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

Ratha’s Creature: Romeo and Juliet with cats

Ratha’s Creature by Clare Bell

Anyone who has a cat can tell you that they are amazingly intelligent. Imagine if they could talk. Talking cats are the central conceit of Ratha’s Creature, the tale of the female cat Ratha and her fight for respect in the clan of cats that make up her family. Ratha is a challenge to the leadership of her clan, especially the misogynistic Meoran. But when she learns to tame fire, she is a threat that can no longer be tolerated.

I’ve heard books called workmanlike,

Shadow Blade: Breakfast with Anansi

Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass

In Shadow Blade, Seressia Glass creates a compelling urban-fantasy heroine, Kira Solomon, and kicks off what promises to be a distinctive kick-butt series.

For me, Shadow Blade got off to a bumpy start. There’s a lot of “telling” and exposition as Glass familiarizes the reader with her world and with Kira’s backstory. We learn that Kira can drain an ordinary human of vitality by touching them, which means she has to keep people at literal arm’s length.

February 12th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Seressia Glass | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Blood Lines: The characters are getting annoying

Blood Lines by Tanya Huff

Blood Lines is the third novel in the Blood Books series. In previous novels, Tanya Huff has tackled vampires (obviously), werewolves, and demons, and in Blood Lines, she wanders into the realms of ancient Egypt and mummies.

In the slow-burn start to the book, a new sarcophagus is found by Dr. Rax, curator of the Royal Ontario Museum, and brought to Toronto. After a series of mysterious deaths,

February 12th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 3 | Tanya Huff | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Sorcerers of the Nightwing: A promising start to a dark series

Sorcerers of the Nightwing by Geoffrey Huntington

After his father’s death, fourteen year old Devon March is sent to his new home in New England — the huge and forbidding mansion Ravenscliff, that all the townspeople he meets on his way warn him against travelling to. But Devon is not as afraid of his future as others in his shoes would be: he knows he is gifted with a special power, a power that protected him from the very real demons and monsters that he had dwelling in his cupboard and under his bed as a child.

The Innkeeper’s Song: A vivid, bittersweet dream… but of what?

The Innkeeper’s Song by Peter S. Beagle

The Innkeeper’s Songis a one-volume fantasy for mature readers that is by turns (or even simultaneously) lyrical and maddening. Lyrical because much of its language is, in contemporary fantasy, on par with only Patricia McKillip and Guy Gavriel Kay. Maddening because — despite the full-throttle beginning, intricately woven characters and a world made wondrous without a map or long descriptions but simply by names and prosaic brushstrokes — the promise of the beginning and middle absolutely fizzles to a all-but-incomprehensible anti-climax in which none of the characters’

My Soul to Save: It’s okay

My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent

My Soul to Save begins at a pop concert. The opening act is Addison Page, an up-and-coming singer who dated Kaylee’s reaper friend, Tod, back when he was alive in the normal sense. After her set, superstar Eden takes the stage. When Eden collapses mid-concert, Kaylee doesn’t feel the urge to scream, so she’s sure the pop star will be fine. But Eden dies, and when Kaylee sees the sludgy substance that wafts from the body, she learns that Eden didn’t have a soul.

The Paladin: Oriental fantasy

The Paladin by C.J. Cherryh

The Paladin is a stand-alone novel set in the China of an alternative world. It’s more of an alternative history than a fantasy — there are no mythical creatures or magic here, although superstitions of both remain. The story falls into two parts. In the first, a stubborn girl seeking vengeance for her murdered family arrives at the mountain home of an exiled hermit who was the greatest warlord in the Empire prior to the death of the old emperor and the takeover by an evil regent.

The Somnambulist: A dilemma

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes

To be honest, I’m thoroughly divided as to the sort of review I want to give The Somnambulist. On the one hand, despite some flaws, for most of the book, it was one of the most fun reads I’ve had in a while. On the other hand, the last 40 pages or so were just downright bad. I don’t mean simply disappointingly bad relative to the rest of the book, but off-the-rails, what-the-heck-happened, did- the-author-die-and-then-some-stranger-finish-the-book terrible kind of bad. Which leaves me with a dilemma.

February 4th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Jonathan Barnes | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |

Bone Magic: Galenorn’s hitting her stride

Bone Magic by Yasmine Galenorn

Bone Magic is the seventh book in Yasmine Galenorn‘s Otherworld (Sisters of the Moon) series. A self-described paranormal romance, Bone Magic continues to follow the adventures of the D’Artigo sisters as they fight the impending invasion of the normal world by the Underworld Demons. The sisters are part-Fae and have special powers that may enable them to save the world.

Galenorn knows her way around the paranormal romance genre and with her seventh Otherworld novel,

February 3rd, 2010. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Yasmine Galenorn | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Enchanter: It’s beige

Enchanter by Sara Douglass

Enchanter is book two of the Axis Trilogy of The Wayfarer Redemption saga and follows the same path as many middle novels in trilogies: lots of events occur, but the main focus is getting all the main players into place for the big wrap-up in book three. In Enchanter, Axis is trying to bring the Prophecy to fruition — seeking to unite the Acharites with the Avar and the Icarii against opposition from his half-brother Borneheld and,

February 3rd, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 3 | Sara Douglass | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Rating: 3

Ratha’s Creature: Romeo and Juliet with cats

Shadow Blade: Breakfast with Anansi

Blood Lines: The characters are getting annoying

Sorcerers of the Nightwing: A promising start to a dark series

The Innkeeper’s Song: A vivid, bittersweet dream… but of what?

My Soul to Save: It’s okay

The Paladin: Oriental fantasy

The Somnambulist: A dilemma

Bone Magic: Galenorn’s hitting her stride

Enchanter: It’s beige

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