Dark Fantasy Review: The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker

Synopsis:

It is really a complex book, as hard to summarize as e.g. the ASOIAF saga of George R.R.Martin or Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It is segmented into different parts, almost each of them following a different character and often set in a different country - overall not an easy, casual read.

Drusas Achamian is a Mandate sorcerer, plagued by terrible and bloody nightmares. It is the Mandate school's mission to fight against the mysterious Consult, an organization whose existence has not been seen in decades and which is evil. Achamian is commanded to uncover information about the plans of Maithanet, the Shriah of The Thousand Temples which is like the major religion of the region. Maithanet has recently declared the formation of a Holy War, a war that will take back the holy land of Shimeh and its aim will be to liberate their most sacret place, situated there. What Achamian discovers is a mystery that might potentially stain this newly-declared Holy War. His beloved, a whore from Sumna called Esmenet, gets involved into his spying activities and so she is propelled forward, right into the very middle of gathering armies and into the arms of another man, a knight and a high commander called Sarcellus. Will their love be strong enough to survive it?

Fantasy Review: 'Throne of Jade' by Naomi Novik

Nathan's Review:

Am I expecting too much from this series?  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of the first book.  Dragons in the Napoleonic wars just makes so much since.  How did this not happen in real life?  It certainly should have.  The series seems well researched and has the vibe of being intelligent historical fantasy, and yet…  And yet I can’t help but feel this has been a bit shallower than I expected, or at least hoped for.

Again the story follows Temeraire and Captain Laurence, this time as they travel to China.  The Emperor has learned that a mere soldier is riding around on a Dragon meant for royal hands only, and China wants their dragon back.  Going by sea, because going by air would have just been silly, once again half the book meanders along before getting to the main plot (lots of sea travel).  Once in China Temeraire learns how other dragons live, Laurence deals with politics and diplomacy, and the whole story is wrapped up with the most simplistic solution in a dragon book possible (outside of a dragon just eating everyone).

Fantasy Review: 'The Lost Cactus' by David S Jamieson

Not the world’s most original premise - Daniel Howard discovers that by some quirk of fate, he’s the last great hope for mankind and must undertake a dangerous quest... and so on and so forth. But then the plot isn’t really the point. There are masses of ideas in here, all jostling for position, strugging to get themselves noticed in the crowd. Every page is filled with amusingly quirky talking animals or scenery, squirrels rushing about with post-it notes and the like, or corridors full of vine-covered forest, or tables made of ice, while our hero stands around gawking and doing the what-the-*&^%’s-going-on role. And there are some laugh-out-loud moments, it’s true. But comedy is difficult to do well, and a character who ends every third sentence with ‘Oh crap!’ gets tedious pretty fast. I think there’s a good story in here, but the author is trying too hard to be clever and amusing. For anyone looking for a light-hearted and irreverent piece of fantasy with the world’s most unlikely hero, this might be just the job, but for me it just doesn’t work. One star for a DNF. [But I did like the talking lift!]

Fantasy Review: 'Ashes in the Fall' by Christopher Martinez

The premise here is that Carleon, a former imperial soldier, has turned rebel for some reason (explained later in the book), and is training up a motley collection of disaffected soldiers, criminals and peasants to fight. Amongst the latter is Danario, whose village was razed to the ground by the imperial army for helping the rebels. I have problems with this right from the start. Firstly, the main character is not merely rebellious, but, given that his objective is to overthrow the rightful government, he's treasonous, too. Plus he uses torture to extract information. Normally this would make him a villain. His wife was killed by the imperialists, but that seems to be after his rebellion, so it's not really motivation. And frankly, he seems fairly stupid, constantly walking into difficult situations and then being surprised when people get killed, or the mission fails. Taking on a large, well-trained, well-funded army needs (surprise!) another army, at least as large. Danario, on the other hand, is more believable. He no longer has a home or family, so joining the rebel cause seems like a reasonable step. His meeting with the princess seems incredibly unlikely to me, but there you go, this is fantasy, incredible things happen.

YA Fantasy Review: 'Dirty Blood' (Dirty Blood 01) by Heather Hildenbrandt

EN GARDE!

