Falling Free (Lois McMaster Bujold, 1987) is a sci-fi adventure novel set on-board a floating space habitat called, er, the Habitat. Leo Graf, master safety engineer, comes to the Habitat to teach a group of a thousand genetically-modified humans known as “quaddies”, conceived in a uterus replacement machine and born on the Habitat. The quaddies defining characteristic is their lack of legs: In their place, they have another set of arms. Continue reading
The Glass Magician (Charlie N. Holmberg, 2014) is the sequel to Holmberg’s novel The Paper Magician. Again starring Ceony Twill, apprentice Folder, the novel follows the cat-and-mouse chase between Ceony and a pair of powerful, evil magicians that she wronged during the course of the first adventure. As this is a sequel, the gentle reader of this review must prepare themselves: There will be unmarked spoilers for the first novel, The Paper Magician! Continue reading
The Paper Magician (Charlie N. Holmberg, 2014) is a magical fantasy young adult novel set in a Victorian-era world where magic can be taught to those with potential, and each magician is bound to a particular man-made material that they choose. Well, they normally get their own choice of material, but England is suffering a dearth of Folders — paper magicians — and recent magical school graduate Ceony Twill is unfortunate: She is to forgo her goal of becoming a Smelter, and take up paper in the name of Queen and country. What a dreadful business! Continue reading
The Last Wish (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1992) is a high fantasy adventure novel set in a world of dark twisted fairy tales, where monsters roam and professional killers known as witchers are hired by townspeople to keep the evil in check.