Fantasy Book Reviews

A sprawling and original adventure in a familiar magical paradigm, The Burning Bandit by Lauren Louise Hazel is a richly imagined work of high fantasy.

Sharing a bond borne from tragedy, Kai and Rayan are the outsider dynamos at the center of this novel, their entrancing destinies swirling around the other as the story unfolds. One is the heir to an empire, the other is a prisoner of war who climbs the ranks with the help of his innate powers of chi. When Earth and Heaven fall out of balance, power struggles threaten to tear the kingdom apart, and Rayan’s […]

An engrossing work of dark fantasy, Queens of Moirai by Rhiannon Hargadon is a wildly imaginative novel marked by the strong presence of gods, fate, and magic, drawn in part from Greek mythology.

Both grandly mythic and down to earth, the novel tells the story of Morena, descendent of the death-ruler Atropos, and her struggle to reunite the three Fates in order to bring balance and justice to the kingdom of Moirai. The three fates include Lachesis, who spins the thread of life, Clotho, who measures it, and Atropos, whose task is to cut it, and they have always ruled […]

Power is rarely gained honestly, nor held gently, as author DJanée reveals in the stark novel The Blizzard’s Secrets, a fantasy parable of leadership and loyalty.

The Ruler of Taliver is acting strangely, asking the intrepid young Daia, future Commander of the Forces, to keep secrets from the Seer – a forbidden practice. Luring her into a trap, the Ruler sends her on a frigid mission into the unforgiving Tundra in search of a lost son, the one person who can reveal the truth of a murderous secret from the past. Selflessly determined to protect the current Seer from […]