“Weep, free maiden. Remember your pride and weep.”
Outlaw of Gor is the second novel in John Norman‘s cult classic Gorean Saga. After languishing on Earth for seven years, Tarl Cabot is finally returned to the Counter-Earth where he hopes to find his father and the woman he loves. Instead, he finds that things are not at all as he left them. After a bit of roaming, he winds up in a city he’s never been to before and gets tangled up in a battle of the sexes.
August 12th, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | John Norman | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Gail Carson Levine is best known for her retellings of traditional fairytales, (most famously Ella Enchanted) but here she draws on a mythological setting for her inspiration. Despite the fairytale-ish title, Ever takes place in an imaginary world that bears a resemblance to Greek or Middle-Eastern culture, particularly in regard to its climate, customs, clothing and food.
Kezi is a girl nearing her sixteenth birthday, living the simple life with her beloved mother and father,
August 12th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2.5 | Gail Carson Levine | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Fourteenth in our Heroes series, by our own Robert Rhodes. Art is courtesy of Tiziano Baracchi.
He wakes before the dawn bell. His hips and fingers ache, and the flagstones beside his cot send a shiver through his legs. He tugs his feet into his slippers, then stands with a soft grunt and pulls on his over-tunic. He takes a step toward the dim outline of the door and forces his fingers to search the shelf beside it until they grasp a shard from a broken urn.
August 11th, 2010. Rob Rhodes | 20 Heroes | 2 comments |
Fatal Circle by Linda Robertson
Persephone Alcmedi stirred up a whole cauldron of trouble when she killed an irate fairy at the end of Hallowed Circle. Now, the fairies want Seph dead, and Xerxadrea thinks there’s a traitor in the ranks of the witches. So, in order to protect Seph and her family, Menessos will name Seph his court witch so that it looks like she acted on his orders, thereby bringing the fairies’ wrath down on him instead. Meanwhile, Xerxadrea will use this as a pretext to exile Seph from the witches (also for Seph’s protection),
August 11th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Linda Robertson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Strange Wisdoms of the Dead by Mike Allen
I thought Strange Wisdoms of the Dead would be yet another attempt to convert me into a fan of speculative poetry, but leafing through the pages of this book I found something more massive. This is a comprehensive Mike Allen anthology covering ten years of work, compiling not just his poems but his fiction and collaborations as well.
Allen‘s poetry does dominate this book. Whether he’s talking about time sharks, spiders, or decapitated heads,
August 11th, 2010. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 3 | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus by R.L. LaFevers
I wish the THEODOSIA THROCKMORTON series had existed when I was a kid. I went through one heck of an Egyptology phase, and I don’t suppose I’ve ever left my brainy-heroine phase. My parents, though, should probably thank their lucky stars R.L. LaFevers hadn’t written these books yet. I can just imagine the mess I’d have made, trying to whip up ancient Egyptian potions in the backyard.
Theodosia is an 11-year-old girl growing up in the Edwardian era.
August 10th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Robin (R.L.) Lafevers | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
… Knowing what to expect, especially in a novel like this one, may make all the difference as to how much you enjoy it (or This is going to be a tricky book to review, particularly since I’ve never seen reviews for a book on Amazon.com so evenly divided as they are for Elizabeth Kostova’s debut novel The Historian. The people who love it seem to really love it, and those that don’t…really don’t. I think it all comes down to what your expectations are,
August 10th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Elizabeth Kostova | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Eternal Kiss of Darkness by Jeaniene Frost
Mencheres is a millennia-old vampire who was once the Pharaoh Menkaure. He thinks he’s seen a vision of his own doom and now has something of a death wish. One night, he’s intentionally losing a fight against some ghouls when a human woman intervenes to help him.
That woman is Kira Graceling, a thirtyish private investigator. Kira is brave, selfless, and maybe a bit of a martyr. (For example, in one early scene, Mencheres offers to help Kira’s terminally ill sister for a price,
August 9th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Jeaniene Frost | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
When he was a child, Kirth Gersen’s village was raided and massacred by the five Demon Princes. He and his grandfather escaped and, at his grandfather’s encouragement, Kirth has spent his life training and preparing for revenge. Now it’s time…
Jack Vance‘s DEMON PRINCES saga consists of five short science fiction novels which each tell the tale of how Kirth Gersen tracks down and deals with one of the evil men who killed his family. In the first installment,
August 9th, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Jack Vance | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
Ruth is taking a break from Thoughtful Thursday during August while she finishes her dissertation — Go, Ruth!
While Ruth is gone, we’re using this opportunity to clear out some of these stacks of books we’ve got in the way around here. And when we say “stacks”, we don’t mean those nice rows of organized shelved books like Ruth’s hiding out in at her university library. These are more like stalagmites jutting up from a cave floor (or stalactites for those of us who read upside down on the ceiling), except that these are teetering.
August 5th, 2010. Kat Hooper | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 26 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.