Tag Archives: High Fantasy

Honor Among Thieves is a Dungeons and Dragons Movie that Remembers Fantasy is Supposed to be Fun

Posted on April 5, 2023 by H.P.

The worst consequence of Game of Thrones’ success is that it wrongly taught movie and TV writers and execs that fantasy should be dour. If that wasn’t your bag, or if you just got worn out on all the doom … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy, Sundry | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Review of Starlight Enclave by R.A. Salvatore

Posted on August 10, 2021 by H.P.

Tolkien was my real gateway into fantasy.  But like a lot of kids in the 80s and 90s, a huge part of my fantasy reading was devoted to D&D tie-in novels.  Outside of the Dragonlance Chronicles, R.A. Salvatore was the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Review of The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

Posted on May 25, 2021 by H.P.

Buehlman had me at “stag-sized battle ravens.”  That alone was enough to make me jump at an ARC of The Blacktongue Thief when offered one by the publisher.  And we do indeed get a giant warbird (if not quite so … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Black Leviathan is Moby Dick . . . with dragons, airships, and an endless sea of clouds

Posted on March 5, 2020 by H.P.

A retelling of Moby Dick set on an endless sea of clouds, featuring dragons, airships, birdmen, and enchanted spears?  Sign me up!  Black Leviathan is also notable for being my first German book in translation as best I can recollect.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged | 5 Comments

Review of Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger

Posted on October 22, 2019 by H.P.

I almost bailed early on Steel Crow Saga.  It didn’t wind up blowing on me, but it did grow on me.  I’m glad I didn’t bail. Steel Crow Saga is sort of a secondary world, fantasy version of the Asia … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The Harp of Kings is a character-driven, Celtic fantasy

Posted on September 10, 2019 by H.P.

“A person can never hear too many tales.  Tales are like honey cakes.  Once you have tasted one, you want another, and another, and always more.” There is a rich vein of Celtic history and mythology that runs from The … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Kings of the Wyld is a Wild Ride

Posted on July 16, 2019 by H.P.

Great storytelling hay can be reaped by taking old tropes and flat out running with them until you reach their natural, logical conclusion.  (See, e.g., M.L. Brennan’s Generation V series.)  Eames does just that with the band of adventurers model … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , | 9 Comments

The Sword of Kaigen is a Character-Driven Fantasy with Maybe the Best Set Piece I’ve Ever Read

Posted on February 19, 2019 by H.P.

High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , | 5 Comments

The Shattered Sun is Marred by a Weak Conclusion

Posted on December 18, 2018 by H.P.

The Shattered Sun is a hard book to pin down.  The copy describes it as an “epic sword-and-sorcery . . . fantasy.”  It is, technically, an epic fantasy.  The trilogy concerns potentially world-ending matters.  The third book, after all, opens … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Rat Queens vol. 5 is a disjointed, hot mess

Posted on August 15, 2018 by H.P.

*Sigh*  This graphic novel is a hot mess. The first issue focuses on Orc Dave.  It is interesting and good worldbuilding, but it is also repetitive and tangential.  Why include a flashback at what will be the beginning of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , , | 3 Comments