Archive for October, 2008
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Gypsy Rizka, by Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Alexander is one of the grandmasters of children’s fantasy; he started publishing back around the time of the early Madeleine L’Engle and Susan Cooper books, and continued right up until his death last year. I’ve read several of his books prior to starting this blog — the Prydain chronicles and the Westmark trilogy, arguably [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy by Stephanie
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
Thin Air (Weather Wardens, book 6), by Rachel Caine
Do I even need to introduce Rachel Caine anymore? She’s written a lot of books, and I’ve read the majority of them (at least the ones published under ‘Rachel Caine’). I’ve also, so far, reviewed four of her Morganville Vampires series (here, here, here, and here) and five of her Weather Wardens series (here, here, [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in book reviews,fantasy by Stephanie
Monday, October 13th, 2008
The Singing (Pellinor, book 4), by Alison Croggon
I’ve reviewed the other three books in this series — the Books of Pellinor — previously, here, here, and here. Smart readers might recall that I particularly adored the first book; I liked the second and third books well enough, but I thought The Naming (or The Gift in the UK) was outstanding. This book [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy by Stephanie
Friday, October 10th, 2008
The Lion Tamer’s Daughter, and Other Stories by Peter Dickinson
Peter Dickinson is an award-winning speculative fiction author, primarily for YAs and middle-grade readers. He lives in England, as it says in the bio at the back of the book, with his second wife. I only mention her because, well, his second wife is Robin McKinley. There really is a frightening amount of talent and [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy by Stephanie
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Firebirds, edited by Sharyn November
Firebird is an imprint of Penguin (Puffin) Publishers; it was founded in 1999 when Sharyn November had the idea to release books specifically aimed at all the young-adult types who had been telling her how much they enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy, and how they had to go to the adult section to find [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy,science fiction by Stephanie
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
The Best of Michael Swanwick, by Michael Swanwick
Today’s short story collection, with a title like “The Best of,” represents another kind of short story collection: the retrospective, or career-spanning collection. These stories represent twenty-seven years’ worth of Michael Swanwick’s career, including five Hugo-Award-winning stories produced over the span of only six years. Mr. Swanwick is, according to his blurb, one of the [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in book reviews,fantasy,horror,science fiction by Stephanie
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
A Wizard’s Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic, edited by Michael Stearns
Here, today, we spotlight a different kind of short story collection: an anthology, where each story is written by a different person. The main theme of this anthology seems merely to be fantasy stories. Each story is original to this volume, which was originally published in 1993; there are thirteen of them. Michael Stearns is [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy by Stephanie
Monday, October 6th, 2008
Instead of Three Wishes, by Megan Whalen Turner
Last week was Small Press Week II. I enjoyed it a lot; I read a good deal of books that I would not otherwise have found, and they were all excellent. Some were even spectacular. In any case, I decided that I kind of like themed weeks, so this week (which will probably be the [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy by Stephanie
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Bite Me, a Demonic Underground novel, by Parker Blue
Our final publisher for this week is BelleBooks, or more specifically their Bell Bridge imprint. BelleBooks publishes specifically Southern fiction (Southern Fried Fiction, as their tagline says), and this imprint is to go beyond that and publish fantasy, horror, and YA, among other things. The imprint was only started in July of this year, and [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy by Stephanie
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Song of Time, by Ian MacLeod
PS Publishing is another British small press; they’ve been in business since 1997, with their first four books released in 1999. In 2008, they have or will have released thirty-one books. They’ve one six British Fantasy Awards, as well as one World Fantasy award and various other awards from horror organizations and guilds. They have [...]