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Book Review: Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2) by Joe Abercrombie

Book Review: Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2) by Joe Abercrombie

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The First Law (Book #2 of 3), First Law World (Book, #2 of 10)

Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Grimdark fantasy

Published: 15th March 2007 by Gollancz (UK) & 8th September 2015 by Orbit (US)


This is when I start to bemoan about picking up this trilogy so late. To think that I actually met Abercrombie at WorldCon last year before completing The First Law. It was such a travesty of an opportunity, and I’m repentant for it.

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Book Review: The Girl and the Stars (Book of the Ice, #1)

Book Review: The Girl and the Stars (Book of the Ice, #1)


The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher (Ace) in exchange for an honest review.

“Many babies have killed, but it is very rare that the victim is not their mother.”

So begins Mark Lawrence’s newest novel, The Girl and the Stars. As always, Lawrence knows how to captivate an audience and set the tone for the book all within the first sentence. We know immediately that Yaz of the Ictha, our perspective character, is an uncommon child. On the Ice, difference can be a death sentence. And not just because those differences often render their bearer vulnerable, but because children who are too different, broken in the eyes of their elders, end up being tossed into the Pit. And that is the end that Yaz envisions for herself with a hard clarity. But when the time comes for her to face the push that will send her into the abyss, things go differently that she had always imagined. What she fully expected to be the end of her story turned out to be its true beginning.

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Book Review: The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1) by Joe Abercrombie

Book Review: The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1) by Joe Abercrombie


The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The First Law (Book #1 of 3), First Law World (Book, #1 of 10)

Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Grimdark fantasy

Published: 4th May 2006 by Gollancz (UK) & 8th September 2015 by Orbit (US)


Before anyone gasped in surprise that I’ve not read this excellent grimdark entry by Joe Abercrombie, allow me to provide a little backstory.

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Book Review: Paternus: War of Gods (The Paternus Trilogy, #3) by Dyrk Ashton

Book Review: Paternus: War of Gods (The Paternus Trilogy, #3) by Dyrk Ashton

ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Paternus: War of Gods by Dyrk Ashton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Paternus Trilogy (Book #3 of 3)

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Mythologies

Pages: 746 pages

Published: 23rd June 2020 by Paternus Books Media (Indie)


Bloody magnificent. Urban fantasy novel just doesn’t get more epic than Paternus: War of Gods.

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Book Review: Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6) by Jim Butcher

Book Review: Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6) by Jim Butcher

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Dresden Files (Book #6 of 25)

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Pages: 372 pages (US Kindle edition)

Published: 4th March 2010 by Orbit (UK) & 3rd August 2004 by Roc (US)


“The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault.”

As if anyone would believe that, Harry.

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Book Review: The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

Book Review: The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison


The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher (Tor) and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Angel of the Crows is basically Sherlock fan-fiction. I can’t even say it’s thinly veiled, because it isn’t veiled at all. And I am completely okay with that.

“I may be on the side of the angels, but don’t think for a second that I am one of them.”
– BBC’s Sherlock

There were a couple of pretty big twists here and there, but for the most part this book is a collection of faithful retellings of some of Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes stories. A Study in Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Sign of Four, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, and more are covered in this collection. The still unsolved case of Jack the Ripper, which has been included or alluded to in many secondary works about Holmes written by other authors, is the thread which ties all of these separate cases into one cohesive narrative. But what sets this book apart from other Sherlockian stories outside of Doyle’s original canon is the author’s truly fascinating addition of the supernatural. This is not mere whiffs of supernatural in and around certain cases. Addison created a world in which the supernatural runs rampant and is accepted as reality but civilization at large.

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Book Review: The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Book Review: The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Lord of the Rings (Book #1 of 3)

Genre: Fantasy, Classic Fantasy, Epic Fantasy

Published: 29th July 1954 by George Allen and Unwin


“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

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Book Review: Or What You Will, by Jo Walton

Book Review: Or What You Will, by Jo Walton


Or What You Will by Jo Walton
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher (Tor) and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“I have been a word on the tongue. I have been a word on the page. And I hope I will be again.”

Or What You Will blew me away from the very first page. The last time I got this excited over the first paragraphs of a book was when I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which ended up being my favorite book of 2019. My pulse actually sped up as I read, and I had to stop and go back and reread those first few paragraphs because they were just so gorgeous. I had read passages to my husband and frantically text my fellow Novel Notions besties about how excited I was before I even finished that first chapter. And I continued to deeply appreciate the writing all the way through, and highlighted and annotated an incredible number of passages. But after such a wonderful beginning, things went from beautiful literary fiction to an unexpected accounting of the art scene of Renaissance Florence. I mean, I have no problem at all with the topic but that shift came out of nowhere. I would say it was jarring if the air of the novel wasn’t so meandering. And then there were a ton of Shakespearean characters added into the mix, which was surprising. But the book never really came back to what I loved so much in those first few pages, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was incredibly disappointed by that decision on Walton’s part.

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Book Review: The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1) by Andrea Stewart

Book Review: The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1) by Andrea Stewart

ARC provided by the publisher—Orbit—in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Drowning Empire (Book #1 of 3)

Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Mystery

Pages: 448 pages (UK hardcover edition)

Published: 10th September 2020 by Orbit (UK) & 8th September 2020 by Orbit (US)


This will most likely be my favorite fantasy debut of 2020.

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