Historical Fantasy – Marked for Plot

Novella Readathon #9: Psychopomp and Circumstance

Eden Royce has one of my favorite Middle Grade books of all time (shout out to Root Magic!), and I’d been excited to pick up one of her adult works. Unfortunately, I didn’t find Psychopomp and Circumstance nearly as compelling as I hoped. There are a lot of individual pieces that worked, and certainly it’s exploring an uncommon time period for genre fiction (The Reconstruction Era of the US). There’s enough appeal here for me to recommend it when relevant, but not enough that I’ll be launching any campaigns for other people to pick it up for more general recommendation requests.

The Premise:
Phee is 21, navigating a mother trying to marry her off and a father who doesn’t trust her with any real work at the distillery. When she learns of her Aunt passing away, she agrees to Pomp for her Homecoming. Aunt Cleo was cast out from the family at her own mother’s Homecoming. Phee has fond memories of her, and she kept up a correspondence with Cleo despite her mother’s wishes for distance. Grieving and regretting her choice not to spend more time with he Aunt, Phee visits the odd community her Aunt founded, a home that isn’t hers, and the knowledge that she needs to prepare a proper send-off to honor her Aunt Cleo’s memory and spirit.

Read If Looking For: Historical Fantasy with Gaslamp aesthetics, the fog of light amnesia after a nap, doors without handles, themes of family and community

Avoid If Looking For: good parents, focused narratives

Comparable Media: Witchmark, The Gilded Age (Peggy only)

Japanese Gothic – Time Travel Behind the Sword Ferns

I knew very quickly that this was a new release I wanted to carve out time for. As much as I don’t love derivative naming conventions, I loved Mexican Gothic and had high hopes for Japanese Gothic. Ironically, they are very different types of Gothic fiction, and I don’t think this book references the style of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s at all. Considering this one is getting a good amount of buzz, I think you can expect to see more [Country] Gothic titles in the future. It’s a shame, because I think Japanese Gothic stands on its own two feet as a really delightful horror story, even if not every element worked for me.

The Premise:
Lee is a college student who fled to Japan after murdering his roommate. His father lives in an old Samurai house with a rotating cast of short-term Japanese girlfriends. Meanwhile, Sen is the son of a disgraced Samurai in the late 1800s, and she desperately wants to live the path of the warrior and live up to her father’s hopes. The world has moved past Samurai, however, and she knows her father’s living breath is a testament to his cowardice, which he takes out on Sen. These two protagonists discover that they can communicate through time. Lee hopes that Sen – obviously a ghost – can give him insight into how he can find the mother who was kidnapped when he was a child. Sen hopes to find details of her family’s fate, for she would do anything to protect them.

Read If You Like: paranormal time travel, historical settings, turtle myths, a creeping sense of unmooring from reality, psychological horror

Avoid If You Dislike: abusive families, unreliable narrators, dead animals, descriptions that feel claustrophobic

Call And Response – An Anthology of Duets

Call and Response is a fairly new anthology of short stories by Christopher Caldwell built around a delightful premise: what if each story comes in a pair? In Call, Caldwell introduces characters and worlds, only to return to them in Response. Sometimes these appearances are small cameos, other times they are directs sequels. Call and Response is unapologetically black and queer, with several stories sneaking semi-autobiographical details into the fantastic. This collection won’t satisfy those seeking the tight research of Ted Chiang or the experimental forms of Isabel Kim. However, Caldwell’s stories are candid, intense, and thoughtful. I’d love to see what he can do with a full novel.

Read If Looking For: stories of black resilience and rebellion, diverse representations of queerness, aquatic motifs

Avoid If Looking For: experiments in form or structure, answers to broken systems, unambiguous endings

Comparable Media: Convergence Problems, The Fox Roads, Ivy Angelica Bay

To Ride a Rising Storm – No Middle Book Slump Here

I have been waiting for this sequel for a long time (and waited longer because the Library hold time was so long!). I read To Shape a Dragon’s Breath before I started this blog and loved it for … so many reasons. For those who haven’t read that book, go read it now if you have any interest in a slice of life story interested in exploring indigenous takes on classic fantasy concepts, nuanced and rigorous depictions of racism in many forms, and a rambunctious dragon hatchling with quills!

For those who have read To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, the TLDR of this review is that your feelings about Book 2 will probably be the exact same as Book 1. If you disliked the first, this won’t win you back. If you liked it, you’ll find this book to be a feast.

