Book #145 of 2025: Olive and the Dragon by Victoria Goddard Author Victoria Goddard’s latest Nine Worlds title offers her usual brand of wholesome cozy fantasy, fleshing out a new corner of that ever-expanding saga. This time it’s a prequel to her Greenwing & Dart series, which normally centers around a young gentleman scholar named …
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Book #134 of 2025: At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard (Lays of the Hearth-Fire #2) The Hands of the Emperor is my very favorite novel, which perhaps paradoxically is why I took my time in getting to this direct sequel. While Hands remains a great entry point for the wider Nine Worlds …
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Book #123 of 2025: The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul by Victoria Goddard (The Red Company Reformed #2) This is my favorite Victoria Goddard book since The Hands of the Emperor, which was the first one that I ever picked up. That earlier novel is often heralded as a great entry point to the author’s extended Nine …
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Book #112 of 2025: The Return of Fitzroy Angursell by Victoria Goddard (The Red Company Reformed #1) There’s not really a wrong order in which to read author Victoria Goddard’s sprawling Nine Worlds fantasy saga, but I would say that this particular volume is probably best picked up sometime after The Hands of the Emperor, …
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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 #90 of 2025: The Glassblower by Victoria Goddard (The Glassblower Diptych #1) “This was another story beginning, the tale unfurling beneath her feet with every breath she took, every question on her tongue.” That line comes at 97% of the way through this slim novella in author Victoria Goddard’s sprawling Nine Worlds fantasy saga, …
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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 #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 #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 #46 of 2025: Traditional Culture Days at Uni by Victoria Goddard This Discord-exclusive story is a lightweight snippet, depicting Kip Mdang from The Hands of the Emperor as a young person at university. It’s fun to glimpse him at that age with friends and family we’ve previously seen when they’re substantially older — namely …
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