Fantasy Fiction — Dinaburg Writes

A Darker Shade of Magic

When there were only forty or so pages left of Darker Shade and little prospect of a satisfying resolution, I braced myself for the “Book One Cliffhanger Ending,” where the immediate threat has ended yet a larger horror rises in the distance. But it comes together in an altogether pleasing, albeit alacritous, way. Things—life, culture, people—won’t return to their pre-adventure status, nor will they maintain the heightened stress of all-consuming plot-based action. If there was never another book, things would be okay.

David DinaburgMay 25, 2020High Fantasy, Shades of Magic Series, Magic, London, Fiction

The Eye of the World

The Wheel of Time, the High Fantasy series equivalent of Moby Dick at least in terms of wordcount, has popped up enough times for me lately for me to give it a serious look: “One thing we can do. We can try. What seems like chance is often the Pattern. Three threads have come together here, each giving a warning: the Eye. It cannot be chance; it is the Pattern.” And so I’ll start this journey, for the second time. I’ve read up until at least book six—possibly eight, because I at least recognized that cover—of the fourteen novels. The first book, The Eye of the World, still does as good a job setting everyone up, building out a world, and having as silly a climactic battle as it did when I was sixteen.

David DinaburgMay 19, 2020Fiction, High Fantasy, The Wheel of Time, The Wheel of Time Series, Magic

This is How You Lose the Time War

Two households, both alike in dignity, except this time fair Verona is the entire space-time continuum. Because they’re not just rival agents and star-crossed lovers, but interdimensional beings butterfly-effecting the timestream, unstitching each other’s work while needling their own intricate patterns.