I debated for a little while the best way to review this book, it felt too general to just do a summary so I’m doing a bunch of mini reviews for the stories we get within this anthology. Overall, I enjoyed this, there are some stand-out stories and a few that have already faded from memory. I feel that this is the case with most anthologies and with the exception of V. E. Schwab the authors are all new to me! Don’t ask me how but that’s just how my reading has worked out.
Review: Seven Deaths of an Empire by G. R. Matthews
This book has all the makings of a great fantasy. Big battles, political intrigue and magic systems. But somehow it doesn’t get bogged down in all this. Matthews writes battle scenes with ease and with a grace that is hard to find elsewhere. I usually get a bit confused in battle scenes and just hope that at the end an overview is given of who beat who and who is still alive. However Matthews uses one of our characters to describe battles in a way that is easy to follow. You know what is happening, you can follow the beats and it just worked so well for me.
Review: Ten Low by Stark Holborn
This is a Sci-Fi set on a moon at the edge of the universe, where the reach of The Accord barely exists and lawlessness abounds. I loved reading a story about a backwater moon where the rest of the universe is clearly populated, if not entirely cared for. It gives the characters who live there a lot to fight for and not a lot to lose. The race across the landscape means you see farms where crops can’t grow, towns built like prison hulks, and shining fancy transport that is at odds with its surroundings. Somehow Holborn has taken this space-desert moon and filled it with life and with threats.
Review: Sistersong by Lucy Holland
I’m just saying please buy this book, please read it, please experience it and please feel everything it is going to give you. I was caught out by just how much emotional punch it has, and those last 100 pages are going to be a roller-coaster of emotion. I wanted to cry happy tears at the end. The kind of tears where your heart is broken, then fixed just enough that you feel almost happy again.