The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang tells the story of a group of outcasts who have found common ground in wanting to rid the empire of its corruption and restore it to its former glory. It’s an inspiring and brutal tale of heroes, anti-heroes, and villains all fighting for their version of justice. Huang…
Tag: Standalone
Bitter Medicine – Just What The Doctor Ordered
Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai is a delightful fantasy/paranormal romance that sparks with magic and a little bit of drama. It has two endearing protagonists and a love story set in a unique world that I would have loved to stay in longer. The problems that Elle and Luc encounter are real, fantastical, and totally…
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Witch King – Hemlock Crown
Martha Wells, of All Systems Red fame, is putting out a new stand-alone book about witches, kings, and murder. Everything in that sentence excited me, and I could not wait to get my hands on this new story about an amnesia-riddled demon on a quest for truth. The book turned out to be very different…
The Sword of Kaigen – Clumsy Wonder
Today I am diving into the increasingly popular The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story by M.L. Wang. This self-published, Japanese culture-inspired novel has been making larger and larger waves in the fantasy genre over the past few years and is held in quite high regard. I finally managed to find a moment to…
Some Desperate Glory – Infinite Last Stands
What an absolute Pandora’s Box of despair today’s book is. Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh, is a stand-alone science fiction thriller about a cell of radical Earth terrorists looking to avenge the death of the blue marble by taking out some alien civilians. It is a strange and brilliant reversal of many classic first-contact…
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The Magician’s Daughter – Beautiful People With Nowhere To Go
Today we have an interesting historical fantasy book by the name of The Magician’s Daughter, by H.G. Parry. Despite the back of the book describing a plot about the end times and the death of magic, this book had a closer feel to a slow-burn cozy read than a thriller. It focuses on a young…
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Babel – A Clear Message
As a white English man, I think I am the single most important person to listen to when it comes to the value of this book. I am joking obviously, but it is super nice to have a single object I can hand to family members when they say “Why don’t you like the homeland?”…
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Extreme Bird Watching
I decided my first introduction to Haruki Murakami would be The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The book sat on my shelf for months because I never felt ready enough to open it up. However, if I’ve learned anything after finally picking up this book, it’s that no one can ever be ready for Murakami, so stop…
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Ocean’s Echo – A Tidally Fun Romance
Ocean Echo, by Everina Maxwell, is a pseudo-sequel to the very popular Winter’s Orbit from last year. It isn’t really a sequel, despite being set in the same universe, because it has zero overlapping characters. But Ocean’s Echo definitely embodies the same spirit as Winter’s Orbit. It’s another gay romance with two very different men…
The Spear Cuts Through Water – And Heart
Back in 2020, Simon Jimenez released his first major book, The Vanished Birds. I actually read it then and declined to review it despite all the buzz surrounding the release. My reasoning for this was simple: despite being one of the best books I had read that year, the subject matter (the torture and death…