In the anthology, Wicked Women.
A quick trip to visit Babylon Steel, yeah, you remember her.
Sadly it’s just a short, but us Babylon Steel fans will take any words we can get from Gaie on this wonderful character.
This time Babylon takes on a necromancer, or two.
Super good, but just so wish Gaie would write a few more Babylon Steel novels.
You can find this in the anthology, Griots: Sword and Soul.
I was hoping for more of the similar and i wasn’t disappointed.
Once again we’re thrown right into North-African/Middle-Eastern folk lore kind of stuff with Djèlí’s incredible writing that just keeps dragging you along without a pause.
Djèlí’s writing is so refreshing, and i’m so looking forward to reading many more of his stories in the future.
Next up in the Djèlí timeline is Ghost Marriage.
Available in the anthology, Legends.
So far i’ve really enjoyed reading Gaie’s books but, sadly, i just feel this short fell a little short.
While i do think the redemption thing can be good fodder to build a story around, i just think in this case it’s all got a bit too rushed. Probably would have been much better as a novella, at least.
But, ho hum, every favourite writer has to write at least one thing that just doesn’t work for the fangirl/fanboy reader: does anyone remember The Girl in Red?
This is one super good, dark fantasy/fairy-tale.
Set in 1944 at the end of the Spanish Civil War, with Franco’s troops continuing their brutal repression of anyone and anything that stood in their way. It gets rather violent, brutal and nasty, and caught in amongst all of this is our protagonist, Ofelia, a young girl who has grown up with the horrors of war all around her.
This is not a book for children, or for the faint of heart looking for a nice fantasy/fairy-tale read, but it’s certainly worth a read if you can handle a fair bit of brutality.
