Being trapped onboard a ship with an unknown murderer is a frightening enough prospect on its own, without adding powerful magic to the mix. Luckily Maud Blyth is just as undaunted in the face of overwhelming odds as her brother Robin. I just reviewed A Marvellous Light, Book 1 in Freya Marske’s The Last Binding trilogy, the other week and went straight from finishing that one to reading the sequel. A Restless Truth, the second book in this fantasy romance series came out at the beginning of November. Continue reading Review of A Restless Truth—Magical Murder at Sea
Month: November 2022
Mushroom Horror
Lately, I’ve been noticing a rising trend in fungal-themed horror novels, or what some corners of the internet are starting to dub “sporror.” (Get it? Like spores?) Mushrooms and their kin have many characteristics that lend themselves quite well to horror. For one thing, there’s still so much that we don’t know about these organisms—only in the last decade or so have we started to understand the vast mycelium networks that exist unseen beneath the soil, linking miles of forest and providing all sorts of important contributions to the ecosystem. On top of that, mushrooms, molds, and yeasts are strange, almost alien in the way that they defy categorization. They have elements of both plant and animal, and yet are neither. They are also associated with dark, damp, underground spaces and are noted for their role in decomposition. Through the recreational use of psychedelic mushrooms, these organisms have also been linked with the fantastical and surreal, with hallucinatory visions and altered states of mind. There are many poisonous mushrooms that can be fatal to humans, and some of them look deceptively similar to their less toxic brethren. Then there are the parasitic fungi, which can infect and feed off of plants, animals, insects, and humans in often gruesome ways. With so many potentially horrific directions to go in, I think we will only continue to see even more mushroom horror in the future. Below is just a sampling of works that feature frightening fungi:
A Marvellous Light Review—Edwardian Magicians
Getting cursed is just about the worst way to find out magic is real… An English baronet finds himself thrown headfirst into the world of magical conspiracies and sorcerer soirees in A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, which came out last year. I’ve been a long-time fan of Marske’s podcast, Be the Serpent, but only just picked up her first book in preparation for reading the sequel, A Restless Truth, which came out earlier this month. Continue reading A Marvellous Light Review—Edwardian Magicians
Nona the Ninth Review
The world has ended before, but it could always end again…. The first two books of the Locked Tomb series (Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth) were two of my favorite books from the last few years, and now Tamsyn Muir is back with the third installment! Nona the Ninth, the penultimate book in this projected quartet, came out earlier this fall and continues to prove that Muir is one of the most creative minds in today’s science-fiction and fantasy scene. Continue reading Nona the Ninth Review