The Dream Thief stars Amalia Langford, the daughter of Kit and Rue from The Smoke Thief, and Zane, a thief who was introduced in the previous book. Zane is charged with retrieving a special diamond called Draumr. At the behest of Kit and Rue, he agrees to travel across Europe, into the Carpathians, in search of it. Accompanying him is Lia, who is possessed of the ability to hear the future. In her dreams she hears a future in which Zane,
June 30th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 0.1 | Shana Abe | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I’ve been a fan of Buffy for a long time, but there was one thing I always wondered about. Namely, why would a vampire ever bother going to Sunnydale, knowing the Slayer lived there and was likely to dust the vamp as soon as he or she arrived in town? One would think a vamp could live a longer, more peaceful life simply by avoiding the Slayer’s stomping grounds, right?
After the first chapter of Jocelynn Drake’s Nightwalker, I think I get it.
June 23rd, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Jocelynn Drake | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Plague of Spells by Bruce R. Cordell
Building on the success of his last novel, Stardeep (see my review above) Bruce R. Cordell continues the story of Raidon Kane, the monk with the Cerulean sign, in Plague of Spells. Cordell uses this novel as an opportunity to introduce fans of the Forgotten Realms to a novelized form of the spellplague. This terrifying event occurred after the goddess Mystra was murdered and rendered many wizards without powers, changed the landscape of Toril dramatically,
June 19th, 2008. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 4 | Bruce R. Cordell | SFF Reviews | no comments |
What happens when a young bard returns home to find the lover he left gone? What would you do if you saw your entire regiment slaughtered by the undead? If an undead lich made a grab for control of your country, even if that country is the notoriously self-serving Thay?
It is these questions that Richard Lee Byers’ attempts to answer in Unclean: The Haunted Lands. Byers continues to show his writing prowess in the shared world arena by tackling a difficult topic in the Forgotten Realms world: the undead.
June 19th, 2008. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 4 | Richard Lee Byers | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
I was drawn to Christopher Priest’s novel after having watched and enjoyed the Nolan brothers’ film adaptation of The Prestige. Going into the reading, I knew that several plot twists would be spotted a mile away, but the film is sufficiently different from its source material that Priest’s work contains several surprises.
Journalist Andrew Westley is brought under false pretences to a Derbyshire estate to meet with a young woman who is quite desperate to get in contact with him.
June 17th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Christopher Priest | Stand-Alone, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Door in the Tree by William Corlett
This is the second book in The Magician’s House Quartet and sees the three children of the previous novel (The Steps Up The Chimney) return to their uncle Jack’s Golden House, where the year before they had meet a time-traveling wizard called Stephen Tyler, befriended a number of wild animals and mastered the magical art of sharing their bodies, and helped deliver their uncle’s girlfriend’s baby when the wizard’s assistant Morden had attempted to sabotage the birth.
June 17th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2 | William Corlett | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Crystal Mountain by Ruth Sanderson
If it were up to me, I’d make sure every single children’s bookshelf had at least one of Ruth Sanderson’s wonderful books. Her stories are simple, sweet, and yet thought-provoking, and her illustrations are clear, uncluttered and utterly beautiful. The Crystal Mountain is no exception, and is definitely up there as one of her best works.
As she did with The Golden Mare, the Firebird and the Magic Ring, Sanderson ingeniously combines more than one fairy or folk tale to create a story that is both new and familiar.
June 17th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Ruth Sanderson | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Bast: Bell, Book, and Murder by Rosemary Edghill
Speak Daggers to Her, The Book of Moons, and The Bowl of Night are some of the best fiction about modern witches I’ve seen yet. And the main reason why is the heroine — Bast. In Bast, Rosemary Edghill creates a delightful heroine with a deep belief in the Goddess and magic — and also with a barbed tongue that deftly skewers the politics and foibles of the Pagan community.
June 16th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Rosemary Edghill | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Swords in the Mist by Fritz Leiber
All due respect to the late Fritz Leiber, but overall, this book was weak.
The first story, “Cloud of Hate” was good. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser unwittingly take-on Hate embodied in a noxious mist that turns already shady characters into rampaging serial killers. The next one, “Lean Times in Lankhmar”, starts out interesting as the life-long friends go their separates ways, but goes flat. “Their Mistress, the Sea” builds up well but the ending seemed to be missing something. The rest of the book brings Fafhrd and Gray Mouser to our world’s ancient history,
June 16th, 2008. Greg Hersom, Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 3 | Fritz Leiber | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Steps up the Chimney by William Corlett
The Steps up the Chimney is the first in four books that accumulate into The Magician’s House Quartet, revolving around three children who come to stay at their uncle’s strange house, and Stephen Tyler, a time-traveling wizard who befriends the children on their stay at Golden Valley.
In The Steps Up The Chimney, the children arrive at the house after already experiencing some strange events — Will has meet a stranger at Druce Coven station who mysteriously disappeared and a fox seems to popping up everywhere they look.
June 16th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2 | William Corlett | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.