The Phoenix Pencil Company seems to have gotten more hype in general fiction circles than speculative fiction ones, but author Allison King caught my eye with her interview in Clarkesworld, and given my recent fascination with stories that play with memory and family, it moved up my TBR quickly. The Phoenix Pencil Company is essentially… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. These Memories Do Not Belong to Us was released on August 12, 2025. Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed myself immensely enjoying stories that play with memory in interesting ways. So… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma
I don’t often dip into speculative literary fiction, and my success rate is low enough that even when I saw an intriguing review of Scott Alexander Howard’s debut novel The Other Valley—and I don’t even recall where—I approached with some trepidation. But I do like time travel stories, and my library had a copy, so… Continue reading Speculative Novel Review: The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon will be released August 8, 2023. Every once in a while, an author I’ve enjoyed immensely writes a book that doesn’t really sound like my thing, and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Deep Sky will be released on July 18, 2023. We’ve reached the end of Sky Week, which closes with the second consecutive space thriller review. Now I’m not usually one for space thrillers,… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Splinter in the Sky will be released on July 11, 2023. Sky Week at Tar Vol On marches on with The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa. Ashing-Giwa came onto my radar… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Surviving Sky will be released on June 13, 2023. It’s Sky Week at Tar Vol On, thanks to a trio of summer releases whose titles end with the word “Sky.” First on the… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao
As a long-time lover of portals and multiverses, the description of Aimee Pokwatka’s debut novel Self-Portrait With Nothing immediately caught my eye. And when it was singled out for praise in Amal El-Mohtar’s Best of 2022 list, I determined to seek it out as soon as I could. Self-Portrait with Nothing follows Pepper, a forensic… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Self-Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka
I don’t usually branch out into horror, but Alien has proved that I can enjoy a good haunted house in space, and when Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes got picked up as part of r/Fantasy’s New Voices Book Club, the description sounded interesting enough to make it worth a try. Dead Silence opens with the… Continue reading Sci-fi/Horror Novel Review: Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Ten Percent Thief will be released on March 28, 2023. I’ve had Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s Analog/Virtual on my TBR for a couple years, after seeing it recommended on a list of underrated speculative fiction… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
