Every now and then, a reader needs to step away from great literature, or horror as metaphor, or fantasy that reflects the end of civilization, and pick up an old-fashioned, sword-and-sorcery adventure. I have been a fan of Canadian writer … Continue reading →
This book comes highly recommended by Neil Gaiman, who reports in the forward that it was Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s favorite book as a teenager, and was a huge influence on his life and films. It took me a little … Continue reading →
The cover copy states that “hope is a fragile thing,” yet this brilliant little book is full of it. Despite having an overwhelming number of things to despair about, the narrator, Tetley Abednego, feels herself beloved and living in a … Continue reading →
This is a second novel for Byrne, whose first novel, The Girl in the Road, won the Tiptree (now Otherwise) Award in 2015. It is a dense, disturbing work, spanning two millennia and three human civilizations: a well-researched Mayan realm … Continue reading →
I have been a fan of British-American author Patrick Ness’ books since The Knife of Never Letting Go, which won the Tiptree (now Otherwise) Award in 2008. He also wrote another of my favorite fantasy books, A Monster Calls. His … Continue reading →
Fatma el-Sha’awari, of the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, prefers to wear European suits, always impeccably matched with shirt, tie, and bowler hat, of course. Since the 1912 Cairo in need of magical protection is a colorful … Continue reading →
Jake Livingston is a “medium” who can see ghosts and ghouls, mostly of people who died violently, replaying their deaths in fading “death loops” on street corners and in schools and just about everywhere. It’s disturbing and distracting and, since … Continue reading →
This brutal, magnificent historical novel takes place in central China (sort of around Wuhan, if my correlation between the map in the book and today’s maps is correct), when the Han Red Turban Rebellion was fighting against the Mongol Yuan … Continue reading →
This was supposed to be a review of TJ Klune’s newest book for young adults, Flash Fire, but that is a sequel to The Extraordinaries, and I found that I couldn’t write about the second book without revealing spoilers from … Continue reading →
I have been a fan of Rainbow Rowell since reading her first novel for young adults, Eleanor and Park, which remains one of my favorite nerd romances. I also very much liked Fangirl, about a young fan writer who learns … Continue reading →
The cover copy says that this book takes place “in the world of The Goblin Emperor,” a novel that I read several years ago and remember very much liking. It was one of the first books I encountered where quiet … Continue reading →
I have a particular fondness for books about people who work with books—booksellers, writers and, of course, librarians. I couldn’t resist The Library of the Unwritten, subtitled “A Novel from Hell’s Library” and “Join the Library. Raise Hell.” The story … Continue reading →
This is the first novel in what will likely be a massive fantasy series by a very promising Nigerian author. Unlike several new epic fantasies, which I never quite got through, I finished this one in two long days of … Continue reading →
This book is a collaboration between author Joanne M. Harris, known best for her mainstream books (most famously, Chocolat, which was made into a movie), and fantasy/comics illustrator Charles Vess (Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Stardust). It is a series of … Continue reading →
CatNet is a social media platform managed by a sentient AI known, at least to our adolescent protagonists, as CheshireCat because of their interest in cat pictures. (CheshireCat uses the singular ‘they’ pronoun.) CheshireCat revealed their identity to some of … Continue reading →
This is a much-acclaimed first novel, including being a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award. Legendborn is now also nominated for a Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (presented by the World … Continue reading →