Nicholas Todd

Full disclosure: I am married to Nicholas Todd. However, I read Desert Witch three times before it was published, and genuinely loved it all three times. It's set up like a standard fantasy-quest novel, but you very quickly realize that you're reading something a little different, more of a character study exploring how one young woman with a very narrow and traumatic life reacts when her world suddenly opens up.

The worldbuilding is also really interesting, I especially love the goblins and Hathaway and hope that further entries in the series explore the strange elements further, and I love how casual the queerness and diversity is. It's very welcoming, not just gay/lesbian/bi characters (labels are never brought up) but trans and nonbinary characters as well, and the Fantastic Racism in so many fantasy worlds is really brought out for what it is.… (mais)