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Book Haul Glasgow World Con part 1
Well, I've written about my general world con experience but a good portion of the time I was there for the books. I picked up a wide array of titles from indies, small press and trad publishers. So let's run through what got picked up.
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Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect with this. I was won over by Heather Fawcett’s promise of Faeries (spelt the way I like too). Emily Wilde is a scholar. An expert in the Fae and her life’s work has been the compiling of her Encyclopedia. The novel takes the form of her journal with footnotes included. This, the first in what I hope will become a series details Emily’s expedition to study the folk of Ljosland. She is single-minded when it comes to her research, hyperfocusing on her studies. Her rival at Cambridge is the effortlessly successful Wendell Bambleby. Where Emily is methodical and diligent with her eyes on…
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Review: The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
The Witch and the Tsar is perfect winter reading and I enjoyed it very much. Set in the Russia of Ivan the Terrible. He is the Tsar that the witch Yaga is pitched against in the title. This folklore retelling of Baba Yaga mythos is engaging and dramatic. If you’ve been reading my reviews you know I have a soft spot for feminst retellings of traditionally vilified women characters and The Witch and the Tsar does this really well. Yaga is a demi god, daughter of Mokosh. She is a Vedmar (witch) a healer and midwife she travels from place to place. Until she is called out in this christianised…
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Book post squee
Today has been long train delays and fixing stuff but I came home to some delightful book post from Orbit UK. How lovely does Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies look? If I’m honest I was smitten with the title. If ever there was a book for Unicorn towers it’s this one. Review will be out in the new year but I had to share the pretty.
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Review: The Silver Tide by Jen Williams
Trilogies are tricky things to work properly they should do more than simply be one long story there should be themes that ebb and flow. Narratives which build and peak and then build again. I usually count myself lucky if the trilogy I read is three decent books which hold together well. And then there’s Jen William’s Copper Cat trilogy which I am so deeply in love with right now it is a little bit obscene.
