Author: Tim Scheidler

Jana: This week I finished A.K. Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name, which was a lot of fun, and read Carrie Vaughn’s The Immortal Conquistador, a novella exploring the backstory of Rick, from her KITTY NORVILLE urban-fantasy series. I haven’t read any of the other books in that series, and that might have to change, now.

Bill: This week I read Anthropocene Rag by Alex Irvine (enjoyable but didn’t match its potential), Monster 1959 by David Maine (fun parts but bit of a disappointment),

Marion: I finished Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias, a pulpy, blood-soaked surrealist novel. I flinched a lot from the violence as the short book rotates through literary fiction, magic and horror, but I loved the language. Iglesias channels his political anger very well in what is, largely, a political novel. Next up, Sanditon by Jane Austen — her original 60-page fragment, not the adaptation.

Bill: This week I read Leigh Bardugo’s The Crooked Kingdom, Duncan Hamilton’s Servant of the Crown,

Jana: I’m still reading through A.K. Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name, and really enjoying it. I like what Larkwood’s doing with the characters and world-building, and the way she plays with fantasy-genre expectations without throwing everything out the window. My hope is to finish it next week, and then to get a review in the hopper shortly afterward.

Bill: This week I read in order of preference: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, The Queen of Raiders by Sarah Kozloff,

Kelly: I recently reread King Lear for one of my classes, so I decided it was a good time to get around to Tessa Gratton’s The Queens of Innis Lear, which fleshes out the story with a hearty dose of character development and a hefty scoop of muddy, bloody earth magic. It’s long, but thoroughly atmospheric and engrossing.

Bill: Over the past two weeks I read:
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley,

Marion: At this writing, I’ve almost finished Kira Jane Buxton’s novel Hollow Kingdom, about a tame crow and a bloodhound who try to save humanity after a strange zombie apocalypse sweeps Seattle, Washington. The crow, named S.T, is our narrator. I took a break to read Cocaine Blues, one of Kerry Greenwood’s sprightly 1920s Austrailian murder mysteries featuring Phryne Fisher. Next up, Mazes of Power by Juliete Wade. I’m really eager to start that one!

Sandy: Moi? I am currently still suffering with the after effects of a concussion from around six weeks back,

Jana: This week I read Charlaine Harris’ second GUNNIE ROSE novel, A Longer Fall, and Sarah Gailey’s latest novella, Upright Women Wanted. Tadiana and I will be reviewing A Longer Fall together, and I should have a review for Upright Women Wanted put together quite soon. Next up for me is A.K. Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name, because “orc priestess who becomes a wizard’s assassin” sounds amazing to me,

Marion: I mostly read work in manuscript this week, but I did finish Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth. I’m shocked at how deeply and thoroughly the book disappointed me.

Bill: This week I read Animal Mineral Radical, a collection of essays by BK Loren; Washington Black, an excellent novel by Esi Edugyan; and Medieval Bodies: Life and Death in the Middle Ages by Jack Hartnell.

Terry: I finished Rachel Caine’s GREAT LIBRARY sequence with Sword and Pen,

Jana: This week I started reading An Easy Death, the first book in Charlaine Harris’ GUNNIE ROSE Weird West/alternate-history series, so that I’ll know what’s happening when I read A Longer Fall, the second (and just-published) instalment. For fun, I’m doing a re-read of the various Anne McCaffrey PERN books in my personal library, but the order I’m reading them in will be chronological determined by in-book events, so I’m beginning with Dragonsdawn.

Jana: This week I managed to read Seanan McGuire’s Come Tumbling Down, the latest in her WAYWARD CHILDREN series (and the first instalment I’ve read), and Literary Yarns: Crochet Projects Inspired by Classic Books, by Cindy Wang. I enjoyed Come Tumbling Down quite a bit, and it’s given me the boost I needed to seek out the preceding four books in the series so that I can better appreciate who/what the characters and overarching world are. Literary Yarns has a lot of fun-looking projects in it,

Kat: Ugh, I’m still getting caught up after the holidays and getting ready for the spring 2020 semester, which starts tomorrow. Therefore, I read nothing this week. Well, no fiction, that is. I actually read a lot of academic journal articles about the effects of caffeine on the brain (all good!) and the effects of mothers’ drug abuse on their offspring (all bad!). Also several articles about neuroethics. I expect to be caught up and to have some time for fiction this week.

Bill: This week I finished Ken Liu’s newest collection,