Book #89 of 2026: Vigil by George Saunders This one is a bit of a head-scratcher for me. The writing is absolutely gorgeous, which suggests that I should probably go ahead and read the author’s earlier novel Lincoln in the Bardo, as I’ve seen several reviews of this title comparing it disfavorably to that. But …
Tag Archives: fantasy
Book Review: The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
Book #86 of 2026: The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (Princess Irene and Curdie #1) Surprisingly readable for a fantasy novel first published in 1872, with a warm tone reminiscent of genre successors like J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, or Diana Wynne Jones. The plot is kind of a mess by …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald”
Book Review: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
Book #80 of 2026: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings (The Belgariad #1) I suppose I’m interested enough to read more of this 80s fantasy saga, but it all feels pretty generic so far, and this initial volume doesn’t build to much of a climax. The teenage hero is your typical orphan farmboy with a …
Continue reading “Book Review: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings”
Book Review: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
Book #79 of 2026: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #3) I’m definitely not in the target audience for this middle-grade fantasy series, but I liked the first volume (and of course author Suzanne Collins’s unrelated Hunger Games novels) enough that I feel compelled to finish the pentalogy …
Continue reading “Book Review: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins”
Book Review: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
Book #77 of 2026: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn I struggled a lot with this heroine early on, finding her woe-is-me, not-like-other-girls attitude incredibly childish and off-putting. She’s also the sort of character who bemoans her supposedly plain looks while ignoring how the romantic interest is practically throwing himself at her feet in worship. …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn”
Book Review: Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins
Book #68 of 2026: Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #2) Overall a decent middle-grade adventure sequel, although not really as entertaining or imaginative as its predecessor. The first volume established the existence of the ‘Underland’ beneath New York City, and ended with the revelation of a further prophecy …
Continue reading “Book Review: Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins”
Book Review: The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Book #67 of 2026: The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao In the abstract, this magical realist novel seems like it should have been right up my alley. Its premise of a wondrous train built on daydreams that whisks away people feeling hopeless in life isn’t so radically different from stories I’ve enjoyed like The …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao”
Book Review: Nonesuch by Francis Spufford
Book #66 of 2026: Nonesuch by Francis Spufford I really like the first half of this historical fantasy novel, in which an enterprising young British woman stumbles into some occult secrets in the early days of World War II. Despite the plot shenanigans, it’s a very character-driven piece, and our heroine is an interesting figure …
Continue reading “Book Review: Nonesuch by Francis Spufford”
Book Review: The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang
Book #64 of 2026: The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang This fantasy novel starts out strong, gets legitimately great around midway through, but then unfortunately peters out in the end, without really resolving some of the larger plot threads that it introduces (which might be excusable for the launch of a series, but …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang”
Book Review: In Lonely Lands by Victoria Goddard
Book #63 of 2026: In Lonely Lands by Victoria Goddard This is the sort of title that I almost hate to see released as a standalone item, because it’s too insubstantial to bear much scrutiny but could be perfectly situated as a part of a larger story collection. In this case, it’s a ‘tale of …
Continue reading “Book Review: In Lonely Lands by Victoria Goddard”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 