fantasy - The Book Witch

The Dog Days of Reading: August ’24 Recap

It’s hard to believe another month has gone by, but it’s already (past) time for my August reading recap! (And I didn’t even read a single Star Wars book!) Each month I write a mini review of every book I read the previous month, whether it was speculative fiction or not. If you missed last month’s mini reviews, you can find July’s reading cap here.

This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that financially supports independent bookstores. If you buy from my links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Speculative Novels

A square graphic that says "Spec Fic" at the top and "August 2024" at the bottom. It has a nebula background and shows the covers for All Systems Red and A Natural History of Dragons.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

I first read Murderbot on a family trip to Cape Cod last October (you can see some of the bookstores I visited there in this post), but wanted to reread the first book before continuing the series. As you can see from the lack of other Murderbot novellas on this list, I got a little bit distracted this month. Whoops! My ADHD should not be taken as commentary on the quality of All Systems Red, which is a fantastic book. Murderbot has my whole heart.

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

A fun, and funny, book about a woman who wants to study dragons but cannot because of her gender. Of course she winds up doing so anyway, and is brilliant at it. A friend recommended this series to me, and I quickly fell in love with Isabella. She’s scrappy, determined, and smart as hell. I can’t wait to read the second book in the series once my Libby hold comes in!

Speculative Comics

A square graphic that says "Comics" at the top and "August 2024" at the bottom. It has a nebula background and shows the covers for Gideon Falls and The Hunger and the Dusk.

Gideon Falls Deluxe Volumes One and Two by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, and Dave Stewart

Jeff Lemire’s Gideon Falls offers nearly 800 pages of mind-bending horror based around a mysterious black barn that appears and disappears seemingly at random. The story takes a few unexpected twists but has a satisfying—if somewhat open—ending. Sorrentino’s art creates the perfect atmosphere for this creepy tale. His use of nontraditional panels, particularly toward the end of the series, draws readers right into the chaos and confusion. (Bookshop.org unfortunately doesn’t carry the deluxe volume one anymore, but they do still carry the trade paperbacks.)

The Hunger and the Dusk by G. Willow Wilson and Chris Wildgoose

The Hunger and the Dusk offers a fresh take on familiar fantasy tropes with high stakes and compelling, complex characters who are forced again and again to make uncomfortable choices between their own desires and saving the world. Read my full review here.

Contemporary Fiction and Nonfiction

A square graphic that says "Books" at the top and "August 2024" at the bottom. It has a nebula background and shows the covers for Luster, How We Can Win, and Why We Read.

Luster by Raven Leilani

What a gorgeous novel! Leilani’s prose has teeth. Although the book is light on traditional plot, it reads like a thriller. The relationships in this book are so fraught that I found myself holding my breath more than once, waiting to see what would happen next. If you love beautiful sentences and deep character building, this one’s for you.

How We Can Win by Kimberley Jones

This is an accessible and concise book about white supremacy in America. The first two thirds clearly connect the problems facing modern Black Americans to this country’s historical treatment of them. The final third gets a little more self-helpy by offering up advice in key areas of life, and ends with clear calls to action for both Black and white people to work towards the end of white supremacy.

Why We Read by Shannon Reed

Based on the “we” in the title, I wasn’t expecting this to be a straight-up memoir. While I did relate to many of the reasons why “we” read, some of the chapters fell flat for me. Reed never takes herself too seriously, but her glib tone was a turnoff at times. I did enjoy the chapters that focused on libraries, and appreciated that you could really feel the author’s love for them radiating off the page. I’d still recommend this book, but with the caveat that it focuses on one person’s experience with books and reading, not reading and readers more generally as the title implies.

What did you read in August? I’d love to hear about it on Instagram, Threads, or Bluesky!

Comic Book Review: The Hunger and the Dusk

The Hunger and the Dusk, written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Chris Wildgoose, is a high fantasy comic series tinted with horror. I’ve been reading this one monthly since its debut in July 2023, and it’s been a highlight of my pull list. Clearly, this review is long overdue!

Volume one collects the first six issues, and there’s a lot of ground to cover! The first story arc ended on a cliffhanger, but thankfully the first issue of book two came out last month. I’m not going to cover that in this review, but I’m sure I’ll be yelling about the series as issues come out over on Threads.

This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that financially supports independent bookstores.

The Hunger and the Dusk: A Spoiler-Free Overview

Issues 1 and 2 of The Hunger and The Dusk laying on a square piece of paper that looks like pink marble.

When vicious, mysterious raiders known as the Vangol return to the dying world they left behind hundreds of years ago, humans and orcs must form an alliance to fight the invaders before it’s too late for both races. Overcoming centuries of fighting and racism is no small task, though. A tenuous treaty is all that keeps orcs and humans from slaughtering each other over increasingly small amounts of fertile land.

