Book Review: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Book Review: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams


The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Dictionary of Lost Words is a beautiful book. But I was not prepared for the levels of heartbreak that were going to be present. I kept having to put the book down to try to find my way back into a more positive headspace. Had I read the book in any other stage in my life, I think I would have been able to divorce myself more easily from it and enjoy it more. However, everyone knows this year has been horrendous, and for some reason I was just unable to cope with the relentless hard knocks suffered by the poor protagonist. There was something about the bright tone of the book that made those blows even more terrible, and that’s what kept the novel from being a five star read for me. It was emotionally draining.

“Words define us, they explain us, and, on occasion, they serve to control or isolate us. But what happens when words that are spoken are not recorded? What effect does that have on the speaker of those words?”

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Book Review: Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov

Book Review: Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov


Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I received a galley of this book from the author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There’s something about the novella as an art form that is so different from its bookend siblings, the novel and the short story. Not as sharp and snappy as a short story, but without as much room for deep dives into development as novels, it can be a difficult and strangely unwieldy medium, for both author and audience. That being said, novellas can also pack an incredible amount of power into a scant few pages when done correctly. It’s a medium full of both promise and pitfalls. In the case of Tower of Mud and Straw, I think that the promise is that Barsukov himself shows a lot of promise as an author, and the main pitfall is the lack of development that would have deepened the story he penned.

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Book Review: Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse, #8) by James S.A. Corey

Book Review: Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse, #8) by James S.A. Corey

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Cover Illustration by: Daniel Dociu

Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Expanse (Book #8 of 9)

Genre: Sci-fi, Space Opera

Pages: 560 pages (UK paperback)

Published: 26th March 2019 by Orbit


Wow, I take back what I said before. Tiamat’s Wrath surpassed Caliban’s War and Nemesis Games as the best installment of the series so far.

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Guest (Nils) Post: Code of the Communer (Shadows in the Wildwood, #1) by Kai Greenwood book review

Guest (Nils) Post: Code of the Communer (Shadows in the Wildwood, #1) by Kai Greenwood book review

Today, Novel Notions is hosting a guest post by Nils from The Fantasy Hive. This is what Nils has to say:

I read Code of the Communer for SPFBO 2020 as a judge with The Fantasy Hive. Petrik has kindly let me write a guest review post on Novel Notions as I’d like to help bring some spotlight to a book I feel is far too underrated.


Code of the Communer by Kai Greenwood

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Shadows in the Wildwood (Book #1)

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 323 pages (Paperback)

Published: 17th March 2020 by Wildwood Press (Indie)

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Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig


The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices… Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”

This is the premise of The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s newest novel. I’ve never read anything by Haig before this book, but I can guarantee that this oversight will be addressed. Because The Midnight Library was wonderful. There’s incredible philosophical depth packed into relatively few pages. And for a book that begins with a suicide attempt, it ended up being surprisingly positive and uplifting. Not only is it a thoughtful novel, it inspired deep contemplation within the reader, but in a way that is comfortingly gentle for the times in which we’re living.

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Book Review: Brief Cases (The Dresden Files, #15.1) by Jim Butcher

Book Review: Brief Cases (The Dresden Files, #15.1) by Jim Butcher

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Cover illustration by: Chris McGrath

Brief Cases by Jim Butcher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: The Dresden Files (Book #15.1 of 25)

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Pages: 444 pages (US Kindle edition)

Published: 5th June 2018 by Orbit (UK) & Roc (US)


This collection, especially Zoo Day, is mostly worth it just for the non-Harry’s POV stories.

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Cover Reveal: Pawn’s Gambit (Mortal Techniques, #2) by Rob J. Hayes

Cover Reveal: Pawn’s Gambit (Mortal Techniques, #2) by Rob J. Hayes

Hi everyone! Petrik from Novel Notions here!

Today we’re here to bring you a cover reveal of Pawn’s Gambit! This is the second standalone novel in the Mortal Techniques series by Rob J. Hayes, and for those of you who don’t know, I am a HUGE fan of the previous standalone book in the series: Never Die. Once you have seen the beautiful cover art, you can read my spoiler-free review of Never Die if you haven’t read the book! Without further ado, here is the cover of Pawn’s Gambit!

Cover art: Felix Ortiz

Cover design: STK.Kreations

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Audiobook Review: The Original by Brandon Sanderson & Mary Robinette Kowal

Audiobook Review: The Original by Brandon Sanderson & Mary Robinette Kowal

ARC received from the publisher, Recorded Books, in exchange for an honest review.

 

The Original by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genre: Science fiction

Published: 14th Sept 2020 by Recorded Books (in collaboration with Mainframe)


The Original is a fascinating yet chilling look into a possible future where a person can be cloned into a replicant used to hunt down his or her ‘original’. This science-fiction collaboration between Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal thoroughly engages and satisfies with its solid characterisation and worldbuilding in a novella spanning just over 3hrs long of audio narration.

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Book Review: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Book Review: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

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Cover illustration by: Quentin Trollip

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone

Genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Thriller, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction

Pages: 464 pages (US Hardback)

Published: 10th March 2016 by Head of Zeus (UK) & 8th March 2016 by Gallery / Saga Press (US)


The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is an intimately powerful and beautiful collection of stories that encompassed some of the most relatable themes to our society, and some stories contained in this collection felt personal and evocative to me.

“Every act of communication is a miracle of translation.”

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Book Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Book Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke


Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lovely. Odd, incredibly odd, but lovely both in spite of and due to the oddity. There’s an elegance to this book that feels like a rarity. For a novel that is less than 300 pages, Piranesi is quite the slow burn. The first half of this short book took me four days to read. Not that it was boring, mind you. It was meditative, inviting you as the reader to mull and ponder instead of racing forward to see what happens next. But then I read the second half in one sitting. When things finally picked up in the narrative, my attention never wavered.

“The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.”

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