(moderate spoilers) I stayed up until 5am to finish this. Review over. What, you didn’t buy A Song for Arbonne on the strength of that information alone? How untrusting. I suppose I should give you some more information on what might be Guy Gavriel Kay’s magnum opus, and I say that as someone who has […]
(spoilers yo) One way to get me wading into an argument despite there being no point very quickly – the definition of High Fantasy. It’s a very pointless one as the meaning of the sub-genre has gone so muddled with so many different definitions that I regard trying to reclaim it as pointless. Even viewed […]
(Unescapable hints/spoilers of the first two books, some spoilers of The Darkest Road itself) I love a series where the titles suggest a progression. Take De Bodard’s Dominion of the Fallen. House of Shattered Wings – falling and getting back up. House of Binding Thorns – finding people to stand by, easy or no. House […]
I posted a review of The Summer Tree back in last year’s Wyrd & Wonder, which I regret as I do not think I did the book justice, but don’t quite regret enough to redo the review. Not yet anyway. I do though hope to perhaps give a bit more of the esteem earned by […]
Hail and well met, fellow individuals of good taste. The Day Three prompt for this month’s Wyrd & Wonder was #MapMonday so I wanted to do a post about stories where the characters really use that map. That’s enough preamble so here’s that post, only a mere five days late! 1. The King’s Buccaneer by […]
Warning: Spoilers ahoy. I like story structure. I’m not sure why – that is to say, I can think of many reasons, but am not sure how many actually hold – but the timing of narrative events is interesting to me. And something I increasingly find interesting is how that changes across story. Point in […]
There are stories that function most about characters doing something. Catching criminals, fighting, shagging, what have you. There are stories that function most about characters feeling something. Feeling love, feeling lost, feeling change, and so on. And there are stories that try to perch on the apex of both, to have their cake and eat […]
I would call 2020 a weird reading year for me, save that looking back at past reading years suggest it was actually very in keeping. I read a handful of new books that changed the way I read about the genre and otherwise struggled with new fiction, preferring instead to keep re-reading. I’d like to […]
Ah, Mr Kay. What a wonderful writer you are. But are you fantasy? I have these conversations from time to time with friends. The answer’s yes, but the paucity of supernatural elements in some of his books stretch the definition a little. And maybe if he hadn’t broken in as a fantasy author, maybe we […]
If one is inclined to such things, I think that one could create a division of readers between those who pick up a book for some reason (say a photo) then set it down because they’re already reading something, and those who think “hey, I haven’t read this in a while, I wonder how it […]
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