There must be a bone shard somewhere inside me with the “read one more chapter” command etched onto it, as this story compelled me to read on right from the first few pages.
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Review: Priest of Lies (War for the Rose Throne #2) by Peter McLean
Review: The Serpent King: (The Whale Road Chronicles #4) by Tim Hodkinson
Review: The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire #1) by Andrea Stewart
Review and Blog Tour: Legends of the North Cascades by Jonathan Evison
Review: The Spirit Thief (The Legend of Eli Monpress #1) by Rachel Aaron
Review: The Blacktongue Thief (Blacktongue #1) by Christopher Buehlman
Review: Infomocracy (The Centenal Cycle #1) by Malka Older
It’s rare that I get fully engrossed in a fictional political narrative anymore. Sure, the vast number of Tom Clancy novels and movies deliver compelling, high-octane thrill rides, and The Manchurian Candidate (both the 1959 novel as well as the 1962 and 2004 films) still stands as one of the best election stories out there. But, when it comes down to it, the real world of politics (in the United States and elsewhere) is already rife with enough drama, deceit and decadence. Sometimes it’s just so damn tiring—and all of this coming from me, a genuine political junky. (On top of it all, most political stories just aren’t that good.) So, it came as a wonderful surprise when I read Malka Older’s debut novel, Infomocracy, that I found myself invested in a story so distinctly political again.
Review: Anna by Sammy H.K. Smith
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.