As part of the treaty, the orcs send one of their best healers, Gruakhtar Icemane—Tara to her friends—to travel with the mercenary group Last Men Standing. Led by Cal Battlechild, the Last Men set off to face the Vangol with their new member.

Tara and Cal form an uneasy, tentative friendship. When a surprise Vangol attack leaves one of the Last Men dead, both Tara and Cal blame themselves. They begin to open up to each other, hinting at a possible future romance.

But the Last Men don’t have long before they catch a Vangol scout scoping out their camp. The discovery of the scout sets off a chain of events that test Tara and Cal’s burgeoning relationship, along with the entire treaty.

All the while, the Vangol creep further inland, threatening annihilation of humans and orcs alike. . .

If Only Things Were Simple

Issues 3 and 4 of The Hunger and The Dusk laying on a square piece of paper that looks like pink marble.

The Hunger and the Dusk primarily follows Tara’s point of view, with some scenes following her cousin Troth. (Tara and Troth were supposed to marry until he unexpectedly became overlord of the Icemane clan). Stories with orc points of view are becoming more common, and while a greater discussion of the rehabilitation/reclamation of the orc image is beyond the scope of this review, I greatly enjoy the way Wilson and Wildgoose handle it.

While we do have scenes of the humans of Last Men Standing starting to deal with their own implicit biases (the bard realizes he has to write all new songs because all the ones he knows trash talk the orcs), the story sticks pretty close to Tara’s and Troth’s points of views.

These orcs are not vicious, mindless violence machines as they are often portrayed in high fantasy. Tara, in fact, is quite the opposite with her powerful healing ability. Her cousin Troth is portrayed as a wise, strong leader who is forced to make personal sacrifices for the good of his people. Troth’s new bride, Faran, is whip-smart and invested in peace between humans and orcs.

Some of the best scenes in the book show Troth and Faran getting to know each other. Their interactions are tender and real, even though their marriage begins as a political one. (I also appreciate that we see Faran initiating sex—Troth clearly respects her boundaries.)

The Vangol

Issues 5 and 6 of The Hunger and The Dusk laying on a square piece of paper that looks like pink marble.

I’d be remiss to write a review of The Hunger and the Dusk without dedicating some time to the villains. The Vangol are quick, sneaky, and deadly. The first scene in issue one establishes that everyone is terrified of them.

Gaunt and pale with elongated torsos and limbs, the Vangol remind me somewhat of the vampires from 30 Days of Night. They carry the same sense of quick-moving, unavoidable dread. Indeed, the book’s title derives from the Vangol’s tendency to attack at dusk.

The first six issues of the comic give us more questions than answers when it comes to these ghoul-like people. All we know is that at some point in the distant past, they lived on the same continent as humans, orcs, dwarves, and elves. The Vangol left, and the dwarves and elves died out (thought not necessarily in that order). No one knows why they’ve returned, but it seems it may have something to do with the land slowly dying.

The sense of mystery surrounding the Vangol, along with their uncanny appearance and demonstrated viciousness, makes them a compelling antagonist. They are an existential threat to both groups in the truest sense of the word. If humans and orcs fail to stop the Vangol, they will join the dwarves and elves in extinction.

The Hunger and the Dusk One-Sentence Review

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this review, you may also enjoy my review of Inkblot by Emma Kubert and Rusty Gladd. I’d love to hear about what you’re reading currently on Instagram, Threads, or Bluesky!

The Best Book Nook for Liv Oszlak

The Best Book Nook is a new series of brief interviews with booksellers, librarians, publishing professionals, and other cool bookish people about their favorite books, their favorite places to read, and more!

This month’s featured reader is Liv Oszlak (she/they), a bookseller at Science Fiction-Bokhandeln in Gothenburg, Sweden. Be sure to follow them on Instagram and let them know if you read any of their recommendations!

A photo of Liv, a fair-skinned enby with platinum-colored hair cut into a gender neutral pixie. Liv is wearing Pride flag earring and a black hoodie, and is pictured in front of a bookshelf full of titles from Tor and Tordotcom. Photo used for The Best Book Nook. — Photo courtesy Liv Oszlak.

This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that financially supports independent bookstores.

What’s your best book nook or favorite place to read, real or imagined?

Liv: This is a hard question for me to answer. Location-wise, broadly, I’m not too picky, but when it comes to particulars, everything needs to be just right. What matters most to me is the ability to truly focus on my reading, which I often find difficult due to the fickle nature of my ADHD brain.

To find that focus, most of the time I need to be able to fully shut out the rest of the world. Wearing noise canceling headphones and listening to a carefully curated playlist of instrumental music helps with that, as well as closing any curtains so the room is not too bright.

The corner of any couch feels safe and calming to me, and I need to have my back against a wall. I sit with my knees pulled up to my chest, with a pillow between my stomach and thighs. I like the feeling of being “boxed in”—sort of reminiscent of being held, I suppose, but not too close. Lately, the break room at work has been perfect for reading during my lunch; it’s sufficiently dimly lit, it has a little alcove with a built-in couch and piles of pillows, and everyone respects the fact that wearing headphones means “don’t approach me, I’m recharging by escaping to another world.”

