3.5 stars Vhalla Yarl is a librarian apprentice living in the huge central library in the capital of the Solaris empire. The empire has been at war for ages, trying to conquer the lands in the north and through this conquest uniting the whole continent under one power. One evening, there’s a state of emergency declared, one of the princes has been injured, and all the librarians are needed to help research a possible cure. Remembering how the younger, charming prince, known colloquially as “The […]
A reluctant superheroine
Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn was fantastic! This is the first novel in a new series about Evie Tanaka, personal assistant and best friend to San Francisco’s number #1 superheroine, Aveda Jupiter. They have been BFFs since they were kids when Aveda was only Annie Chang. They were obsessed with a Michelle Yeoh action flick, “The Heroic Trio”, where martial arts heroes battled The Evil Master. It inspired Aveda to become a hero in real life even before a demonic portal opened up in the […]
Another great entry in the delightfully weird and difficult to categorise Craft Sequence.
Like the Terra Ignota Series, I was first Introduced to Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence novels via The Hugo Awards. And like Terra Ignota, I’m going to start my book reviews with a book that sits right in the middle of the series, with book six. While The Ruin of Angels is told from an increasing number of viewpoints as it progresses, the narrative can be split into roughly two branches. The first branch follows Kai Pohala, who was the protagonist of a previous Craft book, […]
Adventures in magic
This review covers book 1 & 2 of the Magisterium series, which is another spin on the magician schooling of young people. It comes with the inevitable comparisons to Harry Potter, but other than having two boys and a girl as the main characters, there’s not a lot that is similar (at least in my eyes). The Iron Trial introduces us to Callum Hunt, who really has no desire to become a magician, or mage, as they call it. His father has in fact insisted […]