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

I killed a girl last night. I did it with my bare hands and an old piece of pipe I found lying next to the dumpster. But that’s not the part that got me. The part that scared me, the part I can’t seem to wrap my head around and still has me reeling, was that when she charged me, her body shifted – and then she was a wolf. All snapping teeth and extended claws. But by the time I stood over her lifeless body, she was a girl again. That’s about the time I went into shock… And that was the moment he showed up.

Now, all I can do is accept the truths that are staring me in the face. One, Werewolves do exist. And Two, I was born to kill them.

Fantasy Review: 'His Majesty's Dragon' by Naomi Novik

Nathan's Review:

Oh friggen sweet.  Ok, so here’s how it is.  This stuffy British sea captain wipes the deck with a frenchie ship (ha, wipes the deck).  When they take control of the ship it has this giant egg on it, because it turns out there are dragons.  This egg is about to hatch so he makes his crew draw straws on who is going to be its best bud because these crazy people don’t want their very own dragon and it is a punishment or something.  But when the egg hatchets and the loser kid tries to talk with him the dragon is like, oh hell no I ain’t running with no lackey, where is the big dog on this boat?  He finds the captain and talks to him in perfect English saying, you and me man.

So Captain Laurence has this dragon, and doesn’t know what to name him, so he calls him Temeraire after some lame ship or something.  And the dragon is really smart, but because they are new they have to go off and train on how to be a useful in a fight.  Which is awesome, because I totally read all the Pern books and those dragons NEVER fought, they just flew around people and shot falling strings out of the sky.  But in this book Europe is at some war between the English and the French, and they totally load the dragons up with gunmen and bombs and attack ships and other dragons with them.

Fantasy Novellas Reviews: 'The Wandering Tale' by Tristan Gregory

This is a collection of novellas set in a single world, and only loosely connected: a minor character from one story becomes more important in the next one. Each one is published and sold separately.

#1: The Swordsman of Carn Nebeth When a man returns to his village after nineteen years away fighting in the wars, young William is fascinated by his stories of the life of a soldier, and the battles he’s been in. But when other former soldiers start to cause trouble, he realises that bravery isn’t just for kings and soldiers. This is a cracking story of a boy growing to manhood in a small village, and learning the truth about being a hero. Great characterisation, a well judged balance between action and slower passages, a perfect ending and with more emotional resonance than I’ve seen in some well-regarded works many times its length. A beautifully crafted piece which I loved. Five stars.

Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance Review: Blue Diablo (Corine Solomon 01) by Ann Aguirre

Synopsis:

Corine Solomon is a lonely woman but it suits her. She has broken up with her super-handsome but selfish boyfriend, Chance, who used and abused her for financial reasons (no, he wasn’t a pimp but close) making her sometimes even risk her life. Now she is living in Mexico as an illegal alien (no matter how silly it might seem but such things happen), earning a modest living in her own little pawn shop. If she thought that, by leaving the USA, she was able to escape her problems forever she couldn’t have been more wrong. Unexpectedly, one day Chance darkens her door again. Why? Oh, business as usual – he wants Corine's help to find a missing person. The problem is this time it is his own mother.

We find out that Corine possesses a rare, supernatural gift – she is a ‘handler’. It means that touching different objects she is able to ‘see’ what has happened to their owners. Such a gift is frowned upon by the police and other officials but often it is also the last chance of discovering the truth about somebody who has disappeared without any trace. Corine used to be very successful with her gift, earning a lot, but it always came at a hefty price – every time she used it she felt pain and objects made of metal left her hands burning and scarred. Not to mention the fact that she often had to chase after very nasty, very angry criminals and she has never been exactly fit.

Post-Apocalypse Fantasy Review: 'Wixon's Day' by Phil Williams

This is a curious and unusual book. There has been some sort of apocalypse, not explained, but a kind of civilisation has been maintained or restored. There is education, trade, the arts, money, technology. Some type of cloud or fog covers much of the sky, creating a grey world where not much grows, but there are rumours of better places further south with more sunshine. Marquos, the main character, lives on a small barge, travelling restlessly around the canals and rivers of Estalia. At some point in the recent past, he was working in the mines to the south, but seems to have absconded, taking with him Red, a six-year-old child, in order to return her to her parents in the north.

