lizabelle | Reading

Posted by Łukasz

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/09/death-to-dread-goddess-by-morgan-stang.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Morgan Stang lives in the humid part of Texas. He graduated from the University of Houston with a BBA. By day he works in accounting and by night he sleeps, and sometime in between he writes in a wide variety of fantasy genres, ranging from dark fantasy (The Bartram's Maw series) to gaslamp murder mystery (The Lamplight Murder Mysteries) to cozy fantasy (The Bookshop and the Barbarian). He is a fan of all things nerdy, and lives with an immortal ball python.

Publisher: Morgan Stang (August 26, 2025) Length: 369 pages Formats: ebook, paperback

Death to the Dread Goddess! moves fast, makes you laugh, but also makes you pause and think.

The big bad goddess has just been defeated, falls out of the sky, and lands in Hitch’s lake. Hitch, a hermit who just wants to fish, smoke her pipe, and look after her snails, suddenly finds herself stuck with a de-powered deity on the run. From there, the story gets fun and moves between sorcery, strange tech, musings on the nature of reality and morality, a fire-breathing frog with issues, and even a collectible card game tournament. The author makes it all fun and easy to follow.

Hitch is instantly likable, deeply shaped by her deformities and status as an outcast. Because of her looks, people treated her harshly and made her life hard. She spends much of the journey wrestling with the question of why people choose evil at all, which is important because the answer will allow her to decide if she should kill the goddess or not. Also, she’s a great FWEN (card game) player who treats the game seriously. Beatrix, the goddess herself, is Hitch’s opposite - obsessed with beauty, perfection, and power, yet suddenly dependent on someone she might have crushed underfoot if it weren’t for all this mess. Their dynamic is tense, funny, and occasionally touching.

There’s also Reinwald, a chirurgeon scarred by trauma. He sees dead people, suddenly remembers he had a kitten as a child, and it’s not a good memory. His chapters aren’t as captivating as Hitch’s, but they’re strong in their own right.

I liked the writing style - it’s clear, easy to read and follow. I found it perfect for a story that juggles more “adult” moments (sex, violence, death) with warm interludes (Hitch playing the Game of FWEN is delightful). The pacing is quick, and the ending sticks the landing. Also, somewhere in the middle Stang’s readers will find an excellent sequence that connects the author’s books in a surprising way. Fans of Lamplight Murder Mysteries series will learn new things about Nobles.

Overall, this was a great ride. Fans of fantasy with heart and teeth will love it.

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/09/death-to-dread-goddess-by-morgan-stang.html

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Posted by Unknown

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/09/david-mcglynn.html

David McGlynn's books include the memoirs One Day You'll Thank Me and A Door in the Ocean, and the story collection The End of the Straight and Narrow. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The American Scholar. He teaches at Lawrence University and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

McGlynn's debut novel is Everything We Could Do.

Recently I asked the author about

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/09/david-mcglynn.html

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Posted by Łukasz

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/09/spfbo-champions-league-sword-of-kaigen.html

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: M. L. Wang is a weird recluse, probably in a small room somewhere, planting tomatoes and talking to them. She enjoys gruesome nature documentaries and long walks in circles around her room.

Her books include Blood Over Bright Haven, The Sword of Kaigen, the Theonite Series (discontinued), and The Volta Academy Chronicles (published under Maya Lin Wang).

Published: February 19, 2019 by M.L. Wang Length: 651 pages (Kindle) Formats: Literary awards: SPFBO Award for Best Fantasy Book

LUKASZ

Boring and predictable.

Not the book, though, but my review. I join The Sword of Kaigen fan club and I plan to force anyone listening to try it. I won’t lie, I hoped I would identify its unforgivable flaws and enumerate them to show how insightful I am. I did find some, but they didn’t stop me from loving the book.

The Sword of Kaigen introduces memorable and relatable characters and throws them into disastrous conflict with a powerful enemy. Kusanagi Peninsula, renowned for its unstoppable warriors who bend elements to their will, stands between the Empire and invaders. Fourteen-year-old Mamoru represents the Matsuda clan proudly and with full conviction. A new student, Kwang Chul-hee, who transfers from outside of the province challenges his beliefs. What if everything their academy teaches is just propaganda? And what if the Empire treats legendary Kaiganese warriors as cannon fodder?

Mamoru’s mother, Misaki, doesn’t deny the accusations. Once an accomplished warrior, she’s sacrificed everything to marry into the Matsuda family and provide it with sons. Her past haunts her and when she receives a letter warning her that the entire Kusanagi Peninsula is in danger, she acts. But will her husband, cold, distanced and powerful warrior, approve of a woman fighting for her own?

The Sword of Kaigen focuses on a mother and son. Their histories and arcs are inseparable and strongly connected. Misaki gives Mamoru the strength to challenge his beliefs about the world and his place in it. Mamoru’s conflict with his father gives Misaki the strength to challenge social norms and rediscover her inner warrior. As we watch them grow closer to each other, it’s hard not to admire Wang’s knack for characterization and conveying strong and believable emotions. It works against the reader - when the enemy strikes and mayhem begins no one is safe. The story takes wild and dark turns.

