Book #53 of 2023: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with this author.] This is the second of author Brandon Sanderson’s four “Secret Project” novels, which he wrote over the pandemic lockdowns of 2020-2021 in the time he’d normally spend traveling and making public appearances …
Tag Archives: fantasy
Book Review: League of Liars by Astrid Scholte
Book #52 of 2023: League of Liars by Astrid Scholte (The League of Liars #1) I was intrigued by the notion of a YA fantasy legal thriller, but the result here is severely underwhelming at every turn. Take the minimal worldbuilding, for starters. This is nominally set on a different plane than ours, with magic …
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Book Review: Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander by Victoria Goddard
Book #49 of 2023: Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander by Victoria Goddard I like this midquel novella to author Victoria Goddard’s excellent fantasy tome The Hands of the Emperor, but I think I’m not totally impressed by it, especially after the previous short spinoff work for this series Petty Treasons seemed to up the …
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Book Review: Lirael by Garth Nix
Book #45 of 2023: Lirael by Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom #2) Another fine fantasy adventure, although I have never loved it quite as much as its predecessor. Jumping forward a couple decades and following an entirely new cast is a risky maneuver, and while I feel it pays off fairly well, I do miss …
Book Review: Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
Book #42 of 2023: Belladonna by Adalyn Grace (Belladonna #1) I realize that some of my issues with this title stem from my personal tastes, and that other readers may find themselves more able to get on its particular wavelength. (It might be popular among the Twilight crowd, for instance?) Certainly, if I had realized …
Book Review: Dark One: Forgotten by Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells
Book #40 of 2023: Dark One: Forgotten by Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with the first author.] I’m torn between three and four stars for this title. I have enough critiques and reservations that I think I’ll go with the lower rating, but I have enjoyed it, for the most …
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Book Review: Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson
Book #39 of 2023: Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson A fun novella-length follow-up to Margaret Rogerson’s earlier fantasy novel Sorcery of Thorns. With minimal plot and a fairly narrow scope, it’s not a full-on sequel — she describes it on Goodreads as “author written fanfiction” — but simply a chance to spend a …
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Book Review: The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings
Book #37 of 2023: The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings A good fantasy novel but ultimately not a great one. I still like it in parts, just not nearly as much as I did in high school, and I suspect that this will probably be the last time I ever reread the …
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Book Review: Sabriel by Garth Nix
Book #34 of 2023: Sabriel by Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom #1) A thoroughly excellent modern fantasy classic, published in 1995 but just as enjoyable now upon my umpteenth reread. (I can’t remember when I first encountered it, but I do recall thinking in amazement that it was like a written version of the Diablo …
Book Review: The Afterward by E. K. Johnston
Book #30 of 2023: The Afterward by E. K. Johnston I like the idea of following up with a band of adventurers after they’ve completed their quest to save the world, and all the more so that our focus is on a pair of young women who became romantically entwined on that adventure but are …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 