Earlier this year, someone from the best of my many book clubs read I Who Have Never Known Men and was totally wowed, recommending it as a masterpiece that’s equally philosophical and character-driven. At that point, it wasn’t a question of whether I would read it, just a question of when. And this fall the… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
This is the same every month. I read some genre magazines, I talk about them. Let’s go. Clarkesworld My favorite genre magazine over the last several years has been Clarkesworld, which generally mixes experimental or boundary-pushing sci-fi with well-executed takes on classic premises. The former is unsurprisingly more boom-or-bust, but I regularly find favorites in… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (November 2024)
Ever since reading the tremendous “Strange Waters” a few years back, I’ve been eager to get to more of Samantha Mills. So when seemingly half of my Short Fiction Book Club friends were recommending her debut novel The Wings Upon Her Back, it was not a matter of if I would read it, but when. … Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills
I read A Court of Thorns and Roses earlier this year to see what all the hype was about. It really wasn’t good. But then I was told that I had actually not seen what all the hype was about, because really it’s the second book in the series–A Court of Mist and Fury–that set… Continue reading Fantasy Series Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. We Are All Ghosts in the Forest will be released on November 7, 2024. I had never heard of Lorraine Wilson before seeing We Are All Ghosts in the Forest pop up on NetGalley,… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson
I’ve been hearing about Jo Walton for a while, but the place I chose to start was an odd one. Regular readers of the blog will be unsurprised to hear that it had a lot to do with Bingo. I’ve been working on a “Not So Hard” theme where I fill each square with a… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Lifelode by Jo Walton
Every year, I read and review two or three horror novels, and every year, I start with a caveat about how I don’t usually read horror. That’s true, I don’t, but I do make exceptions, usually after a critical mass of word-of-mouth recommendations convince me that the book in question won’t lean too heavily on… Continue reading Horror Novel Review: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
I’ve heard a lot about Christopher Buehlman over the last couple years from both fans of horror and epic fantasy, but I’m not a big horror fan, and The Blacktongue Thief featured a snarky rogue lead that I wasn’t quite in the mood for, so his work stayed mostly on the fringes of my awareness.… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. The Mountain Crown will be released on October 8, 2024. Karin Lowachee had been hanging around the middle of the TBR for what seemed like forever before I finally pulled Warchild off the stack this… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: The Mountain Crown by Karin Lowachee
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The City in Glass will be released on October 1, 2024. I first read Nghi Vo back in 2021 when The Empress of Salt and Fortune took home a well-deserved Hugo Award for Best… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
