Dreadful is a comedic fantasy standalone about an amnesiac man who discovers he is an evil wizard. Gav wakes up with no memories in an evil3.5/5 stars
Dreadful is a comedic fantasy standalone about an amnesiac man who discovers he is an evil wizard. Gav wakes up with no memories in an evil wizard’s workshop post-explosion. Worse yet is that he is apparently Dread Lord Gavrax, has a kidnapped princess in his dungeon, and is part of a cabal of fellow dark wizards just about to culminate an evil scheme he can’t remember. He plays along for his survival, but what happens when he doesn’t like who he is supposed to be?
The book is a satirical play on the classic high fantasy tropes from the villain’s perspective. It’s actually a lot of fun and had be genuinely laughing out loud at some of the jokes and situations—there’s hilariously incompetent goblin minions, killer moat squids, a torture-happy lackey, and a garlic festival. There’s also a cozy quality to the book that I quite liked with its sort-of-found family, domestic issues in upkeep of a castle lair, and personal reflections. The cavalier way it handles death though was incongruous.
I wanted to really love the book, but it ended up being just okay to me even though I did enjoy it. I thought it was a bit too shallow and the execution felt half-baked. It doesn’t fully explore the concepts or themes it brings up, leaving me wanting for just that extra step more. I personally thought Django Wexler did this concept better in How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying (if you can get past the bro-ey tone) which came out practically at the same time.
I thought Gav was an interesting character that is both easy to root for while also not being all that likable. He doesn’t want to be evil anymore, but he isn’t actually that good of a guy either with his incel-like attitude and quick temper. Cowardice, societal expectations and inconvenient actions of his past self keep getting in the way. Gav certainly grew, but it didn’t come out as smoothly as I would have liked. I actually wanted to learn more about his history (which was teased a bit), but we don’t really discover anything because of his amnesia. The shortness of the book didn’t allow for much development of the other characters, but I thought its ~350 pages was just right for the story.
Dreadful is a satirical fantasy about an amnesiac evil wizard trying to turn a new leaf that is funny if a bit light on substance....more
Five Broken Blades is a Korean-inspired fantasy series starter. The god king must die, and someone has brought together six people to do th3.5/5 stars
Five Broken Blades is a Korean-inspired fantasy series starter. The god king must die, and someone has brought together six people to do the job—an exiled prince, a spymaster, a poison assassin, a nobleman, a thief, and a bodyguard strongman. But these six have their own agendas and tons of secrets between them, so can they pull this off when they can’t trust each other?
Let’s get this out of the way first… The prose leaves much to be desired with its simple choppy sentences, juvenile text, and short paragraphs and chapters. It is quite off-putting to read in what is supposed an adult fantasy. But the way it is written and the things that happen also read very YA—the coupling of all the characters, their general pining/horniness, and the lack of complexity in any interaction. There’s also this tendency to repeatedly reiterate things and stating the obvious. All these are just something you have to get used to/get past (which I did) if you want to enjoy the book. The shortness of the chapters, though, did lend itself to quicker pacing and never becoming boring because of the constant shifting of perspectives between the six and so many events happening one after the other.
I did actually like the characters and the backgrounds and backstories they each get that help you understand each of their motivations in this plot. Some characterizations, however, aren’t quite consistent with how they are portrayed versus who they are supposed to be. Still, I was rooting for all of them to succeed in their schemes and their respective pairings. Comparing to Six of Crows (a frequent comp title) though, this just doesn’t hold a candle to it when it comes to complexity of the actual plot [to kill the king in this case] because this one felt too simple, too straightforward, and relied too much on chance. Overall, I liked it enough to read a sequel.
Five Broken Blades had potential with middling execution....more
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a work of contemporary fiction/cosy mystery. At 26, Clayton Stumper grew old before he even grew up, raised by a bunThe Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a work of contemporary fiction/cosy mystery. At 26, Clayton Stumper grew old before he even grew up, raised by a bunch of eccentric retirees after being left as an infant at the doorstep of their headquarters for the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. When its president (and the woman who raised him) Pippa Allsbrooks passes away, Charlie decides it’s finally time to find some answers about where he came from. Having expected this, Pippa has left him puzzles and clues to help him discover his past and set up his future.
