Science Fiction & Fantasy book reviews
This is a post that does exactly what it says on the tin. But it also serves as my official announcement post that Parsecs & Parchment is reorienting! That's right bookwyrms, going forward I've decided I want to be championing and talking about and celebrating the diverse array of small press books out there. The... Continue Reading →
This is very much an unplanned and unexpected addition to my Wyrd & Wonder reading, though I dunno how much of a review of this particular story this is gonna be and how much it's just gonna be me talking about embarking on a new obsession with cosmic horror. In any case, in an attempt... Continue Reading →
Saffron is the royal taste tester, a position she was compelled to take up when the Traitor King, Duke Michal, usurped the throne and took her into his service. Saffron's husband Danny is a master baker who discovered a way to invoke the powerful and vivid reliving of memories in the people who eat his... Continue Reading →
If you've read volume one of The Wicked & The Divine then you'll know it ended on a bit of a bombshell, with lots of questions still to be answered and even more questions raised by Ananke's actions after Lucifer busted out of prison. As volume two opens, the judge's murder remains unsolved and Laura... Continue Reading →
I've been hearing tip top things about this series for literal years, and just never got round to reading it, you know how it is, so yesterday I decided it's long overdue and picked up volume one. All I can say is, I'm simultaneously furious at my past self for not reading this sooner and... Continue Reading →
The first page of The Faust Act opens with a powerful quote from Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus about the fragility of life juxtaposed with the lyrics to a Vengaboys song. And if that doesn't sum up the perfect mix of high concept and pop culture that is this first volume of The Wicked + The... Continue Reading →
FOR HE CAN CREEP is a delightful little novelette about Jeoffry the demon-hunting cat, a self-professed creature of cunning and power who takes it upon himself to protect his poet owner's soul from the Devil when he's forcibly commissioned to write a poem that will bring about the end of days. Jeoffry lives in a... Continue Reading →
If The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids was grimdark-adjacent, it's sequel THE THIEF WHO SPAT IN LUCK'S GOOD EYE felt much more like a classic heroic fantasy story with modern trappings. When the Duke of Viborg puts out an open contract for a substantial payout in return for anyone who can locate the lost... Continue Reading →
GODBLIND is a blood-drenched grimdark story of gods and conquest, but also friendship and family and did I also mention the blood, cos there really is a lot of blood. Rillirin is a slave of the Mireces, a people who worship the bloodthirsty Dark Lady, a god who requires seemingly endless amounts of sacrificial murder... Continue Reading →
Well if this story is anything to go by, grimdark goes back much further than I ever thought. THE BROKEN SWORD was written around the same time Tolkien was releasing The Two Towers to the world, so ostensibly belongs to that era of heroes and dark lords fantasy where good was good, evil was evil... Continue Reading →
