viewRed Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone (2024)
Helming Robert E. Howard's Red Sonja, author Gail Simone demonstrates a bard's touch for the Sword & Sorcery genre.
Simone celebrates the character's excesses and writes her lively action sequences, on the battlefield and in the bedroom. At times, overburdened by side quests, but the epic boss battles thrill with clear emotional stakes.
Chapters opening with historical documents, folklore, and societal analysis ground the narrative in a larger world but in inventive ways.
The Falcon's “Blood Man” is a devastating character study of violent male fragility. His POV chapters are like reading the manifesto of a real-world incel terrorist.
Read it.
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viewThe Blacktongue Thief – Christopher Buehlman (2021)
Branded deadbeat by his thieves guild, rare of coin, but still a romantic optimist (when he's feeling lucky), protagonist Kinch Na Shannack colorfully narrates us along his macabre adventures.
What unfolds is a rollicking low fantasy adventure—more taverns and flophouses than courtly castles. Kinch picks up a motley crew, including a red wine-obsessed knight who stores giant fighting birds in her tattoos, a paraplegic witch who enchants recently deceased torsos to walk, and an assassin cat.
Magic systems and world-building are inventive but subtle, opting to start small and grow.
Ever the trickster, Kinch is a riot. Read it.
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viewNeko Case – The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir (2025)
Most will start this expecting Neko's tales of Rock & Roll, only to read a memoir about poverty, family pain, and generational trauma. Case presents a stark look at growing up poor and neglected in North America.
There are some music business bits, but they feel like addenda to her rich story. Music helped save her, but it's only part of her narrative. Her quest to find her Slavic heritage resonated with me, from horse-riding women warriors to lady wrestlers to The Muffs.
Her writing crackles with verve. She dashes off analogies, deploying wordplay with a songwriter's touch. Listen to it.
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