The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier As a rule, I love Juliet Marillier’s work, but I’ve tried several times to read The Dark Mirror and have never managed to get very far. Marillier’s prose is as beautiful as ever, but the story doesn’t hook me. It just feels like such a slow beginning, and the […]
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Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell I tried reading David Gemmell‘s Lord of the Silver Bow about 9 months before I actually read it. It was heavy, plodding, and confusing. I was looking for a fun story full of action and adventure, and I love history… but, alas, I stopped reading after about […]
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Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn Kitty Norville is a radio DJ that hosts a late night talk show about various paranormal topics. She often gets strange calls from the very subjects she talks about. She usually ends up giving out advice to these callers since they have very few options for advice […]
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The DC Infinite Crisis and the “Old” 52 (Part 1): The Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1 Previously, I’ve written about one of my favorite single DC events: Identity Crisis. It’s an excellent story contained in a single volume. In other words, it’s what I would call a graphic novel because it is unified in narrative […]
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Vampire Knight (Vol. 1) by Matsuri Hino (art and story) Vampire Knight has a great premise for a manga story that would appeal to most fans of Vampire love stories; however, the writing is clearly aimed at tween and young teenage girls (shojo). The story is in the boarding-school genre, and this particular boarding school […]
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Grandville by Bryan Talbot Exquisite, fantastical artwork lifts Grandville out of the ordinary. Bryan Talbot’s graphic novel, set in an alternate fantasy world where homo sapiens sapiens is not the dominant species, and Napoleon won the Peninsular Wars, is a true luxury to read, due mostly to the stunning, vividly executed pictures. But Napoleon? Napoleon, […]
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Labyrinth by Kate Mosse Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth has one of the best premises for a novel I’ve heard in a long time: two women, one from the past, one from the present, both caught up in a search for the Holy Grail. The former is entrusted with one of three books leading to the Grail’s […]
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Batman: Snow by Dan Curtis Johnson & J.H. Williams III (writers), Seth Fisher (artist), Dave Stewart (colors), Phil Balsman (letterer) Batman: Snow is a trade collecting a story arc originally published in 2005 in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (issues 192-196). Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight is a series that featured stories about […]
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Spin by Robert Charles Wilson With Spin, Robert Charles Wilson has condensed every science fiction novel into one book. It’s quite an accomplishment, really, though the novel begins innocently enough. We’re in the near future with our narrator, Tyler Dupree, who is injected with a strange cure somewhere in Sumatra. The drug produces side effects, […]
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Gene of Isis by Traci Harding Traci Harding’s Gene of Isis, the first book in her MYSTIQUE trilogy, is about three related women in three different time periods who have descended from the Grail kings: Ashlee Granville, an independent young woman who is unhappy about being on the “marriage market” in 19th century England; Dr. […]
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All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder, Vol.1 by Frank Miller (author) & Jim Lee (illustrator) All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder, Vol. 1 is the re-telling of how the legendary Dynamic Duo came to be as only Frank Miller has the cahoonas to do it. About a year before Alan Moore started exploring […]
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The Heretic by Joseph Nassise Joseph Nassise’s THE TEMPLAR CHRONICLES series features a modern-day Knights Templar organization that battles the supernatural bad guys of the world. Its hero, Cade Williams, is a member of the Templars but has an uncanny reputation among the order for his psychic abilities. The Heretic is the first in the […]
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Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver Torak and his father have been living alone, away from their clan, for as long as Torak can remember. When a demon-possessed bear attacks them one night, Torak’s father is mortally wounded. Before he dies, he makes Torak promise to seek the Mountain of the World Spirit. On his journey […]
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Old Man’s War by John Scalzi In this universe, experience counts. John Perry is 75 years old, his wife is dead, and he has nothing left to live for. It’s a perfect time to join the army, and the Colonial Defense Force is recruiting. They need a lot of loyal human bodies to maintain the […]
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Princess Academy by Shannon Hale The people who live on Mount Eskel mine linder, the marble-like substance that’s highly prized by those who live in the lowlands. Even though they’ve always supplied the linder for the King’s palace and other important buildings, the mountain folk have their own culture and know very little about what […]
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The Door Within by Wayne Thomas Batson The Door Within grabbed my attention immediately. While I read fantasy novels continuously, I don’t always indulge in the young adult action-adventure flavor of fantasy. Aidan Thomas faces his rite-of-passage on two fronts. His parents relocate to care for Aidan’s grandfather, depriving Aidan of his friends and familiar […]
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Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara is a book about outgrowing a victim mentality, finding your strength and embracing your purpose. It would be a nice book to give to a 12- or 13-year-old girl, especially one who may be struggling with identity or self-esteem issues. Two things would […]
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Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker How could I not automatically love a book where the first line is: “The quickest way to a man’s heart,’ said the instructor, ‘is proverbially through his stomach. But if you want to get into his brain, I recommend the eye-socket.” It was love at first sight. K.J. Parker’s […]
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Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box by Marjorie M. Liu Download Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box I recently had the opportunity to try out Tiger Eye Part I: Curse of the Riddle Box, a casual game released in April 2010 by PassionFruit Games. The game is based on the first half of […]
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Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu Having enjoyed Marjorie M. Liu’s Hunter Kiss urban fantasy series, I decided to look into her paranormal romance series, Dirk & Steele. Tiger Eye is the first novel in the Dirk & Steele sequence. The heroine, Dela Reese, is a sculptor with a psychic affinity for metal. On a […]
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Vellum by Hal Duncan Forty pages into Vellum, I was dazzled. Hal Duncan‘s debut novel appeared to be every bit as phantasmagoric as the tidal wave of advance hype was claiming it was. A hundred pages in, my initial delight was morphing into skepticism. Yes, Duncan is a remarkably assured stylist, but is there any […]
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A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park When I was a preteen, I was a sucker for books about everyday, average girls who turned out to be long-lost princesses of some obscure country or other. A Princess of Roumania is an original take on that old trope, looking at that girlish fantasy from a couple […]
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PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS by Rick Riordan Rick Riordan’s five-book series takes the world of Greek mythology, complete with gods, monsters, titans, Mt. Olympus, heroes, etc. and weaves it into the modern world under the premise that as the gods are manifestations of Western culture and move as the culture moves. And so when Athens […]
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The Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill The Cry of the Icemark has some excellent imaginative material to work with, but it’s almost as if once the author struck gold with the idea, he decided to leave it lying in the ground. The Cry of the Icemark therefore ends up disappointing more than rewarding. […]
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Shadowfall by James Clemens Shadowfall is the start of yet another fantasy series and much of it will sound familiar to fans of the genre. There is a military order of skilled knights with a secret sect, a pantheon of gods, not one but two special swords (not to mention a special dagger), lots of […]
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