Book #101 of 2025: The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard (Lays of the Hearth-Fire #1) This is currently my very favorite book, which I’ve now read three times in as many years. (I’m not necessarily committing to maintaining an annual reread, but I’m not ruling it out, either.) Like Kip scribbling additions to …
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Book #92 of 2025: Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green (Nightside #2) [Note: this is a modified version of my review from 2018.] This urban fantasy series still has issues like an oversexualization of its female characters, but this second novel is better than I remembered and a vast improvement over the …
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Book #88 of 2025: Revolution by John Peel (2099 #4) This middle-grade sci-fi series stalls out a bit here, though I’m hoping the final two volumes are able to recapture the original momentum and fun. (It’s been a quarter-century since my last read, so none of this is particularly clear in my memory.) The subplot …
Book #84 of 2025: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #3) The first two volumes in this trilogy shared a roughly similar structure: half a book of buildup to the latest deadly arena match, and then the heroine’s desperate bid for survival within it. This closing entry operates along the same general principles, except …
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Book #81 of 2025: Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green (Nightside #1) [Note: this is an updated version of my review from 2017.] The Nightside series was my introduction to the urban fantasy genre back in high school, and I still have a bit of a soft spot for it. This 2003 title …
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Book #73 of 2025: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #2) In certain ways, I think this dystopian YA sequel improves upon its predecessor. Whereas the series debut focused — understandably! — on the setting, the characters, and the inherent brutality of the premise, this volume is more able to expand on the …
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Book #72 of 2025: Traitor by John Peel (2099 #3) Another quick but propulsive adventure, bringing us to the halfway point of this middle-grade sci-fi series from 1999-2000. Our main hero Tristan begins this installment in police custody (thanks to innocently sharing identical DNA to his terrorist clone twin), and after dodging an attack from …
Book #62 of 2025: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #1) [Previous review here, from 2011.] Fun to revisit this first Hunger Games novel, well after the blockbuster movie franchise that turned it into a household name. Even setting all that aside to consider the 2008 title fresh, it’s clear that it’s …
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Book #36 of 2025: Betrayal by John Peel (2099 #2) A propulsive sequel that picks up right where the first installment of this middle-grade sci-fi series left off, with a doomsday computer virus ravaging all of New York City. It’s actually impressive how well author John Peel, writing in the 1990s and imagining a century …
Book #25 of 2025: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke I first read this fantasy novel soon after its initial 2004 publication, and have found myself drawn back to its wonders at least once a decade since. It is a dense and intricate creation: 782 pages in my hardcover edition, detailing an alternate …
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