Category Archives: Fantasy

Wheel of Time TV Show gets pre-release Greenlight for Season 2

Posted on April 30, 2021 by H.P.

They are being quiet about it, but Amazon has given the greenlight to season 2 of its Wheel of Time show, despite season 1 still shooting, let alone not having aired. Shooting of season 2 is to start immediately after … Continue reading →

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Bardugo Caps One of the Best YA Series of the Young Century with Ruin and Rising

Posted on March 23, 2021 by H.P.

“I am not ruined.  I am ruination.” Ruin and Rising brings Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy to a close.  I was in at the ground floor, reading the first and second books right around the time they came out.  I inexplicably … Continue reading →

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Siege and Storm is The Empire Strikes Back of the Grisha Trilogy

Posted on March 9, 2021 by H.P.

Siege and Storm is the second book in The Grisha Trilogy and the follow-up to Bardugo’s very promising debut, Shadow and Bone.  Rest assured there is no sophomore slump.  The second act of a trilogy can be the high point … Continue reading →

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Shadow and Bone is an Inspired, and Russian-Inspired, Fantasy

Posted on February 23, 2021 by H.P.

Alina, an orphan turned military cartographer, has her life changed forever when her military unit attempts a crossing of the Fold, a mysterious, flesh-eating monster-filled swath of darkness that cuts her home country off from vital sea trade.  The army’s … Continue reading →

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Uncanny Collateral Does Not Break Any New Ground, But It Is Plenty Fun

Posted on January 19, 2021 by H.P.

Don’t expect Brian McClellan’s first foray into urban fantasy to blaze any new trails.  This is all ground well-trod by Jim Butcher, Larry Correia, and Richard Kadrey.  Which isn’t to say that Uncanny Collateral isn’t more than welcome.  But we … Continue reading →

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The Lions of Al-Rassan is the Rare Single-Volume Epic

Posted on January 12, 2021 by H.P.

Guy Gavriel Kay has given us a true epic in a single volume in The Lions of Al-Rassan.  It is a thinly veiled retelling of El Cid and the Reconquista, albeit altered and compressed (the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula … Continue reading →

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Vintage SF Month: Return to Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Posted on January 7, 2021 by H.P.

My journey through Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom novels (and my Vintage SF Month 2021) continues with Return to Mars.  Return to Mars collects Barsoom books 4-6: Thuvia, Maid of Mars; The Chessmen of Mars; and The Mastermind of Mars.  The … Continue reading →

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Rereading The Great Hunt, chapters 33-36

Posted on December 29, 2020 by H.P.

In which Machin Shin is waiting at Lord Barthanes manor and at Stedding Tsofu (and Rand learns Padan Fain will be waiting for him at Toman Head), Thom faces another tragedy, Fain delivers the Horn to the High Lord Turak, … Continue reading →

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You Know What Epic Fantasy Needs More Of? Giants

Posted on November 24, 2020 by H.P.

There is a temptation during hard times to turn to comfort food.  Both when it comes to actual food and when it comes to reading material.  I cut my teeth as a fantasy reader with Tolkien and Jordan and innumerable … Continue reading →

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Rereading The Great Hunt, chapters 29-32

Posted on October 20, 2020 by H.P.

In which the Seanchan make their appearance, Bayle Doman resurfaces and finds himself in Falme, Rand receives two final party invites, the chest is once again lost, Ingtar finally arrives in Carhien, and the newly reunited party accepts Barthanes’ invitation. … Continue reading →

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