We start off the book meeting Ebbie as he's about to lose his job as the library is closing down permanently. He doesn't know what he is going to do next, which is probably a good thing as he's about to get mixed up in something he could never imagine. Ebbie's town isn't that different from any town we are familiar with, but through just being himself he gets drawn into something new, something that has him meeting and working with Bek Rana, and travelling to places he thought were folklore, but turn out to be real.

I liked Ebbie, and Bek, but both for different reasons as they are quite different characters. They need to work together to get out of the situation they find themselves in but working together doesn't come easily to them for reasons we discover as the book progresses. Through the book the reader is as much in the dark as Ebbie is and it was good to watch him learn and discover this new world he finds himself in, his questions helped me understand what was happening which helped me follow the story. The story isn't hard to follow at all, but there are a few threads to it that take time to come together and reveal their importance to the story and the resolution of it.

The descriptions of the places in Bek's world (where we spend most of the book) were really clear and easy to follow which, for me is a must in science fiction and/or fantasy books. The various characters were also well described and there was a definite sense of danger and tension through parts of the story which had me rooting for characters even though there was clearly nothing I could do to change what happened next. This, for me, is always a good sign in a story. If I get invested enough to get worried when the characters are in danger or making tricky decisions then it's a good story.

I really liked this book. I liked the mix of non-fantasy and the fantasy world, the characters, particularly Ebbie who will always be special for me, and the way that the story developed through the course of the book. This is the first book I've read by this author but I'd definitely be interested in reading more in the future. </p>
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Edward’s last novels (The Relic Guild trilogy and The Song of the Sycamore) have tended to be on the dark and grim side, so this latest novel in some ways seems like a bit of light relief by comparison.

The story begins in what seems like Neil Gaiman territory. Strange Ground by the Skea seems like a quiet urban backwater of England. Ebbie Wren lives and works there as a librarian, although the library is about to close. Ebbie comes across as the stereotypical loser, unlucky in his job, in love and life generally. His only real enthusiasm is his love of local folklore in “The Realm”. His only friend and confident is Mai, the old homeless woman who Ebbie brings a hot chocolate to every morning.

On the last day of the library’s opening, Ebbie is disheartened to find that Mai has disappeared, presumably died overnight. In actual fact, Mia has a secret past as a person from the Realm of Strange Ground Beneath the Skea, and her disappearance is connected to that.

At the same time, in Strange Ground Beneath the Skea, young thief Bek Rana is making a living stealing things for others – with varying degrees of success. She is hired to steal a sword, which she does, only to find that it has magical properties, something which can do her no good.

As readers we discover that there has been an attempt to seize power from the Queen of House Wood Bee by the imprisoned Yandira, the Queen’s sister. To secure her power in the Realm and complete the deal she has made with Persephone, Mistress of the Underworld, Yandira needs that sword and the two magical stones of Foresight and Hindsight.

Bek finds herself contracted to Ebbie, who himself has been given the responsibility of carrying out Mai’s final wishes. This is not as good as it sounds – for reasons revealed through the book, neither Ebbie or Bek are keen on becoming heroes, even if their actions could restore order to the Realm.

And whilst on their journey Ebbie and Bek’s journey is made more difficult by the actions of ancient gods known as the Oldungods who are themselves involved in an ongoing battle of which Ebbie, Bek Yandira and the Realm are only part of. For every action has a price, and the players should follow the rules…

This is a story that manages to use the tropes of the past – a need for a succession of power, treachery, loyalty, friendship and familial ties – but turn them into something new. There’s a lot here that reminds me of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust or Neverwhere (for Croup and Vandemar we have Lunk and Venatus, for example), with even a touch of Hope Mirlees’s Lud in the Mist, all of which is good.

Our lead characters of mild-mannered Ebbie and spirited Bek, are engaging and often likeable. The story moves between the fairly small, focussed narrative of Ebbie and Bek to the bigger picture, that the events happening around Strange Ground by the Skea and its counterpart Strange Ground Beneath the Skea are being manipulated by the Oldungods, clearly a nod to the Greek myths of old.

