My introduction to Warhammer came around 7th grade, when a friend showed me his codex for his Skaven army. It was full of great artwork, lore, and rules. The idea of a tabletop game, specifically one dripping with a rich story was new to me. A couple years later, I would be introduced to …
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 …
If your favorite band created a board game, what would that game look like? Would it be a deck builder or competitive resource style game or maybe something totally new? Well if your favorite band is The Decemberists, then I can tell you exactly how that game would look. Illimat, created by Keith Baker with illustrations …
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 …
Bram Stoker’s Dracula was the first adult book I ever read, which sparked my love of the occult in literature. Robert Masello’s The Night Crossing not only did justice to the memory of Bram Stoker but is a much needed reminder of the majesty of the world of vampires and witches. This novel is about …