Let the Right One In directed by Tomas Alfredson The winner of at least 50 international film awards and a popular and critical favorite, the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In is, as it turns out, highly deserving of all the many accolades it has received. Adapted by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his […]
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Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey I loved the unique world, loveable characters, unusual plot, and sumptuous prose I discovered in Jacqueline Carey’s KUSHIEL books. Most of these elements are also present in her THE SUNDERING duology but, as I mentioned in my review of the first installment, Banewreaker, I found the book easy to admire and […]
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The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross The Jennifer Morgue (2006), the second novel in Charles Stross’ LAUNDRY FILES, is a science fiction spy thriller that’s an obvious homage to Ian Fleming and H.P. Lovecraft. Bob has been sent to the Caribbean to try to find out why Ellis Billington, an evil megalomaniac billionaire, is interested in […]
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Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson Forty Signs of Rain identified the themes and mode for Kim Stanley Robinson’s SCIENCE IN THE CAPITOL series. As is expected for the middle novel of a trilogy, Fifty Degrees Below (2006) further unpacks the ideas while escalating the story to new heights of excitement. Salting what was a rather tasteless […]
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Curse of the Bane (The Spook’s Curse in the UK) by Joseph Delaney Curse of the Bane (2005) is the second book in Joseph Delaney’s LAST APPRENTICE series. (The series is confusingly called THE WARDSTONE CHRONICLES in the UK and this book is titled The Spook’s Curse there.) The first book, Revenge of the Witch […]
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Raven’s Strike by Patricia Briggs Patricia Briggs’ second novel in her RAVEN DUOLOGY, Raven’s Strike, picks up where the last novel leaves off. Seraph and her family have been reunited and are back on their way toward Redern, eager to get to the bottom of the mystery that presented itself during Tier’s captivity in Taela, […]
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Academ’s Fury by Jim Butcher Academ’s Fury is the second book in Jim Butcher’s CODEX ALERA series. It takes place two years after the events in book 1, Furies of Calderon. Tavi, who feels like a “freak” because he’s the only Aleran who doesn’t have any magical connections with the elemental spirits called Furies that […]
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The Truth-Teller’s Tale by Sharon Shinn Adele is a Safe-Keeper, physiologically incapable of sharing a secret. Her twin sister Eleda is a Truth-Teller, incapable of telling a lie. From the young age of 12, these sisters assume positions of responsibility in their town, but what happens when they get dragged into royal intrigue and the […]
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Shadowplay by Tad Williams On the surface, Volume 1 of Shadowmarch has all the makings of a fully realized epic fantasy: maps, appendix, a rich background history, excerpts (Book of Regret, The Book of the Trigon, Revelations of Nushash) to preface each chapter, a huge cast of characters, races, locales, gods, goddesses and much more […]
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Beyond Exile by J.L. Bourne Welcome back to the zombie apocalypse! Your personal guide in this rotten wasteland is the still unnamed naval officer from Day by Day Armageddon. J.L. Bourne’s Beyond Exile starts immediately following the journal entry at the end of the first book with the narrator and his companions residing in a […]
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Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian C. Esslemont Return of the Crimson Guard is the second of Ian C. Esslemont’s books set in the world he helped create with Steven Erikson, whose longer-established Malazan Empire series has been going for years (the tenth and final book is due out in January). Esslemont’s first Malazan […]
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The Suburb Beyond the Stars by M.T. Anderson As a reader, I find M.T. Anderson a bit all over the map. I tend to see his strongest work as aimed at the older crowd, while his children’s novels tend to leave me a bit cold. That was the case with The Game of Sunken Places, […]
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Ferren and the White Doctor by Richard Harland This Heaven and Earth trilogy is original, exciting, interesting reading, but I still feel that with a little more work it could have gone from good to excellent and been placed among the likes of Philip Pullman‘s His Dark Materials. Like those books, these deal with conflict […]
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Tentacles by Roland Smith When I picked up Tentacles by Roland Smith, I had no idea it was a sequel (the first book being Cryptid Hunters). But I quickly discovered that it didn’t matter. Not only is there a list of dramatis personae at the beginning of the book, but Roland Smith is very deft […]
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Wildfire by Sarah Micklem When we last saw Firethorn, she had resolved to follow Sire Galan to war rather than retreat to the country house he had provided her. As Wildfire opens, she does just that. But the gods aren’t finished with Firethorn yet. Before she reaches the city of Lanx, where she will be […]
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Voices by Ursula Le Guin In this story of the Western Shore, we meet Memer, a 17 year old girl — a “siege-brat” — who lives in the occupied land of Ansul, a city of people who used to be peaceful, prosperous, and educated but who were overtaken 17 years ago by the illiterate Alds […]
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Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor For me, Alice In Wonderland is one of those unforgettable tales that has been imprinted onto my imagination for as long as I can remember, alongside such classics as The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars, and remains one of the most beloved stories of our time. So when I […]
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Goblin Hero by Jim C. Hines Jig Dragonslayer has a new quest in Goblin Hero. This time, an ogre has come looking for his help. This is, of course, the last thing the diminutive Jig wants. Nonetheless, spurred on by his god, Tymalous Shadowstar, Jig finds he must accept the ogre’s request. But fighting pixies […]
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Divine by Choice by P.C. Cast Shannon Parker, Beloved of Epona and now living in the lap of luxury in Parthalon is suddenly pulled back into the modern world from whence she came. Summoned back by the mirror image of her centaur husband, ClanFintan, Clint Freeman a handsome and brave former Air Force pilot has […]
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The Warrior Prophet by R. Scott Bakker The Warrior Prophet picks up from The Darkness That Comes Before (which must be read first) and mostly improves on that first book, which in itself was a solid read. Where Darkness suffered from lengthy exposition, now that the basic storyline and world have been set, Bakker can […]
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The King’s Own by Lorna Freeman In the first book of Borderlands (Covenant), Lorna Freeman made some serious mistakes with the main character, Rabbit, by trying to describe him as one thing and have him behave in a manner that didn’t make sense. In the second book, The King’s Own, there is much better consistency […]
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The Good, The Bad, and the Undead by Kim Harrison This is the second book in the series by Kim Harrison about Rachel Morgan, ex-IS runner, white witch, and now paranormal investigator. Dead Witch Walking, while being nothing spectacular, was a solid enough read which introduced the relationship between humans and Inderlanders and the characters […]
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