Book #186 of 2022: Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk Like most novellas, this fantasy story feels like it probably could have been improved by developing its plots, themes, and worldbuilding at greater length, but in the short space allotted, it gets by just fine on pure premise and tone. It’s …
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Book #185 of 2022: Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore (Graceling Realm #5) The loose Graceling series moves at unusual rhythms, both on the macro level of an ostensibly-cohesive ongoing saga and on the micro level within its individual books. These stories regularly zig where the rest of the fantasy genre tends to zag, and while the …
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Book #184 of 2022: Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse (Between Earth and Sky #2) Black Sun was one of my top reads of 2020, an adult fantasy debut set in a refreshingly diverse world inspired by pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations. Any sequel would likely struggle to match it, and sure enough, this bridge title in the …
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Book #182 of 2022: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (Wax and Wayne #3 / Mistborn #6) [Note: I am Facebook friends with this author. Review originally written in 2016.] The fight scenes in this novel are top-notch, and it’s great to see new applications of the basic magic principles Sanderson introduced in the …
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Book #179 of 2022: Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #3) This is the first volume of the Singing Hills Cycle that hasn’t quite worked for me. We’re still following nonbinary Cleric Chih as they wander around this East Asian fantasy world recording people’s stories, learning the truth behind the lore, …
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Book #178 of 2022: The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea #2) Earthsea is a very loose children’s fantasy series, somewhat akin to The Chronicles of Narnia: although certain characters recur across volumes, each book has a fairly distinct structure and tone, and there isn’t much of an overarching plot. This second …
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Book #175 of 2022: A Restless Truth by Freya Marske (The Last Binding #2) 3.5 stars, rounded up. I don’t like this queer adult fantasy sequel nearly as much as its predecessor, but it’s an engaging story that mostly earns the reader’s forbearance over the switch in protagonists. Whereas the first volume in this series …
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Book #171 of 2022: Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (Wax and Wayne #2 / Mistborn #5) [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with this author.] As I mentioned in my review of that previous title, this era of the Mistborn series grew out of a writing exercise that author Brandon Sanderson liked enough to expand …
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Book #167 of 2022: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea #1) Author Ursula K. Le Guin’s first Earthsea novel — following two short stories in the setting she’d already published elsewhere — recounts the early life of its titular character, whom we are repeatedly told will someday be the most powerful …
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Book #165 of 2022: Aviva vs. the Dybbuk by Mari Lowe A dybbuk is a ghoulish spirit from Jewish folklore, traditionally said to be haunting a person or place due to unfinished business at the creature’s time of death. In this middle-grade novel, there’s such an entity lurking around the mikvah (a ritual bath site) …
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