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
R.A. Lafferty, who died at 87 on March 18 [2002], was undoubtedly the finest writer of whatever it was that he did that ever there was. He was a genius, an oddball, a madman. His stories. . . are without precedent. -Neil Gaiman Remember those old books for science fiction beginners, the ones that said… Continue reading Science Fiction/Fantasy Author Spotlight: R.A. Lafferty
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
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
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
The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing is certainly not my standard fare, but I picked it up as a change of pace between heavier fantasy epics, and it served the purpose quite well. Raymond St. Elmo is heavily influenced by magical realism, which makes it a little more difficult for me to… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing by Raymond St. Elmo
Driftwood is one of those stories that doesn’t need much in the way of plot or character summary, because the concept is the star of the show. And Marie Brennan wows on that score—this is the first book in a long time that gave me the same kind of feeling I had when I was… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Driftwood by Marie Brennan
