The Crowded Shadows by Celine Kiernan
I was hoping that the pace of The Moorehawke Trilogy would pick up once Razi, Christopher, and Wynter left the castle but, alas, this story continues to crawl at a glacial pace. In The Crowded Shadows, the three friends wander the forest with no plan but to find Prince Alberon (somewhere among thousands of acres) so they can hear his side of the story — why is he rebelling against his father? While they traipse about the forest,
December 15th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Terry Weyna´s rating: 2.5 | Celine Kiernan | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan
After five years away on the King’s business, Wynter Moorehawke and Lorcan, her father, have returned to court. Though they are carpenters of common birth, they also serve their friend, King Jonathan, as Lord and Lady Protector. Wynter is excited to be reunited with her childhood friends Alberon and Razi, the King’s legitimate and illegitimate sons, respectively. They were like brothers to her and she and Lorcan were practically part of the King’s family. But it quickly becomes clear that things have changed dramatically since she’s been gone.
December 9th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Terry Weyna´s rating: 3 | Celine Kiernan | Audio | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Vicious Grace by M.L.N. Hanover
Have you ever been in one of those cobbled-together buildings where the 1st floor of the original structure opens onto the 3rd floor of the new wing, and you can only access the fourth floor by a staircase at the far end of that older building that got swallowed up into the whole mass at some point, and so on? I work in one, and after reading Vicious Grace, I don’t think I’ll ever see it the same way again! (Gee, thanks,
November 24th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | M.L.N. Hanover | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey
Richard Kadrey’s Kill the Dead is the sequel to Sandman Slim, and James Stark has been keeping himself busy working for various entities in order to pay the rent. The Devil is one of the entities that makes use of Stark’s services, and he wants Stark to serve as his bodyguard while he’s in town on business. Stark is forced to juggle the obligations of both Heaven and Hell, and manages to place himself in the middle of a conflict that started at the dawn of time.
November 5th, 2010. Justin Blazier, Terry Weyna, Robert Thompson, Greg Hersom and Marion Deeds | Richard Kadrey | Audio | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
I’m not sure what’s wrong with me lately. I keep finding myself reading some gloriously blasphemous works of fantasy literature. I reviewed Jesse Bullington’s The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart and accepted that it could very well show up as a stain on my soul’s credit report. Now, having just finished Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim, I might as well file eternal bankruptcy.
James Stark was betrayed and sent to hell for 11 years.
November 3rd, 2010. Justin Blazier, Kat Hooper, Greg Hersom, Terry Weyna and Marion Deeds | Richard Kadrey | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
October Daye, private investigator to San Francisco’s faerie nobility, stumbles upon her most troubling case yet. Two of her friends’ children vanish without a trace, and a third falls into an enchanted sleep from which no one can awaken her. Toby pokes around and learns that other children have been disappearing as well, both fae and human, and that an ancient and sinister power is behind the kidnappings.
Seanan McGuire wisely plays to her strengths — and Toby’s — in An Artificial Night.
September 30th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Seanan McGuire | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Lavie Tidhar’s new novel The Bookman is an alternate history of Victorian England that focuses on the authors of the era, as well as many of their fictional creations. For some, this clever premise may strongly recall Alan Moore’s graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Is that a problem? Most will argue not since, like Moore, Tidhar has a great deal of fun stirring up trouble in the Victorian Era and then setting his poets and canonical characters on the trail of a mysterious villain.
September 20th, 2010. Ryan Skardal and Terry Weyna´s rating: 3 | Lavie Tidhar | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
OK, HUNGER GAMES fans, you’ve been waiting a year for this book, and the last thing you want is some @#$% reviewer spoiling the plot. So, I will do my best to give my impressions of Mockingjay with as few spoilers as possible.
When a series becomes this popular and sparks this much speculation among readers, the author’s task is extremely difficult. How to surprise a fanbase, when that fanbase has spent many months trying to guess what will happen in the final installment (and almost certainly guessed right on a few counts)?
August 29th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter, Bill Capossere, Jason Golomb, Terry Weyna and Skye Walker´s rating: 4 | Suzanne Collins | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry has had a miserable summer. None of his friends have written to him and he wonders whether Hogwarts and the world of wizardry that he discovered the year before is just a dream. Four weeks before he is due to return to school he has a visit from Dobby the House Elf who warns him not to return to Hogwarts. And so we embark on another year at Hogwarts and another mystery — this time involving the Chamber of Secrets.
I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,
April 16th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest), Terry Weyna, Kat Hooper and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5, 4, 5 | J.K. Rowling | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann
I’ve been lukewarm to George Mann’s Victorian steampunk novels set in London, finding them mostly adequate: quick-paced but a bit flat and somewhat too beholden to cinematic cliché. They are intermittently entertaining and lively, but never quite get all the way to good. Mann’s new novel, Ghosts of Manhattan, is similar, but set in America this time. It’s perhaps a step above the London novels in quality.
It’s 1926 and America is in a cold war with a British Empire that still stretches over much of the world.
April 8th, 2010. Bill Capossere and Terry Weyna´s rating: 2 | George Mann | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Thanks for the kind words, Ira! Much appreciated!
Fine review
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!