Previously - Part 2: The Plot One of the longest-standing go-to complaints I hear when I read fantasy book critiques is “lazy world building”. What this refers to is an author taking people and cultures that exist in either our real world (such as Russian or Middle Eastern) or popular established worlds (such as elves…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 3: The World
Previously - Part 1: The Introduction Malazan’s plot is huge and sweeping, but let me see if I can help ground you. The first thing to understand about Malazan is that the protagonist isn’t a person, it's a people. The Malazan Book of the Fallen follows the story of the Malazan empire - and their…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 2: The Plot
So I am going to do something I swore I would never do: review my favorite fantasy series of all time - The Malazan Book of the Fallen. The reason I am breaking my self-promise is the lovely people at Tor sent me copies of the new Malazan spin-off stories to review, Dancer’s Lament and…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 1: The Introduction
I found myself unusually nostalgic this Memorial Day weekend. The nature of the holiday feels like one of reflection and remembrance, and it made me start thinking of books and movies I enjoyed a long time ago. A item that was in both those mediums was Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.…
On Monday, one of the co-writers of Quill (Alex) and I had a conversation about a slippery and hard to define quality of our favorite books that we nicknamed “authenticity”. We were trying to find a way to quantify and categorize this certain power that some books have, but were having a really hard time…
Today’s post is more of a thought piece than a review, because no one needs another positive review of The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin. It is one of the best science fiction books ever written, has won a number of awards, and is considered one of the most iconic books ever…
Continue reading ➞ The Left Hand Of Darkness – Gender Politics
The Quill to Live team is currently doing a reread of Lord of the Rings because for many of us, it has been awhile since we read it (on average about a decade). I initially thought about doing a review piece, but no one needs to hear another review about LotR to know it is…
Continue reading ➞ Observations About LotR – The Return Of The King
Today I am trying something a little different. Awhile back I reviewed the first three books in the Vlad Taltos series, starting with Jhereg, by Steven Brust. I enjoyed the books a bunch, so much so that I have continued and read nine of the sequels. It is difficult and repetitive for me to post reviews…
I read two notable books over the last two months, Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein, and Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer. They are both science fiction novels, the first is one of the most famous from the last era, and the second is a new entry that is making waves.…
Continue reading ➞ Making A Point – Too Like The Lightning Vs. Stranger In A Strange Land
The Quill to Live team is currently doing a reread of Lord of the Rings because for many of us, it has been awhile since we read it (on average about a decade). I initially thought about doing a review piece, but no one needs to hear another review about LotR to know it is…
