I got my reading bug back halfway through lockdown, just in time for summer. So instead of going out with my friends, I’ve been reading some standalone fantasy, a little bit of science fiction, and a whole lot of Star Wars.
Asperfell by Jamie Thomas
Briony is the youngest daughter of an old and noble family, House Tenebrae, in the kingdom of Tiralaen. When she’s just a little girl, the old king dies, apparently murdered using magic by his oldest son and heir, Prince Elyan. Because Elyan is a mage, he’s exiled from Tiralaen in an execution-style ceremony to another […]
The Clone Wars and the fall of the clones
The Clone Wars is finally over, and it’s been an emotional rollercoaster. Honestly, this show’s final season has cemented its place in my heart as my hands-down favourite piece of Star Wars media ever. It’s better than any of the novels or comics I’ve read, and better than any of the films, even Empire Strikes […]
My life in lockdown
It’s been a long, long while since I felt like writing a blog post. I know this is something a lot of people have been struggling with. Back when all this began—by which I mean the lockdown—everyone seemed to have such lofty goals. They were going to deep clean their house, they were going to […]
Black Lives Matter
In case it wasn’t already clear, I stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protestors across the US, here in the UK, and all across the world. This huge movement has already begun to achieve change, with Minneapolis city council voting to dismantle their police department, many organisations cutting ties with the police, and even […]
Reading goals in 2020
I didn’t set any reading goals for 2019—by midwinter last year, I was tired, I was broke, and I was heartsick. 2018 hadn’t been a good year. I listened to the Mountain Goats on repeat for weeks. Now, I’m heading into 2020 in almost the same mood, but with the added grit of defiance. Hey, […]
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
Tobias Finch has always lived in Greenhollow Wood. He’s known to the locals as the Wild Man, tall, broad, bearded and with long, wild hair; potentially dangerous, definitely scary. Henry Silver is the new owner of the estate on which Greenhollow Wood sits. Young, handsome, an incorrigible flirt and a folklore enthusiast (to say the […]
The Bone Ships by RJ Barker
Arakeesians—sea dragons—haven’t been seen in the Hundred Islands for generations. The Hundred Islands fleet—at war with the Gaunt Islanders—must make do, building their ships from the dwindling supply of dragonbone that remains. Joron Twiner is the young, drunkard shipwife, or captain, of a black ship: a ship of exiled criminals. Following the death of his […]
Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer
In Jaime Lee Moyer’s new novel Brightfall, the woman previously known as Maid Marian is a hedgewitch. What’s more, she’s a hedgewitch of rare talent and training. And all her skill will be needed when word reaches her that Robin Hood’s gang of Merry Men—now more than ten years disbanded—are dying in mysterious circumstances. What’s […]
The Heart of the Circle by Keren Landsman
Keren Landsman’s The Heart of the Circle is set in a world like our own in which a fraction of the population are born sorcerers—people with extra abilities beyond the norm. Sorcerers are subdivided into elementalists and psychics—the former can control either air, water, fire or earth, and the latter are either empaths or seers. […]