Reviews and Comments

Couldn’t do it. Made it about 150 pages in and the surrealism was alternating irritating me and boring me to tears. Had to give up.

With a young girl caught in the middle. I have yet to meet a book by T Kingfisher I didn’t enjoy and this keeps the streak alive. Magic is mostly just a thing of myth, except when it comes to Cordelia’s mother, and when she decides she needs a husband and sets her sights on a well-to-do squire, Cordelia is caught in the middle between her mother and Hester, the old maid who runs the house with extreme pragmatism and a good heart.

Another weird and crazy Robin Sloan novel that is half fantasy, half sci-fi. set 11,000 years in the future, it skirts the tale of King Arthur while also being an ode to our civilization and the strange post-fall civilizations that followed. And also just the tale of a young boy on an adventure quest with various companions. Really enjoyable read, recommended if you have liked his previous novels.

I get frustrated with her writing because it’s just not as strong as her father’s used to be. But having said that, it was a decent little mystery novel and does contain most of the same love and respect for the Southwest deserts of the Four Corners area and the Native American tribes living there.

This time Leaphorn and Manuelito are front and center with Jim Chee is largely a backup character. There are several missing persons and an explosion at a school to unravel, not to mention the personal lives of the three main characters to catch up on. If you like previous Hillerman novels, you’ll end up liking this one too, most likely.

This is a really great tale of a magical sword inhabited by a warrior who must guard the wielder and the somewhat feckless housekeeper/heiress who comes to own him. Largely humorous in nature, but with a really good plot to move it along, I very much enjoyed this tale of swords and questing told from a very unusual perspective. Recommended!

This is definitely a YA adventure, set in a sort of mythical Africa, but with certain undertones of issues they’ve faced (including diamond mining slavery and “ghost ships” taking people to slavery). I had a little trouble with the start but by a quarter through I was pretty invested. Fun little tale, with hints of a sequel.

Not quite up to the standards of her previous in the series for me for some reason but still good action and adventure.