Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer — Book Review

What a coincidence! I just finished reading Into Thin Air — the first-hand account, by journalist Jon Krakauer, of the harrowing and tragic 1996 climbing expeditions to summit Mount Everest that cost a dozen lives — only a week before the publication of the anniversary edition of the book, 30 years later. I inadvertently acquired…

The Daughters’ War (Blacktongue, Book 0) by Christopher Buehlman — Book Review

Having just finished reading The Blacktongue Thief, I was excited to read The Daughters’ War. This prequel novel is the good kind of prequel, one that doesn’t spend all its energy backtracking the original story and telling us how everything got set up, how everyone became the characters that we knew, how they all just…

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm – Book Review

What did I just read?! If you’re familiar with this popular scifi book about a secret government agency protecting the world from mysterious anomalies that can disappear themselves from people’s minds (i.e. everyone forgets they exist) you might be thinking that I’m doing schtick. You might think I’m making jokes in the tone of this…

Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar – Book Review

Canadian poet and author Amal El-Mohtar is probably best known for writing two novellas: This is How You Lose the Time War and The River Has Roots and I had very opposite experiences reading them. The River Has Roots was probably my favourite thing I read last year, but I didn’t enjoy This is How…

The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang – Book Review

I have not had the best track record when it comes to Asian-inspired modern fantasy stories. I was underwhelmed by Fonda Lee’s Jade City and Jade War, and reading R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War was so disappointing that I took a one-year break from the sub-genre. To motivate myself to try again, I decided to…

Knife of Dreams (The Wheel of Time, Book 11) by Robert Jordan – Book Review

It’s kind of tricky to review the 11th book in an epic fantasy series. I can’t discuss much of the story, since it would spoil what comes before for anyone who has not caught up, but anyone who has not started the series probably won’t care about any references I make to characters, storylines, etc….

The Blacktongue Thief (Blacktongue, Book 1) by Christopher Buehlman – Book Review

The Blacktongue Thief is a classic fantasy adventure that is equal parts fun, fresh, and familiar. Christopher Buehlman’s writing is what makes this story special. He has an impressive imagination and his world-building is masterful. He doesn’t waste efforts on making everything incomprehensibly otherworldly. Nor does he create entirely new universes with crazy rules of…

Ararat by Christopher Golden – Book Review

Christopher Golden first came to my attention in association with one of my favourite author-artists, Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy. They collaborated on a Hellboy universe title, Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, which I enjoyed. I expected that Ararat, written by Golden alone, would also carry some of that creepy supernatural…

The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, Book 1) by Rachel Gillig – Book Review

While fantasy is probably my favourite genre of fiction, fantasy-romance (aka “romantasy”) has not been a subgenre that has appealed to me very much. Nevertheless, in the interest of expanding my horizons, I gave The Knight and the Moth (a very popular recent romantasy novel) a try. Unfortunately, despite attempting to go in with an…