Flying witch artwork by astromoali

It’s May 1st and you know what that means! Bank Holiday! Yes, but more importantly, 

Wyrd and Wonder is back!

Every year we love taking part in this month-long celebration of all things Fantasy.

But wait! Aren’t you guys the Fantasy Hive? Don’t you celebrate fantasy all the time?

Yes we do! And ooh look at that shiny thing behind you…

Wyrd and Wonder is an online blogging event started in 2018 by bloggers Imyril, Lisa and Jorie. This year’s hosts are Annemieke (A Dance With Books), Ariane (The Book Nook), Jorie (Jorie Loves A Story), Lisa (Dear Geek Place) and imyril (There’s Always Room For One More). 

This year’s theme is the rather broad one of MAGIC! So we’ll be looking at all things magical in fantasy, whether that’s magic users, magical creatures, magic systems… so plenty to delve into!

If you’d like to know more about Wyrd and Wonder and how you can join in the fun, check out Imyril’s blog here. 

So, how will we be delving into all things magical?

READ-ALONGS

This year, there are two read-alongs!  

Lisa from Dear Geeks Place and ourselves will be hosting a readalong of Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle. This will be taking part over three weeks, with Lisa hosting questions for week 1, and the Hive covering weeks 2 and 3. For more information on the schedule, check out Lisa’s post.

The second is The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco. This is being hosted by Annemieke over on A Dance With Books. This is a four-week readalong, and discussion prompts will be posted at A Dance With Books each Wednesday starting May 3rd (schedule details).

FANTASTIC TOP FIVE FRIDAYS

The Wyrd and Wonder team have come up with some Top Five prompts, which we’ll be using to bring back our Five-Star Reads in Five Words! Keep a look out for our recommendations every Friday!

Top Five Magic Systems or Spells

Top Five Magical Songs

Top Five Magic Casters

Top Five Magical Ingredients

LITERARY DINNER PARTY

We’re throwing another dinner party! The last one we held was way back in 2020, so we think it’s high time we should have another. Stay tuned to find out which especially magical characters we’ll be inviting along.

MAGICAL DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Last year for Women in SFF we had a great deal of fun playing literary tag. Bkfrgr and Ariana of The Book Nook created the Tag Team tag (HERE). It’s a chain link based on theme association, where we created a chain of books linked together by particular tropes shared. 

ANNUAL PHOTO CHALLENGE

The Wyrd and Wonder team always put together a fantastic photo challenge, so we’ll be taking part in this over on our Instagram page

We will of course also be reviewing plenty of magical-themed fantasy books, and we have some magical interviews lined up!

To wrap up our Wyrd and Wonder Intro post, let’s take a look at what we’re all planning to read this month! 

Let us know in the comments what you’ll be reading, and if you’ll be adding any of these to your TBRs!

Beth: I always optimistically start the month with a plan, and it never goes to plan. So why break a habit of six years, eh?

Firstly, I’m super excited to be returning to DWJ’s Ingary and following the adventures of Sophie and Howl. I’ve read the book once before, but it was a while ago, and whilst I can remember certain key things, I’ve forgotten how we got there. I can’t wait to see what Nils makes of it!

I also have mixed feelings about reading The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart with Nils – I can’t wait to read the conclusion of this amazing trilogy, but I feel so bittersweet coming to the end of this trilogy that I’ve been sharing with my bestie throughout Wyrd & Wonder!

I’ve examined my epic TBR and selected the following for being magical, and a mix of newish books and ones that have sat on the shelf for an embarrassingly long time:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

Six Crimson Cranes  by Elizabeth Lim

I probably won’t be able to get round to all these in one month, but I’m going to kick the month off with Harrow and see how I do! 

Nils: Along with Beth I’ll be reading Howl’s Moving Castle, except it’ll be a first time read for me, so I’m super excited! I’ve watched the Studio Ghibli anime but I don’t remember much from it and from what I hear it’s quite different. This will also be my first book by Diana Wynne Jones so I’m hoping to love it as I have other fantasy books of hers just waiting on my shelf.

As soon as I’ve finished my current reads, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, both of which I’m planning to review during Wyrd and Wonder, I’ll be starting The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart. It was during a Wyrd and Wonder readalong that I started the first book, The Bone Shard Daughter so it feels fitting to finish off the trilogy during this year’s W&W, and it has one my favourite magic systems. I’ll be reading this one with Beth too, because you know, we’ll need to emotionally support each other!

The other books I will possibly read are The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu, which sounds like it has a cool mix of martial arts and magic, Charming by Jade Linwood which is jam-packed with fairytale magic, and possibly The Hunters by David Wragg, who is a favourite author of mine.

Let’s see how many of these I actually get through! 

Julia: I’m like Beth, as the only thing I enjoy more than making a TBR list is completely ignoring said list and going all starry eyed after new books…

So my “plan” for this month is to read some books I’ve been holding off on way too long:

Traitor’s Hope by Virginia McClain, which is the second book in a series, I accidentally read the third first. Oops.

Shadebound by David Estes and GD Penman, who you might know from other posts on The Hive!

The Coward by Stephen Aryan, which has been languishing on my TBR since its release…

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith, which also has been sitting there for way too long.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, because my grandpa was a mailman with heart and soul, and it’s high time I read this classic!

Tavern by Deston J. Munden, I have no recollection who recommended it, but someone did, so I bought it.

And last but not least Beggar’s Rebellion by L.W. Jacobs, which I also must confess I have no idea when or why I bought it, but it looks good!

I’ve been informed by our wonderful and way less scatter-brained editor in chief Beth – both of these are SPFBO leftovers I kept for a second chance and later perusal….

You probably can already see how much planning and foresight goes into my reading plans – which can be best described as chaotic distraction.

Jonathan: I feel it’s always good to start the month with ambitious plans. This May I am planning on reading these W&W relevant titles:

Marian Womack – On The Nature of Magic – this is the sequel to Womack’s wonderful debut novel The Golden Key, and I am expecting another lyrical blend of fairytale and mystery. It’s out at the end of May.

Lisa Tuttle – The Missing Mummies – The beginning of June sees the release of the third book in Lisa Tuttle’s wonderful Jesperson and Lane series, The Missing Mummies. Like Marian Womack’s The Golden Key, Tuttle’s series is about Victorian mediums and detectives solving mysteries that sit on the line between the rational and the supernatural have been lucky enough to have been sent an ARC, so will hopefully be catching up on this as well this month. 

Liz Williams – Embertide – review and PhD commitments have meant that I have not yet gotten round to Embertide, the latest of Liz Williams’ wonderful Fallow Sisters novels, despite it coming out last year. I hope to rectify that this month, so I’ll be ready for the final instalment Salt on the Midnight Fire when it is released in June.

Rachel Pollack – Godmother Night – Rachel Pollack’s death earlier this year was a huge loss to the genre. I’ve already reviewed two of Pollack’s glorious fantasy masterpieces, Unquenchable Fire and Temporary Agency, for the Hive, but as a tribute to her passing I’d like to review Godmother Night this month as well. 

I also have various other reviewing commitments and PhD work due in, so we’ll see how I get on with this, but this is my plan at any rate!

Are you taking part in Wyrd &Wonder? Let us know what you’ll be reading!