For pure storytelling, don’t-want-to-stop-reading-it fun, Mary Gentle’s two Ilario books, Ilario: The Lion’s Eye: A Story of the First History, Book One and Ilario: The Stone Golem: A Story of the First History, Book Two, are among the best I’ve read. I lived in Gentle’s world even when I wasn’t actively reading the books. I dreamt of her Mediterranean Renaissance. I fretted about Ilario. I couldn’t wait to get back to the books when I’d set them down.
August 24th, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Mary Gentle | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Touch the Dark by Karen Chance
Touch the Dark is the first in Karen Chance’s Cassandra Palmer urban fantasy series. Cassie is a seer; she can foretell the future and speak with ghosts. Later, she learns she has another power too: the ability to travel back in time and change events in the past. The time-travel element is unusual in urban fantasy and lends some freshness to what would otherwise be a pretty standard plot about a young woman embroiled in the politics of gorgeous,
June 22nd, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Karen Chance | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Hounding the Moon by P.R. Frost
Fantasy author Tess Noncoiré’s latest novel is her biggest success yet, but all is not going smoothly for her. She’s still mourning her late husband, Dill, who died in a hotel fire two years ago after a brief marriage. Then there’s the pesky issue of demons. Right after Tess was widowed, a mysterious fever led her to a secret Sisterhood dedicated to fighting demons. Tess never fit in and was asked to leave, but the training has stuck with her — along with her familiar imp,
March 11th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | P.R. Frost | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series can usually be found on the romance shelves, but having just finished reading the first installment, Darkfever, I’m more inclined to classify it as urban fantasy. While there are a couple of men foreshadowed as possible love interests for the heroine, and while there is some sexual content (most stemming from the mind-control powers possessed by some of the fae), the primary focus is on a murder mystery and on the magical goings-on in Moning’s Dublin.
February 3rd, 2011. Kelly Lasiter, Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Karen Marie Moning | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Blaze of Glory by Michael Pryor
Blaze of Glory is the first book in Michael Pryor’s The Laws of Magic series. It’s an engaging YA effort, if not particularly enthralling or captivating, with a solidly interesting main character. As you can tell by my somewhat qualified reaction, it didn’t blow me away, though it was strong enough that I’d take a look at book two.
The series is set in an alternate England (Albion) where the Industrial Revolution took place side by side with a magical revolution.
January 10th, 2011. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Michael Pryor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Anton Gorodetsky is a magician-detective from Moscow’s Night Watch, an organization of light wizards and sorceresses that police the dark magicians. In spite of all the Night Watch’s claims about self-sacrifice and goodness, Sergei Lukyanenko’s urban fantasy takes place in a world that exists beyond the borders of good and evil. The light magicians are just as prone to illicit activities and there is a Day Watch that monitors the activities of wizards like Anton before they can go overboard in their attempts to save the world.
January 9th, 2011. Ryan Skardal and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Sergei Lukyanenko | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick
Are you sick of wannabe vampires who sparkle rather than self-combust in the sunlight, and who mope around high schools instead of stalking the terrified living in order to slake their never-ending thirst for blood? I know I am, which is why I thoroughly enjoyed Marcus Sedgwick‘s My Swordhand is Singing, a vampire tale that does away with modern interpretations of lovelorn emo-vamps and instead draws upon the oldest known records of these creatures in order to shape its chilling story.
December 29th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Marcus Sedgwick | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
In Terrier Tamora Pierce tells the story of Rebekah “Beka” Cooper, an ancestor of George Cooper who was the City’s Rogue in the time of Alanna (a setting and characters familiar to readers of her other novels). Beka is starting her first year as a trainee Dog, known as a Puppy (these are nicknames for the Provost’s Guard — the force that keeps peace in the city of Corus). She is assigned to the Dog team of Tunstall and Goodwin, two of the best Dogs in the Evening Watch — and two who have never before taken a Puppy.
April 28th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4.5 | Tamora Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher
Stoneheart, the first book in the Stoneheart trilogy by Charlie Fletcher features a cast of three main characters. George, a 12 year old boy, has a hard home life. His father died in a car accident, his mother is a self-absorbed actress who is physically and emotionally absent most of the time, and he’s a social outcast at school. When he gets unfairly blamed for an accident on a school field trip, he lashes out by breaking the head off a stone dragon carved on the outside of the museum.
April 21st, 2010. Ruth Arnell´s rating: 3.5 | Charlie (C.A.) Fletcher | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Australian author Joel Shepherd came to my attention via his excellent current fantasy series, A TRIAL OF BLOOD AND STEEL, which I was so impressed by that I decided to check out his earlier novels. Crossover is the first novel in his CASSANDRA KRESNOV trilogy, and was also his first published book, back in 2001 in Australia. The series is now also in print in the US thanks to Pyr, with lovely and evocative cover illustrations by Stephen Martiniere.
April 9th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Joel Shepherd | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…