The Book Nook
Magic and witches and orcs, oh my!
While working at the library I’ve seen some adult patrons pick up a fantasy book, read the jacket, then almost reluctantly return it to the shelf. I asked a colleague if they’d noticed that as well. Her answer was yes, and she thought it was due to a commonly-held belief that SFF (science fiction and fantasy) is for teens and young adults only. That prompted me to do a little digging in the hopes of encouraging readers who want to give it a try.
I found an insightful quote from author Lloyd Alexander: “Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it”. Research shows that SFF is enjoyed by a much broader range of ages than I thought. It dispelled another myth that SFF fans shun books in favor of TV and film. While that’s the current trend for other genres, studies show that reading is by far the preferred format for consuming fantasy. They also show that reading fantasy has cognitive and long-term benefits that can help us deal with life’s challenges. A recent local news story reported renewed interest in the Dungeons and Dragons game, noting how it helps participants build leadership and teamwork skills.
With that in mind, I found three novels that are getting some buzz.
Atmospheric costume mystery
The first book is “House of Salt and Sorrows” by Eric A. Craig, which features a young woman from a royal family that’s plagued by mysterious deaths. Tradition dictates a long period of mourning and Annaleigh’s sisters are tired of living in limbo.
Relief comes from a drastic shortening of the mourning period and the girls receive new wardrobes and permission to reenter their social lives. Their new-found happiness is dashed when they discover others now think their family is cursed and being shunned is awful. One ray of hope is the rumor of a mystical door to another realm, setting them on a hunt that leads to merriment and dancing the night away in their fancy new attire. At one of these events Annaleigh meets an intriguing stranger who has secrets she’d love to learn, but there’s little time to investigate if she wants the stop the strange curse afflicting her family.
This is a decent story at the base, although at times it suffered from uneven pacing and lack of substance. It was also hard to differentiate between Annaleigh’s sisters and there were some negative female stereotypes. On the up side, I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery along with Annaleigh and the nods to familiar fairy tales. Craig’s clothing and jewelry descriptions were amply detailed and I liked his knack for creating atmosphere. This book was published in 2019 and was followed this year by the second book in the series, “House of Roots and Ruin”.
Lavish fantasy with sharp dialogue
Martha Wells is a popular author with fans in two camps: science fiction and fantasy. She creates loveable killers who live in multi-faceted, realistic worlds readers want to inhabit. After focusing mostly on her beloved Murderbot Diaries sci-fi series for several years, fantasy fans were happy to see her return to this genre with a new stand-alone novel, although not all agreed it was as captivating as some earlier works.
“The Witch King” is a leisurely-paced dark fantasy that uses a post-colonial setting. The protagonist is Kai, someone with more heart than you’d expect from a soul-sucking demon. He awakens to find he’s the victim of a horrible betrayal and desperately wants to find who did this to him. He and his band will find adventures and battles while being pulled into the political intrigue related to a war that threatens to consume the planet.
Wells drops us into this dense world-building fantasy without holding our hand, confident we’ll figure things out on our own. The pace is generally brisk although the story felt overly long at times and I wanted more of Kai’s backstory. The author gives us a likeable protagonist and interesting characters nuanced with emotional depth, and Kai’s fierce loyalty provides a plausible tale of found family that will resonate with many.
It was a mostly rewarding read with more humor than I expected although readers shouldn’t expect the droll sarcasm in her Murderbot series. There no complex, well-explained magic systems or tons of action scenes, but the latter are superbly choreographed. This is for those who enjoy character-driven fantasy blended with mystery and the supernatural.
Relaxing cozy fantasy
Grab your favorite beverage, settle into a comfy spot and get ready to meet orcs, gnomes, and other creatures in a fun and breezy novel.
In Travis Baldree’s “Legends and Lattes”, Viv is a mercenary orc who’s grown tired of battle and bloodshed and is looking to make big changes, from her thinking to her location. She leaves her long-time gang of warriors and moves to Thune in the hopes of starting a new career, but never dreamed how many obstacles stand in her path. Her biggest headache is convincing others to buy a product that’s totally foreign to them, and it’s a hard sell.
Although she’s a stranger in town and filled with trepidation, Viv is determined to get started. She meets others willing to help her realize her dream, but there are also new and old rivals who would love to see her fail. She’s having a hard time cutting ties with her old life and she’ll find her new one holds dangers she’d hoped to leave behind.
This charming plot-driven cozy fantasy has nice attention to character development as Viv deals with grudges, threats and a slow-burn romance. How she reacts to the challenges makes for an entertaining and relaxing read with beings who work their way into our hearts. FYI, libraries recently received the second book in the series – “Bookshops and Bonedust”, which I may review later.
One final thought on fantasy is that it’s a genre with many subgenres to cover a wide ranges of tastes and fuel our imagination.
