The long-awaited sequel to Natalie Zina Walschots’ Hench is an extremely weird follow-up titled Villain that goes in directions I absolutely was not expecting. This itself is not surprising, given how refreshing and weird Hench was when it burst onto the scene, so it remains doubly impressive that Walschots was able to still surprise me.…
Letting the cat right out of the bag, I think Platform Decay is pretty bad. Martha Wells’ Murderbot series has been one of my favorite stories in recent years, even though it feels like a book that was split up to make more money at this point. The last two entries (Fugitive Telemetry and System…
On some level, I think art is the singular most important element of the human condition. So let's talk about it. And Side by Side They Wander, by Molly Tanzer, is a short novella about an intergalactic art heist. Unfortunately, I think this powerful short was done dirty by the marketing tactics. Looking at the…
Continue reading ➞ And Side by Side They Wander – Galactic Art 101
I am always game for a mix of Fantasy and Science Fiction, so a book about a space race to the moon by wizards immediately caught my attention. First Mage on the Moon, by Cameron Johnston, is a clever little book about reimagining the space race between the US and Russia, but set in an…
Continue reading ➞ First Mage On The Moon – Divine Home Invasion
The Quill to Live favorite author, Sebastian de Castell, has a weird little project going on that I am a big fan of. de Castell is the author of many books at this point, but his original major series was the fantastic Greatcoats Quartet. Now, many years later, de Castell is writing a sequel series…
The Franchise, by Thomas Elrod, is a standalone book that pulls elements from fantasy, science fiction, and dystopian horror to create a strange amalgamation of a book with a lot to say. It is a philosophical story about breaching the line between fiction and reality, a commentary on our relation as audiences to the characters…
Continue reading ➞ The Franchise – Tolkien Cinematic Universe
Admitting that I have been experimenting with Litrpg feels like a controversial statement to me. It isn’t that all Litrpg is bad. Today’s review is actually explicitly about how that isn’t the case, as A Parade Of Horribles, by Matt Dinniman, is fantastic. However, I do feel that as a genre, Litrpg has some serious…
Continue reading ➞ A Parade Of Horribles – Taking The Power Out Of Power Fantasies
When James S. A. Corey, the pseudonym for the combined brilliance of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck of Expanse fame, announced a new space opera in 2024, I couldn’t have been more excited. The Expanse was an incredible monument to science fiction greatness, with nine books, all of them fantastic. So, when I read Mercy…
I have a weird one today. The Voidverse is the proclaimed first novel set in an entire Voidverse extended universe. The series aims to tell a collection of stories about a strange society trapped in a strange bubble with rules and norms very different from our own. The origin of this voidverse is left very…
Tchaikovsky is out of control this year. We have had to divvy up his Q1 releases (Q1, not the full year) in order to try and cover them all. I ended up with the latest entry in the Children of Time series, Children of Strife, and I couldn’t be happier. If you are unfamiliar with…
Continue reading ➞ Children Of Strife – What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
