Riyria Revelations
Theft of Swords
I came for the thieves. The friendship is why I would stay.
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Between the covers.
The people who make a world matter. The passages that earn their place. And the parts I wish had been better.
Later-volume reviews assume you know the books before them.59 entries in the journal
Riyria Revelations
Rise of Empire
The easy job is gone. So is the safety of staying uninvolved.
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The Wheel of Time
The Eye of the World
The most interesting thing about leaving home is who refuses to leave it behind.
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The Wheel of Time
The Great Hunt
Rand can run from a title. He cannot stop people seeing it in him.
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The Wheel of Time
The Dragon Reborn
A book named for Rand becomes more interesting by stepping away from him.
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The Wheel of Time
The Shadow Rising
The past stops being decoration and starts changing what the present means.
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The Wheel of Time
The Fires of Heaven
Being right about the danger does not make Rand easier to follow.
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The Wheel of Time
Lord of Chaos
Everyone wants access to Rand. Very few want to understand him.
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The Wheel of Time
A Crown of Swords
A crowded middle chapter with flashes of real intimacy.
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The Wheel of Time
The Path of Daggers
Power behaves badly when people mistake possession for mastery.
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The Wheel of Time
Crossroads of Twilight
The weakest kind of suspense is waiting for a story to catch up with itself.
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The Wheel of Time
Knife of Dreams
The scattered stories begin remembering where they are going.
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The Wheel of Time
The Gathering Storm
Rand’s crisis and Egwene’s resolve give this volume two very different centers.
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The Wheel of Time
Towers of Midnight
Before the last battle, there are still personal debts to settle.
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The Wheel of Time
New Spring
Before Moiraine was a certainty to others, she had to live with uncertainty herself.
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The Licanius Trilogy
The Shadow of What Was Lost
The familiar beginning is a door, not a promise about where this story will go.
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The Licanius Trilogy
An Echo of Things to Come
Knowing more makes Caeden’s problem harder, not easier.
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The Licanius Trilogy
The Light of All That Falls
The puzzle has an answer. The better question is what that answer costs.
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The Faithful and the Fallen
Malice
Corban’s ordinary loyalties make the coming danger worth caring about.
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The Faithful and the Fallen
Valour
Loyalty becomes much harder to admire when it points in the wrong direction.
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The Faithful and the Fallen
Ruin
Hope feels more convincing here because it has so little room left.
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The Faithful and the Fallen
Wrath
The final reckoning belongs to the friendships as much as the prophecy.
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Beyond the series
The Blacktongue Thief
Kinch talks like a man trying to stay one joke ahead of the truth.
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Beyond the series
The Goblin Emperor
Maia’s kindness is not a lack of political intelligence. It is the beginning of one.
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The Stormlight Archive
The Way of Kings
The world is enormous. Kaladin’s smallest acts of care are what make it matter.
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The Kingkiller Chronicle
The Name of the Wind
It took about a quarter of the book to hook me. After that, I was in.
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The Kingkiller Chronicle
The Wise Man’s Fear
Kvothe gets out into the wider world, and his problems get bigger right along with it.
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The Talisman Trilogy
The Talisman
The Talisman feels like fantasy with the edges darkened.
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The Talisman Trilogy
Black House
Black House feels older, heavier, and a hell of a lot darker.
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The Stormlight Archive
Words of Radiance
The characters deepen, the magic gets more interesting, the world keeps opening up.
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The Stormlight Archive
Oathbringer
Oathbringer is probably the book where Dalinar really became more interesting to me.
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The Dark Tower
The Gunslinger
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
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The Dark Tower
The Drawing of the Three
The Gunslinger got me. The Drawing of the Three kept me.
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The Dark Tower
The Waste Lands
I liked The Waste Lands, but I still think The Drawing of the Three was better.
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The Dark Tower
Wizard and Glass
The flashbacks are some of my favorite parts of The Dark Tower.
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The Dark Tower
Wolves of the Calla
Wolves of the Calla was sick. Putting Roland and the group in a town that needs help, with a fight coming their way, was a setup I could get into.
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The Dark Tower
Song of Susannah
Song of Susannah had some parts that dragged for me, but I understood why the story needed to spend time on what was happening.
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The Dark Tower
The Wind Through the Keyhole
Give me more young Roland, and you’ve already got my attention.
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The Stormlight Archive
Rhythm of War
Rhythm of War had some really cool ideas, but the research slowed it down for me.
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The Stormlight Archive
Wind and Truth
I liked Wind and Truth better than Rhythm of War. Watching Kaladin and Szeth’s relationship grow was a big reason why.
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Hierarchy
The Will of the Many
Vis, the Will system, and an ending that left me wondering where the next book is going.
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Middle-earth
The Hobbit
Bilbo, Gollum’s riddles, and a journey far outside the comfort of home.
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Middle-earth
The Fellowship of the Ring
Strider, four hungry hobbits, and the Black Riders on their trail. Tolkien gives this journey a world worth taking your time in.
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Middle-earth
The Two Towers
Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli get more room to show what they’re capable of, Frodo needs Sam more than ever, and then Tolkien brings in Treebeard and the Ents.
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Middle-earth
The Return of the King
Tolkien brought everything together and, for me, finished it perfectly.
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
I grew up alongside Harry. The snake, the train ride, and Hagrid standing up to the Dursleys still stick with me.
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Dobby, Lockhart, and the Whomping Willow bring plenty of personality as Hogwarts starts getting darker.
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Sirius is one of my favorites in the whole series. Add the Dementors, the Knight Bus, and a perfect ending, and this one stayed with me.
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The wizarding world gets bigger, the tournament gets dangerous, and the darker side of the series takes another step forward.
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Umbridge, Sirius, and Dumbledore’s Army give Harry plenty to deal with as the pressure reaches inside Hogwarts.
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Dumbledore, old memories, and a mysterious Potions textbook give Harry more to understand before the final book.
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry, Ron, and Hermione carry the friendship into the hardest part of a series I still love from beginning to end.
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Beyond the series
IT
A bad town, a worse clown, and a very good reason to leave that paper boat alone.
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Empire of the Vampire
Empire of the Vampire
A book I liked from the start, with a second half that made me like it a hell of a lot more.
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The Talisman Trilogy
Other Worlds Than These
A return worth making for the Dark Tower connections, even with some slow stretches and an ending I saw coming.
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