Favorites Poll

Hello readers! Wishing you a safe, happy holiday season, whatever that may mean to you. I know this time of year can be hit or miss for people depending on their circumstances. Please always feel free to reach out to me or the group if you’re interested in a social, game night, or other event to give you some company, banter, and support.
I bring you our final poll of 2024. I asked you to submit to me your favorite books you’ve read and which you want others to try. And, wow, did you deliver. I guess I should have known that asking a bunch of readers to pick their favorite books might result in an avalanche. I’m so grateful for all of the submissions, and I hope this poll does it at least a little justice.

Updates

Due to varying factors, we’ve been quite sporadic in our meetings this year. It is my goal in 2025 to get us back onto a regular schedule of book meetings and other events, including the potential to schedule another in-person meeting. That last one is very, very tentative for now, but I’ll be bringing it up over the next while to see what interest and ability is like.
I’m also going to put out a survey to get your thoughts on some aspects of the club. All submissions will be anonymous so feel free to be as transparent as you feel is necessary. It’ll be regarding scheduling, events, the way polls are done, etc.
Depending on how this poll goes, we might use the second place result as our book for January. If you have other ideas you’d rather see for January, please let me/the group know!
Our meeting for this month will be December 28, though this can be moved if there are people who want to attend but can’t.
We’ll also have a game night on December 20-22, depending on availability.
Finally, I plan on a New Year’s Eve gathering to bring in 2025 with anyone who doesn’t have alternative plans. All of these things will have associated availability polls via WhatsApp as we get nearer to then.
Happy reading!

The Amulet Of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

The first volume in the brilliant, bestselling Bartimaeus sequence.
When the 5,000-year-old djinni Bartimaeus is summoned by Nathaniel, a young magician’s apprentice, he expects to have to do nothing more taxing than a little levitation or a few simple illusions. But Nathaniel is a precocious talent and has something rather more dangerous in revenge. Against his will, Bartimaeus is packed off to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Lovelace, a master magician of unrivalled ruthlessness and ambition. Before long, both djinni and apprentice are caught up in a terrifying flood of magical intrigue, murder and rebellion.
Set in a modern-day London controlled by magicians, this hilarious, electrifying thriller will enthral readers of all ages.

Notable review by Paul Weiss

A delicious high speed flight of fancy!

At the tender age of six years, Nathaniel is taken from his parents and apprenticed as a learning magician to Arthur Underwood, a minor functionary in a dark and fantastical English government. This bleak London’s parliamentarians and upper crust are members of a greedy, self-serving ruling class of magicians and everyone else is disparagingly referred to as a “commoner”. When Nathaniel encounters Simon Lovelace, a brutal, ruthless magician whose ambition knows no limits, Lovelace chooses to openly display his terrifying power and publicly humiliates Nathaniel while Underwood stands meekly by doing nothing to defend his young charge who has barely begun to learn the rudiments of his magical craft. Angered beyond endurance, Nathaniel decides to secretly accelerate his own learning and begins to plot his revenge against Lovelace.

When he quietly masters one of the most difficult spells in a magician’s repertoire, Nathaniel summons Bartimaeus, an ancient djinni (with a rather acerbic wit and a very dry sense of humour), and commands him to steal Lovelace’s greatest treasure, The Amulet of Samarkand. Unaware that Lovelace was planning on putting the amulet to use in a treasonous coup to overthrow the government, Nathaniel finds himself trapped in a maelstrom of evil, espionage, murder and magical Royal Rumbles and is now pursued as the object of a merciless manhunt.

Much more than a mere Harry Potter wannabe knock-off, The Amulet of Samarkand treats us not only to a blazing quick page turner but also throws in a generous helping of more adult issues such as questioning the morality of class distinctions; the development of a resistance movement to a dictatorial government clearly interested in nothing more than the perpetuation of its own comfort and rule; and power lust, greed or altruism as motives for action.

Stroud’s use of footnotes, far from being distracting is actually quite infectious. Bartimaeus, in the manner of a quietly comic George Burns, well aware of his own comedic skills, steps out of character and out of the story in the footnotes, to offer his own sotto voce observations and asides directly to the reading audience. Judiciously sprinkled throughout the novel, Stroud has kept their number and length at exactly the right level to ensure the high-speed plot is not dampened.

