Someone’s Read it Already

I knew very little about Faith Hunter when I started this book, except the fact that her name sounded like one of her characters. (What? She writes post-Apocalyptic fantasy, and her name is Faith Hunter. Legit, I think.) However, her website has informed me that she was born in the bayou and prefers fishing to cooking. She refers to her husband as the Renaissance Man, and apparently there’s even a role-playing game based on her world. Ms. Hunter is also a good friend (writing buddy?) of Kim Harrison, of Dead Witch Walking fame. There are two sequels to this novel.

Thorn St. Croix is a lapidary and jeweler in a post-Apocalyptic world. There are roughly four classes of beings: seraphs (or seraphim, depending on how formal you’re being), who came to the earth a hundred and some-odd years ago and started the Apocalypse; humans, who were pretty much wiped out by the plagues and whatnot; demons/spawn, who feed on human blood and live underground; and mages or neomages, who are (with the exception of Thorn) all licensed, registered, and hidden away in Enclaves where they are called upon occasionally. Thorn herself is a neomage, but she is a refugee from the Enclaves. She’ll die if she stays there. Anyway, Thorn’s very recently ex-husband is kidnapped, and of course she’s a suspect. Can she keep her secret hidden and still help them figure out what’s going on? (more…)

A month or so ago, I reviewed the first half of this duology, and was awfully mad for not having the second half right away. Well, yesterday it was released (today, as I’m writing this), and of course I purchased it (here) and read it right away. I got it in HTML format, which is generally my preferred e-book format; for those who dislike e-books, it should be out in paperback form in a year or so. (You can see why I got the e-book.) I probably don’t need to introduce Sherwood Smith, based on the number of her books that I’ve previously reviewed, but in any case, she’s a SoCal fantasy author whose works range from middle-grade readers (the Wren books) to adult (the Inda books).

This volume follows immediately on the heels of the previous one, and the same storylines dominate. Sasha’s mother was born on Earth, in the 20th century, but she went through the World Gate to live on Sartorias-deles (a pre-industrial world with magic) and marry a prince; they had Sasha, and then civil unrest started. Sasha’s father disappeared, and Sasha and her mother went to hide on Earth. At the beginning of the previous volume, they go back to Sartorias-deles (specifically a country called Khanerenth) unwillingly; from there they are thrown back into the mess of politics and have to try to unravel what’s going on. (more…)

[Sherwood Smith's Twice a Prince is released today. Hopefully review tomorrow!]

Apparently Tobias Druitt is the pseudonym of Diane Purkiss and Michael Dowling; they’re mother and son. She’s an Oxford tutor (professor-type); he’s thirteen (probably fifteen by now) and supposedly a Child Genius. They have published a trilogy (of the which this is the first book) and are working on a next book that involves Tarot cards. This volume was released in 2005; the following volumes came out in 2006 and 2007. Diane Purkiss apparently enjoys baking bread, and Michael Dowling’s favorite colors are dark red and black, because they’re macabre.

Corydon is, so he thinks, a normal shepherd boy, but he has one goat leg, and his city threw him out as a scapegoat because of this. He gets captured by pirates shortly after that — pirates who are putting together a freak show full of monsters. There end up being about ten monsters on the island, including Medusa, the sphinx, and Lady Nagaina (who has five heads). Eventually Corydon helps them escape, but the leader of the pirates finds Perseus and convinces him that there’s a good reason to go kill all the monsters. Thus begins a war. At the same time, Corydon is trying to figure out who he is, since he’d never really considered it very much before then. Why does he have a goat-leg, and why do so many people feel that he’s the prophesied one? (more…)

Charles de Lint is one of my favorite authors; I own at least one copy of nearly everything he’s written. (Between Ben and me we have three copies of Moonheart, but that’s a different story.) He’s written at least a little bit in nearly every speculative-fiction genre, but his vast favorite is urban or mythic fantasy. (See my reviews of his works here. Yes, there are a couple extraneous reviews in there, but scroll down a bit.) Most of his recent urban fantasies are set in Newford, his fictional North American city, but several of his early volumes were set in Ottawa and Toronto: real Canadian cities. The following volume was one of his early mythic/urban fantasties, and it’s set in Ottawa.

Cat Midhir is a best-selling fantasy writer; she lives an extreme of the writer’s life, though. She has very few friends and rarely leaves her apartments. However, her fantasy works are incredible and have gotten her a very large fan base. Her great secret, though, is that her inspiration comes from dreams: very vivid dreams that she feels as if she experiences firsthand. However, recently these dreams have stopped, and she finds herself with a case of writer’s block; she simply cannot write without the dreams. Why has she stopped having these dreams? And why is she getting dark dreams, dreams that contain a shadowy dark stalker? (more…)

This is another entry in Donna Jo Napoli’s collection of retold fairy tales; I reviewed another (actually a Greek myth) here. Ms. Napoli (most like Dr. Napoli) is a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College. She has written a good deal of novels for children and young adults; none for adults, but that’s certainly not a problem. Her novels have been translated into languages as diverse as Farsi and Thai; she has won many awards, but none of the biggest ones (yet). She owns a tuxedo cat named Taxi, which definitely improves my opinion of her.

Prince Orasmyn is the son of the Shah of Persia; he is symbolically a religious leader as well. He has chosen to help with a ritual sacrifice, and when, at the last minute, they discover that the animal has a scar, he decides it’s okay. It’s not okay, though; it’s against the rules of Islam, and a spirit (a djinn in Arabic, but a pari in Farsi) rebukes him for harming the poor animal (who had already been harmed) and turns him into a lion. He will not be returned to human form until he can find a human woman who loves him. How will he ever make that happen? He cannot speak — he’s a beast! (more…)

[Happy birthday, Dad!]

