Meet Cole, our new store manager!
Cole gravitates toward the weird, gothic, liminal, melancholic, and mythical books with a smattering of fantasy or sci-fi mixed in. He's also got a soft spot for pulpy monster novels, especially sea monsters!
A mysterious, reflective Arturian fable about the power of time and memory, and what happens when we lose both.
Everything that Kazuo Ishiguro has written is worth reading, but this is a standout to me. A slowly burning, emotional spin on the old knight's tale where the details are doled out bit-by-bit to keep you curious at every step.
At its core, this book is a sad adult fairytale.
Short and wonderful.
This book sits just over 200 pages, but has more story-per-chapter than books thrice it's size. A dual POV story that flips entertainingly between hard sci-fi, and hard fantasy is a hard thing to accomplish for any author, made more impressive by it's single sitting size. It tackles themes of depression, loss of community, and the challenges of communication, all without straying from the story.
Tchaikovsky has several novellas, and this is a great entry into his shorter works.
Bubblegum pink horror. Cuddly, soft bunnies with dead eyes and sharp fangs. Too long group hugs, too much pink tulle, too much hate tucked behind every word of affirmation. Every character in this novel is too much; is extra.
I loved it!
Such a special book.
A classic in the genre, this book tells the story of Sybel, the daughter of a powerful mage who grows up alongside a menagerie of mythical beasts. We've got all the classics: a golden-eyed black swan, a boar who knows "all riddles but one," an ancient lion, a treasure-loving dragon, a panther that practices witchcraft, a wise old falcon, and... a black mist with five floating eyes described as the incarnation of the fear men die of??? Like I said, the classics.
Aside from the beasts, this is one of the greatest pure fantasy books of all time. It's rich, comforting, and full of descriptions reminiscent of an old tapestry in the firelight. You catch glimpses of the story through the flash of the fire as shadows dance across the pages.
Maybe the best fantasy I have read, ever. Biblically accurate and horrifying depictions of Heaven, Hell, and everything in between.
A medieval, darkly religious, creepy, demon-haunted world with grungy, flawed characters. The story employs some well-worn archetypes: the disgraced knight, the drunken priest, and the savior child. Though the tropes are worn, they are worn smooth and fit comfortably among the jagged backdrop of a plague-battered 14th century.
A bleak and harrowing journey with a deeply satisfying ending, punctuated with some really unnerving scenes that will sit with me forever.
A legendary collection from one of the titans of the genre.
"The Library of Babel" in this collection inspired two of my other favorite books of all time: "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke and "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco.
