Was really glad this 2nd book didn't start off with 8 hours of boring infodumps and mundane activities around the castle, but Mr. Williams still managed to write a story with twice the words needed. Luckily when the story was actually moving it was great. For me this could have gotten 5 stars from me if it did either of these things. 1) Cut the book length by 30-40% by leaving out the repetitive infodumps, cutting really long scenes in half, especially the long conversations, and dropping at least half of the parts where Simon is beating himself up for being a loser. OR 2) Replaced those parts mentioned above with things actually happening. Seriously I think if I was reading these books in dead tree format, I would have given up somewhere around 150 pages in. I don't regret spending the time reading it because I was doing other things like driving or gardening, but I'm much more stingy with my actual sit-down-and-do-only-one-thing time.

Book #11 (2026)

Review in pic and alt-text

#StoneOfFarwell #TadWilliams #fantasy #bookskyfantasy

I gave the first book in this series 3 out of 5 stars because I thought the first 20 hours or so were boring, but the last 10 were great. This one was just great all the way through. Really cool setup, great characters and lots of political intrigue with more magic being constantly added. The narrator is really great too if you're doing the audio. At this point in the series, each member of the royal family is participating in some kind of adventure and the queen's story just keeps getting darker. The good guys seem to be in real trouble, so I'm very curious how good will conquer evil, or not.

Book #7 (2026)
The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham

Review in pic and alt-text.

#TheOtherLands #DavidAnthonyDurham #fantasy #fantasybooksky #bookskyfantasy

So this was something different. I'm not as much into the meta/story about stories idea and definitely not a fan of kids hanging out at a strange school setting, but a fan of morbid children, and the dialogue was great. Also loved the "compass/map" idea about fantasy worlds. I was a little worried that this was going to be YA, but it gets mature pretty quickly. I was really sad that my favorite character was the first do die in this multiple-murder mystery, since the 2nd book looks like it's a prequel, I'm hoping that character also gets a prequel story. When I finished this I was thinking I wasn't going to continue the series, but then I read the synopsis for the 2nd book and that changed my mind.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Book #5 (2026)
3.5 out of 5 Stars

Review in pic and alt-text.

#fantasy #fantasybooksky #bookskyfantasy #EveryHeartADoorway #SeananMcGuire #WaywardChildren

I've been looking at the cover of this book for probably 30 years or more at bookstores across the country. I think the size of the book kept me from buying it all those years. But this year I promised myself that I would take on some bigger books, on audio and these are all available on Libby so I went for it. Clocking in at just over 33 hours, this was the longest book on my audio wishlist. Unfortunately, I feel like it could have been 20 hours and been much better. The first 8 hours or so are just a kid running around the castle and a bunch of info-dumps. Then, finally, the adventure starts. So this definitely loses points for taking the length of a short novel just to get moving. Next it loses points for just taking Norse mythology and Catholicism and just tweaking them a little bit (changing names slightly) and calling it a fantasy world. This is the worst option in my opinion, with the best option being make up your own stuff, the next best being use existing myth. Just calling Odin, Udon and acting like it's something you made up is just dumb. Once the adventure started it was really fun. Lots of characters, cool bad guys, mysterious fae, Binibik is definitely my favorite character. Simon is okay, though I can't stand "reluctant heroes" and he dips into that sometimes. I'm expecting the 2nd book to be much better because it won't have 8 hours of world building at the beginning.

The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Book #4 for 2026
3 out of 5 Stars

Review in pic and alt-text.

#dragonbonechair #tadwilliams #fantasybooksky #bookskyfantasy #fantasy

I've played D&D for almost 50 years, but I haven't played Eberron and didn't really know much about it (even thought I probably have 2 or 3 Eberron source books). It always sounded really cool to me, I just never got around to it. That, along with wanting to read something that was magic and action heavy, brought me to pick this up at a local used store. It wasn't bad. The places they explored were cool, the action was awesome, lots of magic, and the halfling and elves, races you usually think of as "goody-two-shoes", where fierce, which I loved. Unfortunately, the plot was pretty standard, and the characters were pretty flat except for Nyam who was fun sometimes. The book wrapped up well, I was a little worried about a cliffhanger ending.

The Crimson Talisman by Adrian Cole.
Book #2 (2026)
3 out of 5 stars

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#eberron #TheCrimsonTalisman #TheWarTorn #fantasybooksky #bookskyfantasy

I found this very confusing and really had no idea what happened until I had an AI create a summary for me after I finished. Part of it was definitely that I must have missed the part where the story changed narrators, because at some point I didn't understand who the narrator was and that lasted most of the story. But also those descriptions of items at the beginnings of chapters made no sense to me. The writing was beautiful, but I started to think, "is this what they call 'cozy', just people talking and kind of hanging out, not much happening?" I've never read any cozy fantasy books, so maybe I'm completely wrong. So I'm giving this 3-stars because the summary made it sound like the story was really interesting and the writing was nice, it just wasn't written in a way that I could understand.

