Note: I don’t think it’s possible to give this book a proper review without at least some spoilers, but since there are several dramatic reveals and—I hesitate to call them “twists” since they’re not at all gimmicky like so many twists are these days—please be forewarned. For people who prefer no spoilers at all, know …
Forrest Leo’s The Gentleman is a silly book. It knows it is. It exults in absurdity, delights in mishap, and does an absolute jig around the plot. And why not? We need some silliness right now. Lionel Savage is anything but. More fraidy-cat than king of the jungle and more shy than savage, he’s a …
Dragon Hoops, though it features no actual dragons, accomplished something more magical an inexplicable than most of the fantasy I’ve been reading. Something so inexplicable, so unbelievable, that I previously didn’t think it was possible. It made me care about basketball. Like Gene Luen Yang himself in the beginning of the book, I too was …
In a world only a little different from our own, there exists a home furnishings store called LitenVärld. That’s “Small World” in Swedish, but it turns out that neither the store nor the world is particularly small. Both are places where people can get lost, and that’s exactly where Nino Cipri’s Finna begins: a missing …
As the celestial enforcer for the realm of California, Genie already has her work cut out for her. She’s managing the yaoguai who invaded in the last book, she’s navigating her new relationship, she’s kicking ass in school and extracurriculars, and she’s getting ready to apply to college. She does not have time for interdimensional hijinks. …
Bisou is a girl who holds herself apart. She’s friendly but has no real friends, except now, perhaps, for her sweet and loving boyfriend James. She would be happy to just spend time with him and her grandmother indefinitely, but the world intrudes: a boy at her school is found dead in the woods. His …
Purists beware: Prosper’s Demon, by K. J. Parker, is not a tale of good versus evil. This is mostly a tale of not-as-bad and maybe-worse fighting it out, ostensibly for a greater purpose, but maybe just in a never-ending cycle of retribution. But as a world champion player of Petty Petty Princess, I can say …
When you think of orcs and wizards, chances are you’re thinking of some variation of Saruman with his nameless minions, the wizard in control, the orc eager to be told what to do. Standard, right? Well, not anymore. A.K. Larkwood takes that concept, runs with it for a bit, and then utterly obliterates it in …
Like the immanently forthcoming Prosper’s Demon, My Beautiful Life is a pure K.J. Parker novella. It’s snarky and cynical, fascinated and repelled by power in equal measure. Bad men doing bad things for arguably decent reasons. And in My Beautiful Life, the narrator isn’t even that bad! Sure, he accidentally puts out his brother’s eye …
The Wells of Sorcery is the trilogy everybody should be talking about. But the trouble with things published in January is that they’re good for buying with Christmas gift cards, but bad for making it on to best-of lists. Which is a shame, since Ship of Smoke and Steel, the first installment, was a rollicking …