Fantasy Archives - Page 12 of 21

Heir to the Shadows by Anne Bishop: Book Review

Definite spoilers for Daughter of the Blood. At the end of the first book, Jaenelle is broken and Daemon isn't in much better shape. Jaenelle has to heal in this book and come to terms with what she is. Luckily, she's surrounded by caring friends who are willing to protect her and push her as needed. I truly wanted to give this one 5 stars. Again, it grabbed me and just did not let go. But there were a few more things that I couldn't overlook. To start with, I was a little more aware in this book that the writing could have been more polished. I can't think of an example, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Also, this one felt more like a young adult book. The focus of the first book was mostly Daemon, a grown man. The focus of this one is a teenage Jaenelle, so the tone has gone backwards a little bit. As happens sometimes in trilogies, this second book felt like filler. The author wrapped up a few threads from the first book and set up the conflict for the third book, but there wasn't a whole lot of actual new, necessary stuff going on in this book. The big thing was that the book felt very episodic. There wasn't a great flow. I would finish one chapter/story, and in the next chapter, two years had passed and another little story was being told. It would take me a page or two to figure out when the story was happening. That was the bad stuff, but there was still lots of good things going on. I love these main characters. Daemon wasn't seen as much in this one, but we did get to see more of Lucivar. I do…

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs: Book Review

**Possible spoilers for Moon Called** Mercedes Thompson is a mechanic who just happens to walk in two worlds. There's the mundane world where she spends her time fixing VWs, and there's the supernatural world that she was born into. See, Mercy is a walker. She can shift into coyote form at will. She's not as physically strong as a werewolf, but she has other strengths to make up for it. So when local vampire Stefan needs some unobtrusive help in sniffing out a new vampire in town who is poaching on his seethe's turf, he asks Mercy to shift and go with him. They both get more than they bargained for. This vampire is unknown, and so must be fairly young, but his strength is unimaginable. He is wreaking havoc in the Tri-cities, and it's going to take more than one vampire and a shifter to bring him down. I like Mercy a lot. (And I loathe these covers. Loathe them, I tell you.) It would be very, very easy to fall in with the local werewolf pack and start to lose her independence. She has fought hard to gain that independence and she fights hard to keep it. It's just so hard to keep fighting when the werewolves are so damn sexy. I would purr if that were appropriate when talking about werewolves. Adam is hot and a great alpha. He doesn't just throw his weight around and beat on those who are submissive to him. He cares for them and tries to be is a true leader. Samuel is a little outside the local pack, for some very complicated reasons, but he is every bit as dominant as Adam is. And he's Mercy's roommate. And they have a history. *Arching of the eyebrow here.* *Shakes head* Anyway. Enough…

Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith: Book Review

Three Bones, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone, are run out of Boneville after Phoney Bone tries to pull a scam on the townspeople. They get separated in a desert. Fone Bone, the most honest of the bunch, eventually finds marooned in a beautiful valley. All is not as peaceful as it appears, however. There are rat creatures trying to eat Fone Bone and an enigmatic dragon who keeps saving his skin. This has potential, but it didn't really get anywhere in this first installment. I had more questions when I finished it than I did when I started it. I can't think of one question that got answered. That's the biggest reason I rated this three stars. I did like the artwork. It reminded me of the cartoons I watched as a child. I don't really have anything else to say. I don't feel like I know enough about what's going on to add anything else. Readers more patient than I am will probably like this more than I did. I just want to have something explained. Find author Jeff Smith on his blog and Facebook. Buy Bone: Out from Boneville at Malaprop’s | Better World Books I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale

