Up Against It, by Laura J. Mixon, was a novel I missed upon its initial release in 2011 (published with the pseudonym M.J. Locke). I was only a wee sci-fi book baby, lost in the bookstore, lured by flashy titles and flashier book covers. But with Tor Essentials providing readers with a reprint and a…
Continue reading ➞ Up Against It – Between Many Space Rocks and Several Hard Places
With The Expanse sadly ending this year, I have been on the lookout for new space operas to fill the void, and I have found a new contender. Site favorite Adrian Tchaikovsky has put out the first novel in a sweeping science-fiction epic titled Shards of Earth, and it is a wild ride. Tchaikovsky has…
Boy, do I love tarot cards. There is something I find so cool about them. I am not big on fortune-telling in general but there is something so romantic, so enthralling, about shuffling a deck, laying out some very intricate and beautifully illustrated cards, flipping over the answers to difficult questions, and spending an entire…
Continue reading ➞ The Mask Of Mirrors – Dressed To The Nines
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
The Obsidian Tower, by Melissa Caruso, is the first in a new spinoff series set in the Tethered Mage world. Normally, I am not one for spinoff series; I enjoy jumping into new worlds rather than returning to ones I know for what is often a B-list version of the original series I liked. However,…
I have been beginning to feel like a metaphorical Goldilocks lately when it comes to Asian inspired political period pieces. The last two I tried were The Throne of the Five Winds and The Wolf of Oren-Yaro - neither of which quite did it for me. But, apparently, I have a thing for these kinds…
Continue reading ➞ The Empress Of Salt And Fortune – A Scrumptious Political Snack
The Throne of the Five Winds, by S.C. Emmett, is a huge, meaty, historical fantasy/fiction that really likes to go into detail. It is a political drama, written like a historical textbook (so many footnotes) that anyone looking for a light fun read will bounce off of like they’ve run into a brick wall. Yet,…
Continue reading ➞ Throne Of The Five Winds – A Brick Of Intrigue
I am running out of inventive and original ways to say I really like almost anything that Sebastien de Castell puts out. This is something like the eighth book of his that I have reviewed and the worst thing I have had to say about any of his works is that you should go read…
Continue reading ➞ Queenslayer – Captivating But Showing Wear
If you are engaged in the fantasy genre, chances are that you have heard of Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor before. This stand-alone novel about court intrigue is a popular recommendation from a number of respectable reviewers and is considered by many to be a modern classic. However, I don’t trust anything I haven’t read…
The Monster Baru Cormorant, which I will call Monster for short henceforth, is the kind of book that damages friendships. The reason I say it will damage friendships is Monster is a book that some people will love and others will despise. It is a book that one friend will read, think it’s the greatest…
Continue reading ➞ The Monster Baru Cormorant – The New Face Of War
