fantasy book review Archives - Page 3 of 4

Hills of Heather and Bone book review

While well-written, Hills of Heather and Bone is a fairly standard on a conceptual level with its magic system and core plot revolving around necromancy and magical persecution. There’s some neat bits of creativity where the bones house the memories of the dead, and the necromancers must record or honor those memories in exchange for […]

The Dragon Bone Chair Book review

The Dragon Bone Chair is well written (if potentially a bit dry) with an excellent main character arc in Simon. Simon’s growth is slow and believable, with him starting out as dreamy and a bit scatter brained and evolving in more than just competence but in tangibly maturing as well.But I also found the book […]

Foundryside Book Review

FOUNDRYSIDE I thoroughly enjoyed FOUNDRYSIDE. With over 40,000 ratings on Goodreads, it boasts a solid 4 star rating. The magic system is complex in it potential (and spectacularly used in a variety of innovative and unique ways throughout the narrative) but simple to understand and with enough restrictions and rules to […]

Up Jumps the Devil book review

My thoughts on Up Jumps the Devil are complicated; The story is well written, sometimes beautifully so, with strong, complex characters, and a wonderful mystic/fairytale quality to many of its scenes and descriptions; it is also a mix of a longer narrative interjected with flashbacks and short-stories about the devil’s interactions with famous historical figures […]

Starfall book review

Starfall is a book that will appeal to a specific type of reader; huge effort was devoted to developing the world in which the story takes place, both in the environment, the technological setting, and how the characters interact with these, the various subspecies, and the cultures of the various nations. The Soonayhin culture and […]

The Fall is All There Is book review

There is a lot of good in The Fall is All There Is. The prose and characters are solid, the fantastical elements of the world building are interesting and unique with their frakenstinian technology and the way it handles its ghosts/specters, and the book depiction of autism feels both immersive and authentic. But the book […]

This Charming Man book Review

If you liked the first book, which I did, you’ll like the sequel as the recipe is unchanged. Baincroft is a joy to read, and other other characters remain likable with their moments of comedy sprinkled throughout.There’s some more world building in this book, expanding our understanding of the setting, but its fairly superficial with […]

Zeus is Dead book review

I listened to this on audio book and the narrator does a fine job, but nothing special.Zeus is Dead started weak for me; the humor didn’t quite land and largely felt like the same joke with different words (zanny comment and reference), and its main format being the author commenting often comes across as intrusive. […]

Where the Shadows Beckon Book Review

I found Where the Shadows Beckon well written and fun. The pacing is quick, but steady and well balanced with a good mixture (and variety) of action scenes counterbalanced by character interactions and narrative scenes.The characters themselves are likable with strong individuality despite their number, and generally have good chemistry. (Their interactions, and several other […]

Noryslka Groans Fantasy Book

NORYLSKA GROANS BOOK REVIEW From page one Norylska Groans expertly immerses the reader in its setting, from the brutal drudgery of working in that time period, to the cold, to the Russian theme of the book, and even the noir theme. The result is an immersive and somewhat depressing read. The pacing […]