Babel by R. F. Kuang (Book Review)
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution, is precisely what I expect from writer and historian R. F. Kuang. It’s complex and highly literate. Plus, the struggle between colonizers and those they oppress is at its...Wild Seed by Octavia Butler (Patternist #1) — Book Review
Octavia Butler creates a fantastical story in Wild Seed, the first book of her Patternist series. The main characters are two immortals, living in Africa and America during the years leading up to the Civil War. Doro is a body-snatching, shape shifter who believes he...Scorpica (The Five Queendoms, #1) by G.R. Macallister (Book Review)
Scorpica is everything I want in epic fantasy—world-building that still makes characters the focus of the story. G.R. Macallister creates entrancing characters in places I’ll never forget. She’s billed this as book one of a new series—The Five Queendoms—and I’m...Circe by Madeline Miller (Book Review)
The 2018 book Circe by Madeline Miller retells the mythological story of the daughter of Helios and a nymph named Perse. Helios is the sun god and a Titan, the group of original gods. (That brings an entirely different meaning to the current term OG.) Myths credit her...Mariam Petrosyan — The Gray House (Book Review)
Mariam Petrosyan is an Armenian-born author living in Russia. The Gray House is her debut novel, and she says her only novel. Although it’s a prize winner in Russia, I found it confusing and often amateurish. My main feeling at the end is, “thank goodness that’s...Dr. Greta Helsing Books #2 and #3 from Vivian Shaw: Quirky Contemporary Fantasy (Book Reviews)
In her Dr. Greta Helsing series, author Vivian Shaw mixes weird science, likable characters, and tongue-in-cheek humor in a contemporary fantasy brew. Not as gritty as some urban fantasy, the books are built around Helsing’s career as a medical doctor to supernatural...Book Review: Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (Sorcerer Royal #1)
The publisher summary of Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho focuses on Zacharias Wythe, who is England’s young Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers. But for me, this imaginative fantasy is as much about the female lead Prunella, as it is about Zacharias. And Cho...Book Review: Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Zone One from Colson Whitehead isn’t your typical zombie novel. Not that I’m a regular reader of the genre. But I know my fantasy and horror. What Whitehead does is show us the mind of one man in his post-pandemic world. (Yes, I read another pandemic book.) This world...Book Reviews: Nora Roberts – Chronicles of The One, Books 2 and 3
I never thought about Nora Roberts as a fantasy author until she published Year One in 2017. When I finally listened to the audiobook last fall, I thought it was a gripping 4-star combination of post-pandemic survivalist epic and magical (or magickal as Roberts spells...Book Review: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Zimmer Bradley creates King Arthur’s story from a female-centric viewpoint in The Mists of Avalon. Instead of focusing on the men—Arthur, Lancelet, the various Knights—she uses the perspectives of the women in their lives. Her main characters are Arthur’s wife...Book Review: The Midsummer Wife by Jacqueline Simonds (The Heirs of Camelot #1)
Jacqueline Simonds offers an urban fantasy with a side helping of Arthurian legend in The Midsummer Wife. It’s a tantalizing reading combination, especially in a time when we know our leaders by their tweets rather than by their ancestry. Set in the near future, the...Book Review: Year One by Nora Roberts
Year One by Nora Roberts is an interesting choice to follow my recent reads by Tosca Lee and J. D. Horn. It combines elements of each book into a satisfying post-pandemic adventure with a magical twist. It’s more about escaping the big city than Lee’s focus on the...The Final Days of Magic by J. D. Horn (New Orleans Witches #3)
The Final Days of Magic is my last shot at the New Orleans Witches series. And I’ve discovered that none of the characters matter very much to me. Even if author J.D. Horn writes another book in the series, I won’t be following along. I’m disappointed to be leaving...Book Review: The Oyster Thief by Sonia Faruqi
Sonia Faruqi writes her debut novel as a mash-up of mermaid fantasy and oceanic conservation information. Unfortunately, it’s more mashed than up. I abandoned it after 100 pages.The parallel story lines of a human and a mermaid are a trope that goes back to old-school...Book Review: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Madeline Miller tells a story replete with Greek gods, kings, warriors, battles, and death. And yet what it’s really about is the love between Achilles and Patroclus. Both young men are high born princes. Achilles is also half god, with a human father and goddess...Bookshop.Org Affiliate
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