When I was younger, I always wanted a twin. Siblings were fine, but a twin–that would really have been something. Someone just like me who I could always depend on, who would be there to play with and comfort me no matter what. Twins, I believed, were just a little more magical. Actual twins can …
Breathing new life into old characters is the second-oldest tradition in storytelling, right after making those characters up in the first place. Oh, I could tell you about modern trends, what Wicked and The Red Tent and The Mists of Avalon did, but then I’d also have to mention Chretien de Troyes’s Arthurian retellings from the …
A note before I get started: this book should come with one of those advisory warnings, except instead of warning parents against explicit lyrics, it should just warn everyone about lyrics. Just lyrics. Because this song has been stuck in my head for a week. Do you know how many years it’s been since I …
Killing Gravity is a novella by Corey J. White that is hopefully the first in a series featuring Mars, a void witch, space witch, a living psychic weapon. She and her…pet…a creature named Seven, are the result of heartless military experimentation by a would-be dictator-general, on whom she wants unending vengeance. He wrecked her childhood …
There was never going to be a question of whether City of Miracles, the final installment* of the Divine Cities trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett, was good. Of course it was going to be good. The question was how good. Good enough to close one of my favorite fantasy series ever? Good enough to be …
While it’s not necessary to read This Raging Light to be drawn into But Then I Came Back, this book is a close companion to Estelle Laure’s debut, although very different in tone. If you’ve read it, you already know what the prologue tells you—that Eden Jones, the cool girl in a cool leather jacket, …
IMG.PRO has been one of my first stops each year at PAX East due to their innovative, beautiful, and usually horrifying games they showcase. This year was no different and as soon as I could I found their booth. Sitting down I placed the headset on, gripped the controller in my hands, and began to prepare myself …
Miss Anna Arden is Barren. And how does an unmarried teenager in Victorian England know such a thing? Well, she’s not barren in the reproductive sense. This is much worse. In the world of Blood Rose Rebellion, Barren women can’t do magic, which is the only proof of a noble’s heritage and worthiness. Only those …
I read the first chapter of A Crown of Wishes and immediately had to check twitter. Sure enough, Roshani Chokshi and Stephanie Garber, author of Caraval, follow each other. Did they also edit each others’ introductory chapters? Because both begin with a mysterious invitation to a mysterious game run by a dangerous and magical individual. …
The Signalman is waiting. The cultists are waiting. Time divides them, and a short, terrible burst of violence, but that’s not very much, in the scheme of this universe. They all want to know what happened–what is happening–in the desert, but only the Signalman knows enough to be afraid. Something the cultists will only learn …