Booked Panda Reviews

  Book Review:  Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio Release Date: July 16, 2019  Genre: Sci-Fi Age Range: Adult Series: Sun Eater Proceeded by:     Empire of Silence Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 4.37 stars My goodness, where to even start with this review? I have been pondering that since finishing yesterday. Mostly I worry that I will not convey the main point or theme of this one as well because this is a very character-heavy book, more so than even the first, and I am not the most character-focused reader. You have been warned so let's go. Our understanding of the Sun Eater universe is definitely expanded in this novel. At different points, we are shown two to three different cultures. Early on Hadrian encounters the Extrasolarians that we had only heard about in the first novel. These people frighten many of his crew. Hadrian, even not believing himself to be a very pious person, starts praying at the sight of these augmented humans. The Extrasolarian ports they visit are described

  Book Review: The Lesser Devil  by  Christopher Ruocchio Release Date: February 1, 2020  Genre: Sci-Fi Age Range: Adult Series: Sun Eater Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 4.02 stars This is a novella between books one and two. Due to this, I'm going to structure this review slightly differently. Let me know what you think. Here is the link ( Empire of Silence ) to the first book if you haven't checked it out yet. In this title, we are following Crispin Marlowe. From the first book being from his brother's perspective, our view of Crispin might be jaded. This book gives such a different outlook on Crispin though. We see that he has grown in the time Hadrian has been gone. Even still he is like all landed nobles slightly out of touch with the workings of the wider universe. There is now a third Marlowe child as well, Sabine. Crispin is dedicated to protecting his younger sister. I love that this book showed us this view of Crispin. Before he was just a child (a large teenager but a

 House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas Mostly Spoiler Free Book Review Release Date: January 30, 2024  Genre: Fantasy Age Range: Adult Series: Crescent City Proceeded by:     House of Sky and Breath Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 4.43 stars Not sure how to structure the worldbuilding here as this is the third novel so most of you would already know several of the details. In this novel, we get a lot of history for both planets. The things Bryce was learning from 15,000 years ago connected Midgard to Prythian. This part was really cool and sad at the same time. It was really dark information about who the Fae at the time were. The First Wars that we have heard about are spun in new details. I wish we could have really gotten more information about the Asteri. It did give a lot more context to the lore. Such as showing that the Asteri and the Daglan are the same beings. However, it still leaves other questions unanswered. For Midgard though there is going to be a lot of change through the b

 The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett                          Release Date: July 3, 2018 Genre: Fantasy Age Range: Adult Series: Shadow of the Leviathan Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 4.33 stars Hmm, should I have read Sherlock Holmes before this? Or maybe one of the author's other works. Is this his normal writing style? This story takes place in the Khanum Empire. It is a land that lives with a level of fear of the wet seasons. For in the wet seasons, the chance of having the sea walls breached by a leviathan and contagions spread is much higher. That's right this land is filled with monstrous sea creatures, however you only get one disturbing glance at them. I feel from how it was described that it might come back to be an important fact. The empire is set up in a series of rings of land called Kantons. The outermost kanton is against the sea. The legion there is responsible for the defense of the whole empire. It is only briefly mentioned but there was another species before

 Silver in the Bone by Alexandra Bracken Release Date: April 4, 2023  Genre: Fantasy Age Range: YA Series: Silver in the Bone Goodreads  Avg. Rating: 3.92 stars Okay, from the first day, I wasn't very into the story. I wanted to like it a lot as it revolves around Arthurian legends. So I kept going. This is an urban fantasy, somewhat. It does start in our world but then there is also Avalon. The majority of the book will take place on the isle of legend. Here the old magics are still following. There are fantastical creatures and of course, the priestesses that guard the isle. Most of the lore of the book comes from tales of Arthur and Avalon that were in the mortal realm. There are a few told by the priestesses. Thus we didn't get a lot of world-building for the book. Magic in this series is pretty straightforward. Those that can see it are said to have the One Vision. Only priestesses or sorceresses can harness magic in the mortal world. They do so with a language of symbols.

  Ten Anticipated Titles for  February 2024        Happy February. Many exciting new books are releasing this month. This list specifically is made up of adult Fantasy and Science Fiction titles ordered by release date. The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett Publication Date : 02/06/24 Subjects : Detective Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Mystery & Crime Series : Shadow of the Leviathon Available at these retailers: Barnes & Noble                                 Description :      In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible. Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times and that she can solve impossible cas