Dec 30 2025

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Book Review: The Strength of the Few by James Islington

Title: The Strength of the Few

Author: James Islington

Series: Hierarchy #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Overview: The Hierarchy still call me Vis Telimus. Still hail me as Catenicus. They still, as one, believe they know who I am. But with all that has happened—with what I fear is coming—I am not sure it matters anymore. I am no longer one. I won the Iudicium, and lost everything—and now, impossibly, the ancient device beyond the Labyrinth has replicated me across three separate worlds. A different version of myself in each of Obiteum, Luceum, and Res. Three different bodies, three different lives. I have to hide; fight; play politics. I have to train; trust; lie. I have to kill; heal; prove myself again, and again, and again. I am loved, and hated, and entirely alone. Above all, though, I need to find answers before it’s too late. To understand the nature of what has happened to me, and why. I need to find a way to stop the coming Cataclysm, because if all I have learned is true, I may be the only one who can. –Goodreads

The Review:

I’m writing my review after having just finished this book, but I can tell this is one of those that I’m going to have to sit with for a while before I can completely form how I feel about it. Or maybe I just need to talk it through:

I think I loved it, but there were just a few tiny minor things that made me question myself while I was reading. One of which was a bit of a disjointed plot, another was a moment that I viewed as clear emotional manipulation (which I’m carrying some resentment for thank you very much), and few story conveniences.

I thought the plot was a bit disjointed. And I don’t even mean the grander-scale tertiary plot that made up the very core of the story. No, no I mean WITHIN each of those branches, there were a few things that seemingly to me, came out of nowhere. A great example is the chariot race – it’s not a spoiler because it really didn’t have a ton of bearing on the plot as a whole, and while I enjoyed it wildly – it felt nestled in just for the sake of having that fun element. Now I would definitely rather this than the alternative, but it’s things like this that pulled me out of the story a bit.

And maybe disjointed isn’t even the right word – maybe it’s the lack of seamless integration for some of these cool elements. They felt plunked in. There wasn’t enough lead-up. And there were a couple of times where I had to suspend my disbelief a little bit and “just go with it.”

But given the massive undertaking that was this project, and how well he wove together the storylines, and how ultimately it culminated into an ending that left me eager to pick up more, even though I just spent an entire month on it – how much do my criticisms matter?

This is still one of the best books I read in 2025 and I consider it an entirely worthwhile continuation to one of the best books that I’ve ever read, period. And that’s the thing – when you write a book that is the paragon of perfection (at least as far as my personal reviewing criteria), it would be really, really difficult for anything else to measure up. Let alone a middle book which doesn’t have either new series novelty or series-ending momentum. Even comparing it to the first book, which lives on a pedestal, I think it has more than earned some slack.

So all of that said, I’m disappointed that I didn’t love it quite as much as the first book, but if I can get enough distance and perspective to evaluate it as a whole, holy crap – that was a great read! It’s one of those books, kind of like Sanderson‘s Stormlight Archive, where you go through hundreds and hundreds of pages without feeling like a single one of them is wasted. It was a joy to read, and I cannot wait for the next one.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa and Derek! <3

by Niki Hawkes

Sep 17 2025

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Book Review: The Air War by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Title: The Air War

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Series: Shadows of the Apt #8

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: An empress demands her birthright . . . All is in turmoil as the world moves towards war. In Solarno, the spies watch each other and ready their knives, while Myna sees the troops muster at its border and emotions run high as it vows never to be enslaved again. In Collegium, the students argue politics, too late to turn the tide. In the heart of the Empire, new pilots have completed their secretive training, generals are being recalled to service and armies are ready to march. Their Empress, the heir to two worlds, intends to claim her birthright. And nothing—either within the Empire or beyond it—will stand in her way. A conflict is coming, the like of which the insect-kinden have never seen. –Goodreads

The Review:

After two somewhat tangent novels, it’s nice to be back with what feels like a main storyline… and the beginning of an end-of-series arc.

It has taken me a couple of years to get to this point in the series, and although many of the characters are different from where we first started, the overall atmosphere and vibes and “fix“ that I get from reading an Apt book is going strong. I love the world building and have a lot of emotional investment on seeing how the story ends.

As a sidenote, I was realizing through this book that I’m confused on what it actually means to be “Apt”. I think it’s backwards than what I thought it was.

