Booked Panda Reviews

 Threads That Bind  by Kika Hatzopoulou Release Date: July 3, 2018   Genre: Fantasy Age Range: YA Series: Threads That Bind Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 3.97 stars   Threads that Bind takes place in Alante, the sunken city. As it is a coastal city every evening the tide comes in and floods the lower levels. The buildings are made to withstand this though so it is rather ingenious. This world is made up of city-states now after the Collapse of the old world centuries before. Now there is less livable space and drinking water. The cities went to war over claims of icebergs. Technology appears to be in its infancy again. I would hazard somewhere around the fifties era with the items mentioned. It does not go to in-depth about what happened except with the magical bloodlines. Magic comes from the gods descendants. Even though the Moria and other Gods died centuries before people are still born with other born abilities. It is not common I believe they said it is 1 in 100 for Alante. These other

 Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands  by Heather Fawcett Release Date: January 16, 2024  Genre: Historical Fantasy Age Range: Adult Series: Emily Wilde Proceeded by:     Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia                   of Faeries Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 4.51 stars Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the chance to read this ARC. Really, I had not even read the first book before getting this. It was so hyped but now I had to prioritize it. Now for the type of novel it is there is not a high level of world-building. However, as in the first book we are treated to several tidbits of reference text that help. As well as the stories of the fae help to bring the story together. This is another version of our world where the fae exist and are known to mortals. Not just known but actively researched. This is the greatest addition to the world building the lore of fairy as told by the dryadologists. The magic of this world seems to be solely a fairy thing. There are several differen

Book Review:  Empire of Silence  by Christopher Ruocchio Release Date: July 3, 2018  Genre: Sci-Fi Age Range: Adult Series: Sun Eater Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 4.05 stars It's odd to feel so hyped to start a series, that while it's been talked about it is still slightly smaller known. Starting this book, even a few chapters in, I noticed that this one was feeling slow. Not for lack of things happening just the amount of detail put into it it has made the pace feel that way, to me at least. As this is going to be a universe-spanning series I'm sure that we only got a hint of actual world-building. What we were given was amazingly intriguing and also maybe a lot to try to describe here. Let me know in the comments if this is too much. The book takes place far into the future. At this period we have been gone from Earth so long it has become a deity itself. The religious order for this is called the Chantry and they hold the Sollan Empire in a power grip of fear. After an event

 Children of Memory  by Adrian Tchaikovsky   Release Date: January 31, 2023  Genre: Sci-Fi Age Range: Adult Series: Children of Time Proceeded by: Children of Ruin Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 4.05 stars One day I will start recording my first thoughts before finishing a book. Since this was not a case of that let us just move on I was excited to read this final installment. While the previous two books in the trilogy had a fair bit of world-building this one was lacking. Yes, we were given an alien landscape and people. However, I do not feel we got near the level of building and detail as before. This could be due to the majority of the story having an air of unsettling mystery waiting in the wings. This book takes place on Imir, one of the lost terraforming planets. Imir is a very harsh environment, even more so than Nord. The colonists were only able to find a very small area to be forced into supporting Earth life. There are very few planets and animals able to be altered to grow here.

 Black Sheep   by Rachel Harrison   Release Date: September 19, 2023 Genre: Horror Age Range: Adult Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 3.67 stars I was so excited to dive into another Rachel Harrison book. Such Sharp Teeth was so good. Maybe December wasn't the right month to try this in. Though after reaching the end I can't say that it might have made that much impact. This is a book set in Vermont mostly. Our main character travels back to her family farm and we are there for the majority, either in present or memories. With this, you would think it would have been described a bit more. The main house is described with all of its horror movie and gothic memorabilia. Otherwise, we aren't given much. Our main character is Vesper Wright, a 23-year-old waitress. She is working at a job that she hates just skating by in life. Vesper is not particularly nice to her coworkers or tries to make friends. She went through a traumatic childhood and attempted to bury her past. She really should

 Fourth Wing  by Rebecca Yarros   Release Date: May 2, 2023 Genre: Romantasy Age Range: Adult Series: The Empyrean Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 4.62 stars Finally, I have read Fourth Wing. While it started off interesting it took a while for me to figure out why people were either loving or hating this book. I still don't fully understand both camps. Also, I reserve the right to change parts of this later once my brain is fully functioning again. Stupid sinuses.* The book does a pretty average job at world-building for a romatancy. We mostly focus on the home country of Navarre. However, it is detailed in how long the country has been around, where the magic comes from, and what the landscape of borders looks like. Towards the end, there is even a startling detail laid out for our main character. Focusing within the country would be all the details of Basgaith War College. At the college, we are mostly given the detailed track of the Rider quadrant. Magic in this world comes from dragon