The Fortress of the Pearl is Michael Moorcock, in 1989, writing a book set between Elric of Melnibone (1972) and Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976). The current Elric omnibus collections put this in that space in the chronology in their reading order, while my previous video on the Elric reading order recommended reading it significantly later. Re-reading the book now, in its place at the timeline – I think my assessment is accurate, but not necessarily for the reasons that I thought originally.
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Book Review: The Warhound and the World’s Pain
It’s time to get back to Michael Moorcock (in the video reviews) with the first of the Von Bek novels.
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Nettle & Bone: Book Review
Nettle & Bone was this month’s Sword & Laser Book Club pick, and was a tremendously brisk, and very enjoyable read. It also introduced me to a variety of fantasy fiction I hadn’t encountered before – the “Grimcozy”
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Book Review: Brightness Falls from the Air
Of the past few Sword & Laser picks, Brightness Falls from the Air, by James Tiptree Jr./Alice Sheldon ended up being a bit more of a controversial pick – and I definitely get why, as it gets into some squicky subject matter, and not necessarily in an elegant way.
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Book Review: Rivers of London Books 8 & 9
It’s time to give my thoughts on the remaining 2 novels in the Rivers of London series.
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Murderbot Diaries To Date (2022): Book Review
I’ve finally gotten caught up on the Murderbot Diaries series of novellas (and one novel), by Martha Wells – after taking far too long to read them. Frankly, I honestly think I should have read the books much sooner.
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Legends of the Force Episode 43: Young Jedi Knights – Jedi Sunrise
We return to Young Jedi Knights, where the Shadow Academy Arc is coming to a head.
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The Elusive Shift: Book Review
In writing my review of The Game Wizards, I came to a horrifying realization – I hadn’t given my thoughts on the other previous sequel by Jon Peterson to Playing at the World that I’d read – The Elusive Shift. Considering that all three of these books kind of form a full narrative, I realized I really needed to rectify that situation. So I’m rectifying that situation.
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Book Review: Rivers of London Books 1-7
I’ve kinda fallen behind on the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch (at least as far as the video reviews are concerned), so it’s time to get caught up.
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The Jasmine Throne: Book Review
With The Jasmine Throne, by Tasha Suri, I’m finally getting back to being caught up with the Sword & Laser Book Club picks – more or less (November’s pick is Six Wakes, which I read a while back, so I’m using this month to catch up on some other books). While I liked the novel, my thoughts on The Jasmine Throne are complicated in ways that somewhat intersect with my views on She Who Became The Sun, and in ways that don’t.
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Book Review: She Who Became The Sun
It’s time to review the last of the Hugo Nominees that were on my shortlist – She Who Became The Sun By Shelly Parker-Chan
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Book Review: Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 1
For the Spooky Season, I decided to do something a little different from my usual string of horror films – having picked up the Vampire Hunter D audiobooks from Audible, and since I have a commute again, I decided to get started listening to those on my way to work – and having finished re-reading the first one, it would be appropriate to give my thoughts.
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Book Review: Amongst Our Weapons
Lies Sleeping, the seventh book in the Rivers of London series, left a lot of open questions about the world of the setting while it wrapped a bunch of the threads around the Faceless Man. Probably the biggest one was around the Sons of Weyland – a group of practitioners who were also powerful magical craftspeople – having made various battle staves, along with the magical wards in and around The Folly. On top of that – The October Man also built up some more groundwork for various magical practitioners and organizations outside of England. Well, Amongst Our Weapons decides to pick up both those threads and runs with them. There will be some minor spoilers below the cut.
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Legends of the Force: Episode 42 – The Black Fleet Crisis
We now come to the worst novels in the Star Wars Legends timeline we’ve covered so far.
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Book Review: Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons
Previously I have read and reviewed Playing at the World, the book about how Dungeons & Dragons came to be. Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons, is one of two follow up-books by Jon Peterson essentially about how Roleplaying Games went out of the hands of Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson. In the case of Game Wizards, it’s about how Gary & Dave lost their control over the game, through hubris and arrogance.
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Book Review: Young Jedi Knights – Jedi Sunrise
Time to move on to a Star Wars book that isn’t actually terrible, as I take a look at the next Young Jedi Knights anthology.
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She Who Became the Sun: Book Review
This weekend is Worldcon, and several weeks before the convention (basically the week before I got COVID), I finished reading the last of the novels that were up for Hugo Awards that weren’t part of a series that I hadn’t already started reading – She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan – a novel inspired by wuxia fiction, inspired by the rise of the Hongwu Emperor. It’s an… interesting book, but one which had some points that I stumbled over.
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Book Review: Project Hail Mary
I’m putting the next installment of the Nintendo Power Retrospectives back a week to review another of this year’s Hugo Nominees before this year’s Worldcon (though after the voting deadline).
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Project Hail Mary: Book Review
So, full disclosure, I never read The Martian. Haven’t read Andy Weir’s second book, Artemis, either. Both books were on my to-read list, and when the 2022 Hugo Award Nominees came around, and I saw that Project Hail Mary – Weir’s latest book – was on the list, I decided that it was time for me to get around to reading some Weir.
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Book (Video) Review: Light from Uncommon Stars
It’s time to take a look at the next of the 2022 Hugo Award Nominees for Best Novel.
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Light from Uncommon Stars: Book Review
There is some discussion as to whether there needs to be a clear dividing line between the genres of Science Fiction & Fantasy, that a work needs to be one or the other. As someone who encountered Shadowrun during my formative years of Middle School (shortly after Dungeons & Dragons), I’ve ultimately become someone who has come to realize that fantasy and science fiction are like chocolate and peanut butter. So, when Light from Uncommon Stars came up as a book pick for the Swords & Laser book club, as I’ve attempted to get caught up on my book reading I decided to put it on my list – even more so when I saw that it was nominated for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
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A Master of Djinn: Book (Video) Review
I’m taking a look at this 2022’s Nebula Award winner for best novel and one of the nominees of Best Novel at the Hugo Awards – A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark.
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Machinehood: Book Review
Probably in the first time in a while, I have finished a Sword & Laser Book Pick not only in the month it came out, but I also have a review before the end of the month – such is the case for Machinehood by S.B. Divya – another first novel, and this time in a cyberpunk or cyberpunk adjacent subgenre, and it is an absolutely fantastic book.
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A Master of Djinn: Book Review
After a bit of a break, I’m getting back to the current book pick for the Sword & Laser Book Club – this time getting into the alternate history urban fantasy novel A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark.
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