TOP PICKS – February 2023
Welcome to this month’s Top Picks!
Every month, we’re going to share with you our favourite reads of the month. We’ve rounded up our contributors and asked them each to recommend just one (looking at you Jonathan) favourite read of the month.
A big thank you to Nils for coming up with this feature, and our contributors for taking part!
Beth: The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix
So far this month I’ve read two books that have both been excellent, Garth Nix’s The Sinister Booksellers of Bath and Thomas D. Lee’s modern Arthurian adventure Perilous Times. I think Sinister gets my top pick though as I loved this one so much, and it’s now the end of the month and I’m still missing it.
Sinister is the sequel to The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, and sees Susan Arkshaw dragged into a whole new conundrum just when she’s trying to spend some quality time with her mum for the festive period. The adventure is set closer to home this time, in Bath, and Nix serves us a delightful mix of British mythology, folklore and legend – from Arthurian legend and the Roman’s Minerva, through to Georgian wizards. All whilst packing in as many literary nods as possible.
Review to come | Pre-order Here
Dorian: Blackflame by Will Wight
I’m going to choose Blackflame, the third book in Will Wight’s Cradle series. This has been my first foray into the world of progression fantasy, and I can see why people dig it. The books are strangely compelling, given that in some sense they’re just a reeeeealy long training montage, mixed in with the occasional Last-Airbender-ish special-effect-extravaganza fight scene. But I can’t deny that I’m enjoying watching the main character progress from a weakling nobody to a formidable wizard. (I’m sure I just made a lot of people mad by calling Lindon a wizard, but the full truth would take too long to explain!)
Also, the book includes a main secondary character, Eithan Arelius, whose every scene I absolutely love.
Gray: Blindsight by Peter Watts
I love that there isn’t a single character in Cradle that can say “Eithan” without narrowing their eyes or groaning.
The best book that I read this month was Blindsight by Peter Watts, but at the same time I’m not certain that I can recommend it. It goes beyond being a demanding read into forcing you to nip away from the book to do some extra research to fully understand how the oft referenced science is working, also it is almost guaranteed to give any reader an existential crisis. But on the other hand… vampire in space.
Julia: War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
So inspired by black history month, I focussed on POC SFF authors this month. The choice wasn’t an easy one between Ikenga, Song of Blood & Stone, The Gilded Wolves, Kingdom of Souls and The AI Who Loved Me and War Girls!
In the end, if I have to choose, if you really force me to, I’ll go with War Girls. I loved the modern twist on the Nigerian Civil War, which managed to be both a gripping and action packed SciFi, while also allowing a good glimpse into a rarely mentioned event. Two sisters at opposing sides have some well handled extra friction, and I personally always love that sort of relationship.
Jonathan: The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce
Another month where I’ve read some absolutely wonderful books, but the top prize for February has to go to Camilla Bruce’s superlative The Witch In The Well, a modern horror masterpiece that scared the hell out of me. This marks Bruce’s second great book of 2023, which is showing off frankly!
Jonathan’s review | Available Now
Nils: The Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan
I have also read some fantastic books this month and I’ve struggled to choose my favourite between Heir of Novron by Michael J Sullivan and The Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan. I’m not going to break my own rules, the Hive team would come at me with pitchforks if I even tried! So I’m choosing The Tyranny of Faith.
This sequel is just phenomenal, everything that I wanted explored in further depth after the first book, The Justice of Kings, plays out spectacularly throughout. There’s a wonderful balance between political intrigue, religion, law and much more necromancy. This is such a fresh medieval fantasy.
Review to come | Available Now
Theo: Hyperion by Dan Simmons
In the end I had to choose between Anna Smith Spark’s A Woman of the Sword (which I got as an ARC) and Dan Simmons’ Hyperion (which – like so many great reads – was a word of mouth recommendation from a friend). I – and Anna – will have lots to say about A Woman of the Sword in both author interview and review next month, so for this post I am picking Hyperion.
It’s a sprawling epic of imagination in which Simmons conjures a half dozen distinctive and enthralling voices, as a future set band of Canterbury Tales style space pilgrims tell their compelling back stories against the context of a world collapsing into disorder.
Scarlett: Notes From the Burning Age by Claire North
I love seeing what everyone’s choices (and struggles to nominate just one book) are! Hyperion is the one that “got away”, out of sight out of mind for me, and it has sat on my tbr for too long. I will make it this year…a promise to self. Fingers crossed! I never hear anything but stellar thoughts on it.
My reading month was filled with a variety of genres and I have continued the leisure mood reading pace from the last months. Among manga, thrillers, horror and sci-fi, there are three novels that stood out to me. Pines by Blake Crouch was fantastic. Loved the mind-boggling, twisty delivery of it. Flames of Mira by Clay Hammond, a fantasy about cursed flesh magic bound by elementals. Quite interesting premise and setting!
But my choice for the best book read this month goes to Notes From the Burning Age by Claire North. This story, albeit its unhurried pace about a monk secretly translating archaic texts of our fallen world, was immersive and character-driven. Claire’s prose stands out smooth and enveloping against the stark contrast of the climate within that story. A mesh I found rather captivating!
What was your favourite read of the month? Share with us in the comments!