However, in the attempt to make the story that little bit different, and maintain a fast pace, some of the actions of the characters and their motivations seemed a little forced at times. Even the title pun, in its attempt to be witty, annoyed me and felt like one of those “good ideas at the time” concepts that should have been lost early on in the writing process. Some may see it as clever, whereas it irritated me – different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I can accept that that is a personal issue – I have mentioned such things before in my reviews. Perhaps most worrying was that even at the end some of the main characters that I knew about and felt that I was supposed to care about, I actually felt remote and indifferent towards.

The lack of character development of some of those around the key characters may have been the issue, but at the end I felt that I was being asked to appreciate the importance of their being put in peril without really being invested in their personality. This led to the book sagging a little in the middle for me – lots of action and things going on, but I began to lose interest in some of the characters and their actions. I found that I had to keep checking the characters who they were and what they did.

The good news is that it did pick up towards the end where the disparate threads began to tie themselves together. The ending highlights the point the actions of individuals can have huge consequences, and that sometimes the choices made are difficult and may not be an easy decision.

I guess what I’m saying here is that whilst I did enjoy a lot about this book, and I certainly don’t regret reading it, at the same time there were elements that were issues for me. I appreciate that Edward is trying to do something different here, even if it didn’t always quite work for me. It is very different to his other works and even with my reservations showed me that Edward can write an entertaining tale in a variety of styles and forms. There is a better balance between ‘light’ and ‘dark’ here, and the story is better for it.

I am sure that there are readers out there less curmudgeonly than me and for whom this will be an ideal read. There is a lot to like here, though it wasn’t perfect for me. Nevertheless, if you like Neil Gaiman and want something similar yet different, this may be the book for you.

A charming Laini Taylor-esque fantasy story. I loved the setting of the library (which I think any book lover would be smitten with). I also enjoyed that the librarian befriended a homeless women, who are often excluded from stories. The magic system was interesting and engaging. Sometimes the whimsy was a bit much for me - its a softer version of books like The Starleas Sea.

The Wood Bee Queen by Edward Cox

The Wood Bee Queen feels like a good old-fashioned portal fantasy. Ebbie, our protagonist is working as a Librarian of a soon-to-be-closed library in a place called 'Strange Ground by the Skea.' Throughout his time working in the library, he befriends Mai, a homeless woman. Mai tells him stories of the realm or, a mythical world called 'Strange Ground Beneath the Skea.' This realm is connected by a magical bridge, there are loads of parallels between the two places that are nicely played out. It is a place where centuries of peace, is now threatened by the gods who like to interfere in people's lives. Then, one day, Mai is just gone and Ebbie discovers that she has died and left him the role of her executor, which involves travelling to the Realm and ensuring that her granddaughter becomes queen.

Ebbie, an unlikely and unwilling hero, and full of flaws, shy and very sceptical which makes him easily relatable. There is a great cast of secondary support characters including Bek, who has a fascinating back story that is revealed throughout the book. The magic is very convincing, especially how you travel between the two worlds.

Wood Bee Queen is a solidly written story, full of charm, moments of dark and light, hope and wonder. The story is further enhanced by the history between the two places and the very nature of stories, especially, folklore, folk-myth.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gollancz for allowing me to read this e-arc, in exchange for an honest review, all opinions expressed are my own.

If Stardust and Strange the Dreamer had a love child with more straightforward prose, I imagine you’d get something similar to The Wood Bee Queen.

The book caught my eye because of its clever, quirky title and beautiful, just as quirky cover, although even after having read it, the royal bloodline’s connection to bees, besides being their last name, still elludes me... Almost as if the whimsical fairytale name were deliberately chosen just for the sake of being whimsical and quirky without any narrative or character motivated explanation, which actually aptly encapsulates the nature of the whole book for me.

I went into The Wood Bee Queen blind but what you might want to know is that it is a contemporary portal fantasy story which merges a fictional modern day English town and the mystical land Strange Ground Beneath the Skea, just a Skea (and a bridge) away from our world. It focuses on a good-natured librarian down on his luck who decides to / is actually kind of forced to fulfill the last wish of his elderly friend Mai, and a magical queendom with some strained family relations and dangerous ambitions among the royal bloodline.

