I started Wall of Storms right after the first book, Grace of Kings, since I didn’t want to lose momentum on this Dandelion Dynasty series. Grace of Kings introduced us to Dara, an empire of island nations, through a story of rebellion leading to civil war, culminating in a new empire under protagonist Kuni Garu….
Category: (3.5 out of 5)
The Last Wish (The Witcher, Book 1) by Andrzej Sapkowski
My journey with The Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski’s super-popular fantasy series, got off to a bumpy start when I read The Blood of Elves. I understood it to be the first book of the series and assumed that the short story collections (including The Last Wish) were extra, optional prequel stories. Boy, was I wrong! Without…
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 Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft – Book Review
The Hexologists is my second venture (after Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup) into an emerging subgenre where we follow detectives investigating crimes/murders in a Victorian/Edwardian-inspired fantasy world. What sets these types of stories obviously apart from classic Sherlock Holmes tales is the addition of magical elements which may be part of the crime, instrumental…
Sunset at Zero Point, written and illustrated by Simon Stålenhag – Book Review
This is the fourth book by Simon Stålenhag for me this year (which is not about reading a lot, as these are coffee-table books more full of gorgeous art than text, but an indication of my adoration of Stålenhag’s work). Each is set in an alternate Sweden, where imagined experiments with radical science have left…
A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher – Book Review
My third venture into the works of popular author T. Kingfisher could be considered cozy horror, or suburban gothic (if that isn’t a thing I just made up). It starts out in a pretty classic way: Sam, a 30-something archeoentomologist, comes to stay at her mother’s suburban North Carolina home for a while and, of…
Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, Book 2) by Martha Wells – Book Review
I enjoyed the first book in this popular series (along with the first season of the Apple TV+ show). So I was excited to follow Murderbot on more sardonic adventures. This time around they get unintentionally partnered with a ship’s AI system which Murderbot humorously nicknames “ART” (for “Asshole Research Transport”) and takes a quest…
The Stone Man (Book 1) by Luke Smitherd – Book Review
When a gigantic stone behemoth appears in the middle of Millennium Square in Coventry, UK, it’s a photo op. When the stone man starts to move and walk relentlessly on its own, leaving a path of destruction in its wake, you’ve got an exciting sci-fi mystery. We follow reporter Andy Pointer, himself a witness at…
Grave Peril (Dresden Files, Book 3) by Jim Butcher – Book Review
The third volume in the Dresden Files series continues to expand the story universe set up in the first two. The adventures of Harry Dresden, a professional wizard, hiring himself out to investigate and handle all kinds of magical and malevolent cases in contemporary Chicago have so far involved evil sorcerers, demons, faerie and werewolves….
