Superheroes Struggle with Going Public in the Comic Book-Inspired The Nobody People
In any society, the idea of what constitutes “normal” is completely arbitrary—a thin veneer of consensus under which human beings…
Ardialspach
Discover the Layers of Language in The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
As the saying goes, “there’s nothing new under the sun,” and that goes double for storytelling. Even the most original…
Save Humanity: Read Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers
Some books offer a reader a window into cultural and political feelings of their time; reading them helps us understand…
Happy Birthday, Mercedes Lackey: An Ode to Valdemar, and the Books That Changed My Life
Yesterday was the 69th birthday of author Mercedes Lackey, a woman whose work literally changed my life. I want to…
Christina Henry’s The Girl in Red Is Not Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf
Christina Henry, the author of the Black Wings urban fantasy series, has, in the past several years, shifted her focus…
Magic and Myth Come Alive in Katherine Arden’s The Winter of the Witch
Katherine Arden’s stunning Winternight Trilogy, which began with The Bear and the Nightingale, continued in The Girl in the Tower, and…
Charlaine Harris Answers 7 Questions About Her New Book An Easy Death
After introducing us to Sookie Stackhouse and exploring the weird goings-on in Midnight, Texas, Charlaine Harris ventures into a whole…
Charlaine Harris’s An Easy Death Starts a Wild New Supernatural Adventure
Fans of Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels (the inspiration for HBO’s True Blood) will find familiar pleasures in her new…
No Heroes, Only Vicious Villains, in V.E. Schwab’s Superhero Epic Vengeful
In the years since the publication of her adult debut novel Vicious in 2013, Victoria “V.E.” Schwab has leveled up…
The Mere Wife Gives Grendel’s Mother Her Due
The Mere Wife is Maria Dahvana Headley’s second adult novel, following the two YA fantasies, Magonia and Aerie, and it…
V.E. Schwab Gets Positively Villainous in Vicious
A Darker Shade of Magic, the first book in V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy, was published in 2015, one…
The Wolf Is Ferocious Epic Fantasy Debut
Epic fantasy is the fiction of my heart. Yet as much as I love it, it’s often tough to find…
A Singular Steampunk Heroine Makes a Triumphant Return in Stone Mad
In 2015, Elizabeth Bear’s Karen Memory introduced a singular voice in the steampunk genre: the title character, former prostitute-turned-independent woman Karen…
The Sky is Yours Is a Marvel of Post-Apocalyptic Satire
Chandler Klang Smith’s debut novel The Sky is Yours, is exactly thing you’re looking for, if the thing you are looking…
The Girl in the Tower Is an Enchanting Tale of Magic and the Bravery of Women
Vasilisa “Vasya” Petrovna is a woman at odds with her era. She lives in feudal Muscovy at a time of…
Andy Weir’s Artemis Is a Lunar Adventure Packed with Science and Mayhem
Andy Weir’s debut novel was met with the kind of reaction that is typically the stuff of fiction—plucked from obscurity,…
The Trials of Solomon Parker Is a Darkly Philosophical Weird West Saga
If you read Eric Scott Fischl’s brilliant debut, Dr. Potter’s Medicine Show, and expect the follow-up to offer more of…
Masted Ships of Air…and Space!
What happens when you cross Patrick O’Brien’s Master and Commander with magic, alchemy, steampunk, alternate history, fairy tales, and impossible…
An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors Is an Epic Mystery for the Musketeer in All of Us
An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors, the first novel by Curtis Craddock, is a delightful debut, drawing from the tropes…
The Five Daughters of the Moon Is a Fairy Tale for the Revolution
A few years ago, I read Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente, and ever since, I’ve been pulled in by the…