Book #148 of 2020: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan (Powder Mage #1) The plot to this 2013 fantasy debut reminds me of the second Mistborn novel, from the challenges facing a force of rebels after they successfully overthrow their tyrant ruler and must figure out how to govern amid the dying warning of a …
Continue reading “Book Review: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan”
Book #146 of 2020: A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab (Shades of Magic #3) This last volume has the most coherent plot stakes of the Shades of Magic trilogy, but it’s still a pretty rambling adventure that never seems to take full advantage of the cool multiverse setting. There’s also a lot of …
Continue reading “Book Review: A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab”
Book #145 of 2020: Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi (Beasts Made of Night #1) This debut novel from Nigerian-American author Tochi Onyebuchi has an interesting concept of an underclass of magical sin-eaters who assuage the consciences of their society’s wicked nobility, but the plot is pretty slow and I struggle to ever understand …
Continue reading “Book Review: Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi”
Book #144 of 2020: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson This standalone fantasy novel is a real gem, populated with endearing characters and the glimmering magic tomes that whisper to them in the darkness. I’m reminded of Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series, and not merely because the heroine has been raised in a library like …
Continue reading “Book Review: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson”
Book #141 of 2020: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings #2) This second volume of the epic fantasy classic continues the charm and adventure of the debut, with further settings, concepts, and character moments that have proved indelible upon both the literary genre that followed and myself as …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien”
Book #129 of 2020: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski (The Winner’s Trilogy #1) I picked up this book on the strength of author Marie Rutkoski’s later novel The Midnight Lie, which features a different cast in a different area of the same fantasy setting (sort of like the relationship between the Grisha trilogy and …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski”
Book #127 of 2020: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings #1) As a foundational text of the fantasy genre that’s inspired countless homages and knock-offs — and as a product of the mid-twentieth century — you might expect The Lord of the Rings to seem generic …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien”
Book #120 of 2020: Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #5) The fifth novella in this loose series about children longing to return to the fantasy worlds they once visited is most similar to the third, featuring a group of the kids again traveling to someone else’s magical realm to help resolve a …
Continue reading “Book Review: Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire”
Book #117 of 2020: The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco (The Never Tilting World #1) I don’t know if it’s intentional on author Rin Chupeco’s part, but there’s a definite Brandon Sanderson vibe to this fantasy novel of theirs. From the title concept of a planet stuck half in sunlight and half in dark …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco”
Book #115 of 2020: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Some of my earliest memories are of my mother reading to me from The Hobbit as a bedtime story, so it may not be a title I can review with any sort of critical objectivity. It both introduced me to the fantasy genre and …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more