Take Rapunzel and plunk her down smack-dab in the middle of a Louis L'Amour book and you have the gist of this fun graphic novel. The framework of Rapunzel is here. Hungry mom, eager-to-please dad, evil witch, girl with crazy-long hair in a tower. But that's about where the similarities end. See, Rapunzel doesn't want a prince to come along and rescue her. Oh, no. She wants revenge. And she's perfectly capable of serving it up all by herself, thankyouverymuch. This was a lot of fun, and I can't give a real reason for knocking it back to three stars. Maybe it just veered a little too far away from the original? Or maybe Rapunzel was unrealistically self-sufficient? The girl was locked away in a tower for years, but she can kick some ass without even thinking about it. Now that I'm thinking about it more, it jumped around a little too much. Of course Rapunzel has lots of adventures, but there was nothing in between. It just jumped from castle to tower to town to ranch with very little transition. I think that's what bothered me the most. And Rapunzel's hayseed way of talking got a little old. There was a lot that I did like though. I liked that Rapunzel was a strong young woman. Her partner-in-revenge, Jack, was a charming rake. He doesn't think too much about stealing to get by, but Rapunzel knocks some morals into his head. I mostly loved the illustrations, although I never looked at them quite the same way after my husband asked me, in all seriousness, "Why is there a string of sausages on the cover of your book?" I liked that we got an explanation for the extraordinary length of Rapunzel's hair. I liked that Rapunzel's revenge wasn't just about…

Just After Sunset by Stephen King: Book Review

Warning! This review will be incredibly long because I find it impossible to review a collection of short stories without reviewing each story. Feel free to move along. Overall, this was not a typical Stephen King short story collection. His short stories generally give me nightmares. There were a few horror stories in here, but really he was exploring the post-9/11 world, grief, loss, and the afterlife. Some of his efforts were more successful than others, but the ones that worked really worked for me. "Willa"--3 stars--A young couple on their way to San Francisco are waiting at a train depot for another train after theirs derails. This story was just sort of eerie. King is so great at setting a mood that you realize right away that something's not quite right, but mostly this story just felt like page filler. "The Gingerbread Girl"--5 stars--A young woman runs to escape her grief, and then a nightmare. This one was straight-up suspense. I found my shoulders tensed and my body hunched over as I read this one. It's amazing to me that an author can do that in so few pages. "Harvey's Dream"--3 stars--A man on the brink of retirement tells his wife about a terrible dream he had the night before. It was well-written, but I just didn't care. "Rest Stop"--4 stars--A mild mystery writer overhears a disturbing argument at a rest stop late one night and must decide what to do about it. This one left me wondering what I would do in his shoes. There's some exploration of the hidden depths we carry around inside that we hope we never tap into. A good "makes-you-think" story. "Stationary Bike"--A man creates more than he thinks when he paints himself a picture to help pass the time as he rides…

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher: Book Review

4 Stars. I have to admit that this book spooked me a little. Not too bad, but I wasn't expecting to be spooked at all. There are, I believe, four different kinds of werewolves running around Chicago, each scarier than the last. And holy cow. The worst is just--man. He's a monster. So after finding myself out [...]

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater: Book Review

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR SHIVER** You have got to be kidding me. This is where it ends? Beck has made some new wolves to care for the pack now that the older members are not shifting into humans anymore. One of the new wolves is Cole St. Clair, a gorgeous rock star. It's not exactly easy for him to blend into the crowd, especially when his body just won't stay in the shape of a wolf. Sam feels that he has to watch Cole to make sure that he doesn't take the pack with him in one of his self-destructive moods. And then there's Grace. Something's just not right. She's running a fever, she's got a headaches, she aches all over, but doctors can't find anything wrong with her. Confession: I have been walking around with that "Linger" song by The Cranberries circling, maddeningly, through my head. It just dawned on me yesterday that it's because of this book. Doh. Anyway. This hooked me. There is some teen angst in here, which generally irritates me, but these teens have issues to be genuinely angsty about. I would be more irritated if they were happy and perky. Grace and Sam--hmm. I really am rooting for them, and I really do like reading about them as a couple, but neither really grabs me as an individual. Grace is the center of a lot of things, but it doesn't seem like she actually does a whole lot. I think I liked Sam slightly more in this book than I did in Shiver. He's not quite as Sensitive. In other words, he's starting to grow a spine. I do love Cole and Isabel. I didn't really know that I still had a thing for rock stars, but apparently I do. Cole, even with his sarcasm,…

