I’ve read a lot of amazing books in 2021, and I may have some new additions to my all-time favorites list. But the list of all-timers is a lot shorter than the list of authors who have me really excited for their next projects. So let me take a moment to share some sci-fi/fantasy authors… Continue reading SFF Authors I’m Even More Excited to Read in 2022
I’ve had a great reading year, and there have been plenty of works of sci-fi/fantasy that I’ve rated at five stars (17+ on my 20-point scale). But it takes something truly special–something that’s worthy of my all-time favorites list–to register a score of 19 or 20. So let me share my absolute favorites of the… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Works I Rated 19 or 20 in 2021.
Lobizona, Romina Garber’s Spanglish love letter to Harry Potter, was one of my biggest (pleasant) surprises of the year. I likely would have never read it if not for Fantasy Bingo, and I liked it well enough to rate it ahead of two-thirds of the Lodestar Award finalists. Needless to say, I was very excited… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Cazadora by Romina Garber
I was blown away early in 2021 when I read Sarah Gailey’s short story “STET,” and while I didn’t love the ending of Upright Women Wanted, the quality of the prose, coupled with my feelings about their short fiction, was enough to convince me to read more of Gailey’s extended work. And when The Echo… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Five of the biggest indie presses are banding together December 26th and 27th for a giant holiday book sale, with over 400 books priced at either $0.00 or $0.99, and each sale triggering a small donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. I have an interest in indie sci-fi/fantasy, and I have a family member… Continue reading Shopping the 2021 Holiday MegaSale
I like big, chunky epic fantasies. I grew up on Shannara, and The Wheel of Time remains an all-time favorite. But the longer my TBR gets, the more I feel the opportunity costs of starting a doorstopper, and the more I gravitate towards shorter books. Which is why, despite having enjoyed her other work, and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts
I read Ender’s Game about ten years ago and thought that it was absolutely fantastic—it nailed the academy setting, had fictional competition that actually made sense (infamously no guarantee in sci-fi/fantasy), and had a whole lot of depth to boot. But I felt it ended so well that I didn’t want to risk spoiling it… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
S. Qiouyi Lu’s debut novella, In the Watchful City, came across my radar in late summer and immediately caught my attention with the unusual combination of (1) a few glowing reviews from other readers who significantly overlap my tastes, (2) a perfect fit for a bingo square I hadn’t hit (2021 debut), and (3) easily… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu
If you’re not on the fantasy subreddit, or if you’re not a follower of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, you may not know the story of Senlin Ascends, a book that languished in obscurity for years before a last-ditch entry in SPFBO sparked a chain of events that turned it into something of a cult classic… Continue reading Fantasy Series Review: The Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft
My reading was seasonal, but because I have a review backlog and have been focused on SPSFC and Hugos, my review is not seasonal. And so it goes. Roger Zelazny is a name I know mostly because he blurbed my absolute favorite of all the books on my shelf (R.A. Lafferty’s short story collection, Nine… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: A Night in Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
