Tag Archives: fantasy

Review: Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

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5 Stars | Received as an ARC via Netgalley.

I saw the blurb for Shadow of the Fox on Goodreads, and my first question was: “How much like Inuyasha is this book?” Another reader answered that it had similarities but otherwise not at all…

First thing first, I loved this book and I want more, now. Secondly, it is incredibly like Inuyasha, except maybe written by someone who saw an episode once and then gender swapped all of the characters. No time travel, but the main character is a half yokai (nature spirit/demon) who is on a journey with their cursed budding love interest to find ancient artifact pieces, which, when reassembled, will grant the bearer a wish. Sound familiar?

Yumeko, who is half kitsune (fox spirit), was raised in a temple by monks, and is generally fox-like and mischievous, until an oni (greater demon) destroys her home and she runs off to protect this scroll fragment from falling in the wrong hands. She meets Tatsumi, who is a demonslayer from the Kage (Shadow) clan, the bearer of the sword Kamigoroshi (god-slayer), which is in danger of possessing him if he feels feelings. As you may guess, he meets a girl and starts feeling feelings. Along the way the two gather a ragtag band of misfits/warriors and have episodic adventures…including a run in with a wind witch *coughKaguracough*. Predictably, nearly every male character they run into is charmed by Yumeko. Oh, also they meet a miko (priestess) who distrusts yokai…

Now, to defend Julie Kagawa, a lot of the tropes and folklore elements in both Inuyasha and Shadow of the Fox are common, not to mention how much more depth into the historical (albeit) fictional setting of Iwagoto readers get. In addition, the journey is an almost universal trope in literature the world ’round. Kagawa does a great job of creating likeable characters that aren’t half as annoying to read as some anime and manga characters I’ve seen. I loved this book.

Despite my adoration, I’m very curious to hear and read the reviews of people who picked up the book having no cultural frame of reference. Descriptions of clothing, architecture, and certain customs might be entirely lost on someone who didn’t spend their childhood-adolescence, and, let’s admit it, chunks of their adulthood watching Japanese TV, or has not studied the language. I say this because I’ve read books set in other cultures and time frames and was lost without the cultural frame of reference (e.g. Russia, . This is not something I feel I have the authority to criticize Kagawa for, as I am not Japanese and Shadow of the Fox was completely accessible to me. Can you tell I’m trying very hard not to sound like one of those insufferable anime geeks?

Anyway, read this book.

What I’m reading: Jo Walton, mostly.

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Among Others by Jo WaltonToday I completed my 2018 Goodreads reading challenge! I was looking over the books I’ve read this year, and  it occurred to me that I haven’t been blogging about them much, if at all. I’ve discovered a number of fantastic books, and I need to yell about them more, obviously.

Have you ever heard of Jo Walton? If yes, we are in a fight, because you didn’t tell me about how WONDERFUL she is. I read Among Others about a month ago and I haven’t been so joyfully wrapped up in a book in ages. Each page was like a discovery, an old friend newly met, and like a really good lucid dream. Walton, like my all-time favorite author Diana Wynne Jones, is originally from Wales, and while I wouldn’t say they write alike, they both are certainly masters of creating a conscious, enthralling narrative.

The Just City by Jo Walton

It’s sort of like when you meet someone who just gets you. I could gush for days and years, but I am on the third book of Walton’s Thessaly trilogy, and I’d rather be reading that, honestly. The first book, The Just City, is about Apollo and Athena’s involvement in gathering scholars and philosophers throughout history, plunking them on an island, and trying to set up Plato’s Republic in reality. While I’m not personally a huge fan of Plato, or The Republic, I do love philosophy, and there are so many historical figures that are transported to the island, and Walton does an incredible job with this premise.

Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

In other news I’ve been reading Seanan McGuire’s Incryptid series, which I’d always stupidly written off because of the cover art (I am stupid). I assumed it was a cyberpunk series, and I was dead wrong. It’s about a family of cryptozoologists, and how they study and protect sentient and animal fantastical creatures. So good. The series jumps around in viewpoints from the different members of the Price family. Antimony is my favorite viewpoint to read, but Verity’s adventures are what start the series, and she is a pretty cool character too.

