reviews

Blood & Iron (Elizabeth Bear)

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Blood & IronElizabeth Bear The first and second acts are lovely; the third falls apart a bit, as if disintegrating into fibres. This is probably a direct result of the way the first and second build up, giving you all this backstory about the Dragon Princes — my favorite scene, I think, is the one where Elaine is telling the Merlin about all the previous Dragon Princes, because it’s so much history, so tightly compacted. Because it seems as if the first and second acts are focused around Keith, as the Dragon Prince, and to a lesser extent, Carel, as […]

Owlsight & Owlflight (Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon)

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Owlsight; OwlflightMercedes Lackey &Larry Dixon This is not really a new book, but the last time I read it was when I was in 9th grade. My general impression of it hasn’t changed, however — I still have no patience for the way the characters stand around gabbing endlessly to themselves, mental soliloquies like woah. At one point Darian says to Tyrsell, a dyheli who can actually hear this mental roundabout, "I’ll stop woolgathering." It’s about a book and a half and a hundred thousand words too late. If it was an infodump, that would be one thing, because at […]

The Cracked Throne (Joshua Palmatier)

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The Cracked ThroneJoshua Palmatier I liked Cracked a lot better than Skewed. The style flows a bit more smoothly, you get some fascinating new insights into the way the Sight and the Throne work, and Varis seems much less of a wet rag. I like the personalities of the original group who created the throne, how they’re saner than the other voices, and present as a guide to Varis — it’s a believable way to teach her certain things that she needs to know but would take far too much time to discover herself. That’s always a problem when you […]

Storm Front (Jim Butcher)

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Storm FrontJim Butcher Storm Front is the first book of the Dresden Files, about which I’d heard a lot of good things in the corridors of the internet. Urban fantasy has been my genre of choice since I first discovered it, but the books that I’ve read in the same vein as the Dresden Files normally have female main characters. (And female authors, of course, but that’s a much more convoluted issue.) The differences, under Harry Dresden, are a surprising pleasure. With a female main character, there’s always this sort of desperate drive to prove herself, a ramrod tension where […]

Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman)

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Anansi BoysNeil Gaiman I tend to read in author streaks, as you may have noticed. This one I liked a lot better than American Gods, which it follows. The evolution of tension between the two brothers to alliance against the outside danger is artfully constructed. Of course, you immediately suspect Tiger is the ultimate enemy, because throughout the storytelling interludes, Anansi and Tiger’s rivalry is repeated in many different forms, like a recurring theme in a piece of music. Those interludes were my favorite part of the book, because it was like Anansi himself was speaking to us, telling the […]

Iron Kissed (Patricia Briggs)

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Iron KissedPatricia Briggs You never really attach to characters until they’re broken. Sure, you may admire them, think they’re interesting, or funny — but the moment of truth doesn’t come until they’re pushed past their yield point, squeezed until they shatter. The yield point, in material science, is the point when the plastic deformation is to some extent non-reversible. Repairs, of course, will straighten out your twisted psyche, but some of the damage will be permanent. And watching characters fighting to pull themselves together, to cobble their pieces into a functioning framework? That’s the most gut-wrenching, truthful experience you will […]