I still remember the day I bought my copy of The Wild Swans. I’d been on a retold-fairy-tale bender and had devoured almost every book listed in the back of the Fairy Tale Series books edited by Terri Windling, at least the ones I could track down. I knew I wanted something in a similar vein, and the back cover blurb of The Wild Swans promised exactly what I was looking for. The book delivered,
August 25th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Peg Kerr | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Red Hood’s Revenge by Jim C. Hines
Red Hood’s Revenge is the third book in Jim Hines’ series that reimagines the characters of Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty (going back to their far darker roots than the usual Disney versions) and turns them into a formidable team. As with the first two books, Hines in Red Hood’s Revenge doesn’t simply retell the well-known stories. He reshapes the original story, then jumps ahead in time and uses the familiar tale as a back-story with its many ripples emanating forward in time,
August 24th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Jim C. Hines | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Palace of Love by Jack Vance
Two down and three to go… In order to exact revenge on Viole Falushe, the third Demon Prince, Kirth Gersen must first discover who Mr. Falushe is, and then find and infiltrate his famous Palace of Love.
The actual plot, while just as brisk and fun as usual, isn’t the most entertaining aspect of The Palace of Love. This volume is particularly charming because of Jack Vance’s exquisite characters — three in particular:
August 24th, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Jack Vance | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Fifteenth in our Heroes series, by our own Robert Rhodes. Art is courtesy of Emma Rose Paterson.
“Wake now, little sister,” she hears Eldest Sister say. She breathes and pearlescent light washes over her eyelids. Outside a woodpecker’s beak thrums against a tree trunk; a goldeneye duck calls on the pond. She smells silk and jasmine… and something more.
She lifts herself onto one elbow and finds Eldest Sister kneeling beside her. Never, outside of the temple, has she witnessed Eldest Sister kneel. But a smile illuminates her wrinkled face,
August 23rd, 2010. Rob Rhodes | 20 Heroes | 3 comments |
The Green Man edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
In fairy tales, whenever someone journeys into the forest, you just know something strange is about to occur and that the protagonist’s life is going to be changed forever. The same is true of the stories and poems featured in The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest. With this collection, editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling kicked off a series of young adult anthologies, each devoted to a particular theme. Here, the theme is wild nature,
August 22nd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Charles De_Lint, Delia Sherman, Ellen Datlow, Emma Bull, Gregory Maguire, Jane Yolen, Jeffrey Ford, Midori Snyder, Neil Gaiman, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Patricia McKillip, Tanith Lee, Terri Windling | Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
China Mieville’s Kraken is a rollicking head-spinning comic novel set in an alternate London where gods and cults and magic are so interwoven into the daily fabric that there is an entire squad in the London police to deal with those elements, and it is that squad which is called in to investigate when the eponymous Kraken is stolen from the Natural History Museum.
They’re not alone in their desire to find out what happened to the giant squid, however, which also happens to be considered a god by many.
August 20th, 2010. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | China Mieville | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In 1969, David Eddings, who is the subject of this column, was convicted of child abuse and served a year in jail. At the time this column was posted in 2010, we and John Ottinger, our guest columnist, like many others, were unaware of this. The essay addresses the elements that John enjoyed in Eddings’s work. We cannot ignore what Eddings did or the pain he caused. A statement from Eddings’ son is included in the comment section. (This disclaimer was added on April 5, 2021. The remainder of the column appears exactly as it did when first posted in August 2010.)
Our guest this week for Why You Should Read…
August 20th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | David Eddings | SFF Reviews | 26 comments |
The Place is a recuperation station outside of space and time where Spider soldiers in The Change War go for rest and relaxation between operations. This war has been going on between The Spiders and The Snakes since the beginning of time and Soldiers have been drafted (resurrected) into “The Big Time” from many points in history. From outside of time, they can plunge in at crucial moments and manipulate events to serve their cause, or they can change things ex post facto,
August 20th, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Fritz Leiber | Audio, Free!, Hugo Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Just reports about his visit to GenCon. Comment for a chance to win a FanLit bookmark signed by R.A. Salvatore.
Each year in Indianapolis, thousands gather for what’s called “The Best 4 Days in Gaming.” Gencon Indy was held from August 5th to August 8th, 2010. This gathering of nerds is the largest of its kind in the country. If you are into Dungeons & Dragons or board games, this is your Mecca because over 8600 gaming-related activities are held over four days. Gencon is awesome, but you may be wondering how much it relates to fantasy.
August 19th, 2010. Justin Blazier | Anton Strout, Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss, R.A. Salvatore | Giveaway! | 4 comments |
Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong
Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong is a fine addition to the Women of the Otherworld series. It relays the adventures of Savannah Levine, whom we met as a precocious orphan in earlier novels and who is now a grown woman. The mystery is strong, compelling, and reasonably twisted; the plot is well paced and packed with action; and the characters and their stories are, as always, strong. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel.
What’s not to like?
August 19th, 2010. Stephen B. Frank´s rating: 3.5 | Kelley Armstrong | 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.