This book is a great example of the new genre called “romantasy.” Books given this label often seem to be standard romance with a random bit of fantasy thoughtlessly thrown in. But The Gentleman and His Vowsmith has excellent world-building … Continue reading →
This is an extremely interesting book, though I must say that I’m not sure I entirely understood it. At the very least, my old-fashioned brain kept mis-gendering the characters. Notes From A Regicide is the story of Etoine Keming, transcribed … Continue reading →
The Tomb of Dragons is the third book in “The Cemeteries of Amalo Trilogy,” which takes place in a world populated by goblins and elves that was introduced in an earlier book called Goblin Emperor. All I remember about Goblin … Continue reading →
When Mary Darling’s three children disappear through an open window into the night, leaving no footprints behind in the snow, she has a pretty good idea what happened to them. She had her own childhood adventures, you see. And while … Continue reading →
The Witch Who Trades With Death is the newest fantasy novel by local author and internet sensation C.M. Alongi. It is due to arrive at DreamHaven in March. The book is about a young woman named Khana who escapes a … Continue reading →
I chose this book because I don’t think I’ve ever read anything translated from Korean, though I have watched a couple magnificent Korean TV shows. In this case, the translator is Anton Hur. Both the translator and the author are … Continue reading →
Nnedi Okorafor is an accomplished F/SF author who has written several New York Times bestsellers and has won major awards in both America and Africa. Her latest novel is a stand-alone science fiction novel for adults, set mostly in Chicago … Continue reading →
This seems to be the first novel by Seattle-based author and Tolkien podcaster, Jared Pechaček. He is also an artist; the odd drawings at the start of each chapter—which look like the illuminations on an ancient manuscript—are all different, and … Continue reading →
H.G. Parry is a New Zealand writer, known for her A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians and The Magician’s Daughter. Her latest book, The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door, is also steeped in historical research and classical ritual … Continue reading →
I picked this book up because it has an interesting cover, of a silhouetted owl with glowing red eyes, and because Aimee Pokwatka’s previous book, Self Portrait with Nothing was recommended somewhere. I read her new novel instead. Also because, … Continue reading →
Olivie Blake seemingly sprang into a writing career overnight with her New York Times bestselling Atlas Series. In fact, she’s written several stand-alone novels as Olivie Blake and several more “young adult rom-coms” as Alexene Farol Follmuth. Somewhere in there … Continue reading →
I almost never read horror. I don’t like threatening bleak landscapes, lurking ghosts and witches, or (especially) intricately-described gruesome murders. Looking Glass Sound actually has all of those things. But the ocean is dangerous in the way oceans actually are—riptides … Continue reading →
This is a first novel by Kell Woods, an Australian librarian turned writer. I chose it because the title reminded me of Jack’s (as in the Beanstalk) song from ‘Into the Woods,’ which is called ‘After the Sky.’ The song … Continue reading →
We’ve been wanting to order this book since it won the World Fantasy Award last year. The author is a fairly young and very exuberant woman, who began writing the novel when she was in college in 2009. We finally … Continue reading →
Somewhere around twenty-five thousand years ago, or perhaps about thirty years ago, on a nameless island paradise, a nameless woman had a child with a man who called himself Victory. Victory had the power to reshape the world, so the … Continue reading →
Normally I wouldn’t attempt a book described on the cover as “The Godfather meets Game of Thrones,” but Paolo Bacigalupi has written several wonderful novels in which terrible things happen. His novel, The Windup Girl, is one of my favorite … Continue reading →