There are tons of other books that I need to blog about, but these are the ones that have been stuck in my brain lately.

Advance Review: Furyborn (Empirium #1) by Claire Legrand

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Furyborn (Empirium, #1)Furyborn by Claire Legrand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world…or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable–until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world–and of each other.

Furyborn starts out with magic, intrigue, and the earthly/human and heavenly/angelic realms colliding. The story sets up slow, spanning a thousand years, and absolutely not pulling any punches. Fans of The Queen of The Tearling will enjoy this book, but it requires patience and the investment of your curiosity in a series that is only just beginning.

I liked this book (thanks Netgalley!), but I have to be honest, it took me entirely too long to figure out what the heck was going on (as evidenced by my Goodreads update at 20%). There are so many story elements that are set up quickly, and the plot spans quite large, jumping back and forth between character viewpoints is a bit dizzymaking.

I didn’t love the protagonist, Eliana Ferracora, mostly due to the inconsistency in her nature – which is deliberate, I’ll argue, and hints at future growth. Also the way her name is pronounced is the way people always mispronounced my friend Eylyana’s name growing up. So that is my bias. Rielle is set up to be unlikeable as well, in my opinion.

I’m not dying to read the next book, but I certainly am very curious to see where this saga takes its readers. Not a solid four stars. Maybe like 3.75.

Review: Caraval (Caraval #1) by Stephanie Garber

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Caraval (Caraval, #1)Caraval by Stephanie Garber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Remember, it’s only a game…

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval…beware of getting swept too far away.

Enchanting and fun, much like the game of Caraval is supposed to be.

This book reminded me a great deal of the Capri parts of Ellen Raskin’s Figgs & Phantoms, a young adult book mired much more firmly in reality. This book is a fairy tale murder mystery, and was really fun to read. I couldn’t put it down. I am looking forward to the sequel: Legendary.

Anyone interested in fantasy books with a bit of romance, and the allure of the carnival/traveling show/theatre/mystery-type books will enjoy it. I would also recommend it to fans of high stakes YA game settings, such as The Hunger Games, Mask of Shadows, and Throne of Glass.

Mermaids in Wheelchairs

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Mermaid drawing by deviantart user boobookittyfuck. So my friend posted this thing and I was like, guys, there are already tons of books like this? Then my stupid internet browser at work ate my comment, so here I am!

Okay so:

First, specific recommendations based on the above, and then just general “look, fantasy books that are doing the damn thing.”

Mermaids in wheelchairs:

  • Deadshifted by Cassie Alexander (Edie Spence #4). The character is actually a siren, if I remember correctly, but she has a tail. This is the least exciting book in the series in my opinion. The first book is about a night nurse in a supernatural ER ward. There are shifters and vampires and mysterious multidimensional entities, oh my!
  • One Salt Sea (October Daye #5) by Seanan McGuire. See below for the first book in the series. **added 01/12/18

Sirens using sign language:

  • High Demon and First Ordinance series by Connie Suttle. The characters are by and large villains in this universe, but there is one in particular whose vocal cords were damaged intentionally and he uses telepathy and sign language to communicate. Trigger warning: Suttle’s books contain a lot of violence and misogyny and her characters are largely disempowered women with massive trauma issues. Many attain power and status and resolution later, but it didn’t sit well with me.

Religious vampires:

  • Blood Rights (House of Comarré series #1) by Kristen Painter has a vampire named Preacher who lives in a church.
  • In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes also has several characters who have to reconcile their religion and their vampirism. There are honestly so many more but these are the ones that immediately came to mind.

Disabled fairies fighting for accessibility:

  • The Hollows series by Kim Harrison. The pixies in these books have to fight for fair wages and anti discrimination. Also Jenks is just an all around fun character.
  • Rosemary and Rue (October Daye series #1) by Seanan MacGuire also deals with this, delving even more into drug abuse, and racism.
  • A Kiss of Shadows (Merry Gentry #1) by Laurell K. Hamilton. Although in this series the fairies are disabled mostly as a direct result of violence inflicted on them by a twisted and sadistic society or three.

