Because I am woefully tardy on blogging about this one, and I have about a zillion other things to blog about, I'm going to direct you to Regan's wonderful post here. She captures the essence of the book quite well, and I share her feelings on this one, especially the bit about how this is what I wish Babel had been.
A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Mass, 297 pages
The newest ACOTAR book since 2021, very long awaited. This book served as more of a transitional book for the series, which was a little bit unexpected by many fans, myself included. I did enjoy all of the different POV's from different characters, but it just felt rushed and like a lot was packed into a short book. I am still looking forward to the next book in the series, but this was not my favorite.
I blogged about this book a couple years back when it first came out, and looking back at that post, I feel like it sums it up pretty well. I still dig the book, and I enjoyed chatting about it with the Orcs & Aliens last month. It's funny, it's quirky, it's full of garlic and fun. Highly recommend!
Once a powerful four-headed dragon, Garrodigh now has three heads and a stump, and is an outcast from the wild dragon society. Complicating matters, his three heads all have different personalities — Centerhead is mad at everyone and wants to rain terror on the heads of all he sees, Upperhead is under the delusion that he's human, and Bottomhead's personality is similar to that of my dog, in that he's food-motivated and dumber than a box of rocks. When a battle goes awry, Garrodigh ends up in a human-run training facility, where he gets shelter, meals, medical help, and a quirky rider named Rania who's desperate enough for a dragon that she's willing to put up with his weirdness. As he learns to trust himself and his rider, Garrodigh and Rania team up to help fight for the safety of their world.
I'll readily admit that I came to this book based entirely on my assumption that a three-headed, three-personality dragon would be hilarious, and that Wiswell would do it justice. And thankfully, I was right in that assumption. What I didn't anticipate (but really should have expected, given my previous experience reading Wiswell's books) was the thoughtful treatment of the often bumpy physical and mental healing process Garrodigh goes through. We get to see personal growth, the impact of colonialism and xenophobia on cultures, and the power of friendship, all with a solid magical system and just the right amount of humor. Highly recommend this one.
Maggie has woken up naked, cold, and dirty in an alley, which she quickly learns is Kair Toren, the central city of her favorite book series. Then she promptly dies. Next thing she knows, she's waking up again in the same state as before, only this time, she's determined to survive. While it takes a few more life reboots to achieve her goal, she's soon ensconced among the dangerous and elite of Kair Toren, positioning herself as a seer by using her knowledge of the series. The only problem is that the series is unfinished, so there's definitely a limit to how much she can know, and if she changes things too much, well, that's pretty rough too.
The fantasy trope of waking up in a favorite fictional world is an increasingly popular one (it's official name is "isekai," as it started as a common manga trope), and this is definitely a good example of the subgenre/trope, with the protagonist waking up in a vaguely Game of Thrones-esque world. However, as we never learn how Maggie got there or why she keeps reviving after her various deaths, it feels a bit unfinished. Similarly, the readers are told about the upcoming events only by Maggie's POV recollections of the books, so it feels like we're just along for the ride instead of becoming fully immersed in the world. I would've loved to get a bit of backstory before Maggie was deposited in Kair Toren, just to give us a glimpse of outcomes in the unaltered book-within-a-book. As it is, the plot meanders with no arc that is clear to us. That said, I'll definitely read the next book in this series, as I am curious as to where it all goes. But there are plenty of other isekai books I'd recommend first.
I wrote about this book a couple of years ago, and rereading it I definitely stand by my original post. My only additional note is that on a reread I was very struck by how intentional the execution of the books themes on perception vs identity were. Still a delightful book, and it was a lot of fun to discuss with Orcs & Aliens last night!
Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman. 400 pages. © 2026
Dungeon Crawler Carl vol. 1 by Matt Dinniman, Tevagah, and Laurel Pursuit Studios, 320 pages.
Chasing his ex-girlfriend's cat through the snow is the only thing that saves Carl's life when aliens crush every structure on the surface. Carl follows a stairway underground that leads him to Dungeon Crawler World, the universe's premier game show and exceptionally lethal death game. Carl better learn the rules of this new world fast, because any mistake could be deadly.
I was skeptical of this graphic novel of the popular book, not because I don't like the books, but because I suspected this would mostly be a simplified version of the novel I already read with the addition of some occasionally gnarly art. However, I decided to give it a try when it came across the desk at the library, and I'm glad I did! The art here is very expressive, and conveys the action and feelings of the characters very well in a way that felt like it was actually adding something to the original. They also showed a lot of restraint with illustrating the grosser elements of the source material, which I appreciate a lot. I will probably read more of these as they come out!
I first read and blogged about this book just about a year ago, and I'm still wild about this wackadoodle slipstream/multiverse magical mystery. I love the characters, the complex world that the author created, and I'm very interested in where this story goes next. Super good, though it's nearly impossible to describe. Read it, and then come talk to me.
The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg (2016) 224 pages
I read this on Libby. I like the color scheme of the art and the fantasy of this setting, an alternate land called Early Earth. "In the tradition of the Arabian Nights" is the perfect way to summarize this book. The author is British so cheeky describes the sense of humor in these feminist folk tales. Cherry and Hero outsmart the wicked suitor, Manfred, like Shahrazad delayed the vengeful Sultan, with stories. Hero wins over the guards and others with her stories in a world where women are supposed to be illiterate and powerless. She subverts all expectations.