I honestly thought I hadn’t read this book before; it was still in my head as ‘a book I need to read’, so when I found an inexpensive paperback copy, I grabbed it PDQ. Then, of course, I read the first twenty pages and thought, “This sounds awfully familiar.” I guess I did read it, or at least the first part of it, at one point a few years ago, but luckily I didn’t remember every single part of it. Edith Pattou is American; an Ohioan, to be precise (like me!); she has written two other YA books and one picture book. I don’t see that the third book in the YA trilogy ever got published, which is unfortunate.

(Ebba) Rose is the last of eight children; her mother is superstitious about birth direction, so all eight children were born facing different points on the compass rose. Rose, however, was not the east-born child they told her she was; she was actually a north-born, but her mother does not want to believe it because of a prophecy. The prophecy said that a north-born child of hers would die covered in ice and snow after a long journey. When Rose was old enough to make her own decisions, the family had a good deal of misfortune. Their (rented) farm was sold out from under them; an older daughter, Sara, became ill as well. However, a white bear (polar bear) comes and says that if Rose comes to live with him, their troubles will be ended. Rose’s mother is certain this will lead to her death, but the bear promises her safety. So Rose goes. Will she be safe? And why does the bear want her to live with him? (more…)

I reviewed three of Tanya Huff’s books last week (here’s the first one); those three were among her most recent novels, and urban fantasy. She has, of course, written serious fantasy, serious science fiction, humorous fantasy, urban fantasy, high fantasy, short stories, and a partridge in a pear tree; she’s also sold books. Most recently she had an early-90s series of novels turned into a TV series; I discussed that a bit in the introduction to last Monday’s book. She was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and although she didn’t live there very long, she still considers herself a Maritime Provinces person.

This novel is set in a country called Ischia; they believe in ten or so gods, nine above and one below. The capital is set right near a volcano; there’s a gem, the titular fire’s stone, that keeps the volcano (with a lot of magic) from erupting and ruining the entire city. Darvish is a prince of that city; Aaron is a thief who broke into the royal palace to steal a giant emerald; Chandra is the princess of an adjoining realm that was sent over to marry Darvish at some point in the near future. Unfortunately, then the Stone gets stolen, and while those three people aren’t very fond of each other — Darvish is a drunk, Chandra is very young and arrogant, and Aaron is traumatized and suicidal — they’re chosen (or choose themselves) to go find it. (more…)

Tanith Lee has written something like fifty books, primarily for adults, but in the last ten years or so, she’s been writing quite a few for young adults. I first encountered her YA books with the early ones, which were titled Black Unicorn, Gold Unicorn, and Red Unicorn. A good deal of what she writes for adults is in the dark fantasy or borderline horror realm, and there were some odd things about those books (although they were very pretty). She is British, and not the daughter of Bernard Lee (”M”, from the first fifteen or so James Bond movies), although Wikipedia insists that’s a persistent rumor. (Not one I’ve heard.)

Miss Artemisia Faith (or Fitz-Willoughby Weatherhouse) is a student in a girls’ school in an alternate England, around the turn of the nineteenth century. She was not terribly miserable there, until one day when she hits her head and it jogs all her memories loose: memories of her mother, Molly Faith, called Piratica — the greatest female pirate of her day. Now, of course, she’s miserable in a place that makes her powder over the streak in her hair; that makes her walk around with a book on her head in a dress when she should be taking over her mother’s position (Molly passed away, which was how she got stuck in that school). She escapes pretty easily, and now her goal is to get the band (the pirate troupe) back together. (more…)

Let’s see. Monday, I reviewed book 1. Wednesday, I reviewed book 2. Today, unsurprisingly, we get book 3. I wish they would make this series into a TV show, because, well, it’s about a TV show, and it’s written in a rather cinematic fashion. Anyway, another recap: Tanya Huff is a Canadian author; she wrote these vampire books that got made into a TV show called Blood Ties; she took a recurring secondary character from that series and gave him his own series. She’s going to be at Polaris (a sf con in Toronto) this upcoming weekend; unfortunately I cannot make it.

Tony’s been promoted to trainee assistant director on Darkest Night, the low-ish budget vampire detective show he’s been working on for nearly a year. (Oh, come on; that’s not a real spoiler.) Unfortunately, since they didn’t replace his old position, that doesn’t mean much. In any case, a stuntwoman named Leah comes in to fall off a building for them, and he sees something weird behind her head — a silhouette of a very large man with antlers. What’s going on? And why is Lee (the ridiculously attractive costar) acting so strangely? (more…)

This was another book I picked up on the recommendation of The Ben (my fiance, for those not caught up). Gerald Morris is a born-Californian who now lives in Wisconsin, which may explain some of the appeal to Ben. He has written a series of perhaps a dozen books for middle-grade readers about Sir Gawain, mostly through the eyes of Sir Gawain’s squire, Terence. He’s just recently started a second series for even younger readers (according to Wikipedia).

Terence is living with a hermit with memories of the future when a young man of great knightly skill stops by. After a very bizarre fight involving a frying pan, the young man — Gawain of Orkney, shortly to become Sir Gawain of the Round Table — agrees to take Terence on as his squire. They travel to Camelot and, after Gawain is knighted, receive a quest from King Arthur. They leave, and go around the countryside having adventures that range from the truly dangerous to the truly bizarre to the truly fantastic. (more…)