I have had Alix E. Harrow on my radar as an author since I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January and called it one of the best books I read in 2021. You can find my review of it here. I did not enjoy her next novel, The Once and Future Witches, quite as much but felt like it was still a good read (paid links).
This new book, Starling House, is another stand-alone novel with a more gothic feel. Read on to see what I thought of it.
I read the e-book edition.
Here is the blurb:
Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.
Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.
As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.
If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.
I loved this book, although perhaps not quite as much as The Ten Thousand Doors of January. This was a surprise to me, because the description make me expect this to be more of a gothic horror story (not my thing), when it was actually more like fantasy with some creepiness mixed in. Opal is a gritty and brave heroine, fighting to survive after her mother’s tragic death, so I was automatically rooting for her.
The description of the creator/builder of Starling House and her book reminded me of Edward Gorey’s work. While I’m not a fan of general horror, I guess I do enjoy weird monsters. Starling House also features a sword, so that drew me in as well.
The book is written mainly from Opal’s perspective, but with an occasional chapter shown from Arthur’s point-of-view. The way that the story is structured creates a mystery wherein Opal wants to understand her strange dreams and learn about Starling House, while Arthur shows us the sinister threat that he has been facing.
I didn’t expect this story to have romance, but that is also part of the tale. It isn’t the main plot, but it gives more strength to the reasons why Opal keeps returning to Starling House. The pacing of the story was also very good. I read this entire novel in about three days, and I wish I had slowed down at the ending to make it last longer. I’ll be sure to look out for more books by this author in the future.
Have you read any of Alix E. Harrow’s books? Let me know in the comments (above).
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo is the first book in a new series by the author of the Shadow and Bone series. Unlike those books, this one is set in our world, but with occult magic rather than grisha powers. This is book #1 (of a planned 3) in the Alex Stern series (paid links). I read this book last year in an audiobook format, narrated by Lauren Fortgang and Michael David Axtell. Read on below to see what I thought.
I have read and written reviews of several the author’s other books which you can find here:
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
This book was billed as a more adult novel, compared to the author’s previous YA books, and it does feature more mature scenarios, violence, language, and drug use than her earlier novels. It is also told through two different points of view: one being the protagonist, Alex Stern, and the other is her mentor, Darlington, teaching her the ways of Lethe House. His part of the story is set earlier in the time frame of the novel because he has gone missing in Alex’s later viewpoint chapters. This creates an engaging mystery where the reader doesn’t know what happened to him, but Alex does, slowly revealing it as the story proceeds.
The way that the author weaves her sinister version of Yale’s secret societies into our world is seamless. It turns out that she went to Yale and was a member of one of these societies (they’re real, just not the magic). The character of Alex is an outsider to her newfound college life as well as the societies, and her toughness and real-world experience helps her to survive.
There is a hint of romance between Alex and Darlington, but since he has gone missing, any further development in that arena will have to wait. Like the author’s other novels, I expect this to be a very slow burn.
The audiobook edition was great as well. Lauren Fortgang has narrated the author’s other books, but gives an individual voice to Alex in this new series. Look for the review of book 2, Hell Bent, next week (paid link).
Have you read any of Leigh Bardugo’s books? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments (above).
While everyone else was working from home and social distancing during COVID, fantasy author Brandon Sanderson was writing at a superhuman pace. In fact, he was so cut off from his regular appearances and activities, that he wrote four new stand-alone novels, announcing them in this Kickstarter that broke records for the platform.
Even though I’m only a sometimes fan of Sanderson, it was hard not to take notice of this feat. Of course I contributed to the Kickstarter. This review is for the first of those books, Tress of the Emerald Sea (paid link).
I read the Kickstarter e-book edition.
Here is the blurb:
The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?
This book had a promising start with a sympathetic protagonist who is forbidden to leave her homeland. When Tress’s friend, Charlie, doesn’t return from his voyage, she dares to break the rules and go in search of him. The set up was wonderful and I was instantly engaged with the story.
