Wild Blood is the final book in Kate Thompson‘s Switchers trilogy and deals with the inevitable choice that her young heroine Tess has to face: at the age of fifteen her Switcher powers come to an end, and she can choose either to remain human or to become any one of the animals that she can transform into permanently. To make things worse, her parents are going on holiday without her, and have sent her to stay with her Uncle Maurice,
July 11th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Kate Thompson | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Iron Council by China Mieville
Iron Council is Miéville’s third book set in his created world. While not really a trilogy as is normally thought of, since each book can stand independent of the others, it’s probably best to have at least read Perdido Street Station since that book gives the most full description of the world’s background — its various races, politics, technologies, magics, economics, etc. In this book, the city of Perdido Street Station is at war both with a vague outside enemy known as the Tesh and with itself,
July 11th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | China Mieville | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K Hamilton
Like an addiction to pain, I have kept reading Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter despite having some serious issues with what Laurell K Hamilton has done with her characters. She seriously pisses me off with the way that she is developing the Richard-Anita relationship.
Anita has turned from a virtuous woman into a tramp. She just keeps getting worse and her apparent ability to get past becoming a whore is just ridiculous. Her ability to remain a true believer despite all the dark forces at work has been one of her truly redeeming characteristics.
July 10th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Laurell K. Hamilton | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Treasure of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston
Tolly has returned to Green Knowe and his Grandmother full of excitement at being there once more, but an unhappy surprise lies in wait for him: the portrait of the children Toby, Alexander and Linnet is missing from the wall. It would seem a small loss but for the fact that its absence means that the children’s spirits are also not present in the house.
Grandmother Oldknow explains the painting’s loss due to poor finances, though soon sparks hope in Tolly for its return due to the tale of the missing treasure of Green Knowe (which he vows to find),
July 10th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Lucy M. Boston | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I have tracked down Soul Stealer, but I must confess that my search for the third book in this series will be even more lethargic than the search for this one. Despite a strong beginning, and excellent use of real history and alchemical knowledge in the shaping of his story, Martin Booth continually fumbles in his melding of ancient and contemporary times.
First, the good components: Booth creates a beautiful setting for his characters; an English countryside full of “autumn leaves,
July 10th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2 | Martin Booth | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Light Ages by Ian R. MacLeod
The Light Ages is far from light reading. Anyone wanting a quick read or the typical multi-book fantasy focusing on a questing band of travelers beset by evil should look elsewhere.
Instead Macleod gives us a land more evoked than described, beautiful at times poetic prose, three-dimensional characters (including the “evil” ones), questions that aren’t always neatly answered, and a pace that would be described as slow by many but which I found perfectly suited to the nature of the novel.
July 9th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Ian R. MacLeod | SFF Reviews | no comments |
As the sequel to Angie Sage’s first novel Magyk, a pre-teen wizarding fantasy heavily influenced by the HARRY POTTER series, Flyte picks up a year after the events of the first story, in which the magical Heap family discovered several amazing secrets about their past. Namely, that their adopted daughter Jenna was in fact a princess and that a young nameless boy they picked up in their adventures was their long-lost son Septimus,
July 7th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Angie Sage | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce
The Emperor Mage is the third book in Tamora Pierce’s The Immortals Quartet, and by this stage if you haven’t read the previous installments (Wild Magic and Wolf Speaker) I heartily recommend that you don’t start here — you’ll be completely baffled. A peace delegation including Alanna the Lioness, the Gareths and other nobles from Tortall have been sent to the hot, swampy Charthak Empire in order to negotiate peace with the war-mongering Emperor Ozorne.
July 5th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Tamora Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Lirael is the sequel to Garth Nix‘s best selling book Sabriel, and the second of his Old Kingdom trilogy. Set fourteen years after the events of Sabriel, this book surrounds the actions of two main characters. Prince Sameth is the capable, but rather inexperienced son of Touchstone and Sabriel, overshadowed by his elder sister and disheartened by the fact that he is the next Abhorsen — the necromancer chosen to put to rest undead legions with the help of seven magical bells.
July 4th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Garth Nix | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume One edited by Jonathan Strahan
My first and foremost complaint — and this is really a quibble more than anything else — is that the title doesn’t tell you what year this anthology belongs to. Which isn’t really a problem if you bought it recently but in case you find in the bookstore bin several years down the line, it’s nice to know what era this collection represents (in case you don’t know the answer, the book was printed in 2007). With that out of the way,
July 3rd, 2007. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4 | Connie Willis, Ian McDonald, Jeffrey Ford, Jonathan Strahan, Peter S. Beagle | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…
Gentlemen, I concur! (Forgive me for jumping into your convo)
The cover is amazing. I love how the graphic novel (and the review!) hewed close to the theme of "good…
I've thought about picking that one up. The artwork looks perfect.
I like the way you think, Bill. I found the second one particularly objectionable; the one with Khan. It was…