STG's

Middlegame, by Seanan Mcguire, is an interesting fantasy book, which mostly concerns itself with alchemy. In this alchemical world, alchemists are capable of pulling Frankestein like feats, constructing beings, and things like immortality and others. One of these wants to take over the universe by embodying important concepts into pairs of children (such as math and language). These children, not surprisingly, are the main characters in the book, and their fight to survive and get out of their creator's control. Overall, very interesting, and very unusual in several ways.

 The Dispatcher, by John Scalzi, is a fantasy (or SF, depends on your point of view) novella, which takes place in a world where people who are murdered almost always pop out of existence, and back in a place they think is safe. I had already read the sequel (unknowingly), and I wanted more. They are both pretty much as good - relatively simple fantasy novellas where something changes in the universe, and the author explores the consequences in a story, playing with the rules he created. Pretty good, and very short.

 The Part about the Dragon was mostly true, by Sean Gibson, is a fantasy-comedy book, which tells the story of an epic (supposedly) fantasy quest, as viewed by the bard. It was pretty funny, and I liked the silly characters. My main complaint is that there is a literal pulling the ending out of your a** finale. This is not that unusual, and one of my favorite authors (Peter F. Hamilton) did pull this a few times, but not the literal part. Still good, but not great.

The Dispatcher: Murder by other means is the second volume in a SF (or fantasy?) series by John Scalzi, all pretty short (around 100 pages). I wasn't aware there was a previous one as I was reading (I think I got it because of a sale), although there are enough references. The base story is that for unknow reasons, people who are murdered come back to life fine, 999 times out of a thousand. It is silly but cute premise, and Scalzi used it well. The action was satisfying, and so was how everything came together at the end.

 Snake Eyes is the third book in the God & Monsters series - a fantasy series where all the gods and monsters are real, and in Earth. The series has completely separate stories (except for a few lines referencing events in the other books). What I really liked about this one is that the gods/monsters were really obscure by comparison, so it felt much fresher than the others (who felt a bit like American Gods or Supernatural episodes).

Mythbreaker, by Stephen Blackmoore, is the second book in the Gods and Monsters fantasy series, in which gods are real. This is a bit similar in some ways to the first book, but it does go into a slightly different area - this time, the main protagonist is a prophet (which obviously reminds me of Supernatural). Like in Supernatural, the prophet is pretty messed up, an addict and assumes he is crazy. There are a lot of intersting battles, the book follows American Gods and give new concepts godhood (the Internet, the man, big money), but then we have a twist about the prophet's powers. It looks like an interesting idea by the end, but then I assume the whole thing is over (looks like a tough topic to write a book about AND be fun). There is a mild reference to the events in the first book, but it is just a shared universe for the series - no major recurring characters. Overall, pretty enjoyable, specially the end.

 Unclean Spirits, by Chuck Wending, tells the story of a man who got in serious trouble, discovered gods exist and are everywhere, then discovers he has some god blood in him, then gets in the middle of gods' fights. Wait, that is the exact description of American Gods, too... In all fairness, these are different enough that they are both enjoyable, but in general lines, the plots are pretty similar. Pretty enjoyable.

 Phoenix Extravagant is an interesting fantasy take on golems. On an occupied country, an artist is blackmailed into working for the government branch that makes golems, as artists are needed to make the instructions (and thus are the coders). They (the artist - it is the pronoun used. As a side note, it seems to me that it would be better if another pronoun that wasn't already used became the standard for this - I was confused a few times) then end up making one of the golem sentient and fighting the occupying government. There was also a complicated romance with the woman who killed the artist's sister-in-law. Overall, I really liked it.

 Ruin and Rising, by Leigh Bardugo, is the finale of the Shadow and Bone trilogy. After the disaster at the end of the last book, Alina is recovering underground, without powers. For a while, at least... This one had a nice set of battles, and what I specially liked were the twists, specially on the third amplifier and what happened when she got it. Overall, very good. I wouldn't say that was my favorite book series ever, but it was very nice.

 Siege and Storm, by Leigh Bardugo, is the second book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy.  So, the main characters (Alina and Mal) escaped at the end of last book. They are almost immediately captured. Then they meet the pirates (sorry, privateers), which lead to another series of adventures and another confrontation with the Darkling, of course. Overall, I like the series so far. I liked this one more than the last, but mostly because it actually advanced the story, given I started by seeing the Netflix show's first season. There is way too much teen romantic drama, though.

