Leigh Bardugo may be the most popular author I’ve read in several years, with her hit Shadow and Bone Trilogy garnering a huge fanbase and ultimately resulting in a Netflix adaptation. But for all its popularity, Shadow and Bone is almost universally–at least in my circles–considered inferior to a later work in the same universe:… Continue reading Fantasy Duology Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
A new baby this month meant that reading was a bit on the sporadic side (and I think the new baby fatigue may be partially responsible for the dearth of five-star ratings, with apologies to the stories that were on the borderline), but there was still a lot of good in May’s reading, including the… Continue reading May 2021 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
My journey through the 2021 Hugo Award ballot continues with an evaluation of the finalists for Best Novelette. While the Best Short Story finalists were very engaging but not especially ambitious, the novelettes saw more variation in quality and a pair of finalists with aims far beyond mere entertainment. While I saw a couple finalists… Continue reading 2021 Hugo Ballot: Best Novelette
Nominations for both Hugo and Nebula Awards certainly put Finna on my radar, but I knew next-to nothing about Nino Cipri’s debut novella before reading it—in fact, I mistakenly thought that the title was a reference to the African American slang for “going to” (by way of the Southern US idiom “fixing to”) rather than… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Novella Review: Finna by Nino Cipri
After reading and immensely enjoying the winners of the 2018 and 2019 editions of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, I decided to start following the competition more closely and checking out the books that looked most intriguing. The 2020 SPFBO delivered one of my favorite books of the year in the semifinals, and when The Lost… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson
With a COVID-induced delay in Worldcon, Hugo Award voting won’t happen until November this year, but it’s not too early to start sorting through the finalists. Over the next six months, I’ll be posting a series of 2021 Hugo analyses. The extra reading time means that I should be able to cast informed votes in… Continue reading 2021 Hugo Ballot: Best Short Story
Got back on track with the novels this month, although picking up sequels to books I’d loved is definitely playing things on easy mode. But the trend of finding stellar short fiction continued. I think experimental stories by folks named Sarah are my new favorite thing. Short Stories April Favorites “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather”… Continue reading April 2021 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
Maggie Stiefvater has a pair of series that have made her a name in YA fantasy, but in my circles, I’ve heard as much or more about her 2011 stand-alone featuring high-stakes races on the backs of murderous water horses. And with the two first-person narrators fitting perfectly into one of the trickiest of bingo… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
I first heard about Rosemary Kirstein’s The Steerswoman on a list of excellent female-authored fantasy that had been undeservedly forgotten. The premise struck me immediately: Steerswomen are a group dedicated to the collection and free distribution of knowledge, traveling the world asking and answering questions. They will truthfully answer any question asked of them, no… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Series Review: The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
Once again, Book Bingo does its job, albeit not in the way I expected. Way back before I ramped up my reading to current levels and started writing about books, I read and loved The Ballad of Black Tom. It put Victor LaValle on my mental list of intriguing authors, but with mixed reviews for… Continue reading Psychological Novel Review: The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
