Welcome to a somewhat mysterious review about a somewhat mysterious book. I would hazard a guess that most of you have heard of the incredible breakout success, The Will of the Many by James Islington. If you haven’t, great news, you have a justifiably popular book awaiting you with a number of cool stuff–check out…
Continue reading ➞ The Strength Of The Few – Triplicate Triumph
Oh boy. I feel like I'm walking into a field of landmines today. When I normally write reviews, I often strive to avoid considering other reviewers' thoughts on the book to prevent coloring my own expectations and analysis. But, sometimes you read a book like Blood Over Bright Haven, by M.L. Wang, and it is…
Continue reading ➞ Blood Over Bright Haven – Bloody, Glaring, And Perilous
Emily Tesh is back on the scene with a highly anticipated standalone story about warlocks who teach at a British boarding school called The Incandescent. Tesh really made an impact with her novel Some Desperate Glory back in 2023. It was one of my favorite reads of that year and made me forever curious about…
Traitor of Redwinter, by Ed McDonald, easily wins my pick for best book cover of the year, but the contents of its pages are more contested. The sequel to a standout first book, Daughter of Redwinter, Traitor picks up our story after all the kerfuffle in book one with Raine now accepted at the pseudo-magical…
The Combat Codes, by Alexander Darwin, is the latest in a series of new-age magical school stories with fresh settings and ideas on what constitutes a school. In this case, the reader will find themselves presented with a mashup of MMA fighting and your typical zero-to-hero schoolboy coming-of-age story. Darwin’s injection of passion for gritty…
Continue reading ➞ The Combat Codes – MMA (Magical Masters in Asskicking)
Just as I was getting tired of magical school stories, I found myself presented with possibly the best one yet. Some years it is difficult to know which books will be in your top picks and other years you get standout paragons of excellence, like James Islington’s The Will of the Many. Islington already rates…
Continue reading ➞ The Will Of The Many – The Strength Of The Few
I was looking forward to the third and final piece of The Scholomance Trilogy, The Golden Enclaves, with lukewarm excitement. Though Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education charmed the pants off of me despite its lore dumping and endless tell not show, the second book, The Last Graduate, had big ideas that interested me less than…
Introducing another surprise hit for 2022, Ed McDonald’s Daughter of Redwinter. I have read McDonald’s other fantasy series, Raven’s Mark, and enjoyed myself greatly. There was definitely room for improvement, but the core of his last series was great (you can find reviews about it here) and McDonald has a real talent for bringing life…
Continue reading ➞ Daughter Of Redwinter – Two Headstones Way Up
