C.E. Murphybegins Heart of Stone, the first of the Negotiator books, with our main character “Grit” being shadowed by a Gargoyle as she runs through Central Park. The Gargoyle, Alban, is a member of the few Old Races that are hidden in plain sight from the rest of humanity. His tragic history and how it compels him and leads him to eventually interact with Grit is the meat of the tale.
Murphy creates a plausible background and history for this story,
January 31st, 2008. John Hulet´s rating: 3.5 | C.E. Murphy | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dragon Champion by E.E. Knight
Dragon Champion, the first Age of Fire novel, begins with a newborn whose initial impressions of the world are artfully depicted, but the fact that this newborn is a dragon makes it even more fun. E.E. Knight’s story follows the life and growth of a young dragon through interesting and perilous adventures.
Knight’s world-building is creative; he mixes races, geography, and geo-politics to create a vibrant background. The story takes on an almost scientific tone at times as Knight explains some of the aspects of dragonkind in a way that makes sense to human readers.
January 20th, 2008. John Hulet´s rating: 4 | E.E. Knight | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Clan Daughter by Morgan Howell
After reading King’s Property, the first book in the Orc series, I could see a lot of room for improvement.
The main character, Dar, was really hard to enjoy reading about and she was just a little too lucky a little too often for my taste.
Book two… Wow, can you say “more of the same”? And 80% of the book is a boring journey which sets the stage for interspecies love and actions on the part of the Orc mothers that totally contradicts everything we have been told about them.
December 28th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 2.5 | Morgan Howell | SFF Reviews | no comments |
If your taste runs along the likes of George R.R. Martin — dark, gritty fantasy that reads like historical fiction — then Winterbirth, the first novel in Brian Ruckley’s The Godless World trilogy, is for you.
The gods got fed-up with their creation and left it to its own demise long ago and this world feels like just that. It’s a cold, dark, and violent, place that’s full of rugged highlands, foreboding forests, and misty,
December 6th, 2007. Greg Hersom and John Hulet´s rating: 3.5 | Brian Ruckley | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ed Greenwood tries something a little different with Dark Lord. The main character is an author of both fantasy and other fiction who is magically tied to his created world of Falconfar and who has the power to shape this magical land with his ideas and words. It’s not a bad premise, but it would take some really great writing to avoid being too much of a personal fantasy.
Dark Lord is not a long book and it’s packed with lots of action. I felt like I was reading some of the Forgotten Realms books…
November 25th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Ed Greenwood | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton
LKH has continued down the path that she has chosen for this series: the characters just get trashier with each book and all of the redeeming features that made them respectable are disappearing.
The sad part is that it is such a flawed perspective on people. Some people are actually able to resist being corrupted by outside influences and that is totally absent from this series where everyone is so caught up in a need for sex and power that they will totally debase themselves to get it.
November 11th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 1 | Laurell K. Hamilton | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson
Vicki Pettersson has come up with a cool and original idea for the paranormal genre: an on-going battle between good and evil that corresponds to the signs of the zodiac.
I loved the way that Pettersson used comic books to keep the history of the conflict and she really did a fantastic job portraying kids in a comic book shop.
The main character in the Zodiac series is the only fly in the ointment. Joanna Archer just seems to be a bit inconsistent.
November 5th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 4 | Vicki Pettersson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Let me start by saying that I like Yasmine Galenorn‘s writing quite a lot. I love her pagan/metaphysical books — she’s one of the few authors out there who seems to have a genuine passion for the subject matter—and I’ve also enjoyed the one installment of Chintz ‘n’ China that I’ve read.
That said, I didn’t really enjoy Witchling, the first novel of her Sisters of the Moon series, though I feel kind of bad saying so about something she’s obviously worked hard on and feels strongly about.
October 25th, 2007. Kelly Lasiter and John Hulet´s rating: 2 | Yasmine Galenorn | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Hob’s Bargain by Patricia Briggs
I think that the ability to create a world that is filled with magic and unknown places is perhaps too great a task to do in one book. There is a degree of detail that we, as readers, have come to expect due to the growing trend of long multi-volume series.
In The Hob’s Bargain, Patricia Briggs does a good job of telling a story within the constraints of a single volume. The heroine is interesting and relatively likeable,
October 19th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Patricia Briggs | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen has become so complex that it’s very difficult to keep all of the storylines in order. It’s totally worth the effort, but these books are not exactly the sort that you can just pick up and read quickly. The Bonehunters is no exception and I found myself jumping back to the reference of who’s who quite a bit.
I struggle to write this review because so much that I want to say would be spoiler material for people who are beginning the series.
October 2nd, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 5 | Steven Erikson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…