What snacks or beverages is your best book nook stocked with?

Liv: As a kid and well into my teens, I would make a huge pot of Russian Earl Grey tea first thing when I came home from school, secure it under a tea cozy and then enjoy cup after cup of it for hours while reading.

That is still my favorite way of enjoying tea with a book, but I’m also a hopeless caffeine addict who buys the biggest mugs I can find that will hold as much filter coffee with oat milk as possible, so I tend to alternate between those two. As for snacks, in Sweden, we have a specific brand of corn thins with chia seeds and sea salt which I adore; with a thin spread of butter, they taste like popcorn.

What was the first book of science fiction or fantasy that really had an impact on you?

The cover for Pawn of Prophecy, the first book in the Belgariad series.

Liv: I have to say the entire Belgariad universe by David Eddings. Technically, I guess that’s cheating, but I really can’t say which individual book out of the thirteen impacted me the most. I started reading them when I was around ten years old, and the story just grabbed hold of me and refused to let go. I read them over and over to the point of knowing passages by heart. I read them so many times that my copies would literally break apart at the spine if placed in the hands of a careless reader.

Rereading them as an adult, it’s obvious why they captured me so entirely: It’s a simple story with pretty simple, likable, and relatable characters. The series follows a very typical fantasy arc, with not much room for interpretation when it comes to the separation between good and evil. That world was a predictably safe place for me to flee to when I couldn’t find safety in real life.

I was also deeply in love with Polgara the Sorceress, and to this day envision myself impossibly aging into sprouting raven black hair with a fashionable white streak through it, but that particular obsession is also something that young Liv didn’t reflect on; it was for adult Liv to unpack later, along with other female fictional crushes.

What have you read recently and loved?

The cover for The Archive Undying, showing a giant robot standing in the sea.

Liv: I’m actually currently in the middle of my best reading experience in. . . ages? I can’t remember the last time a book utterly entranced me like this. I’m at the point where I’m making playlists of songs that remind me of its characters, which hasn’t happened since my teens. When I’m not reading, I think about these characters constantly and worry about them as though they were my real life friends whom I’m watching make terrible, awful, self-destructive, but fully understandable decisions.

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon has it all: fascinatingly complex people with hidden motivations, corrupted AI gods, deep themes of religious trauma and reforming one’s identity in the face of leaving religion behind, broad and wonderfully done representation. . . It’s queer, introspective, poetic, and incredibly romantic. It’s also the kind of book where the reader is unceremoniously thrown into its vast, weird new world with no safety net; in that way (and in others), it reminds me a lot of another favorite series of mine, The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir.

You will spend a good amount of time trying to find your footing and figuring out what the hell is even going on and why. Then, piece by piece, as you get to know the characters and see the world through their eyes, the story puzzle is laid out before you, and it’s this beautifully heartbreaking, intrinsically human portrayal of damaged individuals crashing into each other’s lives while you’re constantly just hoping with all your heart that they will somehow heal each other and find happiness.

Oh, and also, it has giant robots. “Love” doesn’t cover half of what I feel for this book, and while I know it won’t be for everyone, it absolutely is for me.

What are you excited to read next?

Liv: At about 75% through The Archive Undying, I’m dreading leaving it behind, because I fear nothing I read immediately after will measure up to it. However, I have a good pile of books that I’m deciding between, and which all excite me: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle, Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt, I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang and Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin are at the top of that pile.

I have been trying to read some less depressing books after the brutal—and brilliant—gut punch of Tell Me I’m Worthless (also by Alison Rumfitt), but as I write this and consider my choices, I’m failing spectacularly. Well, it is what it is. . . I tend to gravitate towards darker narratives, and often find them cathartic. Hopefully my current read doesn’t end up breaking my heart completely (although who doesn’t like to have a good plot-induced cry, now and again? . . . Damn, I will probably regret saying that).

More About Liv Oszlak

I live in Gothenburg, Sweden, with my partner, and I’m currently studying full-stack Web Development at a vocational university. When I’m not reading, I like engaging in any one of my numerous hobbies, which include cosplaying for charity with the 501st Legion, arts and crafts (everything in every medium under the sun, truly), creating or listening to music, creative writing, escaping into vast open world RPGs, thinking perhaps a bit too deeply about media . . . and info-dumping to my partner and friends about my latest hyperfixation.

What’s your best book nook? I’d love to hear about it on Instagram, Threads, or Bluesky! And please give Liv a follow over on Instagram, too!

It’s Summer and the Reading’s Fine: July Recap

The main reason I started this blog was to have another outlet to talk about the books I’m reading. As much as I’d love to write a full review for every book I read, it’s not logistically possible for me. But that doesn’t mean those books aren’t worth reading or talking about!

