by The Wanderer
Author: Lois McMaster BujoldPublisher: Baen BooksGenre: Space Opera, Science FictionSeries: Vorkosigan Saga Book Six (Publishing Order)Pages: 311
(Spoilers for Vorkosigan Saga novels 1-5 in publication order)
Borders of Infinity is a collection of three novellas written about Miles Vorkosigan that are wrapped around a shortly framed story of Miles awakening in a hospital after surgery who tells them to Simon Illyan. Each novella is a given its own score and the final aggregate score at the top is an average of all three.
Overall Score: 8.8
by The Wanderer
Author: Lois McMaster BujoldPublisher: Baen BooksGenre: Space Opera, Science FictionSeries: Vorkosigan Saga Book Five (Publishing Order)Pages: 338
(Contains Spoilers for Vorkosigan novels 1-4 in publication order).
Admiral Miles Naismith has arrived on Earth fleeing retribution from the Cetagandans and looking to rest and repair his fleet. In London at the Barrayaran embassy Miles returns to his birth identity of Miles Vorkosigan and once again must begin balancing both roles he plays. But when assassination attempts begin, keeping his identities secret becomes even more difficult than Miles could have imagined.
by The Wanderer
Author: Lois McMaster BujoldPublisher: Baen BooksGenre: Space Opera, Science FictionSeries: Vorkosigan Saga Book Four (Publishing Order)Pages: 307
(May contain spoilers for Vorkosigan Saga Books 1-3).
Leo Graf has been a stellar engineer for GalacTech the past few decades. He has now been newly assigned to Cay Habitat, a part of the free fall station orbiting the mining colony Rodeo. Here Graf is tasked with educating GalacTech's newest genetic creation: the Quaddies. These four armed humans have been genetically modified to have a significant working advantage in zero gravity. But that may be just the problem, as GalacTech and Cay Habitat manager Bruce Van Atta only see the Quaddies as "post-fetal experimental tissue cultures."
by The Wanderer
Author: Lois McMaster BujoldPublisher: Baen BooksGenre: Space Opera, Science FictionSeries: Vorkosigan Saga Book Three (Publishing Order)Pages: 224
(Contains spoilers for Shards of Honor and The Warrior's Apprentice).
Dr. Ethan Urquhart is the chief biologist on the all male planet of Althos. When the next shipment of human fetuses doesn't arrive, he is charged with the task of recovering them by his home planet.
by The Wanderer
Author: Lois McMaster BujoldPublisher: Baen BooksGenre: Space Opera, Science FictionSeries: Vorkosigan Saga Book Two (Publishing Order)Pages: 315
After his physical limitations prevent him from graduating the Barrayaran military academy, Miles Vorkosigan must find a new way to prove his worth to both himself and his family. Traveling with his bodyguard Bothari and his daughter Elena, Miles heads to Beta Colony to visit his grandmother in order to help Elena discover the true identity of her mother.
by The Wanderer
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Publisher: Baen Books
Genre: Space Opera, Science Fiction
Series: Vorkosigan Saga Book One (Publishing Order)
Pages: 320
Cordelia Naismith is Captain of a Beta Colony Astronomical exploration on the newly discovered planet of Escobar. During there exploration her crew is attacked by Lord Aral Vorkosigan the Butcher of Komarr, who has recently been betrayed by his own crew and left for dead. Cordelia and Aral marooned together with another injured Betan, must travel to a hidden Barrayaran cache and only then can they begin to reestablish order in their lives.
by The Wanderer
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Six of Crows Duology Book Two
Pages: 561
(Spoilers for Six of Crows are below).
Kaz Brekker and his crew have pulled off an impossible heist. But their financial backer Jan van Eck has refused to pay them. As an insurance policy he's captured Inej, and if Kaz doesn't surrender soon, she dies. The escape of Bo Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court has captured the attention of the world's most powerful leaders. As they descend on Ketterdam looking to find the man that is believed to know how to make jurda parem.
by The Wanderer
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Six of Crows Duology
Pages: 465
In the streets of Ketterdam, rising street urchin Kaz Brekker discovers the opportunity to make a heist that will change his fortune forever. Pulling it off will require him to break into the most secure place in the Grisha world, the Ice Court. But to pull this off the team will not only have to survive the dangers of being in a foreign land, but they will have to learn to trust each other.
by The Wanderer
Author: Hayao Miyazaki
Illustrator: Hayao Miyazaki
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC Deluxe edition
Genre: Manga, Science Fiction
Series: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Length: 1,104
After the Seven Days of Fire industrial society has been destroyed, but humanity survives. Most of the Earth is uninhabitable being covered by the Sea of Corruption, a forest that emits toxic miasmas and contains giant insects that can spread the forest over what little land that is left for humans to use.
Centuries later, Nausicaä, a Princess of the Valley of the Wind, is set to inherit her father's kingdom. As a vassal state of the Torumekian Empire she is summoned to go to war against the Dorok's. The Torumekian's fear the Dorok's have found a God Warrior, one of the advanced technological creations believed responsible for the Seven Days of Fire, and that they intend to use it destroy the world again.
by The Wanderer
Author: Seth Dickinson
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Hard Fantasy
Series: Masquerade Book One
Pages: 400
As a savant with calculations and numbers, Baru Cormorant's only wish is to rise through the ranks of the powerful Empire of Masks to save her childhood home, Taranoke, from being completed assimilated. Her first test is as Imperial Accountant to Aurdwynn, one of the Masquerade's most profitable provinces and also one of it's most dangerous. She must navigate treachery and violence and still be willing to pay the price if she is to save her home.
by The Wanderer
Author: Django Wexler
Publisher: Roc
Genre: Flintlock Fantasy
Series: Shadow Campaigns Book Five
Pages: 512
(Spoilers for Shadow Campaigns Books 1-4 are below).
The Beast is unleashed.
Absorbing mind after mind, it's building an army. And leading that army is Janus bet Vhalnich the undefeated and greatest general in Vordan's history. Only Winter Ihernglass is aware of the Beast's escape and it's abilities to control people's minds. Deep in Murnskai she must make her way back to Vordan to warn the others and confront the Beast itself as she hosts the only demon that might be able to defeat it.
In Vordan, Raesinia Orboan works with Marcus D'Ivoire to heal their country after years of warfare, but when Janus declares himself emperor all hope of peace is shattered. Raesinia is forced to begin political negotiations Vordan's oldest enemy to save her country, and Marcus once again heads into battle to face the commander that's taught him everything.
by The Wanderer
Author: Mark Z. DanielewskiPublisher: PantheonGenre: Science FictionSeries: Familiar Volume Five: RedwoodPages: 880
(Spoilers for The Familiar Volume's 1-4)
Here is what the characters from The Familiar are currently up to ...
by The Wanderer
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Series: Stormlight Archive Book Three
Pages: 1,220
(Spoilers for Stormlight Archives 1-2 and Warbreaker are below).
With the Everstorm released, a new Desolation has begun. Dalinar Kholin and the Alethi armies now occupy the once lost great city of Urithiru. There he realizes he must not only unite the Alethi but all of Roshar if he is to defeat Odium and the Voidbringers. But the cause of the Voidbringers may not be unjust, as Kaladin tries to infiltrate their numbers and learn more about their mission. The murder of Brightlord Sadaes also stands to tear apart the Alethi, and Adolin and Shallan are tasked with investigating it, along with a string of other bizarrely occurring murders.
by The Wanderer
Author: Mark Z. Danielewski
Publisher: Pantheon
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Familiar Volume Four: Hades
Pages: 880
(Contains spoilers for The Familiar Volumes 1 - 3).
Here is what the characters from The Familiar are currently up to ...
by The Wanderer
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Series: Cosmere Short Story and Novella Collection
Pages: 673
Arcanum Unbounded is a compilation of all the Brandon Sanderson novellas and short stories that have been released up until 2016. Each set of stories comes with a brief introduction to the planetary system the world is taking part in. As a collection of stories, these are pretty essential to anyone who's deciding to read through the Cosmere.
In our review each short story is given a brief synopsis, analysis, and score. The final score you see at the top of the review is an aggregate of all nine stories.
Aggregate Score: 7.7
by The Wanderer
Author: Brandon SandersonPublisher: Tor BooksGenre: Epic FantasySeries: CosmerePages: 669
In T'Telir the capital of the Hallandren The God King and the Returned rule over the people. All powerful and containing the magic of Breath, a magic that can sustain agelessness, and gives it's users the ability to create awakenings, he prepares to fight the Idrian's, the original family that ruled over Hallandren three centuries past. But looking to prevent war, The God King drafted an agreement to marry the Idrian king's daughter after she passed the age of twenty, and now that time has come.
The Idrian King doesn't want to send his oldest daughter Vivenna, who's been trained for this role since birth. So instead he sends his youngest, Siri, in her place. Vivenna, who now feels displaced in the world decides to travel to T'Telir to rescue her, while Siri must try to survive in a culture she was never prepared to survive in.
by The Wanderer
Author: Philip PullmanPublisher: KnopfGenre: Young Adult Fantasy, SteampunkSeries: His Dark Materials NovellaPages: 144
(Spoilers for His Dark Materials are below).
Twenty-Four year old Lee Scoresby has recently won a hot-air balloon in a game of chance. Since then he's been sailing around the world working freelance. During this particular adventure, he ends up in Novy Odense, a town in the North that has an important election coming up. This election could determine how that town's politics will benefit the wealthy oil contractors that have been slowly discovering more oil and with it more power, and it could have detrimental effects with the local polar bear populations .
by The Wanderer
Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Knopf
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Steampunk
Series: His Dark Materials Short Story
Pages: 80
(Spoilers for His Dark Materials are below).
While on the roof of Jordan college Lyra and her daemon Pan help rescue a witches daemon that's being attacked by birds. This daemon has flown across the world to deliver a message personally to Lyra, bringing her on another short adventure.
by The Wanderer
Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Knopf
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Steampunk
Series: The Book of Dust Volume One
Pages: 464
(Spoilers for His Dark Materials are below).
Eleven year old Malcolm Polstead works and lives at his father's inn, The Trout, attends school, and enjoys paddling his canoe La Belle Sauvage, when he's not quietly observing the wide array of eclectic adults that enter his home. It's being at the center of all these adults, and a quiet observer, that soon lands him the task of becoming a spy. A dangerous proposition to be sure, but as a spy he soon discovers it's the six month old baby, Lyra Belacqua, who's being secretly taken care of by the Priory across the bridge, that's in even more danger.
by The Wanderer
Author: K.J. Parker
Publisher: Orbit
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Steampunk
Series: Engineer Trilogy Book Three
Pages: 436
(Contains spoilers for Devices and Desires and Evil for Evil below).
With their most recent army defeated in battle, no more mercenaries to hire, and a complete upheaval in their political system, the Mezentine Empire and its new leader Lucao Psellus are in a dire a scramble to defend their city from the oncoming horde of Aram Chantat, Eremians, and Vadani. Meanwhile, Duke Valens and Ziani Vaatzes are now putting the finishing touches on their revenge, but how many more sacrifices will have to be made?