At 651 pages, the book rarely feels too long (once you get past a somewhat tepid beginning). It contains so much. The complexity of the Kaiganese traditions and genealogy. Martial arts, elemental magic, and epic battles. Small graceful details and moments of silence and reflection between powerful climaxes. The protagonists of The Sword of Kaigen are masters of theonite power known as jiya, the ability to control water and ice. They’ve honed their skills and mastered complex techniques that allow senior Matsuda clan’s members (Takeshi and Takeru) to display godlike powers. The epic battle that happens halfway through the book contains so much pure awesomeness (but also tragedy) that the book is worth reading for it alone.

As I mentioned I found some flaws. The beginning is slow and filled with heavy info-dumping. It requires patience and trust from the reader. Heavy use of honorifics and fictitious therms can feel confusing. The redemption arc of the character you loathe (unless you’re a misogynistic boor) felt rushed and unconvincing. I liked the result but not the path that has led to a sudden change in his relationship dynamics with his partner and others. The last chapters weren’t necessary for this story to work but I understand they had to be included to tie TSoK to Wang’s Theonite series. I’m ok with it.

On the other hand, Wang plays with tropes and makes a middle-aged mother a compelling and memorable character you root for. The other character starts as a young prodigy and just when you think you know what will happen, Wang will crush your expectations. Important characters die. Some deaths are brutal and gruesome, some tragic. One of them will tear you apart and is, for me, one of the most beautiful death scenes in all fantasy.

So, while the pacing could be tighter, the characters and action-scenes are fantastic. Wang's writing conveys raw emotions well and some twists will crush you. And that is a sign of greatness.

Mihir

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Sword Of Kaigen is a tough book to review. What can you say about it that hasn’t been spoken about by your peers. It’s a very unique story that’s a standalone in the truest sense of the word. We get a complete story with a beginning, middle and an end. This story has set the SPFBO stage on storm and it deserves many if not all the accolades it has gotten so far. Even with scores below, you can see why it has been such a big hit with us.

I first got this book when the author approached us last year when it released. I however didn’t read it then and that was my mistake (mea culpa). Going to the story plot, this book is about the people of Kaigen and the warrior families who help defend it. One such family is the Matsudas who have their secret power called the Whispering Blade. The Matsudas are a clan drenched in honour and have high expectations from its children, women and men. Shouldering such expectations is Mamoru, son of Misaki and Takeru Matsuda. A teenager who’s burdened with the Matsuda legacy of the Whispering Blade as well as the ice elemental powers. Misaki is his mother and a quiet woman who’s given her husband four sons and left her exciting life behind.

The plot begins with a very tight narrow focus on Mamoru and Misaki and Kaiganese culture in its entirety. Then slowly the author pulls back the lid on Misaki’s life, the actual geo-political strife within the world and the back-history as well as details about the magic system. Chiefly the author has to be lauded for her characterization, prose and worldbuilding. Beginning with her characters, it’s incredible to read about Misaki and Mamoru and see the similarities within them and what they are made of. Mamoru in particular in the start is given more of a lead status while Misaki is more akin to an onion as the reader waits for her to shed her reticence and her mental walls. We might be lead to believe that Mamoru's is the more traditional hero in the making narrative that’s being show over here. You would be wrong and quite brutally so.

Misaki in her role as the mother is trying to balance the Matsuda family honour and her own expectations about who she is and what she’s supposed to be. The author gives us these two complex and heroic characters to root for and they both flower magnificently. Plus it’s not just these two, the author is able to give even side characters the requisite gravitas and depth so that we as readers get a deeper read. Even the characters who are supposed to be villains aren't just caricatures. They have their own reasoning and while we understand it to be flawed. For them, it’s their only way to live. What I’m trying to get at is, Miracle Wang truly captures the human mind and behavior with all its flaws and complexities.

The prose aids in this effort as we see a world that’s lushly described and even though the action is focused on a tiny island, it’s not hard to see and understand the grandeur of the remaining landscape. This rich prose is admirably utilized in the action sequences which are few and far but when they occur, they take on epic levels. This line about power is an admirable example of brevity & completeness:

“Power was born into a person and lived in the wordless depths of their soul.”

The action sequences occur from the middle and then majorly towards the end. There’s action on a grand scale as well as a personal level and it’s thrilling in both theaters. The author has a way of describing the action whether its swordplay or elemental magic or both. The book flourishes with it and we the readers get a story that punches on an emotional and physical level.

Going to the world, we get a very Japanese influenced world, this is evident from the tiniest bit of details such as the clothes (haori, hakama), Katanas, clan titles (koro, sama, san) and names, etc. This can be a bit of a dual-edged sword as it takes a while to get used to it and then keep track of what means what. Thankfully there’s a glossary to help but in such a big book, it can tricky to flip back and forth. This isn’t a knock on the author as most of us fantasy fans are used to western/European nomenclature and this is an Eastern one. It deserves the attention that any reader can give as it richly rewards us with a world that’s complex, unique and deadly as our own.

After all these superlatives, you might think why my score isn’t a perfect ten. Well here’s the rub of it. This book has a few tiny faults, namely the pace is pedestrian in the first third of the book and this can be very tough to get through. Also in the first third of the story, we get a lot of infodumps about the world (history, mythology, religion, geo-politics, etc.) and while I understand why it was done. It does cause a disconnect with the reader as we are given ginormous dollops of information and not in a smooth way. It’s for these two reasons my score is a tiny bit lower than my fellow bloggers.