The Premise:
Anequs’s world continues to shift. As she prepares for her second year at Kuiper’s Academy – which she plans to be her last – she begins to come to terms with the impact her fame and position have on her homeland. Her home has far more eyes on it than ever before, she can’t properly talk about her romantic intentions with either Theod or Liberty, and Kasaqua is big enough that she can’t fit in buildings anymore. She also faces rising discontent from the white nationalist political faction, comforting her friends whose struggles she doesn’t understand at all, and a variety of new faces at school.

Read If Looking For: when the leopards came to eat their faces, characters who don’t always get it right but own up to it, tough conversations between characters you love

Avoid If Looking For: lots of dragon riding, easy victories for the main character, one dimensional characters

The Red Winter -A Bloody Debut

Are werewolves going to be a theme of 2026 for me? This is the second book in as many months that did some really interesting things with werewolves in historical France (read this for more straightforward and readable style, or try The Wolf and His King for a more bespoke experience). My partner and I are watching the Twilight films for some fun date night mockery. I really want to read The Devourers by Indra Das soon. Werewolves just seem to be everywhere in my life right now.

If you’re interested in a werewolf story that focuses on hunting one down and killing it, this is your jam. No werewolves were kissed in the reading of this book, and they spend most of their time ripping the hearts out of any living thing they can find. I actually think that a good comparison point for this story is The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, but darker and geared towards adults. The Red Winter is one of the most competently-written debut novels I’ve picked up recently, and I’m excited to read more by Sullivan in the future.

The Premise:
Sebastian was granted immortality when he bonded with Sarmondel, his demonic Guest. This book him reminiscing about his time in France in the 1700s. One storyline follows him joining a large hunt for a monstrous beast ravaging the countryside, falling in love with the young lord Antoine along the way. Another is set 20 years later as he is summoned by Antoine’s son to kill the beast that returned to ravage the countryside. The final storyline is told by Livia, Sebastian’s succubus slave, as she investigates the supernatural oddity that is Joan of Arc. At the center of all three storylines is the Warfather, Ares, Mars, whom Sebastian’s Guest hopes to feast upon.

Read If Looking For: brisk narration, a trail of bloody bodies, snarky footnotes, religious zealotry

Avoid If Looking For: deep characterization, romantasy, impactful female characters

Comparable Media: The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obafulon, These Burning Stars

Barbalien: Red Planet – An Optimistic Story set in a Tragic Past

It’s unsurprising that the AIDS epidemic has been notably absent from Fantasy and Science fiction novels. There are lots of reasons for this: many read for escapism, the 80s/90s isn’t a common time period for fantasy or science fiction in general, and AIDS doesn’t fit neatly into the cute love story narrative that traditional publishers have historically leaned on when writing books about gay men. Things are improving – traditionally published trans protagonists exist, though they’re still rare – and there are a few novels that have tackled the idea (though I couldn’t bring myself to keep reading the train wreck that was Disco Witches of Fire Island). I live in hope, but my hopes aren’t very high.

Comics have actually done a much better job of engaging with the topic, though not always well. I got to teach a few lessons on the representation of AIDS in superhero comics a few years ago, and I’m hoping I’ll have the chance to expand it into a full unit soon. Barbalien was part of that journey, and a great example of how mainstream comics have evolved on the issue over 30 years. Barbalien is set in the The World of Black Hammer, a superheroverse more or less analogous to DC or Marvel. You really don’t need any previous context for the story, so don’t feel like you need to jump in ‘at the start’ if you aren’t interested in the cute and satirical set of villain interviews that form the universe’s first installment. Barbalien is a more serious story, but not so bleak as to suffer accusations of torture porn.

Finally, it’s important to note that while Jeff Lemire seems to be listed as the main author, the story is a collaboration between him and Tate Brombal. The actual script (dialogue, panel by panel story descriptions, etc) is all Brombal, an openly gay comic writer.

The Premise
Mark Markz is from Mars. When masquerading as a human, he works as a cop trying to do good. When openly martian, he fights crime as Barbalien. When both personas are needed at an AIDS protest, Mark comes into contact with Miguel, a young activist whose partner recently died of AIDS. As they fall in love, Mark grapples with his growing realization of how the system he works for is a force of oppression, finds connections in the queer underground, and is hunted by a rival from Mars.

Read If Looking For: queer joy, queer pain, and queer love

Avoid If Looking For: sympathetic cops, cinematic fight scenes, fleshed out supporting characters

The Wolf and His King – Dripping with Intentionality

This book was a match made in heaven for me. Queer yearning? Check. Unconventional and bespoke prose? Check. Thematic depth without being preachy? Check. The Wolf and His King I’ve read in a long time. I didn’t love how they tackled writing the ending, but The Wolf and His King is a book I will be happily shoving into the hands of my friends.

