Wolf Star (also published as Wolf Star Rising) is the second of four books known as the Claidi Journals, stories told in the format of a diary by the young escaped-slave Claidi and her travels throughout a fantasy world in search of her origins and a home of her own. In the first installment, Wolf Tower, which you really must read if you want to understand what’s going on in this story, Claidi escaped the confines of the House with the handsome Nemian,
May 1st, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Tanith Lee | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The three-part story of Fernanda “Fern” Capel that began in Prospero’s Children and continued in The Dragon Charmer comes to its conclusion in The Witch Queen. A young woman now, Fern has resigned herself to the presence of magic in her life and accepted (however reluctantly) that her Gift means that the life of a witch is the only one she can lead. In Prospero’s Children Fern time-traveled back to the City of Atlantis,
May 1st, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Jan Siegel | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dark Moon by Meredith Ann Pierce
Ever notice how the second parts of trilogies are often the weakest? This is not always the case, but it often happens in both books and movies, and it definitely occurs here. Dark Moon is the second part of The Firebringer trilogy, which began with the fascinating Birth of the Firebringer and ending with the explosive The Son of Summer Stars. But smack dab in the middle is Dark Moon,
April 25th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Meredith Ann Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip
The first time I read Patricia McKillip, I didn’t get very far. The book was the Riddlemaster of Hed, and I was completely unprepared for her complex use of language. But there must have been something in her style that intrigued me, because I tracked down Winter Rose not long afterwards, and since then have been a big fan of all her work. Out of all Patricia McKillip’s books (at least the ones I’ve read) Winter Rose is perhaps the most opaque.
April 12th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Patricia McKillip | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ferren and the Angel by Richard Harland
Never before have I read a book with such epic proportions, such potential, and such originality — and yet was written so carelessly and simplistically. What promises to be a future-fantasy-adventure along the lines of Philip Pullman‘s amazing His Dark Materials trilogy, instead reads like sci-fi pulp fiction.
Ferren and the Angel is set in the year 3000AD, after a series of scientific discoveries and heavenly experiments that resulted in a full out war between Heaven and Earth.
April 10th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Richard Harland | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
An Enemy at Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
The fifth book in Lucy Boston’s Green Knowe series finally brings together our two main protagonists: the house’s blood relative Tolly and the Chinese refugee Ping, both of whom have featured in the previous books, but never together. Unfortunately we do not see their meeting, but instead join the story half-way through the summer, by which time the two are already best friends.
As always, the mysterious Green Knowe is filled with ancient and semi-magical artifacts (all of which are actually real relics that belong in the author’s home on which she based the books) and Grandmother Oldknow tells the children stories concerning the past inhabitants of the house.
April 10th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Lucy M. Boston | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Anne Rice’s second vampire novel is both a prequel and a sequel to her original story Interview with the Vampire. A sequel because it is framed by a sequence of events in contemporary times, and a prequel because it recounts the history of the vampire Lestat, the sire of the protagonist Louis in Interview. After waking from centuries-sleep in 1980’s New Orleans, Lestat discovers the Interview manuscript and goes about setting the story straight,
April 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher and Tim Scheidler´s rating: 5 | Anne Rice | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman
Everything Means Something…
First of all, if you have not read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, then don’t attempt to read this story, as you’ll be utterly baffled. But if you have, you’ll be treated with another glimpse into the parallel Oxford that Pullman so vividly created and explored in Northern Lights/The Golden Compass.
The book itself is beautifully presented, bound in cloth and filled with engravings of the city by John Lawrence,
April 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Philip Pullman | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce
Meredith Ann Pierce is best known for her wonderful Darkangel trilogy, which sadly is not as renowned as it deserves to be. Even lesser known is Pierce’s Firebringer trilogy, based on stories she wrote and dreams she experienced as a young child, which chronicle the lives and adventures of a tribe of unicorns exiled from their home.
Legend tells of how the unicorns were driven out from their Hallow Hills by the serpentine wyverns, who by trickery,
April 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Meredith Ann Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Alexander follows his usual technique of incorporating various myths from around the world into his own original story (as he’s already done with The Chronicles of Prydain, The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, and The Iron Ring) but this time it’s with a clever twist. Instead of taking aspects of myths to work into his own story, here Alexander traces several Greek myths back to their source, outlining the roots of these stories and exploring how they may have been changed over time into the myths as we know them today.
April 2nd, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Lloyd Alexander | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Good. The Basilisk Throne definitely left several characters in medias res at the end. I haven't seen any word about…
It wholly works as a self-contained work with a very brief bit at the end that allows for the possibility…
I just read The Saliva Tree yesterday and loved it. A couple notes: In my copy (I read it in…
I have a hold request for this at the library, so I'm glad to hear you liked it. Does this…
It reminded me immediately of LeGuin and also Isabel Allende's "universal matter" (I think) in Eva Luna. It's a concept…