– What Happened –
What happened?? I discovered Magic the Gathering: Arena on iPhone, that’s what happened. I’ve lost lost entire days of my life to that game, and I’m shocked to find out that it’s suddenly almost May.
I’ve always wanted to play MTG but never met anyone else who played, so I’ve had a blast learning how to create a deck strategy using the app (I immediately set out to create a card deck based on cats… I’m currently upgrading it to the ‘Flying Kitties!’ deck). Last night I even found the old duel deck I bought years ago and forced my partner to play (I lost).
ANYWAY. Before my life was derailed by being terrible at a fantasy card game, I was making my way steadily through Seth Dickinson’s The Masquerade series which tells the story of Baru Cormorant, a brilliant accountant determined to save her home nation from the clutch of the Falcresti empire. I have around 200 pages left of book three and I am SO into it. I was planning to post a review of the complete series until I found out that there is an upcoming fourth instalment (does anyone else assume that every fantasy series is a trilogy?). I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the upcoming UK paperback edition of The Tyrant, so I’ll figure out how to write a spoiler-free review of the third book in the series. It will probably just be me explaining that the books are too complicated for me to talk about coherently. I’m sure it’ll be really useful for readers.
At the start of the month, I went rogue and read a non-SFF book, The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. Admittedly, I had a suspicion based on the book description that it would contain elements of fantasy (it didn’t).
If anything, this book reminded me that I’m very much comfortable in my SFF cave. I finished it because I wanted to see how it ended, and there was a surprising POV that I loved but won’t spoil by talking about. I was annoyed throughout most of the book by the stigmatisation of mental illness which, in my experience, seems to be the status quo in a lot of crime and thriller books/films. Surprisingly, the author’s acknowledgements and bibliography (don’t read either until you’ve read the book) make it clear that her portrayal of mental illness was very thoroughly researched. The book does ultimately have a positive message, though I still find the medium in which it is sent a little odd. It’s a dark but interesting read, and I’m curious to see how the Andy Serkis-produced adaptation will turn out.
– The Damage –
Well the website I use to create my monthly damage-o-meter graph won’t let me log in, which is probably for the best because 14 hardbacks and 4 ebooks is an absurd number of books to buy. No, YOU have a problem.
Ebook Purchases
Physical Books and Pre-Orders
– What’s Gonna Happen –
May is that time of year when blogs get wyrd, and the fantastic(al) @deargeekplace, @imyril and @joriestory are once again hosting #WyrdAndWonder! It’s pretty much the reason why Twitter was invented (citation not needed). Head over to onemore.org to find out more and join the fun!
I joined Book Twitter during the event last year, and it was such a fantastic way to meet readers and bloggers with similar tastes. This year I pretty much used it to justify taking 3 weeks off before starting a new job.
For my #WyrdAndWonder TBR I wanted to read a few books from my shelf that I’ve been itching to pick up for a while. It turns out that most of my priority reads are also finalists for the 2021 Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards, so I used their shortlist to help me narrow down my choices:
I haven’t had time to plan any fancy content other than reviews, but I’ll hopefully be running some sort of giveaway, since 20th May is my one year blogversary!
On top of my TBR stack, I have a copy of A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark I’m excited to start, and I’ll be reading Shard of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky ahead of TheWriteReads book tour in June!
How will you be spending your May?
Support independent bookstores and my blog by buying from bookshop.org
Jake is Reading 
It’s official: 2021 is the year where I just collect quotes from awesome people being lovely about stuff. Expect to see “Pretty much the reason Twitter was invented” hit the Wyrd And Wonder profile soon and yes I’m citing you 😉
I can’t believe you’ve only been blogging a year, but WAHEY it’s nearly your first blogoversary! Shenanigans!
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Woop woop Wyrd & wonder is the best! I’m hoping to read all the Baru Cormorant books this month, glad you enjoyed them.
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I’m struggling to keep track of everything in book three, but I’ve really enjoyed the experience regardless. Having to wait for the fourth books caught me by surprise haha.
Looking forward to seeing your WaW posts!
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Such a pretty stack! Wyrd and Wonder is great, glad you found the community during it last year! I enjoyed Black Sun and The House in the Cerulean Sea. Good luck with MTG…I went down a similar rabbit hole with the Elder Scrolls card game a few years back. I just love the balance of strategy and luck with those kinds of games! Which is how I’ve lost so many, many hours to Slay the Spire instead….
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Thank you! I think it’d be more fun to play with real cards, so once we’ve got the hang of it I’d like to buy some packs.
I’m scared to ask about Elder Scrolls and Slay the Spire, I don’t need anything else to consume my spare time 😂
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Slay the Spire is so gooooood. It’s a roguelike card game, meaning you start with a base deck of ten cards, and then every battle you win you get to add a new card (if you want). You’re trying to battle your way through three floors of monsters, random events, and bosses. If you lose, you start at the beginning again.
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That sounds amazing! Will definitely look it up
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Hooray for another round of Wyrd & Wonder! I haven’t read any of the books on your TBR – it looks like a solid stack. I’d like to try Black Sun sometime but the length intimidates me 😛
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