The happy ending of the story is not only wonderfully satisfying but open-ended enough that we know (nay, we hope) there is more to come! A couple of the mean dudes have simply vanished into hiding (you don’t suppose they’ll be back, do you?). Bartimaeus has been dismissed in a cloud of misty smoke and brimstone to his own spirit world and Nathaniel clearly begins to struggle with much more adult ideas of what must be done with his new found reputation, position and rapidly advancing skills and powers.

The Amulet of Samarkand is a delicious, fast-paced lightweight reading confection that can be recommended to readers of all ages. I’m off to find a copy of The Golem’s Eye.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Fiction (2022), Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Debut Novel (2022)
Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors–until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

Notable review by Cecily Monahan

On a chilly February afternoon, I picked up a book titled Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Instantly, I was captured. The book begins with narration from a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus McSquiddles—much to his chagrin, for he is not a squid. As the story progresses, we also read from the point of view of an older Swedish woman named Tova and a man in his thirties named Cameron, or Cam for short. Van Pelt weaves a heartfelt narrative with captivating characters and storylines, making this book impossible to put down.
The premise of the novel revolves around Tova. After her husband Will died, she began working the night shift as a janitor at her local aquarium, the Sowell Bay Aquarium, to keep busy. Keeping busy has long been Tova’s strategy for grieving, one she had employed after the disappearance of her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, many years before. While working at the aquarium, she forms a bond with Marcellus, who has a habit of sneaking out of his tank at Sowell Bay. The octopus manages to deduce what happened years ago when Tova’s son never returned from a sailboat on Puget Sound and consequently must find some way to convey this information to Tova, all while nearing the end of his life. The story evolves into one of hope, unlikely connections, and moving forward from a troubled past.
Something incredibly unique about Remarkably Bright Creatures is that the author makes the reader care about the characters within mere pages of their narration. Each has a distinctive voice, instantly differentiating them from the other characters. Each has struggles, introduced masterfully, that compel the reader to root for them. Van Pelt immediately puts such personality into each character that it is no exaggeration to say that the writing is exceedingly captivating, even without its original plotline and witty writing style.
Remarkably Bright Creatures is one of the best books I have ever read. It is thought-provoking but not pretentious, gentle but not boring, and emotional but not over-the-top. Every character and every moment gets its chance to shine. It turns a small town on Puget Sound into a place of mystery, intrigue, and great sadness but also great joy. It is heartfelt, genuine, and, despite telling stories of great tragedy, incredibly uplifting. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is, at its core, a tale of love, and quite a good one at that.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

Notable review by Emily May

Update: I had planned to leave this post as it is, but after seeing the continued kind responses, I thought it best to inform you that my grandad passed away just before Christmas. Thank you to everyone who commented about this review and about him, but it seemed wrong to not let you know. It’s always hard to lose someone who has been such a huge part of your life from day one, but please know that he died a happy old man, peacefully, surrounded by his family. And isn’t that the best any of us can ever hope for?

~ Emily ♥

……………………………………………………………..

I’m going to share something with you.

My grandad is the very definition of curmudgeonly. He’s an eighty year old man who likes to complain about anything and everything: youth today, UK politics, my dad, the weather, technology… you name it. He calls me and my siblings up most days to tell stories punctuated with rants and numerous “bloody hell”s. I’m not worried about him seeing this post because he doesn’t trust computers and hasn’t even grasped the concept of the internet. Most new technology is referred to as “those bloody things”, except for FaceTime, which he has recently taken a liking to. He makes use of it by popping up on my iPhone multiple times a day to deliver a bout of doom and gloom in which I see nothing on the screen but his chin.

All my friends are a little afraid of him and are never quite sure when he’s joking. He is nothing short of a grumpy old man. Except, in truth, that’s only half of it.

The other day I opened the mailbox to find an envelope which contained this picture of me and him from my graduation:

(The image in Emily’s review features a woman wearing a black graduation cap and gown, holding a diploma in her right hand. She is smiling and standing next to an older man who is wearing a suit and tie. Both individuals are posing closely together and appear to be happy, suggesting a celebratory occasion, likely related to the graduation.)

Thing is, behind whatever my grandad may seem on the outside, he is a loving man who lost his wife – my grandmother – several years ago. He bugs us constantly with his moaning about life because he’s lonely and because he misses us. He has a heart and he has a sense of humour, even if most people don’t really get it. And it was in Ove, the protagonist of this novel, that I recognized pieces of my grandad.
“People said he was bitter. Maybe they were right. He’d never reflected much on it. People also called him antisocial. Ove assumed this meant he wasn’t overly keen on people. And in this instance he could totally agree with them. More often than not people were out of their minds.”