 I read Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo because of the Netflix series, which I watched and liked. It is pretty much the same in most aspects - as usual, some of the explanations made more sense in the book. It does not include the whole Crow crew, which I understand they pulled from another book series - Six of Crows. As a vague summary, in this universe there are people that are born with various powers. In the book it sounds like they could be trained for specific powers, instead of just being fixed - darkness, telekinesis, fires, light, etc. The main character (Alina Sarkov) is the first since times of legend with light powers, and is expected to destroy a big barrier in the middle of the fictional country (Ravka), which is tearing it apart (and killing many that try to pass it). There is also a boy she grew up with that she really is close. There is a nice twist on what is happening near the end, and it ends well enough but unresolved (just like the series, but diff...

The Magicians is a fantasy novel, by Lev Grossman. There is also a TV series based on the book series. Funnily enough, I finished the book in the same day that I finished the TV series. The book is basically a darker Harry Potter - which doesn't try to be cute and magic seems to have much more in the consequences area. They are somewhat close, but there are a few differences. I think the tone of the TV series (from what I remember, as the events in the book took place in the series several years ago) is actually better than the book, which is quite refreshing from all the series/movies that just don't work as well. Still, it was pretty good, and I plan to go through the whole book series, too.

Out of Spite, Out of Mind, is the latest book in the Magic 2.0 series, which cover an universe which is computer generated, and the people who have access to a specific file can effectively do magic. In this volume, one of characters (Brit the Elder) gets in trouble after a paradox, and reality gets a bug that the wizards must fix if they don't want the universe to cease existing. This one felt pretty short, and had plenty of funny bits. Enjoyable, as usual, but nothing great.

I just read The Hobbit - by J.R.R Tolkien. It is very obviously a classic, but I never got around to reading it. There were some recent celebrations of Tolkien, so I after some recommendations of what was the best one to start with, I got an illustrated version (by Alan Lee). It was quite pleasant. Of course, I had already seen the movies, so the story itself wasn't new to me, but I quite enjoyed reading it with the extra details. One notable thing is how the dragon part and the battle of the five armies are comparatively underwhelming in the book version... The illustrations were quite nice and really added a little extra flavor for the story.

The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin, is the third book in the Broken Earth series, where the Earth was destroyed by a cataclysm tens of thousands of years ago. In this one, mostly everything in the series is "explained" (it is a bit vague, but reasonable). Including what messed up the surface, the Stone Eaters, the Orogenes, and that it was magic based tech that did it. Overall, a very satisfying end.

The Obelisk Gate, by N.K. Jemisin, is a fantasy book where the world was messed by a series of catastrophic events - earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. It is the sequel to The Fifth Season  . Events pick up where they stopped. The biggest news here is that Nassun, Essun's daughter, has her own part in this book. And it sure is exciting! Overall, very good and strongly recommended to people who liked the first one (and which probably didn't need my recommendation). Funny enough, the Kindle app pointed me to a version of the third book that wasn't available for purchase. I searched the store and found the version that was.

The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin, is a fantasy book where the world got broken by volcanos, earthquakes and the like (the Fifth Season after of the title). The book is the first in Broken Earth trilogy. What is particularly nice about it is that most elements feel new. There are a number castes, but the most powerful is the Orogene, which are killed on sight, because they can create volcanos, freeze people, and a lot more. The origin of them wasn't explained yet - I'd like an old tech explanation but I don't think I'll get one. The start feels a little slow, but it gets really good afterward. Overall, strongly recommended, and I have already started the second book.

The Unnamed Way, by Ian W. Sainsbury, continues the Seb Varden series, where magic is just alien nanotechnology. This volume goes back to Seb Varden, and where he was most of the previous book. The whole thing was interesting enough, including the last battle. Of course, Joni's reset power makes setting up elaborate kills just to take them back almost mandatory. Overall, quite nice, with a fair and pleasant ending for Seb Varden's story, while at the same time not being a end to the series at all.

The Unmaking Engine is the sequel to The World Walker - a fantasy/SF mix where magic is actually advanced alien tech. There are magicians hidden all over the world. But Seb Varden has a 2000 year newer version of it. His enemies are hunting him down, though... I liked the Mason reveal and background. The very end was a little frustrating, but fair enough, I guess. Overall, I liked it a lot, and plan to continue reading the series.

The World Walker, by Ian W. Sainsbury, is a cute fantasy/SF book about magic as a tech gift from advanced aliens. Seb Varden, the main character, kills himself. But then he meets an alien... Overall, very good, I mostly liked the way the tech was handled.