https://youtu.be/hZGIqxieCRU Necrod is a place of nightmares vanquished and persevering. This city, covered by the "eternal greenish gloom" of its necromiasma, makes for the central locale in Gareth Hanrahan's The Sword Defiant, an ambitious and trope-defying fantasy novel that will appeal to fans of Tolkien, role-playing gamers, and fantasy enthusiasts well outside those two groups. If... Continue Reading →
Tsalmoth is an exciting new addition to the perennial urban fantasy series Vlad Taltos.
https://youtu.be/H14T15uIspU Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga has gained the status of a modern classic over its publication between 2017 and 2021. I haven't read it yet, and so can tell you, hand over heart, Untethered Sky is a triumphant introduction to Lee's work. Chock-full of compelling characters, this novella exudes a love and respect for... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/ClaEXVuFo4Y Eskara Helsene has been many things: an angry teenager, the victim of brainwashing and abuse, queen and villain and an enemy to the gods themselves. In Death's Beating Heart, she aims for the stars by trying to save the world from Sevorai's nightmarish hunger, Norvet Meruun. The issues with that are numerous: first among... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/9OJ8tWgmLQA K. J. Parker is a master of voice. His Siege Trilogy accents this mastery, providing the reader with narrators with personalities large enough they threaten to drown out most other voices. How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It, the middle book in this trilogy, has to contend with a difficult task:... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/tiysvCXILfw Another fast-paced novella courtesy of Alastair Reynolds, Slow Bullets makes for one of those reads you can't step away from. After reading the first scene in the library, where I picked this title up, I sat down in the evening and didn't stop reading until there was no more Slow Bullets left to read.... Continue Reading →
Because all you needed was another Unsouled review https://youtu.be/RAVjoVfBWMI How about literature as comfort food? Sometimes you need to unwind in-between serious, demanding reads, to lose yourself in a world whose stakes, while not low by any means, don't hit quite as deep as they otherwise might. For me, Unsouled, the first book in Will... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_MExqxvyY I delight in the way in which time travel paradox is rendered across the 173 pages of Alastair Reynolds' Permafrost. This novella is the kind of read that engulfs you, covers you in a sheet of ice that won't let go until you're well and clear; but I assure you, even with its covers... Continue Reading →
Series: The War Eternal by Rob J. Hayes (#4)Genre: Dark FantasyDisclaimer: Received a copy of this a little before release for review. https://youtu.be/XOl0i-BmGWg What a ride! The first three books of Rob J. Hayes's War Eternal series make for some of my favourite dark fantasy reads. Protagonist Eskara Helsene was many things in those books:... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/E0bqVRouLjo You can read this review here.
The Grimoire Reliquary 