Babel by R.F. Kuang This book has magic in it, but it’s not a fantasy book so much as a historical fiction about the intersection of identity and 19th century British Colonialism. Most of the book takes place at Oxford, and carries the to-me delightful conceit that magic relies on the existence of those ineffable …
Tag: Britain
Dec 30
Book Review – The Summer Before the War
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson Silly me for thinking that this book would be a lighthearted and feel-good romance in the same vein as Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. Simonson draws the time and place so well that one cannot imagine living in that time and place with anything other than a sense …
Aug 09
Book Review: A Far Cry from Kensington
A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark I’d never read anything or heard anything about this author, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I don’t always like to read stories about female protagonists set in historical periods, because it often fills me with feminist rage, but Mrs. Hawkins manages to live in the …
Jun 07
Book Review: In the Labyrinth of Drakes
In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan If this novel had been the same strength as the third one, I would not be eagerly anticipating book #5, but this novel really kicked it up a notch. Politics play a much larger role in this novel, as Lady Trent and Tom Wilkins work with the …
May 28
Book Review: Ruby Red
Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier I thought I’d grown tired of YA fantasy, but apparently I can be wooed back into the fold with time travelers. I got this as an audiobook, and was drawn in by the narrator’s depiction of an average modern British teen who just happens to see ghosts and have a …
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