This is a review for the audiobook version of the first three ‘Dunk and Egg’ novellas by George R R Martin, set about a hundred years before Game of Thrones. They come together in one file on Audible, which is quite nice and easy. Each novella is about 3-4 hours long (much easier to digest than the 33+ hours of A Game of Thrones, for example). The novellas are difficult to find on their own, coming in edited volumes from a variety of sci-fi/fantasy authors (at […]
“Why is some accident of uncontrolled neurochemistry the ‘real me,’ and a carefully reasoned system of priorities somehow false?”
Borderline is a sharp urban fantasy book with a new take on the “fairies walk among us” trope. It stands out, in part, for its unusual protagonist (more on that later) but also achieves above-average marks for its balance of fresh world-building with a well-paced plot. Leaning too hard on one or the other can result either in a story that drags under the weight of excessive detail, or an ill-defined, unprincipled universe where anything goes with the plot because anything can be magicked to […]
I Slam The Door But Watch What I Say
Down and Among the Sticks and Stones by Seanan McGuire is a prequel to Every Heart A Doorway, which I loved, however it is definitely the weaker novel and suffers quite a bit in comparison. I wanted to like this book, but I just didn’t. This book follows Jack and Jill, who were secondary characters in EHAD, and tells the story of how they found their doorway and what lay behind it. They travelled to a fairy world that inspired Victorian monster novels, a place […]
“And how many times have I prayed, that I would get lost along the way.”
Coincidentally, I started reading this book the day the movie trailer dropped. I first read The Gunslinger as a twelve year old who was blazing my way through Stephen King’s works. Like many preteens, I was overly fascinated with sex and violence but had no real appreciation of the consequences of either. I did not care for this book at the time. It was too abstract and had the feel of the old westerns that my dad and grandpa favored, which I studiously avoided […]
“Every Age Must Come to an End” is an ominous beginning
A few years ago I came across an excellent review of N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, book one of the Inheritance trilogy, and was instantly intrigued. It was put on my “in case of birthday or Christmas, please buy me” list and fortunately I received it later that year. I was blown away by Jemisin’s incredibly creative world building and could not put the book down. The third book in the Inheritance trilogy did not hold up as well as the first two, but the […]
A fantasy romance with a librarian heroine
3.5 stars From Goodreads: Magic has broken free all over the Twelve Kingdoms. The population is beset by shapeshifters and portents, landscapes that migrate, uncanny allies who are not quite human…and enemies eager to take advantage of the chaos. Dafne Maillouix is no adventurer – she’s a librarian. But the High Queen trusts Dafne’s ability with languages, her way of winnowing useful facts from a dusty scroll, and even more important, the subtlety and guile that three decades under the thumb of a tyrant taught […]