Book #59 for 2025
3 out of 5 Stars

Review in pic and alt-text

#TheEmpressofSaltandFortune #NghiVo #fantasy #bookskyfantasy #TheSingingHillsCycle

I have a feeling that Adrian Tchaikovsky is going to become one of my favorite authors. So far I've only read a novel, a short story and now this novella, but all of them got a solid 4 stars and the novel almost got 5. The characters in this were great, the story was fun, and the world was cool. And then the showoff had to go ahead and do a great job of narrating his own story. Possibly a true renaissance man we're dealing with here. Next thing you know we'll find out he draws his own covers and has written the music for the first screen adaptation of his books! Looking forward to reading much more from this master of his craft.

Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review in pic and alt-text.

#madethings #AdrianTchaikovsky #fantasy #bookskyfantasy

This reminded me a LOT of The Traitor God by Cameron Johnston. Decent, but not great characters, lots of magic and action, cool ideas, intrigue, all takes place in one city, lots of people dying, super powerful monsters/gods. Would love to read more like this but with more memorable characters.

The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
Book #55 for 2025, 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Review in pic and alt-text.

#fantasy #bookskyfantasy #thegutterprayer #GarethRyder-Hanrahan

This duology was definitely not as good as the original trilogy. There was no "main villain" until the last fourth of the book and then he wasn't interesting at all. There wasn't really any magic. The "little people can save the world" trope was used again, there just wasn't a whole lot to like here other than Samwise ... I mean Cotton. All that said, I am going to give the series at least one more try. I've read Dragondoom and it was a lot more recently than the others. I remember liking it a lot. I'll probably read "The Eye of the Hunter" because I have that one and it's the next book in chronological order.

Book #51 or 2025
2 out of 5 Stars

Review in pic and alt-text.

#DennisLMcKiernan #TheBregaPath #fantasy #bookskyfantasy

So ends the first Corum trilogy. I didn't like this one as much as the others. It seems like he got lazy with what could have been exciting/interesting battle scenes. I was disappointed that even though some of the other eternal champions incarnations made guest appearances they were treated like minor characters and not given much "personality", they didn't get the "epic-ness" that they deserved.

The King of the Swords by Michael Moorcock
2025: Book #49
2.5 out of 5 Stars

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#MichaelMoorcock #corum #EternalChampion #BookSkyFantasy #Swords&SorceryT

This was fun and gross and sometimes repetitive. I would honestly love to know the number of times the words shit, piss, urine and blood were used in this story. I get that it's grimdark and they want to set a gritty tone, but it was a bit much (for me at least). It was a cool idea and the characters were interesting. The parts with the demon were written in a poetic/stream of consciousness style that imo works better the shorter it is. As it was, it seemed to get very repetitive and if I wasn't listening to it on audio I probably would have skimmed it. I'll definitely be reading more Fletcher and Spark to see if I like their longer work.

In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael R. Fletcher, Anna Smith Spark
Book #48 for 2025
3.5 out of 5 Stars

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#fantasy #grimdark #bookskyfantasy #MichaelRFletcher #AnnaSmithSpark #InTheShadowOfTheirDying

I really enjoyed the Egil and Nix books from Kemp so I figured I'd give some of his other books a try. First, I read the short stories about this character Erevis Cale in some old Dragon magazines and then started with this book, though it sounds like there are others before this with him in them. When I was young I loved novels set in D&D worlds, but as I got older and older I found them disappointing more often than not. This was pretty good, but definitely didn't blow me away. The characters weren't loveable like Egil and Nix. It's much darker and more serious. I would say this is a step up from the last 4 or 5 D&D/RPG novels I've read in the past 10 years. This first book left things hanging after completing a major part of the story arch, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get back to it to find out what happens.

Twilight Falling by Paul S. Kemp
3 out of 5 stars

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#forgottenrealms #paulskemp #fantasy #bookskyfantasy #ereviscale

This one was a snoozer. It got good in the last half hour of the audiobook, but I have a feeling that the next book will be a lot of fun. I don't remember not liking it when I was young, but it's been many years so I probably wouldn't. It's mostly just that "over hill and dale" type writing that was the worst part of Tolkien's writing (IMO). When an author starts talking about a bunch of geography I just kind of tune out if it's more than a sentence, unless there's some cool history attached to it.

2025: Book #45
Trek to Kraggen-Cor (The Silver Call #1) by Dennis L. McKiernan

Review in pic and alt-text.

#fantasy #dennislmckiernan #mithgar #bookskyfantasy

Have you checked out Delve today?

Found it for the first time?

Catching up?

New post tomorrow.

Serial Fantasy Fiction, completely in post.