I loved Ove. Parts of this novel punched me right in my emotions. I think I would have been okay if this novel was merely a sad, moving tale about a man who has to get on with his life after his wife died. I could have shaken off the emotional manipulation – as I did with The Fault in Our Stars – and not shed a tear. But this story is so much more than a tearjerker.

Ove shouldn’t be a character we love; he’s so miserly and grumpy and skeptical of everything… but he’s also hilarious. He charms us with his completely uncharming ways. Because, though I don’t share his worldview, what he says actually makes sense and sometimes it’s really funny. Take this:

“Ove glares out of the window. The poser is jogging. Not that Ove is provoked by jogging. Not at all. Ove couldn’t give a damn about people jogging. What he can’t understand is why they have to make such a big thing of it. With those smug smiles on their faces, as if they were out there curing pulmonary emphysema. Either they walk fast or they run slowly, that’s what joggers do. It’s a forty-year-old man’s way of telling the world that he can’t do anything right. Is it really necessary to dress up as a fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast in order to be able to do it? Or the Olympic tobogganing team? Just because one shuffles aimlessly around the block for three quarters of an hour?”

Plus, there’s a wonderful cat who our lovable protagonist grudgingly befriends, which just improves this book even more.

I think perhaps the saddest part of this book is not found in the most obvious place. Ove’s loss of his wife touched me, but I was even more affected by the underlying tale of old age and how many old people can be left feeling lonely and out of place towards the end of their lives. How difficult it must be to live alone in a world that becomes more foreign to you every day, with its new gadgets and trends that you don’t understand or care to entertain. It was moving and thought-provoking.

I’m going to call my grandad now.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

Notable review by Chai

It’s a profoundly strange thing, to feel as though you are wading through mildly entertaining books that pass through you without leaving any trace that it had ever been there, always searching for the one that will reach—not through you but—into the back alleys of your soul and settle there, lingering. And then all of a sudden, like a faint spark bobbing on a dark sea, calling you, beckoning… it is there.

The sheer joy of it is like what all the books you’ve ever read have been aspiring to be; the scales of what is good, great, and transcendent shifting and recalibrating in your head. The story that is a door creaking open in your chest, pouring light into that deep hollowness. A story like a sacred secret burning like a lantern in the center of you, something you could crawl into if only you believed in it hard enough.

To borrow some of Morgenstern’s words, “books are always better when read rather than explained.” Words fall short of this marvel, but I want you to read this book, so I have to try.

“For those who feel homesick for a place they’ve never been to. Those who seek even if they do not know what (or where) it is that they are seeking. Those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them.”

A subterranean library where reality can be shuffled like a deck of cards—a drunken mangle of past and present. Stories that wander off the edge of the page, filled with teeth and armored with immortality. People who wander off the edge of the map,  perilously and fathomlessly free, the unnameable future ahead of them—endless reams of blank paper. And the secret society undoing it all, unwinding the Starless Sea thread by thread, until it falls away.

And in the center of it all: Zachary Ezra Rawlins.

This is Erin Morgernstern’s much-anticipated second novel. The basics, at least. The bones. But stories—as stories often do—grow in the telling:

Zachary Ezra Rawlins stumbles across an authorless book in the library, and in the deepest, most unshakable part of himself where reason was useless, he knows without a doubt that it is narrating a long-ago event of his childhood. Back when 11-year-old Zachary found a painted door, unknowingly teetering on the invisible edge of a great cliff, but held himself back from the seething, teeming sea below. The door (and the unspoken invitation) was gone the next day, like a wave washing clean over sand.

But here, in The Starless Sea, is a second chance, a do-over. The scattered uncertainties of Zack’s childhood fall away, and in their stead is is the unwritten story, still swelling in its hollows, breathing tendrils of beautiful magic into the air. And something else too, something with the faintest hint of danger in it. Soon, dreams and nightmares start borrowing each other’s faces, and Zachary’s time is running out. If only he knew what for.

“I think people came here for the same reason we came here,” Dorian says. “In search of something. Even if we didn’t know what it was. Something more. Something to wonder at. Someplace to belong. We’re here to wander through other people’s stories, searching for our own.”

I loved this book, and have never been sadder to turn the last page. The Starless Sea is a love-letter to those of us dogged with the invisible burden of unbelonging, which too often stirs us from the stillness and sends us out into the page in search of solace. Those of us who carry stories like a secret talisman in our pockets, and rub words for comfort until they are worn smooth as creek stones. Those of us who once turned away from our own painted doors before we took courage and learned to feel the surge of fear and relish it.

