Click on stars to FIND REVIEWS BY RATING:
Recommended: 
Not Recommended: 
City of Masks by Marry Hoffman
City of Masks is an “other world” novel, one where characters from our world can travel back and forth to another, in this case an alternate history 16th century Italy known as Talia. These travelers (and it works both ways) are known as “stravaganti,” thus the series title. While this book takes places in this world’s version of Venice (Bellezza), others in the series will range elsewhere (City of Stars, for example, is set in an alternate Sienna).
October 29th, 2007. Bill Capossere and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3, 5 | Mary Hoffman | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
“It is the Power We Wield that Commands Our Loyalty…”
As the second book in the HIGH DRUID OF SHANNARA trilogy, Brooks picks up right where he left off; with his heroes in dire straights. Betrayed by the treachery of her fellow Druids, Grianne Ohmsford has found herself transported into the Forbidding, the dimension that all the demons and monsters of the world were banished into thousands of years ago. Despite making a somewhat flimsy alliance with a create called Weka Dart, Grianne has now been captured by the terrible Straken Lord Tael Riverine,
October 26th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Terry Brooks | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Prospero’s Children by Jan Siegel
Fern is a no-nonsense kind of girl, who acts as her befuddled father’s aid and her young brother Will’s mother-figure and certainly has no time for games or imaginings. But all that is about to change when her family inherit a home in Yorkshire and her father introduces two new business associates; the cold and creepy Javier Holt and the sensuous and manipulative Alison Redmond.
A painting of a lost city, a rock that looks like a cloaked man, a sinister talking idol, a ship figurehead,
October 26th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Jan Siegel | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Hob’s Bargain by Patricia Briggs
I think that the ability to create a world that is filled with magic and unknown places is perhaps too great a task to do in one book. There is a degree of detail that we, as readers, have come to expect due to the growing trend of long multi-volume series.
In The Hob’s Bargain, Patricia Briggs does a good job of telling a story within the constraints of a single volume. The heroine is interesting and relatively likeable,
October 19th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Patricia Briggs | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
By now the basic premise of Garth Nix’s seven-part The Keys to the Kingdom series is well established. Arthur Penhaligon has been thrown into an extraordinary world: the epicenter of the universe, known as “the House”. Ruled by the treacherous Morrow Days (named after the days of the week and each personifying one of the seven deadly sins: Mister Monday/sloth; Grim Tuesday/greed; Drowned Wednesday/gluttony and now Sir Thursday who appears to be pride), Arthur has been given the task of reassembling the missing pieces of the Will that will strip these characters of their power and return it to the Rightful Heir — himself!
October 4th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Garth Nix | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes
Anyone who reads a lot of fantasy knows by now to come with some trepidation to any sort of “bridge” book — the second book in a trilogy or the 2nd or 3rd book in longer series. Too often they simply exist to get us from the exciting stuff that got us hooked in book one to the exciting stuff that will wow us in the conclusion. Other times they read like they simply exist because the author can sell a trilogy more easily than a standalone or a simple sequel and so plot events are stretched out so thinly they almost snap.
September 28th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Greg Keyes | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“The One that Plays the Others as a Master Does his Puppets…”
It’s been twenty years since the events of The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara, in which a combined group of Elves, Men and Dwarves sailed under the leadership of the Druid Walker Boh in an attempt to reclaim archaic knowledge from lost islands far to the West. Though the mission failed in this respect, it did achieve one of Walker’s chief desires; to redeem the life of Grianne Ohmsford.
September 26th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Terry Brooks | SFF Reviews | no comments |
King’s Property by Morgan Howell
King’s Property is the first book in the Queen of the Orcs series, and Morgan Howell’s first novel. For a story in which the author does such a good job of depicting the harsh realities of the setting, he sure lets the main character, Dar, skate out of bad situation after bad situation to a point where it’s just a bit too much. The explanations for each magic escape work, but it needs to change to a point where Dar takes fewer risks,
September 26th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Morgan Howell | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Gilded Chain by Dave Duncan
Fantasy books can be like beverages: you have your exquisitely aged wines (The Lord of the Rings, Mists of Avalon); your rich ports and liquors (the works of Guy Kay and Patricia McKillip); your searingly clear vodka (A Song of Ice and Fire); your boxed wines (The Wheel of Time, The Sword of Truth); and your panoply of Bud,
September 16th, 2007. Rob Rhodes´s rating: 3 | Dave Duncan | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Ordermaster by L.E. Modesitt Jr
If Ordermaster and its prequel Wellspring of Chaos had come out as the first two books in the Recluce series, I’d have given them a slightly stronger review. Ordermaster is decently paced, has a good strong main character, some interestingly complex politics as its background, and is overall pretty well-written. But after reading a dozen Recluce books before these, one has to wonder how many times can Modesitt tell this same story.
September 9th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.