Spirits fighting fires and saving people from natural disasters/situations that are too dangerous for the living:

  • Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires series #1) by Rachel Caine.
  • The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (though more so as the series progresses).
  • Grave Witch by Kalayna Price. The ghosts in this series are more bidden than selfless, but they are present!
  • Shadowland (The Mediator series #1) by Meg Cabot. Kind of. Again, more bidden and subjective rather than a ghostly task force.

Fae snatching children from abusive homes while changelings wreak havoc:

  • Seanan MacGuire again, October Daye.
  • Trailer Park Fae (Gallow and Ragged series #1), by Lilith Saintcrow. This series is so so so good!

Liberated genies using their powers to fight for human rights:

  • Oracle’s Moon by Thea Harrison. This is a romance novel and doesn’t have much plot to speak of. Mostly the Djinn is just horrified at the poverty this hot witch is suffering through, but I like this series, each of which can be read as standalone novels.

Psychic doctors, psychologists, teachers, etc:

  • Calderon’s Fury (Codex Alera series #1) by Jim Butcher. All of the healers in this world are also empaths.
    This is actually a really common element in urban fantasy, so it’s very odd that I am otherwise drawing a blank.

I didn’t get into a couple of the suggestions: shapeshifters with stretch marks is weirdly specific and I’m positive there are hirsute female shapeshifter protagonists with normal, stretch-marked bodies, but it isn’t treated as a point of contention or mentioned. Let me know in the comments if I mentioned any of your favorite, or if there are any I should check out!

I’ll leave you with a strong, genre subverting recommendation which is an awesome, 5 star read: In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan. Excerpt:

“What’s your name?”

“Serene.”

“Serena?” Elliot asked.

“Serene,” said Serene. “My full name is Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle.”

Elliot’s mouth fell open. “That is badass.”

The Borderlands aren’t like anywhere else. Don’t try to smuggle a phone or any other piece of technology over the wall that marks the Border—unless you enjoy a fireworks display in your backpack. (Ballpoint pens are okay.) There are elves, harpies, and—best of all as far as Elliot is concerned—mermaids.

Elliot? Who’s Elliot? Elliot is thirteen years old. He’s smart and just a tiny bit obnoxious. Sometimes more than a tiny bit. When his class goes on a field trip and he can see a wall that no one else can see, he is given the chance to go to school in the Borderlands.

It turns out that on the other side of the wall, classes involve a lot more weaponry and fitness training and fewer mermaids than he expected. On the other hand, there’s Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, an elven warrior who is more beautiful than anyone Elliot has ever seen, and then there’s her human friend Luke: sunny, blond, and annoyingly likeable. There are lots of interesting books. There’s even the chance Elliot might be able to change the world.

Thanks for reading!

Series recommendation: I Bring The Fire by C. Gockel

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It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, not for a lack of material, but because I’m lazy. This series demands recognition though, and I am totally floored that such an engrossing, imaginative, intricate story hasn’t become a sleeper sensation among fantasy readers.

Set in the US in the present, but spanning millennia and ages, I Bring The Fire incorporates mythology into a modern fantasy story. Many cultures are represented, in both the myths and mythological creatures that appear in the duration of the series.

The first book opens with veterinary student Amy Lewis driving home to Chicago during a vet school break. She gets run off the road by a serial killer and her unwitting prayer for help is heard by Loki, the trickster god of Norse legend.

Pretty much anyone who has enjoyed seeing gods and legendary figures in the media, The Avengers, for example, will enjoy the portrayal of Loki, his dynamic with Amy, modern America, as well as Thor, Odin, Mimir, and Hoenir. There are action, adventure, romance, and more myths than you would think possible all woven into this series. I’ve considered myself fairly knowledgeable about mythology in the past, but the depth of narrative and characterization Gockel has incorporated in the plot is very impressive. There are also some cool twists and adaptations of the traditional stories, like Baldur being completely different than in retellings.

