All tagged fantasy
Sorry for the unintended hiatus, dear readers. I had some computer troubles which are (thankfully) now resolved, and I’m ready to get back to reviews. Speaking of which, I love getting my hands on the final books of trilogies. So much anticipation to see how the series turns out, and it was no different with The Empire of Gold, last book of the Daevabad trilogy.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Every now and then you see one of the self-publishing success stories, the book that did so phenomenally well that a big press will offer to print and promote it even more. Senlin Ascends, book one of the Books of Babel series, is one of these unicorns. I was excited to pick up the Orbit edition of Senlin Ascends, especially since I like off-the-wall, strange fantasies.
It's that time again readers - time to review the second book in a trilogy. Will The Well of Ascension pass the test with flying colors? Or will it succumb to the doldrums of middle book syndrome?
I was told by several people that if I wanted to start reading Sanderson, I should start with the Mistborn series. If you're a regular reader, you'll know I didn't listen. The Way of Kings just appealed to my epic fantasy loving self more than the thief-with-heart-of-gold vibe I got from reading Mistborn jacket copy. But now that I'm finally caught up with Stormlight Archive, I needed a new Sanderson fix.
Much like many other millennials, I'm sure, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials was a formative work of literature for me. Lyra was a brave, strong heroine, the kind that makes a mark on a young girl. So imagine my great surprise - and delight - at the release of La Belle Sauvage, first book in a companion series to His Dark Materials.
I almost didn't pick up The City of Brass for the very YA-feel the jacket copy gave me. I can only read so many stories of "chosen" or "special" teenagers each year. But much to my delight, The City of Brass hooked me and drew me in, and I finished the book almost in a single day.
I saw a lot of buzz for this one, especially as it centered on a f/f relationship set in an Asian-inspired setting. Such things are rare in fantasy, so I decided to have a go. The results were...mixed.
I've been putting Words of Radiance off because I wanted to get closer to the release of Oathbringer, the third Stormlight Archive book which released in November. Also it's huge and rather intimidating. But I finally read it in October and discovered that I enjoyed it much more than The Way of Kings.
The Harry Potter books were how I realized I love fantasy, and Lev Grossman's The Magicians remains one of my favorite novels to this day, a grown-up version that was released while I was in college. So the blurb of An Unkindness of Magicians was immediately appealing to me.
Fun story: in a roundabout way, I managed to acquire a copy of Godsgrave before its release. A friend from college also reviews books (though in a more official capacity for an actual publication), and she received a review copy in the mail. She decided to give this away to any of her friends who wanted it. Flash forward a week, and a lovely signed edition of Godsgrave showed up in my mail.
