All in Book Reviews
“Sociological science fiction” is a three-word phrase that goes straight to my core, as a former anthropology and sociology major. It probably would have been enough to get me to purchase this on its own, even if the description hadn’t sounded intriguing. But after finishing it, well. I have some very mixed feelings.
This is one of those books that I waffled back and forth on reading. On the one hand, the plot descriptions I read left me lukewarm; on the other hand, the reviews came pouring in that this book was delightful, a really wonderful debut. Then I found it on sale in Barnes & Noble, and my grabby hands made my decision for me.
I promised that I would go back and review some of the books I read during my review hiatus, so here is the very first one. I caved and read Uprooted after seeing some fantastic reviews, and fortunately not long after that, Spinning Silver arrived on the shelves. My first readthrough was right after the release, but I just read it again in January after hankering for a good fairy tale.
Tor promoted the heck out of The Unspoken Name in the lead-up to its release and to be honest, it worked. I read the first few chapters online, and it was enough for me to know that I definitely wanted to read this one. “Hot lady sword orcs” was really all I needed to know, but then I found out there’s a death god and necromancers so here we are.
Listen, as long as Tessa Gratton wants to keep rewriting Shakespeare plays with more ladies and queer folx, I’m going to keep buying them. I thought The Queens of Innis Lear was going to be a one-off, but here we are and overall, I was not disappointed.
I read Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand, the first in the Books of Ambha series, at the end of 2018 during my hiatus. I’ll go back to it and do a proper review at some point, but it was good enough that Suri went on my “authors to watch” list more or less immediately. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Realm of Ash was being released toward the end of 2019., since Empire of Sand felt like a standalone.
Let me just get this out of the way and say that no, I have never read any of Leigh Bardugo’s other books. If you’re looking for a comparison of Ninth House to, say, the Grishaverse books, you’ll have to go elsewhere. As I’ve said before, I don’t read much YA for a variety of reasons. But this book was trumpeted as Bardugo’s adult debut, putting it squarely in my sights. And even though contemporary fantasy isn’t usually my cup of tea, the description was too delicious to pass up.
I originally bought The Collapsing Empire for my husband, who loves John Scalzi's books. But then I started hearing all the buzz about the book (including the Hugo nomination), and my husband vouched for it, so here we are.
Only Human was one of my most highly-anticipated novels of 2018. I found both Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods to be captivating, and I had high hopes that Neuvel would finish the trilogy in style. Final verdict? Mixed, but positive overall.
I said in my review of The Tethered Mage that it was good - not mind-blowing, and lacking in that extra something special. But I was still excited to read the sequel, and then before I knew it, my eyeballs were just freaking glued to the goddamn page. Welcome to a sequel that improves on its predecessor in big ways.
After a good experience with the Imperial Radch trilogy, I'm an easy sell for sentient spaceships as lead character. Consequently, it's not surprising that the description of Gareth Powell's Embers of War caused me to walk happily out of the bookstore.
So, dear readers, here's a revelation: I absolutely LOVE Shakespeare. I was in the Shakespeare Society in college, I own the complete works, etc. One of the fastest ways to my heart is Shakespeare. So imagine my sheer delight upon discovering The Queens of Innis Lear, a retelling of King Lear in a more fantastic version of our world. HELL yes.
So I spotted this one on a list of upcoming releases. I saw the words "sentient alien plants" and let out a loooooong sigh. Just...shut up and take my money.
Due to some personal circumstances, I had to wait a lot longer than I wanted to before I could read A Veil of Spears. Fortunately, it was worth the wait--this third installment of the Song of Shattered Sands is my favorite of the series so far.
If you're a regular reader, you know that I'm not a big YA reader for simple reasons of time and money. Since I purchase most of my books, and most YA fantasy books are shorter than adult fantasy books, and I read quite fast, it's not usually a good investment for me. I made an exception for Children of Blood and Bone, however, because a) there was a lot of hype around this book, b) I've made a commitment to read more diverse books this year and c) it's also quite long.
Readers, it's time to go back to the world of The Expanse! I read Nemesis Games this month, and it's getting good, y'all.
Over the last few years, I've been plugging big gaps in my fantasy pedigree (the Wheel of Time series, for example). So when someone brought up The Lies of Locke Lamora to me, I added it to my list of big name series to start and picked up the book when the opportunity arose. I finally got around to reading it a few weeks ago.
Since I worked on a humorous book of my own last year, I've been actively seeking out humorous science fiction and fantasy. So when I stumbled upon Jim C. Hines' Terminal Alliance (book one of the Janitors of the Apocalpyse series, in case you were wondering), I couldn't resist the description.
I'm normally pretty targeted with my trips to the bookstore; if I don't know what I'm going in for, I walk out $100+ poorer. But The Tethered Mage called out to me from a bookshelf and became a surprise purchase. The promise of two cool lady protagonists was too much to pass up.
I've been spacing these out, but we're finally here--the conclusion to the first Mistborn trilogy! How does it hold up against its predecessors?
