The Malevolent Seven – Angels, Demons, And What Lies Between

If you have been hanging around The Quill to Live for a while you might know that we love Sebastian de Castell. Author of The Greatcoats and Spellslinger series, de Castell is a permanent fixture in our hidden gem recommendations. He has a swashbuckler charm that pervades all his stories with humor, drama, and emotion…

The Will Of The Many – The Strength Of The Few

Just as I was getting tired of magical school stories, I found myself presented with possibly the best one yet. Some years it is difficult to know which books will be in your top picks and other years you get standout paragons of excellence, like James Islington’s The Will of the Many. Islington already rates…

The Sword of Kaigen – Clumsy Wonder

Today I am diving into the increasingly popular The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story by M.L. Wang. This self-published, Japanese culture-inspired novel has been making larger and larger waves in the fantasy genre over the past few years and is held in quite high regard. I finally managed to find a moment to…

Some Desperate Glory – Infinite Last Stands

What an absolute Pandora’s Box of despair today’s book is. Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh, is a stand-alone science fiction thriller about a cell of radical Earth terrorists looking to avenge the death of the blue marble by taking out some alien civilians. It is a strange and brilliant reversal of many classic first-contact…

The Belgariad – Pawns, Prophecy, and Polgara

I was looking around on the internet last year for a list of fantasy recommendations from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s and found the results wanting. Since I have a number of pocket recommendations from those decades already I decided that this year I would make a guide myself. But first, I wanted to…