Jennifer Fallon’s Medalon is the first book in The Demon Child Trilogy, which makes up the larger Hythrun Chronicles. The Sisterhood of Medalon has made it illegal to practice religion (the worship of pagan gods), persecutes all believers of the gods, and has forced the Harshini, a race of long-lived beings who interact with the gods, into hiding. The sisters use a highly trained army of male Defenders to enforce their orders across the country. But,
October 20th, 2007. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Jennifer Fallon | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Hob’s Bargain by Patricia Briggs
I think that the ability to create a world that is filled with magic and unknown places is perhaps too great a task to do in one book. There is a degree of detail that we, as readers, have come to expect due to the growing trend of long multi-volume series.
In The Hob’s Bargain, Patricia Briggs does a good job of telling a story within the constraints of a single volume. The heroine is interesting and relatively likeable,
October 19th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Patricia Briggs | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Wizard’s Dilemma by Diane Duane
The Wizard’s Dilemma continues the story of Nita and Kit, young wizards at work. If you haven’t read the others, you should. Though one could get through this and the others without prior knowledge, lack of background knowledge robs the reader of the full impact of the story.
The Wizard’s Dilemma is a darker, more personal book than the previous ones, which is made quickly clear when Nita’s mother is diagnosed with cancer. As one might expect,
October 19th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Diane Duane | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
The Neverending Story is probably best known to the general public through Wolfgang Peterson’s movie, whereas the original novel by Michael Ende is less well known. Despite the horrid sequels and the even worse television series that Michael Ende desperately tried to prevent in the last years of his life, Wolfgang Peterson’s first attempt at bringing the book to the big screen was successful and popular. However, fans of the book will know that it only records the first part of the story — though Peterson compensates by telling us in the final segment of the film “Bastian had many more adventures before finally returning to the ordinary world.
October 16th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Michael Ende | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Fatal Revenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
Donaldson raises the stakes so high in Fatal Revenant that it was difficult, at times, to see how he was going to pull it off. I’ll be honest: I doubted that he could do it, and I’m a true, dedicated (not obsessive, thank you) fan. However, after turning the final page of Fatal Revenant and sadly setting the book aside, I’m more than a little embarrassed to admit that my ability to express my emotions and thoughts had been significantly diminished.
October 16th, 2007. Guest´s rating: 5 | Stephen R. Donaldson | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear may have given her novel a rather generic title, but within the covers of the book is a story of intrigue, politics, family relations, romance, mystery and magic, as well as one of the best depictions of Faerie I’ve read in a long time. If you love fantasy, but are sick of boring Tolkien knock-offs, then Blood and Iron should fix you up nicely. Reminiscent of several other original fantasists, (Patricia McKillip and Jan Siegel spring to mind) this is an interesting take on the world of Faerie and its relationship to our own world.
October 16th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Elizabeth Bear | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley
Despite an interesting title and a beguiling title page, I honestly found nothing exceptional about Robin McKinley’s collection of four fairytales. Whether her stories are original or retold, they are rather dull, predictable, and written with long-winded language that makes for sluggish reading. All are centered on the interactions between this world and that of Faerieland — or to be more specific, the interactions between young princesses and the inhabitants of Faerieland. None of these girls are individuals, instead they are cast straight from the princess stereotype and all the stories end on a slightly sickly-sweet note with each dilemma that the girls’
October 12th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 1 | Robin McKinley | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Charmed Sphere by Catherine Asaro
This is not going to be pretty, but then, neither was the reading experience.
I’m filled with dread right within the second paragraph, when Catherine Asaro for some reason feels the need to inform me that apple yellow is Chime’s favorite color. This dread is not soothed as the scene carries on, full of Chime’s rather juvenile observations. She sounds more like she’s five rather than almost eighteen, and I’m just not happy.
Neither am I pleased with her male opposite, a prince and heir to the throne of the realm,
October 9th, 2007. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 0.1 | Catherine Asaro | SFF Reviews | no comments |
There are lots of reasons to like a good Le Guin novel — her spare prose, her sharpness of description, her ease of storytelling, but in simple terms, when Le Guin writes well (nearly always), it boils down to the fact that reading becomes bare unadorned pleasure. Pleasure at its purest and simplest. And that is the gift of this book.
The backstory is pretty simple — families living in the Uplands have hereditary magical abilities or “gifts” (one type to a family) that can and usually are employed to harm: gifts of “unmaking”
October 7th, 2007. Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 5 | Ursula K. Le-Guin | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick
I had a complete blast reading Mike Resnick’s Stalking the Unicorn.
It was smart, highly inventive, outrageously funny — led by hilariously wry dialogue — and fun.
It was also immensely rewarding, especially getting to see how John Justin Mallory ended up in the other Manhattan, how he became partners with Winnifred Carruthers, his first meeting with the cat-girl Felina and Grundy — “the most powerful demon in New York” — and the clever manner in which he solved the case.
October 5th, 2007. Robert Thompson | Mike Resnick | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
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…
I find if I take every Trek reference out of them (the title, the character names, the ship names, etc.),…