This was just such a charming and heartwarming read. There was nothing I did not love about it. Told in two timelines, it follows Pippa as a younger woman as she establishes the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers as first a club then eventually a refuge for its members who tend to be older and lonely. In the present timeline, Clayton goes on a puzzling scavenger hunt of sorts, uncovering the secrets of his origins and finally opening himself up to more beyond just the Fellowship.
The book delivers a surprisingly cosy mystery full of puzzles (actual puzzles you can solve) and quirky personalities. It brings together a found family of different puzzling aficionados with their own quirks and charms, anchored by two exceedingly different personalities. In Pippa is a determined and outgoing older woman who makes a family of her own beyond that of biology, and in Clayton is a sheltered young man needing to venture out from his comfort zone and family to be more than he is. And in both their stories is an uplifting and upbeat adventure about finding family, love (including a queer one), and a place to belong.
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers will be perfect for a specific audience, and I happen to be one of them. I can totally see this working as a television miniseries....more
High Vaultage is the first in a historical steampunk science fiction series where feats of engineering have far advanced its time, Queen Victoria3.5/5
High Vaultage is the first in a historical steampunk science fiction series where feats of engineering have far advanced its time, Queen Victoria is more machine than woman after 11 assassination attempts, and the engineer army has urbanized much of England as “Even Greater London” and filled the city with automatons. It follows new private detective partners Fleet and Entwhistle as they investigate a series of impossible bank heists and a kidnapping that will lead them to the very heights of the engineer army.
I know there is an audience that will absolutely love and devour this book, but this was just not for me. There was just this ridiculousness to the character interactions and some of the occurrences that was initially fine but quickly wore out its welcome with me. There’s a serious story being told here, and I just thought the book wasn’t treating it as seriously as I was wanting it to. I bristled at the weird tone and just didn’t jive with the satirical(?) vibe it’s going for. I liked the complex interconnecting mystery (as I usually do) and some of the humor, but the ridiculous situations that are meant to be humorous wasn’t as funny to me as it probably should have been. I did also like the historical setting and the world that was built around it.
The book is told from alternating perspectives of the two leads and (minimally) a couple others. I liked Clara Entwhistle who was born into minor nobility but leaves home to pursue her own independence as a journalist and now also a parter PI to Fleet. She was competent, fun, and really carried this partnership. I thought Archibald Fleet was severely underutilized and I can’t really say he had many contributions to the investigation despite being a former detective constable who is just waiting for paperwork to declare that he isn’t dead (long story) so he can be reinstated. You can really sense his frustration with his situation and I was frustrated for him too. Their dynamic worked but felt totally uneven despite both getting equal perspectives.
While it delivered on the premise, High Vaultage just did not hit right with me tonally....more
The Book of Doors is an urban fantasy debut about magical books and the people who possess them. When Cassie is gifted a book with the inscription sayThe Book of Doors is an urban fantasy debut about magical books and the people who possess them. When Cassie is gifted a book with the inscription saying “Any door is every door”, she is thrown into a small secretive world where magical books can give its bearers extraordinary powers. And her Book of Doors is one of the most coveted, able to open doors to anywhere and any time. Together with her roommate Izzy and the mysterious Librarian Drummond Fox, Cassie must protect the book because with great power comes people who seek to possess it by any means.
This book seriously reminded me of last year’s Ink Blood Sister Scribe, but more fantasy than thriller. Both deal with magical books and their collectors with a Library with a mission to protect those books and sinister individuals hellbent on stealing them. The Book of Doors though is far more fantastical and whimsical and goes unexpected places with brilliant use of magic and surprising twists. When time travel came into play, I practically rolled my eyes at the addition to just the portal-esque fantasy. But boy was I wrong. This was a turning point in the story because I was gripped from that point forward as it went from thriller to a more intimate story (for Cassie and Drummond) that had me tearing up at some moments.
This could have been a lot higher rated had it not been for two main issues I had with it. One was the cartoonishly evil villain who is evil for evil’s sake, and I am just not a fan of that type of characterization (which was intentionally written that way). Two is the somewhat off aspects of the writing where the dialogue is a blunt and with this weird confrontational tinge that comes across rather insensitive or even offensive. It actually made me think that the author might have a subconscious prejudice (fatphobia and misogyny specifically) that’s coming through the page. And that’s just not something you want readers to be picking up from your text. It’s like how drunk words are sober thoughts (but for books).
The Book of Doors delivers a touching contemporary fantasy that is hindered by some of its writing elements....more
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