It took me a little while to be convinced I needed to read this book. Not because I didn't think it sounded good, just because I didn't know much about it and hadn't felt particularly compelled to find out. Then I read Jake's review on Jake Is Reading and was immediately compelled by the premise... Continue Reading →
Announcing the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards Nominees 2021!
Awards season is upon us and I'm honoured and humbled to have been asked to be a judge on the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards panel this year. After much chaotic discussion the nominees have been chosen. Readers, feast your eyes on the shortlists: BEST FANTASY THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES by Alix E. HarrowTHE... Continue Reading →
Review: TOWER OF MUD AND STRAW by Yaroslav Barsukov
Damn, this book has such a heavy atmosphere. I'm not all that familiar with gaslamp fantasy but with TOWER OF MUD AND STRAW I almost felt like all that gas was filling the air around me as I read, weighing down on me as I got sucked further and further into this dark and at... Continue Reading →
Review: FEVRE DREAM by George R. R. Martin
Vampires on a steamboat. I don't need to say anything else really. This is the first non-A Song of Ice and Fire GRRM book I've read (and it's not even fantasy) so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but those books are so unbelievably good that I trusted Georgie boy to spin a good... Continue Reading →
Reading Update 12/01/2021
Why oh why did I have to set myself Things To Do when it comes to reading? That review-a-day thing I'm planning for Wyrd & Wonder? Yeah I'm gonna have to get my read on if I'm to get up to speed with that. Of course this was always predictable for a committed mood reader... Continue Reading →
Review: FIREHEART TIGER by Aliette de Bodard
I go batshit crazy every time I hear there's a new Aliette de Bodard novella coming out. I went even more wild when I saw the cover art for FIREHEART TIGER, her latest release about a toxic sapphic romance that examines the impact of colonialism in a Vietnamese-inspired fantasy world. You know those writers that... Continue Reading →
The Unpopular Opinions Book Tag
I adapted this tag from a Booktube video Justine from I Should Read That did over a year ago (I'm still watching my way through her entire back catalogue of videos) cos her video was fun and I found myself coming up with my own answers as I watched, so I thought why not write... Continue Reading →
Review: PROSPER’S DEMON by K. J. Parker
Whoa-oh this story is dark. Nasty, brutish and short. Very Hobbesian in more ways that one. PROSPER'S DEMON is a little fantasy horror novella about a demon exorcist in what feels like a low fantasy analogue of the Holy Roman Empire around the 17th century and follows him as he works his way into the... Continue Reading →
Reading Update 24/01/2021
Happy Sunday bookwyrms. Got a bit of a bumper update this week cos I've been doing a fair bit of reading. You might be aware by now that I've given myself the rather hefty task of writing a grimdark review for every single day of Wyrd & Wonder (that's 31 grimdark fantasy books alone I've... Continue Reading →
Review: THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA by T. J. Klune
I picked this book up because a) I've been reading a lot of grimdark lately and needed something nice and wholesome to balance out the darkness and despair, but also b) I really want to read as many 2020 releases as possible over the next few weeks. I'd heard lovely, wholesome things about T. J.... Continue Reading →