Tag Archives: fantasy

Lodestone #2: The World of Ice and Stars by Mark Whiteway

Posted by melydia on June 8, 2011 None comments

Lodestone Book Two: The World of Ice and Stars by Mark Whiteway: When we last saw them, Shann and Boxx were stranded on a strange shore on the far side of their planet. They meet some Kelanni from this new land and attempt to continue their quest for the piece of ancient technology to defeat The Prophet who oppresses their people. The physics of this world is explained in more depth, giving it a far more science fiction feel than the first book, which could easily be considered fantasy. We learn a bit more about the character’s emotions and personal histories, including the introduction of young scientist Rael. I like him, but for some reason Book One gave me the impression that something might develop between Shann and Lyall. That’s not evident here, alas. I am, however, still hopelessly in love with Alondo and still have no idea who Oliah is and why I’m supposed to care about her. But I might just be jealous. :)

Though the ending clearly alludes to what’s planned for Book Three, most things are fairly well wrapped up, giving the reader a sense of satisfaction. (Unlike Book One, which ended on a major cliffhanger.) You want to continue the story, but you don’t feel let down if you have to wait a while for the next installment. But still, I hope it’s not too long. Kelanni’s a nifty place.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Demon Queen and the Locksmith by Spencer Baum

Posted by melydia on June 6, 2011 None comments

The Demon Queen and The Locksmith by Spencer Baum: When Kevin skips his first day of high school, he never imagines the sort of impact it will have on his life. He meets a couple of other kids, they eat magic sap, they gain super powers, and all of it is somehow linked to Turquoise Mountain and its mysterious Hum that only certain people can hear. Throw in termites, fire ants, espresso, and a healthy dose of conspiracy theories, and you’ve got yourself one strange little tale. Still, I kind of enjoyed it. It’s certainly unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Sure, there were times when it felt like the author had been given a list of objects and told to write a story around them, but as a fan of writing challenges I can appreciate that aspect as well. I’m not sure who I’d recommend this to, though. Espresso fanatics? Budding entomologists? I don’t know. But if you’d looking for some young adult fantasy that doesn’t follow the same old formula, try this one on for size.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain

Posted by melydia on June 2, 2011 1 comments

How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain: Yeah, what you thought just now was pretty much what I thought when I picked up this book: “wait, what?” And that is, truth to tell, pretty much how I feel now that I’ve finished reading it. David’s father is a therapist for troubled teens whose latest client, the lovely Zelda, claims to be an alien searching for her Chosen One. This Chosen One turns out to be none other than famous actor Johnny Depp, but David follows her on her quest, more out of dumbstruck love than anything else. Soon they’re on a madcap adventure through Paris involving some stolen cars, underage sex, and burning gas stations. The whole thing is pretty ridiculous. I can see some parents objecting to the mature content, but this book has ‘80s teen comedy written all over it. It’s a bizarre and somewhat shallow story, and over all I think I enjoyed it. You might too.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Conan the Barbarian/Destroyer

Posted by melydia on June 1, 2011 3 comments

I watched both Conan movies in one evening, so I’ll go ahead and review them both in one shot.

Conan the Barbarian: Okay, so this is your standard tale of orphan sold into slavery who eventually comes back to kill his parents’ murderer. In this case, said murderer is a startlingly Caucasian-looking James Earl Jones in a bad wig. (I think it was the blue eyes that threw me off.) Along the way Conan picks up a wizard, a thief, and a girlfriend, not necessarily in that order. The special effects are pretty laughable and the acting is mediocre, but it’s a silly little action flick. With lots of bare breasts (and none of them larger than Arnold’s!)

Conan the Destroyer: Conan’s sidekick from the previous movie is inexplicably missing and has been replaced by a wisecracking (and painfully unfunny) coward of a fantasy stereotype. Luckily, he is also joined by the awesomely terrifying Grace Jones. This movie takes itself much less seriously than the previous one, which actually makes for a somewhat more enjoyable flick. I wonder, though, if they’d planned to make a whole series, what with the wizard dude always saying that yes, Conan did eventually find a kingdom to rule, but that’s another story. (Perhaps covered in either Red Sonja or Kull the Conqueror, both of which were originally supposed to be part of the Conan franchise.)

Will you like these two cheesy action fantasy films from the 1980s? Um, yeah, if you like cheesy action fantasy films from the 1980s. Otherwise, probably not.

Balticon: May 27-30, 2011

Posted by melydia on May 20, 2011 None comments

My dear husband is a guest at Balticon, the science fiction and fantasy convention in Baltimore, Maryland, next weekend. I’ll be there too, so if you’re in the area, stop by and say hello!

Relic Master #1: The Dark City by Catherine Fisher

Posted by melydia on May 19, 2011 None comments

Relic Master #1: The Dark City by Catherine Fisher: Galen is a Relicmaster and young Raffi is his apprentice, though here they are known as keeper and scholar, respectively. These two are members of The Order, an outlawed group of magic-users and collectors of Maker relics. It’s clear early on that these relics are scraps of human technology – a telescope, a wristwatch – but unlike many stories of this sort, the magic they possess is real. Galen has lost his powers and Raffi is still a novice, reminding me a bit of Aahz and Skeeve from Robert Asprin’s Myth Adventures series, though Galen is more like Dragonlance’s Raistlin Majere than Aahz. When Galen and Raffi are called to investigate a relic in a nearby compound, they embark on a grander quest than either could have imagined. Meanwhile, they are being tailed by The Watch, the military-style rulers that have taken over the land and hunt down members of The Order.

