SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner

 

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society is the third novel from author C.M. Waggoner, author of one of my favorite books over the last few years: The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry. That novel, and to some extent its stand alone predecessor (Unnatural Magic) featured some lovable if zany characters in a fantasy world featuring magic, humans, trolls, and more to go along with fun queer romance. I'd missed that Waggoner wrote this third novel, which is set in our world with less of a fantasy touch, but immediately knew I had to buy this book when I saw it in a bookstore.

And really, the Village Library Demon-Hunting Society was exactly what I needed and was looking for - a light, fun, mix of murder mystery and fantasy with an excellent lead character in Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle. The story takes on the Murder She Wrote pastiche of having the amateur (Sherry) solve way too many murders in a small town in upstate New York for it to be normal, introduces a supernatural element Sherry must discover amidst a mystery, and brings it all together quite nicely. The book begins a little slow, but once the main story kicks in it becomes really hard to put down and is just excellent fun.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Dragon Has Some Complaints by John Wiswell

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 14, 2026 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

The Dragon Has Some Complaints is the third novel by author John Wiswell, whose prior two books - Wearing a Lion and Someone You Can Build a Nest In - were incredibly fun, queer fantasy novels that dealt with family drama and abuse as well as unusual relationships between unusual beings (often non-human), and more.  They were really delightful stuff even as they sometimes dealt with some pretty serious themes (abuse, justice, accountability, etc.) and were some of my favorite reads of the last few years.  So I was super excited to get an advance copy of this third book, which was described like more of classic Wiswell: the story of a dragon who pretends to be tame in order to get care/food and finds himself frustrated by the conflict caused by his desire to eat his new eccentric rider and his need to keep that rider alive.  

The Dragon Has Some Complaints is actually quite a bit more than that, as it deals with the dragon Garrodigh becoming part (unwillingly) of the dragon-riding flying country of Kardoša, which faces besiegement from both a mysteriously powerful and tyrannical enemy and the overtures of a different puritanical and colonizing third nation.  The result is very good, although I don't think it reaches the heights of Wiswell's other two novels, as it deals with themes of fighting for freedom, the acceptance of refugees, and the relationships (often if not always queer) of those who are trying to make it in the new freer nation and trying to either live there or defend it.  And of course, as always with Wiswell, you have fun questions of humanity and what that means, even as the novel's centerpiece is actually a dragon.  

More specifics after the jump: 

Fantasy Novella Review: The Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox is the 14th novella in Lois McMcmaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona series (itself a spinoff of her World of the Five Gods series/universe).  I've read all of the series up to this one in audio, as audio reader Grover Gardner is typically excellent, and the audio narration is no less excellent here.  If you haven't heard of the series before it follows Penric ("Pen"), a low noble of studious persuasion, as he accidentally contracted a demon Desdemona ("Des") and as a result became a temple sorcerer.  Over the course of the series, we've followed Pen's life from a young man trying to figure out life (and his abilities with his demon) up through this novella, where he's a middle aged well established man respected for his skills and with three kids and several charges under his responsibility.   It's been a very enjoyable series, especially when Pen and Des get into new situations and experiences that require him to figure things out or do something new.

This Pen & Des novella is almost more focused upon two of Pen's children: Rina, his 12 year old going on 13 year old daughter who wishes she could have a demon or magical path to pursue as she reaches adulthood, and Otta, his 11 year old adopted daughter who does have a demon (see Demon Daughter) and is unsure how she wants to use it.  The result works really well as we see Penric deal with the next generation and how the next generation deals with Pen, although I'm going to be honest I kinda wish all the ages of the kids were a bit older.  

More after the jump (Again I read this in audio, so apologies for misspellings of names):  

Video Game Review: The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon

 

Trails Beyond the Horizon is the 13th game in the Trails series of JRPGs, a series of interconnected games on the fantasy continent of Zemuria (it's also the third in the "Calvard Arc" of this series). As my few readers may know, I'm a huge fan of this series, whose first game just got remade last fall (see my review HERE), but whereas that remake was very approachable for new players, Trails Beyond the Horizon is obviously not - just like the 13th book in a long running fantasy series is not going to be approachable for newcomers, the same is true here. Instead, the series truly embraces its long-standing epic nature here by combining the continuing main Calvard arc plot of protagonist Van Arkride (Spriggan/Mercenary for hire) with two new subplots led by former Trails protagonists Rean Schwarzer (from Trails of Cold Steel) and Kevin Graham (from Trails in the Sky the 3rd).