Emerging after eight years—like a glittering literary cicada—with a remarkably powerful novel, Morgenstern holds our gaze for the space of a few hundred pages and fills it with what she wills. Having read The Night Circus and enjoyed it, I knew the author’s imagination is keener than almost anyone’s. But in this novel, Morgenstern’s pen seems to carry a deeper heart inside it, and a deeper warmth too. It’s such a joy to read her writing, to linger on every line, to turn it over, to read and re-read passages so drenched with meaning, thundering with it. If you thought the scope of The Night Circus was wide, the plot Morgenstern engineers here is even more recklessly splendid. There are tales layered upon tales here, and characters who are freed to wander, leaving their books to taste life in other stories. One thing is familiar, though, and that’s the impression of effortlessness Morgenstern is so good at, which bellies an immaculate precision and profound care for details.

I couldn’t stop reading this book. As much as I really wanted to sit back and luxuriate over the Morgenstern’s beautiful prose, I kept going, going, going, chasing after every sentence as if the words themselves were on horseback, racing after the riddles of Fate and Time, of pirates and tongueless acolytes, of weary travelers, and wearier lovers, of foretelling sculptors, and all-seeing Owls, before getting swept out by a rogue wave to the Starless Sea, and swimming against riptides, finally staggering ashore to a landscape I couldn’t begin to make sense of, yet which was still as familiar as the remembrance of a touch. Morgenstern makes you experience it all, and the result is a novel that inhales you as much as you inhale it.

But The Starless Sea is, above all, a love story. One that will pluck at every single one of your heartstrings. Zachary and Dorian’s love tale was sometimes as fierce as joy, and sometimes like a knife blade pressed to flesh. It’s tender and unmistakable and dangerous and true. The kind that starts with a held gaze in a sea of indifferent stares, the two of you the only fixed points in a universe of motion. Shock, recognition, and a deep sense of familiarity. This person that is “a place you could lose yourself in, and never wish to be found,” this frenzied and fevered need to know one another. Morgenstern writes about it so touchingly, with just enough touch of tragedy to keep you glued to the pages, both dreading and longing for what’s next.

In short, Morgenstern has a forever reader in me.

“And no story ever truly ends as long as it is told.”

When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson

An explosive new novel brimming with love, secrets, and enchantment

The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head.

Years ago, the Fall kids’ father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame . . . or self-destruction.

Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls’ world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole.

With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures.

Notable review by Rebekah

“I do believe now that when the world tips over, joy spills out with all the sorrow.”

1 Sentence Summary: The Fall siblings—Dizzy, Miles, and Wynton—haven’t been the same since their father disappeared years ago, until one day a mysterious rainbow-haired girl appears and upends everything they thought they knew about their lives.

My Thoughts: This was absolutely incredible!!! The prose was lovely, the story was compelling, and I fell in love with the characters immediately. They were flawed and three dimensional and each had their own struggles to deal with, and their interactions and relationships with each other were so complex and nuanced.

“I never want Dizzy to feel like that, like the world is made of ashes. Like she’s a shadow that has been detached from its person.
I never want her to know that a life is an abandoned unfinished story.”

I really loved the format of the book, with all of the POV switches and the flashbacks between past and present and the extra little tidbits like newspaper clippings and journal entries that were included. All of the stories within the story worked so well and made the overall novel much more layered and interesting. I also really appreciated getting to see the perspectives of each of the Fall siblings and how differently they would view the same situation. Everyone has something they’re struggling with, and you don’t know what other people are going through.

“He suspected he was in the wrong body, family, town, species, that there’d been some big cosmic mix-up. Like maybe he was supposed to be a tree or a barn owl or a prime number. He only found himself, his real self, in novels, not even in the stories and characters, but in the sentences, the lone words.”

The emotion was so well written, and the setting and atmosphere really added to it. I did tear up a few times while reading. There was a theme throughout of tragedy, of family curses, of destruction, yet there was also an undercurrent of hope and connection and new beginnings.

“We were together, I forget the rest.”

Jandy Nelson is such a talented writer, and is especially good at writing complex and compelling family dynamics. This novel is part family drama, part tragic love story, part mystery, and part magical realism. The way everything came together at the end was shocking (I gasped out loud at one of the reveals) and was absolute perfection.

AND I LOVED THE MAGICAL REALISM ELEMENTS!!!!!

