I hardly need to say this, but a new Ishiguro novel is a huge deal. It’s been over ten years since his last novel, with only a brilliant collection of short stories in-between to tide us over. The Buried Giant is set some time after the death of the great King Arthur, in the midst of the dark ages, and this strange cultural gap allows him to play with reality and legend in a fluid way. There is a peace of sorts between the two […]
Baby, I’ll bake you a neutron bomb
This is a hard book to review without tons of spoilers. Things that have been building since the first book come to a head and are (mostly) resolved. I’m going to be coy and talk around things because I want you people (yes, I said “you people” and you know who you are) to have the joy of discovery. And People, you should be discovering Sandman Slim. If you are thinking about investing in a series of audiobooks this year, I highly recommend the Sandman […]
Good vampires, bad vampires, and half vampires
I’ve been steadily working my way through the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead ever since I got sucked into the first one. Hmmm…let me clarify, the books are fun and quick reads. The part of this process that is slow is getting the books from the library. There’s not a huge waitlist, but there also aren’t too many copies. Blood Promise (2009) is the fourth out of six novels about Rose Hathaway, a dhampir (half-human and half-vampire), her best friend Lissa (a nice vampire with […]
Brandon Sanderson goes meta.
So the other day, B-Sand just decided to drop this surprise novella on us, and SURPRISE, it was surprising. I downloaded it immediately. I went into it blind, and at first, I wasn’t really very into it. It takes a little bit before you have your bearings enough to realize that no, this isn’t just yet another magical world he’s created with yet another magical system that didn’t seem all that distinct. I was particularly worried when his narrator (a first person narrator) starts talking […]