Category Archives: Culture

Reading Well: Burntcoat by Sarah Hall

Posted on February 3, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Y’all know I love me some Sarah Hall (see my writeups of Daughters of the North, The Electric Michelangelo, The Wolf Border, and her short story collection, Madame Zero). 2021’s Burntcoat is no exception for me. This book is likely … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Posted on January 27, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

There are so many sub-genres out there … The Goblin Emperor (2014) by Katherine Addison is clear fantasy, set in a world of elves, goblins, and mixed offspring of the two. But it is what might be called something like … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Posted on January 13, 2023 by Daniel (@MKNN)

T.J. Klune‘s The House in the Cerulean Sea is, through and through, a very sweet novel. That’s not an adjective often used in fantasy writing, and even less so as you move out of the explicitly YA entries. So it’s … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Daniel (@MKNN)

After Never Let Me Go, Klara and the Sun (2021) is the second novel by Kazuo Ishiguro exploring the relationship between humanity and technology. The titular Klara in the novel is a highly sophisticated robot, and the novel traces their … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Daniel (@MKNN)

There’s something incredibly impressive and incredibly satisfying about a well-done trilogy. Even the most skilled of authors run the risk of either fading at the end, or proving unable to contain themselves, and seeing the work either feel incomplete or … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Ember in the Ashes Quadrology by Sabaa Tahir

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Yep, I’ve been quiet on here long enough to read all four of these … Sabaa Tahir‘s debut novel, An Ember in the Ashes (2015), starts the series, and is followed by A Torch in the Night (2016), A Reaper … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse

Posted on November 17, 2022 by Daniel (@MKNN)

{ Am in catchup mode here for a while, and am trying to change some of what these contain. We’ll see how it goes. } Storm of Locusts (2019) completes the story Rebecca Roanhorse began in Trail of Lightning, and … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

Posted on September 6, 2022 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Y’all know I love me some Helen Oyeyemi (surprisingly, Ginger Bread is the only of her novels I’ve written up here). Her 2014 novel, Boy, Snow, Bird is, I think, among her best, mixing her evocative language, her leanings toward … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Posted on August 26, 2022 by Daniel (@MKNN)

There are two competing reactions to Ocean Vuong‘s 2019 memoir, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. The first is that Vuong is a stunning writer, as in one whose sentences and paragraphs can literally stun you, making you look up from … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Kingdom of Copper & The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Daniel (@MKNN)

I enjoyed S.A. Chakraborty‘s opening novel of this trilogy, The City of Brass, and the second (The Kingdom of Copper; 2019) and third (The Empire of Gold; 2020) were satisfyingly more of the same. There’s not a lot to say … Continue reading →

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