Lin wakes up in a pile of freshly murdered bodies, with a madman screeching overhead and an army on the way and magic all around and gems—which are different from Jewels—and magic threatening everyone sanity and oh my! There’s nothing wrong with dumping someone in the middle of a narrative, but it takes a judicious …
Continuing along the path that her first book, The Fire Sermon, laid out, Map of Bones is another measured elegy for a world in ruins. Atomic detonations blanketed the world in cold and ignorance, and the survivors learned to fear anything to do with the blasts. Technology. The past. Each other. A quirk of the …
Our word disaster comes from the Greek meaning “bad star.” And if one bad star portends calamity, imagine a whole sky of them. Mayavati doesn’t have to. She is born with the most malignant horoscope the court has ever seen, and everyone from her father, the Raja, to the lowest girl in the harem knows …
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel is the definition of compulsively readable. I snuck peeks at work, I held it in one hand while holding my toothbrush in the other, and if it had not been on my kindle, I would have propped it up within eyeball-reach of the shower. It’s engrossing. It’s fantastic. It’s a …
Sometimes children go to fairyland. Sometimes they fight monsters, and save kingdoms, and do a bit of growing on the way. And then sometimes, they come back. Eleanor West’s “school” is a place where they can go when their families think them deranged or badly in denial. It’s run by a reject of fairyland, and …
This begins–no, it doesn’t even begin, it’s epigraphed–with a hymn to the divine twins, Artemis and Apollo. There are three ways to my heart. One is pizza. One is being my husband. The third is mythology. Especially well-researched mythology, so I may have done a little happy dance before I even got to page one. …
I had my qualms about a new Continental novel from the perspective—and foul mouth—of General Turyin Mulaghesh. Not many, and not severe, since Mulaghesh was awesome. But she was not the stars of the previous show, the fantastic City of Stairs. Who can compete with Shara and Sigrud, a brilliant spy and a Viking bodyguard …
I had the privilege of sitting down with Robert Jackson Bennett to ask him about his immanent book, City of Blades. We also discussed his previous books—and writing—and Batman. Christina Ladd: First and most obvious question: where does City of Blades come from? How did you begin to follow up City of Stairs, which turns …
It’s not easy being an wealthy, gifted, powerful scion of a noble house whose heroics have earned him the attention of God Itself. For one thing, if that God has played you false and used you, it’s exceptionally difficult to get away to mourn and heal. For another, you have certain responsibilities that don’t go …
Thank the YA gods for terrible parents. Terrible fictional parents, that is. Because much as I wish there was not a single terrible real-life parent, there are far too many. But there haven’t been many in fiction until more recently, and not only is that unrealistic, it’s a damn shame. There is so much depth …