Review: Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this one more. I’ve been reading and enjoying Charlie Jane Anders for years, and normally I really love her work, but this one was just a bit too messy for me. Though, to be fair, Jamie, her protagonist, does confess to being quite a messy person, but those around her are often just as messed up if not more so. And I’m not just talking about the post truth trolls feeding her and her family into the ever hungry right wing outrage machine, but also about the family who continues a cycle of generational trauma, still a very common theme in fiction these days. I’d probably have liked this book more if it had focused more on the secrets of 18th century literature, because it’s clear that that’s one of Anders’s special interests, and was easily the most fascinating part of the book by light years. But this is not that book, and yet because it’s Anders, I’ll be generous and round up from 2.5 to 3 on this one.

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Review: Among the Burning Flowers

Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Samantha Shannon’s having a very prosperous year in 2025, with both this book and The Dark Mirror on tap. A new standalone story in the world of Roots of Chaos, this book is more of a deep dive into the Spanish- and Italian-inspired land of Yscalin, a lovely but volcanic place where Draconic threats are always lurking, and feeling a bit too close to home these days. I expect Shannon’s Italian research for The Dark Mirror helped fuel much of this book, atmospherically. Long enough to be a novel in its own right, but short enough to stand out compared to the massive books Shannon usually writes in this series, it’s a great intro to this world for newcomers - or those who forgot just how great this series was to begin with.

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Review: The Secret of Secrets

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s Robert Langdon.

I’m in.

Dan Brown hasn’t published a thriller since before Covid, but it’s clear, reading this book, that he’ll never change as a writer. And yet, that doesn’t make him any less compulsively readable than ever. Dipping into all his greatest hits from 20 or so years ago - oddly esoteric science, a killer with a warped personality (to the point of cultural appropriation, passing off as the Golěm - Czech spelling and all - of old Jewish legend), and leading up to some big reveals incidentally previously discussed in The Da Vinci Code and other Langdon adventures. No spoilers, but let’s just say after this novel, there’s one more reason for me to want to nuke the entire Neuralink from orbit.

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Review: The Coffee Shop of Untold Stories: Tsubasa’s Café

The Coffee Shop of Untold Stories: Tsubasa’s Café by Firdaus Ahmed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once again, Firdaus Ahmed gifts us a story about a singular cat…but as much as Tsubasa would have you believe it’s all his story, there’s more to it when you consider the humans he’s known in his many years. Especially Jo, the young woman come to York to write a book, and Ryu, the elegant owner of the café bearing Tsubasa’s name. The intertwined legacies of these characters makes this small book so much stronger than you would expect - strong like the Eclipse Mocha, the one drink on Tsubasa’s menu that would almost certainly be my go-to. (And thankfully now that autumn is here, the café at my work has added a seasonal Mexican Mocha, the closest I’ll be able to get to the Eclipse. I think I shall treat myself and imagine it’s Ryu and Tsubasa’s hospitality, including their very fair prices…because to paraphrase this book, the café isn’t for profit, it’s for what the people want. And need.)

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Review: The Art of Legend

The Art of Legend by Wesley Chu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s been a while since we left off on The Art of Destiny, and Wesley Chu now returns with the conclusion to the trilogy, where we see exactly how this epic journey will end when the prophecy’s terms have already been broken. Except they may just un-break in time to be fulfilled, and while the series doesn’t end quite as strongly as I was hoping for, it doesn’t lose Chu’s signature sense of action or humor - the latter best represented by Qisami, my fave character all along. To this series, I now bid ave atque vale, especially since we’re still waiting for Chu to finish his trilogy of collaboration with Cassandra Clare…

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Review: Katabasis

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

R.F. Kuang continues her dark academia era with a new standalone fantasy novel about two embattled, embittered grad students reading Magick at Cambridge, forced to follow their eminent (and eminently unlikable) advisor into the underworld because without him, their careers will never get started. And boy howdy is Professor Jacob Grimes one of the most disgusting characters Kuang has ever created - and considering her propensity for highlighting historical war crimes and the incurable racism of certain assbite people, that’s saying something. It also says something that racial issues are on the back burner at best in this book, when it’s been Kuang’s bread and butter for years. This one is a slow burn in hell, at times a real slog because it’s very clear that Grimes (a rapacious, womanizing, plagiarizing shit-for-brains) doesn’t deserve to be saved, and Alice and Peter deserve better than to force themselves through supernatural peril to save him. But the sunk cost fallacy and all that. And all the philosophy that Kuang can lob at us, because that’s also her bread and butter. And speaking of food and digestion, I was surprised to see Crohn’s disease incorporated into the narrative - that condition gets very rare representation to the best of my knowledge. I know a few people who might appreciate this book just for that…

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Review: The Raven Scholar

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As the beginning of a new epic fantasy trilogy, this book couldn’t decide if it wanted to be dark academia or magical competition, so why not both? Well, more accurately, it’s a magical competition mystery with a touch of dark academia at the core, helped by the word “scholar” in the title. After all, it requires reading a lot of in universe legends in order to understand what is happening as the gods’ chosen champions compete to see who will be the next emperor. In that sense, it’s got a bit of Gideon the Ninth in its DNA too - and funny how I’m seeing more of that lately while we wait endlessly for Tamsyn Muir to finally publish the fourth and final novel in that series, with a sequel gap of three years and counting…but I digress.

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