Interview with Ian C. Esslemont
We were recently offered the opportunity to interview Ian Cameron Esslemont (Cam), author of NIGHT OF KNIVES, RETURN OF THE CRIMSON GUARD, and STONEWIELDER. We first met Cam at World Fantasy back in 2009, and we were immediately impressed by his openness and enthusiasm. It was one of those situations where you meet an author for whom your exceptions are unrealistically high… only to be easily met, and then just as easily surpassed.
Read the rest of this post »
Stonewielder
We were worried that STONEWIELDER (Amazon) wouldn’t quite live up to (or build upon) the greatness of RETURN OF THE CRIMSON GUARD. Ian C. Esslemont had set his own bar pretty high, so we kept our level of optimism well in check. Turns out it was all needless. STONEWIELDER is awesome.
Read the rest of this review »
Return of the Crimson Guard
It is now safe to say that Ian C. Esslemont brings some serious excellence to the Malazan world. Perhaps the general consensus of the masses after reading his first novel, NIGHT OF KNIVES, was that his work wasn’t of the quality expected or that was used to from reading Steven Erikson’s work.
We don’t doubt Esslemont at all. He belongs.
Read the rest of this review »
Night of Knives
When you read Steven Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen, often you get a prologue giving you the narrow piece of history needed to understand the story about to be read. History in the Malazan series is an interesting thing. It has supreme importance, but we typically only see what has been built on the foundation of that history (or what was built upon the ruins of a “newer” history that was built upon an even older past). Personally, we love the series that Erikson is writing. It isn’t perfect, but it is awe-inspiring nonetheless.
Read the rest of this review »
Our 2011 Hugo Ballot
The Elitist Book Reviews 2011 Hugo Ballot
Before we let you in on our opinions of the Hugo Awards, we are going to give you our picks. You’ll notice that we didn’t nominate in a few categories. Usually that means we either didn’t read anything in that category, or just didn’t feel like nominating. The Hugo Award nomination deadline is the 26th of March. If you attended WorldCon last year, or bought your membership to this year’s convention in Reno before the 31st of January, you can nominate–and we strongly suggest you do so. If you have already electronically voted, and forgot to put us on your list (GASP!!!) you can just recast your entire ballot and add us in before the deadline. We aren’t begging… oh who are we kidding, we’re on hands and knees here groveling!
Read the rest of this post »
A Discovery of Witches
Debut author Deborah Harkness has been on my ‘to read’ list since her appearance at New York’s ComicCon fantasy author panel with the likes of Peter V. Brett, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, and Joe Abercrombie. Yeah, a newb (to the genre anyway) sitting amongst some of the most popular fantasy authors today. I had to know if she deserved being there.
In A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES (Amazon), Harkness takes all the urban fantasy romantic tropes and… uses them.
Read the rest of this review »
Other Kingdoms
If you are an occasional or obsessive reader of the Horror genre, you know the name Richard Matheson. To say the guy is a legend and and icon doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. He is one of our favorite authors, and the author of our favorite works of fiction ever, I AM LEGEND. When we realized Matheson had a new novel being released this year, OTHER KINGDOMS (Amazon), we contacted the lovely people at Tor and begged them for a review copy. We aren’t exaggerating. We groveled, offered bribes in the form of cookies, and even promised our undying love. We aren’t quite sure which one was the clincher, but a copy of OTHER KINGDOMS came as did an accompanying chorus of angels.
Read the rest of this review »
The Crippled God
It’s hard to know where to begin with this review. I’ve been reading Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen for six years. It’s what got me re-interested in fantasy after years toiling under the belief that fantasy was imprisoned in the land of elves and dwarves. Six years.
And suddenly here we are at the end.
Read the rest of this review »
Dust of Dreams
We actually have a good reason for not reviewing this novel sooner. Quite simply, it didn’t make sense to. DUST OF DREAMS (Amazon) is just the first half of the final entry into Steven Erikson‘s epic series, The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Seriously. It is literally the first half of the story and ends in a giant cliffhanger.
Sure, we could have reviewed this back when it came out last year. We almost did. After an epic debate lasting all of 30 seconds, we decided to wait until THE CRIPPLED GOD (Amazon) was about to be released to do a re-read and review of this stellar novel. It just didn’t feel right to review it any other time.
Read the rest of this review »
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach
These novellas just don’t get old, and we were asked by a reader what our opinion of them was. We’ve known for years now how awesome Steven Erikson‘s novels are, but his shorter work is criminally underrated. In Erikson’s third Malazan novel, MEMORIES OF ICE (one of the most incredible books we have EVER read), we are introduced to Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, two necromancers, and their manservant, Emancipor Reese. Perhaps you wondered, like we did upon our first encounter, where these characters came from. That is what this collection, BAUCHELAIN AND KORBAL BROACH (Amazon), is for. In it are collected three novellas of fist-pumping goodness.
Read the rest of this review »
