Posts tagged with fantasy
Tricks for Free, by Seanan McGuire
This is a unusual thing to say about the seventh book in an ongoing series, but Seanan McGuire's Tricks for Free surprised me. This story is much different in tone and content from McGuire's previous installments, but plenty entertaining in its own right...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Tricks for Free, by Seanan McGuire
This week's Book Giveaway is Tricks For Free, the seventh book in Seanan McGuire's wildly entertaining InCryptid series. After a brief but welcome detour into non-sexy cover art, my mother will be disappointed to see that the cover model is back to a bulging, ripped tank-top, but one cannot have everything...
Not convinced, but worth a try
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America recently released its nominees for the 2017 Nebula Awards (which are awarded to the best sci-fi novel, novella, novelette, and short story of the year, as determined by professional authors). The Verge published the list of nominees...
PIGOONS!
Variety informs me that a TV series adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy is in the works at Paramount Television and Anonymous Content. This isn't the first attempt at adapting this material (Darren Aronofsky was previously working on an adaptation of the novels for HBO—thankfully we've been spared that), but...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Renegades, by Marissa Meyer
This week's Book Giveaway is Renegades, the first book in a new series by the Lunar Chronicles' Marissa Meyer. I was never as emotionally invested in the Lunar Chronicles as I hoped to be, but I'm assuming this new series won't be so visibly cobbled together from outside sources (specifically, fairytales and Sailor Moon), so that might help. A full review will be posted later this week...
At least it's not Tolkien
The trailer is out for the upcoming movie adaptation of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines, which will be directed by Christian Rivers, but...
High-concept
There's an article over on io9 about Every Day, the upcoming movie adaptation of the bestselling novel by David Levithan. The article's author is (justifiably) wigged out by the idea of the book—it's a romance between a teen girl and a body-swapping entity—but I'm...
Might work, might not
According to Deadline, Netflix has acquired the movie rights to John Scalzi’s space opera Old Man’s War, the first novel in the six-book series of the same name. The production has been in stuck in development limbo...
Labyrinth, expanded
The Mary Sue recently posted a very positive review of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth 2017 Special #1, a collection of short comics about minor characters from the classic 80s fantasy. I'm not usually a fan of movie novelizations, but Labyrinth is different...
Red Sister, by Mark Lawrence
Let me start with a word of warning: Mark Lawrence's latest fantasy novel Red Sister is really, really violent. Scenes include (but are by no means limited to) the execution of a child, the torture of an older woman, and the fatal beating of an animal. There's a lot to admire about this book, but readers with delicate sensibilities should take heed...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Red Sister, by Mark Lawrence
This week's Book Giveaway pick is Mark Lawrence's Red Sister, the first installment in his new Books of the Ancestor fantasy/adventure series. I'm only a few chapters in, but thus far things are looking promising (albeit massively grim). A full review will follow shortly...
A Spoonful of Magic, by Irene Radford
I frequently evaluate books like recipes, and it feels particularly appropriate in the case of Irene Radford's new novel A Spoonful of Magic, as it's a story filled to the brim with cooking. Unfortunately, while this particular literary recipe has some interesting ingredients, the finished product is a big ol' mess...
Weekly Book Giveaway: A Spoonful of Magic, by Irene Radford
This week's Book Giveaway is Irene Radford's latest novel, A Spoonful of Magic. I haven't even opened it yet, but the cover art features a smorgasbord of all the stuff I need to get through what is turning out to be an extremely wet, blustery day: a plaid shirt, glitter, and the suggestion of potential baked goods. A full review will follow shortly...
Seems like a solid pick
There's an interview over on Slate with Lin-Manuel Miranda about his next big project: adapting Patrick Rothfuss's epic fantasy series The Kingkiller Chronicles into a TV show for Showtime...
Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero
Edgar Cantero's novel Meddling Kids is clever, creative, and funny. It is also profoundly self-indulgent and only occasionally creepy. Individual readers' mileage will vary, based on their tolerance for pointless stylistic quirks and their love for the book's many pop-culture sources...
The House of Binding Thorns, by Aliette de Bodard
Aliette de Bodard's The House of Binding Thorns is the sequel to last year's The House of Shattered Wings, a book I described as “more The Godfather than... sword-and-sorcery adventure”. In this installment, a handful of characters from the first book are still struggling to survive the mafioso-style wars between the various Houses of Paris...
