Reviews :: Book Rating :: Books We Love :: Page 18

When I read PRINCE OF THORNS (EBR Review), I was blown away. I know, I know. I’ve said this a time or two. Or twenty. It’s no secret that Mark Lawrence has become one of my favorite authors. His novels are a breath of fresh air, and are an absolute pleasure to read. And so now we come to the start of a new series set in the same world as Lawrence’s other novels. PRINCE OF FOOLS (Amazon).
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I was in the mood for some Horror short fiction the other day. Fortunately, Cemetery Dance sent me over a small collection from one of their regular authors, Brian James Freeman, that seemed like just the ticket.

WEAK AND WOUNDED (Amazon) is the name of the collection, and in it are five horror stories.
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It took me a while to catch on to this series by Elizabeth Bear.  I’d seen reviews when the first book, RANGE OF GHOSTS, came out, including here at EBR (EBR Review).  I even saw the second book in the series, SHATTERED PILLARS, come out and also reviewed here (EBR Review).  The books started to sit in my mind a bit.  It took a while, but they sounded like something I needed to be a part of.  So late last year I finally got RANGE OF GHOSTS (loved it), and for Christmas I received SHATTERED PILLARS (fantastic) so that I could be ready to go when the last volume STELES OF THE SKY (Amazon) came out.
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I’m not entirely sure when I last read a Western. Probably TRUE GRIT. Before that? Who knows? See, I grew up on Westerns. Louis L’Amour was my go-to author for the longest time. I loved the sense of adventure and the roughness of the world L’Amour’s characters inhabited. I watched John Wayne movies and loved every last one of them. From there came Tombstone and Unforgiven, and I realized how much I loved a darker Western story. I count NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN in that camp. But really, finding good Westerns is tough sledding these days. For me, I know within the first page of a novel or the opening minutes of a movie if I’m going to like it or not.
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HALF A KING (Amazon) by Joe Abercrombie is one of the most hyped novels of the year. Check out some of the author blurbs and you’ll see what I mean. Patrick Rothfuss, Rick Riordan, Robin Hobb, and Brent Weeks are among the fantasy heavyweights heaping praise on the novel. When Abercrombie first announced HALF A KING I was anxious. He’s my second favorite author and my very reason for returning to the fantasy genre, but I couldn’t see how well his brutal wit and grim perspective would translate to a YA novel. You’ll no doubt notice that this review has been filed under “Books We Love,” but it didn’t start out that way.
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I’ve been waiting for this book for two years. You see, once you read a novel by Robert McCammon, you want the next one. Then the next. And the next. McCammon’s writing has an intoxicating nature about it, and since the day I first read his work, I’ve wanted to read every single word he writes. Thankfully, Subterranean Press was kind enough to send me a review copy of McCammon’s THE RIVER OF SOULS (Amazon).
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THE EXECUTIONER’S HEART (Amazon) is the fourth Newbury and Hobbes novel, and it takes place several months after the crazy events of the prior novel, THE IMMORALITY ENGINE (EBR Review). Veronica Hobbes’ sister has been rescued, and now Sir Maurice Newbury is desperately trying to figure out the key to her prophetic visions, and why the Queen of England is after her.
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The second book of The Stormlight Archives, WORDS OF RADIANCE (Amazon), comes crashing down on us after a near four year absence. And ooh boy, does book 2 deliver on what it’s promising. If you haven’t read the first one, THE WAY OF KINGS (EBR Review), go read the review and then buy the book at the link at the bottom of the page. Finishing the last Wheel of Time book kept Brandon Sanderson busy, and it’s obvious that he picked up a few things from Jordan, both good and bad.
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Does this look familiar? It should. I originally posted this review back in 2010. So why am I redirecting you to it now? Well, because this awesome collection can be purchased with ease now, and without murdering your wallet, from Tachyon Publications. This is the collection I recommend to everyone who is new to Joe R. Lansdale, because I loved it so much when I first read it in 2010. So anywho, here is the review for any of you who missed it the first time around.
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This anthology has attached to it one of those feel-good kind of stories that just makes you want to buy the thing. The editor, Shawn Speakman, contracted Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011, accrued a bundle of debt because he didn’t have health insurance at the time, and these stories were put together as a means by which to alleviate some of that debt. Each of the stories contained in the anthology were ones that the authors contributed freely to Mr. Speakman’s cause and showed them to rally round the flag, so to speak, of a fellow author that was in need. It was a reminder to me that even big-name authors are real people with real problems too. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that. So regardless of what I thought of this anthology (it was good, people – don’t let my little misdirections fool you) my hat goes off to each of the authors that contributed to the anthology. Bravo, my friends. Bravo.
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