What I’m Reading: Vultures

I’m starting my third read of the year, and once again it is for a book tour hosted by my friends at Storytellers On Tour. If you don’t know about @sot_tours check them out. They are a blog and Bookstagram tour service dedicated to sharing their love of indie fantasy and science fiction novels. This will be my fourth “tour” as a “roadie” with Storytellers On Tour and I’m really, really excited. The tour is February 7 – February 13, and I’m posting on February 11, but I want to be sure to get the book read and the review written with time to spare.

So what am I reading? Well…it’s Vultures by Luke Tarzian.

What I’m Reading: Rise of One

I’m starting my second read of the year, and this one is for a book tour hosted by my friends at Storytellers On Tour. If you don’t know about @sot_tours you should check them out. They are a blog and Bookstagram tour service dedicated to sharing their love of indie fantasy and science fiction novels. This will be my third “tour” as a “roadie” with Storytellers On Tour and I’m pretty excited. The tour is January 31 – February 6, and my day is February 2, but I wanted to be sure to get the book read and the review written with time to spare.

So, what am I reading for this tour? Well…It’s Rise of One, by Dixon Reuel.

Short Fiction Review: Mr. Death

I don’t normally review short fiction but I do hope to change that in 2021. Why? Well, because short fiction can be utterly amazing and move you to tears. Some of my new favorite authors are those I first came across because of their short fiction. One of those authors is Alix E. Harrow whose short story “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Short Compendium of Portal Fantasies” from issue 105 of Apex Magazine won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

Harrow has written a number of short stories the last few years and I eat them up. Her latest, “Mr. Death” comes in the recently relaunched Apex Magazine issue 121. For those who don’t know, Apex Magazine went on a hiatus in 2019 due to health issues experienced by its editor-in-chief. After a Kickstarter campaign in 2020 the zine has been relaunched with 6 new issues coming this year. The first issue (no. 121) dropped last week.

Book Review: Jade City

I’m always nervous to start reading a book that I’m also going to review when that book has already received gobs of praise from other readers. I’m always worried that it will be a letdown for me and I’ll be that one guy who craps on what everybody else loves. Thankfully, in the case of Jade City this isn’t the case.

Jade City is a vivid, gritty, gangster fantasy. I seriously enjoyed this read.

Book Review: The Space Between Worlds

A beautifully written character driven story about place, belonging, and inequality that left me yearning for more. I can’t express how much I truly just fell into this novel, like sinking into a warm comfortable bed and never wanting to leave it.

What I’m Reading: Kings of Paradise

It’s time for my first read of the new year! One thing I love about this time of year is the feeling that everything is new and you can start fresh. When it comes to reading this feeling is like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I can start my Goodreads Challenge over, and I’ve got a clean reading slate.

Sort of.

Until I remember all the books on my TBR and the ARCS I’ve committed to reading. Which brings me back to this first read of the year…

Top Reads of 2020

It’s that time again…the time when all the book bloggers are posting their year end, best reads of the year. So yeah, I have to add my batch into the mix. 2020 sucked in so many ways, but for me it was a really good year for reading. I enjoyed the vast majority of the books I read, and there were only a very few I didn’t. I still feel like we are experiencing that new golden age of science fiction and fantasy with so many great books to choose from both in traditional publishing or from indie/self-published authors and I hope it never ends.

So here it is, my top reads of 2020. Note, this is my list of top reads of 2020, meaning it is a list of my favorite books I read during the year, not necessarily my favorite books published in 2020. I managed to read 42 books this year (exceeding my Goodreads Challenge) and this list comprises those I rated as 5 Stars. I’ve arranged them in order the they were read.

December 2020 Indie/SelfPub Book Haul: Set 3

Saturday I hauled a bunch of books. Like 17 books. Now my TBR that was already a mile high and ready to collapse is just a heap on the floor. I blame Twitter.

You see on Saturday the kind folks over at r/fantasy hosted a 2020 Holiday Megasale. It was a one day only sale with over 100 authors and 250 titles all of which were free or just $0.99 each. And all of them were indie/self-published authors. So naturally I had to buy some because that’s what one does. I ended up with seventeen books for just $3.00 which was a steal.

I’ve been a slacker about Book Haul posts the last few months but I really wanted to put this one together because I love supporting indie/self-published authors as much as I can. So for the next few days I’m gonna post a handful of the books I hauled and why.

I posted Set One on Monday, and Set Two yesterday. Here’s the third and final set…

December 2020 Indie/SelfPub Book Haul: Set 2

Saturday I hauled a bunch of books. Like 17 books. Now my TBR that was already a mile high and ready to collapse is just a heap on the floor. I blame Twitter.

You see on Saturday the kind folks over at r/fantasy hosted a 2020 Holiday Megasale. It was a one day only sale with over 100 authors and 250 titles all of which were free or just $0.99 each. And all of them were indie/self-published authors. So naturally I had to buy some because that’s what one does. I ended up with seventeen books for just $3.00 which was a steal.

I’ve been a slacker about Book Haul posts the last few months but I really wanted to put this one together because I love supporting indie/self-published authors as much as I can. So for the next few days I’m gonna post a handful of the books I hauled and why.

I posted Set One yesterday. Here’s set number two…

December 2020 Indie/SelfPub Book Haul: Set 1

Saturday I hauled a bunch of books. Like 17 books. Now my TBR that was already a mile high and ready to collapse is just a heap on the floor. I blame Twitter.

You see on Saturday the kind folks over at r/fantasy hosted a 2020 Holiday Megasale. It was a one day only sale with over 100 authors and 250 titles all of which were free or just $0.99 each. And all of them were indie/self-published authors. So naturally I had to buy some because that’s what one does. I ended up with seventeen books for just $3.00 which was a steal.

I’ve been a slacker about Book Haul posts the last few months but I really wanted to put this one together because I love supporting indie/self-published authors as much as I can. So for the next few days I’m gonna post a handful of the books I hauled and why.

Here’s set number one…