That’s where these monthly recap posts will come in. Each month, I’m going to briefly talk about every book I read the previous month, whether they’re speculative fiction or not!

Speculative Novels

A square graphic that says "July Spec Fic" and has cover images for Dooku: Jedi Lost, This Is How You Lose the Time War, Girl, Serpent, Thorn, and Temptation of the Force.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

A beautifully written, intricate love story that unfolds across time and space. The conceit of the “time war” is complex, and the authors are economical with their worldbuilding. While I don’t think that’s a negative, it certainly invites a second reading.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

The publisher describes this book as a “feminist fairy tale,” and in many ways it does feel like the spiritual offspring of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber. I loved the Persia-inspired setting and mythology. The main character’s story arc felt fresh even as it drew on familiar symbols and tropes.

Star Wars: The High Republic: Temptation of the Force by Tessa Gratton

Although this book only came out in June, I’ve already read it twice. It’s a manifesto on love of all kinds: romantic, platonic, familial. If you like Star Wars but aren’t yet reading The High Republic, I encourage you to pick up the first book in the series: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. Thank me later!

Star Wars: Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott

I run a Star Wars book club, and this was our pick for July. It’s an audio drama that provides some backstory on why Count Dooku left the Jedi Order and eventually turned to the dark side. My favorite parts of this one were Asajj Ventress sleuthing to learn more about her new master and the interesting Force lore Scott adds to the canon (some of which shows up in The High Republic!).

Speculative Comics

A square graphic that says "July Comics" and has cover images for Descender, Ascender, Sweet Tooth, and the Underwater Welder.

Descender (reread) and Ascender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Ngyugen

Like all good stories about robots, this is really a story about humanity—and what happens when we lose sight of what binds us together. Ngyugen’s watercolor art on these two books is breathtakingly gorgeous, and I love the mix of science fiction and fantasy elements.

Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire

In a post-apocalyptic world where a deadly sickness is killing humans, an animal-human hybrid named Gus may hold the key to a cure. As Gus’s story unfolds, he gathers a motley crew of humans and hybrids around him, including the gruff and abrasive former NHL player Jepperd. This found family has to overcome their past traumas and survive long enough to reclaim some slice of happiness.

The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire

This graphic novel feels closer in tone to Lemire’s breakout book Essex County than his more overtly speculative books like Descender or Sweet Tooth. Like Essex County, it does a deep dive into one character’s emotional state using elements of magical realism to explore the pressure of impending fatherhood and the many ways the past hangs over us.

Contemporary Fiction and Nonfiction

A square graphic that says "July Books" and has cover images for Beach Read, Squeeze Me, and Lifelines.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

A fun, breezy book that has a lot to say about writing and why we do it, and lots to say about love, too. My favorite parts were when the two main characters discussed their respective novel genres and why they felt drawn to writing them. I also enjoyed how writing in each other’s genres helped them understand each other better—as a writer myself, I felt seen in these scenes.

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen

A funny, irreverent romp of a mystery set in Palm Beach, Florida, during the Trump presidency. I had no idea this was part of a series, though you don’t need to have read any previous books to enjoy this one. If you happen to be a Warren Zevon fan like I am, you’ll find two Zevon lyrics sprinkled in. I’ll leave you to discover what and where they are.

Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health by Leana Wen

Overall, an interesting look at the role public health organizations play in our lives. The middle felt too much like a political campaign message in parts, but the first and final thirds of the book were fascinating. Before reading this, I never thought much about the role of my city’s public health department in keeping residents healthy and happy. Now I have a whole new appreciation for them!

What did you read in July? I’d love to hear about it on Instagram, Threads, or Bluesky!

Happy Birthday, Octavia Butler!

Octavia Butler changed speculative fiction with her path-breaking novels, including the best-selling novel Kindred, which has been adapted for television and as a graphic novel. She was born on June 22, 1947, and would be 77 today if she were still with us.

A photo of two Octavia Butler books: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.

This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that financially supports independent bookstores, and if you buy from my links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Throughout her career, Butler won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, taught regularly at the Clarion Writers Workshop, received a MacArthur Fellowship, and even has an asteroid named after her.

While I can’t tell you when I first learned of Octavia Butler, I first read one of her books in the 2010s. I was on a mission to read classic science fiction. After working my way through some Asimov, Heinlein, and Bradbury, I found a digital audio copy of Fledgling through my library.

I’ve consumed a lot of vampire stories in my life, both written and visual, but Fledgling remains one of my absolute favorites. Rather than being evil villains, Butler’s vampires live symbiotically with humans. I love the way she reimagines vampire mythology and humanizes these creatures we normally see as monsters.

Kindred, Butler’s only other standalone novel, is her most well-known book. It is a haunting portrayal of what people will do to survive and an ode to the resilience of Black Americans. I rarely feel that a book should be required reading for everyone. But Kindred is one of the few that I strongly believe every adult in America should read at least once.