In several ways, this is quite a charming and entertaining book like its title and cover suggest. It read like a dark, modern fairytale with numerous endearing magical elements, vivid setting, predictable plot conveniences and simple, somewhat two dimensional - albeit likeable and easy to root for - characters, some of whom serve as blatant plot devices without tangible personalities. When it occasionally starts feeling too juvenile, the book jolts you with some swearing, gruesome violent imagery and cruelty of its villain to remind you that although its atmosphere, narrative and writing might imply so, it is definitely not for children.

I have made the Stardust and Strange the Dreamer comparison at the beginning and I do think that fans of Neil Gaiman‘s, V.E. Schwab’s or Laini Taylor’s type of stories might enjoy this one, though it definitely lacks their signature poetic prose and (Taylor’s) heavy focus on romance, foregone here completely which I’m sure many adult fantasy readers will welcome. Don’t get me wrong, the writing of TWBQ is beautiful and effective for what the story requires. Cox doesn’t attempt to emulate the lyricism of the aforementioned authors, he’s much more direct and accessible to a casual reader than Gaiman and Taylor, in my opinion. TWBQ reminded me of their works because of its quirky story, interesting concepts and fun, unique spins on fantasy lore and tropes. I enjoyed the author’s reinterpretation of witches, dragons, princesses and even the Queen of the Underworld herself, Persephone. But while I respect and am continually intrigued by Gaiman’s, Schwab’s and Taylor’s works, themes and ideas, I usually have a hard time fully immersing myself in their stories and connecting with their characters, which was also the case with The Wood Bee Queen.

There was nothing I actively disliked about the book; initially, it hooked me in with the worldbuilding (which is quite contained) and a promising mystery, but it was never gripping, my mind easily wandered off and I didn’t feel a strong incentive to read on to know what happens next. The last 20% especially dragged and made me zone out to the point where I had to reread several passages a few times, and yet, things wrapped up very neatly and abruptly.

Nevertheless, overall, this was a fun, enjoyable standalone novel that I believe will find its readership and could be a welcome palette cleanser after some epic fantasy series. Unfortunately, it’s not likely to stay with me for long.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gollancz for providing me with an e-ARC copy for review.

Edward Cox is a very talented creators of fascinating universe and his stories never disappoints or fails to keep you hooked.
The Wood Bee Queen is another well written, gripping and entertaining story. A standalone book that I loved and I was sad when it ended.
It's a slow burning story and we met the unlikely heroes: Ebbie and Bek. Both are interesting even if I prefer Ebbie the shy and skeptic librarian.
The character development is excellent and all the characters are fleshed out.
I loved the world building and the idea of another universe that you can only access via a bridge.
As with other book by this author I would be happy to read further adventures featuring this characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I kindly received a copy for review fro. Netgalley.

The Wood Bee Queen was an enjoyable read. The main character, Ebbie, finds himself transported into a story. Underneath his own town there's another and in this town there's magic. The world is like ye olde England and it was certainly charming to read about. The second lead, Bek Rana, had a fascinating back story that's revealed throughout the book. She unwillingly helps Ebbie on his quest.

The magic system was good and the world was convincing. The story and how you can travel between worlds was well explained. I found myself expecting a few of the twists but it didn't make them less enjoyable.

I don't know if I missed something but the ending was a bit confusing. There was a big epic fight then suddenly it stopped with no clear reason. I found that a shame as it just seemed to convenient for the good guys.

Overall a good read.

The Wood Bee Queen is a difficult book to review. It has a very interesting plot and set of characters. Ebbie and Bek are easy to root for, and have a comical chemistry.

But the set up is a long time coming, which makes it difficult to really get into the book right off the bat. The dialogue feels laborious, and overall the book gives the impression of trying to tell a story larger than it is. It is full to bursting with sub plots and side arcs that spill over and makes it difficult to follow the thread of the main plot. In addition, some of the side characters seem to exist for convenient plot device reasons rather than anything else.

The Wood Bee Queen’s take on the Oldunones (essentially the Greek pantheon) is also interesting and fresh. However, we see only a limited portion of the pantheon, leaving more questions than answers where this part of the book’s mythology is concerned.

