Jan 5, 2019: Michael is a disco-loving young man who’s passion for music leads him to discover a mysterious power: by focusing on certain songs, he can manifest various superhuman abilities for as long as the music plays! This discovery very quickly leads to encounters with others like himself, and he is soon thrust into dangerous adventures within the secret world of Music Masters!

The main analogy Music Masters makes me think of is a teen adventure cartoon in prose. The conceit of the [more . . .]

Dec 29, 2018: In the end, it’s always nice to return to superheroes. Powers, capes, costumes, they’re attractive in works of fiction and it’s nice to see how the formula can be jostled or shaken with each new work involving them.

As someone who is beginning to grow weary of superpower stories, I have to say I was glad to have read Graven to completion.

The story takes place in an alternate future Earth of [more . . .]

Dec 27, 2018: Maiden’s Moon is a fantasy tale that does a good job at drawing the reader slowly into its world. We initially start following two very different women – one who carries a plain looking but magical instrument to a competition in one of the most populous cities in her world, and one who is a bit of a bookish misfit in her warlike community.

I liked how the author gradually introduces her world and its intricacies and traditions to the reader, [more . . .]

Dec 24, 2018: Juryokine is a fun and really solidly written piece of YA literature. It follows a bit of that classic "humble boy meets spunky girl, adventures and shenanigans ensue" formula that leads to an enjoyable tale of heroism and acceptance.

The fantasy world presented is an interesting one, where in there is only one blatantly supernatural element (the gravity control powers of the winged Sorakine race), while the technology of the human society could be seen as simply an alternate path to [more . . .]

Dec 21, 2018: Fuji is an interesting, if not fully developed story about a man named Kenshi, who leads a storied life on a mystical island known as Nihon.

There’s a lot of promise to this story, and it particularly borrows from samurai fiction and other eastern works in stride. The prose is simple and to the point, which can be sometimes underwhelming especially at points where you find yourself just wanting to know about Kenshi as a character.

[more . . .]

Dec 16, 2018: Antlers, Colorado is really something special. I already knew Marn was a great author from reading their other works, but Antlers blew it out of the park. The writing is exceptional, there’s an INCREDIBLE amount of LGBT+ characters (that is completely casual and natural; one never feels like a certain character is a ‘token’ included for representation points), and the plot is out of this world (literally, sometimes). I found myself falling in love with pretty much every character Marn introduced us to, and lost a good amount of sleep [more . . .]