Book #79 of 2025: In the Realms of Gold by Victoria Goddard Within the context of author Victoria Goddard’s Nine Worlds fantasy saga, Ysthar is another name for Earth, and so these five stories take place in what’s seemingly a version of our own reality — albeit one that the protagonists discover is rather more …
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Book #77 of 2025: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell One of fantasy’s most truly distinctive protagonists anchors this delightful tale, achieving a tone that’s somewhere between Hell Followed With Us and Killing Eve. Our antiheroine narrator is an inhuman creature who begins her story by describing how she ate her …
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Book #71 of 2025: The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E. Wein (The Lion Hunters #1) This 1993 novel offers a limited yet engaging retelling of the Arthurian legend, centering on the king’s illegitimate son Medraut (or Mordred, as he’s known in other versions). The primary innovation, which I don’t believe I’ve encountered elsewhere, is that …
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Book #70 of 2025: Lyorn by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #17) And just like that, I’m all caught up with Vlad Taltos (though not its sister series, the Khaavren Romances). This 2024 title is the latest to be released, with reportedly only two additional sequels left to go. It’s another perfectly pleasant adventure with the …
Book #68 of 2025: Till Human Voices Wake Us by Victoria Goddard Published back in 2014, this was author Victoria Goddard’s debut novel — and unfortunately, it shows. There are a few neat ideas with interesting implications for the writer’s wider Nine Worlds saga, like how the empire of Astandalas originally fell, but it’s an …
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Book #61 of 2025: Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three: The Sailor by Robin Furth, Peter David, Juanan Ramírez, and Jesus Aburtov The five issues in this bound volume unfortunately represent the end of the Marvel comic book adaptations of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series — or at least, there haven’t …
Book #59 of 2025: Tsalmoth by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #16) We’ve gone back to near the beginning of the protagonist’s timeline again, in the days when he was still a low-level Jhereg crime boss. It’s a productive visit, however — not so much for the immediate plot, which is a very typical Taltos affair, …
Book #57 of 2025: Féonie and the Islander Regalia by Victoria Goddard A lovely little companion story to author Victoria Goddard’s cozy fantasy novel The Hands of the Emperor. Near the end of that longer work, the protagonist Cliopher Mdang is honored with a ceremony requiring he dress in his finest clothing, and the servant …
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Book #49 of 2025: Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three Omnibus by Robin Furth, Peter David, Piotr Kowalski, Jonathan Marks, Nick Filardi, and Lee Loughridge Nearly but not quite the last of Marvel’s Dark Tower comic adaptations, as this volume — already smaller than the first two — for some reason …
Book #48 of 2025: Vallista by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #15) In this installment, Vlad Taltos goes full Gormenghast, and the results are somewhat underwhelming. I do appreciate how author Steven Brust continues to periodically shake up his usual storytelling rhythms for this series, and it’s hard to name a bigger change than this adventure, …
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