Dragons of Deceit: Dragonlance Destinies: Volume 1
Dragonlance Destinies
Hardcover | Kindle | Audiobook
By Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Release Date: August 2, 2022

Nostalgia is a fickle thing. I have fond recollections of reading the Dragonlance series as they were released starting with the very first one in the mid-1980s. I consumed everything authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman released along with everyone else who wrote pretty much anything about Krynn. Therefore, it should surprise no one that I was excited to review their newest novel, Dragons of Deceit, set as you can guess in the world of Dragonlance. This was a roller coaster of emotions for me as I made my way through this first book in a new series from two of my favorite authors of all time, though I did not love Dragons Of Deceit in its entirety.

The End Of The World
Hardcover | Kindle
By Don Hertzfeldt
Publisher: Random House
Release date: October 1, 2019

With a title like The End Of The World you’d think I’d know what’s to come, yet somehow, I was still blindsided by this book. Perhaps it was the whimsical hand-drawn stars that lined the top of the stark yet classy hardcover that gave me a glimmer of hope. Or maybe the back cover’s humorous blurbs, boasting “Full of pages, from cover to cover…” and “This is practically a book” that lulled me into a false sense of security. Or possibly that the unexpected heft I felt as I removed the book’s shrink wrapping led me to believe that a product of this outward aesthetic must surely have a matching interior. But after opening the book, I realized I was in for something completely different.

Dragon’s Code
Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern
Hardcover | Kindle | Audiobook
By Gigi McCaffrey
Publisher: Del Rey | Random House
Release Date: October 2, 2018

Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books were, beyond a doubt, extremely influential to me and others as a source of world building and empathetic writing. My first foray into the world of Pern was The White Dragon, the pivotal third book that resonated deeply with me. I will not claim to have read everything in the series, but I consumed them year after year as they released, with few exceptions. Therefore, I was elated when I discovered Gigi McCaffrey, daughter of the legendary wordsmith herself, was writing a new book. In fact, Dragon’s Code, as it was titled, was to be a new expansion on this previously massive universe of man, dragon, and threat. A new generation of readers could potentially experience what I did!

Star Wars: From A Certain Point Of View
Star Wars Expanded Universe
Audiobook | Hardcover | Kindle
Narrated by Jonathan Davis, Ashley Eckstein, Janina Gavankar, Jon Hamm, Neil Patrick Harris, January LaVoy, Saskia Maarleveld, Carol Monda, Daniel José Older, Marc Thompson
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Release Date: October 3, 2017

What a spectacular collection of talent, this audiobook has! Star Wars: From A Certain Point Of View is loaded to the brim with amazing stories and has a star-studded cast of voices, each one chosen specifically to create the most presentable experience possible for the listener. Whomsoever is responsible for dreaming this up should be rewarded handsomely.

The Conjurer’s Riddle
Hardcover | Kindle
Sequel to The Inventor’s Secret
By Andrea Cremer
Philomel Books | Penquin Random House Young Readers
Release date: November 3, 2015

What would have become of North America had the British won the Revolutionary War? That’s the premise of Andrea Cremer’s The Inventor’s Secret book series, which creates an alternate 19th-century history where the British Empire has dominion over the New World as an underground Resistance rebels against it. The exiled children of the rebellion reside in the Catacombs in the New York Wildlands, where they stay in hiding from the Empire as they grow up without their parents until they come of age and can join the fight.

In The Conjurer’s Riddle, the second book of the series, 16-year-old Charlotte returns to the Catacombs after the caverns are set ablaze, leaving the children no shelter. She has no idea what happened to cause the destruction of their home, but there’s no time to figure it out, as she now must lead the young refugees to safety. Her final destination is New Orleans, the rendezvous point for the Resistance, but first she must find a way to get there.