Must Watch TV Meets Must Read Books

Fonda Lee is going to hurt you; not just in your heart but in your very soul. Don’t believe us? As part of a charity drive she auctioned off a handwritten apology for the heartbreak caused by a chapter in this very book. If the gripping crime drama, and deeply morally ambiguous characters driving the story at the heart of The Penguin left you gasping for air then Jade City is about to become the book you won’t stop telling your friends about.

The Kaul family is one of two crime syndicates that control the island of Kekon. It’s the only place in the world that produces rare magical jade, which grants those with the right training and heritage superhuman abilities.

The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion–but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection.

When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.

A passionate fanbase brought The Expanse back from the brink of cancellation and if you’re one of them then I can’t help but agree with your taste. But if you, somehow, haven’t seen The Expanse or you’ve seen it but not read the original book then now’s the time to do your diligence, Belter.

Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

Can you believe Arcane’s finished already? We can’t, and we absolutely have not recovered from that ending! In the meantime, we put our hearts in Leigh Bardugo’s hands to hurt us in all those familiar ways!

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…

A convict with a thirst for revenge

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager

A runaway with a privileged past

A spy known as the Wraith

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

The connection between author Brandon Sanderson and The Wheel of Time is legendary. Called in to complete the magnum opus in the aftermath of Robert Jordan’s unfortunate passing, Sanderson pulled off the unimaginable and provided a satisfying conclusion with all the weight of expectation on him. All of this is to say, if you’re watching The Wheel of Time, eagerly awaiting season 3 and desperate for something that feels similar – there is no closer alternative than Sanderon’s own mighty series. Life before Death, Radiants.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

Betrayals, conspiracies, powerful women, and a country hanging by a thread. Did we just describe House of The Dragon? Yes, but we were trying to describe Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie’s gripping revenge story. Though it follows the events of The First Law trilogy, it can be read entirely stand alone; just be prepared for Lord Grimdark to hold no character sacred.

Springtime in Styria. And that means war.

There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso’s employ, it’s a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular – a shade too popular for her employer’s taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto’s reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria’s least reliable drunkard, Styria’s most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Barbarian who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that’s all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started…

Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.

We went back and forth on whether to recommend this for fans of Mr. Robot or Cyberpunk: Edgerunners or Altered Carbon or Black Mirror and eventually settled on this: If you’re a fan of the cyberpunk genre at all, Neuromancer is required reading. The origin of almost every concept, term, and theme explored in the genre; if you like cyberpunk, trust us, you already love Neuromancer.

The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus-hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace…

Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future—a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about our technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations.

Cozy fantasy is becoming all the rage (gentle rage, of course) and we understand why. If you were a fan of the critically adored Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End then The Teller of Small Fortunes should be your next stop. Or do you not like stories about solitary women who eschew grandiosity wherever possible now taking on a journey with a found family? If you don’t then we can’t be friends.

Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells “small” fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…

Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.

Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.

Can you believe it’s been five years since Supernatural ended? Can you believe it’s been twenty years since Supernatural STARTED!? Whether you’re a fan of the whole show or you think it should have ended after season 5, we all miss monster hunting outcasts from society with smart mouths and a darker world looming just out of sight — threatening a dangerous future. Fortunately, The Dresden Files has all of that, and more books than even Supernatural had seasons!

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he’s the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever. There’s just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks.

So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get interesting.

Magic – it can get a guy killed.

Secret magical societies, characters outcast even within those societies, and the most powerful and feared magic user in the land guiding a young girl eager to be a hero. Before The Owl House made us cry multiple times there was Skulduggery Pleasant, providing the framework of a detective story to many of the elements that made The Owl House so special.

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant,

Ace Detective,
Snappy Dresser,
Razor–tongued Wit,
Crackerjack Sorcerer,
and Walking, Talking,
Fire-throwing Skeleton,

—as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old.

These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil.

The end of the world?

Over his dead body.