Tag: Fantasy

dystopian, Fiction, literary fiction

Book Review – Ruins by Lily Brooks-Dalton

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”She wanted to be cared for and to care for no one. She wanted to have everything she needed and not be responsible for reciprocating any of it.”

Professor Ember Agni is trying to balance an unfulfilling career in academia and a crumbling marriage, all while pursuing her true passion: unearthing a lost empire that no one else believes existed. Just as she is about to give up on her ambitious expedition, a former student writes to her claiming to have found something extraordinary – an artifact that hints at the type of civilization that existed before humanity fled north. With vindication finally within reach, Ember risks everything for the sake of discovery and undertakes a journey that will either make her famous or ruin her.

I think the above quote really summarized the type of character Ember is. She is extremely selfish and puts herself first in all ways. I’m sure a lot of people are going to read this book and find her extremely unlikeable. She is driven and determined to achieve her goal at the expense of everyone around her. Ember lied to pretty much everyone in her life to achieve her goal, treated her husband as extremely dispensable, sent her former student who she knew had mental health issues on a dangerous mission and was willing to put everyone at risk for the pursuit of her objective. I didn’t have this problem at all. I’m actually drawn to characters like this especially when it’s a woman. I think extreme selfishness is a characteristic we do not see associated with women often so when I encounter them in literature, I find these women difficult to hate. Especially because she was absolutely right in her hypothesis, but everyone treated her like she wasn’t.

Climate change plays a significant role in this story. Set thousands of years in the future, the novel begins in the Commonwealth which I believe is present day Greenland. We are told that thousands of years ago, humans moved north to avoid the extreme temperatures that warmed earth and caused so much death and drought. The people of the Commonwealth believe that the humans of that age (which becomes quite startingly clear is us now in the present day) had no technology and they claim Commonwealth is the greatest civilization ever built which Ember disagrees with. Ember believes that the humans of the past had great technology and has put in grant requests after requests to be able to go on an expedition legally which were continuously rejected and her theories mocked.

By the end, I found that the author took the easy way out by making the end very ambiguous as if refusing to reward a person like Ember with a triumphant return. The crash and burn of the last 10 pages completely angered me and was completely unlike who the author had convinced us that Ember is. Ember is too logical and too focused on her goal to prove her rightness that the possibility that she would lose her mind and make such insane decisions does not seem to gel with her character for me at all. Ultimately, this limited my enjoyment of this book. Also, I wish we would have heard more detailed theories about the finds on the Island that the archeologists landed on, I wanted more “archaeology” that would make the find more recognizable to present me, I wanted to think – “omG, they’re in a church or a subway station or a house” but ultimately I could not even wrap my head around the find and there was no wink at the audience about what they had actually found like the find at the beginning of the book which I immediately knew the identification of and made me smile.

If you do not enjoy character driven books this is not for you and if you need your characters to be likeable or relatable, this book is also not for you. I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

dystopian, Fantasy, Fiction

The 4 Best Fantasy Books I’ve read in 2026 So Far

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This year has been a really hard fantasy year for me. Romantasy is the publishing industry’s darling lately so a lot of the fantasy I like to read has been put on the back burner. But here are 4 books I’ve managed to read so far in 2026 that I thought had a really good premise and I actually enjoyed.

In no particular order:

1. Mortedant’s Peril by R. J. Barker (The Trials of Irody Hasp #1):

Irony Hasp is a Mortedant, a cleric tasked with reading the last thoughts of the dead. He’s extremely unpopular, rarely gets work and is scarcely tolerated even by the other members of his guild. After reading the corpse of a low-level records keeper, Irody’s troubles quickly multiply when his apprentice is murdered and he is accused of his death. He gets 72 hours to proof that he is not the murderer, but his investigation is attracting powerful enemies with few scruples, and he has to figure out why the thoughts of a low-level records keeper is worth his life. I really enjoyed this book and thought the world building was very well done. Seeing the different levels humans in this book are classified in and seeing the Mortedant look down his noses at them even when he can barely afford to live on the 5th level was quite funny. This one was not as popular as it should have been, and I happened upon it on Goodreads newly released list and gave it a shot. Was very happy that I did.

2. The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu (War Arts #1):

A prophecy – A child will rise to defeat the Eternal Khan and liberate the kingdom. The Hero – Jian has been found as the boy who was foretold in the prophecy and raised in luxury and splendor, celebrated before he has won a single battle. Taishi arrives to evaluate the prophesied hero and finds a spoilt brat unprepared to fight anyone worth his salt. As she takes over his training and tries to make him better something unfortunate happens. One day, during a skirmish an ordinary soldier kills the Eternal Khan making Jian useless. The prophecy has failed or the prophecy was wrong. The kings of the different regions that make up the kingdom want to kill him so that he cannot be used as a political pawn but as he is tossed into the real world to escape the kings’ assassination attack, he has to hide who he really is in order to survive and figure out what to do when you’re no longer a hero. I absolutely loved this book. I went into it blind and when the Khan died 20 pages into the book, I was so surprised! I was so excited not to read the usual hero book.

