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 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 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 […]
Review of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows is the first half of a young adult fantasy duology set in the same world as her Grisha Trilogy (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising), although I did not find it at all difficult to follow without having read any of the other books. The second half of this story focusing on a ragtag team of rogues, Crooked Kingdom, was recently released, and I have already purchased it—Six of Crows wasn’t quite as wonderful as […]
Review of Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
Tooth and Claw, one of Jo Walton’s earlier novels, won the 2004 World Fantasy Award. Though it is often compared to Jane Austen’s work, the author cites Victorian novels in general and Anthony Trollope’s Framley Parsonage in particular as inspirations in her Dedication, Thanks, and Notes, adding “this novel is the result of wondering what a world would be like…if the axioms of the sentimental Victorian novel were inescapable laws of biology.” She imagined this by populating Tooth and Claw with dragons […]
Review of Forerunner by Andre Norton
Andre Norton’s Forerunner, first published in 1981, is not her first book set in this universe, but it is the first of two books following the character Simsa. Although Forerunner was re-released a few years ago, Forerunner: The Second Venture was not, but both of Simsa’s stories can be found together in the omnibus The Forerunner Factor. The old city Kuxortal contained a variety of peoples, but Simsa never met another like herself. She does not know where she came from, and for as long […]
