What the Cards Said by Isobel Bird
What the Cards Said is the fourth book in the Circle of Three series, a fifteen-volume set that chronicles the learning experiences of three adolescent girls — Kate, Annie and Cooper, in their year and a day of study in the religion of Wicca.
In this book Annie has discovered her skills in tarot reading, and after she’s been talked into playing “Miss Fortune” at the school fair, others pick up on her uncanny habit to accurately predict things.
August 31st, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Isobel Bird | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
Red Seas Under Red Skies is Scott Lynch’s follow-up to his debut fantasy The Lies of Locke Lamora, and the second in the planned Gentlemen Bastard sequence. The first book asked the question: what would happen if all the guys from Ocean 11 were teleported into the usual fantasy setting? Red Seas Under Red Skies asks: what would Brad Pitt and George Clooney do if the rest of Oceans 11 were killed off in movie one?
August 30th, 2007. Bill Capossere, Greg Hersom, Marion Deeds and Skye Walker´s rating: 3.5, 4, 5 | Scott Lynch | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
In Daughter of the Forest, Juliet Marillier deftly sets the fairy tale “The Six Swans” in dark-ages Ireland; think of the general time period of The Mists of Avalon, when Christian and Pagan, Gael and Briton and Saxon, were fighting and feuding and even sometimes getting along. The tale fits in amazingly well in the setting; the famous fairy tale echoes the Irish legend of Fionnuala and the children of Lir, which predated it.
August 29th, 2007. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Juliet Marillier | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
In many ways The Horse and his Boy is the odd one out in the context of the Narnia series — unlike the other books, this one is set completely in the fantasy world rather than describing the movements of children from this world into that. Although two children are still used as the main protagonists, the entire tone, setting and atmosphere of this book is a little different — here we are simply meant to take this other-world for granted, rather than journey into it from hum-drum life.
August 29th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | C.S. Lewis | Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
With so much being churned out in the way of epic fantasy, it’s always a pleasure to come across something original and unique. I felt that way about Robin Hobb’s Farseer books and wondered if she’d be able to maintain such high standards in Liveship Traders.
While I don’t believe she quite got there (it is after all a pretty high bar she set herself), this series certainly stands on its own as quality fantasy, and Ship of Destiny is a fitting conclusion (though one wonders if that word has been banned from the genre).
August 29th, 2007. Bill Capossere, Rob Rhodes and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Robin Hobb | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
It is difficult to summarize the plot, for so much of the story unfolds organically — indeed, as a near-perfect tainflower — that one fears to spoil the pleasure of becoming swept up in the narrative. That said, the tale concerns the Palm, a mythic penninsula reminiscent of Italy, a land divided between two wizard-conquerors. One conqueror has utterly blighted the province of Lower Corte with an undreamt-of dark magic. (Take a fresh look at the map of the Palm mid-way through,
August 27th, 2007. Rob Rhodes and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Talismans of Shannara by Terry Brooks
“Some of Us Listened to the Earth’s Whisper…”
The fourth and final installment in THE HERITAGE OF SHANNARA quartet. The premise is that the Four Lands are dying under both the totalitarian Federation and the sinister Shadowen, and the shade of the Druid of Allanon has called together three scions who can put an end to the entropy. Par is sent in search of the Sword of Shannara, Walker to bring back the Druid Keep of Paranor, and Wren to discover the missing race of Elves and restore them to the Four Lands.
August 26th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Terry Brooks | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman
There is only one way to do magic, and that is to expend life force to power it. Witches spend their own life force, and die young. Magisters have discovered how to spend the life force of another, and are nearly immortal, burning through consort after consort, while keeping the source of their magic a tightly guarded secret. No woman has ever become a Magister because they are unwilling to sacrifice others. No woman until Kamala, steeled by a life of child prostitution, secretly becomes a Magister.
August 24th, 2007. Ruth Arnell and John Hulet´s rating: 3.5, 4 | C.S. Friedman | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Tally has changed since she was caught by Special Circumstances. She has become one of them: a Special. Her body and mind have been altered and she is now an elite fighting machine with super-fast reflexes and a hardened body that can withstand almost anything…but none of this can really make her happy. Tally is surrounded by “friends,” but none of them can take away her memories of her friends from the Smoke and the lessons they taught her. Then she and Shay get a breakthrough and once again whiz off into the wild on their hoverboards searching for the elusive “New Smoke”
August 21st, 2007. Guest´s rating: 3 | Scott Westerfeld | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
The third book in the Gregor series picks up shortly after the last one ends and quickly tosses the reader into familiar territory. Once again, Gregor takes up a task underground in order to save a family member. In the first book it was his father, in book two his sister Boots, and now it’s his mother, who in accompanying him down to the underground contracted a seemingly fatal disease that threatens to wipe out the warmbloods.
As foretold by a prophecy (another familiar element from the other books),
August 20th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Suzanne Collins | Children | 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…