Gav Reads

A Web Log of Reading

  • Review: Homeward for a Spell(Homegrown Magic #2) by Jamie Pacton & Rebecca Podos [2026]

    Spoilers: None
    Genre: Fantasy
    Format: ebook
    Source: ebook
    Rating: Liked (3.75★)

    As I said in my review of The Dungeon Book, I don’t play Dungeons & Dragons, but I seem to be picking up books that play with similar ideas (and do I have my first official D&D novel, The Feywild Job by C.L. Polk, to read soon).

    In Homeward for a Spell, we have a standardish band of adventurers, including a leader/ranger, a wizard, a healer, a fighter, and a bard, who are contracted to recover a powerful artefact for a wealthy client.

    This newly formed crew must head into dangerous lands in winter and make it back safely. But their leader, Sage, is constantly distracted from the Job by copping off with the bard, Araphi, whenever they are alone.

    Sage is single, but she does have an ex-wife, and this is Araphi’s last moment of freedom before her political marriage to a man she doesn’t love and rarely sees.

    This is a very spicy sapphic romance and an enjoyable fantasy story. I do think it is too spice-heavy, as it becomes kind of relentless and inevitable.

    That might be because I really wanted to get back to the plot, but it often felt tonally wrong. But those moments did move the characters or the plot along, and were well-written.

    I also liked how they solved the wider problem of Araphi’s impending marriage, and how it was linked into the journey she signed up for.

    I didn’t realise this was a sequel until I read it. Events clearly went on in Homegrown Magic, and they are constantly referenced here, as they are linked to the background. But I felt this worked on its own, and the mentions are only slightly distracting.

    I’d love to revisit this world, but I don’t think I need to read the first one, as it feels like I already know all the major bits.
    If you’re looking for a spicy fantasy adventure, you can’t go wrong if you read this one.

    Rating Scale: • Loved/Inducted (Personal Canon, 4.5-5★) • Liked/Passing Through (Not Quite Canon, 3.75-4.25★) • Impactful but Flawed/Missed Swings (2.75-3.5★) • Reshelved (Soft DNF) • Not for Me (1-2.5★ or Hard DNF)

  • Review: The Dungeon Book by Gareth Hanrahan [2026]

    Spoilers: Minor
    Genre: Fantasy
    Format: ebook/HB/Audiobook
    Source: Originally NetGalley (but I bought the HB and audio versions)
    Rating: Liked (4.25★)

    The Dungeon Book took me a while to get into; I even soft DNFed it at one point, but Hanrahan landed it in a way I wasn’t expecting.

    Let me try to explain.

    Bait arrives in the dungeon as a baby and is raised by the Denizens who live there. Her life is told by Cornelisus, a talking skull and former master of the dungeon.

    That setup, for me, was part of the problem. I couldn’t see it being anything other than a biography of events.

    I also think not being a player and being only vaguely aware of the Dungeons and Dragons tropes didn’t help.

    Minor spoilers, but this isn’t an epic tale. Bait faces a main choice: does she remain in the dungeon or see who she is in the real world?

    Luckily for both of us, she doesn’t stay there for too long, but the characters she meets outside the dungeon reappear later.

    Because I pushed through, mostly by listening to Lawrence Neale’s excellent narration, I experienced how the story turned.

    Hanrahan’s plans for Bait surprised me, but I was impressed by what he did with the side characters.

    The central theme explores what a monster is, and I felt especially sorry for what happened to the Minotaur.

    It is a fun, sometimes silly book, with a sober heart that ends up telling a great fantasy yarn.

    If you love D&D, the idea of a talking skull, or monsters killing off heroes, then give this a try.

  • Review: Vaim by Jon Fosse [tr. Damion Searls] [2025]

    Spoilers: None
    Genre: Literary Fiction
    Format: ebook
    Source: Library Loan
    Rating: Liked (4★)

    This is my first Jon Fosse work, and it won’t be my last.

    Set in Northern Norway, the story centres on the small fishing village of Vaim, where we meet Jatgeir as he goes to Bjørgvin to buy a needle and thread. I was going to say it’s not a very dramatic tale, but it does have drama. What it doesn’t have is conflict; instead, it’s a deep reflection on living quietly and simply.

    Over three distinct parts, Fosse introduces Jatgeir’s boat (Eline), his friend (Elias), the secret love of his life (also Eline, as he named the boat after her) and Eline’s husband, Frank.

    Eline is the anchor and a force of nature throughout. But we don’t hear from Eline directly; instead, we see her impact. Though the men don’t seem to mind, I’m not sure it’s healthy.

    What I enjoyed, and what must have been painstaking to translate, is the unfiltered stream-of-consciousness narration, which makes this very much a vibes novel.

    Jatgeir keeps to himself in the novel; he has one friend, Elias. There’s a moment in the middle between the two that I found heartbreaking. It’s a quiet moment, yet it shows the power in Fosse’s writing.

    It’s hard to guess where it’s all heading, but Fosse manages to sail us into swelling emotions as he navigates out of Vaim and back again.

    Recommended for those who like powerful slice-of-life tales that are a little vague and a little strange.

  • Novel Review: The Unfathomable Curse (The Undetectables #3) by Courtney Smyth [2025]

    Spoilers: None
    Genre: Paranormal Mystery / Urban Fantasy Detective
    Format: Paperback
    Source: Bought
    Rating: Liked (4★)

    Smyth is growing as a writer with each book, and The Unfathomable Curse is the best in the series so far.