Anyways…

I’ll admit, I could be a little more invested if we’d stayed with some of the early characters a tad longer. It’s one of those situations where a new POV is introduced every couple hundred pages, and then their stories slowly start to become more prominent. Before long, you only have a small page count dedicated to the original core cast. I tend to latch on to early characters, and by the time I figured out that I needed to pay more attention to the new POVs because they were more than just passing, it was a too late to garner investment for them. So at this point in the series, I am more reading to find out what happens to who’s left of the OG people, and a little less so to see what happens to these new people. I have only just so much capacity of shits to give.

All that said, the series has felt immersive, expansive, and wildly creative, and I cannot wait to finish things out. The next book is shaping up to be very exciting, indeed.

Recommendations: if you like the first book Empire in Black and Gold, you’re pretty much in for a solid ten book series of enjoyable stuff. Give that one a try – it was one of the strongest introductions I’ve ever read and easily one of my favorite examples of creative world building. If you’d like to taste-test the author’s fantasy works first, pick up Guns of Dawn (a standalone).

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Poochtee, and Kinsey! <3

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by Niki Hawkes

Aug 26 2025

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Book Review: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Title: The Spellshop

Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Series: Spellshop #1

Genre: Cozy Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home. In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop. -Goodreads

The Review:

What a wholesome and charming book!

The Spellshop was a full-on cozy fantasy with a subtle romance, found-family vibes, and pops of creative magic. Going in, I was expecting a heavy Romantasy with the love story dominating the entire plot. That was not the case at all. And actually, you might be surprised to hear this, but I think the romance could have been more prominent. Legends and Lattes, one of the first-movers in this new era of cozy fantasy (loved) had about the same level of romantic components (few), to give you a frame of reference. That said, the romance we got here was organic and sweet, and I came away from it with all the right feels.

My personal fantasies aren’t romance-driven. No, what I daydream about is a life of simplicity. A slow, methodical way of living that encourages mindfulness and peace. The Spellshop was the perfect dose of all of those “day in the life” vibes that let me just relax into someone else’s gradual attempts to build a meaningful life. Add in books, an enchanted spider plant, and other totally endearing characters, and you have yourself a fun, creative read. It was great.

The only thing I didn’t strictly love about the book were the slightly repetitive conflicts near the end. I got a bit bored for a minute. It’s a minor thing though, as she quickly reigned me back in with some cool magics, but I think it did solidify my rating as a four-star rather than something a bit higher. Even so, Durst is an author who tells the stories I’ve always wanted to write, and I cannot wait to read more for her in the future. I’m fixing to pick up the next stand-alone in this Spellshop set, The Enchanted Green house, very soon.

Recommendations: if, like me, you are completely aboard the cozy fantasy train, The Spellshop is a must-read for the subgenre. It was an absolute delight. Also consider her Race the Sands book. It’s not cozy fantasy, per se, but it is awesome fantasy and one of my favorite things I’ve read in recent years.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Dagmara, Poochtee, and Kinsey! <3

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by Niki Hawkes

Aug 12 2025

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Book Review: The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

Title: The Devils

Author: Joe Abercrombie

Series: The Devils #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds. Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends. Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side. –Goodreads

The Review:

This is Joe Abercrombie at his most indulgent. And you know what? I was there for it.

Abercrombie‘s humor is easily one of my biggest draws to his work. He has such a knack for that subtle, dry humor that hits you when you least expect it. So damn funny, he has impeccable timing (I could listen to him in interviews for hours) and a great instinct, so his humor almost always lands. Now here’s the thing, in The Devils he’s not subtle, he’s not pulling any punches (they come so often, it’ll almost reminded you of a Pratchett book) and the humor is often quite juvenile. Normally, immature, humor of this type doesn’t work for me, but I think it a combination of how much confidence I have in the author along with how well he timed the jokes and how far those jokes went to enhance character that made this work for me. I laughed out loud several times. I also rolled my eyes several times. It is what it is.

Now don’t get me wrong, events in this book are downright brutal. The overall tone was funny, but it’s still an Abercrombie. It’s not a good day’s work until someone is getting eviscerated on the page. Proceed with caution.

My favorite thing about the story were the characters. No surprise there. The book was a slow, measured experience with this wildly interesting group of individuals, all of them sort of enigmas. I lived for the many reveals of character as the story went along and found myself latching on to the least likely of them (the werewolf is my favorite). Such great character work, everything from the dialogue to subtle mannerisms – Abercrombie is truly a master at making his people distinct.

