Orphaned and married off at the age of 5, Marian Fitzwater is awakened during the night of her 15th birthday, the day of which she was to move to her husband’s castle, to be told that he has just died.
As an unmarried woman with land attached to her name, she is now not only a very desirable catch, but now a pawn in the Queen of England’s strategic chess game to supposedly turn all of England to her son, King Richard’s favor. The catch is,
June 12th, 2008. Guest´s rating: 3 | Elsa Watson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer
Shriek: An Afterword is Jeff VanderMeer’s second novel set in his AMBERGRIS cosmology. There are a lot of elements with regards to the book that I want to talk about, so please bear with me.
The first is that this is a sequel, yet it’s not. I won’t talk about City of Saints and Madmen here, but suffice it to say, Shriek: An Afterword builds on the material presented in that novel.
June 12th, 2008. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4 | Jeff VanderMeer | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Skewed Throne by Joshua Palmatier
Varis is “gutterscum,” a girl — as much animal as girl — who survives as a sneak-thief in the horrid slum of Amenkor known as “The Dredge.” But even in the slum, rumors are spreading about The Mistress, who governs the city from the mystical Skewed Throne — rumors of insanity after a tidal wave of mysterious white fire sweeps through the land. After Varis stabs a criminal in self-defense, she comes to the attention of one of the Mistress’s guardsmen-assassins and begins to help him in tracking his “marks.”
June 10th, 2008. Rob Rhodes´s rating: 3 | Joshua Palmatier | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater
First love: it’s scary and confusing enough even when there aren’t homicidal faeries involved. Add in the homicidal faeries, and a girl can get in over her head before she can say “cold iron.”
Maggie Stiefvater‘s Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception is an excellent YA fantasy that will appeal to anyone who likes stories of the fae as they appear in the oldest legends: dangerous, seductive, and sometimes deadly. Let me say right up front: Lament is downright frightening in places.
June 10th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Maggie Stiefvater | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Secret Atlas by Michael A. Stackpole
A Secret Atlas has its flaws, but overall makes for a solidly enjoyable read, especially as it generally (with some exceptions) improves as one moves through it.
The story begins in Nalenyr, one of the “Nine Principalities”, the divided remnants of an empire that along with much of the known world was brought to near ruin centuries earlier in the Great Cataclysm. The novel focuses most of its attention on the Anturasi family, whose patriarch Qiro has the Talent (capital T intentional) of mapmaking.
June 10th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Michael A. Stackpole | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
A brief overview of the plot of Magic Study is this: Yelena, the poison taster turned magician whom we met in Poison Study, leaves Ixia for Sitia, the country of her birth, to enter magical training and meet her long-lost family. Along the way, there are family tensions, new friends and enemies among the students and teachers at Yelena’s school, and sinister forces that may claim Yelena’s life, or that of one of her friends, if Yelena can’t thwart them.
June 9th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Maria V. Snyder | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Heart of the Dragon by Gena Showalter
Grace Carlyle, frustrated by her boring, predictable job and lack of romance in her life sets out on a potentially dangerous mission to find her brother who disappeared into the Amazon jungle on a research trip many weeks ago. After her guide steals from her and retreats into the jungle, Grace finds herself wandering, looking for the way out. Instead of getting out of the jungle however, she unknowingly heads deeper in, finally coming across a strange portal… the entrance to the mythical world of Atlantis.
June 9th, 2008. Guest´s rating: 3 | Gena Showalter | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Armed and Magical by Lisa Shearin
Armed and Magical picks up almost right where Magic Lost, Trouble Found left off. It’s a week later and Raine is on the Isle of Mid with her cousin, Phaelan (“He was a pirate. Excuse me, a seafaring businessman.”), and the leader of the Conclave Guardians, Mychael (“an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, coated in yum”). Raine’s young friend Piaras is also there as a student. He is the most powerful young spellsinger to come along in decades.
June 9th, 2008. Tia Nevitt (guest)´s rating: 4 | Lisa Shearin | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Storm at the Edge of Time by Pamela F. Service
Storm at the Edge of Time is a good idea, and nicely presented, but on reading it one realises it could have been a lot better with a little more length and time, as well as depth into the characters and circumstances.
Jamie is a young American girl holidaying in Scotland, Arni is a young Viking living on the coast, and Tyaak is a half-human, half-alien boy who is going through with his rite-of-passage stay on Earth’s island of Britain.
June 7th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2 | Pamela F. Service | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
CLASSIFICATION: With its intriguing blend of steampunk, gothic romance, political intrigue, and fairy tale spirit — not to mention metaphors on such real world issues as terrorism and racial discrimination — The Alchemy of Stone is like a bizarre, but captivating cross between Frankenstein, Pan’s Labyrinth, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Steamboy, Tool’s animated stop-motion music videos, and the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle).
June 7th, 2008. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Ekaterina Sedia | 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.