Fantasy Book News & Reviews

Choosing What Books NOT to Read for Politically Incorrect Reasons

2008-08-08T13:25:00.003-05:00

I had a hard time coming up with a title for this post, so forgive the title above if it doesnt make much sense. I got the idea for this post from a thread on the SFF World forum here. I'll start this by stating this topic could be inflammatory, but hopefully you will see the spirit behind the post after you read the entire thing. I also hope this post doesnt kill the blog, but it is an

Diary Review: Before They Are Hanged Part 1

2008-08-07T13:13:00.002-05:00

I enjoyed The Blade Itself so much, I had to continue with the second book in The First Law Trilogy, Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. Part 1 of this review covers the first 185 pages of the US trade pb edition. -Overall, so far so good. I think its about the same, quality-wise, as The Blade Itself. No drop off in reading enjoyment for me yet. At the same time, I don't think this book

Review Index Updated, and a new Blog to check out

2008-08-06T09:25:00.002-05:00

I updated the review index yesterday to add reviews from my blogroll from the last 3 weeks. If you have a blog and think I missed your review, shoot me an email and I will add it (keep in mind i still only link to epic/heroic/high fantasy). If you know of a site I should add, let me know that also. In other news, I got an email from the guy who runs the Sci Fi Songs blog. Its a pretty

Diary Review: The Blade Itself Part 3 (Final)

2008-08-04T13:06:00.003-05:00

Below is the third and final diary review of The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. For more information and what a diary review is, see my attempt at an explanation here Links to the previous entries in my The Blade Itself review: Part 1 and Part 2. -I'll start off with the one "negative" opinion I have on this book, and it revolves around the plot. Like i mentioned earlier, while i wouldnt

Diary Review: The Blade Itself Part 2

2008-08-01T08:26:00.002-05:00

This diary will be rather short. I had to travel to Atlanta this week for work. I normally work from home, with the occasional trip to Atlanta for face to face meetings. So, while traveling, I have actually had less time than normal for reading. I don't have a lot of thoughts to add since the Part 1 review. But, I am having such a good time reading The Blade Itself (Joe Abercrombie) that i wanted

Harry Potter book of Fairy Tales comining in December

2008-08-01T07:40:00.003-05:00

I got an email from Borders last night, about a new Harry Potter book being published in December. It is a book of fairy tales called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. More info can be found on the Borders site here

So I Bought the Bilsborough Book (Reviewing Bad Books on Purpose)

2008-07-30T16:38:00.003-05:00

On impulse today while at Barnes and Noble, I picked up The Wanderer's Tale by David Bilsborough. Yeah, I know this author made some idiotic comments about the fantasy genre, and 90% of the reviews say the book isnt just bad, but thats its horrible. But, with this diary review format, I thought it might be fun to review, and get into a more detailed view of what makes the book so bad (including

Diary Review: The Blade Itself Part 1

2008-07-29T10:43:00.002-05:00

This review was a little slow coming, seeing that I am over halfway through the book now (the book in question: The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie). The biggest reason for this is that i didnt want to take any free time away from reading it. So..here is part 1 of the diary review. I imagine there will be just 3 parts this time (or maybe just 2, depending on how quickly I finish the book). This

Diary Review: Elantris Part 4 (Final)

2008-07-22T13:55:00.003-05:00

Here is the final installment of my diary review of Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. It covers Chapter 49 through the end of the book. Previous entries: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Even though this is the final entry for Elantris, I don't plan on doing a long recap of the previous entries. They are meant to be combined to form one evolving review. Now, on to the review! -Man, a lot of stuff happens

Diary Review: Elantris Part 3

2008-07-21T10:02:00.003-05:00

Click here to view Part 1 and Part 2 This review covers chapters 25-48 and as always, will be as spoiler-free as possible. -Overall, I continue to be really impressed with this book. I have mentioned that it started out at a high level for me, and in these chapters, it actually went up another notch. While I wouldnt say there are any slow spots, things are really picking up even more in the 2nd

Diary Review: Elantris Part 2

2008-07-18T15:02:00.002-05:00

This part of the review covers chapters 17-24. Also, i will try to keep this spoiler free, so some comments will be necessarily vague. I could be more specific at times, but it would mean giving away plot elements, which i dont want to do. -Still enjoying the book very much. I wouldnt say necessarily that it has gotten better, but thats mostly due to the fact that it started at a high level for

Diary Review: Elantris Day 1

2008-07-16T14:06:00.003-05:00

To keep my reputation intact on this blog, I am playing around with yet another review format...number 103 or something. If you have followed this blog, you recently heard me lement my lack of posts. I am only an average reader, so a 600+ page book might take me a week or more to read (depending on how the baby is doing). This means it could be 7+ days between posts. So, to solve that, I had the

This is more like it (Elantris)

2008-07-14T13:31:00.003-05:00

Just a quick post since i have been quiet for a few days. With summer activities going on, its hard to find the time to do a lot of reading. After tonight, both of my softball teams' seasons will be over, so i should have my reading time back to normal starting tomorrow. I am around 100 pages into Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson, and really enjoying it! Very well written so far, I like the

