I basically fell in love with this book as soon as I saw its cover. As a kid, I had very well-worn copies of Dragonology and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them that are probably to blame for my love of fictional memoirs, histories, and the like from fantastical settings. As such, I was pretty stoked about this book, and committed to it from the start. Imagine my pleasant surprise when it exceeded even my own very biased expectations. Read the rest at Women […]
I’m not crying on the subway; you’re crying on the subway.
I want a dragon. I want a dragon. I want a dragon. No, but seriously, I want a dragon. His Majesty’s Dragon is a really unique and exciting first book in a series with which I’ll definitely continue. I walked into it with no background, other than a friend’s recommendation, and it actually took me by surprise, with quite a bit of delight. So, some background here: Will Laurence is a seasoned captain for the British Navy during the Napoleanic Wars. His crew captures a […]
If You Throw Away the First 3/4ths, You Might Have an Okay Book Left
I’ll never admit that I’m a bright person; it took me until half way through the second book in this series to realize it was just Star Wars, but with dragons instead of the Force and lightsabers. Which probably explains why I still love the first book, Eragon. (See that? That’s “dragon”, but with one letter changed. That’s the level of cleverness we are working with here.) So this is the last book in the series, so we know Not Luke Skywalker is going to […]
“Well, are you alive or are you dead?”
In my last review, I mentioned that sometimes I avoid big pop culture touchstones for no readily apparent reason. Just like I had never read Harry Potter until this summer, I had never read The Hobbit. One of my very good friends has been talking Tolkein for a month, so I decided to take the Middle-Earth plunge. Just as I enjoyed Harry Potter for the amazing world that the author built, I enjoyed The Hobbit because of the amazing world that Tolkein built. For those […]
A promising, yet somewhat flawed beginning
Alix “Owl” Hiboux is an archaeology grad student who was screwed over by her professors and turned to a life of art theft to support herself. After a job gone wrong, she ended up on some French vampires’ hit list and has been hiding out in a Winnebago in the desert, playing online roleplaying games in her downtime. She’s sworn off any kind of supernatural job ever again, but can’t really refuse when a helicopter comes to pick her up to take her to Mr. […]
Adult “Harry Potter”-style series is irresistible
This first novel in the Kingkiller Chronicles is a brilliant addition to the fantasy genre and already has a huge fan following. A sort of adult Harry Potter, our multi-named protagonist is everything you want in a hero: a warrior/musician who is strong, courageous, brilliant, respectful of women … and full of magic. And yet the novel begins with Kvothe as a broken man tending an inn in the middle of nowhere. How did he get that way? The rest of the novel is his […]