Any fans of Jim Butcher, Rick Riordan, Ilona Andrews, and the expanded Marvel universe will probably get a kick out of these books.

Review: Heirs of Grace by Tim Pratt

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Heirs of GraceHeirs of Grace by Tim Pratt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recent art school graduate Bekah thought she’d hit the jackpot: an unknown relative died, and she inherited a small fortune and a huge house in the mountains of North Carolina.

Trey Howard, the lawyer who handled the estate, is a handsome man in his twenties and they hit it off right away-and soon become more than friends. Bekah expected a pleasant year to get her head together and have a romantic fling. Problem is, the house is full of junk…and siblings she didn’t know she had are willing to kill her for it.

More important, the junk in her new house is magical, she’s surrounded by monsters, and her life seems to be in mortal peril every time she ventures into a new room. As Bekah discovers more about her mysterious benefactor and the magical world he inhabited, she’s realizes that as tough and resourceful as she is, she might just be in over her head…

Heirs of Grace is a tale of family and magic, action and wonder, blending the strong heroine, cheeky humor, and dark fantasy that have become the hallmarks of Tim Pratt’s writing.

Sound the alarms, I’ve found a new author to obsess over! Tim Pratt did such an amazing job with this book, I really can’t emphasize that enough.

Such a good book! It combines all of the elements of a book I’d love to read into a perfectly executed mélange of I-want-to-read-this: The South, big old magical inherited houses, cool objects of power, female protagonists that are kick ass, etc.

Tim Pratt writes like Ilona Andrews and Diana Wynne Jones had a beautiful, witty, male, also-writerly baby. Bekah, the protagonist, is so refreshing. It’s strange to say that I loved a female character written by a man so much more than any female characters I’ve read written by anyone else, recently, but I really did. Granted, men have been writing good female characters for the entirety of human history. It’s just rare, like most excellent things.

Also, the setting of the story being in and around Boone, North Carolina was just funny, because one of my best friends in Denver lived there and talks about it every now and again, so I feel like I know it.

Also, I had a fun exchange after the laugh I got on the second page:


The old woman gestured vaguely at me. She was wearing white gloves, which fit her general level of dress, but seemed better suited to high tea or church than general sitting around. She clarified: “Are you [so]me kind of Mexican?” That was a new one. Sometimes on forms I check “Other” and sometimes I check “Pacific Islander” and often other people mark me down as “Black” (which my adoptive parents are, and almost certainly some of my biological ancestors, too), but I’d never been self- or other-identified as “some kind of Mexican.” Welcome to the South, I guess. I hadn’t spent much time in this part of the country, and the first person I spoke to in my temporary new home wasn’t making me look forward to future human interactions. “Sure,” I said. “Some kind of Mexican. Buenos días and vete a la chingada.”  

I laughed so hard I had to call my coworker Val over to laugh with me.
Me: “Wouldn’t it be ‘va te a la chingada?'”
Val: “I don’t know, I don’t really write in Spanish.”
Me: “Well how would you tell someone to go fuck themselves?”
Val (with a completely straight face): “Go fuck yourself. You gotta say it so they understand.”

Val is great. Anyway, you should read this book. It probably won’t change your life but you will probably like it and laugh at least once. I almost never laugh at books. I think Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher and JK Rowling are the only other writers who have ever made me laugh. Pratt has a series about a woman named Marla Mason which I intend to start reading immediately. Well, immediately after the 37 other books I have waiting in the wings. We will see which priority wins out.

Review: Tell The Wind And Fire

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Tell the Wind and FireTell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In a city divided between opulent luxury in the Light and fierce privations in the Dark, a determined young woman survives by guarding her secrets.

Lucie Manette was born in the Dark half of the city, but careful manipulations won her a home in the Light, celebrity status, and a rich, loving boyfriend. Now she just wants to keep her head down, but her boyfriend has a dark secret of his own—one involving an apparent stranger who is destitute and despised.

