I’ve openly complained about how getting too aggressive with this year’s reading challenges has prevented me from doing much mood reading. But with this book, Bingo has led to another winner. I read Bethany C. Morrow’s A Song Below Water last year and generally enjoyed it. I thought it tried to do too much, and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: A Chorus Rises by Bethany C. Morrow
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Reclaim the Stars was released February 15, 2022. One of the Bingo squares that had me hunting the longest this year was Latinx Author, whose hard mode required fewer than 1000 ratings on… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Reclaim the Stars by Zoraida Córdova
There are quite a few books that I’ve picked up just because they seemed perfect for a Bingo square, but I’ve rarely had to look as hard as I did to find The Queen of Blood. The hard mode Forest Setting square requires the entirety of the book to take place within a forest, and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Age of Ash will be released February 15, 2022. The most recent addition to my all-time top five list was Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet, which tells a series of intimate, personal stories… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham
Max Gladstone is an author that I’ve had on my list for quite some time. His books are almost universally liked in my circles, he’s won awards, and his Craft Sequence neither has a high barrier of entry nor the required commitment for an extended series. And yet, as reading challenges and shiny new objects… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone
I approached the last book of my SPSFC judging team’s ten quarterfinalists with some trepidation. Our extended preview had shown a smooth and engaging prose from author J.D. Robinson, but The Last Shadow opened with a grizzled detective, still struggling to move past the trauma of his wife’s disappearance a decade prior, take on one… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Last Shadow by J. D. Robinson
Sequela wasn’t necessarily the book that excited me most after making the first pass through my team’s first round assignment of SPSFC books, but it’s safe to say that the audacious premise and polished prose of Cleland Smith’s debut caught my curiosity like nothing else in our round of extended previews. Sequela takes place in… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Sequela by Cleland Smith
After I made my first pass through my team’s initial 30-book allotment for SPSFC, Harvest was probably the book that I was most excited to get back to. Olga Werby’s entry promised a well thought-out first contact plot with an academic lead, both of which fit firmly within my wheelhouse. So how did it go? … Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Harvest by Olga Werby
When I was making my first pass through my SPSFC team’s first-round allotment, Jeannette Bedard’s Day 115 on an Alien World immediately stood out. With this book being a competition entry, I had no background and didn’t even realize it was a sci-fi mystery novel. So when bodies dropped in the first chapter, it got… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Day 115 on an Alien World by Jeannette Bedard
Drained is another entry in the first annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. It produced some division in the extended preview that we used as a first cut, but I found the writing to be smooth and the early tension to be well-built, and I was intrigued to see whether Marc Daniel Acriche’s debut would build… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Drained by Marc Daniel Acriche
