We are at the halfway point through the year, which means I should have all sorts of fun statistics and lists for how things have been going so far. Unfortunately, scraping lead paint, a hail damaged roof, and helping run pride month festivities on r/fantasy has kept me very busy, to say nothing of the chaos of the last few weeks of school (we get out late in Minnesota!). I’m a little surprised at how much reading I got done this month, and a few books had me in a chokehold.
I don’t plan on slowing down at all in July. I actually plan on reading 31 novellas in 31 days! I’ve had a growing stack of novellas, and figured this would be a fun reading challenge to set for myself. Check in to see if I’m still kicking at the end of the month, because it’s going to be all gas no breaks for a while. I’ve got a pile of novellas stacked on my bookshelf, and they’ve been waiting patiently for me to sink my teeth into them.
Longform Reviews
The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek – READ THIS BOOK! Maybe … if you like aggressively introspective fantasy westerns that have heavy romance elements. I loved pretty much everything about this, and is a frontrunner for favorite read of the year.
Divinity 36 by Gail Carriger – think of this book as an intergalactic take on a K-Pop idol camp novel, or perhaps Eurovision. It leaned towards slice of life, with small dash of cozy, in an academy/music boot camp setting. I loved the pacing and imaginative take on how alien sensibilities might impact entertainment.
Monkey Meat: The Summer Batch by Juni Ba – a brilliant and insane anthology comic following different stories from the resort/research lab/capitalist machine that is Monkey Meat Island. I loved the original, and this was even better. Late stage capitalism meets Looney Toons, and I can’t get enough.
The Disco at the End of the World by Nathan Tavares – a really odd book. It had Tavares’ trademark take on the experience of gay men, specifically an evocative exploration of underground gay culture of the 1970s. That got paired with an alien storyline that was oddly silly, and that tonal shift was difficult. This book is either very much for you (this was me!) or very much not. And that depends entirely on how interested you are in countercultural queer scenes.
Kyn by Laurence Ramsay – an action packed cyberpunk following an assassin with infinite regeneration. The worldbuilding was delightful, but I thought the book could have used some editing and trimming.
East of West by Jonathan Hickman – a sci fi/fantasy/western mashup, I don’t know what to think of this comic yet. I love the epic scope and stylized art. However, the story from this trade was so wide ranging that nothing got depth, and it felt like it was in dangerous territory of repeating all the mistakes of how the Western genre mistreated nonwhite folks. Time will tell.
Lord of the White Hell by Ginn Hale – a slow burn romance between romance at a military school. It did a good job bringing characters to life, but in hindsight everything it did I liked more in The God Eaters. It’s a cult classic and plenty love it though.
Drowned Country by Emily Tesh – Part 2 of the Greenhollow Duology. This is a solid set of novellas for atmospheric folklore stories, and are quick reads
The School for Invisible Boys by Shaun David Hutchinson – a fun little middle grade novel about bullying and feeling invisible in 6th grade. It won’t win over adults who dislike middle grade stories though.
Karmen by Guillem March – A woman commits suicide because a man cheated on his girlfriend, but didn’t choose her to be the person he cheated with. There’s some good stuff in this comic, but thematically it’s a misogynistic mess.
The Gales of November by John U. Bacon – A nonfiction about the life and sinking of the ship The Edmund Fitzgerald, with a dash of Great Lakes history thrown in. Nonfiction will never be my thing, but I enjoyed this well enough!
Mini-Reviews
Smash & Grab by Maz Maddox
This was a Romance featuring a Paleontologist and a punk were-velociraptor with a pink mohawk. It’s a pretty enticing hook, and the schtick carried me pretty far. Unfortunately, the thriller plotline (a rich fossil collector is after them!) didn’t have the tension I was looking for, and the romance really needed an additional element to boost the story from ‘good enough’ to something I’d actively start recommending to people. It also had one of my pet peeves of Bi-Awakening storylines. Men in their 30s don’t discover their bisexuality in the same way younger folks do. It typically isn’t a quick process, and usually involves a lot more introspection than we saw here. Simon could have been bisexual from the start with minimal changes, especially considering how quickly he fell in love in the story’s timeline. I’ll read the sequels when I want something light and campy, but it isn’t a priority.
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
I knew I wanted to read Drowned Country, and my library audiobook copy came with both novellas in the duology in a single volume. I’d already written a longform review here, and my opinions are largely unchanged. I liked that the focus was on Tobias as an eternal being, instead of a full romance. I also grew very tired of being told flirting was happening when nothing about the dialogue or physical actions indicating that flirting was happening without being told. Great atmosphere, and lots to love in a short package.
Dungeon Crawler Carl #1-5 by Matt Dinnaman
These were great to reread for a few long car rides. Light, easy to listen, not a problem if I float out of attention since I already know what happens. I think I might be wearing a bit thin on these, as I didn’t enjoy them this much as I did on a reread. However, my brain has been humming with ideas for an original campaign. That’ll be at least a year out though (we’re finishing up a Blades in the Dark campaign, and then will play some Pathfinder). I’m also having some conflicting views about the ways the property has been changing since it got breakout success. Obviously very happy for Dinnaman; we love to see indie authors getting recognition. However, when a series that rails against the dangers of capitalism starts having official blind-bag randomized merch, I can’t help but feel that it’s becoming more and more like the very thing it is critiquing.
