I’m late to the party on The Helm of Midnight, published last year alongside so many other pandemic-delayed books. But please don’t let my tardiness imply anything negative about Marina Lostetter’s dark fantasy debut, a sleek mystery that rushes through a wildly inventive setting at a breathless—but remarkably sustained—pace. The Helm of Midnight could have …
I’ve always felt that visual art should make you feel something first, and secondarily aspire to teach, satirize, or otherwise comment on life. Where that feeling falls on the aesthetic spectrum doesn’t bother me as much—disgust can be a fascinating emotion, just as awe or beauty can—but we have to care before we want to …
The days of The Lord Ruler and his Final Empire are long behind the Wax and Wayne gang and us as readers. Yet, the rippling effect of Brandon Sanderson’s original Mistborn trilogy echoes all the way to the final book in Mistborn’s second era, The Lost Metal. Before now, the series stood alone in the …
Imagine you’ve lived in the same house for the past 20 years. You know where the creaky floorboard is and how to pull that door just right so it closes properly. You know every room intimately, and you have treasured memories in each from different stages of your life. Now imagine one day in this …
Murders, fluffy dogs, and cocktail recipes: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal has it all…in spaaaace! This extremely fun and fast paced murder mystery doesn’t exactly stick the landing but is so much fun I didn’t really care. Tesla Crane, a Tony Stark insanely rich inventor type, is on her honeymoon with her new …
Mild spoiler warning: if you’re worried about spoilers for the first book, I recommend both books and I recommend reading them in order! If you’re not worried about mild spoilers for the first book, read on. – Usually, I can give some sense of the story’s shape by naming a genre or two, some simple …
Hot damn. Even Though I Knew The End is just as beautifully, achingly bittersweet and good as I’d anticipated. Better, even. I’d psyched myself up and didn’t finish it before I had to put the book down for two weeks—and I was immediately dragged back in the moment I picked it up again. How often …
New Years Even of 2016, New York City, Times Square… sure it sounds great on paper, but not when a maniac shows up and starts slashing people up! Four years and many murders later, two NYPD officers heading up the Maniac Taskforce are on the case. Faced with budget cuts, the mayor’s obsession with his …
Those familiar with the Singing Hills Cycle know by now to expect marvelous little novellas like perfectly cut jewels, dense with facets and brilliance. Into the Riverlands, Nghi Vo’s third installment, is of course no different. Following the further adventures of story-collecting historian monk Chih and their eidetically-inclined avian companion Almost Brilliant, this book takes …
Content warning: Lavender House, and therefore this review, discusses characters experiencing suicidal ideation Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen brings the atmosphere and mystery of a classic noir novel into the lives of queer people in the 1950s. Set in San Francisco, the novel follows Evander Mills, who has recently been kicked off the police …