Book #271 of 2020: Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia #4) Although perhaps not as enchanting as the original Narnia story, this first sequel (in writing / publication order) does much more to flesh out the worldbuilding, providing a sense of history, geography, and culture to the setting that had been …
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Book #268 of 2020: Don’t Call the Wolf by Aleksandra Ross The main problem with this standalone fantasy novel is that none of its characters seems to have a clear motivation driving their actions, resulting in a narrative with the shape of a quest but less weight than a typical tabletop roleplaying campaign. They’re just …
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Book #265 of 2020: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Author Susanna Clarke’s second novel is an odd beast, closer in tone to experimental mind-bending works like House of Leaves, Annihilation, or The Slow Regard of Silent Things than her Victorian fantasy classic Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. The narrator is an amnesiac in an otherworldly flooded …
Book #264 of 2020: Thud! by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #34) Maybe it’s due to the inevitable comedown from the thoroughly excellent Night Watch, but I haven’t enjoyed this next City Watch novel nearly as much as I expected to. There’s a great worldbuilding revelation at the end, yet this is one of those Discworld books …
Book #263 of 2020: A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland (A Conspiracy of Truths #1) It’s a definite testament to author Alexandra Rowland’s talent that their 2018 debut novel is so utterly engrossing despite being set almost entirely within the confines of a cramped jail cell. On trial for espionage in a strange land, …
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Book #261 of 2020: Tristan Strong Destroys The World by Kwame Mbalia (Tristan Strong #2) I still love the concept of a middle-grade fantasy series populated by African gods and black folk heroes, but I’m not quite as charmed by this sequel. I feel like it retreads a lot of the same material from the …
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Book #259 of 2020: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia #2) I’m approaching this reread of the Narnia series in publication order rather than internal chronology, which I don’t believe I’ve actually ever done before. So that means starting here, with young Lucy Pevensie stumbling into …
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Book #250 of 2020: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance #1) This YA fantasy novel can be a tad exposition-heavy, especially at the beginning, but it offers such a fun setting and enjoyably prickly protagonist that it’s easy to let that slide. The Scholomance is a magic boarding school like none other, a …
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Book #244 of 2020: Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold A dark and gory feminist tale, perfect for the chilly weather and dimmer evenings we’re getting now at the tail end of the year. It’s a loose retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, where the girl in the woods is a teenager going home to …
Book #243 of 2020: Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko (Raybearer #1) A lovely piece of #ownvoices YA fantasy, with an all-black cast and imaginative worldbuilding loosely inspired by West African mythology. Debut author Jordan Ifueko is clearly breaking from the eurocentric genre norm here, but she also seems to have ventured further afield from the Orisha …
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