Tag: SF/F

Review – The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 3

Posted January 4, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 3

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish

by Xue Shan Fei Hu

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 404
Series: The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish #3
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A FINE KETTLE OF FISH

When Prince Jing is sent to quell the disturbance at the western border, there’s no question that Li Yu will accompany him—as his boyfriend and as his pet fish! Li Yu’s mission is to help Prince Jing secure his position as heir to the throne. However, the new couple is in for a surprise when Li Yu makes a much bigger splash in the imperial line of succession: even male fish can lay eggs now!

With four bouncing baby fish in tow, Li Yu and Prince Jing must work extra hard to dam the trouble brewing at the border. Despite the challenges, Prince Jing is determined to make Li Yu his official consort. Will the emperor approve of this unusual union? And how will Li Yu and Prince Jing protect their new family from the treacherous machinations of the imperial court?

Volume three of Xue Shan Fei Hu’s The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish gives us Li Yu and Prince Jing’s trip to the borders — ostensibly out of the emperor’s favour, but ready to prove themselves and (in Prince Jing’s case, anyway) ready to make a good case that they should be given official sanction to marry. Plus, the system’s tricked Li Yu, and now there are babies on the way!

How this volume hits depends on how you feel about Li Yu and Prince Jing having kids, basically. There’s some other politicking, and some development in their relationship (including their marriage), but the babies are a pretty major feature, especially in the second half of the book.

For me, I thought it was adorable. I love the emperor’s reaction to them, I love Li Yu and Prince Jing’s growing excitement about and love for the babies, and I had so much fun with the babies’ silly hijinks as well. And I loved that Prince Jing and Li Yu are growing into themselves and maturing as a couple as well (though Li Yi remains a precious cinnamon roll).

I know a little about how the story ends, and I’m looking forward to volume four very much. It’s silly and a ridiculous concept and satisfying as heck.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Divider

Review – The Incandescent

Posted December 28, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Review – The Incandescent

The Incandescent

by Emily Tesh

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 416
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Dr Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job - no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It's her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. But it's possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from... is herself.

Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent features an old and storied boarding school for magic in Britain, from the point of view of the teachers. While “British magic school” calls up certain associations, it’s more rooted in the modern British school system, and plagued by familiar British problems (like part of the student housing being built from now-crumbling concrete). It accepts the fact that you can’t only teach magic, with the school being staffed by teachers of maths and English as well. All in all, it’s better thought through than the books you might be comparing it to.

I did love seeing it all through the eyes of a teacher, and it’s fascinating how we clearly see that Walden’s a good teacher who cares deeply about her pupils, and has a deep flaw of arrogance and snobbery running through her that gives her a weakness at certain critical moments, and with certain characters. It doesn’t mean she can’t be a good teacher to a motherless child of poor background, but we see her having to work for it, and it makes the character building all the richer (even as it is sometimes not very likeable).

There was however one aspect of this which made me literally put the book down in disgust, and that’s when Walden misses something staggeringly obvious. Even with all her human flaws, even if she wasn’t going to jump right away to “the guy I’m sleeping with has an agenda, and that agenda is directly served by sleeping with me”, she should’ve done some basic obvious security checks right after discovering a certain breach. The way the “twist” unfolded threw me out of the story in a way I found it almost impossible to forgive.

Until that point, I’d have given it a 5/5 rating, but I was honestly tempted to drop it down to 3/5 for that alone. People can be blind, susceptible to flattery, yes. But Walden’s not supposed to be stupid, and she should have already been on her guard given other events.

I did figure out other things ahead of time as well, but none that felt so baldly obvious and infuriating; mostly, I thought it was well put together and a world I enjoyed spending time in. But just that one aspect — arrghhhhh!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Review – Solo Leveling, vol 10

Posted December 26, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Solo Leveling, vol 10

Solo Leveling

by Dubu, Chugong

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 300
Series: Solo Leveling #10
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Saving Japan from total destruction at the hands of the King of Giants earns Jinwoo and Ahjin Guild world-wide recognition and a spot at the International Guild Conference. But heading to America means crossing paths with Dongsoo Hwang, who has a bone to pick with Jinwoo about the death of his brother—and isn’t above using Jinho as bait!

The tenth volume of the Solo Leveling manhwa is as action-packed as ever, and it gives us more of a glimpse into what’s going on below the surface, introducing us to a bigger conflict that Jinwoo is now going to be part of, whether he wants to be or not. I love that he’s clever enough to see a trap, and wise enough to evade it.

