fantasy

Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch

Leave a Comment

Started: 1/30/23
Finished: 3/31/24

I read the first book in this series in 2021 and liked it okay. I switched to the audiobooks for the rest of the series, and either they got MUCH much better or I just love the narrator THAT much. He really is incredible, and now I do love the series, but I am strictly on audiobook forever for these.

Yay magic, yay police procedurals, yay interesting characters and completely wacky side quests. I’ve read all 14 books and novellas. There’s more coming, and I’m waiting very impatiently.

Fourth Wing and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Leave a Comment

Started: 8/28/23
Finished: 1/10/24

Yay dragons and fighting and conspiracies and sure, some romance while we’re at it! I had a little bit of a hard time right at the beginning, but then it started moving and it was BRUTAL. I didn’t expect the deaths (it seems like a pretty terrible way to train your military – can’t they be moved into the infantry or something?), but I suppose it helped set the tone. And we have dragons with personalities! That makes me so happy.

The second book continued the story in a satisfying way, and while I wasn’t quite as devastated by the end of it as it seems the internet was (don’t they know how second books in trilogies go?), I’m very much looking forward to the third book. More stuff about the dragons, please!

Furyborn, Kingsbane, and Lightbringer by Claire Legrand

Leave a Comment

Started: 10/22/23
Finished: 12/15/23

YA trilogy with interesting (although often very confusing) magic, high-strung heroes, a completely insane and evil villain, and an occasionally baffling time-travel plot. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it.

From Blood and Ash, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, and The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Leave a Comment

Started: 9/15/23
Finished: 10/17/23

We don’t all have the same taste in books. Obviously. Sometimes I need the reminder. And it’s okay to quit even if a friend says you should read it.

Premise: pretty interesting. Plot: not terrible. Writing: acceptable EXCEPT that for reasons unknown to me (but I can’t imagine they would be convincing), she uses “vamprys” for vampires and “wolven” for werewolves. They are the SAME. THIS IS UNNECESSARY AND ANNOYING. And yet I stuck with it through three books. No more! The stakes are high, and that’s okay. The evil-doers are evil (pretty damn evil), and that’s okay. The main character has leveled up SO much and SO quickly and her upbringing was SO sheltered that this would be more interesting if she just had a total breakdown instead of rising to the occasion.

Also, I’m hesitant to take recommendations from the people who would recommend these. (I do not recommend these.) Not terrible, but not good.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Leave a Comment

Started: 9/29/23
Finished: 10/10/23

Pretty good story, pretty good narrator (for the audiobook, I mean), and the main character pretty much acted her age, which was a nice change. I mean, she still outsmarted lots of people and saved the day, but in a tolerable way. Magic and dangerous grimoires! And libraries!

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Leave a Comment

Started: 9/24/23
Finished: 10/1/23

I like plenty of fantasy and SF where the heroes save the world, but sometimes it’s nice to read something cozy, with a smaller problem to solve. The full title is “Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes”. The main character is an orc who has retired from standard D&D adventuring to open a coffee shop in a small town. Friends are made, enemies are conquered, coffee is served. It’s a really nice satisfying small story.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Leave a Comment

Started: 9/15/23
Gave up: 9/16/23

I have heard so much good about this book and this series, so I started the audiobook and quit almost immediately. Main character was TOO young/immature, all of the dialogue was too misogynistic, and maybe it gets better, but I don’t want to get through this to find out. Maybe I could deal with it better if I were reading it at my own pace instead of listening. Maybe someday I’ll try again.

Babel by R.F. Kuang

Leave a Comment

Started: 9/2/23
Finished: 9/15/23

I didn’t realize until just now that the full title of this book is “Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution”. Sounds about right. It’s an alternate history with lots to say about racism and exoticism and conspiracy. Interesting magic stuff, sometimes a bit slow, and while I don’t really want a sequel, I do want to know what happens after.

I read The Poppy War (same author’s first book, maybe?) a few years ago, and I didn’t like it at all. This is much different, much better, and makes it much more likely that I’ll read Yellowface (also acclaimed).

A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

Leave a Comment

Started: 8/10/23
Finished: 8/28/23

I read the first one two years ago, but the second and third books weren’t out yet, so I felt I should re-read this once I got my hands on the second and third books. I really enjoyed this series, but it’s pretty brutal. The kids are dealing with constant danger, their parents are mostly pretty awful, and the magic system is pretty weird. But I love the characters, and I love the author, and I’m glad I read these.

Weave a Circle Round by Kari Maaren

Leave a Comment

Started: 8/25/23
Finished: 8/25/23

I read this in one sitting, stuck on an airplane in DC waiting out weather delays and then crew change delays. It’s YA, but YA like A Wrinkle in Time, YA like Diana Wynne Jones – you know, timeless and very very good. We have semi-normal kids going through a tough time, noticing odd things around them, and then super-crazy stuff happens and they save the world, all mixed up with folklore and history and mythology.

The Iron Princess by Barbara Hambly

Leave a Comment

Started: 8/3/23
Gave up: 8/10/23

Gave this one up after a week of getting bogged down in unlikeable characters and muddy plots. How does the magic work? I don’t know, I don’t care. The wizard is a bad guy? A good guy? He used to be a bad guy, but it was for good reasons and he has repented? I’m not sure, and I don’t care. The main character is a princess (or something) and she has a double life and has to sneak in and out of her castle when she wants to lead the resistance? Meh.

Crown of Midnight and the rest of the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

Leave a Comment

Started: 3/5/23
Finished: 8/2/23

So, the Throne of Glass series got better. The writing improved, many of the characters got more interesting, and the overall story was compelling enough to keep going. I liked exploring the world and all that. I was (and continue to be) SUPER annoyed by the deus ex machina-seeming rescues that kept happening, in nearly every book (maybe all?). I know that it’s all supposed to be amazing planning on the part of our amazing magic teenage assassin-princess, but you never (or VERY rarely) see her set anything up, even mysteriously, and when you’re in her head, there is NOTHING that gives you a hint that she’s hoping her plans will work out. And when everything does work out, it’s too TA DA!

I did enjoy the rest of it, although I don’t see myself re-reading these books.

A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, and A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

Leave a Comment

Started: 2/21/23
Finished: 5/19/23

These are the rest of the ACOTAR books (so far). I’m lumping them together because I can’t remember what happens in which books. These got SO much better after the first one – the story is better, the writing is better, and I just want to spend more time with the characters. I’m looking forward to the next one, and I probably will reread them.