Categories: Review
Review of Graceling

Gracelingby Kristin Cashore480pp (Paperback)My Rating: 8/10Amazon Rating: 4.5/5LibraryThing Rating: 4.29/5Goodreads Rating: 4.17/5 The YA fantasy Graceling is Kristin Cashore’s debut novel. Her second novel Fire, a loosely connected prequel set 35 years prior to Graceling, came out last year. Cashore does recommend reading Graceling first to avoid spoiling part of it, and even though I read these two books in reverse order, I can understand why since it would have taken me a lot longer to guess what was coming […]

Review of The Better Part of Darkness

The Better Part of Darknessby Kelly Gay416pp (Paperback)My Rating: 5/10Amazon Rating: 4.5/5LibraryThing Rating: 4.3/5Goodreads Rating: 4.46/5 The Better Part of Darkness is a debut novel written by Kelly Gay. The sequel to this urban fantasy, The Darkest Edge of Dawn, is supposed to be released in August 2010. Charlie Madigan works for Atlanta’s Integration Task Force, which monitors immigrants whether they are from this dimension or one of the two other dimensions discovered thirteen years before. Together with her partner […]

Review of Sea of Wind

Sea of Windby Fuyumi Ono320pp (Paperback)My Rating: 7/10Amazon Rating: 5/5LibraryThing Rating: 4.29/5Goodreads Rating: 4.28/5 Even though it takes place before events in Sea of Shadow (the first novel), Sea of Wind is the second book in The Twelve Kingdoms series by Japanese author Fuyumi Ono. Of the seven books in this young adult series based on Chinese folklore, three have been translated into English with the fourth translation due to be released in March 2010. Since I loved the anime […]

Review of Wicked Gentlemen

Wicked Gentlemenby Ginn Hale222pp (Trade Paperback)My Rating: 8.5/10Amazon Rating: 4.5/5LibraryThing Rating: 4.24/5Goodreads Rating: 4.11/5 Wicked Gentlemen, Ginn Hale’s first novel, contains two connected novellas following the same characters, although they are each told from the viewpoint of a different protagonist. It was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror category in 2007 and it won the Spectrum Award for Best Novel of 2008. According to the publisher’s website, Hale is working on a […]

Review of Black Ships

Black Shipsby Jo Graham496pp (Paperback)My Rating: 8.5/10Amazon Rating: 4.5/5LibraryThing Rating: 4/5Goodreads Rating: 3.94/5 Black Ships, a retelling of Virgil’s Aeneid from the perspective of a priestess, is a debut novel written by Jo Graham. Graham has since then written a loosely connected novel set in Egypt called Hand of Isis, and she has another related novel about a soldier serving Alexander the Great called Stealing Fire coming out in May 2010. After reading Black Ships, I’m very much looking forward […]

Review of By the Mountain Bound

By the Mountain Boundby Elizabeth Bear320pp (Hardcover)My Rating: 9/10Amazon Rating: 5/5LibraryThing Rating: 4/5Goodreads Rating: 2/5 By the Mountain Bound is the second book in The Edda of Burdens series by Elizabeth Bear even though it is actually a prequel to the first book, All the Wind-wracked Stars (review). The series is based on Norse mythology and the first novel began with the end of the world. By the Mountain Bound fills in the backstory leading up to this cataclysmic event. […]