Remember those episodes of Matlock in which someone is arrested for a crime, but during the investigation it turns out that the arrest was really just a front for a much larger intrigue? Steven Brust‘s newest VLAD TALTOS novel Iorich is sort of like that — except the person who is arrested is Aliera e’Kieron, and the larger intrigue involves Empress Zerika of the Dragaeran Empire. Oh, and Matlock’s role is played by Vlad Taltos, human assassin and bon-vivant,
December 18th, 2009. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Steven Brust | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Mervyn Peake’s magnum opus began in Titus Groan, and continued in Gormenghast, two brilliant (though door-stopping) books that explored the lives of those that exist in a self-contained, self-sufficient edifice known as Gormenghast: a labyrinthine world of towers, mansions, slums, and the corridors that connect them all. It is ruled by ancient and meaningless ritual, something that the titular character of Titus, Seventy-Seventh Earl of Gormenghast, has rejected. In the final passages of Gormenghast,”
December 18th, 2009. Rebecca Fisher and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Mervyn Peake | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
Eugenides ends The Thief in triumph, but within the first chapter of this sequel, he is back in the prisons of the Queen of Attolia, where he loses his hand to the executioner’s axe, while the Queen looks on impassively. Forced to deal with the rest of his life as the Queen’s Thief of Eddis, with only one hand, he bitterly retreats to his rooms in seclusion, leaving Eddis without his skills just as the peninsula erupts in warfare, from both within and without.
December 18th, 2009. Ruth Arnell and Tadiana Jones | Megan Whalen Turner | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…