Book Reviews
Review: Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol 1
The book has comic strips from Mr Breathed very first comics that he did in his college paper, up to 1982. His first drawings were funny, but doesn’t look at all like they do later on. But you can still see his humor and a few of his characters that he stuck with.
Review: “Empire State” by Adam Christopher
Rocket powered superheros, prohibition era bootleggers, private eyes, mysterious men in masks; and more twists and turns than you can imagine. Welcome to Adam Christopher’s Empire State, a Superhero-Noir Science Fiction story set in a dark distorted reflection of New York City of the ’30s.
Review: “Magic Study” by Maria V. Snyder
Poison Study was the first book in a long time that I read in a single sitting. Magic Study is the second. It was everything I wanted from a sequel.
Review: “Twisted Rhymes: For the Theater of Your Mind!”
Of all the forms of speculative fiction (i.e. science fiction, hard science fiction, space opera, space western, fantasy, dark fantasy, horror, time travel, magical realism, fairy tales, mythology, Authurian legend, chick fantasy, romantic horror, action/adventure fantasy, etc.), horror is easily my least favorite genre. I know all the monsters and demons are supposed to be evil incarnate, but I always find myself wondering why they have to be so mean, you know?
Also, I’m not a big poetry fan. I mean, shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Um… you’re hot and sweaty and full of mosquitoes. Whose woods these are I don’t think I know. I’ve seen lots of things more lovely than a tree. Stop with all the pretty words, just gimme the story.
Review: “Outrageous Fortune” by Tim Scott
Outrageous Fortune is absurd — not comedic in a way that will necessarily make you laugh out loud, not constructed of jokes and punch-lines. It’s absurd in the vein of Dali, which I think becomes quite apparent in Tim Scott’s prose.
Review: “Light” by M. John Harrison
What makes Light so special, and so very much worth your attention, is that no matter how “far out” Harrison takes things—very far out indeed, if you’re wondering—he remains primarily concerned with human stories, human dilemmas. There are three main characters in this book who (almost) never interact in the course of the story, though their lives are all intertwined and eventually come together.
Review: “Doctor Sleep” by Stephen King
When I heard that Stephen King was writing a sequel to what I consider one of his best novels The Shining, I was both eager and hesitant to pick it up. Part of me was eager to see where King would take the characters from the world of the Overlook Hotel in the sequel and hesitant because of the track record of other authors with “long awaited” sequels.
Review: “Medalon” by Jennifer Fallon
The first three books in the Hythrun Chronicles were actually known in Australia as The Demon Child Trilogy, and were bestsellers as well as finalists in Australia’s Aurealis Awards back in 2000. Here in the US, that trilogy is being combined with the books known as The Hythrun Chronicles Down Under to make it a 6-book series here.