Fantasy Review: 'Reaper Man' by Terry Pratchett

The Complete Discworld Reread

‘Reaper Man’ is the best Discworld novel up to this point, by far.  While in ‘Mort’ we saw death go on vacation; the entire thing was a side plot played for humor.  Hehe, look at Death trying to figure out people while his apprentice is mucking up his job.  In ‘Reaper Man’ Death is forced out of his job, and now learning a little bit about people may be the most important thing he can do.

Urban Fantasy Review: 'Magic Bites' by Ilona Andrews

‘Magic Bites.’  It appears to be a novel the urban fantasy style.  Something is missing though, something just doesn’t seem right.  Maybe it is just me, let me make a checklist.

-Interesting setting?  Huh, this one is here.  Wow, it is something quite a bit different too!  Sure it is mostly set in modern United States, but there is a twist.  Post-apocalypse, kind of.  Seems there was some sort of magic surge, came out of nowhere, ate portions of towns and changed everything.  Suddenly most the things that were once make believe are now real; vampires, werewolves, necromancers, and countless others.  Sure, there is the ‘everything and a kitchen sink’ approach but it too is explained, the magic feeds on people’s faith.  So if enough people think magic is X, then magic sometimes obliges them.  The magic of the world ebbs and flows as well, when a surge hit technology becomes useless only to work again when it recedes a bit.  Best I can tell the world is about 300 years in the future, but the magic has kept tech from progressing too much.  Ok, I think the book got this one right, moving on.

Fantasy Review: 'Fargoer' by Petteri Hannila

This is essentially a collection of short stories gathered into one book, telling the life of a single character, Vierra. The setting is the forests and lakes of the far north of Scandinavia, where Vierra’s people live a placid life as hunter/gatherers, moving around their domain with the seasons and ruled by a female chieftain and a female witch, as is normal for their culture. But things are changing; to the south, there are experiments with settlement and agriculture, and from further afield come the Vikings in their longboats, stealing goods and capturing slaves.

Fantasy Review: 'Soulless' by Gail Carriger

No matter how bad the party, it should be considered rude for a vampire to attack a guest.  It is just unlucky to try to feed on a house guest that has no soul; a too forceful push with Alexia’s parasol and now the party has a dead vampire.    Enter BUR investigator Lord Maccon, a werewolf in which Alexia has no spark, romantic interest, or desire to get to know better.  No way would these two ever be interested in getting together, after all they have so many differences and it would never work.  Just can’t happen, aww, get the idea?

I would have hated this book if at any time the author had ever taken it serious.  My lack of history with romance novels (paranormal or otherwise) left me unprepared for the sheer amount of weak knees, neck nibbling, and “I love him I hate him” seen here.  But the author really knew how to play it, it was so over the top at times that it made giggle at times, and at others I may have actually blushed.  More importantly, I actually began to root for the romance at some point in the story.

Historical Fantasy Review: The Third Section (The Danilov Quintet 03) by Jasper Kent

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Russia 1855. After forty years of peace in Europe, war rages. In the Crimea, the city of Sevastopol is besieged. In the north, Saint Petersburg is blockaded. But in Moscow there is one who needs only to sit and wait - wait for the death of an aging tsar, and for the curse upon his blood to be passed to a new generation.

As their country grows weaker, a man and a woman - unaware of the hidden ties that bind them - must come to terms with their shared legacy. In Moscow, Tamara Valentinovna Komarova uncovers a brutal murder and discovers that it not the first in a sequence of similar crimes, merely the latest, carried out by a killer who has stalked the city since 1812.

And in Sevastopol, Dmitry Alekseevich Danilov faces not only the guns of the combined armies of Britain and France, but must also make a stand against creatures that his father had thought buried beneath the earth, thirty years before.

