K. Bird Lincoln's Blog

I confess, I judged a book by its cover and its title. I put this one on my to-read list a long time ago based on a recommendation from a trusted source. And there it languished, unread, because I thought it was just another, perhaps slightly-better-than-usual swords-and-sorcery fantasy focused more on politics/battles than character development because–written by a man.

Nope. Not that at all.

Have you read Muir’s Gideon the Ninth?

Yeah, it’s more l...

Last Samurai Standing

Wow. I mean, wow. The first episode begins with the victory of our main, samurai character about to break through enemy lines in a battle of the Japanese civil war (Tokugawa shogunate against Imperial restoration forces) called the Boshin war in the late 1800’s. An unimaginable tragedy happens instead.

Cut to our samurai’s current impoverished wife, caring for his family struck down by cholera. He has no money for medicines and is lured in by a mysterious pamphlet tal...

Living in Minnesota, in the past few years I’ve become interested in romances and contemporary lit featuring indigenous characters (and particularly Anishinaabe) such as Pamela Sanderson’s Crooked Rock series, Where Wolves Don’t die, and Danica Nava romances). I picked this one up solely because it was written by a Minnesota writer known primarily for her cookbook of native/foraged foods.

It was sweet. The main character has just discovered her (now ex) fiancee was cheating on her. The he...

Once again Moreno-Garcia proves she’s the queen of atmospheric, tense, gothic stories filled with characters caught between pain, desire, love, and greed.

This time in not one, not two but THREE different time periods. And typically in stories like this I don’t get enough characterization to make me fall in love with the heroines, but Moreno-Garcia weaves a magic of her own that had me completely invested in all three.

Minerva– an international res...

Crescent City #2 House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

So five years ago I read the first book in the Crescent City series and was hooked. I loved Bryce in the context of her discovering her powers and her friendship with Danika, etc. At the end of the review I said “I’ll definitely be going on to the next book” despite being somewhat irritated with the constant ogling of muscles on various super handsome Vanir.

Well, I just read the second book– and ended up skimming so much.

Sigh. ...

Did you finish The Queen’s Gambit and immediately missed seeing a waifish, doe-eyed woman literally mop the floor with her opponents in a game requiring nerves of steel? Wished for more quirky and problematic male sidekicks? I have your show (on Netflix): Miss King.

Enter the cut throat world of professional Shogi players, J-Drama style.

Asuka’s father abandoned them when she was small and she’s grown up as the caretaker for her emotionally devastated mother. But when the mother dies, su...

I am absolutely on the genre fiction villain as POV train. Bring on the Romantic Fantasy assistant to the villain and hench, bring on the rehabilitated superhero romance, bring on the cozy not-so-wicked witch, and the morally grey villain found-family.

The villain in question here is a Dark Wizard. His name is The Dread Lord Gavrax  and he’s just woken up in a workroom in shambles without many, many important memories. So he’s winging it. Especially when his cas...

This story felt both like fan service for readers of the first book in terms of fleshing out some of our favorite side characters (Exclee! Mr. Cheeks! Mr. Cross!) coupled with just not quite enough details/memory help to place this particular version of our characters vs the versions we learned a lot about in the first book (Cara’s home world.) In particular, Nik Nik was hard for me to pin down. Was he the abusive guy? Was t...

Well I suppose I’m a bona fide Emily Henry fan now. I’ve read a bit of her YA magical realism and a couple of her contemporary romances and I’m fairly hooked. 

This one is tried-and-true tightly laced librarian more or less left at the altar has to vacate her shared house with her ex-fiancee and ends up moving in with the ex of the woman she got dumped for. Miles. 

Miles works at a winery in the summer season (Michigan wine!) and has a little sister who immedi...

I have been reluctant recently to try male high fantasy authors. I am not the biggest fan of Grimdark or LitRPG and did not watch Game of Thrones. I go to fantasy usually out of nostalgia for JR Tolkien or romance or for works like N.K. Jemisin that use fantasy to reflect back the intricacies and fallacies of contemporary life.

But this one surprised me. Not due to the intricately built fantasy society (an empire that is ...