Lucas Blogs About Books

Mammoths and rabbits and hoopoes! Oh My!   So, what's this book's deal? Well, the deal with The Empress of Salt and Fortune  is that it's a fantasy novella by Nghi Vo. It's set in Anh, an empire that is not unlike imperial China. Well, that covers a pretty lengthy history. Could you be more speicific? Well, I'm not familiar enough with Chinese history to say if it's an exact parallel with any particular period. So let's just talk a little about the story. You're the blogger. That I am. So, we start with Cleric Chih and their talking neixin (also known as a hoopoe ), Almost Brilliant, on the way to the first Dragon Court of the Empress of Wheat and Flood. However, on the way is Thriving Fortune, the home in exile of In-yo, the Empress of Salt and Fortune (the new Empress's predecessor), in the days before she orchestrated the coup that put her on the throne of Anh. And like any good cleric of the Singing Hills monastery, Chih can't pass up the opp...

This book has everything! Pocket watches, spiders, pistols, that thing where you keep a reanimated mouse skeleton as a pet. So, what's this book's de—Oh, it's a sequel to that book you blogged about last May. You mean Unnatural Magic ? Well, kinda. Whaddya mean kinda? How can something "kinda" be a sequel? Well, it is by the same writer, C.M. Waggoner, and it does take place in the same world, and one of the characters is the daughter of Jeckran and Tsira from Unnatural Magic . You're doing a very bad job of convincing me that this isn't a sequel. I can see that now, yes. It's just that the story doesn't really have anything much to do with the story of Unnatural Magic . Both stories are entirely self-contained. You don't need to have read Unnatural Magic to make sense of  The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry .   Gotcha. But that title's a bit of a mouthful. It is. Anyway, let's jump in. The story starts with Dellaria Wells — usua...

So, what's this book's deal? Well, the deal with Apocalyptigirl: An Aria for the End Times  is that it's the project Andrew MacLean worked on before he wrote and drew Head Lopper . As one might guess from the title, it's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure comic. That does sound like a thing you would enjoy, Lucas. I did enjoy it, so let's talk about it. The protagonist, Aria— Wait, the word "Aria" in the title is a pun? Yep! Anyway, Aria is a young woman who's been sent to Earth27 to recover the Grand Photon, an energy source — and potential weapon — which was used to bring about the cataclysm which lead to the collapse of society. The thing is that Aria's mission was supposed to last a few months but it's already been several years. She's not completely alone, she's got her cat Jelly Beans, and the broken down mech she's been trying to repair, which she's named Gus, but neither of them is much of a conversationalist. Nor are...

That's right, it's that thing I hate where the qualitative is quantified for no discernible purpose. But it is also kinda fun. So here are the rules: this is based solely on my own enjoyment of the extant Canterbury Tales; the General Prologue and Here Taketh the Makere of This Book His Leve are excluded, only portions of the text marked as tales will be considered; prologues count as part of their tale; in the event that I deem two tales to be equally enjoyable there will be a tie;  I'll try and come up with a pithy summation of each tale; and of course, we start with the worst: 24) The Prioress's Tale : Basically Blood Libel.  This one is just straight-up anti-semitic garbage. It has no redeeming value. It serves no purpose beyond defaming Jews and feeding a Christian persecution complex in spite of the fact that it was written in a country whose Christian king had expelled all Jews more than a century before it was written. It's trash. 23) The Parson's Tale :...