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Ill Wind is the first book in Rachel Caine’s urban fantasy series Weather Warden. The book stands well on its own and doesn’t have any of those nasty cliffhangers so often found in fantasy series, but it still keeps you interested in what happens in the next book.
Ill Wind starts in the middle of the action and I was impressed with the first chapter because Caine seamlessly juxtaposes the present with flashbacks and keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
June 11th, 2009. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 3 | Rachel Caine | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Nearly almost all of Donna Jo Napoli’s books are based around a simple formula: to take a well-known myth, legend or fairytale, and retell the story from the eyes of a certain character (often the villain, allowing them to defend their actions). It has been a technique that has worked brilliantly for several of her stories.
In this case, Breath draws upon the German folktale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, though it is not told by the Piper himself. Instead,
June 2nd, 2009. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Donna Jo Napoli | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
All Night Awake by Sarah A. Hoyt
I wasn’t expecting a sequel to Ill Met by Moonlight. That novel was complete and satisfactory in itself, so the appearance of a sequel came as a pleasant surprise.
Unfortunately, I didn’t like All Night Awake quite as much as Ill Met by Moonlight, for several reasons. First, the metaphysics were more confusing than in the first book. Second, the constant use of Shakespearean quotes gets a little heavy-handed from time to time.
May 31st, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Sarah A. Hoyt | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Confessor is the last book in Terry Goodkind’s epic fantasy/philosophy series The Sword of Truth. When the series began, many readers thought this book would be a great fantasy trilogy, short and sweet. It quickly blossomed into eleven novels, each 500 or more pages in length, and the novella Debt of Bones. Throughout that time, it generated a lot of criticism from fans of speculative fiction and professional critics. Yet each novel has consistently stayed at the top of many bestseller lists,
May 28th, 2009. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 3 | Terry Goodkind | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout
Stop. Look closely. Look beyond the typically stylish urban fantasy cover (the one with the nicely built young woman holding her weapon of choice with an air of defiant competence). Look beyond the title that’s both serious and punny. Inside, through pages inked with the shadows of ravens, you’ll watch the long-foretold cataclysm of Ragnarok as it rolls in a relentless wave from the dry, gray plains of Hel to… the dry, black asphalt of a California parking lot. And if you’re partial to Norse mythology or urban tales driven by fascinating characters and laser-crisp writing,
May 21st, 2009. Rob Rhodes and Greg Hersom´s rating: 3, 4 | Greg Van_Eekhout | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Jinx focuses on Bella Bulluci, who was Fiona Fine’s fashion designer rival in Hot Mama. Bella comes from a family of superheroes — both superpowered and otherwise — and she’s quite frankly tired of the whole gig. She’s had superheroes out the wazoo, especially since her family became closely affiliated to the Fearless Five in the previous novel. She has a power that is more of a curse, and it causes her endless embarrassment when the strangest things happen around her.
May 20th, 2009. Tia Nevitt (guest)´s rating: 3 | Jennifer Estep | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Hidden City by Michelle Sagara West
A lovingly written yet very depressing novel, The Hidden City is unlike any fantasy novel I have encountered. A tragedy with no pretensions to the contrary, this new novel by acclaimed author Michelle West visits pain upon its protagonists for over 600 pages.
The Hidden City is the beginning of a prequel to the events in West’s earlier books in The Sacred Hunt and The Sun Sword series. It relates the events leading up to the war for House Terafin.
May 16th, 2009. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 3 | Michelle Sagara, Michelle Sagara West | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Glory of Unicorns by Bruce Coville
Bruce Coville (the compiler and editor of this anthology) promised in his introduction no sappy unicorns, tells us that unicorn love is hard and demanding, and unicorns themselves neither safe nor sweet. However, four stories into this book I found that was exactly what the book was delivering — sweet, dreamy, dear little unicorns. Contradicting his own words Coville brings us the story of ‘The Guardian of Memory’ in which unicorns have names such as ‘Arabella Skydancer’ and ‘Manda Seafoam’ and are entirely domesticated,
May 16th, 2009. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Bruce Coville | Children, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
God of Clocks by Alan Campbell
God of Clocks is Alan Campbell’s third book in his Deepgate Codex. It is (save for the ending) better than Scar Night, but nowhere near as strong as Iron Angel.
In God of Clocks, the Spine assassin Rachel is reunited with the young angel Dill, though his soul is now enhoused in a monstrously tall (400’ I think) mechanical construct of an angel.
May 13th, 2009. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Alan Campbell | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Flight of the Nighthawks by Raymond E. Feist
Flight of the Nighthawks is another installment in the seemingly never-ending chronicle of the world of Midkemia. Raymond Feist continues to tell his story of a world that is plagued by repeated incursions of evil forces who seek to conquer the world. It’s standard fantasy and Flight of the Nighthawks is simply another novel in another trilogy that is linked with everything all the way back to Magician,
May 10th, 2009. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Raymond E. Feist | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Oh, Marion, you say "but dark" as if it were a bad thing! 😂
Hammer Studios is... reborn? I only ever read the "Kane" stories, which I found good but dark. It's a little…
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!
Sorry if I mislead you in this detail, Paul...the voyage by ship was only the first leg of the quintet's…