Nightingale’s Lament by Simon R. Green
The Nightside stories are so hard boiled that it’s hard to put in perspective, but I’m going to try anyway: If you took Dashiell Hammett’s corpse, rolled it in batter, then deep fried it till black, you would have a pretty good approximation of what Simon R. Green is going for.
Nightingale’s Lament is the third book in the Nightside series, and follows the same pattern as the previous books do: basically,
November 24th, 2009. Justin Blazier and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Simon R. Green | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Master of Dragons by Margaret Weis
Master of Dragons, the final book in Margaret Weis’s Dragonvarld trilogy was a tasty but sloppy finale — like a cheesecake that didn’t quite set.
This last book wraps things up, as we knew it would, and everything is finally well in the world, as we knew it would be. There are some fine moments (Draconas showing tenderness to a female dragon, Ven finds a family, Marcus falls in love) and even some hilarious ones (Draconas darning socks,
January 12th, 2009. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Margaret Weis | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Scepters, the third book of The Corean Chronicles, isn’t a bad book in its own right. If it could be read on its own (one really needs to have read the two previous books to follow this one), it would have been a decent if not great or even really good read. But coming as it does after the first two, my largest reaction was: haven’t we seen all this before?
By now the pattern of plot and character has become pretty rote.
February 11th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Workaholic interior designer Pamela is on a business trip to Las Vegas. Reeling from an abusive marriage, she’s hoping her heart isn’t entirely dead yet. She accidentally weaves her desire for romance into a spell binding the goddess Artemis to her aid, and Artemis sends her brother Apollo to woo Pamela.
Apollo and Pamela fall in love, of course. I didn’t think their relationship was developed as well as Lina and Hades’ relationship in Goddess of Spring. It seemed more like Apollo and Pamela fell into bed a couple of times and then declared themselves soul mates.
September 26th, 2007. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | P.C. Cast | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix
By now the formula to the Keys to the Kingdom series is in place — taking place over a week-long period (with each book chronicling a day) young Arthur Penhaligon travels into the mystical realm of “the House” in order to find seven pieces of a torn Will. This Will was destroyed by the personified Days of the Week (or the ‘Morrow Days’), each of whom embody one of the seven deadly sins. Arthur has already defeated Mister Monday’s sloth and Grim Tuesday’s greed, and now comes up against Drowned Wednesday’s terrible gluttony.
September 4th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Garth Nix | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
The third book in the Gregor series picks up shortly after the last one ends and quickly tosses the reader into familiar territory. Once again, Gregor takes up a task underground in order to save a family member. In the first book it was his father, in book two his sister Boots, and now it’s his mother, who in accompanying him down to the underground contracted a seemingly fatal disease that threatens to wipe out the warmbloods.
As foretold by a prophecy (another familiar element from the other books),
August 20th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Suzanne Collins | Children | 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…
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