But what was most frustrating is that the ending felt a little disconnected from the rest of the book. Everybody’s avowed goals and motivations end up switching rather fluidly by the end. As a result, I still have no idea how or why the happy ending came about, especially because it seems to send for a toss every single aspect of the book’s mythology that was carefully explained until then.

Regardless of these aspects of the book, I deeply enjoyed reading The Wood Bee Queen. The adventure is fast paced, and the characters extremely likeable and intriguing. Three stars for a warm, solid read. ⭐⭐⭐

‘They say that in the Realm, the sea is in the sky…’

So starts The Wood Be Queen, a story spanning the Earth and the Realm, where the sea really is in the sky! I was delighted by this, and by the description of rolling waves high above, the sun shining through them. I love the idea of there being a town called Strange Ground by the Skea on earth and one called Strange Ground Beneath the Skea in the Realm. And I absolutely love the fact that in the Realm the messenger birds of choice are seagulls. It’s such a cool detail, and it made me smile each time it was mentioned.

The first character we meet is Mai, a homeless woman in Strange Ground by the Skea, and on the night events begin she receives a message from a gull, with the words We have failed. Come home. written on it. It is immediately intriguing and shows there might be more to this woman that appearance dictates. This first chapter with Mai is such a strong beginning, and if you want a feel for the book I’d highly recommend you listen to Edward Cox himself reading the opening pages during Gollancz Fest@Home (his section begins at 10:35, which you can skip to by clicking the time in the description).

Mai, with her mysteries, is the one that pulls Ebbie Wren, our hero, into the story. Ebbie has been friends with Mai for a few years, believing her only to be a strange yet wise woman who lives on the streets, but on the last day of his job at the closing Library of Strange Ground, he finds himself in the possession of a strange satchel containing a letter from his missing friend, a ring that sounds like the crashing of waves, and an unusual lantern in need of a candle. From there, he is catapulted into the Realm, and is pulled toward Bek Rana, a thief in Strange Ground Beneath the Skea, who wants nothing to do with Ebbie’s appointed mission: find the missing Heir to the Wood Bee Throne and save the Realm from Yandira Wood Bee, the Queen’s sister who has made a dark deal with Lady Persephone of the Underworld, and has seized power as Empress of the Realm.

There are a lot of threads in this story, many characters scattered throughout the Realm and our world, all being pulled slowly together like woven threads, and I won’t mention all of them, because Bek and Ebbie are, for me, the two principal characters. They are the ones on the quest, the others all pieces in a game being played by the Uldonfolk, the gods of the Realm. Now, the Uldonfolk are fascinating; I mentioned Persephone, and the other principal one is Lady Juno, the High Queen, and the events that unfold are being moved along by the game they are playing against one another. I really enjoyed the way their names are pulled from Roman mythology, but their behaviour and traits have been reshaped by the author to create something new. They have retained that element of unpredictability though, and sometimes reading The Wood Bee Queen felt a bit like reading the Iliad, in which our heroes are at the mercy of the whims of the gods.

It can feel a bit like deus ex machina, because everything has been lined up for the characters by forces beyond their control, so a lot of their journey is reactionary instead of pro-active. In this sense, it does have the feel of an older story, an old folk tale told around the fire. This threw me off a few times, especially at the start when some of the characters hadn’t been fleshed out as much and seemed to be solely archetypal, but as I went along I did see that at the heart of this story are still the choices of the little folks. In some way this reminded me of The Lord of the Rings, in which the hobbits are up against such huge forces, but in the end it is the small choices they make that determine the course of the future. It’s something very different to the current trends of fantasy, and it certainly won’t appeal to everyone, but I really enjoyed this story full of hope, magic, and wonder. I think it’s something the world needs right now, the idea that ‘When darkness comes, lighteness must follow, but never to shine upon a clear and easy road…’ There is light and there is dark, and there are the choices we make to change the world around us. This story is a beautiful reminder of that, and I hope others will enjoy it as much as I have.

The Wood Bee Queen is a fantasy novel featuring a heroic librarian, Ebbie Wren, who works at the soon to be closed library in the town of Strange Ground by the Skea.

Ebbie's only friend is a homeless woman called Mai who tells him strange stories of the Realms, and another Strange Ground under the Skea, where the sea is in the sky.

