Shaman’s Crossing was slow and at times dry, but I thought it rewarded the patient reader and that the pace was mostly appropriate for the content and character. The same complaints about book one could also be leveled at Forest Mage, and here, unfortunately, I can’t quite defend the book as strongly.
Like Shaman’s Crossing, there isn’t a lot of “action” here. One expecting large battles, political upheaval or machinations, encounters with monsters,
April 29th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Robin Hobb | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Wizard Alone is yet another Young Wizards book that maintains the high level set by the first few in the series. While not quite as dark as the previous one, where (and if you haven’t read Wizard’s Dilemma then quit reading this review if you don’t want the end spoiled) Nita’ s mother dies, A Wizard Alone maintains a level of solemnity appropriate to what has come just before.
The title could refer to any of the three major characters.
April 19th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Diane Duane | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
Dragon Rider is an early Cornelia Funke novel brought to the U.S. after the success of hermore recent The Thief Lord and Inkheart. Dragon Rider begins with a young dragon named Firedrake who starts off on a quest for the Rim of Heaven, a possibly mythical land where Firedrake and his fellow dragons hope to flee to in order to escape encroaching mankind whose earth-moving machines are on their way.
April 5th, 2008. Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Cornelia Funke | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Born Queen is the concluding (and how often do we get to say that when reviewing a fantasy novel?) book in Greg Keyes’ four-book series, Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone. And it does actually conclude the series without any sort of sly wink-wink, nod-nod to a new series rising like the undead from the killed-off plot. For that alone, he should be given lots of credit, along with actually finishing a series in a decent amount of time and space.
March 28th, 2008. Bill Capossere and Rob Rhodes´s rating: 3.5 | Greg Keyes | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
There are some beautiful moments in The Fortress of Solitude — moments of crystalline description, of poetic evocation of time and place, moments of heartbreaking human interaction. But for me, these moments just didn’t hold together long enough or happen often enough.
The Fortress of Solitude follows Dylan Ebdus, known as “whiteboy” to those around him on Dean Street due to the rarity of his skin color, as he grows up and out of the Brooklyn neighborhood.
March 13th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Jonathan Lethem | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Alector’s Choice by L.E. Modesitt Jr
There’s no longer any doubt — Modesitt has fallen into the “shampoo” mode of series writing: rinse-shampoo-repeat. Alector’s Choice, while not a bad book if read on its own (which it can be), is, for fans or former fans of Modesitt’s other work, merely a rehash of the same old same old. Same old plot. Same old characters. Same old conflicts. Same old resolutions. Only the names have been changed to protect the profits (and a possible plagiarism suit if one could sue oneself).
March 3rd, 2008. Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Acacia by David Anthony Durham
David Anthony Durham‘s Acacia has some of elements of epic fantasy we’ve all seen before: a large empire, a resentful race, a king’s children scattered and forced to grow into previously hidden strengths, a near-ritualized style of sword fighting, political intrigue, large battle scenes, and a few others. But anyone thinking to write off Acacia as simply another cookie-cutter fantasy would be missing a highly rewarding read — for Durham gives us these familiar set-ups only to repeatedly yank them out from under our feet.
February 20th, 2008. Bill Capossere, Kevin Wei and Stefan Raets´s rating: 2.5, 3, 4 | David Anthony Durham | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Alan Campbell’s Scar Night is the first book in a proposed trilogy (Deepgate Codex) and it’s a decent and intriguing start, though one hopes that succeeding books do a much better job of realizing the potential in the backstory than Scar Night itself does.
The strengths of the book mostly lie in its background. One is the underlying mythos: a millennia-ago war in heaven, a god who waits in the abyss below a major city as they feed him their dead (along with the dead’s souls) so he can create another army to storm heaven,
February 19th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Alan Campbell | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Scepters, the third book of The Corean Chronicles, isn’t a bad book in its own right. If it could be read on its own (one really needs to have read the two previous books to follow this one), it would have been a decent if not great or even really good read. But coming as it does after the first two, my largest reaction was: haven’t we seen all this before?
By now the pattern of plot and character has become pretty rote.
February 11th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier
Magic or Madness does a nice job of plunking us down in mid-story, giving us a sense of early momentum that seldom pauses the rest of the way. Reason Cansino has been kept on the move in the Australian bush for most of her 15 years, in order, her mother says, to keep her safe from Esmeralda, Reason’s dangerous grandmother. Serafina, Reason’s mother, has filled Reason’s mind with stories of Serafina being held captive as a young child in Esmeralda’s cellar, of Esmeralda’s animal sacrifices and dark rites all in the name magic,
February 4th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Justine Larbalestier | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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.
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!