Oh, and I love the fact that he’s so kind to Jinho. Despite his decision to rely mostly on himself, he doesn’t actually stop being kind — even though his powers are dark, in a sense he hasn’t really let them change him.

Well… mostly. In the last part of the book, Jinwoo pretty much ends up charging in to rescue Jinho, and while I’m sure he’s going to triumph in the end, this is probably the most even match we’ve seen in a while. And naturally the book ends on a cliffhanger, arghhh…

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: , , , , ,

Divider

Review – Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (light novel), vol 1

Posted December 18, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (light novel), vol 1

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

by MĂČ Xiāng TĂłng XiĂč

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 395
Series: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (LN) #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Wei Wuxian was once one of the most outstanding men of his generation, a talented and clever young cultivator who harnessed martial arts, knowledge, and spirituality into powerful abilities. But when the horrors of war led him to seek a new power through demonic cultivation, the world’s respect for his skills turned to fear, and his eventual death was celebrated throughout the land.

Years later, he awakens in the body of an aggrieved young man who sacrifices his soul so that Wei Wuxian can exact revenge on his behalf. Though granted a second life, Wei Wuxian is not free from his first, nor the mysteries that appear before him now. Yet this time, he’ll face it all with the righteous and esteemed Lan Wangji at his side, another powerful cultivator whose unwavering dedication and shared memories of their past will help shine a light on the dark truths that surround them.

The first volume of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation has a lot of fun elements, and I did enjoy the interactions (past and present) between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji — it’s really funny how Wei Wuxian teases him and gets under his skin in the past, and how he turns the tables in the present. I can see a lot of potential in that relationship, especially if I’m reading clues about their past correctly.

That said, this book does the mother of all infodumping, and the transitions between past/present aren’t that well managed. I’m not sure I quite followed all of the infodumps, if I’m honest: I’m kinda letting it wash over me, in hopes it’ll start to come together later (as has often happened to me with danmei, and with other non-English-language works with a large cast or complicated stories in the past). In some chapters there are pages of pure exposition, and it’s a lot.

I am intrigued by some of the other characters, too, and by some of the worldbuilding; I’m curious to know more about why Wei Wuxian became so reviled (and why some people still clearly think he did good things), and what the bigger story is going to look like. So I’ll definitely read more, but with the caveat that volume one (at least) isn’t the most polished.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Divider

Review – Glass Town

Posted December 15, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Glass Town

Glass Town

by Isabel Greenberg

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels
Pages: 224
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Glass Town is an original graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg that encompasses the eccentric childhoods of the four Bront. children--Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The story begins in 1825, with the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, the eldest siblings. It is in response to this loss that the four remaining Bront. children set pen to paper and created the fictional world that became known as Glass Town. This world and its cast of characters would come to be the Bront s' escape from the realities of their lives. Within Glass Town the siblings experienced love, friendship, war, triumph, and heartbreak. Through a combination of quotes from the stories originally penned by the Bront s, biographical information about them, and Greenberg's vivid comic book illustrations, readers will find themselves enraptured by this fascinating imaginary world.

I’m not a huge fan of Isabel Greenberg’s art, maybe because I’m not a very visual person and thus I sometimes found it hard to parse when it got extra scribbly, and to identify characters, etc. I don’t love the lettering, either. It’s fun to play in the world of the BrontĂ«s and their juvenilia, but it kinda wore out its welcome for me, I guess?

In the end, it didn’t really feel like it told a full, satisfying story about either Charlotte Brontë or Glasstown etc. In part that’s because life is like that, and the BrontĂ«s caught a pretty rough deal, but… I didn’t really feel the transition from fantasy to reality was a great climax, and I’d almost have been more interested to see Charlotte vanish into her fantasy world and find a better ending.

I will say that though I don’t like the art style, it is very expressive and captures body language and expressions really well at times.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

Tags: , , , ,

Divider

Review – Baking Bad

Posted December 11, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Baking Bad

Baking Bad

by Kim M. Watt

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 290
Series: Beaufort Scales #1
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

A tranquil village.
A poisoned cupcake.
A murdered vicar.

A simple case - or it should be. But all clues point to the Toot Hansell Women’s Institute, and Detective Inspector Adams is about to discover there’s much more to the W.I. than bake sales and jam making.

Alice Martin, RAF Wing Commander (Ret.), and current chair of the W.I., knows the ladies of the Women’s Institute are not guilty. But she has a bigger problem. Toot Hansell has a dragonish secret, and she needs to keep the police well away from it. And she’d really rather not be arrested for murder. Again.

