Book #14 of 2025: Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent by Scott Lynch What a delight it is to reenter the world of Camorr, that medieval Venice-inspired city-state with its elaborate criminal underworld staking out rival gang territories along the canals. Author Scott Lynch has published a variety of shorter fiction in the years since …
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Book #248 of 2018: The Book of Magic edited by Gardner Dozois Gardner Dozois was a prolific editor of speculative fiction, and this is most likely his final project, having come to publication soon after his death in 2018. It’s a series of stories about sorcery — the companion to last year’s Dozois fantasy collection …
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Book #215 of 2018: The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard #3) I have such mixed feelings about this book and what it portends for the rest of its series. In part that’s because it’s trying to do three very different things, and I think it accomplishes them with varying degrees of success. …
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Book #180 of 2018: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard #2) Plotwise, this sequel is an unfortunate step down from author Scott Lynch’s brilliant debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora. Whereas that earlier fantasy crime novel effortlessly weaves its various strands into one compelling whole, this follow-up spends a third of …
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Book #149 of 2018: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard #1) Over a decade and countless rereads later, this long-time favorite of mine is still an incredible read. It’s an Ocean’s Eleven or Mission: Impossible style heist story crossed with a Godfather-esque tale of honor-bound criminal vengeance, all set in a …
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Book #234 of 2017: The Book of Swords edited by Gardner Dozois This is a collection of short stories in the “sword and sorcery” genre, which as far as I can tell is fantasy on the smaller scale, with no evil overlords threatening the world. (I’d say the stakes are lower than epic fantasy, but …
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Book #21 of 2016: Rogues edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois Rogues took me forever to read, partly because it’s a really long book and partly because I had to share custody of the library copy with two or three other people, so there were weeks at a time when I couldn’t …
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