Guardian by Priest
This was my first Danmei book, and it was tough figuring out how much of my likes/dislikes were applicable to Danmei as a whole, Priest’s writing style in particular, or things getting lost in translation. This series centers around a set of paranormal investigations, with our protagonist leading the unit. The writing felt choppy, with a whole lot overexplaining the nuances of every look exchanged between the cocky department head and the quiet professor with too many secrets. The plot development moved so rapidly that I never felt like the stakes for a situation were established before Priest resolved them. Finally, I disliked some of the presentation of gay men, which felt reminiscient of the reasons why I stopped reading most Yaoi manga. I’d like to try other Danmei, and I didn’t actively dislike reading this, but I felt no desire to keep going after finishing the first volumen.
The Hollow and the Haunted by Camilla Raines
This was a YA romance between two rival families of psychics and mediums. Very Romeo and Juliet, but they see Juliet dying in a vision of the future and try to stop it (and the love story is a slower burn). I left this one without much to say; it was good for a long car ride, but it just felt very basic to me. The best part was how the asshole love interest kind of stayed a prententious prick, but I kept getting torn out by a very formulaic approach to YA Urban Fantasy Romance, complete with a rant to a mother who never listens because neither of them would shut up enough to establish the basic facts of a situation. The best part was the female cousin (who sort of functioned as a sister, as the two families lived together), who was a breath of fresh air amongst a sea of tropes I’ve seen done a million times before.
Summer Shadows by John Harris Dunning
A vampiric horror novel set on the Greek coast. I thought this story was fine for something that only took an hour or two to read, but I struggled with inconsistent art quality and a choppy plot. Too much going on for its page count, which lead to everything feeling rushed and underdeveloped, as this wants to be part horror, part mystery, part romance. When the unnaturally beautiful vampire character art works though, it was really delightful. White Lotus meets Dracula, I suppose.
God Country by Donny Cates
An elderly man with severe Alzheimer’s gets healed when the God of Swords lands in his hands. The other gods want the sword back. In theory, I think this comic was supposed to be about legacies and knowing when it’s time to let go. However, any depth or meaning got consumed by a series of fights of intense cosmic power. This was a reminder of how much better (in general) manga choreographs fights compared to the American comic scene. In the end, this ended up being ‘just fine’ in a lot of ways, but good in none. I think I’d only actively recommend it in very specific cases, probably relating to elderly protagonists in action comics.
Bingo Check In
It took me three months to finish the Achillean card for the r/fantasy bingo challenge. I’m not 100% happy with it, and I’m very much considering it a draft. Works of Vermin is phenomenal, but probably not gay enough for me to want it on this list, and there’s several three star reads that I’d like to replace as the year goes on. I’m shifting to novellas for July though, so not much progress will be made on improving that one.
I also am in good shape for my Comics card! I planned on hitting most of these over the winter, but I actually read quite a few comics this month. Monkey Meat is the big highlight here, and I’m definitely going to be reading more from Juni Ba.
Points of Interest from Around the Internet
R/Fantasy’s Pride Month, of course! Here’s the link to the announcement and discussions, but I was especially proud of an AMA with some of my favorite authors.
I’m also late to the party on the Queer Liberation Library, which apparently has been awesome for a long time now. I love libraries, but this one seems especially wonderful.
Ever since I got my genre fiction students hooked on Isabel Kim’s short stories, they (and I) have been waiting patiently for a full novel. There’s been lots of good press for Sublimation, but One Mike to Read Them All’s short and glowing review pushed me over the edge to throw it in my shopping cart. Maybe I start teaching more Kim stories in my next genre fiction elective.
Philosophically and ethically thorny stories are a love of mine, and Quill to Live has successfully convinced me that Pulling the Wings off Angels is worth my time.
I’ve been trying to spend less time on the internet, but it has successfully convinced me that, unless initial reviews are horrid, I’ll be playing Corsair Cove as my summer video game. A pirate cove townbuilding game where you build on cliffs!
Daedalus is Dead was already on the list of novellas I wanted to read in July, but hearing from The Bibliophibian that it pushes an unreliable narrator definitely pushes it up my list.
DNFs
An Accident of Dragons by Cheri Rodke – This was one of my most anticipated books of the year! It looked like such a different take on a lighter fantasy story. Unfortunately, the utter lack of urgency for our lead character to find his elementary-aged daughter who got kidnapped was tension sapping. Some other weirdness that was off-putting, but that was the big one I couldn’t overlook.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett – Just not enough in the first 20 minutes to make we want to keep listening, especially when another audiobook hold I was more excited for came up.
Bad month for cozy fantasy. Maybe it really just isn’t quite my vibe? I don’t mind slice of life, but things marketed intentionally as cozy have been stories that I’ve bounced off of recently.
Upcoming Reads
July is going to be a bundle of novellas for me. Reading one per day is going to be pretty intense for me, but I’m excited for it! Here are some of the ones I anticipate getting to in the first week or two.
Marked for Plot 