CONCLUSION: The Sword Of Kaigen is an epic standalone story that needs to be savoured. It’s rich in all the right ways and perhaps has a few tiny flaws but isn’t that what makes a masterpiece? The beauty of it all is enough to wow us readers and it has bowled over many a critical reader. With this score, we come to an end to the fifth edition of SPFBO and The Sword Of Kaigen etches its final mark on this competition as finely as Misaki has etched herself in the mind of us Kaiganites.

SPFBO CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE RATING FOR NOW

The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
Orconomics by J. Zachary pike
Where Loyalties Lie by Rob J. Hayes
The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids by Michael McClung
By Blood, By Salt by J.L. Odom

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/09/spfbo-champions-league-sword-of-kaigen.html

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Posted by monbiot

https://www.monbiot.com/2025/09/03/greening-the-desert/

https://www.monbiot.com/?p=7452

The election of Zack Polanski as Green Party leader could be the moment our political drought begins to break.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 3^rd September 2025

There’s an obvious way to destroy Nigel Farage’s political momentum. A poll by the research group Persuasion UK, testing various messages, found that by far the most effective line of attack is highlighting his complicity with corporate interests. The message that hit hardest was that Farage’s real loyalties lie with “the rich, the powerful, his mates in big business”, and his “party” (actually a business called Reform 2025 Ltd) “has taken over £2m from fossil fuel lobbyists, polluters, and climate change deniers … He’s not smashing the system. He and his rich friends basically are the system.”

But this is a string Labour cannot yank, as it would pull its own roof down. If there is a defining mark of Keir Starmer’s administration, it is immediate capitulation to powerful lobby groups, especially corporations and billionaires. This is what explains the otherwise inexplicable: its planning policy, tax policy, competition policy, deregulation policy, AI policy, food policy, its plans to reboot private partnerships in the NHS, its banning of Palestine Action.

Nor can the government point out the blindingly obvious: that it is not asylum seekers who jack up rents, undermine the NHS, hold down wages and keep people insecure, but capital. It cannot tell us that the role of the far right is to shift the blame for decades of economic attacks by the rich and powerful on to powerless people who have only just arrived here. This would mean mentioning capital, wealth and power: topics it avoids like the plague.

In other words, the government has flunked the simplest test for a Labour administration: how to respond to an insurgent far right. A large tranche of evidence from Europe and around the world shows that if you seek to compete with it on harshness and cruelty, obsess over its themes and adopt its rhetoric, you merely legitimise and empower it. But, tragically and incomprehensibly, Keir Starmer’s government has done all this, and keeps doing it, despite repeated warnings.

People who approve of Farage will vote for him, emboldened by a Labour party that has told them, in effect, that he is right. People who hate Farage will vote not only against him, but also against a government seen to be handing the country on a plate to him. Unless its MPs rebel and defenestrate Starmer and Rachel Reeves, it is hard to see any trajectory for Labour now, other than electoral wipeout.

All this presents voters with a massive problem. When a dominant party opposes the principles and people it once existed to serve, we are left reeling, disoriented, lost. But it also presents an equally large opening. Farage remains deeply unpopular in the UK; he has merely stepped into a gaping vacuum of disillusionment and despair. The opportunities for progressive politicians to seize this moment, to even greater effect, are simply waiting to be taken.

I have no party loyalties: as a journalist, I feel I should stand apart, and as a pragmatist I’m happy to go with whatever works. But I’m glad to see the election, on a huge majority, of Zack Polanski as Green party leader. This is not because I disrespect the other leadership candidates, who have their own great strengths (though they are somewhat undermined, I feel, by risk aversion). It is because I believe that his style and emphasis meet the challenge of the moment. His campaign video calling out the scapegoating of asylum seekers for political failure was the film I’ve wanted to see for a long time. He correctly identifies Reform UK as “a party of millionaires representing the interests of billionaires, but claiming to be the voice of the working class”. Labour can’t talk about that either, as it cannot bring itself to say “billionaire”.

He is loud and confrontational at a time when nothing else will do. He does not fear controversy – a useful lesson any politician can learn from Farage. He understands the need both for clear and simple policy messaging – on corporate and billionaire power, exclusion and environmental collapse – and for fighting the radical right with unapologetic rhetoric. He is much harder than his opponents for the media to ignore.

He calls his approach “eco-populism”, but I feel this is not a wholly accurate description. His communication style might be fierce and direct, but it is layered on top of the party’s deep and thoughtful agenda, embodied in its manifesto: for example, bringing the railways, water companies and big five energy companies back into public ownership; guaranteeing access to an NHS dentist for all; greatly expanding the provision of mental healthcare; abolishing the Malthusian two-child benefit cap and scrapping the bedroom tax; repealing anti-union legislation and introducing a charter for workers’ rights; pressing for a maximum pay ratio within any organisation of 10:1; enabling local authorities to introduce rent controls; replacing the House of Lords with an elected chamber and introducing a fairer voting and party funding system, alongside the far-sighted environmental policies we would expect, all funded by a much fairer and more redistributive tax settlement. None of this changes as a result of Polanski’s win, as Green party policy is established democratically.

