The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe’s The Sword of the Lictor essentially contains no plot, but it’s the best plotless book I’ve ever read. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read, period. I loved every moment of it! (I read this on audio; Audible Frontiers‘ audio version, read by Jonathan Davis, is exceptional.)
This third installment of The Book of the New Sun continues Severian’s journey from apprentice in the torturers’ guild to Autarch.
September 20th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
The Claw of the Conciliator is the second book in Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun quartet. If you read The Shadow of the Torturer and felt like you were lost (or drunk), and weren’t sure whether things would get clearer in the second book, I have to tell you that no, they don’t. But if you, like me, enjoy that dreamy I’m-not-sure-where-I-am-or-how-I-got-here-or-where-I’m-going-but-everything-sure-feels-fine literary experience, then read on,
September 14th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Rhialto the Marvellous by Jack Vance
“Flagrant and wild!”
If you’re a fan of Jack Vance, of course you’ve read, or plan to read, Rhialto the Marvellous, last of the Dying Earth books. If you’ve not read any of Mr. Vance’s work, you can start here — it isn’t necessary to have read the previous installments.
Rhialto, who has earned the cognomen “Marvellous” (this has something to do with him being a bit of a dandy) is one of the last of Earth’s magicians,
May 30th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4.5 | Jack Vance | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Cugel’s Saga (aka The Skybreak Spatterlight) by Jack Vance
Cugel “the clever” is one of the scummiest, nastiest, lowliest rogues in all of fantasy literature. He’s got no morals and no respect for women, he’s often a coward, he’s not good looking, nor is he particularly good with a sword. In the words of one of Cugel’s acquaintances, “who could imagine such protean depravity?” The answer, apparently, is Jack Vance. And that’s why Cugel is one of my favorite “heroes” — because he belongs to Jack Vance.
April 23rd, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Jack Vance | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Eyes of the Overworld by Jack Vance
I’ve already said, numerous times, how much I love Jack Vance, so I’ll skip all that this time. You can read other reviews on this page if you missed that.
The Eyes of the Overworld is the second part of Tales of the Dying Earth and the main character is one of my favorite Vance characters: the self-titled Cugel the Clever. Cugel is not the kind of guy you want to have dealings with — he’s clever,
March 18th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Jack Vance | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Dying Earth is the first of Jack Vance’s Tales of the Dying Earth and contains six somewhat overlapping stories all set in the future when the sun is red and dim, much technology has been lost, and most of humanity has died out. Our planet is so unrecognizable that it might as well be another world, and evil has been “distilled” so that it’s concentrated in Earth’s remaining inhabitants.
But it’s easy to forget that a failing planet is the setting for the Dying Earth stories,
March 11th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Jack Vance | Audio | SFF Reviews | 11 comments |
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
Brilliance Audio and Audible Frontiers have recently produced audio versions of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, so it seemed like a great time for me to finally read them. Within two minutes of putting Swords and Deviltry on my MP3 player and pressing play, I was completely enthralled. The first part of the novel (which is really a compilation of short stories) tells the tale of Fafhrd’s liberation from the taboos, close-mindedness, and “icy morality” of his mother and clan (and the girl he got pregnant) in the northern wastes.
September 3rd, 2009. Kat Hooper, Rob Rhodes, John Hulet and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4.5 | Fritz Leiber | Audio, Hugo Award, Nebula Award | 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 |
Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber
After a self-imposed exile, our heroes — the legendary Fafhrd and Gray Mouser — are back to their old shenanigans in the sinful city of Lankhmar. Shortly after their return, they find themselves hypnotically drawn across Newhon’s Outer Sea to lands unknown, only to have to survive a perilous journey to again get back to Lankhmar — the closest thing they have to a home. Along with their other misadventures, they finally come to terms with the deaths of their true-loves.
As stated on the book’s back-cover,
March 3rd, 2008. Greg Hersom, Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Fritz Leiber | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Like many people, I was familiar with the 1987 film The Princess Bride long before I read (or even knew about) William Goldman’s original novel, the extensively titled The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure. Like the film, the novel has a framing narrative that introduces the tale itself; unlike the film it is not of a young boy being read the story by his grandfather, but Goldman’s own experiences with the book both as a child and an adult.
December 14th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher, Ruth Arnell, Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | William Goldman | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
What a perceptive and beautiful review. You make it clear that Yamada not only knows the story she wants to…
Read together with The Serpent Mage, the series is one of the best works of art out there. The main…
thanks for this really well-written review. You've definitely piqued my interest in this, particularly in how you highlight the still…
Thanks for the kind words, Ira! Much appreciated!
Fine review