Book #357 of 2021: Dark Rise by C. S. Pacat (Dark Rise #1) I’m quite torn on how to rate this historical fantasy novel, but ultimately I think three-out-of-five stars is a fair reflection of my overall reaction to it. Although I really love the ending and the broader shape of the story that’s revealed …
Tag Archives: fantasy
Book Review: Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Book #354 of 2021: Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson (Vespertine #1) I’ve described author Margaret Rogerson’s fantasy fiction as an Old Kingdom readalike in the past, and she proves it again in this latest novel, in which a trainee nun fights undead spirits with the help of one bound to her that only she can hear …
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Book Review: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Book #351 of 2021: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher I enjoy the protagonist’s magic here, which is limited to spells about baking and eventually gets put to creative use in defending the city from an invading army. I also approve of the dark and creepily realistic portrayal of a growing extremist …
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Book Review: Strange Dreams edited by Stephen R. Donaldson
Book #348 of 2021: Strange Dreams edited by Stephen R. Donaldson Rating each story in this 1993 collection individually, they average out to just three-out-of-five stars overall for me. It’s an uneven bunch, yet there are still some winners among the lot. (No fives, but 10 fours, along with 11 threes, 5 twos, and 2 …
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Book Review: Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix
Book #338 of 2021: Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom #6) It’s always a pleasure to return to the Old Kingdom, that snowy landscape of necromancy and Charter Magic where the hereditary line of Abhorsens wield their seven enchanted bells to put the dead back to rest. Nevertheless, author Garth Nix has …
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Book Review: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
Book #332 of 2021: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow (Fractured Fables #1) This delightful novella is one of the more original fairy tale retellings that I’ve seen, pitching its version of Sleeping Beauty as a young woman from our world, suffering from a debilitating illness predicted to kill her within a year, who …
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Book Review: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
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 Review: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
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 Review: Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom by Sangu Mandanna
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 Review: Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
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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