Books Tagged "fantasy"

Eisenhorn: the Omnibus Edition

by Dan Abnett

This is a massive collection of 4 novels and 4 short stories about Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

  • “Regia Occulta”
  • Xenos
  • “Missing in Action”
  • Malleus
  • “Backcloth for a Crown Additional”
  • Hereticus
  • “The Keeler Image”
  • The Magos

I’ve never played Warhammer and this was my first encounter with the universe. The gist is that in the 41st century human scientific and social progress have ceased, humanity is united under a god-emperor, and humankind is fighting for survival against alien and occult forces.

It’s a pretty great setting, and these stories are a good read.

Of the novels, I thought The Magos was far and away the best. Although it is also the odd one out—the only story not told primarily from Eisenhorn’s first-person perspective. If you wanted to just dip your toe into this series to see if you like it, I would start with The Magos, and if you enjoy it, get the omnibus and start at the beginning. (Even though The Magos comes last in the timeline, I don’t think it spoils anything about the other stories.)

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

by David Mitchell

The page-turner-ness of this book is a bell curve. The first half is a slow-moving introduction. The next third or so is a riveting samurai movie in novel form. The rest is predictable but satisfying.

I was ready to give up in the first half, but I’m mostly glad I stuck with it to the end.

Gunmetal Gods

by Zamil Akhtar

An epic fantasy twist on the Crusades, with masked magi, angels right out of Revelation (think lots of extra eyes and wings), and a healthy dose of Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones.

I didn’t devour it, but I really enjoyed it and I’m starting the second book in the series right … now.

The Golden Enclaves

by Naomi Novik

El is basically goth Harry Potter, and in the third Scholomance book she has to solve the mystery of her boyfriend, the Scholomance itself, and the wizards’ enclaves in the void. Meanwhile, someone is destroying enclaves …

I still love these books. I don’t know if there will be a fourth one, but if there is I’ll read it!

The Empress of Time

by Kylie Lee Baker

The Japanese goddess of death suffers from a crippling inferiority complex. And the British goddess of death is coming to kill her and take her crown.

I didn’t like Ren as much in this book. She’s one of those protagonists who keeps making the same obvious mistakes over and over again, ostensibly because she has issues but definitely also because the story needs to end with her personal transformation. It’s frustrating to read. But hey, real people are sometimes like that, and it’s just as frustrating to be around them.

I still liked it.

The Rising

by Ian Tregillis

The three-sided conflict comes to a head. The Dutch threaten to wipe the French from the face of the New World. The French try not to let them. And a new Clakker threat emerges from the frozen north.

Plus a bit of philosophizing on the nature of souls and free will. But less than in the first book; this is more a straight-up save-the-world adventure. I enjoyed it, if not quite as much as the first book. But like Empire Strikes Back, it’s clearly a connector to the finale, which I will be starting … now.

The Mechanical

by Ian Tregillis

Artificial intelligence, but with alchemical robots—Clakkers—instead of computerized ones. Instead of enslaving Africans to build the New World, the Dutch use alchemy to create mechanical slaves and take over Europe, driving the French into exile in their North American territories. French catholics who believe Clakkers have souls help rogue Clakkers escape on the ondergrondse grachten, the “underground canals.” New France barely survives by wielding advanced chemical weapons and defenses.

With plenty of references to the actual colonial history of North America, this is fundamentally an adventure story about a Clakker fugitive from injustice, a French spymaster’s quest to restore her country, and a French agent forced to betray his conscience and country. I liked it a lot, and I’ll start reading the next book in the series right away.

(Ian Tregillis’s other series, The Milkweed Triptych, is also a creative alternative-history series, about Nazis super-soldiers during World War II.)