Many people refer to the second book in a series as the sophomore slump. Bridge books tend to be extremely hard to write, as authors tend to know the start and the end of their stories but not how to connect the two. As such, it constantly impresses me that Robert Jackson Bennett’s middle novels…
Continue reading ➞ A Drop Of Corruption – Embrace The Shroud
Folks, I bamboozled myself. A book sauntered its way into my smoke filled office, almost spilling out of its dress. There was a look in its eyes, one of deep need, tinted with a mysterious vengeance. I poured the book and myself a drink. We both needed one. Theirs was for the hard days of…
The Helm of Midnight by Marina J. Lostetter was one of the most complicated and confusing books that I read in 2021. It was a strange murder mystery in a dystopian bubble world where people could summon the skills of the dead to empower them through masks. The book was so complicated that reading the…
Continue reading ➞ The Cage Of Dark Hours – Taking Off The Shackles
When I picked up Gutter Mage by J.S. Kelley, I expected a fairly tried and true fantasy/mystery thriller based on the back of the book. What I got instead was a mix of horror, profanity, existential crises, and a tried and true fantasy/mystery thriller. The book is profound in that it manages to both be…
Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files has always been a complicated subject for me. On one hand, Butcher has a special knack for melding lore that is modern, ancient, well-known, and obscure into a giant melting pot of exciting action that gets the blood pumping. On the other hand, the series has a number of issues…
Alright, so this is mildly embarrassing. The Emperor’s Wolves is the start of a spin-off series by Michelle Sagara. It follows some of the side characters from her sixteen book Chronicles of Elantra series. I did not know this when I picked up The Emperor’s Wolves and somehow didn’t figure it out until I had…
Continue reading ➞ The Emperor’s Wolves – Something Out Of Nothing
Last year, when I finished reading Blackwing, by Ed McDonald, I was unsure if I would be back for more. My review of the McDonald’s debut can be found here, but the short version is: good writing and interesting world, but a super boring protagonist. However, after sitting on the book for a few months…
