– What Happened –
May was the most wonderful time of the year once again, with Wyrd and Wonder taking over social media! It’s been lovely to see everybody’s reviews, recommendations, and responses to the Wyrd & Wonder Challenge.
I didn’t get as involved in the event as I would have liked, but I am currently running a U.K. giveaway to celebrate. Check out the tweet and enter before 01/06! You can also catch up on coverage of the fantastical action by checking out the brilliant organisers @deargeekplace, @imyril and @joriestory!
First off, I finished The Tyrant by Seth Dickinson, probably my favourite book in his Masquerade series so far. I’d been planning to write my first ‘series in review’ post until I found out that there will be a fourth Baru Cormorant novel sometime in the future. Instead, I tried my hand at a spoiler-free review of this third instalment. Not sure how I did!
I also reviewed A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark, my most anticipated 2021 release. While it didn’t blow me away quite as much as I’d hoped, it’s an exciting alternate history-cum-urban fantasy-cum-police procedural, and I still think that any opportunity to experience Clark’s talent for worldbuilding is one worth taking.
I had planned to read some of the brilliant finalists in the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards but only ended up reading The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. I understood Cerulean Sea to be the Pixar film of speculative fiction, specifically the kind that makes you cry happysad tears. So I was surprised that the writing style didn’t really work for me. It had a sort of dry, British humour that felt a little awkward at times. But in the end, the story did tug at my sinewy old heartstrings so I bid the lovely cast of characters a fond farewell with a 4-star rating.
After these books, I went 100% into mood reader mode. I picked up Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim (mostly because of the cover) and absolutely adored it. I also listened to a recording of Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather, sharing a slapdash review after enjoying the concept of spacefaring nuns quite a lot.
Finally, I read The Shard of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a favourite author of mine, for an upcoming blog tour hosted by @The_WriteReads. I found this one a little tough to get through, though I think this was down to reading it for small periods at a time, making it tough to remember all of the character names, places etc.
May also marked one year of writing book reviews on jakeisreading.com, and I’m proud to have made it this far! I was too unorganised to commemorate the occasion, but I’d like to write a post at some point to celebrate and thank all the people that have made the blogging community such a friendly one.
– The Damage –
… No comment.
Ebook Purchases
Physical Books and Pre-Orders
– What’s Gonna Happen –
Shards of Earth has had a very positive reception so far, and I’m looking forwad to sharing my thoughts on the 6th of June!
I’m also starting a new job this month but hope to check out these review copies and perhaps do a little more mood reading:
What will you be reading this June?
Support independent bookstores and my blog by buying from bookshop.org
Jake is Reading 
I never did get round to starting The Masquerade series this month and it’s making me sad. It’s a cliché in the blogging world but it’s so true there’s constantly dozens of books vying for the top spot on the TBR and the sad truth is choices have to be made. I really REALLY want to read this series though, so many people have recommended it to me.
I really enjoyed your review of Sisters of the Vast Black by the way, you put that one on my radar. So many delicious books on that list of stuff you’ve bought this month too; Kushiel’s Dart has been recced to me a bunch as well, from Peat, imyril and bkfrgr to name but a few.
I was hoping to read Black Leopard Red Wolf for Wyrd & Wonder. I don’t know if it’s grimdark exactly, but it certainly gave me the vibes when I was looking into it, and a lot of the stuff I was reading was by white dudes. I’m sad to say I didn’t make enough effort so it’s still on my TBR unread. Dunno if grimdark as a genre is actually dominated by white blokes or if I just didn’t look hard enough, but if I have any regrets about my W&W reading it’s that it was a bit too homogenous.
Really enjoyed reading through this post 🙂
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Congrats on one year, Jake! I’m very curious about Shards of Earth, even though it sounds like it didn’t work that well for you.
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Thank you, Tammy! And thank you for all of your encouragement over the last year 😊
I think I prefer Children of Eden, but it has an interesting concept and curious to see where book two goes
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Thanks for reading! I’m curious to see what you think of Baru Cormorant! In a way I felt a bit overwhelmed by the plot and everything going on, so I didn’t feel like I could analyse it too rigorously. But I’m interested to see what your critical mind thinks of it! I think it will give you more to chew on than the standard fantasy series.
I’m slightly nervous to read Black Leopard, but randomly got a signed copy from eBay for £7.50. I’ll definitely check it out sometime soon
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Ahahahah, oh no, your poor TBR, all those books you hauled…on the other hand, they all look amazing, so you probably still won. 🙂 I’m so excited for CATALYST GATE, that series is so much fun!
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Me tooo!! This will actually be the first time I’ve picked up a book in a series without reading the previously books immediately before. I’m worried about what I’ve forgotten 😅
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