Book #322 of 2021: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance #2) An improvement on A Deadly Education, which I already enjoyed quite a lot. This sequel returns us to the Scholomance, that magic boarding school / honeypot in a pocket dimension of Lovecraftian space where the students are prey to all manner of …
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Book #314 of 2021: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (The Radiant Emperor #1) This incredible debut is a queer fantasy retelling of the founding of China’s Ming Dynasty, in which a penniless 14th-century monk-turned-rebel helped topple the Yuan Mongol rulers and forged a new empire with himself at the head. Only in …
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Book #311 of 2021: Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom by Sangu Mandanna Another title in the popular recent mini-genre of Percy Jackson-inspired #ownvoices fantasy stories involving a middle-grade protagonist coming face-to-face with certain mythological beings drawn from the writer’s cultural heritage. In this novel, the Hindu gods and demons are joined by a fun Inkheart …
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Book #308 of 2021: Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron I believe this is the first fairy tale retelling I’ve seen that incorporates the classic version of the text as official propaganda of a fascistically sexist (and homophobic) police state, so that’s an interesting premise to start from. Girls in this kingdom are taught the …
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Book #306 of 2021: Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown This autobiographical novel — or fictionalized memoir, if you prefer — tackles some very heavy topics in the childhood and teenage years of its author / protagonist Echo Brown, a dark-skinned African-American who faces racism, colorism, domestic abuse, rape, and more, not to mention the …
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Book #303 of 2021: Opal by Maggie Stiefvater I’ve heard author Maggie Stiefvater refer to this Raven Cycle sequel as a novella, but at 38 pages, it’s probably scraping the lower limit of what could fairly be given that designation. It’s really more of a quick interlude in the lives of her heroes Ronan Lynch …
Book #302 of 2021: The Unbroken by C. L. Clark (Magic of the Lost #1) [I read and reviewed this title at a Patreon donor’s request. Want to nominate your own books for me to read and review (or otherwise support my writing)? Sign up for a small monthly donation today at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke !] This …
Book #300 of 2021: The Verdigris Pawn by Alysa Wishingrad A solid children’s fantasy adventure. I think the metaphor of the chess-like board game that recurs throughout would have been stronger with a clearer explanation of its rules, and I wish the protagonists had a greater sense of personal agency, rather than seeming fated to …
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Book #288 of 2021: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow #1) This #ownvoices sci-fi / fantasy debut is going to appear on many best-of-2021 lists, my own very much included. Loosely based on the only female emperor in Chinese history, it’s the powerfully intimate tale of a girl raised in a society that …
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Book #270 of 2021: D (A Tale of Two Worlds) by Michel Faber Not bad, but a pretty typical novel of the child-goes-to-another-world-to-have-a-series-of-strange-encounters variety, a la The Phantom Tollbooth, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and so forth. The most distinctive part of this book is also its most frustrating, as there’s no consistent and coherent explanation …
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