Lucie alone knows of the deadly connection the young men share, and even as the knowledge leads her to make a grave mistake, she can trust no one with the truth.

Blood and secrets alike spill out when revolution erupts. With both halves of the city burning, and mercy nowhere to be found, can Lucie save either boy—or herself?

Celebrated author Sarah Rees Brennan tells a magical tale of romance and revolution, love and loss.

Full disclosure, I have never read A Tale of Two Cities. I KNOW, I should, and I’ve lost some Brit Lit cred in your eyes. This book is a fantasy retelling of the Dickens novel, set in an alternate future where Dark and Light magic have torn society apart, to the point that the two cities are vastly different parts of New York.

The protagonist, Lucie, differs from the Dickensian Lucie Manette in that she is the central figure and the narrator. She also has a lot of dark secrets. For being 17 in the book, Lucie is incredibly mature, and very socially adept. She is famous on both the Light and Dark sides for being “The Golden Thread in the Dark,” a symbol of hope and devotion, and also of resistance.

The romance between Lucie and Ethan Stryker, the son of one of the most important men in the city, is a constant source of conflict and drives most of the plot. Despite this, the emotions she carries didn’t become cloying, in my opinion, although it did seem a bit unrealistic that a 17 year old could be so steady and self aware.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has read A Tale of Two Cities, and those who have not but would be interested in a female protagonist with an unwavering focus.

Advance Review: Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

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Mask of Shadows (Untitled, #1)Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class—and the nobles who destroyed their home.

When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand—the Queen’s personal assassins, named after the rings she wears—Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge.

But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.

My short, to-the-point review is that Mask of Shadows was good, but it was trying too hard. Not in reference to the plot and writing, not at all! Linsey Miller cooked up an interesting world, an entertaining plot, and one of the most memorable, ultra immersive romances I’ve read in quite a long time. Unfortunately, what could be one of the most interesting aspects of this book, the gender fluidity of Sal, the, protagonist, is thrown into the mix in a strange way.

Sal’s nonbinary gender is almost nonchalant for a character who grew up in the streets. There’s a strange unreality to a character growing up with such an impoverished, desperate background not having experienced any discrimination for not conforming to a gender expectation, which would lead a reader to ask if the society in which the character lives has a general acceptance for nonconformists. This question isn’t addressed in Mask of Shadows; at least, not in a clear way. In addition to being sort of unscathed by society in regard to gender, Sal is remarkably well-spoken, to the point that Elise, the love interest, remarks upon it. Sal quickly puts Elise in her place, by calling out her assumption that Sal couldn’t be articulate, rather than addressing the unlikeliness of a street kid attaining an education while trying to stay alive and conduct a life of petty crime. I have to take a step back and acknowledge that yes, this is a fantasy world, therefore the society, from bottom to top, can operate any way the author dictates. The issue then is that it’s not clearly dictated. Miller is a good writer, and subtle, but the choices Miller made in choosing not to replicate the way human societies in reality work makes it difficult to relate to as a Eutopian goal. The reader is shown a great deal, but not told a whole lot, and in this one particular aspect it hinders the book. In every other sense, Miller’s style and writing are super.

The romance between Sal and Elise was really enjoyable to read. It’s difficult to really nail down the roiling emotions of a crush but Miller does it perfectly. The romance is also not a terribly huge part of the plot, not the entire focus of the protagonist’s arc. It’s just a nice, delightful little detour in the the otherwise action packed plot.

Very similar to Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass, Sal and a number of other hopefuls are competing to be the monarch’s assassin.The competition takes place at a royal estate and there is murder, intrigue, and mayhem. Sal is kind of disappointingly good at everything, having never done much of what she learns before. The other competitors are unfortunately not very likeable nor are they easy to get attached to. Miller does make it feasible that Sal might lose and not become one of The Left Hand, which was believable enough to me to make me want to find out how the plot ends.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the competition plot, books that go light on the fantastical aspect while still incorporating elements of the genre, and strong, non-entirely-masculine characters. Disclosure: I received an ARC of Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller from the publisher via NetGalley.