Importantly, he seems prepared to strike deals with political rivals such as Your Party, which might help to prevent the traditional fragmentation of the left vote. It seems plausible to me, through a combination of mass disillusionment with Labour, strategic targeting and much greater visibility for Polanski’s party (whose policies already represent everything a modern Labour party should stand for, but doesn’t) that the Greens could take several dozen seats at the next election, and end up holding the balance of power.

I believe we are now entering a new phase of strategic voting. I sense that voters, long treated as idiots by those who claim to represent them, are ready to start building constituency movements that decide collectively which anti-establishment candidate to back. This opens vast territories for all those – whether they be the Greens, Your Party, the more radical Liberal Democrats, or dissident Labour candidates – who are prepared to pull the strings the Labour leadership will not and cannot pull: the heartstrings of a country that retains a sense of justice, of dignity and of fury towards the predations of an economic elite.

Those who can channel this anger, who can speak the language of outrage and hope, are the politicians of the moment. They will contribute to what could prove to be, in 2029, the greatest electoral reset in our modern history.

www.monbiot.com

https://www.monbiot.com/2025/09/03/greening-the-desert/

https://www.monbiot.com/?p=7452

writers_read_feed

Posted by Unknown

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/09/kathleen-barber.html

Kathleen Barber is the author of Truth Be Told (2017, originally published as Are You Sleeping), which was adapted into a series on AppleTV+ by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company, and Follow Me (2020). A graduate of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law, she now lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and children.

Barber's new novel is Both Things

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/09/kathleen-barber.html

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Posted by monbiot

https://www.monbiot.com/2025/09/01/macho-match/

https://www.monbiot.com/?p=7448

Marvellous giants are returning to our shores, which means only one thing: pathetic inadequates using them as a test of manhood.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian, 28^th August 2025

It’s the UK equivalent of bullfighting. Next week, in Falmouth in Cornwall, anglers will compete to fish for bluefin tuna in a three-day tournament. Sponsored by companies including Suzuki and Shimano, it’s a festival of cruelty and destruction, waging war on a magnificent giant which, in a rare instance of ecological hope, has begun returning to our shores.

Where’s the sport in this “sportfishing”? While some forms of angling require knowledge and skill, in this case the paying customer (the angler) sits in a boat while the skipper motors up and down, trailing a set of lures. When a tuna is hooked, the angler, strapped into a harness, either stands or sits in a “fighting chair” and “plays” the fish to exhaustion: a one-sided fight of 30 minutes or more.

It’s a risk-free means of pitting yourself against nature, a truly pathetic form of macho gratification. You can imagine my surprise on discovering that Nigel Farage is a big fan.

Among the plastic warriors looking for an IRL game they can play from a chair, recreational tuna fishing is booming. While in 2024, 93 licences were granted to charter boats and private boats, this year the government has issued as many as 180. Obviously, the decision is backed by the best possible science, informed by knowledge of populations and of what happens to the fish after they are released …

Sorry – went off on one there. Obviously not. The government tells me “there are no estimates of the number of bluefin tuna in UK waters”. There is also a dearth of studies on what happens to tuna once they have been caught and released, and none assessing the impacts of real-world tuna angling in the UK. The best we have is an Australian study of real angling conditions, which reports a bluefin survival rate of 83%: in other words, 17% die. The marine ecologist Dr Richard Kirby says mortality in real conditions “is likely to be higher than that seen when bluefin tuna are caught under scientific conditions where the post-release survival of the animal is crucial to the research”.

Alongside a study conducted in circumstances far removed from the macho feeding frenzy we see in the videos posted by anglers and charter companies, the UK government relies on skippers reporting fish that die beside the boat. There’s an obvious incentive to undercount. But rest assured: a paper for the government tells us “charter vessel interviewees reported no issues with their own reporting”.

The great majority of deaths are likely to occur after release. Bluefin tuna are partially warm-blooded fish that overheat when forced into sustained flight. After a certain time on the hook, oxygen loss kills their muscle cells. They need to cool down as rapidly as possible once released, by diving deep, where the water is colder.

This is why the partnership set up by the government, Thunnus UK, states that “care should be taken not to release tuna in water shallower than 50m”. But the code of conduct agreed between the government and the recreational fishing lobby the Angling Trust, specifies just 40 metres. Could this be because few of the inshore locations where tuna are caught in the UK are 50 metres deep? Even 50 might be too shallow: a study off Ireland found tuna immediately diving up to 80 metres after release.

Skippers routinely break even this feeble code. I have watched recreational tuna boats fishing in the midst of great shoals of tuna within 100 metres of the shore, where the water is just 15 metres deep.

The Falmouth tournament organisers claim that “the welfare of the fish is of paramount importance”. If so, that will be a radical break from common tuna-angling practice. On Facebook and Instagram, you can watch videos of men going mad on testosterone once they hook a fish, while the code of conduct walks the plank. Charter companies boast of two or even three anglers playing fish at once, though the code says “multiple hook-ups have been shown to risk an increase in mortality … Upon hook-up immediately remove other tackle from the water.” As one boat owner remarks, while bragging about a triple hook-up, “the carnage continues”. I have seen videos in which two-hooked lures are used: the code says they should not be deployed “under any circumstances”. Anglers should “keep fight time to a minimum”, as an hour or more “may compromise” survival rates. Yet we see them crowing about playing fish for 90 minutes. The code says “conventional gaffs [long hooks used to pierce the fish and hold it alongside the boat] should not be used”, but this is also ignored.

