Tag Archives: fantasy
The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall
Read March 2022 Recommended for people that like show over substance and dreamstate ★ ★ ★ 1/2 Evocative imagery, inexpert execution. Any time one talks borderlands, one starts to invoke folk tales and myths, the stories about edges between life … Continue reading
The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia
Read March 2022 ★ ★ ★ Reminds me very much of early adolescence; earnest, sincere, and very awkward. I have no doubt that some will love it’s wholehearted embracement of the exploration of identity and I absolutely wish them enjoyment … Continue reading
The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
Read February 2022 Recommended for fans of the scientific method ★ ★ ★ 1/2 This is one of those books that I wish I had found when it was published in 1989, or even in the following decades. I would … Continue reading
The Iron Khan by Liz Williams. Or, Sheer Gold.
Read February 2022 Recommended for fans of Chinese mythology ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 Currently the last in the Detective Inspector Chen series. It deserves more than this partial review, but I am, after all, on vacation, so … Continue reading
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, take two
Read December, 2021 Recommended for aging Pratchett fans ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 In one timeline, I read this in 2015 and it was a total miss even though I had an affection for the character … Continue reading
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
Recommended for fans of Hardinge Read October 2021 ★ ★ ★ 1/2 “They had found the edges of each other’s temper, like jagged rocks under a placid skin of water.” Frances Hardinge is an amazing writer. She is one of … Continue reading
Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold
Recommended for fans of light fantasy Read October 2021 ★ ★ ★ An improvement on the first book, Penric and the Demon, the shaman’s story picks up four years later. Penric has finished school and is working for the … Continue reading
Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold
Recommended for fans of gentle YA fantasy Read October 2021 ★ ★ 1/2 I grew up reading Brooks’ Shannara series, soon followed by Eddings’ Belgarion. The format is always the same, likely all based on Tolkien or Jung or someone; … Continue reading
Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Recommended for fans of The Littles Read October 2021 ★ ★ ★ On the upside, I can now spell ‘Tchaikovsky.’ Anything that isn’t spelled correctly is purely a typo. On the downside, the trouble with reading some of an … Continue reading
Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Recommended for fans of D&D, questioning Read October 2021 ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 This was bananas. To be clear, I don’t mean ‘bananas’ in the wierd-fiction, ‘Authority’ kind of way, but in the ‘end up in a completely different … Continue reading