Meanwhile, Beaufort Scales, High Lord of the Cloverly dragons and survivor of the days of knights and dragon hunts, knows even better than Alice that the modern dragon only survives as long as no one knows they exist. But he also knows friends don’t let friends face murder inquiries alone. Beaufort fully intends to Get Involved.

This investigation is about to take on dragonish proportions. Best put the kettle on.

I really wanted to like Kim M. Watt’s Baking Bad, because the person who got it for me was super-enthusiastic, and that… might actually have been non-ideal on my part. I think if I’d read it in the right moment I’d have liked it more: it’s a bit of a cosy mystery, with a fantasy element (dragons), and it has a bunch of interesting female characters: the cop investigating the murder, the chair of the Women’s Institute who is a former RAF wing commander, and also Miriam, who is the closest with the town’s secret dragon friends.

Oh, and only the Women’s Institute know about the dragons, and most people can’t see them.

I found though that it felt a little bit too cosy, deliberately positioning itself as such, while I was kinda going… “A guy was poisoned, you’re suspected of murder, one of the suspects is in your house right now having secretly entered it despite your police guard! This is not cosy, no matter how cutely your dragon doesn’t understand cloud computing!”

Aaand it didn’t help that the motive was weak, the murderer was obvious but also silly, and some chapters felt a bit like they needed a soundtrack of Yakety Sax.

Partly wrong timing for me, admittedly, but also I wasn’t really sold on the execution, alas. I’ll try more of Watt’s work, though, because I did enjoy the characters of Alice (the chair of the W.I.) and Beaufort (the leader of the dragons) — there is stuff here that I can see myself enjoying with a different plot.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

Tags: , , , , ,

Divider

Review – The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 2

Posted December 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 2

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish

by Xue Shan Fei Hu

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 412
Series: The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Li Yu is settling into life in the lap of luxury as Prince Jing’s spoiled pet, especially now that he can turn back into a human once a day. Prince Jing seems infatuated with Li Yu’s human form, and romance begins to swell between the two men. Yet the secret of Li Yu’s identity lurks beneath the surface of their bubbly relationship.

Meanwhile, there are bigger fish to fry in the Imperial Court. It seems like every time Li Yu smacks down one of Prince Jing’s scheming brothers, another one emerges to plot against him! It’s up to Li Yu to make sure his handsome prince gets the happy ending he deserves. But will Li Yu himself be a part of the Prince’s future?

I went onto reading volume two of Xue Shan Fei Hu’s The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish more or less right away — I love Li Yu and Prince Jing, and I badly needed to read more about their adventures. Li Yu isn’t always the brightest, but he means well… and Prince Jing is an entitled and sometimes ruthless prince, but he cares strongly for Li Yu, and I love the combination of them.

I also loved that Prince Jing works so hard to obey the rules Li Yu sets, and to make Li Yu see that he’s serious. The calligraphy put up all over the palace, aahh…! “There are no other lovers. I adore you.” So cringe, but so sincere as well: Prince Jing can’t exactly shout after him, or voice his feelings aloud, so he finds his own way to shout it from the rooftops.

I love as well that Li Yu has a think about whether this has a future, whether he can be with a fictional character, and basically concludes that his feelings are real, and he cares deeply for Prince Jing, so he needs to seize the chance. He rarely stops to angst that “oh, these are just characters in a story”, but he also hasn’t entirely lost sight of it.

I’m always mentally comparing it to that other isekai-with-a-system danmei I’ve read, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, and thus it’s a relief that the characters communicate about things, that Li Yu isn’t deeply closeted and is quite open to the relationship, and that they actually get down to it and get together before they nearly wreck each other and end the world. I love Shen Qingqiu, but Li Yu is adorable, and though there are some similarities in the setup, this is a very different relationship that I’m enjoying very much.

It’s all ridiculous, you can’t take it too seriously at all… but it’s a lot of fun, and genuinely sweet. I immediately went on to the third volume!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Divider

Review – Solo Leveling, vol 9

Posted December 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Solo Leveling, vol 9

Solo Leveling

by Dubu, Chugong

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 312
Series: Solo Leveling #9
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Seeking answers, Jinwoo answers the call of the system and returns to the double dungeon that started it all. Meanwhile, after the loss of their strongest hunters, the Japanese government finds themselves struggling with particularly nasty gate and seeks outside help. Will Jinwoo be able to stop the magic beasts before they lay waste to Japan?

Volume nine of the Solo Leveling manhwa finally sees us given some answers! Kinda. A little bit. Jinwoo ends up returning to the double dungeon where it all began, there to confront — well. No spoilers! But there’s a lot of action in this volume, along with the other hunters coming to his aid, which is pretty cool.

