A Wizard Alone is yet another Young Wizards book that maintains the high level set by the first few in the series. While not quite as dark as the previous one, where (and if you haven’t read Wizard’s Dilemma then quit reading this review if you don’t want the end spoiled) Nita’ s mother dies, A Wizard Alone maintains a level of solemnity appropriate to what has come just before.
The title could refer to any of the three major characters.
April 19th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Diane Duane | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip
The first time I read Patricia McKillip, I didn’t get very far. The book was the Riddlemaster of Hed, and I was completely unprepared for her complex use of language. But there must have been something in her style that intrigued me, because I tracked down Winter Rose not long afterwards, and since then have been a big fan of all her work. Out of all Patricia McKillip’s books (at least the ones I’ve read) Winter Rose is perhaps the most opaque.
April 12th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Patricia McKillip | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton
I probably shouldn’t be plodding on through this series at all. I haven’t truly enjoyed an Anita Blake book in years. Lack of editing hasn’t done the series any favors, and while I don’t mind sex in novels, Laurell K. Hamilton still hasn’t figured out that sometimes you can gloss over periods of time when nothing much is happening plotwise. (“Three weeks later…”) I don’t need a play-by-play every time the characters get it on. It just fills up pages and crowds out the plot.
April 11th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 1.5 | Laurell K. Hamilton | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis
Black Magic Woman begins in Salem, during the infamous witch trials, as a convicted witch utters a curse against her accuser. From there, we cut to the present time, and to a riveting vampire hunt in rural Texas. We are introduced to Quincey Morris, who is sort of a freelance paranormal investigator and vigilante, and also the direct descendant of the Quincey Morris who appears in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. (In this universe, Dracula was a true story and Morris a real man,
April 10th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Justin Gustainis | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ferren and the Angel by Richard Harland
Never before have I read a book with such epic proportions, such potential, and such originality — and yet was written so carelessly and simplistically. What promises to be a future-fantasy-adventure along the lines of Philip Pullman‘s amazing His Dark Materials trilogy, instead reads like sci-fi pulp fiction.
Ferren and the Angel is set in the year 3000AD, after a series of scientific discoveries and heavenly experiments that resulted in a full out war between Heaven and Earth.
April 10th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Richard Harland | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
An Enemy at Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
The fifth book in Lucy Boston’s Green Knowe series finally brings together our two main protagonists: the house’s blood relative Tolly and the Chinese refugee Ping, both of whom have featured in the previous books, but never together. Unfortunately we do not see their meeting, but instead join the story half-way through the summer, by which time the two are already best friends.
As always, the mysterious Green Knowe is filled with ancient and semi-magical artifacts (all of which are actually real relics that belong in the author’s home on which she based the books) and Grandmother Oldknow tells the children stories concerning the past inhabitants of the house.
April 10th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Lucy M. Boston | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Anne Rice’s second vampire novel is both a prequel and a sequel to her original story Interview with the Vampire. A sequel because it is framed by a sequence of events in contemporary times, and a prequel because it recounts the history of the vampire Lestat, the sire of the protagonist Louis in Interview. After waking from centuries-sleep in 1980’s New Orleans, Lestat discovers the Interview manuscript and goes about setting the story straight,
April 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher and Tim Scheidler´s rating: 5 | Anne Rice | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman
Everything Means Something…
First of all, if you have not read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, then don’t attempt to read this story, as you’ll be utterly baffled. But if you have, you’ll be treated with another glimpse into the parallel Oxford that Pullman so vividly created and explored in Northern Lights/The Golden Compass.
The book itself is beautifully presented, bound in cloth and filled with engravings of the city by John Lawrence,
April 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Philip Pullman | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce
Meredith Ann Pierce is best known for her wonderful Darkangel trilogy, which sadly is not as renowned as it deserves to be. Even lesser known is Pierce’s Firebringer trilogy, based on stories she wrote and dreams she experienced as a young child, which chronicle the lives and adventures of a tribe of unicorns exiled from their home.
Legend tells of how the unicorns were driven out from their Hallow Hills by the serpentine wyverns, who by trickery,
April 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Meredith Ann Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
Dragon Rider is an early Cornelia Funke novel brought to the U.S. after the success of hermore recent The Thief Lord and Inkheart. Dragon Rider begins with a young dragon named Firedrake who starts off on a quest for the Rim of Heaven, a possibly mythical land where Firedrake and his fellow dragons hope to flee to in order to escape encroaching mankind whose earth-moving machines are on their way.
April 5th, 2008. Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Cornelia Funke | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
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.