The Malevolent Seven – Angels, Demons, And What Lies Between

If you have been hanging around The Quill to Live for a while you might know that we love Sebastian de Castell. Author of The Greatcoats and Spellslinger series, de Castell is a permanent fixture in our hidden gem recommendations. He has a swashbuckler charm that pervades all his stories with humor, drama, and emotion…

The Chosen Twelve – Organic Chaos

The Chosen Twelve, by James Breakwell, is a humorous standalone dystopian thriller about a group of young senior citizens competing in a series of chaotic simulations to determine the fate of the Earth and all organic life. It strikes an uncommon balance between silly and serious and certainly checks the box when it comes to…

A Practical Guide To Conquering The World – Translates To A Good Time

I really can’t get over how much fun The Siege novels by K.J. Parker are. They are simply delightful and honestly a little hard to describe. A Practical Guide To Conquering The World is the third story in a set of loosely connected standalone novels by Parker about unlikely individuals achieving military dominance. Book one,…

The Blacktongue Thief – The Magic Of Student Loans

The Blacktongue Thief, by Christopher Buehlman, is the first book in the Blacktongue series and a book that left me with a profound sense of deja vu. It is a book that I both felt I had read before, yet is bursting to the seams with originality and authorial flare. It's crammed full of some…

Mostly Void, Partially Stars – Shines Bright In The Dark

I am a latecomer to Welcome to Night Vale, much to my shame. If you are unfamiliar with the famous podcast by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, it’s a humor-based series about a small American town replete with supernatural happenings. The character who narrates the series is a small local radio jockey who does his…

Swordheart – Pointedly Funny and Heartwarming

Look, just read this book. You are going to like it. Swordheart, by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), is an impossible book to dislike. It’s a fantasy romantic comedy that positively radiates humor, joy, and character. It is currently published by Argyll Productions, a small targeted publisher, so Swordheart is relatively unknown - which is a…

Network Effect – A Whole New Ballgame

Let’s get it out of the way early: Martha Wells’ Network Effect is phenomenal and likely surpasses the high expectations set by the novellas. If you are coming into this paragraph and don’t know what I am talking about, I assume you have been living under a rock. Wells’ Murderbot novellas have repeatedly raked in…

The House In The Cerulean Sea – Enough Love And Heart To Fill An Ocean

The House In The Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune, is a loving book about the wonders of children and learning to live your life in the present. There is so much I like about this book that I don’t know where to start. It will easily grace the top books of 2020 list of anyone…