age/pulpy/Twilight Zone kind of story, but with many more twists, and very modern and readable in its execution.

Sometimes . . . we build endless cities . . . to cope? Welcome to HEARTS OF OAK by Eddie Robson, where a wooden city is ever-expanding, ever-growing, for reasons you’ll never guess. And yes, we can confirm that the cat is involved. Also featured: we question Robson’s deal with cats, quarantine hobbies, explaining a love for a mystery without spoiling it, impending t-shirts, and much more!

This is a strange and quirkly little book that I'm not sure how to describe. The city itself was interesting, but the rest was just odd in a way that didn't work for me. I went into it thinking this was a fantasy novel, only to have it twist around into Science Fiction. As someone who is not a fan of SciFi, this was an unpleasant surprise for me. I think if you like slight off kilter SciFi, this one is for you. If

What starts a a seemingly allegorical tale, with talking cats and a reluctant king turns into a interstellar sf alien contact. It does this quite seamlessly and to good effect .
Alien automatons have built a habitat for a human contact team that they have discovered on another planet and created human automatons to keep them occupied. The false humans are basically clockwork with mechanical programing (kind of cyberpunk) Things start going weird and then the aliens arrive.

Talking cats are generally an indicator that you are either reading a cozy mystery or an animal odyssey like Watership Down or Redwall.

Or, that something is really, really wrong. Because cats aren’t supposed to speak in complete English sentences – or whatever language you might speak. Any story where the king’s wisest counselor and closest adviser is a talking cat is either a fantasy of some sort or a story where things have gone really, really off-kilter at the very least.

With that talking cat at the center of it all. Having played more than one game where a villain took the form of a talking cat, I was expecting the very, very wrong.

The situation in Hearts of Oak was wronger than that. Also weirder. Much, much weirder.

At first it merely seems as if the cat is manipulative – as they are – the king is a chucklehead and the elderly architect who is our point of view character is a bit too far past it to figure just what it is about the city that feels so -odd

She’s certainly aware that something feels “off” but can’t quite get her mind to wrap around exactly what – at least not until the cremation ceremony when a member of the audience leaps onto the casket just as its about to be engulfed by the flames.

At that point, it’s pretty obvious that something is amiss, but just not what.

At that point we are all, like the architect Iona, pretty much invested in the fantasy-like scenario of the ever-growing city, the slightly oblivious king and the dreamlike, slightly soporific quality of the place.

And that’s the point where it all goes pear-shaped, and all of the perspectives, especially Iona’s and our own, get turned on their heads.

When we – and Iona – discover that nothing about this world has ever been as it seemed.

That’s the point where the oh-so-subtle wrong becomes very, very interesting. And Iona’s situation goes far more pear-shaped than she – and the reader – ever imagined.

Escape Rating B: The story at its beginning has kind of a dreamlike quality. It feels obvious to the reader – at least to this reader – that things are not as they seem and that the cat is at the heart of it all. That particular reveal didn’t feel like all that big of a discovery.

But the point where Iona’s perspective goes through its sudden and dramatic shift takes the story in a direction that absolutely was not expected – nor should it have been. I expected that Iona’s world was stranger than she imagined, but had no clue that it was stranger in the particular way that it is.

There’s more than a bit of charm to this story and the way that its told, as well as a bit of pathos in Iona’s ultimate fate. At the same time, looking back on the story now that it’s over, it feels like there were a whole bunch of themes and plot points that were plucked from different branches of speculative fiction and melded into the whole of Hearts of Oak.

In other words, there were plenty of moments where I felt like I’d read that part of the story before – or seen it on one or more SFF TV show. At the same time, the whole was, not so much greater than the sum of its parts as completely different from the sum of its parts. A feeling that makes no sense but still feels true.

