Sometimes, our favorite fantasy characters need a break—an escape from the woes of brutal, unforgiving worlds and a safe space to ruminate on life, or simply exist in peaceful solitude. Or perhaps characters just need a warm and welcoming atmosphere to encourage a few hours of friendship and laughter, insulated against the stress and harsh…
Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series returns with A Prayer For The Crown-Shy, continuing the charming tales of Sibling Dex and their robot companion, Mosscap. In true Chambers fashion, Monk And Robot delights as much as it examines big questions of introspection, self-reflection, and the ever-changing needs of humanity. After meeting in the robot-inhabited wilderness,…
Continue reading ➞ A Prayer For The Crown-Shy – Sci-Fi Introspection
This post originally appeared on Tor.com. The SFF genre has no shortage of stock friendships and familiar pairings. They can be magical and memorable: Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Frodo and Sam. Locke and Jean. There’s a certain wonder that comes with fantastic friendships in fiction, where like-minded companions support each other through good times and…
Continue reading ➞ Five Unlikely SFF Friendships That Bring Me Joy
This post originally appeared on Tor.com During the holidays, the “spending quality time with your loved ones” refrain resounds in greeting cards, corporate emails, ads, and commercials. The winter season bursts at the seams with family-focused language and occasional jokes about how long, exactly, you can keep up with Uncle Gary’s questionable-at-best post-dinner ravings. Within…
Continue reading ➞ Five Stories About Found Family For Your Holiday TBR
Visualization comes easy to me as I read. When epic fantasy and sci-fi are your chosen genres, it comes with the territory. Authors excel at doling out impressive wordscapes that translate in my head as vivid images and stunning scenes. Books become movies in the theater of my mind, and all that’s missing is the…
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a novella about what it means to be human, and how it's up to you to define what that means for yourself. It is the first installment of Becky Chambers’ novella series about a monk that decided to quit their job and go live in the wilds and search…
Continue reading ➞ A Psalm For The Wild-Built – Quit Your Job, Get A Tea Cart, Teach Robots
According to a note from the author in my ARC of The Galaxy, And The Ground Within, this book marks the fourth and final installment of Becky Chamber’s The Wayfarers. I have been a huge fan of the series ever since I picked up the first book (A Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet),…
Continue reading ➞ The Galaxy, And The Ground Within — So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish
This week 2020 is finally rolling to a close and we have been spending some time resting, recuperating, and catching up on a number of books from this year. Yet, the show must go on and we have been furiously planning a site refresh and scheduling all of our content for 2021. In the midst…
The Vela is a (fairly) new serial story that can be purchased in seasons from Serial Box or in collections from Amazon. As a concept, the idea of serials is interesting: the book is written and released one chapter at a time. Instead of having a single author, serials are often written by a group,…
Continue reading ➞ The Vela: Season One – Didn’t Quite Come Together
2019 has been a pretty rough year for the world in general, but not for books. It’s hard to turn on the news or walk in the streets without hearing about something terrible going on. People are being beaten down, and while people are finding ways to escape, it’s hard to cope because it’s just…