The Dark City is the first of a quartet set to be released monthly this summer – an unusual decision but I think a wise one, as the buzz for the series can hopefully be kept up in between books more easily than if they were separated by years. I don’t know that I’d describe myself as actively waiting for the next installment, but I admit to being curious about Raffi and Galen’s future adventures. Anara is a fascinating world and I would love to have another visit.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Posted by melydia on May 11, 2011 None comments

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton (unabridged audiobook read by Kimberly Alexis; 10 hours on 8 discs): This book certainly lives up to its name. Anita Blake is an animator, someone who raises folks from the dead for money (most of the time to settle posthumous court cases and inheritance disputes). As a sideline, she also assists the police with destroying vampires who murder humans. This time, however, she has been hired to figure out who is murdering vampires. I figured out who it was as soon as the killer was introduced, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story. Anita is sarcastic and amusing, kick-ass but still very human. The idea of a legally recognized vampire subculture is intriguing. I don’t see myself reading the rest of the series, but this was a fun little distraction.

A note on the audio: Alexis had a good voice and cadence as Anita. I was a little puzzled by her choice of voices at times (why, for example, did Ronnie sound like she was from North Dakota?), but all in all I enjoyed her narration.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

Posted by melydia on May 3, 2011 None comments

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (unabridged audiobook read by Simon Jones; 8.5 hrs on 7 CDs): Young brothers Prosper and Bo are on the run in Venice, having escaped their aunt Esther who intends to separate them. Esther hires Victor, a private investigator, to find them. Soon Victor finds himself in the middle of a complex plot involving orphans, mysterious counts, and a certain Thief Lord with secrets of his own. Though the fantasy element was an interesting treatment of classic Bradbury, it came out of nowhere and left me a little cold. If the story leading up to that part hadn’t been so thoroughly within the realm of Realistic Fiction it would not have been quite so jarring. That said, it was still a fun little tale with likable characters, and I am still a little bit in love with Scipio.

A note on the audio: Though his use of voices is a little strange with some of the female characters, Jones is a thoroughly entertaining narrator.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien

Posted by melydia on April 25, 2011 None comments

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien (unabridged audiobook read by Barbara Caruso; 7 hrs 15 min on 6 discs): I grew up on the movie version, and figured it was high time for me to finally read the book. Mrs. Frisby is a widowed mouse with four children living in a cinder block in a farmer’s garden for the winter. At the start of the story, her youngest son Timothy is ill with pneumonia and cannot leave the house. However, the plow will be coming through soon, which will destroy the cinder block and kill everyone inside. After helping a young crow named Jeremy, he takes her to see a wise owl, who tells her to ask the rats to move her house. These rats are unusually intelligent, with quite the backstory. I was a little disappointed that Mrs. Frisby never got a first name, but given that her husband’s deeds were the only reason anyone gave her the time of day, I suppose it was fitting. All in all, I liked it. The characters were compelling and the ending was satisfying, if quite bittersweet. I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as a child; I was fairly sensitive when it came to the death of animals. As an adult, however, I found it to be a fascinating exploration of how a wild animal would deal with newfound intelligence. Recommended.

A note on the audio version: Caruso, unfortunately, narrates as if she were reading to a small child with a learning disability, adding lengthy pauses between each and every clause. It took me well into the second disc before I got used to her cadence. Once I did, however, I had no trouble getting into the story.

A note on the movie: The first half or so of the movie is quite true to the book, but it adds a mystical element in the form of a magic amulet. This is completely out of left field, but it does help Mrs. Brisby (changed from Frisby at the insistence of the makers of Frisbee) come out looking more like the hero of the tale. The book is also much less clear-cut: there are no true villains, and you don’t even know for sure who’s still alive at the end. That’s not to say one is better than the other, of course; I enjoy both book and movie for what they are.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Lodestone #1: The Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway

Posted by melydia on April 19, 2011 None comments

Lodestone #1: The Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway: As an indie book reviewer, I come across a lot of, um, less than stellar fiction. Then, once in a while, I come across a self-published book like The Sea of Storms and I am reminded of why I do this in the first place. Planet Kelanni has three suns: a white and yellow that move across the sky much like our own Sun, and a large, dim, red sun that never moves, in much the same way as the Earth doesn’t when viewed from the Moon. The inhabitants of this planet, though never described in detail, are (presumably) humanoid creatures ruled by a mysterious Prophet and his Keltar emissaries who routinely collect citizens as “tributes,” never to be seen again. A young girl named Shann joins two men – Lyall and Alondo – in their quest to overthrow the Prophet and free the tributes. Meanwhile, forbidding Keltar Keris receives shocking information from the strange, somewhat beetle-like creatures known as Chandara, information that turns her world completely upside-down. Woven throughout the drama is a mysterious and precious mineral known as lodestone.

Though the book’s title is somewhat misleading – the Sea of Storms is not actually reached until the last few pages – the story itself is quite good. The action is well-paced and the world is solidly constructed. I especially liked that while there were creatures clearly meant to stand in for familiar animals such as dogs and horses, nothing was described in comparison with Earth since, obviously, the Kelanni know nothing of Earth. Shann, Keris, Lyall, and Alondo are engaging characters, easily distinguishable without relying on stereotypes. Oliah came out of left-field, making her relationship with the leads rather unbelievable, but her appearance is so brief I can almost ignore it. The rest of the book is a marvelous trek through a fantastic new world.

I’m glad I was warned in the title that this is not a standalone novel, or I would have been irritated at the cliffhanger ending. As it stands, I’ll have to see about getting my hands on the next installment in this promising new fantasy series.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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