Hearts of Oak is a fun, quirky read that takes itself places that the reader never expects. It’s not really character driven, and when I think about it it doesn’t feel plot-driven either. If I had to describe it – and I kind of do – I’d have to say that it’s really twist-and-turn driven. Just about the time when you think you know where it’s going – or at least begin to recognize where it’s been – it takes a completely different twist and you have to re-evaluate the parts you’ve already read.

If you like stories as puzzles, this one is fascinating. With a twist in the end that cuts like a knife.

How does a book featuring a king with a talking cat turn into science fiction?

I’m not telling!

But I will say this: Hearts of Oak is all sorts of awesome, and was exactly the sort of punchy, engaging read I needed this week.

The setting is weird and perplexing. We’re in a city where everything seems to be made of wood, and the entire focus of the city is building. Architects are practically rock stars, and the only city functions that seem to matter are building and planning.

And then there’s the king (and his cat Clarence), who observe the growth of the city from their window in the king’s tower, reading daily reports and signing off on plans, but really not doing much of anything else.

Everything seems to change when chief architect Iona is approached by a woman asking to be tutored in architecture. Something about Alyssa seems off, and her presence starts to bring forward words and images that Iona associates with her odd, recurring dreams.

And I’m not going to say what happens next! There are plenty of cool twists, and I actually laughed out loud over certain developments — like, OH, so THAT’s where this is going!

Seriously, this book just needs to be read! It’s great fun, full of surprises and really amazing and inventive elements, and I just could not put it down. I can see returning to Hearts of Oak and reading it again from time to time — it’s that good!

Hearts of Oak is a bit difficult to describe without giving things away. Iona is the main character, an architect in a mysterious city enclosed in a dome. She’s never really questioned the way things are, even though she has odd dreams and memories of things that no longer exist in the city. Materials that don’t exist, like concrete and felt. And yet odd things are happening: a colleague has died and a man appears at his funeral and leaps into the furnace with him; a woman she’s never met before asks her to tutor her in how the building work is done, and she seems to have had the dreams too, to know words she shouldn’t know.

There were moments that should have been really emotive — for instance, discovering you’re surrounded by automatons which don’t even look that human, but somehow you never noticed. That should surely have been freaky and weird and you should have felt for the character, but it was just kind of flat. Or the ending: the reader should have felt sorry, glad, horrified… something. But it totally didn’t work for me.

It’s an interesting concept, but it left some questions in my mind and just… didn’t engage me much on an emotional level.

When I read the premise of Hearts of Oak, by Eddie Robson, I got excited. Growing buildings within an expanding city? Sign me up. The main character is an architect trying to understand the underpinnings of her world after being awoken from a stupor that required her to continuously expand the kingdom? Heck yeah, this is right up my alley. On top of that, just throw in a talking cat, who is the best friend and advisor to the king of this land? Let me get a blanket and curl up on the couch. Unfortunately, this little novella did not really live up to the hype, and maybe that is my fault in some respects. All in all Hearts of Oak is a short novel that is full of twists and turns but lacks any real character and heart.

The book starts off interesting enough as Iona, the main protagonist, is reviewing plans for several of the buildings in her city, noting the absurdity of the continuous expansion of buildings for what seems to be no reason. Her colleague has recently died in a building collapse, and something weird happens at his funeral. Another man runs and jumps onto the casket as it is carted into a furnace for cremation. While unsettling, it is not until she investigates the collapsed building, does Iona start to feel like something is off. Meanwhile, the King debates with his advisor, the aforementioned talking cat, about approving more and more construction, confused as to why he should not be concerned with the people within his city. o

I’ll just pull this splinter out right away, I did not like this book. The beginning felt charming at first but quickly lurched into tedium. Iona was unconvincing as a character, let alone an architect. She often griped about her job, and the sheer audacity of the King to request larger and larger buildings without accounting for the needed strength to ensure their long term viability. Character moments involved a lot of telling, leading to Iona feeling like what someone thought an architect should act like. There was no real connection to the city or the world she had a part in building, the descriptives were minimal, and there was no real enchantment with particular buildings or the city as a whole. Her sole trait of “being an architect” felt superficial and became completely irrelevant as the book progressed. One could say, “well the twists make it irrelevant”, and to them I say hooey. The plot did not connect me with Iona, nor did it set her apart from the other characters.