If you’re more of a plot reader, I think you’d find The Devils a bit of a slow burn. However, if you’re a character reader, I think you’d feel like things were progressing with each of them at a good clip. I’m somewhere in the middle, so I think elements of plot were too repetitive and the pacing could have moved along just a tad faster. But because I was enjoying myself with the characters, it wasn’t a huge factor.

I’ve heard through the grapevine that this is going to be, at least initially, a trilogy, with the subsequent books containing entirely new story arcs but still following a sporadic mix of the same characters. I’ve enjoyed this one so much that I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do next! He gets massive points for creativity in his world-building.

Recommendations: if you’ve never read an Abercrombie before, I’m afraid the intensity and outrageousness of this book might scare you off reading anything else by him. So I’m hesitant to say start here! However, I think if you’ve read a ton of other Abercrombie and are a fan of his general overall being, you’ll enjoy the heck out of this. It’s nice to see him do something that’s not quite so serious.

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by Niki Hawkes

May 22 2025

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Novella Review: Livesuit by James S.A. Corey

Title: Livesuit

Author: James S.A. Corey

Series: Captive’s War #1.5

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: Humanity’s war is eternal, spread across the galaxy and the ages. Humanity’s best hope to end the endless slaughter is the Livesuit forces. Soldiers meld their bodies to the bleeding edge technology, becoming something more than human for the duration of a war that might never end. –Goodreads

The Review:

I liked this novella. Not because it hit all the same deeply humanistic notes that I’ve come to expect from a JSAC production, which it did, but because of how richly it expanded the Captive’s War universe.

Now I know more of what’s out there. And whether or not these livesuit players will have any roll in upcoming books, or if our time with them was more to provide hope that all is not lost… it was a tangent well worth reading. I got confused during the non-linear timeline switches a few times, but overall got the gist enough that it didn’t seem to affect my enjoyment.

I’m a big fan of the Expanse. Love the first Captive’s War book. And liked this one a full star more than I thought I would. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Dagmara, and Poochtee! <3

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by Niki Hawkes

Mar 17 2025

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Book Review: A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K.J. Parker

Title: A Practical Guide to Conquering the World

Author: K.J. Parker

Series: The Siege Trilogy #3

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Overview: This is the true story of Aemilius Felix Boioannes the younger, the intended and unintended consequences of his life, the bad stuff he did on purpose, and the good stuff that happened in spite of him. It is, in other words, the tale of a war to end all wars, and the man responsible. -Goodreads

The Review:

I’m so glad I read this trilogy. The first book was the strongest, but there’s so much good stuff in the rest of it that I still recommend the entire thing highly.

The writing voice and style choices are always what strike me first when I start a Parker novel, convincing me it’s written by someone who knows all the rules masterfully enough to break them with flair. Everything from the construction of the series as a whole to certain ways he drops in backstory – it’s all so good I feel like I need to read it again to pick up on the even subtler things I missed. Add to all of that a deeply funny infusion of dry humor, and you have novels that fire on all cylinders in my wee brain.

Felix’s story was interesting, cleverly written, and abundant with “keep reading to find out more” mechanisms that had me engrossed. Each MC POV so far has had a particular talent that lends itself to the plot, and Felix’s eclectic ones were especially fun, adding a nice variety to the story.

One of the most compelling things about this trilogy was finding out how he was going to tie the whole series together. Books 2 & 3 start out seemingly unrelated, but slowly start to show their connections. I will say the way in which they relate ended up being a bit looser than I was hoping for, but ultimately the journey of discovery was worth the effort.

Also did I mention it was funny? Perhaps not quite as funny as the first book, but overall I’ve read this entire trilogy with a constant edge of amusement (kind of like with a Pratchett book, only darker), which is a big part of why I enjoyed it so much. I genuinely can’t wait to read more from this author. Consider him a new Obsessive Bookseller favorite!

This is one of those series you read for a certain vibe/mood, and I’m hoping to find more of this specific craving in his other works (good thing he has so many!). Another good comparison is that it reads like a more jovial version of Abercrombie. Who knew grimdark would end up being the types of books that tickle me the most? Maybe it has something to do with the contrast of so many darker moments making the smidgen of light and hope shine through all the brighter. Or perhaps I just relate to it more – when everything’s gone to shit, you may as well laugh.

Recommendations: read at least the first book, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, as it’s the strongest (and I think it would be just fine as a stand-alone). However, if you’re even a fraction as delighted with it as I was, I think you’ll like the rest of the trilogy too. But seriously that first book -> a must read!

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Dagmara, and Poochtee! <3

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