Genre: Fantasy

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The Glass Magician

The Glass Magician

Normally I am not a fan of paranormal fiction, but this book hit two buttons for me.  I am a fan of turn of the century (I guess I have to specify the turn of the 20th century now) fiction, and I love stage magic.  The Glass Magician is not a bad book; it came close to being excellent.  Sadly, there are a few places the story let me down. The characters are probably the best part of the book, or at least one character is.  Thalia Cutler, the eponymous magician, is a fairly likable main character.  She is strong-willed and competent while still exhibiting flaws and worries enough to be interesting.  Stevermer hit a good balance with Cutler, making me care about what happened to her through the story, which is one of the most important parts of an engaging novel.  Thalia also has a decent character arc through… Read more »

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The Dragon’s Playlist

The Dragon’s Playlist

I will start by saying the Dragon’s Playlist is possibly one of the best books I’ve read this year. The characters are well developed and captivating, the story moves at a brisk pace and keeps the engrossed even when the story deals with mundane things and elicited real feelings from me as a reader.  And considering I read a lot of books to review and have honestly grown a bit jaded when a novel tries to tug at my heart strings, that’s saying something. This book blends the real everyday world with a fantasy element, a style that has worked well over the years.  If you think too hard about the fantasy elements, it can come a bit undone, but that applies to most of these types of books.  And the book is written skillfully enough that it’s easy to ignore the cracks in the premises when they do show… Read more »

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The Sixth Gate

The Sixth Gate

The Sixth Gate is a sprawling fantasy story about, well, that’s a bit of a problem.  The book has some difficulty pinning down what the story its telling is actually about. When I say the story is sprawling, that isn’t an understatement.  Munson has built a complex world that, if taken by itself would be pretty interesting.  It’s clear the author has either a love of world building or a talent for it or both, the interconnectedness of the universe she’s built is pretty impressive. And Munson describes the world well in flowing details that really brings each part alive.  I admire her ability to clearly set a scene for the reader.  She does an excellent job giving the reader a good feel of the mood of what’s going on and making it connect interestingly. This author is clearly very talented, and this book seems to have had a lot… Read more »

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