Speaking of the other characters, they barely felt integral to the plot. The King, the book’s other point of view, just spends his time listening to his cat and sitting around for most of the book. He barely adds any real context beyond “this is why the city must expand.” It could have been interesting if the humor or satire felt more direct, but most of the time it just felt like a red herring. As with most of the characters, the King felt like an undeveloped concept tossed into the book to make the world feel interesting, but ended up adding no real character or drama. The other characters I could barely remember, and didn’t have any particular traits beyond “they existed.”

I hear you say, “Alex, but if everything is in service to the plot, that must at least be enjoyable right?” Well, readers, this is where it gets a little messy. I will say there were certainly interesting twists and turns throughout the book that made the plot somewhat exciting. However, there was no weight to the discoveries. I did not get any sensation from the fast-paced unraveling of the mysteries. I do not want to get into specifics to avoid spoilers, but if things feel off as you read the book, it’s because things are off. As much as I wanted to enjoy these revelations, they felt hamstrung by their spontaneity. Each successive reveal felt like a jack-in-the-box, with Iona furiously cranking until the clown pops out, and she can move onto the next one. It just had no real build-up, and the absurdity of each reveal quickly lost its luster after the second or third twist.

In the end, Hearts of Oak was not bad, it just did not resonate with me in any way. The interesting bits of the premise were window dressing with no real impact on the story. The characters were a vehicle to move the plot along, offering no substantive opinions of their own, and having zero on-screen development. The climax left much to be desired, as whatever cathartic character moment Robson was going for fell flat. There were some cool ideas through the book, but there was no exploration of them. I can’t even really recommend it as a fast-paced low-stakes palate cleanser, as it just left a bland but coating taste in my mouth.

Rating: Hearts of Oak - 5.0/10
-Alex

*Review to be added to Amazon upon publication!*

Ordinarily I would write a full review this book, but while reading Hearts of Oak I soon realized that this is one of those books that relies so heavily on the unknown that I actually want to keep this fairly brief so that I don't give much of anything away. (Also, I'd just like to say that I was mostly interested in this premise, but when I got to the line of "And the cat is most certainly involved!" in the synopsis, I was completely sold--and it was totally worth it.)

What I liked: Hearts of Oak is full of surprises and I swear I felt like I was getting whiplash at times from how much this book kept pulling out new twists and ideas that kept me so engaged. I was constantly curious because you can sort of tell that certain things are off, but it's hard at times to pinpoint exactly what until it's about to happen or it actually happens and then things start to unravel in such a fascinating way. I also really loved how subtle the themes were in this book--they're important and strong, but they aren't thrown into your face in an overwhelming way, which I really appreciated.

I also really loved how quirky this book was. It's not over-the-top strange or anything like that, but there are so many subtly odd things that really made this book stand out and also made me love the style of writing. The setting itself is one of the weirdly quirky things that was of particular interest to me and I found it fascinating how this society seemed to work.

What I didn't like: I wouldn't really say that there's anything I really disliked about this book, but there were some areas that could have used some improvement. The characters were mostly interesting and well-developed, but I feel like there could have been a bit more to them and their personalities--including secondary characters--to bring them to life and make me care about them just a little bit more.

Overall, I've given Hearts of Oak four stars! I apologize for this review being so vague, but I really don't want to give a single thing away. I absolutely recommend this if you're looking for something fresh and quirky with a plot that will continuously keep you on your toes!

Hearts of Oak is an inventive, fresh, and completely unpredictable story. I couldn't put this one down!

