Journies are important in a tale; they must hook the reader in order to arrive at an ending, but an end that leaves one bitter at the time taken on the journey is to no one’s satisfaction. The Fury of the Gods by John Gwynne arrives at an end that left me wanting to turn …
The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers tells the story of the Everly family burdened with a curse, a bargain made with a mysterious woman named Penelope, who always comes to collect. Marianne Everly, determined to lift the curse, leaves her only daughter, Violet, behind with her brothers. The problem arises when Violet’s mother never …
The Blighted Stars by Megan O’Keefe is a mix of the horror of human expansion, the fear of limited resources, and humanity’s resolve. Her characters are engaging with conflicting motivations in a situation where they must work together. The first book in The Devoured Worlds series is full of action and small character moments that …
Do you like violence? Alexander Darwin’s The Combat Codes is about a world where society has traded war for hand-to-hand combat bouts. Where the Grievar are trained, given performance-enhancing stimulants, and all sorts of experiments by the Daimyo in order to win their newfound way of waging war. Murray, who used to be a knight …
The Traitor, the last installment of Anthony Ryan’s The Covenant of Steel, staked me through the heart. The ending of the previous book, The Martyr, left little doubt that the events of Alwyn Scribe’s life would be entering the heartbreak section of the trilogy when it ended with not only Alwyn sleeping with Evadine covered …
Nine heroes came together and defeated the dark lord of Necrad twenty-two years ago, losing one of their own in the process, and now have been doing their best without him trying to lead the city to mixed results. On the surface, The Sword Defiant is a story of one warrior realizing the good old …
One of the best parts of the Fantasy genre is it doesn’t have to be just one thing. It can contain other genres within its genre. Engines of Empire by R.S. Ford, the first book in the new Age of Uprising series, is a hodgepodge of different fantasy elements, telling different stories with its point-of-view …