Rating: 5/5 Summary: Yelena is about to executed for murder. In Ixia when you commit a crime, your punishment is essentially the crime itself, kind of like an eye for an eye. There are no excuses. When the guards come to retrieve her, she is taken to Valek’s office, the Commander’s assassin and spymaster. He gives her a choice: be executed now or serve as the Commander’s food taster. As the food taster, Yelena could be poisoned at any meal and die anyway. Yelena is […]
YA fiction based on The Magic Orange Tree
Do y’all follow Book Riot for recommendations? If not, you totally should. I have found so many great reads off their lists, particularly YA. They posted one the other day, A Reading List For Everyone Now Obsessed With Strangers Things (which I haven’t watched yet but know that I will). I borrowed a bunch from the library, and started with Tracey Baptiste’s The Jumbies. It’s aimed a bit younger than I normally read, but I still really liked it — and I love that I never would […]
Almost Too Classic Fantasy
I usually avoid contemporary high fantasy that makes the best seller lists, but I needed travel reading. I gotta admit, I was pleasantly surprised. I actually liked The Elfstones of Shannara. The post technology and human domination seemed a little pointless as it went undeveloped which was too bad, but the traditional elf, human, troll, Druid, witches, magic, battle, journey elements were all well used. There are 2 basic plots. One is the quest undertaken by Wil Ohmsford and the elf princess Amberle. The interesting […]
Typical Gaiman
On an unrelated note, I’m now passing my goal of 26 books reviewed this year. Go me :) American Gods has been on my list for a long time, and it did not disappoint. Neil Gaiman knows how to write. The basic premise isn’t too complicated: Shadow is released from prison just as his wife dies in a cars crash. He meets the mysterious Wednesday who offers him a job. He finds out his best friend Robbie who was giving him a job also died […]