I have been reading a lot this year, and nearly all the books I have read have had me thinking about being used and being of use. Daniel O’Malley’s excellent Stiletto, which revisits the Checquy and it’s collection of supernatural government servants, fits right into this pattern. For those who have not read The Rook, the background here is that Britain has a entire government agency made up of agents with mysterious powers, ranging from people who increase the fertility of those who surround them […]
“…do something to a cadaver, it will do something back to you.”
I have yet to be disappointed by a recommendation from the NPR best books concierge, and Three Moments of an Explosion may be my favorite so far. A collection of sometimes sci-fi, sometimes fantasy, sometimes horror short stories, Three Moments starts with a base of a very realistic world, and adds in each of its stories an element of something beyond, something more magical or sinister. The stories in the collection typically start with or are based in a real object, or a regular person, that has become corrupted […]
Death Doesn’t Discriminate
Life is cruel and life is kind; sometimes it gives and other times it takes. Life is one side of the coin and death is the other. There are the living and there are the dead and then there are the ones trapped in between.
Book 1: Malazan Book of the Fallen
When I was looking for new books to try, my friend recommended Morden’s Metrozone series and the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Of course, the Metrozone series veered off the rails for me, but I am buying what Erikson is selling here. Plus, Canadian! I started reading this on the plane to Hawaii, and although I had been warned by both my friend and Erikson’s foreword, I was surprised at how this book just drops the reader right in the middle of a very […]
Everfair – Using steampunk to reimagine history
At some point this fall when visiting the bookstore, the cover of “Everfair” caught my eye. It went on my book wanted list based on the cover art and quote, “A book with gorgeous sweep, spanning years and continents, loves and hates, histories and fantasies… Everfair is sometimes sad, often luminous, and always original. A wonderful achievement. – Karen Joy Fowler”. The pairing of the mechanical and human hand with an intricate metal globed lamp between them suggested to me that this would be steampunk. […]
Sleeping Beauty, Environmental Warrior
Beauty is a complicated fantasy novel about fairy tales, feminism, environmentalism and the end of the world. It involves fairies, angels, humans, and time travel, and places a heavy emphasis on darkness vs. light, on creativity and destruction. There is a whole helluva lot going on, sometimes maybe more than the author can handle, but author Tepper, who died last year (because of course she did, it was 2016), certainly demonstrates great passion for her subject matter. The novel begins in 14th century Westfaire with […]
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