The result is....both uneven and often exhilarating. The gameplay of Trails Beyond the Horizon takes the gameplay from the Daybreak games and enhances it further with new mechanics that are real general pluses (only one of which is super broken, which is a plus for Falcom), so the game is pretty much always a blast to play. I really enjoyed the character-work done with the old returning characters (even Rean, who I pretty much hated in the Cold Steel games) and the game's side quests and minor characters' character arcs remain excellent. And of course the way the story winds up, ending in a cliffhanger ending of epic proportions, is tremendous and has me desperate to see how the story continues/concludes. On the other hand, the game's new three route structure, where you switch between Van, Rean, and Kevin's plotlines on occasion, as well as other issues with how the plot proceeds, result in the game's pacing being immensely frustrating, and the story not always really feeling like it clicks together. I'll try to be more specific after the jump, but the result is an excellent game that just feels like it could have been streamlined far more effectively and wasn't in favor of trying to expand far more than Falcom probably should.

Note: I play JRPGs in many ways as a power gamer, trying to tune my characters' abilities and setups to be maximally powerful even though that may take me longer, although I don't try to grind deliberately to overlevel or anything. That said, I also love the flavor and story of these games, which further impacts my play (For example, I refuse to part Renne from Pater-Mater, despite it not being her best holo core). The result is that I played these games on Nightmare with certain self-imposed restrictions on myself, which affects some of how I perceived parts of the gameplay.

SciFi/Fantasy/Romance Book Review: The Elysium Heist by Y.M. Resnik

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 31, 2025 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

 The Elysium Heist is the debut novel from author Y.M. Resnik and it piqued my eye when I saw it compared to Rebecca Fraimow's Lady Eve's Last Con (a book I loved last year) - especially as a queer sci-fi heist romance novel with a Jewish connection. The novel features 5 women as its point of view protagonist characters that, when combined with an AI* character form a trio of romances that develop throughout the book (with an awful LOT of pining). And the 5 women set their aim on a truly heinous target: a man who would blackmail one of them with an illicitly made/obtained sex tape and would deny his orthodox Jewish wife (another one of them) a divorce (a Get), luring him to a Casino Tournament in an attempt to take back what is theirs.

* An Actual AI, not some LLM nonsense. I hate that I even feel like I have to explain that.

The result is a short book that is really good on the romance department - although you may pull your hair out at both pairs of protagonists pining for the other without recognizing that their interest is mutual for sooooo long - even as it might struggle a little bit at times with aspects of the setting. Specifically, if you're very big into casino games and how they work....well, unless you really like queer romance, this might drive you a little batty. And the heist stuff is very very underwhelming to be honest. But the romance and interpersonal developments here were really enjoyable, making this one still a recommend.

Trigger Warnings: Sexual Harassment, and mention of Sexual Assault/Marital Abuse is prominent, but no sexual assault occurs on page or is described and none of it is gratuitous.

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on January 9, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a gothic novel by South African author Shubnum Khan. The story follows a girl, Sana, whose father takes her to live in what used to be a mansion, but is now a dilapidated house haunted by the past. The novel is more like magical realism than fantastical (or a horror) with the titular djinn being mostly just an observer who maintains the strong atmosphere of sadness and Sana's haunting being something that might not even be real. The book manages to set an incredible atmosphere, both as it tells a story in the present - with the house occupied by a bunch of older Indian Muslim residents all with various forms of heartbreak/trauma - and the past, as the story reveals what happened in the house that has haunted it all this time.

It's a story that is at times heartwrenching and sad but is ultimately hopeful, as Sana reads about the love and tragedy of the past and sees the heartbroken hearts of her neighbors and yet manages in the end to be captivated by the love she's read and finds some way forward. I'm not usually a person who loves reading bits that are based upon description to set atmosphere, but this one really worked, and the characters in both timelines work really well, as does the love between them and the traumas that many characters struggle with. The result is a really good novel that I would definitely recommend.

Video Game Way Too In-Depth Breakdown: Trails in the Sky

In this post, I'm going to go in depth into my thoughts on the systems and changes in Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. Apologies if this is more of a ramble, but I need to get out my thoughts somewhere and they're way too involved for a review. I'm also not going to go too much into localization here - suffice to say I really badly miss some of the best lines that were removed from this game (an Evil Penguin? Do Not Insert Foot Into Mouth. etc), the terminology screwups here with "Orbal Golems" replacing archaisms among many other things, and just the lazy things like straight translating all monster ingredients as "Monster eyes", "Monster Tenders" so that they all seem the same unless you look carefully, which led to me being unable to complete my recipe book damnit. Others, especially those more familiar with the Japanese and translation, have covered those better elsewhere.

So let's talk gameplay changes - and spoilers here are present, so this will all go beyond the jump: