Started: 11/23/18
Finished: 11/27/18
Young adult novel with a little time travel, a little magic, and some linked narratives. Mostly set in East Germany in the late 80s, which is a setting I don’t think I’ve ever read before. Pretty good!
Started: 7/29/18
Finished: 8/7/18
Really good, really interesting, but a little tough to start. Once I was in, though, I was all the way in. The magic is super weird but in a good way, and at the same time, this is set in our future.
Started: 7/17/18
Finished: 7/21/18
I’m really not sure if I liked this. It was interesting, and there’s an open question about the abilities the kid had (Did he actually have them? Did those things really happen?), but aside from that, it’s about a teenager, his relationships, and his eating disorder.
Started: 7/4/18
Finished: 7/4/18
I’m not sure I liked this novelette. The magic was odd, the setting was interesting, but I didn’t get enough background or explanation to get into the story.
Started: 6/17/18
Finished: 6/23/18
First book in the October Daye series. I love all things Seanan McGuire, so it’s no surprise I enjoyed this. There are at least 10 books in the series already, and I’m looking forward to reading them all. Fairies, detectives, alliances, set in the present day. My cup of tea.
Started: 6/13/18
Finished: 6/15/18
This is silkpunk, which I believe is Asian steampunk, with some tech, some magic, a twin fated to die with the other determined to save them both. It’s an intro to the author’s novel-length series, but I’m not in a hurry to read those. Good, but not for me.
Started: 6/4/18
Finished: 6/7/18
This starts out kind of like a Beauty and the Beast story, but it gets weirder fast and in a very good way.
Started: 5/29/18
Finished: 6/2/18
Thieves and heists and magic and adventure. What’s not to like? I mean, when the writing is good. As it is here.
Started: 5/23/18
Finished: 5/26/18
There’s a secret society whose members steal rare books from all the universes to store in the invisible library between the universes. Sounds awesome. The execution was not awesome. It was okay and sometimes interesting, but I felt let down.
Started: 5/20/18
Finished: 5/22/18
Third in the Enchantment Emporium series. The world is actually ending. What can the family do to stop it? Let’s find out!
Started: 5/17/18
Finished: 5/20/18
Second in the Enchantment Emporium series. We take a step away from the family and focus on one character and selkies, which was a surprise. Fun, but not as fun as the first.
Started: 5/13/18
Finished: 5/17/18
First in the Enchantment Emporium series. Intro to the family who takes care of the world, largely with a lot of infighting, power grabs, and squicky incest. That last bit was a surprise and a pretty big departure from other Tanya Huff novels. The story was good – one of the family is trying to carve her own path (and find her grandmother, who is missing) – but this series isn’t my favorite by this author.
Started: 2/19/18
Finished: 2/25/18
Sequel to Green Rider (which I read back in Jan/Feb 2017). Good fantasy, good sequel. I found it relaxing after the pressure of reading new/unusual fiction (like The Stars are Legion – SO WEIRD).
Started: 2/17/18
Finished: 2/18/18
Lovely novella about lesbians in 1940s San Francisco with a little bit of magic.
Started: 1/14/18
Finished: 1/15/18
It was interesting and not at all what I expected and I LIKED it but I didn’t love it. A kid and a teenager and a demigod and some sentient robots in South Africa.
Started: 1/13/18
Finished: 1/14/18
I was a little hesitant at first – Russian fairy tales are not my favorite – but I flew through this book and loved every page. Great characters, great story, and the imagery, the descriptions made it so real. I don’t like flowery descriptions, and these definitely weren’t – there was just enough, written clearly, that I felt like I was watching a movie. I could SEE it all.
Started: 1/10/18
Finished: 1/13/18
It’s probably cliche to say so, but The Power is powerful. Roles get flipped, and a lot of that feels viscerally real. As a novel, though, I’m not sure I’d call it great. It feels like an experiment, especially in the framing device – a meaningful experiment, to be sure. It’s just that the novel part of the story feels somewhat unresolved.
Started: 1/4/18
Finished: 1/10/18
SO GOOD. First in a trilogy, with a heroine who has actual flaws and actual worries and actual feelings, and MAGIC. So much magic.
Started: 1/1/18
Finished: 1/1/18
Creepy novella written by the author of the hippo cowboy stories. Really good. Not related to hippo cowboys in any way.