Category: Five Stars

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

June 20, 2019

This book is poetic, romantic, strange, and violent – a whirlwind of emotion, fear, and firsts. Two soldiers fighting on opposite sides of a war up and down through the strands of time find that their greatest joy lies in each other, and thus begin a correspondence. They are two parallel lines that never meet despite having shaped one another through each of their interactions. … More This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian

June 18, 2019

It’s a rare day that you find me reading romance, but I was heartily overdue for something cutesy, feel-good, and upbeat. Admittedly, given that it takes place in a post-war English murder village and focuses on two (very attractive) men who have been shell-shocked or otherwise hurt by the war, I don’t know that this can be wholly classified as feel-good… but I’ll be damned if watching the two of them flirt under the eye of proper English society wasn’t cute as hell.  … More Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

June 9, 2019

As someone who rarely reads novels which are set on modern day Earth, this was a change of pace for me. Oddly, it can take me out of a book a bit when I see references to Twitter, Instagram, or other social media sites, despite them being a part of my daily life. Once I got past this and adjusted my mental framework, I very much enjoyed Wanderers. It has some excellent commentary on the current political landscape that is highly relevant to modern life while also having just enough science fiction in it to keep me hooked.  … More Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

May 24, 2019

The Only Harmless Great Thing is a story of cancer, a story of martyrdom, a story of stories. It’s about love of community, love of family, and righteous anger at those who would destroy those two precious things. It’s the story of a dying woman and the elephant who tried to stop humanity from killing one another for profit. It’s beauty in prose and pain. … More The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

The Red-Stained Wings by Elizabeth Bear

May 20, 2019

The Red-Stained Wings is a delightful follow-up to Elizabeth Bear’s The Stone in the Skull. While my one complaint from the previous book still stands (LET ME SEE THE GAGE FIGHT dangit!), I was enthralled by the new events and plot points introduced in The Red-Stained Wings. Bear’s prose and worldbuilding is stellar as always, and it’s a joy to see characters you’ve been following for 500-odd pages across two books meet up and finally interact. … More The Red-Stained Wings by Elizabeth Bear

The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear

April 24, 2019

The plot and all of its twists and turns is carried lightly atop Bear’s prose.  She is not, however, pretentious in her word-weaving – far from it! I was taken by both her ability to create a glistening, crystalline scene that seemed to hold me hostage as well as her ability to drop me back down to earth with surprising grace and humor. I laughed aloud at several lines, and grinned at the wry comments sprinkled throughout the novel.  … More The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

April 20, 2019

This book ripped me apart and wrote me back together again. Alix E. Harrow’s debut novel is truly a work of art. I laughed, I cried, and I sat on the edge of my seat in suspense. January’s voice comes through each and every word – first like a gentle rain when her life is filled with upper class stability, and later like a typhoon when she must break away from the chains and preconceived notions holding her back. She wants so badly to be free, but can’t quite tear away without a push.  … More The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Los Nefilim by T. Frohock

April 15, 2019

Up until I read Los Nefilim, I had never really considered myself a fan of urban fantasy. I’ve read and enjoyed a couple one-offs, sure, but it was never a genre I actively sought out. Reading this book gave me a full-blown identity crisis. I utterly ADORED these novellas. I ate them up. They were wonderful. I loved the setting, I loved the characters, I loved the writing! I could gush for a while about these books. I currently have the sequel full length novel, Where Oblivion Lives, on order, and I can’t wait to read it.  … More Los Nefilim by T. Frohock

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

March 30, 2019

Motivated by a desire to follow after the mother who abandoned her, Gyre Price lies about her experience in order to land a lucrative cave-diving gig. Gyre anticipates a topside team that matches the quality of the gear and paycheck she’s to be given…. only to find that her crew is a single woman, known only as Em. Em has no compunctions about manipulating what Gyre sees, hears, and feels in the cave through control of her diving suit. As claustrophobia and panic settle in, Gyre finds that she can trust no one – including herself. … More The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan, Translated by Yuri Machkasov

March 23, 2019

The House is a liminal space between reality and a surreal secondary world which may or may not truly exist. It’s unclear whether the House is truly an entity, whether it’s simply a conduit for something entirely different, or if, perhaps, those who live in it have merely dreamed it all up. … More The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan, Translated by Yuri Machkasov