Book #283 of 2020: Soulswift by Megan Bannen Too many little things bug me about this standalone fantasy novel for me to rate it highly, but I think it will find a receptive audience among the YA star-crossed-lovers crowd. The arc of two sworn enemies gradually growing more tender towards one another is well-wrought, and …
Tag Archives: fantasy
Book Review: Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson
Book #282 of 2020: Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive #3.5) This novella was released shortly before the fourth proper Stormlight volume, initially as a Kickstarter exclusive, and I have to admit that I didn’t have great hopes for it despite generally enjoying author Brandon Sanderson’s works. I know plenty of folks will skip …
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Book Review: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Book #280 of 2020: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (Legendborn #1) A wicked smart fantasy from debut author Tracy Deonn, as much about the experience of a black girl entering college (or any other traditionally white and patriarchal space) as it is about the demon-hunting order of Arthurian knights she ends up joining there. The plot …
Book Review: Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny
Book #279 of 2020: Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny (The Chronicles of Amber #3) I appreciate that this third Amber volume makes time to revisit a few open questions from the first novel, and it’s as fun as ever to see the squabbling family of reality-hopping sorcerers and their swashbuckling antics. On the …
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Book Review: The Captive Kingdom by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Book #277 of 2020: The Captive Kingdom by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Ascendance #4) I was intrigued by the news that author Jennifer A. Nielsen would be returning to the world of her middle-grade fantasy Ascendance trilogy, but this next volume never quite manages to justify itself, especially given the backstory retcon twist midway through. The …
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Book Review: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Book #276 of 2020: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Between Earth and Sky #1) An outstanding fantasy series debut, telling an interesting and distinctive story in a diverse world inspired by pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations. (Cacao as currency! I love it.) There’s a lot packed into this initial volume, from priestly power struggles to high-seas sorcery …
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Book Review: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Book #275 of 2020: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow I like the concept of a historical fantasy novel where the women’s suffrage movement is accompanied by a resurgent interest in witchcraft, and how author Alix E. Harrow uses that framework to offer some incisive feminist commentary on marginalized voices preserving knowledge …
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Book Review: Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis
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 Review: Don’t Call the Wolf by Aleksandra Ross
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 Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
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 …
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