Lucas Blogs About Books

Yes, I did buy the sequel in hardcover instead of waiting a few months for the paperback version. Don't judge me. So, what's this book's de—wait, is this the sequel to the book you blogged about last week ? It is. This is Harrow the Ninth  by Tamsyn Muir. I'll try to avoid TEH SPOILARZ  for this book, but anything from Gideon the Ninth  is fair game. Okay. Anyway, so remember how in the last book, Harrowhark and Gideon are at Canaan House to figure out how exactly a necromancer can become a Lyctor? And by Lyctor you mean one of the saints of the God-Emperor the Necrolord Prime? I do. It turns out that the secret is to kill your cavalier and absorb their soul. But before we get into that, let's say a little bit about the ending of the first book. So, instead of anyone solving the mystery, the killer reveals herself to be Cytherea the First, one of the Emperor's original Lyctors. See she's not so keen on serving the Emperor any more and has decided to kill all...

"The most fun you'll ever have with a skeleton" is a pretty bold claim, especially once you realize that you do everything with a skeleton.   So, what's this book's deal? It's about lesbian necromancers . . . IN  SPAAAAAAAAAAACE! I see. Well, that's the elevator pitch version anyway. Gideon the Ninth  by Tamsyn Muir, is a sci-fi/fantasy novel about Gideon Nav. Who is Gideon Nav? A hard-headed, acid-tongued teenager who wants nothing more than to escape her childhood home of the Ninth House and join the Imperial Cohort. Oh no, this is gonna be one of those blogs where you have to preface the synopsis with a massive paragraph of exposition, isn't it? I'll try and make it quick. Ten thousand years ago the solar system of the nine houses (which is almost definitely our solar system) died, and the Emperor (who is revered as a god-king) revived it with necromancy. Subsequently, necromancy is a pretty big deal, and each house (headquartered on a different...

Well, that's eye-catching.   So, what's this book's deal? Well, Hypothetical Reader, Magic for Liars  is a fantasy novel by Sarah Gailey. It's about Ivy Gamble, a private eye, who finds herself in the employee of Osthorne Academy when a member of the faculty is found bisected in the library. Bisected? You mean like split into two parts? Yep! Right down the middle. What kind of school is this? It's a magic prep school. Is Ivy a magic detective? No. But her twin sister, Tabitha, is on the faculty. So when Headmaster Torres still has lingering doubts about the official investigation, she hires Ivy to poke around and see if she can find any leads. Anyway, Ivy and Tabitha fell out years ago after finding out that Tabitha could do magic and she went away to a school like Osthorne. While Ivy interviews faculty and students she also finds herself flirting with Rahul Chaudhary, the physical magic teacher, while maybe, kinda-sorta letting him think that she knows how to do ma...

It's that not hard being green. So, you actually stopped playing Hades  long enough to write a blog post, eh? Yes, Hypothetical Reader, I was able to exert a modicum of self-control and sit down to write about this lousy book. Poisoning the well, aren't we? Maybe a bit, but we've got another inductee into the " books-that-I-didn't-finish " club. I struggled mightily to complete this book and gave up two-thirds of the way through. Dude! You were in the home stretch! I know, but each time I put the book down it got harder and harder to find the motivation to pick it back up. According to my book-mark, I even stopped in the middle of a chapter. Anyway, I just realized that I haven't even mentioned the title or author yet. You're slipping. Sure you wouldn't rather talk about Hades ? Well, that's certainly done a better job of holding my attention of late, but no. I'll blog about Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer. So, what's its deal? Well, it...

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...

It really is a lovely shade of blue. So, what's this book's deal? Well, Hypothetical Reader, as with Magic: A History  the deal with A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos   is that I never finished it. You're the worst, Lucas. Yep! Last Winter I was the worst at finishing books that weren't comics. That said, I read so many comics that I've lost track of what order I read them in, so I've probably already blogged about several that I actually read after I gave up on Magic and A Winter's Promise . So that's something. Anyway, time to get this one out of the way. Unlike Magic , I don't feel bad about giving up on A Winter's Promise , but before we get into why, let's give a brief synopsis of what I got through. Let's. Okay. So Ophelia is the curator of a museum in a place called Anima where she uses her ability to see the history of the objects she touches to . . . . see the history of the objects she touches.  Well that would be usefu...

Too bad Norgal doesn't have a van, he would look sweet air-brushed on the side.   So, what's this book's dea—oh, more Head Lopper . That's right, it's Volume 3: Head Lopper & The Knights of Venora . So, as you may recall, in Volume 2 , Norgal, aka, the Head Lopper, caught feelings for Zhaania in the Crimson Tower, only for her to die. So he's been drowning his sorrows in drink and bloodshed and is in a pretty sorry state when he's forced to rescue Arlenfor and Balan, the Third and First Swords of the King of Venoriah, respectively. See, they were sent out to parley with the goblin army that's been laying siege to the city. As it turns out, the goblins think that the giant egg-shaped stone within the city's walls is going to hatch their fire-breathing toad god who will then devour the sun and the moons. As fire-breathing toad gods are wont to do. Exactly. In gratitude Arlenfor vouches for Norgal who had previously been turned away from Venoriah fo...

