The new year has begun with a burst of reading, much like 2013 did. And so the first and second of January were spent mostly reading the eight novels written by Julie Kagawa, which fit vaguely into the category of paranormal fantasy or urban fantasy. As more and more people write in the field, it really begins to stretch; it’s pretty easy to tell where … Continue reading Days of Reading – Julie Kagawa
“The Companions” is the first volume of “The Sundering” series from Wizards of the Coast, a major cross-media event that transfers the Forgotten Realms from its 4e incarnation to the next edition. Written by R.A. Salvatore, "The Companions" revisits the characters of his original book – “The Crystal Shard” – and of its many sequels: Bruenor, Regis and Catti-Brie. Readers more up-to-date with Salvatore’s novels … Continue reading Review of “The Companions” by R.A. Salvatore
"Oracle of Philadelphia" is the first book by Elizabeth Corrigan, and starts the "Earthbound Angels" series of – I guess – Urban Fantasy novels. It is a fairly short book which starts indifferently but finds its feet about a third of the way through and shrugs off the early structural difficulties to give an entertaining tale. The book is told in the first person from … Continue reading “Oracle of Philadelphia” by Elizabeth Corrigan – Novel Review
I've been reading so much Urban Fantasy of late (about 80 books in the past two months), that Charles Ryan's The Mason of New Orleans was a delightful departure: a fantasy spun around the concept of a modern-day engineer finding himself back in France in the 12th century A.D. Told in the first person, it tells of his adventures as the engineer finds sanctuary with … Continue reading The Mason of New Orleans – Novel Review
He was a thin man, who walked along the street as if all others using it were beneath him. He didn’t notice me as I followed him. His arrogance didn’t make him superior, after all. He just believed he was. He wasn’t without his good points, though. He was well-prepared and rich. How rich? Enough to have minions do his dirty work for him. At … Continue reading Fragment of Fiction
Last night, when I got home, I went looking for third book in the Alcatraz series by Brandon Sanderson. They’re gloriously funny and enjoyable books I bought through Amazon earlier in the year. Book 1, “Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians” is terribly playful and the second book is even better. So, I wanted to read the third book, but I couldn’t find it. I rummaged … Continue reading Arrgh!!!! Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz books
I just bought the the latest of the Anita Blake novels, “Flirt”. I also finished it during my lunch break. It’s actually a novella, but hey, it’s the new Anita Blake book! I also paid way too much for it, but… new Anita Blake book! (I also picked up the second book of Robin Hobb’s Dragon duology, I haven’t actually finished reading the first one … Continue reading Authors I like and recent reading
I’ve just been watching (reading?) Nathan Fillion and Simon Pegg engage in a bout of starship envy on twitter. The world is a strange and glorious place.
Oddities of oddities, we saw the 10th episode of Flashforward before you folk in the States did. And now the show is on hiatus until March… Is it dead? I hope not. The reasons for delaying it – to stop a horror run of preemptions – make sense, but the show, for all its intriguing ideas, has been rather hit and miss. In some ways, … Continue reading FlashForward
Well, I now have it: The Gathering Storm, book 12 of the Wheel of Time, and the third-last volume in the tale. The book was partly written by Robert Jordan, and completed by Brandon Sanderson. Over (hopefully) the next two years, the remainder of the tale will be released and we will finally have the Wheel of Time in its entirety. It’s been a long … Continue reading The Gathering Storm – The Wheel of Time
