Superhero books should, in my view, be fun, and this one was – while also dodging tropes, providing a thrilling ride, and being well executed as a novel. Diverse characters, a rationalisation for the “I didn’t recognise you without your glasses” effect, and a lovely satire of the super-rich are bonuses.
FanLit occasionally (by arrangement) republish my reviews. This was a book I particularly liked.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the sequel, which was all the angst all the time. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for it.
Originally shared by Fantasy Literature (FanLit)
Magonia: What YA should be like – Readers’ average rating: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley Come for the wonderful voice (and attitude) of Aza Ray, the teenage narrator. Stay for a suspenseful plot, vivid characters, and fantastical worldbuilding. Magonia (2015) is one of those books that, while still partway through the sample, I knew I wanted to buy. It’s difficult to create a truly original character voice, but Maria Dahvana Headley pulls it off with Aza Ray. She even pulls it off again…
The Man Who Was Thursday was one of the inspirations for my City of Masks. Like most of Chesterton’s stuff, it’s odd, but oddly compelling.
This is a good review, from someone who isn’t afraid of a complex sentence.
Originally shared by Kate Sherrod
G.K. Chesterton’s THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY
Mention Gilbert Keith Chesterton to most people nowadays, and they’ll probably know him as the author of the Father Brown mysteries and not much else (unless you’re mentioning him to Roman Catholics, who might know him for a lot of excellent apologetics for…
http://kateofmind.blogspot.com/2017/09/gk-chestertons-man-who-was-thursday.html
If “female superheroes have adventure and romance in the Napoleonic-era British military” is a premise that appeals to you as much as it does to me, this is a series you should check out.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2127142428?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
I usually only post my five-star reviews here, and this is a four-star. But it would be a five-star if I liked the genre, and making me like a book this much when I don’t like the kind of book it is – that’s an achievement.
If you, unlike me, enjoy dystopian, this is a well-crafted, clever story with a compelling protagonist.
I had the great pleasure of getting this book through Netgalley for review. I thought I’d read it, but I hadn’t, and I’m glad I now have. It’s magnificent.
I’m giving this five stars despite a couple of small flaws (the protagonist is way too powerful, for example, but that ends up not being the disaster it could easily have been in less experienced hands).
This is the second book I’ve read recently where empathy at a key moment is important in the confrontation with a seemingly implacable antagonist. I’m glad to see that idea is in the zeitgeist.
I don’t usually read books like this, simply because there are so many of them that the likelihood is that any particular one will be done badly. But this one is done very well.
Honoured to be in this list (though I’m McMillan, not MacMillan, and they’re called the Gryphon Clerks books, and currently shifting from indie to a small press). I also have a list: http://csidemedia.com/gryphonclerks/indie-books-worth-reading.
It includes several of Lisa’s books, but this isn’t a rig-up; we genuinely appreciate each other’s work.
Originally shared by Lisa “LJ” Cohen
I wrote a thread of tweets this morning highlighting a bunch of indie published work that I love. It’s an idiosyncratic list, because I’m just one person with specific tastes. If you’re on twitter, would you be willing to RT the initial post in the thread? (Even with the typo! Oy. Whose. Not Who’s. Sigh.)
Also, feel free to reply with your own favorite indie writers/books (as long as it’s not your own!)
https://twitter.com/lisajanicecohen/status/852516457330167808
https://twitter.com/lisajanicecohen/status/852516457330167808
A well-executed MG novel with a New Zealand setting.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1952091752?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1