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You are here: Home / Archives for Secondary World Fantasy

And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed

Premee Mohamed’s And What Can We Offer You Tonight is a tightly written novella about a story of rebellion from oppression focused on the inner struggle from the invisible chains of psychic servitude. And What Can We Offer You Tonight, narrated by Jewel, a courtesan at the high-end House of Bicchieri, begins with one of […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Secondary World Fantasy, Taking on My SFF TBR Tagged With: city, liberation, oppression, poverty, rebellion, revenge

Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler #WyrdandWonder

By John Folk-Williams

Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler

Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler is the first book of the Burningblade & Silverye series, and it’s a roaring good adventure. Just don’t expect anything deeper from the story. It focuses on Gyre and Maya, brother and sister, who are violently separated in childhood when a fearsome warrior known as a centarch removes […]

Filed Under: Secondary World Fantasy, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: adventure, alien technology, cities, combat action, epic fantasy, magic, rebellion

The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo #WyrdandWonder

By John Folk-Williams

Singing Hills - Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Look, I can’t pretend to keep up with the outpouring of fine SFF writing we are now witnessing, so I’m dipping into the recent past to discuss a pair of stories that are so perfect in their way that it’s hard to write about them. Nghi Vo is a storyteller of dazzling gifts, and her […]

Filed Under: Secondary World Fantasy, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Asian fantasy, empire, love, memory, Nghi Vo, nonbinary, shape-shifting, story-telling

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard

By John Folk-Williams

Aliette de Bodard’s prose swept me through Fireheart Tiger like a single brushstroke of many beautiful strands toward a strong conclusion that came just a little too easily and a little too soon. She is a master at plunging the reader at once into a richly imagined fantasy world yet without distracting the mind with […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Secondary World Fantasy Tagged With: Aliette de Bodard, colonialism, elemental being, fire, inner journey, magic, negotiation, power, trauma

Finna and Defekt: Books 1 and 2 of Nino Cipri’s LitenVerse

By John Folk-Williams

Defekt by Nino Cipri

I wasn’t prepared for Finna and Defekt, the two novellas so far comprising Nino Cipri’s LitenVerse. It’s hard to find stories that effectively satirize consumer capitalism and combine that with penetrating portraits of relationships, but here they are! These are absorbing and insightful stories skillfully blending emotional realities of dealing with gender, love, and loneliness […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Secondary World Fantasy Tagged With: capitalism, corporate dystopia, multiverse, Nino Cipri, relationships, satire, trans gender

Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

By John Folk-Williams

Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

I like writers who take risks in introducing their heroes. Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa sets this first book of The Nameless Republic series on the continent of Oon and its dominant country called Bassa. But unlike the image of the sleek figure on the cover art, the protagonist appears before us […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Secondary World Fantasy Tagged With: caste, empire, fantasy, identity, magic, power, race, Suyi Davies Okungbowa

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Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

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