Browsing all articles in Reviews.
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
I first discovered magical realism in twelfth grade, when my English teacher assigned us to read One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was a wonderful book – and still is – but I wasn’t quite sure how to define it. It was definitely historical, even if I couldn’t quite figure out exactly where in history […]
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
My first introduction to The Man in the High Castle was not in printed format – I first watched the adaptation that Amazon produced. I was intrigued by the concept of an alternate reality where World War II culminates in the triumph of the Axis powers. The first season of the show was gripping and […]
Empire of the Dead by Phil Tucker
Gilgamesh meets Oceans 11 meets The Walking Dead. As much as I raved about Phil Tucker’s Chronicles of the Black Gate, you would think I would’ve jumped at his Empire of the Dead, book one of the Godsblood Trilogy. You would be wrong. Partially. I actually one-click bought the book when it first came out, […]
Candy by Lavie Tidhar
“A long buffet table on the other side was laden with sweet pastries, chocolate and cream, in flagrant violation of Prohibition. They must have been brought in from out of town. I was shocked to see them there, but only for a moment. I’d already known not all grown-ups played by the rules – even […]
The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French
In my review of Phil Tucker’s The Siege of Abythos, I felt like that guy at a sports stadium, trying to start the wave, in my attempt to make the hashtag #TrollsArePeopleToo go viral. No such luck. Well, in honor of Jonathan French’s Big-5 release of The Grey Bastards, I’m going to try again with […]
Albion Online – First Impressions
I started playing MMOs back when Ultima Online (UO) was only one world, when a red name struck fear into my heart and my armour consisted of a death shroud, my weapon a Katana, and a couple of black pearls in my pack. Oh, and an escape recall rune – sometimes running was the best […]
The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi
Originally written in Japanese and published in 2006, this edition of The Beast Player is translated by Cathy Hirano. At the heart of this book is a coming of age story but there is so much more to it than that. Set in a fictional fantasy world, the story starts when a young Elin’s life […]
Golden Age by James Maxwell
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them meets 300. No, not, really. James Maxwell’s Golden Age shares only two things in common with JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: you can find them (the books) at the top of Amazon’s Bestseller Lists and both tell us where to find fantastic beasts. (Confession: […]
Age of Assassins by RJ Barker
Coming-of-age books are quite common these days, so are the books containing assassins as protagonists in fantasy, so how does a book combing these two themes actually fare? RJ Barker proved that it can work out rather brilliantly. It just needs what every great novels need: strong and interesting characters, unique magic system and worldbuilding, […]
Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu
The second in the new series published by Penguin called DC Icons, these YA novels take a look back on the teen lives of popular DC heroes. The ground was safely and greatly broken by Wonder Woman: Warbringer, which I reviewed in January. Nightwalker, handled with care by the author of the bestselling The Young […]
Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck
With Jagannath, I return to two genres I have visited in earlier reviews: short stories and Scandinavian fiction. One of my very first reviews for this site was a collection of speculative fiction set during the Age of Discovery, dealing with subjects as varied as the invention of a new sort of clock to Darwin’s […]
Jordskott: Seasons 1 and 2 – TV Series Review
How far would you go to protect your child? Would you destroy a community? Commit genocide? Kill another’s child? On the Swedish urban fantasy crime drama Jordskott, the answer to these questions is often yes. Jordskott could be described as The Killing meets Trollhunter. It begins when Eva Thörnblad (Moa Gammel), a troubled police detective, […]
