New epic fantasies always give me more apprehension than any other book. The ones that hit tend to really hit, and secondary world fantasy series dominate my all-time favorites list. But they try to accomplish so much that it’s easy to get bogged down in the setup, and I DNF epics more than anything else.… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Andy Giesler released his debut during the summer of 2019, but it didn’t hit my radar until it made the semifinals of this year’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. While it was not chosen as a finalist, I found its review more intriguing than the book chosen out of that semifinal group, so I decided to give… Continue reading Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel Review: The Nothing Within by Andy Giesler
I haven’t done many of these, so I’ll start with a word about my series reviews. They are not reviews of the last book. They are meant to be helpful for people who have not read the series at all, or perhaps who have started and are unsure about whether to continue. As such, I… Continue reading Fantasy Series Review: The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham
Guy Gavriel Kay, known for his exemplary prose, historical settings, and fondness for standalones, is one of those authors I’ve been hearing about for a long time. I consistently hear other authors I like (like Carol Berg, or Janny Wurts) recommend for fans of Kay. That probably works the other way as well, so I… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
It’s hard to know where to start with Vita Nostra. The 2007 novel by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko was brought to the English market with a 2018 translation by Julia Meitov Hersey, and the dark magic school novel came with a solid wave of rave reviews. But unlike the last magic school novel I read,… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
After years of mostly sticking to adult fantasy, Legendborn is my second young adult book in the last five weeks (third if you count A Deadly Education, which sits somewhere between YA and dark fantasy), and if Tracy Deonn’s work is representative of the quality in YA fantasy, I’m going to have to read more.… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
I’ve been hearing about P. Djèlí Clark’s exceptional novellas for a while, so when Ring Shout came out in October to a cascade of glowing reviews, it seemed like the perfect time to dive in to his work. Ring Shout takes place in 1920s Georgia in a world where members of the Ku Klux Klan… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
I’m a sucker for academy settings, and I’d been hearing great things about Naomi Novik for a long time, so when A Deadly Education debuted this fall, putting my name on the library wait list was an easy decision, and ultimately a rewarding one. A Deadly Education is very clearly a post-Harry Potter magic school… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
As part of my branching out in my sci-fi and fantasy reading, I’m reading a bit more YA than I used to. Elatsoe (eh-lat-so-ay) by Darcie Little Badger is a pretty new offering, but I’d already seen a couple glowing reviews, it’s been a while since I read a book with a Native main character,… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Full disclosure: nautical stories are not usually my thing, and this colors my review. But I’ve read some really good books that might not have grabbed me based on the blurb, and The Bone Ships (and its sequel, released last month) had been getting such rave reviews that I thought R.J. Barker’s offering may be… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker
