If I was going to say only one thing about Speaking Bones, the final book in Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty quartet, it would be that it is certainly its own thing. I know all of that sounds inelegant, but I got into a heated Reddit argument about this series earlier today, and arguing on an…
Last Exit, by Max Gladstone, is a beautifully written character story that I had an extremely hard time connecting with. Many readers who pick up this standalone adventure will find a mesmerizing story about self-discovery, penance, and the nature of the world. Max Gladstone is a favorite author of mine for his work on The…
Reviewing a first Abraham book is always a challenging prospect. Looking back at A Shadow in Summer and The Dragon’s Path, both were clearly designed as foundational books that are heavily expanded on in the sequels. Though I was lukewarm in my reception of both those series beginnings when I read them, I ended up liking…
Continue reading ➞ Age Of Ash – Heat Like A Sleeping Volcano
Azura Ghost, by Essa Hansen, is the perfect example of a great book that science fiction needs more of while simultaneously being “not my jam.” I didn’t really have a fun time with this book; many of the plot elements are drawn directly from story concepts I am just not that interested in. I will…
The Pariah is the first book in Anthony Ryan’s latest series, The Covenant of Steel. Ryan is a pretty beloved author in the fantasy genre at this point, with multiple large epics under his belt. We have reviewed a number of his books already: The Waking Fire, Queen of Fire, The Pilgrimage of Swords, and…
Continue reading ➞ The Pariah – Journals Of An Observant Rogue
At a high level, it is really easy to tell if you should read The Witness for the Dead, by Katherine Addison. Have you read Addison’s famous book, The Goblin Emperor? If you have and like it, you will like this book a lot. If you haven’t, well, you should go read Emperor first. I…
Continue reading ➞ The Witness For The Dead – Come Take A Look
Matthew Ward needs to calm down, because this is the second enormous fantasy book of his that I have reviewed this year, and it is becoming a lot. I am going to assume that he had multiple books already written when Orbit acquired this trilogy because otherwise, he is churning out 1000 page epics every…
How is it already November in this forsaken year? With less than a month left before we put out our best of the year lists, our reviewers are hard at work chugging through all the books we wanted to get to before the year's end. Part of that effort involves finishing up outstanding Dark Horses,…
Continue reading ➞ Nophek Gloss – Whimsical, Prickly, And Keen
The First Sister, by Linden Lewis, is an impressively ambitious debut, and one of our dark horses of 2020. Part space opera, part social commentary, part feminist power piece, and part character-driven narrative, this book has a lot of moving pieces in a fairly small page count (350). It feels like a tiny explosion of…
Continue reading ➞ The First Sister – A Little Bit Of Everything, Not Enough Of Something
No no, not this time. I am not letting another book in The Thorne Chronicle series slip under my radar. How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge (called Revenge going forwards) is the sequel to How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (Rory) by K. Eason. I somehow missed the first book when it came out last…
Continue reading ➞ How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge – A Bridge To Greatness
