A couple things I didn’t realize when I first picked up The Tangled Lands: one, the world featured here was in fact introduced back around 2011 in the Khaim Novellas series, consisting of The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi and The Executioness by Tobias S. Buckell. Two, this book actually turned out to be an anthology of sorts, containing four short stories which include the aforementioned two novellas. All four pieces take place in a shared world so there are some related events and characters, but generally speaking, they are each distinct and standalone. After scouring my copy of The Tangled Lands, I couldn’t find this information about its format mentioned anywhere on the dust jacket, so hopefully my review will help readers decide if this is the type of book for you. Personally, it wasn’t until I realized that I wasn’t reading a traditional novel but in fact four separate stories, that I felt better able to gauge my opinion of the book as a whole. THE ALCHEMIST First up is the tale of the alchemist, a beleaguered man whom despite his hard work and genius is seeing his life falling to ruin. This opening story also introduces the world…