The Wolf’s Call by Anthony Ryan

With Blood Song, Anthony Ryan introduced readers to Vaelin Al Sorna and the brothers of the Sixth Order – and readers fell in love. When Ryan opted to expand the world beyond the Order, the the story he intended to tell required the expansion of point of view characters, a design choice which allowed readers to…

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

It is important, when taking a novice into the Convent of Sweet Mercy, to do a full background check first. Or at least that should’ve been the case for Nona Grey, who is saved from the hangman’s noose by Abbess Glass to kick off Mark Lawrence’s latest, Red Sister, first Book of the Ancestor. At the Convent…

Empires of the Sea by Roger Crowley

Don John of Austria is going to the war. Sudden and still—hurrah! Bolt from Iberia! Don John of Austria Is gone by Alcalar. The centuries-long conflict between East and West, Muslim and Christian, comes to a head in the Sixteenth century Mediterranean Sea. Crowley details the fascinating rivalry between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and…

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Conor O’Malley is a thirteen-year-old boy living in modern England. Conor is haunted on a nightly basis by a terrible nightmare in which he wakes up bathed in sweat, shaking with fear. A night comes where he has a different nightmare, and a yew tree in his yard comes alive, calling his name. Conor is…