When you think of orcs and wizards, chances are you’re thinking of some variation of Saruman with his nameless minions, the wizard in control, the orc eager to be told what to do. Standard, right? Well, not anymore. A.K. Larkwood takes that concept, runs with it for a bit, and then utterly obliterates it in …
Like the immanently forthcoming Prosper’s Demon, My Beautiful Life is a pure K.J. Parker novella. It’s snarky and cynical, fascinated and repelled by power in equal measure. Bad men doing bad things for arguably decent reasons. And in My Beautiful Life, the narrator isn’t even that bad! Sure, he accidentally puts out his brother’s eye …
Reviewer Silk Jazmyne gives us her top 5 of this year! Black From The Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Fiction (ed. Stephanie Andrea Allen and Lauren Cherelle) – This collection of short stories has literally everything. Vampires, space operas, djinn and much more with black characters on the page with the voice of the …
The Wells of Sorcery is the trilogy everybody should be talking about. But the trouble with things published in January is that they’re good for buying with Christmas gift cards, but bad for making it on to best-of lists. Which is a shame, since Ship of Smoke and Steel, the first installment, was a rollicking …
When it comes to fantasy, it has inevitable hangers-on, specific ideas, certain character archetypes that spring to mind. Our imagination fills up with magic, swords, dragons, and, of course, heroes. The monomyth that won’t quit that plucks the one person from humble beginnings, calls them the chosen one, and sends them on their way. The …
Lillian is wasting away in a dead-end job and marinating in her directionless rage when she receives a letter: will she, a person who has no experience with kids or teaching, come be a governess to her former BFF’s new stepchildren? It’s intriguing, and more importantly, it pays well. Lillian can’t refuse, even though she …
Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series has been brilliant from start to finish, book to book, and she’s so prolific that I’m running out of ways to encourage people to read it. Would threats work? Read this book or your life will be just so much emptier. There will be a sorrow you’ll only be able …
Private investigation isn’t an easy job, and no one knows this better than Ivy Gamble. When we meet her in Sarah Gailey’s Magic for Liars, her investigations mostly involve cheating spouses. She finally catches a break when she is hired for a murder investigation at a high school, and for a hefty sum at that. The problem …
The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey is my first foray into the genre known as Dieselpunk, a style that combines diesel technology, retro-futuristic technology, and the feeling of uncertainty, paranoia, and hopelessness. This novel takes place in the fictional city of Lower Proszawa in a period of peace after their own Great War. Largo Moorden …
Thanks to all of our wonderful Patreon backers (join now and get a bunch of extra content), we are finally reviewing our very first Garf! And not just any Garf, but the relatively famous Garfield: His 9 Lives. As if that alone weren’t enough, we delve into not just the new release, but also the …