Book #26 of 2016: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #3) I really enjoy this series, but this particular book felt less complete than the others somehow. (Perhaps because the next one to come out is going to be the last, so Blue Lily, Lily Blue had to do too much …
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Book #22 of 2016: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (Graceling Realm #3) Kristin Cashore has improved a lot as both a writer and a worldbuilder over the course of this series, and Bitterblue is easily her best novel yet. This is a work of fantasy from a strong feminist perspective, as a queen and her people …
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Book #10 of 2016: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #6) The fight scenes in this novel are top-notch, and it’s great to see new applications of the basic magic principles Sanderson introduced in the first Mistborn books, but the plot here is pretty thin. I love The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4, …
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Book #9 of 2016: The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks (Shannara #2) I originally read the first dozen or so Shannara books back in middle and high school, before finally getting tired of the series. I don’t remember any of them particularly well, but I did have this vague memory that Elfstones (the second …
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Book #6 of 2016: The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill The Witch’s Boy was a swing and a miss for me. This middle-grade fantasy had some interesting ideas, but they just weren’t well developed enough to cohere into a satisfying story. The whole book needed some major rewrites, and apparently it wasn’t even the author’s …
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Book #4 of 2016: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #2) Facebook memories reminded me that a year ago last night, I stayed up past midnight for finish an ebook I was hooked on: Firefight by Brandon Sanderson, an outstanding sequel to one of the freshest series premieres I had read the …
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Book #87 of 2015: Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness #1-4) I read this fantasy quartet bound as a single hardback edition, only realizing later that the different sections of the story were actually separate books. For that reason — and because I’m piecing together this review from scattered notes …
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Book #86 of 2015: The King’s Justice by Stephen R. Donaldson I wasn’t super blown away by either of the two (unrelated) novellas in this book, but even middle-of-the-road Stephen R. Donaldson is still worth the read. And there are echoes of many of the stories I love from his collection Reave the Just and …
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Book #78 of 2015: Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #5) I have mixed feelings about this Mistborn novel. For backstory: author Brandon Sanderson originally wrote a high fantasy trilogy in this setting, and plans to someday write another series where the technology has progressed to modern levels. He then added a standalone novel, …
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Book #62 of 2015: Fire by Kristin Cashore (Graceling Realm #2) Just like its predecessor in this series, I have mixed feelings about Fire. There’s a lot it does right, including foregrounding gender discrimination issues in an organic way throughout the plot. But there’s so much falling action, with a good 20% of the book …
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