“Like I said already, I hunt monsters. And I got a sword that sings.” Ring Shout is an action-driven historical novella that combines horror with the kind of anime that have magical swords & monsters-posing-as-humans in them. The story takes place in Georgia during the 1920s and follows a group of black women who hunt […]
MoreThis is the third novella I’ve read by P. Djèlí Clark and once again I find myself loving his building but not his story or characters. This novella is set in an alternate 1912 Cairo where djinns and angels are the norm. world happens to be the home to djinns Egypt, . In an alternate […]
More“Bindings are for desperate people. People who can’t go anywhere else.” Surprising, occasionally frustrating, and relentlessly sad, The Binding never seemed to reach its full potential. I was genuinely intrigued by the premise (an alternative history in which book binders get rid of people’s ‘bad’ memories?) even if I know that the whole ‘memory-erasing’ idea […]
MoreThe Lost Future of Pepperharrow is a somewhat disappointing followup to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Having really enjoyed The Watchmaker of Filigree Street I was really looking forward to be reunited with Thaniel and Mori. Within the first chapters I had a slight sense of deja vu. The main difference between this sequel and […]
More“Under the gas lamps, mist pawed at the windows of the closed shops, which became steadily shabbier nearer home. It was such a smooth ruination that he could have been walking forward through time, watching the same buildings age five years with every step, all still as a museum”. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street mostly […]
More“IT WAS DUSK – winter dusk. Snow lay white and shining over the pleated hills, and icicles hung from the forest trees. Snow lay piled on the dark road across Willoughby Wold, but from dawn men had been clearing it with brooms and shovels. There were hundreds of them at work, wrapped in sacking because […]
MoreThe True Queen by Zen Cho ★★★★✰ 4.5 stars Now this is what I call a great companion novel. “Relations are a terrible burden to a girl with magical ability.” It’s not easy to describe this series. A mad fantasy romp? A comedy of manners? A fantasy of manners? A pastiche 18th– and 19th-century literature? […]
MoreHis Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik ★★★✰✰ 2.5 stars of 5 stars You would think that dragons + the Napoleonic Wars = entertaining story . . . yet His Majesty’s Dragon managed to be consistently boring. I was expecting something in the vein of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Sorcerer to the Crown but […]
MoreOverall:There is something aesthetically pleasing about Pullman’s daemons-populated world. There is a nostalgic yet magical vibe going-on that I really enjoy. The setting merges old-fashioned elements with more contemporary ones, and which makes for a wistful atmosphere. However, this was very much a companion novel, and, to my opinion, it could have easily been wrapped […]
MoreKaren Memory offers similar feelings as the ones experienced during a rollercoaster: it has its ups and downs but overall it is a mostly enjoyable ride. The book is named after its protagonist, Karen Memory, who narrates her past adventures with a fresh and fun voice. Her vocabulary which is full of slangs and humorous […]
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