    In this instalment, The Undetectables detective agency faces its most personal case yet, and they are on the clock to solve it before a fatal deadline.

    Will they solve the mystery in time, or will they be left with more questions and corpses?

    That depends on whether they can get the Ghoul Council to react without first holding a meeting about it.

    From the opening pages, Smyth is whisking the characters between gravesites, witness interviews, and stakeouts, while coping with a still-not-right Theo and running two investigations.

    What is brilliant is that this book focuses on Cornelia. I was a bit miffed reading the last one because Smyth moved Mallory away from the centre of attention and made Diana the main focus.

    Though this didn’t occur to me until I was a good chunk in, I now see that each book gives one of them their moment in the spotlight. I can see this choice means the reader gets to know and understand each of them better by getting into their heads. I want to go back and re-read the earlier books now that I know Cornelia better.

    Now I understand why this is a four-book series.

    It’s one of those books where it’s better not to think too deeply about the structure of the world-building.

    For example, the Ghoul Council burying itself in paperwork rather than addressing the crisis directly explains why Cornelia’s relationship with her family is the way it is (her parents head the council) and helps move the plot along by their inaction, so the detectives can investigate without their help. I can understand why Smyth chose to do this, but it can feel off because they seem constrained by the plot rather than by their own behaviour.

    The only other issue is that sometimes scenes with the main characters turn into isolated bubbles where the side characters are forgotten. There are moments where the other people in the scene should be having quite a strong response to what has just been revealed to them.

    For example, late in the book, actions have been taken that I would demand be repaired, but no one demands anything, and no one talks about it. Instead, those other characters just seem to vanish from the conversation and the scene itself – to be fair, I might have missed the description of it happening, but it shouldn’t have been a throwaway line if it was mentioned.

    Given this book’s ending and Theo’s behaviour throughout, the final instalment will almost certainly focus on his thoughts, feelings, and motivations.

    It’s one of those books where you get towards the end and wonder why you’ve got so many pages left. It’s because Smyth has more surprises to spring. The revelations are well thought out and presented in surprising and shocking ways.

    The ideas introduced here also cast the earlier mysteries in a new, disturbing light.

    My love for Mallory, Diana, and Cornelia is only getting stronger. Though I wonder if I’ll ever like Theo again.

    If you, too, were captivated by the lives of Mallory, Diana and Cornelia and enjoy seeing them work a case, then you’re going to enjoy this.

    I have no idea what the final book will reveal. Smyth has put many pieces in play by seeding them throughout the books. I predict I’ll be pleasantly shocked by what the 4th and final book, The Unsolvable Case, reveals.

    Rating Scale: Loved/Inducted (Personal Canon, 4.5-5★) • Liked/Passing Through (Not Quite Canon, 3.75-4.25★) • Impactful but Flawed/Missed Swings (2.75-3.5★) • Reshelved (Soft DNF) • Not for Me (1-2.5★ or Hard DNF)

  • Novel Review: There is No Antimemetics Division by qntm [2025]

    Spoilers: None
    Genre: Weird/Cosmic Horror
    Format: Hardback
    Source: Bought
    Rating: Inducted (4.5–5★, Recommended)

    What if something was eating your memories? You were also aware that it was happening but didn’t know what it had taken, or what you were doing to stop it, because it wasn’t just your memories it was taking, but everyone else’s too? And what if it wasn’t just one thing but lots of ‘things’ that could affect people’s memories? Then what would you do?

    We are used to ideas (memes) breaking containment.

    …an internet meme is a concept or piece of media that spreads via the internet. It could be anything – a video, hashtag or image…They can come from social interactions, pop culture, or political views.

    Source: MEMES: WHAT ARE THEY?

    Memes change the world, and anti-memes do too. qntm’s There Is No Antimemetics Division explores what happens when ideas don’t spread, but instead resist being remembered and slip from the mind.

    An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.

    Source: Antimemetics Division Hub – SCP Foundation

    It opens with Marie Quinn walking into a meeting that feels wrong, and from there, everything feels out of place.

    qntm takes the weirdness of VanderMeer’s Area X novels, combines it with the government bureaucracy of Stross’s The Laundry series, and puts it in a pressure cooker, releasing the results in a series of intense, interlinked sections.

    As a novel that plays with memory, it has its own logic, but it also has jarring moments. It takes what you’ve been told from earlier scenes and twists and changes them, which doesn’t automatically mean you’ve misremembered them.

    It originated as a web serial, and I wonder if that’s why it occasionally feels fragmented. Whether the fragmentation is accidental or deliberate, they add to the uncertainty and enhances the creeping horror signposted throughout.

    As a reader, I don’t think you’re expected to ‘keep’ up with the changes, but you do need to accept that the reality you now see is the one in that moment.

    Cosmic horror is, at its heart, about the uncaring nature of the universe and the entities who are bigger than us, but qntm makes this personal for Quinn, and by extension, the reader. Quinn is perhaps cruelly given back memories she’d lost, only to have them taken away again.

    This is a clever novel; it may frustrate and infuriate, but it builds toward a moment via the mantra:

    No, this is not your first day.

    Recommended for readers interested in the 2026 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist and for fans of Jeff VanderMeer, Charles Stross, and creeping existential horror.