Even within the first chapters of The Silver House, there is some very rich world-building. I’ve already been introduced to two different races with two different magic systems, city-states on opposite sides of continents, a besieged Cardanon, a class system rife with politics, and a long list of characters including a spunky story-telling street urchin…

Sanderson is one of the few fantasy authors who has mastered the art of concluding a story. I think fantasy authors’ peculiar attachment to writing sequels into perpetuity partly stems from how much effort these authors put into building their worlds. To let the narrative come to an end is almost to…

Matt’s heart and home were with his father, who died while working on the Aurora, making that the last bond to him. So the Aurora is more than a ship; it has become his home by becoming something of an avatar for his father. And if home is an extension of self, the way my…

I’ve reached about the middle of the book and I’m once again amazed at what ends up on young readers’ bookshelves; LaFevers’ writing could easily sit on the same shelves that house classic literature. This is a story with multiple levels. At its core, it caters to…

I’m amazed that many of the events in this book slipped so easily from my memory, as this read-through has scored them there indelibly. The forest, the mountains, the lake – it is the first book I have read for some time that captures such a sense of location, as if I’d been walked through the land by a professional cinematographer. That it achieves this using such uncomplicated, plain words is a…

Reading Constantine’s work is a strange experience. There’s a level of momentum involved. I don’t know whether it’s the flow of her sentences, the way she puts words together, or the fact that I don’t know what’s happening half the time, but it takes me a while to read at a steady pace.