Review of Steven Erikson’s GARDENS OF THE MOON

This is a tricky review for me because I absolutely love this series (books 2, 3 and 4, specifically). But I didn’t love it at first. In fact, I had a pretty hard time getting through it. So here’s the deal: if you read this, you need to treat it as a very long prologue to one of the most epic and huge fantasy series of all time.

Review of Scott Lynch’s LIES

The debut story of Locke Lamora is gripping and crammed with an intense gamut of emotion. Though the secondary world is vividly realized, the characters are what make this novel shine. The dialogue is sharply witty and every motivation fits its corresponding personality like a snug winter jacket. Sections of intentional world-building stood out from the rest of the action, but even though this stole some momentum from the main plot, each instance of description was redeemed through later relevance. My only disappointment was in the main character, the titular…