Fantasy

Fantasy reviews

The Sleeping Beauty, Mercedes Lackey

Jul 12th

Posted by Senetra in B+ Reviews

4 comments

The Sleep­ing Beauty is the lat­est in Lackey’s Five Hun­dred King­doms series. The Five Hun­dred King­doms are bound by The Tra­di­tion, a force that can and does manip­u­late peo­ple into var­i­ous fairy tale roles, good and bad. In this instance, Princess Rosa’s mother, Queen Celeste died, leav­ing a griev­ing king who has spent years fighting

Arrows of the Queen, Mercedes Lackey [Guest Review]

Apr 21st

Posted by Avid Reader in B Reviews

4 comments

Arrows of the Queen (Her­alds of Valde­mar) by Mer­cedes Lackey is the first book in the series. This guest review was writ­ten by Janet Webb aka @JanetNorCal for April’s TBR Chal­lenge. No ebook could be found (cries)
*****
Thank you so much to my Cana­dian farmwife friend who very kindly gave me this book. Here’s the back­cover descrip­tion:
“Chosen

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Coraline by Neil Gaiman, 2003

REVIEW: ‘Coraline’ Written by Neil Gaiman and Illustrated by Dave McKean

Feb 25th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

7 comments

Cora­line, writ­ten by Neil Gaiman and illus­trated by Dave McK­ean, tells the story of a young girl who bravely saves her­self and her par­ents from the ghosts that inhabit their home.
Cora­line Jones and her par­ents stay in a divided up flat. The flat below them is occu­pied by Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, for­mer the­atre actresses who

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REVIEW: ‘The Spacetime Pool’ by Catherine Asaro (Analog Novella)

Jan 18th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

5 comments

The Space­time Pool by Cather­ine Asaro (2008) is a novella from Ana­log (sci-fi mag­a­zine). The story uses the Rie­mann sheet to explain the por­tal between alter­nate uni­verses. The story also con­tains hos­tile raiders, a fam­ily feud and a proph­esy.
The open­ing line starts with the fol­low­ing sen­tence, “[t]he hiker van­ished.” Janelle Aulair, a recent grad­u­ate from MIT, is hiking

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REVIEW: ‘Fortune and Fate’ by Sharon Shinn

Nov 14th

Posted by Melanie in Avid Musings

No comments

For­tune and Fate (2008) by Sharon Shinn, a Novel of the Twelve Houses, Ace Books, pub­lished by the Pen­guin Group.
For­tune and Fate is the 5th book in the Twelve Houses series. This review is mainly for read­ers already famil­iar with the series as this is not a stand alone novel.
The author has taken Wen (Willa), a King’s Rider from

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REVIEW: ‘Kin (The Good Neighbors)’ by Holly Black and Illustrated by Ted Naifeh

Sep 18th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

2 comments

Kin (The Good Neighbors):Book One writ­ten by Holly Black and Illus­trated by Ted Naifeh (2008).
Holly Black, the author of YA fan­tasy nov­els such as Tithe and Iron­side, pens her first graphic novel about what else, faeries. Sur­prised? I was. I didn’t real­ize this was a graphic novel.
Rue Silver’s mother, Nia, is a faerie. She fell in love with a mor­tal who

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REVIEW: Fables Vol.1: Legends In Exile by Bill Willingham and Illustrated by Lan Medina

Aug 20th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

12 comments

Fables: Leg­ends in Exile (2002) writ­ten by Bill Will­ing­ham and Illus­trated by Lan Med­ina is avail­able in paper­back, pub­lished by Ver­tigo and retails for $9.99 US.
This is an ongo­ing series fea­tur­ing fairy tale char­ac­ters who find them­selves uprooted from their fairy realm and liv­ing in secret exile in upstate New York.
Do you enjoy fairy tales? You

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REVIEW: The Virtu by Sarah Monette

Jun 12th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

1 comment

The Virtu (2006) by Sarah Mon­ette is dark fan­tasy at its best. It is the sec­ond book in a series of three total so far. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and I didn’t want this story to end. I was just fully engaged from start to fin­ish. No mat­ter how much I may gush and gush

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REVIEW: ‘Living Dead in Dallas’ by Charlaine Harris

Apr 10th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

7 comments

Liv­ing Dead in Dal­las by Char­laine Har­ris, copy­right 2002, pub­lished by Ace, is the sec­ond book in her pop­u­lar South­ern Vam­pire series. It is avail­able in paper­back and in dig­i­tal for­mat of your choice. I might pos­si­bly be the last per­son on earth to not have read these books but I plan to rec­tify that.
The story cen­ters around

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REVIEW: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Mar 19th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

21 comments

Dead Until Dark (South­ern Vam­pire Mys­ter­ies, No. 1) by Char­laine Har­ris, pub­lished in 2001, is the first book in the South­ern Vam­pire mys­tery series. Sookie Stack­house, a bar­maid from Bön Temps, Louisiana, nar­rates the story.
Sookie has a gift: she can read minds. She con­sid­ers her telepa­thy a dis­abil­ity because many of the towns­peo­ple con­sider her

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REVIEW: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

Mar 6th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

5 comments

Grim­space by Ann Aguirre, paper­back, Feb 2008 release, pub­lished by Ace, fan­tasy. As many read­ers have stated, Grim­space has var­i­ous shades of pop cul­ture influ­ence, fea­tur­ing a diverse and mot­ley crew of voy­agers trav­el­ing through­out the galaxy, try­ing to top­ple an estab­lished insti­tu­tion with con­tro­ver­sial ideas for change.
Sir­an­tha Jax is a jumper. She works for the Farwan

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REVIEW: The Unnatural Inquirer by Simon R. Green

Jan 6th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

No comments

The Unnat­ural Inquirer (2008) by Simon R. Green is the 8th entry in the Night­side series. This is my first foray into the Night­side. The Night­side is described as a place where mon­sters exist along­side humans in a pocket of Lon­don where the sun never shines. It’s a place where venal­ity is apart of the social order and

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REVIEW: ‘Iron Kissed (A Mercy Thompson Series)’ by Patricia Briggs

Jan 1st

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

20 comments

Iron Kissed by Patri­cia Briggs, pub­lished Jan 2008, is the third book in the Mercy Thomp­son series, pub­lished by Ace.
VW mechanic, Mercy Thomp­son, is a shape shifter. She is a walker who shifts from human to coy­ote at will.  In the world that Mercy inhab­its, the were­wolves, fae and vam­pires exist along­side humankind. 
How­ever, the fae and the were­wolves have been some­what forced

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REVIEW: Ironside by Holly Black: A Modern Faery’s Tale

Apr 28th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

24 comments

I am a fan of myth and fan­tasy. I am a huge fan of authors who can blend real­ity with that of the fan­tasy world together so skill­fully.  Iron­side: A Mod­ern Faery’s Tale, c2007 is the third book in Holly Black’s  Mod­ern Faery Tale series. The first book, Tithe, intro­duced us to this won­der­ful, vivid world where faerie’s are malev­o­lent crea­tures who

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REVIEW: The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Feb 6th

Posted by Avid Reader in Book Reviews

6 comments

The Queen of Atto­lia by Megan Whalen Turner opens with the Thief of Eddis spy­ing on the Queen of Attolia. Eugenides makes quite a few trips to the Queen’s palace with­out get­ting caught. It is a game of cat and mouse for him that he enjoys play­ing.  How­ever, Eugenides is even­tu­ally caught and expects to hang. How­ever, the Queen of Attolia metes

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