pickContinuing my #booksreadin2025 since I fell behind 😂
This was such a great blend of fantasy and dystopia elementa working side by side with moments of slow burn, angst, court intrigue, betrayal, surprising friendships and toxicity that has a gradual build before the twists and surprises come around the last 20% of the book.
so-soThis read more like a lorebook than a novel. Although this is a broad history of FR elves I wish the book focused more on certain things than others. The format and themes were clear but the execution wasn't very good. This also doesn't put the evermeet king or queen in the best light. I wish I liked it more but it just was not well executed.
pick(1959) Second in Norton's “Time Traders“ series. In this one, time agents discover an alien spaceship crash-landed on Earth in the Pleistocene. When the agents send it through a time gate for studying in the present, they accidentally trigger a return-to-home function, sending the mysterious craft and all on board to distant worlds. It's a big-dumb-object adventure, one of my favorite sf tropes, and I hope Norton builds on it through the series
pickWow! What a book! It was one of the most unique fantasy books I‘ve ever read.
It took me about 2 months to read this book, mainly because it‘s a story worth savoring. I didn‘t want to rush through it and I am glad I didn‘t. I enjoyed every page of this book!
The world was so different from anything I've read before.
Full review: https://oddandbookish.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/review-house-of-the-beast/
so-soSuch a gorgeous edition—particularly the illustrations that are scattered throughout the book. Unfortunately, the story is not as compelling as the artwork. The biggest problem, for me, is that the relationship at the center of everything is not believable & because it isn‘t, the story loses emotional depth. A lot of action takes place off the page which also doesn‘t work. It‘s the author‘s debut & there‘s potential but this was just ok.
Long weekends are made for reading…
I think this may be one of my favorite covers of the year.
Fantastic maps, illustrations throughout. This is a gorgeous edition. Hopefully it‘s an entertaining read too.
pickThis book is a collection of short stories of different genres. The creatures on the cover feature in four of the stories, but not the book title, which was an odd decision. One horror story I would give it a trigger warning for allusions to SA. I was surprised to see a mention of the jet I worked on in another. (A-4) One might confuse people who aren't aware of the British 60's TV show The Avengers. I will be reading more of this author now.
