Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson
How to explain my feelings about Lady of the Forest? A romantic historical novel about Maid Marian and Robin Hood, it was an enjoyable escape and post-work-stress-reliever for a couple of weeks. I did enjoy it. Unfortunately, when I shut the back cover, I realized I had just read a six-hundred page book containing almost no surprises.
Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of the stellar Mists of Avalon, gushes about this book in the cover blurb,
June 5th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Jennifer Roberson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
As part of Anne Rice‘s The Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, this installment comes after The Witching Hour in which we were introduced to three major concepts: a secret organisation called the Talamasca (best described as a supernatural FBI), a powerful family of witches known as the Mayfairs, and a strange spirit called Lasher that has haunted generations of Mayfairs, and been investigated by the Talamasca for centuries.
In the previous novel Rowan Mayfair, the latest matriarch of the Mayfair clan,
June 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Anne Rice | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
If you’re a reader who can’t get enough of crumbling antebellum mansions, dark family secrets, and muggy Southern weather, you’ll enjoy Four and Twenty Blackbirds (2003). This Southern Gothic ghost story was Cherie Priest’s first novel, and while it’s imperfect, it’s quite readable and shows a lot of promise.
Set in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Four and Twenty Blackbirds possesses a strong, tangible sense of place. I once spent a brief time in Chattanooga during the summer,
June 5th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Cherie Priest | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price
In the 21st century an invention has finally been perfected: The Time Tube, which allows contemporary scientists, researches and corporate moneymakers to travel back into the 16th century and mingle with the locals there. Think of the possibilities! Plentiful supplies of oil, gold and coal, an extraordinary opportunity to study ancient life, and a pollution-free resort for those wealthy enough to make the trip. The corporation FUP has already purchased the troublesome borderlands between 16th century Scotland and England in order to begin development.
But there’s just one problem: the Sterkarms.
June 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Susan Price | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Son of Summer Stars by Meredith Ann Pierce
In the last book in the Firebringer trilogy, we finally come to the event that the two previous books have been steadily building toward: the retaking of the unicorns’ ancestral home from the treacherous wyverns. As the prophesied ‘Firebringer’, Prince Alijan is looked to as the means of regaining their Hallow Hills and Jan is certainly up to the challenge. Having finally made peace with the marauding gryphons, and finding happiness in his beloved Tek and their twin children, Jan has readied his tribe to march out to their homelands and do battle.
June 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Meredith Ann Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
They say that the book is often better than the movie and that statement definitely applies to Bridge to Terabithia. The movie gets only 2 stars, but the book is worthy of 5 stars. While the movie had very good actors and great special effects, somewhere along the way it lost the soul of the book. No other piece of fantasy writing has so clarified for me the exquisite pain and joy of being a child. Of being terrified of one’s powerlessness,
June 5th, 2008. Guest´s rating: 5 | Katherine Paterson | Children | 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.