“And I think I might finally know what it means to want to crash into infinity with words.”

Recommend to: Fans of family curses, multi-layered stories, secrets, magical realism, siblings finding their way back to each other, and strange (almost enchanted) towns.

(Warnings: swearing; sexual content; alcoholism/drug use; rape; child abandonment; mentions of death)

The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1) by Samantha Shannon

A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

Notable review by Maryam Rz

This is a super long but wonderful review. You can read the full version here
You know when people are rushing somewhere and your curious soul feels helplessly tugged along and then you get there and go, oh, I think I just hit a gold mine.

That’s me with this book.

“We may be small, and we may be young, but we will shake the world for our beliefs.”

The Priory of the Orange Tree—or POT as I’ll call it from now on because I’m lazy—is what they declare the stuff of legend, a tale destined to be enshrined in song. Because this? This is “a brilliant, daring, and devastating jewel” and a unique, rich dragon of a book—both in size and magnificence. From “a masterpiece of intricate world-building” to “diverse, feminist, thought-provoking and masterfully told,” POT has been thrown many lines of acclamation and more and all are true and none are enough to paint this timeless, one of a kind yarn spun by such skilled hands. With stunningly flesh and blood queer characters with deep internal struggles, this book captures your imagination and traps you in its world.

Shannon’s astonishing achievement is her ability to breathe impossible life into new religions, histories, and conflicts and create a world so old and layered that she’s been called “the female George R.R. Martin,” even as her work lacks his noted dark ruthlessness and has me in disagreement. However, “a feminist successor to The Lord of the Rings” is an adequate praise not many can bear on their shoulders and still remain standing, unperturbed by its weight, yet The Priory of the Orange Tree might just be able to.

“In darkness, we are naked. Our truest selves. Night is when fear comes to us at its fullest, when we have no way to fight it. It will do everything it can to seep inside you. Sometimes it may succeed—but never think that you are the night.”

But it’s not the detailed, immersive prose, not the wicked, genius villain or tragic fools and inspiring hearts setting on dazzling journeys of development, not the doomsday prophecy that can only be beat through the uniting of this divided land of prejudice, nor the sheer epicness of every facet of this tapestry that make it an all-time fave. For me the most fascinating element is the remarkably crafted world for which the author considerately writes, “The fictional lands of The Priory of the Orange Tree are inspired by events and legends from various parts of the world. None is intended as a faithful representation of any one country or culture at any point in history.” You can find many of those listed in the Inspirations & Themes section.

“Reading. A dangerous pastime.”
“You mock me.”
“By no means. There is great power in stories.”
“All stories grow from a seed of truth. They are knowledge after figuration.”

Despite the first 25% struggling to fully pull me in, despite the riddles and mysteries I was quick in figuring out, and despite not being perfect, POT is an undoubtedly worthy addition to your adult epic high fantasy shelf because it is the genre at its finest—you simply need it in your life. I recommend enhancing your reading experience with a beautiful soundtrack ⤳ Spotify URL

✧ Storyline ✧

A holy Queendom in the North, wyrm-worshipers in the West, mages in the South, and dragonriders in the East…a cursed, divided people swallowed by chaos.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for more than 1000 years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran IX must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—for it is believed that as long as a Berethnet rules in Virtudom, the monster beneath the sea will sleep. But assassins are getting closer to the queen, and Ead Duryan, the outsider lady-in-waiting at court and in truth a mage of the South, is tasked with secretly protecting Sabran with forbidden magic.

All this while across the Abyss far in the East, Tané who has trained all her life to be a dragonrider teeters on the brink of her dreams and one choice could unravel her life, taking her to places no Easterner has set foot in centuries.

There are fools in crowns, Dukes and Queens absorbed in their own politics, clinging to their beliefs, blind to the forces of chaos rising from their sleep. History is to repeat itself and none are ready to stand united. “Let them come with their swords and their torches. Let them come.”

What’s more, Shannon addresses many themes and topics that are the centre of social debate in the 21st century and adds her piece on the deep conflicts of humanity:

❶ Feminism: Full of precious, strong women taking the stage, ruling, glowing, and fighting the world’s expectations, POT is one of the best feminist books out there, if not the best feminist fantasy book yet.

No woman should be made to fear that she was not enough.
A woman is more than a womb to be seeded.

❷ LGBT+: POT’s world is a rare one where sexuality is not something people fuss over, openly accepting this aspect of humanity. This leads to a bold, refreshing book brimming with queer characters and relationships, all portrayed so tangibly.

