Synopsis Michael Duckett is fed up with his life. His job is a drag, and his roommate and best friend of fifteen years, Stephanie Dyer, is only making him more anxious with her lazy irresponsibility. Things continue to escalate when they face the threat of imminent eviction from their palatial 5th floor walk-up and find […]
Fiction
The Wolf Den (Wolf Den Trilogy #1) by Elodie Harper
A gorgeously written historical fiction novel set in a Pompeii brothel, following the life of a cunning and daring enslaved woman named Amara. Enlightening, engaging, and harrowing.
Review: Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts by Evan Ross Katz
A perfectly balanced celebration, scrutinization, and discussion of the cultural phenomenon that is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Review: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Out of everything I’ve read since the beginning of the pandemic, Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility is the book that truly snuck up on me and made me soak in the reality of what we are living in. I write this from a place of relative isolation: I am a stay-at-home dad who makes a podcast, writes and gets most of his social fix virtually. So here we all are, in the midst of a strange world, a strange time, and Sea of Tranquility captures that isolating strangeness with a sublime beauty and simplicity. This book is at once a thought experiment in loneliness and the human condition, while also reveling in the love and connection that binds us a species across time and space. No other story in recent memory has made me think so deeply about what I have experienced during this pandemic, nor to ponder on the realities of what it means, for me, to be human.
Review: At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp
Nijkamp has written a wonderful, diverse YA book that really hits home. You never learn too much about the teens lives’ before they were sent to the Juvenile Centre, there are theories about what each teen may have done but you never really find out about their lives before. The focus is far more on the current situation, how a group of forgotten teens try to survive the pandemic that has broken out.
Review: The Blood Trials (The Blood Gift Duology #1) by N. E. Davenport
I loved N. E. Davenport’s The Blood Trials. I went into this book without any expectations and turned the final page both surprised and satisfied. It offers up a complex world, rife with geopolitical conflicts, futuristic technologies and awesome fight scenes. But it also introduces a dark, supernatural magic system that plays into the racial and social dynamics of its corrupt society. All of this combines for a solid debut and a wondrous world that I can’t wait to read more of.
Book Tour: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
Synopsis Some places you won’t find on any maps. Others, are only on maps… Nell Young has lived her life in and around maps. Her father, Dr David Young, was one of the most respected cartographers in the world. He’s also just been found dead — in his office at the New York Public Library. […]
Book Tour and Review: The Jealousy of Jalice (A Disaster of Dokojin #1) by Jesse Nolan Bailey
Every scene was fresh and each turn of the page brought some new creature, new horror, or new mystery to be solved. I was not left wanting as I read, as each challenge the characters faced was intense and exciting. The stakes were never lowered and lives were always on the line.
Review: Age of Ash (Kithamar #1) by Daniel Abraham
As a lover of science fiction, I can appreciate the breaking of the status quo. Every so often, genres like cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic fiction came in to stir shit up and make it messier, so to say. But fantasy, I’ve found, is much more comfortable resting on its laurels—challenges to foundational fantasy conventions have been slower, and few and far between. In the last decade or so, though, the intention from authors to actively challenge fantasy’s history has been growing.
Daniel Abraham’s newest novel Age of Ash, book one in The Kithamar Trilogy, seems to do just that. It tackles the notion of “epic fantasy,” questioning the epic-ness of it all and how big battles and a fast pace have dominated that landscape. But beyond that, Age of Ash is a heartfelt story that grounds itself in genuine characters in grim circumstances. What follows is a novel that is epic in its ideas and execution, but relatable in its perspectives and emotions.
Servant of the Underworld (Obsidian and Blood #1) by Aliette De Bodard
Synopsis – The first book in the critically acclaimed Obsidian and Blood trilogy: Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztecs. Human sacrifice and the magic of the living blood are the only things keeping the sun in the sky and the earth fertile. A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. It […]
Book Tour and Review: Second Star to the Left (Reimagined Fairy Tales #1) by Megan Van Dyke
Truly, I cannot boast about this book enough. Rating this book was an easy task, as it captured my attention and my heart in the first chapter. Everyone loves a good Happily Ever After, and this one does not fail to deliver on every point. Plus, for those of you who just love a good dose of spice *wink wink,* this book has it in abundance. You will blush, cheer, and fall in love right along with the characters. If you need reminding that love can exist even in the most trying circumstances, this is a book for you.
Review: Age of Ash (Kithamar #1) by Daniel Abraham
From New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Daniel Abraham, co-author of the Expanse, comes a monumental epic fantasy trilogy that unfolds within the walls of a single great city, over the course of one tumultuous year, where every story matters, and the fate of the city is woven from them all. Kithamar is a centre […]