City of Jade by Dennis L. McKiernan
I hate to say it, because I have always liked the world of Mithgar, and most of the novels by Dennis L. McKiernan, but City of Jade is a real snooze-fest. Characters travel around, there are two battle scenes, and many characters nearly die, but are saved rather quickly. City of Jade lacks any real suspense. It’s Lord of the Rings without the trip to Mordor, or George R.R.
May 19th, 2009. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 2 | Dennis L. McKiernan | SFF Reviews | no comments |
After the high standards of Inda, the prequel to Sherwood Smith’s The Fox, it was next to impossible to be better this time. But, still, Smith delivers a quality second book in the series.
After the drama of the first book, Inda was left at sea after being forced from his homeland. Smith had really run Inda through a ragged race of events while growing him slowly into the man he would become. That process continues in The Fox.
May 19th, 2009. John Hulet´s rating: 4 | Sherwood Smith | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Max Frei’s The Stranger is an interesting novel to say the least. For starters, I almost gave up on the book at three different times. Why? Well for one, it took a long while before the book started making sense to me, especially the setting, the story and the novel’s direction. It took even longer for me to get used to The Stranger’s peculiar brand of humor, not to mention the author’s liberal use of exclamation points. And finally,
May 19th, 2009. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4.5 | Max Frei | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I really loved this novel.
The blurb for Elom got me: “The Clan of the Cave Bear meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
William Drinkard is not your typical debut novelist. He served in the Alabama State Legislature for twelve years, and even was the Senate Majority Leader. He’s still involved with politics, but not as an elected official. When one hears such things, one wonders,
May 18th, 2009. Tia Nevitt (guest)´s rating: 5 | William Drinkard | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
THE LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR TRILOGY by Rosemary Sutcliff
There are countless retellings and adaptations concerning the life and times of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and I’m not even close to having read all of them. Therefore, it’s impossible for me to say that Rosemary Sutcliff’s version is the definitive Arthurian retelling. However, it’s certainly one of the best. Told in Sutcliff’s graceful prose that is both epic and intimate when need-be, and the tricky subjects like incest, adultery and bloodshed are conveyed without being either too prudish or overly graphic.
May 18th, 2009. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Rosemary Sutcliff | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
THE NIGHT WORLD: Volume 1 by L.J. Smith
“So This is the Night World…”
First published between 1996-1998, Lisa Jane Smith‘s NIGHT WORLD series was released as a ten-book series…only the final book never arrived. Smith took a ten-year hiatus from writing, leaving the final book unwritten and the steadily-building story incomplete. But now, finally, the end is in sight. Simon and Schuster are republishing the series in three-book omnibuses in anticipation for Strange Fate the last in the series that has left us hanging for over ten years.
May 18th, 2009. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5 | L.J. Smith | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Four Forges by Jenna Rhodes
Rarely do I not like a book at all. But occasionally, a novel just doesn’t resonate. Sometimes it’s just reading the novel at the wrong time, perhaps at a time of reading burnout, or a style that just doesn’t click. But even rarer is the book that I find to be just awfully written. Jenna Rhodes‘ The Four Forges is just awful. Rhodes writes an epic fantasy with a great setting, but a disturbing lack of a central plot.
May 18th, 2009. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 1 | Jenna Rhodes | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Salt and Silver by Anna Katherine
Blurbs for Salt and Silver use the word “romp” often enough that I was expecting something in the vein of paranormal chick lit. I was surprised, then, by the dark places Salt and Silver goes, and Anna Katherine‘s ability to both scare the daylights out of me and break my heart.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, given that the whole story is about going to, well, Hell.
Our heroine is Allie,
May 17th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Anna Katherine | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Settling down to read Hot Mama was like settling down to have a piece of book candy. (I didn’t originate this term; I discovered it on Jennifer Estep’s Blog.) You know it is going to be a fast read with lively, snappy dialog and laugh-out-loud humor. And Hot Mama did not disappoint!
It begins with Carmen Cole’s wedding to Sam Sloane, the uberdude in Karma Girl.
May 17th, 2009. Tia Nevitt (guest)´s rating: 3.5 | Jennifer Estep | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Hidden City by Michelle Sagara West
A lovingly written yet very depressing novel, The Hidden City is unlike any fantasy novel I have encountered. A tragedy with no pretensions to the contrary, this new novel by acclaimed author Michelle West visits pain upon its protagonists for over 600 pages.
The Hidden City is the beginning of a prequel to the events in West’s earlier books in The Sacred Hunt and The Sun Sword series. It relates the events leading up to the war for House Terafin.
May 16th, 2009. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 3 | Michelle Sagara, Michelle Sagara West | SFF Reviews | no comments |
COMMENT Book #3 of this trilogy is very much a heist story, and I quite enjoyed it!
Pirate stories and heist stories... Do we ever get enough of them?
Very interesting, Ulrich! Thanks for clueing me in!
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