Review of Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey
Jacqueline Carey’s latest novel, Miranda and Caliban, is inspired by William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and narrated from the perspectives of the two titular characters. It’s largely a prequel since the majority of the book focuses on their childhood and young adulthood on the isle, but the end does follow events in the play with some embellishment. Most of the main plot points from The Tempest remain the same, although Miranda and Caliban’s thoughts and motivations are quite different from the original presentation. […]
Review of Dreams of Distant Shores by Patricia A. McKillip
Though I read far more novels than short stories, I was first introduced to World Fantasy Award-winning author Patricia McKillip’s work through her fantastic collection Wonders of the Invisible World (my review). I was utterly enchanted by her spare but beautiful prose, characters, and themes and also impressed by the vast range of her stories: not only were they a mixture of genres including high fantasy, contemporary fantasy, a fairy tale retelling, and science fiction but they also ran the gamut […]
Review of A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston
A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston is a loose retelling of the framing story from One Thousand and One Nights. Although it stands alone, a short sequel titled “The Garden of Three Hundred Flowers” is available as a free ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and a novel taking place generations later named Spindle was released toward the end of 2016. Regardless of A Thousand Nights seeming complete on its own, I do want to read both of these other […]
Review of The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard
Nebula Award–winning author Aliette de Bodard’s The House of Shattered Wings, the first Dominion of the Fallen novel, won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel and was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. A sequel, The House of Binding Thorns, is scheduled for release in April. The Great Houses War left Paris in ruins. Those who are fortunate belong to a House backed with magic and power that can protect its members. Most Houses are ruled by […]
Review of The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman
Note: This review contains what some may consider to be a spoiler for the first book. If you’d prefer to go into the first book without knowing the true identity of one of the characters until it’s revealed, you may want to avoid reading further and read my review of the first book, The Invisible Library, instead. The Masked City is both Genevieve Cogman’s second novel and the second installment in the Invisible Library series—and it is every bit as delightful as […]
Anticipated 2017 Fantasy and Science Fiction Book Releases
One of the most exciting parts of a new year is looking forward to all the new books it will bring—upcoming installments in favorite series, stories written by esteemed authors, and novels by new-to-me writers that draw the eye with compelling descriptions (and perhaps a striking cover to match that enticing blurb!). There are so many intriguing 2017 releases that it was quite difficult to narrow down this year’s list to a reasonable number of books. As usual, there are a […]