I still have a lot of Octavia Butler to read. My next novel will be Parable of the Sower, the first book in the duology pictured above. I picked up the box set from 7 Stories Press back in January, and today is the perfect day to start reading it.

Interested in picking up one of Octavia Butler’s novels? I’ve put together a list of her novels:

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy Three Speculative Novels by Queer Authors for Pride Month. Do you have a favorite Octavia Butler novel? Let me know on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky!

My First Illumicrate Unboxing and Review

I know a million people post Illumicrate unboxing videos and photos, but I recently got my first box, so I couldn’t resist. Especially because a spot for the monthly Illumicrate box opened up for me on the same day my federal student loans were discharged through the PSLF program!

(In case you’re not familiar with Illumicrate, it’s a monthly subscription box that includes a speculative novel and other book-themed items.)

The theme for March is “Fantasea.” I’ll cut right to the chase: I love everything that came in this box! I haven’t had a chance to read the book (Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan), but it has kelpies and sea dragons, so I’m sold.

You can view the Illumicrate unboxing video I posted on Instagram by clicking here.

Illumicrate Unboxing: The Book

Illumicrate unboxing: A photo of the case art of Fathomfolk. The book is open so you can see the entire case. On the left is a large sea dragon coming out of the water, and on the right, you can see the town depicted in the book.

This gorgeous edition of Fathomfolk absolutely blew me away. Beautiful books is a big part of the reason I joined the Illumicrate waiting list, but the photos I saw didn’t prepare me for how exquisite this book is.

From the endpapers to the case art to the foiled dust jacket to the sprayed edges, this book is a work of art. It’s so pretty I can hardly stand it. The case art shown in the photo above is by Danlin Zhang.

Other Bookish Items

Illumicrate unboxing: A photo of all the items in the March 2024 Illumicrate box. From left to right is the book, the book jacket, the transparent sticky notes, the plant pot, and then the ceramic book-shaped pot.

The Fantasea box came with four additional items: a mythical sea creatures book pot, a Fathomfolk-themed plant pot, and a kraken-themed book jacket, and transparent sticky notes.

All four items are pretty spectacular, but the two pots are my favorite. I love house plants, and have about a dozen cuttings waiting for pots right now. The plant pot has a kelpie on it, and will definitely get a place of honor somewhere among my other house plants.

Apparently there’s a whole series of ceramic book-shaped pots. I can easily see this becoming my next obsession. Prices on the secondary market seem high, but honestly, these things are so cool it’s kind of understandable.

The book jacket will be useful for keeping the corners of hardcovers nice and crisp while traveling (or even just carrying books around the house). And one can never have enough sticky notes! Never! I was surprised at how easy it is to write on these with a regular old ball point pen. I can definitely see myself using them to take notes while I read.

I’m already looking forward to next month’s box. In the meantime, I’ll be curled up on my couch with a mug of tea and this gorgeous copy of Fathomfolk!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy my review of Ava Reid’s The Wolf and the Woodsman. Be sure to say hello on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky!

Two Indie Bookstores that Focus on Speculative Fiction

Happy Independent Bookstore Day! I’m celebrating by supporting two stores that focus on speculative fiction: Sistah SciFi and Mysterious Galaxy.

In recent years, my local stores have grown their SFF sections, but there’s nothing quite like the depth and breadth of a store that focuses only on spec fic. Unfortunately for me, both of these shops are located on the west coast (I’m on the east). But fortunately for all of us, both offer many virtual events and ways to be involved from both near and far.

Sistah SciFi

Sistah SciFi is an online bookstore that promotes speculative fiction by Black and Indigenous women authors. I found their fantastic Instagram account while bopping around one day, and was impressed by their selection. Both their Instagram account and website are great resources for discovering new and classic books by Black and Indigenous women. Watch out, because your TBR pile might topple over with all the added books you’re going to stack on top!

The store also hosts a number of events and virtual book clubs, including one for comics and graphic novels! And did I mention they also have a book vending machine?! Located in the Oaklandia Cafe x Bakery in Oakland, California, the book vending machine carries a rotating selection of titles for children and adults.

Support Sistah SciFi on Indie Bookstore Day by making a purchase, following them on social media, and/or telling your friends about them!

Mysterious Galaxy

While I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting Mysterious Galaxy in person at their San Diego shop, I have been to their booth in at least one convention (Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022, to be precise). I’ve also attended a few of their virtual events and purchased signed books from them.

Each month, they offer a book subscription box for SFF and cozy mystery books that includes titles, bookmarks, and other goodies curated by or made by their booksellers! I think including art from their booksellers in the form of bookmarks is a really nice touch.

