Posts tagged with fantasy
Darkside, by Tom Becker
Tom Becker’s debut novel Darkside opens with a kidnapping: thirteen-year-old Ricky Thomas is abducted from the middle of Trafalgar Square in broad daylight, and, strangely, none of the hundreds of...
Black Hole, by Charles Burns
Charles Burns’s graphic novel Black Hole is lyrical, meticulously illustrated, and thought-provoking. It’s also creepy, stomach-churning, and unnecessarily grim. Delicate flowers might want to s...
Runemarks, by Joanne Harris
Joanne Harris’s novel Runemarks—her first book for children—features an intriguing female protagonist, a collection of secondary characters from Norse mythology, and an imaginative, fully-developed setting. There have been more impressive fantasy novels released in the past few years, but Runemarks is a solid entry into the growing field of entertaining novels for young readers written by “serious” authors...
Dogs and Goddesses, by Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, and Lani Diane Rich
Dogs and Goddesses, the latest collaborative novel from Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, and Lani Diane Rich, has a lot of plot packed into its 388 pages. In addition to the three heroines’ romantic travails (one storyline per author), there’s also magical cookies, talking dogs, and an ancient, ruthless Mesopotamian goddess with plans of world domination...
Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley’s Dragonhaven, her first novel in four years, is a celebration of atmosphere and characterization. It’s an intensely absorbing story, but longtime fans take heed: this book has much more in common with her character-driven vampire novel Sunshine than her earlier, more conventional fantasy novels...
Blood Brothers, by Nora Roberts
As someone who has never learned to appreciate delayed gratification, I was pretty excited about the one-book-release-per-month schedule Nora Roberts adhered to for her last trilogy, 2006’s...
Wicked Lovely, by Melissa Marr
Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr’s debut novel, is a YA gothic fantasy that falls somewhere between Holly Black’s gritty, atmospheric fairy tales and Stephenie Meyer’s angst-filled Twilight series. Marr’s book has its weak spots, but this modern Tam Lin adaptation is more than entertaining enough to overcome them...
Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead
Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead’s first book aimed at young adults, is 100% pure slinky fun. This stylish goth-lite novel isn’t breaking any new ground, but Mead's fiercely devoted heroines make her book a welcome entry into the overstuffed teen vampire genre...
Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson
Kat Richardson’s Poltergeist (sequel to 2006’s Greywalker) is a sharp, sinister urban fantasy that blends storytelling with Seattle history. Painstakingly researched and intelligent, this series is perfect for fantasy/horror fans looking for something more than a spine-tingling cheap thrill...
Avalon High Coronation: The Merlin Prophecy, by Meg Cabot
Meg Cabot’s books are pure escapist fun. Shojo manga—well, some of it—is also pure escapist fun. So combining the two should create some kind of super pure escapist fun, right? TOKYOPOP ho...
Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman
At first glance, Austin Grossman’s debut novel Soon I Will Be Invincible has a lot in common with Ben Edlund’s The Tick. Both are witty stories about superheroes and their villainous counterparts attempting to make a name for themselves in cities that are overrun with muscle-bound do-gooders...
No Humans Involved, by Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstong’s most recent book, No Humans Involved, is the first installment of her Women of the Otherworld series to feature a character without name-taking and ass-kicking magical powers. In fact, necromancer Jaime Vegas has decidedly mixed feelings about her “gift”—on one hand, it allows her to work as a successful celebrity medium; on the other, ghosts are constantly hanging around...
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home, by Joss Whedon
When we first heard that Joss Whedon was going to write a comic book series that would serve as the eighth season of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show, we weren’t sold on the idea. The first f...
Gregor and the Code of Claw, by Suzanne Collins
Gregor and the Code of Claw, the final installment in Suzanne Collins’s Underland Chronicles, is the most unsatisfying book I have read this year. It’s not a bad book—Collins’s characters...
The Game, by Diana Wynne Jones
There’s nobody quite like English fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones. Her novels feature bizarre subject matter, but she writes with such relaxed assurance that her worlds instantly feel familiar...
Ilium, by Dan Simmons
Plenty of science fiction writers get so dazzled by their own ideas that they sometimes forget about developing a decent plot. This is not the case with Dan Simmon’s novel Ilium. It has plot coming out of its ears—in fact, most of the story is based on tried and true literary classics. While his overarching storyline is based on Homer’s Iliad...
Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville
I confess: I didn’t expect to like China Miéville’s Un Lun Dun. Preconceived dislike is a terrible thing for a book reviewer to admit, but there’s no denying it. I opened Miéville's book hoping to give it a fair shake, but A) I’m still recovering from reading certain scenes in Perdito Street Station...
Tantalize, by Cynthia Leitich Smith
I have loads of horror/fantasy novels on my shelves—everything from Carmilla to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell—but Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Tantalize is unique: it stands alone as the only book that has ever inspired me to genuinely freak out. I’m a pretty unflappable person, but when I saw the words “chilled baby squirrels, simmered in orange brandy, bathed in honey cream sauce” on the restaurant dessert menu featured on page 174, I needed to lie down...
Heir Apparent, by Vivian Vande Velde
While many fantasy fans will enjoy Vivian Vande Velde’s YA novel Heir Apparent, it will resonate most with readers that are familiar with fantasy-based computer games. If you’ve ever happily played a Sierra game into the wee hours of the night...