Book #109 of 2020: Onyx & Ivory by Mindee Arnett (Rime Chronicles #1) This YA fantasy debut has clear potential that I’m hoping the sequel improves upon, with more worldbuilding details about the wider setting and less interpersonal drama that it seems like one good open conversation would resolve. I do like these protagonists and …
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Book #108 of 2020: The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones (Chrestomanci #6) This last Chrestomanci novel to be published is also the latest within the setting’s chronology and the final volume in author Diana Wynne Jones’s suggested reading order. I don’t know that it completely works as a grand finale for the series — …
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Book #106 of 2020: The Traitor’s Game by Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Traitor’s Game #1) There’s not enough worldbuilding in this YA novel to distinguish the setting from any generic fantasy realm, which makes it harder to track or care about all the opposing factions. Character loyalties also seem pretty easily swayed, which further impedes …
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Book #102 of 2020: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune I appreciate how this fantasy novel’s protagonist is a heavyset, middle-aged, gay social worker, any single element of which would be rare enough for the genre (and liable to be used as a punchline, rather than treated with empathy and respect as …
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Book #100 of 2020: A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab (Shades of Magic #2) An unfortunate continuation of the thin plot and character motivation issues that are keeping me at a distance from this fantasy series. The biggest event in this second volume is a magical tournament that isn’t even mentioned until a …
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Book #93 of 2020: The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski (The Midnight Lie #1) This fantasy novel takes a little while to grow on me, but once the narrative clarifies into the story of a sheltered heroine learning to ask for what she wants — including the love of an alluring new female acquaintance — …
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Book #91 of 2020: Spellhacker by M. K. England I like this novel’s conceit of magic as a tightly-controlled natural resource that criminals are hired to siphon off from the government pipeline, and I definitely appreciate author M. K. England’s commitment to representing diversity of race and gender in this setting. Among other inclusive elements, …
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Book #90 of 2020: Conrad’s Fate by Diana Wynne Jones (Chrestomanci #5) This fifth Chrestomanci volume — in both publication and author’s suggested reading order; actually the second chronologically — has a great set-up, but it throws out too many intriguing complications that aren’t given the development they’d need to land with any proper impact. …
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Book #88 of 2020: The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers (Zamonia #1) I absolutely adore this wild and whimsical adventure novel, detailing the tall-tale nautical escapades of a talking blue bear. (Life inside a stable tornado! The famous dueling liars of Atlantis! Impressment on the biggest ship in the world! Microscopic mini-pirates!) …
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Book #83 of 2020: Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb (The Fitz and the Fool #3) The closing chapters of this 2017 fantasy novel form a meaningful sendoff to the hero and world first introduced in 1995’s Assassin’s Apprentice. Overall, however, the book is far too slow and exposition-heavy — and because the larger Realm of …
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