I do love weird memory stories, so the title of Olivia Waite’s sci-fi debut caught my eye. But a glance at the blurb and some reviews suggested it might not be my style, so I decided to pass until its Hugo nomination sent it back up my list. After reading Murder by Memory, it’s pretty… Continue reading Sci-fi Novella Review: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
Like many people, I was introduced to the work of Octavia E. Butler with Kindred, an entry-point that’s immensely difficult to top. I’d heard good things about the Xenogenesis series, but the description sounded a hair too squicky for my taste, and so it put it off. But after reading (and loving) both Clay’s Ark… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
Between the reputation of the author, the influence over contemporary sci-fi, and the vocal support of some readers in my online circles, C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner has been on my TBR for quite a while. But a couple book club friends offered to jump in for a buddy read, and I was finally able to pull… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
I didn’t know too much about Daughter of the Forest going in—just that it involved a recovery arc after a deeply traumatic start and that it came highly recommended by a few friends. Had I realized it was a fantasy romance fairy tale retelling, I might mot have tried it at all. And that would’ve… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Antonia Hodgson was not at all on my radar going into 2025, but The Raven Scholar quickly became one of those books that is lauded seemingly wherever fantasy is discussed. I don’t always read the year’s big trend books, but I had the opportunity to give it a try in December to see for myself… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, the first book of The Deeds of Paksenarrion series, has vaguely been on my radar for a while, particularly in the last couple years since sharing a book club with a big Paks fan. And with Knights and Paladins on this year’s Bingo board, I decided to pick up Elizabeth Moon’s debut novel… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon
While Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier is pretty far under the radar in the fantasy world, there are a couple Redditors who seem to regularly like the same kinds of books I like and who have been evangelizing it for a while now. I had a pretty good idea that it would fit my Bingo theme… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier
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
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon was released on August 26, 2025. My first exposure to Mizuki Tsujimura was a couple years ago when I read the tremendous Lonely Castle in the… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura
When I returned from genre-reading hiatus in the mid-2010s, Malazan was inescapable. Tell someone you read fantasy and they would inevitably ask about one of three things: Kingkiller, Malazan, or Brandon Sanderson. At the time, I’d read none of the three (apart from Sanderson’s Wheel of Time co-authorship), but a decade later, I finally decided… Continue reading Fantasy Book Review: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