In the other Realm meanwhile the Queen has been murdered by her evil sister, who is determined to track down the artefacts she needs to ascend the throne herself.

Ebbie gets taken into the Realm and discovers that his friend Mai was not all she seemed and that her stories might not have just been stories.

This is a great fantasy novel, with mythological elements, dragons, witches, magic stones, warrior princesses and thieves.

Very enjoyable read for any fan of fantasy.

The Wood Bee Queen is one of those homages to classic story telling that reminds me why I love picking up a book and going anywhere with infinite possibilities on each page.
Yandira is a delicious villain, Ebbie a true hero, brave and charming and a librarian, the hero is a librarian!!!!! The parallels between the 2, both sides written so richly, it was a joy to read. I wasn’t as keen on Bek, the majority of the characters in this book have terrible things happen to them but Bek is the only one really treated like a victim and allowed to behave poorly because of it. That said, she did warm on me as the book went on.
A problem I have sometimes when reading fantast novels is remembering all the rules, names, story etc of a land entirely new. What I enjoyed about this book is how often it referred to the history/story that was the heart of the book, the story of the Wood Bee Queen, the princesses and this mirrored land. I really enjoyed the world building, visually this book would be fantastic as a film. It just takes you so far and to so many places that I would love to read this again and go back to all of them.

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy to review, this was an adventure I desperately needed.

I very much liked the description of this book. All in all it was an enjoyable and interesting read.
I struggled slightly to get into it at first : the reader is (voluntarily) left in the dark about some of the history surrounding the story. But once you are into it and have understood the powers in play and the way the world works the story is interesting and well paced.
If you are looking for an easy to read, stand-alone fantasy novel with strong female characters and you enjoy fantasy based in folk-legend I think this is a good fit for you!

It's really difficult to put my finger on why I didn't enjoy this. The premise grabbed my attention instantly - I was so excited to get approved for an arc! - but then...

I want to say that the writing is...stilted. Pretentious, maybe? The flow of words was jerky, subtly *off* in a way that made me want to take an editor's pen to the text. There were sentences like this;

)"What's your point?"

Eddie didn't suppose he had one.(

See? There's nothing grammatically wrong with that sentence, I don't think, but it feels...odd. I had to double-check the passage because my brain automatically remembered it as )Eddie supposed he didn't have one.( And it's a little maddening because the first version *feels* wrong, but in a way I can't explain and which might just be an issue of taste. *Is* it grammatically incorrect? Or am I the one being odd?

The thing is, I do think that sense of oddness is deliberate, because it permeates the text - it's not just an occasional sentence here and there. So...maybe it's all purposeful and I just don't like it.

Regardless, it made it really difficult to focus on the story, which was interesting. But there was a fair bit of somewhat clunky telling-not-showing as the fantasy aspects were introduced - telling-not-showing is perfectly fine, but you have to do it well, and I don't feel that The Wood Bee Queen did.

DNF for me.

<I>The Wood Bee Queen</i> is a standalone fantasy novel from a writer, I have to be honest, whose books I haven't got on with in the past - I've bounced off two of his previous books partway through (though I didn't remember this at the time of requesting). I admit I probably wouldn't have pushed on to the end of this book either, had I not been reviewing it for Netgalley, so not a massively auspicious start.

In a lot of ways, <I>The Wood Bee Queen</i> feels like quite an old-fashioned book - it has royalty fighting over who gets to inherit a throne, divine intervention on a regular basis, dragons and very convenient plot devices like letters which magically appear and tell you what's going on. The latter I found particularly annoying, to be perfectly honest.

We start off in a small town where our initial protagonist (Ebbie) is working as the manager of a soon-to-be-closed library, with him getting drawn into the overall story by his decision to befriend a local homeless woman. She tells him stories of the Realm, a mythical world connected to this one by a magical bridge, and the gods who like to interfere in people's lives. Then, one day, she is just gone and Ebbie discovers that she has died and left him the role of her executor, which involves travelling to the Realm and ensuring that her granddaughter becomes queen.

