Birth of a Dynasty, by Chinaza Bado, is something a little bit old and a little bit new. It has the bones of many modern-era epic fantasy hits, and it's dialed in to a lot of the strongest tropes that make this genre popular. While it isn’t reinventing the wheel, it is also an African-inspired…
Continue reading ➞ Birth Of A Dynasty – Noble On Noble Action
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi had me sobbing, and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a delightful short novel that zooms in on four characters’ transformative and heartbreaking moments as they travel back in time to find answers and, hopefully, closure. The small cafe may seem unassuming, but it houses a doorway…
Continue reading ➞ Before The Coffee Gets Cold – Bittersweet
The Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman is hotly contested among QTL reviewers. Cole pretty vocally did not like book one, as can be seen by his review here. I was a little more middle of the road in my thoughts on book one and decided to stick with it to see if it…
Continue reading ➞ This Inevitable Ruin – Chekhov’s Artillery Strike
Thrum by Meg Smitherman was an interesting reading experience for me because I loved the big reveal at the end of the story, but I don’t like how we got there. I was very intrigued by a horror romance set in space, and despite Smitherman delivering one hell of an ending, the novella was a…
Lend an ear to listen to Amal El-Mohtar’s bittersweet tale of two sisters whose love can transcend all. The River Has Roots is a short, sweet lullaby that will pluck at your heartstrings and give you a love to believe in. As is tradition among the Hawthorn family, Esther and Ysabel sing to honor the…
The Black Company is an all-time favorite series of the QTL team, and I would argue it’s probably the single most foundational story in how we came to be a group reviewing books. So, it’s not an understatement to say that there was a disproportionate amount of scrutiny being lobbed toward a brand new Black…
A sleeper hit drifting out of the ether, Slow Gods by Claire North was phenomenal (and made our best of 2025 list). I had never read North before, which is somewhat surprising given her enormous body of work under multiple names. I believe she is mostly known for her historically inspired fantasy, which is why…
Fresh off our best of the year list, let's talk a bit more about Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shroud. A standalone survival horror science fiction story from the master biomancer himself, this book did not disappoint on any front. It’s all about learning to perceive reality in new and interesting ways. Also, it’s anti-capitalist, spooky as all…
Ten years! Welcome to the tenth anniversary of The Quill to Live's best books of the year list! 2025 has been a banger year for science fiction, fantasy, and horror. One of the strongest years of the decade, 2025 was filled with standout books in multiple genres. There were actually so many interesting releases, sequels,…
Welcome to hell, beckons R.F. Kuang in Katabasis. It’s basically academia! When I thought back to my agitation at being graded on how well I presented my opinions, I started to agree with Kuang’s ideas. Then, the book dragged on further and further into the depths of hell, and I lost touch with my relationship…
