Author: Tim Scheidler

Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells I have very mixed feelings about Besieged. Overall, I’d give it a positive ranking, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that the text does have issues. Quite a few issues, really. What does work is...

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin With the recent Sci- Fi Channel miniseries, there is bound to be renewed interest in Ursula Le Guin’s classic first book in her Earthsea series, as there should be. This remains a...

The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer The ARTEMIS FOWL series in general has always been amusing, but after the first couple installments it rather lost the feel of being the breath of fresh air it seemed when the first novel rolled...

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock The Sailor on the Seas of Fate is the Elric book that’s been cited to me as “coming from left field” or “the weird one,” which considering it’s Elric is saying something (the...

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock Elric of Melniboné is one of those fantasy giants that shook the genre. He’s probably not so well-known as Conan or Gandalf, but he’s nonetheless in the same country club of figures often...

The Crystal Crown by Brenda Clough The Crystal Crown is basically a simple story. Liras-Ven, an unassuming and softspoken gardener, is chosen to be his nation’s next king, much to his horror. He makes a few bumbling attempts to...

Sharps by K.J. Parker Sharp swords, dirty books and pickled cabbage. Why has everything on this trip got to be horrible? The neighboring kingdoms of Permia and Scheria have always been enemies. Some of their citizens like it...

A Prince Among Men by Robert N. Charrette Aside from some rather grotesque cover art, there’s really not anything particularly wrong with A Prince Among Men. Unfortunately, it’s equally difficult to think of anything that it...

Phantastes George MacDonald George MacDonald’s Phantastes is generally regarded as pivotal in the development of fantasy literature: it is the first ever fantasy novel written exclusively for adults. Now of course we have...

Green Rider by Kristen Britain The trouble with Green Rider (or, well, the major trouble with Green Rider) is that it all just feels a bit silly. This may be a bit of a chuckle for some of you as, let’s face it, our entire genre...