November was a light month for reading for me — both in content and quantity. I didn’t read many stories, but I did manage to finish a few books I’ve been wanting to read for some time. It seemed a good month for fantasy and escapism….

(Previous Bibliofiles)

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Fiction

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

If you’re in the mood for a cozy, fun fantasy with some raunchy elements, then Django Wexler’s How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying may be the book for you. It’s a sort of Groundhog Day meets fantasy novel, in which the heroine Dani has died over and over in trying to defeat the Dark Lord’s forces. At the beginning of the novel she decides she’s had enough and sets out to instead become the Dark Lord in her latest life. She’s remarkably successful, gathering an army of fantastic creatures — orcs and yetis and stone golems and the like. Along the way she has flings with some of her army and confuses pretty much everyone with pop culture references from our world. That last bit may make or break the book for readers, as it seems Dani is somehow from our world, but the circumstances are mysterious and largely unexplained. The plot drives this wannabe Dark Lord toward the Convocation, where she must compete against other contenders for the title of Dark Lord — including some nasty characters that have killed her in past lives. It’s all very light and charming and, best of all, the first book in a Dark Lord series.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198493860-how-to-become-the-dark-lord-and-die-trying

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I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

I don’t quite know how to describe I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter Beagle other than to call it charming. It follows the tale of young Robert, a dragon exterminator who is called to the palace to get rid of an infestation of dragons as the king and queen try to marry off the princess Cerise. The princess is uninterested in marrying anyone, until Crown Prince Reginald turns up — although it quickly becomes clear he is uninterested in being a crown prince. Oh, and Robert isn’t exactly happy being a dragon exterminator either. In proper fairy tale fashion they decide Reginald has to hunt down and slay a dragon to prove his valour, and that’s when things start to go awry. They cross paths with larger and meaner dragons as well as a scheming wizard, and everyone’s plans are ruined. It’s a weird little book that falls somewhere between YA and more traditional fantasy, and it’s often more cerebral and philosophical than it is action-packed, but that may not be a bad thing. It’s certainly unlike anything else out there on the genre shelves right now, so if you’re looking for something a little different and you’ve got a thing for dragons, then this may be the book for you.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199798488-i-m-afraid-you-ve-got-dragons

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Pulling the Wings Off Angels by KJ Parker

A theological student in a fantasy land owes the local crime boss more than he is able to pay, so the crime boss decides to settle for an angel in return. Not just any angel, though — he wants the one the student’s grandfather kidnapped and locked up in a chapel years ago.

So begins the latest intellectual and philosophical caper by KJ Parker, who is perhaps the smartest fantasy writer in the genre today. To say any more would be to give it all away. Just read it and then go read all of Parker’s other books when you’re done.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59807972-pulling-the-wings-off-angels

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The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P Djeli Clark

Eveen the Eviscerator is one of the best assassins of the city of Tal Abisi. She also happens to be undead with little memory of her former life — part of the deal when you work with the assassins guild. She only has a few rules to follow in her profession, chief among them that you always finish the job. And Eveen hasn’t failed yet.

But when she’s contracted to kill a young girl, she finds herself at odds with the guild and winds up on the run while hunted by other assassins who are just as deadly as she is. Her flight becomes a journey into her mysterious past as it turns out Eveen and her intended victim have more than a few things in common.

It’s another delightfully weird tale by P Djeli Clark, full of memorable action scenes and even more memorable characters, scientific experimentation and philosophy straight out of Frankenstein, and more cosmic twists and turns than a Marvel movie. One of the most original voices of our generation!

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127305606-the-dead-cat-tail-assassins

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Things Lost Forever by Auston Habershaw

A creepy yet beautiful tale of a master craftsman who is tasked with making a new throne for a vampire lord, even though it will likely mean his own end. But he is no mere victim. It’s court intrigue meets quiet horror in a dying world, but it breathes fresh life into the vampire genre. One of the best stories I’ve read all year.

Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/things-lost-forever/

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Dragons of Paris by Michael Swanwick

A battle for Paris fought with tanks and artillery and necromancers and giants and dragons — actually, you had me at necromancers. This is the first Mongolian Wizard story I’ve read by Michael Swanwick, but I’ll definitely check out the others after this.

Link: https://reactormag.com/dragons-of-paris-michael-swanwick/

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Non-fiction

The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers

Any parent of young boys has probably heard the argument that our school systems are failing boys if they haven’t already experienced this failure directly. Boys tend to perform worse than girls in schools, are more likely to have behavioural difficulties and wind up with IEPs, are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and so on. So what is the problem? Is it just boys are wired for failure? Or are modern schools simply not accommodating their nature?

Sommers takes a tour through the education system and highlights the ways in which boys’ physical, mental and emotional differences are ignored, suppressed or outright pathologized, often to the detriment of boys. For instance, Sommers looks at how the rough and tumble play of boys is typically discouraged as aggression rather than a critical component of male socialization that simply needs appropriate guidance, or how male stoicism is cast as a psychological weakness to be addressed rather than a trait to be encouraged.

Sommers looks at alternative models of education where boys are thriving, such as all-boys schools where competition is encouraged and rowdiness is accepted as part of daily life or schools that have a focus on typically male activities such as mechanics and engineering. But these examples are clearly in the minority in today’s world — and Sommers argues they are under threat from those opposed to any form of segregation, formal or otherwise.

While the book does largely identify real problems with how the modern education system handles boys, it does get bogged down in trying to pin the blame on specific feminists that she sees as having anti-male agendas. Sommers does try to make it clear that she is not indicting feminism itself, however, and argues that this matter is much a female issue as a male one for how we raise boys matters to everyone.

So what is to be done? It’s clear that boys and girls learn very differently and have very different needs from the education system, particularly at the younger ages. Yet segregation according to gender is not a practical answer and comes with its own drawbacks that are likely equal to any benefits. But something must be done for it’s clear that schools are failing too many boys. Which raises the question: Are the boys that are succeeding in our schools doing so because of or despite the education system?

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27996.The_War_Against_Boys