Book #11 of 2024: Derring-Do for Beginners by Victoria Goddard (The Red Company #1) In the backstory to The Hands of the Emperor and the rest of author Victoria Goddard’s sprawling Nine Worlds fantasy saga, the Red Company was a roving band of friends whose infamous exploits have long since passed into legend. This prequel …
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Book #10 of 2024: Beholder by Ryan La Sala At first glance, it seems like this fantasy horror novel should have too much going on its plot to be remotely effective: an orphaned teen protagonist with the magical ability to see backwards in time through mirrors and other reflective surfaces, a Lovecraftian entity lurking inside …
Book #9 of 2024: Book of Names by John Peel (Diadem #1) A solid launch to a fun middle-grade fantasy series about a trio of kids drawn from separate worlds into a magical mystery linking them together. The worst thing about this first title is that it burns through so many of its ideas so …
Book #6 of 2024: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White Another brutal story from author Andrew Joseph White, although just slightly less viscerally upsetting than his previous novel Hell Followed With Us. (The trans hero of this book is subjected to misgendering, institutionalization / conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and sexual assault dating …
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Book #135 of 2023: A Power Unbound by Freya Marske (The Last Binding #3) Romantasy is the buzzy new publishing genre these days, but for me personally, the fantasy elements always take priority over the romance ones in such a blended work. For that reason, I’ve grown less enamored of this particular trilogy as it’s …
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Book #129 of 2023: I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea This debut novel and its heroine should have been right up my alley: an #ownvoices queer Black teen, striving to prove herself in the cutthroat and frequently racist world of French ballet, who makes a pact with …
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Book #126 of 2023: The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss An interesting novella focused on the minor character Bast from author Patrick Rothfuss’s ongoing / long-dormant trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle. I have a few outside complaints about this title — it’s the second such side release for the series, all while readers have …
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Book #120 of 2023: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean #2) A surprisingly-quick sequel to May’s runaway ‘romantasy’ bestseller Fourth Wing, but I suppose the publisher wanted to strike while the iron was hot — no pun intended. This one is just as great, although truth be told, it probably could have been half …
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Book #109 of 2023: The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with this author.] This is the fourth and final ‘Secret Project’ release from author Brandon Sanderson, representing the novels he wrote in his spare time during the early COVID-19 pandemic and later dramatically unveiled via a record-setting Kickstarter for their …
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Book #106 of 2023: Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #4) At its best, this fantasy series offers powerful meditations on stories: why we share and find meaning in them, how they don’t necessarily match an objective historical record even when purporting to, the reasons they might shift over time …
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