She walks the path of time toward this house…
Two Patricia McKillip books in a single volume, what could be better?
As two of her earliest works, the CYGNET duology (composed of The Sorceress and the Cygnet and The Cygnet and the Firebird) make for more challenging reads than her later offerings. McKillip is renowned for her complex writing techniques. It’s obvious to those who are familiar with her distinctive poetic-prose that she’s still getting the hang of it here,
February 29th, 2012. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Patricia McKillip | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Great Work of Time by John Crowley
In 1990, Great Work of Time won the World Fantasy Award for best novella. I’m surprised someone hasn’t snapped up John Crowley’s short book, given it a glossy steampunk cover, and re-released it. Of course it isn’t steampunk. John Crowley’s work doesn’t fit easily into any sub-genre except Things John Crowley Has Written. Still, Great Work of Time has enough of the British Empire, airships, alternate histories, train terminals, misty London cityscapes, and men with bowler hats and tightly furled umbrellas to justify a steampunk cover,
May 25th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | John Crowley | Stand-Alone, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Tam Lin is Pamela Dean’s retelling of the classic folk tale, done as part of The Fairy Tale series created by Terri Windling. The folk tale is about a battle between the Faery Queen and a mortal girl for the heart and soul of Tam Lin, a young man enthralled by the Faery Queen. Pamela Dean has taken the innovative step of setting the story at a university in the Midwest during the seventies, which is pretty smart,
December 4th, 2010. Ruth Arnell, Kelly Lasiter and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 5 | Pamela Dean | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
It’s a hot and humid Georgia summer, and 10 year old Beau Jackson and his family have made their annual journey to the summer retreat of Gull Island. (Gull Island is not really an island, it’s a peninsula, but like the name of Gull Island, not everything is like it seems.) Beau’s family stays in the old home still occupied by his grandmother and they’re joined by his aunt and his odd cousin Sumter. The Jacksons seem like a typical albeit somewhat dysfunctional Southern American family, but that doesn’t take long to change.
April 27th, 2010. Justin Blazier´s rating: 4 | Douglas Clegg | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Wilderness, originally published in 1991, has recently been rereleased. I presume it’s because tales of lycanthropy are all the rage at the moment. Wilderness is an excellent novel and I’m thrilled that it will get the chance to reach new readers — myself included, as I hadn’t heard of it until the new edition popped up on shelves — and at the same time, I hope it will find its way to readers who will appreciate it for what it is rather than wishing it were something else.
March 19th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Dennis Danvers | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Anyone who is familiar with the ballad Tam Lin knows it’s a story that is very much for grown-ups, or at least teenagers. Susan Cooper does a very good job here of adapting the old story so that it’s suitable for any age. It requires changing a few plot elements, but the essential spirit of the story remains the same.
Margaret is tired of sewing and acting polite and talking about future husbands with the other girls at her father’s castle, so she runs away to the woods of Carterhays to pick flowers.
March 16th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Susan Cooper | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen by Lloyd Alexander
If I ever have kids, I’m going to make sure that their bookshelves are stocked full of Lloyd Alexander’s books. Most famous for his award-winning The Prydain Chronicles, Alexander has carved out a little niche for himself in children’s literature by taking his often-used (but never stale) technique of adapting a particular culture’s mythology and shaping it to include his own brand of wisdom, poignancy and humour. For The Prydain Chronicles Alexander borrowed heavily from Welsh mythology as found in the The Mabinogian,
January 3rd, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Lloyd Alexander | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
King of Morning, Queen of Day by Ian McDonald
I knew, just by reading the back cover blurb, that King of Morning, Queen of Day was right up my alley. Women with mystical powers? Check. Faeries? Check. Ireland? Check. In fact, I think the only reason I didn’t discover this book earlier is that it was published in 1991, and I only started reading fantasy sometime in the late nineties.
The story begins with Emily, a bratty but endearing girl of fifteen,
May 3rd, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Ian McDonald | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A fictionalization of the French Revolution set in the invented kingdom of “Vonahr” and laced with a little bit of magic, Illusion is a gem of historical fantasy and ought to be a classic. Paula Volsky combines epic ideals, all-too-human characters, and lovely prose to create a book I couldn’t put down and will never forget.
The events of these turbulent times are seen through the eyes of a high-born young woman, Eliste vo Derrivalle. Eliste is at first a product of her society and upbringing,
April 30th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Paula Volsky | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm
Though I liked this book, it was depressing. Cloven Hooves is a very melancholy book, moving from one heartbreaking situation to another with no respite.
The story starts with two stories intertwined: first, Evelyn’s wild, rough-and-tumble childhood and her youthful escapades with a faun in the Alaska forest, and second, an older, tamer Evelyn’s marriage, which is on the rocks after she, her husband, and their son move in with the husband’s family. His family is horrible in ways that are devastatingly realistic.
February 7th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Megan Lindholm | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
...as well as the 1932 sequel, "Topper Takes a Trip"!
It's such a rich and ancient ambience - in many ways the plot itself doesn't matter, I just like strolling…
I didn't know he wrote Topper!
Best new book: Play of Shadows by Sebastien Sebastien de Castell Honorary mention for The Naming Song by Jebediah Berry…
Best read for August was Karel Capek's War With the Newts, another one of his acerbic fables about the human…