Once Tress leaves home, we learn more about the unique worldbuilding (a noted feature of Sanderson’s work). The Emerald Sea of the title isn’t green water, but a vast expanse of spores that react when they contact moisture. The world has several different seas, each with different species of spores and different effects. The book treats these effects partly as magic since the results of adding moisture to spores are often dangerous, unpredictable, and feared by laypersons. At the same time, it is actually a science that follows rules and those who understand it can use the spores to create weapons, engineering feats, and spy tools.
The Kickstarter e-book edition contained some illustrations which fit perfectly with the vision of the scenes that I had in my head.
I wish that the ending has been more satisfying. It felt too much like a deus ex machina and also seemed rushed to me. I don’t want to say more to avoid spoilers. Overall I did enjoy this book and I’d love to read more stories set in this corner of Sanderson’s Cosmere.
Did you contribute to the Kickstarter? Have you read any of the books? Which one should I read next? Let me know in the comments (above).
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is a book that I had not heard of until a few months ago. Thanks to TikTok, it was propelled to prominence and became a best-seller as part of the newly coined “romantasy” genre. It had a pretty cover and also featured dragons, so I had to check it out. Fourth Wing is the first book in the Empyrean series (paid links). Read on below to see what I thought.
I read the hardcover edition of this.
Here is the blurb:
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
As someone with a disability that results in frequent injury, Violet was a sympathetic character. I’ve heard that she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, although her condition isn’t specifically named in the book. No one expects her to be able to survive the harsh training or the assessment of the dragons in Basgiath War College. However, one of her advantages is that she is used to dealing with pain.
This is also a romance and Fourth Wing features an initial rivalry between Violet’s best friend from home and the bad boy who might want to kill her or kiss her. When the relationship heats up, it gets quite spicy.
I enjoyed the twists in the plot and the sense that more was going on behind the scenes than the people and even the dragonriders have been told. I guessed one aspect of the ending a few pages before it was revealed, and I have some other guesses about where the story is going. I’m planning to start book 2, Iron Flame soon (paid link).
Have you read Fourth Wing yet? What did you think about the ending? Let me know in the comments (above).
Ever the Night Road by Michael Breen is an indie fantasy novel that was given to me as a gift by a friend of the author who thought I might like it. This is the first book in a duology (paid links).
I read this in a paperback edition.
Here is the blurb:
This is a fantasy.
Of a City of water and glass. Of drowned things and lost memories lying just below its surface. Of concrete slums, and a decaying Oracle Tower. And a deep underground.
It is also a fantasy of orphan children. Like Dagny Losh. She is an escape artist. Not a chosen profession but a survival tactic, thrust upon her at a young age to break free from poverty and violence, fever and flood. While others perished, Dagny emerged into a privileged world of polished brass gates and opportunity. But she is an imposter, a misfit in fine clothes. Perfumed with dirty fingernails.
Now, at seventeen, Dagny remains rudderless and lonely. Longing for a connection to a changing world. What she finds is a fragment of her old life, before the river washed everything away. A fragment once thought forever lost. And it will take all she has to protect it.
Ever the Night Road is a coming-of-age adventure story. Dagny and an array of companions undertake a high-stakes quest guided by the stars and ancient myth, encountering danger from both criminal and supernatural forces. Along the way, Dagny will discover the bonds of true friendship and the depths of her own bravery in a brutal and enchanting world.
This was a wonderfully inventive story set in a strange and fanciful world. I love when the current setting is built upon the remains of ancient structures and the mystery of those lost ages permeates the story. Dagny inhabits this world, and our first introduction of it follows her on a quest to rescue a lost boy from a spooky tower. She succeeds in this mission, echoing her dead brother’s life as an adventurer before a fever took him.
The plot wanders and I was never quite sure what the main story was supposed to be. However, Dagny is quickly swept up in the lives of a group of new friends and finds her place among them. She encounters new intrigues and eventually falls into a quest that takes her once again into those ruins of a forgotten time.
There is a powerful sense of magic in Ever the Night Road, yet the characters don’t name it as such or make active use of it. A boy has an unusual knack for a board game. Dagny escaped her home just before a devastating flood. Children are sinister specters and fireflies lead the way toward… something.
The only thing that kept this book from being a 5-star read for me was that I felt that the ending was weak. I didn’t realize this was the first book of two, so I think I had expected a more definitive conclusion. However, it looks like Jud, the second book in the series, was just released (paid link). I’m picking that up to read in the next few months.
Have you read any books where the current world exists on the remains of something ancient? Let me know in the comments (above).
Victory City (paid link) by Salman Rushdie is one of the controversial author’s most recent novels. I had never read any of his works, but one of my book clubs chose this one and so I picked it up a few months ago.
I read the e-book edition.
Here is the blurb:
She will whisper an empire into existence – but all stories have a way of getting away from their creators . . .
In the wake of an insignificant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga – literally ‘victory city’ – the wonder of the world.
Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s as she attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and as years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, Bisnaga is no exception.
The first thing that struck me about this novel was that it was a fantastical exploration of ancient history. Salman Rushdie had never been on my radar as an author who wrote fantasy, but after investigating his other works, it looks like much of his catalog is regarded as part of the magical realism genre. While that term originated in the German art world, it has been mostly used to describe writing by Latin American authors in which magical events are described in a realistic manner and the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred.
After reading Victory City, I don’t think that I would categorize this book as magical realism because the events of myth and magic are overt and clearly magical. This book read more like a mythical exploration of history, similar to some of the retellings of Greek mythology that have become prevalent recently (Circe, Ariadne, A Thousand Ships [paid links]).
I struggled to get into this book, and I think that was because the narrative style was comprised of too much telling and not enough showing for me. It was also hard to identify with the narrator. While some of the individual stories and conflicts had interesting aspects, I never felt engaged with the outcome of Pampa Kampana and her city. It also seemed that the author tried to create a story that gave women agency and power, but didn’t quite get there in the execution of that idea.
This book might appeal more to other readers and I think some of my reaction to it is that the style didn’t work for me. The prose itself was well-done, and I would consider reading another book by the author at some point.
Have you read anything by Salman Rushdie? What did you think? Let me know in the comments (above).
This is it – the third and final book of Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series! The Golden Enclaves (paid link) picks up immediately after that heart-stopping conclusion to book 2. You can find my other reviews for this series here:
The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it’s all we dream about, the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.
And now the impossible dream has come true. I’m out, we’re all out–and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn’t kill enclavers, I saved them. Me, and Orion, and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: we saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves of the world.
Ha, only joking! Actually it’s gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war on the horizon. And the first thing I’ve got to do now, having miraculously got out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.
I did enjoy this final book in the Scholomance series overall. However, I felt like it wasn’t quite what I had hoped for in the conclusion to this series. Beware, there may be some spoilers below.
While it was interesting to see what the rest of the magical world looked like outside of the Scholomance, it also lacked the same feel as the earlier books. I enjoyed seeing how the students of magic went about their days with classes interspersed with danger. This story was bigger than the Scholomance, though. But then I also felt like it changed the relationship between El and Orion and made it less satisfying than it had been in book 2.
The revelation about the price that must be paid to create an enclave was one of the best parts of this book. The magicians knew they must keep the terrible truth secret, but at the same time, many of them knew and were willing to force someone to pay that price.
I felt that the final conclusion scenes of this series were rather anti-climactic. Both sides postured and threatened, and then nothing happened. They figured out a solution and then that was it. The tension that the prophecy and the danger had built fizzled for me. Still, I mostly enjoyed the series and will definitely be looking for Naomi Novik’s next book.
Have you read the Scholomance series (paid link)? What did you think about that ending? Let me know in the comments (above).
A budding dark sorceress determined not to use her formidable powers uncovers yet more secrets about the workings of her world in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education, the start of Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking crossover series.
