I have a long history with The Last Unicorn, even though I’ve only just finished reading it for the first time. As a child, I won tickets to the animated movie based on this novel and fell in love with the story of a unicorn who leaves the safety of her magical forest and sets…
Category: Fantasy
Murder at Spindle Manor (Lamplight Murder Mysteries, Book 1) by Morgan Stang — Book Review
Lately I’ve been reading a number of books fitting into the category of magical murder mystery, or fantasy detective story, and I’m really enjoying them. That’s not surprising, since I love fantasy fiction, and ever since watching BBC’s Sherlock, I’ve been a fan of Victorian detective stories. Starting last year, I read The Tainted Cup…
The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh — Book Review
Since I have a history with Chinese folktales from my childhood, I am always interested in reading new retellings of Asian stories. It’s also cool how they have kind of become a subgenre of their own recently. Because The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (I’m not going to keep repeating this charming yet over-long…
The Grace of Kings (Dandelion Dynasty, Book 1) by Ken Liu — Book Review
I picked up The Grace of Kings because everyone raves about this series, and I was interested in exploring more Asian fantasy novels (especially during Asian Heritage Month). The first time around, I found the plot difficult to follow (it’s the epic history of an empire being torn down by a rebellion) and the many…
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…
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…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 