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Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick
Funny fact: This book got lost in the mail on its way to me and took almost a month to arrive. I started wondering if it was a bad idea to order a book with “Disappearing” in the title! It turned up in the end, though, and I’m glad. Disappearing Nightly is a lot of fun. It was just what I needed after reading a couple of really dark novels.
Both the heroine and the plot are highly original in the urban fantasy subgenre.
June 10th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Laura Resnick | SFF Reviews | no comments |
British author John Meaney is primarily known as a writer of hard science fiction. In his latest offering however, he changes tack a bit and delivers a novel in Bone Song that is described as blending “gritty futuristic noir with gothic fantasy.” A fairly accurate description, although personally I would categorize the book as urban fantasy because the backdrop is definitely present day, the main character is a police lieutenant, and the story is driven by a murder investigation that features plenty of familiar police procedural elements and subplots like a romance,
May 29th, 2009. Robert Thompson´s rating: 3.5 | John Meaney | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud
In the long ago history of Jonathan Stroud’s YA fantasy Heroes of the Valley, the great hero Svein gathered the other 11 heroes of the Valley to fight the Battle of the Rock against the ravening inhuman Trows who had long terrorized the Valley residents, snatching babies and killing women and children at night — the only time the Trow came out. At the end of the battle, the heroes were all dead but the Trow were driven utterly out of the valley and into the heights.
May 27th, 2009. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Jonathan Stroud | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
THE NIGHT WORLD: Volume 1 by L.J. Smith
“So This is the Night World…”
First published between 1996-1998, Lisa Jane Smith‘s NIGHT WORLD series was released as a ten-book series…only the final book never arrived. Smith took a ten-year hiatus from writing, leaving the final book unwritten and the steadily-building story incomplete. But now, finally, the end is in sight. Simon and Schuster are republishing the series in three-book omnibuses in anticipation for Strange Fate the last in the series that has left us hanging for over ten years.
May 18th, 2009. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5 | L.J. Smith | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Settling down to read Hot Mama was like settling down to have a piece of book candy. (I didn’t originate this term; I discovered it on Jennifer Estep’s Blog.) You know it is going to be a fast read with lively, snappy dialog and laugh-out-loud humor. And Hot Mama did not disappoint!
It begins with Carmen Cole’s wedding to Sam Sloane, the uberdude in Karma Girl.
May 17th, 2009. Tia Nevitt (guest)´s rating: 3.5 | Jennifer Estep | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas
The Adamantine Palace is classic fantasy with all the major ingredients: magic, dragons, knights, castles and all the trimmings. There is, however, one missing element: the hero. Stephen Deas writes a really interesting, very complex first novel, kicking off the Memory of Flames series, but I can’t figure out who the hero is.
The point of view in The Adamantine Palace switches among five major characters. At times Deas takes us behind the eyes of a few other characters,
May 16th, 2009. John Hulet and Robert Thompson´s rating: 3.5, 4.5 | Stephen Deas | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Kings and Assassins by Lane Robins
I wasn’t sure I’d like this one. Janus Ixion as the protagonist? I hated Janus in Maledicte. I started reading Kings and Assassins with that loathing firmly in place, and in the early pages of the book, he didn’t do much to make me like him any better. I didn’t like the other characters either. I didn’t care about Janus, I didn’t care that he missed Maledicte, I didn’t care about his wife or about their endless quarrels,
May 14th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Lane Robins | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Trouble With Witches by Shirley Damsgaard
After reading Witch Way to Murder, I found myself craving another Ophelia and Abby mystery and went to the library for my “fix.” They didn’t have book two, Charmed to Death, but they did have book three, The Trouble With Witches. I decided, what the heck, you can usually read these cozy mystery series out of order anyway. Often, authors will only allude vaguely to events of previous books in case you’re reading them out of sequence.
May 12th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Shirley Damsgaard | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Tower of Shadows by Drew Bowling
Last time I read a much-hyped fantasy debut by a promising up-and-coming talent it was the highly disappointing and, at least to me, overrated Eragon by teenager Christopher Paolini. So, even though it came with much less fanfare, I was admittedly skeptical about trying out The Tower of Shadows, another fantasy debut by a young wunderkind.
Fortunately college student Drew C. Bowling, who started his novel in high school, is a much more accomplished writer than Paolini was,
May 10th, 2009. Robert Thompson´s rating: 3.5 | Drew Bowling | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Magic in the Blood by Devon Monk
I complain sometimes about urban fantasy heroines who keep racking up more and more improbable powers over the course of a series, eventually becoming such spectacular demigoddesses that it would take a small army to give them so much as a black eye.
That’s one problem Allie Beckstrom doesn’t have. I’m beginning to think Allie needs more powers to deal with everything Devon Monk is throwing at her. Monk is great — maybe a little too great — at describing the agony of trekking all over Portland in the rain with a blinding migraine,
May 3rd, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Devon Monk | SFF Reviews | no comments |
[…] Tales (Fantasy Literature): John Martin Leahy was born in Washington State in 1886 and, during his five-year career as…
so you're saying I should read it? :)
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How did I miss this? Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
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