The weather is turning chilly. Soon, Starbucks will be changing their seasonal menu…

But before I settle into autumn, let’s look at what summer’s last gasp brought with it.

Marvel’s Black Widow: Bad Blood

My self-destruction at the hands of two of my favourite Avengers continued this month, at a pace that impressed the heck out of me. Here are the reviews I posted:

• Episode 5: “Flashback City”
• Episode 6: “A Trap with a View”
• Episode 7: “Of Monsters and Men”
• Episode 8: “Old Friends”
• Episode 9: “Black Tie”
• Episode 10: “White Nights”
• Episode 11: “The Carrot and the Stick”

I have very recently decided to scale back the frequency of these reviews a little just to cut myself some slack (and to make room for upcoming blog projects), but the reading and reviewing is continuing and there will be at least one Black Widow review a week until I reach the finale, which I cannot wait to do!

 

 

Annihilation Aria (Book One of the Space Operas) by Michael R. Underwood

I’d been looking forward to reading this book for months before it finally got its release, and it absolutely did not disappoint me. I described it on Twitter, in a delighted frenzy, as being like The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet meets Indiana Jones, and while there is a metric ton more to it than that, I feel like that’s still a great way to sell it. Seriously, if that description does anything at all for you, you want to give this a try. I’ve been a fan of Michael R. Underwood since his Serial Box outing with Born To The Blade, and everything I appreciated about that story, he brought tenfold to this one. The action, the drama, the space opera scale, the ease with which his characters engaged me – I cannot recommend this enough.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This is taking a dramatic turn away from SFF into straight-up romance, but I like to do that on occasion and this book is definitely worth shouting about. Set in a soothingly non-right-wing version of our world where a woman is elected President, this story is centred on the (sort of) enemies-to-lovers story of the First Son of the United States and the young Prince of Wales. There is election drama, and some of the standard “expectation” where core members of the Royal Family are concerned, but by the end this story had me reaching for the tissues for all the best reasons. If you’re craving a story about love between lovers, friends AND family all in one sparklingly witty package, this is a book for you.

Nine Hearths

D&D update: Everything is fine! Sort of. I mean, our town WAS under attack and might still see trouble, but our adventuring party is home now and surely they will not complicate anything unnecessarily or go off on another hare-brained trek straight into more trouble. Surely.

It was a relatively low-key session this time out, but we make it home in record time thanks to discovering, and working out how to use, a teleportation circle in the mage’s tower. Having a bard in the party is pretty awesome, by the way. I mean, there’s also the fact that the teleportation circle bamf’d us into an abandoned underground village that none of us was aware even existed, but we got out without any trouble and we are probably certainly not planning on going back to investigate when there isn’t a dire emergency above ground to worry about…

 

 

Read As Thou Wilt: The Kushiel’s Dart Read Along

I’m getting a rare chance to reread an old favourite with some wonderful blogger people in September!

imyril, my long-time friend/collaborator/partner in nerdy crime, has organised this readalong and it will be kicking off with discussion posts this Thursday, September 3rd, for six weeks of reading, discussion and probably a lot of flailing.

You can check out the readalong schedule here, and feel free to join in either in the blog comments, with your own posts (drop us a link each week!) or on Twitter, with the hashtag #ReadAsThouWilt and tagging @wyrdandwonder.

 

Spooktastic Reads 2020

Our Wyrd & Wonder Halloween special mini-event is returning this year, and we’re gearing up as I type this! Ever our diligent organisational wizard, imyril posted the official announcement a week ago, and I have plans. Oh yes.

As before, there’s no official sign-up for this event. Just pick your dark fantasy/horror/ghost story poison (not limited to books!), and revel in the spooky glory! You can tag us @wyrdandwonder, and tweet using the hashtag #SpooktasticReads.

Our banner art has been licensed for use for this event online. You are welcome to use it if you’re joining in the event, but other than resizing as needed we ask that you do not make any changes to the image. And please remember to always credit the artist! (See caption under banner, above.)