Posts from 2010

Review

Elfsorrow

Posted: November 29, 2010 by Steven in Books We Love Meta: James Barclay, Heroic Fantasy
Elfsorrow

There is something oddly comforting about reading a James Barclay novel. It’s like when the holidays roll around and the smells of good, home-cooked meals automatically make you relax and enjoy the day a tad more than usual. ELFSORROW (Amazon) fits this role perfectly.
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Review

The Poison Throne

Posted: November 23, 2010 by Writer Dan in Books We Don't Like Meta: Celine Kiernan, Fantasy, Young Adult
The Poison Throne

To all those looking for my review of this book, I have two words for you:

talking cats

THE END

Oh, hold on, my phone’s ringing…

((beep, beep, boop, eep, eep, boop, oop))

((…ring))

((…ring …click))

Hey, Steve. How’s it going?

((wah))

Cool. So yeah, I just finished reading that POISON THRONE (Amazon) book you guys gave me and I’m throwing a complete blank on how to write the review for it because just about nothing happened in the whole thing. I–

((wah, wah, waah?))

Yeah, really. Nothing. Well, nothing interesting anyhow.
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Review

All Clear

Posted: November 16, 2010 by Shawn in Books We Love Meta: Connie Willis, Science Fiction
All Clear

ALL CLEAR by Connie Willis (Amazon) is the sequel to this year’s BLACKOUT (EBR Review). Although “sequel” isn’t really the proper word for it. “Sequel” makes it sound like the first book had some closure to it, a conclusion. “Sequel” makes it sound like this book, ALL CLEAR, is going to recap what happened in the previous volume and catch you up. Both of those things are not true of this duology. ALL CLEAR, better said is the second half of the story begun in BLACKOUT. The reason for the split in the story is that it’s so long. ALL CLEAR clocks in at 640 pages in hardback and BLACKOUT was about the same. I’ve seen Brandon Sanderson books that are shorter than these two put together (I kid, we love Brandon around here).
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Review

The Fall

Posted: November 12, 2010 by Steven in Books We Hate Meta: Chuck Hogan, Guillermo Del Toro, Horror
The Fall

Is there a worse feeling than when you’ve just finished a novel, and the time you spent reading feels completely wasted? You sit back, your face becoming red with hatred for a book that just kept you from reading something else that was potentially awesome. You vilify the “novel” you hold in an ever tightening grip. This so-called novel is the cause of all your problems, and is the evil force reason for war, world hunger, American Idol, and your failing Fantasy Football team (The Aints).

Take a deep breath. Everything will be fine (except your Fantasy team).
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Review

The Black Prism

Posted: November 9, 2010 by Vanessa in Books We Like Meta: Brent Weeks, Epic Fantasy
The Black Prism

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful ‘drafter’ alive in a world where color is magic and power. His role is to keep the magic balanced or else the world will erupt into chaos. Unfortunately most of the problems he has to deal with are the result of the False Prism War against his brother sixteen years ago.

If you’re familiar with his hugely popular THE NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY (Amazon), Brent Weeks‘ storytelling continues consistently, albeit with more polish. The first book in his new Lightbringer Series, THE BLACK PRISM (Amazon), Weeks builds an exciting world, plunging into the story right from the get-go.
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Review

Passion Play

Posted: November 5, 2010 by Vanessa in Books that are Mediocre Meta: Beth Bernobich, Fantasy
Passion Play

Teenage Therez lives a life of luxury, her father a successful merchant. But business has its own politics and her father must ‘sell’ her in marriage to further his ambitions. Rather than marry a cruel older man Therez runs away, but is she running away to a worse fate?

PASSION PLAY (Amazon) starts out cliche enough, but readers will learn quickly that Beth Bernobich doesn’t pull any punches. Therez is a girl with no knowledge of the world, and as a result is too trusting. She purchases a seat on a caravan traveling to the capital where she hopes to earn her own living. However, everything does wrong en route and she very quickly she turns from innocent girl into distrusting woman.
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Review

Towers of Midnight

Posted: November 2, 2010 by Alan in Books We Like Meta: Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Epic Fantasy
Towers of Midnight

Sometimes it is difficult to review a novel. In fact, this isn’t even the original review we had written for TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT (Amazon). There are so many variables that come into play that we have to take an accounting of, that we wonder where we should even begin. ToM, obviously, is one of these types of novels. There is the matter of the book itself; the story, the characters and the progression in the novel have to be considered. But then so does the rest of the series in one as large as The Wheel of Time. And to be objective when you all know we like our fantasy in the non-Jordan fashion. Yeah. It’s all sorts of difficult to put a review of this type of novel together in a way that makes sense to you lovely readers.
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