My attempt to read as many of this year’s Hugo finalists as I can had led me to several popular works that I had either not gotten around to or had actively avoided. One of the latter was The Poppy War, with its reputation for a jarring tonal shift and some absolutely brutal war scenes.… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
The praise for Raybearer has been impossible to miss since its release last year, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to squeeze it into a crowded reading schedule. When Jordan Ifueko’s debut joined an incredibly stacked list of Lodestar Award finalists, it gave me a perfect reason to move it to the top of… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
I’d heard quite a bit about Nghi Vo’s debut novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune when it came out last year, but it didn’t distinguish itself from an overstuffed TBR until it appeared on the finalist list for the Hugo Award for Best Novella. And, while I had been underwhelmed by some other finalists… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: The Empress of Salt and Fortune
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
Tyler Hayes’ debut has run under the radar, but the few reviews I’ve seen have been glowing, and the concept of The Imaginary Corpse was eye-catching enough to immediately put this one on my list. The Imaginary Corpse takes place in the Stillreal, where figments of imagination go when they are too real to disappear… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes
The Vanished Birds is another book that I didn’t know much about before award nominations came out, but Simon Jimenez was nominated for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer on the strength of this debut, so I thought it was well worth a shot. Before starting, I had heard that The Vanished Birds was… Continue reading Science Fiction Novel Review: The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
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
The title is great, the cover is gorgeous, and Benedict Patrick’s novelette “And They Were Never Heard From Again” was one of the best stories I read all of last year. So dipping back into Yarnsworld for the first full-length novel was a no-brainer. They Mostly Come Out at Night is a dark fairy tale, with… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: They Mostly Come Out at Night by Benedict Patrick
I didn’t see too much hype for Micaiah Johnson’s debut–although it was enough to push my library hold to five months–but what it lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality. Every single review I saw for The Space Between Worlds raves about it. I was hoping to read it before award nomination season ended, but… Continue reading Science Fiction Novel Review: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
There seemed to be some debate about whether Black Girl Unlimited was fantasy or a memoir, but the first reviews were almost universally glowing, and early March was a good time to read some promising 2020 publications before award nominations were due. So I thought I’d give Echo Brown’s debut a shot, and I’m glad… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown
