Wyrd and Wonder Journey Tag: Part 4

Welcome to week four of my Wyrd and Wonder Journey Tag! Each week, I’m doing a series of book recommendations based on the wonderful map created by Ariana over at The Book Nook. You can find links to the previous weeks below!

Wyrd and Wonder Journey Tag: Part One
Wyrd and Wonder Journey Tag: Part Two
Wyrd and Wonder Journey Tag: Part Three

And if any of the books strike your fancy, covers link to Goodreads!

This week, we’re traveling to southeast corner of Ariana’s map.

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Slump Valley: LITTLE THIEVES by Margaret Owen
A book to break you out of that reading slump
LITTLE THIEVES is one of those YA books that I will recommend to any fan of fantasy, even if they prefer adult to YA. This follows Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, who gets by in life by being a con artist and a jewel thief. When she accidentally offends a minor god and gets cursed, she has to find a way to break said curse before she dies. Oh, and while she does so, she’s managed to swap spots with a princess and may have accidentally discovered a dark conspiracy. I DEVOURED this book, picking it up at every opportunity. On top of that, I almost never laugh out loud when I read but this book had me CACKLING. While this book has a sequel, it was originally conceived of and written as a standalone (with a door cracked open for more adventures) so you don’t have to commit to a series if you don’t want to.

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Twin Peaks: ONE DARK WINDOW and TWO TWISTED CROWNS by Rachel Gillig
A duology
I realized when selecting for this prompt that I read shockingly few duologies – most of my reads are either trilogies or standalones! Thankfully, I recently had an absolutely fantastic duology experience and can recommend it here. ONE DARK WINDOW is about a land full of a cursed mist that will give you magic and then slowly kill you. Our heroine Elspeth ends up with a secret group of people working to lift the curse, but she has a secret of her own: there’s a spirit living in her head she calls Nightmare, and she doesn’t know if she can trust him. While I though book one was solid with some flaws, the finale was a fantastic five star read that took everything book one did well and made it even better.

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Stack of Doom: THE RIYRIA REVALATIONS by Michael J. Sullivan
A series I haven’t read yet
This seems like an appropriate choice for stack of doom: three chonky books that actually contains six books because of the way this series is printed these days. The first book is about a duo who are hired to steal a sword and end up framed for the assassination of the king. Everyone I’ve talked to about this series recommends it wholeheartedly, saying the books are great fun and full of banter between the two lead characters. This sounds delightful and one day I will finally get to it…one day…

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The Hidden University: A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik
A book with a magic school
I do love a good magic school, and the Scholomance might be my favorite one yet. The premise: magically gifted kids in their teens tend to attract dangerous monsters due to all the magical potential that hasn’t settled yet. The solution the adults came up with? Send the kids to a magically autonomous school where they can’t leave until graduation, and hope the school teaches them enough magic to survive all the monsters trying to break in and eat them. The result is a cut-throat environment of alliances, where incantations are swapped like trading cards and a simple trip to the shower could end up in a deadly fight. To top it off, this series has the some of the best full-arc plotting I’ve ever seen, with a book three finale that makes you look back at book one and realize the breadcrumbs were there all along.

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The Road Less Traveled: SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD by Patrick Samphire
A self-published book
I’ve mostly talked about traditionally published books this month, so it’s time to share some love for another self-published book! Imagine if Philip Marlowe was a wizard in an epic fantasy world, and you’ll have the gist of SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD. Mennik Thorn is a down-on-his-luck wizard who gets framed for murder, forcing him to dive into the world of the city’s elite high mages to find the real killer. And best of all, even though this has a noir feel, there’s not a femme fatale or icky gender dynamic to be found amongst the female characters.

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The Waters of the Past: THE ELEMENT OF FIRE by Martha Wells
A book published more than 20 years ago
Tor Books has been republishing some of Martha Wells’s original works in the last few years, and its been a great opportunity for me to explore her writing. I read the revised edition of THE ELEMENT OF FIRE that was recently published in the omnibus THE BOOK OF ILE-RIEN, and I had a delightful time. Our hero is Thomas Boniface, Captain of the Queen’s Guard. That means he spends his days managing guard rotations, investigating reports of rogue sorcerers in the city, and trying to keep an eye on the king’s cousin who seems to have a little too much influence at court. But his life gets exceedingly more complicated when the king’s half-sister (who is also half-fay) arrives out of the blue. If a court intrigue adventure with a splash of DIE HARD vibes sounds what you need, you should pick this up!

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The Shores of the Dying Mentor: SPELLSLINGER by Sebastien de Castell
A book with a memorable mentor
I’m making a slight amendment to the title of this location because we don’t want spoilers here! Instead, I’m using this prompt to show off a fantastic mentor character, regardless of whether or not they make it to the end of the series. After much deliberation, I decided to select Ferius Parfax from the SPELLSLINGER series. Ferius is a member of the Argosi, a mysterious organization that travels the world, observing events and sometimes giving them a little nudge. She’s the kind of character whom others underestimate simply because she’s laid back, but she will dismantle you with ease if she feels the need to (usually with a deck of razor sharp playing cards that she can hurl with deadly accuracy. Seriously, this woman is the coolest). And she’s got a very Mr. Miyagi style of mentoring, teaching Kellen things that seem random until the true lesson finally clicks into place.