But if you, like me, have an ever-growing pile of books to read and the thought of a new mystery book each month triggers your existential dread over the fact that you will never be able to read all the books—and what if you miss a really, really good one?—be sure to peruse the store’s robust staff picks page. It might still contain more books than you can read in a year, but at least you can more purposefully prioritize your next read that way.

Support Mysterious Galaxy on Indie Bookstore Day by making a purchase, following them on social media, and/or telling your friends about them!

Do you have a favorite independent bookstore that focuses on speculative fiction? I’d love to hear about it! Send me a tweet (and tag the bookstore!) or Instagram comment or DM so I can feature your fave in a future post.

Review: The Wolf and The Woodsman by Ava Reid

This week I have a review of Ava Reid’s The Wolf and the Woodsman, a fantasy novel out from Harper Voyager (who was kind enough to provide me with a review copy). This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that financially supports independent bookstores, and if you buy from my links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Photograph of me holding Ava Reid's The Wolf and the Woodsman in front of a snow covered Eastern Hemlock tree. — This lovely cover was illustrated by Russell Cobb at Debut Art.

The Book Witch’s One Sentence Review

The Wolf and The Woodsman by Ava Reid is a lovely debut with an Eastern European flavor, a rich world, vibrant characters, and a multi-faceted plot that explores religion, identity, friendship, family loyalty and disloyalty, tolerance, and bigotry.

Introduction

The plot of The Wolf and The Woodsman is fairly simple: A young woman is forced to leave home against her will, and finds herself making what amounts to a deal with the devil to save not just herself, but her people.

Describing Reid’s debut in this way does it no justice, however. This book has layers of complexity that reveal themselves slowly as the two main characters—Évike and Gáspár—march northward through the snow-covered country in search of a mystical creature that has the power to save what they each hold dear—or so they think.

Drawing heavily on Hungarian and Jewish folklore, The Wolf and The Woodsman has a distinct Eastern European flavor with a universal message. Although it can be read as an allegory for the spread of Christianity throughout Europe, to the detriment of pagans, Jews, and Muslims, it’s much more than that.

The novel tackles issues of religion, identity, friendship, family loyalty and disloyalty, tolerance, and bigotry. It forces Évike to determine how far she’ll go to save her village and the people in it, who often treated her poorly and were willing to essentially throw her away to save someone else. It also forces Gáspár to question his own faith, family, loyalty, the nature of love, and even his humanity, in fundamental ways.

The setting felt both incredibly grounded and delightfully unfamiliar. One of my favorite details was the fearful trees the villagers had to tie down so they didn’t run away when the Woodsman came.

But before all of that, the beginning.

A photograph of the first page of the first chapter of The Wolf and The Woodsman. The page features vines as decorations. — The typesetting in this book is as beautiful as the cover. I love the decorations and the chapter heading font!

When the Woodsman Met the Wolf

Évike lives in an isolated forest town inhabited by pagans. Unlike her fellow female villagers who wield various types of magic, Évike’s “only” skill is hunting. Because she is a woman who lacks magic, she is treated poorly by the other young women and girls in her village.

The village is part of a kingdom that has become increasingly intolerant to the pagans living on its outskirts who don’t follow the Patrifath (a loose equivalent to Christianity). In exchange for leaving the village to its own devices most of the time, every now and then the King sends his Woodsmen out to collect a magic-wielding “Wolf Girl.”

No one in the village knows what happens to the Wolf Girls who are taken, but they are never seen again. The novel opens on a tense day: The Woodsmen are on their way to collect a seer, which is a particularly rare gift among the pagan magic users. The village elder forces Évike to take the place of Katarina, the true seer.

After the Woodsmen take Évike, clothed in Katarina’s wolf cloak, a series of unfortunate (for the Woodsman) events leads to the revelation that the head Woodsman, Gáspár, is actually the king’s son, and that he desperately wants to prevent his zealously religious younger half-brother from ascending to the throne. This event, which would be bad for Gáspár because of his late mother’s status as an outsider, would also spell doom for the pagans and other minority groups living in the kingdom.

So, Gáspár and Évike forge an uneasy alliance and agree to search for a mythical creature that would give Gáspár the power to gain favor with his father and ascend the throne. They start off hating each other, but come to have grudging respect for each other as their journey goes on.

Although the novel is told from Évike’s perspective, we spend a lot of time with both characters. There’s lots of romantic and sexual tension between Évike and Gáspár, but the novel never turns him into Évike’s savior like many YA fantasy novels tend to do. She saves his life as much as he saves her (his inability to use a bow and arrow with any accuracy is also something Évike, an expert marksman, uses to her advantage).

I’ll stop my summary there to avoid any spoilers, but I will say this: At one point, there is a pet bear. He’s pretty cool.

A photograph of the map included inside The Wolf and The Woodsman. — I’m a sucker for fantasy books with maps!

