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Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling (1997)
So this turned out to be one of those books that was SO GOOD it made it impossible for me to read another book for a few days. I didn’t want to! I just wanted to keep thinking about Stalking Darkness, and the characters, and their world, and EVERYTHING. Best new character POV goes to Beka, a soldier and secret Chosen One. (That wasn’t a spoiler because it’s pretty obvious from the get-go.) She’s so great! She’s learning how to be a leader in the middle of war, while also being pulled along by a prophecy she knows nothing about. I’d read an entire book with just Beka, tbh. More…
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The Just City by Jo Walton (2015)
I’ll be honest: my philosophy 101 class was so boring and terrible I’ve mostly forgotten everything about it. The only thing I DO remember is the thing about the caves, and that’s only because it came up in some of my other (non-philosophy) classes. So when I saw that Jo Walton had written a book about a city built based upon Plato’s Republic, I was super worried it’d be dry and boring. Even though I LOVE Jo Walton’s writing! I was still worried, because of the subject matter. My darling readers, it was not dry or boring and it was WONDERFUL. SO WONDERFUL.
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The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin (2012)
My first N.K. Jemisin book was The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a fantasy story set in a world which does not have European fantasy tropes. The Killing Moon is another fantasy story set in a non-European fantasy world, only this time it’s one based around Egyptian/Mediterranean/etc. cultures. It’s not set on Earth, so really it’s only got the flavor of those cultures, but it’s enough of a flavor to make me really happy. I LOVE it when a fantasy isn’t just another pseudo-medieval Europe expy! More diverse settings/characters/worlds, please!
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The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper (2007)
This was my first Sheri S. Tepper book![1. I was supposed to have read The Gate to Women’s Country for a college class on dystopias and uptopias. I never did, probably because it was the end of the semester and I was tired of all the depressing stuff.] I do know enough about the history of scifi to know that Tepper is one of its major authors, and so I knew I’d pick up one of her books eventually. I choose The Margarets mainly because of its cover, which is cool in an early-2000s sort of way. I was also into the story, which is complicated and multi-layered.
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Flight of Magpies by K.J. Charles (2014)
I don’t know why I bother preordering books (see: this post), as I almost always put off reading them until way later anyway. Case in point: this book! I’ve had it since pub date, but I waited ages to read it. I suppose it’s the excitement of knowing that it’s going to show up in my mailbox/Kindle? And I WAS/AM excited for Flight of Magpies to be published! It’s the third book of a series I’ve very much enjoyed, with characters I like and a wonderful fantasy-mystery plot. So in the previous book, A Case of Possession, Crane and Stephen worked through some problems in their relationship: namely, do they…
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Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling
I bought this when it went on sale last year because of a blog review which I unfortunately can’t find right now. But wherever it is, it convinced me to give it a go. And y’all, I LOVED IT. SO MUCH. For some reason I thought it was more of a romance than it actually is? It is not a romance; it is instead a fantasy adventure mystery with really excellent characters. There is a decided lack of kissing in this book,[1. although apparently there is some in the second one] so if you’re looking for kissing in your fantasy stories I’ll direct you to The Magpie Lord.
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A Hero at the End of the World by Erin Claiborne
A Hero at the End of the World has been getting lots of positive reviews lately, and for good reason. It’s funny and cute and hugely enjoyable; past me, why were you so slow getting to this? You’ve had a copy in your possession since October! For shame, past-me. Present-me is totally gleeful, though, because I had such a good time reading it! I found myself highlighting like a fiend in the first ten pages because every other paragraph had some funny thing in it. It was also a weird kind of comfort read, maybe because it has some tropes I recognize from the world of fandom/fanfic.[1. Since Erin Claiborne…
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Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
I liked this one SO MUCH more than Wild Magic! Which is really great, because I still rated that one fairly high despite my dislike of certain aspects. If you’re new to Tortall (like me) I’d say Alanna would be a good place to start. It’s the same sort of coming-of-age story, but with a twist: the protagonist is a young girl disguised as a boy, training to become a knight in a world where women mostly aren’t. And it totally works! (Perhaps because she starts her disguise before puberty set in.) I had to take a lot of things for granted, sure, but getting to know Alanna and co.…