Let’s talk about maps for a moment. A fantasy staple since the year dot, the map at the front of the book is perhaps the most evocative element of a given genre epic. Your humble correspondent used to draw fantasy maps in high school (no, I wasn’t exactly knocking ’em dead with the ladies, why do you ask?). Granted, not every fantasy epic comes with a handy map. I can think of a few authors off the top of my head (Glen Cook, Joe Abercrombie, […]
Adult Male reviews the Divergent Series finale
MEGA SPOILERS AHEAD – Continue at your own peril! I read Allegiant to complete the Divergent Trilogy. I was not a huge fan of either previous book but I wanted to know how the series would end. I enjoyed the dystopian plot but had no patience for the love angle. Books about teenagers in love are my bane. That secondary plot almost led to me not finishing the series. The finale reduced the kiddie-love aspect a little and I appreciated it. Allegiant opens shortly […]
The Broken Empire Trilogy Book #3
Superb ending to a fantastic trilogy. Mark Lawrence really outdid himself with Emperor of Thorns. I don’t want to give away any spoilers so this will be vague. Emperor of Thorns follows our (anti-) hero Jorg of Renar, NOT Ancrath as he caravans to Vienne. There he is to join other kings and representatives who will vote for a new emperor. The vote takes place every four years and it has been a very long time since the Broken Empire was whole. Jorg intends to […]
Breaking Down the Doors of Death
If you like a good cliff-hanger, then Rick Riordan is the author for you. In fact, the dedication of The House of Hades reads, “To my wonderful readers: Sorry about that last cliff-hanger. Well, no, not really. HAHAHAHA. But seriously, I love you guys.” The House of Hades, the fourth book in The Heroes of Olympus series, picks up right where the third book, The Mark of Athena, leaves us hanging, with Percy and Annabeth stuck in Tartarus trying to get to the Doors of […]
“You are like a lantern swathed and covered, hidden away in a dark place. Yet the light shines; they could not put out the light.”
Decades before The Wire‘s second season premiere made viewers yell, “Who are these people? Why are we at the port? Where is McNulty?” Ursula K. Le Guin begins her sequel to A Wizard of Earthsea by introducing us to Tenar of Atuan. Who? Where? It’s a powerful sense of dislocation. We’re in the Kargad Lands, the realm of pale barbarians referenced, but not explored, in Wizard. As the reincarnated First Priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, Tenar is taken from her family at the age […]
The Reader Who Fell In Love With Fairyland and Refused to Stop Writing Reviews About It
Target: Catherynne M. Valente’s The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There Profile: Children’s Literature, Fantasy, Fairyland Catherynne M. Valente is a sleeper nod for the title of my favorite author. She combines the vocabulary of China Meiville with the storytelling sensibilities of Neil Gaiman and Philip Pulman’s eye for children’s adventure. And in my previous review of her Fairyland series, I compared her favorably to L. Frank Baum, C. S. Lewis and Lewis Carol. But what I think most impresses me about […]