Naomi Noviks’s Empire of Ivory (2007), the fourth novel in the Temeraire series, leads to some reflections on narrative and worldbuilding strategies in alternate history, some concerns about the series's politics (or lack thereof), and prompts the question: when do you give up on a series?
Tag: Genre: Fantasy
Reading “The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales” by Nicholas Jubber
Nicholas Jubber’s The Fairy Tellers steps into the world of fairy tales that are well-known across the West to recover the stories behind those tales’ tellers, but in doing so obscures the scholarship that made this book possible.
Reading “Black Powder War” by Naomi Novik (Temeraire 3)
Naomi Novik's third book in the Temeraire series, Black Powder War, takes readers to the Ottoman and German empires during the Napoleonic wars, but fails to explore its subject in interesting ways and leans heavily into Orientalist tropes.
Reading “Shadowdale” by Richard Awlinson [Scott Ciencin] (Forgotten Realms / Avatar 1)
The Forgotten Realms novel Shadowdale marks the beginning of a major event in the franchise's storyworld and, despite it being somewhat of an eye-rolling chore to read, it offers some promising elements for the rest of the series.
Reading “Juniper” by Monica Furlong (Doran 1)
Monica Furlong's Juniper is a beautiful, powerful novel of girlhood and community in ancient Cornwall that transcends its position as middle-grade fiction and demonstrates why Furlong's magical fictions of the ancient Celtic world, told from the perspective of women's experiences, deserve another look.
Reading “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey” by Gordon Doherty
Gordon Doherty's novelization of the Assassin's Creed: Odyssey video game wonderfully demonstrates everything aesthetically and narratively wrong with so much franchise fiction.
Reading “The Blue Fox” by Sjón
Sjón's The Blue Fox is a compelling English translation of the Icelandic original, a magical realist historical fantasy that brings Icelandic folklore to life in a rural 19th century setting and features a rare representation of a character with Down syndrome.
Genre Fantasies 