Every Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison
I sped from The Good, the Bad and the Undead (which I thoroughly enjoyed) straight into Every Which Way But Dead, and was a little disappointed. I genuinely loved the second book in the Hollows series — it had a tight plot, a spicing of sex, plenty of danger, and I just could not stop turning pages.
Every Which Way But Dead was a little different. Many of the good qualities of the second book remained.
April 25th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 3.5 | Kim Harrison | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is easily my favourite of the Harry Potter books. Harry is in his third year at Hogwarts, and the big news is the escape of dangerous and deadly wizard Sirius Black from Azkaban prison. Harry learns that, for some reason, Sirius is after him. To increase security at Hogwarts, Dumbledore has reluctantly allowed the Dementors — ghostly cloaked beings that suck the happiness from a person’s soul and eventually drive them mad — to guard the castle.
April 24th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest), Kelly Lasiter, Kat Hooper, Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | J.K. Rowling | Children | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Captive is the second book in the Secret Circle trilogy by L.J. Smith. In this book Faye tightens her hold around Cassie, blackmailing her over her love for Adam and forcing her to betray Diana. At the same time the Circle learns that a dark power is on the loose and killing, and Cassie begins to suspect that the crystal skull recovered from Black John’s articles is behind the deaths.
L.J. Smith has written a number of trilogies in the YA paranormal arena, and excels at the format.
April 23rd, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 3 | L.J. Smith | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry has had a miserable summer. None of his friends have written to him and he wonders whether Hogwarts and the world of wizardry that he discovered the year before is just a dream. Four weeks before he is due to return to school he has a visit from Dobby the House Elf who warns him not to return to Hogwarts. And so we embark on another year at Hogwarts and another mystery — this time involving the Chamber of Secrets.
I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,
April 16th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest), Terry Weyna, Kat Hooper and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5, 4, 5 | J.K. Rowling | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
I’ve come late to the Tom Holt party, but I’m glad I finally made it. The Portable Door is the first book of his that I have read and I definitely intend to try more.
The Portable Door is the story of Paul Carpenter, who takes a mysterious job in a mysterious firm where mysterious goings-on occur. I found it always interesting, a nice quick read, and lightly humourous. I wouldn’t say there were many laugh-out-loud moments,
April 15th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 3.5 | Tom Holt | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Gather round, people – I’m slightly nervous to present interviewee Sam Sykes – self-styled ‘Angriest Man Alive’ and debut author of Tome of the Undergates (to be released by Gollancz on 15 April 2010 in the UK). Sam has already conducted an interview with Aidan Moher, over at A Dribble of Ink where they discussed… well, video games and cover art and other such boy things. After reading (and reviewing) his book I wanted to try and draw out a little more about the man behind the book and how he went about writing the death and mayhem that fills the pages of Tome.
April 13th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | Sam Sykes | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 11 comments |
The Silver Mage by Katharine Kerr
In The Silver Mage, the fifteenth book in the very long-running Deverry series, Katharine Kerr seeks to wrap up those last few plot points and bring the sequence to a resounding end.
Oh dear. I’ve followed this series faithfully, to the extent of doing a full re-read in preparation of the release of this final book, and I am more than disappointed with the way Kerr has finished things off.
This series has been limping along for a while,
April 12th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 2 | Katharine Kerr | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Shadow Isle by Katherine Kerr
We’re finally reaching the end of the Deverry saga with The Shadow Isle, the penultimate book in the series. There is a sense of Katharine Kerr pulling together all those strands to finish off the series effectively, but some mysteries are still to be resolved. One thing I am glad of is that I don’t actually know what Kerr will do to finish the story — although the Horsekin are currently ‘evil’, there has been enough switching sides and distinctions made between Horsekin and Gel da Thae for us to realize that no one is outright evil and everybody can be redeemed.
April 8th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4 | Katharine Kerr | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Is it Wednesday again already? These come round awfully quickly! Welcome to World Wide Wednesday, and FanLit’s quick guide to the Top 10 most interesting events of the last week on the Internet.
1) Book Covers: A Reader Survey
With all the discussion about cover art, and cliched representation of book contents, The Book Smugglers have decided to ask the readers what they feel about the subject. There will be future results posts after the Smugglers have compiled all the replies, which I’ve no doubt will be brought to you on a future edition of WWW!
April 7th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
The Spirit Stone by Katharine Kerr
The Spirit Stone is the fifth book in the Dragon Mage sequence by Katharine Kerr. The events in this book follow on directly from those in The Gold Falcon. The joint armies of Westfolk, Deverry men, and Mountain Folk are mustering in order to put Zakh Gral (the Horsekin fortress) to the sword. This time round we leave the stories of Branna and Neb, who remain behind at the dun. Instead Salamander and Dallandra come to the fore — dealing with a group of Gel da Thae who have been banished for using dweomer by those who follow Alshandra;
April 2nd, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4 | Katharine Kerr | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…
this sounds like a fun one