2.5 | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

Rating: 2.5

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Lara: She has no faults

Lara by Bertrice Small

Lara has been sold into slavery by her father. For most young women in the world of Hetar, this is a disaster that brings about nothing but fear and sorrow. For Lara however it is but the very beginning of her adventure.

Half human, half faerie, Lara is stunningly beautiful and willful as well. Her faerie protector guides her in finding her destiny which involves a series of great adventures and great lovers. Finally reaching the Outlands, Lara comes to realize her destiny is to aid the people she finds there in their war against her homeland Hatar.

June 20th, 2007. Guest´s rating: 2.5 | Bertrice Small | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Dr. Illuminatus: Its strength is also its weakness

Dr. Illuminatus by Martin Booth

Doctor Illuminatus is the first of what promises to be three books, and it deserves two and a half stars, putting it exactly midpoint between good and just fair. Though it has an interesting premise and is full of fascinating facts and ideas, it often falls short on several accounts.

Pip and Tim are two twins that have just moved into an old, mysterious house called Rawne Barton: your standard beginning for a fantasy story of this nature. Before long, the siblings have uncovered a strange boy hidden in the walls of the house named Sebastian who claims to be the son of a medieval alchemist.

Mystic and Rider: A mystified, riderless horse…

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

Like a mystified and riderless horse, Sharon Shinn’s fantasy novel Mystic & Rider gallops to the point of fatigue and frustration. This conclusion is especially unfortunate in light of the excellent opening chapter. But buyer beware: the tension and excitement rarely increase from that point, and the last of the 440 pages brings us little closer to some kind of resolution or revelation than the first. Rather, the entire novel is simply a prologue for the rest of the series.

The novel’s plot is perfectly plain.

June 9th, 2007. Rob Rhodes´s rating: 2.5 | Sharon Shinn | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Midnight for Charlie Bone: Solidly interesting, not particularly compelling

Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo

Any book nowadays that has its main character be a young boy who suddenly discovers he has magical talent is, fair or not, going to be compared to the Harry Potter series. Add in a school for geniuses and those “endowed” with magical talents, a small cadre of mixed (talented and not-talented) friends to aid the main character, suspicious professors, and a missing presumed dead father and you’re almost asking for it. It might not be right, but at least so many people have read Harry Potter that it gives us all a solid baseline standard.

Gardens of the Moon: Erikson displays a prodigious imagination

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

It’s always a question for fantasy fans: do I really want to read a first book in yet another long series? Remember when we moaned about when everything was a trilogy — now I’ll be happy to take a simple three-book series. Wouldn’t it be great if you could tell ahead of time if the trip will be worth it? Well, thanks to the quirks of international publication, you can with the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Gardens of the Moon,

June 1st, 2007. Bill Capossere, Rob Rhodes and Ryan Skardal´s rating: 2, 2.5, 5 | Steven Erikson | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

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July 2024

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Rating: 2.5

Lara: She has no faults

Dr. Illuminatus: Its strength is also its weakness

Mystic and Rider: A mystified, riderless horse…

Midnight for Charlie Bone: Solidly interesting, not particularly compelling

Gardens of the Moon: Erikson displays a prodigious imagination

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