A new installment of The Queen's Thief is here! That proved an excellent incentive to reread the first three books (which I deeply love) and finally tackle the fourth book as well as the handful of short stories that've appeared as paperback extras. A Conspiracy of Kings A Conspiracy of Kings is a coming-of-age story for Sophos, the sweet, scholarly boy we met in The Thief … [Read more...] about The Queen’s Thief, Books 4-5 by Megan Whalen Turner
Books
Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, Books 5-8 by Deborah Crombie
Dreaming of the Bones After making my way through the first four books in this series with reasonable alacrity, I really stalled out on Dreaming of the Bones at first. A large part of the problem for me was that it had to do with the death of a poet five years prior, and was thus strewn with quotations of both poetry and flowery letters. Once I summoned the fortitude to … [Read more...] about Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, Books 5-8 by Deborah Crombie
Random Reads 3/29/17
All hail the debut of a new recurring column of sorts, collecting reasonably short reviews of disparate books. A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George While A Banquet of Consequences is not the best Lynley and Havers mystery I have read, it’s still great heaping loads better than the last one (Just One Evil Act). In fact, in my review of the latter, I wrote “I wanted … [Read more...] about Random Reads 3/29/17
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne
Note: This is the rehearsal script edition. A definitive collectors' edition will be released at a later date. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child joins Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight in the category of “ostensibly canon series continuations that I shall henceforth pretend do not exist.” The play begins with an abbreviated version of the Deathly Hallows epilogue. … [Read more...] about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne
The GGK Project, Part 1: The Fionavar Tapestry
For over a decade, I would've named Guy Gavriel Kay as my favorite author. And yet, I have never reviewed any of his books here. Having failed to love The Last Light of the Sun when I read it back in 2004, I think my enthusiasm for him just waned, and though I bought his subsequent novels, I hadn't felt particularly compelled to read them. Now, though, I am determined to tackle … [Read more...] about The GGK Project, Part 1: The Fionavar Tapestry