The Thicket
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.
Read the rest of this review »
Rain of the Ghosts
Teenage Rain Cacique lives in the Prospero Keys (known to locals as The Ghosts), a series of islands between Florida and the Bermuda Triangle. To her dismay, she’s pretty sure she’s going to spend the rest of her life there, catering to the tourists who come to enjoy the tropical weather and scenery. Her and her friend Charlie spend their last free days before school begins having as much fun as they can.
Read the rest of this review »
Hugo Reaction
So I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the Hugo Award nominations this year. I’ve been thinking about it all since I was notified of the nomination, and I honestly still don’t know how to feel. Mostly. Kinda.
Let’s start with the basics. Here are Elitist Book Reviews, we are nominated for our second straight Hugo Award for Best Fanzine! This is completely awesome, and not something I ever thought possible. When I started EBR with a good friend, I just wanted to write reviews for novels. I wanted to recommend the books I loved to everyone. EBR was my outlet for that love of fiction in all forms.
Read the rest of this post »
The Beautiful Land
Tak does not lead a normal life. As a sort of Asian-American version of Man vs Wild he’s spent his life adventuring all over the world. At the opening of THE BEAUTIFUL LAND (Amazon) we discover that life isn’t going the way he planned. In the middle of a suicide attempt, Tak gets a fateful call that will give him a new purpose in life.
Read the rest of this review »
Half A King
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.
Read the rest of this review »
The River of Souls
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).
Read the rest of this review »
The Executioner’s Heart
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.
Read the rest of this review »
Bloodstone
In FIREBRAND (EBR Review) we met the Sithe brothers Seth and Conal. They were exiled beyond the Veil to the world where full-mortals live, as part of a promise to their queen that they would find the bloodstone. By the time BLOODSTONE (Amazon) begins, four hundred years have passed, and Leonna, Conal’s mother, is coming to the conclusion that they will never find what they’re looking for, that it doesn’t exist.
Read the rest of this review »
Fiery Edge of Steel
Noon Onyx is a waning magic user–the same magic used to control the demons who won Armageddon. Her magic is not what’s extraordinary, it’s that she’s a woman with an ability that manifests only in men. In the series’ first book, DARK LIGHT OF DAY (Amazon), Noon had to come to grips with her ability and be trained so she wouldn’t be a danger to herself and others.
Read the rest of this review »
Slow Apocalypse
Sometimes it’s way too easy to make a call on a book. There are some indicators that, when they come up, scream, “Run away!” One of the classics is when you get to the end of the first chapter and the last sentence is something with a flavor similar to: It all started less than 24 hours ago… Oh, yeah. Those? They’re doooozies.
Read the rest of this review »