On a podcast a few months ago, a charter boat skipper states: “I’ve seen loads of release shots on social media this year with fish going back.” His reaction? “They’re fucked.” Fishing News [print only] reports that for the first time last year, trawlers started pulling up “dead bluefin, some in an advanced state of decomposition … It is highly likely that this is linked to the expansion of the charter angling fishery in 2024.”

Until recently, I thought the recreational fishery might become a lobby for the tuna’s protection against commercial fishing. What we see instead is a Klondike rush to profit from the male-inadequacy market. The renowned Cornish fisher Andrew Pascoe, who supports recreational angling in principle, says he has noticed some charter boats have started competing over who can catch the most in a day. “That for me was the beginning of the end … you can’t possibly revive the fish properly and catch 18 fish in a day.” Private boats (ie, those not for hire), he says, are the biggest problem. Some have no idea how to handle the fish, which break free, trailing lures, lines and spreader bars: a death sentence.

A different industry could be developed, employing local people and generating income: tuna watching. It could be a massive attraction for tourists, photographers and wildlife enthusiasts. I have stood many times at a point on the coast where these vast fish leap from the water, catching garfish, sometimes in mid-air. It’s one of the greatest and most reliable natural spectacles on Earth. Who would not wish to be taken out on a boat to watch this marvel at close hand?

I believe that all megafauna, bluefin tuna included, should be treated like whales and dolphins: as animals we no longer hunt or kill. Given that tuna fishing here is still in its infancy, which means the political costs of stopping it remain small, we could create a sanctuary in UK waters for a marvellous species pursued everywhere else. Could we, just for once, get something right?

www.monbiot.com

https://www.monbiot.com/2025/09/01/macho-match/

https://www.monbiot.com/?p=7448

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Posted by Łukasz

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/09/book-review-anima-rising-by-christopher.html

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Christopher Moore is an American writer of absurdist fiction. He grew up in Mansfield, OH, and attended Ohio State University and Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA.

Moore's novels typically involve conflicted everyman characters suddenly struggling through supernatural or extraordinary circumstances. Inheriting a humanism from his love of John Steinbeck and a sense of the absurd from Kurt Vonnegut, Moore is a best-selling author with major cult status.

Publisher: William Morrow (May 13, 2025) Length: 400 pages Formats: audiobook, ebook, paperback

Anima Rising is a wild, weird, and twisty ride through 1911 Vienna, filled with artists, mad scientists, Freud jokes, and a croissant-eating demon dog. To my vast surprise, it all works.

Let’s start with a confession - I DNFed this book the first time. The opening chapters were just too much, wall-to-wall jokes, constant banter, and a chaotic energy that felt like it was trying too hard to be funny. But I’m glad I came back and gave it another shot, because once it settles down, this book is incredibly fun and creative.

The story kicks off in Vienna, 1911, with Gustav Klimt finding a naked woman floating in the canal. Naturally, instead of calling for help, he sketches her. The woman turns out to be alive, feral, and amnesiac. Klimt brings her home. What follows includes Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, a bunch of misbehaving artists, the literal Bride of Frankenstein, and a croissant-obsessed demon dog named Geoff. Yup.

As Judith (that’s how Klimt called her) starts to recover her memory with help from Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and a bit of hypnosis, she recalls a chilling past involving Victor Frankenstein, his creature, and the Arctic. We discover her backstory slowly, and it’s extremely well done. She’s a character with trauma, rage, and an engaging personality. Her friendship with Klimt’s model Wally is the highlight of the book. Wally is great too, by the way. Full of street smarts and charm.

This book is stuffed to the brim with historical characters, gothic horror references, psychological theories, and absurd comedy. Freud is obsessed with penises. Jung is all about archetypes. Alma Mahler, Egon Schiele, and even a young Hitler wander through the story. And yet, Moore somehow keeps everything coherent and even gives depth to almost all characters.

Now, Anima Rising gets dark. There’s sexual violence in Judith’s backstory, and while Moore handles it with more sensitivity than you might expect from such a wacky book, it’s still heavy stuff. The same goes for animal death, but it’s not gratuitously graphic.

That said, the humor lands most of the time. Geoff the demon dog steals every scene. And the dialogue is packed with ridiculous, sometimes brilliant exchanges. The pacing dips a bit here and there, and the humor can be a little much early on. But once the story finds its groove, it’s all hilarious and oddly moving.

If you like your historical fiction with monsters, Freud jokes, dad jokes, and demon dogs, Anima Rising is for you. It’s chaotic, clever, and creative. Once I gave it a second chance, I didn’t want to put it down.

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/09/book-review-anima-rising-by-christopher.html

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Per the dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

denise posting in

dw_news

A reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.

The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.

In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.

The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.

Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.

Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.

writers_read_feed

Posted by Unknown

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/nolan-chase.html

Nolan Chase lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

A Lonesome Place for Murder is his second book featuring Ethan Brand. It follows A Lonesome Place for Dying, which earned starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Chase's reply:

The James Bond novels by Ian Fleming and Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/nolan-chase.html

fantasy_book_critic_feed

Posted by Łukasz

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/08/spfbo-champions-league-review.html

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: J. Zachary Pike was once a basement-dwelling fantasy gamer, but over time he metamorphosed into a basement-dwelling fantasy writer. By day Zack is a web professional and creative-for-hire, but at night he returns to his lair to create books, films, and illustrations that meld fantasy elements with offbeat humor. A New Englander by birth and by temperament, Zack writes strangely funny fiction on the seacoast of New Hampshire. 

Published: November 28, 2012 by Michael McClung Length: 362 pages Formats: audiobook, ebook, paperback Literary awards: SPFBO Award for Best Fantasy Book Series The Dark Profit Saga

ŁUKASZ

Some reviewers have compares Orconomics to Pratchett novels. A bold statement if you ask me. As a fan of satires, I needed to experience and verify it myself. And I liked it.

It’s funny and uplifting but also serious and sad in some places, as every good satire should be.

On the world of Arth, adventuring is the industry that drives the economy. Groups of battle-hardened warriors hunt and kill Monsters and Shadowkin (Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds) and claim their hoards. These loots are bought and sold by corporate interests to plunder funds long before the hero’s guild attacks. You’ll easily see similarities to Goldman Sachs in Goldson Baggs operations.

The story follows Gorm Ingerson - a fallen dwarven hero whose hero’s license has been revoked. His clan disowned him, and he lives as a rogue. One of funds forcibly recruits Gorm to undertake an impossible quest with a team of similar fallen heroes. If he succeeds, he may win back the fame and fortune he lost so long ago.

His new team includes colourful and fun cast of characters– a goblin squire (who brings a lot of comic relief), clumsy and naïve prophet of a mad goddess, an elf warrior addicted to alcohol and drugs (healing potions in the book), two mages who are at each other's throats, a thief who claims to be a bard (even though he can’t really sing) and a warrior seeking his own death. They start the quest to find Elven Marbles. As we follow the story, the plot gets a little more complicated and nuanced.

I always appreciate a well-plotted and solid high fantasy tale with humour woven into the plot and the world. The world building mixed seamlessly into the story impressed me. The characterization doesn’t disappoint - even characters that seem very archetypical get significant development by the book’s end. The pacing is just right. It speeds up and slows down in all the right places.

The humour made me laugh. Obviously, no author should be compared to Sir Terry Pratchett - simply because no one stands a chance. In no way is this book on par with Pratchett’s novels. It is, though, a superb fantasy satire.

Thanks to mostly uplifting tone, Orconomics works as a well-deserved rest from dark books in which characters you love die, become evil or destroyed. On the other hand, it’s not all sunshine and roses. After finishing the book I’m impressed by Pike’s skilful blend of humour and tragedy. I mourn one of characters. Every good satire needs to contain a level of tragedy and Orconomics delivers both.

The ending of the book set ups for the sequel I will definitely read once I sort out my reading schedule.

MIHIR

Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike is one of my favourite books to have come out of SPFBO. Zack Pike’s debut was just a fascinating mix of epic fantasy tropes, satire & some brilliant but biting commentary on the foibles of unbridled capitalism.

“Gorm was a veteran of waking up in a strange place with a surplus of questions and a shortfall of memories.”

The main plot begins with Gorm Ingerson, a disgraced dwarven ex-hero who has long tried to run from his shameful past. Things have been rough for him for a few years but he’s finally been given a chance to redeem himself. Soon a motley band is formed with Gorm, a goblin, an elf named Kaita and a scribe named Niln. The team is later joined by a couple of mages who are semi-mortal enemies and hilarious with their bickering. The plot follows up it’s the normal fantasy trope of an epic journey and it’s herein where the author plays his first trick.

J. Zachary Pike lulls the reader while giving us a very characteristic and trope-filled story but the worldbuilding and story details are what make the story so unique. Firstly this is a world wherein adventuring and all the other details have been presented in a very financially-oriented way. The author does a brilliant job in setting up the reader with all the details of how this fantasy world operates. From quests wherein villages pay to have their surroundings cleared up to adventurers having to pay for their own upgrades. Imagine a fantasy world run by Mckinsey consultants & Disney’s accountants, this in a nutshell is a such a world. While there is a fun vibe to the story, but as a reader you can see the veneer of avarice beneath the trappings of it all.

Even though this book is more than a decade old, its message about greed, corporate avarice and the dangers facing humans are just as true now as they when it was published. This book’s message is quite grim and kudos to the author for writing such a darkly brilliant story within a fun, satire mold. The story while following all the known Tolkienistic tropes, quite cleverly subverts them. I enjoyed this aspect and the humour within is of the sly kind which had me chuckling all throughout.

The book has some truly dark aspects to it from character backgrounds to the rigid societal structure to the financial burden that’s yoked to most of the creatures. The author has however folded humour as much as possible so the dark aspects while significant don’t overpower the story. This way the main plot stays funny & satirical all the way till the end.

