Source: The Broken Binding

Mid-life aging, mercenary glory, and good old-fashioned cross-country adventures have never been as fun and easy to enjoy as Nicholas Eames’s Kings of the Wyld. DnD-style fantasy at its finest, this book nicely balances fast-paced action and humor with unexpectedly strong themes of family and brotherhood. Chaotic and intentionally silly when it wants to be, framed by serviceable worldbuilding and epic fantasy elements, this book is incredibly entertaining provided one isn’t opposed to fantasy “bro” style humor and tone. As far as book synopses go, Kings of the Wyld’s summary is spot on, what you see is what you get. Described as a story about the once mean, dirty, feared, and famous group/band, the members of Saga have since gone their separate ways, aged and dulled by time. The book’s story is roughly divided into two main narratives: the first consisting of Clay and his ex-bandmate Gabriel tracking down the other Saga members to convince them to join what appears to be a suicide mission to save Gabe’s daughter Rose, and their journey across the dangerous stretch of the continent called the Heartwyld to reach her. The overall story is relatively simple despite being set within a high fantasy world…

Paranormal dark ambiance, afterlife and lore-heavy epic fantasy framework, and resilient character-driven retribution all meet in Mark Lawrence’s Daughter of Crows, the first entry in the Academy of Kindness series. Featuring multiple timelines, POV, and narrators, Daughter of Crows is an ambitious and atmospheric read that isn’t for the faint of heart or casual readers, but is one that rewards patience and determination much like its elderly main character Rue and the many trials throughout her life. Though marketed as a dark academia adult novel, Daughter of Crows is a book that is truly dark and academy-based in only the simplest terms. There’s been a recent trend of endless academy trials and survival narratives lately across the fantasy genre that often feel repetitive and stale; this book is not one of those. Split across several timelines and narrators, the Academy of Kindness and its mix of training and trials play a major role in this story but is not the only focus. For better or for worse, this book utilizes the lost in the dark approach that drops the reader right in the middle of the story with little hand-holding to find their way. Early chapters are split between the…

There are many ways one could describe Matt Dinniman’s scifi novel Operation Bounce House, but what I’ve settled on is “refreshingly brilliant”. A self-contained standalone satirical epic that mixes Dinniman’s signature over-the-top absurdity with a lot heart, this book is what Dungeon Crawler Carl was to the LitRPG swapped for Apex Legends with parallel metaphors encompassing the political tension of the last several years. Despite having a premise that sounds like a fever dream on paper, Operation Bounce House is an excellent scifi book with a lot of depth and substance, easily one of my favorite reads of the last few years. At a first glance, Operation Bounce House is a book of seemingly endless contradictions that somehow works through sheer audacity and confidence. While its synopsis and book blurb has a lot going on, when stripped of its flashy styling and scifi jargon, the story is essentially one of government sanctioned genocide. If that is a turnoff, bear with me for a sec before throwing in the towel. Taking place on the distant planet of New Sonora, Oliver Lewis is one of many humble agricultural farmers whose ancestors several generations ago were sent as settlers to colonize the planet…

A beloved franchise set across various forms of media such as the recent Netflix adaptation and video-game franchise, surprisingly it’s been over a decade since Andrzej Sapkowski last touched the series himself. Crossroads of Ravens is a new novel serving as a sort of origin story for Geralt marketed as a sort-of kind-of standalone novel (more on that to come). Covering new narrative material somewhat separated from the rest of the books due to its chronological placement, Crossroads of Ravens is an excellent entry point for Witcher fans familiar with the show or video-games looking to get into the source material books which have their own style and approach to the otherwise familiar story. That said, I personally had zero experience with The Witcher in any form apart from 2nd hand exposure courtesy of my dad’s love for the Netflix show so I went into this book with zero familiarity with the IP as a true test of whether it can be enjoyed standalone. While certain aspects were very appealing, this book overall felt like a bit of a mixed bag, ironically my ignorance with the series being less of an issue compared to the novel’s written presentation. As previously…