Review of A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston
A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston is a loose retelling of the framing story from One Thousand and One Nights. Although it stands alone, a short sequel titled “The Garden of Three Hundred Flowers” is available as a free ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and a novel taking place generations later named Spindle was released toward the end of 2016. Regardless of A Thousand Nights seeming complete on its own, I do want to read both of these other […]
Review of The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard
Nebula Award–winning author Aliette de Bodard’s The House of Shattered Wings, the first Dominion of the Fallen novel, won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel and was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. A sequel, The House of Binding Thorns, is scheduled for release in April. The Great Houses War left Paris in ruins. Those who are fortunate belong to a House backed with magic and power that can protect its members. Most Houses are ruled by […]
Review of The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman
Note: This review contains what some may consider to be a spoiler for the first book. If you’d prefer to go into the first book without knowing the true identity of one of the characters until it’s revealed, you may want to avoid reading further and read my review of the first book, The Invisible Library, instead. The Masked City is both Genevieve Cogman’s second novel and the second installment in the Invisible Library series—and it is every bit as delightful as […]
Review of Sign for the Sacred by Storm Constantine
Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu trilogy are among my favorite books, partially because of the beautiful prose and their exploration of gender but mostly because the main protagonists are vibrant and fascinating. Since discovering them I’ve wanted to read more of her books, and though there are a lot more of them left for me to read, I’ve yet to find one as compelling as the Wraeththu books. The latest book in my quest to read more by this author, Sign for […]
Review of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, first published in 1979, is an incredible novel. Though it’s speculative fiction utilizing time travel, much of its focus is showing a glimpse into the past, and the way the author incorporated so much about society into such a well paced story is nothing short of masterful. It’s a book I find difficult to recommend because it’s filled with ugliness and brutality due to its forthright examination of slavery, and as such, may be too grim for some to […]
Review of Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee
Biting the Sun is an omnibus containing both of Tanith Lee’s Four BEE novels, Don’t Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine, originally published in the 1970s. These two short science fiction books work best as a single volume: the first introduces the world and explores the main protagonist’s struggles with finding meaning within its confines, and the second has more forward momentum and is a more satisfying story. Biting the Sun‘s narrator (whose name is never revealed) lives in the […]
