Admitting that I have been experimenting with Litrpg feels like a controversial statement to me. It isn’t that all Litrpg is bad. Today’s review is actually explicitly about how that isn’t the case, as A Parade Of Horribles, by Matt Dinniman, is fantastic. However, I do feel that as a genre, Litrpg has some serious…
Continue reading ➞ A Parade Of Horribles – Taking The Power Out Of Power Fantasies
Welcome back to another year of the Quill to Live’s Sci-Fi Fantasy March Madness! Every year in March, I find myself roped into all sorts of fantasy and sci-fi fight conversations. “Who would win in a fight between X and Y?” is a constant topic among fans, as everyone wants to make an inane argument…
Continue reading ➞ QTL March Madness 2025: Coolest Science Fiction Ships
In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan, is a conundrum of a book. It is a standalone fantasy with a number of traditional tropes and elements I can’t usually stand. It’s a portal fantasy, YA, a coming-of-age story with a love triangle, and has an unlikable protagonist, among other things. In the dedication, Brennan seems…
Continue reading ➞ In Other Lands – Young, Dumb, And Full Of Adventure
I have been aware of Orconomics, by J. Zachary Pike, for a while now. I have been following Mark Lawrence’s self-published blog-off for years, and we were even asked to be reviewers once. The competition has been my introductory point for numerous great series over the years, but it has also introduced me to a…
Vlad Taltos, by Steven Brust, is a relatively unknown gem that has now officially been coming out for 30 years. Planned as a nineteen-book series and still going strong, Lyorn is the seventeenth(!!) entry in the story and one of my favorites. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this series and feel like…
A new Quill to Live tradition we started last year is to allow each reviewer to recommend one book that has to jump to the front of your to-read pile. Brandee’s choice for 2023 was The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, and I liked it so much that I ended up reading the entire six-book…
I am always a little unsure how to describe something like Service Model, as it is a book that lives more as a humorous opinion piece than a traditional story. The absurdism and commentary in Service Model add up to a fascinating 4th wall break that intentionally does away with the usual narrative barrier between…
If you haven’t been following the Paladins series by T. Kingfisher, I wouldn’t blame you. The series is published by a small studio that could do more marketing, especially because anyone who isn't reading this series is missing out. T. Kingfisher is continuing to gain more mainstream acclaim via her more traditionally published bangers, but…
2024 must be my lucky year because I have gotten two new Greatcoats novels in the first quarter alone. Sebastian de Castell is on a role having just released Crucible of Chaos, a standalone Greatcoat story we loved, and now his first entry in a brand new Greatcoat saga: Play of Shadows. After years of…
Continue reading ➞ Play Of Shadows – Comedy, Tragedy, History, Mystery
Happy March Madness, everyone! Every year in March, I find myself roped into all sorts of fantasy and sci-fi fight conversations. “Who would win in a fight between X and Y” is a constant topic among fans as everyone wants to make an inane argument about who would win in fisticuffs. Boring. This year I…
