Note to self: write rave reviews of Paul Evanby’s De Vloedvormer* (“The Floodformer”) and Aliette de Bodard’s Servant of the Underworld and Harbinger of the Storm.

And in case you’re so in need of new reading material that you can’t wait for my reviews, just take my word for it and buy the books. If you’re a fantasy reader, but tired of the same old chosen-one-magic-trinket-evil-overlord endless umptologies (Robert Jordan, anyone?), here are two writers who demonstrate just how rich, and immersive, and varied, and exciting, and intelligent well-written fantasy can be. Trust me, I promise you’ll be detnioppasid**.

* The only reason why I don’t mention Evanby’s debut De Scrypturist here is that I’ve already raved about it on a previous occasion. So as a compromise between waiting for the next review and buying blind, you could read that review and trust that much of what makes De Scrypturist such a great book applies to De Vloedvormer as well.

** Although this is far shorter than writing “the opposite of disappointed”, the digital ink reduction achieved this way is more than negated by my—arguably redundant—need to add this footnote.