3. Daughter of Crows by Mark Lawrence (The Academy of Kindness #1):

I did not like Mark Lawrence’s last series – The Library Trilogy. I managed to finish the first book in the series, but I was so bored and then I never got through the second one. I’m usually a Mark Lawrence completionist but that series killed that for me. Anyway, the Lawrence that I fell in love with is back with this installment. The Academy of kindness is a brutal academy that creates agents of retribution. They take in 100 girls every year and only graduate 3 after ten long years of training. They are cast in the image of the furies against whom even the gods hesitate to stand. Only the desperate would sell their child to the Academy but Rue sold herself. And years after she graduated from the academy and after years as a kindness she has finally retired as an old woman, but war has been brought to her doorstep. That was a mistake. I absolutely loved reading the brutality of this one. Lawrence tells the story of the academy from a POV, but you don’t know if who is telling the story is Rue. We skip between the present day, and the academy and the academy was so fascinating. Anyway, I really enjoyed this one and think the second book is going to be even more amazing.

4. The Strength of a Few by James Islington (Hierarchy #2):

“A society cannot make a man a monster, Diago. But it can give him the excuse to become one.”

I think anyone who knows me knows that The Will of the Many was my favorite read of 2023. This is the second book in the Hierarchy series. Vis wins the ludicum at the end of book 1 and we find out how the Labyrinth actually works. The Strength of the Few sees Vis in 3 completely different worlds with completely different magic operating system and it is amazing what Islington is able to achieve building this world that is starting to feel too big to contain. The stakes feel higher but at the end he makes some choices that do not feel like what our main character would do at all and it made me question whether Islington would be able to land the ending. Anyway, it’s really hard to explain this series because it’s so convolated but if you love epic fantasy and world building, please pick this series up.

There you have it. 4 fantasy books that I’ve read so far that I actually enjoyed. Let me know which fantasy books you’ve enjoyed this year in the comments. Maybe I’ll give them a go.

Leggy

Fantasy, Fiction, romance, Romantasy

Book Review: Starside by Alex Aster

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Starside is the realm of magic and immortals while Stormside is where mortals fight for scraps of that magic. Hundreds of years ago, a brutal war caused the split but every 50 years the gates between them open and 50 challenges are allowed out of Stormside to journey to Starside on a deadly quest to access a pool of magic that can heal, grant wealth, or extend life. Everyone has their reasons for entering, but Aris has only vengeance. As a child, a goddess set fire to her village, killing her family. Aris isn’t after the gods’ magic – she wants to kill them. Also going on the quest is Harlan Raker, the merciless and mysterious king’s guard who we’re told betrayed her years ago and who may now be the key to her making it to Starside.

I think this book is everything I do not like about romantasy. This book starts out with the author telling us how much Aris hates Harlan Raker and how he is the worst person on earth and how he betrayed her and how she could never forgive him. The author tells us that all she wants is to achieve vengeance. I think a lot of romantasy sets us up with a premise but casts it all out on the altar of romance. We are consistently told that all Aris wants is vengeance but then she constantly makes choices that make us doubt that premise. Because this is a romantasy book and in romance you need the characters to be likeable, I find that authors lay everything on the feet of likeability. She’s a fighting demon and so amazing with a knife but she is also the kindest person you’ll ever meet with a heart of gold who will give away a magic portion that is guaranteed to save her life to an enemy who was just trying to kill her just so we know how amazing she is and how worthy of love she really is.

Aris consistently makes choices that make me so annoyed. She decides she is super attracted to Harlan who by the way she has never seen his face. Even the first time she makes out with him, it is with his face covered. So please tell me what there is to be attracted to. A man who you have told us you hate most in the world didn’t even have to show you his face before you throw yourself at him. I completely understand making a deal with him so you can get to Starside. I expect that of a person who’ll do anything to get to Starside but to then fall in love or lust or whatever with a man who just 20 days ago you hated. I don’t know if these authors respect our intelligence at all.

Apart from the romance part, I actually think the author builds an absolutely beautiful world in this book. Every creature and magical character they come across I’m absolutely fascinated by. I think she did such an amazing job with the side characters especially the magical characters not coming off as one dimensional. The ancient creatures, magic-wielding beasts and bloodthirsty immortals were written very well and then a new peril that even the immortals feared that kept them from traveling at night was fascinating. Everything was crammed into this book which kept me reading because I felt that the actual journey was the best part of it all.

Finally, the ending of the book was so ridiculous. I’m sorry, making a bargain to bring her family back? What is she? 5? No matter how old you are. why would you make a bargain to bring your family that have been dead for years, back? It just made me feel like the author had written a very dumb and emotional character. And I saw the twist about Harlan’s identity coming but how she dealt with the requirement to get her family back was quite ridiculous. I think the author forgot that her main character is actually human and the gates don’t open for another 50 years which means her saying “see you in 50 years” doesn’t mean a thing when she’ll be what 70?

I’m obviously in the minority with this book because this book currently has an above 4 star average on Goodreads but I gave it 2. If you tell me that I’m about to read a revenge book, then I want a proper revenge book. She could barely stand on hating someone after knowing them for just 20 days and I’m supposed to believe she has the fortitude to actually see her vengeance through? Please.

Have you read this one? Let me know in the comments.

Leggy