Seanan McGuire is one of those authors with the combination of popularity and prolific production that makes them hard not to hear recommended. And yet I hadn’t actually read any of her work going into this year’s attempts to read the Hugo finalists. Her Come Tumbling Down—the fifth installment in the Wayward Children series—was nominated… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
The Ruin of Kings opens Jenn Lyons’ five-book epic fantasy series, A Chorus of Dragons. Despite my love of epic fantasy, I hadn’t gotten to it when it came out. But Tor Books threw their considerable marketing muscle behind the opener—I couldn’t go anywhere in fantasy-leaning corners of the Internet in 2019 without hearing about… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
For the last couple years, I’ve regularly seen The Essalayien Series by Michelle West (an alias of Michelle Sagara, author of The Chronicles of Elantra) cited as an underrated gem for those who like character-driven epic fantasy. As I very much enjoy character-driven epic fantasy, I’ve had this one on my list for quite a… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Hidden City by Michelle West
N.K. Jemisin may be the best there is in contemporary speculative fiction, and coming into last year, I’d read every single one of her solo-authored novels. But I had some reticence when she announced a novel-sized expansion of her Hugo-nominated short story “The City Born Great.” That story was heavy enough in unexplained New York… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