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Young Tristran Thorn (who's birth is maybe not as...aboveboard...as Victorian society would like) is desperately in love with Victoria Forester. He screws up his courage one night to ask her to kiss him or marry him or just--something! He is met with laughter. In desperation, he offers to slay dragons and bring back treasures for her, each adventure more outlandish than the last. Finally, as they see a shooting star, he offers to bring back the fallen star for her. She accepts. And so Tristran goes over the Wall for which his village is named and into Fairyland. Tristran is woefully unprepared for what he finds there, but he's an adaptable boy. Maybe suspiciously adaptable? He finds the star and sets off with her toward home and Victoria. That's right--her. In fairyland, the stars are beautiful young women. Tristran's particular star is named Yvaine, and she is unwilling to help him on his quest for true love. Other, more sinister, people are looking for her as well, and many an adventure and near-miss follow. I have loved this book since I first read it when it was a new book at my local library. I had to have my own copy, and this has to be at least the third or fourth time I've re-read it. I love the adventure and the unexpected romance, the ghosts of Stormhold, the desperate witch, the humor, the quirky inhabitants of Fairy, and the way that wishes granted rarely turn out as we expect. Tristran grows so much as a character. He goes from a shallow boy whose head is turned by a beautiful face, to a man who places others' happiness before his own. He follows Gaiman's own Instructions about offering aid or accepting help as the situation dictates and finds that things…

The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint

Ash is a teenage girl who is angry at the world. Angry at her mom for dying and leaving her alone. Angry at her dad for refusing to take her in. And especially angry at her cousin Nina for having everything. That kind of anger inevitably draws attention. The problem is, the spirit who first noticed Ash's anger is now focused on Nina. Can Ash figure out what is going on and find it in her heart to save her cousin? This has always been one of my least favorite of de Lint's books. Much as I love his work, I'm usually disappointed in his young adult novels. I love his books for his characters and I never relate to the teens very well. I don't know if it's just me or if he truly doesn't develop them as well. In this case, Ash is a pretty typical troubled teen and Nina is a pretty typical goody-two-shoes. So maybe it is him... Anyway, there's nothing terribly new here, although it was nice to come across the first references to Cassie and Bones. The underlying hope and faith in human decency that I consider another hallmark of de Lint are also here. The world can always use more stories about forgiveness, love, and the power to change for the better, right? I wouldn't recommend this to a new de Lint reader, but fans should definitely read it. Read my review of the first book set in Newford, Dreams Underfoot. Read an excerpt. Find author Charles de Lint on his website, Twitter, and Facebook. Buy The Dreaming Place at Malaprop’s | Better World Books I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no…

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

Kendra and Seth have been shipped off to stay with their dad's parents, the grandparents they barely know. Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson rarely show up for visits and they never invite the family for a visit. But when there's no one else to turn to, they reluctantly agree to let Kendra and Seth stay with them for about three weeks. They find out that things are not quite what they seem at their grandparents' house. They've been forbidden to enter the woods. Insects gather in droves around a mirror left outside. Seth finds a crazy old witch living in a shack when he decides to explore the woods on his own. And Grandma Sorenson is nowhere to be found. Just what is going on at Fablehaven? I loved this book. It seems like it's been a while since a book grabbed me so hard. I just wanted everything else to be put on hold so I could finish reading. I love the whole concept of havens for fairy tale creatures. Of course their lives would be getting hard in our quickly-shrinking world. And of course there would be people who want to offer them all--good and bad--sanctuary. What a cool place to visit! What a fun idea to read about! I liked Kendra and related to her a lot. I would not have been venturing into the forest after I was told not to. I would have been frustrated with my fearless younger brother. And speaking of younger brothers--Seth irritated the heck out of me. He was too much of a rule-breaker. At first, it was just sort of "Oh, my gosh, how irritating. Glad he's not my younger brother!" Then, after he should have learned his lesson in a very hard way and he's still breaking rules, I had…