The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Extreme Bird Watching

I decided my first introduction to Haruki Murakami would be The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The book sat on my shelf for months because I never felt ready enough to open it up. However, if I’ve learned anything after finally picking up this book, it’s that no one can ever be ready for Murakami, so stop…

The Vanished Birds – Finding Your Family

Have you ever wanted to turn to a colleague and exclaim “wow, you’re a coward,” and have legitimate grounds to stand on? What if that colleague was a good friend who told you to read a book, and you stonewalled them forever because “you had better books to read than ones they already read?” Well,…

Cytonic – Going Nowhere Fast

This review’s subtitle might throw you off if you haven’t read any of the Skyward series yet. Head to my review of the first book if you count yourself among the confused. For those of you who are caught up, we now turn to Cytonic the third installment in Brandon Sanderson’s high-flying, space-faring romp. Cytonic…

The Mountain In The Sea – Peak Performance

When I first read the synopsis for Ray Nayler’s debut novel, The Mountain In the Sea, I felt threatened. The description of the book felt pointedly aimed at me and my parasocial relationship with Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children books. I didn’t exactly pass right over it, but I didn’t really engage with the possibility of reading…

Ordinary Monsters Cover Photo

Ordinary Monsters – Ordinary Indeed

Is Ordinary Monsters too long? Possibly. But while I was not dissuaded by the page count, I was exasperated by the end of the book. The book’s strong, descriptive start quickly turns into a chaotic story that hopped, skipped, and jumped to its ending.  There are extraordinary children in the world, children with unnatural Talents.…

Starsight – Bigger, Not Quite Better

Brandon Sanderson’s Cytoverse, in which the Cytonic series takes place, just got a whole lot bigger. Starsight follows Skyward with another epic space adventure. There’s a lot to love in Starsight but the book suffers from some classic foibles.  After discovering The Krell are humanity’s galactic babysitters, Spensa and her plucky flight crew bust through…

Primeval Fire – Getting Back Up Again

The Scarlett Odyssey, by C.T. Rwizi, has been my ace-in-the-hole recommendation recently. I stumbled onto the first two books last year and as you can tell from my review and the extremely high ranking of Requiem Moon on the Best Of List - I was impressed. I have been using the trilogy as my pocket recommendation…

The Golden Enclaves – Flashy Finish

I was looking forward to the third and final piece of The Scholomance Trilogy, The Golden Enclaves, with lukewarm excitement. Though Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education charmed the pants off of me despite its lore dumping and endless tell not show, the second book, The Last Graduate, had big ideas that interested me less than…