Guys, I waited sooooo long to read this. I originally put it on hold at my library SIX MONTHS AGO. It was “on order” for five of those months. I waited so patiently. And then one day I got an email from my library informing me my hold had been canceled, because they couldn’t find a copy of the book to buy for the library’s collection. BOOOOOO. Hisssssss. So I ordered it through interlibrary loan and waited another month. And then it arrived! There was […]
Here be dragons, spoilers, and much rambling
Man, these books have been so much more fraught than I expected. I thought the first one had whiny unlikeable good guys and over-the-top-evil bad guys. I only read the second one because I’d already bought it. The good guys got better in that one, but so did the bad guys! I railed against unearned redemption arcs and wished for bloody vengeance. The third book did not deliver everything I wanted, but it did make me think. Teenaged Malta reminds me of Sansa Stark. She […]
Let the Wentworthing Begin
I have been wanting to check out Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series for a few years now. It checks my dragons and alternate history boxes of interest. While reading, I shared my enthusiasm for the first book of the series on Facebook. Malin shared that she hadn’t been as enchanted because the book focuses more on the military maneuverings than on the dragons. This is a legitimate complaint, but not one I had. I had immediately pictured our hero, Captain Lawrence, a naval captain reluctantly turned […]
A Steampunk Necromancer Solves a Murder
Jonathan L Howard’s second novel featuring the necromancer Johannes Cabal is set in a steampunk world. One of the things I really like about this series is that each novel is set and told in a different style, like Ray Bradbury (novel 1-Johannes Cabal the Necromancer) and HP Lovecraft (novel 3-The Fear Institute). The novel opens with Cabal unsuccessfully trying to steal a rare book containing secrets of necromancy. He manages to escape by infuriating and dueling his interrogator, then steals the identity of a […]