Django Wexler invites us back into the story of siblings Gyre and Maya with another epic fantasy adventure story in Blood of The Chosen. I have to say I found this read just as engaging and fun to read as it’s predecessor Ashes of The Sun. If you’re looking for a solid fantasy series to dip into, you won’t go wrong with the Burningblade & Silvereye.
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I’ve returned to the world of Fonda Lee’s The Green Bone Saga and let me tell you it was such a good experience! Jade War is just as engrossing as it’s predecessor Jade City, but now on a more global scale. I previously described Jade City as being a “vivid, gritty, gangster fantasy.” Well, Jade War doubles down on that description and throws in some serious character and plot development ensuring it doesn’t fall into that dreaded sophomore slump, but instead stands up and carries the torch for this series as it continues on to the next installment in Jade Legacy.
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September is Self-Published Fantasy Month! This is the fourth year for this event and the first time I’m not participating as an admin/host. Thankfully there’s a great team filling in this year to keep the event going better than ever.
Since I won’t have the opportunity to review many self-pub books this September due to…all the damn reasons, I thought I’d repost some reviews of self-published fantasy I’ve really enjoyed previously. Because really the whole point of Self-Published Fantasy Month is to celebrate self-pub books and authors, and what better way to do that than shouting about them repeatedly year after year to anyone who will listen?
So this begins the first in a series of reposts I plan to upload between now and the end of the month. These will be copies of the original review, updated slightly for formatting. The first is for the book I credit with getting me hooked on self-pub…Gedlund, by William Ray.
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I’m often at a loss when it comes to figuring out what I want to say in a review. This is especially true when a book and/or an author just utterly and completely wows me with story, and language, and craft. We’ve all been there right? Our minds firing off all these little snippets to use but you can’t string them together into anything coherent when the time comes to post a review. That’s been my experience with anything and everything I’ve read from Sarah Chorn. Her latest novel, Glass Rhapsody is no exception to this phenomenon. As with the rest of the Songs of Sefate series, Glass Rhapsody gutted me….it continued to work away at a wound opened with Of Honey and Wildfires, but, it healed as well. It worked at that wound, cleaned it up, and let me recover. This series is an emotional experience as much as it is a story, one that carries you through the pain to redemption and recovery on the other side.
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Sometimes a book is the perfect read that comes at just the right time. Anthony Ryan’s The Pariah was such a book for me. I’d been in a reading slump for weeks. I just couldn’t bring myself to read anything at all. The book I had been reading was really, really good, but every time I sat down I just couldn’t get in the mood. I finally finished it, took a couple extra days off from reading, then picked up The Pariah because I realized the release date would be upon me soon. I was riveted from page one! I read it in a matter of days, staying up late every night to finish as much as possible. I know there are a few months left, but let me tell you, The Pariah is one of my top reads of the year!
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Yesterday my SPFBO 7 review for Demons, Ink by Clayton Snyder went up over on Before We Go Blog. This was my selection from my initial batch of books to move on to the next round in the team’s selection process, and the first selection for the team as a whole. We may end up with 9 or 10 books in that second round and from those we’ll narrow it down to a few semi-finalists, and then a finalist.
Anyway, I enjoyed this read and hope you’ll check it out. Click below to be taken to to the review.
As always if you don’t know about SPFBO it’s an annual contest hosted by author Mark Lawrence with 300 self-published fantasy books/authors split between ten judges or judging teams that will eventually work it’s way to a final winner. Check out the SPFBO Webpage for more details and the SPFBO 7 Page for more on this year’s books and judging teams. I hope you’ll follow along!
I’ve been quiet here lately but it’s not because I’ve quit reading or reviewing, I’ve just been doing it over at Before We Go Blog for #SPFBO.
You’ll be seeing more regular reviews from me here soon. I’ve got some reviews for some Orbit releases coming and some self-published fantasy that ISN’T a part of the contest I’ll be posting about.
But in the meantime here’s my review for A Time of Ashes by Ru Pringle for #SPFBO in case you missed it. It was my second cut for the contest.
https://beforewegoblog.com/spfbo7-cut-review-a-time-of-ashes-by-ru-pringle/
The blurb for this book reads, “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whatever.” And that’s kinda how I feel about this book…”whatever.”
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Sometimes a book doesn’t hit you like you thought it would. For some books that means you’re in for a grand surprise and it just blows you away in unexpected ways. For others it means it fell flat and you have to ask yourself is it the book or is it me and my personal tastes that are to blame. Son of The Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa is one of thse books that didn’t hit me like I thought it would, and unfortunately it was the latter example of it falling somewhat flat. There were some compelling elements I liked and others that just didn’t stir me in any way. I’ll try to be fair to what the book did and didn’t accomplish for me as a reader.
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I’ve finally made it to the end of The Chronicles of The Bitch Queen. It’s been an emotional and intimate journey with Queen Talyien as she penned her story, and it would be an understatement to say I enjoyed it. Tali’s narrative has become a new favorite fantasy series, with a new favorite protagonist, and with K.S. Villoso as a new favorite author. If you’re looking for compelling and complex characters in an epic non-western fantasy setting I recommend you give this series a chance.
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