Book Reviews
Review: “Star Trek: Inception”
In many ways, the concept behind “Inception” is an interesting one, but as I read the novel I kept thinking it might have worked better as a short story.
Review: “Southern Fire” by Juliet McKenna
Juliet McKenna is the thinking fantasy reader’s author, the kind who dreams up fantasy elements and then works out the implications of those elements with the precision and thoughtfulness of a scientist, or, well, an SF writer. It’s clear throughout Southern Fire that McKenna is spinning her tale out of a deep, rich, internally consistent tapestry of details and textures.
Review: “The Ghost Brigades” by John Scalzi
Ghost Brigades is a pageturner with surprising emotional rewards, but I’m hoping that Scalzi plans to write more books in this universe, because as it is there are too many ideas here for his own good.
Review: “River of Stars” by Guy Gavriel Kay
Guy Gavriel Kay is famous for his historical fantasy novels, one of the rare group of fantasy authors whose books regularly cross over to mainstream reading lists and awards. River Of Stars is his second book using Chinese history; this time the Song Dynasty as a jumping off point for another wonderful novel.
Review: “The Enterprise of Death” by Jesse Bullington
The Enterprise of Death really broke my normal reading rules. You see, normally if I stop reading a book that’s it — Game Over. I just don’t pick books back up and continue them. I did put The Enterprise of Death down several times, because it was just too intense for me. And, at one point I stopped reading it for a couple of weeks while I went on to other books
But I kept coming back to The Enterprise of Death, because I just had to find out what happened to the characters.
Review: “Thomas the Rhymer” by Ellen Kushner
Apparently, the big screen is not the only medium in which remakes are popular. There are many authors that have written successful versions of children’s stories and fairy tales. Ellen Kushner brings us Thomas the Rhymer, winner of the World Fantasy Award.
Review: “Star Wars: Crosscurrent” by Paul S. Kemp
Crosscurrent is smartly written, with a timeline just jumpy enough to keep you intrigued, and a cast of characters that make you care what happens to them.
Review: “Scream Queen” by Edo van Belkom
So, why am I writing about a card game I played weeks back when I should be informing you about the latest novel sitting on top of my all-to-high reading stack?
When you use cheesy horror tropes to make a card game that spoofs horror stories, you get a fun and exciting game, when you use cheesy horror tropes to make a paperback novel that seriously attempts to be scary, you get a shitty paperback novel, like Scream Queen.
