This is a lovely tale – a monk and their animal companion are traveling all over the land of an unnamed Eastern Asian country, cataloging everything they find. The home in exile of the old Empress has recently been opened, and they make their way there. They find the servant and companion of the Empress, […]
The Empress of Salt and Fortune – Nghi Vo Read More »
Athene and Apollo decide to do an experiment – create Plato’s Just City. They bring men and women from all over time that believe in Plato’s principles, and have them set up the city. It’s populated by children purchased from slave ships, and Athene brings in some robots from the far future to do some
The Just City – Jo Walton Read More »
This is a lovely book of botanical illustration with interesting little anecdotes about the various flowers portrayed. It covers the whole of the US (and a good chunk of Canada), so it’s necessarily a little broad, but does have an interesting variety of flowers included. It’s a lovely little survey of what’s around in our
A Naturalist’s Book of Wildflowers – Laura C. Martin Read More »
I’m always so happy when I find a free book I really enjoy. Ridley’s life changed forever the day magic went rogue. Not only did her mother die in the upheaval, and her father lose his business, but she’s forced to hide her own magical power when the backlash is to outlaw magic entirely. It’s
Elemental Thief – Rachel Morgan Read More »
I have really enjoyed these stories, because they are so very different than most of what I’ve read before, and I’m so glad that different voices are being brought into the Sci-Fi and fantasy genres. All that said, I’m having a really hard time trying to summarize what happened in this book, because it’s like
Binti: The Night Masquerade – Nnedi Okorafor Read More »
This is a lovely little compilation of stories, arranged seasonally. There are some stories you might recognize, spun a little differently. The author mentioned how she often listened to the stories of other cultures (like the Coyote stories of North America), and wanted to make sure that the similar stories of Britain and Ireland weren’t
Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland – Lisa Schneidau Read More »
There’s a lot happening in this book – fallout from the events of the last book (where Adam was forced to kill a witch they thought was their friend), Adam’s ex-wife Christy still being an issue, and a mysterious door from Underhill parked in the backyard, which ends up unleashing an enemy they have to
Smoke Bitten – Patricia Briggs Read More »
It’s been two years since the last book in the series, and we’re now following Queen Keeley’s next younger sister, Gemma. Gemma had left the family to become a war monk, and came back when their sister Beatrix was foretold to be the next queen. When it turns out that Beatrix is doing this with
The Princess Knight – G.A. Aiken Read More »
There’s a prophesy that when the Old King dies, his replacement will be a Queen. Keeley is the oldest of whole bunch of kids (thing number one I loved about this book – Keeley’s family – they’re a hoot), and has carried on her mother’s family tradition of blacksmithing. When she finds out it’s her
The Blacksmith Queen – G.A. Aiken Read More »
We’re starting to get to the end game of this series. The Earth chancellor thinks Jess and Pavel are dead, so she’s trying to figure out how to destroy Mars and put an end to any final threads the two may have left on Earth. Meanwhile, they’re desperately trying to help Ethan figure out how
Mars Burning – Cidney Swanson Read More »
