A good friend of mine who has excellent taste recommended The Traitor to me. I had heard of Michael Cisco, mostly through people like Jeff Vandermeer and Jeffrey Ford saying nice things about his work, but until now I hadn’t read any of his novels. With strong recommendations from three people who opinions I rate highly I expected quite a lot, and I have to admit I wasn’t disappointed.
The Traitor is written as a first person narrative by Nophtha,
July 13th, 2010. Guest´s rating: 5 | Michael Cisco | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve
Here Lies Arthur is a YA deconstruction/demystifying of the King Arthur legend. And a pretty thorough demystifying at that. Philip Reeve doesn’t simply knock Arthur down a peg or two from chivalric magic-sword-wielding king of the Round Table, say, by making him simply a Roman general or an English chieftan who rallies the locals against the Saxons. No, Reeve takes him all the way down; in this incarnation Arthur is a small-minded petty brigand whose major qualities are that he is: boorish,
June 12th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Philip Reeve | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Red Queen’s Daughter by Jacqueline Kolosov
I don’t buy hardbacks all that often, but as soon as I saw that The Red Queen’s Daughter was about Mary Seymour, and included magic to boot, I knew I had to have this book.
Mary Seymour is, historically, a question mark. The daughter of former queen Catherine Parr and her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, Mary was orphaned and taken in by the Duchess of Suffolk. There are no records of Mary’s existence after the age of about two.
March 17th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Jacqueline Kolosov | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
What can I say about this book? If I see a new Guy Gavriel Kay book on the shelf at the bookstore, I buy it. It didn’t work out this time, though, and the reason is that the way this story is told makes no sense to me as a reader, and I cannot fathom why Kay wrote this book from the perspective of a teenager.
The story is about a fifteen year-old boy from Canada who accompanies his father, a world-renowned photographer,
December 28th, 2009. Guest´s rating: 2.5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Stand-Alone, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Slaves of the Shinar by Justin Allen
This is the debut novel for Justin Allen, and its whole title is Slaves of the Shinar: An Epic Fantasy of the Ancient World. The title is misleading, because I am of the solid opinion that this book is not fantasy, but is rather historical fiction, and pretty good historical fiction at that. Perhaps it is classed as fantasy by the publisher because of the creative manner in which Allen sets his story in very early (I assume pre-Hammurabi) Mesopotamia,
December 27th, 2009. Guest´s rating: 3.5 | Justin Allen | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dreamsongs Volume 1 by George R.R. Martin
George R.R. Martin has become relatively famous in fantasy circles over the last decade or so, but he had already been writing for about 25 years before his excellent A Song of Ice and FIre fantasy epic began. Dreamsongs Volume 1 is the first of two collections of short-form fiction that Martin wrote before A Game of Thrones hit the shelves. I’d already read a good portion of this material in the original collections which I bought directly from the author when he was selling them (out of print at the time) on eBay and Amazon Auctions.
September 7th, 2009. Stefan Raets´s rating: 3.5 | George R.R. Martin | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Thief With No Shadow by Emily Gee
Ah, Thief With No Shadow. Add this one to the ever growing list of books that leave me utterly baffled as to what the term “romantic fantasy” is supposed to mean. Whatever else it is, this delightful little romp of a fantasy tale is no romance novel.
Though Thief With No Shadow is of a serious nature, it has the benefit of not being extremely bogged down and dreary as seems to be the current fantasy trend.
July 24th, 2009. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 4.5 | Emily Gee | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia
Much praise has been attached to The Secret History of Moscow and I can understand why. Ekaterina Sedia weaves an enchanting story drawing from both Russian mythology and history. I’m not really familiar with Russian myth (or history for that matter) but that didn’t hindered me from appreciating this novel. I expect that readers more educated in those areas will appreciate all the allusions Sedia includes in The Secret History of Moscow.
However,
July 9th, 2009. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 3.5 | Ekaterina Sedia | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Hunter’s Run by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Daniel Abraham
Hunter’s Run is somewhat interesting in that it’s a collaboration novel that you can’t really tell is a collaboration and a science-fiction novel that relies surprisingly little on science fiction. And these are by no means complaints. The collaboration’s seamlessness speaks to the craft and professionalism of the three writers while the lack of reliance on science fiction allows for a fine mix of quick-paced adventure and character introspection.
Don’t get me wrong — the science fiction elements are essential to the plot: space-faring races,
July 2nd, 2009. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Daniel Abraham, Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien
Long before Bilbo Baggins left his hobbit hole, the Men and Elves of Middle Earth struggled valiantly against the Great Enemy, Morgoth (the fallen Valar and master of Sauron, the eventual “Lord of the Rings”). One man in particular, Húrin, brazenly defied Morgoth, who imprisoned him and laid a dire curse upon his children. First told — in a lesser form — in The Silmarillion, this tale chronicles their efforts, especially those of Húrin’s son, Túrin, to defy the curse — driven largely by the malicious dragon Glaurung — and,
June 14th, 2009. Rob Rhodes and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4, 5 | J.R.R. Tolkien | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
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…