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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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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