Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand
I’m on either my third or fourth copy of Waking the Moon, I can’t remember which. I first read it eleven years ago, loaned it to everyone I thought might be remotely interested, sometimes didn’t get it back, and never felt quite right when I didn’t have it on my shelf. This is one of my Desert Island Books.
The plot revolves around Sweeney Cassidy, an insecure college freshman who goes wild in her first semester away from home.
April 13th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Elizabeth Hand | Mythopoeic Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Lady of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Lady of Avalon is a set of three sort-of-related stories about priestesses on the Druid isle of Avalon, during the centuries preceding Bradley’s stunning Mists of Avalon.
And they’re OK, in general. I especially liked Viviane’s story; I learned more about what made that complex character tick.
Unfortunately, certain details of the history set up by Bradley in Mists were contradicted in Lady of Avalon.
April 11th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Marion Zimmer Bradley | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The beginning of Possessed drops the reader right into the stifling life of Rayne, a young London teenager. Her relationships with her mother and boyfriend are dysfunctional, and she’s unable to find a moment’s peace amid the noise and crime of the city. Kate Cann does an excellent job of showing us Rayne’s frayed nerves and her desire to get out of her neighborhood by any means necessary. Desperate, she takes a live-in job at the country estate of Morton’s Keep.
As Rayne settles into her new life,
April 5th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Kate Cann | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Winter Tides by James P. Blaylock
I was disappointed in Winter Tides, though it’s probably not fair to blame James P. Blaylock for my disappointment. It’s not his fault the cover copy doesn’t accurately describe the novel’s actual subject matter. It’s also not his fault I’m a big enough ballad geek that when I see the words “Anne,” “Elinor,” “sisters,” and “drowning” in the same sentence, I immediately think of “The Cruel Sister,” a heartbreaking ballad of love and sisterly betrayal. Between the cover copy and a ballad reference that may or may not have been intentional,
April 3rd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | James P. Blaylock | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Touched by Venom by Janine Cross
I’ve been tempted by Touched by Venom for a long time. The cover art is sensual; the blurb is intriguing and contains a promising quote by Jacqueline Carey, one of my favorite authors. Something held me off, though, until recently, but I finally broke down and bought Touched by Venom used.
First of all… yowza. I thought I was into dark fantasy. Little did I know, compared to Touched by Venom,
April 2nd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Janine Cross | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary by Pamela Dean
I’ve read several Pamela Dean books in the past, and so I was prepared for her style; it didn’t bother me much that characters quoted too often, or that the book was long on characterization and mood but short on plot, or that the ending swooped in out of the ether when I was least expecting it. I was ready for those things to be the case, so they didn’t disappoint me. I opened the book hoping for a story like Dean’s earlier Tam Lin,
March 29th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Pamela Dean | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dead Girls Are Easy by Terri Garey
When vintage-boutique owner Nicki Styx suffers a near-death experience, she comes back from the Light with the ability to see and hear ghosts. Before she knows it, the dead are hounding her day and night, in the hopes that she’ll help tie up their loose ends. Sometimes this just means passing on a last message of love. But when Nicki’s friend Caprice is killed, Nicki’s life really gets messy.
Caprice’s boyfriend Mojo has been thrown in jail, accused of Caprice’s murder. Caprice wants him freed.
March 20th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Terri Garey | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Wilderness, originally published in 1991, has recently been rereleased. I presume it’s because tales of lycanthropy are all the rage at the moment. Wilderness is an excellent novel and I’m thrilled that it will get the chance to reach new readers — myself included, as I hadn’t heard of it until the new edition popped up on shelves — and at the same time, I hope it will find its way to readers who will appreciate it for what it is rather than wishing it were something else.
March 19th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Dennis Danvers | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Demon Possessed by Stacia Kane
The title Demon Possessed has a double meaning. On the surface, it seems to refer to the book’s murder-mystery plotline, which involves several characters who may or may not be possessed by demons. But it also refers to Megan, who must decide in this installment whether to become fully “possessed” by Greyson, the demon world, and the demonic side of her own nature.
The interpersonal-relationships plotline is the real gem in Demon Possessed. Stacia Kane does a great job of portraying Megan as a modern career woman thrust into a demon society that’s almost medieval in its treatment of women.
March 18th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Stacia Kane | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Red Queen’s Daughter by Jacqueline Kolosov
I don’t buy hardbacks all that often, but as soon as I saw that The Red Queen’s Daughter was about Mary Seymour, and included magic to boot, I knew I had to have this book.
Mary Seymour is, historically, a question mark. The daughter of former queen Catherine Parr and her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, Mary was orphaned and taken in by the Duchess of Suffolk. There are no records of Mary’s existence after the age of about two.
March 17th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Jacqueline Kolosov | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“Rock climbing, Joel”
Just ordered it!
I take it then, Marion, that you are NOT a Nancy Kwan completist? 😂
I love the original myths, and this artwork is amazing.
Think I'll pass on Night Creature!