Hearts of Oak starts with a king, an architect, a magically growing city, and a talking cat, and, somehow, it manages to keep these pieces at it's (oak) heart, even as the story itself expands and changes. What starts as a tender, character focused fantasy about an ever-growing city shifts into a very different story mid-way through. The result is a beautifully clever genre-bending experience, with a story that is part whimsical fantasy and part provocative science fiction.

The themes present in Hearts of Oak sit just below the surface of the story. This isn't a SFF novella that spells out it's themes, and I appreciated that change from other short fiction I've recently read. That being said, there's commentary to be gleaned here regarding themes of identity, memory, sacrifice, and community. Most importantly, I think, though, is the overarching theme of what it looks like to have a society obsessed with constant improvement, continuous work, and expansion for expansion's sake.

This novella is complex, and the characters are so well defined for it being a shorter work. I found Iona (the architect) very relatable, and enjoyed her narrative perspective a lot. Because of its whimsy, intrigue, and genre-bending nature, I think Hearts of Oak is a great novella for both fans of the genre and for readers new to science fiction. This novella knocked my socks off, and it easily gets 5 stars from me. I can't wait to see what else the author, Eddie Robson, writes in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor.com Publishing for providing me an eArc of the book. Hearts of Oak comes out on March 17, 2020.

This review will post to my website and goodreads at the links below on March 3, 2020.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I got as an eGalley through NetGalley to review.

Story (4/5): This was a very unique book with lots of twists and turns. It' s pretty fast read and an intriguing one. I enjoyed it because it was so different from other books I have read. It reminded me a bit of a Dr. Who episode and is hard to talk about without spoiling the story. Suffice to say the story is the strong point of this book.

Characters (3/5): The characters are okay. We switch between The King and Iona (a master architect). Neither is very personable but are more devices to move the story forward. The side characters have very little depth. I felt like the characters were the weakest aspect of this story.

Setting (4/5): Set in a mysterious walled city that keeps growing and growing as more and more buildings are constructed, I enjoyed this mysterious setting. The twists and turns revealed as the book continues reveal more and more about the setting. Again, this is a great aspect to the story.

Writing Style (4/5): The writing style came across as pretty stark and simplistic to me but it works well for the story. The POV changes also worked well in this story.

Summary (4/5): Overall this was a fun little read, that was quirky and different with lots of surprising little twists. It’s a pretty quick read and I enjoyed it for its uniqueness.

This book is probably one of the best I’ve read all year, and it might just also get one of the shortest reviews because I don’t want to inadvertently spoil anything! It’s fast-paced, written with an unforgettable voice, and has twists that’ll stick with you.

The worldbuilding is absolutely fantastic and revealed in such a brilliant way. There are so many layers to it, and every additional detail was revealed in an expert way. My favorite part is the way it played with the details that we get used to seeing. How we just gloss over things that are normal without looking too hard. Y’all must know by now that one of my favorite things in any book is the lie that the characters believe, and honestly, so much of this book is about that!

This book was near impossible to put down. I was completely glued to the page, desperate to know what was going on, and what was going to happen. I don’t want to say too much, cause I do think part of the brilliance of this book is in the execution. But just know, this is the kind of book that I’m gonna be screaming about for years. Also, as my final praise, I have to say this book has an unforgettable and almost whimsical (in a dark way) voice. And I loved it so much.

It’s hard to find a way to rec this book, but I’m gonna say if you’re into quirky stories that hit way too close to home, this might be a good one for you!

(this review will go live on my blog on March 3, 2020)

Hearts of Oak was a fun, quirky read. It took me a few pages to get into it, but once I did I enjoyed the premise. The idea behind this story is great and I thought it came across well. There was a good blend of humour and action that kept me always eager to turn the page, to discover what would happen next. I am still a little torn over the ending. Although it worked, I found it a tad unfulfilling, but that is a minor gripe. Overall, I am giving this book 3.5 stars, which I will round up to 4 stars. Check it out if you are looking for a short sci-fi/fantasy read that offers something a little different.

(My review will go live at the blog link below on 25 February 2020.)