Book #48 of 2018: Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (Enchanted Forest Chronicles #3) I’ve liked the first two books in this children’s fantasy series, but this third one is a misfire for me. Its issues might not trouble a younger reader, but the humor is way more slapstick than before, and the new …
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Book #47 of 2018: Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb (Liveship Traders #1) As always, I have mixed feelings about this book and its sequels. On the one hand, you couldn’t ask for better atmosphere in a fantasy yarn of pirates, sea serpents, and talking figureheads, and the rich worldbuilding wonderfully fleshes out an area …
Book #43 of 2018: The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins This is a pretty weird book, and I’m still not entirely convinced it’s my kind of weird. But it definitely comes close at times, and by about the halfway point of the novel, I found I simply couldn’t put it down. I think …
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Book #38 of 2018: Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb (Farseer #3) On the whole I love the Farseer trilogy (and the wider series that it begins), but every time I read this particular book, I find myself losing patience about halfway through. It’s one of those fantasy novels that consist mostly of characters walking across …
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Book #30 of 2018: Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3) I’m satisfied by the conclusion of this trilogy, but I do find it a tad underwhelming after that excellent middle volume. There’s a lot of attention given to a brand-new viewpoint character of dubious importance to the …
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Book #27 of 2018: Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo What a great read! And one that, I’m happy to report, doesn’t require a reader to know anything about Wonder Woman or the greater DC Comics canon to enjoy. This is an alternate version of the heroine’s origin story, where a teenaged Diana leaves her …
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Book #23 of 2018: The Little Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King I like this Dark Tower prequel novella, but it’s admittedly pretty extraneous to the regular series. The Mid-World setting makes it seem more primary, but it’s really closer in nature to a tangential Stephen King book like Black House than anything particularly essential …
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Book #22 of 2018: Sir Thursday by Garth Nix (The Keys to the Kingdom #4) I flat-out love most of the other Garth Nix books that I’ve read, but for some reason this particular series has never clicked for me. The plots are a bit too formulaic, the setting a bit too generic, and the …
Book #21 of 2018: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King (The Dark Tower #4) This was always my favorite novel in Stephen King’s epic sprawling Dark Tower series, and although I’m a bit longer in the tooth now than when I first read it, I’m excited to see that the story is just as great …
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Book #20 of 2018: Harpist in the Wind by Patricia A. McKillip (Riddle-Master #3) The Riddle-Master trilogy has always suffered from author Patricia A. McKillip keeping us at a distance from its world, and this concluding volume finally collapses under that weight. It isn’t a worldbuilding issue per se, since this reality has always felt …
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