Fantasy Review: 'Emilie and the Hollow World' by Martha Wells

Why, oh why, can I not enjoy a book by Martha Wells?  She does so many things right.  When it comes to quality of writing she is much better than many others I enjoy.  One could never accuse her of being trite or cliché; every book is original and unique.  Yet I can’t seem to enjoy her work.  ‘Death of a Necromancer’ was interesting enough, but left me bored.  I barely was able to get through ‘The Wizard Hunters.’  Wanting to give her one more chance I was happy to see her trying out a YA book; maybe this time I would feel the magic.

‘Emilie and the Hollow World’ is a quick little read about a young girl who stows away on a journey to the center of the world.  Found too late to be put back ashore she is put under the eye of Lady Marlende, who has put together the trip to rescue her father.  Pursued by her father’s rival looking to steal the glory, the crew meet a few fantastic creatures and are dragged into a possible war.  Adventure awaits!

Fantasy Review: 'Johannes Cabal the Necromancer' by Jonathan L Howard

Johannes Cabal already sold his soul to the devil.  He did it years ago, without regret, in order to gain the secrets of necromancy.  The problem is he belatedly realized he needs it back.  Not because he is worried about his soul, but his experiments just are not working without.  So down to hell he travels to get it back.  A wager is offered; a wager is accepted.  Johannes must round up one hundred souls, signed on the dotted line, to get his own back.  He has one year to do it, and a traveling carnival to do it with.

Cabal is not a nice guy.  He is not a ‘bad guy’ per say, that would imply caring about others in some way.  But if people are in his way, he pushes them out of it.  Knowing he needs someone to help him figure out other people, he brings on his brother and the Cabal Bros Carnival is born.   Between the two of them a hundred souls may just be doable.

Fantasy Review: 'Havenstar' by Glenda Larke

This was the author’s first published work, but shortly after its appearance in 1999 the publisher sank, and the book with it. Now the author has self-published it (hurray for the digital age). Not only is it available once more, it has been picked up by a traditional publisher too. A result whichever way you look at it.

The story has one of the most original settings I’ve encountered. A cataclysmic event tore the world apart, spreading chaos everywhere apart from a few islands of stability which are kept that way by rigorous adherence to a religion-based system of rules. Travel between these islands is made possible by accurate mapping of the chaotic patches between them. Main character Keris is the daughter of a mapmaker who dies under mysterious circumstances in the unstable lands between islands, and she is forced away from her home as a result. And that doesn’t begin to describe the complexities of this world.

YA Sci-Fi Review: 'Scarlet' (Lunar Chronicles 02) by Marissa Meyer

Synopsis

When young Scarlet Benoit gets a message informing her that the police officially closed the investigation concerning her missing grandmother she is really angry. She decides to take the matters into her hands and go find the elderly lady on her own. While looking for possible clues she meets a young street fighter, Wolf whose hand is adorned by a strange numeric tattoo. Soon enough it becomes obvious that Wolf may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts. Scarlet is loath to trust a complete stranger but he is the only one who knows something and is willing to help. They travel to Paris by train and during that journey Scarlet finds herselfs inexplicably drawn to Wolf, and he to her (translation: after a very short period of teenage awkwardness they make out like mad bunnies).

Meanwhile Cinder (her full story was told in the first part) has broken out of the space prison, helped by one Carswell Thorne - a thief, a womanizer, a liar and a swaggering buffoon (all things considered, your average human male specimen ;p). His only advantage seems to be a stolen ship, currently under his 'command' - it is the only way of space transport available if you want to return to Earth. Cinder of course returns just to get mixed into the mayhem created by our lovely Lunar Queen Levana who wants to marry the young emperor Kai and rule the Moon and the Earth. Cinder's path crosses with that of Scarlet whose grand-mere was far more important than anybody would have imagined and played a role in rescuing little Lunar princess Selena. So Cinder herself. Will they be able to avoid capture?

Fantasy Review: 'Dusk' by Tim Lebbon

‘You have read books by Joe Abercrombie, George RR Martin, KJ Parker?’
‘Yes’
‘Sesame Street."  -- With full apologies to anyone involved in the Princess Bride.

