The Reviews To Come to the Reliquary in April 2020

With everything going on in the world right now, I find myself forced to write something like this in the hopes that I’ll keep to a stringent posting schedule, over here and at booknest.eu both.

Giant Days Vol. 01 by John Allison

This slice of life has a female version of me as one of the leads and I LOVE IT. It’s one of the most enjoyable comic books I’ve come across and an engaging read that lets me unwind. I’ve got thoughts about it, with pictures! It also has the most relevant message I’ve come across in print media regarding this crisis (despite the first volume’s release years ago):

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

This alternate history take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula has no right to be as much fun as it is! What if Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker and co. had failed in their attempt to kill the Wallachian Count? Most of them are now dead, except for John Seward. Meanwhile, Dracula’s plans to spread vampirism have come to fruition, and then some – he is now the Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, and rules over the British Empire with a bloody fist and plenty of impalements.

It’s ridiculous fun in the way only alternate vampire history which manages at once to imitate Victorian literature’s language while being far more engaging.

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick’s novels are a guaranteed mind fuck. Don’t look at me like that’s a new piece of information you’re only now finding out about, it’s true! Ubik is about reality and our relationship with it, it’s about its malleability, and it’s the most the author’s tapped into existential horror – at least in my experience. Ubik‘s ending is unsettling and disconcerting to no end; it’s been four months since I was done with it, and yet…there’s no moving past something like that, my friends.

Traitor’s Blade by Sebastian De Castell

I listened to the audiobook version half a year ago and still I’ve not reviewed it! Deep disappointment plagues me over this one; it’s an excellent novel and the adventures of Falcio val Mond and his fellow Greatcoats deserves plenty of wonderful words of praise. It made me feel like I was a kid again, reading my copy of Duma’s The Three Musketeers. No wonder, as it draws inspiration from that timeless classic.

The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman

This novel is less a work of fantasy than a piece of philosophical fiction which makes use of fairy tale and fantasy conceits to great and powerful effect. The references in this book are numerless and run deeper than I’ve the knowledge to appreciate them. Books like this one, I am scared to review.

Carter’s opus is a brilliant work of postmodernist fiction with a powerful feminist message.

Mythos by Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry compared the titan Atlas to a Bulgarian weightlifter. Five out of five.

Blood of Empire

The closing chapter of one of my favourite series – fantastic, but with a rushed climax. I am having difficulty scoring this one.

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill

I ❤ dragons. I ❤ tea. I </3 society.

2/3?

Good enough!

theartiswonderfulandilovethepremise

Welp, those are the books I’ve read that need reviewing. What about the ones I’ve yet to read? Gulp, there’s a lot of work to be done.