Women in SF&F Month starts today with a guest post by New York Times bestselling young adult author Traci Chee! Her work includes the fantasy books in the Reader trilogy—The Reader, The Speaker, and The Storyteller—and the historical fiction novel We Are Not Free, a National Book Award finalist and Printz Honor Book. A Thousand Steps into Night, her delightful Japanese-influenced fantasy novel about a girl who starts turning into a demon, was just released last month. What Makes a […]

It’s now April, and the eleventh annual Women in SF&F Month starts tomorrow! For the last decade, this month has been dedicated to highlighting some of the many women doing wonderful work in speculative fiction on this blog, and this site will be featuring guest posts by some of these writers on weekdays throughout April. As usual, they will be discussing a variety of subjects—the ideas behind their worlds and stories, the tropes and dynamics they explore, the works and […]

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound like they may be interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the […]

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound like they may be interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the […]

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Note: Although I tried to keep this review relatively spoiler free for both books in this series, it does mention some of the characters the protagonist remains friendly with after the first book. Since there is some uncertainty about who can be trusted in that one, you may prefer to read my review of The Obsidian Tower. I’ve been a fan of Melissa Caruso’s work since reading her debut trilogy, Swords […]