(Warning: this review contains both spoilers and theology. Oops.) It is the near future, and it’s a moment of crisis in Washington, D.C. The White House is bombed by terrorists just as the president is rushed to the hospital following a separate assassination attempt; at the same time, a memory scientist’s experiment within the hospital […]
Generally, I’m skeptical of books written by teen authors. In my experience, they usually fall into one of three categories: A) extremely derivative; B) laughably wish-fulfilling; or C) all of the above. So I approached The Peculiar fully prepared to be disappointed. Delightfully, however, this book proves an exception to the pattern, and an impressively […]
Sharon Shinn’s novels are a mixed bag for me. I’ve really enjoyed her YA stuff, and a couple of her adult novels, too, while others of her adult novels I’ve found underwhelming or even dull. This one, though, just irritated me. It’s a paranormal romance featuring an incredibly dysfunctional relationship, and the characters aren’t likable […]
Okay. I will be honest. This is a paranormal/fantasy romance. It has pounding hearts, love-at-first-sight, and you-are-my-soul passion. It is ridiculously melodramatic. And I loved it. Now, this may have been partly because certain elements in the story and the characters seem pretty much tailored to my personal tastes and designed to win me over. […]
Readers who enjoy the urban fantasy vibe but are put off by the darkness and moral ambiguity common in the genre may find just the ticket in this beginning to a new series. Alex Verus is a mage with the ability to see the future, but he keeps a low profile due to a past […]
At first glance, this book looks like it’s going to be fairly clichéd. On their 13th birthdays, a boy and a girl find themselves crossing over into a hidden subterranean kingdom under the surface of Great Britain, where they are caught up in an epic conflict between good and evil, asked to do a task […]
Amy doesn’t want to leave behind her boyfriend, her life, and the planet Earth itself. But to be with her parents, she joins them in cryogenic sleep aboard the generation ship Godspeed, which will colonize Centauri-Earth in three hundred years. When she wakes, though, it’s fifty years too early — and the Godspeed has changed. […]
I really wanted to like this book: it’s a Regency-era fantasy (Corsets! Advantageous matches! Industrialization! Magic!) with Romantic poets in it. Not only does it have Lord Byron (who seems to be especially beloved of SF authors everywhere for some reason), but it also has William Blake, who really is an even better SF fit […]
Alex is a shy but surly teenager who lives with her adult sister Sarah and — despite their lack of parents — is homeschooled. This is odder than you might think, because Alex is a Weirn, a type of magic user whose power manifests as a semi-sentient familiar. Most young Weirns — as well as […]
We are now offering reviews of manga/graphic novels! So far we only have two, but watch the skies — er, website — and hopefully there will soon be more.