November 9, 2016
The Chimes (2016) Written by: Anna Smaill Genre: Fantasy/Literary Fantasy Pages: 304 (hardcover) 265 (epub) Publisher: Quercus Why I Chose It: When the call went out to read the World Fantasy Award nominees, I selected The Chimes based on its premise: an entire society full people with a severe memory disorder. For reasons which I will get into in the discussion,…
October 26, 2016
An undeniable truth about myself and my reading preferences: scary stories belong to October, the way that The Hobbit belongs to November and Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather belongs in December. This is not to say that I always succeed in these traditions, but the thought is never far from my mind. When I was approached to tackle Paul Tremblay’s A Head…
October 18, 2016
The Buried Giant (2015) Written by: Kazuo Ishiguro Genre: Fantasy/Literary Fantasy Pages: 317 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Why I Chose It: The last Ishiguro book I read was The Remains of The Day, which was sad and beautiful all at the same time and which I absolutely loved. I’ve been wanting to read The Buried Giant, but had too many…
October 12, 2016
Savages (2015) Written by: K.J. Parker Genre: Fantasy Pages: 392 (Kindle) Publisher: Subterranean Press Why I Chose It: I’d never read any of Parker’s books, and I was intrigued by the news that after 17 years of writing as K.J. Parker (presumably a woman using a pseudonym to avoid being discriminated against in the field), it was revealed last…
August 3, 2016
The Fifth Season (2015) Written by: N.K. Jemisin Genre: Fantasy Pages: 512 (Trade Paperback) Series: Book One of The Broken Earth Publisher: Orbit Why I Chose It: As lead up to the Hugo Awards, and also because I have a strange relationship with Jemisin’s writing. I very often love the individual scenes but have a harder time connecting with her…