Winter’s Orbit, by Everina Maxwell, surprised me in a lot of ways. For starters, it is one of our Dark Horses for 2021, so I knew almost nothing about it other than its plot synopsis. Then there is the fact that I wasn’t particularly sure I would like Winter’s Orbit given its stated plot. It…
Continue reading ➞ Winter’s Orbit – A Hot Romance With Subtlety And Gravity
Joe Abercrombie is an excellent writer. I welcome dispute, but I think you’re playing a losing hand if you disagree. He’s one of the easiest examples to point to when people mention Grimdark, and the only other king I recognize in that field is Glen Cook. They both write delightfully gritty fantasy stories about power…
Continue reading ➞ An Open Mind is… Well You Can Finish the Rest
Nearly three years ago, I read Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s Descender Volume 1 Descender, starting with a reread of Tin Stars. The bad news: it’s not quite as polished as 2018-me remembers. The good news: Descender still stands out as an excellent sci-fi story. Tin Stars opens with a panoramic shot of a far-future society…
Continue reading ➞ Descender Vol. 1: Tin Stars – Up Up and Away
After very positive experiences with a number of recent books by K.J. Parker, I decided to dive into the far back year of 2006 and read one of his larger, better known series - specifically his Engineer Trilogy. The first book in the set is Devices and Desires, and Parker describes the series as (and…
I am a latecomer to Welcome to Night Vale, much to my shame. If you are unfamiliar with the famous podcast by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, it’s a humor-based series about a small American town replete with supernatural happenings. The character who narrates the series is a small local radio jockey who does his…
Continue reading ➞ Mostly Void, Partially Stars – Shines Bright In The Dark
Yet another wayward child discovers a world beyond her wildest dreams in Across the Green Grass Fields. Seanan McGuire’s sixth novella installment in the Wayward Children series hobbled across the finish line, leaving me to draw a personal conclusion: it’s time for me to part with this series. It may not be that time for…
Continue reading ➞ Across the Green Grass Fields – Series Meets Banality
Welcome to 2021 everyone! Another year means another dark horse book list. 2021 boasts a boatload of promising SFF debuts, and we have plans to read a whole bunch of ‘em. It is always fun to dig in and highlight new authors to help them in their journeys to greatness. Like last year’s list, though,…
I’ve never been entirely enamored with Norse mythology. Or at least, I’ve never been exposed to it in a way that has subsumed me in the ways that Greek mythology has permeated a lot of western pop culture. When I get snippets, there is a small part of me that begins to crave, but I…
Boy, do I love tarot cards. There is something I find so cool about them. I am not big on fortune-telling in general but there is something so romantic, so enthralling, about shuffling a deck, laying out some very intricate and beautifully illustrated cards, flipping over the answers to difficult questions, and spending an entire…
Continue reading ➞ The Mask Of Mirrors – Dressed To The Nines
Hey, hello, and howdy, Quill to Live readers! And thanks for visiting our site, whether this is your first excursion into our TBR-addled brains or you’re a daily visitor. We’ve been around since 2015, and The Quill To Live has changed very little in that time, aesthetically speaking. What started as a passion project by…
Continue reading ➞ Fresh Looks, Great Books: We’re Upgrading The Quill To Live
