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THE FRUGAL WIZARD’S HANDBOOK FOR SURVIVING MEDIEVAL ENGLAND by Brandon Sanderson
Well, this one goes to show that (again) I shouldn’t let my preconceptions determining my reading. From that title, I was expecting some sort of time-travelling Medieval/Tolkienesque fantasy, something akin to say, Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book, but perhaps a bit more light-hearted. It isn’t. (Well – except perhaps the light-hearted bit.) The author himself says…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE NIGHT BIRDS by Christopher Golden
Christopher Golden is one of the most prolific and respected horror writers of the past couple of decades. He’s appreciated in the horror community and is something of a writer’s writer. He bangs out quality novels and stories in a timely fashion and his latest (May 2025) is The Night Birds. The novel is a…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE MARTIAN CONTINGENCY by Mary Robinette Kowal (Lady Astronaut #4)
It has been five years since the last Lady Astronaut novel (The Relentless Moon) so to say that getting reacquainted with Elma York (especially since that most recent novel didn’t have the focus on Elma) and her husband Nathanial is a most welcome. This fourth novel jumps ahead some more years and takes place in…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE INCANDESCENT by Emily Tesh
Two years ago I reviewed Emily’s last book, Some Desperate Glory (review here) which was a science fiction novel. I liked a lot of it, although my general impression at the end was that it was a little predictable and – gasp! -overrated. But what do I know – Some Desperate Glory then went on…
Categories: Fantasy Books
OVERGROWTH by Mira Grant
Alien invasion stories are often the sole purvey… or rather primarily categorized in the science fiction section of your bookstores and libraries. When you think about them for a moment, they really can be considered horror stories as well. You’ve got the sense of a large force threatening your life (and the entire planet for…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE DEVILS by Joe Abercrombie
If you’re a regular reader of SFFWorld reviews you should know that we are usually HUGE fans of Joe Abercrombie’s fantasy writing. So, any announcement of a new book set in a new world (for Joe, anyway) makes us sit up and take notice. And this one has been on the cards for a while…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE GHOST WOODS by C.J. Cooke
Unwed mothers, witches, folklore, haunted woods. These ingredients form the nucleus of C.J. Cooke’s The Ghost Woods. Although initially published in the UK in 2022, Cooke’s novel lands on US bookshelves in April 2025. Cooke’s story focuses on two young women in two different times – 17-year-old Mabel in 1959 and 22-year-old Pearl – who…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE STAIRCASE in the WOODS by Chuck Wendig
You go on a hike with your friends through the woods, as the trees clear you notice a staircase. No walls, no ceiling. Just stairs. You’d be curious and maybe ascend those stairs. When a group of teenaged friends (Owen, Laura (Lore), Hamish, Nick, and Matty) who have dubbed themselves “The Covenant” comes to this…
Categories: Fantasy Books
WHEN the WOLF COMES HOME by Nat Cassidy
Nat Cassidy’s third horror novel, When the Wolf Comes Home, takes the core of what makes horror– fear – and amplifies it across the breadth of the narrative. Small fears, large fears, adult fears, childhood fears…they are writ large across the novel’s characters. That shouldn’t be a surprise, though. As noted, When the Wolf Comes…
Categories: Fantasy Books
GODKILLER by Hannah Kaner
One of the things as a reviewer I try to do – I think we all do at SFFWorld – is leave our preconceptions behind when starting a book. In fact, I would say as a reader one of the greatest feelings is that of the possibilities a new book or a debut author may…
Categories: Fantasy Books
Marvel Studios’ The Infinity Saga – ANT-MAN: THE ART OF THE MOVIE by Jacob Johnston
This review is part of an ongoing series as Marvel re-release art books for each of the Marvel Universe movies. This is the 11th book so far. This time around it is the movie Ant-Man. Released in 2015, it was the 12th movie in the series, and was the last movie in the so-called Phase…
Categories: Fantasy Books
WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE by John Scalzi
Sweet dreams are made of cheese Who am I to dis a Brie I cheddar the world and a Feta cheese Everybody’s looking for Stilton (Sweet Dreams are Made of Cheese – parody song from the Internet, to the tune of the Eurythmics song Sweet Dreams Are Made of This) Award winning John Scalzi has…
Categories: Fantasy Books
FUTURE’S EDGE by Gareth L. Powell
From the publisher: “When archaeologist Ursula Morrow accidentally infects herself with an alien parasite, she fears she may have jeopardised her career. However, her concerns become irrelevant when Earth is destroyed, billions die, and suddenly no one needs archaeologists anymore… Two years later, she’s plucked from a refugee camp on a backwater world and tasked…
Categories: Fantasy Books
ROSE / HOUSE by Arkady Martine
Arkady Martine first came to prominence with her Teixcalaan duology of SF novels, published between 2019 and 2021. Both books – A Memory Called Empire (2019) and A Desolation Called Peace (2021) were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Since then, relatively little has appeared, which has led to both a high expectation…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER by Gene Wolfe
From the publisher: “Severian is a torturer, born to the guild and with an exceptionally promising career ahead of him . . . until… he is exiled from the guild and his home city to the distant metropolis of Thrax with little more than Terminus Est, a fabled sword, to his name. Along the way…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE RADIANT KING by David Dalglish (Astral Kingdoms, 1)
David Dalglish is in a groove as a fantasy writer. He tends to publish about a book or two per year, he juggles multiple series per year so there’s a decent chance he’s starting a new series. The Radiant King launches a brand new series, The Astral Kingdoms that is epic in scope. Gods? Angels?…
Categories: Fantasy Books
SHROUD by Adrian Tchaikovsky
To me, it seems that Adrian Tchaikovsky has been developing a reputation of late. He has in the last few years produced an enormous amount of genre material, year on year. Last year (2024) I think there were three alone. What impresses me even more is that these books are usually different from each other…
Categories: Fantasy Books
THE FROZEN PEOPLE by Elly Griffiths
From the publisher: “Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research. The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order…
Categories: Fantasy Books
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