Torture Cinema Poll #2 for 2016: What should we watch next?
You know the drill! Vote away.
Book Review: The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde
Fran Wilde’s debut novel Updraft was a New Weird Secondary World story about growing up, finding one’s place in the world, and soaring on the winds around towers of bone. Her newest effort, The Jewel and Her Lapidary, shows how broad her talents are with a story about the end of empire, and how the last member of a dynasty comes to terms with her world’s destruction and transformation, and what she can find deep inside to survive. The world of The Jewel and Her Lapidary is of a remote valley kingdom where members of the royal family, together with their lapidary courtiers who complete the design needed to be able to make use of the magical jewels, have long stood in safe isolation. When greed and betrayal shatter that protection, and the valley is overrun, the jewels that hid the valley, and the palace, and could move mountain and river are no longer defenders and tools, but prizes to be won.
