Dec 14, 2017
From Our TBR Pile Throwback Thursday

#ThrowbackThursday Review – The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
By: Patricia McKillip
Website: http://www.patriciamckillip.com/
Release Date: September 17, 2017
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Award: World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (1975); Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee (1975)
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Patricia McKillip’s novel The Forgotten Beasts of Eld was republished by Tachyon Publications. This World Fantasy Award winning novel is a true treasure, a book that is most definitely worth reading.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is a standalone fantasy novel by Patricia McKillip. Sybel is a wizard, the latest in a long line of powerful wizards. She lives atop Eld Mountain, constantly calling the powerful and mystical creatures of long lost stories to her doorstep. Sybel is completely disinterested in the world of men, but that world comes knocking on her door in the form of an infant – a cousin whose mother is dead and whose kingly father, if he is truly the father at all, is apt to kill him. Slowly, Sybel is introduced to the world below, to love, to revenge, and more power than even she thought possible.

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Nov 19, 2017
From Our TBR Pile New & Upcoming Releases

Review – The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

The Language of Thorns:
By: Leigh Bardugo
Website: http://www.leighbardugo.com/m/
Release Date: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Imprint
Series: Grisha Verse
Rating:


The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic is, at heart, a book of fairy tales. These stories are set in Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha universe, the same world in which The Grisha Trilogy and the Six of Crows duology are set. Instead of high stakes adventures, we are given several fairy tales that take place in unspecified times within this world.

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Oct 12, 2017
New & Upcoming Releases

Review – Blackwing by Ed McDonald

Blackwing
By: Ed McDonald
Release Date: October 3, 2017
Publisher: Ace Books
Series: Raven's Mark #1
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Ed McDonald explodes onto the scene with the strongest debut novel I have read all year. Blackwing is the first novel in a new series featuring a world torn apart by a war that cannot be won against creatures who cannot die.

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Oct 07, 2017
From Our TBR Pile Manga & Light Novels

Review – Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol. 1

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol. 1
By: Hiro Ainana
Illustrator: Ayamegumo
Translator: Jenny McKeon
Release Date: March 17th 2014; January 31st 2017
Publisher: Yen On
Series: Death March Rhapsody to the Parallel World #1
Rating:


I have read a lot of stuck in another world type fantasy. High fantasy, light novels, manga, stuck in a video game, or fallen through a wardrobe – I read them all. Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody by Hiro Ainana is one of my all-time favorites within the genre. While bearing a different sort of humor and extremely different main characters, Death March is just as excellent a deconstruction of the genre the light novel Konosuba. It is a light novel I highly recommend, and an anime I highly anticipate within the coming year.

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Sep 21, 2017
0 Article

The Hobbit and its Impact on a Young Reader

Today is the 80th anniversary of the release of The Hobbit. In 1998 I received my first copy of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was a Christmas gift, tucked under the tree with all the others. The book was extremely oversized, the text huge and was filled with the beautiful artwork of Michael Hague. To this day it sits on my shelf (flat as it’s too tall to fit any other way) amongst all my other Tolkien books (as a platform, because, well, it’s huge).


More …

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Aug 31, 2017
Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday: Special Edition- Tome Topple!

The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time #1)
By: Robert Jordna
Release Date: January 15th, 1990
Publisher: Tor Books
Series: The Wheel of Time Series
Rating:


It lives! It, being my computer. And me, I suppose. Guess what everyone? I’ve broken out of my reading slump! Just in time for Tome Topple and to begin The Wheel of Time Series! You know what else is exciting? Absolutely nothing because I don’t have time to read or do things beyond work, eat, gym and sleep. (If you question this statement know I’m writing this review, on my phone, which has 25% battery while on a cramped commuter train.) Nevertheless, me whining about adulthood aside, shall we delve into one of the most loved fantasy series of all time? Let’s!

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Aug 15, 2017
From Our TBR Pile Manga & Light Novels New & Upcoming Releases

Review – Overlord, Vol. 4: The Lizardmen Heroes by Kugane Maruyama

Overlord, Vol. 4: The Lizardmen Heroes
By: Hajime Kanzaka
Illustrator: So-bin
Translator: Emily Balistrieri
Release Date: (Original) July 31, 2013; (English) May 23, 2017
Publisher: Yen On
Series: Overlord #4
Rating:


Moving is hard. We’ve all done it and we’ve all hated it. It’s stressful, it takes up all of your free time, and all of your books get stuck in boxes. Including the brand new, released-two-days-before-moving-day copy of one of your favorite fantasy light novels. But the boxes are finally empty and Overlord, Vol 4 has been read! Overlord, Vol 4: The Lizardmen Heroes by Kugane Maruyama is a high fantasy adventure following characters who, in another story, would probably be bad guys.

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Aug 10, 2017
From Our TBR Pile New & Upcoming Releases

Review – Beren and Luthien by J.R.R. Tolkien

Beren and Luthien
By: J.R.R. Tolkien (Edited by Christopher Tolkien)
Release Date: June 1, 2017
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: Middle Earth Universe
Rating:


Every time I see that a new Tolkien book is being published I get unbelievably excited. I can’t help it. Tolkien’s works were one of the first adult fantasy series I’d ever read, and has remained a life-long love. Beren and Luthien by J.R.R. Tolkien and edited by Christopher Tolkien is the last in a long line of posthumously published works focusing on Middle Earth. This one tells the story of Beren and Luthien, one of the tales found within the Silmarillion.

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Aug 03, 2017
From Our TBR Pile Manga & Light Novels Throwback Thursday

#ThrowbackThursday Review – Slayers: The Ghost of Sairaag by Hajime Kanzaka

Slayers: The Ghost of Sairaag
By: Hajime Kanzaka
Release Date: (Original Japanese 1991); (English Translation) March 8, 2005
Publisher: TokyoPop
Series: Slayers #3
Rating:


I really wish these books were still being translated. The series is a lot of fun, and the books don’t disappoint. This is actually the second time I’ve read The Ghost of Sairaag by Hajime Kanzaka in only a few months. I’d originally started it less than a week before moving, so of course the book got packed away in a box I couldn’t find upon move in, the last chapter still unread. At this point I figured I may as well read the whole thing over again, something I’m never against when it’s one of my favorite series.

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Jul 09, 2017
From Our TBR Pile Manga & Light Novels

Review – Konosuba: God’s Blessings on This Wondrous World!, Vol. 1 by Natsume Akatsuki

Konosuba: God's Blessings on This Wondrous World!, Vol. 1
By: Natsume Akatsuki
Illustrator: Kurone Mishima
Translator: Kevin Steinbach
Release Date: November 22, 2016
Publisher: Yen On
Series: Konosuba #1
Rating:


I love everything fantasy. Fantasy novels. Fantasy light novels. Fantasy manga. High fantasy. Low fantasy. Magical realism. All of it. I’ve seen all the tropes, all the clichés, and format specific tendencies. Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!, Vol. 1 by Natsume Akatsuki takes every single one of those, plays with it, and turns it on its head.

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