Category Archives: Books

Mercedes Lackey’s The Sleeping Beauty

In the Five Hundred Kingdoms, fairy tales are alive and well, thanks to the power of the Tradition. Like an all-powerful theatre producer, it makes sure that things go according to certain tropes and themes. Princes are handsome and noble, … Continue reading

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C. Dombrowski’s Growing Dread

It is easy for the casual reader to get lost in the maze of literary movements declaring themselves one flavor of “-punk” or another. Cyberpunk and splatterpunk may have kicked it off back in the 80s, but more recent times … Continue reading

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James A. Hetley’s The Summer Country

The fiddle chased him and pounced, and then the two instruments rolled around like a pair of kittens playing with a catnip mouse. A flute joined in, and the ball of fur turned into rambunctious reel, one Brian had never … Continue reading

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Midori Snyder’s The Flight of Michael McBride

Once, long ago when the Tuatha Da Danann rode their fairy horses over the green hills, a mortal man fell in love with Etian, the second and much-neglected wife of Midhir, King of the Fairy Hill of Bri Leith. This … Continue reading

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Harlan Ellison’s Deathbird Stories

Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison first appeared in the mid-1970s. I’m sure I must have read them then — I was quite assiduously following the break-through writers of the British and American New Waves, as well as those feminist writers … Continue reading

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Philip José Farmer, The Magic Labyrinth

The Magic Labyrinth is the fourth and penultimate book in Philip José Farmer’s sprawling Riverworld series, in which loose ends are tied together and a grand resolution is — well, not accomplished, but the end is nigh. The chase upRiver … Continue reading

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Jim Butcher, Ghost Story

Note: For those of you who have not read the previous Dresden Files novel, Changes, this review is one big spoiler – no way to avoid it. Go ahead and get caught up on the series, then come back and check this … Continue reading

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Glen Cook: Surrender to the Will of the Night

Surrender to the Will of the Night is the third volume in Glen Cook’s The Instrumentalities of the Night, and everything I said about the first two volumes holds true here. It’s just become refined, distilled, and that much more … Continue reading

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Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks

“When Faerie and my world intersect, does anything good ever come of it?” Three ways to tell that it just isn’t your day: 1. You messily break up with your boyfriend, a complete jerk whose idea of managing the band … Continue reading

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William Gibson’s Zero History

Zero History is the third book in William Gibson’s series that began with Pattern Recognition and continued in Spook Country. The best-selling series brought Gibson out of the ghetto of genre fiction into the limelight of more mainstream fiction, which … Continue reading

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