Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
I’ll admit that the last book in this four-part series, The Dream Thieves, was difficult for me to get through — it wasn’t that I disliked the characters or the storyline, but the pacing was glacially slow and Maggie Stiefvater‘s prose is definitely an acquired taste. However, Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014) was an improvement; I could tell because after each reading session I was surprised by just how many chapters I’d churned through.
August 27th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Maggie Stiefvater | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
The second in Maggie Stiefvater‘s THE RAVEN CYCLE, and a direct sequel to The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves (2013) focuses on the character of Ronan Lynch, a teenage boy who — in the last sentence of the previous book’s final chapter — reveals to his friends that he can pull real objects out of his dreams.
But that’s getting ahead of myself. The gist of this four-part series is that four students of the prestigious Aglionby Academy are on a quest to find the resting place of Welsh king Owen Glendower.
August 26th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Maggie Stiefvater | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sword of Light by Katherine Roberts
Rhianna has lived her entire life on the idyllic island of Avalon, never knowing her parents or seeing anything of the world beyond the isle. But the truth comes out in Britain’s darkest hour, when the wizard Merlin arrives on Avalon’s shore with the body of King Arthur Pendragon, slain in battle by his nephew Mordred and missing his sword Excalibur.
Rhianna learns she is the secret daughter of Arthur and Guinevere, hidden from the world at birth and now rightful heir to Camelot’s throne.
August 23rd, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5 | Katherine Roberts | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
Alanna: The First Adventure is, indeed, the first volume of well-known fantasy author Tamora Pierce’s four-book series THE SONG OF THE LIONESS. First published back in the 1980s, the quartet was remarkable in many ways, tackling issues like gender roles, cultural tensions, self-determination, and inherited versus achieved power. Written at a time when “young adult” didn’t exist as a genre and feisty teenage girls couldn’t find much positive representation in mainstream fantasy, the series laid out many of the familiar paths and tropes of what has become modern YA fantasy.
August 22nd, 2019. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Tamora Pierce | Children | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue is the only non-psychic in a large extended family of psychics in Henrietta, Virginia. Her only unusual ability is that her presence amplifies the psychic powers of others around her, but she herself cannot use these abilities. So it’s a shock when, while sitting vigil in a graveyard with her aunt Neeve, Blue sees the spirit of a boy about her age who is destined to die in the next year. She learns that there are only two possible reasons she was able to see him: either he’s her true love,
August 21st, 2019. Kelly Lasiter and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Maggie Stiefvater | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The House on Parchment Street by Patricia McKillip
I probably would never have known about The House on Parchment Street (1973) were I not such a huge fan of Patricia McKillip‘s fantasy stories, and while browsing her name on a library search engine, this title popped up. It was obviously one of her earliest published works, so I was willing to give it a go.
The House on Parchment Street is profoundly different from her later stories,
August 20th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2.5 | Patricia McKillip | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Having recently seen Saving Mr. Banks, a film that purports to examine the strained relationship between author P.L. Travers and film-maker Walt Disney when it came to adapting Mary Poppins for the big screen, it was only natural that I finally got around to my long overdue reading of the classic children’s story Mary Poppins (1934).
Having grown up with the Disney film, it’s quite shocking to realize how little one resembles the other.
July 29th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | P.L. Travers | Children | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Saga (Vol. 9) by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) & Fiona Staples (artist)
It’s been nine months since I read Vol 8 of Saga, which is something special. It’s the only comic series that I follow, and the characters are as vivid, complicated, lovable, despicable, cruel, and conflicted as any I know. This is a space opera that tackles the most difficult and relevant topics of our own society, doesn’t hesitate to shock readers, flip the script, and most frightening of all, doesn’t hold back from killing off major characters that we are deeply invested in.
July 17th, 2019. Stuart Starosta and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Brian K. Vaughan | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Saga (Vol 8) by Brian K Vaughan (writer) & Fiona Staples (artist)
It’s been six months since I read Vol 7 of SAGA, and after moving to London last summer we recently popped into Forbidden Planet in Soho, and that store is an absolute treasure trove of SF comics, books, and other fan goodies. There are so many enticing comics on offer there, you could spend your entire salary in one wild shopping spree. When I saw Vol 8 of SAGA with Wild West cover art among the new releases,
July 16th, 2019. Stuart Starosta and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Brian K. Vaughan | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Saga (Vol. 7) by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Fiona Staples (artist)
I had to wait nine months for Vol 7 of Brian Vaughan’s Saga, and about a year for Vol 6, after reading the first 5 volumes back-to-back. Saga is my favorite current comic series (actually, the only one I am following at the moment), and if you haven’t read it then go out and read Vol 1 right now. If you like intelligent, snarky, sometimes profane space opera centered on a pair of star-crossed lovers who have a little girl named Hazel and an amazing supporting cast of bounty-hunters,
July 12th, 2019. Stuart Starosta and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Brian K. Vaughan | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!
Sorry if I mislead you in this detail, Paul...the voyage by ship was only the first leg of the quintet's…
The geography is confusing me--how does one get to a village in Tibet by ship? And even the northernmost part…
Oh, this sounds interesting!