The Empty Grave, by Jonathan Stroud
For the past five years, I have welcomed every fall with a new installment of Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. series. I don't know what cutesy name to give to the autumnal equivalent of a “beach read”, but that's totally what these books are—the perfect reading choice as the weather gets gloomier and we all start craving Halloween candy...
Midnight Riot, by Ben Aaronovitch
I originally bought Ben Aaronovitch's book Midnight Riot because I had heard it compared to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim books. Midnight Riot doesn't actually have much in in common with those series, however. It reminded me far more of Kat Richardson's Greywalker books, although Aaronovitch deserves props for creating a protagonist with an actual personality...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Midnight Riot, by Ben Aaronovitch
This week's Book Giveaway is Midnight Riot, the first book in Ben Aaronovitch's PC Peter Grant series. While you're (no doubt breathlessly) awaiting our review, I recommend reading this post about the controversy surrounding the original US cover art, which has since been replaced with the artwork featured here. Nice call, publishers...
Ash and Quill, by Rachel Caine
Ash and Quill is the third installment in Rachel Caine's The Great Library series. In these books, the world's knowledge is jealously hoarded by the all-powerful Great Library. Caine's protagonist is a book smuggler-turned-Great Library soldier named Jess Brightwell. Jess and his small band of allies have recently escaped from the Library's clutches, but soon find themselves in an even worse situation...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Ash and Quill, by Rachel Caine
This week's Book Giveaway is Rachel Caine's Ash and Quill, which, as it happens, is not the final book in a trilogy. (If I had known this ahead of time, my expectations might have been... different.) A full review will follow shortly...
I approve of the cover, at least?
Pajiba recently posted an update on the forthcoming A Discovery of Witches TV series, based on the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. The show is being adapted by Bad Wolf Television (a company run by two former Doctor Who producers), will star Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer, and the...
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire
After reading the laundry list of awards won by Seanan McGuire's 2016 novel Every Heart a Doorway, I was expecting something spectacular. What I got, sadly, was a stylishly packaged novella that is long on atmosphere but distressingly short on plot, payoff, or fully-developed characters...
A Conjuring of Light, by V. E. Schwab
A Conjuring of Light is the third and final book in V.E. Schwab's bestselling Shades of Magic series. At this point in the story, the relative safety of Red London has shattered. Kell, Lila, and their allies are confronted with the seemingly limitless powers of Osaron, a being of pure magic determined to bend the world of Red London to his will...
Weekly Book Giveaway: A Conjuring of Light, by V.E. Schwab
This week's Book Giveaway is V.E. Schwab's A Conjuring of Light, the third book in a somewhat over-hyped series that has, however, been blessed by the cover art gods. A full review will follow shortly...
Just Dreaming, by Kerstin Gier
This is damning with faint praise, but Just Dreaming, the final book in Kerstin Gier's Silver Trilogy, is less of a hot mess than the finale of her previous series. So things are looking up (I guess), but Gier is still relying on the appeal of her lively, funny heroines to ease readers past...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Just Dreaming, by Kerstin Gier
This week's Book Giveaway is Kerstin Gier's Just Dreaming, the final installment in her Silver Trilogy. I usually find Gier's books equally fun and frustrating, so we'll see if this story manages to land firmly in one camp or the other. A full review will follow shortly...
The Case of the Forked Road, by John Allison
The Case of the Forked Road, the seventh installment in John Allison's excellent Bad Machinery series, is—as always—a whacked-out delight. There's time travel, puberty jokes, and a PG-rated adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross. The boys play a reduced role in this volume (although their stories are expanded from the online version), but...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Case of the Forked Road, by John Allison
This week's Book Giveaway is John Allison's The Case of the Forked Road, the seventh book in the Bad Machinery series. I am, as always, pretty stoked to see a new Bad Machinery book, but there are certain very obvious changes about this installment that do not thrill me. A full review will follow shortly...
Overdue
WHAT IS THIS? A new book in Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series?!? It's been so long since her last book (2010's A Conspiracy of Kings) that I will have to completely re-read the entire series, but this is still GREAT news. The Queen's Thief is one of my all-time favorite YA fantasy series, and the only thing that...