Final Thoughts

With the long history of fantasy novels based on wildly inaccurate assumptions about medieval England, it’s always refreshing to see fantasy settings based on other areas and cultures. Books like this have become more plentiful in recent years, but it’s going to take quite awhile for me to get sick of them (I read a lot of medieval-England-fantasy in high school). There also seems to be a recent surge in speculative fiction inspired in part by Jewish history and folklore, written by Jewish authors, and I can only hope we see this trend continue as well.

The Wolf and The Woodsman does read like a debut novel at times—certain sections meander a bit, or we get overly lost in Évike’s thoughts, and the overall structure could have been streamlined a bit more. But these are all quibbles, and didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story.

At the end of the day, Reid’s prose is as sharp as one of Évike’s arrows, and she knows how to hit a bullseye.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of The Wolf and The Woodsman, please consider buying from your local indie bookstore, or online from Bookshop.org, which supports indies! While you’re at it, you can preorder Ava Reid’s new book, Juniper and Thorn, out May 22!

Have you read The Wolf and The Woodsman? Want to add it to your TBR? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments or on Instagram or Twitter @bookwitchblog!

Three Speculative Novels by Queer Authors for Pride Month—Or Anytime!

While Pride Month is a great time to dip your toes into the waters of queer speculative fiction, there are too many great options to limit yourself to just thirty-one days! (Plus, queer folks are queer 24/7, not just in June, so why not celebrate natural human diversity all year long?)

For this mini-list, I’ve selected three of my favorite novels by LGBTQIA+ authors. This post does contain affiliate links to Bookshop.org. If you make a purchase using one of these links, you’re helping support both this blog and indie bookstores at no extra cost to you!

Be gay. 🏳️‍🌈 Read books! 📚

8 books next to a light box that reads "Happy Pride" with a bouquet of flowers in the background.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Gideon the Ninth was pitched to me as “lesbian necromancers.” Although the main characters are indeed queer, and one of them is indeed a necromancer, “lesbian necromancers” doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of how utterly brilliant, funny, gripping, and goddamn heartbreaking this book is. In fact, it was so utterly brilliant, funny, gripping, and goddamn heartbreaking that as soon as I’d finished listening to the excellently narrated and produced audiobook, I hit play again and read it a second time.

But in case that’s not enough of an endorsement for you, let me tell you a little bit about the plot, too. The eponymous Gideon dreams of leaving her prison in the Ninth House to become a soldier, but Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the de facto leader of the Ninth House and a powerful necromancer, has other ideas. She recruits Gideon to be her cavalier—basically her personal swordswoman—as she goes on a quest to become a lictor for the undying emperor. Together, they have to compete against necromancers and cavaliers from other houses to solve magical puzzles and unlock the secrets to immortality. Only, of course, things do not go as planned.

Also be sure to check out the sequel, Harrow the Ninth!

Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers

My bookish love affair with K. B. Wagers began in the library, as all great love affairs do. It was 2016, and I was clerking at the main desk of my library when we got a new book for the science fiction section: Behind the Throne. The title didn’t catch my eye at first, but the tagline did: “…with a heroine as rebellious as Han Solo, as savvy as Leia, and as skilled as Rey.”

While books or movies that compare themselves to Star Wars rarely live up to the hype in my fangirly estimation, I liked the cover art and the concept, so I checked the book out and took it home. I started it that evening, and, well, let’s just say the book—and its heroine—definitely lived up to, and then shot right past, my expectations.

Hail Bristol is a gun runner and a smuggler who’s been doing her utmost to leave her past behind her. But, of course, it catches up to her. Now, she has to face the fact that she’s the last surviving member of the royal family of the Indranan Empire, reconcile with her demons, and save her people. This is a fast-paced, high-stakes, tense but enjoyable read with relatable characters you can’t help but fall in love with.

Also be sure to check out the other two books in the trilogy, After the Crown and Beyond the Empire!

Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson

A few months ago, I was working on a list of queer speculative fiction when I realized I had zero gay men on my list. I wracked my brain trying to come up with a few, scoured my Goodreads lists, and still came up empty handed. I went looking, and found Kai Ashante Wilson’s hauntingly beautiful and devastating novella, Sorcerer of the Wildeeps.

Wilson combines nonlinear storytelling with lush prose to create a story that echoes the way many of us experience memory and grief: in pieces and fragments; wisps of conversations, moments from larger events, and the ebb and flow of emotion through it all. If you’re not a fan of nonlinear stories, you may find Sorcerer of the Wildeeps a challenging read, but either way, you’ll find it a rewarding experience.

The story follows two earth-bound demigods who must use their powers to keep a caravan of merchants and soldiers safe from the dangers of the road, and especially from a man-eating supernatural beast. Although the plot is straightforward, the beats of the story echo like drums long after you turn the last page.

There’s also a sequel, called A Taste of Honey.

