This is a weird novella, and I am here for it. The Seventh Perfection, by Daniel Polansky, sits somewhere between a full novel and a novella at just under 200 pages. But what a 200 pages it is. The story’s main gimmick is it is told completely from a second-person point of view, and it…
Month: October 2020
The Shadow Of Kyoshi – Bend Me Break Me
Flameo, hotman, and welcome to the Fire Nation! F.C. Yee and Avatar co-creator Michael Dante Dimartino’s The Shadow of Kyoshi brings us to a pre-war Fire Nation riddled with political intrigue as the collaborators conclude the Kyoshi duology, which began with The Rise of Kyoshi last year. This sequel continues the story of Rise while…
The First Sister – A Little Bit Of Everything, Not Enough Of Something
The First Sister, by Linden Lewis, is an impressively ambitious debut, and one of our dark horses of 2020. Part space opera, part social commentary, part feminist power piece, and part character-driven narrative, this book has a lot of moving pieces in a fairly small page count (350). It feels like a tiny explosion of…
Continue reading ➞ The First Sister – A Little Bit Of Everything, Not Enough Of Something
Axiom’s End – Ellis’ Beginning
Axiom’s End, by Lindsay Ellis, is less than what I expected, and more than I could have asked for. It’s a solid debut that serves as a great first step in a trilogy, offering a fun fast paced plot with thoughtful meditations on how people relate to one another and the “alien.” Part of me…
The Emperor’s Wolves – Something Out Of Nothing
Alright, so this is mildly embarrassing. The Emperor’s Wolves is the start of a spin-off series by Michelle Sagara. It follows some of the side characters from her sixteen book Chronicles of Elantra series. I did not know this when I picked up The Emperor’s Wolves and somehow didn’t figure it out until I had…
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How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge – A Bridge To Greatness
No no, not this time. I am not letting another book in The Thorne Chronicle series slip under my radar. How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge (called Revenge going forwards) is the sequel to How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (Rory) by K. Eason. I somehow missed the first book when it came out last…
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A Deadly Education – Learn To Love It
A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik, is a super interesting and clever book. This first installment in her new Scholomance series is a refreshing take on the classic wizard school trope. Novik made a lot of choices in the structure of the book that initially seemed very strange, but actually give Education a lot of…
The Wormwood Trilogy – It’s Here to Win Hearts, Minds and Bodies
Rosewater has taunted me from my bookshelf for the past year. Handed to me by QTL Founder Andrew in one of his multi annual book distributions, it sat there slowly seducing me with its elegant cover. I knew nothing about it other than it garnered a lot of praise within review circles. “I’ll get to…
Continue reading ➞ The Wormwood Trilogy – It’s Here to Win Hearts, Minds and Bodies
Phoenix Extravagant – A Common Fowl
Yoon Ha Lee is a science fiction writer with a penchant for the strange and the imaginative. His Machineries of Empire series came out of nowhere a few years ago and wowed the pants off of myself and many other reviews. His work has a tendency to be surreal and confusing but with clever guardrails…
To Sleep In A Sea of Stars – Or Preferably Under Six Feet Of Dirt
Originally this “review” was going to just cover the partial galley. I made a promise to myself that I would not get lost in this book, allowing it to consume my soul, a quest I have clearly failed. I had three-quarters of a draft completed when my old pal Hugh-Brist showed up and petitioned me…
Continue reading ➞ To Sleep In A Sea of Stars – Or Preferably Under Six Feet Of Dirt