Book Reviews
Review: “Horns” by Joe Hill
“Horns” starts with two of the most ingenious opening paragraphs I’ve read in a long while about Ignatius Perrish waking up from having spent the night before doing horrible things and getting ready to do a lot more. Also, Ig (as he’s called) has a pair of horns growing out of his head.
Review: “Magic Bites” by Ilona Andrews
This is a world where tech and magic are competing for control. When the tech wave rises, magic subsides and vice versa. The fantasy construct is detailed and original. It’s a bit Renaissance society meets futuristic.
Review: “Bride of the Fat White Vampire” by Andrew Fox
God, I love the sci-fi-fantasy-horror-magicrealism-pagan-mystic genres, cause every once in a while you come across a book like Bride of the Fat White Vampire, by Andrew Fox. Funny, clever, and highly entertaining.
Review: “The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail” by Michael Spradlin
The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail is one of those books I picked off the shelf at random. I love books about knights and castles, and one about teens in that time period sounds cool to me. And wow, the first book I read this summer turned out to be one of the best all year!
Review: “Earthcore” by Scott Sigler
I’m not even really sure where to begin with this review. I, along with 6,000 of Sigler’s closest friends, let Scott Sigler pull me around like fish on on an angler’s line for 20 some-odd weeks as he released this fast-paced, bloody mosh-pit of a book in audio form, one chapter at a time.
So yeah, I wanted to kill him on a weekly basis. But back to the story.
Review: “Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel”
A steampunk-mystery-romance (it certainly spans multiple genres); Phoenix Rising is a light-hearted confection of a novel. The novel features the pairing of Eliza D Braun and Wellington Books* leading to the duo of Books and Braun.
Review: “Calculating God” by Robert J. Sawyer
If you read science fiction, you have to read Robert J. Sawyer. That’s all there is to it.
Calculating God explores such mundane questions as “Was the universe designed by an intelligent creator?” “Is there a God?” “Does he influence the affairs of man?” “Why is there life in the universe?” Sawyer’s answers are the most imaginative you will ever read.
Review: “A Companion to Wolves” by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
Now this was a surprise. Here is one of those rare books not produced as a precursor to a series.
This is not to say that the land Monette and Bear have created couldn’t support multiple visits. It is merely to say that they have constructed a tale that is complete and unconcerned with possibilities and marketing strategies beyond its own ken.
