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You are here: Home / Archives for Wyrd and Wonder

Moon Witch Spider King by Marlon James, A Review for Wyrd & Wonder

By John Folk-Williams

Moon Witch Spider King

Marlon James’ Moon Witch Spider King (second book of the Dark Star trilogy) impressed me at first as everything I had missed in the first novel, Black Leopard Red Wolf. There was a story of emotional depth I could link into and a brilliant character I could care about, as opposed to the strangely alienating […]

Filed Under: Epic Fantasy, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: fantasy, identity, immortal, Marlon James, memory, power, story-telling, supernatural

Five Favorite Fantasy Novels Read This Past Year: Wyrd & Wonder

By John Folk-Williams

Wyrd & Wonder 2022

It’s Wyrd & Wonder time again and, though I’ll have other kinds of posts this month as well, I thought I’d start with this Fantastic Five meme. I’ve read a lot more than five great fantasies since last May, but here are the most recent ones (actually six) that haven’t yet been in any other […]

Filed Under: Favorite SFF, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Gautam Bhatia, Kate Elliott, Nicola Griffith, Rebecca Roanhorse

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar #WyrdandWonder

By John Folk-Williams

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar

I hope no one is so jaded on Arthurian fantasy that they can’t enjoy this glorious retelling and meticulous tear-down of every facet of the over-familiar stories. Every character comes to scurrilous life in By Force Alone, as that title phrase echoes over and over throughout this dynamic, hilarious and strangely moving book. I say […]

Filed Under: Epic Fantasy, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Arthurian fantasy, fairyland, Lavie Tidhar, magic, myth, primal Britain, violence

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

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri #WyrdandWonder

By John Folk-Williams

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

What an exciting and involving novel this is! Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne takes a while to set its crowded stage but soon launches into a powerful story of two extraordinary women, each trying to gain power of very different types. When thrown together, despite their vastly different backgrounds, one (Priya) apparently a lowly servant, […]

Filed Under: Epic Fantasy, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: empire, fire, power, rebellion, religion, sapphic love, South Asian fiction, Tasha Suri

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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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