Please note that this contains spoilers for Game of Thrones, including the finale. It also includes spoilers for The Eyes of the Dragon, which came out in 1984, but I’m sure someone will find a way to be mad if I don’t warn you. * In case you were living under several rocks, you know …
Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water, by Vylan Kaftar, never intends to be what you expect. You can feel it gearing up even from the first paragraphs, ready to undermine the darkness and damp through which we watch Bianca climb, already eager to break through. Her companion on the prison planet, her lover Chela, doesn’t want …
A Winter’s Promise was one of those rare books that stood at the exact intersection of nostalgia and innovation. It had the feel of a 20th century classic of children’s literature, but invested with the insight and maturity of more modern YA. I was beyond excited to get my hands on the second installment (of …
If you like horror but haven’t read The Rust Maidens, you’re in for a treat. This story of body horror, industrial uncanny, and all-around eerie ladies is one of my favorite books from 2019. The Bram Stoker awards agree, since it’s also been nominated for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. We were able to …
Hobbes (the philosopher, not the tiger) was right about life being “nasty, brutish, and short,” especially when it comes to the middle ages in Europe. War, famine, plague and poverty were common, and Kate Heartfield didn’t flinch from any of it when building the world for Armed in Her Fashion. Rather than populate her book …
What I loved about The X-Files (while it was still airing; not the reboot garbage) was its commitment to showing all the weird little subcultures and sub-subcultures of American life. The media and the internet was already making America smaller, but The X-Files made it seem so big. Witches and monsters and aliens and mutants …
Do you like action? What about romance? And how about apocalyptic magic that literally turns people inside out? I hope it’s all three, but even if you’re not so sure, Charlie N. Holmberg’s Smoke and Summons will convince you. It’s a wild, breathless dash through a grim urban environment, with mobsters and demons around every …
The holidays are over, the snow is frozen into grayish piles by the corners, and going outside is just not a very good idea. Here are three books to tide you over until temperatures improve, and hopefully make the winter a little warmer. Outside the Gates (Molly Gloss) – This is a re-release and re-formatting …
I admit that I’m not a big fan of short story collections. I’m thrown off by the wild jumps in setting, narrative voice, and theme, so I tend to only read three or four stories before getting distracted by a novel. My exception is for collections of interlocking stories, set in the same world, dealing …
Sylvain Neuvel really doesn’t like conventional narrative formats. His debut trilogy, the Themis Files (Sleeping Giants, Waking Gods, and Only Human) was written entirely as “found” documents, everything from transcribed interrogations to diary entries. Now he’s back with a Tor.com novella, which is told in the form of a 25-question test. But of course, even …