I wouldn’t be lying if I say Orconomics is one of the most brilliant written stories to come out of the indie fantasy genre, however it wouldn’t be entirely accurate. The truth is Orconomics is one of the most brilliant stories to ever come out of the SFF genre. Give it a read and then read the sequels too (as the trilogy is complete). This way you can truly appreciate one of the best fantasy trilogies to have been gifted to us readers.

SPFBO CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE RATING FOR NOW

1. Orconomics by J. Zachary pike

2. Where Loyalties Lie by Rob J. Hayes

3. The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids by Michael McClung

4. By Blood, By Salt by J.L. Odom

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/08/spfbo-champions-league-review.html

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Posted by Justine

https://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2025/08/28/how-to-find-my-books/

https://justinelarbalestier.com/?p=51370

Because I haven’t published a new novel since 2016, my books have all become backlist titles, which means they aren’t readily available as printed paper books. The good news is that I’ll have a new novel out next year, The Mortons, which you’ll be able to purchase in English wherever you like in whatever format you like–in French, German and Bulgarian too–about which, more anon.

More good news: all my in-print books are available as ebooks: My Sister Rosa (also available in Spanish), Liar, Razorhurst, How To Ditch Your Fairy and Zombies v Unicorns are all available as ebooks across platforms. As is Love is Hell, an anthology in which I have a novella (which you can also get in French). Come On In & Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean, in which I have short stories can also be read digitally. You can even obtain an ebook of my scholarly tome, The Battle of The Sexes in Science Fiction.

(I recently discovered that my very out of print first three novels, the Magic or Madness trilogy, are still available to borrow as ebooks from the New York Public Library system. If you don’t tell, I won’t. I love NYPL and borrow ebooks from them frequently. Remember. libraries pay for books, so when you borrow a library book the author is getting paid.)

My Sister Rosa, Liar, Razorhurst, How To Ditch Your Fairy and Zombies v Unicorns are also available as audiobooks on all platforms. While Team Human is very much out of print in every other format, it is available as an audiobook. I have no idea why. Publishing is mysterious.

I picked the narrators for most of my audiobooks & think they’re pretty good, plus me & Holly Black recorded commentary for the Zombies v Unicorns audiobook. We had a ridiculous amount of fun recording our arguments in favour of our preferred supernatural creature and wound up adlibbing some of it, making it quite different from the printed original. I don’t like to boast but that audiobook was an Earphones Award winner.

Why are paper editions of my books hard to find? Publishers prioritise the most in demand & recent titles. When they run out of copies of older books, they tend not to reprint unless there’s very strong demand. If a TV show, movie or musical of a book is made that will push a book up the printing queue. Liar has been optioned to be a TV series for several years now. Should that comes to fruition, paper versions of the book will also reappear. Fingers crossed!

You’ll find that if you try to buy a new paper edition of one of my books, you’ll get a notice saying it’s a backorder. Basically that means they’re not going to order a new print run until enough people have backordered it. No one will tell me what that number is. I suspect it varies from publisher to publisher. I’ve been told that certain folks on TikTok getting excited by an older book can absolutely trigger enough demand that the publisher will reprint. Certain celebrities being photographed with a backlist book as an accessory can likewise trigger a reprint.

If you really must have a paper version of one of my books and you can’t get several hundred of your friends to backorder it, you can always try the secondhand markets. Nope, authors don’t get a cent when used copies of their books are sold. But if those books are out of print, or like mine, effectively out of print in paper, buying secondhand is the only way. It’s better than those old books going into landfill.

As someone who became a voracious reader in the 1900s when it was often nigh on impossible to find out of print books, I’m thrilled to live in this era of ebooks, audiobooks and online secondhand book dealers. It’s become so much easier to find obscure books. This bibliophile is delighted! And this author is relieved that if you really want to read even my oldest books you can.

The post How to Find My Books appeared first on Justine Larbalestier.

https://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2025/08/28/how-to-find-my-books/

https://justinelarbalestier.com/?p=51370

writers_read_feed

Posted by Unknown

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/arbor-sloane.html

Arbor Sloane grew up in the Midwest and earned her master’s degree of English at Iowa State University. She now teaches community college courses and resides with her family in the Des Moines area.

Sloane's new novel is Not Who You Think.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Sloane's reply:

I'm in the midst of reading two books right now.

I picked up the first one, Dear

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/arbor-sloane.html

fantasy_book_critic_feed

Posted by Caitlin G.

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/08/review-summer-war-by-naomi-novik.html

Buy The Summer War

FORMAT/INFO: The Summer War will be published on September 16th, 2025 by Del Rey. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Celia didn't mean to curse her brother. Unfortunately, her magic awoke the day she discovered he was leaving her behind, causing grief-filled words to doom him to a life without love. As the years go by, Celia searches for a way to undo the curse. But in a land caught in an unending cycle of war, can love ever find a way?

The Summer War is a pleasant fairy tale about the power stories have to change the real world narrative. Although Celia may be the first sorceress in generations, undoubtedly the more important characters in this world are the traveling minstrels known as song-spinners. Time and time again, we see them wield stories to share information and to shape public opinion. They have the power to spread truths and propaganda in equal measure, and only a fool overlooks their importance.

