I read, like, all the time. A lot of this is because I have Kindle on my phone, and have subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, so at any free moment — there’s new books for me to read and they’re right there.
So just going in reverse chronological order, here we go.
Witch King — Martha Wells (2023)
The Murderbot author tries her hand at fantasy, and it’s a delight. Kai is a demon, trapped in a succession of mortal bodies after the Hierarchs closed his path back to the underrealm, from whence demons come to inhabit the bodies of the recently dead in order to pass along any last thoughts of the deceased and to help defend the tribes that summoned them. The story is told in parallel plots from the past, which sees Kai on his first trip from the underrealm, and in the present, which sees Kai returned from corpse imprisonment to take revenge on the ones that killed him.
It’s a matter-of-fact approach to fantasy storytelling that reminds me very much of Zelazny’s early works, crossed with a little of that Anne Leckie modernism. I’m looking forward to reading its sequel, Queen Demon.
A Parade of Horribles — Matt Dinniman (2026)
The eighth book of Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series is finally released, continuing the story of Carl and his prizewinning tortoiseshell Persian, Princess Donut, as they compete in a deadly race on the tenth floor and the titular Parade of Horribles on the eleventh. All this will mean nothing to you if you have not become a member of the Princess Posse, so let me recap:
At midnight on a certain day, every enclosed structure on Earth was flattened, and everyone inside at that time was killed. Those left alive found stairs leading underground. Among those exploring the depths was Carl, in his skivvies because he’d been outside chasing his girlfriend’s prize cat Princess Donut, who’d gotten out. But now they’re in a galactic television game show, Dungeon Crawl, where survivors of the flattening take on fantasy/sci fi character classes and battle through death dungeons to reach the 18th floor and freedom. Princess Donut becomes sentient, Carl is forbidden from wearing pants, and, well, it’s by turns silly fun and gory death. Coming to a TV near you.
Don’t buy knockoff Princess Donut merch, btw. She gets no royalties from pirated, low quality trash and WHY DON’T YOU CARE ABOUT THE LOYAL FANS?
A Sorceress Comes to Call — T. Kingfisher (2024)
Every review of T. Kingfisher’s works takes pains to remind readers that the author’s real name is Ursula Vernon, and that she also writes children’s books. So, okay. I guess this is like Richard Bachmann/Stephen King, but I guess I get it. She doesn’t want kids to stumble upon her Kingfisher books.
What if fairy tales were real? And if the events therein lead to real trauma, sexual and emotional abuse, death and horror?
A Sorceress Comes to Call opens with young Cordelia in church with her mother. She is trapped inside her body because her mother, a sorceress, is making her obedient — puppeting her with magic. She can take control of her at any time, and as far as Cordelia knows, this is a power all mothers probably possess.
Cordelia’s mother’s plan is to use Cordelia in her plan to infiltrate a rich noble’s house, marry the bachelor there and then kill him, a plot she has tried before. Unless Cordelia can somehow stop her.
Anathem — Neal Stephenson (2008)
This is a re-read. I always feel Stephenson takes everything he’s been thinking of in the moment, mixes them all together, and spits out books that seem truly unique. In this case, it’s the Long Now Foundation’s 10,000 year clock, Plato’s The Republic, causal domain shear (CDS) and A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Fraa Erasmus is a young and fairly naive member of an order that has vowed to cut itself off from the world for ten years at a time; other orders in their cloister take vows to cut themselves off for single year at a time, or a century, or a millennium. Erasmus’ tutor, Fraa Orolo, explains that isolating themselves in this way allows the outside world to move along on its own track of reality, untethered from life within the cloister.
This is all prelude to the discovery of an alien ship orbiting their world, an alien ship piloted by shocking visitors.
I tend to remember the parts about life within the cloister and then the bit toward the end, forgetting about the hundreds of pages of people explaining the plot to Erasmus and playing pranks on him that, in his naivete, he misses entirely. It’s not his best work, but it is among his most memorable.
Nettle & Bone — T. Kingfisher (2022)
You would have to expect that a story that has fairy godmothers as major characters would be light-hearted children’s fantasy. But this is T.Kingfisher1 we’re talking about.
Marra is the youngest of three princesses. The oldest was sent to marry a prince of another kingdom, in order to secure their own kingdom’s future. She soon dies under mysterious circumstances, and the middle daughter is sent to replace her, while Marra is sent to a convent to be saved in case her name is called.
After fifteen years in the convent, news from her middle sister makes Marra feel her sister’s life is in danger and that she will be soon called upon to marry. She goes to a local dust-wife (a witch that lives in a graveyard) for magical help, and is given three impossible tasks to perform; she does, and now starts her trip to save her sister that will lead them from mortal and magical realm and a meeting with the fairy godmother that blessed (or perhaps cursed) her at birth.
Okay, this is a serious book. But it’s really fun. It’s not nearly as dark as A Sorceress Comes to Call, which was also fun, in its own way.
Demon Overlord’s Retirement Plan — MH Foster
Love, Politics and Other Acts of War — MH Foster
Band of Others — MH Foster
These are the first three books of MH Foster’s A Gentle Apocalypse. I’d add the years they were first published, but that turns out not to be an easy task. I even looked on their Patreon but the author seemingly just doesn’t publicize themselves as much as seems usual for other modern authors.
The Lord of Darkness, Demon King of Super Evil, etc etc etc is bored of an eternity of being evil, inspiring some do-gooder to save the world from darkness, and being defeated by (or defeating) the hero, rinse, repeat and yawn.
After defeating the party of the latest hero, he takes on the life of their cowering servant, Willem, and vows to fulfil Willem’s dream of living out a peaceful life as a turnip farmer on the edge of the kingdom.
Without an evil dark lord around to unite them, the human kingdoms start causing their own sort of trouble. Meanwhile, Willem’s old demonic lieutenants start hunting him out and settling down to their own sort of bucolic mischief. Willem just can’t seem to be allowed to settle down.
It’s a funny, cozy fantasy series. You’re not going to be T.Kingfisher’d2 here. A fourth book is, according to the author’s Patreon, on the way. What happens if the Forces of Good are also tired of the Eternal Battle?
The Dark Lord’s Guide to Dating (and Other War Crimes) — Tiffany Hunt
I think I already wrote about this. It’s Romantasy. I haven’t read the sequel yet.
Leave a Reply