❸ Custom & Tradition: Undeniably, these are two integral parts of human society that shape the world, and Shannon’s apt craftsmanship attentively discusses their implications, origins, and influence. Plus, there is the occasional amusing moment when characters question our traditions, such as “Who in the world wears white on their wedding day?”

“Just because something has always been done does not mean that it ought to be done.”

❹ Prejudice & Clashing of Beliefs: Most importantly, though, Shannon has told a tale of both the struggles and beauties of our differences, asking, “Would the world be any better if we were all the same?” Or are our contrasting views on life truly meant to be accepted and embraced and joined to form a picture none of us could see individually? As international relations become more a part of the day-to-day life these days, the importance of how people can come together despite years upon years of hostility and bitterness increases with an unsettling yet precious speed, and Shannon offers a path to acceptance of others’ differing identities while not losing our own.

“Piety can turn the power-hungry into monsters. They can twist any teaching to justify their actions.”

❺ Religion: But POT also tackles my favourite social conundrum, tying religious conflicts, living gods, the power of belief, the shunning of science, and the reshaping of religions. No one can deny the power faith holds on humanity and how it’s been put into conflicting uses in history, for good or bad.

“When history fails to shed light on the truth, myth creates its own.”

❻ History & Myth: One more matter I have been obsessed with since the dawn of my curiosity is the accuracy of history and fluidity of facts upon changing the narrative. And Shannon explores this theme thoroughly and without flinching. I’m inclined to give her a standing ovation.
✧ Storytelling ✧

“When the heart grows too full, it overflows. And mine, inevitably, overflows on to a page.”

The best way to describe Shannon’s glorious and detailed writing in POT is to quote herself, “She was part poet and part fool when it came to telling stories.” Her prose is exquisite and her storytelling technique genius; rather detailed like GRRM’s with focus on immersion in the moment rather than on plot advancement.

“To ensure an heir, the Dukes Spiritual must paint a certain picture of the Inysh court and its eligible queen. They needed you gone, so they…painted you out.”

Yet it’s not only her prose that submerges the reader; her politics aka the golden point of it all, are smart, wicked, creative, and impressive in the way she has brought them to life, and her battles and action scenes are mostly unmatched, and rarely a little lacking unfortunately. But perhaps POT is already too long and no one wants more strategy and detail…but I do? That aside, to alter Kit’s words, “This is a fine book. I believe I would marry this book, were I a book myself.”

The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1) by Terry Pratchett

In a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There’s an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet…

Notable review by Mark Lawrence

I haven’t reviewed this because I read it so long ago that all I can remember is I loved it.

I’ll take our very old and battered copy (bought in 1987) to the hospice this weekend when I go with Celyn and see if I can’t refresh my memory.

RIP, Sir Terry.

‘DON’T THINK OF IT AS DYING,’ said Death, ‘JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.’

So – to the review!

I’ve just read this in slightly over 24 hours … which is extraordinary for me. I normally take a month to read a book.

It is, to be fair, both a very readable and a very short book (65,000 words – a short fantasy these days is ~100,000 words).

I was surprised to find how much of this I remembered, especially as I last read it 28 years ago!

It’s a very funny book with some GREAT one-liners. I particularly liked one that said about men falling foul of the thieves’ guild (I paraphrase) ‘… men who wouldn’t be going home again … unless they happened to live near the river and their corpses floated by on the way to the sea.”

And this from the character Twoflower was poignant:

“When I think that I might die without seeing a hundredth of all there is to see it makes me feel,” he paused, then added, “well, humble, I suppose. And very angry, of course.”

Anyway – incompetent and cowardly failed wizard Rincewind falls in with Twoflower, the naive tourist with an impossibly optimistic attitude, oodles of gold, and an indestructible, vicious and implacable treasure chest on legs to defend him.

Hilarity ensues as Twoflower tries to see everything, Rincewind tries not to die, and the gods play games with them. We get a great tour of the Discworld, its geography, magics, and inhabitants, all of which are so fantastically imaginative and amusing that even geography becomes a joy.

This isn’t Terry Pratchett’s best book but it’s full of all the great stuff that gathers together into its peak a few books into the series. It’s certainly an excellent book though. Pratchett has an incredibly rare talent for compressing humour into one-liners that are witty, incisive, and yet never feel mean – it’s not jokes that you feel are directed _at_ anyone, just mined from the stuff of life.

I had a great time revisiting this book and if you’ve not tried it – now’s the time!

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