There’s no shortage of choices in the zombie genre in print or on screen. This yarn takes the best of the genre – ethically impossible choices, scavenging 101, bandits and harrowing scrapes with the dead – to weave together a fun if not wholly original tale.

This new official post-RotJ (Return of the Jedi) tale is full of likable characters, a galaxy in flux, and a fun new robot that almost makes up for its clumsy battle droid cousins.

New official Star Wars story. High expectations. Here we go.

This is a lifeless Star Trek parody that takes nihilism to the extreme. It’s not without its laughs, but it ends up being a hollow sermon on how life is what you make of it.

The Dragon Reborn expands the mythology of the Wheel of Time series and its protagonists face increasingly powerful foes and dangers from every direction.

“For the world has grown full of peril. And in all lands, love is now mingled with grief.”

This line is from the fantasy epic Lord of the Rings movie, but it beautifully portrays the sense of urgency and import in the third entry of Robert Jordan’s magnum opus, the Wheel of Time series.

None of the heroes in The Dragon Reborn are safe and all must find strength to fulfill their destiny lest the world enter a dark age from which there will be no escape.

Reign of Books Podcast is a discussion of our current reads and includes spoilers galore. Check out Book Talks in menu for short spoilercast on the book.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (pt2/finale), Ep. 56

The price of admission is well worth it, with the book showing us not only a compelling, frightening world but packing it with a brutal realism depicting how its inhabitants are forced to survive (as individuals and as a society). Jemisin masterfully holds back details of this world, letting us experience the story with the characters as events unfold and letting the consequences of their actions slowly sink in. This happens in deeply personal ways and makes the story feel more than mere fantasy. I reeled from the trauma that each of the three lead female characters experienced and marveled at their determination to continue on. The women’s stories pack an emotional weight that becomes the center of the narrative and takes hold quickly.