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.
Reviews
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.
Book Tour: The Coward (Quest for Heroes #1) by Stephen Aryan
Review: Activation Degradation by Marina J. Lostetter
Guest Review: Things They Buried (A Thung Toh Jig #1) by Amanda K. King and Michael R. Swanson
Review: Three Parts Dead (Craft Sequence #1) by Max Gladstone
Review: Old Norse for Modern Times by Ian Stuart Sharpe
Guest Review: Cthulhu Armageddon (Cthulhu Armageddon #1) by C.T. Phipps
Review: Seven Deaths of an Empire by G.R. Matthews
Seven Deaths of an Empire is a new standalone fantasy novel from author G.R. Matthews. It is being billed as grimdark and comparable to George R.R. Martin; however, I would not make those comparisons, myself – at least not to Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. To me, this would closer to old-fashioned, classic fantasy.
Review: The Blacktongue Thief (Blacktongue #1) by Christopher Buehlman
Review: Horns of the Hunter (Tales of Luah Fáil #1) by Frank Dorrian
Horns of the Hunter is a standalone novella set in Luah Fáil, a setting that will be familiar to those who have read some of Dorrian’s earlier works. I was completely sold upon seeing the wonderful cover by Felix Ortiz and Shawn T. King. Anyone who says they don’t judge a book by its cover is a liar.