#fantasy books
Betwixt and Between, a boardgame and book about faeries illustrated by yours truly is currently up on Kickstarter! Go have a look if you’re into European folklore! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/allornonegames/betwixt-and-between
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the best kinds of fantasy books are the ones that leave you thinking about the pockets of the world you never see, the places you’ve read about in passing but have never traveled to, locations that you believe could very well exist. fantasy books leave you imagining
Pins inspired by Hafsah Faizal’s Sands of Arawiya duology are now up on my Etsy and Shopify!
Angelaanimatesshop.com
My 5 question interview with Horn Book about Heartless Prince!
Publishers’ Preview: Picture Books and Graphic Novels: Five Questions for Angela De Vito
“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
- Cloud Atlas
Update: This is now updated as of Spring 2022! I feel I like spent a good part of 2021 catching up and finishing series that I started in 2019/2020. Which was my plan (as you can see in the paragraph below). I’ve definitely been meeting my reading goals for the past couple of years, which is a good feeling!
2019 (and some of 2020) was a year of starting series, but not necessarily finishing them. This is a list of series I want to read and finish, but haven’t yet (plus having so many unfinished series stresses me out a little) 2020 was also a year where I started series and reread a lot of favorite books from my teenage years and earlier. I’m glad I did that, and I reread some books I’ve been meaning to for years. But i think 2021 will be a year of me wrapping up/catching up on series.
Series I’ve started but need to catch up on:
- The Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire. Read book 1, need to read the rest. (it’s a crime that I haven’t continued yet, I know). Update: I’ve now read this first two books… still need to continue!
- The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. Read book 1 January 2021, need to read the rest. Update: I’ve read books 1-5 so far.
- Castle in the Air andHouse of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones (companion books to Howls Moving Castle) I know, its a heinous crime that I haven’t read these two when HMC is quite possibly my most favorite book ever.
- Veronica Speedwell Series by Deborah Harkness. I’ve read books 1-2.
- The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
- The Dark Star Trilogy by Marlon James
Series I want to continue, but I’m waiting for the next book to be released/announced:
- Children of Blood and Bonetrilogy
- Crescent City series + the new A Court book
- Ninth House series by Leigh Bardugo (Hell Bent announced)
- The Book of Dust trilogy by Philip Pullman
- Vespertineby Margaret Rogerson
Why You Should Read Bravelyby Maggie Stiefvater
- A couple of years after the events of Brave, Merida must make a bargain with two gods to save her home. She must travel to three different kingdoms and help guide her family to change, or else her entire home and family will be destroyed
- Even if you feel indifferent about the movie Brave, this book is definitely doing its own thing. It doesn’t feel weighed down by the film, and feels like a more mature and realized next adventure
- It’s Maggie Steifvater, so really, I don’t need to say anything else
- glorious glorious descriptions of food. I need a cookbook out of this please
- Merida is more mature and aware, and less juvenile than in the movie
- The depictions of medieval Scotland were great
- and while I’m not an expert in early medieval Scotland, the general approach to depicting the middle ages was well handled by Maggie
- a nonbinary shapeshifting immortal god of destruction
- Maggie subtly subverting Disney by giving us a an lgbt romance, with a character who has been queer coded since the beginning
- This book is about loving your family and your home
- and helping your family grow and change as well
- This book is cozy and is made for reading next to a crackling fireplace in winter, or in a window as a summer storm rolls in.
- Maggie Stifevater’s writing is amazing as always, and she just continues to grow and become more of a favorite author
- The audiobook is by Fiona Hardingham, who did Puck from the Scorpio Races
On this day in 1961 Graham James MacTavish was born. He portrayed the character of Dwalin in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy. He was one of the Dwarves that traveled with Bilbo, Gandalf and Thorin on the quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug. Happy birthday!
Artwork by Baolong Zhang
“And when Turgon heard of this he sent again his messengers to Sirion’s mouths, and besought the aid of Círdan the Shipwright. At the bidding of Turgon Círdan built seven swift ships, and they sailed out into the West; but no tidings of them came ever back to Balar, save of one, and the last. The mariners of that ship toiled long in the sea, and returning at last in despair they foundered in a great storm within sight of the coasts of Middle-earth; but one of them was saved by Ulmo from the wrath of Ossë, and the waves bore him up, and cast him ashore in Nevrast. His name was Voronwë; and he was one of those that Turgon sent forth as messengers from Gondolin.”