There are so many more amazing and wonderful speculative books by queer authors. I’ve compiled some of them in this Bookshop list called “Read the Rainbow: Speculative Fiction by LGBTQIA+ Authors,” but my list is far from authoritative. I’d love to hear who some of your favorite queer spec fic authors are in the comments!

Who’s your favorite queer speculative author? Let me know in the comments, on Twitter @bookwitchblog, or Instagram @bookwitchblog!

Review: Worlds of Light and Darkness Anthology

This week’s review covers Worlds of Light and Darkness: The Best of DreamForge and Space & Time, edited by Angela Yuriko Smith and Scot Noel. As usual, this post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that financially supports independent bookstores.

Worlds of Light and Darkness comes out on May 25, but you can preorder it now.

An image of an eReader displaying the Worlds of Light and Darkness anthology cover.

The Book Witch’s One Sentence Review

Worlds of Light and Darkness is a wide-ranging collection of insightful speculative fiction from two respected magazines that will introduce readers to a number of lesser-known, but worth knowing, writers across many sub-genres.

Overview

I learned of this collection because I used to read submissions for DreamForge, a speculative fiction magazine with a bent toward the hopeful based in Pittsburgh. An advance review copy was available through NetGalley, so I jumped at the chance to be an early reader.

I was also pleased to see that one of the stories I helped select, “A Sip of Pombé” by Gustavo Bondoni, made it into this collection. I might be biased, but it was easily one of my favorite stories in the collection.

While I was familiar with DreamForge, this was my first introduction to fiction from Space & Time. The collection is arranged with ten stories from DreamForge (worlds of light) at the beginning, and ten stories from Space & Time (worlds of darkness) at the end.

Although the selections from DreamForge were noticeably more upbeat overall than those from Space & Time, it would be false to say the Space & Time stories were universally dark or depressing. On the contrary, stories across the collection showed a range of themes, tackled the full depth of human emotions, dealt with difficult topics, and ended on mostly positive notes.

“Mostly” being the key word, as there were a few stories that ended on darker notes, including “Humani” by John Palisano, “Joy of Life” by Alessandro Manzetti, and the collection’s final story, “A Glass Darkly” by Ian Rogers.

Overall, I think the editors did a good job of balancing the uplifting with grim possibilities, and I appreciate that stories ranged from Mars exploration (“A Sip of Pombé”) to high-tech heist (“Artifact” by Jonathan Maberry) to modern speculative western (“The Spiral Ranch” by Sarena Ulibarri).

Stand Out Stories

My favorite two stories in the collection were “The Feline, the Witch, and the Universe” by Jennifer Shelby and the aforementioned “A Sip of Pombé” by Gustavo Bondoni.

Another shot of the eReader with the cover of Worlds of Light and Darkness anthology.

“The Feline, the Witch, and the Universe” follows a witch as she rides her bike through space in search of her missing familiar—a cat who is mad at her because they didn’t take a vacation. Although this story appeared in Space & Time, it was actually quite lighthearted. I enjoyed the world building and the implied tension between magic and science. Plus, the image of a witch riding her magical bike through the cosmos just tickled me.

“A Sip of Pombé” takes place in a near-ish future where various countries have begun setting up settlements on Mars. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, Uganda develops its own space program and launches its own Mars mission in secret. The story addresses nationalism and, more importantly, various factions’ ability to rise above nationalism in the name of scientific progress and humanity at large.

Another stand out story for me was Austin Gragg’s “Collecting Violet:” a cautionary tale about ecological destruction disguised as a touching account of the tenderness of Death. It was beautifully written, and featured a talking corvid, something I can’t resist.

I also really enjoyed the concept of a vertical, indoor ranch in Sarena Ulibarri’s “The Spiral Ranch,” and the whimsical magical bookshop in the opening story, “Answered Prayers” by Scott Edelman.

An Unfortunate Turn of Phrase

Of course, the wide range of sub-genres and stories included in this collection meant a few didn’t connect with me—and that’s okay. I can’t say I disliked any of the stories, although the way Alessandro Manzetti describes a woman in “Joy of Life” did have me cringing.

The line in question was “The thing that is moving is a human female, alive. The reptile senses her ovaries rotating in the estrogen broth.”

A screen shot of an eReader with text that reads "No, it's not yet time to change. The heartbeat hunter is not mistaken. The thing that is moving is a human female, alive. The reptile senses her ovaries rotating inside the estrogen broth. Warm blood, tides."

I know this is written from the perspective of a sentient lizard that may or may not fully understand human anatomy, if your ovary is rotated, it’s a medical emergency. The author could have opted for any number of verbs, like “hummed” or “vibrated”, but he went with the anatomically inaccurate and impossible “rotating.”

Despite that unfortunate line, Worlds of Light and Darkness is a strong collection that highlights the diversity of genres and ideas percolating in the galaxy of speculative fiction, and is worth picking up.

Who are some of your favorite speculative short story authors? Let me know in the comments or on Instagram or Twitter @bookwitchblog!