Knight’s Shadow – A Thick Second Chapter in a Heartfelt Story

I like to think of myself as a fairly harsh critic. I think I have an eye for good world building, character development, plot, etc. and I think I am very fair in how I assess different books perform at these various metrics. That being said, I have noticed an interesting effect when I read…

What Everyone Can Learn from Agatha Christie

Because I am secretly a 60 year old grandmother, I run a book club. We read mostly fantasy and sci-fi books, but in the spirit of variety we try to throw in books from other genres occasionally. When we were picking our line-up for this year, we decided to look into best selling books that…

The Autumn Republic – Putting the ‘Pow’ in Powder Mage

This Review will be both for The Autumn Republic, and The Powder Mage series as a whole. The Autumn Republic is the final installment of the Powder Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan, a military fantasy that primarily follows the stories of three main protagonists; Tamas, Taniel, and Adamat. Tamas is the General of an army…

Forging Divinity – Like a Better Dragonlance

Once upon a time, a much younger me decided that it had been far too long since I read a book. I wandered into a Barnes and Noble and perused the shelves until I found a book that sounded cool. I picked up The Black Company with no prior knowledge, took it home and discovered…

Vicious – Setting New Bars for Awesome Super Powers and Terrible College Roommates

To begin, this is a good book. You should buy this book and subsequently read this book. But first, let’s talk about what it is and why this is a good book. Background - Vicious is the story of two brilliant college roommates, Eli and Victor, who go on a quest to discover if super powers…

The First Post – Part 2: Hidden Gems of Fantasy

In contrast to part 1, below are a few unknown and under-read books that are phenomenal. I will likely do longer reviews of each of these to give them more justice in the future, but for now here is a blurb: Heroes Die (The Acts of Caine) - By Matthew Stover When people ask me…

The First Post – Part 1: What Makes the Great Great?

Many people often read popular fantasy books and question why they appeal to such a wide audience. While obviously no book will appeal to everyone, I wanted to share some of my thoughts about what makes some of these series so impressive to many people. The First Law - by Joe Abercrombie: Joe Abercrombie has…