Posts from 2009 :: Page 2

Review

Noonshade

Posted: November 6, 2009 by Steven in Books We Love Meta: James Barclay, Heroic Fantasy
Noonshade

Remember that guy, James Barclay, whose book DAWNTHIEF (EBR Review) we reviewed a few weeks ago? If you don’t remember, shame on you! That first novel was one of the higher quality novels we had read all year, so we had some fairly high expectations for NOONSHADE. Do we ever not?

The story of NOONSHADE picks up, literally, minutes after the first book, DAWNTHIEF, ends and throws us right back into the exploits of the mercenary band, The Raven. In the first few pages we are given a brief, “Hey, look! There’s a big-A hole in the sky as a consequence for saving the world in a dangerous way in the last book.” summary. Then BAM! (Emeril, not only are we more attractive, we even say your catchphrase better. Eat your heart out.) we get right into the events of the current book. Salvation brings its own can of worms in this worms. Actually it isn’t a can of worms, so much, as a rift in the sky through which all manner of destruction can manifest. By, “all manner of destruction” we mean interdimensional dragons that want nothing more than to obliterate everything, and kick your dog. Twice.
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Review

METAtropolis

METAtropolis

How about something new and different for our review here at EBR? We read and review novels pretty much constantly, but we have yet to discuss any short fiction. The thing to be wary of when reading short fiction, in our opinions, is that you can’t treat it like a novel. Where novels have several fully developed ideas that all contribute to the plot, setting, and characters, short stories and novellas typically only have one or two fully developed (sometimes) ideas. If you go into a collection of short fiction with the right mind-set, you will find that it can be a refreshing change from the novels that you have been reading.
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Review

Dexter by Design

Posted: October 21, 2009 by Steven in Books that are Mediocre Meta: Jeff Lindsay, Horror
Dexter by Design

So. DEXTER BY DESIGN (Amazon). The fourth novel by Jeff Lindsay that follows the exploits of Deviously Deadly Dexter — if you followed our advice earlier and read the first novel DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER (), you know why we use the alliteration… and it should be fairly obvious anyway. To be quite honest, we are getting tired of the novels, and are turning more towards the Showtime Series for our Dexter fix.
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Review

Soulless Review and Gail Carriger Interview

Posted: October 19, 2009 by Alan in Books We Like Meta: Gail Carriger, Fantasy
Soulless Review and Gail Carriger Interview

We have a special treat in addition to our Monday review today. It is our honor to have Gail Carriger, the author of the newly released SOULLESS (Amazon), answer a few questions for us to lead into our review.

We first met Gail at WorldCon 2008, where she properly chastised Nick for not wearing a suit while speaking to agents and editors about his book. She soon realized just how awesome Nick was (Right Gail?)and the two quickly became friends.

Gail’s sense of humor is a treat for all, so when SOULLESS was released we new that we HAD to have her as an interview guest for the review. We know you will love her as much as we do. So without further introduction, here is the interview.
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Review

A Cavern of Black Ice

Posted: October 14, 2009 by Alan in Books We Like Meta: J.V. Jones, Epic Fantasy
A Cavern of Black Ice

A CAVERN OF BLACK ICE (Amazon), by J.V. Jones, was published back in 2005, and is the first in the Sword of Shadows series. The most recent entry to the series was A SWORD FROM RED ICE (Amazon) in 2008 and we are expecting the fourth book soon. When we tell people that J.V. Jones is one of our favorite authors, the most common response is, “Who?” So, instead of reviewing the latest book, we thought we would do this first book as an introduction to a series that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. And it deserves a ton.

Before Steve explodes from holding it in (it’s not what you think…), we need to say that we absolutely hate the covers for this series. All three of the books have ridiculously terrible covers, and we attribute part of the series’ obscurity to that fact. Books are judged by their covers all the time, and these covers scream “DON’T BUY US!!! WE ARE GENERIC AND TERRIBLE!!”
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Review

Servant of a Dark God

Posted: October 12, 2009 by Steven in Books We Like Meta: John Brown, Epic Fantasy
Servant of a Dark God

Here at Elitist Books Reviews, we are always on the lookout for that next series that will get us (and in turn, you) excited. What makes a series exciting for us? Well, if you’ve been paying attention to our reviews, you know that we feel the first book in a new series is extremely important. It starts with the cover of the book. Is it awesome? Does it make you want to pick up a copy of the novel just to read what it is about? Then, with the actual book itself, do we as readers feel interested in the new world we are presented? Do we get a sense of newness and wonder at the world, magic, characters, and story? Does the story leave a ton of room to grow and expound on the ideas introduced in book 1?

You see, we ask for a lot. (You better give it to us when we ask too. Or so help us, we might… uh… be mean.)
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Review

The Devil You Know

Posted: October 9, 2009 by Steven in Books We Like Meta: Mike Carey, Urban Fantasy
The Devil You Know

Remember when we said we found a few new series? This is another one of them. And it came with our friend, Tom Lloyd’s recommendation. We know right? How could we NOT start this series up?!

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by Mike Carey (Amazon) is an Urban Fantasy that you will mostly likely find shelved in the horror section of your local bookstore. It is about an exorcist, Felix Castor, who is looking to get out of the game, but predictably takes one last job. That job is a haunting of a museum in London. Obviously, things go to hell in a hand-basket. Quite literally actually. Demon’s and all that.
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Review

Flesh and Spirit

Posted: October 5, 2009 by Alan in Books We Don't Like Meta: Carol Berg, Fantasy
Flesh and Spirit

It was in 2008 that Carol Berg‘s FLESH AND SPIRIT (Amazon) was published, so it has had some shelf time, like a few other books we have reviewed. We have received quite a large number of emails requesting a review of this book — and it’s sequel BREATH AND BONE (Amazon) — and since we do aim to please, here it is.

Anyone who has read Carol Berg before, knows that she is pretty dang good at what she does, and has written some great books. So we picked up this first half of the series without much hesitation, and cracked it open.
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Review

The Electric Church

Posted: September 28, 2009 by Alan in Books We Like Meta: Jeff Somers, Science Fiction
The Electric Church

In our continued quest to bring you new authors and new series we have come across a number of candidates. You have a lot to look forward to. We, however, decided to start with this book, simply because it really has the coolest cover. (Hey…turns out even WE judge a book by its cover.)

THE ELECTRIC CHURCH by Jeff Somers (Amazon) is a loose SF/Cyberpunk novel set in a post-apocalyptic near-future USA (and London). In this particular world, a new religion, The Electric Church, guarantees Salvation and Eternal Life…

… with a catch.
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Review

The Grave Thief

Posted: September 24, 2009 by Alan in Books We Love Meta: Tom Lloyd, Epic Fantasy
The Grave Thief

Every now and then, we get a little hesitant to pick up and read a novel. We know, this is a dangerous admission on our part–believe it or not we are human sometimes (the rest of the time we are Review Gods, remember?). You see, when we find a series of novels that we like, each subsequent novel in that series becomes more exciting and terrifying to pick up. Why? Because we are afraid of being let down (read: Jim Butcher).
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