Meanwhile, the other side of the magical bridge, we have another princess attempting to take the throne by using dark magic to control people and plenty of indiscriminate violence. She's thwarted by the disappearance of two jewels, without which the royal crown is incomplete and she can't persuade the priests of a particular god to let her become queen (cue more violence because nothing leads to violence like slightly unhinged royalty being thwarted in any way).

So, in a lot of ways this is a pretty classic quest narrative - Ebbie travels to the Realm, finds an unwilling accomplice who just happens to have the knowledge and skills he needs to complete his quest, various things happen, everything works out. Things are complicated a bit by the revelation that what's going on at the coalface, so to speak, is the result of direct machinations between two gods and in the end there's a fairly predictable use of <I>deus ex machina</I> to resolve matters.

I struggled a bit with the characterisation too, as I couldn't quite get a handle on Ebbie in particular and a lot of the others really didn't seem 3-dimensional either. There are a lot of moving parts to this book and I'm not convinced all of them were needed. We didn't really gain much from Ebbie's initial presence in this world and then going over to the Realm and I wasn't completely convinced by it as a plot device.

<I>I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.</i>

The author Edward Cox has invented truly remarkable worlds. Separate, but joined through a history, where magic and powerful beings, once caused a cataclysmic war.
After centuries of relative peace, once more this peace is now threatened by the malevolent whims of some these beings.
Unlikely, and unwilling, Heroes from both worlds, must try and help each other, to stop the encroaching darkness.
A great tale of myth and magic, juxtaposed with a modern world.

I loved The Wood Bee Queen. I didn’t know exactly what to expect when reading this as I haven’t read any of the author’s previous work but the synopsise sounded intriguing so I gave it a go and was not disappointed.
Ebbie Wren is a soon to be unemployed librarian with a heart as big as a football entirely made of gold, he doles out hot chocolate to mysterious vagrant old ladies who tell good stories and turn out to be exiled queens of the fey realm. What are the chances? Next thing you know Ebbie is working on her behalf to save her country from her wicked third daughter who was always no good and hasn’t improved after ten years imprisoned in a tower. Ebbie only has the reluctant help of thief extraordinaire Bek Ranna and her recently boosted mystery sword.
The Wood Bee Queen gave me a lot of Stardust vibes, with a bit of Lud in the mist and a hint of game of thrones style politics how could it good wrong. The plot zips along and doesn’t get too bogged down info dumping. I don’t, however, have any clue as to what any of the main characters look like, it makes them a bit nebulous which kind of fits with the unotherworldliness of the narrative. I liked the blending of the two different worlds, fey being freaked out by kettles will never grow old. Ebbie is a charming fish out of water and librarians are always the heroes but Bek was probably my favourite, she’s got gumption, she’s grumpy and she knows what to do with a sword. Oh yeah and there’s dragons! The Wood Bee Queen is worth reading just for “she vomited death” this might be my favourite sentence ever. Top stuff.

Little does Ebbie, a librarian in Strange Ground by the Skea, realise his friendship with the homeless Mai will introduce him to the mysterious realm of Strange Ground Beneath the Skea. He will become the hero she believes he is capable of becoming when he is dragged to Beneath the Skea to defeat Mai's evil daughter and ensure that her granddaughter can be crowned The Wood Bee Queen.

Ebbie will have to overcome precocious gods, evil magic and even dragons to prevent his two worlds violently colliding. He is not alone in his quest, he is joined, reluctantly, by Mai's adopted granddaughter, oldest friend and defender of Beneath the Skea and of course a magician.

The Wood Bee Queen is a fantasy tale which sparkles. Edward Cox has not necessarily written the most daring or groundbreaking story, but it is a story that you can settle down with and really enjoy, it is honest, delightful fantasy. There are proper heroes and villains, a setting which is familiar and at the same time slightly different.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Books for an ARC of this novel, all opinions expressed are my own.

Being this was from one of my favourite Authors, I expected much. But I was wrong. Edward Cox surpassed much and went onto deliver something that seems to have surpassed his previous works. The stories (primary) setting is both unique and yet twists some myths on their heads in the most delightful way. The heroes are delightfully flawed as all good heroes should be at the start of any tale. And the villains, well, who doesn't like a good villain?

The story is not the type to ease you in slowly, but more grabs you by the face, and kicks you up the backside all the way through. It was totally delightful!