This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman, 870 pages.
Floor nine of the dungeon means Faction Wars! And, for the first time in history, the rich and powerful aliens who come to the dungeon to play games with their lives can die too. In this seventh book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, the chaos is escalating as the system AI goes of the rails and pandemonium spreads outside the dungeon.
I was really looking forward to this floor, and in some ways it met my expectations, and in some it didn't. On one hand, the out-of-dungeon politics are really interesting, and this book does a great job crystalizing a lot of details of the larger scale plot. On the other, I do feel like this book got a little bogged down in the logistics of a many factioned war, and it often felt less fun and breakneck than many of the other books because of it. I did still enjoy this book, and I will be reading more of the series. I'm excited to be almost caught up!
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (2001), 374 pages
It Takes a Thief to Catch a Sunrise by Rob J Hayes, 345 pages.
Jacques Revou and Isabel de Rosier have just pulled off a daring heist that should be enough to retire on in comfort. Until the king's Shadow Councilor shows up in their house and tells them that all of their accounts have been frozen and they'll work for him if they know what's good for them. So the nation's greatest con artists are soon embedded as nobility in a scheme they don't understand, completely surrounded by people they can't trust.
This was a bit mediocre for me, which is surprising with how much I enjoy a fantasy heist. Unfortunately, it felt like none of these characters were as clever as the book tried to convince me they were, and it didn't come together in a way that was particularly compelling, hindered by clunky writing. I will grant that the steampunk setting was interesting, and I liked how the alchemy played in. I still think I would recommend The Lies of Locke Lamora instead for someone looking for a fantasy heist.
Everybody's Perfect by Jo Walton, 272 pages.
The Serenissima is a world of mists and uncertainty, a mythical shadow of Venice and the crossroads of the nine worlds, and on a level of reality that is just a little less fixed than any of the worlds. Here anything can be true is people believe strongly enough that it is, and anything unobserved or believed in may disappear entirely.
It's hard to say exactly what this book is about. Structurally it passes from hand to hand through the peoples of the Serenissima, each story flowing smoothly into the next. It starts when Tiry dreams that the doge will marry the sea (which is strange because the Serenissima has never had a doge) and ends the next day when it comes to pass, but from one point to another it goes through many different lives, most of whom couldn't care less about the city having a doge.
This is a strange, dreamlike book that throws the reader into the deep end. For the first few chapters I had no real idea what was going on. However, as the world started to breathe (and I had enough context to understand anything), I found myself compelled. For a book that is less than 300 pages long, this is absolutely overflowing with ideas and contemplations on disease, perfection, faith, and love. I think this is a book that would have a lot to offer on a reread, and I could definitely see myself doing that in the future.
This book is scheduled to be published 6/30/2026
Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher, 160 pages.
Goblin troops aren't exactly elite, to put things mildly. They're smelly, rude, cowardly, and lack any intelligence to speak of. But when a troop of nine of them end up deep behind enemy lines after an unfortunate encounter with an enemy wizard, it's up to sergeant Nessilka to get her troops home safely. But despite its calm appearance, the forest they find themselves in is somehow even more dangerous than the battlefield they left, and Nessilka will need help if she wants to get anyone out of this alive.
This was a disappointingly unoriginal take on goblins from Kingfisher, who I expected something really interesting from. I was unsurprised to learn when I read the author's note that this was a reprint of her first book, which was originally self-published. It is still a fun, if fairly basic plot, but the amount of disbelief I had to suspend that the goblins hadn't driven themselves to extinction yet was a little hard to scrounge up. I would recommend reading any other Kingfisher.
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman, 688 pages.
Collum arrives at Camelot desperate to prove himself and earn a place on the round table. Unfortunately, when he arrives he finds only the D-listers of the round table, the last surviving knights after King Arthur and most of the truly great knight died two weeks before at the Battle of Camlann. But, worthy or not, they are pretty much the last traces of the old government, and so must desperately scramble for any sort of quest or sign to find a new king of Britain, and determine the future of the land.
This book is great for fans of Arthurian legend. It is told in alternating snippets of plot and legends, which all come together to make it really feel like Arthuriana. It also makes for a nearly 700 page book with almost zero momentum, which isn't everyone's thing. I found myself really enjoying this book every time I picked it up, but I also didn't find myself reaching for it with any urgency. The prose is very good, and the characters are interesting, so if plot isn't a major concern I can definitely recommend this novel. Also a must read for die-hard fans of Arthurian legend.
Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor, 514 pages.
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, 544 pages
This is an intensely magical book. Laini Taylor's prose is rich and vivid, and it brings a dreamy, magical world to life. It is a book that deals with a lot of dark subject matter, while still believing that the world is beautiful and people are good. I love the characters and the world, and I enjoy how twisty the story can be. This is a hugely underrated book, and I definitely recommend it.
Regan recently wrote an excellent blog post that really encapsulates this cozy and wonderful fantasy novel, so I won't rehash what she's already done. I will say that this was comfy, cozy, and just overall wonderful, and I really loved the way things shook out for Tandy. Highly recommended for fans of Travis Baldree, Rebecca Thorne, and anyone who's ever dreamed of living in a bookstore or library. I can't wait to see what Coombe writes next!
