The Dark Between The Trees – Grasping for Branches

Are you folks ready for another horror book review? No? Well too bad, I’m dragging you into the harrowing trees with me. This next book was marketed as a horror story for fans of The Descent and The Ritual, movies I particularly enjoy. I tried to avoid the high hopes, settling for a book that…

Sundial – Casting Time’s Shadows

It’s October babay! And that means I have to read horror and horror alone, because that’s just the way I am. Sundial, by Catriona Ward, is the first book up for review. Sundial enchanted me in ways both unexpected and expected. Ward’s latest novel is a clever and emotional ride through both gothic and serial…

A Taste of Gold and Iron – Smelts My Heart

I read Alexandra Rowland’s guest post over at The Fantasy Hive about “small magic,” and just knew I had to pick up A Taste of Gold and Iron. The post teased a plot about counterfeiting and money manipulation diving into the idea of magic users as an ecological niche that had my heart brimming with…

Molly Southbourne – Life After Death After Death After Death

I make it no secret that I love Tade Thompson’s work. Ever since the Rosewater Trilogy I’ve been hooked and eagerly anticipate any new releases with his name on them. However, I waited until The Legacy of Molly Southbourne was released before diving into his trilogy of horror novellas. I make it no secret that…

Chasm City – Not Splitting Hairs On This One

Revelation Space is a big series. Sure, it’s a trilogy, but it also has two related novels and a treasure trove of short stories. I’ve only scratched the surface on the shorter fiction by Alastair Reynolds, but the little I have read has been just as exciting as the sprawling epics. Now I’m writing this…

How High We Go In The Dark – Treading Water in a Cave

Catching up on the year’s previous releases is a double edged sword. It feels good to read something that so many people have already weighed in on, but said novel carries the baggage of having to live up to expectations. While I didn’t read any reviews of this next book until after I had finished…

Eversion – Delightfully Subversive

I have been spending the better part of this summer catching up on Alastair Reynolds’ intimidating library. I have nearly finished the Revelation Space series (Looking at you, Inhibitor Phase) and have been having an absolute blast. Lo’ and behold Andrew shows up at my door with an ARC of Eversion, I couldn’t have been…

The Garden of Empire – Lush, But Lightly Untended

Last year, J. T. Greathouse delivered a pleasant surprise with his debut fantasy novel, The Hand of the Sun King. Alder Wen was a particularly entertaining protagonist, despite his many follies. The book featured philosophical musings on the nature of power and Wen’s determined search for a third way between empire and rebellion that fomented…

A Half-Built Garden – Forget The Pesticides

Record heat waves are starting to rear their ugly heads. Food shortages, through a combination of war, finance and climate change are featured news on the daily. It’s easy to retreat from a world on the brink and cozy up with a book…about climate change. But rarely does our climate science fiction feel more than…

What Moves The Dead – But Apparently Not The Living

The Fall of the House of Usher has occupied some space in my brain since the halcyon days of high school English class. Not only did I read it several times, but I never wrote the assigned paper, a fact that literally haunts my dreams. There is just something unnerving about Poe’s story that I’m…