At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year—and the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules . . .
Another school year starts in this book and we follow El, Orion, and their friends as they try to study and survive it. In that respect it is similar to the first book, but this time El is less isolated while at the same time reluctantly put into a position of greater responsibility. The characters continued to shine in this volume as they navigate their way through the dangers of the Scholomance.
El is still haunted by the prophecy that claims she will become a danger to the enclaves, causing her to believe that she is destined to turn to dark magic. This was an intriguing part of the book to me since she has been clearly resisting the prophecy and I couldn’t see anything forcing her to make that change yet. However, I often distrust prophecies in fantasy fiction (thanks, Tad Williams).
This is definitely part of a series and would be difficult to pick up without reading A Deadly Education (paid link) first. The ending also ends on a devastating cliff-hanger, so be ready to start the last book, The Golden Enclaves (paid link), once you’re done.
Have you read any of the books in this series? Do you have a favorite series featuring a magic school? Let me know in the comments (above).
I have had A Deadly Education (paid link) by Naomi Novik on my to-be-read pile for a couple of years. She is an author who burst onto the scene with her Temeraire series (paid link) and then followed it up with two fairy-tale-inspired stand-alones–Uprooted and Spinning Silver (paid links)–and I have read them all. While I felt like the Temeraire series fizzled after the first three or four books, I loved both of the later stand-alones. A Deadly Education is the first book in a new series titled The Scholomance.
You can read my reviews of some of her other books here:
A Deadly Education is set at the Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.
There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.
El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.
At first glance, A Deadly Education sounds a lot like a Harry Potter knock-off. However, this magic school is far less forgiving than Hogwarts. The main character, El (short for Galadriel, courtesy of her hippie mother), is a loner with no friends and few resources who is struggling to stay on top of her courses while avoiding the monsters that search out vulnerable students. However, she is also haunted by a prophecy that foretold her to bring destruction upon the enclaves of magicians across the world. The school seems determined to help her along with this fate by revealing the most destructive and powerful spells to her, but El refuses to use the darker side of her power.
When El accidentally befriends Orion, the talented and privileged monster-slayer of the famed New York enclave of magicians, her fortunes shift. This relationship is integral to The Scholomance series, and Orion is not what El expected.
I loved this first book in The Schlomance! The school captured the essence of being a student of magic, but embraced the danger of learning those skills in a unique way. Additionally, the characters were diverse and interesting, with personalities that drew them into conflict beyond what the school already provided. I discussed this book in a local book club and we all decided that we must continue with the series.
Have you read The Scholomance series? What about other books by Naomi Novik? Let me know in the comments (above)?
I picked this novel up on a whim last year because it was about books and a cat, so what could be better? The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa has been translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, and I read this as an e-book.
Paid links help to support this blog.
Here is the blurb:
Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat named Tiger appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for—or rather, demands—the teenager’s help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and Tiger and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners.
Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different mazes to set books free. Through their travels, Tiger and Rintaro meet a man who leaves his books to perish on a bookshelf, an unwitting book torturer who cuts the pages of books into snippets to help people speed read, and a publishing drone who only wants to create bestsellers. Their adventures culminate in one final, unforgettable challenge—the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest dare enter…
This was a fun and short read, but felt like a YA book rather than anything more serious. Rintaro follows Tiger through alternate worlds where he must figure out how to stop people who are mistreating books. Each of these challenges was interesting, but some of the people that Rintaro meets felt more like caricatures to me.
Tiger doesn’t take as active a role as I might have liked, but there are other secondary characters that help to liven up the plot. Given that this story was told by a Japanese author, I liked learning about some of the concepts from that culture that I was not aware of previously (like hikiomori).
Overall, I didn’t get quite as much out of this book as I would have liked, but it was also a quick read. I might pick up another book by this author in the future.
Have you read many books by authors from other cultures or backgrounds? Let me know in the comments (above).
Salvage – a flash fiction science fiction story with a winter holiday theme