Truly this was a dark, dark book.  Immediately turn back if you don’t want your book to start with the slaughter of a town, move on to the slaughter of a village, and follow that up with a journey through a sin filled city.  As would be expected the book will follow a couple of dubious personalities, including a branded thief and a self-described whore.  Even the plants get in on the action, with nasty carnivorous tumble weeds roaming the land.  The last book I read that tried to be this dark was ‘A Dance with Cloaks.’  Unlike that dark outing, I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit.

YA Sci-Fi Review: 'Cinder' by Marissa Meyer

Synopsis:

Being a cyborg in New Bejing means being a second class citizen. Cinder knows it only too well – she has to work and earn not only her living but also the living of her small family, consisting of her stepmother and two stepsisters, Peony and Pearl. Fortunately Cinder is an extremely gifted robotics mechanic (not unlike little Anakin Skywalker), already renowned in the city despite her young age. One day even prince Kaito, the heir apparent to the imperial throne, pays her a visit in her little shop. He has an android to repair – an old one he keeps only for sentimental reasons. Or so he claims.

Cinder finds the prince very handsome, very kind and even funny. She is afraid to admit that she falls for him head over heels - after all she has a snowball in hell chance to be the right bride for a future emperor. She is over 36% artificial, she has no money to speak of and her stepmom simply hates her guts. Still a cyborg can dream, can't she? Well...soon enough her dreams must disappear - Peony, the nicer of her stepsisters, accompanies her to a local landfill site and falls ill. She catches a virus of lethumosis, a mysterious disease similar to the bubonic plague - incurable and very deadly. Of course Peony’s mother blames Cinder for it and decides to make her stepdaughter “volunteer” as a scientific guinea pig. So far none of those survived. The stepmom thinks she is so clever - not only she gets rid of Cinder, she is also paid for it. Sounds like a sweet deal but...Cinder returns. And she strikes back. ;)

Steampunk Review: 'Dark Currents' by Lindsay Buroker

Possible spoilers from 'The Emperor's Edge'.

Pauline's Review (posted 1/17/13)

This is the second in the ‘Emperor’s Edge’ series of steam-punk fantasy adventures with Amaranthe the female cop and her unlikely bunch of sidekicks. They're more at the entertaining romp end of the fantasy spectrum, and it probably doesn't pay to look too closely at the precise details of the plot, a fairly ramshackle affair which would fail any logic test, so anyone looking for great insight into the human condition or gritty realism should probably move swiftly on. But light-hearted fun is fine by me, and this delivers by the (steam powered) truck load.

Amaranthe and her pals are still avoiding the long arm of the law after the misunderstandings of the first book, but trying meanwhile to curry favour with the emperor by carrying out helpful clean-up operations on the less reputable elements of the city. So even though they spend their time breaking and entering, snooping around and trying (not always successfully) not to kill anybody, they are really on the side of the law. Sort of.

Steampunk Fantasy Review: 'Healer's Touch' by Deb E Howell

This is billed as a steampunk fantasy, but don’t be fooled. The steampunk elements are negligible. In reality, this is a romance with a fantasy background. Since the heroine is seventeen and there’s a bit of a love triangle, I suppose it’s YA, too. The book has perhaps the most cliché-riddled opening I've ever encountered. The main character is an orphan with mysterious powers. She makes a living on the streets as a pick-pocket [*], disguised as a boy. Despite the disguise, twice during the first couple of chapters she suffers violent attempted rapes. She is betrayed by a former friend, arrested for a murder she didn't commit, and condemned to death. But she escapes and manages to run away. It's all pretty familiar stuff. It just needs a prophecy, a magic sword and a quest to complete the set (maybe that comes later...). And yet, despite the predictability, I kept reading, which is, I suppose, a testament of sorts to the author's writing ability, if not her originality.

[*] Why oh why do orphaned children always end up on the streets in fantasyland, their only option thievery or prostitution? Did their parents have no friends who might help them out? Is the town so lawless that orphans are simply abandoned to their fate? Is there really no honest work to be had?

Historical Fantasy Review: 'Thirteen Years Later' (The Danilov Quintet 02) by Jasper Kent

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Aleksandr made a silent promise to the Lord. God would deliver him -- would deliver Russia -- and he would make Russia into the country that the Almighty wanted it to be. He would be delivered from the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and from the pestilence that walketh in darkness -- the terror by night.

