Tag: scifi-fantasy

When I joined netgalley back in 2012 I thought ARCs were sent in a manner similar to that of LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I didn’t realize that many of my requests would be fulfilled and it rapidly spiraled out of control. They ask for a reviewer to strive for an 80% feedback ratio rate. I’ve been writing to claw my way to the upper twenty percent and it’s a challenge when there’s always the siren call of new books!

My goal is to clear through the backlog of over 193 titles that I’ve yet to review, I have read 23 of them and will focus on those reviews first. There are an additional 35 books that I’m either already working my way through or will be soon. The benefit to being slow is that I can now check many of these out from the library and enjoy them in a wider range of formats from real paper to audiobook.

Here are three fantasy titles I’ve reviewed recently that I recommend. Please note that I received an eARC of these titles from NetGalley in exchange for a review. The FTC wants you to know.

The Overneath

by Peter S. Beagle

I’m new to Beagle’s writing and over the past few years have enjoyed several of his novels both recent and canon. I love a good short story and was curious if he was skilled in the telling of that form as well. Every entry in this fantasy collection is masterful. If I had to choose a favourite it’s a three-way choice between “Music, When Soft Voices Die”, “The Story of Kao Yu”, or “The Way it Works Out And All”. These three have stayed with me the longest after reading. As I read I felt the power and magic in each word Beagle chose.

The Rules of Magic

by Alice Hoffmann

Hoffman crafts a bewitching remedy for love in the story of the Owens siblings. Franny, Jet, and Vincent navigate the intrigue, promise, and heartbreak of New York. An invitation begins their life anew under the watchful eye of their Aunts one fateful summer. This is an enchanting story braiding magic, prose, characters, and intrigue.

I also recommend Practical Magic which picks up where this leaves off.

Hunter (Hunter #1)

by Mercedes Lackey

I am one of those readers that will grab a new book by a favourite author as quickly as I can. This is especially true for Mercedes Lackey.

This first book in the Hunter Series is a bit of a challenge as it often feels similar to many post-apocalyptic dystopian YA novels. However, there are many aspects that will make this series enjoyable for certain readers.

Joyeux is a Hunter, confident of her skills, but reluctant to be called to Apex, the center of power. She’s wary to be constantly in front of cameras showing off what she does to protect the post-disaray citizens. The subtle linguistic word choices can be annoying to read in print, until one stops to think of how such a linguistic shift could happen if there was such significant technological upheaval.

For Joy as a character, the first book was frustrating for this adult to read. I wanted to smack her a few times and was thankful when her hounds gave her some much needed info. Yet at the same time, I could see a YA reading this novel and worrying about her future: what would moving to college be like, should she participate in social media as she gets to be older, what is popularity and at what cost? Love? Family? Friendship? Education/training? As for plot, yes it can feel that Lackey visited a dystopian plot generator, but that’s ok. It’s a fun splurge read.

I have now read the entire trilogy and while it was predictable in many ways it was fun to listen to while I knit on the couch late at night instead of watching yet another sitcom rerun.

While I love to curl up with a nice big novel, sometimes I want a quicker read. I recently enjoyed three fantasy stories of different lengths, Naomi Novik’s novel Uprooted, Larissa Brown’s novella Tress, and Anthony St. Clair’s novelette The Martini of Destiny. Read More about a novel, a novella, and a novelette

Today everyone can finally read the conclusion to Deborah Harkness‘ All Souls Trilogy, The Book of Life. I was very lucky to receive an early copy through NetGalley. It’s been difficult knowing the conclusion to the series and not being able to share it with anyone so I persuaded Teabird to request a copy so I could talk about it with someone without risk of spoilers!

Is this series worth your time? Yes, though I know it’s not a series for all readers. It is (mostly) contemporary fantasy novel with vampires and other creatures. Don’t worry, the vampires aren’t shiny (though they are sexy).

The books include every hook to catch me and make me want to read them, do I really need to spell it out?

• It’s the story of Diana Bishop, a woman who through childhood tragedy turned her back on her heritage and worked hard to be the successful woman to whom we are first introduced.
• It’s the story of Matthew Clairmont, a man of intrigue and secrets who loves against the odds.
• It’s the story of a rare book with a complicated past that will influence the future.
• It’s the story of a society on the cusp of change where tradition and secrecy have long been the rule.
• It’s the story of location, location, location: Oxford University, France, and London (among other places).

I highly recommend rereading both Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night before jumping into this final book for the trilogy. Upon receiving my e-copy of this third volume, I jumped straight in and while it was enjoyable, I found that having my memory refreshed by rereading the first two books before the conclusion increased my enjoyment of the middle volume and clarified people and places I encountered on the way to the end.

You can find some of my thoughts about The Book of Life at GoodReads. If I can ever figure out how to write a fiction review without fearing spoilers I’ll revise it.

I highly recommend this trilogy and think you should set aside time to read it all at once. It’s fun indulgent reading and I look forward to reading more of Harkness‘ work.