#booksky #fantasy #writingcommunity #mystery #bookskyfantasy

Did this one on audio and the narrator was great. The characters were all very colorful and the different voices helped bring them to life. I liked the science/fantasy world building a lot, but it seemed that often things got kind of surreal and I didn't really understand what was happening. I definitely want to check out the next book, but I'm hoping that it will make more sense. Also, there was too much telling brought on by a complex back story, so hoping that changes too.

2025: Book #44
3.5 out of 5 Stars

Review in pic and alt-text.

#scifi #fantasy #bookskyscifi #bookskyfantasy

And so it ends (again). I'm glad I waited 20+ years to read this series again, because I had completely forgotten just about everything. This fantasy siege was different than Donaldson's or Tolkien's because it was the good guys laying siege to the bad guys. I don't remember reading the Helmsdeep siege (just seeing it in the movie), but I thought the Donaldson "Siege of Revelstone" was definitely better than the siege of the Iron Tower, but it was still fun and not bad at all. I loved the last part of the book where he talks about the character's lives after the war. As usual there was a bit too much geography for me and I could do without ever hearing "they did not know" again, but overall I enjoyed listening to this again and it wasn't just the nostalgia. Since the next two are on audio I'll be checking those out sometime soon.

The Darkest Day by Dennis L. McKiernan
2025: Book #34 Audio
4 out of 5 Stars

Review in pic and Alt-text

#fantasy #bookskyfantasy #dennislmckiernan #fantasybooksky

The Followers of Eldon Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Aiden Cerik reluctantly accepted the Dorlandian crown after his father’s death, but in his heart, he would rather have spent his time riding the countryside...

It's here in audiobook. The Followers of Eldon has just landed. Order your copy today!!

www.audible.com/pd/B0FG3PW3N...

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This one almost got 2.5 stars for completely ripping off the balrog, the doors of Durin, Moria, and the Watcher in the Water, but then the hobbit revolt against the forces of evil was really great, so that pushed it back up to a 3. The book also suffered from Tolkien's "over hill and dale" writing style too, more action, less walking please.

2025: Book #22
Shadows of Doom by Dennis L. McKiernan
Audio - 10.5 hours
7 days to complete

Full review in pic and alt-text.

#fantasy #bookskyfantasy #booksky

First let me say that part of the reason I didn't enjoy this book much was the number of errors in the text. Mostly missing words and incorrect words. There were sprinkled liberally throughout the book and I was reading it out loud to my wife, so often would read part of sentence and crash, then say, "Oh it's missing a 'the' or "he must mean 'they' etc..." Sometimes there would be more than one on a page and it got very frustrating. From frustrating, let's move on to irritating. The author had a tendency to use the same word twice in a sentence and it just sounded awful every time. Like "The sharp sword cut sharply" (not an actual line from the book). There was definitely some nice writing in there and Cullion was a fun character, but it seemed like maybe a debut novel. Trudvang seems like a very cool setting for an RPG, but I don't feel like the author really brought it to life. It took a long time to get going and the ending was really strange, maybe leaving room for a sequel, but mostly just leaving us (me and my wife) confused.

Trudvang: Oathbreaker by Steven Savile

Review in pic and alt-text.

#bookskyfantasy #fantasy

I read these books back in the late 80's as a kid and loved them a lot. I didn't care that so much was copied from Lord of the Rings. I read all 5 books (and later Dragondoom) and even wrote a song for my band based on the books. I still have the paperbacks from back then and I've been thinking about giving them a reread (something I don't do often). I've been in the mood for some epic fantasy lately and so when I picked up a copy of "The Eye of the Hunter " AND found out all 3 of the original books were available on Hoopla, I decided to listen to them before reading "The Eye of the Hunter". It was a fun read, the races were the same as LotRs (with some different names), but the warrows (hobbits) were much more badass. There wasn't really a "fellowship" but there was a big bad guy from the past attacking with a horde of evil humanoids and a person he spoke through. Also there was a booming drum like in the Moria scene (Doom! Doom!). There was also a sword that detected bad guys. It really just seemed kind of linear and basic with lots of action. I did really start to like some of the characters though, so looking forward to reading the other books.

Book #18 for the year

Review in picture and alt-text.

#bookskyfantasy #fantasy #dennislmckiernan #lotr #mithgar

Get more from Valerie Lane Writing on Patreon Writing all things kinky and sweet

Hey #booksky if you are interested in more spicy writing than what you would find in a conventional book check out this patreon patreon.com/ValerieLaneW...

They are writing and on going spicy story with about 2 updates a week. #bookskyromance #bookskyfantasy #spicy #patreon #promtionsky

time to PLAY A GAME! :)

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move...
AND THEN DRAGONS ARRIVED!

#books #booklovers #dragonlovers #epicfantasy #epicfantasybooks #indieauthor #amreadingfantasy #booksky #bookskyfantasy

Hey, all I want to read something with a POC MC. Can I please get recommendations for fantasy or fiction books with romance, even a little romance in them, please? Even better if it's on audio. Thank you #booksky #bookskyfantasy #📚fantasy #bookskyromance #📚🎧booksky