Author Archives: Daniel (@MKNN)

Reading Well: The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

Posted on January 9, 2024 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Christopher Buehlman‘s The Blacktongue Thief (2021) is, simply, the best swashbuckling fantasy novel I’ve read in years. In some ways, that’s it: perhaps Reading Well should move to being one sentence reviews. The protagonist lives right in the middle of … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Illuminations by Alan Moore

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

I was so excited for a new collection of short stories by Alan Moore … Some background may be useful: Moore was a relatively significant figure in my academic work for a few reasons. First, the formal structure of graphic … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

Posted on August 16, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

You would think a fantasy/ steampunk detective story with multiple strong female leads set in an alternate history where Cairo is the most powerful city in the world in the early 20th century would be right up my alley. Somehow, … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

2017’s An Unkindness of Ghosts is my first foray into Rivers Solomon‘s work. It is a story of resistance against oppression, explicitly seen through the dual lenses of class and race, all set on a ship hurtling through space on … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

Posted on July 18, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Zen Cho‘s Black Water Sister (2021) does three things exceptionally well. First, it captures a contemporary young, female protagonist with care, detail, and empathy. Born in Malaysia, but raised in the United States, she has now returned to Malaysia with … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Posted on April 25, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The Norse myths are a rich source of inspiration, so much so that they have been done poorly far more often than they have been done well (see Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology for an example of a deeply faithful example … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Susanna Clarke‘s Piranesi (2020) is a quirky, engaging novel. Part whodunnit, part meditation on mental health, the novel follows its protagonist through an alternate space, a massive mansion containing a nearly infinite network of rooms, situated by a shattered seaside. … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Posted on April 11, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

We’re back with some more Helen Oyeyemi (see Boy, Snow, Bird and Ginger Bread) with 2009’s White is for Witching as I move throug the rest of her output (some of which I read before I started these little web … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Jade City by Fonda Lee

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

One of the beautiful and frustrating things about genre writing is that a single magnificent idea can carry an entire work. For me, such is the case with Jade City (2017) by Fonda Lee. The setting is a pseudo-Asian metropolis, … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

Posted on February 17, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Sofia Samatar‘s A Stranger in Olondria (2013) stands out most of all for its literaryness, it you’ll allow the word. This is a fantasy novel that reads more like historical fiction, like a finely detailed account of lives lived a … Continue reading →

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