Couldn't Finish It: The Crimson Sword (including another rant)

2008-07-08T13:16:00.003-05:00

I've spent the last 10 days or so reading The Crimson Sword and have decided to put it down for a bit. It started pretty well I thought. I saw the similiarities to The Sword of Shannara, but they didnt bother me (though having a character named Allion was a bit too much). The first 300 pages went well. I liked the character development of Jarom, and thought his reactions to his changing situation

New Site Indexed: Strange Horizons

2008-07-08T12:50:00.002-05:00

Thanks to a tip from Larry, I browsed the review section of Strange Horizons, and added their epic fantasy reviews from Jan 2007 to present to the review index. Also..i forgot to post a message last week stating the blog would be quiet while i was on vacation. We took our 7 month old to Chicago to meet her 92 year old great-grandmother. It was a good trip, and we got some pics of the 2 of them

Ebook news: Time Master Trilogy

2008-07-02T13:05:00.002-05:00

As of this week, all 3 books in Louise Cooper's Time Master Trilogy are available in ebook form at Fictionwise here I remember really liking this series when i read it back in the 1980s. I also remember that it was kinda different in a good way (not sure of the details). I think i will plan on reading it and reviewing it here. I'll try to mix it in with the Eldon Thompson series this month.

New site Indexed: Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' Book Reviews

2008-06-30T14:41:00.002-05:00

I added some new reviews to the review index this afternoon. I browsed through all the epic fantasy reviews (adult books) on the Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin Book Reviews site and added links to their reviews in the index. that brings the total number of review links to 639..covering a total of 336 books. I hope to update the index again tomorrow with reviews from the other blogs i follow, so that I

Review: Heroics for Beginners by John Moore

2008-06-25T12:19:00.002-05:00

Heroics for Beginners is kinda a throwback novel. Those of you who have been reading fantasy for 25 years might remember the mini comic fantasy boom of the lates 1980s and early 1990s. During that period there were several comedic fantasy series published. Among them were books by Robert Aspirin, Piers Anthony, Craig Shaw Gardner, Esther Freisner, John DeChancie, etc. In addition to being funny,

Review: The Legend Of Huma by Richard A Knaak

2008-06-23T12:58:00.002-05:00

Dragonlance books aren't generally received with a lot of enthusiasm on most fantasy message boards or blogs. Most of them look down on any books in the series with a bit of disdain. Having said that, many of the books have earned that reputation. Bad Dragonlance books are, as a whole, a bit worse than bad non-shared world fantasy books (I can only imagine the horror if the Redemption of Althalus

James Barclay Updates

2008-06-19T14:38:00.003-05:00

I found a recent interview with James Barclay online here. A couple of pieces of news from that interview: 1) The next Raven book, Ravensoul, comes out in November. It is set 10 years after Demonstorm. 2) He has signed up for a trilogy about the Elves of Calaius, which will take place a couple of thousand years before the Raven books. I haven read the Raven books yet...i really need to cough

Tagged twice

2008-06-19T08:51:00.003-05:00

Well, since I have been tagged by Neth at Neth Space and Kristen at Fantasy Care, i better play along! I will pick the 5th sentence on page 123 of the book I am reading, since it is closest. From the Legend of Huma (which i should have reviewed by Saturday): The knight heard a crash behind him and dared a quick glance. I believe everyone i would have tagged has already been tagged, so I won't

Do Bloggers Give "Honest" Reviews?

2008-06-17T13:20:00.003-05:00

First, I know with a title like that it sounds like an attack, but hang with me (especially you fellow bloggers) and hopefully I'll be able to explain the statement/question. This was prompted in part by reading Pat's "Hype" article. Buried in the comments of that post was a comment by Richard Morgan, basically calling Pat out by saying that Pat's final grade (and summary comments) didn't match

Review: The Right Hand of God by Russell Kirkpatrick

2008-06-16T13:20:00.002-05:00

The Right Hand of God is the 3rd in the Fire of Heaven Trilogy by Russell Kirkpatrick. You can find my review of book 1, here. I read book 2 about a month ago, but don't remember enough of the details to post a good review of it. You can find the prologue and part of chapter 1, here. What I Liked: -The depth of the world and its history continued to impress. So did the descriptive details of

Thanks for the feedback, and a question...

2008-06-12T09:03:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all who left encouraging comments. I think I will try to keep this thing going for awhile longer, even if I don't have much in the way to offer in content other than reviews. And just to clear up my previous post a bit, i wasnt considering blog retirement because of the lack of ARCs. Yeah, i had hoped to receive some as a side benefit, but the bigger issue i was trying to mention was

Contemplating this blog's retirement

2008-06-06T13:23:00.002-05:00

I know I havent posted much lately, i've been having trouble deciding what to do with this blog. I still enjoy (mostly) having this blog and writing reviews..I just cant decide if the work involved is worth it. I started this blog about 9 months ago with the hopes of sharing my thoughts on epic fantasy books. I was far from one of the first to have a blog like this, but even in the last 9 months,