1825, Europe -- and Russia -- have been at peace for a decade. Bonaparte is long dead and the threat of invasion is no more. For Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, life is peaceful. The French have been defeated, as have the twelve monstrous creatures he once fought alongside, and then against, all those years before. His duty is still to his tsar, Aleksandr the First, but today the enemy is merely human.
However the tsar himself knows he can never be at peace. He is well aware of the uprising fermenting within his own army, but his true fear is of something far more terrible -- something that threatens to bring damnation down upon him, his family and his country. Aleksandr cannot forget a promise: a promise sealed in blood... and broken a hundred years before.

Historical Fantasy Review: 'Twelve' by Jasper Kent

Synopsis:

On 12th June 1812, Napoleon's massive Grande Armee forded the River Niemen and by doing so crossed the proverbial Rubicon - the invasion of Russia had begun. In the face of superior numbers and tactics, the imperial Russian army began its fast retreat. But a handful of Russian officers - veterans of Borodino - are charged with trying to slow the enemy's inexorable march on Moscow. Indeed, one of their number has already set the wheels of resistance in motion, having summoned the help of a band of mercenaries from the outermost fringes of Christian Europe, Wallachia. They know everything about harrassing and defeating an enemy far more powerful than you and they are highly efficient.

The mercenaries are compared to the once-feared Russian secret police - the Oprichniki - and the name sticks. As rumours of plague travelling west from the Black Sea reach the Russians, the Oprichniki - but twelve in number - arrive. Preferring to work alone, and at night, the twelve prove brutally, shockingly effective against the French. But one amongst the Russians, Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, is unnerved by the Oprichniki's ruthlessness. As he comes to understand the true, horrific nature of these strangers, he wonders at the nightmare they've unleashed in their midst...

Fantasy Review: 'Sheepfarmer's Daughter' by Elizabeth Moon

I’m reading this in the omnibus edition, entitled ‘The Deed of Paksenarrion’, but I’ll review each of the the three volumes separately, for convenience. The series tells the story of Paksenarrion Dorthansdottir, or Paks for short, who runs away from her humble home to join Duke Phelan's army as a way of avoiding a marriage being forced on her by her father. This first book is about her training, her first battles and her involvement in the Duke's various military enterprises, and although it starts slowly with a lot of detail about training regimes and the like, it builds in time to a much pacier level. From the middle onwards I found it completely absorbing.

YA Paranormal Romance Review: 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' by Laini Taylor

Anachronist's Review:

Synopsis:

Meet Karou, a reclusive seventeen-year old art student who lives in Prague. She is a girl with incredible blue hair and a collection of strange tattoos, including one on each wrist (reading "True" and "Story") and open eyes (hamsas) in the centre of each palm. She draws fantastical creatures called chimaeras, made up of mish-mash body parts taken from different animals. She tells equally fantastic stories about them with a cynical grin and people think she just has colourful imagination like every artist. The problem is that these stories are true and she really leads a double life – something not always easy to combine, especially if you are a school- attending teenager and you'd rather hang out with your friends doing stuff...

Karou lives on the fringes of two words, never sure where she really belongs and who or what she is. Her chimaera family is hardly willing to reveal any secrets and more and more frequently her foster father, called Brimstone, sends her out on strange and dangerous missions around the globe to buy teeth of different creatures, human teeth among them, in underworld black markets. Karou brings them back to his secretive magical workshop but she is never told what he needs them for and why so many are needed at all. She becomes sick and tired of these missions and secrecy.

Fantasy Review: 'And All The Stars' by Andrea K Höst

Pauline's Review (posted 2/14/13)

I don't read many young adult books, but I do read everything by Andrea K Höst, so this was a must for me. It's the author's first venture into post-apocalypse fantasy, and it begins, literally, after the apocalypse - the very instant after, as main character Madeleine finds herself amidst rubble from a disintegrated underground station. Rubble and dust, in fact, vast amounts of dust which coat everything, including Madeleine herself. And as she makes her escape through the ruined station, she encounters the base of the Spire, a black spike, which has instantaneously risen into the Sydney skyline, along with numerous others all around the world.