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Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman‘s place on my personal “favorite authors list” is cemented firmly by Smoke and Mirrors, a versatile collection of his short stories and narrative poems. There is a wide variety of “types” of story here, from fantasy to horror to mystery to wildly hilarious comedy. I liked almost all of them.
Neil Gaiman‘s two finest gifts are (1) humor, and (2) truly scary horror that gets under your skin rather than just grossing you out with gore.
January 25th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Neil Gaiman | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Finally the origins of Koom Valley are explained. Commander Vimes of the City Watch, and Duke of Ankh-Morpork, is desperatly trying to solve the mystery of one dead dwarf. And who is Mr. Shine? What does he have to do with the death of Grag Hamcrusher? And what, oh what, is he to do about the vampire in the watch? Commader Vimes solves the crime in his usual no-nonsense, magic-is-not-part-of-crime-solving, politics-is-for-politicians-not-coppers way.
Terry Pratchett has once again created a hilarious story with twists and turns and answers no one would have dreamed.
January 23rd, 2008. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 5 | Terry Pratchett | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce
I picked up The Darkangel the first time at my school library when I was 13 and I stayed up past three in the morning trying to finish it; It was that captivating. It has all the components of a fairytale, and yet is worked into a fantasy novel that includes vampires, gargoyles and other strange and macabre creatures.
Don’t be put off by the word ‘vampire’ though; this book isn’t yet another vampire book of that most over-used genre,
January 7th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Meredith Ann Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Dragon Charmer by Jan Siegel
There is no middle ground when it comes to Jan Siegel’s novels: you either love them or hate them. Considering I love them, you might want to take this review with a pinch of salt as you may take my advice to read it and find that it is simply not to your taste. In any case, borrow before you buy and hopefully you’ll enjoy these books as much as I do. They are beautifully written, with intriguing ideas and careful plotting, and (in my humble opinion) are among the best books that the fantasy genre has to offer.
January 6th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Jan Siegel | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
Fire and Hemlock is possibly Diana Wynne Jones’ most complex and subtle novel, and it’s certainly not for the younger readers who’ve enjoyed her most famous work, the Chrestomanci novels. It is most basically described as a retelling of the Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer ballads, set in 1980’s England over a nine-year period. Needless to say, it is dense and complicated, filled with hidden meaning, metaphor and symbolism where two threads of life are wound together to make an intricate whole.
December 31st, 2007. Rebecca Fisher and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4, 5 | Diana Wynne Jones | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The King of Ys by Poul Anderson
“I remember Ys, though I have never seen her.”
The King of Ys is a historical fantasy — it is set in our world just before the fall of the Roman Empire and it mixes in the legend of the mythical city of Ys which was built below sea level on the coast of Brittany. Many of the characters in The King of Ys (Roman emperors, Christian saints, etc) are based on legendary and real historical figures and Poul and Karen Anderson include plenty of footnotes which explain the legend of Ys and the culture and religion of the 5th century.
December 15th, 2007. Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Poul Anderson | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Like many people, I was familiar with the 1987 film The Princess Bride long before I read (or even knew about) William Goldman’s original novel, the extensively titled The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure. Like the film, the novel has a framing narrative that introduces the tale itself; unlike the film it is not of a young boy being read the story by his grandfather, but Goldman’s own experiences with the book both as a child and an adult.
December 14th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher, Ruth Arnell, Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | William Goldman | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Briar’s Book, the last book in the Circle of Magic quartet (also published as The Healing in the Vine) is perhaps one of Tamora Pierce’s best novels. Unlike her other series, which deal with battles, magic, fantasy creatures, revolution and politics, Briar’s Book centers something very mundane by comparison: a plague. Yet Pierce incorporates within the story all her powerful themes of love and friendship, pain and suffering, grief and hope,
December 8th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Tamora Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
I am always vaguely amused at the debate that goes on over the reading order of The Chronicles of Narnia and how worked up some people get over it. True, some books should be read before others and The Last Battle should definitely be read last; but in my own experience The Silver Chair (published fourth, written fifth*, and chronologically sixth in the series) was read first! Was my love and appreciation of Narnia ruined because of this? Of course not!
The Silver Chair is set about a year after the proceedings of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,
November 29th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | C.S. Lewis | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Willow Tree’s Daughter by Pamela Freeman
It is a very sad fact that this book is so overlooked, as it is a rare gem that everybody should try to get hold of, filled with amazing characters, strange creatures and stereotypes that get twisted on their heads!
The most unique thing about this book however is that it does not as such have a clear plot structure, but rather each chapter relates an encounter or experience with its heroine Princess Betony. In fact, the story actually starts years before her birth when the Crown Prince Max,
November 24th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Pamela Freeman | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…