The Nine by Tracy Townsend incorporates plenty of tropes that were popular in 2010s fantasy—the grimy secondary world setting, the thieving lead, the proliferation of factions—but passed wildly under the radar after its 2017 release. I’m not sure I’d have heard of it if not for one Redditor consistently singing its praises and actually buying… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Nine by Tracy Townsend
When Ella Enchanted came out, I don’t think I even knew it existed, despite its popular acclaim and the fact that someone in my immediate family was reading it. Had I known about it, would I have appreciated a book that was For Girls? It’s hard to say. But as an adult, I had no… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
I’d been following Jon Bois on Twitter for quite a while before the publication of 17776, and I’d greatly enjoyed the first few chapters before beginning to suspect that it was too long to finish in a single sitting. I set it down and forgot about it for years. But when a Not a Book… Continue reading Weird Internet Sci-fi Review: 17776 and 20020 by Jon Bois
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. The Memory Hunters was released on July 29, 2025. Seeing a romance reference and an Indiana Jones name-check in the first line of the blurb had me ready to skip Mia Tsai’s new fantasy, The Memory… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. Uncertain Sons and Other Stories will be released on September 16, 2025. I’ve been reading Thomas Ha’s work for about four years now, and even though his most natural genre (weird horror) is one I… Continue reading Sci-fi/Horror Short Fiction Review: Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Shroud was released on June 3, 2025. I’ve read a lot of Adrian Tchaikovsky over the past few years, though in light of his shockingly prolific output, it’s still only a tiny fraction of… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I’ve read a handful of Sofia Samatar’s short fictions, and while they seem to be highly praised in the genre community, none to this point had really stuck with me. So it was with some apprehension that I approached my first of her novellas, the Hugo finalist The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain. But… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Novella Review: The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. A Drop of Corruption will be released on April 1, 2025. Though Robert Jackson Bennett isn’t exactly a new face in the fantasy scene, my first experience with his work came last year, when… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
I didn’t know that Mechanize My Hands to War even existed until author Erin K. Wagner was interviewed in Clarkesworld in December 2024. But as so often happens with Clarkesworld interviews, she talked about it in a way that caught my attention and sent it flying up my TBR. And I’m glad it did. Mechanize… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner
It’s time for my favorite post of the year, where I share all the best sci-fi and fantasy I read from 2024. I write two versions of this post each year. The second comes out in late February, once I’ve had a chance to read works from everyone else’s Best of the Year lists. And… Continue reading Tar Vol’s 2024 Recommended Reading List (Holiday Edition)
