This November I’m recommending a dark book for a dark month – Lady Macbeth by American author Ava Reid. Her novel was first published in 2024 and is easily available in paperback or as an ebook. The single-viewpoint narrative also works particularly well as an audiobook. This story is set in a version of 11th… Continue reading
This month I’m recommending a challenging novel by Mark Lawrence, an author who was born in America but now lives in England. The Book That Wouldn’t Burn was published in 2023 as the first volume in The Library Trilogy. It is readily available in paperback, ebook or audio formats and was followed by The Book… Continue reading
While I wait for spring to arrive in my part of the world, I’m recommending a novel full of wintery delights. The Winter Garden by British author Alexandra Bell has a plot which genuinely surprised me. When you read as much Fantasy as I do, that doesn’t often happen. The Winter Garden was published in… Continue reading
Do you enjoy a good literary argument? Then this month’s choice may be just the book for you. It is an intriguing novel by American author, John Barnes, called One for the Morning Glory. This was first published in 1996 and currently seems to be out of print. You can still find fairly cheap second-hand… Continue reading
This month I’m recommending a Fantasy Heist novel inspired by Welsh mythology and folklore – The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones. I’m guessing from her name that this American author is of Welsh descent. The book was published in 2022 and is now available in all the usual formats. I have to admit that the… Continue reading
For my first book choice of 2024 I’m returning to one of the most versatile of Fantasy Writers – Garth Nix. I recommended Clariel, one of his gripping Old Kingdom series, back in September 2015 but the Old Kingdom is just one of this Australian author’s invented worlds. Now I’m recommending Sir Hereward and Mister… Continue reading
For this coronation month I’m recommending Miss Sharp’s Monsters, a trilogy by Australian author Suzannah Rowntree which has an unusual take on Europe’s royal families. The series begins with The Werewolf of Whitechapel, continues with Anarchist on the Orient Express and comes to a dramatic conclusion in A Vampire in Bavaria. All three volumes were… Continue reading
This month I’m returning to the work of Anglo-Irish author Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett (1878-1957) better known as Lord Dunsany. I wrote about his wonderful short stories in an early Fantasy Reads post (June 2012) but I’m now recommending one of his novels – The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1924). During the last few… Continue reading
This month I’m catching-up with two Fantasy series whose leading characters each endure a long journey from anti-hero to hero. Curiously, one thing these two characters have in common is an ability to befriend giant female spiders. In spite of my own dread of spiders, these are both series which have kept me enthralled until… Continue reading