Book #128 of 2016: The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Ascendance Trilogy #3) The first novel in this trilogy was definitely the strongest, but this third one resolves the larger story nicely, and it’s always a joy to spend more time with a character like Sage. His ability to think his way out …
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Book #125 of 2016: The Magicians by Lev Grossman (The Magicians #1) Thematically, The Magicians is a story about wizards with depression, and about how getting your heart’s desire isn’t always enough to make you happy. That’s a perspective that’s pretty rare in the fantasy genre, and I appreciated author Lev Grossman giving his characters …
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Book #123 of 2016: Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #3) Another fun entry in Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz series, again harnessing his love of creative magical systems into something more whimsical than his typical fantasy novels for older readers. In this third book in the series, the politics get murkier and …
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Book #113 of 2016: Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #2) Another fun YA novel from Brandon Sanderson, who blends his usual high fantasy style with something closer to Harry Potter and then adds a snarky narrator offering meta-commentary on the nature of stories throughout. Book 2 in this series fleshes out …
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Book #111 of 2016: The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Ascendance Trilogy #2) This book is the Catching Fire to its predecessor’s Hunger Games – a sequel that faces the tricky task of recapturing what readers loved about the very particular scenario of the first book. The plot mechanics that get the orphan-turned-king …
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Book #103 of 2016: How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon #1) Very different and substantially worse than its movie adaptation. (And also far less diverse – no female characters have lines, and neither Hiccup nor Toothless have disabilities as they do in the film.) The audiobook was elevated …
Book #100 of 2016: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce (Beka Cooper #3) Beka Cooper’s final case is also her biggest, with the Tortall guardswoman chasing after a kidnapped prince all over the country. But although it’s been fun to watch Beka grow in both competence and confidence as this series progressed, Mastiff is somewhat lacking as …
Book #95 of 2016: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz #1) Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz series starts out with a bang, combining one of his trademark creative magic systems with a narrator as snarky as Peter David’s Sir Apropos of Nothing in this fun novel for junior readers. We only get the first …
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Book #81 of 2016: Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce (Beka Cooper #2) The second Beka Cooper novel continues her character growth nicely, settling her into her new role as a full Guardswoman with the assignment of a major counterfeiting case that sends her off largely on her own into a brand-new city. It’s a good way …
Book #75 of 2019: Uprooted by Naomi Novik Uprooted is a beautiful story set in a fantastic version of medieval Russia and Poland. I rolled my eyes at its initial premise, which involves a village sacrificing its young women to a “dragon” who is actually a powerful wizard living in a nearby tower, but the …
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