As a note, those looking for a traditional Romantasy story will be disappointed. There are absolutely romantic elements to the tale, but you won’t find the story focusing on Bisclavret and the King’s developing relationship. The book is more interested in each of their personal journeys, despite their mutual affection for each other. Like other books that are sort-of-technically Romances that don’t read like most books in the genre, The Wolf and His King is best viewed as a book that happens to include some romance elements, which I think will help temper some misplaced expectations based on how the book has been pitched.

The Premise
Bisclavret lives in a self-imposed exile. He turns into a wolf against his will, and fears that venturing to court will put himself and others in danger. When the King dies and the new King returns from his own exile though, Bisclavret has no choice to but venture forth and swear fealty to the King. The King, meanwhile, is awash with self-doubt and a search for meaning about what type of King he’d like to be. He is taken immediately with Bisclavret, and the two form a close bond while each struggles to find a good path forward with their life. And the Wolf? The Wolf is always present, waiting to come out.

Read If Looking For: dreamlike prose, characters exploring their own self-doubt, a marriage of theme and structure

Avoid If Looking For: critical examinations of monarchies, fleshed out female characters, leads who are proactive

Comparable Media: Song of Achilles, This is How You Lose the Time War, Spear (by Nicola Griffith)

Make me No Grave

A book in post Civil War Kansas with flesh witches and other weird shit? Sign me up! I’m the child of a Kansas historian, and don’t think I’ve ever really read a speculative fiction book set in my home state. I left for a reason and never want to live there again, but it also holds a very special place in my heart. This book didn’t quite scratch that historical itch, though, and now I want to read more stuff set in Kansas.

The Premise:
Apostle is a Marshall with a rigid sense of morality. He gets shot while trying to protect Almena ‘The Grizzly Queen’ from a pre-judicial killing, only to find himself still alive due to her flesh magic. The two end up crossing paths again in the future as she claims another woman has claimed her name and is committing atrocities in her name. Almena has her own secrets, and she’d like some help clearing her name of the crimes she didn’t commit.

Read if Looking For: headstrong characters, straightforward writing, shootouts

Avoid if Looking For: Weird West that’s heavy on the Weird, thematically rich texts, diverse protagonists

Shirewode

December this year has, apparently, been the month of mildly disappointing sequels. If you’d like to see my review of book 1 in this take on gay Robin Hood, see Greenwode. It lost a lot of the things that made it interesting, rehashed old ground, and didn’t succeed in raising the stakes of book 1 in a satisfying way. Just frustrating all-around. I think it’s a good recommendation for people who want fantasy gay yearning, but I needed the series to move past that.

You would think from this cover art that archery and action were going to be at least a little more prominent in this book? Too bad! Think again!

If you loved and wanted more of the ‘enemies by fate and religion’ vibes in book 1, you may like this one a lot more than I did. It remains the focal point of the series.

The Premise:
Book 1 ended pretty tragically. Gamelyn thinks his first love is dead. Rob thinks his first love betrayed him and is responsible for the death’s of his parents and sister. The Abbess and Sherriff are just generally horrible people. Book 2 picks up several years later as Gamelyn returns from his time in the Crusades as a Templar. Meanwhile Rob is finally the bandit we all knew he’d become. Gamelyn is assigned to hunt down the false pretender to the pagan god’s power by the Templars, not realizing the love of his life is actually alive and the very man he’s hunting. Meanwhile, Rob’s sister Marion is also alive, has amnesia, and is the kept pet of the evil Abbess.

Dark Rise

For me, C.S. Pacat has been a relatively no-brainer author for me. Their works are rarely perfect, but have consistently captivated me. Some are ruthless and full of content warning-worthy topics (Captive Prince), and others are overdramatic sports comics about a bunch of queer teens in a fencing club. Dark Rise seemed like a natural book that I’d love. However, I found it extraordinarily lacking compared to Pacat’s other works, and I struggled a lot with this one.

The Premise
In the midst of London’s industrial revolution, the Dark King is about to rise once more, ready to destroy the world. Will is the descendent of the Dark King’s only real foe, and is humanity’s only hope. Violet is a younger sister to an influential paladin for the Dark King’s cause. Together, they join with a mysterious organization called The Stewards, who are committed to keeping the Dark King from rising.

Read if Looking For: books with stereotypical emo haircuts, evil vs good as a core motif, YA that flirts with BDSM subtext, YA fantasy tropes of the 2020s

Avoid if Looking for: books that do more than set up a sequel, female viewpoint characters who have the same main character energy as the males, well-adjusted romance plotlines