Book #215 of 2018: The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard #3) I have such mixed feelings about this book and what it portends for the rest of its series. In part that’s because it’s trying to do three very different things, and I think it accomplishes them with varying degrees of success. …
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Book 210 of 2018: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #4) This middle volume marks a major shift in the Harry Potter series in a number of ways. It’s much longer than the previous novels, but it’s also significantly darker and more mature. The title wizard and his …
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Book #209 of 2018: Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (Strange the Dreamer #2) A lovely conclusion to the story set up in Strange the Dreamer, especially for how it resolves that wicked cliffhanger from the first book. Author Laini Taylor’s fantasy storytelling and rich mythic worldbuilding is as terrific as ever (with even more …
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Book #201 of 2018: The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain #2) I like this second adventure through the land of Prydain even more than its predecessor, perhaps because it has more twists and turns (some easy to predict, others not) and a greater focus on characterization over plot. But there’s the …
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Book #199 of 2018: Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce (Daughter of the Lioness #2) Tamora Pierce is always hit-or-miss for me, and this particular Tortall novel is unfortunately more of a miss. The spycraft feels mostly like a repeat of the last book, the plot points are easy to predict, and the author ultimately does …
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Book #196 of 2018: The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (The Masquerade #1) A fascinating character and culture study, most reminiscent of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch books. Baru Cormorant is a young woman whose homeland gets annexed by an expanding empire, after which she privately vows to rise through her conquerors’ ranks to take …
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Book #195 of 2018: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #3) This has always been my favorite book in the Harry Potter series, and it is no less excellent even now that I’m closer in age to the second title character than the first. Harry and his friends …
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Book #193 of 2018: Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (Strange the Dreamer #1) I love this book, and I think my review from when I first read it in 2017 still stands: “A gorgeously-written fantasy novel about a boy raised in a library, who spends his early life chasing down obscure references to the …
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Book #188 of 2018: The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler (Emily Windsnap #1) I don’t read too many middle-grade books, but I decided to give this one a try because I share the author’s last name (although we are not actually related, to the best of my knowledge). It’s the first novel in …
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Book #187 of 2018: Arcadia by Iain Pears This novel takes a little while to get going and clearly establish its plot, but it ends up as a mind-trip of the highest caliber. There are essentially three layers of reality that author Iain Pears is playing with here: 1) the twenty-third century, where a brilliant …
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