I also loved the portrayal of the Summer Lands, inhabited by the fae-like summerlings. Within the borders of the Summerlands, stories have a near-magical power, with the expectation that lives and conflicts will unfold according to familiar patterns and beats of archetypal narratives. Once again, power comes from knowing how to move with and within those stories, and how to use them to achieve your own aim.

But while The Summer War is charming and I certainly enjoyed it, I wouldn't say it is overly memorable. It's a definite recommend for someone looking for a short read with fairytale-like qualities. You can easily read it within a day and have a charming time. But I don't know that it or its characters will stick with me past the length of a summer.

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/08/review-summer-war-by-naomi-novik.html

denise posting in

dw_news

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

writers_read_feed

Posted by Unknown

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/beth-morrey.html

Beth Morrey‘s work has been published in the Cambridge and Oxford May Anthologies and shortlisted for the Grazia Orange First Chapter competition. Her novels include The Love Story of Missy Carmichael and Delphine Jones Takes a Chance.

Morrey's new novel is Isabella's Not Dead.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Morrey's reply:

I tend to read in fits and starts – maybe

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/beth-morrey.html

fantasy_book_critic_feed

Posted by Łukasz

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/08/book-review-bewitching-by-silvia-moreno.html

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of several novels, including Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. She has also edited a number of anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu's Daughters). Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination.

Publisher: Del Rey (July 15, 2025) Length: 368 pages Formats: audiobook, paperback, ebook

The Bewitching is a creepy, slow-burning horror novel that follows three women in three different time periods (1908, 1934, and 1998) as they face strange disappearances, eerie signs, and possible witchcraft. Each timeline centers on a different woman, but all are connected through blood, books, and something dark lurking in the shadows.

In 1998, Minerva is a grad student researching an obscure horror writer, Beatrice Tremblay, whose only novel, The Vanishing, might not be entirely fictional. As she digs deeper into the mystery of Beatrice’s vanished college roommate, she starts noticing strange things happening around her. Interestingly, some of them echo the ghost stories her great-grandmother Alba used to tell. Alba’s story from 1908 is another key piece of this puzzle, where curses, disappearances, and eerie nighttime happenings plague her family’s Mexican farm.

If that sounds like a lot to juggle, well, it is. Happily, Moreno-Garcia handles it with ease. Each storyline has a different mood: Gothic academia in the 1990s New England, haunted romance in the 1930s college life, and Mexican folklore-laced horror in the early 20th century. The three timelines work as separate (but connected) stories, even though similar events take place in each.

Minerva is an enjoyable lead - bookish, guarded, and determined. Beatrice’s chapters are bittersweet and melancholic, filled with old-school spiritualism and unrequited love. And Alba’s storyline explains the roots of the curse and brings in elements of Mexican folklore - teyolloquani witches, protective amulets, and more.

That said, not every timeline is equally gripping. Minerva’s story has the most momentum, while Alba’s is quieter and more atmospheric. Beatrice’s voice is beautifully written, but since we already know how parts of her story end, the suspense there is a little muted. The final reveal also wasn’t jaw-dropping after all the buildup. Honestly, you’ll probably guess the villain a few chapters early, but the payoff is still satisfying. It ties the timelines together well.

A few pacing hiccups pop up, especially in the middle when the story slows down to repeat a few clues one too many times. And some of the side characters, particularly in Minerva’s timeline, felt like they were there to serve the plot more than to truly matter. Still, these are minor issues in a book that’s otherwise smart, spooky, and immersive. The Bewitching is an atmospheric novel that takes elements of Gothic horror, Mexican folklore, and academic mystery and turns them into one eerie, intergenerational story.

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/08/book-review-bewitching-by-silvia-moreno.html

writers_read_feed

Posted by Unknown

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/dw-buffa.html

The Dark Backward is among D.W. Buffa's more recent novels to be released. The story revolves around not just the strangest case William Darnell had ever tried;

it was the strangest case ever tried by any lawyer anywhere. It was impossible to explain; or rather, impossible to believe. The defendant, who did not speak English or any other language anyone could identify, had been found on an

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/dw-buffa.html

writers_read_feed

Posted by Unknown

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/darcie-wilde.html

Darcie Wilde is an award-winning and bestselling author of over 30 novels in multiple genres including science fiction, young adult, cozy mysteries, and historical mysteries. A Useful Woman — her debut mystery novel, and the first to feature her popular sleuth Rosalind Thorne — was a national bestseller, and the sixth book starring the Regency sleuth, The Secret of the Lost Pearls, was declared “

http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2025/08/darcie-wilde.html

Reading material

Book review: Death to the dread Goddess! by Morgan Stang

David McGlynn

SPFBO Champions' League: The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

Greening the Desert

Kathleen Barber

Macho Match

Book review: Anima Rising by Christopher Moore

Code deploy happening shortly

Mississippi site block, plus a small restriction on Tennessee new accounts

Nolan Chase

SPFBO Champions League Review:: Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike

How to Find My Books

Arbor Sloane

Review: The Summer War by Naomi Novik

Mississippi legal challenge: beginning 1 September, we will need to geoblock Mississippi IPs

Beth Morrey

Book Review: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

D.W. Buffa

Darcie Wilde

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June 2014

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