This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. A Drop of Corruption will be released on April 1, 2025. Though Robert Jackson Bennett isn’t exactly a new face in the fantasy scene, my first experience with his work came last year, when… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
I didn’t know that Mechanize My Hands to War even existed until author Erin K. Wagner was interviewed in Clarkesworld in December 2024. But as so often happens with Clarkesworld interviews, she talked about it in a way that caught my attention and sent it flying up my TBR. And I’m glad it did. Mechanize… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner
It’s time for my favorite post of the year, where I share all the best sci-fi and fantasy I read from 2024. I write two versions of this post each year. The second comes out in late February, once I’ve had a chance to read works from everyone else’s Best of the Year lists. And… Continue reading Tar Vol’s 2024 Recommended Reading List (Holiday Edition)
I’ve read quite a few quest novellas this year and generally haven’t fallen in love with any of them—not surprising, as I’m just not a huge fan of the quest plot structure—but after a few friends highly recommended Premee Mohamed’s novella The Butcher of the Forest, I decided to try another one, and I’m very… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
I don’t often dip into speculative literary fiction, and my success rate is low enough that even when I saw an intriguing review of Scott Alexander Howard’s debut novel The Other Valley—and I don’t even recall where—I approached with some trepidation. But I do like time travel stories, and my library had a copy, so… Continue reading Speculative Novel Review: The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
I am not especially fond of zombies or especially deep into literary fiction, but I have been really enjoying stories about grief this year—notably “Death Benefits” and The Warm Hands of Ghosts—and so when a book club friend highly recommended Ursula K. Le Guin Prize-winning It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de… Continue reading Speculative Novella Review: It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken
I’d heard a decent amount of praise for Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy, but the TBR is too long to read everything that’s praised, and she dropped far enough off my radar that I barely noticed when The Warm Hands of Ghosts released earlier this year. But I’d seen people calling it their favorite book of… Continue reading Historical Fantasy Novel Review: The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
I did not grow up reading comic books, so perhaps it’s no surprise that as an adult, I haven’t gotten into graphic novels. I read Watchmen in college and that might be it…ever. But the English translation of Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed came with enough hype from people that don’t normally read graphic novels… Continue reading Fantasy Graphic Novel Review: Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed
I read plenty of C.S. Lewis as a kid, but the reputation of Till We Have Faces for philosophical density scared me off. Then, as an adult, my lukewarm feelings toward Greek myths and desire to diversify my reading kept me from picking it off the stack. But an offline book club picked it for… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
I go back and forth about whether to review readaloud children’s literature as part of my regular blogging, but I was using Wise Child by Monica Furlong toward my 2023 Bingo challenge for the elusive Druid square, and honestly, I thought it was good enough to deserve a standalone review. Wise Child is a short… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Wise Child by Monica Furlong
