Book Review: Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers

Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers takes a familiar idea, the fish out of water, from a distant part of a galactic empire, and updates it for a 21st century mentality and enlightened point of view. In not all, but many works past, the protagonist would be male, it’d be a patriarchal empire ruled by […]

Book Review: All Good Things by Emma Newman

I was introduced to the writing and the work of Emma Newman by means of Between Two Thorns, an urban fantasy novel. I don’t normally read much urban fantasy as a general rule, but I was taken by the small stories Newman wrote in support of the novel and that world, and by the writer […]

Book Review: Buried Heart by Kate Elliott

All good things must come to an end, and with Buried Heart, author Kate Elliott brings to a conclusion the YA Court of Fives trilogy. Talking about plot developments in the third and final volume of a trilogy is difficult and perhaps foolish to try, so I will instead discuss the essential theme of this […]

Book Review: An Alchemy of Masks and Mirrors by Curtis Craddock

In this first novel in his Risen Kingdoms series, Curtis Craddock is coming at us like the love child of Alexandre Dumas and Frank Herbert, possibly as fostered in his youth by Scott Lynch. It’s a helluva combination, and I don’t make a comparison like this lightly. If you’re a fan of any of those […]

Mining the Genre Asteroid: The Argylle Series of Elizabeth Willey

The Kingdom has a problem. A set of problems, really. An untested young prince from a family of long-lived warriors and sorcerers has to deal with magical beasts mucking about in the great Forest near the city. A rather large Dragon has appeared, threatening to cut off a road to a nearby world. A hitherto […]