What? Oh! No, not – not you. You’re lovely. But one of my (admittedly intermittent) Spooktastic traditions is to divert from the strictly fictional into the fantastic realms of myth, (urban) legend and superstition. In past years I’ve talked about weird phenomena and haunts; this year I want to talk about curses.
myth
Britain is in the grip of a global pandemic, but an older – and equally dire – threat is awakening up on the Wiltshire chalk. With only uncertain allies and limited resources at his disposal, Dan must unravel secrets from a time even the dryads can’t remember…
Later than advertised (sorry folks, last weekend got away from me), it’s time for one last affectionate look back at our amazing month of Wyrd and Wonder. A huge hearty THANK YOU to everyone who took part – you make Wyrd and Wonder what it is and we love you for it.
The month of May is made of good intentions, followed by a cascade of compromises. That is to say: I started Wyrd & Wonder with a stack of outstanding reviews …and I ended it the same way. Time to clear my conscience – let’s take a look at my last 2 Wyrd & Wonder reads and catch up on the third season of BookBurners.
It’s the big finale: look around at the faces around you, the light of new worlds shining in their eyes, their hearts full with new characters, their shelves creaking in anticipation of the grand emptying of the book bags at month’s end. Raise a glass to your fellow adventurers and settle in for the tale of the party’s Wyrd and Wonderful adventures over this past week…
The First Man still walks the Earth, but time has taken its toll. Adam finds it hard to relate to his mortal children, hard to engage with the world. When he finds a fragment of Eden, it gives him new purpose. Can Paradise be rebuilt? Who should inherit it?
Juliet McKenna is an author I’d been meaning to read forever. When good bookfriends expressed quiet but fervent enthusiasm for The Green Man’s Heir, I decided it was time to take the plunge. Today I’m here to be your good bookfriend and express my own quiet but fervent enthusiasm for this contemporary folkloric fantasy series. You should take the plunge, the water is fine if full of terrifying naiads and nixes.
After each adventure, it’s recommended you take a brief pause to catch your breath before heading back out into the worlds of fancy. Join me by the fire to hear what your fellow adventurers have been up to in the third week of Wyrd and Wonder…
Joan and Victor were two souls united against the world until the night Victor stormed out after a fight and never came home. When Joan finds him leading a prayer meeting a year later, he’s a stranger with her husband’s face, who claims not to remember her. What happened to Victor out in the dark?
We’re in the heart of our adventures now, exploring new worlds, making new friends, finding new authors, characters and stories to get excited about. Worried you may have missed out? Grab a seat, friend. Your Wyrd and Wonder bards are here to sing you the tales of the past week…
Settle in by the fire, traveller. Grab a hot drink – or a cold one, if you’d rather – and get ready to hear the tales of a hundred adventurers fresh back from the wilds of fantastic realms. Yes, it’s time to look back on the first week (and a bit) of Wyrd And Wonder…
Welcome to an epic month of celebrating the fantastic. The annual Wyrd and Wonder party starts here, where our party of fantasy lovers yell about books, gush over shows, search out new authors and share our favourites as we explore every nook and cranny of the genre. There’s no protecting your TBR, so grab a book bag of holding and get ready for rapid expansion!
So I was procrastinating over some overdue reviews (shh, I know) at the weekend and before I knew it I was tinkering with the Challenge to see if I could turn the prompts into a Wyrd And Wonder Book Bingo. The answer was not really, but I kept going because who doesn’t love book bingo? So for those of you who fancy a fantasy reading challenge for May, here you go!
Once upon a time, I would have said a doorstop was my favourite kind of read: a big chonk I could lose myself in. These days, I have shorter commutes (ahem) and less patience; consequently, I’ve come to love shorter-form. Last year, a third of my reads – and half my favourite reads – were novellas. Today and tomorrow I’ll be wrapping up my thoughts on a few I haven’t yet reviewed.
One set of books that I failed to keep on top of reviews for this year was the Subjective Chaos shortlist. My focus ended up always being finishing the books on time; reviewing them was a bridge too far. Time to put that right – not least because this one went on to win our Blurred Boundaries category!
onemore.org 