Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn was one of my biggest positive surprises of 2021. It was my vote for the Lodestar that year (though it’s hard to complain too much about a loss to the also-excellent A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking), and it saw Deonn in my top two for the 2022 Astounding Award. Point is,… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Strike the Zither will be released on October 25, 2022. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Joan He, so when I saw that her newest book was a YA fantasy centering a… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Strike the Zither by Joan He
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. The Revenge of Bridget Cleary will be released on October 4, 2022. Mathilda Zeller’s debut novelette, “The Incident at Veniaminov,” was one of my absolute favorites of last year (if you’d like to take a half-hour and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Revenge of Bridget Cleary by Mathilda Zeller
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Lonely Castle in the Mirror will be released on October 18, 2022. Lonely Castle in the Mirror wasn’t at all on my radar coming into this year, but apparently it’s been popular enough… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
I’m closing the inaugural Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) with two finalists that had extremely high ratings floors in the first two rounds. Today, I’ll be looking at A Star Named Vega by Benjamin J. Roberts, a novel that received a score of at least 8/10 from nine of the ten judges that rated it… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: A Star Named Vega by Benjamin J. Roberts
At long last, I’ve come to my last book of the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) Semifinals. In front of me is Age of Order by Julian North, a young adult dystopian novel that sliced through any hint of subgenre fatigue to garner one of the top positions from its first round judges. Age of… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Age of Order by Julian North
I read Peadar Ó Guilín’s The Call before I got into blogging, but I circled back to the sequel when I found myself struggling to fill the Gothic Fantasy square on my all-sequel themed Bingo card. As it happens, a lot of Gothic fiction seems to be standalone. But while I’m not sure the Grey… Continue reading Fantasy Series Review: The Grey Land by Peadar Ó Guilín
I’ve openly complained about how getting too aggressive with this year’s reading challenges has prevented me from doing much mood reading. But with this book, Bingo has led to another winner. I read Bethany C. Morrow’s A Song Below Water last year and generally enjoyed it. I thought it tried to do too much, and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: A Chorus Rises by Bethany C. Morrow
Maggie Stiefvater has a pair of series that have made her a name in YA fantasy, but in my circles, I’ve heard as much or more about her 2011 stand-alone featuring high-stakes races on the backs of murderous water horses. And with the two first-person narrators fitting perfectly into one of the trickiest of bingo… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
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