Now an Eisner and Harvey Award Winner So, what's this book's dea—oh are we already on the latest volume of Witch Hat Atelier ? Yep, we're seven volumes into Kamome Shirahama's fantasy manga about a preteen girl's quest to save her mother who she accidentally petrified. Obviously, this blog post may contain TEH SPOILARZ  for all the previous volumes, so if you're bothered by that kinda thing consider this your warning. If I recall, in the previous volume Coco and her fellow apprentice witch cohorts were taking a make-up test administered by an elder witch in a ram chair. I assume they passed? Yes, they passed Beldaruit's make up test and advanced to the next step in their magical education. But that's not what this volume is about. It's not? No. This volume is about two things: 1) Master Qifrey's backstory and how it relates to B) Coco's ongoing quest to find a way to save her mother. Both of which bring them into conflict with the Brimmed C...

Oooh, the cherry trees are in bloom.   So, what's this book's deal? The deal with The Golden Age, Book 1  is that it's a comic book by Roxanne Moreil and Cyril Pedrosa (translated from French by Montana Kane). It's got sort of a historical fiction vibe with a few fantasy elements. It follows Princess Tilda who is about ascend the throne when her mother and the regent stage a coup to install her kid brother instead. With the help of Lord Tankred and her childhood friend Bertil, Tilda is able to make her escape but is wounded by an arrow while being chased through the woods. She and her companions are able to briefly take refuge in a commune of women hidden away in the forest. These women try to live in accordance with the egalitarian ideals of a rare book detailing a fabled— Golden age? No points for guessing. Anyway, these women also have another visitor, Frida, who is translating the book and smuggling the translation out to fuel a peasant uprising. After a disturbance...

Is that Bill Cipher? So, what's this book's deal? It's the second volume of Andrew MacLean's sword and sorcery comic, Head Lopper. This particular volume is entitled Head Lopper & The Crimson Tower . It picks up more or less where Volume 1 left off: Norgal, the eponymous decapitator, and Agatha, the blue witch's head, have joined Zhaania and her apprentice Xho in a quest to discover what happened to Zhaania's mother when she entered the Crimson Tower. If you can master the Tower's challenges you may find yourself its new master. This is also kind of a big deal to the Fonga, a dimminutive, roughly humanoid species who share an island home with the Crimson Tower and are preparing their champion, Harpo, to claim the Throne of the Master. However, Harpo's younger brother, Twerpal, isn't convinced that the supposedly enchanted sling-bow is going to be enough to protect his brother from the tower's dangers. Meanwhile, Ulrich, the current Master ha...

Oh, deer, it's a g-g-g-g-ghost!   So, what's this book's dea—Oh, I'll bet those library stickers mean that this was another book you auditioned for a Christmas gift, like Skunk and Badger  last week. That'd be a smart bet. Snapdragon by Kat Leyh is a young adult graphic novel about . . . well it's about a lot of things. Oh, and in case you're wondering, this ended up being a gift for my cousin's daughter. The same one who received The Prince and the Dressmaker   last Christmas. I seem to recall that The Prince and the Dressmaker was a big hit. Was this? Well, she did start reading it as soon as she opened it in the family Christmas zoom. But I haven't received a gushing thank you note either, so I dunno. Anyway, it's the story of Snapdragon, a tomboy-ish mixed race girl living somewhere in the South. When we first meet her she's riding her bike out to the edge of town to confront the so-called witch who lives there. See, her dog, Good Boy (Ge...

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to — AUGH! What's that on the back cover? So, what's this book's deal? Island Book  is a young adult graphic novel by Evan Dahm, who you may recall was the artist behind The Harrowing of Hell . I recall that that wasn't a blog post in the Hypothetical Reader format. Oh, right. Well, I really liked it. It's actually my favorite book I read last year. It made me curious about Dahm's other work so I picked up this book thinking that it might be a good gift-giving candidate for younger readers. And was it? Def-o! Unfortunately, I did my Christmas shopping at the last minute and this was already sold out most places, so I went with Superman Smashes the Klan instead. Anyway, this is sort of a high seas fantasy adventure story for kids. It begins on an island inhabited by green humanoids. The protagonist, Sola, is ostracized by everyone but her guardian because a monster attacked the island when she was a child, seemingly drawn b...

Don't graphic designers know that bloggers will be taking crummy, screen-glare-ridden pictures of these books? So, what's this book's deal? A Deadly Education  is the first entry in a new fantasy series called The Scholomance by Naomi Novik. Oh, she wrote that Spinning Silver  novel you blogged about a couple of years ago. That she did. You'll recall that I liked it. I do recall that. So is this another one of those fractured fairy tale type stories? No. This is more of a take-off on the magic school genre. You mean like a parody or pastiche? Hmm, maybe that's not quite accurate. The setting or characters are necessarily meant to invoke any pre-existing fantasy stories or series, but I also think that Novik is taking aim at some of the tropes of the magic school genre. But let's talk about the novel itself. We're introduced to our protagonist, Galadriel — yes, named for that Galadriel — or El, complaining about Orion Lake, the most popular boy in the Scholo...