As opening scenes go, Paraic O’Donnell’s The House on Vesper Sands has the spirit of Portrait of a Lady or Pride and Prejudice. I’ve seldom read something so perfectly formed in tone, characterization, prose, and mood. Each word is in its right place, elaborating the setting and deepening our understanding of the characters with the kind …
Ancient Greeks really liked snakes. So did most cultures of the Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern world; it was only later that snakes got a devilish reputation. Living their lives hugged so closely to the earth, they were thought to have deep wisdom, and because they shed their skin, they were symbols of longevity and …
Or, where to spend your Christmas cash if you want books. This is necessarily heavy on releases for the beginning of the year and sequels, since many other titles haven’t been announced. Many further goodies await, but for now, this year already looks intriguing, exciting, and magical as heck. The Wicked King (Holly Black) January …
I wanted to like this book. When I saw the plot, I thought of Tamora Pierce and her magical, powerful girl characters. The Girl King could be a classic but with Asian identity and modern themes, something both nostalgic and fresh. What it is instead is a diversion. It’s a fun Mission: Impossible or James …
Winter of the Witch proves, as few trilogies do, that the hat trick is possible. Three books without any deviation from the stellar quality of the first, each with a unique story and meaningful resolution, but also character and plot development across three books and a satisfying grand finale. Put it like that and it’s …
The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky reads like House of Leaves had an unholy demon baby with The Shadow of the Wind. In the best way. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, then rest assured: it’s terrific, it’s horrific, and it’s smart as hell. Part Gothic horror and part cosmic horror …
In honor of the release of This Cruel Design, Emily Suvada’s second book, I read This Mortal Coil, her debut and first installment the trilogy. First let me say that Emily Suvada has some serious cojones and the prose to back it up, that’s for sure. Before fifty pages are up, there’s murder, kidnapping, multiple …
A husband, wife, and their two children living comfortably in the suburbs is the perfect place for a spiritual manipulator to wreck havoc. The opening scene is of the family hiding from an intruder. Within paragraphs, the intruder Marvin is revealed to be a man who actually met the family the day before at a …
Jennie Liu certainly jumped in with both feet with her debut Girls on the Line, a tense and emotionally evocative novel about a two factory workers in a small Chinese city struggling against vast bureaucratic and criminal forces. This is a surprisingly fast-paced tale, starting on day one of Luli’s job at a factory the …
Jane Yolen was YA before there was YA, so it’s interesting to revisit a classic author via new work. Especially since that new work is a novel told entirely in poetry. Jason Reynolds and and Jacqueline Woodson are proof that the novel in verse is not just viable, but supremely potent. But what about SFF …