Credit to the artist
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Let’s play a game!
Reply who’s your favourite Hero from the First Age of Middle-earth: Beren Erchamion, Túrin Turambar, Tuor Ulmondil, or Eärendil the Mariner?
Artwork by 89ravenclaw
“Last of all Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew Húrin cried: ‘Aurë entuluva! Day shall come again!’ Seventy times he uttered that cry; but they took him at last alive, by the command of Morgoth, for the Orcs grappled him with their hands, which clung to him still though he hewed off their arms; and ever their numbers were renewed, until at last he fell buried beneath them. Then Gothmog bound him and dragged him to Angband with mockery.”
Artwork by steamy
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“Thus he came alone to Angband’s gates, and he sounded his horn, and smote once more upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat. And Morgoth came.”
Artwork by Calavera666
“No cloud nor mist lay there, and looking down Lúthien saw far below, as a white light starting from a green jewel, the radiance of Gondolin the fair where Turgon dwelt.”
Artwork by Ted Nasmith
“The First Daughter is for the throne. The Second Daughter is for the Wolf.” - Hannah Whitten
For the Wolf was such an entertaining read. I started reading it for the Read Better Book Club and I found myself finishing the book in a matter of days because I couldn’t put it down. It was just so engaging and had ALL THE TROPES I love. Marriage of convenience, ONLY ONE BED, grumpy/sunshine. Would 10/10 recommend!
5 stars
“I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin”
At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.
But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading this book. I wasn’t a fan of Lawrence’s ‘Broken Empire’ series, I couldn’t get into the mindset of the protagonist at all. I wasn’t even going to pick up this book initially, but reviews from friends lavished it in praise and I put in a review request, and then, assuming said request had been rejected, bought a copy. A copy arrived in my inbox just as another dropped on my doorstep and, I thought, well, this book and I were just meant to be together.
This book starts with an epilogue of sorts, but I won’t say too much about it, because to do so would be to ruin other parts of the story. The first entree into Nona’s story proper isn’t even through her own eyes, it’s through the eyes of a friend who’s viewing what little is left of their dwindling life from the wooden boards below a noose. Needless to say, the book opens with Nona having been sentenced to death for a crime unknown, and escaping the noose only through the good graces of the Abbess of the Convent of Sweet Mercy.
What follows after is my favourite sort of book. I am a complete sap for schools of magic and violence, all of my favourite books have some kind of place of learning in them. The beauty of this book is that it manages to stay ‘external’ whilst focusing inwards. We learn the stories of Nona’s early life and the history and politics of the world around her. It’s all told in great detail but I never once felt as if the information was simply being dumped upon me.
One thing I have always appreciated about Lawrence’s books is the genre that they lie in. A sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy. In Nona’s world, they are living on a planet watched over by a dying sun, where the feeble light grants them only a narrow corridor of living space between the ice. Moreso, they people of Abeth are not even from that world, having arrived on the planet many hundreds of years ago aboard great ships. I love the interplay between the fantasy and science fiction aspects of the book, how the magic seems to be amplified by the ‘shiphearts’ or reactor cores of the ancient space ships.
Nona, herself, is a wonderful character. She’s courageous and frightened, naive and world weary, stubborn and tentative. Basically, in all aspects, she is a young girl coming of age, a young girl thrust into a dark and unpleasant world and forced to come to terms with it. One of my favourite books when I was growing up was ‘Lirael’ by Garth Nix for many of the same reasons that I’ve come to love this book. We have a curious and introverted protagonist carving herself a niche in an environment that is both fascinating and dangerous. A young girl who has managed to utterly unbalance the world around her just by her existence. The way that Nona is written, and her feuds and friendships with those around her, is just amazing. I had flu for the last couple of days and just being able to curl up with this book was perfect escapism.
This is book filled with shadow, poison and politics. It’s a slow, rich, dark odyssey that, even after almost 500 pages, I felt sad to finish. ‘Grey Sister’, the second book, is due to be published next spring and, honestly, I can see myself reading this a good few times between.
So if you like complicated and truthful heroines, blood and bladework with a hefty dose of darkness then this is definitely a book you should have on your radar and your ‘to be read’ list.
Many many thanks to Harper Voyager ( @harpervoyagerbooks) for a copy in return for an honest review. What a book!
High Lord of the Night Court | ACOTAR
Lord of Bloodshed | ACOTAR
Mommy Feyre leaving the Spring Court | ACOWAR
