Reviews :: Book Genre :: Fantasy :: Page 54

Daniel Abraham is, quite possibly, my favorite author. It’s awfully difficult to pick one amongst the masses, but he regularly goes head to head with my other faves (yes, even Ms. Parker) and so I can’t help but place him amongst the elite. After reading his Long Price Quartet (Amazon), I’ve found it incredibly difficult to put my hands on another series of fantasy books I’ve enjoyed more. So naturally, when I heard that he was going to be releasing a short story anthology I was completely on board. Hook, line, and sinker. Does that mean that you should take this review with a grain of salt? Absolutely not. Please, if you will, follow me down this road of awesome, into the mind of a great. And though you need not swallow the gravy, it will certainly make the colors more magnificent.
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Carrie Vaughn writes books for the female demographic, no doubt about it. Her Kitty Norville series (review of her latest book in that series coming later) has scooped up quite a bit of popularity and recognition, so really it was only a matter of time before she started branching out more and more. DISCORD’S APPLE is her latest effort towards giving her readers something a little different from her normal releases.
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Okay, so let’s be up front. I’m completely jealous of Stephen Deas. Yes, it’s true, and no you can’t laugh at me because I’m not going to allow you to. So there. The largest portion of this jealousy stems from the fact that he lists K.J. Parker on his acknowledgments page. K.J. Parker. That nearly dropped me right where I was. At the bus stop. I’m also jealous of him though because Mr. Deas was one of those newbie authors with a humble number of publishing credits to his name, when one of the “Big Guys” over at Gollancz decided to ask him to write a book for them.

Whoa.
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I was first introduced to the work of Catherynne M. Valente a few years ago when my brother bought me THE ORPHAN TALES: IN THE NIGHT GARDEN (Amazon). Based entirely on that one present he is now my favorite brother. That book was amazing. I almost cried when it was over because there wasn’t any more of that fascinating story to read. I never wanted it to end. Needless to say when Valente’s PALIMPSEST (Amazon) was released I picked up a copy immediately hungry for another beautiful story.

PALIMPSEST is the tale of a sexually transmitted city.
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Because we are the benevolent Book Gods that you have to know, love, and worship, we have a treat for you today. A review AND an interview. Without further ado, we present JC Marino, author of Dante’s Journey.
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If you haven’t read any Naomi Novik you’re a little behind the times, but that’s okay, because I can give you a quick run-down on the series thus far. We first meet Captain Laurence and his dragon Temeraire in HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON (Amazon), which is set during the Napoleonic Wars, where battles aren’t only fought on land and sea, they’re also fought in the air with dragons. However, these aren’t your run-of-the-mill dragons, most of them are huge and have their own aerial crew with captain, lieutenant, riflemen, bombers, and etc.

Captain Laurence, who became Temeraire’s rider by happenstance, has spent his military career playing by the book; but Temeraire, unlike most dragons of the British Air Corps, is very intelligent and has his own ideas about how things should be done. This combination makes for some fine adventures that take place from France to Africa clear to Temeraire’s country of origin, China. Novik follows the Napoleonic Wars pretty faithfully in the first books, but then the series veers from history when Napoleon attempts to invade England.
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It’s really not an exaggeration when we say SWORDS & DARK MAGIC (Amazon) was easily one of our most anticipated titles of the year. In fact, that doesn’t even say enough. Edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders, this collection, to us, was like the Holy Grail of short story anthologies. Why? The first three stories in the collection, in the order they appear: Steven Erikson, Glen Cook, Gene Wolf. Yeah. That’s just the first three stories.

Sheesh.
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Lois McMaster Bujold is easily one of my favorite authors, from her Hugo Award winning PALADIN OF SOULS (Amazon) to the immensely popular Miles Vorkosigan series. When she began The Sharing Knife series I was excited to see her writing new fantasy, and picked up BEGUILEMENT when it first came out in paperback in 2007. The fourth and final book, HORIZON, was released in paperback this past January.

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NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR (Amazon), by Mark Charan Newton, has finally been released in the US. There was a fair amount of hype about the novel coming out of the UK, and where there is hype, there is usually heaps of disappointment. Anyone remember BONESHAKER (EBR Review)?. However in this case, we are treated to a solid debut novel.
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SASHA by Joel Shepherd (Amazon), was kind of a surprise for us. We knew Joel’s work from his Cassandra Kresnov series, but we didn’t quite know what to expect from the first novel in his A Trial of Blood and Steel. While there were a few issues we took with the novel, we actually enjoyed what was offered and look forward to the sequels. Read on, slaves and loyal followers, to find out why.
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