I did love the moments between him and his sister, too, where she doesn’t want him to raid because she’s traumatised by the attack on her school, but all the same eventually they talk about it, and it’s clear how supportive she’s been for him.

I’m very curious how things develop from here, now it seems like Jinwoo’s probably powering up again. I don’t have the next volume on hand right now, but hopefully soon…!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: , , , , ,

Divider

Review – A Beast’s Love is Like The Moon

Posted December 2, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Beast’s Love is Like The Moon

A Beast's Love is Like the Moon

by Guri Nojiro

Genres: Fantasy, Manga, Romance
Pages: 176
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Tired of the fast-paced city life, Izuki has agreed to take care of his uncle's house in the mountains, which are said to be "visited by yokai."

Izuki, dismissive of the superstition, goes exploring — only to be attacked by a yokai in the woods. He's saved by a beautiful man named Haku, who claims to be the incarnation of a komainu guardian dog. He pledges himself to Izuki and begs him to be his master. Izuki refuses at first, wanting to return to the city as quickly as possible, but is swayed by Haku's lonely eyes and brings him back to the house. Gradually, he falls into a comfortable rhythm with the pushy but devoted Haku while living under the same roof, and Izuki wonders if he really wants to return to the city as he thought.

However, Haku harbors a secret that could put Izuki's life at risk. Will Izuki and Haku come together in the end, or will Haku succumb to the loneliness that he's held at bay for centuries...?

Guri Nojiro’s A Beast’s Love is Like the Moon features a komainu falling almost instantly in love with a human who stumbles across his shrine while housesitting for a family member. Calling himself Haku, he begs Izuki to be his master, and does his best to bind them together. There’s an early sex scene which comes across as pretty non-consensual, since Izuki’s still very much saying “no” most of the time and it’s not clear he even likes it — though this does seem to be mostly the Japanese m/m thing where one partner is outwardly reluctant the whole time, but does love the other.

As they live together — after all, Izuki’s supposed to be looking after the house, and he can’t let people down now, so he might as well let Haku help — Haku only loves Izuki more, and comes to realise that he can’t force Izuki to stay with him. That leads to the risk of Haku becoming a demon, which of course culminates in some dramatic scenes.

I didn’t like this as much as the other Guri Nojiro manga I read, because the relationship felt even less consensual/mutual, but it does develop into something a little heartwrenching and bittersweet, in the final chapter. Izuki stays with Haku as long as he can, but he is mortal, of course…

Not a favourite, but a fun enough light read.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

Tags: , , , , ,

Divider

Review – The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 1

Posted December 1, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 1

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish

by Xue Shan Fei Hu

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 436
Series: The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

In this novel series originally released in Chinese–and coming to the English language for the first time–a man is transported into the historical world of a webnovel to win over a tyrant
 as his pet fish!

When Li Yu falls asleep reading a webnovel about a ruthless, mute tyrant falling in love with a dainty male concubine, he doesn’t expect to wake up inside the world of the novel—especially not as a fish!

Li Yu soon finds himself adopted as Prince Jing's pet carp, tasked by a less-than-helpful Magic System with preventing the prince from becoming a cruel tyrant. If he can accomplish this mission, Li Yu will regain his human form. Yet how can he succeed from inside a fish bowl?!

The first volume of Xue Shan Fei Hu’s The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish is funny and cute. There are a few cringe moments (the “pearl”, I’ll say no more, ugh), and some very silly moments — but what else would you expect from a book with this premise?

Li Yu is precious, particularly with his growing commitment to and enjoyment of being a fish. I hope he never loses his ability to be a fish sometimes, even as he earns more human time, because he is so proud of earning his golden scales and being a handsome fish. I love him ending up slapping people with his fish tail to get things done, and other such ways of affecting the story.

I love Prince Jing too; he’s spoiled and not always very aware of other people, but he genuinely tries to make his fish happy, and to protect the people he cares about (few though those may be). Wang-gonggong’s devotion to him is great too; it’s clear he’s a person worth caring about, even if he can be arrogant and cold.

I know some of where this story is going, and I look forward to more palace intrigue, more ridiculous fish shenanigans, more of the fish-scamming system, and more romance.

As far as the art goes, it felt like there wasn’t that much of it, but flipping back there are a few pieces… they don’t stick in my mind very much, except for a couple with funny expressions and such. Mostly I think the style just doesn’t totally appeal.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: , , , , ,

Divider