City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman
It’s Always Somehow Connected to the di Chimici…
City of Secrets is the fourth book in Mary Hoffman’s Stravaganza series, but by this stage they’re wearing a little thin. They’re still very well written, but the freshness and originality of the first couple of books are long gone and what’s left is just formulaic.
The concept itself is great and somewhat reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.
July 7th, 2011. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Mary Hoffman | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock
FORMAT/INFO: Miserere: An Autumn Tale is 350 pages long divided over three Parts and 21 numbered/titled chapters. Narration is in the third person, mostly via Lucian Negru and Rachael Boucher, while other POVs include Lucian’s twin sister Catarina, the foundling Lindsay Richardson, and Lucian’s Elder John Shea. Miserere: An Autumn Tale ends at a satisfying stopping point, but is the first book of The Katharoi, which will have at least two more sequels: Dolorosa: A Winter’s Dream (Book 2) and Bellum Dei: Blood of the Lambs (Book 3).
June 20th, 2011. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Teresa Frohock | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
George MacDonald found out his talent for telling fairy tales due to the fact that he had eleven children, and after the success of At the Back of the North Wind, which was published serially in a magazine, MacDonald wrote his two most popular books: The Princess and the Goblin and its sequel The Princess and Curdie. These books inspired the two most famous fantasy authors of all time: J.R.R.
November 28th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | George MacDonald | SFF Reviews | no comments |
In the acknowledgments for his novel Entangled, Graham Hancock doesn’t just thank his family and his editor, but also “Ayahuasca,” the “visionary brew” used by Amazonian shamans to make out-of-body journeys into the realm of spirits. He also explains that the novel’s premise, characters, and plot resulted from visions brought to him by Ayahuasca. Given that information, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Entangled is — and I am choosing my words carefully here — a seriously weird book.
October 4th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 2 | Graham Hancock | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe
The Citadel of the Autarch is a satisfying conclusion to Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun. (A fifth book, The Urth of the New Sun, is a coda to the original four books.) We’ve known all along that Severian the torturer would be the autarch by the end of his story, but his fascinating journey to the throne is what this saga is all about… on the surface,
October 3rd, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe’s The Sword of the Lictor essentially contains no plot, but it’s the best plotless book I’ve ever read. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read, period. I loved every moment of it! (I read this on audio; Audible Frontiers‘ audio version, read by Jonathan Davis, is exceptional.)
This third installment of The Book of the New Sun continues Severian’s journey from apprentice in the torturers’ guild to Autarch.
September 20th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
The Claw of the Conciliator is the second book in Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun quartet. If you read The Shadow of the Torturer and felt like you were lost (or drunk), and weren’t sure whether things would get clearer in the second book, I have to tell you that no, they don’t. But if you, like me, enjoy that dreamy I’m-not-sure-where-I-am-or-how-I-got-here-or-where-I’m-going-but-everything-sure-feels-fine literary experience, then read on,
September 14th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Artemis Fowl is a fast-paced blend of 21st century technology and ancient fairy magic, written by Irishman Eoin Colfer for young enthusiasts of science-fiction and fantasy. The plot is straightforward: Artemis, a 12-year-old genius and the son of the missing overlord of a criminal dynasty, concocts a scheme to acquire the little golden book of fairy lore and, using its secrets, hold a fairy hostage for an enormous ransom. The only thing is, Colfer’s fairies aren’t delicate little Tinkerbell-types;
May 15th, 2010. Rob Rhodes and Tim Scheidler´s rating: 3, 4 | Eoin Colfer | Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Tales from the Perilous Realm by J.R.R. Tolkien
There is a passage in one of the stories collected here that accurately sums up the content of the book itself. In “Leaf By Niggle,” J.R.R. Tolkien describes a painting that the artist Niggle has been working on:
It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tree; and the tree grew, sending out innumerable branches, and thrusting out the most fantastic roots… Niggle lost interest in his other pictures; or else he took them and tacked them on to the edges of his great picture.
April 11th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | J.R.R. Tolkien | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
After the five-part Chronicles of Prydain came to a close, fans of the series requested more stories from Lloyd Alexander, and he obliged with this anthology. There are eight short stories in all, set in Alexander’s Welsh-inspired land of Prydain in the time before our favourite Assistant Pig-Keeper was born, and each one includes familiar characters or legendary circumstances from the original books. In particular, many of the tales pit the forces of light and life against the main antagonist of the saga: Arawn,
April 9th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Lloyd Alexander | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
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