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Here There Be Books

a queer SFF romance book database

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  • Book Reviews

    Tournament of Losers by Megan Derr

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    Previous attempts at Megan Derr’s older books have been somewhat hit-or-miss, but the summary for Tournament of Losers sounded like something right up my alley, so I decided to give it a go. And that was an EXCELLENT DECISION, y’all! Tournament of Losers is the BEST Megan Derr book I’ve read yet! I think it’s a combo of increased writing skills + many tropes I adore + completely adorable characters + wonderful worldbuilding. One of my complaints about MD’s earlier books was the treatment/lack of women characters, how everybody’s white, and sometimes-weird chemistry between the leads. With her newer books, many of those things have been addressed. For instance, in…

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    Mystic, Remnant, Some Kind of Magic

    August 16, 2015

    14 things I love about working at a library

    November 21, 2014

    The Bone Key by Sarah Monette

    July 3, 2015
  • Book Reviews

    The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton

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    The Philosopher Kings gets off to a bad start, tbh. The Just City has separated into multiple cities, all with differing ideas about what Plato Really Meant, Aristotle-the-fly disappeared, Pallas Athene never came back, and worst of all Simmea, my favorite character from The Just City, dies. She’s murdered during an art raid. She’s dead! And that really hurt. Apollo didn’t much like it either, and he spends the majority of the book trying to come back from his overwhelming grief. Maia is also dealing with things, including her rapist from The Just City wanting to apologize and be friends again. Everybody’s depressed from the raids and people dying and…

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    Think of England by K.J. Charles

    October 2, 2016

    Any Old Diamonds by K.J. Charles

    August 12, 2019

    A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

    November 23, 2014
  • Book Reviews

    The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin (2012)

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    My first N.K. Jemisin book was The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a fantasy story set in a world which does not have European fantasy tropes. The Killing Moon is another fantasy story set in a non-European fantasy world, only this time it’s one based around Egyptian/Mediterranean/etc. cultures. It’s not set on Earth, so really it’s only got the flavor of those cultures, but it’s enough of a flavor to make me really happy. I LOVE it when a fantasy isn’t just another pseudo-medieval Europe expy! More diverse settings/characters/worlds, please!

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    A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

    November 23, 2014

    Skip Trace by Kelly Jensen and Jenn Burke

    October 23, 2016

    Jackdaw by K.J. Charles

    July 9, 2015
  • Book Reviews

    A Hero at the End of the World by Erin Claiborne

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    A Hero at the End of the World has been getting lots of positive reviews lately, and for good reason. It’s funny and cute and hugely enjoyable; past me, why were you so slow getting to this? You’ve had a copy in your possession since October! For shame, past-me. Present-me is totally gleeful, though, because I had such a good time reading it! I found myself highlighting like a fiend in the first ten pages because every other paragraph had some funny thing in it. It was also a weird kind of comfort read, maybe because it has some tropes I recognize from the world of fandom/fanfic.[1. Since Erin Claiborne…

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    Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall (2013)

    April 30, 2015

    The Only Option by Megan Derr

    October 25, 2016

    There Will Be Phlogston, vN, The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

    September 4, 2015
  • Book Reviews

    Prosperity by Alexis Hall

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    Memory wrote an excellent review of Prosperity back in October, and it was SO excellent that I went on NetGalley and found Prosperity and requested it for review myself! And I’m so glad I did, because I LOVED it. There is steampunk (or maybe gaslamp)! There is alternate history (kinda)![1. It’s actually set in an alternate universe! Love love love alternate universes.] There are air ships and monsters living behind the sky and lesbians and a bisexual protagonist and crime lords and a nonbinary ship captain and a floating city and, really, the only thing missing was a band of sky pirates. (Maybe they’ll be in another book.)

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    Clariel by Garth Nix

    November 12, 2014

    Bound by Megan Derr

    August 27, 2015

    Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk (2012)

    February 17, 2015
  • Book Reviews

    A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

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    How did I decide to buy this book? I must have seen a review of it somewhere and added it to my wishlist.[1. Previous to it winning the 2014 World Fantasy Award for best novel. Congrats!] It’s exactly along the lines of what I like best in a fantasy book: non-European style countries, travel, adventure, and intrigue, with spooky magical things. The only thing that would’ve made it better is if there’d been dragons somewhere and if the protagonist were a woman.

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    Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett

    September 17, 2015

    The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles

    September 27, 2014

    Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk (2012)

    February 17, 2015
  • Book Reviews

    The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson

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    I really wanted to like this book more than I did! The first third of the story is kick-ass: contemporary setting with wonderful characters, strong protagonist voice, and mysterious foreshadowings. Then the rest of it happened, and I lost the plot. Part of the problem is that the first third is so VERY strongly rooted in contemporary YA language/style. It’s Real Life and it’s totally convincing. And then the Chaos incident happened and things got weird.

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    A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

    November 23, 2014

    A Hero at the End of the World by Erin Claiborne

    December 24, 2014

    Flight of Magpies by K.J. Charles (2014)

    January 11, 2015
  • Book Reviews

    Runaways, Vol. 1-3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona

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    Okay, so this is the first major story arc for Runaways (I think). These three volumes comprise a complete story, so theoretically you could stop there and be perfectly happy![1. Especially because I’m in the second series right now and it’s not as good, nope.] I was perfectly happy, because I love stories about teenage superheroes having personal problems. The fact that their personal problems consisted of evil supervillian parents was just icing on the cake. Other personal problems: friendship, learning to trust, betrayal, romance and squishy teenage feelings, sometimes sounding like they spent too much time watching Dawson’s Creek or whatever show was popular back when this series ran,…

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    The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper (2007)

    January 12, 2015

    Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall (2013)

    April 30, 2015

    Steampunk and court intrigue: a review of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

    April 1, 2014
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Welcome!

Here There Be Books is a book review database for queer (LGBTQ+) science fiction/fantasy romance books.

Romance as in either a book focused on the romantic relationship between two (or more) people, with a happy ending; OR a book with a romantic subplot (and probably a happy ending because I’m a sucker for those).

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  • On not being "a reader" anymore
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