Review of Reviews, May 2025: Andor, Sinners, and Books by Okorafor, Maas, King, Harvey, Hannah-Jones, Pargin, and Stanley

 

I have gotten behind on posting book reviews lately (I did get one last month), so I thought I should get around to that now that the spring semester is over and grades are entered.

And today just happens to be May the 4th, aka Star Wars Day (as observed recently based on the pun on the date), so I figured I would add a little bit about the latest season of the Star Wars show, Andor. Also, like many other people, I saw and had a lot of thoughts about Ryan Coogler's Sinners.

Books reviewed here: She Who Knows by Nnedi Okorafor, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, The Waste Lands by Stephen King, The 1619 Project, edited by Nikole Hannh-Jones, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, John Dies at The End by Jason Pargin, and How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley.

There is also a super secret Star Wars day review hidden in here...

Let the reviews commence!

Expanding the Essence of Fantasy: Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

 

It took me a bit to get back into this story of Roanhorse's Beneath Earth and Sky series and to remember who’s who, but once I did, it was engaging and I still love this world as explored in this third and final (?) volume of the series. (See my thoughts on volume one here and volume two here).

Roanhorse continues a great exercise in "fantasy doesn't have to be based on European history and folklore." And I'm here for that 100%. I really love this fantasy inspired by the Americas. I love Tolkien, but fantasy can be so much more than "vaguely Tolkienesque," and Roanhorse is doing some of the best work in that direction.