The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

Editor's note: This is Marion's review of Shards of Honor, Barrayar, and The Warrior’s Apprentice. Kat's comments about The Warrior's Apprentice are at the bottom.

Do you like fancy military uniforms? Shiny spaceships that blow things up? Brooding aristocrats with hulking stone castles and dark secrets? Snappy comebacks and one-liners? Voluptuous women warriors? Swords and secret passages? Surprising twists on standard military tactics of engagement?

If you answered “Yes” to three or more, check out the VORKOSIGAN SAGA. Lois McMaster Bujold started this series in the mid-80s. The VORKOSIGAN books start out as space opera, even having maps of the various planets and star systems with those so-convenient wormholes linking everyone together, and c... Read More

The Dragon Revenant (US) or Dragonspell: The Southern Sea (UK) by Katharine Kerr

For the first time in the Deverry series, all the action takes place in the present day rather than flitting back to fill gaps in the past, and the plot and pacing are all the tighter for it.

Rhodry has been sold as a slave on the Bardek islands, and one storyline follows his new life, intersected with information about Salamander and Jill chasing him down. Behind all this we discover more about the politics and machinations within the Hawks, the Brotherhood, and, behind them all, the Old One — desperate enemy of Nevyn.

I really enjoyed the slow build and Jill's gradual realization that the dweomer would be her future, no matter how much she wished otherwise. The climax to the Old One storyline was very much D&D in nature (no real surprise... Read More

The Tangle Box by Terry Brooks

"Trust Not the Cat..."

As the fourth book in the Landover series, Terry Brooks's somewhat comedic-fantasy series (especially when compared to the serious Shannara saga), The Tangle Box continues Ben Holiday's adventures as king of a fairytale kingdom that he purchased in a shopping catalogue. Having successfully ruled Landover for several years, Ben is delighted when his sylph-wife Willow informs him that she is expecting their first child. However, the celebration is short-lived when the charlatan Horris Kew returns from exile in Ben's world to the Landover, with a new plan to cause havoc.

Having accidentally released a creature known as Gorse from a magical box, Kew becomes the unwitting pawn in its plan to seize control of Landover. Having lured the three most powerful individuals in the kingdom — King Holiday, the dragon Strabo and the witch Nightshade — Kew traps them within t... Read More