Six months, six books: First half of 2024:
Paladin's Faith, T. Kingfisher. I know, T.Kingfisher's always on these lists. Deal with it. Glamorous spy and stupidly handsome ex-paladin meet. It's fun, it's funny, there's an overarching plot now. Paladin Romance is a sub-genre in my head. [1/n]
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, Malka Older. Second Mossa and Pleiti book: SF gaslamp mystery, we learn more about the history, and the protagonists work on their relationship, gingerly and carefully and maturely. People are disappearing from the University- one, then two, then dozens. 2/n
One Extra Corpse, Barbara Hambly. Second Silver Screen mystery. Emma Blackstone is an Oxford don's daughter in Roaring 20s Hollywood. It's a delight. I learned a lot about silent movies, and the murder situation is clever. The LAPD sucks, so you really need an amateur detective. [3/n]
Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff: The heir to the city has to go into the Broken Lands where nothing makes sense and everything tries to kill you; probably half his companions are going to die. Power, sacrifice, humanity, slavery, and a hell of a classic fantasy adventure. I stayed up late. [4/n]
All The Sinners Bleed, S.A. Cosby. Steven King didn't just blurb this; he wrote a whole NYT review. Southern gothic crime novel: Charon County is a poor one-factory town full of secrets and grim history, huge racial tensions and, it seems, an ugly serial killer problem. CW: gory&awful things. [5/n]
Starling House, Alix Harrow. It's a house so haunted that teenagers won't even throw rocks at the windows. In a decaying coal town. A homeless girl with a little brother not only gets close enough to the house to touch it, she gets a job cleaning it. [6/n]
Honorary mention: The Element of Fire, Martha Wells. A new, re-edited version (in _The Book of Ile-Rien_) and it's still great. Three Musketeers type story with sorcery- the King's illegitimate daughter shows up to cause trouble again and the Captain of the Queen's Guard has to handle it. [7/n]
Someone said approximately "if you ask for recommendations on Reddit you only get Brandon Sanderson and two other authors" and so I started doing this. [8/n]
Author accounts below:
