The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett
From the back flap: “What if there were a fantastical cause underlying the social constraints and limited choices confronting a heroine in a novel by Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë? Galen Beckett, … began The Magicians and Mrs. Quent to answer that question… ”
I was excited to receive a copy of The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, Galen Beckett‘s “debut” novel. There’s something exciting about a new author — they’re fresh,
July 9th, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Galen Beckett | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Swords in the Mist by Fritz Leiber
All due respect to the late Fritz Leiber, but overall, this book was weak.
The first story, “Cloud of Hate” was good. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser unwittingly take-on Hate embodied in a noxious mist that turns already shady characters into rampaging serial killers. The next one, “Lean Times in Lankhmar”, starts out interesting as the life-long friends go their separates ways, but goes flat. “Their Mistress, the Sea” builds up well but the ending seemed to be missing something. The rest of the book brings Fafhrd and Gray Mouser to our world’s ancient history,
June 16th, 2008. Greg Hersom, Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 3 | Fritz Leiber | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Mistress of Dragons by Margaret Weis
Mistress of Dragons is an interesting story with some likable heroes and excellent villains. The heroes are the humans and their dragon allies, but the humans don’t realize that dragons are their friends because the villains are a couple of dragons gone bad. Very bad. The good dragons concoct a plot which uses humans to conquer the bad dragons. Mistress of Dragons ends with an unexpected plot twist.
This story is well-told, though it annoys me how often Margaret Weis omits conjunctions from her sentences.
June 12th, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Margaret Weis | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Bridge books are always dicey things — many fall into a sophomore slump, meandering along trying to get from A to C with the required stop at B (because everyone knows a fantasy story can’t be told in only two books; three is clearly the sacred minimum — damn you Tolkien!). Luckily, The Well of Ascension (2007) doesn’t fall into that trap.
Mistborn is set in an ashen, mist-filled world whose myths tell of a time when plants were green.
June 7th, 2008. Bill Capossere, Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3, 4 | Brandon Sanderson | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan
Knife of Dreams has several things going for it. It isn’t as bad as the last few for one, no slight achievement. It is relatively crisp in prose and pace. It advances story and character at a more enjoyable pace. It even has a few (though too few) strong scenes that evoke fond memories of earlier (much earlier) books in the series. It is without a doubt an improvement on the past few and anyone who has put the time into this series and felt like they were scraping along will breathe a sigh of relief.
May 26th, 2008. Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold
It sincerely hurts me to give Lois McMaster Bujold the “DNF,” but I didn’t get very far into The Sharing Knife: Legacy before giving up. It tried it on audio, with the same reader who read Beguilement (see above).
The first scene was a sex scene: Dag (who’s 55 years old) and Fawn (who’s 19) on their wedding night. I rolled my eyes through most of it, and when Fawn started chatting about her family’s propensity to produce twins and other unsuitable topics for a wedding night scene (this is during the act,
May 26th, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 0.1 | Lois McMaster Bujold | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
CROWN OF STARS by Kate Elliott
CROWN OF STARS is well-thought out and obviously well-planned. It’s epic in scope and it’s got a lot of texture. There are many complex characters who we follow in parallel, as in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Some of them are very likeable, and there are some really excellent villains (e.g., Hugh). Kate Elliott’s creatures are imaginative and enjoyable, and I especially liked the way they interact with the humans. Ms. Elliott uses a lot of description and intricate world-building and therefore her plot moves very slowly (again,
May 16th, 2008. Kat Hooper and John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 3, 3.5 | Kate Elliott | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sorcerer’s Son by Phyllis Eisenstein
After the sorceress Delivev Ormoru rejects his marriage proposal, sorcerer Smada Rezhyk becomes worried that she’s out to get him. In order to reduce her powers so that he’ll have time to weave himself a protective gold shirt, Rezhyk sends his demon slave Gildrum to impregnate Delivev with Rezhyk’s own seed. Gildrum takes on the form of a handsome young knight (Mellor) and shows up injured at Delivev’s doorstep. As expected, Delivev falls in love with Mellor, but unexpectedly, Gildrum (who doesn’t even have a heart) falls in love with her,
May 16th, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Phyllis Eisenstein | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke
The moment I finished Susanna Clarke’s wonderful first novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, I wished that there was more of it. It was a long wait, but finally the fans of Clarke’s magically-soaked nineteenth-century Britain have a sequel — of sorts. Clarke presents eight short stories concerned with the presence of Faerie in England, and its influence on human inhabitants, all set in the same universe (with the same magical structure) as her previous work.
May 14th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Susanna Clarke | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
When I picked up Odalisque, it looked very promising. Fiona McIntosh creates an interesting harem setting (think Ottoman Empire) and some lively characters. Unfortunately, Odalisque doesn’t live up to its potential.
The characters are almost totally one-dimensional. All of the good guys are nice and humble while all of the bad guys are cruel and ambitious. Lazar, the main (and most likeable) character, is an amazing warrior, yet throughout the story he sits back, clenches his jaw,
May 9th, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 1.5 | Fiona McIntosh | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sounds intriguing!
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