It’s time to look at the book adaptation of the DLC for Final Fantasy XV that we didn’t get (and a little bit that we did)
Read moreBook (Video) Review: Final Fantasy XV – Dawn of the Future
Under Fortunate Stars: Book Review
A time travel fiction concept that definitely falls under the category of “things I didn’t quite realize was a sub-sub-genre” until recently is the “Don’t Meet Your Heroes” story (with the alternative addendum of “Or do, I’m not your parental figure”). Basically, a story where the main characters travel back in time, either intentionally or unintentionally, and end up meeting someone (whether a singular person or multiple people) who are on the eve of doing some thing instrumental to the timeline, and who one or multiple of the protagonists idolizes, with the grand reveal being that they aren’t quite the kind of person that history has remembered them as being. Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Huchings – March’s Sword & Laser book club pick – is a really great example of this kind of story.
Read moreNettle & 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”
Read moreMurderbot 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.
Read moreThe 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.
Read moreBook 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
Read moreBook 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.
Read moreBook 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.
Read moreShe 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.
Read moreBook 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).
Read moreProject 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.
Read moreBook (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.
Read moreLight 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.
Read moreA 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.
Read moreMachinehood: 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.
Read moreA 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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